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Phic Phight - These Lies Festered Like Roaches, You’ll Have To Gut Him To Exterminate Them

@ Balshumet @darthfrodophantom @ Deathcomes4u @ EctoplasmicSoda @fentoaster @fruity-hub-blog @camels-pen @redactedgoose @underforeversgrace @ itallcomesbacktoandreil @sheabeeprime @ LumianaKatenke @schrodingersfic @sapphireshield @summerssixecho

Crawling through one body, laying eggs of hurt in all our minds, struggling just to be okay surrounded by roaches shaped like safety. Can’t help but react, because this bite’s too detrimental, who knows if time can heal the infections and repercussions. Maddie, Jack, Danny, Vlad; secrets will see them consumed, relationships and bodies left behind to be scraped back together, if they can be.

:Chap. 1:

Little Hero, Put On Your Cape, Someone’s Made A Mistake

Danny’s been having a rather… strange week, month really, but this week specifically has been odd. The ghosts were all being weirdly friendly to him, were causing a lot less damage, heck they weren’t even bothering him when he was sleeping! It was odd. The Lunch Lady even brought him a balanced school lunch and it wasn’t even his death day. But weirder than that was the fact that even Vlad wasn’t causing him issues. No snide remarks, no unprompted visits, no threats to murder his dad, no bonding attempts, no abductions, he wasn’t even making public appearances. It was strange. What made it even stranger was that his dad wasn’t saying anything about it, wasn’t demanding they show his ‘best friend’, wasn’t complaining about him not visiting recently, wasn’t encouraging Danny to go over to his mansion to see if the guy wanted to come over. Even Red/Val didn’t seem to care, in her words ‘good riddance’, which tells him she absolutely found out about Vlad being a ghost.

Which, on one hand, her reaction was concerning, a little. But on the other hand, this was Vlad, the guy who nearly tricked her into helping müder a little girl and whom tried to blow her up to frame Phantom for her death. He could absolutely understand her not giving a rats ass about the man now, or utterly despising him. So the truly strange part was how she didn’t seem to care at all. Sure the guy could be an utter fruitloop but he was still the mayor, you’d think even she’d care about that at least.

Sam and Tuck thought the guy was just plotting, which Danny would be inclined to agree with if it wasn’t for the fact that he couldn’t find Vlad anywhere. His cat didn’t even have food last time he went snooping around the mansion! Vlad might be vaguely villainous, but even he would never neglect an animal. Zone Danny would place money on the fact that he’s positive that if Vlad was going to fully die or be ended, the first thing he’d do is try to get word to Danny to take care of his cat. That is, without a shadow of a doubt, what Vlad would do.

Meaning…

He’s missing.

And not missing of his own free will probably.

Danny’s first concern is, surprising to even him, Val, because she definitely knew now, because her temper controlled her more often than not, because she was supremely vengeful, because Danny was a good ghost and she abducted him for a torture session. The thing with Val though, is there wasn’t a lot of places she could be keeping Vlad and Halfas were way too durable for her to have actually ended him in a week. So he eliminated her pretty quick, just a snoop of her room, a few abandoned buildings in Amity and Elmerton, and a snoop around her dad’s workplaces backroom. He’s fairly certain she doesn’t have Vlad. Unfortunately she was Vlad’s best option though, since she was the least likely to do something horrifically screwed up or actually end the guy; she wasn’t down with murder, ghost or human.

Of course he suspected his parents next, especially with his dad acting a bit weird, but neither one of them was spending an excessive amount of time in the lab, or bragging about catching a ghost or making new discoveries; and, there was no one trapped down in the lab or the dungeon. As far as he knew neither of them had any storage facilities or even a rented trailer for storage, and they couldn’t keep quiet about things so he felt secure in his belief that it wasn’t them.

So that left the G.I.W., arguably his and Vlad’s worst option. Because they absolutely would do as many horrific experiments as they could, and with their funding that would mean a lot of experiments. Plus, those nut jobs wouldn’t even care if he transformed back human, they had no problem with harming or killing regular humans even teenagers; they’d have no problem harming or ending a halfa too.

So Danny decides to take advantage of the ghosts being ‘nice’ and ‘considerate’ of him, even if they were still picking fights and getting him hurt… just not nearly as seriously as before. He figures his best option is Skulker, considering the guy was a hunter and employed by Vlad. If anyone knew where he was, it would be that guy; and if he didn’t know, he could track him down better than Danny could. That Greatest Hunter In The Ghost Zone title wasn’t for show, regardless of Danny being uncatchable.

And that’s how Danny finds himself here, landing his feet down on Skulker Island and knocking on the guys door; barging into a ghosts lair was rude and the poacher hadn’t done anything to warrant Danny’s break and entry ways. Skulker looks almost nervous when he opens his door, “Phantom?”, he sticks his head out and glances around, as if expecting Danny to have brought company, before looking back to the half dead teen, “what’s up with the lair visit? And so respectfully. Are you sick? Those parents of yours trying to end you again?”.

See this? This was just weird. Danny quirks an eyebrow, “no?”, shaking his head, “I’m just checking to see if you’ve seen or heard from Vlad lately, he’s mia”, frowning, “his cat didn’t have food”.

Even Skulker looks alarmed, see even ghost poachers who skinned people and hung their heads on walls didn’t neglect animals. Skulker shaking his head immediately, “no, Phantom, no I haven’t”. He pops up a screen on his suit and stares at it, the reflection of messages and data reflecting off of his robotic eyes, “I don’t have any messages from him currently either. Not for jobs, assistance, or to pester you”, quickly adding on, “not-that-I-would-agree-to-that-or-anything”.

Being word vomitted at by Skulker was just bizarre, so much that he can’t even bring himself to question it, just in case he triggers him to do that again. What the fuck? Danny taps his chin, “yeah I don’t like that”, looking back to the metal ghost, “think you could track him down? Mr. Greatest Hunter In The Ghost Zone?”; is Danny mocking him a little? Yes. Will the guy care? Not a chance.

As predicted Skulker grins menacingly, “with pleasure”, and is off the second Danny steps out of his way.

Cool.

Okay.

Danny’s got a plan of action here. He’d ask Val/Red to join in the hunt but she clearly wasn’t interested in finding the guy, either half. Though now that he’s thinking about it he should probably give Skulker’s girlfriend a heads up before she gets pissed at the guy for ‘doing a job’; Danny and Ember usually got along already so shouldn’t be a problem. Meaning now he’s off to her little island, or giant concert venue really, searching for a Popstar.

He finds her tuning her guitar, humming a tune. “Sup Ember”, she jumps from his voice, whirling around and blinking in a bit of shock at him.

Her flying at him, stopping a bit away, “ghost ki- Phantom! What brings you around here?”, and like Skulker she glances around like she’s expecting someone or someone’s to be with him or something. Again, strange. Or perhaps she’s just concerned he brought Tucker with him, aka mister can sing so horribly it has the power to end even ectoplasmically enhanced concerts.

Danny quirks an eyebrow at her too, “I just figured I should stop by and let you know that I asked your boyfriend to go track down Vlad. Guys been too quiet for too long”.

She smirks at him fondly, “man you are so overprotective, you’d think you’d relax more when he’s not harassing you but nope”, and ruffles his hair up before wincing and floating a little back from him for some reason, “appreciate the heads up, Phantom”.

Danny… is only more confused, but he shrugs, gives her a goofy little salute and floats his sorry ass off; the slight relived sag she does only weirds him out more, frankly.

Okay, time to head back to Amity. At least he never had to worry about the portals doors being locked these days, his energy was strong enough for him to just force it open with his hands and some ecto-energy. It was probably also a little because he was, you know, killed by a portal, this one specifically. Slipping his way through with ease a phasing intangibly up through the roof instantly. Glancing around Amity from above the ops centre for a little bit before deciding to check in on Vlad’s mansion(s) again.

Plus, even though Maddie the cat might be slightly evil thanks to Vlad’s encouragement, she was still a cat and deserved all the pets and treats.

Danny’s working a little on his English philosophy of death paper -this embracing the towns ghost theme shit is part of why Danny actually liked Lancer- when Skulker barges in through Danny’s window; well at least the guy didn’t break it. Danny standing up immediately at Skulker’s serious expression; it wasn’t often the ghost looked ‘haunted’ or ‘Hopeless’, so it was super worrying. Skulker makes the motions to grab Danny’s arm before wincing and dropping his arm, “follow. You’re not going to like this”, and turning back to fly back out of Danny’s window.

Danny already doesn’t like this.

Danny absolutely follows immediately. Frowning, “I don’t even like the sound of that, Skulker. Did you find him?”.

The ghost scoffs, “of course I did, I’m Skulker, the Greatest Hunter In All Of The Infinite Realm”, grimacing, “I didn’t see him with my own eyes, but the traces of his shed latent ecto-energy and the sensation of his ecto-field are there”.

Danny quirking an eyebrow as they move into Elmerton, shit, outside of Amity. “Why didn’t you confirm though? Too excited?”; the bit of humour falls really flat but Danny is a jokester through and through.

“You’ll see, and you’ll probably feel and smell it too. You were right to be concerned, he’s definitely trapped and injured. I’m not narcissistic enough to think I know halfa medical care better than an actual halfa, even that fraid of yours would do better”.

They’re leaving Elmerton. Alright, it was looking more and more like G.I.W., meaning this was going to be bad. “Is he at a G.I.W. compound? That’s one of my suspects”.

“Reasonable, I guessed the same. Since I know you’d be able to check the Red Huntress easily and your makers. However, no. No he’s not. That… would be better”.

Danny muttering, “that’s extremely ominous”. At this point he thinks they’re above Naperville? But he’s never been this far out so he’s not exactly sure on that. The two slowing down, Danny copying Skulker as the hunter goes invisible, as they approach a warehouse district area.

Danny pausing in the air, shocked, when a mini GAV comes into sight. What? How was one of those all the way out here? Why even? His folks didn’t sell them so… Danny doesn’t like this one bit. Should… should he have looked into his folks a bit more seriously? He hopes not. He hopes he’s wrong. If he’s not… then he doesn’t really know what he’ll do.

But Skulker’s absolutely right. He can sense Vlad’s ecto-energy in the air, the way it lingers screaming that he’s bled a lot, lost a lot. Skulker was likely right to get him, and that both scares and pisses him off. Especially with the mini GAV right by. Skulker pausing in the air by holding up a hand, nodding his head at the mini GAV, then tapping his eye. Danny nodding back, the message of ‘go have a look’ is obvious, Skulker following him.

It’s…

It’s his dad. Jack.

He’s drinking… and looks like shit.

He’d been off, weirdly quiet about things and stand offish. Bummed out. But this was a lot worse. Part of Danny wants to hope he’s only here by chance, that he comes out here to ‘break down’ sometimes. But the chances of that are pathetically slim. Did Jack hurt Vlad? Enough for him to transform back? Did Jack see it was his ‘old friend’ he was hurting and freaked out? Was he still hurting Vlad? He knows his aura flares a bit protectively and possessively, in that dangerous way. But if his dad hurt the guy that Danny sometimes actually liked and was still hurting him, Danny won’t be able to hold back from ripping him a new one. Would he even still be able to see him as a parent? Ha. No. No he wouldn’t.

Skulker snaps his fingers twice, just loud enough to get Danny’s attention, watching him cautiously; Danny can see his own glow and eyes reflecting off of the meta mecha suit. Skulker jerking his head at the building, then putting a hand to his chest, tapping his eyes again and points at Jack. Danny nodding and zipping off towards the building, Skulker could keep an eye on Jack.

Danny lets the feel of Vlad’s ecto-field pull him around on pure protective instinct, that aspect of his obsession was always handy when rescuing ghosts, even blobs, from the G.I.W. or his folks. He hates it a little though, the way it felt almost controlling of himself and how it sometimes made him want to hurt the people responsible; it also felt like he was being disrespected these days, like how dare whoever harm someone on his watch? The audacity. Him jerking to a stop by a door, there’s green and red stains everywhere. Phasing his head through the door with a pit of unease coiling in his core and stomach.

A̴̸̵̸̵̵̸̵̴̴̵̢̢̙̙͍̘͚̦͉̠̦͇̙̟̙̪̪͚͍͔͚͔̙̻̺͉͚̙͙͍̠̘̝͓̙͎̾͋͒͐̽͋͊͊͒̐͆͊̔̿̈́̓̔̾̀͊͊͌̾̾̚̚͘͜͜͠͠͝N̸̸̸̸̸̴̵̴̴̵̴̡̡̢͇̼͖͓̞̺̟͚̼͉̻͕̟̘̝̟͍͍̠̞͙͚̼͙̙͙͎͙̙̠͓̦̻̔͛͋͛̒̓͐͒͆͌̀͐̀͑͛̒͋͋̕̚̚̚̕̚͘͜͝͠͠C̴̸̵̸̵̸̸̸̴̸̵̢̢̡̢̡̡̢̫̺̻͖͎̦̟̟͍̟̫͎͙͙͕̝͉͔̙͇͓̻͕̠̞̻̼͙͇̿̾̓͒͌̽̽̈́͊͒̈́͌́͋̿͋̽͋͑̔̿͛̕͘͘͜͠͝͠͝͝͝I̸̵̴̴̸̵̸̴̸̵̸̢̢̢̢̻̼͓̝̟͙̞̻͙͖͉͔̝͚̻̻͎͇͇͓͚̙͇͍̙͙̝̺͆͐̾̾͋͋̈́̿̀̿̀̿̈́͊̈́͆̐̒͌͛͑̓̀̓̒͋̽͊̚͘͜͝E̸̴̴̸̴̴̵̴̴̸̴̡̢̡͍͇͕̪͍̟͍͖͎͇̟͍͔͔͎̟̠̠͙̟̙̘̪̼̫̠͓̙͋͋̈́͒̿͛̀̓̓́̓͌̿͆̒͌͛̈́͑̀͊̓̽̔͒͘̚̕̚͜͜͝͝Ǹ̴̸̸̵̸̵̸̴̵̵̴̡̡̡̢̢͎͍͍̘̠͚̘̝͕̠͍͙̙̫̪̻̙͎̫̪̼͉͚͙͔͚̠̻̦̼̐̽̐͋͊̿̈́̈́̈́̿͒͑͊̓͆͒̈́̒̐̕̕͘̕͜͠͝T̴̴̵̵̴̵̵̵̴̴̸̡̢̢̡̢͎̦͕͚͕̟̞͇̺̙̺͔͓̠͚͓͍͔͉͍̞̻͓̦̺̫͖̻̼̝̝̒̐͋͌̓͆͛͐̿̓͒̈́̽͛̈́̾́͑̓̐͆̓̕͘̚̕͠͝͝͝͠S̴̵̸̵̵̵̵̸̸̸̴̢̢͙͚̞̺͇͇̫͚͚̪̪̺̝̻͍͍͚͔͕͉͓̫͍͓͉̟̟͎͙̫̼̪͖̈́̿̓̀͒̓̓͊͛̿͊͑͛̀́̀̓͑͊̒͋̀͐̐͌͘̚͜͜͝͝͝ Ǹ̵̸̵̵̵̵̵̵̵̸̴̢̡̡̡̡̡̝͙͓̠̪̞̝̙̝͎̻̦͍̘̞͍͔͕͓͇̫̼͙͔͕̫͉̠̟͚͇̓̀̐̐̓̔̈́͊̒͑̽͛̒͛͌͋̾͒̿̔͘͘̚̕̕͝͝Ö̵̸̵̴̴̸̵̵̵̴̴̡̢̡̡͔̼̺͍͙̻͇͍̪͇͉͎̝̟̫̪͔͔̞͉̪͔͕͚̦̦̝̻͉͇́̽͆̽̐͛́͌͋͆̐͆̀̒͌͊͒̐̓͒̓͑̕̚̕̕͜͜͝͠͝͝A̴̸̵̸̵̵̸̵̴̴̵̢̢̙̙͍̘͚̦͉̠̦͇̙̟̙̪̪͚͍͔͚͔̙̻̺͉͚̙͙͍̠̘̝͓̙͎̾͋͒͐̽͋͊͊͒̐͆͊̔̿̈́̓̔̾̀͊͊͌̾̾̚̚͘͜͜͠͠͝N̸̸̸̸̸̴̵̴̴̵̴̡̡̢͇̼͖͓̞̺̟͚̼͉̻͕̟̘̝̟͍͍̠̞͙͚̼͙̙͙͎͙̙̠͓̦̻̔͛͋͛̒̓͐͒͆͌̀͐̀͑͛̒͋͋̕̚̚̚̕̚͘͜͝͠͠C̴̸̵̸̵̸̸̸̴̸̵̢̢̡̢̡̡̢̫̺̻͖͎̦̟̟͍̟̫͎͙͙͕̝͉͔̙͇͓̻͕̠̞̻̼͙͇̿̾̓͒͌̽̽̈́͊͒̈́͌́͋̿͋̽͋͑̔̿͛̕͘͘͜͠͝͠͝͝͝I̸̵̴̴̸̵̸̴̸̵̸̢̢̢̢̻̼͓̝̟͙̞̻͙͖͉͔̝͚̻̻͎͇͇͓͚̙͇͍̙͙̝̺͆͐̾̾͋͋̈́̿̀̿̀̿̈́͊̈́͆̐̒͌͛͑̓̀̓̒͋̽͊̚͘͜͝E̸̴̴̸̴̴̵̴̴̸̴̡̢̡͍͇͕̪͍̟͍͖͎͇̟͍͔͔͎̟̠̠͙̟̙̘̪̼̫̠͓̙͋͋̈́͒̿͛̀̓̓́̓͌̿͆̒͌͛̈́͑̀͊̓̽̔͒͘̚̕̚͜͜͝͝Ǹ̴̸̸̵̸̵̸̴̵̵̴̡̡̡̢̢͎͍͍̘̠͚̘̝͕̠͍͙̙̫̪̻̙͎̫̪̼͉͚͙͔͚̠̻̦̼̐̽̐͋͊̿̈́̈́̈́̿͒͑͊̓͆͒̈́̒̐̕̕͘̕͜͠͝T̴̴̵̵̴̵̵̵̴̴̸̡̢̢̡̢͎̦͕͚͕̟̞͇̺̙̺͔͓̠͚͓͍͔͉͍̞̻͓̦̺̫͖̻̼̝̝̒̐͋͌̓͆͛͐̿̓͒̈́̽͛̈́̾́͑̓̐͆̓̕͘̚̕͠͝͝͝͠S̴̵̸̵̵̵̵̸̸̸̴̢̢͙͚̞̺͇͇̫͚͚̪̪̺̝̻͍͍͚͔͕͉͓̫͍͓͉̟̟͎͙̫̼̪͖̈́̿̓̀͒̓̓͊͛̿͊͑͛̀́̀̓͑͊̒͋̀͐̐͌͘̚͜͜͝͝͝ Ǹ̵̸̵̵̵̵̵̵̵̸̴̢̡̡̡̡̡̝͙͓̠̪̞̝̙̝͎̻̦͍̘̞͍͔͕͓͇̫̼͙͔͕̫͉̠̟͚͇̓̀̐̐̓̔̈́͊̒͑̽͛̒͛͌͋̾͒̿̔͘͘̚̕̕͝͝Ö̵̸̵̴̴̸̵̵̵̴̴̡̢̡̡͔̼̺͍͙̻͇͍̪͇͉͎̝̟̫̪͔͔̞͉̪͔͕͚̦̦̝̻͉͇́̽͆̽̐͛́͌͋͆̐͆̀̒͌͊͒̐̓͒̓͑̕̚̕̕͜͜͝͠͝͝. A̴̸̵̸̵̵̸̵̴̴̵̢̢̙̙͍̘͚̦͉̠̦͇̙̟̙̪̪͚͍͔͚͔̙̻̺͉͚̙͙͍̠̘̝͓̙͎̾͋͒͐̽͋͊͊͒̐͆͊̔̿̈́̓̔̾̀͊͊͌̾̾̚̚͘͜͜͠͠͝N̸̸̸̸̸̴̵̴̴̵̴̡̡̢͇̼͖͓̞̺̟͚̼͉̻͕̟̘̝̟͍͍̠̞͙͚̼͙̙͙͎͙̙̠͓̦̻̔͛͋͛̒̓͐͒͆͌̀͐̀͑͛̒͋͋̕̚̚̚̕̚͘͜͝͠͠C̴̸̵̸̵̸̸̸̴̸̵̢̢̡̢̡̡̢̫̺̻͖͎̦̟̟͍̟̫͎͙͙͕̝͉͔̙͇͓̻͕̠̞̻̼͙͇̿̾̓͒͌̽̽̈́͊͒̈́͌́͋̿͋̽͋͑̔̿͛̕͘͘͜͠͝͠͝͝͝I̸̵̴̴̸̵̸̴̸̵̸̢̢̢̢̻̼͓̝̟͙̞̻͙͖͉͔̝͚̻̻͎͇͇͓͚̙͇͍̙͙̝̺͆͐̾̾͋͋̈́̿̀̿̀̿̈́͊̈́͆̐̒͌͛͑̓̀̓̒͋̽͊̚͘͜͝E̸̴̴̸̴̴̵̴̴̸̴̡̢̡͍͇͕̪͍̟͍͖͎͇̟͍͔͔͎̟̠̠͙̟̙̘̪̼̫̠͓̙͋͋̈́͒̿͛̀̓̓́̓͌̿͆̒͌͛̈́͑̀͊̓̽̔͒͘̚̕̚͜͜͝͝Ǹ̴̸̸̵̸̵̸̴̵̵̴̡̡̡̢̢͎͍͍̘̠͚̘̝͕̠͍͙̙̫̪̻̙͎̫̪̼͉͚͙͔͚̠̻̦̼̐̽̐͋͊̿̈́̈́̈́̿͒͑͊̓͆͒̈́̒̐̕̕͘̕͜͠͝T̴̴̵̵̴̵̵̵̴̴̸̡̢̢̡̢͎̦͕͚͕̟̞͇̺̙̺͔͓̠͚͓͍͔͉͍̞̻͓̦̺̫͖̻̼̝̝̒̐͋͌̓͆͛͐̿̓͒̈́̽͛̈́̾́͑̓̐͆̓̕͘̚̕͠͝͝͝͠S̴̵̸̵̵̵̵̸̸̸̴̢̢͙͚̞̺͇͇̫͚͚̪̪̺̝̻͍͍͚͔͕͉͓̫͍͓͉̟̟͎͙̫̼̪͖̈́̿̓̀͒̓̓͊͛̿͊͑͛̀́̀̓͑͊̒͋̀͐̐͌͘̚͜͜͝͝͝ Ǹ̵̸̵̵̵̵̵̵̵̸̴̢̡̡̡̡̡̝͙͓̠̪̞̝̙̝͎̻̦͍̘̞͍͔͕͓͇̫̼͙͔͕̫͉̠̟͚͇̓̀̐̐̓̔̈́͊̒͑̽͛̒͛͌͋̾͒̿̔͘͘̚̕̕͝͝O

:Chap. 2:

Break Down Facades Too, Let Your Entelechy Consume You

(this is the torture horror style character injury, feel free to skip it if you don’t like that stuff. Everything after this chapter is hurt/comfort aftermath)

Danny’s form shakes a little as he takes in the room. It’s splattered in greens and reds, metal tools laying around haphazardly, there’s spots of rust and decay, the room reeks of stale air as if none have entered for days. Reeks of the metallic rot of dried b̸͕̟͜͝͝͝l̴̢̢͙̈́̽͝ò̴̝͜͜͠o̸̼͚̺͌̓̓d̸̢̠͖͑͆͒ and lime tang of old e̵͖̘͒͋͜͝c̴͉͓͔̿́͊t̴̢̟̓̓͛ó̸̞̝͌͜͝p̴͙͕̺̕̕͘l̸̼̞̟͆̈́͝a̸̡͖͍͊̽s̵̘͕͙͑̕͝m̸͖̝͉̈́͠͝. There’s metal wires and steel rods coming off of the roof, stringing down to stretches and slabs of f̵͕͉̻̿͐̔l̸̘̪̙̀̓̕e̴͚͖̠̿̿͒s̴̢̻̝̈́̕͘h̵̢̝̐̈́̈́ and b̴̡͚͚͒́̽o̵̞͔̫̓͘͠n̴͙͔͔͒̀̿è̸͕͕͇͒͒ and m̵͇̼̙͑͆̈́é̴͉͇̟͆͌a̸̪̠̼͆͌͘t̵̟̙͌̓͜͝. Mù̴͍͉͖̿͠s̴͇̞͔͆̚͝c̴̼̈́͘̚͜l̸̢̝̐̀̾ë̴̻͚̠́̈́̒ and s̴̺͇̘̔͝͝k̴̡̙̝̓̈́̚i̸͓̼̪͊̔͌n̸̻͕͇͊̀͘. It all dripped, half dried and half wet, crimson red tinted green sheen. Chunks of bone, broken, disjointed, peppering through pale human flesh. Yet also not. Sections and spattering of ghostly white fabric, ghostly outer ectoplasmic layers, move and warble, as if the being attached to it couldn’t place itself right. Couldn’t hold itself together. HIMSELF.

The flesh bone suit amalgamation connecting down, down, down, to flat neck splayed out, esophagus expanding and deflating, utterly exposed to open air unnaturally. Blackened cut hip bones jutting out the other side, the patches of suit seem more together there and over the one leg. Him managing to move his eyes to look, to search, to seek what’s missing. The leg pinned, skin flayed back to reveal muscle and pumping pulse against a wall. That location bringing his attention back to the man on display. That, and, the sound, the thump. A head turned to watch him. It’s a face he knows well, whether there are eyes or not. Exposed cheek bone, sharp and angular, twitch in an almost smile; the odd patterning of teeth, some gone and some not. One fang. A tooth dribbling out with strings of saliva as the mouth opens at him, “həy, Pʮ∀ntoɯ”. Patches of bloodied ectoplasm washed hair flops and scrapes the metal table with the motion. With the sound. Hands, fingers bent at hundreds of wrong angles as if there’s too many joints, twitch to grasp the metal surface; as if in an attempt to pull up, to sit up. The attached arm limb spasming with effort, blood ectoplasm nightmare seeping out through the spaces between bone, no flesh nor muscle remain to complete the action. The shoulder pops, limb detaching entirely to fumble down to the ground; slapping it wetly. Fresh blood and ectoplasm pooling and moving to flow down to a drain on the gunk covered crusted floor.

He moves immediately, on instinct, in. The ground crunches under feet he was unaware weren’t floating. The sensation of hardened blood and ectoplasm crumbling underfoot sending shivers up his entire frame with every step he takes. His glow fills up the room, seems to rip anti-ectoplasmic paint off the walls in chunks and flakes. He is so angry, so hurt, so sad, so enraged, so EMPTY. He has to fix this. Wants to. Has to repair one of his. Cupping the man’s face, bone and muscle touching his own gloved hand, “V̴̸̸͚̞̼͍̟̙͍̘͎̈́̀͆̈́͊͋̈́͑̚l̴̸̴̡̢͉̫͚͕͋̾̾̓̐̕͝͠a̴̵̵̢͇̞͚̞͙͎̼͒̈́̒͌͊͆̔̚d̴̴̸͓͖̙͎͉̞͚̞͒̿͆̐̐͜͠͝͠“, part of the ceiling caves in, crumbling down, under some unknown pressure.

“Iʇ’s oʞɐʎ, ᗡɐuᴉǝl. ⅄on’ɹǝ oʞɐʎ. ᒋnsʇ ɥǝld ɯǝ”.

He doesn’t know what’s said. Doesn’t care. It doesn’t matter. This mangle of misshapen parts can’t be here. Leave. Be safe. P̸̵̡̡̢̙̞̫̐̈́̈́̈́͒̕r̵̴̡̠̠̞͎̓̽͒͘̚͜o̵̵̞͇͓͇͓̟͑̿͌̈́̚͠t̸̴̢͓͉͖̝͖̐̈́̐͠è̴̵̡͙͕̦͚͚͑̒̿̚̕c̴̵̝͓͔͚͚͆̽̈́̾̒͘͜ț̵̸̢͙͉̟̈́̾͊͋̓̔e̴̵̢͙̝͙̟͚̿͊͌̐̈́͝d̵̴̢͚͎̫̻̀͐͑̽͜͠͝.

The straps are brown, covered slick in gore; they burn to ash from the slightest of touches. They don’t deserve to exist. Begone. Nothing can stay to hold back what must leave here, be taken away. The connected tubes, attached to remaining muscle and structure, buckle and crack and splitter to fragile shards in his grasp; pieces plinking to the ground little unfortunate freezing rain, the ice encroaching on the room in spiralling circles with him as their epicentre, only increase the noise. That same ice becoming claws for him to wield as blades against the ceilings cords and wires and rods, the tension releasing like gunshots as flayed open chest wings of flesh slap down on to the opened chest cavity; their owner groaning from the impact.

Hurt

HURT

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He didn’t mean it. Mean this. Mean that. Mean HURT. 尸尺ㄖセ🝗⼕〸.

There’s too much of him but that’s okay, it’s okay, this is okay, that’s okay, he’s okay. He can scoop up what remains, arm under leg, arm under shoulder arm neck head, to scoop up and pull to his chest. Pull to his core. To sustain the hurt one.

A solid slab of metal hits the ground, thunder in a room of ice rain.

He’s wet.

Snow is falling.

His head snapping, inhuman, to the sound, the door, the rooms door, gone. Laying on the ground as if it is innocent. It is not. Nothing here is. As if it is safe. Nothing here is. No one here is. No one here will be.

Orange and blue stare at him. Orange reeking of grain, wood, stale fruit, and burnt caramel. Then a metal one of his is there, holding orange at gun point; no more hurt no more hurt NO MORE HURT N̴̢͓̈́̒̈́͜O̵̙͎͒͠ M̵̡̺̻͑͌͘O̵̺̟͔̐͝͝R̴̘̘͓͌̒̚E̴̻͎̟͛͒̕ H̴͙͙̦̓͘U̵͓͉͒͘͝R̵͕͓͌̽̚T̴̙͍̪͐̈́ 𝓝龱爪龱尺㠪廾ㄩ尺ㄒ. The metal man flinches, scrunching up, “ʇᴉɥs”. The blue one stepping forward with a crouch, he growls, metal man grabs blues arm; regardless a mouth opens, “ynnaD?”.

A name. His? His. Attached to mouths that don’t deserve it. He’s snarling now. Right. Them. JACK. Orange. Did this. So much HURT. “H̵͕̝͙̿́͠O̴̢̞͉̽̔͝Ẅ̸̢͓̼́̾̚ D̸̦̟̀̓͋A̵̡͙̘̓͒̿R̵͚̫͋͌̚͜E̵͔͖̦͊͝͝ Y̵̟̝̽͛̚O̵͙̫̟͐͊̚U̴̻͎̦̔̽̈́ D̵͚͓͇͑͆O̸̙͉̪͋͘͠ T̴͖̙͉͊̾̽H̴̝̫̿͋͜I̵̫̘̐̕͜͝S̴̡͔͉̈́̀̓”. The room shakes with him, he wants to be understood, he doubts he is. The metal man flinches, floating back slightly in a jerky fashion, it’s something at least. The wrong thing but still a thing.

The one he’s protecting, encasing muttering a quiet, “ǝibbⱰM ,ʞƆⱰႱ”, with feeling.

The metal machine hissing, “noʎ ʇɹnɥ ll’ǝɥ ɹo ɟɟo ʞɔɐq”.

Hurt? Hurt. He won’t. Pulling into himself, around the hurt one; he won’t HURT anyone. He snarls a warning at the liar. He wants out of here. Walls creak and flake off dust at that mere desire, he doesn’t get why.

The blue one steps back at least, almost a whisper, “ʇsoɥɓ ɐ ,pɐǝp ǝq oʇ pǝsoddns s’ɯoʇuɐɥԀ ?ʇɐ ɓuᴉʞool I ɯɐ ʇɐɥM ?ʎuuɐᗡ puɐ uoʇuɐɥԀ ǝɥ sᴉ ʍoɥ”. As if the accomplice has place to ask anything of himself. As if blue would not have done the same. As if blue didn’t cause hurt. Others hurt. He hurt. So much 尸闩讠𝓝.

Orange gets it, orange doesn’t ask, orange already knows. Orange bent, prodded, sliced, broke, cut, destroyed, tore, took; for ill gotten knowledge. “?ǝuop I ǝʌɐɥ ʇɐɥʍ ,po⅁ .ǝᴉppɐlΛ ǝʞᴉl ,pɐlΛ ǝʞᴉl …s’ʎuuɐᗡ”. And grabs at hair, pulling at it. Hurting.

Danny snarls again and steps forward. Metal man giving warning, “ʇɐɥʇ ǝʞᴉl ʇ’usǝop ǝH .ɟlǝsɹnoʎ ɓuᴉʇɹnɥ puɐ ʇᴉɥs pᴉdnʇs ɓuᴉop doʇs”, pulling both colours back, pull through what would be a doorway. Is maybe a doorway.

Good. Metal knows. Metal gets it. Hurt is wrong. Hurt doesn’t belong. Even hurt shouldn’t hurt. No more pain here. Ꮆ龱闩山闩ㄚ.

The exit is clear. He’s clear. The hurt is clear to leave. He leaves. He moves up and down, sideways and not, through it; his package held close to him and only him. But the blue one touches him, brushes against his self, his energy. It’s a static boom instantly, blue smacking into a wall, him forming a cushion of ectoplasm goop behind the body smashing wall, to cushion, to protect. Blue wheezes, “ɥɔnɯ ooʇ sᴉ sᴉɥꞱ .ǝsɐǝld ,ʎɐʍɐ ʎɐʇs ʇnᗺ .oɓ -ʇsnᒋ .o⅁ .ʎɐʞO”.

Away. Blue wants him away. Maddie. And… away. Maddie and away. Okay. He can do that. He can be gone. He has this one, hurt one, has to fix, how to fix, can? fix. He gets out of the room of pain. Room of rendered flesh and bone.

:Chap. 3:

Realm Latching Onto Thee, It’s Part Of Your Dichotomy

He gets too more familiar land, land that’s been mixed and tainted with him, before he feels tapping on himself, a pulse from a crying pain-filled core, its calming or restraining or chastising. “jusʇ thɹoʍing euǝrgʎ ɐt mǝ is ʇoo mucɥ, yon’rǝ ʇoo ɯucɥ rigɥt noʍ, ᗡɐuiel”.

Then what is he to do? What else is there to do? Hurt lost too much. Hurt needs energy. “七卄🝗𝓝 山卄闩〸闩爪工セㄖ ᗪㄖ?”, he thinks he makes more sense now. Not a lot of sense, but sense.

Hurt twitches, getting him to look at him, at Vlad’shalf face and no eyes. Right. This is a who not just a pain being. Crap. He’s really out of it. Out of himself? Ow. Things aren’t right. Things are in wrong places and shapes, he thinks.

“⅁et yonrsǝlɟ toɓǝʇher, firsʇ. ⅄ou’ll ɟrigɥten t��e ʇown oʇherʍᴉse. Miɓhʇ gǝʇ huɹʇ in sɥock”.

Danny stills in the air, right, yes, no major shows of power, no body horror morphing, no inhuman sounds, don’t freak out his lair folk. Everyone startles easier than his fraid. Things… snap back, maybe, he thinks. There are two arms now, there were more? There were more. He sees a little less, less eyes. Can’t taste air so well, too many mouths? Not now. His teeth don’t fit right though. So no smiling, not that he feels like smiling.

“⅁ood goop, geʇ aholp of yonrsǝlɟ, ᗡɐuiel”, he shudders a little in Danny’s grasp. They’re back in Amity. In his lair. In what’s his. “ᒋust, usǝ ʇhe cɹown, to pull ǝuǝrgy from ʇɥe zonǝ, fǝǝd thɐʇ to ɯǝ”.

Danny doesn’t get it. It doesn’t make sense. “c̶r̶o̶w̶n̶?̶ 㠪𝓝🝗尺Ꮆ丫?̶ V̶l̶a̶d̶ I̶-̶ w̶h̶a̶t̶?̶ D̶o̶n̶’̶t̶ g̶e̶t̶ i̶t̶”. Oh he thinks he sounds much better now. His throat must have been wrong. His energy warping his speech.

“ᗺoy, hoʍ ɔan yon noʇ- ah, I sǝǝ”.

“S̶e̶e̶ w̶h̶a̶t̶?̶”. Danny gets them into Vlad’s mansion, ghostly tail coiling them up on one of the guys oversized lounger chairs, the kind he drinks in. Alone. Maddie the cat bounds over, he almost wants to hiss, but she smells of them both, she means no harm. She digs claws into jumpsuit, pulling herself up, he doesn’t notice any pain of it as she curls up on Vlad.

What a good cat.

A very good cat.

She can help heal him right? Cat purrs? He’s read about that. How they heal, heal others and themselves. Cats are good creatures. She purrs, he purrs back; copies the healing sound in hopes it works for him as it must her.

Vlad sighs, sagging a bit, this must help. “ᗡɐuiel, my boʎ, liʇʇle badger. Tɥǝ zonǝ can ouly, go so loug, ʍithout ᴉts, ruler. ⅄ou hɐp ɯore claᴉm, tɥan I. Yon fǝllǝd hᴉɯ, you’ɹǝ thǝ ʞing, now”.

What…

Is he saying that? Danny, him, is the… ghost king? Now? Because he won the fight? That’s… a lot. Especially right now. But… Vlad was saying to use the crown, the high ghost king crown, to heal him. Danny could heal him. Could fix him. Make him well. And better. Okay. No more hurt.

So the crown’s… okay.

“H̷o̷w̷ d̷o̷ I̷ d̷o̷ t̷h̷a̷t̷ V̷l̷a̷d̷?̷ T̷e̷l̷l̷ m̷e̷ h̷o̷w̷?̷”.

“I am bafflǝd, hoʍ ʎou didn’t, aɔɔidenʇallʎ makǝ thɐʇ, a ɔommand, of mǝ. Thᴉuʞ of ᴉt lᴉke, your coɹe, excedʇ oɟ pull!ng ᴉu ǝuǝrgy, from ʇhe resʇ oɟ, youɹsǝlf, to focus, ᴉnstǝɐd pull, from outsᴉdǝ, youɹsǝlf, yet connǝɔʇed sʇᴉll”.

Danny blinks, his eyes are much to wide, but he does as instructed, trying to direct his attention to his head… the area above his head. It’s… actually there. And it is pulling in energy, it feels like, from elsewhere. So he focuses in on that, it perhaps seems like it’s not the most effective way to do this but he doesn’t know how else so it will have to do today. Pulling in energy, through himself, out through his limbs and torso and other bodily connections to Vlad’s self, and feds it into him. Vlad gasping and groaning immediately.

Also immediately, things begin to stitch themselves back together. Face skin patching over bone, eyes boiling up out of empty sockets, ghostly clothing- ectoplasmic outer layers forming to cover human flesh turning blue, limbs reform like pieces from the air were snapping together in a puzzle of limbs, and destroyed chest fillets rearranging into its proper state. He’s healing, he’s doing it, and something happy and content in him sings in purrs and chimes and bells and chirps. The sensation nearly bowls him over, it’s so much.

It’s everything and he loses himself a bit, the room too small suddenly and he doesn’t want to be like this at all. It was so not human. Maddie the cats warning growl, angry at his movement, is impressively chastising and grounding, but not enough to snap him back down. He has too many limbs, he doesn’t know how many, it feels like an incomprehensible number. His legs are too long and bend more than they should; like an animals, a wild animals. Mouths and eyes in places they shouldn’t be, even filling the cape he can feel over himself and covering Vlad as well; to protect him. That crown that he’s almost too aware of now, feels like it’s trying to freeze himself yet that feels right; snow falls from his hair.

It’s…

Not great.

His fingers are too skinny, too long, too jointed, in icy points, and Vlad fits in his palm. Vlad holding his pointer finger and pant wheezing a little, “bǝγonnⱰ γɿǝv ǝd lliw I ,ƧllⱰw γm ʞⱰǝɿd uoγ ʇI .ǝniʇ ǝɿ’uoγ ,ɿǝϱbⱰd ǝlɈɈil ,γⱰʞo ǝɿ’uoY”.

Vlad’s voice doesn’t sound like English again, but he still understands it. Him huffing and trying to shrink himself away from the walls. At least Vlad looks pleased with himself, “ʍou ɹoɟ ʇsǝɹ ǝɯ ʇǝl ʇsnᒋ .doʇs uɐɔ no⅄”. Danny thinks he’s slowly getting the hang of this strange way of hearing. It’s so… sensation focused. He nods, stops feeding the guy raw zone energy; Vlad seems a bit relieved at that.

Maddie the Cat starts kneading the guys glowing white suit almost aggressively. It’s… calming and Danny feels okay just sort of kneeling down, bent over and cradling Vlad in his palm. Protecting him from the world and trying to join Maddie the Cat in purring him to sleep. He’s all wrong but he’s not the one who matters right now.

Danny comes into awareness -he didn’t sleep, he knows he didn’t sleep. He… can’t? like this- to Vlad, human Vlad, just standing on his face. Shiny shoes just barely within eyesight from far too many angles on his eye bags. The man’s… grabbing? what feels like a horn… an almost bunny ear like horn. He has three pairs of ears overlapping each other, was nothing of him human shaped like this? It’s a bit awful.

Vlad scowls at him, “ʸᵒᵘ’ʳᵉ ᵗᵒᵒ ᵇⁱᵍ, ᵃⁿᵈ ᴵ ᵏⁿᵒʷ ʸᵒᵘ ʷᵒⁿ’ᵗ ᵇᵉ ᵃᵇˡᵉ ᵗᵒ ᶜᵒⁿᵗᵃⁱⁿ ʸᵒᵘʳˢᵉˡᶠ ᵗⁱˡˡ ʸᵒᵘ ˢᵉᵉ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᴵ’ᵐ ᶠⁱⁿᵉ‧ ᔆᵒ ᴰᵃⁿⁱᵉˡ, ᴵ‧ ᴬᵐ‧ ᶠⁱⁿᵉ”.

That was… more? human, he still winces from it being wrong though. Using his hands to push himself up off the floor a little, Vlad just glaring more while Danny stares all his eyes at him, some move through the air to stare more closely. He… did seem fine. His energy felt, weakened and not entirely his own, like Danny was still holding him together some, but he was fine.

“t̸̠͖̞͌̽̚h̵͍̺͕́͑a̸̘͉͕̓̈́̽t̵̡̢͖̽͘͝’̴͓̫̠͌̕͠s̴̝̼͚̔̚ ǵ̴̙̦͌͘o̸̝͎̝̓̿o̸͉̠͙̕͠d̴̢̝̓͑͘͜“, oh zone all the floating eyes became mouths for him to speak with, it’s so disorienting that he sways to the side and jerks a little, “O̴̢͇̝̐̔̽h̸͍͚͔̓̕ t̴͖͉͚̀̒͐h̴͙͖͖͛́̈́a̸̢͇͊́͠ẗ̵̟̠́̈́ w̵̢̻͕͒̚͝a̴͕͚͒͐͛s̸͓͍͋͆͜͠ f̴̡̡̻͆͘͠r̸͙̪͌̿͜͝e̴̡̠̼͆͆̔a̵͇̘̞͋͊͌k̵̪͉̻͋́̕y̸̪͓̫̿̐”.

Vlad huffs, rolling his eyes, “ᴵ’ᵐ ⁿᵒᵗ ᵍᵒⁱⁿᵍ ᵗᵒ ᵈⁱˢᵃᵍʳᵉᵉ ʷⁱᵗʰ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ˢᵗᵃᵗᵉᵐᵉⁿᵗ‧ ᴺᵒʷ ᵃᵗ ˡᵉᵃˢᵗ ᵍᵉᵗ ʸᵒᵘʳˢᵉˡᶠ ᵈᵒʷⁿ ᵗᵒ ᵃ ʳᵉᵃˢᵒⁿᵃᵇˡᵉ ˢⁱᶻᵉ ᵒʳ ᴵ’ᵐ ʲᵃᵇᵇⁱⁿᵍ ʸᵒᵘ ʷⁱᵗʰ ᵗʰᵉ ᵖˡᵃˢᵐⁱᵘˢ ᴹᵃˣⁱᵐᵘˢ”. Danny wincing immediately, that thing sucked.

How did he even get himself into this state though? ‘Expanding’ wasn’t right, engulfing? No.

…

Unfolding perhaps.

So he could… fold in? Maybe? People shouldn’t be able to fold at all. Ugh. But trying to, like, fold himself up like origami seems to make himself and his energy shudder and twist in on itself. Vlad grinning proudly and dropping himself off of Danny’s face. Danny kind of… faceplanting into the ground, knees and arms on the floor, ass up in the air; groaning, “Iͥ feͤeͤl liͥᴋⷦeͤ aͣ oͦvͮeͤrͬs͛ᴛⷮuͧffeͤdͩ noͦoͦdͩleͤ”.

Vlad scoffs, “ᵛᵉʳʸ ᵍʳᵃᶜᵉᶠᵘˡ, ᴰᵃⁿⁱᵉˡ”, sounding to be walking near him, Danny doesn’t feel like opening his eyes yet, there’s still so many of them. It’s like he compacted his physical self while instead spreading out gaseous aspects of himself. Vlad still sounds wrong, his hearing is still wrong. At least he’s down from three sets of ears to two sets.

Danny pushing himself up with his hands, staggering upright fully, he’s… at least twice Vlad’s height. Damn it. Wiggling his mouth around, “dͩaͣmͫn iͥᴛⷮ”.

“ᴸᵃⁿᵍᵘᵃᵍᵉ”, Vlad stepping forward, crossing his arms, and glaring up at him. Danny’s tail swishes on the ground, fuck since when did he have a tail! Vlad’s sighs and actually smiles fondly at him, “ᵗʰⁱˢ ⁱˢ ᵍᵒᵒᵈ ᵉⁿᵒᵘgh, I suppose. There’s ᵖʳᵒᵇᵃᵇˡʸ ᵗᵒᵒ ᵐᵘᶜʰ ᵉⁿᵉʳᵍʸ ⁱn you to get ʸᵒᵘʳˢᵉˡᶠ ᵇᵃᶜk to normal, either ᶠᵒʳᵐ”, glancing around at the starry mist and floating eyes, “I ᵗⁱˡˡ ᶜᵃⁿ’ᵗ ᶠᵃᵗʰom how you didⁿ’ᵗ ʳᵉᵃˡⁱˢᵉ ʸᵒᵘ ʷere the king now with all ᵒᶠ this”.

“Iͥ… Iͥ’vͮeͤ neͤvͮeͤrͬ вⷡeͤeͤn,̓ liͥᴋⷦeͤ ᴛⷮhͪiͥs͛,̓ вⷡeͤfoͦrͬeͤ”.

Vlad blinks, looking back to his face, “strange, this, or that I suppose, should simply be your natural state now”, tilting his head and humming, “perhaps ᵃⁿᵒᵗʰᵉʳ ᵃᶠᶠect of being a halfa?”, shrugging, “well I can harᵈˡʸ ᵗᵉˢᵗ ⁱᵗ ᵒut. Now let’s sit ᵈᵒʷⁿ ᵃⁿᵈ ᵗᵃˡᵏ, ᵇᵉᶜᵃᵘse-”, sighing, “-this deᶠⁱⁿⁱtely must be talked about”.

Danny only turning his head, watching his sorta uncle sorta arch enemy sorta god father sit in a gody high backed chair, gesturing at the large lounger, “Daniel, your energʸ ⁱˢ ˡⁱᵗᵉrally repressing my ability to feel emotions strongly right now, I am okay, but ʷᵉ ʰᵃᵛᵉ ᵗᵒ talk or I’m not going to do wᵉˡˡ when you leave and neither will you”.

Danny nods a little jerkily and attempts to walk over but these legs don’t move right and he stumbles over onto the ground immediately, at least he manages to catch himself with his hands even if he cuts up Vlad’s rug in the process. He can hear, and see with the mist eyes, Vlad pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing. The man walking back over and helping Danny up and over to the chair.

It’s weirdly grounding sinking into soft cushion, even if it crunches up the tail weirdly. He’s got most of his back smashed into the seat, shoulders and head against the chair back, and his legs just kinda bent up and simultaneously sprawled on the arm rests and the floor; it probably looks horribly awkward and uncomfortable; didn’t feel it at least. “S͛oͦ”, looking most of his eyes -fuck this Is weird- up at the ceiling, “Jaͣcͨᴋⷦ… cͨaͣuͧghͪᴛⷮ yoͦuͧ. Dͩiͥdͩ t̸̝̻͎̀́̕h̸͍͔̽͊͆͜a̸̪͔̻̐͛͠t̴̡̙͕͆̈́͝ ᴛⷮoͦ yoͦuͧ”. There was always a chance of this happening, he always thought it would be him though. It hurt. And he had always known it would hurt. He just hadn’t realised how much. One of his ‘parents’ doing this.

Vlad rubs his face, wincing, then composing himself and nodding. Danny kind of wants to break something and that tail smacks is weird quill cover spear end thing on the ground. Vlad doesn’t seem to care at least, “indeed”, sighing, “it would seem Valerie was a fair bit more vengeful and vindictive than I was prepared for”.

Oh hey! His hearing isn’t super super weird anymore, titling his head enough to rub his left ears on the back of the chair- or ear he should say, seems he’s back to more human with that. Clearing his throat, “Vͮaͣl? S͛hͪeͤ goͦᴛⷮ yoͦuͧ cͨaͣuͧghͪᴛⷮ?”, scowling, “Noͦ woͦndͩeͤrͬ s͛hͪeͤ dͩiͥdͩn’ᴛⷮ s͛eͤeͤmͫ ᴛⷮoͦ cͨaͣrͬeͤ whͪeͤrͬeͤ ᴛⷮhͪeͤ ‘Vͮlaͣdͩ ᴛⷮhͪeͤ mͫaͣyoͦrͬ’ weͤnᴛⷮ!”. He was going to rip her a new one for this, Vlad got hurt. HURT. In all caps. HURT bad. Danny twitches a little, shit it feels like those horn things got longer on him.

“Try to keep a handle on yourself?”, Vlad running a hand through his hair, “thank you, and I mean that, for caring enough to try and find me. To rescue me”.

Danny blinks, that… might have been the only time the man had ever genuinely thanked him for anything. It meant he did a real good job, his core hums happily a little. Grinning, too too too many teeth, at Vlad, “aͣww Vͮlaͣdͩdͩiͥeͤ oͦf cͨoͦuͧrͬs͛eͤ Iͥ cͨaͣrͬeͤ”, frowning and shuddering a little, “ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ waͣs͛ ᴛⷮhͪeͤ woͦrͬs͛ᴛⷮ ᴛⷮhͪiͥng Iͥ’vͮeͤ eͤvͮeͤrͬ s͛eͤeͤn”.

“It was worse to experience, I assure you”, massaging his temples, “and the fact that it was Jack of all people. Once I’ve ‘healed’ properly I’m going to be incredibly embarrassed”.

“mͫy dͩaͣdͩ cͨuͧᴛⷮ oͦрⷬeͤn mͫy uͧncͨleͤ,̓ hͪoͦw dͩoͦ yoͦuͧ ᴛⷮhͪiͥnᴋⷦ Iͥ feͤeͤl”.

“Uncle huh”.

Danny frowns, “Iͥ feͤeͤl woͦrͬldͩs͛ вⷡeͤᴛⷮᴛⷮeͤrͬ aͣвⷡoͦuͧᴛⷮ yoͦuͧ ᴛⷮhͪaͣn ᴛⷮhͪeͤmͫ,̓ rͬiͥghͪᴛⷮ noͦw”.

Vlad nods a little, “reasonable”, sighing again and looking off to the side, “and Valerie?”.

Danny’s… conflicted about that. He knows she probably didn’t mean for all of that to happen to him. She probably just thought Jack would embarrass the guy by beating him up and take simple ectoplasm samples. Danny knew better, Vlad did too, even before this. Jack’s and Maddie’s dehumanising of ghosts was extreme and made them okay with doing awful things. “Iͥ… waͣnᴛⷮ ᴛⷮoͦ ᴋⷦnoͦw whͪaͣᴛⷮ s͛hͪeͤ mͫeͤaͣnᴛⷮ ᴛⷮoͦ hͪaͣрⷬрⷬeͤn. Iͥf s͛hͪeͤ… ᴋⷦneͤw hͪoͦw dͩaͣngeͤrͬoͦuͧs͛ ᴛⷮhͪeͤy cͨoͦuͧldͩ вⷡeͤ”.

“And if she did?”.

“ᴛⷮhͪeͤn s͛hͪeͤ’s͛ noͦᴛⷮ woͦrͬᴛⷮhͪ вⷡeͤiͥng neͤaͣrͬ oͦrͬ ᴛⷮaͣlᴋⷦiͥng ᴛⷮoͦ. Iͥf s͛hͪeͤ waͣnᴛⷮs͛ ᴛⷮoͦ ᴛⷮhͪrͬoͦw hͪaͣndͩs͛ ᴛⷮhͪeͤn fiͥneͤ”. If she’s remotely okay with what was done to Vlad, then he seriously misjudged her and he’s taking that suit away from her. He’ll rip the nanobots out of her, she doesn’t need them to be healthy or live. She can hate him all she wants for it, he doesn’t care. “S͛hͪeͤ woͦn’ᴛⷮ geͤᴛⷮ ᴛⷮoͦ вⷡeͤ ᴛⷮhͪeͤ Rͬeͤdͩ нⷩuͧnᴛⷮrͬeͤs͛s͛ aͣnymͫoͦrͬeͤ”.

Vlad nods agreeingly, “you’re far too protective”, frowning, “though I suppose it’s needed far more than I wanted to acknowledge previously”, rolling his wrist, “she led me into a trap, one I’m assuming she got Jack to set up by telling him Plasmius would be in that area. He had the place rigged with launchers that shot spiked balls that destabilised my ectoplasm enough that I couldn’t move. It was quite unpleasant realising that”.

Danny wincing, “mͫoͦdͩdͩeͤdͩ dͩrͬyeͤrͬ вⷡaͣlls͛,̓ eͤcͨᴛⷮoͦ-̄liͥnᴛⷮeͤrͬs͛. Iͥ feͤll oͦn ᴛⷮhͪoͦs͛eͤ oͦncͨeͤ,̓ рⷬaͣiͥnfuͧl. ᴛⷮuͧcͨᴋⷦ mͫoͦvͮeͤdͩ mͫeͤ aͣrͬoͦuͧndͩ liͥᴋⷦeͤ aͣ cͨaͣrͬdͩвⷡoͦaͣrͬdͩ s͛ᴛⷮaͣndͩeͤeͤ foͦrͬ aͣn hͪoͦuͧrͬ”.

Vlad eyes him, “I couldn’t move for days. The perks of being king I suppose”; he sounded a bit jealous, but… if it had worn off quicker then perhaps Vlad could have gotten away.

Danny swallows, “Yeͤaͣhͪ”, shuffling to sink into the cushion a bit more, engulf himself with it, “aͣmͫ Iͥ rͬeͤaͣlly,̓ yoͦuͧ ᴋⷦnoͦw?”.

Vlad looks at him like he’s dumb, “yes, Daniel. Yes you are. I would think your current and previous form would have made that clear”.

“hͪuͧhͪ”.

Vlad rolls his eyes fondly, the two sitting in silence for a bit, Danny aggressively wanting the chair to just swallow him into the black void or something. Then Vlad speaks up again, “what are you going to do now? After what… he did? They know, about both of us”.

Danny frowns, he’s honestly not sure. He can’t, won’t, go back to FentonWorks, not right now maybe not ever. Obviously he can’t right now while looking like some kind of messed up forest monster, even if he was almost more human sized now. Ugh, his bones felt so freaking long; it makes him want to wiggle them out but that feels like he’ll just make them longer and he doesn’t want that. Can he even look Jack in the eye? Yes, clearly his… dad? was extremely upset and disturbed by what he did or found out, he didn’t even know his dad drank! That Jack drank. Then there was the… state -flexing a few toes- that room was left in. Scowling a little, disgusting as it was, horrific as it was, as much hurt was in there; Jack left and didn’t re-enter. Forcing himself to stop basically baring his teeth, too many teeth, Ancients. Staring at the wall rather than Vlad, ignoring how the light from his eyes bounces off things, “dͩiͥdͩ hͪeͤ leͤaͣvͮeͤ,̓ aͣs͛ s͛oͦoͦn aͣs͛ yoͦuͧ,̓ yoͦuͧ ᴋⷦnoͦw,̓ cͨhͪaͣngeͤdͩ”.

Vlad frowns and nods, “he vomited, actually. Practically had to drag himself out, staggering and sweating the whole way. He… didn’t look that bad back when I had my accident”, furrowing his brows, “I think he cried, but I couldn’t exactly focus on the sound”. He’s got a distant look in his eyes, a sad one. Sometimes Danny wonders if, just maybe, if Jack and Maddie had just visited Vlad and supported him, then perhaps they’d still be friends. Maybe not great friends, but actual friends. Those two failed him miserably, even if that didn’t excuse him being a fruitloop at them. This though, Jack ripping him open, did excuse it.

Danny clenching his hands up and huffing aggressively at the air, he seemed to be… even more protective in this, er, state. Or maybe just had a harder time controlling his ghostly behaviours and shit. It made him feel a lot more monstrous. “ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ’s͛ goͦoͦdͩ,̓ Iͥ ᴛⷮhͪiͥnᴋⷦ”, scratching his head and wincing at how sharp the ice claw things were, “aͣndͩ ᴛⷮhͪeͤy вⷡoͦᴛⷮhͪ leͤᴛⷮ mͫeͤ leͤaͣvͮeͤ,̓ leͤᴛⷮ uͧs͛ leͤaͣvͮeͤ. Eͤvͮeͤn wiͥᴛⷮhͪ S͛ᴋⷦuͧlᴋⷦeͤrͬ ᴛⷮhͪeͤrͬeͤ рⷬoͦiͥnᴛⷮiͥng aͣ guͧn aͣᴛⷮ ᴛⷮhͪeͤmͫ”.

Vlad blinks, surprise barely hidden, “Skulker was with you?”.

Danny nodding, a little surprised himself, that Vlad hadn’t noticed. Guess the guys attention was really only on those more important to him, Danny’s self was probably really distracting too ‘cause he knows he was messing up with his human and ghost forms. “yeͤaͣhͪ,̓ Iͥ aͣs͛ᴋⷦeͤdͩ hͪiͥmͫ ᴛⷮoͦ fiͥndͩ yoͦuͧ aͣndͩ hͪeͤ dͩiͥdͩ”.

Vlad hums, “I suppose I’ll have to up his pay then”. Danny just huffs a snort at that. Vlad continuing after a beat, “Jack, I’m not surprised, he believes he made a mistake. Maddie… I’d like to say she was as, if not more, upset at my state than him; but I know that would be a lie. She was upset because of you, the reveal of you, and you being a proper ghost at her”.

Danny wincing, tail coiling in on itself and the quills ‘frilling’ out or something, “Iͥ hͪoͦрⷬeͤ Iͥ dͩiͥdͩn’ᴛⷮ hͪuͧrͬᴛⷮ hͪeͤrͬ ᴛⷮoͦoͦ вⷡaͣdͩly. ᴛⷮhͪeͤy… aͣs͛ᴋⷦeͤdͩ mͫeͤ ᴛⷮoͦ s͛ᴛⷮaͣy aͣwaͣy,̓ dͩiͥdͩn’ᴛⷮ ᴛⷮhͪeͤy?”.

“Daniel, you and I both know she didn’t mean permanently”. Danny glances at him and then goes back to staring at the wall. Vlad wheezing a little, “you’re thinking about not going back, aren’t you?”. Danny nods a little, prompting Vlad to continue, “you’re welcome to stay with me, of course”.

Danny fiddles with the claw finger things in front of his faces eyes, some of the floating eyes staring at them too. On one hand, living with Vlad is what wound up resulting in Dan, but that was years ago and Dan wasn’t some kind of eldritch ghost king. On the other hand, or one of his other hands he guesses geez that was freaky, he can’t imagine living with Vlad without them trying to break each other eventually. However… Vlad being alone right now feels incredibly wrong in an instinctual and primal way, a non-human way that’s possessive and hungry. He doesn’t like it. But he likes the idea of Vlad having a break down by himself over Danny not wanting to stay with him, even less. And sure, the guys kinda crazy, but he’s gotten a lot better. He was never going to be his dad, never. But maybe being uncle a little more genuinely wasn’t such a bad idea, “yoͦuͧ’vͮeͤ goͦᴛⷮ aͣ cͨoͦoͦl cͨaͣᴛⷮ”.

Vlad smirks, chuckling a little and shaking his head. Resting his chin on a palm and rubbing his chest a little with the other, “you know where your room is. There’s gummy bears in there like always, you child”.

“iͥs͛n’ᴛⷮ ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ rͬuͧdͩeͤ ᴛⷮoͦ s͛aͣy ᴛⷮoͦ yoͦuͧrͬ s͛oͦrͬᴛⷮaͣ goͦdͩ?”.

“Start acting like a god then”.

Danny squirms or squiggles and makes a point to stick his tongue out at the man, even if his heart and core aren’t really in it. Neither of them really have anything in the banter anyways. “Iͥ feͤdͩ yoͦuͧrͬ cͨaͣᴛⷮ,̓ вⷡy ᴛⷮhͪeͤ waͣy,̓ whͪiͥleͤ hͪeͤ hͪaͣdͩ yoͦuͧ”.

Vlad sags a bit bonelessly, looking genuinely relieved for the first time, “good. I’m glad she wasn’t left alone”.

Danny twitches, he really doesn’t want to be laying/sitting here anymore. Flopping his feet and legs on the ground fully, that long lower part of his legs attached to a weird backwards knee laying flat on the ground as he does actually try to push himself back standing up. Vlad quirking an eyebrow at, “and what do you think you’re doing?”.

Danny shaking his arms out a bit, why did his arms feels so much lighter than his hands? Ew. “Iͥ waͣnᴛⷮ ᴛⷮoͦ mͫoͦvͮeͤ aͣndͩ Iͥ waͣnᴛⷮ ᴛⷮoͦ рⷬuͧᴛⷮ ᴛⷮhͪeͤ feͤaͣrͬ oͦf aͣ goͦdͩ iͥn Vͮaͣl”, pointing at Vlad and struggling not to stagger a bit, growling at him, “Iͥ aͣmͫ cͨoͦmͫiͥng вⷡaͣcͨᴋⷦ aͣndͩ ᴋⷦnoͦw ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ iͥf yoͦuͧ’rͬeͤ noͦᴛⷮ hͪeͤrͬeͤ,̓ Iͥ’mͫ goͦiͥng ᴛⷮoͦ fiͥndͩ yoͦuͧ aͣndͩ s͛waͣdͩdͩleͤ yoͦuͧ oͦrͬ s͛oͦmͫeͤᴛⷮhͪiͥng eͤquͧaͣlly вⷡaͣвⷡyiͥng”.

Vlad puts his hands up, standing up as well, “understood, even if I wanted to I wouldn’t make very far”, dropping his hands, “it’ll be a while before I am genuinely healed, Daniel”.

Danny quirking a worried eyebrow, stepping forward a little jerkily, “eͤvͮeͤn wiͥᴛⷮhͪ whͪaͣᴛⷮ Iͥ dͩiͥdͩ? Yoͦuͧ feͤeͤl s͛ᴛⷮaͣвⷡleͤ?”.

“I lost blood too, far too much, you can’t fix that beyond packing me with enough ecto-energy to have plenty for my core to transition over to blood. I’m stable, yes, but my energy is quite volatile, I’ll fall apart if I so much as try to transform”.

Danny winces, okay, point taken. But he was better, healed, healing, it’s enough. Right now… he has to protect Vlad by making sure this never happens again. Him going to float up in the air and instead slamming himself into the ceiling, him snarling at said ceiling on instinct before blushing, whoops. He’d thought he’d been strong before, now it felt like he had a direct connection to the Infinite Realm and it was just shoving raw power at him; he… seemed to be sending some back but still. Weird. Not really good. Putting a hand on the ceiling to help hold himself in spot, looking down at Vlad with all his eyes, “dͩoͦ yoͦuͧ ᴛⷮhͪiͥnᴋⷦ hͪuͧmͫaͣns͛ cͨaͣn hͪaͣndͩleͤ s͛eͤeͤiͥng mͫeͤ? Liͥᴋⷦeͤ ᴛⷮhͪiͥs͛? Oͦrͬ liͥᴋⷦeͤ ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ? Iͥ feͤeͤl liͥᴋⷦeͤ Iͥ loͦoͦᴋⷦ liͥᴋⷦeͤ aͣ niͥghͪᴛⷮmͫaͣrͬeͤ“.

Vlad gives him an actually encouraging smile, “it’s not a bad look, Daniel, for a ghost”, then giving him that judgmental look he often did, “if you let loose your full ghost king form on her then she will pass out and your voice won’t make sense to purely human ears”.

Danny groaning exaggeratedly, figures, that, frankly just makes him feel worse about that form. Tail flicking a bit, this was… going to take a while to get used to. He also doesn’t really want anyone, who wasn’t a ghost anyways, knowing about his apparent freaking kingship. Moving the hand that isn’t on the ceiling to grab the crown a bit and trying to will it away, jerking when that seems to work, “oͦhͪ! Oͦᴋⷦaͣy. Iͥ cͨaͣn? woͦrͬᴋⷦ wiͥᴛⷮhͪ ᴛⷮhͪiͥs͛? Iͥ ᴛⷮhͪiͥnᴋⷦ?”.

Vlad chuckles at him shaking his head and walking over to his china cabinet, pulling out a bottle and a whiskey glass, “ridiculous”, sighing as he pours a honestly excessive amount, “do not bring Ms. Gray back here, I will hurt her”, his eyes flashing red dangerously just to make his threat very clear; even if that also seems to make he’s knees buckle a little before he can straighten himself out.

Danny is having none of that but he gets it, “Iͥ dͩoͦn’ᴛⷮ waͣnᴛⷮ hͪeͤrͬ neͤaͣrͬ yoͦuͧ aͣndͩ wiͥll juͧs͛ᴛⷮ s͛ᴛⷮaͣrͬᴛⷮ s͛hͪrͬiͥeͤᴋⷦiͥng aͣᴛⷮ hͪeͤrͬ liͥᴋⷦeͤ aͣ feͤrͬaͣl cͨaͣᴛⷮ iͥf s͛hͪeͤ s͛hͪoͦws͛”. Vlad huffing a small laugh while Danny eyes the liquor, “ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ s͛ᴛⷮuͧff’s͛ вⷡaͣdͩ foͦrͬ yoͦuͧ”.

“I really do not care, Daniel. I need to drown myself into numbness right now”.

“Rͬiͥghͪᴛⷮ…”, Danny’s not going to touch that one.

:Chap. 4:

You Set Up This Fall, You Get To Know It All

By the time Danny’s spotted Val, in her Red Huntress gear, he knows he’s a bit bigger, bit longer? than when he was at Vlad’s but he thinks he’s got a handle on himself. At least he got the cape to go away in that same time, and the size increase has definitely decreased the amount of star mist and random floating eyes that can be mouths.

She’s in a fire fight with Skulker, the one ghost that Danny doesn’t want her fighting right now, the one full ghost he doesn’t want her fighting right now. But Skulker doesn’t look like he’s ‘enjoying the hunt’, he just looks pissed. Jack… must have told him what happened, who set everything in motion. Danny watching, head peeking over a roof top and claws scrapping into the rooftop, as she grumbles, “what is with him today? What happened to ‘it’s just sparring’ Skulker? It’s like It’s actually trying to kill me or something. Ugh. Stupid ghosts”.

Skulker shooting at her again, “you truly don’t get what you’ve done”. Yeah, Skulker knows, and he’s pissed. Was he pissed because he did care somewhat about Vlad? Or because that level of hurt was just plain wrong? Or because his king was pissed and completely lost his shit?

Whatever. He’s the one who’s going to have this conversation with her. She’s his too and Skulker doesn’t get to hurt her either. Him putting a hand to his head, wincing and noting how his fingers can curl around his whole skull, ugh. He wants her to be scared of him right now though, so he’ll accept it.

Skulker gets in a good hit, smashing a mini bomb into her shoulder, making her wince and zip away from the ghost some. Now. Danny lunges, all snarl, “R̴̢̙̪̀̈́͝E̵͚̦͎͒̐D̸̠̙͉́͐”, and smashes her down into a roof top, torso and shoulders pinned under his claws and palm. Skulker jerking in the air with a startled, “shit, Phantom”.

Danny putting his face in a very startled Valerie’s face, hissing, “weͤ,̓ aͣrͬeͤ hͪaͣvͮiͥng aͣ liͥᴛⷮᴛⷮleͤ ᴛⷮaͣlᴋⷦ. N̸̪͖͇̽͋́O̸̡͇̻̾̚W̸̦͓̐͌͋“, lifting his head to look at Skulker and narrowing his eyes, “yoͦuͧ dͩiͥdͩ goͦoͦdͩ,̓ вⷡuͧᴛⷮ leͤaͣvͮeͤ”. Skulker nodding rapidly and effectively fleeing; Danny’s tail swishing contentedly before he turns his attention back to Val.

She shoots him point blank in the face immediately, “what the zone are you? Who are you, ghost?”.

He barely cares she doesn’t recognise him, he bites her gun into thirds, spitting the middle part that’s inside of his mouth out across the roof as the other pieces clatter down, “aͣвⷡs͛oͦluͧᴛⷮeͤly noͦᴛⷮ,̓ Rͬeͤdͩ”.

She blinks at him, muttering, “‘Red’”, to herself, and then her face visor opens up, “Phantom? What the zone happened to you?!? And what are you doing!?!”.

Danny chuckles meanly, dropping his feet and legs out of floating in the air, so that they’re planted on the roof, him basically hunched loomingly over her, “whͪaͣᴛⷮ hͪaͣрⷬрⷬeͤneͤdͩ iͥs͛ yoͦuͧ рⷬiͥs͛s͛eͤdͩ mͫeͤ oͦff”. She stills when he grabs her helmet with his other hand and crushes it off in pieces, sticking his face in hers, even if his is much bigger right now; the mist eyes crowding around her face to stare further. She smells scared, good. “Iͥ foͦuͧndͩ Vͮlaͣdͩ,̓ waͣnᴛⷮ ᴛⷮoͦ ᴋⷦnoͦw hͪoͦw Iͥ foͦuͧndͩ hͪiͥmͫ? whͪaͣᴛⷮ s͛ᴛⷮaͣᴛⷮeͤ hͪeͤ waͣs͛ iͥn?“.

She nods stiffly and slowly at him, voice sounding a bit strained, “yes?”.

Danny snarls, all teeth, too many as there are, “нⷩaͣvͮeͤ yoͦuͧ eͤvͮeͤrͬ s͛eͤeͤn s͛oͦmͫeͤoͦneͤ fiͥlleͤᴛⷮ aͣ fiͥs͛hͪ вⷡeͤfoͦrͬeͤ? Oͦrͬ ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ Aͣngeͤl ᴛⷮrͬaͣрⷬ iͥn S͛aͣw? Whͪaͣᴛⷮ aͣвⷡoͦuͧᴛⷮ s͛oͦmͫeͤoͦneͤ wiͥᴛⷮhͪ ᴛⷮhͪeͤiͥrͬ eͤyeͤs͛ ᴛⷮoͦrͬn oͦuͧᴛⷮ oͦf ᴛⷮhͪeͤiͥrͬ s͛ᴋⷦuͧll?н̡̼̘̫ⷩ͜͜a̟̻̠̪͔ͣv̡̙̞̠̦ͮe͍͚̟̦̺ͤ y̠̘̻o̻͕̠̫̘͔ͦu̦͉̙̘̫͎ͧ?͎̞͖!͚̙̫”.

