#shadow squad

[your-local-jedi-commander]

If manhandling was a person, it’s name would be: Phillip Graves

[darkherolovercroissant]

It’s a bad day to be a shadow

*credits to @moonaliluna on tiktok*

[vodika-vibes]

About: Shadow Squad

The patch for Shadow Squad

Their colors are hunter green and black. With their base armor being black due to being a SpecOps squad.

The Squad Motto is an'rang (Down in Flames lit. All Ash)

Marshal Commander Riff became the leader of Shadow Squad by virtue of being too stubborn to let the trainers kill him, and having enough personality to earn the loyalty of the other vod'e.

Shadow Squad's Training Location is called the Pit. 50% of Vod'e who are sent to the Pit don't leave.

Vod'e who are sent to the Pit are officially labeled as Decommissioned, unless they survive to join Shadow.

[nights-nonsensical-ramblings]

Op, I know you do Knuckles squad, but i'm curious

How do you think the Shadows are gonna get along? *Looks at Prime Shadow act towards Sonic*

(Seeing 'I know you do Knuckles squad' brought a smile to my face, thank you for this honor)

I should say that I feel like I don't know the shadows as well and i'm not as knowledgeable about their differences but...

for some reason I can actually see them being decently chill around each other. Not an instant friends kinda thing, but they're not going to rip each other heads on sight. and it is very standoffish and takes a while for their to be any more interaction than 'simply present in the same room'.

With one exception.

Boom shadow.

That little punk is going to start shit for no real reason and is defiantly getting into a fight with every single one of his counterparts at some point.

[culttvblog]

Shadow Squad: The Missing Cheese

It's not very often I stray into 1950s TV on this blog, not really for any conscious reason except that I tend to prefer the weird and wonderful offerings of the sixties and after.

This is another show that I've had on my hard drive for ages and on my list of things to get round to watching properly, and I'm delighted and also very sorry that I haven't done so so far. Shadow Squad was a series about a private detective which lasted from 1957 to 1959 (this summary is taken from televisionheaven.co.uk). The premise is that Detective Vic Steele (played by Rex Garner), fed up with red tape in the police, leaves to set up his own private detective agency, assisted by Cockney Ginger Smart (played by George Moon) and informally by his charlady Mrs Moggs (Kathleen Bouttall). Part way though Garner left and was replaced by Peter Williams, playing a former Scotland Yard DI.

This flat description places us immediately in a different world, and frankly it feels much more Dick Barton than any of the other television I've posted about here. The professional lead with the working class assistant and the char butting in now and then is so of its time.

I said that I had been made rather sad by finding out about this show and my sadness is that I am made even sadder that there are only four episodes remaining by discovering the names of the all the episodes which sound marvellous. I have always been one to judge a book by its cover and I would absolutely watch Needle in a Haystack, Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, Vital Statistics, The Doll Merchant, and Solo for Ginger. I'm also sad that the final adventure no longer exists because apparently it ended with Williams and Moon investigating a murder at a TV studio only to find it is the real TV studio in which they are playing fictional characters before both breaking character and the fourth wall, introducing themselves to the viewers by their real names and walking off. This is some wild go-ahead stuff for 1959.

After the series ended George Moon starred in a show called Skyport, still as Ginger Smart, where he was in charge of security in an airport. The remaining four episodes of Shadow Squad and the single remaining one of Skyport were released by Network DVD of blessed memory. If you don't want to splash out on physical media the episodes of Shadow Squad are on YouTube - several times in variable quality and don't be deceived by the hour-long episodes, which are just the single ones repeating themselves over and over and not in good quality.

The Missing Cheese is a later adventure starring Peter Williams and following the show's characteristic format of one adventure being divided across several (two in this case) half-hour episodes, which would originally have been broadcast on separate days split over a week. I'm not going to beat about the bush here: I love this one. It's all about a theft of cheese off the bar of a country pub called the Cheddar Cheese and the way this theft leads to a broader web of crime. Plot-wise it's a classic detective story, and if you're an Anglophile who likes Agatha Christie you will love it. It's also set in a village full of great characters. I love this show and am genuinely sorry that there isn't more of it.

It's not a criticism as such because I think it's great, but I think the format of one adventure split across two episodes could be confusing. Otherwise this is intelligent, quirky television. Exactly the sort of thing this blog exists for.

