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piedpiperart · 10 months

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Phantom in Gotham 5

Chapter 4

After class with Tim, Danny went through the rest of his classes in relative silence. He had a few other classes with Steph, but he was still trying to keep his distance. The two reminded him of his friendship with Sam and Tucker, and he wasn’t ready for that kind of friendship again.

Danny had to remind himself that this was only temporary. He was in hiding from his parents, the GIW, and probably Vlad. It wouldn’t be fair to Tim if Danny suddenly disappeared again without word. In case anyone found his new identity, he definitely didn’t want the two normal kids to be involved. They didn’t deserve that.

“Hey Spaceboy,” Steph called, jumping up beside Danny on their way to lunch and linking their arms. Danny felt himself smile at her antics.

“Spaceboy?” Danny laughed.

“Cause you’re a future astronaut,”Steph said with a tone that felt like she was implying a ‘duh’ at the end. “It’s one of many nicknames for you.”

“Many huh? Now I’m a bit worried,”Danny added, letting her steer them to their usual lunch table. He felt a bit tired, and wondered if he could take a quick nap. Danny hated sleeping at the Pizzeria, so he tried to sleep at the library or at school when he could. That gave him enough hours to function, yet usually around lunch he got sleepy and nodded off without actively trying.

“Don’t be, Tim and Connor have their own embarrassing nicknames,’Steph informed him. She gave him a nudge with her elbow,”Wouldn’t want you to be left out.”

Danny laughed,”Does that mean I can give you a nickname too?”

Steph paused in her efforts to climb into the booth at their table without looking at him. “No,” Steph smiled slyly.

“That makes no sense,”Danny huffed. “But fine, I guess I won’t share my amazing nickname skills with you.”

Steph barked out a laugh. “Alright now I’m curious, but hey, are you gonna get lunch?”

“Nah,”Danny waved her off,”Not hungry. Had a big breakfast today.”

Steph squinted at him suspiciously. “That’s what you said yesterday, and then you fell asleep in the middle of our conversation.” Danny made to respond when she continued,”We’re getting worried for you man, you never eat, you look as sleep deprived as Tim, and you never want to hang with us after school.”

“I’m fine!” Danny protested. He knew it looked worrisome from others perspectives, but he really wasn’t hungry. He could probably try to sleep more though. Not to mention that he was trying to not get close to his friends in case he got discovered and had to leave suddenly. Hanging with them outside of school was a sure-fire way for them to get attached. “I’m just, really busy and I don’t like um, cafeteria food.”

It was obvious to both of them that Danny was lying or hiding something, but when Steph was about to say something else, Tim sat down with Connor at the table. Danny was not at all surprised to see a cup of coffee in Tim’s hand. “What’s up?” Tim asked with a raised eyebrow at the tension between the two taller teens in the booth.

“I- “ Danny started, only for Steph to interrupt, much to his mortification.

“Danny’s been avoiding us,”Steph said, not unlike a grade schooler tattling on the teacher. Heat flushed Danny’s face in panic and embarrassment.

“No- no I just don’t have a whole lot of time to hang out after school,”Danny defended, crossing his arms. Tim gave Danny a look.

“Oh, so you wouldn’t mind us coming with you after school? You go to the library right?” Tim asked honestly. Danny startled, not expecting that answer.

“Y-yeah but you don't have to come. It’ll be boring, just studying and stuff,” Danny stammered,”I’m sure you guys have better things to do.’

“Not really,”Steph shrugged.

“So we’ll see you after school to head to the library?” Tim asked, and Danny was pretty sure he caught a smile on Tim’s face for a second before it disappeared.

Danny sighed, resting his head on his hand,”Sure, why not.”

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Jason groaned. This kid had absolutely no security system set up in this place. Glancing around the dilapidated Pizzeria, he could admit that not even he would know someone was living here. The kid was good at hiding his stuff.

Oddly enough, after checking the entire ground floor, Jason had to admit the kid did a good job hiding his presence. No disturbed dust, nothing that hinted at a living space or out of place objects. Jason frowned when he pulled down the rackety old attic ladder. A cloud of dust practically followed the whole thing, making Jason think Danny might not have gone up there. He waved his gloved hand to disperse the dust cloud before taking measured steps to the attic.

The place was surprisingly spacious, if not cold from the incoming weather changes. He swore it would start snowing any day now, and his heart sunk at the thought of this kid freezing to death in this place. It was still early morning, since the kid would be at school with Timmy, so he could see some light shining though one window in the corner. There wasn’t enough for him to see clearly though, so he turned on his flashlight, shining it around.

Fighting back a sneeze, he brushed past a few spiderwebs and close to a semi-cleaner space in the attic. His heart sunk at the kid’s set-up. There was a sleeping bag, a few school textbooks, a gym bag full of clothes, a flashlight, and a few prepackaged snacks. No extra blankets, no pillow, no personal items. Jason sighed, thinking about how much worse this kid was doing than he’d thought.

A few things didn’t make sense to Jason though, including how the kid got into gotham prep, or how he could afford food. The kid didn’t look like a street rat, and Jason was pretty sure he wasn’t stealing or selling drugs. Nothing in the cramped living space pointed to that. He’d make a note to inform Tim and Dick about the kid’s situation, but he figured it was time for him to step in a bit. The kid was on his turf anyway, might as well give him the good ol’ welcome to crime alley speech.

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

Danny grasped the straps to his backpack in nervousness, shuffling his feet while he waited for Tim and Steph to show up. And maybe Connor. Danny was pretty sure Connor didn’t like him very much. They’d only shared a few words every now and then. He was also pretty sure Connor and Tim were dating. Maybe.

After five minutes of waiting around, Danny decided to just head to the library by himself. He had to remind himself that he wasn’t getting attached. He didn’t want to put them in danger. Danny was already putting Sam and Tucker in enough danger back home, and he wasn’t even there to protect them. Besides, it was snowing lightly outside, and for regular people like Tim and Steph it would be cold.

“Hey Danny! Wait up!” Danny’s shoulders slumped with dismay. He put on a smile and turned to wave as they came closer.

“I kinda thought you guys weren’t coming,”Danny started, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

“What? No way, Space boy,”Steph said, lightly punching his arm. “We’ve never hung out with you outside of hell. I mean school.”

Danny snorted at that, while Tim added,”Connor can’t make it, but he says to tell you hi.”

“No worries,” Danny waved. “So, library? Do you guys actually have things to study?”

“Duh,”Steph crossed her arms, absently rubbing them now that the cold air reached her. “You were there when Ms. Riley assigned us the Spanish homework.”

“Oh, right,”Danny nodded.

“You any good at spanish?” Tim asked, curious. “Maybe you could help Steph so I don’t have to.”

“You know spanish too?” Danny asked. “I know a bit, I guess it’s easier to learn when you know other languages.”

“Yeah I’m fluent,”Tim stated, giving Danny a weird stare. “What other languages do you know?”

Danny froze for a moment. There was no way he could say he was fluent in ghost speak, because that wouldn’t make any sense at all. Good thing Danny was an expert at lying. Not. ”Uh, no- nothing. I mean english obviously, but only a bit of spanish.”

“Right,”Steph drawled. ‘Well you can still help me with spanish. I know we’re in the higher levels but the tenses still trip me up sometimes.”

At the library, Danny encountered a problem. He usually did his homework and then took a nap for a few hours until closing. There was no doubt that his friends would notice that, and if Danny knew them, then he knew they’d be worried about him and maybe try to kidnap him for a sleepover or something. Which he didn’t want, because he was supposed to be keeping his distance to protect them.

Almost three hours of studying with Tim and Steph flew by, and Danny was starting to yawn uncontrollably. “I should get home, it’s getting late,”Danny yawned, packing up his stuff.

“What? Already?”Steph startled, looking at Tim’s watch. Tim let her, pulling his arm away after a moment.

“Want to get dinner or something?” Tim offered, sharing a look with Steph.

“Nah, I’ll catch you guys at school tomorrow though, if the snow doesn’t cancel it,”Danny smiled. “And it was nice to hang out with you guys. Get home safe, okay?”

Tim nodded absently, and Steph looked like she was going to protest, but Danny scurried out of the library as quick he could. Letting out a sigh of relief that turned into a yawn, he made his way to his usual convenience store for an egg sandwich and a watermelon tea. It was snowing pretty hard at that point, but since he had an ice core it felt more like fresh air to Danny.

Danny ate as he walked, pondering his new schedule for the day. He’d try to catch a few hours of sleep at the pizzeria since he couldn’t get any at the library. Usually he avoided sleeping at the pizzeria, but he was too tired to scope out a different place to nap. Since he didn’t have to sleep more than four hours and eat more than one meal a day, he sometimes forgot he actually needed to sleep. His mandatory hours were usually at the library, in his comfy green bean bag. He missed that bean bag.

Looking around, he put a little bit of a boost into his steps as he climbed over the fence surrounding the place, and snuck into the kitchen area. Once he made it to the back room, he was too tired to go ghost and phase through so he pulled the ladder down, coughing at the dust that fell around him. He put a bit of flight into his steps to make his climb easier, and shut the ladder behind him.

Usually, he could see better in the dark in his ghost form, so it transferred a bit to his human form too. He finished off one of the sandwich halves he was snacking on along the way here and set the other wrapped half and the rest of his tea on the ground next to his stuff. Climbing into his sleeping bag and using his jacket as a pillow, he fell asleep almost instantly.

Chapter 6

#Phantom in Gotham #dcxdp #dpxdc

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grub-xd · 3 years

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The Cryptid Specter of Amity Park

Summary:

AU where the Ghost Zone and Human World are not dependent on each other.

In a tragic alternate future, the Ghost Zone is destroyed. Phantom is alone and suffers the fate of being forgotten and fading into myth. He remains in Amity after the events of the Ghost Zone but gains a new reputation.

Drawing included (at the bottom of the fic).

Link: AO3

Amity Park, once a smaller city, had grown to become one of the leading energy fuel exporters of the 21st century. During the late 2020s, the nations of the world had to come together to find a new way to generate electricity, as fossil fuels became scarcer and made the climate crisis worse, most of these nations invested into green energy. The town of Amity Park had decided to investigate whether it could harness a different type of green energy, ectoplasm, as a solution to these crises. By 2035, the Fentons, in collaboration with Axiom labs, discovered a way to harness ectoplasm and convert it into electricity. It provided the cleanest energy along with the highest energy yield output than any other fuel source, and the mines were relatively inexpensive to establish. With this success, many nations began investing in their own ectoplasm mines with makeshift portals using Amity Park's technology, while phasing out most other sources of fuel due to its incredible abundance and efficiency, but there was a hidden cost.

By the mid 2050s, most of the world's nations were mining their own ectoplasm from the Ghost Zone. At first, this wasn't a problem. Both humans and ghosts thought the supply was infinite, or would at least regenerate at a rate high enough to never cause an issue. Unfortunately, by the time ghosts started noticing that there were negative impacts from the mines extracting too much ectoplasm in the 2080s, humans were dependent on ectoplasm for energy to continue life, just as they had been dependent on fossil fuels.

Efforts to end ectoplasm mining failed. The detrimental effects of the lack of ectoplasm became evident in the 2090s and by the first decade of the 22nd century, ghosts who depended on the abundance of ectoplasm in the Ghost Zone to maintain their existence had faded. Ghosts who had been stronger in the Ghost Zone than on Earth no longer were, and the rebound effects from the scarcity of ectoplasm made the Infinite Realms hostile. It was no longer worth it. Those who had not fallen to the increasingly hostile environment of the Ghost Zone eventually left, in search of a place to settle on Earth. Many found their own niche places, but no ghost societies ever recovered. Most who fled simply remained as lone individuals, searching for a place to belong and fulfill their obsessions. The Observants disbanded. Clockwork faded from his form, though still maintained a somewhat ethereal presence. The monarchy collapsed. The Ghost Zone was a shell of its former self.

As king, Phantom stayed as long as he could, but even he was forced out too. Amity Park may have been the source of all of this mining and his family had a hand in his home's destruction, but this place still meant something to him. This was what he knew. The people he loved and cared for once lived here. All he has left of them now are in his memory. He didn't want to leave where these memories had been made, so he stayed. Phantom would wander about the town, observing all that had changed. His parent's house, Casper High, downtown, the Nasty Burger, the forest, among other things.

Centuries passed. Humanity was able to use older sources of energy to supply themselves before all the ectoplasm ran out. When it did, most ghosts on Earth had faded. Phantom remained for some reason. He never found Vlad nor Ellie. He's not sure if they are still around anymore. He's looked ever since he left the Ghost Zone but never turned up with anything. Hope of ever finding them left Phantom too. During the passing of that time, Phantom faded from the legend he was in Amity Park into myth. His story about defeating Pariah Dark and saving the town were forgotten. Records that showed his good (and bad) deeds, old newspapers and such, were lost to history.

As with many myths, the kids of the future Amity Park would grow interested in the myth surrounding Phantom. He had earned the name "The Cryptid Specter," as no one could ever get a true look at him before he would notice them and suddenly fade himself out of sight. Most never chased the lost legend. Some kids however would occasionally hear about this myth and attempt to find him. Most of the rumors suggested that he could be found near a specific spot in Amity Park's forest, near its edge where it meets the plain, at night, when the stars were at their fullest.

At that spot, Danny, that was my old name, right? he would think to himself, would hover and gaze at the stars, wondering why he had to be alone and pondering how he could have saved the Ghost Zone from the fate it had suffered. This spot didn't have much meaning to him per say, but it was peaceful and it could bring him a sense of calm that he could find nowhere else. It gave him the strength to just be able to consider these questions.

Why? Why must I travel eternity alone? It's been how many years? 300? Or was it 600? Time blends together more as more of it passes. It's funny, despite forgetting my own name, I can remember Sam and Tucker, Jazz, Clockwork, Vlad, my Parents... heck, I even Mr. Lancer! I guess that shows where my focus was, with others, more often than even my own self. He can't handle it; he breaks and falls to the ground, near a rock.

Finally vocalizing his pain, accompanied by his tears, "I blew it! I really blew it! I failed to protect the Ghost Zone and all of those ghosts. I wish I could have done something different! Something that would have prevented all of this! Something where I wouldn't be left with this fate! Left to suffer alone, in my old home town, but is completely hollowed! All of those who I cared about have moved on! Why can't I!? Why does it have to be this way!?" He collapses completely and falls on the nearby rock, letting the sobs go to hopefully expunge his pain. As Phantom lied there, a stick snapped. Its echo muted his sorrows and drew his attention back towards the dark forest. He heard a couple kids whispering and asking if they could see "The Cryptid" anywhere, and that they had heard the cries coming from this direction. They may have heard him but they are not going to see him tonight. They can't... I'm not ready yet, he thinks to himself as he quickly fades from sight.

#Danny Phantom #danny fenton #ectober #ectoberhaunt 2021 #ectober month 2021 #ectoplasm #Most characters die or fade #immortal danny fenton #ghost zone #au #ghost king danny #ghost king au #ectoplasm mining #ectoplasm harvesting

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bubblegumbeech · 3 years

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Stumbling in your Sleep

Phic Phight prompt fill for @the-only-wife

It was the ticking sound that woke him.

Danny yawned, blinking sleep out of his eyes and stretching out his sore muscles. Looking around only served to confuse him though. He wasn’t in his room anymore, and he wasn’t downstairs either (which sometimes happened with his body’s penchant to fall through not only his bed, but the floor). He was in a large, heavily shadowed room that was on the edge of familiar, and it was taking him a moment to place it in his sleep fogged mind.

“It’s not healthy to fixate on what could have been,” came a deep, familiar voice from behind him.

Startled, Danny spun around to see Clockwork floating a few feet away. He was in his eldest form, long knitted beard and all, and was gazing past Danny towards something further in the room.

Following that gaze, Danny saw what exactly Clockwork had been talking about and flinched, flying quickly away from it and over towards the Ancient.

It was a Thermos, horridly familiar and just- sitting there on a pillow as if for display.

“How did I get here?” Danny asked, putting Clockwork between himself and that thing .

Clockwork hummed, stroking his beard a moment before slowly answering, “I suppose, the likely answer is that you were having a nightmare.” He lowered a hand to Danny’s shoulder and led him out of the room and back into a more familiar part of the clock tower. “Let’s get you some tea before I send you home, it might calm your nerves.”

Danny followed, eager for distance, before asking, “the likely answer? Does that mean you don’t know?”

“Despite what you and certain others seem to think, I am neither omniscient nor a mind reader, I cannot see into your dreams,” Clockwork said and Danny chuckled softly. “Besides, Nocturn would likely be unappreciative if I was interfering in his domain.”

“You know Nocturn?” Danny asked stopping and tugging lightly on Clockwork’s cloak so that he’d stop as well.

He did, lifting one of his eyebrows and answering with a dry tone, “of course I do, I know everyone.”

Because of course he did. It wasn’t like he didn’t just tell Danny that he wasn’t omniscient, that was clearly a different skill set to someone as determined to be mysterious as Clockwork. Danny found himself wondering if the intrigue surrounding the older ghost was not mostly of his own creation, an attempt at seeming aloof and beyond comprehension while simultaneously laughing behind everyone else’s backs.

A wash of amusement filtered through the ambient ectoplasm of Clockwork’s lair and Danny scowled up at him, “I thought you weren’t a mind reader?”

Clockwork tried to hide his smile, unsuccessfully, and nodded, “I do not need to be, to hear the accusations you make towards me,” he guided Danny to the main room of the tower where the screens were kept along with the relatively recent addition of a couch and coffee table. There was warm tea, purple and slightly glowing, already waiting for them.

“So I’m right then? You are just messing with us all the time?” Danny grabbed his own cup, dubious, Clockwork wouldn’t poison him right? He would know whether a half ghost could drink something if anyone did.

