#maybe vlad didn’t age her up in time

[deadsetobsessions]

Alley Drunk! Danny AU- Part 1

[Pt.2] [Pt.3] [Pt.4]

To not turn into a giant raging asshole hell bent on murdering people and destroying the world after everyone he loved died, Danny had ran from Amity with his chosen vice.

A bottle. That’s right. Even after Jazz’s talks about alcoholism as a poor coping mechanism as a form of self harm, he still chose alcohol. Or maybe that’s why he picked it, because it reminded him of her, right before the booze took the sting of grief off of her memory. He was never really all that good at listening to Jazz.

And now she’s gone, so it’s moot point. Danny really hated Nasty Burger.

Danny made it all the way to Gotham, bottle constantly glued to his hand. It’s better than Vlad’s creep-o-self looming over him all of the time. He bummed out on the streets, fitting into crime alley like a native. Danny learned to pickpocket. Not much, just enough for a bottle when his ran out. He stayed human. At first he tried to convince himself that it was because he didn’t want to be perceived as a meta in a city where Batman notoriously disliked metas. Then, as he sunk deeper, he admitted to himself in a shameful curl of a whisper that it was really because alcohol affected his human side much easier.

Ghosts need an ungodly amount of alcohol to even get slightly buzzed. Danny’s human side? Only one full bottle the shittiest tequila he could find could even hope to be more than buzzed. It sucked.

He’s spent two years being an alcoholic that didn’t actually get that drunk. Technically, underage drinking was a crime. But then again, so was being a vigilante ghost. So, whatever. He does what he can to dull the grief. Mostly, he slept on covered and hidden nooks on top of Crime Alley’s roofs. Gotham city had taken pity on him and cleared her smog clouds when he was awake at night. Stargazing helped, at least. It gave him a little hope. It gave him a little wish to change and better and live like he wants. But then the night ends and when the day comes, Jazz isn’t there. Sam isn’t there. Tucker isn’t there. His mom and dad are not there.

Danny always went back to the bottle, in the end. Not that it did much.

Which was why, when he saw three looming figures over a tiny child, Danny’s saving people thing flared with a vengeance and his surprised ectoplasm burned what little buzz he had achieved by downing most of the bottle away, leaving him stone cold sober and pissed.

Danny sighed, dumping the rest of the nasty tasting liquid out. There’s no point drinking that little.

He approached the trio, who were beating up an actual child. Ancients, he hated Crime Alley sometimes.

“Give me your shit, you little punk!” Asshole 1 decided to say like a typical mugger, raising his leg to kick the curled up kid below. Danny doesn’t let him land the kick, smashing the bottle on the asshole’s head before any of them clocked his presence. He pivots, pushing a bit of that extra strength he normally keeps on a tight leash into his hands, and punched the other two in a quick fashion, knocking them out.

With that taken care of, Danny turned back to the kid who was still curled up. Danny sighed again, the trembles in small shoulders plucking on his heartstrings.

“You okay, kid?”

The kid uncurls, and Danny stared. Holy shit, is he looking into a mirror? Blue eyes, black hair, and tanned skin. Holy shit, he’s even got similar jaws to Danny.

“Huh.”

The kid flinched.

“Y-y’er the drunk,” the kid flinched again, eyes darting to the broken bottle still clenched in Danny’s hand. “I- I ain’t got money, honest. Please-”

Danny blinked down at the kid, brain connecting the dots after so long without actual interaction. He’s panicking and staring at the bottle in Danny’s hand like it’ll kill him. Danny raised the bottle and the kid closed his mouth with a click, terror worming its way into the kid’s eyes.

“I wasn’t going to mug you myself, kid.”

“But- y’er the- the Alley drunk.”

Danny blinked. Did he get a reputation without knowing again? Goddammit.

“I guess. Am I famous or somethin’?”

“Nobody- nobody fucks wit’ ya.”

“I also don’t hurt kids.”

“…”

The kid stared at him dubiously and with a sinking feeling, Danny realized that maybe the kid already had some terrible experiences with a heavy drunken hand. He promptly chucks the bottle further into the alley.

“I drink, yes. But I’m also not the kind of scum that would lay hands on a kid, let alone anyone that didn’t provoke it first.”

“Oh.” The kid uncurled more, looking at Danny warily, more at ease now that the bottle has left the chat.

“Yeah. I’m Danny. Stone cold sober, right now.”

“…”

Danny waited.

“Peters.”

“Okay. Peters, do you wanna take their shit?” Danny pointed a thumb at the knocked out would-be-muggers behind him.

“Y… yeah, sure. What’s my cut?”

“All of it.”

Peters stared.

Danny shrugged and started looting.

"Y'er so fuckin' weird."

----

See, the thing is, Danny hadn't anticipated saving Peters- "'s actually Jason"- would result in having a duckling following him around. The kid, Jason, glared at everyone who even looked at them wrong. But that's not the problem, because Danny could take anyone who took issue with Jason's looks, it's more like there's a child following him around now and Danny doesn't want to be the reason Jason turns into an alcoholic. It's- well, it made him cut down on the drinking. He even got jobs- legitimate jobs that sucks out his his poor ectoplasmic soul.

Why? Because Jason's apparently homeless. While that's something Danny's okay with for himself, he can't ever condone that for an actual child. Jason's walking around in threadbare clothes and thin soled shoes in the middle of Fall, for Ancient's sake.

Danny grumbles as he piled a bunch of clothes into the shopping bag as he checked out. Gotham's Walmart is a different kind of hell, but Danny feels right at home.

Sure, the work might suck out his soul and he might hate being sober, but Jason's face every time he comes home to an actual place to live, warm clothes, and food was worth everything.

[zeestarfishalien]

Unwanted Farewells

[Day 5 DPxDC Week: Jason Todd // Soulmate AU // Funeral Rites ]

• Anger Management ship (Jasmine Fenton x Jason Todd) No relevant warnings beyond the usual DP stuff

Jazz has always had it the worst. Danny might have been the one to die but Jazz is the one who lost not only her soulmate, but her little brother too. It doesn’t matter that he’s still around, he knows the grief weighs on her sometimes. She overcompensates by being a massive mother hen and general pain in the neck but he tries not to get too upset with her about it.

With Dani with an “i” fresh out of high school and Jazz’s birthday coming up soon, he wants to do something special. He spends a lot of time bribing Ghost Writer in order to research his idea out.

It’s probably the most time and effort he’s put into a project that wasn’t about space.

Proposing the idea to her is the one big thing this all hinges on. He’s not 100% sure she’ll be on board with this but he’d like to try.

And trying is what kicks off the first part of his plan. It’s a little awkward to bring up the fact that he doesn’t have a grave and would like one. It’s almost physically painful to see the grief it brings to Jazz’s eyes. She tries to hide it but Danny has always been able to read her better than he lets on. It’s part of the process though. He needs her to see how this goes and feels. How it’s a celebration of life and honoring those who have passed and not just a somber reminder to the living of what they’ve lost. He needs her to see what it means to him. And what it would mean to her soulmate.

He makes the grave marker of course. They’re not about to buy one when he has the strength and abilities to carve it out himself. He makes sure that it’s vague unless you know him. No names, no identifying markers like age or dates. It’s simple and meaningful for him.

{May he rest here between walks among the stars, our friend and brother beloved}

From there it’s pretty much all fun and games. Literally.

Same brings the games while she has Tucker pack out the food. It’s a combination of some of Grandma Ida’s homemade desserts and various junk foods. Even Tucker brings some cookies his mom helped him figure out how to make.

Jazz is in charge of the drinks while Danny and Dani handled all the decorating. It’s a combination of solidified ectoplasm, his ice, and various flowers they’ve gathered and strung together in a flower chain.

It’s a smashing success and he sees something in Jazz release. Some niggling worry or grief she carried that is no longer there.

Now, he decides, it’s time for part two.

What throws part two for a loop is when Dani with an “i” brings up that she’d like a grave and proper funeral rites as well.

It’s not a setback. Definitely not when he sees how much more relaxed and content Jazz is at Dani with an i’s wake.

It’s only a couple days from her birthday when he brings it up. The funeral practices for soulmates are as varied as they are sacred. He proposes her options via a PowerPoint he put far too many hours into.

By the time he finishes rambling, she’s got this sort of startled look on her face.

He twists his shirt in his hands as he stands awaiting her judgement. The longer she’s silent, the more convinced Danny is that she’ll reject the whole thing and not talk to him for a month.

Okay, maybe a week but still a week is a long time.

Suddenly Jazz is crying and oh ancients he’s really messed up this time. She’s not even mad just straight up upset by his offer.

But then she’s hugging him, telling him she loves him, and thanking him.

It’s not as hard as Danny feared to actually track down the location of a Jason Todd who died before Jazz reached 16 (she never wanted to look him up before, didn’t want to know what she was missing) and the day before her 25th birthday Danny, Dani, and Jazz all pile into her little car to make the drive to Gotham, homemade foods in tow.

Danny and Dani made sure to swipe one of Vlad’s special rich dude credit cards to fund their trip and the stop at multiple flower shops to get enough flowers to make flower chains and crowns for all of them.

It’s closing in on evening, the day of Jazz’s birthday when they finally roll up and upload everything. They didn’t bring any lights, but none of them really need much light to see for eating food and drinking sodas. Jazz brought some jasmine tea and an extra cup to place on Jason’s grave. They make a funky, dark evening of it, but finally Jazz grows more somber and keeps taking long looks at the gravestone so Danny and Dani decide to make themselves scarce.

They’re about halfway across the cemetery when out of the shadows steps the looming menace of Red Hood.

“The fuck are you doing at that grave?”

It’s not his voice or his tone, but the sub vocal ghost speak that makes Danny and Dani freeze up ramrod straight.

That’s a revenant and they’re trespassing on his resting place without permission.

So of course like any sane person, Danny says something stupid. But he just can’t believe out of all the ridiculous coincidences to exist in the world, that Jazz’s soulmate is undead like him seems just too far to believe.

“Jason?”

Almost late despite having the day off work bc I had to go shopping and bc of where I live, shopping is essentially a full day affair. This is shorter than I’d like it but I also kinda enjoy where it ends XD imagine their next moments however you please or feel free to add onto this.

[aph-mable]

dpxdc; My Uncle is Nuts.

My Uncle Is A Nut

Written by:

Aph-mable

@thegatorsgoose

Having been announced the heir and Co ceo of D.A.L.V co, Danny has gotten used to being dragged to formal events with Vlad against his will. Getting caught up in saving one of the many galas he’s forced to attend, Danny catches the eye of one Lex Luther. 

Chapter 1

Danny tries hard not to sigh for the umpteenth time as Vlad drags him towards another group of rich folks and reporters.

When his Godfather had publicly announced Danny as his heir during one of his mayoral speeches he thought he was going to die all over again from sheer embarrassment and frustration, especially when he started calling Danny out of class to work on ‘special’ projects or drag him to Gala’s like this one.  

Usually at least one member of team Phantom would come along, usually Sam since her parents often forced her to attend anyway, unfortunately this time everyone was busy.

Sure Danny could have asked, but he didn’t want to take away what little free time they had during spring break, so for now he was going to face this party on his own. After all nothing really interesting happens at these and he’s not going to end up socializing much anyways. 

At the moment Vlad had rolled him over to a group of men who were chatting away about their latest technology, a nerdy looking yet buff reporter taking notes on everything. 

Danny was only half listening to what was being said when the frootloop budged in, something about wanting to partner up with Wayne tech since DALV co was already partnered with Lex co.

He could only roll his eyes and cringe as his crazy arch nemesis wrapped an arm around the shoulders of the bald ceo who looked just as done as he felt.

Seeing Vlad finally to distracted with his deals Danny took his chance and snuck away, moving his wheelchair as fast as possible to make a break for it, away from the party and to explore the building. maybe even escape if he was lucky. 

Unfortunately as he reached one of the doors the pesky security stopped him, saying he needed to stay within the building, so he pulled out the oldest trick in his book. 

“I have to go to the bathroom, can you at least point me to it?” He even pulled out his pleading eyes to look as innocent as possible to make the security guards feel uncomfortable.

“It’s through those doors over there, just across from the kitchen… do you want-” before the guard could finish Danny was already zooming to the door and shouting, “No thanks, byye!” 

Once out of sight he at least made an effort to head towards where the bathroom was but stopped in front of the kitchen.

First double checking all sides of the hallway, he pushed himself into the kitchen in search of something to tinker with. Danny swears he will drop dead if he doesn't get some kind of technology in his hands. 

When he entered the place was completely empty of any staff. makes sense as they had set up a huge buffet in the main hall and had all the kitchen staff stand against the wall to show who cooked what, like it was some kind of grand show. 

This left Danny to ‘borrow’ a few appliances, they’re rich they can afford it!

He ends up taking a toaster, a blender, and some kind of cylinder air fryer, stuffing them all into his magic bigger-than-it-looks bag and bolting out of there as fast as his wheels could take him so as to not get caught. 

Once he re enters the gala he parks himself in the furthest corner near a window. He starts pulling out his mini tool kit and the items he took, trying his best to hide them by making them semi invisible so it just looked like he was messing with his tools as he gets to building an ecto gun. 

Danny tried to stay alert and scan the room on occasion but nothing much was happening, Vlad was still bragging to the group of men, and there were only three other kids around his age hanging out on the opposite side of the room. One looked ready to pass out while the other two stood next to the door arguing over who’s dog was best.

Danny pulled his goggles down over his eyes and rolled up his sleeves so his specialized gloves could start putting power into the ecto gun. He quickly starts to hyper focus as he tinkered with the homemade gun, his mind drifting off to play among stars that were just out of reach. 

Even with everyone talking around him it all faded to white noise, finally quiet enough he now focused his power to flow through the machinery as he twisted the screws into the right place. 

His very core sang with how peaceful it was as he finished making the home made ecto gun and set it down in his lap. 

Just as Danny turns it invisible to put it away, his chair is suddenly jerked as he’s dragged towards the now frightened guests, a group of men dressed in green and purple question marked suits threaten everyone into a corner as they start setting up strange equipment.  

Clutching his invisible weapon tightly in his lap one of the goons tries threatening him with a gun, but before Danny could react Vlad steps in front of Danny, letting out an instinctual growl to make them back off. 

The goon rolls his eyes before directing them to where he wants them to go, trying hard to not let his hands shake too badly as he thrust more people into the now overcrowded corner, keeping watchful eyes on Vlad who is seconds away from losing his temper and ripping someone's throat out.

Now most people in this situation would just listen to their captors, sit still, be quiet, all that jazz, especially with how many of the goons were now bringing in strange green canisters of gas that gave off the scent of pure fear.

Yet as Danny rams Vlad’s ankles with the wheels of his chair it's pretty clear he wasn’t like most scared civilians. For once he was siding with his godfather as he was very, very angry. Angry that they were targeting innocent people, angry that Vlad was treating him like he was helpless, angry that he had to show up to this stupid gala in the first place… He had noticed some of the other kids giving them the slip earlier, at least there’s that. 

Just as they bring in the last canister one of the goons trips and nearly brakes open the container, which got the already annoyed second incharge to yell at them. 

“For fucks sake! Be careful with those things, we don’t even know what they’ll do yet!”

The younger looking goon, who looks barely out of their teens, shrinks away as they whimper out an apology. He sets the items down as others around them either stare in frustration or sympathy. 

Yeah, no. 

 “Wow you people are pathetic.” 

The second in command turns at Danny’s outburst, taking a step forward and clenching his fists. “What the fuck did you just say?” Danny rolls his eyes before glaring at the goon “I said you’re pathetic, did you get that or do you need me to repeat myself again?”

The crowd looks on in half horror, half shock as the leader walks up to Danny, resting his hands on his arm rests and leaning down to stare at Danny threateningly. Danny leans back in his wheelchair and looks up at him with a bored expression, unphased. Vlad tries to shove his way to Danny, but is held back by several goons. Danny spares a quick glare at his godfather, he has everything under control.

“I may be a criminal, but even I don’t like kicking a kid when they’re already down.” The goon says, moving his eyes down to glance at Danny’s wheelchair and back up again, glaring into his eyes. “So I’m going to give you one last chance to take that back.”

Danny narrows his eyes at the goon as he clutchs the invisible ecto gun in his lap, it’s now or never. With near inhuman speed he quickly reaches for his bag and pretends to pull the weapon out, aiming it right at the goons temple. There’s audible gasps from the crowd as the goon stumbles away with wide eyes before gaining his footing and going right back to glaring.

“And I’m going to give you one last chance to reconsider what you’re doing with your life” Danny smirks at the goon, already reading up the lecture in his head.

“It’s 30 minutes past start time, what is taking you so-“ Danny’s smirk evolves into a full shit eating grin as the Riddler walks in to scold the goons, what perfect timing.

With the crowd distracted Danny uses his other hand to unlock his phone. With a few simple swipes, Danny has the gala on lockdown. With the main asshole inside.

Perfect.

_____________________________________________________________

Damian puts on his Robin suit with trained proficiency once they make it to the cave. Unfortunately he and Jon were the only ones able to leave on time, the rest of the family having been dragged away. Truly, this proved that he had good reason to not mingle with the crowd. It had nothing to do with the noise. Or the lights. Or the small talk.

Truly.

“Who do you think it is this time?” Jon asks, an excited smile on his face. But even while being carried, Damian could see the tension in his frame, the nervous tick in his brow. His friend was worried. “I mean, they have the question mark thing going on, but they also had the gas canisters which I don't think the Riddler does that? And the gas itself kinda smelled like lavender and hazelnuts like fear gas but it was also kinda minty? And not like candy cane minty but like straight mint leaf minty? I don’t know, I only know there’s a difference cus ma tried to make mint tea that one time cus she was super sleep deprived and she read online that mint tea could improve memory or something, that stuff reeked!” Another indication of Jon’s nervousness, rambling. By the time Jon had finished his rant, they had already made it to the gala.

Once he’s put down Damian dusts himself off and turns to Jon. “It is most likely a team up, then.” He pulls out his katanas and readys himself for the fight ahead. “Once you break down the door our job is to stall long enough for the others to get out. We don’t know what the gas can do, so keeping the containers safe is our top priority.” As much as it pains him to admit, just him and Jon won’t be enough to handle it themselves. There’s too many people, and they need some of the bats to disperse around Gotham in case the riddler has set up a larger plan.

Jon smiles at him and nods, hopping from foot to foot in excitement (which he doesn’t find adorable at all). “You ready?” Damian gives a sharp nod before Jon kicks in the door.

“-I mean COME ON, people would PAY you to have a chance at your game show! You could even do your whole “riddle me this!” Thing as it’s own segment! But noOOOOooo, you wanna risk the lives of countless civilians so you can get a fucking furry to answer your stupid riddles, most of which aren’t even original! And NOW you wanna partner up with a fear junky cus why?”

“I-“ a clearly startled Riddler tries to answer before being interrupted.

“Oh yeah, cus your BUDDY, your PAL scarecrow, thought it would be so FUNNY to release an UNTESTED gas in a gala for a fucking THRILL HIGH.”

