#keep on remembering his middle names tucker

[that-one-enby-ranger]

Dally: The ‘how the fucks’ and 'why are you so dumbs’ don’t matter. All that matters is that I have a new gun.

[bluerosefox]

GHOSTS WITH HEARTBEATS

When Jason had been going to Gotham Academy, he had (for a good reputation for the media and to help him catch up on his penmanship, remember he had been on the streets and dropped out of school before getting picked up by Bruce for a while) signed up for a penpal project for 'less privileged people' to write to.

(Although Jason was annoyed the penpal project stayed within the states and only selected a middle of nowhere town, he knew the Richie Rich Elites would never subjugate their 'Heirs' to actual kids in need of learning how to read and write)

But Jason didn't mind his penpal.

Danny Fenton was a riot to talk, err write to in all honestly.

From his dry punny humor (and boy can he give even Dick a run for his money in the pun department but hey using some of them actually got Dick to warm up to him a few missions ago) and death jokes so many death jokes, to his nerdy love for space Jason enjoyed writing to Danny.

Even the short stories he would write about a ghost kid protecting a small town from other ghosts was interesting to read. He really liked the different kinds of ghosts there could be. Granted some seemed very OP like that Clockwork dude.

Jason liked writing to Danny, and even after the penpal project was over they had plans to keep sending letters, maybe even exchange numbers soon...

But then he died by the hands of the Joker.

The letters leaving Wayne Manor may had decreased but the letters being sent never did or at least until a few years ago.

Then Jason somehow returned to the land of the living.

Got taken by the LoA, tossed in the green waters and turned into their Pit Raged weapon for a while before leaving them behind and setting out for his revenge against the Joker and to force B's hand.

And becoming a Crime Boss for a while too. Can't forget that.

Point being with all this going on, the old warm memories of exchanging letters with Danny Fenton was pushed into the back of his mind and forgotten about for a while.

It isn't until one afternoon at Wayne Manor that while roughhousing with Dick, who had Jason in a brotherly headlock as they walked down a hall to one of the sitting rooms, that while Jason had slipped out of Dick's hold had stumbled into a hallway desk that had a few things on the top of it, one of the things being a small box that tumbled off when Jason hit it.

The box lid opened and out of it spilled out a good number of letters.

"Shiii-p, dang it Dick!" Jason said when he looked at the mess he accidentally made and stopped himself from swearing, the place might be named Wayne Manor but everyone knew this was Alfie's domain and no swearing was a rule within his halls.

Dick only laughed and teased only in a way a sibling can do "Hey not my fault your as big as a tank Jaybird! We should get you some caution signals if you keep bumping into things!"

Jason flipped him his favorite finger, thankfully Alfred only knew when they swore thus it did not summon him, and bent down to the letters.

His hands froze when he recognized the hand writing and the address it was sent from.

"From: Danny Fent Nightingale

Amity Park, IL"

To: Jason Todd-Wayne

Gotham City, NJ.

Wayne Manor"

And when Jason opened the letter. He really wasn't expecting what was written inside.

"Jason.

I'm finally leaving Amity Park. I can't be there anymore, not after everything. I'm too tired, and emotionally hurt. Everything is just to much. And I can't keep doing this to myself. My parents still can’t understand there is nothing ‘wrong’ with me or why I refuse to let them take care of Ellie, I refuse to let her live the way Jazz and I did, Jazz has to much on her plate already with her own life and college but she’s been hounding me to reach out to mom and dad, Sam refuses to listen to me when I tell her I want to be more than ‘Phantom’ in Amity Park, and Tucker is so busy trying to get into a good college and job we barely have time to talk nowadays. And don’t get me started on Vlad, that fruitloop’s been breathing down my neck since Ellie’s deaging.

Despite how much of a hellhole you like to call it, I think Gotham might be my, no mine and Ellie’s best bet of living some kind of life, especially now since the whole deaging she had to go through, she needs an ectoplasm rich city as well and since she has no actual papers because she was my clone and I remember you saying Gotham has people who can create new identities and-

I’m rambling again, to letter you again. I really need to stop it.

I can’t keep pretending you’re going to read these.

I know you’ll never read these. You’re gone. I can’t even find you in the Realms no matter where I look.

I’m sorry. For using you as, well, a way to vent my life for last couple of years. I shouldn’t had done it but it helped me.

Believing my friend was still alive and getting my letters I mean.

Again I’m sorry.

This will be my last letter to your ghost, pun unintended.

Goodbye Jason. Wish us luck in your city.

-Danny Fen-Nightingale...."

The sent date on the letter was roughly eight years ago.

[spectral-snippets-and-drabbles]

Beware the Blob Mafia

Where Danny is younger (12-ish) wants to be an entomologist (Insect Scientist) instead of an astronaut and develops a different core as a result...an Insect core!

Also, I kind of headcanon that Blobs are animal ghosts and Zone-born ghosts while Shades are intelligent Sapient ghosts who crossed over the the Infinite Realms.

~•~ ~•~ ~•~ ~•~ ~•~

• It all started when a blob got caught in the middle of a fight with one of his rouges. The little blob remembered Danny when he released it and a small bundles of them from his parents' traps. Intially, they saw the boy as an unusually powerful newborn predator, so they tended to stay away to avoid being eaten by him up until they realize he was purposely freeing several dozens of them from the bad human scientists with no sinister intent.

- They decide to form a symbiotic relationship with Danny by becoming a loyal swarm in the hopes of staying close to him as protection, as they are lowest on the food chain. The young Halfa has no idea they imprinted on him, he thinks they're just being extra friendly.

Blobidious (as Danny named him) and his group bring refined ambient ectoplasm and human food to their protector to keep both sides of the Halfa nourished. They unintentionally stole from random restaurants, stores, and homes for a little while until Danny catches wind of food going missing from people's houses and has to teach them to not do that. Though, the occasional Nasty Burger wouldn't hurt anyone...a small fee in the shape of a combo meal for keeping Amity Park safe, if you will.

- Thankfully, Sam and Tucker help by having food stuff stashed away in their rooms at their houses for the little battalion to grab for him when he's hungry, as his own home is to dangerous.

• As time passes, Danny's new ghost core slowly evolves to become a living hive/den for blob ghosts to live in where they rest after a day of successfully working on collecting nourishment for their protecter. With the area around his core becoming a small pocket dimension that serves as the main nesting area for them, adorned with a honeycomb pattern over its surface.

- Danny's human body has also evolved to hide the ecto signature of the swarm and himself as a defense mechanism, making the Fenton household defenses unable to detect their ecto signatures, much to his surprise and relief. When he transforms for the first time after his body successfully completes its metamorphosis, he appeared more insect-like in the beginning.

(Think like Devorah from MK series.)

Due to the nature of having a bestial core, he can transform into a large variety of Insect/Human forms and utilize their abilities via his Obsession with bugs. Danny's already insane strength and skill set being amplified by using the powers of the most unique insects on the planet.

• Danny's naturally produced ectoplasm from his body combined with the refined ambient ectoplasm collected by the swarm creates a ghost jelly. As he uses it to revitalize himself for the first time, the effects are almost instant, with wounds healing themselves rapidly and finding himself full of energy that lasts for days with no need for sleeping or eating. Due to the energy crash, he uses it sparingly, which causes an overflow resulting in a leaky core and him puke up the excess amounts.

Not wanting to have it happen again, he lets his swarm have the excess as reward for everything they've been doing for him, completely unaware of the hell he was gonna unleash on everyone with this offering to his little buddies.

~•~ ~•~ ~•~ ~•~ ~•~

• They proceed to evolve rapidly and become much more powerful as a result of eating the jelly. They begin to specialize and diversify their roles to better aid their boss to help him succeed and survive in Amity's ghost-ridden madness. Their symbiosis has resulted in Danny learning a form telepathy only he and the Swarm can communicate with.

From the simple blob ghost, Collectors, Warriors, Hunters, Scouts, and Workers arise to fill new roles. What's more astounding thing is the fact that they aren't just stronger, but have a higher intellect and can think and behave with reason, picking up on Danny's thought process and following his lead.

- Collectors are tasked to seek out ambient ectoplasm and food for the Danny. They also evolved in a way to leech it from hostile ghosts and follow hunters/soldiers to aid in subjugation. They can even drain humans attackers of their stamina and emotions, stripping them of their will to fight and leaving them unable to act.

- Soldiers are responsible for accompanying Danny to fights and following his orders on the field. They are also tasked with protecting the civilians from other ghosts looking to cause harm and evacuate the nearby area. The townsfolk were intially terrified, seeing monstrous ghost bugs, but calmed down knowing that they were Phantom's " pets", ready to defend them all.

- Hunters specialized in stealth, ambush and hit-and-run tactics, purposely venturing out into Amity Park and seek out his rouges in packs and dragging them back after paralyzing the offenders to be souped with a few Collectors in tow to squeeze 'em dry.

- Scouts are the crew that watched over Danny when he sleeps or when he's unable to transform into Phantom at the time, patrolling Amity Park for ghostly activity. If they saw/sensed a nearby ghost, they would emite a pheromone to alert the horde.

- Workers kept their intial blob form and stay inside Danny to be on standby to strengthen his body via nurturing it and repair it from the inside, taking the non-combat role; focusing on healing his wounds and making his body much more durable and healthy by merely being the caretakers of their boss. Thanks to their continued efforts, it increases the space for small pocket dimension to carry things he would need and increase the capacity for the swarm's hive.

His body is at its peak and the definition of perfect health. Perfect sight, hearing, strength with a quick healing factor for a boy young as he!

• Danny was intially surprised when the Swarm first came out of their volition to fight and was worried for them. But after seeing them pull a Cujo and transforming into Insect monsters of various sizes to beat down the unsuspecting victim rouge (Box Ghost), he's relieved that they're safe and he's excited that he's no longer alone in the literal fights against ghosts and that his friends don't have to jeopardize themselves without proper backup.

• Meanwhile, Danny's rouges are having an awful time in the wake of his growing bond to his Swarm. They can't enter the living world without a literal army of blob ghosts waiting for them to pop out the portal.

- Skulker tried to hunt them down only resulting in him getting his suit torn to shreds by the Welp (Phantom/Danny) when one of his blobs got hurt by the hunter's stray shot.

- Ember tried to pull a Pied Piper and force them under her control, but it only resulted in her guitar getting badly damaged and her ectoplasm sucked out of her by the Collectors.

- Spectra and Bertrand developed a severe phobia of insects after they brought her scheme crashing down and nearly killed them both after she tried to manipulate Danny like in canon, reveling in his despair until it brought the full fury of the swarm to make the attempt to destroy her when she made him upset. The swarm would've succeeded if Danny didn't call them off and she hasn't returned from the Zone since.

- Technus kept having his machines melted by corrosive acid being spat at him and ripped apart with the insane bite force of the insects assaulting him.

- The only one who managed to get passed them was Cujo. The pup's obsession wasn't destructive in nature and took a liking to Phantom and his hundreds of friends, even going as far as to acknowledge Phantom and even listen to him, making him get a pass while the others were stuck in the Zone, totally not jealous.

• The ghost pup was able to be stopped by Danny and the Swarm before he could destroy Axion Labs, making Val see the infamous "Spectral Skitter" in a more positive light.

She was a little mad, but seeing Phantom laughing as he gave the ghost puppy his favorite toy gave her a somber reminder that they both, the puppy and the ghost boy, had died way too soon. Val would still become Red Huntress, but less out of revenge, but to find out more about Phantom, becoming the 4th person to know Danny's secret.

• Vlad is rather good in this au! The sting of Jack and Maddie's abandonment made him a recluse and he refused to try and find happiness out of fear of being abandoned again. Causing his once green ectoplasm to become a shade of violet, as it was his pent up love made manifest.

- But Vlad wouldn't let that stop him, nor would it hold him back in life! He came into his own in Wisconsin after starting a successful chain of brands revolving around dairy goods, using a small portion of the earned funding to research ghosts in his free time using actual methods of study and not the havoc he's heard regarding a certain set of ectobiologists. He honestly can't help but be worried about young Daniel and Jasmine. He can only imagine that whirlwind of a life the children must have, having his former friends as parents.

- After making enough progress, his therapist suggests Vlad getting back out there and try giving the socializing scene another shot, as the Halfa himself mentioned that he missed companionship during their last meeting. Being socially inept, he decides to transform and look around for potential associates while invisible. So lost in thought that he ended up in Illinois on accident when his ghost sense went off like a bomb.