If Danny was expecting an answer, he’d be dissapointed, but when a ghost spent enough time with the mysterious Ancient it became increasingly clear that straight answers were not something they would get in large supply. So instead he rolled his eyes and took a sip of his tea, Clockwork could be as obnoxious as he wanted after saving Danny’s family like he did.

The least Danny could do in return, was accept his eccentricities.

“Do you remember your dream?” Clockwork asked and Danny shook his head. There were bits and pieces, sure. Certain emotions and feelings that flashed to the surface when he closed his eyes or tried to think about it. He’d never been good at trying to recall something once he was awake, and despite Jazz once offering to buy him a dream journal to ‘help him decode his inner turmoils’ he’d never felt the need to try and change that.

He sighed into his tea, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bother you. I know you’re busy.” There was no way he was going to get a decent amount of sleep now, especially since he’d have to fly all the way home first and he didn’t even know how late it already was.

Clockwork’s lips twitched slightly upwards, “Daniel you’ve never once cared before how busy I am when you’ve come to visit,” Danny flinched, well he wasn’t wrong , “and besides, I quite enjoy your company. It’s no trouble at all.”

“Ah,” Danny didn’t know how to react to that, he was pretty sure he was nothing but trouble, especially with a certain future of his locked up in that other part of the clock tower they’d been in, “thanks?”

His host sighed, taking the time to sip his own eerily glowing tea. The silence stretched, but not uncomfortably and Danny found himself starting to drift towards sleep again, the struggle to try and keep his eyes pried open quickly becoming a losing one.

That was probably his cue to leave, as nice as it was to just sit here and not worry about things like classes and ghost attacks, he was probably already pushing it close to the first bell at school. He stood up and Clockwork’s eyes followed, “I have to head out, thanks for the tea Clockwork. I’ll try to be more considerate the next time I drop by.”

There was a small pinch between Clockwork’s brows, something he wasn’t saying or that Danny wasn’t hearing. “I’d rather you didn’t,” he assured and Danny let out a chuckle. He’d probably respond with something equally sarcastic, if not quite as dry, if he wasn’t so tired.

Clockwork seemed to be of the same mind, “Daniel, when was the last time you slept through the night?” He asked it as a question, as if he didn’t already know. Then again, maybe Danny was giving himself too much credit, it was entirely possible Clockwork didn’t waste his incredible power watching to see if Danny bothered to sleep at night.

“Yesterday,” Danny lied, a yawn built behind his jaw as if to discredit him but Danny held it back stubbornly. It didn’t seem to work though, as Clockwork’s lips tightened. He looked over at his screens, eyes flicking quickly over each one while his fingers tapped a steady rhythm against his staff. That, combined with the gentle ticking of clocks and general comforting atmosphere of the other ghost’s lair was making it more and more difficult for Danny to keep his eyes open.

He flinched awake fully as a hand shook his shoulder, shit, did he fall asleep standing up?

“Daniel,” Clockwork’s hand was still on his shoulder, practically holding him up at this point, “you can always sleep here.”

Danny shook his head, “I don’t have time-”

“Daniel,” Clockwork interrupted, his expression flat.

Oh right.

“I don’t want to…” he tried, “It’s just, you already help me all the time, you’ve fixed so many of my stupid mistakes and-” and Danny was tired of being a burden. He was tired in general, but ancients was he tired of that specifically.

He was tired of seeing his friends lose sleep to help him as back up, he was tired of constantly having to go behind his parents backs and lie to their faces he was tired of watching as Jazz’s once perfect grades started slipping just enough because of all the time she spent helping Danny with his and he was especially tired of knowing that he wasn’t worth the effort in the first place.

Not if he could turn into that .

But Clockwork didn’t let go of his shoulder, in fact, he pulled him closer into a hug, a real, full hug like the ones he used to get from his parents before they started wearing their weapons and he was scared to get near them. “I’d rather you slept here than wandered around the realms half asleep. Who knows where you’d end up,” he said, speaking gently into Danny’s hair.

“You would,” Danny said before losing the battle against another yawn and relaxing fully into Clockwork’s arms. “You know everything. Can I really sleep here?”

“Of course,” Clockwork released him, leaving one hand on Danny’s back to guide him to a staircase he hadn’t ever noticed before. Just how big was this clock tower anyways?

The room Clockwork took him to was a little bigger than the one he had at home and nothing like what Danny had expected. Most of the tower was colored with dark purples and muted greens, with the occasional brush of silver or brass from the multitude of gears and cogs that littered the floors and walls. This room however, was full of dark blues and greys, a swirling galaxy floating above a single full sized bed that Danny easily sunk into when Clockwork led him to it.

He blinked up at the stars, they were perfectly accurate to the night sky above Amity Park if it didn’t have the light pollution and had to stop himself from counting every constellation rendered there in perfect detail or he’d fall asleep just like that without even bothering to thank Clockwork for offering to stop time for him.

“You made me a room.” It should have been obvious, of course, but Danny hadn’t fully processed what the room and it’s decorations meant until he’d said it out loud and Clockwork didn’t even try to deny it.

Clockwork fazed the blankets through Danny in order to pull them over him properly, tucking him in. Danny was almost tempted to ask for a bedtime story, just to see how he’d react. “Yes, I made you a room.”

Danny frowned, he didn’t understand, “why?”

“I suppose it’s a bit of an excuse to have you visit more often,” Clockwork said, ruffling his hair before sitting at the foot of the bed, “and an offer for you to get some proper sleep before you sleepwalk into someone else’s lair and I have to fight for custody.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Danny mumbled into the pillow, his eyes drifting shut.

The last thing he heard before he drifted off was a soft chuckle and a gentle reassurance that he needn’t worry about anything like that just yet. Maybe, if someone like Clockwork could see the absolute worst of Danny, the monster he could become, and still care enough to make him a room and be sure he slept, then maybe Danny couldn’t be as terrible a burden as he thought. Surely Clockwork, who could see all the futures stretched out below him like a parade, wouldn’t waste his efforts if he didn’t think Danny was worth the time.

He dreamed of stars and ticking clocks and didn’t worry for once about how soon he’d have to wake up.

#Danny phantom #Clockwork #lost time #Phic Phight #phic phight 21 #a nice short one to make up for the last one #short and sweet #bee’s writing

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spectral-tentacle · 3 years

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a rant about the Fentons, especially Maddie

" Get this straight Danny. You're a Fenton. Fentons get As. Or in your father's case, B minuses." --Maddie Fenton

This line still makes me so angry. How can anyone be okay with making their child feel like crap if they get anything less than perfect grades? Because As are perfect grades, they allow for almost no mistakes, no missing assignments, no “I was sick and missed that lesson and have fallen behind on the material or didn’t quite grasp it”.

You have to be perfect, every time, all the time, and never slip up. It requires a ridiculous amount of vigilance and effort to consistently keep your grades perfect. It’s incompatible with a happy and healthy life for most people, and that’s why 4.0 GPAs and the like are rare.

You can see in Ultimate Enemy that neither Sam nor Tucker are sweating the CAT that much. And Tucker doesn’t make uniformly good grades either (we saw that in the episode where he changed his grades in the computer system) so it’s not like they’re just sure they’ll perform great.

No, they just haven’t had their mother work to make their self-worth and sense of belonging to their family, tied up in an arbitrary letter or number granted by a flawed education system that handles neurodiversity poorly and only celebrates a very few types of intelligences. And even those are treated in a very rigid way that penalizes many personality types and rewards unhealthy habits like perfectionism and neglecting a healthy life balance.

And it mostly does come from Maddie:

“Until you retake this test and pass it with flying colors, we're forbidding access to all electronic devices.” --Maddie Fenton

Jack seems more blasé about grades. He admitted to failing the CAT himself after all. But he does go along with all these demands for perfectionism from Maddie. Cuz it’s not “pass the test” she insists on, it’s “with flying colors”. Gotta be perfect after all.

No wonder Jazz is obsessed with grades and achievements and is studying and reading constantly.

Danny may be more of a “Cs get degrees” type of student, but at least, unlike Maddie and Jack’s alleged “we get As and B minuses” genius selves, he somehow managed to not permanently damage and disfigure one of his best friends and instill them with lifelong hatred and desire for revenge ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯ so, maybe book learning isn’t everything Maddie!

The original line is such a weird one for Maddie to say anyway. She’s not a Fenton by birth but by marriage, and she’s basing this bizarro family pride in academic perfection on...marrying Jack, who failed the CAT and was a B minus student? I suppose we could see it as implying Jack’s other relatives/ancestors were intellectual overachievers.

Maddie’s probably weren’t. They seem to be from a very rural area, and education levels in those areas tends to be lower, there’s less universities, cultural buildings, and libraries, and technology tends to be further behind.

So maybe Maddie grew up in an anti-intellectual area/culture and has taken a retaliatory stance, scorning the low-brow and elevating academic and intellectual pursuit above all else. I can get why she might be that way, but it’s still unfair and bad parenting. Can you really picture a Mom who says the stuff she does to Danny, being happy and supportive if he wants to be a construction worker, or a yoga instructor, or make a career in a rock band or something?

She seems to make it really clear that succeeding on the traditional education track is the only path to success in her eyes. It’s not OK for Danny to make Cs and just get a high school diploma and then maybe go trucking school or get a certificate to teach yoga at the YMCA. He doesn’t get to be happy if that’s what he wants. That’s failure and he should feel like one.

#maddie fenton #danny phantom #jack fenton #danny fenton #rant #meta #I didn't mean to rant this much but that line really does bother me #for the record I do think it's good the Fentons are flawed parents #if they were perfect it would be unrealistic #but still putting ridiculous pressure on your kids to overachieve is unhealthy #and I will still be mad at them for doing it #I hope this doesn't seem like character bashing

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potionsprefect · 3 years

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The Familiar Face

Pairings: Ethan Ramsey x Victoria Clarke

Word Count: 1.8k

Summary: The past has a nasty way of coming back to haunt you and Victoria must learn to deal with it

Category: angst, fluff

Chapter One: Nomination

It was a relatively quiet day at Bloom Edenbrook. There wasn’t any traumas coming in, the diagnostics team were not very busy. The day was spent catching up on paperwork from the previous day.

Victoria Ramsey walked down the corridor to the ER with a file in her hands. She had just successfully diagnosed a young girl with a rare form of Leukaemia and was about to put the files away. As she walked down the corridor, she could see the many doctors and nurses of Bloom Edenbrook working away with patients, refilling IV stands, bandaging wounds and drawing blood.

Victoria passed the office of the leader of the diagnostics team. He was probably busy with paperwork like Victoria was. She thought about going in and taking his mind off of all of it. She would once these papers were filed away. Then they could steal a few moments together before they got back to work.

Being with Ethan had made Victoria feel a kind of happiness she had never felt before. One that made her never want to leave his side. They had been married for just over 4 years. Life couldn’t be more perfect.

Victoria was surprised that Ethan was open to the idea of children. It was him that brought it up, saying that if he could get used to the idea of marriage, he could definitely be a father. And that’s exactly what happened. They had a twin boy and girl, Luke and Lily Ramsey.

As Victoria got closer to the ER, she noticed there was a large group of interns gathered in the doctors lounge. As she looked into the room, she saw them all transfixed on the TV screen.

“Do you reckon he’ll win the nomination?”

“He has to! He’s so popular amongst the older voters and they make up a large amount of the population!”

“You won’t catch me voting for him. He’s a creep.”

“Shh! They’re about to announce the votes.”

Victoria walked closer to the TV screen to see what was happening. It was the nomination for who to nominate to represent the Republican Party at the Presidential Election. Victoria had avoided reading anything about the election or watching the coverage on TV. She wanted no business in dealing with politicians or deciding their future.

“It gives me great pleasure to announce that former Mayor and Senator of Massachusetts Ed Farrugia has been selected as the Republican Party’s nomination for the upcoming US Election!”

The name Ed Farrugia was a name she wanted to leave in the past. Flashbacks to that night played across her mind and her hand started trembling. She knew she should get out of there as soon as possible. But for some reason, Victoria was rooted to the spot, watching Ed be congratulated by fellow nominees and hearing his name be chanted by the crowd.

“It’s a great honour to receive the nomination in my home state. And I make this promise now. We are going to do great things, we will get this country back on track and make it the same America everyone admired us by. I will do all I can to make America a safe and welcoming place for all. Thank you!”

The place erupted and some of the doctors watching nodded and murmured in support. Victoria realised she had heard enough and stumbled out the room, nearly walking into the doorway. She had to get out of there and fast.

As quick as she could, Victoria went to the one person who could calm her nerves down easily.

“Please be in your office.” Victoria said as she made her way down the hallway and into his office. She breathed a sigh of relief when he was sat at his desk.

“Hey.” Ethan said barely looking up from his desk. When Victoria didn’t respond he looked up. He noticed the distress on her face, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. “What’s wrong?” Ethan said jumping up from his seat, guiding Victoria to the sofa and sitting down next to her, pulling her into his arms.

“I...” Victoria couldn’t get the words out, instead she just sobbed into his arms. Ethan looked at his wife with concern, he hadn’t seen her this distressed since that night. Something big must’ve happened. “He’s running for President. He’s actually doing it.”

Ethan knew exactly who she was talking about. She might’ve managed to avoid reading the news but he didn’t. He regularly looked for updates on Senator Ed, wondering what he was up to.

“It’s okay.” Ethan comforted her stroking her back. Once the tears had subsided, Ethan got up and made Victoria a cup of coffee setting it on the table.

“Why is he doing this? How can he do this?” Victoria sighed.

“Because he’s a very powerful man who wants a very powerful position.” Ethan replied.

“But hasn’t his reputation declined in the years? How did he get enough support?” Victoria asked.

“Unfortunately people who support politicians from the beginning can’t have their minds changed. And there were enough of them for Ed Farrugia.” Ethan sighed.

“You don’t think he’d come here do you? Start gaining support outside the hospital? I know he said he was backing down on his rehab bill again but he could easily change his mind and what about-“

Ethan cut off Victoria by pressing his lips softly to hers, cradling her face in his hands. She melted into the kiss before pulling away and rested her forehead against his.

“If he ever does come here I’ll make sure he doesn’t set foot inside the hospital. I will make that very clear at the next meeting I promise.”

“What did I do to deserve you?” Victoria laughed hugging Ethan.

“You didn’t have to do anything. I’m the one who doesn’t deserve you.” Ethan said.

“Don’t be silly Ethan.” Victoria giggled. “Will you do me a favour?”

“Anything.”

“Will you call your Dad and get him to bring the twins back tonight? I need to cuddle my babies.”

“Of course, I miss them too.”

— — — — —

A simple phone call and Alan was more than happy to bring Luke and Lily Ramsey back early. The twins however were sad that they were ending their sleepover at Grandad Alan’s house early but were excited to see mummy and daddy again.

Ethan kept an eye on Victoria throughout the reminder of her shift, he tried to persuade her to go home but she insisted she was ok. Ethan knew how stubborn his wife was so didn’t press the matter further. He did however turn off the TV in the doctors lounge, something the interns complained about but one silenced look from Ethan made them keep their mouths shut.

Ethan had also spoken to Naveen and Leland and told them that Victoria and him would be taking a week off in order to spend some time as a family, Naveen had no problem with it at all, Leland had tried to argue against Ethan but Ethan’s mind wasn’t about to be changed. He was going to take care of his wife, spend some time with his family and that was the end of it.

When they got home, they ate dinner and then retreated to the sofa. Victoria turned on the TV and was immediately met with coverage on Ed Farrugia.

“You don’t have to watch it Vic.” Ethan said.

“It’s ok. I know I’ve avoided it all so far but I’m not now. I’m not afraid of him. I never have been.” Victoria smiled.

The doorbell then rang and Ethan went to answer it. He was met with the smiling face of Alan and the excited faces of Luke and Lily.

“Daddy!” Luke and Lily immediately ran into Ethan’s arms, the latter bending down to greet the two tiny humans.

“I missed you both. Why don’t you go find mummy? She’s in the living room.” Ethan smiled at the twins watching them run off down the hall to find Victoria.

“You were exactly like that at their age.” Alan laughed.

“Yeah and now look at me.” Ethan replied although he couldn’t fight back a small smile. “Thank you for bringing them back early. It’s just been a tough day and Victoria really wanted to see them.”

“It’s not a problem. I did see the news earlier and I understand.” Alan smiled.

“I know. I can’t believe he would do this. He’s nothing but a...” Ethan checked behind him to make sure the twins were out of earshot. “A bastard.”

“I agree. I won’t be voting for him.” Alan replied.

Ethan said goodbye to Alan and made his way into the living room where he saw Luke and Lily cuddled up with Victoria. He sat down on the sofa and Lily curled up against his side, on the verge of falling asleep. Not wanting her to fall asleep where she was, Ethan picked her up and carried her to her bedroom.

“No Daddy. I’m not asleep.” Lily murmured laying her head on his shoulder.

“You’ll be more comfortable in your bed.” Ethan said carrying her up the stairs and helping her into her pyjamas. Victoria brought Luke up and both parents tucked their children in giving them a few kisses before they retreated from the door and went back downstairs.

“Do you reckon I can make them stay small forever?” Victoria said slumping back onto the sofa.

“I reckon you couldn’t stop them if you tried.” Ethan chuckled putting an arm around Victoria. “Although if you’re getting broody again...”

“No way. Two is enough for me.” Victoria laughed.

“I’m glad we agree on that.” Ethan grinned.

“Do you think Ed would win the election?” Victoria asked after a period of silence.

Ethan wasn’t sure how to answer that. Republicans were very powerful people and sometimes, powerful people did big things. Ed Farrugia was still popular amongst the public, apart from those at Bloom Edenbrook.

Ethan would never forget that night. Nearly having Victoria slip away from him was one of the worst moments of his life. Today he did all he could to protect her and if that meant refusing to let Ed Farrugia visit Bloom Edenbrook Hospital then so be it.

