#the Observants

[ovytia-art]

Ectoberhaunt day 6: Tabletop

Everyone can thank @jackdaw-sprite for the Danny throwing a toaster addition XD

[dragonofthedepths]

Do Onto Others 6.2.23

DP x DC. Danny Phantom, Clockwork, Wonder Woman. Clockwork is Kronos.

There was, very suddenly, a distinct presence in the Watchtower, filling the air with an overwhelming sense of power and death-

"Hello granddaughter."

-and everyone jumped.

A large glowing humanoid figure in a purple cloak was standing where there hadn't been anyone before, staring directly at Wonder Woman. He lifted up a smaller figure, a brightly glowing teen in a hazmat suit, by the back of the neck like a cat.

"His will is currently bound to mine through an ancient spell, and it would better if we were not around eachother while I work on breaking it." He set the boy down. "Watch him for a while."

the larger figure vanished into thin air.

Only half the presence disappeared.

The teen grinned up at them from the ground. "Hi!"

The Observants bound Clockwork to their will long ago, manipulating his Obsession to align with their nature and casting a powerful loyalty spell. They could not bind Danny the same way, but they could force Clockwork to do so. There was a distinct short-sightedness to this daisy-chain line of thinking though, especially given that Danny’s Obsession is protecting people.

His loyalty was to Clockwork, not them, and he thought his mentor would be a lot better off without the Observants hanging over him. It didn't take him very long at all break Clockwork free.

Now Clockwork just needs a bit of time to return the favor (and blow up the Observants).

So he drops Danny off with Diana for babysitting. 

Day (616/100) in my #∞daysofwriting @the-wip-project 6th of Feb

[fangirlingpuggle]

Can’t sleep so have another Danny Phantom AU/fic prompt idea.

Danny having to deal with a large team up of a lot of ghosts most of the rouges and is a bit too tired and distracted as he’s telling them to ‘head back to the ghost zone cause they can’t all fit in the thermos and he’s not making like 10 trips’ and he’s just too distracted to notice Jack and Maddie line up a shot and actually hit him.

Danny getting hit right in the chest blast cutting right through him shocking him and all the ghosts, Danny’s body flickering between alive and dead as shock settles in. The ghosts collectively freaking out and trying to get Danny out of there because they don’t want the kid DEAD dead.

Clockwork showing up stopping time and taking Danny to the ghost zone, also making sure all the other ghosts get out of there.

Jack and Maddie having zero idea that they’ve attacked Danny just confused at how the ghost boy got away.

Danny being in the GZ healing as CW and other powerful ghosts start making it so humans can’t go through the ghost portals because yeah don’t trust them right now CW clearly saw some bad potential futures of how that could have gone and has decided to take no chances, the other ancients are kinda scared to ask how bad the future were because even the observants aren’t arguing with CW.

Though they’re not sure if this because the Observants agree with CW or because Danny is technically ghost king or will be when he comes of age in like a few centuries, technically CW is acting as regent but because GZ needs to actually get organized he realizes Pariah and he acts regent til Danny comes of age.

Pariah and Pandora having to actively restrained from going to human world for murder reasons....them also having to stop some of Danny usual rouges gallery who have got pretty protective over the kid.

When Danny wakes up, he is very confused…. He can’t completely remember what happened but apparently he’s been ghost adopted by CW and Pariah…and now has a horde of ghosts who are acting more like babysitters than his villains…

Bonus: Danny mentions Dani after he wakes up. The GIW who have cornered Dani are super shocked when a tear in reality opens the ancients step out Pariah picks up the girl says ‘Do not speak to me or my child ever again and then leaves through same portal that disappears.

[dannyphannypack]

i just think it would be funny if, upon danny’s coronation, he immediately relinquished his kingship to his biological clone, danielle. or, alternatively:

“I read all 6,000 pages of your stupid ghost law,” Danny retorted, pointing an accusing finger at the glowering eyeball, “and nowhere did it forbid me to relinquish partial duty to clones, created now or in the future.”