For overseas readers, have a taste of life in the UK:

This blog is mirrored at

culttvblog.tumblr.com/archive (from September 2023) and culttvblog.substack.com (from January 2023 and where you can subscribe by email)

Archives from 2013 to September 2023 may be found at culttvblog.blogspot.com and there is an index to the tags used on the Tumblr version at https://www.tumblr.com/culttvblog/729194158177370112/this-blog

[kwebtv]

Shadow Squad  -  ITV  -  June 17, 1957 -  June 24, 1959

Crime Drama (179 episodes)

Running Time:  30 minutes

Stars:

George Moon as Ginger Smart

Peter Williams as Don Carter

John Horsley as Supt. Whitelaw

Rex Garner as Vic Steele

Kathleen Boutall as Mrs. Moggs

[the-ethereal-demon]

Tw self harm, cutting

Me: So many picking tips focus on the movement of your hands and recommend picking or playing with other things but its not about the picking its about the feeling!

Wait do i pick for the same reason that some people cut

...

Kat: Cutting is not an alternative for picking!

Me: ...

Kat: Neither is lightly stabbing yourself!

Me: Lame-o :P

[sage-nebula]

Neat Lore Bits from 'The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog'

I just wanted to make a little list of everything I come across as I play through this little April Fool's Day game, because it's super cute and so much fun.

— Tails always carries Sparkle Gelatin as a snack whenever he travels. It's "a sparkly jelly that can melt any jaded heart."

— Sonic is world renowned, but not necessarily recognizable by the average person, even if the average person knows who he is and what he did.

— Amy is a huge fan of true crime podcasts.

— Once when Tails was at the grocery store, he slipped on some spilled juice because there wasn't a wet floor sign. Sonic caught him . . . but then also slipped on the juice because he was running too fast, and they both crashed into an elderly shopper's cart.

— Not lore per se, but both the detective and the journalist can't be the murderer or victim of the murder mystery, and got to hang out together for the hour before the game starts. Amy picked Tails to be the detective to her journalist, meaning she wanted to spend that time with him. Awww, Sunset Squad 4 Life 💖🧡

— Blaze prefers the birthday cake in Sonic's dimension to the cake in her own.

— Amy has multiple Piko Piko Hammers for different uses. She carries a lighter one when she thinks she won't need one for the day.

— Shadow is familiar with Super Monkey Ball, but can't get a very high score on it. Also, he signs high score boards as ULTIM (for Ultimate Life Form)

— Knuckles is not used to receiving compliments; they make him blush.

— Knuckles is a sore loser and breaks game cabinets when he can't get the highest score.

— Omochao is wanted for medical malpractice.

— Eggman has written a combined autobiography and recipe book.

— Tails claims to have never played in casinos and to not know how to play card games despite stating that he is banned from casinos for counting cards in Sonic Heroes. Either Sega has decided to retcon Tails' gambling habits, or Tails doesn't like to share his gambling habits with strangers.

— Amy's favorite band is Hot Honey, and Hot Honey band member Jeremy Bee is her current favorite musician.

— Shadow is not good with computers.

— Espio is fluent in 17 languages.

— Espio once speed-read a book just to spoil the ending for Knuckles.

— Sonic believes in the "salt over the shoulder" superstition.

— Sage the A.I. likes to play with robots.

— Shadow likes chocolate cake.

— Sage the A.I. and Metal Sonic have "let's go dad" t-shirts.

— Eggman has rubber ducks that look like himself and Sonic; they are the angry rubber duck and the happy rubber duck respectively.

[prokopetz]

I can just tell the author was chuckling to themselves the entire time they were composing this paragraph.

[kogglyuffs]

blud screams jevil n dimentio ost

[cottoncandysprite]

Season 6 Leak!!!!!! (template by @croxovergoddess)

[vodika-vibes]

Shadow Squad: The Forgotten Vod’e

So, here’s the first part of the Shadow Squad introduction. Once again, I don’t generally proof read, so any typos are going to stay, unless there’s something massively wrong. 

Tagging: @kiss-anon and @starrrgazingbunny

Please let me know if you want to be tagged in this, and please let me know what you think. Comments encourage me to keep writing, honestly.

Kamino, Commander’s Training Room

1100 hours

It was a normal day on Kamino. Normal, at least, for the vod’e who called Kamino home. They were awake at 0600 hours, and were showered and dressed no later than 0630. First meal was from 0630 until 0700, and then the vod’e had to split up into their groupings for that day’s training.

For the Command Squad #1, whose make up was of future Marshal Commanders, it meant a day of torture disguised as physical training. 

“Remember,” Ponds said, his voice low and hurried as he glanced to his left, where Riff was standing, where Riff was always standing, “They’re trying to goad us into acting. Do not let them.”