But instead of a fight they walk into.. this.

 A wheelchair bound boy with black hair and blue eyes (who he’s sure his siblings would call “adoption bait”) holding a strange silver and green gun that looked straight out of one of Damian’s sci-fi mangas, at a confused and startled Riddler. It seems the crowd used this as an opportunity, as the rest of the goons were restrained near the walls by a mix of his family, Kent, and various gala attendees, while the middle of the room was occupied by the armed boy.

“Huh?” Jon let his arms rest at his sides as his head tilted to the side in confusion (it does NOT remind him of a confused puppy, absolutely not). However before Damian could say anything, it seems the boy has finally noticed them.

“Oh, you’re here. Took you long enough.” The boy finally puts the gun down and into a bag at his side. “Have fun.” He says in a bored tone as he turns and starts pushing himself in the direction of a man with silver hair, Vlad Masters, who met him in the middle only to start fussing over him, seemingly much to the boy’s annoyance.

Finally shaking off their shock both Damian and Jon rush to detain the Riddler until the police show up, yet Damian’s curiosity keeps bringing his eyes back to Master’s and his ward. outwardly, the concern seemed genuine, but with how the boy was reacting to just being touched by Master’s… made him think otherwise. 

Even Lex Luthor was side eyeing the man instead of resuming his chatter with father or Mr. Kent, meaning something was happening and Damain was determined to find it out one way or another. 

For now though, they have their hands full because of Riddler and Scarecrow.

Domain knew he should have stayed back with Ace. 

____________________________________________________________________________

End of chapter 1

[dianneking]

Dangerous Games - Larissa/GN!Reader

Reader declares that jealousy doesn’t apply to them. Larissa takes it upon herself to prove a point. Will she take it too far?

TW: Explicit sexual situations, explicit language, swearing, angst, jealousy, non-exclusive relationship, mentions of love bites and bruising, emotional manipulation.

Reader has no specified gender. 

Crossposted on AO3.

Dangerous Games

Wordcount: 4378

"What do you mean, you don't believe in jealousy?" Larissa scoffed from where she was lounging on her bed gloriously naked, as you kept putting your clothes back on.

You had a sort of arrangement going on. A purely physical, no strings attached kind of arrangement: when the stress of managing and teaching a school full of teenagers with paranormal abilities got too much, either of you would call for a meeting. You would rant to each other about your frustrations, until words left the floor to frantic kissing, hands exploring each other's bodies, items of clothing flying across the room. Sometimes you made it to Larissa’s custom-built canopy bed, sometimes only to her desk. Sometimes she had you pinned to the door, a hand finding its way to the fly of your jeans, as she rutted against your thigh.

It was tawdry, it was dirty, it was highly unprofessional. It was also extremely hot. Even when you were in staff meetings that ran too long you could feel the tension building between you two, measured in stares, in the brush of your fingers against hers as you passed her some papers, in the apparently casual touch of her foot against your calves. Neither you nor she went out of your way to talk about it too much, not wanting to put a label on it that would force you to face the connection that the two of you felt for each other. As if by talking about it you would jinx it somehow.

"I think jealousy is overrated. Either you are in an exclusive relationship with someone, and you should be able to trust them not to cheat on you, or you are non-exclusive, and whomever they sleep with is none of your business. Simple as that."

"You make it sound so cold and calculated. But jealousy is illogical, darling, it’s pure unadulterated fire that burns you from within. You cannot think your way around it when you feel it. You cannot rationalize it." She sounded patronizing, as if you were but a kid who didn’t know the way of the world yet. You shrugged, not showing how that tone bothered you, reminding you of the age gap between you, just another reason why you could never aspire to have something more with this amazing woman. "I guess I've never felt it then. Or maybe it doesn't work on me."

“One day, darling, you’ll feel it too.” She promised, vague and menacing like a soothsayer.

“I guess I might. Sleep well, Larissa, I’ll see you around.” As always, you didn’t turn back when you left her room, too afraid she might be able to read on your face the longing to just stay there with her until morning.

*

You stopped in front of the teacher’s lounge, your hand already on the handle, dead in your tracks as you heard the raised voices inside. It was unusual for Larissa to be found here unless there was a meeting, she usually preferred to spend time in her study. You tried to listen in, trying to understand what was going on before barging in.

“I told you, Larissa, no.”

“Oh, don’t be so uptight, Vlad. It’s all in good fun.”

“No, it’s not. It’s unprofessional, and borderline immoral too.”

“Aw, come on, Vlad. Just the one time…who knows, maybe you’ll end up enjoying it too.”

Well. That was more than unusual. You knew that lilting, suggestive tone well, but had never heard it outside of your own meetings with Larissa.

“Hello there!”

You saw Marilyn coming up from the other side of the hallway, smiling as always, blissfully oblivious to the exchange going on into the teacher’s lounge, and you couldn’t lurk in front of the door any longer. You opened the door, and strode in, holding it open for the redhead, while your eyes fell on the two whose conversation you were interrupting. Larissa was looming over Vlad, invading his personal space,  having backed him up against the bookshelf on the far end of the lounge. His hands were up, as if trying to fend her off, while one of hers was directly beside his head, holding onto one of the shelves and half-blocking him in. Like a deer in the headlights, Vlad’s eyes darted to you and Marilyn, who candidly asked, “Is everything alright?”

The fencing coach unfroze at that, and without bothering to respond, he dashed away from his compromising position and towards the door, followed by Larissa’s voice calling after him: “When you change your mind, you know where my quarters are, Vlad!”

 Clearly, he had changed his mind at some point because when you were coming back from your usual morning run the next day, you saw him slinking out of Larissa’s rooms, still in yesterday’s rumpled clothes, his normally tidy hair sticking up in every direction. Bed hair. He looked at you, sending you a sheepish smile in lieu of a greeting, as he shrugged in a ‘What could I do?’ way.

You didn’t blame him. It was hard to say no to Larissa when she wanted something, you had some first-hand experience with that. Did they fuck all through the night, or had he been allowed to sleep there? You had never dared to ask to spend the night. You had assumed she wouldn’t want you to, it would have been part of that putting a label on whatever you had going on. And she for sure had never thought to ask. Or maybe she simply had someone else to fulfil that need.

*

It couldn’t have been Vlad, you thought as you studied the bite mark on Larissa’s thigh, while she was squirming and panting on her chair, three of your fingers knuckle-deep into her, curling up to stroke her just in the right place. Vlad was a vampire, and the imprints his canines would leave were quite different from the ones you could see from your vantage point, kneeling between Larissa’s long legs, as your tongue ran along the milky expanses, marred with bruises you surely didn’t leave.

She had yet another lover, then. You swallowed around the realization, unsure on how to properly wrap your mind around it. You were spared for the moment, as her hand came to tangle in your hair, guiding your mouth back to her folds, back to pleasuring her. You buried yourself into her, trying to lose any semblance of rational thought in her inebriating taste.

*

It felt like once you started seeing the hints, they just kept popping out more and more. The librarian’s soft blush as Larissa gave her shoulder a squeeze and left her hand there for a while, as she congratulated her on the success of her book club. The Lycan Studies teacher’s glassy eyes as the principal leaned into his personal space, asking him if he could please go into more detail about his changes to the curriculum about werewolf mating habits, such a fascinating topic. Lingering glances, casual touches that you had never given any relevance to suddenly took on deeper meaning.

Even the school nurse wasn’t allowed medical neutrality, apparently. You had the dubious pleasure of discovering this as you were accompanying a young gorgon who had managed to stone his right arm from the shoulder down in an attempt to avoid a surprise quiz (it hadn’t worked, as he still had his left hand to type with).

“I never knew you had such a passion for red wine, Mx Lin, you’ll have to drop by my office sometime or another, so you can sample the best I have to offer.”

“Oh, well Principal, I hardly think that–”

“I insist. Drinking them all alone by myself would be such a waste…some things are meant to be enjoyed in company.”

You irritatedly cleared your throat. Flirting was all fun and everything, but some things were best kept away from the students. While the nurse had the decency to look sheepish, Larissa looked down at you, unrepentant, a predatory smirk gracing her crimson lips as she let her eyes roam over your stiff body.

*

It had been the longest week of your life. A week piled up with evidence that pointed all in one direction, towards a flashing neon sign that you were trying your best to still ignore. But all illusions have to break at some point when confronted with reality.

Apparently, your breaking point was the resident normie botanist.

“Marilyn?”

“Oh hi, there! I didn’t know Larissa had another meeting after ours! She really goes hard at it, doesn’t she?”

“I…I’m sorry?”

“I mean, it’s a Friday night and she has one-on-one meetings with the both of us back to back…she sure can be intense, can’t she?”

“I’m sure she can…”

“Well, I’ll be off! Don’t let her tie you up for the whole evening, it is Friday after all!” She waved at you and left, skipping down the hallway, oblivious to your sputtering, or maybe ignoring it willingly, as you tried to ascertain whether she was being suggestive on purpose or if it was your mind that went straight to the gutter. Unable – or maybe unwilling – to solve that specific mystery, you knocked lightly on Larissa’s door to announce your presence, and pushed the door open without waiting for her reply.

The office was partly plunged in the shadows, the main source of light being the flickering flames of the fire, and a couple of small lamps scattered across the room. It wasn’t the sort of ambience you would have at the end of a business meeting. It felt cozy, intimate, more suited to a rendezvous of different nature than discussing lectures and school funds for greenhouses.

Was Marilyn yet another of Larissa’s seemingly endless string of lovers? The bubbly redhead that skipped down the corridors muttering country songs to herself? That Marilyn, who always looked like the epitome of the oblivious virgin? What did she have to offer to someone like Larissa? Was it some sort of sick corruption fantasy?

Your eyes sought the familiar figure of your boss and found her using the glass of her window as a mirror as she fixed her hair. She had probably messed it up running her own hands through it, while going over the paperwork, it didn't have to mean anything. You let your gaze drop to her wrinkled pencil skirt, it could have been due to a long day of sitting at the desk. Even within your own mind you didn’t know why you kept trying to make up excuses, but when she turned towards you, a sultry smile on her face and a greeting on her lips, you couldn’t help but stare transfixed at her mouth as you slowly made her way towards her, as if sleepwalking.

Beside her bottom lip, there was a smudge of lipstick.

In a different color to the one she was wearing.

A color matching Marilyn’s coral pink.

“Are you alright darling?”

You ignored her question as well as the moniker, simply advancing towards her like an unstoppable wave. You walked right into her space and lifted a hand to her face.

“You…” Your voice felt rough, dry. As if you had forgotten how to speak. You cradled her cheek in your hand, an unexpected jolt of pain coursing though you when she leaned into your touch, her long lashes fluttering closed for a second as if unconsciously relishing in the contact with you. She was such a good actress, no wonder so many of you had fallen into her lure.

“You have a smudge here.” You tracked the pad of your thumb against it, removing the proof. You searched her gaze, unsure and possibly afraid of what you’d find there. She held your stare, no trace of guilt and regret in her eyes, but a weird questioning intensity, as if she herself was searching for something in you, and not finding it. Maybe she was looking for whatever she found in all of her other lovers. Or maybe they didn’t have it, either, always coming up short to Larissa Weems’ high standards.

"Jesus, Larissa. I get it that you are the principal and so you’re good at multitasking, but you sure need to worry about crowd control in here." You tried to sound light and teasing about it, but your joke fell flat, weighted down by the vein of bitterness in your voice.

"Whatever could you possibly mean by that?" The intensity in her gaze was suddenly gone, supplanted by a flirty playfulness in her voice that rubbed you the wrong way. You wondered if she used the same tone with them as well. Did she tailor her flirting to whomever was in her clutches at the time, or she was always like this, and all of you simply had a thing for your hot, tall, domineering boss?

Not that you could be one to talk. The minute she had flirted with you the first time around, you had been completely captivated by her, ecstatic at the chance you had been offered. That fumbling first time together had been one of your most treasured memories until this day, but it was somehow turning sour as you thought about it now.

"How many?"

"I'm sorry?"

"How many people have you fucked in Nevermore? The whole staff? Maybe one or two students of age, too? I hope you still have the morals to leave the minors be."

"There's no need to be crass, darling. One might think you are being jealous."

The word hit you like a slap and you took a step back, away from her. Was that the reason for the roiling pit of resentment at the bottom of your stomach? It couldn't be. It was just disappointment. You honestly thought that what you two had was somewhat special, even if purely physical. Instead, you had found out that you were just one of many. Another bed warmer in the principal’s collection.

"Of course I'm not." You answered, mechanically.

"You say it, but somehow I don't believe you."

"I mean it though. I don't have any claim on you, Larissa. You made it pretty evident in the past week."

She looked like she was getting angry with this conversation, her hand gripping the back of her chair until her knuckles were white. "Is that so? Then why should you care how many people I choose to sleep with?"

"I don't! I just…want to know whether it meant at least something to you, or if I'm just another fucking notch on your bedpost."

"You know…" she prowled closer, and this time you couldn’t move away, frozen to the spot as she bent her head and started to kiss the side of your neck. Her perfume enveloped your senses, making you lightheaded, while her hands played with the hem of your shirt, slipping under it, grazing the side of your torso, cold against your almost feverish skin. You were already beginning to give in, throwing your head back to give her better access to your throat, to suck on it, leaving a necklace of bruises as she often did (you always had to wear turtlenecks for a few days after one of your meetings with her, and she seemed to take great pleasure in that).

But this time she ignored your exposed neck, choosing to let her lips ghost across yours, so that when she spoke again, you could feel her breath on you. "You can admit that you were wrong. That you are jealous after all. That seeing me with someone else makes you want to scream from the rooftops that you want me to be yours and yours alone…Your little secret would be safe with me." She closed the distance between your mouths, pressing her lips to yours in a hard, unyielding kiss, her tongue immediately trying to gain entrance to spar with yours.

The same mouth, lips and tongue who had been ravishing Marilyn not five minutes ago, if you could put two and two together. And that sum was suddenly too much for you.

You felt like a vat of burning tar had been poured inside of you. Heavy, and scorching hot. “Jealousy is illogical, darling, it’s pure unadulterated fire that burns you from within.” Her own voice resonated in your brain, mocking, patronizing, like that day when apparently everything had started to go wrong.

“You can admit that you were wrong.” You felt yourself go rigid as your mind caught up to your emotions. You had been had. You were jealous. The mere thought of Larissa being in this same position with countless other people filled you with indescribable rage. And she knew it, and did it on purpose. That was probably the most painful aspect of it all: the realization that it had been nothing but a game to her.

Suddenly you felt just sad, dirty, and used. Whatever connection you had deluded yourself into thinking the two of you had, was obviously just a bit of fun to Larissa. Something that could be thrown to the side to prove her point in a debate you had almost forgotten about.

Expendable. Like a pet that started misbehaving and was unceremoniously dropped in front of a shelter.

You pushed her away, your eyes filling with tears of rage and disappointment. She even had the audacity to look at you with a surprised expression, as if you detaching yourself from her irresistible lips was the last thing she imagined could happen. Like you were there just to do her bidding. Another one of her malleable playthings. One she could manipulate into feeling whatever she wanted to, to appease her ego.

“Fuck you, Larissa.” The sentence came out angry, curt and it didn’t make you feel any better.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Fuck you. I’m done here. You can go shag some other fucktoy from your collection when you’re in the mood.”

You turned on your heel, leaving her warmth behind as you crossed the room to the door in short, agitated steps.

She caught up with you as you were fighting against the lock, and held the door closed, leaning against it with one hand, the other roughly grabbing your shoulder to turn you around.

"Let me out."

You took in her face, still beautiful even when hardened by anger. Her voice was low and menacing as she spoke to you: "If you think for one second that you can just insult me and leave, you have vastly misunderstood me, darling."

"Yeah well, I'm starting to realize as well that I misunderstood you."

"Is that it? How so?"

You felt tears coming back to your eyes, and you looked away from her, towards your feet, trying not to show her your hurt. A pointless endeavor, really, because you were sure it filtered into the words you spoke next.

"I thought you were a kind, strong person. Someone who put the good of Nevermore before anything else, even your personal life. And I accepted it, admired it even. That's why I never asked you more than what we had – she already has her hands full with all her duties, I thought, a relationship that goes beyond the purely physical level is clearly not what she wants."

You scoffed, and it came out as more of a sob than anything else.

"Of course, I didn't realize that your hands were full because they were down any pants you could find… more fool me I guess, to think that what we had was something more than another roll in the hay for you."

"You…wanted to make it something more?" the disbelief coming from her voice piled more pain on your poor abused heart.

"Ridiculous, right? To think that I truly and well fell for you, how pitiful. At least I know you won't be left alone to take care of your frustrations if I leave our little arrangement."

"Darling, I…"

"You made it pretty obvious that I don't mean jack shit to you, so if you please let me out, I'd appreciate it."

"It was not real."

"Yeah, I realized it as well. Spare me the pity."

"No, that's not what I meant!"

"Then what on Earth did you mean, Larissa? I'm not following anymore."

"I… I just wanted to prove you wrong. To make you admit that you are jealous. Of me."

"Yeah, I gathered as much. Congratulations, you've won. You've also fucked me up and broke my heart while you were at it, but that's not something you care about, do you?"

"That was never my intention, none of it was real."

"You keep saying that, and I get that you don't think twice about sleeping around, but we're all real people, with real emotions. Someone was bound to get hurt at some point. That someone was me, just my luck."

"I've never slept with anyone else." She murmured this, as if it was a confession, and you couldn't help the strangled laugh that fell from your lips. "Unbelievable. You're just…” You rubbed your hands on your face, your incredulity at the sheer nerve of her making it hard to put into words. “God, Larissa, gaslighting might have worked if you hadn't given me time and time again proof of your activities. Wasn't it the point of this little game of yours? To let me see that you have just as much fun with all the others?"

"I know how it seems, but I never did anything with them. I…used my powers so it would look like I did."

"You really expect me to believe that?"

You looked up at her, disbelief written plainly on your face. Why couldn’t she just let you go? There was nothing you could offer that she couldn’t find in all the others, so what was the point of this whole production?

"It's the truth. I did nothing more than flirt with other people. I shifted the love bites and the lipstick on myself."

"What about Vlad?"

"I was trying to convince me to help with this ruse. He refused.”

"Larissa, I saw him coming out of your rooms one morning."

"I know. It was me."

You let yourself slowly slide along the door until you were sitting on the floor, hiding your face in your hands. You really didn’t know what to think now. Was she being serious, or was this another elaborate plot?

"You have a lot of issues woman."

"I know. I said I was sorry."

"Actually no, you didn't."

"I'm saying it now, then. I am truly sorry, darling. I fucked everything up to prove a point."

"You really did."

The conversation, the whole week was spinning before your closed eyes, as you tried to make any sense of it, and of what it all meant. Was it really just an illusion? And even if it was, where did this leave you? You had confessed your feelings for her, there was no way you could now go back to the no-strings-attached dalliance you had before. And you didn’t want to, either.

