#Danny is still healing his body so he is stuck in ghost form | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

datawyrms · 3 years

Text

Not As Such

For Phic Fight 2021! Using @dp-marvel94 ‘s lovely prompt. On AO3

Something was different with him. It had been for a while, and to his horror, Danny Fenton thinks he might have finally pinpointed it. He's felt off, strange, like his memories, his life, even his own body was foreign to him because....he might not be Danny Fenton at all.

It was the photographs that ruined his life. They were a reminder of some choking wrongness curled up in his chest, solidified it so it got harder and harder to dismiss. The occasional twitches of discomfort that rolled beneath his skin was ignorable, just a weird side effect of being half ghost. Rubbing at his arm, scratching at his hair and running his tongue over his teeth to count them over and over again were just signs of stress. Anxious people didn’t like to keep still, Jazz said all of the extra responsibly just weighed on him that way. Of course a stressed out teenager might be a bit jumpy, or grit and grind at the meaty thing in his mouth that he needed to speak. He always stopped once the foul coppery taint of blood warned him. A damaged tongue could still taste, and the dull pain didn’t really matter. No one else noticed. It was just a way to cope. Totally normal. Even if he felt somehow, it wasn’t. Enough to know not to bring it up. Sam and Tucker would be concerned about the flakes of skin scratched from his ears, or hair tugged free of his scalp, because he lost parts of himself. Bleeding into his own mouth was fine, he didn’t lose anything. The logic was shaky, but he had better things to worry about. Grades, fighting ghosts, hanging out with friends. The little times where he was a cold outsider stuck in the wrong shape always passed. He just had to pull it together and relax.

The photographs always unsettled him. He was not in the photographs. He never remembered any of the times or circumstances that they were taken. He was in them, Danny Fenton absolutely was in those photographs, but the blue eyes always seemed to be judging him. Accusing him. Asking ‘when was this taken, how did you feel’. New photos didn’t do this. The new photos were of him. He compared some from slightly before the accident to now, trying to see the difference, but he never could find a flaw. He used to be able to play it off, think it was just a strange intrusive thought until he actually really looked at the family photo album. Not a single one was familiar. The only ones he recognized, felt attached to were ones his family had mentioned, or talked about before. Second hand knowledge that ‘felt’ right in the moment, but seemed more like a disconnected farce when he tried so hard to find something familiar. A fishing trip, a picnic, hell he’d take a ‘first day of school’ photo at this point, but none of them triggered a familiar sensation or memory. Danny Fenton had been there, he’s there in the photo, so why can’t he feel anything about them? Why can’t he recall something that prompted the picture, what had been happening without guessing from what he can see in that little framed moment of the past? ‘Oh do you remember this?’ was a question he ignored until they clarified, explained more about the photograph so she could nod and say ‘yes’. Even if the answer was always ‘no’. The events sounded right, felt right when a living person told him, but left on his own with only a silent image? Nothing. He’d sound ridiculous if he said that out loud. So what if his memory wasn’t the greatest? He was still Danny. Their friend.

Who didn’t remember grade school. Who didn’t remember their history, their friendship. Of course he remembered how they met. After Sam and Tucker had spoken about it. He was lucky they talked so much, were open and caring while he was disoriented and ‘weird’. From the accident. Of course he was a bit slow on the uptake after playing human electric cable. He only noticed now how he never corrected them, or remembered something different. Tucker would often go ‘oh this reminds me of x’, and he never said that. As nothing really triggered that feeling, the recognition that was fun or amusing to his friends. Ignoring how ‘bad’ his memory was was taking a toll. Sliding a nail under the curve of his ear to scratch at the uneven mess of broken skin helped. He didn’t leave it alone long enough for it to properly heal, the different texture somewhat soothing. The layers and bumps were 'wrong', but only because he'd damaged it when it was whole and flat. It was still his ear, even if the outside was smooth as he hid the self inflicted damage. He was still Danny, just a bit different where no one could see. He had to be, he insisted. Fallen skin, a bit of blood, it wasn’t a big deal.

The photos knew he was a liar. More and more ended up face down, or ‘went missing’. He didn’t want to see the Danny Fenton that wasn’t him. He remembered his friends, he loved his parents (even if he didn’t love being threatened, but nobody’s perfect), and cared about doing well in school. He was still Danny Fenton. Not a ghost just...going along with what he heard and following social norms. You needed to do well in school to get a good job. What kind of job? Should he care? He didn’t know yet, he was young, that was fine. He always liked space, he didn’t just make that up. Didn’t just see how his room was decorated and accepted those were his interests. He didn’t like fighting ghosts as an escape from Danny Fenton’s life. He fought them to protect people, to make up for letting them out in the first place. The tension that eased in his ghost form had nothing to do with being a ‘different’ person. It had nothing to do with being a different face, one with no expectations set that he had not created himself. Danny Phantom was him, and always had been. Always would be. His gloves weren’t a problem, he never needed to scratch or pull or dig. He didn’t need to breathe, so he didn’t choke on the hissing voice in his mind that insisted he was an imposter.

Running away from a problem wasn’t too hard. Just exhausting. He had always been bad at math. Except Danny Fenton had not been bad at math. He had always done fairly well in school, As across the board, like Jazz. Fentons did not get C minuses. It was just being tired, just the ghost fighting that kept him from applying himself like before. There were hundreds of excuses, and everyone bought them. They made far more sense than something as ridiculous as ‘someone else is pretending to be Danny’. Except he spent time staring at questions, reading books that ‘built on fundamentals’ and still struggled. Fundamentals he had, had demonstrated he had, but had lost. Forget solving for ‘x’, he could barely muddle through a times table. ‘You should know this from previous years’ always made him ill. He didn’t know. He didn’t remember it. Danny Fenton knew, because he was the one who lived it. Denying it wasn’t working. Staring at himself in a mirror, trying to find some sign or quirk that felt familiar and purely human only made his veins hum in a furious frustration. Everything comforting, everything familiar was something true of his ghost form. A reflection, an inverted copy of a face that was his; but wasn’t. He should be alarmed, or concerned his anger was strong enough to turn those blue eyes green, but it only felt right that they did. Unnatural, glowing, inhuman. His real eyes to show his own emotion.

Ectoplasm and post human consciousness. That’s what ghosts were, according to his-yes his parents. So he should be fully, properly dead. Danny Fenton could be who he was, while alive. That would be easier. It didn’t explain why he felt nothing familiar about himself. If he was a post human version, why wasn’t there any of the human? Other than the beating heart, the heaving lungs and the smothering, crushing expectation of an identity he’d been expected to assume. One that he liked, at first until the cracks widened. As his discomfort grew and the evidence started making the cracks into chasms. The obvious flaws that everyone glossed over but clung to him like a leech, until there were so many that simply existing was too much to tolerate. He denied it so long that he no longer had a choice in the matter.

He genuinely loved Sam and Tucker, his best friends that always stuck by him, ghost troubles or not. The first people he’d seen, worried about him and trying to calm him from the jarring sensation of existing. So he had to be Danny Fenton. That’s who they thought they were talking to, thought they were helping out, and he’d latched on to that. He’d been confused, adrift and they’d given him a role to fill and a group to belong to. He had so many reasons to admire and like them, separate from who Danny was before. Things he had witnessed first hand, Sam’s willingness to go to bat for those who were pushed aside or considered inferior. How Tucker would throw aside his personal dislike and fears if someone he cared about was in danger, that he could and would put aside even his own jealousy just to be a pleasant person to spend time with. He didn’t need to know about before, or why they chose to be Danny’s friends. They would see it differently. That he had deceived them, pretended to be their friend- even if he truly thought of them as friends. Would they think he was a mockery of Danny Fenton? A creature that wanted to cause them pain and anguish by deception? He couldn’t tell them Danny Fenton was dead. He had to keep being who they expected him to be. They expected Danny to be in this body, and he was stuck in it. A part of it, but not the part his human friends would like. It would be so much easier if they suspected something was wrong. Then they might understand that he hadn’t meant to be lying. That he really did think he was the boy he saw in the mirror, at first.

Jazz noticed more. She knew Danny best, to be fair. Siblings, always under the same roof. Someone who always helped out when going to his parents wasn’t an option. Yet she mostly noticed his fidgeting, not the cause of it. Her ‘dorky little brother’. The one who liked to make spaceship models, but hadn’t so much as looked at one to wistfully hope for it. Not since the accident. They seemed fiddly and complicated, not an enjoyable way to pass the time. Still, that was chalked up to being a teenager with different priorities. Friends and school came first. She’d cover for him, try and help with ghost hunting even though she had avoided it before and generally was a helpful shoulder to lean on when hearing how much pain their parents wanted ghosts to be in. She would be crushed to know her brother, her first brother, the real one was gone. She might even deny it, assure him that it was all in his head, that she loved him even if on some days he just felt like a freak. That he was fine as he was. So he had to keep being Danny Fenton for her too. Even if the taste of blood wasn’t enough to make the unbearable itch stop anymore, that he’d taken to biting his knuckles until flesh broke. The red, thin blood was enough. Human, he just had to be a certain human. It wasn’t that hard. His body knew how to bleed.

Why had he let himself find the answer? Why did he look at those photos enough that he noticed the common thread of where his memory issues stopped? An answer he couldn’t use, couldn’t act on was worse than the baffling twinges and strange thoughts that boiled to the surface of his mind unbidden. Why did he feel heavy and weighed down in his own body, why did the sound of his heart jar him awake in the night like it was some foreign sound? Because it wasn’t his. He felt like he didn’t fit because he wasn’t meant to fit. He was ectoplasm twisted and shoved in an emptied vessel, a monster squirming in a meat puppet that was his- but also not. If he had just ignored it, kept taking it as just ‘ghost powers and humans don’t mix well’ he wouldn’t be sitting here, desperately wishing he could claw free of himself- of Danny without ruining everything for everyone he cared about. One desperate thought was that he was a ghost, fully and entirely. A spirit in a bad place at a bad time, just unlucky. That he could figure out a way to separate himself from this human life he’d stolen by mistake. Except he had no memory of being a ghost either. The Ghost Zone was new and terrifying territory. He genuinely struggled to grasp how to use his powers, and didn’t have a helpful family like he did as a human, people that could remind him how legs worked. Didn’t have people he could mimic and follow enough that it felt natural after the fog of confusion after his accident faded. If he’d woken up on the other side, would he still be like this? Thinking he was a ghost, had always been one until suddenly gaining a weird human side? The Ghost Catcher didn’t work because there was no Danny Fenton to split from. It just skewed aspects of himself. The thing left behind would be no more Fenton than he was, and he doubted either would live long. He was still half human, in body at least. Just not the human they expected, or wanted. A new thing, created in that portal with feet in two worlds he didn’t understand. He didn’t want to be a new thing, he wanted to be the old thing, but he hated being the old thing. He had to keep everyone happy, he couldn’t branch out or act differently, that would be wrong. He owed it to Danny Fenton to live like he would have. He stole his life and gave his family and friends a false hope, he could hardly take it back now. Realized too late, far too late. So he pretended. Noticed how he could pick things up of how he should be when people talked, felt the sickly squirm inside as he lied about remembering, or nodded along. How he could almost sense how people were feeling and follow their lead. A ghost thing? A human thing? A freak thing? He didn’t know how, he just knew once he was alone he wanted to throttle that feeling until it died, and only another pain seemed to lessen it. It was fine. Chapped lips were common enough, it wasn’t a sign that he kept biting them open. Humans didn’t heal that quickly.

He wasn’t fine. He’d never be fine. Everyone he loved would despise him if he ever slipped up, if they knew the truth. His mom and dad were proof of it. They hated him, completely and utterly. Which they should, he’d stolen their son’s body. Not that they knew that. They didn’t really know they had another son. They made the portal. They looked after him, fed him, said they loved him while he was Danny Fenton. He couldn’t exist without them, it still felt right to call them Mom and Dad, even if he wasn’t a proper Fenton. Maybe on some level they did know. Maybe that’s why they hated Danny Phantom so much, recognized him as the thing that set off their devices and weaponry. Phantom was him, had never been something before he existed. He could feel comfortable in that form, and somehow they could feel it and despised him for it. The monster pretending to be their child daring to feel unrestricted and at ease. Jazz would call him delusional. She would probably be right, if he was Danny Fenton. Which he wasn’t. That was the entire problem. Just crack a smile, remember what he was meant to like and forget it. He owes them. Everything. He can handle it, even if he wants to grab his friends by the shoulders and tell them to really look at him, and stop seeing who they want to see. Who he wants them to see; for their own sake. He half expects the lie curled under his rib cage to fling it open one day in a gory splatter of ‘justice’, but it is content to stay still and remind him with every stolen breath who he isn’t.

Jazz catches him ‘managing’. She thinks the wounds are for a fight, and he goes along with it. Danny Fenton wasn’t some animal that needed to claw out of his own skin to repent for the constant lies he tells the people he loves. All he needs to do is go along, like always. Maybe fight a bit sloppier next time, take a few more blows. He just wants to move on, live as himself, but can’t. He never can. He probably isn’t all that different from Danny Fenton anyway, but unless they know it isn’t genuine. There’s always the chance he’s acting, pretending to be a dead kid. He can’t tell what feelings are his if he learned how he felt about things second hand, if he hadn’t been doing anything but trying to ‘get back to normal’. Was his ‘favourite food’ his favourite because he genuinely enjoyed the taste? Or was it because someone told him it was, so he deluded himself into agreeing? He slips up.

“I’m so tired of lying, Jazz.”

His sister is thrilled that he’s opened up, even as he bites his lip and wishes he could take those words back. Can he spin it back into a joke, or something less important?

“Danny, I know you’re worried. If it’s stressing you out this much, you should tell them.” Her hand on his shoulder is warm, her tone is encouraging.

She means Mom and Dad. She thinks he means the other secret. The secret that isn't. Yet telling one is impossible. It’s too much as it is. Adding them to the list of those tricked about his nature- it makes the blood in his body feel like phlegm. “I can’t, Jazz. They hate me, remember?” Playing it off, but he’s slipping again. He knows the ‘truth’. They accept Danny Fenton. Which is why they can’t know.

“Danny, you know they don’t hate you. They just need to understand they’re wrong about you.” A weary smile, her hand still in place. “The sooner they know, the sooner they’ll stop saying those kinds of things. And the sooner I can tell them off properly!”

“No- Jazz, they hate me. They’re pretty loud about that.” He doesn’t know why he’s trying to convince her. He just needs to back away, say he’ll think about it and leave it. Now he can’t with how she crouches down a little to look into his eyes, instead of his red and angry knuckles.

“They love you just as much. Hiding from them isn’t helping you, you’re jumpier than a jackrabbit every day. I don’t want you here while I’m off at University feeling like everyone in the house hates you, okay?”

She’s begging for him to let her help. Wanting what’s best for him. As she doesn’t know she isn’t talking to her brother of fourteen years. His tongue bleeds, but the guilt doesn’t lessen. “There’s nothing I can tell them.” She doesn't catch how his words slur slightly.

“What? Danny, just tell them you’re their son. I’ll help you, oaky? You’ll feel so much better not needing to hide anymore.”

He probably would feel better. Every bit of him longed for it, but knew he couldn’t in equal measure. “I can’t tell them that.” He doesn’t want to tell that lie, to double down on it. Their absolute hatred of him is warranted- he can’t steal that from them with another lie.

She rolls her eyes. Like he’s being a fool. “Of course you can! If the lies are stressing you out, you can tell them the truth.”

She doesn’t understand. It’s easier to slip away by going intangible so she can’t keep her hand on his shoulder. The comfort feels unearned. “They wouldn’t like the truth.” No one would. Besides him. He’d be free of the burden of his ‘human form’. The body he took to exist with. Not that he’d probably last long once Mom and Dad knew. They’d properly hate him in both forms, not just the one he was comfortable in.

“They’d be thrilled to know you’re a ghost hunter like them, you know that. Seriously, what’s wrong? You look pale.”

“I’m always pale.” He can’t answer that question. He’s wrong, everything’s wrong. He wants to spit, but he has to choke the blood down instead. She was just trying to help. Stay calm, stop talking.

“No, this is little brother is being weird pale. Did something happen? Why do you think they’ll hate you now?”

She won’t believe him anyway. “Uh. Being told how much they hate Danny Phantom will do that to a guy.”

“All the more reason to make them stop, you just need to tell them Fenton and Phantom are the same person.”

“And what if we weren't?” He isn’t thinking. He’s covering his mouth, too late for it to matter. Yet so many muscles relax once it’s out. The weight on his back shrugged off by even posing the question. A question he shouldn't be posing, one she’ll disregard, but the moment of freedom is nice.

Her eyes are too serious as she looks at him, a quick scan up and down. To check if he’s joking? Does she see how ‘the truth set him free’ there? A corny saying, but he can admit it feels better than the snarling smothering force jabbing at his heart. “But you are?”

Not a statement. A question. All he has to do is laugh and lie again. So why- “No. I don’t think I am.”

#Danny Phantom #phic fight #phic fight 2021 #team ghost #angst #because i have to make up for that wholesome cujo one somehow #the prompt is so good?#all i did was throw more words at it tbh

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five-rivers · 4 years

Text

Stuck

Continued from Science.

Danny took a deep breath. Okay. He had a camera strapped to him, and his parents were probably watching him through it right now, trying to figure out how to ambush him. Yay.

He had to hand it to them, this was inspired. If Skulker were here, he'd take notes. Or maybe not. Despite Skulker's obvious personality flaws, he did have a sense of sportsmanship. Sometimes.

If he stayed here, they would find him sooner or later. He wouldn't be surprised if they put a tracker in here, too, somehow. So, he had to go someplace they couldn't, at least not right away. Then, he could figure out how to get rid of the thing.

The question was, up or down?

Down would be faster, and have less chance of getting hit, but the sewers and storm drains weren't pleasant, and Danny didn't like phasing through solid ground very much. He could never quite shake the concern that he'd get stuck.

But he also wouldn't have to deal with things like tracking missiles, like he would if he went up, above the clouds.

Down it was.

He dropped until he was level with the storm drain tunnels, and then shot sideways. Being directly below where he was last seen didn't strike him as particularly clever, even if the camera included a tracker.

Once he'd passed through enough walls to get to a secluded and reasonably clean juncture, Danny stopped. He felt around the collar again. It seemed to have fused to his suit, somehow. No, he realized, sticking fingers into the neck of his jumpsuit, it had fused to his skin through the jumpsuit, somehow.

Gross. Why did his parents build such gross things?

Okay. First, phasing.

Extending intangibility to the device worked fine, phasing it off of himself, less fine. It was the 'phase along' version of phase-proof, then.

Next on the list was body manipulation, and- nope. He made his body warp into all sorts of horrible noodly shapes, and the device just warped along with him, flowing and misting. The only part that didn't change and twist was the camera itself.

Fine. He'd cut it off, then. It would probably hurt a lot, but he could do it. He'd endured worse than the removal of the top layer of skin from his neck and a small portion of his chest.

He summoned a blade of ice to his hand, made a mirror of the same on the tunnel wall and carefully, very carefully, began to cut away at collar. It bled green, ectoplasm trickling down to his shoulder.

It repaired itself.

Brilliant. His parents had really gone all-out with this one. It was really stuck on him.

Normally, this is when he'd reach out for help, when he'd call Tucker, Sam, or Jazz, but he couldn't exactly do that when his parents could be watching and listening to his every move.

Could the camera bit heal itself, though?

Last item on the list: just smash the camera to bits.

Wait.

Actually, wasn't this sort of an opportunity, a blessing in disguise? His parents were looking for proof that he, that all ghosts, were evil. Obviously, he wasn't going to give them that, but maybe he could show them evidence of the opposite?

