#Danny: Hold on can I at least get my sister before we go anywhere

[anthropwashere]

deadfic: Bang Babies got nothin’ on the Ghost Kid

More deadfic for @goodintentionswipfest! There was a post circulating on here once upon a time riffing on how OP Danny is compared to regular superheroes, so here’s about 4k of a Static Shock/Danny Phantom crossover that didn’t end up going anywhere.

=

The first time they see him, he’s just a black and white streak that nearly knocks them both out of the sky.

“Who—what was that?” Static gapes once he’s regained his balance. Green data splashes across Gear’s visor, obscuring his own incredulous expression.

“No idea, but they just clocked 154 miles per hour.”

“Well the speed limit here is only 45. Wanna pull ‘em over?”

Gear snorts. “If we can catch ‘em, sure.”

But whoever or whatever it was is long gone. After a week with no other sightings of ‘Flash Noir’ as they call the stranger, they let it go. Whatever it is will turn up, or it won’t. So long as no one’s getting hurt by it, it’s not really their problem, right?

=

The second time they see him is a week after that, and he’s hovering over the school roof just… watching. Other people see him too, and they all point and stare at the figure all in stark black and white, a teenage boy from the waist up and a ribbon of black from the waist down. 

Virgil and Richie share a mutual look of relief. They’d started to think they’d imagined him, never mind what Backpack had recorded. But when they look up at the roof again the kid is gone.

=

The third time they see him, he’s just a black speck barely glimpsed in the streaky post-rain evening sky. They only realize it’s him—and that he’s there at all—because Backpack catches him on the edge of its radar. He’s too high up, way too high up. The air’s just too thin for normal people—or normal bang babies, for what that’s worth. They try to get as close as they can anyway, but he blinks out of existence long before they can make out any details.

=

The fourth time they see him, he’s got a minivan and a corolla balanced in each hand like gravity’s got better things to do than pay him any mind. He’s holding them by the bumpers. Gear promptly loses his mind trying to figure out the physics behind such a feat, so it’s only Static that sees the guy toss a grin their way as he sets the two vehicles down on a stretch of road aways away from the car accident he’d apparently saved them from joining.

The strange kid waves at the families he’d saved, then takes off before Static and Gear can get near him. Backpack helpfully informs Gear that this mysterious guy encroaching on their hero turf clocked 60 miles in two seconds flat.

=

The fifth time they see him, he’s waiting for them in the junkyard looking infuriatingly smug. Static and Gear gape, then jump for him. It’s been starting to feel like chasing a mirage, but this time the guy stays put.

“Relax,” he tells them with a laugh and a lazy grin. “I’m not a bad guy.”

This close they can see he’s not any older than they are. He’d look like any normal kid, except for the glowing green eyes and shock of white hair fluttering in a breeze that isn’t there. 

“Then why are you stalkin’ us?” Static challenges.

“I wouldn’t say ‘stalk,’” the guy replies, defensive. “I’ve just never seen any other superheroes before. I was curious, that’s all.”

“I guess you don’t watch the news much,” Gear says, unimpressed. “You can go a day without hearing about a super making headlines somewhere.”

The kid’s grin turns uneasy. “I’m, uh, not actually from around here. Superheroes are a bit thin on the ground, where I’m from.”

“And where’s that, the North Pole?” Static asks.

The kid rolls his eyes. “Through an interdimensional rift in space four blocks from here. Hang a right past the Lovecraft reference and straight on ‘til morning.”

Static and Gear share an exasperated look.

“Look, kid,” Gear begins heatedly, only to be cut off.

“Oh no, no fair. You guys look like you’re still in high school too, so cut it out with the ‘kid’ stuff. The name is Phantom.”

Gear huffs. “Fine, Phantom. Point is we appreciate the help. You’re doing good work. But the superhero thing’s dangerous. You can’t just, y’know, jump into it.”

As if the two of them hadn’t done just that. But, y’know. It felt right to warn the guy, at least.

“It’s not a matter of ‘if’ you’ll get hurt if you stick with it,” Static adds. “And, okay, you might be new in town, so maybe you don’t know, but the two of us have got Dakota covered just fine.”

Phantom rolls his eyes, bouncing into the air. Gravity really doesn’t pay him any mind at all. How does he fly? Telekinesis? He does it like he’s so used to it the switch from standing to hovering is as natural as breathing. “Trust me, this city’s a walk in the park compared to what I deal with. Forgive me for seeing a chance to lend a hand to a couple of kids who clearly needed the help.”

“Now wait a minute—”

He drifts higher. “Oh, and by the way, there’s a guy calling himself Hotstreak waiting for you on ice by the community center. You’re welcome.”

“Wait—!”

But he blinks out of sight just like his name would suggest he could. There’s a pause as they both stare stupidly at thin air, then Gear swears. “‘On ice?’ Don’t tell me he’s got ice powers too.”

Phantom does, in fact, have ice powers too. Talk about overkill.

=

The sixth time Phantom makes an appearance, Virgil Hawkins is eating dinner with his dad and sister. He happens to glance out the window only to see a pair of neon green eyes staring back at him. Virgil drops his glass, yelping when milk splashes his mostly empty plate and spills into his lap.

“What’s the matter with you?” His sister asks.

“Uh. I—nothing! Nothing at all! I just—remembered that I, uh. Book report! I left my book report at Richie’s and I need to go get it!”

“Can’t it wait until school tomorrow?” His dad asks.

“No—no, it can’t, because I, uh, I still need to type it up and—and it’s due first period!” 

He runs out of the kitchen and out the front door before either of them can yell at him to clean up the mess he’d made. He stands on the stoop, panting and trying not to panic, and Phantom swoops into view upside down with that smug grin on his face again.

“Well hey there, sparky,” he says.

Virgil thinks he maybe has a heart attack, a little bit, before he finds the strength to speak. “You’ve gotta be kidding me!” He yells in a furious stage whisper, grabbing the kid out of the air to drag him closer. “The first rule of superheroes is minding the secret identity thing, especially around family, and you just blew that right out of the water!”

Virgil’s hand goes briefly numb and Phantom slips out of his grasp. “I wouldn’t say ‘just,’” he replies, looking guilty.

Virgil’s gonna strangle him, he really is. “How long have you known who I am?”

“Wwwwwell, a couple weeks back I saw local heroes Static and Gear walk into an abandoned gas station and two normal teenagers walk out. I don’t know your real names and I didn’t know you lived here, I swear. I was just flying by and recognized your hair out of the corner of my eye. I swear,” he repeats hastily at Virgil’s murderous expression.

Virgil counts to five, then back down again, and is still just as pissed. “Fine. Okay. C’mon.”

He starts walking towards Richie’s house, because no way is he doing this on his own. Behind him Phantom asks, “Uh, where are you going?”

“We are going to R—Gear’s place. The three of us are gonna sort this out, and don’t you even think of pulling another one of your disappearing acts to get out of it!”

Phantom scoffs. “Oh yeah, because I’m so inconspicuous otherwise. Here, hold still.” He grabs Virgil’s shoulder and a chill washes over him. He startles, trying to pull away, but Phantom may as well have steel rebar for bones. Virgil looks down and yelps even louder than when he’d spilled milk all over himself; the ground has fallen away without even a rusty, trusty trash can lid underfoot. And speaking of feet, where are his feet?

“Augh, what? Whoa, no, let me go!”

“Quit squirming.”

Oh, no. He’s not getting the evil grunt orders fifty feet in the air. He grabs the hand he can’t see and sends a warning bolt. Phantom grunts, twitching. 

“Augh, easy sparky! Which way is Gear’s house?”

“How is this less inconspicuous you maniac? Put me down—and don’t drop me!”

“Oh, for—you’re invisible right now.” He looks up and there’s nobody above him, but he can hear Phantom all the same. “I pulled a disappearing act and brought you along. Seriously, man, I know I’ve been goofing off and setting you on edge, but I really didn’t mean to spy. You wanna talk to Gear about the blown cover thing—I really don’t know your names still, by the way—and I wanna come to an agreement.”

Virgil sighs. These bang babies all gotta stop being so crazy. But hey, at least this one doesn’t seem like he’s about to rob any banks. “Hang a right at this light.”

=

It is officially too weird to watch your own body reappear before your own eyes. Virgil shudders.

“First time with invisibility?” Phantom waggles his eyebrows. “How do you feel?”

“...Tingly. Warn me before you do that again, alright?”

“You just gave me blanket permission to do it again basically whenever, you realize that, right?” 

“Wh—I did not!”

Phantom rolls his eyes and phases through the roof. Seriously, there’s got to be a limit to how many spooky ooky poltergeist powers a guy can have, right? A moment later Virgil hears Richie yowling, and Phantom reappears with Richie in tow. He sets Richie down, gentle as you please, then promptly explodes.

Virgil recoils, blinking white light out of his vision. When he can see clearly again, Phantom is gone and there’s a regular teenager standing in his place, black-haired and fresh out of glowing green eyes. One forearm is bandaged from wrist to elbow.

“Wh-what?” Richie asks for the both of them.

The kid smiles, waving his uninjured hand. “Danny Fenton. It’s nice to see you without the visor.”

=

Turns out, Danny wasn’t kidding about being from a different dimension. He shows them the door he pops in and out of and everything. It’s an emergency exit of an old theater downtown, perfectly normal to Virgil’s eyes. Richie opens it. Rusty hinges squeal and Virgil can glimpse the vague suggestion of chairs in the dark.

“It only works if you’re focusing on the Ghost Zone,” Danny says.

“The what now?”

Richie shakes his head. “Oh no, no way. Please don’t tell me I’m talking to a dead guy.”

Danny laughs. “Nah, I’m basically as normal as either of you when I’m like this.”

Considering Virgil can do exactly as much damage as he can wearing his superhero gear, that’s not exactly comforting.

Danny nudges Richie aside, shuts the door and opens it up again. Just like that the theater’s interior is gone. There’s a hole in the world instead, bleeding radioactive green into the alleyway. There are hundreds—no, thousands—of violet doors floating in a green void that twists in dizzying shapes before his eyes. There’s no ground, no sky, it goes on forever in all directions.

“That—” Richie swallows. “That’s where you’re from?”

Danny shuts the door. Virgil tries to ignore the relief that makes jelly out of his knees, but dang, that really needed a better warning. “No, of course not. I’m from Earth, same as you. Just a, well, a slightly different one, I guess. A parallel one. That place is where ghosts come from. I only ended up here by mistake.”

“Take a left at the Lovecraft reference?” Virgil asks, rubbing his eyes. 

“Ha, pretty much. I was trying to escape the Lovecraft reference. That’s, uh, not what it’s name probably is? My friend Sam called it that and I can’t understand it, so, that’s kind of stuck. It’s got enough teeth to deserve being called ‘Lovecraft reference,’ anyway.”

“Sam?” Richie asks. “Is that someone else, uh, on your team?”

“It’s not really a team. She doesn’t have super powers or anything, if that’s what you mean.”

“That’s right, you said superheroes are thin on the ground where you’re from,” Virgil says. “So I guess it’s just you dealing with the big and toothy?” 

“Basically, yeah. Not a lot of opportunity to do what I did to get my powers.”

“What’d you—”

Danny holds up both hands. “Nope, nuh-uh. You’ve got your secrets, I’ve got mine.”

=

The seventh time they see Phantom, they finally see him in proper action. Ebon’s gang has struck a bank—Virgil’s big mouth and bad luck strikes a home run, as usual—and by the time Static and Gear arrive on the scene they’ve stolen a truck and are two blocks from the bank. Talon is flying overhead, keeping an eye out for cops or goody-good superheroes, while the rest of the gang’s inside.

They don’t stop to see who’s hurt. They’d passed an ambulance on the way, and it’s not like either of them are good for more than getting the injured to emergency care. They take chase, and the armored truck doesn’t make it another block before Gear’s knocked Talon out of the sky and Static has netted the truck in a web of electricity. It’s heavy though, too heavy for him to do more than keep its tires squealing in place and hoping Gear can gimmick up something to slow it down a little more. Ebon’s smart though. He’s not gonna pick a fight here, and Static will burn himself out long before the tires do.

“Gear!” He yells desperately.

“Working on it!”

But it’s Phantom that swoops in from nowhere, soaring down in front of the truck. He, impossibly, lifts the wheels off the street one-handed. It’s enough help to let Static focus his attention on popping the wheels off before releasing his net. He sinks to his knees, disc wobbling dangerously beneath him, catching his breath.

“I—hate—armored trucks,” he wheezes.

“Static!” Phantom calls out, startled, which means breaktime is over. He stretches his hand out and ties Shiv up with a nearby stop sign before he gets to his feet again. Phantom’s rushed off to help Gear with Talon who’s back in the air, which just leaves Ebon to Static.

Ebon slides out of the truck, an inky, glowering smear. “Who’s the new guy?”

“Friend from out of town. Why, you feelin’ like we’re not bondin’ like we used to?”

Ebon doesn’t reply, just slaps Static away. The air gets knocked out of him and he lands in a sprawl halfway down the street. Before he can recover he hears Talon scream. He slams his hands to his ears reflexively, but luckily she wasn’t aiming at him. Not so luckily, Gear and Phantom hit asphalt a few yards away.

“You okay?” Static calls out.

“I hate when she does that,” Gear complains too loudly, shaking his head like a dog and looking nauseous. Yeah, Static hates it too. He’d take getting slapped around by Ebon over having his hearing scrambled any day. 

Phantom springs up quicker than either of them, grinning madly. “She wants a screaming match, huh?” 

Gear looks as aggrieved as Static feels. “Do not tell me you can do that too.”

Phantom’s grin widens, eyes blazing, as Talon rejoins Ebon and Shiv at the armored truck. Shiv must’ve cut himself free of the stop sign at some point. Static makes a mental note to use two stop signs next time. The three of them are hauling bags out of the back, clearly planning on Ebon’s easy getaway trick to get at least some of the cash they’d stolen.

Static gets to his feet, zapping his disc underfoot again as he considers a half dozen strategies to take them out and not liking any of them. Ebon’s always been too slippery; it’s likely he’ll get away no matter what—

A hand claps down on his shoulder. 

“Stay behind me,” Phantom says.

“What are you—”

But there’s no time to finish asking what because Phantom takes a deep breath and wails. There’s waves of concentric neon green energy bursting from his mouth, radiating out and down to Ebon’s gang. The armored car, down two tires, goes shrieking and sparking down the street. Two parked cars follow after, their windows shattering, their frames buckling. Ebon, Talon, and Shiv don’t even have time to grab at their ears; they go down like bowling pins, and don’t get up again.

The click of Phantom’s teeth when he finally stops wailing seems awfully loud. Static feels like he just walked out of a concert he’d been too near the speakers at for; his ears are ringing, his hands and feet are tingling, and his chest hurts vaguely. He swallows, looks back at Gear who’s just shaking his head a little. He looks at Phantom; the kid’s got beads of green on his forehead and he’s breathing hard.

“Sorry,” his voice cracks a little, “That one’s kinda hard to put a lid on.”

=

After sorting out things with the police—which Phantom vanished for, literally—they invite him back to the gas station for what is, in essence, dinner and an interrogation. Richie declares he’s had enough surprises and Virgil agrees. So they stop to grab a couple of pizzas and manhandle Danny to the gas station. Danny lets himself be manhandled with no shortage of eye rolling.

“Sit,” Richie orders, shoving a paper plate laden with three slices of pepperoni into Danny’s hands. “Explain.”

Danny sits obediently, raising his eyebrows like he’s trying not to grin. “Uh, explain what?”

“You! Your ridiculous collection of powers, where you come from, why you’re not strutting around your weird parallel Earth or whatever as Grand High Emperor of—of everything!”

Danny can’t help the grin. Virgil’s hiding one behind a can of soda too though, so he can’t judge. “Grand High—what? Do you have one of those here?”

“Danny.”

“C’mon. We agreed on no details, didn’t we? This wouldn’t even be a conversation we’d have if you were the ones coming to my city.”

“We agreed to that when it seemed like you were just another souped up Bang Baby,” Virgil cuts in, “but this is getting ridiculous. I’m not sure I like the idea of Superman’s ghost charging through Dakota any time he feels like it, especially since supers tend to bring their problems along with ‘em.”

“If you want me gone, I’ll leave. I was just trying to give you guys a hand when things were slow in Am—my city.”

“We never asked your overpowered butt for help in the first place!” Richie snaps.

Danny opens his mouth to snap something back but his phone goes off instead. He glares at them both as he pulls it out of his jeans pocket, flipping it open. His eyes widen at whatever the text reads, he fires off a quick reply, then drops his uneaten pizza on the table. “Look, here I am, going. All right?”

“Trouble in paradise?” Virgil quips.

Danny ignores it, but stops halfway to the door to look back over his shoulder. His eyes are bright green, which Virgil’s learning means more trouble than it’s worth. “You know what? How about you come visit Amity Park with me?”

=

The Ghost Zone is just as dizzying as Static thought it would be, and in no time at all he’s hopelessly lost and he has a monster of a headache. It’s like he’d put his face right up against a neon sign no matter where he looks; just bright green smears and the odd clutter of purple doors. “Man, you sure you’re not lost?”

Phantom throws a grin over his shoulder. “Relax, I’ve done this plenty of times.”

“Is it even safe for, uh, regular people to be here?” Richie asks nervously. “I’m getting some bizarre readings here that Backpack can’t make heads or tails of. I feel like I should have nabbed a HAZMAT suit too.”

“My parents and friends have been in and out of the Ghost Zone dozens of times, and they’re totally fine.”

“Radiation poisoning can take decades to affect people,” Gear points out.

“Eh, so maybe they’ll glow in the dark or something twenty years from now. Ectology is kind of in its infancy. Anyway, we’re here.”

There’s a circular hole of swirling green, lighter than the fog around them and suspended in a solid looking riveted steel frame. Phantom holds up one hand to stop them, sticking his head through. “We’re good,” he says when he’s popped back out. “C’mon.”

Gear and Static share one last nervous look before following after.

They find themselves in some kind of high-tech basement done all out in sleek chrome, like a mad scientist’s lab out of a Saturday morning cartoon. There are beakers and flasks bubbling with syrupy neon green stuff, barrels with CAUTION stamped on the sides, and the kind of tables that wouldn’t look out of place in a flashy investigation show morgue. Static breaks out in goosebumps and can’t even pretend to play it off on it being a little chilly in here. 

“My parents built the Ghost Portal,” Phantom says, pointing back at the circle of green light still swirling behind them. “But I’m the one who made it work.”

Seeing the Portal on this side makes Gear’s breath hitch, and Static breathes out a stunned, “Whoa.” It’s an octagon framed by fat black and yellow caution stripes, easily fifteen feet in diameter. The Portal itself is identical to how it appeared on the Ghost Zone’s side, a constant dizzying swirl of toxic greens staining the enormous lab like some kind of mutant aquarium.

“Is this thing open all the time?” Gear stutters. “How is your family not dead? Heck, the whole city? This thing’s pouring out energy on a—I need to invent a new scale to quantify these readings just so I can make sense of them!”

Phantom laughs, grabbing a chrome cylinder glittering with green designs. “Don’t worry about it, seriously. My mom would know if it was, like, properly dangerous. Now c’mon, I want you to meet a regular of mine.”

=

Two more teenagers are waiting for them outside an evacuated post office. The girl, white with a distinctly Goth taste in clothes, gives Phantom a look that plainly states she thinks he’s nuts. “You didn’t mention you’d be bringing them through,” she says flatly.

The guy, black with thick-rimmed glasses and dressed like he can’t decide if he’s going for ‘frequents Starbucks’ or ‘military surplus’, rolls his eyes and waves. “Hi, I’m Tucker. That’s Sam. Don’t mind her, she’s just pissed the Box Ghost got the jump on her.”

“The one time I leave the house without a Thermos,” she huffs, crossing her arms.

“Sorry about the wait.” Phantom says. “Guys, this is Static and Gear.”

“Charmed,” Static says automatically. Gear just grunts.

“Don’t need three guesses to guess who,” Tucker grins. “We can catch up later. You wanna do the honors, Danny?”

“Nah.” Phantom looks at Static and Gear, looking worryingly pleased. “I helped you out with the, what’s it, Ebon and Friends. Why don’t you take a crack at one of mine?”

#danny phantom #static shock #my writing #deadfic

[jessicajonesrp]

Public warning

Patricia Walker does not do well with lack of control. It’s a tendency passed down from life with Dorothy Walker, easily the most controlling non super-powered person she had ever met. For the first eighteen years of her life, most of Trish’s actions, from her clothes to her work to her every public word and expression, had been chosen for her by Dorothy, and the only real choice she had for herself was whether to give in and make life easier for herself or rebel and suffer Dorothy’s wrath.

 Her desire for the control she had lacked had left her with severe insecurity, eating disorders, and self medication through drugs, all issues she struggled with for a good ten years before channeling her need for control into efforts at bettering herself and helping others. She had finally reached a place where life was stable, heading in a direction Trish could be content with, if not fully satisfied.

 And then Kilgrave happened. First to Jessica only, without Trish having any idea why her best friend had suddenly vanished without contact for eight months, and then with the shattered mess it left her once Trish did know and struggled to support her. Then to Trish herself, when she, against Jessica’s orders and even pleas, involved herself in trying to draw him out and capture him.

 Trish knew she had not suffered anywhere near the level that her sister had from Kilgrave, but it was still enough to make her feel sick and cold when she remembered. She still occasionally had nightmares of his cold, snapping voice, telling her to shoot herself in the head, telling her to kill people she had never met before out on the docks. She still shivered in disgust when she remembered the feeling of his hands on her face, his lips on her skin, the terrible ambivalence of wanting to kiss him, enjoying it, even as every part of her true self screamed out in horror. And she could never forget Simpson’s hands around her throat, choking her nearly to the point of death at Kilgrave’s command.

 She had hated and feared the man from the first moment Jessica managed to stutter out what he had done to her. No, she had hated him before then, when she first saw the unnaturally shocked, broken state of her sister when she finally broke free from his initial control. Anyone who could hurt Jessica so deeply and so permanently earned her hatred without needing to know their identity.

 And now he was back. Again. As much as Trish feared for herself, for being used or even killed in his obsessive pursuit of Jessica, she feared even more that Kilgrave would damage Jessica even more deeply, that he would continue to pile up dead and damaged bodies around himself and place the blame at her feet. Jessica didn’t need this, not again. And if Trish could do anything to help or stop it, it would help her feel just a little bit more of a sense of the control she knew she didn’t really have.

 She made her way to her recording studio after first sending some of Heroes for Hires guards ahead of her to thoroughly check out the studio for any signs of danger from Kilgrave or any of his like, giving them a code phrase to use to insure that they would be able to alert her if he did show up and control them or others.  Trish had already called ahead to insure that all people were thoroughly searched for any possible weapons and passed at least twice through the metal detectors already installed before being allowed entrance. After receiving the all clear, she went, Jessica insisting on accompanying her, via one of Danny’s cars to the studio, passing through the checks put in place and heading straight to her recording studio and instructing the techs to set up for a live broadcast. She was aware of Jessica skulking behind her, hands shoved in her pockets, as Trish rapidly read from the speech she had just finished churning out.

 “Good afternoon New York City and beyond, this is Trish Walker with an urgent report coming to you from Trish Talk, by way of myself and all our associates at Heroes for Hire. Soon, a follow up broadcast will be coming your way via Channel 5 News with more information, but please, listen very carefully to this announcement for your safety and those of your loved ones.”

 Trish paused, swallowing, and snuck a glance back at Jessica’s impassive expression before facing the mic again and continuing. “Most of you may remember the terrible events of last summer, when the man whom called himself Kilgrave provided mass terror and destruction in our city and in far too many of our own lives and homes. It is to my great sorrow that I inform you that Kilgrave is not, as was believed, deceased. Kilgrave has made personal contact with myself and with-“

 Jessica made violent throat slashing motions behind her that Trish saw out the corner of her eye, and Trish edited her intended words smoothly.

 “With myself and my colleagues, and we have evidence to support that this is no hoax. Please be aware of yourself and those you love at all times. Know their whereabouts, establish coded phrases and patterns of behavior in order to test out the level of control the people in your life may have at any given moment. Kilgrave is a white male with a British accent, last known to have short medium brown hair and brown eyes. He tends to dress in a professional manner, especially in dark purple suits and ties, and he is considered a threat of the level of nuclear war. Do not approach him should you see him; instead do all you can to get away and call in our hotline at Trish Talk or Heroes for Hire to report a possible sighting. If you suspect that someone you know may be controlled, treat them in the same manner, do all you can to subdue them without causing permanent harm to them if necessary. Kilgrave’s powers last up to 12 hours, so do not under any circumstances try to reason with anyone you suspect to be controlled. If at all possible, wear ear plugs or head phones or listen to loud music when necessary to go out in public. Kilgrave cannot gain control of those whom are not within his direct path and whom cannot hear his commands. He-“

 “Stop,” a voice suddenly came over the ear, and both Trish and Jessica jumped, recognizing the voice after a moment as not Kilgrave’s, but female and American. Trish quickly identified the voice a second later as belonging to one of her tech support assistants, Chloe Ash. “The information is over.”

 “What the fuck?” Jessica hissed, shooting Chloe a vicious glower and striding towards her quickly. “Will you shut up, even I know to shut the hell up on a live recording, over something this damn important!”

 Trish tried to recover, giving a somewhat forced chuckle and speaking over them. “I apologize, there are some technical difficulties, but if you’ll bear with me I will make sure you all get the information you need. As I was saying, Kilgrave cannot-"

 “This information is too much, this recording is over,” Chloe repeated, more loudly and forcefully, standing up and taking the headphones off of her ears. She fairly shouted out her next few words, speaking loudly enough that Trish’s words were drowned out.

 “Loyal listeners, you will now hear the sound of a suicide by Chloe Ash, Patsy Walker’s employee. More are to follow in the names and as a direct result of the avoidance and rejection of Jessica Jones. Goodbye, loyal listeners, and know that Kilgrave is a patient man.”

 She head butted Jessica in the face when Jessica grabbed for her arm, ducking under her and weaving to the other side of Trish. As Trish leaped up, expecting Chloe to grab or try to harm her, the young woman instead ran to a small cabinet against the walls containing little more than sound equipment and various office supplies. Throwing it open, she grabbed a pair of scissors from its contents, opened the blades wide, and closed them around the front of her throat.

 She made no sound, showed no pain as she dragged the scissor blades more deeply into her skin, sawing back and forth to make as rough and deep a wound as possible. The live recording now picked up the sound of Trish’s horrified scream, her outcries of “Oh god, no, no!” as blood spattered in a wide arc just short of reaching her, and the noisy scuttle of multiple feet moving towards Chloe as others tried to reach her before it was too late.

 Jessica got to her first and wrenched the scissors out of her hand, breaking them in half and throwing them down so Chloe could not get them and use them any further. Tearing off her oversized sweatshirt, she pressed it against the woman’s throat, grimly noting how the blood immediately stained through its thick material and onto her fingers, how it had sprayed hot and thick over her arms and chest before she could touch her at all. The woman didn’t try to speak, likely couldn’t have, but she was losing all color in her face, her eyes already growing glassy and lifeless, and as Trish sputtered and tried not to vomit or pass out in the background, Jessica held onto the almost useless bloodied sweater, as though she could somehow keep the woman alive just by holding on tight enough.

 It didn’t matter. Within another minute the woman was clearly dead, limp and unmoving under Jessica’s hands, and she could hear the shrill noise of sirens in the background. Jessica let her drop to the ground, stumbling back and nearly yelling out loud when she bumped into Trish and felt her hands latch onto her arm.

 “We have to go, now,” she mumbled, giving her sister’s arm a rough tug.” Before someone else of his comes through in the aftermath.”

 Even as she lead Trish out of the room and building, she could still hear the dying woman’s words echo in her mind. More are to follow, as a direct result of the avoidance and rejection of Jessica Jones…

#jessica jones roleplay #Jessica Jones #Luke Cage #luke cage roleplay #trish walker roleplay #trish walker

[darks-ink]

What We Are - Holiday Truce 2020

Happy holidays @dandan-phantom-blog, I was your Truce gifter this year! I wrote this for your prompt "Danny and Vlad Role Swap", with a touch of "Danny, Tucker, and Sam are all trans and they kiss sometimes" (except I didn't find a way to organically mention that Sam and Tucker are also trans in the context of this fic so hhhh). I hope you enjoy it!