She pales, good, shaking her head, “Jack- he- he wouldn’t-”.

“нⷩeͤ dͩiͥdͩ”, narrowing his eyes at her, all of them, “Aͣndͩ cͨaͣrͬeͤ ᴛⷮoͦ guͧeͤs͛s͛ whͪaͣᴛⷮ hͪeͤ’s͛ dͩoͦiͥng noͦw? Aͣfᴛⷮeͤrͬ Vͮlaͣdͩ cͨhͪaͣngeͤdͩ вⷡaͣcͨᴋⷦ aͣndͩ hͪeͤ rͬeͤaͣliͥs͛eͤdͩ hͪeͤ’dͩ mͫaͣngleͤdͩ hͪiͥs͛ oͦncͨeͤ вⷡeͤs͛ᴛⷮ frͬiͥeͤndͩ?”, his glow feels like it’s moving and wiggling more like flames than a proper glow.

This time, her voice is a squeak and she’s shaking lightly, “w-what-t?”.

“Dͩrͬiͥnᴋⷦiͥng. Aͣfᴛⷮeͤrͬ vͮoͦmͫiͥᴛⷮiͥng aͣndͩ cͨrͬyiͥng foͦrͬ fuͧcͨᴋⷦ ᴋⷦnoͦws͛ hͪoͦw loͦng”, moving a foot to be pinning her with that instead so he can stand more up right and stare down at her a bit more menacingly, “dͩoͦ yoͦuͧ hͪaͣvͮeͤ aͣny cͨluͧeͤ hͪoͦw mͫuͧcͨhͪ hͪuͧrͬᴛⷮ yoͦuͧrͬ s͛ᴛⷮuͧрⷬiͥdͩ vͮeͤngeͤfuͧl cͨrͬaͣрⷬ hͪaͣs͛ cͨaͣuͧs͛eͤdͩ? Noͦ,̓ yoͦuͧ dͩoͦn’ᴛⷮ”, pointing a claw in her face, “yoͦuͧ’rͬeͤ cͨoͦmͫiͥng wiͥᴛⷮhͪ mͫeͤ rͬiͥghͪᴛⷮ noͦw,̓ weͤᴛⷮhͪeͤrͬ yoͦuͧ liͥᴋⷦeͤ iͥᴛⷮ oͦrͬ noͦᴛⷮ. Aͣndͩ ᴋⷦnoͦw ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ iͥf iͥᴛⷮ waͣs͛n’ᴛⷮ foͦrͬ ᴛⷮhͪeͤ faͣcͨᴛⷮ ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ Iͥ ᴋⷦnoͦw yoͦuͧ dͩiͥdͩn’ᴛⷮ mͫeͤaͣn foͦrͬ ᴛⷮhͪiͥs͛ ᴛⷮoͦ hͪaͣрⷬрⷬeͤn,̓ Iͥ woͦuͧldͩ rͬiͥрⷬ ᴛⷮhͪoͦs͛eͤ naͣnoͦ вⷡoͦᴛⷮs͛ oͦuͧᴛⷮ oͦf yoͦuͧ mͫys͛eͤlf,̓ вⷡy aͣny mͫeͤaͣns͛ neͤcͨeͤs͛s͛aͣrͬy”. And floats up with her trapped in his one foot, moving to float off back to Naperville.

He hated that town now. Wanted nothing to do with it. But she was going to see this, even if it gave her some nightmares. Because, by fuck, were him and Vlad going to be having them.

Val doesn’t even try to fight him, mostly staring wide-eyed, possibly in a bit of genuine medical shock. Muttering to herself after a long while, “I- I didn’t- the Fenton’s- I- zone”.

Danny ignores that the mini GAV’s gone, he’s not sure he cares. If they were still here or not it wouldn't matter. If they thought him more a monster now then whatever, they already thought he was a monster anyways. He’s tempted to toss her on the floor, but he doesn’t want more hurt. So he just drops her gently on it, her pushing herself up with her hands, sitting on her ankles and staring into the room; arms falling to her sides. Danny planting both his feet on the ground, looking at the pain room instead of her. There’s been no attempt to clean. Good… he… doesn’t want those two touching Vlad’s blood and ectoplasm. It makes him want to wiggle himself out and cover the room, consume up everything and destroy what’s left to ash and dust; nothing but broken pain memories remaining to be seen.

His head smacks into the outer ceiling, him wincing and putting a hand to the ceiling, making a point to fold himself up a bit again. He thinks he’s got too many arms again. He pokes her with a finger… from his lower left arm, ugh, he doesn’t know how much he does or doesn’t want that to be noticed by her.

She jerks forward, catching herself with her hands; at least she finally says something, “I- this is horrific. I didn’t- didn’t think they’d ever… go this far. Zone- It’s- this is… there’s so much”, putting a hand over her mouth and gagging, eyes watering.

… Danny, almost feels like a jerk. But she needs to see this. Huffing, it’s almost a snarl, “dͩoͦn’ᴛⷮ foͦrͬgeͤᴛⷮ ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ yoͦuͧ’rͬeͤ ᴛⷮhͪeͤ niͥcͨeͤ ghͪoͦs͛ᴛⷮ hͪuͧnᴛⷮeͤrͬ eͤvͮeͤrͬ aͣgaͣiͥn”.

“I- I won’t”. Some of the wires and metal sway in the breeze, making her flinch.

“ᴋⷦnoͦw ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ iͥf Jaͣcͨᴋⷦ geͤᴛⷮs͛ aͣlcͨoͦhͪoͦl рⷬoͦiͥs͛oͦniͥng oͦrͬ dͩoͦeͤs͛ s͛oͦmͫeͤᴛⷮhͪiͥng ᴛⷮoͦ hͪuͧrͬᴛⷮ hͪiͥmͫs͛eͤlf,̓ ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ’s͛ oͦn yoͦuͧ”, scowling, “aͣndͩ s͛ᴛⷮaͣy ᴛⷮhͪeͤ Zoͦneͤ aͣwaͣy frͬoͦmͫ Vͮlaͣdͩ. Iͥ dͩoͦn’ᴛⷮ hͪaͣᴛⷮeͤ yoͦuͧ foͦrͬ ᴛⷮhͪiͥs͛ вⷡuͧᴛⷮ iͥᴛⷮ’s͛ aͣ dͩaͣmͫn cͨloͦs͛eͤ ᴛⷮhͪiͥng. Jaͣcͨᴋⷦ… Jaͣcͨᴋⷦ Iͥ mͫiͥghͪᴛⷮ juͧs͛ᴛⷮ hͪaͣᴛⷮeͤ. S͛oͦ cͨoͦngrͬaͣᴛⷮs͛ oͦn ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ“, turning away and floating up, moving away a little, “fiͥndͩ yoͦuͧrͬ oͦwn waͣy hͪoͦmͫeͤ. Feͤeͤl frͬeͤeͤ ᴛⷮoͦ ᴛⷮaͣᴋⷦeͤ yoͦuͧrͬ ᴛⷮiͥmͫeͤ”. That’s a bit of a threat and he’s pretty sure both of them know that. She just nods slowly, and shifts into a different sitting position.

Perhaps… he can see her in a bit better light and be more okay with her if she stays here a while, just stares and takes in the aftermath.

Him heading off back to Amity, he’ll burn everything to nothing when she’s not here.

“I screwed up, I screwed up real bad, dad”.

Is Vlad still at home when Danny gets back there? Yeah. Yeah he is. He’s also extremely drunk. Extremely. Just laying on the tile in one of his bathrooms, button up shirt completely unbuttoned and splayed open wide. The room smells like vomit. It’s… not great. Danny’s still a little jerky about walking and his stance is weirdly wide, but he walks himself over to the man, “yoͦuͧ loͦoͦᴋⷦ liͥᴋⷦeͤ s͛hͪiͥᴛⷮ”.

Vlad grumbling, slurred, “weeeelll, I feee ‘reate”, and makes zero attempts to move. Danny’s sigh is almost fond as he moves to lift the man up, he only drags him out by one step before the phone goes off.

On Vlad’s personal line.

Only a few people used that. Himself, Sam and Tuck in emergencies, Val, and Maddie and Jack.

He doesn’t want to answer it.

He knows he has to.

But still.

He doesn’t want to.

He puts Vlad down gently, his aura felt better but he still felt like shattered glass. One wrong push and, oops, everything crumbles.

“Is… is Vlad okay?”.

It’s Jack’s voice.

It’s Jack.

The one who 尺讠尸尸🝗ᗪ ᐯ㇄闩ᗪ 闩尸闩尺七.

He unfolds more than he’d like but he’s… more himself? still aware and not a pure obsessive nightmare. Him hopping up onto the counter and crouching like a goblin as a way to be off the ground but not floating, those bunny ear horns bending and glitching like searching tv antenna, “山͉͍͖卄͙͎͉丫̝̺”. Him twitching, rolling his shoulders and eyeballing the ceiling with a few mist eyes to make sure he’s not getting too close to it with his size. Growling, “hͪeͤ’s͛ fiͥneͤ,̓ noͦ ᴛⷮhͪaͣnᴋⷦs͛ ᴛⷮoͦ 丫ㄖㄩ”.

He can feel the wince over the line, good. He hopes he sounds like a nightmare right now. “Dan…ny?”. Danny huffs, dragging an ice clawed hand down his face, instead of responding. Jack speaking back up when that becomes clear to him, “the silent treatment makes sense, I… did a bad thing. How was- how was I supposed to know that- to- that. God. Ghosts… are supposed to be dead”.

Danny shouldn’t be spending his time consoling Jack, this situations true monster. Eyes become mouths and his voice reverberates loudly, “工’ᐯ🝗 爪闩ᗪ🝗 闩爪讠丂〸闩长🝗⸝ ⻏丫 🝗ᐯ🝗尺〸尺ㄩ丂〸讠𝓝Ꮆ 讠𝓝 丫ㄖㄩ”.

“Dann-”.

“𝓝ㄖ丫ㄖㄩ ᗪㄖ𝓝’七 Ꮆ🝗セ七ㄖ ᗪ闩𝓝𝓝丫爪🝗. Wiͥll yoͦuͧ faͣcͨeͤ yoͦuͧrͬs͛eͤlf aͣndͩ ᴛⷮeͤll hͪiͥmͫ whͪaͣᴛⷮ ᴛⷮhͪeͤ rͬeͤaͣs͛oͦn iͥs͛? Whͪy yoͦuͧ 七ㄖ尺🝗 hͪiͥmͫ aͣрⷬaͣrͬᴛⷮ? Oͦrͬ wiͥll yoͦuͧ s͛ᴛⷮoͦрⷬ waͣlloͦwiͥng iͥn yoͦuͧrͬ s͛eͤlf рⷬiͥᴛⷮy liͥᴋⷦeͤ yoͦuͧ hͪaͣvͮeͤ ᴛⷮhͪeͤ rͬiͥghͪᴛⷮ ᴛⷮoͦ. Whͪaͣᴛⷮ iͥf hͪeͤ 尸🝗尺讠丂卄🝗ᗪ вⷡy yoͦuͧrͬ hͪaͣndͩ? Вⷡuͧᴛⷮ Iͥ guͧeͤs͛s͛ iͥf aͣ ghͪoͦs͛ᴛⷮ iͥs͛ 🝗𝓝ᗪ🝗ᗪ,̓ iͥᴛⷮ laͣcͨᴋⷦs͛ aͣny mͫeͤaͣniͥng,̓ s͛oͦ whͪaͣᴛⷮ s͛hͪoͦuͧldͩ yoͦuͧ cͨaͣrͬeͤ”.

“That’s not- zone Vlad- he’s not going to… perish is he? Oh who am I kidding, neither of you probably want- I didn’t mean- I thought- Ghosts are… they’re not human, they’re just not. There’s no heart, there shouldn’t be sentience- I- research of humanities safety should be good but- all it was wrong, I was wrong”.

At least he can admit that much. At least him being freaked out still, broke still, meant this truly impacted him, truly hurt him. Danny using one leg to stretch down to the floor, barely having to unbend the limb, and walk over to Vlad. He’s muttering about wanting his cat, Danny can do that. Danny can help. Be good. Heal. Moving some of his mist self to pick her up from a study room and move her to him. She grumbles, hissing, at Danny but doesn’t object to Vlad grabbing her to him and snuggling her. Danny blinking harshly, “Whͪaͣᴛⷮ’s͛ ᴛⷮhͪeͤ dͩiͥffeͤrͬeͤncͨeͤ вⷡeͤᴛⷮweͤeͤn uͧs͛,̓ вⷡeͤᴛⷮweͤeͤn ghͪoͦs͛ᴛⷮs͛ aͣndͩ ᴛⷮhͪeͤiͥrͬ cͨoͦrͬeͤs͛,̓ aͣndͩ ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ вⷡuͧndͩleͤ oͦf faͣllaͣcͨiͥeͤs͛ ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ yoͦuͧ cͨaͣll aͣ hͪeͤaͣrͬᴛⷮ. Yoͦuͧrͬ aͣnᴛⷮhͪrͬoͦрⷬoͦcͨeͤnᴛⷮrͬiͥs͛mͫ hͪaͣs͛ ᴛⷮaͣiͥnᴛⷮeͤdͩ yoͦuͧrͬs͛,̓ hͪuͧвⷡrͬiͥs͛ cͨoͦns͛uͧmͫiͥng yoͦuͧ”. He’s talking like Vlad almost, because he was near? Because, in a hind brain way, he knew what the man wanted to say to Jack if any aspect of him would be up for such a thing.

“I- you’re right. You’re right. We were, never trying to disprove ourselves, I never was. We should have known, we should have seen, but the lies fit what we wanted to believe”.

Danny huffs, cracking his neck sharply from side to side and folding himself up a bit better, he almost… feels like he could be human again but things… just keep aggravating him. “Iͥ guͧeͤs͛s͛ aͣ s͛ᴛⷮoͦrͬmͫ oͦf вⷡloͦoͦdͩ,̓ fleͤs͛hͪ,̓ aͣndͩ guͧᴛⷮs͛ waͣs͛ aͣll ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ waͣs͛ neͤeͤdͩeͤdͩ ᴛⷮoͦ rͬiͥрⷬ eͤvͮeͤrͬyᴛⷮhͪiͥng wiͥndͩ oͦрⷬeͤn,̓ hͪuͧhͪ? Cͨoͦrͬrͬoͦdͩeͤ aͣwaͣy ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ вⷡliͥs͛s͛fuͧl iͥgnoͦrͬaͣncͨeͤ?”.

“Yeah… I- I’m so so sorry. Not for knowing, for- for doing. Is your… form better now? I want to know how you two are like this but- zone I don’t have the right. Are you okay?”.

Danny sighing, running a hand through his hair, over the small horn bumps, good that’s… good. He’s still too long, everything too long and stretched out, still hugging his middle with those second set of arms he spawned when he was around Val. But he was at least more folded in in some places. “noͦ,̓ Jaͣcͨᴋⷦ,̓ noͦ Iͥ’mͫ noͦᴛⷮ. Noͦ hͪeͤ’s͛ noͦᴛⷮ. Aͣndͩ noͦ yoͦuͧ dͩoͦn’ᴛⷮ. Iͥf yoͦuͧ hͪaͣdͩ aͣs͛ᴋⷦeͤdͩ aͣrͬoͦuͧndͩ aͣᴛⷮ oͦneͤ ᴛⷮiͥmͫeͤ,̓ yoͦuͧ mͫiͥghͪᴛⷮ hͪaͣvͮeͤ foͦuͧndͩ oͦuͧᴛⷮ. Oͦuͧrͬ iͥns͛iͥdͩeͤs͛ aͣrͬeͤ iͥnfaͣmͫoͦuͧs͛. Noͦneͤ woͦuͧldͩ dͩaͣrͬeͤ ᴛⷮeͤll yoͦuͧ noͦw,̓ aͣfᴛⷮeͤrͬ ᴛⷮhͪiͥs͛,̓ aͣny goͦoͦdͩ wiͥll oͦrͬ ᴛⷮoͦleͤrͬaͣncͨeͤ yoͦuͧ mͫiͥghͪᴛⷮ hͪaͣvͮeͤ hͪaͣdͩ wiͥᴛⷮhͪ ghͪoͦs͛ᴛⷮs͛ iͥs͛ goͦneͤ. ᴛⷮhͪeͤ oͦnly rͬeͤaͣs͛oͦn S͛ᴋⷦuͧlᴋⷦeͤrͬ dͩiͥdͩn’ᴛⷮ goͦ aͣfᴛⷮeͤrͬ yoͦuͧ,̓ iͥs͛ вⷡeͤcͨaͣuͧs͛eͤ hͪeͤ ᴋⷦnoͦws͛ Iͥ woͦuͧldͩ hͪaͣvͮeͤ вⷡrͬoͦᴋⷦeͤn hͪiͥmͫ foͦrͬ ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ. Mⷨaͣdͩ aͣndͩ hͪuͧrͬᴛⷮ oͦrͬ noͦᴛⷮ,̓ mͫy mͫaͣᴋⷦeͤrͬs͛ aͣrͬeͤ oͦff liͥmͫiͥᴛⷮs͛ foͦrͬ s͛eͤrͬiͥoͦuͧs͛ hͪuͧrͬᴛⷮ”.

“Will… you be okay? Vladdie? I… understand if you don’t want to come home but, we do want you back though. Me, and your mom. I- you don’t even have to call me dad anymore, if you don’t want”. Danny can tell being called ‘Jack’ by who he knew to be his son, hurt the man. But ‘dad’ was a word that felt like lead and poison in his mouth right now.

Danny grinding his teeth, sharp points clinking against each other, “yeͤs͛. Whͪy woͦuͧldͩ Iͥ goͦ вⷡaͣcͨᴋⷦ ᴛⷮoͦ aͣ hͪoͦuͧs͛eͤ ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ aͣᴛⷮᴛⷮaͣcͨᴋⷦs͛ mͫeͤ aͣs͛ aͣ dͩeͤfeͤncͨeͤ mͫeͤcͨhͪaͣniͥs͛mͫ? Aͣ hͪoͦuͧs͛eͤ wiͥᴛⷮhͪ рⷬeͤoͦрⷬleͤ ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ woͦuͧldͩ hͪaͣvͮeͤ 七ㄖ尺𝓝 爪🝗 闩尸闩尺〸 iͥf Iͥ’dͩ вⷡeͤeͤn ᴛⷮhͪeͤ oͦneͤ yoͦuͧ cͨaͣuͧghͪᴛⷮ iͥns͛ᴛⷮeͤaͣdͩ? Yoͦuͧ’rͬeͤ mͫy mͫaͣᴋⷦeͤrͬs͛,̓ рⷬaͣrͬeͤnᴛⷮs͛,̓ s͛ᴛⷮiͥll,̓ вⷡuͧᴛⷮ yoͦuͧ dͩoͦn’ᴛⷮ geͤᴛⷮ ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ ᴛⷮiͥᴛⷮleͤ rͬiͥghͪᴛⷮ noͦw. Vͮlaͣdͩ’s͛ waͣnᴛⷮeͤdͩ ᴛⷮoͦ вⷡeͤ aͣ faͣᴛⷮhͪeͤrͬ fiͥguͧrͬeͤ oͦf mͫiͥneͤ foͦrͬ aͣ loͦng ᴛⷮiͥmͫeͤ,̓ mͫaͣyвⷡeͤ Iͥ’ll juͧs͛ᴛⷮ leͤᴛⷮ hͪiͥmͫ dͩoͦ ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ”. Danny… doesn’t fully mean that, he knows he doesn’t, but… maybe he did want to upset Jack a little and maybe he just wanted to know how the man would respond.

“I- yeah. He’d… probably do right by you more than I have. Sorry. You… you don’t have to come back and we’ll leave you alone, stay away, if that’s what you want”.

He’s not sure if he’s angry Jack just agreed to that or content that Jack realised how much wrong he’d done and so many times. “Iͥ’ll cͨoͦmͫeͤ вⷡaͣcͨᴋⷦ,̓ Iͥ wiͥll. S͛oͦmͫeͤdͩaͣy,̓ noͦᴛⷮ ᴛⷮoͦ dͩaͣy,̓ вⷡuͧᴛⷮ s͛oͦmͫeͤdͩaͣy. Вⷡuͧᴛⷮ Iͥ dͩoͦn’ᴛⷮ s͛eͤeͤ mͫys͛eͤlf вⷡeͤiͥng aͣвⷡleͤ ᴛⷮoͦ s͛leͤeͤрⷬ iͥn aͣny hͪoͦuͧs͛eͤ ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ hͪaͣs͛ yoͦuͧ iͥn iͥᴛⷮ,̓ eͤvͮeͤrͬ aͣgaͣiͥn. Yoͦuͧ 尺讠尸尸🝗ᗪ 闩尸闩尺〸 ᴛⷮhͪeͤ oͦnly oͦᴛⷮhͪeͤrͬ naͣᴛⷮuͧrͬaͣl oͦneͤ oͦf mͫy ᴋⷦiͥndͩ,̓ iͥf yoͦuͧ hͪaͣdͩ eͤndͩeͤdͩ hͪiͥmͫ Iͥ woͦuͧldͩ hͪaͣvͮeͤ вⷡeͤeͤn aͣll aͣloͦneͤ. Aͣndͩ ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ rͬoͦoͦmͫ,̓ hͪiͥs͛ s͛ᴛⷮaͣᴛⷮeͤ,̓ ᴛⷮhͪaͣᴛⷮ’s͛ goͦiͥng ᴛⷮoͦ hͪaͣuͧnᴛⷮ mͫeͤ рⷬrͬoͦвⷡaͣвⷡly foͦrͬeͤvͮeͤrͬ”. Alone like Vlad had been, for twenty years. Except he didn’t even have a science made clone for company, like Danny would have. Sighing and scowling, looking at his one arm, it’s more… human length now, “Yoͦuͧ ᴋⷦnoͦw,̓ Vͮlaͣdͩ’s͛ ᴛⷮrͬiͥeͤdͩ ᴛⷮoͦ ᴋⷦiͥll yoͦuͧ mͫuͧlᴛⷮiͥрⷬleͤ ᴛⷮiͥmͫeͤs͛”.

“What? We… had that one fight I know, but, multiple?”.

“Yoͦuͧ leͤfᴛⷮ hͪiͥmͫ ᴛⷮoͦ rͬoͦᴛⷮ iͥn aͣ hͪoͦs͛рⷬiͥᴛⷮaͣl вⷡeͤdͩ s͛loͦwly hͪaͣlf dͩyiͥng wiͥᴛⷮhͪoͦuͧᴛⷮ eͤvͮeͤrͬ aͣ vͮiͥs͛iͥᴛⷮ. Vͮlaͣdͩ hͪaͣᴛⷮeͤs͛ yoͦuͧ. Iͥf yoͦuͧ goͦ neͤaͣrͬ hͪiͥmͫ eͤvͮeͤrͬ aͣgaͣiͥn,̓ hͪeͤ’ll ᴛⷮrͬy ᴛⷮoͦ ᴋⷦiͥll yoͦuͧ. Dͩoͦ noͦᴛⷮ cͨaͣll hͪeͤrͬeͤ eͤvͮeͤrͬ aͣgaͣiͥn. Yoͦuͧ’rͬeͤ aͣ hͪoͦrͬrͬiͥвⷡleͤ рⷬeͤrͬs͛oͦn,̓ Jaͣcͨᴋⷦ,̓ ᴛⷮrͬuͧly. Вⷡuͧᴛⷮ Iͥ s͛ᴛⷮiͥll cͨaͣrͬeͤ aͣвⷡoͦuͧᴛⷮ yoͦuͧ aͣndͩ dͩoͦn’ᴛⷮ waͣnᴛⷮ ᴛⷮoͦ s͛eͤeͤ yoͦuͧ hͪuͧrͬᴛⷮiͥng,̓ s͛oͦ рⷬleͤaͣs͛eͤ geͤᴛⷮ ᴛⷮhͪeͤrͬaͣрⷬy”.

“I- oh- I’m a fool. I… I really am sorry. And yeah, yes, me and Maddie are already set up to, uh, go. We… were going to offer to set some up for you and Vlad but, that’s, that’s probably crossing a line. Sorry”.

Danny sits down on the ground, Vlad’s absolutely unconscious and Maddie the Cat’s still here. It’s.. nice, comforting he supposes. And then he lurches, feeling his insides snapping and that folding happing at a nauseating pace. Ice claws to white gloves, mist eyes snapping into a single face, those second arms liquifying and squelching up into his stomach, tail melding into a leg. He bends over, vomiting green goopy ectoplasm immediately.

“Danny?! Are you-!?! Zone I- crap-”.

Danny groaning a little as he straightens himself up, “ugh”, and wiping his mouth. Tilting his head and giving his attention back to the phone, “ｴ’𝓶 ⨍ιɳҽ, ʝᥙട𝜏 ⨍σɬԃҽԃ ᥙρ αցαιɳ. Ɛɯ”, he felt too… encapsulated? Compacted? Stuffed inside a sausage skin? Like there was too much of him to move without exploding? Massaging his throat cautiously, legit worried he actually will just spontaneously unfold again or start glitching out his two forms again. His throat seems to pop back in place, “And Jazz has been my therapist for years. Vlad has his cat”.

“Oh”.

“Yeah”, Danny sighs, choosing to just lay on the ground next to Vlad’s healing ass, “a normal therapist wouldn’t be useful anyways. Our minds are… different”.

“Right. I… are you okay with that? Being… different?”.

Danny rolls his eyes, he felt like he didn’t have bones. “Yes, Jack. Yes. What I am and who I am just go hand in hand now”, that wasn’t even mentioning the whole ‘ghost king’ thing, that was pretty dependent on him being a ghost and well. The ghosts seemed okay with that, based on how weird they’ve been to him which… now that he thinks about it, is probably partly out of them being afraid of him or thinking he’s going to drag an army to their doors. Crap that’s why ghosts kept looking over his shoulders when he cropped up in their lairs! Damn! How’s he supposed to establish that he’s not going to do that? Rubbing his forehead, “Jack, I should probably be looking after Vlad, full offence”.

“Right right, um, how will I get in touch with you now? If I… shouldn’t call Vlad’s?”.

Danny huffs, “Jack, I’ll call you if I feel like talking to you, not the other way around”, and hangs up on him. He’ll see if Jack’s willing to give that little bit of respect or not. If he can’t… then it’s probably not a relationship worth saving. Dropping the phone on the floor next to him, laying spread out.

It’s silent for a long while.

He feels like he can think more properly, less like there’s an entire realm rumbling inside him and in the back of his mind. His core’s still pulsing a little much in that way it did when his obsession was a little more at the forefront, but Vlad’s still healing, still might need Danny to throw more energy at him. Thinking of that…

He pushes himself upright with a grunt, standing with a stagger. Trying to feel for that connection to the crown, the cape, the ring, all of it. Attempting to pull it out felt kinda like grabbing onto a taught fishing line, he can sort of pluck the connection and the items of regalia sing back at him as if asking to be used or shown off, to adorn him. It’s… strange. But it’s his, so he should play with it some right? Just hopefully actually pulling that connection to him doesn’t force him into that… state instantly again. It’s going to be a long while before he’s used to his body being in that kind of shape or how freaky it probably looked. Well nothing for it, it’s like hocking his finger on it and just tugging into forward to his head, eyeing his left hand as the ring forms around it there. Cape settling around his shoulder, lazy flaming collar bursting to life around his throat, secured by skull clasps and a dark smokey shadow chain; at least it matches his black and white themeing. The green ring and crown went with his eyes so that was… okay.

When he tries to float up he nearly smashes into the roof again, barely stopping himself short this time; still glares at the ceiling though. Being a bit more cautious about going to find a mirror, one of the bathrooms will do.

Of course the thing cracks instantly from Danny’s general pressure. Ugh. At least he can still see himself. He still looks like himself, Phantom him currently, his glow was more flame-like than his normal soft static-like glow. His eyes are too bright to see his pupils or sclera, not super great; his pupils and sclera made him more readable by the human mind so… The crown is, of course, its blazing green flamey self, but he can see frost coating it when he leans forward, some frost even creeping across the mirror. Him giving it a poke, watching it wiggle in the air, and eyeing how the ring just simply didn’t have a glow. Odd but he can tell that energy comes in through the crown, to him, through him, his own energy sort of mixing in, then leaving out through the ring. Huh. Cool. Ghost king functioned as a weird filter battery system for the zone.

“You're energy makes-”, yawn, “-makes you a lot easier to find now”.

Danny jerking, his body spazzing out like a video game clipping all over the room with bits of starry mist and eyes in between before he snaps himself back together. Shaking his head out then looking to Vlad, “ɯαყ 𝜏σ ട𝜏αɾ𝜏ɬҽ 𝓶ҽ, ყσᥙ ʝҽɾƙ”. Oh hey his voice is all weird again, great. Why didn’t Pariah have this voice issue? Ten bucks says it’s because of Danny ghostly wail, his voice was literally an uber powerful weapon so he could probably, like, hold more ecto-energy in his throat or voice box.

Vlad quirks an eyebrow at him, its only slightly judgmental, “I’d tell you to do a better job holding yourself together, but you’ve already corrected it”, and shrugs, his shoulders were a bit sagged and his eyes look sunken. He didn’t look great. “What did Jack have to say for himself”. It’s not even a question.

Danny sighing, moving himself to be sitting on the counter, eyeing his reflection over his shoulder, making the slack connection go taught and send away the regalia, “a lot of sorries, that I can come home but don’t have to, if we’re okay, how we’re okay, will we be okay, he’s booked therapy apparently”, smirking a little half-heartedly and looking back to the guy, “he offered to pay for your therapy. Like you’re not rich enough to do that yourself”.

Vlad scoffs, his hearts not in the annoyance either, “that fool”.

“Yeah”.

Vlad humming after a bit, eyeing the broken mirror, “so they’re alright with what we are”.

Danny nodding, “seems so, confused and I got that ‘I thought he was dead dead, a ghost’ thing as if that made what he did any less fucked”.

“Language”.

Danny sticks his tongue out, “bleh”, sighing, “I’m pretty sure both of them already know the how, since our little portal accidents are shit they know about. But he didn’t really asks questions that weren’t ‘are you and him okay’, and he hasn’t called back since I told him not to”.

Vlad growls, “that doesn’t mean much of anything”, and glares at Danny like that’s a challenge.

Thing is… Danny doesn’t disagree, “no it really doesn’t. Him knowing he messed up massively and still being freaked counts for more than a little bit of respect does”. Him full body twitching a bit, ah it must be patrol time, humming and floating up, “I’mma be really ticked off if there’s ghosts tonight”.

Vlad rolls his eyes but steps out of the bathroom in a way that’s both likely well practiced fluid and like he feels like he’s made out of glass, “isn't it a little unbecoming of a king to be playing superhero?”.

Danny sticking his nose up in the air, “I think it’s more unbecoming or whatever to not do whatever I want and let others boss me around”. Like wasn’t that the entire point with monarchs really? Like yeah their wants were suppose to line up with that of the people but still. Plus ghosts were inherently free, do what you want, beings.

Vlad waving him off with a, “I’ll make chicken carbonara”.

“You shouldn’t be making anything”. Vlad doesn’t respond to that as Danny goes up through the ceiling.

:Chap. 5:

What Is Dug Too Deep, Makes A Hole Too Steep, In It Let Him Sleep

He sticks to keeping himself mostly invisible, since he really doesn’t want to deal with any more people today, as he floats through alleys and over rooftops. Yes just patrolling pacified that Obsession of his but he honestly didn’t really feel like doing it right now, so his travel is pretty lazy and more done out of ‘I’ll be paranoid out about this all night if I don’t’ than out of actual want. He’s seriously glad that Sam and Tuck, and Jazz really, aren’t in town right now meaning he doesn’t have to check in with them. Jazz he’ll… call eventually, or wait till he has a screaming nightmare to do that. He didn’t want her freaking out about him while she’s supposed to be focusing on university. Danny’s not about to interrupt Sam’s little goth convention thing, that Tuck went along for because of the whole ‘cyber goth is just another style of goth so I’ll fit in too’ thing. Fair and they were both a little annoyed he wanted to stay in Amity, sometimes he wondered if they were losing their interest in his protective ways and then they’d do something crazy and wildly overprotective. Really he was just a freaking workaholic and a ghost of course; most ghosts spent almost all their time and energy focused on their Obsessions after all. It was kinda funny that all of them were a bit on the goth side now. Black hid blood and ecto better and made it easier to hide in the shadows, and cargo pants and tripp pants had so many pockets and the good ones were durable as fuck.

That bit making him chuckle a little, feeling a ton more relaxed doing something so normal for him, as he moves around the park. The Signal Shines twirl in the fountain water, perhaps if Vlad still had open wounds he’d take some back to get the little things to clean out said wounds; at least they were safe to drink or swallow though. The blob ghost chilling on the fountain top deciding to boing onto his head, eh he’ll take them for a little ride.

What was he thinking about again? Ah yeah goths and a goth convention, the weirdo trios fashion choices. It’s… as good a distraction as anything he supposes. Better than stringing himself out about what state Vlad might be in back at the mansion.

Right. The goth thing. Tuck liked the neons, the apocalyptic aesthetics, all the glowy ‘radioactive’ stuff was also great for hiding ectoplasm. Zone, Tuck had actually found a small business in a couple cities over that sold stuff actually made with ectoplasm. Danny had been a bit concerned about it, but turned out the place was actually ran by a ghost with a definite Obsession for fashion designing; who was he to interfere with someone satisfying their needs in non-harmful ways? Tuck argued with her to make him ectoplasm dreads and cyberlocks, she ripped into him about how his look was too plain for cyberlocks, Tuck was very offended. Guy got the dreads though, even if his hair wasn’t long enough yet to get Sam to put them in for him; if it wasn’t for the ‘this is so goth’ thing Sam wouldn’t do it for the guy at all.

Danny startles a few birds, the blob on his head warbling in amusement, moving through the trees, at least Vlad had the smarts to make Amity more green to avoid Sam’s plant princess wrath. Plus, that gave him more trees to nap in, something a lot of teens seem to have taken up too, it was comfy and a random teen falling out of trees startled the crap out of people. At least the richer areas were easier to patrol during summer, since most of the rich folk took summer long vacations or went on cruises.

Or at least it’s normally easier this time of year.

But right now?

After what happened?

Jack and Maddie knowing?

Yeah… she’s here, him stilling in the air as they lock eyes.

Maddie looks up at him from the ground, his ghostly tail swishing back and forth as he stares back; she walks to a bench and pats it after a beat. He’s taking the olive branch for what it is, floating down to sit next to her, not touching her, not a chance, but on the same bench at least. She’s… not Jack, she didn’t do what he did. That does matter. Even if he thinks she’d be less upset if it had been her who did it, and that matters too.

Maddie doesn’t look at him, “I’m sorry”.

… Danny blinks, fiddling with the end of his ghostly tail, “is that it? All you have to say?”. He… expected more, more what? he’s not sure. Maybe a bit more questions about his well being or being hurt he never told her of himself.

She frowns, “there’s… not much I can say. I don’t know what in all happened, your father- Jack can’t explain in a way that makes sense, he gets too upset”, sagging a bit, “all I know, is that you and Vlad, aren’t human anymore and haven’t been for a long time. That neither of you, you especially, felt comfortable telling me or Jack. And that Jack, really hurt Vlad. And all this awful aftermath”.

He supposes that’s fair enough. The reminder that Jack truly is bothered by what he’s done is a welcome one. “Red set it up, for Jack to catch Vlad, without knowing how bad that could go. I think… she only meant for Vlad to feel embarrassed being caught by him genuinely”, rubbing his neck, “I, took her to that awful warehouse in a bit of a fit of rage at her and she was definitely not okay with what happened there either”.

“I’m glad no one’s happy with what happened, that explains her calling to berate and talk at him. And that doesn’t make Jack less responsible.”.

“No it doesn’t, and it should have never happened in the first place”, Danny scowling, “your bigotry wasn’t supposed to be this dangerous. Maybe I was a little blind to that, too innocent”. Calling himself innocent was a fucking joke, his sorry ass hasn’t been ‘innocent’ since dealing with Pariah. Then Dan beat it down a little more. And now Jack’s gone and obliterated whatever was still left. The blob slips down from his head and plops itself into his lap, him patting the thing and digging his fingers in a bit out of tired annoyance. Damn, when did he last sleep?

“We were too blind too, and we shouldn’t have been; we’re the adults, the parents. There’s nothing either of us can do to make up for that now, though. But-”, she looks at him, him eyeing her before meeting the gaze, “-do you want us to? To try?”.

Danny already knows his answer. It was the same answer that he gave Sam and Tuck when they asked him if he’d still want to be their friend when they die, when they’d become UnderGrowth’s Garden Care Taker and Ranatheo’s Pharaoh in genuine. “Yes. Just, just don’t push it about what I am, how I work. Or try to influence my decisions”. He refused to be their little science experiment, especially now.

She nods at him readily, actually smiling now, “I’m glad, and I won’t. You’re welcome back home, at FentonWorks, any time, okay? And we modified the defences so they won’t attack you or Vlad”.

“Put them back for Vlad”.

Maddie blinking, staring at him again, “what? Why?”.

Danny frowns, “because I know Vlad, once he’s healed, probably has a nightmare about that crap, and he decides to drink, he’s going to try and burn the house down or kill Jack”. Vlad had done those things over far less already after all. And frankly? Any non-protective type ghost would do the same over what Jack did.

She pales a little, “oh. I… I guess that’s understandable. Disturbing, but understandable”.

“I’ll follow him and stop him of course, but, like, protecting yourselves isn’t a bad idea. And just the fact that I’m staying with him right now might make him not, since I’m pretty much giving him another chance to try too”.

“So he messed up too then”.

Danny eyes her, it really wasn’t the same. Vlad has never done something Danny couldn’t genuinely fight back from, “yeah, but not nearly as badly. He’s tried to kill Sam, Tuck, Jazz, Val, Jack, pretty much everyone close to me, but it was always far more simple and there were reasons that weren’t compete utter shit. You and Jack? It’s just bias. Stupid stupid bias. Sam and Tuck? He was just trying to get help and didn't think I’d help him without basically holding them hostage, the idiot. Even Sam doesn’t hold that against him, ‘cause sick desperate people do crazy things especially when they’re in pain. Jazz? She did her psych babble crap and basically tricked him into the situation, that was almost as much her fault as his, both of them were being idiots. Val? What happened with that was a lot less okay, but she chose to be near him, she put herself in that situation and wouldn’t listen when I tried to warn her that his money and aid didn’t come without a cost. And Jack? Jack basically killed him and hospitalised him and never visited and then had the audacity to act like they were still best buddies, so”, and shrugs. Grimacing, “that attempted cloning crap I only forgave him for because he recognised he went too far pretty much immediately and the end result from that crap pretty much gave me a little shit head of my own so”. He loved little Elle, little gremlin menace as she was. And that care for her was part of why he didn’t want her in Amity, what happened with Vlad, all the hurt, felt like being proven horribly right.

Maddie blinks almost owlishly, wheezing, “so I’m? A grandma then?”, and runs her hands through her hair, “something else we’ve messed up on then, since you never brought them? home”, sighing, “and I should have known, paid more attention, to why you seemed to have a feud with Vlad”.

Danny snorting, him and Vlad were hardly subtle so things would have been obvious if either of them just paid the tiniest amount of attention. They’ve literally shot at each other in the same room as her and in human form. Zone, Vlad literally tore one of his legs off when Maddie was practically right next to him, “no shit, at least we’re more rivals than actual enemies these days. He nails a dead badger to my door, I mail him soggy moldy cereal. He halts the Nasty Sauce production over safety concerns, I blow up his house again. It’s a back and forth, no major harm really meant, standard ghost bantering. He still punches me in the face, I still punch him in the face”, side-eyeing her with a bit of a glare, “and why would I bring her around? I wouldn’t be able to explain her existence and you people might have covered her in goop or something”.

Maddie wincing, “exactly. We messed up. And, that’s a strange relationship but I suppose it’s normal for you two, being ghostly to whatever degree you are”.

Danny doesn’t really appreciate the fishing for answers but… he supposes her can give her that one. She’ll probably hear it eventually, from Val or a ghost or Vlad or himself off-handedly. “It’s a half and half thing, we’re called Halfas”.

She nods, “that’s probably more of an answer than I’ve earned, but thank you. I definitely wi-would have rather found out another way than this, you’re still my son. Make sure to tell Vlad that I really am sorry for what happened to him”.

Danny nods back, his relationship with her wasn’t great right now, but it still existed. “And you’re still my mom, you’re maybe just really not good at taking care of the ghost half, not that you ever really got a chance to try”, shrugging, “kinda late now, I know”, pushing himself up to float back up in the air, blob in his arms being held up against his chest, “anyway, I should go, ghosts to pester you know? Even though nothing but little guys seem to be around”. She just nods and watches him go. That… went well he thinks. Okay enough. Mentioning Elle was a little more information than he meant to give, but oh well. Maybe she’d understand better now that their relationship was rocky before all this happened. Before Jack decided to attempt to unmake Vlad.

The blob wiggle floats Its way up to Danny’s face, poking his cheek, guess the coreless guys didn’t really care much about the King thing, he probably just came off as just another powerful ghost to them; plus, this one formed in his lair so It was used to him, perhaps knew his mood and how his body still felt like a little too much and wrung out all at once. Rolling his eyes at It prodding his cheek more and deciding what the heck why not and biting It. It trilling happily is not the expected reaction but it’s what he’s getting, and just sorta nibbling on It is sorta mind clearing and softening; It happy to just wiggle there.

He makes the rest of his patrol a speedy one, he doesn’t want to be out and about right now at all. He suspects that Skulker probably told the other ghosts to stay away for a while, that ‘King Phantom’ had gone all eldritch and lost his shit.

Popping his head through the ceiling, flinging the blob out of his mouth and onto his head like mouth flipping a hat. Danny pointing to the blob still on his head, as he moves into the kitchen that smelled like food, “I brought company”.

Vlad’s, “yes well, I find I have enough already”, response is annoyed.

Danny pausing in the entry way at what he’s seeing, Vlad’s… basically bundled up in a swarm of blob ghosts. The man scowling down at the mass of blobs, “they took your nighttime absence as an opportunity. Sometimes I forget that Amity is your lair and that means it’s natural ghost fauna are in line with your Obsession”, scowl deepening, “I do not appreciate being coddled by blobs, especially when I can’t waste energy trying to scare them off”.

It’s a struggle for Danny to not grin smugly, “this, is adorable. Bite them, they apparently like it”, pointing at his one, “or this one’s just a masochist”.

“So It takes after Its creator then”. Vlad squeezes one anyway and it balloons out on either side of the guys fist without any complaints.

“Hey!”. Danny floats in fully, “did you actually make chicken carbonara? I forget you actually know how to make edible food”. And like every time he’s reminded of that, he internally wished Jack or Maddie knew how to too. He liked and could eat contaminated food but burnt soggy food not so much, and then Jazz wouldn’t have had to learn how to cook so young… so she could feed both of them. The blob snuggles into his hair some, it’s nice. He probably needed this. The little comforts.

Vlad struggles a bit to move his one arm to gesture at plates, it was indeed a fancy looking chicken dish, huh. Danny having to bops some of the blobs away just so Vlad could actually sit down and eat his own food. Danny eyeing the blobs coiling and wriggling on the chair and the guys lap, his hair too, before Danny takes his own food and sits down. He… changes back human for the first time too. It’s anticlimactic and tense all at once.

The food’s good, him stuffing a whole bit of sliced chicken in his mouth, “stu’id ‘ich ‘eo’le an’ air ‘acny ‘oo”. At least that gets a fond smile out of the man, even if he scowls immediately after when Danny makes a point to be noisy about slurping noodles. Then, of course, typical Danny luck, being human catches up with him, him passing out face first into the food. Blob ghost warble shrieking loudly and getting him swarmed by most of the other blob ghosts who shove him off the plate and onto the floor with a thump.

“Daniel!”, Vlad sighing, “why do I try? This boy is such a disaster”. A disaster who had saved him, one that he had another chance to raise and see grow. A king and a boy, his through pain. Jack and Maddie, Valerie, he wants nothing to do with them; he’ll stay here with Daniel and only him, as long as he’ll have him at least.

:Chap. 6:

Epilogue: Roaches Becometh Buzzing Flies, Over Grime Left By Lies

Vlad crosses his legs, poised and put together as always, regardless of the situation.

“So, what made you want to seek this out now? Especially to go through the effort of having an eldritch god convince me to keep this off of the records?”.

“Well, as my godson would put it, I recently went through ‘the Angel trap from Saw but horizontal and with more limb removal and ice cream scoopers taken to my eyes’ at the hands of the same man who killed me with an experimental dimensional worm hole. Who, upon releasing whose face he’d decided to half flay off, proceed to vomit, get drunk, and leave me there for my godson to find. Said godson also highly encouraged me to come and to also mention that I have a habit of attempting to kill people who get in my way and nailing dead badgers to his door; his words, not mine”, Vlad inspects his nails, “I have a cat, and my godson lives with me now, as such this is likely the healthiest I’ve ever been”.

The man stares and wheezes, “Jesus”.

Danny throws up his hands as his ghost sense goes off for the fourth time in an hour, why was everyone on his ass right now? Ugh! Sam -whom he still hasn’t explained things to beyond: it was traumatic, Jack’s not my dad, I live with Vlad now, be mean to Vlad and I’ll bite you, and I don’t want to talk about it- waving him off to do what he needs to do. At least he explained Vlad spelling it out to him that he’s now basically ghost god and that’s why ghosts were being weird around him, small steps, baby ones.

Last time it was Boxy, if it’s him again he’s gonna be so annoyed, not annoyed enough to make the guy think he’s actually mad but still. He’ll also be annoyed if it’s Skulker ‘worried’ again, now if it’s Skulker ‘I’m going to hang you on my wall’ the poucher then Danny’ll be pleased the man’s back into the swing of things finally.

He was absolutely not ready for who it is. Or who plural. Why the actual Zone are Walker’s goons here??? The buildings have scorch marks in them, street lights had electric wrapping cuffs on them, multiple trash cans are physically embedded into the ground, one ghost cop is stuck to a wall by a net, multiple people appear to be attempting to board up their windows, there’s over turned cars and ones even been sliced in half.

How did so much happen so quickly?

That’s not even touching the fire fight going on. Maddie and Jack exchanging shots with Walker’s Walking Prison ghost cops plasma batons, it somehow looked like the fight had been going on for a while with both of them looking scuffed up, dirty, cut, bruised; it makes him wince and twitch in that Obsessive way. It seems like these ghosts are genuinely trying to hurt his makers, absolutely not. Finger claws digging into a building, “WALKER!”. If that ghost isn’t already here there Danny’s going to pull him here.

The goons all jerk to a stop, cautiously eyeing the ghost whose lair they’ve barged into, the high ghost kings capital city they’ve intruded on, and whose citizens they’re attacking with genuine threat. Everyone knew he was a protector.

Walker, the jack ass, appears in sudden dramatics, looming his sixty foot form over buildings and Danny and Jack and Maddie and his own goons, “he has BROKEN THE RULES!”.

Vlad throws one of the table mints in his mouth, one of the blobs that still insisted on following him around consuming one as well, “I met him twenty years after my own death, up until then I was alone, in both a socialisation sense and a species one”.

The man nods, “is your godson the only like you then? It must have been overwhelming to meet him”.

Vlad scoffs, it was but even here he wouldn’t quite admit to that, “it was exciting. A thrill. A treat. He was young, mouldable, full of potential but unskilled enough to ever win against me. And, we were, in a sense, killed by the same man; a cruel twist of fate perhaps”.

“Do you believe you were destined to meet?”.

Vlad shakes his head immediately, his ego’s not nearly that large, “hardly. And it very well likely would have been better for both of us to never have. At first I was only interested in the potential protege, the possibility of a Master’s heir, of seeing that man crushed by his own son and losing that son. Eventually it became more of seeing him as an overprotective fool, inappropriately focused on-”, scowling, “-helping people of all things. Then he grew more, became something I couldn’t really compete with in fair play, perhaps I saw him as more of an equal then, and I believed it would have been better if we never met”.

“And why is that? You clearly care about him, and you’re someone he helped”.

Vlad sighs, tired, “you saw him earlier. Young gods become so by beating old gods, one I freed from slumber. He’s better for how and who he is, but that does not mean he likes it. He’s an idiot for trying to help me”.

“Do you see me as a fool as well?”

… “Yes”.

Danny’s got Walker’s stupid oversized jacket collar in his fist, pointing at his face aggressively with the other hand, “oh don’t you be using your size to try and be an intimidating prick! What the Zone is going on here?!?”.

Of course, the man and his oversized ego pulls out a whip and cracks it at the ground, making a gouge, glaring at Danny and sneering, “THAT MAN HAS BROKEN MULTIPLE INHERENT LAWS! INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO VIOLATING THE COMMONS OF THE DEATHLESS UNFADES SECTION TWO-FOURTY TWICE OVER, VIOLATING THE WHITE HEART CARDINAL OF THE LAW OF AGES-”.

Jack tore out Vlad’s core!

“-VIOLATING A BREAK DOWN LITHEES, VIOLATING THE BLACK ABSOLUTION OF THE LAW OF AGES REPEATEDLY OVER A PROLONGED PERIOD OF TIME! IF THEY WERE GHOSTS I’D CHARGE THEM FOR HUNDREDS EVEN THOUSANDS OF COMMON LAW VIOLATIONS! AND THE ONLY REASON THEY ARE EXEMPT FROM MOST EXTERIAL LAW IS BECAUSE OF THEIR RESIDING IN YOUR LAIR!”.

Okay, Danny knows, okay, he knows that Maddie and Jack have violated a lot of ghostly laws, even creating the portal was technically a violation, but his death in it made it a vital belonging to a ghosts demise and thus ‘not usable’ for chargers. And them being in his lair gave them certain protections, even being ghost hunters gave them certain protections. But how dare Walker go after them at all.

“HE VIOLATED MALICIOUS DECONSTRUCTION AGAINST A ROYAL CITIZEN UNDER HIGH LAW!”.

Danny growling at the ghost, “you don’t think I know that? But he’s mine too, you don’t get to dictate shit”.

“THEY’RE PORTAL IS INSIDE MY JURISDICTION! I WILL NOT HAVE THEM BEING UNBEHOLDEN TO THE LAW! REGARDLESS OF THEIR RESIDENCY!”.

The location of the portal on the other side was a bit unfortunate but absolutely not, he knows Walker thinks he’s too soft but damn does he not care. But worse than that is this man is doing this publicly because he knows Danny’s going to watch his tongue more and hold back more, but if he thinks Danny won’t stop him from basically taking and torturing Jack, that’s bullshit. Danny clinking his tongue, glow wiggling and flaring his eyes at the ghost, “is that a c̴͕̺̦̈́̐͋h̵͕͉̞͑͛͘a̵̘̞͑̽̚͜l̸̘̘̫̓̓͝l̴̟̦̈́͐͊͜è̵͇͎̪͘͝n̸̺͇̒͆͜͝g̸̡̟̻̒̿͘ë̴̠̠̠́͌?”.

Walker sneering at him, “YES”, yelling over Danny at his guards and eyeing Jack, “SIEZE HIM!”. The fire fight starts back up immediately and Walker smashes Danny with the whip.

“Now, about the core reason you came in today, besides the many long standing issues you’ve been encouraged to sort out, you understand that others harm upon you is of no fault of your own, yes?”.

Vlad hums, “that buffoons actions are his own, but had certain things not been left to fester or had I not underestimated others vengeful desires, it would have never happened”; using a thumb to push small circles into the blob ghost.

The man crosses his legs, holding his pen leisurely, “others are not entitled to know everything about you, every secret you keep. Any reason you may have to keep a secret is an acceptable one, especially if there’s a belief of potential harm. We also can’t know how strongly others feel about our acts towards them, regardless of your actions being cruel or harmful, in their eyes or your own. I may not know too much about ghosts, but I know enough to know that they’re inclined to egocentricity and god complexes. If something falls outside of your obsessive focus it makes sense not to focus on it too deeply. Even if being human still means you will more so than a ghost. Your secrets allowed further chasing of your possessive focuses, it’s reasonable to keep”, tilting his head, “and, it could be said, that keeping those secrets is part of what allowed you to get out of that situation without further harm. Sometimes, things left to fester become more impactful as a result”.

Vlad frowns a little, he couldn’t see Maddie or Jack being willing to… harm him in such a way if they had known. However… Daniel was right those years ago when he said they’d still love their son but not him because of everything he’s done. Would they justify cutting him open as research, to aid their child? Would they mentally categorise him as ‘a villain’ and thus less worthy of kindness that way? That… would have been worse for both him and Daniel in a great many ways. “He was deeply disturbed when my secret was revealed, whether purely because of Plasmius being me or because of Plasmius not being entirely a ghost. They do justify their actions towards ghosts on a basis of what they believe ghosts to be, halfas go against this inherently, I suppose. I… could see that man trying to twist my behaviors as being a result of my half state”; and trying to remove his ghost half, like Daniel had had nightmares over more than once, to fix him. He’s never been sure exactly why Daniel clung on to being ‘separated in two’ so specifically, to have fears over. The blob warbles, as if It knows.

“Even if it’s not?”.

Vlad nods to the side, shrugging, he can admit he’s not a good person, “I’ve never been well aligned with standard human morals or decency. My powers simply give me more ability to ignore those same morals and decencies, the laws that enforce them. Though I have my limits of course”.

“Limits this man crossed”.

“I wouldn’t do that to any being, even if I thought them non-sentient”.

In the time Danny’s been with Vlad, outside of focusing on making sure he was healing and using blobs as a weird amount of stress relief, the man had been explaining aspects of being the High Ghost King, including trying to get Danny more comfortable and in control of himself in his full High Ghost King form -or as close to full as he could get without his size being too problematic- not that Danny felt much better about said form; at least Vlad had repeatedly assured that he was still just as physically species-wise human as before even if his mental state was less human. But part of that was having more control over environments, all ghosts could alter their lairs -Amity sometimes changed colours or weather slightly based off of his mood for example- but Amity was a living town not made out of ectoplasm, so he couldn’t affect it much. However, as The High Ghost King he had more power and will he could force even in the Mortal Realm; even if that made him feel more like a controlling monster.

Why does this matter?

Because it means Danny’s able to move the buildings away and make the road wider to protect everyone… practically setting up a battle area was an unintentional side effect. But, with Walker slamming a fist down into the ground, shaking the earth, he’s glad people still evacuated if they could.

Danny zipping up and around to ecto-beam Walker in the back, slamming into the ground chest first, both of them growling at the other.

Maddie and Jack have their backs to each other, used empty weapons littering the ground in random areas as they continue firing off at the ghost cops. Maddie huffing, “ghosts shouldn’t even have a legal system”. Jack muttering right back, “I think, at this point, we don’t really know anything, Mads. And… this is probably deserved”. Maddie only frowning as she shoot’s a practically taller one.

Danny knows that Jack deserves this, has earned it, but as far as he’s concerned Danny’s already punishing the man even if the two of them might one day end up on better terms. Jack’s still his maker and he’s not letting Walker jail him or hurt him. Some of Jack suit getting burned through making Danny twitch a little. Danny sending a blast at that cop, sending them into a wall and passing out, only for him to get kicked into a wall himself by Walker. He’d forgotten that Walker was genuinely powerful. The ghost pulling his foot off when his ankle gets hit by a red blast. Danny’s glow wiggling, aflame, at Walker instantly grabbing Red’s board and smashing it into a roof a fair bit away. His voice coming out a bit wrong, “s̶h̶e̶’̶s̶ g̶o̶t̶ n̶o̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ t̶o̶ d̶o̶ w̶i̶t̶h̶ t̶h̶i̶s̶”.

Walker sneering at him, “THEN CONTROL YOUR PETS BETTER”.

How… how dare he. Danny punches his face into the ground, “I̶ d̶o̶ n̶o̶t̶ c̶o̶n̶t̶r̶o̶l̶ a̶n̶y̶o̶n̶e̶”.

“MAYBE YOU SHOULD. VERMIN NEED TO BE KEPT IN LINE”.

“S̶a̶y̶s̶ t̶h̶e̶ o̶n̶e̶ o̶u̶t̶ o̶f̶ l̶i̶n̶e̶”.

Walker only snarling and trying to shoot him, Danny zipping off near Red, “y̶o̶u̶.̶ L̶e̶a̶v̶e̶”.

“Phantom-”.

“N̶o̶.̶ I̶’̶m̶ s̶e̶r̶i̶o̶u̶s̶.̶ W̶a̶l̶k̶e̶r̶ d̶o̶e̶s̶n̶’̶t̶ s̶p̶a̶r̶.̶ T̶h̶i̶s̶ i̶s̶ s̶e̶r̶i̶o̶u̶s̶ a̶n̶d̶ y̶o̶u̶ c̶a̶n̶’̶t̶ w̶i̶n̶, Z̶o̶n̶e̶, h̶e̶’̶s̶ n̶o̶t̶ e̶v̶e̶n̶ t̶e̶c̶h̶n̶i̶c̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ w̶r̶o̶n̶g̶-”, cutting himself at finally spotting Bullet with a long distance wrangler.

A long distance wrangler, pointed right at Jack.

Walker used his protective obsession, his obligation to try and get Val to back off to safety, to distance Danny. The large ghost smirking as Bullet’s blast goes off.

“𝓝ㄖ”.

“Having my ribs up and displayed like that was incredibly more bizarre than I’d thought it would be”. Vlad’s almost tempted to see if he can make this man physically sick. However Daniel said this man usually saw far more disturbed and criminal ‘patient's’. And frankly, even if it’s been multiple days, weeks even, heavily remembering everything made him feel strung out, disconnected, deserved. Both wanting Daniel to show up and hoping he never did. An irrational part of himself betraying him with thoughts of Daniel joining Jack, rejecting Vlad all over again, and helping take him apart completely. “Abjectly, I suppose I was curious what he would find, was finding, if I could myself use it. The after was, less pleasant than the during, honestly”, gesturing lazily with a hand, “direction, vivisection, samples, and displays, I can understand the drive and science behind that; unpleasant as it was. I can admit to some self dissection and expirementaion myself”.

“Except that was done by yourself, to yourself, with your full cooperation and sober willingness”.

Vlad nodding, “and that matters, doesn’t it. What I don’t understand, is why he simply… left me there. Like that”. He understood Jack fleeing originally, from shock and horror and disgust. Disgust that man should have felt from the beginning, but didn’t merely because ‘ghosts aren’t sentient’. Squeezing his fist around the blob, “that man left me there, taken apart, he couldn’t be bothered to so much as take my limb off the wall and give it back to me. Or put my face back on”, scowling with a tiny bit of fang, “his fragile peace and normality build on lies had been sliced apart, was dying, and he couldn’t take the effort to try and ensure that his so called ‘best friend’ didn’t die himself. He had nearly a week to just face what he’d done and patch me up, yet he couldn’t bother to even look in on me. To check in”. If Jack had come back, had perhaps made an attempt to help him. Undo everything, clip the wires and cords and metal, unstapled. To patch him up, stitch him even if it wound up sloppy and pathetic. Maybe Vlad could forgive even a little, justify it as he knows Maddie would have done the same. “And her, I’d like to say she would have, however I… think that’s wrong”.

The man nods, looking down at his short hand notes, “yes, one of the objections of your Obsession. A possession you cling on to”.

Vlad glares, flashing his ghostly eyes a bit on instinct, “you know, actively prodding a ghosts Obsession isn’t a safe idea”.

The man simply watches, no fear reaction, “but will it help?”.

“No, we dislike it on instinct and can find it painful. My godson can pester me about it, but not a near stranger”.

The man nods acceptingly, “why do you feel she wouldn’t have done the right thing either?”.

“He may be a buffoon, a moron, an imbecile, an idiot, and a complete dunce; but he’s more… adaptable. Quick to change his inane theories”, frowning, “her, she’d likely… convince herself my changing was nothing more than an illusion to trick her”. The way Daniel talked sometimes… Maddie might have gone further out of anger instead of stopping out of horror. Believing the lie of an illusionary trick, rather than immediately accepting the reality of an unheard of species.

The man nods, “humans are very fallible creatures, it’s far easier and thusly far more likely for them to take the easy way out. Going back in would have been harder and harder the longer that man waited, and accepting reality and responsibility would feel like an impossible task”.

Danny growls, looming, cape down around his torso and the man he’s crouched over, one hand on the ground and another holding the end of Walker’s whip. The ghost at the other end scowling right back at him only slightly flinching, Danny’s tail lashing making it clear the other ghosts annoyance was not fucking welcome. Another sneer from Walker and Danny flicks his tail again, sending spines flinging into the other ghosts shoulder, jerking Walker’s shoulder back.

The cop goons floating around, aiming their batons at him and his protected citizen 丿闩⼕长 but not coming closer, out of caution of him, not wanting Phantom’s genuine wrath. Maddie pointing her weapon, but not firing, at them. He can feel, see, her glancing at him cautiously. She’s not moving or trying to shrug off Danny’s fifth? fifth hand/arm, the one he’s got bunching up the back of her jumpsuit that he’s probably sliced up a bit.

At least he’s only a bit bigger than them, longer. Him barring his too many teeth, “вⷡaͣcͨᴋⷦ oͦff, Waͣlᴋⷦeͤrͬ“.

“CRIMINALS MUST BE PUNISHED, PHANTOM”.

Danny’s lip curls up, “hͪaͣs͛n’ᴛⷮ hͪeͤ вⷡeͤeͤn aͣlrͬeͤaͣdͩy”; it’s not a question, it’s a statement of fact. Zone he, hasn’t been able to have a single ‘normal’ conversation with his male maker even once yet; his voice still breaking when Vlad refused to talk to him.

“HE’S UNDER MY JURISDICTION! HE FACES PUNISHMENT MY WAY”.

“нⷩeͤ’s͛ uͧndͩeͤrͬ mͫiͥneͤ faͣrͬ mͫoͦrͬeͤ”.

Then Walker, hurt, the jerk activates the electrical current on his whip, sending pain, hurt, down Danny’s arm. He hated getting hurt with electricity, and Walker knew that. Danny’s stance wobbling a little, glow becoming static for a beat before flaring and moving to flaming more proper. Mist steaming off of him and blinking eyes and stars, eyes to mouths snapping at any of the goon cops too close, holding tight making them unable to move even if they wanted to. Arm four and six helping arm two hold him stable while his legs lengthen, him bending them more to make sure he can keep 丿闩⼕长 covered beneath him; having to bend his spine more as well to keep that assurance. He dislikes, aggressively, how he must look like a cowering cat with its back arched and throat low before a larger aggressor.

But he can’t simply use his wail here, with fully living humans so near. And even if Vlad’s explained Kings Speak to him he doesn’t want anyone, especially Maddie and 丿闩⼕长 knowing he can effectively command and control ghosts; doesn’t want to be asked to control the ghosts to stay out. This was his lair, ghosts were... well... his people too, he wasn’t going to ban them from his own territory. What if one needed help, needed to be protected, was hurt, or just wanted to stretch themselves out in the mortal realm for just a little while. Who was he to restrict freedom of inherently free beings; it would be wrong on a basic level.

And Danny liked his sparing, like any proper ghost. But this wasn’t sparring. If Walker took 丿闩⼕长 here, Danny’d never rescue him without razing Walker’s Walking Prison to the ground, destroying his lair (again but still) and effectively going to war. And just the fact that Danny let Walker take his citizen would be a blow to him and drive his Obsession nuts. As ‘king’ Danny had to have a ‘fearsome’ rep or ghosts would doubt him, might rebel, might not trust him to protect them or help them. He couldn’t have that, not now, not ever. And 丿闩⼕长 was his, so much hurt, no more hurt. Walker doesn’t get to have him. If Vlad had requested this then maybe it would be different, but no, that’s not this, Danny refuses. No hurting. None of it.

...

There really isn’t much for people around, and the three that are around all have some kind of eye coverings. Red’s picking off ghost cops that stray too far from the battle zone. It’s okay. This is okay. Walker might be a warden, the portal opening into his territory, but he still has to stay in line. No ghost can do absolutely whatever they please in his lair, especially not things that truly stood to hurt people. So... he lets himself unfurl, unfurl properly, exploding into mist and limbs and an elongated form far removed from humanity, his own humanity. Moving a leg to have 丿闩⼕长 in the bend of one backwards knee, using Walker’s whip to yank him towards Danny and slamming his second hand into the mans skeleton face. Grabbing both the other ghosts hands with his third and fourth hands.

Walker ends up imbedded into the large swath of road Danny’s created, Danny snarling all fang and hundreds of teeth blinking with eyes,丫ㄖㄩ. 廾闩ᐯ🝗. 𝓝ㄖ. 丂闩丫. 廾🝗尺🝗. 龱尺. 龱ᐯ🝗尺. 爪丫. 尸🝗ㄖ尸㇄🝗. 工. 山讠㇄㇄. 㠪闩セ. ㄚㄖㄩ”.

“Do you see yourself ever reconciling with them? If your godson went back with them?”.

Vlad sighs a little, a bit tired of this, the blob rolls under his palm, “with him? No. I hate him completely and utterly, I’d see him dead first, his ghost ended as well; before calling that man a friend ever again. I have no interest in so much as allowing him to hear my voice or feel better about anything he’s ever done. And her? My... interest in her is broken, I hardly care for those or things I’m not interested in. Her presence is merely tolerable, I don’t mind her, there is no reconciling to be done”, humming and eyeing he window, “as for my godson, I doubt he’ll never go back with them, but permanently? No. He’ll be a visitor to them, not a resident under their roof”.

“What if you’re wrong about that?”.

“I’m not”.

“If you were, how would you deal with that. Hypothetically”.

“I don’t ponder over impossibilities. That is an endeavour for fools”, Vlad huffs a mean laugh, “I will not join him when he visits. That house will never again know my presence. And wether he chooses to forgive them more fully or not has little bearing on my lack of interest in doing so. All he can affect is how less unkind I am to them”. Though, he supposes he’d be rather disappointed if the boy forgave them fully.

The man nods, “most would likely feel that way, in your situation”.

Vlad would say so, “understandably so”.

“Do you maintain your desire to seek to harm him? Now that your godson is with you and you’ve lost interest in her?”.

“If I saw him dying, I would simply walk away as if he did not exist, I wouldn’t lift a finger to help that man; a fair treatment since he did the same to me twice over. However, losing my godson would not be worth the pleasure of killing him myself or making him suffer directly. And he no longer has anything of mine, nothing that belongs rightfully to me”.

“Do you believe others, your godson, would want you to help him though?”.

Vlad huffs, rolling his eyes in annoyance, “of course, that child is far too protective and moral for his own good. If the world asked him to rip himself asunder, make himself a martyr, then he would. He has. In a sense, I pity him for that”, putting a hand to his chest, “far better to be self centred and thriving, unmared by others helplessness”.

“That’s quite the ego you have”.

Vlad smirking, “it’s earned”.

“Is it now”.

“Oh absolutely”.

“Hmmm”, the man taps his pen on his leg, “in any case, what good do you suppose this is doing you? Change is clearly not your goal, so?”.

Vlad could understand how this could seem pointless, it rather was. But there was no denying he was too ‘involved’ and possessive to be objective when speaking with Daniel and there couldn’t be any degree of honesty else where. He’d never go to a ghost. Daniel said talking helps and despite everything, or in-spite of it, he trusted Daniel. “Ah, conversing with an outside unbiased being is useful, perhaps, yes. And one that won’t get twitchy on me due to overprotective issues”.

“So you do find this to be, useful as you put it”.

Vlad gestures at him, “you’re someone who can drive a conversation, take it directions; I’m not about to try and converse with the thin air. You might, encourage certain things but you won’t outright push for them and there’s no natural instinct to be subservient to you”. The blobs could hardly hold any kind of conversation.

The man blinks before nodding a little, “because of your godsons status?”.

Vlad nodding and humming, half ghost or not he can feel it, feel that Daniel’s his king. There’s a certain pressure to simply residing within Amity’s boarders and even more residing with the boy. He wouldn’t say he didn’t mind it, since he rather did; Vlad was subservient to no one. Yet there was a pride there as well, they were horrible for each other but were good foils for each other. A hero, a villain. One powerful by might, one powerful by wealth. One socially connected with strong friendships, one isolated and anti-social. A self conscious child still coming to terms with his own being, A prideful adult who’s fully embraced all their own monstrous inhuman traits. Inherently harmful to each other, yet... Daniel made a protective man of him, made him more honest, this entire conversation was an example of that. And he made Daniel more of a proper ghost, made him powerful. “Any ghost can tell his place, but I am proud that it’s his place. It does benefit me as well of course”.

“And reconciling with that man doesn’t benefit you?”.

“Being near that man has done nothing but get me nearly fully killed. If my godson truly pushed for it then perhaps there could be some benefit in making him feel more positively about me, however, he doesn’t want that man near me either. Protective fool”.

It’s chaos, he knows it is. Eyes and limbs and mouths and mist pinning so many different cops and their batons to random surfaces. He’s got a portion of his tail coiled around Maddie (who’s shaky and twitchy) and 丿闩⼕长; the restraining wrangle wrap around 丿闩⼕长 stinging his flesh a bit but he can feel him… patting Danny’s tail with a trembling hand.

It’s strange. It’s almost wrong. The man shouldn’t be so okay with this. Wrapped by a ghosts tail, his 丂ㄖ𝓝 being this giant inhuman nightmare of a ghost.

But it… it makes him more pissed at Walker. He didn’t want them seeing him like this, at least not yet, maybe not even ever. They weren’t doing well but they were better even if their house was never going to be home again. But now they got the pleasure of knowing that Danny could unfold and basically demolish that house. He could decide to eat them, the very thing he’d stupidly threatened Walker with, without much effort; his teeth could be as large as even 丿闩⼕长, the fangs could at least.

Him head butting the other ghost instead, but with a twitch some of the eye teeth bite and rip apart the guys arm; flinging the limb off to the side to dissolve into ectoplasmic goop, him absorbing it instantly. Growling into the ghosts face, nose scrunching up against Walker’s nasal cavity, “〸卄🝗讠尺尸ㄖ尺七闩㇄爪讠Ꮆ卄セ⻏🝗 讠𝓝 丫ㄖㄩ尺七🝗尺尺讠七ㄖ尺丫⸝ 丫ㄖㄩ爪讠Ꮆ卄七 𝓝ㄖ〸㇄讠长🝗 卄ㄖ山㇄讠ᐯ讠𝓝Ꮆ ﾁ尺讠🝗𝓝ᗪ㇄丫工闩爪. ㄚ🝗丂七卄🝗丫’ᐯ🝗 ⻏尺ㄖ长🝗𝓝 ㇄闩山丂⸝ 闩𝓝ᗪ 丫🝗丂卄🝗’丂⻏尺ㄖ长🝗𝓝 丂🝗尺讠ㄖㄩ丂ㄖ𝓝🝗丂. 乃ㄩセ ᗪㄖ 𝓝龱ㄒ尸ㄩ丂廾ㄚ龱ㄩ尺㇄ㄩ⼕长. ㄚㄖㄩ闩尺㠪 𝓝龱ㄒ闩乃龱ᐯ㠪爪㠪”, huffing and flaring his energy to press the ghost down into the ground more aggressively.

The ghost smartly holding up his one hand to tell his goons to hold off, not that they really had much of a choice considering they’d all either been caught by Red or pinned by him. “WILL YOU PUNISH HIM PROPERLY THEN”.

