#Also the portal accident happens two years early so there's that | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sword-and-lance · 1 year

Text

((okay yeah so I’ve been meaning to write down a bunch of things about Dae’s Ancientsona Ancient self, Nemesis, and now’s as good a time as any LET’S GOOOO

===

EARLY DAYS

She’s the eldest sibling out of three with her younger brother and sister being fraternal twins, Artemis and Apollo (we haven’t exactly seen how Ancients age relative to like, normal people, but it’d be the equivalent of ~10 years ish between the other two and Nemesis)

Yeah not Gaia!Artemis, a different Artemis, who is also Amba’s Ancient self coincidentally

No I have not figured out what her parents’ names were yet deal with it

REGARDLESS both of said parents were heavily researching other dimensions, interdimensional travel, that kind of thing, and while they did try they weren’t exactly great at work-life balance and wee Nemesis was more or less fending for herself once she was old enough to like, do that

Also meant she was taking care of her siblings a lot too so they got very attached to her given that they were little little and she was around quite a bit more than their own damn parents

Then said parents opened a portal to the Abyss in their fucking basement sort of on accident and whoops it’s basically Hell to anyone who’s not prepared to like, Deal With The Abyss Being Like That, and the Abyss was rather peeved at being woken back up and peeled their souls out and ate them

And also started eating the house and tried to eat Nemesis and her siblings but Nemesis managed to get them clear of the house fast enough while listening to her parents getting basically mauled

Traumatic it sure was and literally no one knew how to handle that especially for a kid Nemesis’ age, where she wasn’t old enough to really have a coping mechanism but old enough to know damn well what happened

So immediately after people just...kept their distance and hurled platitudes rather than doing anything helpful and yes Nemesis did hold a lot of resentment over that even way later on in life because it felt like she got abandoned (because she kinda did)

That said one of her parents’ work friends, Daedalus, actually wound up adopting all three of them once he heard what had happened and honestly...did his best tbh to help them, even when it was pretty damn clear that Nemesis was proooobably gonna grow up somewhat maladjusted personality-wise

The other two were really too young to understand it or remember it well though and grew up fairly normal, though Apollo had much weaker aetherial potential than Artemis or Nemesis had (even if his soulsight was extremely good)

Yes Apollo is Hythlodaeus, I just am kinda rolling with “it’s ALSO a title” as a very un-canon excuse for it in this ‘verse, shh

It was also about this point that Daedalus got to make the exciting discovery that Nemesis could do blood magic

AND HERE’S WHERE I DIGRESS ABOUT BLOOD MAGIC FOR TOO DAMN LONG

Yes this is (also) entirely non-canonical, but I do what I please and what I please is making weirdo magic systems for my personal blorbos aight?

So it’s a weird obscure branch of magic that’s kind-of-cousins to healing magic but is done somewhat differently

YOU SEE Ancients’ healing magic requires a lot of aether and also is “permanent” in the sense of “once you’re healed you’re not gonna spontaneously UN-heal later” ya know?

It’s also mostly concerned with bringing everything back to the status quo body-wise, making the body return to “baseline”

Blood magic on the other hand is capable of a great deal more effects-wise; it also is predominantly concerned with shifting your body away from baseline more than bringing it back--and it is also much less permanent and wears off over time if not actively maintained

That said, there’s a couple complications with it: the ability to even perform it seems to be genetic to some extent, and also using it generates aetherial “backlash” that acts completely chaotically and, more often than not, violently

This is ofc a bit of a fucking problem for someone trying to use it, but there’s a workaround for it, namely: channeling that backlash into a container of some sort to keep it from ricocheting off in random directions instead

Generally these containers are orbs of some sort, since it’s much easier to just have the magic spin itself in circles rather than have to deal with it putting constant huge pressure onto any corners or hard edges

But minor transformations are generally pretty safe to do without any further precautions because the backlash just dissipates harmlessly courtesy of being so small

...It still didn’t make it any less startling to Daedalus when he walked in and found a wee Nemesis skittering up the wall like a goddamn lizard and heard her go LOOKIT WHAT I CAN DO :D

For better or worse though he had actually studied historical instances of blood magic as a side gig before and so he had a fair bit of forewarning about what it could do--and a lot of literature on it

Sure he couldn’t entirely teach her everything but he could at least do a guided study kind of thing so she didn’t go up and blow up the general neighborhood or the like

And study she did because she found that kind of thing immensely fascinating

HOWEVER she always steadfastly refused to learn how to do it to people that weren’t herself; in her eyes, using blood magic effectively does require thinking about your body kinda like a meatsuit, and while thinking about your own body that way is one thing, thinking about other people like meatsuits is a one-way ticket to starting to treat them like things, and treating people like things is Bad, Okay

She got pretty damn good at the whole thing tbf and while there are certainly a lot of petty personal uses for that kind of magic, she mostly just. Used it to turn herself into varying sorts of critter because that is just how she rolls

DIGRESSION OVER BACK TO THE NEMESIS STUFF

So by the time she became a young adult she had had whatever typical schooling that Ancients had, as well as a fair bit of experience in using her particularly odd and semi-useful kind of magic

She also figured out she had a “typical” transformation at that point: a kinda Anubis hound looking thing (as compared to her sister’s deer-looking forest creature)

Ofc her brother had none lol (poor Hyth and his two hulking monster-sisters), but did get the REALLY good aethersight so it evened out a bit

Daedalus had also created a hardwood staff for Nemesis, and of course the first thing she did with it was master how to summon a scythe blade onto it at will

She had also gotten used to making backlash orbs for herself at that point and clearing them out

It was about this point she started to have a bit of an existential crisis because she was basically being expected to get a job, help the star, preserve society--even after that society had pretty effectively given her younger self the finger and kinda looked sideways at a lot of what she could do

(See the above point re: how applying it to other people requires thinking about them not as people, and also the sheer Body Horror potential it has on top of that, I mean. She could basically run around being a mini Final Days if she wanted)

(Thing is that she do not wanted, thank you very much, but try telling that to some people and it just glances off)

Also at that point the Pashtarot at the time was getting tetchy over her being “allowed” to continue practicing that magic anyway, and kept not-so-subtly floating the notion of binding that power away from her because yeah too risky to let that keep going what if she goes evil on us

But of course this is also a strange rare power that damn near never actually comes up, much less in someone that was actually pretty interested in the subject and had done a huge amount of work on it on her own even at that age

In fact the notion of just locking it away without even an opportunity to study it honestly offended Lahabrea’s notion of scholarship and so when Nemesis got offered a position at the Words of Lahabrea--

Okay honestly at first she took it as an insult because she saw in the Ancients’ creations what she saw in herself: flaws, and how black-and-white those flaws were treated, and therefore wasn’t thrilled with the notion of going to a place whose entire purpose was that

But he actually realized that and changed tack to say that she didn’t need to be a researcher, there was actually a sub-bureau (albeit a small one) that was dedicated to just catching rogue concepts

And at that point she realized that this was probably the best combo of “helping people” and “not having to actively participate in making things that’re just gonna get killed the second they’re imperfect anyway” and went OKAY SOLD

So she trained as basically a concept-catcher and while she still really didn’t like how casually society treated the creations they’d make, she also did get to see for herself that yeah actually some of these are just way too fucked-up to keep existing (and Pandaemonium was actually almost an improvement in her eyes, if just because they weren’t just offing them and also had the time-stasis thing going on so they weren’t just being made to suffer)

Despite the pragmatic approach to, uh, existing in this society, she also wound up managing to weasel an arrangement out of Lahabrea that she could actually keep some of the “flawed but not turbo dangerous” stuff at a compound by her house, and that actually helped take some of her rougher edges off when he actually like, agreed, albeit on a case-by-case basis per concept, under the conceit that it was another “facility”

And she caught onto that and actually did run it like one, and after it led to her being a lot more cooperative and congenial with him, he just kinda ran with it even if he thought she was being really goddamn weird about the whole concepts thing

(But hey she was a very good catcher and dedicated to what she was doing so whatever, he could roll with it if it meant keeping her around and interested in continuing to do her job, AND he got to study her blood magic by proxy too)

In fact he wound up basically making a registration system for her various forms so they could both keep track of that, and while she groaned a lot at first about the paperwork, it was kinda neat to be able to flip through a whole book of things she had accomplished with that magic

So basically yes they both mildly annoyed each other but kinda ran with it because they had a nice little academic mutual exchange thing going on

That said, this whole time Athena has also...been A Thing That’s Happening, and while Nemesis was never particularly fond of her, she mostly just wrote it off as yet another person I don’t like (of which there were many lmao) and left it at that

Especially because by the time Athena was seriously ramping up her bullshit and she was rather casually discarding concepts, including a number of severely dangerous ones, and leaving them for Nemesis’ department to clean up, so Nemesis was a wee bit too busy to think about the weird chick married to her boss’ boss anyway

At least until Athena swanned in one day wanting to experiment with Nemesis’ blood magic, anyway

At which point Nemesis basically got all the bad vibes and went hm. no. and got into a verbal brawl with her over it, and then had to get prodded off of that particular argument by her direct manager so they didn’t all get in hot water with Lahabrea over it

Nemesis also around that time got a (rather nebulous and circumstantial) piece of evidence tying Athena to the rash of escapes but before she and her direct manager could do anything about it, the whole incident with Erich had happened and so yeah she just dropped it because she wasn’t gonna try to persecute someone that was fuckin dead (and she also genuinely thought it was just an accident at the time like everyone else, least up until she gets pulled into the Pandaemonium questline but anyway)

And from there she basically just kept on keeping on: catching rogue concepts, keeping some of the less-bad ones, inevitably being yanked into a friendship with Azem, having to put up with Emet-Selch of all people when he started dating her brother, her sister being Emmerololth and then retiring to be a Fae ambassador...so on and so on

#; musing #there is. much more I could probably write here lol but I'll just stop here this is long enough as it is #long post #for all she has a Weird Obscure Magic (TM) she mainly just. uses it to be a feral conservation officer #and turn herself into a whole series of Increasingly Weird Dogs #(and yeah she did think Lahabrea had a...weird...reaction to his wife's death but knew better than to poke at that)#(at least until the Panda questline anyway. then whoops your boss' boss is eve nmore traumatized than you were!)#(SURPRISE!)

4 notes · View notes

kokorowoutsu-a · 1 year

Text

-- HC: Timeline

Here is a full timeline of events from the start of Ashe’s POV to present time. A WIP at the moment and will be nitpicked as things happen. Arcs will be listed instead of full events and some do need posts.

Approx. 2000-3000 years prior - Morgan is born and events of her life unfold. She is married to The Fairy King and after suffering at his hands begs for release. An Unseelie Witch answers her call and tit for tat turns her into a Magical Creature -- a Ralts that wanders the world.

XX75 - Morgan is found by Victoria Hollingsworth as a Kirlia and takes her on as a resident and protege in becoming a Healer.

XX92, June - Ashe is born.

XX92, August - Leon is born in an alternate universe.

XX93, January - Ashe is abandoned by Human Mother and taken in by Victoria Hollingsworth, her Grandmother.

XX93, February - Kianga is born.

XX95 - Leon follows Victini into a portal and runs into the Leon of this timeline and the two merge with Leon and family none the wiser. He becomes labelled as a Faller but never attracts UBs. Leon’s family moves from Alola to Galar shortly after.

XX93 - XX97 - Kianga or N is raised in a lab with his sickly Zoroark mother and Zorua siblings. He grows up feral until his mother dies and his siblings and him are separated. Team Plasma’s commencement of their plan begins and the tutelage of their King begins.

XX95-XX97 - Leon becomes friends with Sonia and also meets his partner Charizard as a Charmander.

XX93 to XX08 - Ashe grows up in the shelter of Castelia City and at age sixteen her grandmother, Victoria Hollingsworth passes away of terminal illness. Ashe faces going into the care of Unova’s Government. Morgan evolves into her final stage as a Gardevoir and spirits Ashe away as her own to the most north she could take Ashe in Mistralton City so this doesn’t occur. Temporary housing is acquired in where Grandcrest Ranch will be.

XX98, Early - Grusha is born and left in the snow to die. He is found by Aestas and reborn.

XX98, Mid - Leon finds out he’s going to be a big brother from his parents, but sadly his father passes away in a freak accident at work.

XX99 - Hop is born.

XX00 - Reshiram begins speaking to Kianga and chooses him as his Champion.

XX02 - Leon is endorsed by Professor Magnolia and goes with Sonia and takes on the Galar League. He meets Raihan, Piers, Gordie, and Nessa and they form a friend group.

XX02 - Grusha begins taking an interest in snowboarding.

XX03 - Leon is crowned Champion and taken under Rose’s wing.

XX02 - Grusha begins taking an interest in snowboarding.

XX03 - Grusha meets his partner Swablu after getting lost in the snows of Snowpoint City.

XX04 - XX12 - Grusha lives a comfortable life with Aestas and her family, taking an interest in snowboarding and being privately tutored in all things that are needed to know. He takes a interest in pokemon and catches a Sneasel and Seel around this time, finding he has an affinity for ice-types alongside his Cryokinesis abilities and literally being a living human ice-type person.

XX03 - XX17 - Leon reigns as Champion of the Galar Region.

XX09, May - Ashe suffers an injury that gets infected and is at death’s doorstep. To save her, Morgan knows she must ‘die’ in a sense and become something else as not even Morgan can save her as she is. Using forbidden magic in a Blood Pact, Morgan changes Ashe’s maternal blood and gives her Fae Blood instead. Ashe heals over the next few days and becomes Morgan’s daughter by blood in truth, and by labels, a Changeling.

XX09, August - Ashe is set up for homeschool and finishes off studying under a local teacher who is the former Mistralton Gym Leader and Skyla’s relative. Future Gym Leader Skyla becomes acquainted with Ashe’s family, setting up for her being the one to keep their secret later on down the line and allow them to live in Mistralton.

XX10, Early - Ashe ‘graduates’ and is free to pursue her own passion as a traveling trainer. By now, Morgan and Ashe have set up the woods and live a peaceful life. This is the beginning of Grandcrest Ranch.

XX10, Mid - Ashe takes on the Unova League leading to the Unova Arc.

XX10, Late - Morgan begins to build into Grandcrest Ranch.

XX11, Early (1) - Ashe finishes her Unova League journey and heads to Kanto next resulting in the Kanto Arc. Ashe obtains a Keystone and Absolite.

XX11, Early (2) - The events of Black/White occur.

XX11, Mid - Kianga becomes Parker Reed’s shadow while she deals with Team Plasma and Neo Team Plasma from the light, he deals with them from the shadows.

XX12, Early - Grandcrest Ranch is built onto after Morgan stakes a claim on surrounding territory, invoking her Fae tendencies. Parker Reed passes away from terminal illness.

XX12, Mid - Kianga is found by Ashe on a rainy day covered in mud and ready to give up on the world. She takes him home and he becomes fast friends with the Grandcrests. Ashe decides to head to Alola after knowing he’ll be okay with Morgan leading to Alola Arc. Kianga heads to Alola to find her once he’s healed and they begin traveling together. Ashe begins writing journals of her findings on various pokemon as well.

XX13, Mid - Kianga is formally adopted by Morgan and the Grandcrest Ranch is established as a place of residence. The last name is taken on by all three family members. Ashe’s Keystone is formed into a braclet known as the ‘Multi-Bracelet’ to handle Z-Crystals as well.

XX13 - Grusha goes pro and starts competing as a Snowboarding and Pro-Athele. Gains a broken arm in one of his Championship runs. Forced to be benched and go through physical therapy.