“I don’t know. He’s still a very popular man no matter what we think of him. Many people don’t know what went on.” Ethan sighed.

“That’s true. I wonder what the others will make of it. I hope Bobby and Danny’s family haven’t seen the news.” Victoria sighed.

“It’ll all be ok. Whatever happens. We’ll get through it.” Ethan replied. “Now am I going to have to carry you to bed or are you able to walk to the bedroom?”

“Are you trying to get me into bed Ethan Ramsey?” Victoria smirked.

“Is it working?”

“You’ll have to find out.” Victoria winked, walking to the bedroom.

Ethan followed her quickly not wanting to disappoint her.

— — — — —

New series is here! Had this in the drafts for a while.

Apologies if the way I’ve written how the nominees for President are chosen or the timeline for when they are chosen are incorrect. I am not American!

Also I’m not 100% sure what party Ed Farrugia represents and I don’t think it’s ever specified in the book, and I researched that Massachusetts hasn’t had a Republican Senator since the 80s but as this is a fictional world and given Ed’s attitude throughout book 2, I’ve placed him as a Republican, just to make the fic more interesting.

So, Ed Farrugia is running for President! Who would’ve thought! 😉

The big question is will he win the election?

Tag list: @ohchoices @openheartfan @queencarb @genevievemd @iemcpbchoices

#open heart #ethan ramsey #ethan ramsey x mc #play choices #pixelberry #fanfic #series #fanfic series #angst #fluff

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twoidiotwriters1 · 3 years

Text

Written In The Stars XCI (Harry Potter xF!Oc)

A/N: I'd missed this silly goose! tho the actors in hp for some reason look way older so he looks like a baby but pls imagine Erick like this older-looking student bc he should look that way jdhfd -Danny

Words: 2,195

Series’ Masterlist

Previous Chapter // Next Chapter

Chapter Twenty-Six: Talk it out.

"Hagrid!" Hermione shouted. "Hagrid, that's enough! We know you're in there! Nobody cares if your mum was a giantess, Hagrid! You can't let that foul Skeeter woman do this to you! Hagrid, get out here, you're just being —" The door opened. "About t — !" Hermione froze when she found Dumbledore there instead of their friend.

"Good afternoon," he said.

"We — er — we wanted to see Hagrid."

"Yes, I surmised as much," He said in amusement. "Why don't you come in?"

"Oh... um... okay."

Hagrid was sitting at the table, there were two mugs of tea. For the looks of it, he'd been crying.

"Hi, Hagrid," said Harry.

" 'Lo," he said lowly.

"More tea, I think," said Dumbledore, and with the flick of his wand, a tea tray appeared. "Did you by any chance hear what Miss Granger was shouting, Hagrid? Hermione, Mel, Harry, and Ron still seem to want to know you, judging by the way they were attempting to break down the door."

"Of course we still want to know you!" Harry said. "You don't think anything that Skeeter cow — sorry, Professor..."

"I have gone temporarily deaf and haven't any idea what you said, Harry," said Dumbledore, looking up to the ceiling with interest.

"Er — right... I just meant — Hagrid, how could you think we'd care what that — woman — wrote about you?" Hagrid cried silently, two huge tears falling down his beard.

"Oh, Hagrid, don't cry!" Mel's hand went to rest above his, looking almost comically small.

"Living proof of what I've been telling you, Hagrid," said Dumbledore. "I have shown you the letters from the countless parents who remember you from their own days here, telling me in no uncertain terms that if I sacked you, they would have something to say about it —"

"Not all of 'em," said Hagrid. "Not all of 'em wan' me ter stay."

"Really, Hagrid, if you are holding out for universal popularity, I'm afraid you will be in this cabin for a very long time. Not a week has passed since I became headmaster of this school when I haven't had at least one owl complaining about the way I run it. But what should I do? Barricade myself in my study and refuse to talk to anybody?"

"Yeh — yeh're not half-giant!"

"Hagrid, look what I've got for relatives!" Harry said in disbelief. "Look at the Dursleys!"

"An excellent point," said Dumbledore. "My own brother, Aberforth, was prosecuted for practising inappropriate charms on a goat. It was all over the papers, but did Aberforth hide? No, he did not! He held his head high and went about his business as usual! Of course, I'm not entirely sure he can read, so that may not have been bravery..."

Mel looked at her uncle knowing that there was certainly more he could say about their family, but she remained quiet.

"Come back and teach, Hagrid," said Hermione, "please come back, we really miss you."

"I refuse to accept your resignation, Hagrid, and I expect you back at work on Monday," said Dumbledore, standing up to leave. "You will join me for breakfast at eight-thirty in the Great Hall. No excuses. Good afternoon to you all."

When the Headmaster left the cabin, Hagrid sobbed for real, hiding his face behind both hands.

"Great man, Dumbledore... great man..."

"Yeah, he is," said Ron. "Can I have one of these cakes, Hagrid?"

"Help yerself," said Hagrid. "Ar, he's righ', o' course — yeh're all righ'... I bin stupid... my ol' dad woulda bin ashamed o' the way I've bin behavin'... Never shown you a picture of my old dad, have I? Here..."

Hagrid got up, went over to his dresser, opened a drawer, and pulled out a picture of a short wizard with Hagrid's crinkled black eyes, beaming as he sat on top of Hagrid's shoulder. Hagrid was a good seven or eight feet tall, judging by the apple tree beside him, but his face was beardless, young, round, and smooth — he looked hardly older than eleven.

"Tha' was taken jus' after I got inter Hogwarts," Hagrid croaked. "Dad was dead chuffed... thought I migh' not be a wizard, see, 'cos me mum... well, anyway. 'Course, I never was great shakes at magic, really... but at least he never saw me expelled. Died, see, in me second year...

"Dumbledore was the one who stuck up for me after Dad went. Got me the gamekeeper job... trusts people, he does. Gives 'em second chances... tha's what sets him apar' from other heads, see. He'll accept anyone at Hogwarts, s'long as they've got the talent. Knows people can turn out okay even if their families weren'... well... all tha' respectable. But some don' understand that. There's some who'd always hold it against yeh... there's some who'd even pretend they just had big bones rather than stand up an' say — I am what I am, an' I'm not ashamed. 'Never be ashamed,' my ol' dad used ter say, 'there's some who'll hold it against you, but they're not worth botherin' with.' An' he was right. I've bin an idiot. I'm not botherin' with her no more, I promise yeh that. Big bones... I'll give her big bones."

The kids shared nervous glances, but Hagrid kept talking without waiting for a reply.

"Yeh know wha', Harry? When I firs' met you, you reminded me o' me a bit. Mum an' Dad gone, an' you was feelin' like yeh wouldn' fit in at Hogwarts, remember? Not sure yeh were really up to it... an' now look at yeh, Harry! School champion! Yeh know what I'd love, Harry? I'd love yeh ter win, I really would. It'd show 'em all... yeh don' have ter be pureblood ter do it. Yeh don' have ter be ashamed of what yeh are. It'd show 'em Dumbledore's the one who's got it righ', lettin' anyone in as long as they can do magic. How you doin' with that egg, Harry?"

"Great," said Harry shakily. "Really great."

"Tha's my boy... you show 'em, Harry, you show 'em. Beat'em all..."

"But if it doesn't turn out as expected," Mel was quick to add. "Know that we are all proud of you as well, Hagrid. We love you very much."

"I'll follow Cedric's advice," Harry told her quietly before going to bed that night.

"Blimey, all it took was a crying Hagrid..." Mel raised her eyebrows. "Want help?"

"No," He replied. "Dunno... I'll let you know."

"All right," She sighed. "Good luck."

She had an important matter to attend that day in private and it could only be between her and Erick. She used the pocket watch he'd given her and informed him that she wanted to talk. On Monday, both students met at the far end of the library, Mel had no idea where to start.

"I won't apologize for what I said the other day, I know you hate it when I do that," She began, "but you're hiding something and I would like to know what it is, maybe I can help you?"

She was expecting many reactions, all except the one she got. Erick let out a long sigh and picked out of his bag one of the books she'd lent him.

"Persuasion?" Mel raised a brow.

"I take that you've read it?" He asked.

"I love it," She smiled at it. "The main character's name is Anne, right?"

"Yes," Erick shook his head. "The story... It made me think– What if I'm making a mistake?"

"What d'you mean?"

"What if I don't like Anne the way I think I do?" He elaborated. "I wrote and she wrote back every week, we never ran out of things to say, but the last week before going to my grandad's house she said something that... What if I just like her because she's the complete opposite of what my parents want?"

"I feel like those are unrelated, I'm not sure I follow," Mel frowned. "Since when you've been having doubts?"

"Since Anne and I started to talk more this summer. It's not exactly that I have doubts, I mean, I know I feel something, I just don't know what."

"I don't think there's a reasoning behind the people we like," She retorted. "...Right?"

"If there's no reasoning, then I guess it's all right, but if I'm supposed to have one... I don't have it. I can't tell why I like her."

"Well, you think she's pretty?"

"Yeah," Erick moved on his place awkwardly. "Although I think other girls are pretty too, and I could even get along with them as I do with Anne. If you were to ask me why I'm interested in her, I wouldn't know."

"But that's normal," Mel tried to calm him. "Love has no logic, that doesn't mean is bad?"

"Listen," He put a finger on the book and pointed harshly. "If I just like her because she's pretty and fun then it wouldn't be bad... Yet I think I'm around her because I know it'd make my parents mad, when I'm here, at school, I don't worry about her... I do wonder, but is not constant."

"So? I don't think about Harry all day."

"Aren't I supposed to be dying of solitude when I'm away from her? Maybe this is just a lie I tell myself so I feel like a normal guy, maybe I'm incapable of falling in love and Anne is just my excuse to be a bad son..."

There was a piece of paper coming out of the book, she took it without thinking. Erick kept rambling without looking at what she was doing and her eyes skimmed through the letter. The seams were so worn out that she could tell the boy had read it several times.

"Anne likes someone else..." She said quietly.

Erick's eyes landed on the piece of paper his face turned pale. "Give me that."

"His name's Stuart and he's nice...'" Mel read out loud. "Her boyfriend?"

"No," He said, seizing the letter. "He could be... but she's waiting."

"Waiting?"

"For me."

"And you don't want to say anything," Mel said slowly, "because you're not sure?"

"I can't be with her," Erick said with difficulty. "Not yet... I have two more years of school, even then I don't know when I'll be able to leave my parents' house..."

"But you like her."

"My parents won't approve."

"You don't have to tell them."

"I can't do that!" He said. "Imagine that Harry's parents were alive and they hated everything about you. That every time they see you they'd throw nasty remarks your way, and then Harry'd be out in the street with no money and without being able to give you a good life, imagine you're from two different worlds and nothing you have to offer can get him out trouble..."

"I think... I think we'd both be in pain all the time," Mel said quietly, "...Is that how you feel?"

"That's what will happen if I do the wrong thing," Erick ran a hand through his hair, ruining his neat curls. "I'd love to send a letter telling her everything... but we're young, I wasn't expecting things to move as fast as they did... she's great, she really is, but she doesn't even know I'm a wizard. There are too many secrets and I just think Anne deserves better. Maybe Stuart can do better."

"I think that in a way, you're right," Mel pushed the book towards him. "But I've seen you read and learn, get rid of so many prejudices just to meet her, not even knowing if she'd like you back... that has to mean something."

Erick supported his head in one hand, rubbing his forehead. "All I know is that if I pull her away from this boy without telling her everything... I'll end up ruining one of the best things that have ever happened to me."

"Then?" She frowned. "You're going to... you're just going to leave her?"

Erick swallowed the lump in his throat. "I want her to choose him... I'm not around anyway, I could even mention the ball and Daphne just to... to make her think..."

"You're gonna hurt her," She told him, not in a reproachful tone, but one that had to be said. "I guess this is the gentlest way you can do it... and it's not forever, right? I mean, if everything goes as planned, eventually you'll be able to try. It's meant to be."

"Meant to be?" He chuckled bitterly. "You sound too sure."

"I am," She responded sincerely. "You and Anne will end up together... just like Harry and me, if I'm lucky enough."

Erick gave her a look, a tiny smile on his lips. "Warming up to the idea then?"

"I've been too hard on myself and Harry," She shrugged. "I think life can be a fairytale if we do what we're meant to do."

"How are we supposed to know what that is?"

"Fate will find a way," Mel got up and patted his shoulder. "Just don't lose hope..."

Next Chapter —>

Taglist.

@dee123ksha @vampiregirl1797 @siriuslysirius1107 @stardusthigh @mikariell95 @vernon-dursley @thesuitelifeofafangirl @tomshollandz @kylosleftbuttcheek @reverse-hxlland @bloodorangemoonlight @omiwashere @t-rexs-world

#twoidiots writing #hp fanfic #Harry Potter #harry potter fanfiction #harry potter xoc #WITT fic

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vtmb2s · 3 years

Note

Past 1, 3, 6, 8 for Jason my beloved and Present 5-8 for Jenny annnd Future 2, 5, 7 for Helena! 😏

─ JASON

1. Briefly describe the way their parents grew up, and how it affected the way they raised them.

Both his parents were two regular middle class new yorkers, Frank (his dad) grew up in New York's suburbs and had a very conventional upbringing, he was the middle child of three siblings and thus kind of ignored so he usually just minded his own business... that very much carried over into adulthood, he was very reclusive and didn't really bother spending much time with his family -_-

Jason's mom, Gina, was a 2nd generation italian-american who grew up in a huge family with a billion siblings and cousins who are all very different from her husband. She liked it in the beginning but she became more and more unhappy and kind of underwhelmed. She really projected all her dreams of ever becoming someone on her kids that failed with her because she was stuck in a boring marriage with the most unambitious and boring man ever 😑

3. Describe their family. Who raised them, and who had the most impact on them? Did they have any siblings? Who were they closest to? What were the family dynamics like?

This ties in with the previous question but Frank was a bit of a loser, not particularly attractive and more timid & shy.. he was a very unambitious guy who worked a boring office job all his life without any intention of climbing the ladder. He really spent most of his time off work with his boring little loser hobbies :/

Gina was a much more spirited and lively person than her husband, Jason takes a lot more after her than his dad. She wasn't a great mother by all means due to the fact that she was unhappy in her marriage and with her life and kind of took that out on her kids, in a way where she placed certain expectations on them which Jason never really met. They weren't particularly close due to Jason's more.. rebellious nature he had as a kid, which in turn made him cause more trouble because that was the only way his parents gave him any attention at all :/ He also has an older brother, Richard, who their mother very obviously favored. Frank didn't really give a fuck about either of his sons -_-

He had a very close relationship with his mother's family though, particularly with one of her brothers. Carlo (said uncle) was a lot like him and never had any kids on his own so he became somewhat of a father figure to Jason :-)

6. Did the location they grew up in affect them significantly? Do they still go there?

He grew up in some little house in New York's suburb, not the prettiest house there because they didn't make enough for one of the nicer looking ones. He's not that fond of the boring suburbs (even in Boston), he spent more time in the city with his relatives and preferred that over his actual home. Other than that it didn't affect him much 🤷‍♀️

8. What was their childhood/teenage bedroom like?

A small little room with an ugly sports wallpaper that his parents never bothered to replace as he got older. It always looked a little messy and had a few mismatching mid-century decorations and furniture in there. As he grew older he started to cover the walls with random posters he had, to hide the ugly baseball wallpaper.

─ JENNY

5. What kind of people do they usually interact with? Who are their friends, the people they look up to/trust, and who are their “associates”?

She interacts with all sorts of people in New Bordeaux' criminal underworld - if you do anything illegal chances are you'll know Jenny. As for her actual friends, she's friends with the 3 other criminal 20 year olds in town, Danny, Lincoln, Ellis, unfortunately Giorgi (frenemies would be more fitting) and Lena. Her closest and best friends would definitely be Gavin (of @dannyburke fame)and Juliet (of @jennystahl fame) though, they're also pretty much the only ones who would fall into the "people she trusts" category... they're the only ones she'll have long weed induced therapy sessions at 1 am while the monkees are on tv.

6. What is their current relationship with their family?

Complicated... the love is there and all that, it's more of a business relationship though rather than a parent-child thing, especially with her dad. It's nothing that she ever questions (until aforementioned therapy sessions with her friends), she grew up in an environment where affection isn't really something she sees often and almost all her friends have messed up relationships with their parents too so while there is some resentment she never really questions that the way they raised her might not be ideal :c

The relationship with her siblings is complicated as well, especially because they're both a LOT younger than her. She was an only-child until the age of 13 and moved out of her childhood home when they were eight and six years old so there's this weird disconnect but there's a relationship nonetheless, which is weird. Eldest daughter AND only child disease 😓Not to mention that her parents are looking to make her little brother head of the family because he's a boy or whatever.. drama!

7. Do they have a partner? How did they meet, and what’s their relationship like now?

Yes.. she and Ellis met on some random job in the Hollow in 1963 that her dad was taking her along with (he and Sammy did random deals together and were also good friends 😌) and Jenny was like wow how boring. What if I just talk to this this guy's sons instead.... she thought he was some annoying teenage guy and only really talked to him whenever necessary (when her dad's business trips to Sammy's got REALLY boring). She forced herself to hang out with him more after Lincoln went to Vietnam and realized he's not so bad so they became friends :)

In actual game canon nothing really happens because he dies, Jenny just becomes sad that her friends were killed (him, Danny, Sammy and maybe Michael too because of Juliet connection.. she doesn't give a fuck abt Giorgi anymore that little rat can die) and wonders if she liked that goofy little guy with the ugly shirts, but in any case it's too late now.

