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#phic phight team human
going-dead · 1 year
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Horses not Unicorns
Prompt by @eyesofcrows : in some hospitals, CPR is done to a patient despite them being declared dead on arrival. This is a courtesy to the family. The doctor doesn't expect the scream when they lay down the defibrillator paddles on the boy's chest.
Dr. Cecelia Martinez had worked as an ED doctor for longer than some of the nurses under her had even been alive. She saw more gruesome scenes in one week than most people would in their entire lives if they were lucky. She would even say she’d seen it all if she wanted to be stupid and jinx herself.
She took one of the coffees out of the cup carrier in her hands and placed it in front of Lily, the nurse on shift with her. “Your cream with a dash of coffee.” 
“Thanks Martinez. And stop ragging on me about how much cream I put in my coffee, it tastes good.” Lily nodded her head not taking her eyes off of the computer screen in front of her. She was finishing up the chart notes for the last patient who’d came in and reviewing the work of their med student.. 
“Anything for you. Lord knows I wouldn’t last a week without you here. But never, it’s an affront to caffeine. I didn’t consume gallons of the stuff back in school, or on these night shifts just for you blaspheming it like you do. Look at it, it’s lighter than a person dying of blood loss.” Dr. Martinez took the other cup out of the holder and handed it to the medical student shadowing her for the next few weeks, Brian. 
Or well he was supposed to. Not many of the students just starting their rotations make it long in the emergency department, especially if it was one of their first rotations, even less come back to work there when they graduate. The kid only started the night before so she hadn’t had much of a time to get a grasp on what he was made of. 
“Thank you Dr. Martinez.” Brian gave her a small smile as she took a seat. “Can I ask a question?”
“That’s why you’re here isn’t it? And drop the title stuff, if you won’t call me Cecelia you can at least call me Martinez.” She looked Brian up and down, he was either restless or nervous, or perhaps both , with how he tapped his finger and his leg hadn’t stopped moving up and down.
“Uh okay. It’s just I was wondering, we’ve hardly seen any patients come in. Is it always this slow?” Brian asked.
“God damn it Brian!” Lily shouted, startling the poor med student.
“What? Did I do something wrong when charting?” His eyes widened. 
Dr. Martinez wouldn’t deny it had been…less than busy. It was already four in the morning and the most interesting thing they had seen that night was someone coming in for back pain because they pulled a muscle. A quick lidocaine patch and he was on his way. Of course now that Brian had challenged fate, there was very little chance the night would continue on with such ease. “You spoke words never to be spoken in a hospital setting. The forbidden ‘s’ word.”
Brian rolled his eyes. “I didn’t think medical professionals would be so superstitious.”
“Not superstition if it’s true.” Lily huffed, she had already downed her coffee in preparation. Dr. Martinez quickly followed suit. 
Almost on cue one of the triage nurses burst through the doors as the intercom spoke out overhead. “Code blue, pediatric male, ED waiting room.”
Dr. Martinez swore jumping up from her seat. “Lily get the crash room prepared and get peds down here. Brian with me.” She followed the triage nurse into the waiting room not giving the student time to catch up with her. 
Who the patient was, was obvious. Even if there wasn’t a nurse actively transferring him into a gurney. He was the only person under the age of thirty in the waiting room. 
Dr. Martinez turned to the man hovering near the child. “You dad?”
The man shook his head. “Teacher, William Lancer, we’re on a school trip one of the students noticed he wasn’t breathing in his sleep, and well-can you help him.” 
“We’ll do the best we can. Do you know of any health conditions, allergies, medications?” She questioned.
William Lancer shook his head. “No. Danny’s perfectly healthy for a kid his age, despite being on the smaller side.”
He was correct about him being on the smaller side of his age group, looking at him, she would’ve said he was fifteen at most, not seventeen. Dr. Martinez followed the nurses to the crash room. They had already started to put the leads of the AED onto the patient when she walked in. 
The likelihood of the kid making it was slim to none. Even if he did the effect of his brain not having oxygen for so long. She was aware of that. If he hadn’t been breathing since he was found and then the whole trip to the hospital…Well it was her job to at least try. 
Brian was just standing and staring at the body infront of them as Dr. Martinez started an IV line letting the nurses start to bag the patient and the others finished up with the AED preparations. “Brian get moving or get out of the way.”
“He’s just a kid.” He stared.
“No pulse, Starting compressions!” A nurse called out.
Brian flinched at the sound of ribs breaking under the strain of chest compressions. “Someone get the student out of here.” She yelled.
That snapped him out of his stupor. “No I can do this, what do you want me to do?”
“Take over the bagging.” She instructed, it was probably one of the simpler tasks she could give him, as long as he didn’t pop the patients' lung. 
She heard the AED speak up, still no pulse, still no, shockable rhythm. “Administering epinephrine.” 
They continued like that for five more minutes, staff switching out doing compressions or bagging. Passing medications. But they all knew the chances.
Or they thought they did.
“We got a new reading!” Lily shouted.
Dr. Martinez looked over at the EKG reading. “He’s in V-fib, get the AED ready to shock.” 
The staff waited on bated breath as they let the AED examine the patient’s heart rhythm. “Shock advised. Charging. Stand clear. Press the flashing button to deliver shock.”
“Clear?” Dr. Martinez made eye contact with each person standing around the patient. A chorus of clears rang out in response. 
“Clear!” Dr. Martinez did a final call before she pressed the button to deliver the shock.
Cardiac arrests were not an uncommon sight in the emergency department. She’d see plenty more by the time she hit retirement. But it was usually older people, people who’d lived at least a somewhat long life. No matter how many times a child or even a young adult came into the ED like this it was hard on everyone involved. She always tried longer on kids. Despite knowing the very slim chance of them being revived. The chances were practically zero here. She mourned the fact that this was Brian’s first cardiac arrest with them. There was no chance any reasonable person would stay after this.
It wasn’t her first to wouldn’t be her last, but just like the others and the ones to come Cecelia Martinez knew she would never forget his face.
Especially since he did something frankly impossible for someone who had just received CPR and an electric shock. He sat up and screamed.
It was only years of experience that Dr. Martinez was able to dodge the kick sent her way. Brian was not so lucky getting clocked in the face with a fist. 
“Hey, hey, hey. You need to lay down. You’re in the hospital, your teacher says you stopped breathing and you went into cardiac arrest. Can you tell me your name, do you remember where you were last? Or the date?” Dr. Martinez asked placing herself directly into the teenager's line of sight. 
He placed a hand on his chest and took a slow deep breath. Something that had to be incredibly painful with broken ribs. “Huh, I-yeah. Danny Fenton. I was in my hotel room. It’s March 27th. Did you electrocute me?”
No obvious damage to neurological function. He got the date wrong but only by four hours, it was the 28th now. “Yes Danny, we did have to shock you. We’re going to have to run quite a few tests to make sure everything is working okay now.” And to see how he was even talking.
“Oh, no I’m okay.” Danny looked back where Brian was holding his shoulder where he was punched, and winced. “Shit, sorry dude are you alright?”
“How about you all go chart, or help Brian get ice or something for his shoulder. Lily let his teacher know he’s joined us back in the land of the living.” Dr. Martinez not so kindly giving them all the hint to get out.
Danny tried to hide a laugh in a cough. An interesting reaction for someone who had briefly died. “Young man I don’t think you realize what you just went through. I understand you are most likely in shock but you need to understand the gravity of the situation. Healthy kids do not just suddenly stop breathing, and we need to understand why.”
“It’s not a big deal, I promise. I just have sleep apnea.” Danny explained.
“Your heart stopped.” Dr. Martinez deadpanned. 
“It’s a very serious condition.” Danny nodded his head like he was agreeing with her. 
There was a knock on the door, opening just a moment after. Lily brining in Danny’s teacher. “War and Peace, Danny are you alright?”
“Yeah I’m fine.”
“No he is not” Dr. Martinez said at the same time. “We had to perform CPR. We’ll have to do tests to make sure everything has resumed functioning as normal as they can, as well as an x-ray to assess the damage to his ribs.” 
“Of course. I have gotten in contact with his older sister and she is on the way, she should be here in a few hours. His parents are currently unavailable.” William Lancer explained.
“Jazz is coming?” Danny groaned. The most negative emotion he had displayed since he’d gotten here. “And hours? As in multiple? I don’t want to be here that long.”
“You’ll be here a few days minimum for observation.” Dr. Martinez said.
The boy flopped back onto the gurney with much more aggressiveness than he should have with what he just went through. “I don’t like hospitals.”
Dr. Martinez sighed. “Not may people do, doctors can be intimidating sometimes. White coat syndrome isn’t abnormal.”
Danny wrinkled his nose. “I don’t care about doctors. It’s too loud here, there’s too much death.” 
It was quiet in the room, she wasn’t sure what he was talking about. 
“I can leave the sooner I get those tests done right?” He asked.
“As long as everything is normal.” Dr. Martinez nodded. They wouldn’t be, they couldn’t be. 
“As long as it’s all normal.” Danny repeated “Alright let’s get started.”
Dr. Martinez was reading the x-ray and other test results when Danny’s older sister arrived. She double-checked the results and viewed the images dozens of times. 
Barring the traces of epinephrine still in his system, all the tests were completely normal. His ribs weren’t even broken. 
But that wasn’t possible. She heard the bones break. 
The best course of action she supposed was to talk to Danny and his sister. She made her way to the room they moved him to. She seemed to enter the middle of a conversation. 
“I swear when I get my hands on him. He traps me in the middle of a dream and then I’m waking up thinking I’m dying again. And now they’re trying to keep me here for no reason!” 
“I mean, technically in their eyes you did die. It’s a valid concern.”
“Still don’t see why it’s such a big deal though, I’m fine.”
“Normal people don’t recover that fast Danny. It of course would raise some questions.”
“How was I supposed to know how quick people recover from dying?”
“Common sense, I’d assume.” “Ugh. When do mom and dad get back?”
“Few days, you’re still stuck with me until then. Lucky for you in this situation. They’d have a lot more questions.”
Dr. Martinez opened the door fully making her presence known. “You must be Jazz. I’m Danny’s doctor, Dr. Martinez.” 
“Nice to meet you Dr. Martinez. Thank you for taking care of my brother.” Jazz smiled shaking her hand.
“Well he certainly gave us quite the fright. It’s not often people come back from a cardiac arrest punching.” More like they never did.
“Well he’s always liked to exceed expectations.” Jazz nodded..“Do you have the discharge paperwork?”
“Discharge?” Danny’s teacher had said Jazz was one of the most responsible people he knew despite her younger age. And she wanted to discharge her brother? “Miss Fenton discharging him so soon-”
“Is well within my rights as his temporary legal guardian while our parents are unavailable.”
Dr. Martinez refrained from sighing. “And where exactly are your parents?”
“Out of the country at the moment.” Danny supplied. “Work trip.”
“I see. Regardless I can’t just let you leave just hours after you went into cardiac arrest.”
“Did my tests come back wrong?” He asked.
‘No, your tests came back completely normal.” 
“Then I don’t see why I can't leave?”
“That is exactly why you can’t leave. We don’t even know what caused this.” She would rather have him stay voluntarily than try to chance getting a court order.
“I do know though.”
“You know?” Dr. Martinez found that hard to believe. “Why would that be?”
“Ghosts.”
“Ghosts?”
“That’s what I said.” Danny nodded.
Court order it was. “I’m going to step out and talk to your teacher. Please remain here.”
She stepped out the door. Finding William Lancer was not difficult, he was in the chair right outside the door. “Sir, may I ask you a question?”
He stood up. “Yes of course. Is everything alright?”
“Unusually enough, yes. But it has more to do with something Danny mentioned about the reason for his episode.” She rubbed at her temple. “He said it was because of and I quote ‘ghosts’.”
“Oh.”
“Yes. So you see why it wouldn’t be a good idea to let him leave.”
 “I thought they wouldn’t be a problem so far from Amity Park.”
“What?”
“We didn’t bring any anti-ghost equipment for that reason. Obviously that was a major oversight on me and the rest of the schools staff on this trip.”
She was starting to think perhaps school was a code word for cult. Or maybe wherever they were from had some serious chemical leaks going on. “Could you please just talk to the two of them and try to convince them not to leave? I do not think it would be a good idea to let him go so soon.”
“Oh definitely. Even if it is ghosts that’s not something we can let go without making sure he is okay.” He nodded and went to open the door.
“Great Gatsby, not again.” William Lancer sighed as he entered the room.
“What? What is it?” Dr. Martinez asked pushing past him. Had Danny collapsed? 
Danny had not collapsed, in fact Danny was no longer in the room. No one was. 
But she had been standing next to the door the entire time. There was no way they could have left without her noticing. “Where did they go?”
“Back home, probably. Or well on their way there, I’d assume.” 
“But how did they leave, we were standing infront of the door.”
He just gave a tired shrug. “It’s not the first time he’s disappeared with no feasible way to. Happens more and more by the year I swear. He wasn’t nearly this bad at fourteen. Still a handful, just a different way. But if he’s feeling well enough to sneak out there's not much I can do.” 
“Do you think that their behavior is possibly linked to their parents?” They had mentioned that their parents were out of the country on a business trip. Perhaps they were taught to mistrust hospital staff by their parents out of fear of social workers.
“The whole family is strange, their parents are scientists to put simply. But not in the way you’re thinking. They’re just strange in a city full of strange people and strange things. If that is all, I do need to return to the rest of my students. Have a good night, or well a good morning I suppose.” He gave her a smile before walking off.
Dr. Martinez walked back towards her office thoughts cluttered. Ghosts, a perfectly healthy teenage boy’s heart stopping. The way he acted it was less that the shock reset his heart rhythm and more like it simply surprised him enough that his functions resumed their normal activities. His ribs broke, then they weren’t. He had no side effects from being shocked, let alone from going so long with no oxygen going to his brain. No one who knew him seemed to think the things going on were weird. Simply another day. 
Brian was sitting in the extra chair in her office. He looked up at the sound of her entering. “How’s the patient?”
“Gone.” 
“Gone? How?”
“Not sure, actually.” Dr. Martinez had seen almost everything as an ED doctor. Whatever just happened was a brand-new experience. “And it seems like I’m not paid nearly enough to figure it out. After today, I don’t blame you if you want to end your rotation early.”
“No! I want to stay.” Brian stood up.
“Really? Why?” Cardiac arrests weren’t easy on new students, kids were even worse.
“I’ve never seen or even heard about someone being this healthy and aware after CPR. It’s fascinating.  I want to see more things like that that challenges our understanding of medicine.” Brian said as he pointed the notes he was writing down in her face.
 Cecilia laughed. “You remember the phrase horses not zebras?”
Brian nodded his head. “Yeah of course. This was a zebra, right?”