- He jaw fell open when he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He saw giant ghost insectoids that were taking down several Ecto beasts being led by Skulker, who seemed to have tamed (intimidated) them to his side. Another group was taking the people far away from the fighting and standing guard over them. Despite his curiosity being peaked, Vlad couldn't help but groan loudly and facepalm. The tin can tried skinning the older halfa in the past, only for it to end with the said Halfa threatening to destroy the little nuisance's core if he kept it up. He hadn't had a problem since, but seeing the "Greatest Hunter" again made his eye twitch something fierce.

"When I get that welp's pelt I'll–"

"Prove to everyone that you're the greatest hunter ever and yada yada yada...Soup Time!"

Along with his defeated beasts, Skulker is absorbed into the Fenton Thermos and Phantom powers down back into his human form after hiding in a nearby alley...not even realizing that Vlad just saw him do that.

• Vlad immediately knows that this is Daniel Fenton, due to looking up the Fentonworks Website in the 'About Us' page and seeing the major similarities between the "two" boys". He also knows that Phantom is labeled as the "Ghost Menace"...who was constantly being hunted by Jack and Madeline, getting shot at like it's open season, causing needless destruction in their wake...like how they tried to hunt him a few years prior...

- Knowing Jack and Madeline, This makes poor Vlad's mood go from bad to infinitely worse because that meant that they had no idea that they've killed their own child (like him, oof) and have been hunting him since his first appearance in Amity. He immediately retreats back to his castle and has a severe panic attack.

• After calming down, Vlad will probably try to murder his old friends like in canon by inviting the family to his place, but it comes from a messed up sense of needing to protect Danny from his disastrous parents, seeing the younger as a victim of his parents recklessness. It takes a lot of convincing, but Danny is able to get him to stand down and explain that his parents aren't as dangerous as he says they are. Except Vlad had made very good counterarguments that made the younger Halfa question the doubts he had about his parents.

- It doesn't help that the original members of his swarm don't answer when he asks for a biased opinion in his favor. Surely his folks would still love him once he tells them what happened down in the lab...right? Danny makes the protocol "Friend or Foe" with Sam and Tucker and creates a guideline depending on which way the wind blows that fated day.

- Vlad gave him his number, a key, and a room for him to stay at the castle should he be inclined to take the offer should the worse come to pass. Telling the young badger that he had a place to retreat to in case things goes sideways and someone willing to train him as well.

• Jack and Maddie are up to their usual activities, but they meet more resistance by both the ghosts and people of Amity Park.

- The blob ghosts they usually catch to turn their ectoplasm to power their weapons or experiment on have made an alliance with Ghost Boy, Phantom, who made them far more powerful and elusive than they previously were. It doesn't help that their failed attempts to grab one usually end up with some form of property/vehicle damage while Phantom and his monsters scatter and vanish as soon as they arrive.

- People are genuinely looking to the literal ghost child (Phantom) for protection and has been keeping the streets of Amity Park safe from ghosts more than the proclaimed "Ghost Experts". He even began rehabilitating most of his old enemies at this point and helped them find non harmful methods for them to fulfill their obsessions at this point of the timeline. They couldn't defeat him or his army, so they yielded and gave his methods a chance with good degrees of success.

When a curious person (Jazz, the daughter of the town ghost experts) "asked" about a ghost's obsessions and why they fight, Danny goes into extreme detail (thank you, Clockwork and Pandora!) about why it is a ghost would do the things they do, debunking many ectobiologists theories and scientific discoveries made by the field of study.

• It felt like a slap in face and all their hard work was being undermined.

- This causes a screaming match between Maddie and Phantom. Both who are refusing to back down and causing a crowd to form.

"You're kind are danger to humans!"

"Have you seen how you nutjobs drive!? There's a reason nobody parks their cars on your street! You're a living road hazard!"

"You ghosts have been terrorizing the town!"

"Excuse me!? We've been PROTECTING it from your mistakes! Maybe if you actually studied ghosts instead of labeling us non sentient and cutting us up and making them live ammunition, you'd get better results!"

• It just keeps going until something in Danny starts snapping. He's already past sobbing and red in the face with panic and anger, the swarm is practically going feral as they sense the distress rolling off of him in waves, waiting for these humans to dare to make a move. Snarling, hissing and growling could be heard from hundreds of creatures slowly manifesting in the sky, floating with eyes glowing blood red.

People begin to start to worry out as they never seen Phantom's pets like this before...but then again...holding guns up to a kid who died recently and protects them from both the ghosts and the Fenton's daily madness isn't exactly a good image.

"You may have fooled everyone else, but you haven't fooled us, Phantom Menace! If we let our guard down, your kind will exploit us and we'll all be paying for it!"

And just like that...the final thread self control snaps and Phantom explodes. His scream of anger is amplified by his swarm and takes out most of the devices powered by ectoplasm.

Pay for it...PAY FOR IT!? WHAT DO YOU NOW ABOUT "PAYING FOR IT" WHEN ALL THIS WAS ALL YOUR FAULT!? ALL BECAUSE YOU MADE A LITERAL PORTAL TO HELL! YOU'RE SO OBSESSED WITH GHOSTS YOU HAVEN'T EVEN NOTICED WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME..."

The silence that came after was deafening and as the "good doctors" try to object, they themselves are stunned into silence as well when a ring forms around Phantom's waist and reveals who he actually is. Gasps and shouts of surprise are heard as a teary eyed boy stares down at his parents from a roof, glaring icy daggers with tired eyes.

"You were always in the lab, for days on end, as Jazz and I grew up. She put up with it and accepted the fact that work took priority, but I didn't! I hated that stupid portal and I went into the damn thing trying to make it work so you could pay attention to us again...but it turned on with me inside because a "genius" put the power button inside...which I hit on accident...making me die alone!

My grades dropped off a cliff because I had to step up and take responsibility for YOUR obsession with ghosts! I lost so much sleep because there were threats almost every other day trying to cause problems for Amity Park! Jazz was almost murdered and I almost had to kill the ghost to stop her from harming my sister! I had to literally beat my rogue's gallery into submission so they could behave and to protect them from ghost hunters so I could get to live a semi-normal life again! My so-called evil "parasites" have been helping me out keeping everyone who saw me as some weird freak safe since we teamed up and I won't let you slander them or myself anymore!"

It made the people of Amity feel sick to know the truth. The small kid who likes bugs who was supposed to barely start high school was the same friendly ghost who constantly charged into battle to keep everyone safe. His friends and enemies alike were under his protection out of the kindness of his heart when he could've easily used his powers for mischief, or worse, evil. As the realization began to sink in, people began to whisper and mutter to each other.

"An actual kid was defending us the whole time!?"

"Bug-a-Boo was really just a kid..."

"Danny Fenton is the Spectral Skitter!?"

"THEY KILLED THERE OWN KID!?"

That's what made people turn on the Fentons with the looks of disdain and anger. People were forming a protective ring around Danny as they continued to bombard his family with accusations and throwing insults. "Hey, Jazz is innocent in all of this, so leave her out of the hate mob! My sister barely found out and has been taking care of me better than our own parents well before I died...was there for me when things were at their worst fighting back the ghost..."

As the two Fenton siblings looked at each with soft, reassuring smiles, the tender moment was ruined when a blast went off, screams were heard and Danny stumbled back in shock at the sudden pain and blood blooming in his chest. It didn't punch through him fully, but cracked his ribs and now he was on the ground in pain. The shooters fate was sealed when a soldier's stinger punched through the attacker's leg with an ecto blast before the swarm and began fighting men in white suits, the attackers being overrun quickly and being mangled savagely before stopping at Danny's order before fainting.

In their desperate attempt to get Danny to safety, the swarm grabbed his unconscious body and hurriedly went through the Ghost Portal before blowing it up, preventing the Guys in White from doing more damage. There, they were greeted by Danny's greatest ally, Clockwork, and Yeti named Frostbite who wished to help their Boss. With reluctance and cries of sadness, they gave him to the beastman and hoped for the best.

[five-rivers]

Flitter

AO3

For @echoghost1 and @kawaiijohn

(Also, I would love to have a better name for this fic if anyone can think of one.)

It sounded ridiculous in retrospect, but the shoes were the first sign.  

"Danny, please, we've been here for over an hour.  Pick a pair."

"I'm trying," said Danny, staring across his empire of discarded shoe boxes (he was thinking about calling it Shoelandia).  "None of them feel right."

"Of course none of them feel right," said Maddie.  "They're brand new.  You'll break them in as you wear them.  Just get the pair that feels the least off."

Danny grumbled to himself as he tried to remember which one that was.  There had been a wide one near the beginning, before the salespeople gave up on them…  There!  He lunged across a heap of boxes to secure the sadly orange shoes.  

"Great," said Maddie, clearly relieved.  "Let's go check out and you can put them on before we go out to the car."

"But–"

"If I let you wear those any longer, people will wonder if I'm neglecting you."

Danny followed her pointed finger to his reliable red shoes, which weren't that bad.

Okay, they were that bad.  Ghost hunting plus teenage growth spurts were not friendly to footwear, it seemed.  

Fine.  

.

The next sign was his skin.  As in, there was something wrong with it.  Danny didn’t like to brag, but he had pretty good skin.  It wasn’t perfect - whose was? - but he didn’t get a lot of acne and he definitely didn’t get chapped hands or whatever this was.  

Disgusted and fascinated all at once, he peeled off another thin layer of skin from the back of his hand.  

“What is this?”

“I don’t know, man,” said Tucker.  “Did you get sunburned or something?”

“No,” grumbled Danny, peeling more skin from his arm.  “I haven’t even seen the sun this week.”

“A ghost sunburn?”

“I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean,” whined Danny, rubbing the back of his hand.  The skin there felt weird.  

“No, it’s probably normal,” said Sam. “Stuff like that sometimes happens to me if I, like, get really sweaty in the pool.”  She wrinkled her nose.  “Not quite that much, though.  Please tell me you aren’t going to just leave that on the floor.”

“You know, most household dust is dead skin cells, so it’s not like-”

Sam snatched the tissue box from Danny’s bedside table and threw it at him.  “You’re disgusting.”

Danny sighed and stood up, mincing his way to the corner of the room his dustpan lived in.  

“You know, most people take their shoes off inside,” said Tucker.  

“Most people don’t live with two mad scientists.  Going barefoot is dangerous.”

“Three,” corrected Sam.  “Jazz is going into STEM, too, right?”

“My point is, if your shoes are bothering you that much, you don’t have to wear them.”

“I know, I know, but I’m trying to break them in.”  He swept up the sheets of peeled skin.  “Happy?”

“Never.”

Danny threw the tissue box back at her.  

.

The third sign… Well.  It wasn’t so much a sign as an avalanche of signs.  

.

Danny woke up sore.  Not unusual, considering his extracurriculars, but annoying.  Had he even fought a ghost yesterday?  Things had been calming down, lately.  He’d even been able to keep up with homework…  

There had been Boxy… Boxy didn't count unless he showed up more than three times.  So.  No.  He was just aching for no reason.  

Ugh.  

Puberty sucked.  

Why couldn’t he have gotten it over with in middle school like Dash and the other meatheads?

He untangled himself from his bedsheets and forced his aching feet into his house slippers.  Not the safest choice, but he didn’t want to deal with his still-new, still-orange shoes.  Eyes still half closed (it was too early to be this bright) he made his way down to the kitchen.  

"Danny!  Your hand!"

“Hwuh?  Wha?”

“Did you break a pen or something?” asked Maddie, pulling his hand up and turning it over.  

“No?” said Danny, deciding he should try to be at least slightly more awake.  He forced his eyes open and looked at his hand.  

The tips of his fingers, from his first knuckle halfway down to his second, were black, the color shading to blue and then peach before it reached his palms.  It was hard to tell with the color change, but the shape of his nails was also subtly off.  

He pulled his hand back, then raised his other one.  It was the same.  

This was some crazy ghost thing, wasn’t it?  And he’d just walked straight to his trigger-happy ghost hunting parents like someone with a death wish–

“Danny,” said Maddie, “Danny, don’t panic.  Jack, dear, can you go down to the lab and get the quarantine protocol ready?  Okay.  Danny, have you noticed any other changes?  Do you feel anything else strange?”

Danny shook his head.  He’d just woken up.  He hadn’t even noticed this.

“Really?  Nothing?  Not even body pains, soreness, that kind of thing?”

“Maybe a little,” admitted Danny.  “I thought it was just growing pains…  I don’t know what this is.”