We're doing au's here though (also this is as of '68) so in the good timeline they get together in 1968.. sort of. It's not a friends with benefits thing, more that sort of relationship that you know will end sooner or later for various reasons, so you're kind of living in the moment and have fun while it lasts. It IS genuine and not just about hooking up from time to time of course, it's just not the kind of thing that was built to last because it's based off of a dumb 20 year olds friendship and one of them (Jenny) doesn't really plan on sticking around in New Bordeaux. But well, who knows what will happen 😏

8. What hobby or pastime of theirs do they consider most important to them and why?

Well, she's big on making music, she plays the guitar and sings (she has a pretty nice voice c: ), she grew up in a pretty fucked up environment so that was her sort of escape in her youth, to be a normal kid who's playing the guitar very very badly. She doesn't play it badly as a 23 year old anymore of course and it's a little thing she shares with her best friends so that means a lot to her 😳

─ HELENA

2. Are they content with their future situation? Is there anything they would change?

Well, she's certainly not happy with the whole vampire situation - her dreams of becoming famous for acting were pretty much ruined, now she's legally dead and nothing more than a photo on true crime blogs and conspiracy theory websites... Famous but for the wrong reasons, in a way she's more bitter about "dying" before she had the chance to become famous than about the whole vampirism thing herself. There would have been something incredibly poetic about a beautiful young actress dying at the height of her career, now she's just some random nobody :/

It could be worse though. She's known among L.A. vampires for her lack of loyalty to any of the factions (despite her working for the Camarilla earlier) and her just helping whoever she feels like which is fine to her, most of them will just leave her alone. In any case, she's not in Los Angeles anymore after the events of Bloodlines!!

5. Did they get married or have a family? Why? If otherwise, why not?

See she would like to get married eventually, making a promise to love someone and be with them for eternity (literally... because... vampires) is incredibly romantic and she would love that (THIS is her wedding... not really because she's not that cringe but also.. yeah), so who knows what might happen.

Family though, no!! Starting one isn't possible, at least not with biological children since she's a vampire. It doesn't bother her that much, she always did envision herself with one child in the future but she's not desperate to be a mother anyway so she doesn't beat herself up about it. She does wonder what it might be like to have children and laments it from time to time (she's a little overdramatic) but overall she doesn't mind that much.

7. Are their friends still a part of their life? Are there people they are no longer in touch with, or newly important people?

Yes, sort of! As I mentioned before she's not in L.A. anymore post-bloodlines and she never had many friends there to begin with so she keeps in touch with the few she has there. She miiight make a few new (or old) connections once shes out of Los Angeles too, who knows!

#THANK U ❤❤❤#three hotties..#i got SO many for Jenny i'm gonna end up having to replay mafia by the time i'm done with this #queennymeria #ask #c: jason #c: jenny #c: helena

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five-rivers · 4 years

Text

Glass Beetle

Based on a prompt by 2fruity4u for the Phic Phight! Might be sort of... fragmentary, in parts.

Danny frowned at his hand as it flickered in the evening's fading sunlight. He'd been having trouble with his invisibility lately. Nothing so obvious, for the most part, but both Sam and Tucker had noticed him 'blurring' or 'fading' around the edges this past week. He'd been able to correct himself so far, pull himself back into focus, so to speak, but, if that flicker was any sign, this was getting worse, not better.

He wondered if a new power was coming in. Sometimes his other powers acted weird when that happened. He hadn't noticed anything like that, though.

Either way, there wasn't all that much he could do about this. It wasn't as if he could just ask anyone what was wrong with his ghost powers.

Actually, that wasn't quite true. He did have a few ghostly allies. Sadly, they all lived (resided?) in lairs that took hours and hours to get to from the Fenton Portal. Lairs that also moved. He didn't really have the time to go find them.

Honestly, with all the schoolwork that had been heaped on him and his friends, he didn't have time to go do anything that wasn't absolutely necessary. Including sleep. He would give a lot to just be able to go to bed now, rather than whenever he finished his math homework. His extra math homework, assigned in lieu of detention. But, no, Skulker had to show up again, this time with ghostly hunting dogs, and completely waste Danny's afternoon.

But maybe that was the real reason he was having trouble with his invisibility. Exhaustion. And embarrassment. The two seemed to go hand in hand.

Just that week... Ugh, he didn't want to think about it.

He perched in a tree in the park, resting, and, inevitably, thought about it.

He really hated the people at his school sometimes. Dash for dumping glitter all over him and calling him a fairy... as if that insult wasn't so old it was fossilized... all the other people in his class for staring at him... Mrs. Hall for calling him out for 'disturbing the class'... the inevitable interruption of said class by ghosts... the detention... and everyone staring at him and giggling behind their hands.

Not to mention the toilet paper and what Dash and his cronies had done to his locker. Carrying his waterlogged books around and trying to explain to the teachers had been... painful.

In other words, the A-list had been in a bullying mood this week. No wonder he wanted to be invisible.

He sighed and drifted out of the tree. He had his breath back, as much as he had it as a ghost, and it was time to go home and do math.

Of course, to put a cherry on top of this already horrible week, he was immediately shot. He tumbled head over heels, and instinct took over. He went invisible, hard, erasing his light even in the infrared and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum, the chill of the power washing over him. He didn't know what had hit him, after all. A lot of ghost hunters had special goggles for seeing ghosts only transparent in the visible spectrum. Ghosts could often see through invisibility.

He reoriented himself, scanning the area for his attacker, one hand on the thermos.

Valerie. Very confused Valerie, judging by how she was whipping her head back and forth, scanning the ground and the skies.

Danny didn't want to deal with her. He hid himself behind a tree and went human in order to confuse any ectosignature tracing equipment she might have. He never knew what she'd get from Vlad, the jerk, but he probably wouldn't have included anything capable of tracking a half-ghost in human form.

He let out a breath as Valerie flew away. Now it was really time to get home.

He let go of his invisibility.

The cool feeling on his skin didn't go away. He looked down. Still invisible.

He let go of his invisibility.

Still, he only saw a faint outline of his limbs, visible only to his eyes.

Oh, this was going to be bad.

Danny had snuck into his house while invisible before, but usually he had a choice about it. He couldn't just walk through the walls, because his parents had coated most of the ground floor with something that blocked phasing a couple months ago (and was also a truly hideous orange), and he couldn't climb through his bedroom window because they had rigged it with a special anti-ghost alarm after noticing an ectoplasm stain on his windowsill.

He decided to go around to the back door, so no one would notice the front door opening and closing on its own. From there, he'd go to the lab and use the portal. Hours of flying and missing his math homework were preferable to being stuck invisible indefinitely. If only his parents had invented something to counteract invisibility... But, no, they were too focused on making things that hurt.

Yeah, maybe he was a bit bitter about that.

Okay, the coast was clear. Good. He padded down the back hall, unwilling to go ghost to fly. The security system was set to ignore him in human form, but sometimes it still picked up his ghost.

He turned the corner into the kitchen and froze as he heard the hateful beep of the Fenton Finder. His father's head snapped up, away from his plate of (unsanctioned by his diet) fudge.

"There is a ghost ten feet in front of you."

Jack leaped from his seat, and slammed the button to activate the Fenton Anti-Creep System. Lights strobed, some of them green with ectoenergy. Danny yelped and dodged a laser, then a laser sword, then a metal-backed cutout of his dad's face.

He ran.

By the time he got out of Fentonworks (the deathtrap) he was out of breath, slightly singed, and definitely bruised. He also felt, weirdly, more invisible.

He frowned. Was he diving deeper into invisibility without realizing it? Why? Because he'd been startled?

He turned to Sam's house.

"Okay," said Jazz, over the speaker on Sam's phone, after he had explained his current predicament. "It sounds like a confidence problem. Just, tell yourself you want to be seen- No. You have to want to be seen."

"I do want to be seen," said Danny. "I've been over this with Sam and Tucker. I don't want to be invisible."

"You know that," said Jazz, "but do you feel it?"

"Trust me," said Danny. "I feel it. Can you not get them out of the house for a bit so I can sneak in?"

"Afraid not," said Jazz. "They've put us on lockdown until they find, well, you. Or tomorrow morning."

Danny groaned. He'd already called them to say he was staying over at Tucker's. He'd wondered at the time why they were so happy about that.

He hadn't managed even a flicker of visibility by midnight. Even his transformation rings, usually blindingly bright, went unseen. Stuff he picked up turned invisible, too. Anything he wore turned invisible.

Also, the constant invisibility was draining him. Ghost powers took energy, especially when he was in human form. He was exhausted.

Maybe he would spend all his energy and wake up visible. He could hope. In the meantime, he'd sleep in one of the Manson's guest rooms.

He did not wake up visible. He woke up just as exhausted and unable to so much as see his own outline anymore. That was new. Before, he'd always been able to see himself while invisible.

He had to ask Sam to call Jazz, because he couldn't hold and see the phone at the same time.

"It should be safe to come home, now," said Jazz. "I turned off the security system, and Mom and Dad are off chasing ectopuses near the mall."

"Oh, good," said Danny, sluggishly transforming. "I'll be there in a few."

He took the same route in as before, but, this time, only Jazz was waiting for him in the kitchen.

Since he was a younger brother, he snuck up on her and poked the back of her neck. She jumped about a foot, and glared at a bit of air several inches above his eyes.

"Danny," she said, "would it kill you to take things seriously for once?"

"It already did," said Danny. "And, honestly, you sort of walked into that one."

Jazz rolled her eyes, and pushed open the door to the lab. "Do you want me to come with you?" she asked. "We can take the Specter Speeder."

"Better not," said Danny. "I should be fine. None of my enemies are going to be able to see me, after all."

"Well," said Jazz, as they stopped in front of the portal. She looked over a foot to his left as she said, "Be safe, Danny."

"I will," he said, and launched himself into the Ghost Zone.

"Your sister thought you had a what?" asked Frostbite, amused. He, also, wasn't looking quite where Danny was. In fact, Danny kept having to dodge out of the larger ghost's way.

"A confidence problem," said Danny. His voice sounded weirdly quiet, even to himself, and he wondered if his voice would also be affect by whatever this was.

The large ghost suppressed a toothy smile. "While your current condition may respond to your emotional state, great one, and your powers are linked to your emotions, they are not the cause."

"Then what is?"

"You have a parasite," said Frostbite.

Danny didn't say anything for a moment, half-convinced Frostbite was joking.

"A what?" he squeaked.

"A parasite. Don't be concerned, it is relatively harmless." Frostbite paused. "For ghosts. I have never heard of a human or half-ghost getting one."

That was comforting. Not. "What kind of parasite?" asked Danny. "What does it do? I mean, other than force you to be invisible."

"Well," said Frostbite. He turned to face the dizzying array of screens and other technology embedded in the icy wall of the cave. He brought up a image that made Danny blanch.

"It's that big?" he asked, one hand kneading his stomach, as if he could thereby force the many-legged thing out.

"Yes. Actually, it's a rather small example of this species. This must be its first breeding cycle."

Danny's eye twitched. "Breeding cycle?" he asked, feeling even sicker.

"Yes," said Frostbite. "The malaperas eraro is very sensitive to light during its breeding cycle, but they are also very weak ghosts, unable to become invisible for long periods of time. So they find a host and use their host's abilities. Once the breeding cycle is complete, all of the parasites will leave the host, and symptoms will stop almost immediately."

"And how long does this take, exactly?" asked Danny, voice cracking.

"Ah, it varies, great one," said Frostbite. "From the point that the ghost is unable to become visible, no longer than a week, depending on the strength of the host ghost."

"I can't be invisible for a week!" said Danny, alarmed. "I have school! My parents will notice I'm gone! I'm already exhausted from being invisible for this long. I can't take a week of this!"

"Ah, yes. The fatigue," said Frostbite. His eyes flicked from side to side. "That is, actually, the reason for the variable time. The malaperas eraro cannot finish breeding while the host is awake. It waits for the forced invisibility to drain the host and drop them into a sort of hibernation. It takes longer for stronger ghosts to reach that point."

"Oh," said Danny. "Great."

"We will be more than happy to have you stay with us while you recover. We will provide everything you need, and keep close track of your condition. This is more of an inconvenience to most ghosts than anything else. Similar to, say, the common cold or chicken pox for humans. It is difficult to be reinfected."

That was something, at least. He didn't want to do this again. "You're sure it will be safe for me? I mean, I'm not normal. Maybe we should just... take it out?" He mimed pulling, even though Frostbite couldn't see him.

"That is a matter to consider," agreed Frostbite. "Due to your unique physiology there may be... unforeseen complications. That is another reason for you to stay here, where we can monitor you. If it becomes necessary, we can remove the parasite, but doing so is an invasive and rather dangerous procedure."

Danny briefly considered flying to Clockwork, who could probably do something about the time problem, but exhaustion weighed heavily on his shoulders. "Okay. Fine, I guess. Just- Could you- If it isn't too much- take a message to my sister for me?"

The room was cozier and warmer than the norm for the Far Frozen, in deference to Danny's smaller stature and warm-blooded human form. There were also a number of nice, safe nooks and crannies that were attractive from a ghostly perspective, and a large number of paper-wrapped items.

"What?" asked Danny, leaning back into Frosbite's fluffy fur. On the way over, they had come to a compromise regarding how not to run Danny over. It involved Danny holding onto Frostbite (teenage pride required that he refuse Frostbite's offer to carry him) and Danny had enjoyed the contact more than he wanted to admit.

"Ah, gifts from your admirers, great one. We all wish for you to recover swiftly."

"So I don't freeze everyone again and leave quickly?" joked Danny.

Frostbite chuckled. "Nothing like that. We enjoy having you here, great one. It is an honor."

Danny hummed and let Frostbite guide him to the nest-like bed.

Danny felt like he was sleepwalking the past couple of... whatevers. Honestly, he didn't know how long he'd been in the Far Frozen anymore. It was all sort of blurring together, and Danny found it difficult to focus on anything.

Frostbite was doing another body-scan on him today, to check where the parasite was and what it was doing. Danny wasn't enthusiastic. The table for the scanner had been built for someone much larger than him and was distinctly uncomfortable.

Right now, Danny was sitting in a chair across the room, a blanket wrapped around him, waiting for Frostbite to wave him over. It was useful, he had found, to announce where he was going to be and then stay there. People wouldn't trip over him as much, if he was where he was expected to be.

"Alright, great one," said Frostbite. "We are ready to take your scan."

"Okay," mumbled Danny. He stood up, walked halfway to the table, and then collapsed under a wave of dizziness and fatigue.

"Great one?"

Danny only managed to make a pathetic sort of mewling sound. His vision was all grey around the edges, but he could still watch Frostbite grope along the floor, searching for him, and hissed when Frostbite bumped into him a little too roughly for comfort.

After that, Frostbite picked him up, and Danny stopped forcing his eyes open.

He woke up cocooned in sadly invisible blankets. There were voices. Deep, rhythmic ones. He sighed and tucked his chin down against his chest. He was safe here.

He woke up again, hungry and grumbling. He complained until he got food and went back to sleep.

When was the last time he opened his eyes? It was dark.

"... have finished?" said the voices.

"... reconsider the surgery..."

"... preparations..."

Danny woke up.

He could see his nose. Huh. He'd never really noticed how visible his nose was before he'd been stuck invisible. Really. It was right there.

He went back to sleep.

#danny phantom #phic phight #phic phight 2020

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kinglazrus · 4 years

Text

The Haunting of Danny Fenton

Phic phight 2020

Submitted by @ave-aria: Valerie Gray is Danny Fenton's Bodyguard AU (*can be Modern AU, Medieval AU, Corporate AU, Full Ghost AU, whatever)

Summary: Valerie knows Danny Fenton, everybody does. Youngest of the family, son and heir, future owner of Fenton Works. Notable for all those reasons and infamous for none of them. Where Maddie and Jack are the local quirks, Danny is the tragedy. And, for the next week, he's the Red Huntress' newest client.

Chapter One: Local Tragedies

Word count: 1988 | [ffn] [ao3] | [next]

Valerie doesn't know what to expect of the Fentons. She knows about them, everyone does, but she's never met them. At least not face to face. The Fentons aren't just citizens of Amity Park, they're a feature of it, like the statue of the city's founder on Main Street, or the novelty billboard that welcomes people into town. Amity Park wouldn’t be the same without them.

They send her a town car. At this point in her career—which admittedly isn't that far—it's standard practice, at least when dealing with richer clients. The aggressively middle class can't afford the car. The lower class can't afford her, which is why she does those jobs for free. No point robbing good people of their money when the Amity elite already pay her extravagantly.

The Fentons aren't exactly the extravagant type, but they're nothing to scoff at, either. On the outside, the car looks fairly normal. Sleek, black, freshly polished and so clean she could probably eat off the hood. It pulls up to her office building, stopping right outside the front doors, snug to the curb.

Valerie doesn't wait for the driver to get out before opening the back door herself. She thinks it's such a ridiculous practice. Are rich people so needy they can't open a door for themselves? With a shake of her head, she picks up her suitcase and slides into the car. She freezes.

Inside, it's nothing like any town car she's been in before. It has the standard four seats, two against the back, two against the front, turned to face each other, but otherwise, it lacks all expected luxuries. Instead of plush leather, the seats are basic vinyl with neoprene covers on top. The carpet is stripped away, replaced with metal panels. Computer screens bearing the Fenton Works logo cover the windows on the left side of the car. The small drink stations Valerie has grown used to over the past couple years are gone. In their place stands a compact computer console on one side of the car and a fully stocked weapons' rack on the other.

Valerie stares at it all, mouth gaping shamelessly, wondering what all of this says about the Fentons themselves. Are they showy? Practical? The number of guns—she counts six—seems unnecessary. But, thinking of her own arsenal compacted into thick bracers on her wrists and cuffs on her ankles, she knows there's no such thing as too many guns when it comes to ghost hunting.

The partition separating the driver from the passengers goes down. The driver turns to face her, and Valerie's mouth falls open even wider. There's no mistaking that red beanie, those bulky half-moon glasses, the impossibly turquoise eyes.

"Tucker Foley?" Valerie exclaims.

