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#jazz documented all the ghost and why they do what they do
dcxdpdabbles · 14 days
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DC xDP fanfic idea: One hell of a good Bellhop
Danny and Jazz Fenton get a chance of a lifetime after a whirlwind of dimension displacement. It's hard to explain how it happened. One minute, they were visiting Clockwork, having tea with their surrogate grandfather, and the next, they were being attacked by what appeared to be woolly mammoths standing on two legs and carrying weapons.
Clockwork had dispatch to take them head on- timeline pests he called them- but in the confusion Danny and Jazz were taken by suprised, stuffed into sacks and thrown through a whirlpool turned portal that spit them out in a new world.
They tried to call Clockwork for help, but it was as if though the Ghost Zone was blocked by some power. Danny at least still had his ghost powers and Jazz was equipped with the standard Fenton weapons on her person, but that wasn't much help when between the two of them they had sixty dollars and thirty four cents to their names.
Drivers' invalid licenses, phones that weren't connected to any service, and maybe worse of all, no actual identity to speak of.
The Fentons simply didn't exist in this world. Not even their four fathers. The two were at a loss on what to do- for about three months. Then they put their Fenton intelligence to use and hacked into a hotel.
It was a run-down place in the heart of downtown Gotham- the place that the portal shot them to was Metropolis. Still, people paid way too much attention to homeless minors there, so they had to move after dodging a weird underwear guy who kept trying to capture Danny. Apparently, he thought Danny was a "Kryptonian Clone". Fruitloop.
Jazz thought they were the only guests in the Hotel, which is why the owner was so happy to host them for weeks instead of a few days. He was a sweet old man named Charles who was far too old to work but couldn't afford the staff, so he did everything himself.
Jazz felt an awful pity seeing him sit at his counter, staring hopefully at the door for any new guests whenever she returned from her work. It was heartbreaking to see Charles' eyes dim whenever the closing time came, and once again, no one stopped by. At this point, he kept the hotel open in a sad, broken dream.
Where did she work? Danny didn't know, but Jazz made him swear she would handle their expenses. She kept a tight lip on her day, and since Danny had no documentation to go to school with, he found himself helping Charles with maintenance.
He has no license to do anything, but Danny has been installing electricity, water pipes, and anything in between since he was young. FentonWorks always needed something fixed, after all.
He even went out and "borrowed" some paint cans to give the old place a little touch-up. Charles' eyes watered when he saw.
"My wife and I meet at this hotel, you know," Charles tells him one day as Danny patches up some old bricks. He runs to find the old man, gently running his hand along the fireplace. A picture of two young people dancing in the Hotel Lobby—back when it was new and shiny—is hanging right over it. It's easy to see it's Charles and his late wife, Sally.
"Of course, that was back in the forties—a few years after the war and before Gotham was crime-infested. We always wanted to run this place together. We worked two jobs, and when we finally had enough, we bought it from the old owners when they announced they were closing down. We were so happy and ran it together for a year, but then she got sick. Really sick. I was told to give up on the Hotel when I lost her. No one saw a reason when it was obviously failing, but it's the last thing I have of her, you know?"
Danny's lips wobble. He thinks back to hours and hours of tracing the Fenton Works logo on all his new clothes. It looks stupid but, gosh its the last thing he has of his parents since they been sepreated too.
"Yeah" His voice catches "Yeah I know. Did you two ever have children?"
Charles shakes his head. "Salley couldn't have kids, and no matter how many times we applied, we were never approved for adoption. Then we were too old."
"I'm sorry Charles"
"That's alright, my boy." The man's smile is just as heartbreaking and sad as it is soft. "It's something I accepted long ago. "
Danny decided then and there that he would save this hotel if it was the last thing he did. Danny wasn't aware that his Ghost Powers launched onto that oath and sent out a flair, turning Gotham's Fog Lodge into his new haunt.
This meant that overnight, Danny's haunt was carefully bettering itself as a reflection of Danny's happiness. It made it look brand new among all the old and falling apart scenery.
No one knew why or how, but it looked just as Charles remembered it in the glory days.
Danny decided they couldn't compete with large chain hotels, so he made it an experience instead. He did Era events using his experience with the different parts of the Ghost Zone as references.
Soon Gotham was hearing of the Victorian Era Ball—a chance to dress up and dance the old ways with antique clothing of that period.
But Danny didn't stop there.
Disco parties. Nineties garage bands. Murder mysteries nights from the roaring twenties. Even the props were so realistic that people swore they stepped into the time from when arriving for their events.
People started calling, hoping to book in advance, and Charles burst into tears the first night Danny told them they ran out of rooms.
Since it was Danny's haunt, he could complete all the work by himself, having the hotel help him along the way. No one knew why or how, but somehow it was always clean, food was always prepared whenever someone needed it, and bags would be up into their rooms without actually seeing the Bellhop pass getting them at the door.
Not a single staff member in sight, either.
Charles suspected Danny was meta, and he was using his powers to be one hell of a good host. Everyone else thought the place was haunted by staff made entirly of ghosts, and that somehow made it more appealing.
Jazz's new boss thought it a little too good to be accurate, but he was so good at keeping records and organizing that he gave her the benefit of the doubt. After all, she did mention she had a meta brother she was desperately trying to protect.
If there was one thing Red Hood knew, it was that desperate people turned to crime the most. If he could keep someone like Jazz Fenton away from working with the nutjobs of Gotham, he would have been doing one thing better for the city.
As far as Jazz was aware, she was only an assistant/secretary to an obvious front masquerading as an insurance company, and if she pretended not to notice all the crime, she could feed Danny and help Charles.
Charles, for his part, never said it, but he thinks if he and Sally had been able to have grandchildren, they would have been exactly like Jazz and Danny.
He may have let it be implied at one point, and the misunderstanding spreads that he is their grandfather. None of the three make haste to correct it.
Gotham Fog Lodge starts to gain traction around the same time it captures the eye of one very intrigued billionaire. Bruce Wayne keeps an eye on the business but decided to let Jason make the call since the grandduaghter's owner works for him. '
Surely, he would step in if something malicious was going on.
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rboooks · 10 months
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The Royal Consort Part 2
Danny nervously took a sip out of the coffee mug. The rich liquid, filled with surgery goodness and creamer, helped settle his nerves as he tried to think of what to say.
Across from him sat Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and a man named John Constantine. Besides Danny, Jazz, and his parents sat, though only Jazz seemed unfazed by the situation, staring back at the heroes as if daring them to start a conversation first.
Sometimes he forgot she was the most mentally stable one in the family.
The Dark Knight had said nothing to him since he was brought up to the watch tower, the white lens of his mask staring back at Danny with no hint of emotion behind them.
This contrasts Superman, who had warmly offered them coffee and pie as they were brought into the meeting room. The man of steel had even allowed them all to pick a mug from the gift shop free of charge, smiling warmly when Danny hesitantly asked for a Martian Manhunter theme.
Wonder Woman had given him a courteous bow befitting her status. She seemed eager to sit down and get the peace summit going as soon as possible. It seemed she had prepared various speeches, bills, and other essential documents Danny had yet to understand in his Government Studies class. She offered the young man a warm smile whenever his eyes nervously wandered to her.
John Constantine mainly had remained silent past the few swears under his breath. He fiddled with Danny's necklace- the Royal Consort necklace. How could he have been so stupid to wear that around his neck for so long without realizing what it was? It did explain why that particular necklace had a whole room to be displayed in.
It was in the center, on a lavish pillow, on a pure marble pillar. Surrounding it were six more miniature lockets, each on their own less extravagant pillar and pillow, with similar symbols. The smaller ones almost tempted Danny until he saw that this necklace had white and red, his favorite colors.
The others had been black and red.
He wonders now what the lockets meant and if giving one to Dani had been a mistake. He hadn't had the time to text her, seeing as he had been whisked away by the Justice League as soon as he woke up.
He was escorted out of his home before ten am with news crews tripping over themselves to get a few shots of Ecto-Royalty. They had his house surrounded, flashes and questions coming from all sides as the paparazzi struggled to be the first to get Consort Daniel Fenton to comment for them.
Danny swears Sam had been one of them, laughing silly with Tucker, who had somehow gotten a hold of a prominent news camera. The two had likely thought his secret had been outed and were trying to sneak him away while pretending to be media.
"Come on. Come on," Constantine muttered in frustration, poking a glowing finger into the center of his locket. Each time he did, a soft ding went off in Danny's head, and he fought to not react. He thinks Batman had seen his flinch the first time it happened, but he hadn't said anything about it yet, so Danny hoped he was wrong.
Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding.
Danny grimaces as the sound replays over and over again before he can't take it anymore and finally speaks up. "Could...could you not do that to my necklace?"
Constantine blinks, then hastily places his locket on the table as if it burned him. "Forgive me, your Majesty. I meant no disrespect."
"It's cool dude. You, ugh, don't have to call me that, by the way. Danny is fine."
The magic-user shakes his head. "Forgive me, your Majesty, but I could not do something so disrespectful. I can switch to Prince Danny, but never Danny. If His Majesty Phantom were to hear me make such a blunder, it could break apart any form of peace. I'm sure you know how much ghost value rules."
Danny thinks of the Yearly Treaty, Walker with his prison, The Observant's court, Clockwork's time frames, and even Far Frozen formal speech. He sighs. "Yeah, Phantom won't care, but his subjects will."
"Exactly."
"Speaking of King Phantom, would he be joining us soon?" Wonder Woman asks. Danny has a moment of panic before Jazz smoothly steps in.
"Phantom and Danny agree to not have him appear if Danny is near our parents." She says, gesturing to their horrified parents.
"What?" Mom looks close to tears, guilt making her face seem much older than Danny has ever thought possible. "Honey, is this true?"
Danny shifts in his seat. "Yes?"
"Oh Honey, why?"
"What are we going to do today, Jack?" Jazz cuts in again in a poor imitation of their mom. She deepens her voice, trying to match Dad's happy-go-lucky tune as she dramatically shakes her fist. "What we do every day, Maddie. Try to capture the ghost boy and rip him molecule by molecule!"
The other heroes make faces, but nothing compares to the devastated expressions on his parents' faces. He almost told them it was okay, that he had forgiven them, but Jazz glanced sharply in his direction and knew it was best not to say anything.
She has often said the only way he could rally heal from all the unintended trauma their parents inflected on them- not just the hunting but slight negligence- was to have them first see exactly what they had done. It would be harsh, but it would be necessary.
"Makes sense" That is all Dad says. He's been so quiet since this morning. Danny is worried about him.
"That explains why he hasn't answered the summons." Constantine sighs. Danny opens his mouth to ask, but Superman beats it to him.
"You were summoning him?"
"Attempting to." Constantine corrects. "Prince Danny's locket has a calling bacon in it. Someone pressing magic against the center alerts King Phantom that his husband wants to speak to him. It's difficult magic too. Anyone with less control or power would be blown to smithers if they attempt it. Or, in Prince Danny's case tapping his finger against it works too since the necklace is for him. "
"Would anyone with the necklace be able to call Phantom then?" Batman finally speaks up. His voice makes Danny jump in his seat. It sounds a lot....darker than he thought a human could make.
"No. The necklace would only work if Prince Danny willingly let someone have it. If someone tried to take it by force, the necklace would transport itself back to King Phantom's lair or Prince Danny's person."
Danny clears his throat. ''Phantom and I have other rules. He can only come to see me if I'm not in school or if one of his subjects is attacking Amity Park. Otherwise, he mostly stays within the Infinity Realms."
Constantine nods as if that makes perfect sense. "The strain on your body must make it difficult to keep your husband here."
Danny nods, then takes another sip.
"If you don't mind me asking. How did you meet King Phantom?" Superman asks.
"I'm....a meta. I can make my eyes glow in the dark and I can turn invisible." Danny blurts, making both his parents gasp. Jazz nods as if it was common knowledge and not something Danny made up on the spot.
Those two abilities have always been more linked to his emotions, so Danny thought if he established a fake meta gene as the cause if he was later caught doing them, no one would bat an eye. The world was watching him now, he needed to be careful. "It's nothing really impressive, but I guess the day I activated it caught his attention."
"How so?"
"Um, well I was playing in my parents' lab when my best friends dared me to go into the portal. I thought it wouldn't work, so I did, but it launched me into the zone as soon I stepped into it. Phantom was this big ice looking thing flying by when I was falling in the zone- they don't really have ground in there. Everything was floating, but I just started falling and screaming since I couldn't fly. He caught me and offered to help me back to my home. The only thing was I didn't know how to go home, which way was up or down, and I didn't know how long I was gone. We tried to fly for a while, but the Infinite Realms always change. By that time, my home portal had moved to who knew where. Phantom took me to his lair to rest, Phantom, since he thought I was a baby ghost because my eyes glowed until I accidentally cut my hand on one of his icicles and bled-"
"You allowed your human blood to fall in his lair!?" Constantine sounds horrified. Oops? Maybe, stealing one of Frost Bites' few human encounter stories wasn't the brightest thing he could have done?
Oh well, he's already so far into the story. "Yeah, he reacted the same way. I freaked and turned myself invisible when he saw my blood."
"Blimey, I knew King Phantom is a protective spirit, but to think he didn't do anything to you once he found out you are a human- a virgin human no less- in his own lair? Benevolent is too little of a word for him."
Yeah, Danny really didn't like the sound of that. Sadly Constantine didn't seem willing to continue that line of conversation, and it would be really suspicious if he asked for more information since he is supposed to be the most informed person here.
After a slight pause, he continues, trying to sound confident. "He helped me get home after a while. Once we found the entrance to Amity Park, he asked if he could come to see me again in the living world. I told him it was fine, but I didn't think he meant it for real. Sam and Tucker- ugh my best friends- said I was only gone for three minutes but I swear it was much longer."
Danny could feel his face heating up. This is so embarrassing to be talking about himself in the third person. He felt so lame.
Jazz gave him an encouraging nod when he peaks at her. At least the others were buying his story.
"The next thing I know, my town is almost overturned by ghosts because, apparently, our passing through the portal stabilized it and established it as a new permanent entrance. I told Phantom, who vowed he keep it safe for me, and yeah, he fumbled a bit in the beginning, but he did a good job. Whenever he needed to fight I had to find somewhere safe to hide, so that I could keep him here, and that's why I missed so much of school and sleep all of freshmen year. His last big fight was against the old king Pariah Dark after the monster took Amity Park into the zone. Once he won, he was crowned and he um gave me this necklace. We've been going ugh, steady since."
The room was silent until Wonder Woman smiles "A most romantic tale Prince Danny."
Ugh, it really was. His face grew even redder as Jazz snorted. "Thank you."
Feeling an intense stare, Danny looks up, only to be met with Batman's emotionless face. "The reason you and King Phantom look exactly alike is that he took your shape, didn't he?"
What.
"That's standard practice." Constantine waves his hand. "Powerful beings that need to anchor themselves to the human realm often take humanoid figures. If King Phantom saw Prince Danny and thought he was the most beautiful person he's ever seen -which is likely since there haven't been any hints of Phantom having any partner before now- he would, of course, make himself look like him. He even copied his parents' hazard suits because he likely thought that would honor them. Am I right, Prince Danny? ."
I could kiss you, English man. Danny thinks gratefully as he nods.
Batman grunts but for a second, Danny thinks he didn't buy it. He doesn't say anything else.
"Well, what about-"
Whatever Wonder Woman was going to say gets cut off by a blur flying into the room. The heroes all spring up into battle positions as the blur rushes Danny. He's about to throw himself before his sister to protect her until the blur slows down.
It's Dani. She's wearing her own necklace too. Shit.
"Are you okay!?" She gasps. "I saw them take you on the TV and came as soon as I could!"
"Who are you?" Superman demands. His clone turns to the other side of the room, hands pose in a fighting stance and the British man gasps.
"Stand down! She's a royal!." He shouts, pointing at her necklace. His blue eyes flicker between the two halfas until they widen dramatically. "Princess, I swear we have done no harm to your father."
Dani tilts her head, momently thrown. "My father?"
"You are wearing the Heir Apparent symbol. I assumed you were made from Prince Danny and King Phantom. I apologize if I am wrong."
"No need. I am made from Danny." Dani smiles, likely unaware that the magic man meant a daughter rather than the correct answer, as in clone.
"I'm a grandmother!?" Mom shouts, and his Dad bursts into tears.
The room descends into chaos.
( Part 1 ) (Part 3)
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stealingyourbones · 2 years
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Danny Phantom meets Superman. More accurately I should say that Danny Fenton meets Clark Kent.
Let me make this clear cause people seem to forget this: superman is smart. Clark kent is a very intelligent guy. Hes an INVESTIGATIVE journalist. He works with Lois Lane whos a multiple Pultizer prize winner and you know damn well that Lois wouldn’t work with anyone that cant keep up with her in both wits and smarts. He’s good at his job and in some comics he gets Pulitzer Prizes from some of his articles as well. Dude is dumb but he’s smart if you get what I’m saying. High Int. Low Wis.
With that in mind, During an assignment by Perry White, Lois and Clark meet the Fentons in their Amnesty residence to get some quotes on an article that discusses “Everything we thought didn’t exist is now real. Superheroes, Aliens, even Vampires, so why do we not Believe in Ghosts?”