XX14 - Ashe travels to Johto and the Johto Arc occurs with Kianga as her new regular traveling companion. Ashe and Kianga becomes friends with Donovan Bonhomme, an aspiring Archaeologist.

XX15 (1) - Ashe travels to Hoenn and the Hoenn Arc occurs. Ashe begins to take an interest in collecting pokemon and studying them.

XX15 (2) - Grusha breaks his leg in an Snowboarding accident and later goes through physical therapy. Begins taking a mild interest in ice-types.

XX16 (1) - Morgan builds more onto the Ranch to occupy more pokemon.

XX16 (2) - Ashe spends a year traveling to previous regions she’s familiar with and catching them, evolving them, and writing in old journals she’s had. Ashe also travels to the Lental Region as part of a program and studies the pokemon there.

XX16 (3) - Kianga’s Zorua Pack begins to form.

XX16 (4) - Grusha travels with Aestas to an unknown region where he receives a Mightyena variant unknown to science.

XX17 (1) - Ashe travels to Kalos and the Kalos Arc occurs. She learns more about the Fae here and what it means to be a Changeling. More about Mega Evolution is learned.

XX17 (2) - Morgan takes on Donovan as an apprentice in teaching him Magic once he finds out he is to be Sorcerer Supreme.

XX18 (1) - Ashe travels to Sinnoh and the Sinnoh Arc occurs. Ashe and Kianga meets several friends here; Night Shadowborn and Gladion Aether as well as the legendary pokemon of the Creation Trio and Lunala. Ashe also meets Reisei “Rei” Winters after an incident trying to catch a shiny pokemon.

XX18 (2) - Leon endorses his brother Hop and Gloria, Hop’s friend to challenge the Galar League. The Darkest Day occurs later and officially breaks Leon in every way possible. He decides to retire and hands the mantle over to Savannah Hemsworth and his friends. He takes the time to rest and recover.

XX19, Early - Ashe travels to Galar and the Galar Arc occurs. Ashe receives a Dynamax Band that she wears her Multi-Bracelet on top of. She learns more about the Fae here.

XX19, Mid - Ashe travels to Isle of Armor with Kianga and Morgan for a vacation and pause in her journey and to learn under Master Mustard. After two weeks of vacation she resumes her Galar journey. Morgan is inspired to establish her Therapy Program with the help of Ashe’s ‘mons she doesn’t use on her team as helpers. It takes off well in and around Mistralton City.

XX20, Early - Grusha is involved in the Snowboarding accident that nearly takes his life. He has immediate surgery done by the Valkyrie Family and the people who work for them. He’s given a chance to walk again with emergency surgery, but it’s a dim hope as he’ll have to go through yet another surgery.

XX20, Mid - Recruited by Geeta, Grusha becomes the new ice-type gym leader for Paldea. He is not happy with this arrangement, but must make money to survive and care for his pokemon.

XX20, Late (1) - Ashe and Kianga go to the Crown Tundra with Night and his group to figure out what’s going on with the sudden influx of legendary pokemon. Leon, now Ex-Champion, shows up on their doorstep a week into their stay. He is invited to stay and becomes friends with everyone there. Ashe at some point grows ill but plays it off. During Night’s confrontation with Calyrex, she drops unconscious and not feeling her breathing, Kianga makes a rush decision to return home, only leaving a note for Night that they were ‘headed home’. Reshiram prepares to escort them home and leave Leon behind, but Leon clings onto Reshiram at the last minute and thus is taken to Grandcrest Ranch.

XX20, Late (2) - Kianga’s Zorua Pack grows to include Zoroarks.

XX20, Late (3) - Grusha begins voicing how much he doesn’t like working for Paldea’s League. People are disgruntled and Geeta is growing impatient.

XX21, Early (1) - Ashe is able to recover slowly from her illness but not before being at death’s door twice. Leon remains with Grandcrest Ranch throughout her recovery as a means of paying her back for taking him in during the Crown Tundra. While recovering, Ashe inspires Leon to want to travel and be a trainer himself.

XX21, Early (2) - Grusha is stabbed by Geeta’s Ceruledge, forcing him into silence and into a ‘caged bird’ status.

XX21, Mid - Unova Arc II occurs. Leon takes on the Unova League challenge, asking Ashe to go with him as his guide and she does so. The two by the end of the journey are smitten with one another. Kianga decides to travel the world with Reshiram leaving Morgan to further her Therapy Program.

XX21, Late - A Umbreon begins to bug Morgan on occasion. This Umbreon is revealed to be Joseph Valkyrie, a Winged Umbreon Demon during the holidays. Leon officially asks Ashe to become his girlfriend and she accepts. Ruko is found and taken in as the the third sibling of Grandcrest Ranch. Ashe meets Tanis Minamimoto through her Flygon, Dusty, and the two become friends, everyone else is shortly introduced to her as well.

XX22, Early (1) - Joseph begins to court Morgan. Leon begins to court Ashe.

XX22, Early (2) - Time Travel shenanigans happen and somehow Ashe ends up in Hisui and the Hisui Arc occurs. What is several months to Ashe is only a week to her family and when she returns she is traumatized, but not before bringing a whole horde of Hisui Variants back with her. Ashe’s Absol is able to be saved by Donovan who is now Sorcerer Supreme of the current timeline.

XX22, Early (3) - Kianga fully embraces both sides of himself as a result and becomes the Pack Leader. He also meets another Zoroark Hybrid named Juno and his family. Hisui Zorua and Zoroark join Kianga’s pack.

XX22, Mid - Alola Arc II occurs. Leon takes on the Alola League challenge with Ashe as his guide and through this journey, Ashe is able to heal from the trauma Hisui caused. Ashe reunites with Night and his group and after finding out their adopted father is Joseph, the group become her brothers and sisters as well.

XX22, Late (1) - Ashe and group travel to Paldea to take on the Paldea League and the Paldea Arc occurs. They meet a pair of Miraidon and Koraidon and after witnessing some disturbing video at a Lighthouse Lab, they head to Area Zero and nearly get killed because of it. Morgan panics. Dialga/Diamond and several others interfere to help. At the last minute, to get everyone out, Ashe’s partner evolves into the first recorded dual-type eeveelution, Empatheon. They are teleported home by Morgan after escaping.

XX22, Late (2) - Ashe calls on her aunt, Ivy, and Jackson, Ruko’s friend, to help her understand more about Lucky’s evolution, sparking an interest in studying dual-type eeveelutions. Leon and Ruko go along for support.

XX22, Late (3) - Grusha goes through his final back surgery and must take the time to recover and go through physical therapy. Geeta is made aware of this and once again reaffirms she holds his life in her hands.

XX23, Early (1) - Paldea Arc Part II occurs. Ashe travels to Paldea again to accomplish her goals. Ashe meets Seraphina Olania, a friend-rival of sorts who helps her with her Lapras alongside Mewtwo who she confides in about her past. Ashe afterward takes on the Paldean Elite Four after feeling a renewed sense of conviction and becomes Champion Rank.

XX23, Early (2) - Sinnoh Arc II occurs. Leon takes on the Sinnoh League and goes on to challenge the Elite Four and Champion, but loses to Night. He meets Night Shadowborn and learns of his connection to Ashe.

XX23, Early (3) - The Florges Ball approaches as does the thought of proposal to Ashe on Leon’s side...

You are at present time!

FUTURE EVENTS:

Ranger Regions Arc occurs. Vacation/Research time.

Ashe & Leon plot tbd

#the truth or reshiram of the matter is ;; headcanons

4 notes · View notes

organchordsandlightning · 1 year

Note

3, 4, 18 for fic writer asks?

from the fanfic end of the year asks

3. favorite line/scene you wrote this year

oh man. this one's tough. i've picked a few that i'm fond of:

“Then stop us both. Kill us both or allow us to live. There is one blasphemy worse than murder, and it is to separate me from my wife.” from Tear-Hunting Terriers, Dracula

“Why dig two graves,” Jon mumbled, staring ahead." from Two Graves, Magnus Archives

"An investigator by mind and philosopher by nature, Arthur would take a magnifying glass to his own heart until it caught fire." from whimsy and dearth, Malevolent [and also, I had so much fun with the Azathoth scenes in the next fic, and am proud of the whole Azathoth reveal in general. i thought there was every chance it could come off as a very silly resolution, but it seemed ok!]

4. total number of words you wrote this year

not sure how much I wrote on my own, so I've just counted up my AO3 for 2022: looks like we're clocking just north of 900k at 900, 344.

18. current number of wips

*cracks knuckles* so these are the ones I have every intention of writing in the future: either i've put words down for it, or have thought about it enough that I do think I'll write it. put under cut because. a lot.

MALEVOLENT: THE CASE OF THE MISSING LILY or FORMALDEHYDE or NOBLE EXPERIMENT, title in progress: First on the block is a 1920s Prohibition AU where John is kicked out of the portal and realizes he has to commit a human sacrifice if he wants to rejoin the KiY. however, complications arise with the sacrifice he's found, Local Drunk Arthur Lester. The two are embroiled in a case for a missing singer.

This one’s gonna have a lot of Prohibition fun facts in it.

Unnamed Cybernoir Future AU - Arthur Lester and Parker Yang are your local PIs. when investigating a case, they find a game that they thought was only an urban legend: the King in Yellow (think Polybius). Accidents happen, killing Parker, knocking out Arthur's memory, and inserting one unnamed fragment into Arthur's brain. i have been wanting to mix Lovecraftian nightmares and Cybernoir forever.

Unnamed Dracula AU - Known pianist Arthur Lester is invited to Dracula's castle, to perform for a party. An alleged party, as days pass and Arthur finds that he's the only one there. During his investigations, he uncovers an odd book and receives an odd voice in his head - and he realizes he's not the only one trapped in this castle.

Some one-shots: a post-EP 26 where John is temporarily yeeted into the driver's seat of Arthur's body, a little cozy Christmas Parker & Arthur feels trip, etc.

TMA: Just some one-shots here for the time being! Looking at a jig-saw themed Scottish safehouse one-shot, an early S2 'John helps Martin move into his new flat' one-shot, and a Somewhere Else 'Martin finally helps John celebrate his birthday' one-shot!

OTHER:

God above i'm trying to write something for Tell No Tales. I know what I wanna do. I know what I wanna write. Just figuring out time.

Also, want to write a lowkey yearning Utterson/Jekyll piece.

Also also, a Disco Elysium High School AU is always rotating around my mind at high speeds.

#thanks for asking!

3 notes · View notes

arctimon · 3 years

Text

What If...? (Big Hero 6 Edition)

So the next Marvel series set to release is What If...?, a series of nine episodes that will focus on alternate events and timelines that occur within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The series, based off of the comic series of the same name, will premiere on August 11th, running straight through October 6th. The show was suppose to have ten episodes in both Season 1 and 2 (which is already being worked on), but producer Brad Winderbaum mentions in an interview that they had to push an episode back because of, you guessed it, the pandemic:

"We had to push an episode into Season 2. It was just, honestly, like everything else, that was a COVID impact," Winderbaum told Collider. "There was an episode that just wouldn't hit the completion date, but luckily we do get to see it in the second season of the show."

youtube

Judging by both the poster and the trailer, we know of a few scenarios: Peggy Carter becoming Captain America, an alternate Avengers lineup battling at New York, Black Panther as Star Lord, Marvel Zombies (of course there’s zombies), and Spider-Man as the Sorcerer Supreme. Inverse has an article breaking all of the possibilities down.

A lot of the actors who portray their characters in live action will reprise their roles for the animated series, including the late Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther/Star Lord. Star...Panther? Black Lord? That last one sounds wrong. Among those not coming back are Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, and Dave Bautista as Drax. Bautista was, according to the man himself, wasn’t even asked to come back to voice Drax. Others include Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, Tom Holland as Spider-Man, James Spader as Ultron, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Elizabeth Olson as the Scarlet Witch, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Gweneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, and various members of the Dora Milaje. They have all apparently been confirmed to be appearing in What If...? in some form or another, but voiced by different people.

It will certainly be an interesting show, but I hope you can see where I’m going with this.

The Big Hero 6 fanbase has a lot of burning questions for the show and movie, and it’s not all just unanswered ones about what happens after the show ended. I think collectively there are a few common “what-ifs” that we have in our minds about the team. I think the most obvious one involves one of the Hamada brothers, and that branches off into other what-ifs as well.

Granted, not all of these are reality-altering hypotheticals like there are in the show or comics, but they can still change the course of the movie or show in a huge way.

1.) What if...Tadashi had survived the fire?

Tadashi being a survivor of the fire that takes down the exhibition hall brings up a few interesting conundrums. Would he be scarred for life? Would he even be able to complete school?

And if Hiro still made the team, would he end up becoming Sunfire like a lot of fans theorize?

The thing is that Callaghan knows that Tadashi died in the fire. If he knew that he didn’t, would that change his motivations? Would he still be using the Microbots knowing that the person that was trying to “stop” him was still alive? Alternatively, you also have...

2.) What if...Hiro had died instead of Tadashi?

Hiro was probably about two seconds away from being fully engulfed in that giant fireball. It’s entirely plausible that he (or possibly both Hamadas) could have perished in the fire instead of his brother, which sort of leads to the same circumstances as the first question, just with different powersets. Tadashi would no longer be tied to fire-based powers but the magnetic equipment that that Hiro currently uses.

But one has to think about whether Tadashi would be in the right state of mind to be a hero long term. Seeing his kid brother perish in the accident would probably cause him to go insane, and perhaps the rest of the team would have to reel him in.

3.) What if...Baymax had killed Callaghan?

It’s worth noting that if Honey Lemon had been about three seconds later on getting the healthcare chip back into Baymax, this wouldn’t have been a “What If?” question.

And sure, the team would have saved the day, but at what cost? The permanent scarring of a fourteen-year-old? And what would have come of the major revelations after that fight concerning Project Silent Sparrow and Abigail?

Maybe they would have been the ones to build the portal to the other dimension to try to save her. That would similar to what happened in the original manga (where Tadashi actually helps with the construction of the original portal and got sucked in as a result). 4.) What if...Baymax had saved Obake in “Countdown to Catastrophe”?

Obake dismissed Baymax after his hideout started collapsing near the end of Part 2, and you could tell that Baymax was seriously considering rescuing him before leaving him in his chair amongst the rubble. Ultimately, however, he did leave him behind after Obake’s insistence.

Imagine what would have happened if he had gone against his programming and saved his life.

The relieved group hug on the beach would have been replaced with a disheveled (and probably a little damp) Obake. Hiro would have been staring hiim down in disbelief. Perhaps there would even be another fight, or at least the makings of one.

And then Obake would give himself up for arrest.

Maybe that’s where Chief Cruz could have been introduced. It would have given a good lead into the next season, and it would give Megan’s meeting with Hiro in Season 2 a little bit more meaning.

And finally, because I’m a shipper and we have to go there:

5.) What if...Karmi had never left SFIT at the end of “City of Monsters”?

We know from the boards that Bob Schooley posted that “City of Monsters” was originally going to end very differently than what actually made the final cut. It seemed that Karmi, in addition to getting a nonsensical boyfriend named “Flammarion”, was not suppose to leave SFIT in the early draft.

So what if Hiro had shown up to her lab, and instead of seeing this...

He saw this?

Or...something a little less dramatic? Maybe just her packing up stuff because she’s in the process of leaving? And Hiro had to say something in order for her to stop what she was doing? And how exactly would you achieve that? See, if that scenario happened, I think that this particular point would be where Hiro told her about being in Big Hero 6. And of course Karmi wouldn’t believe him, even though she’s now in love with him crushing on him.