Rating: Gen Genre: Hurt/Comfort Words: 8,276

[AO3] [FFN]

---

“Looks pretty clear from up here,” Vlad reported, hovering high above his friends. His cape flapped as the wind tugged at its edges, the red flashing repeatedly.

“The scanner isn’t picking up any ghosts besides you, either,” Maddie reported from below, staring at the silver invention in her hands. “But the range isn’t great.”

“We should look into that some more,” Jack agreed from next to her, frowning up at Vlad. “You can’t pick up any invisible ghosts either, Vladdie?”

He sighed gustily, peering around a little more. “No, Jack. I can only sense the cores from pretty close by, and I can only see them if I’m really trying.” Rolling his eyes, Vlad started lowering himself closer to the ground. “If I don’t know there are any ghosts present, chances are I won’t see through their invisibility either.”

“That seems like a bit of a flaw,” Jack commented cheerily. “Too bad you didn’t just get a ghost-scanning ability with the other powers.”

“For all we know it would’ve been as strong as this tracker of ours,” Maddie pointed out, turning to face them. “At least this mechanical tracker can be upgraded.”

“And my abilities aren’t exactly the most reliable, either.” Vlad cocked an eyebrow at Jack. “I got the basics down, but ghost sensing seems a little more advanced.”

Maddie hummed thoughtfully, continuing on in the direction they had been heading. “Well, who knows. A ghost tracking sense could’ve been an expansion of your innate ability to sense ghost cores. That seems pretty basic to me.”

“And,” Jack jumped in, “If you could sense ghosts yourself, we could’ve spent more time working on weapons for me and Maddie!”

“I thought your ecto-guns were fine?” Vlad frowned at the guns either of his friends held. He’d been assured that they were both well-armed, perfectly safe if they ran into a ghost, but if that wasn’t the case…

“They work just as well as your ecto-ray,” Maddie assured him, not slowing down or looking up from the scanner. “But it could be useful to have more variation in weaponry besides the ray gun and the Thermos.”

“Ah.” Well, that was fair enough, Vlad supposed. More ways for his friends to defend themselves couldn’t hurt. “Fair enough. We can always focus on more weaponry next. The scanner is fine as long as we do regular patrols.”

The device in question pinged, and three pairs of eyes zoned in on it instantly.

“Looks like there’s a ghost nearby, boys.” Maddie grinned, turning towards the right. “This way!”

“Remember to mute it,” Vlad hissed, diving lower until he was just over his friends. “Let’s try stealth for once.”

Maddie snorted as she reached down to the mute switch. “You don’t have to tell me. It’s not my stealthiness we have to worry about.”

“Sorry,” Jack whispered, making a face. “But it’s not like it’s always my fault!”

Vlad pressed a finger to his lips, and Jack snapped his mouth shut immediately. Then mimed zipping them up for good measure.

The three of them snuck closer in complete silence, gathering on the corner of a building. According to the scanner, the ghost was in the small park beyond it.

Forcing himself invisible, Vlad leaned out. And saw…

“Nothing,” he reported quietly, dropping his invisibility. Maintaining it for long was too draining. “I don’t see it anywhere.”

Below him, both Jack and Maddie peered around the corner as well.

“Just two people kissing,” Jack agreed.

“And neither of them look like ghosts.” Maddie glanced down at the scanner again. “The ghost should be here though, it’s still showing up on the scanner.”

Vlad cast out his senses. “Yes, there is definitely an increase in ectoplasm. Must be invisible.”

Which was just such a joy. He could see invisible ghosts if he really tried, sure, but it was such a strain. His eyes would inevitably start hurting later from all this peering around.

Finally, though, his eye caught on a glimmer on movement. Immediately zeroing in on it, Vlad immediately recognized it as a ghost.

There was no time for a good look, however, as it was clearly preparing to move. And based on the way it was invisibly staring at the kissing couple, there was no doubt in Vlad’s mind as to what it was about to do.

He pushed off from the building, rushing forward to intercept the ghost. The moment he got his hands wrapped around the ghost’s upper arms he turned them both intangible as well, shoving the attacking ghost through a different building and onto the ground behind it.

His target, a male humanoid ghost, seemed briefly startled, dropping his invisibility as Vlad pinned him to the floor of the alley.

It didn’t last long, however, as the ghost narrowed his bright green eyes and promptly kicked Vlad off. The ghost kept moving up, white boots leaving the ground instantly, even as he brushed dust out of his white hair.

Vlad blinked at him, feeling oddly caught off-guard by the fact that the ghost had just kicked him off, rather than flipping them around so Vlad was the one pinned to the ground.

Apparently his silence lasted too long, because green eyes zeroed in on him. The ghost’s aura flared violently, angrily.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he hissed at Vlad, green ectoplasm sparking around his hands. “We could’ve been spotted, you absolute moron!”

Vlad, belatedly realizing he shouldn’t be lying on the floor with a potentially dangerous ghost right there, pushed himself up into a seated position. “We were both invisible, it was fine.”

“It was not fine!” the ghost snapped back, even as footsteps echoed through the alley. “See?”

Jack and Maddie appeared in the opening of the alley, and Vlad rolled his eyes, secretly relieved for the backup. “They’re just my friends, they already knew we were there.”

“Well.” The ghost drew himself up, muscles rolling underneath the tight black jumpsuit he wore. Bright green eyes moved over Jack and Maddie, clearly evaluating them—and the ecto-guns in their hands.

Instantly, Vlad scrambled up onto his feet, ready to shield his friends with his body if he had to.

“Good for you,” the ghost concluded, bitterly, eyes moving back to Vlad. “Enjoy it while it lasts.”

And before any of them could stop him, the ghost vanished into a puff of green smoke. Literally, he dissolved into a ecto-green cloud, which faded away almost instantly.

“Huh,” Vlad said despite himself, finding himself blinking stupidly once more. “I guess he wasn’t interested in fighting after all.”

Maddie hummed an agreement, pulling out the scanner with one hand, still holding her gun in the other. “Scanner says that he’s gone, too.”

Vlad lifted up further, peeking over the edge of the building. “And the couple he was watching is gone too.”

“Guess we have no clues left to track him down, even if we wanted to.” Jack sighed, running a hand through his hair. “That sucks. Hopefully he won’t be up to anything too bad.”

“Let’s hope so,” Maddie agreed, shaking her head. She clicked the safety back on, stowing her gun into its holster. “Maybe we’ll run into him again while we finish up patrol.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Vlad floated back to his friends. “Still, something about him was weird.”

“He’s a ghost,” Jack pointed out with a shrug. “They’re always a little weird.”

And while that was true, something about it just kept niggling at Vlad.

---

They finished their patrol before long, returning to Vlad’s home once more. Somehow it had become their go-to place over the years, and after his accident… well, the little time they spent at their own houses, they were usually at Vlad’s.

He figured it was because his house was a quiet place, full of privacy, especially compared to Jack’s and Maddie’s. Between Maddie’s sister and Jack’s overbearing parents, well… Vlad’s own house, with just his own mother, was a breath of fresh air to the both of them.

Which was, he supposed, the reason why they were all so shocked to see a stranger standing in the living room, talking to Danielle.

The man, pale skinned but with mussy black hair, had his back turned to them, which certainly didn’t help with recognizing the guy. His t-shirt and jeans were rather nondescript too, not anywhere near recognizable enough to place the man.

And then he turned around and, well.

He looked exactly like Vlad’s mother, except with shorter hair.

“Um,” Vlad said, eyes darting between the two. Standing next to each other, both looking at Vlad, it was undeniable: they were almost exactly the same.

“Vlad,” his mother said, sighing exasperatedly. “I told you that my brother was coming over to visit. Did you forget?”

Well, now that was just embarrassing. Between all the ghost stuff he had, indeed, forgotten about his uncle.

Luckily the man in question did not seem offended at all, laughing brightly. “Honestly, Elle, you should’ve seen that one coming. You know what it’s like being that age, not caring a whit about family members that you don’t know.”

Still laughing, Vlad’s uncle stepped closer, eyes moving over Vlad and to Jack and Maddie. As he did so, his laughter faltered a little, but before Vlad could process that, the man offered a hand, smile once more back on his face.

“Danny Masters,” he said, as Vlad accepted his hand and shook it. “Danielle’s identical twin.”

“He picked his name to match mine because he thinks he’s hilarious,” Danielle explained, rolling her eyes.

Danny released Vlad’s hand, turning to shoot her a wicked grin. “That’s because I am hilarious.”

“Don’t lie to my face, Danny,” Danielle countered, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“Wouldn’t dare to, sister dearest.”

“How are you two identical twins, anyway?” Jack asked, loudly, breaking into their bickering.

As everyone turned to blink at Jack, Vlad could hear Danielle snort.

“Well,” Danny said, clapping his hands together to draw the attention back to him. “So sometimes when a mommy and a daddy love each other very much…”

He paused, then shrugged. “After Jazz our parents got tired of having so many girls so I decided to even it out a little.”

“Stop joking about it,” Danielle huffed, rolling her eyes again.

Danny snapped his fingers, cocking finger guns at her. “Never.”

“Wait. Did you actually name yourself after Danielle, then?” Vlad burst out, unable to hold it in anymore. Surely not? Names are a serious matter, right, especially for transgender people? He wouldn’t have—

“Oh, definitely,” Danny confirmed before Vlad could finish that thought. “I mean, we’re twins. It was perfect.”

“It was—and is—ridiculous, Danny.” Danielle shot him a withering look, but even Vlad could see the fondness badly hidden in it. “I still think you should’ve gone after Jazz instead.”

“There are no good male names that resemble Jasmine and you know it.” Danny stuck out his tongue towards Danielle, and Vlad was suddenly overcome with the realization that his uncle was basically a child.

And then Danielle blew a raspberry back and Vlad amended that thought with the realization that his uncle and his mother were both children.

Unbelievable.

It took another solid thirty minutes of chattering about everything and nothing before Vlad (and Jack and Maddie) managed to break away to Vlad’s room.

The moment he closed the door behind them, Maddie whirled around, a frown on her face. “Did anyone else notice that Vlad’s uncle kept throwing us weird looks?”

“Not really,” Jack admitted with a loose shrug. “Vladdie?”

“Yes, actually.” He thought back of the way Danny’s smile had faltered when he had first looked at Jack and Maddie. “He’d been smiling, laughing, but when he saw you two it fell. I thought that that was odd.”

Maddie hummed, thoughtfully. “How strange…”

“He could’ve just been afraid of our reactions,” Jack pointed out, quirking an eyebrow. “Since he looks so similar to Vlad’s mom, and because he’s trans.”

“Or maybe he wanted to make sure he made a good impression,” Vlad tacked on. “From what I remember of Danielle telling me about him before, Danny is a bit of a family-man.”

“Maybe it’s because Vlad could’ve been Danny’s own son.” Jack shrugged at their incredulous looks. “What, it’s true, isn’t it? If Danny and Danielle are identical twins, then Danny could’ve had a son just like Vlad, no?”

Vlad blinked at that. “I… suppose?”

“Hm. I don’t know…” Maddie sighed, then shook her head. “I just— He seems so familiar, I could swear I’ve seen him before. But I can’t for the life of me remember where or when.”

“Well, no point in fretting about it.” Vlad stretched, his spine clicking loudly. “It probably wasn’t anything important, anyway.”

“Probably,” Maddie agreed, before pausing, her eye caught on the clock. “Oh wow, is it that late already? I had better go home before my parents get worried.”

Jack turned to look as well, before making a face. “Yeah, me too. Man, they really kept us occupied for a while, huh?”

“We took our time with the patrol as well,” Vlad pointed out. “But yeah, wouldn’t want you, either of you, to miss dinner.”

They all walked back downstairs, where they paused at the door.

“And Vlad? If I remember, I’ll text you, okay?” Maddie said. “Both of you.”

“Don’t worry too much about it,” Vlad pushed, but she flapped a dismissive hand.

“It’s fine, I won’t stop thinking about it anyway. You know me, don’t you?” She laughed, stepping outside. “See you tomorrow!”

“I’ll get going too. See ya tomorrow, Vlad!” Jack shot him a brilliant grin and then, too, walked out the door.

Vlad waited for another moment, watching them leave, then quickly escaped back to his room before his mom spotted him. He had no desire to get trapped in another conversation with her and Uncle Danny. He’d had his fill of socializing for the day, thank you very much.

---

When Vlad came out of his room in the morning, it was to the sound of voices, only slightly muffled by the walls between them. It took him a moment to process, before he realized: his mother and uncle. Right, of course. They had obviously gotten up earlier than him, and were in the kitchen, talking.

Satisfied with this conclusion, Vlad made his way down the stairs to join them.

Until he heard his mother shout, “Stop being a fucking moron, Danny!”

He paused, hesitating, halfway down the stairs. Vlad didn’t think he had ever heard his mother swear before.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” he heard Danny snap back and, well. Sue him for getting curious.

Using the cover of the stairs—and the fact that the adults were clearly occupied—Vlad shifted into his ghost form, feeling his core surge up with renewed energy after a good night’s rest. Certain that he had plenty of energy for the moment, even without breakfast, Vlad turned himself invisible.

He pushed off from the stairs, floating towards the kitchen. Peeking in, he could see his mother and uncle Danny sitting at opposite sides of the kitchen table. Not their expression, however, since Danielle had her back turned to him and was, in turn, blocking most of Vlad’s view of Danny.

Silently cursing the small kitchen, Vlad shifted slightly in the doorway, but couldn’t cram himself into the kitchen and still keep an eye on both of them at the same time. Not unless he made himself intangible, but that would drain his energy too fast to risk.

Body language would have to do.

“I think I do,” Danielle bit at Danny, her shoulders visibly tight even with her clothes covering them. “Would it really kill you to talk to Sam and Tucker?”

“Clearly you don’t know, if you’re asking that!” Vlad kind of regretted not being able to see uncle Danny, now, because he sounded pissed.

Danielle huffed, shaking her head. “Just stop being an idiot and make up with them. Or, hell, just talking would be a good start. I’m serious, Danny.”

“And so am I!” Danny flung out a hand, gesturing wildly. “You know what they did! What happened to me!”

“You really think they don’t feel guilty as shit over that?” Danielle countered, also flailing her hands. “They love you, Danny. They don’t care about what happened with the accident at all!”

Well. This was becoming awkward. And it didn’t look like it would escalate into a proper fight at all, like he’d been afraid of, so… Time to make a hasty escape!

Before he could, though, Danny slammed his hands down on the table. Vlad found his eyes drawn back to his uncle instantly.

“Why wouldn’t they care?” Danny snapped at Danielle, his eyes glowing a bright vivid green. “I’m a monster!”

Vlad… froze. He could feel his mind grinding to a halt, even as the green left again from his uncle’s eyes, returning them to the cool blue they had been before.

How could that be? Was his uncle really part ghost like him?

And Danny considered himself a monster for it. What did that make Vlad, then?

He shook the thoughts off, watching as Danny slumped down on the table, his anger having apparently left him after the outburst. Danielle leaned in closer, patting his shoulder, comforting him.

Biting his lip, Vlad floated out of the kitchen again. He could ponder about this moment, about the ramifications, somewhere else. Better to give them a little privacy. He’d taken enough of it already.

---

After sneaking out of the house—an act made easy thanks to his ghost powers—Vlad texted Jack and Maddie to meet him in the park. Figuring it would take them longer than him to get there, Vlad made a stop on the way to grab himself some breakfast.

So by the time he’d made it there, both of his friends were already present, waiting impatiently.

“What happened?” Maddie asked as soon as he was within earshot. “You texted us to meet up early, so it must be important, right?”

“Definitely,” Vlad confirmed through the bite of donut in his mouth. He held up a finger for her to wait, then quickly chewed and swallowed the last bite away. “My uncle Danny has ghost powers too.”

Maddie frowned immediately. “Are you sure?”

“One hundred percent.” He glanced around to make sure no one was watching them, then shifted back into his human form, landing with a thud. “He was having a bit of a discussion with my mom this morning, and I saw his eyes glow bright green when he got angry. But it faded away pretty quickly, so it wasn’t possession or anything.”

“Well, it makes sense,” Jack said with a shrug. “You guys are pretty closely related, so you must share some kind of genetic predisposition towards becoming part ghost. And a family-bound bout of ghost interests, maybe?”

Vlad snorted. “When you put it like that… yes, I guess so.”

“Did your mom not comment on it or anything?” Maddie’s frown deepened. “Or did she not see?”

“Oh, no, she definitely saw.” Vlad ran through the conversation again in his head. “I guess she must’ve already known? They mentioned an accident a few times, and that Sam and Tucker didn’t care about that it happened, but Danny did, he considered himself a monster.”

Maddie sucked a breath through her teeth. “Yikes. That’s pretty harsh.”

“Sounds to me like they had an accident similar to ours,” Jack pointed out. “Danny turning into a half-ghost like you, Vlad, and his two friends present for it. And, hell, he might’ve been the ghost we ran into during our patrol yesterday. Maddie must’ve thought he looked familiar because we had seen him earlier.”

“That… sounds pretty reasonable, actually.” Vlad clicked his tongue. “But then what happened? Shouldn’t they have stuck together over it, rather than fall apart?”

“Anything could’ve happened,” Maddie pointed out, her frown smoothing out a little. “Who knows how long ago it happened, anyway. Maybe they just grew apart, maybe they didn’t. We have no way of knowing.”

“Besides asking?” Jack laughed at their incredulous looks. “Didn’t think so. But if Vlad’s mother and uncle were fighting over it, then clearly he must still care.”

Vlad hummed. “My mom seems pretty convinced they care for him still, even if he can’t see it. But I wonder… If he really was the ghost we saw yesterday, maybe Sam and Tucker were the couple he was spying on?”

“That sounds like a good reason to split apart, too,” Maddie agreed, brows creased. “You turning into a half-ghost, and your closest friends hooking up? I think I’d be miffed too. But to split apart entirely?”

“Well, it’s not really our business, is it?” Jack crossed his arms. “They’re all adults, they can figure it out themselves. They don’t need a bunch of teenagers to start meddling, do they?”

“No, I guess they don’t,” Maddie agreed. “But we should talk to Danny, anyway.”

“And admit that I listened in on his private conversation with my mom?” Vlad bit his lip. He felt bad enough about it already, he didn’t exactly want to get a scolding on top of it. Or see Danny’s doubtlessly stronger ghost powers from up close.

Maddie snorted, like she knew exactly what he was thinking. “He is another half-ghost, and one with probably tons more experience than you. He might have advice, or more knowledge. At the very least, he’ll be an older half-ghost to compare your stats to, no?”

“Maybe he’ll even be able to help with training!” Jack chipped in enthusiastically. “He must’ve done something to develop his own powers, right?”

“Ugh, I guess.” Vlad grimaced. “Fine, we’ll go and ask him.”

“Well,” Maddie said out as she stretched. “First we’ll have to find him.”

---

“Got a ping on the ghost scanner!” Jack reported, pointing slightly to the right. “That way!”

Finally. When they had set out to talk to Uncle Danny, Vlad hadn’t thought it would be such a chore just to find him.

“And I see him, too!” Maddie added on, her head angled back. Vlad followed her gaze and saw Danny as well. Or, well. The ghost they were fairly sure was Danny.

The white-haired specter was high in the sky, out of the eyesight of casual onlookers, and actively flying about. Vlad wondered if he was looking for Sam and Tucker, after he’d lost them yesterday.

“I’ll go bring him down.” Vlad tugged on his core, letting his transformation wash over him. Honestly, they were lucky that Danny wasn’t flying very quickly, because Vlad didn’t think he could’ve caught up otherwise. That was part of the reason why they always patrolled with him in his ghost form. Only today they had decided against it, worrying that Vlad’s presence would throw off the ghost scanner too much.

Vlad pushed himself up, feeling the wind tug at his hair, his cape. Before long he was catching up to Danny, and he cupped his hands around his mouth to shout the other ghost down. “Hey, wait up!”

And, surprisingly, he did. Danny glanced over his shoulder, then slowed to a halt in mid-air. His white eyebrows were creased as he frowned at Vlad. “You again. What now?”

“We just want to talk,” Vlad assured, holding his hands up appeasingly. “Me and my friends down below. You know who they are, don’t you?”

Danny’s bright green eyes narrowed. “Well, it’s not like they’ve offered their names. At all.”

They hadn’t? Vlad thought back furiously to the night before, and…

Yeah, no. Danny had introduced himself, but none of them had offered theirs in return. And Vlad couldn’t remember if they had referred to Jack and Maddie by name at all.

“Uh, oops?” he offered Danny, expression sheepish. “In our defense, we live in such a small town that we don’t meet a whole lot of strangers that we actually need to introduce ourselves to.”

Danny snorted, shaking his head a little. “And what makes you so sure that I am a stranger you need to introduce yourselves to?”

“Please, Uncle Danny?” Vlad pleaded, clasping his hands together in front of his chest. “From one half-ghost to another?”

Danny’s expression stilled, and for a moment, Vlad worried that the other might just go and beat him up for spoiling his secret. But then it softened again, and he sighed.

“You shouldn’t listen in on private conversations, Vlad. That’s not only rude, but also a terrible way to use your ghost powers.”

“I know, I know.” Vlad started slowly lowering himself closer to the ground, and Danny obediently followed. “Normally I wouldn’t have, but… I just heard you and my mom being angry, snapping at each other, and I guess I just got worried that it would, y’know, escalate.”

Danny quirked an eyebrow at him, catching up so they flew side-by-side. “And you didn’t think that Elle could take care of herself?”

“Obviously she can.” Vlad rolled his eyes. “I didn’t really think. I just… acted. And then just when I went to leave I saw… Well, you must know.”

The other ghost hummed, then twisted around to smoothly land on the ground in front of Jack and Maddie. “Greetings, teenagers whose names I do not know.”

“Look, I’m sorry for spying on your private conversation, alright?” Vlad darted around Danny to meet his eyes, putting on his most earnest expression. “It was a really shitty thing to do.”

Danny shot him an unimpressed look, then shook his head once more. “Listen, Vlad. I’m not mad, just… Ugh, I dunno. Annoyed? Frustrated? But not mad. I knew you were there. I could feel your ghost core appearing during the conversation, so I should’ve watched my words better. If I had, I could’ve avoided this entire situation.”

“How did you know it was me, then?” Vlad pushed, also dropping his feet back onto the ground. “Or did you just guess?”

“Well, gee, how did I know?” Danny asked, dryly, letting his eyes wander from Vlad to Jack and Maddie and then back to him. “It’s not exactly rocket science, kid.”

“I told you we should’ve invested in goggles,” Jack shot at Maddie, who rolled her eyes back at him.

Vlad ignored them completely, instead turning back to Danny. “But if you knew I was there, and you could’ve prevented me figuring you out, why didn’t you?”

“I…” And something about Danny’s expression just… broke. Shattered. “I guess I got too caught up in the discussion.”

“Right…” Vlad said, catching the unspoken undertone: Danny had been too upset. “Um. So what we actually wanted to talk about… You’re also half-ghost, right? So you must have way more experience with it than me, yes?”

“Yeah,” Danny agreed, slowly, drawing the word out. “About two decades of it.”

“Great!” Maddie clapped her hands together, a grin on her face. “Can you help Vlad train, then? Or at least teach us a little more about half-ghosts? We’ve been going by trial and error and it’s been…”

“Not great,” Jack finished for her, leaning around her to offer a hand to Danny. “I’m Jack, by the way. Jack Fenton.”

“Oh, right!” Maddie also stuck out her hand. “And I’m Maddie Walker.”

Danny reached out to shake both of their hands at once, his white gloves stark even against their pale skins. His expression was rather bewildered, Vlad thought. “Well, pleasure to meet you properly, I guess.”

“So will you help?” Jack asked, when Danny let them both go again. “It would be a huge help!”

“I…” Danny’s eyes slid back to Vlad, who stood up straighter as if for inspection. “I guess,” he finally conceded. “You’re family, and I know from first-hand experience how much it sucks to figure this out without guidance.”

Before Vlad could cheer, however, Danny added on, “And your mother would be incredibly upset if you get yourself killed, so.”

“He’s not going to get himself killed,” Maddie bit at Danny. “We might be teenagers, but we’re not that stupid!”

Danny just turned a cocked eyebrow at her. “Yesterday he suddenly pinned me to the floor, for no reason except that he thought I was up to something bad. Just that would’ve been enough to get serious retaliation from most ghosts, since you attacked first. And if you’re new to having these powers? That’s usually not a fight you can win.”

“So what are we supposed to do if strong ghosts attack?” Vlad asked, puffing up his chest and trying not to feel offended. Because Danny was right, damn it, but it still felt like an attack. “Just run for cover and hope the ghost doesn’t hurt anyone else?”

“If that happens, you’re supposed to call in experienced ghost hunters to come deal with it instead.” Danny rolled his eyes, crossed his arms. “But I doubt it would be a common occurrence, since there is no permanent door into the Ghost Zone around here.”

Danny stilled, then. Turned to frown at Vlad. “Speaking of which, though… How did you become half-ghost, anyway?”

Vlad thought back to the priceless ghost artifact they stole from Danielle and never recovered.

“That’s… not important?” he tried, shooting Danny a hopeful grin.

“It was a ritual we found in a book,” Maddie elaborated as Danny’s eyes started narrowing again. “It was supposed to bring a ghost into our world so we could study it.”

“We think it opened a temporary portal into the Ghost Zone and then went awry,” Jack explained. “The book was old and kinda terrible, so they might’ve noted down the ritual wrong.”

Danny heaved a deep sigh. “You three are lucky that nothing worse happened, then. Did you even have any plans on how to deal with the ghost if it had been volatile?”

“We built some containment devices, and weapons!” Maddie crossed her arms, glaring back at Danny. “We’re not stupid.”

“Well, maybe a little,” Vlad allowed, shrugging as Maddie’s glared moved to him. “We probably should’ve known better than to try a ritual like that first, instead of first validating the book with some less dangerous stuff.”

“Good to know at least some of you have learned from the experience.” Danny shook his head, running a hand through his hair and messing the white locks up even further. “Alright, how about this. Vlad, you go and tell your mother what happened—the complete story—because for some reason you haven’t told her yet.”

Vlad grimaced but nodded. That was fair; they should’ve told her before.

“And once you’ve done that we’ll arrange some sort of training,” Danny concluded. “Does that sound good to you guys?”

“Yeah,” Vlad agreed, as Maddie and Jack gave their assent as well.

“Good, good.” Danny nodded, dropping his hand to his side once more. “I gotta get going, but I’ll be around for dinner tonight. We can talk more then.”

“Wait,” Jack blurted out, holding up his hands. “We’ll tell Mrs. Masters, but you gotta tell your own friends too, alright? I just…” He paused, uncharacteristically, as if searching for words. “I’m sure they’re worried about you.”

Danny’s bright green eyes narrowed, peering at Jack. “How would you know?” he snarled, low and vicious, and Vlad immediately felt his hackles go up. “You don’t know my friends.”

Then, before any of them could stop him, or say anything, Danny pushed off. He rocketed away into the sky, his white-and-black form blurring into nothingness.

Vlad was suddenly very sure he never would’ve caught up to Danny if the man had actually been trying to keep away.

“Well, it was a good attempt,” Maddie tried, patting Jack on his shoulder.

Jack rolled his shoulder, shaking her hand off easily. “It was,” he agreed cheerily. “I’m sure it worked.”

Which Vlad highly doubted but, hey, he wasn’t about to get Jack down for no reason at all.

---

“So, uh, yeah. That’s basically it,” Vlad finished, trying to discretely read his mom’s expression. “Um. Surprise?”

Danielle’s eyes moved to the ceiling as she quietly muttered to herself, but then she shook her head and refocused on Vlad. “You’re—all three of you—idiots. I can’t put into words how unbelievably stupid that was. Did you three even consider everything that could’ve gone wrong?”