Maybe he could do what he had always hoped and change their minds?

Maybe.

He couldn't really do what he needed to here, though. The risk that his parents would find him, or, worse, any ghosts that he interacted with, was too great. He'd just have to hope that the camera continued to work, continued to broadcast in the Zone.

But he couldn't use the Fenton portal. If they saw him getting too close to Fentonworks... well, he somehow doubted that the results would be pretty.

That left him a few options.

There were a number of reoccurring natural portals around town. But, he didn't really want to compromise their positions, though. Ghosts used them to get around, and not just the ones who caused trouble. Besides, none of them were open right now. He have to wait 'til dawn if he wanted one of those.

There was always Vlad's portal, but, well, as much as he liked annoying Vlad, revealing to his parents that Vlad had a portal could lead to unpleasant consequences. He wasn't nearly that desperate.

Which left... one option, actually. Oh, he knew he was going to regret this in some way shape or form.

He turned to face the warehouse district and set off.

The warehouse district was bright with security lights and sparsely populated by late-night delivery-people and the odd security guard. Still, there were many shadows and, being able to turn invisible, Danny had no difficulty hiding.

Danny wondered how, and if, the camera functioned while he was invisible. Light would go through it, after all, and Danny didn't see in human colors while he was invisible. It would be good if it didn't work, if it didn't have some kind of ectoplasm detectors or sonar, but he couldn't know, so he couldn't risk it.

Which meant that he had to do this fast, before his parents showed up.

He made his way to the one completely dark building in the warehouse district: the abandoned packing plant.

Correction: the theoretically abandoned packing plant. It had specialized in cardboard containers, after all.

He phased through the walls (and how did the camera register that?) and his ghost sense went off. His eyes rapidly adjusted to the dark, and he rapped his knuckles against a wall. "Hello?" He called into the dark. "Boxy?" He paused. "I know you're here, I can feel you. You realize that, right?"

A mountain of boxes in the center of the room trembled and formed into an approximately humanoid shape, blue light streaming through the gaps. "IT IS I, THE FEARSOME BOX GHOST!"

"Wow!" said Danny. "You're really working on that entrance! Much better than last time."

"WHY HAS THE GHOST CHILD COME TO THE DOMAIN OF THE AMAZING BOX GHOST?"

"I need a favor," said Danny. "Well, a couple favors, actually."

This apparently startled the Box Ghost so much that he lost control of his boxes. His carefully constructed stack tumbled to the ground, the light fading. The Box Ghost himself flew out of the heap.

"A favor?! From me?"

"Well, yeah," said Danny. "You agreed that if I let you stay around, you wouldn't bother anybody and you'd help me with questions about ghost stuff."

"Yeeeeeees, the Box Ghost remembers," he said, tapping his fingers together. "But he did not think it would actually happen. Well, what have you come to ask the great," he raised his hands over his head and waggled his fingers, "BOX GHOST?"

"I need you to help me find a transient portal," said Danny. "My p- the Fentons put this, uh, camera-tracker thing on me, and I can't get it off." Danny made a face. "You'll probably want to lay low for a while, too, after this. Maybe relocate for a bit."

"Back to the Realms?" asked the Box Ghost, sagging.

"No, no, you can still stay, just... maybe not in this building for the next little bit. You remember the other one we checked out for you?"

"Oh, yeah, in the-"

"Don't say it!" Danny took a deep breath. "They could be listening," he said. "The hunters."

"Oh, right. The great BOX GHOST is aware of this."

"So, can you take me to a portal?"

"Yeah, that's easy. Come on," said the Box Ghost.

The portal was a bit of a tight fit, but Danny managed. Not having bones could be useful, on occasion.

He spun slowly around, orienting himself. He knew where he was. Good. Now that he was no longer stuck in Amity Park, his first order of business was to get to the Far Frozen. If anyone could help him get this off, they could.

To be continued on day 11: Doctor.

#danny phantom #dannymay #dannymay 2020

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nightmaresart · 3 years

Text

𝓟𝓪𝓲𝓷 𝓶𝓪𝓴𝓮𝓼 𝓹𝓮𝓸𝓹𝓵𝓮 𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮

That I'd fallen for a lie?

You were never on my side

Fool me once, fool me twice

Are you death or paradise?

Now you'll never see me cry

There's just no time to die

No time to die - Billie Eilish

𝕭𝖆𝖘𝖎𝖈 𝕴𝖓𝖋𝖔𝖗𝖒𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓

Full Name: Lewis Daniel Gallach

Meaning of Name:

The name Lewis is from English origins and its often said that it means "Warrior" or "Gift from God"

The name Daniel is from Hebrew origins and means "God is my judge"

Nickname: Lewy, Daniel, Ghost

Reason of Nickname:

Lewy: Lewy is the nickname that his mother gave to him when he was a young boy and it stuck with him ever since

Daniel: Daniel is a lesser known nickname for Lewis that his mother only used when she was upset, so he doesn't like it when people call him just Daniel

Ghost: Ghost is the nickname that alot of people at Hogwarts gave the young boy due to his pale complexion and his pale eyes. Its a nickname that is always used in a mocking manner as the people who use it don't know the boy personally

Gender identity: Cis-male

Pronouns: He/Him

Sexuality: Queer

Age: 17, depends on what I write

Birthday: 11-11

Zodiac sign: Scorpio ♏

Place of birth: Sint Andrews, Scotland

Blood status: Pure Blood

𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝖒𝖆𝖌𝖊

Hogwarts house: Ravenclaw

The wand: Willow, Augurey Tail feather core, 11 ⅓ inches

Willow: Willow is an uncommon wand wood with healing power, and I have noted that the ideal owner for a willow wand often has some (usually unwarranted) insecurity, however well they may try and hide it. While many confident customers insist on trying a willow wand (attracted by their handsome appearance and well-founded reputation for enabling advanced, non-verbal magic) my willow wands have consistently selected those of greatest potential, rather than those who feel they have little to learn. It has always been a proverb in my family that he who has furthest to travel will go fastest with willow.

Augurey Tail Feather: Augureys, or Irish phoenixes, were once associated with powerful Dark wands, as their cries were thought to signify an upcoming death. However, they were in reality never a strong Dark core, and were more accurately a powerful core for Divinations. Misunderstood students may find themselves bonded to an augurey wand, although these wands are altogether quite rare.

Patronus: Little Owl

Little Owl - So tiny and yet so observant, these introverted creatures are bound to share this trait with any witch or wizard capable of casting them. Although they don’t mind occasionally rubbing feathers with strangers, they largely prefer marching to the beat of their own drum without the immediate oversight of others. If this is your Patronus, it is likely that you do some of your best work alone and are a firm believer that introverts can go toe to toe with some of the more boisterous members of the animal kingdom.

Magical abilities: Necromancy/Reanimation

Necromancy: The power to utilize magic involving the dead, death-force and/or souls.

Reanimation: Power to reanimate corpses and dead beings.

He can bring creatures and people back, or atleast reanimate their corpses but it takes a toll on his physical health, the older he gets the more powerful and useful this ability of his becomes.

Boggart:

Himself surrounded by dead creatures and people, all clawing at him to bring them back to live

Riddikulus form:

The corpses disapear and it turns into a small ghost dog that jumps around him while barking with a high pitch

Amortentia

What do they smell?

Homemade pies, the comfort of his own room and the cold and open corridors after a storm

What do they smell like?

He smells like old corridors, ink and a crackling campfire with a hint of mint

Mirror of Erised

He sees himself alive and well in the future with his friends still by his side, being able to be himself without getting hurt or having to hide who he is anymore

𝕻𝖍𝖞𝖘𝖎𝖈𝖆𝖑 𝖆𝖕𝖕𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖆𝖓𝖈𝖊

Eye Colour: Pale Grey

Hair Colour: Pitch Black

Hair Style: He doesn't have a specific hair style, its mostly just what he wakes up with and rolls with, if he slept at all that is.

Weight: 68 kg or 149 lbs

Height: 1,85 m or 6 ft

Type of Body/Build: Ectomorph, Skinny

Skin Tone: Pale Ivory

Distinguishing Marks: His unsettling pale skin paired with his unsettling white/pale eyes

Face claim: Finlay Macmillan

𝕻𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖔𝖓𝖆𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖞

Overall Personality

A reserved and introverted guy who struggles alot with himself. He prefers to stay quiet and just doesn't like to speak when it's not necessary. He seems cold and distant but in reality he is just afraid of what people might think of him. He just doesn't know what to do with both himself and with others.

Briggs myer type: ISTJ

Good traits:

Observant, Gentle, Listener, Creative, Reserved

Bad traits:

Closed off, Wary, Picky, Panicky

𝕬𝖙𝖙𝖎𝖙𝖚𝖉𝖊

Towards people they hate

He doesn't interact with the people he hates at all, he avoids them at all costs and doesn't even spare them a glance when he does walk by them

Towards people they tolerate

Only a simple glance and sometimes even a faint smile with a small wave if they were to wave and smile at the boy first

Towards people they consider friends

He is still a hit wary around his friends and isn't the loudest person you can come across, but he certainly allows them to come close to him and even talks back when they're striking up a conversation with him

𝕽𝖊𝖑𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖘𝖍𝖎𝖕𝖘

Family:

Father: Unknown

Mother: Eliana Gallach

Friends:

Orla Atkinson, Lilith Devereux @hphmbetty , Danny Gibson @catohphm Gallen Stagg @cursebreakerfarrier , Logan Rosseto @demon-twins-and-co

S/o:

TBD

Rivals: TBD

𝕭𝖆𝖈𝖐𝖘𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖞

Born to a single mother in Sint Andrews, Scotland, the family was always cast in a bad light due to it not being complete in the old fashioned way. His mother however tried her best to take care of Lewis and worked alot as a result of this, due to this Lewis spend most of his youth alone in the house, reading the old books his mother would bring back and just watching people from his window.

It was pretty difficult for him growing up because his mother told him to stay inside to protect him when she was away, this caused the young boy to gain his pale complexion, barely being outside and in the sun long enough to get a healthy tan.

When he was nine years old he was in the backyard and found a dead mouse, curious about it he picked it up and cradled it in his hands. This managed to bring the mouse back to live which scared the young boy. He screamed and his mother ran outside to see what was going on. From that moment on she made him swear to never pick up a dead animal ever again and he did.

He arrived at Hogwarts at the age of eleven and immediately shut himself out, he wasn't used to soo many people in one place that it made him feel too overwhelmed. This stayed this way until he made his first friend who also happened to be his roommate, Danny Gibson.

This is also when he tries to rediscover his power again and learn more about it without his mother being there to punish him

𝕽𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖔𝖒 𝕱𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖘

Lewis has an incredible difficult time understanding other people and thus has an extremely difficult time making new friends or new contacts

Lewis looks extremely pale due to him barely going outside during the day

Once he befriends people he is still awkward but he is trying his best

He is extremely fascinated by the dead and often goes out of his way to talk with the hogwarts ghosts

He finds it easier to talk to those who are dead than to those who are alive

He is quite fearful of his own powers and while also wanting to learn more about them, he knows it hurts his body and affects his health

He has a sketchbook filled with detailed portraits of those he finds intriguing

If you want your mc to be added to his friends, or rival list, please just send me a message and it will be done!

#harry potter #hphl #hphl mc #hphl oc #hphl moodboard #hphl profile #harry potter hogwarts legacy #hogwarts legacy mc #hogwarts legacy #lewis gallach #ravenclaw oc #ravenclaw #second profile!#lets go!

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ghostsray · 4 years

Text

Ch6: Stuck

(first - prev - next)

Skulker tossed the nets holding Niel and Ellie like potato sacks onto the cold metal floor. Niel saw his dad stop pacing around the lab and come toward them.

"There you are," he spoke in his smooth voice, his deep blue eyes latched onto Niel. Without glancing up at Skulker, he asked, "Why is my son inside a net?"

Skulker grunted, but he pulled out a blade and cut Niel's net open. Niel staggered to his feet. His muscles felt sore from being tangled up for so long, but he didn't give himself time to stretch. Instead, he quickly stood in front of Ellie's net in an attempt to hide her from Vlad.

Unfortunately, this didn't work. His dad spotted the other figure Skulker had brought, and his eyes widened. Then a smile formed on his lips. "Do my eyes deceive me, or is that Danielle?"

Niel wavered, but he didn't move from his spot. Behind him, Ellie groaned, stirring awake.

"Move away, son," Vlad ordered. "I want to see my dear daughter."

"Fruitloop," Ellie muttered.

Vlad looked over Niel's shoulder at the girl. "How unoriginal. Is this how you greet your father?"

Ellie's eyes opened so she could glare angrily at Vlad. "You're not my father," she hissed.

Vlad pouted and placed a heart on his chest. "Am I not the person who created you?"

"Sure, right before you tried to melt me down," she spat back.

Vlad's eyes drifted to Niel. Niel gulped.

"Don't hurt her," he pleaded. Vlad's eyebrows rose.

"You care about her."

"She's my sister."

Understanding dawned on Vlad's face, and he said, "So that's why you were so keen about what happened to the other clones. You've befriended one."

Niel stood his ground despite the nervousness that was steadily growing in his chest. "Is it true?" he asked his dad. "You were going to kill her?"

"Kill?" Vlad laughed and said, "Of course not! I was planning on fixing her afterwards. It's like turning a computer on and off. She would have reformed."

"You're a liar," Ellie snapped from inside her net. Skulker gripped his blade and growled, but Vlad held up a hand placatingly.

"It's all right. You're here now, and you can be fixed. After all, I'm sure you don't enjoy looking like this from time to time," he said and nodded at her face. That was when Niel saw it. Ellie had once told him she didn't look so pretty when she was emotional, and that was true. The right half of her face looked like whenever Niel left a piece of chocolate out for too long and it began to melt. Ellie cupped that side of her face with her hand and looked down, blinking angrily.

Vlad cooed. "Yes, you hate that. But don't worry. I won't hurt you. Isn't that right, Niel?" and he turned his eyes to the boy.

Niel felt like he was stuck. He looked at Ellie, and her visible eye watched him pleadingly, begging him not to side with Vlad. But Vlad--his dad--was watching him as well, his eyes cold and expectant.

Niel gulped. He shifted his feet and mumbled, "Maybe you can trust him..."

Ellie looked devastated. The hand hiding her face began to melt, too. Vlad smirked.

"See? You can trust me. Skulker, cut open her net. I want her to see that I'm trustworthy."

Skulker seemed reluctant, but he did as he was told. As soon as the net fell away, Ellie turned on Skulker and kicked his face.

It was easy to forget that such an innocent-looking girl like Ellie still knew how to fight, and even better than Niel. She had trained under Vlad during the brief time she was under his stay, and she no doubt must have fought for her life multiple times while living on the streets. Niel watched with dumb amazement as Ellie punched Skulker in the gut, dodged all his swings, and finally brought him to his knees by kicking his legs.

She didn't have time to enjoy her triumph over Skulker, because as soon as he went down, Vlad shifted into Plasmius and shot her with a pink ectoblast. Ellie was shoved onto the far wall and tumbled to the ground. The areas in her body that were melting had begun to turn green and slowly dripped onto the floor.

Seeing Ellie hurt snapped Niel out of his stupor. He whipped his head to look at his dad and saw him wearing a grin, his ghost form's vampiric fangs long and visible. For the first time, all those things that Danny and Sam and their friend told Niel about the evil deeds Vlad had done finally sunk in. His dad was a villain.

His dad was a villain.

Vlad made his way casually to where Ellie lay. She was trying to get onto her feet, but she kept falling down. The fact she was about 60% liquid now didn't help.

Niel was spurned into action. He ran in front of Ellie and spread his arms open, glaring Vlad down.

Vlad's mouth twitched. "Niel, move away."

Niel shook his head. "She doesn't want to stay. She doesn't have to."

"Ah, see, I wish that were true. Unfortunately, when you start to wonder about something like her moving around town...well, it's not a very normal sight, is it?" Vlad eyed her cheekily. "Sooner or later, someone will notice how odd you are, and then they're going to look into your past and link you back to me. I can't let that happen. So, you have only two options: let me fix you. Be my daughter. Or else, die."

Ellie managed to half-stand by leaning against the wall. She raised her chin and said, "Go to hell."

Vlad tutted. "I'm afraid that's a no. You heard her, Niel. If she doesn't want to join me, then she's not your sister. No need to protect her anymore."

Niel didn't move. "You--you want to kill her."

Vlad rolled his eyes, like this was another obvious math problem that Niel wasn't getting. "Were you not just listening to what I said?" He saw Niel's horrified expression, and he sighed and forced himself to soften. "Come on, Niel. This is for the safety of our family."

"You want to kill her," Niel repeated. "You don't care about family."

Vlad frowned. "I'm your father. Are you going to side with her over me?"

Something wet and cold wrapped around Niel's hand. He looked down and saw Ellie holding his hand, looking up at him pleadingly.

He swallowed back his bile and stared Vlad in the eyes. "Yes."

Vlad would never hit Niel outside of training. Vlad would never harm his son. Niel thought that was true.

Niel was wrong.

As soon as Vlad realized that Niel was serious and that he was not about to change his mind anytime soon, his face darkened. He grabbed Niel by the arms and shoved him aside. Niel fell onto the hard floor. He fell on his hand, forcing his fingers to bend at odd angles, and Niel had a feeling that would become very painful once he shifted back to human.

He bit his tongue and blinked his tears back, then turned in place to see Vlad. The villain reached toward Ellie. Niel's jaw tightened, and he pushed himself off the floor with his good hand and landed next to Ellie, hugging her melting form to his chest.

Vlad sighed. "Really?"

Green-stained liquid leaked from Ellie's eyes, though Niel couldn't tell if they were tears or more ectoplasm. He held her goopy form protectively and glared at Vlad.

In the corner of his vision, he saw Skulker stand up and approach them. Faced off against both him and Vlad, the odds were pretty obvious that Niel wasn't going to go free with Ellie in tow. He had already lost against Skulker once, and Ellie was in no shape to fight.

If he tried to go forward, or sideways, or up, he knew either of the ghosts would intercept him. But maybe not all hope was lost yet. Only a few feet to the side on the wall behind him lay Vlad's ghost portal.

Vlad caught Niel glancing at the portal, and his eyes widened. "Don't," he warned.

Niel, carrying Ellie, shot toward the portal. Both ghosts tried to stop him, but he was too fast. He pulled the lever that opened the blast doors and squeezed himself and Ellie through before they were fully open.

"Stop! I order you to come back!" Vlad shouted after them, but Niel ignored him. He sped through the Ghost Zone, not bothering to look back to see if Skulker was following them. The Ghost Zone blurred around them in lines of green and purple. Niel had never been allowed to visit this realm often, but now was not the time to appreciate the view.

He found a floating cluster of rocks and hid between them to catch his breath. His core thrummed anxiously, and the phantom sensation of his heart seemed to beat against his ribs.

"Danny," Ellie murmured. Niel looked down and had to hold himself back from grimacing. Her face was barely noticeable as a face now.

"I'm Niel," he softly told her.

"I know that, you idiot," she replied, her speech slurred from the fact that her mouth was melting. "I meant we should go to Danny's. He has Ecto-Dejecto."

Niel didn't know what an Ecto-Dejecto was, but he guessed it must be able to heal her problem. He peeked his head from around a rock and looked around. Just as he was beginning to despair the possibility of them getting lost, he spotted it: a metal frame in the distance. He knew it wasn't the one they went through, which meant it was the Fentons' portal.

The stone they were hiding behind suddenly burst. Niel shielded his face from the debris, then looked up to see Skulker flying toward them. Adrenaline high, Niel carried Ellie with him and zoomed toward the portal.