Then, he takes her to the base.

And she turns back to him with an incredulous look.

And roll credits. What a cliffhanger to go into Season 3 with. I vaguely remember fanart depicting that exact scene (Hiro taking Karmi to the base), but I don’t remember who did it. I would like to give them the proper credit. Season 3 would have looked totally different if that took place. Maybe it would have been an actual season and not a bunch of mini stories. Also...perhaps Karmi would have joined the team proper.

And maybe we would have finally had a giant canonical Karmiro moment.

...Now that is a big “What if?”.

(Marvel’s What If...? premieres on Wednesday, August 11th on Disney+.)

#big hero 6 #big hero 6 the series #big hero 6 season 3 #hiro hamada #tadashi hamada #big hero 6 movie #karmi #karmiro #marvel's what if #obake #liv amara #countdown to catastrophe #city of monsters #baymax #yokai #professor callaghan

148 notes · View notes

redrobin-detective · 3 years

Text

From a young age, Jack Fenton wanted a life of adventure and excitement. Working on his family’s quiet farm in the middle of nowhere never sat right with him. Late one night, he sees something he can’t explain in the woods which sparks a lifelong passion for the supernatural. He worked day and night at various odd jobs once he was old enough in order to save up money for school. Pa and him had a huge row when he saw how much money Jack had saved over the years. That money could’ve bought new equipment, could have put food in his sisters’ mouths. But Jack held fast, he loved his family but he needed to find his own way and he wouldn’t find it here. As soon as he got his acceptance letter for his college of choice, he left the farm and never looked back.

Rooming with Vlad Masters was a struggle at first but his roommate’s intense desire to prove Jack wrong about ghosts eventually sparked a friendly continuing argument which just became friendly in general. Jack was too loud, too enthusiastic for everyone else, almost always the biggest and broadest guy in the room. Jack first met Maddie during college orientation, or rather he met her bountiful bushy red hair 3 rows up that his eyes kept wandering to. He met her properly when they got into an intense discussion of the use of the supernatural in fiction during literature class. Girls had never registered for Jack before, always seemed less interesting than his research. But Maddie, she like a revelation in and of herself. They continued their debate after class, into the dining hall where Vlad somehow got roped in. They exchanged phone numbers and continued their theories long into the night. They never really stopped.

Maddie was like the campfires Pa used to make when he was young. She was small and contained but with an all-encompassing energy that warmed everyone around her. He finally met his match with her, her enthusiasm encouraged his and vice versa. Her mind thought differently from Jack but in a complementary way, he did his best thinking when she was there to bounce ideas off of. As close as he and Vlad were, sometimes the whole world disappeared when Maddie was around. Vlad proclaimed his desire to date Maddie on a couple of occasions, asking Jack to back him up. Jack never knew how to answer, it should be okay as long as the two of them were happy and he and Maddie could stay friends. But he couldn’t just ignore that chemistry he felt when Jack’s eyes met hers.

Vlad’s accident occurred not long afterwards, he was stuck in the hospital and forced to drop out of school their last semester. The guilt ate away at Jack but Maddie made things better. He danced with her for their last college dance, kissed her for the first time as they threw their caps into the air for graduation. Being with her was like being whole for the first time in his life. When he got down on his knee and asked her to be his lab partner for life, it was the best thing he’d ever done. They had something of a shotgun wedding, neither of them had two nickels to rub together both coming from poor families and a load of student debt. Jack couldn’t afford to rent a suit so he wore his hazmat suit, figuring Mads would get a kick out of it. When she walked down the aisle with her lab goggles on, he knew he’d found the one.

They moved to Amity Park, a peaceful but still bustling suburb an hour outside Chicago. In their research, they’d discovered several anomalies in and around the area that suggested it was a hot bed of paranormal activity. They bought a house and worked on making it their own. Maddie initially hadn’t wanted children, wanting to focus more on their work. Jack, however, had come from a big family and had wanted kids even when he’d been a kid. Many long discussions and time to settle and soon they had a beautiful daughter. He asked to name her Jasmine. His mother had loved the smell and kept it around the house growing up, even years later, the scent calmed him. Looking at the precious girl in his arms, he knew that she would be his new home.

Danny had been a little bit of a surprise. Him and Mads were content with their chatty, precocious daughter. They hadn’t even discussed having a second when they found out she was pregnant several months in. She hadn’t been symptomatic, Maddie fretted the rest of the pregnancy, worried she’s inadvertently harmed their child by exposing herself to chemicals. But everything turned out alright, Danny was born just fine, if a solid pound smaller than Jasmine. While Jazzy had wailed and wailed, Danny was a quiet baby, instead choosing to look around with wide, curious eyes. When he gripped Jack’s finger and brought it into his little mouth, Jack was smitten.

He loved being a scientist, a husband, but Jack especially loved being a father. Maddie said he never quite grew out of being a kid and he agreed with her. The sound of his daughters delighted screams as he ran around the house with her on his shoulders. The beaming smile Danny gave when Jack held him up high so he could be closer to the night sky. He loved his work, an obsession he was more than willing to admit, but his heart truly lied with his family. Jack could have lived an eternity in those early days when his children looked up at him like he could do no wrong. Of course, it wouldn’t last. Children grew up, socialized and learned that ghost hunting wasn’t the cool, legitimate profession they’d believed. His kids loved them but there was a separation that hadn’t existed before, a disconnect of a passionate farm boy searching for the unknown to modern kids who didn’t understand what it meant to to crave understanding.

Maddie was the one who shopped the idea of working on the portal again. Jack had been skeptical at first, it had been his dream but after what happened with Vlad and with the kids still living in the house... But Vlad was fine now, on his way to being a millionaire the last Jack heard and his thirst for knowledge couldn’t be quenched. It took years to draw up the schematics and begin building. The process was slow, made slower by Maddie going back to school for her second degree in psychics, by losses of funding, taking shady government contracts to put food on the table. When he saw the sad, hungry looks on his kids’ faces when they had discount TV dinners, he finally understood his father’s anger over Jack selfishly hoarding money for college. But years of blood, sweat and tears saw the fruition of their dreams completed.

The portal hadn’t worked right away to his immense disappointment only to miraculous start up when him and Maddie weren’t looking. Danny started acting sick immediately after, enough to scare the hell out of Jack. Visions of Vlad’s ecto-scarred face and the sounds of him vomiting up blood and ectoplasm haunted him. Not his Danny, not his sweet boy. But Danny recovered and things seemingly went back to normal. They say hindsight is 20/20 but Jack will curse himself until the day he died for not seeing the signs until it was spelled out for him. He knew Maddie and him were unconventional but he tried to foster love and trust in their home. The idea that his son didn’t think he could come to them for the dramatic changes the portal had done to him, that he was scared of them. Jack wept heartily at the thought of how he’d failed, that he’d been the sort of prejudiced, uninterested father like his Pa had been.

So he’d gotten down on his knees, making himself smaller and less threatening to his boy - he was so tall now, when had that happened - and asked for another chance. Danny, always too kind for his own good, forgave them. He said it before Jack believed he meant it but it was the biggest relief he’d ever felt in his life to have the opportunity to make things right. It was hard, erasing decades of biases. To not jump when Danny acted a bit too ghostly, to not to correct him when his boy made some comment on ghosts that Jack disagreed with. But he listened and he learned and even though his heart was already fit to burst, he found more love in his heart for his son. His son, who carried a heavy burden with dignity and grown into twice the man Jack was when he hadn’t been looking. Jazz too was paving her own way forward with the same zeal and intelligence that Jack admired so in Maddie.

His wife, his friend, his lab partner for life stood by his side as their children left home to change the world. When he was young, Jack dreamed of excitement, of never-ending exploration and fearsome battles. He got all of that, and more, but he also found something else. Jack found people who loved him for all his eccentricities, who he felt free to be as loud as silly as he desired. He raised two beautiful children who he loved more every day and who he knew loved in return. He wished he could tell his younger self that while excitement put hair on your chest, his Ma and Pa had been right in that family was something worth investing in. Jack Fenton made staggering advancements to the field of ectology over the years but his greatest accomplishment, should you ask him, would be living his best life with the woman of his dreams and their children.

#I've been drinking Love Jack Fenton juice the last few days #idk i just think he's neat #canon overeggaerates (as it does with most of its characters for comedy) but underneath he's a good dude #I feel like I blacked out and came to with this written #I have been typing for 40 minutes straight #I should probably put this blathering bs under a readmore #what the hell is this? is it a fic? a headcanon?#Jack Fenton is a good man and I will fight anyone who says otherwise

268 notes · View notes

fragileizywriting · 2 years

Note

FLP!Chat's reaction to DL!Adrien having wings and still being a demon?

Start Here | Next Post In This Tangent ->

i'm still not 100% about if i want the flp part of the crossover to happen immediately after the first part, or a couple of years have passed, (i type this all out as if i'm actually going to do this HOH) but the point is, i kind of want there to be even more similarities between the two of them and they hate it. haaaaate it.

i put a readmore on this because i literally infodumped so much i'm so sorry

also ALSO also also: SPOILERS FOR SOMETHING IN DL DOWN BELOW THE READMORE

i'm leaning towards a totally-spies-esc situation where the dl trio are grocery shopping only to be pulled through a portal... no, wait, that wouldn't work. it would have to be in the magic room. yeah. maybe the three of them are asleep and the mattress falls through into another dimension? the mattress doesn't come with them, but the doorhandle does, which is great news for them when everything is all settled in and everyone realize there's severely a lack of sleeping space. adrien hits the ground first. luka and marinette quickly totem pole ontop of him on complete accident, and he spends a good three seconds wheezing into the dirt from impact.

the door handle hits marinette on the back. ouchie.

and the sas trio are like. goofing off. ontop of some building, maybe sacre coeur (the place i labeled very early on in the au to be their meetup place instead of the notre dame, bc i find that super heros would probably want to be at a very high point in paris, and also, be able to see the rest of the city), only to be pulled through as well. maybe kitty throws a shingle at the portal first, activating it, only for everyone to get sucked through. kitty falls first. totem poled by viperion and then misterbug.

poor kitty.

shingle ends up hitting misterbug in the back of the head, though. ouchie.

but they meet up in the forest as soon as kitty's ears swivel to hear a very familiar "what in the world just happened, oh my god, are you okay?" and also a "holy shit ow angel you weigh like bricks i think you broke my nose," and she goes tearing through the forest to go find them, leaving her own partners behind.

she tackles them. adrien first, obviously. she comes out like a bullet, streaking through the mist-filled dawn. marinette is the only one that hears her in time before adrien is absolutely bodied back onto the dirt. he yelps, muddying his sleep shorts all over, only calming down when he sees a very familiar and happy lady noire grinning at him with so much teeth.

she tackles luka next.

and then marinette.

blah blah blah sorry that was totally off topic, anyway, back to what your actual question is: i think chat gets mostly annoyed by kitty's reaction to it? and his own marinette's reaction to it? his marinette is entranced by how pretty he looks. kitty cheers for anything, but this feels, like, more cheery. his black(!!!!) wings are just as black as a chat noir's black. it's so fucking frustrating. he's nothing like the guy. nothing.

if he scoots his witch closer towards him with narrowed eyes and twitchy ears, he says nothing about it. who cares if adrien's wings are shiny? who cares if they're clearly well-kept? who cares if it makes chat's tail fluff up from electricity-- from magic-- from something clearly unnatural seeping off of him in waves?

"great," he hisses, souring into something so acidic that even his marinette breaks her trance to look up to him in confusion. "my other self is a bird."

adrien rolls his eyes, almost completely ignoring how his wings fold over to let kitty pet and ooh and aah over it. "real mature of you, chat. never heard that one before."

Start Here | Next Post In This Tangent ->

#speakizys #demon lovin #fire lily petals #sharks and sugar #izycrossover

10 notes · View notes

spectacled-renegade-writes · 8 months

Text

An Early Start - Chapter 24 - Danny Phantom

Ao3: Here | Masterpost: Here

Ao3 Description: The accident that turns Danny half-ghost happens when he is four years old and leaves him trapped in the Ghost Zone. Clockwork finds him and takes him in to raise. But what happens when Clockwork sends Danny back to the human-world ten years later when a permanent portal appears?

Chapter 24:

One particular morning Danny awoke to an odd feeling in the air. It stuck with him throughout the day and finally made sense later when he arrived home from school, to the sight of Vlad Masters sitting in the living room, towel wrapped around his shoulders and cup of tea in his hands. Apparently the man tumbled out of the Fenton Ghost Portal, according to Danny's father. Danny pulled down his headphones he’d been wearing and narrowed his eyes.

It had already been an exhausting day. On top of the odd feeling in the air that he couldn’t shake, Dash had been particularly brutal today, and Danny was dodging him at every turn. Sometimes Danny wished Clockwork never taught him responsibility so he could use his powers to even the playing field, but instead he just used them to disappear when need be.

“Why are you here?” Danny asked.

Jazz, sitting next to Vlad and reading a book, set it down to dutifully translate for their parents as per usual.

Apparently their mother had no qualms about playing dirty because she poured hot tea on Vlad’s lap before gritting out, “Totally valid question.”

“Still steaming?” Vlad quipped.

“You have no idea.” Maddie replied before turning on her heal and promptly leaving the room.

Vlad seemed completely unbothered as he turned back to Danny and answered, “I was just, you know, passing through, and then I saw that marvelous battle suit in the basement and thought, ‘since I can’t just destroy Jack and take it, I suppose I’ll steal its secrets right out from under his nose!”

Vlad was definitely charismatic, Danny would give him that. A heavy silence fell over the room for a brief pause before both his father and Vlad promptly burst into laughter.

Vlad wiped a tear of laughter away before saying, “Oh, I swear, I am such a josher.”

Danny glanced at his sister, who was pretending to read her book, and made a look like they’d talk later. After all, Danny had told her all about Vlad. She nodded and left the room too, following their father who had followed their mother.

Despite being alone now, Danny still did not want to risk his parents potentially overhearing him so he still spoke in sign language. But when he raised his hands, he paused, then dropped them. Really, what else was there to say? He’s tried so hard to get through to Vlad but now he’d just sound like a broken record, and Vlad had already told him exactly why he was here too. Danny sighed, and planned on just fully walking away for the moment to think of a plan. But, just as he was about to, a small statue of Jack began to beep and its eyes flashed red, and Danny turned his attention away from Vlad.

Jack and Maddie both ran back into the room and Jack pressed a button hidden inside the statue. Above it, a family photo, which still hasn’t been updated to include Danny, flipped into a screen which read “Ghost Zone Radar”.

Danny saw a radar and an army of ghosts getting closer and closer, and put two and two together. He turned to his sister and asked her to stall their parents before running to the basement, transforming as he did, long coat billowing behind him. Lights and sirens blared in the lab as he entered and he hovered before the portal, and steeled himself. Whatever was about to happen, it was going to be huge.

Then, a single head popped out of the portal. A single head which belonged to none other than the Box Ghost, who saw Danny and shouted, as he always does, “Beware!”

Danny faltered for just a moment. Because what? The Box Ghost was definitely not an army. But… Danny also knew that the Fenton equipment really never malfunctioned. So, he waited to see what would happen next. It did not disappoint.

An ecto-blast shot through the portal sending Danny crashing to the floor. When he regained his composure and looked up, Skulker stood over him, boot on his chest. “What’s going-“ But Skulker quickly interrupted him.

The ghost gestured back to the portal and called, “I told you there was a way out through here.” One by one, the heads of ghosts Danny has battled, and ones he hasn’t, peeked their head through. Then, in a single instant, seemingly every ghost in the entire Ghost Zone rapidly exited the portal. “Now go, go, go!” Skulker yelled.