“Well,” Jack said with a sheepish expression and a shrug of his shoulders, “We kind of thought that summoning a powerful and malevolent ghost would be the worst case, and we prepared for that. We didn’t think of…” A vague gesture. “This.”

“And that you might get hurt, or even die, didn’t cross your minds at all?” Danielle clicked her tongue. “Never mind, I can tell it didn’t. Unbelievable. Is this sort of dumbassery genetic? Are all men in the family gonna be like this?”

She sounded angry, but Vlad knew his mother well enough to tell that it hid her concern, her worry.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, ducking his head lower. “It was stupid, we know.”

“Well.” She snorted, imperiously. “As long as you know.”

Then she sighed, mellowing out further. “You three are damn lucky nothing too bad happened. This… half-ghost stuff… might be weird, but it’s manageable. You’ll be fine, Vlad. But you might not have been.”

“I know,” he assured her, glancing back briefly at Jack and Maddie. After the accident they had spent a lot of time worrying about what happened. Even now that they knew that he was half-ghost, it was hard to dismiss the thoughts of how easily he could not have been. “I promise, Mom, we know.”

She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly, before pressing a kiss to his forehead. “Good. I’m glad.”

When she let him go and stepped back, however, her brow was creased. “Although I do wonder why you three decided to tell me now, of all times. Why not tell me sooner? Or wait longer?”

“So… It is possible that I might have listened in on your conversation with uncle Danny this morning,” Vlad admitted, grinning sheepishly. “Perhaps. Maybe.”

The disappointed look she gave him was truly without peer.

“I know, I know, it was a private conversation, I really shouldn’t have. But I heard shouting, and I got worried, and I reacted without really thinking about it.” He shrugged and tried to look apologetic.

“If it helps, Danny already chewed us out too,” Jack tagged on, and Maddie next to him nodded in agreement. “We talked to him first, to ask if he could help Vlad with training and such.”

Danielle sighed, shaking her head. “Oh, you three… And what did he say, my brother dearest?”

“That we should tell you first, and we could talk more about it during dinner.” Vlad scratched his cheek, idly. “But he did promise to help, so…”

“Sorry if this isn’t our business at all, but I can’t help but wonder… What happened to Danny?” Maddie’s violet eyes moved over Vlad and Jack before settling back on Danielle. “He just seems so… so upset about it all, and he apparently detests his ghost side, but I can’t imagine how he got it in the first place without caring about ghosts.”

Danielle stared her down for a long moment before sighing deeply, her shoulders sagging. “It’s… a long story. But you should know that it is possible for someone to be interested in ghosts while still detesting them, thinking them monsters.”

“You don’t have to tell us if it’s too personal,” Jack blurted out. “But it has something to do with his friends, right? With this Sam and Tucker?”

“Yeah,” she admitted, quietly. Danielle ran a hand through her hair, mussing it up and tugging on a few strands as they got caught up in the motion. “I guess I could tell you a little. It might come up if you’re gonna be working on ghost stuff together, and I don’t want you to get blindsided, just because Danny has issues talking about stuff.”

She sat down on the nearest chair, and Vlad, Maddie, and Jack followed her example by sitting down on the couch, clustered together.

“It’s important to know, for the rest of the story to make sense, that Danny, Sam, and Tucker had been close friends throughout most of their lives. Since they were kids, really, they’ve been best friends, even though their interests varied wildly and often even conflicted. In college, they decided to work on a project that combined their various skills and interests: an artificial portal into another dimension, the so-called Ghost Zone, which had not been proven to exist at the time.” She paused, then amended it with, “Or at all. It hasn’t been officially proven to exist at all.”

Danielle cleared her throat, then continued. “Between Tucker’s interest in technology, Sam’s interest in ghosts, and Danny’s interest in exploring the unknown, as well as their skills in engineering and inventing, they built a miniature ghost portal. But when it failed to activate, a fight broke out. Tucker was sure that it had failed because ghosts weren’t real, while Sam blamed Tucker’s technology. Danny, wanting nothing more than to stop his friends from fighting, decided to try and fix the portal alone.”

“And he succeeded,” Maddie gasped. “Right?”

“He did,” Danielle confirmed, her voice low and weary. “But he’d forgotten to unplug it. The device turned on while his arms were still inside it, a ghost portal forming before he could pull away. Sam and Tucker heard the commotion and managed to get him away, and the device turned off, but it was too late. Even though Danny was declared to be fine by doctors, who hadn’t found any injuries, it didn’t take long for the effects to show. Little by little, Danny developed ghost powers, and even gained the ability to turn into a ghost entirely.”

Danielle paused, running her fingers through her ponytail. “We didn’t know, back then. Jazz and I, I mean. He didn’t tell anyone. The only ones who knew were him, Sam, and Tucker. They grew even closer, somehow, trying to figure out what had happened to Danny, even with how little they knew. But there were always concerns, they were always worrying. What if Danny was slowly dying? Gradually becoming more and more ghost until no human part remained?”

“So what happened?” Vlad asked, startling himself. “If they all got closer afterwards… And it was Sam and Tucker who were fighting, before, not Danny. How did it end up like this?”

“It… Something happened. Something I’m not gonna tell you guys about because it was personal, but anyway, Danny ended up lashing out in anger.” She dropped the hand she was tangling in her hair, her expression dropping along with it. “The anger didn’t last long. Almost immediately, he got worried about him falling into a ghostly rage, about it escalating and him hurting his friends. So he left, cut contact entirely.”

She laughed, humorlessly. “It took forever to get the story out of him, between me and Jazz, and… I guess he sees himself in you, Vlad. And Sam and Tucker in Maddie and Jack.”

“But clearly he no longer thinks he’s slowly turning into a ghost, or worries about the ghostly rages,” Vlad pointed out. “So why hasn’t he reunited with Sam and Tucker?”

“Who knows?” She clicked her tongue. “He cares about them, deeply, and I’m sure the feeling is mutual, but Danny doesn’t seem to think so. And once he has set his mind… He’s too stubborn for his own good, really.”

Jack hummed. “I think we might’ve caught him spying on his friends, a few nights ago, before we met him as Danny. During patrol we found him in his ghost form watching a couple.”

“A dark-skinned man, probably wearing a barrette, and a light-skinned woman with black hair?” Danielle asked, and at their nods, she made a face. “Yeah, that sounds like Sam and Tucker. I hoped he wouldn’t realize that they lived in Amity too, but this seems just his kind of shitty luck.”

Vlad thought back to the couple. He admittedly hadn’t paid too much attention to them, too occupied with watching the ghost, but still… If they were kissing, if they were together… was that the reason why Danny had gotten angry in the first place? He couldn’t help but think that, if Jack and Maddie got together while he was becoming half-ghost, he probably would’ve been pissed too.

“Anyway,” Danielle said, clapping her hands together. “None of this is your business, and I probably shouldn’t have told you guys in the first place. I’ll talk with Danny about ways to help, once he gets home, but I don’t want you trying to get involved, okay? Let me and Jazz handle it.”

“Okay.” Vlad pressed a kiss against his mom’s cheek, trying to hide how increasingly troubled he was feeling. “We’ll be in my room. Thanks, Mom, love you.”

“Love you too, honey.” She ruffled his hair before he got the chance to distance himself, and her laughter followed them all the way to Vlad’s room.

This time it was Jack who stepped into Vlad’s room last, closing the door behind them. “We should try to get those three together to talk,” he immediately declared.

“Why? Mom just said to stay out of it.” And clearly Sam and Tucker had decided to be happy together, rather than with Danny, Vlad thought, but did not say.

“Well, clearly nothing that they have tried is working,” Jack pointed out, with a tone of voice like he was being totally reasonable. “And it was super obvious that Danny is not the only one pining, right Maddie? You saw it too?”

Maddie stood with her arms crossed, rolling her eyes. “Yes,” she admitted, finally. “Yeah, they didn’t look very happy. But for all we know there’s something else going on with them. It’s been decades. They might have moved on.”

“But it’s worth a shot, right?” Jack dragged big hopeful eyes back to Vlad. “Can’t you imagine, Vlad, if it had been us going through that? I mean, we’re not in love like those guys, but still. Losing our friendship like they lost theirs…”

But it was not the same at all. Not really.

Would it be crueler to make Danny face what he had lost, or to let him pine from a distance forever?

Vlad swallowed past the block in his throat.

“It’s worth a shot,” he agreed, quietly.

At least Danny would be able to move on, then. Just like Sam and Tucker had.

---

In the end, Jack and Maddie decided that there would be too much risk of people backing out if they knew what the meeting was really about, and Vlad agreed. If Danny knew he certainly wouldn’t show up, and if either Sam or Tucker (or more likely, both) backed out, there wouldn’t be a point to the meeting at all. So instead they arranged it with everyone separately, somehow managing to track down Tucker and Sam when they were alone.

Danny, of course, was the easiest to meet with. As promised, he had agreed to start training Vlad, setting up a meeting for just that purpose. For Sam and Tucker, they had to get a little more creative.

Luckily Danielle had told them about their prior interests, which were gladly taken as a jumping off point. Tucker proved interested enough in the ghost hunting tech the three of them had developed, agreeing to come meet them to talk a little more about them, and to have a good look at the tech. Sam, on the other hand, was lured in with the offer to take a look at some of their rare books about ghosts.

Which brought them here. Vlad, Jack, and Maddie were there first, settling down in the grass. They had picked the meeting spot with care, a quiet corner of the park where no one ordinarily came. The large trees surrounding it should give them privacy from potential onlookers, too.

Not long after they got there, they were joined by uncle Danny. He hovered over them for a moment, then shifted back to his human form as well, his sneakers softly touching down on the grass. “Ready, Vlad?”

“Almost,” he answered, and tried not to feel too bad about what was coming. It would all be for the better. Even if things didn’t improve, likely as it seemed, then at least Danny would be able to move on.

Before he could worry too much about it, however, the bushes rustled and their last two guests appeared in the clearing as well. Sam and Tucker had apparently realized they were invited to the same place at the same time, and thus came together.

Uncle Danny stilled instantly, his eyes locked onto the forms of Sam and Tucker. They, in turn, also looked rather surprised to see him.

“Danny?” Tucker whispered, voice quiet with… shock? Surprise? Vlad didn’t know him well enough to tell.

That was enough to snap the elder half-ghost out of his frozen state. In the blink of an eye he shifted back to his ghost form, pushing off from the ground.

But he wasn’t fast enough.

In the short moment he had needed to turn ghost, Sam had crossed the distance between them. Had caught Danny’s wrist with her own hand.

And Danny… stopped. Instantly, immediately.

Tucker, not far behind Sam, caught up as well, grabbing Danny’s other wrist. And, like it was nothing, pulled him back onto the ground.

“Stay,” Sam commanded him softly, and Danny nodded meekly.

What on Earth was happening? Vlad honestly didn’t know anymore.

“We missed you,” Tucker told Danny, voice still quiet. “You won’t believe how much we’ve missed you, man.”

“But you two are—” Danny started, his vibrant green eyes wide and darting between the two people holding his wrists, like he couldn’t decide whether to pull away or to come closer.

“It’s not the same without you,” Sam interrupted, her fingers curling tighter around his wrist. “Danny, it’s not just Tucker I love. I love you too. Always have.”

“And the same goes for me,” Tucker tacked on. “It was never just the two of us, but all three. We’re not the same without you, Danny.”

Danny’s mouthed opened and shut several times, but no words came out.

Luckily, Sam took mercy on him, adding on, “We’ve been so worried about you, Danny. For two decades, we heard nothing. You never answered our messages. Avoided us completely. We only knew you were okay because Jazz and Elle would tell us if we asked.”

“Well, yeah,” Danny said, subdued, with a shrug and a meaningful look between Sam and Tucker. “I mean…”

“You thought we’d cut you out.” Tucker shook his head, his voice strained. “Danny, we tried to tell you. It’s not the same without you. But you never listened.”

“But I’m—”

“Not a monster,” Sam snapped at him. Then, suddenly, she pulled at his wrist, dragging him closer to her.

And then they were kissing.

No, really, Vlad wasn’t sure how that happened. One moment they were talking, and then suddenly they were not.

The kiss didn’t last very long, but was promptly followed up by Tucker kissing Danny, mimicking Sam’s move to drag Danny closer.

They broke away again, Danny blinking stupidly at Sam and Tucker. Then at their hands, still around his wrists.

With a short movement, he turned his arms intangible, pulling them free. Except, instead of fleeing like Vlad was half expecting, Danny grabbed onto the hands he had just freed himself from. Wriggled his fingers between those of his… his friends? His love interests? His crushes?

Either way, Danny then promptly used the hands he held to drag both Sam and Tucker closer to him, until they were all mashed together, melting away against the sides of his long-lost friends.

“I’m sorry,” Danny murmured against Sam’s shoulder, where he had tucked his head.

“So are we,” Sam answered him, equally muffled. “We should’ve talked to you first.”

Vlad watched them for a moment longer, feeling increasingly awkward about being there. Next to him, Maddie cleared her throat, apparently just as uncomfortable as him. “We, uh. We’ll get going.”

“Sorry for being present for something so… personal,” Vlad tacked on, nodding quickly. “Uh. Congrats?”

“Congratulations!” Jack shot them a bright, cheery grin. “See, I told you, Mr. Masters!”

Somewhere in the pile, Danny groaned, his glow flickering visibly. “Now I feel old.”

“Ah, cheer up, you’re no older than us,” Tucker comforted, before twisting partly out of the pile to face Vlad, Jack, and Maddie. “And hey, don’t worry about it, kids. Without you three we never would’ve managed to pin Danny down to talk.”

“Besides,” Sam added on, turning around despite Danny still leaning his entire weight on her, diminutive as it was in his ghost form. “You were looking for training, right? Tuck and I got plenty of ghost hunting tech of our own, so we can definitely help.”

“Why do you have ghost hunting tech?” Danny asked, lifting his head slightly to squint at her. “Have you two been hunting ghosts?”

She snorted. “Well, someone had to keep an eye on you. God knows you weren’t doing it yourself.”

Vlad felt a tug at his elbow, and turned out to see his friends leaving. With a nod he followed, hearing an offended squawked “Hey!” behind him.

Yeah, those three could figure the rest out on their own, he was sure.

#danny phantom #holiday truce 2020 #christmas truce 2020 #dp fanfic #Phanfic #dark writes

[datawyrms]

The thrilling conclusion. (may not actually be thrilling/a conclusion) Part 1 and 2 respectively. Why was she actually doing this? Standing outside of FentonWorks and it’s eye searing sign in full ghost fighting gear, preparing to knock on the door. It had to be a trap, the ghost kid must have done something to the ghost hunters to make them want to help it. ‘Wanting to talk’, as if. Yet here she was, blundering right into the obvious bear trap anyway. Danny still hadn’t returned to school, even though Sam and Tucker had been acting like they knew where he was, so they had to be in on it too. If Phantom thought he could use her friend against her, he’d have another thing coming. Several very painful things, even. She clenched her fist hard to stop the slight tremor before knocking on the door.

Jack always struck her as more of a brick wall than a man, towering and orange as the door swung open. He looked puzzled for half a second before beaming. “HA! I was right, you did show up! See Mads, she totally did!” He seemed more like an excited puppy than anything, neck craning back to talk to his wife.

“Yes Jack, I see her.” Maddie still had the hood of her suit up, adjusting the goggles as she peered out to their doorstep at the teenage ghost hunter. “You did come to talk, right?”

“Course she did! He’s gotta trust his friends more, like I do!”

Even with her face obscured, Maddie clearly wasn’t a fan of the ‘trusting friends’ line, lips pursed before patting the boisterous man on the back. “How about you go let him know sweetie, while I let her in?”

“Great idea! I’ll even get some discussion fudge!” He zipped away faster than Valerie thought he could manage, the oppressive positivity swept away with him as the blue jumpsuited hunter crossed her arms.

“You don’t have any weapons? We have more than enough ourselves if you’re worried about your safety.”

“I won’t do anything if that ghost doesn’t.” It was hard to keep the disgust out of her voice, watching them act like this. Maddie had always struck her as the more reasonable Fenton, yet she seemed far more worried about some ghost than Jack did, for all his positivity.

“That isn’t what I asked. So I’ll repeat it. Do you have any weapons on you? If you do, just hand them over and then we can talk.”

She was talking like she was more of a threat than that monster in the basement! Whatever that ghost did, it must have been powerful. Maddie Fenton, worried for a ghost she’d gladly spoken about cutting open in the name of science only a month ago. It felt like she’d walked into bizarro world. Maybe if she waited long enough a white rabbit would run by screaming about the time.

“I didn’t bring any weapons. Even though I should have.”

Maddie watched her for a long moment, as if trying to see past the mask and figure out if the red suited ghost hunter was trying to lie. With the smallest sigh, she stepped aside to allow her into the home that doubled as a laboratory. “Follow me. You’ll be perfectly safe.”

She doubted anyone could be perfectly safe in a lab with a portal to another dimension filled with ectoplasmic fiends in it, adding the most dangerous ghost that liked to play ‘innocent’ just made it worse. She wouldn’t be alone down there, judging by the snippets of conversation that were floating up the stairs.

“-not gonna eat that, just take it.”

“Aww, but it’s the good stuff!”

“You need to try-” Jazz stopped speaking at the sound of footsteps on the stairs, turning to glare at the ghost hunter.

Phantom barely even reacted, only the eerie green eyes flicking towards the entrance. Apparently he was too busy sitting comfortably in what looked like a recliner they’d brought down for the ghost to bother with more than that. It just seemed off, having a ghost looking so grounded. “Left it to the last day, huh?” The confident grin didn’t reach his eyes, and even that vanished after a few seconds, like it had been more of a habit than wanting to act like that.

“Only because I know you’re up to something.”

“Yup. That’s me, plotting evil deeds. Maybe next time I won’t get punched through a wall!” He had the energy to roll his eyes, but didn’t cross his arms like she expected him to. “You can go guys, it’s just a chat. Probably.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea-” Maddie’s concern was sickening, watching someone she could respect sometimes just fawning over a playacting ghost.

“I’ll be fine. This is between us.”

“Sure thing! Oh, if you have any symptoms just yell and I’ll be right there kiddo.” The huge man mussed the ghost’s hair, grin wide despite how wrong it looked. “I totally thought of a new approach, so just sit tight!” He was halfway up the stairs by the time he finished talking, not that the distance made him any less audible. Maddie hesitated a moment longer, but followed the loud love of her life.

The only unjumpsuited Fenton seemed to disagree. “I’m not leaving.”

“Yes you are Jazz!”

“I don’t care if she stays, ghost. You can quit stalling.” Valerie interrupted before the two of them could make her wait for ages with some pointless bickering.

Instead the redhead rounded on her. “He has a name. Use it.”

“Jazz, I really don’t care. Just go already.” He looked almost as irritated as she felt . “I just want to get this over with.”

“I don’t trust her not to do something.”

Didn’t trust her? Over the destructive white haired menace? That was just insulting. “You said you’d talk, so start explaining” she did her best to ignore Danny’s sister, it was probably just whatever the ghost was holding over their heads making her act like this.

“Won’t help if you don’t actually listen for a change.” His eyes narrowed, but more at Jazz than Valerie. “You don’t need to hear this Jazz. Okay?”

“If you think I don’t, I definitely do.” She scowled right back, acting as if they were a bratty younger kid than a ghost that could rip her face off. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Fine! Whatever, be stubborn. Can’t do anything about it.” His eyes seemed to glow more strongly before the ghost slumped back more in the chair. “So what do you think I did then? Since you keep trying to bother my friends.”

“There’s no way you got the Fentons and those two on your side without leverage. Sure, some kids actually buy that hero crap, but the Fentons don’t.” Only having a finger to point at the ghost made her feel unprepared.

The glowing teenager looked bored. “So you think I’m a kidnapper.”

“I know you did something to Danny. The timing matches up too well. So out with it.”

“Or what, you’ll kill me faster?” He seemed to freeze up after the words were out, smacking himself in the face. “Habit. I didn’t do anything, but it’s going to be hard to explain.”

This was such a waste of time. “Because it’s all made up nonsense?”

“It’ll sound like it! But it’s not. I can prove it.” the ghost stopped as if he needed to catch his breath. “At least I think I can. You left this really, really late.”

“You’re getting off track.” Jazz spoke up before Valerie could say something similar but with far less charitable phrasing.

“Right. Just trying to figure out how to say it.” A gloved hand rubbed at his forehead, brow furrowed as the ghost muttered. “You know what ghosts are made of, right?”

“Ectoplasm and bad attitudes. Duh, anyone in Amity could tell you that.” What was this, quiz time? Some sort of ‘How long can I annoy the ghost hunter before she shoots and makes me look good’ plan?

His shoulders barely move, a negative effort shrug. “Close enough.”

“It really isn’t! Ectoplasm might be what a ghost builds their body out of but-”

Phantom cut her off, leaning forward with the air of absolute exhaustion. “Jazz I do not have time to explain the specific inner workings of ghosts to someone who hates me right now!”

“It’ll help with the next bit, but fine. Go ahead and get all confused.” The redhead sat back, arms crossed.

“Thank you.” Green eyes shifted to find Valerie again before the ghost continued. “Thing is, I’m not all ectoplasm.”

“Is that why you’re extra obnoxious? Have some dirt mixed in there?”

The ghost actually laughed. “Probably!” He did hold up a hand while the laugh subsided, apparently having something more to add. “Not all dirt. But you got the important bit. I’m not a proper ghost, exactly.”

“I don’t run some endangered petting zoo, ghost. So why should I care?” Though it did explain the hunter ghost that was always after the obnoxious white haired creep.

“You should care because right now, I’m doing the whole ‘post human consciousness’ thing completely wrong.” He was watching her closely, a strange look on that dead face. Dread, anxiety? It didn’t look right on his face. “In that I’m not post human. Yet.”

Maybe the ghost was just trying to see if he could get a funny reaction. “Sorry Phantom, you look really dead to me.”

“Oh I feel real dead! But nope. Ah- I said I can prove it, don’t start yelling.” he muttered the last bit quickly, eyes flicking away from her obvious disbelieving glare. “Probably. Hurts. Gimme a sec-”

“I just wanted an answer to what you were doing, not this inane story.”

“Inane story very important answering that.” the ghost didn’t seem to even notice he was just dropping words from his sentence, more focused at staring at his own hand.

Jazz got up, hovering over the ghost as if deeply concerned for the absurdity spouting spirit. “I can back you up, you don’t need to prove it.”

“She’ll never believe it without seeing it. Which is why we’re doing this at all. Before I can’t.”

“Mom and Dad are still working on it, they’ll figure out a way to fix it.”

“No they won’t Jazz! I want them to, but they won’t! Not with how they explained it.”

“You’re just letting the worst outcome seem like the most likely one.”

“No, I’m actually understanding what they mean and being realistic!”

Honestly, this entire little exchange felt like something private she’d barged in on. She gave a loud cough, which seemed to startle both of them, heads jerking to look in her direction. They almost looked related, being that in sync.

The psychology lover recovered first. “Urgh. Just say it out loud, you’re obviously struggling.”

Which snapped the ghost boy out of it. “And you’re obviously not helping!”

“So what, you threatened the Fentons with a really bad comedy act?” The ghost winced at the angry rebuke, but she wasn’t done. “I get you being obnoxious, but dragging Jazz into it? You’re pretty sick.”

“He’s Danny.” There was no amusement in her voice, no hint of the concerned smile she kept giving the ectoplasmic pest.

“Jazz!” There was a genuine note of anger, and the temperature seemed to dip as the ghost glared at the one that didn’t want him blasted out of existence.

“I don’t really care what you call him, that doesn’t answer-”

Jazz cut her off, ignoring the cold glare being thrown at her. “It does. Danny isn’t missing, he’s right here.”

“You managed to trick the Fentons into thinking you’re their kid? What did you do to Danny?” Valarie rounded on the ghost, hand reaching for a weapon that wasn’t there.

“Nothing!” His hands were up even as his eyes stayed fixed on the elder Fenton child. “I told you she won’t believe it!”

“Nothing’s happened to Danny. This is him. Only grumpier.”

“You can’t honestly think that thing is your brother!”

“Wow Jazz, you managed to get me called a thing. Great assist, keep it up.” Phantom was muttering, settling back as if he planned to just take a nap. “If you keep this up, maybe she’ll shoot me!”

“You could try standing up for yourself, Danny.”

“Oh no, you dug this hole. You lie in it. I’d say your grave, but I have dibs in that department. Twiceover!”

She was going to punch this ghost. Even if the creature could just phase through it. She wanted to clobber it for whatever THIS was. “So you killed Danny, and took his place. That’s what you’re saying?” At least she had the satisfaction of the ghost looking like it wanted to vanish as she stepped forward.

“Hey, I didn’t say anything. That was Jazz.”

“No! Danny’s always been both. I’ve known for a while, but he had to tell Mom and Dad. That’s why they’re suddenly fine with Phantom.” Jazz insisted, trying to look Valerie in the eye. “He isn’t missing, and hasn’t done anything to us.”

“Danny is not a life ruining monster. I don’t care how convincing that thing seems to you, that ghost is NOT my friend.” Danny was sweet, big hearted and a bit of a shy little dork. Phantom was nothing but a snide, cocky creep that insisted you should just forget anything that made him look like the scummy ghost he was. They were nothing alike.

“And this is why I just wanted to make things quick.” The ghost seemed to fold in on himself, not looking at either of the humans in the room. “You can hate me all you want, just let me explain.”

“There’s nothing to explain! You aren’t Danny.”

“He is. It explains everything. Think about it logically. Danny goes ‘missing’. He tries to fix the problem himself, but he can’t. We convince him he has to tell our parents. He finally does, and even though Danny is still ‘missing’ they stop saying things like a ghost kidnapped him. Because we know where he is.”

“Or he’s still missing and you’ve bought some nonsense story to feel better about it when this ghost probably just tortured him for information.” Jazz didn’t back down from her snappy response, but did seem to be at a loss.

“Hey! I do not do torture. That’s literally everyone who isn’t me.” the ghost sounded offended, shaking his hand as if trying to get it to do something. “Anyway, this is going to suck. I blame you Jazz.”

“Excuse me for thinking friends of yours can be logical with the truth in their faces!”

“Nah. I get to say I told you so for a change.”

Valrie planned to make the two quit their pointless bickering, but words died in her throat as a set of rings appeared near the ghost’s wrist. It wasn’t an attack she’d seen the menace use before and she was already settling into a fighting stance to combat it. Yet it stayed around the ghost, slowly down his arm. It seemed a bit much as a way to take off a ghostly jumpsuit, but she preferred that first thought to how the ghost changed as it swept over his face.

Black hair, blue eyes. Her friend’s face, Danny’s face set in a grimace of pain as the rings snuffed out, a boy that looked pale and sickly while struggling to breathe where the blight of a ghost had been.

“Yup. Sucks. Ow.” Danny wheezed, eyes unfocused even though he knew the two of them were still there.

Jazz was there in seconds. “You need to switch back. Mom said-”

“S-she’s gotta know it isn’t a trick first.” the boy insisted, and his voice was right. It was Danny’s, without the horrid echo or slimy snaps the ghost made.

Yet it had to be a trick. There was no way her friend had been a lie. Just some rotten ghost who’d gotten close to her as some sort of joke. A ghost that had tricked her after making sure she knew he was nothing but a monster in one disguise. “Who are you.” The question was weak.

“Just Danny. Been this way since the accident.” He looked like he was going to say more but was cut off by a coughing fit, flecks of ectoplasm making his pale skin look even closer to dead as it splattered on his hastily raised hand. “That’s new.” His laugh set her teeth on edge.

Her brain wouldn’t work. It was impossible, it couldn’t be true. She didn’t want it to be true. She’d liked him well enough before. This-she wasn’t sure how else she could take this. “So why are you telling me now.”

“I wanted you to know while I could still prove it.”

“Why? Did you think this would help you? Think I might pity you if you look sick?”

“No.” Blue eyes looked away as the rings returned the ghost to the chair. “I told you so you’d leave my friends alone. Since I don’t think I’m going to stop being missing.”