“Because it’s unprecedented!” the Observant screeched, green veins crawling forward from its severed optic nerves.

Danny waved a dismissive right hand, using his left to wrap around Danielle’s shoulders. “Unprecedented? In all of time and space? Clockwork, can you confirm this?”

“I cannot,” his advisor responded. “No actions are impossibilities in the infinite expanse of the multiverse.”

“Then it’s settled!” Danny shouted, clapping once in finality. “Danielle shall act as Queen in my place, and the powers of the sacred Ring shall be hers to control.”

Twin grins appeared on the young royal’s faces, feral and toothy. This was going to be fun.

[long-live-astronerd-ghost-king]

Danny: Hey Dick, I heard that the dinosaur in the cave is your job. It's cool. but you know what could be even cooler?

Dick: I'm listening.

Danny: I know the guy who can help us get a live specimen.

Dick: Are you sure?

Danny: Absolutely. He thinks I'm an angel and even collects versions of me from different timelines. Follow me.

~~~

Clockwork: No, Danny, I won't let you do the time jump to steal a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Danny: Pretty please!

Clockwork glances down at the stack of paperwork this which The Observants force him to deal with.

Clockwork: You know what, yeah, let's do it. And take a couple, I want to give to some blob ghosts a 5D view of the new Jurassic Park.

Nightwing: It worked?

[scribbiesan]

THIS BITCH FINISHED -

YEET

Holy fuck it’s done. Took me far longer than I was expecting, and there was more research I had to do than I thought, but it’s done!! :,D

I wanted to take a stab at designing a blob ghost, bc I’ve seen folks describe them as very jelly-like, or like putty, so I went with the jelly. I really like how they came out!

Anywho, here’s the finished piece! I had fun making this one, even with life getting in the way.

Please enjoy!

~Toodles!

[home-of-renn]

The Observants lack depth perception. They're estranged from human emotion and are partially responsible for overseeing the continuation of the time stream. They view everything as being very black-and-white, whereas Clockwork sees all the different shades of grey.

CW never actually foresaw Danny or his accident.

Ghostly Obsessions are tied to a ghost's soul/core and CW is an extension of the universe. He's always had this sense of anticipation that was always there but only become aware of it as time went on. He kinda had to shield the other Ancients and their conceptions but he never had to actually hide them like he did with Danny. He had to completely turn his face and focus his gaze elsewhere, and as the time of Danny's accident came closer he started to sense things rather than see them - kinda like a spider sitting in the middle of its web. While CW can see the future and all these possibilities and realities, he's literally a chunk of the universe and his powers aren't limited to just his sight. CW's feelings of protectiveness could be attributed to his Obsession or the fact that he's a sentient piece of the universe - the universe that brought about Danny's half-dead existence in the first place.

The matter of CW's free will is a little messy. He's sentient and has his own feeling and thoughts and can make his own decisions, but he's ruled by his Obsession and by extension the universe itself. His Obsession has more influence over him when compared to other ghosts, but that could also be because CW is way more aware of his Obsession and how it affects him. It's hard to tell where his Obsession ends and where it begins cause he's pretty much a reflection of the universe. He doesn't really follow the same rules as the other ghosts cause he isn't even a ghost to begin with - he's essentially whatever the universe needs him to be. Which he is very much at peace with.

The same way no one will ever be able to truly understand the state of the universe or the universe itself - CW is very much vast and unknowable.

As for Danny being an Ancient - what he represents is very complicated and hard to put into words (which is why CW and he are so much alike).

First off - all the other Ancients became Ancients after they died (not counting Life and Death, who - before Danny - were the beings most similar to CW and his existence). Danny died but is also still very much alive - which confuses the heck out of everyone who isn't CW. In a way, he is, but also isn't, an Ancient - much like CW. Danny (the ancient) was created from the portal - AKA the tear between life and death. An Ancient is created from the creation of a concept/idea/something important, and their creation essentially solidifies whatever concept they represent, in the universe. An Ancient brings about the creation of their concept - but the creation of their concept also beckons them - the Ancient - into being. It's kinda like a - which came first; the chicken or the egg? - kinda situation.