Clark Kent spots Danny and notices instantly that MANY things are wrong with this child. His shoulders are hunched in a way that is intentional and tensed. Like he doesn’t know if he should fight or flee. His eyes are darting around and constantly taking in their surroundings like he’s waiting for something to barge in. His heart is beating far slower than it should. The kid intentionally makes his chest rise and fall but he’s not breathing in any oxygen. All of those are concerning but they can happen in metas. The thing that isn’t normal is that Clark can’t hear any of Danny’s other organs working. Like the kid is a revitalized corpse and his body only thought to bring back half of its needed functions.
So Clark does some digging. He doesn’t want to tell any of the Justice League because this isn’t a Superman job, this is a job for Clark Kent. He gets some help from Oracle and with her word that she won’t say anything to batman, He agrees to update her regularly about the kids situation.
Oracle sends over some VERY concerning documents from an organization called “The Ghost Investigation Ward”. Oracle tells Clark that she’s working on tipping off the Bats and Birds so they can help dismantle the organization.
While sifting through the documents Clark comes across a profile of a “Danny Phantom”. As I said, Clark isn’t stupid. There is definitely a profile of Danny Fenton as well since he’s the son of two world renown ghost hunters. He puts the two and two together and uncovers just the horrible treatment that Phantom has been receiving from his parents, the government, and his peers. Clark is outraged and can’t just stand aside and let this kid suffer. So he makes another trip to the Fenton residence under the guise of needing another quote and sits Danny and Jazz down and tells him that he knows of the terrible lab safety, the immoral experiments his parents do on the regular, the neglect of the kids in pursuit of scientific discovery. He knows and he wants to help. Clark tells Danny and Jazz that there is an apartment available right nextdoor from his and that he can help them get to a safer location and apply for emancipation.
The Fenton kids are shocked at this guy and his immensely kind heart. Danny knows something is up though. Something is up with Clark Kent. He looks like all his life would be spent in the gym when he isn’t at work and yet Danny can’t find a thing on Clarks interest in working out. His baggy clothes somewhat cover up his muscles but his frame is far too wide to be hidden. Clarks heartbeat is slightly faster than the average persons. No human eyes could be that startlingly sky blue. And Danny knows that he has seen Clarks face somewhere but he cant put a pin on it.
The Fenton kids agree and they get brought to metropolis and the emancipation case is no problem with the evidence Clark managed to collect. The kids get the apartment next to Clarks and Clark helps them grow and get better mentally and situationally. Clark knows that in a way he’s trying to make up for his neglect on Connor but he still knows that helping these kids is the right decision.
After a month or so, Clark and the Fenton kids have a rhythm of meeting at each others apartments, getting doted over to make sure that the fentons are well fed and have everything they need and are getting settled into their new life.
Clark hasn’t told the league. Oracle keeps her promise to keep the Fentons out of Batman and the Justice League’s radar. Clark knows that he will have to tell them soon eventually. He knows that things like this wont last. He tries his best to keep these kids happy and support them how an actual caring parent should act.
A few months into the Fentons stay in Metropolis on a cool autumn afternoon, Danny is sitting on a beanbag chair reading a ratty old book that Clark lent him as Clark is typing away on his computer writing up an article for the Daily Planet when Danny looks over to Clark and says,
“I’m Phantom.”
Clark pauses typing and shoots a small smile towards danny, “I know.”
Danny nods in relieved acceptance as Clark straightens up from his hunced over position on his computer.
He pulls back his shirt collar slightly to show the blue suit and red cape. “I’m Superman.”
Danny looks at him and smiles, “I know.”
They both just sit and continue reading and writing with soft smiles on their faces. Comforted at the exchange and that it’s finally out there and eachother knew.
After a while Danny’s obsession gets to be too much. He tells Clark about it and that he has to find a way to sate his obsession of protecting and Clark accepts that it was only a matter of time and invites him to meet the League.
When Superman brings Danny to the Watchtower, saying that the rest of his fellow superheroes were shocked would be an understatement. The Man of Steel and this ghost kid are talking like a father and son.
To say that Batman was pissed that he wasn’t informed of this child is also an understatement. But there is also some amusement and respect under that frustration. Superman managed to keep this kid under wraps and didn’t even alert Batman. Superman smirking and saying under his breath to him “Looks like the World's Greatest Detective isn’t so great huh?” Makes Batman respect the man even more.
In the Watchtower, Danny meets up with Teen Titans/The Team/Whatever They’re Called Now, and meets Conner. Conner is understandably pissed and spiteful that Danny got to have Superman as a father figure.
Conner knows that Superman treating Danny this way is definitely a way of him trying to make up for the faults and breaks he had with his parental relationship with Conner. he agrees with himself that he shouldn’t hate Danny for having Superman as a Dad and the two get along like tinder and matches. Connor still has a grudge against Superman don’t get me wrong, just not as much as before.
Sometimes while the League is in battle, Superman likes to just look for Danny and watch him hold his own against world ending threats. Danny is now truly confident and it’s no longer a facade. He’s no longer hunching into himself to look smaller. He laughs more often now and seems to be genuinely happy. Superman fondly looks at his son as his kids eyes flicker with green fire as he says a shitty ice pun and freezes Metallo in his tracks with ghostly ice.
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geraldmariaivo · 2 years
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I recently saw a DP/DC post about Jason being Danny’s bio dad, and I want to spit out my own idea of it:
1) Jason doesn’t know he has a kid. He’ done a lot of shady things and met a lot of shady people, and you can’t tell me he remembers every night of it.
2) Danny knows he’s adopted, he just doesn’t care.  3) Danny suddenly has to care one day because of Ghost Prince legality reasons where he needs his parent/gaurdian to sign something important because he’s a child, and Clockwork refuses to. Obviously he can’t bring this to Jack&Maddie, and Jazz isn’t old enough to sign either, so he tries to find his biological parents to maybe only slightly bully this hapless civilian into signing a piece of paper that says Danny *can* sign things, and then fuck off. 
4) Danny sets off to find his bio-parents only to find that his mother is dead and not a ghost, and his father is somewhere in Gotham. Which is where the Bats are. 
5) With a bit of help from his court and Wulf, Danny scours the city to find whoever the hell this “Jason” is, because just knowing his first name clarifies very little in a city like Gotham.
6) A few of the court physicians accompanies this search party because they’re headed to Gotham, and there’s no telling what kind of bullshit will happen, even if there’s no ecto-weaponry within a hundred miles.
7) One of the oldest physicians encounters Red Hood, and is immediately revolted by the nasty-ass ectoplasm they haven’t seen since Pariah was locked up the first time. Naturally their first impulse is to get this absolutely wretched ectoplasm out of this human as soon as possible.
8) Jason, naturally, doesn’t trust this glowing green person who makes the Pit writhe and try to get away. As such, he makes getting any kind of ghostly medical attention as difficult as possible.
9) Medic #1 gives up doing it solo, and conscripts the other medical personnel to help them effectively pin Jason (now out of costume) down while they filter out the nasty shit and replace it with clean ectoplasm from the Realms so his body doesn’t go through shock from suddenly having no ectoplasm.
10) Jason is still riled up and suspicious as hell, but he does notice that the Pit isn’t really there anymore. There’s still something there, but it’s not the constant anger he’s learned to live with. It’s calm, almost peaceful, actually. It takes all of two seconds listening to them giving out instructions to realize that they’re behaving like actual, good doctors giving out real medical advice. They repeat themselves when needed, and make sure to go over the whole of their instructions thrice to make sure he knows what they’re saying. It’s incredibly weird for Jason, but if drinking this weird not-pit-water stuff once a week or if he’s craving it from this weird glowing container is what keeps the Pit from bothering him 24/7, then so be it.
11) Jason asks what the actual fuck these people are doing here, because Metas generally know to stay away from Gotham.
12) They explain that they’re ghosts, and that they’re with a search party looking for a man with the first name Jason, and is likely to have black hair, blue eyes, or both.
13) Jason immediately puts together that they’re looking for him, because he knows his life well enough that he knows there’s no hope that the Jason they’re looking for is some random civilian who happens to have black hair and blue eyes.
14) Jason asks why they want to find this man, and if they have a way to confirm whether or not the person they find is actually the person they’re looking for. He nearly has a stroke when they say that they need him to sign some important thing because his son -which, WHAT?!?! When did he have one of those?!?!?!- is the High Prince of the Infinite Realms, whatever the fuck that means, but can’t sign official documents into law since he’s a minor.
15) Jason, against his better judgement, tells them his name, and says it’s possible that he’s the Jason they’ve been looking for.
16) He is right.
17) Jason has to grapple with the fact that he not only had a son he didn’t know about, but the son also died before he could meet the kid, and then apparently became the prince of the dead. 
18) Somewhere in this time, Danny (as Phantom) finds out about the nasty Lazarus water from his physicians, and tells Jason that Amity Park is a place where he can find much better ectoplasm if the man needs it for health reasons, and that he just needs to contact the right people. Preferably one of the local vigilantes rather than the Drs. Fenton.
Timeskip (how far depends on what you want to do in the meantime)
19) Red Hood goes to Amity park on Bat business. This is where Danny and Jason each find out about the clusterfuck that is the other’s life.
20) Shenanigans.
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wolfjackle-creates · 11 months
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Ghost!Robin Part 8
Look at you lucky ducks! Two WIP Wednesday excerpts today! I'm afraid you won't be able to get used to it. Going forward I may update each fic on alternating weeks. I have a busy few months coming up if everything goes to plan and could use the buffer in case I can't get much writing done. We'll see, though.
I'm going to start leaving a fic summary at the beginning of every excerpt in case people find this in the wild and want to know what they're getting into.
Summary: Danny is finally going to meet Jazz's boyfriend Jason. At Jason's family's mansion. He spent weeks making sure he could have an evening off of any Ghost King business. But when he meets Jason on the steps of the mansion, he can barely pay attention to the guy because his focus is on the ghost of the dead Robin hanging off his shoulders. Who is very happy to find someone who can actually see him.
Word Count: 1.4k
First, Previous
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“Right. Um… Well, I do just kinda do whatever is necessary or find someone who can. Because, um, well, I’m… kinda the High King of the Infinite Realms? There’s a bunch more titles after that but I refuse to memorize them because ugh.”
Danny looked down at his plate, not wanting to see everyone’s reactions. Jazz must’ve made sure he got a piece of pie because it sat in front of him. It looked so good. Did they even know about the Infinite Realms? Justice League Dark members did, but did Batman? Jazz reached over and took his hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
Tim and Barbara’s typing seemed to get faster. And then a pair of pixie boots and legs settled on the table next to his plate. He looked up and met Robin’s eyes.
Robin reached out an poked Danny on the nose. He gave a little trill of safe, friends drawing a smile out of Danny.
At the same time, Duke exclaimed, “That’s why you have a crown!”
And Steph said, “Okay, I may be out of the loop, but what the hell are the Infinite Realms?”
Damian snorted. “Aren’t you too young to be a king of anything?”
Danny half stood. “Look, do you want to go spar or something? Is that why you keep picking fights? Because we can do that. Fighting is good for young liminals. But I really don’t think this is the time or place.”
Jazz groaned and dragged him back into his seat. “Stop it, Danny. You’re on Earth right now.” Speaking over Danny’s protests, she explained to Damian, “We wish. Managed to get them to delay until he turned eighteen at least, but his grandfather wouldn’t let us wait any longer than that.”
Danny let the fight drop, but he did notice how Damian’s grip on his spoon tightened. Looked like they would be having that spar tonight if Damian had anything to say about it. Still, Jazz was right and he had to follow human customs on Earth so he bumped his sister’s shoulder and spoke to her instead. “You know as well as I do that he would’ve if it was possible. But thanks to Pariah, there are things that haven’t been done in a thousand years and it’s been causing so many problems.”
“Steph,” said Barbara. “The Infinite Realms are the spaces between universes according to Constantine. His documentation states that the Realm’s inhabitants are all incredibly overpowered and should not be approached under any circumstances. Just one being can evade all methods of capture with standard supplies.”
Jazz nodded. “And our parents dedicated their lives to building a portal to the Infinite Realms, or the Ghost Zone as they call it, and destroying all ghosts.”
“By ‘ghosts,’” asked Bruce, “Do you mean beings from these Infinite Realms?”
Jazz nodded. “Yes. Most beings from the Infinite Realms come into being when a living creature dies in a traumatic way, with a lot of emotion, or near a large source of ectoplasm. Usually some combination of all three.”
Both Tim and Bruce tried to ask further questions, but Jason’s voice cut in over theirs. “Jazz, when you say your parents wanted to ‘destroy all ghosts,’ did they stop after Danny’s accident?” Jason’s question did, at least, cause silence to fall as everyone stared at the two siblings.
Jazz looked down and gripped the tablecloth tightly, jaw clenched. Now it was Danny’s turn to lay a comforting hand over hers.
“No,” Danny said. “They didn’t. They didn’t know what happened for several years and when they found out… Well, there’s a reason I can’t use their last name and Jazz won’t call them ‘Mom’ or ‘Dad’ anymore. But”—Danny clapped his hands—“this is a great segway into what is actually important. Does the Justice League know about the Guys in White? More formally known as the Ghost Investigation Ward? Or even just GIW?”
“That name is unfamiliar to me,” said Bruce.
Tim agreed. “Babs and I aren’t seeing anything in the JL databases.”
Even Robin just shrugged.
Danny didn’t expect the jolt of pain that sent through his chest and Jazz turned their hands around until they were gripping each other’s hands with more force than any baseline human would’ve been able to.
“I told you, Danny. They didn’t know. They didn’t know.” Her eyes were wet, but she forced a shaky smile. “You could’ve had help.”
Danny just shook his head. “Even if I had believed they didn’t know… Without meeting them, without knowing how many of their own were in danger, I would’ve never trusted them. Too many people rely on me for me to risk it.”
“Care to enlighten the rest of us?” asked Dick. His posture was relaxed, but his voice had an edge that hadn’t been there earlier.
Robin nodded from where he sat staring at Danny. He sent out a questioning Danger? pulse at Danny.
“Yeah, danger,” agreed Danny. “Barbara, Tim, if I give you a law code number, can you pull up the law I’m referring to?”
“Of course,” agreed Barbara. “Just a moment… And shoot.”
Danny gave them the code for the Anti-Ecto Acts. “The Guys in White are the government agency responsible for enforcing the Anti-Ecto Acts which classify all ‘ectoplasmic entities’”—he made the air quotes—“as non-sentient and non-sapient and excludes us from the metahuman protection acts.”
“What the fuck!” shouted Duke.
Next to Danny, Dick suddenly was sitting up tense. “That’s impossible.”
“The league would’ve noticed such an act being passed,” said Damian, though he didn’t look as sure as his words would seem.
Cass merely tilted her head and looked at him while Steph choked on her drink.
Bruce looked to Tim and Barbara. “Is this true?” he asked them.
Robin pointed to himself and mouthed the word ‘Me?’ at Danny.
“I’m afraid so. And Bruce, Cass, Steph, and Damian as well.”
Dick’s spluttering got louder. “How are they all in danger?” he demanded to know.
Before Danny could reply, Tim was speaking. “It’s all true. And far worse than Danny implied. Not only are ecto-entities not protected by the metahuman protection laws, but they are to be actively hunted and turned over to the GIW for experimentation and extermination and anyone who assists them is declared guilty of treason.”
“When did they pass?” asked Bruce.
“Four years ago,” said Barbara. “While Luthor was president. They were hidden in some laws about green energy.”
“Ghost are made of ectoplasm,” explained Jazz. “Ectoplasm is a fantastic energy source.”
“It happened a few months after I defeated the previous king but before my coronation,” added Danny.
“Why do you think myself, Damian, Cass, Stephanie, and Jason will be targeted by this Ghost Investigation Ward?”
“It’ll be easier to show you.” Danny reached down and pulled up his bag. The thing was made in Pandora’s realm and was bigger on the inside. Once open, it took him a moment to find what he was looking for. He could see Robin signing to the group next to him. “Here we are,” Danny said as he pulled out three devices. “These are all different ectoplasm detection devices. One is my own design, one is the Guys in White’s design, and one is my parent’s design. I’ll show you mine first because it’s the best.”
“Might be a dumb question,” started Dick, “but what the hell is ectoplasm?”
“So you know how all the elements in this universe came about from nuclear fusion of hydrogen in the cores of stars?” asked Danny. When most everyone nodded, he continued, “In the Infinite Realms, that base element is ectoplasm. But there’s no need for a star to transform it into anything else. It will mold to the shape any consciousness that interacts with it wants. When sentient creatures slip through, either by a portal or through death or any other means, they shape the part of the Realm they’re in to their will. The stronger the ghost, the larger the area they control.” Holding out his hands, Danny called forth a ball of ectoplasm, shaping it into a glowing-green ice duck. “Something like this,” he commented grinning around the table.
Only to be met with horrified looks as most of the table were staring at his hands with distrust. Damian had his knife out again. Jason, his gun with the other arm held protectively in front of Jazz. Bruce was standing and Cass tense.
“What’s wrong?” asked Danny. “It’s just an ice duck sculpture. Completely harmless.”
Jason’s voice was low and threatening. “It’s an ice duck made of Lazarus water.”
More alarming than his voice was the way his eyes glowed ecto-green and the fear-anger that filled the room.
----------
Next
Challenge: Stay on one topic for more than two sentences.
Outcome: Failed.
They keep getting side tracked with more questions. And Danny still hasn't had a bite of his pie. This evening will never be over.