He’d revealed his nasty trick, but wasn’t mocking her about it, or lording over her with it. It didn’t fit. They couldn’t be the same person. You couldn’t be alive and dead at the same time! She wanted to choke him, but also wanted to help. She hated this, she hated him for making this complicated. “Stay missing?” The sickness had to be an act, right? Like how he pretended he was a friend.

“Yeah. I got lucky in the accident. I wasn’t quite a ghost, and not exactly a human.” Phantom wasn’t looking at her as he spoke, apparently preferring to stare at the wall. “It was a balance thing, I guess. I didn’t really notice at first. Like the obvious I did, the whole having ghost powers thing, being able to switch back and forth.” The rambling didn’t stop even as he started scratching at the back of his neck. “I didn’t notice even as a human I needed ectoplasm to keep my heart going, or as a ghost I could use more than just ectoplasm to keep my energy up. I need both halves, I can’t survive without both.” He hesitated again, getting a reassuring hand on the shoulder from Jazz. “Problem is I managed to get that balance screwed up. Ran myself ragged fighting ghosts, didn’t get enough sleep, basically coasted on my ghost half to keep functioning. And I’m a strong ghost now, I guess. Too strong for my weak human body to manage anymore. So I’m basically eating myself alive and falling apart. It’s great. This is when I have a quip about work life balance or something, but I’m too tired to think of one.”

“He wasn’t hiding this out of maliciousness you know. He was afraid.” Jazz was frowning as she watched how the ghost hunter hadn’t really relaxed, still stiff and angry looking. “He couldn’t even make himself tell Mom and Dad until we basically forced him to.”

“She doesn’t care, Jazz.” he grunted, still not looking, “But you know now. So you don’t need to go after anyone to find out what happened. It’s self inflicted.”

It was too much. The whole thing was absurd. What could she even say to something like this? To have the world invert to show ugly stains you didn’t see before? They would need to talk again. About this. About what he actually was, or wasn’t. Now though?

She could only leave without a word.

#Danny Phantom #fanfic #valerie gray #jazz fenton #jack fenton #Maddie Fenton #reposting because yet again the tags eat it #apparently i only speak ambiguous endings

[storiesforallfandoms]

may queen ~ mark;midsommar

word count: 2738

request?: yes!

“What about a Midsommar imagine about Mark. Maybe one where instead of Danni winning May Queen the reader does, and her and Mark stay there at the end together?“

description: winning the may queen crown is a huge honor, until you find out what winning the title comes with an impossible decision

pairing: mark x female!reader

warnings: swearing, also not following the original ending because idk i kinda don’t want this to be as dark as the original ending so no death or sacrifice

masterlist

“I shouldn’t have come,” Dani sighed as the two of you followed the other women of Hårga to some celebration. “They keep giving us drugs and I keep seeing Terri and our parents, and when I’m sober it’s like Christian doesn’t want to be anywhere near me. Him and his asshole friends have been spending more time together than I think I’ve spent with him since the whole thing happened. No offense to Mark.”

You shook your head. “None taken, trust me. Mark can be quite the asshole sometimes, and this trip has been no exception. It feels like when he gets with Josh, Christian, and Pelle he becomes a different person.”

“I wish Christian was like that,” Dani said. “He’s just a constant asshole.”

“At least with Christian being a constant asshole you know that’s who he really is, with Mark I can’t tell if the kind Mark I know when we’re alone is the real one or the asshole.”

“Maybe we should break up with our boyfriends,” Dani suggested. “Just be two young girls living our best lives.”

The suggestion made you cringe slightly, but you tried not to let Dani see. You knew that it was probably the best solution, you loved Mark so much, but his switch in personality when he was out in public made it hard to be with him, especially when his attitude didn’t stop with just his friends. There were times even with your own family that he wasn’t the nicest person, and that had put a major strain between you and them.

But you and Mark had been together for so long. You couldn’t imagine your life without him, even with the way he acted. But maybe Dani was right, maybe it was for the best if you ended your relationship and you spent some time single, living life to the fullest before you graduated college and had to really become an adult.

Before you could respond, a couple of the Hårga girls approached the two of you and took your hands, dragging you towards the group excitedly.

“What’s going on?” you asked one of them, although part of you didn’t expect them to tell you. Ever since you had come, there were very few answers about anything that was happening.

To your shock, one of the girls turned around and said, “The maypole dance! It’s how we pick a May Queen!”

“And we’re allowed to participate?” Dani asked as the two girls passed you a crown of flowers, much like the ones they were wearing.

“Of course! That’s why we ask to bring outsiders inside during this time,” the other woman explained. “We can’t tell you too much, you’ll understand at the end of the competition.”

You and Dani exchanged looks, but put your flower crowns on and joined the group of women. Already standing there, wearing a white dress and her own flower crown, was the only other woman visiting, Connie. She spotted you two and raced up to you, excitedly.

“Doesn’t this seem like fun?” she asked. “We look so pretty! Oh my God, we have to get a picture afterwards, if we’re allowed that is. I’m not sure how the ritual works and such.”

You and Dani awkwardly smiled as you said, “Yeah, sure. We’ll get a picture.”

The woman got into formation in a circle around a pole of flowers, holding each other’s hands. You and Dani stood next to one another, with Connie excitedly on your other side. Some of the other Hårga people were waiting with instruments, and when they began to play, the women bowed to one another, leaving the you three outsider woman looking around in confusion.

When the music began to pick up, the woman stood and began to dance around in the circle, holding each other’s hands tightly as they did so. They moved to the beat of the drums, so it was easy to keep up. The girls around you were smiling and their excitement was so infectious you couldn’t help but smile as well.

They all seemed so happy, and no one noticed if you were struggling with the dance. Instead, they were just smiling and laughing, and you didn’t feel so bad if you messed up a little. It was a competition, but everyone was having so much fun that it just felt like a dance. You caught a glimpse of Dani as you danced, noticing the wide smile on her face, and you felt a warmness inside of you upon seeing it. It was the first time since the incident with her family that she seemed truly happy.

The group of dancers became smaller and smaller, although you didn’t notice until it came down to just yourself, a few of the Hårga, and Dani. You could see the sweat starting to form on Dani’s forehead, and you yourself were starting to feel tired. The girl to your right fell, and although you came to realize this meant she lost, she still looked happy and excited.

The remaining Hårga women fell, leaving you and Dani. The two of you made eye contact, and a knowing smile came across Dani’s face before she fell to the group and breathing heavily. The elder Hårga woman who had been calling commands the whole dance called for you to stop, so you did, feeling grateful to not be moving your legs anymore.

The girls quickly rushed towards you in excitement, all of them chattering together in a way that was making it nearly impossible to understand any of them.

“You’ve won!” one was saying. “You’re our May Queen!”

“I am?” you questioned. “Really?!”

The elder woman approached with a warm smile on her face and a beautiful crown of flower in her hand. One of the other girls took your crown from your head and the elder replaced it with hers, announcing, “You are our new May Queen!”

The girls cheered excitedly, Dani and Connie included. Others of the Hårga had been sat watching then, you realized, and they were all now joining the celebration of your win.

After posing for a picture (both an official one for winning the May Queen, and one with Connie and Dani), you were picked up by a group of Hårga and brought to the dinner table, where you took the seat at the head of the table, the “Royal Seat” apparently.

The leader of the Hårga, Siv, was stood at the other end, smiling just as warmly to you as everyone else sat around you. It was at that moment that you noticed Mark was there as well, beaming proudly at you. Despite the conversation you had with Dani just moments earlier, you couldn’t help but smile back at him.

“Congratulations to our new May Queen!” Siv began once everyone was seated. “I am delighted to see that the winner this year is an outsider, as we hope for this outcome every year. My Queen, may I ask your name.”

“It’s (Y/N), sir,” you replied, shocked that you could hear him, or vice versa, with how far away he was sitting.”

“(Y/N),” he said, “the title of May Queen is more than just a title given during a festival, it’s a very important title to us. See, the original intent of the May Queen was to bring outsiders into our village, to start the repopulation process after losing so many of our elders.”

Bring outsider? Repopulate? you thought to yourself. Fuck, I really don’t like where this is going.

“When an outsider such as yourself wins the title of the May Queen, she is automatically becomes a member of our village, and she is given the choice to let one other person stay with her. If she wishes not to let anyone stay, she is welcome to send all the other outsiders home once the celebration ends, and to continue her life within our village.”

You felt your blood run cold and your heart was pounding. You locked eyes with Mark first, who looked just as shocked and worried as you. However, you knew the reason he looked worried was because he thought it was obvious that you were to choose him to stay. Little did he know, your eyes drifted to Dani, who was sat a few seats down, your second choice to stay with you.

“You will have the night to decide,” Siv finished. “And we shall ask for an answer from you tomorrow during breakfast.”

Siv sat and dinner started as it normally did. However, with this burden on your shoulders you felt less than hungry and could barley eat any of the food in front of you. When dinner ended, you were allowed to return to the hut where the group of outsiders was staying to think over the choice you had just been given.

Dani and Connie followed you to the hut first, making it there before any of the boys could. You could barley breathe and your vision was blurry. Dani guided you to the nearest bed and sat you down.

“Breathe, (Y/N), you’ll be okay,” Dani said in a soothing voice.

“I won’t be okay!” you snapped. “I have to stay in this fucking village for the rest of my life! I can’t go home and see my family, or any of my friends. I can’t go finish college, go get a real job and have a real life! I’m stuck here, expected to fuck one of their cult members until I start popping out cult babies!”

“Wait,” Connie said. “You’re not going to choose your boyfriend to stay with you?”

You sighed and dug your palms into your eyes, trying to rub away the stressed headache you were starting to feel forming behind your eyes. “I don’t know. I mean, before the dance competition started I didn’t even know if we’d be together after this trip.”

Connie winced. “Oof, that’s cold girl.”

Dani shot her a glare and Connie just shrugged.

“I wanted to choose you,” you told Dani, turning to face her. “To get you away from everything back home - your parents, your sister, Christian. I know it’s not ideal to stay here, but it’d be better than going back home and having to deal with everything you’d rather leave behind.”

Dani opened her mouth as if to respond, but stopped short when something at the door distracted her. Both you and Connie looked up to see Mark standing there, looking down at the three of you in shock. Connie took it upon herself to stand first.

“I’m gonna go find Simon,” she decided. “Good luck with your choice.”

She gave you a strained smile that you wished you could just slap off of her bitchy face, before turning and walked out of the hut. Dani stood next, offering you a much more genuine smile before following Connie’s exit. That left just you and Mark.

“How much of that did you hear?” you asked him, your head hanging to look at your hands.

“I walked in just in time to hear you talking about some rando cult guy fucking you,” he responded, crossing his arms and looking down at you. “And to hear you say you’d rather have Dani stay with you than your own boyfriend, although really I don't know if I currently hold that title anymore anyways.

You didn’t know how to respond. You began to pick at the hem of your white dress, wishing you could just disappear into it.

The bed dipped next to you as Mark sat down. You still didn’t want to look at him, but he took hold of your face and gentle raised it to look into your eyes.

“What’s going on?” he asked. “Baby, are you unhappy with this relationship? Is it something I did? Whatever it is, I’m sorry. I just want to know so I can work on it, especially if working on it means not losing you forever to this weird ass cult.”

“I can’t tell who the real you is,” you said, surprised by your own honesty. “When we’re together you’re this nice, sweet guy that I love more than anything, but then you’re out with your friends and you suddenly become an asshole. Not even just with your friends, you become an asshole in front of my friends and family, too. Haven’t you ever wondered why I don’t see any of my old friends anymore? Or why my family stopped inviting the two of us to family gatherings and just asked for me to come? It’s because they all think you’re an arrogant asshole, and they’re unhappy with me for staying with you.”

Mark was speechless. You stood from the bed, pulling away from his arms, and paced the room. You had to talk through all of this, you knew that. If it didn’t happen now, you’d be left with the impossible decision the next morning, one that you’d probably regret one way or another.

“I guess...I just didn’t want anyone to think I was soft or anything,” Mark explained. “Throughout my entire life I’ve had this reputation as the cool, sarcastic guy, even when I was a kid, and I loved that because it felt like no one would mess with me because of it. But then I met you and I was the complete opposite because I just felt so strongly for you. I wanted to be with you more than anything, and I still do. But when the boys started treating me differently, I started to realize it was because I wasn’t the cool, sarcastic Mark I once was, I was the in love, cutesy Mark that I became when I met you. And I knew the only way to have the guys stop bugging me was to just pretend like I was the Mark I once was. I didn’t realize it was affecting you the way it was...I’m so sorry (Y/N).”

You sighed and ran your hands through your hair, realizing you were still wearing the flower crown. You took it off and threw it to the floor.

“I should’ve brought it up sooner,” you told him. “But part of me didn’t want to because I didn’t want to cause a fight or to lose you.”

Mark stood and walked over to you, taking you in his arms. You relaxed into the embrace, wrapping your arms around him and burying your head in his chest.

“You wouldn’t have lost me, baby,” he told you. “I’d rather know how you’re feeling than to have you suffering in silence because of me.”