"The one and only!" Tucker grins. Turning all the way around, he leans over the partition, elbows braced on the seats facing Valerie. "Haven't seen you since graduation. Feels like yesterday."

"It was two years ago."

Tucker sighs wistfully. "Yesterday."

"You work for the Fentons now? As their driver?" Valerie asks. She always thought Tucker would go big into technology development, coding, something like that. Or become a wanted cybercriminal.

"Me? A driver? And waste all these good looks? Please." Tucker scoffs and waves a hand dismissively. "I run the computer division at Fenton Works. When I heard Mr. and Mrs. F were hiring you, I just had to come get you myself."

"You're twenty," Valerie says.

"Hey, cool, you still know how to count. That's a great skill."

"You're twenty, and you're running a whole division at Fenton Works?"

"You're twenty and you have your own security company," he points out.

"One person company.

"One person division." Tucker grins. "It's really just me and my computer. Cyber security against ghosts isn't a big field yet."

Valerie eyes Tucker, unsure how to respond. Whatever she expected, Tucker wasn't it. Now, she feels off-balance, like she's missing something important, and she hates that feeling. It shouldn't matter that much. Amity Park isn't a huge city; the chances of her running into a former classmate are rather high. But Tucker was prepared for Valerie, and she wasn't prepared for him. Childishly, she feels like she's at a disadvantage. Which is ridiculous because she's here to fight ghosts, not Tucker. But his sudden appearance has disarmed her so completely that, if a ghost were to attack right then, she would be too stunned to react.

"You should see the look on your face," Tucker says.

Valerie purses her lips and scowls, wiping away whatever amusing expression has Tucker giggling under his breath. "You should drive."

Tucker's laugh balloons into gleeful cackles as he turns back around. "Whatever you want, Ms. Grey!"

Valerie, fuming, slams her thumb on the partition button, rolling it back up. To her annoyance, she can still hear Tucker's infuriating laugh through the glass.

—

When Valerie says the Fentons are a feature of Amity Park, she really means their laboratory, Fenton Works. Don't get her wrong, Maddie and Jack Fenton are a sight all on their own. On any given day, they can be seen tearing down the street in their bulky weaponized RV, guns blazing, wearing their brightly coloured jumpsuits. Seeing them for the first time is quite the experience. You can easily spot nearby tourists by checking people's reactions to the Fentons.

But Fenton Works. Fenton Works is a monolith dedicated to every crackpot idea the Fentons have ever had. When Valerie was in high school, Fenton Works was a single townhouse standing proudly at the corner of Lady and Red, bearing an obnoxiously neon sign. Above it loomed a massive saucer-shaped structure covered in more satellites than the local news station. Back then, Valerie thought the townhouse was a leering giant. Nowadays, it's dwarfed by the massive warehouse that takes up the rest of the block.

"Damn," Valerie whispers, peering out the righthand window as they turns onto Lady Avenue.

Tucker lowers the partition. "Pretty cool, right?"

Valerie eyes the mural of ghosts decorating the side of the building. "It's something."

Rather than stopping in front of the townhouse, Tucker turns onto Red Crescent and loops around to the back of the facility. Along the avenue, the warehouse is built almost right up to the sidewalk. On this side, however, there's a wide parking lot and, oddly enough, a lush garden surrounding a pond.

"I'm not the only one who thinks that looks weird, right?" She points to the pond.

Tucker cranes his neck, following her finger, and chuckles. "Jazz asked her parents to put that in so that employees have somewhere 'calming' to go. There's a greenhouse up on the roof, too,"

Pressing her cheek to the window, Valerie tries to spot the aforementioned greenhouse, but they're too close to the building now for her to see it.

Tucker pulls into a reserved parking spot just across from the homely picket fence that surrounds the townhouse's backyard. Valerie officially has no idea what to think about the Fentons.

"Come on," Tucker says, throwing open his door. "Everyone's waiting for you."

Valerie grabs her suitcase and climbs out of the car, nudging the door shut behind her. "Everyone?" She looks over the car at Tucker.

He twirls the keychain around his finger. "You'll see."

Valerie expects him to head for the townhouse but, to her surprise, he pivots right and starts walking to the warehouse doors.

"Come on," he calls over his shoulder.

Valerie jogs after him, easily hoisting her suitcase in one hand, and ponders on what the inside the facility looks like. Crates of weapons stacked one on top of the other. An arsenal of ghost hunting vehicles, everything from their patented RV design to their one of a kind all-terrain bus. All-terrain meaning it flies in the human realm and the Ghost Zone. The ground can't stop you if you never touch it. She pictures an honest to god warehouse and prepares herself for exactly that sight when they reach the front doors.

The moment they go inside, however, Valerie promptly decides to never assume anything about the Fentons and how they operate ever again.

"Something wrong?" Tucker asks when he sees Valerie stuck in the doorway.

"No," she says honestly. "It's fine." She steps into the foyer, complete with a receptionist's desk, comfortable armchairs for waiting, and a few potted plants. Looking behind her, she sees floor to ceiling windows looking out onto the pond. Valerie could have sworn the walls were solid from the outside.

"Hey, Octavia." Tucker waves to the receptionist. Pulling a lanyard out of his pocket, he shows her an employee ID card. "I've got the nine o'clock."

"It's four in the afternoon," Octavia, a modest middle-aged woman, says without looking up from her computer.

"Time is relative. Val." Valerie stops gawking at the room and looks to Tucker. "You can leave your suitcase here, unless you need anything from it. Octavia can take it to the guest room."

"I can, but I won't," Octavia says. "They're in the Boom Room."

"Love you too, babe." Tucker clicks his tongue, shooting Octavia double finger-guns, and ducks through a doorway at the back of the room.

Valerie stands awkwardly in the middle of the foyer.

Octavia finally raises her head, giving Valerie a critical look. After a moment, she sighs and holds out her hand. "I'll take your bag. Trust me, Tucker'll be halfway across the building if you don't follow him now. That kid never looks back."

"Thank you." Valerie rushes over, passing her bag across the desk, and follows Tucker. On the other side of the door is a long plain hallway. She looks right, then left, but there's no sign of Tucker. She debates her chances of choosing a random direction and finding him by pure luck. Before she can decide, a long ding rings out. The noise draws her attention to a set of elevators down the hall on her left.

The doors open. Tucker pokes his head out. "Hurry up, slowpoke.

Valerie wonders if punching Tucker in the face will affect her paycheque. Just once. Just a small jab. She won't even break his nose. In the end, she decides not to risk it, settling on a fierce glare as she reaches the elevator.

"This is a big place, you don't want to get lost," Tucker says.

"Then don't leave me behind."

"Not my fault you're slow." Tucker hits the button for the third floor—third out of five.

What on Earth the Fentons need all this space for, Valerie has no idea. She tries to picture it, then remembers how her expectations keep getting smashed to pieces and thinks better of it. There will be lots of time to find out.

"Why Fenton Works?" Valerie asks, filling the silence.

Tucker rocks back on his heels and hums. "Ghost stuff is kind of cool. I get to pioneer a whole new area of cyber security that no one even realizes we need, and I'm not even done college yet. Working here helps me pay for my online classes, too, so I don't even have to leave Amity."

"Why? Sounds like you'd still have a job waiting for you when you graduate." She can't imagine Tucker spilling his cyber secrets to someone else before he can cultivate the field himself. Surely, then, the Fentons would need him on board, no matter how long he puts off working for them.

"Yeah," Tucker nods, "I would. But I'm staying for Danny."

The elevator chimes when they reach the third floor, the doors sliding open. Tucker glides through them without looking back, but Valerie hesitates once again. Danny—Daniel Fenton. She knows Daniel Fenton. Youngest of the lot, son and heir, future CEO of Fenton Works. Notable for all those reasons and infamous for none of them. Where Maddie and Jack are the local quirks, Danny is the tragedy.

#thdf #phic phight #phic phight 2020 #danny phantom #phanfic #phic #danny phantom fanfiction #valerie gray #bodyguard au #tumblroneshots #except it's not a oneshot

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ayamari-no-goshi · 3 years

Text

Eidolon 1 | (T)

ff.net | AO3

Fandom: Danny Phantom (DP)

Summary: AU: What started off as the result of a simple act of rebellion ends up causing his life to spin out of control. How will young Danny cope with the results as well as a past that has a strange habit of coming back to haunt him.

Warnings: rated T for violence, mentions of death, kidnapping, and various other things

Parings: hints of Danny/Sam much later on

Notes: originally uploaded to Ff.net. Cross-posted to AO3 and tumblr.

1. Prelude

It was getting worse. In a last attempt for some stability, he desperately grasped at one of his bed posts as another convulsion coursed through his body. That pain that accompanied it was even more intense than it was the previous time.

It was the pain that had him clinging in a desperate plea to not be consumed by its fire. With each convulsion, the fire burned hotter and more forcefully, slowly replacing the living with the dead.

Another shudder rocked his body, causing him to collapse. He was now fully aware that the fire had spread to his lungs. As he took his last breaths before they seized completely, he reached out in one last attempt to find something that might explain what he had done to deserve such a terrible fate…

…

Winston Wolfe was definitely angry. As a man with military training, he usually was very good at keeping his emotions under control. However, with the current situation, there was little his training could do. Something of his had gone missing, and he was tearing his house apart trying to find some clue as to where it could have gone.

As he searched his house encountering little luck, he muttered Russian curses at himself and the missing 'object' in question for being so idiotic. He had left the house for a few hours in order to see if he could get some sort of information about a call that he was expecting, and, in that time, it appears that the object had managed to slip out of the house, again.

"Daniel!" he shouted in a tone that was mixed with anger and exasperation. For, the object that was missing was actually Winston's teenage charge, Daniel.

This had not been the first time that the boy had decided to sneak out of the house. In fact, this sort of thing was beginning to become rather frequent. It was definitely irritating to the former military man, since it was a clear disregard of his orders. However, once he found the boy, he knew that it was going to be difficult for him to remain angry with him for too long. The boy was his son, even if there was no true relation between them.

Besides, he really could not blame the boy for sneaking out of the house. He had been in Winston's care for several years and had been home schooled for most of it. And, frequently, he had not been allowed out of the house much, mostly due to Winston's own fears and his sense of duty. He had tried on his own to take care of the boy, after giving his word that he would do everything in his power to protect him. Even though Amity Park was a relatively safe place to live, one could never be too careful.

A gnawing fear as well as anger coursed through him each time the boy escaped, even though he knew this was just part of normal teenage rebellion. What normal child would be content to stay inside all the time? However, Winston had begun to get harsher with the boy, once he was located. It was becoming a bit too regular for his liking. Who knew what an almost-fifteen-year-old boy might get himself into?

Also, even though the boy was usually not too hard to find, another thing that had begun to worry Winston was what had become the boy's favorite place to go. It was strange. One would think that he would go to a place where he could meet other kids his own age, since it was clear at times that he was lonely. Yet, he never seemed to go where there were any, choosing instead to claim the local graveyard as his favorite haunt.

The first time he found the boy there, he thought the boy might be looking for some sign of his parents, who had disappeared when he was an infant, although it quickly became apparent that was not the case. Daniel never seemed to be looking at the headstones when he found him. Instead, he had either been wondering rather aimlessly or peacefully sitting on one of the benches. There had been times that he had mistaken the boy's form for that of a shadow or even a ghost, not that he would ever admit that. Something about that quite graveyard seemed to take away the boy's human presence.

That, perhaps, was the most unsettling part of all of this.

Winston ran his hand through his still dark hair in frustration. The boy was definitely not in the house. After grabbing his coat, he marched out of the small house in the direction of where he was sure the boy had gone. Unsettling as Daniel's choice might be, at least he tended to be predictable.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

He figured that he should probably head home, but that really didn't concern him too much at the moment. It was a nice day, and he really didn't get a chance to be outside for prolonged periods. Even if he did get in trouble, it was worth it.

The house was nice, but it really never changed. Sure, items, like furniture and clothes, came and went, but the house itself never changed, and that made it boring. That sense of boredom never seemed to come to him, at least quickly, when he was outside. From day to day, the scenery seemed to change. It was one of the things that enjoyed the most, along with the feeling of freedom.

Though he could not purchase anything, due to the lack of money, he felt as if he was able to do just about anything while he was outside. Yet, he never really felt any real urge to 'go crazy', as others might. It was enough just to wonder and to watch.

Something he never quite understood was his desire to wonder in locations where there were not many people. Every time he thought about it though, he just figured that Winston's warnings of staying away from strangers… well, most people in general, was so ingrained into his mind that it just happened subconsciously. Winston, however, did not like his normal choice of haunts, which he always thought was a bit strange.

When he first stumbled across the town's graveyard, he thought that perhaps he might find something about his parents. He knew that it probably would not amount to much since he had absolutely no information about them (Winston would often keep his mouth shut when the topic was breached), but he had gone anyways. And, it was that initial search that had peaked his interest.

Dates and epitaphs gave him clues about the lives of those who had come before him. The carvings, statues, and mausoleums showed him a macabre sense of beauty that could not really be found elsewhere. That art also would make him think about the possibilities of what might be out there. Many of the statues often depicted angels or religious figures, which often seemed to, in a sense, keep watch over the sacred grounds. At times, it even seemed like they were protectors as he occasionally felt as if there was something unseen lurking in the shadows of the trees. Although he knew there was nothing there, that feeling never seemed to be there when he was near one of the statues.

He suddenly stopped walking and turned towards his left. That feeling, the one of being watched, was back. His eyes narrowed as he glanced around. Nothing seemed to be there, but it was definitely more pronounced and uncomfortable than usual.

Although he really did not want to head back home just yet, that feeling made him too nervous to stay. It was better to play it safe, so he began to head back towards the entrance.

He tried to keep himself calm as he moved. Something was definitely not right. That feeling, whatever it was, seemed to be following him. Something seemed to move at the corner of his vision, causing him to stop. Was it just a squirrel or something? Or was it something else? It seemed a little too big to be just an animal…

"Hey, there he is!"

He was so startled that he could have sworn he jumped at least three feet in the air. He turned to the source of voice and was somewhat surprised to see two kids, about his age, coming towards him. The first was a girl with dark hair and clothes. The sounds of her heavy boots and accent chains seemed overly loud to him as she ran over. The second was a dark skinned boy wearing classes and a red beret. Although he was following the girl, it was clear that he was being cautious in his approach.

"Um… can I help you?" he asked cautiously as he watched them.

The girl ignored him for a moment as she turned to the other boy. "See Tucker, I told you he wasn't a ghost!"

"Oh yeah? I'm not too convinced of that. I've heard of legends were ghosts look so real that you can't tell they're not human," the boy, Tucker, said as he adjusted his glasses. He seemed to be examining him, which he found even more unnerving than the presence, which conveniently seemed to be gone. "Besides, how come the only place anyone's ever seen him is here?"

He glanced at the two strangers. Ghost? Him? What in the world where they talking about? "Excuse me," he interrupted irritably, "but am I missing something?"

The girl gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry about that. There's a rumor going around our school that a ghost has been seen here. They say that it's the ghost of a teenage boy with dark hair and light eyes. He's usually seen wearing jeans and a t-shirt."

"And, that fits you to a T, sorry to say," Tucker finished. It was clear that he was still not convinced that his status was that of 'among the living'.

"Tucker!" the girl snapped as she glared at him. "Just because you've never seen him before, it doesn't mean that he's a ghost!"

"Okay, Sam, than tell me why the only place he's been seen is in the graveyard. Or, better yet, why we found him here." Tucker's voice was almost as challenging. Almost. In truth, it seemed like he was hiding the fact that he was somewhat scared of the girl's temper.

"Can you stop treating me like I can't hear you?" he asked, not betraying the fact that he was somewhat amused by their argument. "Look, I am not a ghost. I've just gotten in the habit of taking walks here…" He frowned as he tried to find the right words to explain why. "It's…" he foundered for the word. "Peaceful… here…?" He wanted to kick himself. That sounded like he was so unsure of himself.

Tucker's eyes narrowed as he considered the answer. "Okay, if that's true, then why haven't I seen you before? You don't go to our school."

"Have you ever thought that maybe he just moved here and that his parents are setting all of that up?" Sam demanded.

"Parent," he corrected quietly, which caused both of them to stare at him, making him a bit nervous. "I only have one parent…"

"Right… So, did you just move here then?"

"No… From what I understand, we've been here since I was little. And," he added before Tucker could interrupt, "I've been home schooled the entire time."

"Okay, that's almost believable." He sighed as Tucker continued, "But that still doesn't explain why none of us have ever seen you before."

"It's not my fault that I have an over-protective parent! It's gotten so bad recently that I've practically had to sneak out of the house in order to get a change of scenery. Do you have any idea what it's like to stare at the same thing day after day with no real variety? It's boring!" He took a breath before he continued his tirade. "And, I'm sorry that you've never seen me before! It's not like I've been given the chance to get to actually introduce myself to anyone. In truth, I think that you two, people who thought I might be a ghost, are the first people my age I've spoken to for… Jeez, I don't even know how long. You might even be the first."

His expression was challenging as he waited for one of them to speak again. Although he was a bit angry, at the same time, he felt oddly relieved. It was nice being able to vent and have someone listen.

It was Sam who spoke first. "Wow, that's pretty rough…. Well, it won't solve your problems at home, but how about we show you around town? Oh, and by the way, I'm Sam." She nudged the boy beside her, "And this scaredy cat is Tucker."

"Sam! What are you doing? He's going to attack us… or something!"

"Tucker, will you give it a rest already?" She then rolled her eyes and held out her hand. "Well, are you interested?"

He looked at her hesitantly before he shook her hand. "I'm Danny… And, that sounds kinda nice. I'm already in trouble, so I might as well do it thoroughly." He was then distracted by Tucker, who seemed to be examining him closely. "What is your problem?"

"Y-you can actually touch her!" he stammered before he decided to touch Danny's arm.