Everyone across the realms of the dead heard him scream - which is why so many powerful ghosts keep hanging around near the portal since a lot of the weaker ghosts got scared off and the stronger ones wanted to check it out. A Ghostly Wail is the last scream of a person before they die and only spirits that had truly horrifying deaths/lives have one. So it's safe to say that if someone's scream was loud enough to reach all corners of the realms (and they aren't even dead yet) then that means that something truly history-changing just happened.

Danny was created in order to stabilise the portal - which is the simplest most fundamental/naive way to explain it. Life and Death aren't meant to have a middle ground but Danny has created/become that middle ground as consequence of the tear between worlds. The portal didn't open up with Danny inside it - the portal opened up inside of Danny. It split his soul almost in two (his two halves are kinda holding onto each other by a few threads) and stabilised the bridge between the two realms. Danny is the middle ground.

He's also a lot more than that. He also encompasses the after-effects of the portal being created. Image what would happen IRL if ghosts, spirits and 'life after death' was confirmed. How many religions and beliefs would be reinforced or disproven? How many new fears and hopes would be born from it? He isn't necessarily the Ancient of balance - he is way more than that. He encompasses the shift and change that is required for balance to exist in the first place. Balance is hella fragile and can never truly be achieved and that is what Danny represents. Yes, he does try to keep the balance and the peace between the two realms - but he was born from that need for balance - those fleeting sensations that you can never quite hold onto before they disappear. But the thing is - all Ancients are created to keep the balance.

He's the Ancient of the not-quite-small things and the not-quite-big things. He's the dichotomy of everything and nothing and his existence is too vast to be truly put into words. He represents the clashing of two things that aren't meant to be. Which makes him the only being in existence that could truly be compared to CW.

CW encompasses the universe and everything that ties into the timelines - while Danny encompasses everything that exists within the timelines and everything that ties into the universe.

[dnpanimationstudioclone]

Meet The Observants👁️

     Meet my take on the mysterious watchers of the infinite plains and realms, The Observants👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️

Even when you’re not observing them, they’re always observing you👁️

What do u think? I’d love to know💖

[jamiethebeeart]

Day 9: Ghost Zone

[elithemiar-blog]

The Observants send Danny on a bounty hunt.

Target: Damian Wayne, Heir of the League of Assassins.

Why: The LOA keep killing those with extreme obsessions that follow them into the afterlife.

Side Quest: Find and remove the contaminated ectoplasm from those that still remain alive.

Those that pass with the rancid ectoplasm in their veins will exist being lead by their anger, and only their anger. They will no longer abide by logic nor other emotions. The Observants don't want to deal with that.

[ovytia-art]

I had to do at least one little baby man this month. For the prompt “Monster” ;)

DannyMay Masterlist

[dragonofthedepths]

Higher Power 3.2.23

DP x DC. Danny Phantom, Clockwork, Justice League, Clockwork is Kronos.

Someone summons Clockwork/Kronos, basically a summoning a demon type deal except with a god. Whatever members of the Justice League were here to try to stop this guy start to panic, because they were not supposed to let this guy succeed, if he manages to bargain power out of Kronos it is going to be bad, but Clockwork just;

"I call upon a higher power to speak in my place."

And suddenly there’s a floating teenager with white hair?

Bonus: Clockwork is gonna get in trouble for this. It's against whatever rules the Observants have him obeying for him to 'act under the name Kronos', and this was technically in violation of that. The Observants don't care that he was literally summoned against his will they're going to punish him for it anyway.

Day (614/100) in my #∞daysofwriting @the-wip-project 4th of Feb

[fangirlingpuggle]

Ok proper AU idea/thoughts on my idea of Danny being a reborn version of Pariah and Clockworks kid. (Link here)

No one knows that Danny is a reborn version of their kid (At least except the Observants who don’t want to tell anyone and were freaking the fuck out with TUE thing because OH this kid’s gonna be Pariah 2.0 AND WE DON’T HAVE ANOTHER SARCOPHAGUS! FUCKKK!GET CLOCKWORK TO CONTROL HIS KID) Clockwork and Pariah’s kid was young when they got killed/died and so they had no idea what he’d look like.