You didn’t say anything to this. Instead, you let the silence fall upon you both as you stood in the embrace for some time.

~~~~~~

The next morning, you were sat at the head of the dinner table yet again, with everyone looking at you in anticipation. Siv was standing at the other end of the table, a soft smile on his face.

“Have you made your decision, our May Queen?” he asked.

You looked around the table at your group of friends, you eyes lingering on Mark and Dani specifically. Both of them gave you small smiles of encouragement, knowing that whoever you picked they’d understand.

You turned back to face Siv and stood as well. “I have, sir.”

“What is your decision, our May Queen? Will you be selecting an outsider to stay here with you, or will you be staying on your own?”

You took a deep breath before deciding, “I choose to pick someone to stay with us, and that person is my boyfriend, Mark.”

Mark stood suddenly, drawing the attention of everyone as he did so. He looked shocked at his own actions, and like he didn’t know what his next course of action would be. When he finally seemingly regained the control of his body, he quickly raced up to you and wrapped his arms around you, kissing your deeply and passionately in front of everyone.

The people of Hårga cheered, and although you knew it was for the choice you made, it almost felt like they were cheering for you and Mark. Mark pulled away from the kiss first, resting his forehead against yours and smiling down at you.

Although you weren’t exactly happy with the placement, it was the beginning of your forever, and neither of you could be happier about it.

#mark imagine #will poulter #will poulter imagine #will poulter x reader #midsommar #midsommar imagine #one shot #imagine #request

[ayamari-no-goshi]

Eidolon 15 | (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

Chapter warnings: Entrapment

Parings: hints of Danny/Sam much later on

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

15.  Unraveling Secrets

"Danny… Danny… It's time to get up…"

The dark haired boy's form remained unresponsive and face down on the bed which had been brought in for him. Hesitantly, Maddie ran her hand through the boy's dark locks. After finding out the child was her son, she had wanted to keep her distance from him. Not only did she not know how to connect to him, but he was already turning into a monster. Sure, he seemed fine now, but it was only a matter of time before he was corrupted.

But, try as she might, when she saw him in such a bruised and battered form, she couldn't help herself. If only she and Jack could have completed their work… or if she had been able to expose Vlad for what he really was, then maybe Danny would have had a completely normal life. But it was useless to dwell on 'what ifs'; they held no purpose other than to draw her into a darker state of mind. It didn't matter he could still take a human appearance. The fact of the matter was Danny was no longer human, and nothing was going to change it.

Unsurprisingly, Danny was not taking the drastic change to his life all that well. He still was having difficulty understanding how he was a ghost, even though he had never died. His confusion was only made worse when he learned Vlad's abilities were gained artificially, unlike him. It was made worse by the various accidents he would have throughout the day. His body was still trying to settle from the unnatural awaking it received and would occasionally surge with power and cause one of his powers to activate unintentionally. It usually wasn't too bad, unless he managed to get his arm or leg stuck in something.

Vlad refused to give him time to adjust either. Every day, usually shortly after breakfast, he would unceremoniously take Danny and train him. Though Vlad had assured her he was only trying to help the boy gain control, Maddie remained suspicious. If Danny was simply learning how to handle his basic powers, than there was no reason for him to return covered in cuts and bruises. Both she and Jazz had tried to get him to explain what exactly Vlad was doing to him, but he rarely answered, usually due to exhaustion.

What really surprised her was how well Jazz had taken to the role of big sister. Though she hesitantly had agreed to not let Danny know they were family, she quickly began to bond with and fuss over him. At first Danny was unsure how to respond to her attention, but soon learned to accept it. The two of them were truly beginning to look like siblings. Maddie attributed it to Jazz's uncanny ability to adjust to ghosts.

For years, the only interaction she and Jazz had were Vlad and his ghostly servants who looked after them. Though she was very wary towards them, Jazz turned towards them for companionship for years. She never seemed bothered by their unnatural appearances and abilities. It even got to the point where one of the servants, a teenage ghost by the name of Ember, had become so close to Jazz, she willing tried to help them escape. The result was disastrous in more ways than one. The escape failed, and Jazz lost her friend. Until that point in time, Maddie didn't know it was possible to destroy a ghost.

Though it took time, Jazz did bounce back from the event, but she was more hesitant to become too friendly with them. Perhaps this was the reason she had latched onto Danny. Vlad needed him, so Danny was more protected against possible 'digressions' he may commit against Vlad. But, Jazz didn't know her brother was not going to remain the same, and Maddie didn't have the heart to tell her.

A slight groan indicated to her Danny was finally starting to wake. She moved away as he slowly sat up and stretched. "I don't understand it…" he finally mumbled after several minutes as he moved off the bed which had been brought in for him. "There are no clocks… anywhere… How do you know what time it is?"

Maddie raised an eyebrow at the question. "There is a chiming system built into the walls, which let us know the time. Besides, what would we do with one in this prison?"

He gave her a blank look before shaking his head. "That makes sense… I guess… But, he doesn't even have clocks in the main part of the house."

That was a surprise. But now that she thought about it, she had noticed Vlad had an odd aversion to clocks, even when he was working with her and her husband. If one were in the room, he'd either remove it, turn it around so the face was towards the wall, or cover it, depending on the size. She had asked him about it once, but he only gave a vague response about a strange and unsettling meeting he had years prior.

"Don't worry about it too much," she told as she directed him towards the breakfast table where Jazz and a stack full of fresh pancakes were waiting for them. "You'll eventually get used to it." Her tone effectively ended the conversation. It was better to leave the man's idiosyncrasies alone. "Now, what would you like to drink?"

"Okay… Oh, I wanted to ask you this last night, but I uh… kinda feel asleep before I could… Has Vlad ever showed you that book?

Maddie dropped the glass she was holding. Jazz gave a cry of concern, but she ignored her in order to stare at the boy. "Wh-what book?"

Danny's expression which had been clouded with exhaustion moments before was now focused and wary. "I don't know what it's called… but it's really old looking and Vlad's been using it like a guidebook or something. Every time we try something new he has to look at it first. Once we're done, he usually checks it out again and gets angry…"

"That's…" she stopped herself before she could say more. She knew exactly what the book was, but anyone who had been under Vlad's supervision for sometime knew to not mention it. But, Danny would have to be warned about it somehow. "I guess Vlad does somewhat consider it like a guide… There are many old stories in it…"

"So… does it have stories about people like… like me…?" A combination of curiosity and unease crossed his face. "Is… that why he looks at it so much?"

Maddie shook her head. "It's best to push it from your mind. Its pages contain dark words and are best left alone. Besides, Vlad has been known to punish people who have asked about it."

"But…!"

"Sweetie, while it's true Vlad seems to take it at face value, it's just a book," Maddie told him in a stern voice which effectively ended the conversation. It was clear he still wanted to argue, but a glare from her kept him silent. Even though she was sure he didn't know she was his biological mother, he knew there was no point in continuing. Perhaps it was a skill all kids had to some extent. She looked at him again as she regained her composure. "There's no point in worrying about it right now. You have practice later, so you might as well eat up. So, what do you want to drink?"

…

Like usual, Vlad returned Danny shortly before dinner. However, unlike the previous times, Danny didn't join them at the table. Instead, he immediately attempted to stumble towards the closest couch. As soon as his body hit the pillow, he fell asleep immediately.

Concerned, Maddie immediately went to check on him. Danny was breathing regularly and there didn't seem to be any new injuries. It was surprising; even with previous injuries, Danny was at least able to have some dinner and freshen up before resting. "What did you do to him?" she demanded of the ghost who was still lingering in the room. "You didn't let that Spectra near him did you?"

A cold glare was her immediate answer. Knowing she wouldn't be deterred, Vlad gave a suffering sigh before properly responding. "Though he will need to learn how to handle creatures like her, I was not planning on introducing them until he had better control of his abilities." He glanced at the boy before continuing. "Apparently, I have been pushing him a little too hard. Though I am anxious for the first phase of my plans to begin, there is still plenty of time. I think I can push back the boy's training for tomorrow until another day." With that, he bid her and Jazz a farewell and disappeared.

Still worried for Danny's wellbeing, Maddie tried to rouse him, but he didn't respond. "Mom… just let him rest for now," Jazz told her softly as she gently tried to pull her away. "He's breathing right? So, let him sleep for a little. You can try and rouse him a little later."

…

It was a little after one in the morning when Maddie decided it was a good time for her to turn in for the night. Looking around the room as she stood up, she caught sight of her children. Jazz had once again managed to fall asleep while reading, so she went over and pulled the covers over her. It was easy to do so as the room was never completely dark. Yes, the lights dimmed around ten at night, but they never actually turned off.

After putting Jazz's book away, she decided to check on Danny. For hours, he hadn't moved, but she was surprised to find him sitting up on the couch, staring at the ceiling. She was about to ask him what he was doing when movement caught her attention. Turning towards the source, she saw a glowing figure coming closer to them. Concerned, she grabbed her staff (which Vlad surprisingly hadn't confiscated yet) and charged it.

Mere inches from the ghost's face, a sharp cry and tug stopped her in her tracks. Glancing to her left, she saw Danny had somehow managed to get up and grab hold of her arm in just a matter of moments. "Stop! Don't touch him… err… me!"

"Wh-what are you talking about?"

Danny hesitantly let go of her once he realized she wasn't actively trying to hurt the ghost. He gestured to the ghost, which she hadn't really taken the time to examine until then. She quickly gasped when she realized the ghost was an exact double of Danny in his ghost form. The only difference was this one was holding a rather old book.

"Sweet! You managed to get it!" Danny told it as it took the book away from it. "Thanks!"

"No problem," the ghost replied before it turned seemingly turned to mist and was absorbed into Danny.

Rather terrified and more than a little startled, she stared at the boy. Words failed her, so she was just left grasping for sounds as he nervously looked down at his feet. "Wh-what…?" she eventually stuttered.

"Uh… that was a duplicate. I found out how to do that by accident a few days ago when Vlad knocked me through a wall," he mumbled as he continued to keep his head down. "But, trying to keep one stable for long periods of time is tricky, that's why I was asleep for so long…"

"You were trying to give energy to the duplicate?" Maddie asked as Danny nodded. In all honesty, she was amazed. Duplication was a rather rare technique which could only be performed by high level ghosts. The only one she had ever encountered who could do so was Vlad, but he had admitted it had taken at least ten years for it to develop. For Danny to begin tapping into it so quickly after his transformation was astounding.

As her amazement began to wane to a more manageable level, she gave the boy in front of her a concerned glance. "But, I don't understand… Why would you need to make one in the first place?" There was no answer for a moment as she realized what exactly was in the boy's hands. "That book… Don't tell me…!"

"You said he uses this thing as a guidebook."

"That doesn't mean you should have taken it!"

"I don't understand you!" Danny's head snapped up as he spoke so he could stare at her with his icy eyes which were slowly turning green, most likely without his knowledge. "You want to escape from here, don't you? Then why don't you want to know what he's planning?"

"It won't do us any good!"

"So you've just given up?" Giving an angry sigh, Danny put the book down on a nearby table and turned away from her as he began to open it. "I don't know about you, but no matter what, I am getting out of here."

Unsure what to do, Maddie just stayed silent as the boy leafed through the dark book. Though she didn't want to admit it, she had given up. Within Vlad's game, he held all of the pieces in his hands. All he needed to do was perform the necessary moves and all was lost. How could she continue to believe when there was nothing else she could do?

"Danny…" she called out softly as moved besides him as his face contorted due to the grotesques images within the book. After carefully closing it, she turned to the boy and looked straight into his eyes. "I already know what Vlad's planning… I've known it for years." It took all of her willpower to continue looking at him as she spoke her next words. "The demons depicted in there… he wants to you to become like them."

A horrified expression crossed his face, before it turned into one of disbelief and amusement. "You had me going there for a moment," he told her between laughs. "There's no way I would ever consider acting like that. Besides, I'm supposed to be a ghost, not a demon."

"You don't understand… The changes… they've already started."

xxx

It had been months since Danny disappeared, and no one had been able to make any progress. To Sam, it was beyond frustrating. Tucker had managed to uncover who had taken their friend. Heck, he even had physical proof by way of a video, but they couldn't do anything with it. If it was taken to the police, it was quite possible it would simply be dismissed or cause them to be arrested. No matter the result, it wouldn't be positive.

However, the news had managed to grab hold of the story of Danny's disappearance. Yet, instead of making him out to be a victim, they portrayed him as a criminal who was involved in the attack on his guardian and ran away afterwards. With Winston still in a coma, no one had bothered to correct them. She had tried both in writing and in person to get them to change the story, but each station refused to listen to a teenager. It appeared the truth wasn't anywhere as interesting as the lies they had created.

Unsure what to do, she had become even more withdrawn and moody than usual. It was so bad that even Tucker was giving her space, though he wasn't completely avoiding her. Usually he would send a message to her once a day letting her know his progress in trying to bypass Vlad's security and get into his computer system at his mansion. For unknown reasons, he kept having difficulty, but he was bound and determined to find a way in.

She had tried to come up with plans which would allow her and Tucker to infiltrate Vlad's mansion and rescue Danny, but none were feasible. She also had to keep in mind the ghosts who had gone after Danny. Not only were they dangerous, but she had no idea if they were involved in the kidnapping or not. But, if they were, she had no way of fighting back against them even if she could find Danny.

Beyond frustrated and unsure what to do, she began taking long walks to try and clear her mind. Though her parents frowned upon due to the recent unsettling events within the town, they had decided to not interfere. Sam guessed that even her overly perky parents couldn't handle her rather current mood for more than a few days at a time. Smart move on their part. But, if they knew exactly where she tended to go, they would interfere.

Though she didn't particularly like the place, she was constantly wondering around the cemetery, much like Danny used to do. Sure it was peaceful, dark, and rather deserted, she didn't exactly like being so close to the dead for long periods of time, especially if she was alone. It unnerved her more than she cared to admit, and it wasn't entirely from past events. But, the location helped clear her mind, and she had a secret hope she would spot Danny near one of the trees. It was where she had first found him, and it just felt right it would be where he returned.

Yet, he was never there. Just like this particular evening, she had wondered around without finding a living soul. Deciding it was a little too early to head home, she decided to take a break on one of the many benches scattered throughout the grounds.

Glancing upwards, she caught sight of the emerging stars. The temperature would begin dropping drastically soon and with the recent snowfall, it would be more than a little cold. Sighing, she stood back up and began moving back towards the entrance. It wouldn't do her or Danny any good if she managed to get sick from the weather.

As per habit, when she neared the location where she first met Danny, she gave a quick glance. Of course there was nothing, but as she was about to turn away, something caught her attention. Unsure what exactly it was, she stopped moving and continued to look at the spot. After a few moments, Sam shook her head and continued walking. She was being silly.

Sam…

She stopped dead in her tracks. Someone had just called her name… but she was sure there was no one else in the area. Pulling her coat a little tighter around her form, she tried to suppress her shivers from both the chilly air and her nerves. It must have just been the whispers of the wind. With her being so stressed she must have mistaken the sounds.

Sam… Please…

There it was again, and it definitely wasn't the wind. Scared, she spun around in an attempt to find the person who had to be playing a trick on her. But again, she only found the general scenery of the cemetery. "Whoever it is, this isn't funny!" she shouted, as she tried to convince herself it had to be a person. Why would a ghost know her name? There wasn't anything special about her which would attract them, or at least she hoped not.

"Sam… it's me…."

The voice came from directly in front of her, but there was still no one there. Having too much past experience with ghosts, she knew it wasn't a good idea to ignore the possibility one was truly there. She wanted to run, but it would easily be able to catch her… and Danny wasn't around to save her again.

Wait… Danny. It couldn't be, but the voice did have a similar sound to his, though it was distinctly otherworldly. It almost seemed like the owner was speaking from the back of a cave. It was low and had a distinctive echo. But, unlike the other ghosts she had encountered, it did not seem overly hostile. Swallowing her fear, she finally spoke back. "I don't know who you are, but you better show yourself!"

After a tense pause, she looked around for something… what, she wasn't entirely sure. Nothing had answered her, which was almost as unsettling as the voice coming out of air. Chuckling at her idiocy, she began walking again. She really needed to find a way to relax; the stress of trying to find Danny was starting to get so bad she was starting to hear things.

She had made it a few yards when she felt a hand gently grab her shoulder and turn her around. A scream escaped from her lips as she fell and scooted away from the figure who had suddenly appeared out of thin air. He appeared to be around her own height with striking white hair and vivid green eyes. His clothes seemed normal enough; they were black with white accents in a style which almost resembled that of a more reserved rocker though they were partially concealed by a large book he was holding. But, soon she realized he wasn't wearing a coat and seemed unfazed by the cold temperature. However, the truly unnerving aspect about him was the strange glow which surrounded his body, immediately indicated he was a ghost.

"…I'm sorry…" he said carefully as he winced. "It tends to take me a little bit of time to become visible. I'm not all that good at this yet…" He carefully moved towards her and held out his hand. "Are… you okay?"

Sam just stared. Was this ghost honestly offering to help her up? Unsure what exactly to do, she decided to study him more. He was extremely human looking in appearance. If it wasn't for the glow, he could easily pass off as a teenager with an extreme rebellious streak. Though it was rare, she had encountered a few goths who had actually dyed their hair white. He was also standing on the ground as if it was perfectly normal. Though she had seen the other ghost, Skulker, do the same, it didn't seem as natural.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," the boy said with a grin as he realized he she wasn't going to take his hand. Sam once again just stared. Did he really just say that? "Sorry," he said quickly as he chuckled, "I couldn't resist. But, I promise I won't hurt you."

"What's with that look?" he asked when she just raised an eyebrow. "Sam, I just want to talk to you… and I don't have a lot of time to do it."

"Why do you know my name?" Sam asked as she slowly got off the ground. Unsure if he would keep to his word or not, she watched him carefully the entire time she moved. But, he remained still and stared at her with wide eyes.

"You don't… you don't recognize me…" The boy was clearly upset by his revelation. Though he didn't say anything immediately, Sam could tell he was deciding how to approach the situation. Eventually, he sighed and looked straight into her eyes. "Sam… It's me, Danny."

Shock quickly turned to anger. "How dare you!" she hissed at him. "How dare you pretend to be my missing friend!" Ignoring the idea it was probably a stupid thing to do, she threw a punch at the ghost. Unsurprisingly, she did not hit a solid target; instead she felt as if she was passing through an extremely cold block of pudding and lost her balance. However, instead of hitting the ground, a cold hand managed to catch her and keep her from falling. Spinning around, she tried to hit the ghost, who simply let go of her and held up his arm in defense. His other arm was still keeping hold of the book.

"Look… I'm sorry, Sam! But I can't appear in my human form right now… it's not safe!" he said quickly as he looked at her from under his arm.

Hesitating at the look he gave her, she didn't immediately swing at him again. If she got past the unnatural appearance, he did look somewhat like Danny. No! She couldn't think like that! If she accepted that the ghost in front of her was the same as her friend, than it meant that Danny was… he was… !

Her thoughts were interrupted as the ghost shoved the book he was holding at her. Instinctively, she caught it and was surprised to find how heavy it was. Confused and still angry, she looked at the ghost who was giving her a pleading look. "There's not a lot of time until he finds out that I'm gone. You need to take this… It will give you some idea of what Vlad's planning… and though I hate to say it, but I think that picture we found here the day after I met you and Tucker came from this book." He paused for a moment as he looked to the side as if he heard something before turning back to her. "Just be careful… It's not the sort of book you would read as a bedtime story."

As he moved away from her, she tried to process what she had just heard. "How do you know about that picture…?" she asked as that notion became the dominate thought in her mind.

"Sam… I was there, remember?" he said impatiently. "We found it after you and Tucker found out that Winston's my guardian and not my actual parent. But, that doesn't really matter right now. You've got to try to stop Vlad from the outside… Not only is he planning something big, but there are others he's held captive."

"Others? Vlad? What are you talking about?"

He just shook his head. "I'm sorry, I wish I could explain better, but I can't stay any longer. It's too dangerous." As if that was the cue, he began floating a few inches from the ground. He gave her a longing look before raising his hand, almost as if he was saying 'goodbye'. "I hope this isn't the last time I get to see you… Try to stay safe." Without another word, he vanished as suddenly as he appeared.

"Wait…!" she cried out as she tried to stop him, but she was unable to tell if he was still around or not. Though she really didn't want to trust the ghost, she did have questions for him. How in the world did he know about the picture she, Danny, and Tucker had found? He apparently even knew about the events leading up to the discovery. Did that mean he was really Danny?

She really didn't want to believe it, but she was starting to get a sinking suspicion it was truth. Maybe when she went home and was able to gather her thoughts, she would have a better understanding of the situation. Not just of the ghost's identity, but also of the other information and various questions swimming through her mind. But, she did know one thing for a fact: Tucker was never going to believe her.

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

[moon-writings13]

Hold On (Stiles x Reader)

Hold On (Stiles x Reader)

By: @moon-writings13

Author's Note: This is based on the song 'Hold On' by Chord Overstreet and my own dark mind.

 WARNING: THIS IS EXTREMELY DARK AND EXPLICITLY GOES INTO SUICIDAL THOUGHTS AND HAS A SUICIDE ATTEMPT!!! If this triggers you DO NOT READ IT.

It's also open ended and not beta read, no one but me has read the entire thing. Tell me if I missed anything and I will gladly go back and edit the warnings. Also there is no planned sequel but if it's asked enough I may just write one.

*3 person point of view*

He couldn't believe what she was saying, he thought they were friends, he thought she understood that this had to be kept secret.

"You're not listening to me Stiles! I'm just saying that Danny and Lydia deserve to know the truth, at least part of it. They're wrapped in this mess too, poor Lydia thinks she's going insane and Danny their friend." She paced around the table as she spoke." If something happened to me and I thought I was crazy but you knew I wasn't and you didn't tell me Stiles I'd be broken. And if Scott and I weren't telling you about something that was hurting us, you would do everything in your power to find out."

"That's different-"

"How is that different Stiles-" She stood still and glared at him-" tell me how is that different from us?"

She took a breath, stood up and gathered her things, she tugged her purse over her shoulder and zipped up her hoodie.

"Y/n" He reached for her, and she stepped back.

"I'll see you tomorrow Stiles, I think we both need to cool down, clear our heads a and talk with Scott, Deaton and maybe even Derek." She kissed his cheek and walked to the door, her y/e/c shining with sadness and anger. "We've been through a lot these past few weeks, we need a break before someone says something they'll regret."

Come the next day Stiles was looking everywhere in school for y/n, he couldn't find her anywhere, sure she was often sick but he had a sick feeling in his stomach. Every time she was out it felt wrong, who else did he have to talk about Star Wars, geek out and have his hoodies stolen from, he didn't know what he would do without her and her shy smile.

"Don't worry Stiles, she probably was a migraine and will be back tomorrow." Scott patted Stiles' back as they walked down the hall.

"I don't know Scott, something feels off-"

"Why don't we visit y/n after school, that way we make sure she's fine and there's nothing to worry about."

*Reader's Pov*

You were curled up in a ball, clutching your head in your hands. "Why can't this all just stop? It hurts so much, I can't do this any more! Just make it stop-" you sunk onto your knees hoping the pressure will make your head stop exploding-"there's nothing left for me, no one needs me, I'm not wanted here. I'm not good enough."

You went into your bathroom, locked the door and gazed into the large vanity mirror, then leaned against the door, curling up again.

 'No one wants you-' her mind screams- 'Stiles only pretends to put up with you, Scott forgets you exist half the time the rest he just ignores you. You never had lasting friends before them, why should that end now? Face it you're just a waste of space, you're a dumb, annoying, ugly, awkward, useless waste of space. No one cares if you live or die, so why don't you just die y/n, you're not wanted or needed just die and you won't feel the pain any longer.'

You get up from the bathroom floor against the door and rummage around the drawers and find a blade. Slowly but deeply, you cut your wrist. 'Maybe now it will all be over'

You black out for a while, you don't know how much time has passed when you hear your front door open, when you hear them, you know what they are going to do, try and save what had been broken long before you met them. Hopefully it was too late for help.

You hear them faintly from upstairs, "Stiles, ...I smell blood, it's fresh, Y/N?!?!"

"Blood?!?! HOLD ON Y/N WE'RE COMING!"

You heard them run up the steps, you heard a faint in 'here', likely from Scott. You just wanted it all to be over with the pain, your emotions, everything. 

When the door burst open you knew they came too fast to stop to you, even as you were blacking out. Your body felt cold against the tile when one of them pulled you in, why would either of them do that? Scott can hear a heartbeat in your house no matter where he was, and Stiles knew that, so why would either of them do that.

"PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME Y/N! Please don't leave me." Stiles was, crying? Why was he crying, there's nothing to be sad about.

'It's almost over, finally.' You thought, a small smile etched on your lips.

"Come back y/n, I still want you, I still need you, just comeback sweetheart." Stiles grabs your hand, while Scott finishes his 911 call. Scott grabs your other hand, both are putting pressure on your bleeding wrists.

"I swear y/n, we'll make this right, you're my little sister. The one I've always wanted so come back." Scott was choked up from the sound of his voice, but you knew it wasn't the truth this was his way of lessening his guilt and trying to make you feel wanted.

You heard sirens approaching, you couldn't even move to react. Then you heard a whisper you had always wanted to hear, but knew you never would. "I love you y/n, I've loved you since the day I met you, hold on y/n. I still need you."

\\ Time Skip 1 month later //

You looked at the unconscious form next to you, it felt wrong to see Stiles so silent and still. You drove down the highway towards the hospital, hoping that Stiles' condition wouldn't worsen before you could get him help. You felt chilled to the bone after the fight you just witnessed, Gerrard was a sick bastard. Torturing Stiles, Boyd and Erica, while you were slumped on the floor only able to get them all out and into a car after he left. You got the betas' into your room and texted Derek their location telling him they were hurt. Now you had to focus on getting Stiles to a hospital.

The drive seemed to be too slow, you needed to be there already. You drove to the emergency entrance and yelled for help. "HELP! MY FRIEND HAS BEEN SERIOUSLY INJURED AND IS UNCONSCIOUS."

A nurse approached me, "Please ma'am he's in my passenger seat just help him, please."

I watched helplessly as he was put on a stretcher and paced as they checked his vitals. 

"Please don't leave me Stiles, I can't make it with out you. Come on Stiles, hold on, I still need you. You can't leave me, I swore I'm going to love you all my life, hold on still I need you." You curl up in the waiting room chair knowing they won't let you follow him. 

You knew you can't let Stiles die, he had become your anchor since you woke up in the hospital. Without him you had no strength left, you just wanted to hear him say what he said the day you were discharged from the hospital 'Come on baby let's go home. Come on I'll take you.' You needed Stiles to live, you didn't want to live without him.

Tagglist: @samslave @grimreaperlover11 @bluetree76 @bisexualmage @dylinski @writingsbychlo

Tentative adds: @helllucifer @dream-in-charming

#stiles stilinski #stiles teen wolf #stiles stilinksi imagine #stiles x reader #teen wolf stiles #teen wolf #teen wolf imagine #stiles stilinksi x reader #moon writes #dylan o'brien #dylan o brien #dylan obrien #dylan o'brian imagine #x reader #//suicide #//self harm

[mummybear]

Promise To Protect - A Stiles Stilinski One Shot - Request

This was a request from @chewie-redbird​ Much love honey, hope you enjoy it sorry its so long!!

Words: 8045

Characters: Stiles Stilinski, Katerina Delgado(OC), Scott McCall, Melissa McCall, Danny, Unnamed mother and Step father

Pairing: Stiles Stilinski x OC

Warnings: Angst, Smut, Abuse From Parent, Violence, Protective Stiles, Protective Scott and Melissa. Think That’s It! 

Stiles stands there shocked and completely confused, he’d only stepped outside his front door to take out the trash and there she stood, right next to Roscoe. Katerina Delgado, she was the girl he had never been able to forget, a girl that he’d had so many secret firsts with. His first kiss, the first girl’s hand he’d held was hers, she was his first love if he were being honest with himself. But then she’d moved away and he’d not heard anything from her since that day. Her smile is small and reserved nothing like he remembers, she’s much slimmer than she ever was before, but she’s still just as beautiful as he remembers. Stiles is too shocked to speak, his mouth simply hangs open, as he tries to think of something to say. The trash bag lays long forgotten abandoned on the floor by his feet. 

He wants to make a move towards her, wants to pull her into his arms and never let go, but it’s like he’s stuck in time. He watches as she tucks her hair behind her ear, a blush covering her cheeks as she takes a few careful steps forward. The only thing that Stiles can think about for some reason, is why hadn’t Scott told him she was coming back, his best friend was the only person who knew how he’d felt for her. She was Scott’s cousin, which had made the conversation a little awkward between them, when he’d told Scott about his feelings. But they’d gotten over it together, it was hard for Scott to when she left, they had been more like brother and sister for a lot of the time together. 

It doesn’t go unnoticed by Stiles the way she tugs her hoodie tighter around herself, wrapping her arms around her own body. Is she nervous to see him as well? He wonders to himself as he finally finds the ability to speak, even if it’s nothing much. “Hi” he breathes as she moves a little closer, stopping maybe a meter away from him.

“Hi” she replies just as quietly, rubbing her hands over her arms in an attempt to comfort herself. She moves her eyes from him to glance at the ground, finding her shoes suddenly interesting. It hits Stiles that he’s never known her to be this nervous or shy, she was almost seeming withdrawn and that didn’t sit right with him. 

“You, uh. You wanna come inside?” Stiles asks her nervously rubbing at the back of his neck, as he points at his front door. Katerina pulls her eyes from the ground, a small smile passes over her lips as she watches him move finally, only tossing the trash in one of the metal trash cans out front before he returns to stand in front of her.

She follows him as he heads inside, his dad isn’t home so they stand there a little awkwardly in the living room. “You look good” she smiles fondly as she joins him on the couch, turning to face him. 

“Uh, thanks” Stiles mutters quietly fiddling with his fingers in his lap, before his head snaps up and he could almost slap himself. “So do you. You look great” he practically blurts out making Kat giggle the way he still remembers. 