Riff glanced at his ori’vod, tension obvious around his eyes, “I know that, vod. I do. But I can’t not react.”

Ponds glanced away from Riff, making sure that the trainer hadn’t arrived yet, and he reached out to bump his forehead against Riff’s, “You’re so protective, Riff. But please, I’m begging you, don’t give them a reason to decommission you.”

I love you. I need you here. Please don’t leave me alone. I can’t shield our vod’ika from harm alone. Ponds tightened his grip against the back of Riff’s neck, and Riff closed his eyes, hearing, and understanding, the words that Ponds couldn’t say.

“I’ll do my best, Ponds. I promise.” Riff said, the words feeling like ash on his tongue.

Wolffe elbowed Riff’s back, alerting the older two that the trainers were about to arrive, so they separated and moved back into formation, standing at easy attention, just like they were trained. 

Their trainer was a large man, he was clearly not fully human, though any implication that he wasn’t fully human led to a beating that took ages to recover from. It was how Fox earned that scar over his nose.

“Cadets,” Somehow the trainer managed to make their rank sound like an insult, though it was an old insult that the Commanders no longer reacted to, “You are meant to be the best of the Clones. The strongest. The smartest. The first into battle and the last ones to fall.”

A cold, cruel, smile crossed his face. Riff wondered if he didn’t wear a helmet simply because he wanted the cadets to see just how much he loathed them, probably, he was the type. “CC-5052, front and center.” 

Bly, standing at the opposite end of the line of Ponds, stiffened subtly enough that only his vod’e noticed it. Which was a good thing. Any sign of fear or hesitance was grounds for punishment, and Bly had been largely protected from that by his older brothers.

Bly stepped forward before the trainer, and instinctively slipped into the starting stance for hand to hand combat. 

It wasn’t a fair fight.

Bly was unarmed and unarmored. The trainer was nearly 3 feet taller than him, almost 200 pounds heavier without the additional 80 pounds of armor he was wearing, and he had a metal staff that he was using against Bly.

It wasn’t a fair fight.

It wasn’t supposed to be.

Riff watched.

He watched as Bly fought and fought and fought.

He watched Bly get knocked down and get back up again. Time and time again.

He watched, even as the fire of rage burned in his chest.

He watched as Bly took the staff against his chest, and he crumpled, like a puppet without strings.

The rage in his chest burned like a wildfire.

But still. Riff watched.

“On your feet, Cadet.” The trainer looms menacingly over Bly, who was struggling to get back to his feet.

Bly collapses back to the ground. He’d been fighting for hours now. He was exhausted. He couldn’t get back up.

“I said. On your feet, cadet.” The trainer looks thrilled.

Bly struggles a little more to get to his feet, but he can’t. He’s done.

The trainer roughly kicks Bly onto his side, pulling a pained noise from the child. And then the trainer spins his staff, and brings it down on Bly’s arm.

There’s a sickening crack.

And a hoarse cry of pain.

And Riff sees red.

Riff is vaguely aware of Ponds and Wolffe trying to stop him, but that’s the last thing he remembers as he flings himself at the heavily armed and heavily armored man.

The next thing Riff remembers is standing over the body of the trainer. His arms are covered in blood, and he’s blinking blood out of his eyes. Bly is safely in the arms of Fox and Kote.

The trainer is dead.

The trainer is dead at his hands.

Ponds has a look of horror and understanding and delight all at the same time. 

What happened next happened too quickly for Riff to really understand. The door to the commander’s hall bursts open. Men in armor and scientists from Kamino hurry in. Riff is tackled to the ground and heavily sedated, and carried out of the room.

One of the Scientists stood before the remaining commanders, “Your training is over for the day,” He said in a dispassionate tone, “CC-1106 has proven to be too volatile for Military training. The subject is to be decommissioned immediately.”

And then he left.

Bly, held up by his brothers, collapsed in on himself. 

Word came across three days later that CC-1106, Riff, had been decommissioned. Commander Batch #1 never fully recovered from it.

**********************

However, Riff was still alive.

He had been separated from his batch, and carried through the stark white halls, and thrown into a cell with other vod’e who were also in various stages of drugged.

Several were younger than him, many were older.

Some had markings on their faces that hinted at Jango’s nonhuman heritage. Some were too small and frail looking. A handful were distinctly sisters. A few had missing limbs. One was clearly blind. 

They were kept sedated. Pacified.

Right up until the cell moved onto a cargo vessel. And the ship brought them to a separate facility. 

An underwater facility.