It struck Danny that every single one of them looked terrified. Danny tried desperately to search for Clockwork amongst the crowd but did not see him. Instead, Danny fazed through the floor to escape Skulker’s boot before flying up, grabbing him by the hand, and pulling them both outside, above the house with the rest of the ghosts. He let go once they were outside.

Above Skulker Danny saw Sidney riding on the back of Princess Dora in her dragon form.

“Sidney!” Danny called. “What is going on? Why is everyone so scared?”

Sidney drew closer but as he opened his mouth to speak, Ember interrupted and answered for him. She said the worst possible two words in response. “Pariah Dark.”

Danny paled. Once again, he found himself searching amongst the ghosts. “Clockwork…” He whispered, before looking back to Sidney and speaking up. “Where’s Clockwork?”

Sidney’s frown did not bode well for Danny. “I don’t know,” Sidney replied. “He wasn’t with us.”

Panic seized in Danny’s chest. Pariah Dark was one of very few ghosts who could actually destroy Clockwork, and Pariah would have incentive to as well, considering Clockwork’s power. Or worse, depending on how you look at it, Pariah could have also enslaved Clockwork instead to do his bidding. Danny’s panic began to seep into the real world as ice started to crawl up his neck.

A momentary distraction happened in the form of an ecto-blast from what Danny was sure was a ghost that didn’t like him, and running on pure adrenaline alone, he released some of the built up pressure in his core and shot a blast of ice in the general direction it came from. He wasn’t even looking as he shot, panic’s hold still gripping tight to his senses.

The thing Danny ended up hitting was the front wheel of Johnny 13’s motorcycle. Danny watched as it hit. It did nothing to quell his panic. “Johnny I-“

“The kid’s cool,” Johnny shouted to the others. “Let’s bounce.” Johnny shot an ecto-blast of his own to melt the ice, winked at Danny, and dispersed with the rest of the ghosts. Save for Sidney.

Sidney lowered himself on Dora to eye level with Danny and said, “Pariah Dark has destroyed our homes. It’s not safe in the Ghost Zone anymore. I’m sorry to do this to you, Danny, but we have no other choice.”

It really said something when Danny felt like he wanted to throw up even as a ghost.

“I need to find Clockwork, make sure he’s safe.”

“You can’t!” Sidney shouted. “If you go through that portal you will die, all of you. I’m sorry about Clockwork, I really am, but you can’t. Please.”

Danny knew Sidney was right. It didn’t make him feel any better. Numbly, he nodded.

“Good,” Sidney said. “Now, I have to go. I’m sorry.” With that, Danny watched as his friend flew away, just as his human parents exited their home to begin shooting. Danny disappeared and came in through the back door of the house.

In human form, Danny could feel the physical effects that his panic had on him. He wrapped his arms around himself and stumbled back into the living room. Vlad was nowhere to be seen. Danny didn’t care right now. Jazz, who had remained in the living room, ran to his aid.

“Danny,” his sister said. “What’s going on?” Danny hadn’t realized he was crying until Jazz used her thumb to wipe away a tear from his face.

His hands shook far too bad as he answered, “It’s bad.”

“Bad?” Jazz moved Danny to the couch and sat him down. “Bad how?”

Danny swallowed down the bile he could feel rising in his throat. Now that he knew he was crying, and it was probably the panic, he couldn’t force himself to stop. Smaller and smaller the world closed in on him and he wondered just what he was supposed to do to stop this. He knew how dangerous Pariah was. Yet, despite this knowledge, and despite all the ghosts in the human world, despite the potential end of the world, the reason why Danny was panicking so bad was because he had no way of knowing if Clockwork still existed, and right now the probability is that he didn’t. Danny buried his face in his hands and his sister quickly sat next to him and hugged him. “Just breathe, Danny.” She said. Her hug was not comforting. It was suffocating.

It turns out, Vlad was in the basement, which Danny learned when he reappeared with Jack and Maddie. “It’s too dangerous to go home in these conditions,” Jack was saying. “You can stay in the guest room.”

From his spot on the couch, hood pulled over his head, obscuring his face, Danny glared at Vlad. Danny had too much on his mind to deal with Vlad at the moment, and now he was staying the night.

Danny has since recollected himself, mostly. If anyone were to look close enough, they’d see the way his face was flushed or the red around his eyes. Danny knew his parents didn’t notice. He couldn’t help but wonder if Vlad did.

“That is very generous indeed.” Vlad said smoothly, pulling his gaze back to Jack. “I’ll just go get settled in then.” He helped himself to the stairs. Despite Danny’s feelings, he left Jazz behind and followed him. Danny gestured for Jazz to remain.

The moment Danny closed the door behind the two of them in the guest room Vlad said, “Come to try and convert me again?”

Danny did not speak in ghost. He knew his parents could come bursting in at any moment, especially his father. He remained silent until Vlad turned around to face him. Danny cursed the way his hands still shook slightly. “No,” Danny replied, and he could feel the glare and the frown still present in his own expression but did nothing to change it. Right now he didn’t care to be pleasant. “I came to ask you to put off your plans for later.”

“Later?” Vlad mused. “Why ever would I do that?”

Danny bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from screaming in frustration. For as bad as a human scream sounded, a ghost’s sounded much, much worse, and not even his ghostly wail. Just pure pain and frustration bubbled up to sound like static, shattering glass, and agony. “Because there are more important things happening. P-A-R-I-A-H D-A-R-K is free and he is on his way.”

“Honestly Daniel, your parents aren’t around. Just speak to me like a ghost.”

Between the blatant disregard for what he just said and the jab at the manner with which he spoke, Danny was insulted. Out of pure spite he continued on in sign language. “Ghost king. He’s free. Do you know who he is?”

“Of course I know who he is!” Vlad snapped then crossed his arms and pointedly said, “I just don’t care. It’s not my problem.”

Danny gaped. Vlad couldn’t be serious right now. But, Danny wasn’t in the mood to lose his temper, so he leveled Vlad with a glare that could kill and told him, “It will be.” Then promptly turned and left the room.

Jazz was there when Danny entered his bedroom. “Danny, what’s going on?” Her expression was filled with a familiar and comforting concern. Danny sat beside her on his bed.

“A bad force in the Ghost Zone has been released. All the ghosts that appeared aren’t invading us. They’re running.”

“Running?”

Danny nodded. “From his wrath.”

He could see they way his sister paled. “What do we do?”

“You? Nothing. I’m sure mom and dad will be working on some form of defense. You help them with that. Me? I’m still working on that.”

“Danny,” Jazz said gently. “You can’t do this all on your own.”

“I’m not. I’m going to ask the other ghosts for help. Some of them are my friends.” Danny felt exhausted. “But not today. There’s nothing we can do right now anyway.”

Danny knew Jazz could tell something else was bothering him. Despite being apart for ten years she was still a master at reading him and frankly, he needed someone to confide in. “Clockwork wasn’t amongst the other ghosts.”

“Clockwork?” Jazz asked. “You mean the ghost that raised you?”

Numbly, Danny nodded. He could feel the ice crawling back up his neck and tried to brush it away, only to succeed in frosting over his hands too.

“That means…”

“He might be gone.”

Jazz’s face fell and she hugged him for the second time today. “Danny, I’m so sorry.”

Danny accepted the hug this time. He needed it. It was comforting. Slowly, the ice started to melt away under Jazz’s warm embrace, but the tightness in his chest remained.

Danny finally picked up his phone to message his friends later that night. He had about a dozen missed texts from them.

Danny: Sorry to keep you guys waiting. A lot happened.

Tucker: What’s going on? My parents are freaking out!

Sam: Are you okay?

Danny: I’m fine… physically. But right now Vlad Plasmius is in the guest room right next to me and the king of all ghosts is free. I don’t know when he’ll make his move but that’s why all the ghosts are here.

Tucker: Danny… what exactly is the “king of all ghosts”?

Danny: Not just bad news. The worst news. He is both the most powerful and the most evil ghosts there is.

Sam: What about Clockwork? You said he’s the ghost of time right? Can you ask him for help?

Danny didn’t respond right away. Instead, he squeezed his eyes shut and held his phone close to his chest.

Sam: Danny? You still there?

Danny: Yes. Sorry. Clockwork is nowhere to be found.

Tucker: There is no way he didn’t come through with the rest of the ghosts… right?

Sam: Tucker…

Tucker: Right? It sounds like we’ll need all the help we can get!

Danny: I think something bad happened to him.

A pregnant pause lapsed in the conversation as Danny’s friends surely tried to digest this information. But Danny, he tried not to think about Clockwork’s potential fate, but instead on what he was going to do. He knew he had a big day ahead of him tomorrow.

Danny’s phone pinged and he looked back down at it.

Sam: I’m so sorry Danny.

Danny: I don’t want to think about it right now.

Tucker: What can we do to help?

Danny: We’ll talk more tomorrow. You guys get some rest. Goodnight.

Sam: Goodnight.

Tucker: Night man.

Danny shut his phone, rolled over on his bed and shut his eyes. He embraced the comforting chill of the ice that enveloped his room. He did not sleep that night.

Danny’s friends looked worried about him at school the next day, but they didn't get to talk until lunch. He knew his disheveled appearance didn’t help. Besides doing the bare minimum for hygiene, he hadn’t brushed his hair and he wore the same clothes as yesterday, and when he saw himself in the mirror, he knew he looked deader than his ghost half.

“Dude, you okay?” Tucker asked. Danny merely slid his tired eyes over to him and did not respond. “Sorry, standard question. Late night?”

An ecto-puss appeared from the floor and stole Danny’s lunch right out of his hands. “Understatement.” Danny answered.

“Fen-turd!”

Danny’s fists shook at his side. He was in no mood to deal with Dash right now. He began a quick pace out of the cafeteria and his friends followed, forgoing their own lunches.

“Hey!” Dash called. “Don’t think you can run away from me!”

Danny quickly rounded the corner with his friends, grabbed on to their shoulders, checking to make sure the coast was clear, and turned the three of them invisible. Seconds later Dash turned the corner too, paused in confusion, before stalking away shouting, “You can run! But you can’t hide!”

Danny doubled back with his friends and turned them visible once they reached their lockers. He sighed and leaned up against his locker.

“Danny, you okay?” Sam asked.

Danny merely waved her off and replied, “Just tired. I’m fine.”

Both of his friends frowned and Sam reached out. “Danny, I know Clockwork raised you. If you want to talk-“

Danny took the outstretched hand and squeezed it before he let it go, trying momentarily for a tight smile. “I can’t think about that right now.”

“Yeah, but,” Tucker replied. “Maybe you should. You look like you’re running on fumes again.”

Danny’s friends took a step back after Tucker said that and it took a moment for Danny to realize they’d done that because the look he shot Tucker was paired with glowing eyes. He hunched in on himself. “Sorry.”

“Hey,” Tucker said. “It’s okay. If you don’t want to talk about it then how about we focus on what we should do.”

However, Danny didn’t get a chance to respond because his ghost sense went off. The three friends looked at each other before they all took off, looking for the source. Luckily Dash lost their trail. However someone else found it. When they rounded the corner they were met face to face with Vlad Plasmius. Danny scowled and transformed right then and there. The longer Vlad was around the more Danny began to realize that him being here at the same time the ghost king escaped was no coincidence. He turned to his friends, who were behind him, and told them to, “Stay.”

Danny spoke in Ghost Speak as he turned his attention back to Vlad. “If you’re here to fight, I’m not doing it where my friends can get hurt.” Danny lifted off the floor and flew right at Vlad, then straight past him, through the wall and to the football field. He could feel Vlad following him.

“Calm down, Daniel! I didn’t come here to fight you, I have other things to worry about.” Vlad called after him.

Danny landed and turned to face him. “Finally became your problem, too?” He smirked. It was the very first time Danny has been so hostile toward Vlad. But right now, he had too much going on to put in the effort of being nice, especially since he was thinking more and more that this was Vlad’s fault.

Danny’s hostility momentarily took Vlad by surprise before he responded, or was about to, if it weren’t for the Fright Knight leading a charge toward them.

Of course. How could Danny forget? The Fright Knight was Pariah Dark’s right hand man.

The Fright Knight slashed his sword toward them but both of them dodged out of the way at the last moment. The Ghost King’s army attacked and Danny was forced to fight, firing off shots of ecto-blasts and ice. In his distraction he was about to in impaled by a soldier he didn’t notice sneak up to him but before it could deliver a blow, Vlad shot it away. Okay, now Danny really knew something was up. He knew Vlad hasn’t had a change of heart so the only way he would help him is if he wanted something.

The momentary distraction of helping Danny was enough of an opening for the Fright Knight to scoop up Vlad by the front of his shirt and demand, “The king’s prize, return it!”

“I don’t have it!” Vlad insisted, then changed his expression to a hopeful smile. “But, if you join me, perhaps together-“

“Are you kidding me?!” Danny yelled, interrupting whatever ‘tantalizing’ offer Vlad was about to give the Fright Knight. Danny was mad. He wasn’t just mad, he was furious. The Fright Knight finally officially confirmed Danny’s suspicion and the first thing Vlad tries to do is to recruit the Fright Knight to join him to rule? Danny has tried so hard to get through to Vlad but in that moment, he finally, finally, realized that it might be all for naught. He nearly wanted to cry from pure frustration alone. But he didn’t. Instead he yelled, “All of this and you’re still trying to amass power? There are more important things going on and you’re the cause! What is so wrong with peace?!”

Despite being a ghost, all of the sudden Danny felt like the wind was knocked out of him. Like all of the sudden everything in his whole entire life became clear. Like something deep down, that he’s never known, has finally come to light. Perhaps right this moment wasn’t the best time to have this revelation but at the same time, as he looked at the Fright Knight, he thought that maybe this was the perfect time. The thing he’s craved all his life, the thing his core yearns for. Peace.

Slowly, he glided toward the Fright Knight. “We don’t have to fight.” Danny said, his voice much more calm than a moment ago. “I know you’re his right hand man but I also know I’ll never be able to get through to him, but maybe I can get through to you. Help us defeat him. Please. We don’t need any more blood shed.”

From where he was still held in the Fright Knight's grip, Vlad went wide eyed.

The Fright Knight chucked Vlad and threw him across the field, then pointed his sword at Danny. “You foolish, ignorant child! I serve the king and the king alone!”

Danny felt the deep sadness that he often felt after an encounter with Vlad, but he can now place what it is. It was his core’s response to failing its purpose. “So be it.” Danny whispered. He inhaled as deep as he could and a moment later, let it out, releasing a ghostly wail mere feet from the Fright Knight. The loyal knight went flying back with a yell, toppling over and landing in a skid on his knees. He stumbled for a moment before regaining his balance and standing tall. Powerful indeed.

“Fool!” The Fright Knight yelled. “All I wanted to do was seize the ring and return to Pariah’s keep. But now you give me no choice. By the authority vested in me by my lord and liege…” Both Danny and Vlad watched on in horror as the Fright Knight sailed his sword into the ground in the center of the football field. Immediately, green ectoplasmic light flooded their surroundings and they watched as it spread from the field and began to make its way through the entirety of Amity Park. “I claim this town, now and forever, under the banner of Lord Pariah, the king of all ghosts!” One by one the spreading light stilled the king’s soldiers in place but as it did, it created a dome around the entire town, covering it in an impenetrable force field. “The sword is sunk, your die now cast, the sword removed shall signal fast. Make reappear the ring thou hast or your next day shall be your last.” In a puff of bats, the Fright Knight disappeared, leaving his proclamation hanging in the air.