Dr. Martinez shook her head. Once she finished charting she was going to forget about all of this, preferably with a strong drink when she got home. Too many unanswered questions and unexplainable events. Hell maybe it was ghosts.  “You’re never going to see something like this again. This was a god-damn unicorn.”
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After Death, After Life
Phic Phight 2022 here we go! I am one phic in and already have churned out more words than all of last phic phight, so that's something :D
Prompt from @going-dead: Ghostking!Danny meets one of his parents in the afterlife.
ao3
“Mom?” The word was out of the King’s mouth before he could even think to stop himself, strangled and pained. He hadn’t even said it all that loud, but it carried across the throne room of the Keep, twisting and coiling into the ears of every one of his subjects present today. The light muttering that always dominated the slower of the open court days disappeared in a moment, every ghost present turning in uncanny synchronicity to the throne at the one end of the hall, and half a beat later, to the grand doors thrown open to the courtyard.
The weather had been nice lately, and King Phantom much preferred natural light to the eerie glow of the ghostfire torches.
Of the two ghosts in the doorway, only one reacted as the King spoke. The taller of the two, not The Fright Knight but instead a younger fear knight in their own right, flinched slightly. Glancing between the smaller ghost slumping next to them and King Phantom at the far end of the hall, the knight steeled themself and began to float forward. They passed between the rows of ghosts from all across the zone with back straight and head held high. The smaller ghost followed close behind, light steps still managing to ring out through the hall. 
Not a single word was uttered as the two traversed the length of the room.
When the knight reached the bottom of the throne, they dropped to one knee, bowed their head, and finally broke the silence.
“My King.”
“Sir Ofn.” The knight, Sir Ofn, inclined their head at the acknowledgement, quiet as it may have been.
“I discovered this new ghost in the upper levels of the Realms.” Sir Ofn glanced at the ghost next to them. There was no indication she was processing anything happening around her; she was still slumping slightly, feet planted firmly on the floor of the courtroom, eyes dazed and unfocused. “I know it is not habit to greet every new citizen of the Realms, but this one was a hunter in life and it felt prudent to bring her-” Sir Ofn cut themself off with a light cough. They took a moment to collect, a moment that normally would have been filled with murmurs and whispers from the courtesans over whatever the latest gossip was, a moment that stayed as silent as the moment just before it.
Sir Ofn raised their face to look their King in his eyes, etiquette of the court be damned. Their voice suddenly soft, no longer ringing with the authority of the Knights of the Realm but instead with the care of one who does not wish to see a friend in pain, Sir Ofn said “My King, I’m so sorry. You needed to know as soon as possible.”
The King tore his eyes away from the doors at the end of the hall to finally look at Sir Ofn. He didn’t so much as glance at the smaller ghost, instead holding the knight’s gaze. Sir Ofn didn’t break the eye contact, not until their King seemed to collapse into his throne; his body went completely slack as a marionette doll cut loose from it’s strings. Any breath he might have had left his lips in a pained sigh and he closed his eyes.
Sir Ofn stood, fully aware of just how much they were breaking the rules of the court today, and as the temperature in the throne room began to drop, they turned to the waiting crowd.
“I need to speak with His Majesty alone. You may all take your leave.”
The assembled ghosts shuffled out without so much as a grumble.
It was common knowledge that the new Ghost King was not a full ghost. Not that anyone really cared: it had no bearing on his ability to lead the realm, and while he had been young and naive at the start, the past five years of ruling had sharpened his mind and spirit until he had earned the respect and trust of his subjects. There was not a single ghost who would say anything against him on the questionable status of his death, nor against those in the lands of the living who were just as much his allies as other leaders in the Infinite Realms were.
Even still, it was quite easy to forget just how much of his heart and mind the young King had among the living. His parents were never spoken of in polite company; being descended from hunters was about as shameful a heritage as any ghost could have. His sister was not an uncommon sight in the Keep, but few had ever spoken to her. His two closest friends traveled all across the Zone and were friendly with many of the leaders of the smaller realms and general populous alike, but everyone knew they didn’t entirely belong in the world of the living anymore either.
To see the King’s mother as a new ghost was a stark reminder of everything human about the King of the Dead.
And yet, now alone in the throne room with the King still slumped in his throne and the new ghost next to them just as unresponsive as ever, Sir Ofn couldn’t help but wish that their King would look just a little less like death.
“Your Majesty-”
“Just, drop the title.” His Majesty, King Phantom of the Infinite Realms, cut the knight off. “Please just, Phantom right now.”
“Of course, Phantom.” Both King and knight could hear how awkward Sir Ofn felt using the King’s personal name, but it was not the first time.
“Where did you-” Phantom let out a low exhale. “Where did you find her?”
“The upper levels of the realm, not far from your own portal. I didn’t recognize her, not at first, but,” Sir Ofn shrugged, unsure of how to explain.
“She’s strong. And distinct.” Phantom stood from the throne, unclasping the flowing cape of the King and setting the Crown of Fire on the seat.
“That she is, Phantom.” Sir Ofn snorted without humor. “She seemed… confused. Lost.”
“You could feel her fear.”
“Yes.”
“Has she said anything?” Phantom stepped down off the throne dais, feet just as firmly on the ground as the new ghost’s. “Or, y’know, done anything at all?
“She was quite talkative when I found her. She asked me where she was, who I was, what was happening. When I explained that she was a ghost, she shut down. She hasn’t said anything since, merely followed me.”
“I should call Jazz. She needs to know.” Before Sir Ofn could respond, Phantom had turned away and pulled out a set of Fenton Phones. From where, Sir Ofn could only imagine.
“My King- Phantom. Should you not confirm that this is actually-”
“What, Maddie?” Phantom glanced at the ghost in question for perhaps the first time since she had fully entered the throne room. “I don’t need to. It’s her. I know it.”
He tensed then, body closing off as he spun away from Sir Ofn and brought his hand up to his ear. “Hmm, Jazz? What? No, it was open court today, you know I have everything on silent for that. Jazz, Jazz I need you to slow down. You want me to come back home?” A pause on Phantom’s end as he listened to what his sister was saying. “Yeah, I get that you say it’s urgent, but something came up here and I don’t think I can leave just yet- it’s about mom?”
Phantom froze, hand still raised to his ear. Whatever his sister was saying, it was hitting him hard.
“She’s- yeah, Jazz, I know.”
Sir Ofn could have sworn they heard the yelp on the other end of the Fenton Phones as Phantom’s sister reacted.
“That’s why- that’s what- Jazz I can’t leave. No, I get what you’re saying. That’s- ugh don’t you get it? That’s why I can’t go home! Not right now!”
There was a long pause in which Phantom didn’t speak but it didn’t appear he was listening to anything either.
After far too long for the knight’s liking, Phantom nodded. “Yes. She’s- well, she’s here.” Another pause. “I don't know what I’m gonna do! But I can’t just leave her, not like this. Jazz, I won’t ask you to cover for me, not through this. Just, I don’t know, deflect to Sam and Tucker. I’ll let them know what to expect.”
Phantom glanced back at the two other ghosts as his sister spoke again, but Sir Ofn had the distinct feeling he wasn’t really seeing either of them.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to come yet. She’s- I don’t think she’s handling it well. What? No, she hasn’t actually said anything to me yet. No, one of my knights found her- yes, one of the Knights of Fear- no that’s not- just, don’t come yet. I’ll- I’ll let you know when. Please Jazz, I need you to trust me on this.” Phantom’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Thank you, Jazz. I’ll, well I guess I’ll let you know if anything changes.Stay safe. I love you.”
Phantom pressed a button on the side of the Fenton Phones and turned back to the other duo.
“That- I mean- I can-” Phantom stopped to draw in a shaky breath. “Jazz wanted to tell me that mom-” He cut himself off again, voice trembling.
“I understand. You don’t need to say it, not if you aren’t ready. Should you alert your friends?”
“Hmm? Yeah. Yeah no, I need to do that. I’ll just, uh,” Phantom began to turn away again, pulling another device out of another hidden pocket. “It won’t take long, I’ll just be right over-”
“You said Jazz.” The voice was quiet and unsure, but both Phantom and Sir Ofn froze. “Why did you say my daughter’s name?” Maddie Fenton’s ghost finally, finally looked up. She ignored the knight next to her whose hand had drifted to their sword, and instead locked eyes with Phantom. He didn’t say anything, one hand clenching the little communicator tightly. After a moment, Maddie continued. “Is she dead too?”
That was enough to shock Phantom into a response. “What? No, of course not. She’s- Jazz is fine. She just, she called to tell me that you were- that you’re-”
“That I’m dead?” Maddie’s voice was still quiet, but her surety punched Phantom in the gut. “Why was she calling you?”
“I-”
“How do you know my daughter?”
“It’s- she’s my sister? Mom, it’s me. Danny.”
“Danny?” Maddie tilted her head a little, as if to size up the ghost in front of her. “You died too?”
“No- yes- sort of- ugh, kind of, but it’s been a few years now- Mom, I need you to look at me.” Danny took a step towards Maddie and held his hands out in front of him cautiously. Sir Ofn tensed, hand now resting firmly on the grip of their sword.
“Okay.” 
“Mom, can you tell me what you see?”
“I see you, Danny,” She paused, her brow crinkling slightly in thought. “Why do you look so different?”
“Mom, I’m Pha-” Before he could finish the word, Maddie’s eyes widened, her body tensed, and Danny felt himself flying across the room to crash into the base of the throne. Maddie was on top of him before he could get to his feet, pinning him to the floor.
“You’re not my Danny! You’re not- Who are you!” She screamed, less a question and more a desperate cry. “Where’s my son? Where is-”
Danny threw up a shield, hands held above his face as if they could protect him from his mother any better than the sheet of energy. Slowly, he pushed the shield up and away, forcing Maddie to back down as he stood up. He threw a glance to the rest of the hall; Sir Ofn resheathed their sword and backed away a few steps.
“Mom, I swear it’s me. Please can you- Mom I’m gonna let the shield go, but I need you to promise me you won’t do anything. Please, can you promise me that?” 
For a brief moment, there was no response. Then, after an eternity that lasted less than a second, Maddie nodded sharply. Danny dropped the shield and set his feet back on the ground.
“Mom, I promise you, it’s me, Danny. It’s always- It’s always just been me.” Maddie’s eyes ran up and down him in a frantic search. “Mom, can you see? It’s me. It’s me, and I can- I can help you, but I need you to stay calm, and then we can talk about this. Please, we can just sit and talk and I can explain everything.” Danny lowered himself to the edge of the dais. He set his feet to rest over the steps, and slowly, without looking away from his mom, tapped the spot next to him.
Maddie hesitated a moment, throwing looks around the hall now. Sir Ofn glanced back at the open door leading out to the courtyard, and when they felt Maddie’s eyes on them, looked at her with a slight shake of their head. They hoped it was comforting.
“Mom?” Danny asked one more time. Maddie sat next to him, her own feet mirroring his on the steps below them.
Sir Ofn bowed low to their King, and left the hall. Light whispers sounded behind them, and if they had listened any closer, they might have heard crying, but that was not for them to say.
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sherry-a-h · 1 year
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I am on Team Human May the Phic Phight Begin!! 2 Days until the Dannypocalypse
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charcoalhawk · 1 year
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And they’ve all got the same heartbeat (but hers is falling behind)
With Casper high behind them, students from Amity park are finding out the the world around them is much different from the one they grew up in.
First Phic for Phic Phight 2023!
Prompt was from @mr-lancers-english-class: Amity Park residents often forget what feats of human ability are considered "normal" and what are considered "superhuman does not even begin to cover it oh dear god where in the world did you learn to do that?!?" This leads to some... interesting situations when Danny's graduating class steps out into the rest of the world for college.
had, a lot of fun with this. It was really fun breaking out a bunch of OC’ s and letting them just all run wild all over this.
Warning for reference to SA, Transphobia, injuries, and vomiting.
Title comes from Ecosmith, Cool Kids.
Paulina
Paulina hadn’t realized, at first, just how soft the world was outside of Amity Park. While her father had never let her attend the same self-defense classes Valerie went to, she had still learned how to protect herself from those who might wish her ill.
But, in retrospect, most people didn’t spend their high school years fighting the undead. So maybe her sense of fight of flight was just a tad bit skewed.
This wasn’t Paulina’s first time waking home slightly too drunk, during junior year at Casper she and Star spent every night during spring break bar hopping, and there had definitely been times during her senior year where entire week’s had felt like a dream.
But that had been at Casper, where all the teachers knew that students had bad weeks in which even showing up to school was a Herculean effort. On those weeks Mr. Lancer would offer you a quiet room after school to make up work in, and everyone knew to tread carefully.
But now she was in college, states away from Casper’s familiar haunted halls, and she, and Star, were starting to realize that the other girls around them maybe had slightly different experiences growing up.
Case in point, Paulina had mastered walking in heels when she was thirteen running away from an ancient dragon that had wanted her head on a spike, so even slightly drunk her steps didn’t waiver. Jessica was holding her heels in one hand while the other clutched her phone and lanyard like a lifeline, and Monica had shown up in flats and was now happily devouring a huge tub of pretzels she had borrowed from the frat house.
The party had taken place in the farthest house from freshman housing, off the campus itself. It had been free admission, a feature most freshmen all thought was amazing, but all the sophomores and juniors knew was a scam to get rid of all the old beer from the last several years that no one else wanted to drink.
It was close to three in the morning according to the last time Jessica had loudly announced from checking her phone, so there was little other foot traffic as the three of them slowly made their way back to the dorm. Paulina had noticed someone following them almost immediately after they had left the party, but had hoped it was just another freshman making the walk of shame back onto campus.
But as they near the first campus building, the figure that had been following from a distance rapidly gained on them, revealing itself to be at four gangly boys, who all swaggered towards them like they had a hive of bees up their asses. Paulina distinctly remembers turning the leading boy, Ben, down when he had insisted she give him a shot earlier that week.
They’re stopped at a traffic light where Jessica starts to rather urgently press the crosswalk button, but the light has just turned green and it’ll be at least two or so minutes before the light will cycle.
“Hey there, pretty thing,” Ben drawls, “what’s someone like you doing out past your bedtime?”
Oh, he’s one of those assholes. Paulina knows she had made it abundantly clear she had no interest in him, and if he was the kind of guy who stalked drunk girls after a party, she had definitely made the right choice.
Jessica and Monica are giving her some very concerned glances, and out of the corner of her eye Paulina sees Jessica fumbling for her phone while trying to not drop her heels.
There’s just too much traffic for them to safely cross, and even then the boys would just follow them, and there is no way Paulina is playing a demented version of hide and seek with these losers.
Paulina understands the other girl's concern, but she’s met beings who would truly wish her harm, these empty headed cardboard cutouts with overinflated egos just needed to be firmly taught a lesson.