“Welcome to Shadow Training, Cadets.” The man was somehow twice as menacing as the trainer Riff killed was, and there was something slimy about him. “You are here, because you weren’t good enough for the proper military,” He sneered at the children, “But the Republic spent good money on you, so you’re going to get trained anyway.” Cold eyes swept across the dozen or so cadets, and he smiled, it wasn’t a nice smile. “Most of you are going to die here. In fact, I don’t expect to see any of you. But one of you might survive. I look forward to finding out.”

Riff was supposed to be a Commander. The first one in, the last one out, and the last one standing. 

And, as he watched his vod’e die around him. Some just giving up due to the harsh conditions, other dying at the hands of the trainers, and some of them dying at the hands of other vod’e, Riff came to a decision.

He was going to survive.

Not for the Republic. Fuck the Republic. But because some day he was going to come face to face with the asshole who allowed this to happen, and when that day happened, Riff was going to rip him to pieces.

Spite was as good a reason as any to survive, right?

**********************

Five Years Later

“Commander,” Grain saluted as he hurried to his Commander’s side, “The building has been cleared, but Xyn found something strange.”

“In what way?” Riff asked, as he turned to look at his right hand.

“Well. He found a Jedi.”

“...we’re in the Outer Rim. On a Seppie planet.” Riff said flatly.

“So glad that you’re keeping up the score card, boss.” Go called from several feet away, “Was starting to get worried that you had forgotten what was going on.”

Riff flicked a finger towards Go, who let out a loud laugh, before he jogged off to go and help Dorian with the Jedi. “What’s a Jedi doing here, Grain?”

“I asked him, he said he had been captured by one of Dooku’s acolytes.” Grain replied promptly. And then he hesitated, “Commander,”

“What is it?”

“Commander, the Jedi we rescued was Obi-Wan Kenobi. Of the 212.” Grain said slowly, “The 212 is currently in orbit, coming to rescue their General.”

Riff felt like he had been punched in the chest. While it was true, his batchmates thought he was dead, and he hadn’t been able to reach out to them, he was well aware of their achievements.

And Kote, wonderful Kote, was now Marshal Commander. Just like clever Fox.

And oh, how he longed to see his little brother again. 

Riff closed his eyes, and exhaled slowly, “Have Xyn send a message to the Negotiator, let them know that we rescued their General and have them send a shuttle to our ship.”

“...yes Commander.” Grain said quietly. He saluted one more time, and hurried over to where Xyn was perched on a crate with a datapad in his hand.

Riff, for his part, removed his helmet, and walked over to the Jedi, who was laying on hover bed, “You seem to have had a rough time, General Kenobi.”

The General smiled weakly, “To put it mildly. May I ask, with whom am I speaking?”

“Commander Riff,” He lightly set his helmet on the end of the bed, sure that the Jedi wasn’t going to kick it, if only because his leg was obviously broken, “My Squad was the one that rescued you.”

“Well, thank you Commander.” General Kenobi said quietly, “I rather thought I was going to die in there.”

“Well, your men are already in orbit, it’s just luck that we were already on planet.” Riff replied with a lazy shrug.

“No such thing as luck, Commander.”

“All due respect, the Force is your religion, not mine Sir.” Riff said.

Obi-Wan hummed, and focused his attention on Riff, “Huh. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a red-headed clone.”

“It’s common enough. Black and dark brown are the most common though,”

“Sir,” Grain walked over, “The shuttle from the Negotiator is on the way. They’re bringing their own medic, as well as several of their Arc Troopers and their Commander.”

“Thank you, Grain.” The other man nodded, and hurried over to Go, who was apparently injured and had hid it.

“Ah, it’ll be good to see them,” Obi-Wan admitted, “Though my medic is going to rip me a new one.”

“It’s not like you chose to be tortured, General.” Riff pointed out, “I’m sure your medic will only yell at you because he’s worried.”

“Perhaps,” Obi-Wan paused, “You don’t have to sit with me, Commander. I’m sure you have other things to do.”

Riff folded his arms, “I’ve been where you are, General. Sitting here, alone, with only your thoughts to keep you company is a good way for someone to start spiraling.”

Obi-Wan blinked in surprise, “I…well. Thank you, Commander.”

“What, has no one ever sat with you when you’ve been hurt before?” Riff asked.

“Not since I was a child,” Obi-Wan admitted honestly, “My Master wasn’t so good at caring for children. He found my emotions…messy. He could barely handle his own at times.”

“Huh. Well your master was a piece of shit, sir.”

“He’s also dead.”

“Death doesn’t absolve him of being a shit parent, General.”

Obi-Wan looked more amused than offended, “You’re much more forthright than your brothers who serve under me,” He said, sounding deeply amused.