“We might,” said Maddie, lowering her goggles.  

“Really?  You know what this is?” asked Jazz.  Danny hadn’t even noticed her in the room.  “Please tell me this isn’t because of one of your inventions.”

"Well, not exactly, but… last week, we were working with an ecto-irritant in the lab," explained Maddie.

"A what?" asked Jazz, suspicion still lacing her tone.  

"It's supposed to cause transformations in ghosts," said Maddie.  "Unexpected ones.  Hijack their shapeshifting abilities.  But it does have some impact on highly ectocontaminated people as well…"

"Ectocontaminated people?" repeated Jazz.  "Should I be worried?"

"No, you aren't nearly contaminated enough."

"Isn't that what you thought about Danny, too?"

Maddie rubbed her face.  "We'll run some tests."

"Where did you even get this, anyway?" asked Danny, hoping that would explain at least some of… everything.  

"Vladdie!" said Jack, coming back up the stairs.  “We were testing it for him!”

Wow.  That really did explain everything.  Screw Vlad.  

"Well, one of his R&D labs developed it.  They wanted to use it as a ghost repellant.  He asked us to do some independent tests, first, but if it does this to regular people like Danny…"

Yes, that was totally what Danny was.  Absolutely regular.  No ghost powers here.  

Maddie shook her head and turned to Jack.  “Do you have the quarantine set up?”

“Sure do!” said Jack.  “Come on down, Danno, we’ll get you fixed up in a jiffy!”

“It… might be a little longer than that,” said Maddie, putting her hand on Danny’s back and steering him towards the door down into the lab.  

“But you do know how to undo this, right?” asked Danny.  

“Well, in theory,” said Maddie.  “It wasn’t something we were really interested in when we were testing it on ghosts.”

Of course it wasn’t.

“Do you at least know what it’s transforming him into?” asked Jazz, following them down into the lab, her breakfast thoroughly abandoned.  

“That’d be the other reason we were going to advise Vladdie against it!”

“What, you don’t know?” asked Jazz, aghast.

“Nope!  Seemed pretty random!  Half the time, we got these fluffy little blobs, and the rest of the time they turned into real monsters!  Not good for a repellant at all!”

“Great,” said Danny.  “Love knowing that I’ll either turn into a blob or a monster.  Really love that for me.”

Maddie squeezed Danny’s shoulder.  “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out before then.”

Danny had doubts.

.

Beyond the persistent ache, whatever was happening to Danny didn’t really hurt.  Which was good!  Don’t get him wrong, he didn’t want it to hurt.  But if it did hurt, it might have been easier to tell what was changing.  

Right now, it was mostly his family members noticing things, not him.  Jack had gotten the full length mirror from the master bathroom, so he could, in theory, help that way.  Just staring at himself in a mirror looking for problems seemed kind of messed up, though, and he was, maybe just a little, still in denial.  

The stain on his fingers was also on his toes, creeping halfway up his foot.  His parents were still looking at x-rays of them, arguing about whether or not their structure had been changed.  Danny wasn’t sure, but he felt like both his fingers and toes were longer.  

The blackened skin was also hardening into something almost chitinous and fusing to his nails at the tips.  It made him feel like he should put a toothpick under his nails to clean them out.  

But it also felt weirdly satisfying to drum his newly-hardened fingers against things.  

“Time for the blood test!” exclaimed Jack, making Danny flinch.  “Gotta see how much of the irritant is in you!”

“Right,” said Danny, smiling nervously.  “Gotta see that.”

Jack faltered.  “Oh, Danno, your teeth…”

Danny raised his hand to his mouth.  Yep.  He had teeth.  Specifically, he had canines that were almost twice as long as usual and felt sharp even through his toughened skin.  

“Let’s… let’s get that blood draw done, okay, sport?”

“Yeah,” said Danny, also shaken.  He hadn’t noticed. That was in his mouth and he hadn’t noticed.  

Jack carefully cleaned a spot inside Danne’s elbow with an alcohol wipe and slid in the slender needle.  “Don’t feel lightheaded or anything, do you?”

“Nope,” said Danny.  It would take a lot more than that to make him feel lightheaded.  

“That’s good.”  He withdrew the needle.  “Okay!  Half for the centrifuge, half for the microscope!”

“Don’t forget the test strips!” said Maddie.  

“Oh, yeah!”

Danny returned to angstily zoning out, this time tapping his fingers against his teeth.  Then the centrifuge started up.  

It sounded like an ice pick driven through his brain.  He shrieked and covered his ears.  

“Danny?!”

“It’s too loud!”

Someone shut off the centrifuge.  Cautiously, he removed his hands from his ears.  

“Okay,” said Maddie.  “Okay.  Let’s… take a look at your ears.  Jazz, can you get the noise canceling headphones?  The ones you got me for Christmas last year?”

“Sure,” said Jazz.  

As Maddie went through a number of hearing tests that Danny did his best to cooperate with, the brightness of the lab’s overhead lights rapidly climbed to ‘unbearable.’

“Your eyes, too?” asked Maddie.  

Danny moaned in response.  

“Oh, sweetie,” she said, brushing some of his hair back behind his ear.  It tickled.  His ear flicked.  He decided not to think too deeply about that.  “Here, Jazz has the headphones… Why don’t you take a nap for now?  We’ll wake you up if anything else big changes, or if we find anything out, okay?”

“Okay,” said Danny.  “Not much else to do if I’m sitting with my eyes closed and my ears plugged, I guess.”

“It’s going to be alright,” said Maddie.  “We’ll probably have everything worked out before you know it.”

.

Danny woke up to the vague sense of someone moving around near him.  

“Hm?” he said, sleepily.

“Don’t worry, Danno!” said Jack in an exaggerated whisper.  “I’m just bunking down here with you tonight!  Jazzy thought that, eh, we needed a break.”

“Mm,” said Danny, opening his eyes just a sliver to see Jack setting up one of the Fenton Folda-Cots nearby.  He sat up and stretched.  His spine felt… different.  Good.  Like it fit together different, better.  

“Oh, you don’t need to get up, Danny, I’ve got this handled,” said Jack, rearranging his bedding.  

“Mm,” said Danny again.  He opened his mouth to ask what had happened while he’d been asleep and got distracted by how long his canines felt now.  

Concerned, he raised his hands to feel out his face.  There were two hard little bumps right at his hairline that curved upward.  Was he growing horns?  He put the question to the side and brought his hands sideways to his ears, questing under the noise canceling headphones.  They were long, droopy, pointed and fuzzy.  

Somehow, Danny didn’t think this was what Tucker meant when he said that someday he’d turn Danny into a furry.  

He started patting himself down.  Were those scales on his shoulders?  No, no, don’t think about it.  Further…

That was a tail.  A long tail.  It was fluffy.  It was… the change he had felt with his spine, darn it.  

So much for waking him up for big changes.  

“Danny?  Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not,” Danny said.  Tried to say.  His mouth went through the motions, but all that came out of his throat was a series of chirps.  He started to shake, but before he could work himself up too much, Jack pulled him into a hug.  

“It’s going to be okay, Danno,” he said, patting Danny’s back.  “Just take a deep breath.  Everything will be better in the morning.”

Danny snuggled closer, taking in the warmth.  Something in his chest that had not been there that morning began to purr.  

If this ecto-irritant thing was turning him into some kind of messed up cat, Danny was going to murder Vlad.  

.

Things were not better in the morning.  In fact, they were worse.  Not in that his body had changed more in the night (which it had.  He’d woken up with patchy black and white markings all over his body, ears too large to fit under the noise canceling headphones, and the beginnings of extra limbs growing under his arms), but in that Vlad had decided to show up.  After Jazz had already gone to school, too.  

“When I heard what had happened to young Daniel I just had to come,” said Vlad.  “I’ve brought all the research from the development team, of course, and I want to offer my own expertise.”

“Great!” said Jack.  “With your help, we should fix this in record time!”

Somehow, Danny doubted that.  He was tempted to flip Vlad off while Jack’s back was turned and Maddie was focused on the research, but that would require moving and growing extra limbs was exhausting.

“I certainly hope so.  I would hate to have this progress any further.”

Translation: Vlad would love to have it progress further and he knew exactly what it was progressing to.  

“But I believe that between the three of us and Daniel’s cooperation, we can overcome this.”

Translation: Vlad wanted something from Danny.  

A siren went off upstairs.

“Oh, my,” said Vlad.  “Is that the mayoral ghost alert hotline?  You’d better go answer it.”

What the heck?  They still had that?

“But Danny–”

“I can keep an eye on him and compare my research to what you’ve already done,” said Vlad.  “You should go.  There may be lives at stake with an evil ghost running loose.”

“This is the first time they’ve called, Mads,” said Jack.  “We should at least see what kind of ghost it is.”

“Oh, alright,” said Maddie.  “But call us if anything - and I do mean anything! - changes.”

“Of course, Maddie,” said Vlad, smoothly.

Danny watched nervously as his parents both ran upstairs, leaving him alone with his archnemesis.  

“So,” said Vlad, “you’re probably wondering what I want.”

Danny turned away.  

“I understand that you think your parents will find a solution,” said Vlad, conversationally.  “So.  You could listen to me… or I could stage a ghost attack that will destroy every last bit of research they have on your transformation and the ‘ecto-irritant.’”

Danny jumped to his feet - and was immediately knocked down by one of Vlad’s duplicates and held there, too weak to do anything else.  He tried to call up his ghost form, but he just didn’t have the energy.  

“It would be easy.  So you could listen.  Or not.”

Danny glared up at him.  

“Good.  It seems like you’re listening.  As you might imagine, I know how to fix your little problem.  In exchange, I only want one thing.”

Danny made the best questioning sound he could, under the circumstances.  Vlad smirked.  

“I wish for you to accompany me to an event I’ve been invited to, as an attendant.”

He could not be serious.  

“Oh, I’m quite serious.  This isn’t a human event, after all, and your appearance is part of the dress code.”  Vlad hummed.  “You’re confused.  I can see it on your face.”

No duh.  Because everything Vlad said was mental.

“Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of the Fey?  Fairies?  The Fair Folk?  Hm?  Don’t give me that look.  I know that you’ve personally fought unicorns.”

Yeah, and they were bloodthirsty monsters.  What was Vlad’s point?

“The Infinite Realms are infinite, Daniel.  I would quote the Shakespere, but you’re no Horatio, and I know you’re failing English.”

Screw him.  Danny had met Shakespere, and he’d seen Hamlet performed by ghosts.

“The Fey are quite real, in any case, and they have certain social standards.  Persons of high rank are expected to have appropriate garb, weaponry, servants…”  He trailed off, looking significantly at Danny.  

He had to be kidding.  

But Vlad wasn’t looking at him, and therefore was not given the benefit of the full force of the most incredulous expression he could muster.  Instead, Vlad was opening his briefcase and pulling out a tablet.  He turned it on and showed it to Danny.  

There was a picture on the screen of a roughly humanoid creature with bright pink skin, large dark eyes, four arms, a furry, fluffy tail longer than it was tall, fuzzy moth-like wings, fern-shaped antennae, and long, soft-looking ears.  The image didn’t give any scale, but it felt small, with disproportionately large head, feet, and hands.  Their hands and feet were covered in black.  

“This is what the higher-class servants look like.  Look familiar?” 

Vlad’s stupid face was so smug Danny would bet that there was a smugness shortage somewhere else in the world.  

“You wouldn’t have to do much beyond follow my instructions and remain at my side while there.  The event is only a few nights long.  I’ll be back in a few days to pick you up - in a way that will keep your parents from guessing anything, of course - once you’re done getting ready.”  Another, smugger, grin spread over Vlad’s face.  “You can decide whether or not to cooperate then, but I urge you to do so.  After all, I doubt you want to be stuck like this forever.”  He stood up and two more duplicates materialized behind him.  “Now, I have a ghost attack to stage.”

.

Danny’s parents completely bought Vlad’s ghost attack story because, well, it had been a ghost attack.  Technically.  The ghost was just Vlad.  And they were terrible at charades.  

Okay, maybe Danny was terrible at charades, too, but come on.  He deserved a break.  It wasn’t like he was getting one in anything else.  

The scales on his shoulders were developing into wings.  His tail was getting longer and fluffier.  The hard, black, nail-like substance on his fingers and feet was creeping upward to his wrists and ankles.  His second set of arms was getting bigger, longer.  His teeth were getting sharper.  What was left of his voice was gone, replaced by something that quietly chirped and purred deep in his chest.  The ‘horns’ on his head were growing into fuzzy antennae.  His hearing and sight were so oversensitive he wanted to just burrow into a pile of blankets and stay there.  He was shrinking.  