And now Danny smirks, because bantering he can do, “𝓝ㄖ. 闩𝓝ᗪ 丫ㄖㄩ⼕闩𝓝’セ ᗪㄖ丂卄讠〸闩⻏ㄖㄩ〸讠七. 𝓝ㄖ山 🝗讠七卄🝗尺丫ㄖㄩ⼕闩𝓝 ㇄🝗闩ᐯ🝗 ㄖ尺山🝗 ⼕闩𝓝 长🝗🝗尸尺讠尸尸讠𝓝Ꮆ 🝗闩⼕卄闩𝓝ㄖ〸卄🝗尺闩尸闩尺〸ㄩ𝓝セ讠㇄丫ㄖㄩ卄闩ᐯ🝗 七ㄖ尺🝗ﾁㄖ尺爪丫ㄖㄩ尺丂🝗㇄ﾁﾁ尺ㄖ爪闩 ᗪ闩爪𝓝 丂尸🝗⼕长讠𝓝 丫ㄖㄩ尺㇄讠〸七㇄🝗 尸尺讠丂ㄖ𝓝”.

Walker glares and jerks, Danny easily picking up on the attempt at forming some ecto construct, so he digs his claws into the ghosts legs enough to rip it off slightly; more damage than he meant. Walker eyes the crown over his head, scowls, and shrinks himself down; Danny telekinetically grabbing the ghosts ecto-field to keep him right by his face. His arm doesn’t reform and his one leg dangles limp. Good. Danny using his mouth eyes to yank all the guy cops over to him, “ㄒ闩长🝗 丫ㄖㄩ尺尸🝗〸丂山讠七卄丫ㄖㄩ”.

“Oh Zone fucking no”, Red flying down and pointing a very large bazooka at the collection of ghosts, “you barge in here, fuck up the road”, pointing at Danny, “you too, you stupid ghost”, her knees buckle for a second before she looks away from him again. Danny puts up his first and second hands in surrender.

At least he’s still able to think properly, even with the raw power running through him.

Her glaring at the ghosts, “and you think I’m not going to shoot you at least once! Dance for me!”, she absolutely starts shooting at them.

Walker makes a portal with a scowl, his men ‘fleeing’ from the huntress while he holds up a shield. Red hurling her bazooka at the ghost, it bouncing off of the shield, as Walker leaves through his portal with a, “tell Jack Fenton if I ever catch him around my jurisdictions, I will break him and he will be held to the full account of my law”.

Danny huffing, “工’㇄㇄ 🝗闩七丫ㄖㄩ尺丂〸ㄩ尸讠ᗪ 丿闩讠㇄セㄖㄖ”. Red kicking one of his eyes and twitching a bit violently, “I don’t know what you said but I know it was stupid”. Danny pouting and turning his head to look down at Maddie and Jack, using the tenth hand to shred the wrangler wrap… His tail’s still coiled around them and now it’s awkward.

“Are you taking the exhausted beat up and probably shocky hunters home, or am I”.

No absolutely not, he has to keep them safe. Make sure Walker doesn’t come back. Make sure they don’t hurt themselves doing something stupid. Should he try and alter the portals location in the Zone? Can he do that? Well he should be able to. Maybe he already has just by wanting to. Ugh this crap was annoying. But it does get him to fold in on himself, not… entirely, but enough that he’s only slightly taller than Jack. Him picking the two up, “noͦ noͦ Iͥ goͦᴛⷮ iͥᴛⷮ”.

Maddie grabbing his wrist, “we’re fine, or at least I am, put us down, Phantom”. She still said his name now like it was painful.

Red just throws her hands up when Danny does actually put the two down and Jack just collapses on the ground, with a, “That ghost isn’t even wrong”.

“It would appear we’re about out of time”, side-eyeing his phone, “and your mayoral jurisdiction appears to be having another ghost emergency”.

Vlad quirks an eyebrow, “you set an alert for my little side responsibility?”.

The man hums, “I like being thorough”.

Part of him wants to mock the man, but, it’s a bit appreciated genuinely. Either way he pulls out his own phone, there are multiple ghost alerts. For, of all ghosts, Walker? Odd. That one had no interest in sparring, wasn’t interested in getting Phantom to try to demolish his lair/prison again. Even if he was here to see Daniel it would be on business, he wouldn’t cause a scene. Especially to bring his lackies along. Humming and moving the blob to rest on his shoulder, “strange”, perhaps he should check in on the boy, not that Daniel couldn’t handle Walker on his own.

Regardless, he should make an appearance, Walker was the type that could cause a lot of damages after all. With a nod, Vlad gets up and straightens his suit jacket, “yes I suppose I could pay you to continue on with this, but that would be rather pointless, since I clearly have places to be”.

“Well hopefully this has been worth what money you did put forth”.

“If it wasn’t I would have left of my own accord entirely, far earlier”.

Then, because Daniel seems to attract ill luck, a portal opens up on the wall. The therapist, to his credit, does nothing more than pause for a beat in standing up. He doesn’t even pause in the handshake when Walker stomps through looking thoroughly displeased and missing most of an arm.

Interesting.

For a ghost as strong as this warden to not heal near instantly, Daniel must have injured his ectoplasm itself. Daniel wouldn’t do such a thing unless quite seriously provoked. Vlad eyeing the ghost as he lets go of the therapists hand, “to what do I own this displeasure, Walker? This is this mans professional place of business, after all, barging in private interactions is incredibly rude and unbecoming of someone so stringent on rules”.

The ghost glares, barely hiding a wince at Vlad jabbing his Obsession directly. Walker snarls commandingly, “control that boy”.

Vlad scoffing, “you say that as if I can or would”. Far be it for he to tell Daniel off for beating up or annoying a ghost: if anything, Vlad most certainly would rather encourage such behaviours.

The therapist cups his hands respectfully over his waist, “unless you have an appointment or meeting scheduled, you should leave”. Vlad would be surprised at the calm demeanour if it wasn’t frankly expected. If he can hold his confidence and ground around a serial killer or cannibal, then a dead prison warden wouldn’t be a hassle; strange, but nothing more.

Walker, as expected of a ghost that did actually have a modicum of respect for authority figures, nods respectfully, “I’ll be out of your hair shortly, however I have criminal matters to discus with this one”. The therapist looks none too pleased, but has clearly realised he can’t do much about this situation.

Vlad waves off the ghost, “well go on then, out with it. If my boy told you off, which I can tell he did, he’s well within his capabilities and social standing to do so”.

Walker glares, “that man should be behind bars, he’s under my jurisdiction”.

“That’s hardly my issue, that man is as out of your reach as I am. Of course, I’m not even under your jurisdiction; frankly, neither is he. Do not be so dense as to think your jurisdiction trumps Phantom’s”.

“You’re the one that the current serious crimes were committed against, and he will take your wants into consideration”.

“I hardly care how my godson chooses to deal with that man’s actions, beyond that he does deal with them”.

“He hasn-”.

Vlad holds up a finger with a smirk, cutting off the ghost and walking to have that finger in the ghosts skeletal face, “oh but he has. Anything you do to that man could never be worse than losing such a special child. That’s not even addressing my absolute uninvolvement with him now”, dropping his hand, “any incarceration or physical harm will do nothing”. The blob opens Its mouth in a soundless hiss.

The therapist nods, sitting at his desk to organise, “physical punishments towards those that actually feel like they deserve it are usually reacted to positively, rather than seen as a truly punishing experience. If anything, removal from the current fall out ‘this man’ is dealing with will actually make him feel better, less punished. The negative treatment from those we care about is of far more consequence than simple physical imprisonment, and that remains true for near everyone not on the psychopathic or sociopathic spectrum. That’s the very reason why interventions work, or-”, eyeing Vlad, “-why people seek out professional help under others encouragement”.

Walker seems to actually consider the man, “hmm, perhaps”, eyes Vlad, scowling again. Vlad’s fine if this turns into a fight, Walker isn’t stronger than him even if it’s close and Vlad doesn’t ever fight fair. “And if I put in a proposal to the Observants”. Less a question and more a threat.

Unfortunately for Walker, and the Observants, that threat would do the opposite of withers intentions. Vlad’s smirk is mean, “the boy would oppose them on principle alone, my godson is far more petty to them than he’s ever been to me”. Daniel would take any opportunity to annoy them even slightly.

Walker huffs but at least actually leaves. Good riddance. Vlad throwing the therapist an extra hundred bill, “for the inconvenience, and the silence”.

The man eyes he money, “I hardly need bribes”.

Vlad chuckling, “I’ve made much of my wealth off of bribery, consider it a habit of mine”, and walks out of the practice.

Danny eyes Jack rubbing his forehead on the couch, at least Danny was mostly normal again outside of being a little too long, and the tail he was keeping hovering around Jack’s ankle for protective reasons. Maddie offering him a plate of cookies even though she’s barely cleaned herself up, “thank you, for that”.

Danny takes the cookies of course, “he messed up yeah, but ghost jail is a little much”, grumbling and sticking a cookie in his mouth, ah okay teeth are still a bit off and pointy, “specially since Walker’s a prick”.

She gives him a bit of a pinched smile, “hard to say”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “you should look after yourself”, tilting his head at the door and the more unique scent of Val’s/Red’s nanobots, “outside of Jack thinking he kinda deserves to go to jail, they’re fine, Red. Want a cookie?”. Both Maddie and Jack jerk a little and look at him, so he shrugs, “people are smelly”. That’s all the explanation either of them are getting from him.

Red popping the door open and sticking her head in, “way to be creepy, now can I get an explanation for what the heck happened? And why I couldn’t just deal with it?”, grumbling, “outside of apparently not being able to win”.

Jack leans back against the couch a bit tiredly, all the burns on his suit still stark, “what I did broke ghost law, like the ghost said”.

“Walker”, Danny butts in.

Jack nodding at him with a little wince, they were getting somewhat better with names. “Like Walker said, and I guess? We, or I, am under that ghost cops? area or however it works exactly?”.

Danny sighing and rubbing his neck a little, “that portal you guys made opened up right into Walker’s territory, the section of the zone that his prison, and thus his laws, have jurisdiction over. Since it’s connected to Amity, Amity is technically connected to his territory; hence why a lot of ghosts who come here wind up in his jail”.

Red sighing, “but he can’t do much because Amity is ‘your territory’? Never thought I’d be happy for that, you nightmare”.

“Hey, I’m still a little insecure about that you jerk”. He’s absolutely ignoring the slight worry on Maddie‘s and Jack’s faces. He didn’t need them worrying about him and it was honestly a bit too late for it.

She grumbles, “didn’t seem that insecure when you went all kaju on that ghost”.

Danny crossing his arms, “considering Walker has a big thing for torture and really likes execution, it was warranted”.

Even Jack winces, “okay, I, don’t think I deserve that”.

Then, of course, Vlad freaking calls him, “what is it? If Walker’s causing more issues I’m actually going to eat him this time”.

“Did he attempt to arrest your ex-father?”.

Danny sighing, “he’s not ex-anything really, but yes”. Jack wasn’t ‘dad’, definitely not, but he also wasn’t ‘not dad’ either. It was a strange in between. “Obviously I wasn’t okay with that so”.

“I could tell, he came by personally to effectively complain about you. However, considering how I know you to be, I take it you’re at FentonWorks?”.

“Of course, that jerk”, Danny eyeing the two adult hunters, “and yeah, I am. You done with your ‘therapy that you don’t want to call therapy’ session?”.

“Considering Amity becoming your little battle ground for asserting dominance, yes”.

Danny rolling his eyes, “that’s hardly my fault, you fruitloop”. Danny completely ignores Jack muttering, “he’s in therapy?”, in shock and almost pain; he seems a little relieved too though. Then Red smacks him one over the head with a, “of course he is”. Because yeah, anyone would need therapy over that.

Vlad inspects his nails, being swarmed fully by blobs again, as he surveys the damage from the sky. Daniel went and altered the terrain again, at least it’s shifting itself back to normal slowly, not quite slow enough for no one to notice but it’s something. The massive indents and chunks taken out of things seem to be repairing as well, he seriously wished the boy would always clean up after himself this well; oh well, it gave him something to blow his money on. Something to spend his money on that made him look more like a ‘good samaritan’.

Vlad eyeing a clear whip mark, “and will you be remaining there, with them?”. A question with an obvious answer, he knows, but he can hope to be wrong. He pushes a few blobs away from curiously inspecting his phone, like they knew it was the source of his slight aggravation now.

“Yeah, gotta make sure they at least get fixed up and that Jack doesn’t do anything stupid like try to go through the portal to ‘hand himself over’”. It hurt, Daniel staying there, he knew it would, even if that didn’t change the facts. Then the boy continues, “I’ll be back for supper of course”.

Vlad blinking, “oh?”. Daniel wasn’t… going to even stay the night there? Still?

“Well yeah? Obviously?”.

The boy says that like it’s such a simple, plain, expected thing. It’s jarring and soothing. Him coming back to Vlad’s residence was as obvious as the sun rising in the morning apparently. Someday it might not happen, but that would require something or someone messing up real bad. So long as Vlad didn’t do anything truly crazy or cruel, maybe just maybe, Daniel will always come back.

Was... was that worth his suffering? Perhaps. Perhaps not. He can’t deny he’s pleased with this end result though; the blobs trilling, pleased, as well.

End.

Prompts: Vlad finally gets therapy. "Time, time, time, see what's become of me. While I looked around for my possibilities" - A character reminisces about what drove them to this point. Do they wish their life went in another direction…or did it get them exactly what they wanted? Worst possible reveal scenario, GO! Walker reminds everyone why he's the warden "I..I need your help." BadgerCereal Vlad gets his second chance, at a cost It hurt. He always knew it would hurt. He didn't realize how much. Jack Fenton finds out. Danny is stressed. He finds out blob ghosts make incredible chew toys and stress relievers. The blob ghosts seem to love being chewed/squeezed as well! It’s like a nice massage, good as enrichment for them Danny Phantom is the new King of the Ghost Zone. Except he doesn't know it. Ghosts just keep acting werid around him. Vlad is probably the one who has to spell it out for him. "A halfa? He's supposed to be dead!" Sometimes you just gotta be an eldritch horror. Newly Crowned Ghost King Danny experiencing his eldritch form for the first time, proceeds to have a meltdown at the further loss of his humanity. (Optional: Finds himself in space & a ghostly mentor comes to comfort him.) Forced Identity Reveal to the parents via Vlad and they don't take it well at first but don't try to attack him, they just ask him to leave for awhile so they can process this. That one time Sam had convinced Tucker to go goth, he hadn’t hated it—there were elements he actually found he enjoyed—but it ultimately wasn’t his “thing”. Then he discovered the CyberGoth subculture. Valerie enacts a plan to finally take down Vlad. Vlad has been quiet. Eerily quiet. No evil plots, not threats or pranks. Danny doesn't know what to make of it. On an unrelated note (Jack or Maddie, your choice), are acting kinda strange.

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phantomphangphucker · 1 day

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Phic Phight - Does The Blood And Viscera Define Him (It’s from Fights And Injuries, Guys, Not Messy Bloodsucking, Gosh!)

@going-dead

Maddie and Jack consider themselves very supportive parents, even if they were rather strange, and that includes towards they’re definitely not human, or entirely human, son. Besides! At least he wasn’t a ghost! Vampires were much better, Vlad made that pretty clear.

Maddie side-eyes Danny as subtly as she can, watching him open the fridge, quirk an eyebrow, and poke the little blood juice box in there. Sticking that in there wasn’t the most subtle of things she could have done, but it was easy enough to explain as a ‘easy transport’ blood transfusion that Jack wanted to design to make ‘look fun’; and it did have a tube and needle instead of a straw so it technically could be used that way. That wasn’t really why they made it though, not a chance.

No, the point was Danny. Trying to make sure he was healthy.

She’s not entirely sure how he was getting his needs met, she had a good guess of course. Sam was always pale, even if she always had been since she’d first meet the young girl. And Tucker would literally sell his soul for Danny. Plus there was also the fact that Sam was not only extremely wealthy, but her parents never really looked at any purchases she made; she could absolutely be buying him blood. She’d also spotted them bloodied or bandaged once or twice; Tucker on the neck even. This was all without even touching Danny’s odd ‘frienemies’ relationship with Vlad, sometimes he seemed to hate the man’s existence and other times it felt more like Danny trusted him more than her or Jack.

And well…

Vlad was a vampire so…

She could understand is what she’s saying.

She makes a point to focus back on trying to fix the toaster, for the fourth time this month, when it seems like Danny might turn around. She can tell the moment his eyes are on her, she always could, it always had this sort of predatory pressure to it; she’s thankful it never felt possessive or creepy like it did with Vlad. No, Danny’s gaze felt more… cautious, like an uneasy predator, and protective, as if he worried about them getting hurt. Hurt by him or from the ghosts or from their own recklessness, she’s not sure, but she could never bring herself to be worried about him hurting her. Heck she didn’t even worry Vlad would genuinely hurt her; if that man wanted to bite her he likely would have a long time ago and he was far too self controlled to do it accidentally. If Danny did bite her, she’d probably spend more time calming him down and reassuring him, than actually trying to get him to stop. It’s was a parents job to look after and support their kids, if that meant blood with her son then so be it. If that meant trying to clean up the state his room wound up in so often, then so be it. Even if that was fairly disgusting, he was clearly not the cleanest drinker considering all the organic messes he managed to get on the floor and his walls. He even got a bit of rotting blood inside his window wall somehow. She made the mistake when he was younger of just leaving him to clean up his own room, the carpet had to be ripped out and it literally was dripping with gooey unidentifiable gore. Danny’d been very awkward and wouldn’t met her eyes after she told him about ripping up his floor; she didn’t give him too much hassle about it but still. She went in there with an enzymatic cleaner at least once a week now.

She waits a few minutes after Danny leaves to look in the fridge, the blood box is gone and she feels… content. Like she’s done her job as a mother.

(Danny doesn’t know why the heck his folks would make blood transfusions in juice boxes of all things, but they made a mini bazooka shaped like a toothbrush, he should expect this shit by now. Either way he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, his ghostly physiology meant he didn’t really have to worry about blood type and he absolutely did not want that emergency blood fusion thing to happen again. He felt like a huge dick asking Tuck to do that just because of some stupid blood sucking unicorn ghost).

She makes sure to send Jack a photo of the fridge with a thumbs up emoji, letting her husband know the idea was a solid one. Some of both of their ideas had been hit or miss. Sam appreciated their backyard being more shady, even if Maddie’s sure Jack’s ‘we needed a new shed’ explanation wasn’t believed, but Danny didn’t seem like he even noticed. His refusal to use sun screen also bothered her, to the point where she’d started adding speciality spf drops to his body washes to make sure he got at least some protection. Rolling her eyes to herself a little, boys and their ‘I’m too tough for such and such thing’. At least he wore long sleeves these days, and thick pants sun couldn’t easily get through.

(Danny was hiding scars. Danny was tired of cheap thin clothing getting wrecked. Danny was developing muscle that he did not want noticed).

Her cooking black pudding and blood sausage did not go over well, everyone agreeing -including Danny- that it was gross and to never try that again. She did attempt it another time, just to see if she messed it up, but, well, that became sentient and everyone was very disgusted by the ‘blood spitting sentient sausage’, Danny had even seemed personally offended, likely he thought the ‘waste of blood’ was insulting.

(Danny got covered in his own blood and ecto, as well as others, enough that a freaking sausage doing it legit was insulting. He had been very offended).

Jack’s fang brush Danny did seemingly take but she’s pretty sure he’s using that on a stray dog he seemingly likes but has never brought home.

(Cujo loved its weird shape. Danny loved that Cujo loved it).

Maddie shakes her head, smiling a little down at the toaster as she gets the last little piece in place, she’s not sure why it had a habit of spitting toast at Danny but she is slightly annoyed that he keeps retaliating like a toaster can care about that. Even if vampires were more aggressive and vindictive by nature, it was still annoying to keep having to fix it; at least it gave Danny something to take those natural desires out on… besides his pranking feud with Vlad. She really would like Vlad to do almost anything else other than nailing dead badgers to Danny’s door or beneath his window, she gets that the man has completely normalised animal corpses to himself -since she’s sure that’s what he feeds off of- but it’s extremely disturbing and Danny complains heavily about the clean up effort. At least she got Danny to stop mailing Vlad fully made cereal, since the mailman threatened to stop taking their packages if he got one more moldy stink bomb box; she hadn’t had the heart to tell the mailman it was moldy food being mailed the long way specifically to get more moldy and not a stink bomb.

Jack pops up from the lab, arms full with more blood boxes and grinning. Maddie putting her hands on her hips, whispering, “Jack, that’s way too many. It’s suspicious”. Her husband has the good sense to look embarrassed and dash right back down to the lab. Being subtle, at least subtle enough, was important. Neither one of them wanted to give away what they already knew, they wanted Danny to tell them himself! Sure, Vlad never did, but after that lab accident she couldn’t blame him for not trusting them, especially when he refused to talk to or visit them for twenty years… She’s still convinced that Danny’s why that man got back in touch with them, that he somehow knew or found out about Danny. Vampires probably smelled different to vampires than humans did. Same with how ghosts clearly had a strong ectoplasmic scent, hence why Danny always seemed to know when one was nearby and would smartly run off.

Jack comes back with only three boxes, which might still be pushing it but she won’t tell him off this time. They go in the fridge.

At least Vlad didn’t really hide being a vampire either though, which Danny was very clearly trying very had to do. She’d absolutely caught glimpses of Vlad’s eyes flashing red, and his hair style did nothing to hide his pointy ears with the way he wore it. The fangs weren’t subtle either and sometimes she thinks he’s trying to make his dark undereyes actively more noticeable. While Danny’s hair always somewhat covered his ears these days, the fangs… either he’s filling them down or he can retract them.

Oh, right, she should update that message board that her son seemed to like the blood juice box idea. Originally her and Jack had joined the website as just lurkers, when they got suspicious about Vlad years ago, but they kinda forgot about it once Vlad made it really clear he wasn’t ‘interested’ in their ‘support’ or friendship. Then Danny hit his pre-teen and early teen years, they’re assuming he ‘awakened’ during the beginning of puberty but the message board made it clear that vampires could awaken at pretty much any age. Sure they only had access to the ‘human’ areas, and not the parts meant for vampires, but it was a fantastic resource. The area for parents of vampires was particularly useful, and a couple others were curious how the blood juice box thing would go over; Maddie and Jack weren’t subtle about being inventors. Maybe they should try selling them?

Her and Jack both heading down to the lab now. Him getting back to work on a shield to protect the Highschool, since it was such a hot spot. Her hopping on the computer.

MadScientist: the juice box method seemed well received. He was a bit cautious about taking it, but still took it. We’re calling it a winner. Hopefully more cropping up, and him taking them, will make him more comfortable with it.

LemiRemi: he might not take them too often, since I’m sure what he gets from his blackswans is arguably better. And they might get worried if he starts feeding off of them less.

Maddie did worry about that, especially since she knew Sam and Tucker wouldn’t bring such worries up with her or Jack, nutritionally he should be fine since they formulated it to be identical to the nutritional value and contents of human blood; it wouldn’t be ‘as fresh’ probably but still.

MadScientist: hopefully it won’t worry them too much, since we really are just trying to make sure he’s healthy and trying to get him comfortable enough to talk with us about it.

Gem45: some kids just never really get comfortable with their parents, but their health should definitely come first.

Zeemzeff: I wish my kid had the resources you do, him autofeeding always worries me

Maddie was still lost on how autofeeding, a vampire feeding off of themselves, was remotely viable, even if it sounded like it wasn’t really safe rather just survivable. If Danny started doing that, she’d out and tell him she knew immediately to get him to accept their help with getting his ‘food’.

MadScientist: I was thinking about trying to sell the blood boxes, but I doubt they could handle any really long trips. We already sell volatile and sensitive inventions so the transport itself would be fine. But blood is only good for so long.

Zeemzeff: oh how I wish we lived in America sometimes. The weather is a lot better here but man, do Americans have access to everything.

Emilyfreetree: I’m still lot letting my girl anywhere near one of those blood bars.

MadScientist: agreed

She’d be concerned if Danny even wanted to go to a place like that, Vlad no doubt did but she’s going to hold out hope that the man will not encourage Danny to when he’s of age. She wouldn’t… object to him buying blood wine though, even if it was expensive and apparently a bit on the salty side; only when he’s older of course. Heck, she’d try some if it made him more comfortable.

LemiRemi: I’d be interested in purchasing that, at least to see if my kid would like it. I definitely would discourage getting too dependent on just that though

MadScientist: we’ll see what we can do. Even if my son was fine with just the boxes I’d rather him have variety, that has to be healthier.

Her looking away from the computer to her husband, “at least one person’s interested in trying to buy the blood boxes, so we should definitely work on that”.

Jack beaming instantly, “awesome!”, rubbing his neck, “we just gotta make sure none of that gets accidentally contaminated”. Maddie nodding immediately, that wasn’t an issue for Danny, since he has that contamination of his, but it would be an issue for anyone else. Jack then snapping his fingers, “oh! We should totally send Vladdie some! Betcha he’d love some human mixed in with all that animal he gets!”. Maddie sighing, fairly certain Vlad won’t actually appreciate that.

(Danny later had to explain to an annoyed though impressed Vlad that no, he did not mail him fucking human blood regardless of that reading as a ‘your ghost ass looks like a vampire’ joke. Vlad did not believe him and sent back a bloody thank you card as a form of mocking).

Jack liked to think he was a pretty good dad, a little oblivious and a little silly, but still a good dad. Sure his family was a little weird, from the ghost hunting to his daughter’s baffling intellect to his son’s species. Sure Jazz and Danny got a little annoyed with the ghost hunting, but it helped keep the town and his family safe. Even with both of them avoiding the gear so much, sometimes it seemed like Danno was nervous around the stuff, like maybe he thought they’d start hunting vampires too or something! Never! But he’s certain vampire hunters exist too, even if he’s never met any. Fae probably exist too, same with fae hunters. But fae and vampires, probably or definitely for vampires, have brains and hearts; far better than the ectoplasmic nothingness ghost had. Ghosts weren’t beings. Sure Danny’s vitals were a little weird but they were still there, same as Vladdie’s!

Jack shaking his head as he tries to focus back in on the gun he’s putting back together, they needed something that would actually work on that Phantom ghost, at least to talk to the thing about what was driving It to behave as some kind of wannabe ‘ghost hunter’. That, and Phantom clearly knew about Vladdie, based on his public comments, so he’s got to wonder if the ghost knew about Danny too. Danny-boy was weirdly ghost-friendly, a monster comradery thing perhaps, so maybe Danny talked with the ‘friendly’ ghost about the less human things about himself. Jack would rather his kiddo come to him with that, but he could understand a bit. And Phantom was, like, hundreds of years old so no way the spook didn’t know about vampires; that online forum made it seem like there were quite a few out there! Which most people probably wouldn’t like knowing about, but he’d rather Danny-boy have lots like him than very few.

Oh! Jack pauses, maybe if he just seemed like he was trying to talk to Phantom on ‘friendly’ terms the spook would float down and have a chat? Sure it would be hard to resist shooting It but if he could find a thing or two about how to better care for his kid then it would totally be worth it.

Jumping up and sticking his head down the lab door, “I’m heading out! Gonna see if I can track some spooks down!”.

“Make sure not to bother Danny if he’s day sleeping in a tree again!”.

Jack rubbing his neck, “how was I supposed to know he’d be there?!?”.

“You need to practice more situational awareness!”.

“I’ll try! Hon!”.

His dear sweet Maddie only laughing in response as he heads out. He knew he wasn’t the best at paying attention to his surroundings, but Danny-boy sleeping so quietly didn’t help! He definitely wished Danny’d get more sleep though, daytime sleep since all the night time sleeping didn’t seem to be doing him much good; perhaps he couldn’t actually really sleep at night at all and that’s why he kept falling asleep in classes before they just started letting him spend Sundays sleeping instead of doing chores.

It’s really bright out today, Amity was usually pretty good for cloud coverage, even if the sudden random snow storms that cropped up sometimes were odd. The light glare off of the scanner was annoying but that didn’t stop it from picking up on spectral traces, he knows a fight happened down by the park this morning so that’s where he’s heading. It was deer season too so maybe he could snag one there for lunch, something more fresh even if Danny always seemed a little confused and weirded out when he brought something home for Mad’s to serve nearly raw. Kiddo probably just wasn’t a big fan of getting his food from something that was actually dead dead. It was too bad ghosts didn’t have blood in them, Jack would love trying to encourage Danny-boy to bite them.

…

He actually has more luck with the animals than the ghost samples, none of samples were anything they haven’t already gathered and examined multiple times over. Meanwhile, he’s got himself a good healthy little bunny, just startle It with a ray blast at the ground and then quickly grab and break its neck. Simple, quick, and painless; just like how his pa taught him. Honestly it was more of a struggle to not fully crush really small animals, one of the downsides of being a really big guy.

“What’d the bunny do to you?”.

Jack actually jumps, whirling around with his prize and blinking in surprise at Phantom’s judgmental raised eyebrow, “oh! Phantom! Ha! Didn’t see you there”, holding up the rabbit a little, “they're good for stew, and the rabbit population here is a little crazy since there’s no coyotes or anything”. When the ghost issue first popped up, the spooks chased pretty much all the wild life away but over time most just got used to the ghosts. And sure, stew wasn’t as great a blood meal for his Danny but it was still fresh meat; and the blood wouldn’t have to be thrown out since he’d figured out how to powderise it and mix it into Danny’s ground coffee. Danny had even commented on getting a better batch! So Jack called it a win!

(Much later, after finding this out, Danny would make a rather panicked call to Vlad about if ghosts liked the taste of blood. Vlad had been completely baffled, didn’t have a good answer, and agreed to try some of Danny’s apparently blood contaminated coffee. Vlad had some opinions on Danny’s disgustingly strong coffee as well as agreeing that yes, ghosts probably did actually like the taste. The FrightKnight later confirming that yes, ghosts did, and humans used to give ghosts live and blood sacrifices for that very reason. Danny had a crises… he didn’t stop drinking the blood coffee though. It was already too late anyways! And! It did taste better).

Phantom blinks, “okay, you’re not wrong, but it is still super weird to see a random citizen just… strangling a rabbit in the park”.

Jack cringes a little, okay yeah, he can see how that might be alarming and something to go check out. Laughing anyways, “fair enough! Vladdie hasn’t said it’s not allowed though!”.

Phantom grumbling, “considering what the dear old mayor does to animals that’s not really a good thing”.

Jack beams a little, oh he was totally right! Phantom definitely knew! Sweet! “Eh gotta get those needs and murderous desires met somehow, am I right?!”. Phantom’s concerned expression doesn’t change, if anything It seems slightly more concerned. “And he’s a good mayor for the town, even if he wasn’t my buddy I’d say that!”.

“I guess? He’s certainly different enough to fit in?”, Phantom shakes his head and holds up a finger, “question, why? aren’t you trying to shoot me?”.

Jack rubs his neck, “well knowing my Danny-boy, he’s probably tree sleeping again and the wife did just give me clear instructions not to wake him up, again. Night sleeping doesn’t seem to be working out for him, figures, so you know”.

Phantom blinks, “he… does sleep in trees a lot”, smirking, “I’ve startled him, and birds, a few times”.

“I’m surprised he’s never given himself a sunburn really, leaves aren’t super great shade”, Jack shaking his head, even if Danny-boy wasn’t a vampire, Jack would still worry since he’s such a pale kid. Honestly Jack would probably worry about the kid having an iron deficiency if he didn’t know about the vampire situation!

“I really don’t think you have to worry about that. He can handle the sun”.

Jack taps his chin, perhaps his contamination made him more resilient? “I suppose his contamination makes him a tougher cookie”.

Phantom tilting his head, “yeah… physically strong and all that”.

“Sometimes I wonder why he’s not stronger”, Jack chuckling, “that or he’s got a bit better strength control than I’ve got! Ha!”.

“I have seen you pick up that military vehicle of yours”.

Jack laughing a bit more, “exactly!”, Danny really should be stronger than him, Jack knew Vladdie had some serious strength but he was also on a basically animal only diet. Danny was getting human, from those friends of his, so he should be seriously strong! Danny-boy was probably just really self-conscious about his strength, and so was really careful about it! Not that he needed to be! Just the same as how he’d get all awkward when anyone commented on him getting places really quickly, he’s not sure if being able to turn into a bat was a real thing, it didn’t seem to be but who knows! If he could then Danny-boy would totally love flying! Oh! Maybe he can just ask Phantom here about that! “I also wonder why he doesn’t talk about flying, he’s always loved space, so you’d think he’d find ways to get up in the air more”.

Phantom’s response is slightly panicky for some reason, “I mean, I’ve gone flying with him before, you know how ghosts fights can be. It’s a much easier way to get out of a dangerous area”.

Ha! Jack knew it! That was so cool! Danny could be a bat! Like from Hotel Transylvania! He bets Danny makes for an adorable bat! Same with Vlad! Vlad’s probably a tall skinny bat! Like a flying fox bat or a Sulawesi fruit bat with their sharp faces! Imagine if Danny-boy was a cute little Honduran white bat or a teeny tiny bumblebee bat! Danny would be so embarrassed but so cute! Kid already fit in his hand, in one finger would be so adorable! Him blurting out, “he must use a really weird brush to deal with that wind swept hair! His normal hair’s already a handful! Ha!”.

Phantom looks so confused and is probably sticking around at this point because of Its confusion. Maybe the ghost found it weird Jack took this long to ask things? Phantom blinks harshly, “I know that Sam girl has tried to brush him with a toothbrush but I think that’s the closest to weird it’s ever been”.

A! Toothbrush! That was adorable! He hopes the goth has photos he can see whenever Danny gets comfortable enough to tell him. “A toothbrush! Ha! That’s great!”.

(Danny is very confused when his next birthday card has the image of a bat getting toothbrush head scrubbies on it, and also confused as to why Jack thought it was hilarious).

Phantom blinks, “yeah… did you… come down here just to strangle a rabbit?”.

Jack holds up the scanner, “nope! Was seeing if there’d be any good samples to take! The rabbit was just a bonus, a yummy one and nutritious”, nodding strongly to himself, “Danny boy definitely needs to put on a pound or two”.

“I think? he’s fine?”.

Oh perhaps vampires didn’t really need to worry about that? That’s good, “well a growing boy still needs to get that blood pumping, either way”, humming, “maybe I should take him hunting proper one day. Fishing went okay?”; oh he definitely should! What if Sam or Tucker get sick or injured and can’t feed him? He should be able to get an animal on his own. Yes! New bonding opportunity!

Phantom chuckling awkwardly, “I’m not going to encourage you taking your son out to kill things”.

Jack waving the ghost off, “oh you’re a ghost! That’s expected!”, putting his hands on his hips and nodding strongly, “I’m taking him hunting”, smacking a fist into a hand, “in fact, I’m going to go home and plan it right now, bye you spook!”. Phantom sighing tiredly while waving Jack off. Phantom was really good at that playing friendly act! Wow!

(Surprisingly, the whole hunting bonding trip went weirdly well. Even if Danny was kinda disturbed and weirded out when his dad actually had him freaking carve up a deer and then just… told him to take out the heart and take a bite out of it. Since APPARENTLY that was ‘first kill’ tradition. Danny was disturbed. Danny absolutely had a really weird dream about cutting out his own heart and taking a bite out of it. Danny didn’t like that it didn’t taste bad. Danny had a lot of feelings about this. Jack… also took a photo and sent it to Vlad. Vlad was actually disturbed and called Danny personally to ask if he was safe and sane and that this wasn’t what he meant by halfas being apex predators. Danny threatened to bite his heart too. And his dad, only hearing half the conversation, seemed weirdly proud).

…

Jack basically barging into the lab, “so I ran into Phantom!”, holding up his catch, “and we can have rabbit stew tonight! Right?”.

Maddie grinning at him, “of course dear, just get It drained first”.

“Of course! And! Phantom totally said Danny can fly! Didn’t really confirm the bat thing but apparently Sam’s brushed him with a toothbrush before so I say I’m sold!”, tilting his head and humming, “the spook also implied Danny’s contamination makes him tougher with that sun sensitivity issue, so we don’t actually have to worry too much about that”.

Maddie sighs happy, “that’s great, and I’m sure he makes an adorable bat, if it’s a bat thing at all, but try not to tease him too much Jack? We want him to feel comfortable, not more awkward”.

Jack just laughs, rubbing his neck with his free hand before going upstairs to work on the rabbit. Him getting Danny to help when the boy gets home, the kid might be slightly weird about handling blood and raw meat but he needs to be used to it and to not act weird around it.

And if Danny licks his fingers clean then who’s he to judge? Sure he didn’t actually see his boy do that but well, one second his fingers and hands were a bit messy and then next second Jack looked and they were completely cleaned off. Danny-boy absolutely licked his fingers clean and nothing could convince Jack otherwise.

End.

(the message board referenced in here does actually exist for psych and sanguinarian vampires, Maddie and Jack have just misinterpreted it to also mean actual real life fanged non-human movie vampires. Also yes, if you didn’t know blood bars are a real thing, they are. Also also, blood in wine is a thing but it’s been banned since the 1930’s; but if you want to make your own wine out of blood you absolutely can, go wild.)

Prompt: Jack and Maddie knew something supernatural was going on with their son, waiting for him to feel comfortable telling them they set out to help him in subtler ways. If only they had actually gotten the species right.

#danny phantom #phandom #phicphight24 #phic phight 24 #danny fenton #maddie fenton #jack fenton #phantomphangphucker #have a fic suck my dick #my writing #gothmoth #vampires #mistaken for a vampire #animal death #blood drinking #fan fic #phan phic

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phantomphangphucker · 2 days

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Phic Phight - Too Fine Too Be Normal

@lexosaurus @hannahmanderr @zombiemerlin

When outsiders have to deal with any member of the weirdo trio it really is best to just roll with the punches. Plus, Orson actually LIKES his techy internet buddy; so what if he’s some kind of superhero pharaoh or something?

Orson blinks at his screen, not for the first time feeling confused and baffled over TooFine’s chat comments.

TooFine: brb gotta go eat a bat, nightshade found the plant paint I covered her fruit tree in

He’s assuming what the guy means is that ‘nightshade’, TooFine’s friend, is trying to hit him with a baseball bat. Strange and extreme but at least this time he’s not claiming to have ‘accidentally fallen into another dimension’. Whenever TooFine leaves suddenly it’s always wildy outlandish stories. Certainly there’s no way he thinks Orson actually believes them right? Yes it was very funny anyways. Reading TF’s impressive imagination always made him feel a little better about life, like even if your life is simple and plain you can bring some crazy into it with your mind.

Sometimes though, it’s clear he’s actually telling the truth, like that one time they were on voice chat and Orson dad popped in to try and convince him to let him teach him how to hunt again, Orson liked meat but he had zero desire to actually go and kill things. But TF started talking guns too, apparently that thing about TF’s in person friend having parents who made weapons was very much true. TF impressed Orson’s dad, meaning his dad now approved of the friendship. At least TF didn’t bring up that ‘ectoplasm’ stuff while his dad was around, the last thing Orson wanted was his dad thinking all his online friends were crazy too. His dad definitely didn’t believe the claim that TF’s friends parents also had a modified military vehicle they used on the actual road; something about how military treads can’t be used on roads because they’re too damaging. TF followed that up with ‘our roads can withstand some pretty heavy artillery’, Orson’s chuckle and eye roll probably convinced his dad that TF was screwing around with him a little.

Either way, hopefully TF gets back in time to keep helping him with this stupid drone he’s trying to build. He’d love to be able to go get the mail without having to actually go outside, so much wasted effort when he’d rather be gaming or reading. Then he gets a voice chat request, the voice that comes through is not TF’s

“Oh shit hey, you actually picked up, wow I can’t believe he made an outsider friend. Weird”, this new teen clears his throat, “okay so, Nightshade actually might have knocked him out in a fit of rage? So he’ll be a bit- hey! No! Put that down! You don’t get to hit him again just because I’m protecting his PDA!”.

TF actually used a PDA? Such old tech? Why? Weird.

“Emilie is PINK! PINK!”.

The boy teen groans, “ugh. Goths. Anyway, while he’s out, he give you any ideas for a good birthday gift? I’ve been banned from giving him weapons or explosives, and the last time I got him a souped up hard drive he hacked the federal government and filed the presidents taxes for some insane reason”.

Orson blinks, “I think he’s been talking a lot about electric cars and electric bikes? What happened after he… did the presidents taxes?”. He really just wants to know where this guy was going to take that level of bullshit.

“I’d rather ideas that don’t require me to steal my rich arch enemy uncles credit card. And eh, nothing much, just got abducted by some secret service folks up into the Appalachian mountains for some ‘one on one’ talks time. He got some new wicked scars out of it even, one looks like a hockey stick! I don’t even have one like that yet! But hey, what’s life without a few abductions here and there? The gov loves shooting me!”.

Orson makes a face, alright so were TF’s friends just as bad as him? Shaking his head, “get him a lock picking kit then, in case anyone abducts him with handcuffs or something”. What the actual hell? He absolutely has to google this.

“Oh that’s not bad-oh hey buddy! You good? No lumps and bumps? No booboos or owies?”.

“You jerk, I’m fine. Why is she still armed!”.

“Emile. Is. PINK”.

“It suits her!”.

“She’s a black apple tree! Pink is never her colour!”.

Oh so the goth did actually name her plants, odd but not insane. And yeah, a hacker did actually do the presidents taxes… weird. There’s no way that was actually TF right? Was he friends with an actual hacker?

“Oh T I totally voice called, or whatever, your online buddy? It seemed like the chat was recent and shit so you know”.

“Man, you are way too overprotective and way too much of a mother hen for a dead guy. Gimme that”.

“Hey at least dead hens can shoot laser beams out of their mouths, way cooler than living ones”.

TF clearly has his… PDA back, “you’re still working on that ‘let me be lazy’ drone right?”.

Orson blinks, “yes, but real talk, did you actually file the presidents taxes?”.

“Oh my zone! DP you shit head! Ugh, look the guy was trying to embezzle my towns funding to buy another yacht, so I figured hey why not forcibly report all his off shore accounts and that weird charity donation to a Russian network. I also might have gone after all his staff too? They weren’t impressed but I call anarchy and how was I supposed to know his people would actually not suck at tracking people?”.

“T, dude, I’m pretty sure the federal government and the goddamn president have better tracking than those G.I.W. morons”.

“Are you going to fix Emilie or what!”.

“Never”.

Orson flips through google results a little more and yeah, a ton of people got hacked for taxes… Hell Orson even stumbles on a whistle blower data leak about ties to Russia that he nopes out of real quick. “TF bud, that’s super concerning”.

“Heh. Fair enough and- oh shit!”. There’s an actual explosion over the line. “Hey, you wanna actually witness shit for a change, because good goddamn. DP! Have you been skipping sleep again! Why is the goddamn sleep god throwing a building at us!”.

What.

You know what.

Fuck it.

Orson sends the zoom invite, it’s accepted immediately. It’s actual pure chaos. There’s shouting, what looks like a sentient star cover blank wearing a mask in the sky, a glowing black and white teen throwing actual everything forbid bath bombs at the thing in the sky. TF looks like he’s from freaking ancient Egypt, with a helm on and everything. Then a bunch of glowing vines shove TF out of screen, a girl in a green and black body suit with a freaking cape chasing after.

For a second he’s wondering if TF is playing a massive prank on him and somehow created a hyper realistic superhero show set up. The… PDA is pointed up at the sky as the voice of the guy who started the voice chat shouts, “I HAVE MIDTERMS! WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO!”.

The blanket creature shouting back, “SLEEP!”.

“Oh yeah I guess I should have seen that one coming”.

Okay so. TF’s friend, whose parents make weapons, is a superhero or something? Google to the rescue.

TF shouts, “why are you stabbing me! There’s a god in the sky! Fight him!”.

“Naw, UnderGrowth actually likes Nocturne, since sleeping humans aren’t actively polluting Mother Nature”.

“Fuck that stupid grass stain”.

“I’m going to end you”.

Orson blinks at his phone, DP, Danny Phantom. A real person, in a real town, that looked like a real superhero. It’s that rumoured haunted town actually, a real haunted town. What the actual hell? Is he friends with a superhero or sidekick? Who’s also a hacker? And eats a concerning amount of meat without getting sick somehow? Has all the stories he’s been getting, and not reacting strongly too, been real??? Alright, okay, gotta play it cool self. He probably actually thought Orson was taking him seriously and has decided that Orson passed some kind of weirdness meter test. This was basically almost an identity reveal wasn’t it? Holy crap he’s involved in a real life comic book secret identity reveal.

The ‘Nocturne’ guy gets blasted into a wall, DP pelting It with eggs he got from somewhere. The Nocturne holding up a massive canister over Its head, “YOU WILL FAIL IF YOU DO NOT SLEEP!”.

“Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit”, TF comes sorta back on screen, grabbing up his PDA, the ‘facial markings’ don’t look like make up, it looks like it’s part of his skin. “Okay okay, so that right up there is a massive thing of halothane vapour from the looks of it, fun. So we’re all probably gonna pass out here, feel free to disconnect if shit gets boring”.

Orson squeaks a little, “boring? You get up to some insane shit. Why is a… sleep god? Trying to knock y’all out?”. Roll with the punches, gotta roll with the punches. Freak out later.

TF snickers, “DP doesn’t get enough sleep and has been frustrating this ghost since he formed. God’s am I right? Ha!”.

“Get back here you!”.

“Oh for crying out loud! I’ll fix your freaking plant okay! Ugh!”. TF gets smacked into a wall all by the plant girl anyways.

Orson eyes the parts of his drone before looking back to the screen, “why are you helping a random friend you made, build a drone when this crap is going on?”. Because it seriously has to be asked.

TF uses sand to push himself out of the wall rubble, “eh, normalicy is nice and shit, plus you’re impressively chill. I bring up sneaking into a death gods liquor cabinet and you just give me a ‘that’s nice, have fun. Don’t hospitalise yourself’. Sure, Red’s chill but she’s more DP’s friend”, smirking, “and his ex, plus she rides a hoverboard and shoots ghosts so…”.

Oh okay, so there’s a fourth one. This is completely insane. Whelp. Guess he’s in it now though. Orson shrugging, “I’ve always been a pretty laid back guy, though this is definitely the craziest thing I’ve seen. Way worse than that chic on drugs or something who was trying to bite people”.

“Oh yeah drugs are bad, way worse than hacking regardless what the government has to say about it”.

Then the canister explodes, giving Orson a serious anxiety spike as bits of metal impale in things and gas starts going everywhere. DP actually does a comedic salute in the air before just falling to the ground. The Nocturne guy looks very pleased with Itself and actually wraps around the probably unconscious teen, hissing at the plant girl when she tries to approach.

TF cringing, “stupid obsessive ghosts. DP looks like he’s been bent like a shrimp”, TF moving his PDA camera and yeah the black and white teens position is kinda shrimp like.

All Orson can think to say is, “great, now I’m hungry”.

TF laughing while hurling a fist full of sand, “HA! Yeah sushi would be great right now”.

“You disgust me”.

“NONE SHALL DISTURB HIS SLUMBER!”.

Was it normal for ‘villains’ to seemingly baby heroes? Because that’s what this looks like. Nocturne literally just wants the black and white teen to sleep, that’s it. Weird. And then freaking pillow monsters??? Start storming the screen, TF and Nightshade/plant girl doing battle with them. The zoom gets cut out so Orson is just going to assume the device got broke.

…

Okay.

So.

That happened.

One question, well many really, but why is someone so tech focused going with a freaking Egyptian theme? Nightshade made sense, he’s pretty sure even her ‘code name’ is actually a plant. And DP was, well, a literal ghost so the Phantom name made sense. Weird that ghosts were actually real still. Yes he’s seen some stuff about them on the news occasionally but it still seemed so far fetched. And he’s pretty sure he saw some people dressed up as DP at last years comic con.

Weird.

Very weird.

Well. Nothing for it now. So he sends TF a message asking if he’s good. It takes multiple hours but….

TooFine: we’re good, DP’s still out cold and has been abducted into a sleep gods lair but like, we good. Sleepy Blanket won’t try to skin him like some people.

OriOri: that’s good? I mean, his skin would probably make a poor blanket?

TooFine: HA! Thats the kinda joke DP would make! He’ll be proud

TooFine: he’ll be proud whenever he wakes up

TooFine: and when Sleepy Blanket stops acting like a crazy dragon protecting its horde

TooFine: and when he finds his way back to the land of living

OriOri: it’ll be a while

TooFine: good. He really should sleep more

TooFine: the dumbass

OriOri: if he gets so little his pissed off god then yeah. That’s impressive actually

TooFine: you have no idea. Anyways, tots sorry for dipping on your little project. I’d offer Techy’s services as make up but he’s an idiot with newer tech

Orson has no clue who that is and isn’t going to ask.

OriOri: at this point I’m more curious why the heck you went with an Egyptian theme for a guy who hacks the federal gov and makes visual horror games

TooFine: eh, it would be kinda weird if a reincarnated pharaoh wasn’t Egyptian themed, you know how it is. Technically you don’t but you know you know

Orson sighs, this was so weird. But he is so not going to let on that he never believe the shit TF said.

OriOri: I guess? Now do you know how to better connect female usb c to an hdmi, cause it’s pissing me off

TooFine: *snort*

TooFine: but of course I do. Debendint on how far you need the connection to work you might have to bike something from scratch. I tots got blueprints and they are definitely not stolen from the fbi terror investigations unit. Definitely not.

Orson was probably going to get arrested one day because of this, but screw it, TF was fun to talk too and made his mostly boring life more interesting. Not interesting enough to ever consider moving to the guys nightmare town though. Not a chance in Hell.

End.

Prompts: Tucker fucked up. Hard. But it’s like, how the hell was he supposed to know that hacking the federal government was a bad idea? Nocturne takes a liking to Danny and decides to help teach him a lesson, whether Danny wants it or not. Outsider POV. Tucker makes a new online acquaintance, and will casually allude to the crazy shit he and his friends get up to while ghost hunting. The new acquaintance thinks Tucker is just embellishing the truth, until…

#danny phantom #phandom #danny fenton #tucker foley #oc centric #pov outsider #have a fic suck my dick #phantomphangphucker #my writing #phicphight24 #phic phight 24 #phic phight #phan phic #fan fic #pharaoh tucker #plant queen sam #hacking

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phantomphangphucker · 5 days

Text

Phic Phight - Death’s Brought Me Company

@Mimca @thesilentbard @carelisswriting @kinglazrus

There are times Vlad is truly baffled at how irresponsible, foolish, reckless, inane, stupid, dangerous, dense, careless, thoughtless, witless, idiotic, and hazardous, Maddie and Jack could be. They were his friends, yes, but they were a menace to everyone around them and he is not impressed with their son becoming their lastest ‘screw up’.

Vlad hums as he sorts through a few papers, there wasn’t too much approvals he needed to go over and sign but it was still work all the same. It would take him a few hours at least, rather than the seven plus hours poor people had to work but well that’s the perks of wealth no matter how questionably immorally acquired. That questionable morality was why he didn’t bring up his business around those friends of his, they didn’t exactly approve of how Vlad got himself to where he is today. He finds it to be rather hypocritical considering those two worked in an area that was highly morally questionable as well, and he highly doubts they’ve achieved everything they have though one hundred percent legal means as well. Alas, he had little interest in arguing such things with them, both could be rather dense after all.

He’s making good time on this application for zoning investigation and work arounds, which was starting to look like he’d definitely have to deal with it personally and with a little intimidation perhaps. Then his phone goes off, he’s tempted to let it simply go to voicemail, no one was truly entitled to his time or immediate attention after all. Then the caller id tells him it’s them, it’s Jack and Maddie, and any ideas of giving the caller(s) the cold shoulder goes out the window. They’d caught up with him four days ago? He’d given them his condolences for their portal, while also adding in some maybe snide remarks about how ‘at least there was no tragic accidents this time’. Secretly, he wanted that to be a success, in part because he knew they’d just keep trying and he’d rather them succeed before hurting themselves. The other part was simply that he can then show them his portal in proper, since they didn’t want seeing his to influence their own work; establish something themselves without others input was something he could respect. But without them being able to sense and feel the flow of ectoplasm even he’s not sure how they’ll manage it. The fact that they’re calling again so soon means either it has indeed worked and they had only needed to fiddle with it a bit more, or someone’s been hurt. All he can do is hope it’s the former, as he picks up the phone, “Maddie? Jack?”.

It’s Maddie’s voice he hears, hearing her voice before Jack’s excited greetings was never a good thing. The last time that happened Jack had gotten himself hospitalised from a head on collision with a semi truck. The time before that, Jack had somehow gotten the house teleported into the mirror dimension, which Vlad hadn’t even known existed. Her voice is worried, “Vlad, I think we messed up”.

Oh no. Vlad sighs, folding up the paperwork that won’t be looked at again today, and puts a few of his fingers to his forehead as he replies, “what happened? Are you two okay?”.

“We’re… fine-”.

“And! Our portals working!”. Ah there’s Jack, there’s excitement in his voice but it’s… far too subdued for the man. Very far too subdued. Something’s gone wrong.

Did a ghost come through their portal? A dangerous one perhaps? Or is the Infinite Realm side location an unpleasant one? Is the portal unstable? There’s lots of possibilities.

“Jack dear, let me explain”.

“Right, sorry Mads. Hey Vlad!”.

Vlad rolls his eyes a little fondly, also slight annoyed of course, Jack could be too eager and exuberant, “yes hello, Jack. Now do explain, Madeline”.

“Maddie”, she clears her throat, “after the portal didn’t work we decided to go for a walk, to try and think in the fresh air and cheer up”.

Perfectly reasonable and expected so far.

“We even formulated a new shaft design we were going to try and work in, but when we got back Jazz… screamed-”.

Jack butts in again, “it was awful and I never want to hear that from my precious princess ever again”; Vlad can hear the man physically shudder. Yes, he supposes hear one’s child scream is never good or pleasant.

“Agreed, Jack. But-”, she sighs, “-it was from the lab, Vlad, so we ran down, worried of course-”. It sounds like she’s bitting her nails, something she only did when very worried. “-the last time anyone screamed in a lab was you and that was terrifying”.

Vlad grumbling, “oh I’m well aware”, shaking his head, “is young Jasmine alright?”.

“Yes, yes, thankfully. But… Danny’s not”. Well butter biscuits, Vlad gets up immediately to go grab his coat as she continues, “apparently Danny saw how upset we were and thought he’d try to fix the portal for us-”.

Vlad pauses with one arm through his jacket sleeve, he almost squawks but he absolutely does not squawk, “what”; he knows a bit of his ghostly power leaked into his voice and that made his response less pleasant on the ears, but he hardly cares. “How did he even get down there”.

She doesn’t chastise him for using his more ghostly voice over phone, meaning she might be concerned enough to have not even noticed, “we… might have forgot to lock the lab when we left-”.

Jack butting in yet again, “but the kids have been drilled on safety! He really should have known not too!”.

Vlad growls low, “they’re children, Jack”, pulling his jacket on fully and taking a breath, “children are not known for abiding by rules and are well known to have invincibility complexes”. Daniel was a stellar and unfortunate example of that. That boy had tried to eat a pie that was actively on fire before, and don’t get him started on the child trying to ‘bake himself’ or the blackbird pie incident.

Maddie swallows, “I know we weren’t as careful as we should have been, Vlad. Danny… wandered inside the portal to see if he could fix it and it turned out we… forgot to unplug it as well and… forgot there was an on switch inside that needed to be turned on”.

Vlad knows well his eyes flash red, “excuse me, would you care to repeat that”, that was practically a threat and he knew it. How could they be so! So! So stupid! So utterly and completely and unbelievably moronic! “You left it plugged in, forgot an on switch INSIDE THE MACHINE, failed to lock the Cracker Jack door, and left a dangerous highly volatile machine in working condition alone while your children were home. Are you two actively TRYING to hospitalise people?!”. It takes some effort to not simply crush his phone, “college I can understand, we were all too excitable, but now? Absolutely not”, growling again, “now. What is Daniel’s condition”. That’s a demand not a question.

He can hear the wince in her voice, good, and her tones shaky, for a change he’s hoping that’s from fear of him. “He’s… he’s out of the hospital now, Vlad. He’s-”.

What. “You mean to tell me he was in hospital and you didn’t call me immediately. Madeline, what the butter biscuits is wrong with you two!”. This was completely unacceptable. He paces in a circle, he wanted her to just hang up already so he can head over there personally and shoot something just to get across how unbelievably pissed and unimpressed he is. As it is he’s seriously debating throwing one of his crystal whiskey glasses at a wall.

“I, we knew you’d be mad and, Vlad, it’s not the same. There’s no ecto-acne, his hair’s the same. The doctor even said he was having a perfectly normal reaction to high voltage electrocution. His vitals weren’t even wonky!”.

Jack blurting out, “we were confused! Relieved but confused!”.

Vlad pauses, stilling, “he… doesn’t have ecto-acne? None of my symptoms?”. That… then perhaps the boy would be fine? Wouldn’t be changed by them?

Maddie clearly bites her lip, “no and I thought that, maybe, if you were around, with your ecto-field, that might change things. I thought it was a risk and I knew you’d come immediately if we called”.

Vlad pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs aggressively. He supposes they very well could have a point there. As there would be no way to safely confirm if Vlad being near would have some effect on someone else who got caught in a portal. It would genuinely be a risk. Even if she had explained that worry to him he knows he would have gone anyway, he wouldn’t have been able to take her at her word. He still can’t, won’t. “I want you to send me his medical records, immediately. I’ll read them on my way”.

“I’d chastise you about distracted flying but, I understand. We’ve poured over them already and they really are normal. But, he’s- something’s not right even if he keeps saying he’s fine”.

Vlad glares at a wall, it melts slightly, “butter biscuits”, at least his tablet pings an email, him transforming as he opens it, it’s the medical files. Him nodding to himself, at least they had the files on standby already, “got them. I’ll be there shortly. However, do know that I am not impressed”, and he hangs up without giving them the chance to say goodbyes or see you soons.

Him flying out a window and flipping through his tablet, the files are… somehow perfectly normal and Vlad is a little baffled. His own records showed himself as having a disturbingly low heart rate and blood pressure, an extreme feverish body temp, and far too few breaths per minute. Daniel’s was: eighty two bpm, one-twenty over eighty mmHg, ninety-seven point nine Fahrenheit, and a respiratory rate of eleven. His respiratory was on the lower end but it wasn’t actively concerning, Vlad himself often averaged only four.

Normal was good. But Madeline said she still felt something wasn’t right, perhaps she was simply paranoid or perhaps the electrocution had simply raised Daniel’s vitals for a period of time. Vlad shaking his head, the fact that the boy had been inside of the portal and electrocuted instead of simply blasted in the face by pure ecto-energy was horrific; but perhaps such an unfortunate experience would prevent him from becoming something no longer truly human. Vlad did consider himself better for how he is now, but that didn’t make the process of become content with it a pleasant one, it also didn’t make being a halfa a good thing as it arguably was not. It was a rather lonely existence, which Vlad would rather not see changed in this particular instance. It could one day get him experimented on by his own government, and under that same government he did not truly have rights. He had nothing he could compare himself to, for curiosities sake or for the sake of his well being. There was also the simple fact that having powers resulted in his view of the world and other people being undeniably altered. The mental changes and instincts were an entirely separate issue, one he’s embraced, but that applies to him and perhaps not to a young teenage boy.

He now rather wished it had been Maddie or Jack that had gotten caught in their own creation, rather than a child.

Either way, he’s here now. Floating invisibly above the FentonWorks building and feeling the desire to blast that sign of theirs out of frustration and annoyance. One would think after what happened with him they’d be even slightly more careful, but apparently not. He lands with a scowl, phasing through the front door and, at the sight that only Maddie and Jack appearing to be around, transforms back into his human form and drops his invisibility; both of them jerk a little and he glares instead of half heartedly apologising or mocking them. “Where is he”. It’s not a question and they know it. Vlad can smell that the boy’s not here, and he’s none too pleased about that.

Jack rubs his neck, “school”. While Maddie winces. Vlad glaring a little more, “he just got of the hospital for at the very least being electrocuted and you sent him to school”.

Maddie standing up from her chair, hands up pacifyingly, “he wanted to, Vlad”, dropping her hands, “even Jazz tried to get him to stay home but he got mad at her for being overbearing and still left”.

Jack frowning, “he’s been making almost every excuse he can to not be here, kinda part of our worry you know?”, and laughs in that awkward way that Vlad knows means he’s upset and possibly even scared.

Vlad rubs his temples and walks in further, “I suppose that’s acceptable then, but what teen actually wants to go to school?”.

“Jazz thinks he’s traumatised and doesn’t want to be around the portal”, Maddie frowns, “which is understandable”.

Vlad scowling, “yes, yes it is”.

Jack tilting his head in confusion, “but he’s still cleaning the lab, like he’s supposed to so I don’t think Jazz’s theory makes sense”.

Vlad blinks at the man, he can’t be serious. “You’re telling me, you have Daniel who was just in a portal accident cleaning your lab? Surrounded by ectoplasm samples and mess. Jack, I am genuinely debating trying to beat you up”. The man looks apologetic rather than frightened, which is a fair bit grating. Giving Maddie a hard look, “how can you justify him being around that if you were worried about him being around me”.

“We don’t really know how different your ecto-field is, Vlad. And you give off a ton more than any samples we have. For all any of us know there could be some form of halfa gene or energy in yours”.

Alright, Vlad can admit that could very well be the case. Sighing, “fine. I still don’t approve”, moving into the kitchen/dinning room fully, “now what about him seems wrong? I know him being avoidant, of you two or the lab or merely the portal would not be enough to set off alarm bells”. After all, such behaviour would be perfectly normal and human.

Maddie frowns and grabs a sample vial out of the fridge, “we found blood and ectoplasm in the bathroom this morning, and remembering what… happened with you and your wings, well”, she hands it over to him and he gets her concern immediately, it looks like one of his own samples. “It’s not separating out like human blood and ghost ectoplasm normally does. Normally does, with any sample that isn’t from you or someone severely contaminated long term”.

Vlad nods at the sample, this was near as good as proof to him. He winces a bit internally though, feeling a bit of a pang of sympathy for the boy. The wings ‘coming out’ as it were, was incredibly unpleasant. He’s glad Jack and Maddie had been there for that, to ‘help’ even if it was mostly them getting things straightened out and cleaning him up when he was frankly too exhausted to do it himself. However this meant they weren’t there for their son, which would be the more important one to be there for. Rolling his right shoulder a bit, “I’m assuming there’s more, because yes, him just being contaminated is a viable option”.

Jack nods, “he keeps dropping things and acts very freaked out after”. Maddie nodding at her husband then looking back to Vlad, “I’m fairly certain I saw his cereal spoon go through his fingers rather than just dropping it. And he has that unnerving aura around him that you do, I might be desensitised to it but that doesn’t mean I don’t still feel it sometimes”, and she laughs playfully a little.

Vlad glaring, flashing his eyes at her, “I’m not in the mood, Madeline”; making her wince. Vlad pinching the bridge of his nose yet again, eyes squeezing shut, “alright, so it would seem that Daniel is mostly likely a halfa now, correct?”. Dropping his hand and eyeing them as they both nod, “yet he did not have ecto-acne or abnormal vitals?”. More nodding, “and he’s being avoidant of a house full of ghost hunting gear as well as the two ghost hunters who reside in it?”.

Maddie smacks herself in the face immediately, Jack thumping his head down on the table. Maddie groaning, “why did we not clue in to that? Ugh. He’s afraid we’re going to hurt him or hunt him”. Jack snapping his head up, “we would never!”.

Vlad gives them a bit of a pitying look, eyeing Jack specifically, “you two found out the same time I did about my altered state of being, there was never a chance for me to have those kinds of worries”, scoffing, “not that I would have. But Daniel is a child. His brain isn’t even fully developed, it’s a wonder he didn’t run away on you. Of course he’s afraid of ghost hunters if he’s a ghost himself”. They both wince at least.

And the then house phone goes off, Maddie picking it up immediately, “hello?”.

Vlad tilts his head, his ghostly hearing making it easy to listen in. “Hey Mrs. Fenton. Was wondering if Danny could spend the night? We got a big project and apparently the dummy forgot to actually do his part”. That reeks of a lie, it’s not a bad one though, he’ll give what sounds like a teen girl that much; it was most likely that Samantha girl.

Maddie eyes the vial now sitting on the table, hopefully she’s thinking what he is, Daniel’s friends knew and were trying to help him, most likely with the fresh wings. Vlad would gamble a concerning amount of money on the belief that Daniel most certainly did not actually go to school and neither did his friends. Maddie shakes her head to herself, “I would really rather he come home, I’m sure any school work he needs to do is important but I’d like him home”.

Vlad rolls his eyes, the woman was going to make the boy a bundle of nerves, so he walks over and phases the phone out of her grip, making her jump. She glares at him and puts her hands on her hips, “what do you think you’re doing?”. Vlad simply smirks, said smirk likely airing on the ‘villainous’ side, before giving his attention to the phone, “tell young Daniel that his godfather would like to see him and that said grandfather is not unfamiliar with certain portal-related accidents, as it were”. Maddie looks worried. Him moving the phone away from his ear and covering the mic, “relax, dear Maddie. Being blunt with the boy is far better than making him scared to come home”.

The, “what are you talking about?!?”, that comes through the phone making all three of them wince from the static and warble. Maddie paling a little and leaning against the counter, after all, that kind of vocal effect was explicitly ghostly and one she’s heard from Vlad quite literally today multiple times. It was more solid proof. A different male voice, that isn’t spectrally infused, pipes up in the background, “dude, your voice?”.

Hmmm, yes his friends did indeed know. Vlad smirking a little again, “Daniel, tell that friend of yours not to worry about your voice, it’s perfectly normal when emotional”.

“Um. Uh. Okay?”. Oh the boy sounds so unsure and freaked out, Vlad almost wants to mock him a little. It sounds like he’s turned his head away from the phone, “um, so apparently what just happened is normal? And my uncle god father guy might be, you know, kinda like me or something? And I should probably actually go home”.

Then the girls voice again, “if your parents shoot you, I’m stabbing them and burying their bodies in my garden”.

The other male sounds like he’s frowning, “do you want us to go with? You know, moral support?”.

It would seem Daniel had good friends. A blessing indeed. Hopefully they were less reckless and idiotic than Vlad’s own friends, regardless of how fond of them he was. However, Vlad has no interest in explaining himself to three teenagers, Daniel needed the information the other two could hear it from him, “I’d much rather not have this conversation with three hormonal teenagers”.

Daniel is clearly still talking to his friends, “okay so that’s a no, Tuck. Apparently we’re too hormonal”.

“More like homicidal, I do have boots with knives inside them”.

“I’m not wearing your shoes, Sam”.

“You don’t need to wear them! Throw them!”.

“Your shoes weigh, like, twenty goddamn pounds?”.

The boy butts into the argument, “I’m not sure that matters anymore, man. You accidentally lifted up my dad’s car”.

“Shut up, Tuck. Ugh”. Daniel’s attention does seem to return to the phone at that, “am I in trouble?”.

Vlad rolls his eyes, “hardly. The only ones in trouble are two reckless scientists who let this happen for a second time”; he throws another glare at the two who smartly wince and glance away.

Daniel almost excited whispers, “oh my god my parents are in trouble, that’s kinda awesome”; his friends laugh in the background.

“Well if you find that amusing, come home and mock them”.

Daniel sighs, “okay fine”.

Vlad nodding to himself, “good. Now for the love of all the Gouda in the world, do not try to bind or strap down your, let’s say, feathered friends, you’ll just damage them and bent feathers are hardly becoming of a man or boy”. Vlad took expert care of his wings and he wasn’t about to tolerate Daniel not doing the same, or everything forbid misshaping them.

This time Daniel actually squeaks, “okay”, then hangs up.

Vlad feels quite content with himself actually. Looking to Maddie and Jack, who still look rather awkward, “he’s coming. Now hopefully I don’t need to tell you two to avoid staring or trying to take samples from him”, he doesn’t like that they appear slightly confused, “Daniel isn’t me, I was and am an adult and an ecto-ologist myself, he is neither”.

Maddie sighs and nods to herself, “right right, he needs us a parents only and the last thing we’d want to do is make him feel like an experiment”.

Vlad nodding strongly right back, “indeed”.

Jack smacking his fist into his hand and springing up, “oh! We should change so we’re not in the, you know, ghost hunter stuff!”. Vlad chuckling a little, “that’s not a bad idea”, which makes the man run off upstairs. Maddie shaking her head fondly and moving to follow after him; Vlad watching her go.

They were fools but they cared, it was only too bad their foolishness had to bring harm unto others so often. Yes Daniel’s own actions had been foolish, much like Vlad’s had been, but that boy was a child and that made a world of difference. A child should have the expectation that something that could alter their very being and species wouldn’t be left unattended and plugged in inside an unlocked room. Daniel was well within reason to believe that the worst that could happen was a slight burn or small shock, a cut perhaps. Not death, by half or full.

Daniel arrives before his parents actually finish changing, getting in and out of biohazard suits wasn’t exactly easy, even for Vlad since he couldn’t phase through the material. Arguably this was for the best, Vlad was watching the door, leaning back against the kitchen entryway wall, as Daniel sticks his head in cautiously. Daniel spotting him, stares, looking confused, so Vlad gestures at his eyes and flashes them their ghostly red. Daniel jumps a little before relaxing and moving inside fully, he’s… holding a blanket around his shoulders even if it’s not doing much to hide that there’s something large underneath. Vlad definitely wants to mock him, very badly in fact, drawling a very sarcastic, “impeccable fashion choices, Daniel. I applaud you”.

Daniel scowls at him, “what else am I supposed to do, you jerk”, there’s a bit of humour in his eyes so Vlad counts that as a win. Daniel glancing around as the door shuts and he shuffles inside more, “where are, mom and dad?”.

“Upstairs at the moment”, Vlad eyes the ground around the boy, no shadow. Daniel is absolutely a halfa, even with wings he could still technically be merely extremely contaminated, but without a shadow there’s no way he’s fully human. Light simply passed through their kind in the same way it did with ghosts and there was nothing that could be done about that. Which yes, was part of why Vlad preferred to avoid needless public appearances.

Daniel nods, eyeing Vlad, “so, where’s yours? Or were you just yanking my chain?”.

Vlad rolls his eyes at that, pushing himself off the wall and letting his wings unfurl out through the holes he had in the backs off all his clothes these days, crimson red feathers lining the inside and his white ones covering the outside. Stretching one out to flick Daniel in the forehead with the primary feathers. Daniel stares wide-eyed, “how did you do that? How do you hide them?! I have so many questions”.

Vlad chuckles, his blatant curiosity, with no hints of horror or distrubia was a genuinely welcome reaction. It reminded him of Jack, except without getting his very fresh at the time feathers grabbed and prodded. Folding his wings up against his back again, though leaving them out instead of reabsorbing them, “I imagine so”, walking over towards Daniel and grabbing the blanket he’s still using as a cover and pulling it up some, ignoring Daniel’s clear embarrassment. “We’re malleable things, absorbing them inside ourselves is a simple though uncomfortable task”. The constant full sensation in his torso and the aches from wings that wanted to be stretched out could be incredibly annoying and cumbersome. Humming, “yours are much too fresh though, you need to heal first. I can say the colour seems to suit you well though”. The red inner feathers of his own used to confuse him, until he grew up and stablised into his more vampiric appearance anyways. Daniel’s were white and seemed to shimmer or sparkle like fresh snow, which went well with his pale skin; they even felt cold like snow, was his core an ice type perhaps? The black tipping on all the feathers, as well as his lesser coverts and alula feathers being black was a decent accent and went well with his dark hair. If Vlad had to guess, Daniel’s tertial feathers are black as well.

Daniel blinks, apparently a little baffled by how calm Vlad was being, “yours… go with your eyes?”

Alright yes, Vlad laughs at that, “they suit me more than you can tell, boy”.

Daniel snorts at that and rolls his eyes, “whatever, old man”, though his fidgeting fingers give away his nerves.