“Yeah, well. That’s because I don’t actually give a fuck if I offend you.” Riff offered with a shrug. He turned when a shuttle approached, and landed not far from his own ship. “And your men have just arrived.”

The first off the ship was the medic, who made a beeline for General Kenobi. Riff grabbed his helmet and stood as the Medic hurried to his side. The next people off the ship were obvious Arc Troopers, who took stock of the situation, and then walked over to Go and Dorian to try and figure out where they were needed.

And the last off the shuttle was Kote.

Riff would recognize his vod’ika anywhere.

And it was obvious the moment Kote noticed him, because his steps faltered. And, instead of going to Obi-Wan, which was probably expected, he stalked right over to Riff and ripped his helmet off.

Kote looked…tired. And the scar over his eye was new. 

“Riff.” Kote sounded as tired as he looked, and for a moment, he looked like he was about to cry, “You’re alive.”

“Apparently spite is a hell of a motivator,” Riff offered dryly, before he reached out and lightly tapped the scar over his eye, “This is new.”

“I headbutted a droid about a month after you…were taken away.” Kote offered sheepishly.

“Dumb.”

“I was a kid.”

“You know better than to headbutt a droid, Kote. Our helmets aren’t beskar.”

“...you sound like Ponds.” Kote said quietly, though a small smile crossed his face.

“Good.” Riff smiled at him, and he lightly dropped his hand to Kote’s shoulder, “You’ve gotten so big, vod’ika.”

“Yeah. So did you.” And there were the tears. Kote had always been something of a crybaby around his older brothers, it was nice to see that that hadn’t changed. 

“Come on, baby brother. There’s no need for that.” Riff teased, as he lightly pulled Kote in for a hug, “We’re both alive, which is a fucking miracle at this point.

“I have to tell the others, Bly took your disappearance…hard. He blamed himself.”

“I never blamed Bly. Did he recover alright?”

“His arm aches when it’s going to rain, but he won’t tell anyone other than us about it,” Kote admitted, as he pulled out his holo, snapped a picture of Riff, and sent it to the Command Chat.

The comm was silent for a moment, and then exploded as messages and calls started coming in almost immediately. “What did you tell them?” Riff asked.

“Not a thing, I just sent your picture.” Kote read the messages, and declined the calls, which led to even more messages, “You’re coming back to Coruscant.” It wasn’t a question.

Riff rubbed the back of his neck, “Yeah. Alright. I suppose it’s time we showed our face in the core.” And then he smiled, and lightly bumped his forehead against Kote’s, “I’m so proud of you, you know that? I’ve been keeping an eye on all of you, what you’ve done and accomplished. And I’m so, so proud.”

The tears returned, “Fuck you, making me cry in front of my men.”

“You’ve always been a crybaby, baby brother.”

“I’m riding on your ship when we go back to Coruscant. I’m not letting you get away without seeing the others. Bly is going to cry. Ponds probably will too. He missed you so much.”

“Then you better go tell your Jedi that I’m not kidnapping you.”

Kote laughed, and pulled away to jog over to the hover bed. He still looked exhausted, but he also seemed much lighter than he was when he got off the shuttle.

Riff smiled at his back, and pulled his helmet back on, before he turned to see what Go was doing, sure that his troublemaker was causing problems for the other Arc Troopers now on planet with them.

[bluegamercatlady]

Had a go at the 'Draw your comfort characters like this' meme. I drew my boys, Sonic, Shadow and Silver. Love these sweethearts. Hopefully, I'll be doing a lot more art in the future. Still have been struggling with artist block.

[starry-bi-sky]

I am absolutely loving your Danyal Al Ghul au. While I have a soft spot for the whole plotline of Danny becoming his canon personality almost right after breaking away from the LOA all because of Jazz, I'm just as much for your take in which he goes through the same character development as Damian.

Now I'm curious. You already tackled his relationship with Dani, will you eventually take a stab at when he, Sam, and Tucker meet Gregor? Given that it's one of my hated episodes as I couldn't stand Sam's infuriatingly hypocritical attitude to Danny's suspicions of him, I'd kill to see your spin on it.

Aw, thank you! Danyal Al Ghul aus are what got me into DPDC first, so I have a major soft spot for them. That being said, uh, its exactly that soft spot that causes me to have Many Opinions about the trope you just mentioned. Like the trope is all fine and dandy, i don't blindly hate it, my main issue with it is that most aus i've seen treat his backstory as an ex-assassin more like a pretty cosmetic accessory rather than something that actually should have had an impact on him. Especially if he remembers being in the league.