With large steps Ben’s in her space in moments, hand reaching down to posessively stroke her cheek down her neck. His hand is larger than her’s, smooth from lack of work and well manicured. She can smell his cologne, it’s something cheap, he’s practically doused himself in it so entering his personal space means all you can smell is him.
His hand travels didn further and- nope! Paulina has dealt with a lot of disgusting men in her life, but most of them are too cowardly to get too close. Over the years she’s learned to ignore most demeaning language, as in most cases speaking up about it will get her a telling off from her parents for acting unladylike.
Her hands snap up to grab his wrist while she shifts slightly so none of him is touching her. Before he can make any comment, she yanks harshly down and hears the tell-tale pop of a dislocating shoulder. She remembers Valerie teaching her that the summer before freshman year, her then friend had been worried and had wanted to give Paulina a way to deter anyone from trying to touch her more then once when she didn’t want them too.
It had come in handy a few times over the years, but she hadn’t always been able to actually get the shoulder dislocated on the first try. It had still been surprising enough that it had gotten her out of one bad situation, but after that she had asked and both Kwan and Dash had volunteered to help get her technique down and now she knew the exact right angle and amount of abrupt force needed to get the desired result.
There’s a startled gasp from the girls, and one of the looming guys let’s out a strangled “what the fuck,” but Paulina isn’t done. Quickly she yanks, pulling Ben’s now limp arm down so she can wedge her elbow with his, before snapping it as hard as she can at a perpendicular.
This time it’s the satisfying crunch of bone and with that he crumbles to the floor, wailing.
The smallest guy darts in to help his friend up but the other two seem frozen in shock. Going from their horrified faces no one has ever been bold enough to stand up to them when they traveled in a pack like this.
“Move along boys,” Paulina gives them a smile that is all teeth, something she had learned from Manson, “next time you think about harassing someone just stay in your room with some tissues, it’ll be more productive.”
The last two guys lunge at her then, but their movements grow awkward as they both aim for the same target. One does land a half decent punch to her nose and one tries to get behind her and definitely pulls out some hair with his harsh grip, but neither of them have had to fight in close quarters with others before. it’s easy to catch her palm hard on one guy’s throat and send him down hacking.
The one behind her has the unfortunate fate of getting her nails in his eye, and really now she’s going to have to get them redone because already she can feel two of them catching in flesh and ripping off.
He screams, high and long as his hands yank harshly at hers. She allows herself the brief satisfaction of digging them in deeper for a few more moments before allowing him to push her away.
And with the last guy releasing her to clutch at his face, it’s all over. The other two have already disappeared, and all it takes is one loud step with her heel to send the other two running.
A quick glance shows that Monica and Jessica are still standing near the light, Monica’s pretzels scattered on the floor as she’s holding one of Jessica’s heels like a weapon.
Something in Paulina’s heart warms. It’s nice to know her new friends are willing to protect her, maybe during the summer she’ll invite them to Amity and Valerie can show them how to properly snap someone’s wrist.
“It’s all fine now girls. Oh Monica, you dropped your pretzels! Let's stop by the college store on the way and pick up some new ones. The girl who works the night shift always keeps the best ones in the back of the shelves so there should still be some left.”
“What the fuck?” Jessica whispered.
——————
Dash
This year’s group of freshmen is pretty promising.
Don had been coaching the football team at Ohio State university for almost eleven years now. Most of the boys that he coached had been playing since middle school, and had a decent grasp on the game, if sometimes a little arrogant about their status as ‘college football future all stars’.
Some were always more bone-headed than others, and every year Don could always predict a few of them leaving the program within the year due to an injury from being too reckless.
For all the love he has for his boys, the first proper practice was always one of Don’s least favorites. All the kids want to do is gossip instead of practice, and all the new freshmen try way too hard to make a good impression with the upperclassmen. By the end of the day, every year, he always has to make everyone run suicide’s because the boys were either being too rough or goofing off when they shouldn’t.
Over the years Don has found sprinting to be one of the best punishments for over talkative players, as it has a unique way of getting kids out of breath in a way where they would finally stop yammering on for a few minutes so he could talk to them without dealing with interruptions.
After the third time a freshman decides to describe his summer flings loudly and in graphic detail, Don has had it up to here with these kids. Bragging was for the locker room, not the field.
“Alright! I’ve had enough! Line up at the zero mark, we’re doing suicides for the last ten minutes of practice.”
There’s the usual amount of groaning and whining as everyone slowly makes their way over to the zero mark, and one of two even tries to sneak off to the bathroom, but one stern look has them stomping back with the rest of the pack.
“Alright! Everyone here should know what suicides are, but just in case any of you left your brains in the summer heat for too long here’s what your going to do- we sprint to the twenty five mark, then back, then the fifty and back, then the seventy five and back, and finally the opposite goal post and back. You will repeat until my whistle.”
Once everyone is in position Don gives a shrill signal with his little metal whistle, and they’re off.
The first five minutes go by and everything is going as it should, some kids are already slowing down, a clear sign they were not keeping in shape over the summer, and thus ones Don is going to have to push harder to get them back with the rest of the pack.
At the eight minute mark even his juniors and seniors are starting to slow a bit, but the last two minutes of sprints are almost always the hardest, even for the boys he’s been working with since their freshman year.
But, as he looks there’s one kid who isn’t slowing down. He had initially seen the kid’s slightly more sedate pace and internally marked him as a kid who would need a firmer hand, but now it’s obvious he was simply setting a pace for himself, as now almost ten minutes in his sprinting has not slowed beyond what it started as.
In Don’s experience freshman tended to put everything they had into the first three minutes of sprinting, and were almost always the first to sprint to the other side of the field and back, but also meant that they usually didn’t have the stamina to stay sprinting for ten minutes straight.
But this kid is still going. It takes him a minute to place the kid, but after a moment he realizes it’s Baxter, the kid from Amity park.
In most other cases the small town would mean nothing to him, but in this case Amity had enough of a reputation that he had been warned when one of its alumni decided to join his team.
The most haunted town in America. Sounded like a bunch of bullshit in Don’s professional opinion, but enough weird shit had happened the last five or so years that Casper high had gotten in the habit of sending, not warning letters, but an informational packet to schools so they would know what behaviors to watch out for.
Don still remembers three years ago the story of a freshman at Colorado Tech publishing a paper on the effects of being haunted by ghosts and how it affects the perception of mortality for an entire town. The young woman had been a graduate of Casper high, and when invested further it was revealed that this wasn’t some kid trying to be as ridiculous as they could, but an actual, legitimate thing that was still happening in the town.
Hell, he remembers trading emails with Baxter’s English teacher the last few months of the kid's senior year. In most cases it would have been a school counselor that he discussed a kid’s schooling and grades with, but apparently Amity had had a very bad experience in the last few years with ghostly interference and currently didn’t have a dedicated counseling team at all.
Which, Don definitely had opinions about, but the school was doing all it could to help the kids where they could. So Don would at least give them that.
Apparently Baxter had been a pretty big asshole and a bully his first two years of high school, something the school had let slide more than it should have, and had initially been excused or ignored because of his prowess in physical sports. Towards the end of his sophomore year and leading into his junior Baxter has seemed to finally learn and grow from his bullying ways.
Many teachers had observed him becoming, if not kind then neutral to those he had been harassing, and by his senior year was genuinely well liked by most acquaintances and not feared.
Don remembers the report from the recruiter that had gone down to Amity to observe the team, and nothing they had observed had even hinted that Baxter or any of his teammates acted in any way different or better then any other team they observed in that period.
At the twelve minute mark everyone else has collapsed near the post, but this kid is still going. After fifteen minutes the kid looks at him intently when he turns back towards him, his seventh time reaching the opposite end of the field, but his pace still hasn’t slowed, and he doesn’t look like he’s in any extreme pain, so Don motions for him to continue, and the kid does so without complaint.
It’s odd, in almost any other situation Don would say the kid had just switched to running, but the motions, the sharp turns and the slightly hunched posture, he's still sprinting.
Don finally calls it at the thirty minute mark, and by now the soccer team has shown up, but everyone seems just a bit too mesmerized by the sight to comment on Don holding the field almost twenty minutes late.
Baxter jogs right over to where everyone is standing slack jawed and casually reaches to drink some of his water. He definitely looks like he just exercised, his whole face is flushed red and his hair has become a solid mass lying flat on his head, but his legs are holding him up and his breathing isn’t the rapid mess he expects from someone having sprinted for half an hour straight.
After Baxter finishes his drink he looks expectedly at him, and after a moment Don shakes himself out of his stupor and motions for the soccer team to take the field.
After they’ve left the football team is still hovering around the bleachers, likely wanting to get the first chance to hound the kid for answers or beg him to spill his secrets. Don’s at least a little more subtle than that.
After checking that everyone else is ready he releases them and with some reluctance the rest of the kids leave for the locker room.
Baxter hasn’t moved, likely sensing that Don has questions.
“Kid, I say this as kindly and as without judgment as I can- but how the hell did you do that!”
“Oh, well,” Baxter doesn’t look nervous, but he does seem a bit self conscious, a small sign he has hopefully matured from the pompous bully he was said to be. “Coach Tellestaff back home was pretty insistent that we learn how to sprint for long periods of time in case something was chasing after us that wouldn’t grow easily tired, so we usually did sprints at least every other day.”
“That’s an… interesting motive. Did you often find yourself in situations running from things like that? Back home?”
“Uh well it wasn’t an every day kinda thing, but at least once every other week a ghost would attack the school, and in situations like that you wanted to be as far away from the fighting as possible.”
“Well, I just want you to know it was extremely impressive, you must have worked hard to be able to do what we just saw now.”
“Ha, that’s nothing! Two of my best friends, Paulina and Star, could sprint half way across town in heels. They offered to teach me and Kwan, but to be honest we were a little worried that we’d break our necks falling or somehow impaling ourselves with those five inch torture devises.”
——————
Tucker
There are many things Tucker enjoys about college. Not having to wake up before ten am most days? Amazing, let’s him get so much more work don’t and he can tinker into the night without worrying about his parents having to barge into his room the next morning because he overslept.
Not having to be ready to fight ghosts 24/7? A goddamn lifesaver. After four years the ghosts who frequented Amity had calmed down enough that they weren't all chomping at the bit to cause as much mayhem as possible. Danny had also gotten Wulf to show him how to make dimensional portals, so he could fight ghosts in the Zone without destroying the town. It helped that Danny had set it up so he visited Amity at least every third week for a few days, both to check in with the more peaceful ghosts who called Amity home, and to make sure his parents hadn’t caused any more trouble than they could handle themselves.
One thing Tucker really enjoyed about college was the extracurriculars. Casper high had band, football, and a few small after school clubs, but no big organized programs beyond that that could compete in competitions.
But now, at Tech, Tucker had found his people in the robotics team. Ever since that first freshman orientation where they were introduced to all the clubs Tech has to offer, where Tucker found a group showing off a robot they built that poured drinks without overflowing or knocking them over.
He had signed up then and there, and from that point forward every Monday and Thursday night were for Robotics, and Thursday and Saturdays were fuck around nights where they had almost unrestricted access to the lab and were able to test out personal projects or ideas that they might not want to hand over to the team.
Official work nights were also fun, and definitely a bit more informative with their teacher around to help them expand upon their ideas. they would share and explore code together, and discuss what they could build for the numerous robotics competitions held throughout the year.
Tucker loved participating in these events, but this upcoming one was promising to be his favorite. This competition has a very special individual event that offered a huge cash prize, and Tucker was determined to get it. A few of his friends were also competing, but most had wanted to focus solely on their big team project.
Now, Tucker loved his team, but they did tend to get a bit squeamish when he pulled parts from non-standard scraps. Having a friend like Sam meant that he had access to what was considered modern material that had already lived its course, like recently released phone models, for example. Like now, where he was cannibalizing a few very new devices for their cameras to make a drone with a multi-directional camera.
“Dude, is that an iPhone 14?” Roberto looked absolutely appalled from where he was hovering over Tucker’s workstation.
“Oh yeah, a lot of their components are shit, meant to be obsolete in like two years so you’ll have to buy another one, but I’ve found the cameras aren’t half bad once you put them on something that isn’t meant to shit itself in a year.”
“Well yeah, everyone knows most super modern phones are kinda garbage, but this hasn’t even been released onto the general market yet!”
“Oh, well my friend Sam gave some of her family’s old versions, apparently they don’t fare well after possession.”
“Possession?” Now Cassius has floated over from their project in trying to make better AI detection software, “Dude, are you still keeping up that joke about Amity and how haunted it is? I thought we had convinced you that you didn’t need to tell these crazy stories for us to want to hang out with you?”
Well, that’s rather rude of them, but as Tucker winds up and is about to begin his by now long rehearsed speech on how Amity is absolutely fucking haunted there’s a buzz from his pocket, and when he checks it’s Jazz, who in his long experience never calls without reason.
“Well.. hold on, I gotta take a call real fast.” Tucker pulled out his trusty pda, which over the years he had tinkered with enough that its internal workings barely resembled the device he had gotten his first week in high school. He had kept the outer shell mostly unchanged because after seven years, turns out he had gotten pretty fond of it.
“Hey ya! Everything ok?”
Turns out Maddie and Jack had accidentally created a small anti-matter gun when trying to find a way to make a portable portal, and Jazz was hoping he could stop by with Danny in the next ten minutes to find out how it worked in the first place and maybe accidentally destroy it or make it unusable so they would think the first success was a fluke.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Tucker glanced at his teammates who were looking at his pda like it had personality offended them, “tell Danny to hop right over.”
“Oh my god, don’t you still use a pda?” Roberto whispered in horrified awe after Tucker had ended the call, “There’s no way it can hold up, it can’t be compatible with other phone providers. It could barely be considered functional when it was first released!”
“Oh jokes on them,” Tucker checked that everything was off at his station and that there was no exposed wiring that someone could get hurt by, “like hell I’m paying for something that already exists and should be free to access.”
There’s a ripping pop behind them, and he turns around with a grin to see Danny holding the dimensions open for him.
“Well, we can argue the amazingness of my darling at a later date, I should be back in less than an hour, if not make sure you get at least one meat-lovers for me tonight, I’ll Venmo you the cost when I get back!”
“Well,” his teacher grumbles, “At least he turned his project off this time, the fire was hell to deal with last year”, is the last thing he hears before the portal closes around them.
——————
Kwan
Julius hadn’t really wanted to work at their college’s discount coffee shop during their junior year, but over the summer their parents had helped them track down the perfect car for them, and after some haggling their parents had bought it for them at a steal. But now Julius had to pay for their own gas, and having their own car meant more temptations, like 3am Nasty Burger on the other side of town, which they could finally drive to on their own without having to bully one of their friends to come over and drive them.