“Alright! Is he here yet!”, Jack pops down the stairs in his stupid ghost themed overalls, how did that man not understand that those things did not flatter him at all? Jack brightening up at seeing his son, and basically bounding down the stairs. Daniel pulling the wing out of Vlad’s grasp and hiding it under the blanket again, “oh! Um, hi? Dad?”, cringing dramatically, “what are you wearing?!”. See even Daniel understands it’s unbecoming.

Vlad has no desire to play a game of ‘beat around the bush’ so he nods to Jack, and Maddie as she comes down as well, “he doesn’t have a shadow, meaning that yes, he’s a halfa as well”.

“I- wait what?”, Daniel looks down, “what do you mean in don’t have a shadow?”, does a little circle spin ‘thing’ while staring at the ground and blinking, “holy shit I don’t have a shadow”.

“Language, my boy”. Had he seriously not noticed? Well Vlad knows which parent he got that lack of attention to detail from, as endearing as that particular flaw could be it wasn’t a good one.

Maddie gives Vlad a bit of a pinched smile before making a point to hold Jack back from crowding the boy, her walking up and ruffling Daniel’s hair, Daniel eyeing the bare hand cautiously. “To be fair, sweety, we didn’t notice either”.

Perhaps he got it from both of them. How unfortunate. Vlad shakes his head, stepping back a little to let the mother look over her son and the father hover close enough by that it doesn’t quite qualify as crowding. Vlad huffing, “considering you didn’t notice an entire misplaced on switch I’m not sure why I’m surprised”.

Both parents wince but Daniel blinks at him a bit owlishly, it absolutely does not come off as human, “wait, how do you know that?”.

Jack rubbing his neck and getting his son’s attention, “well, we inspected the portal after your, uh, accident. We wanted to know how it happened, since we thought it was completely nonfunctional”.

“Right. Your ground breaking life’s work. Got it”. Even Vlad cringes from that response, it was explicitly bitter.

Jack holds up his hands, looking awkward as he should for that comment. “No not just how you got it to work. More like how it worked at all, every other time we’ve failed it had to be completely reworked so it should have been fine not being unplugged… or locked… which yeah was really stupid of us. Heh”, and rubs his neck.

Vlad sighs, touching a few fingers to his forehead, “what your buffoon of a father is trying to say is that he wanted to know how you were even able to get hurt”, then glaring at Jack, “I am still fully tempted to smack both of you over the head, know that”.

Daniel actually looks amused and pleased at that; progress. And stares a little surprised when Jack smacks Vlad on the back a couple of times, paying no mind to the wings. Muttering to himself, “Huh, I guess they are okay”. Meanwhile Vlad’s simply trying to stop himself from getting knocked over.

Maddie nodding and startling the boy a little, “we’ve had twenty years to get used to him and all the changes that happened, you’re fine and we definitely are not going to shoot you or anything of that sort”. Jack nodding and grinning in agreement readily.

Vlad inspects his nails a little, “I’d be quite annoyed if that wasn’t the case”, waving at Jack dismissively while speaking to Daniel again, “your father was more explicitly responsible for my little accident”, huffing, “though I’ll admit sticking my face directly in front of a potentially viable proto portal was indeed foolish”.

“I mean, at least you didn’t try to put it around your neck to wear it like a collar”.

Vlad blinks at the boy, a bit affronted, “that would be utterly imbecilic rather than just foolish”.

Maddie blinks before putting a hand over her face again, “right, yeah”, looking at Vlad, “we caught him doing that with another proto portal model, that’s why we stopped making them”.

Vlad smacks Daniel over the back of the head immediately, “you are a danger to yourself and a complete moron. Child or no”.

Daniel squawks, “ow! Hey!”, and covers his head with his hands, “it was funny!”; this all resulting in him dropping the blanket, which thumps to the ground quietly considering how much it doing so revealed. Daniel blinking owlishly again and eyeing his folks as they get their first proper glimpse of the wings.

Vlad humming to himself while the boy has an internal crisis or two, “hmmm, I was right, your tertials are indeed black”.

“My, what?”.

Vlad unfolds a wing some and gesture at the fluffier feathers that stayed close to his side and back, “the inner most feathers, the only ones that actually stay ‘fluffy’”, gesturing at Daniel’s fuzzy fluffy feathers, “you have feather down right now, that’ll go away with age”. Vlad only had to put up with that for around two years if he remembers right, Daniel’s would likely stick around for at least four; that thought making him snicker at the boy, “give it a few years, at least four, I’d say”. Daniel pouts at him.

Jack beams, “meaning more time for cute baby ghost pictures!”; that Daniel absolutely fully groans at, burying his face in his hands. “We only have five of Vlad”.

Vlad scowling, “and here I thought I burned all of those”.

“Aren’t you glad you didn’t now?!”, Jack’s grin is almost mean which is strange to see on the jubilant man, “now Danny-boy can see them!”. At least that makes Daniel laugh into his hand.

Vlad rolls his eyes, though he supposes the bonding would be worth the embarrassment. As well as reassuring to the boy that he’s normal, for their species anyways. Though… Daniel still has his wings as scrunched up and as pressed into himself as possible, he wasn’t relaxing them at all. Sighing at the boy, “the more difficult you make healing the longer it’ll take to be able to hide them”.

“Huh?”.

Vlad ignores him, as well as his parents looks of concern, and moves around Daniel to physically grab the wings and force them open and away from his back a bit. Daniel yelping and attempting to jerk out of Vlad’s grasp, “hey!”.

Vlad just glares at the very sloppy stitch work and bandaging attached with, of all things, scotch tap. This would scar horrifically if not corrected immediately, “by Gouda, who did this? This is going to heal horribly even without you trying to scrunch your wings up out of existence. Kitchen table, now, we’re fixing this”. Vlad doesn’t care that the boy is clearly embarrassed when Jack and Maddie tilt their heads over or physically move to get a look and cringe themselves.

At least Daniel does move into the kitchen, not moving his wings at all from the position Vlad effectively moved them into, good, smart boy. Daniel grumbling, “Sam did and I think she did a great job”.

“A great job for a teenager not for a doctor. Any doctor who did this would lose their license on the spot or I’d sue them into bankruptcy”.

Jack brings over their medi kit, the one they’d use on him on the rare occasion it was needed. Vlad liked to pride himself on rarely getting injured even when dealing with ghosts. Of course one can’t employ ghosts without out first proving why they’re the employer and not the employee. Skulker in particular took a while to beat down into submission. Maddie getting out what’s needed from the kit while Daniel sits down on one of the stools, “um, why is the thread in there glowing?”.

Maddie’s response is automatic and she doesn’t take her eyes off of her task, “it’s phase proof, so you won’t accidentally phase it out of your skin”.

“Oh okay, yeah that makes sense I guess”.

Vlad rolls his eyes, “I would hope so. Now hold still and don’t fold your wings in”. It was fairly clear Daniel was more comfortable with him touching his wings, likely because Vlad had his own pair, so Vlad maneuvers the wings around for Maddie as she does her work. Vlad, figuring he might as well use this time to explain and to distract the boy from the pain of this, hums, “Jack and Maddie said you’ve been clumsy, dropping things, so I take it your having issues with the powers?”. Vlad had had some control issues in the beginning, but not much. In fact, Vlad didn’t get his powers for quite a while after his accident and they came one by one and very painfully. They always stung and felt foreign the first few times, it seemed like Daniel might not be having such issues.

Daniel flushing, “oh um, yeah? It’s just comes so easily, naturally or whatever, that it kinda just keeps happening?”.

Vlad quirking a single well manicured eyebrow, “and it doesn’t hurt? At all?”.

Daniel turns his head to give Vlad a confused look, “no? Should it?”.

Jack looks relieved and gets Daniel’s attention, responding before Vlad can, “oh yeah, it was pretty bad every time a new one cropped up. Sure it was cool too! But the pain and it making his ecto-acne flair up really made it kinda suck. I totally freaked out the first time”.

Maddie nodding as she threads some more of the ecto-line, “to be fair, your best friend falling through his bed, and all his medications and monitors, while screaming would be very scary to anyone”.

Vlad huffing, “I will not admit to being terrified at the time”, was saying that basically admitting to it? Absolutely not and no one can convince him otherwise.

Daniel huffing, “then I’m not admitting to being scared either, jerk”, shaking his head gently, hopefully with the purpose of not disturbing Maddie or causing himself more pain. How well he could hide pain was a little concerning. “Should I be worried I’m not getting pain from it and stuff? And each time you got a new one?”, Daniel quirks an eyebrow, “you didn’t just get everything all at once? Ecto-acne?”.

“That level of pain would have likely knocked me unconscious for multiple days, so no. I got my powers slowly over multiple years, which were spent hospitalised”. Humming and tapping his chin, he wonders why they’re different like this? He’s clearly a halfa and not a full ghost, otherwise he wouldn’t look human at all and he wouldn’t still have a human scent; yes it was tinted with ectoplasm but it was still human. Could it be because his own accident was with a proto portal and not a genuine one? Or did the size and power output matter? Perhaps how much of the body was engulfed at once? Since it sounded like Daniel’s entire body was blasted all at once, while only his face was affected. Perhaps that was why Daniel didn’t get ecto-acne?

Jack scratches his head, “I don’t think? you need to worry? There really isn’t an ‘normal’ way this works since Vlad’s the only halfa we all know of. And your, uh accidents, were pretty different”.

Daniel quirks an eyebrow at Jack then turns the look on Vlad, clearly wanting an explanation. Vlad shrugging like talking about it didn’t really bother him, “I got blasted in the face, and only the face, by a proto portal that quite possibly had contaminated ectoplasm in it. Where as it sounds like you got blasted head to toe by a genuine fully functional portal, that would definitely have been using pure ectoplasm otherwise it wouldn’t be working”, frowning, “I also did not get electrocuted, so it is not as if you got out of this pain free”.

Daniel winces, “yeah that wasn’t fun”. Maddie and Jack also wincing, it looks like Maddie’s got the first wing back tear stitched up properly now.

Jack rubbing his neck and eyeing his son, “we are really sorry that happened though”.

Daniel shrugs, making Vlad smack him over the head again, Daniel grumbling and rubbing the back of his head, “ow. And it’s fine, dad. I shouldn’t have been messing with stuff”.

Vlad scoffs, “it shouldn’t have been accessible for you to mess with in the first place”. Making both parents look thoroughly chastised, good.

Daniel glares at Vlad, “I would have picked the lock anyways”.

Maddie glares at his back for that, “since when did you pick up lock picking, mister”.

“Uh, Tuck has a bad habit of locking himself out of his house? Sam thinks it’s too funny to help and he can’t pick a lock to save his life?”.

Vlad grins meanly, “what a budding little criminal you are”.

“Hey!”.

Vlad studiously ignores the glares Maddie and Jack throw him, clearly trying to discourage Vlad from being a more illegal bad influence on their kid. Vlad putting a proud hand to his chest, “perhaps you shall follow in my footsteps and start robbing banks”.

Maddie’s scowl can be heard in her voice, “Vlad”. Jack pouts at him, “you know we would have paid your hospital bills”.

“I have no interest in being indebted to others because of money, such things are beneath me”.

Daniel gives him an affronted look, pity, “I am not robbing banks, what the hell uncle?!? Why would you use powers for that?!? I’d use them to, like, рⷬrͬoͦᴛⷮeͤcͨᴛⷮ people or something first”.

Vlad blinks at the inhuman ghostly subvocal to that, which he’s sure Jack and Maddie didn’t pick up on. They didn’t pick up on it when he himself did it, over that pesky little possession obsession. Perhaps Daniel’s own obsession was protection based… Vlad may have to cautious of that, as he could see himself bothering a protective obsession. Beyond Jack’s and Maddie’s well being, he hardly cares if his endeavours harm others. He’s not going to comment on his suspicions though, it was rude to out another ghosts, or halfas, obsession like that and opened yourself up for attack. Jack grins, “that’s my boy!”. Making Vlad roll his eyes at the large man.

Daniel flushes though and Vlad can pick up on the slightly concerned off put look on his face, the boy likely noticed something was off with his comment. That there was a strong pushy undercurrent of pure want in there and likely in his chest as well; even if he’s positive Daniel’s core hasn’t developed enough for him to genuinely feel it yet. Daniel clearing his throat, “so um, our accidents were really different then”.

Vlad smirks at the boy, who glares back, before nodding his head, “indeed. And I suspect my ecto-acne played a large role in my being in pain and perhaps also why I took years for my powers to develop”.

Jack nods, tapping his chin, “I really wish we knew exactly why that ecto-acne happened”. Vlad nodding readily, it was something they would probably never figure out. (He would later find out, due to his ecto-acne returning and Daniel trying to help him, that it was because of pop in the filtrator. He was incredibly infuriated by that, and Jack apologising profusely didn’t little to temper his anger).

Vlad eyeing Daniel, Maddie seemed almost done with the other wing back tear, “now, care to enlighten me on your abilities? It would be best to confirm if they’re the same as mine”. At the boy eyeing him cautiously Vlad rolls his eyes with a huff, “invisibility, intangibility, gravity nullification or floating in layman’s terms, enhanced senses, increased physical ability and durability, duplication, ecto-blasts, ecto-shields, transformation, overshadowing, healing factor, teleportation, body modification or contortion, mild electrokenisis, pyrokenisis, power augmentation, ecto-twister, and a resistance to anti-ghost tech”. He studiously ignores the proud smile on Maddie’s and Jack’s faces, they always got oddly proud over how powerful he was. Yes he himself took great pride in that, being able to best relatively any ghost he came across, but as full humans they should find that unsettling and perhaps it wounded his pride a little that they did not.

Daniel blinks in that owlish way again, Vlad’s going to have to talk to him about breaking that forming habit, then whistles, “well damn, uncle. That’s nothing to piss at”.

All three adults look at him disgusted. Vlad scowling deeply, “I would rather no one ever piss on me, Daniel. That is disgusting”. Right, he always forgets that Daniel has a rather peculiar and annoying sense of humour.

Maddie shaking her head while doing up the last stitch and standing up, stretching a little and handing her tools off to Jack to clean up, “alright, you’ll be good once I get you bandaged”.

Daniel looks over his shoulder and wing a little awkwardly, “uh, thank you? Thanks, mom”, and forces a smile at her.

She ruffles his hair with a genuine soft smile, “of course, Danny. You’re more than welcome to come to us if you ever get hurt, we can teach Sam and Tuck too if you’re more comfortable with that”. Jack holding up a finger, “and them knowing would probably be a good idea anyway. Never know when you’re going to get hurt!”.

Vlad sighing and massaging his temples, “yes of course, especially since as soon as the ghosts find out there’s another halfa, they’ll want to test your metal”.

Daniel blinks, “what?”, while Maddie sorts out which bandaging she wants to use.

“Fight you, Daniel. It’s part of how ghosts socialise and establish their standing compared to each other. Ghosts are very much rule of the strong”, looking to Jack, “you two have been sticking to teaching him combat, right”. Jack nodding readily, so Vlad nods back, “good”, looking back to Daniel, “now stop dodging the powers question. Your parents aren’t freaked out by mine, they won’t be freaked out by yours”.

Jack giving his son a thumbs up, “dont worry, Danny-boy. And ghosts vary a lot and you’re young and new, so if you’ve got less than Vladdie that’s likely super normal”. Vlad nods like that’s obvious, because it was.

Daniel flushes, “uh, well I don’t think I can do all that? But I think I’m, uh, stronger than I was a few days ago”.

Vlad nodding, “you were freshly formed, as it were, a few days ago. I doubt every single ability you’ll have would have developed immediately or within a few days”.

Daniel chuckles awkwardly and rubs his neck, Maddie tapping in his back to remind him not to move too much, making Daniel look even more awkward, “yeah I guess that makes sense”, tilting his head, “um, so far then, I don’t have anything you don’t I think? Invisibility, intangibility, the gravity thing, the heightened physical ability which I’m guessing is strength and speed and stuff, probably the healing factor, body morphing, I don’t think the voice echo thing counts as a power-”.

Vlad snorts, “it does not, good for intimidation though”.

Daniel makes a face at him but continues, “-my senses are better, and transformation”.

All three adults blink, surprised. Vlad titling his head, “you can transform already? Into your more ghostly appearance?”.

Daniel’s, “yes?”, is very awkward and mousy.

Jack beams and jumps, it’s rather embarrassing and childish. “Awesome! I bet you look awesome and very spooky!”, laughing, “it took ol’ Vladdie, like, six years to do that! And! He usually couldn’t hold it for very long!”.

Vlad grumbles, not pouts, grumbles at the man, “I was still healing and it’s an entirely deferent state of being, of course I had issues, Jack”. Jack just grins and laughs a little more.

Daniel tilts his head but chuckles at Vlad, “I think it’s easy, I mean sure I detransform, I guess, accidentally. And it’s kinda weird getting it to work, but when I really remember the how I can do it”.

Maddie nods, giving the bandaging a pat down before staring up, “alright, your good”, moving her head to be more in Danny’s line of sight, “you feel like showing us? Your other form?”, then looking at Vlad with a quirked eyebrow, “I’m sure your uncle Vlad wouldn’t object to showing you his?”.

Vlad waves her off, “oh but of course, you know how much I love to show off”.

Daniel looks at him blatantly curious, though clearly also nervous.

So Vlad steps back a bit and does a little bit of a dramatic bow while letting his transformation rings travel over his body. A little curious about Daniel’s muttered, “why are his black?”. Regardless, Vlad straightens up in his ghostly form, making a point to keep his feet planted in the ground.

Daniel stares a little, tilting his head at an angle that’s a little past humanly possible, “wow you look way different”, then snickering, “very vampire, nice horn hair”.

Vlad is well aware he is being mocked. Today he’ll tolerate such insult, since he’s effectively explaining for the first time being a halfa to another halfa who is also a child, his godson at that. “Yes yes, laugh it up”.

“Did you always look this different?”.

“Yes and no, I bulked up a lot and my hair changed. The fangs, ear points, and claws are all adult ghost traits as well”.

Jack grinning at Daniel, “meaning you shouldn’t have them now but will one day”, and only grins more at his son’s groan.

Vlad nodding, crossing his arms, “and if you get into fights, you’ll likely bulk up at least in ghost form. Now, you wondered at my rings being black, are yours not?”.

Daniel shrinks down a little, “I, um. No?”. And glances around, all three adults giving him encouraging gestures. Daniel flushing a little and clearing his throat, nodding a little. Vlad has a genuinely hard time not mocking the boy when he mutters a very quiet, “I’m going ghost”, before the white -different indeed- rings appear. Perhaps a… catchphrase helped the boy focus on the change? Regardless all three eye the more ghostly version of Daniel as the rings finish their job. Vlad’s almost miffed at how the transformation did seem easy for him, but oh well.

Daniel’s ghost form has a black hazmat suit with white gloves and white boots, his hair’s also a very shocking white. Vlad’s a little surprised his green eyes still have black pupils and white sclera, perhaps that would change as he grew into adulthood? Some ghosts did have black pupils and white sclera though, so it may very well just be the way his eyes are naturally. Daniel… looks incredibly similar to his human half, far more than Vlad ever did. Perhaps it was due to how quickly his ghost form formed? “Well you certainly don’t look all that different”. Daniel just shrugs awkwardly and jumps a little, remaining floating in the air after, at Maddie ruffling his hair; Daniel's hair waved around almost flame-like at the action.

Jack grins at Daniel, “I say it suits you! You have a pretty strong glow too!”.

Vlad leaning over some to hold his own arm up near Daniel’s having to phase through some of the boys left wing, Daniel’s glow is actually brighter than his own, if only by a hair. If Daniel was equal to him in experience and skill then Vlad’s not certain he could actually win. That was slightly concerning, on a ghostly level, no strong ghost liked the potential of a stronger one. But it was also quite thrilling, this boy could perhaps challenge him and could be something special if trained well; that prospect was incredibly enticing actually. Very thrilling indeed. “A strong glow is good, no godson of mine should be weak”.

Daniel blinking and looking at his arm, “so my… glow means I’m strong?”.

All three adults nod, Vlad standing back up right and crossing his arms again, “a stronger glow means you’re shedding off a high output of ecto-energy, it means you’ve got a high amount of natural ecto-energy. That your body self produces and filters a larger amount of ecto-energy”, humming, “though it may very well be that all halfas are powerful by our nature, as it is we don’t have to expend our energy to merely exist; however it does use up energy to remain in our ghost form”.

Daniel nods, soaking up the information, oh having an apprentice was going to be delightful. “Yeah I’ve notice I get tired after a while”, tilting his head a little at Vlad, “and so we, I, am a halfa?”, and looks to his parents for confirmation as well.

All three nodding readily, Jack beaming, “half a ghost, half a human; that’s what all the ghosts went with! Even if most of ‘em would lie just to amuse themselves”.

Vlad shrugs, “many ghosts are alright enough, particularly the useful ones”.

Daniel frowning, “yeah I don’t think I’m going to be ‘using ghosts’”. Vlad scoffing and waving the boy off, far too moral, this one.

Maddie smiles, pleased, “well you will likely get into fights, Vlad’s made it clear that’s unavoidable, so I fully expect you to take target practice and your martial arts a little more seriously”.

Vlad gesturing with a hand, “and ghost power training, of course. A well aimed ecto-blast will get you much further than a thrown punch”.

“And if I can’t do that?”.

“I’ll be baffled if you can’t, but everything has a work around if you look for it”, grinning all fang, “hold up a hand and imagine that tingling vibration throughout your entire body flow into the air above your palm, condensing into a tight pulsating sphere”.

Daniel blinks but stares at his hand, furrowing his brows in concentration, he jumps a little as a green ecto-blast forms above his palm. Him startling himself, of course, results in him losing focus and sending the blast into the ceiling. Him laughing awkwardly, “oops?”.

Jack smacks him on the back, making the boys wings twitch, “no worries, Danno! You should have seen the amount of things Vladdie set on fire!”. Daniel chuckles, loosening up a little, until Jack grabs his wing to inspect them anyways, “now let’s have a look at these! Since you’re all patched up now!”, and basically pulls the floating Daniel off his stool.

The boy giving both Vlad and Maddie slightly pleading looks, Vlad shakes his head while Maddie gives him a soft smile, “just let your dad get it out of his system”. Daniel groans but does let Jack effectively manhandle him, spinning him in the air and stretching out his wings to inspect them better. Eventually Daniel stuck holding onto the table when Jack decides to see just how long Daniel’s wing span was. They were needlessly long wings, frankly. His humerus bone was practically the length of half of Vlad��s wing. Incredibly showy, like a peacock. He’ll have to see if that’s just for show, or if the boy can put genuine speed and power behind them.

Maddie crossing her arms at her husband, “Jack, dear, that’s enough, you’re going to give him a strain at this point”. Daniel grumbling a, “thanks mom”, when Jack sheepishly lets go of the poor boys wings.

“Sorry ‘bout that, Danny-boy!”.

Daniel glances around awkwardly, “it’s, uh, okay, dad”, rubbing his neck, “it’s better than you being scared of me or trying to hunt me or something”.

Jack’s, “we’d never!”, is thankfully immediate. As it should be. Daniel was his own son after all. Vlad would be quite displeased if he found out they were hunting him in any capacity.

Vlad blinking before smirking, turning his head towards the kitchen entry way, based on sound and scent those friends of Daniel’s have shown up, ears pressed up to the door perhaps. Vlad chuckles meanly, “you two can come in, instead of trying to spy. Your friend is perfectly fine”.

Daniel jerking in the air before zipping over to the door as if it was mere second nature to him already. Vlad is absolutely a bit jealous, not that he would admit to such feelings. Jack elbowing him, “he’s got the hang of this a lot faster than you”. Vlad snarls at the man, it’s a ‘playful’ threat and Jack absolutely knows that.

Meanwhile the door opens, a pale goth and dark-skinned geek poking their heads in; the goth’s scowling and the geek’s nervous. Them both rearing their heads back a little at Daniel’s face being practically right in front of their own, “hey! It’s okay, they’re cool, my uncle’s stupidly vampire themed though”.

Vlad sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose, “it’s stylish, boy. And I will not be explaining myself to your friends as well”, waving dismissively at the boy, “feel free to burden yourself with that explanation instead”. Regardless the two teens stare at Vlad, wide-eyed.

“So Danny’s not going to get shot, caged, or strapped down?”

“Danny-man, you’re either extremely lucky or stupidly unlucky, take your pick”.

At least the boy had good friends, ones that were seemingly serious about fighting his parents should they harm him. Good. They made for acceptable playmates.

Daniel blurting out, “did you guys notice I don’t have a freaking shadow anymore?”.

Both the teens snapping their heads down and blinking. Tucker shaking his head, “huh. You’d think that would be more noticeable”.

Vlad transforms himself back human as he walks over, eyeing the two teens and drawling, “you'd be surprised how much most people fail to notice”.

Sam snorts at him, “oh you’re the weird uncle, that explains so much”, pointing at Daniel, “doesn’t it, you weirdo”. Daniel simply pouts fondly at her.

Vlad quirking an eyebrow, “the ‘weird uncle’?”.

Daniel eyes him, still floating in the air, “you say some really strange stuff, okay? Like, you swear using food. That’s weird”.

“Far better than using foul language”.

“Gonna disagree on that one”; Daniel transforming back human and landing on the ground almost gracefully. Vlad sighing when the teen realises he’s sans a shirt, covering up with his wings before running up stairs for a likely baggy tank top. Daniel’s friends actively laughing at him before running into the house fully and chasing the boy up the stairs shouting about getting more ‘blackmail’ photos.

Vlad shaking his head before turning to Jack and Maddie who were watching the teens fondly, “I’m assuming you’re going to be doing quite a bit of sewing to make his clothing wearable for at least the time being”.

Maddie nodding at him, “there’s no way he’ll let me cut up his nasa varsity jacket but otherwise, of course”, frowning a little, “so you think he’ll be okay?”.

Vlad looking back up the stairs, “he seems accepting of it, shifting into comfort easily. With support there would be no reason for him not to be mentally well. Physically? I’d say he’s better off than I was, and his ecto-energy feels stable for a child ghost”. Maddie sighs in happy relief and Jack beams, giving him a thumbs up. Vlad still frowns at them, “you two got lucky with him, do not repeat this”.

Maddie’s, “we won’t”, is at least very firm. Jack nodding right after, looking up the stairs himself, “I can’t believe he’s not upset with us”.

Vlad shakes his head, “he blames himself for it entirely, regardless of that being incorrect. Which would be concerning, if I wasn’t fairly certain that he’s okay with this change. Confused, unsure, and nervous, perhaps. But not upset, angry, or sad”.

Maddie sighing again, “good. That’s good. And I agree, he seems more worried about our reaction than about being the way he is now. Being a halfa”, smiling a little, “though I’m sure he’ll ask a lot of questions”.

Jack nodding strongly, and crossing his arms, “as any curious teen should”.

Daniel’s head pops back out of his bedroom, “Vlad! Can we survive in the void of space?!”.

Vlad absolutely knows that tone meant the boy was going to do something impressively stupid. Flying to space most likely. “Yes. But you’re too new, if you lose your ghost form in space and that high up you’ll be in trouble”. The teen pouts at him, “boo. You suck”, and ducks back into his room.

At least it looked like he found a shirt he could get on.

Vlad giving Maddie and Jack pitying looks, “he’s quite the handful”.

Maddie putting a hand over her face and laughing a little. Jack chuckling loudly, “V-man! You were here when Danny attempted to eat a blob ghost!”.

“I unfortunately remember that and do not understand how that didn’t kill him”.

“Neither do we!”.

Maddie shaking her head and eyeing Vlad, “will you be staying a while?”.

Vlad inclines his head, “oh but of course, Maddie dear”, grinning, “I have a young halfa godson to apprentice after all”.

Jack laughs rather awkwardly, not unlike his son, “just don’t forget he’s our son! Don’t do too much of the parenting for us!”.

Vlad smirking, “I make no promises”; Jack, the utter fool, thinks Vlad’s joking. Vlad is not joking. If he can make an heir out of the boy then all the better, Jack and Maddie were hardly truly good parents even if Vlad himself highly doubts he’d be any better. However, Vlad was a halfa, and so was Daniel. Even if Jack and Maddie were truly great parents they wouldn’t be able to fulfil all his needs or fully relate to him. Vlad can and will.

Maddie sighing, picking up better that Vlad’s intentions weren’t exactly pure. “Please don’t. I know he’s a halfa, like you, but try not to get dangerously possessive of him?”.

He scoffs, moving to head upstairs, sending away his wings to make the stairs and hallway easier to navigate, “oh it’s much too late for that, I’m afraid”.

At least they follow him up, smart. Pointless, but smart. Besides, he doesn’t truly believe he can actually get Daniel as exclusively his or under his thumb in any sense. That boy was too moral and headstrong… and chaotic. Vlad opening the boys door to him standing ‘threateningly’ over his friends, wielding fist fulls of feathers like bombs; his friends already have a noteable amount of black and white feathers on them. Vlad sighing, “Daniel, why are you ripping out your feathers?”; Jack is wheeze laughing and Maddie looks like she thinks she’s won.

Daniel blinks, looking at Vlad but otherwise not moving, fist fulls of feather still held up in the air, “I claim comedic effect?”.

Tucker smirks, spitting out a feather, “he’s trying to suffocate us”.

Samantha’s smirk is far more mean, “i threaded some beads into his feathers earlier, he only just noticed. I am very smug”.

Daniel throws his feathers at her without hesitation. Vlad puts a hand to his face and sighs heavily, this boy was a menace in all the wrong ways and his half death was only going to encourage him.

Then Tucker looks to Vlad, “oh, I hacked your company by the way, just in case you abduct Danny or something”. Then going back to smacking Daniel and his wings, while the boy basically assaults both of his friends with the feathered things. Samantha also taking the time to look at Vlad, pointing aggressively at him, “and I have enough money to have you fully killed by somebody who has nothing”. Daniel smacking her harder with a shouted, “murder is bad!”.

Daniel’s friends were not going to help reel the boy in at all. As much as Vlad loves not being alone any more and the prospect of teaching another halfa, he’s a little concerned over what’s been given to him.

Maddie scowling, putting her hands on her hips, “Danny! You’re going to rip the stitching!”. While Jack cheers this mess on, “you go! Danno!”.

Hmmm, yes Vlad’s plate is going to be very full and he’s gotten himself involved in quite the half dead mess.

End.

Prompts: After the accident, the Fentons can't help but notice something wrong with Danny. And since Danny also has that terrible symptom of "being a teenager", he refuses to tell them anything. So they are reaching out to the only person who could possibly help: an old friend in Wisconsin. After the accident, Danny no longer has a shadow, and he isn't the first person to notice its absence. Ghosts have wings. Humans don't.Unfortunately for Danny, his body did not get the memo. In another universe, Maddie and Jack did visit Vlad in the hospital, and stayed in contact. What happens when Danny has his accident twenty years later?

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phantomphangphucker · 6 days

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Phic Phight - Young Guns With Guns

@ishouldgetatumbler @idiot-cheesehead-archenemy @faedemon @miss-nov @summerssixecho @torscrawls

Valerie’s actually managed to get college placement lined up, which means she’s got to get a Red Huntress replacement lined up too. Unfortunately every good choice is chaotic.

That single simple letter changed so much for her, could change so much. She’s spent the past year working her ass off to get her grades up, probably giving her a seriously long term case of sleep deprivation due to ghosts still being an issue, but she’s baffled it actually worked out. She had been fully expecting nothing but rejection, instead she got in at her first pick college and it’s nanotechnology and nanoscience bachelors program; meaning she didn’t even have to settle for her second choice bachelors of science.

She had honestly cried a little, danced, jumped, went ghost hunting just for the joy of it. Phantom probably didn’t appreciate her deciding to chase It around for the heck of it, or maybe It did since it was always hard to tell with that ghost and Its goddamn puns. Plus, she knew that It knew that she knew she couldn’t actually take It down in a fight.

She might be the only half decent ghost hunter in Amity but Phantom was beyond human ability to deal with. Which yeah, meant there was someone to deal with other absurdly powerful ghosts, but It was still a damn ghost and she had no interest in leaving all of Amity’s ghost issues in Its dead hands. Amity needs to have a human protector too. She had debated not even trying to leave Amity genuinely, to go to college; but she promised her dad she’d at least ty, that she wouldn’t give up on a ‘normal’ future. Frankly even if she does get her degree there’s zero chance of her staying gone and being ‘normal’, she loved being the Red Huntress and couldn’t see her giving it up full. Zone, she basically picked her program to help her do a better job as a ghost hunter. Knowing better how to use the nanobots and machinery that flowed through her veins would be a dream, and technically self preservations since she currently couldn’t do too much if something went majorly wrong with them. She knew enough and had enough skill to use them and modify them but she wasn’t the expert she wanted to be. This, this acceptance letter would change that, let her study nanotechnology. Even if any studying or work she did with her own self would have to be private and not actually used for school; last thing she wanted was to give someone a very stupid idea. Same reason she wasn’t about to try to suit someone up exactly like she was, heck she’s pretty sure the nanobots are very much fused to her, putting someone else in that same situation just because she wanted to go to college would be incredibly mean and just a shitty thing to do.

So...

She refuses to leave Amity without an actually decent and not insane (Maddie and Jack) ghost hunter and she also can’t refuse to go to her ideal college. She can’t give away her suit, and wouldn’t even if she could, and she’s not going to try and basically ‘infect’ someone like what that asshole dirty bastard half ghost Vlad did. She needed a stand in, a temporary worker if you will, for at least a few years. Preferable someone she wouldn’t have to actually train and who wouldn’t either be extremely bigoted to the point of being stupid -again, Jack and Maddie- or so pro-ghost they’d be leiniate on the spooks. Unfortunately that eliminated practically everyone who was actually physically capable of fighting ghosts at all. Pretty much every adult and teen involved in sports had this weird hero worship mascot thing for Phantom and ghosts in general, many having out right crushes *cough cough* Paulina and Dash *cough cough*. That one guy who runs the little martial arts place wouldn’t be half bad but he was... a little bit insane. She could see him causing a lot of damages. There was also the fact that whoever would have to deal with Vlad, meaning they needed to be distrustful of that jerk. Unfortunately, nearly the whole town actually supports that man as mayor now since he kept the government on a leash and got funding for all the damages. Powerful people with money could get away with being awful shit people.

... Though...

She can think of someone who not only wouldn’t be played by Vlad but also wouldn’t exactly need training. That someone being Danny of course. Danny probably managed to cause more suffering and annoyance to Vlad than Vlad had ever caused her, and he would just laugh in Vlad’s face if the guy tried manipulating him, like he usually did. Sometimes she wonders if Danny actually knows what Vlad is. Then Danny, and his friends really, did have Fenton training and all of them were in really good shape these days. The only problem with Danny and his friends, was that they were staunchly pro-ghost and had been so before anyone else really. But, and this is a big but, they were also pro-ghost hunting. They were pro-ghost in more of a ‘ghosts are just like people and demonising them universally is dumb. Some are assholes though’ kind of way. Which... was a lot more positive than her view of ghosts, them being mostly shit stirrers who wanted to mess with the living and their personhood was questionable.

Sam she wouldn’t even consider, she’d heard that girl justify UnderGrowth’s takeover of the town on multiple occasions, apparently she even helped the ghost with that. Valerie never understood how that girl could be both incredibly holier than thou moral and incredibly ‘humans are weeds’ immoral.

And Tucker? Tucker should not be allowed to ever have any amount of real power, authority, or control over people. Ever. Whenever she thinks of that guy having any kind of power she can taste sand in her mouth in a really revolting way, she’s got no clue why that happens but she ain’t gonna play stupid games.

Danny... might be a little crazy, and weird, and creepy, and stupid, but she couldn’t really think of a reason why him being what’s practically a vigilant would be bad. Zone, with how he intentionally pissed off Dash so Dash would only target him, and how protective he could be; she’s kinda surprised he wasn’t already trying to be a masked hero or whatever. Her best guess is that he didn’t want to deal with his parents if they ever found out or he just didn’t want to be ‘like them’. Fair enough. But she’s kinda low on options here.

Sure fine maybe there were other options but, screw her, she liked Danny and she’d rather hand shit off to him than someone she’s not already friendly with. Plus there was the fact that Danny said ‘Ancients no’ like it was the obvious answer whenever anyone asked if he was leaving Amity. For whatever reason he liked this town and it’s weird ass ghost problem more than most, the fact that anyone did at all was already kinda weird. Well it meant she didn’t really have to worry about him not sticking around here, same as she really didn’t have to worry about how to track Danny down. Since, like her, he wound up getting work at the Nasty Burger, in his words ‘it’s the only place that would hire even a corpse or a Fenton’ which yeah, lots of places wouldn’t hire any Fenton purely for being a Fenton.

And if she remembers properly he should be working closing shift tonight. Nice.

Getting up and stretching, “why do I feel like getting him to agree to wear a disguise is going to more difficult than actually getting him to say yes?”, he would absolutely be the type to just rip off a mask for the dramatics of it. Popping out of her room and grinning at her dad, “I’m going out, to talk to a Fenton, just not the crazy ones, about keeping an eye on those parents of his”.

Damon blinks, putting down his book, “are the Fenton’s planning to do something crazy again?”.

Valerie shakes her head, grinning now and holding up the little envelope, “no, but someone’s gotta keep an eye on them if I’m going”.

His eyes widening instantly, book getting abandoned as he jumps up to run over and hug, “congrats! You got in! I knew you could do it!”, pulling back and pointing at her face, “now I don’t want you worrying about costs, you do still have a college fund, and I don’t want you worrying about ghosts either, missy”.

Valerie flushing, “I know I know, that’s part of why I want to go see Danny”.

“Are you giving him your suit? I don’t really want that going with you”.

“Dad, you know I can’t physically do that”.

“I know, I know, that won’t stop me from asking if you’ve figured out a way to”.

She sighs at him, shaking her head. It did kind of bother her that he had it in his head that she should want her suit ripped out of her, that she was trying to figure out how to do that. The suit was part of her as a person too, why would she want to lose it and part of what makes Valerie Valerie?

He nods strongly to himself, “I’m getting a cake”.

“Dad no-”.

“It will be cake time”.

“Dad-”.

“It will be the most audacious one I can find”.

Valerie buries her head in her hands with a laugh, “ask Paulina to make a Phantom-themed one, that was the worst thing I’ve ever seen”. Even Damon cringes, because yeah that woman was still obsessed over a dead guy.

Damon shaking his head, “it will not be ghost themed. Tech perhaps?”, and hums to himself, tapping his chin before making shooing motions at her, “if trying to wrangle that boy, or man I should say, into spying on his parents makes you more willing to go then go on”.

“There’s no way this place should be without a non-crazy human ghost hunter”.

“Heck, I’ll take up your guns if that gets you to go”.

“Dad no, you have terrible balance, Danny’s is actually a bit terrifying”. Honestly she swears that gravity doesn’t affect Danny the way it should, which if that was actually true it would one hundred percent be because of that accident his parents basically caused. Either way she moves to the door waving at him, “please don’t spend too much on the cake? Please?”. He just rolls his eyes at her as she leaves. (He absolutely did wind up spending more than she’d like on the cake, it looked like it was made out of techno Lego blocks).

It takes her all of three minutes to get to the Nasty Burgers back parking lot, she thinks that’s a new record or almost a new record, man she loves seeing improvements…. Shit she’s totally going to have to take full advantage of the on-campus gym purely to make sure she stays in shape. Maybe she should ask Sam for pointers on that? She still has no clue how that girl is so ridiculously fit without do any extracurriculars during school. She out bench pressed Dash once, it was terrifying and impressive.

“Dude, I asked for goddamn Reddened Chicken Strips, not Fenton Froth! Those aren’t even in the same food group!”.

Valerie shakes her head sympathetically as she walks in through the doors. Man she would absolutely not miss having to deal with asshole customers.

“You know? Fuck this shit. Give me back my money, hell, give me all your damn money”.

What. She goes stock still, as the guy pulls an actual normal human gun and points it in Danny’s face. Shit. How should she deal with this? How could she even? She fights ghosts! With supernatural guns and a hoverboard! Not a cops badge and a freaking Glock or whatever! Quickly ducking under a table, she has no clue how her nano bots would handle her getting shot by a regular human bullet. Would it even recognise the injury since it wasn’t ectoplasmicly based? Could it even repair non-ectoplasmic injuries in the first place?! This is what she means by she needs to be more of an expert on the stuff!

Then Danny, typical fucking insane stupid Danny, says something horrifically stupid, “whatcha gonna do? Shoot me?”, scoffing like that’s ever remotely what you should do with a gun to your face, Danny might be a little too desensitised to weapons, “you can't kill me because then I'll just turn into ghost, and you'll have a Real problem on your hands because I will absolutely haunt your ass to the Zone and back. No, we need to work this out another way”.

“The only way this is working out is if you give me all the damn money! They don’t even pay you enough to put up a fight anyways”.

“I happen to actually like this place and what? Are you offering me a paycheck? No? Then get fucked and go get lost in the sauce or something, cause yeah I definitely ain’t paid to deal with your poorly packaged human shit”.

On one hand, this level of ‘I don’t care’ and reckless self endangerment was kinda necessary for her job but he doesn’t even have on a helmet and this isn’t a freaking ghost! Should she try throwing a chair at the robber? And where the hell was the manager? Other employees? Oh don’t tell her that Danny agreed to work alone like a dumbass, the manager was probably off fucking gambling again, jerk.

The robber squawks, “what?!? Dude this is a real gun!”.

“You say that like I care. You know what else is real? This bored unimpressed face, go try to show off how big your dick is somewhere else”.

Oh zone damn it, Danny. At this rate he’s going to get himself shot.

“This isn’t even a big gun!”.

“So what you’re saying is it’s the perfect size for you”.

And then the shot rings out, fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck Fuck FUCK! Valerie popping up, ghost hunter gun in hand only to see Danny having apparently blocked the goddamn near point blank shot with a fucking tray. How???? Danny then smacks the guy, one-handed, with said tray, “bad, I’d like to keep my pretty face thank you very much, it’s my money maker”.

Valerie blurting out, “what the Zone!”.

The robber guy stumbles back, looking from the tray-wielding Danny to Valerie and her red and black gun, “ah fuck”, backing up a bit and looking for an exit that she wasn’t literally right beside it. Like hell she’s letting some jackass that tried to shoot Danny leave that easily.

Her snarling, “don’t even try it, asshole”, and keeps her gun on him. Danny apparently has a similar idea, grabbing a fist full of nasty sauce packets, “I will set these on fire and blow all of us up, all my fucks have flowneth off. I’m over my fuck budget and I’m now in fucking debt!”.

Both the robber and Valerie still, slowly staring at Danny. Valerie blinking harshly, “Danny, put those down”.

He pouts at her, “no. It’ll scratch my explosive itch”.

“Danny if you do that then he’ll haunt you and you’ll be the one with the problems”. She’s slightly rethinking trying to make a stand-in of him. He had the guts but come on!

Danny blinks like he hadn’t thought of that, “oh right, I mean… what’s another ghost wanting to put me on their shit list? Am I right?”, and holds the sauce packets up a little higher, and pulls a blow torch out from under the counter.

Why… was there a freaking blowtorch there??? It wasn’t there yesterday??? “Where did you get that”.

Danny shrugs, turning the blowtorch on, the flames are loud, “Brittney broke her lighter, brought this instead as a gag”.

The robber drops his gun and puts his hands, “nope nope nope, I’m not playing chicken with that. Make a citizens arrest or whatever”.

Danny smirks, “oh I don’t know, I kinda want to blow you up now and the blowtorch is already on”, and wiggles the blowtorch around, “eh? Eh? Eh? Come on, it’ll be fun. We could start a fireworks show out of building pieces?”.

Valerie glares before hurling her gun at his head, his neck cracking a little when his head tilts as the gun bounces off of his skull. “Stop it, you little shit”, and stomps over to the guy who smartly doesn't move. At least she does actually have handcuffs, they’re made for ghosts but whatever, the guy gets handcuffed aggressively, “don’t be a dumbass before you make Danny become more of a dumbass”.

Danny apparently takes offence to that like he has any right to, “hey!”. At least he’s put the blowtorch back.

…

What he didn’t do was turn the damn thing off, the counter is now on fire. “Danny the counter!”.

Danny looking down at the slight burning and flicker of flames, “okay that was stupid, note to self don’t handle flammables on forty two hours of sleep deprivation”.

“Well put it out!”.

The robber grumbles, “I made a mistake, lord forgive me and don’t let me get burned to death by an overworked underpaid fast food employee”.

Danny points at the guy, instead of dealing with the flames, “that’s what you get for trying to shot me! And! For trying to steal money from the bestest nastiest restaurant in town!”.

“Why are you throwing the damn slogan at him! Put out the fire Danny!”.

Danny slams his hand directly into the fire, “no!”, and then, “ow!”, and that finally makes him deal with it by smashing his hand, that is full of nasty sauce packets, into the flames. Smacking his hands on the fire a couple of times before realising what he’s done, going wide-eyed, “oh shit”. The robber is crying. Danny’s over the counter in a second grabbing the robber and her by the arm and fucking booking it. It takes her a bit to get her footing and to also run of her own volition; Danny is notably faster than her.

The explosion blows out a wall, all three of them getting mildly covered in rubble, Valerie sticking her head out… the blowtorch is still on, looking back at Danny, “you stay put while I turn off your fuck up. Maine is gonna be so pissed”.

“Hey, he should have known better than to let anyone work a closing shift alone, especially me”.

“You should know better than to agree to doing that!”, her huffing and running off to get the blowtorch, getting slightly covered in ash as she does so. Stupid Danny. By the time she’s gotten back Danny’s just shaking the handcuffed robber back and forth blaming him for damaging the best fast food joint in town. “Danny stop that, before you give him whiplash”.

“He deserves it!”. The robber just groans and then passes out. That at least gets Danny to stop, “shit, did I kill him?”, and then sighing in relief at the guy clearly still breathing, dropping the man in an uncomfortable looking heap on the ground. Then looking to Valerie, “so besides being my unwitting audience, why’d you come by? You don’t usually get your Nasty on when you don’t work?”.

She blinks, giving him a disgusted look, “never say that again, ew”, sighing, “well I was going to brag about my college acception but I’m seriously reconsidering that”.

He brightens up immediately, it’s almost blinding, “oh! Congrats! You hanging up the hoverboard then?”.

“More like take a vacation- hey wait what!”, scowling at him and sticking her arms out to the side, “since when have you known!?!”.

“You threw a red and black ecto-gun at my head, I’m dumb not stupid! And who the fuck else would have ghost handcuffs just on their person?! Even my folks don’t do that!”.

“Damn you!”, Valerie groans into her hands, “you are way too casual about this to have just found out”.

“Val, my uncles a psycho half ghost, there’s a portal to a death dimension under my bedroom, one of my friends is adopted by a genocidal plant god and the others a reincarnated pharaoh. You could reveal you’re literally god themselves and Lucifer somehow sharing the same body and I wouldn’t be phased”.

There was so much wrong with all of that. “That’s really messed up”,

“I know!”.

What is she supposed to do with this? With him? Also though… “you know about Vlad? And what the zone is wrong with Sam and Tucker?!?”.

Danny snorts, “too much”, shrugging, “and yeah, that guys abducted me to try and get me to be his happy son way too many times not to notice he was freaky. Also, his super illegal creepy underground lab doesn’t have doors, how would he get in there if he wasn’t spooky”.

“How do you know he even has a lab if there’s no doors?”.

“Eh play enough stupid games and get him to blast you through enough walls and you’ll find it”.

… It’s a miracle Danny hasn’t gotten himself killed. Making him her replacement might just improve his life’s survivability, that’s was so screwed up. Huffing and sticking a hand out down to him, “well if you’re going to annoy one sorta ghost, why not annoy all of them and be my replacement?”.

He blinks at her before laughing loudly, rocking back a little, “you fucking crazy hunter, or huntress whatever”, and grabs her hand to pull himself up, dragging the robber guy up with him in one hand, “eh fuck it, why not? Note, I have no clue how your suit works beyond breaking the law of physics and matter”.

She shakes her head at him, “I’m not giving you my suit, dummy”.

“So you’re trying to employ me as your replacement but making me fight naked, got it”.

“Ew!”, she whacks him over the head for that. Crossing her arms at him, “I’ll just make you something similar, and you can help with that, you jerk”, rolling her eyes, “you know ghost hunter tech so it’s whatever and it’s not like I started out with a freaking nanobot suit”.

“Can it be white and black, you know, the total opposite of Phantom’s? Since I’m the living Danny?”.

Why did she think this was a good idea? “You, are so stupid”, looking to the robber, “we should take him to the jailhouse”.

Danny looking down at the unconscious man, “I mean, probably? He’s so gonna think this was just a really weird fever dream”.

“And whose fault is that? You might cause more chaos than the ghosts do”.

“Sounds like that’s a you problem, and a town problem”.

Valerie sighs, “at least try to keep the other Fenton’s from causing chaos”, starting to walk off towards the jailhouse, Danny hoisting the guy up onto his shoulder in a fireman carry.

Him grumbling, “you say that like I can control them”, tilting his head, “wait does this mean Vlad’s gonna start paying me? Paying me in a way that isn’t clearly a bribe?”, snickering, “he’s gonna be so unimpressed you went with me of all people”.

Valerie smirking to herself, “that’s half the point. I couldn’t pick someone who’d actually trust that lying snake”.

“He’s more of a bat than a snake, you know, the whole knock off vampire thing he’s got going on”.

“Zone you’re a dumbass”.

The cheeky smirk is audible in his response, “I know”.

Was Vlad mad about her choice? Absolutely. Was she? Absolutely not. Regardless of being at college she tried to keep up to date with what’s going on in Amity, Danny was absolutely terrorising the wealthy half dead man. The random insults he was putting into practically every public interview or announcement was making the feud between the mayor and ‘Monochrome’ very public and everyone was debating why Vlad even employed this guy and where the Red Huntress found him.

Vlad kept calling her and offering to pay for things just to get her back sooner and apparently ‘Monochrome’ fighting Phantom really annoyed Vlad, which to be fair what she’s seen of those little ‘chases’ was usually really absurd. ‘Monochrome’ dumped melted cheese on the ghost once and then bailed, it did make Technus confused enough that Phantom caught the other ghost easily though.

She’s got no clue how Danny convinced everyone that Monochrome wasn’t an Amity native. That was just baffling but did help with the ‘secret identity’ thing. She’d definitely not realised just how much Danny looked exactly like Phantom though, so she officially actually agrees with Jack’s and Maddie’s insane theory that Phantom did actually copy their son’s appearance. She’d bet her pocket change that Phantom’s real face was some kind of eldritch horror abomination, and copying Danny was to seem more ‘human’; stupid manipulative ghosts.

At least it did seem Amity was in good, if chaotic, hands and Danny was actually keeping the damn suit on and the Fenton’s were actually respecting him. Danny’d called and bragged about that, she’d been happy for him.

Maybe…

Maybe he’d continue doing it, even when she got back, even if he seemed to view it as very firmly temporary in a way that almost seemed… sad.

End.

Prompts: Well, you can't kill me because then I'll turn into ghost, and you'll have a Real problem on your hands. No, we need to work this out another way. The only option left was surrender All Amity Parkers know to never work a closing shift alone. How could the wrong Nasty Burger order lead to this? Valerie got accepted at her desired college. Since she'll be leaving Amity Park, she needs to find a new replacement to keep the ghosts at bay while she's gone. Someone tries to rob the Nasty Burger but sadly for them the person working the register happens to be a newly employed Danny Fenton. Danny has an hour left of his shift and does not have enough energy left to play nice.

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phantomphangphucker · 7 days

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Phic Phight - I’m Not Above A Love To Cash In

@a-closet-emo @coyotecrackers @DizzlyPuzzled @vigilant-insomniac @Kawaiijohn @fangirlwriting-stories

Danny’s kind of out of touch with humanity, that was kinda the point in the end. He had a job to do, people and ghosts to protect, a dimension to rule, and crazy bigoted ghost hunters to keep in line; potential distractions and collateral weren’t useful for anyone. Though maybe those would have been good for Danny’s well being, not that he cared too much about that.

Danny sighed at the little envelope, how the heck any of them even tracked down where he was living he had no freaking clue. Oh well, it was here now, meaning he couldn’t feign ignorance. The A-listers, or whatever they called themselves these days, had set up a reunion and had invited even him ‘Freaky Fenton’. Course they also managed to get the ghost mailman to deliver one to Phantom as well, which was slightly insane because as far as they knew Phantom had literally never gone to school at all??? Wasn’t it kinda weird to invite someone that not only wasn’t in your grade but wasn’t even in the school, to a high school reunion? Eh whatever, who was he to dictate who they invited, Dash probably demanded it actually. Ugh. So that left him with what to do about it, it would be rude as fuck for either Danny to not show and it would hurt his image in both forms. Jack and Maddie would spin some story about how it was proof that Phantom didn’t care about people, and then would say the same about Danny Fenton except that Fenton had been ‘tainted’ by Phantom.

To say they weren’t getting along these days would be an understatement. It made him very happy he never told them about being Phantom as a teen though. That would have ended with him strapped down on a table, no doubt.

His whole secret identity was the entire problem here really, his forms looked effectively identical meaning the two sides of him never being seen right next to each other was kind of important. Even being in the same room was too big a risk, if someone simply glanced from one to the other it was obvious. In photos he was fine, since ghosts messed up photographs and videos so severely.

Absolutely no one would buy it that neither one of them noticed the similarities. And absolutely no one bought that ‘Phantom stole Fenton’s face’ thing his parents once tried to spin. So Danny trying to play the similarities off wasn’t going to work.

…

Well he could simply do the aggressively opposite thing. Have Fenton and Phantom near each other constantly and clearly aware of the similarities for some reason. Just what kind of reason should he come up with? Claiming twins would get disproven in a heart beat, especially because everyone would wonder why he waited fourteen fucking years to reveal that shit. He… could, maybe, spin some soul mates bullshit. Ghosts were weird and did weird things and worked in weird ways, people would buy them having legit soul mates and being weird as fuck about it.

He should work shop this a little.

Really sell it.

Fuck.

Danny’s totally going to pretend to be his own fucking boyfriend at a random ass reunion that he still doesn’t know how he wound up getting invited to.

…

Oh Ancients Jack and Maddie were going to lose their minds when they heard about this. That’s it. He’s sold. He’s dating himself for a night. Fuck it. They put him through hell, he’s gonna put them through a little hell too.

Now how to explain it… ghost soul mates copy the appearance of their mate? Why though… hmmm… he doesn’t have a good one for that. Maybe… to recognise them while they’re still alive? Technically that could stab him in the ass if Fenton him ever died but well… unless something killed him then he wouldn’t die, semi-immortality was kinda a bitch like that. Old age was gonna bite him in the ass no matter what. And if he did get his sorry ass killed, finally rested in deaths grasp, his appearance would change to his ghost king form fully meaning that his ass actually would be covered by this dumbass excuse. Okay he is mentally swearing way too much and should absolutely go to bed at this point, sleep deprivation was absolutely taking the piss outta him right now.

He’s definitely sticking with this dumb dating himself idea though, it was just too good and too stupid.

Had Danny’s fully rested opinion changed from his sleep deprived one? not a chance. Eleven years ago this would have been utterly impossible to do, but now? he’s got duplication down pat, all his powers he was pretty solid with now. Not having friends gave him a crap ton of free time. Again, positive sides to negative things.

Heck he doesn’t even know what Sam and Tuck- Tucker were up to these days, it’s better left that way too. He’d be too tempted to keep checking up on them if he looked into it, and he gave that up the day he died and decided to keep that to himself no matter what. That no matter what had become losing his friends, his family, his sleep schedule, his unmarred body, his childhood home, his dream job, his grades, everything he used to care about except the stars. The stars he could be closer to than every living being, so he made that enough for him, it had to be.

Because he couldn’t follow his former friends, he couldn’t follow his former parents, he couldn’t follow his sister, he couldn’t follow his former teachers, he couldn’t follow his dreams. He refused to take all of that down with him, because the only one or thing Danny Fenton followed was Danny Phantom, because all Danny Phantom followed was Danny Fenton. Guess ‘dating’ was just taking it to another step, an absurd one but absurd was his half-life already so it was okay.

… Better thing to wonder about was what the heck to wear? He could slap his Phantom self in some of his more humanly normal royal wear but Fenton him? He owned one suit and it was shit. Most of his clothes were shit, he never actually paid for them so most were either destroyed or cheap enough that he didn’t feel too bad about the act of theft. His morals were another thing he gave up following, at least following it to a tee anyways. Eh fuck it, he’ll ‘barrow’ some of ‘Phantom’s’ royal wear. He’s not wasting time, money, or further morals, on trying to get something decent in a human way.

When was this happening again?

…

Tomorrow. Of course. It was fucking tomorrow. Figures that it would take a while to mail shit to a ghost and figures that they’d be lazy about sending ‘freaky Fenton’ an invite. Ugh. Whatever, he doesn’t really have energy to waste on caring or being bothered. Screw them too. He’ll be late purely to repay the audacity. That way he’ll also have to deal with everyone less, all the ‘normal’ people. Which if Tucker or Sam showed would probably be for the best, he doubts they’d approach him but it’d be painful to see them regardless. Not being in school anymore made it easy to fall out of being used to ignoring and avoiding them.

Though to be fair, he’d been out of school longer than everyone else, since he dropped out as soon as he legally could. Turning seventeen had be such a massive turning point for him, he’d been building up to dropping out and the teachers all knew it. None of them expected anything from him, Lancer held out hope longer than most but not even that man could hold out hope for a lost cause for long. Jack and Maddie thought he was joking till the day he actually dropped out though, they kicked him out of course which he expected; he didn’t even bother taking anything since nothing that was still there held any value to him.

Over time they had destroyed, one way or another, every physical thing he did care about. So he stopped bringing new things he would care about, it was a waste and only stood to hurt him in the long run. Them taking apart his telescope he spent years saving for just to make some stupid new invention was the nail in that particular coffin. So he left them everything he’d ever had but some clothes, that were barely wearable but he couldn’t exactly walk around naked. He’d been tempted to purely to make a point that everything in that house was worthless to him, them included, even if that used to be a lie.

Now he had some decent stuff, his mattress had a bed frame with stars scratched into the wood. That was something. Yeah…

…Yeah

He does have some food in the fridge right? Shit he should totally raid the free food at the reunion thing, the local town hero needed it more than they all did really. He’s seriously hoping that they have those yummy cheese tart things, those were delicious.

Fenton stretches out, eyeing his Phantom duplicate, it was so much harder to make a human duplicate than a ghost one so the choice of which one to make ‘real’ was fairly obvious. Snickering as Phantom chucks some clothes right at Fenton’s face, this kind of crap always amused him, being a goofy jerk to himself by himself. Fenton shaking his head, “dumbass”.

“You know talking to yourself isn’t supposed to be healthy”.

“As if we’re remotely close to healthy anything”.

Either way Fenton pulls the dark green knit tank top on, it looked acceptable over the black poets blouse, and the puffy blouse sleeves worked with the baggy harem pants. The shiny dress shoes stuck out bit so he’s swapping that shit out to soft weathered leather boots. Phantom’s already dressed in something more form fitting, like he always wore in that form, straight cut pants he’s sure are from the early nineteen hundreds and a borderline military tight collared and fully buttoned up jacket. Phantom sticking with the white boots and black gloves, there really wasn’t a reason to change that and he wasn’t a fan of people seeing the scarring on his left hand/arm.

Both of the hims absolutely rock the evil eyeliner though, because of course.

Fenton straightening the random bullet necklace he threw on, “so, ready to go babe”; fuck this was gonna be hilarious.

Phantom finger gunning right back, “tots babe”.

Oh here’s hoping he can hold his laughter and mocking smirks inside his mind. Everyone even in this spooky town could be so dumb though that they might not even notice even if he didn’t manage to keep himselves together. Plus he was ‘the freak’ and ‘crazy’ so he probably would get written off anyways. Fenton gesturing out the door as he opens it and begins to walk out. Phantom chuckling, “naw, I’ll fly us”; and having Fenton pretend to be startled when he gets picked up by his ‘romantic partner’. Man he’s going to make himself laugh at this point.

It doesn’t take long to get to Elmerton, at least the ‘A-listers’ had the sense to not try and hold a reunion inside Amity Park, especially when a lot of the people who were likely invited had made a point to get the hell out of dodge once they could. Amity was kinda a nightmare so Danny couldn’t blame them, even if it felt a little insulting. He thought he was doing a damn good job of keeping everyone safe! Sure there was lots of damages but no one ever got seriously injured. Living in a so called normal town just sounded boring to him these days, what did all those people even do with their time? Sleep? Eat? Did people still go to the movies these days or was that outdated? Whatever. Not his life style not his problem.

Phantom zipping up to open the door, Fenton stuffing his hands in his pockets and following along. Fenton had the loner lazy weirdo image to maintain after all. And there’s Star immediately, honestly he kind of expected either Dash or Paulina or maybe they were just ‘too good’ to greet people at the doors.

Star opens her mouth and nothing comes out, her just staring at the two hims. Yup. She noticed the freakish similarities immediately. She swallows very awkwardly and her smile is pinched, “Phantom! Danny! Glad you could make it!”. That rang about as true as a fucking potato trying to pass as a turtle. What the fuck. Did they just not expect either of hims to show up? Why even invite him then!

Phantom tilting his head, “well I was invited, someone went through a kinda weird amount of effort to do that”. Fenton scoffing, “and I can absolutely just leave if I’m not actually welcome, don’t know why y’all went to the effort to track me down if you didn’t want me here though”.

She waves them both off, “no no no! You’re both fine!”, and fiddled with all the little name plates, “it’s…”, side-eyeing Phantom’s glowing self, “just been a while since I’ve been around a ghost and wearing a bullet to see a bunch of people you haven’t seen in over a decade seems a little concerning”.

Fenton blinks, is she trying to say it came off as a threat? “If I was going to threaten people I’d do it to their face and if I was going to shoot people I’d have walked in with a gun”.

“That’s… not comforting”, she looks Fenton up and down, “you’re not armed right”.

“No!”; oh my zone just how bad was everyone’s opinions of Fenton? Ugh. Phantom gestures at his face, “I’m kinda always armed? I can’t do anything about that”.

She actually chuckles at that, handing them their name plates, “still a joker I see”.

“Death can’t kill these puns”.

Fenton snickering, “hopefully it can still off me though”. Phantom laughing lightly back, “you’re not a walking sentient pun, otherwise I feel very misled”; and makes a point to ruffle Fenton’s hair and have Fenton grin a little fondly at the action.

It was actually kinda nice to feel his hair being ruffled up again though…

Star, finally, gets the vibes he’s putting out. Vibes squared that he’s putting out. Doubly putting out. Her eyes widening, “oh my god are you two dating? Since when and how even!”.

Danny’s a little miffed she didn’t even comment on how similar the two hims look though. Like come on! If this whole thing was pointless he’s going to be annoyed enough to try setting something on fire. Nothing like arson to really scratch that destructive itch.

Fenton quirks an eyebrow, “I mean, yeah?”, sharing a glance with Phantom before looking back to her, “and pretty much ever since I dropped out, folks kicked me to the curb and this idiot showed up”.

“I’m the smart one in this relationship”.

“I don’t know about that, you dipshit”,

“Hey!”.

Oh okay, so that’s why everyone liked calling him insulting names. It was legit hilarious and weirdly satisfying… hopefully he doesn’t come out of tonight with a weird degradation kink, that would be his luck and very concerning. Would confuse a lot of ghosts though.

Star shakes her head with a more genuine grin, “I think I’m glad then, feel free to head on in. There’s food and drinks to the left”. Sweet, free food. “No invisibly stealing most of it, Phantom”. Aw. Damn. He’s still going to just… with more subtlety.

Phantom smirking, “so steal all the food, gotcha”, and winks before they’re fully inside.

It’s loud, not club loud but noisy. A second duplicate absolutely raids the table, just taking only a few things and at random. Not the toasted sandwiches though, ew. Hard pass.

Lily spots them first, nearly running over, he can tell by scent alone that she’s got kids now. Weird. “Holy crap, Danny? Phantom? Did you guys just arrive by chance together or do you- holy what the?”, she stops a bit away from them and tilts her head, “did you two always look this similar?”, and shakes herself off before coming all the way over to the two hims. “So both of you still in Amity I guess? Phantom obviously but you seriously didn’t leave Danny? With how crap your parents were to you?”.

Wow. Way to be gentle about it, damn. Fenton quirks a judgmental eyebrow, “harsh much, but Amity’s big enough that we avoid each other pretty easily. They leave my precious Nasty Burger and coffee shops alone, I stay the hell away from FentonWorks. It works”. Phantom nodding readily, “plus I would be very sad if he went and left”, and makes a point to pout goofily.

Lily hums and nods, “oh yeah I guess since most of us left, you’d miss anymore leaving huh?”.

Dense much. Fucking Zone.

Fenton and Phantom exchanging looks before staring at her. Phantom giving her that smirk that meant he was about to say something stupid, Danny loved making that smirk, “no, I’d miss sucking his face off”.

Lily squawks, scandalised, “you don’t just say stuff like that! And you’re dating!”, tilting her head, “you guys have the same name and could pass as twins, that is so weird”.

“WHAT! Oh mi god!”.

Ah that sounded like Paulina. This ought to be fun.

Paulina almost knocks Lily over and physically flings her arms around Phantom’s neck. Danny can’t resist but have Phantom give Fenton an awkward apologetic look; just to make Lily uncomfortable. That absolutely works and she shuffles on her feet and taps Paulina’s should in an attempt to get her to stop.

“I can’t believe you actually came! Oh this is the best! And you’re still so muscley! And you smell like lime still!”.

He… forgot how creepy she could be, actually. Wow. He’s nipping this in the ass. Fenton putting a hand on his hip, “you done dangling off my ghost, Paulina”; he makes sure that comes off as chastising instead of actually questioning.

Paulina doesn’t get off of Phantom and instead just turns her head to look at Fenton, “and you are? What could you possibly mean by that?”.

Holy shit. By all the Ancients. She doesn’t even recognise Fenton him. What the fuck actually. For someone who was, and clearly still is, so obsessed with a version of him she clearly couldn’t be bothered to remember him. Phantom prying Paulina’s arms off him with an almost baffled raised eyebrow, “Danny Fenton? You know? The kid you guys used to call freaky all the time? My soulmate?”.

“Your what?”. Of course the last bit is the part she really cares about. She stares at Fenton, who glares, her looking back to Phantom, “I refuse to believe that”.

You know what? Fuck it. Time to absolutely horrify everyone and do something arguable really weird. Fenton grabs a fist full of Phantoms hair and kisses him like he fucking means it. Even though all he really means is that he desires to disturb Paulina and see if he can make her throw up on command.

She doesn’t throw up, sadly. She does start waving her hands around and backing away disgustedly though; an almost win. “Oh god ew! I don’t want to see that loser kissing anyone! Especially not Phantom”. Well too bad Paulina, you’re seeing it. Lily is busy clutching her pearls and shuffling away from them like they’re physically toxic to be around; which with him being literally a ghost in one of his forms that was actually an accurate statement.

Fenton does break off the kiss though, “oh so you do remember me?”. She scowls at Fenton him so he has Phantom whole ass bite Fenton’s neck with his fangs like a proper possessive asshole ghost would. Her scowl deepens and he feels very satisfied with himselves.

She backs up a bit, “unfortunately. Now at least. I would have preferred not to have the reminder”, looking to Phantom almost hopefully, “are you sure? Serious?”.

Phantom keeps a hand around Fenton’s waist, “course! It’s pretty obvious he’s supposed to be mine so”. Fenton sticks his tongue out meanly while Phantom shrugs like all of this is a given.

“No it’s really not”.

“Holy shit Phantom!”.

“Wait really!?”.

“Phantom!”.

“Wow you’ve changed! Awesome man!”.

“He came!”.

“I forgot how freaky ghosts looked”.

“HI!”.

Fenton gets pretty much shoved to the side as Phantom gets mobbed. Ahh yeah Danny did not miss all the fangirls and fanboys shit. He really didn’t. That was one thing about being a hero he could seriously do without. It was at the least uncomfortable and at the worst actively dangerous for everyone involved. Fenton huffing and shaking his arms out, going through the motions of running his bite mark and grumbling about people hogging ‘his boyfriend’. Fuck it, Fenton him is hitting up the food table and grabbing both hims a drink. The duplicate can deal with all the damn fans and freak outs.

Phantom chuckles awkwardly when Dash smacks him a few times in the arm, “solid and tough as always I see! Man it still sucks that ghosts couldn’t be on the team!”.

“And I’ll point out that would have still been unfair”; like really, Danny, especially as Phantom, could pick up the entire school building. He could kick a football into the goddamn stratosphere.

Dash smacks him again, “oh who cares”.

“I do? And did?”. Danny liked to pretend he still had good solid morals sometimes.

James starts aggressively shaking Phantom’s hand, “man it’s been too long, wow i thought I’d been misremembering that your skin, or suit I suppose, tingled!”. Phantom only laughing awkwardly in response.

“You still doing the whole super hero thing?”.

“it’s almost weird to see you all grown up?”.

“You know you practically were part of our class!”.

“Could you imagine if he still looked like a kid?”.

“Amity’s ghost issues as bad as ever!”.

“Think I could get a signature for the kids?”.

“The Fenton’s still trying to catch you?”.

Okay this was a bit much, like it always was. Most of Amity didn’t do this crap now, everyone used to him just kinda always being around. Everyone here though? Again most of them left Amity, meaning he was now a novelty to them. Phantom him was at least.

Danny’s putting a stop to this, “Hey spooky butt”, Fenton leans his face and one drink over Phantom’s shoulder in a way that could only be described as shit-eatingly sultry.

“Holy shit Danny!”.

“Looks like someone finally learned how to dress”.

“Why are you getting Phantom a drink?”.

Paulina crosses her arms and huffs, “apparently they’re dating”, waving a hand around dismissively, “soul mates or whatever”.

OoOooIooOoooOoOooh someone’s jealous. Ha! He loves to see it. Suck on that, little miss stalker.

Everyone just kind of goes silent, zone someone actually goes and shuts off the music even. Wow. His both touched and slightly horrified. Phantom takes the drink from Fenton and sips noisily at it while everyone stares; Fenton just smirking his ass off and Danny trying not to have either hims collapse to the floor in laughing fits.

Todd snapping, “what the hell does that mean”, then scowling, “wait, why do I even care?”, and stalks off to aggressively grab a rice crispy square. That starts the shouting though.

“What?!”.

“What does she mean dating!?!”.

“There’s NO WAY THAT’S SERIOUS!”.

“How!”.

“Woah woah woah huh?!?”.

“WHAT!”.

“The hell happened!”.

“How does this even make sense!”.

Paulina looks pleased with herself actually, smirking at Fenton like this somehow proved something? Danny’s completely lost on what she thinks she’s won. Like, Danny’s winning here, mass confusion was practically ninety percent of the goal. He wanted to piss off, freak out, and annoy these people. Most of them had treated him like shit, the others didn’t care, and well, two were… okay but he was best leaving them confused too. At least he doesn’t see either of them yet.

Dash near shrieking, “Fenton!”. Danny’s suddenly distinctly remembering that this guy used to slam him into walls and try to drown him. Fenton ducking down under Phantom's arm to be able to slip under it to move in front of his ghost self, “what do you want, Dash? Feel like revisiting shoving my head in toilets?”. He makes a point to have Phantom watch the interaction like a very obviously protective hawk; protective eyes for Fenton only. He is legit enjoying seeing Fenton him standing up against Dash though, especially since Fenton was taller than Dash now and more bulked up.

Someone fell off with all their working out. Ha! As if that would ever happen with Danny, he’s mere existence was a work out.

Dash glaring up at Fenton, sneering, “Fenton, still being weird I see”.

“Let me guess, I was invited to be the freak show you lot would point at and use as a way to make yourselves feel better about how your own lives turned out? What? Upset that you were right about peeking in Highschool?”.