Like i cannot stress enough the fact that being in an ecofascist assassin cult (regardless of his standing in it) should've left him, in some way or another, screwed up morally and psychologically because that's just how development works. Nature vs. Nurture is like a game of tug-o-war that never ends, where they are constantly fighting against each other and one side usually has the upper hand or greater influence. Children model the behaviors of the adults around them (ex: bobo the clown doll experiment), and what impacts them in childhood can stick with them permanently.

Like how my psychology professor put it: a baby's brain is like wet cement; if you slap your hand on it, it leaves an imprint, and the cement dries that way. The same rings true for small children.

I could go on, but I frankly have so many thoughts on that alone that I would end up completely derailing from the second half of your ask, and I don't want to be more critical than I already have. Especially since you just mentioned you have a soft spot for the trope.

[Okay, hold onto your hats because this is long. Naturally lmao.]

Gregor! Man, I'll admit I last watched the show back in middle school on a dodgy illegal website (it had surprisingly good audio and visual graphics, and full episodes. But really annoying porn ads.) but I only made it to like season 1 before my hyperfixation faded and I lost interest. So I never actually saw the Gregor episode.

But... it is relatively easy to find free websites that stream Danny Phantom :), so finding the episode took me like. Thirty seconds. Plus the Tv.Tropes recap page because my damn earbuds just died and im out in public as of rn.

I'm not sure if I'll write something for the gregor episode like I did with Dani, since Dani's a bit of a special case in that she's a clone and tends to be a reoccurring presence in DPDC, and I thought the new dynamic with Danyal would be interesting.

Plus, I'm not a big amethyst ocean shipper for the pure reason of I'm just not all that interested in it; its kinda bland to me. I'll admit I've entertained the thought in this au due to the whole balcony scene i wrote, but I would've entertained the thought anyways if it was Tucker in that position instead. Big multishipper, me.

But, if I had to make it official? Danyal is not interested romantically in Sam when the Gregor episode happens, regardless of his relationship with Valerie. Who, speaking of I'm trying to think about how that would go, and I'm torn between including him almost-dating Valerie or not.

Because on one hand it helps point out Sam's hypocrisy (and i love her but i am always happy to point out her flaws and address them in au) in this episode in terms of Danny spying on them, but on the other hand I'll want to include a lot of set up in order to make Gray Ghost work in this au and wow will that take a while.

Especially with the Flirting with Disaster episode because it happens due to Technus' meddling, and Danny is, well, the son of the Batman? A trained assassin? An ex-assassin nonetheless, but still an assassin? A prodigy child in this au? He might not have needed to use most of his skills in the last few years, but like... there's just a bunch of 'what if' and 'well technically...' and 'would he? he could, but would he?' things that is getting in the way of my thought process and making my head spin.

.

Mmm. Okay. Flirting with Disaster occurs relatively the same as canon with a few exceptions; like Danyal noticing the strange coincidences, and he might take the idea into proper consideration because Sam has a point it is strange, especially out of nowhere.

However,,, he really enjoys Valerie's company, and he does really like her. He's been adjusting to civilian life for the last four years and while he's made a lot of progress, he's still. an ex-assassin child living like a wolf amongst sheep. This is normal, typical teenager stuff, and usually his friends like to encourage him doing normal teenager stuff.

So he's stubbornly holding out on the thought that this is normal, that ghost stuff isn't interfering here. He's a little hurt that his friends are discouraging this, he's not bothered by the fact that Valerie is a ghost hunter and he a ghost -- his mother is an assassin, and his father is Batman, and they still had a relationship. (Granted, he's not gonna tell them that)

If anything, being diametrically opposed to each other but still being in love is part of the family! Granted, usually both parties are aware of said opposition to each other, but he'll make a special exception this time around.

(And man now that i'm thinking about gray ghost, im now thinking about various like. scenes i could write between the two of them. maybe in a reblog.)

Anyways uhhh things relatively go the same as canon. Yeah. I think Sam still has a crush on Danny and still spies out of jealousy with Tucker.

.

Now, the Gregor episode! With that out of the way; the TVTropes recap for this episode isn't the best because it doesn't go into detail about the entire episode like it does with Flirting With Disaster and Shades of Gray.

(which i looked at earlier because I made a section of this post talking briefly about what changes I'd make to the Shades of Gray episode to help set up Gray Ghost, but ended up deleting because it was kinda irrelevant for the matter at hand.)

So I'm taking in bits of the episode clips at a time, I'll try not to get too nitpicky about how each scene goes because then it's gonna take me a longer time to write this.