As he made his way toward it, his stomach sank again when he noticed that the blast doors were closed. They weren't going to make it. Skulker was going to catch them, they weren't going to make it--

Miraculously, the doors opened. Niel's core leapt with relief, and he burst through the portal and was greeted by the human world's air.

He and Ellie landed on a table full of half-built weapons, knocking most of them off. When Niel allowed himself to sit up and look around, he found Danny, in Phantom form, gaping at them with wide eyes. He was standing right next to the portal, a thermos in his hands, so he must have been about to empty the device into the Ghost Zone when Niel and Ellie came in.

Before Danny could ask them what the heck was going on, a third head poked through as Skulker followed them. Danny was quick to jump into action. He shot Skulker with an ectoblast and shoved him back into the portal. As soon as he was submerged in the green swirls, Danny slammed the button next to the portal, and the doors closed.

Once that was dealt with, Danny dropped his forgotten thermos and rushed toward Niel and Ellie. "Dani!" he exclaimed when he saw the melted girl.

She was little more than a puddle by now. Niel slid off the table and watched her with horror.

"It's my fault," he said. "If she wasn't with me--Vlad wouldnt have--"

"Vlad?" Danny said, then shook his head. "It's fine. I can help her, she just needs some Dejecto." He started rummaging around the lab for the Ecto-Dejecto while Niel stayed rooted in place.

"Vlad," Niel said, then sobbed. "Vlad was going to kill her. He was going to kill his own child."

Danny glanced over his shoulder briefly at Niel before continuing to search the lab. "It sounds like you went through some shit with the fruitloop, and I'd comfort you, but Dani really needs her..."

Niel covered his face and cried. All the shock and trauma cascaded down his cheeks in the form of tears as his shoulders shook with every sob. He felt stuck, trapped inside a bubble with no air, suffocating inside.

"I wish I can change everything," he whimpered.

The rummaging stopped. "Please tell me you didn't say the W-word," Danny said.

Niel brought his hands away to look at Danny. Instead, his eyes landed on the thermos on the floor that Danny dropped. The lid was open.

A green cloud of mist formed around Niel, and he heard a woman's chuckle. "So you have wished it," she said, "so it shall be."

The last thing he heard was Danny shouting a very rude swear before the green mist thickened and filled his vision.

#Danny Phantom #dannymay #dannymay2020 #niel masters #dani phantom #vlad masters #danny fenton #fic #fanfiction #writing #mine

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phantomphangphucker · 5 years

Text

Ectober Day 6 & 24: Silence & Nothing - Nothing To Ring In The Sound Of Silence

Logic says nothing gets to exist forever, but Danny has made a habit of defying both logic and the laws of the universe. But that’s just Danny, not everything or everyone else.

*Note: So I combined these two days in this fic because it just flowed so damn well for me. Originally this was just supposed to be for ‘Silence’ but it evolved. I didn’t really feel it long enough to break into two chapters.

It’s been a long time. A long time since everything happened. A long time since there’s been anyone. Danny stops in his floating to stare at the dilapidated statue of himself, speaking purely to hear sound, “the world’s been silent a long time”.

It hadn’t happened suddenly, of course it hadn’t. That was part of how Danny knew in his gut that he might not be able to do anything. See Danny’s problems, his fights and the catastrophes he stopped, they always popped up suddenly with great alarm. But the slow decay and breaking down of everything’s genetics had crept up on everyone.

It had started with the oldest of creatures and things. Old world ferns and bugs and birds. No one gave much of a damn besides those who truly loves those things. Sure some people mourned the extinctions, but humans had been driving things to extinction for a long time. Most of the world even rejoiced when misquotes seemed to get hit, but the fields of science went into a panic. Because with that drop, so too did many others decline in numbers; bats most notably.

But it wasn’t until some fruit plants started to go that the rest of the world began to worry. There had already been a food crisis and this would make it worse. Other people only cared that they would never get to eat another banana or leaf of lettuce again.

But the commotion was enough to get Danny curious. If this had started back when Sam was still alive, he would have paid attention sooner. But it had been a long time since her, or Tucker, or even Amity. It had hurt when the town had to be abandoned, no longer able to financially support all the excessive damage. Course Danny still protected the place, but repairs didn’t happen much. Leaving the place too destroyed to be inhabitable by humans. But Danny was part ghost, something stagnant, something that didn’t do ‘change’. So he never really left, just made Amity his lair in genuine. Modifying and altering it as he pleased. The roads glowed, the nasty burger always had ectoplasmic food even if no one worked there, buildings began repairing themselves, colours changed according to the halfas mood, etcetera. The rest of the world was perfectly content to let their saviour do as he pleased with the place and it even became something of a tourist hotspot and shrine to Phantom.

But it was also firmly a place no one wanted to actually stay in, catering to Phantom and Phantom alone. And he was weird, he’d always been weird. But after a few hundred years being stuck in between life and death. After losing all his human connections and many of his ghostly ones. He became a little too weird for most of humanity to handle long term. The snapping of fangs, the paranoia, the ease with which he could become a soldier on the battlefield, the utter disregard for his own safety, the treating of serious injuries like old friends and minor annoyances. He was too weird for most ghosts as well, the exception being other older ghosts. But most of those older ghosts were too stick in the mud or loners to be close with Phantom. An endlessly social, silly ghost filled with good-natured trickery and wanderlust. His lair was much the same, prone to playing tricks of the eye or leading people in circles. Sometimes disabling other ghosts powers at random or stealing their things only to return them as soon as the ghost left. The food that grew there, only appealing to Phantom himself. Mustard pickles that tasted of flowers, milkshakes made of frosted flakes that were somehow smooth not crunchy, apples that screamed with the texture of strawberry mousse. So while the place got plenty curious eyes and worshiping filled minds, it didn’t get any permanent residents. Other than the famous half-ghost himself.

And Danny didn’t really mind the silence, the chance to be alone, that his abandoned ghost town of a lair now granted him. It was a nice break from the constant action and sounds of battle that was his everyday life. So he relished it, the silence, the same way he relished floating lazily through the starry sky.

Smiling with nostalgia, Danny lands on the roof of the nasty burger, ghostly tail curling around the sign. Now Amity stood as one of the few places that wasn’t destroyed, that hadn’t crumbled to rot and litter. The irony of that makes Danny laugh. As he puts his head in his hand and looks up at the clear starry sky, light pollution no longer possible. He’d never thought he’d be upset about that. But he is. He is because of what it means. The lack of electricity, the lack of importance for it, the lack of humans, the lack of need for it. Danny’d always adored his night vision, did even more now, but what he wouldn’t give to get slightly blinded and startled by a fluorescent lightbulb suddenly going off. This thought gets Danny floating off the building to poke at a few lightbulbs. Sure electric had stopped being a thing in Amity long before the rest of the world. He had basically told everyone not to bother, seeing as he could and did just light the place with ectolights. What he hadn’t expected was having to eventually light the whole world with them. Now, well, now he didn’t even bother. There was no one or thing to make light for.

Danny himself hadn’t paid attention to, hadn’t really worried about, what was happening until the platypus went extinct. Other mammals rapidly following suit. And when the canines and felines got hit, that’s when the chaos started. When everyone started giving a damn in genuine. When the research got funded like crazy and became the focal point of news or awards.

Danny himself helped out by finding things for the scientist faster than any other person really could and bringing it back faster than even the best hovercoppers or jets could. This was the point where Danny managed to throw the world through another loop, surprise everyone again. No one really knew he was easily as intelligent as his sister, that his mind couldn’t decay because of his halfa state. Couple that with his body being constantly covered in a hazmat suit and being naturally antibacterial, well he was extremely helpful for the scientific and medical community. But Danny couldn’t help much when medicines couldn’t be made any more or when plastic became increasingly rare.

That was another thing about Danny and his problems. They came at him head-on and he faced them head-on. It was a battle, always something he could physically do. But not this time. This had been something marching forward slowly, decaying and eating away at all of life. So Danny did the thing he knew best and looked for ghostly reasons. Searched the Zone for any clues. And that, that’s when he truly began to worry, to freak out. Because the Zone wasn’t getting bigger, it wasn’t gaining any of the dead souls. Sure not everything that died became part of the Zone, but usually at least a third did. For nothing to be going to the Zone? That was more than just worrying, that was logically impossible. Asking around didn’t yield any results, and ClockWork had been concerningly impossible to find. In fact, Danny recalls, ClockWork had been impossible to find ever since then. Which makes him shiver, the implications of that were deeply concerning. Even if the enigmatic time ghost was supposedly immortal, like Danny. He’d even tried finding the other Ancients for answers, to no luck.

By the time he had hopped back into the mortal realm, the scientists had figured it out.

ClockWork had once told him that everything you see, everything you touch, all of it. Everything had a time limit. Everything was at the mercy of time. Even something as simple as genetics or air. And that time was apparently up. Everything’s genetics were functionally breaking down, Mother Nature being unable to reform it anew.

Danny remembers asking if they could reverse it, cloning was perfectly viable now just incredibly immoral and thus illegal. But of course, exceptions were made, except it didn’t work. No matter what they did the clones were never stable. Even cloning things as basic as chemicals failed. It’s chemical makeup or genetics turning to useless goo near instantly. As if forming those things lost was no longer even possible. In the end, Danny wasn’t too surprised, considering what he knew of Dani and her fate. Though a clone of him she had been, she wasn’t immortal, she was never truly stable. Eventually needing more and more treatments till it simply no longer lasted more than minutes. The two had made an agreement, had decided to let her fade with the closest thing to a father she ever truly had. And the closest thing to a daughter Danny would ever have. It would be unfair to bring a child into his half-life intentionally, so he never did and never would. That was a night he had grieved harder than almost any other before it, the ghosts and humans morning the loss with him, knowing exactly who and what the little black and white halfa girl was.

So with cloning written off, they had tried to create near exact replicas. Slightly changing things to try and achieve something stable yet similar enough to the original. There was some success on the smallest level before some extinct plants and missing medications became a lesser worry. Because then, then humans started to fall. Birth rates fell, till eventually there wasn’t a single baby in months. People started dying younger and younger. Started being unable to heal even paper-cuts or recover from the simplest of colds. Everyone became highly trained in first aid purely to keep their own bodies from falling apart on them. Synthetic skin and bones had never been more popular. Bionic limbs became so commonplace that seeing someone without any biometal was startling.

Danny did his part by being a highly mobile medical expert and being a pioneer in Biomech. Seeing as his very specialty was self accessing and self-treating injuries. Sure he frequently had to remind himself that these were humans and that they absolutely could not regrow limbs or liquify parts of their bodies to make reforming breaks easier. But he made it work and his knowledge had been vital for the survival of smaller towns and countries for a long time.

But then everything came to a head, Danny finally got the big impact he was used to. There wasn’t enough humans, nuclear plants were failing, safety measures weren’t being followed, people were ceasing to care. Danny tried to help keep order, but there’s only so much one guy can do. Getting any malfunctioning bombs off the planet, or cleaning water polluted with massive chemical explosions, or making sure collapsing skyscrapers didn’t destroy entire towns; took precedence over being a leader to the humans. Many parts of the world became uninhabitable in a very short amount of time and eventually, all Danny could do was check those areas himself for any change; giving reports back to the humans when he could. But it was at this point that Danny started to not relish the silence or being alone. He was too alone, everything was too quiet. No bugs buzzing, no undercurrent hum of electricity, no animal cries. It made his own voice jarringly loud in comparison, so he fell into silence more and more. Not just to avoid disturbing things or feeling too loud. But also because there started to not really be anything or anyone to talk to more and more.

He’s then reminded of a conversation he had with a young twenty-three-year-old scientist who looked something like a patchwork doll, as he floats to weave in between building windows slowly.

“It’s been a while since I’ve heard a good joke from you, Phantom”.

“Telling them to dirt and rubble feels pretty foolish”.

She had laughed, “yeah, I guess it would”, there was a sigh, a pause in the conversation, “I think maybe you should. Your humour is a pretty vital part of who you are”.

“I’m not fading. I can’t”.

“I know. It’s just. It’s worrying honesty. You always have a joke to throw around, no matter the situation or how bad. Now you seem at a loss”.

“I am at a loss. Ran out of Avengers End Game ones a while ago and those aren’t even relevant anymore. No one even knows what ‘Avengers’ is now. I ran out of material and there doesn’t really seem to be a point to saying them over again”.

“See that, that’s why it’s worrying. You may only be half-ghost, but you’re still not a creature of change. If anything you’re more inclined against change than full ghosts. And yet here you are, changed. And ghosts... ghosts only change truly when reverting back isn’t an option anymore”.

“I’m still perfectly capable of making jokes and finding humour”.

“That’s not really what I mean. I’m saying that... that I don’t really think the reason why you’re out of jokes can be reverted”.

Danny hadn’t responded to that simply watched her with sad eyes and with facts creeping into the forefront of his mind that he didn’t want to hear.

While she continued, “I think your being can tell, knows on some level, that this isn’t a battle for you to face. Isn’t an enemy you can fight. Isn’t a world for you to save. That this just can’t be fixed, can’t be stopped”.

The was a pause for a while before Danny had nodded slowly and stopped floating to sit on the counter, “I’m never one to back down or give up. But, yeah. I don’t have the drive, the protective desire, that I should”.

She had only nodded and gotten back to work.

Shaking his head to clear away the memory, that had been a big thing for him. Really realising his obsession wasn’t acting up, that he didn’t feel the need to help. It had really sealed the deal for him, as all the life around him slowly dwindled away. Which resulted in him spending more and more time with the collections of young humans, less and less time off on his own. The people noticed, seemed to understand. But also strongly had no desire to acknowledge why Phantom was spending as much time with them as he could. Like one does with a dying parent or a pet on their way to being put to sleep.

It wasn’t long after that when Danny noticed something else, the Zone was...shrinking. Ectoplasm was seemingly beginning to decay and break down as-well. And unlike with the Mortal Realm, the most complex things went first. The most sentient of ghosts. And unlike the Mortal Realm it happened fast; in days even. Pandora’s fading had been cataclysmic, Danny had to hide away her box after ghosts kept stealing it. And that had started a long trend of Danny having to find this artifact or that potentially world-ending weapon, and hide them away. Being forced to split his time between the two dimensions as everything fell apart. Both sides had noticed this change in behaviour. Commenting that Phantom seemed like a man running around trying to keep the sky from falling down. Danny had cracked a few jokes about that, but they lacked the bravado and mirth they usually held.

And by the time the Zone plants started to wither away, Danny had pretty well abandoned the Zone. Instead spending what time he could with the remaining humans and living animals. All there was to see in the Zone was buildings and the occasional flora, which hardly needed his comfort. But all the same, he elected to not tell the humans. Not wanting to stir up hopelessness or panic. Though his actions told them all they needed to know. They just didn’t tell him such.

At this point, humanity was functionally split between anarchists and small communities. The communities eventually falling into anarchy themselves, as people lost any belief in things ever getting better. Danny had watched, tried to keep some level of order for a while. But eventually saw the pointlessness of it and people just trying to have some damn fun at the end of the world. Finally acknowledging what this was, what it had been; the apocalypse. And with this acknowledgment he changed, he joined what was left in screwing around. Unnecessary destruction, reckless self endangerment, the rock star lifestyle. Drugs, sex, and rock and roll. Fast, loose and with complete disregard for the future. What was left of the humans flocked to him at this point, riding the high of someone who could let them do things there’s no other way they could do. To say a lot of things had been crossed off bucket lists and final wishes granted, would be an understatement. Even if it made the loss of each individual person hurt Danny all the more. He really was always a self-sacrificial fool. A weaker more selfish person would have just left everyone to their fates. Not walked by their sides till they eventually could walk no more. Till the world fell and life simply stopped existing.

But Danny did, always would, as he was left standing looking between two worlds were nothing existed anymore. Where there wasn’t even air to make sound or any single thing besides him to break up the silence.

Danny runs his fingertips across the green road, slowly floating to sail outside of his lairs boundaries. To a vast empty expanse, buildings to ash not having his ectoplasm to build them up again and again. Chunks of the planet itself breaking off as the planet's core cooled away. The bits of hard ground illuminated by his glow and the few still travelling light of dead stars alone, the sun having winked out long ago.

Danny turns intangible and slips into the ground, floating down to sit on the Earths core. Before being jarred by his ghost sense going off for the first time in eons. Turning his head to his old mentor and friend, in their white beard and simple purple cloak. Turning his head away as he speaks, “it’s been a long time, Father Time”.

Earning a smirk from the Ancient ghost, “indeed”.

The two sit in silence for a while, Danny laying on his back on the Earths core, “makes sense I guess”.

“You hardly needed me. You and the Earth”.

Danny snorts, “I guess that says it all, doesn’t it. Nothing to do and nothing to help”. The two fall back into silence again, before Danny sits back up and leans into ClockWork to cry. Just the knowledge of something, of someone else being there made the sound of it less massive, less jarring, less painful. As ClockWork rubs his back, giving a level of comfort only a being that saw the end coming and had existed before all other sentient things, could provide.

Danny eventually sniffling and wiping his nose, “is there anything I could have done differently?”.

ClockWork sighs, knowing the self-punishment and blame had been coming, “I’m sorry Daniel, but this is how it has to be. Like all things, everything must have its end. To eventually fade into oblivion and the nothing”.

Danny curls his fingers into ClockWork’s cloak, “but me, I’m still here. I’ll still be here”.

ClockWork pats his head fondly, “of course. Always. Even nothing needs a guardian. And, as it always does, something comes from nothing”.

Danny nods, makes sense he was an Ancient himself but that hardly phased him. Instead asking, “so there will be life again?”.

“And therein lies something that not even time can tell”.

Danny gives a somewhat hallow smile, “I thought you knew everything”.

ClockWork bops him on the nose with a soft smile, “only nothing can know what nothing has in store”.

Danny rests his head on ClockWork’s lap, “so me, the Ancient guardian of nothing”.

ClockWork pets down Danny’s hair as he speaks, “as it always was to be”, leaning over to kiss Danny’s hair, whispering as to not break the silence to severally. The silence that their young companion had grown comfortable with and would surely be surrounded by for a long time to come, “and nothing needs nothing to truly flourish”.

Before fading away and leaving Danny alone to sleep on top of the very core of the planet he loved so very much. As even it too began to crumble away into nothing, having been the last remaining thing in the universe. Once sustained only by Danny’s will and ectoplasm. Now falling away finally, as his being accepts what he truly is. The nothing after something and the nothing before something. The one true constant of the universe. For nothing doesn’t need something to exist but something never exists without nothing. Leaving nothing as the guardian of the universe and the guardian of nothing to guard it all forever.

End.

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dpjustified · 4 years

Text

Bingo #7

(disclaimer: fanfic not headcanon)

(#7 Themes: Ghost Nip, Someone dies, Ghost King, and Fully Dead AU with twist [Vlad instead and fully ghost not fully dead. Don’t you know that ghosts are other dimensional creatures]? )

“Yes!” Jazz cheered. She had finally defeated a ghost by herself. Well, just with her parent’s weapons, but even they fought as a team. Today she took down Kitty, who was busy stealing makeup from the store, as well as breaking perfume bottles. Once she captured her with the Jack-o-rang, she looked closer.

Kitty...didn’t look well. Her eyes were sunken, her hair didn’t look like it had been groomed in months, and her makeup looked like it had been put on like a five year old. Not to mention all the scratches on her arms and legs....

“Let me get my stash,” Kitty growled, fighting her restrains. She started foaming at the mouth.

Jazz took out a notebook. “This is clearly a case of drug addiction. I have to study further.”

She sucked Kitty up into the Thermos to bring her back to the lab. After releasing her, Kitty kept asking for some sort of stash, so Jazz untied her hands. She then desperately reached for her purse and pulled out what looked like glowing grass. She stuffed a bunch up her nose and heaved heavily, before rolling on the floor.