You felt the warmth from her body seep into yours as she sat beside you, her hand coming to rest on your shoulder. Your traitorous heart leapt in your chest, beating faster just because of that little touch. Oh, the hold this woman still had on you. It was unfair. You wished that you could instantly turn all of your feelings for her to hatred instead. That would make this all easier to go through. If you hated her, you could leave this room and never come back except in a professional setting.

What would that even look like? To set your eyes on Principal Weems and just feel resentment for her, until it dulled into nothingness, leaving behind only the memory of feelings. To listen to her talk during meetings and not be captivated by her smooth, melodious voice. To hate the way her lips quirked up when something went her way.

You couldn’t even imagine it, so in love you were with her, still.

“Is there…is there any way I can make it up to you?”

“Larissa,” it came out tiredly, you were   “Are you already trying to get back in my pants?”

“No! I meant… I am sorry, and I do care about you, and what we have.”

“I…I’m not sure I can trust you enough right now. I am afraid I wouldn’t be able to go back to whatever we had before. I…I don’t think I could take it.”

“Can I take you on a date?”

“What?” The question came out strangled, disbelieving. Never in your wildest fantasies you had dared to dream Principal Larissa Weems would be asking you out. It just wasn’t how the real world worked. “Is this another kind of game? Because I told you I’ve fallen for you?”

“I…I didn’t think you’d want to have anything more with me. That was why it made me so angry when you said you weren’t jealous. I thought it meant you didn’t care. I wanted you to care. About me.”

“Larissa, I’ve been head over heels for you for ages. You never hinted that you wanted anything more. I don’t want your pity.”

“I didn’t want you to feel pressured to agree. I am your boss, I didn’t want you to feel like you had to. It is one thing to release some tension together, I didn’t think you’d want to…be seen with me.”

She dropped her gaze to the ground as she said this, and she suddenly didn’t look like the confident principal you were used to seeing. She looked afraid and lonely and small. You brought your hand to her chin, lifting it so that her eyes could meet your own.

“Larissa, there’s nothing in the world I would love more than to date you. But if we want to make it work, we both need to talk to each other, okay? No more games, no more assumptions. Deal?”

Her incredulous smile lit up her whole face, as her mesmerizing eyes once again searched yours, and sparkled with joy at finally finding there what they were looking for.

“Deal.”

Liked it? Here’s my fanfiction masterlist, where you can find more deliciously angsty fics! (And also some non-angsty ones).

[specialagentlokitty]

Aizawa x daughter!reader - well protected

Heyy, so having in mind you write for Aizawa, i wanted to ask for a Platonic Aizawa, in which he has a teen daughter (she is his biological daughter) and one day during dinner she is like "Dad we need to talk, but you may not like it"And then she ask him for advise, because maybe some boy her age or a creepy teacher (chose the one you feel mlre comftable with) was stalking her or something and she felt it was her fault. - Anon💜

TW: mentions of a guy being really creepy

You had gotten back home later than normal, and your dad still wasn’t back, so you locked the door and got to work on your homework.

A few of the other teachers were back at the teachers dorms, but you were waiting for your dad to get back.

There was a knock on your door, and you looked up from the table.

“Who is it?”

“Your all time favourite uncle yo!”

You laughed a little bit, jumping up, you walked over to the door, unlocking it and it was swung open by the hero.

He grinned from ear to ear, leaning against the doorframe.

“You didn’t say hi when you came back!” He huffed.

You laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of your head.

“Sorry Mic, I’ve been doing homework, I don’t know where dad is. Could you actually help me?”

“Sure thing kid let’s go!”

You gathered up your homework, and you put your shoes on and followed after him, explaining to him your homework.

He took you down to the ground floor, and he sat in the floor in front of the TV, you sat next to him while he explained your homework to you.

“Aw littke Aizawa is back!”

You smiled a little, looking up at midnight and you waved to her.

“Aw you’re so adorable! I don’t get how eraser is your dad, he’s nowhere near as adorable.”

You laughed a little, putting your hands on your knees as you happily beamed up at her.

“Yeah! Aizawa is all moody all the time, but you’re always so happy so smiling. I’ll never get how he’s your dad.” Mic said.

You snickered, leaning against your uncles side, taking the chips that were handed to you by King Vlad.

You sat there eating them, listening to the teachers talk while Mic carried on looking through your homework for you.

Mic was still explaining a few things for you when the doors were opened again.

“(Y/N)!”

You grinned, holding your arms out.

“Eri! Hi!”

She came running over, letting you hug her and you sat her down in front of you, giving her your bag of chips so she could share with you.

You grinned, patting the top of her head as you look up at your dad.

He walked over, crouching next to you, and he pat your head a couple of times, taking your homework from Mic as he went through it.

“You don’t have to help, it’s okay Mic can help me dad, I know you’ve been really busy.”

“It’s fine, tell me what you’re stuck on.”

Aizawa sat next to you, taking over from your uncle yo help you with your homework.

When you were done, you went to go play some games with Eri, showing her what games you knew and teaching her a few of them.

You heard your name being called so you got up, smiling at her as you offered a wave before leaving.

Your dad was at the end of the hallway waiting for you, and he led you back to your room where your dinner was waiting.

He sat down at the table with you.

“Are you okay dad? You look really tired.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I heard you came home late, is everything okay? How was school?”

You frowned a little, glancing away from him and this was something he noticed immediately, and he narrowed his eyes a little.

“(Y/N)?”

You had been trying to ignore the events that had been happening recently, but you knew he wasn’t going to drop the subject.

He was observant, and he was determined too, and you knew it wouldn’t be long before he took matters into his into his own hands.

"Dad we need to talk, but you may not like it.” You mumbled.

Aizawa set down his bowl, nodding his head, gesturing for you to continue.

You glanced away.

“There’s this boy… and I uh.. I don’t know what to do… he won’t leave me alone… he tried following me earlier… so I went to the mall to get away before coming back…” you mumbled.

Aizawa clutched the fabric of his scarf tightly.

“It’s not the first time… he’s done it before. He won’t leave me alone… I don’t know what I did to get his attention…”

Aizawa shuffled around the table, kneeling in front of you.

“Hey, listen to me. This isn’t your fault, okay? Don’t say that you did something, you aren’t to blame for this (Y/N).”

“I told him to stop… I even told the school but they wouldn’t do anything because he wants to become a hero… I’m really sorry dad…”

“(Y/N) listen to me.”

You looked up at your dad, he placed a hand on your head.

“You’re not at fault, okay? You didn’t do anything wrong. Who is this boy? Do you know his name?”

You shook your head.

“No… he’s some upperclassman… that’s all I know…”

Aizawa nodded his head, picking up your bowl he held it out to you.

“Eat your dinner, don’t worry about it, alright?”

“Okay…”

Aizawa kissed the top of your head and stood up, announcing that he would be back soon, leaving you to eat your dinner.

He eventually came back to finish his dinner, and you sat with him while he marked his students work in your room.

You had asked him to stay there for the night, so that’s what he did, setting up a spot on the floor for him to sleep.

Going back to school the next day, you were in a rush to leave as soon as the bell went, you ran to your locker, changing your shoes and grabbing your bag as you ran towards the door.

In you hurry to get out you ran into someone, and you let out a scream, punching them in the stomach.

“It’s me!”

“Dad?!”

He coughed a little, standing up as he gave you a smile.

“You pack one hell of punch kid, come on.”

He held his hand out to you and you took it, letting your dad lead you out where you saw he wasn’t the only hero there.

Mic, Midnight, All Might, the big three and class 1-A were all there waiting for you.

“Is this really the big mission you wanted us for?! To pick up some kid from middle school?!” Someone yelled.

You shuffled a little behind your dad, clutching the back of his sweater.

“Someone has been harassing my daughter, I’m taking no chances.”

There were a few gasps.

“Daughter?! Aw that’s adorable!”

Mic walked over, and he tapped your shoulder, crouching down a little so he was eye level with you.

“Do you recognise the boy anywhere?” He whispered.

You glanced around, scanning all the curious faces that were watching.

Your dad looked at you, carefully watching your reactions to the people you saw until you saw the familiar face.

You shrank back a little bit, watching as he confidently walked up, holding a notebook in his hands.

“Present mic! Eraserhead! Midnight! All might! Could I have your autographs!?” He beamed.

“All Might.” Aizawa said.

“Of course.”

All Might came over, taking your hand and he pulled you back, all the students of UA surrounding you both.

Aizawa activated his quirk, tangling the boy in his scarf, staring at him with a cold hard stare.

“So you think it’s funny to harass women huh? Chase an innocent girl through the city?” Mic snapped.

“I didn’t do anything!” The boy yelled, “she’s lying!”

“Little Aizawa, care to use your quirk and show us all your memories?” Midnight asked.

You nodded, closing your eyes, letting your quirk reach out to everybody around, showing them the boy constantly harassing you.

You had your moms and your dads quirks, though you had more control over your moms, which allowed you to show your memories to everybody else.

You released your quirk, hiding being All Might.

“Come on! It was a joke!” The boy laughed nervously.

“I dont think you harassing my daughter or any girl is funny, I’m sure this isn’t the only incident. You want to be a hero? Forget it, I’ll ensure you never get into any hero school in the country.” Aizawa spat.

He released the boy, letting him stumble backwards.

Aizawa looked around the middle school students.

“Anybody else who has been harassed by this boy go to the principals office tomorrow, there will be pro heroes waiting so there’s no need to be scared.”

Aizawa walked over to you, holding his hand out and you and you took it, letting him hold you close to him.

The students all smiled brightly at you.

“You’re gonna be alright!” A boy grinned.

You gave a little smile, nodding your head, and you looked up to your your dad.

“One of us will drop you off and pick you up from now on, until you’re ready to carry on coming and going alone.”

“What if I don’t want that…?”

Aizawa placed his other hand on your head, ruffling your hair a little bit.

“Then we’ll keep coming with you.”

“Thanks dad…”

“Let’s go kid! I’ll race you!” Mic grinned.

“In your dreams you old man!”

You gave your bag to your dad and began racing the pro hero, and Aizawa sighed as his class followed you.

He didn’t realised he had accidentally made sure you were the most protected teenagers out there, the whole of 1-A had immediately taken it upon themselves to be your bodyguards.

He followed behind, knowing you wouldn’t run too far off without him, sometimes you would stop to wait for your dad, then you would keep running

[jadedwolf18-blog]

Mini Phantom Invasion

<< Chapters One - Six | << Chapters Seven - Twelve | << Chapters Thirteen - Eighteen

^^^^^

Mini Phantom Invasion - Mini Adventures

^^^^^

Fourth lot of chapters begins! Thank you for all the interest and likes!

And the time line has caught up to the start of the Mini Adventures!

🤍🖤💚💙💚🖤🤍

Chapter 19

Danny fell silent after their recount of everything they had gone through, from when they died, all the to how they became king. They had shared bits and pieces with Dan and compared their live up till the Nasty Burger incident and how Danny’s was different after Dan was sealed away but it had never been in such detail or in one whole sitting. It felt like a weight, they didn’t know they had, had been lifted off their shoulders.

They had a brother, a blood related older sister who understands the feeling of being thrust into a hero role and a brother-in-law had also experienced finding out he was an entirely different race than they had been raised as. Not to mention their niece and now, officially, their daughter.

They had a family, people who understood in ways their friends and Jazz had never been able to do. They new their true heritage, even if half was still missing. They felt more whole than they’d ever felt, even before the accident. All the little odd behaviours they’d has a a child, that the Fentons had basically trained them out of doing, that they were told was wrong. They finally knew why and that they had in fact been normal behaviours for a mer-child.

Looking over to where Rukia and Elle were playing… they were relieved and happy that Elle would be able to embrace all of her instinct from the start. They still found themself holding back or suppressing some instincts, even around others of their kind. Years of being told, trained, to act human were hard to shake off.

****

Clock Work had come to inform them that the claiming ceremony was ready and the family of siblings and nieces made their way to the private room. The ceremony was short and sweet. An exchange of ectoplasm and a sworn oath of familial bond. 

They had all been surprised, excluding Clock Work who was acting as the main witness, when Elle was engulfed in a bright light. Once it had faded they were met with a human looking Elle as a three year old.

Clock Work was quick to explain that the ceremony had corrected the unnatural age progression that Vlad had put her through in the pod, as well as the error in her make up that had made her susceptible to destabilisation, even with the Ecto dejecto. She was now a true Halfa. Her memory was still intact but she would now act more her true age.

Danny had scooped Elle up and held her close, they had always had the fear, that she would one day disintegrate and they would not be able to help her. This was one less fear they had to worry about. She was safe and healthy and she will never destabilise again.

****

Dan sighed as he slumped back into his chair. Dan had a strange mix of emotions, he wanted to go after Vlad for what he had done but he was happy to have another niece, there was also the jumbled thought on if Elle could be counted as his as well or if, despite being the same person, their genetics were different.

It was something to look into, for curiosities sake, for all they knew they could actually be brothers… their mother could travel dimensions for fucks sake, it was in the realm of possibility. Did Clock Work know? Who was he kidding, they probably did. Continuing that thought he wondered if they had the same father? Was a different time period also considered a different universe? It that was the case, how did he end up the same in the same environment, with the same people? He new of other Earths, thanks to his time with the JL. They had made no progress in finding their father… 

Maybe it was time they asked Clock Work directly. He didn’t have much hope in finding him nor that he would be happy to learn about them, to be honest, unless Clock Work hinted or told them where to look. Considering time, would their father even be alive now? They didn’t have a time frame or any indication of what time period or universe he was from. He didn’t particularly care either way but Danny…He would keep looking for his brother’s sake.

His intrusive thoughts were interrupted by a pat to his leg, looking down he came face-to-face with his youngest niece.

“Hi!” The smile on the three year olds face made him wary. It was to much like Danny’s, when they were up to something, to not be suspicious. Dan knew for a fact he did not smile like that when planning something. Danny had told him many times he had more of a smirk, Danny, and therefore Elle, had a smile that radiated to much innocence that anyone who was not familiar with the little gremlin would never suspect the chaos they had, were causing or will cause in the future.

“Hi… can I help you?” He continued to watch for any hint of what she was up to, as her eyes widened and her smile brightened, his senses prickled further. Danny had caught him off guard, more times than he’d like to admit, with that look. Were her eyes sparkling…?

“Can I call you Uncle Udon too?” Dan stared before slumping further into his chair, in resignation. ‘I’m never going to shake this nickname now.’ His siblings’ laughter and his older niece’s giggles just further cemented the thought.

****

Their older sister and her family stayed with them for a week after the coronation and Dan had informed the JL that both he and Phantom would be off world for the week and had Katana checking in with Japan during the week while Superman had offered to do a few flybys during his free time. Their claimed haunt was relatively problem free but they did suffer natural disasters at certain times of the year. Though they were quick to boot anyone who planned to cause trouble, before it could truly begin.

It had been nice, all the heavy stuff had been felt with on the first day and that left the rest of the week to relax and bond as a family. Rukia and Elle had become fast friends and they Danny, Lucia and Kaito got to know each other more and they had learned more about their Mother and the world their sister lived in. Sharing stories of being teen heroes in worlds that had no other heroes to guid them. Danny was happy.

Once their sister and her family had gone home, Danny and Dan had returned to Japan and their home town, Elle in tow. To say the town was overjoyed was an understatement, they had shown a festival in honour of Yuurei and the the fact that they would continue to prosper for many generations in the future. Elle had had a blast as she played with the town children and are to her hearts content. She loved the fact that she now had a place to, permanently, call home. That night they slept at the Shiro as the festival continued for three days.

****

Things had settled down, after three weeks, and Danny was only now ready to face the box of their mother remains. It was common for some ghosts to have keepsakes of family members, even the mere kept blood pearls, either to remember or as gifts of protection or  proof of bonds. The thing was, usually, it was one or two pieces. A tooth, lock of hair, blood pearl or fur. Not every usable piece, like the Hunters had kept. Now faced with the box full of fins and scales… They didn’t know what to do. Deciding that they could figure it out later, they started organising them, trying not to think about where they had come from. Ells was taking a nap and Dan had come in at some point to help them. They were thankful for the quiet support.

****

Danny was exhausted. It didn’t happen often anymore, due to the power boost being King of The Infinite Realms gave them, but it had been a long two weeks. There had been an intergalactic war that was getting to close to their planetary orbit and almost everyone had gone to investigate and help, in any way they could, to resolve the problem peacefully. Everything had been going well but one side had decided that they still wanted the other planets resources. The JL were then fully dragged into the war. They were finally able to resolve thing with minimal casualties but it had taken its toll on everyone their.

Dan had stayed back so Earth wasn’t left unprotected while most of the heavy hitters were off planet. He had also kept an eye on Elle. Once Danny had returned home, despite their fatigue and heavy body, they had spent some much needed time with Elle. All three of them had gone to the hot spring and messed around as Danny unwound the tension they had built up over the  weeks they had away.

It had been their first large scale fight, they had been involved with, Dan was usually the one to go on these kind of missions but this one had been in space. In Space! Sure they could go anytime they wanted but they also had a pull at their protection obsession. So two vultures one stone.

It didn’t hurt that their partner for this particular mission was Red Robin. They had gotten to know the other hero on a more personal level, though that is rather subjective, they were friends now. Besides, war didn’t allow for deep discussion, as much as movies portray at least. They mainly worked on information gathering, hacking alien tech and espionage, in some cases, in their quest for information. For the first week at least. The second week was filled with fighting and making sure their teammates did join their domain so soon.

Danny sighed as they slipped further into the hot water. They were so relaxed that they didn’t notice a certain three year old sneak up on them.

“Daddy? When can I get a sybling?” To say Danny nearly drowned would be false but they did sink into the water and flounder around in surprised embarrassment, before coming up and sputtering. Dan was laughing in the background.

“Not unless someone manages to clone me! Again!” They cried out in a rush before mumbling. “Or someone actually agrees to marry me.” 

****

Danny collapsed onto their bed at Phantom’s keep. The rush of Ectoplasm would help them get back to normal quicker. They snuggled into their pillow and their thoughts drifted to Elle’s question and immediately blushed when Red Robin crossed their mind. Forcing their mind to be quiet, they slipped into sleep. Their dreams were hazy and fragmented and their consciousness remains out of reach for almost to days. Unaware of their sleepy actions.