The ring thou hast. Danny finally understood. This all happened because Vlad tried to steal the Ring of Rage in his quest for power. If Danny had to guess, he had tried to steal the Crown of Fire too, which is what caused all of this. Maybe it was because he grew up in the Ghost Zone, but Danny thought every ghost knew that the Crown of Fire was in the tomb with the king himself. There were so many things Danny wanted to say, so many things he was feeling.

In a way, and Danny didn’t know why, he felt a deep and visceral betrayal from Vlad. But, Danny didn’t get to voice any of this because his mother’s voice came through a loudspeaker.

“Children of Amity Park!” Maddie yelled. “Report to the safe bosom of the Fenton Family Assault Vehicle.”

“Maddie.” Vlad gasped and teleported away before Danny’s very eyes. Danny flew off too and changed back to human, before returning to the football field to meet his mother.

Danny rode home with his friends and his sister. In the back of the vehicle, he explained everything that happened. All four of them used sign so that Maddie would not hear them.

“This ‘Ring of Rage’,” Jazz said. “Do you know where it is?”

Danny shook his head. “If it’s not with the Ghost King then it could be anywhere.”

“What does it look like?” Sam asked.

Danny shrugged. “Clockwork always told me to stay away from his keep so I did. I don’t know if any ghost knows what it looks like. But I think I’d know it if I saw it.”

When they got back to the safety of Fenton Works, Danny’s friends and Jazz stayed upstairs while Danny followed his mother to the basement.

Jazz stopped him. “Where are you going?”

Danny paused. In the silence he could hear Vlad talking downstairs. “Vlad is down there. I’ll be right back.”

“…Okay. Just be careful.”

Danny smiled reassuringly before turning and continuing on his way. When Danny got to the basement and saw Vlad, he saw an odd look on the man’s face, and watched him turn away.

Danny crossed his arms around himself. He honestly didn’t know what he was trying to accomplish by going to the basement, just that he didn’t want to leave Vlad alone with the thing the man was trying to steal.

Danny watched from the sidelines as Vlad helped Maddie work on the suit that hung by chains from the ceiling. “This suit is the only hope we have to punch through that dome. But I still don’t think we’ll be able to perfect the neural receptors.” Maddie said. Danny watched as his parents got into an argument about who would then wear the suit, and Danny knew he wasn’t needed down here, and frankly he didn’t want to be here, so he went back upstairs. With the suit not fully operational he figured it’d be safe to leave Vlad alone for a while.

“Hey, Danny,” Jazz greeted when he walked into the room. The three of them were watching the news. “How are you holding up?”

“I’m fine.” Danny replied automatically as he plopped down on the floor with the rest of them.

“What’s going on downstairs?” Sam asked.

Danny glanced through the kitchen to the entrance of the lab. “They’re working on the battle suit. Vlad wants to steal it but I don’t think he will until it’s operational.”

“Shouldn’t we be worried?” Tucker asked.

“It’s the least of our problems right now,” Danny replied. The rest of them nodded because yeah, he was right. After a pause Danny said, “I’m going to find the other ghosts. I can’t take down the king alone.”

“You shouldn’t take down the king alone.” Jazz stressed. “Danny, are you sure this needs to be your responsibility?”

Danny could hear what was left unsaid. I can’t lose you again. Danny shared the sentiment. He couldn’t lose her again either, that's why he needed to do this. He took a deep breath and nodded.

Jazz covered her mouth and stood up. “I need to… I’m sorry. I’ll be right back.” The first few tears fell before she was able to turn around, and she left the room. Danny’s chest ached. Upsetting his sister was one of his least favorite things and he seemed to do it so often. He desperately wanted to call out to her and apologize. But he couldn’t, for more than one reason.

Danny couldn’t lose her or anyone else. He didn’t know if he’d ever see Clockwork again and he couldn’t risk losing anybody else he holds dear. Not to mention he couldn’t stand by while the lives of innocent people hung in the balance as well. They had people that they’d miss and that would miss them, too. Danny pulled his sleeves over his hands and gripped the fabric to ground himself before turning back to his friends. “Come on,” he said, after pulling his hands out of his sleeves. “We need to find the other ghosts. Let’s go.”

So, the three of them went into the garage and pulled out the Spector Speeder and after Danny turned back into a ghost, they went on their way.

Danny didn’t know who he was looking for. Just the first ghost he can come across he supposed. Danny and his friends searched the streets from the sky until Danny’s ghost sense went off over a sporting goods store. He looked over to his friends and pointed to it. While his friends went around, Danny fazed through the wall, searching for anyone. He did. He found every ghost he knew. Behind him, Danny’s friends found their way inside. The large group of them found themselves surrounding an LED campfire.

Danny could not speak English like the other full ghosts could so as he spoke, he translated his Ghost Speak for his friends. Luckily, the other ghosts seemed to understand so they spoke English. “The Fright Knight is looking for the king’s ring.” Danny explained. “It’s missing.”

“Pariah’s only been free for a day and he’s already destroyed our homes. Do you know how this happened?” Ember asked.

Danny nodded. “I do. But right now it’s not important.”

“Have you found Clockwork?” Sidney asked. “He’d be our best bet at defeating the king.”

Danny swallowed down his grief and shook his head. “Right now… I think he’s gone.”

“Then what now?” Johnny asked.

“We can’t let Pariah Dark find his ring. But I’m gonna need all of you to help me put him back to sleep.” At their incredulous silence Danny continued. “I know how dangerous this is. But it needs to be done, and I can’t do this on my own. Clockwork… Clockwork isn’t here anymore, so it’s up to us. We have to stop him.”

A heavy silence fell over the ghosts. The only way to restore peace was to defeat the king, this Danny knew. He knew he could not even begin to convince such a corrupt tyrant of peace. This is the only way.

“Danny…” Sidney said. “We can’t.”

Danny’s heart dropped.

“Look,” Ember said. “We like you, kid.” She looked around. “Well, like half of us do. But this isn’t some run of the mill ghost. This is Pariah Dark. I’m sorry Danny but we can’t help you.”

“But-“

The ghosts said nothing more as they disappeared from the room.

Danny rode in the Spector Speeder with his friends on the way home. He kept his hood up and wrapped his arms tightly around himself.

“I’m sorry it didn’t work out, Danny.” Tucker said.

Danny didn’t reply.

“We’ll find another way.” Sam tried to encourage.

Unbeknownst to them, he’d already thought of another way. Though he had little faith that it would work.

When they arrived back home, Danny split off from his friends and went in search of Vlad. He found the man in the kitchen with a cup of tea. The door to the basement was open and Danny could hear not only his parents, but the parents of his friends now too. So, Danny chose to speak with his hands. “Can we talk outside?” He asked, once he got Vlad’s attention.

Vlad carefully set his cup down. “Fine.” He said, then stood up and exited the kitchen, Danny following in step. Once they reached the outside, Vlad leaned up against the parked Spector Speeder while Danny crossed his arms. “So, what did you want to talk about?”

Now that they were alone, Danny felt free to speak in ghost. But he didn’t speak right away. Instead, he took a moment to study Vlad. Danny felt that deep sadness whenever he looked at the man and there was so much he wanted to say to him. Danny thought back to all the interactions the two of them have had before. Despite how hopeless Danny felt now, he tried to put the things he’s realized about Vlad to the front of his mind. Quietly, Danny spoke. “Where’s the ring?”

“How should I know?” Vlad retorted.

Danny had to take another breath to center himself. He tried to keep his tone as neutral as he could. “I don’t want to play this game right now. We both know you stole, hid it, and now you’re waiting for your moment to safely steal it back. So let’s not do this, okay? Innocent lives, humans and ghosts alike, are in danger.”

“You always were smarter than I gave you credit for,” Vlad said cockily, casually inspecting his fingernails. “But I should’ve expected as much from Clockwork’s ward. The whispers of you in the Ghost Zone have only grown since you arrived back in the human world.”

“So you know what the whispers were before.” Now or never. “Then you should know that it was lonely.” Vlad stiffened. “Everyone feared me because they feared Clockwork, so nobody dared come near me. I saw the same loneliness in you the first time we fought.”

“What are you getting at?” Vlad growled.

“Have you had anyone in the last twenty years? Or are you like me?”

“You know nothing of loneliness, boy,” Vlad snapped, pulling away from the Spector Speeder and standing up straight. His fists shook at his sides. “You had Clockwork and before that, your sister. You’ve always had someone in your corner so don’t you dare compare our loneliness!”

Danny remained level during this outburst and waited patiently for Vlad to finish before replying. “I know what it’s like to want a friend but not have any. I know what it’s like to be ignored, to be rejected.” With each word, Vlad’s shoulders slowly began to slacken. “I know what it’s like to be the only one of your kind in the whole world. You can’t tell me I don’t know what that feels like.”

“Fine, I’ll give you that but-“

“Even though I always had someone, I didn’t have anyone who understood me, I still don’t, and neither do you. Why do you fight so hard, Vlad?”

Vlad was losing his carefully put together composure more and more by the second. “Because- because…”

“You want a family.” Danny said. “It’s all you’ve ever wanted. Am I right?”

Vlad did not answer.

“We can be a family. You don’t have to hold resentment in your heart. You can have peace. We’re two of a kind. Please, Vlad. Where’s the ring?”

All at once Vlad’s walls went right back up and he scowled. “You dreadful child! You had me going there for a minute.”

“What do you-“

“You really are good at using your enemy’s weakness against him. Try to butter me up, try to say the right things to get under my skin, all to get what you want. You’re even worse than me.” Vlad snapped.

Danny was floored. It hadn’t even occurred to him that what he said might be taken that way. It hadn’t even occurred to him it could. He’d meant every word he said and he said as much. “I wasn’t… I meant all of it!”

“Yeah, sure you did. I will not be taken for a fool.”

Just as Vlad’s had earlier, Danny’s own fists shook at his sides. “Please, listen to me! I’m not trying to take you for a fool. Don’t you want to be happy? We can help each other!”

“Whoever said I wasn’t happy?” Vlad asked, back to his cocky tone after gaining the upper hand in the conversation again.

Danny knew Vlad was lying but he also knew there was nothing he could do about it. As much as it pained Danny to admit, Vlad was a lost cause, and talking would not get him to his goal. There was only one thing left to do. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get through to you, Vlad. I really am. Every timeline is possible and I wish we could have been friends in this one. But I’m done trying to convince you. So, if I can’t convince you to help me, I’ll have to make you. I’m sorry.” Vlad had no time to react before Danny shot an ecto-blast at Vlad, sending him flying out of the ghost shield surrounding Fenton Works. Danny followed and transformed, then grabbed Vlad by the collar. Vlad transformed too and tried to break free but Danny held tight as he flew the both of them back to the Casper High football field. Danny threw Vlad across the other side of the field while landing himself right in front of the Fright Knight’s sword.

“Daniel, what are you doing?” Vlad demanded.

Danny gripped the hilt of the sword.

“Are you crazy?! The sword is a signal. If you pull it out, it’s a sign of surrender!”

“I know.” Danny replied. “And I’ll do it if you don’t tell me where the ring is.”

“You wouldn’t.” Vlad growled.

“Yes,” Danny said. “I would.” This was idiotic. Danny knew this was idiotic. But he was fed up and desperate, and he’s fully, truly run out of other options. So, he pulls out the sword.

The reaction is instantaneous. The earth around them began to shake and the force field covering the town seemed to turn to glass before cracking and shattering altogether. Piece by piece the force field did fall, crashing to the ground below as the entire town found itself pulled into the Ghost Zone. In the distance Danny could hear the screams of civilians but he knew they were of terror and not danger. He also knew he needed to act quick because that wouldn’t last long. However, the sword was pulled from his hands and returned to the Fright Knight, Pariah Dark himself by his side, wearing the Crown of Fire.

In that same moment, Pariah charged his power and blasted a beam of bright red ecto-energy at both Danny and Vlad. The pain that washed over him was incredible. Seconds felt like they passed in minutes and both he and Vlad were forced out of their transformations as they collapsed to the ground. For more than a few moments, Danny could not move. But he did notice something fall out of the pocket of his hoodie as he had fallen. He wrapped it in his hand with the last of his strength as Pariah picked both him and Vlad up as the king exclaimed, “They’re ghosts and humans! Is there no end to this day’s surprises?”

But Danny could feel himself losing consciousness and he knew he couldn’t. If he did, they would both die. He needed to get Pariah away from them. Danny knew what he was about to do would sap the last of his energy so he needed Vlad to get them out of this. With his arms restrained by Pariah, Danny reeled his head back and used it to hit Vlad in the nose to wake him up. He had no time to see if it worked before he bit down on Pariah’s hand, successfully getting him to drop them. Danny didn’t even have the energy to speak as he lifted the Ring of Rage into Pariah’s sight.

“The ring!” The Fright Knight gasped from his place beside Pariah. “Give that to the king now!”

You want it? Danny thought. Go get it. He created a shard of ice and placed it through the ring. Danny’s vision was blacking out. He pointed it in whatever direction was opposite of the voice and used a charged ecto-blast to shoot it far into the Ghost Zone.

“You insolent, little-“ Danny passed out before he could hear the rest.

Danny awoke slowly then all at once. His head pounded and he felt nausea in his throat. When he looked around, Vlad was nowhere to be found. As Danny struggled to sit up, his friends rushed into his room.

“Danny, you’re okay!” Sam exclaimed.

Danny stumbled and Tucker rushed forward to catch him. “Woah, man, take it easy.”

But Danny didn’t have time to take it easy, nor did he have time to explain what happened to his friends. Danny’s plan was an escape plan, not a victory plan. He knew Pariah had the ring. He gathered his bearings, transformed, then took his friends by the hands and flew down to the basement, remaining invisible as he watched his mother present the finished-as-it-can-be battle suit to the rest of their parents and Jazz. Danny paid no mind to the way she said, “Using it could be fatal.” Instead, he watched as everyone began to knock each other out as each person volunteered to be the unlucky one to use the suit. It was the perfect distraction to steal it. Danny set his friends down, grabbed the suit, and pulled it up to the roof of the house.

He saw his friends make it upstairs as he entered the suit in human form. Danny kneeled down and took his hands off the controllers so he could speak to them.

“Danny, please,” Sam begged.

“Come on, guys,” Danny smiled. “You didn’t think it was always going to be as easy as shoving the Box Ghost in the thermos, did you?”

Tucker rubbed his arm. “Your mom used the word ‘fatal’.”

“Please, Danny.” Sam said. “I know losing Clockwork hurt you but-“

Danny shook his head. “This isn’t about Clockwork. I’m the only one who can do this.” By the look on his friends’ faces, he knew they knew this too. “I’m sorry, and if I don’t make it back, tell Jazz I’m sorry, too.”

Thunder roared above them and red clouds swirled and shaped into the face of Pariah. “Humans, hear my decree!”

Danny knew he was out of time. “Tucker, I’ll need you to drop the ghost shield on my way out, okay?”

“Okay,” Tucker replied, expression turning steely. “Be careful, dude.”

Tucker ran off but Sam lingered for a moment, staring, and Danny smiled at her, and she too ran off. Danny transformed and as he did, the suit responded to his power and transformed with him. This time when he smiled at Sam, she smiled back, and Danny took off into the sky.

Vlad watched, invisible, as Danny took to the sky. The boy’s earlier words still ringing clear in his mind. Every timeline is possible and I wish we could have been friends in this one.

In the last twenty years, no one has shown him the type of kindness Daniel has, and no matter what he did, the boy always persisted, always, until today. Today Vlad saw Danny finally give up, after all this time. He’s seen hurt in the boy’s eyes during every single one of their encounters but today… today it was different, it was resigned. It hurt.