But! First thing's first; since Danny is not romantically interested in Sam, he is also not jealous of Gregor. He is however, a bit eyebrow-raisey at him in their first introduction, but that's because Gregor is coming off as obnoxious.

Danny thinks he's kinda annoying, and it doesn't take a genius to see that Gregor is trying to impress Sam. But since they've only known him for five minutes he takes the good faith assumption and assumes that Gregor is genuinely trying to show interest in Sam's interests too because he likes her, so he keeps mum. The fake hungarian accent is weird, but it's overall harmless, so he doesn't point it out.

He does do the spying thing when he starts suspecting that Gregor might be working for the GIW. The episode only has this happen twice, but for the au this happens a handful of more times over the course of the week, with Danyal's suspicion steadily rising more and more each time.

Hah, when he brings up wanting to spy on Sam and Gregor because of this reason, Tucker still does his "woah! you wanna spy on Sam?" thing.

Danny immediately turns to him, completely unimpressed, and crosses his arms. "Tucker," he says, deadpan, "you and Sam spied on me and Valerie."

He uses a combination of his ghost powers and his regular stealth ability to spy on them. He's hiding in a tree when they're skipping rocks, close enough that he can use his powers to hear them talk but far enough away that he has a good view of their surroundings.

He's invisible in the cinema, but doesn't accidentally get in front of the projector. He checks the inside of the room for the GIW, and then waits outside the actual room itself, keeping an eye on the area and occasionally flying in to watch the movie out of boredom. It reminds him of being back on a recon mission with the League, but it doesn't end with him orchestrating someone's death.

Then when they're at the mall he stays in human form, blending in with the crowd. He runs into the GIW there, but realizes that they're not there because of Gregor; they're just shopping. They didn't show up at either of the last two locations, and he follows them to make sure they're not also trying to blend in. But they're literally just there for shopping.

Danny is rather pleased with this turnout; so far Gregor isn't a spy, he's just annoying. The next day at lunch he asks Sam how her date with Gregor went, and that's how she figures out he spied on them, because well, she didn't tell him that.

"Have you been spying on me?"

Danny messes with his food a little bit, and Tucker is sinking into his seat with embarrassment. He frowns, "Only last night. Those incompetent government dodos--"

His lip curls up; he gets all 'Shakespeare-y' (as Sam and Tucker put it) when he's insulting someone, "--kept appearing whenever Gregor did. I followed you and him last night to make sure he wasn't a spy."

A roundabout way of saying, "I was worried".

Sam is, as canon, furious. Danny understands why, he knows generally speaking that people don't like being spied on. But he's confused on just how angry she is, and is a little irritated by it.

"Why would you do that!" She exclaims, "That's way out of line, Danny."

"How? You spied on me when I was going on dates with Valerie." He narrows his eyes, and points his fork at her, "I'm not blind, I noticed."

"That's different, we told you why we were suspicious. And we don't have ghost powers like you do."

"I don't need ghost powers to sneak around, Sam, you've seen this firsthand. And I just told you why I followed you, I thought he was working with the guys in white--"

"So you think someone can only be interested in me if they're after you?" (this is a paraphrased quote, folks ;D)

"No! If that was the case I would have voiced my concern the moment I thought it. I don't get why you're so angry, you spied too."

Iiits.... a mess. Sam storms off with Gregor, Tucker tags along because okay, yeah, maybe Gregor isn't with the GIW, or maybe last night was a fluke. Either way he ends up tagging along. Danny overhears that conversation between the GIW and Mr. Lancer, and maybe he's right, maybe he's wrong; but something is up.

I've gotten to that scene in the locker room where Gregor tells Danny that he knows he doesn't like him, and I've paused at Danny's reply to say this: Danyal doesn't even bother trying to deny it.

"I know you do not like me."

"You're right; I don't."

"Ah, let me finish. I know you do not like me because you want to protect your friend, Sam, and I respect that."

"...That's correct."

"Good! Because I am going to ask her out."

"I had a feeling you'd say that," he stands up, claps his hand tight on Gregor's shoulder, and leans close to him with a threatening smile, "so you understand me when i say; if you break my best friend's heart, you're as good as dead, right?"

"Ah,, yes. I am so glad we got that cleared out of the way, and now I hope after we can.. how you Americans put it, hang out?"

In the episode he hugs Danny and gives him a la bise (which is that french greeting where you kiss someone on the cheek two or more times) after they end their conversation. But here, when he goes to do that to Danyal, Danny leans away, points an accusatory finger at him, and says; "Absolutely not; we are not close."