"Uh, yeah. I thought that we had already established that I'm not a ghost."

Tucker nervously adjusted his glasses. "I was just trying to make sure. You can never be too careful." He tried to keep his embarrassment out of his voice by passing it off as if it was really nothing.

With a grin, Danny glanced over at Sam, "Do you think he's finally convinced?"

"No, but give him an hour." She seemed just as amused. "We should be able to get it through his thick skull by then."

"Hey! I resent that!"

"And what are you going to do about it, huh?" Although it was clear that Tucker had wanted to say something, he thought against it, which pleased Sam. "I thought so." She then grabbed hold of both of the boys and started dragging them towards the entrance. "Come on! We don't have all day!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Winston was really starting to get worried. He had already looked in Danny's normal haunt and found absolutely no sign of the boy. This was definitely not good. He couldn't contact the authorities to help find the boy for various reasons (first and for most was that Danny hadn't been missing for more than twenty-four hours), and he really didn't have anyone else that he could turn to for assistance.

He knew that the boy would probably come home on his own in a few hours, but he would rather know where he was. There was something about this particular day… a sort of uneasy feeling in the air. He really wasn't a person who believed in premonitions, but something told him that he should pay attention to this particular one.

As he hurried down one of the main streets, he thought about the situation at hand. Amity Park was supposedly safe from the kind of attacks that had cost Danny his parents, but after being in the service, he had learned that no place was completely safe. Could that thing really be in the area? No, that was a ridiculous thought. It hadn't been seen in years. Possibly someone had killed it by now….

He shook his head as he continued his trek, there were more concerning issues at hand, like trying to find that boy. Where the heck was he?

A familiar voice and figure distracted him from his thoughts. Winston had looked up just in time to watch his young charge round a corner. What was strange was that he was not alone. Unless he was mistaken, Danny was actually accompanied by someone. That was not good. What if he said something? That could put today's work out the window! Without a second thought he started sprinting after them.

Luckily for him, the kids had decided to stop for some reason about midway down the street. From a distance, it seemed like the two kids who were with them were pointing out something to him. Maybe they were just showing him around… He would have to get the full story from Danny later since it appeared that they were about to start moving again.

"DANIEL!" he shouted putting as much anger as he could muster while being winded into it. The shout had the desired effect as Danny turned around and stared at him with a classic 'deer in the headlights' look. He knew he was in trouble.

Thankfully, the kids did not decide to run as he approached him. Perhaps that was Danny's doing. "Young man, could you explain to me what you were thinking?" he demanded once he fully caught his breath. "You are supposed to be at home, and, yet, you're here. Care to explain?"

For a moment, Danny seemed absolutely lost for words, so he just floundered around for a moment. Surprisingly, the girl beside him answered for him. "He's been stuck at home! What do you expect him to do?" From her challenging tone, it was clear that she wasn't intimidated by him in the least.

"Sam, please, don't get involved," Danny told her while looking at the ground.

That comment just seemed to make her angrier. "Don't I? Danny, grow some backbone! You said earlier that you want to be out more! You have a right to be free! He can't take that away from you!"

"Actually, since I am his guardian, I have the full right to limit that freedom." Winston then sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. "Danny, we'll talk about this more when we get home. Let's head back."

"Oh, now you act all nice to him."

Danny then placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay. Just let it drop. I'll… hopefully see you again." He then glanced over at the other boy who had decided to remain silent during this. "Do you still think I'm a ghost?"

The boy smiled at him. "Nah. You're just a guy who needs to work a little on his sex appeal, if you know what I mean."

"Really? And you can judge this how?"

The boy grinned arrogantly. "Don't you know who you're talking to? Tucker Foley. That's T.F. for too fine. All the ladies love me!"

Sam snickered. "Yeah, all the ones in your dreams."

"Hey!"

Danny just laughed as he watched the two of them continue. Winston was actually surprised by them. He was pretty sure that this was the first time that Danny had met either of them, but it seemed like they were already good friends. That was going to cause a little bit of a problem with the situation he had to face once he got Danny home, but he could probably work around that… somehow.

....................................................

Notes: This was inspired by the story, "Home is Where the Heart is" on ff.net, and the song "Say you'll haunt me," by Stone Sour.

Winston Wolfe is the creation of my friend Hornswaggler. I have her permission to use him.

#danny phantom #danny fenton #dp #dp au #danny phantom au #my writing #fanfic #fanfiction #fantasy #supernatural #sam manson #tucker foley #vlad plasmius #Eidolon

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honey-harper-official · 5 years

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Gone but Not Forgotten

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Okay this is a quick fic about two teenagers who were Nova's friends when they were little and still wonder about what became of her.

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Danny ran through his room with Aiza and Nova, the three of them happily playing tag. It was a very confined space, but there was plenty of furniture to climb around on and powers to use.

Nova was it once again. Danny's dad had told them that before their nap they could play a game of tag if Nova was it. The loser would have to go down for their nap first if she tagged them. Danny didn't want to go down for his nap, but he sure did want to win, even if he was really only beating Aiza.

But beating Aiza was no easy task. Though they were both seven, they both had powers like Nova and the two of them fully intended to use them to the best they could to win.

Aiza could teleport but could only do it so many times before she got too tired and had to stop. She would have to use them wisely though Danny had his own ability that he hoped would let him win. It wasn't much, but Danny was extremely nimble and balanced. With all the furniture in the room it was sure to assist him a lot.

He could climb the dresser better then they could. He could jump from the dresser to the top bunk of his bed better then they could. He had an easier time getting to places that we're difficult to get to, especially considering their size.

But even Nova had her advantages against them. Though it was no superpower, Nova was fiercely determined to beat both of them and become the winner and when Danny got on a high place she always managed to find a way to get up to him.

Danny quickly climbed up the side of his bed to get to the top bunk. He stuck his tongue out at Nova who was on the floor and making her way up. Aiza was lying down in a shelf in the closet, laughing because no one would reach her. She would win the game for sure with that move.

As Nova reached the covers, Danny jumped onto the top of a bookshelf and then on top of the opened door. Nova scowled and huffed before going back to the floor, debating her options.

She looked around the room for anything she could use. She took out all the books out of the shelving unit and started stacking them underneath herself. She would start to set it down, lifting up one foot, and then stand on the book before moving her other foot to be on top of the stack. She kept going until she reached Danny.

"Come on. Just let her tag you. The faster we get through our nap the faster we get apple juice and I want apple juice," Aiza hissed at them, still curled up on the shelf.

"You let yourself get tagged!" Danny yelled at her.

"No!"

"Then what do you think my answer is?"

Before Nova could tag him as she was finally an arms length away, Danny gave a swift kick to the pile of books, sending Nova tumbling to the floor. She hit the carpet with a loud thump and grabbed her knee, looking as if she might cry.

Worried that he hurt her, Danny climbed back down to her, Aiza joining them. They helped her hop to the bottom bunk as she whimpered in pain.

"I'll get you an icepack," Danny said.

"I'd rather win," Nova replied, tagging both Aiza in him, knocking them out. As he drifted off he watched as Nova curled up between them on the bed and smiled.

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It had been ten years and still Danny wondered what had happened to Nova? What had happened to the girl that he had been closer to in childhood then any other friend he'd ever had besides Aiza. The three of them had always been a team and then one day she just left.

When he was older, Danny had understood that Nova's family was killed. It had explained why there was a loud bang from across the hall and his parents didn't let him leave the apartment for a week. It was gunshots and his family didn't know if it was safe or if it would ever be.

Still, there were many unanswered questions. Who killed them and why? Was Nova dead? Was she alive? Was she kidnapped? Who took her and why? Why would she have been able to live but not the other? How come Evie, a helpess baby, was shot dead but Nova might have lived?

Once Danny and Aiza realized that her family was murdered, or at least were told, they began their speculations, theorizing what could have happened to her.

The first theory was that she was kidnapped and killed as it would answer several questions easily. It was the least favorite theory of both of them. The next was that she was just kidnapped and was taken some place where no one would be able to find her and she was so young that she probably didn't even know she was kidnapped at this point. It also made a lot of sense but still they couldn't figure out why she would be kidnapped.

That was until they realized her last name was Artino. She was Ace Anarchy's niece. She was great leverage to many, but also a weapon to those who had her. Ace would no doubt trade anything for his last living relative, a young girl who was his niece. At least Danny hoped so. But at the same time if you kidnapped Ace Anarchy's niece, if he truly did care for her, you could be dead in minutes for hurting her and no doubt killing his family. It was a risky game but one that clearly could hold benefits.

That brought up the question of it the Renegades killed her family and took her for their own. It would have helped them defeat Ace. Maybe he would be willing to do anything if it meant Nova was spared. But then there was the other side to it of if Ace had taken her after her family died and if she got killed in the crossfire during the Battle of Gatlon.

It wasn't until the day that Nightmare came to the public that they finally understood what happened. They knew her powers and they recognized her picture even if she had grown up much since and half her face was covered. The reveal that Nightmare was Ace's niece was all they needed to confirm their suspicion.

"Ace took her. He killed her family then took her as his own weapon," Aiza cried the day the news came to light.

Both of them were hanging out in his basement like every Friday night, watching a sports game when the news interuppted it.

Danny was crying too and heavily. A box of tissues sat in between them as they curled up against each other in tears, searching for comfort from the other.

"We refused to believe that she was dead for all these years but maybe, just maybe if we had let ourselves believe she was, we wouldn't be so upset," Danny cried, wiping his eyes with a tissue.

"I wanted her to be alive for so long but.... Not like this. He took her from us. He had to right to and he just took her from us. If the Renegades had gotten there before him then we wouldn't have lost her like this!"

Aiza broke down completely. Both of them had been praying every night of every day that somewhere out in the world Nova was safe and alive. And she was alive but not safe. As long as she was with the Anarchists, sided with them or not, she was unsafe. They had taken her and turned her into their weapon. They had no doubt messed with her emotionally in some way.

Yes people change but the Nova Danny knew would never kill anyone in cold blood. Sure, his best friend was cunning and devious and sometimes a little ruthless, but there is no way to turn an innocent child into an assassin and wanted criminal without a dangerous amount of manipulation.

Danny would never consider Nova safe until she was back with Aiza and him. Them and their families would keep her safe and away from the people who no doubt saw her as a tool and not a person.

Danny was no doubt biased as Nova probably was about the Anarchists seeing that she was related to Ace and was raised by them. But discovering that they had turned her into a weapon made him hate the Anarchists even more then he hated them for turning the world to ash. They had turned her into something she was never meant to become and for that he would hate them forever.

If the Anarchists succeeded once again at removing the government entirely, would Nova spare Aiza and Danny and their families? If she saw them again doing God knows what would she realize it was them?

It may have been ten years and of course they were all bound to be different people then when they were kids but it felt like he didn't know her anymore and at the same time he still did know her. He was begging that deep down, Nova didn't want to do this. He hoped that Nova wanted this to end and to come home to them or someone who was good to her. But most of all he wanted her back.

The Anarchists had taken his best friend, someone he considered his sister, from him and Danny would be damned if he didn't get to bring her back.

#nova artino #renegades trilogy #renegades #archenemies #supernova #pls she deserves a real family to come home to

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flowerfan2 · 4 years

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Affinity - Ch. 8 (10.08)

We got another gift from the writers of this ep, with the first scene where Steve gets Danny’s texts, and the last where Steve calls Danny. This coda picks up immediately after that last scene.

A continuous story of season 10 episode codas. Steve may describe their relationship as a dysfunctional marriage, but at some point, will he and Danny take a closer look at what it really could be? (The answer is yes).

McDanno, A03. 2k this chapter; 14k total.

Chapter 8 – 10.08

Steve gets off the phone with Danny and scrubs his face with his hands. He takes a few deep breaths, mentally moving away from his conversation with Danny (“Of course you miss her, babe. I know.”), pushing the ache in his chest to the back of his mind. He’d like to act at least relatively together for his team.

Finally he gets out of his truck and walks over to the group at the table. Everyone gives him sympathetic looks, and while some part of his mind appreciates their concern, mostly it’s just a painful reminder of what has happened; that they all know he failed. The only one that it doesn’t hurt to look at is Lou’s niece, who is busy grilling Tani about police work and couldn’t be less interested in Steve’s trauma.

Steve nods his thanks when a plate of food is set in front of him, although he doesn’t try to eat it. Adam and Junior are talking about basketball, and Quinn is joking around with Kamekona. Steve stares out at the ocean and lets the conversation wash over him.

Just a few more minutes, and Danny will be here.

It’s Charlie who jolts Steve out of his daze, barreling into his legs and beaming at him with a toothy smile. Steve feels a rush of emotion, grabbing the boy up and pulling him into his lap. He’s a beautiful little piece of Danny, skinny and fragile and so, so innocent.

Right behind Charlie is Danny, who is wearing a loose-fitting t-shirt and jean shorts that Steve hasn’t seen in ages. He stands just as solidly as always, chest up and chin high. It’s ridiculous how the sight of Danny immediately eases something in Steve. He’s so gone for him, he doesn’t know how to handle it. In place of doing something embarrassing Steve just hugs Charlie tighter and presses a kiss to the little boy’s head.

“Hey, Danny, good to see you,” Lou booms, and introduces the girl at his side. Bonnie, who came to the island to try out for the University of Hawaii basketball team. “Sit down, I’ll tell Kame to bring you two some plates.”

“No, no thanks, we can’t stay,” Danny says, moving next to Steve and putting his hand on Steve’s shoulder. “Just came by to pick up this guy.”

“What? No love for us?” Lou asks in mock offense.

“Sorry, not today. Charlie needs some Uncle Steve time.” Danny gives Steve’s arm a tug, and he gets up from the picnic table, taking Charlie with him as they walk back to Danny’s car. Steve can’t be bothered to care about who is driving, he just gets in the passenger seat. He’ll swing by for his truck later. Right now he needs to be in the same space as Danny, preferably as close as possible.

Danny gets Charlie settled in the back, engrossed in some handheld computer game, and they pull out on to the road. It takes a few minutes for Steve to even wonder where Danny is taking him. He hadn’t known Charlie would be with Danny, but it makes sense, given that he’s the reason Danny was off work today.

They drive by a park, and Steve remembers – it’s little league night. He imagines sitting in the stands with all the parents, all of them excited and anxious in turn. It wouldn’t be the first time Steve watched Charlie play, but… “Danny, I um,” Steve starts. “I don’t know that I’m up for-”

Danny turns to him, somehow anticipating what he’s trying to say. “What? Hanging out with Charlie? No, I know. We’re dropping him at Rachel’s.”

“But isn’t tonight little league?”

“Rachel can take him, he’s gonna stay over with her tonight.”

“It’s your day with him, Danny. You don’t have to do this, just drop me at home.”

“Rachel doesn’t mind, she understands.”

Steve looks back at Charlie again, oblivious to what’s going on around him. He lowers his voice. “But won’t Charlie be upset? If you break your promise?”

They stop at a light, and Danny gives Steve a thoughtful look, the kind that makes Steve think Danny is seeing right into his brain and noticing things that Steve didn’t even know he put there. “Charlie will be fine, Steve. He spends two or three nights with me every single week. He knows I love him. He’s surrounded by people who love him, he’s got more family than he knows what to do with. I never promised that I’d go to every single little league game, or spend a certain number of hours with him, that’s not what being a dad is about. Charlie can handle a change in plans, it happens sometimes.”

“But – what kind of lesson is he going to learn from this, from you” Steve’s voice cracks a little, he’s starting to realize that he’s not really talking about Charlie, “from you not being there?”

Danny’s face is sad as he turns to Steve. “He’s going to understand that when someone you love is hurting, you take care of them.” Danny reaches over and squeezes Steve’s hand, and they drive on in silence.

At Rachel’s house Danny walks Charlie to the door. Danny comes right back to the car, a plastic container in his hands.

“What’s in there?”

“Homemade shortbread cookies with jelly. They’re delicious. Rachel sends her condolences, by the way. She’ll probably stop by in a few days, she gets that this isn’t the right time.”

“Thanks.”

Steve zones out on the drive to Danny’s house. He doesn’t mean to, but he can’t help it, it keeps happening. He can’t seem to stop thinking about his mom, wondering what he could have done differently, running the angles to figure out what went wrong. It all ends up in the same place; his mother is gone. He thought he knew better, but he failed her, and now she’s never coming back.

At Danny’s they go into the kitchen, and Danny sets him up with a cutting board, a bag of carrots, a peeler, and a big knife. He’s vaguely aware that Danny is doing something with a chicken and a really large pot.

“Hey, that’s good babe, that’s enough,” Danny says gently. “Why don’t you sit down?” Steve blinks up at Danny, then looks at the cutting board, where he has succeeded in subduing the carrots into a pile of finely shredded pulp. Maybe not what Danny had intended for the soup.

Danny slides the cutting board out of the way and sets down two bowls of steaming oatmeal. It smells good, sweet and cinnamon-y. “I think chicken soup is too ambitious for tonight. Eat this, and we can call it a day.”

Steve stirs it, watching the swirl of maple syrup on top blend in. “I’m not really hungry.”

“I know,” Danny says. “But you have to eat.” Danny sits with him, scooting his chair a little closer. He takes a spoonful himself, then talks with his mouth half full, pointing his spoon at Steve. “You didn’t eat anything all at since I left you this morning, am I right?”

Steve doesn’t have to answer. He eats a few bites of the oatmeal, ignoring the feeling in his stomach that makes him want to toss it right back up.

“I texted Lou,” Danny says after a few minutes, seemingly out of nowhere.

“Yeah?”

“He’s back in the office tomorrow. You can take a few days, Steve. Get your bearings.”

The implication that he isn’t capable of doing his job stings, but Steve knows that’s not what Danny is saying. Besides, he didn’t feel right today. He clearly missed something with the DEA guy, no matter how consoling Quinn tried to be.