Dash actually clenches a fist, Danny keeps Fenton glaring straight at his face, and makes Phantom’s eyes glow dangerously in warning. Dash wilts immediately, scoffing, “gotta have a ghost fight your battles for you, Fenton. Whatever”.

Fenton cackles meanly, wandering off to pick up one of the full coolers up over his head with ease and shout, “you wanna go bitch?!? You think I’m hooked up with a combative mother fucker without getting a few hits in myself!”. Yes, fear human him even slightly, please him.

Then Star stomps over, “Danny put that down”, pointing at Dash, “Dash, this isn’t Highschool anymore, grow up”, then looking at Phantom, “please discourage this?”.

Phantom blinks innocently, “why would I? It’s hot when throws shit at people, he threw Johnny’s bike two days ago, ten outta ten”.

That gets him a lot of ‘what’s’ and Paulina recoils, “you, called Fenton hot”.

Phantom shrugging like this is obvious, “well he is”. Note, Danny is fully aware that he is absolutely not hot or conventionally attractive in anyway. He just wants to see her grossed out. The disgusted look is so worth it, worth all this crap.

Kwan shakes his head, but when he smiles at both Danny’s his smile is genuine, “well good for you two then!”. Dash glances away awkwardly, Danny’s guessing those two had a falling out. Figures, Kwan was always a kinda decent dude that was just surrounded by assholes. Kwan coming over and smacking both of the Danny’s shoulders, “how’d this happen though?”.

Multiple people raise their hands, clearly wanting an expilnation for this shit too; zone the music is still off. Danny knows he’s a hot topic, as Phantom at least, but for fucks sake! Phantom and Fenton exchanging glances before Fenton crosses his arms at the group, “after I got the familial boot, this shit ass”, jabbing a thumb back at Phantom. Phantom muttering, “yes insult me harder, daddy”, purely because that was absolutely taking this a step too far. Making Fenton pause and look back at ghost him, “I can’t believe you actually said that”, then turning back to everyone, most of whom look varying degrees of freaked out, “so this shit ass, helped me get back on my feet and not be contentedly homeless and you know, when a hero type starts stealing things for you you start to question that shit. And well, romance bloomed”. There are some ‘aw’s’ and some gags and some eye rolls. Expected, many here had once had crushes on Phantom him and also viewed Fenton him as a loser; most wouldn’t be happy about this pairing not that he cares.

Phantom waving at everyone with a big smile specifically to get their attention, “we’re soul mates!”, humming, “which is a ghost thing so it’s probably really weird to the living”.

Fenton nodding, okay self… selves, time to sell this shit. Fenton pointing at his face then Phantom’s face, “it’s why we look alike”. Phantom nodding immediately, “looking like our loves makes them easier to find”.

Jesse blinks, he was dressed in an actually starched suit, “so ghosts just copy their partners appearance until they find them as ghosts? Until they die? That seems a bit insane and like it would mess with your sense of self”.

Paulina stares at the ground, “so I’ve been crushing on a Fenton look-alike, ew”. Oh Danny hadn’t even thought of that reaction! Ha! Suffer for his amusement. This was a great plan.

Fenton smirks to himself, “yup. Too bad you missed out on the real thing huh?”. She scowls deeply at him and stalks off, apparently done with his bullshit; the quick glance she gives Phantom is a little odd but maybe this will finally kill her odd obsession with half of him.

Phantom hums, shaking his head in that way that makes his hair flop around detached from gravity, “oh I can look how I’m supposed to look fully if I want to”, leaning over and pinching Fenton’s cheek, “looking like this silly little human, in general body shape, is just more tolerable around all you humans”; then running the same hand through his hair, changing it to white flames as he does so. Danny lets the fire hair ‘hang out’ on and around Phantom’s head for a bit before settling back to his standard hair.

Dash grumbling, “I’d rather look like some beast than a loser. Fire hair is cool anyways”.

Brittney sticking up a finger, “but with this, then wouldn’t you have known since you first met? When you first showed up in Amity? So why didn’t you date back in Highschool?”.

Phantom quirks an eyebrow at her like the answers obvious, because frankly it is, “He’s alive? I wasn’t about to mess his life up, then suddenly he wasn’t in school or at his home. He was alone with no real human responsibilities so I decided why not? And I could hardly do nothing when my mate could use some help”. Dating any ghost, especially himself, would have gone horrifically bad while he was still living with Maddie and Jack. The amount those two would have tried to use him and this fabricated soul mate bond thing would have been absolutely insane and very very painful eventually. Even if he had dated a blob ghost that would have ended in the ghostly ultimate destruction. Even now dating a ghost came with far too much risk to them, dating himself he could get away with since he was a very powerful ghost and also knew exactly what he was getting himself into more or less. Besides, if dating himself is what gets his ass finally truly hurt by those two he will laugh.

Star grins at the ghost, “that is very adorable”, then looking at the mass of people, “okay that’s enough mobbing them, this is to mingle with everyone not just ogle Phantom”. Oh hey, look at the old queen bee lackey being the voice of reason now, talk about moving up in the world.

A couple people grumble but things do go back to somewhat normal, the music comes back on too. Nice. Star nodding curtly to herself, then to Fenton, “now I didn’t ask this earlier but are the Fenton’s going to show up? They weren’t invited but they were never big on following rules”.

Both Danny’s chuckle at that, Fenton shaking his head, “so long as no one tells them a ghost’s here, then no”.

“Glad to hear it, now I’m going back to greet people, I imagine there will be a couple more late arrivals”. Fenton smirks meanly at that while Phantom tries to look slightly apologetic, ultimately Danny didn’t really care and they should be glad he bothered showing up to an event full of people that either ignored his existence or treated him like shit except when he was saving their hides or floating around as Phantom.

Phantom finally gets to sip his, unfortunately ectoplasm free, drink and take some food from Fenton. Danny’s tempted to have Fenton fucking hand feed Phantom just to mess with people. The tarts are sadly really bland, is this what ‘normal’ grown ups liked to eat? Hard pass. But people’s tastes seriously get this boring? How sad and a bit pathetic. Live a little! Enjoy some flavour!

Kwan elbowing Phantom, “so the ghost problem still going strong”, laughing almost awkwardly, “I haven’t exactly been keeping up, the tech industry is a hard core one!”.

Ah so he worked in tech now? He’d expected English, a teacher maybe, he seemed to like poetry if Danny’s remembering right? Phantom chuckles, “of course! I doubt that’ll ever change. Serious damage doesn’t happen too much now though, since I’m pretty solid on what kind of damage is serious damage in the living world now”. Fenton nodding, “and I get the fun of patching his dumbass up when he lets himself get hit for a pun”.

“As if you don’t do the same”.

Fenton snorts, making a point to seem amused by Phantom’s antics. Phantom smirking playfully before looking back to Kwan, “besides, no ghost these days would want to actually get on my bad side with my position, you know?”. Jack and Maddie might very loudly and very aggressively deny that ghosts could possibly have a political system but everyone else seemed to accept it at least. Besides, those two hunters being loud about anything didn’t somehow make it true, even if the town believing the whole ‘ghost king’ thing made some of them a lot more leery of Phantom. Like he’d execute them or try them for dissent or something if ‘his human people’ went against him. Some folks moved out purely because they didn’t want to be in a town under ‘some ghost royals rule’, even though Danny had firmly established his Phantom self as the good guy by now. Humans could be so annoying. None of the ghosts got pissy about being under his domain and they were more under it than any human in Amity.

Kwan looks… confused? “No I don’t think I know? Are you, like, an actual ghost cop now? Man that would be so cool”.

What. Hmm. Well. Maybe most of these people don’t know? Most of his old ‘citizens’ hadn’t been citizens for a while before Danny took the throne proper and him doing so got leaked, thank you very much Vlad. Asshole. Though having very public arguments with the Observants in the mild of the fucking sky probably didn’t help, or him actually having to go scary ghost king on that one Ancient that tried poisoning the water supply with corpses. If you’re gonna mass kill people be a proper ghost and do it with your own bare hands. Danny makes a point to have Phantom look to Fenton in confusion, Fenton facepalming, “right. Most of y’all have been gone a while”, moving his hand off his face and giving Kwan a mean smirk, “Phantom’s been the current ghost king ever since he became an adult ghost”, waving a hand around dismissively, “its been, what? eight years?”.

Phantom nodding, “and my town’s, Amity’s, known for five because Plasmius is a jerk and the Observants won’t stop hassling me”, grumbling, “one of these days I swear I’m gonna start shooting them with suction darts”.

Fenton barking a laugh as if he wasn’t fully aware of what his other self was going to say, “if that works I will mock them relentlessly”.

“Please do, anyone who doesn’t give up on political assassination attempts after the third failure deserves to be mocked”.

At this point it was like they felt obligated to try at least once per year, it was very annoying and a waste of his time. At least all the other ghosts who started beef with him provided some entertainment and stretched his muscles out, let him satisfy that pesky little protective obsession of his. The eyeballs were just jerks. At least he had fun setting the last wannabe assassin on fire. Ha.

Kwan blinks before smacking Phantom’s arm hard, “wow! Congrats then! I’m busy enough just being a desk boy usually! Being a king would be awful, no offence”, then smacking Fenton’s arm one, “and congrats on bagging royalty!”.

Todd scowling from a little bit away, “fuck, right, I forgot that asshole got that throne thing, ugh I hate this town”, and wanders off further away from Danny’s hims and their everything.

But someone’s turned off the music, again ugh, it’s Lindsey by the controls and she’s gapping at the hims, “what do you mean Phantom’s royalty!”.

Oh. This shit again.

Everyone starts yelling at the hims again.

“What!?”.

“Oh that’s awesome!”.

“For defeating that dude that abducted the town right?!?”.

“For how long!”.

“That’s absurd!”.

“I could have dated a king!”.

“We sorta went to school with royalty!”.

“Oh my god!”.

“WHAT!”.

“Why are there still ghosts then!”.

“Does that make Amity, like, a royal capital!”.

Phantom buries his face in his palms, groaning loudly. Man Danny remembers going through this back when Vlad leaked everything and the towns folk realised he wasn’t joking. So many questions, an entire press conference even. Fenton crossing his arms and scowling, “there’s an entire press release on it, google it your self, hell go track it down on TikTok I don’t care”.

Phantom sighing again and removing his hand from his face, looking at the people in his line of sight, “yes it’s the throne the guy who abducted the town had. It’s only been eight years and the towns know for five. No I’m not going to mass control the ghosts to stay out of Amity, freedom is a big deal to ghosts. Amity is technically a royal capital but it’s not in the Infinite Realm so that doesn’t actually mean much. And yes it is absurd”, gesturing a hand at his head and making the green flaming crown appear for a few seconds before sending it away again.

Fenton pretty much gets shoved away from Phantom again as everyone pretty much mobs the ghost, Kwan patting an annoyed Fenton’s shoulder, “so what have you been doing? Outside of apparently dealing with Phantom’s craziness all the time”.

(Phantom holds up his hands, “alright alright, just stop shoving my mate around. Geez”. Only a couple of people apologise)

Fenton huffs, at least the man sounded genuine, after all most people didn’t expect Danny Fenton to amount to much of anything. Homeless and jobless was the expectation. It was also almost accurate, if he wasn’t Phantom at least. The only reason he had an apartment at all was because he was better at making weapons than his parents were, even if he sold his more or less illegally. The G.I.W. would never approve someone who was ‘in league with the dead’ to deal ghost tech in any form, even if they did, Jack and Maddie would try to keep him out. At least Vlad pulled his weight by letting Danny sell the more important stuff under the Dalvco brand, like shields and ghost-plant killer that secretly doubled as a Blood Blossom spray. His general weapons were blackmarket only though, fuck the government. “If I told you I’d have to kill you”. Kwan rolls his eyes and Fenton snorts after a beat, “I sell weapons on the blackmarket”.

… It takes a bit but, Kwan blinks, “oh you’re serious”.

(Phantom chuckles awkwardly, “yes I’m a lot stronger now than I was back then, I don’t flaunt that though”.)

Fenton shrugging, “it’s ghost weapons, dude. More ghost friendly, Phantom friendly, and more effective than what FentonWorks or Dalvco produce. And not legislated to the zone and back like G.I.W. tech, plus fuck those guys, no Amity Parker current or past would buy shit from those assholes”.

“Yeah I absolutely remember them shooting live rockets at little kids that one time”, Kwan shakes his head, “I guess that makes sense, can’t do it legally because of being publicly pro-ghost?”.

(Danny internally sighs as most of the group shove pens and paper and whatnot at Phantom, ugh).

“Got it in one, got it in one. It doesn’t make good money but it does make some. Enough for a place to live and cheap food, I’m not moving into the gz regardless of someone’s insistence on how cozy it is”.

Kwan actually takes that comment in stride, good for him, “I mean, you’re gonna be there one day anyways? So why rush it? Even if Phantom would probably prefer you there sooner than later”, the guy scratches his head, “man that must be weird. Being a ghosts soul mate or whatever. Chelsea marrying that old guy was weird enough, a dead guy is on another level”.

Chelsea married a sugar daddy? Really? Okay… Get that bread he guesses. Fenton snorting, “if she’s making bank and living the rich life because of that then good for her”, shrugging, “and outside of him running of to throw fists and laying on the ceiling, it’s not much different from dating a human. Getting bitched at about royal shit is way more weird”, looking down at himself and sticking his arms away from his torso some, “the clothing’s nice though”.

“That’s ghost clothing?”.

Fenton smirks, “yup. This shirt is probably older than our parents. And I think the boots are made from Minotaur hide”. He doesn’t think, he knows they are. Ghost clothing was badass like that.

(Phantom rolls his eyes at Jasper, “no I’m not going to just make people my knights when they die”.)

James pops his head over, “that would freak me out to wear, damn aren’t you worried about ecto-contamination and shit? I’d prefer to stick to stuff made by human hands, cool though”.

Was it weird? He didn’t think so. “There’s so little ecto on it that it really doesn’t matter, besides if clothing was bad for my health Phantom would kill me via cuddles”. Kwan bursts out laughing, and nods repeatedly.

James nods a little, “oh yeah! I guess that would be right huh?”.

The Danny makes a point to have Fenton jerk a little from Phantom just kinda appearing right next to Fenton. Kwan putting a hand to his chest and James yelping a little. Fenton glancing at Phantom, “got bored of being mobbed or doing signatures?”. Ancients everyone wanted signatures and if Phantom wasn’t the duplicate Danny’s sure his hand would be sore for at least ten minutes. Ugh. signing shit for Craig’s goddamn six children was wild though, his poor wife. Phantom pouting, “yes”.

“I did warn you that would happen”.

“I wasn’t going to not show up, that would be rude!”.

At least the music turns back on, thank everything. Dale spotting and hearing where Phantom disappeared to and popping over, “everyone’s glad you came, even if being around a ghost again is a little off putting and weird”.

Phantom rubs his neck, “me being more powerful probably doesn’t help”. Fenton shoving him a little good naturedly.

Dale acts like Phantom didn’t even say anything, “and yeah Fenton was kinda invited in hopes you’d be more likely to show, since both of you were seen near each other a lot”.

Kwan gives the other man a disappointed look, “dude”. Making Dale blink, “oh right yeah that was mean”, and just stares off blankly a little.

Wow. Fucking figured but damn. Jerks. Though right, wasn’t Dale the guy that had some brain damage? Eh, Danny shouldn’t be too mean to the guy. Still making Fenton scowl though, “why am I not surprised, it’s not like I was ever close with any of you shitheads”. James wanders away very quickly at that, and at Phantom growling a little. Kwan scratching his head, “sorry about that, Dale’s not the best at brain to mouth censoring”. Dale blinking and still looking a little far off but nodding, “ah, yeah no I’m not. Eh? At least dogs don’t care about that”.

Phantom brightening up immediately, “oh yeah! Cujo can be a handful but he’s a good boy”.

Dale blinks again, “I don’t think I could handle a ghost dog, all dogs are great dogs though”.

See that? Danny could agree with. Cujo might cause a lot of damage and might drag him around by his ankles but he was still just the best. And getting to have interactions with someone or something that had no expectations of him and couldn’t be disappointed by him was nice. All the pup wanted was a playmate, belly rubs, and to guard his master; nothing more nothing less. Cujo didn’t care if Danny was a king or if he was on bad terms with his biological makers or if he was a little out of touch with other beings or if he technically was an entity that should be impossible to exist in the first place. Dogs were nice like that, unlike people. So both Danny’s nod.

Then, as if summoned by the dog that ‘ruined’ her life, Val shows up. The good ol’ Red Huntress. At least they got along somewhat these days, her and Phantom at least.

Her voice is harsh, “what the fuck”. Ah so she spotted Phantom. This was gonna be fun and possibly annoying or stupid or a lot of things. She stomps over, glaring bloody murder at Phantom who whistles and glances around like an innocent little angel. Man Danny loved to rile her up sometimes, and she couldn’t even shoot him this time! She grabs Fenton’s baggy sleeve roughly and physically drags him off. Leaving a blinking Phantom, “well at least this time it’s him being pestered and not the ghost with the most”. Kwan laughs.

Fenton blinks at Val, “sup, Val. Why are you dragging me around?”. As if he doesn’t know exactly why. Phantom was here and she wanted to know why, the Red Huntress did talk to Fenton him sometimes, since he made ghost shit and everything. Plus the ‘Fenton’ knowledge he had from Jack and Maddie. Danny’s ninety percent sure she suspects him of knowing exactly who was under the helmet, She drags him all the way over to the food tables before responding to him, “I’ve been here all of ten minutes and all I am hearing about, besides people telling me what their jobs are now and Ali trying to get me to join her pyramid scheme, is that you are apparently dating Phantom. What the actual fresh fuck, Danny”.

Fenton huffs, “let me have my love life, gosh”, smirking, “what? Do you have a problem with gay couples?”; that’s not the issue and he knows it and she knows that he knows it.

She swats him over the head immediately, “he’s a ghost you dumbass”, huffing, “I know you tend to side with ghosts but dating Phantom? Really?”, rubbing her temples, “like yes, if you’re going to have a thing for the dead then Phantom’s acceptable but what are you two doing?”.

Fenton smirks, “what we’re doing is being little shits and cuddle buddies”.

“You know what I mean, you shit”.

Fenton chuckles, “and I couldn’t make this anymore clear, I could described what Phantom’s mouth tastes like if you’d like?”; of course Danny could actually have Fenton do that since Danny knew what his own mouth tasted like.

Val glares, crosses her arms, and looks from Fenton to Phantom, from one Danny to the other… then she does it again. There it was, the recognition. “What the?”.

Lily walks over to grab some food, “oh yeah let me guess, noticed the similarities? Apparently they’re soul mates”, eyeing Fenton, “ghosts am I right?”. Danny can tell instantly that Val doesn’t buy that shit, like at all. Figures, she was a ghost hunter after all… and she knew about Vlad’s sorry half-dead ass. AND she’s seen Elle’s human half which was basically just a female version of Fenton him.

Fenton smirks at Lily, “they’re weird, but exactly my kind of weird”, and fucking winks at her. Lily shaking her head and heading back over to a bunch of the other ex-cheerleader girls.

Val looks to Fenton slowly, “Danny? Are you? Are you him?”.

Fenton finger guns, “with him you mean, ha!”, then dropping his hands and shrugging, ��it shouldn’t have taken you this long, Red. Like my excuse? All the reactions have been to die for”. She smacks him over the head again, expected, she always did love to rough up his sorry ass. “You know Phantom’s not gonna like if you bruise me up too much”.

“I hate you”.

“No you don’t”.

“Fuck you”.

“You wish you could”.

She throws her hands up dramatically, “I can’t with you! Oh my Zone!”, dropping her hands and glaring at Fenton, “you could have just fucking told me, you know”.

Fenton shrugging, stealing up a little rainbow rice crispy square, “eh, it was better off I didn’t. I’m a lot to get involved in and it’s better that people just don’t”, pointing the square at her before taking a bite, “tough shit or not you still die if someone lops your head off”. Sometimes he did want to try and stop her from the whole huntress thing but who was he to tell someone to not do stupid dumb reckless shit? Plus all the ghosts actually liked her, and that shit counted for a lot.

She frowns at him, “that’s a bit depressing you know? Is that why you’re such a loner?”, shaking her head and glancing at a wall, “I guess I’m not really one to talk though, huh?”.

“No shit, Sherlock. We’re both pretty irredeemably fucked, I just have less of a choice about it”.

“You have a choice“.

“Look me in my half dead god king face and say that again”.

She flinches at that, fucking good, he didn’t have a whole lot of tolerance for people telling him he could just walk away. As if everything wouldn’t go to utter shit without his asses involvement. As if people wouldn’t die or wind up experimented on. As if his realm could function and maintain itself without its king. As if there was anything better for him to do other than rot in bed. As if this wasn’t all he was goddamn good for and all he knew how to do anymore. Everything else is gone and there ain’t no getting it back. He’s fucked. Absolutely, completely, and utterly, fucked. And saying otherwise was like pissing on all his fucking suffering and sacrifices. He was needed as Phantom, as a sovereign and protector. He was needed as Fenton, as the interspecies liaison and defender. And that was all he was needed as. Never anything more and never anything less. It wasn’t his choice to make anymore, even if it’s a choice he would make over and over again if it was up to him. Nothing was changing that till either every part of him collapsed or the universe did.

Fenton huffs, “come on, let’s mingle instead of wallowing in our mildly crappy existences”.

She stands firm, making him eye her, “you do like it though, right? I do”.

Even if he didn’t, even if he hated every second of it, he’d still say yes just so she wouldn’t pity him or try to carry more of the load on her very mortal shoulders. He did enjoy it though, so there’s that, meaning it’s not a lie when Fenton says, “duh. I’m a combative mother fucker, even if somehow no one noticed that trait in Fenton”. This time she lets him drag her off with him.

Phantom giving both of them smiles, “have fun catching up, babe?”. Fenton snickering, “of course babe”. Val glares murderously at both hims but doesn’t call him out on his bullshit.

Silver waving at Val, basically killing the conversation Silver’d been having with his duplicate about their greenhouses poppy flowers. It’s was weird someone being so interested in just… growing a bunch of poppy’s. Like fuck, way to show you have a real hunky-dory life. They actually teared up a little at successfully growing an orange one… Sliver speaking up, “you still stuck in Amity?”.

Val nodding easily, “yeah, what can I say, I like the stupid town. I doubt I’ll ever leave, it’s got me for life”.

Yeah… she was probably right about that. She was married to the game less than him but still was all the same. Her it was more that she didn’t want to stop and felt responsible, rather than genuinely not being able to stop.

Phantom putting his hands behind his head, “yeah, her and her dad run a pretty solid tech shop these days, I get my thermoses fixed there since the Fenton’s are still crazy”. Fenton snorting, “tell me about it”. Did Danny actually need to be doing that? Obviously not. But it was a chance to have Phantom talk with Red outside of combat, and to familiarise her with thermoses in case the worst happened.

After all, losing all his human connections is what made Dan and that’s exactly the way things were now. It was bound to happen if he ever lost his protective drive. Protection and combat are his only drives, one without the other is a problem for his mind. So he’d keep his one connection with Val, for as little as that might be worth in the end, and he’ll keep his protective streak going till it burns him to ash.

Val rolls her eyes at the two hims, “helping the town, even that little bit, is worth it”.

“I hear ya, I hear ya”.

“Hey Fenton! Does Jazz still live in Amity?!”.

Fenton blinks, leaning away from his little group going on and stares at Dash, “fucking no?! Why would she?! She literally left the day she turned eighteen how did you not notice that?!?”, scowling, “and no! I’m not calling her for you! We barely talk anymore anyways!”. Which kinda sucked but she got to live her normal human life that she very much enjoyed.

Dash blinks, “damn!”. Ugh.

Silver blinking at Fenton, “oh? It’s ’cause of the Fenton’s isn’t it?”.

Phantom sighs, rubbing his temples, “I took her away personally. The Fenton’s, aware that Danny wasn’t going to, and in their eyes shouldn’t, take over FentonWorks, burned her scholarships and tried to stop her from leaving. I got her out and a few towns over, saw her off and all that”.

Fenton nodding, “which I was very relieved over, that had been Hell a little bit-”. Silver cringes. “-she’s doing well for herself though, has her own therapist practice and all that. Doesn’t want anything to do with Maddie or Jack, same as me”, shrugging, “she also wants nothing to do with ghosts, so I’m kinda an at arms length sibling if you will”.

“Since you’re dating a ghosts and illegally selling ghost tech? Yeah I can get that”.

Fenton nodding, “ditto. And if she did show up back here I’d slap some sense into her and tell her to get lost before she regrets it”; ahh getting maybe a little bit too real there but oh well. Jazz was a Fenton, which meant that Amity was a place she had to stay the hell away from; Jack and Maddie she had to stay the hell away from. Hopefully she never forgets that.

Then Star pops back in, “alright that’s everyone who’s coming!”. Getting a bunch of raised glasses and food stuff in return. A dark-skinned man with dreads coming in behind her, or… rolling in behind her.

That was…

Tucker was in a wheelchair?!?! What happened! Half the damn point was those two not getting fucking hurt! Was there no point? Had it been a hopeless endeavour?

It takes a bit to avoid dissolving Phantom. As it is his ghost selves eyes flare up a little and his ecto-field wiggles concerningly. Val kicks Phantom in the boot, to stabilise him maybe? He doesn’t know and he doesn’t care. He needs to know what happened, how it happened, could he have done something different? Fenton absently muttering, “I’m going to go say hi”. Val giving him a bit of a supportive back pat that he barely notices, she physically blocks Phantom him from following with a whispered, “Tucker’s Danny Fenton’s old friend, not Phantom’s stay put you”.

Sliver nodding, “I guess it’s no surprise you’re an over protective boyfriend”.

Fenton blinking down at Tucker, “Tuck”. And the guy raises an eyebrow, “been a while since I’ve been called that”; making Fenton, and Phantom, wince. Star walks away quickly, easily picking up on the awkward and probably way to private atmosphere.

Fenton blinks again, “you’re in a wheelchair”.

“Yeah I noticed”, Tucker sighing when Danny doesn’t really have a response to that that wasn’t horrifically insensitive. Tucker putting his hands on his lap, “Danny, you kinda lost the right to ask a while ago, but since you’re concerned enough to talk to me properly for the first time in nearly fourteen years, it’s genetic. I have a type of muscular dystrophy. Now can I get past and grab some food or?”.

Again, both Danny’s wince, him realising that the Fenton one was practically blocking Tucker from getting his… wheelchair past. Fenton stepping to the side with a neck rub, “sorry about that”.

“Whatever, man”.

Danny just kind of stares as the man goes, it hurt a little. The dismissal. But he expected it and it was okay. At least… at least it was nothing he could have done anything about. If anything this means that Danny was right to push him away. Being involved with ghosts would have gotten him killed probably. But… getting diagnosed and eventually having to use mobility aids had probably been crushing to him… and Danny hadn’t been there to support him. Any ounce of support he tried to give now would just seem hollow and like pity. Former friend was the right label for them and he should just let the man go, shouldn’t follow after.

He does of course. Fenton him does. Because the wheelchair and subsequent mild protective freakout has thrown him off kilter. He can tell the man’s glaring at the food table, Fenton him can see it in the reflection of some of the glasses. “Danny I’m really not interested in ‘catching up’ with you”.

Fenton stares a little before Danny can remember himself and that humans find staring creepy. Shaking his head, “right yeah, that makes sense”. Maybe he’d have better luck and less hostility with Phantom him? “Can I ask what you do at least? Then I’ll get out of your hair. You don’t have to ask me shit, or you can, it’s whatever”.

Tucker actually smacks a fist on the table, “I know the only damn reason you’re even trying is because I’m disabled now, so fuck off”.

Shit. Okay. That wasn’t how he was trying to be interpreted. “Tuck-”.

“Don’t”.

Fenton snarls, properly snarling, startling his former friend, “just because we stopped being friends doesn’t mean I stopped giving a damn. But fine, fuck it, whatever”, and basically stomps off. He doesn’t turn around when Tucker mutters a possibly regretful, “shit”. If the man wants to be an ass then fine, let him be an ass by himself. It’s better Danny doesn’t care anyways, it’s better they end on bad terms. Fuck it and fuck him.

Val’s kicking Phantom him again, since Phantom had snarled too. Shit whatever. Fuck it if he’s freaking anyone out, they’re all assholes anyways. Val eyeing the ticked of Fenton, “your mood is rubbing off on someone”.

“I’m fully fucking aware, Val”.

She smacks him over the head, “well pull your shit together, you can’t expect him to want to be friendly with you after all this time”.

“Yeah well I didn’t expect to basically get told to go fuck myself either, jackass”.

Both Val and Silver frowning, Silver shaking their head, “okay yeah that’s a little rude, but he might be going through some stuff, you don’t know. You staring at the chair probably didn’t help”.

“My mind goes to worst case scenarios so excuse me if the thought of someone I used to be extremely close with getting into some kind of horrible accident was upsetting”.

Phantom huffing and crossing his arms, “being dead or surrounded by the dead tends to do that”. Now he wishes Tucker hadn’t shown up at all. He’s going to be pissed off about this for days, fucking asshole.

Val sighs, “okay you’re not wrong on that, I thought the same. At least I didn’t freaking ask though, Danny. I thought you were just going to say hi, not be an insensitive jerk”.

Fenton scowls at her, sticking his arms out, “I didn’t fucking ask, he just assumed I wanted to, which yeah was right”, and grumbles a little incoherently before taking some breaths to avoid snarling at anyone else especially not the only human connection he still had. Ugh.

Val shakes her head at him, “okay I guess you can get to be annoyed, not mad, annoyed. Star’s civil with me even though we had our falling out”, crossing her arms, “Paulina not so much”.

Fenton grumbling, “if Sam had shown up I’d expect her to slap me at this point. Fucking zone”.

Star hums, having apparently made her way over after overhearing her name, “yeah she replied in the discord chat that she wouldn’t deign to show up to rejoin a shitty town full of people that were morally horrific”.

“Ancients that’s messed up, what the Zone Sam”. Fenton blinks and shakes his head, what the hell happened with her? He doesn’t want to know. Was she always that egocentric and holier than thou? If so it was probably better for everyone she had no say in him and what he does. Did childhood him just suck at picking friends? “Wait. There’s a discord?”.

Star puts a hand on her hip and cocks an eyebrow, “yup. All anyone could find on you was an address so we couldn’t exactly give you a code in”.

Val shaking her head and forcing a little laugh, eyeing Fenton, “if I had known no one had your number I would have sent it. I figured you just had no interest in messaging anyone, like me”, she waves a hand dismissively, “I confirmed I was showing up and dipped”.

Fucking great. Love it.

Danny notices Tucker pushing himself over to talk to Jesse. Danny chooses to ignore that. If he sends Phantom over he might just accidentally start a brawl and that was a very bad idea.

Star shakes her head, “would it kill either of you to be a bit more sociable?”.

Fenton immediately responding with, “yes”. Phantom with, “already did”. And Val with, “probably”. Making Star sigh and Silver laugh; Silver walking off right after, Danny pretending not to notice them point aggressively at Tucker. Ugh.

“Phantom! Come meet my husband! He’s heard stories about you and got curious!”. Phantom glancing to the side at Ashely then to Fenton with a quirked eyebrow.

Fenton waving him off, “go, I’ll be fine, you stupid celebrity”. Danny makes a point to have Phantom give Fenton a quick peck on the cheek, making Fenton blush a little, before running off. Val’s barely restrained look of horror is so worth it and definitely improves his mood.

Star shakes her head, “well at least it looks like you’re in a better mood now, this is supposed to be fun”.

“Then why are all the drinks liquor free?”.

“Because Todd has a liquor problem and I know you know it”.

Okay yeah that wasn’t wrong. All the local bartenders knew him by first and last name, zone some knew the middle one too. Sure they also knew Danny by first and both lasts but that was for an entirely different reason… he did also drink though so like it was a toss up. Then she glances to the side, winces slightly, and jambs a thumb over her shoulder, “anyway’s I’m going to check on everyone else. See if more people are better off not being in the same room”. Ouch. True but she didn’t need to say it. Star pointing at Val, “you’re coming whether you like it or not, you can talk to Danny whenever you want”. Val grumbles but doesn’t put up a fight.

Fenton shaking his head and laughing a little to himself, now what should he do? He frankly didn’t feel like dealing with anyone now, especially not all these chuckle fucks. He’s half tempted to just wander into the bathroom and stare at the mirror for twenty minutes self actualising or whatever. Grimacing, yeah he’s gonna do that, plus all this ecto free food was grating on his stomachs nerves.

He could eat normal foods, it’s just the ecto made it taste better and easier on his system to digest. Didn’t help that he grew up eating contaminated shit, thanks Maddie and Jack, and basically only ate contaminated shit after the whole half dying thing; it was an easy thing to do in Amity after all since everything was contaminated. But this was Elmerton and the food was definitely from outside the city, probably to specifically ensure it was ecto free. Yuck.

So Fenton meanders his way over to the gym bathroom/locker room, stuffing a hand in his pocket as he goes. Him popping into the sink and mirror area, kicking the door closed-ish and pulling out an ectoplasm vial at the same time, tossing it back without much hesitation. He didn’t hear anyone else in here and plus he also didn’t super care, which fine was partly because his attention was split into two different places and almost no one would really genuinely question him outside of Val obviously.

Granted Val would know exactly what he was doing and why.

“Did you seriously think I’d been hurt bad?”.

“Fuck!”, Fenton jumps, tossing the vial in the air, (Phantom jerking in his conversation about welding of all things) at the frankly very unexpected sound of Tucker’s voice. It took some doing to actually startle him, but guesses he was in his own head enough that someone was able to pull it off. Didn’t help that he just came from a room full of people whose scents he doesn’t recognise anymore. It bothered him a little. Fenton turning away from the mirror and looking down at Tucker, “uh?”. And then the fucking ecto vial clinks on to the ground and rolls across it in that loud way glass tends to do. Well fuck him, this shit is entirely his fault right oh wow this is instantly awkward.

Tucker stares down at the vial on the ground before looking back up at Fenton, “new question, what was that”.

See that did not sound like a question. Okay, self, shit, what to say? If this was anyone else, other than Val, he’d just say it was a weird Amity energy drink and he was tired and to piss off. Zone he’s tempted to say that crap anyways, but Tucker had sounded… apologetic, even if he’d startled Danny. He can’t not lie though. Well… technically, if he mentally twisted things around enough, calling ecto an addiction for him wasn’t wrong per say. He legit couldn’t exist without ecto, his system was dependent on it, so like, he could go with that? And now Tucker’s glaring at him like he’s thinking about ramming into Danny. Fenton blinking before shrugging awkwardly, “addiction’s compulsory, or whatever. And yes?”. Crap this was a really stupid plan of action. Way more stupid than dating himself, Ancients.

Tucker blinks, “addiction?”, shaking his head, “I don’t even care about the first question now”, frowning, “well I do, you jerk, but less”.

That’s fair, Danny thinks. Fenton shrugs, “that accident fucked me up, okay? Kinda needed ectoplasm ever since. Which sure, wasn’t exactly something I wanted to share with anyone. And maybe I didn’t deal with that well, but I think I dealt with that right. And I guess that’s all that matters”. Okay cool, so this is how he’s going to explain ditching them as friends, great. Fuck Danny’s so goddamn stupid. ‘Addiction’ was not on his bingo card of how to explain how weird he was to people… he really should update that stupid card.

Tucker’s glaring again like Danny’s done something wrong, except Danny doesn’t know why Fenton him is getting glared at this time. “Are you lying to me?”.

Fenton glaring back before sticking out his tongue, which was coated in faintly glowing green of course. Pulling his tongue back in, “do you know anything else that looks like that besides ecto? ‘Cause I sure don’t”; that had a bit more bite than he meant it to but oh well, he’s still kinda ticked off with this man so…

“And it doesn’t get you high?”.

Okay see now Danny’s getting actually ticked again. Fucking damn it. “No. Now if you’re going to just ride my ass then let me out so I can go somewhere that isn’t here”.

Tucker doesn’t move, in fact he locks his damn wheels, “no. Because that last conversation made me feel like an asshole and I refuse to feel like an asshole over you deciding to isolate yourself”, gesturing at the vial that’s still on the ground, “especially if all of it was over some stupid ectoplasm issue, you jack ass”.

“So what I’m hearing is you’re just being selfish”.

“So what if I am, I think I’ve earned that from you”.

Danny makes Fenton him relax over that, because if anything letting people take their issues out on him was something he was good for. “Ugh I guess that’s okay then”.

Now Tucker’s glaring again, “what”.

For fucks sake. “Dude, you’ve known me for years, since when did I ever put myself first? If you want to use me as a punching bag to unload your issues on, go right ahead”, snorting, “cause yeah, I’m well fucking aware it’s been earned. If you were Dash I’d tell you to piss off again”.

Tucker sticks his arms out, basically smacking the door, “so you’ll tell me to ‘piss off’ over not wanting to talk to you but won’t over me wanting to berate you?! Seriously?!”.

“Yes”. Fuck that was weird wasn’t it? Do normal human people do that? Or was he coming off as a massive hypocrite? Or as a masochist maybe?

Tucker pinches the bridge of his nose, still doesn’t unlock his chair though, “damn it, you have a bunch of mental issues now, don’t you”.

“Rude”.

“Yeah well now I just feel like more of an asshole, so there”.

They stare at each other for a beat, Danny’s trying really hard to mostly ignore Phantom having to play nice with Dale and his loose tongue again, apparently the guy really liked bluey. Fuck when was the last time Danny got really genuinely into any tv show? Had he even watched one since he dropped out? Crap probably not. If he had down time he was usually laying on the floor staring at the ceiling with a music playlist running, or having a quick drink with Val, or trying to study ghost history, or replaying an old video game he’s beaten hundreds of times just to feel young and carefree again.

Wow that had to be unhealthy. Not that he really cared about that. Blinking at Tucker, “so… what do you do for work”.

“I’m not telling you”.

“Fuck you too then I guess”.

Tucker puts his face in a hand and sighs very deeply with a muttered, “I was right, I really should not have come”, before lifting his head up and glaring up at Danny with goddamn pity in his eyes, “look, okay, I am sorry about brushing you off if you were genuinely worried about me having been badly injured and I guess I’m sorry you have this addiction issue, but you brought it on yourself. Me and Sam could have helped, you ass”.

“Tuck-”, crap he’s back to calling him ‘Tuck’ goddamn it, “-my head was a fucking mess after that shit, I have literally no memory from the three months after that crap. Just a boat load of pain cutting straight to sitting up in bed violently vomiting up ectoplasm. Excuse me for making some jack ass choices but again, I stand by those choices”, running a hand through his hair and leaning his ass back against the sink, “I thought that shit was gonna end with me dead, sooner rather than later, and I didn’t want to take you guys down with me. So I had to choose between the life I had with you guys and the moral thing to do. Kinda an obvious choice there, to me”. Honestly? Why was he explaining this shit now? Was it because his life was somehow less chaotic now? Or because he was an adult ghost and fully grown into what and who he was? Loneliness perhaps? Or did he just not want Tucker to actually hate him?

Tucker stares at him before wheezing, “Christ I wish you had just told at least me that”, massaging his temples and using the chairs arms to rest his elbows on, “if I remember right, which I might not, you basically didn’t talk and just stared blankly, it was creepy but your parents assured everyone you wouldn’t have any ‘long term’ issues. That you were just recovering and in shock. Not that dumbass fourteen year olds knew shit about shock-”.

Seriously? Seriously! What the Hell! Fenton blurting out, “what the zone is wrong with them! in what world would getting electrocuted by literally billions of volts not have a lasting effect?!”.

“-me and Sam basically carried you everywhere and babied you and then you suddenly flipped on us and avoided us like the plagu- wait what”.

Tucker looks horrified, crap that was not Danny’s goal. Oh well, he’s in it now. Fenton blinking, “Jack and Maddie sucking is what”.

“Dude”.

Fenton swallowing and rubbing his neck, “you guys were taking care of me?”. Okay so maybe Danny had been more of a jerk to them than he realised but still. Tucker glares so Danny bites the bullet and has Fenton respond properly, Tucker was an adult now not some teen who’d do stupid shit like follow Danny Phantom’s sorry ass into combat, “it was something like four billion volts, it was a miracle I wasn’t instantly vaporised into ash. As it was apparently Jazz came home to them attempting to bury what they thought was my dead body in the back yard, apparently I woke up during the argument and crawled out and ran into trees for three days”.

“They told us you were missing because you were in another cities hospital! They tried to bury you?!?”. Somehow Jack and Maddie just keep getting worse. Tucker wheezes again, “well regardless of you becoming an asshole, I’m glad you didn’t die, holy shit”, staring at Danny, “is that why you were so weird about my wheelchair? You thought something like that had happened to me?”. He takes Fenton’s wince as a yes. “Ugh fine you’re forgiven for that then, I can’t hold what’s probably severe trauma and ptsd against someone”, pointing at Danny, “you were still a jerk then and now though. And you basically shoving me away was awful and basically wrecked me mentally for a long time”.

Yeah Danny knew neither Sam nor Tucker took him pushing them away well, but being upset or depressed or confused or worried was better than getting caught in an undead fist fight or losing a limb or getting contaminated by him which he had thought back then would have been extremely dangerous. “I thought it was for the best, okay? And I didn’t mean to hurt you when I was basically hurting myself”.

“How the hell was push me away from my best friend ‘for the best’?!?”.

“Because I was all fucked up and I didn’t want my shit fucking you up”. That was part of it, at first anyways. Then it quickly became more of him having to be the hero and get into fights and not wanting anyone getting caught in the crossfires and waiting them to keep the ability to live normal fucking lives unlike him.

Tucker stares at him like he actually somehow gets it, huh, Danny didn’t see that one coming. “So you thought you’d get us sick? Or something? Just by being around us? Okay I know you’ve always been a bit of a dumbass but goddamn it, Danny”.

“I don’t know what the hell is happening in there but I’m taking a piss in the ladies room! what in the!”.

Both Fenton and Tuck (and Phantom for that matter) jerk a little from whoever shouted from outside the bathroom/locker room. Fenton cringing his face up, “right, this is a public space”.

Tucker sighing, “maybe not the best place for this crap conversation”, unlocking his wheels and roll backwards out of the little sink and mirror area doorway, “I’m still mad at you though”.

“That’s fair. I’m not looking to rekindle friendship or whatever”. Danny uses the man’s distraction to have Fenton telekinetically move the vial back into his hand and pocket.

“Seriously. Jerk”.

Fenton shrugs as he moves out of the little doorway, “I only really hang out with ghosts now and I actually am unsafe to be around too much if whoever doesn’t have a tolerance or protective gear, the ecto-contamination and shit”.

“That’s… pretty shitty actually”.

Fenton giving back a snide, “gee thanks”.

“You still shouldn’t have pushed us away. But I guess you still want to do that, so you do you I guess. Its not like I actually know you, or you me, anymore”.

“Yup”. Tucker bashes him in the back of the legs with the chair for that, “hey!”. Danny making Fenton sigh at the glare… and at Dash attempting to drill Phantom about football like that mattered anymore. Phantom couldn’t be sighing at Dash after all, images to maintain and all. “Look, Tucker, you got pissy over me staring at your wheelchair, that tells me your life’s doing pretty alright actually. If I was in a wheelchair and someone was staring I’d assume they were trying figure out how to use it to kill me. I sell weapons illegally and am dating a death god king, I’m not really shit you wanna be involved in”.

“What about Valerie?”, Tucker making a bit of a face, “that soul mate ghost thing I’ve been hearing is real?”.

Danny is absolutely about to throw Val under the bus, servers her right for still hanging around his half dead ass. “She… is a coworker let’s say, a not legal one”, not technically a lie, the Red Huntress wasn’t legally allowed to do what she did, it was just that no one could actually stop her. Thank fuck for that. Fenton huffing, “and we mostly only talk over drinks or if we run into each other during ghost attacks”. Then smirking, “and oh yeah me and Phantom are fucking match made in hell”. His own personal hell of protective desire and pain.

“You know what, you’re right. You’re an asshole, a criminal, and a necrophiliac; I’m out. I almost want to try but you stopped being worth it years ago. Still glad you’re not dead though”.

On one hand Danny wants to smack the guy, on the other hand Danny’s getting exactly what he wanted; and ain’t that just a terrible thing?

“How’d you find out you needed ectoplasm?”.

Oh Ancients, well… nothing was weirder than the truth with that one and fuck it at this point. “First time I ran into a whisp ghost I, kinda, couldn’t, exactly, stop myself from eating it”.

“You… ate a ghost?”.

“It was a really bad day and I’d rather you keep that in confidence”. Man he legit wants to get out of this damn bathroom/locker room now. Ugh. He starts walking to the door.

Tucker makes a gagging sound, muttering, “no one would even believe me anyway. I’m starting to think he did actually do me a favour as kids and that kinda pisses me off a little. I’ve spent too long being mad at that shit ass for me to feel good about that shit”.

Danny making Fenton pause at the door, one hand on it, “dude, I have freaky good hearing, go see your therapist and I hope you have one. You’re not the lost cause in this bathroom”, and then pushes his way out, leaving his old friend and the friendship more firmly behind.

He absolutely has Phantom ‘rescue’ Fenton immediately, throwing an arm around Fenton’s neck and ruffling his hair with the other hand, “I have escaped Dash and him ‘regaling me’ with his glory days”.

Danny makes Fenton sigh to seem tired, “that’s…”, brightening up, “thats good. He really did peek in Highschool, just like he said he would”. A self fulfilling prophecy, Danny pretty much did the exact same. The biggest jock and the biggest loser both fucking themselves up in the end; how ironic.

Danny makes Fenton sigh to seem tired, “that’s…”, brightening up, “that’s good. He really did peek in Highschool, just like he said he would”. A self fulfilling prophecy, Danny pretty much did the exact same. The biggest jock and the biggest loser both fucking themselves up in the end.

Then Val goes and actually rescues his ass, stomping over, “let’s bounce. I don’t want to be here or around these people anymore, and I want to get shitfaced until I start putting holes in walls or pass out on your crappy apartment floor”.

Fenton quirks an eyebrow, “you have literally never been over? How do you know it’s shitty?”.

“Because it’s your apartment”.

“Fuck you”.

Phantom quirking an eyebrow at her and tilting his head, “and who pissed you off?”.

Val grimaces, “Paulina, I swear she needs to get stabbed a couple times”.

Phantom laughing while Fenton gestures at Val with both of his hands, “no. Bad. If you start stabbing little miss pretty puddle I’ll get stuck having to clean up the blood before the cops show up-”. He can feel Tucker’s concerned eyes on him as the man wheels out of the bathroom/locker room. “-and I really don’t feel like being on crime scene clean up duty”.

Phantom perking up, “eh I could just phase it through the ground”.

“Don’t encourage her murderous desire”.

Val grins, though clearly still thinking this is super weird, “no, let him speak, he makes good points”.

“His only point is letting you make a point with a knife point”. She scowls at Fenton’s joke immediately, nice, at least that makes him feel legitimately a bit better. Either way Danny is content to leave this place before shit goes anymore south, and he has frankly had enough of humans and their weirdly boring plain interests. Looking at the crowd, it actually looked like some others had left. Todd, no surprise there. Charlie that he doesn’t think he ever even talked to as Fenton, he’s not sure if they talked in high school either though. Two of the jocks also looked to have bounced, Dash was still her of course and Scott didn’t look like he actually wanted to be talking to him. Ha. Brittany doesn’t look to be around either, meaning Sarah’s probably gone too if she was ever even here.

And then.

Of fucking course.

His ghost sense goes off.

Val’s reaction is instant, her folding out a blaster, the second she notices both Danny’s straightening up, stiff, and glancing around. Danny making both hims relax with annoyed sighs when he realizes who it is or one of the whos whatever. Phantom waving Val off, “it’s an eyeball, don’t”. The woman throws her hands up a bit, clearly annoyed that it was one of the ghosts that Danny was pretty strict on her not fighting.

Danny making Fenton scowl deeply, “oh fucking goddamn it, not those assholes”. Phantom rolling his green eyes fondly before stepping forward some and cupping his hands around his mouth, Danny should at least warn these people, “hey! Non-hostile incoming! They’re probably just showing to annoy me!”.

The reactions is immediate. Guess spending multiple teenage years in a town constantly plagued by ghost attacks tends to stick with you. Everyone pulling away from the walls, and anything box-shaped, and sticking to groups while glancing around in mild panic. The Observant comes up through the floor, jerk, in all their eye-ball shaped ugly cloak wearing green-skinned annoyance. “Phantom-”. Oh Danny can tell they’re here to lecture him or chastise him or something equally annoying and pointless. Nope. He’s not putting up with this.

Fenton smacking Phantom, “make me a suction dart gun construct”. Danny having Phantom do that without hesitation, even if it was a bit harder to make ecto-energy constructs outside of Amity or the Ghost Zone. Phantom passing over the sorta weapon, it has a pump action shotgun reload for comedic effect. Fenton pumping it immediately and shooting the Observant in the head/eye, “not today, eyeball asshole”.

“Phantom-”.

Oh how chastising, Fenton shots him again, “no”. The suction cups are actually sticking, awesome. But he’s got no interest in actually letting the eyeball actually say anything, so Fenton stalks over, putting a finger in the ghosts face, “fuck off, ‘Phantom’ isn’t your goddamn servant”. The Observant doesn’t look remotely chastised which frankly Danny’s a little goddamn ticked off about. These guys were constantly riding his ass and they act like they had some sort of high ground on him which they did not. So Danny has Fenton kick the ghost in the chest and basically jump on their chest, pointing the ‘gun’ in its eyeball/face and shooting it enough to cover its whole iris; its point blank enough to actually injury the ghost. The Observants were always more powerful as a mass than alone.

“Are you done?!”.

Fenton smirking, “no”, and smacking the ghost on the top of their head with the butt of the ‘gun’. Lowing the ‘weapon’ some, sighing tiredly, “now if this isn’t something actually important, I’m going to rip off all of your limbs”. And Danny means that, he will, he’s had it up to here with these guys.

The Observant, seeming to get this, just fucking disappears with a, “you need to be bound”; like he wasn’t aware they hated how much power he had.

“Fuck you. You exist in my favour”, Fenton hurling the ‘gun’ construct at the ground, it bouncing up a bit before dissolving into goo. Stupid jackasses.

“Geez Fenton where was that in high school, what the hell!”.

Both Danny’s jerking, Fenton looking back to Steven, “do you know how many ghosts annoy me because of that asshole?”, gesturing a thumb at Phantom who glances around innocently. Fenton huffing, “and yeah maybe I enjoy annoying the ones that annoy him, sue me”.

What makes it so clear that basically all these people have nothing to do with Amity any more is how all of them look on edge, nervous, unsettled, scared. They don’t ‘bounce back’ instantly and more than a couple eye Phantom nervously like they had just now remembered how arguably dangerous he could be. That Phantom was a ghost and could very well kill everyone in this room without much effort. As if Danny ever would do such a thing, he was a protector and if they wanted to forget that then screw them. Amity always was the weird place where humans and ghosts could actually remotely get along, even that was a crap shoot, humans would always be unsettled by ghosts and trying for genuine coexistence was fucking pointless. These people simply being away from ghosts for a few years and yet acting put off by one that was less human simply showing up was almost insulting to all his effort. Whatever, what did he care if most of humanity was too damn weak to handle not being the top of the food chain. Making Fenton scoff at everyone’s stares, “guess I should get gone, huh?”, and nods his head at Phantom.

Phantom stretching out and floating up to sort of lay in the air on his back, finger gunning at Val, “coming?”, as he moves to hover around Fenton’s head, ruffling Fenton’s hair fondly.

Jason blinking, “you know, I almost felt like I missed Highschool, thanks for reminding me why I absolutely do not”, and wheezes. While Star waves the two Danny’s off, “yeah should have guessed a ghost that wasn’t invited might follow Phantom”.

Phantom chuckling, “what can I say, I’m very attractive”. Making Fenton snort and blush, “shut up, you stupid ghost”. And making Phantom snicker meanly at Fenton.

Kwan shouting, “you better have a cute wedding!”.

Val rolling her eyes at the pair, pocketing her gun, and walking towards them while waving a hand over her shoulder, “bye. This was nice though”, muttering to herself barely loud enough for even Danny to hear, “regardless of certain people”.

Fenton rolling his eyes and waving at everyone, “I’d say you can easily visit me but I made myself hard to find for a damn reason and I vaguely hate most of your guts, peace bitches”. Phantom facepalming, watching Val and Fenton walk towards the door for a beat before looking to the people, him still floating up in the air, “everyone’s free to give me a visit of course, even though the fact that no one had before makes it kinda clear no one will, no hard feelings about that by the by. Besides, when you die we’ll met again”.

Star sighs at him, “that’s needlessly ominous, Phantom”. Phantom shrugging before floating off, “I’m dead, I don’t know what you expect. I can tell that none of you are going to die soon, so there’s that”, and giving them a thumbs up, absolutely ignoring how that doesn’t seem to actually make anyone feel better. It’s not Danny’s problem if ‘normal’ people aren’t comforted with ominous messages about the not so untimely demise, he thinks it would be a good thing knowing you’re not gonna die soon. Like really. He personally would have loved a heads up that he was gonna half die when that shit happened, a little count down or something would have been nice. A little count down to obliterating everything he used to be and wanted to be.

You know.

For the dramatics.

Danny absorbs his duplicate as soon as he’s outside of easy viewing range of the building, Val quirking an eyebrow at him, “I’m guessing you didn’t drive here?”.

“No? Why would I do that? And neither did you”.

She snorts at him, summoning out her board, “well hop on, I’m still down for drinks so”.

Danny eyes the board, “naw I probably should pass”. Bonding wasn’t really a good idea anyways.

She rolls her eyes, “come on, don’t be a stranger”.

“Being a stranger is kinda the point”. He has every intention of just going invisible and flying off, but she grabs his arm and yanks him onto the board before he can follow through on that thought, her muttering about him being a dumbass the whole time. Danny eyeing her, hands in his pockets and just sitting on the board, stupid stubborn ghost hunters.

Though… looking down, it was kinda nice to watch the city sights this leisurely. It’s filled with spots of damage and things being repaired even here in Elmerton still. It was impossible for everything to stay contained in one simple city after all, sometimes Danny debating expanding is human lair a bit more, just to keep more of an eye on more of it. Perhaps that was a speck of greed or just his overprotective nature.

Really it wouldn’t take much, honestly he had the power and ability to take over the entire planet if he so chose. And really, ghosts did crop up everywhere, and further ecto-contaminated cities and towns would just make more places possible to be common ground of sorts.

It wasn’t a bad idea…

Just not a good or human one either. He had to play human games to thrive and be accepted in the human world, even if those games were sometimes stupid and annoying and isolating. Hmmm… maybe he should get drinks with Val, she was at least slightly better with normal human things than him.

Looking down, there’s some patches of green growing in ash. Life from death, strength from destruction. Kinda like him.

She lands them on the ground, Danny standing easily as her board folds up becoming nanobots under and through her veins; an altered state of being similar and not to himself. Her making ‘come on’ gestures at him before heading in to one of the more beat down bars that don’t ask questions and assumes every patron is involved in something shady or another.

And Danny follows. Maybe he was a little too much of a loner.

End.

Prompts: Pretending to be someone's boyfriend for a night was not as high on Danny's list of crazy-ideas-he-should've-said-no-to as, say, agreeing to become the King of all ghosts, but it was definitely up there. Ten years since Danny graduated high school, and fourteen years since his accident. The former A-listers are organizing a high school reunion, and somehow both Danny AND Phantom got an invite… Seriously, how are these things still happening to him? Parents take apart Danny’s telescope for a new invention. Being dead somewhat drastically shuffles around your priorities. It's been a long time since Danny was able to remember what a human would feel to be important. Tucker Foley's terrible, awful, very bad day. No one knows au identity reveal

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phantomphangphucker · 8 days

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Phic Phight - Dal′ton-izm

@tourettesdog

Danny should not be trusted with self care and clean up duty, especially if he couldn’t tell the goddamn difference between ectoplasm and blood.

Danny growls down into his arm, struggling a little to keep all the skin more or less together. Damn, he hated getting nastier injuries, it was always a freaking pain... literally and metaphorically. He’s busy using the other arm to fire off ecto-blasts and make shields to block the return fire. Stupid Skulker and his stupid homing missiles. Stupid ghosts destroying any sense of a normal fucking sleeping schedule. Ugh.

“I will wear you down eventually! And when I do! Then you’re mine!”.

Could he at least get some new lines? Danny snapping back, “tha oni ‘ay ya be owl ta cah eee ‘ine’ is ‘hen Ine ackin’ as a ‘and ‘ine fah ya!”. That wasn’t his best line and it was probably impossible to understand him, but his arm is in his mouth, so he’s kinda focused on things other than puns right now.

Skulker sends off another rocket at him, unsurprising. What is at least slightly surprising is that right when Danny puts up another shield Skulker gets shot by what’s borderline a freaking taser. Danny glancing down at a smirking Tuck peeking out around a corner and congratulating himself. Danny making quick work of capturing the ghost after that and landing on the ground with his arm still in his mouth. Sam popping out in a second and pointing at the ground aggressively.

“You better sit down or so help me”.

Man they were both always so aggressive about making sure he got patched up as quickly and cleanly as possible. It was both touching and annoying, sometimes he still had ghosts to chase! Or he just wanted to go to bed instead of dealing with being bandaged up or stitched or wiped down. Granted the stitching was usually a little more necessary, like it definitely was right now.

So he floats himself down to the ground, back against a wall and opening his mouth to let Sam inspect it and get to work doing patch up.

“Zone Danny, way to really fuck up your arm”.

Danny pouting, “hey blame Skulker, not me. I actually tried to protect myself pretty well I think, it’s not my fault he managed to spear a goddamn grappling hook through my arm”. The guy nearly took his arm off entirely with that shit, dumb jerk. Though that was probably part of the point since the dude wanted trophies and shit, he could absolutely see Skulker freaking mounting his arm on a wall or something.

Sam sighs, wiping his arm down overly thoroughly, “I know I know, it’s just a pain to clean up this level of damage and I’m allowed to worry about your dumbass; also, nice fang marks”.

“Worrying about my ass is fair, sitting on this hard ground is gonna make it go numb”. She smacks him over the head for that one before getting to work on the stitching.

Tuck’s off spraying some of the ecto mess on a wall, that dissolve crap Danny’s folks made works like a freaking charm, like well enough that he’d be legit worried they’re could get away with murder. All three going still for a second at the sound of a hover board, Danny turning him and Sam invisible while Tuck goes and crawls himself under a dumpster. Val/Red doesn’t do more than fly by at least, good. Danny grumbling quietly, “you know, if we didn’t stick around alleyways for cleaned up time, we wouldn’t have to worry about that so much”.

Tuck crawling himself out, whisper hissing, “dude, we can’t leave your mess everywhere. The other ghosts are one thing, you’re different”. Sam only huffing and working a little more quickly on her stitch work, it looked like she was nearly done at least and fuck is he glad his pain tolerance could solidly kick ass these days.

Danny whisper hissing back, “I don’t see how? Even if my parents, so called ghost experts, stumbled upon this, how would they even tell my stuff from any persons or ghosts stuff? My folks aren’t nearly thorough enough to take literally millions of samples”.

Sam pausing a little, “don’t be stupid”.

“I’m not being stupid. Like yes I’m sure stumbling across massive messes and stuff would be very upsetting for the towns folk but people have gotten used to weirder. I mean, I’ve overshadowed Jason, like, eight times now and the guy isn’t even surprised anymore”.

Tuck, scrubbing the edge of a newspaper stand, chuckles, “okay yeah that guy has terrible luck with you, didn’t you also accidentally set his water heater on fire?”, shaking his head and looking underneath the newspaper stand, “and it’s less about people freaking out and more about them wondering why there’s freaking human blood mixed in with the ecto”.

Okay now Danny just goddamn confused. Glancing around at what little remained of the mess as well as looking his -slightly messy again- arm over without moving it, “the heck you talking about? Everything’s glowing, why would anyone think any of this was human”.

“Okay sure, yeah, your human blood glows too but it’s clearly human blood, man”.

“No? It’s not?”. Literally the only difference between ghost ectoplasm and human blood was wether or not it glowed. If his human blood glowed then how would literally anyone know its wasn’t ectoplasm unless they went around sampling literally every drop they could find. Even then if some traces of human blood showed up in an ecto sample it could just be written off as freaking transfer or whatever.

Sam looks up at him like he’s stupid, while grabbing out the wrapping, her pausing at Danny pretty clearly looking goddamn legit confused. “Danny... are you seriously saying you can’t see a difference between your ‘mess’ and everything else?”; she sounds actually worried about him.

Well that was concerning, is he not seeing something they are? Because of the half dead thing? Sure, obviously goddamn dying changed his body, like duh, but he’d like to think he didn’t really lose anything a fully living human had. Or maybe it was because of the life long ecto-contamination? Danny shaking his head results in Tuck rubbing towels in some of the mess in different spots and holding it up at him with a head tilt.

Okay Danny’s going to guess that the towels, or the mess that’s on them anyways, look different to the guy. Still don’t to Danny... “if you’re trying to ask me if I think those towels look different from each other or something, they don’t”, tilting his own head, “how the heck do they look different to you?”.

Tuck drops his arms and the towels right on the ground, fully gapping at him, “dude”.

“Okay now you’re starting to worry me. They’ve both got a glowing mess on them so obviously ecto, the glow is literally the only difference between ecto and blood”.

Sam buries her head in her hands and actually starts laughing, “oh- oh my zone- no, Danny. Oh- ha!”.

“Sam stop laughing, damn it, you’re gonna make me laugh and this should be serious”, Tuck snickers a little anyways before clearing his throat, “Danny, man, Zone, how can you not tell they’re two completely different colours”.

Danny blinking owlishly, “what”. Tuck just losing it at that, sitting on his ankles and laughing into his hands. Wait a minute, Danny blurting out, “are you saying I’m fucking colourblind and just didn’t goddamn notice?!!?”. How???

Tuck wheezes a little more while Sam struggles to contain herself and actually clamp Danny’s wrapping in place. Tuck walking over while fiddling on his pda, shoving it in his face, “okay okay, we, ha, should definitely make sure this isn’t a half-dead thing”, wiggling the pda. “So what numbers in the circle?”.

Danny blinks at the screen. Oh damn it, screw him. There’s no damn number at all, he is so totally colour blind. Groaning and rubbing the hand that isn’t attached to an injured arm down his face, “ugh”.

“Well?”.

Danny sighing, “it’s just a circle, dude. Fuck my half life”. Rubbing his face some more as both of them snicker at him mockingly but also clearly in pure goddamn surprise. Well, at least it wasn’t a dead thing. Yay? Dropping his hand and then using it to gesture at the somewhat still there mess, “so all of this doesn’t look all the same?”.

Tuck laughs, shaking his head and then snorting, “no, man. It’s mostly ectoplasm, which is green by the way. But there’s also splatters and swirls of your human blood, which is red”, he chuckles again, “those two colours are about as different as yellow and black”.

Danny winces, okay so it was noticeable. Shit. Sam patting his shoulder, “you’re patched and at least now I know why you suck at cleaning and were always so lax about it. You would be so screwed without us”.

Okay that Danny can’t help laughing at himself, “oh yeah! my blood and ecto mix would have gotten found out in a month!”.

“Try three days, you combative little shit”.

Danny absolutely sticks his tongue out at Sam for that, but watching his two friends get up and start cleaning the area again; occasionally shaking their heads in disbelief or snickering some more. At least they usually didn’t try and make him help since he was usually supposed to be spending his time healing aka not moving around a ton. Tuck actually left him his precious pda so Danny fiddles with it looking up random colourblindness tests.

…

He doesn’t seem to have any other issues but he fails every red/green one horrifically. Even the ‘super easy’ ones. The universe must really goddamn hate him to make him extremely colourblind but literally only to basically his own blood/ecto. Stupid body, stupid eyes. Wait, him blurting out, “holy shit does this mean that Vlad doesn’t have the same eye colour as me?!?”.

Both of them burst out laughing and fall over each other, smacking each other and random things. Tuck wheezing, “NO!”. Sam snickering, “oh that is too good! I mean it’s sad but ho!”.

Danny sticking his arms out to the side, pda cradled in his lap, “but that means we have literally nothing in common physically? Who would want a son that looks zero percent like them?!?!?”. Their laughter only gets louder and eventually he’s laughing again too.

“What is going on here?”.

All three still, still goddamn laughing though because shit you can’t just stop that shit on a dime. Danny snorts, coming up with something on the fly before Red -fuck is her outfit even actually red????- decides to start shooting him, “I, ha, am apparently fucking colour blind and, ha, these two citizens decided to absolutely lay into me for not realsing there was human blood here”.

“I just flew through here! I thought someone got hurt and was looking for them! You jerk!”, she actually sits down on her board, “so this is how I find out that the only other remotely decent sorta coworker in this town can’t tell if something blood or ectoplasm. Zone that’s stupid and I hate it”.

Danny snorting while Sam and Tuck continue making half assed laughter-fuelled attempts to clean. “What? You gonna give me a way to beep you in case I ever stumble upon a mess again?”, and chuckles to himself.

She groans loudly, “i hate that that’s a good idea”. Which makes Danny bark a loud laugh, “oh man is being fucking colour blind what gets Red to stop ridding my ass! Ha!”, clearing his throat and tilting his head at her in a way he hopes looks puppy-like, “is your suit even red? I will whole ass admit to thinking you picked your colour because the ecto blended into it”.

He can tell she’s staring at him, “I’m going to kill you a second time, Phantom”.

“Been there, tried that. Do something more original”.

Red goes from glaring bloody murder at Danny to looking at the teens who’ve basically cleaned everything, meaning that Val won’t realise the RED human blood had been glowing. “Will you two care if I end the town menace?”.

Sam glares but is still too amused for there to be any real bite to it, “this is the funniest shit I’ve ran into all week don’t you dare sully that”. Tuck just giving an agreeing thumbs up while snickering and wiping off a storm drain.

Red sighing, “that’s fair”, pointing aggressively at Danny, “it is red and ectoplasm does not blend in, zone I hate you”, gesturing at random bits of wall and ground, “now is there an injured person or not?”.

All three shaking their heads immediately, Tuck giving the crappy excuse of, “bad nose bleed plus sudden ghosts plus face-planting into a wall. I’m fine”.

Red scowl could be heard in her voice, “good, now I’m going to bed”, her moving to fly off with a grumbled, “my suit was supposed to remind him and the town of my human blood, stupid ghost jerk”.

Okay fine that is hilarious, eventually Tuck comes over and gives him a high five, “congrats on not getting shot”. Sam shakes her head, “I’m more impressed she’s chilled out even remotely”, pointing at both boys, “but you know that excuse will never work again, right?”.

Danny blinking and smirking, “so what you’re saying is I should start being super cautious and just constantly send photos of murky liquid for a colour check?”.

“As much as I have no problem with you filling my phone with gore, I don’t want the cops to one day question me about that”.

Tuck elbows her, “eh I can set up a fully secure time deletion. Start lowkey stealing all snapchats users after I release it on the masses”.

Danny stretching and swatting Tuck one, “that sounds like you’re attempting to take over the world big brother eye in the sky style”.

“I totally could”.

Sam rolling her eyes, “I don’t even disagree”, her glancing around before nodding to herself, “looks like we’ve dealt with everything. How’s the arm?”.

Danny gives the limb a shake before grinning, “healed as fast as ever. And no seepage on the bandages so no, you don’t need to redo it”.

She puts her hands on her hips, “i don’t think you should ever be the judge of that. But fine, I guess it looks fine. Meaning we should get outta here before someone changes their mind”.

“Yeah yeah yeah”, rubbing his neck, glancing around, and changing back human. Eyeing his arm for changes and shrugging when he doesn’t see any olive murky liquid, “is my blood always a weird mix of colours?”.

Tuck patting his shoulder as they all begin to move out of the alley, “yeah, hence why we always try to hide you or cover it all the time. Did you just think we were being weirdos?”.

Danny rubbing his neck and glancing around, “I mean, yeah? More overprotective than weird”. They both shake their heads and chuckle at him and his generally stupidity.

In the future Danny did absolutely become just as cautious of others seeing his blood as his friends were, much to their relief and amusement.

End.

Prompt: Danny is red-green colorblind. This never caused him much trouble before the accident, but now, well... It would have been nice to know beforehand that his blood was the wrong color.

#danny phantom #phandom #phicphight24 #phic phight 24 #danny fenton #tucker foley #sam manson #phantomphangphucker #have a fic suck my dick #my writing #gothmoth #valerie gray #Danny's a dumbass #blood and injury #colorblindness #colorblind danny

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phantomphangphucker · 9 days

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Phic Phight Prompt: The Box Ghost, aka the most un-frightening pathetic nuisance ever, is actually incredibly powerful compared to the average ghost.

Word Count: 1425

For @phantomphangphucker

Summary: There are a lot of different kinds of power. Some are easy to see and others - others take a little more perspective to understand. Of course, realizing that the Box Ghost was both feared and respected within the Ghost Zone is still a bit baffling even after Danny gets to see it first hand.

"Wait, wait, wait." Danny held up a hand to stop Ember before reconsidering and putting it to his own forehead in an attempt to drive off the headache he could feel building there. "Can you repeat that?"

"What am I, a wind up doll?" Her look of disgust made way for an eye roll when Danny dragged his hand further down his face to glare at her over his fingertips. "The Box Ghost will have what we need."

Hand now over his mouth, Danny wondered if he needed to get his ears checked. When she clicked her tongue at him and went to keep moving, Danny quickly followed her gesturing wildly.

"The Box Ghost? Really? As in, the guy who comes to Amity just to grab cardboard boxes and crates? The one who won't stop introducing himself and screaming 'Beware!' - that guy?" Actually, a thought occurred to him and he narrowed his eyes trying to fly ahead of Ember to try and read the truth of it off her face. "Hang on, does he introduce himself because he's trying to use some other ghost's reputation? Is there another Box Ghost out there?"

Ember sped up shaking her head as she sped through the Zone.

"Of course not, anyone would be able to tell that the imposter was lying. Or, well," she winced a little, "no one would believe that guy when he lied. I mean, he's not the best actor. Not everyone's meant for the stage, obviously."

"Obviously." Danny repeated, voice and expression flat before he remembered that he was here to ask Ember for help. Pasting on a friendly smile when she sent him a warning look, he tried for a little more clarification hoping that she wouldn't change her mind. "But how did he become the ghost to see?"

"I'm the ghost everyone wants to see." She reminded him instantly, striking a pose like she was getting photographed before waving off his fumbled response to that. "I know what you meant. For this type of thing it's more that it just falls into his domain."

"Like, a kingdom?" The Box Ghost had a whole realm like Dorothea and Frostbite? Danny almost breathed a sigh of relief when Ember shook her head.

"No, more like a website."

Danny wasn't aware that he could stumble while flying, but he managed it anyway. "Excuse me?"

"No."

Ugh. Ember was sometimes all the parts of Jazz Danny couldn't stand - a big sister without any of the care that made Jazz one of Danny's favorite people. At his groan Ember came to an abrupt stop and reached for her guitar. Danny almost brought ecto to his hands before he realized she was holding it out instead of readying an attack.

"Look, everyone has what they're good at, right? Like I'm amazing at singing and playing my guitar so when I play I can do things through my performance."

"Right." Danny drew out the vowel a bit, following but not really sure where this was going.

"It also means that things pertaining to my domain of Rock Star Sensation are more likely to find their way to me even inside the Infinite Realms." Flicking her fingers, she rolled a guitar pick down her knuckles in a practiced move. "That's why my guitar is always in tune and I usually have all the things I need to play it. Strings, picks, if they fall into the realms there's a good chance I'll find them."