“Good to see some things don’t change” she giggles relaxing back into the sofa as Stiles flicks on the tv, turning on his side to look at her as she continues. “Not sure what happened to my nerdy cousin, when did he get so you know” she asks waving her hands about a little.

“Yeah, I guess Scott has changed a lot since then. But you know how it is things happen, big things in our case” Stiles replies, watching her face contort with confusion. He decides that at least for now, it may be better to change the subject, they don’t need to be going down that road, the whole werewolves are real conversation, could probably wait. And oh yeah by the way you’re cousin is one, might not go down so well. “ We missed you when you left” Stiles says suddenly, leaving it to be her turn to blush.

“We? You missed me?” she asks quietly, seeming a little surprised which confuses him, she must know that he missed her right?

“Yeah, of course I did. You leaving Beacon Hills was one of the most shitty times of my life” Stiles assures her, gently taking her hand in his. She flinched a little which made him frown, the signs she’s been showing are beginning to worry him. “I’m sorry, is this okay?” he asks carefully, his thumb running slowly over her knuckles.

He sees the way she has to swallow hard, before glancing down at their joined hands to his surprise she smiles a little brighter than he’s seen her so far. “Yeah, feels good. You always had this way of just making me feel safe. I missed that” she confesses, it makes him momentarily happy to hear that he makes her feel safe. But why would she not feel safe at home?

“Are you staying with Scott?” he asks, trying to keep the conversation light, he doesn’t want to upset her. 

“Yeah, I am. But I wanted to come and see you. I thought -” she was cut off by a knock at the front door, Katerina flinches almost jumping up from the sofa, her grip on his hand tightening significantly. Stiles smiles at her giving her hand a gentle squeeze. As he gets up from the sofa she follows, not wanting to let go of his hand. He doesn’t object, he wants her to continue to feel safe with him.

The knuckles on the other side of the door wrap again, louder this time and he felt her tense at his side, squeezing him tighter. His thumb continues to gently slide back and forth over her knuckles, in an attempt to comfort her as he opens the door. “Danny?” Stiles questions confused, feeling Kat stiffen further and press her front to his back, in an effort to hide herself.

“Uh yeah, coach asked me to bring this” Danny replies distractedly trying to look behind Stiles, as Kat lets go of his hand and darts upstairs. Stiles takes the papers with a small awkward smile.

“Uh, thanks. See you next week” he mutters quietly as Danny leaves, Stiles closes the door tossing the papers on the side he jogs up the stairs to his room. 

He looks around and quickly finds her, she’s in his bed, hiding under the duvet, head resting against the pillows he can visibly see her shiver beneath them. He touches her arm gently on top of the covers, she tugs the covers down fast her wide eyes meeting his. “Just me” he assures her raising his arms. 

She relaxes a little sitting up in bed, “Sorry. I guess a lot has happened since we last saw each other” she says barely above a whisper, Stiles barely even recognises the tiny voice that slips past her lips. 

Stiles frowns climbing on the bed and sitting next to her, “Like what? You know you can tell me anything right?”

She smiles sadly, “I know” she breathes out nervously, her hands reach for the hem of her jumper. As she pulls it over her head Stiles winces at the purple and green marks covering her arms and chest. “So, this is part of the reason I came back” she swallows hard, when Stiles’ fingers gently brush over a particularly large bruise covering her shoulder and over onto her arm.

“What the hell happened?” he asks feeling the lump in his throat grow, tears pushing behind his eyes when those beautiful eyes of hers meet his. 

“It’s complicated” she replies quietly shrugging her shoulders.

Then the awful truth hits him, “That isn’t it, is it?” he asks unsure if he wants or needs to know the answer to that question. She shifts a little under his gaze, looking down at her hands she shakes her head.

Standing from the bed Stiles watches her as she moves in front of him, she pops the button of her jeans and tugs them down her legs. Unable to meet Stiles’ eyes when she nudges them to the side, Stiles finds his eyes drawn to one spot on her thigh in particular. She shivers as his fingers brush the sensitive flesh, he looks up seeing a tear falling from her eyes as his hand rests over the hand print marking her thigh. The colours of it tell him this one is new, it's only just started to turn brown, he knows from experience that the greens and purples aren’t far behind.

He stands in front of her and pulled her into his arms, he can’t stand to see her cry, he never could. She practically collapses against him, arms looping around his waist as she holds him as close as possible. Her face is pressed into his chest as her body shakes in his arms, he can feel the way his t-shirt is dampening but he doesn’t care. He has to keep her safe, this can never happen again. It’s only as he holds onto her like his life depends on it, that he realises just how small she is now.

Stiles presses a kiss to the top of her head, he can’t bring himself to move, doesn’t want to be the first to pull away, in fact he never wants to let her go again. So he doesn’t. He wants to ask her if she wants to talk about it, if she’s told Scott and Melissa and even who’d done this to her. But he can’t bring himself to speak, nothing feels right, how could someone hurt her like this. She was the sweetest person he’d ever met, always doing everything for everyone, never expecting anything. 

He feels her yawn before he hears it, regretfully he pulls back. She looks up at him with red puffy eyes, he cups her cheeks gently wiping away the tears. “How about we get some rest? We can talk after a sleep” he asks tucking some hair behind her ear, she nods pressing a kiss to his slightly stubbled cheek.

“Will you stay with me?” she asks shyly, gripping his flannel as she looks up at him. 

“Of course. I’m not going anywhere” he assures her gently, Stiles kicks off her jeans before he takes her hand again and lays in his bed, she follows without another word. Slipping into the bed beside him, smiling as he curled his body tightly against her back, holding her back as close as possible to his chest. “This okay?” he checks quietly, she hums in reply, probably too tired to respond as her hands rest on his forearms wrapped around her stomach.

She falls asleep first, her legs tangling with his and Stiles smiles when he caught sight of her in the mirror across from his bed. He tried to forget her while she’d been gone, but he’d failed miserably. She looks so peaceful wrapped up in his arms, for the first time since she’d arrived she looked unburdened. Relaxing slightly he allows himself to drift off, face buried in her hair as his eyes slip closed.

Stiles is woken by screaming, he jolts awake to find Katerina screaming head tossing back and forth in his pillows. He’s careful as he holds her arms but he has to use a little force to stop her from hurting herself. “Kat! Wake up it’s me. It’s Stiles, you’re okay. You’re safe” he assures her repeatedly until she seems to listen, her eyes snap open wide and terrified. Her breaths coming out thick and fast, he releases his grip on her and just starts to cry.

Seemingly unable to stop the tears from falling, “You’re okay, do you need anything. Water?” he checks she nods quickly, sitting up in bed and pulls her knees up to her chest resting her forehead there. 

Stiles jumps off of his bed and heads to his bathroom, grabbing a glass and filling it he returns, gently laying a hand on her shoulder, she looks up at him and he can see her hands shaking. She thanks him before taking it from his hand. Stiles grabs one of his hoodies and holds it out to her, “Did you maybe wanna borrow this, it’s a little cold here. I- uh you don’t have to” he stutters towards the end, she smiles at him putting her glass down on the bedside table.

“Thank you” she smiles running her fingers over his last name and the numbers on the back of it. “So lacrosse huh?” she asks thoughtfully, as she pulls the garment over her head, tucking her knees inside as well.

Stiles finds himself blushing slightly, she looks so much better than he ever could, just wearing that damn hoodie and she doesn’t even know it. He hates that that’s what he’s thinking about so he tries to change that by replying to her instead. “Yeah, I uh wasn’t sure to start with. Scott’s idea” Stiles explains moving to sit in front of her on the bed again. 

Sighing she rests a hand on his bare thigh, causing his eyes to move from her hand to her eyes, “You wanna talk about this huh?” she asks a little nervously gesturing to the marks and bruises covering her skin.

“I uh, yeah I guess. But only if you want to” he replied quietly, he doesn’t want to push her into something she isn’t ready for. But to his surprise she nods. 

Their conversation is quickly interrupted by Katerina’s phone, “I should get that. It’s probably Scott, I told him I wouldn’t be long” she explains, leaning over and grabbing her jeans from the floor and grabs her phone.

“Yeah sure, take your time,” Stiles says with that smile that has her melting as he gets up to pull on his jeans. 

As she answers the phone she quickly pulls it away from her ear, wincing a little but the giggle that falls from her lips has Stiles grinning. God she’s beautiful when she smiles.

“Scotty calm down. I’m okay, I promise. I’m just still with Stiles” she says rolling her eyes as she meets Stiles’ eyes. ‘Blah Blah Blah’ she mouths comically making Stiles let out a chuckle of his own. “Oh my god Scott! No!” she blushes her eyes quickly darting away from Stiles again. “Yeah, sure. We’ll be over soon” Stiles nods when she looks at him for confirmation. “Yes, I promise. Love you too you dork, bye” she laughs hanging up and sliding off Stiles’s bed.

“Does he know?” Stiles asks as she pulls up her jeans.

She turns to face him, her face sad again and she shakes her head. “I couldn’t tell him, he’d only worry. He’d never let me leave the house again” she explains going to pull off Stiles’ hoodie but he stops her with a gentle hand.

“You can keep it, if you want?” he tells her quickly cheeks heating up again as he steps in close her hand falls away from it.

“Okay, thanks” she smiles small looking up into his eyes, she swallows hard licking her lips. She tugs it between her teeth as her fingers skim his, “I really did miss you” she tells him honestly, causing Stiles to smile again she seemed to have that effect on him.

Stiles tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and moved to cup her jaw a little hesitant, thumb brushing over the soft skin. Almost subconsciously he leans down, his lips a breath away from hers and he can hear his heartbeat in his ears. “I never stopped missing you, never stopped thinking about you” he tells her honestly his nose bumping gently against hers. His other hand rested gently on her hip and she flinched a bit. “Sorry” he mumbled moving to back away. 

She moves his hand back to where he’d placed it, “Don’t do that, please. I know you wont hurt me” she practically whispers, tears forming in her beautiful eyes, but her eyes stay on his, while her hands move so they’re resting on his chest. 

“We should go, Scott-” Stiles tries but she stops him.

“Scott can wait a little longer. Kiss me Stiles, please” she says suddenly surprising him. 

He moves slowly, careful. Like he’s scared she might change her mind but she doesn’t. In fact she raises on her tip-toes pressing herself just a little closer. His lips press to hers hesitantly and she sighs happily against them, melting against his body. Stiles relaxes slightly, holding her close as his lips move slowly against hers.

Her tongue pushes against his lips and he sucks in a breath as she deepens their kiss, he leaves the control up to her as her tongue dominates. He can’t help the small moan that bleeds past his lips into her mouth, she pulls away reluctantly to breathe, giggling a little when Stiles chases her lips distractedly. “Just as perfect as I remembered” she smiles wiping the tears from her eyes. “Thank you”

“Yeah it really was” Stiles mumbles more to himself, fingers brushing over his lips already missing the feeling of her being pressed against him. “Anytime” he breathes out as she tosses his car keys to him he catches them, after a little fumbling in typical Stiles fashion.

Kat bites her bottom lip as she shifts awkwardly on the spot, not used to having someone staring at her the way that Stiles is. He makes her nervous, but it’s a good kind of nervous. “We should go” she smiles gently tugging the sleeves of his hoodie over her hands.

“We keep saying that huh?” Stiles laughs a little taking her hand in his free one, “Come on, Scott’s gonna get his panties in a bunch” Stiles says returning her smile as her fingers tighten around his. They fit together like two pieces of a puzzle he realises and the thought alone makes him smile more. Then he’s brought back to reality when the sleeve of his hoodie pulls up her arm slightly, showing a dark purple bruise more fingerprints. 

“Uh, your arm” Stiles says awkwardly as they approach the jeep. 

Katerina blushes, tugging down her sleeve quickly and not meeting his eyes. Stiles sighs unlocking Roscoe and lets her climb in the passengers side, while he jogs around to the other side and jumps up in the drivers side. “Please Stiles, you have to promise me you wont tell Scott” she says as soon as they’re both seated in the jeep and Stiles turns the key, the engine rumbling to life.

Stiles starts to drive, his mouth opens to reply but he realises he doesn’t know if that’s a promise that he can make. He glances down at his hands and snaps his mouth shut, before focusing back on the road again, he swallows hard licking his lips. “I uh, I dunno if I can keep this to myself Kat. Scott could keep you safe, I can’t stand you getting hurt anymore” he says, his voice drifting off a little towards the end.

Her soft hand rests on his forearm where his plaid shirt has been rolled up to his elbow, he glances over at her as he pulls up outside Scott’s house. She scoots as close to him as she can get, tears returning to her eyes after a minute of them just watching eachother. “Stiles, please. You don’t understand” she tries to reason, Stiles drops his head against the steering wheel and sighs. 

Stiles doesn’t know what to do, he has never been able to lie to Scott, he’s his best friend after all. But, is it technically lying if Scott doesn’t ask him about it. Plus Scott could still protect her without knowing she was in danger, and he wasn’t letting her out of his sight now. But when she meets his eyes again, he already knows it’s pointless to even think about any of this because he’s already made up his mind. He turns to her and takes her hand in his, “Okay, I won’t say anything. But i need you to promise me something” he says watching the curious tilt of her head as a tear drips onto her shirt.

“Anything” she replies quickly squeezing his hands gently, her hands shaking slightly.

“Don’t leave again. Stay here, where we can keep you safe. I can’t stand this happening to you ever again” he says quietly swallowing the lump that’s forming in his throat, as the tears form in his eyes. 

He misses the sad look on her face as he attempts to blink away the tears, “I’m so sorry that you had to find out about any of this. I never meant to drop all of my shit on you, especially you” she replies pulling him into her arms. Stiles’ forehead drops to her shoulder, as he wraps his arms around her tightly and she buries her face into his neck.

A knock on the window pulls them from their embrace, Stiles clears his throat looking away from the window to wipe his eyes as Kat does the same. Scott opens the door with a worried look on his face, “Everything okay guys?” he asks resting a hand on his cousins shoulder, until she looks up at him with a watery smile. 

“Yeah Scotty, just talking about the old days. You know how I get” she reasons with a smile pulling him into a hug. She doesn’t see the look that Scott gives Stiles over her shoulder, Stiles gives him a slightly awkward smile before glancing down at his knees before he jumps down out of the jeep and closes the door behind him. Scott doesn’t miss the way that Kat releases him and jumps out of the jeep the second Stiles’ door shuts.

Scott gently holds her arm as Stiles heads inside, keeping her back for a minute. He’s one man that will never scare her, he’s one of the sweetest, most caring people she’s ever known. But still she can’t stop the way she flinches when his hand closes around her wrist, because it also closes around the bruise that’s tender as all hell. “Sorry. I just- did something happen since you left earlier?” Scott asks worriedly moving his hands away from her folding his arms across his chest.

She swallows a little, unfortunately she has the same problem with lying to Scott that Stiles has. So she decides she won’t lie, but she’ll keep it very vague instead. “I’ll explain soon I promise, it’s nothing I can’t handle though,” she tells him honestly, though if she’s honest the only reason she was still coping is because she was here, with Scott, Stiles and Melissa.

Scott nods giving her shoulder a squeeze as they head inside, “Okay, but just remember I’m here if you need anything at all” Scott tells her sweetly, taking a seat on the sofa beside Stiles. 

“Right! I’m ordering pizza who’s hungry?” Melissa asks taking a seat in one of the single chairs. A happy agreement fills the room, and she dials the pizza place ordering their usual. “Okay, they said it should be here in about half an hour, I’m gonna take a bath” she tells the teens, checking her watch quickly and tossing some bills down onto the coffee table. Bending down she presses a kiss to the top of Kat’s head, and ruffles her sons hair while he tries to bat her away. Katerina can’t help but giggle, she quickly finds herself thinking that this is the happiest she’s been in forever.

Stiles takes a seat beside her on the sofa and Scott takes the other side of her. Scott flicks on a something from Netflix, but she’s still exhausted from everything that had happened today and before, finding her head dropping onto Stiles’ shoulder. Stiles awkwardly drapes his arm around her shoulders and she smiles, snuggling closer to him. Neither of them see the smile on Scott’s face, but she’s almost drifted off when a knock at the door sounds through the room.

“Scott, can you come here!?” Melissa calls from upstairs, Stiles holds up his hand as Scott thanks him and jogs up the stairs.

Stiles moves gently from under Kat’s body, letting her gently rest against the cushions. Stiles smiles at her as he heads over to the front door, he expects the pizza guy but quickly lowers the money when he sees that’s not who’s at the door. “Uh, can I help you?” he asks confused, causing Kat to sit up on the sofa with a frown.

“Where’s my daughter?” a man practically growls shoving Stiles aside and barging into the house with a woman Stiles is sure he recognises. His eyes zero in on Kat and the young woman stumbles back her voice stuck in her throat. “Get your shit! You’re coming home” he spits hatefully taking large strides towards her.

“I’m not going anywhere with you” she practically whispers, her eyes cast downward. 

“What the fuck did you just say to me bitch!?” he spits hatefully, grabbing her arm roughly and pulling her with him. She pulls back quicker than he expected, surprising him and she falls to the floor hard and fast. 

Everything slams together for Stiles like a car crash, before he can even think he helps her up from the floor and pushes Katerina behind him, even when she protests, says she’s fine. He doesn’t move, his dark brown eyes are focused on the huge bully in front of him. “I think you should leave” Stiles says, his voice eerily calm. 

“She has something that belongs to us. Unless you want me to break every bone in your scrawny little body. Move the fuck out of my way” the man growls his warning.

Stiles swallows hard, he’s not insane, of course he’s scared but he wont let her be hurt anymore. Not while he can do something to stop it. “No. I’ve seen what you’ve done to her. She doesn’t owe you anything. Now. Leave before you’re thrown out” Stiles snarls pushing her back further when the guy takes a swing. 

“My daughter been whoring herself out boy? You got a hard on for her or something” he chuckles sinisterly. 

“I’m not your daughter. You’re my step dad, i’m just your punching bag when things don’t go right. And that’s only because she was stupid enough to marry you, then not even bother to protect her own daughter” Kat mutters quietly, only just loud enough for the man to hear.

He’s no longer focused on her, which Stiles is thankful for because he hates to think what her comment would have earned her then. “Who’s throwing me out boy! You?” he laughs loudly, taking another step closer, pushing the pair back until they’re almost pressed to the wall.

It’s Stiles’ turn to smirk now, not a single hint of laughter or worry in his next words as he shrugs. “Me? No, not me. Scott?!” Stiles says calling his best friend loud and clear. 

The laughter that fills the room almost makes Stiles feel sorry for them, both of them are laughing hysterically. Little do they know, he thinks a little smugly. Kat is confused and shaking scared behind him, but he knows that she is safe. Scott comes flying into the room much faster than anyone except him had expected, the laughter in the room quickly dies out. “What’s going on?” Scott questions coming to stand beside his best friend, yet he’s slightly in front of him. 

“These two need to leave. There’s stuff you don’t know Scott” Stiles sighs remembering his promise to Kat, but to his surprise she squeezes his hand from behind and nods. “They’ve been hurting Katerina, badly. She’s covered in huge bruises” Stiles reveals sadly, Scott is momentarily dumb struck until a fist comes fly at Stiles’ face.

Scott catches the huge man's fist effortlessly, surprising everyone but Stiles. “I think you should leave” he levels the guy with a dangerous look, his eyes glowing red, the guy whose mouth is still hanging open growls loudly, spittle flying from his mouth. But Scott doesn’t flinch, simply moves his gaze to his aunt and keeps the look on his face. “Both of you” he insists, sternly.

Melissa enters the room and gasps loudly drawing everyone’s attention. “Mom, take Stiles and Kat upstairs please. We have some unwanted guests that need to leave” Scott says calmly, Melissa glares at her sister pulling the two teens from the room, she’d heard almost everything except her son dealing with her stupid sisters husband.

Scott turns back to them and growled low in his throat, it’s an empty threat. But they don’t know that. They also don’t expect the fangs that drop down, or the hair that grows on his face. “Leave. Now” Scott demands loudly, shoving the guy back. “And don’t come back” he calls to their retreating forms.

Scott closes the door behind them, making a mental note to keep an extra eye out tonight, so that they don’t try and come back. He decides it might be best to lock the door behind him, to stop them having any unexpected surprises. Scott walks through his house and up to the room where his cousin has been staying, he finds all three of them there, Kat’s curled up against Stiles he’s holding her still trying to keep her calm as his mother examines the arm which had just been injured. 

Gently knocking on the door Scott steps inside, just in time to hear the pained noise that leaves his cousins lips. “Okay honey, I’m sorry,” Melissa says gently, as she releases her arm. “I think you’re as okay as you can be. Extremely bad bruising, much like everywhere else” she informs her niece, not able to keep the lump in her throat from catching as she speaks. 

“It’s not your fault” the teen girl responds quietly, giving her aunt a watery smile. As she takes her hand Melissa can’t stop the tears from falling.

“I should’ve protected you sweetie. I’m so sorry, I had no idea what they were doing to you” Melissa replies shame tinting her words, Katerina climbs out of her friends arms and moves to the edge of the bed. 

She wraps her arms around her aunts shoulders and pulls her into a hug,”It’s okay, I’m safe now. Thanks to you, all of you” she says shakily, her eyes focusing on Scott in the doorway as the last words leave her lips. She doesn’t care what he is, he’s her cousin, her best friend and yet again he saved her, they can talk about the rest later she loves him and that’s all that matters.

“Okay, you’re not going back. You’re gonna come live with us” Melissa replies through tears as she pulls back and holds the young girls face in her hands.

Kat’s eyes are wide and her mouth dropped open, “Are you. Are you sure?” she asks shocked and confused, her heartbeat increasing quickly. 

“Of course I am! You’re my family, i’m only doing what I should’ve done years ago” she tells Kat pulling her back into her arms.

“Thank you” Kat whimpers gratefully, her tears soaking her aunts shirt. At that moment the doorbell rings distracting everyone, Melissa kisses her cheek and heads downstairs, followed by Scott just incase. “Love you Scotty” she calls just before the door closes Scott pokes his head back inside. 

“Love you too, dork” he winks jogging after his mother, leaving Stiles and Kat alone.

They talked for awhile and decide to go downstairs to eat, since Melissa had told them it was there not long after she’d left the room. 

The night goes smoothly after that, they eat pizza watch films and Kat allows herself to forget, just for a little while “Are you staying Stiles?” Melissa asks the young man as she takes the empty pizza boxes into the kitchen.

“If that’s okay” Stiles replies giving Kat a smile as she snuggles into his side.

“With Scott yes?” Melissa smirks knowingly, and Stiles flicks his eyes up to the older woman he considered a second mother, he blushes bright red and swallows hard.

“I uh, yeah sure. With Scott” he replies distractedly, his best friend snorts his laughter and Stiles tosses a pillow at his head. Which of course Scott catches, tossing it back at Stiles at only half his actual power. “You think I’d learn” Stiles mumbled as Scott laughed, kicking back and focusing back on the tv.

Stiles looked down at Kat noticing that she was passed out on his shoulder, “I’m just gonna take sleeping beauty up” Stiles tells the room, both McCall’s tell him to hurry back and he just rolls his eyes. Shifting her in his arms carefully, he holds her close as her face rests in his neck, “Stiles?” she questions against his skin, and he can’t help the shiver that rolls up his spine. 

“It’s okay, I’ve got you. Just gonna take you up to sleep” he tells her quietly as he starts to climb the stairs, his arms tighten around her.

Stiles thinks she must’ve gone back to sleep, since she doesn’t answer until he reaches the top of the stairs. “Will you stay with me?” she mumbled sleepily, nuzzling her face closer to him further. He carefully nudges her door the rest of the way open with his foot, before laying her back on the bed.

He brushes the hair from her eyes and turns to leave but before he can she catches his hand, “Please, just stay until I fall asleep. I’m scared” she tells him quietly her eyes still only half open, he knows he’s not gonna leave her now. 

“S’Okay, I gotcha. Come here” he smiles tugging her against his chest and wrapping an arm around her.

“Thank you Stiles. For everything” she whispers and he feels the tears on his skin, he shifts on the bed slightly so her head is resting on his shoulder. Their mouths only a breath away from one another.

“Anytime princess” he assures her feeling a little sleepy now himself, pressing a gentle kiss to her nose, she smiles and hugs him that much closer. It doesn’t take long before their breathing evens out, eyes slipping shut and they finally fall asleep wrapped around each other.

An hour later the door to Kat’s room opens revealing Melissa, she smiles a little knowing that she’s gonna leave him in there now. With everything her niece has been through she knows she will need the comfort, to at least have someone she loves and trusts as close as possible. So she leaves them together, heading to bed herself she closes the door behind her.

Stiles awakens in a dark room he doesn’t recognise, he’s soaked in sweat and he remembers where he is. As his eyes crack open he finds Kat tossing and turning in bed, her eyes screwed shut fists tight in the covers beneath her. 

He swallows the worry bubbling in his stomach, deciding not to wake her straight away he pulled her against his chest, her hands fist in his shirt and her muscles go stiff. As she presses her face into his shirt he feels the change in her. She sucks in a deep breath and pulls back a little, he can see those beautiful eyes thanks to the bedside lamp. “I’m so sorry” she whimpered releasing his shirt, running the back of her arm over her forehead.

“Don’t be it’s okay, you’re safe now” he promises brushing the hair away from her face.

Her eyes moved up to his and she can’t stop the tears welling in her eyes. She quickly wipes them away the smile on his face makes her heart swell, and she suddenly realises that she’s staring but she doesn’t care. He’s everything that makes her feel safe, everything that she loves and has missed in her life.

“Don’t cry, it’s gonna be fine. Not going anywhere” he soothes taking her hands in his and to his surprise she presses her soft lips to his again. Those long fingers move to cup her cheek and she finds herself melting against him. “You should really sleep” Stiles groans against her lips as her leg hooks over his waist and she deepens the kiss. Her tongue runs along his lips and he sucks her plump bottom lip into his mouth, right before their tongues start moving together in perfect sync, slow and desperate. Stiles pulls away to breathe but she keeps moving, her lips travelling across his neck, and over his throat, “Fuck” Stiles grunts as her tongue runs up the length of his throat and she rolls on top of him. 

“Need you baby” she breathes out desperately, her hands pushing his shirt out of the way, her hands exploring the new skin. Stiles moans her name, taking hold of her hand and he pulls it away, pressing a kiss to her knuckles.

“You don’t need to do this now, we can wait. I’m never losing you again” he whispers against her lips. 

Shaking her head she sighs pressing her forehead against his. “I’m not doing any of this because I think I have to Stiles. I want to. I just wanna feel something real, I’ve wanted this for more years than I can remember. I just want you” she breathes against his lips un-moving. 

“Anytime, you know that you want to stop, just tell me” he replies shakily, arms tightening around her body, he pulls her lips back to his with a hand on the back of her head. His fingers are slow and careful as they dance across her skin, which makes her giggles since he’s basically tickling her.

“Are you sure you wanna do this?” she asks sitting up on her knees, where he quickly scrambles up to join her. 

“Of course I am. I just don’t want to hurt you” he reasons, eyes locked on her as she stands from the bed. 

“If you were anyone else I might be terrified right now. As it is I’m just a little scared and real nervous” she explains smiling a little at the way he watches her every move, as she walks around the bed until she’s standing in front of him. 

Kat’s eyes are on him as she pulls her shirt over her head and tosses it behind her, Stiles shifts so his legs are hanging over the side, hands grabbing onto the edge of the bed as he watches her. She moves to the door and locks it, quickly moving to stand back in front of him again. He can’t help but smile at the look on her face, as she awkwardly kicks her trousers off. But when their eyes meet again, she bites her lip as he stares at her in only her underwear. “Your turn” she blushes her voice shaking a little with every word.

Stiles stands from the bed wiping his hands on his jeans, he pushes them down and manages to get out of them a little more gracefully than she had which surprises them both.

Licking her lips Kat steps closer to him, her hands reaching for his buttons she fiddles with the top one as she moves her eyes back to his. “Do the bruises and marks bother you?” she asks nervously, letting the first button of his plaid shirt pop open slowly letting her fingers move down and undo the buttons, one by one.

Stiles swallows hard, looking down at her hands then back at her face. He shakes his head with a soft smile, “Honestly, as cheesy as it is, the only thing that bothers me about them is that I couldn't stop it happening” he replies truthfully as her hands slip under his shirt, pushing it from his shoulders.

“You stopped me from getting any more of them. Now I’m back with you I feel more myself than I have done in years” she answers pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth, as she steps back Stiles tugs his t-shirt over his head, ever so quickly he pulled her body against him. His lips are soft but firm as he claims her mouth, she moaned into his mouth, letting her hands push into his soft hair.

They pour everything they can’t say into the kiss, all of those things that they wished they could’ve said when they were apart. Regretfully she has to release his mouth to breathe, he lets her step away and watches as she lays back on the bed, holding out her arms for him. Stiles catches part of his lip with his teeth as he crawls between her legs, she sits up and removes her bra dropping it off the side of the bed.

Lowering himself down onto his elbows pressing his lips to her ear, “You look fucking beautiful princess” he groans loudly, she whimpers when his lips press against her skin softly. As he makes his way down her neck, his long fingers skim her waist. Her fingers push into his thick hair, not holding him in place, just simply needing something to hold onto. 

“God Stiles, please” she moans arching into his touch. She can’t stop the slight giggle turning into a moan when his lips seal around her nipple, her fingers tighten in his hair and she presses him closer. Stiles chuckles releasing the hardened bud with a pop.

Goosebumps erupt across her skin as Stiles begins kissing down her stomach. He can hear her breathing increase as he kisses along the edge of her panties, “Can I?” he asked huskily, dipping his thumbs under the material, sliding them back and forth against her skin. 

“Please. Do it” she begs, he can’t help but notice how sexy she is, her voice is wrecked, her cheeks are red, lips are swollen and she has major sex hair already. Stiles takes his time sliding her panties down her legs. Grinning up at her when they’re dangling from his finger, she rolls her eyes but can’t stop the giggle as she watches him throwing them over his shoulder.

He kisses his way down her thighs, loving the noises that she makes the closer he gets to her soaked pussy. “Fuck, you look so good baby” he moans against her skin, letting her drape her legs over his shoulders. His eyes flick up to meet hers as he slowly pushes a single finger inside her, those beautiful eyes clamp shut and he bites his lips with the way her pussy clamps around his finger. He gently works another finger inside her, loving the way her hips began to roll down into his hand, her fingers tightening in his hair.

“Oh, fuck Stiles. Just like that please, want your mouth” she cries out as Stiles’ lips seal around her clit immediately. Stiles’ free hand presses gently against her stomach,just enough so he’s keeping her pressed against the bed.

“You gotta keep your voice down baby” Stiles breathes against her, his head moves side to side quickly as her clit throbs between his lips.

A hand leaves his hair and slams against her mouth, he knows she’s close he can still hear the noises leaking out from under her hand. Her hips are rolling into him as his fingers speed up inside her, the way he sucks at her clit has intensified and she can hardly breathe when she comes. She gasps for air and whimpers, he doesn’t stop keeps going, pushing her through it until she’s trying to squirm away from his mouth too sensitive to handle anymore. 

Finally he pulled away and her body goes lax collapsing into the bed, the sweat that covers her body shimmers in the light of the bedside lamp. He lays beside her smiling that dopey smile that makes her want to hold him close forever. “Hey you” he grins tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear, doing his best to tame the rest of it as she looks at him dreamily.