🤍🖤💚💙💚🖤🤍

@akikoyuii

@emeraudesfateandfandoms

@cryinginthevoid

@gay-and-random-shit-i-can-find

@alinmenttreasure

@blackroserelina

@blacksea21090

@seraphinedemort

@skulld3mort-1fan

@sussura

@littlefeather345

@michikoy-yuki

@yinari-uchiha

@jotaroslooseeyebrowhair

@currant-owo

@jeminiikrystal

@mnemovoid

@buginetye

@thatrandomsarahchick

@thiawenwriting

@dannyphantomphan

@serasvictoria02​

@isaactheautobot​

@d4ydr34min9​

@blackfoxsposts

@busterkeel

@fisticuffsatapplebees

@time-travel-toke-up

@phoenixdemonqueen

@aconitewolfsbane

@crazydoughnutlady

@xye-chan

[lovers-in-japan-reign-of-love]

may I request an Danny phantom x reader I’m not sure if u see that one episode of Danny phantom d-stabilized where the reader is half ghost like Danny but she unstable in her ghost form (like in the episode Dani was) and she trying to find Danny before Vlad catches her and maybe she gets capture and Danny has to save her maybe reader slowly dying .I hope this sense

Can u add a bit fluff angst to mix aslo this romantic fic since Danny like the reader anyways I love this show sm aslo take as much time as u need no worries

Notes: I’d like to thank @supernerdycookietrashblr for the request & I hope you enjoy it! This ain’t my best work and I’d like to apologize. I’m gonna make a part 2 of this if that’s okay.

I don’t own any of the gifs/pictures used.

Warnings: Half-ghost!r is unstable, some angst, possible romantic feelings, spelling/grammatical errors, anything else I failed to mention

Word Count: TBD (give or take)

Masterlist: Click Here & Here

You have heard all about the Fenton boy, Danny. The half-ghost kid who refused power and wealth for his family. The stubborn child who couldn’t see past Jack’s idiocy. And you had to wonder: Was Danny really in the wrong? This Jack Fenton guy was his father; why is Danny defending his father so bad? If anything, it should show what kind of person he is; good.

But your “father” didn’t see it that way.

Danny’s constant rejections had started to pile up. Your “father” was beginning to lose his patience. The continual reminder that Jack Fenton had a family with the woman of your “father’s” dreams had reached its boiling point.

Your “father” was desperate in his attempts for the perfect half-ghost son. Instead of using Danny’s DNA, your “father” opted to use his own. Round two turned into another string of failures. Even you were considered a failure. Not only were you a girl, but you couldn’t even maintain your ghost half for very long.

He wasn’t very happy with that.

You’d escaped, but the longer you stayed as a ghost, flying from Wisconsin to Amity Park, the weaker you became. You saw ectoplasm starting to drip from your form; your body was destabilizing before your very eyes.

But you had to go a little further. If you didn’t, he’d find you and you’d be done for. You didn’t want to die; but if you stayed in your ghost form for too long you’d become a pile of ectoplasm. If you stopped even for a second to recuperate you’d be captured, dissected and melted down into a pile of ectoplasm. Either way, you’d be dead.

So you kept pushing, even when your vision blurred. Even when your body began to burn and your head started pounding.

And then everything went black.

When you woke up, you were lying on a bed in a room you didn’t recognize. You felt your heart drop. As desperately as you wanted to believe this was a good thing, you couldn’t for the life of you believe it. Slowly sitting up, you wince at the splitting pain going through your head.

You jumped at the sound of the bedroom door opening. The sound practically had you falling out of bed. You peered over and saw a dark-haired boy come in. He seemed about your age, with blue eyes and a leaner build. He seemed surprised and relieved to see you awake.

“Good, you’re awake,” he remarked.

“Where am I?” you stammered.

“My room.” He walked over and sat at the foot of the bed. You moved away from him. “I found you passed out just outside the city limits.”

The longer you looked at him, the more something began to click in your mind. Familiarity. But how? Why was he so familiar? You’ve never met him before—or have you? You chewed on the inside of your cheek, brows furrowing as you regarded him more closely.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I just—” Then it clicked. “You’re the ghost boy!”

He paled, eyes widening as he stood up from his bed, taking a step away as if you’d burnt him. “Who are you?” he asked shakily.

“I need your help,” you exclaimed, standing up. Your body ached, remnants of the pain you felt earlier. “Please—he’s going to kill me.”

“Who?” he asked, swallowing thickly. “Who’s going to kill you?”

“My father.” You felt a shiver run up your spine—mere thought of him making fear bubble in you. “He’s going to kill me. I didn’t turn out the way he wanted.”

His brows furrowed. You saw reluctance swirling his blue eyes, mixing with the curiosity and worry over your words.

“I’m half-ghost,” you stated. “He wanted a son but I—” You motioned to yourself. “He doesn’t want this.”

You see realization come across his face before it twists into anger.

“My father told me about you,” you added softly, “how he tried taking your morph DNA. There was another girl like me, but made from you. I’m made from him, but my ghost half is unstable. I’ll die if I stay in that form for too long.”

You see him eye you, looking for something—what it is you’re not sure. But you let him study you. You just hope whatever he finds is good, or at least lets him agree to help you.

After a long, almost drawn-out pause, he nods. “You’ll be safe here,” he states firmly. “Vlad won’t get you.”

You give him a soft smile and nod. You feel a warmth in your chest at the honesty of his words. But deep down you prepare yourself for the worst. Just as a precaution.

[ladylynse]

Chapter 11 [FF | AO3] of Revision: Maddie can’t deny it any longer. If ectoplasm can become blood, there’s more to this story than she ever realized.

Beginning | Previous

-|-

Jazz made her own breakfast and ate it without bothering to sit down at the table. Vlad never left her sight—or, more to the point, she never left his. With his powers, the reverse wasn’t necessarily true. If they’d still been at FentonWorks, she could have had some peace of mind on that front, but even if he had ectoplasmic detectors in his own house, he would’ve ensured they ignored his own ecto-signature.

Vlad had finally quit it with the thinly veiled threats, at least, so Jazz had turned off the Fenton Phone’s transmitter for now. She knew Danny and his friends usually left it on all the time, but she didn’t want to chance this being the time the technology started to fail and having the transmitter on was the reason she wasn’t getting a message from the Ghost Zone. Cross dimensional communication was tricky at the best of times.

Besides, she was pretty sure the only reason that Vlad hadn’t sabotaged it—because he had to know what the invention did—was that he wanted to know when she found something out.

He wanted to know when she heard from Danny. (Hopefully he didn’t realize she already had.)

He wanted to know when Sam and Tucker found Jack. (Hopefully they would soon.)

He wanted to know when he had to act to take her out so he could move on to whatever the next phase of his plan was without the risk of compromising it if he acted too early.

She didn’t intend to let him find out more of their plans or news than he already had, but good intentions weren’t going to trump ghost powers unless she had an unusual amount of luck on her side.

“Any luck, Tuck?”

Jazz took another slow sip of coffee to hide her expression as best she could as Sam struck up a conversation in her ear. Watching Vlad from over the brim of her mug wasn’t very exciting, but it was the best she could do right now.

“Nada. You’ve covered everything from Dora’s and the Carnivorous Canyon over towards Skulker’s island, right?”

“Yeah.” A pause on Sam’s end. “You checked the River of Revulsion?”

“And Pariah’s Keep. I can double back and look out beyond the Far Frozen if you think he’d have gotten that far, but….”

But that wasn’t somewhere they knew well. Unless there was an update to their map of the Ghost Zone that Jazz hadn’t seen (very possible), there might not be anything consistent enough for them to use as a landmark to put down on a map in the first place. If Jack had gotten lost (been lured) into the vast expanse of green and was left to drift aimlessly with the smaller rocks that passed through—

That was assuming he had made it that far, though.

Jazz still wasn’t convinced that was likely, even though Sam and Tucker had already recruited more ghosts to the search than she’d met.

However many they knew, Vlad must know more.

And, assuming he’d gotten his portal working ages before her parents had (though she admittedly wasn’t sure about that point), he’d know the Ghost Zone itself better than Sam or Tucker, too. The ghosts would know it best, of course, but the ones who knew Vlad well enough to know where he’d try to hide Jack weren’t on their side.

“Maybe we should….” Jazz had never heard Sam sound so uncertain. “Should we go over where we’ve already been? In case we missed him? Even if it’s….”

“Even if it’s just a piece of the Spectre Speeder.” Tuck’s voice was quieter than Sam’s now, more breath than words. “Yeah.”

“Okay. Okay, we’ll do that.” Sam was starting to rally, but she still sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than she was them. “Jazz, I’m assuming you’re hearing this, so answer when you can. Just— See if you can get anything out of Vlad. We could really use a lead here.”

“Should I make another pot?” Vlad asked, nodding towards the coffee maker.

She wanted to snap at him. She wanted to demand he explain what he’d done. She wanted him to admit to everything he was trying to pull and give it up. She wanted to shake him until he told her what he’d done to her father.

Danny was good at getting his opponents to talk in a fight by antagonizing them, poking at their insecurities or making a comment they felt the need to correct.

She’d tried to get the fact that none of this would work through Vlad’s thick skull, but he still had the luxury of ignoring her because—as far as he was concerned—it was working.

He might not have gotten to Danny, he might not have found Danielle, but Maddie was wavering more than she stood against him, and Jack was missing. It was enough of a win that Vlad felt confident pretending now, even with her, and she didn’t know how to get something concrete out of him that Sam and Tucker could use.

Wasn’t trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result the definition of insanity?

Jazz sighed and put her mug down on the counter. “Look. Mom’s not here. You don’t need to play up the caring Uncle Vlad schtick. I just…. They were your best friends back in college, weren’t they? Doesn’t that mean anything?”

Vlad raised his eyebrows at her and rose from the table. “More coffee it is, then.”

“I’m serious. It was an accident, right, what happened to you? It was horrible, it was preventable, but it wasn’t malicious. You don’t need to k—” Her voice cracked. She knew it was a possibility, but it wasn’t one she wanted to think about. “You don’t need to get rid of my dad because of that.” He had more reasons to want Jack out of the picture than that, but she knew he blamed Jack for the accident, and if she could just get him to—

“It was a horrible, preventable accident,” Vlad agreed as he started to make a fresh pot of coffee.

He didn’t continue speaking.

Jazz had to consciously unclench her jaw before she started grinding her teeth. “An accident isn’t justification for what you’re trying to do.”

“Back to making accusations?” he asked lightly, instead of taking the bait like she’d hoped. If only he’d skipped straight to insisting what he was doing wasn’t revenge for anything or that a past accident wasn’t colouring his actions, then maybe she could’ve caught him out.

It was going to be harder than that, it seemed.

However much sleep he’d gotten, it had apparently been enough for this.

“You just—” Exploding at him would only make it easier for him to get her in trouble. “You know where I’m coming from, don’t you? Or do you really not understand what I’m feeling right now?”

Vlad glanced back at her. “Anxious, angry, worried, scared, bitter, sarcastic— Though I suppose that’s more of a family trait than a feeling. Tell me, do you know what I’m feeling right now?”

Jazz flinched. “Attacked?” That had to be the answer he wanted.

He sighed and turned away from the coffee pot as it started to percolate. “I’m feeling the same way you are. Anxious and worried about this whole situation when there’s so little I can do to impact it, scared about how things might turn out because I don’t know the answers and I can’t control the outcomes, angry that you keep making accusations and refusing to listen to me, bitter that you are still holding the past against me—”

“The past? Even ignoring your involvement in this mess, you’ve been arming a teenager to fuel her vendetta against my brother and tried to beat him into submission yourself earlier this week. Or did you conveniently forget that?”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “There are some things you don’t understand.”

“Yeah? Well, I think it’s pretty clear. I know what you’re really like. You can’t just pull the wool over my eyes like you can with Mom. You know more about Danielle than you’ll admit, and if Danny didn’t even tell Sam and Tucker the truth, I know it’s bad. And whatever you did to Dad—” Her voice betrayed her again, and she tried to swallow the lump in her throat. Unsuccessfully, of course. “We’re going to find him.”

Vlad had the nerve to fix her with a disappointed look. “I didn’t kill your father, Jasmine.”

It didn’t sound like a lie.

“So he’s alive, then?” She tried to keep her voice light, like his words didn’t matter to her as much as they did. She failed miserably, missing nonchalance completely and falling straight into a hope so desperate it hurt.

Alive was something.

Alive was enough.

Alive meant they would find him, eventually.

“I would presume so. You don’t have evidence otherwise, do you? I was under the impression that, though you have people searching for him, it is possible to miss him if he’s still moving—which he would be if he’s looking for Daniel.”

“No, but everyone—” Jazz broke off.

Vlad had just done to her what she’d been trying to do to him—except she’d wound up with nothing from her little fishing expedition except a statement that may or may not be a lie because she hadn’t managed to catch him off his guard.

Crud.

-|-

Danny had said he’d needed time before walking out of the kitchen.

As Maddie eased the second batch of cookies off the tray and onto the cooling rack, she wondered how far he’d gone if the smell of freshly baked treats hadn’t coaxed him back.

“What did I say?” she murmured to Alicia. “I’m only trying to get this straight, and I don’t blame him for being angry and frustrated, but….”

“But as much as you say you want to listen, you’re not. Not from his perspective, I’d wager.”

Maddie frowned. “Come again?”

“Danny is telling you his side of the story, and most of what I’ve seen you do is take that, compare it to Vlad’s, and ask Danny if he’s sure about what he thinks. You think he’s not going to hear you do that and think you’re only listening to what you want to hear?”

The words stung.

She hadn’t been doing that intentionally.

Making assumptions had gotten her into this mess; how come trying to be objective and make sure she had all the facts had only dug her in deeper?

“I imagine,” Alicia continued as she walked over to snag a hot cookie from the baking rack, “he figures you trust Vlad more than you trust him. When it comes to whatever is going on between them, at least.”

“That’s why I’d like to talk to the two of them together—”

“Something you haven’t brought up to him, by the way.”

“But—”

“But even if they both agree to that, it still begs the question of who you do trust more.” Alicia’s voice was pointed enough that Maddie winced. “Your son or your old friend?”

“That’s not fair.” The words were a whisper, a familiar complaint from their childhood whenever Alicia had found a flaw in Maddie’s careful plans.

“Never said it was. Life isn’t a debate. Not like you of all people don’t know that or you’d be spending more of it convincing the rest of the world of the legitimacy of what you study. Point is, you don’t always get to hear arguments and rebuttals from both sides before you get to make your decision. And, sure, maybe you make the wrong choice, and you’ll learn more later so that you can recognize that wrong choice, at which point you need to do what you can to correct it. If you’re lucky, it’s not too late.”

“But—”

“But when it comes down to it, sometimes you just need to trust your gut. Your head says Vlad or you wouldn’t keep questioning every word out of Danny’s mouth, and I hope for the sake of your family that your heart wants to go with Danny. So, what does your gut say?”

Maddie sighed. “I do trust Danny.”

“See, you say that, and then you act like you trust Vlad more. Do you?”

“I am not—”

“Did you question everything Vlad said like you are Danny? Because right now, to me, it sounds like you’re putting more stock in his words, which means you trust his word over Danny’s.” Alicia’s tone softened as she added, “I’m not saying it’s something you’re doing consciously, but I still think you’re doing it. You want to see Danny as your little boy who needs your protection, your guidance, and he’s not. You want to see Vlad as your old friend from college who decided to rekindle old friendships after realizing how much he’d missed at that reunion of yours, and he might not be that person, either. Take some more time to think this over while you have it, all right?”

Maddie wasn’t sure time was going to help her.

What would help her would be having Danny and Vlad in the same room, answering her questions honestly, but Alicia was right: even if they both agreed to that, it might not help as much as she imagined. It would be entirely too easy for the contradicting claims to devolve into an argument, and she wouldn’t be any further ahead. Jazz was hardly a reliable source on the subject, and Sam and Tucker wouldn’t be, either. With Jack as in the dark as she had been, there wasn’t anyone to ask who didn’t have a stake in the situation.

Unless she asked a ghost.

Would one talk to her if she asked? Would it—would they—tell her the truth?

If Vlad had merely been acting this whole time, how could she ever convince Danny and Jazz of that? They’d want to use every excuse under the sun to dismiss any evidence she could provide. They might even claim that Vlad had paid off ghosts to repeat his story for him.

Yet if Vlad hadn’t been acting—

What could she do then? What measures could she take to safeguard against Vlad’s actions that wouldn’t risk Danny? How should she break the news to Jack when he’d find the idea as horrifying as she had?

It was a bridge she would cross if she came to it.

Until that happened, she couldn’t afford to worry about it.

There was too much else to do right now.

“I want to trust Danny,” she admitted. “I just need to make sure Vlad isn’t telling the truth about tricking him. Vlad is…. He’s always been good at doing that sort of thing. I’m not sure Danny or Jazz would have realized the truth if this is all a misguided attempt of his to help. How we handle this if Danny’s right about everything is very different than if Vlad is being truthful, and I…. I can’t afford to get it wrong. I don’t want to lose my children because of this.”

“But you still can’t trust that I know what I’m talking about.” Danny’s flat voice, entirely unexpected, came from one of the empty chairs at the kitchen table. As she watched, he flicked into visibility between one blink and the next.

She wanted to ask how long he’d been there. Listening.

She didn’t.

“Look. I’m trying, too, okay? I’m trying because I’m not sure I want this to be the end. But you’re not making it easy, and— And I don’t know if I can do this.”

“Sweetheart—”

“You have good intentions. I get that. But Aunt Alicia’s right. You’re letting whatever Vlad told you be more important than whatever I’m telling you. You think my judgement is compromised. I know me telling you it’s not isn’t going to help anything, but Dani— It shouldn’t be up to her to tell you her story just so you believe me.”

It was the truth, and it hurt.

It hurt even more because it felt like her relationship with her son—already distant, filled with secrets, and strained by everything that had happened in the last few days especially—was slipping away from her entirely.

She didn’t want to let go.

She didn’t want to lose him.

She was, however, unfortunately aware of the fact that he might not stay unless she gave up on Vlad entirely.

Vlad’s friendship wasn’t more important to her than her relationship with Danny—especially not if anything Danny and Jazz had told her turned out to be true—but she didn’t know if she could throw it away knowing that Danny might be wrong despite his conviction that he knew the truth.

If Vlad had been putting up a front to turn her children against him, for one misguided reason or another, she could hardly be surprised that it had worked.

And Danny’s reaction, convinced of the truth as he knew it, would be the same whether or not Vlad had meant well or really was plotting against their family.

She desperately wanted Jack’s opinion on all of this, but she couldn’t reach him while he was still in the Ghost Zone.

“I know, honey. I know this is hard for you, harder than I can imagine, and I really appreciate you trying—”

“But you won’t cut Vlad off on my word alone. Because I’m a kid, because he was never like this back in college and you can’t imagine him doing this now, and because he’s convinced you that I’m wrong about him. Sound about right?” Danny’s voice was tight.

“I won’t trust him with anything important. I said I wouldn’t. But—” But she couldn’t cut him out of their lives before she knew the truth. How could she say that, though? Danny would insist he’d already told her the truth and that she’d refused to listen. “Given recent events, I’m more aware of inherent bias than I was.”

She’d kept her tone carefully neutral, but Danny snorted. “You think I’m biased. Of course you think I’m biased. Vlad rigs the mayoral election so he wins, but I’m the biased one.”

It seemed like every one of Danny’s offhanded statements were concerning now, but this couldn’t be the time to ask. Election fraud was hardly an insignificant claim and she doubted Danny would make it lightly even with his feelings on Vlad, which only made it more likely that it was true.