Tag List Part 1
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Looks like 50 is the limit for active user tags in a post. Good to know
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drinkmoarwater · 10 months
Text
I’m finally done with school so I can participate in Dannymay for the first time :)
Day 17: Temper (ik I’m late but shhhhhh)
Jazz had three options, none of which she liked. She could leave, consider this conversation over, and pummel the punching bag at the gym until she passed out or the employees kicked her out again. She could stay and talk until she came to peaceful resolution with Principal Ishiyama, maybe talk her into a corner to admit that requiring Danny and her to pass a ectoplasm screening before being allowed back in school was a mistake. Principal Ishiyama liked her, it wouldn’t be hard to manipulate her rapport for the benefit of her baby brother. It would take a while, but Jazz could do it.
Or.
Jazz could smile, agree, and then burn the building to the ground on her way out. She had a lipstick blaster in her purse. The classrooms had plenty of flammable material. Books, paper, wooden desks, posters. It wouldn’t take much more than a few seconds of a focused blast and whoosh, a fire. Tucker would erase the camera footage before the police got access to it, if the tapes survived the blaze that is. Jazz wouldn’t even need to call in a favor for it, he’d probably laugh and say he owed her for getting him out of ap world history.
As Ishiyama explained the PTA’s petition to document all student’s ectoplasm exposure to her in slow syllables, Jazz noted that Ishiyama’s desk looked really breakable. One solid kick and Jazz would snap it half. The paper weights might hurt her ankle if they collided, but the desk was made of plastic made to look like wood. She could throw the thing over her head if she wanted, right out the window. Maybe that would be more satisfying, to be forced to use both her hands and hearing the crash. It would at least avoid breaking a heel.
Maybe Jazz should play this smart. Ask for the signatures on that petition. Write down their addresses. Take her time the next time a ghost attack wanders down their street. Shoot their mailboxes and say she has terrible aim. Steal their dogs and raise them as her own. Maybe that one’s a step too far.
Instead, Jazz bites the inside of her cheek. Option two was worth a try. “And why isn’t every student required to take a physical examination?”
Ishiyama sighed. “Not every student has been so thoroughly exposed to ectoplasm as those that have passed through your house. It’s a safety issue, one that I’m sure you understand, Jazz.”
“I don’t understand. Explain it to me again.”
“It’s a simple screening. It’s noninvasive, just a swab and a stroll through the ectoplasm detectors your parents invented. You’ll be fine. Your brother will be fine. What is it you don’t understand?”
Jazz pushed her toes into the soles of her shoes hard enough for it to be uncomfortable but unnoticeable. “An ectoplasm screening is not standard school policy. We live in the most haunted city in the country, don’t you think every student has some ectoplasm exposure?”
“If they do, it’s not enough to become a problem.” Ishiyama pulled out a file and flipped through its pages. “Thirty-six broken beakers, forty-two detentions, nine unexcused absences, and a letter of concern from one of your brother’s teachers. His grades aren’t pretty and he’s said to fall asleep in class more often than not.” Ishiyama took breaks from her reading out the files to make hard eye contact. “You have five unexcused absences, a significant jump from someone who had perfect attendance for three years straight, and three of your teachers have reached out to me about your jumpiness and sudden lack of participation.”
“Your point? These are behavioral issues, not physiological ones.”
“My point is that the petition mentioned the two of you by name, and your files give me good reason to listen.”
Taking a deep breath, Jazz let the silence hang for a moment. She put on her best I’m-thinking-very-hard face, an exaggerated pout with scrunched eyebrows. She bounced her leg, a false tell. She didn’t mention that it was wrong, manipulative even to have this conversation without her brother or parents in the room. She didn’t ask what would be done with their information if they submitted to the screening, or what they were expected to do if they didn’t pass, or which staff members signed. She didn’t take Ishiyama’s school district issued pen and blind her with it. Jazz didn’t do a lot of things that she could have, or maybe should have.
She half listened to Ishiyama’s justifications, comparing the screening to vaccinations and flu shots. She stayed quiet, nodding when expected and making unflinching eye contact. Ishiyama had one tell, to her credit. She hesitated over the flowery language of the petition, like she wanted to say “ghost” instead of “ectoplasmic entities and substances.” Jazz daydreamed about keying Ishiyama’s bright blue volkswagen in her assigned parking spot, carving a cartoonish ghost into the paint.
Jazz left the meeting with her shoulders back and her chin tilted downward. She was making a plan. She had many more options than what she first thought.
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miscmonstro · 1 year
Text
The Uno Reverse Adoption Saga 9
AO3 Link: here
First: Chapter 1
Previous: Chapter 8
Current Characters: Jason Todd, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, Danny Fenton, Jazz Fenton
Summary: Forced to attend a gala by her parents as she is every year, Sam Manson was resigned to suffer through the stifling three-night gala until something pulled at her core. The something turned out to be a someone. Just who is Jason Todd and can the trio gain enough of his trust to help him before his struggling proto-core collapses?
JPGPV = Jazzy-Pants Ghost Proof Vehicle
Warnings: Cursing. Discussion and description of the death picture and the portal incident. And technically someone steals an organ?
👻 {Chapter 9 Below!)
Jason was perturbed.
A lot had happened over the past week or so and it could be summed up as goddamned history coming to haunt him.
His history with the pits, his history with Bruce. History repeating itself in the form of three undead teenagers.
Jason let his head fall and he clutched the glowing camera a little tighter.
He had no doubt the picture he’d found was of something sinister . Honestly, he wasn’t sure how they’d survived something so horrific. Manes’ hand was literally melting . Not to mention the boys…
(Halfa. Half human, half ghost. He had a suspicion and he prayed he was wrong. His nightmares were going to feature screaming kids, dying kids, for a while; he could already tell.)
Why were they in a lab? It had to be intentional. Why else had Phantom been in lab coveralls? Why else would Manes have been documenting it? Were they sent into that tube to test it, whatever it was?
And the green.
He’d know that green anywhere.
History, over and over.
Dramatic irony unfolding. 
Squeezing his eyes shut, he wondered if this was what Bruce had felt like, loath as he was to think it. Seeing those kids and knowing they could do better if he steered them right… knowing that they were going to get themselves killed (again?) without him.
He was despairing, he knew, about how unfair it all was. While their situations seemed too similar to be comfortable, their attitudes couldn’t have been more differed than his own. He didn’t see himself in them so much as he saw three versions of Dick. Optimist. Hopeful. Helpful. Unlike his dear older brother though, these kids were utterly alone.
Usually he wasn’t so doubtful. He’d always been a decisive person. Acting with impulse and anger wasn’t the best approach for everything, he knew, but not once had he been called hesitant. It was just that this would be a huge deviation from his norm, not to mention he would have to hide the ghost thing from the others on top of the kids. He’d have to change nearly everything; his schedule, his tactics, his habits, and the list went on. 
God damn it. He was lying to himself. He wasn’t still considering it. The minute he offered the gremlins advice in the attic some part of him knew that he’d already decided to take them under his wing until he cleaned up whatever the hell was going on.
He just didn’t want to accept it. How long had he raged at Bruce for taking on young sidekicks? How much of a hypocrite could he be? 
Then again, the situation was totally different, what with them having to fear for their safety in a way even he, a crime alley kid, never had to. Gotham was rough, but the dark city would be kinder to them than Amity. Even the government didn’t so much as breathe in Gotham without the damned Bat’s say so.
The problem, overwhelmingly, was that not only did he have no idea who they were as humans, but they seemed to take their haunting of Amity very seriously. Something told him that they would never compromise on defending their city.
He could admire that. 
Jason set the camera down on the empty couch next to him.
He could also despise it. 
He ignored the part of him that sneered at himself. What could he possibly teach them when he had so thoroughly failed to even keep himself alive? 
He wasn’t perfect- hell, nowhere close- but he’d be damned if he let the trio go off on their own unless he was completely, 100% positive they could handle themselves.
Glancing to the clock, he wondered when exactly said trio would appear. They’d hastily promised transport before they’d left but had denied to mention a time. He didn’t know if the waiting was making his apprehension worse.
He was about to go into a whole other dimension.
A canyon that ate people? A dark forest that claimed the lives of any who dared to approach? A series of shifting dunes that would swallow any hapless wanderers whole? All contained on crumbling, floating islands beneath a green sky?
A truce in that hellscape?
It was too surreal to picture. 
It was also surreal to think he had a ghost core, but considering the fucking circus that was his life, he shouldn’t have been surprised. He was still vainly hoping that there was some kind of a mistake. 
A line appeared in the air.
Jason stared at it.
It grew in size and light, eerie green light, began to spill from the forming cracks. Jason tensed as a bleached begloved hand reached out and then groped around the empty air for a moment before clasping onto the edge of the crack. It flexed and then a familiar head of pale wispy hair stuck through the growing hole that had materialized in the living room.
“Hi,” Phantom grinned toothily. 
Parts of the portal’s border crumbled and fell to the floor and the kid grimaced apologetically. “Sorry about that, I’m new to the whole portal thing.” 
“It’s fine,” Jason dismissed. He’d gotten worse than portal crumbs in the carpet.
“Well, come on. We have a few hours before we have to be anywhere but I figured you’d want to explore a little first.”
Jason hesitantly approached the giant crack hovering in the air and Phantom offered his hand. Jason wasn’t going to take it initially, but the kid seemed so serious. Hiding  his grin, he took the offered hand and Phantom nodded very solemnly.
It was kinda adorable. 
“Ok. We’re going through the zone to Amity, where you can hang out. Then later we’re going to go through either the fruitloop’s portal or the Fenton portal to the zone and meet the yetis. Hang on tight, I don’t think you’ll want to fly on your own here.”
Jason couldn’t fly, but he could grapple just fine. He wasn’t going to let the kid attempt to carry him. But Phantom didn’t try to. Instead, he held onto Jason’s hand and helped him up into the portal.
The first thing he saw, besides Phantom, was an endless expanse of an unnatural green. 
It was a world of Lazarus.
Ghouley had said as much, but seeing it was a whole other thing.
And as he looked around at the disembodied doors and isolated islands, Jason knew there was no way a grapple would do anything. Ghouley had made it sound like neighboring islands were a skip and a jump from one another.
Then again, maybe they were when flight was factored in.
“I can’t fly,” Jason admitted. He’d need Phantom’s help to get anywhere.
“Not yet,” Phantom said, eyes twinkling with mirth. He pulled Jason the rest of the way through the portal and it closed behind them. Instead of plummeting to the abyss below they hovered, suspended in the foreign air. 
“Anyone can fly in the zone, even humans. It takes some getting used to, but we have time.”
“Not worried about a ghost snatching me up?” Jason snarked.
Phantom hummed. “Not really. Manes and Ghouley are running interference.”
He tugged Jason, who realized the kid was still holding his hand. It didn’t feel like they were moving and Jason had no way to tell if they were.
“So firstly, the Ghost Zone, or the Infinite Realms, isn’t like space. In space there is microgravity because everything naturally produces a tiny amount of gravity. It’s because particles are like that and they have levels of attraction- eh hem. There’s also time in space and there is a connection between the gravitational field and the perception of time and- uh. Anyway, there is no microgravity here unless the object or person is from a living world, and there is no time.” 
“Seems simple enough,” Jason said sarcastically. “No gravity and no time. Got it.”
Phantom nodded. “Yes, you have to keep that in mind. And now the fun part, flight!”
It was not fun. Phantom, for all his enthusiasm, was dreadfully awful at giving instructions. 
“You gotta feel like you’re moving.”
“Maybe pretend everything is magnets?”
“Have you ever flown? It’s like a weightlessness. Picture that…”
“Think of a line graph.” 
“Tilt forward? I mean you don’t have to, it’s more about what you think moving is like.”
He’d pictured soaring through the air, he imagined free falling, he remembered the little moments of weightlessness he’d experienced throughout his life.
Phantom was stupidly earnest with his instructions and relaxed the longer Jason struggled. He even started smirking, the shithead, but at least he didn’t make any comments. 
After at least two hours of struggling, he still could not fly (much to his irritation). He couldn’t even vaguely float in the direction he wanted to go. Phantom assured him it was fine, that he’d learn in time. 
He would admit, he was pretty pissed he made absolutely no progress. There wasn’t time, the appointment was today . And if he couldn’t move, how the hell was he supposed to escape ghosts?
Phantom hovered, watching him with an unnervingly unblinking stare. “Let’s head to Amity. There’s plenty to do there,” he suggested.
Amity. Fuck, he forgot that’s where the kids were from. They probably had people they were ignoring while he tried and failed to get his ass in gear.
“Sure,” he agreed unhappily. He didn’t want to, not really, but he wasn’t going to make the kids miss out on Christmas. 
Phantom blinked slowly, “We don’t have to, you know. We can keep working on flying.”
“I think I’m done with flying for now.”
Phantom’s eyes lit up, literally, and he grabbed Jason’s arm. “Come on,” he said, pulling Jason, “we’ve got to stop by the Nasty Burger. It’s always open.”
“No holiday plans?” he asked carefully. 
Phantom shook his head with a sour expression. “Just avoiding my parents.”
“Damn.”
Interesting.
👻 {Boo!)
The ‘fruitloop’ portal was very different from Phantom’s portal. Where Phantom’s portal was more akin to going through a broken mirror the other portal was smooth and the rim was circular… it looked like a boom tube made out of Lazarus waters. 
“The fruitloop is very distracted,” Phantom said smugly. “So we’re free to go.”
They slipped through the portal and Jason was met with the visage of a lab. 
“Oh shiver me timbers,” Phantom spat not three steps in. “You need to hide- Shulker got away.”
He ushered Jason into a- very menacing- tube shaped pod and shut the side almost all the way before dashing back to the portal. And he wasn’t a moment too soon- a large figure walked through the wall and immediately locked eyes with Phantom.
“Whelp,” the robot with a fiery green mohawk said.
“Shulker,” Phantom returned. He seemed to glow brighter for a moment and then-
Something crashed over him, something cold and ridged and hefty. But… it felt good, even if he didn’t know what it was; it felt refreshing, not unlike a mint. 
It felt solid.
It felt strong.
It felt safe.
“Just passing through,” Shulker grumbled, glowing a bit brighter himself. 
Beneath the cold was another feeling, something cool and smooth and metallic with sharp edges. Belatedly, Jason realized that the two sets of impressions were from the two ghosts staring each other down.
Phantom squinted distrustfully at the other and then nodded. “It is truce day,” he said.
“Otherwise I’d have your pelt,” Shulker sneered in apparent agreement. He cast an equally suspicious look at Phantom before making his way to and through the fruitloop portal, the feel of sharp metal vanishing with him.
Phantom’s glow paled and the heavy cold vanished immediately. He flew back to the pod and opened the door. “I’m so sorry, I know it can be uncomfortable to be around heavy moods but I needed to make sure Shulker didn’t notice you and would leave,” he grimaced, biting his lip. 
“It’s fine,” Jason said, voice more strained than he would have liked. “The moods are…?”
“Oh. Like, uh, ghost auras. But we call them moods.”
That didn’t really explain anything but Phantom was more concerned with getting them out of the lab. He took Jason’s hand again. “Here, I’ll need to hang on to you just a bit longer, okay?” He didn’t wait for a response and the strangest feeling spread over him. Phantom summarily plunged them through the wall. It was disorienting, to say the least.
It made sense because ghosts, but come on .
They went through the wall, down into the floor, then through dirt before finally popping up on a grassy patch outside of the back of a mansion.
“Looks like our ride is here,” Phantom said cheerfully, motioning to a car (if it could be called that) which looked like it wasn’t legal to be on the road. A large acronym, JPGPV, was printed on the side, though it failed to hint at what exactly the vehicle was.
And were those tank treads ?
“Is that safe?” he asked dubiously. He’d been in a lot of vehicles and never had he felt so vaguely threatened by one before.
“Jazz is driving,” replied Phantom. That didn’t explain anything.
They approached the car (if one was being generous) and Jason ended up in the back seat next to Phantom. The driver’s seat was occupied by a young woman, presumably Jazz, who was probably at the tail end of her teens. The passenger’s side had a dark-skinned boy with glasses who was fiddling with a futuristic looking sci-fi gun.
Jason did a double take.
(He almost didn’t recognize the face he’d spent the morning studying without the pained contortions.)
“No trouble?” Jazz asked, looking at Jason through the rearview mirror.
“Nope,” Phantom said, popping the p. He buckled into his seat.
Jazz nodded. “Great. That’s good. Anyway, nice to meet you Jason. I hope the trip wasn’t too bad. The zone can be overwhelming the first few times.”
She started the ignition and began backing out of the mansion’s rear driveway.
From the pointed ears and fangs, he was going to guess she was a meta.
“Nice to meet you too,” he said awkwardly. “And the zone was fine.”
“He can’t fly,” Phantom butted in gleefully. 
The kid in front, who had to be Ghouley, snorted.
“Hey, it was his first time! And Danny, human,” Jazz said.
There was a flash as the rings manifested and the messy haired boy Jason had glimpsed the other day sat slouched in the seat next to his. 
(This kid might have died, a nauseous part of him whispered. If he was right then this kid had died. He’d died screaming .)
“Sorry, forgot,” Phantom, Danny said.
That was progress.
“Danny, huh?” Jason said.
“He didn’t even introduce himself?” Jazz grumbled. “He’s Danny, or Phantom as I believe he introduced himself as. I’m Jazz, his older sister. And this is Tucker.” 