“You’re amazing” she giggles pressing her lips to his, Stiles groans as she pulls him on top of her, trying to push his boxers down with her feet.

“Want a hand there princess?” he asks half laughing as he sits up and pulls them from his body, almost falling on top of her once they drop to the floor. 

“Do you?” She laughs, but she’s cut off by his lips again. She fits a hand between them a little awkwardly she wraps her small hand around his cock.

“Oh fuck baby” Stiles grunts at the unexpected contact, his head dropping to her shoulder, when he feels his cock brush through her soaked entrance he looks back up. Meeting her eyes he kisses her again, letting himself push forward slightly. She stiffens beneath him as the head of his cock pushed inside her, Stiles continues to swallow every moan and whimper that leaves her lips as he slowly pushes every inch inside her tight pussy.

She bites his lip when he finally releases her mouth, “You hid that well” she groans as his cock pulses inside her. Stiles blushes slightly but when her legs wrapped around his back his breathing increases.

“Don’t think I’m gonna last long, you’re so tight and wet” Stiles moans into her neck, his hips rolling gently as a reflex, causing her to gasp into his mouth.

“Fuck Stiles, move please” she whimpers hands clawing at his back when he pulls almost all of the way out, slowly pushing back in again. Eyes focused on her face as he moves, “I love you” she gasps between thrusts.

He looks down at her with wide eyes and swallows hard, “You what?” Stiles asks sceptically, cupping her cheek, forcing her eyes to focus back on him.

“I love you Stiles Stilinski” she breathes out nervously, blinking away the tears as the smile forms on his lips.

“You’re so perfect baby, I love you too” he half laughs half cries, pressing his lips to hers again he lets his hips move slow and a little harder than before. 

She practically gasps his name against his lips with every thrust, his free hand grabs onto her thigh for leverage, careful to avoid the bruise he knows is there. “Gonna come” she cries out as his forehead rests against hers. “Faster Stiles please” she whimpers desperately, clinging to him as tight as she can, the sweat clinging to her skin reminds her that this is real.

Right now she feels like she’s in heaven, Stiles does as she asks his hips piston as fast as he can, holding her against his body the best he can. The sound of skin echoes around the room but both of them are past caring.

“Fuck so close princess” he growls against her neck and she cries out his name behind her hand as her climax hits her like a truck, Stiles is seconds behind her doing his best to keep his weight off of her as he comes hard, pulsing inside of her.

“Holy shit” she gasps as he rolls to the side of her, pulling her back against his chest. 

“Jesus woman, you’re incredible” he breathes against her back, pressing kisses into her skin. Stiles pulled the duvet up over the two of them, “Are you doing okay princess?” he asks gently moving his fingers over her skin.

“Never been better” she sighs happily hands holding onto the arm that had wrapped around her.

“We’re all happy for you both! Now go to sleep, some of us hear better than others!” Scott calls loudly from down the hall. They can’t help but burst into laughter, which continues even as Stiles turns the light off and holds her close. Promises to keep her safe as long as she lets him.

Tags: @lusyschwa​ @chewie-redbird​ @julzdec​ @lettersofwrittencollective​ @stiles-o-dylan24​ @mogaruke​ @all-alone-he-turns-to-stone​ @dylanholyhellobrien​ @desiree-0816​ @emichelle​ @lilulo-12​ @22sarah08​ @screamxqueenx94​ @brien-odylan​ @fox-in-a-mousetrap-8​ @riseandshinelittleblossom​ @ceceliaking-18​ @mrs-mitch-rapp93​ @yaya2503

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[mischiefandspirits]

Doppelgänger (2/?)

Previously on Doppelgänger ~ Masterlist ~ Next time on Doppelgänger

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were just 14 when they took a look inside the portal Danny’s parents had built. From there, everything changed. They woke up with white hair, green skin, and powers they could learn to control. They were hybrids, halfas.

They were the hero Doppelgänger.

{Parental Bonding}

“We can possess people!” the trio said, Tucker bouncing in midair. Sam crossed her arms. “That seems really wrong. We didn’t do it on purpose. Imagine how many dates we could get this way. We don’t need dates. We know we want to go to the dance.”

Sam turned human, dropping onto Tucker’s bed with a scowl.

Danny floated closer to her with an apologetic expression.

“Sorry,” he and Tucker said.

“It’s okay. I know you guys aren’t intentionally prying. It’s just kind of annoying sometimes.”

“We’re getting better at keeping things separate,” they said as Tucker sat down at the end of the bed. “Maybe we’ll be able to figure out secrets as we work on it. Do we need to have secrets though?”

“Yes, Danny, we do,” Sam said, poking the boy. “You might have loose lips, but I like my privacy.”

Danny pouted and transformed. “I don’t have loose lips. I just don’t get why anything has to be a secret between us. We’re best friends.”

Sam grabbed his arm and tugged him onto the bed with her.

His pout immediately fled as he curled up in her arms, his head tucking beneath her chin.

Tucker gasped and turned human. “It’s a cuddly Sam day!”

She shot him a glare. “Not for you it isn’t.”

He ignored her and joined them on the bed, pressing up to her back and draping an arm over both his friends. She grumbled, but relaxed back against him as Danny poked his head up to give them both kisses on the cheek.

They rested together for a while before Sam’s phone went off.

She nudged Danny, who’d been dozing. “Come on, it’s getting late. We should get home before someone realizes we aren’t in our beds.”

“No one will check on me before morning,” Danny said with a nuzzle.

She pushed him off the bed.

“Well then.”

Tucker sat up as the two stood and transformed. “Sam, wait.”

They turned to him.

“Uh, you know, since neither of us have dates and you really want to go, the two of us could go to the dance together as friends.”

Danny smiled and Sam tilted her head.

“Really?” they asked.

“Sure. I’ve pretty much struck out with everyone in school anyways and someone has to keep an eye on Danny.”

“Hey! True. HEY!”

{One of a Kind}

Skulker looked between the human boy he was tailing and the ghost child glaring down at him. He could have sworn the half-ghost was the child of the hunters Plasmius had paid him to investigate, not the boy's female friend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No, that can’t be. He was sure the girl was the ghost child. He knew he had seen the technology-boy asleep with the hunters’ child!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Skulker gaped at the three ghost children surrounding him. “What are you?”

“We are Doppelgänger, and you are done here,” they somehow said together while sounding like only one.

At least he'd still accomplished the job Plasmius required, Skulker thought as he was pulled into a cylindrical device.

{Attack of the Killer Garage Sale}

“You’re not going to go to the party?” Sam asked as Danny tossed the invite Dash had given him in the trash.

“Sam, I don’t think we’d need our bond to feel your hatred for this entire situation,” Tucker said.

“Sorry.” She’d really been trying to hold back her more jealous and controlling nature since the accident. It wasn’t fair to her partners.

“It’s fine,” Danny said, knocking their shoulders together with a smile. “It’d feel weird without you guys anyways. Who would talk trash about the A-listers in our heads or get turned down by every person in the room?”

“Rude,” Tucker said.

“Besides, what would happen if a ghost showed up. Dash’s place is too far from either of yours for our mind link.”

“That’s true,” Sam agreed.

“You could always just call our phones,” Tucker said and his partners paused, surprised.

“Phones,” Sam chuckled. “How did we forget phones exist?”

“We might be getting too dependent on the mind link,” Danny laughed, rubbing his neck.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam and Danny looked up as Tucker dropped down onto the couch between them.

“You guys could have helped,” he huffed, passing the thermos to Danny and turning human.

“Tech’s you thing,” Danny said with a shrug, tossing the thermos into his Space Fold.

“Did you need help?” Sam asked, handing Tucker a bowl of popcorn.

He snorted. “Technus, master of technology and destroyer of worlds, was running an old version of Portals XL. It was easy to slip through the cracks with my powers. That’s not the point though.”

{Splitting Images}

Sam and Tucker watched Danny’s parents run off, then turned to their partner. “Watch it, Danny. Your parents almost c-” they stopped, then glared. “Who are you? Where’s Danny?”

The boy who was mostly not Danny frowned. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Sam grabbed him by the front of his shirt and slammed him against the lockers, her eyes glowing yellow.

“Tell us where our partner is now?” she and Tucker said as one and he stepped up next to her, his own eyes purple. “We can feel you’re not him!”

Poindexter immediately caved. He was smart enough to know he’d have a hard time taking on one halfa on in a fight, let alone two.

Sam was a lot more willing to hear out the old school nerd once her own nerd was safely in her arms and the three decided to let Poindexter stick around, so long as he agreed not to hurt or humiliate any of the bullies he went after, only spook them away from their targets. Especially when Danny told them about how Poindexter was treated in his own version of Casper High.

And they thought Dash was bad.

{What You Want}

You said she’s a genie ghost? Why didn’t you just wish her into the thermos? Sam asked.

Tucker and Danny shared a look from where they were hovering over the sick girl’s home.

You both are idiots. Get out of here before one of my parents spot you.

We’re invisible, they pointed out, but said their goodbyes and left all the same.

“Why didn’t we think of wishing her away? Because only one of us got all the common sense when the portal mashed us together. True. Oh, man! What? We forgot to share about the plasmablasts! Shoot, we’re dead. No puns right now, this is serious!”

{Bitter Reunions}

“Bad news,” Danny said as soon as he picked up the group call. “My parents are dragging me and my sister with them to their college reunion in Wisconsin.”

“That sucks,” Tucker hissed.

“Yeah, but our news is worse,” Sam said. “Knock knock.”

Her words were matched with a knock at Danny’s window and he opened the curtains to find Sam floating outside.

“Who’s there?” Tucker asked.

“Sam,” Danny said, gesturing her in.

“Sam who?”

“Sam’s at my window,” Danny snorted as she floated through intangibly. “What’s going on?”

“Wait, she’s at your house? Why? Do I need to come?”

“No, we took care of the problem for now.” Sam reached into the bag she’d strapped to her belt -- Danny could open the Space Fold for her and Tucker from a distance, but they only really did that for the thermos -- and pulled out a torn picture. “Look familiar.”

“Is that my dad?” Danny asked, taking it. The man in the picture certainly looked like his dad did in his collage pictures.

“That’s what we thought too.”

“What’s going on?”

“We took on this group of vulture ghosts just now and they had a picture of Mr. Fenton,” Sam explained. “They said they were on a search and destroy mission.”

“They want to kill Danny’s dad?”

“Why?”

“We don’t know,” Sam sighed. “They got away from us before we could interrogate them properly. We could have used our speed.”

“Sorry, my parents are in an inventing lull so they’re actually paying attention to my curfew,” Danny said, still looking at the picture.

“I still don’t get why Danny’s faster than us.”

“Tiny.”

“You mean smol.”

“No.”

“Yes. And it’s not fair.”

“You take hits better than Sam and I,” Danny pointed out. “And Sam’s stronger than us. It balances out. Now can we get back to the fact that someone put a hit out on my dad?”

“Sorry, we don’t know anything else.”

“At least you guys are going out of town. Hopefully, Sam and I can track down the birds before you get back.”

“Yeah, I hope so.”

Sam took her partner’s hand and pulled him into a hug.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Holy crow.”

“Tell us about it,” Danny groaned.

“We should have been there,” his partners said.

“We’re kind of glad we weren’t,” Danny said, poking his head into the RV for a second to make sure his parents and sister were still asleep. “Who knows what Vlad would have done if he knew about us? He thinks we use the royal we.”

“We can’t believe there’s another halfa out there. And he’s such a creep. Do we think he’d want us? Or only one of us?”

Danny frowned, rubbing his chest. It was weird being in ghost form, hearing his partners in their ghost form, and yet not being a part of the mind link. “We don’t know. And we don’t want to know. He doesn’t need to be anywhere near us. He’s a fruit loop.”

“Agreed.”

{Prisoners of Love, Part 1}

The trio floated back to back as they looked around the Ghost Zone. Danny pressed closer to his partners, eyeing a group of small blobs that he swore was following him, while Sam vibrated with excitement and Tucker snapped pictures with his phone.

“Can we just find the gift already? This place is amazing. No, it's not. It's creepy. And it goes on forever. We don't even know where to start to look! Maybe we can ask for directions?”

Tucker flew up to one of the doors. He knocked and opened it.

“Excuse me,” they said. “Would you be able to -”

“Get. Out. Of. My. ROOM!”

Tucker shut the door.

“Well, that won’t work. This is hopeless. We’re never gonna find that present. Our folks are gonna get divorced and it’s gonna be all our fault.”

Sam wrapped her arms around Danny.

“We’ll figure this out. Maybe we just need to think like a box. Think like a box? Well, the box isn’t a ghost. It’s from the human world.” Danny’s head popped up. “Yes, maybe the ghost zone’s gravity affects human world stuff differently than ghost stuff. If we can track the orbital paths, then we can figure out where the box went. But how would we figure out these orbital paths? We know one way. No.”

Tucker flew down to one of the floating islands, then transformed.

“Stop!” Sam and Danny shouted, flying up to him. “We don’t know how the Ghost Zone will affect a human. Our parents haven’t run any tests yet!”

“I’m fine, see,” Tucker said, gesturing at himself. “I can even breathe just fine. Everything’s okay.”

“For now.”

“I think it’s a little too late to worry about ectoplasmic radiation, so what are you two so worried about.”

“Only one of us is worried. We’re both worried.”

Sam shoved Danny, then shoved Tucker when he started laughing.

The boy yelped and braced himself when the shove knocked him towards a tree.

He passed right through it.

“What the heck?” the two said.

Tucker stood up and set his hand on the tree. Then he pressed down and his hand slipped through the tree, coming out the other side.

Danny dropped down next to him and tried to do the same, but couldn’t get his arm to go through the tree even when he turned intangible.

Sam snapped her fingers.

“Ectoplasm. Everything here is made of ectoplasm. Maybe being in the ghost zone naturally puts everything in a semi-intangible state, which means humans can pass through it if they try.”

“So we’re the ghosts here!” Tucker cheered, bouncing. “Sweet!”

“It’s definitely something to keep in mind.”

Tucker smiled and held up his arms. “Now that that’s settled, let’s see how this human gets affected by ghost gravity.”

Danny hesitated, but Sam shrugged and picked Tucker up and threw him into the void.

He flew a few yards before slowing down until he was just floating in place. They waited a moment, but nothing else happened.

“Well, that was anticlimactic,” Tucker said then transformed.

Danny and Sam flew up to him, all three saying, “That should have worked though. There has to be some sort of orbit or else the box would have just been right outside the portal and we check right after it got knocked in.”

Tucker shrugged and pulled out his phone. Danny’s eyes locked onto it. He grabbed it out of Tucker’s hand and tossed it.

“Hey! Look, it’s moving!”

The trio watched as the phone’s trajectory slowed, then started again slightly to the right of where it had been heading before.

“Humans might just be too heavy or dense for ghost orbit. Or maybe it’s a consciousness thing, like with the intangibility. Whatever it is, let’s just get going. If we lose our phone, we’re going to regret it.”

The three set off drifting a short ways behind the phone. They stuck close enough to be sure they didn’t lose it, but far enough that they wouldn’t accidentally alter its course. Eventually, the phone floated intangibly through one of the doors, this one looking like a rolling warehouse door.

The trio shared a look then opened the door and flew inside.

The lair was just a purple void filled with a variety of random items.

“So this is where all that stuff ends up. It’s like the void of lost items,” they said as Tucker grabbed his phone.

“Yes!” the trio turned to see the Box Ghost flying up. “It all ends up in the possession of THE BOX GHOST!”

“Ugh, this guy. What are you doing here? Don’t you have a cardboard box to haunt.”

Boxy blinked looking between the three before pointing at Sam, who was floating in the middle.

“I am The Box Ghost! Where do you think we go when you release us from your round, cylindrical trap?”

Danny looked unimpressed, Sam crossed her arms and started looking over all the junk, and Tucker ran a hand over his face.

“It is not our turn to deal with this. You mean the Fenton Thermos? The gift has to be here somewhere.”

He looked between them then threw up his arms menacingly. “I am the Box Ghost!”

“We know.”

“And beware! For I am merely ONE of your foes who reside in this realm! In fact, you might say,” the box ghost snorted, “we’re a PACKAGE DEAL!”

“I swear if we laugh at that, we’ll punch us. We’re not laughing at that. It’s the Box Ghost. We would laugh at that. That was a bad pun even for us.” They groaned and Danny floated closer to Boxy, holding his hands up in a show of good faith. “Look, we’re looking for something important, we don’t have time for your box puns.”

Suddenly police sirens sounded and the trio looked around.

“Flee!” Boxy shouted. “Lest you be hermetically sealed and shipped to your doom!” He tried to fly off, but a blast of green energy hit him, causing his wrists to be bound in handcuffs made of energy.

Sam and Tucker flew up to grab Danny’s arms. “Hey, what’s going on? We need to get out of here! Let’s -”

A blast hit them and they were bound together.

“Unauthorized duplication. That’s against the rules.” The trio looked up to see a large white ghost hovering over them. He pulled out a green book. “Or at least it is now.”

“Duplication? Like Plasmius? Wait! This is all a big misunderstanding! We’re not -”

The ghost moved so it was like he was crouched on invisible ground and shoved his face into Tucker’s. He grabbed Tucker’s phone and said, “There may be chaos everywhere in this Ghost Zone, but there’ll be order in my prison.” He stood up and turned to a group of ghosts in riot gear. “Merge them and ship them off.”

One of the ghosts smiled and pointed a police baton at them.

“Hold on! You’ve got the wrong -”

He shot them with a blast and a ring of energy wrapped around them and squeezed. It grew tighter and tighter and their bodies were pressed closer and closer.

“Stop! Wait! Please!”

And then there was a snap. It wasn’t audible. It wasn’t even physical. It was just a feeling as three bodies became one.

Doppelgänger looked down at their hands in shock, their mind a whirl of emotions and thoughts. They barely noticed as the ghost police grabbed their arms and threw them in the back of a prisoner transport van.

“We’re one?” they whispered, staring at their hands.

They certainly didn’t feel like one. They could feel Sam's and Danny's and Tucker’s minds rioting against one another in their head. It was like the trio were all trying to overshadow each other at once. Their body shook with hot and cold and lightning. They tried to pull apart, but the bands on their wrists, ankles, and waist kept their powers dulled and their ectoplasm merged.

The police returned and Doppelgänger shuffled into the corner of the van to keep away from the monsters. Thankfully they only shoved the Box Ghost inside and shut the doors.

Doppelgänger turned to the wall of the van. “If we transform, we can slip out. Can we transform with these bonds? Better question, what would happen if we transformed like this?” They shivered at the idea of being merged in their human forms. “Yeah, no. We need to figure out how to separate, then we can transform and get away from these psychos. Seriously, as if living corrupt police weren’t bad enough. We need to focus. Can this situation get any worse? Our folks are splitting up, our sister’s a basket case, and we’re going to ghost jail.” They curled up, trying to hold themselves as best they could with their bonds. “It will be okay. We’ll be okay. They’ll have to remove the bonds at some point then we can get away. It will be okay.”

#danny phantom #danny fenton #tucker foley #sam manson #Doppelgänger au

[xxcorndogxx]

Sandor Clegane x Reader||Chapter Twenty Four

(Danny Trejo is your dad) I watch as Sandor kicks over the box. The white walker rushing out. It runs for the first person it sees. Queen Cersi. Sadly Sandor grabs the chain yanking the walker back. Away from Cersi. When he does the walker turns to face him. As it runs to him he draws his sword. Chopping it in half as it attacks. The white's upper half keeps crawling to him. It reaches out for him and he hacks its handoff. I walk back to stand by Lord Varys. Qyburn picks up the hand. It still moves. Jon takes the hand from him. Ser Davos approaches and lights a torch.

"We can destroy them by burning them," Jon announces as he lights the hand. After a moment he drops it.  "And we can destroy them with dragon glass." He holds out his blade. "If we don't win this fight, then that is the fate of every person in the world." Jon stabs the walker. "There is only one war." He approaches the queen. "That matters, the Great War and it is here."

"I didn't believe them until I saw them. I saw them all"

"How many?" Jamie asks.

Sandor stands behind Brienne and I stand next to him. His arm around my waist.

"Hundred thousand at least." Daenerys answers.

Euron Greyjoy walks over and examines the walker.

"Can they swim?" He asks.

"No." Jon answers.

"Good, I'm taking the Iron Fleet back to the Iron Islands."

"What are you talking about?" Cresi asks.

"I've been around the world, I've seen everything you couldn't imagine and this, this is the only thing I've ever seen that terrifies me." He proclaims. He walks to Daenerys. "I'm going back to my island, you should go back to yours. When winters over we'll be the only ones left alive."

He's got a point.

"He's right to be afraid, and a coward to run. If those things come for us, there will be no kingdoms to rule. Everything we suffered it would have been for nothing. Everything we lost will have been for nothing. The crown accepts your truce. Until the dead are defeated they are the true enemy." Cersi proclaims. "In return, the King in the North would extend this truce. He will remain in the North where he belongs. He will not take up arms against the Lannisters. He will not choose sides."

"Just the King in the North? Not me?" Daenerys asks.

"I would never ask it of you. You would never agree to it. And if you did, I would trust you even less than I do now. I only ask it of Ned Stark's son. I know Ned Stark's son will be true to his word."

We all look at Jon.

"I am true to my word." He starts. "Or I try to be. This is why I cannot give you what you ask. I cannot serve two queens. And I have already pledged myself to Queen Daenerys of House Targaryen."

"Then there is nothing left to discuss." She stands. "The dead will come north first. Enjoy dealing with them. We will deal with whatever's left of you."

We watch as she leaves. After talking Tyrion goes to speak with his sister.

"How are you feeling, little dove?" Sandor asks turning to me.

"Alright."

"You aren't dizzy, you don't need to pee?" I shake my head.

"I just went. I am tired though."

I move to sit in a chair and he stops me. He sits and pulls me on his lap. I rest against him. After a bit, Tyrion returns and the Queen does as well. We stand as they approach.

"My army's will not stand down. I will not pull them back to the capital. I will march them north to fight alongside you in the Great War. The darkness is coming for us all. We will face it together and when the Great War is over, perhaps you'll remember I chose to help. With no promises or assurances from any of you. I expect not. Call our banners. All of them."

I walk through the garden once more. I haven't been here in ages. I see a bunch of those flowers that Sandor would get for me. I pick one and place it behind my ear. I move to leave the garden and Cersi is there.

"My dear, Y/n."

She doesn't smile.

"Your grace."

I bow slightly.

"Look at you." She examines me. "All grow up. Married, pregnant. I wonder how your father will take the news."

She smiles.

"He doesn't know? You didn't tell him?"

"No. I wanted to wait until you were here so you could talk. I'm sure he won't be too delighted to know that his daughter married The Hound and is with his child."

I shift uncomfortably.

"Your grace, if you may. I have to piss." I confess.

"I know how that is. Can't hold it in for long with that bundle of life in you."

She nods me to leave. I rush up the stairs with a hand on my stomach. I turn a corner and almost fall. I ran right into Sandor, luckily he was quick to grab me before I could fall.

"Little dove?"

He looks concerned.

"I have to piss," I explain.

I hold onto his arm as we walk. He keeps me steady. My father turns the corner. His eyes meet mine and he smiles. It wavers as his eyes scroll down to the hand Sandor has resting on my somewhat large stomach. I have to be at least 6 months at this point. For a moment no one move.

"Father," I speak in a calm voice.

I feel Sandor stiffen. He knows my father hates him.

"You." My Father glares at Sandor. "You-." He points his finger at Sandor. He occasionally moves closer. "-took my daughter away. Kidnapped her from her room and you had the nerve to put a child in her." He shouts.

I really have to pee.

"I didn't kidnap the girl. She came with me of her own free will."

"Bullshit. My daughter knows how much I hate you-."

"Exactly. How much you hate me. Not her."

"Well, she doesn't love you."

"I do love him!" I shout. "Father, he's my husband. I love him with all my heart. With all my soul I am his and he is mine."

"You didn't. You did not marry this man."

His face red with anger.

"She did," Sandor grumbles.

"Why?"

I really have to pee. I hold my legs as tightly together as I can. While they scream and argue I cling tighter to Sandor's arm.

"Sandor," I mumble.

The tingling downstairs is very strong almost painful. I don't know how much longer I can hold it.

"Sandor!" I call louder tugging on him.

"What!?" He shouts turning to me.

I am taken aback. He's never yelled at me. He is quick to place his hand on my face.

"I'm sorry, little dove. You caught me in the heat of the moment."

"I have to pee. I can't hold it." I pout.

We start to leave but father stops us.

"You're not going anywhere with her." He's firm. "She will stay here with me. I'll have you killed or sent away and when that child comes from her I'll kill it myself."

"She will go with me. I married her. She's not yours anymore." He defends.

"She's my daughter!"

"Sandor," I mumble.

"She's my wife!"

I feel a little leak out.

"She won't be your wife after I kill you." He threatens.

"I'd like to see you try old man."

And just like that, there it goes. Everyone's silent as the piss hits the floor. Drops rolling down my legs. Tears slipping from my eyes out of embarrassment. Sandor looks down at me.

"Little dove." He coos. "I'm so sorry, I forgot." He apologizes.

"I told you I couldn't hold it long." My father's eyes meeting mine.

"Your daughter has now pissed herself because you wanted to argue. I was helping her to the bathroom." He explains.

"Y/n." My father reaches to me.

"Enough. You've done enough. I'm a grown woman. I can make my own choices. You need to live with that." I shout. "Now if you'll excuse, I've soiled myself."

I walk off. Sandor follows. Back in our room, Sandor helps me wash myself. He brings me a new dress from my wardrobe.

"Thank you."

I smile. He kisses my forehead. He helps me pull the fabric over my body. He lifts me up and carries me to bed.

[velveteencurtains]

folklore first impressions!

the 1 — don’t hate me for this but. HAYLOR RIGHTS. anyway so so fucking CUTE i’m gonna cry. “the greatest loves are over now” WAHHH IM GONNA CRY

cardigan — taylor if i ever meet you i’m getting you to write “stars around my scars” for a tattoo. watched the music video before i listened to the full album and i’m so glad i did. cinematic masterpiece. this song is so fucking good you guys holy shit. just the sentiment of the lyric “when I felt like I was an old cardigan under someone’s bed, you put me on and said I was your favorite”. anyway YOU DREW STARS AROUND MY SCARS BUT NOW I’M BLEEDING. guys. TYE PETER PAN REFERENCE IM. WHEN YOU ARE YOUNG THEY ASSUME YOU KNOW NOTHINNG GNGNGNNG.

the last great american dynasty — WHO IS REBEKAH. these lyrics are so good holy shit. DID SHE JUST USE GAUCHE IN THIS SONG????? the layered harmonies on the chorus oh my god. “THERE GOES THE MADDEST WOMAN THIS TOWN HAS EVER SEEN” okay i havent listened to mad woman yet but if this is a parallel i’ll die. DID SHE JUST SAY BITCH??? i’m putting “she had a marvelous time ruining everything” on my gravestone. taylor please give us a music video. please. please. STOP HER VOCALS ON “I HAD A MARVELOUS TIME RUINING EVERYTHING”

exile — okay confession time i’ve never heard a bon iver song before and i thought he was a woman so his voice actually scared me. “you’re not my homeland anymore, so what am i defending now?” REAL SHIT???????? wait wait WAIT “I hit the Sunday matinée/You know the greatest films of all time were never made” and “I think I’ve seen this film before” IS THAT A PARALLEL???? the duet section “you never gave a warning sign (I gave so many signs” Taylor I’m crying and it’s your fault. NOT “we always walked a very thin line” THE PARALLEL TO HAUNTED I’M CRYINGG

my tears ricochet — okay I already posted about how this is gonna kill me the title the fact it’s track 5 the fact it’s self written i’m ready. HER VOCALS AT THE BEGINNING. “IF I’M ON FIRE YOU’LL BE MADE OF ASHES TOO” REAL FUCKING SHIT TAYLOR???????? “IF I’M DEAD TO YOU WHY ARE YOU AT THE WAKE” IM CONVULSING MY HEART IS LITERALLY RACING ARE YOU SHITTING ME “YOU KNOW I DIDNT WANT TO HAVE TO HAUNT YOU, BUT WHAT A GHOSTLY SCENE” the way i’m literally losing my mind right now. this is the best song i’ve ever heard. real shit. real fucking shit. “and I can go anywhere I want, just not home” IM FUCKING FERAL TAYLOR. THE VOCALS IN THE BRIDGEEEEEEE. this is her best track 5 I dont care. “Written by: Taylor Swift” THE POWER THAT HOLDS

mirrorball — when i first saw this name i thought of the fushigi not gonna lie. NOT THE ECHOEY VOCALS PLEASE. “i can change everything about me just to fit in” oh wow. oh wow oh wow oh wow oh wow oh wow. i’m crying right now. someone much more eloquent than i will write a thinkpiece about this and put it excellently but the notion of never showing your true self ‪and constantly changing to fit in and being a reflection of what other people want you to be....no i’m not okay‬

seven — oh shit we get right into this whatttttt okay. the vocals, I’ve already said i’m dead like 100 times in this but who cares i’m DEAD. no one is gonna get this but this song reminds me of spring awakening the musical. like seriously this is ilse singing to moritz. if you don’t know what that means go listen to the musical and then you will. the outro is so gorgeous oh my god

august — am i stupid or does this song remind me of danny and sandy from grease. like this is from sandy’s perspective. ignore me i will make connections to musical theatre even if it isn’t there. SO MUCH FOR SUMMER LOVE BABEYYYYY. HER VOCALS ON “YOU WERENT MINE TO LOSE” ARE YOU JOKING???? for the hope of it all. this is fifteen’s older sister don’t @ me. STOP WHEN IT GETS QUIET AND THEN THE MUSIC COMES BACK YOU KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT MY EYES JUST BULGED OUT OF MY HEAD. yeah okay I’ll talk a lot about her lyricism in this but this song really made me wanna appreciate the instrumentals?? holy shit they’re so good. insanely good. what the hell taylor. oh my god

this is me trying — once again a round of applause to the instrumentals this intro is sick!! this feels like the last time’s optimistic sister. i hate it when people say that but like...it’s true. “so i got wasted, like all my potential” oh my GODDDDDDD. the vocals on “at least i’m trying” exCUSE ME?? okay going back to the grease thing this is danny’s perspective. period. jack antonoff and taylor swift is a duo that will go down in history.

illicit affairs — i have no words. no words. my favorite song on the album. holy shit. holy SHIT

invisible string — what’s so interesting about these songs is that they’re so intricate and complex and tell their own little stories that i barely wanna do this bc i don’t wanna focus on anything else than listening to the lyrics and making little music videos in my head. taylor has always been amazing at storytelling but this is next level. “a string that pulled me out of the wrong arms into that dive bar” with “dive bar on the east side where you at?” And “one single thread of gold tied me to you” with “deep blue, but you painted me golden”. wow. WOW. her little vocalizations at the end. i love her. so much

mad woman — THE SONG I WAS MOST EXCITED ABOUT WHEN I SAW THE TRACKLIST. DID SHE JUST SAW FUCK TAYLOR JUST SAID FUCK. taylor please give us a music video set in witch trial salem PLEASEEEE I HAVE ONE (1) REQUEST. “it’s obvious that wanting me dead has really brought you two together” IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII my heart is pounding so hard right now. what a TUNE WHAT A TUNE TAYLOR SWIFT DID THAT

epiphany — she sounds like an angel. yes i’m crying. is it stupid to say this makes me think of like a medic on the frontlines dealing with the traumas of war? probably. this is so gorgeous. the drums at the end that feel like a heartbeat. wow. wow. wow.

betty — TAYLOR SAID FUCK AGAIN i need to stop she’s a grown woman i can’t freak out when she curses. taylor make a music video for this but make the love interests two girls pls. nevermind just heard the james lyric. the key change?????? yeah i showed up at your party!!!!! will you kiss me on the porch in front of all your stupid friends?? STANDING IN YOUR CARDIGAN. william bowery whoever you may be (👀👀👀) thank you for this and god bless taylor swift

peace — so simple. so beautiful. yes i’m still crying. i love this song so much. wowowow

hoax — yeah the latter half of the album is just pure tears for me. “don’t want no other shade of blue but you?” Jesus Christ. Oh my god. “you knew the hero died, so what’s the movie for?” wow. wow. thank you Taylor. i love you so much

overall: yeah judging by the tears down my face it’s pretty aight. kidding this is a full blown masterpiece. literally album of the year. decade. millenium. my only critique is that there isn’t music videos for every song. everything is so intricate and poetic yet the entire album is so sonically cohesive and fluid i’m literally in awe. illicit affairs left me SPEECHLESS. holy fuck. i need a minute.

#taylor swift #folklore #folklore era #taylurking #my post

[bare-a-pop-operaa]

PART 1, Ackley Bridge Fanfiction set in 2x09 after Kevin is taken to hospital where we see our Wilson boys get the support they deserve. Hope you enjoy!!

‘Don’t worry about it, I’ll sort everything out at home and be waiting with a cuppa for when you get back, alright?’

Cory nodded and tightened his jaw, fighting back tears, as the ambulance door closed. Growing up on the Birchwood Estate hadn’t been a walk in the park for either of them, but it still hit Anna really hard to see the telltale signs of her lifelong neighbour trying not to cry; balled-up fists, looking up, closing eyes. Just the thought of it made her own eyes water as she turned to face the surly, stooped figure of Cory’s younger brother, Jordan.

Anna’s heart broke at that moment as their eyes met. She was resoundly anti-romance-novel-tropes and in any other circumstance would say eyes holding emotions was total bollocks, but at that moment Jord’s eyes gave away all the emotion he wouldn’t allow the rest of him to show. She scrambled for words that would make the events of the year better or even more tolerable. What felt like hours of eye contact and said scrambling happened before she finally plumped for ‘would you like a cuppa?’