Luckily it wasn't too hard to get the position, they had applied early enough that most other kids were still enjoying their summers, so a month before school Julius officially had their first job.
All of Julius’ coworkers were very nice, and even after they had finished training no one hesitated to help if they were confused about how to make a drink or about a certain procedure.
Winston and Bella both came from New York, and enjoyed trying to gross the other out with increasingly outrageous drink combinations. Zack was from Washington state, and seemed to genuinely enjoy the intricacies of coffee itself. Darius, Kassidy, and Shaun were all locals who loved to recommend places nearby to eat and hang out. Victor came from the same area as Julius, and was in the process of illustrating his first book.
Kwan came from a small town in the Midwest, and was one of the most genuinely friendly people Julius had ever met.
When Julius’ car had refused to start one morning Kwan was the first person they called, and had shown up without complaint at seven in the morning to drive them to work, then afterwards helped them set up an appointment with a friend of a friend's mechanic who helped fix their car for an absurdly reasonable price.
On most days things were pretty slow until ten or so in the morning. The store itself was very small, with only a cafe area and no drive through, and the owners still refused to sign any deals with third party companies so no doordash or Uber eats. It means that a three man team could comfortably work the store at any one time, and maybe on holidays they would bring an extra person in to help the midday shift when all the college kids decided to study in packs and take up every available seat they had.
Today, however, looked like it was going to be a shitshow.
Victor had called out at the last minute, she had fallen in the shower and heavenly twisted their ankle, and given that it was spring break there was no way anyone who hadn’t already been scheduled was going to come in to cover.
Spring break also meant they were staying busy much later into the afternoon than usual. On a normal Thursday by 4pm the ravenous packs of college kids would have mostly cleared out to go to afternoon classes, and all that was left were local working adults looking for overpriced coffee and free WiFi, and kids who didn’t have classes that day.
But now at almost seven pm the store is still packed. There were two groups taking up most of the more lounge-y seating, an older man having a very heated debate on his phone, and a kid hanging by the bathrooms watching YouTube without headphones. Overall it was much louder then Julius was usually comfortable with for an extended period of time.
But the current source of conflict was a younger woman looming over the counter that separated the customer area from where drinks were made.
Her drink had taken a bit because she had ordered right after the two rowdy groups of kids, and Julius had been taught to make drinks in order of who placed their order first, not on whose order it would be easier to do.
Well, technically.
In practice people did orders out of order all the time, but the woman had pissed Julius off with her attitude and her visible sneer when she had noticed the pronoun pins everyone was wearing.
So, they would follow protocols exactly, just for her.
Her drink itself wasn’t too difficult, and in situations like these Julius always wished they could just tell customers they were better off buying the ingredients and making it for themselves at home, not spending almost ten dollars on lackluster taste.
Julius handed the coffee over to the glowering woman, and was just getting ready to signal to Shaun that they were going to go to the back to work on dishes when there was a very pointed cough and an aggravated sigh from across the counter.
“This doesn’t taste right.”
The woman’s bright purple lipstick has already stained the lid of the cup, so at least they know she actually tried it, but still. It was a regular old white chocolate coffee, with no special addendums or bells and whistles to it. And while they haven’t been working here for the years that others may have, Julius has over six months of working here to know that they made that drink correctly.
But, deep sigh, assume the best.
“Oh, I’m sorry, could you tell me what was wrong about it so we can remake it for you?”
“It just tastes wrong! I have ordered this drink every day for the last three months, I know what it should look and taste like, and this is wrong!”
The commotion had caught Kwan’s attention from where he was restocking their cups and espresso beans, and he moved over to draw the woman’s attention from Julius to himself.
Thank god, Kwan was the best with asshole customers. Julius thought if they had to deal with this woman for too much longer they might make their disdain too obvious, and then they would have a whole ‘nother problem in the woman saying they were being unkind to them.
Julius still remembers Kwan warning them about unsavory customers their first week.
Julius had been nervous because all their work in high school had been volunteer, and not in situations where people generally would complain to them about something being miss made, or just the general shit they knew true customer service often involved dealing with.
“How do you really deal with bad customers?” It’s slow right now, but just twenty minutes ago there had been a literal crowd of people in their cafe, and some had been very irate that their drinks were not magically appearing before them. Julius had been keeping their head down, attempting to make drinks as quick as they could without drawing attention, while Kwan and Bella helped dole out food and placate everyone.
“Well, that kind of depends,” Kwan makes a seesaw motion with his hand, “sometimes there’s a genuine mistake in the making of the drink or when it was ordered, and the customer is respectful in politely asking for a remake. In those cases you just simply make it again for them, and everything moves on.”
“But that’s not always the case.” Even if social media wasn’t what it was, Julius remembers the horror stories various friends had told them over the years. They’ve seen it first hand plenty of time already, but there’s always been someone nearby to help deal with it.
“Ah, no,” Kwan glances out towards the now calm cafe, “I know when the owners hired you they must have made a big stink about always being approachable and how the goal is for customers to feel welcome and comfortable here. But in practice it’s-“
“A load of horse shit?”
“-unrealistic. Sometimes people think something is wrong with the drink and demand it be made again, but they won’t tell you why. Or it’ll be wrong in some unhelpful way, like it tastes wrong or they can’t taste a flavor even though you know you added exactly as much as they asked for. In those situations you kinda just have to make it again, and hopefully this time they’ll be satisfied. If they want it remade more than twice, that’s generally the point where you politely tell them that it seems we can’t reach their standards, and that they might want to try another location.”
“What about people who just want a free drink?”
“We make it for them, if they’ve already touched it we can’t take it back anyway, so just make them another.”
“Jeez, you're definitely nicer than me about this.”
“Oh I know they’re not all in the right, but sometimes all you can do is smile and hope they leave quickly after you’ve fixed their drink for them.”
Even now, It’s almost supernatural how calm Kwan is in the face of others' anger.
“Yes ma’am, I completely understand,” and oh Kwan is giving her an absolutely dazzling smile, “we will absolutely get that drink remade for you right away.”
He’s speaking perfectly calmly, not an ounce of annoyance or anger in his tone, but all the same Julius sees the woman almost shrink back.
Julius knows part of the whole customer service shtick was to always appear pleasant and to never show anger towards a customer. But what Kwan is doing now goes way past that.
He’s kept direct eye contact with the woman since she started complaining, and his smile sits on his face like it was branded there, never wavering. He continues to hold eye contact as he remakes the drink, which a small part of Julius finds super impressive, and by the end of it the woman snatches her new drink out of Kwan’s hand and swiftly exits the store like she was being chased.
“Well, I hope she was satisfied this time, you go ahead and head back to do those dishes I saw you eying, I can hold the fort down for now.”
——————
Star
It’s almost four in the morning and Star is maybe just starting to get a little worried. She knows Paulina can take care of herself! She’s seen it! But, she still holds the right as best and oldest friend to worry about her when she goes off to three am frat parties.
Just as Star is about to call Paulina in the hopes that her phone isn’t sitting forgotten on a table somewhere, there’s the sound of locks clicking before Paulina and their two other roommates step into their little common room.
Paulina walks in with Jessica and Monica practically on her heels, and once all three were in the room Jessica turned and swiftly re-locked all the locks, and even grabbed the door jammer Monica’s mom had brought over and swiftly put it in place, making the door about as secure as it could be.
The space is a little bit cramped, four girls who all brought probably more stuff to college then they probably needed meant that most everything was an organized mess and there was not too much of the floor actually visible at any given moment.
Suitcases were still sitting unpacked by the door. Star and Paulina had visited Amity just last week to see their parents and pick up their winter clothing that they hadn’t brought with them initially because they had needed the room for all their fall clothes.
The first smell to meet her is obviously alcohol, but after that initial overwhelming moment the iron-y tinge of blood starts to permeate the room.There’s no growing puddle on the floor, and no one’s screaming for an ambulance, so it’s hopefully nothing life threatening.
As the three stand in the middle of the room Star instinctively scans them for visible injuries.
Monica and Jessica look very shaken up, but there’s no forming bruises and there’s no obviously ripped clothing.
Paulina on the other hand looks quite disheveled. A quick glance shows a growing bruise around her nose, and a finger missing a nail is already swelling.
“Oh no, what happened!” Paulina didn’t usually let things escalate to physical harm, not unless she felt seriously threatened.
“We’re fine, Star,” Paulina finally moved to take off her heels, a sign she at least wasn’t getting ready to head out again, “it was nothing, some boys with overinflated egos thought they could have their way with us on the way back from Brad’s party. Brad’s? Thad’s? The senior who told all the freshmen that his party would have free beer and all the freshmen didn’t think twice about the quality.”
“Was it at least good beer?”
“Hell no, I wouldn't even use it to disinfect my wounds, not even as an ice pack.”
They both laugh at that. Back home, everyone knows which beers are worth drinking to numb pain, and which are better used to try and soothe sore muscles.
“That is, not what I think we should be focusing on right now.” Monica sounds out of breath, clutching a large container of pretzels like it’d a shield. Star recognizes the brand from the school store, and Paulina must feel particularly close to these two if she let them in on how to get the good pretzels.
There’s another long moment of silence, before Jessica suddenly bolts towards the bathroom she shares with Monica.
“Oh, poor dear,” Paulina looks sadly to where her friend disappeared to, “I was worried that would happen, Monica at least had food to help her keep anything down, but the last thing Jessica ate was that nasty burger at lunch today, I think everything just finally caught up to the poor girl.”
“Well at least it’s just cheap beer, Jessica would have a conniption if she found out she threw up wine more expensive than her whole dorm room.”
With the metaphorical ice broken Star beckons Paulina over to the couch while she grabs the kitchen medical kit. Not as big as the one at home, but it at least has the necessities to treat small injuries.
Returning to the living room sees Paulina relaxing into the couch, with Monica hovering nearby. After a moment of hesitation the other girl collapses onto their smaller couch, still holding onto the pretzels.
With a closer look the bruise seems to be the only injury Paulina sustained, but her hair seems frazzled from possibly being pulled, and two of her fingers on the right hand are missing their nail extensions. There’s starting to be some serious discoloration at the joints of the fingers, a sign they’re probably out of their sockets.
“Well at least it isn’t too bad, I can grab an ice pack for your face and nose, but we’re going to have to pop your fingers back into their joints.”
“Wait wait wait,” Monica speaks up from the couch, “wouldn’t it be better to go to a hospital for something like this, you can seriously mess up your body if you pop a bone back in place wrong.”
“Oh that’s so sweet, but don’t worry, I have plenty of experience with sprained and broken bones.”
“Even better, didn’t you sew up Manson that one time with the helicopter?” Paulina looks up from where she was inspecting her intact nails, “that has to be at least thirty stitches, and you did it without even flinching!”
“What?”
Oh dear, what Paulina had clearly meant to be encouraging only seems to have made Monica more unnerved and horrified. Which, Star kind of understood, it was scary when your friend got hurt, but Star knew what she was doing, so Monica had no reason to fret.
“Shouldn’t we, um, go to the campus police with this?” Jessica’s voice is scratchy from where she’s leaning out from the bathroom, clutching the doorway.
Monica nods enthusiastically, but Star thinks it is a rather silly idea.
“Ha!” Paulina’s laugh is sharp, “the most that would happen would be that we get told off for being ‘young ladies out drinking late at night without thinking about the consequences’, worst case, I did much more damage to them than they did to me, so if anything I would get charged with assault.”
“But! He was harassing you! Everyone who’s anyone knows Ben has been trying to get into your pants for the last two weeks, it’s obvious he was trying to-“
“Oh like any officer would take my side in that situation. It would be all ‘oh but you didn’t give him a chance’, ‘oh she dresses like that and is surprised when young men take an interest in her’, 'oh but the young man is so nice usually’…”
While Paulina is giving her impassioned speech Star quickly pops the two fingers back into place, each making a satisfying snap pop sound as it’s put back into alignment.
It’s almost enough to cover the sudden sound of violent retching from Jessica and Monica’s bathroom.
———————
+ Danny
Jerome’s Dad is going to be so disappointed with him. Another quick glance at his phone screen reveals that it’s almost eleven pm, and that Jerome has less than an hour to file his taxes.
His Dad had been texting him every day for the past three weeks to remind him that he needed to do them ASAP, but every time he sat down in front of his computer something had come up.
A test to study for, a party he absolutely couldn’t miss, Hillary from calculus asked him to go to the movies with her and from there he might have spent the next three days at her apartment.
He just, he had never found the time. And all those hours sitting on his phone switching between Twitter and Instagram didn’t count, that was his daily time for doom-scrolling and making himself feel bad by seeing how perfect some people’s lives seemed to be.
And now it was tax day, and he hadn’t even bought the filing software until this morning. The poor cashier ringing him out that morning had wished him luck, which he definitely needed.
He needed the job. Getting scholarships had helped, but with his Dad’s single income it was still a very tight fit. Jerome had tried to get jobs as a teen in high school, but every place he had applied to wanted you to already have experience or demanded more hours than he could give with a high school schedule.
Next year Jerome was going to have to pay for at least his own room and board, and part of the tuition based on what was estimated his scholarships could cover. His Dad had emphasized that if he didn’t feel comfortable he could always come home, but so much of their savings was going towards his degree, Jerome couldn’t waste it. And Jerome liked the idea of having some spending money that he had earned himself, having his own pocket change meant he could buy books or replacement parts for his guitar without feeling guilty about using his rather limited personal savings.
At this point smacking his forehead into the desk might not be productive, but it does feel deserved.
“What’s up? Did you finally get a computer virus from all those sketching anime-watching sites?” His roommate Danny had been quietly enjoying his misery for the past half hour. The other boy had just recently gotten back from one of his late night classes, and was hunkered down under his lofted bed, playing Zelda from the sound of it.
“No, it’s- hey! You weren’t complaining when I got us the original Trigun and the Japanese sub for Ghost Stories.”
“Yeah yeah, but really, what’s got you so freaked?”
“It’s just- Oh my god, why did I ever want a job,” he questions the room and the universe at large.
“Uhh money?”
“No no no, don’t be logical with me, let me wallow in my misery for this last hour. God why didn’t I let my Dad help me when he was over for spring break?”
He scrolls through the file once again, but he still cannot make heads or tails about what he is supposed to do. All his frantic googling will tell him is that there’s some form he needs to fill out somewhere, but nothing gives him a straight answer on how filling out this form will help!
“It’s these Tax forms. I bought one of those ‘tax help’ programs but it keeps asking about all these accounts and different bits of personal information that I have no idea if they need to know.”
“Ouch, you waited this long to start?”
“Yes yes, laugh at me later, I think at this point I’m just going to have to call it quits and call my dad tomorrow and pay the late fee.”