His parents were beside themselves.  And they kept having to go take care of minor ghost attacks.  

He wrapped his tail around him and curled deeper into his blankets.  This transformation business was exhausting.  Or maybe it was just that what he was getting turned into that was exhausting.  

He looked at the mirror.  He looked awful.  Sick.  The domino-mask black streak across his eyes didn’t help with that impression.

He was going to have to take Vlad up on his offer.

.

“It’s really quite remarkable, the system the Fey have,” pontificated Vlad after he had ‘extracted’ Danny from the lab.  “Their various castes are perfectly suited for their assigned tasks.  They’re designed that way.  Born that way, usually.  For example, the form that you yourself are taking at the moment?  A perfect servant for the High Fey.  Many hands to work and hold and serve, wings, to ensure they can follow everywhere, sharp eyes the better to see things that need to be cleaned or repaired, sharp ears the better to hear orders, attractive enough to be decorative, but not distracting.”

First off: Ew.  Secondly: Vlad really liked to hear the sound of his own voice, didn’t he?

“Antennae,” continued Vlad, “to ensure harmonious movement with other servants.  Now, the High Fey, who I most resemble…”

Danny tuned him out, instead choosing to watch the green clouds of the Ghost Zone roll by.  The way they were traveling was actually pretty interesting.  Vlad had gotten a chariot somewhere and hooked it up to his flying goon squad, AKA the inexplicably yiddish vultures.  

They were flying in a direction Danny had never been in before.  The islands and doors they were passing were new, strange.  Floating trees and strange stone circles dominated the ecto-scape.  As they continued, they tended to floating forests and island-hills with formations of standing stones.  

Vlad, meanwhile, continued talking.  

“... of course, animal servants are considered gauche - too human, too mortal.  And the farmer caste is entirely different…”

Danny tuned him out again.  

A great mountain was rising up out of the trees around them, its sides gray and silvery.  There was a circular hole in its face, the edges of it studded with slabs like the ones he’d seen earlier in the standing-stone circles.

They looked like teeth.

The chariot flew right through them.  

On the other side was light - but this light didn’t hurt his eyes.  There was no sun in the sky, only a moon floating over a twilight purple-blue backdrop.  Green lawns stretched in all directions, stopping against tall, green trees and the glittering walls of a literal fairy-tale castle.  

Other chariots were sweeping down to the drive of the castle, tall, colorful beings fluttering out of them, escorted by shorter fluttering beings.  

Like Danny.  

There was a buzzing– No, not quite a buzzing, but what else could he call it? – in… in Danny’s antennae.  He rubbed their bases, wary of directly touching the delicate fronds.  

“Don’t fight it,” said Vlad, jovially.  “After all, you aren’t trained as a servant.  You’ll need all the help you can get.”

Danny glared at him, but the expression was unusually hard to form.  

“See?  At this point, you would usually be calling me names.  Lovely, isn’t it, that you can’t?  No way for careless servants to make unwise deals or spread secrets with loose lips - their loyalty is reserved for their High Fey lords.”

Vlad really, really liked the sound of his own voice.  

If this worked on fairytale rules like Vlad was suggesting, he was screwed.  

His head felt really weird.  

The chariot landed, and Danny jumped out, not even quite thinking about what he was doing, and swung around to Vlad’s door, opening it so Vlad could step out, his even-flashier-than-usual cape billowing behind him.  

“Very good, Daniel.  See?  Keep things up, and I’ll make sure you get back to your… admittedly less-useful regular body.”

.

Danny padded behind Vlad, hating how tall everything here was and how short he himself was like this.  He’d earned his five-foot-five stature with a lot of hard work!  Right now, he wasn’t sure how tall he was, but he felt that it was closer to four feet than five.  

It was not a great feeling.  

He really didn’t like this.  

He stayed close.  Rather, he stayed at the distance the little itch in the back of his head told him was appropriate.  Meanwhile, Vlad smarmed about with literally sparkling people.  They were all so tall, with inhumanly sharp features and wings far more colorful and varied than Danny’s or those of his fellow servants.  

Fellow servants.  

He folded his hands behind him as well as he could, given his wings.  This was temporary.  It was.  

And then one of the tall people was right in front of him, fingers under his chin, tipping his head up, examining him with many-colored eyes, tilting his head back and forth.  He took a step back.  

The person - the fey? - turned to say something to Vlad.  Their voice sounded like it was underwater.  Meanwhile, a small servant with the same coloration as the person talking to Vlad stepped forward and regarded Danny curiously.  

They were a solid two inches taller than Danny right now.  He turned his head away.  The other servant stepped into his field of view again, and the feeling of being observed redoubled.  

“Daniel,” said Vlad sharply.  

Danny hurried to follow him.  

“Now, you see,” said Vlad, to the small group of fey he had gathered around himself, “I am more than capable, and I can serve as your link to the human world.  We can bring in materials, performers, art, artists… anything you can think of.”

Some of the fey nodded.  Others looked dubious.  

“And at whose discretion would you direct these imports?” asked one.  

Danny blinked, somehow surprised he could understand this fey when he… when he couldn’t understand any of the others.  

He really didn’t like this.  

He liked it even less when the fey made eye contact with him.  

“At the discretion of whoever secured my services,” said Vlad, “and the high king, of course.  With, perhaps, a few scruples for myself.”  He raised his glass.  

“Very well,” said the fey.  “I shall sponsor you, as you say.  But one gift must be exchanged for another.”

“Anything in my possession that I can– Daniel, stop that at once!”  Danny dropped Vlad’s cape and shook his head vehemently.  That was a bad kind of promise to make.  Especially when it could be argued that Danny was in his possession.  

“Perhaps I could take that unruly servant off your hands.”

“Ah,” said Vlad, getting a clue.  “Perhaps not.  Might the gift be your first delivery instead?”

The fey hummed.  “Perhaps.  We have much to discuss.”  

.

“I suppose you were not a terrible servant tonight,” said Vlad as they flew away in the chariot.  “Are you sure you don’t want to practice a little longer?”

Danny tried to scowl at him, but it was becoming harder and harder to make any expression that wasn’t neutral and pleasant.  Apparently, his transformation hadn’t quite been finished yet.  

“I suppose I should tell you how to reverse your transformation,” said Vlad.  “But it will be so much more fun to show you.”

What did that mean?

A duplicate appeared behind Danny, grabbed the wings he was only just beginning to get used to, and severed them with a sharp-edged ecto-construct.  

Danny shrieked.  

Because he could shriek.  The transformation that had taken days, gone in a moment.

“See?” said Vlad.  “Easy.”

“What the heck, you jerk!”

“Tut tut tut–”

“Who even says that–”

“If you want to get home safely, you should reconsider attacking me.  I am the one who knows how to get back.”

Danny sat down in a huff.  

“Now, let’s start discussing the cover story we will tell your parents about our adventures, hm?”

[picturejasper20]

I usually seen in phanfics that Vlad almost all the time refers to Danny as his full name ¨Daniel¨. And look, this is in part true but if you look in the series you can find some example of him calling Danny well Danny.

The first context seems to be when he is provoking or messing with Danny. He has the upper hand in these scenarios, so him calling Danny by his nickname could be a way of mocking Danny

In ¨Maternal Instincts¨ Vlad calls him Danny after he used the Plasmius Maximus on Danny and deactivated his powers for 3 hours. This is when he is about to send his animal ghosts to chase Danny down.

He does something similar to this in ¨Eye for an Eye¨ in the middle of their ¨prank wars¨, giving Danny a warning next time he considers pulling up pranks to him again.

There are instances he uses this when he is working together with Danny. He mainly does this in ¨Torrent of Terror¨ after he asks for Danny's help. I suppose it is the for the sake of the two teaming up from what i get.

In Maternal Instincs, he refers to Danny as ¨Danny¨ after he gets beaten up by Danny in the fight near the end of the episode. Maybe it is because he admits defeat? I'm not sure.

Then there are occasions he refers to Danny as ¨Danny Fenton¨ when he isn't talking to Danny or he is talking about Danny to other people, like in Eye for an Eye when he is talking to the voters and in ¨Torrent of Terror¨ when he directs himself to Sam and Tucker. I guess it could be for the sake of keeping up appearance. This gives the idea that he mainly refers to Danny as ¨Daniel¨ when he is talking to Danny and not when he is talking to other people about him.

I think there are more examples of these but these are the ones i remember the most.

[bongo-clash]

I Wonder if I Would Delete You

Ectober week prompts: Forest He thinks about the corpse in the woods sometimes. Hard to forget where you are buried.

'Valerie Gray finds out that the resident ghost kid was never buried beneath a grave. Valerie Gray finds out that there’s a body in the woods.'

(Content warnings in tags || fic under cut!!)

-

Valerie remembers, very vaguely, the look on Sam and Tucker’s face on the first day of highschool. 

They usually had a third kid with them, she knew. Danny. She’d seen the briefest glimpse of his face in the newspaper near the end of the holidays, the offhand worry of her father when he brought it up once and never again. Nothing substantial, just ‘You know the Fenton’s youngest? Danny, I think his name was, in your year. Apparently he went missing on Tuesday and they haven’t found a sign of him since.’. He slipped through the cracks of freshman year, and the ones who’d known him since elementary school noticed (Dash, in particular, had whined at the absence of his favourite punching bag, made a face at the news, and stopped talking about it when he didn’t show up after a few days), but very few others did. 

He was just one of those kids who’d never really made much of an effort to cross anyone’s radar beyond his limited social circle. He just wasn’t someone who’d made themselves all that memorable, after all, plenty of kids from middle school weren’t going to Casper High; for all that it felt weird not to see them anymore, there wasn’t much to dwell on. 

His parents (the only thing he’d really been known for), though they were unnaturally quiet for the first few weeks, soon fell back into their obsession. His sister was still hoping he’d turn up again, but she was also a budding psychologist, and it was clear she was trying not to let it impede her when there was nothing she could do. It was just… such a non-issue for everyone else, in the end, even if no one knew why he went missing. (Even if Sam and Tucker sometimes made faces at each other, like they had something to say but couldn’t share it.)

It was all the more easy to forget when ghosts started showing up in Amity Park. Many regularly, one constant: Phantom. 

Valerie hates his guts more than anything else, if she had to pick. Even if no one really got hurt in the fights, property damage skyrocketed, their day-to-day became chaos, and especially at first, everyone was scared. When the ghost kid ruined her life, hatred bloomed like hogweed in her chest, but the people in her class loved him. A mysterious superhero, with cool powers, flying around town every day and every night to fight off creatures from another dimension in a weird, glowing costume? It was like something out of a comic book, of course they loved it, but all she could think about was how much collateral was left in the wake, the image of that ghost and his stupid dog tearing through her life and leaving nothing but fragment pieces behind, spilt like a stain in her memory. Green, ugly, and hard to wash out. It was only natural that she took up the opportunity to get revenge when it found her, even if she didn’t trust Masters as far as she could throw him. 

This is all to say: the last two years of her life have been busy. It’s a hard wire to walk on- between staying afloat enough to pass her classes, keeping up with her job to help her dad, trying to keep violent ghosts from invading the town and desperately trying to get people to see that the worst one of them all is the one that keeps attempting to earn their trust- she barely has time for anything else. Sometimes, she even lets Phantom deal with the ghosts if they’re pathetic enough, because she’s sure he’s playing the long game with them but it’s been a long game, and she really does need to keep living her life. She’s a junior, now; she’ll be seventeen in the new year, and her dad’s so excited to teach her how to drive. She’s not going to let the world stop turning for a couple of ghosts. 

It’s one of those days, though, where she figures Phantom’s been flying around for a bit too long, and it’s time for an intervention. Can’t let him get too confident in his welcome. So, she’s suited up and following his signature with a tracker, listening as the thing ticks like a Geiger counter to signify the proximity, scanning the horizon for a familiar glowing silhouette and keeping her ectogun clasped in one hand, ready to shoot first and never ask. 

Over the course of her flight, she finds herself much further from the centre of town than the ghost is usually spotted, but his signature is lit up green on her scanner, and it’s not moved once. By the time his figure comes into view, she’s barely in Amity’s borders at all, hovering on the cusp of thick woodlands and wild, uncut grass on its edges. 