Clockwork is fond of Danny doesn’t know exactly why...maybe because he reminds him or a younger Pariah, but he’s protective over him. Pariah of course had zero idea with everything.

It’s actually due to Vlad that everyone finds out. Vlad finds out that ghosts and their children have bonds and he goes ‘ah well if I cause Daniel’s core to activate it will bond with me as only other half ghost’ and so finds a way to activate Danny’s core...only it doesn’t link to him, it links to Clockwork who drops his staff and is suddenly realising everything that his kid is alive... and it links to a closed Sarcophagus that suddenly starts shaking.

Danny’s not sure what Vlad was trying to do but guess he failed he doesn’t feel anything really...

He has no idea that the ghost zone is in chaos...and the Observants are trying to run away to a different plan of existence before anyone figures out they knew.

[lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks]

last night's shower thought that may or may not have been done before but I haven't personally seen it done so I'm gonna write it anyway

so the phandom has dabbled in halfas potentially existing before Danny and Vlad, in the hypothetical million to one chance of 'what if a natural portal opened on top of a human'

gonna take a hard left turn here but we'll circle back I promise, that part will be important later

I love the unreliable narrator aspect of Vlad in TUE but what if Vlad's story about how Dan came to be was completely true, Danny's ghost half really did go absolutely feral as soon as it was torn from him

because even though Vlad says it was his ghost half that corrupted Phantom, in the flashback it was obvious that Phantom had already gone a little wonky before that, considering the acts of actually ripping out Vlad's ghost half and then absorbing it, very weird and out of character

(and I have other headcanons about that but we're ignoring those for now shh)

so the first time Danny was split, it split two of his personality traits that were both dominant at the time, his need to be a hero and protect people, and his need to be a normal teenager just enjoying life

after his family died in TUE tho, his dominant traits would have been more like misery, guilt, and anger, we can guess which one Phantom got

same thing probably happened to Vlad when he was split but we didn't get enough time with future Vlad to get a clear idea on what his dominant traits were, (but I'm gonna guess they were something akin to guilt and spite, spite having been absorbed by Danny and making his whole situation so much worse)

all this to say, what if Pariah Dark was the first known halfa, created by that million to one chance with a natural portal back in the dark ages (or earlier), and he was once, much like Danny, a protector, a hero, keeping a peace between humans and ghosts, whether he also fought a tyrant king for his crown, or was gifted the position by the former king wanted to retire (I kinda like this idea better), he became the ghost king with the support of the ghost populace

but I wanna touch in on the aus people throw around where to become the actual rightful king, Danny has to die

and maybe this is what happened to Pariah Dark, and maybe it was not a 100% consensual affair, maybe the Observants, whether sneakily or by force, somehow managed to separate Pariah from his human half

and in that moment, one of his dominant traits was rage

betrayal by ones he trusted, half of himself stolen from him, his fury was overwhelming, and it was what consumed his ghost half, and began his reign as a tyrant, his human half, whether deliberately or accidental, was killed in the process

this is why the Observants wanted Danny dealt with in TUE, they were seeing history repeating, they didn't care that Clockwork saw an alternate future because they didn't want that alternate future, TUE happened after Reign Storm, they were clinging onto the one excuse they had to get rid of this new halfa before he realised he had a claim to the throne and became the next Pariah Dark

they knew Danny was just as attached to his human half as Pariah was, and they'd seen evidence of that already in Dan, they couldn't have a king who was part human, and they couldn't take his human half from him without dire consequences

so of course their solution was just make him go away

see! in this one particular future he becomes a monster just like we said he would, Clockwork go destroy him, problem solved, good job everybody!

when Danny finds out about all this and presses them on why he has to be a full ghost to rule, assuming it's some mystic law that cannot physically be broken, the Observants are just like