Jazz grabbed a sample while Kitty’s mind was in who knows what land and stuck it into her pocket.

“Jazz? You home yet?” Her little brother called from upstairs.

She went up and opened the door.

He and Tucker were working on homework, from the looks of it.

“Hi Jazz,” Tucker explained. “We can’t figure out this one math problem for trig. These triangle formulas are really throwing us for a loop. Think you can help us?”

“Think?” She tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “Sure I can help, as long as I’m not doing the problem for you like last time.”

Danny dropped his pencil and stared at her, with drool coming down from his mouth. “Danny, are you asleep already?” Jazz chided, but Danny approached and sniffed around her.

“What...is that smell?” He asked, then started feeling her pockets. “I can’t even think straight.”

After thinking for a moment, she pulled out the grass. “This?”

Danny leapt for it, but Jazz pulled out the Thermos and sucked the grass inside. “Just great. Whatever it is, it affects halfas too. Are you sane now?”

“I...” He looked confused. “I just blanked out there. I’m not sure what happened.”

“Don’t worry, your big sis has it covered! Sorry to sound like our parents but...you need to come to the lab.”

Danny and Tucker followed her, and she showed them Kitty, who was currently passed out in the corner. She looked dead.

“If you don’t want to be like her Danny, we’re going to attempt to make this grass have a connection with something you really, really hate.”

“Like homework?” Tucker suggested.

“Like Brussels sprouts.”

“Eww,” Danny said, sticking out his tongue in disgust.

“And meanwhile, Tucker, I need your help to study this ghost and this grass’s drug-like effects. Maybe we can wean her off?”

Tucker wiggled his glasses. “I’ve got an A in Chemistry, so I think I’m ready to be a scientist.”

Danny cringed. As a big sister, she needed to help him with his grades. At least that would help him focus more on saving people.

...

It took a few weeks, and various combinations of baking the grass together with things Danny hated for him to stop losing his mind every time it was around. Of course, she and Tucker had to collect the stuff - the location coming from Kitty - in order to have enough for the study.

After doing combined research with Sam’s help, Jazz found that methodone, the same medicine used for opioid addicts, could be applied to this after exposure to ectoplasm.

With Kitty, they decreased her dose gradually and replaced the grass with the harmless lemongrass before her cravings decreased enough for her to resist normally.

It was time for the survey.

“So,” Jazz said to Kitty. “How did you become addicted to this...ghost nip, shall we say?” Kitty chewed on a strand of lemongrass in thought. “Johnny gave it to me. Spectra diagnosed him for his anxiety, and I’ve been having trouble sleeping, so he told me to try it. It made me feel good, even just having it by my bed at night.”

“I can’t get over the fact that ghosts sleep,” Tucker said.

Kitty continued. “But after that, I really couldn’t control the dose anymore. When I have too much, I really lose my mind. I don’t even remember what I did before I ended up here. And Johnny...I haven’t seen him in weeks.”

The group looked at each other.

Jazz nodded. “It’s time for us to help you.”

They ventured into the Ghost Zone with the Specter Speeder. It was tragic how widespread the addiction was. Shady ghosts were hawking the stuff, and countless ghosts were just floating aimlessly. A new ghost lair had popped up just to bury dead ghosts.

Dead ghosts, now that was a strange topic.

She wrote it down to research later. For now, they were on a medical mission. Danny and Kitty split up with them to recruit Walker, who was apparently struggling to get a handle on the drug trade, while Jazz and Tucker delivered medicine and trained other ghosts on medical care. They ran into Technus, who quickly developed a machine to mass manufacture the medicine.

It was time to rendezvous with Danny.

...

She wasn’t surprised that Spectra was behind the whole thing. Walker and Danny had teamed up to beat her up, and she was currently in a jail cell in the ghost’s infamous prison.

Jazz sat down with a notebook.

“Ah, I bet you want to know my motivations,” Spectra said with a smile.

“Prison suits you,” Jazz replied. Apparently Spectra’s fellow prisoners were letting her know what they thought of her. A number of her teeth were missing, and she had a bald spot.

“Simple. With misery creates power. I was top dog here, top dog. Before you and the stupid ghost boy ruined my plans, again.”

“Why did you make your own kind your enemy? You usually just pick on humans.” If she had caused an epidemic in the human world, it would have been truly disastrous.

“I happened to come across it after following that vampire ghost. He’s one of us, but he’s not. He doesn’t live here in the Ghost Zone. I know the psychology of addiction. It almost had me myself, but I am stronger than that. Not everyone gave into the ghost nip, you know. And what a pity. I wonder how Danny Phantom was able to resist. His misery was always the sweetest.”

After collecting her thoughts on paper, Jazz went out and informed Tucker and Danny.

“You think Vlad’s addicted right now?” Tucker said. “I mean, he’s already nuts, but we should still help him, right?”

“Right. Let’s check it out...Kitty?”

She flew up to them with tears in her eyes. “Johnny’s dead. I...It was too late. He’s already fallen apart.”

“When ghosts die...” Jazz wanted to continue but trailed off. She wanted to satisfy her curiosity so badly.

“Yes, we turn back into ectoplasm. We were happy together. This thing tore us apart. I...I can’t live alone!”

Jazz embraced her. “You can do it. We believe in you.”

It was hard to leave her there in such an unstable condition, so they asked Ghost Writer to look after her, then sped off towards Vlad’s portal entrance.

There, she was not expecting what she saw.

Vlad Plasmius floated in front of the TV with blank eyes.

“Vlad?” Danny said, as they slowly walked in front of him. “You haven’t been popping up lately. Have you heard of that...grass stuff?”

“Oh, that.” Vlad looked down. “I ran out a long time ago. But look at me now. I don’t seem to have a human form anymore, my boy.”

“...” Jazz couldn’t say anything, and apparently neither could Danny. They decided to just sit next to him.

Tucker wordlessly left the room, then came back a few minutes later. “Nope, no body anywhere. You can’t have just died like that. Don’t give up hope.”

Vlad sighed. “I sleep, I eat, and I wake up. It’s been a week, and now...I’m relieved, actually. No more do I have to pretend to be somebody.”

Jazz got out her notebook and jotted down notes. “Don’t worry Vlad. And I’m sure Danny will help too. Whatever happened to you, we can reverse it. Together.”

Danny wordlessly put a hand on Vlad’s shoulder.

Tucker chipped in. “Hey, even I’ll help. I’m pretty good with computers.”

“Really good,” said Danny. “He might even give you some ideas, DALV Corp. CEO.”

Vlad cracked a smile.

Addictions can tear us apart, but the aftermath can still bring us together, because we can heal together.

At least, she thought so.

#danny phantom #phango19 #fanfic

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darks-ink · 5 years

Note

“Blind” for the prompt

This prompt was just asking for angst so who am I to deny it? On a somewhat related note, is it just me or do these prompt fills get longer every time I write one?

Hard bark pressed against Danny’s back. Soft grass underneathhis hands. The park was quiet, bar the soft rustling of the breezestirring the plant life.

The sensations were grounding. Stopped Danny from feeling likehe’d lost all connection to the world.

Because he saw nothing but black. Despite the relatively earlytime of day… he saw nothing.

He kept his eyes closed, knowing that he would only cause himselfmore pain if he tried to open them. It would do him no good anyway.It was better to wait until they had healed. If they wouldheal.

But he couldn’t think likethat. Of course theywould heal! All his injuries healed, sooner or later. This- thiswould be no exception. It couldn’tbe. He- he needed hiseyes. He couldn’t- he couldn’t be blind.

The warm blood still spillingdown his face made an unpleasant reminder of the fact that he wasn’thealing yet. His ghost form, theoretically, would offer him betterhealing… But he needed to get home. He needed… He needed help.

Danny stuck his hand inside hispocket, blindly searching for his phone. Oncehe found it, he flipped it open. His fingers traced over the buttons,blindly selecting one. He crossed his fingers and hoped he’d chosenwell. Then he held down the button until the other end answered.

“FentonWorks, this is Maddiespeaking,” a clear voice rung out from the other end. Luck wasonce again not on his side –he had hoped for one of his friends or Jazz – but he would takewhatever he got.

“Mom,” he said, or tried tosay. His voice cracked and his breath caught. Danny was vaguely awareof the hot salty tears that streamed down his face – when had hestarted crying?

“Danny?” She sounded far morealert now, apparently picking up on his distress. ��What’s wronghoney?”

“I- I-” he stammered, beforestopping to collect himself. He tried to wipe away his tears with hisfree hand, but only pushed them into his open wounds. He hissed atthe unexpected pain.

“Danny?” his mom repeated,worry clear in her voice. “Danny sweetie, please tell me what’swrong.”

“I’m- There was a ghostattack,” he finally managed, voice shaky and cracking. His facehurt, he was scared. He wanted it to stop.Despite everything he hadbeen through since he had become halfghost… he wasn’t prepared for this.“In- In the park.”

He heard his mom shift. “Areyou hurt?”

Yes, he thought.

“I think so,” he said. “Ithink- I think I’m bleeding.”

He licked his lips and tastediron and copper. The distinct taste of his ectoplasm-infused blood.

He wished he wasn’t familiarenough with it to recognize it by taste.

“Okay.” A sound like his momlaid her hand over the phone receiver, then muffled yelling. “Jack!Danny was attacked by a ghost in the park. He’s hurt!”

He couldn’t make out what hisdad yelled back. More rustling as his mom uncovered the phone again.“Okay,” she said again. “We’re on our way now, okay sweetie?Just stay calm.”

“I’ll… I’ll try.” Hetried to sound confident, certain…But he was sure that he failed.

“We’ll be right there,” hismom assured him.

Then a beep sounded as she hungup the phone. Heput his phone back in his pocket. Ithad done its job. His parents didn’t carry cellphones, so itwouldn’t do him any more good.

Dannypushed himself flatter against the tree. He wished he knew where,exactly, his Thermos was. He would’ve felt safer holding it.

That, andhe didn’t want to risk anyone accidentally letting out the ghostsinside. Not after- Not after what he had gone through to catch them.

Spectra was awful as always, ofcourse. But he had managed to get her first, for once.

No, it was Bertrand that hadcaused this.

Danny had gotten the ghostlyshapeshifter trapped in the beam of the Thermos, but the ghost got ina lucky strike in the last minute. Threw a sharp weapon of some sortwithout Danny noticing.

He had already capped the Thermoswhen the weapon hit, and he hadreflexively flung his arms in front of his face. The Thermos hadslipped from his hand in the same motion, landingsomewhere nearby.

Close. Butnot close enough to find without sight.

After that Danny had scrambledbackwards until he hit a tree. Then he had sat in silence for a fewmoments, trying to listen for anyone nearby.

When he heard no one, and knowingthat no one had been there during the fight, he had shifted back tohuman.

Which was how he had ended uphere in the first place. Human,with blood pouring down his face. Waiting for his parents to arrive.Hoping that somehow, somehow,they could fix this.

An unmeasurable amount of timelater noises started coming from the distance. The cacophonous noiseof his parents busting their way through the bushes of the park –and their yelling.

“I’m here!” he tried toyell back, but his voice faltered and came out far too quiet.

“I’m over here!” he triedagain, but once more his voice failed.

He shoved his face in his handsand growled in frustration. Then he simply listened, waiting for hisparents to get a little closer.

Finally he tried a third time.“Mom, dad?” he yelled, and while his voice cracked, it came outloud enough.

The rustling of his parentsquietened, and then his mom spoke up again. “Danny?”

“Over here!” Finally hemanaged it at the volume he was trying for. He would just ignore thepained undertones – he thought that they could be excusedconsidering the circumstances.

Withan enormous amount of noise his parents broke through into the openarea where Danny was waiting. Their steps audibly faltered when theysaw him. Or, well, he assumedthat that waswhen they saw him.

“Danny?” his mom asked, voicequiet and sad.

He turned to face theirdirection, repressing the urge to open his eyes. He highly doubted hecould see anything anyway. Instead he offered them a shaky smile.“Hey mom.”

“Oh, Danny,” she whispered.Then suddenly she was next to him, gently touching his face.

He flinched back automaticallyfrom the unexpected contact, opening his eyes to see-

Nothing.

Still nothing but black.

His mom pulled him against her,her arms wrapping around him. He dropped his head onto her shoulder,feeling the shaking of her body. Was she crying?

His mom never cried. Whywas she crying? Surely itwasn’t that bad?

Lie, he thought. But heignored the quiet inner voice. He didn’t want to believe it. Wantedto live in his fantasy a little longer, where he couldn’t be hurt.Not for long. Not permanently.

“Mads,” his dad said, alsofrom closer than Danny had expected. He didn’t think the man couldsneak up on him, but somehowhe did. Maybe Danny was moreout of it than he thought. “We need to get him to the hospital.”

“Right,” she sniffled. One ofthe arms around Danny left, probably so she could wipe away hertears.

“Wait.” Danny shoved away theremaining arm, automatically glancing around the space he was sittingin. Not that he could actually seeanything, but maybe…

Well, he wasn’t sure what hewas hoping for. “I- My Thermos. It should be around heresomewhere.”

“Your Thermos?” his dadrepeated, his jumpsuit crinkling a little as he moved. Lookingaround, probably. “We can fetch it later, Danny-boy. We need to getyou treated first.”

“No, but-” Hepushed himself further upright. Tried to cast his ghost-sense out inthe hopes of picking up the faint ectoplasmic energy Spectra andBertrand emitted evenwhile captured. “-I got the ghost. He’s in the Thermos.”

“You caught the ghost?”his mom questioned, sounding rather skeptical. He would feeloffended, but he supposed that it was a fair point. Danny Fentonnever showed any interest in ghosts, let alone any competence incatching them.

“I think I see it,” his dadsaid before Danny had a chance to defend himself. He supposed it wasfor the best. He didn’t think that he could make a very gooddefense with how badly his face was hurting. Sharppain stabbed through him every time he blinked. He should probably…close his eyes again. Itdidn’t matter if they were open, anyway.

Armshooked underneath his knees and arms, and suddenly he was lifted offthe ground. He, in turn, wrapped his own arms around his mom’sneck.

“Sorry sweetie.” She soundedfaintly apologetic, but not much. “We need to get you to thehospital as soon as possible.”

She remained quiet a littlelonger as she carried him off, presumably in the direction of the RV.“I think… I think that ectoplasm got into the injury.”

He hummed, a neutral answer. Heknew ectoplasm was inthe wound- it was his own. But he couldn’t tell her that.

“Danny, I…” She sighed,sounding incredibly tired all of a sudden. “I don’t think thatyou’ll ever see again.”

It wasn’t what he wanted tohear, but… He was pretty sure she was right.

And he didn’t know how he feltabout that.

He supposed it was for the best.He would have toretire Phantom – if he couldn’t see he couldn’t fly orfight. And that way no one could recognize the scar that he wouldsurely get. It would’vebeen asking forsomeone to connect the dots.

But that didn’t make him feelany better.

#danny phantom #phanfiction #phanfic #dp fanfiction #dp fanfic #danny fenton #jack fenton #maddie fenton #goldenpheonix5 #dark writes #prompt fill #i had an idea for a happy-ish end but it was long enough already #plus i dunno how i would've gotten the fic there anyway #angst

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phantomphangphucker · 4 years

Text

Legless On Maim Chap. 5: Those Legs Ain’t Quite Timely

For Ectober Day 11: Time (Part 1)

Danny takes a leap of faith and doesn’t splatter into ectoplasmic goop. Lewis gets philosophical and ignores the replies. The rest of the quartet finds out aliens are a thing and that Danny is an idiot about that too.

Danny’s got a few options. Two really. Thankfully they wouldn’t know that some flesh and muscle had in fact regrown, so that wasn’t an issue. And it was covered in bandaging so it’s not like there was anything to see really. Doesn’t have to worry about scars or the -totally nonexistent but should definitely be there- stitching. It was the tail that was an issue, if he hid it now he’d basically have to hide it permanently...or at least until he could let his legs fully regrow. He’s still not even sure what to do about that. Passing real legs off as robotic ones was not going to work. And while he’s done a lot for his secret, just not letting them grow or removing whatever regrows was a bit extreme even for him. And Lewis will kill him, or might actually force him to heal. At this point, he wouldn’t put it past the guy to knock him out or something.

But showing them the tail posed the same issue as letting them in on the fact that his legs are regrowing. It was too ghostly. But at the same time, Val knew and she also knew halfas were a thing, yet didn’t make the connection; or hadn’t yet anyway. It was easy enough to pass off the tail as just the ghost of his legs, which was less weird than regrowing limbs. Arguably anyway. With his ‘ecto-contamination’ already making him a bit more ghostly and sensitive to ghostly things, it probably wouldn’t make them too suspicious.

Though seeing them share another look probably means he’s taking too long to decide and making them feel bad about asking him. So he decides to ask them something to break up the tension a bit, ease the conversation some, while he mentally debates what to do, “is that why you’re having some issues with wiring and weighting?”.

Jack and Maddie are just assuming Danny needs to warm up a bit before being comfortable letting them see. Clearly he wasn’t expecting them to ask about his injuries, Maddie nodding, “for the weighting, yes. But it’s more about the power source”. Jack shifts and nods as well, “we’ve got to get ectoplasm throughout all of them so you can feel properly. With no matter from your actual body throughout it, that’s proving a bit difficult. But! With the right shape and connections, it should work splendidly!”.

Danny blinks, well shit, he basically had the solution to that. His tail could probably be made to fit and, due to not truly being solid and all of it being able to move, it could easily slide around whatever mechanics or wiring. He can also tell his dad’s bullshitting a little, his dad had no viable solution yet for this issue. Danny chuckles while transforming his tail back human A.K.A. looking like it was made out of bandaging, “heh yeah, not the same as making an exoskeleton huh?”.

Maddie nods and ruffles his hair, “yeah it’s not, and we can’t have it sapping your life force or anything”. All three chuckle slightly at that. Jack smiles, functionally speaking without thinking, “especially with there being less of it!”. Maddie glares at him slightly, but blinks a bit surprised at Danny actually laughing.

Danny can’t help but smirk a little, tail wiggling around some, though being intangible keeps that from being noticed. Technically there wasn’t any less of him, half just happens to be stuck all ghostly. He’s half ghost in a much more literal sense, which is a bit hilarious. Half ghost squared. Doubly half-ghost. Shifting some, “uh yeah, about that...”, Danny scoots away from where his mom is sitting a bit and pulls his now tangible tail in front of his stomach. Smiling a bit awkwardly as he lifts up the corner of his blankets and reveals the tip of the tail, “I think you might have to change some things”.

Danny chuckles even more awkwardly as they just sort of stare, so he starts talking, which is probably not the best idea, “had it sort of under the jacket earlier. Cause weird right? And definitely can’t let those men see something like this of all things. And bet it’s, like, cause of all the ectoplasm in my system. Which is totally a pretty, um, different way for that to affect me. But, like, hey! I’ve still got something there. Which is kinda nice even if it feels, like, super different. Very energetic in a lot of ways. ‘Cause y’know, made of energy. But also just, like, never really stops moving. And Ancients, say something? It’s weird yeah, but, like, just me. Part of me. My body and all that. And me having ectoenergy is super established and okay right? So there’s just part that’s nothing but that-”.

Jack goes slightly wide-eyed and snaps his fingers. Getting an idea, pretty well steamrolling past the ghostly strangeness of this in the name of science and inventing, and cutting Danny’s rambling off, “ectoenergy! Can you control it?!? You could move your ectoplasm to all the areas yourself then! And we’d need less reliance on the neuroreceptors, because you could use the tail for that some! Can you feel with it?!? How solid is it?!? Could possibly fit around what we’ve already got started since ectoplasm is more malleable and a gaseous liquid! Could even possibly be able to move the CyberSteps with the tail alone if the neuroreceptors malfunctioned! Oh! Ghosts only have these when they’re defying gravity at higher speeds usually! Could you defy gravity yourself with this?!? How would that work? You’d have to balance the rest of yourse-”. Maddie closes Jack’s mouth and gives him a warm smile, “Jack dear, don’t bombard him”.