She spots a complicated look on his face as she lands. Valerie doesn’t know who he’s pretending for. 

“What are you doing here, ghost?”

Phantom doesn’t dignify her with a face-to-face conversation. His head tilts like he’s trying to look at her without eyes, and his hands lift to protect his chest even though she’s facing his back; if she had to try and describe his posture, it would be ‘troubled’. Still, though, she can’t forget this is a ghost. Hard to with the glow and the slight transparency and the unnatural white shade of his hair, but still, the thing she’s talking to here isn’t a person no matter how much his figure suggests it. 

His shoulders keep making weird shrugging motions, half failing on the way down and sometimes jerking backwards, and she thinks he’s trying to figure out how people breathe. “Hi, Red.” He says, something imitating a sigh, and his behaviour is as unusual as it is fascinating, but he’s deflecting and she won’t have it. 

“Answer the question.”

“I- it’s nothing you’d find interesting. I’m not gonna do anything.”

Her eyes narrow with suspicion, hold on her ecto-gun tightening near the trigger. “And I’m supposed to just believe that? Let me guess: that dog ripping my house apart was you ‘doing nothing’ too.”

“No!” He retorts, finally turning around, eyes wide. His hands are twitching at his side, half-trembling, and the underneaths of his nuclear-waste eyes are oddly shadowed- as if ghosts can even sleep, let alone get tired. “No, that wasn’t nothing, and I’ve been sorry about that ever since it happened, but I- this isn’t about that. This isn’t about anything- it’s just… complicated. And not your business.”

Well, that’s not worrying at all. She doesn’t know what he’s trying to achieve by spouting such ridiculous crap, but she’s not picking it up regardless. “What are you doing, Phantom.” It’s not a question. 

“I just said-“

“That was not an answer.” Valerie snaps, lifting up the nozzle of the ectoweapon from the ghost’s torso to point right between his eyes. “You know I won’t hesitate to pull this trigger, Phantom; you know I’ll tear you apart. Tell me what you’re doing.”

The part of her that’s read all of the Fentons’ academic papers knows ghosts don’t feel real emotions, knows any features can be manipulated to their liking for whatever ridiculous goal they’ve set their sights on. The part of her that picks at her old bleeding heart twinges at the look on Phantom’s face, no matter how superficial. The shadows under his eyes look like bruises in this light. Tired, tired, tired.

He sighs: a thing he has no need for and probably only does to make himself seem more human. “You really want to know?” He responds, turning around once again so he doesn’t have to look her in the eyes. Stupid, too, considering he’s turning his back to the gun. “Fine. Follow me, then.”

She doesn’t deign to give him an answer, but he seems to interpret the silence as one either way. He goes forward into the thick, and before he can disappear, she follows. 

The ghost isn’t floating, is the first thing she notices. 

It’s their natural instinct, she’s sure; half of them probably don’t even remember how to walk, with all the time they spend up in the air or drifting about in whatever version of Hell they come from. But Phantom walks now like his feet are tethered to the ground, forced into it with something deeper than gravity. For all that he usually never shuts up, he doesn’t say a word. It seems he doesn’t even notice she’s still aiming a blaster at the back of his head, doesn’t even care. 

Time passes between steps. Slowly, as if the further they walk the deeper into space they go, the sunlight overhead is shut away by canopy cover. Oak and ashwood trees disperse themselves along a nonexistent path, roots hidden beneath the browns of old leaf litter and dirt, an imitation of tripwires as Valerie tries not to catch her feet on something. The forest is too dense for her hoverboard. She’d crash into all the low-branches if she tried. Grounded as he is, though, Phantom doesn’t trip once; there’s got to be a reason he has the route memorised, if he’s not just leading her in circles, but she’s never caught him around this area before. Is this where he goes after fights? 

An artificial night surrounds them by the time Phantom begins to slow down, stars in the form of microscopic sunspots and the vague shine of lichens. It comes through something silver in the place they’d stopped- just underneath an oak’s armspan. Old leaf litter covers what looks like a molehill. 

Phantom sits down, but she doesn’t bother to do the same, too wary. “What is this?” She questions. “What are you doing?”

“I’ll told you I wasn’t gonna do anything.” He says, posture hunched over. “I just wanted to… y’know, sit for a bit.”

Yeah, not buying it. She rounds his figure, not quite putting herself in his direct line of sight, but enough that they can both see each other’s front, and enough that she can gauge his expression, for as little as that counts for. 

…Maybe a little more than she bargained it counting for, if she’s being honest. His lips are pinched to a downward-curving line, like he’s trying to hide the shape by pursing them but failing. His knees are pressed to his chest, arms wrapped around and gripping each other like a lifeline, jumpsuit creasing oddly around them for all that it shouldn’t, with ghost fabrics not adhering to normal physics. The eyes are worst of all, though. Seeming duller, somehow- less green and more turquoise, maybe- shining with something Valerie can’t parse and doesn’t like. Something familiar on an unrecognisable face, settled onto the slight bump in the dirt. 

There’s a direction her brain his heading to in its conclusion, because this is a ghost looking far too intensely at raised ground, and really, there’s only so many conclusions she can reach, no matter how much she hates it. 

It’s rude to ask, she knows. She lets it slip anyway. “Phantom,” She starts, oddly absent of her usual barbs past the dread. “What’s under there?”

His gaze flicks briefly towards her, shoulders tightened and wary of the questioning. She’s never seen him this closed off before. “You don’t wanna know.”

“Tell me.”

“Idon’t want you to know.”

“Phantom.”

Phantom’s expression is awful, awful, awful. “I died two years ago.” He says, voice devoid. “No one’s found me yet.”

Oh. 

Oh. 

Oh God. 

This is still in Amity Park borders. It’s on the cusp, near the edge, but this is still Amity. This is about a thirty minute walk from the other end of Casper High; if you turned left from where she’s standing and kept going, you could probably come out the other side near the Nasty Burger, its back some distance to all the trees. This is Amity Park, and she’s been living in its vicinity all her life, and there’s a body in the woods and no one knows it’s here. 

Briefly, her mind brings forth the image of something beneath the soil, and she closes her mouth around the bile it sends careening up her throat. She doesn’t know what Phantom might have looked like before he died, but she’s certain that if she tried to look, all she’d find would be bones. It’s been more than long enough for the rot to set in and run its course, anything more than that melted away and chewed through by whatever insects buried themselves with him in the decay. She feels like the smell of something foul is caught in her nose now that she knows what she’s practically standing on. She wonders if he’s buried shallow. Guesses at the answer lying idle in the turned soil.

He takes in her speechlessness with a strange mix of fear and exhaustion. “Red? You still in there?”

“You- I- two years ago?” And it’s not like her, but she can’t help it. There’s nothing she can say in the face of this, nothing she can feel beyond the roiling wave of nausea and catatonic shock. They looked about the same age when she started out, and he died two years ago. He looks younger than her now.

“I’d be sixteen this year.” He says, helpfully, as if that makes anything easier. She got her provisional driver’s license in the mail a few months ago and she’ll be old enough to take lessons next year, and he’d be doing the same thing as she is around now but he’s dead. He’s dead and she’s not heard a thing about a kid dying in the last few years. He’s dead and buried shallow. 

There’s not many other conclusions to reach. She’s not sure how it’s never crossed her mind before now, but for the first time in two years, Valerie wonders who Phantom used to be. Wonders what he did to get murdered in secret. 

Wonders if who (or what) did it is still around. 

[weywookitswestwood]

HEYYO I FINISHED MY VIV CHARACTER ANALYSIS/BIO/HCS!! +18

(UPDATE: I added a few more hcs cuz I forgot to add them. I might remember more so expect the list to get a little longer)

Just putting a few content warnings out there before you go on scrollin’, there are some nsfw hcs down below so if you’re under 18, you’re in the wrong place. Also there is some mentions of family em*tional *buse and trauma so please skip if you don’t wanna read. Anyways, please enjoy~

Full name: Viviano Westwood (wasn’t born with a middle name)

Nicknames: Westwood, V, Viv, Vivi(don’t ever call him this, he’ll get mad), Vivikins(Or this), Big Guy/Fella/Lug, Vivano, Vibiano, Fabiano, Steve, Eastwood, Winwood, Jarhead(on second thought, only refer to him as either Westwood, V, or Viv)

Stand: Planet Waves (DISC)

Birthday: July 31st, 1983

Zodiac: Boar

Age: 28

Height: 6’1 (186 cm)

Nationality: American (Mostly of English and a bit of Italian descent)

Occupation: G. D. St. Prison guard

Personality: Large and in charge… sort of. Values brawn over brains. Not meaning he’s stupid, he’s just a simple man. Lacks in direction, both figuratively and literally. Because of his physical strength and his simple nature, he gets treated like an ox, whether it be from his parents or his job. Due to his upbringing, he has difficulty opening up or being sentimental. Instead, he copes through anger such as punching walls or snapping at people. He sees crying or being vulnerable as signs of weakness, another result from his upbringing. Likes to antagonize weak targets or criminals to make himself feel better. He claims he turned to the justice system because he wanted to keep evil people locked up for good from the public. That could be true, BUT others around him know there’s more to it than the reason he gives. Behind this mask, he’s an insecure and lonely man. Doesn’t have a spouse or kids or pets. He can be sociable, but doesn’t have any close friends. His love life is zero to none. He relishes in the heat of the moment, but once the discussion of marriage or starting a family is brought up, he’s out the door. Despite his flaws, he’s strong, resilient and yearns for excitement in his life. Perhaps being with the right people, he can find himself underneath that cold exterior and be a nicer, happier guy.

Favorite musician: Earth, Wind, & Fire, The Marshall Tucker Band(he’s a closeted country fan), and not a fan of the singer but he likes Fantasy by Mariah Carey

Favorite book: Playboy magazine

Favorite food: Anything SPICY

Background: Viviano was born in 1983 in Texas to a military veteran father and a hairdresser mother. From the time he was in diapers to 12 years of age, he lived a strict military lifestyle. No, his father wasn’t physical towards Viviano, but their relationship was better described as a “drill sergeant and cadet” dynamic than a “father and son” one. Basically this meant raising Viv how to be a “man” like teaching him how to use a gun at 4 years old and berating him if he began to cry. If there was one thing Viviano feared the most… it was his father. He had a close relationship to his mother, even being labeled a “momma’s boy” by his dad.

By 12, his parents divorced and he chose to go with his mother to Florida, not before his father called him a “disappointment”. For seven years, Viviano lived with his mom in Port Orange, Florida, being enrolled in junior high. While not as bad as his father and at times would be overly affectionate, his mom did boss him around. He was a growing boy after all, he was able to reach and physically do things that she couldn’t. At school, teachers looked down at him as a strong, yet intellectually incompetent boy, who could care less about his grades. Not only that, he needed to boss someone like how his parents bossed him, so he made a name for himself as a bully. He would continue to pick on classmates all through high school until his grades were so abysmal he had to be held back in his senior year and didn’t graduate until the year 2002 when he was about 19. Both of his parents were ashamed of this news.

After graduating high school, he tried to join the military but after three months of boot camp, he left. His father called him a “lost cause”. It was the most humiliating moment of his life. He got a job at a Miami customs house and was there for years until he was let go. He wouldn’t tell anyone why but supposedly it was due to his temper. At 25, he got a job as a prison guard at the Green Dolphin State Prison.