"oh... uh no, technically it's physically possible, it's just... well, it's against tradition"

cue a Danny blowing up

"YOU CAUSED THE ENTIRE PARIAH DARK MESS OVER FUCKING TRADITION?"

"well it would be have been quite embarrassing having someone half alive ruling over the dead"

Danny has to be physically wrangled out of the room by Clockwork before he brings the whole fucking building down

it's completely absurd but the Observants just really feel like the kind of assholes who would stick so rigorously to that kinda shit despite all logic and reason telling them not to

[mutable-manifestation]

The Heart of the Matter Ch. 3 (Part 5)

Parts 1-3, Part 4

@kyrianclawraith, @jesimilu, @bleuyellow93, @ocearnawrites, @undead-essence, @violet-catsarelife, @sunsetdew0101, @tsukihimeyfan, @the-legal-shipper @spideypoolalways

***

It doesn’t take long for the Oan to figure out what the power source of their rings truly is.

Three cores fade out in a matter of weeks, and when a fourth is removed from its place for study it blooms into a screaming, fragile ghost that manages to wreck half of the lab before an Observant can be called in to advise.

Instead of advising, the Oan watch as their ally drives a hand into the smaller ghost’s chest and rips out the power source, causing the body to dissolve.

A stasis array on the box they’d been gifted to store the extras in, they tell them, and the energy flow of the rings naturally kept the cores from re-forming.

The only way to safely move them is in the context of some energy drain array or to have an Observant do it. Corrupt as they are, their own self-interest will not permit experiments on cores.

The Oan accept this, unwilling to push their luck and risk losing the energy source completely.

They ask after the odds of this coming back to bite them in the form of vengeful ghosts or ghost relatives.

That is all they care about.

What is the suffering of a few thousands souls when weighed against the greater good of the universe?

(What are a few screaming monsters when weighed against the living? Courteous as they might be with the Observants, it is only as much as is required for their alliance’s stability. The terror of Pariah Dark taints their vaunted objectivity even millennia down the line, and their cold calculations burn out any kindness that might have remained.)

The Observants assure them that those brought to them for their project will not be missed, and that is all they need to know.

They accept this and move on with their testing.

-----------

Weeks of energy is much better than the 0 seconds they were managing before, but it certainly isn’t ideal - even with the occasional new source or two.

The Oan are informed of the need for ghosts to ‘recharge,’ so to speak - with either ectoplasm or obsessions.

Obsessions are a temporary measure; a ghost can only sustain itself for so long without fresh ecto.

Sustaining itself and powering a ring without it?

Impossible.

Obsessions could, however, cut down the amount of energy needed when a ring is not in use.

The solution is workable enough: simply choose a human who can satisfy the ring’s obsession while doing their job.

This is easier said than done - not all ghosts can be satisfied by fighting and saving.

But Green Lanterns have lives of their own - perhaps well-aligned hobbies could fill in the blanks?

Still, the Observants don’t know everything, despite their positions, and not all of the orbs’ obsessions are known. Not to mention the difficulty that manual matching would present.

Instead, they decide to allow the rings just enough freedom to choose a wielder.

A careful selection of acceptable parameters and the first rings fly away, seeking the first true Green Lanterns for the Oan to train, to mold.

The cores that remain unable to become power rings are either placed in reserve or - for the ones whose obsessions are known to be incompatible with the Green Lanterns’ mission - used in forming the second, active power source: the central power battery.

While natural portals have begun to appear more frequently in the absence of a High King, they close just as quickly.

The Oan do not wish to open a doorway, to risk letting something through - their collective memory scarred as it is by their kind’s first venture into the realm.

Instead, they form a leak.

An ectoplasm-tight container is formed around the inter-dimensional equivalent of a sieve, incompatible cores line the inside of the wall, and a mobile second layer separates the cores from the leak itself.

New ghosts can arise from simple concentrations of ectoplasm charged with enough ectoenergy.

They do not wish to risk this happening.