The next scene after that is like, end of day. Sam, Tucker, and Gregor walking away. Sam looks over her shoulder to glare at Danny, then gets forlorn. Tucker looks back and just looks forlorn.

(When did I start narrating each scene?? Eh, I'm writing this in brief spurts of time throughout the day. Don't fix what's not broke)

After that there's this whole scene with the two GIW agents that have been chasing Phantom all episode. They're there because they have Tucker's PDA that Skulker took, and it's got the information of their purple backed gorilla assignment on it. They've been going around seeing who Tucker associates with in hopes of catching Phantom.

Uhh ahaha and that is where this gets a little interesting imo, and also allows me to mention that im retconning Danyal's (already) redesigned ghost form. Which I've wanted to retcon even before this moment bc it was just too busy. I'll get to that in a moment.

The GIW suspect Gregor for being the Phantom because of his white hair and green eyes, which is all fine and dandy until you remember: Danyal (and by extension Phantom) has that very noticeable, rather identifiable facial scar that goes across the middle of his fucking face. The GIW could easily suspect that Phantom hides his scar with makeup if he's in disguise, but if they meet a kid with a seemingly identical facial scar and similar disposition? Hoo boy.

Solution? I've got two: Gregor is canonically a kid from Michigan who faked everything to impress Sam. Considering he knows she's gothic and knows that she's ultra-recyclo vegetarian? He probably watched her from afar or got information on her somehow. His hair is dyed, his eyes might just naturally be green, but if he notices that she's got a crush on either Danyal or Phantom? A little sfx makeup could help him recreate a similar looking scar.

My second solution that's gonna happen anyways bc its that suit redesign; Danyal does hide his face as Phantom. Ghosts are emotional creatures and its a popular headcanon that their interests, ambitions, etc, influence the way they look as a ghost, not just their death. A big reoccurring theme of my au is that Danyal did not leave the League unscathed, and that being an assassin is an important part of his identity.

So i'm discarding the hazmat suit look entirely and leaning into the 'assassin' thing. But the general (stylized) feel is like, white ribbon/cloth vambraces that he has used as a garrote at some point, a hood, a gaiter scarf-type thing. I'm keeping the cape. I did a doodle a few days back that's not the official redesign, but a redesign for Phantom. I may reblog this post with that attached because it's got the general feel down. There's very little white involved, but the inside of his cape flares out and looks like the night sky.

Now, the hood and gaiter scarf gets rid of most of the problem, but Danny's hood doesn't stay on all the time, so the GIW have likely seen the upper half of the scar. :] Gregor's own drawn-on scar doesn't have to be 1:1, but it looks close enough, right? A small scar cutting through the edge of his brow and ends right below the corner of his eye. A 'cool, badass' one opposed to Danny's 'garish' scar.

But! Back to the episode scene. Canon Danny gets written off as being 'too prepubescent' to be Phantom, and honestly it'd be hilarious if Danyal was written off for the same reason (he's calling them idiots in his head if they do). But instead -- leaning into the GIW's incompetence here -- he gets written off as being too mature or too talkative. Or something equally as absurd.

Sam breaks up with Gregor for canon reasons, but when Gregor does his "i really like you, but, come on-!" and gestures to tucker, he adds on "and that scary friend of yours too, seriously!"

Things go relatively the same as canon after that. Danny does end up apologizing for spying, however. Sam does it first. Sorrows, prayers, all that.

.

Things usually end up changed or different when I actually write it down, so I'd likely add more or adjust different scenes according to the flow of the oneshot. This is just like, a general vibe of how things would go, and where some of the more obvious changes would be if I did write this oneshot.

Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for the ask :]

[the-ethereal-demon]

It feels dumb to say that Turning Red makes me cry but its because it is exactly what I'm hoping to achieve with my mom. But I also think its something im slowly achieving in myself. I accept myself as I am and I know that im not a monster anymore. Just because im loud and vibrant and messy doesnt mean that theres something wrong with me

[bg3-dyes]

Hahaha im not sure where else to put it but since you're the dye expert for BG3 i feel like you might share a similar sentiment

isnt it frustrating how so many of the items, you due them, lets say you dye them blue and it turns out yellow with like a blue element??

that being said, you are doing the gods work and helping us avoid such surprises AND help us find hidden color themes hidden under a different name, thank you!

YUP 😭 pretty sure everyone here shares the same sentiment lol, imo deep lilac (aka ORANGE) and sea green (VERY BLUE) are the worst offenders.

but like at this point I would rather they not change it because imagine if we had to redo/edit all of these charts 🫠