So ghosts frequently found things that related to their obsession. Danny wasn't sure how true that was - that things find their way to the ghosts that wanted them rather than most ghosts only paying attention to things they were personally obsessed with, but the Ghost Zone didn't exactly run on any logic he truly understood so he was going to roll with it for now.

"And the box ghost-"

"Finds boxes." Ember finished his sentence, swinging her guitar back over her shoulder and starting forward once more, more noticeably following the path of a few other ghosts Danny could see in the distance. "And other packages, though he doesn't like those quite so much."

"He finds boxes and keeps them no matter what's inside, got it." Which explained why she was leading him to the Box Ghost for those supplies Frostbite was looking for. "How often does he find more boxes?"

Just how likely was it that Danny would find the laundry list of things Frostbite was looking for?

"Oh," Ember didn't even knock before pushing a double wide set of swinging doors open so they could step inside what Danny now saw was their destination. "Almost constantly, I think."

Goggling at the ghostly equivalent of a big box warehouse complete with rows and rows of aisles that practically scrapped the almost cavernous ceiling, Danny didn't even care that Ember was absolutely snickering at his reaction. "Where do they even come from?"

"They're every package that gets lost in the mail, I think." Ember answered, grabbing his arm and pulling him further into the store. "And there are a lot of lost packages these days."

They passed huge piles of boxes, each stacked higher than the Fenton Works Ops Center, many of which baring familiar logos from various online retailers. Danny snorted before his eye caught on a ghost reaching through the cardboard to triumphantly pull something (hedge trimmers?) from a box only to very quickly place whatever was in his other hand into the box in its place. Looking around at other ghosts who were sifting through the madness or bargaining between themselves Danny noticed something.

"Does everyone bring their own stuff?"

"Money doesn't really mean much here, so like everywhere else in the Realms this place runs on trades." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a few CDs some of which Danny vaguely recognized as being popular a few years ago, all of which wouldn't have fit in her pocket if she weren't a ghost. "The Box Ghost doesn't care about what's in the boxes so long as something is inside the box."

Danny's next question was forgotten as the Box Ghost himself burst intangibly through the boxes on the next aisle over, hands raised with a loud, "I am the Box Ghost!"

After months of being warned by the same ghost with nothing resulting from it other than maybe a few hours of annoyance as he chased the Box Ghost around town before capturing him, Danny watched incredulous as the smaller ghost the owner of this 'store' was threatening cowered, literally tripping over themselves as they searched their pockets for something to put into the box they'd left empty a few minutes before.

Around them the other ghosts scattered as the Box Ghost yanked the offender up by their collar, eyes burning bright and an surprisingly impressive wave of energy rolling off him that even Danny could fee,l before a figurine (in mint condition) was held up in shaky hands as an offering.

There was a pause as the Box Ghost blinked away his rage to inspect it. Then he snatched it from their hands and put it ever so gently back into the temporarily empty box. Giving it a satisfied pat, he then threw out a practiced "Beware!" before vanishing back to wherever he came from.

Danny watched the ghost he dropped snatch up their prize and shoot out the double doors before giving a knowing Ember a wide eyed look.

"Never mess with a ghost over their obsession on their own turf, especially not a guy who gets all his power from the ecto people give off his his warehouse." She warned him.

"But - he's so-" Danny struggled to put it in words. "He never does anything like that in Amity?"

"Not his turf is it?" The pointed look met its mark even before she followed it with, "Besides, you've got his kryptonite."

Baffled, Danny pointed at himself. Ember helpfully pointed at him too. Following her finger, Danny unhooked the thermos from his belt.

"For a guy who is all about boxes and other things cubic, the only thing worse for him would be a sphere."

Aaand there was the Infinite Realm's 'logic' catching Danny off guard again.

"I guess it doesn't matter how powerful he is if I'm always fighting him with the perfect weapon."

"Yep, now get searching. I don't have all day and this place doesn't have any sort of organization."

With a groan, Danny snatched the CDs from her hand and got to work.

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phantomphangphucker · 9 days

Text

Phic Phight Prompt: The Box Ghost, aka the most un-frightening pathetic nuisance ever, is actually incredibly powerful compared to the average ghost.

Word Count: 1910

For @phantomphangphucker

Summary: After dying in a warehouse collapse, one ghost sets out to make the ghost zone OSHA Compliant one box at a time.

Working with a couple different crews and shifts for a decade or two means getting used to going by a nickname or three. He's not one to linger on the past, but when he thinks back he's pretty sure that there was a stretch of time where he didn't hear his legal name for weeks, possibly months, so adapting to this new green dimension where no one can get his name right isn't difficult.

Or, the name thing isn't.

Asking everyone to call him the Box Ghost is easier than correcting their pronunciation of his actual name. Everyone around here seems to be going by one title after another - so Boxy (his favorite nickname that the others have given him here, but unfortunately too close to other's monikers to use as an introduction) keeps it simple for his own benefit. Explaining things can get frustrating and having to do so repeatedly is boring, so Box Ghost it is!

Making a habit of introducing himself every time he sees someone isn't a new habit, but it makes itself useful here even if he doesn't have nearly as much trouble remembering ghostly faces as he did human ones.

So introductions - easy!

Needing to sound threatening to get his point across? That's more difficult to get used to. Boxy doesn't exactly like fighting, not after losing the few fights he got into when he was alive. But, if a few threatening words is all it takes to make this place safer, he can put on the act.

Because this place - the Infinite Realms - they're sorely in need of his help.

Back when he was alive, Boxy watched countless safety videos and participated in even more inspections over the course of his career. He rolled his eyes, slouching his way through the required checks, going over lists and participating in drills before getting on with his actual work. While he and the others were careful with the boxes they handled (as they'd be on the hook if they weren't), they usually just made jokes about the old cracked and slowly bowing walls. They weren't in charge and it wasn't hurting anyone, what was the harm?

He knew the harm now.

He might not have blood these days, but Boxy swears he can feel it boiling whenever he sees cracked, bending, and broken walls. Can feel the ache in his jaw from clenching his teeth when he looks at sagging, leaking, and collapsed roofs.

The numerous cliffs hanging out into the swirling, glowing abyss he can't do anything about, but the all the other places where these ghosts live - those he can fix.

Newly dead, he tried suggesting improvements he remembered from before. Tried providing examples he'd seen in practice. Tried offers to fix the old castles, the burnt homes, the cracked caverns only to be fought tooth and nail at every turn - often literally. Fighting back was instinct, one he fought more than the other ghosts whose homes he was clearly insulting.

He smothered the impulse right up until the first time he was thrown through a stone wall.

Boxy still doesn't quite remember what happened directly after that, only the result and the result was very good.

When he came to every wall in the area was square, the rooms complete, the roof secure, and the ghost who lived there? Well, they were a little worse for wear, but they brushed off his concerned look with something between a shrug and a shudder.

"Warn a guy." They had said or, rather, muttered before flying into their now safer home and slamming the door.

So Boxy took their words to heart.

"Beware!" He greeted others as he found more buildings in need of his help. "I am the Box Ghost!"

The practice of holding his hands up in a mild threat came later, after a lot more fights followed by a short run of successes - each of which ended with the other ghost cringing away from him.

Boxy still isn't fond of threatening people. He does this for their safety and the safety of others - so that no one ends up like he did, but if that's the only way to keep everyone safe he'll play his part.

Besides, maybe after this he'll move on to what is clearly his true calling - acting! His old coworkers always used to make fun of his attempts to act, but with just a few words and an exaggerated angry gesture or two he seems to be pulling of 'threat' really well!

Then again, maybe he'll stay off the stage. His ghostly powers don't lend themselves to it in the way he's seen with others. He can fly, but he can't teleport. He can stand up to other's blows, but he can't shapeshift or take on their faces.

His powers mostly lie in his interests, which doesn't seem uncommon in the Infinite Realms.

He can move himself - handy for getting around. He can move boxes - something he's so familiar with he could do it in his sleep even before his death, though not having to touch them is something he still delights in. And, most importantly, he can bring buildings up to code.

This last one is by far the trickiest to do. It's hard to explain what he does and how he does it in words. It's something similar to how he always knows which stack of boxes aren't stacked correctly even when they look secure. He can feel the fault lines, taste the breaking points, smell the way the not-gravity of this place pulls on a structure.

He chose 'The Box Ghost' not only because boxes are, obviously, amazing, but because boxes hold up to the pressures of this place better than other shapes. The right angles, the rigid sides, when put together just right they can stand up even under dragon fire or unexpected island collisions.

Of course, leaning into his name and specialties leads to strange consequences.

Something about this place, it twists things. It took a while for him to notice, but the strength of his boxy architecture is improving, but not without cost. He thought it was just experience, but then he tried to keep the shape of a tower as he improved it and something about the rounded walls made it fall apart.

The fight he had with the owner for causing the tower to crumble was less memorable than the testing that needed to be done after that (sure the guy could turn into a dragon, but his castle was more than big enough to trap him in). With his mastery of all things square and box like, Boxy specialized to the point of being unable to not make things square.

It isn't a huge problem, most purposefully non-square things were built with more thought than the broken down buildings he needs to fix, but it is annoying at times.

He doesn't give it much thought after that, other than making a note to tell ghosts of his cubic specialty when he introduces himself, so he continues his campaign, hoping that one day he can share the burden of this quest to ensure safety in the Infinite Realms. Looking back at all those videos and checklists he knows that this isn't a one-person job, he needs the government to get in on it for his work to be effective.

Unfortunately, any attempts he's made to speak to those in charge either leave him with new clients or with frustratingly few answers.

"The king is in forever sleep," is not the answer he's looking for, especially when he's trying to confirm what kind of building codes are currently in use in this place. As more people hear of him, Boxy finds both more and less resistance to his safety crusade. Some invite him in meekly, while others refuse to bend to his (clearly terrifying) threats, instead posing some honestly, quite reasonable questions about the safety of the buildings he's putting in place.

It's while he's trying to find this justification that he comes across the permanent portal for the first time.

"This doesn't belong here!" Surely they'd have some permits up and posted if such a thing was supposed to be built in the middle of a thoroughfare like this! It's not Boxy's first interaction with a portal, but it's certainly the first man-made one he's seen. He takes the time to inspect it from every angle - the only roughly octagonal shape, the poor welds on the metal, the lack of safety measures - it's horrible! And probably beyond his (non-existent) pay grade.

He turns to go report this to the scary knight who guards the king's castle only to nearly get run over by another ghost gunning for the portal.

When he straightens up, he finds himself in a nightmare of safety violations. Boxy stares in horror at the clearly DIY walls, the uneven floors, the stairs with steps that are clearly too tall.

Sure, there's a lot of sciency things scattered around the place in ways that look dangerous, but Boxy isn't familiar with that side of things. He disregards it in favor of what he knows how to fix.

So, of course, that's when the alarms go off. The portal slams shut behind him and lights start flashing. A recording blares too loud for Boxy to understand, but he's done enough drills that he knows what to do.

Quickly, quietly, Boxy exits the building and heads for a safer area.

He waits for a handful of minutes before realizing it wasn't a fire alarm after all and the fire department won't be coming to give an all-clear. Normally he'd head back, but the extra time outside has let him realize where he is.

The realm of the living!

There are side walks! Rows of homes, most of them safe and square! For a moment each of the box like suburban homes glows as he happily resonates with the cubic structures.

It cuts off as a delivery truck drives past.

Boxy's attention is captured especially when he realizes the boxes within are filled with books.

Books! Books in Boxes! Books are just what he was looking for - now he can get examples of building codes for the king whenever he wakes up!

He dives into the delivery truck and gets so lost in the ecstasy of so many good, old-fashioned, cardboard boxes, neatly and professionally stacked inside a box truck that he only comes back to himself after he's introduced himself to someone - warning, threatening gestures and all.

After so many successful fights it's a shock when the white haired teen bests him so easily. Then again, just as the boxes and that truck seemed to energize him, the cylindrical capture device the child pulls on him seems to sap the fight right out of him.

It seems like no time at all before he's back in the zone, staring at that misshapen portal once again. It may be a safety hazard, but that won't stop the Box Ghost. He'll brave the portal and fight as many times as he needs to in order to get the books necessary (and maybe a few more boxes, as a treat) to fix all the broken parts of this Realm.

When the Ghost King wakes up and starts managing this place again, the Box Ghost will be first in line to talk to him - together they'll make this place safe for all ghosts!

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phantomphangphucker · 10 days

Text

Phic Phight - Acatalepsy

@atropos_aeneas @lwh-writing

Jazz had always been very firm on her opinions on her parent’s beliefs and behaviour, but she was far more firm on her love and care for her little brother.

Chap. 1:

Peremptory

Jazz has had it about up to here, with these so called ghosts, with her parents dangerous obsession and neglect that bordered on abuse, with the town even vaguely entertaining all this foolishness, with a skin tight costume wearing wannabe vigilante. She couldn’t do much of anything about the seeming mass hallucinations. She couldn’t do anything about her parents, she’s spent years trying after all. She couldn’t do anything about the town as a whole, even if she’s still trying to figure out why everyone’s decided that now is the time to go along with her parents insanity. However she can at least try to do something about the vigilante, she can talk to him and try to get it through his head that feeding into this was bad and if someone real took him seriously he could get really hurt.

It wasn’t like it would be all that difficult to chase the boy down, he got spotted multiple times a day so all she had to do was wait for a ‘ghost sighting’ and track him down. She, once again, was proven to be firmly correct. She’s easily able to spot him at the next ‘ghost’ sighting; she’d really like to figure out what was causing so many people to either have hallucinations or to just be going along with certain people’s delusions.

The thing that gets her though… is he is actually glowing from head to toe. How? Some sort of spray perhaps? That seemed like a lot of effort just to play into all this foolishness. Was this a teen who genuinely desperately wished to be ‘a superhero’ and thus took the first chance he could get? That was incredibly unhealthy and spoke of a very unbalanced and unkind childhood. Neglect perhaps? Or parentification maybe? Trying to make up for childhood feelings of helplessness?

Now how to best get his attention? pretending to be injured or under attack posed the risk of attracting her parents or genuinely worrying the teen. She couldn’t simply wait around to talk to him, as he was known to not stick around after catching ‘the ghost’. Perhaps she can flex her big sister muscles and point aggressively at the ground in his direction? he looked young enough that that very well might work.

Well that’s the best she’s got so that’s what she does. Waving in the air at the teen and then pointing at the ground very firmly with a ‘you better come here, mister’ eyebrow. The teen looking cautious and unsure as he lowers himself to the ground, her absently wondering how he’s managing this floating ability; cords? a wire system? magnets?

The teen giving an awkward, “yes, random citizen?”. Oh he’s trying to pretend he doesn’t know exactly who she is, with her parents it’s no surprise that a so called ‘ghost’ would know them and thusly her. Her parents have talked about shooting at him, she’s been on the receiving end of their inventions enough to know how unpleasant that could be.

Jazz crossing her arms at the ghost, “I think it’s about time we talked”. The teen seems more fidgety at that, and she doesn’t want him running off. Gesturing at a bench and making a point to smile softly, comfortingly, “how about we sit down? It’s nothing bad, I promise. I just want to understand why you’re doing this?”.

Somehow she gets the feeling that actually annoys him but he sighs, ‘lands’ on the ground, and walks with her to a more out of eye sight picknick table than the bench she’d pointed out. Was he paranoid of being seen in general? Or of being seen talking to her specifically? The later she could understand due to her parents reputation, but the former? If it’s the former then she’s even more confused and concerned over why he’s doing this… unless he’s suffering from genuine delusions himself and truly believes his ‘heroics’ are necessary.

What she gets from him is snark, defensive snark. He’s absolutely paranoid and nervous. “So what does the daughter of the ghost hunters constantly shouting about shooting me and how I’m evil, want with me?”, him gesturing at her body, “you aren’t armed so doubt they sent you to try and shoot me”.

Even though he’s being defensive, he’s not wrong either. Her parents did shoot at him and did tell everyone they could that all ‘ghosts’ including ‘the ghost boy’ were evil ‘ectoplasmic’ manifestations of ‘post human consciousness’. If ghosts were somehow real, which they were not, it would make sense to behave defensively regarding her parents and anyone closely associated with them. She puts her hands up in a surrendering motion for a few seconds, “no ‘weapons’ or ‘inventions’ I promise. I meant what I said, all I want is to know why you’re doing everything. I’d simply like to ask you some questions and hope to get honest answers in return”.

He seems… more annoyed but less fidgety, less paranoid. He believes her but finds what she’s doing annoying. Perhaps he’s been taken to therapists before? And has had less than positive interactions with them for one reason or another? She’s fully aware that the wrong therapist to patient relationship can do more harm than good, and that there are bad actors out there and those who are simply looking for the paycheck. Unfortunate, but true. “I’m going to be annoyed if this winds up on the news but alright”, making ‘go ahead’ gestures at her, “ask your questions”.

Jazz’s response is near automatic, “I believe in absolute confidentiality, it will not”. He eyes her with those green eyes, expensive contacts she imagines, and seems to take her word for it. So she asked her first question, “throughout your childhood, have you always had an inclination towards vigilantism? A desire to monitor your environment for signs of deviance or punish those who do wrong onto others, perhaps?”.

The teen scoffs, actually scoffs, at her, “my home is and was always ‘deviant’, looking for that would be dumb. And I don’t like bullies sure, but no, I’ve never wanted to ‘punish’ people’”, he shakes his head softly, like he’s trying to be gentle with her, “I’m not a vigilante, I’m not fighting crime or evil doers or whatever. I’m not Batman or robin and I’m not trying to be. I’m just protecting people and ghosts, and a little bit of socialising”.

She’s not one hundred percent sure if he’s simply really good at going along with the ‘ghost’ bit or if he actually believes in them. “So you would describe what you’re doing as ‘protecting the masses from harm’ then, yes? Would you say that’s for people’s general physical safety or for protecting societal integrity and status quo?”. There was a very big difference between the two after all. “And why would you seek to go about protecting in this manner? Rather than working towards a career in a protective field, such as a police officer or fireman?”.

Now this, he actually looks like he’s genuinely considering her question before responding, “physical safety, of everyone including myself. Your parents are menaces.-”. She can’t argue that last statement. “-I never wanted those kinds of jobs, I didn’t really even want this one at first”, shrugging, “no one else was or could, no offence but also full offence, deal with all the ghosts causing problems”.

… He might actually genuinely believe this ghost thing. She can acquiesce that if ghosts were somehow real that her parents would not actually be all that great at dealing with them. Her dad was far too forgetful and easy going, while her mom would be held back by her dad. The fact that everyone justly thought them insane wouldn’t help either. “Physical safety, of others and ourselves is important, however aren’t you putting yourself in danger by doing this? From ‘ghost hunters’, yes like my parents, and the ‘ghosts’?”; it’s incredibly hard to keep the disbelief out of her voice but she needs to tackle the ‘superhero’ identity first. Maybe getting him to see how illogical and backwards it ultimately was would help break the delusion.

“Obviously I’m putting myself in danger, but I am either way-”. That makes her furrow her eyebrows at him. “-nearly every fight I get into I did not start, they’re picking fights with me. Some super directly by literally hunting me down to try and beat me up for one reason or another. Others are more invading my territory I guess, and harming those people and objects inside it”; it looks like that genuinely really bothers him on a deep level.

Now if he is actually just being attacked by these mass hallucinations or projections perhaps then self defence did make sense. But if these were mass hallucinations why would they be specifically targeting one person like this? That wouldn’t make sense. Now if they’re projections that someone, who is definitely insane, is creating then why are they going after this one teen so much? “Do you believe you know why you’re being targeted so much? Outside of my parents being crazy”. As for him being apparently territorial… “and why do you view Amity as your territory?”. Yes people did often claim their city or town as part of them and then part of it, but to be explicitly territorial and possessive was abnormal.

He actually chuckles a little, “outside of your parents being crazy, it varies. They usually tell me why, though Boxy seems to just be looking to get beat up? Or he is insanely nuts about how strong and scary he is. The Lunchlady threw stoves at me because her food got messed with. Skulker wants to skin me, which is very gross and something I want nothing to do with. Plasmius is angry I won’t ’let him adopt me’, and wants to constantly try to prove he’s better and stronger than me in every way. I could go on”, sighing, “as for the town? It’s just is my town? That’s really all there is to it. It’s mine and other ghosts aren’t welcome to harm anything inside it”. He says that like it’s a given, like it’s obvious and simple, like it’s not supremely abnormal and unhealthy.

If someone is indeed creating and controlling projections then they are a very cruel person, as it seems that this teen genuinely believes these reasonings; meaning it is unlikely this is some sort of game or set up that the teen is in the know on. “What if the ‘other ghosts’ aren’t doing any harm? Would they be welcome then?”.

He blinks, looking a bit confused and surprised by that question, before humming to himself, it vibrates oddly. “I suppose so. If Cujo was less accidentally destructive I’d be fine with him running around, he’s pretty much just a dog after all. A green dog but still just a dog. And Piondexter I would leave alone since I know he doesn’t actually mean harm, he just really hates bullies and unties their shoes and shit”.

Right, that Valerie girl claimed a ‘large green dog’ had gotten her dad fired and destroyed practically all of their belongs and that said dog belonged to ‘the ghost boy’. This ‘Poindexter’ though, “I’ve heard the ‘stories’ about the ‘green dog’, but I can’t say I’m familiar with Piondexter”.

The teen shrugs, “he lives in a mirror in that ‘haunted locker’ in Casperhigh, he can kinda use it like a personal portal”.

Oh not that stupid rumour. Of course who or what ever is causing all of this included that into everything. “Is there any others that seem tied to local myth and legend?”.

The teen shakes his head immediately actually, “no. Piondexter seems more like a coincidence than the trend.-”. Why would only one local legend be utlisied and not all of them? Strange. “-Just like how most of the ghosts want to fight and cause some chaos, so him being mostly chill isn’t the trend either”.

Honestly, that sounded a bit like her parent’s view of ghosts, just far less inhumane and illogical. This teen believed the ‘ghosts’ wanted to fight and cause chaos out of fun, it seems. Whereas her parents just thought they were inherently evil, living hating, monsters. She can admit this teens view point is far more logical. “So you believe these ‘ghosts’ are doing this out of enjoyment? Rather than being villains, or evil for that matter”.

“Some are just assholes, like people who pickpocket people in wheelchairs. Fighting is just, kinda part of how ghosts socialise, most aren’t actually trying to seriously hurt me or the citizens, they just forget how fragile the living can be; and that I’m not a freaking mind reader. Also more than a few of the ghosts who’ve shown up here have been to jail multiple times”.

So there’s some sort of judiciary system in his mind? Or is this something conjured up by the projection controller? A way to make it seem more believable perhaps? But in that case wouldn’t it make more sense to simply go along with what her parents say fully and have them be simply evil monsters? She will give this some credit on being a bit more complex than she had initially thought though. “Do you know how this jailing system works?”.

He blushes… green? How? At that, “not really, no. I do know that each prison is basically ran like a freaking dictatorship by the warden though, and that the prison that’s super close to your parents portal, you know on the ghost side, is ran by a hardass with a serious sadistic streak”.

She blinks, he says that like he’s been ‘on the other side’ of her parents contraption -because she is not calling it a freaking portal, that’s absurd- and like there actually is something on the other side of it. “You’ve been to this ghost side?”; that question is pure curiosity, no diagnosis involved.

He quirks an eyebrow at her, “of course? Every ghost has? That’s kinda where we’ve all come from?”, running a hand through his impossibly pure white hair, that she honestly thought was a wig but up close she can tell that’s not the case. “Honestly? The ghost problem is that portals fault”, gesturing with his hands, “your parents made a permanent, frequently opening, pass into the living world. Of course ghosts were going to take advantage of that, they know exactly where and when they’ll come out and they have a guaranteed ticket home. Which fine, I do speed along, since I just send every ghost I catch back, but that’s not the cause for them being here in the first place”. He eyes her for a beat before sighing and giving her an amused smirk, “you don’t believe in ghosts, do you? You think this is all a big conspiracy, or mass hallucinations, or projections, or just a bunch cock and bull people are making up for some reason. Am I right?”.

The way he says that tells her that she was right that he wasn’t ready to have to face that reality yet. Sighing at him and trying to be gentle about shaking her head, “no. No I do not. The idea of souls alone is unproven and highly unlikely. The idea of those souls creating their own forms out of energy and existing in a connected realm seems too far fetched. This isn’t a belief in the afterlife as a form of coping with death, which would be perfectly healthy and often religiously significant”.

“So if you don’t believe in ghosts, why are you even talking to me?”. He obviously thinks she believes that he’s one of these ‘ghosts’.

She shakes her head at him, “you’re not fantastical like all the images and reported sightings of ghosts are. You’re physical, you always read as more solid and human. A teen who’s dressed up and seen a chance to be the hero they’ve always wanted to be perhaps. Your behaviours vary according to situation, you have clear fight or flight. Your behaviour shows far more than simple: show up, cause chaos, and leave”. She’s not going to tell him that she hasn’t quite decided if he’s simply experiencing the same hallucinations or projections as everyone else, or is actually suffering delusional issues.

For whatever reason that makes him more nervous. He makes an aborted attempt to rub his neck before seemingly releasing that wasn’t very ‘professional hero’ of him, clearing his throat, “you pay way too much attention, geez”, shaking his head and frowning at her in a way that feels like pity, “spend any amount of time around any ghost and you’ll find the same stuff. Skulker makes awesome lemon creme pies and has a girlfriend. Technus keeps changing up his style to seem ‘cool’. Half the time Johnny and Kitty show up it’s because they’re having a lovers spat again. They’re people. Your parents aren’t crazy ‘cause they believe in ghosts, they’re crazy because they think ghosts are emotionless evil monsters.-”. So he’s delusional, not good… but outright dismissing him would do no good. He puts a hand to his chest, “-I’m not dressed up in some costume, or wearing contacts, or using some glow spray. I died in this, and no you don’t get to ask about the how of that”, he stares a bit before continuing, “I don’t breath, Jazz Fenton, does that sound alive to you? I certainly pretend to around humans, because they get freaked out otherwise. If you hook me up to an ekg you’ll get a whole lotta nothin’. If you were as cold as I am you would be severely hypothermic and dying”, and for the first time a so called ‘ghost’ touches her.

He’s solid yet feels like static, and he’s right, his skin feels ice cold. How? He’s solid, clearly a person. A bit unintentionally she watches his chest, it doesn’t move. No rise and fall. Nothing. Her furrowing her brows at him, still holding his arm, “this doesn’t make sense”.

The teen shrugs at her, “since when does everything ever make sense? I’m dead, that’s really all there is to it. Ghosts are cool with being dead so it doesn’t bother us, but at least I’m aware that the living aren’t super cool with death. You believe I’m real and all the others aren’t because I act more like what you know, aka, living humans”.

She frowns, could that really be the case? Her parents be both right and wrong? and her be wrong entirely? But that never happened, she was always in the right when she set her mind on something. When she was wrong it was over simple things she had no real opinion on. Matters of taste or what the weather would be like, perhaps what in all was going to be on a test. When it came to matters of the mind, behaviours, human nature, states of being; she was always right. Always. There was no real proof for souls, and thusly ghosts, none. Even studies claiming to be able to determine the weight of a soul were ludicrously biased and far too open for interpretation.

And yet…

Here was someone who was clearly not a hallucination nor a projection. He was solid, there was thought behind those green eyes, he could hold a conversation. Yet he did not seem to breathe, and cold radiated off of him like his insides were packed with dry ice.

He was a person, a being, and yet wasn’t behaving as one, a living one. She eyes him as he pulls his arm away, “so you don’t ‘float’ by a string system or magnets perhaps?”.

He attempts to cover up a laugh, she doesn’t even feel insulted because this is just all too strange, her being wrong. He shakes his head, “no, I don’t”, gesturing at the glow over his suit, “my energy, my ectoplasm, simply grabs onto the air particles and pulls me along as I want to”.

Ectoplasm shouldn’t be real. It shouldn’t be possible. “Ectoplasm doesn’t exist”.

“I am quite literally made of it so yeah it definitely does”, him then humming and tilting his head, then he… spits into his hand. Ew. Boys. EuGH. She absolutely recoils when he ‘offers’ said hand to her, but… all that’s in his hand is a glowing green goo-like substance. He… sticks his finger in it and pushes it around before pulling his finger up, the green substance sticking to his finger and stretching in strands of goo. It looks to be getting slowly absorbed into him until it’s all gone.

That should be impossible, shouldn’t it? She just witnessed an impossibility. But if she’s witnessing it then it isn’t impossible, improbable perhaps but not impossible. And it was impossible for any living mammal to survive without oxygen, meaning that no matter how improbable, what he’s saying must be true. What came out of his mouth he absorbed through his finger… as if it was a part of any area of his body rather than specialised by area as it would be for a living mammal. She stares at his hands, which are now simply resting on the table while he waits for her to think. “So, you’re a ghost and ghosts are real?”.

“Yup”.

“And the afterlife is real”.

“Bit more complicated than that but yup”, he snorts, “Zone I barely understand a quarter of it”.

Was that unusual? She doesn’t know. She feels like everything’s out of balance now. Like she doesn’t really know anything anymore. Like she’s fallen into the god complex trap. Where she’s convinced herself she’s infallible and perfect. Perfectly logical. Perfectly rational. Perfectly understanding. Perfectly right. “And the towns plagued by the dead”.

“Eh, it’s more like a hot spot, a vacation with fist-a-cuffs being the main dish on the menu”.

“And… it’s my crazy parent’s fault”.

“I accidentally made the connection actually work, so only partly”.

“You… did?”.

“Yup”.

Was… that part of why he was doing this? A sense of responsibility perhaps? “So you feel responsible? Like if you don’t, someone getting hurt will be, in a way, your own fault?”.

He shrugs, “I have the ability to help, so I help, and Amity is mine”.

This still didn’t make sense though, why… this ‘ghost’? Why was he acting as a protector and claiming this town to be his? “Why you?”.

The smile he gives her is a bit rueful, “I was here first. This town was my home long before these other ghosts made some kind of game out of stirring shit in it”.

“So you haunt this town? Why?”.

“Because it’s mine, there really ain’t anything more to it”.

That still seems illogical to her, “wouldn’t it be easier to go ‘haunt’ somewhere else?”.

“Easier, but wrong”, he shrugs, “no ghost in their right mind would abandon what’s theirs just because some other ghost is being an asshole”.

So then were these ‘ghosts’ territorial to a fault by nature? Intentionally putting themselves in harms way for ‘their possessions’? That seems so foolish, to risk throwing away one’s life over objects and places… but then again, this boy… wasn’t alive, was he? She, logically, can’t ascribe living values on someone non-living. A strange thought in and of itself. “So you have no issue being involved in fights and risking injury, while also taking great issue with loss or harm to what you claim as yours?”.

He chuckles, genuinely, “oh I also just enjoy a good fight, you know? Stretching my ectoplasmic hide and whatnot. Like you guys and stretching those muscle things”, pursing his lips, “but if I get my arm lopt off I can just slap that shit right back on or reform a new one. Yeah I get hurt, yeah it’s painful, but it ain’t that serious. I mean I’m probably totally gonna pick a fight I can’t win someday and that’ll be that. The way the cookie crumbles and all that”.

“So you don’t care that you might die- stop existing?”.

“I care about my own end, simply less than you care about yours. I’d rather risk being ended than not protect”. The way he says that had such a firm definiteness to it that it sounded like an unmovable unalterable fact. No different from the colour of the sky or the name of their planet. Unchangeable and absolute.

So for him, this was need. It was a drilled in fact of who and apparently what he was. Something every person in Amity could bend steel around. That was sort of… a comfort actually. With this new reality that ghosts are real, that her parents are right, that this town is truly plagued by death, that it even needed a ‘protector’ at all. It made sense to feel comforted, after all weaker prey animals always felt safer with a larger more dangerous animal protecting them. The sheep relied on the dogs, and the dogs fought the wolves even if it died doing so. “Wouldn’t it be better to get rid of the portal?”.

He’s response is immediate and almost aggressive, “no”; his eyes even have a brightness to them they normally did not. His eyes could change brightness… that was bizarre to witness. Perhaps, in his apparent accidental aid in its connection, that he hasn’t expanded upon, he became aggressively fond of the device. He shakes his head and the light dims, “anymore questions about my whole existence thing? Or attempts to ‘analyze’ me?”.

She shakes her head slowly, she needed to digest all of this, think on it all. “No. I suppose, if you truly are not human, there’s no rationalising you to me, and no rationalise myself to you”.

“You say that as if I don’t remember being human. You’ve never been a ghost, I’ve been human”.

Jazz smiles a little at that, “so something else my parents are wrong about”; it was comforting to know they were still wrong about a lot of things, just not everything.

He waves her off, “eh, I’m kinda a weirdo. Don’t think too much about it or you’ll hurt yourself, you over analyzer”. He sounds honest and she didn’t realize then how glad she’d be for that.

Chap. 2:

Reticency

These days Jazz had a lot of opinions about ghosts, some were complicated some were simple. Ghosts were real was simple. Ghosts were her towns pride and joy even if they also hated them was simple. Ghosts were mostly annoying was simple. Ghosts were possible to call friends was complicated. Ghosts were complex intelligent sentient beings was complicated. Ghost hunting was a real profession was complicated.

The Box Ghost being weak and not the least bit frightening was simple.

Danny Phantom being her brother was complicated.

Her parents being so wrong on ghosts that they’re best ignored was simple.

Her finding out about her brother’s ‘alive’ status without him knowing and thus her having to ignore that she knows was complicated.

If she had it her way, Danny would have told her on his own, himself. She wouldn’t have just stumbled on it, on him. She wouldn’t have had to realise in a random back alley that her brother was dead. Had died. She never noticed. Their parents never noticed. Yet somehow he was happy like this, stronger as a person like this. She knew that for a fact, she knew that more strongly than she’d ever believed ghosts weren’t real.

Sometimes she’d worry that he was suffering, that he needed help and a diagnosis, then she’d always remember how stupidly honest and genuine he’d been about enjoying fighting and being alright dead. But still, it was impossible for her to like her brother being dead, which was a dilemma all of its own. Especially when his friends seemed to feel no different about him, seemed to see him no different; as his big sister she had to give him the same. She knows she’s right that it would hurt him if she wasn’t completely okay and supportive of him being as he is, and she’s sure she’ll get there she just didn’t have enough of the facts, enough of the knowledge, to feel comfortable and assured just yet. It was a work in progress.

So she didn’t tell him she knew. She gave lies and ignorance to his face just like he did to hers. Because she wanted to be as okay with it as he was. Because she wanted him to tell her himself, to confide in his big sister. Even if he was confiding about being dead. Because she wanted to understand ghosts before hand. At least now she knew what he had meant by weird, being able to still look human. And at least she knew why he didn’t want the portal destroyed so badly, it didn’t take a genius to realise his accident with it had been what resulted in his demise. In a lot of ways that made her hate the machine, but he cleaned that thing almost obsessively; it was the one part of the lab he was genuinely thorough with. It was as if it was sacred to him, near and dear. And really? It was. It was his grave after all, as disturbing to her as that was. Perhaps it was something of a coping mechanism to him, part of grieving that he could only complete in part because he hadn’t ever moved on. It was one of his possessions, like everything in his room, she used to worry about how oddly possessive her brother had become over his things.

Now she knew.

One thing she doesn’t know is what happened to his body, his living body that died, and she honestly doesn’t want to. That’s one unknown she’s fine leaving as an unknown.

But she’s very glad he was honest with her, when she sat him down as Phantom. Honest about how he felt about everything. Honest about being dead. Honest about remembering himself. Honest about trying and wanting to come off less inhuman. She’s proud of him for that honesty alone, even if she’s also proud of him for many many other reasons. From how he chose to be a wannabe vigilante that was more a genuine hero these days, to how he interacted with fellow ghosts.

He really was trying for coexistence, regardless of their parent’s bigotry.

And now a lot of the town agreed with him even, he was doing it, was achieving something full grown adults seldom could. He was being a protector both in the physical sense and in the societal sense. Honestly? He somewhat was like Batman. So yeah, she was incredibly proud of him. That pride didn’t stop their interactions from being a bit awkward for her though. Especially when he was Phantom.

Why?

Because she had to pretend she was just ‘another random citizen who also just so happened to be the towns primary ghost hunters and ghost experts daughter’ instead of being his big sister. Had to pretend she didn’t know exactly who he was and all that he was juggling. That Amity’s hero was also a struggling teen. Had to pretend like she was doing right now.

Zone, did she ever hate getting caught up in a ghost attack, even if actually physically seeing the reminder that her brother was having fun and could actually hold his own was a needed reassurance for her.

It was that science technology ghost that somehow managed to be incredibly outdated. TechMaster? CompWiz? She could never quite get all of their names right, especially since they were so different from human ones; something else she’d like to understand, even Danny had gone with an altered non-human name. The ghost has taken over the mall again, and right when she’d been in the bookstore looking for new published ghost-related studies to read and maybe figure things out better with. She was lacking clarity on how, exactly, ghosts fuelled themselves; she knew they needed ectoplasm, or energy in general, but that didn’t explain Danny being in Amity constantly. He’d always been fine going without food for extended periods of time and she doesn’t want him carrying on that trend with ectoplasm.

“TREMBLE BEFORE MY TECHNOLOGICAL WRATH! AND! MY RAZER BACKLIT MOUSEPADS!”

Like she’s said, ghosts being annoying was a simple fact. She’s fairly certain he doesn’t know what ‘backlit’ actually meant, not that she’s ever heard of a backlit mousepad herself though she imagines Tucker had one.

“Oh come on Technus!”.

Ah right that’s his name. Her poking her head out from around a coffee table for the little local coffee shop inside the bookstore, wincing to herself when Danny gets stabbed by a hard plastic square thing with a cord attached to it. He rips it out and whips it back like a frisbee as if the injury means nothing to him. Which she guesses is the case, he got hurt a lot which was hard to see on tv, but he was also more durable with improved healing; that didn’t make it much better, she knows he can feel the pain of it. And she’s painfully reminded of the statement he’d said like fact about one day picking a fight beyond his capabilities.

Danny kicking the other ghost into a wall, ecto-blasting him right off the bat after; he even blows off his finger with a goofy smirk making her roll her eyes and laugh a little to herself. He’d always been such a silly kid, it’s nice that death didn’t kill that.

Then ‘Techous’? phases through the wall and sends her table flying, leaving her stuck crouched on the ground behind a ghost hoping he doesn’t notice her. This one was oblivious enough to actually not notice, thankfully. Her brother notices her crouching stock still immediately though, of course he does, she’d have to bite her tongue to avoid chastising him about situation awareness otherwise.

His eyes don’t linger on her, his eyes don’t even widden, the only sign he saw her was how he wasn’t shooting at the ghost and instead crossing his arms judgmentally, “dude, did you really have to wreck a local coffee shops wall? This place actually lets me buy the good stuff and now it’s gonna take forever for them to reopen. You suck”. His caffeine addiction worries her sometimes, but from what she’s read and learned on her own terms he should be fine, being an energy based being had its perks after all.

“I! CARE NOT FOR YOUR ‘COFFEE’!”. The ghost actually uses air quotes. “I CARE ONLY FOR MY TRUE DOMINATION!”.

Danny smirks, “you know there’s some pretty advanced tech in those espresso machines”. At least she knows if he isn’t sure he could win with pure might, he’ll use his mouth and try to quip his way into victory.

The ghost looks completely delighted, “THERE IS!?!”, and turns away to look at said espresso machines, Danny smacking him over the head with his thermos immediately and ‘sucking’ him in it. How that thermos worked still confused her a little, it was far too small to fit all that it could and did inside it, rationally.

Danny looks down at her, still floating a few feet up in the air while she’s still crouching, protective desire practically bleeding out of him, “you good, random citizen?”. She also doesn’t understand why he still bothered with that ‘random citizen’ phrase.

She stands up and puts her hands on her hips, “it’s Jazz, you know this. No one actually believes you don’t know their names by now and a concerningly high amount of deeply personal information about them. Do you keep using that phrase as an attempt to lie to yourself about knowing the townsfolk overly well? And that was very manipulative of you with Electrus”. She’s positive she got the ghosts name wrong again.

He blinks disbelievingly at her, “his name’s Technus, he screams his name every time he shows up?”, shaking his head, “and so what if I do? Let me have my lies”.

“Said lies are hardly healthy, mister. If you’re going to continue with being this towns hero, you should aim for quality mental health”.

“I am a model of mental health!”.

Oh he did not just quote a Batman meme at her?!? Zone he was such an utter goof. “You most certainly are not”, shaking her head, Danny and his quips that riled pretty much anyone and everyone up. Yes it could be effective in a fight, and for distracting people from traumatic and dangerous situations, but she’s had a lower tolerance for that pretty much all her little brother’s life. “Now that you’re done ‘socialising’, is there anything I need to-”, sighing, “-‘report’ to my parents?”.

He shakes his head without hesitation, as if going from quips to business so immediately wasn’t remotely jarring; which to him she imagines it mustn’t be, his mind functioned in a more combat and chaos setting after all. “No, Technus didn’t cause too much of a mess beyond this and having them looking everything over would just get in the way”, smirking, “they definitely wont find any new samples from little ol’ me”.

At least he’d gotten better at that. At not leaving behind his ectoplasm beyond the burnt off air born particles he left everywhere he went, just like any other ghost. She’s not sure if he’s realised that she’s been destroying any samples of liquid ectoplasm of his their parents find… if he did, he never let on. He absolutely did know that she knew that he didn’t want them having samples of him, she’d caught him in the lab twice now wrecking either samples or inventions. He also ‘stole’ their inventions for his own use a lot, she truly doesn’t get how their parents haven’t realised that. All they ever really caught on to was him stealing a Fenton thermos and somehow getting it to work, they were always trying to see if they could get it back from him too, looking if he dropped it because ghosts ‘were too singled-minded to keep attention on both a fight and holding a thermos’. At this point her parents being wrong was becoming less ‘ha! I knew they were wrong’ and more genuinely frustrating in a ‘can’t you see the harm you’re doing’ way.

The biggest help she could be to her little brother had always been dealing with their parents. Before he died and after. They never cared enough for either of them and Danny had always been too much of a trouble magnet, to have survived that house a child without her. Now the house tried to shoot him if he let too much of his energy seep out of his skin; which was thankfully something he was good at avoiding most of the time. Nodding with a reassuring smile at him, “good. Now, you’re getting enough ectoplasm right?”.

He groans, with his entire body, “why did you have to go from denial to mothering, ugh”, nodding his head, “yes, mom. I can handle being outside of the Zone a lot”. He doesn’t know she knows he’s effectively never in ‘the Ghost Zone’, which is entirely why she’s worries. She understands that it’s part of him being ‘weird’, even if her understanding of just how ‘weird’ he was was far too limited for her liking, but regardless worrying is what she does. And remembering the first time he ever called her ‘mom’ as a kid and meant it was always a little depressing.

Her quirking an eyebrow at him, “caffeine probably is not the healthiest replacement, you know”.

“Energy’s energy”.

She sighs at that, she didn’t know exactly how true that was. If he was that different from most ghosts. Then he does something that really throws her off, unclipping his thermos and offering it to her? “Will you give it a rest if I let you empty this for me?”. He says that lightheartedly, like it’s a joke, but she knows instantly this is some kind of test in his mind.

He wants to know what she’ll do, what she’ll do with something so useful and important to him; a genuine possession. She knows he has a test to study for, so it will save him time in the long run. But will she come off as ‘like her parents’ if she agrees? How would she go about returning the thermos to him? She obviously can’t simply leave it in his bedroom, that would be announcing that she knew so loudly that she might as well just tell him now instead. Sure doing that would give him the knowledge that she knew about him, without effectively forcing him to talk to her about it, to confront her about it. She stands by that she’d rather him tell her on his own volition entirely, however. That he’d eventually no longer feel the need to protect her from him, or himself from her. “And you’ll get it back from me how? Breaking into my room isn’t very heroic of you, not to mention would hardly save you time”.

He shrugs like it’s nothing, it’s distinctly not nothing though, “I’m literally around Amity multiple times a day, I can catch up to you before school easy enough”.

“This still seems less like a matter of convince, Phantom”.

“It’s a matter of not dealing with the Fenton house hold”.

That’s a lie and she knows it, she simply can’t tell him that. A ghost wanting to avoid a ghost hunters house was logical after all, if it wasn’t for the fact that he slept in it. Shaking her head and holding out her hand for the thermos, the idea of getting caught by her parents with this was a bit nerve-wracking but if it would get him to trust her more then it’s worth it. Plus… perhaps getting to talk to this ghost instead of simply releasing it immediately would be a good idea. “Fine, but if you make me late to class I won’t be impressed”.

And then suddenly she’s got Phantom’s thermos in her hand, something so many wanted to get their hands on for one reason or another. It was a little startling, a little heavy in both the physical and emotional sense, she grips it like it’s as important as it actually was. She can feel the cold of him radiating off of it, the cold that gave away so explicitly what, exactly, he was and wasn’t. Danny eyeing her, caution in his eyes, did she do the right thing? Would he wonder over what she’ll do with it so much that he won’t actually be able to study? Will he send his friends to ‘keep an eye on her’? So many possibilities and uncertainties, she hated uncertainty but she’d tolerate them for her brother. She tolerantes a lot of them for him, even if it was frustrating knowing so little about how he worked now in every sense of the word. He nods strongly, even if it doesn’t reflect in his eyes, “I will”.

“Good”. She stands there watching him float away a little before flying off properly. He does that silly one fist forward flight style, the one he does when he knows people are watching and he’s not completely focused in on whatever he’s doing; another part of the ‘hero’ act he’d adopted to be more appealing and comforting to the town and to himself.

She stands there for a while before lifting up the thermos and staring at it. It was so unassuming, like always, yet it contained not only an entire sentient being but also, metaphorically, her brothers trust in humans. His trust to use something made by humans, his trust to believe humans will accept him protecting them, his trust that if he ever was caught his very human parents would still love him, his trust in her trustability. Shaking her head at the device, she had no true way to know if her brother was keeping an eye on her but… this presented too good an opportunity to ignore. While he was still learning to trust and confide in her, she couldn’t wait on him to learn about him, to protect and look after him. That was her job as his big sister, and like always she couldn’t rely on her parents help with that.

Instead she’d turn to a ghost, it would seem, not Danny himself because she knows he’ll underplay his needs and well being. He may not even understand himself and his own needs fully. Fishing in her pocket to keep the only two devices she actually carried on her out, a scanner to know whether or not Danny was around and a ‘souped up’ lipstick blaster. Passable as normal items that were perfectly reasonable for a teen girl in Amity to have, one was effective to ‘avoid’ ghosts (or to find a little brother who liked to sleep in trees) and the other one was strong enough to do some serious damage. Putting the scanner on a table and holding the blaster up at the thermos, trying to copy Danny and be intimidating without feeling silly, “I’m going to open this and you will stay put, or I’m going to blast you with this till you’re full of holes”.

She gets no response. She doesn’t truly know if the ghost inside can actually hear her. She can only hope. So with a glance at the scanner, Danny’s not here, she lets the ghost out.

“I! AM FREE! MWAHAHAHA!”. She shoots him one in his ghostly tail immediately. “HEY!”.

The ghost actually wilting when she points at him aggressively, “stay put you, I will reiterate, I will fill you full of holes if you don’t play nice”, putting her hand on her hip, “now sit. We’re having a chat about Phantom”. It always felt a bit strange to call her brother that, but it’s the name he’s chosen.

The tech ghost stares at her for a beat, searching for something in her expression it seems. It was almost as if the ghost was being leery of anyone wanting to know about Danny… like he was being protective. He either sees what he wanted to or what he never expected, the ghost going a little wide-eyed, or wide-sunglasses she supposes, “you know”.

So he wasn’t dressed like a scientist for nothing, good, he was out of touch but he was intelligent. She points threatening at him, “and don’t you be telling him that, or else”.

“Or else what? As if a puny human could threaten someone as great as I! Technus! Master of all the electronic devices in the world!”.

… He was also incredibly idiotic. Sometimes she wonders how her brother tolerates the personalities on most of these ghosts. Always having to remind herself that Danny was hard to tolerate sometimes too, he was ‘like them’ as it were. She puts her hands on her hips, “who would you rather be caught by? Danny, or our parents”. The ghost cringes noticeably so she nods firmly and continues, “now, sit. You’re going to tell me what you can about ghosts”. This ghost was an adult, and his tech interests were outdated enough to tell her he’s been dead for some time. Surely, as a scientist, he’d have an interest in learning about his own being?

The ghost seems completely flabbergasted by that question, he does float down to hover over a previously knocked over chair at least, “why?”. He’s not shouting, he’s not posturing and puffing out his chest, he’s taking her seriously.

“Because my parents are biased and I want to know how to look after my little brother like I have since the day he was born”. She hopes that response comes across as firmly as she wants it to.

The ghost, actually seems pleased about that. Taking her word almost immediately and gesturing wildly, “for starters! He’s a very weird ghost. Endangered even! So he’s actually way safer here than the rest of us! Annoying but it makes it so much more fun to fight him! Who would want to fight someone low on energy? Boring! I definitely don’t think his core’s developed at all yet though. Can’t wait to see how tough he’ll be then! Maybe he’ll have an electricity core even! Oh I would love that! It would be supreme to test that against mine! Ha! He probably hurt himself when that comes in though so watch out for that…”; he manages to monologue about ghosts for a very long time, it was almost as if he genuinely wanted someone caring for her brother, something about him being ‘a baby’. As well as wanting him to be strong and capable, genuinely looking forward to him growing as a ghost.

Ghosts must care about younger ones. Her parents couldn’t be more wrong and she, now, couldn’t be happier for that.

End.

Prompts: What if Jazz had a conversation with Phantom before learning he was Danny? What does their next conversation look like when Jazz knows but Danny doesn’t know she knows? If Jazz wanted to help her little brother, she had to learn more about ghosts. But she couldn't ask her parents, for obvious reasons, nor would she go to Danny with her ghost problems until he came to her about his. After searching everywhere online and in the library for any scrap of information, Jazz determined the only way to figure this out was to ask a ghost herself.

#danny phantom #phandom #danny fenton #phicphight24 #have a fic suck my dick #phantomphangphucker #my writing #phic phight #phic phight 2024 #phic phight 24 #jazz fenton #psychology #Jazz is just trying to help #gothmoth #fan fic #phan phic

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phantomphangphucker · 10 days

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Phic Phight - The Green Ribbon Is Staples

@astatia-ghast @q-gorgeous @mr-lancers-english-class @tourettesdog

Danny gets a lot of injuries but every so often he gets one he’s never gotten before, normally that’s just a pain since none of the trio usually know what exactly to do about it but they eventually manage; unfortunately this time it’s a little too revealing.

Chap. 1:

Decapitation Station

Okay. So. Danny’s got a problem. Or twenty. Twenty problems sounds more accurate. Why? Well um, lets rewind a little.

See he was heading home, from detention due to missing homework, like usual, when his ghost sense did what his ghost sense does. So, you know, he had a fight to fight, ghostly ass to kick. It was good ol’ Boxy because of course it was, he should have figured honestly. But the surprising part? The real cut throat turn of events? Yeah apparently Boxy got his hands on multiple boxes -read: more than two- of barbed wire, ecto-barbed wire because apparently Jeb was trying to protect his chickens -he has chicken in his houses tiny back yard for some fucking inane reason, like seriously why? Ugh- from a ghost kitsune.

So Boxy threw the boxes at Danny like he normally does.

Danny let the boxes phase through him like he normally does, because come on? regular boxes are a shit weapon.

But surprise! That turned out to be the dumbest decision he’s made in a long fucking time. Why? Well because the ecto-barbed wire inside the boxes, that he obviously could not see because the boxes were fucking closed, did not go through him like he expect.

They did go through him though. Just... not the way he wanted them to.

Meaning they went through him by cutting through him very literally. He’d realised his fuck up quick enough to minimise the damage but that was because the first box was aimed at his goddamn head. The Box Ghost got to be cut throat for the first time in his entire existence, at the cost of Danny’s head getting fucking whole ass flung into a grocery store wall.

At least this is how Danny got to find out he could still move his body without its head. It’s also how he found out that decapitation is terrifying to ol’ Boxy.

“I! AM SORRY! THAT IS NOT OKAY! I mean you are less circular now!”.

Danny takes the time to have his headless body kick The Box Ghost in the shin as his hearing cuts out before using his thermos, it’s hard as fuck to aim without being able to tell what he’s looking at. Since, apparently, he could use his body without a head but couldn’t use his head without it being still connected to his core, fucking great luck there.

It’s still pathetically easy to catch Boxy, even effectively blind. Using the feel of ecto-energy and ghostly pressure, no matter how weak, to figure out his own location and Boxy’s, aim and fire and he gets the ghost on his third try. No quippy wit of course, since he was down a fucking head holy shit.

At least he manages to find his head, it, unfortunately, does not auto reattach.

... And he can’t see to stitch it on himself. Meaning he needs Sam or Tuck, preferably Sam. But she’s not a ghost, meaning he can’t just locate her ecto-signature. He also can’t just float around Amity cradling his head and hoping she fucking sees him. He also can’t call, because no mouth obviously. So that’s either three or four of his twenty some issues. The fifth is just the pure fact that Boxy of all ghosts is the one to put him in this situation in the first place, talk about embarrassing. Ugh.

Danny settles for calling Tuck, who can absolutely trance the call with ease, and just scrapping the phone speaker on the floor and making thumping noises with his feet. He’d look up morse code if he could see. Zone if he didn’t have Tuck on speed dial he’d be fucked... on second thought he might not have even managed to call Tuck.

Should he try again?

Well it can’t make things worse.

He calls about twenty times and maybe some go through maybe some don’t. He can’t hear if there’s a voicemail. Fuck how is he even gonna know if Tuck does show up? If he had at least one of his heads senses he’d be cool, Tuck always smelled like meat and metal, his voice was an obvious easy identifier or whatever, he did in fact know what the guy’s skin tasted like, and sight was easy.

But touch was all he’s got right now and unless he’s touching a ghost, aka something with an ecto-field, he can barely tell the difference between people. Maybe whoever will clue in and write their name on his arm or something? He can only hope to be that lucky.

…

He is not that lucky.

In multiple ways.

Who ever he’s called is definitely not lean or skinny. Meaning they’re not any of the people he was cool with calling. It’s not Sam’s lean muscled arms with sharp pointed nails. It’s not Tuck’s skinny arms and calloused fingers. It’s not Jazz’s skinny arms and would have been shaking hands. Zone it’s not even Val’s lean toned arms and firm grip.

Whoever it is has thick muscled arms and rough large hands. If the hands where bigger he’d think he really fucked up and called his dad, but they’re not. Plus, his dads hands would probably not be shaking. His dad wouldn’t be freaked out by an injured ghost. His dad would not be handling an injured ghost with gentle care. His dad would not be seemingly attempting to help. His dad would either ‘study’ him or hurt him or capture him.

This person is doing none of those three things. This persons hands are shaking, they are freaked out, and they are helping. Meaning he should be okay enough at least. Problem is he doesn’t know if this person can do stitches well enough to align and reconnect stuff, or if this person is actually anyone he called and not some random person who just happened to be around.

Danny’s got his head cradled in one arm and pressed against his stomach, the person is holding onto that arm, so Danny uses his free hand to point at his head then at his neck, making vague stitching motions and hoping the message is getting across.

He can feel heavy breathes brush against his jumpsuit so he’s guessing that who ever took some restorative breaths, good? Hopefully otherwise he might be very fucked until someone else shows up. Either way Danny moves his head so that he can kinda feel the mangled detached end of it brushing against the mangled detached end of his neck, he thinks he got his head on the right angle but whoever hopefully can line up his spine for him.

Wait shit, if this isn’t Sam, Tuck, or Jazz, which it obviously isn’t, then they won’t know he has a fucking spine since ghosts don’t normally have that shit.

Quickly lifting his head up making the person definitely jerk, to flip it enough for whoever to see the spine end. Gesturing vaguely where he thinks the spine end is, then leaning his body/neck forward and physically grabbing his spine and tapping on it. Hopefully they get it, he gives whoever a thumbs up for moral support before going back to aligning his neck ends and holding his head steady with both hands.

The person goes around his back, their knees pressing up against his lower back and ass, whoever was tall damn. Not his dad tall but definitely at least six foot. Even their knees are shaking though so that’s not great; hopefully they have a decent therapist. Great now he sounds like Jazz, ugh.

The person does tentatively touch his spine bit and Danny’s pretty sure he can feel his heads bit of spine pressing into it. He keeps holding his head when the other person feels to get up.

...

They didn’t just leave did they? The fuck??? Even if he is a ghost that’s still pretty fucked up to just leave him, especially when whoever poked at him and maybe tried to see if they could help.

... Did they maybe go to grab some shit perhaps? Right yeah most people didn’t just walk around everywhere with medi kits and shit.

...

It is taking whoever a while if that’s what they’re- oh wait nevermind, based on the vibrations on the ground he’s going to guess the person is back and it seems like they’re running. Cool. Okay. Definitely had gone to get stuff.

The person damn near knees him in the back when they get back down on the floor with him. Jerk. Danny would scoff or scowl if his head was freaking attached.

They’re grabbing at his spine again so it’s definitely one hundred percent the same person. Good. Cool. He wasn’t totally abandoned headless by a random grocery store.

Then he feels some seriously jarring vibrations travel down from the bit of spine attached to his skull, officially very confused. What the actually crap did whoever run off to get??? Then he feels cold metal on his bodies exposed section of spine, it feels kind of like a flat bar? Oh! OH! Okay he is absolutely getting a metal bracket drilled into his spine to hold it together, that was actually pretty fucked up. Effective hopefully but wow, oof. This was gonna suck so much later.

And now he can’t tell if the person is shaking because of being freaked out or because of the goddamn drill they’re taking to his spine.

He thinks whoever drills on three brackets or metal rods, before the drilling fully and finally stops. He’s starting to get some feeling back in the rest of his spine and the bottom bit of his skull but his actual skin and hair and senses are still a lost cause. Whoever taps he’s shoulder very cautiously and draws a question mark over his jumpsuit, so Danny moves to hold his head up by the hair and takes the other hand off of his head to try and pinch the jagged detached edges of neck skin together, then making the stitching gestures again. He needs his skin at least somewhat securely connected for things to heal at a remotely functional degree, annoying but whatever.

The person writes ‘ok’ on his skin, at least the person was calm enough to try communicating with him now. Neat but Danny’s not going to push shit, instead going back to using both hands to hold his head steady. Unfortunately he had expected this person to, you know, use a sewing needle or something and some fucking thread to stitch his skin up. What he hadn’t expected was the sudden feeling of being shot with two extremely shallow and thin bullets straight in the neck. Ancients fuck what the hell?!? He absolutely jerks from that.

Okay so, this fucker is using a goddamn staple gun he thinks? Did whoever run off to a fucking hardware store? The next staple is a lot shakier and Danny makes a point not to jump, which gets him rewarded with the next staple being less shaky. Danny’s just going along with this because it should? maybe? actually work? Hard to say since he’s never reached for goddamn staples when he’s needed a bit of patching up. This person was probably hoping that securing his spine would be good enough. Well tough shit, his luck ain’t that fuckin’ good.

...

.......

It takes a goddamn while, and he thinks the person is taking fortifying breathers every so often. Which is fair. Stapling a persons neck back on had to be super upsetting and freaky. But! He can actually hear -yes, hear!- the staple gun noises now. It’s alarming a little, way too much like the sound of some of his folks guns but he can take it. But eventually whoever does stop.

“Holy shit this is, so fucked”.

Wait... holy shit, Dash???? Why him of all people???? The fuck? Well... okay guess Danny can’t be complaining too much. The guy had a ton of hero worship going on, so he wasn’t going to dick his goddamn idol over.

Danny tentatively lets go of his head and, when it doesn’t flop over or anything, he gives Dash a double thumbs up.

“Oh, oh thank zone his heads not loling over. Holy shit”.

Danny taps on his ears and gives another thumbs up.

“Are... are you trying to say you can hear again? Fuck this is so screwed up”; it kinda sounded like he ran his hands through his hair roughly.

Danny gives another, but far more eager, thumbs up.

“That’s? That’s good right?”.

Another thumbs up from Danny.

“Okay good. Good. This is so not how I ever wanted to run into my hero. In to you. What the zone even happened?”.

Danny doesn’t know how Dash expects him to answer him. So he makes an ‘x’ with his fingers over his mouth or where it feels like his mouth is anyways.

“Still can’t speak huh?”, he actually snorts even if it sounds shaky as Hell, “that must suck for you”.

Oh hundred percent yes. Danny’s a talkative bastard. Danny flips him off. Apparently that’s really funny because Dash just starts wheeze laughing, it sounds like he flopped down on the ground which is honestly probably really gross, fuck knows what’s on it.

“Zone I just stapled Phantom’s neck together and he flipped me off, what the fuck is today oh ugh”.

Hey if anyone’s having a shit day here it’s him. Sure having to fix him would be pretty fucked but at last Dash wasn’t the one dealing with being fucking decapitated and oh hey his visions coming back some. Blurry as hell but he can, in fact, see. He glances around, there’s a lot of glowing green stuff, probably his ecto, he should probably clean that up; also, he now knows why he usually fixes himself up with thread and not staples, shit is tense and makes his skin pull.

Eyeing Dash, who’s staring at him Danny thinks, Dash jerking and sitting up, “hey the blank stares gone, you got vision back?”.

Danny wiggles his hand back and forth in the air and makes a weird squeaking sound, shrugging. Dash shakes his head disbelievingly, “I can’t believe you can survive losing your freaking head. Man that’s cool. Super freaky and I’m going to have so many nightmares now”.

“Air pee”.

Dash looks at him deeply concerned, opening and closing his mouth a few times before shaking his head and getting up. “You good? I can leave? Wait shit, sign my arm!”.

Danny rolls his eyes but does as he’s asked because he is not nearly enough of an asshole to refuse after the guy stapled and drilled his freaking head back on. Danny also gives him a pretty solid back pat, “you ‘ight”.

“Thanks but no? I’m raiding my dads liquor cabinet immediately”.

Danny can’t even give him shit for that, even if even he knows that ain’t the best way to deal with fucked up shit. Shrugging and stretching out, a lot of things cracking and popping, nice he’s seeing actual proper details now and his spine feels more proper spine like. Shit was gonna take so long to heal though. “Jus’ don’ mae rum ceral an’ don’ wine up inna ‘rigerater”.

Dash sounds horrifically disgusted, “ew and... I won’t?”, the jock somewhat cautiously walks away. Fair enough, Danny just put him through some whack ass shit and then basically admitted to having had rum cereal and crawling into a refrigerator....

Him and his stupid fucking mouth.

...

Okay so what now, if he changes back right now he’s going to start bleeding red everywhere. Fuck right, he’s gotta clean up his ectoplasm. At least that’s a simple thing, floating back down towards the ground and setting it all on fire. Watching the blue flames for a bit and realising that he absolutely can not hide Dash’s patch job for shit.

Well.

Fuck him entirely.

And by ‘him’ he means himself, not Dash. Dash did the best he could and Danny could not expect anyone to do a stellar job of reattaching people’s heads. In fact, someone being remotely skilled at that should be deeply concerning. Even a ghost having that skill would be concerning.

Alright so first things first, find something reflective and check Dash’s work out. Hmmmm. Okay so a chunk of shiny metal will have to do. Him lifting the piece up and around his neck to check it out, flames still burning away, as Sam arrives.

“Danny why did I get a soundless thumping call and why is this entire area on fire?”.

So Dash did a pretty okay-ish job, like yes all the staples are almost all uneven and less than straight, some aren’t in properly and one looks like it got bent to fuck. But his skin is knitting itself back together.

Danny turning around to wave at Sam gets him an instant gasp of horror. “Oh fucking zone, what happened!”.

Danny holds up a finger, “so I can survive decapitation and Dash know’s how to use power tools”, and floats himself around her enough for her to look at his neck, even she’s being leery about touching it or moving his head around. At least his vocal cords have put themselves back together, even if it sounds like he’s eaten an entire box of nails.

“Damn your voice sounds like shit”, she winces, poking one of the staples which Danny absolutely twitches in a bit of discomfort from. Okay so this shit was gonna hurt like a bitch when he changes back, ugh. Her frowning and digging in her pocket, “okay sit down, I’m at least attempting to straighten this shit out. I’m not taking out the staples, it’s healed some so it’ll do less damage to just let your body dissolve the metal”.

“Yeah he also drilled fucking hardware brackets into my spine”.

“Why would let him use that!”.

“I couldn’t see or hear or speak! Sam! I couldn’t tell who it even was that was trying to give me a patch up!”.

Sam rubs her temples sighing, pointing at the ground which fine Danny floats back down towards. At least the flames are dying out, yay for not leaving a crime scene level of ectoplasmic mess that could be traced back to him! Her getting to work immediately, “geez he pulled your skin too tight in some spots and not tight enough in others. Some spots aren’t even lined up well!”.

“Sam give the guy a break, he was terrified! And remotely normal people do not know how to put skin back together unless they’re literally doctors”.

“Yeah well this is going to heal really nasty, it’s already healed nasty”, she points at his face with a slightly ectoplasm stained finger, “and you aren’t missing any jumpsuit meaning unless you feel like adding a choker to your costume you can’t cover this up”.

He was unfortunately aware of that. As Phantom it wasn’t… too big of a deal. It would just raise questions about ghosts being able to get scars and how he got it and if he had more. Zone his folks might even rework some of their research over this. But… it would make people worry and he didn’t want that. “Considering the choker wouldn’t even be part of my actual form, I’d just wind up wrecking it. But-”.

She huffs, unclipping her own choker and holding it in front of his face, “you better have been about to say ‘but I should at least cover it up while it’s healing’ Danny. I have a million of these things, go ahead and destroy a few”; she drops it on his lap and continues moving his floating ass around to stitch between the staples.

Danny sighs to himself, careful not to swallow or move his Adam’s apple too much, “fine, but I’m just going to wear turtlenecks as Fenton, a chokers a little too attention drawing when I don’t normally wear that shit”.

She just scoffs as she continues her work.

Would a turtle neck hide this shit? Not if anyone remotely looked at him with any degree of attention even slightly. Like a child wouldn’t notice purely by being a lot smaller than him but that’s it. Unfortunately a choker or handkerchief will just make people more likely to look at his neck, and bandages would be even worse. Aka he doesn’t really have any options here.

Sam nodding and leaning back, “okay, you’re good. This is a seriously messed up injury though, you caught the ghost who did this? It was a ghost right?”.

Danny blushes immediately, “it was a ghost yeah, and ugh, I’m never living this down”, sighing into a hand and trying to ignore the way the staples pull, “it was fucking Boxy”. She laughs scandalised at him. Danny groaning more, “yeah yeah laugh it up. He actually scared himself”. She laughs even more and fine he joins in a little too. Fuck today so much.

…

After a bit she pokes his floating ass, “you should change back, so you get over the pain before we get you home and in bed. Your parents are still doing late night hunts right?”.

Danny sighs, putting his feet on the ground and nodding, “unfortunately, yeah”, moving to rub his neck before remembering that would be a fucking dumb idea and scratching his hair instead, his head felt unpleasantly fresh, “sure it means I don’t have to deal with their questioning but ugh”. They would somehow manage to get themselves involved in one of his late night ghost fights and shoot at him, it was annoying and every time it happened whatever ghost he was fighting legit debated throwing hands with his parents for real. Some purely because the Fenton’s shot first, others because they were interrupting their chosen ‘Phantom fist-a-cuffs’ time, others because they knew Phantom wouldn’t do it himself.

Anyway.

Human time.

Ha. This was gonna suck. Sure not as much as that time Tuck had to haphazardly shove his organs back inside him and Danny had to change back before said organs could reorganise themselves, but still. He cringes his whole face up in anticipation as he lets the change flow over him. “ANCIENTS FUCK!”, bending over, one hand on a now shaking knee, and the other tenderly over the front of his neck.

Ow.

Holy shit.

Fucking Hell he is never getting decapitated again. Oh Ancients.

He can taste metal inside his throat and he can’t tell if that’s blood or actual literal metal. The spine bolts are awful actually, he should not have let Dash do that. Oh he is regretting everything so much. “FUCK! OW! WHY DID I LET HIM DO THAT!”.

Sam pats his back as he drops his hand from his neck, touching would only make it worse, both hands on his knees and wheezing now. His neck was on fire and extremely cold all at once and it was fucking stupid and he hated it. He can feel his ecto attacking the metal, it burned more than he’d like. Swallowing, “oh that was such a bad idea”, he is not eating anything for a while. Pushing himself to stand up and blinking tears out of his eyes, “I, ow, am phasing all my food directly into my stomach for a while. Oh zone, this sucks”.

San pats his back again, “figured. Definitely no swallowing utensils for you for a bit”.

“Sam, if a fork prong got caught on or nicked the stupid bolts, which some are definitely partly inside my throat and bolted back to my spine, I will scream immediately”. Zone he would have screamed from changing back if he hadn’t been prepared for it to hurt like a son of a bitch.

She nods, “and I wouldn’t blame you”, scowling, “I still can’t believe you let Dash drill fucking Home Depot bolts into your neck. You know how dirty those things probably were? Ugh. Now stand still, you’re leaking”.

Danny has to clench his fists something fierce, fingernails digging into the palms of his hands, to keep from flinching as she wipes a cloth around his neck. Rolling his eyes at her whipping the side of his mouth too with a stupid smirk. “How bad does it look?”; he does not feel like going through the effort and pain of trying to use that bit of metal to look it over again.

“Bad. Danny. Gnarly and jagged. The staples stick out really harshly”, frowning and crossing her eyes as they cautiously and carefully make their way out from behind/around the grocery store which was thankfully closed. “When I stitch you up I always try to make it blend smoothly with your skin as much as possible, Dash was definitely not thinking about that, which fine I can’t blame him for, but still”, grimacing, “you better be really careful about what turtlenecks you wear, otherwise the staples are going to catch on the fabric”.

Danny full body winces, oh zone that would suck. He might maybe be able to resist screaming at that but he’ll definitely at least suck in a really ragged breath and curl in on himself. He was used to pain but still; he doesn’t even want to move his head or neck around. And of course his voice still sounded like hot garbage but considering the bolt attaching the inside of his throat to his spine that made sense. He really wishes Dash had positioned that one bracket and set of bolts differently. He can absolutely feel the metal bar being squished between his throat and spine. Ugh.

Shaking his head as they finally make their way back to FentonWorks. Sam giving him another pat, “you good to see yourself to bed or am I helping the injured baby”.

Danny snorts, “oh shove it”, chuckling, “I can handle my self but I am absolutely taking the fuzzy blanket off of my bed because I do not want to get woken up by my bed ripping out a staple”.

“Smart choice”.

She heads off with a simple wave and chuckle at Danny sticking out his tongue, at least he had motor control of said tongue again. Okay, now get lunch and go to bed before his parents possibly show up.

He grabs out the left over chilli, that is thankfully not sentient or moldy, and phases it into his stomach. Was it going to take a bit to digest? Yes, obviously. But he was absolutely not chewing this shit and swallowing it. He’s had enough unintentional pain for one day that he absolutely does not feel up to adding in any intentional pain.

The fluffy blanket that was super comfortable especially when his muscles were all achey, gets torn off and left on the floor in a heap. His floor isn’t exactly ‘clean’ but that doesn’t really matter to his sorry ass; he is going the fuck to sleep.

“Nocturne bless this fucking bed”.

Chap. 2:

The Un-hide-able Kind Of Damage

Did Danny sleep the whole night away? Obviously not. That never fucking happens. But no one serious showed up and every single one that showed up took one look at his neck and noped out. Apparently there was a bit of a code to not mess with Phantom if he was rocking some injury that was really fucked up. It’s didn’t help that it looked gnarly regardless of form... the choker barely helped and he forgot it almost every time.