“I’m Ghouley,” Tucker said, never looking up from the little output display on the gun. “Manes- er, Sam, can’t go human with the fear stuff or she’d be here too.”
Danny, Tucker, and Sam from Amity Park. Now he was getting places. 
They’d tried to lie about it at first, and now they were being so open about it. He wondered what had changed.
“What you got there?” he asked, motioning to Tucker.  
The kid grimaced. “An ecto gun. It’s specialized for tagging anything with a signature and doubles as a tracker. I’m trying to sabotage it but I need some more… stuff.”
Danny perked up. “I can take a crack at it.”
“Mom and Dad’ll be in and out of the lab all day,” Jazz reminded them. “You’ll have to distract them or steal the tools from Vlad’s.”
“Wait, no. I think you still have the emergency ghost tool repair kit from your birthday, right? There has to be a calibrator in there.”
“A calibrator would work but I was thinking of uploading an alternate signature directly to the gun, it would seem more like a mistake on their part…”
The three began chatting about the methods and logistics of sabotaging the gun and while Jason was no slouch, he couldn’t really follow along. 
“Why does this gun need to be sabotaged?” he asked during a lull in the conversation. “I’m birthday cake confused.”
The car burst into snickers. 
“You tried to curse, didn’t you?” Jazz asked, amusement dripping from every word.
Tucker twisted in his seat to see Jason. “Welcome to Amity, a nice place to live. You can’t curse, can’t say the ‘w’ word, and can’t live without ghost insurance.”
“The ‘w’ word is wish. Don’t say it, there’s a ghost genie named Desiree who grants the ‘w’ word monkey’s paw style,” Danny stage whispered.
“Wait, so I can’t strawberry curse? That’s rocky road!”
He was never letting anyone know about his time in Amity. The things coming out of his mouth were humiliating .
The snickering continued. 
He noted that they didn’t answer the question.
👻 {Boo!)
There was something wrong with Amity Park.
He grew up in Gotham, had died, was revived, got trained by assassins, and to this day spent his time running around with a mask to terrorize the city’s criminal underbelly like some kind of bad dream. Gotham had a lot on the daily, had seen a lot in her past, and so in theory he really shouldn’t have found something he wouldn’t have been able to handle. 
In theory.
They’d picked up some food from the Nasty Burger before sitting down on a little building overlooking a park. From this one vantage point there was more than enough to force him to reevaluate that theory. 
There were floating buildings. What the fuck was that about? Buildings didn’t float, not even the magic ones he’d seen. The sky was tinged green and the soil had purplish tints, not unlike the ghost realms or whatever the hell the Lazarus dimension was called, and there was an ambient lighting that didn’t seem to come from anywhere. And something was off. But… the grass was swaying gently, the sun was shining, and no matter how he looked about, something uncanny and just out of reach mocked him.
He set that aside and continued to observe. It seemed like Jazz wasn’t the only one with mutations- the people he saw at the park had mutations, all of them. Fangs and pointed ears and ash tinged skin, like they were teetering on the edge of oxygen deprivation. Glowing, sometimes flashing eyes. Pointy fingers. It was a city of vampires.
People would walk and flicker, as if they weren’t entirely there. The shadows moved on their own. There were a few cars without drivers. Ghost birds perched next to living ones on the power lines. 
Hence his conclusion: There was something wrong with Amity Park.
While at the end of the day he was categorized as a vigilante, he was also a detective.
“Amity is the most haunted place on earth,” Tucker shrugged when he asked what was going on with everything.
“How does haunting equate to all this?” Jason motioned to everything around him.
“In layman’s terms? Ghost juice.”
“Ghost juice,” he repeated flatly before casting his drink an overly suspicious glare.
It had the intended effect when Danny laughed lightly. “It’s everywhere. Food, water, air. Ectoplasm, I mean. It’s seeped into everything, not to mention that this world and the Ghost Zone kinda have joint custody of Amity? Everyone’s liminal at this point.”
Liminal. He’d read that word not too long ago when going over the Anti-Ecto Acts.
“Liminal? As in… ectocontaminated..?”
The whole damned city? That was sobering. 
Tucker sighed. “Pretty much. Ectocontaminated… no one calls it that except hunters. Speaking of, I don’t think I need to tell you that if you see the GIW, you need to run.”
“Sure, won’t make me look suspicious or anything.”
“Everyone runs now,” Danny commented morosely. “No one wants to risk being captured.”
Something tightened around his neck, something like a noose. “They just… take people?”
“We break them out,” Tucker supplied easily, like the government kidnapping people wasn’t a big deal. “They’ve never gotten too far. We won’t let them.”
We won’t let them. Firm. Unwavering. A statement that brooked no room for failure.
Fuck, he hoped the kids weren’t in over their heads.
The kids were very obviously in over their heads.
“I can feel the depression from here,” Manes said, phasing up through the roof. Jason couldn’t see her and made a show of looking around like a civilian.
“She’s staying invis. Can’t have Manes Phantom hanging out with Fenton and Foley,” Danny said, taking a bite of his burger.
He tucked away the names for later. “I thought you were Phantom?”
“And I thought you’d grab me something,” grumbled Sam.
Tucker, nose wrinkled, pulled out a burger, partially unwrapped it, and held it aloft as though it had personally slighted him. “One veggie burger,” he said with clear distaste.
Sam snatched it up.
“We’re sorta all Phantom?” shrugged Danny, answering his question. “We’ve got Danny Phantom, Manes Phantom, and Ghouley Phantom. It’s because no one knew our names at first and then we all kinda responded when people called for Phantom, so…”
“That’s not confusing at all,” Jason said dryly. 
“We know who people are talking to, unless they don’t know,” Sam said.
Good awareness then, he noted. He’d have to see how much, if any, of that translated to spatial awareness in a fight.
“Huh.”
Yeah, they definitely weren’t going to leave their city. And he couldn’t leave Crime Alley…
He’d propose the idea of sparring later. Nothing fancy, just some hand to hand to gauge how much they knew. Danny could make portals so it wasn’t unreasonable to hope that they could swing by Gotham or that he could pop into Amity for a few lessons. 
He didn’t want to mimic the old bat, but it had become commonplace for mentors to do their patrols and cases with their protégés. It was a tried and tested method. Briefly, he contemplated setting something up. He was a known ‘contact’ of Red Hoof after all, but if he let them shadow him on patrol… they could ‘feel’ his core from what Sam had said and he had no clue how to hide it. They’d know he was Red Hood in a heartbeat so… he’d have to tell them who he was. 
Red Hood was an anti-hero for a reason. He killed people. He didn’t think what he was doing was wrong, harsh maybe, but justified. Never had he shied away from violence.
Never had he given a psychopath the opportunity to hurt people, over and over again.
How could he tell three half-dead, possibly murdered, kids that he thought killing was okay?
(How many ghosts had he created?)
Yeah, no. He couldn’t tell them. He’d just have to do as regular old Jason. Besides, he wasn’t planning on sticking around for more than a few months anyway. Just however long it took to clear up the acts and whatever was wrong with his ghost side. There was no point in breaking the big identity rule. 
Jason shuffled the thought away and went back to his mental notebook. He’d made a lot of progress. Now he had names to investigate and since he was inside Amity, well, a little visit to the public library was in order. 
He side eyed the kids. The three were completely silent and the boy’s faces were eerily blank as they stared out over the park.
Hm. Alright.
He had a few things he wanted to do. 
1- break into the library. Comb through the newspapers and then hit the computers
2- find out more about the kids. Preferably, who set their deaths up and where it happened
2.5- make sure the kids were competent; if not, give pointers
3- figure out if the lab from the picture was related to the League of Assassins and Ra’s. There was no way that much Lazarus was a coincidence
4- destroy the lab of whoever had the tunnel (again, no one should be messing around with Lazarus waters. No one.)
The list would not be accomplished in one visit but Jason was confident that he’d be able to work through it. 
He stuffed the rest of his burger into his mouth, grimacing on the inside. That was his unhealthy treat for the week. Still, Danny had been so excited to swing by the Nasty Burger he couldn’t really say no. 
It wasn’t as good as Bat Burger, but it wasn’t as bad as the name might have implied.
Swallowing, he looked at the still frozen kids. They were still occupied with whatever so he took the opportunity to stare a little.
Stemming from the fingers on Danny’s right hand, just barely visible, thin grey lines radiated out like vines.
He had never seen anything like it. 
(He’d seen the same pattern glowing in negative, sharp against the halo of white engulfing the boy.)
Jason sighed heavily. He needed to focus.
Step one: get to the library. The lie spilled from him too easily: “Hey. Uh, I figure I’ll wander a bit, you know, see the sights. You kids should go spend time with your families or whatever you do today.”
There was a pause, so slight that it would’ve ordinarily been dismissed. Then, the boy’s faces quickly adopted expressions. 
Jason wondered what that was about. He added it to his ever-growing list of ‘weird fucking ghost shit’. 
“I don’t celebrate Christmas,” Sam said blithely.
“I wish my parents didn’t,” Danny said miserably.
“You’re always welcome at my place,” Tucker offered. “My cousins are kinda annoying but hey, no ghost traps.”
Danny grimaced and bit a fry in half.
“How about this? It’s already three. Jason can explore till nine. We’ll meet back here and then head to the zone,” Sam strongly suggested.
No one objected.
Six hours was good enough for him.
👻 {Boo!)
The library was laughably easy to break into. 
Maybe it wasn’t wise, but with all the flight cancellations, who would expect Jason Todd to be in Amity Park when he’d been spotted less than three hours earlier in Gotham? 
He skimmed the layout and made a beeline for the periodicals. Depending on how far back he needed to go he might end up having to break into the archive too.
A green sticky note was slapped on the topmost paper. He was going to ignore it, at first, but something about it grabbed at his attention.
‘ It is not necessary to show others you have changed; the change will be obvious, ’ it read.
Clearly it wasn’t anything important. Maybe the librarian was into scavenger hunts. He put the note aside and out of his mind, turned to the complication of papers, pulled out the first one, and began to read. 
👻 {Boo!)
Five hours later Jason still hadn’t gotten to the computers. 
The papers were chock full of information. Ever so slowly he made his way backwards, watching as the eldritch city transformed from something inexplicable and alien to a scarred city that held wounded history in every crevice. 
The widespread liminality? An ongoing ectoplasm exposure issue that initially stemmed from an outbreak at the local high school three years ago.
The ‘don’t step on people’s shadows’ rule? There were shadow ghosts, notably the Halloween spirit, that you didn’t want to piss off.
The little shrine of new books in the library labeled ‘Do Not Touch’? Tales to entertain a ghost that liked to trap people in fantasy stories and read to the children on occasion.
The dreamcatchers hanging literally everywhere? A peace offering to the ghost god of dreams, or a warding away of the entity, but they prevented him from trapping you in an unwaking slumber in any case.
The frankly bizarre two mailbox system? A set up to prevent the box ghost from tampering with and or stealing packages en-masse. 
The greenish sky and purplish soil? After effects of the city being pulled into the mother fucking Lazarus dimension for a whole god damned month.
How the hell had something of this magnitude flown under the radar? 
And the kids.
Holy hell he had never been so right yet so wrong before.
They weren’t just in over their heads, they’d been drowning in a tsunami and somehow managing to stay afloat at the same time. And as much as the papers said, there was a whole lot they didn’t say. The sheer number of documented altercations put his number of confrontations to shame and he had no doubt there were plenty of fights the papers didn’t know about. Fights aside, so many pieces were still missing. How had the Phantoms been created in the first place? Had it been intentional? Where had the ghosts been four years ago, five, six, seven? Why only the past few years?  
It was like every time he set a timeline for associating with them something cropped up and pushed the deadline back further and further. It was going to be a quick association at first, then a commitment, and then a long-term commitment that just kept getting longer. 
He rested his head in his hands and closed his eyes. 
It wasn’t so much about his help being good or not, rather that he was going to help at all. They needed any help they could get. 
How could he sit here and plan to walk away?
(He was exactly like Bruce, wasn’t he?)
👻 {Boo!)
His despondence dawdled and did not help with his apprehension regarding the yeti visit. Deciding to leave the library early, Jason put everything back where it belonged and removed all traces of his presence before heading back to the rooftop overlooking the park.
He had a lot to chew on.
Around quarter to nine Danny as Phantom flew up to him, glowing in the dimming world around them.
“Hey Jason! How did the exploring go?” he greeted cheerfully.
Jason quirked a brow. “Well enough. You seem to be in a better mood.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “So here’s the plan. We’re going to be going through the Fenton portal and then heading to the Great Star Bridge Sera- er, it’s basically a mansion. Super pretentious name, if you ask me.”
Jason couldn’t help but wonder why it had to be there. He didn’t really like the idea of going to a mansion but didn’t bother to say anything about it.
“Alright, let’s get going. Are Manes and Ghouley…?”
“They’re at the portal.”
Danny then took his arm, turning them invisible and flying up and towards some unknown place.
Flying like this was different. It should’ve been impossible, supporting his weight just with one arm. It was as though Danny had turned gravity off for just the two of them.
Their destination became apparent as they approached a building with a giant glowing sign labeled ‘Fenton Works’ alongside an arrow oh so helpfully pointing down to the building they were perched upon. He’d read about them in the papers.
He could only imagine the portal was nearby. 
Jazz had made it sound like she, and possibly the trio, frequented the other dimension. One of the newspapers had an interview with a ghost named Kitty, who claimed that the Phantoms took wayward ghosts back to the zone. It wasn’t unreasonable, given the amount of ghost fights he’d read about, that the Phantoms spent solid chunks of time in both dimensions. Jason didn’t like the idea of having to sneak by people who hunted him to get home every day on top of all the regular vigilante crap. It was exhausting for him and it could only have been the same for them.
The kids probably had been caught off guard before, trying to pass through.
How badly had they suffered?
“Nervous?” Danny asked, slowing to a stop.
Maybe he was wrong. Maybe it hadn’t happened. Maybe they were still…
“Are- did you die?” Jason asked in a rush. Immediately, he wanted to take the words and stuff them back in his mouth. 
Danny was quiet for a moment. “Why?”
Scrambling for an answer, he meekly offered a thought that had occurred to him yesterday on patrol.
“I mean- are they gonna ask me about my…?”
Would he have to explain his own demise?
He would if he had to, in the barest sense, but it wasn’t information he was going to volunteer.
“Ok. So, don’t do that. Ever,” Danny gently admonished. “Real quick lesson in ghost manners. You don’t ask about death. It’s a sensitive topic among ghosts. And to answer your question, yes, I did die. I can’t say what the yetis will ask but one of us will be right there at all times, okay?” 
Danny, even as Phantom, was dwarfed by Jason. He was sure that he could punt the kid pretty far, so small he was, and he still had baby fat clinging to his cheeks.
Would he ever get to grow up?
Or had that been ripped away from him?
Jason cleared his throat. “Right.”
Danny took them down to the street right in front of Fenton Works and then phased them through the floor and into a stairwell.
“Ready?” he asked.
Manes poked her head out of a doorframe at the bottom of the stairs.
“As I’ll ever be,” replied Jason. 
Danny floated them down the stairs and through the doorway. Tucker was inside with Sam and they split with Sam taking point and Tucker covering the rear.
The wall of the lab they directed to was shockingly familiar. If one took out the blast doors and the active portal, the setup was identical to that of the picture. 
Danny confirmed he had died.
Sam had referred to the boys as Fenton and Foley earlier. It didn’t matter that he didn’t know which was which; one of them was Fenton, and that was enough information.
With sick horror, it dawned on him that one of the boys’ families owned this lab. One of their families hunted ghosts. One of their families hated the Phantoms. One of their families had killed them. 
The Fentons had killed their own child and his two friends. 
They had died right here , in this very portal.
Why the hell were they here?
“Jason? Is something wrong?”
“No,” he said shortly.
What were the kids playing at?
The three seemed to silently agree on something. 
“Jason,” Tucker said, putting a hand on his shoulder, “we’ll be with you, alright? If something’s up we can handle it. We can help.”
“How can you be here?” he asked a little desperately. “This is-”
He couldn’t even think about the warehouse.
Danny hugged him slowly, and then Sam, and then Tucker joined them. 
It didn’t matter that they were pressed up so close he could feel their bones digging into his body because there wasn’t a single pulse among them.
The kids had died.
“You saw that picture, didn’t you?” Tucker said lowly. Jason didn’t deny it. 
“It’s mildly uncomfortable but we had to deal with it pretty early on,” Sam explained. “We’re largely used to it by now.”
Anger that had been silently simmering began to boil.
“You had to deal with it?” he repeated shrilly.
Of course, he thought bitterly. If the Fentons had killed the kids, likely with the intention of collecting their ghosts for some fucked up study, then the trio would’ve been forced into the lab at one, or several, points. But why come back at all?
The portal they died in. It was one of the only stable portals. They’d have to deal with it if they wanted to use the portal to herd the ghosts out of Amity.
Unwilling to dislodge the kids and possibly hurt them, he couldn’t move. Not with all three pairs of arms wrapped around him. But goddamn it, he was tempted to break something.
“… it’s not that bad. We’re fine. We’re not going to make you confront your death, alright?” Danny said.
“ My death? What about yours? This is cookies and cream awful. Who the hell made you deal with it? Chocolate Raspberry. Who ?”
“We did because it was the right thing to do. It’s a story for another time, okay?” Sam said a little desperately.