“I’ll think about it.”

When Steve has clearly eaten all he’s going to eat, Danny takes the dishes and rinses them before putting them in the dishwasher. He pokes around in the freezer and moves a large, foil-covered pan into the refrigerator.

“Lasagna,” Danny explains. “One of many; this one has sausage instead of ground beef. I kind of went a little crazy with the cooking when you were gone.”

“Who did you make them for?”

“Us,” Danny says simply. “Figured at some point you’d probably come back and would appreciate some home-cooked food.”

Steve doesn’t miss the “probably” in that sentence. He can’t forget how his actions have affected Danny too, how it worried Danny to have Steve in danger and out of touch for so long.

Danny continues talking about his efforts to cook himself into distraction. “At first I was going to make a variety of stuff, but then I figured, why not stick with what works? It was kind of therapeutic. They started to pile up, though. I gave one to Junior – he may mention it at some point. He didn’t like it.”

“What? Who doesn’t like your lasagna?”

“That’s what I said.” Danny shrugs. “Noelani’s mom liked it.”

“Noelani’s mom?”

“Yeah, she was sick, so I gave her one. And a kid in the lab had a baby, I gave him one too.”

“Is there anyone in HPD who hasn’t tasted your lasagna?”

Danny smirks, and Steve blushes.

“That is not what I meant, Danny.”

“I know.” Danny comes over and touches Steve on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s go to bed.”

Steve glances at the clock on the wall. “It’s not even eight.”

“Tell me with a straight face that you want to do anything right now besides sleep.”

Steve wiggles an eyebrow, and this time Danny blushes. But then Steve shakes his head. “No, you’re totally right,” he admits. “I would love to go to sleep.”

Steve showers, which helps him feel a little more human, and puts on a clean t-shirt and boxers. When he comes out, Danny is already in bed, reading something on his phone. Steve picks up the shirt Danny has tossed on the floor, the one Danny was wearing earlier, and holds it up.

“This is mine, isn’t it?”

Danny looks up, unapologetic. “Yes.”

Steve can hear the “you gotta problem with that?” in Danny’s tone, and Steve smiles. “Okay.” He knew it was his, knew it the moment he saw Danny walking towards him at the shrimp truck. He can’t really put into words how it makes him feel. It’s as if Danny is sending him a message – things are crap right now, but remember there’s something else going on, too. There’s us. Whatever that may be. A hope, a possibility. Something good that will still be there, after all this pain has subsided and Steve can breathe again.

Steve climbs into bed, careful of his arm that still twinges if he moves it wrong. He shuffles under the covers and feels the warmth of Danny’s body heat radiate towards him. Danny puts down his phone and opens up his arms for Steve. Steve leans into him and they kiss, long and slow, with a tenderness that Steve can feel all the way down to his toes.

When Steve pulls back Danny gathers him close, threading his fingers into his hair. Steve wraps his arms around Danny and holds on tight.

“You’ll get through this, babe,” Danny murmurs. “You’ll make it, and I’ll be with you. I’m not going anywhere.”

Steve digs his face into Danny’s chest. He slowly steadies his breathing and concentrates on the smell of Danny’s skin, the weight of his hand on Steve’s back, his heartbeat under Steve’s ear. Here like this, warm and safe and surrounded by Danny, Steve can almost believe that things are going to be okay.

#Hawaii Five-0 #h50 #mcdanno #episode coda #10.08 #my fic

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aftermathdb · 4 years

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DEATH BATTLE review: All Might vs. Might Guy

First Atlantis^2, then Widow^2, then Marvel^2, then ONE^2, and now Might^2.

(Holy Hell! I have exactly 100 screenshots for this episode!)

All Might′s Preview.

We open on a world where superpowers are common.

A world where schools are everywhere so that people can harness their powers.

These “Quirks” are varied, and some are… not that great.

But one aspiring hero would rise up to be the greatest hero around. Toshinori Yagi, who was given the greatest Quirk of all: One for All.

The hosts go over how badass this Quirk is. But more specifically how it’s the Quirk that can be passed down to other users.

Toshinori got his from Nana Shimura, and he became the ever-smiling All Might.

All Might keeps that smile on his face to ensure that everyone around him feels safe.

Thanks to All Might’s Quirk, he’s got everything from Super Strength, speed, stamina, and durability.

Aside from Boomstick’s apparent ability to manifest seafood, the hosts go over All Might‘s main powerset.

Interestingly enough, All Might’s tendency to name his moves after the US is kinda accurate.

For example, the Texas Smash and Oklahoma Smash both create forms of tornadoes. And guess what states are smack-dab in the way of those things?

But All Might can combine those States together in one extremely powerful attack: The United States of Smash. PLUS ULTRA!

The power of the USoS is actually quantifiable. Given the size of the storm compared to the buildings around it, the force would be over 11,000 tons of TNT.

All Might can also move at speed around Mach 29.

Now, here’s the thing: All Might’s doing a lot of this with a handicap. So these moves are still impressive. Since DEATH BATTLE takes a look at these characters in their prime, those are the stats that would be used. In his hayday, All Might would be 60 times more powerful.

He’s on par with many a fighter, like Nomu, whom he had punched 300 times in ten seconds.

Even when crippled, All Might’s proven exactly why he’s been the number one hero for years.

Might Guy′s Preview.

In the world of Naruto, there exists schools that train the best Ninjas around. These schools would essentially teach Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, or in Boomstick’s terms, Ninja Magic.

But one ninja doesn’t really have that. Rock Lee was never really that good at the whole “Ninja Magic” thing, so when he found a mentor, it was a good thing for him.

Enter: Might Guy.

Despite not having that great of skill when compared to the other guys, Might Guy and his dad opted to focus on one thing and become the undisputed master of it:

Punching people (Thanks for the description there, Boomstick).

Strong Fist is a subset of Taijutsu, or hand-to-hand combat. A hard martial art that is focused on breaking the bones of the opponent.

Only the toughest people can really use Strong Fist according to the hosts, and it comes with it’s own set of skills.

But it’s a really big double-edged sword.

And we get more into that double-edged sword by an animated segment.

Regardless, the technique Guy and Duy developed was the Eight Gates.

With these Gates, they can unlock a whole slew of crazy abilities by way of removing limits on the body. From mental inhibitions, to physical limitations.

Some of these Gates are safe to use. Numbers 1-3 are good to go, but once you go past that, you’re in trouble.

At Gate numero six, Guy moves so fast that his fists ignite the air around him and can be used as projectiles.

In order to ignite the Hydrogen in the air, Guy’s swinging at speeds at 40000 km/h.

For reference, that’s nearly five times as fast as the X-15 Rocket Jet, the fastest man-made jet that has been made so far.

Gate Seven is still relatively safe for Guy, according to the hosts, but the final Gate is a fatal attack.

That’s not some sort of “Battle Aura” you’re seeing around Guy, that’s his blood burning. With this, he can use… “Night Guy.”

Yeah, I’m a little unimpressed too.

This form was able to decimate Madara. You should know that guy by now. He’s the deadly villain that could take on Naruto and easily defeat him in base mode.

Naruto’s super modes are definately better that Guy’s best mode, but it’s also way better than Jiraya’s best move.

Guy is also a match for Kakashi, who could catch lightning.

Kakashi’s speed clocks in at around 763000 m/s, so Guy is definitely in that ballpark.

And with all the feats he has, he’s proven to be a badass through and through. It takes a lot to bring down this Mighty Guy.

… Yeah, the end quote doesn’t exactly inspire greatness, but eh, it’s probably iconic (Really sorry, not a Naruto fan).

The Battle Itself.

Torrian is back to head this project, All Might will be voiced by Kaiji Tang, while All Might was voiced by a guy named “Dick Splitter” (No, I’m not making that up). "Mighty” by both Brandon Yates and Therewolf sprite artist (If there are any), and audio lead by Chris Kokkinos.

Our fight starts with Guy sitting in a park, reading a bit of Manga. For those eagle-eyed viewers, you’ll notiice that he’s reading a My Hero Academia book. I’ve circled it for you.

Anyways, All Might drops in and does his dramatic enterance. After geeking out, Guy challenges him to…

An ARM WRESTLING CONTEST!

Which All Might readily accepts.

I want to go on record and say that this initial explosion is in essence, them just starting.

And can I also point out the absurdity in the ground being cratered before the table? Like what is that table made of?- Adamantium?

Well, my accusation is unlikely. The table breaks, and then the two duke it out. Not out of jealousy or because one of them accused the other of sabotaging the contest, but because they’re just that hammy.

So with the fight underway, these two go at it. It’s readily clear that All Might has the edge up in strength over Base Guy, but Guy is certainly faster given how often he dodges the attacks that All Might dishes out.

He even gets a perfect 10 on his dodging!

I want it to be known that Might Guy actually dodged this attack. He clearly has the speed advantage.

And these two just keep complimenting each other! Like, come on! Who am I supposed to root for here?

Anyways, Guy opens his Sixth Gate, which gives him an edge up over All Might.

And you want to know what’s better than a beam struggle?- A Barrage attack struggle.

What’s better than that?

When the barrages are fire vs wind!

They make an explosion that brings Guy to the ground, and he opens the Seventh Gate.

He unleashes his Daytime Tiger, and actually puts All Might on the defensive.

Here’s my question: How is it that all that power is being condensed in that one park? Those buildings should have destableized by now!

Anyways, Finishing Blow in

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Might Guy gets impaled! Well, it was a good run, and he certainly put up quite the fight…

And he’s also not done yet. We still have one more Gate.

REAL finishing blow iin

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

You gotta wonder what the report by the authorities and news is going to be like.

Verdict + Explanation.

So, right off the bat, this fight actually is close. Guy’s Gates were really the big thing that was letting him keep up with All Might and his speed was certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Now, As for All Might, since DEATH BATTLE was looking at him in his prime, they had to scale accordingly.

All Might himself claimed that a fight he finished in 300 punches could have been done in 5. So that means that the All Might that is being used is 60 times stronger.

Take this feat for example, All Might’s foe Gigantomachia, once blew a hole through the mountain. Adding in the X60 multiplier, and All Might’s batting in the 154.8 Gigaton range.

However, Guy is still way faster, add in his better training and more versatile arsenal, Might Guy just needed to hit All Might harder than All Might could hit him.

All Might’s feat of changing the weather clocks in at about 1462 Gigatons of TNT.

Now, that’s impressive and all, but Guy hasn’t really shown his full power.

So we have to compare him to another person that we’ve seen all too many times before: Naruto.

Now remember: Base Naruto < Madara, and Night Guy > Madara.

As we’ve seen all too many times before, Naruto’s Base Chakra was enough to blow a hole through the moon.

How much force is that?

About 480 Petatons of TNT.

How much is a Petaton?

A million Gigatons. Simply put All Might > Might Guy, but Night Guy > All Might. Sure, Guy goes down not too long after using the attack, but he wins in the moment, and that’s what matters.

The winner is Might Guy.

Overall impression.

I came into this thinking “This feels more like season premiere material.” Something to hype up the crowd for the upcoming season. And I was right in the absolute most wrong sense of the word. The fight is spectacular, and it makes me want to read up on MHA. In all honesty, if this were a season premiere, everything after it would feel boring in comparison.

Now, admittedly, this was basically just a fistfight. A battle of who could punch harder than the other guy. Which isn’t very exciting on it’s own, but is still interesting given the characters.

Plus, given that no sane parent would ever give their kid the name “Richard” if their last name was “Splitter” I’m going to take a shot in the dark and say that this is the official VA for Guy.

I’m not going to link to his twitter, I’d rather he not get in trouble, but it’s still pretty cool.

Then again, my dad knew a guy named “Richard Head” so I guess the name “Dick Splitter” isn’t that farfetched. Who knows, maybe this is a real name.

Tangent aside, this battle was epic in all sense of the word. I’m sure there are a lot of references that I missed because of my lack of knowledge on these two, but it was a joy to see, and the music is awesome. Definitely looking forward to downloading it.

9.6/10.

Next Time…

I’m calling…

… Well shit. I don’t know what to call. But I recognize Miles Morales, Beerus, and Danny Phantom, so who knows?

Though the end colors for the start of Season 7 makes me think of… Harley Quinn.

Is there a fight that you want me to review? - Send an ask/request, and I’ll look into it!

Do you want to read my fanfic based around DEATH BATTLE itself? click here!

Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you next time for…

A DEATH BATTLE.

#Death Battle #Deathbattle #review

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triggeringthehealing · 5 years

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Lightning Strikes

Derek/Stiles || AO3

Summary: It’s only supposed to be a camping trip to help Derek’s and Scott’s packs bond. Stiles is prepared for a whole list of possible crises. Except one -- he didn’t check the weather forecast. Rating: PG Word Count: ~5k Tags/Warnings: fluff, mentions of Hale house fire, pack bonding, camping, Spark Stiles, Alpha Derek, Alpha Scott, everyone is alive

Written for the @multifandomwritingchallenge for the theme ‘nature’ - prompts: mountain, moon, lightning, sky.

Stiles isn't sure whose idea it was to go camping. None of them ever went, not even when they were kids. Between Melissa's unpredictable schedule and John's long hours, neither Stiles nor Scott ever had a chance to experience things like this, because there just wasn't enough time. They didn't do organized camps either, not with their parents' budgets being as tight as they were.

Allison apparently has some experience with setting up tents—Stiles doesn't bother asking, since bringing up hunter training tends to be a mood killer all around—and Malia knows her way around wildlife and plants that are safe to eat, even if only for coyotes. They're lucky that Jordan is tagging along because his past army training means that they now have a fire going and their tents are actually likely to survive the night. The only other people who seem likely to survive in the wilderness are Boyd and Derek since Erica's seizures meant she could never participate in outdoorsy activities and Isaac's only been in one camp when he was about six, not that he remembers any survival techniques from back then. Lydia and Jackson's camps had none of the actual camping, obviously, and they're both not all that happy about this trip. Danny's surgery kept him away from the outdoors just long enough that he was too old for camps by the time he was healthy again.

"Look, the lantern is better in the tent," Stiles hears Jordan explain. "We've got enough light out here with the fire, we all have flashlights for any necessary getting around. The lantern is bright enough to attract… all sorts of things."

"Fair," Lydia answers, though she's not all that enthusiastic about it. "I still don't understand why we had to climb a mountain for this. We could've easily bonded as packs somewhere more comfortable."

"Except this is the one way to avoid running into trouble," Allison says, earning herself several eye-rolls. "And these guys can shift and chase squirrels."

There's a growl from somewhere behind Stiles. He doesn't bother checking who it's coming from. The possibilities are as many as there are werewolves around. Instead, he ducks into the tent that he's left his backpack in and comes back out with a sweater. The werewolves might not need to keep warm, but he's getting chilly in rather unpleasant ways. They do have the fire set up, but he's yet to figure out how to keep more than one side of his body warm,

"Here's hoping there's nothing trying to claim the forest tonight," he mutters, keeping his voice low.

Not low enough to avoid being overheard by the pack members with enhanced hearing, all of whom throw him a glare that he translates as "if you just jinxed us, I'll kill you" or something similarly cheerful.

"It's not supposed to be raining, is it?" Erica asks with her eyes turned to the darkening sky above their heads and past the crowns of the trees surrounded their little camp.

Stiles sighs. It would be just their luck to get a random unexpected rainstorm tonight, right when they're communing with nature and bonding. Hard to do either if you're stuck inside a tent and can't talk to anyone other than the poor souls trapped in there with you.

"Not here, no," Derek says, following her gaze. "The valley on the other side is meant to get hit by the rain though."

"Don't tell me your super sniffer is telling you that," Stiles quips.

"No, see, there's this little thing called a weather forecast…"

"Oh my god, can you two stop with the flirting or foreplay or whatever your bickering is," Jackson interjects, huffing.

"You're just jealous because Ethan isn't around and Danny said no sex without him here," Scott tells Jackson, a shit-eating grin on his face. "You'll have to grin and bear it."

There are some chuckles but then everyone turns quiet again. It's eerie, the silence of the space, despite so many people around. Like breaking it would summon something untoward, which Stiles really doesn't want to contemplate. After all, this is a peaceful bonding trip, one that's meant to bring together Derek's and Scott's pack so they can live in relative harmony. Stiles wonders how long into the night they can get to before someone inevitably attacks someone else, regardless of who is right.

They have been on mostly good terms over the past few years, but it's always a precarious balance to keep. At first it was only him in the space between the packs, trying to maintain that balance as an Emissary in training—that alone was a surprise to him, but apparently having a magical spark, or being one, he's not entirely sure how it works yet, is enough to be an Emissary for a werewolf pack—which only worked because Scott was prone to listen if he thought he'd lose Stiles entirely.

Derek had no such qualms or considerations, but he did appreciate the in with the Sheriff's Department that came with Stiles's presence. And he'd started to work with John on cases that had traces of the supernatural. All in all, the set up they had going in Beacon Hills worked.

Even with Isaac frequently spending time with Scott and with Kira drawn to Malia of all people. And Stiles being on the edge of both Derek's and Scott's packs, belonging to both and neither at the same time. The truth was that he didn't want to choose, not now, not ever, if he had any say in it. He just hoped—not that he had an expectation of anything—that if it ever came to revealing the reason why he was so torn between the two Alphas, Scott would understand.

This camping trip might just make everything come to a head, Stiles thinks as he watches everyone move around and put finishing touches on their circle of tents in the clearing.

"Hey Stiles, we need to get the sleeping bags sorted, you remember which one goes where right?" Scott calls out and Stiles grins when he sees him standing in front of one of the tents with a pile of sleeping bags by his feet, looking confused.

"Well, no, but I took notes," Stiles says and walks over, tugging his phone out of the pocket.

There's no coverage here, they're too far out in the woods, but his notes app loads quickly and with it the list of pack members and their respective sleeping bag descriptions. Stiles gives Scott instructions and the pile gets smaller fast and then vanishes altogether, leaving him standing in the circle and looking at the campfire in the middle.