But he managed to make it to morning without further neck or throat damage. He also did not see any online photos or videos of the damage, so far so good.

He absolutely meticulously inspects his turtleneck options for loose thread or snaggy material. He’s left with a total of three wearable sweaters, not great but not, you know, bad either. The one he goes with is a dark red, in case he bleeds a little, and has a burning Christmas’s tree on it, because anytime is the right time to say fuck you to Christmas. Dumbass holiday, that one. He phases the thing on because he is not dealing with trying to get his head and thusly neck through the long turtleneck part, shit’s painful enough as it is. Him fiddling with the collar in the mirror, the wound is still jagged enough that the fabric brushing against the edges sends twinges of pain up and down his neck. It’s not great. Not at all. Plus, it covers the wound about as well as he expected it to; if anyone one stares or specifically looks at his neck then he’s screwed.

He’s seriously tempted to just... not go to school. Zone spending the day laying in the park would be better. But the lasts thing he needs is the school calling his parents and them wanting to have a talk with him. Or everything forbid he runs into them while he’s supposed to be in class. Even if he was still getting along with them, which he’s not going to be anytime soon, he wouldn’t want them around him to possibly notice he’s injured.

Meaning school pretty much has to happen. Sighing to himself and moving down the stairs gingerly enough to not make his sweater move, heading out to go suffer through wildly unnecessary schooling.

…

He waves at Sam and Tuck, they’re huddled by his locker, man does he ever love them. Tuck looks so worried at him, “show me immediately. What the hell, man”.

Danny smirking and gingerly pulling out and down his sweater, wincing a little from the pressure against the back of his neck, “Sam told you?”.

Tuck’s entire face cringes up, “damn that’s hardcore, did you actually thank Dash for doing that to your poor neck”.

Danny letting go of his sweater and bopping the techno geek on the head, “he literally reattached my head, of course I did”, shrugging, “sure the way he did it is a little shit and a pain in the ass but at least I have a head again”.

Both of them roll their eyes at him but they’re smiling so it’s pretty clear it’s all in good fun and jest. Tuck poking him, “oh and we’ve already agreed that we’re taking your notes because you absolutely shouldn’t be lifting and lowering you head constantly for hours. You should be attempting to heal”.

“Pfft, since when do I go out of my way specifically for healing but I’m lazy and you guys know that, meaning you know I’m not gonna say no”.

All three chuckling as him and Tuck head to their first class, Sam going her own way after a bit.

Danny makes it though exactly twenty three minutes of class before his ghost sense goes off. At least the ice going up his throat felt faintly soothing, as he shoots his arm up, “bathroom”, and leaves without being given the go ahead. No one ever tried to stop him anymore, all he would get was annoyed glares or sad ones in Lancer’s case.

Pulling into the bathroom and changing, relishing the lack of pain for a bit before zipping up invisibly through the ceiling; he’s got a ghost to track down.

He has absolutely no issue finding the ghost. Why?

Because he immediately head butted a motorcycle the second his head exited the fucking roof top.

His poor neck. Zone. Why him?

Danny floating backwards, rubbing his head and grumbling, “Johnny? What the hell, man?”.

“Oh damn you really did get decapitated, huh?”.

“The fuck you think? Duh”, sighing and crossing his arms at the ghost, “did you just show up to see for yourself?”. He’s going to be a little pissed if that’s the case. He can do without the ghosts doing ‘wellness checks’ on him anymore than certain ones already did.

Johnny snorts, “surprised it didn’t wind up mounted on a wall”.

To be fair, that’s kinda what Danny himself thought would be what happened if he ever did lose his damn head, but that was mostly because of Skulker being the only one that usually tried to ‘relive’ him of his head. Scoffing, “as if I’d ever let Skulker’s sorry ass take my freaking head. Now are you gonna leave peacefully or are you gonna start doing donuts on the rooftop?”.

“That second one sounds pretty solid but I don’t feel like dealing with your head falling back off because that looks like a damn hack job”.

“Hey! You try fixing anything while blind, deaf, and unable to taste or smell!”.

“Damn”.

Danny chuckling, “I know, right? Now you leaving or?”, and making shooing motions.

Johnny smirks, revving his engine. Danny sighing mentally because he knows that translates to ‘let’s play tag, mother fucker’. Johnny shoots off with a, “depends if you can catch me, Phantom”. Typical.

“Damn it, Johnny!”. And now Danny’s off chasing Johnny and his stupid motorcycle. He rarely actually tries to shoot the guy because it feels like a dick move when all the guy generally does is street race and drive on roofs. Hell some of the twenty-something’s actually adored the biker and would race him; which fine Danny let slide because he thought it was a nice human/ghost bonding experience even if it was technically a crime. But hey, Danny’s existence was technically a crime too so why should he care anyways?

Plus, if he’s being honest, chase racing him was kinda fun, felt a little more like being his actual age again. It’s was practically play for him, which was slightly sad, but they only make it a few streets down and destroy one streetlight before Danny’s got Johnny souped. Danny flipping the thermos in the air a little sillily.

“Oh zone! are you okay!”.

Danny jerks in the air and looks somewhat down at the person that looked to be having tea on their balcony. “Yes, worry not citizen”.

Fuck Danny’s luck, the guy points at his own neck, “uh, you sure about that?”.

Crap. What should he say? “Worry not, it’s not fresh and is healing perfectly fine”. Danny salutes and basically flees the conversation. Especially since he heard the guy whisper about how ‘holy shit ghosts can get actual long term injuries???’. Not good.

He basically speed walks to his home ec class with Sam. Poking her a little hard and trying to ignore the stupid pain in his throat and the fact that he’s pretty sure headbutting a motorcycle bent on of the brackets Dash drilled to goddamn his neck, “a civilian noticed”.

“Well shit. Not surprised but still”, Sam shrugs, “well Tucker’s got any mentions of you set up to ping him so we’ll see if this person keeps things to themselves or not”.

After all, there really wasn’t much else any of them could do.

…

Does he get a ping from Tuck? Absolutely. It takes all of eight minutes. Danny groaning to himself, he’d thump his head on the table but that would probably hurt something fierce.

Treft26fu: @ whoever DECAPITAED Phantom, you suck and he is weirdly okay with it

Treft26fu: or maybe whoever just wrapped a cord around his neck and TRIED to decapitate him

Treft26fu: anyway this just in ghosts can get proper people like injuries

The guy goes on a tangent for a while actually. Tuck’s managed to actually block the comments from being visible to anyone, thank fuck. Tuck throwing a proper text his way.

Geek: what do you want me to do if he notices no one’s responding to his comments?

Danny humming to himself, the vibrations down his throat aren’t great but aren’t bad either. Well most people would be annoyed if they found out Phantom was silencing them or someone else.

Ghost: pretend to be the G.I.W. silencing people from releasing ghosts are sentient feeling beings

Geek: *snort* nice. So that’s ’I’ll take anti-G.I.W. propaganda for $100’.

Ghost: I’ll take subtle beginning of an uprising for $200

Geek: creating deepfakes in 3… 2.. 1.

Danny just rolls his eyes at the guy not responding after that. Mrs. Canecher snapping, “eyes up here, Fenton”, startling him a little and making him jerk; more than a few people laugh at him. Jerks.

At least he makes it through the rest of his class, goddamn.

Of course that’s exactly when shit goes south. In the form of one Dash Baxter… again kinda. Dash bodily shouldering him into the wall as soon as Danny makes it out of the classroom. And of course Danny winces from that, because getting bashed into a wall is kind of jarring to the fucking bolts and staples in his fucking neck, thank you very much Dash.

Dash’s sneer is practically a growl, even if his eyes don’t really look to be in it, “aw look at little pathetic Fen-tiny flinching from a wall. How ‘bout I give you a real reason to flinch from me”.

Dash grabbing his sweater collar and yanking him up off the ground at the same time as both Danny and Sam snap, “don’t!”.

Dash of course scoffs at their attempt to stop him, sneering down at Danny and ramming him into the wall. Danny closing an eye, wincing, and hissing in pain and frustration. Why did Dash have to be such a fucking jerk all the time? And oh great it feels like that bent bit of metal bracket is being pressed into a fucking vein or something since a quarter of his neck is going numb and fuzzy. Fucking ow. He can feel some portions of nails getting pushed deeper into his skin and blood welling up around them. Wheezing, “put me, down, Dash”; wow his voice sounded extra shit. Like he’d gone and rubbed sand paper on all the nail cuts.

Then Sam, his boss ass him-damned friend, has her boot off and wielded in record time, fully prepared to beat Dash with it regardless of Danny making it very clear he doesn’t want his friends doing that shit to Dash or any other bullies for his sake. He’d rather himself be bullied than anyone weaker/more fragile. Hopefully the fact that she’s doing that when she normally doesn’t is enough to make Dash realise that she’s serious and he needs to fuck off.

Course Dash doesn’t even seem to notice, instead glaring down at a glaring Danny. Which at first makes Danny think this is some ‘dominance’ crap where Dash is just trying to get him ‘scared’ and get him to ‘back down’ and act meek. But a second or two going by and Dash’s glare looking progressively more horrified, gets Danny to actually slap Dash’s wrist off of him.

Shit.

Okay.

Flee?

Flee.

The second Danny’s feet are back on the ground he grabs Sam’s wrist and books it; Dash too stunned to do anything till Danny’s got them around a corner. Danny turning the two of them invisible immediately so he can tenderly put a few fingers up to his throat and wheezing in pain.

Sam whispering, “you good”. Danny shaking his head, blinking away a bit of tearing, and whispering back, “honestly no. He’s, he’s, probably, the worst, person to, notice, this”.

“Considering it’s his handy work?”.

Danny winces a little, nodding slightly and being mildly pissed at the way that pulls on the staples.

Both stilling and staring when Dash, still looking a little horrified, appears around the corner and looks around, him frowning in confusion, “what? Where?”. When he seems sold on currently being alone he stares at the ground, then at his slightly shaking hands, and mutters, “am I just hallucinating now?”, and actually curls in on himself a little as he walks off quickly.

Great. Now Danny feels bad. He’s not trying to make Dash question his own sanity! Ugh. And then Danny feels something hard and definitely metal drop in his throat, instantly sending him into a coughing fit, and practically collapsing to the floor in pain; he absolutely drops the invisibility without really paying any attention to having done so. Sam following him down to ground, worried.

Of course all this results in Dash basically rushing back to see Danny kneeling on the ground, one hand on his throat and another on the ground, while Sam is rubbing his back and glaring bloody murder at the returning jock.

Danny coughs up the end of one of the fucking bolts, it clinking on the ground is extremely loud and it fucking rolls away because of course it does, rolls away right into Dash’s shoe. The clink of it falling over feels like a thunderclap while Danny’s still wheezing and screwing his face up in pain.

At least no one’s in the hallway now, having moved quickly off to their classes the second Sam started actually threatening Dash with her boot; her wrath was well-feared, good. She’d be proud, if Danny wasn’t currently groaning into the floor.

Danny lifting up his head enough to eye Dash staring down at the bolt end touching his foot, Danny deciding fuck it and flopping onto his back on the ground with a wet cough and wince. Sam glancing down at him, “you going to just lay there?”, then going back to staring at Dash.

Danny groans again, absolutely crying a little, “I, am ’ever, lettin’, ‘one bolt, my fuckin’, ’eck, agin”.

Dash fucking squeaks of all things and shuffles over to stare down at Danny, cautiously avoiding the glaring goth. Danny glares at Dash without much feeling, “what? Go’, any ‘ore insuls, to ‘row, my ‘ay?”, coughing wetly and wiping at his mouth with a sleeve, careful not to jostle his head, “or ‘eel, like tossin’, e ‘round, ‘ore?”.

Dash blinks harshly and speaks again, “Phantom? You… coughed up a bolt end”, the guy is fiddling with the damn corroded off bolt end, the green burning on it is very stark. Why the fuck was the guy fiddling with that thing? Ugh.

Sam jerking out a hand, glaring at the jock, “give it and go away”.

“What? I- no! Screw off Manson!”. Ah Dash sounds slightly more normal now. Still freaked but not weirdly flat anymore.

Danny snickers, wincing from his throats bullshit, “I ‘ean, ur the one, eno ‘rewed my, ‘roat”.

Sam groans immediately at him, “goddamn it, Danny”.

Even Dash winces down at him, “Zone fuck, holy shit, you’re… Phantom?”, the guy drops the bolt and runs his hands through his hair, “oh zone I reattached Fenton’s head, zone”. Sam running after the rolling bolt, “damn you too, Dash”. Danny has faith she’ll get it before it causes any issues. Dash is busy pacing in circles currently so…

Yeah. Not helpful.

Fuck his neck felt kinda totally raw in spots and based on the wetness on the back of his neck and head he’s gonna guess he’s making a bit of a puddle of blood. Fun. Ow. Wheezing, “this, this is, ‘finitly the ‘econd, wors’ ‘jury, I’ve had”. He can feel one of the holes in his throat sliding back and forth across the length of the bolt when he talks or swallows. This is hell a little bit.

Dash stops and crouches down on his ankles near Danny’s head staring at him but only kinda seeing him, “second? Worst?”, sputtering, “decapitation? Is second place? What? And I’m? Staring down at Phantom?”, blinking harshly, “Fenton’s-your Phantom?”.

Sam comes back and smacks Dash over the head, “you better keep that to yourself, jackass, now help me move Danny to a bathroom or else”, and grabs one of Danny’s arm, Danny just smacking her with the other as a way to give it over. At least Dash jerks up harshly and does grab his ankles, because yeah Danny’s not standing up right now, not a chance. Dash muttering, “never met your heroes, you might have to put their head back on and find out they’ve been letting you beat them up”.

Danny, with his head resting on one arm so he doesn’t have to strain his -very injured and still stitching itself back together- neck muscles to hold his head up, “gla’ ta see yur handlin’ tis well”. As it is, all this being moved crap is making him feel like one of the staples has popped out partly and is just swinging around tugging on bits of still attached skin.

“Danny, shut up before you jack your throat up even more”. Danny huffing an extremely cold breath at her for that. Her glaring down at him, “jerk”, he can tell her hearts not really in the insult though which was absolutely because he was being an ass purely because his throat felt like it was trying to rekill him and AND now someone has basically figured his shit out. Ugh.

At least they make it into the bathroom, without anyone noticing. Of course the door swings back open the second it closes though, it’s Tuck thank everything; meanwhile Sam vaguely gently puts Danny’s arms, and thus head and neck and upper back, down. Sam and Tuck rounding on Dash who’s still holding Danny’s ankles up for some dumb reason, they point aggressively at the jock, growling, “you”.

Danny wheezing from his less than comfortable position only halfway laying on the floor, “‘ash, if ya ‘on’t, put me ‘own, Imma, ‘ick ya”. Dash doesn’t even react to Sam’s and Tuck’s fingers pointing in his face so Danny absolutely intangibly frees an ankle from the guys hand and kicks him one in the chin; Dash sputtering and dropping Danny’s other ankle immediately.

At least he’s now back entirely on the ground, the nice cold sweet ground. The faint metallic plink on the ground absolutely means he definitely lost a staple though, way too quiet to have been a whole ass bolt; plus he’s pretty sure there’d have to be a big gapping hole for one of those to actually fall through a hole in his skin then onto the floor. The plink also getting Tuck’s attention, him lifting Danny’s head up gingerly and pocketing the kinda eroded staple, Danny doesn’t even look at him, “today is ‘hit”.

Tuck ruffles his hair quickly, “and you sound like shit”, before standing back up and crossing his arms at Dash.

“Ya rye ahvin’ a suck in’ ‘roat wound”.

Sam sighs, explaining to Tuck for Danny, “he coughed up a bolt end and even though I told him to stop talking he won’t shut up”, glaring at Dash more aggressively, “so?”. While Tuck gives Danny a chastising, “dude”. Danny just shrugging his shoulders, wincing at the neck movement, and going back to staring emptily at the bathroom ceiling.

He really shouldn’t have come to school. Like at all. Absolutely terrible decision. Stupid him. Stupid stupid him. Ugh.

Dash’s swallow is loud and makes Danny internally cringe at how much swallowing that aggressively would hurt right now. “So the thing I gave myself a massive hangover over has come back to haunt me on Fenton’s neck, what the fuck”.

Danny blinks, wheezing instead of chuckling, “ah. Ya ‘ctually raid-ed, folk’ lior’ cabnet?”.

Sam and Tuck giving him judgemental looks, while Dash throws his hands out baffled, “I spent an hour shaking and stapling my heroes neck what of course I did-what-oh-my-zone-this-is-a-nightmare”, and starts pacing in circles again.

Tuck chuckles though, eyeing the jock, “are you saying that because Phantom’s Fenton or because of having to deal with a horrific injury”.

“Both!”, Dash stops and gestures aggressively at the geek, “both”, sticking both arms down at Danny, “how even? Zone fuck did your parents experiment on you or something?”, screwing up his face and seemingly speaking more so to himself, “can I get away with beating the Fenton’s up?”.

Danny snorts, wincing, “ow fuck. Naw, my ‘ad, will ‘reak you, ‘ike a ‘ooth-ick, ‘ash”.

“That doesn’t mean he will!”, shaking his arms at Danny, “you didn’t”,

Sam scowls down at Danny, “Danny, shut. Up”, then walking closer to Dash and pointing a finger right in Dash’s face, “one, Danny will be mad if you try to fight his dad. Two, he’ll stop you and fuck his throat up more anyways. Three, it was an accident that you have no damn right to know anything about you asshat. Four-”, signing and dropping her hand, “-my opinion of you just, unfortunately, went up a notch”.

Danny blinking and turning his head, ow, enough to look at her, “oily ‘hit”,

“Shut. Up”.

Danny huffs at her, pushing himself to sit upright with some effort, pointing at Dash then shrugging and dropping his hand.

Dash blinks, “how are you so calm if you’re not dead”.

Tuck groaning, “oh he is dead, just not entirely”.

“That makes zero sense, loser”.

Danny is having none of that, he lifts a hand up again and ecto-blasts the bathroom stall next to Dash’s head. Dash jumps, squeaks, and slowly looks to stare at Danny wide-eyed. Danny quirking an eyebrow, “bad”.

“I- um- okay?”, Dash still sounds squeaky, looking at Sam and Tuck, “holy shit you’re sidekicks”.

For once both Sam and Tuck facepalm for a reason other than Danny being a dumbass. Tuck laughing while Sam sighs, “yes, Dash, obviously”, gesturing at Danny who grins dumbly, “you really think we’d let this dumbass do shit on his own? He’d do something stupider than he usually does”, grimacing at Danny, “Danny, you’re leaking again”.

This time it’s Tuck sighing and grabbing some paper towel to clean Danny’s throat and mouth off. Danny’s almost tempted to wheeze really hard to maybe get blood splattered around but that would be really dumb and really painful for no good fucking reason. He just really hates today and his stupid body right now. Grinning instead, “‘ink ya can un’end a bracke’? Kinda ‘ill ’on’t have feelin’ in ‘art of mi ‘eck”.

Tuck glares at him, “what”, sighing disbelievingly, “you shoulda mentioned that immediately, man. Why do you do this shit to us and yourself”.

Dash flinching, “did I mess up?”, while Tuck moves around to where Danny’s tapping his neck. Danny shrugging, “I ‘ean, num’ ‘eans naw pain, sew”, and shrugs. And sure, part of his mouth was also numb which wasn’t great but hey at least the pain is mostly only radiating from other sections of his neck, giving him one little area of relief.

Sam gestures at Danny though still staring at Dash, “see what I mean. A Dumbass”.

Dash actually nods agreeingly, jerk, before backing up a step or two when Tuck pulls out his personal media kit and one of those sharp art knives from inside, tweezers too but that was probably less startling to the jock. “Going to have to rip a few out, man. And probably cut some stuff”. Him yanking out a staple actually takes so much effort Tuck falls on his back.

Danny cringing, ow, “my ‘ody sure ha’ attichme’ isdues, huh?”. Tuck pushing himself up and clamping down on another staple, “you suck. Sam you wanna help instead of glaring Dash out of existence?”.

The goth huffs, points aggressively at Dash, “you. Stay”, before moving over and grabbing the wannabe scalpel; Danny gripping his knees at the almost feeling of sharp metal on skin.

Oh great it kinda looks like Dash is shaking a bit again. Lovely. But the guy shakes himself off somewhat and actually comes over to help, sorta help at least, too. Grabbing Danny’s shoulders to, Danny guesses, keep him steady.

Danny absolutely feels the second Sam, or Tuck he’s not looking, gets the metal unbent. Him jerking forward, a hand to his neck and headbutting Dash’s chest, “ow! Fuck! Shit! Agh!”. Okay note to self, no pain for a while thanks to numbness equals sudden intense pain when numbness goes goodbye bye. Ow. Why is he so stupid? And Dash is so startled he doesn’t even move or do anything more than huff like he just got the wind knocked out of him which he probably did; Dash falling on his ass seconds later, “shit Fenton! Ow!”.

Sam moving quickly to stitch up the hole she had to cut in him to get good enough access to fix his shit, “stay still, your lucky you didn’t rebend the thing”, grumbling to herself, “at least that jerk bought solid brackets”.

Dash wheezing a little and rubbing his chest, “I wasn’t going to patch freaking Phantom up with cheap shit he’d break in a fight”.

Tuck getting up to clean things, and himself, off in the sink, “that’s actually smart, congrats”, eyeing Sam and Danny, “how’d it get bent anyways”.

Sam growling without looking away from the work she’s almost done, “Dash here slammed him into a wall”.

Danny, kinda staring at Dash as something to do and trying to ignore the pain and pulsing, “actulie I head’utted Jon’s ‘ike”,

“Why would you do that!”.

“Acci’en’! Gosh!”.

Sam huffing, “well the wall didn’t help”, then looking at Dash as she cleans her own hands, “like I said, he’s a dumbass”.

Dash nods slowly, “yeah”, looking down at Danny, who’s just sitting on the ground slightly curled in on himself, “is, are you gonna be good? And why did this hurt but not me drilling your spine?”.

Tuck actually gives Dash a supportive backhanded swat on the arm, grinning, “don’t worry about it, he heals like a beast. Also, he doesn’t feel pain as Phantom”.

Danny straightening out some and stretching, wincing at the throat hole moving over the exposed bolt again, “a ‘essing and curs’”, and promptly coughing again, spitting up metal bits, at least he caught all the shreds and corroded bits in his hand this time. Grimacing at the mess of spit, blood, and metal; getting up with a stagger to wash his hand off, “ew”.

Dash gestures aggressively at Danny as Danny turns around to eye him, “I wouldn’t call that ‘healing’ at all!”.

“Dude, ya re-atta-ed mi ‘ead! Imma ‘ay Imma doin’ a damn ‘ood job”. Oh hey, it’s slightly easier to talk now, cool. It feels like that one hole is closing up now, that musta been where the metal he was just coughing up came from.

Dash opens and closes his mouth, humming and shrugging after a beat, “yeah I guess that would kill most people, huh”. Danny wheeze laughing as Sam and Tuck shout, “YES!”, at that.

No one says anything for a bit until Danny clears his throat, which was dumb to do, and winces. At least one throat hole is gone now, he is so not going to class until he apparently coughs up the other bolt end. “Okay. So. We ‘ood?”.

Tuck grinning at Danny, “well you sound slightly better”.

Danny shrugging, “bye bye ‘aping throat wound”. Tuck gives him a thumbs up like a real friend. Then, of course, he feels the other bolt end inside his throat fall, fuck. That of course causes another coughing fit that sends him to the ground again, Tuck and Sam rushing over to pat his back hard till the damn bolt gets coughed up. Danny just groaning and rolling to lay on his back again, “mevar ‘ind”.

Dash wheezes, “I- um, we’re good. Yeah we’re good. But if I ever run up on an injured Phantom I’m calling your idiot friends since I clearly suck at it”,

Tuck waving Dash off, “Dash, none of us would have known what to do with a decapitation. That was a first for Danny-dude”.

“Yay ‘or mi”, Danny shaking away a few tears, man his body was an asshole. Sitting up enough to look at Dash more properly, “ya ‘id ‘ood”.

Sam snapping, “no he did not!”.

Danny pointing aggressively at her,“tis ’raight an’ ha-n’t fallen oof”.

“That doesn’t mean much”.

“Be ‘orse it I ‘ried to mi ‘elf!”.

“Your head would be backwards and upside down somehow if you did it yourself, moron”,

Danny flips her off. Dash actually chuckles though, “this is the weirdest conversation I’ve ever been in, wow”, then collapsing against a bathroom stall, which causes the doors to open, which results in Dash falling backward with a yelp and fucking knocking himself out with the toilet.

You.. you gotta be kidding? Seriously? Danny blinks, “‘eri-yous-lie?”. Sam actually bursts out laughing while Tuck runs over to help get Dash out of the stall, him snapping, “don’t you even try to think about helping, Danny”.

“Eh I ‘ink I ‘elped enou’ bi ‘ockin’ ‘im out”.

“No”.

“Yes”.

Sam and Tuck glare at each other before laughing, all three of them winding up on the floor laughing, or wheezing in Danny’s case. Dash groaning from the floor a few seconds later, “did I just get knocked out by a toilet?”.

Sam snorts, smirk showing in her voice, “yup”.

“That’s really hilarious actually”, Dash shakes his head, “if I wasn’t probably high on Advil my head would kill me”.

“Hey, at ‘east ‘vil actu-eel ‘orks on ya”.

Dash snorts, “that’s rough man”.

“Eel mi ‘out it”.

“I have no idea what you just said”.

“Piss oof”.

Danny and Tuck pushing themselves to sit up, meaning that now everyone’s basically just sitting in a sorta circle in a men’s bathroom. Cool. Man his throat is killing him though. The fresh stitches on the back left side of his neck stand out in the swath of pain pretty noticeably, why? Because they hurt less. A staple gun was never, ever, getting added to the medi kits; Ancients.

Tuck eyeing Dash, “so, are you actually going to keep your mouth shut about this? About finding out your idols secret identity?”.

Dash puts up his hands, “I’m not Wes, I’m not that stupid”, flushing a little, “but I definitely did tell Kwan about, uh”, gesturing awkwardly at Danny, “patching you? up? Yeah”.

Danny shrugs, trying not to move his neck with the motion, it kinda works, “eh, figs”.

Tuck chuckling and shaking his head, “he means ‘figures’, which yeah even Sam can’t blame you for venting to your best friend, that would be a dick move. Right Sam”.

Sam scowls, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms, before sighing, “fine. It really would be”. Danny giving her and the jock thumbs up, because yeah, talking was not helping his healing ass like at all.

Dash chuckles awkwardly, “yeah, Kwan’s the best”.

Sam sighing, “Kwan will also realise Danny’s Phantom if he sees”, rubbing her temples, “meaning we still have a jock to keep an eye out for”.

Absently, Danny knows it would be a massive dick move to force Dash to keep this from his best friend. Granted Sam and Tuck might also beat him if he gives the jock the go ahead to tell Kwan. But unfortunately Dash continues, “and he did tell Star, who told Paulina, who, uh, told all the cheerleaders, who probably told everyone”.

Sam glares murderously at Dash then Danny, “I’m going to kill him”.

Danny pouting, “‘am, it is ‘ery rude ta ‘reaten ta kill some-on in ‘ront of a ‘hos’”; and then spits up some metal and just rubs it on his pants, he’ll wash them later maybe. All three grimace at him. Whatever.

“Um, let me point out that they did tell everyone and I did not expect to witness hardcore medical drama and hear mind breaking info when I decided to take a smoke break inside for a change. Hi”.

All four jerk and slowly look at the guy peaking out from a slightly open bathroom stall door. Well. Damn it. Screw his existence entirely. Dash and Sam getting up instantly and both looking ready to beat this guy into silence for Danny’s sake. Aw, they’re bonding over murderous intent, how utterly evil and adorable. Meanwhile, Danny decided fuck it and grabs out his phone. Moving to the Amity Teens chat:

thealivedanny: those whose eyes see have mouths that don’t move

Haleykaley: that’s ominous hot shit

Bailnwail: has Fentons phone been possessed again?

Tuck’s phone pings, “Danny… why did my phone just ping the sound it does when you message a public chat?”.

“Eye do ya hav’ a ‘iose spec-fy for mi?”.

“I’ve had one ever since someone accidentally messaged the very public gaming chat a death threat meant for Vlad and a picture of your broken arm with exposed bone”, Tuck glancing at his phone, “ah you’re just terrorising the masses, I see”.

The guy comes out of the bathroom stall entirely, hands up at the goth and jock, “hey I ain’t my fault you guys didn’t do a sweep of the place before starting your soap opera medical drama”.

Danny holding up a finger, “echly it’s a super-atura drame”.

“Debatable”, the guy clears his throat, “look it doesn’t really look like there’s any point in silence here but I ain’t no fucking punk ass snitch”, dropping his hands and shrugging, “just ignore me stealing baby formula for my kid brother and we good”.

Danny pushing himself to stand up, his throat felt less hole filled now, “man, I’a eel tha’ shit fer ya”. Then glancing at his phone when it pings, it’s freaking Dash in the teen chat room.

Football king: those whose eyes see have mouths that don’t move

Danny looking at the jock with a quirked eyebrow, said jock gives him a slightly too wide-eyed thumbs up, “you, uh, seem to have this covered so I’m going to go drown myself-”.

“Didn’ ta toile do tha’ ger ya already?”.

“In Advil, Fen-taco or Danny, whatever”.

Danny snorts, wincing a little, “eh don’ ‘ange. An’ ‘on’t haveta craw to hospit”.

“Screw you, oh this is stupid”, Dash scowling, “and like the guy who crawled into a refrigerator should have any say”.

Tuck eyeing Danny, “oh you told him your stupid rum cereal story?”.

“He ‘ad plans ta get ‘runk, it wah apple-cable!”:

The dude wheeze laughs, “fucking ‘apple cable’, nice”. Danny absolutely flips him off, but the guy smiles, “nice to know our little hero is a dumbass”.

Sam eyes him and decides he passes whatever mental test she was giving him, “yeah. Yeah he is”.

Danny rolling his eyes and looking at his phone, at least nine more people have posted the same ‘those whose eyes see have mouths that don’t move’ message. Well shit. Okay. Well… at least Danny’s got a clue for how many people have seen and just fucking put two and two together to get four. Wes also threw in a ‘those whose eyes see have mouths that do move’, because he’s an ass. Fucking Wes, goddamn. No chill. At least a ton of people respond back either insulting or threatening Wes. Good. And Dash also leaving shaking his head is probably good too.

The guy eyes them before jabbing a thumb towards the bathroom stall he came out of, “am I cool to finish my cigarette? Since I put that shit out as soon as you guys hauled ass in here?”.

Sam sighing, her, Tuck, and Danny all exchanging shrugs before Sam gives the guy a go ahead, “sure fine, whatever. But yeah, that snitches get stitches and wind up in ditches thing can absolutely be very literal”.

“Tell that to the whole school then”.

“I will”. Sam basically grabs Tuck and Danny and drags them out of the bathroom. Her grumbling at Tuck as she continues dragging them, likely to their next class, “how bad is it”.

Tuck speaking while scrolling through his phone, “bad, there’s really no way to keep a cap on this”.

Danny hums, which doesn’t hurt nearly as much now that the bolts aren’t inside his throat. Pulling out his phone and dropping a link to one of the many videos of his folks ranting about ‘evil ghosts’ in the chat. Which gets the chat bombarded with ‘THOSE WHOSE EYES SEE HAVE MOUTHS THAT DON’T MOVE’ and he’s pretty pleased with himself over that.

Tuck snorting as Sam pulls them to their seats, “smooth dude, now everyone who didn’t already know, knows it had to do with ghosts, GrEaT iDeA”. Oh the sarcasm was thick there.

Sam pulling out her own phone and scrolling, smacking Danny on the arm, it would have been a head slap if his neck wasn’t still fucked, “idiot! But ugh, at least it seems like it’ll keep people quiet. At least from the Fenton’s and maybe adults in general”.

Tuck shaking his head, “yeah, I still don’t get why all the adults have such a hard time seeing that, at the very least, Phantom’s good”.

Sam growling right back, “because they’re stupid and think that just because they’re adults and we’re kids that there’s no way they could be wrong and us right. And that if kids all agree on or do something then it must be dumb, wrong, or immature”.

Lily turning to face them, “a lot of us also do stupid shit, case and point”, pointing at Danny, “you coming to school with a barely attached head that looks awful holy shit”.

Ah crap, Danny mildly panicky readjusts up his turtleneck, fuck him so much. Tuck and Sam just sigh tiredly at this point, and another ‘those whose eyes see have mouths that don’t move’ gets added to the chat. But the girl grins at him, “you could totally get an awesome tat to cover that though”, leaning over, “I know a guy”.

What?

Sam is interested immediately, “oh do tell, I’ve been dying to get some webs on my shoulders”, grinning evilly, “especially because my parents will stop trying to stick me in strapless dresses then”.

The two girls absolutely do exchange info while one of the cheer leaders, Brittney he thinks, be-lines to his desk. Shit shit shit. But all she does is slam down a thing of lozenges, “here, we use these after practices and games since all that cheering makes for a wicked sore throat”. Danny is confused, “thanks?”. She cringes, “wow you do need them”, smirking, “at least you sound like a gruff musician now”; and walks off to her seat.

Apparently everyone takes that as a sign to give Danny stuff, because goddamn everyone brings him something and by the time the teacher shows up Danny has a little mound of random trinkets and things on his desk. Sam and Tuck are wheeze laughing at him. The teacher quirks an eyebrow at him, “Mr. Fenton?”.

“I’m a ‘agon apparently and tis my horde”.

“Are you sick?”.

“No physicals but in da head prob”.

The teacher rolls her eyes at him before starting the lesson. He spends the entire class getting bombarded by direct messages.

‘Get lots of sleep’

‘There’s some stupid powerful muscle relaxers in my locker’

‘West side bathrooms water is green again so don’t use that to wash up’

‘Do you have enough food’

‘I’m giving Dash first aid lessons against his will for you’

‘You want some apple pie’

‘Whoever did that is going down in my notes as ‘head stealing asshole’ forever more’

‘I cleaned your blood up, no worries’

‘You want more losengezes’

‘I’m making everyone sign a get well soon card bye the bye, it’s glittery and cute’

‘There’s balloons in your locker now, open when most chaotic for maximum chaos’

‘I will cry on your shoulder to feed you emotions if that’s a real thing ghosts do’

‘I’ve got a great emotion support ferret if you want something to pet’

‘I shall supply you with an alarming amount of soothing teas’

And on and on it went, he had to put his phone on silent for fucks sake! It was kinda cute and nice though. Even if it seemed like the entire school had now decided to baby him. And as soon as class ends he gets jumped by one of the drama kids, who throws gauze around his neck.

Danny sputtering and taking a ‘no limbs are allowed to touch’ stance, the gauze hanging like a scarf, “why!?”.

“To wrap it so it doesn’t get infected, obviously”. The kid just walks away.

Tuck, looking at his phone, chuckles, “dude, you’ve been given the ‘is baby’ role”. Danny just pouts and pulls the gauze off from the back of his neck. This wasn’t useful for him, he’d dissolve it, but hey the sentiment was nice.

Jasper chuckling as he comes out of the classroom behind them, “yeah because you’re not taking care of yourself apparently”.

Someone actually gives him a whole ass pie in the hallway before the trio manages to get to their next class, he’s pretty sure they all actually missed lunch somewhere in the time they were dealing with Dash. So hey, free food! Definitely appreciated. Even if he hunches over it to make the fact that he’s just phasing pieces into his stomach not super obvious, and it’s not as good as Skulker’s but the teacher doesn’t give him shit for eating in class beyond glaring… which half the class glares right back at the teacher for.

Then, of course, his ghost sense goes off. Fuck him entirely. Hand shooting up, “bathroom”, and him fucking off. This time he’s careful about potential headbuttable objects when he phases his head through the school roof.

By the time he finds the ghost, it’s Technus annoyingly, there’s not much for him to do. Why? Because at least twelve teens and goddman twenty little kids are kicking and throwing things at the ghost and shouting about leaving Phantom alone. Technus is actually curled up crying, “I CAME TO CHECK ON HIM! PLEASE STOP SMALL CHILDREN!”.

Danny is so fucking confused.

Him floating down slowly, “uh? Whatcha doin’?”.

One of the teens stops, huffing, “well you need to heal, dontcha? Literally no one’s actually seen you with an injury that lasts more than a few seconds”, shrugging, “so no fighting for you”.

Is… is this how he’s going to have to tell the town that he actually likes getting into fights? Oh man, awkward. “I enjoy it though”.

“You are injured. No fighting. In fact-”, the girl digs in her pocket and holds out some tickets to him, “-you shouldn’t even be in school. Go have fun at that little petting zoo in Elmerton”.

Danny takes them because it would be rude not to, right. Blinking at the whimpering ghost, “I’m… still gonna soup him”.

“That’s what you call it? That’s adorable”.

Danny blushes and quickly captures the beaten miserable ghost, immediately leaving. Making it back to class at the same time that Sam and Tuck get bodily pushed out of it. Danny blinking at them, “uh?”.

Sam shakes her head fondly, “apparently we’re supposed to go to a petting zoo?”. Tuck chuckling, “we’ve also been given firm instructions to swaddle you, but I am not caring you around in a teenager sized fabric baby swaddle”; he actually holds up a bunch of fabric.

Danny blinks harshly, “what”, shaking his head and holding up the tickets, “some kids were curb stomping Technus mosh pit style. I’m legit a little touched”. Sam gives an impressed whistle before snagging the tickets, shrugging, and dragging both boys off. Guess they are indeed going to a petting zoo.

“Hey good morning guys, welcome to the Elmerton petting zoo. We’ve got brushes and some treats to the side, or you can just give them pet downs and love with your hands and hearts; everyone here is super friendly, though Flapjacks the black goat is a headbutter”.

Sam snorts eyeing Danny, “you’re a goat, Danny”.

“Goated, you mean”.

She absolutely smacks him for that.

The lady continues, “most places won’t let you hand feed but we gave up on that because you Amity kids are a nightmare and never follow rules”.

Tuck snorting, “how’d you know we’re Amity Parkers”.

“You’re skipping school boldly and look dead inside, obvious tell”. Danny absolutely doubles over wheeze laughing at that, a rabbit sniffs him cautiously.

“And just like goats, you guys are always finding new and interesting ways to nearly kill yourselves. Muffintail got stuck upside down in a random bucket last night and screamed bloody murder till one of the dogs got him out”, pointing to some signs, “we have more neat info about goats over there besides their desire to die”.

Danny snickers, smirking at Sam and Tuck, “Muffintail huh? ‘It’s muffin time, who wants a muffin, please I just wanna die. Please somebody kill me, please it’s muffin time’”.

Tuck wheezes, “fuck that’s so old Danny, zone damn it”. The petting zoo lady laughs to herself too.

Sam wandering off to grab some carrots and poking the roasters with them, at least the roosters actually eat said carrots. A peacock jumps on her head though, Danny and Tuck both absolutely taking a photo of that shit. The zoo lady smiling at that before speaking up again, “before you start wandering around too much, Amity Parker’s aren’t allowed in the horse or deer area since all that ghost smell freaks them out. Please don’t scare our horses and deers. And since there’s blood on your sweater, please leave the wolves alone as they will bite you”.

Tuck laughs while Danny’s face heats up something fierce, he absolutely didn’t bring a spare sweater though so… Danny muttering, “I forgot about that”. Tuck patting his back before he does actually wonder off to bother the other rabbits.

Of course the second Danny’s left up to his own devices he immediately gets rammed in the back by a black goat, which proceeds to walk on his back when he falls over. The petting zone lady scolding it, “Flapjacks no”, when the goat physically jumps up and down on him. Sam absolutely got a video and sent it to the teen chat along with a ‘can’t go anywhere with this dumbass’. There’s mass responses of ‘bad goat!’ and one person commenting that ‘oh I know that one, he’s called flapjacks because he’s a jackass’. The lady does get Flapjacks off him long enough for him to get swarmed by curious bunnies, Tuck following after and laughing at the bunny pile that Danny’s become. That also goes into the chat and gets far more ‘cute’ responses.

The amount of time Danny gets followed around by bunnies is adorable and weird, Danny blinking at his bunny herd, “I think bunnies like me”. Tuck pouting, “I want the bunny love”; Danny gives the guy a bunny, it kicks him immediately. Poor Tuck, Danny snickers at him.

Sam walking over with an owl in her arms, the petting zoo lady looking confused in the distance. “You would think bunnies would hate you, since you’re basically a predator”.

“I don’t eat ghosts, Sam”.

Tuck snickering, “You should, get that ecto”.

“Ew! Tucker!”, Sam smacks the geek, “they are sentient beings!”.

“And sentient beings are delicious, my point stands”.

“Blood mouth”.

Danny laughing at the mild argument, laughing until one of the bunnies decides to bite him right in the fucking throat, “augh! ow what the fuck!”, the bunny runs of with a staple in its mouth. “No no no no no no no no, give that back!”. Danny winces and chases after the bunny even with bits of pain shooting up the side of his neck now; it was doing a pretty good job of healing. Was.

It takes ten minutes of him, Sam, and Tuck chasing the bunny for Sam to catch it and get the semi-dissolved severely ecto-contaminated staple out of the bunnies teeth. The bunny is very mad about loosing its prize and immediately starts biting Danny’s shoes. Danny huffing, holding a bit of fabric to his neck to stem the renewed bleeding, asking the petting zoo lady, “what’s that one’s name?”.

“I Eat My Cereal Dry”.

“Well I Eat My Cereal Dry is a dick”.

She laughs at that at least, while the trio continues wandering around the area.

Lindsey thinks that outside of the bitey rabbit and back-butting goat the whole trip turns out pretty good for the three kids. Sure after school let’s out the place basically gets swarmed by Casperhigh students to the point where the place hits max capacity. She’s frankly flabbergasted and vaguely overwhelmed, especially when most of the students are more interested in the kid with the extremely disturbing neck injury that keeps getting harassed by bunnies.

Like… they’re damn near hand feeding the kid more than the animals, giving him head pats and arm pats and back pats; Millie the goat gets jealous and starts trying to get them to stay away from the boy. Adorable but strange.

At least none of them go near the horses or deers.

Thankfully Danny’s able to go home without running into his parents or any ghosts, seemingly Techus or Johnny or Boxy told everyone to fuck off; Technus getting ganged up on was probably a pretty solid warning to most since everyone really only wanted to fight Phantom specifically or cause random chaos, not get assaulted by children with severely brutalised senses of danger.

Zone, he even makes it through the night uninterrupted for a change!

And checking his throat out in the mirror in the morning, moving it around and prodding at the stitching, and scars from all the staples that have since dissolved. It still ached a bit but there’s no actual pain. The steel brackets are definitely still there because Dash went and grabbed thick ass fuckers but all the bolts are gone for sure, so swallowing and physically eating still made a bunch of pressure on his throat; meaning he’s still sticking to phasing food into his stomach instead of chewing shit.

Jazz bangs on the door a little aggressively, Danny sighing as it just pops open, her staring at his neck, “seriously? Are you okay?”.

Danny sighing again for good measure and rolling his eyes at her, “I am now, yes I know the scarring is gnarly, that’s because of a not super great patch job and not because of how bad the injury was”.

Jazz sighs shaking her head, “I saw the chat by the way”, her leaning on the doorframe, “so, everyone knows now, huh?”.

Danny groans exaggeratedly, he’d tilt his head back dramatically if he wasn’t still slightly injured, “just the teens thankfully”, eyeing her, “they're a lot better about ghosts than the towns adults”.

“You mean the Fenton’s”.

“I mean all of the adults, Jazz. Mom and dad… are just the worst of them”.

She hums at him, which he ignores, “are you even bothering to cover it up now?”.

He knows exactly why she’s asking that, he’s in just his standard simple long sleeve that he always wears nowadays meaning that everyone and anyone will be able to see the scars and bits that are still healing. But he grabs up a handkerchief from the counter, “I’m still covering it, just not really caring about whether I draw attention to it or not”. After all, adults generally won’t ask, teenagers definitely would have… if they didn’t all already know what was up.

“I still don’t like it”.

Danny huffing, “it’s not really your scar to like or show off or not, Jazz”. Zone, with this there was almost no point in bothering to hide any of his scaring anymore, but going bare arms might be pushing it right now, considering how severe some of the scaring was. Eh maybe someday, but not today. “It’s not like mom and dad will really notice”. She cringes but he doesn’t really care if she doesn’t like the honesty.

Jazz nods a little, “well I’m off, try to stay in school?”.

Danny waving her off as he’s grabbing up the handkerchief, “yeah yeah yeah, the ghosts have backed off to let me heal a little so I might be able to actually do that”, chuckling, “apparently decapitation is freaky to them. Who knew”. That does get a laugh out of her at least, before she fully leaves.

Danny not too far behind.

…

Sam and Tuck eye the handkerchief and chuckle to themselves. Sam smirking, “nice neck piece, bored of sweaters already?”.

“Pfft, you know how I like to keep things interesting”.

Kwan shouting, “Fenton! How’s your headless doll situation!”.

What? Danny looks to the jock, confused, “what are you even talking about, Kwan?”.

“You know, like that thing where a ladies head is held by a ribbon? Except you’ve got bolts and staples and thread?”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “that green ribbon story? That has nothing to do with dolls man, but it does have to do with dead people and a decapitation, I guess”, and shrugs, pointing to the handkerchief, “ain’t perfect but my heads almost fully reattached, nothing is actively holding anything on anymore”. At Kwan pointing at his own neck and tilting his head, Danny just assumes he’s asking further about his fashion choices, “it’s still healing, man, it looks gnarly”.

Kwan waves that answer off, “pssh, who cares. Scars make men of boys!”.

Danny, vaguely insulted, grabs the bottom of his shirt and yanks it up aggressively, gesturing at his torso and the aggressive amount of scaring there. Including the nasty, repeatedly reopened, and rarely stitched back together right, Y incision. “You sure about that one?”.

Kwan gapes a little, “dude, you are ripped”.

Of course that’s what he cares about, Danny facepalms immediately. Dropping his shirt and sighing, “I’m still not walking around with a fucking barely healed decapitation scar, Kwan”. The guy has the audacity to pout at him.

Then someone yells, “nice neck! You goof!”.

Danny chuckles to himself, everyone in this goddamn town was so fucking weird and he loved them for it.

He really only keeps up with wearing the handkerchief while shits healing and when he knows his folks are gonna be around, every single teen just seemed to think it was cool. He got lots of lanyards with pins to ‘decorate’ the scar, some weird handkerchiefs, Emilie even knitted him an infinity scarf. The one that made him laugh the most, and realise that things definitely were going to be just fine, was him getting mobbed by the art kids sticking temporary tattoos all around and over the scarring; it looked so damn silly seeing one of his gnarliest scars just covered in unicorns and seagulls and stars and an angry goat. Somehow everyone having fun with it and him not being bothered by it kept the adults from ever even trying to ask about it.

End.

PRompts: Tooth-rotting fluff occurs at Casper High after Danny's secret identity is revealed. Identity reveal. Dash finds out Danny is Phantom. What happens? Could be swagger bishie or not, either or is okay. Danny, Sam, and Tucker go to a petting zoo. Danny receives an injury or scar that he can't easily hide in one form, let alone two.

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phantomphangphucker · 13 days

Text

Phic Phight - How Not To Resurrect A Half Demon Lord

@lexiepiper @Ghostfox_fuyu

Being both an adventurer AND technically a monster wasn’t exactly the best mix to avoid fights, so it’s a good thing Danny actually LIKED fighting even if he couldn’t exactly ‘go hard’ against humans to avoid, you know, KILLING THEM. Other adventurers though? Yeah they didn’t exactly enjoy fighting what they thought was a weirdly powerful dungeon spawn.

Danny runs, skidding across the ground on his claws, the scrapping sound is loud but nowhere near the volume of the explosion happening right behind him. His tail nearly gets nicked! He’s not happy, not one bit. “WOULD YOU STOP THAT!”.

The mage with a frankly obscenely large hat damn near growls at him, which hey, growling was Danny’s thing. “Silence! Foul demon!”.

For fucks sake! Like yes, he gets that he looks like a demon. He gets that. But could people please just stop assuming that he belonged to whatever dungeon he and they happened to be in? This place was a goddamn lava dungeon, he was an ice demon with a black and white theme! Use your brain! Why would a fucking ice demon be in a lava dungeon!

Which, to be fair, him going into a lava dungeon wasn’t exactly smart or using his own brain; but Sam and Tuck thought this one would get them some sick ass gear so off they went. Of course they wound up getting separated, and of course Danny wound up running into other adventurers with the same idea as his party, and of course they mistook him for a dungeon beast. That’s his classic luck right there, everybody!

Ramming one set of claws into the wall and climbing up the hot rock as fast as he can, channeling some ice to his palms to avoid burning himself, it also was making some super cool-looking mist sizzle off of the rock so that was a neat bonus.

The adventurers trying to annihilate him seem to agree, the dude in black armour muttering to another mage with super orange hair, “hey if I equip ice gauntlets you think I could do that, it looks cool as Hell”. The mage whacks him over the head, ha!

Danny snorts to himself, jumping on to a ceiling stalactite of solid hot magma, ow ow ow ow ow, stupid ice core, stupid Tuck and Sam dragging him into a lava dungeon, stupid him for jumping onto solid magma, stupid stupid stupid. Ugh. But Danny does what Danny typically does when presented with pain, quips, shouting down, “why don’t you give up if you keep misting me!”. Ha! Good one, self. Ow.

The armoured guy chuckles, “I love it when monsters have a sense of humour, makes it so much more fun”, and hurls a goddamn spear at him. Nice, Danny can do spears and show off a little.

Danny launches himself down, grabbing the spear in between his teeth, fangs making it easy to keep the spear in there, and uses the spear head stabbing into the ground below to allow him to basically land going face down before gripping the shaft with his hands and spinning himself into an upright position. Him yanking it out of the ground and spinning it dramatically, grinning meanly, “oh I love free gifts, how’d you know it was my birthday?”, it’s totally not, he’s just being an asshole.

Big hat mage scowling at armoured guy quickly, “nice going, Salient”, then glaring back at Danny. Okay so armoured guy is named Salient, weird but okay. She shoots a fire last at Danny, Danny bats it away with the spear head snickering all the while. Then the other mage hits him with a holy-blast, because of course she does, and sends him into a wall.

He absolutely dropped the spear. Damn. He wanted to add that to his collection, which sure was definitely something he wasn’t doing before the whole resurrection gone wrong crap happened and he some how wound up getting his human souls wires crossed with Hell itself. A fuck up of hellish proportions.

Him shaking off the burn and sizzle from the holy power, at least still being kinda human and alive would stop that shit from outright smiting him, just burned and hurt like a motherfucker. The biggest annoyance his holy sensitivity usually caused him was not being able to use holy based healing potions… which were the cheapest kind aka the kind his party usually used to buy. Demonic based healing potions were the shit for him though, especially since he never had to worry about them debuffing or cursing him.

Orange hair mage huffs, “damn it, that didn’t do it”, scowling, “this place has some seriously strong demons, we might have use a hearth stone if it keeps up like this”.

Danny sticks his hands out to the side, tail twitching, “or maybe! Think a little and realise I’m not from this freaking dungeon!”.

“As if we’d believe a snake tongued demon!”.

Okay that’s just rude! It took him a very long time to learn how to talk with a forked tongue and he had to put up with a lot of mocking from Tuck! He sticks his tongue out at the group before having to climb up a wall again to avoid some thunder bolts from big hat mage and an arch of fire from Salient’s sword. At least he’d learned not to throw solid objects that Danny could grab, progress; progress for them and not him specifically. A very unfortunate specific.

Danny sending out a bit of icy flames that glowed black with his demonic energy to destroy another flame arch from Salient while moving sideways across the wall, he hates this dungeon it’s too fucking hot, goddamn. Zipping up to the ceiling and smacking his claws and palms on it, sending out a powerful wave of pure cold to force the ceiling to start snowing, which of course turns into very hot burning rain by the time it gets down to ground level. The party starts screaming and ducking for cover, that was surprisingly more effective than he expected and he absolutely had not intended to basically rain down boiling demonic water on them. Oops. He figured the snow would melt but not to the point of becoming boiling hot! How much energy was his core expending just to keep him fucking cool in this goddamn hellscape?!?

Danny skittering his way across the ceiling and in-between a gap between a stalactite and the dungeon ceiling, shouting a quick, “not trying to boil ya! Sorry!”. As he goes. Maybe they’ll be too busy hiding to realise where he’s tucked himself away. That would be nice, real nice.

“What kind of demon says sorry!”.

Don’t quip back, don’t quip back, don’t quip back. He’s trying to hide and quiping will fuck that up… “MY SORRY DEMONIC ASS!”, ah goddamn it, why does he do this to himself? Unsurprisingly the stalactite his hiding above gets fucking shot at by a holy bullet. That’s… that’s not great. Those sucked to get hit by and he’d one hundred percent need to be resurrected again if that shit hits his core enough times. But hey! Maybe that would un-demon him! Stupid plan, but hey! At least it is a plan! Plus that did not work when he accidentally fell into a pit of pure holy water. That had been the worst.

The stalactite gets shot at again, this time piercing through it and skimming his shoulder; him making his lip bleed by biting down to avoid yelping. Still hissing out a, “bloody hell”, though, because he could never just shut the fuck up could he? Also, he is officially panting, because it is too fucking hot here and his breath is making a bunch of mist aka giving away his spot more than his stupid quip did. Fuck him entirely.

He’s got three options:

One: start killing adventures like a proper full demon.

Two: overheat and pass out, possibly falling into hard ground or a pool of lava only to be descended upon by adventurers who would definitely hit unconscious him with a holy attack.

Three: leave his hiding spot and start looking for cooler areas while avoiding getting hit or doing any major hitting.

Four: use a hearth stone to teleport out of the dungeon, seems like the obvious choice right? Except when Danny’s half demon ass did that he wound up in Hell every time and Sam and Tuck would have to go through the hassle of getting him back out of there. That crap always resulted in them having to track down yet another ice dungeon and use forbidden demon summoning magic. Meanwhile he’d go throwing hands with demons for however long it took his friends to get him. Not ideal.

Then it turns out that there’s actually a fifth option, a wall blowing up and sending his bullet hole riddled stalactite crashing down towards the ground and exploding in hot semi solid magma. OW! Danny sputtering and shaking himself off aggressively, “oh fuck! Bloody hell! Me damn fuck it! Stupid fucking lava dungeon! Stupid fucking adventurers! Where’s my teammates when I me damn need them!”.

“Shit since when do goddamn demons team up! We need to hurry this up!”.

Then there’s a very loud thump, Danny squinting his fucking burning eyes up at the noise, fuck yeah! It’s Tuck! Nice! The guy’s landed directly on top of the orange haired mage, pointing his fricken lightning cross bow right in her face. The Salient guy getting hurled into a wall by vines seconds later, and a few more seconds and said vines are on fire and brunt to a crisp.

The big hat mage jumping back from the newbies assaulting her group, “great, how many different kinds of demonic vermin does this dungeon have!”, her creating an explosion with electricity to make something of a smoke screen for her to grab Salient out of the hole in the wall the guy made.

But! BUT! That puts their backs to Danny, and Danny might object to killing people but he did not object to bruising them up some. Meaning he launches himself at them, grabbing the back of both of their necks, and slams them into the ground; using his tail to tie their ankles all together. He also grabs the hat mages hat with his teeth and eats the fucking thing as a probably insane looking show of superiority.

Tuck, not looking at Danny and still staring violently down at orange hair mage, “you good, Danny-man?”.

Danny growling, “I’m annoyed, burnt, and vaguely considered making y'all haul me outta hell again for dragging me to this shit ass place”.

Sam walking calmly through the destroyed wall and into where they all are, “honestly I hate this place too. My plant magic is completely useless and I wrecked my helm”.

Danny snorting, “ha! Serves you right!”, he gets elbowed in the chin by Salient for being distracted. But well, an elbow, even armoured, isn’t gonna do much to Danny, so he just growls down at the man while said elbow is being pressed up into his chin.

Tuck snorts at the scene, “I’d stop that, Danny’s an obsidian rank combat warrior”. The mage beneath him scowling, “that is a demon spawn or are you fucking blind?”.

Danny takes offence to that, demon wise he was on par with a demon lord! Not a freaking basic hell spawn! “Excuse you!”. But Tuck laughs at Danny’s expense, “that’s what you get for never fighting back, moron”. Danny sticks his tongue out at the guy.

Sam shaking her head as she walks over to Danny, “seriously, if they attacked you first who cares if you hurt them”, grabbing the unconscious ex-hat mage out from Danny’s grasp, shit he hadn’t actually realized he’d knocked her out. Whoops. Sam pointing a finger at Salient, whose elbow is still pressed into Danny’s chin, “you wouldn’t be holding your own for shit if Danny took you seriously”.

“Pfft, I could take him”.

The orange hair mage snapping, “are you serious right now?! You are literally being pinned down you idiot!”.

Danny nodding, “glad we’re on the same page on that”; rolling his shoulders as he can feel some of the burning healing itself, he’d be healing a hell of a lot faster if he wasn’t in this damn hot lava dungeon though.

Tuck rolling his eyes before staring down at the orange hair mage, “look. Danny’s an adventure, he literally has a license on him right now. The only reason he’s in this dungeon is ‘cause we heard there was some bomb ass equipment in here, same as you guys probably”.

Sam laughing a bit meanly as she gives the ex-gay mage a healing potion since Danny probably gave her a concussion, “Danny’s not a ‘hell spawn’ he’s a fucked up resurrection spell gone wrong”.

Salient snorting, “prove it! And how the Hell did that happen?”. Danny snickers, “hell happened”; Tuck moving his crossbow out of orange hair mages face specifically to shoot Danny with it.

“Ow! You jerk!”.

Unfortunately orange hair takes that opportunity to blast Tuck nearly point blank in the stomach with a holy blast, sending him smashing up into the ceiling. Oh Hell fucking no, attacking Danny was one thing, he was a demon-looking mother fucker and could take hits like a champ; attacking his friends was a whole ass nother matter. At least Sam catches Tuck with some vines as he starts falling down from the ceiling and Tuck wasn’t knocked out by the attack.

Still though. Danny is none too impressed. And he refuses to tolerate a repeat of that, so just as the orange haired friend hurting asshat gets herself up off of the ground Danny lets himself loose more than a little bit. Limbs extending, spines pulling up out of his upper back and shoulders, second set of kudu horns extending out, ribs cracking and expanding through and over his torso skin to settle into a bigger form, that stupid gharial crocodile skull boiling and forming out of and off of his head; him all but shoving orange hair back into the ground and pinning her there with a single hand. Slamming the other hand down near her face, using a foot to keep the Salient guy pinned. Danny snarling, snout opening right over the mages face, “shoot at me all you want but you don’t get to hurt what’s mine”.

Tuck’s shaking off all that holy power, grumbling about stupid trigger happy adventurers as if he wasn’t one himself and stomps over to fucking shoot orange hair in the face with some sand; her unable to do anything about it because of Danny.

Salient muttering, “holy fucking shit, goddamn”. While Sam stops over to him, Sam smacking Danny’s ankle, “give over your license, you demonic horror”. Danny huffing out an icy breath in orange hairs face, moving his tail to use the many little quill hair spines on it to grab out his license from his torso inside his ribs, slipping it into her hands, “thank you”, she shoves the license in the probable warriors face, “see? Adventurer. You really think Clementine would approve him without goddamn checking him and his bullshit out?”.

He grunts from under Danny’s foot, “fair ‘nough. You tryin’ to crush me here?”.

Danny huffing another icy breath, “maybe”. Sam smacks his ankle again so Danny, with a shrug, lifts up his foot and lets the guy up. Danny thinks some mild crushing is totally deserved in this case, even if that was maybe influenced by these guys hurting his friends and making him feel all possessive and shit. Demon crap could be so annoying; being in this hot ass place only making it more annoying.

Salient rolls over and sits up, rolling his shoulders, “ow yeah, definitely not a spawn, damn”, eyeing himself over, “aw man, you cracked my shoulder pad. License doesn’t look fake though so”, looking up at Danny, “bad ass ability though”.

Danny tilts his skull head at the guy before looking back down to orange hair, “you gonna keep trying to annihilate me?”.

“You’re a demon”.

“And?”, lifting the hand that isn’t pinning her and waving it around dismissively, “it’s only a by half thing anyway”.

Tuck chuckling down at her, “need I point out that Danny could absolutely just crush you right now? Yeah, okay, so he’s sorta a demon, and sorta dead and not dead, but he’s not confined to a dungeon or Hell and he’s an adventurer. adventurers run into weird shit all the time, it’s not his fault he is the weird shit”. The girl glares but sighs, clearly giving up, so Danny basically forces himself to compact, puffing icy steam everywhere. Tuck grinning, “so dramatic”.

Danny pointing a normal standard human length clawed finger in the guys face, “hey, if there’s one thing I do well, besides confusing people and myself, it is dramatics”; if he was gonna be stuck as some weird dead but not dead, from the afterlife Hell but not from Hell, then he can be an overdramatic asshole about it.

Orange hair gets up immediately and moves over to the still unconscious ex-hat mage, muttering, “good, they didn’t poison her or anything. Damn demon worshipers”. Oh for fucks sake, was it really that hard to understand that he was a good guy and just a weird but typical adventurer? Ugh. Plus! He’s definitely a higher rank than her, so rude.

Salient standing up and shaking himself off, shouting at his teammate, “Lily good?”; nice, Danny’s got another name.

Orange hair sighs, “yeah. They didn’t do anything to her besides knock her out”. Oh everyone’s a critic.

Danny rolling his eyes and huffing, “you say that like you guys weren’t trying to fucking destroy me. Again, you gonna keep doing that shit? ‘Cause I’m positive all three of us outrank you guys, we just don’t exactly want to start having to fucking kill people just because people keep thinking I’m a me damned dungeon monster”.

Sam shaking her head and moving to be over by Tuck and Danny, “at least they didn’t think you were the dungeon boss this time”.

“Oh Hell that had been such a pain”.

Salient chuckles and looks at him, “you make a lot of ‘Hell’ comments and shit”.

Danny shrugging with a smirk, “hey if I’ve gotta be slightly, vaguely, hell bound then I might as well take the piss outta it”.

Orange hair glaring at Salient, “seriously? You’re making friendly with it now?”.

Danny pouts, “hey, rude much”. While Sam and Tuck laugh at him meanly.

Salient shoves her, “chill, aren’t adventurers supposed to at least try to get along. At least he’s not another psycho paladin who's just using his god as an excuse to commit way too much murder”.

Danny’s entire little party nodding, “yeah fuck paladins”. Earning them a scowl from orange hair, “we all know why you demon-lovers wouldn’t like paladins”.

Then Lily groans a little, sitting up and holding her head, “well at least I’m alive”.

Danny snorting, “yeah I have a thing against committing murder”.

“That is the strangest thing I’ve ever heard a demon say”.

Danny pouts at her. He gets that demons have a terrible rap, an earned terrible rap, but cut a guy some slack will ya? It would be so nice if he could shapeshift to look fully human, he bets that in some other universe he definitely could and he is jealous of that version of him. Stupid fucker probably got all the super sneaky useful abilities. Like being able to turn invisible or something, that would have been so useful today. Ugh.

Lily looking to her party members, “so care to explain what’s going on here?”.

“Demon dude is a legit adventurer, licensed and everything”.

Orange hair just grumbles incomprehensibly.

Sam crossing her arms at the three, “I’m Sam, platinum rank herbalist and green mage. The one with the crossbow is Tucker, silver rank earth mage and gear smith. And the half demon, that you are to stop attacking, is Danny, obsidian rank combat warrior as already mentioned; he’s also a weapons smith and death magic apprentice. Yes he’s a resurrection spell gone wrong, he did it to himself somehow, but people screw up spells all the time so whatever”.

Danny shrugging, “I mean, typically they don’t screw up so impressively they fuck up half their genetic species but yeah”; Sam swats him one, expertly avoiding the horns.

Salient snorts, “you’re a death magic apprentice and you made your self half dead? WOW you suck”.

“Hey!”, Danny puts a hand to his chest, “technically it’s useful, this way I can actually go to one of the death planes now without slowly dying”.

Lily shakes her head disbelievingly, “ridiculous and inane”, gesturing at herself, “Lily, steel rank lightning high mage”, gesturing at Salient, “Salient, silver rank knight”, gesturing at orange hair, “Gemine, iron rank white mage and apprentice priestess”. Tilting her head, “why is an obsidian with a platinum and a silver? He’s three and four ranks above you two respectively?”.

Danny waves her off immediately, “eh, I was gold before the demon shit fucked my shit up. And I am the leader so it’s not that odd”. Sam nodding, “if anything it’s weirder that an iron is travelling with a silver”.

Gemine scowling, muttering to herself, “of course the demon is the leader, disgusting”. Lily cuffs her over the head, making the girl pout. Lily nodding, “demons are more powerful than the living so I suppose that is logical, and a lower rank priestess will best any higher rank warrior”, glancing around, “where’s my hat?”.

Sam and Tuck stare at Danny judgingly, him rubbing his neck, “I ate it?”; it was a heat of the moment thing okay! He makes really dumb decision when he’s put on the spot!

Salient nodding with a smirk, “yeah, it was pretty weird”.

Danny pouting, “I’m not paying you back for it”, twitching, “and can we get the fuck out of this hot ass place already?”, looking at Sam and Tuck, “if you found nothing good I’m gonna be so annoyed”. Sam rolling her eyes and digging in her bag, pulling out a little unassigned demon core. Yum! Him brightening up immediately, “oh nice! This was so worth getting shot by holy bullets!”.

“Danny!”.

“Dude what!”.

Danny grabbing the core and biting into it, much to the disgust of his unwitting onlookers, “eh it was just a shoulder nick and I am literally covered in lava and holy light burns so that’s kinda not what I’m focused on”. Basically dumping the demonic energy down his gullet with a happy purr.

Salient pulling a face, “wow that is disgusting, awesome”. Lily sighs tiredly before gesturing at Danny’s party, “so are we good to just go our separate ways?”. Danny’s down for that, his burns were healing much better now even if he was still hot as hell.

Sam crossing her arms, “depends on if you’re going to keep harassing Danny”; Danny’s just content to lick his chops in demonic satisfaction. Gemine pouting, “I won’t be able to vanquish him so fine, I won’t”.

Danny giving her a thumbs up, “that’s the spirit, now let’s get the hell outta this furnace before my core decides I deserve to over heat”. Sam and Tuck roll their eyes at him and laugh, Tuck patting his shoulder as they all turn to wander off to the exit. The other party of adventurers awkwardly heading deeper into the dungeon.

Danny stretching a little, going all demon always made him feel like his bones were all fucked up and needed a stretching, “so find anything else?”.

“Lightning bolt in a bottle”.

“Bone dagger. Lots of bone daggers”.

“Oh and a whole ass dragon hide, it’s in the dimensional pocket”.

“We did put all the random gem stones in there too right”.

“Uh…”.

“Damn it, Tucker”.

Danny laughs to himself, shaking his head. This day was some bullshit but at least they didn’t leave empty handed, and wasn’t finding treasure and getting to throw fist-a-cuffs the whole point of being an adventurer? Even if he’d rather be beating up dungeon monsters than constantly having to duke it out with other adventurers.

---

Of course they don’t even make it a full day before running into the very same party. At least this time they’re at the adventurers guild so there’s no way he’s gonna get attacked again.

Gemine blinking at Danny, “so you actually can leave the dungeon”.

Danny rolling his eyes, “yeah it’s almost like I was telling the truth or something”. Hell, he seldom lied about shit, people just thought it was all too ridiculous to be true.

Lily looks to the desk lady, quirking an eyebrow then gesturing at the demon in the room. Juhe blinking and smiling, understanding quickly, “yes the demon is welcome here, yes he’s an adventurer, no you’re not allowed to vanquish him, and no he’s not mind controlling anyone”.

Salient chuckles, putting a hand on his hip, “wow it sounds like this happens a lot”. Tuck shaking his head, “you have no idea”; before Sam goes up to make their report to the guild master. Technically Danny’s supposed to do that, being the leader and all, but head office had a barrier around it and they refused to take it down just for Danny’s sorry ass, meaning compromises were made.

Danny nodding at the guy, “anytime we go into a dungeon and run into a party that hasn’t met me before, it turns into a fight”, rubbing his neck, “which has earned me the title of adventurers bane since I keep basically having to beat down adventurers until they give up”.

Juhe nodding, “and he helps out the enforcers sometimes, since he can be quite the intimidating presence”.

“Boo, having a demonic aura isn’t my fault, and if just a simple demonic aura is enough to scare someone they probably shouldn’t be an adventurer”.

“You forget most adventurers do gathering quests and less dangerous dungeons”.

“Pah!”.

“You also forget that your demonic aura is that of a demon lord not a simple spawn or lesser demon”.

Danny’s only response to that is a pout.

Lily had been about to go up and make her own report, one foot stopping in midair, “that one is… a demon lord?”, and looks very concerned at Danny. While Salient grins to himself, “sweet, I got to fight a demon lord. Man that’s cool”.

Danny blinks, shrugging, “I was a wee bit miffed about suddenly being very literally in hell one time, not the time I fucked my resurrection up, and went demon killing happy. Two might have been demon lords and one was definitely a death god”.

All three look at him in shock, horror, or looking just plan impressed in Salient’s case. Lily shaking her head, “alright, you very well could have annihilated us”.

Johe glancing at some paperwork, “you three are silver, steel, and iron? Yes, you would not have stood a chance if taken seriously by him. He’s officially listed as obsidian, but he’s closer to iridium, which still stands as our highest class”.

Danny blushing, “aw shucks”.

“Don’t you ‘aw shucks’ me, if you’re that flattered then stop leaving your tail quills in the lobby wall”.

“Hey! It has a mind of its own”.

“It’s still attached to you, ain’t it?”.

Danny pouts at her, tail twitching near the ground, he’s half tempted to stab the wall with it just to be petty. He did petty very very well after all.

Lily shakes herself before finally going up to give her report; Danny absolutely hearing Sam whisper a threat at her, “Danny’s a lot nicer than the rest of us, don’t pull that shit with him again or else I won’t hesitate using a mind vine to make you break your party members”, as they pass in the stairway. He makes a point to roll his eyes disappointedly at her when she makes it down fully.

His friends were great but so over protective and possessive of him, it was nice but also a pain. She rolls her eyes right back at him as the three of them head out, waving bye to Salient and Gamine as more of a form of pleasantries than genuine fond fair-wells or whatever. They ain’t friends and weren’t gonna suddenly become them, something Danny was frankly fully uninterested in. He had his Sam and Tuck and was definitely not interested in sharing them.

End.

Prompts: Fantasy/rpg setting. Danny died, but the resurrection spell went wrong, and now he’s trapped as something not quite dead but not fully alive either. Not that he’d ever let that stop him from becoming an adventurer, even if he does get mistaken as a resident dungeon monster by other adventuring parties every now and then… Demon!au

#danny phantom #phandom #phic phight #danny fenton #tucker foley #sam manson #my writing #have a fic suck my dick #phantomphangphucker #phicphight24 #phic phight 24 #gothmoth #demon!au #rpg!au #fantasy!au #op danny #bamf danny

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phantomphangphucker · 14 days

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Phic Phight - Ghosts And Cold Turkey Is A Bad Mix

@darthfrodophantom @datawyrms @kalifa100 @lovelyunknown @nat-space-obsessed @duchi-nesten

Jazz has a boyfriend. Jazz has a boyfriend who has NOT met her family. Jazz has a boyfriend who has not met her family and knows absolutely NOTHING about her families career path. Jazz has a boyfriend who was about to have A Bad Time. Danny, Elle, and Dan were going to make sure of that in every way remotely possible… short of world ending calamity.