Danny lifted one arm and wrapped it around Sam.
Tucker pressed his head against Jason’s shoulder. “Jason. I know this kinda sucks but there’s nothing you can do. It’s in the past now.”
They had given up on themselves. 
It was all too common with heroes, wasn’t it? To save everyone else? But what about them?
Oh, how he wanted to rage. 
But he couldn’t. 
Keep it together for the kids, he scolded himself. He made progress. He had the lab. He discovered that the Lazarus water thing was actually the Fenton portal. He found out more about the kids.
He made progress. 
Inhaling quietly, he focused on the oscillating edges of the portal, moving in and out in a mockery of breathing.
His breath hitched.
The kids weren’t breathing . Their chests were still, their diaphragms didn’t move and never would again, up and down, in and out. Their lungs-
- were vibrating?
The pure confusion overrode everything for a moment. The kids were vibrating. And there was a sound quite similar to purring, though it felt as though it reached all the way down into his soul. 
“… are you kids purring at me?”
“No,” Danny said, continuing to purr. 
“Is it working?” grinned Sam.
“We’re ghosts, not cats,” Tucker scoffed. 
“We could be engines.”
Danny groaned and thunked his head against Jason’s arm. “One time.”
“One time’s all it takes,” snickered Tucker. 
“Danny overshadowed a car once,” Sam explained. “But he wasn’t really, he was in the engine and didn’t realize it. He was stuck as a car for almost a full day.”
“It was an anti-ghost vehicle too, mind you,” Tucker added.
“Stooop,” Danny complained. 
“It was his sister’s car.”
“Guys, I’m already half dead, please don’t kill me the rest of the way.”
“Jazz-”
Danny reached past Jason’s head to presumably clamp a hand over Tucker’s mouth. “Okay! That’s enough for today! We’re going to be late!”
👻 {Boo!)
Jason avoided the manor.
That wasn’t atypical, not really, but missing his phone call to Alfred was. Especially on a holiday; especially on Christmas.
He wasn’t at his official residence, nor his unofficial one, and so the only thing to do was to go through his safe houses. Easy enough. If there was one good thing about the whole mess with Dr. Crane, it was that they had more time now that their civilian identities were “hospitalized”.
One of the safe houses, located in an old apartment, showed signs of Jason being there recently. Why hadn’t he gone back to his actual apartment?
There were no real clues- nothing to hint at his home being compromised, nothing to indicate why he’d come to this particular apartment. The perishable food indicated Jason was residing here now, and had been for a few days as his suit from the gala was here, as was an assortment of gear Jason never left behind. Among them were his prized handguns. 
So why were they here when Jason wasn’t? 
There was only one other thing out of place. One clue that might lead to an answer instead of more questions.
Laying on the couch was an odd camera. It didn’t look like the kind of camera someone could buy at a store, no matter how high end. Some of the parts were standard, others looked custom, and none of them looked over a day old. Someone took good care of this camera, and if there was something he knew, it was cameras. 
Jason had never been interested in photography and there was no way he knew how to care for a camera. So, to whom did it belong? 
Well, if he left it here he’d never get answers. Jason might be bitchy for a while but the answers would be worth it. Besides, he’d get it back. Eventually.
Red Robin picked the strange camera up, tucked it into one of the dozen pockets on his person, and left the apartment. 
👻 {Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it.)
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omnicrafts · 1 year
Text
Gonna have to start organizing my list of inspiration for my progress. This patchwork quilt didn't make itself, I just stitch it together. Worldbuilding ahoy! I'm medicated for add Right Now, but my brain is refusing to cooperate on anything but thinking about this.
For Example, I'm gonna layout groundwork for The Team and some of the things they've been up to that also accidentally are instrumental in Danny learning what he needs to one day properly lead the Realms.
I started thinking it would be interesting to have Danny and his team jokingly take on a theme like Batman and Robin have. Danny coming up with the idea that they should do birds, Corvids specifically considering their association with Death and being clever little fucks. and why not? They already have JLA labels on the books from joking about being AP's personal League!
I'm taking a leaf from QueenoftheQuill's book on our Trio's bird designations. Danny = Rook, Tucker = Crow, Sam = Raven
They're children, your honor. They get a little more creative since they're making a separate team from the usual Ghost Fighter and two occasional helpers. Team Phantom is the OG team, it would make perfect sense for Sam and Tucker, who have been seen and documented, helping Phantom in the early days, would organize an actual Defense Squad. But since this isn't the early days, they can work on branding! Avoid that invis-o-bill and Red Huntress crap.
So they set up The Flock. Sam uses her allowance to buy them an office space. A small one-story two-bed, one-bath house with a nice finished basement. They all pitch in and make it a safe house/base of operations. Tucker's first contribution is to re-code one of the Fenton gadgets while Danny works on the components, they make it cloak Ecto-radiation/signatures ect, basically turning the house into a blind spot. The Cold War between Tucker hiding them from detection/tracking and the Fenton parents building homing devices was Real.
They call the place The Nest, because it's where they go to do most of their relaxing, healing, planning. Danny has plans to create a sleeker, less bulky version of the Fenton portal that's more door shaped for their base. This was before he told them, of course, but he still works on those plans as a hobby. He has other blueprints that make certain inventions smaller, or more narrow. This is the place they get together and brainstorm how to fine tune things like the Spector Deflector, the Ghost Shield. Where they built the Beta-Blocker, designed to keep out humans with ghost cores. A compact device that could scan and record a Core Resonance/Ecto-Signature alternately a CRS: Core Resonance Signature. Tucker and Valerie coming up with Code for their tech, so it could recognize an allied CRS over an unknown or hostile.
Tucker wonders if they had gotten around to sharing their advancements with the Drs Fenton, would they have stuck around after Death? Sam is sure it wouldn't have made a difference. Danny is still coming to terms with the fact they still hated Ghosts so much, they refused to become one.
The Flock consists of the following:
Danny
----Alias': Major Tom, Invis-o-Bill, Phantom, Superman, Rook
Sam
----Alias': Samara, Wonder Woman, Raven
Tucker
----Alias': Ground Control, Bad Luck Tuck, Fractal, Green Lantern, Crow
Jazz
----Alias': Mom, Jackdaw
Valerie
----Alias': Red Huntress, Osiris, Batman, Blue Jay
Wes
----Alias': Snipes, Cassandra, Magpie
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five-rivers · 1 year
Text
Ancestral 7
For the record, Danny wasn’t surprised by Gwensyvyr’s titles.  He might not be up to date on what was going on with his extended family at all times - he was a teenager living on another continent - but he wasn’t an idiot, and he’d been here before.  He’d seen this mural before.  Which at least explained why the woman looked so familiar to him.  
No, the part that surprised Danny was that she was Gwensyvyr.  
(Or a ghost pretending to be Gwensyvyr.  He’d met shapeshifters before, and a thousand years was a long, long time for someone who just looked like her to be born and die.)
Heck, half the reason Danny had picked the name ‘Phantom’ was because of her title, the other half being the pun of it all.  
What do you do when you find out that your most famous ancestor, whose life history was mythologized to the point where people debated whether or not she even existed, is the ghost you’ve been playing charades with since yesterday?  Freak out?  Realize that, in hindsight, her life might not have been all that mythologized, considering that ghosts and magic exist and have messed up your life repeatedly in the past?  Ask dumb questions?
“Are you really Gwensyvyr?”
Ask dumb questions it was.  
Gwensyvyr smiled, broad, smug, catlike, and pleased, and flicked her hand back and forth between herself and the mural before pressing her fingers against her chest and posing.  Every inch of her body language suggested that, yes, Danny should be impressed.  Flattered even to be in her presence.  
At least this explained her stake in all this.  Even if she didn’t have a soft spot for her very distant descendants, she’d founded Avlynys.  People didn’t like to see their work destroyed.  
Vivian walked through the wall and shook herself all over.  Danny sympathized.  Being intangible was a lot to get used to.  Once she had recovered, though, she started pointing frenetically at the door.  
Oh, no, he was going to be missed.  He’d been here too long.
He slipped back through the walls and used a bit of flight to catch up with the group, inserting himself next to Jazz.  She gave him a look.  Past her, he saw Gwensyvyr laughing.  
Being laughed at by your long-dead culture hero ancestor was… an experience.  Yep.  That’s sure what he’d call this whole thing.  An experience.  Mostly a bad one.  
He watched Gwensyvyr out of the corner of his eye.  Which of the stories about her were true?  They’d been compared to Authurian myth in terms of how warped they’d gotten… at least by people who weren’t from Avlynys.  If there was even a grain of truth to them, though, her life had been tumultuous.  
Even the most straightforward reckoning… born on Myz, sent to Myrgyn to become a priestess tending the ‘sacred pool,’ kidnapped by viking raiders who also desecrated the pool, won free, returned with a husband, who was killed by invaders from either Brittain or mainland Europe, united the islands to drive them off…  It wasn’t a wonder that some people called her the Avlynyse King Arthur and accused Avlynys of stealing ideas.  Idiots.  Gwensyvyr was much better documented than Arthur.  
And now she was a ghost.  Some of the stories had ghosts in them, didn’t they?  Like that one about her husband…  Most people thought it was just a story, a way to deflect blame about her getting pregnant as a widow, but…
But it could be true.  Danny was living (sort of) proof that humans and ghosts weren’t completely incompatible, and ghosts could have children with one another.  So.  Ew.  He didn’t want to be thinking about this.  This was gross.  
They entered one of the Assembly Hall antechambers.  Matthew was already there, having left hours before everyone else.  He was wearing clean clothes, but it didn’t look like he’d actually slept since yesterday.  His lapel was conspicuously bare.
“You all know what to do, yes?” asked Matthew.  “You just have to step forward and agree to act as witnesses under your names as members of the royal family.  A show that you aren’t contesting my coronation.”
There was a smattering of ‘yeses’ and nods.  
“Danny, Jazz… I didn’t think about this before, but do you two know enough Avlynyse?  There’s still time to–  We could get you a cheat sheet or something.”
Danny crossed his arms.  “We knywet gynoug, keswyn.  It isn’t as if we’ll miss our names.”  
“I did teach them, Matthew,” said Maddie, pinching the bridge of her nose.  “They were born here, for goodness’ sake.”
“Right,” said Matthew.  “Of course.  It’s… been a long day, Maddie.  Give me a break.”
One of the security personnel raised their hand to their earpiece.  “Your highness?  There are a couple Assemblymen who would like to speak with you before the ceremony starts.”
“Oh.  Do I–  Oh, alright, then, send them in.  Might as well get it over with without offending anyone.”
Danny rather thought he might be offending Maddie, but he didn’t say anything.
A pair of men were shown into the antechamber a moment later, both of them looking like they were seconds from picking a fight with one another.  The sight of it was enough to make Matthew sigh heavily.  
“Julius, Richard, what is it this time?”
“Your Majesty,” said one of them, a tall, handsome older man that felt far too much like Vlad for Danny’s peace of mind.  
“I’m not king yet,” said Matthew, crossly.  “And I’m fully prepared to abdicate in Vivian’s favor, when she’s found.”
Vivian cringed.  Danny managed to suppress his reaction, at least.  
“Matthew,” said Joanna, “if you’re planning that, maybe you shouldn’t–”
“We’ve been over this,” said Matthew.
“Your highness,” started the man, again, “I’m here to offer my condolences again and apologize for my conduct yesterday.  I should have asked to visit the matter at a later date, not when–”
“No,” interrupted Matthew.
“I’m sorry, your Highness?”
“No, we aren’t going to revisit the foreign businesses policy,” said Matthew.  “My goal has always been to give businesses the tools to meet the requirements, not overthrow them altogether, and I– I don’t know why we’re still having this conversation.”  Matthew bit out a short laugh.  “You can take that to your foreign lobbyist friends.  And don’t you look too smug, either, Richard.  I know you’re here to stir up trouble.”
The rather nasty grin on Richard’s face slid right off.  “I’m actually here to talk to you about a different matter from Julius altogether, your Highness.”
“Right,” said Matthew.  “Julius, you can go.”
Julius twitched and looked aghast, even as Matthew gestured over security to take him away.
Matthew turned to Richard.  “What do you want?  If this is about Revyvtech, I don’t want to hear about it today.”
Richard laced his fingers in front of himself, and looked for all the world like a rather round rumpled owl.  “I…  No, your Highness, nothing about the company.  I was sent by the stability faction–”
“Which Julius is also part of,” Matthew pointed out, irritably.  
“Yes, well, Julius is Julius, and he’s not especially… welcome.  We would like to ask you to reconsider your decision regarding abdication… or at least the public announcement of your decision.  We know you feel Vivian should be the one receiving the crown, but her credentials aren’t any better than yours, and you are much more experienced.  And she is not here.”
Matthew inhaled deeply.  “I appreciate the concerns of your faction, but remember, I am only accepting the crown at the strenuous urging of the Assembly.  The plan was always for Vivian to succeed William.  If this isn’t a temporary measure, it will only be because tragedy has struck yet again.”
Sophia made a squeaking sound and gripped her sons’ shoulders until her hands went white around the knuckles.  Vivian’s death scars were starting to show through again.  
“Now, I must ask you to leave so I can prepare myself.”  He smiled thinly.  “In absence of the traditional vigil, I would like five minutes to myself and my family.”  He looked away from Richard and gave them a very brittle grin.  “Where was I?  The ceremony!”
.
Vlad, being the owner of an multinational business, habitually surveyed the political landscape of foreign countries.  At least, that was his excuse for his guilty pleasure of reading royalty-obsessed tabloids.  With a cup of wine and Maddie the Cat on his lap.  
Today’s point of interest was a succession crisis in a tiny frigid archipelago in the North Atlantic.  It might, possibly, have some bearing on his businesses.  Their government was currently rather hostile to foreign businesses, and one of their home-grown companies, Revyvtech, had some interesting medical patents…
He turned the page and spat out his wine as he registered a picture of a much younger Maddie - or Princess Madeline of Avlynys, also known as Pyrs Madlyn Loryn Dyrys Avlynyse, as the caption read.  
He stood up immediately, displacing Maddie the Cat, and stalked to his phone.
“I need a flight to Avlynys - No, I didn’t sneeze.  That’s the name of the country.”
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jade-nargacuga · 2 years
Text
WS AU stuff
Just some random stuff about my Wayward Souls AU because I’m bored and also not motivated enough to write right now. Mostly I’m Not Ingo part stuff:
(Edit- Holy crap this got waaaaaaaaaaaaay longer than I intended.DX)
-MC is myself, so they are named Jazzmine Mathis (I already used my irl name in my last self insert so why not). When the public asks who they are and why they look like Ingo, they lie for convenience and give a ‘male’ name instead, Luji Mathis. For people in the know, she still prefers to be called Jazzmine, or Jazz for short. On all legal documents she puts Jazzmine “Luji” Mathis 
-When asked by Elesa how she came up with the name Luji so easily, Jazz explains that that is a name she thought of giving to her son if she ever decided to have kids. 
-(Luji is a name I made up years ago for a story idea I never wrote out and loved the sound of. Looking up a definition/meaning didn’t yield me anything except maybe Earth in Chinese or something. Other names I made up back then but haven’t looked up any potential meaning for are Tygra and Torrin. Saruji, which means rubble in Swahili? is also a name I like to use for myself/OCs online. May use these names in the story.)
-When Jazz first appears in Nimbasa in Ingo’s body, Arceus has warped her there in an alley to avoid people seeing her suddenly appear. Emmet, who just got two texts from god saying “Thy brother art safe” and “Protect her” sees the flash out of the corner of his eye and then his brother stumble out into the open. Naturally, he shouts his brothers name and rushes forward to hug him, only for ‘Ingo’ to collapse in his arms, causing a HUGE scene
-’Ingo’ is sent to the hospital where his family is gathered to wait for him to recover, and when Jazz wakes up she has a hard time explaining to his family who she ACTUALLY is, as they don’t believe her and think she must have hit her head.
- In order to ‘prove’ she isn’t Ingo Jazz asks Ingo’s Chandelure to do a vibe check on her, figuring that they must have drained bits of Ingo’s soul from time to time since she’s the pokemon that’s been with him the longest, and thus should be able to tell her soul is NOT his. Chandelure reluctantly agrees.
-While Chandelure only burns the faintest whisper of her soul, barely enough for even the most sensitive person to notice, and can tell in an instant that she isn’t Ingo, Jazz has a BAD reaction to the ghost’s contact. Something inside of her feels like it’s being torn apart, and she grips her chest and falls unconscious again. While everyone freaks out, Chandelure can only stand back in surprise, then telepathically tells everyone in the room that that isn’t Ingo before running off crying.
-While unconscious and after running some tests, the doctors conclude that based on what happened with Chandelure that Jazzmine must have suffered suffered a spiritual injury from a powerful Ghost type attack. While she will recover from the damage given time(and only time), they warn the others that she will most likely remain overly sensitive to any type of ghost type attack.