Maddie ruffles Danny’s hair again and eyeballs the tail tip, “do you think we could see all of it before your dad explodes with questions again?”.

Danny chuckles, the quizzicality is a nice normalcy but also a bit unnerving, saying, “yeah, okay”, before pushing himself to sit up with his arms -coming to sit on the base of the tail a bit- and pushing away the blanket by coiling his tail out and letting it wave in the air a little.

Jack promptly blurting out, “how long has it been there?!? Why’s it look like that?!? I’ve never seen one coloured like this!”, Maddie glares at him and he shrugs sheepishly.

Danny chuckles, “it’s okay mom, I’ve asked myself the same”, rubbing his neck, “Lewis did too. He’s, um, the one who noticed it first”.

Maddie nods with a slight smile, “noticing something like that is part of his job”, was this weird? Yes. It was a fair bit more ghostly than she ever expected her son to be. But Jack was right, this solved a lot of the issues. And Danny wasn’t a ghost, well actually his ‘legs’ were. But why were they a tail instead of just ghost legs? She wants to ask, but she doesn’t want to overwhelm him and Jack’s already asking a bunch. Nodding as she looks at it, “the amount of ectoplasm in you must be high enough and have enough support to let your ghost actually form some”.

Danny nods a bit eagerly, that was the conclusion he was hoping they’d make, “yeah, that’s my thought. And yes dad, I can control it”. Bringing it up and letting them poke at it. Jack actually winding it through his fingers some. Jack mouthing, ‘wow’ and squishing it some. It was surprisingly solid but it was clear Danny could control its solidity, catching him smirk slightly as the tail acts more like mist than a solid suddenly. Maddie running her hand through one of the little misting off bits of shedding ectoplasm, muttering, “it’s shedding”.

Danny nods a little sheepishly, “yeah, I’m probably a bit of a contaminate now”, or more than he already was, they just didn’t know that. Shrugging and looking at his tail instead of his parents, “can’t really stop that. Control over it or not, ghostly tail is still a ghostly tail. It’s going to work like one”.

Maddie gives it a little pat, before watching Danny move it away from them and move it around in the air, wiggling a bunch, for a bit. Nodding and ruffling his hair, “of course. Are you at least getting used to that a little? Having part of you act so ghostly?”.

Danny smirks and nods at them, “I’ve had the time to toy with it, which yes, I can float with. It seems to do the balancing, or whatever, on its own”, moving his tail around a bit so this seemed less like he’s been doing this for the better part of two years, as he floats off the bed some.

Jack beams a bit, this was so cool! weird, but cool! Waving his hand under his floating son some, “clearly it must come really naturally!”, before chuckling some at Danny wobbling in the air a little. Practice would make perfect of course!

Danny nods, his tail and floating was one thing that had always come easily to him. Coiling his tail tip around a finger, “yeah and I haven’t had much else to do besides figure it out for the past days”, blushing and rubbing his neck a bit awkwardly, “I’ve had it for sure since the second morning. I just didn’t really wanted to show you yet I guess”, shrugging, “you can be a little excitable and you kind of hate ghosts”, gesturing at the tail, “I’m quite literally a bit ghost”. This was starting to feel like a trial run for really telling them what he was.

Maddie and Jack exchange a look before promptly hugging him gently, not wanting to jar any injuries. Maddie ruffling his hair, “oh sweetie, it’s part of you so it’s different. You’re not fully ghost and you’re clearly in control of it”, looking to Jack. Jack nodding, “at least you have legs in a sense still! Weird as they are!”, tilting his head and poking at the tail, “it’s curious that your ghost doesn’t have legs! Can’t really see any other reason for the ghost of your legs to not be ghost legs”.

Danny’s not quite sure the reason why himself, he knows that’s not it of course though. Poking the tail himself, “well it looks like bandaging because I have bandaging over the whacked off area, so it’s copying what I have. All ghosts can have tails, so since I don’t have legs for it to ‘copy’ it goes with the default. That’s my idea anyway”. Watching them cringe a little over his word choice, probably should have spoken a bit more gently. Danny smiles and pats both their arms, “I’d squeeze ya, but I don’t have the range of motion for that. I’m fine okay, I’m used to it. I’m more so waiting for you guys to be okay with it”.

Maddie pats his hair, he was a strong kid though she’s not sure how he can be quite so okay with this. Especially with the tail making it even stranger. Maybe that strangeness was distracting him some, might even view it as his ectoplasm doing something for him. But this also meant he was without question going to become a ghost one day. Which is...not a pleasant thing to know. Maybe with this partial change his ectoplasm will remember who he is as a person and not become emotionless or evil as a ghost. So maybe this was for the best, nurturing and giving experience to his ghost. But not having...legs, would never really be okay. Ghostly tail or not, robotic legs or not. But she’ll be damned if they’ll make Danny feel bad or uncomfortable about it, they will adjust, “that’ll take some time sweetie”.

Danny smiles softly and nods a little, “that’s fine. Just don’t let this interrupt our normal life much, though maybe no anti-ecto stuff where my tail can easily whack into it. That would probably not be fun for anyone”, they both nod readily while Danny smiles a bit wider, “good, that’s good”.

They sit a little awkwardly for a bit before Jack gets up, “with this we could probably have the CyberSteps ready by morning if we work now!”, smiling wide at Maddie, who smiles and nods; quickly kissing Danny on the head before getting up herself. “You make sure to call us or get us if you need anything, alright sweetie?”.

Danny nods and flat-out lies, “of course”, as they leave. Finally breathing out heavily after a bit and flopping to lay back on his bed, “well that was painful, but at least it ended okay”, turning his head to look out the window. He had never used duplication so much, as he duplicates and sends the duplicate out on the town.

He’s more than a little pleased that both the G.I.W. and Amorpho have flown the coop. Time to check in with his friends...and girlfriend. Thinking back on the microwave call, “okay, Val first. Definitely Val first”, of course he couldn’t just show up at her place but a phone call would do splendidly...maybe. Pulling out and putting in his little Fenton Phone, setting it to cancel out his ghostly echo, and calling her cell. He could call the suit, but he doubts she’d actually appreciate that.

It’s not really surprising she picks up quick, “hello?”.

“Hey Val, figured you might li-”.

Val promptly cuts him off, “I better be the first call you made, I’ve earned it. How’s your y’ know”.

Danny chuckles, “back to normal and yes you are. My folks seem not so pleased about the y’ know. But not, like, upset either. Oh, and I met Lewis’s wife, you heard her earlier”.

“The lady Tucker attempted to start hitting on?”.

“Yup, though I don’t think she really cared. Same with Lewis. Considering their best friend is literally the wife’s ex-fiancé”.

“How is that not awkward? His wife is weird like him, isn’t she? And I’m glad your folks didn’t freak over something you have no real say over having. Ghostly or not”.

Danny smiles at that, clearly she was more okay with it herself now, “wife saw the y’know and didn’t even bat an eye. So I’d say so. She also decided that if anyone ever tries to charge a ghost with their own murder, she wants to represent them. I’m glad you seem more comfortable over the y’know now”.

Val laughs, “I’ve had time to mentally adjust. And of course the doctor’s dating a lawyer”, sounding a bit bitter, “rich accomplished people always stick together”.

Danny, deciding to nip that idea in the butt, though he gets why she’s bitter about that, considering how her rich ‘friends’ had treated her. “The ex-fiancé has been described as a literal trash fire and apparently dresses like a homeless man that just got beat up by bigoted cops. Even almost been homeless. So I doubt it’s a rich money thing. Seems more like people who help people sticking together. Doctor who literally save lives, pro bono lawyer, and a ‘for the little guys’ reporter”, Danny’s firmly leaving out anything to do with Vee. And he probably should give Lewis a heads up that he keeps no secrets from his friends. He won’t tell any of them really without an okay though. But considering even Lewis’s wife knew shit now, it would be a dick move of them to not be chill with Danny’s friends knowing. Eddie and Vee’s friends knew, Danny’s friends would know. Seems fair enough to him.

Val snorts, “so slightly worse dressed than you most days? And fine, I guess one of them isn’t some rich prick. And he’s not some charity case?”.

Danny sighs, “not all rich people are dicks you know”.

“I believe that when I met one who doesn’t give a damn about other people’s wealth. Doctor doesn’t count”.

Now Danny has a damn point to make, so he doesn’t really care if Sam will be a bit annoyed, while he smirks at spotting the Box Ghost. Making sure to mute everything but his voice on the phone, “does Sam give a damn?”. Promptly blasting at the Box Ghost before he can even open his mouth. Danny chuckles to himself.

“Sam’s not rich and why are you mocking me?”.

Danny shakes his head as he sticks out his tongue before punching the Box Ghost, “Val, Sam’s family are one of the richest in the entire world. There’s a movie theatre and bowling alley in the basement. You know those little deli toothpicks with the wrapping on them? Yeah, that’s a Manson creation. Every time people use or buy those, they make truckloads of money. None of them will ever work and are filthy stinking rich”.

The Box Ghost doesn’t even look all that offended that Danny’s not really paying attention to him, shouting about his boxes of DOOM while Danny just beats him up some more. Val breaths out after a bit, “well shit. Why the Zone doesn’t she flaunt that? Paulina would lose her shit”.

Danny sighs with satisfaction as he captures the Box Ghost, tail wiggling happily, “‘cause she doesn’t want to be treated different based purely on her wealth. Me and Tuck didn’t even know for years ‘cause she didn’t want to make friends based on money. I could totally see her telling Paulina just before graduation though. Just to bug her”.

“Well damn. I guess I gotta believe it now. You told me this just to rub it in my face didn’t you?”.

Danny smirks, “absolutely”, looking around some before just floating lazily over buildings, “you didn’t get into trouble over you know what did you?”.

“You little shit and no, don’t even think anyone noticed”.

Danny can’t help but laugh at that, “good! We’re all good then. Though I should probably actually check in with Sam and Tuck at this point”.

“True, I think Sam picked up we’re a thing again. I also think she’s pissed. You have the most protective friends ever. You take care, you damn idiot”.

“I know, they’re great. And you too, you stupid idiot”, Danny turns off the phone to her muttering about how he basically just called her a double idiot.

Knowing full well that Sam would be worse to deal with but also be even more worse if he puts her off, he flies in through her window. Not even surprised she’s just standing on the other side of the curtains with her arms crossed.

“Took you long enough”.

Danny rolls his eyes as he sits on the windowsill, “we’re all lucky my folks even left me alone eventually. Yes I’m fine, yes my folks saw the tail and didn’t go crazy, and Lewis knows basically everything now”.

Sam sighs but smiles, “at least you trusted someone else. But are you sure we can trust him? And I want a damn answer about Valerie, I know you heard me before Tucker hung up”.

Danny rubs his neck, “can’t give a guy a break can ya? Not even when he’s all battered and legless”.

“You’re always battered, you better tell me before I get my shoe”.

Danny makes an overacted show of fear and waves his hands back and forth erratically, “I’ll pass! I’ll pass!”, chuckling at her eye-roll, “trust me, Lewis has seen weirder shit. He hid and carried me around in a thermos for an entire shift, he’s good”.

Sam tilts her head and laughs slightly, “okay he’s good. Now what about Valerie?”.

Danny sighs, knowing damn well neither of his friends were going to be happy, “yes okay? We’re a thing again. Which is not a ba-”.

Sam whacks him over the head, not too hard though, “idiot. She still very specifically wants you and all things ghostly dead. Whether she helped you away from those white-suit pricks or not”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “she’s seen the tail Sam, she told me she’s Red. Things have changed. Sure I’m still working on the ghost hate, the Phantom hate. But she likes Dani, she knows about halfas, she’s not the same as she used to be”.

Sam glares at him and throws her arms out to the side, “you wouldn’t care if she was the same as she was”, shaking her head and sighing, “and fine I’ll give you that her accepting the tail and telling you about being a hunter is a massive thing. But she’s still a hunter, I’ll trust her when she stops hunting you. And we’ll stop being protective of you, when you stop being a selfless idiot”.

Danny pokes her nose with his tail, “that will never happen. But at least I’m not intentionally destroying myself for love”.

Sam glares slightly before joining Danny in sitting on the windowsill, “it’s a close thing”.

Danny bumps his shoulder into hers, “oh she’d never destroy me”.

“Don’t you dare make a bet on that”.

Danny, deciding this is really the only way to tell her without getting assaulted, quickly blurts out, “she also knows you’re rich now bye!”, and zips out the window. Her shouting, “DANNY!”, after him.

Danny goes in through Tuck’s window and just flops down on his sleeping friend, making the guy jerk awake. Tuck flicks his face, “you asshole...I’m glad you’re okay though”.

“I mean, me too. Fucking owe you for hacking shit”.

“Damn fucking straight you do. So how bad did doc and the lady freak over the call?”.

Danny chuckles, “do you even know what you called through? A fucking microwave. They were very confused. But otherwise unfazed”.

Tucker snorts and laughs, “so y’all were talking to a microwave. Something tells me we don’t even have the tip of the iceberg on just how much weird that guys seen”.

Danny grins goofily, “oh you have no idea. The crap he’s told me, just wow. Sworn to secrecy though”.

Tucker makes a pouty face, “what?!? No fair! Why do you get to know all the weird crap? Besides being his patient. Which is hardly a reason! Even those strange friends of his I’d like to hear more about. Anyone who could give you a run for your money in strange Ville is worth hearing about”.

“Because he kept trying to match my weird! He ran out of material with the whole CW is my friend and sorta a god thing. On the High Ghost Prince thing too”.

Tucker blinks, “wait what? The Zone Danny? Why does doc know about that?”.

Danny gets up then and leans on his hands, letting the tail do its thing. Looking down at Tucker, who looks more than a little unimpressed, “he walked in on me and a duplicate. He hid me in a fucking thermos. He knows I’m Phantom, Tuck”.

“Did you at least freak him the Zone out?”.

Danny huffs in fake annoyance, “it made him pause but that was about it. Which I absolutely am a bit miffed about. But seriously, with the shit he’s told me, it’s fucking expected. He still firmly believes I am not the weirdest person he knows. Weirdest life, but not weirdest person”.

“The Zone is wrong with his friends?”.

“A fucking lot. He literally showed up in the near-dead of night to ask about setting up a damn hangout between me and his friends. Because we have a ton in common. Not half dead though”.

Tucker raises his eyebrows and asks in a slightly mocking tone, “are they a black and white battered idiot vigilante with a questionable body and fucking atrocious fashion sense? And only keep their shit secret through dumb luck and general public stupidity? Oh and are dating someone who has, and sometimes still does, try to kill them? Because don’t lie dude, Val’s macking lips with ya again”.

Danny looks around and pointedly doesn’t say shit. Tucker blinks at him and wheezes, “oh my fucking Ancients, is your doc just a damn magnet for you fuckers?”.

Danny gestures one arm around wildly, “that’s what I said! Weird just attracts weird I think. I mean, y’all fuckers are weird. You attracted me. Lewis is weird, pretty sure his wife is too”.

Tucker wiggles his eyebrows, “I attracted you now did I?”.

Danny smacks Tuck’s forehead, “not like that you damn creep”, tilting his head at remembering some of Lewis’s rather strange comments, “though with some of the shit Lewis’s said, it might be like that with his friends. His wife literally dated one-”

Tucker snorts, cutting Danny off, “oh I will absolutely make bets that something currently is or will be going on there. Then again, Valerie’s a friend and literally dated, and is dating, you. And no way me or Sam are gonna make moves on her”.

Danny laughs, everyone would be very confused if either of his friends made moves on Val, “good. I don’t think my ghost side would be cool with sharing. And yes fine, we’re dating. She’s okay with the tail and tripped through the window in suit”.

Tucker screws up his face and starts laughing, “seriously? That’s how she comes clean?”.

Danny sticks his hands out to the side and floats up off the bed some, “I know right?!? I chewed her out for that”, yawning slightly, fuck he got a little used to more regular sleeping and getting a full night of it, “anyway, my folks are leg fitting me tomorrow and I relearned how to sleep, sooooo...”.

Tucker chuckles, “that’s going to be awkward, what you doing about the tail? And good, you should sleep more”.

Danny waves him off, “not a priority. And probably should have stared with this, but they know. They’ve seen it and didn’t go all crazy ghost hunters about it”.

Both of them yawn and Tucker pats Danny’s arm, “good. That’s good really”, while Danny waves at him and flies out.

Danny decides in the morning, as he slips into the little hover cushion, that just floating around with his tail would be a bit too much for his folks. That and he needed to not seem super used to it. But he does let it stay visible and move around freely inside the device. The tip curling over the edge here and there since there really wasn’t quite enough room, as he hovers down the stairs for breakfast.

He’s really honestly not surprised to see a pair of robo legs just standing in front of his sitting dad. Who’s fiddling away and absent mindedly eating cookies. But they did actually look pretty awesome, clearly they listened to him. Light gray metal with dark forest green lines all over and dark gray ‘boots’. Lean and matte instead of shiny. They also looked a lot more like a finished product than a prototype. Reminded him a bit of his original jumpsuit, which was clearly intentional on his parents part. Even Sam and Tuck would pick up on that.

Hovering into the kitchen, “mornin’, how’s that comin’?”. Both Maddie and Jack jerk slightly, looking to the legs and back to Danny a bit awkwardly. Danny waves them off and moves to grab his cereal, “don’t worry about it. I’m not bothered”. Sure that was partly because Danny was used to them toying with things that could hurt him directly in his face and also shooting them at him. But these were going to be attached to him. He damn well better be okay with them. And robo legs or no, walking again would be goddamn nice. Actually feeling ground under his feet and taking steps, funny how you could miss something like that.

Danny would complain about his mom basically making the cereal for him and putting it on the table, but he could barely move his fingers, her doing that for him was damn reasonable. And it was worlds better than being damn spoon fed. Muttering, “thanks”, as he hovers the hover cushion to sit in the chair, tail flicking out of it lazily. Which Jack and Maddie absolutely do eyeball a little.

Jack asking after a beat, “in that case, what do you think? Looks cool right?”.

Danny, speaking without really thinking, “who needs legs with legs like these”, everyone blinks, including Danny. Who then rubs his neck, “eh too soon? Anyway... they look good dad. The softer colours are definitely better. Will I be able to curl my metaphorical toes though?”.

That gets Jack looking down at the ‘boots’ having not considered that, promptly picking up and bending the legs to sit on the table and getting to work on that. Danny just chuckles, that was a little bit weird. Knowing that was basically his lower-half sitting on the table. While Maddie watches Danny a bit and smiles, he really was okay, not just faking it. She’s not sure if that bothers her or makes her proud.

Danny had just shoved a spoon of cereal in his mouth when Lewis walks in the door. Danny leans his head over the back of his chair, spoon in his mouth, “mor-”, promptly choking on his cereal slightly and coughing.

Lewis does find it more that a little strange to just see a pair of legs sitting on the kitchen table, shaking his head at Danny, “I just got here and you’re already exercising the whole ‘getting hurt around a doctor gets you free treatment’ trick”.

Danny coughs slightly before turning his head around to smirk at Lewis, “I’m not surprised that’s a thing. Speaking of exercise and to tackle the possibly weird thing going on here. Know that today’s not normally my leg day, but I’m willing to spice things up sometimes”.

Lewis chuckles while Maddie’s a little surprised that comment was not only said but didn’t seem to faze Dan.