While most of the energy will be metaphysically shunted to the Power Rings, there is always the risk of excess: the mobile interior layer can be shifted to allow the interior cores to absorb this excess - the Observants’ array lining the layers and preventing the increase in strength from allowing the filter-cores to take form - preventing the complications that might arise from ghosts forming inside the battery.

It forms 2 ectopuses and 16 blobs before they get the flow right.

A few minor tweaks and the active rings connect to the central battery and disconnect in dormancy without a hitch.

The Green Lanterns are kept in the dark after the first few had to be mind-wiped, blathering on about ethics; they could serve their purpose well enough without knowing all the details of where their new powers came from.

The beings were already dead and the universe was in need of stability. If the Guardians of the Universe were the only ones capable of seeing the bigger picture then so be it.

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

In the absence of a High King, natural portals pop up more and more - in increasingly random locations and times.

Even a billion years after his imprisonment, Pariah Dark’s reign of terror remains imprinted across the collective consciousness of the ghost zone - his brutal warping of forms into skeletons and cores into subservience is nearly as legendary as the poor, tortured soul he mounted on a ring, doomed to scream locked away in his own core forever.

The day ghosts first encounter Green Lanterns mark the birth of a new terror.

More and more ghosts flock to the Observants to alert them that the living have committed abhorrent acts against ghostkind.

Eventually, the Observants must make an announcement.

They lie.

“We are aware of the Green Lantern threat,” they say.

“There is nothing that can be done. The Green Lanterns’ masters are undying, unkillable beasts,” they claim.

“Only Pariah Dark has ever been able to defeat them, and even he barely managed to chase the last of them from the zone,” they twist - barely chased from the zone only because the surviving Oan barely lived long enough to reach the portal home.

“There is nothing that can be done,” they repeat, pretending to lament, “Not when their numbers are counted in the hundreds of thousands.”

The thought of a hundred thousand Pariah Dark-strong enemies makes the ghosts’ cores clench and stutter in horror.

Clockwork is a silent sentinel behind them, unable to speak against their blatant, vile manipulations.

“The best course of action is to run, to stay as far away from them as you can.”

And what else can they do?

Few would risk opposing beings supposedly as strong as Pariah Dark, and the Observants ensure the first few that try disappear into new rings.

The rest fall into line.

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

The Observants are nervous.

It had been going on for the better part of a year before Kes’ra realized. Their visits had increased - as had their questions - bit by bit.

More questions about their operations. About their near-future plans. And about the Earth.

They’d been subtle, to be sure. The change had been incredibly slow - nearly imperceptible at first - but glancing over the meeting frequencies in the last decade showed a steady uptick starting just over one year ago.

Looking over the minutes of the meetings showed a common denominator - they’d tried to bury their true concerns, of course, but the only topic consistently asked after was missions relating to Earth.

File systems showed copies of Earth data had been accessed more times than any other forms - at least once for every time they’d visited in the past year.

It almost wasn’t suspicious - Earth being such a center of upheaval and disaster in recent years - but the interest hadn’t started until well after Earth should’ve become a point of interest for them.

Despite all of her research, Kes’ra could not find a single inciting incident that might’ve sparked such interest.

It certainly wasn’t a happy interest, she realized as she mentally replayed their demeanor - it is rather difficult to read emotions off of a floating eye, but 3 billion years of collaboration makes it easy to learn nearly anything.

The Observants are anxious about something.

Something on Earth.

She brings it up at the next meeting, but the Observants deflect, cagey about whatever is happening.

They are told to let sleeping dogs lie, that what bothers them is a matter for the dead alone.

It takes Kes’ra just one year to get her answer.

She dearly regrets not pressing for answers sooner.

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

Hal Jordan contacting Oa about a ‘ring’ in a seemingly living being’s chest is unexpected.

They only have guesses - they have seen just how well the dead can pass for the living.