-While medical science isn’t advanced enough to view the soul, Jazz’s spiritual ‘wound’ is shaped like 3 slightly diagonal claw marks with a 4th vertical line splitting those 3 in half. (If you know, you know)
-Once Jazz fully recovers(again) the group is swarmed outside the hospital by the media all asking questions about the return of Subway Boss Ingo. Jazzmine pulls her bullshiting card before the others can get a word it and jokingly tells the press that she is actually Ingo and Emmet’s cousin Luji from the Orre Region and that this whole thing admittedly a joke in poor taste on her part when she decided to prank her cousin by pretending to be Ingo. Dude hugged her so hard that he cracked a rib and she fainted, hence the hospital visit. And boy was he mad when he found out! Elesa has to hold in a chuckle while Emmet glares at her in only slightly fake angry annoyance. He slaps her back a little too hard a few times and tells his ‘cousin’ that they have places to be before leading the way through the crowd.
-Emmet tells her that for the time being she’ll be moving in with him in his apartment. This makes Jazzmine slightly uncomfortable, since as a girl she doesn’t want to move in with a guy she barely knows. Even if she IS a guy now. This gets a laugh from Elesa who assures her it’ll be ok since she lives there too, having moved in with Emmet about 4 years ago to help him cope.
-So they spend about a month or so getting Jazz slowly acclimated to living in Nimbasa and the pokemon world as a whole, since this is her first time there(that she knows of). Eventually Jazz is given free reign to travel about the city and surrounding area alone, albeit with one of Ingo’s pokemon with her at all times, usually Chandelure. Jazz remains wary of the ghost pokemon because of what happened last time, but understands that Chandelure wants to keep her(or it’s trainer’s body) safe.
-While traveling out to see the Marvelous Bridge the pair encounter a cubone, wounded and exhausted with a wild Mandibuzz swooping in and trying to snatch it up. Enraged and in desperation Jazz orders Chandelure for the first time to hit the buzzard pokemon away with an Overheat before running in and scooping up the Cubone, rushing it to the nearest Pokemon Center. Once healed, she asks it if it wants her to return it to it’s group on the route 15 on the other side of the bridge, but Chandelure tells her that it says it’s family was attacked by a whole flock of Mandibuzz and doesn’t know if they all survived. Hearing this and cubone start to cry, Jazz decides to adopt the cubone and take care of it, effectively making it her first pokemon. She names him Luji which isn’t confusing at all, so she refers to him as Jr.
-Later, Jazz officially registers as a Pokemon Trainer and expresses her desire to travel around to Emmet and Elesa. Seeing how much she cares for the cubone, and how well she treats the pokemon in their home, they agree.
-Random stuff: When Jazz first arrives in the appartment and can get a proper change of clothes, she finds Ingo’s green and yellow St Patrat’s day coat and falls in love with it because she LOVES light green. Emmet and Elesa comment on how Ingo always hated that uniform, so he probably wouldn’t miss it. When she becomes a trainer, she mostly uses Nest Balls for the same reason.
I thought long and hard about what pokemon Jazz would get once she became a trainer, and had at least 4 different pokemon in mind before thinking of Cubone, who honestly fits several themes of the story perfectly as her partner. I love Ground types, so I was thinking maybe a Drilbur bred from Ingo’s Excaldril, and I used to have a Galvantula that I loved way back when, so one of emmet’s millions of Joltiks was also considered. I also LOVE Scolipede, so a venipede from the LostLorn forest was considered as well. What ALMOST won out was a stray Purrloin in Nimbasa if Emmet kept her restricted to the city limits, that she would have adopted and took care of similar to Cubone. While I still might have her catch Purrloin and Venipede eventually, I decided against Drilbur and Joltik. Not only do they have overlaping types with cubone and venipede, but I feel like Jazz would be uncomfortable raising the same pokemon as the twins, especially Ingo. She wants to be seen as her own person, and using any of Ingo’s pokemon just feels wrong.
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impyssadobsessions · 2 years
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“I just got access to these files, aren't you a least bit curious?” Dick could tell Danny was debating on running off anyways or not. He had worked with enough teens to notice the signs, even knew what he use to do. Danny had his arms crossed and was antsy by the way his leg bounced in place. “Not really. I assume it has something to do with the mini me in the tube over there, and I'm not okay with me or a version of me being treated as a science experiment.” Dick couldn't blame him on that one, “Fair, I'll leave out the experimenting bits then.” “No, you'll tell me everything. So I know if he's going to turn into goo or not.” Danny huffed, leaning against the machine, letting Dick be the one to read it. While he dealt with his urge to run.
Dick just gave a nod with a half-smile, deciding that'll probably be the best he will get out of Danny. His eyes scanning over the documents, speed reading through its contents. Dick's brows furrowed and he frowned deeply, leaning back for a moment to glance at the capsule that contained the younger Danny. Danny furrowed his brows, concerned, glancing from the screen to Nightwing. “What? What is it?” Trying to hide the worry in his voice. “.......It-he.. is dead.” “OW SHIT-fuck!” Jason cursed as he shocked himself before slamming the hand scanner back in place. He sucked on his finger for a moment, turning to face them. “What do you mean dead? Ghost or-” “No, Vlad made it clear he was trying to recreate Danie-Danny. Sorry, reading. Danny's body before the accident.” “So why is he in a container full of ectoplasm?” “Last attempt, but no matter what stage of life, the clone was either unstable or dead.” “If the ectoplasm is like the pit, then why didn't the clone come back to life.” “Because he was never alive to begin with... No consciousness to cling to.. Am I just dead?” Danny was looking at his hands horrified. Dick and Jason quickly shared a look. “Dann-” “No seriously?! Am I just a corpse with an attached ghost?!” “This isn't the time for existential crisis Danny.” “Did you miss the memo about that being my existence?” “That's not how genetics work. Its probably a fault of the cloning process and not you specifically. You have 3 different DNA, right?” Dick didn't know the truth, but Jason was right, existential crisis had to wait. Danny blinked, calming down, “............yeah. Yeah, I do... makes sense.. if its because of that... Sorry. About that.. heh” Danny rubbed the back of his neck embarrassed, feeling dumb. Jason shaking his head, “Don't be, 'this' is fucked up.” Jason gesturing to the lab as it was normal to freak out. “He cloned animals, and tried to create half-dead ones to test on. Even cloned himself, but same result. At least at making one human. Probably to try and understand what went wrong. ” Dick changing topic. “...So that's why the blob was like my clones...” Danny leaned back against the machine. “Man, I wished he succeeded in a clone of himself.. maybe he'd leave me alone.. ugh.” Danny was quick to regain composure, or was he just too use to pushing his emotions down that it was a default? Dick wasn't sure which it was, or that it was a good thing. But for now, he took it as a blessing. To be honest, he was half-expecting Danny to be like Jason. Was it the manner they died.. or half-died? “Anything else blue bird? Because I got this room opened.” Jason tapping his boot at the wall, making it open. “Access Granted, my love of my life, snookie, wookie, darling husband.” Madeline's voice chimed from the hand scanner, but was distorted from Jason's tinkering. All three boys collectively cringed at the voice. “...Would it make it worse if I said that was my mom's voice.. because it is.” It made it worse.
-----owo----
Damian lead the way, while Jazz followed with the Fenton Ghost Finder in hand, through the halls. Vlad had disarmed her, so it felt better use for her to keep track of the ghosts. So far they haven't picked up anything, not even a duplicate. The silence was deafening. “None of the cameras are shot out,” Jazz whispered, pointing towards the ceiling. Damian gave a nod, as they pressed to the shadows of the hall. There wasn't any signs they came this way. “What floor are you and Orphan on?” “We're thinking the 8th ?” Damian frowned, glancing back at Jazz, who just gave a shrug as she scooted closer to try to hear the comm. Damain waiting for a moment to hear any sounds that might echo in the hall. “I think you're wrong.”
“Sorry, I can't read ghost like Danny.-” “I could change that.” Damian smirked. “Har, har. I would come back just to phase all of your swords into the deepest block of concrete and-” “Ahem.” Batman interrupted. “....Anyway, I lost track what floor we were on after the whole intruder thing.” “You were on the 5th.” Jazz leaned closer Damian's comm to speak, without raising her voice. Damian scowled a little at her being so close. “... That means..” A muttered of recounting as a doublecheck, “..we're on the 9th.” Damian snorted at Tim's blunder. He frowned again as Jazz made herself known on his comm, keeping her voice low. “We'll finish the 8th, meet us on the 7th. I don't see any signs of my parents being lead up here. Look for busted security cameras and scorch marks. Plasmius could have knocked them out and dragged them up, but I doubt it. They'll be in a large room with vultures guarding it.” “Got it, thanks. See you there.” Jazz automatically giving a polite, “You're welcome.” Damian giving her a raised brow. She in turn just shrugged, “Habits.” Damian rolled his eyes up and then gestured her to follow. ->u<-
Batman wondered how well Jazz would do at a gala. It be nice to have one kid that- not his kid... Still though- He brushed that momentary thought aside, as he drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. Being benched was maddening, especially in facing unknowns like this. He was listening to them all, while Oracle was researching more about Masters and the situations in the other cities. Bruce was waiting for the pin to drop. Masters knew they were there. Each kid was with at least one other person, which put a little relief off his chest. Jazz and Danny didn't have comms, though. He wished he specified to bring extra. He was reviewing the things he was hearing and had heard, over again in his head. Clones. Half-ghost experiments. He wondered if Vlad was trying to make a Danny from the source. But that didn't explain the battery. Was he not the cause of that? The dates aligned too well for it to be a coincidence. No, there had to be more. Had to be a reason too. One he couldn't see. Batman stood up with a grunt, he couldn't sit any longer. He'll start on some repairs to the plane, the ghost shield was still active. It'll give him a way to reach the lair, if things goes south.
------uwu----
“What kind of early 2000s Scifi shit is this?” Jason muttered as he walked into the open room. The room was large and open, there were a few capsules on the side. They all appeared to be filled of ectoplasm. Large cables connecting it to a large machine, with bulbs on the top glowing a bright green much like the swirling contents in the open hole of it. Lines of vials decorated the wall behind the pit, all glowing different colors, but green was still the primary. “Oh! The portal to the ghost zone! That's what I was feeling.” Danny almost sounded relieve, as if he expected worse. Jason didn't like the swirling tugging feeling in his gut, that seemed to pull towards the open portal. He felt the dread, much like the blob ghost or the pit. Danny jogged ahead to get a good look at the room. He hesitated to look at the capsules.. not sure if he was relieved to see them just filled with ectoplasm or not. He furrowed his brows confused, taking in the wall behind the portal. He walked to the side of the portal to get a better view of the vials. Danny took out one of the vials, to get a better look at it. It had to be ectoplasm.. but this one was glowing purple. Was it residual? From one of the animals? Or a random ghost? A shiver went down his spine, forcing him to put it back. It felt wrong. He turned back around to see what Red Hood was doing, a bit surprise he still hardly moved from his spot. Took Danny a moment before realizing why. “Oh, yeah, its a bit weird to be around it. I have one in my basement, so I think I just got use to the weird feeling after a while.” Danny walking towards Jason, unconsciously trying to be the barrier between the portal and Jason. “That's in your basement.” Jason stated more than asked, just to confirm to himself that that was the machine his parents had just out in the open. He shook it off, rolling his shoulders. “So, what did you find about the vials?” Danny glanced back at the wall with a frown, “I.. don't know. I think its.. residual ectoplasm. I don't know why Vlad has them stocked.” “Think its the animals we didn't see?” Jason asked, as he glanced around the room at anything but the portal. “...” Danny went silent, looking at the ground.
Jason took Danny's silence for a yes. Glancing to the side, he noticed boxes stacked off to the side. He walked towards them to get a better look. They looked like specially made containers. He grunted as he shoved the lid off of one. Looking inside, there were black containers lined in their own casing. He pulled one out, and whistled. “Found the source.” Danny turned around, raising a brow, then recognized the black shaped item Jason held in his hand. “Battery?” “Yeah, these are empty, but I'm guessing not for long.” “Great job, Little Wing!” Dick come jogging in, “I just finish downloading files.” Danny frowned, staring at the flash drive in Dick's hand. Dick noticing, smiles at Danny, “Don't worry, Casper. I didn't keep any information about your clone or the actual cloning process. That data is being deleted as we speak.” “Casper is my high school, thanks.” “Really?” “Heads up.” Jason tossed empty battery at Dick, barely warning him in time. Dick fumbled catching the battery, giving a look at Jason. Jason just grinned, as he walked over. “Same thing, right.” Dick took the time to look it over, as did Danny. “Definitely the same thing my tongue was on. But why would Frootloop do it?” It didn't make sense to Danny, because that would have seemed more dangerous for them in the long run. “That's what we're here to find out.” Dick chimed, then added quickly by the look Danny gave him, “And to save your parents.” Danny puffed away a smirk, but suddenly choked on his own breath. He gasped, as the mist leak through his mask. Jason and Dick didn't need any more warning than that to pull out their weapons. “Too bad you won't be doing either of those.” Plasmius's voice cooed, but he was no where in sight. “Plasmius, show yourself!” Danny, clenched his fist, instinctively trying to charge beams. Flinching with a hiss. A laugh echoed, “My dear boy, now why would I do that? Though I must admit. I'm quite curious how the Gotham brats got here. I didn't think you were close.” “We decided to crash here for the night, get to know each other. Maybe work on our issues.” Dick grinned but kept his stance ready to defend any sneak attacks. “Yeah, issues like a middle age ghost that needs to learn boundaries, which I'm happy to oblige to teach.” Jason was trying to locate the sound of the voice, his stance covering more for the flank and back side of the trio. “Among other things.” “Honestly, thanks to you that they're here.” Danny chimed enjoying not being the only one talking shit, as he pulled out his blaster. He tried to clench tight to the feeling in his chest. Figuring out where it was pulling. Silence filled the air. Danny and the others felt the hair on their skin rise, never lowering their guard. Danny was cursing internally not being able to sense Plasmius's direction, but he knew he hadn't left. No, it was worse. “Duplicates-AH” Danny felt a tug on his ankle, pulling him half way into the ground. He struggled to pull back up, praying the intangibility didn't wear off. “Dan-Argh.” Jason was flown up into the ceiling, repeatedly being slammed against it. Dick was able to graze out of a grasp, with a flip, shooting the empty space behind him. Whatever he hit dissolved to goo. Dick scrambled back to Danny, helping him out of the ground. Danny muttering out a thanks, glad not to be stuck. “You ok-” “Watch out!” Danny shoved Dick back once free, as a beam of pink flew by and slammed Danny into the wall. Danny coughed, hand over where he got hit. Dick didn't have much time to react after the blast as a few more fired at him. He kart-wheeled, to dodge four of the blasts. Trying to keep track where they were coming from. He landed back on his feet, lowering body to the ground, then sprinted aiming towards the source. Just as he fired, Jason was slammed against him. Causing Dick to crash and tumble into the ground. The green beam connected, causing the empty space to dissolve into green goo and disappear. Dick coughed and wheezed, as he and Jason pushed themselves back up. Keeping low to the ground for
now. “Honestly, expected more from the heroes of Gotham. Quite a shame. But I guess ghosts were never your forte, were they?” Plasmius finally revealed his form, looking smug. His arms crossed, as he floated above them. The smug smirk didn't last long as a green beam his his face. Making him cry out. Apparently this was the real Plasmius. Danny standing up from his spot against the wall, ecto-blaster aimed directly at Plasmius, “No, but they're mine.” Plasmius snarled, glancing back at Danny. Jason and Dick took their chance, shooting at Plasmius while he was distracted. Plasmius cried out before phasing into the floor, going invisible again. Jason and Dick were up on their feet, hurrying to move in closer to Danny. Both to check him over and keep together. “How do we keep fighting something we can't locate?” “You'll get a hang of it, plus he can't keep it up forever. It takes conscious effort to be invisible, intangible, and duplicate.” Danny explained as he let Dick check where he been hit. “So a stamina battle. Great. How long does it take for a ghost to get tired?” Jason huffed. “Uh.. usually an hour or two.. if they're going at it non-stop.. normally.. maybe four?” Danny brushed Dick off, not wanting him to examine the scorch in his shirt much longer. It didn't hurt, much. “That's a long time for a fight, Danny.” Dick stated, at least one like this. Not liking that they got their asses handed to them so quickly. “There's a reason I don't get sleep.” “You know, you would if you gave up your silly heroics.” Plasmius's voice echoed again. Danny frowned, glaring into the empty space. Jason and Dick pulling Danny close to them, this time more prepared for what Plasmius might do. “All you have to do is renounce your parents and join me. We can run an empire. Your sister too.” “Parents? Not just Dad? Did you finally realize Mom will never love you? Could you tell me what the hint was that clicked so I can make you understand why I will NEVER join you?” Danny scoffed. A growl grumbled in the air. “I haven't given up on Madeline, because unlike you boy, she CAN be replicated.” “And there's the crazed Frootloop I know. Honestly surprised that I was your first choice in cloning.” Danny was still on edge, but was able to fake confidence so smoothly. Jason felt a tingly sensation just above his left ear, he didn't hesitate to shoot up at it. Causing the invisible duplicate to dissolve and disappear. So that's how you fight him. Dick giving him a confused expression, Jason signaled he felt it. Silently implying he'll explain later. Danny looked a bit surprised too, with a frown as he stared up where Plasmius was. He shook it off and prepared to fight. His eyes taking in the area, they were crowded to a wall, which didn't offer any protection. There was ectoplasm everywhere- He was an idiot. Why didn't he try to absorb some? There was a portal right there! But Plasmius could lock him out too. Unlike his parents, he did have a door that could keep ghost out. He wouldn't have to go in it.. not all the way- even just the filter or perhaps break the capsules... though he was more wary of them.. just in case it wasn't pure ectoplasm. Apparently, he wasn't the only one thinking it as the doors on the portal closed. “Can't have you at full strength again, can we? Wouldn't be half as fun.” Plasmius revealed himself, but this time focus on dodging the shots fired from Dick and Jason. Danny putting a hand up to stop them. “The portal could explode.” He kept his voice low, Plasmius staring at them with a smug smirk. “How bad?” Dick was little afraid to ask, as they stopped firing. “It could destroy everyone and the area surrounding the lake that isn't a ghost.” “Smug Bastard. Anything else we should avoid?” Jason growled, as Plasmius made it clear he was toying with them. He was flaunting in front of the portal, posing, egging them to shoot. “Anything with high concentration of ectoplasm?” “That's concerning.” Dick frowned considering where they were located.