Lewis walks over and looks at the legs, his two friends tech had come a long way, smirking at Danny, “well you certainly don’t need that sort of exercising”.

Danny points at him, “one less thing for the gym teach to pester me about”, shrugging, “not that she’ll really know though”, pointing at his cereal, “want food?”.

Maddie gets Dan food even if he shakes his head while Jack just shrugs off the weirdness, easily remembering why Dan had been a great friend. Nothing really bothered the guy much. Hooking up the little ecto-battery to test out the toes, which results in him accidentally making one leg kick Dan’s oatmeal out of his hands. Jack chuckles awkwardly, “might be a tad bit over sensitive”.

Danny shakes his head, “I’m not even wearing them yet and they’re already breaking shit. I feel called out”.

Jazz comes in and, spotting the mess, cleans it up before making both herself and Lewis food. Easily manoeuvring around her mom who’s gone to help dad with the sensitivity. “Morning Danny and Lewis, I don’t think your room’s actually fully set up. They got distracted”.

Danny wiggles the tail tip at Lewis, who easily gets the ‘I told them and they didn’t freak out’ message. Lewis nods as he sits at the table, “distractions are a spice of life. They’re best plentiful but not constant, otherwise you can’t taste anything else”. Digging in his bag and promptly shoving a little cake at Danny, who looks a bit confused, “speaking of spices and tastes. Apology cake, white chocolate spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom”.

Danny squints but then chuckles, the guy gave his two friends one for telling Danny their shit. Lewis was giving him one for telling his wife Danny’s shit. “Unnecessary, but I’ll take the free food”.

Jazz glares slightly at Lewis as Danny digs into the cake and is clearly loving it. Danny shrugging off whatever Lewis did, didn’t really mean much, it took a lot for Danny to hold something against someone. But to actually make a cake showed effort. Danny pokes Lewis with the spoon, which was previously being used for cereal, swallowing before speaking, “just how often do you make apology cakes? And how’s this one actually better?”.

Lewis shrugs and ignores how Danny’s face twitches while he bats Jack’s hand away from the cake. “Not often actually. I do make cakes for fun though”.

Danny takes another scoop of the cake before pointing the spoon at Lewis, “agurf, yer theph couge”.

Jazz shakes her head, recognising the slightly possessive and territorial behaviour, as Danny bats dad’s hand away again, “swallow first Danny”. While Maddie shakes her head, “I know you’re capable of polishing off all of that but let your dad have a taste sweetie”.

“Naw, my Lewis apology cake”, Danny shoves another piece into his mouth to stop the growl trying to rise up. While Lewis brings out a thing of cupcakes, gesturing at them, “I’m not mean. Same flavour”. Jazz sends Lewis a grateful smile for that and takes a cupcake. All three polishing off the cupcakes pretty quickly, Jack looking downright giddy, “you’re an amazing baker! Have you ever made fudge!”.

Jazz mouths, ‘please say no’, while Lewis shakes his head. He really hadn’t. Maddie smiles at him, “you’ll probably be learning then”.

Not even five minutes later Danny’s polished off the cake and Lewis is a bit impressed by that. Vee plowing through food wasn’t impressive, they could eat people whole. But Danny, at the very least, wasn’t currently performing that level of mouth dexterity.

Lewis takes his two containers and looks over the legs again. Highly interested in how they were supposed to work. “How is he supposed to pilot these?”. Jazz just groans over how you should never ask the ‘how’.

Danny looks down at the little hover cushion then back at Lewis, “you ask this after having seen hover-boards and what’s basically a hover-bowl?”.

Lewis points at him, “that’s not attached to you and has a control panel”.

“Point”, even the big ass battle suit had controls.

Jack flips up the neuroreceptor strip, moving the branches slightly, “neuroreceptors latch onto his spinal column and into the nervous system! Sending signals to these babies the same as his body would natural legs! The CyberSteps have their own built-in nervous system and somatosensory system! So it will all connect smoothly and he’ll be able to feel them!....”.

Jack keeps going while Lewis is a bit caught off guard. Not only was making something like this that actually worked basically a medical marvel -these were literally prosthetics that could function like real limbs pretty well completely!- but it was also a bit insane. Blinking and interrupting, “you’re hooking into his spine? And nerves? That’s actually impressively dangerous and as his doctor I can’t even consider officially approving of this”.

Jack looks slightly crushed but Danny just rolls his eyes, while Jazz speaks up, “this isn’t the first time they’ve made something like this. It’s fine, dad himself tested out the first years ago”.

Lewis eyeballs the legs, something like this had been made years ago? And they just used it? Like it was nothing? Patting Jack’s shoulder, “you two might be most intelligent people ever. And I didn’t say I’d try to stop you”. At that Jack beams.

Maddie smiles softly and nods at Lewis, “we made sure it would be safe long term. Made specifically for him and runs off his ectoplasm”, looking at Danny, “just a little of course”, looking to Jack, “and definitely will not be sapping anyone’s life force”.

Danny elbows Lewis, “just to bug the doctor in you, the first thing they made that used these neuroreceptors slowly killed the wearer”, shrugging, “unless you took it off of course”. Danny pulls out his phone and types away on it.

Lewis, reading the screen ‘I stole it, used it. Used up like 99% of my life force, turns out you can recover from that shit’, he wants to emphatically point out every reason why that was insane to do and incredibly stupid. That’s possibly dumber than befriending, and falling in love with, the creature eating your organs.

Looking at Jack as he nods with a laugh, “yeah just the pants part of that suit nearly knocked me out after five minutes. Good thing people can heal from that kind of drain!”. Lewis shakes his head, “well I'm glad you worked that kink out”. Jack nods as he tests out the toes again, this time satisfied.

Danny only ignores his dad looking from the legs to him and back a few times before speaking up, “yes dad, I’m cool with testing them out”. Lewis practically having to scamper out of the way as Jack pretty well aggressively throws himself, and the legs, at Danny. Though setting them to stand in front of Danny’s chair moderate carefully.

Lewis tilts his head, “you know, this reminds me of the time I went to my friends' house and he was sunken halfway into his couch. Just the upper half of him was sticking out. And in the corner there was this deep freezer with a pair of legs just dangling out. Which was slightly weird, cause they don’t even own a deep freezer”.

Danny screws up his face, “yeah because that’s what’s weird about that situation. Did you check the...legs?”.

Lewis nods immediately, “oh yes, I do have some limits for the level of reckless I’ll tolerate. It was a random guy legitimately asleep, yes I checked their pulse. No clue who they were and decidedly didn’t want to know”. Sure that was partly because he’s pretty sure Eddie had actually knocked the guy out. Plausible deniability was a legit thing that he’d like to at least sometimes have.

Danny chuckles, “then I guess his sleep schedule was literally, instead of metaphorically, put on ice”, then looks down the centre of the CyberSteps -at least that was a somewhat cool name-, there was easily enough space for him to wind his tail around in the legs, though splitting his tail would be a bit strange. And he can tell there are little spots where his ecto-energy can ‘latch on’. Floating himself up and grabbing the rim of the top of the legs and letting his tail just sort of slide in. It was like putting on really stiff pants over legs made of misty mouldable rubber. Securing the belt around just above where his hips should -and were starting to- be, the fit for his tail was actually a little snug but that would probably become less tight as his ectoplasm fuelled the legs. Hitting the little button with a thumbprint scanner to activate and attach the neuroreceptors.

Lewis tilts his head a little at the strap thing clicking onto Danny, he had just assumed this was very literally a ‘see if they even fit’ sort of situation rather than Danny actually hooking up to them. Considering Danny had severe spinal injuries, that his parents knew about, and Danny’s wearing a back brace. But apparently, these neuroreceptors can go through clothing/braces/bandaging and didn’t actually need to be on the skin. Was it just transmitting signals through the material? How? Lewis muttering, “I have so many questions, but are you sure you should be doing that? Considering the spinal injuries”.

Jazz blinks, realising that yeah this would be insanely dumb for Danny to be testing if he was still injured. Danny just waves Lewis off, he is not putting off testing these things.

Though Danny does pay attention to how it all feels just in case, and them hooking into him was just as jarring as last time, even if going through the braces dampened the feeling some, and he definitely could feel the drain on his ectoplasm pretty well instantly. However, feeling his ecto-energy sparking in his eyes was not an expected reaction, and his tail starts becoming a bit more erratic; sliding around throughout the legs. “Uh pretty sure that’s no-”, Danny pauses at his voice echoing and promptly deactivates the neuroreceptors. Danny grumbling, “I’m not going to tempt fate too much”, voice still echoing and blinking his eyes to try and make the ecto-energy chillout, which it does not.

Lewis looks around at the confused and slightly awkward faces, “I'm going to guess that something’s not working correctly”. Danny slowly looks to him and gestures to his glowing green eyes, “clearly”. Alright, so the ghost eyes were not intentional.

Jack scratches his head while Danny squirms a bit before pulling his, extremely erratically vibrating and lashing, ghostly tail out of the CyberSteps. Everyone watching ecto-energy shedding off it very excessively; like his tail was smoking. Jack muttering, “it’s like they supercharged you instead of sapping”.

Danny shakes his head, “no, I could feel the draining. More like making my ectoplasm produce more or whatever”. Danny blinks, feeling the rising coldness in his chest and repressing a shiver. Not good, “maybe you guys should go figure that out? I’ll be fine, got doctor dude right?”.

Lewis was going to object but he’s pretty sure a snowball just slammed into his shin, so instead he nods at Jack and Maddie, “at this point, I’m pretty sure I’m able to handle somewhat ghostly oddness”.

Jack and Maddie exchange a glance, it made sense that Danny would want legs as soon as possible. But his body was doing something weird, looking at Dan, “I guess you have had a bit of experience now”. Danny was experienced with his ecto-contamination, used to it. So surely he would know if something was off with it, and if he genuinely needed help.

Danny’s just thanking his lucky stars as they do indeed head down to the lab with the legs. Promptly looking to Jazz and blazing his Core’s ectoplasm in his eyes. Her instantly getting the message that Danny’s basically an ice bomb, while Danny shivers. Jazz kicks the freezer, making the systems start acting up and freezing over before yanking Lewis out of the room.

Lewis muttering as he just goes along with this, “what’s going on?”. Jazz only getting a chance to say, “flash freeze”, as both of them watch cold steam basically blast out of the kitchen doorway, like liquid nitrogen. Lewis quirking an eyebrow, “is it safe now?”. Jazz nods after a beat, so Lewis sticks his head in and blinks. Everything is just covered in ice and frost.

Danny uncurls fully, rubbing at his Core a bit. It was definitely still producing too rapidly, so he starts making little ice sculptures with his hands while eyeballing the lab door. Danny waves one hand over his shoulder, “you can come back. The frost won’t bite you”.

Lewis is glad he’s got thick socks as he comes back in, Jazz promptly sitting back down and looking like nothing weird had ever happened to her in her entire life. Lewis quirks an eyebrow at Danny, his eyes could also glow blue? “Nice eyes”.

Danny chuckles and tosses him one of the little ice popcorns, “I got two kinds of ectoplasm remember?”, pointing an ice sword toothpick at his eyes, “Core ectoplasm”.

Jazz nods, “you’ve seen his regular ectoplasm overproducing, this is his Core ectoplasm overproducing”. Danny does little jazz hands, snow falling from his palms. Cryokinesis for sure. Lewis is firmly glad Danny didn’t ‘flash freeze’ at the hospital, that would have damaged the equipment.

It doesn’t take long for Danny to decide to retire to his room, Lewis joining him because he’s pretty well required to. Jack and Maddie fully expecting him to keep a medical eye on Danny. Especially with his body doing weird ghost things.

Lewis blinks upon entering Danny’s room, he was more than a little used to the smell of viscera; even rotting flesh and sepsis. Even once worked on a lady whose breast implant ruptured during surgery and turned out to be filled with mould. That had been an interesting day. Danny’s room, however, smells suitably like death. It’s not the worst smell, but it was up there; and there was definitely no strong near burning scent of sanitiser to accompany it. Commenting, “clean your room”, as he eyeballs the desk chair with a level of caution only a guy who gives medical treatment to a man-eating alien can convey.

Danny rolls his eyes and flops on his bed, chucking a snowball at the wall, “eh, it’s not that bad. Plus, that would take forever”.

Considering Lewis decidedly sidesteps a slightly squishy section of floor, he thinks it is indeed that bad. Giving the chair another once over before sitting and leaning back in it.

Danny rolls his eyes at Lewis’s dubious eyebrows, “you smell gore all the time and you’re friends place can’t be all that much better”, pointing with his tail at Lewis, “do you wear anything other than dress shirts?”.

“Not particularly, and their place smells more like the college dorm of someone who never learned to clean or cook properly. Yours smells like a morgue that’s never seen an ounce of sanitiser but someone sprayed citrus air fresheners to make up for it”.

Danny chuckles and comments with fake wistfulness, “ahh that’s the smell of death, sweet sweet ectoplasm. That’s a scent I can’t really do much about though, since me ecto-contaminating my room to the Zone and back is unavoidable”, floating up and over to his window, gesturing out, “it’s a scent everywhere in Amity, my room and the lab are really the only places a regular humans nose will pick up on it though”.

Lewis figures that does make sense for his room to smell like ectoplasm then, watching as Danny’s tail is still shedding ectoplasm a bit excessively, “the lab?”.

Danny nods and points at his floor, “right below us, pretty well packed with ecto-samples, ecto-inventions, and of course, the portal. It gets cleaned more often though and all the surfaces are non-permeable and somewhat ecto-phobic”. Honestly, it was a bit of a wonder that the basement wasn't worse than his room.

Lewis doesn’t get to comment on that as Maddie knocks on the door, “you in there sweetie? And Dan?”. Danny frowns slightly and responds with a little less cheeriness than normal, “yeah, supper?”.

Maddie says, “yup”, while Lewis claps his hands on his knees and gets up; Danny slipping back into the hover cushion.

Maddie’s not happy there’s still a green ring glow to Danny’s eyes. But at least they were blue now and the glow was faint. And at least the glow was just the colour of general ectoplasm not red or something. His...tail...is still moving a bit erratically but it’s clear Danny’s making a point to keep it mostly contained in the hover cushion.

Lewis smirks slightly at seeing Jack fiddling with the freezer, clearly the two thought the freezer was responsible for the kitchen freeze over, “strong freezer?”.

Jack laughs, “yup! Froze the whole house over once!”.

Lewis eyes Danny as he sits down, Danny promptly answering the unasked question, “it’s true, I was honestly impressed”. Lewis chuckles over that, the freezer must get blamed for so many ice-related mishaps.

Danny does absolutely note that neither of his parents brought the legs up, quirking an eyebrow, “Cyber’s don’t got an easy fix?”, before shoving a fork full of spaghetti noodles in his mouth.

Maddie sighs and nods, “unfortunately yeah, the connections are correct and everything but the timing seems off and we had to build in a conductor to counteract how much ectoplasm it takes”.

Jack nods with a slight frown, swallowing his food before speaking, “can’t let it take too much and it has to control how much output there is otherwise they’ll be way too strong. And! This way if you’re lower on ectoplasm somedays than others there would be a reserve! Since these are supposed to be a long term solution”.

Danny chuckles, him being lower on ectoplasm literally never happens. Well okay, that wasn’t entirely true. He actually uses his ectoplasm pretty frequently, so it probably does actually fluctuate. If they just drained the same amount form him all the time then, wow yeah that could have some bad consequences. That would be really bad if he was in a tough fight and feeding these legs resulted in him not having enough ectoplasm in the end to maintain ghost form. Plus there was the massive drain that was his Wail. So these legs being able to hold a reserve and just not feed off him when he was lower in ecto-energy would be a damn good thing. Nodding slightly, “yeah okay, that makes sense. So the timer’s off? Or they just can’t start/stop properly?”.

Jack nods, “exactly! But I’m sure we’ll figure that out! We just somehow need a timer that is way more powerful and capable of starting and stopping all or just specific functions easily and without taking up much room”.

Jazz tilts her head, “what about using the same sort of thing as ecto-batteries do for output control? I know that their input control is pretty janky still, but it’s halfway there”.

Maddie shakes her head and Lewis is pretty sure at this point that every Fenton is basically an expert on Fenton tech. While Maddie responds, “that was what we tried first, the input in those is just simply too unstable and finicky to be so close to a strong ecto-energy source. Especially for so long”.

Jack nods and speaks almost too eagerly, “they’d explode! They did explode in fact! It was very messy...”.

Danny scrunches his eyebrows and laughs, yeah that would be quite the mess. Not as bad as the portal exploding or even the portals ecto-filter exploding but still. Danny snorts, “yeah that would probably be unpleasant if they just blew up on me, but it would be really eventful if that happened at school”, chuckling with a shake of his head, “now that would really confuse some teachers”.

Jazz sighs, “they wouldn’t even be surprised since it’s you”.

Danny points at her, “hey now, I think my legs blowing up would really be a new high, or new low depending on how you look at it, for me”.

Lewis tilts his head, “you know...a friend of mine has blown quite a few things up. Mostly intentionally though”, pointing at Danny, “I’m not sure if I told you this, but they blew up a rocket-ship once. Their reasoning was sound”.

Danny gives Lewis a look of deep offence, “not cool. But considering everything, yeah they probably had good reasons”.

Jack beams at the conversation, clearly Danny and Dan have become good friends! He was friend-sharing with his boy! Sure it was clear there was something between Danny and Vlad, but Jack isn’t as dense as he seems. Usually he is, but not always. He knew that those two disliked each other on a deep level. They seemed to do things purely to annoy each other, it was almost like a little rivalry. Just a hate rivalry rather than a friendly one. Which was weird, because V-man was great! Sure he was a little reclusive, but so what? Smiling and finishing off his plate, trying to think up a way to correct the issues with the CyberSteps.

They needed something small yet strong, have a central location but to either be or have affect all over, it couldn’t run off Danny’s ectoplasm or life-force and it couldn’t really have a battery of it’s own, it would have to be easy to access without being easily damaged, and of course it would have to look good too; no way was he sticking his boy in something hideous. Which, yes, was absolutely part of why he liked the idea of the legs looking something like Danny’s missing jumpsuit. Jumpsuits were a Fenton staple! Even if Danny was getting one in a rather strange and not so pleasant manner. At least he didn’t have to die for one! Though near death was still rather unpleasant. But! At least he seemed okay and well adjusted to it! And of course the legs did have plenty of jumpsuit qualities. The metal, like all FentonWorks products metal, was slightly ecto-phobic. Only enough so that ectoplasm wouldn’t damage it of course. They couldn’t make the legs as ecto-resistant and ecto-phobic as true hunter jumpsuits, because that might interfere with Danny’s ectoplasm; or at least the health or production of his ectoplasm. However it was that happened.

Sometimes he did wonder if Danny was somehow ecto-absorbent and was just stockpiling all the free-floating ectoplasm in the house and town. Of course if that was the case, then Danny’s levels would have dropped a fair bit during his hospital stay. But that didn’t happen, so somehow his body was self-producing. Could be that his body had become accustomed to having ectoplasm and thusly adapted. But factoring in the tail, Jack thinks it’s much more likely that Danny’s ghost was somewhat active inside him. At the very least the tail was definitely Danny-boy’s ghost showing. Just the ghost of his legs, which was still really cool actually!

Jack taps his chin and nods slightly, watching Danny’s tail wiggle around. Danny wasn’t shifting around or even paying the tail any mind, so clearly he was used to. More so than just a few days would really make sense. Heck! Jack had been stuck with an arm brace for weeks once! He firmly never got used to having that, but maybe Danny was just much more adaptable. After all, he had gotten used to living in the worlds most haunted town and house with fondness! Though sometimes he seemed a little fond of ghosts themselves, instead of just the pride of living in a unique town. It was weird, but maybe he saw something they didn’t! Or maybe the little bit of ghostliness he had made him see them a bit differently. Or! Maybe he actually experienced more ghostly stuff than just physical things. Sometimes it did seem like he was forcefully hiding things. And he did hide the tail really effectively, Jack hadn’t even noticed the ghostly body part at all!