“Maybe I could help?”
“At this point I’ll take anything,” Jerome stretched as Danny got up from his fort under his bed and walked the two feet to Jerome’s desk, “I mean you can’t make it any worse than it already is.”
“I mean,” Danny gives a grin that flashes in the low light of the room, “if I filed these horribly wrong you could get a very passive aggressive email from the IRS that you really fucked up and need to re-do your taxes again.”
Jerome has mostly come to appreciate Danny’s humor, bad puns and all, but sometimes the guy can get just a little too deadpan in his delivery. But two can play at that game.
“Maybe I’ll just suffer then-“ Jerome makes a show of trying to shove Danny away from his computer, and the laugh it brings out of Danny makes Jerome feel light.
“No no, kidding,” Danny huffs as he leans in and inspects the mess that is Jeromes’s laptop. “Ok, so what I think you need to do first is find this form here…”
Less than half an hour later Jerome is pressing the file button. It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off his shoulders, enough that he plops down to their slightly Cheeto dust infested carpet in relief.
(Maybe he had been neglecting other things along with doing his taxes.)
“Oh my god you’re a lifesaver!”
Danny grins down at him and offers a hand up, and once he gets to his feet Jerome’s stomach lets out an unhappy gurgle that reminds him he hasn’t eaten since breakfast.
“Wanna go down to the common room and see if Gus left any leftovers from his family’s visit last night? I think he said as long as it was in a blue container any of us could have as much as we wanted.”
“Oh yeah, I’m definitely down!”
They leave the room and arrive in the common area with little fanfare, and within minutes are enjoying some very late night home cooked chicken and rice.
“So, how’d you know how to do taxes?” Jerome asks one his stomach has stopped rumbling about mutiny. “As far as I know that’s not why you stay up until three am watching YouTube, and you said you weren’t going to get a job until next semester when you didn’t have to deal with night classs.”
“Oh yeah, my Mom showed me how to do them for the past few years, she said no one had ever helped her growing up and so she wanted to make sure me and my sister knew how to do them correctly so we wouldn’t stress.”
“Man, that's awesome. I know my dad tried to show me last year, but he already had most stuff auto-completed because of the service he used. So I kinda blew it off and just assumed I would know what to do when the time came.”
“Yeah, most of it is pretty easy, although I know my parents have to file quarterly because they’re self employed and mostly do work with an independent income and not through an established company. My dad showed me some of the forms they had to fill out once, absolutely nightmare inducing. I couldn’t imagine trying to work independently and having that much pressure from the IRS about all those different forms.”
“Why did your parents need to do that?”
“Oh because they’re independent paranormal investigators, they hunt ghosts.”
64 notes · View notes
currentlylurking · 2 years
Text
Phic Phight: Good Parents
Maddie Fenton nearly kills her son trying to take down Phantom. Jack Fenton nearly kills him again, trying to tear the ghost from him.
Clockwork, one of the most powerful ghosts in existence, is tired of the people he cares about getting hurt.
(@five-rivers broke out the same prompt as 2020 and 2021 which legally means I had to update. One day I will not be contained by that. Not any time soon though. Part 1, Part 2.)
3.
Eventually, Sam and Tucker had to return home. Clockwork set up a portal for them with one of his mirrors, and before they left they informed Danny that they would be back soon, school or not. They’d exchanged several minutes of banter before leaving. Jazz, however, had chosen to ignore Danny’s protests and stay for as long as she could.
Unfortunately, that time frame was drawing to a close. Clockwork had taken the liberty of checking her schedule, and she had an unfinished research paper due at midnight tomorrow. He met her in the kitchen while she was grabbing Danny a glass of water. Clockwork tapped his staff against the doorframe before he entered to avoid startling her. “Jasmine, could I speak with you?”
Jazz glanced back at him before turning off the tap. “Sure,” she said, “and you can call me Jazz.”
“Of course. In that case, Jazz, you should contact your professors and request an extension on your paper.”
He could feel the air tense. Jazz took a deep breath in. “This is the extension.” She turned back to Clockwork. “Don’t tell Danny.”
“I wasn’t going to,” Clockwork said. “If you would like me to back you up as you contact them to say your brother’s been injured -”
“You don’t have to,” Jazz cut him off. “I’m fine. I’m almost done.”
Clockwork did not point out he knew that was a lie. With Danny’s situation, the last thing he wanted to do was risk pushing away his oldest and most active support system. “Alright.” He said simply, and moved on. “I wanted to talk to you about your parents.”
Jazz’s expression dropped to a scowl. “Right,” she said, “what’d they do now?”
“Technically, they have completed their first task -”
“Technically?” 
“They have sold all their weapons to Vlad Masters,” Clockwork explained, “So while not following the spirit of the request, they still completed it.”
Jazz scoffed. “Of course. And I’m sure he’s not going to use those for any evil plans.”
Clockwork took a second to pull at the Timestream. Between the event’s connection to him and to Danny, what little he could discern was muddled. Yes, the Fentons had dropped their weapons off with Vlad - and Vlad had reacted poorly. The Fentons would be returning to his tower soon to once again attempt to murder any duplicates sent to deal with them. Vlad would...
Most possibilities had Vlad refusing to leave his home for an extended period of time, strangely.
“Fortunately, it looks like he is occupied with more pressing matters.” He said. Jazz didn’t look convinced. “However, your parents are on their way back here. You know them better than I do. I was planning on having their next condition be that they would have to swear off ghost hunting permanently. Beyond that, however, I’m at a bit of a loss.”
“Have them swear it off on my life,” Jazz said automatically. “If they do this to another ghost, it’s my life they’re risking. Maybe that will get them to actually listen instead of looking for loopholes.”
Again, Clockwork took a second to mentally examine the Timestream - it was getting more muddled by the moment. He’d have to stick with using his mirrors in the future. But yes, Jazz’s suggestion did appear to hold weight. 
“I’ll use that, thank you.” He said. “Any idea what else I could request? That will only take a moment for them to decide on - I need another long-term option. To be perfectly candid, I feel as if I’m out of bounds by deciding this all for Danny.”
“Hm,” Jazz hummed, thinking deeply for a few seconds. Clockwork waited. “Well,” she said eventually, “if these were your parents trying to prove themselves to you, what would you want them to do to demonstrate they were good parents?”
Clockwork frowned. “I was raised by the Observants after my biological parents abandoned me as a small child,” he said, “I don’t believe they have ever presented themselves as ‘good parents,’ or that I have a true personal experience with proper parental structures and what one should do to be redeemed.”
“Oh.” Jazz licked her lips, and the silence held between them for several long moments. While Clockwork could tell she wanted to pry, thankfully, Jazz did not. “Maybe they could make a ghost friend? Danny has plenty of those. Or some sort of community service in the Ghost Zone?”
“That could work, I imagine.” It certainly opened up a variety of potential Timelines. “Thank you. Please let me know if you have any other ideas.”
“Of course,” Jazz said. Then she scoffed, “not that it’ll matter - I have nineteen years of experience that say if they have to choose between their children and ghost hunting, they’re not going to pick me, and they’ve certainly proved they’re not going to pick Danny.” She held the glass she’d gotten for her brother tighter. “Maybe I should be there when they show up. I can disown them and then we can be done with this.”
Clockwork frowned and tried to examine her body language for a long moment before he, unfortunately, came to the conclusion he had no idea whether or not she was serious. “...Regardless of them,” he settled on, “I would prefer it if you weren’t there. As would Danny. Your parents will be violent towards me, and neither Danny nor I want to risk you getting caught in the crossfire.”
Jazz relaxed a fraction - or perhaps deflated, disappointed? That seemed more accurate. “Right.” She tapped her fingers on the glass. “I need to get Danny his water.”
“Of course,” Clockwork said, and moved aside to let her pass. ���Jazz, one more thing - I’d recommend you tell your professors the gist of what happened, at least. I’ll corroborate your story if you need.”
For a short moment, Jazz stopped just a step past him. “...Thank you. But you don’t have to do that for me.”
“True,” Clockwork said, “but I would like to. I know what has happened with Danny is causing you indescribable grief. I want to help you in any way that I can. It would mean the world to me if you would let me.”
Jazz stayed still for a moment longer, not facing Clockwork. He waited. “Thank you,” she said, and hurried back to Danny’s room.
That was rather fair. Clockwork hoped she’d at least consider the offer.
He spent the next hour keeping himself busy, trying to organize the kitchen and surrounding area into something that was safer and more appropriate for someone who was still half-human. Danny was stubborn and determined to be self-sufficient - it was only a matter of time before he refused to let Clockwork keep caring for him. Especially given how Danny currently felt about Clockwork, it wouldn’t be long before the boy decided that acknowledging he was in pain was causing ‘unnecessary stress’ on the people he cared for.
Spirits above and below, even the passing thought of what Danny thought of Clockwork made his core seize. Just as he’d told Jazz, Clockwork had never had a proper parental figure - whatever the Observants counted as, it was certainly far from that. In theory, yes, he knew how a parent should act around their child, and it was true that he cared for Danny in a way that even the Ghost Writer would struggle to put into words. That wasn’t even counting the fact that Danny was a child ghost, and he a mature one, so to some degree his core would naturally respond to Danny’s needs.
None of that changed the fact that Clockwork had no practical experience with caring for children. With the Ancients, he had only briefly existed in presence of the Far Frozen’s youngest citizens and the Dragon Queen’s son, who was barely the human equivalent of four at the time. A collective eight hours of being in the same building as preschoolers and toddlers did little to help him with Danny’s situation. Ideally, he should contact someone for help - but who was there that wouldn’t immediately gossip about it or report their meeting to the Observants? Moreso importantly, which of them knew anything that would be helpful?
There was a pull on his core, and Clockwork reluctantly put his musings aside. The Fentons had entered the Ghost Zone and were searching for his tower. He pressed a hand against the wall and hid his lair from them. It was a simple task, especially for someone with a powerset like Clockwork’s. He could choose how long it would take anyone looking for his home to find it - for Danny, it was always as soon as possible. For Maddie and Jack, he’d raised it to a hundred years. 
He’d change it back later, of course, to something more reasonable - Danny hadn’t wanted them cut off completely, and despite Clockwork’s own opinions, he would honour that. But for now, he needed extra time to choose his next words carefully.
.-.
It took hours longer to find the ghost’s lair this time. There were plenty of theories as to why, that the ever-curious part of Maddie’s mind wanted to examine. Perhaps the theories about time dilation and the natural tears between the worlds held some weight, or it could have been entirely psychological. Last time, all she and Jack had been able to think about was saving Danny.
Now, she kept thinking about Vlad.
Judging by how tightly Jack held the speeder’s controls, his thoughts were on the same path.
Hours ago, Maddie would have had no desire to waste any mental energy on Vlad Masters. Hours ago, before all this, he had been nothing more than a fully-human self-absorbed creep with more ego than sense. Now, she knew the truth. He was sick. She and Jack had had plenty of opportunities to notice the ectoplasmic parasite that had turned one of their best friends into an obsessive monster. Vlad had been dealing with this for over twenty years - even if they did manage to save him, would what was left be able to survive? 
And the ecto acne - that should have been a sign. They knew that was a possible way the human body would try to fight off the radiation sickness caused from an extreme exposure to impure ectoplasm. They’d read thousands of case studies throughout college, the three of them, and Maddie herself had written an essay on that type of infection for her workplace safety course! Vlad had proofread it for her! It had persisted for years, and came back - they knew it wasn’t as minor as they’d first thought when Vlad drove himself to hospital. They’d helped care for Vlad and Danny’s friends! They should have realized sooner that Vlad was sick.
She’d seen Vlad and Danny’s parasites fighting each other before. Did Danny know? Vlad hadn’t seemed surprised to learn Danny was infected as well, and when Danny confessed that he’d been hiding the ghost things from them, he’d said there’d be no more secrets. But he hadn’t said anything about Vlad.
The tower was in sight now. Maddie forced her attention to redirect; she had to focus. Her baby boy was counting on her.
Jack parked the speeder at the edge of the island, and the ghost of a lawn leaned away from where they stepped. Maddie approached the door.
Jack opened the speeder’s back door and grabbed a tank of gasoline.
Maddie sighed. “Jack,” she said. Her husband grunted and began pouring the gas around the edges of the tower. “Jack! It’s stone.”
“Ectoplasmic stone,” Jack said, and finished dumping the gas. He placed the tank back in the speeder and grabbed a matchbook. “It will still burn. The gas will help.”
“Not well,” Maddie said, and placed a hand on his shoulder. “We can try that, if you’d like, but I’m sure I have a grenade or two in the bottom compartment. If we weaken it first the fire might burn better.”
Of course, it was at that moment their vision smeared, and Maddie and Jack found themselves standing in the same circular room as before. 
“Is it too much to ask for you to be civil for all of five minutes?” Clockwork said, and appeared in front of them.
Jack wound up and put his entire body weight behind punching the ghost in its face.
The duplicate - of course it was another duplicate - disappeared as soon as Jack’s fist made contact. Maddie helped her husband regain his balance as Clockwork flew around from behind them.
“I would also like to know why you seem to think keeping loose grenades in a vehicle your children use would grant you any favours,” Clockwork said, and turned to face them.
Jack pointed finger at the ghost. “You,” he practically growled, “was my son not enough? You had to take my best friend, too?!”
The ghost rolled its eyes. “Of course. I should never have expected you would hold a conversation about your faults. I have done nothing to Vlad Masters. His actions are his own.”
“Of course,” Maddie sneered back. She couldn’t waste anymore mental energy on Vlad. Not while her baby boy was still in danger. “Where’s Danny?”
“In his room.” Clockwork said plainly, “I’ve made him soup.”
“You turned my son into soup?!” Jack snapped.
Clockwork stared for several long seconds. “No,” it said.
“We did what you asked,” Maddie cut in, “now give us back our boy!”
Clockwork scowled. “Yes,” it said, “you did. You certainly followed your son’s own request for his safety to the letter. At no point have you tried to hack this request for your own benefit - oh, wait.” It flew over to a mirror, and pulled up a still image of them unloading their equipment at Vlad’s the night before.
“You were spying on us?” Maddie glared. She wasn’t surprised, of course not, but it didn’t make this any less infuriating.
The ghost looked back and rolled it’s solid red eyes. It made clear movements to make sure she could tell. Clockwork turned back to the mirror. “You’ve handed all your weapons over to Vlad Masters - congratulations. You’ve given a man who once shot your very human son more weapons.” It waved a hand, and the scene changed. This one moved.
Maddie remembered the moment. She didn’t want to watch it - but the ghost must have realized that, because the air tensed before Maddie could look away, and the scene kept playing.