They had collected a few new power sources themselves in the past - to the Observants’ approval. If this ‘Red Hood’ was no longer counted among the living, then he would be better counted serving the living. There is no more heroic a fate.

But the Green Lanterns had proven overly sensitive and illogical many a time.

“Surely he is unwell,” they suggest instead, all false sympathy and cloaked poison.

“Bring him to Oa,” they invite, “so that we might help him.”

Hal agrees readily, all too eager to right whatever wrongs had caused such distress.

Just as soon as Batman will let him close enough to explain what little he knows.

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

Danny settles into Kingship surprisingly well.

It’s a bit overwhelming, at first, being hooked into the Zone.

The moment the crown hits his head he can feel every portal - active, soon-to-form, and just deactivated alike. He’d gotten his space powers at 17 - folding reality to teleport or bring things to himself, to touch the stars, even to make a (very small) black hole (just the once) - and it had given him an incredibly detailed sense of his surroundings that had taken a few days to get used to.

The crown was on another level.

While Danny had learned how to teleport, interdimensional portals had remained out of reach.

With the crown? He practically stumbled through the veil between worlds to start teleporting and closing portals.

With time, he’d been assured, the natural portals would attune themselves to his will, opening less frequently and in more regular times and places. There would always be natural portals to be closed - and sometimes opened - but it would become more manageable than the frantic game of catchup he’d be forced to play initially.

The first year had an enormous learning curve - aside from the portals themselves - was collecting those lost in the Living Realm - and returning some to it for ‘the cycle,’ which had been a lot to take in.

Not that it was too much of a surprise, what with Tucker.

Mediating discussion between the Realms’ different kingdoms was another major chunk of the job - stressful at times, but he’d sort of done something similar with Dora and her brother. Though that involved more punching - the ghosts that came to him for mediation were surprisingly willing to actually talk things out, for the most part.

At first he’d been worried the stress of the position on top of his usual fights and newly acquired college work would overwhelm him.

Instead, it was…nice. Relaxing, almost.

Being the High King made life simpler.

After the first few years of being a ghost, most of his rogues had become more friends than enemies. The few that remained either respected or feared his title, and avoided Amity Park wholesale. Combined with the upped security around the Fenton portal and his newfound ability to close natural portals, ghost fights - that weren’t just the equivalent of a friendly hello - were almost nonexistent.

There were precious few humans that needed his help these days. But plenty of ghosts did.

Helping ghosts ferry safely between the Living Realm and the Ghost Zone, mediating arguments and discussion between different factions, and the ability to make the Zone less chaotic through actual governing with sensible rules and ethical, reasonable reform programs (not punishments. Jazz had a whole slideshow about recidivism rates in punishment- vs reforms-focused countries and various methodologies for instituting effective programs. It made his head spin but man if it didn’t make everyone - including Walker - happy [honestly, Walker just seemed happy to have any system, even if it was Danny running it]) had his core practically singing from how much he was indulging his obsession.

The new powers were kind of a lot and the Observants seemed determined to drown his free time in paperwork, but between everything else about the job and the online college accommodating his less-than-in-high-school-but-still-pretty-chaotic schedule?

Danny was happier than he’d expected to be.

So of course it was only once he’d finally stopped waiting for the other shoe to drop that Clockwork requested a meeting with him.

Clockwork had always been there to give advice or answer questions - at least, to the extent he usually did, which was ‘as cryptically as possible - but Danny always sought him out. He’d never requested a meeting - honestly, Danny had expected him to just show up if wanted to - that he had gave Danny the distinct feeling that maybe there really was another shoe falling.

Hoping he was wrong but bracing himself anyway, he takes a fortifying breath and enters his throne room to wait.

[scribbiesan]

Ghost King Danny Phantom update

Is taking longer than expected. So sorry about that. Will be done soon.