Maddie meanwhile, isn’t having any better luck on figuring out how to fix the legs. Possibly Dan could help, but that wasn’t too likely. But at least he might have some different ideas or can look at it from a different perspective. Being a surgeon he definitely had a keener eye and steady hand. Jack had always been more of the inventor and mechanic, and he was definitely not careful or all that keen eyed. She was much more of the scientist and detail oriented. But even she missed things. Looking Dan over quickly, it would be best to set his room up first, even if he wasn’t moved in right now he would be soon enough. Gathering up the plates, “now that everyone’s done their food, you up for finishing up setting up the spare room, Dan?”.

Lewis smiles and nods, it was the polite thing to do of course. Though he wouldn’t really care how it was set up, so long as he’s got a good bed and the area was clean, he’s good. And at least Danny isn’t visibly wincing over his name now, slight deer-in-the-headlights look aside, so positives.

Danny, meanwhile, had had a mild mental freak out thinking that his mom was calling him by that name. Which Jazz clearly picked up on, “and me and Danny can just watch tv. Where you can easily stick your heads out and check on us”. Danny nods a bit stiffly and the three adults nod in return before heading upstairs.

Lewis chuckles at seeing nothing more than a bed and dresser, it was fine really but judging by the rest of the house, minimalism wasn’t really a thing here. Though he knows for damn sure they cleaned up before he came over. People always did if a doctor was coming over or patient returning home. Just like people always bushed their teeth more often before seeing their dentist. These two even more likely did a massive clean up, if the house was really as bad as Danny had implied it to be.

They wind up deciding to just move things around some and add a few more pieces of furniture. Lewis commenting as he pushes around a little side table, “so what theories do you two have over the ghost tail? Being ghost experts and all”.

Jack beams, glad his friend’s curious, even if it was likely largely because of Danny being his patient, “I’m sure there could be many reasons! But we’re both pretty sure the only real option is that it’s the ghost of his legs!”.

Maddie nods, if there were other possibilities they’ve never heard of such things, “I think Danny has enough ectoplasm in his system from the ecto-contamination that it’s able to actually be connected enough to him to materialise his ghost”, sighing slightly, “but of course that means that him becoming a ghost one day is inevitable”. Maddie’s not sure if Danny’s clued in on that fact, if he has then he’s either ignoring it or he’s too ghost tolerant.

Lewis nods, Danny’s already a ghost so they’re not exactly wrong. He just had the tail because he had two bodies with lower extremities, not one. And only one had actually lost them entirely, so the other was simply taking their place until he was fixed up. And he would be fixed up. But Maddie’s bothered sigh definitely did not go unnoticed by Lewis, “you seem bothered by that?”.

Jack shakes his head rapidly, “oh no! The tails kind of cool! And Danny-boys clearly comfortable with it!”.

Maddie giggles slightly and shakes her head at Jack, “not that Jack dear. I’m pretty sure he means the becoming a ghost thing”, Lewis just nods when she looks to him so she answers his question, “of course. Ghosts are dangerous cruel emotionless things. I wouldn’t be happy about anyone become one of those things”, sighing, “but with his ghost being partially formed like this, maybe his ghost won’t lose Danny’s memories or his emotions will carry over to the ectoplasm somehow”.

Lewis frowns a little, ghosts lost their living life’s memories? Though he’s pretty sure ghosts don’t lack emotions. Danny seemed to be entirely emotionally there, if ghosts didn’t have emotions then Danny’s should be muted. They definitely were not. While Jack jumps in, “and he’s a Fenton! If any ghost could be good, it would be a Fenton’s!”.

Lewis tilts his head, “sounds like you’re working under absolutes. Universals. An ‘all ghosts are inherently bad’ theory. I remember taking a few psych courses as an undergrad. The theory of ‘all humans are inherently bad’ was a pretty common and debated one”, waving his hand around some and ignoring their slight frowns, “of course, that was always followed by nothing but objections. Especially with such universals being nothing more than hypotheticals. As the only things truly universal about behavioural universals is that they are universally inaccurate and generally only cloud judgments”, chuckling slightly, “though belief in universals can certainly make my job more interesting. Debating with the inebriated can be quite thought-provoking”, tilting his hand back and forth in the air, “as for dangerous, dangerous can be good. Logically I’m quite dangerous, as are you two. Really, humans as a whole are impressively dangerous, heck dealing with the dangerous side of humans is half my job”. Though Danny’s list of powers implied he was more than just a bit dangerous. Danny was explicitly extremely dangerous actually.

Maddie and Jack exchange a glance, neither going to disagree with his last statement, he probably saw attempted and successful murder victims; and all three of them were definitely dangerous. But they did it for good, ghosts were selfish and only sought to harm or cause mischief. Maddie replying, “you’ve been talking with Danny some, haven’t you?”, shaking her head slightly as she sets up a little light, “sometimes universal are true. Ghosts are nothing but ectoplasm. That’s all that makes up their forms. None of that can convey emotions. They’re driven by nothing but instincts and Obsession. Humans are more complex. Ghosts are what remains after a person dies, all that human complexity staying with the body. The ghost left with nothing but human post-consciousness”.

Jack nods, “ectoplasm that a human mind imprinted their last strongest desires on. Creating the Obsession! Those that die peacefully and satisfied don’t become ghosts”.

Lewis is officially wondering if they know about not all ghosts once being alive. Because if they did they were firmly ignoring that purely to fit their theory, and that doesn’t sound right. So he’s not going to mention that since Danny’s the only reason Lewis knows and they’d question how Danny knew. Though now Lewis is also wondering just what the Hell happened with Danny for him to have a protection focused Obsession. The only thing he can think of is that someone else was in danger at the time. That, or it was because whatever creates a halfa was more than a little weird. Tapping his chin, “people used to believe plants emotionless and uncaring. Until that was proven to be rather wrong; even if they were simple things. And truthfully, humans aren’t complex themselves. Just flesh being able to be put to multiple different uses based off of DNA plans. You could say that the human body and self is nothing more than flesh imprinted by genetic plans created by their parents. And personality, well that’s the whole nature vs nurture debate”, twirling his hand in the air as he re-aligns one of the desk drawers, “plus, universals really do not exist. If there is even one outlier then the universal is untrue. Which is actually largely the bases of nature vs nurture and why there will never truly be an answer. Plus to go on the complexity argument, language requires complexity even if said language didn’t need to be learned. Same with making executive decisions”, tilting his head, “logically, an Obsession of any kind would require executive decision making. Otherwise instincts would actually overrule said Obsession. When it seems pretty clear that Obsession overrules instincts. And even working under the idea that said Obsession is simply the impression of a living beings last strongest thoughts even while dying unpleasantly, then logically most Obsessions would actually be positive rather than harmful. Since most people’s strongest dying desires involve getting peace or wishing to have seen happier times”, frowning slightly because that’s appropriate when talking about death, “I’ve heard even the cruellest of people wish for only that. To eat good food, to be alone, to bask in sunny days, to claim that prize they never could; like fame, fortune, or love. Not a lot of people die wanting to cause harm. Playful mischief sure”.

Jack tilts his head and blinks, that did make sense. And there was Phantom. Who was an outlier to nearly everything.

Maddie shakes her head, “only those of ill intent would be damned to exist as a ghost; and the possibility of Danny becoming a ghost doesn’t count as he became rather ghostly beforehand”.

Lewis shrugs, “powers seem like a dream come true for many. If you ask me, it seems more like the universe acknowledging that someone died horribly, unjustly or with an incomplete existence. Thusly giving their being the chance to indulge in and focus on one thing they valued highly at their time of passing; free from the constraints of the living world and with all the power needed to fulfil their desires”, tilting a hand and his head back and forth a bit, “and maybe some become ghosts because their existence is vital or needed for one reason or another”. Lewis has a gut feeling that the ClockWork ghost was genuinely needed. And maybe Danny had access to so many powers purely because he needed them to fulfil his Obsession, in-fact he had pretty well said that without truly realising the possible deeper meaning.

Jack blinks hard and gapes slightly, muttering, “is Phantom needed to control other ghosts?”, looking to Maddie and asking, “could there be other kinds of ghosts? Ones that are ‘needed’ ghosts and the regular evil ones? Because Phantom, he’s always different. Different kinds of ghosts! Subsections of ghosts! Beyond just dead’s! Whole nother aspects to research! and discover!”.

Lewis blinks, that was not what he was going for but there was multiple kinds of ghosts from what Danny’d said. So this was progress, positives Lewis. Though he might have just made them even more incorrect about Phantom. Since he was, in fact, a ‘dead’ ghost, just not all dead. Like Eddie was technically an alien, just not really.

Maddie scrunches up her eyebrows, that was a very different take on ghosts. And, unlike pretty well every theory they’ve come up with, it accounts for Phantom’s oddness. And Jack was clearly hooked on this idea, of course he was, it meant more possible theories and aspects to research. Tapping her chin, “maybe”, looking at Lewis, “but their existence, powers or not, are a damnation. Being bound to an Obsession, the feral instincts, lacking emotions, the constant battles, being trapped in a dimension of chaos, indefinitely existing in that state”, shaking her head, “even if there could be more than one kind and maybe, possibly, them not be evil and cruel; they’d still be surrounded by ones that are”.

Lewis, coming on a bit of an idea, “so an idea of two races of ghosts. One that’s possibly okay and good due to acting in alignment with what you deem okay. And one race that is automatically bad and evil and thusly lesser, due to behaviours that differ from your own. I feel like I’ve heard this one before”, Lewis let’s them sit with that statement for a bit before continuing, “I’d say there being multiple kinds of ghosts only makes sense. Even something as simple as grass or lilies have hundreds of variants. Even rib bones vary wildly. Blood type, brain structure, skin texture; everything has variants”, shaking his head some, “I still don’t buy the emotionless idea. To go along with my earlier idea of becoming a ghost functionally being a gift in repentance for an inadequate life. I’d say it’s likely ghosts like being as they are. An Obsession that’s more like a well-loved hobby. Instincts can be fun or lifesavers, otherwise no one would like adrenaline rushes even half as much as they do. Even humans love fighting, so that’s a moot point. One persons chaos is another’s persons idea of freedom, hence why so many people wish the apocalypse would actually happen”, Lewis shrugs, “people love the idea of the break down of societal norms and spending their days fighting, living as they please. And maybe ghosts only exist as long as they need to or until they’re finally satisfied”.

Maddie and Jack share a look, their running theory was that ghosts ‘moved on’ once their Obsession was satisfied. And neither really have anything to counteract Dan’s statements this time. This wasn’t some whimsical idealism from their kids or other teens. This was coming from someone who had definitely seen the darker side to the world, was highly educated -more so than them in truth-, and didn’t truly have invested interest or stakes in what they believed. Maddie mutters, “maybe so”, as she looks out over Amity through the window. Their town was basically a ghost playground and as much as she tried to ignore everything Phantom did, there’s no way her and Jack -even with the help of The Red Huntress- could keep a handle on all the ghosts. They needed sleep, they got hurt easier, they weren’t naturally equipped with weapons; the list went on. So saying Phantom was...needed...wasn’t, wrong.

Jack scratches his head some, many people did say the Fenton’s were chaos. But it was their chaos and they loved it. He was also oddly reminded of the war.

Lewis, seeing they’re both off in their own little worlds, decides to ground all these hypotheses and detached contemplations. Because regardless of how overarching the ideas were or what his two friends' passion was, Danny -or more so Danny’s ghost- was the end focus. He’s positive, without a doubt, they value their kids above their opinions and research. Clearing his throat and walking next to the couple looking out the window, “all this conjecture aside. There’s one thing I think we can all agree is more than likely an eventual certainty, is Danny becoming a ghost”.

Maddie simply nods while Jack says, “yeah”.

“One of the big things those of us in the medical field are taught is patient relations. You don’t just tell someone they have a horribly disfiguring condition, that only serves to hurt them and make them more difficult. Or, if I am to be blunt, make them seek to destroy themselves. If someone has to deal with something eventually for the rest of their days, telling them how horrible it is, is the opposite of a good idea”. Lewis simply nods slightly to himself over their mildly horrified faces, clearly realising where they’ve messed up. Because honestly? Even if they were right and Danny wasn’t already a ghost and thusly aware they were wrong, telling him that what he was/would likely become were all inherently evil violent monsters; was dumb, unhealthy, and kind of mean. If Eddie did that to Vee, everyone would be being eaten by aliens right now. If he hadn’t just accepted Vee changing their mind and hadn’t been basically complimenting them, even with all the gratuitous murder; Lewis, Eddie and Anne would all be very dead. Or Eddie would just be a meat puppet.

Tilting his head and thinking on that, “I have a friend. They come from a family of violence, killers even. Yet they are arguably good, they save lives even. They’re supported, encouraged, to be good. And just a little tiny bit of that encouragement and support was all they needed to do good”, looking at the two of them, who look back, “if you tell someone they’re doomed to be evil or bad, they’re likely going to be. Even if you don’t say them specifically. And saying ‘oh you’re an exception’, doesn’t help”, looking back out the window and tilting his head, “in fact, that’ll just make them feel like a weird freak. Some folks like being the freak and outlier, but most want to fit in. Even if that means doing bad. Groupthink, herd mentality, conformity. Not always a good thing”.

Deciding now might the time to leave them be, instead of overwhelming them, Lewis turns and heads to the door, speaking cheerily, “now I’m going to check on my patient before I have to head out”.

Danny had decidedly ignored the upstairs conversation after Lewis had basically played the racism card, which was firmly jarring. But also made him think, there really wasn’t any issues between the different kinds of ghosts. Sure clans and kingdom stuck to themselves, but ghosts were solitary in general. Really halfas were the only ones treated a bit different, but that made sense. They were literally their own different species in a sense. Halfas bodies followed different rules. But ghosts didn’t treat them like shit. Pretty much just treated him like another ghost, a very rare strong ghost. Vlad was treated more like a human though, so clearly it was more behaviour based. Because Danny did absolutely behave more ghostly, but he was also more ghost than Vlad. Eh, whatever.

Looking at Lewis as he comes down the stairs, “CW would like you. You think outside the box and can be a deep bastard”.

Lewis chuckles and shakes his head, “that’s some good hearing you’ve got”. Danny gives a slightly awkward attempt at a thumbs up, while Lewis comes over and indeed looks over the braces and bandaging. Because it’s frankly something of a miracle that he hasn’t ruined Lewis’s work yet again. Clapping Danny on the shoulder as he stands up, “look at that, it’s all intact. I feel like I should give you a sucker or something”.

Danny gives an attempt at flipping him off, he can’t bend his fingers enough to truly pull it off though, “oh piss off, maybe I’ll light it all on fire just to bug you”.

Jazz shakes her head, “please don’t”.

Lewis chuckles and shakes his head before heading out. If Eddie said that he’d be worried, but Danny was a jokester.

Danny’s not sure what to do about his folks giving him weird looks the rest of the evening and he’s firmly happy when there’s a knock on the door and Jazz opens it to reveal Sam, Tuck and Val. Danny instantly sending them an, probably overacted, expression of ‘dear Ancients please save me’. The three shake their heads and/or chuckle, before eyeballing his hover cushion. Tuck snorts and bends over laughing, Danny just rolls his eyes and points over his shoulder at the stairs. Everyone promptly following him to his room.

Sam and Tuck instantly flopping down in their beanie bags while Val stops and scrunches up her nose, Danny points a hand at her, “don’t you go telling me my room smells like death with a side of death”. She gives him a look clearly saying that it indeed does. So okay fine, maybe he really should clean.

Danny promptly parks the hover cushion on the ground, floats over to his bed, and sits on it. Val joining him and looking at the hover cushion, “why are you even using that? Probably better to practice with the tail”.

Sam, Tucker, and Danny all responding, “parents”. Valerie just shakes her head, Danny’s parents disliked ghosts a lot but surely not so much they’d stop him from getting around with what he’s got? Maybe Danny was just trying to avoid freaking them out, that was a very Danny thing to do. Absentmindedly petting at Danny’s tail as it sort of wiggles and coils around her arm and legs, Danny was clearly just letting it do what it wanted. Firmly ignoring how Sam is just glaring at her, the ear full she had gotten from the two on the way over had been a bit much. She was glad he had such good friends, but that didn’t make dealing with the protectiveness any less unpleasant. Deciding to ignore Sam even more by flopping to actually lay down, patting the vibrating tail, “I’m almost surprised your dad’s not making you do excerise laps with it. But yeah I guess it’s smart to warm them up to it slowly”.

Tucker snorts, “I’m surprised they haven’t already stuck him in leg prototypes”.

Danny points at him, making a damn point to not purr contentedly from Val’s lazy petting. Which just yay, she was more or less comfortable with it. Gesturing at his waist, “oh they totally did. It’s practically finished, just some kinks, namely that it supercharged my ‘plasm”, vibrating the tail a bit excessively which Val does jerk, startled, a bit over. While Danny continues speaking, “tail was literally and figuratively vibrating out of my skin. Still a little hard to wrangle in”.

Valerie gives it another pat, the end curling around her wrist, “at least it’s healed and healthy though”.

Tucker raises an eyebrow and laughs, “wait, they actually made something that strengthened ectoplasm? Seriously?”.

Danny points at him, “and it was somewhat intentional. They’re making a point of not letting the, yes they already named them, CyberSteps take too much of my ‘plasm as fuel and they built in this reserve thing, but there’s timer issues and stuff. Oh, and get this”, Danny smirks, full well knowing his friends will get it but Val will be a bit confused, “the colour palette is light grey with dark grey boots. Pale and dark green lines over top. Very cyber jumpsuit esque”.

Sam and Tucker exchange a glance and smirk. Of course his folks went with Danny’s original jumpsuit design. Tucker chuckles, “your dead shits always gotta have the suiting colour scheme I guess dude”, smirking, “they just had to get you in one even if you had to die a little”.

Danny smirks right back, “it is a killer look, very form-fitting for my very literal dead ass. Phantom skins for phantom limbs”.

Tucker blinks, goes slightly wide-eyed and points at Danny, leaning forward out of his beanie bag, “more like Phantom tin, you’re a metal ass now”, speaking with meaning and thick humour, “you... tincan”.

Danny blinks, oh Ancients Skulker was going to have a field day with this. He might mock him or be proud, hard to say. Smirking devilishly, “only half tin-can. So skin-can”.

Valerie screws up her face, she did not need that mental image, and smacks Danny’s head, “that’s disgusting!”.

Danny just laughs, “well I got opened up like a can!”, before flopping down to lay partly across her stomach, tail coiling around his waist some and flicking off the bed, “I’m awful and I know it”.

Sam glares slightly at the two, while Tucker almost awkwardly says, “then clap your hands?”. Which Danny actually does, making everyone laugh a little. Before Sam and Tucker both get up and join the two on the bed.

Danny snickers, “can’t wait till these braces are off, then I’ll have back my right to bare arms”.

Val sighs but smiles slightly, “I wish you still had the right to legs”.

Danny snorts, “I guess I just didn’t have enough of a motional attachment to stop doc from spiriting them away”.

“Zone goddamnit Danny”.

Danny smirks and pokes Valerie and Sam with his tail, “what? Ya can’t expect me to have any decency, after all, I’ve got no soles”.

Sam groans, though internally smiling, Danny making jokes was always a sign either he was good or he was getting his ass absolutely handed to him. “And now the horrible jokes come out”.