It was soon after Vlad had been elected mayor. He’d been trying to shoot down the Wisconsin ghost, and in the mess, he’d hit a car that Danny was hiding behind. The car had exploded, and Danny had been so lucky he wasn’t severely injured.
But that wasn’t all there was to what had happened, was it? She knew that now. If Phantom was Danny’s infection, and the Wisconsin Ghost was Vlad’s, then maybe it hadn’t been the tragic accident they’d thought it was. Maybe it was those ghosts fighting for territory - Phantom was often fighting other ghosts, after all, and Danny had said that he felt he had to because they were in his home. Maybe Vlad had had a moment of lucidity and tried to fight back against his ecto-contamination. Maybe Danny - her brave, wonderful baby boy - tried to join in, and put himself in harm’s way in an effort to save himself from the ghost. With all the anti-ghost wards they’d placed in city hall, it wasn’t impossible.
Clockwork unfroze them. Jack barreled full-force into the ghost, disappearing the duplicate and crashing to the floor. He picked himself up as another appeared from behind them - and Maddie punched that one in the face, disappearing it too.
“Just give us back our son!” She snapped, “I’m tired of playing this game with you, ghost! Where is Danny?!”
“If you want to see your son again, then you’ll have to choose.” Clockwork’s voice said, though another duplicate didn’t appear. “Is ghost hunting more important to you, or is your family?”
“What kind of a question is that?!” Jack shouted. “The answer is Danny. It’s our kids, our family!”
“So I’ve heard.” The mirror against the wall began to hum, and the clouded green view on it swapped for another one.
Jazz, at her desk, on her computer, chewing on a pencil.
Maddie silently took her husband’s hand. Jazz barely talked to them anymore - if they were lucky, she’d call once a month and talk to them for fifteen minutes. And of course, they understood completely! They’d been so busy when they were in college, and that was decades ago! Even if they couldn’t talk to or see Jazz as often as they liked, she was still their daughter. They loved her. Besides, she talked to Danny whenever she could!
This ghost was going to tear the last shred of family from her son, and Maddie would not have it.
“If that is true,” Clockwork said, “then prove it right now. Swear on your daughter’s life that you will give up ghost hunting.”
Jack squeezed her hand. They heard the unspoken threat loud and clear - if they didn’t, Clockwork would kill Jazz.
Clockwork continued, “Again, I will give you time to -”
“No,” Jack interrupted, “we accept.”
“We swear on Jazz’s life that we’ll give up ghost hunting,” Maddie said. “Now give us back our son.”
“...This is a binding agreement,” Clockwork said slowly, “if you break this, I’m permitted to kill your daughter.” It’s voice sounded weird - Maddie couldn’t bring herself to care. “I will give you time to consider. You do not have to decide now.”
“She’s our daughter,” Jack said, “and Danny is our son. We agree. Swear. Whatever it takes to get our son back.”
“Jack,” Maddie whispered, and shook her head. Her husband didn’t notice.
“What else do you want to take from us?!” Jack raised his voice, shouting up at the ceiling. “Just give us back our boy!”
“He’s still human,” Maddie tried - there was no point in pulling back now, and Jack certainly wouldn’t. “Danny needs to be in the real world!”
In an instant, Clockwork appeared in front of them once again. Maddie and Jack both moved towards it - but once again, the ghost froze them in place. It floated there for a moment, glaring at them.
“What Danny needs,” it hissed, “is a stable, loving family situation that accepts him for who he is. You tried to kill him. Forgive me for not ranking family high on your list of priorities.” It turned its back to them. “If you really care, you have one week to genuinely befriend a ghost. Now get out.”
Maddie and Jack landed roughly outside of the tower, once again with a deep groove in the ground where it had been. Still hand in hand, they helped each other up and back to the speeder.
After a minute, Jack laughed.
“Stupid ghost,” he said, and smiled at Maddie. “It thinks Danny’s a ghost, doesn’t it? I bet it thinks Vlad is one too!”
The phrase genuinely befriend rang in Maddie’s ears as she faked a smile and forcefully stopped her mind from drifting back to Vlad. “Yes, of course - and after this is all over, we can help both of them.”
They’d sworn off ghost hunting, true - but before they were hunters, they were scientists. They hadn’t sworn off anything about investigating ghosts. Those horrendous, putrid manifestations of intense emotions and ectoplasm could still be destroyed at their hands, they just couldn’t catch them themselves. That was fine, there were plenty of other competent ghost hunters in Amity they could team up with. The Red Huntress, for one! It was fine. Everything would be fine.
Danny, Jazz, and Vlad too - they would all be safe and fine.
***
Actual prompt: Clockwork gets sick of how Jack and Maddie treat Danny and spirits him away. Jack and Maddie have to prove to Clockwork that they’ll do better by completing his challenges. Whether or not they succeed is up to you. (Bonus: Clockwork does something to Danny so he no longer recognizes Jack and Maddie when he sees them in order to make sure Jack and Maddie have to follow through.)
104 notes · View notes
datawyrms · 2 years
Text
Misplaced Courage
In his quest to expose Phantom, Wes enlists the help of the mayor. Everyone finds out Wes was right in the worst way possible. Prompts by @idiot-cheesehead-archenemy and @crackedfoutainpen Happy(?) Phic Phight everyone! On Ao3
It was ridiculous how no one could tell Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom were one and the same. He barely tried to hide it, content to be shielded by the fact Phantom was a ghost. After all, who would possibly think some dead kid was also an alive kid?
Honestly, Wes was pretty sure ‘Fenton’ was just a handy disguise for the ghost. It explained all of his little ‘accidents’ with the school glassware, how the black haired boy just happened to go missing whenever a big ghost fight went down. Oh and who could forget Tucker Foley and Sam Manson, who often helped Phantom? They just so happened to be Fenton’s BFFs? It was so obvious!
There were holes in the theory. Yes, both had been seen together at the same time, but both had been acting strangely. It was rare for that to happen. Yet everyone just liked to dismiss it because ‘Fenton’s a weak loser’ or ‘You think Phantom lives with ghost hunters’ and he was sick of all the mockery and wilful blindness to the facts right in front of him.
Which is why he had called Mayor Masters to let him know that he had information on Danny Phantom. If anyone was going to listen, it had to be him. The mayor made his disdain for the ghost boy clear countless times. If even he wouldn’t even try to see the truth, no one would.
The fact the mayor had scheduled a meeting with him the very next day put a flicker of hope back in his heart. Finally someone would take him seriously, someone could see the threat lurking nearby every single day.
Wes made sure his meticulous notes and (stealthily taken) photographs sat securely in the prepared folder and felt a brief bolt of pride whenever he caught a glimpse of it during the too long school day. Soon everyone would know. Soon he wouldn’t be some joke.
“Mr. Weston, was it? Please, take a seat.” Vlad Masters said, gesturing to the seat across from the grand mahogany desk. His smile was friendly, but felt sharp instead of comforting. Of course it was only there to be polite, but Wes couldn’t shake the chill snaking down his spine. “I heard you found out something about our local ghost pest?”
Most of the decorations here felt a little too big, too expensive for a mayor’s office. Though not many mayors were also billionaires. The explanation should have calmed his heart, dislodge the worry. This was stupid, he was going to finally expose Fenton for what he was, and he was getting cold feet because a rich and powerful man was just across the desk. He had to try. Mr. Masters wouldn’t just laugh at the suggestion. He would listen, he had to. He took a breath to steady his nerves and gave a lopsided smile back. “Yes sir. I found out how Danny Phantom manages to hide all the time, so that you never catch him.”
Vlad leaned forward ever so slightly in his chair, eyebrows arching in a clear display of interest. “Did you now? When I’ve had million dollar bounties on that ghost, and no one could get results?”
“Yes! Everyone was overlooking it, maybe the people you hired couldn’t do it because he doesn’t hide out around adults. He hides around other teenagers, like me.” Better to not make it sound like everyone the mayor hired was totally incompetent. Even if they were. 
“Fascinating. Can you elaborate?”
Okay, he looked interested, he was listening. He shouldn’t just brush off the truth like everyone else did. “The ghost boy can pretend to be human. Or is one, I guess since no one else seems to notice. I know who he is.”
“Now that is quite a serious accusation, Mr. Weston. You think a ghost is just hiding among regular people, dodging every ghost repelling measure that’s been taken?”
The doubt. He was losing him. Wes fumbled for the folder, only barely managing to place it on the desk without shaking. “I know it sounds weird, but I have proof! Not like a picture or anything, but if you connect all the dots it’s obvious!”
“Obvious? My boy, are you telling me that you think a human could act with the powers of a ghost?” Vlad leafed through the folder with one hand, but didn’t seem to be giving it his full attention. No. Those pale blue eyes were more fixated on him, for some reason.
“I know he is sir. Danny Fenton IS Danny Phantom. The ghost illness proved people could get powers! I don’t think he’s sick though- I think he’s always like that. Somehow.”
“So you’re suggesting an entire family of ghost hunters that is unaware of a ghost living in their home?”
Why did everyone ask that? “Uh, with no disrespect Mr. Masters, I kind of doubt they’d ever consider it possible- especially if the ghost was their kid.”
“True, true, Jack is almost impressive in his boundless ignorance.” The folder closed with a sudden snap, dropped with no ceremony. “Now my boy, who else have you told about this theory of yours? I wouldn’t want to waste time repeating it to those you’ve already informed.”
He was going to do something? Look into it just like that? Really? The joy he should feel was uncomfortably lodged in his throat, the voice in the back of his mind screaming it was too easy, too sudden. The mayor didn’t even want time to read over everything, he was accepting it just like that? “Well no one at school believes me, so I guess you’re the only one that even thinks this should be taken seriously?”
“So it’s fairly common knowledge that you believe that you know Phantom’s true identity then, even if they fail to understand it, I see.” He steepled his fingers and stared at the wall, pondering. When he unfroze from that position he tapped a key on his phone. “Cancel the rest of my schedule for today, something much more important has come up. Thank you.”
“Really? You’re going to find out what he’s up to right now?” Maybe he could help? Rub it in Fenton’s face a little once everyone knew he wasn’t who he pretended he was.
“Why of course. I couldn’t risk such news not being acted on immediately,” he said as he stood, keeping a close eye on the boy. “Did you have any other folders like this? Evidence and the like? My experts should be fully informed, you understand.”
“O-Of course! I can get you anything that would help.”
“Wonderful. We can take my limo to your abode and sort out what you’ve gathered,” his tone left no room for argument, sweeping out of the room with a presence that practically made Wes want to cower in its wake.
Should success feel like this? The looks, the praise just felt off. A little too perfect and calculated. No, no that was just his paranoia acting up again. He could follow with confidence and pride. Maybe it was just a bit of guilt towards Fenton. Not that he deserved any pity, lurking around and just controlling people, using his powers to screw with him because it was ‘funny’. The creep of a ghost deserved to get hunted down and dealt with. The plush limo seats didn’t ease the tingle, but he just dug his fingernails into his palms and forced himself to ignore it. This is what he wanted.
“I’m just saying we might actually win if you don’t use your controller” Tucker pleaded as he elbowed Danny as they walked onto the school yard. “You can react so much faster in person!”
Sam smirked at his antics. “In your dreams, Tuck. Danny knows I have him beat even when he cheats.”
“Hey! It’s not cheating, it’s uh. Creative control schemes.”
“Suuuure it is. You’d think you’d be a better shot by now.”
“I’m not that bad. It just hurts when you sneak up on me!” Danny rubbed the back of his neck, giving Tucker a weak grin. “Seriously though, I get hit enough without needing to feel it when we’re playing Doomed. Sorry.”
“Aw mannnn. She’s gonna thrash us again if we don’t try something new!”
“Try practicing,” was the goth’s suggestion, earning an eye roll from her friend.
Danny opened his mouth to make a retort but froze as the frosty breath of his ghost sense escaped instead of words. Great. “First thing in the morning? I’m going to get marked late again!” He scowled as he shrugged off his backpack and handed it off to Tucker.
“Hey, at least your stuff will be in class on time.”
“Maybe it can take notes for me too. If it’s the Box Ghost I’m gonna kick him into next week for this.”
“You’re sure you don’t want backup?” Sam frowned at the bag, already reaching for her own.
“All of us being late because we’re chasing a ghost would look really bad, so yeah. I’ll be fine. Probably.”
“You got this dude, be confident!” 
Danny couldn’t help but smile a little at the reassurance and nodded before dashing off to find a more secluded corner to transform. All he needed to do was be invisible for a moment, find who was giving him a headache and probably get detention again. Great start to the day.
The difficult bit was the lack of noise. Usually someone would yell when they saw a ghost, or the sound of people running away would tip him off. Yet the halls remained the normal low buzz of activity as he floated above the disorganized mess of teenagers. Maybe one of the still empty classrooms? Or the storage rooms.
Nothing.
Was his ghost sense faulty? The first bell was ringing in his ears, a painful temptation to forget it and go back to class before the second bell sealed his fate.
Maybe it distracted him too well, considering how he got a heavy blow to the back of his head. He only barely managed to throw up a barrier to break his sudden slam into the concrete floor. It still hurt, it always hurt when he hit this hard enough that his bones vibrated under his skin, but he was able to turn and face his assailant quickly. “Seriously? You couldn’t wait until after school, Plasmius?”
“Unfortunately not all of us can pretend problems will solve themselves, Daniel.” He didn't give the boy a chance to retort, seven quick blasts shot and slamming heavily into boxes, chairs and startled hybrid.
“Like that makes any sense. Get lost!” Danny blocked the next volley and launched forward with a glowing green fist, narrowly missing the vampiric ghost’s trailing cape. With a grunt he twisted in midair to fire a blast after such a close miss, but the crackling slam of ectoplasm against shield proved him one step behind again.
Well, if he couldn’t quite keep up he could always distract Vlad. “What, you aren’t going to tell me your evil scheme? Make a gross pass at my mom?”
Vlad bared his teeth at the insult, but only tried to attack again instead of giving the expected answer, or insult back. An attack that was a feint, an opening that just let a duplicate Danny hadn’t been aware of send a painful shock through his body.
At least it was easy enough to grasp his ice powers even as he jerked from the agony, doppelganger banished with a swift retaliation blast. Danny swung blindly instead of aiming, mostly trying to avoid being caught in another trick.
His blind strike hit home, but met no resistance. The first one was a copy too? It was so unfair that he had that power. Wait. If that was a fake, where was the real Vlad? Green eyes darted all over the room, but no more attacks came. Okay, time to find a creep. No big deal.
The ghost shield he slammed into face first at full speed was a bit of a deal. Mostly because he was slumped on the floor clutching his head, cursing Plasmius to every terrible fate he could think of. Of course this was a trap, of course there was some stupid gadget trying to trap him here! “I can walk through these too, Vlad,” the boy muttered to himself as he found his footing and the door, dropping his ghost form as he ran.