It made it more likely that all of this was true.

If Vlad saw no harm in interfering the election process to get the position he wanted, what other lines might he be content to cross?

Even if Danny were mistaken, even if Vlad hadn’t lied to her about any of this, why would Vlad even want to give the appearance of rigging an election? There had to be other ways to teach Danny whatever lessons Vlad wanted him to learn, and if Danny had reported him…. It wouldn’t be worth the fallout, would it? Even when disproven, the damage would be done. The memory of the accusation wouldn’t have faded. Making Danny think he’d rigged an election, even one as small as their municipal one, wouldn’t have been Vlad’s best move. It couldn’t have been.

So what did it mean that the claim—the complaint—rolled off Danny’s tongue so easily?

“I’ll tell you what,” continued Danny, oblivious to her churning thoughts. “I’ll ask Dani if she’ll reconsider talking to you, but if she says no? I’m not asking again. If she changes her mind, she’ll tell me.”

“Are you sure you want to push her?” Alicia asked quietly, and Danny looked over at her.

“Vlad’s up to something, and he’ll track us down sooner rather than later. This’ll be the only chance she has to talk things over quietly before something explodes in our faces.” He blew out a breath and glanced back at Maddie. “I’m not making any promises, though. I don’t think I’d want to talk to you if I were in her position.”

If he’d been in her position.

They’d been trying to get him in her position, strapped to their table so they could take him apart molecule by molecule—

Maddie swallowed. “I understand. Thank you.”

Danny’s face twisted into a sour expression. “Don’t thank me. I’m doing it for me, too, and Dani’s going to know that. She left the person she’d once thought of as family and there is no way she’s ever going back, but I haven’t. Yet.”

But he still might.

Because of what Maddie had done and because of who Danielle was to him.

Maddie recalled Jazz’s various theories about Danielle, about how Jazz was convinced Vlad knew more than he’d admit, and how Vlad had said that the ghost girl had come to him for help he hadn’t been able to provide.

That did hint at a past between them.

More of one than he’d told her about, anyway.

Otherwise, how would Danielle have known to come to him? He kept his passion for inventing tools designed to study, contain, and eliminate ghosts secret from the public, kept his lab hidden even within his own household, hadn’t mentioned a word to his friends who were very much in the public eye when it came to ghost hunting— She couldn’t imagine that Danielle had come across him by pure happenstance.

Maybe she and Jack would need to ask the ghosts to find out the truth about that, too.

They might be the only ones who knew it in its entirety—or, at least, knew an untainted view of events.

Danny jumped up from his seat at the table and walked over towards her. For a moment, she thought he might be coming to hug her, and tears filled her eyes in anticipation, but instead, he grabbed a cookie and shoved the entire thing into his mouth before picking up half a dozen more and vanishing.

Maddie was left staring at the spot her son had been, at the missing cookies that felt like the only evidence of his presence, and tried unsuccessfully to blink away her tears.

“Do you want me to stay or leave for a spell?” came Alicia’s quiet voice, and Maddie wiped at her eyes before looking over at her sister.

“Stay, please. I…I don’t want to be alone right now.”

“You want to keep talking about it, me to talk, or silence for now?”

Maddie smiled. Alicia had always been good at hiding her emotions compared to Maddie herself, but she hadn’t been this careful about dealing with everything when they were kids. It was something she’d learned since the divorce, once she’d begun taking a more active role in the community after being free of the man who had never been good enough to be her husband. (In Maddie’s humble opinion, anyway; the man had nothing on Jack.) They’d always had heart-to-hearts on previous visits, but Maddie hadn’t realized how much Alicia’s skill had grown until she’d seen it on full display with this visit.

It made her think she should talk to her sister more often.

Maybe Maddie could build her a cellphone that would work despite Spittoon being a notorious dead spot.

If they modified the Fenton Phones—

Later.

She could experiment later.

“You can talk,” Maddie said quietly. “I’ve learned a lot, but otherwise, nothing’s changed. At the risk of admitting that you might be right about a few things, the truth is, I’d rather hear your opinions and advice than my own thoughts right now.”

“Well, one other thing that certainly hasn’t changed is my opinion about Vlad, but I reckon you could guess that.” Alicia snagged another cookie for herself before adding, “I think it would be worth your while to let Danny talk and say whatever he wants to say before you ask questions or point out what else you’ve heard. I don’t imagine this particular scenario is one he’d have rehearsed when he was trying to figure out how to tell you two about all of this.”

“You— You think he would have? Told us? If this hadn’t happened?”

Alicia shrugged. “Might’ve. Might not’ve. Either way, I don’t see how it wouldn’t’ve kept him up at night. It wouldn’t exactly be an easy thing to tell someone like me, let alone someone like you with your profession being what it is.”

Maddie remembered all the reports of Phantom out fighting ghosts at night and how often she’d seen him in the middle of the day.

She remembered all the phone calls they’d gotten from disappointed teachers—about Danny falling asleep in class or cutting it altogether, with or without a semi-feasible excuse; about his failing a test, be it of the pop quiz variety or one the class had known about for weeks; about his not handing in or not finishing a homework assignment….

Plasmius wasn’t out half as often. Even if his rivalry with Phantom were entirely contrived, Danny was facing threats on multiple fronts.

From both ghosts and ghost hunters.

Maddie couldn’t undo the past.

She could only do better in the future.

She started to nod, mouth moving to form words of agreement, when a flash of light caught her eye. Years of training had her turning her head to get a proper look, which is why she was staring at the green speck in the middle of Alicia’s kitchen floor when it got bigger.

It grew from the size of penny to that of a gopher hole, and then it was the size of a badger hole and a dog was coming through, barking.

Maddie stared.

She recognized that dog, though she was more acquainted with its monstrous form.

“Danny?” Alicia called, her voice pitched to carry but kept short from coming out like a panicked yell. “I think your dog’s here for you.”

Danny did not reappear.

The dog noticed Maddie, though.

Apparently, it remembered her as well as she remembered it, and its memories were not fond ones.

Its growls deepened as it swelled in size, toppling chairs and pushing the table against the wall. With one hand, Maddie motioned for Alicia to go, get away, just don’t run so it doesn’t chase you, while the other groped for weapons she didn’t have.

Alicia, stubborn sister that she was, moved closer to Maddie and stood by her side.

There was only one thing Maddie could think to do.

It was reckless, it was desperate, and it might very well result in the loss of her hand because the ghost was tangible and its teeth were sharp, but changing her ways had to start somewhere.

Besides, even if there were somewhere she could run, Maddie didn’t make a habit of turning her back on a ghost.

Instead, she forced a smile on her face, grabbed a cookie, held it out before her, and asked brightly in the tone of voice usually reserved for babies and (living) pets, “Treat?”

-|-

see more fics | next

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 171 Rundown

Inuyasha The Final Act: Moryomaru’s on his shit again running around absorbing random demons and… he’s after the snake demons from Yashahime? Honestly I completely forgot they were in the original series and apparently for good reason because the FUCKING DIE, like for all its faults usually Yashahime was pretty good about the connective tissue between the original and itself but I guess these guys just aren’t dead anymore by the time of the series. It is kinda dumb that Moryomaru just kinda wants them because ‘they’re snake brothers that hate each other so if I eat them I can fuse stuff to other stuff’ but his arc’s getting ready to end anyway so who cares. Meanwhile Inuyasha’s consulting Totosai about why his new Tessaiga upgrade doesn’t work the diagnosis is basically ‘sword’s fine, you’re just a lil bitch’ basically the same principle that turns Inuyasha into a full demon if the Tessaiga’s not protecting him, he can’t just absorb demonic energy as a half demon or else he’ll go crazy (did anyone ever tell Towa this? Feel like that was literally never a problem for her) but yeah Inuyasha has to run through a demonic obstacle course and learn how to see swirls of demonic energy which… he could already do with the Wind Scar but I guess this is different. Long story short, he gains the power to cut open wells of demonic energy instead of absorbing them, I think this is used like twice before the Meidou Zangetsuha comes by and eats its lunch which is really funny because they already allude to Meidou Zangetsuha being Tessaiga’s Final Form (which you’d think he could just keep absorbing new powers forever idk) so even on release Dragon Scale Tessaiga is already power crept.

Castlevania: We get an extended scene of how Lisa was captured by the church for… having glass and gears I guess, most of it is stuff we already knew though the thing that sticks out to me is she didn’t use a fake last name, like she goes by Lisa Tepes, good for her being proud of her husband and all but don’t people know Dracula’s name is Vlad Tepes? I think I heard someone mention it before so you’re not really helping your case of not being a hellspawn when you literally have Dracula’s last name, it’s a Ben Kenobi situation all over again. Either way, Dracula calls all his boys up to be like ‘yo, we gonna fuck shit up’ and he’s hired two anime misanthropes with suitably tragic backstories for why humans are awful, to do the planning because if you can’t think on a human level you’re gonna fuck shit up. Though even the resident bloodthirsty fight dude Godbrand is like ‘wait we have a plan? I thought we were just sacking villages all over and summoning as much hellspawn as we could’ which is kind of the plan at this point. I do like how Dracula’s rage is personalized by an exhausted finality instead of a howling rage, like everyone seems to be on the same page of ‘look we don’t like genocide, but this humanity thing has had a good run and needs to stop’ which is kind of worse, like there’s only so much talk no jutsu you can do with someone who’s done talking. Meanwhile Trevor, Sypha and Alucard get their initial brooding about their new journey out of the way (Also how old is Alucard? Like he looks in his twenties, but Lisa doesn’t look that much older than when she met Dracula, maybe she just aged like a fine wine or maybe vampire aging is different and you just pop out a twenty year old classy man but it feels like that did not seem to be a twenty year gap). And now Dracula has moved the castle with the big 3D object thing that’s like the only thing I remember from Symphony of the Night.

Jujutsu Kaisen: Megudad is on the rampage and is ready to Rock Lee all over Cthulu and it’s honestly just fantastic to see like after all the complex bullshit with Domains and Animation jargon last episode it’s satisfying to just watch Dadgumi punch the absolute shit out of this guy. They establish he barely has sentience at this point and is basically acting like a heat seeking missile on the largest mass of cursed energy in the area but once he’s done stabbing Cthulu with nunchaku he takes Megumi outside so idk if he does have a shard of sentience in there and just wants to see his son for a sec or if Megumi’s vaguely defined secret superpowers just make him next on Dadgumi’s heat seeking missile radar. Meanwhile Jogo shows up and Cracatoa’s the remaining three guys in like two seconds and I’m not sure if that’s supposed to be an ‘oh shit he’s strong’ moment or an ‘oh shit those guys were really worn out’ moment. Meanwhile meanwhile, the high school girls are sticking fingers down Yuji’s throat because he apparently has no gag reflex and swallows whatever you put in his mouth when he’s unconscious. Only for Jogo to come out and feed him MORE fingers, like half of them right here which they acknowledge they have to do a bunch at once so Sukuna can take over temporarily before Yuji’s body can adapt. I had a feeling JJK wasn’t going to stick to a Shikon Jewel Shard narrative style of collecting the fingers one at a time but this is still a little more than I expected since he’s basically 75% done and got more fingers in him than a Battle Royale Chinese Finger Trap. So yeah Sukuna’s awake but unfortunately for these guys he want to the Muzan Kibutsuchi school of ‘if you’re not immediately subservient and stroking my ego you’re just dead’ and the high school girls get offed for asking him to save Geto even though he asked them what they wanted, like why’s he even asking if he has no intention of doing anything for anybody. I don’t really like this style of villainy like I tend to go more for people that are reasonable to at least not murder their subordinates instantly since it always makes the villains look egotistical and insecure if they can’t handle five seconds of someone not licking their boots but I suppose it is an effective way to show how powerful they are. Meanwhile Jogo goes over the plan to make sure Sukuna stays in control of Yuji’s body and Sukuna’s just like ‘bro I did that a season and a half ago’ but he gives him the same ultimatum he gave Yuji at that point, land one hit and he’ll do them a favor. Idk if Sukuna even intends to make good on any of these I think he just likes flexing on people cause he offers these a lot.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End: As a prelude to their journey to go meet with real ghosts, Frieren and Fern have a classic ‘can you shoot a ghost if it looks like someone you love’ mini-adventure, it’s pretty simple but it works for what it has to in order to solidify both of their resolve to go take care of their unfinished business. And then the girls take turns taking pot shots at a dragon and decide they could really use a tank, luckily Eisen was training a tank named Stark in the nearby village so they’re just gonna go pick him up, get the x-ray specs Frieren wants from the dragon and save the village in the meanwhile if they have time. Now Stark is kinda interesting because he’s like a combo of Zenitsu from Demon Slayer and King from One Punch Man in that he’s a weird coward and a fraud but also genuinely ridiculously strong, he just has no real combat experience and thus is terrified of actual monsters. This may also be in part due to him being the only survivor of his home village which he booked it out of when he was a kid, Eisen wanted to train that out of him which I feel like is a little harsh to beat up a kid about running from a horde of monsters, like that’s not cowardice that’s just being fucking nine. But he seems to have internalized some of that and never really gotten over seeing himself as a coward combined with his lack of experience so despite being able to chop a mountain in half like that story of the guy making a path to the hospital, he’s gonna need some help popping his Monster Cherry.

Vinland Saga: So Arnheid’s plan was a little different than I thought, she’s not sneaking in to see Gardar she’s just kinda… asking to come in and because Wolf left and can’t tell her to gfto she gets the one guy that will let her in, I like how she doesn’t even flirt to do it like she’s not a femme fatale she just shows up and looks pretty and the guy is just there for it. So yeah while they’re talking about a metaphorical storm it literally starts raining because Vinland Saga god has a sense of humor and Gardar pulls a Rick Grimes to bite the guard’s neck out and slaughters everyone when Arnheid cuts him free in a split second panic. Like honestly she was kinda against a wall here like ignoring the fact that it was a coin flip split second decision for her husband, even if she didn’t help him the guards are still gonna assume the guy with a chunk out of his neck had more to do with her than the guy that’s all tied up so she didn’t have much choice. Meanwhile back with Thorfinn and Einar, Thorfinn outlines his philosophy of dismantling the toxic masculinity of Norse culture and how defying cultural norms is better than just fucking murdering people that are mildly rude to you. Still he theorizes that if they can stop the root of endless wars they can kill two birds with one pacifist stone and end a large portion of the slave trade. Given slavery and human trafficking are STILL a thing we know this doesn’t quite work out but at least it’s not as normalized and prone to vast swaths of ‘we killed your guys that were good at killing so you belong to us now’ so uhhh… baby steps? Baby, thousand year long steps… Meanwhile the guards are searching their barn for Gardar and Arnheid which tips Thorfinn and Einar off that they’ve escaped and now they’ve got a decision to make about who to help with that.   

Was gonna add the two new shows this week but couldn't find some of them and ran out of time so I'll think more on what I want to watch this coming week and try to get some new additions for next weekend.

[casperheights]

Welcome to your official introduction into the AU/Rewrite of DP known as “Gravewalking.”

This au will be tagged with #gravewalking au

(fun fact I didn’t know that was an actual word until like 2 minutes ago I made it up like 3 months ago as a play on Grimwalkers from TOH)

A little summary of what you’re getting into, at least with season 1 winky face (this is the summary i wrote for when i eventually post this on ao3 or smth): After an accident that leaves Danny with ghostly abilities (because no, there’s no way he’s dead), said creatures seem to be coming out of the woodwork, sometimes quite literally. The 15 year old High School Freshman takes it upon himself to keep the town safe since his accident is the reason they’re getting through. Oh, and he keeps breaking the lights. That’s probably not important.

–

OR; A rewrite of Danny Phantom as a fruity No One Knows AU and I’m changing his powers to electricity based. Homie was electrocuted it makes more sense imo

Basic info you might want: 

The AU itself: This is a no one knows au!!!! Sam and Tucker do not know. While they heard about the accident, in classic nok aus fashion, Danny is refusing to give them details and is pushing them away. In a classic Finch fashion, I made the death of a ghost correspond to their abilities. As such, Danny has electricity-based powers. 

Genre: Superhero, obv, thats what DP is, a little comedy, but mostly HORROR ELEMENTS!!! I love horror. Psychological? Probably. Body? Definitely.

The ghosts: While some ghosts will not make an appearance (most likely at least. Look man i'm still working on it), your favs are going to be completely revamped! Every ghost that will show up I hope to flesh out well :) except maybe one-time villains/cameos. I have created a whole system of ghost typing ranging from Will-o-the-wisps and Shades to Liminals (who are often called, ahem, Gravewalkers) and Lords/Ancients. Each ghost typing has their own abilities and whatnot (think like the ghosts in Phasmophobia). And since some of my typings would BUTCHER a few characters including Danny, ghost types can overlap :D For example, in this au Danny is a liminal banshee, and by the end of the series he’ll be a liminal banshee and [REDACTED]! This mostly applies to higher level ghosts since those are more titular than anything, but it will also apply to a few of the main cast of full ghosts.

The characters: The characters you know and love are back, but a few with a bit more substance. Team Phantom is overall pretty similar, just adjusted to fit headcanons I’ve inserted into the au. Vlad is not an incel anymore and now is taking Daddy Issues to the extreme! This definitely won’t have any negative consequences for Phantom. Oh, hes also like, 5x more manipulative. Danielle is back and BETTER. While I quite liked her in canon, now she makes more sense. Instead of going by “Dani,” she decided to be less confusing and pick a cooler name (her words) and goes by “Elle!” Pronounced like the letter L shes built different (its not because I keep reading “Ellie” wrong or anything). She is also physically the same age as Danny. She also has a dual ghost type, but you can wait for that I’ll do like a proper character intro or smth.

Season 1 (the only season i’m giving you a peak of rn): Season 1 is mostly a learning period for Danny. Unlike canon where the origin story is left to the intro until a retcon in season 2, the Accident is told through flashbacks, Daredevil style. Overall, this season will be the slowest, as it’s more for building the world, establishing characters and motives, and other stuff to make the next seasons flow as well as possible. Think like the Owl House where season 1 has more filler that progressively gets fewer and further between as it continues. This season ends with what very well might be a rewrite of one of everyone’s favourite episodes from canon. You can speculate what one that is.

Hope this sounds interesting. None of it is set in stone atm and if you have any questions about it feel free to ask!!!

[tomboy014]

How Maddie (the cat) Makes Vlad Masters a Better Person

a.k.a. This Man Will Have Character Growth Even if it Kills Me

I feel like Maddie, the cat, is the first thing that Vlad has ever genuinely (rather than obsessively) cared about.  He watches TV with her, talks to her, praises her, and every time we see that cat on screen, she’s a happy cat.  So, it seems that Vlad is a responsible pet owner at the very least.  It’s the first thing besides himself that he’s ever had to take care of, and more importantly, wants to take care of.  And a lot of couples invest in a pet before they commit to having kids together, so here’s how I think Maddie, the cat, can cause Vlad to become a better person overall.