Despite Vlad’s best efforts, everything Danny said to him during their conversation in front of the house stuck out in his mind and refused to let go. He wanted so desperately to believe that this boy was trying to manipulate him, trying to play on his emotions to get the ring. But when Vlad accused him of such, he saw nothing short of raw devastation on Daniel’s face. It was the moment the boy gave up.

But now, seeing the boy soar across the sky, surely sacrificing his life for these people who he did not know and have barely shown him any kindness, everything Daniel told him, and tried to tell him in the past, it finally clicked. A switch in Vlad’s brain, the one filled with all the emotion he’s repressed and swallowed down for so long, it flipped, and everything, all of the words Daniel has tried to tell him, it all came flooding into his psyche and his heart, and he realized he could not let the boy die. This boy… he was Vlad’s only family. They were, after all, two of a kind, and he couldn’t let the child he’s grown to see as a son perish for his greed.

Whether he liked it or not, this child was the only person on the planet who understood him and if it meant letting go of his resentment to be there for him, then all the better.

Vlad will never know how he convinced the other ghosts to join the fight.

The battle was easy before it was difficult, as most things are, but the suit was powerful and Danny used it to his advantage. The small blast of power did a lot of damage to a lot of soldiers so he used more than a small blast to get through them. But, he was losing power, and he still needed it to defeat Pariah. Not a minute after he thought this, he heard Sam and Tucker show up in the Spector Speeder. Danny felt panic seize in his chest and he quickly motioned for them to leave.

“We’re not staying.” Tucker assured with a grin. “We’re just making a delivery.”

A trapdoor underneath the Spector Speeder opened and Danny watched in unbridled amazement as the ghosts that denied to help previously appeared before him one by one. Danny grinned as his friends made their exit and his allies began to fight.

“Now go, defeat him. So I will be free to hunt you another day!” Skulker called to him. Danny only snorted as he made is way into the castle.

The castle was eerily silent as he made his way to Pariah, and even with the suit, the fight with Pariah was a difficult one. Each attack Danny threw at him, the king only stumbled for a moment. The powerful ghost with such a wholehearted mastery in the element of fire negated each and every one of Danny’s ice attacks like he was simply being sprinkled with water. He easily recovered from the ecto-blasts and fumbled only momentarily against Danny’s ghostly wail. Danny knew that very fumble was his only opening. So, he used the power of the suit to split himself into four, something he could not do with his own power, and wailed again while his clone used that fumble to push Pariah back into his tomb.

Tick by painful tick the suit’s charge fell and Danny’s energy depleted. He got Pariah in the tomb but at what cost? He couldn’t keep it closed. Pariah screamed and banged against the door with all his might and Danny found himself in the same situation as the football field. He was about to lose consciousness, or die, he honestly didn’t know, and Pariah was still there, still just as powerful. In Danny’s peripheral his saw a hand, a gloved hand, it held a key, and Danny watched, as the world spun around him, as the gloved hand locked the door. Danny slacked against the sudden lack of struggle and slipped to the floor. When he turned around, every ghost was there in the castle with him, and none other than Vlad Plasmius hovered at the front. Crown of Fire in one hand and a glowing green key in the other. “I don’t understand.” Danny whispered.

“Maybe the timeline you wished, it could be possible after all.” Vlad smiled. “Rest now, dear boy, you have fought valiantly.”

It all the only confirmation he needed to slip away into darkness.

“Danny?”

“Danny.”

Slowly, Danny opened his eyes. Whatever room he was in felt like it was spinning and he blinked his eyes to try and stop it. When his vision cleared and the spinning slowed, Danny found himself face to face with Sam. She smiled when they made eye contact. Sam leaned back and Danny found himself surrounded by his friends and family, and most surprising of all, Vlad. Danny realized he was in his home, in his human home, laying on his bed.

“You gave us quite a scare there, little badger.” Said Vlad gently.

“Vladdy said he found you just outside the dome after the town flickered back to reality. He saved your life.” Jack said.

“Things might’ve been weird there for a while but if Vlad saved your life then I say bygones!” Maddie declared.

Honestly, even in his haze, Danny was still surprised his parents were there at all. He tried to sit up but Sam gently pushed him back down. “Get some rest.” She said.

Danny closed his eyes and fell blissfully back unconscious.

When Danny awoke again hours later, it was dark, and his room was empty, save for one person. “Vlad…”

“You were right.” Vlad said softly. He was sitting in Danny’s desk chair and had it pulled up next to his bed. There was a book in his lap that he’d probably used to pass the time.

“About what?” Danny rasped.

“Every timeline is possible. I’m just sorry it took me so long to see it.”

Danny’s eyes widened. He couldn’t mean… “You…”

“You’re persistent, I’ll give you that.” Vlad said. “But I think I’d like to hear a little more about this ‘peace’ you were talking about.”

Around them was silence, but as Danny listened he could hear the chirping of a cricket outside his window. Danny thought he must be dreaming, or dead, fully dead. He smiled. “Okay.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

Ao3 Notes: Finally that "Vlad Masters Redemption" tag makes sense! This has been such a long journey with so many ups and downs. But, one more chapter remains.

In case you were wondering, "...and Danny turned his attention away from Vlad." was the moment Vlad slipped the ring in Danny’s pocket.

Thank you so, so very much for your support/continued support and I hope you have a spectacular day/night! <3

11 notes · View notes

snackleggg · 3 years

Text

City of splintering hopes: Chapter 2 "Cave of stars"

~~~

Ao3

~~~

Danny woke up Saturday morning feeling well rested and refreshed, so he was immediately suspicious about what the day would bring. The last time he had woken up feeling so well was before The accident so roughly 2 years of either nightmares, insomnia, or a ghost waking him had him jumpy at the prospect of a good night's sleep.

He did all his usual checks to make sure nothing was wrong but as he headed down for breakfast it seemed that everything was perfectly fine. Suspicious.

Danny just shrugged though as he ate his almost certainly ecto-contaminated cereal before leaving the house as quickly as possible to avoid helping his parents test any new inventions. Of course he always kept an eye on whatever they were creating, in case it was anything actually dangerous he would need to destroy but the day had started suspiciously well and he wanted to keep that good times streak going for as long as possible. Not getting hit in the head with the boo-merang was something he was eager to do.

He quickly met up with Tucker and Sam at the Nasty burger but as they talked about school and which ghosts they were betting on appearing today Danny felt weighed down as the events of yesterday found their way back to the forefront of his thoughts.

"Hey, earth to Danny" Sam said, snapping her fingers infront of his face. Oh, he must have spaced out.

"We know you wanna be an astronaut dude but don't you think it's a little early?" Tucker joked between stuffing his face full of fries.

Danny chuckled at his friends attempt at humor but it came out more forced than anything "Sorry, just thinking about some stuff. Can I get your guys opinion on something?" Danny asked and both Sam and Tucker gave him their full attention as he started explaining what had happened yesterday.

At the end of the recounting Tucker exclaimed "Yes! You should totally go!" Loud enough to get a few heads turned but he quieted himself down and soon everyone at the fast food joint was once again minding their own business.

"It does sound like a good opportunity. Plus it's not like anything bad is guaranteed to happen. My prediction is worst case scenario you come back with nothing new" Sam said with a shrug.

"Yeah, I guess your right. I mean it's just some old abandoned buildings and stuff they might've left behind, nothing that can hurt right?" Danny reasoned, finally he was starting to get over his slight paranoia.

"Exactly! But if you do find anything cool be sure to tell us about it" Tucker added and Danny nodded along. Of course he would tell his friends, they knew pretty much everything about eachother and would always come to eachother when they needed to talk to someone.

"Well if you want to go today then you should get going, the Far Frozen is a 2 hour flight and you don't know how long you'll need to travel from there to get to these ruins" Sam said. Danny had also explained to them his feelings on not wanting to wait too long if he did decide to go and she could tell that Danny's curiosity that he inherited from his parents wouldn't let him just walk away from this one.

"Oh, yeah you're right!" Danny shot up but before he could move he looked at his two friends with concern "You guys gonna be okay protecting Amity on your own?" Danny asked.

"It's all good. We have our thermos' and some Fenton anti-ghost weapons that actually work so we should be fine!" Tucker waved off Danny's concerns.

"But, if anything does happen that we can't handle well call you. That ease your worries?" Sam asked with a smirk and Danny rolled his eyes fondly before waving goodbye and heading home.

It was the same as what he did yesterday. Go through the portal invisibly, make the long fly to the Far Frozen and go see Frostbite. Of course now it was for different reasons than a check up or just the usual friendly visit.

Danny's thoughts had nearly spiralled three times on the flight over to the Far Frozen but he had been getting better at grounding himself so he managed to catch any worries or doubts that may have caused him to turn around.

Finally he landed in the freezing tundra and almost immediately was engulfed in a hug from the large Yeti. His white fur made him blend into the surroundings so well Danny hadn't spotted him initially.

"Great One!" Frostbite yelled happily as he put Danny back down. It didn't matter how many times or how often Danny visited Frostbite was always ecstatic to see him.

"Hey Frosty" Danny gave his old mentor a smile before awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck, a nervous habit he had for as long as he could remember.

"Have you... thought about what I suggested?" Frostbite asked, immediately understanding why Danny was here. It was always easy to forget that Frostbite was alot smarter than he seemed, he had given Danny wise words of advice on more than one occasion and it was obvious when he was around his tribe how great his leadership skills were.

"Yeah I have and... do you think you could? Take me to the ruins? I want to know more about people like me and this might be the only way..." Danny rambled a little. He didn't know why he felt like he needed to justify himself to Frostbite. Frostbite knew why he was here already, he had suggested it, so why did Danny feel like this was something he needed an excuse for?

"Of course. I can't show you to the ruins themselves unfortunately but I can show you how to get to them" Frostbite said as he turned around and started walking away from Danny, making a 'follow me' gesture.

Danny was as stiff as a board as he followed Frostbite. Hypervigilant and examining all his surroundings closely like he expected something to jump out and attack him.

They walked down a path Danny hadn't seen before, it lead away from where Danny knew the Yeti tribe to be living, leading further and further into the tundra and up the ice mountains.

After maybe around an hour of walking in silence, only the wind and crunch of snow under their feet filling it, they came to a stop on the mountain side. Infront of them stood a large entrance to a very dark cave.

"Through here, on the other side are the ruins" Frostbite gestured and seemed to wait for Danny to go in but Danny hesitated.

"Why can't you lead me the rest of the way?" He asked.

"This cave leads to the hidden lands, as some call them, it is where the Halfas once lived. Only a Halfa or those given special permission to pass can make it through the labyrinth of the cave, I have tried but I always end up coming back out this side despite never remembering turning around" Frostbite explained and Danny just gulped nervously.

"If only a Halfa could get through then how did Pariah Dark attack the Halfas, shouldn't they have been safe in these 'Hidden lands'?" Danny asked nervously.

"I... do not know. Many of the allies of the Halfas thought the same thing. There was a legend- no, a rumour that a ghost that had the ability to track Halfas helped Pariah Dark but that's all that was, a rumour" Frostbite shrugged, a thoughtful look on his face.

Danny nerves weren't calming down but something in his core urged him to go through the cave. He didn't know what it was but ever since The accident Danny's instincts had always been trustworthy so he took a steadying breath before walking forward into the cave.

He heard Frostbite wish him good luck as he entered.

The cave was alot warmer than he was expecting. Of course thanks to his ice core he couldn't get cold necessarily but the change in temperature didn't go unnoticed by him. The light from the snow white tundra quickly disappeared the further in he went until he was engulfed in complete darkness, apart from the soft glow he himself was giving off. The sounds of the howling winds had faded until they could barely be heard anymore and Danny was really considering turning around and leaving because the idea of stumbling around in a dark labyrinth cave wasn't exactly the most appealing.

Then he blinked as he noticed something, a light.

Not really it was more like a dot, a small dot of light in the dark.

He decided to continue walking and the longer he walked the more of these small dots of the light appeared until there were so many it lit up the icy cave in a pale glow, the lights all reflecting off of the ice.

Danny stopped as he stared in wonder at the sight.

The first thing that came to Danny's mind were the stars, the night sky. It was beautiful how the small points of light work together to illuminate the dark cave.

Then Danny noticed something as he continued walking. The dots were disappearing behind him but appearing infront of him as he walked. Then he took a turn and the dots stopped appearing.

"Huh..." Danny backtracked and took the other turn. The dots started appearing again, lighting the way for the young Halfa.

"Cool" Danny whispered into the silence of the cave was he followed the direction of the dots of light. Finally Danny turned a corner and he saw the end of the cave, an end that even from the distance Danny could tell didn't lead out into the cold tundra of the Far Frozen. As he closed the distance he could see the green swirling clouds of ectoplasm only they were lighter? A much lighter green than that of the normal sky of the Ghost Zone.

Finally Danny exited the cave and found his core humming nicely at the sight before him.

A city.

A large and grand one, made of a pale sandy coloured stone that reminded Danny of the housing they had in Egypt. The city was still a distance away so Danny couldn't see the architecture too closely but he could see a path leading down the no longer snowy mountain side to a bridge between the city and the cliff drop of the mountain.

A strange thing Danny noticed was the fact that the city didn't rest on an island that was floating, suspended in mid air. Instead the island stretched downwards into the dark abyss of the Ghost Zone, as if connected to solid ground all the way down in it's depths.

Danny was ecstatic.

He quickly flew down to the bridge, and walked it's length up to the gates of the city.

Standing at the city's ground level made it all the more grand and imposing.

But it also made Danny now notice the ruins part of it. The gate, that Danny had no doubt was once grand and tall standing, was nothing but rubble and fallen stone.

Danny took a fortifying breath.

Up until then Danny hadn't really thought about what he was truly walking into. This wasn't just a museum or some natural history tour. These were ruins, this was the home of a slaughter people. This place wasn't just their home, it was probably their grave as well.

He needed to be careful.

He couldn't go walking into this like a naive child, he came here to understand and to understand he needed to treat this place with the respect it deserved.

So he flew into the city, hopefully he could learn something from what was left behind.

~~~

First | Previous | Next

~~~

I'll be tagging all content do to with this story with the tag City of splintering hopes so if guys want to you can follow the story easier. You can also use that tag for any questions or content you guys make of the story!

#danny phantom #city of splintering hopes #chapter 2 #danny fenton #dp frostbite #tucker foley #sam mason #danny phantom fic #my writing #danny phantom au #fanfic #dp fanfic

42 notes · View notes

warpriest-writings · 3 years

Text

Red eyes on Grandmother's grave.

Sticks broke under her feet, running as fast and hard as she could but it felt like running through jelly, her feet caked in heavy mud.

“Someone! Help me!!! Please!” She cried out but couldn’t hear her own voice.

Before her was the pair of sharp, red eyes out in the middle distance. She couldn’t make out a face; she wasn’t even sure if the eyes were attached to anythin, just floating there, haunting her. Those hungry, starved eyes that wanted to devour her. The eyes just hung there as she sat there frozen.

“What do you want!?” she screamed out, but again her words came out silent.

The sharp, red eyes narrowed, then rushed towards her as a hand reached out at her.

With a difficult, almost pained, inhalation of breath, Patsy woke with a startled jump, accidently knocking her kitty out of bed.