There was screaming now. Fear, panic and worry that only made him want to run faster, heart pounding as he dodged between fleeing students. No one would notice him, or care he was going the wrong way. He just knew he had to go now, as quickly as possible. This kind of terror was wrong, he could feel it. A weight on his shoulders that wasn’t right, wasn’t how people normally felt. Maybe it added a little extra get up and go to his feet, but he was going to try and ignore that his ghost powers might get a boost from this awful tension in the air.
Danny didn’t intend to speak or yell out until he was back in his ghost fighting persona, but the blood splatter on the floor threw all his senses out of the window. Was he after Tucker and Sam? Trying to hurt or kill his friends now? His eyes flared green as he spotted the ghost hovering over the bloody display, nose wrinkling as the wet stench of iron crawled down his throat.
Vlad was right there, floating casually. He didn’t have Sam, or Tucker. He did have someone, limp and motionless, too stained with blood dripping down to the tile below to identify them right away. The man shouldn’t look so impassive while clutching a bloodied teenager with one hand, other black glove stained crimson so there was no mistake who had caused the damage.
They were the only three things that existed right now. Him, the devil himself, and the body. The scream ripped out of his throat before he could even consider anything else, already lowering into a battle stance. “Put him down!”
“Hm? Oh my boy, of course. I already have,”
Time froze as the snide words slid into his ears. Already had? Already? A joke. It had to be a joke. He wasn’t too late, that wasn’t a corpse.
Vlad either didn’t notice or didn’t care how the boy was only staring in wide eyed shock. “If you don’t want to keep cleaning up messes, one should be more careful. Especially about what they say.”
He let go of the thing hanging from his hand and Danny moved out of some desperate need to stop whoever it was from taking more pain, suffering even more for no reason. As they weren’t dead, they couldn’t be dead, he refused to believe Vlad actually had the guts to go through with murder when his dad was still alive and well.
Their blood was still warm, awful as the red sunk into his white t-shirt. It was still flowing. Not dead. Not yet. What could he do? He didn’t want to look this closely, didn’t want to feel how weak and limp this person was but he had to. This was his fault.
It wasn’t just shallow lacerations on the chest and arms.
Wes’ half lidded eyes barely twitched as he registered the new face in front of him, an awful bubbling noise that might have been an acknowledgement. His face held the true wound that caused such a mess, missing his lower jaw entirely. No tongue lolling out without anywhere to go, the boy truly silenced in a gruesome display.
“Wes?” Danny asked, half wondering if he would wake up from this. Another twitch before his eyes rolled back, no longer able to keep his feeble grip on consciousness. 
So much blood. He had to stop it. With what? His shirt? That wouldn’t be enough! It had to stop, get held back. Ice. He could do that. He had to, he couldn’t let someone die. Frost hissed at the remaining edge of his face before hardening suddenly, a misshapen chunk of ice binding skin back together, the cuts getting a similar icy scab as he begged for it to be enough, that he could hold on. See, this was better right? He could kid himself that the small white fragments of exposed bone was just a trick of the icy covering.
“What are you-”
Danny didn’t care what that monster was saying, he didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t want to hear anything. There weren't any words for this.
So he screamed.
He wailed.
Wailed with a power his human body couldn’t be expected to take, shrieked even as his throat burned and mouth bled.
Only after that did he hear the rest of the world again. Worried mutters, screams and footfalls. His legs gave out and he fell, still making sure Wes didn’t hit the ground first, clutching him tightly even as he wanted to pass out.
He heard ambulance sirens coming. Good. Okay. Vlad was gone. The doctors could help. Darkness grabbed at the corners of his vision and he didn’t have the strength to keep pushing it back.
“Wes was right? About all of it?” A hissed mutter was the last thing he could hold on to as he succumbed. If only he could try to warn them not to say too much.
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ajitated · 1 year
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(Originally posted: 2 April 2021)
Summary: Danny doesn't want to take up Ghost Hunting with his parents, but Jack and Maddie don't seem to understand that - or maybe they just don't care. When a certain school bully gets him out of an argument with his parents, Danny learns that maybe he's been underestimating people too, and has to admit some stuff he'd really rather not.
Written for Phic Phight 2021, Team Human!
Prompts by @heroine0ftime and @aggressivelyclueless, "An unexpected ally helps Danny out of a difficult situation" and "Actually, Dad? I wanted to be a paleontologist"
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ei-w · 1 year
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perfect time (653 words) by ei_w Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Danny Phantom Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Danny Fenton/Sam Manson, Clockwork/Pariah Dark Characters: Danny Fenton, Sam Manson, Clockwork (Danny Phantom) Additional Tags: Marriage Proposal, referred DarkAges, Clockwork did not approve to use the Ring of Rage for another purpose than it was destined for, Funny, Not Betaed We Die Like Danny In Embarresment, Phic Phight (Danny Phantom), Phic Phight: Team Human (Danny Phantom) Summary:
Finally, the day had come, the one he was waiting for so long! — Danny would take the question to Sam.
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kawaiijohn · 2 years
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Rebellious Streak
Rating: G WC: 1340 Summary: Johnny Thirteen is a rebel at heart, so what does he care if he breaks Phantom's stupid rule about leaving Amity Park? Prompt: Danny has been Ghost King for a year and only has three rules. Don't bother him after midnight, leave him alone during midterms week, and DON'T leave Amity Park. One ghost finds out the hard way what happens when you break that last one.
A phic phight fill for @wisecrownvoid
Daniel 'Danny' Fenton-Phantom has only been the King of Ghosts for a little over a year.
It’s hard work, as all the other ghosts know, but he seems to handle it well enough.
He’s a much kinder ruler than Pariah Dark was, that’s for sure. The little king is fair and just, somewhat lax with the laws of the Infinite Realms to a degree only a child could be, ignoring the laws that are too stuck-up or unfair, unwriting the cruel ones and allowing ghosts more un-breathing room than they’ve had in centuries. 
Keep reading on Ao3
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jadenoryuu · 2 years
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Chapters: 1/3 Fandom: Danny Phantom Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Jack Fenton/Maddie Fenton, Danny Fenton & Jack Fenton & Maddie Fenton, Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley & Sam Manson Characters: Jack Fenton, Maddie Fenton, Danny Fenton, Tucker Foley, Maurice Foley, Sam Manson Additional Tags: Identity Reveal, Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Family, Friendship, Ghost Researches, Nightmares, Phic Phight 2022 (Danny Phantom), Phic Phight: Team Human (Danny Phantom) Series: Part 1 of The Dragon joins Team Humans: Phight! Summary:
When the his parents force Danny to do his homework on the kitchen table as punishment for breaking too many curfews, it triggers a series of events that only Clockwork could have foreseen. Or: Jack accidentally reads something he wasn't supposed to see and Maddie listens to something she wasn't supposed to hear.
Chapter 1: The Theory
(From Prompt (PR035): Jack doesn’t usually snoop through his kids’ things. He’s just trying to help Danny with his homework. Then he finds a folder filled with printouts of his and Maddie’s own research papers on ghosts, covered all over with corrections in Danny’s handwriting. by @bread-tab )
This was such an intense experience, I'm not gonna lie, but this gave me a rush I hadn't felt since the Ectoberhaunt! 〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜
I'm having so much fun and Team Ghost gave us some other prompts that I'm looking at, hope that I'll make in time to finish a second Phic and continue working on my Invisobang long-fic...
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timelessdp · 1 year
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Prompt: @lexosaurus A metal table. Of course, it was always a metal table.
@thefalsefangirl Write a fic inspired from any song released in the last six years.
Song: Alan Walker - Sorry
It had been Danny's twenty-first birthday.
Finally he was grow up enough, to leave the Fentonworks for his own good. There was a big celebration.
Confetti is falling
They stayed awake for long. For once Danny didn't had to worry about the other ghosts. They let a truce for this day.
Sam and Tucker left At five in the morning and everyone else got their pyjamas on and went sleep.
Danny woke up chained down on the metal table.
He was in the lab. He was in intense pain. He didn't even knew how he got there.
"No more hiding ghost boy. We spent seven years to figure out who you could be. And when we did, we wanted spend a last night together" -Maddie said. In her hand was a scalpel.
Danny couldn't do anything against his mother. He slowly fainted because of the pain.
When his consciousness came back he saw his friends standing beside him.
They're screaming and crying
Danny couldn't move. It doesn't mattered, that he was free again.
But I'm all by myself
He wasn't strong enough to survive. He lost too much blood for that.
I know you, I'm sorry
"Jazz I won't make it. It was nice to meet you all."
I made up a story
"Danny you can't do this to us! You have to stay with us!"-Jazz asked.
But Danny was already far away. He felt like he is edge of dieing again.
He starterted freezing, even his icecore couldn't keep up with the speed healing.
I'm lonely, I'm falling
"This house wasn't the place where I belong. Just like you, I'm sorry"-he said and, left this world forever.
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conceiteddemon · 2 years
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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Danny Phantom Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Vlad Masters & Danielle "Dani" Phantom Characters: Vlad Masters, Danielle "Dani" Phantom, Maddie the Cat (Danny Phantom) Additional Tags: Phic Phight 2022 (Danny Phantom), Phic Phight: Team Human (Danny Phantom), no beta we die like team ghost Summary:
Vlad is having a mental breakdown, Danielle is having the joy of a cat liking her. For Phic Phight 2022!
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The Roommate
phic phight prompts by @lexosaurus and @princessfanonanona
Danny’s started his Freshman year of college! Though, some of his dorm-mates aren’t quite sure what to make of him.
Danny is known as Coffee Ghost at the local college, shenanigans ensue
Chapter 1/? (i've got like 3k written and more drafted so it'll happen soon!!!)
prev next
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Becoming roommates with a Fenton should have been Jay’s dream come true.
Ever since he had first watched Ghostbusters with his older sister when he was six years old, Jay had wanted to be a ghost hunter. His parents had indulged that for a few years, as parents are prone to do when small children are enthusiastic about fictional jobs. But, as his parents' support had grown quieter and as his teachers began to voice their opinions on viable career paths more loudly, Jay had learned to shut up about ghosts. By the time he was eleven, he made sure to never mention them to anyone but his older sister, and even then only in passing. When he was fifteen though, things changed again. Suddenly, ghosts were a thing. Like, a real thing that actually existed and interacted with people and left tangible evidence trails. Sure, Jay’s parents were still skeptics and his sister didn’t necessarily believe in ghosts to the same extent Jay did, but that no longer mattered to him.
Ghosts were real. And his childhood dream was alive again.
By the time he turned eighteen, a month out from graduating high school, Jay had reevaluated his childhood dream of hunting and busting ghosts. He had spent the past three years researching and reading anything and everything he could get his hands on about ghosts, and he had reached a very disappointing conclusion: No one actually knew anything about ghosts. Like, at all. The research was there, but it was all so empty. The actual data was sparse, personal accounts were biased, and the whole field was so incredibly niche that ninety percent of the papers were published by the same team of two, the Fentons. So yeah, Jay had reevaluated.
He didn’t want to be a ghost hunter. He wanted to be a ghost scientist . He wanted to research and investigate and blaze new paths in a field that was somehow as old as academia at large and yet still so new and unexplored. He wanted to learn everything there was to learn about ghosts and then some.
So here he was, the first day of college, standing in his dorm at the University of Illinois at Amity, meeting his new roommate for the first time, and feeling so utterly disappointed .
“Hey, I’m Danny. Danny Fenton. You must be Jason.” The kid before him was tall, like really tall, like taller even than Jay which was saying something because he was pretty tall himself. He had black hair that didn’t seem to hold any shadows, blue eyes that felt like looking into the lake in the middle of February, and the hand that he was holding out towards Jay had a pattern of light scars arching up his arm and disappearing into his sleeve like branches of lightning.
“Yeah, Jason Argyropoulos. But seriously dude, call me Jay.” He shook Danny’s hand, and almost laughed in surprise at how tight the grip was. “You said your name was Fenton?” Danny’s eyes darkened almost imperceptibly.
“Yeah. Danny Fenton.”
“Your parents are the uh, the ghost hunters, right?” Jay knew he probably shouldn’t be pushing this, Danny obviously didn’t like the subject, but Jay had spent the past twelve years of his life building to this moment! He wasn’t just gonna let it pass by without any fanfare. “I’ve kept up with their research and I-”
“Listen, Jay,” Danny interrupted, voice sharp. He turned away and began to unpack the duffel bag he had been carrying. “I don’t really like to talk about my parents’ jobs. If you’re interested in ghost hunting or whatever, there’s at least one club you can go join, but I’d really rather not have it be a thing in our room, okay?”
“Oh. Yeah, no, of course dude. Sorry, I just get really excited about this sort of thing, and if you ever do want to talk about it, I’d love to ask some questions and-”
“Can you just leave it alone?” Danny cried out, spinning back towards Jay with an uncanny speed.
Jay didn’t scare easy. He’d always been on the taller end and out of sheer stubborn spite and a healthy dose of sibling rivalry, he had pretty early on decided to just not get scared. He was of the strong opinion that it made life a whole lot easier if you didn’t have to deal with a fight/flight/freeze response all the time. So yeah, Jay didn't really get scared. Right now though? Being stared down by his new roommate whose eyes might have been green for just a second there, the temperature in the little dorm room suddenly ten degrees colder, the lights a few shades dimmer, the walls closing in in a way that really shouldn’t happen?
Jay was terrified .
And a moment later, it was over. The temperature shot back up to normal, the lights turned back on to full power, the walls returned to where they had always been, and Danny was back to unpacking his duffel. He folded the next shirt he pulled out as if nothing had happened.
“Sure, yeah, I’ll just, I’ll drop it. Sorry, I guess,” Jay muttered, turning to his own bag to begin unpacking. Ugh, how could he have messed up this bad already? He’d known his roommate for all of three minutes and had already overstepped the guy’s boundaries and pissed him off. Jay got it, he did , sometimes family just sucked and you didn’t want to associate with them at all. But in the moment? He’d been so caught up in his own world that he hadn’t paid attention to all the flags til it was too late.
He unpacked the rest of his bag in silence, and Danny did the same. Once he’d gotten the rest of his clothes shoved into the little dorm dresser, thrown his blankets across his bed in something resembling order, and tucked his books onto the paltry shelving left over from whoever had lived in the room before, Jay decided he couldn’t take it anymore. He shoved his phone in his jeans and grabbed the actual physical key he’d been given to the dorm before heading out the door.
“Hey, uh, Danny?” Jay called back into the room, one foot propping the door open almost as an afterthought. “I’m gonna run down to the dining hall, grab some lunch. Want me to grab you anything?”
There was no reply. Jay could see his roommate still unpacking, could see that he didn’t have any headphones in, but he didn’t think Danny had even heard him.