It’s a typical day in Amity Park except Dani is back in town.  The reason why isn’t especially important, but Vlad finds out and fights Danny who just wants to keep his “cousin” safe and away from Vlad.  Maybe they’re close to Vlad’s house, maybe she’d gotten outside, but during the fight, Maddie (the cat) comes into view.  Danny is busting a gut to find out that Vlad caved and got a lonely guy cat, while Vlad is simultaneously embarrassed and concerned.  Ghost fights are dangerous; he doesn’t want her getting hit by a stray blast.  But Dani?  Despite her apparent age, she’s technically only months old, and there is a cute, fluffy kitty right there.  Like any small child, Dani rushed forward to pet the kitty, and Maddie, like any cat being rushed by a small grabby, child, runs to Vlad who scoops her up in his arms.

“Is that your cat?”

“Why... yes.  Yes, it is.  Would you like to pet the nice kitty?”

Vlad is fully aware that he’s giving off creepy-man-in-a-van vibes but doesn’t care and uses Maddie to lure Dani back to his Manor.  There’s nothing Danny can do about it; Danielle’s a willing participant, and just to make sure Danny can’t stop him, Vlad activates the house’s ghost shield once he and Dani are inside.  Danny is stuck outside, helpless to do anything.  As soon as Danny flies off, Vlad drops the shield.  Danielle would have bolted as soon as she noticed she was trapped if she wasn’t so distracted by the cat.  Vlad needs to play his cards very carefully to convince her to stay.

Meanwhile, Danny is freaking the fuck out!  Vlad has Dani!  Who knows what kind of sick, twisted experiments he has planned for her this time?!  No one besides himself, Sam, Tucker and Val even know she exists, so if she’s killed or disappears, no one will ever know.  He needs to do something, anything, and he needs to do it fast.  Something that’ll keep her safe the same way he and Vlad hold each other’s secret identities over their heads.  It’s a hell of a gamble, and it could end up even more dangerous for Dani if things go wrong, but he’s panicking, and it’s the fastest way to make sure she’s known, and it’s the only idea his panic-stricken brain can come up with right now.

 He tells his parents.  After all, it’s crazy that Vlad’s a dad now, right?

As fast as Jack can drive them over, and Jack and Maddie are kicking down Vlad’s door (with Danny in tow), boxes of baby clothes in hand, to congratulate Vlad.  They didn’t even know he had a girlfriend, let alone that they were expecting!  But instead of a newborn, they see a tweenage Dani trying to grab the cat that just dove under the couch.  Vlad, thankfully, is a much better liar than Danny and cobbles together a story about an ex-girlfriend, a hidden pregnancy, and the lawyer who found Vlad after her death to take custody of their daughter.  Meet Danielle Masters. 

Suddenly, the GAV full of baby clothes and gear they pulled from storage is no longer appropriate, but Maddie and Jack are still excited to meet her.  They just can’t believe that his ex never told him he had a daughter, but they can’t fault Vlad for not being involved in her life.  Until a few months ago, it was like she never existed.

They try to get to know her, but it’s like talking to a brick wall.  They ask to see her room, but it doesn’t say much either.  Vlad had stripped it after Dani left the first time, so all that’s really left is a twin-size bed in green and gold like the rest of the house.  But she’s not a Packer’s fan, she’s not a space fan like Vlad wanted, there’s nothing to indicate that a little girl ever lived here at all.

So, Maddie kneels down and asks, “What sort of things do you like?”

“Maddie!  That’s our cat!”

The name gets a lot of side eye from human Maddie, but thankfully, he’s had that “sister’s cat” excuse in his back pocket for a while now. 

“Just... haven’t gotten around to changing the name.”

Danny glibly suggests, “How about Fruit Loop?”

“Nah.”  Dani says, “I like Corn Flakes better.”

The Fenton’s and Dani run through different cereals for name ideas, because why not?  It’s not like they could give his cat a normal name.  The closest one to normal, Marshmallow, was suggested by Jack, so Vlad immediately shuts it down. 

Finally, Vlad shouts, “Cheerio!  If it must be a cereal, then Cheerio.”

“That’s a cute name for a cat!” Maddie says.  If Maddie likes it, then it’s the cat’s new name. 

The next day, the Fenton’s return with boxes of Jazz and Danny’s old clothes for Danielle along with some new bedding and the biggest, fluffiest comforter ever covered in kitty-cats and yarn balls.  It’s the first thing Dani’s ever been given based on what she likes and not what she’s supposed to like.  She loves it!

Somewhere between the store and Masters’ manor, Jack has let the entire town know that Mayor Masters has a daughter.  Reporters beat down his door all day long trying to get the scoop.  Now that the public is aware of Dani, Vlad can’t do anything to her without causing a stir, and if she goes missing, there’ll be a massive manhunt for the mayor’s daughter.  Dani’s untouchable.  Still, it wasn’t a perfect plan.  After all, Vlad still has Dani in his custody, and the public bought his sob story about his made-up ex, but it’s a decent measure of protection.  And if she needs to, she can always run to Aunt Maddie and Uncle Jack.  Not Danny’s best plan, but it works.

It’s not a total loss on Vlad’s end, either.  Sure, he can’t do anything untoward to Dani without the risk of it making it to the press, but he has her.  Now that he’s a “dad,” his approval ratings as mayor have shot up.  If he can show Maddie he’s a better caretaker than Jack, she’ll be all the more inclined to bring Jazz and Danny to him once he gets Jack out of the picture.  He can still use this situation to his advantage.

But within a day, he discovered the one major flaw in his plan: he has no idea how to be a parent.

For the next few weeks, it’s just madness at the Masters’ residence.  Dani won’t eat any of the foods Vlad enjoys; it tastes like feet.  She won’t eat anything he cooks, so it’s a lot of take out and fast food, which he knows isn’t good for either of them.  She’s always controlled her own poor (in every sense of the word) diet and fights Vlad every change he’s trying to make to it.  She won’t eat a single vegetable, refuses to eat anything he cooks, and he knows she’s doing it just to be difficult since she has no problem eating anything the Fenton’s put in front of her.

She has no problem saying whatever she wants to the press just shy of giving away their halfa status.  Where did she live before?  The streets.  Who’s her mother?  Doesn’t have one.  Where does she go to school?  Doesn’t go.  It’s a constant PR nightmare. 

Some hastily forged paperwork and a few overshadowed officials later, and Vlad manages to get her enrolled in the top private school in the area.  She immediately starts acting out.  Guidance counselors and the principal are calling him at least once a week to discuss her behavior, missing assignments, and how far behind she is compared to her classmates.  At the very least, Danny managed to convince her that going to school was an important part of maintaining her human disguise.

Dani is miserable.  She’s always relied on her anonymity for protection, but now, she’s been thrown in the spotlight, a place she wants to be in a little as Vlad does.  She has to sit in school for hours listening to adults talk at her about things she has no clue about.  People with stupid cameras are always in her face.  She hates it!  And at home, Vlad still tries to bait her into the lab using Cheerio, but she figured out she can shake the treat bag, and Cheerio will bolt back upstairs.  She is NOT on speaking terms with Danny.  Vlad won’t let Val near the mansion.  And her new aunt and uncle just keep spewing things like “it’ll get better” and “give him a chance.”  At least they come with cookies, but if she has to be miserable then Vlad does too. 

Vlad, far from proving what a capable parent he is, has called the Fenton’s every day for advice.  He’s at his wit’s end and wondered more than once if getting rid of her would be worth the scandal.  He’s starting to think it would if it gets him his old life back.

Until the Guys in White show up.

They bumble their way through Amity Park, as usual, still unable to even capture the Box Ghost.  But while the GIW are incompetent, Dani is overconfident and inexperienced.  She’s captured by Agents O and K, so excited to finally have a test subject for their questionable and painful experiments.  She’s terrified, begging to be let go.  She’s just a little girl, but they ignore her and throw her in the back of one of their vans.

Vlad.  Goes.  APE SHIT.

Vlad’s full fury descends upon the GIW, and he cuts a bloody swath through them, nearly taking out a city block, the idea of collateral damage gone out the window.  Finally, he stomps through the wreckage, tears the back off the van, pulls a terrified Dani into his arms, and they vanish.

The entire flight home, Dani still in his arms, they’re silent.  Without a word, he deposits her into her bedroom and retreats into the lab as they both try to process what just happened. 

There was no reason for him to do what he did.  She was disposable.  Expendable.  A flawed creation he’d had no problem writing off before.  He gained nothing by saving her.  He’d just been contemplating getting rid of her.  Now, he’d just made himself a greater target for the GIW.  So why had he done it?  Why?  Why?  Why?  Why?  Why?

Why?

Things are still quiet at breakfast, but Dani put her dishes in the sink and went to school without a fuss.  She ate dinner without a fight.  For the next few days, it’s tense, but it’s calm.  Until one night, Dani started talking at the dinner table, timidly at first, but she shared some fact or tidbit that had caught her interest at school that day.  It was nothing that Daniel had ever been interested in; honestly, it wasn’t even something he hadn’t known before, and didn’t elicit much more than an “Oh, really?”  What was he supposed to say?  But she did the same thing again the next night, and the next, so he decides to reciprocate and tell her about some of the more innocuous things that happened at the office.  A meeting with the department heads.  Quarterly sales results.  It’s met with little more than a shrug and an “okay” or “cool,” but he supposes it’s something. 

Things carry on like this until the night Dani shares a fact so bizarre it can’t possibly be true, but Becky from science class swears that it is.  Balderdash!  They’re going to his personal library right now to look it up.  And, of course, Vlad is right.  After all, what did Becky from science class know?  But it leads them down a rabbit hole of tangents and different subjects until they get too close to one that would require an explanation of the birds of the bees and Vlad is certainly not ready for that conversation, so stop bothering him and do your homework or something.  And she does.

It's not much, but it’s the first time they’ve connected, really connected, and shared something, even if it was just a shared disdain of that know-it-all Becky.  It was a start, and from there, it was easier to talk to her.  She’d share something she’d learned at school; they’d pour through books in his library learning more about it.  Meals started to become not just tolerable but pleasant and graduated up to nutritious, if still simple, foods.  The two of them start becoming a regular fixture at the local library to expand into new subjects.  There was a disappointing lack of books on dinosaurs in Vlad’s personal collection.  It could almost be said that they’re starting to enjoy each other’s company.  Almost.  As they spend more and more time with each other, Vlad is starting to see Dani for who she is rather than Danny’s shadow.  

She’s loves to learn and soaks up knowledge like a sponge with a mind for chemistry and science like few he’s ever seen.  However, she is no longer allowed to do experiments without adult supervision, and no, the vultures do not count!  After they put the kitchen fire out, he got Danielle her own lab coat, goggles, and a step stool down in the lab.  She also got a very long lecture on proper lab safety.

She has a sharp wit and is a master of sarcasm.  He didn’t yet trust Ms. Gray to babysit without knowing just how much she knew, so he’d been forced to drag Danielle to a company function.  But he’d rather enjoyed watching her tear into Mrs. Henderson, especially after all the unsolicited parenting advice she’d been bombarding him with.  He should bring her to more company functions. 

As for Dani, she’s got three new grandpas who’ll ramble on all day if you let them.  Just never take them at their word.  She learned that the hard way the vultures are not reliable sources after she got an F on her history paper.  And she’s got “Uncle” Skulker teaching her how to hunt.  She’s caught Vlad more than once in one of their traps.  After all, his only rule was no trapping the cat.  Like she’d do that to Cheerio, but Vlad is fair game.  From there, Vlad and Skulker start training her to fight.  Vlad teaches her to dance to prepare for future company functions.  He said it’s “good publicity.”

Vlad eventually relaxes a bit and even lets Valerie come over and babysit her on occasion.  She doesn’t really need it, but it lets Val come over and hang out.  Last time, they made a pillow fort and watched Jurassic Park.  She could totally make her own Jurassic Park.  Vlad said it was a bad idea and even got Skulker to come over to try and talk sense to her, but instead it turned into a lesson on zoo design, enclosure sizing and animal enrichment.  So yeah, she’s gonna make her own Jurassic Park.  She even got Vlad to let the pillow fort stay up for three days after she used the puppy-dog eyes Val taught her.

And before Vlad knows it, two years have passed.  She’s doing well in school, has friends, and has started going by “Ellie,” though he’s not sure how he feels about that.  And sure, maybe there’s occasionally some small, infinitesimal bit of pride he feels whenever he catches Ellie copying his mannerisms.  They still have the occasional spat, but nothing as bad their first month.

Ellie’s room has since been fully decorated and is covered with posters, books, plushies and whatever else has caught her interest.  She’s made it hers.  Though the condition she keeps it in is a constant point of contention.  How a child that small makes a mess that large is a mystery he’ll never figure out, let alone how it seems to follow her throughout the house.

It’s been ages since he’s tried to coerce Danny into being his son and even longer since he’s tried to destroy Jack.  Parenting is exhausting, and while he is by no means a great parent, he’s gotten better.  He begrudgingly accepted Jack’s “Daddy-Daughter Bonding for Dummies,” but he’s read it.  He definitely took Maddie up on her offer to have “the talk” with Ellie once she hit puberty.  They still both tore into Vlad about curfews and sleep schedules when they saw Ellie out past midnight.  He’s still not going to give her a curfew; it’s asinine.  He just told her to phase in invisibly if he’s got late night company again.

He’s even been dating Harriet Chin.  She’d been reduced to writing fluff pieces for a small paper after losing her job with the Milwaukee Journal, but she’s determined to claw her way back up to the top.  And for her, that meant getting an interview with Vlad about his daughter.  He couldn’t help but admire her drive and ambition, and she kept him on his toes during their interview.  It wasn’t long until he offered her a position at Dalv and not long after that they started dating.  He’s not sure how far the relationship will go.  After all, he’s not trusting enough to tell her any of his secrets just yet (but she figured out he was Plasmius a while ago).  It’s been nice.

Plus, she hates Jack and that’s always a plus in his book. 

It’s far from the perfect family he’d envisioned for himself all those years ago, but it’s his, and he’d be remiss if he didn’t admit that for all is strangeness and imperfections, he loves it.  This is the happiest he’s been in years.  And all because he finally caved and got a lonely guy cat.

[dp-marvel94]

(Not) Alone - Chapter 5

Summary: Consumed with worry and scared after watching Dani almost die, Danny begs her to come home with him and meet Jazz. He wants to see her safe and happy and taken care of more than anything. An important reveal also weighs heavy on him – Dani isn’t the only living clone… and the other is him. He needs to tell her the truth; maybe that will convince her to agree to the idea of telling his parents. And she'll stay in Amity Park with him, where he'll never have to worry if she's safe ever again.

Meanwhile, Dani has mixed feelings. Still reeling from the loss of her clone siblings, Danny’s unexpected worry and care make her uncomfortable. And her own guilt… she hurt him and helped get him kidnapped twice. How can he care about a mistake like her? But having clean clothes and a bed is wonderful. And things aren’t as simple as she thinks.

Will Dani accept the help she needs and let herself be loved? Or will she push Danny and Jazz away and run again?

Word Count: 3,641

First-> Previous -> Next

Also on AO3 and Fanfiction.net

As soon as she heard the question, a dozen different answers crowded Dani’s mind. Well, really, first there had been surprise; they were really going to let her choose. (Vlad never let her choose anything…. The thought was a stab to her core. And after running away… was it really a choice if she was pushed to act because of necessity, if she never got to enjoy those choices?) But after that….

She could choose! Granted it needed to be in Amity Park… but there was still so much to do. They could stay in and watch tv, play a game, talk, relax. That might be nice but… she could go out with her brother and…. Jazz. (But Dami called her his big sister. And if Jazz was her brother’s big sister, then wasn’t she also….) Dani pushed away the thought.

They could get out of the house; that’s what Dani had been thinking about. And the possibilities! There was the park. Amity had so many restaurants and stores. She’d flown over a huge mall complex…. And there were docks; she’d seen the shore of a large lake while flying overhead. Did that mean there was a beach? Were there museums? A zoo? An aquarium? A space observatory? She didn’t even know what the options were. What all did Amity Park have to offer?

That mall complex…. A memory tickled her brain. 

It was so hot, it felt like she was melting (even faster than she already was.) The huge square building loamed above with so many people inside, cool air blasting through the doors. Dani wandered through the opening. She followed the smell of food to…. a large area with tables. People crowded around them, eating so many different kinds of food. 

“Jamie, look!” An excited voice caught her attention. Dani’s eyes flickered… to a girl about her age. “Can we get ice cream?” The girl asked, tugging on a teenage boy’s hand.

His eyes sparkled with humor. “I bet we can convince Mom.”

Said adult walked up to the pair, pushing a stroller with a wiggly three-year-old boy.

“Mom, can we get ice cream?” The girl immediately asked.

Big eyes and pleading from the three kids, including the toddler who quickly joined the begging, swayed the woman soon enough.

Dani watched from a distant table, feeling her heart ache as the siblings enjoyed their treat. After, toys were pulled out of a colorful shopping bag. With the teen’s help, the toddler got into a bag of plastic dinosaurs. The two boys played.

“Oh! You got me!” The older laughed, his brother’s T Rex taking out his Triceratops. “Mercy! Mercy!”

The girl hugged a stuffed bear. “Mr. Cuddles loves you very much.”

The oldest complained. “Nellie!”

At the same time, the youngest giggled, taken by the attack of plushie kisses. 

Dani wished that that was her and her brothers.

She had watched the family leave after that. She’d accepted as many free food samples as she could until the old lady in front of the Japanese food stall demanded she either buy a meal or leave. She had left, planning to sneak some food later, after the mall closed, even as her core clinched with guilt at the thought. She’d wandered around stores for a while… until a concerned employee asked where her parents were and called security to ‘help her find them’.

Back in the present, Dani asked. “Can we go to the mall?”

That previously unattainable dream of going to the mall with her brother…. That was within her reach. She could wander around stores without the concerned looks wondering where her parents were, without the disgusted sneers at her dirty clothes and unkempt hair. She could buy food, instead of guiltily sneaking what was left over after closing.

Jazz smiled kindly. “Of course we can.”

Dani helped the older two teens with the dishes. Food put away and kitchen clean, the three left the house. They piled into the red-head’s car and drove off. 

The drive was short and yet paradoxically so long. Dani wasn’t used to being in a car. She’d sneaked onto trains and buses while on the run. But her only experience with a car? (A dash of guilt… she had still been with Vlad. He’d taken her in his limo to the airport before they’d flown to Amity Park to kidnap her original.) It was weird, being buckled in like this. The vehicle seemed to sway gently… or not so gently, as Jazz made turns sharply and quickly.

But soon enough, the car arrived in front of the rectangular building. Jazz parked and the three got out of the vehicle, walking to the door. They passed a fountain with bronze statues, metal children playing in the water. And the actual entrance…

Dani stared up, eyes wide. It was huge! The entire side was glass, windows stretching up to the ceiling, to an overhang supported by massive square pillars. 