"Right, mountain ash," he mutters as everyone starts settling onto the big stones around the fire.

They'd agreed that he'd begin a mountain ash circle for protection but not close it unless there's an emergency. He's the only one who can, still, despite Danny and Allison also being human. Danny suggested that they keep the circle closed and have one of them open it to let the werewolves and coyote and kitsune out if needed, but Stiles figured this was better. He knew that some of them didn't like the feeling of being contained in such a small space—big as the clearing was.

So he walks the edges of the clearing with mountain ash in hand and stops only a foot from where he started. It's enough that he can get to it and close it quickly, but the wolves can get out easily before he does. He already knows that they won't disturb the line if they step over it, it takes a spark to move the ash these days as his abilities grow stronger.

They don't have any plans for this first evening besides making some s’mores and hanging out by the fire. The full moon is still two nights away and they're in no rush since they're staying for the whole week. The hike to the clearing did take a toll on all of them though, so one by one everyone starts disappearing into the tents soon after. Stiles checks the mountain ash line one more time before he crawls into his tent—he's alone in it and for the purposes of this trip, he's Switzerland, the neutral zone. No man's land. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but when there's nothing but silence to keep him company, he's wondering if it was a good one. Then tiredness gets the best of him and he falls asleep, mind still full of worry.

He feels a little more settled the next morning, after a surprisingly good night of sleep—the air feels fresh and clean, like the rainstorm that did indeed hit the valley on the other side of the mountain spread the fresh scent all the way to them. But the rest of the group isn't as calm, at least not the shifters. As little as Kira and Malia are affected by the moon itself, they do feel the restlessness from the wolves and channel it in ways they don't really like to talk about.

It makes for an interesting morning with a few scuffles and a lot more glaring as they all wander down to the stream that's close to the camp they set up. The shifters calm a little once they're in the woods, but Stiles is the one who gets restless then, feeling the energy of the trees. It's not as strong as the Nemeton, but his spark still picks it up and makes him full of energy, like he should be running—not that there's anything to run to or from right now. He only calms down again when Derek sits down next to him and they both stare at the running water, not saying a word until everyone else has headed back to the camp.

"It's the Preserve," Derek says. "Mom always said that it had a mind of its own."

Stiles hums in acknowledgment.

"I thought it was the Nemeton, for a while," Derek continues quietly. "But then we fixed that and it didn't stop. It's like the forest itself feels us and makes itself known."

"Got any old Hale wisdom about that one?" Stiles asks.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Derek shake his head.

"I tried looking into it. Asked Peter," he adds with a sharpness to his voice like he's taken a bite out of a lemon. "He knows nothing either. It's probably because this land was ours for so long."

"Think your wolfy DNA seeped into the shrubbery?"

Derek turns to him with a glare that he doesn't seem to really mean if the twitch in the corner of his mouth is anything to go by. Stiles smirks at him, unable to resist the temptation of a joke.

"I mean, you guys rub yourselves on everything when you're all..." he makes pretend claws with his hands. "It wouldn't surprise me if you'd left traces of yourselves all over this place."

"For all I know, you might be right," Derek tells him and shrugs. "Or it's just because the forest is so big and there are too many things that happened here."

"I can feel it," Stiles says. "I didn't before, but now that I'm getting more attuned to the whole spark thing, it's like it draws me in."

Derek looks at him with an expression that makes Stiles think of panic. It's more subtle though, not like when he is on the verge of a panic attack. It's closer to worry and he's not sure what he's supposed to do with that. He's never seen Derek concerned like this about anyone, his own pack and family included.

"Don't let it—" Derek cuts himself off.

Stiles has a flash of a memory hitting him right in the face, the ice bath and the Nemeton and the sacrifice.... he shudders when he blinks himself back into reality.

"Yeah no, not going anywhere near sacrifices ever again," he says quickly. "Once was enough for several lifetimes. Worth it," he says, doing his best to ignore Derek's glare, "but not my best day."

"You mean you being a little dark kitsune shit was not something that came naturally?" Derek asks, sounding a lot lighter.

"Not the dark part," Stiles says.

"Don't go growing tails now either. Don't think you could get away with that in college."

"Eh, might be a nice little party trick. Kind of like you guys with the glowing eyes and all. Did you ever flash them at people when they were drunk?"

Derek grunts out a "no" but it's anything but convincing.

"Halloween has to be fun with that. Scott's claiming he's not taking advantage of the shift, but I think Kira messed with lightbulbs a few times, now that she can control them properly."

To Stiles's surprise, Derek is quiet and when Stiles looks at him properly, he notices the blush on his cheeks.

"Wait, you do, don't you? Get the fangs out, flash your eyes...." Stiles chuckles. "Oh man, the kids have to love that."

"No idea. They're usually too busy running away and screaming," Derek says.

The satisfied grin on his face is a sight to behold. Stiles does just that—he commits the image to memory. It doesn't happen a lot, Derek being relaxed and sharing these kinds of details. He's changed, they all have, but these little snippets of the Derek that he must have been before the fire, before the absolute disaster that some of the past few years were, they're still rare. Stiles cherishes them all the more when it's just them. He feels like he's being let in on a secret when he gets to see Derek smiling, relaxed, willing to just be a person rather than the Alpha.

"With great power," Stiles mutters to himself, then pointedly stares at the water again when Derek raises a questioning eyebrow in his direction.

"So, full moon tomorrow night," he says instead of reacting to Derek's unspoken query. "Please tell me we’re not going to do things like trust falls or other weird bonding things?"

"No. Just us, talking, catching food...."

"Wait, what?"

"Well, not you. Or Lydia. Maybe Danny. But mostly the wolves. We'll head out today and hunt down some food," Derek says with a completely blank expression.

"Like, rabbits? Or a deer?"

"Malia would love that," Derek deadpans. "But no, you idiot. We'll run down to town for some takeout."

Stiles lets out a relieved sigh.

"I'm all for you honing your hunting instincts and all, but I don't think anyone would know what to do with a whole deer. Or how to make it edible to humans," he says. "I'm sure you don't mind your steaks on the rare side, but I prefer mine well done, thank you."

"And I'm pretty sure we can't go hunting for curly fries anyway," Derek tells him. "Not the right season for potatoes."

"Oh ha ha," Stiles says, starting to get off the stone he was sitting on. "Come on, let's get back to the hungry horde before they start eating each other. I think the deer might be a better option than that."

Derek nods and gets up too, then walks by Stiles's side all the way to the camp, where the rest of the packs has settled around the campfire that someone managed to get going and boiled water for coffee. Stiles ignores Scott's curious glance, then Lydia's knowing smirk, and he focuses on the mug that Allison hands him instead.

"Wow, this is a business venture in the making," he says. "If one of you settles in San Francisco in the future, I bet you could make a living selling campfire coffee to hipsters."

"Beats a job in Starbucks," Jackson grumbles.

"Hey, someone's gotta do that," Kira protests. "After all, those are people who make half of you marginally more tolerable in the mornings."

"Not everyone is a morning person," Stiles tells her. "These guys are the things that go bump in the night, after all. Can't expect them to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.... oh wait," he stops with a smirk, then ducks when Scott and Isaac both throw crumpled up paper in his direction.

"None of you shift fully," Derek chimes in. "No bushy tails for you. I'd hope."

Stiles can't help but chuckle when he sees at least Scott and Jackson fail at being sneaky about throwing a glance at their own behinds, a mildly worried expression on their faces.

"So anyway, what's the plan for tonight?" He looks around at everyone in the clearing as he asks. "It's not running after squirrels night yet, are we doing anything specific?"

"Just taking a bit of time off, away from everything," Derek replies. "I'll go run the territory borders, make sure everything is fine."

"Alone?" Stiles frowns.

Something is telling him that it's not a good idea for any of them to be alone in the Preserve, not this close to the full moon. Or ever, really, but especially at this time of the month, it feels like asking for trouble.

"I'll go with," Scott offers, surprising everyone. "I've never done the full circle, you can show me that to look out for."

It's a bit of an olive branch, an opening to what they really came here for—to get the packs together and make them work as a team. Derek obviously sees that and nods.

"Afternoon," he says. "We don't need to rush."

After that, everyone relaxes again and they all focus on breakfast. By the time Derek tells Scott it's time to go, everyone has managed to find a spot of their own and there's chatter and laughter, some quiet conversations going on in the corners. Stiles can't help but look on as Derek and Scott vanish into the woods though. He walks the circle of ash, checking that it's still in place the way he set it up the day before, makes sure he has the rest of it in his pocket, ready to use at a moment's notice.

He's not worried that either of the Alphas will attack the other, but it's like something is out there, waiting to take on all of them.

As the afternoon slowly moves towards the evening, the clouds above them start thickening—another storm approaching, like the one on the other side of the hills the night before. It's another thing that makes Stiles uneasy, especially since he's not sure if it will hit them this time.

The sky is still bright enough when the first bolt of lightning strikes, thunder following some time after, telling him that it wasn't anywhere near. Then there's another one, a little closer.

And then...

Scott dashes into the clearing first, right as the first drops of rain start falling down, the cool water sizzling as it hits the campfire in the center. Derek follows him seconds later and both of them look like they're gearing up for something. What that is, Stiles doesn't know, but his anxiety spikes immediately after he gets a good look at their faces.

"What is it?" Allison asks hurriedly when she walks up to Scott and looks at his face. "I'm gonna.—"

"No, it's fine," Scott tells her, putting his hand on her shoulder to stop her from rushing into the tent.

Stiles figures her plan is to grab whatever weapon she chose to bring this time.

"It's nothing," Derek says. "Well, nothing bad at least."

There are several faces around the clearing that make it obvious that he's not convincing.

"The storm," Scott starts, then pauses to look up at the clouds. "It's closer than we thought it would be and with the lightning...."

His voice trails off and he glances at Derek.

"Forest fire," Stiles says glumly.

He doesn't need to look at the others to know that they all look alarmed.

"We're good here, for the most part. But if it expands, it would be hard to get out," Derek says, glancing around the clearing like he's trying to figure out if there's enough distance between the trees and the tents.

There's another crack in the sky and then the rumble of thunder almost immediately after. Stiles turns towards it quickly and huffs when it becomes obvious that he won't see smoke unless a fire is too close. Then he realizes what effect being surrounded by fire could have on Derek.

"Oh shit," he says and heads for his tent.

He doesn't pay much attention to anyone who's calling his name. There are more important things to be done.

"Where is the... oh come on," he mutters as he rummages through the bag he carefully packed, then the one he hastily threw together that has clothes and other supposed necessities. "Ah!"

When he crawls out of the tent, he sees that the others are glancing up at the sky in between throwing their things into the bags they brought with them.

"You guys can go if you want to, but I can make sure we can stay," he says, loudly enough to be heard by the humans as well.

He looks up and sees no sign of smoke, but he's not convinced that if there is one, it's going to pass them completely. Or that there won't be a fire at all, because he's lived in California his whole life and he knows it doesn't take much.

"The downside would be that we couldn't leave until it's all gone. Which might be a while," he adds, glancing at Derek and Scott. "But since the full moon isn't until tomorrow, it should be okay."

"You can't hold back fire with mountain ash, Stiles," Derek says in a sharp tone.

"I wasn't going to," Stiles tells him. "But remember how Deaton was teaching me about barriers and protective magic?"

"The stuff about mountain ash and the invisible walls?"

It's Scott who's asking, his forehead scrunched in a frown.

"Yeah, but kind of a little better and holding things out rather than keeping them in," Stiles explains. "I've been learning how to raise barriers against pretty much everything. Fire included."

Derek stares at him incredulously and he's the only one Stiles bothers looking at. It's not because he's afraid or worried about the reactions from everyone else. It's because the only reaction that does matter is Derek's. After all, Stiles looked into fire protection because of Derek, because of his history and the effect out of control fires could have on him.

If anyone does ask, Stiles's rehearsed answer is that considering the past, he would be wrong to not prepare himself for all the possibilities. It's an explanation that he knows will be met with understanding nods and will just be chalked down to his tendency to dive into all possible research of anything he comes across.

When Derek doesn't show any kind of a reaction, Stiles shakes his head and then marches over to the edge of the clearing. He carefully walks the line of mountain ash while he's reciting the incantation that he's got memorized, watching his every step and making sure that he doesn't disturb anything he shouldn't be disturbing. When he gets back to the start of the line he doesn't stop a foot away. The barrier closes with a ping that he's sure only he can feel.

"That doesn't feel like a mountain ash circle," Scott says almost immediately.

"It's not," Stiles tells him. "It doesn't hold you in, it just keeps out anything I want to keep out."

"So like, attackers—"

Stiles glances and Isaac, who's frowning and looking around the clearing.

"No, that would still require me closing the ash circle. This keeps out specific things, like fire and smoke," Stiles explains. "If there was a flood, I could keep water out too, but it would be more difficult. Water is a whole different amount of energy."

He looks around the clearing and at everyone. They've all stopped packing and he squirms a little under their gazes. Then, finally, he finds Derek. He's standing behind Boyd and unlike everyone else, his eyes are not on Stiles but on the forest. Then, like he can feel Stiles's gaze, he turns to face him and Stiles barely holds in a gasp that forms in his throat when he sees the expression in Derek's face.

"You did this," Derek says quietly.

The air feels like it's frozen around them. Stiles doesn't look away from Derek when he opens his mouth and talks to the rest of the packs.

"You guys can still go," he says. "Like I said, it doesn't hold you in."

Then, like someone snapped a whip and magically teleported them somewhere else, they all scamper into their tents, leaving only Derek and Stiles in the center of the clearing.

"You.... this is a very specific spell," Derek says, barely loud enough for Stiles to hear. "I know it. Mom knew it. I always wondered..."

As his voice fades out, Stiles cringes. He takes a step forward and doesn't miss the way Derek flinches at the movement.

"Deaton told me it was because he wasn't in the house," Stiles explains, feeling the ache that Derek must be feeling. "It doesn't work from outside."

Derek nods, but it's a small, aborted movement.

"I'm sorry," Stiles says, taking a step back. "We can still go. There might not even be a fire tonight. I just... I wanted to... I know how much you..."

He stops himself. The words that were about to come out of his mouth would have given away the reason why he looked up and learned spells that protect this place and any other place from the elements. Specifically from the one element, from a fire.

"You.... this wasn't just a general precaution, was it?" Derek asks and this time it's him who steps closer.

Stiles shakes his head. If there's something he doesn't want to do right now, it's to lie to Derek. Not now, not ever.

"Why?"

There's a beat, then another one. Stiles takes a deep breath and opens his mouth, but no words come out. Not the ones he wants to say, not the ones he's deliberately holding back, not words that would give Derek an answer without giving away Stiles's secrets.

"You didn't just do this because you wanted to learn whatever protective spells you can," Derek says, a statement and not a question.

Stiles shakes his head again.

"This was about fire. About me."

Stiles nods.

"Why?"

"You know why," Stiles finally manages to say, the words heavy on his tongue. "You know why it mattered."

"Tell me," Derek whispers.

He's suddenly right in front of Stiles, having crossed the space between them faster than Stiles's mind could process.

"I can't," Stiles mutters. "There's no going back if I say it."

"Tell me," Derek pleads.

He lifts his hand to Stiles's cheek, fingers hovering close enough to Stiles’s skin that the heat of Derek's palm radiates against it. Stiles jerkily nods his head and Derek rests his hand on his cheek, then puts his other hand on Stiles's side.

"I love you," Stiles says, the words rushing out with a breath. "I looked into everything I could to make sure that I knew all the ways that I could to prevent not only hunters but also things that could bring back memories."

"Idiot," Derek mumbles, then he leans in.

He pauses before their lips touch, waits for a beat, then closes the distance when Stiles nods again.

"Oh finally," someone says from one of the tents, loud enough that even Stiles can hear it.

They don't stop kissing, not until Derek pulls away and groans, his cheeks coloring in reaction to whatever it is that he heard.

"Your idiot?" Stiles asks when they lean their foreheads together, Derek's palm a steadying weight on his cheek.

"My Emissary?"

Stiles's eyes widen, his mouth opens and then closes. Then, instead of answering, he kisses Derek again, muttering an affirmation between their lips.

"So hey, you two wanna take it somewhere inside?"

It's sometime later—Stiles realizes he's lost track of time—when the question comes from behind Stiles, Scott's voice filled with amusement.

"I mean, I'm sure Erica is all up for getting a show, but if clothes are being lost..."

"Oh shut up," Stiles mutters, feeling his cheeks burn.

He's pleasantly surprised that Scott isn't angry or disappointed, that he's not asking about the whole Emissary thing. It doesn't seem important right now and Stiles knows that he'll try to figure out a way to make it work, to not have to choose an Alpha or a pack to belong to. But in the end, if he can't, if he needs to choose, he knows what choice he'll be making.

"Hey, the storm seems to be over," Kira says then, breaking the momentary tension. "No more lightning."

"No fire," Derek whispers against Stiles's lips.

"Never."

Stiles says it with finality, with a determination that he can feel in his bones.

"Not on my watch," he adds, then chuckles when Derek kisses him again.

"Get a room!"

it's more than just one person shouting those words and Stiles blushes again. This time though, instead of staying rooted on the spot, he reluctantly pulls away from Derek after a quick kiss, then he links their fingers as Derek's hand falls away from Stiles's cheek.

"Come on, I have a tent all to myself," he says with a grin.

"Not anymore, you don't," Derek counters.

They both ignore the groans and cheers that follow them into the tent. Stiles grins when they're in and he pulls the zipper closed.

"Did you know that there are spells to soundproof a place?" Stiles asks.

Derek shakes his head, a smile on his face, then he tugs Stiles onto the sleeping bag and kisses him again.

#sterek fic #sterek #eternalsterek #multifandomwc #multifandomwritingchallenge

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