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silver-bunny6958 · 2 years
Text
Day 11: Door
It had felt like forever since Danny first had this idea, but he remembers it like yesterday.
Two years ago, or was it decades?- not the point, it was the day that Doctors Madeleine and Jack Fenton had died. It had nothing to do with their work, it had all to do with a problematic pilot and bad luck. Flight 196, they were off to New York City- a ghost convention, they were invited to speak on their inventions and discoveries- Danny had beeeegged not to go, and the one time he got that wish, they never got off the plane.
Danny wishes things were different, he would never say it, he knows better now, but he does. He proposed the idea to Sam, Tucker and Jazz. They could go with him! But they refused, he knew why- they had lives to live far outside of ghosts and in this dimension. So for the sake of them and himself he stayed too.
But now they are gone too. Beyond even his reach as the ghost king. He waited, and waited, and waited even more. But they never came back and Danny still needed to satisfy his first obsession as well, so he went to Clockwork about it.
Knock Knock Knock.
“Enter Daniel.”
He always knew Danny would come to him eventually, but the only question was, what is his question? Danny wasn’t too sure what to ask either, so after entering he simply looked around like he was still 14 and he doesn’t look it either.He’s taller now, his ghost form got far less lanky and more muscular, unlike Dan, it was lean muscle at seven foot even he had navy blue skin, now, with freckled dots of white all over (He loves his skin, it looks like stars). His ears had begun to point out, and now stay that way, his hair mists off his head still snow white.
“What is it that concerns you so, young king?”
‘Weeelll, I- uhh.”
“I know what it is you want to do Daniel but what is it you want to ask?”
“Well. I want to be able to continue saving others, and documenting the stars. So, what door should I enter to do those two things?”
“Well, as you do know, you can now see the stars from anywhere. No matter the light pollution, so you are you asking for a world that still needs help?”
“Yes, I suppose as my obsession is helping…”
Clockwork hummed, and he looked away from the king. His cloak flowed around him as he turned toward the miroirs, the mirrors moved about encircling him as he thought.
Danny fidgeted.
“There is a door, it is purple, with intricate decorations of silver and a single gem where a window would be. It will pass by your castel while the dark parts of the zone cover it. Enter that one.”
“If I need to come back?”
“I will show you, it was an oversight not to do so before now.”
King Danny stayed with Clockwork for a short moment to learn how to make portals. And then he was off, rushing home. The once terrifying castle now looked like the model space ship that Danny used to have in his room. There are far more windows then the model but it also has the interior of a rather small cluttered home- even if it is bigger than Vlad’s castle in WI.
He waited close to a window, watching the Infinite Realms twist and twirl around him. To the King it seemed to be forever before it was dark around the castle, when it was he left the castle to look for the door.
He found it and with reverence entered it.
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takaraphoenix · 3 years
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*chanting* Danny Phantom, Danny Phantom, Danny---
Let me set the stage. The year is 2014, a friend of mine has successfully not just convinced me to watch this cartoon but also introduced me to the baffling concept that wait in this fandom, selfcest exists and is like vaguely popular? I was delighted!
So this story took off after 02x06 Identity Crisis, when Danny’s ghost and human side were split in canon. Phantom started to develop more of an on personality in Danny’s mind, a comforting presence, but they were now two souls trapped in one body. And, here’s where my memory fails me a bit on the “how?” but somehow, they would manage to split into two separate bodies, one full ghost, one full human.
The endgame was that they get married and adopt and raise Dani together, like on the very long run. And yes, long, because this was supposed to be a rewrite of the entire consequent show post 02x06.
And though I only ever got three pages written, the document has remained in my folder for those past six years, because I did make notes on the changes I had planned throughout the show and I guess that a part of me remained hopeful that hey, just maybe once I rewatch the show, I’ll get back into it and actually finish it.
(...man I really hope the vase metaphor makes sense. I had, still have, a very clear visual picture of what I meant with that xD”) But here, have a snippet:
--
It had started out how everything that ended in chaos, catastrophes and crisis in his life had always started. With one of his parents' inventions. Of course it did, it had to.
The Fenton Ghost Catcher.
The first time he became they. Splitting one person into two different, separate beings.
Sometimes Danny wondered if Sam and Tucker truly believed that going through the catcher again (and again because the second time had failed in the most confusing and weird way. Which was saying a lot considering the first time) would simply fix things again? Make them one again?
How could it? It had created two separate entities. Splitting his personality.
Phantom had explained it to Danny the first time he had asked what this meant, how this was possible. Right after the two of them had gone through the catcher to 'fix things', just to notice that Danny wasn't alone in his mind anymore. That he was hearing a voice, a voice he wasn't controlling, one that spoke to him. Another mind inside his head. Phantom's mind.
Now, Phantom had explained it with a metaphor. He had described them as a vase – which was weird for Danny, but he had gone with it and listened patiently anyway. A white vase. Danny Fenton was the vase and when he had gone into the ghost portal for the first time, one half of that white vase had been painted black. Creating Danny Phantom. Now that vase was facing society with its white side, everyone who walked past it saw a white vase. If someone came and just spun the vase around once, everyone who would walk past that vase would see a black vase. Just like when Danny would 'go ghost', turning human Danny into ghost Danny.
Going through the Fenton Ghost Catcher was like breaking the vase, a clear cut right in the middle. But it was more than just breaking the vase, it was like fixing each half with a flat part to close it, creating two working vases that coexisted. Going through the Ghost Catcher again didn't just put the vase back into its original form though, it just took the two fixed-up vases and glued the flat sides together. It looked like one, whole vase again and they couldn't stand beside one another anymore, but the water one poured into the white half wouldn't fill the black half. They were still two different vases, just now stuck together again.
And so were Danny and Phantom now. Two minds forced back into one head. And just like the vase, the half turned to the front was the half 'in charge'. When the black half of the vase was turned to the front, filled with water and holding the flowers, that was when Danny would go ghost from now on. Giving the reins over to Phantom, who took charge of their body.
Danny was a freaking vase.
It gave him a headache, really, so he decided to just nod and agree. They had been split and they couldn't be put back together to one, he got it that far. At first, that annoyed and scared him. Because there was that constant, nagging voice – Phantom had a lot to complain and it distracted Danny from the actual situation he was in, causing Mister Lancer, his parents and his friends to scold him for spacing out. What scared him however was the essential question.
Was he still himself? Had the split taken part of his personality away from him, given it to Phantom? Was he still the person he thought he was? But no one noticed a change in him. Where Tucker had claimed the human Danny to be 'fun Danny' before, now he and everyone else seemed to see Danny as just Danny. But that had only unsettled him even more.
If nothing of his personality was missing, then what exactly was Phantom?
“I'm not you. We're not split anymore. We're both separate people now, Danny. Why can't you wrap our head around that? I explained it often enough by now”, complained Phantom's voice annoyed.
Because it was strange and weird and confusing, really. Wouldn't that mean they weren't the ones who had come out of the Catcher after all? Because Danny wasn't so careless and uninterested in saving lives anymore, he was back to his overly worried and self-sacrificing self. And Phantom had finally stopped with his stupid alliterations, he still spoke a little high-and-mighty and seemed more intelligent than Danny though (if Danny was being honest, which he didn't like, because seriously, he wasn't even the cleverest person in his own mind anymore. How was that fair?).
“We evened out. Like the vases. I don't feel like you truly grasp the metaphor, do you? I've really tried putting it simple for you, Danny. We were fixed, like the two halves of the vase. Being glued together again changed our dynamic once more, just like breaking us apart had. We were two extremes – the heroic ghost and the carefree human. Now you're as much a complete person as I am, even though we have been split from the same. I am still the hero and protector of Amity, but it's not the only interest I have anymore. Just like you have concerns for other things aside from fun”, replied Phantom, sounding bored. “However, we adjusted differently. Not evening out to be exact copies of one another. Now we're two different people.”
Two different people, but stuck in one mind.
“You're not happy with that, I gathered as much”, sighed Phantom.
“It's not that”, muttered Danny beneath his breath, knowing it wasn't necessary for him to talk out loud, but very much feeling like this was important enough to be properly discussed. “I... like having you around. But it's just... draining. And confusing. I think Jazz is that short of stuffing us into a straight-jacket, you know? I'm worried about that. And it's depressing that I'm the only one who can hear you when we talk, which did lead to the whole Jazz wanting us in a straight-jacket thing to begin with. And sometimes I just... want you there, like physically there, when I talk with Tuck and Sam, because you're like the only one who really understand me, you know? Like, they can be really stubborn and they don't get me, but I know you would and you would be able to explain stuff in a way they'd get it too, because you're just better at those things...”
In Danny's mind, he could picture Phantom grinning at that. If Phantom would be here now, he so would be rolling his eyes and grinning, Danny just knew it. And it irritated him that he couldn't see it. But the Ghost Catcher was broken, had been broken a couple days ago. And there was no other way either of them could think of to separate them.
--
Send me a document title from my WIP folder and ask me about it! If I can, I’ll provide a snippet!  
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cordria · 4 years
Text
Gloves
Jack Fenton sat down in the uncomfortable chair, his bulk moving slowly and carefully to avoid scaring the girl sitting on the other chair. There was something odd about her, the way she held herself, the little glances out of the corner of her eye, the way her hair didn’t quite fall right. Jack couldn’t quite stop himself from cataloging all the little differences about her, even as he tried to stop himself and see her as just a girl. A girl in need of help. “Hi,” he said, keeping his voice gentle.
“Hello,” she said. 
Jack opened his mouth to say something more, but nothing came out. He couldn’t think of anything to say. He let his mouth close again, his lips twisting in frustration. There was certainly plenty that needed to be said. 
“Why are you here?” the girl asked, her thin fingers digging into the cushion of the chair. Although her knuckles turned white with the pressure, the stiff vinyl didn’t seem to notice the effort her hands were putting in.
“I like Seattle,” Jack said. “Nice city. Always wanted to do the haunted tour…” He trailed off, wondering if bringing up ghosts was, perhaps, a bad idea.
She scoffed. “Seattle’s not haunted.” The IV machine she was hooked up to beeped loudly, and the girl flinched. She studied it for a moment before sighing and sinking back against the hard chair. “That’s not what I meant. I called Danny, not you.”
“Danny couldn’t come.” Jack sort of fudged the truth. Danny could come. Danny had come. But not being 18 yet, the hospital didn’t particularly care what Danny had to say in the matter, requiring Jack’s presence. “I’m here to help.”
“I don’t want your help,” she said, shoulders crunching up around her ears.
Jack shrugged, falling silent, watching the girl glare around the small room. He had only the briefest of explanations as to who this girl was - a genetic malfunction, an aberration, a splintered example of a not-quite-human - and he understood almost none of it. His gaze fell to his bag, and he reached down, pulled out his latest needlework project, and quietly got to work. Jazz had said to do that when he was at a loss for words. She’d thought it might be helpful. 
It was nearly twenty minutes of silence, the girl watching him slowly work through his project, before she spoke. “What is that?”
“It’s going to be a quilt,” Jack said, turning the scrap of fabric so she could see a bit better. “All the different types of ghosts from stories around the world. This one’s a banshee. Sits under windows and cries and screams, usually associated with someone dying.” 
She studied it. “You’re… pretty good at that.”
“Lots of practice,” Jack said with a shrug. 
“You don’t seem like… like a guy that would do something like that. Art stuff.”
“It’s calming and good for the mind,” Jack said, tying off the string and picking out a new color. “Jazz got me started on it years and years ago. I’m hoping to have the whole thing done by August, so I can put it in the county fair.” He chuckled. “I won’t win, not compared to the artwork of other people, but it’ll be nice to finish a project.”
Her eyes were blue, just like Danny’s. But there was a shadowed, haunted feel to them - and a blankness that hurt Jack’s heart. 
Perhaps Danny was right. Maybe Maddie should have come instead.
The IV machine beeped again, and this time a nurse knocked and entered the room. “Hello,” he said, walking over to check the machine. “The battery on your IV is getting low. Gotta plug it in.” He smiled at her, holding out a hand. “Back to the bed, please.”
The girl sighed, but reached out for the assistance. She was unstable and barely able to hold her own weight. It was only a few steps, but Jack had to bite back the offer to carry her. She settled against the bed - too skinny, too broken, too empty - and laid her head on the pillow.
Jack was quiet as the nurse fussed for a few minutes, plugging in the IV machine, taking her blood pressure and temperature, setting the blanket over her legs.
Then he turned to Jack. “Parent?” he asked.
Jack wondered how to answer that. He set down his needlework, dug a paper out of his bag, and held it out. It was fake, of course; there were no real legal documents in the world for her. But the stamp was real, and the judge’s signature was real, and that was enough. “Legal guardian, for now.” 
The girl on the bed flinched.
The nurse glanced at the papers. “As of yesterday, huh?” he asked. “Nice to meet you, Mr Fenton. Wanna chat in the hall?”
Jack leveraged himself out of the chair and followed the man into the hallway. “She’s going to be okay?” he asked.
“Eventually,” the nurse said, walking him to a quiet alcove. “How do you know her?”
“She’s a relation,” Jack said, trying to avoid being specific. “Her and my son are very close, although I haven’t had any real contact with her yet. She called him two days ago and we’ve been figuring out how to best help her.”
The nurse nodded. “She was found in a park, unconscious. Came in massively dehydrated, malnourished.” The nurse glanced around, his voice quiet. “She’s not saying much, but she definitely hasn’t been treated right.”
Jack frowned. 
“I’ll send the doctor along, but it doesn’t seem like there’s anything permanently wrong with her, physically anyways. Really fragile mentally.” The nurse frowned. “The police have been around a few times to chat with her. Don’t think she’s said much to them. She’s in for a long road.”
Jack glanced over his shoulder, through the cracked-open door. She was picking at her sheets, staring at the sky through the window of the room. She looked so small. Twelve years old. Her third year of being twelve, if Danny’s explanation was right. And she’d be twelve until her broken body stopped working, whether that was next week, or five years from now, or ten, or twenty. “Anything else I should know?” 
“Gentle, slow, careful. She’s a nice girl, when you can get her to talk. I’ll be around every fifteen minutes or so, checking on her.”
“Can she have visitors?” 
The nurse hesitated, but then nodded slowly. “If there’s one or two people you think would do her good, I can’t see how that would hurt.”
“My son will probably scale the outer walls and sneak through the window if you try to keep him out any longer,” Jack said with a smile. “He’s worried out of his mind about her. He can probably get her to talk like nobody else.”
“Sounds great. You let me know if she needs anything,” he said.
Jack stood in the hallway for a long minute, trying to decide what he would say. From what little Danny had told him, the girl had been literally programmed to hate him. Created, somehow, in a lab from a mix of Danny’s genetic material, donor tissue from the corpse of a dead girl, and a ghost. Created and programmed, like a computer, for a task - to be used and then thrown away.
He walked closer, standing in the door, frowning at how little of the bed her frame took up. Her arms were too skinny against the hospital blanket - almost skin and bone. Whoever had created her had certainly not taken care of her.
She noticed his gaze, turning to study him with those sunken, haunted blue eyes. “You don’t have to be here,” she said.
Jack hummed, walked in, and dropped back down into his chair. The vinyl squeaked. “I want to be.”
“Because Danny told you to.” She sounded sullen. “It’s okay to hate me, you know.”
“I don’t hate you,” Jack said, surprised at the thought. Where had she decided that he hated her? What had he done to make her think that?
“I hate you,” she shot back, eyes narrowing. She leaned forwards a little. Little sparks of green shone against the blue.
Jack shrugged. “Join the club,” he murmured. He rested his arm on the bed, but drew away when she flinched away from him.
“I don’t want you to touch me,” she snapped, clearly uncomfortable. 
He nodded and kept his arms to himself, careful to keep his arms to the small armrests. “I plan on sticking around, just so you know. And Danny’s planning on stopping again by after school.” He picked up his needlepoint, studying the messy shadowing job he’d done with a frown.
“Again?” came her soft voice after a minute of silence.
“He was here… day before yesterday,” Jack said, squinting at the banshee’s arm and trying to decide the easiest way to fix it. “You were out cold, and the hospital wouldn’t look twice at a 17 year old. Came and got me instead.”
“He told you who I am, right?”
“Yup.” Then Jack shrugged a half-shoulder. “Okay, a little. Getting anything out of Danny is only slightly easier than storming Fort Knox.” He grinned at her. “I got that you’re important to him, and that you’re family, and that I can help. That’s enough.”
“I’m a monster, you know that,” she said. 
Jack pointed at his needlepoint. “This is a monster. You look like a scared young woman in need of some help. Maybe you’re not as human as me, but that doesn’t make you a monster.”