Danny snickers, he had so much new material to work with now; leg jokes, amputation jokes, robot jokes, should probably work on some...cannibalism jokes, “I would complain about you trashing on my great choice of words, but I’ve got no legs to stand on”.

Val wheezes, sounding almost pained. While Tucker pokes Danny, “at least that one won’t be applicable soon”.

Danny waves him off, “eh, I can just detach ‘em”.

Tucker debates right back, “but you still own said legs. So you still have legs, attached or not”.

“Fuck you and your semantics”.

After sitting in silence for a bit Tucker pipes up, “soooooo... sworn to secrecy? Any gossip you ain’t gonna be tight-lipped about?”.

Both Sam and Valerie asking, “‘sworn to secrecy’?”. Which Tucker laughs over before sitting up and looking at the two girls, ignoring Danny’s slight glare as Tucker responds, “doctor dudes been telling Danny tales about his friends and Danny here hinted at some of them being more than a little weird”.

Valerie quirks an eyebrow at Danny, not surprised there was more stories, “the ones who had a lovers quarrel that involved assault with a fridge and Lewis getting hit with a pan?”.

Sam shakes her head, “are we talking about the ones that got into a car chase with bombs and attempted to murder your doctor?”. Valerie coughs and goes a bit wide-eyed at that and squints at Danny with an ‘are you serious?’ look.

Danny chuckles, “oh yeah, seeing as those two are apparently his only friends, shits been out of this world”, Danny jabs Tucker a bit hard, “and I ain’t got any stories to be telling. Probably shoulda asked him while he was here if I could”.

Valerie scoffs, dramatic Danny, “oh whatever, if he’s telling you then clearly it’s not really secret”.

“Val, I practically know their life stories. I wouldn’t even be surprised at this point if Lewis showed up with baby pictures”. Danny almost hopes he does, because baby phots of aliens, he is so here for that. They probably don’t exist though. Heck, what would baby balls of slime or whatever even look like? Tiny slimes? Little blobs of goo? Are their cradles just like little play doo containers? How would a ball of goo even have kids? How are they born? Was Vee a tiny little blob of black murder once? A murder baby of questionable size and solidity? Heck, did Symbiotes even care for their young? He’s pretty sure the answer to that one is a firm no. Muttering, “now I’m making myself sad”.

Sam shakes her head, “hey, I’m supposed to be the one supplying doom and gloom here, not your doctors friends and babies”. While Valerie fiddles with Danny’s tail, “how does babies even make someone sad?”.

Danny sticks his arms up into the air, “I’m just thinking of them all tiny and alone. Just a little mess left to survive by chance or die”.

Valerie shakes her head, she knew how rough circumstances or childhood could lead to being weird, abandoned from birth would be worse for sure, “no wonder doctor guy described them as being a drunkard mess”.

Danny waves her off, “oh no, the drunkard is the other friend”.

Valerie breathes out, “sweet Zone, well does that one have a good reason?”.

Danny snorts and promptly nods but says nothing, which Tucker groans over, “awww come on man. How ‘bout we call the doc and ask?”.

“He’s probably in surgery Tuck, having his personal time with the bone saw. Though Anne’s probably off work by now, if she left just as early this morning as yesterday”.

Tucker laughs, “ooooh the lady, I approve this plan. And what, doc attached to the tools of his trade”, Tucker gives his PDA a quick peck for effect. While Sam grumbles about how that would be so dangerous to do with a saw.

Danny chuckles a little, while Tucker goes about calling the Lewis house, probably through the microwave. Danny commenting, “I’m not about to claim to know how much a surgeon is supposed to use that, but I don’t think it’s that much. And Tuck, Anne seems more likely to throw a fashionable heel at you, than amuse your womanising ways”.

Sam smiles and sighs, “I like her already”. Sam, Danny and Valerie all groan at Tucker actually going through with calling.

Anne’s voice coming through sounding only slightly annoyed, “use the phone”, then promptly giving the house number. Sam hangs up for Tucker at that point and everyone waits for Anne to pick up from the actual house phone.

She sounds quite pleased with herself, “there, that’s much better. If you’re also calling for a rain check to clean up a questionable mess, I will be a bit amused”.

Danny coughs, pretty sure ‘questionable mess’ translated to bloodbath, “Zone no, Tuck wants the gossip on your twos odd friends. And unlike a certain doc, I don’t ‘tell tales’ as he puts it. Without the go-ahead anyway”.

Tucker, Sam, and Valerie then give out a chorus of hellos and Tucker throws in his two cents, “y’all know Danny dudes weird shit, me and the goth know all his shit. And the girlfriend knows a bit”.

Valerie grumbles, “hey, I think I know him pretty well”.

Anne’s pretty sure that’s one blatant way to say that the ‘girlfriend’ definitely did not know somethings. She’d thrown off a text to the group chat pretty well as soon as Danny had stopped talking, not even surprised when the response had been ‘you’re a better judge of character than I am. AND LESS OF AN IDIOT. Asshole. TELL THEM WE WILL EAT THEIR SPLEEN IF THEY HURT EDDIE. Fuck no, don’t’, at least Vee had the decency to always use all caps. Anne huffs, amused, before responding to the collection of teens, “your friends hardly seem like the super law-abiding type, so go ahead. Eddie’s signed off on it, and Vee only threatened to eat their spleens, which a person can live without, so that’s as good as a green light as there is”.

Danny cringes a little, “I’m assuming said eating is more of a ‘don’t hurt us or else’ than anything else?”, Valerie just coughs a bit startled. While Tucker mutters, “I like my spleen though”. Sam just laughs.

“Yeah, Vee’s the protective type”.

Sam, Tucker and Valerie all groan, Tucker jabbing Danny in the arm, “well that definitely sounds familiar. Though I think I’d choke if Danny-dude threatened someone with organ eating”.

Anne chuckles, “it’s Vee’s go to, not that they even need a reason to threaten someone. They threatened to decapitate a pigeon at lunch today. You kids really should be going to bed, don’t get in too much trouble; or at least get into less than Eddie and Vee do”.

They all say bye at Tucker’s PDA as she hangs up. Danny shaking his head a little, while Tucker laughs, “sounds like they truly are as reckless as our idiot”, then sitting up and looking down at Danny, “so spill dude, just how weird are the two friends that doctor dude thinks they’re weirder than you, a guy with a ghostly tail instead of legs and whatnot”.

Danny puts up his hands and says with a goofy smirk, “aliens”, then shrugging, “or alien really”. Because really, that is absolutely what should be started with.

Valerie raises an eyebrow after a bit, “oh you’re serious, are you sure they’re not pulling your leg?”.

Danny chuckles, “if Vee’s human I will eat my carpet”.

Valerie grimaces while Tucker laughs, though Sam’s the one to ask, “that convincing? Where they from then?”.

Danny throws his hands around animatedly, “besides space, which is awesome, Klyntar, also the species name. Called Symbiotes here though. Crazy mad scientist dude brought them here and tried to fuse people to them to survive in space, yeah really dumb. He got blown up in a rocket”.

Sam grunts, “same rocket Lewis said these friends blew up? And yeah Lewis probably isn’t lying with there being genuine details”.

Tucker pokes Danny, “if you replace us with an alien I will be sad but also impressed”. While Valerie mutters, “no wonder doctor isn’t bothered by weird. I guess aliens ain’t that much different from ghosts”.

Danny chuckles before raising an eyebrow and snorting, elbowing Valerie, “you might actually think they ain’t all that different. Unless your opinions on ghosts have changed”.

Valerie grumbles, “a little I guess. Less evil, more just usually bad”. Both Sam and Tucker mockingly gape and gasp. Danny just grins like an idiot a little and wiggles his tail in the air, “spooktastic. The better ghosts probably don’t come to the land of the living much. But Symbiotes, Vee’s literally exiled and was basically supposed to be killed for not being a totally evil world-conquering and devouring monster. Because they want to coexist and love their host. It’s really adorable actually”, Danny snickers a little, “it’s a Disney Princess story where true love saves the world, just uh, with aliens and explosions and body snatching and human experimentation and probably a lot of death”. Danny grumbles, because really, he’s not sure how he feels about the idea of his very human, and thus more vulnerable, friends being around someone who eats humans, “still weird Eddie’s just okay with body roommate lover and the whole diet thing. Through that does take attached at the hip to its highest conclusion”, tilting his head and poking Valerie, “it’d be like you dating your suit, if it was sentient”.

Valerie glances at her arm a bit incredulously, while Tucker smacks Danny’s arm, “wait, hold up, Vee lives inside Eddie? Literally symbiotic? That sounds like it might be hilarious. And lots of death? And you, with your shit, are okay with that?”.

Danny nods rapidly, “Vee’s, like, just a puddle of black goo that squishes around Eddie’s organs and shit”, before shrugging awkwardly, “as for the death thing, me and Doc had one intense ass conversation about that. I don’t approve, not even kinda, but I understand. And I guess, technically, it’s not much different than humans eating cows”, Danny looks around at the confused and slightly concerned faces, poking Tucker, “you remember the whole need to eat meat thing that you were slightly jealous of? Yeah, very specifically human meat, so maybe don’t be jealous at all”.

Valerie coughs, that’s more than just disgusting. Tucker pulls a face but shrugs, “I mean, I’d try if offered”. Everyone looks at him judgingly, while Danny shakes his head, “I wouldn’t tell them that if I were you. I seriously wouldn’t be surprised if they shoved a chunk of something in your face”.

Sam gets up and shakes her head, “that’s disgusting”, continuing to speak while gathering up her stuff, “but if they’re not here then whatever-”.

Tucker butts in as he gets up too, “oh no, Danny dude said he was gonna hang out with them”.

Both Valerie and Sam hit Danny and snap, “idiot! Why?!?”.

Danny shrugs exaggeratedly, it was probably stupid to agree to that but ClockWork approved and they did have a ton in common, “we’ve got somethings in common, very black and white fellow and timely too. And aliens! I have so many questions! They’re, like, super super old; who knows all the planets they’ve been to!”.

Sam facepalms and shakes her head, though picking up that ClockWork said this was fine and these two must be heroes or something, “you’re a reckless idiot”, putting her hand on her hip, “if they hurt you or eat you, I’ll be finding something new for your parents to want to dissect”, then looking to Valerie, “you coming?”.

Valerie rolls her eyes and glares, scooting to sit with her back leaning against Danny’s shoulder, “I don’t need to head home yet”. While Danny mutters, “can you even dissect a sorta liquid?”, before shaking his head and giving Sam an unimpressed look, his friends could be far too protective, “Sam, she’s fine and I don’t think you have to worry about Vee, they sound pretty darn wrapped around Eddie’s finger. Through Eddie might be wrapped around theirs too”.

Sam sighs, “idiot”. Danny’s pretty sure she’s talking about the whole dating Val A.K.A a ghost hunter with extreme prejudice, thing this time. He’s not sure if he should be happy or preparing for an impending verbal lashing when she huffs, shakes her head and turns out the door with a clipped “yeah whatever, see ya”.

Tucker chuckles at Sam’s back before pointing at Valerie, “I could hack your suit. Danny deserves the best, it’s no secret we don’t really think that’s you”.

Danny growls a little, “for fucks sake, that’s up to me I’d say”.

Tucker just chuckles and waves as he heads out. Danny floating over to his window and watching Tucker run to catch up with Sam. Their hearts were in the right places but it was kind of annoying.

Turning his head to Val on the bed and floating back over. Promptly wrapping his tail around her waist, “they're great friends, just a little much sometimes I guess”.

She shakes her head and flips to lay back down, functionally dragging Danny down with, while she speaks, “I’d say make more friends but your idea of doing that apparently involves weird doctors and what I'm pretty sure qualifies as a sorta cannibal”.

Danny chuckles a little awkwardly, normal friends would never work out for him, “yeah, and you don’t seem phased by your suit getting brought up? Did you tell them too? You better have done a better job of those reveals”.

Valerie shrugs, shoving part of a blanket between where Danny’s leaning on top of her slightly and herself. Those braces were pretty darn hard, “they’re practically attached to you, no way they weren’t going to know. I just told them bluntly, I don’t care what they think, Danny. I’m definitely not dating them, though we’ll probably become closer friends now I guess. Could Tucker seriously hack my suit though? I know he’s good but still”.

Danny nods immediately, “I’d be shocked if there’s anything he can’t hack. And I’m not sure if that’s a better or worse reveal. You disappoint me”. Valerie just hits him lightly and they lay in silence for a while, the glow from Danny’s tail the only real source of light in the dark room. Which Danny gets slightly annoyed with the brightness of and throws a blanket over top, sure he was used to his glow being around but genuine darkness was nice to have sometimes; even with his perfect dark vision. Muttering with a bit of a laugh, “I’ll never need another flashlight or nightlight”.

Valerie fiddles with the blanket and yawns, “less it’s covered. The whole legs thing”.

“Yeah, guess it won’t, or shouldn’t anyway, show through those”, Danny chuckles, “you’re not going home, are you?”. Valerie just smirks and shakes her head, before readjusting into the blankets.

Danny’s not surprised Val’s still there in the morning, what he is surprised by is it being just past noon when he wakes up. Looking out the window and just barely catching himself from asking out loud ‘where the heck are all the ghosts?!?!?’, surely Amorpho isn’t still running around playing hero? Pushing himself to sit up and turning to look at Val, who’s fixing her hair in his bedroom mirror, “mornin’ anything interesting while I was out?”.

She pulls a bobby pin out of her mouth and shoves it into her curly hair, “there was some ghosts I chased down if that’s what you’re asking. Box, Technus, some animals. At least three things have blown up in the basement lab, might be the same three things though”, walking over and poking Danny, who looks a little confused, “ghosts being near makes you shiver or something, since when did you have a ghost sensor? And yes, I figured out how to turn mine off”, grumbling to herself incoherently, because she needed to find some way to make her stuff exclude Danny’s tail.

Danny blinks, partly wondering why the Zone he didn’t wake up -probably something to do with being injured or something- and slightly annoyed that after all this time now is when someone actually notices his ghost sense. Though yeah, if there was ever going to be anyone who noticed his ghostly shit, it would be Val. Rubbing his neck and thusly getting firmly reminded of the stupid braces, “weird, usually that wakes me up”, stretching out and grumbling about being sore. While Val raises an eyebrow at him, “so that’s normal? I pretty much used you as a ghost sensor, chased them off pretty quick so maybe that’s why you didn’t wake up”.

Danny squints at her with his arms over his head, “did you even sleep? And, uh, yeah normal. Like my little bit of ectoplasm, since you know I’ve got that shit, reacting to their ecto-field or something”.

Valerie tilts her head and laughs a little, she could use something like that, “guess that’s why you never seem to get caught where ghosts are. You know they’re there and reasonably avoid them”.

Danny puts a hand to his chest and speaks with mock offence, “me? Reasonable? Never”. Considering he actively ran at them, which arguably wasn’t a reasonable thing to do. It was what was right and his need of course, but still arguably dumb and dangerous. It was also part of his ghostly nature to fight, socialise like any ghost would.

Valerie shakes her head with a smile and pushes his shoulder, which he just moves with and lays back down on his bed; her shrugging and crawling in to lay next to him. It was a little weird having a ghostly tail wrapping around her ankle and leg rather than a second pair of legs, not to mention a little cold, but it wasn’t bad. Snickering a bit as rubbing her foot over the tip of It makes him shiver, Danny just blushes a little. The moment getting ruined by a loud bang from downstairs, Danny, chuckling awkwardly, “probably should see what they’re doing”.

Valerie sighs but relents and gets up, trying not to side-eye Danny too much as he floats over to the hover cushion, it was clearly not made to fit all of his tail, “any clue what they’re working on by chance?”.

Danny snorts and spins the hover cushion in a little circle, “besides legs? And things for them? No clue. Honestly, that’s probably all they’re working on. Which yeah, little worrying, considering the exploding”.

Valerie raises an eyebrow as she steps out the door, “a ‘little’?”. Danny just rolls his eyes as he follows her down the steps.

Danny shakes his head at the slightly ridiculous amount of pancakes on the table, his mom looking a little flustered. Danny speaking as he hovers over to his chair and grabs a plate, “Uh? What’s going on? Thanks for the food though”. Valerie opening and closing her mouth a few times before shaking her head and joining Danny at the table for food.

Maddie looks over Valerie, who must have spent the night, and raises an eyebrow at Danny, “trying to distract from a bit of inventors block sweetie. And morning Valerie”, she says that last bit with a slightly unimpressed tone.

Danny rolls his eyes and smirks a little, swallowing bits of pancakes before speaking, “it’s not like I can really do anything”, Valerie chokes a bit at that and Maddie gapes at him, while Danny keeps talking, “guessing the timing stuff still isn't cooperating? And heh, bit too soon?”.

Maddie puts on a smile and nods slightly, she’s not sure if she should be happy about the joking or not. And that fact that’s he’s right isn’t really something she wants to think about really. He can’t have kids. Not that that should really be a concern for him right now. Jack thankfully saves them from the silence as he bounds up the steps and grins wide, “you’re up! Sleep good!”, Jack keeps speaking after Danny nods, “great! CyberSteps are still giving us some hassle, but! The framework and design is more solidified! So long as you’re cool with the look of them anyway”.

Danny smiles slightly, “do they look pretty well the same as what I saw yesterday?”.

Jack nods eagerly, “yup! Just a bit more defined! Dan gave us some tips on the way muscles would be shaped, so we adjusted some. Looks more realistic!”. Jack nods curtly more so to himself, well aware that Danny-boy wanted these to look realistic, shape wise anyway. Though he’s definitely glad Danny didn’t want them flesh coloured. Still a bit off-putting what exactly they were, replacement legs, but it was almost like working on exoskeleton! And impressing Dan was an awesome bonus!

Danny raises an eyebrow, “Lewis’s here? And yeah, in that case, the design’s fine with me”. Danny will be surprised if the legs don’t undergo some design changes though, who knows how they’ll have to be modified for the timer thing to work. He’s sure his folks will figure that out eventually, he’s not even sure what he’ll do if they can’t figure something out. Dealing with the regrowing legs thing will be an even bigger basket of problems in that case.

Jack nods and points a thumb over his shoulder at the lab doors, “awesome! He’s been down helping! And! Pretty sure he said he’s going to be moving in tomorrow too! Having him here is sure an interesting reminder that I wasn’t actually the strangest of my college buddies!”.

Danny mutters, “understatement, fruit-loops got you both beat by a mile and a half”. He’s not sure anyone other than someone legitimately insane could out crazy Vlad. While Jack sticks a finger in the air, going a bit a wide-eyed, clearly having just remembered something; before running back down the lab stairs.

Danny had just shoved another fork full of pancake in his mouth as Jack comes back up with a little flat disc thing cradled in his hands. Danny can’t help but snort as his dad puts it on Danny’s plate, it was roughly the same shape and thickness as a pancake. While Jack starts talking animatedly, “we’ve made some progress but it’s still super touchy! It keeps blowing up when we get it too close to something with an ecto-field! Which is of course no good...”, Danny pretty well tunes his dad out and stares down at the little device. He was something with an ecto-field.

And as if on queue, said device cuts off whatever else Jack happened to be saying and promptly explodes; sending pancakes and syrup flying everywhere.

Which makes for an interesting scene for Lewis to walk up from the lab to. Blinking and looking around, there’s pancake stuck to pretty well every surface and Danny’s plate is smoking. Danny just looks to him slowly and sighs.

Danny, taking in Lewis’s tousled up hair -that somehow still looks poster-worthy even with also being peppered with ash- and his burnt dress shit with its sleeves rolled up stylishly, “mornin’ doc, and welcome to the Fenton household”.

Lewis just watches a pancake slowly slide off the top of Danny’s head and back onto his plate, at least his bandaging and braces looked intact. Positives, Lewis, positives.

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