Jay shut the door behind him and tried not to think too hard about it. It was still the first day. He could fix this. He would fix this. It would all work out eventually.
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phicphight · 14 days
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Sorry for the wait but the sign-up form for 2024 Phic Phight is now open! You have until March 27th to sign up!
What is Phic Phight?
Phic Phight is a Danny Phantom fan-fiction writing competition, were writers are asked to provide prompts. Then they are split into two teams; team ghost and team human. The teams are given prompts from the opposite team and gain points for creating fics based on the prompts. The winner gains bragging rights for the year. This was created as a friendly competition to inspire new ideas and stories for the phandom.
Phic Phight begins April 1st and ends April 30th.
You will be required to join the new Phic Phight discord server to participate.
A full list of rules can be found HERE
No OC prompts are allowed. And no crossover prompts are allowed.
Please tag works as #phicphight24
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charcoalhawk · 11 months
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No Batteries Required
Turns out that with all the other powers of a ghostly core, they also make a great emergency light source.
Second Phic for this Phic Phight!
Prompt from @jewishicequeen : There's a powerfail at school, and during a major test, too. So it's really lucky, if a bit weird, that Fenton glows in the dark? Or, Danny becomes a freaking nightlight.
Today is his home room period’s first test back from winter break, one of the most important for the quarter. Glancing around Edward Lancer counts twenty five bent heads, all focusing on the paper before them. Hopefully today they can get through the next, a quick glance at the old clock hanging in the wall, hour and four minutes without any ghost attacks or rouge bathroom trips.
If they ended up having to push this test back then it would mean the class would have less time to go over and review their next unit when the time came, which in turn he knows will push the entire schedule back at least a week or two, meaning less time to review the needed material, leaving his kids ill prepared for tests the entire quarter.
Even after two years Casper high had not been able to stretch or alter their curriculum to accommodate for their new, erm, ghostly neighbors. Every attempt to reach out to the larger school board had been met with quiet disdain and louder criticism.
At best they could use the few half days the calendar offered and convert them into extra time in the event a ghost prevented tests from being completed multiple days in a row. They were doing all they could to not take the kids' spring break, it wouldn’t be fair after all their kids went through to turn around and deprive them of one of the few chances for a break they could get.
But, nothing Edward can do about that right now. Now he has a duty to see these kids though their test today and hopefully be able to move into their next unit on Monday.
Weak sunlight is streaming through the windows, casting the room in a soft warm glow. One of many reasons Edward had requested an outer room of the school. He had found that, as distracting as the outside could be, having a room with a view to the outside kept his students from feeling too enclosed and anxious.
It also didn’t help that sunlight meant that his room was always nice and bright, better than the cheap overhead lights which could barely keep the room visible when the blinds were closed. In the last month three of them had been damaged to the point that they were nonfunctional, and several others were just too old and were on their last legs.
There’s no outward sign before it happens, no flashing light or rumbling earth, one moment Edward is observing his students from his desk, and the next the room is plunged into darkness.
Well, not complete darkness, but it’s a rather gloomy day, so the light from outside casts the entire room into a muddled gloom.
As his brain is trying to catch up with his eyes his ears finally register the echo of all the lights in the room going pop and out at once.
In the half second before his students register what’s going on Edward curses himself for even thinking things could not go wrong.
No one screams, at least. But there’s the screech of cheap metal chairs on tile as his students try to figure out what’s going on. There’s no burst of light from students' phones, which strikes him as odd, before Edward remembers they’re all sitting in little cubbies at the front of the room.
After an unfortunate encounter with a ghostly duo of the mad Nikolai Tesla rip-off and a metal Mohawk man, Edward had negotiated with his students that all phones were to stay at the front of the room and not on anyone’s person.
One only needed to experience a group electrocution from dozens of phones combined with sitting in metal chairs once before his students readily agreed to the new rule.
(There hadn’t been any lasting injuries, all in all it hadn’t been a super powerful attack, but one student had needed to go to the nurse for fainting after the shock. At least Dash and his friend group hadn’t teased young Daniel too badly for that.)
Now that the darkness had settled in, and there was no maniacal laughter to indicate that a ghost was directly behind this situation, the chatter from his students rose from a murmur to a fever pitch.
Two sharp claps bring everything to a halt, and Edward is greeted with twenty five pairs of eyes staring steadily at him.
“Everyone please remain calm,” his voice was loud in the now defining quiet of the room. “Hopefully this is a temporary issue and will be resolved in the next few minutes. Now, we still have light from the windows so if we could all please get back to our tests-“
A series of clanks and buzzes pierce the air from the side of the classroom, before the metal ghost shield contraption slams down over the windows with a god awful grinding sound. An echo of the screeching sound fills the room as Edward once again tries to comprehend what had just happened.
It must have been a failure in the schools power system, either a fluke or a ghost had been trying to cause problems but the fail safes had caused the entire system to shut down in self defense.
It didn’t immediately explain why the metal ghost shield enforcers had activated, but given that the system was less than two years old, and had been in large part programmed by Jack Fenton meant that there were bound to be a few flaws in the code.
And now the class was sitting in pitch darkness and gearing up to be in full panic mode. Unfortunately with all their undead neighbors the school has had little time to educate the students in what they should do in situations not involving the undead.
Shove a kid in a room with a ghost and they would arrive back in class five minutes later with a triumphant grin and a few scorch marks, close a kid in a room and set off the tornado warning and suddenly everyone was running around with their heads cut off.
No one has run from their feet towards their phones yet, but Edward knows it’s only a matter of time. And then he’ll have a stampede of terrified juniors all running over each other in the pitch black classroom.
For all this was their classroom, it was a new room to everyone. A particularly nasty attack from the Wisconsin ghost a few days back had almost completely obliterated their homeroom, so they were forced to relocate to a little used lab room in the far wing while Mayor Masters found the resources to allocate to the school.
With silent feet Edward moves to where he knows the door is, it won’t be much, but at least if worst comes to worst he can slowly escort his class outside. But, the door handle won't budge, and his heart sinks to his shoes as the door refuses to open.
He knows part of the new ghost security system was that individual rooms could be completely locked down to catch a wandering ghost, but this seems like a large oversight of the Doctor’s Fenton part.
He makes his way back to his desk, then turns again, making his steps now audible to his class. Let them think he’s pacing, it’s a normal enough habit of his that the kids shouldn’t realize something is wrong.
“Alright everyone, please remain in your seats. If something has happened emergency power should activate soon, and once the faculty has figured out what’s wrong they’ll use the PA system to instruct us on what to do next.” damn, he can feel his own voice wavering slightly.
That’s hoping whatever caused this to happen didn’t affect the PA system, and if they end up doing a door to door notice they won’t be able to get theirs open, if they even remember seeing as this classroom is usually unused.
But, something is wrong. The room should be in complete darkness, but as the seconds tick by the room becomes steadily lighter, as if someone is slowly powering up a flashlight.
As the room slowly becomes visible all eyes are drawn to the source, a spot right next to the windows, but it’s not natural light.
It’s the color of the glow that truly throws Edward off. Most everything he’s encountered in the last few years that glowed were always a sickly green color, reminiscent of radioactive goop shown on Saturday morning cartoons. But this glow now reminded him of a sunrise. Small and bright, but always a welcome sight.
Even before the form becomes fully visible, Edward knows the culprit. Often the center of unnatural things occurring all around him, young Danny Fenton.
As his eyes adjust to the light he sees it is not, in fact, a flashlight, but Danny himself that is brightening the room.
Which, even for a ghost hunter's son, this is rather unusual.
But, one should neve look a gift horse in the mouth. He’s seen his students float before and even become an actual ghostly dragon in one very memorable occurrence. If this means he doesn’t have to reschedule this test, and as the minutes tick by it becomes clear that Danny is producing enough light for the entire class to see by, then Edward should simply go with the flow, as the kids say.
“Daniel,” and oh the poor kid looks just as freaked out as the rest of them feel, “could you please move to the middle of the room? Just ah- yes Cory if you could swap and move to Daniel’s seat that would be spectacular.”
There’s some very awkward shuffling as Danny and Cory swap seats, everyone’s eyes still drawn towards Danny like a moth to a flame.
“Thank you gentlemen, now seeing as Danny has, ah, provided us with an alternative light source for this period, let us all focus back on our tests. If you wouldn't mind staying after class, Danny, I do have some questions.”
“Heh,” snickering from the back of the class where he know Dash and Kwan commanded the football team like kings at a court, “I guess you could call Fenton a fleshlig-“
“Finish that sentence mr. Baxter, and you will find yourself staying after class for the rest of the week.” All movement in the back stops just as suddenly as if they had been frozen to their seats, “and you know Coach Telestaff is strict in her requirements to be at practices lest you not be put on the field.”
“I ahm, uh,” Danny is fidgeting from all the attention thrust upon him. He glances towards his friends who are giving furious little gestures under their desks that Edward pretends he can’t see, “I accidentally ate ectoplasm last night!”
Well, he had been going to discuss this privately, but teens so rarely wanted to stand out from their peers. Maybe he hoped explaining now meant he could leave when class was over.
“Yeah!” Danny sounds more confident as his story builds as he speaks, “my dad was trying out this new recipe from my mom’s sister, and I think he forgot he and my mom were working on one of their weapons earlier that evening and accidentally coated the entire thing in ectoplasm. But! It should go away on its own soon! Shouldn’t last more than a day!”
“Ok, thank you for your explanation, now if everyone could get back to their tests…”
As his students calm down and return to their tests a low hum slowly makes itself known over the shuffling of feet and scratching of pencils.
It is, not dissimilar to the sound of a content cat, in Edward’s experience. Looking out again he can see a small smile grace Daniel’s face as the other students calm around him.
But what does he know, it’s probably just the vents.
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q-gorgeous · 11 months
Text
Think Before You Act
fanfiction
ao3
word count: 1047
To get revenge on Vlad Masters, Valerie tells someone (be the Fentons, Danny, Tucker, the A- listers, or the GIW) what she discovered at the end of D-Stabilized. @warvikwrites After being revealed and arrested by the Guys in White, they surprisingly didn’t torture or experiment on him. Instead, they completely removed his ghost half, “cured” him of being a halfa, and that, somehow, was a hundred times worse. @ecto-american
phic phight is great
Valerie hadn’t thought this through. She didn’t ever think anything through.
She hadn’t thought it through when Phantom and his ghost dog had ruined her life. She didn’t even stop to think if he’d been telling the truth or not.
She also didn’t think it through when Vlad Masters wanted her to hunt down that girl ghost. When she found her, she looked as human as could be. She was just a little girl. A little girl that revealed her secret to protect some stranger she had barely even met. One that was hunting her down! She hadn’t stopped to consider that maybe Vlad was wrong.
And Vlad was a whole other thing. When she found out who Vlad really was, that Plasmius and Masters were one in the same, she didn’t stop to think there either. All she knew was that she wanted revenge on him. He used her to do his dirty work. He was going to kill an innocent little girl. He almost did. He needed to be stopped. 
She didn’t have the means to capture him and keep him contained somewhere for long. She also didn’t think she’d have the guts to kill him, especially if he was like Danielle. Phantom’s voice rang in her ear. Asking her if she’d be able to take part in destroying a human. She may not be destroying him, but she had thought of the next best thing.
She told the GIW about Vlad. How she thought he must be ecto-contaminated. Or overshadowed. The mayor was in danger, they needed to help him. He was a ghost. She said whatever she could think of. Honestly, she thought she could’ve said anything and the GIW would’ve gone to take him anyways. 
They captured him. They deployed a raid on his house in the middle of the night. They took him, but not without taking every ounce of research on ghosts he had from his lab. That was how they found out about Danielle. And how they found out about Danny. 
Valerie really didn’t think things through. If she had, she would’ve thought harder about what it meant if Danielle was part human. She would’ve thought about what that meant for Phantom. Maybe she would’ve noticed how Danielle had the same sky blue eyes as Danny Fenton. 
But now it was too late. Both Danielle and Danny had gone missing not that long after Vlad Masters. It was all anyone was talking about lately. 
I heard that Vlad Masters was being overshadowed by some ghost.
No, I heard that he was a ghost this whole time. He’s been dead for the past twenty years. 
Why did they take Danny Fenton? He’s missing too.
Haven’t you noticed that Phantom disappeared? Wes was right this whole time. 
Oh my god. He was Phantom? 
Every time she passed Danny’s friends in the hallway it was like they knew. Somehow they knew it was her fault that Danny was missing. But it made sense. If Phantom knew who she was, it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to figure he’d tell his two closest friends who clearly already knew his secret. 
She had to do something. She needed to free them from the GIW. 
But she didn’t think things through. 
When she told them about Vlad, they had happily accepted the information. She had information they wanted. 
When she busted into their compound to break Danny and Danielle out though, they were no longer on the same team as her. 
She flew through hallways upon hallways, looking for Danny and Danielle. She didn’t find them before the GIW found her. 
They said they were to detain her. Something about her being a level five ecto-entity. She was contaminated. They had to cure her. 
Maybe if she had thought about what her suit had been doing to her she would’ve gone in with more of a plan. She never stopped to consider what a suit given to her by a ghost, created from ectoplasm, would do to her body. She never thought that the GIW would ever be a danger to her. She was human. 
But was she? They didn’t seem to think so. 
They captured and detained her. Tossed her into a cell like they must’ve done to the other three. There was something in the room that prevented her from calling for her suit. Something that blocked ghost powers. Is that what her suit was? Some kind of ghost power? 
She waited there for days. They gave her no information, no updates, no plans for what they were going to do with her. Not until they suddenly showed up one day with a stretcher they put her on to take her to a different room.
The way they had separated her from her suit was so painful. She didn’t even know how they did it. It wasn’t like it was always there. She had to will it to appear. How did they get it off? Where did it go? 
Is that what it felt like for Danny when they removed his core? It must’ve felt so much worse. It had to. Danielle had destabilized when they tried removing hers. It was probably the worst thing imaginable if it caused her to destabilize. 
Then the GIW drove them home. They were bragging about how they cured Danny of his ectoplasmic contamination to his parents at the stoop at their door. How they saved their son. But Valerie could tell that wasn’t true.
Danny wasn’t the same anymore. He looked a hundred times worse than Valerie had ever seen him. He looked like a shell of his former self, like something was missing. But Valerie knew half of him was indeed missing. Half of him was gone. 
He didn’t talk to her anymore when they both went back to school. She understood why. Her reckless actions got his core taken away. It killed Danielle. 
It was why she stood in front of Technus as he reigned terror over Amity Park’s electronics store. 
Maybe this was another reckless decision she didn’t think through. Maybe this was going to go just as badly as her last plan did. But she was going to get another suit. And she was going to destroy the GIW compound.
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