Random headcanons: (Warning: some are sfw/nsfw)

SFW:

-Has a bit of a gambling addiction

-Only child

-Not the best driver, gets worked up if he misses his turn

-Mf doesn’t wear socks (I know I bring this up constantly as a joke but this is canon)

-His mom cuts his hair

-Overheats easily, he’s always warm to the touch not even an ice bath will cool him down

-Big sports fan, especially football and baseball, his favorite teams are the Dallas Cowboys and the Miami Marlins, respectively

-Has a really bad habit of cracking his knuckles

-Has naturally long eyelashes

-Doesn’t really have any talents besides bench pressing and being strong

-He can be self conscious about trivial things like being insecure about the size of his hands (he’s afraid of having small hands)

-Accidentally punched his grandma in the chest after tickling him too hard (she was okay just had to go to the hospital for a small fracture in her ribcage)

-Misses living in Texas

-He had a bit of a Texan accent growing up, it’s mostly gone but it’ll randomly come up when his voice cracks

-Sucks at flirting

-Doesn’t have a filter

NSFW:

-Not a virgin

-If you ask him who he’s into, he would say women but secretly, he’s a bit curious if ya catch my drift

-Doesn’t really have a type as long as the woman is of age, consenting, and isn’t a bitchy hag

-Likes being the dominant one when it comes to… ahem, the bed

-He likes to make anything into a “battle”; sex, play wrestling, tickle fights, etc. he’ll do whatever it takes to make his partner submit (psst hey you, yeah you, there’s a way to beat him, he’s super ticklish on his belly, ribs, and feet, get him in one of his death spots, he’ll be sobbing for mercy)

-Frequently gets hard ons, even in the most inconvenient of times (at work)

-Likes to be on top, but is nice enough to be a service top too

-Loves a partner who’s either a switch or just as domineering as he is

-One of his kinks is bondage, loves the idea of cuffing up his partner and letting his hands roam all over their body

-Can see him being a foot guy (dunno why, just cuz I guess); prefers to give than to receive because he’s ticklish but will be okay receiving it if his partner really wants to; but he loves foot jobs

-His favorite thing (I’m sorry everyone)… is CBT; any chance his partner is grabbing or crushing him down there, he’s on cloud nine (this part was honestly painful to write)

-Loves oral, receiving that is (but he likes to give as well)

[punchyrowrow]

Dimensional Shift

The Gang™ is running out of time. They've been fighting this random ghost that showed up out of nowhere. This ones really hard on Danny because he has to be extra careful not to get hit. This new ghost keeps blasting things that turn into slightly different versions of themselves. He hit a Nasty Burger bag sitting next to a trash can and when the light cleared, it said Greasy Beef. A blast hit Tuckers PDA and suddenly it was replaced with a small touch screen tablet. Around a corner, Wes held on to his camera. He wanted to get closer but this was the only place he could safely hide. As much as he wanted a better shot and loathed Fenton (or said he did) he couldn't help but remember how scared the halfa was last month when Wes accidentally got between Skulker and his prey. Once Danny knew he was ok, he reeled into him about how stupid he was for still following him around. He tried to convince Wes to stop it all but of course Wes didn't agree to that. The two landed on a nice middle ground of the idiot only showing up to a fight after Danny is already there and Staying. Hidden. Danny emphasized the last two words by poking his finger into Wes's shoulder hard enough to push him back a little.

So here he was, taking cover behind a wall so the stupid and not at all terrifying ghost kid who he hates, won't cook him later. He wanted the best shot of this fight but it was hard with the angle so he kept his camera out from behind the cover of the wall and just looked through the viewfinder. While keeping his eyes on Danny, he missed the purple blast coming right for him. His camera was suddenly surrounded in a bright light and when it was gone, he was holding a pencil and piece of paper.

Danny was fighting back with everything he had. He had gone the entire time without getting hit directly by a blast, but he was getting hit by things getting kick backed by this ghosts beams.

After Danny threw another blow at this specter, he was quickly hit by a scooter that now says Dagger. Sam and Tucker were huddled around a device using the same technology as one of the thermoses (which were discarded next to them with, what Tucker thinks is, broccoli cheddar soup spilling out of them).

"Is it ready?" Danny yells over the coms in their ears.

"Not yet! You need to distract him for a couple more minutes!" Sam yelled back, seeing Tucker still struggling with his new device. At that same time, Danny dodged yet another blow from the mysterious ghost.

Wes was trying to line up another photo, now with his phone camera. The picture won't be as good but at least it will be something. He's also not as hidden now se he can keep an eye on both ghouls in the air. He won't be losing another camera today. He snapped a shot of Danny evading yet another beam.

Danny's relief was short lived. After the beam missed him, he heard a crash from behind him and his two best friends yell. He raced towards them and landed. They were both blown backwards from the device but they were ok. As for the device, its now pieces of something he doesn't recognize.

Danny was checking on his friends when he heard a voice call his name behind him. He turned to see Wes Weston running from around a corner. Quickly after seeing that, he saw a purple light hurdling towards him. It was too close for him to react and it hit the ground directly in front of him. He got knocked back and

Wes saw Danny hit the ground hard. And what's worse is he was not getting back up. Wes began sprinting as fast as he could towards the three of them to help. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the robed spirit land and conjure another ball of light. He tried to run fast and began calling Danny's name, hoping the moron would wake up in time. He was getting closer and closer and Danny began to stir. Wes let out a breath but didn't slow down. The light in the corner of his eye grew to its apex. Wes called again. "Danny! Wake up!" And then it light was moving. Hurdling towards the defenseless group. Wes wasn't close enough to move them and, while Danny was finally awake, he wasn't aware enough to do anything. So Wes did the only other thing he could think of. The beam was getting closer and closer and Wesley Weston simply...dove in front of it.

Danny was gonna kill him for doing the exact thing he specifically asked him not to do only four weeks ago.

Danny saw the light coming for him. And then he saw the ginger idiot getting in the way. Again. His eyes widen when he realizes what's happening he immediately gets up but it's too late.

Wes feels it. The warmth surrounding him. The last thing he sees is Danny getting up with a speed he's never seen before. But he's not fast enough. The light envelopes him just like the warmth. He's flying and falling and moving and feeling. Everything is happening.

And then nothing is happening. And he's on his back. His eyes are closed. He tries to move but it hurts. Like he's been laying in the same position for a long time. He slowly peels his eyes open and he's in a room. It's a large and ornate room. With a large and extremely comfortable bed. A small clatter comes from just next to him. He looks near the bedside and sees someone crouched down. He can't see his face, but he is wearing a nice shirt with some slacks. His hair is dark and as he gets up he can see that...

It's Danny.

Danny stands up and places a mostly empty glass with a bit of water still at the bottom, back on the table.

"Danny?" Wes asks quietly, not totally sure of where exactly he is. Or how he got here. Or why Danny is dressed so nice.

The well dressed teenager finally notices that Wes is awake. "Oh. Uh. I spilled your water." He points to the glass. "Sorry." It sounded f=very insincere.

"Uh. I'll..." He looks around like he isn't super sure what to do or like he doesn't really want to be bothered with all of this. "I'll go tell your dad you're up." His dad is here? Danny begins to walk away but Wes calls for him to stop. Danny turns around. He looks a little confused.

"What happened? Where are we?" Wes finally asks.

"You're at my house?" Danny answered like is was a trick question. "You passed out during dinner so my father had someone put you in here to rest. Let me grab your dad." Danny turned around again and headed for the door. Wes took another look around the out of place room. "FentonWorks looks a lot different on the inside."

Danny stopped dead in his tracks. He slowly turned around to look back at Wes. He just stared for a moment before asking "how do you know tha-" Suddenly a voice came from the hallway that made the tension snap. "Daniel? Is everything alright?" Both boys looked to the door where a well dressed man with gray hair pulled pack in a low ponytail appeared. Wes quickly recognized him as "Mr. Masters?" Wes asked. Danny took one more look back at Wes. The last few minutes with this guy have left him beyond confused. He started walking to the door. "He just woke up. I was just about to get his dad." Vlad pats Danny on the shoulder. "I'll retrieve him. You stay here and keep on eye on him." Vlad is about to leave but Danny stops him. "Please. I'd really rather get him." Vlad faces him very quickly and gives him a stern look. "I. Will get him." Danny holds eye contact like he is challenging him. After no change in the older man, he deflates and rolls his eyes. "Yes Father." Vlad grins a bit and ruffles the young man's hair. He walks back out if the room.

Danny takes a deep breath before facing Wes again. While he would love to ask some questions, he's not really in the mood to unpack any of the answers he might receive. When he does finally turn around back to the guy in the bed, he is met with the widest eyes he's ever seen. He could swear that Wes was on a contest for the widest jaw. "oh god, are you having a stroke?" bit instead of an answer, he was defend by the guy.

"FATHER?!"

------------------

Oh wow did you actually finish this? I got a silly idea at like 11pm to write something about Wes getting stuck in another dimension. So I sent the next three and a half hours doing just that.

I would like to say 1. thank you for reading. 2. this is really the first story I've ever written besides like three dribbles I have on my account. So if it doesn't seem like the best writing, that's why. Or maybe I'm just a bad writer... 3. I would like to reiterate that I got the idea for this story about three and a half hours ago I thought it would be funny if Wes had to convince DANNY that Fenton is Phantom. I have spent the time since, writing. It's now almost 3am and I'm very tired. I don't know how good this is or where/if I'll go anywhere with it but it is what it is. If you really really liked it, then I might try to keep writing but I've literally never done this before so who knows!

Anywho! Thank you for sticking around and reading this. I'm gonna go to bed. Good night!

[aikoiya]

DP Prompt - Purify (& Aftermath)

Now, we've all seen fics where the Fentons try to cure Danny & Danny struggles, saying that they'll kill him & "please stop, I'm still your son" & then he dies.

But I don't think I've ever seen one also get the Fentons' reaction after he does. Them expecting to have just expunged Phantom, but doing so killed both sides of him. Where they really were doing it to save Danny's life & they were so sure it would work.

Thing is, it would've worked had Danny actually been possessed, but because Fenton & Phantom were one & the same, it killed him.

So his body is left with half the ectoplasm in his body bleeding away to leaving him looking like half Fenton & half Phantom.

I wanna see them crushed. Both of them. I want them destroyed & mourning in 2 completely different ways. Jack being inconsolable & Maddie in frantic disbelief, asserting that it should've worked, why didn't it work, & no, it's just a ghostly trick. Her baby boy is out there, she's sure of it.

I wanna see Jazz hate them for killing her baby brother, Sam & Tucker for killing their best friend. Tucker's practical brother. And in Sam's case, her maybe more than a best friend.

I wanna see the Fentons struggle with keeping the ghosts at bay because now that there's no Phantom, they're running rampant.

I wanna see the town rally against the Fentons for killing their protector.

I want havoc!

I want them to only now realize just how much Phantom did for them.

I want them to ask for Vlad's help, who knows what they did & despite how much they fought, he really did care for Daniel (in his own twisted way). How it makes him want to kill Jack even more now, not just for himself, but also for his little badger.

I want him to also feel betrayed by Maddie &, suddenly, she doesn't look like as much of an angel as she did before.

I want him to come to the realization that he's alone again & it's devastating to him. Then he remembers Ellie & for a brief second, hope wells up in his chest, until he remembers how he'd melted her down. It suddenly no longer matters to him that she wasn't the perfect clone. Just that he's not entirely alone even if she hates him.

I want the Fentons to eventually learn that Vlad & Plasmius are one & the same. At first, they think Vlad's being possessed like Danny was, but then Vlad rages at them & explains what'd happened in the hospital while they were off playing happy family as he rotted away like an infected wound. How it was their proto-portal that made him a freak & their ghost portal did the same to their son. How there is only one entity inside his body & his name is Vlad. How Daniel was the same & they tortured him for something that was their fault.

He calls them murderers & kid-killers (rather hypocritically) & he loathes them both.

Maybe, for the purpose of allowing a ray of hope to shine only to snuff it out afterwards, Danny does return as a full ghost, but he's younger than he should be (because he died a frightened child) he remembers nothing of his life & only has brief flashes of his time as Phantom. But he's a broken little thing with the appearance of both Fenton & Phantom fused together, split right down the middle. Fenton in the white & black hazmat that he wore just before he turned halfa. His arm is burned to a crisp where he touched the button inside the portal with, still lightly steaming, & lictenburg scars that glow going up his arm, his neck, branching out at his chest to cover his cheek & where his heart used to be, ectoplasmic replicas of the very straps that his parents had used to strap him down were bound tightly to his wrists & ankles, so tight that they bit into the skin, & he keeps losing consistency only to reform. He is, in a word, unstable. He has a very pure & unfiltered love of space, but is extremely timid & has a chilling, soul-deep fear of doctors & scientists. But little else beyond that. His skin is ice blue with glowing constellation freckles.

He recognizes no one & he never will because some deeply-hidden part of him doesn't want to.

In the end, he's taken in by Soujorn, who takes him journeying all over the universe & Danny doesn't even look back once. And he's happy & his friends & sister are mournfully happy for him, but Jack & Maddie are destroyed.

Give me all of them grieving in their own ways.

Give

Me

ANGST!!

DP Character Masterlist

[weakly-skoodge]

Week Fourteen!

Skoodge leans himself forward, sitting as upright as he can, and yanks his antennae, slaps his cheeks, and motivationally whispers "Pull yourself together. you're an Invader, for Spork's sake!" to himself. "You're not at the end of your line just yet." Irkens do not have breakdowns. Invaders do not have breakdowns. Especially not in hot wired ships in empty parking lots in the middle of the night. He's going to make it through this, by golly! Tallest as his witness!