She gasped, “Bean! Come here. Mweh, mweh.” She made kissy noises to her large Maine Coon. Rubbing her fingers together as she did so attempting to soothe Bean and entice her to come back into the bed. Not that Bean needed much convincing; no one in the Desoto household could remember a single night that cat hasn’t slept in Patsy’s bed. By the time she got Bean back in bed and started petting her, Patsy had almost entirely forgotten her nightmare about the...was she running? Regardless, after several minutes of kitty snuggles, she checked her phone, loathing to discover that it was 5:53, merely thirty minutes before her alarm would have gone off anyway.

Of course, she wouldn’t have been lucky enough to wake up from her scary dream at a reasonable 1:17, or even a moderate 3:32. Good, god given times in the early morning a girl could go back to sleep too. Patsy sighed and entered an anxious state of contemplation, debating getting in the shower now and getting that out of her morning routine or laying there, blissfully enjoying the time before she had to get up for real. An absolute miserable time that went on in her head until her alarm went off. Ah, yes, neither productive nor relaxing. Thank you, Anxiety.

Getting out of bed with a less than encouraging groan, Patsy began her morning routine. Feeling emotionally and mentally exhausted by 6:45 AM, Patsy walked briskly down the stairs while putting her long and bouncy kinky hair into a ponytail.

“Morning, Mom!”

Her mom, Elana, looked back at her as some toast popped out of the toaster, “Hey, Sweetheart!”

Joseph, her dad, poured two cups of coffee before handing one to his wife as she handed him the plate of now buttered toast. “Hey, Pats. Finished your homework last night?” Giving Elana a quick kiss.

“Course, Dad,” she said, silently beaming that her parents were still happily married after nearly sixteen years; it was more than could be said about several of her friends at school.

Her mother was the manager at a local small diner, it was a nice little place, near enough to her school that Patsy would usually walk there at the end of the day and hang out with her friends or finish her homework before her mom’s shift ended at six when the night manager came in. Her father worked from home, and studied. Technically, he was still a student at the University of Illinois, but he worked a lot of sub contracted programming and coding jobs on the side. Once she asked him why he was still in college and his reply was, “Sometimes people are just...nervous about getting out there, and sometimes you just so happen to be very good at filling out grant applications. Your momma has a steady job that takes care of us, and my work on the side makes sure we stay in the green.”

“Need a ride to school today, Pats?” her dad said, snapping Patsy out of it.

“I’m good; I kinda want some time to just think,” she told him.

“It’d be nothing, it’s getting colder out and I love driving my babygirl to-”

“Joseph,” her mother interrupted.

He backed down, “Alright, alright. Letting Pats be all independent.”

“Thanks, Dad. I think I’ll have breakfast at school today, I’m going to get going,” Patsy said.

Joseph began reaching into his pocket, “Need money?”

“I’m good, I still have twenty from helping out at the diner.”

“Now hold on, that’s your money. It’s our job to feed you,” he said, and offered her a five, “Take it, and make sure you grab an apple or an orange or something those school food scientist freaks can’t turn into half-baked prison sloop."

Patsy nodded, “Okay, okay.” She took the money, then gave her dad a quick hug and kiss on the cheek, “Love you, mom. Love you, dad.” Then grabbed her backpack from a kitchen table chair and made her way to the door, only partially catching what her dad was saying about Patsy being braver than he was for voluntarily eating school food.

From her house it was roughly a twenty-minute walk to school. Normally, she would have jumped at the opportunity for a quick ride to school, but her mind was still preoccupied by that dream. Most of it was lost, faded just beyond her consciousness’s reach. Those red eyes; Patsy could still see them crystal clearly in her mind. She could almost feel them on her back now. Patsy shuttered at the thought.

As she walked she barely heard the wizzing of bike tires until they were right behind her, lost in her thoughts Patsy made a sound reminiscent of an “Eek!” and jumped off to the grass beside the sidewalk. The biker slowed to a stop, “Miss. Pascala, are you alright?”

He knew her name? Patsy looked at the biker, as she had been largely looking at her moving feet up until that point and the fact that from her perspective the biker was right in front of the morning sun, she had to squint and couldn’t really make out his face, “Uh, yes. I’m sorry, who are you?”

“Hmm?” he took off his helmet, revealing quite the head of curly locks, “Miss. Pascala, a little out of it this morning?”

As her eyes adjusted she suddenly realized, “OH! Mr. Morales, sorry. It was all sunny, and I was kinda lost in my thoughts, and I’ll just stop talking now.”

Her history teacher looked at her with a bit of a raised eyebrow, “I shall see you in the third period, Miss. Pascala, have a pleasant walk. Homework is due by the end of class.” He awkwardly coughed and rode off, quickly moving into the bicycle lane of the road.

Sometime later, after what is by all rights and definitions a poor excuse of a breakfast that would send Mr. DeSoto into a rambling state of disbelief that this was the best that taxpayer money could do for feeding America’s youth, as well as Patsy’s first hour math class (math first period of the day, she was convinced that the school gods hated her) and her second period economics class where they learned..something, Patsy was sure of that. She remembers taking notes and everything. There was a presentation with slides and everything, so they must have learned something...So after econ was her history class with Mr. Morales.

She liked Mr. Morales, more than her math teacher that’s for sure. “Math is the language of the universe.” She was taking English and French and frankly didn’t feel like she had time for a third language course. Mr. Morales was different, he got swept away with the subject sometimes and seemed to have a real love for it.

“We can learn much from history, but the people who made it weren’t trying to teach morals, and they weren’t thinking about just how important that what they were doing took place in 1776, or during the first or second half of the twelfth century. The past is made up of the actions of people who were concerned with living their lives, and if what they were doing was the right thing to do, or the right thing for them.” Mr. Morales said on the first day of school. He was also just a bit odd. His thick curly hair, a trait he described as indicative of his strong greek heritage, was peppered ever so slightly. Otherwise he held onto his youth remarkably well. looking closer to mid twenties rather than late thirties.

After the class ended, Patsy went up to her teacher, “Uh, Sir, excuse me.”

Mr. Morales looked up from his tablet from which he often powered through novels, “Hmm, yes, Miss. Pascala?”

“I was just going over that pop quiz you handed back today and I would have gotten one hundred percent if you didn’t mark my answer for question two wrong.” She said,

He set his tablet down, “That is usually how people do not get full marks. Allow me to double check that.” He held his hand open.

Patsy handed him the paper, “You see, I’m certain the correct answer is B and I’d like to get full credit.”

“Third century B.C. Yes, you are correct. I’ll be sure to update the gradebook and parent portal to reflect this. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Miss. Pascala, I imagine I marked everyone else who answered as you did as incorrect as well.”

He handed her back the quiz after remarking her score and immediately wrote a note he then stuck to his computer monitor.

She excused herself and left with a bright smile, making her way to her next class, and then on and so forth with her day. As she was heading towards her computer typing class after lunch (which was not notably better than the breakfast, it is a wonder that these children survive long enough to eat microwaved ramen in college dorms.) She accidentally bumped into the Principle as she was turning a corner.

“Ooft!” She said, feeling like she walked into a lumpy brick wall.

Principal Robertson cleared his throat and looked down his nose at the young lady, “It is not becoming to run down the hails and blindly around corners.”

He had been the principal at her school for well over fifteen years now, and he seemed to live for it. Participating in school spirit events and playing along with the dress up days, at least he did last year. No one wanted to really mention it but over the summer he lost a lot of weight and his skin got paler...greyer was almost more accurate. Hushed rumors said he was diagnosed with some cancer or another but refused to stop working while on chemo and Patsy wasn’t sure what to think of it all. Looking down at her now she wasn’t feeling very comfortable.

“I, uh, I really need to get to class.” Patsy said

The sickly Principal sighed a heavy breath, “Just slow down.”

“Right, of course. Thank you Mr. I mean, Principal Robertson.” With that she took off, carefully walking not-to-quickly.

Passing around the next corner and with her computer lab in sight Patsy let out her own sigh of relief. The bell ringing just steps away, “Whyyyyyyy?” Patsy said in a hushed, exasperated tone.

She quickly rushed into the room and to her seat, hoping maybe she wouldn’t be marked late. The class lesson began and she got to work with her typing program.

“Hey, Patsy,” Her friend Abby said, “Think your mom would give me a ride home after her shift at the dinner?”

“Course, Abbs.” She replied, “You getting anywhere with these?”

“Not really, my hands know the keyboard but my words per minute is garbage.” Abby said.

“My words per minute is fine, but I have to force myself to type the way that we’re supposed to. It doesn’t help that at home I always just type with my pointer and middle fingers.”

“You type a lot at home?” She asked, “Are you writing something?”

She nearly jumped out of her skin, “No! of course not...I just look up a lot of random stuff when I’m bored.” She must never know.

Abby raised an eyebrow, “Mhm, right.”

Over the intercom the school receptionist called out, “Pascala DeSoto to the Principal’s office, Pascala DeSoto to the Principal’s office.

Abby winced, and tried to give her a reassuring smile.

She tried to return it, her thoughts were racing. Surely she wasn’t being called down to the Office for accidentally bumping into the Principal in the hallway was she? Why wouldn’t he just take her there right after she did it then? Maybe it wasn’t about anything she did at all. Oh God...what if her dad accidentally started another grease fire trying to make home fries? What if Mom got into an accident on her way to the dinner? Her mind was a beehive that someone just punted halfway across a football field.

The receptionist must have noticed the worry on her face and gave her a very sweet smile, “Don’t worry about it too much, Sweetie. Just keep your chin up and remember none of this will matter in ten years.” Reassuring words, either her parents were fine or she was just as unsure why she called down Patsy as she was herself.

Bracing herself mentally, Patsy opened the door and pushed it to the magnetic door stopper that held it open.

“Closer the door behind you, Miss. DeSoto.” Principal Robertson said.

Her stomach did an uncomfortable flip, she wasn’t sure why she was feeling so destressed over this. She hadn’t done anything as far as she could remember or mentally justify. She closed the door, getting a last glimpse of Mrs. O'Riley, the nice receptionist.

Run! Every nerve in her body screamed out but she moved forward to sit in the chair opposite Principal Robertson at his desk anyway. He spoke up; she only saw his lips move, the words not landing correctly in her ears.

“I’m sorry, Sir. Could you say that again?” She asked.

His brow furrowed, “I do not care for repeating myself, Miss. Desoto.”

She sank in the chair. “Sorry.”

“And do not mumble. Speak clearly or not at all!”

Patsy sat back up in her seat in shock, “Principal Robertson, I don’t think you’re allowed to speak to me like that.”

“Do not speak back to me, you’re the one in trouble here.” He said venomously.

Trembling she stood up, “I need to go.”

He got up as well, “I think not, DeSoto. You’ve been hiding really well, tricked everyone but not me.” He licked his upper lip.

A full body chill ran through her entire being and oddly, in retrospect she felt, Patsy really wanted her kitty Bean there. She said, “Principal Robertson, you can’t be serious right now!? Think….think about your wife!”

Robertson frowned hideously, “That bint isn’t important.” He smiled, which was so much more disturbing to the young lady, “not like you, DeSoto, you have been worth all of my effort and patience.”

He reached out for her when the door opened, “Principal Robertson,” called out an all too reassuring voice, “I was wondering if you had the chance to look over those field trip papers I….” His hand less than two inches away from her, Patsy’s whole body was trembling but she couldn’t make her legs run.

Mr. Morales stood in the open doorway, his eyes moving quickly from Patsy to Robertson. “Miss. Pascala, behind me.” He said putting himself between them.

The Principal scowled in frustration, “I’m not entirely sure what you think you are doing, Linus. You are acting like I am some sort of threat to the girl.”

“This doesn’t look good, James.” Mr. Morales replied.

Robertson scowled deeper, and Patsy in that moment of fear and confusion thought his scowl pulled unnaturally at his skin.

Mr. Morales raised his hands defensively, “What are you?” Striking a serious tone with his voice that she had never heard from her history teacher before. It was a cold voice that set her skin on edge almost as much as Principal Robertson had.

Before her eyes the late fifties Principal of clear declining health grabbed Mr. Morales and threw him against a glass case containing various trophies for academic and sports accomplishments. Patsy left out a loud scream and Mrs. O’Riley’s own scream wasn’t far behind.

Later the police officers that responded to the Receptionist's call would ask Patsy what happened next, and she told them the truth. It all happened so fast she wasn’t sure what exactly happened. Mr. Morales, who had bruised ribs, and some cuts from the glass but was thankfully otherwise alright, shouted something that didn’t make sense to her at Robertson and the Principal ran off. She didn’t get to hear what Mr. Morales told them but they questioned him for a good long while.

School was cancelled early and parents were furiously calling the school board and the district for answers. There was a warrant issued for Robertson, and some people were threatening to pull their kids altogether. No one wants their kids to go to the school where the principal threatened a fifteen year old girl and assaulted a teacher.

Superintendent Wilkens sent a parent portal wide email that a warrant was formally filed against Mr. Robertson and the police had opened an investigation. In addition to Resource Officer Thomas three more Iron county police officers would be stationed at the school for security and rest assured that school would be open again Friday.

“No, no...this is ridiculous. My daughter was threatened by that man.” Patsy’s dad said to the Superintendent’s secretary. “Don’t put me on hold! ….Yes, I believe that you do have another call coming in. I….” he sighed heavily, and tossed his cellphone into the living room sofa.

“Sweetheart.” Elana said, putting her hands tenderly on Joseph’s shoulders.

“We worked with that man in the ice cream socal last year, Laney.”

Just out of their sight, sitting against the hallway wall Patsy hugged Bean. Now more than ever the tridactyl kitty gave her some comfort. She kept replaying it over in her mind, Robertson’s face looked so...uncanny valley. Elana had tried to reassure her that it was just her mind playing tricks on her, wanting to think that he was somehow less than human because of how he was acting.

Her phone buzzed, touching the wall it tapped rapidly and loudly and Patsy reactively tried to grab it before her parents noticed.

“Pats? Babygirl, I thought you were laying down.” Her dad said, walking over to her, flipping the hallway light on. “Well, I thought you were scrolling through your phone, pretending to be laying down.”

She gave Bean a little squeeze like when she was littler, “I tried, but I couldn’t take a nap.”

“It’s okay, Pats. How'bout I make up some of my famous root beer floats?”

She slowly nodded, “That would be good.”

“Come on, Patsy.” Elana said, “We can sit at the table while your father makes us a feel better treat.”

She got up and walked over to the kitchen table, Bean closely trailing her like always. “Hey, think I could maybe sleep in your guys' bed tonight?”

Elana quickly glanced at her husband, the pair of them sharing a whole conversation in a moment.

“Of course, Pats.” Her dad said, “I’ll sleep on the couch tonight.”

“It’ll be like when you crawled in my bed when you were little after a nightmare woke you up.” Elana said.

Her father was scooping ice cream into three tall milkshake glasses as Patsy pulled Elana into a hug, “Thank you for being my mom.” she said softly.

Elana returned the hug, remembering the first time Patsy told that to her and felt the sting of tears in her eyes. She was Pascala's mom, there wasn’t any doubt of that. She didn’t give birth to Patsy though. Her birth mom and Joseph’s first wife passed away when she was less than six months old, an oncoming driver didn’t stop at the red light as she was going through the intersection on her way home from work. Elana was her birth mother’s best friend and Patsy’s godmother. After the funeral she just kept helping Joseph out with Patsy, eventually moving in with them. Joseph and Elana married when she was seven, but she had really always been her mom.

As frustrated as he was with the situation, Joseph did his best to cool down and help Patsy feel better, telling his corny dad jokes he spent hours and hours looking up at his computer desk.

He spent almost a half hour that night checking and double checking that every door and window was locked that night, as well as making sure their security system was armed. Unlike Patsy, who almost couldn’t sleep without Bean snuggled next to her, Elana found the heavy cat overly warm but she gritted her teeth through it for Patsy’s sake.