She bristled, but didn’t respond.
Jack let the quiet last for a few minutes, slowly fixing the bad shadowing on his banshee. 
“I don’t know what you want from me,” she said.
He glanced at her. She’d drawn her knees up to her chest, and was hugging them close. She looked lost and broken, and somehow even smaller and younger than before. “I don’t want anything from you,” he said, confused. 
She frowned.
“Danny said you wouldn’t trust me,” Jack said, deliberately keeping his gaze on his needlepoint. Jazz had been correct in packing it for him - it did seem much easier for the girl to talk when he wasn’t staring at her. “But you can, you know. Jazz has already cleaned out her bedroom for you, and Danny-”
“Bedroom?” she asked.
Jack blinked at her. “Room. With a bed in it.”
She scowled. “I know what a bedroom is-” she cut herself off, like she was going to say something more. She let out a breath through her nose. “You make it sound like I’m coming to live with you.”
“You are!” Jack grinned. “See, we got the legal-”
“I’m not coming to live with you,” the girl snapped. “We’ve been over this. I hate you. I don’t trust you. Why should I live with you?”
Jack twisted his mouth into a half-frown, turning his eyes back to his needlepoint. “Why wouldn’t you?”
“Take off your gloves.”
Jack hesitated. He didn’t take off his gloves. “Why?”
“Because I’m a monster. I’m contaminated. I’m broken, and seeping radioactive liquid, and, and, and I can hurt you just by touching you.” Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see her eyes burning a toxic, horrible green. “And I want you to take off your gloves.”
He watched the way the light gleamed off the black glove, slowly twisting his fingers. He didn’t take off his gloves. He just didn’t. Since learning how contaminated Danny was, Jack had even gone to great lengths to not touch his own son. 
But Jack knew, in the depths of his being, that Danny wasn’t a monster. And neither was this girl. Yes, she could hurt him with just a touch. But...
Slowly, he took off one of his gloves. His skin was extremely pale, fingers a bit wrinkled from the moisture inside the gloves. His fingernails were in need of clipping. He flexed his fingers and ran them over the intricate stitching of his needlepoint, feeling details he couldn’t through the gloves.
Then he held out his hand to her.
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wolfjackle-creates · 11 months
Text
Ghost!Robin Part 10
Here's another WIP Wednesday! Hope you enjoy.
Story Summary: Danny was invited to dinner at Wayne Manor to meet Jazz's boyfriend and his family for the first time. He worked hard to make sure no ghost business would interrupt the evening. But when he arrived, all he could focus on was the ghost of the dead Robin that seemed to haunt Jason. Looks like he was breaking his promise.
First, Previous
Word Count: 1.4k
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Alfred let out a put-upon sigh. “You, and you alone”—he gave a look to everyone at the table—“may ask Mr. Danny a single question. All other questions must wait until Mr. Danny has finished his dessert and informs you he is willing to answer more of them.”
“What the fuck does Jazz mean when she says ‘spoilers’?”
Danny sighed and leaned his chair back as he looked up to the ceiling. “Yeah, okay. That’s fair. You deserve an answer to that, dead boyfriend number two.”
“Stop calling me that!”
“I’m finally not the only dead one in the family. Sorry, but I’m gonna revel in that a bit longer.” Danny grinned at him and set his chair back on the ground. “So, spoilers. Well. My grandpa is kinda the Ghost of Time. Responsible for maintaining the time stream to bring about the future that has the best outcome for the most amount of beings. We met a few years back when he was ordered to kill me but became my mentor instead. Since he’s the ghost of time, he sees all futures and doesn’t really exist in the present. Sometimes he refers to things that haven’t happened yet as if they have or brings up events from centuries or millenia ago as if they happened yesterday. Bit headache inducing if I’m honest, but I’ve gotten used to it. Jazz doesn’t like it when I share details about what Gramps has let slip about her future.”
“No I do not. I’d rather live my life as if I have some degree of free will!”
The silence from the Waynes was only disrupted by the increased typing from Tim and Barbara.
“You know what,” said Jason after a beat, “I don’t even know why I’m surprised. Jazz, your brother’s life is insane and I say that as a zombie from a family of vigilantes.”
Danny shook his head and swallowed a bite of ice cream. “You aren’t a zombie. Zombies don’t retain any memories of their lives and they can’t think. Not sure what you are, to be honest. You’re ghostly in some way as evidenced by Robin and his ability to use and eat ectoplasm. Which you also recognized, if by a different name. Though, I will reiterate, ectoplasm shouldn’t bubble or collect in pits in the living realms.”
Jason stared at him for a moment before stabbing his spoon into his own pie. He muttered something under his breath and projected, restraint, hold it in.
Danny sighed. He really shouldn’t drag this out any longer. His remaining desert was gone in a few bites.
“Fine. I’m done. How do we want to do this?”
Jazz cleared her throat, “If I may, I have a suggestion.”
Bruce nodded and gestured for her to continue.
“Look, if we take the time to answer every single question about the Infinite Realms and ghost culture, history, biology, and psychology, we will be here for years. Now, Danny’s partner Tucker is our tech guy. We can have him send over a document tomorrow with much of the information we think would be necessary for you to have. You can review it on your own time line and verify it with Justice League Dark or whomever. And you can formulate a list of questions you need further clarification on. Sound fair?”
Jazz was the best. Danny sent her a wave of love you, thanks, you’re amazing and she squeezed his knee under the table.
Bruce hummed. “And what do you wish to talk of tonight?”
Jazz leaned back slightly and looked at Danny. “Danny? I think this is all you.”
Danny nodded. To the table he said, “Over half of you are in danger from the Guys in White. I suppose I should start with showing you how.” The ecto-trackers he had pulled out earlier still sat ignored on the table. He grabbed his own version and took a position kneeling between Bruce and Barbara. Tim got up to stand behind him. Everyone else also got to their feet and started moving closer.
Danny clicked his tongue. “The screen is too small for all of you to see. Jason, stay seated over there. It’ll be easier to show what’s going on with you if you and Robin aren’t right next to each other. Damian and Cass, you are the next most affected so come over. Everyone else, I’ll show you the exact same things just after.”
Cass gave him a single nod and slid out of her seat. Damian didn’t say anything, but pushed his chair out and stalked over. He stood as far from Tim as he could while still being able to look over Danny’s head at the small screen. Cass took her place between the two.
Whatever, their family drama was not his problem. He turned on the machine. “So this device tracks ectoplasm. My design is the most sophisticated on Earth. Green is free ectoplasm—ectoplasm that isn’t part of a ghost or sentient being. Purple indicates a liminal human. Blue is an unknown ghost. Red is a known, unfriendly ghost. Yellow is a known, friendly ghost. Orange is a halfa like me. The intensity of the color indicates the strength of the being.”
“What is a liminal human?” asked Bruce. “You’ve mentioned them before.”
“I didn’t go over that?” asked Danny as colored shapes began to appear on the screen. A bright orange blob appeared in the middle, himself. He was surrounded by three purple blobs, Cass and Damian were the brightest, Steph the dimmest at the other end of the table. But what really drew his eye was Robin. He was mostly blue, but a wave of blue-organge-purple connected him to Jason who was mostly purple. Both of their main beings had some of all three colors mixed in. Danny had never seen anything like it.
But he couldn’t focus on the strange display right now. Saving the image, he decided to ask Jason later if he could show Frostbite and Tucker to get their insight. “Liminals are humans who have been exposed to ectoplasm in some way. Either through death or long-term, low-level exposure. Overtime, it makes you death-touched and that changes a person. Everyone is different. Jazz has a degree of super strength, a ghostly obsession, and true empathy. Tucker has some technopathy; Sam a green thumb like you wouldn’t believe.” Though, this was Gotham, home to Poison Ivy. “Or, well, maybe you would, living in Gotham.” Danny pointed to the purple blob that represented Bruce. “This indicates you have quite a high level of liminality. Jazz”—he pointed to where she was, her color clearly brighter than any of the Waynes—“is currently the third most liminal person I know of on Earth.” He then pointed to Stephanie, a much dimmer purple haze. “And Steph is only lightly touched.”
Bruce hummed. “So this Ghost Investigation Ward will use a device like this to track any of us who have any sort of ectoplasm in us.”
“Yeah. Only theirs isn’t nearly as good.” Danny looked to his sister. “Jazz, mind passing the GIW device down?”
“Of course.” The GIW ectoplasmic radiation sensor had their signature sleek, white design. It was passed down the line from Jazz until Bruce was able to hand it to Danny.
“Thanks.” Danny took it and turned it on. “So the GIW design looks good, but can’t differentiate between different types of ectoplasm. As of now, they aren’t even aware of liminals.”
This device, when it turned on, showed a black screen with a white bar that went up and down at a steady pace. A loading bar was visible on the bottom labeled “Scanning.”
“As you can see, theirs takes a lot longer to get readings.” It finished loading. “Here we go.” Danny was a large green shape labeled “Phantom.”
Robin was also a green shape, though he was distorted with a tail leading towards Jason. He had no label. The others, excluding Stephanie who wasn’t displayed at all, showed up as a green haze.
“Thanks to my parents, they have good readings on me which is why my name shows up. They aren’t usually too focused on identifying ghosts, though, which is why Jason-Robin doesn’t have a label. I’m a special case. The rest of you are safe from a distance, but that haze means they’d take you in for questioning at the very least.”
“Hn. What is the range on these devices?” asked Bruce.
Danny shrugged. “My stuff? From anywhere. I track through the Infinite Realms, not by Earth. GIW? Jason-Robin, they’ll be able to detect something from probably ten miles out of city limits, but they’d need to be within half a mile to get an accurate location. The Fentons? Mile or so. They get an exact location or nothing.”
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Next
I don't really think I have much to say about this segment. The info dump has started! Thank you Jazz for keeping people on track. Alfred will help her if he feels people start pushing too much.
Tag List Part 1
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ahatintimepieces · 3 years
Note
Oh my~ two song drabbles in the morning? What an early treat! If you’re still doing them, how about „You’ll be in my Heart“ from Phil Collins? A fluff classic and perfect for a cute little story~! Take all the time you need though!
I’m so glad to hear it! And omg yesss. I wrote this kind of quickly and hope it’s okay! It’s... long :’D I got carried away.
The ghost read in his chair. It was a new book he had nabbed from his latest victim. Not the kind of material he usually read but it was fine to pass the time. He had a lot of time in the afterlife. And yet, the past year had been one of the longest he had to endure.
Frustratingly, everything was fine. The forest was safe. The fire spirits didn’t come around too often. The queen was staying in her manor. The subconites sluffed off more than they worked. It was dang near perfect. But there was an absence. One that left him feeling sluggish and unmotivated most days. It took a couple months to admit, but with a heaviness in his chest unbecoming a weightless spirit, he missed the kid.
She just… left. Brushed him away with a broom. He supposed he understood. She had a home to get back to, but… no. He was certain any hopes he had that she would want to… well… stay was just his own selfish desires.
Grimacing he remembered the unsigned documents he had offered to try to get her to stay. They were still filed away by their BFF contract. He let out a sigh, trying to let go. It was what she wanted. It didn’t do him any good to linger in what was lost and gone.
It was just so easy for ghosts to do.
After turning a few pages, a splash came from the shallow pool around his tree. He didn’t look up. It was probably one of his minions and he wanted to finish reading a sentence while footsteps tapped into the opening of his tree.
A pause. Silence.
Snatcher finished his page before realizing maybe something was wrong. Tearing his golden gaze from the page, his usual smile dropped with his jaw. Hesitant blue eyes stared back at him.
“Kid?” His voice was strained. She nodded, her lips in a tight line as she clutched the corner of her cape in her hands.
“Hi,” she whispered tightly, looking down and shuffling on her feet.
He snapped his book shut and she jumped at the sound. Feeling a little guilty for startling her, but too caught up in his own pounding pulse to adequately respond he gripped the armrest with one of his talons.
Could she be back because—No! He inwardly scowled at himself, stopping the thought in its tracks. She did not come back because she missed him. Right? He had to act cool, calm, collected. Conceal. Don’t feel. All that ice queen jazz.
Leaning back, he summoned a smirk as he folded his talons together.
“Lose more of your hourglasses? Or did you want to try your hand at more contracts?”
Keeping her gaze low, she kept fiddling with her cape.
“A-actually.” She cleared her throat. “I was hoping to—landmyshiphere.” She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for a cold laugh or angry retort.
“You what,” he questioned, bewildered.
“Land my ship,” she said a little slower. “I… I was thinking… there was a lot I still wanted to do on this planet. A-and Subcon seemed as good a place as any…”
“What about your home?” Snatcher tilted his head, suddenly fretting over her planet’s well-being. He swallowed his feelings, shaking his head slightly. He hated that he cared so much.
“Hmm?” She paused before sighing. “It’s just—I went back and they—well—” she trailed off, slumping.
“You aren’t in trouble, are you?” He growled, ready to tear into the fool who could have caused her crestfallen features.
“No,” she said quickly. “I guess… I just felt… like they barely cared when I got back.” Her small fingers tightened around her cape, wrinkling it. “They just kept giving me more missions and I… I just felt… bad… all the time.” Her brows furrowed as she seemed to struggle with what she wanted to say. “They probably haven’t even noticed I left.”
“So, your plan was just to camp out in a haunted forest on a distant planet?” Snatcher raised an eyebrow with his golden mouth in a tight line, barely highlighting his fangs. “Why not Mafia town? They at least have markets and food. Nothing can really grow here.” Not anything edible at least.
“Well,” she offered with a nervous smile, “my BFF is here.” A moment passed and her small smile fell. “Snatcher?”
His talons were pressed tightly together as he kept his features frozen. Inwardly, he was short-circuiting. Did that mean what he thought it meant? She wanted to stay with him? It was almost too much to hope for; his heart ached as he tried to stifle the rising elation. He thought about the unsigned document. The one he had drafted meticulously and never had the chance to properly give her a chance to read through it. But… now…
“Park your ship here?” He cleared his throat and straightened, feigning a nonchalant air as he snapped his talons and summoned the document. “Well, let’s see, that’s a big favor to ask.” She squirmed a little and he cleared his throat again, trying to dispel his nerves. “If you want to park here, that’s just like saying the forest is as good as your home and I can’t just let anyone live here. So, tell you what, if you sign this paper and agree to everything it entails, I’ll let you live here and come and go as you please.”
The paper flew over to her and into her hands and a feathered pen appeared nearby. Immediately, her head snapped up with wide eyes.
“A-adoption papers?”
“I mean if you dislike it—" he fumbled, dreading the slightly panicked look in her eyes. But before he could finish his sentence, she grabbed the pen and signed at the dotted line. He blinked, almost in a daze as he waved a pointed talon and stamped his seal on the document. The document floated back to him and his chest swelled as he scanned it.
“That seals the deal, Kiddo. The forest is yours to roam freely—”
Sniffling caused him to pause.
“Kid?” He snapped his fingers, filing the adoption papers safely away before flying over to her as she wiped fruitlessly at her eyes.
“S-so I can c-call you dad, now?” She choked out with shaking shoulders.
“Yeah,” Snatcher said, rather ineloquently for a lawyer ghost who was also once a prince. She cried harder and Snatcher held out his arms, hesitating. Finally, he tentatively scooped her up and she looked up at him with wide, watery eyes.
“You’re safe now,” Snatcher promised, brushing her light brown bangs from her eyes. She blinked up at him and sniffled. His heart leapt to his throat as he thought of a song his mother always used to sing. It had been so long… and he wasn’t sure it would soothe the kid like he hoped… but if she wanted him to be her dad as much as he wanted her to be his daughter… he could try.
“Come, stop your crying,” he lowered his voice into a gentle cadence, brushing one of her tears away with a soft talon. “It will be alright. Just take my hand,” he held out his talon and she grabbed onto it, hugging it against her small stature. He couldn’t keep his smile out of his tone. “Hold it tight.
“I will protect you,” he continued softly, floating back to settle down in his chair, “From all around you. I will be here. Don’t you cry.”
She closed her eyes, leaning her head against his mane as she hugged his hand. Her tears began to dry.
“For one so small, you seem so strong,” he continued as she drifted. Leaning back, he closed his eyes, focusing on the words. “My arms will hold you, keep you safe and warm. This bond between us, can’t be broken.” His voice wavered a little as he held the last note, either from lack of practice or from the lump in his throat. “I will be here. Don’t you cry.”
He shifted, trying to get into a more comfortable position. Her head readjusted on his shoulder. Her small fingers linked with his, their palms clasped together.
“’Cause you’ll be in my heart,” he sang, tapping his toes lightly in time to the cadence. Wait—He glanced down, mildly surprised he had shifted without thinking. His human hand was wrapped tightly with hers, and she leaned against the puffy, purple sleeve on his shoulder. His laced boots stretched up past his knees and she perched comfortably in his lap.
“Yes,” he continued, his voice soft as he examined himself for a moment before sighing and, instead, focusing on hugging his daughter close, “you’ll be in my heart. From this day on, Now and forever more.”
“I love you, Dad,” she whispered, keeping her eyes closed as a contented smile bloomed across her features.
“And I love you, Kiddo,” he whispered back, leaning down and pressing his forehead against hers. He sang a little longer, waiting until her breathing stilled and sleep and sweet dreams lulled her senses. He pressed a kiss to her forehead and muttered, “You’ll be here in my heart, always.”
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