… Except…

… His Tallest are dead, aren't they…?

Is there… anything, left for him? Is there no one around to bear witness to him push forward?

With the current state of the Empire…

Is there any reason for him to even try?

He pinches at his neck. Rolling the metal chip underneath his skin between his index and his thumb.

There should be. There is.

The last time Skoodge remembers being happy was…

“I made it! I’m alive!”

Hobo-13.

He slumps back into his seat.

Why? What sense does that make?

He almost died. Again.

All because he was on Zim's team. Why would anyone be happy about that? No one in the known universe would be happy to see Zim, to be near Zim, to have Zim treat him the exact same way he used to back when –

"Oh, that’s. That makes sense."

Zim was treating Skoodge exactly how he did back when they were training to be Invaders.

Using him as bait, pushing and shoving, the teasing and taunting. That typical, smug expression on his face – the only expression that will always belong right there, on him. The one face, expression, that could tie any irken's spooch in knots. Haloed by the starlight.

It felt right.

More right than anything these past decades has.

Lying around in temporary housing units provided during downtime, facing enemies and surpassing them, finishing assignments and receiving praise (if there was any). It was never enough.

Is he too selfish? Too wanting, too demanding?

Skoodge has never been praised for his accomplishments. Not by anyone important. He's not sure he wants to.

All he wants is to go back. Doesn't he?

Training looks so much more appealing, these days.

Exchanging smiles, hiding laughs. Grabbing hands, leading feet.

He curls further into his seat, fingers still firmly pinching his skin. "… You're an idiot. Skoodge." He stares at his boots, at the floor of his ship, and then at nothing at all, soaking in his pure, unadulterated stupidity.

A giggle dislodges from his throat, and as his eyes close and his brows pinch with joy, he feels even more stupid than before.

The laughter dies down, and the ship is blanketed in an eerie quiet. Only the fans of the ship and his own PAK keep it from becoming completely silent.

There should be tears, forming under his eyes, right now. They always do when he thinks about training too hard.

Guess he's tuckered his ducts out from all the crying he did earlier today.

Coward.

Big, stinking, stupid runner. Running around like a headless… something.

Can't even insult right.

It'd be better, if there were someone else doing it. Maybe. Someone to keep him in check. And keep him away from all… this. Nonsense.

Skoodge opens his starmap, looking over nearby galaxies and systems, wracking his meat brain for which planet he's looking for. And when that doesn't work, he wracks his PAK for memory of where the Tallest sent him. Any mention, any name. Anything at all.

He taps the most backwater, out-of-the-way galaxy he can recall being on Irken maps.

There it is.

Does Zim even remember Skoodge?

Would he want to see me if he did?

Skoodge isn't sure what Urth is like…

The sounds of reconstruction and devastation linger, just outside his ship.

With a shaking claw, he taps the map until directions pop up in front of him. He commits every detail to memory, saving the location of Urth's and its galaxy in his PAK.

… but it can't be worse than this 

The engine spurs.

[mylifeisweirdok]

If u were to redesign Sam Manson what would u do and why?

Oo this is an interesting question!

As someone also from bumfuck nowhere Illinois, i dont see goths often. All the goths ive seen are when i travel to bigger places like nashville and st louis, and while I know amity park is supposed to be a growing metropolitan area,,, its not giving goth culture just yet.

I do however, see punks.

In my tiny town of 40 people, down the road, turn left at the horses and you've got yourself a camp of folks from all over. They often come into town, and most of them are punks of all types-anarcho, diesel, horror, emo, street, you name it they've been through my area.

One in particular catches my eye when thinking of Sam Manson tho: crust punk. (An uncommonly specific sub culture i know, i have a flair id add ill get into later.)

Think about it. Her folks are the richest in amity, they have an image to uphold. They have to be prim n proper, they have to say the right things and walk the right walk, but most of all? Theys gotta be clean. Dress pleats ironed in, suit jackets dry pressed, the whole shebang. So to have a kid who shops in the 25 cent bin that owns a pair of crust pants that (nothing to the folks who wear them, this is for imagery) if needed, could create an odor cloud big enough to keep mosquitos away? Nah, they'd resent that.

Sam's parents would hate what she wears and how she expresses herself in public and at school, and thats the exact reason she chose crust punk. She also might've played around the different sub cultures, picked and poked until she found crust. That's where my flair comes in.

Now don't quote me on this, im not a punk so they prolly have a better idea of the concept than i do, but im p sure crust punks often are also travelers. They like to get around quite a bit, and what mode of transport will come to the middle of the boonies? Trains.

I think, when the trio gets out of high school and the ghosts settle down a fair bit, Sam meets a trainhopper taking the next train south while at Nasty Burger with the other members of the defect quartet. The trainhopper explains what they do and ask if anyone knows its departure (tucker prolly can find it on that ancient ass pda of his). And that hopper gets her thinking.

Thinking's always been dangerous, it gets ideas flowing and movements started. Thinking is what starts rebellions. And from what we saw of canon Sam, she don't mind the idea of bein an upstart (meat eater v recyclotarian deate, anyone?)

And that thinking leads her through reddits of hoppers past sharing the knowledge that gets folks started. Trainhopping isnt only a skill, its a well-held secret lifestyle that can be ruined with one whistle blower. The art of hopping isnt on a random internet page, but the way to start hopping is. And so she thinks, she plans, and she waits.

Months pass, and she's been mullin the idea of it. She passes the idea through the others. They all think she would enjoy it, and worse comes to worse she comes back to amity (no the worst is dying on the rails, but they don't need to know that). They all agree its a step forward that Sam needs to take. And so she plans, she waits, and starts collecting bits n bobs to help her out there.

And finally, nearly a year later, sitting at nasty burger. The quartet is talking the box ghost, the latest giw scandle, the usual, when the trainhopper from before comes up and thanks them for their help last hear (maybe they remember the hopper?) And then Sam gets excited. Sam knows the time is right. Sam asks the hopper to take her with when they leave.

And they do.

So, to sum it all up, methinks Sam Manson, the altruistic, the earth lover, the chosen one of Undergrowth, friend of the protecter Danny Phantom, friend of the defect quartet, is a trainhopping crust punk.

[theoxbarrett]

Welcome to Aurora Bay, [THEODORE ‘THEO’ BARRETT]! I couldn’t help but notice you look an awful lot like [MILES TELLER]. You must be the [TWENTY EIGHT] year old [RETIRED SOLDIER]. Word is you’re [BRAVE] but can also be a bit [HARDHEADED] and your favorite song is [TRAVELIN SOLDIER BY THE CHICKS]. I also heard you’ll be staying in [SEABROOK QUARTER]. I’m sure you’ll love it! tw: war, ptsd, addiction

STATS.

full name: theodore barrett

nicknames: theo, barrett

gender & pronouns: cis male & he / him.

birthday: may 2nd

zodiac: Taurus

sexual & romantic orientation: heterosexual

occupation: retired/discharged from army

BIO.

theodore elias barrett was born and raised in Aurora Bay, by elaine marie barrett and thomas noah barrett. the youngest of three, theo from a young age was instilled with the importance of responsibility.

mr. barrett was a man who had served in two wars, only retiring due to old age but always kept his household run like an army base.

the kids were required to keep their rooms tidy, beds made, and referred to their father only by sir.

theo decided at a young age he would push those boundaries and often times would rebel against his father and his strict rules.

at school he was a class clown, liked by most everyone, and enjoyed making a little chaos in the sake of making people laugh.

he wasn't one to be serious for long and truly could make a friend out of any person he met.

school was always a struggle for him, he realized in around middle school the words would move around the page when he tried to read, or they would place certain words before others, making it take him twice as long to learn something.

at around the ninth grade tucker decided school was nothing something he cared much about, he would be found skipping school, smoking under the bleachers, and very rarely took his assignments seriously. when he did show up to class it was to merely make his other classmates laugh.

his father threatened to send him to military school if he didn't get his act together, but he would just fight back even harder and spend a couple days on a friend's couch to wait out his father's threat.

when he turned eighteen his father told him to basically pay rent or get out from under the roof. he floated between jobs for a little bit and crashed with friends until finally he walked passed a recruitment program when he turned 20.

it took only twenty mins for the officer to talk him into joining, his father's voice only fueling his desires to prove something.

what started off as a way to get back at his dad turned into a 8 year long commitment to the service.

to much to his surprise theo really thrilled in the army environment, the structure did him well, and he enjoyed the positive feedback from his supervisors, plus the yelling reminded him of home.

long gone was that goofy kid, and a responsible, be it uptight at times man was left.

training was the easy part, but once they were sent into the battle field it forever changed the person theo would become. seeing friends die right in front of your eyes, changes a person.

one day his tuck's whole life changed, he stepped on an explosive trap, truly he doesn't remember what happened next, until he woke up in the hospital.

he was able to survive the impact because the blow back threw him far enough from the explosive. however he leg was broken and fractured in six places, some broken ribs, and some more minor injuries. after months of physical therapy it was clear his leg would never be back to what it was so the army discharged him, gave him some medals, and sent him on his way.

now that theo is back he feels a bit lost, walks with a cane, and is battling a secret drinking problem.

[ofviolentdeath]

🖊🖊🖊

Look at this sweet pupper! Gwen is another one of the softer muses. She and her younger brother were technically kidnapped by Jeff when they were very young. Gwen remembers it clearly and she's still grateful for it.

Gwen isn't actually her original name either. Jeff and Ollie changed hers and Tucker's names after Jeff straight up murdered their abusive bio parents. There were probably better ways to get kids, but Jeff is technically a serial killer and this worked for him.

Jeff chose her first name, but Ollie insisted on giving her two middle names so her full name is Gwen Maxine Stacy Morgan. Jeff still does not get the reference.

Honestly, Evelyn does not get enough love. She's one of the quieter muses, mostly keeps to herself, but she does care about her siblings, even if Ren is her favorite.

Bells is the only person that can get away with calling her "Evie" in the family and they have matching tattoos together. Her middle name is Lenore but not because of Poe, Ava just wanted to annoy Alexi by semi-naming their kid after his mom. Evelyn doesn't mind though because she actually has no issues with her grandmother.

And to wrap this one up, we're going to go with our favorite demon/trickster hybrid, Chayton! One of Grayson's kids, he had a bit of a wild phase in his younger days before him and Judas decided to get serious. A choice some people are still deeply questioning, but no one says anything anymore, not after they two of them adopted Mason together.

He does semi-work for hell and mostly answers to Sorin who is not overly fond of using hellhounds to round up deals. Besides, a trickster's magic lends to some creative chaos and Chay definitely uses it to his advantage because it makes the work aspect go so much quicker.

[synergy-screams]

Meet the Gang: Charlotte Holloway

This is the first in what I hope to make a series of posts in which I introduce the different characters that are featured in Monsters of the North. What better place to start than the character who started it all? Charlotte was the very first character I created as a part of this story. At the time I had no plans of using her character as the basis of a much larger story, but I find I do my best writing when I don't set out with grand plans and instead just let it happen naturally.

Charlotte Holloway - alias Corporal Charles Holloway (c. 1863)

(Photo credit: Photoshop creation by Synergy Graves. Created using base images from Discover Lancaster and Organic Spa Magazine.)

Backstory

Charlotte Holloway was born on April 4, 1842 to a working class family in East Chatham, New York. She was a middle child, having a younger sister and older brother. Her father, Robert Holloway, suffered from a serious drinking problem, and struggled to hold down a job to support his family. In 1858, when Charlotte was sixteen, her father fell sick and died. Unfortunately, the legacy of Robert Holloway continued to haunt his family even after the man himself was dead. In the later years of his life, he had taken on a great deal of debt, leaving his family to pay it off when he died. By the start of the Civil War in 1861, they were struggling to survive and at risk of losing the family farm. That was what prompted Charlotte's older brother, John, to join the Union Army. His hope was to send his pay home to his family to continue paying off his father’s debts. This worked well and allowed the family to keep scraping by for another year.

In 1862, tragedy struck. John was sent alone on a scouting mission in a rural part of Northern Virginia and failed to return. That June, the family learned in a letter from his commander that he was missing. When this news reached the family, Charlotte took it upon herself to fill her brother’s shoes. She disguised herself as a man, going by the name Charles or Charlie Holloway, and enlisted in the Union Army herself. When her military service took her to Washington DC, Charlotte went looking for the man who'd sent her family that letter, John's commanding officer, Major Thomas Brewer.