Alright, so Jazz probably should have actually talked to Bassel about her family, preferably before he had decided that he absolutely had to finally met her family. It was spring break so she couldn’t exactly push it off till later, or long enough to explain anything really, so he was officially going in ‘cold turkey’. Had she mentioned that her family was weird? Of course, that was unavoidable. But she’s fairly certain he thought that ‘weird’ meant being really into fishing or made crochet baby dolls, not everything ghosts. And now that they’re on the road she’s fairly certain that telling the driver that ghosts are ‘the family business’ is a bad idea; it would not be good if he were to drive off of the road in shock.

Bassel chuckling, “so am I going to get regaled with stories about weird birds they’ve seen bird watching or the last obscure B list bird horror flic?”.

Jazz laughing awkwardly, “you have not idea. No idea at all…”.

Unfortunately Jazz was unaware of one simple fact, it wasn’t just her and her plus one who was coming to visit for the break….

Jack beams as a clawed hand crams itself through the seam in the Fenton Ghost Portal™, turning his head to the stairs, “Danny! Your kid’s are here!”.

“AWESOME! WE’RE MAKING COOKIES TO PACIFY THE GREMLIN! SEND ‘EM UP!”.

Sweet! Cookies! Yum. Jack turning back to the portal as the doors slam open loudly and threateningly, Jack chuckling to himself, that man was always such a drama queen. Watching the tall full ghost step through the now open portal, a little sister sitting perched on his shoulders. The little missy waving wildly at her grandpa, “hiyya gramps!”.

The flaming-haired full ghost scoffing, “Yeah yeah, whatever”.

Jack grinning and jumping up, moving to hug the two, the elder of the two stiffening and just ‘putting up with’ the hugging, “glad you kiddos could make it!”, ruffling the littler one’s hair, “there’s cookies”.

“Hell yeah!”, and she’s off like a rocket, flying up the stairs.

Jack eyes the full ghost, “beat any other ghosts down lately?”.

The man snorts, “obviously. Not that any of them were much of a fight”, grinning meanly, all fang, “the gorffens were deliciously squishie though”. Jack laughing as the two large men head upstairs.

Danny’s grinning his head off watching Elle devouring at least fifth-teen ghost-shaped cookies. Waving at Dan as he comes up behind Jack, “there’s pure ecto-cookies too, Mr. Can’t Eat Mortal Realm Food”. The full ghost scowls and flips him off but absolutely takes a couple of the overly green person-shaped cookies. Ha. The human cookies were ghost shaped and the ghost cookies were human shaped.

“Whatever, mom”.

Danny absolutely scowls at that, chucking a cookie at the ghost. While Maddie hums, eyeing them all, “Jazz will be coming by too”.

“Oh? When?”

“Any moment now, I believe”.

“I am in pj’s!”.

Dan snorts, “you look like a dumbass no matter what you’re wearing”. That gets him immediately blasted in the face with a small ecto-beam, the ghost only grinning viscously in response; Danny zipping up through the ceiling to get changed. Mom seriously couldn’t have told him sooner? Gosh! He had a new ugly ass sweater with a stupid ghost joke on it to show off!

The knots in Jazz’s stomach could kill her if they became ghosts right about now, as Bassel pulls them up into her drive way. He nearly rams into the house actually, having been staring at the ops centre on the roof, “uh, okay, spaceship on the roof is slightly more out there than I was expecting?”, looking to her, “and do they run their business from their house? Hence the sign?”.

Jazz laughs awkwardly, “they have permits for it… that they got after building it”.

He shrugs, “I can admire the guts”, and patting her on the shoulder, “and stop being so nervous, I’m a great guy! I’m sure they’ll love me. Plus you’ve said they’re pretty easy to please”.

“Oh I’m not worried about their reaction to you, rather your reaction to them. I have mentioned they’re weird right? And that my dad’s taller than ninety-one percent of the human population?”.

“… you did not mention the height, damn that’s impressive, he’s the one with the personality of a puppy, right?”.

She gives him a supportive back pat before they get out and head to the front door, “yes, and thank everything for that. His hugs are crushing though”.

“I bet”.

The door pops open without her having to knock, meaning Danny’s up, “sup Jazz and- oh shit, you brought company. Fuck. Two seconds��, and slams the door in her face.

Bassel quirking an eyebrow, “what? Is he still in pj’s or something? That was a really ugly sweater. Pink? and green? Together? Ew”, chuckling a little, “and did it say ‘boo’ onto others as you would have others ‘boo’ unto you? Why was there an image of a ghost aggressively holding out a loaf of garlic bread?”.

She snorts, even if she’s honestly confused, “oh no, he always makes sure to wear something really unpleasant to look at when he knows I’m visiting. I believe it’s born from a sick, though harmless, degree of sadism”, frowning, “though I’m not sure why he just rudely slammed the door in our faces”.

And then she hears the cackle, the loud deep malicious cackle, officially realising that she… might have fucked up. Just a little bit. Sighing and facepalming, “oh no”. The couple standing there as seemingly a shouting match goes on inside.

“GET CHANGED YOU DIPSHIT!”

“YOU CAN’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO! MOM!”.

“I WILL END YOU!”.

“GO AHEAD AND TRY!”.

“Are they gonna want these cookies or?”.

“DON’T YOU DARE! Yes, gumdrop, leave them some. HEY DROP THAT! DROP THAT NOW!”… “EW!”.

“HA!”.

“DAN!-”.

Then the door jerks open very aggressively, and Jazz and Bassel stare up at the giant of a man with too sharp eyes and a feral unkind grin, “so you bagged someone, eh? Need someone to beat him through the wringer?”, and moves to grab Bassel’s arm; who thankfully has the common sense to pull away while staring almost disturbed at the man.

Jazz grabbing Dan’s wrist and holding him, glaring at the semi-reformed mass murderer/genocidal, parricidal, infanticidal, amicicidal, omnicidal, deicidal, ecocidal, mundicidal, psychopath. “Don’t even think about, Dan”.

“Aw but Jazzy-”.

She points a finger in his face, “no. Bad. No trying to physically fight my boyfriend”.

Then Dan’s head gets yanked back, Danny grasping the man’s ponytail, “get back in here, you shit”. The door closing again.

Jazz turns and winces at Bassel’s freaked out expression, “alright so, I didn’t know Dan was going to be here. I would have absolutely said no, if I’d known that”.

“Should I be worried?”; he looked extremely worried.

Jazz grimacing, “he’s… on parole, for, well, for murder so, yes”, grabbing Bassel’s wrist, “well we’re here now, just, don’t go anywhere with him alone. He’s also a prankster”.

Bassel almost squawking, “Murder?!?!”, as she drags him through the threshold into the Fenton household.

They get smacked with the noise immediately, she still doesn’t get how her parents managed to make a semi-sound barrier for inside the house that worked even when doors or windows were open… even if it didn’t always work well with ghosts or half ghosts. Danny is ramming cookies into Dan’s face while standing on his shoulders and snarling, Dan attempting to yank him off. Elle is bouncing around on all fours playing with cujo, who’s vibrating with excitement literally. Dad is laughing, head on the table, and slamming a fist on it repeatedly; a chair falls over. And Mom’s set the stove on fire and is smacking it leisurely with that fire-proof ghost net; the Fenton Flamo-Containo she thinks.

Jazz rolling up her sleeves, sighing, and moving over to her mom, “what did you burn, mom?”; and starts properly smothering the flames… the flames have faces and eyeballs.

This was a mistake. This entire trip was a mistake. Her poor boyfriend.

Bassel blinks, gives himself a fortifying shake, and swallows, “hi? Um, I’m Bassel?”.

The smallest one is on him in a second, it’s freaky. Her chirping up at him, “why did you say that like a question? Are you a question? If I question you will you become a sentient question mark?”.

What? Her eyes are way too big and her skin is smooth. It’s… very strange. Then she’s being picked up by the smaller boy- the teenager, that he didn’t even hear approach. “Elle-”. That was strangely chastising to hear from a teen. “-no giving people existential crises”.

“Are question edible?”.

The teen quirks an eyebrow, “I mean probably? if you write them on a piece of paper?”.

“If I write them on apples and pelt doctors with them do you think they’ll anwser my questions without poking me?”

“Eh fuck it, give it a go. Tell me if it works”. Then the teen looks up to Bassel, “sup, I’m Danny, the little brother”.

Bassel nods awkwardly, this kid… was seriously off. His skin was too smooth too, eyes not right and dangerous, his hair seemed… darker than black. The hell is he looking at? “Uh. Bassel? I already said that though. Um, I’m guessing the girls the youngest sibling?”.

She pops out around Danny’s leg, “I’m the granddaughter actually”. Danny snorting, “grand-gremlin is more like it”. She bites the teen… does she have fangs???

Bassel blinks harshly, pointing at the… murderer, “his kid? I take it?”. And now that he’s looking, what the hell is up with how similar they all look???

Dan barks out a laugh, shaking his face off like a dog so hard pieces of green? cookie physically stab into the walls and cupboards, “that shit stain is moms kid, not mine! Holy shit!”.

Danny snapping his head to Dan and pointing aggressively at him, “you”, shrugging and changing tones so fast Bassel nearly gets whiplash, “would have absolute nightmare kids and I would cry if your dumbass is the one to make a grandpa of me. Fuck you”.

Bassel is… very confused.

Mrs. Fenton shouting, “and I don’t want to be a great-grandma! Thank you very much!”, and coming over, Jazz looking to be scowling down at the stove, “hello, I’m doctor Maddie Fenton, feel free to just call me Maddie though”, swatting him on the arm, “none of that Mrs. or Dr. stuff”.

Danny pouting at her, “hey, why does Val still have to call you Mrs then?”.

“Because you two are still teens mister”.

The teen only pouts more…. His eyes look far too glass-like, like he’s a doll. Bassel kind of wants to be no where near him. Eyeing Jazz’s mom, the… hazmat is extremely concerning, maybe he should have asked more about what her parents did for a living? or their hobbies? “You have a doctorate?”.

The woman grinning, “that’s right! Primarily in ecto-ology and clinical laboratory science. but also criminology and medical science. My husband, Jack has doctorates in ecto-ology and clinical laboratory science as well, public health, chemistry, and practical theology”, turning away to eye Jazz, “the Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”.

“For the millionth time, mom, I’m still not studying ecto-ology; spectral psychology is completely different and that isn’t even my primary field of study”.

Bassel blinks, okay he knew she said her parents were smart but damn. But… ecto-ology? Really? A pseudoscience? Taking that in conjunction with practical theology made some sense, many religions believed in sprits after all, but with medical degrees? With actual scientific degrees? He’d thought Jazz’s spectral psych was a bit odd, especially with the rumours she talked to ghosts which he brushed off, but at least it made sense since she wanted to be a therapist. Many people can use religion and the belief in spirits to help heal after all. “Ecto-ology huh? As your primary? Interesting choice”.

Then Jazz’s dad is on him in an instant, not inhumanely like Danny had been but to see someone so massive move so fast was jarring, “oh! Did Jazzypants not tell you!”, slapping a hand to his chest proudly, “the Fenton’s are a family of ghost hunters!”.

What.

Maddie eyes her daughter, “Jazz”. While Dan out right cackles evilly and Danny wheezes, hands on his knees, “Jazz you dumbass!”.

Bassel blinks harshly, “ghost… hunters?”, o-kay that was… a lot weirder than he expected. Her parents believed… in ghosts and claimed to ‘hunt’ them. No wonder his girlfriend wanted to study psychology, her parents were delusional.

Jazz can tell that her boyfriend absolutely thinks her parents are insane now. Danny eyeing the guy before wheezing more tells her he’s noticed too, walking over to her and patting her on the arm, “he doesn’t believe in ghosts, does he”.

She sighs, “I… don’t think so”.

“HA!”. Oh Dan was just eating this up.

Elle running over with cujo, holding the pup up at Bassel’s face, he looks like he barely resists recoiling, “pet the ghost pup and believe”.

“Why is he green?”.

“Because he’s dead! Dummy!”.

“What”. Then cujo is in his arms, his face is horrified, but he does cautiously pat cujo’s belly. Him stiffening and staring as the dog floats up and starts walking on the ceiling; Elle giggling.

Danny slinking over to the guy while Maddie tries to swat the dog off the ceiling, “yeah, welcome to Amity, famously the most haunted city in the world. And yes, your girlfriend’s parents are the leading ghost scientist of the entire world and sell ghost weapons to the government and general public”, doing jazz hands, “surprise!”.

Bassel hasn’t even made it past the entry way, Jazz feels like an ass for letting him go into this blind. Her shoving Danny away, “don’t be mean”, eyeing Bassel, who’s wide-eyed, “yeah sorry? I did tell you they were weird”.

Bassel eyes Dan standing on the table to pin a fucking green floating dog to the ceiling. Maddie’s holding a strange taser, that has green electricity, threatening the dog; Danny’s dangling off of her arm shrieking about leaving his pup alone and how if anyone’s going to get tased it should be him. Looking back to Jazz, “by weird you mean insane? I’d question the ghosts thing but there’s a floating green dog on the ceiling. Hell, I’m almost questioning my own sanity”.

Jack laughs, rubbing his neck, “oh yeah! We get that a lot! But hey! People stop calling you crazy once they get attacked by a talking five foot tall hornet or a town gets sucked into another dimension!”.

Jazz huffing, “you guys just will not let me live down that stupid hornet, will you”.

Danny shouting, “technically it was a shapeshifting old man! Not a hornet!”, as he runs out of the room with cujo in tow.

Maddie following with the taser, “Danny! he needs to be punished when he does that!”.

“No! Never! Kiss my dead ass!”.

Bassel blinking, “your… brother swears a lot, and wait did he claim to be Dan’s mom? What? I’m sitting down”.

Jazz wincing, “don’t sit on the orange chair, it screams sometimes”. He squeaks an ‘okay’ and sits on the purple couch rubbing his temples; Jazz plopping down beside him.

Dan shouting, “Is anyone gonna eat the ecto-wienies!?!”, from the kitchen.

Jazz scowling to herself before shouting back, “Dan don’t! I dont want Bassel passing out!”.

“That’s the point!”.

She throws her hands up dramatically in fur-station, at least her dad rushes off to stop Dan from consuming screaming hot dogs while their guest adjusts to his new reality.

Bassel groaning, “and why would I pass out?”.

… “They scream too. It’s… pretty freaky to see someone eating squirming screaming hotdogs if you’re not prepared for it”.

“And why do your parents have hotdogs that do that and how even?”.

Jazz shakes her head, “they might have studied clinical laboratory science but they absolutely do not practice good lab safety or sample safety. Things get contaminated accidentally a lot”.

“And that… makes hotdogs able to move and scream?”.

“That about sums it up, yeah”.

“What the actual fuck, babe”.

Then Dan pops over, arms crossed, “thanks Jazz, now gramps has confiscated all my food”.

Jazz pointing at him as he flops down on the same couch as them hard enough to make the couch bounce, “good and could you sit down any harder?”.

“I was aiming to knock you two love birds off”.

“Zone you are such a jerk”.

“I aim to displease”.

Bassel makes an aggressive motion with his hands, not looking at either of them, “okay what the fuck. First how did that not break the couch? Two how is a teen boy mom? And what is wrong with this town and house?”.

Dan snorts and Jazz knows she’s going to hate what comes out his mouth, him eyeing her, “should I tell him there’s a portal to the afterlife in the basement, or should you?”. She slaps him immediately, wincing from the definite sprained wrist she just gave herself; stupid full ghost jerk. He sticks his tongue out at her and she wants to slap him again; at least his tongue isn't forked at the moment.

Jack pops back in carrying Elle by the waist, her arms and legs dangling down as she giggles, “you good, Jazzy?”.

Dan chuckling, “no. She regrets not warning a certain someone”, putting a hand to his chest, “I fully support that fucking chaotic choice”.

Jazz scowling, “you just enjoy seeing people suffer”.

“Hey, if I’m not allowed to kill folks anymore I gotta get my kicks somewhere? Or would you rather I start skinning animals and leaving their flesh hanging from trees?”. Dan gets bashed off the couch by a baseball bat wielding Danny. “Ow! Seriously mom?”.

“Threaten to skin animals for the lols again and I’ll sic Sam on you”.

Dan puts his hands up, “I’ll pass, you kill joy”.

“Good”.

Bassel gags and makes a face at Jazz, gesturing his hands at Dan as Danny smacks him with the baseball bat again, “what”.

“He’s… got a twisted sense of humour?”.

“Not that!”, Bassel shaking his head, “well yes that, what is wrong with that man. But I mean the mom thing?”.

Jazz eyeballs the full ghost, “Dan’s a tough subject, let’s just say a lot of really nasty things happened to him and at least one psychotic break. And he calls Danny ‘mom’ mostly to annoy him”.

“Oh that’s a lot less weird-”.

“Danny kinda is his mom though”.

Basel groans.

Elle pops her head over the couch, somehow escaping Jack’s grasp, “Danny’s uncle is a mad scientist who has no issue dabbling in super evil human experimentation, Dan and me were tots made from Danny via fucked up science and suffering! Hooray for causing mass confusion!”.

Bassel glancing from the small girl to his girlfriend, “seriously?”.

Jazz sighing, “yeah, sorry. Technically that man’s mine and Danny’s god father, not uncle, but Danny likes to bug the man. Vlad… needs so much therapy”.

Danny shouting, “at least he’s got a cat now! Even if he did name her after mom”; while Dan snags the baseball bat and pops Danny on the head with it. Danny bites the baseball bat.

Bassel shakes his head, “so you weren’t kidding about being somewhat related to one of the richest men on the planet, and he’s basically a crazy super villain; great”.

Jack rubs his neck, “unfortunately yeah, I kinda blew up a proto-portal in his face and he didn’t take that well”.

Jazz puts her hands on her hips, leaning forwards a little, “dad, you guys didn’t visit him in hospital even once, for seven years. Of course he didn’t take that well”.

Danny popping out from behind Jack, “he still complains about that, by the by. I dumped get well soon cards on him last time he was whining about it. Asked him if that made up for it, he shouted no and shot me in the foot”.

Jazz shaking her head, “I still don’t get how you two ever get along”.

“Hey, arch enemies gotta have some bonding time sometimes. Plus, he’s got the good liquor and will absolutely try to bribe me with expensive gifts”.

“And I keep telling you that’s unhealthy and you’re only encouraging him”.

Dan chuckling, “let him, who knows, maybe I’ll get another gremlin sibling”.

Basically everyone, even Bassel, shouting, “NO!”.

Maddie getting back towards the kitchen, and bring out what remains of the ghost-shaped cookies, “cookie?”, offering them to Bassel.

… “are they going to start screaming?”.

Maddie blushing immediately, Jazz covering her mouth and laughing, “no. No. Only things that were once alive tend to do that. Baked goods are fine”, eyeing the cookies, “and they’re not green so they’re safe for human consumption”.

He takes a cookie and munches it very cautiously, “and the green ones?”.

Jazz grimacing, “definitely not safe for human consumption”.

Elle nodding, still behind the couch, “those are for us Phantom’s”. Meaning that now Jazz knows Bassel’s basically going to have to deal with finding out her brother and said brothers kids are all varying degrees of dead.

Bassel eyeing the small child, “do I even want to know?”.

Elle gives a cheery, “nope!”.

Oh okay, maybe her, and thusly Bassel, can dodge that whole situation. Jazz absolutely glares daggers at Dan to say nothing. The man grins evilly but remains silent, thank zone for that.

Bassel taking a breath and slapping his legs before standing up, “okay. Alright. You lot are stranger than I expected but I really like Jazz so I’ll deal”.

Maddie looks relieved but Jack booms, “awesome! You seem like a good guy!”, and smacks Bassel so hard on the back that he gets smacked into the floor and knocked out. Dan’s bending over wheeze laughing, Elle’s floated up into the air curled up and laughing, Danny’s run over to try and help the man while also laughing, and Jazz is shaking a finger at her dad angrily.

Maddie sighs, face in a hand, “Jack”; while Danny’s hoisting Bassel up and back onto the couch, smacking his cheeks to get him to come ‘round.

When Bassel comes to he nearly screams, that Danny boy’s face is inches from his own and he’s crouched on Bassel’s chest. How much did this kid weigh??? And damn were his eyes still extremely creepy. At least he’s clued in what was wrong with him, he was uncanny, like he wasn’t quite human but close enough that it was very wrong in that base instinctual way. The teen grins, it’s like his teeth don’t fit in his mouth and the smile is just a hair too wide. “Cool, you’re awake. Was starting to wonder. Dad smacked you into the floor by accident, if you don’t brace yourself when he goes in for back pats then you’ll wind up on the floor”, titling his head owlishly, “lesson learned?”.

Bassel nodding at the kid that hasn’t moved his face out of Bassel’s, “um, yeah?”, frowning, “your guy’s dad is freakishly strong, you know that?”. The boy just shrugs before hopping off Bassel’s chest, letting him sit up and rub his head a little. “Do your parents always wear the hazmats?”.

Danny chuckles, “yup, and they will still claim they are stylish”, rolling his wrist, “they try to get me and Jazz in ‘em all the time. But hey, I’ll stick to wearing that kinda bullshit when I’m dead”.

Jazz’s head pops out of the kitchen entryway, “oh good, you’re up. You up for pie? There’s eight for some reason”.

“Are… they all the same kind?”.

“Sadly, yes”.

Even he can admit that was sad, variety was nice. But Danny pouts at her, “hey, I’m not about to discourage my personal wannabe poacher just because he doesn’t have a single creative bone in his entire metal mecha suit”. What the hell was any of that supposed to mean? This kid was probably one of the most confusing people Bassel’s ever met, Elle being a close second.

“You could at least try to convince him to try lime cream instead of him shoving lemon cream at you three times a year”.

Bassel holds up a hand, “how old are these pies?”. His girlfriend blinks like that hadn’t even crossed her mind… she might be too used to this level of strange perhaps.

Danny waving him off, “oh I helped him find a solid anniversary gift for his girlfriend, which fine was extremely explosive but eh, so he went a little pie happy. They’re two days old”.

“Oh alright, I’ll have some then”; two days wasn’t even weird. That many pies was odd and how he got them was bizarre, but not as bad as a dog walking on the ceiling or Dan-the-psycho talking about skinning animals like it was funny. Him and Danny joining everyone in the kitchen proper finally. The stove is charred from top to bottom, fires were clearly common. The fridge… was glowing? The toaster looks like it’s definitely some kind of project and not safe to use at all. The table is clean at least, besides the cookie crumbs and excessive amount of pies.

Said pie is extremely good, like professional good. Bassel blinking at it, “damn that’s good”.

Danny chirping, like actually chirping, “I know right?”; how does a human mouth make that sound???

“Then why isn’t… Dan eating any?”; maybe evil or not…

Dan flips Bassel off, grabs a slice and proceeds to hurl it at him; Bassel barely ducking in time while Jazz, Maddie, and Danny all shout, ‘NO!’. Elle is giggling though and Bassel would bet money that’s encouraging the man. Danny smashes an entire pie right in Dan’s face in retaliation, Elle smashing a slice on Danny’s head; it just devolves into a full on pie food fight from there.

Jazz crouch walking to avoid splatter while Maddie shoos the three outside with a broom, Jack following while shouting about getting the hose. Jazz putting a hand on his arm, “you good”.

“What twenty something starts a food fight!”, shaking his head, “better than throwing a knife at me I guess”.

“He usually only throws knives at Danny”.

She said that like it was normal! And not at all disturbing or something to be worried about! “He actually throws knives at people!”.

She winces like she just now realised that wasn’t okay, “right. Don’t worry about it, he might make a lot of threats or do threatening stuff but he’s heavily against going back into solitary confinement”, her huffing, “which I still think was cruel, deprivation chambers are one hundred percent a form of torture and no one deserves that”.

“What kind of jail has a freaking deprivation chamber, oh my god”. No wonder that man seemed like he had the socialization skills of a very threatening murderous brick wall.

The two stand up and they can see the three ‘Phantom’s -he’s still confused on that one but too scared to ask- getting hosed off in the front yard by Maddie; Jack’s helping by physically holding Dan up in the air and laughing. What??? Bassel blinks, “no one should be able to lift that beast of a man up like that”.

And then there’s an explosion, Bassel jerking around and Jazz just turning causally to watch purple smoke leak out from what’s labeled as a lab door. Her grabbing him with a quick, “nope”, and dragging him outside.

“What was that?”.

“Don’t know, but I’m not taking the chance that whatever their latest project is is noxious”, then shouting at her mom, “mom! Something blew up in the lab and it’s leaking purple gas!”.

Bassel very strictly remembers her not long ago mentioning that her parents weren’t big on lab safety, noxious though? These people were completely nuts. His nice, level headed, kind, smart, cautious Jazz came from this??? Yes she could be a little neurotic, especially about food and sharps saftey which he absolutely understood now, and she was a little… spooky sometimes. But still! He still didn’t believe her hair was really that orange without her dying it, even if he’d never seen proof of her doing so. And she always had on some black tourmaline or turquoise that she claimed was ‘protection’, he just thought she was being a little spiritual, now it seemed more like this ghost thing.

Danny shakes his wet hair off like a feral dog, “that’s probably my lunch!”.

Jazz throwing her hands up, “why is it leaking purple gas!”. Bassel muttering, “I think it exploding is more concerning than that”. Jazz shaking her head at him, “Danny’s favourite local restaurant has highly explosive trade marked sauce”.

“What!?!”. How was that even legal?

Danny pointing a finger at Jazz’s face as he moves to head inside to… ‘rescue’ his food, “hey, you haven’t had real food till you’ve had a Mighty Meaty Mega Nasty Melt and Phantomized Fries”, shrugging, “and I was trying to make blackened ecto-wine infused bread, for sandwiches”.

Jazz makes a face at the boys retreating back, “ew”.

Bassel blinking, “did, did this restaurant really name a menu item ‘Nasty Melt’?”. He’s revising his previous opinion, this entire town was nuts; not just these people.

Elle, very wet, bounds over, “yup! It’s called the Nasty Burger, used to be Tasty burger but someone vandalized it and there was a vote to just keep the N”, grinning, “I think it’s funny, the sauce is to die for”.

Jazz cringing, “oh no not the death jokes, at least spare my boyfriend those, ugh”. The little girl sticks her tongue out and pouts a little before running back inside at the pies. Jazz going wide-eyed and following with a shout, “oh no you better not! Mom just got you cleaned up! You put that pie down missy!”.

Bassel cautiously sticking his head in, cautious of both fumes and pie, to stare at his girlfriend holding a literal child at gun point while the child menacingly holds a pie over her own head. “um, why are you threatening a child with a gun”.

She brushes him off like this isn’t messed up, “it’s fine, there’s no normal guns in this household”. What does that even mean? Ghost guns? Is that what this is? Is that why it’s slightly glowing green!

Then Dan scares the crap out of him, speaking up from directly behind him, “I wouldn’t worry about it, she’s a terrible shot anyway. She could put a gun directly against someone’s temple and still hit a cars side mirror instead”.

“I’ve gotten better!”.

“No you have not, you managed to shoot a fire hydrant and set it on fire last time; I was impressed”.

“Shut up, Dan”.

“No I don’t think I will”.

At least Danny, who somehow got behind Elle, takes the pie from the girl and wags a finger at her, “repeat chaos isn’t chaos, it’s a pattern”.

“What if I cut off one of my hands, put it in the pie, then smack her with it? Then it would be a pie high five, not a food fight”.

Danny blinks, “I’m stealing that idea for the next time the Lunch Lady throws flaming stoves at me”.

Bassel… Bassel is not questioning that. “Kid, your mind must be a very strange place”. Sure little kids always said odd stuff, things adults wouldn’t even dream of, but this was a special brand of odd.

Dan shoving his way past Bassel, nearly knocking the guy over and giving him some major hebejebes, to go pat Elle on the head in amusement. Maddie steadying him, “you okay? And at least she’s not as bad as Danny used to be”, crossing her arms and shaking her head, “he thought blackbird pie meant to actually find birds and bake a pie with them. It was incredibly disgusting, especially because he didn’t know how to use an oven yet so he maxed out its temp for three hours”.

Oh okay, so Danny was just like that too. What was that about apples and trees? “That… probably could have gone even worse”. The teen, then kid, could have burned the house down!

The woman grumbled, “at least he’s never sucked the house into the mirror dimension, unlike someone”, as she heads in to help Jazz, Danny, Dan, and Elle actually clean up the pie mess. Jack shouting, “I said I was sorry about that!”. Danny shouting back, “at least no one’s pulled a Technus and walked the house into the ocean!”; while Bassel is wondering how the heck the eldest Fenton heard his wife’s grumbling from the other side of the yard.

There was something seriously physically off with all these people. Including Jazz. He’s feeling very distinctly reminded of a lot of things he’s just sort of brushed off or thought nothing of about her before. He used to think a lot about how vibrant her eyes were, or that her teeth were a touch sharp; nothing like the ‘Phantom’s but still. She was amazing at lock picking and could handle ‘practice’ patients others couldn’t; even if she would also ‘force’ therapy on random people sometimes. And eyeing her parents, they’re the same. Intense eyes, oddly pale almost glassy skin, teeth that feel like they’re sharp but aren’t; it’s not uncanny the way those three ‘Phantom’s were, but it’s still odd.

Dan was the worst though, easily, when the man brushed past him it felt like being cornered by massive wolf or mountain lion. If Bassel had ran into that man randomly on the street there’s no way he’d think he was anything close to human. Danny and Elle at least seemed humanish, almost human; Dan just seemed like he was playing pretend.

Bassel shakes himself off before stepping back into the chaotic Fenton household, “am I going to get pie thrown at me again?”.

Danny looks at him, “nope”, then glares at Elle, “or someone’s losing her Switch privileges”; the girl gasps in horror.

See that? That was normal. Normal punishment, normal reaction to a punishment. Perfectly normal. … Then the girl threatens to ‘liquify herself in protest’; goodbye normal, it was nice while it lasted. Either way he moves to help clean up pie a little, speaking back up, “so your bread fine?”.

“It ate itself and imploded, so no”. What. The boy grins cheerily, right too many teeth, “which means it must have tasted good, meaning I’m on to something”.

“I? Guess?”. He’s honestly just trying not to stare at the teens teeth.

…

They somehow do actually make it to the living room to watch a movie. It actually is a weird B list bird horror flic, which feels too normal now and that frankly concerns him. He’s not sure he wants the get used to this level of insanity. He loves Jazz but he is fully intending to potentially never step foot in this building again after this. How was he going to survive here for a week??? Blinking, oh right, elbowing Jazz and whispering, “hey, all the luggage is still in the car right?”. Then Dan scares the crap outta him again, “don’t bother whispering, I can still hear you”. Jazz grabs a random round thing from the floor to smack the man with for that.

Jazz leaning against Bassel again, “the longer we leave it in the car the longer it’ll take to get contaminated or destroyed, I told you not to bring your expensive computer ‘just in case you had time’ for a reason”.

Considering the amount of mess and literal exploding/imploding -again, what???- bread, he could understand that sentiment; oh and the actual guns apparently just lying around. He is very glad he listened to her, that laptop was never setting an inch of its metal casing in this building. He winces, “yeah, thanks for that”. She pats him fondly.

Danny straightens out so fast that it aggressively startles Bassel. “Oh! Think I should invite Val?”, eyeing Jazz smugly, “since someone brought their little lover”.

Jazz scowls at him, “Danny, I think Basel having to put up with my very weird family including the two weirdest members, is more than enough without adding in your trigger happy girlfriend with serious anger management issues. Especially because I know for a fact she won’t agree to leave all her weapons at home”.

Danny looks offended, putting a hand to his chest and paying no mind to the bird-related massacre happening on screen, “I’ll have you know she doesn’t even sleep unarmed, she hasn’t been unarmed since she was fourteen”.

“Exactly”.

You know what? Bassel thinks that actually makes sense. Danny was too strange to date someone remotely normal. “I’m not even surprised, you’re a little too freaky to date someone who’s just, you know, an average person. So sure, date an aspiring cop or whatever”.

Danny snaps and finger guns at him, “think more like nanobot powered teenage ghost hunter with a jet sled”.

What. Bassel blinking, “so somehow you’re the more normal one in the relationship. This girl’s in therapy right”. Jazz actually laughs at that.

Danny screws up his face, “Ancients you sound like Jazz”, looking at her, “he sounds like you”, looking back to Bassel, “and eh, my personality has more sparkles and explosions”, tilting his head, “besides, how am I freaky, besides the gremlin energy and general chaos anyways”.

Dan snorting, “and the fact that you think dumpster chic is a good thing”.

“As if you don’t wear the same”.

“Excuse you, I lift all my clothing off of the finest of corpses”.

Bassel, and Danny for that matter, gag; Danny’s seems more mock dramatic gag though. Bassel shaking his head, “add in the fact that if someone told me you were actually a doll pretending to be human, I’d believe them”.

That gets him multiple odd looks, including from Jazz. No one bothers to pause the movie even though everyone’s attention is now on him as she quirks an eyebrow at him, “what do you mean by that? Sure my little brother can move too quietly or too quickly, and his still too skinny and pale, but I wouldn’t call him possibly inhuman looking”.

Danny points at his face, “I’m pretty sure if I looked legit freaky Dash would mock me relentlessly for it”.

Bassel is baffled, are these people just… used to him so much they don’t notice? And Dan’s just looking to the side snickering meanly, Bassel almost gets the feeling the man knows what he’s talking about. Bassel looking at each of them, “you’re telling me you guys don’t notice his skin looks like weirdly glassy play dough? Or his eyes are too big? That his teeth don’t fit in his face? He’s weighs less than a bag of potatoes!”. They all look very confused and turn to stare at Danny, who shrinks down a little awkwardly; Dan’s laughing is full on guffaws now, head tilted over the back of the chair that apparently sometimes screams. When Elle points at her own face and grins too wide, Bassel nods, “yes, you too. Less than, your uh, dad but still”, gesturing at everyone, “honestly all of you have hair that’s too strongly coloured, overly vibrant eyes, and no skin texture”, scratching his head, “I thought my girl just had a spot on skin care routine and impressive hair colouring technique that she refused to share”. Jazz fiddles with her orange hair a little, making him feel a little guilty. Bassel coughing, “not that I dislike that”. Dan barks out another loud laugh.

Jazz eventually hurling another random Bassel doesn’t know what at the man, “stop laughing! Us looking weird to normal people isn’t funny! You jerk!”.

Oh okay. So they don’t know. That was weird? Does no one in town comment on it? Does no one even notice it? Was everyone in this town that strange??? Or was everyone in town strange looking themselves?

Dan huffing another laugh, “oh it very much is! Especially because I already knew and did in fact tell you morons”, waving a hand around leisurely, “not my fault you shits thought I was just being an ass”. Bassel guesses it makes sense that the strangest and most startling looking -and feeling, frankly- one would be the one to notice.

Danny looks offended, “and how do you know this? The fuck Dan”.

The man scowls meanly, it’s very mocking, “oh I don’t know, maybe because I spent ten years travelling the globe randomly killing people? Maybe that’s it? I’m the only fucker here who’s done enough travelling to tell people find this face”, gesturing at his face and smirking, “alarming, and not just because I was usually either threatening to kill or trying to kill them”.

“What? you walked around with that face?”.

“Eh I got bored of the other one sometimes”.

Bassel is choosing to ignore part of this conversation, otherwise he’s not going to get over his girlfriend being related to what’s sounds like more ‘mass murderer’ than ‘single murderer’. Not to mention that he doesn’t want to know what is meant by the murderer having different ‘faces’. He doesn’t want to know if this man’s a real life leather face.

Elle pouts, “I travel a lot, no one tells me I look weird?”.

“Sis, you’re a kid, all little brats look fucking weird”.

The little girl giggles, earning a fond but very quick look from the large man. At least it seemed like he actually liked his family maybe.

Danny gestures at nothing and scowls at Dan, “Dan, you’re a six foot eleven wall of muscle with a face that’s default setting is evil smirk, of course people think you look scary!”.

“Oh people found me disturbing when I was wearing your skin too, mom”.

“Fuck you”.

Bassel forces himself not to ask how that’s even possible. ‘Wearing the skin’ of someone who still has their skin is impossible and not to mention the size difference, it wouldn’t fit; why is he even thinking about the logistics of this?!? Ew!

Jack scratches his head, “while I can’t say I see, I doubt you’re making stuff up”, looking at Maddie, “all the ecto you think?”.

The mother nods to herself, tapping her chin, “there’s not much else it could be, especially if our oddness is merely tamer versions of Danny’s and the grandkids”.

Bassel is lost, looking to Jazz and quirking an eyebrow. She cringes, “Danny has a very intense version of ecto-contamination”. She says that like it’s not extremely weird and concerning.

Danny chuckling, “if by that you mean I’m fucking half dead then yeah”.

Jazz swats him, “Danny! For zones sake!”.

“Hey!”, Danny sticks his arms out nearly smacking multiple people, “if I’m that freaky looking then there really isn’t a point, Jazz!”.

“I hate that you’re right!”, Jazz huffing while Bassel is officially realising that everyone just shouts at each other in this house, regardless of if they’re happy or mad or excited. Her turning to him, “my brother’s a bit dead”.

Bassel absolutely squawks at that, “what”. And then suddenly the kid’s glowing and his eyes are green, the actual hell? Elle leaning forward, sticking her tongue out and pointing at her face, also with green eyes and glowing. Bassel cautiously and slowly eyeing Dan, his eyes flash blood red and yup, glowing.

Okay. Alright. He’s in a room full of glowing people, what is he supposed to do with this? He officially thinks that anyone who has ever found out someone else wasn’t quite human in a movie was way too damn calm about it!

Jazz winces a little, she can tell her boyfriend has absolutely no idea how to react to his girlfriend's glowing family members, so she pats his shoulder, “is it weird? Yes. Am I glad my brother is only partially dead? Absolutely. Don’t worry about it?”.

He blinks owlishly at her, clearly freaked out, “it’s kinda hard not to worry about my sister having dead family members kicking around and her whole family including her being contaminated by ghost stuff enough to alter their appearances”.

Then Danny goes and opens his stupid mouth, holding up a still glowing finger, “technically, Dan’s the only one that’s totally dead. Me and Elle are still alive-ish”.

Bassel blinks again and asks something that Jazz really wishes he didn’t, “and why’s he the dead one?”, in a squeaky voice; the movie is absolutely long forgotten at this point.

Dan’s smirk is flat out evil and before anyone can stop him he responds, “oh only because I got my human shit torn out and disemboweled it. Ate half my uncle and flew off into the sunset”.

Bassel leans so far away he nearly falls off the couch, “what. The. Fuck”. While everyone else, even Elle, chastisingly shouts, “DAN FENTON!”, at the smirking full ghost. The tact on that jerk! The only tact he had was evil tact, that sought chaos and destruction!

“OoOooOOoOO, full name, I’m So HuRt. I’m So UtTeRlY aPoLoGeTiC. Truly”. The ass doesn’t mean a damn word of that and he wants them to know it. He smirks, “if we want to play that game I can just show him what I really look like”.

Danny standing up and pointing at Dan, “do that and I’m souping you”. Dan puts an offended hand to his chest and scowls deeply.

Bassel sputters, “I am never asking you people questions again, oh my god”.

Jazz can’t even blame him, even if she knows he eventually will ask more questions about, well, their everything. It was hard not to after all. She rubs his arm, “you really shouldn’t think about it too hard or worry, yes we’re used to it and know the admittedly weird science behind it”, cringing, “even if apparently only one of us was aware none of us looked normal”.

He blinks harshly, swallowing, “uh huh. You guys have a bathroom, right. Because I definitely need to decompress by staring into the mirror for a concerning length of time”.

Not good. Jazz wincing and getting up, “I’ll show you”, then pausing and eyeing Danny, “is the bathroom actually clean”.

Danny tilts his head and grimaces, also not good, “maybe don’t open the lower left cupboard”.

“Right”. Damn it, Danny. Pulling Bassel along as they head upstairs, “okay so listen to him and don’t get curious. He might have spilled something and not cleaned it so it’s gotten moldy. Or he shoved goddamn bandaging under there. Or there’s a ghost trapped in the cabinet”.

“I… kind of hate that I’m hoping it’s the first one”.

“Well considering it’s Danny, it’s probably the second. He gets injured a lot and has a non-existent biohazard safety mindset”, gesturing at the open bathroom, “anyway, here”.

… “is Danny why the shower floor looks bloodstained, wait never mind I don’t want to know”.

She gives him a supportive shoulder pat as he goes in and close the door almost hard. This… this has not gone well. At least he hasn’t ran out screaming? Yet anyways.

She heads back down stairs, pointing at Dan, “I’m blaming you, because it is your fault”, pointing at Danny, “and yours, because you somewhat made him”.

“Hey! He made himself!”.

“And he is you so my point still stands”.

“Jazz!”.

Jazz doesn’t really care that being reminded of that fact bothers her little brother, him and his off shoots have basically been terrorising her boyfriend. He should be bothered! “I am gonna be so mad at you if he decides this is too much”. At least everyone winces apologetically, except Dan who just glances away which was the closest he usually came to a ‘sorry’.

Jack rubs his neck, “sorry, Jazzy-pants. Want us to bring your guy’s stuff in?”.

She scowls, she’s not going to effectively trap her boyfriend here by doing that, “considering I don’t even know if he wants to stay here now, no dad”. Her dad winces further, good.

She sighs, flopping back down on the couch, “let’s just rewind and finish the movie. Like normal people”. Dan snorts at her and she glares bloody murder at him.

Okay. So. His girlfriend’s family are not ‘weird’, rather they are actually insane and physically impossible. Which is extremely not okay. But he likes Jazz, a whole lot actually. A ton even. She was odd but not insane or too physically impossible; and she didn’t live here, he wouldn’t have to see these people -especially Dan- often. A handful of times a year at best right now. Hell she might be annoyed enough to ban that Dan guy from being within ten feet of him; Bassel would not complain about that. Her parents at least seemed harmless, over enthusiastic and strange but acceptable. However he knew for a fact that him liking or not liking her parents didn’t mean much, she’s made it clear that she doesn’t think too highly about their opinions. Her brother though, he knows she loved that kid, sometimes she made it sound like she was more his parent than their parents were. Said brother was half freaking dead. Because apparently ghosts are a real thing and can just walk around the living like it’s nothing… and also apparently being half alive was a remotely possible thing. Also Danny, a teen, has kids. Two kids. One who’s clearly older than him and committed a likely extremely disturbing amount of murder.

Well…

They’re not Jazz’s kids. So he, maybe? won’t have to deal with them much. Jazz seemed surprised they were even here after all. Alright. Okay. He can deal with this.

That’s frankly a lie.

But he can at least manage and pretend he’s cool. Then, when they go back to uni he can have a mild freak out in his dorm room and their relationship can go back to sort of normal. He is absolutely going to ask about her ‘ecto-contamination’? later though, and if those stories about her ‘communing with ghosts’ were actually true and was she just talking to her brother or was she also talking to other ghosts.

Pushing himself off of the sink he’s been leaning on and slapping his cheeks, “you got this, man”. His reflection does not copy him.

What the actual hell is wrong with this place? Besides the apparent portal to the afterlife in the goddamn lab. How did these people break a mirrors ability to mirror? Shaking his head and pulling out his phone, okay he’s looking these people up, like he goddamn should have already.

…

Okay yeah they just are fully public with the ghost hunting thing huh? That must have been fun to grow up with. Jazz did say she tried to separate herself as much as possible from them as a teen, this is absolutely why. And apparently her brother saved an entire species of gorillas? By… climbing in one’s cage… so he’s just always been crazy and reckless, got it; but hey, at least the gorillas aren’t extinct now.

Bassel’s not surprised that looking up Elle gets him nothing, she’s a young child after all, but Dan? For a supposed murderer there isn’t even a single result about him. No wiki article, no victim impact statements, no mugshot, no public court files, no morally questionable serial killer podcasts, nothing. Weird. But he’s absolutely not asking the man about that, because he doesn’t know what kind of nightmarish response he’s going to get. Considering his age -aka, being literally older than his freaking parent- it might be some sort of time travel thing, which he mildly hates the entire notion of, especially since he’s not going to claim he knows what’s possible or not now.

After all, his reflection is still just ‘standing’ there staring at him while he’s been pacing back and forth staring at his phone. He’s not googling his girlfriend of course, that would be creepy, but what about the ‘Phantom’ thing? That… that gets a lot of results. Freaky ones.

…

So…

Apparently…

This town has a goddamn dead superhero? That’s a freaking colour inversion of Danny with green eyes and also named Danny? Which there is no way that’s ’just a coincidence’. So Jazz’s brother is kind of dead, has an ‘arch enemy’, and is almost definitely some kind of dead superhero. Cool. That’s… that’s not completely insane at all. He officially feels like he’s in a knock off marvel movie with a secret identity reveal and everything.

And oh hey! Girl in red on a jet sled, Danny’s girlfriend, also definitely a superhero. Cool. This is Hell.

… Based on all the photos and videos of full blown super powered fights this town might actually be part of hell or an afterlife full of apparently violent dead people. No wonder Jazz was leery of him so much as visiting her home town, nonetheless her parents. A google of the stats shows that these ‘ghost attacks’ happen multiple times a day and it looks like they sometimes did a concerning amount of damage. Also the mayor is that Vlad guy? The evil uncle god father arch enemy guy. Why? How even? … It was probably mind control. Oh he kind of hates this.

Also though, how the heck was this town and this whole ghosts and a death dimension situation, not known about world wide?!? If it’s some kind of government suppression of information he’s going to scream; not actually scream just… internally scream. You’d think this would be something that’s in national news, an actual real life superhero and villains, another dimension, the afterlife… Okay perhaps being super public about an after life could cause some issues among religious groups.

Then his reflection growls at him.

Nope.

He’s not dealing with that.

He’s out of the bathroom in two seconds flat, practically rushing down the stairs, wheezing. Everyone, but Dan, is on the couch again apparently finishing the bird movie; Dan is just outright nowhere to be seen which he is a-okay with. “My reflection growled at me”. Jazz buries her head in her hands, this was obviously not how she wanted this first meeting to go; it wasn’t how he wanted it to go either, but he didn’t know it going this absurdly was even possible. Meanwhile Maddie and Danny shout, “JACK!”, clearly thinking the mirror is his fault. Wasn’t something about him going to the mirror dimension mentioned earlier? or is he just starting to come up with his own crazy possibilities.

The large man runs his neck, laughing, “whoops! Must have grabbed the wrong mirror!”.

“Wrong? Mirror?”. Damn right, he said he was done asking these people to explain literally anything.

Bassel eyeballing Jazz’s dad as he gets up and begins to move upstairs, “ah yeah, Danny-boy head-butted the old one so it had to be replaced, musta got the new mirror and the dimensional mirror mixed up!”.

Why is this kid head-butting mirrors and why does this family just have a ‘dimensional mirror’? Ugh, Bassel’s poor head. Jazz apparently has these same questions, or one of them at least, as well as the willingness to ask it. “Little brother? Why were head-butting the mirror? Young Blood isn’t trying to give you another nervous breakdown, is he?”; Bassel can practically feel the worry in her voice.

Danny scowls dramatically, “I’m fine, Jazz. No need to psycho babble me, Ancients. Skulker just decided that tooth brushing time was good head shooting time, I confiscated his right arm for that and he didn’t get it back for three days”, the kid looks proud of himself, “he hasn’t attacked me in the bathroom since”.

Bassel blinks, slightly horrified, Danny what? stole some… ghosts arm? as punishment? “Uh, I’m pretty sure a supposed superhero teen is not supposed to go around stealing people’s limbs”. Jazz groans very loudly and very tiredly.

Danny laughs, “oh! You looked me up huh? Don’t worry, I only took his mecha bodysuits arm, not his actual real arm”.

That’s… stranger but better. Then Elle pipes up, “even if he had it wouldn’t matter! See-”.

“NO!”.

Bassel is not going to ask why Danny just grabbed both of her wrists and glared at her. He has absolutely learned that if someone, or everyone, shouts ‘NO’ at someone else then he absolutely did not want to know why. Instead he watches his girlfriend get up and smile very awkwardly at him, he’s unpleasantly aware of the fact that her teeth were probably whiter than they should be, “you okay? Are we good?”.

“Absolutely not, but yes, yes we’re alright. I am absolutely not visiting here frequently though. And if Dan ever shows up anywhere near my dorm I’m hitting him with a frying pan immediately”.

She actually chuckles at that, “that’s fair, I tried to shoot him when we first met and tried to hit him with the creep stick the second time”. He’s not going to ask what a creep stick is, but he’s glad she had the sense to hit someone who’s clearly dangerous. “But call if he does do something that stupid, which he shouldn’t if he knows what’s good for him. He will only laugh if you hit him with a frying pan”.

Maddie shaking her head and getting up, “I’ve done that a time or two, he has a habit of trying to sneak food or add poisons just to see if he can get away with it”. Bassel doesn’t have words to express how concerning that is. “And I’m sorry this hasn’t been the best impression, it’s also unfortunately not the worst either though”. Oh. This could be worse? How? Blowing up the house? Hospitalising him? Probably!

Elle sticks a star sticker on him, “congratulations! For passing the weirdness tolerance test!”, looking back at Danny, “am I allowed to try and bite him now?”.

“No, you little shit”, Danny grumbling, “teething preteens are the worst”.

Wasn’t teething supposed to be something babies did? He wants to ask but nope, he’s not going there.

Then Jack’s voice startles him a good bit, “Your reflection must have been staring at you for a while there, buckeroo! Had to really shake it to get him to go away”.

Man was Jack ever a loud guy. Bassel chuckling awkwardly, “yeah I was a little preoccupied and choosing to ignore the insane broken mirror”.

Dan has apparently come back, “ha! You’re lucky your reflection didn’t try to reach through the mirror and strangle you”.

Bassel is not asking. Bassel is not asking. Bassel is not asking. But note to self, do not ignore sentient reflections that move of their own accord. Jazz even shakes her head, “okay that wasn’t the smartest decision you could have made, but I get it”, and she gestures at the couch, “want to finish the movie? Then we can get our stuff in?”.

He sighs, tired, “yeah, yeah, that’s… that’s good”. Just let everything else be normal, or as normal as it can be with the literal walking dead being in the room. Elle grabs him and Jazz before dragging them to the couch, the child is way too strong.

Jazz can practically feel the relief in her bones when they make it through the rest of the movie without anymore incidents, everyone getting up and Jack grabbing a scowling disgruntled Dan to help bring stuff inside. Dan grumbling, “I feel the need to point out that Danny is just as strong as me even if he looks like a damn beanpole”.

Danny shouting, “you mean I’m stronger than you! And hey! I’m lean!”, after them.

Bassel quirking an eyebrow at Jazz, her shaking her head with a small smile, “ectoplasmic energy counts for more than physical appearances with ghosts, my little brother might still be a child and thusly hasn’t hit his growth spurt yet, but he can absolutely take his kid down a peg or two”. And he absolutely loved to pester Dan about that fact, while Dan loved to pester Danny about still being ‘puny’.

Dan growls from the garage doorway, “You lot would be dead otherwise and you know it”.

Jazz rolls her eyes, “maybe at one point but we’ve grown on you, don’t lie mister”. The full ghost only grumbles incoherently in response.

Of course her dad tries to open the trunk before Bassel can unlock it, resulting in him picking the car up, Dan having to catch the car when the trunk opens taking dad’s grip with it. Dan chuckling, “normally I’m the one who’s into picking up vehicles”.

Dad chuckling himself, “yeah and you usually throw them when you pick them up!”.

Bassel shakes his head as the full ghost sets his car on the ground fully, “do not throw my car, do all of you just have super strength”.

Jazz facepalms when her dad tilts his head like a puppy, “little cars like these aren’t that heavy though? I could have lifted this back in my college years even”. Bassel looks baffled when she glances at him.

Jazz sighing at her dad, “Dad, your parents were ghost hunters too, you’ve probably been contaminated your whole life, like me and Danny”.

“Oh right! Ha! I forgot about that! Silly me!”.

Bassel shakes his head in disbelief but takes a few of his things instead of letting the two much larger men carry everything. Jazz makes zero attempt to help Dan with any of it, her sticking her tongue out him instead. He snickers at her, “really taking the higher road here, aunty”.

“Like you’re one to talk”.

“The high road and I are incapable of coexistence”.

“Exactly”.

At least it seems like Bassel is fondly amused with their bantering, instead of disturbed, as they move from the garage and up to her old room/the spare room. Her eyeing her mom while the three men set things down in the room, “so where are Elle and Dan staying?”.

Dan scoffing from inside the room, “you say that like I sleep at all”. She studiously ignores him.

Her mom humming, “why don’t you ask Elle? Because I’m not sure”. And Elle pops out from behind Maddie, “we’re not. Grandma Pandora’s supposed to give me some sword fighting lessons!”, pouting, “and I gotta practice if I ever want to beat pops someday”.

Danny can be heard shouting, “like that’ll ever happen!”, from somewhere; and the little missy is off like a rocket after her dad probably to tackle him.

Dan growling, “if you try to make me organize your guys shit I’m going to intentionally remove every screw, battery, and third paper from everything I can get my claws on”, before Jack laughs and pushes the ghost out of the room. Dan eyeing Jazz, “and if you’ll remember, I’m not ‘allowed’ to be out past sunset”.

Ah right, she did actually forget about that. “Serves you right”. As he heads down and back to the living room he sticks his tongue out at her, it absolute is forked this time.

Bassel popping his head out of the room, “you want your studies and research notes left on the night stand? And remind me why we’re staying inside this strange house instead of a hotel, there’s… mold with eyes I think, in the corner”. Her wincing, “because the hotel has mandatory waivers and doesn’t allow Fenton’s”, then nodding up at him, “yeah my stuff’s fine there, don’t put anything in the drawers, sometimes stuff just vanishes inside for an unknown reason”. Based on him ducking back in immediately, he had in fact put some stuff inside a drawer and the sigh of relief and her dads light hearted laughter tells her that whatever it was was still there. At least some things were going right.

And then it promptly goes horribly wrong as soon as Bassel comes out to go back downstairs with her. A massive black star speckled ghost phasing their way down through the goddamn ceiling, Bassel going stalk stiff while Jazz dashes up the steps with him in her grasp and ducks both of them into the bathroom. Bassel sticking his head out of the bathroom while crouching just like her and whispering, “was that thing a freaking ghost? What the hell, babe”.

Her basically hissing at him, “yes, and a very powerful one”. Bassel grumbling, “I think today hates us”. She whole heartedly agrees.

Meanwhile the ghost is shouting, “PHANTOM! I request your aid!”, and from her and Bassel’s bathroom vantage point it looks like the ghost just got punched in their masked face -based on them being pushed back out of the kitchen entry way with a hand to their face- by Dan, who stomps out snarling, all fang but thankfully still human-looking, “wrong one, you sleepy ass”.

Starry sleep ghost… starry sleep ghost… ah right! Their name was Nocturne right? Her little brother did try to get her to remember the names of the more important ghosts after all. “Nocturne?”.

Oh she shouldn’t have said anything. The ghost looks to her and ‘brightens up’ in that cruel looking way many ghosts do, them promptly stretching and looming their body up and head over her and Bassel, “ah, young Phantom’s brethren. Do you know as to where I can find the one that will not attempt to eat beings of ancient malevolence?”. Bassel is shaking and she’s worried he’s going to pass out.

Dan rams a clawed hand into the ghosts body, “I’m true malevolence, mother fucker. Get back here”.

Thankfully Danny -in his ghost form unfortunately- pops in before Dan can do something stupid, “Dan! Leave the freaking god of sleep alone! Oh my Ancients!”. Him pointing at Nocturne’s face as the ghost moves down to him completely ignoring Jazz and Bassel now, “what the zone, Nocturne? You can’t just bust into my lair core whenever you feel like it just because I don’t get enough damn sleep”.

The ghost holds up a finger, “ah but that is hardly the reason for my arrival, I have seemed to ‘fucked up’, as you would say, to an unfortunate degree”.

Danny sighs and sags his entire body, floating in the air, “ugh, what did you do?”.

“I acquired-”.

Danny interrupting immediately, “You mean stole”.

“I acquired some eternal gardenia from FungalLung, they have now beset my domain with pink dew and blood blossom seeds”.

“Why the actual crap would you steal from that split personality psycho? There’s a reason no one goes near that kids garden”.

“I had a need for such things, as someone-”.

“Oh no, no blame game bullshit outta you, shit ass”.

“Our king needs to be-”.

“Needs to be allowed to have a bit of goddamn fun and some breaks, that’s what he needs. Now play guide, you reckless starry blanket”, Danny eyeing Dan, “Dan. Let. Go”.

Dan flinching and doing as he’s more or less commanded to. Scoffing, crossing his arms, and moving back into the kitchen with a tense, “whatever”.

Bassel wheezes when the ghost and her brother disappear through the floor, Jazz standing up fully and pulling him along with, “great. Just great. Love it. What next? An invasion?”.

Elle hums, “I mean, I could ask mythic grandma if she’s up for one”.

Jazz and Maddie both pointing at her aggressively with matching, “absolutely not”’s. Making the girl giggle. Jazz looking back to Bassel, “I promise you’re okay and not about to get attacked. Are you feeling okay?”.

“I am ten seconds away from wanting to lay on the carpet and scream cry into it, and I am positive I need a shock blanket”.

At least she doesn’t even have to ask her mom to get one for her to rush off and do so, Jazz and Maddie herding him into the spare room wrapped up in a Fenton ghost proof shock blanket in record time. Jazz nodding softly at her moms apologetic look and gesturing for her to leave them be, dad following his wife out with an exaggerated wince.

She shuffles up next to him and rubs his arm from over the blanket, effectively side hugging him, “okay so you’ve properly seen your first ghost, and they were unfortunately one of the non-human ones; but, Nocturne is quite safe actually, more a neutral being than malicious”.

He nods a little.

“They do tend to harass my brother a lot since they care a lot about sleep and he doesn’t get nearly enough of it”, shaking her head and laughing lightly a little, “and yes, what Danny said is true, they are for all accounts and purposes the god of sleep”, sighing, “nearly every god worshiped through out history is real and, yes, a ghost”.

He swallows, pulling the blanket around himself more, “that’s… kind of insane and a lot”.

Jazz nods more so to herself, she had a hard time swallowing that herself as a teen, “I know. I still find it a bit baffling myself and it is extremely strange actually meeting any of them”.

“At… at least you actually seem weirded out. Everything… else doesn’t seem to be, uh, strange, to you”.

“I’m used to it, more than I’d really like to be. I definitely wi- would prefer if my family was more normal, even marginally. And I’d rather my brother not be wrapped up in all this the way he is. Even Dan and Elle often feel that way, even if they wouldn’t exist if he wasn’t involved so heavily in everything”.

“That’s, concerning, actually”.

Jazz pats his arm some, “they haven’t had the best existences”.

Dan then startles her, voice coming through the door, “and there’s the simple fact that everyone would be better off if I never existed”.

Jazz sighing to herself and looking to the door, “Dan that’s not true”.

“And that’s crap and you know it, don’t bullshit me Jazz”; it sounds like he’s stomped off. She’s… going to have to talk to him later.

Bassel shivers, “he’s got a lot of… issues, huh”.

Jazz sighing and nodding, closing her eyes, “if people tell you you’re a monster enough that becomes all that you are and healing becomes nearly impossible”, shaking her head and looking at him, he’s watching her intently, “Elle and Danny are good for him but his emotions don’t work like they’re supposed to because of what happened to him. He’s also partly being pissy because Danny genuinely scolded him. Anyone exerting their power over him tends to rile him up, whether he wants it to or not”.

“Part of him being a, uh, ghost?”.

She nods, “yup. Though I doubt talking about Dan is great for you right now”.

Bassel looks away and stares forwards, “no, probably not”, shaking his head and readjusting into the blanket, “… that, ghost, called your brother a king, didn’t they”.

Jazz shrugs, “he tires not to let it get to his head”.

He shakes himself a little, shaking his head slowly side to side, “yeah no, I’m not pushing. Though is that why he feels like death, the pressure of death at least, when he looks all black and white”.

“I… if he feels like that I’ve never noticed, sorry. But I was living with him when that change happened so it very well might have happened slowly, over time”.

“I guess that makes sense, it almost felt hard to breathe when his voice got… thick? at Dan”.

Jazz blinks, nodding immediately, “ah that’s actually a specific power he has. He mostly just uses it to get across that he’s not playing around, that he’s being serious”.

“Effective”.

Jazz nods slowly, letting him just breathe for a bit. She guesses she can understand how her brother can be a bit much, and it was definitely for the best that Bassel found out before a ghost crashed the party that her brother was a ghost himself. Then he speaks up again, “you’re entirely alive, right? I know you have a lot of spooky rumours that follow you and, like I said, you do look off. So, you’re not a ghost, right?”.

Jazz is tempted to laugh, instead she just shakes her head, “no, not even a little bit”.

“Good. That’s good”.

She just hums, nodding to herself. Waiting for him to work through his own head. Hearing about ghosts and seeing one were very different things, and an Ancient was hard to run into no matter what Danny said. She swears it’s like he forgets that he is in the same sort of classification as them. But at least it seems like Bassel’s handling it better than many do, better than most non-Amity Parkers at least. And then her dad goes and bangs the door open, nearly making Bassel fling himself off of the bed, “I made hot chocolate!”.

“Dad! He’s trying to wind down! Not get the zone scared out of him!”.

Her dad wincing, “ah sorry, Jazzy”, holding up the two cups, “hot chocolate?”, and tilts his head to the side.

Jazz sighs, side eyeing Bassel to make sure he isn’t going to freak out further before getting up and grabbing the cups, “I know you mean well, dad, but you’re still a very loud, very large, presence”.

He rubs his neck and laughs awkwardly, tilting sideways enough to look at Bassel. Giving her boyfriend a thumbs up, “you kids get settled, no funny business”.

“Oh my zone!”, she shoves him out with a foot, barely managing not to spill, and kicks her door shut. At least she manages to give Bassel the hot chocolate gently, “that man, I swear”.

Bassel genuinely laughs though, staring at the hot chocolate in his hands, “that was so utterly normal dad behaviour though, it’s grounding actually”.

Huh. Guess he actually did a good job. “Then I owe him an apology”. She makes her sip on the hot chocolate -that’s already been adequately cooled, thanks dad genuinely- loud, purely to encourage Bassel to drink his.

He notices the cooled temp too, “he waited till it was cool but not too cool, huh?”.

“Yeah. He’s a bit of a fool and reckless but he cares a lot and has a good heart that’s as big as he is”.

Bassel humming and they sit in silence for a bit until, “is your brother going to be okay? I know I called him a superhero and google seems to say he is but…”.

“Oh superhero is very accurate by human standards, but by ghosts he’s basically normal. Behaviour wise at least. Most of the time”, shaking her head, “he’ll be fine, even if it sounds like he might wind up with a case of Blood Blossom poisoning again”.

“Let me guess, ghost poison?”.

“Yup”.

“That’s absurd”, and he sips at his hot chocolate some, “he’s not going to vomit on the floor is he?”.

Okay she can’t help but laugh at that, shaking her head, “no, no, more coughing fits, aches and pains, and muscle spasms. That’s only because he’s alive enough to not be fully affected”.

“Hence why this powerful ghost came for his help?”.

Jazz nodding, “hence why a powerful ghost came for his help”, tilting her head, “though if I remember right pink dew is a psychedelic, so he also might be high when he gets back”.

“Oh god, I don’t think that kid should ever do drugs. Being near your entire family is like being on drugs”, sticking his arms out of the blanket and gesturing the mug around, “if I woke up in the morning and was told this was all one big fever dream, I’d believe it”.

“That’s understandable. Which is why the rest of the world considers this town a hoax”.

“Yeah I was wondering about that”, he downs a considerable amount of his drink, “you’d think the whole world would know about this. But I guess that would cause an uproar”.

Jazz sighing, almost annoyed, “yeah, the government does try to keep a lid on everything”.

“God damn it. Seriously? Ugh. I hate that I called ‘government cover up’ as the why”.

“There’s more to it but the rest is a lot weirder to the point where even I don’t want to think about it. It’s actually in the category of too weird”. Her little brother mind wiping an entire planet after fighting a reality controlling clown that turned roads into rollercoasters and made him fight a fire breathing clown and a lava pit full of rubber ducks, was so many steps past extremely strange.

Bassel full body cringing, “then I definitely don’t want to know. I do want to know if the stories about you communing with ghosts in your dorm are true though, and if your dorms is ‘contaminated’”, looking down at the cup, “and we should thank your dad for this. It was pretty good”.

Jazz blushes a little, “they’re true, even ghosts need therapy and I don’t need my license to give it to them. Sometimes it is just Danny though, and I’m good about keeping on top of decontamination, so don’t worry about that”, then eyeing him, he still seemed a little out of it and shocky but he was definitely better and really there was no normalising or rationalizing her family, “we’ll go down and thank him if you’re alright”.

He nods down at the cup and to himself, then looking at her with a nod and shaking smile, “I’m going to be digesting all of this for days at least, but I’m okay, babe. I absolutely hope today was the weirdest day of this week visit though”.

Jazz hums, standing up and offering him her mug-free hand, “well Dan will avoid Danny for at least a full day and Pandora will keep Elle busy for at least three; so there won’t be their chaos for a little while. As for literal gods showing up, that happens so seldom that I genuinely believe that Johnny’s Shadow might’ve snagged us some bad luck on the way into town”.

“Johnny’s Shadow?”.

Oh maybe she shouldn’t have brought that guy up. Wincing, “um, Shadow is basically Johnny’s pet or familiar? And Johnny is a ghost I may have dated? Once? He wasn’t genuine about it, and I was a dumb teenager who feel for his stupid motorbike and bad boy vibes”.

He actually snickers at her, before laughing fully and having to put the mug to the side to avoid spilling it, “I! Can not believe how stereotypical! That is!”, shaking his head and wheezing, eyeing her, “straight laced, honor role daughter falls for a motorcycle riding bad boy who’s all charm and bad intentions”.

She smacks his arm, “don’t be mean”, she doesn’t mean it at all though, “and Danny actually dated his girlfriend, she was trying to make Johnny jealous”.

“So what I’m getting here is ghosts are seriously just goddamn people, some are just very extra”.

“That’s one way to put it, yeah. Or they’re more like animals”.

Bassel blinks as they shuffle out of the room, “oh thats right, the green dog, where’d he? go?”.

Jazz snorts, “Danny sent him back to, well, the other side as it were; since mom was trying to taser him”. He was always so protective of that dog, even if said dog caused so many issues.

“That did seem a bit excessive”.

“Oh absolutely not, that dog is an actual menace”.

“I’m just going to take your word for it”.

They pop into the kitchen, she’s not surprised both Dan and Elle are gone. “Thanks for the hot chocolate, dad”. Bassel nodding, “yeah, it was really good, thank you”.

Her dad gives a goofy thumbs up, “glad you liked it!”. And she thinks everything might just be okay.

Bassel’s not really sure what to do about all of this. What he does know is that he’s better off not thinking about it and not trying to actually figure out what to do about all of this. He knows Jack Fenton cares a lot, makes good hot chocolate, he’s loud and big, and sure he’s a little off and too strong but he actually is like a puppy. Maddie Fenton was a lot softer, a lot more aware that her family was odd, more socially adept, but she was also more threatening and quick to fight; strange and off as well but she came off as more normal than her husband. Danny was… a nightmare, full stop, he’s a little worried what kind of friends the teen had that could put up with him. He was borderline actually insane, but from what Bassel saw on his google trip he also was a genuinely good kid. Bassel’s fairly certain that even if the world turned against him he’d still fight to save it; that took a level of sheer determination and heart that Bassel probably didn’t have himself. Elle was just a weird kid with too lax and strange of a parent, she might stand a chance at being almost normal someday. Maybe. Dan was an utter psycho though, he honestly can not think of a redeeming quality for that one. Doesn’t even want to try. Because excusing a murderer was not a line he feels like toeing. Jazz says Dan wouldn’t hurt any of them and does love them, but he’s not sold on that; it seemed more likely that she just didn't want to admit that the man was simply an awful unkind corrupt person.

And Jazz?

Well, his opinion honestly hasn’t changed. She’s still awesome, beautiful, caring, neurotic, a worrier, and slightly strange. He wants to think she’d be the same, though maybe less strange, even if she had a perfectly normal and average family. He wasn’t about to let odd family break them up, even if it was the kind of odd normally reserved for tv shows and the weird comics you find at truck stops that are filled with plot holes and questionable narrative direction. Either way he’s sticking around, so long as he can actually physically survive a week in this place.

Him watching as Danny, covered in some kind of clear goo or slime, kicks open the lab door with blown out pupils and a gnarly rash on half his face. “I! Never want to see! Another! Fucking! Person with me damn mushroom eyes again! I feel! Disgusting! Bleh!”, sticks out his tongue and then faceplants onto the floor groaning; the slime stuff splatters around a bit.

Bassel blinks, “um, should someone drag him up to the bathroom or something?”. Then the kid sprouts another set of goddamn arms and hands out of his back and proceeds to dragging himself across the floor and up the stairs with them. “Never mind, what the hell. I never want to see that again”.

Jazz sighs, rinsing out their cups, “he’s definitely high, don’t touch the goo trail”, moving to get the biohazards mop and bucket, “Danny can be a bit of a jerk with the body horror stuff but he usually reserves it for people he knows can handle it”.

“That’s… good. Dear god”.

And then… Danny??? runs up the lab stairs, “did anyone see a body of mine”.

Jazz throws the mop at him and yelps, “what the Zone! Danny?”, making faces at him and pointing at the stairs that still has a slime trial on it, “I have some serious questions”.

He blinks at her, “rogue duplicate”, and runs towards the stairs.

Jazz throws up her hands, “why would you use a power you suck at to deal with drug flowers!”.

“Because I didn’t want to personally deal with blood blossoms!”, the kid slips on the slime and smashes his face into the stairs, “fuck!”, then scramble crawls up the steps.

Bassel grabs the mop back up, ignores that it’s a weirdly hot pink colour, and hands it off to his girlfriend, “so that was a thing that happened”.

Jack starts wheeze laughing, sitting down at the kitchen table, “I hope his duplicate at least had fun!”.

Maddie grinning at the man, “I’m sure it did, Jack hon”.

Everyone, including Bassel, ignores the strange thumping going on upstairs as well as the… arm that comes hurling down the steps and dissolves into green goo against a wall. Staying here was going to give him some extremely unique and unfortunate nightmares, wasn’t it? At least now he gets why his girlfriend had such an easy time writing behavioural papers, she had multiple subject studies. He might even be able to bang out a paper or two on human adaptability after this. He absolutely was not doing any papers on people growing arms out of their backs though, that would get him sent on a grippy sock vacation.

Danny pops back in looking disgusted, “it’s dealt with”.

Maddie eyeing him cautiously, “is the hall way intact?”.

The boy sags and gives a truly crushed, “no”.

At this point, Bassel thinks that’s frankly expected. He also thinks that this household is cursed. At least Jack bounds up the stairs to start fixing the hallway and Bassel legitimately doesn’t care to check out the damage. Truly. Instead he’s just going to sit down with his girlfriend and, like her, mildly regret him coming and going into this ‘cold turkey’. Next time she warns him about something, he’s going to demand an explanation instead of brushing her worries off.

End.

Promtps: Jazz brings a date home for the first time. She didn’t exactly brief them on her family’s whole ghost thing. Antics ensue. All the Fentons are a bit more ghostly than they know The Phantom Clan (Dan, Dani, and Danny) is awake and about to make it everyone's problem Jazz has a reputation at college for being spooky, it doesn't help that she communes with ghosts. Uncanny valley is strong with Danny, most Amity Parkers don't realize it, but any time anyone from out of town sees him, they're in for a spook. Nocturne fucked up BIG TIME and now needs help from the ghost kid.

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