Sensing their approach, the automatic doors opened. Jazz and Danny walked through. Dani followed, smiling at the blast of cool air hitting her. Eager eyes flitted around the area, hungrily taking in everything. One step, two, three deeper into the mall. Slowly, Dani’s steps trickled to a stop.

This was incredible. If the outside looked huge, somehow inside was even bigger. Compared to this mall, the one she’d visited before was tiny. A circular area stretched in front of them, bustling with people walking to and fro. A square stage at one side hosted a singular musician with a guitar. Plants in pots lined the stage, more sitting against the pillars supporting the upper floor’s walkway.  

And on that second floor… a red and yellow neon sign drew her eyes to a uniform rusty brick covered area. A stark contrast from the white and tan facades of various stores, interspersed with their unique logoed splashes of color. What was up there?

“Dani. Dani?” A voice calling her name drew the girl out of her thoughts.

She blinked. “Huh? What?”

Her eyes fixed on her brother, grinning back at her. “Pretty cool, isn’t it?”

She nodded, hurrying up to him. “It’s so big! And open. Those windows,” She waved back at them. “Make everything look so sunny. And there’s music and so many people. And the fountain outside was so cool!” She looked up, pointing at the bricked second floor. “What’s that?”

The boy chuckled. “That’s the food court.”

“Food court?!” Somehow, Dani became even more excited at the words. “Can we get something to eat?”

“We just had breakfast.” Jazz said, more than a hint of humor in her voice. The older girl half-turned, back to the colorful display she’d been looking at.

“What’s this?” The clone girl asked. 

“The mall’s directory.” The red-head smiled down at her. “Where do you want to go first?”

With wide eyes, Dani searched the map. So many fun options….

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

The first stop (because it was the closest) was the pet store. Inside, birds tweeted and dogs barked. Dani buzzed with excitement. 

“Puppies!” She peered through the glass. “They’re so cute.”

The store had bunnies. “She’s so soft.” One of the employees let Dani hold one.

And fish! Hamsters! Lizards! 

“I think we should get a snake.” Dami teased his older sister, eyeing the orange and white creature. (A corn snake, that’s what the display said. But it didn’t look anything like corn?)

 The red-head shook her head, wrinkling her nose. “Ew. No.”

“But look at him.” The boy brought out the puppy dog eyes. “He looks like he wants to come home with us.”

And the kittens! 

With big round eyes, Dani stared at the little black cat. She wanted to pet it so badly, to scratch under its tiny chin. The animal batted at a toy stuffed mouse.

“Oh, you like your mousie, don’t you?” She cooed. “Don’t you?”

It was so cute, she felt like her heart would melt. And at the same time… it squeezed. (There had been a black cat that she’d sometimes see stalking through Vlad’s garden. Muscles helped her sneak out water and food to it. The other clone’s soft, deep voice… We shouldn’t leave her milk, Dani. She can’t digest that.)

“Okay, even I’ll admit that’s cute.” Another (though not as familiar?) clone brother’s voice. 

Dani looked up at the boy (And that, looking up, was still blowing her mind.) “Cute!? This is the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.”

The boy raised a brow. “I take it you’re a cat person then.” 

The girl nodded. Then… she blinked, her own brow furrowing. She was a cat person, yes. But her brother… “Are you a cat or a dog person?”

It was weird to ask. She didn’t know the answer but… she felt like she should have. Tiny had liked the cat who roamed the garden, right? But the way he’d just called her a cat person. Even I’ll admit that’s cute ? What did that mean?

Her brother blinked, for a moment considering. “A dog person. I think? I always wanted a puppy as a kid. I asked Mom and Dad every birthday and Christmas for years. And I have a ghost dog now, Cujo. You need to meet him too.” He smiled. Then, shrugging. “But there’s this stray cat Jazz has been feeding. We named her Muffin. She’s pretty sweet. And I loved that feral cat that kept showing up at Vlads’.” His eyes sparkled with mirth. “Remember that time it caught a baby rabbit for you. Dropped it right at your feet.”

For a moment, her heart twisted, confused and overwhelmed by those two responses. So much of that she didn’t recognize….

But in the end, Dani laughed. “Yeah. She dropped it, looking up at me like ‘look at me, I’m such a good little hunter’… and the poor little guy was still alive! It ran away. She went after it, caught it again, and dropped it back at my feet. But the bunny ran again. She caught it, dropped it… And scowled up at me, like ‘why aren’t you going after it?’”

“She thought you were a big dumb kitten.” Her brother laughed, ruffling her hair. “She was trying to teach you how to hunt.”

“I’m not a big dumb kitten.” She poked at his side. “You are!”

“Hey, we already established I’m a dog person. I can’t be a kitten.”

“But you like cats!”

“Okay. So maybe I’m a bit of both.” He shrugged. “The cursed cat-dog if you will. Like from that old cartoon.”

Dani blinked. “What?”

“Okay so…”

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

The inane conversation continued as the three left the pet store.

“Let’s go there!” Danielle pulled the older two teens towards a colorful store. Large yellow letters boasted ‘Toys and Co.’

Big bright eyes took in the crowded scene. The tiled floor was bright yellow, whimsical music flowing through the air.  There were so many stuffed animals, action figures, baby dolls, and Barbie dolls. A giant Lego castle!

Dani practically ran to the circular table hosting a bin of colorful blocks. Huddled on the other side were a few other kids, all younger than her, but she couldn’t care less about the age difference. The girl grabbed a handful of blocks, starting to build. What should she make? A space-ship? A race car? Her own little castle? 

The other two teens joined, making their own little creations while chatting. The clone girl focused on her masterpiece, tongue stuck out in concentration.

“And…. done!” The girl exclaimed. 

“What is it?” Damian asked.

“A rocket-castle.” She boasted proudly.

“That’s great.” Jazz congratulated, pulling out her phone. “Let me get some pictures.” She snapped a few, asking Dani and Dami to pose.

“Done?” The younger girl asked impatiently. 

Jazz barely finished nodding and Dani was off again. So many things to see!

Racing toy cars on the model of Amity Park. Setting up a tea party in the dollhouse display. Banging out a tune on the floor piano mat. It was all so much fun! (It had been so long since she’d just gotten to play.) And even more fun as the older two teens played with her.

“Woah! Jazz, go!” The boy cheered. “Faster!”

The red-head obliged, feet shuffling faster on the mat. A dissonant clash. “Shoot. Wrong Note.”

“Faster!” Dani put up her hands.

“I’m going as fast as I can!” Jazz argued. But somehow the older girl went faster. Another clashing note hit. “I saw that, you gremlin!” Playfully narrowed eyes flashed to the boy, who withdrew his hand from the highest note with a mischievous grin.

Still, the red-head finished with a flourish. “Ta-da.”

“That was awesome!” Dani clapped. So did her brother, and even some other children and adults who had been watching. 

Jazz blushed. “It was okay.” 

“No.” The clone girl jumped up and down. “It was so cool!”

The older’s face softened, seeming to believe the words. “Thanks Dani.” A moment of hesitance… Then Jazz reached out to ruffle her hair. “Do you want to buy something? Like I said, I’ve got money.”

“I can buy something?” The girl blinked up, eyes wide.

“Of course.” A kind smile. “Pick out something you want.”

Dani searched for several minutes, hesitant herself. Her heart twisted in her chest. Jazz actually wanted to buy her something. She could hardly believe it. (She understood Damian being nice to her. But why was the red-head being so generous too?) But…

“This is perfect.” The girl smiled softly, her mind going back to that scene of the three siblings at the food court. She took the bag off the display.

“Why plastic dinosaurs?” Damian asked, brow furrowed.

Dani shrugged, face impassive.

“Let the girl get what she wants.” Jazz took the item. “Great choice, Dani.” 

At the register, the older girl pulled out a plastic card and bought the toys. She gave the youngest the bag. And Dani held it close to her heart, like it was precious.

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

Next, they visited a huge bookstore. Two stories tall, with escalators in the middle. Dani had never seen so many books!

“I loved this book when I was your age.” Her brother picked up a thin paper back with a smile.

The clone girl looked over his shoulder. A majestic lion stared from the cover, two young girl’s faces buried in his mane. “The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe?”

“Oh. That’s a really good series.” Jazz offered. Then her brow furrowed. “That’s a different cover than I remember reading.”

The boy turned the book over, perusing the back. “Mom’s copy is older. From the 90s or something.”

“I like the older cover better.” The red-head huffed.

“You would.” The boy rolled his eyes.

Again, Dani’s heart clenched with an odd feeling. So much history and familiarity here, between the two older teens… she felt left out, like last night when they were making dinner. But…..

Her brother looked up, holding out the book to her. “Do you want to give it a read?” A hint of sadness in his smile. “I know you, reading everything you can get your hands on.”

That was true enough; before she’d read every book she could find in that cabin. But less for the love of reading and more for voracious curiosity, the desperate need to connect to the world outside those four walls. And from the sad look in his eyes…. Damian knew that as well.

Dani took the book, eyes skimming over the back. (Her heart squeezed. She could imagine reading this to Daniel, sitting on the floor in front of his pod. But he wasn’t…)

She shook her head, smiling. “Yeah. It looks cool.”

The clone girl ended up leaving with the novel and a book on dinosaurs.

“Oh! This looks interesting.” Jazz had offered the book eagerly.

Danielle’s heart warmed at the attention, accepting with a smile.

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

Next was another toy store. Build-a-bear! Jazz and Danny helped her make a stuffed animal, a black dragon with large green eyes and tiny wings. She picked out a tiny saddle for him and a bear-sized Spiderman shirt. After much deliberation, she named him Inky. The nice employee put her new friend in a white box that looked like a little house as Jazz paid.

Then the candle store! It smelled so good. So many of the candles had weird and funny names. She wanted to smell every one. In the end, her brother and Jazz almost had to drag her out. 

“You can’t smell every candle, Dani.” Dami quietly whined, an arm over her shoulder. “People are starting to look at us weird.”

“Fine.” The clone girl huffed. She squirmed out from under the arm, hurrying out of the store.

Then her eyes flickered to the red-and-yellow neon sign she’d seen earlier. ‘A Fork in the Road’…. The food court!

She turned, pointing. “I’m hungry. Can we get food?”

“That sounds good to me.” Dami turned to the red-head who nodded.

“Yes!” Excited, Dani ran ahead of the other two.

“You’re not supposed to run.” Jazz called after her.

“Just let her go.” The muttered reply.

Turning the corner, Dani was greeted by a surprisingly rustic scene. As viewed from the entrance, the outer wall was brick. Rows and rows of tables sat in the middle, interspersed with pillars supporting the wood-beam criss-crossed ceiling. And on the inner side and back wall…. The food stalls!

Colorful neon signs offered so many different types of food. It all smelled delicious.

“What looks good?” Her brother said, coming up behind her.

In the end, Dani went with Chinese food. 

“So good.” The clone girl gushed through her noodles. Jazz and Dami knew good food! She’d said that about every single meal she’d had with them. (It was kinda sad; maybe it tasted better when she didn’t have to steal it.)

There in the food court, Dani took a rest to play with her new spoils, coaxing her brother into a dinosaur fight and attacking the other two teens with kisses from the newly named Inky. All the while the three discussed where else to visit on their mall trip. 

The arcade and electronics store were fun. There was the Amity Park Gift shop, selling just about any object Dani could think of, with the city name in big letters and little cartoon ghosts. And even more items marked with a familiar insignia.

“Aww. They have Danny Phantom plushies.” Jazz jutted her lip out, waving the doll in the boy’s face. “Isn’t he adorable?”

Dami raised a brow skeptically. “Uh huh….” 

The red-head turned sharply, marching towards the checkout. “I’m going to buy him.”

The boy’s jaw dropped. “Seriously?” Then, crossing his arms as the older teen ignored him… “I didn’t authorize this.” He muttered.

Dani giggled at the exchange, begging Jazz for her own Phantom plushie. (Even as staring at the miniature likeness of Danny Phantom gave her an odd feeling.)

The three left the tourist shop, passing in front of one of the numerous clothing stores. For just a moment, Dani’s eyes lingered on one of the outfits in the window. It wasn’t her typical style at all, a sleeveless dress with a flared skirt and a pattern of little flowers. But… an odd squirming in her gut. It was pretty. (Would she- messy, dirty, not good enough, imperfect, a mistake- look cute in it….)

“We can take a look if you want.” Dami offered. 

“Yes. We should get you your own clothes anyway.” Jazz nodded. “Not just our hand-me-downs.”

The words shook Dani out of her thoughts. “No. It’s fine.” The girl frowned down at her feet, crossing her arms.  “I don’t need new clothes.”

Her insides squeezed guilty. Letting Jazz and Dami buy her little fun gifts was one thing but her own clothes… that was… that was too much. 

“Dani-” Dami started, reaching towards her with big compassionate eyes. 

The girl side-stepped, stomping away towards a big neon sign. Even still, complex feelings swirled in her core. She didn’t need help. She didn’t need someone to take care of her. (She didn’t deserve it.)

No, she couldn’t think like that, not when Dami was being so nice to her (after she yelled at him this morning). Her gaze flickered around for a distraction, keenly aware of the footsteps quickly following after her. The clone girl’s eyes fixed on-

“What’s that?” Dani pointed at the poster. A smiling man and woman sat on a giant pink letter B, in front of a blue background.

Her brother took the bait. “Oh. It’s the Barbie movie.”

Barbie… like those dolls she saw at the toy store? 

Dani’s brow furrowed. “Can we see it?”

The older two teens exchanged looks. There was a moment of hesitation, as if the two exchanged silent conversation about whether or not to push the clothing shopping. 

Eventually though, Jazz sighed. “Yes, we can.” She marched up to a glass window with a teenager sitting behind it. “Three tickets for Barbie at four, please.”

The three watched the movie, Dani squirming in excitement in her seat. She munched on the popcorn.  Her head tilted, not understanding some of the jokes, but still she grinned and laughed. The girl almost busted a gut during the Ken’s song and dance number. She even teared up at the end, as Barbie made her choice. (The question rang in her core…. What was I made for?)

“That was amazing!” Dami gushed star-eyed. “I’m just Ken…” As the trio exited the closing mall, she skipped down the almost empty halls and sang loudly, her previous angst long forgotten.

Another short drive and they arrived back at Fenton Works. The older two prepared a quick meal, after entertaining Dani with some board games. The clone girl went to bed with a smile on her face.

[sheplayswithlifee]

“What’re you doing here?” Jurnee asked, once she opened the door.

“I’ve… missed you.” Vlad was nervous. He felt naked but safe.

“Oh.”

Vlad could tell that she wasn’t interested in anything he was going to say. She did care for him, he just knew that but he’d hurt her on a couple different occasions, that was not lost on him. He hated to compell her but he needed her to understand and actually listen to him. “Provide me with the chance to show I’ve improved as a partner and lover. I assure you, you will not be disappointed. Come to my estate. Stay with me.”

“I can’t leave my family, Vlad.” 

“Then I’ll remain here...” He stated, gazing into her eyes. She didn’t seem opposed to the idea so he continued with this thoughts. Confessing to everything he was keeping from her. “This is who I am.” He stood up and changed his appearance, showing his dark form. Jurnee didn’t flinch, just looked on with interest. He liked that about her and it made him feel good about his decision to tell her.

“Hmm.” She acknowledged. She knew there was something different about him just by the way he spoke and carried himself. His affection and love making was unmatched, she’d often thought that vampires could be real. After all, fiction is inspired by something. Next thing you know, he’d be telling her that their were witches and wizards, maybe even werewolves. Integrally, she laughed at the thought because it seemed ridiculous. Yet, standing next to her was a sharp tooth, red eyed vampire, so maybe it wasn’t that unrealistic.

“I want to spend the rest of your life together... or longer, if you wish.” He threw in, licking his lips. He didn’t mean for it to sound as sinister as it did

“What do you mean ‘or longer’?”

“If you’d like, you can live forever with me, you’d cease to age physically. It’s not something you have to decide this instant, take your time.”

[theglitchywriterboi]

Deaths Diner: Chapter Five

They sat in the now half destroyed diner. No one was saying much at this point. Aurora was under close watch of Trick, Treat, & Nic, while Vlad & Sling watched over Clay. The new four sat a short distance away. Close enough to hear anything said, but further away from the deaths. Not that Clay, Nic, or Sling were even aware of them at this point.

None of them felt safe here. Not like this. But they had nowhere else to go. Going to their headquarters would only draw attention from the lites, and they were known to be a bit… Talkative, to say the least. And going to Vlads father was already a no go, seeing as he’s the one who ordered the diner to be shut down all those years ago, and explaining why they were there… He would do more harm than help.

Aurora stirred. A good sign. She sat up slowly, looking around at her surroundings. Once he saw that she was awake now, Trick rushed to the kitchen to grab her some water.

“Wh… What happened?” she asked. Her eyes landed on Clay, “Oh…” She said, recognition & sadness in her voice. “What are we going to do?”

Vlad thought for a moment. He knew what they had to do, find Prime. But that was easier said than done. No one has seen him in ages. Before, maybe they could’ve tried something else to help the new four. He didn’t know what that’d be, but three out of four isn’t bad. But now they couldn’t even toy with other options.

“We have to find him… Prime. And soon,” Vlad said.

“How are we supposed to do that? He hasn’t been seen since-” Aurora started, before Sling cut her off.

“He won’t stay in hiding anymore” They said, bitterness in their voice.

“How do you know that? He hasn’t been seen in hundreds of years, how is now any different?” Aurora asked. Trick came back from the kitchen & handed Aurora a glass of water. She said a quick ‘thank you’ before turning her attention back to Sling. Her dress lit up brightly with every sip of water.

Sling paused for a moment, gathering their words. “He felt it.'“ they said, as if they were supposed to know what that meant.

“And that means…? What, exactly?” Vlad asked.

“I… When Clay got hit, I felt it. We,” They gestured to Nic, “Felt it… And I’m sure he did too. And even though he’s a selfish piece of… He’d at least want to know what could actually hurt one of us, because that means it could hurt him” Vlad didn’t remember much of Prime. He always remembered him as an aloof person. He was in charge of the deaths - both the lites and his siblings. So when he wasn’t collecting people, he was with Vlads father, or doing paperwork. Sling clearly hadn’t forgiven him for leaving with no notice, and for seemingly no reason.

“But how do you know that? What if he didn’t feel it? Or he doesn’t care as much as you think he will?” Aurora asked.

“I know him. He may not come out of hiding, at least not as fast as we want him to, but he won’t keep trying to stay hidden…”

Vlad didn’t know what to think. I mean, if he was already hidden, wouldn’t it be just as hard to find him if he was trying to stay hidden? Especially if he didn’t make an effort himself to come out of hiding.

“That’s nice, but even still, where are we supposed to begin trying to find him?” Trick asked, speaking up for the first time in a while. “Plus, if he’s so selfish, how do we know he’ll even agree to help us?”

“We don’t have any other options right now. We’ll have to hope he still has half an ounce of decency in him to help” Sling said, still not being able to contain their bitterness towards Prime. “And I don’t know… You guys will have to ask around to see if anyone’s seen him”

“You guys?” Vlad repeated.