The next morning, Thursday, the day after her high school Principal threatened her, assaulted a teacher and just disappeared. She woke up to the smell of her dad making eggs, over cooking them. Elana always made them a little runny. Everything seemed to run by a little slowly. Like she had been jerked out of a deep daydream and couldn’t pull herself entirely out of her own head.

Around noon she and her mom were watching a cartoon as Joseph entered the room on the phone, “I see, well, thank you, Linus. Yes? I’ll ask her now, we were planning on going to the diner for lunch anyway.” He pulled the phone slightly away from his face and turned to the pair on the sofa, “Pats, Mr. Morales is out of the hospital. He asked if it would be alright if he met us at the diner today.”

She let out a huge sigh of relief hearing he was out, that meant he was okay, “Yeah, that sounds good!”

Joseph put the phone back to his face, “She’s okay with it. We’ll see you there at one. Yep, bye, it was good hearing from you too. And...thank you, Linus.” he hung up and put his phone into his pocket. “He said the superintendent pushed the school’s opening back to Monday, I guess we angry few can make a difference.”

Elana pulled her legs onto the sofa and sat cross legged, turning towards him, “That’s great! I think that’s what WIlken’s should have done from the start, but hey. So we’ll be eating with Patsy’s english teacher?”

“History teacher.” Patsy said, correcting her.

“Linus is also one of my work associates, but yes. He just wants to check in with Pats.”

She nodded, “Alright, I’m going to take a quick shower before we go.”

She gave Joseph a quick kiss on the cheek as she left the room, her husband replacing her spot on the sofa.

Patsy gave her dad a big hug. “So Mr. Morales is alright?”

“Some cuts and bruises but he sounded alright, he didn’t talk about himself much.” Joseph said.

Before long they were sitting down as Margret, one of the servers at the diner, was bringing over a pot of coffee for Joseph and Elana and a Shirley temple for Patsy. “Hey, Patsy.” the retirement age waitress said, “How’re you holding up?”

“I’m okay, Margret.” She said, putting on a cheerful voice.

“That’s the spirit, I’ll be sure to bring you over the biggest slice of cake.” She said

“Yay cake!”

Elana laughed a little, “We’re going to wait to order, Margie. We’re waiting on another person.”

The older waitress nodded her head slightly, “Sounds good, Laney. I’ll be back in two shakes with your refreshments.” With that she was off to serve some of the other customers, or guests as corporate would like they be referred to.

The three of them chatted while they waited for Mr. Morales, while they did Patsy’s thoughts drifted to the bizarre notion that when you see someone you only ever see at school, or school related events that when you see them out and about in everyday life the person is suddenly almost unrecognizable. Like in those children sitcom shows where someone says “Wait, you mean teachers don’t live at school??” or something else mildly insulting to the audience about their perceived intelligence. Still, Patsy wondered if it was going to be super weird seeing Mr. Morales not just outside of school, but on purpose outside of school. He normally dressed in clean but not ironed dress pants and some sort of long sleeved shirt, either a button up or a sweater; would he be wearing a rock and roll band t shirt and shorts? What if he wears his curly hair in a manbun outside of work? The horror.

It was almost a disappointment when Mr. Morales showed up in tan dress pants and a blue sweater, as well as a sling that held his left arm, some bandaging on his cheek with some purplish bruising around its edges.

“Linus,” her dad said, “Glad you could make it.”

“We’re both just so grateful for what you did yesterday.” Elana said as her husband scooted further into the booth, making room for him.

“Oh, I only did what any good samaritan should have in the situation.” Mr. Morales said, sitting down. “Ah!” He smiled at the pot of coffee sitting on the table, “May I? I’m afraid I skipped my usual morning cup...come to think of it, skipped most of my usual morning routine today.”

“Go ahead, refills are free.” Patsy said.

“Are they?” He asked with a smile, awkwardly pouring himself a hot cup.

Margret returned, prompting her mom to say that they’ll probably need a few minutes for Mr. Morales to decide what he wants.

“Oh, go ahead.” The teacher reassured, “ I know what I want, a short stack of pancakes, and two pieces of bacon on the chewier side.”

“Oh, alright!” Elana said, “Brunch it is then, I guess we’re ready to order. Patsy, you go first.”

Patsy put in her order, a belgian waffle with strawberries and a lemon poppyseed muffin. Her father ordered the same as Mr. Morales, but he wanted his bacon crispy. Elana ordered two sunny side up eggs and some toast to dunk in the yolk. With that Margaret took off again.

“It just seemed so...out of nowhere.” Patsy said, suddenly.

Surprised, Elana reactively gave her a side hug, “No one ever expects these sorts of things to happen, Sweetheart. All that matters is that you’re safe.”

“Principal Robertson wasn’t...normal, right?” She asked, addressing her teacher.

Mr. Morales avoided her gaze, looking down into his coffee.

“Pats, Robertson wasn’t the man we thought he was, or he changed or something messed up.” her dad said.

“You saw his face too, right Mr. Morales, you asked him what he was.”

Her parents, worried for Patsy, then looked to the teacher they invited out.

“Miss. Pascala, I don’t know what had gotten into him, or what had become of him. That certainly wasn’t the man I have worked with for over two years now, but rest assured. He wasn’t some abnormality, he was a man, a man who revealed himself to be quite the monster.” Mr. Morales said finally, just as their food arrived.

To her parent’s relief, Patsy dropped the subject. They ate and her dad asked Mr. Morales how she was doing in his class.

“She is an ideal student” he told them, “Attentive, curious, she has a mind for nuance, and seems to genuinely want to understand why people did what they had done in the history lessons.” Which unfortunately made her quite uncomfortable, like she was in a parent-teacher conference all of all of a sudden.

As Patsy began to withdraw into herself, Elana asked her, “So, Patsy, is there anything else you’d like to do in town today before we head home?” She hoped to bring Patsy back to the surface of her own mind.

“Huh?” Patsy asked, she heard what her mom said, but her brain hadn’t really processed it yet. Something it usually would do about a split second after someone repeated what they said to her. “Oh, uh...well I was hoping we could go swing by grandma’s grave?” She stated her request with the inflection of a question. Her grandma wasn’t buried very far from where they lived. However, she knew that her dad always had a hard time going. He stayed in the car when they visited her grave a couple weeks before school started.

Joseph swallowed hard, but nodded, “Of course, babygirl.”

Mr. Morales raised an eyebrow, “I didn’t realize you had family buried here. I was under the impression that your family moved here from Louisiana.”

“We did, but Joseph is from here originally, we moved back here after his mother got sick.” Elana explained.

Mr. Morales turned his gaze back to his coffee, “I see.” Patsy could see his eyes darting swiftly like he either realized something or was thinking very swiftly. She felt like she could relate. “Miss. Pascala, Joseph, Elana. Please do not take me for overreaching but I’m not sure it is safe for the three of you to go to a location like that right now. If Robertson is following you it would be quite the place for an ambush.”

“Linus, don’t speak like that in front of my daughter.” Joseph said, something of a warning in his voice.

“No, dad, it’s alright.” Patsy said, “Mr. Morales, do you really think it’s a bad idea to go to the cemetery?”

Mr. Morales looked to Joseph, who wore an expression that clearly said “Be careful how you say things.” He looked back at Patsy, with a small sigh, “I think, perhaps you should at least wait under after school starts up again Monday? Thank you all for this lovely meal, but I think I should be going. This should cover my food.” He swiftly got up and pulled his wallet out and with just his right hand awkwardly pulled out some bills. Leaving forty dollars on the table as he took off.

“I think you scared him.” Elana said simply, pouring herself another cup of coffee.

They ultimately didn’t go to the cemetery, to both the annoyance and relief of her father. In fact they stayed in for the rest of the day. Watching TV, playing a popular kart racing game which Joseph began quite smuggly. Only to lose to his daughter because of an npc driver launching a nuclear option that blasted him back to third place less than half the track away from victory.

Patsy told her parents that she felt comfortable enough to go to bed in her own room that night, and Elana made chicken parm hero sandwiches. All in all the day drifted by quickly after their lunch with the odd Mr. Morales. It was almost 10 at night when she finally told her parents she was going to bed, and they reaffirmed their own tiredness from the day and wouldn’t be up much longer themselves.

Of course, Patsy wasn’t really going to bed.

She stayed up for hours, just to be sure they had actually fallen asleep. Her dad. Patsy disarmed the security system and left the house, heading straight for the cemetery. She had to see her grandmother’s gravestone. Something about how Mr. Morales reacted just didn’t sit right with her. It had to be around 1:20 in the morning now and it was very dark and while it was brisk out during the day her fingers quickly started going numb and she could see her breath.

The ground of the cemetery was hard and bumpy from thawing into wet muddy ground under the sun during the day. Patsy walked through the cemetery at a brisk pace, wanting to get to her grandma's grave and back before her parents could wake up to find out she snuck out of the house...or worse she was taken by Robertson. The made her stomach clench up, and she began regretting this whole idea. There was a rustling in the bushes and she began to sprint, she felt like running home and forgetting all of this but she was painfully aware she was heading right towards the grave.

She came to a quick stop, looking down at the engraved stone. Ellinore DeSoto, 1961 to 2017. She knelt down, tears building in her eyes. Deep down she knew coming here now was a mistake, her grandma wouldn’t want her sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night, especially not under the current circumstances.

She sniffled, alright she got to the gravestone and proved exactly nothing. Time to get home as fast as she possibly could and swear off stupid impulsive decsions forever.

The wet smacking of lips that made her skin crawl.

“Pr.principal Robertson?” She tentatively asked, standing up and turning towards the gross sound. Her eyes widened in grotesque terror as she looked at the swollen thing that only scarcely held the appearance of her principal, the purplish grey skin stretched uncomfortably tight as the creature smiled wider than nature as she knew it allowed.

“Pascala Desoto,” It still spoke with Principal Robertson’s voice. “So courteous of you to come to me, now we may continue your...disciplinary measures, young lady.” The creature stuck out it’s purple tongue which extended down past its belly.

Patsy wanted to run, scream, anything, but her legs refused to move. Her body frozen. It walked up closer to her, and it’s foul breath was like a thick miasma that made her lungs clench up and burnt her throat, she couldn’t even tremble in fear.

“Speechless, DeSoto?” It leaned in and inhaled deeply by her hair, it chucked out as it spoke, “Yeeheeehesss. Your flesh will do, your form will do.”

Over the creature’s shoulder Pascala saw another, and the ghoul’s smile turned into a scowl. Apparently it noticed him as well. It wrapped it’s unnaturally large hands around her, its index finger on her shoulder and its pinky on her waist. Turning to face him it snarled out, “This is my Witch, get your own.”

The man stepped out of the shadows into the moonlight, the beams catching on his glasses, “Let her go, Corpse eater.” He held a revolver in one hand, and an old medieval looking sword in the other. His arm wasn’t in the sling anymore and he didn’t look injured at all.

“Morales, I knew I should have crushed your throat when-”

Her teacher cocked the pistol and aimed it right at his head.

“G...go ahead. I am not something you can kill with a bullet.” The ghoul said smugly.

“In your state it will hurt, it’ll be a whole world of agony.” Morales said, calling the monster’s bluff.

It took a slight step back, balking out a grunt in some fear. “We can split her! I don’t need her blood!”

Patsy’s eyes widened at the suggestion.

“Don’t worry, Miss. Pascala. This thing won’t harm you...and survive.” His voice was cold again, and she couldn’t help but feel an intense fear. Maybe from the slight tremors she felt through the ghoul’s hand, but somehow she knew that this thing that used to be her Principal was terrified.

“I can’t go back to the corpses people bury, they poison them, and every time I feed I whimper in agony for years, only to need to feed again, the cycle is torture! Have mercy!” The ghoul begged.

“You do not want my mercy, Corpse eater. It is at the end of my sword.” He began walking forward.

The ghoul released Patsy and pinched her throat, “Another step and I’ll break her neck!”

Reactively she reached up at the monster’s finger’s “I don’t want to die!” she sobbed, were she in a more clear headed situation she may have realized she can move again.

Mr. Morales paused, scowling back at the hellish beast.

“That’s right! You...you have a fondness for her, your student, HAH! So long as I have her in my grasp you won’t risk harming her.” The ghoul grinned hideously in it’s little victory.

Her history class teacher inhaled sharply, then said, “If you are going to do something, now would be the time!”

Principal Robertson the ghoul frowned, “What are you playing at?!”

Out from the bushes a large orange cat ran up much faster than Patsy had ever seen in her life and pounced on the ghoul’s forearm, clawing and tearing at it. The ghoul released her and she dropped, quickly and frantically crawling into an upright sprint several yards away from the monster.

Bean used the ghoul as a springboard and sprinted over to Patsy. The Ghoul was screaming and clutching the wounds the cat had left on it, as Morales lunged forward and with a clean swift strike cleaved the monster’s head from it’s shoulders.

Patsy’s breaths were short, and she pulled Bean into her arms as she tried to calm down. Morales wiped his blade off on the grass before sheathing it and steeping over to his student as he holstered his gun.

“I’m sorry, Miss. Pascala.” He said, “Are you alright?”

“What, what was that!?” She asked, looking at the ghoul’s limp body.

He paused, like he was unsure he could answer, “...Is there any world where you could accept that this was all a bad dream?”

She shook her head, “No, I have nightmares all the time, this is real.” Patsy looked at her teacher and gasped, she tried to step back but only fell backwards. “Those eyes!”

Mr. Morales sighed, and pulled his glasses from his face. His eyes were a hungry deep red. “Please, Miss. Pascala, I mean you no harm. You have my word, my oath as a man who has spent his very long life guiding the minds of the youth, and protecting everyone who I find in need of help.”

She tried to steady her breath, with Bean in her arms she felt much bolder and confident, “Those eyes, I’ve seen them in my nightmares, I trusted you and you’re another one of those things!” She pointed to the ghoul.”

He was taken aback, and gestured at his face, “You’ve seen these eyes in your dreams? Miss. Pascala, I assure you I am not a corpse eater.” He grabbed his lip and pulled it up, revealing a long and sharp fang. “I am a vampire, and amazingly you seemed to have augured my presence in your dreams.”

She stared at the fang with wide, slightly horrified eyes. “...Huh.”

“Huh. That...is a first.” The Vampire said, “I imagine you have questions, and you deserve answers. Especially if you refuse to accept this night was just a bad dream.”

She nodded, “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to, trust me I’m trying. Still here, next to my vampire history teacher.”

“Very well, Miss. Pascala. This ghoul was hunting you because you are a Sorceress, and whoever gave you that cat was as well. Seeing as how that animal is a Familiar, your Familiar.” He said, “Monday, come to my class after school, and I will tell you more. For now just go home, you’ll be safe there with the cat. I need to clean this up before anyone comes by and finds it.”

It was be a difficult thing to believe that Patsy would just accept things at that, that she would just go home and enjoy her long weekend with her folks, and she could just scratch Bean behind the ear knowing she was some magical protector her Secret Sorceress Grandma had given to her as a little kitten. That she could be nearly eaten and just go back to bed. All that can be agreed upon is that Patsy got out of bed the next morning around 10:30, that she took a shower and had slightly runny scrambled eggs for breakfast. Another thing that can be certain is that Patsy would never doubt what happened, what she saw and what she heard, and that the story of Pascala DeSoto, The Sorceress of Illinois had only begun.

End Chapter

PayPal

#Red Eyes on my Grandmother's grave #wip #paypal

12 notes · View notes