Having formed a friendship while working together, Tom Brewer remembered John had told him he had no brothers. This brought him to the realization that "Charles" Holloway was not John's little brother as the soldier claimed, but his sister. Impressed by Charlotte's ability to disguise herself, Tom recruited her to join his unit. He was in charge of Union Army intelligence operations in Richmond, and asked her to pose as his wife as a part of his efforts to use a civilian alias to infiltrate the inner circle of some of the Confederacy's top officials. Charlotte gladly agreed, and over the course of their time spent working together, a romance began to develop between the two.

General Info

Full Name: Charlotte Holloway Brewer Preferred Name: Charlotte Holloway Gender/Pronouns: Cisgender Woman, she/her Born: April 4, 1842 Hometown: East Chatham, New York

Physical Description

Hair Color: Blonde Eye Color: Blue Height: 5'8 Race: White Nationality: American

Family & Relationships

Parents: Robert & Betty Holloway Siblings: John & Abigail Holloway Spouse: Tom Brewer (m. 1863) Children: Cordelia Kavanaugh, Minnie Tucker, Mildred Brewer Other Relationships: Jeraldine Murray (Romantic Partner from 1870 onward)

(A note about my face claims - For most of my characters, I find a celebrity face claim to help me visualize their appearance. But sometimes the face claim I found has never appeared in period-accurate clothing, so I will take the original face claim and use photo shop to create an image of my character in period clothing. I do my best to credit the original images appropriately but I am human and make mistakes. If ever there is a photo I credit incorrectly or not at all, or one that you would like me to take down, please let me know.)

[babygirlgarrus7]

Hallucinations

A mission going south for Agent Washington and Agent New Hampshire on their duo mission. Trapped and injured Washington keeps Hampshire stable. While Wash remembers the hallucinations have kicked in.

Warnings: mentions of blood, swearing, angst, fluff, minor character death, flirting

Pre vious Chapter Next Chapter

Code name: Heart Break

Masterlist

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

The itch on the nose started to become more and more apparent. “God this itch is going to be the death of me.” Wash moaned as he moved his nose side to side.

Carolina sighed. “We still need to figure out how to get out of here.”

Wash looked around trying to see if he could get at least move his fingers. “I don’t know Care I think…”

“David.”

Wash snapped his eyes to the side. He knew that voice. “David, is that you?”

“Elena?” He responded. She was alive!

“Wash I am so sorry, there is nothing you can do right now.” Carolina said.

“No no she just said something listen!” Wash was hopeful, she said his name.

The room was deadly quiet besides the hum of the building. The smell was something he was getting used to, the corpses that had been here long enough. “Wash,” Carolina said with a sigh. “She is gone.”

Wash nodded his head, well tried to at least. “You’re right, maybe I’m just hearing things.”

“Let’s just keep each other awake and sane. Maybe Caboose will accidentally find his way down here.” Carolina mumbled.

“And hopefully Tucker will understand what the hell he would say when finding us.” Wash added making Carolina laugh.

“David, help me.” He looked back over at her. Her last fighting stance not moving.

She isn’t alive David. Keep your head together. He tried god he tried to think of anything else but her. Hearing her. Thinking of her. But god, he couldn’t stop hearing her calling his name.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Agent New Hampshire are you in position?” The Director’s thick accent rang through the comm channel.

“I’m in position. Agent Washington?” She asked laying more into the ground, pointing the rifle at the small campsite that the group of terrorist.

“In position.” Wash replied, Hampshire scanned the area to see him crouched behind a large mass of rock formation.

“Remember we want the leader alive,” The Counslar explained. “Kill anyone else. We want no loose ends.”

“Yes sir.” Both Wash and Hampshire replied.

Washington held position while Hampshire scanned the area, watching their shift changes and sleeping arrangements. Both of them had a camp themselves so they could rest, it was only a three day mission. Eventually after Wash planted mines around the camp he would be by your side until the attack.

This mission was solely on getting information for the oil industry. The only way to is to get to Andy Lines, he was glorified for this group. He made certain bases and buildings for them, with all the dirty secrets they have.

Andy was stationed to this location should arrive in the next day or two, in the middle of a forest up on the tallest peak of a mountain. Of course it was snowy as well, quiet and stifled noise surrounding them.

“There is an abandoned building just a few clicks away,” Wash said looking down. “We should bunker there for a few hours.”

Hampshire stayed quiet for a moment then chuckled softly. “The cold getting you Washington?”

Wash looked down at her laying position. This is the first time they actually interacted, due to back to back missions. York said she was a fire cracker but he A didn’t want to push it and B she was almost next to Carolina. “Uh uh no I just thought…”

Hampshire chuckled again getting up to face Wash. “Relax Wash,” She put her hand on his shoulder. “I was just kidding. I think it’s a smart idea. There is going to be a storm, rather not be an icicle.”

Wash tried to pay attention of what she was saying but going over his head, couldn’t stop thinking about the hand on his shoulder. “R-Right.”

Hampshire just stared for a moment before chuckling again. “Let’s get going.”

It was just north up the mountain, it didn’t take long to get there. Both of them searched for any unwelcome visitors then met in the middle of the building. Hampshire took out a small flash light and placed it in the middle of the room. “This is all I got.” She said taking her helmet off to place on a beat up cobwebbed table.

Wash could feel his cheeks brighten with red, thank god for his helmet. She was beautiful, her hair was long, from what he could see her features were soft. “That’s fine, it would be best to not have a ton of lights going on.”

“I don’t know maybe they would love to have a rave or something.” She teased glancing over.

Wash chuckled. “With the one flash light it would be a boring rave.”

Hampshire giggled. “Guess so.”

They took turns of having a couple hours of sleep until Wash heard a gun shot. He snapped up looking around to see no Hampshire and more gunfire. He stood up and grabbed his battle rifle, sprinting to the noises.

His heart dropped, Hampshire holding her side as she shot the two men. Red covered the snow. Wash ran to her side lifting her up on a sitting position. “That’s not good.” She said, breathing heavily.

Wash scanned quickly around the area before helping her up. They limped back to the building, she held her side and hissed when being put back down. “I have medi-jell,” Wash explained alining the nosal to her wound and squeezing the trigger to set the spray in. She grunted placing her head back. “Sorry.”

She giggled facing her visor towards him. “Ah don’t you worry about me Washy,” Hampshire placed a hand where his cheek would be. “I always love being the damsel for a handsome guy.”

Wash froze for a moment, chuckling from nervousness. “Uh uh.”

Hampshire laughed and just leaned back more, putting her hand by her side. “We will have to move soon.”

“I don’t think you should go anywhere,” Wash started looking out the abandoned building. “The medi-jell can have some hallucination effects.”

Hampshire sighed. “Well then this is the deal if I start seeing big bird then you take over.”

Wash looked back at her. “Big bird?”

“Ya know the yellow 6 foot ass bird,” Wash shook his head chuckling. “I am sure it’s a mascot suit and not a puppet.”

Wash laughed a little harder. “Yeah Hampshire, it’s not a puppet.”

“Damn.” She sighed starting to get up. “It’s almost time.”

Wash got up helping her grab her rifle. “Alright, let me know if we see are 6 foot friend.”

“Deal.”

To his surprise, she fought normally, kicking ass as they took him back to the abandoned building. Getting all the information and then some from Andy. Hampshire was ordered to take him out of commission, hesitation was the first movement before looking at Wash. “Is this a hallucination?” She said privately.

Wash shook his head. “I’m afraid not.”

Hampshire nodded once before turning to aim the pistol firing once, Andy’s body shook once from the impact of the bullet before sitting still. “Command target epilated.” She said coldly before turning her heel.

“Roger that New Hampshire, extraction 10 minutes.” Four Niner replied.

It was quiet as Wash followed Hampshire. “You alright?” Wash asked being cautious.

“Yeah rather be hallucinating then killing an unarmed man.” She mumbled turning to face him. “Thank you for asking Wash.”

It was quiet the rest of the way, he couldn’t stop thinking about how she rather see big bird then killing the enemy. However the more he got to think about her, the more understanding it became.

[disappointingyet]

Air

Director Ben Affleck Stars Matt Damon, Viola Davis, Jason Bateman, Ben Affleck, Chris Tucker USA 2023 Language English, a tiny bit of German 1hr 51mins Colour

When Mike met Nike

It might be worth mentioning at the start that the shoes with probably the most screen time in this movie are the squidgy, comfortable brown leather ones worn by Matt Damon’s schlubby character. In other words, if you’re here for some Air Jordan sneaker fetishism, you’re in the wrong place. This is a movie about a business deal, one that just happens to have resulted in the most famous line of sports footwear ever. And since the vast majority of the audience will know the outcome of that deal, the film puts in a lot of effort into trying to convince us that there are real stakes here. That’s tricky, since you could argue what happened was that a guy who was on course to becoming insanely rich became unimaginably wealthy instead, and an already successful corporation become one of the world’s most identifiable brands. Quite late in proceedings, almost as a twist, we’re handed the idea that something more important is in the mix – I didn’t really buy that.

It’s 1984, and the teams of the National Basketball Association have just picked from the best available college players in the annual draft. At which point, the big sports brands compete for the endorsements of the top prospects. We’re told that Converse are the dominant force in basketball shoes, followed by Adidas with Nike a distant third. As the big guys will scoop up the most likely stars of tomorrow, Nike aim to be smart with the next-best-things, signing up a trio each year to spread their chances, since some players will inevitably struggle with the transition to the professional game while others will get injured.  

But this year, Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), Nike’s chief basketball scout (and, as we’ve learned, a keen gambler) suggests a different approach: chucking their whole budget at one player. And the player he decides on is Michael Jordan – as the number three pick in the draft, he was hardly an underdog, but nor was he considered the surest of sure things. Sonny has to convince Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman), the director of marketing, and Phil Knight (Ben Affleck), Nike’s founder and CEO, as well as the Jordan camp.

And that’s it, really. Although the person at the heart of this deal is one of the most electrifying athletes of our lifetimes, the film mostly consists of badly dressed middle-aged (predominantly) white guys in dingy offices. As a director, Ben Affleck seems to be aiming to keep things simple here – he doesn’t do much to try make this very talky film particularly cinematic. When I think back on the film, I’m remembering exteriors of unexciting office blocks, interiors of a darkened canteen…

Michael Jordan himself gets the treatment that’s generally used for either religious figures or real-life criminals in movies: he’s present at meetings but we never see his face, just the back of his head or a shoulder. (Apart from archive footage of the man himself, that is.) Instead, his negotiations are handled by his mother Deloris (Viola Davis).

Davis is terrific – when she’s on screen, the film comes alive. But we don’t really get enough of her. The other enjoyable performance comes from Chris Messina as Jordan’s shark of an agent – the one well-dressed middle-aged white guy. Damon, meanwhile, is fine but there’s nothing particularly unusual about him playing this potatoey but determined guy.

There’s a big panic in some film circles about the decline of the non-franchise mainstream movie. This feels very much like an attempt to answer that problem – it’s a Damon/Affleck flick. It’s to do with a very famous product and the very famous person who lent his name to it.

The positioning to me is summed up by the soundtrack, which is packed with super-obvious hits of the day, starting with Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing and carrying on with stuff like ZZ Top’s Legs, filled out not by a purpose-written score but assorted Tangerine Dream tracks. Like the film itself, the choice of tunes leans quite white considering that Jordan – and the kids who made the sneakers super cool – were not. (One predictable exception, considering the subject matter, is Run DMC’s My Adidas, both played and discussed by the characters although in reality it didn’t actually come out until 1986.)

Is Air a pretty painless way to spend a couple of hours? Yes. Is it the best film Ben Affleck has directed? No. Will it work if you know absolutely nothing about basketball? I think so.* Is this a corporate-cheerleading film that right near the end clumsily tries to position itself as something deeper? Yes. For the art of the deal stuff, are you better off rewatching an episode of Mad Men? Yes. And for any kind of insight into the bizarre (but obviously ridiculously successful) world of Michael Jordan himself, watch The Last Dance. *As it happens, the only period of basketball, particularly college basketball, I know anything about is exactly this one – I was reading Sports Illustrated magazine and watching the odd game on TV in the early 1980s. That came to an abrupt stop when we moved back to the UK in summer 1984 – so although I knew who Michael Jordan was, it was through the sneakers and their presence in hip-hop and Spike Lee movies that I experienced his phenomenon.