“Well… Nic & I have to stay here & make sure Clay is okay. We have to make sure nothing comes back to hurt her again. Plus Prime won’t wanna talk to us. Even if he did, I’d probably kill him before he had the chance to help”

This wasn’t good news. Even if Prime & Sling were on bad terms, that must be better than the… No terms he & Prime were on, right? Aurora stood up slowly, and began lifting vines slowly out of the ground.

“Um, Aurora, I don’t think you should-” Treat began, before Aurora cut her off.

“I know what I’m capable of,” she said gently, “If they’re all going to stay here, they should have at least some protection. We’re practically out in the open right now.”

The thick green vines slowly wove & twisted together, forming new walls. Small flowers were on all the vines, most of which being light pink or blue. Both her and Vlad knew the deaths generally weren’t fond of color, of course that varied from death to death, but even when one of them liked colors, it was normally a muted version of said color. Theres a lot of stereotypes that are false about those who collect souls, but the doom & gloom aesthetic is one of the few that were accurate. But it was protection she was providing, and it matched the diners aesthetic, so she didn’t really care if they liked the colors or not.

Trick & Treat stood behind Aurora, ready to catch her [or help her stay steady] if it began to be too much for her, but thankfully, their assistance wasn’t needed. The diner was now in near complete darkness, the recent destruction had seemingly damaged the lights. It wasn’t a bother for Vlad, Sling, Nic, & Aurora, but Trick, Treat, & the new four were probably not having the best time. Vlad watched as a lone vine sprung out of the ground near by their table. It swirled up, about halfway the height of the tables, before a bud began to open. A small, but very bright, yellow light appeared from the flower. While the small plant didn’t light up the whole diner, it did light up a great deal of it, which was more than enough at the moment.

“Thank you, Aurora,” Sling said, “You all should get going now.” they said.

“But, we still don’t know where to even begin” Vlad said.

“Neither do I. Ask around. Prime and the Weatherman were close - as close as two insufferable people can be of course. See if he knows anything” Sling explained “But hurry up. You know they,” they gestured to Dexter, Paxton, Sage, & Asher, “Don’t have much time, and we don’t know how long she’ll have”

Vlad wanted to ask more questions. To get any sort of idea for where they could find Prime, but he knew they were right. They had to find him as fast as possible. And while Sling might have a nugget of knowledge about Primes personality & interests [well, other than him being a selfish asshole] that might help them find him, thats a might they didn’t have time to bet on.

So they were off. Aurora had the same thoughts as Vlad did, where as Trick & Treat only annoyed Sling with their questions, rather than making them divulge more information about Prime. The new four didn’t have any questions. Or rather, if they did, they chose not to voice them. Vlad had enough experience with the living [well, newly dead, but close enough] to understand that warming up to Death is a lot easier said than done.

[artistfingers]

There’s one ~silver lining~ of my iPad being broken: I’ve had loads of time to think about my many half-formed undercover phantom au ideas! Since I have no idea when or what will make it to comic form, here’s the lowdown…. AKA, everything that’s been rattling around my brain recently :P

For context: Danny, Sam and Tucker have never met, and nobody knows Danny is Phantom. When Vlad’s newest bit of tech gets Danny stuck in ghost mode (with the rest of his powers on the fritz to boot), he meets Tucker and Sam—who instantly see through his disguise and lend a helping hand. (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4!!)

So. After that, Danny—no, Phantom—becomes friends with them. It’s exciting! He was invisible at school even before the ghost powers; he was pretty isolated and lonely and being Phantom for the last year hasn’t exactly been a social boon. Kid’s lonely, ok?

But now… two human friends? Who’re his age & share his interests? It’s like a dream come true! If only they weren’t exclusively friends with his ghost self… and if only they didn’t wanna be so involved in his dangerous ghost hunting things…Uhhh. Hm. Could be a problem.

Danny angsts about the danger he’s putting his new friends in, and about not being able to befriend them as a human. He plays with the idea of telling them Everything but that’s… risky to say the least. He’s only known them a few weeks! ugh….!! it’s too much. maybe he should just throw the towel in.

Buuut Sam & Tucker don’t take no for an answer. Especially after they rescue him a third time.

Thus… Phantom friendship shenanigans!!

Sam filched some parts from the Fentonworks Lab when Phantom took them there, and later convinced Tucker to help her build a custom mini ectogun in case of emergency. They didn’t tell Phantom.

Danny is really sentimental about that DP hat he wore when he first met Sam & Tucker. He wore it as Phantom for a while but it got singed in a fight. He still wears it when he hangs out with Tucker & Sam but otherwise keeps it squirreled away for Sentimental Reasons.

“So Phantom, how old are you?” “I’m 15.” “15 now? Or 15 when you died?” “Yes.”

Tucker has a bunch of awful 90s button up shirts, and gives one to Phantom

They aren’t able to convince Sam to wear one too, but they sure do try.

Phantom won’t tell them when he died, so once he starts wearing 90s shirts they start using terrible 90s slang with him

“I am NOT from the 90s!!! They didn’t even SAY that then!!!” “methinks the lady doth protest too much…..home slice” “NOOO!!!”

“Phantom I have an extremely important question. Like, life or death. SHIT is on the LINE here. Are you listening?? I really need to know…. Do ghosts play video games”

The answer may surprise you (no it won’t)

Sam is completely convinced they can ACTUALLY get a good working guess of when Phantom lived and died based on the fact he liked Nasty Burger when he was alive, since NB’s a regional chain with a not-so-distant past. Tucker meanwhile thinks Phantom probably has a good reason for keeping them at arm’s length—but regardless of method, they can agree: they want to break down Phantom’s walls.

The next arc is less “Undercover Phantom” and more “Undercover Fenton” because the juxtaposition of him having to do hidden identities squared (squared again) is too good for me to pass up. It boils down to this: during a ghost attack at school, Danny finds himself stuck being “protected” by Sam and Tucker.

Sam and Tucker take their new jobs as Phantom’s ghost hunting companions too seriously to let this skinny stranger they just met run TOWARDS the danger. WHY does he keep trying to run TOWARDS the danger

NO YOU CANNOT GO TO THE BATHROOM THE SCHOOL IS ON G H O S T L O C K D O W N

Sam pulls out her ectogun.

Danny: WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?!

Sam does not tell him.

“Wait, your last name’s Fenton? Like Fentonworks Fenton?” “No, the other Fenton.” “Oh… well, that’s too bad…” “YES LIKE FENTONWORKS FENTON”

Sam is initially wary of Danny because of his parents’ super strong anti-ecto views. Danny is clueless as to why she isn’t very friendly to him-as-a-human when she’s great with him-as-a-ghost. but she warms up after he helps resolve the ghost issue in a way that shows he doesn’t subscribe to his parents’ views.

afterwards you get this excellent situation where Danny is now friends with Sam and Tucker as Phantom and as Fenton, and they’re not connecting the dots as quickly as they did when it was just “that’s Phantom wearing a hoodie and a cap with his own logo on it”.

the potential here? *chefs kiss* here’s a few things but honestly? the possibilities are limitless

Danny pretending to not have a cell phone because he already gave them his number as Phantom

Tucker: *dials Phantom*

Danny, standing directly next to him: *frantically attempting to silence his phone*

Sam & Tucker try to introduce Danny and Phantom. Danny has to make excuses to avoid this happening in both forms.

Danny takes Sam & Tucker down to the Fentonworks Lab to get them some real equipment. Sam & Tucker pretend (very badly) that they’ve never been there before

Rooftop chill sessions as Phantom, late night teenage hijinks as Fenton, plus school AND fighting ghosts does not do any favors for Danny’s sleep deprivation. Tucker introduces him to caffeine pills with… mixed results.

Tucker and Sam teach Phantom some sign language. Later Danny slips up and uses it casually with them as Fenton

…. And many other silly mixups that I’ve yet to think of because I live for that shit

Sam & Tucker have theories about the Fenton-Phantom connection and they’re all wrong but somehow also plausible and that freaks Danny out just a little bit if he ever overhears them

Ultimately, I see this AU having a final arc where a New Situation occurs in which Danny-as-Phantom has to—once again—pretend to be human. This time, he’s with Sam & Tucker as Phantom from the get go, and can’t disappear or transform, even if being Phantom is extremely dangerous at that moment. Somehow this scenario would lead to the Fenton-is-Phantom (or, in this case, Phantom-is-Fenton) reveal…. But the details still escape me :P

so in short………… I really like hidden identities

[five-rivers]

Beltane

Written for Ectober 2021 Day 1: Trick vs Treat. This is part of the Exhumed series.

.

Danny Fenton walked into the precinct. As often happened when he did this, all attention slowly turned to him. “Hi, Detective Patterson. Have you ever heard of Beltane?”

Patterson took a long swig of coffee through the plastic stir straw, because she felt the need to be at least a little drugged before dealing with whatever this was, and then said, “Is this the kind of thing the whole precinct needs to know about, or is it more specific to me?”

“Mm, not specific to you, but I’m not sure if everyone needs to know about it, yet.”

Despite only select members of the Amity Park police force knowing Danny Fenton had another identity, he’d become a sort of ‘ghost liaison’ for the precinct. Better him than the adult Fentons, who tended to break things even (especially) when they were being careful.

“Actually,” continued Danny, “you might have already noticed some things about it. I mean, it’s seasonal, and Mom and Dad were detecting ectoenergy and ghost activity spikes for events like this before they got the portal up and running. Although, the portal was supposed to stabilize and reduce those spikes… I guess reducing one isn’t bad?”

“Okay,” said Patterson. “I don’t really know what you’re talking about. Do you want me to go find Collins?”

“Oh, that might be a good idea.”

“Great,” said Patterson. She turned her head to shout across the room. “McGee. Go find Collins.”

“Still the new guy?” asked Danny, sympathetically.

“It isn’t like we’re a popular posting,” said Patterson, “and, thanks to the ghosts, we don’t really need new people.”

Danny nodded placidly. “I know. But it must be hard for him, don’t you think?”

.

McGee had done his job. He’d discovered the corruption in the Amity Park Police Department and plumbed its depths. The problem was that he could never, ever, report it. Even if they didn’t have a perfectly good cause for it all, what they were ‘hiding’ (and they were only barely doing that) was so ridiculous that McGee had thought he’d gone crazy at first.

Ghosts.

The whole of Amity Park was haunted. Just like it said in those touristy brochures at the front of the local diners.

He stuck his head into the break room. “Collins, Patterson and Fenton want you,” he said.

“In the normal room?” Collins asked, shoving a sugary monstrosity of a donut into his mouth.

“I have no idea. She didn’t say.”

“Normal room then. Great job, McGee.”

McGee rolled his eyes. Great job, he said. As if he’d done anything.

God. What would Halloween be like?

.

“So, it’s like, reverse Halloween?” asked Patterson.

“Well, not exactly,” said Danny. He patted Daisy, the department mascot slash corpse sniffing dog who had followed them into the small interview room, gently on the head. “Actually, there are more similarities than differences. Basically, like Halloween, we’re going to get a spike in ectoenergy. Maybe even some ectoplasmic storms. More portals. That kind of thing.” He shrugged. “Most holidays and seasonal divisions have them, you know.”

“So… we’re getting Halloween round two?” asked Collins.

“What do you bet that this is what gets McGee to snap?”

“He’s been here since December,” said Collins. “I think he’s too stubborn to leave.”

“Is he still spying?” asked Danny.

“No,” said Patterson, waving a hand. “He gave up on that, after a while. But there’s a new office bet about whether or not he’ll stay stay, or if he’ll decide to quit. We’re not allowed to join in because we know him too well.”

“Mm,” said Danny.

“I don’t actually know if I feel like I know him that well,” said Collins.

“Well,” said Danny, “it shouldn’t be as extreme as Halloween. Since, I mean, there aren’t as many religious holidays directly associated with death and stuff happening on or around May first. So. Yeah. But the thing is, there are some traditional, er, activities. Spirited activities.”

Collins suppressed a groan, and was glad that Captain Jones wasn’t available today. He and Danny could sling puns at each other for obscenely long periods of time.

“I’ve never noticed ghosts doing anything on May Day,” said Patterson.

“This is only the third year anyone’s even acknowledged that ghosts exist,” said Danny, “so I’m not really all that surprised. But the reason that I came to talk to you guys is that some of the ghosts want to do Beltane stuff. Like the fire blessings. Also, I’ve been told that some of the trees in town are secretly ghost trees, and if we don’t want to deal with another tree army, we need to do some stuff to appease them.”

“Secret ghost trees.”

“My source is very reliable,” said Danny. “Also, while I say ‘we don’t want to deal with it,’ I think we all know who’d be dealing with most of it.”

“You would,” said Patterson.

“Got it in one. Like, I can convince most of the ghosts to either do their Beltane stuff in the Ghost Zone, or somewhere out of the way. They’ll be disappointed, but I can do it. The ghost tree thing, though…”

“Can’t we just, I don’t know,” said Collins, “get rid of the ghost trees?”

“Well, they aren’t really evil ghost trees. Or even really ghost trees. They’re more… ghosts that live in trees?”

“What, like dryads?” asked Collins, raising his eyebrows.

“That’s what I said, but they’re different species, apparently.”

“Okay,” said Patterson, “so. Appeasing the trees. How many trees are we talking about here, and how are we going to appease them?”

.

“Okay, so, this is definitely a whole precinct kind of thing,” said Patterson.

“And possibly an ‘all civil servants’ type of thing,” added Collins. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Where are we going to get the funding for this?”

“Oh, don’t worry about money,” said Danny. “I’ll just blackmail Vlad, and if that doesn’t work, I can get Mom and Dad to pay for it.”

“What,” said Collins.

“I think this might be a bit beyond your parents’ budget,” said Patterson, “but knock yourself out as far as Masters goes.”

“Well, I guess if it is,” he allowed, dubiously, “I could get the cults to pitch in?”

.

“This is nice,” said Danny. The sky was a bit overcast, which was a shame, but the hundreds of bright flowers and cheerful music more than made up for that.

The May Day celebration was, in Danny’s opinion, a success. At least, this half of it was turning out to be. He’d have to wait and see how the Spirit Bonfires went tonight before he could really make a judgement.

He’d only had to blackmail Vlad a little, too. It turned out that the ‘ruthless businessman’ in Vlad was ludicrously easy to manipulate, and once Danny brought up how a celebration like this one could revitalize local businesses and bring in tourism, he’d caved.

Although, that might have been the threat of an angry tree army. Vlad had definitely come off worse for wear in the last one, on all fronts.

Then, publically putting the Phantom Stamp of Approval (and Necessity Given The Potential Angry Tree Army) on the event had gotten buy-in from his fans and (sigh) the cults. The cults were, in fact, very enthusiastic about their new Holy Day. Danny had made a map of all the places they’d set up booths, and was studiously avoiding them.

Sam and Tucker were doing a walkthrough of that area, now, to check for problems and unadorned thorn trees. They’d arranged to meet up soon.

So, Amity Park was decked out in ribbons and flowers. All of the schools had gotten Maypoles and the day off of classes. Several bands, both human and ghostly, were playing in different parts of town.

It was chaotic, but great.

Danny briefly cut into the street to dodge a pair of college-age men play-fighting with tree branches (a genuinely important tradition symbolizing the battle between winter and summer), then walked through a wall to avoid two ghosts doing the same thing.

Finally, he reached Madame Babazita’s table.

“Hi,” he said, “three readings, please.”

“Three?” she asked. “Just for you?”

“My friends should get here before mine’s done,” said Danny. Was he channeling some predictive powers? Maybe. Holidays did make his powers weird.

.

“I have no idea what your reading is saying,” said Madame Babazita, after fifteen full minutes. “The cards simply aren’t speaking to me today. Also,” she held up an Uno card, “I’m not sure how this even got here.”

“That’s okay,” said Danny, “I just wanted to make sure it was the same as last time.”

.

“Hey! Phantom!” called Ember across the crowd of ghosts that had gathered in the cemetery. Most of them were fire or nature themed. “You’re in for a treat!”

Danny, who had been examining the flowers left on his grave, looked up. “I am?”

Ember draped her arm around Danny’s shoulder. She’d been a lot more friendly with him since the corpse incident. “Sure are.” She stepped up onto the surface of his memorial, pulling him up behind her. Danny shook off a brief chill and looked around.

Ghosts were streaming into the cemetery from various directions, bringing armfuls of flowers with them. Danny could see two, huge bonfire piles of flowers growing near the cemetery gates.

“Are there going to be cows?” asked Danny, who was still fuzzy on the details of the ghostly side of the celebrations.

“I don’t know,” said Ember. “When I’ve seen this done in the GZ there are. Here? Who knows. Maybe we’ll just walk through.”

Danny nodded, unworried. Beltane sure was an interesting holiday.

The last armful of flowers was placed, and every flower in the cemetery caught on fire at once. Including the ones on Danny’s grave. Danny yelped, jumping into flight. As an ice core ghost, he vastly preferred cold to heat.

This went without saying, but fire was very hot.

Ember grabbed his foot, and he almost kicked her. “You knew that was going to happen,” he accused.

“Sure did, babypop,” said Ember, grinning. “Come on, don’t you want to pass through the bonfires?”

Danny eyed the very large bonfires on either side of the cemetery gates. They were lit up with sparks like fireworks, shifting like flowers blooming and withering and blooming again. They were beautiful and impressive, and Danny felt like melting just by looking at them.

“I don’t know…” He wanted to, but… melting…

“Well, if you want to go out the other way and be horribly unlucky for the next year…”

Danny narrowed his eyes. “Is that another trick?” he asked.

Ember’s grin grew wider, and she took off towards the gates. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Danny sighed and followed her.

.

“Unbelievable,” said McGee. “Absolutely unbelievable.” He gave the elderly cultist a boost into the wagon.

“I know, right?” said Patterson. “All this property damage and a low-key kidnapping,” she gestured to the hapless late night partier who had called the police when the cult got too insistent about their message, “and they didn’t even have the good drugs?” She shook her head. “Not that we ever arrest anyone just for drugs in this town.”

“I did not just hear you say that,” muttered McGee.

“We’ll make an Amity Parker out of you yet,” said Collins, heartily, slamming the back door of the wagon. He thumbed the button on his radio. “Any other disturbances?” he asked.

“No, you’re good to come back,” said the dispatcher.

“What I don’t get,” said McGee, leaning against a nearby wall in a moment of weakness, “is why we aren’t breaking up whatever cult thing is happening in the cemetery.” They’d seen it quite clearly on their way here.

“Because those are ghosts,” said Patterson.

McGee took a deep breath. “The ghosts are having some kind of ritual in the cemetery, and you aren’t worried.”

“Not really, no.”

“I hate it here,” said McGee.

“Do you, though?” asked Collins, sounding genuinely interested in the answer.

McGee opened his mouth to snap back that, yes, he did. But…

Hm. Huh.

Collins patted him on the back.