‘Ta’

Anna started to make her way towards the Wilson house.

‘Wait, can we....go to your house?’

She could’ve kicked herself. Of COURSE he didn’t want to go back to his old house, last time he saw the peeling paint of that hallway was when social services came to take him into custody.

‘Sure. Think i might have biscuits too and Danny’s still at home’

Jordan couldn’t suppress a smile at that. Anna’s older brother Danny was autistic, and she reckoned they got on so well becuase their relationship mainly consisted of building ridiculously complicated Lego castles and watching the same documentaries about the history of stately homes across the country (Danny’s knowledge on the subject never ceased to amaze) and almost entirely non-verbal communication. Danny could talk perfectly when he felt the situation demanded it but preferred to sign when he could, and Jordan? Well, he was the particular mix of surly and shy that made talking in full sentences in anything other than an emergency made his lip curl, so the arrangement suited him very well indeed.

Anna thought about this as she boiled the kettle. Jordan did seem to display a less intense version of a lot of Danny’s traits, such as communication, resistance to being hugged or touched, trailing his fingers across the corduroy of the Carr family sofa almost the whole time he was round their house, which was often. She wouldn’t have been suprised if at least some of all that (admittedly well-founded) anger was disguised anxiety, which Danny also felt very strongly. However, he had Kevin Wilson for a father, and Anna had no doubt he wanted a neurodivergent son as much as the plague.

‘Would you like bourbons or ginger nuts?’

‘First one. Danny too.’

They only had one turret to go of a replica castle so came to drink, Jordan wearing Danny’s spare ear defenders as he often did when Dan offered them to him. Their rickety table creaked as three sets of elbows set on it and for a good few minutes all that could be heard was three separate slurps. For the first time in a long while, Jordan was the one to break the silence as he took the defenders off and began fiddling with the stickers on the side.

‘Why’d you think he did it?’

‘Kevin?’

‘Yeah’

A silence.

‘I reckon.....your dad hasn’t been well for a proper long time. The shopping and stuff I bought earlier was for Cory, becuase I think Kevin hasn’t been on top of his shit for a long time.’

‘The food bank skank thing. I heard’

‘Don’t worry, I told that privileged bitch where to stick it. Even Riz was disgusted with her.’

‘Good.’

Another long silence.

‘They feeding you alright? At that foster place? You have your GCSE’s coming up, they can’t not give you proper nutrition, like’

‘They ain’t done owt wrong. Proper do gooders’

‘Will they come to pick you up? Or would you like to stay here overnight? It’s really no issue, I’ll make up the sofa for yous just like when we were kids, and maybe we could have pancakes in the morning if there’s enough time, like’

As Anna continued to ramble, Danny padded up to Jordan, looked at his sister and rolled his eyes. Jordan smiled. He was right in saying his foster parents were total do-gooders but they didn’t really know him, and he expected they didn’t really want to, not really. Not on a personal level. But here.... Jordan looked around at the drawings on the fridge from a decade ago, the familiar crayoned faces smiling back at him. The exact two and a half sugars he liked in his tea. The crumpets Anna was now making for his tea, one with marmite and the other with crunchy peanut butter, just how he liked them. Yeah, he thought. This is home.

‘Nah, they’ll come get me at six.’

‘You sure you don’t want to stay? It’s really no bother’

‘No, you’re alright. Dad’ll be....’

He did not want to be anywhere near Birchwood once his dad was home. He had come over to the house that afternoon to see Cory and Kevin in a controlled home visit, to see if any kind of repair to their relationship could be made. But the damage Jordan had suffered went far beyond the physical bruises, and just the visual picture of his fathers icy gaze brought bile to his throat. It was insane, Jordan thought, that his own dad was on a roof ready to jump and the only person he could think about was Cory. Cory. The lad-about-town, charismatic rugby player reduced to tears in front of everyone in the street. Cory, who had been sleeping with women and taking their food so he wouldn’t starve. Cory who thinks this was all his fault.

Jordan turned about with a start and punched the wall. Immediately Anna and Danny were there.

‘It’s alright lad, it’s gonna be alright’ Anna said as she rubbed his shoulder. He leaned into her, the weight of all the pain he had been carrying around since his mam left them all those years ago suddenly causing him to buckle.

‘Is it alright if I give you a hug?’

‘A quick one’

Anna shifted her weight onto both legs and pulled him in, rubbing his back comfortingly in a quick squeeze before pulling away so to not overstep Jordan’s boundaries. He looked down at her, the tiniest (and saddest, Anna later thought) smile forming on his lips.

‘Thank you. For alla this.’

‘Don’t be stupid, you’re practically my brother. It’s nearly six, go help Danny with that last turret before your fosters get here.’

‘Will do’

Danny and Jordan sat in amicable silence for another half hour, occasionally signing to each other, until his foster parents arrived. They began to get out of the car as Jordan stepped out onto the front path, but he waved them back in.

He turned to face Danny and Anna. The former had a slightly squished mars bar in his outstretched hand, which Jordan smiled and took. He used to nick these from the corner shop for them to eat in secret behind the garden wall before going to the Carr house for tea. Danny signed ‘I’ll see you soon’ and squeezed Jordan’s hand quickly, before going to sit at the living room window to watch him leave. Anna was welling up.

‘Don’t be soft man, I’ll be okay’

‘You sure? It isn’t too late to just come stay with me’

‘You’re alright, but thanks’

A pause. Suddenly , Jordan lurched into Anna’s arms, latching onto her for a second and squeezing before letting go.

‘Look after our Cory when he gets home. Please.’

‘That I can do. And I’ll ring you later, okay? Or you ring me, anytime. I will pick up.’

‘Ta. I’ll see you at school.’

Anna took his hand and held it for a moment. ‘Look after yourself, Wilson.’

‘Will do.’ He walked straight to the car, got in and waved to Danny through the window.

‘Love you, Jordan!’

‘You too’

And with that he was gone.

Anna stayed still for a minute outside, until she saw her mother amble down the road on the way home from work. She stopped at the door.’

‘What’s been going on? It’s dead quiet here’

Suddenly Anna just didn’t have the energy to discuss it. ‘Danny’ll explain. I’ve got to go to the Wilsons. Don’t wait up’

It took her almost three hours to get the place back into some semblance of order. Glasses and old cereal bowls were strewn everywhere, gathering dust and mould. The only thing in the fridge was half a NutriGrain bar. Cranberry and chocolate too, Cory’s least favourite.

She got the long awaited text from Cory at just gone 10 that night.

‘On way home.’

‘I’ll put the kettle on xx’

She got out two mugs after boiling the kettle, the ones she had bought with her pocket money as an eight-year-old for Corys birthday that had different dinosaur patterns on them, hers stegosaurus, his diplodocus. Suddenly she aches for the easier times, of chocolate bars and literacy homework and hopscotch with all the kids on the street while the adults sat and smoked. Neil Connor, Jake and Stacy Earnshaw, Candice and Sam Murgatroyd, Jamie New when he still saw his dad regularly, the Wilsons, Danny and her. She had forgotten just how good those times were, how simple the world seemed to be.

She was pulled out of these thoughts by the sound of a key scraping in the lock, and she rushed to the front door to greet the owner of said key as early as she could. Something told her that with the state Cory was likely to be in, this night had only just begun.

#ackley bridge #cory wilson #jordan wilson #ackley bride fanfiction #nory

[darks-ink]

Absurdism Chapter 4

Jazz shows off that she really is a teen by listening to someone tell her why you shouldn’t do something and then promptly doing it. She makes a friend in the process.

Rating: Teen/K+ (a lil swearing, because teenagers, man) Warnings: - Genre: Family, Hurt/Comfort Additional Tags: Sibling Bonding, Family Bonding, Alternate Universe - Halfa Jazz AU, Jazz makes friends

[AO3] [FFN] [more Absurdism on Tumblr] First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

---

Chapter 4: What You Want

Jazz’ core thrummed in her chest. Energy lapped from it through her body, streaming through her veins. Pooled together in her hand.

A golden glow emitted from her hand, but it was dim, flickered wildly.

“You’re getting there,” Danny—Phantom—encouraged, standing right next to her. “You can feel the energy coming from your core, yeah? If you increase that amount, the blast will get brighter and stronger.”

“Right.” She tried to tug on her core, tried to pull more energy from it. The energized ectoplasm in her hand pulsed, growing bigger. Its glow grew more steady, too.

“And then, when you’re ready to let go of it, fire! Aim at your target, and then will the energy to go there.”

She nodded, watching the golden-yellow ball of energy in her hand. It was in constant motion, the glow dimming and brightening in sync with the pulse of her core.

Slowly, steadily, she raised the hand towards her previously chosen target. The rock was a big target, and close enough that she felt like it would be nearly impossible for her to miss.

She released the energy.

“Good hit,” Phantom complimented, floating over to the rock. Its surface was scorched where she hit it, but the soot rubbed off easily. “Not a lot of strength behind it just yet, but that’s fine. Aim is more important.”

“Why was it golden, anyway?” She walked over as well, but it was as she thought. The hit had blackened the surface of the stone, but it was barely damaged underneath. “Aren’t your blasts green?”

“I dunno.” Phantom shrugged, ignoring her incredulous expression. “Look, I’m not an expert on all things ghost, okay? I know some stuff, but I had other priorities. I guess it might be linked to eye color, though.”

“Eye color?” she repeated, thinking it over. Yes, she supposed Phantom had blasts that matched his eyes, and she had golden eyes, but… “Do you know more ghosts as an example, then? I thought green was kind of standard, since that’s what our parents have.”

“Pretty sure green is the most common, because that’s the standard color of ectoplasm.” He formed a ball of ecto-energy of his own, tossing it from one hand to the other. “And I’m not sure if it holds up for full ghosts, but all half-ghosts I know have energy blasts that match their eyes. Well, more or less. Plasmius had magenta energy and red eyes.”

She nodded along, then ground to a halt. “Sorry, who’s Plasmius? There’s another half-ghost?”

“Well, yeah. In my world, at least. Not sure if he’s different in this one.” Phantom shook his head, turning to look at her again. “If he, or his equivalent in this world, is anything like mine, you don’t want to bother with him. He doesn’t live anywhere nearby, and he’s not gonna help you. I’ll—”

“Keep an eye out for him?” she finished dryly. “Yeah, I figured.”

“Come on, Jazz, don’t be like that. I’m not keeping you in the dark on purpose, alright? I just want to make sure I don’t tell you anything that’s different here.”

“Yeah, I know.” She sighed, but nodded. “It’s just— You do that a lot, you know? With Red, and Danielle, and now this Plasmius. And you’ve barely told me anything about your experiences with the ghosts, with, well. All this.”

“It’s just… hard.” He rubbed a hand through his eyes, and when he looked up again, the sadness was back. “This place is so much like home, and all the ghosts… I keep remembering when I first met them, with Sam and Tucker by my sides. Or you, or hell, sometimes even Red. There’s so much history, and it’s… I miss them, Jazz.”

He heaved a heavy sigh, his boots touching down in the grass. His posture was slumped, like he was carrying the weight of a world. In some way, she supposed he was. “And there’s no point in going looking, because I’m never going to find the portal on my own, and I know that. But it’s still… hard, to talk about that. To know that somewhere out here, there’s a Sam and a Tucker, and they’re almost like mine, but not quite. That don’t have any of these experiences.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, and she meant it with all her heart. “I didn’t mean—”

“I know,” he interrupted her, waving a hand. “I know, Jazz. I’ll… try to talk more about this stuff, okay?”

“Yeah, alright.” She nudged him, gently. “Want me to try blasting that rock again?”

He snorted. “That could barely be considered a blast, you know. But, yeah, go for it.”

“Oh, are you really trash talking me now? Wow.” She stirred her core back to life, feeling it hum with energy. Honestly, as offended as she acted, she was just glad to get Phantom cheered up again, even if only a little.

“We’ll have to work on your trash talk too, you know?” Phantom threw a look at the ball of ectoplasm she was forming, then took position between her and the rock. “Amity Park knows we’re here, now. That ghosts exist. Sooner or later you’ll have to fight for real, with opponents that understand what you’re yelling at them.”

“I know, you don’t have to tell me.” More energy pulsed into the ball. She wanted this one to have some punch to it. “But for now, I would rather focus on the actual fighting aspect.”

Phantom hummed, not shifting from his position between her and her target. “Good. In that case, we’ll move on to target shooting. Tell me when you’re ready to fire that one.”

“And, what, I’m supposed to just shoot you?” She shook her head. “No matter how weak this blast will probably be, I don’t want to risk hurting you, Phantom.”

“If you warn me before you shoot it, I’ll make a shield.” He reclined a little, entirely too casual considering that he was talking about her shooting him. “It’ll give us a better image of your current strength, and you won’t break through anyway. I’ve stopped ecto-blasts way stronger than your core can make right now, it’s fine.”

“If you insist…” she said, uncertainly. But, well. If he was sure about that, who was she to tell him no? “I’m ready when you are.”

“Good.” A green dome appeared around him, transparent enough for her to see him within. Its surface stirred, in constant motion. It almost looked like an oversized ecto-blast, but hollowed out so one could take shelter within.

Jazz lifted her hand, putting a last bit of energy into her blast. And, once more, she fired.

The dome took the hit easily, the blast sizzling out against its almost liquid surface.

“Very good. Was that where you aimed?” The dome dissolved, leaving Danny floating in the open clearing. “The strength was alright, but you’ll need to work more to increase it, of course.”

“Of course,” she repeated, rolling her eyes. “The aim was pretty close, but I’ll need to practice more. It’s weird, to aim with your arm like that.”

“It took me a while to get the hang of it, too,” Phantom assured her, floating closer again. “We can practice more, if you want, or we can try something else.”

“I… Let’s stick with this for now.” The shield could be useful, but she was pretty sure she needed more consistent strength for that, first. “This was a good way to build core strength, right?”

“Pretty good, yeah. And it’s a basic technique, which can serve as a jumping-off point for more advanced techniques.” Phantom floated back to his old position, his legs merged together in a spectral tail. “Let me know when to throw up another shield.”

“Sure,” she said, and they went through the motions once more. Phantom’s shield blocked her next blast with ease, not even flickering upon impact.

“Better,” he complimented her, looking pleased. Then he caught sight of something in her expression, and his face dropped. “Jazz? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she assured him quickly, but it didn’t seem to work as his frown grew deeper. “Nothing related to this, really, it’s fine.”

“I never see you look frustrated, Jazz, unless it’s something serious. You know you can talk to me, right, even if it’s not half-ghost stuff?”

She sighed, but nodded. “Yeah. It’s just… It’s nothing, really.”

Phantom scoffed. “I don’t believe that. Seriously, Jazz, either tell me, or tell someone else. If I learned anything from my Jazz, it’s that keeping this stuff to yourself does more harm than good.”

“Oh, don’t use my own psychology techniques against me.” She stuck out her tongue, but admittedly, he had a point. “It’s nothing, really, just… I hate seeing all the bullying happening at school, you know? They never target me, sure, but I wish I could help anyway.”

“Trust me, I know the feeling.” He floated in closer, settling in next to her. “I did get bullied, you know. After I got my powers, even I didn’t want anyone to know about them, it was so easy to imagine getting back to them. Invisibility and intangibility… not to mention overshadowing!”

“Why didn’t you?” she asked, turning to look at him. His eyes sparked with life, now, and that ever-present hint of sadness. Memories and homesickness, she figured.

He snorted. “I did. Sam wasn’t very happy with me, but Tucker approved—he got bullied too, you know—so I figured I was in the right. Ah, if only it worked out like that…”

“What happened? Did they catch on, somehow?”

“Nah, not them.” It didn’t seem like he was going to elaborate, so she prodded him a little. Okay, maybe a lot. It was her right as a little sister to be annoying! “Alright, fine, I’ll tell!”

“Go on, then,” she insisted.

“Okay, okay, chill. None of the humans caught on, but there was this ghost who was opposed to bullies. Only, he thought that I was the bully, because he hadn’t seen how it started. It was… a whole mess, honestly, so I tried not to use my powers for that kinda stuff afterwards. Didn’t want to risk it again.”

“How did that even happen?” she asked, curious despite herself. It sounded like this ghost had the right idea, honestly. Even if Phantom might be reluctant to search them out, maybe she could. “How did they catch you off-guard, anyway?”

“Oh, Sidney has a portal of sorts inside Casper High.” Phantom ran a hand through his hair, mussing it up. “It’s a mirror inside his old locker. He can go through it, but no one else can, so it’s not a huge deal. Not sure what made it activate, honestly. He just started appearing after I got switched to that locker. I ended up breaking the mirror to make sure he couldn’t come back, although he can still use the regular portal.”

“Huh.” She quickly scrawled all this down in a mental notepad. Sidney, a ghost in Casper High, had an old locker with a mirror that activated after Danny started using it… Maybe she could find it later, with a little research. “Well, I’m glad it all turned out okay in the end.”

Phantom laughed, humorlessly. “Yeah, me too. Now, if that was your only concern, how about another ecto-blast?”

---

Jazz paused in front of the locker. Glancing one way and then another, she made sure that the hallways were empty. In front of her was locker 724, in all its damaged and rusty glory.

She hesitated. It hadn’t been all that hard to find information about the ghost Phantom had mentioned. Sidney Poindexter was an old student of Casper High, bullied relentlessly throughout the years. Stories about him haunting Casper High had been around for decades, but none of those stories ever mentioned his mirror.

But Phantom—Danny—had. According to him, Sidney had started appearing from his mirror once Danny got the locker. She supposed that the mirror needed the increased amount of activity to activate, or perhaps Sidney needed it. Either way, the best way to keep an eye on the activated portal would be to move to someplace safer.

Gathering her courage, and with one last glance to make sure no one was watching, Jazz shifted to her ghost form. As Specter, she turned herself intangible, reaching through the locked door. Her hands closed around the edge of the mirror, and carefully, she pulled it out. She wasn’t sure if it was adhered to its spot, somehow, but it didn’t seem to be.

Pulling it out entirely, she was left with an ordinary-looking mirror. Shifting back to her human form didn’t make it change, either.

“Not sure what I expected,” she muttered under her breath, turning back to her own locker. If only she had more information on how this was supposed to work. What if she had broken the connection permanently by moving the mirror?

Jazz unlocked her locker easily, then lifted the mirror to place it in the back. She paused. Lowered the mirror again.

Gently, she blew the dust off, then wiped the remainder away with the sleeve of her shirt.

“There,” she said, placing the mirror in the back of her locker. It hadn’t activated to the dusting off either. Maybe she needed to talk to him?

“I… I don’t know if you can hear me…” She paused, biting her lip, feeling foolish. But if Sidney was real, and he certainly sounded like he was, maybe she just needed to treat him like a person? “I’ve… heard about you, Sidney. About the good you do, standing up to bullies. And… honestly, I think the school could really use someone like you. The bullies are out of control, and teachers aren’t stopping them, no matter how I ask. And I— I might have powers, ghost powers, but I don’t— I don’t know how to use them for this. I want to help, but I don’t know how.”

She swallowed, but the mirror remained blank. Undisturbed. “I don’t know if you’re… If you can hear me.” She reached out, placing her fingers on the cold surface of the mirror. “But, Sidney, if you can hear me… Please come. Please help me deal with these bullies.”

Still no reaction. She drew her hand back, feeling stupid. No matter. Even if it didn’t work, at least the mirror was someplace safe.

Shaking her head, Jazz closed her locker again. She might’ve wasted most of her break on this, but she had some time still left.

---

Slowly, Jazz shifted books from her locker to her backpack, and vice versa. Around her, the noise in the hallways lessened as more and more people left. It was Friday, now, almost a week after she’d brought the mirror to her own locker.

Even if she had doubted the effect of it at the time, the stories were undeniable. More and more people started talking about it, about bullies getting shut down, getting put in their place.

The hallways around her emptied. She kept up the pretense of being slow until she was sure that they were empty, that she was alone.

“Hey,” she said, addressing the mirror. “Um… Are you there?”

The surface of the mirror rippled, like the Portal did when Technus came through, little more than a week ago. And, just like then, out came a ghost.

Colored entirely in monochrome—which she didn’t even realize was possible for ghosts—was a teenage ghost roughly her own age. Dressed in old-school style clothes, which made sense considering how long he’d been around, and with slick black hair, he sure looked the part of a nerd.

Sidney Poindexter blinked at her behind his large glasses.

“Hey, I’m Jazz. Jazz Fenton,” she introduced herself, shooting him a disarming smile and offering a hand. “You’re Sidney, right? Sidney Poindexter?”

“Er… Yes.” He took her hand, shaking it hesitantly. Like all ghosts, his hand was cold to the touch, and a little too soft to be human. “And you are the halfa— the half-ghost. The one who spoke to me, earlier this week?”

“Yeah, that was me.” She glanced around, just to be sure, but she hadn’t heard anyone approach. The hallways were still empty. “I go by Specter in my ghost form. I’ve been working together with my brother Phantom to keep this city safe from ghostly threats, but… the school isn’t even safe from human threats. I heard stories about you, about who you are and what you do, and I was hoping you could help.”

The ghost nodded, then straightened his bow tie. “Well, I’m honored to be considered. It would be my pleasure to help in any way I could.”

“Good, good, I’m glad.” She shot him another smile, and Sidney flushed a darker gray—a substitute for blushing? “As long as you don’t go too far, of course, but I think you’ve got a good grasp on that already.”

“Yes, of course. We’d be no better than the bullies if we caused any real hurt.” Sidney hesitated, then cleared his throat. “Are there any… limitations to this agreement? To stay in the school, to only appear within certain hours, any such things?”

“I mean, not really?” She shrugged. “So far the city hasn’t seen a ton of ghosts yet, since Phantom and I have tried to keep everything out of sight, but that’ll end sooner or later anyway. As long as you don’t cause any trouble, you’re free to go wherever you want in the city.”

“The whole city?” Sidney repeated, growing wide-eyed. “You would offer me such freedom so easily?”

“Well, yeah.” She shrugged. “As long as they’re not causing trouble, I don’t see why we must differentiate between ghosts and humans. The public probably won’t agree with me on that, especially the local ghost hunters, but as long as you can avoid them you’ll be fine.”

“Ah. I’m not sure if I’m ready to mess with ghost hunters.”

“They’re not a huge threat right now,” Jazz assured him. “They don’t have functional ghost scanners—Phantom and I keep disabling them—so they won’t find you unless anyone reports your presence. If you stick to quiet areas you’ll be fine. The local woods nearby are very nice. If you want, I can show you around sometime?”

Sidney flushed dark gray again. “Well, I’m not sure…”

“It’s no big deal. We can be friends, right, and that’s what friends do. You’re helping me out a ton with this, let me help you.”

“Well, gosh.” He scuffed his shoe on the floor, then looked back up to her if. “If you insist, I would love to make your acquaintance.”

“Friends, then.” She smiled at him, wide and bright. “Hey, I gotta go right now—I promised to train with Phantom. We can talk after school on Monday, find a good moment, if you want?”

“Ah. That would be… nice.” Sidney smiled back, clearly uncertain. “See you on Monday, then?”

“Yeah! I put your mirror in my locker, by the way, so you should be safe to pass through it whenever you want.” She started backing towards the doors, raising one hand to Sidney. “Bye, Sidney!”

“Goodbye, Jazz!” he said, hesitantly raising a hand as well.

---

“You don’t believe me,” Jazz said, incredulously.

“It’s not that,” Phantom quickly assured her, raising his hands. He was, as usual, in ghost form. “I’m just having some trouble imaging it. Sidney was always easily angered, and he never got over our first conflict.”

“He seemed fine to me.” She crossed her arms, staring down her alternate universe brother. “Very calm, very understanding.”

Phantom blew out a breath, landing on the soft grass as well. “I mean, good for you! Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for you. I just… keep expecting things to go the same way for you as they did for me, even though you’re a completely different person.”

“Is that why you want to wait before telling me about Red, Danielle, and Plasmius?” She relaxed a little, cocking an eyebrow. “Because things go differently for me than they did for you?”

“Yeah, that, and I want to make sure none of the fundamental things are different in this universe.” He gestured at himself, then at her. “After all, something is different at the very base, with you being the younger sibling and the half-ghost around here.”

“Fair enough,” she admitted, dropping the tense posture altogether. “So you’re alright with letting Sidney roam free?”

“Sure, why not? As long as he understands the dangers. And hopefully he’ll keep a low profile for now, until Amity gets a little more familiar with ghosts.”

“I warned him, at least.” She hoped the same, though. At least Sidney looked rather disarming, as far as ghosts went. “And I promised to show him some quieter places, so he can go outside without being invisible or getting spotted.”

Phantom nodded. “Clever. And who knows, maybe he can teach you a thing or two about ghost stuff as well.”

“I thought you were my ghost teacher?” She sniffed. “Unless you’re going back on your words?”

“Honestly, I don’t know all that much about ghost culture, and all that.” Phantom shrugged, shooting her a sheepish smile. “I know how powers work, and I know how to fight. Mostly because those two are basically the same thing. But beyond that? My knowledge is pretty limited.”

“Well, being able to defend myself is an important skill,” she allowed. “Especially since not all ghosts will listen. Technus could’ve caused a lot of trouble if you hadn’t been around to stop him.”

“I like your approach, though.” Phantom flew in closer, nudging her. “For the first few months, my answer to pretty much everything was to fight them. Seeing how you’re doing, I can’t imagine how many unnecessary enemies I made.”

“I guess I have a good teacher to guide me.” She leaned against him, her core stirring oddly in her chest. “I don’t need to make enemies if you scare them off before I can fight them.”

Phantom laughed, suddenly. “Are you just really good at guessing, or did you hear about Skulker?”

“Who?”

He laughed even harder, now, curling against her side. Whoever Skulker was, Phantom must’ve actually scared the guy off before she ever discovered he was around. Convenient, but it also made her very curious.

“Seriously, Phantom, who’s Skulker?”

“I’ll— tell you if it’s— relevant,” he managed between bouts of laughter. Wiping away a tear, he added, “I’m keeping— an eye on him.”

She blew out a noisy breath. “Of course you are.”

---

Jazz riffled through a few more items, thanked the shopkeeper for their time, then moved on to the next stall. Danny—her Danny—had invited her along to the Amity Park Swap Meet, and she had excitedly grabbed onto the opportunity. These days, she felt like she spent more time with Phantom than with her actual brother.

But the moment they had arrived, Danny has sought out Sam and Tucker, and had left her to fend for herself. Looking back, she probably should’ve expected as much, but still. Now she was here all alone, when looking through the stalls was way more fun with someone to joke around with.

She sighed, skipping over to the next stall. And her search was looking rather hopeless as well. She’d hoped to find something to give to Sidney, to thank him for helping her, but so far it didn’t look great. She was pretty sure he was from the 50’s, and stuff from that time… Well, there wasn’t much she could find, anyhow.

Before she could consider the next stall, her core stirred to life, and she paused. Were her powers acting up?

Blue air wisped from her mouth, and she stifled a chagrined sigh. Nope. A ghost had come to mess up her nice weekend day.

Shouts sounded from nearby, and cursing, she ran to find a secluded spot. Hiding behind a few abandoned stalls, she tugged on her ghost core, shifting into Specter.

At the ghost wasn’t too hard to find, floating high above the rapidly-emptying marketplace. Green-skinned like most ghosts, but with long black hair and clothes in purple and blue, her spectral tail languidly curled underneath her.

“Hey!” Jazz called as she flew in closer, drawing the ghost’s attention. “Who are you, and why are you causing trouble?”

The ghost narrowed her red eyes at Jazz, pressing a dainty hand to her chest. “I am Desiree, the wishing ghost! I fulfill any wish I hear, including yours. Tell me, what is it you want most dearly?”

“Uh…” Jazz ground to a halt. “For you to… stop causing trouble?”

Desiree scoffed, lowering her hand. “Surely there must be something you wish for?” She flew closer, suddenly, curling around Jazz. “Something you… desire?”

“Get away from her!” A vivid green ecto-blast whizzed right by the two of them, and Desiree flinched away from Jazz. Before she could really process what was happening, Phantom was next to her, green energy coiling around his fists.

“Or what?” Desiree snarled back, pink energy whirling around her own hands. “Afraid that I might give her something you cannot? Afraid that you cannot chain her anymore?”

“What? No!” Phantom shook his head, gesturing over at her. “She’s—”

“I’m his sister,” she cut in, catching the hand aggravatedly gesturing at her. For some reason Desiree had gone on the defensive when Phantom had shown up, and whatever it was, she wanted her to calm down again. “Sorry, he’s just really protective. Most ghosts tend to pick fights, you know, and I’m not a very good fighter just yet.”

Phantom huffed, but didn’t argue. His spectral tail lashed angrily, but he doused the ecto-blasts, at least.

“I… see.” Desiree released her gathering energy as well, the pink dissipating. “I apologize.”

“It’s fine,” Phantom said, unexpectedly, after shooting a short glance at Jazz. “You have a bad history with men, right? Of course you’d be suspicious. Plenty of terrible men walking around. I can… I can leave, if it helps?”

Clearly the suggestion was as surprising to Desiree as it was to her, as the ghost grew wide-eyed. After a moment of quiet, she shook her head. “No, it’s… alright. You’re clearly not the sort of person I thought you were.”

Quiet fell, as Phantom and Desiree were looking at each other. They must’ve fought in Phantom’s own world, Desiree’s wariness of men causing a clash.

Which left her with a problem. Desiree implied that she had to fulfill any wish she heard. If that was the case, she couldn’t be left to her own devices. Who knew what kind of wishes people might utter, that she would be forced to fulfill. If only there was some way to… solve… that…

Oh. Duh.

“I have a wish, actually,” she said, drawing the attention back to her. Phantom made a face that said, very clearly, ‘don’t do it’.

“Do you?” Desiree shifted, her jewelry melodiously clinking together. “What is it then, young ghost?”

Next to her, Phantom started gesturing even more clearly, but she ignored him. He had admitted that he had fought every ghost he had encountered. This, right here? This was her expertise.

“I wish you could chose to fulfill wishes, rather than being forced to fulfill any wish you hear.”

“Oh,” Desiree said, blankly. She raised a hand, almost automatically, pink energy coiling around it. “As you have wished it, so shall it be.”

The energy washed over them, then pulled back onto itself, coursing through Desiree. She blinked, almost as if surprised by the event. Looked down at her hands. Then at Jazz.

“What…?” she asked, like she was still trying to process something she had done automatically. “I— You—”

“I wished for you to be free to fulfill wishes, rather than forced to.” Next to her, Phantom made a shocked noise. “That’s… That wasn’t wrong, was it? I thought— You looked so unhappy, but…”

“No, no, I— Thank you.” Desiree smiled, uncertainly, wavering. “You have done me a great kindness. How could I possibly hope to repay this?”

“You don’t have to.” Jazz flapped a hand, waving off the offer. “I—we—protect this town, yes, but that isn’t limited to the humans. If ghosts come here, hurting or upset, we help them too. Right, Phantom?”

“I— Yes.” He nodded, maybe a little too forceful to be natural. “Yeah, like she said. We’re happy to help however we can, Desiree.”

“That is unexpected kind of you.” Desiree’s gaze drifted from Jazz to Phantom. “Both of you. I’ll take my leave now, but, with your permission, I would love to return at a later moment.”

“Of course,” Jazz assured her before Phantom could say otherwise. “This was one of the first times the city saw ghosts, so the ghost hunters might become more active after this, so I don’t know if it’ll be safe to visit, but we’re fine with it. Right, Phantom?”

“Yeah, exactly. Any ghost that isn’t causing trouble is welcome in Amity Park.”

“In that case, I would love to take you up on that offer.” She smiled, kinder this time, more sure of herself. “Perhaps I can repay your kindness next time. For now, I must go. Goodbye, you two.”

They waved goodbye as Desiree faded from visibility, leaving just the two half-ghosts hovering in the air.

“Well,” Danny said, breaking the silence. “Guess that the cat’s out of the bag now. Amity definitely knows about ghosts now.”

“At least she didn’t cause any major damage?” Jazz looked down at the abandoned marketplace, but whatever Desiree had done to cause the initial panic, she must’ve undone it before she left. “Could’ve been worse.”

#danny phantom #dp fanfic #phanfic #phanfiction #dp fanfiction #danny fenton #jazz fenton #jazz phantom #jazz phantom au #sidney poindexter #absurdism #dark writes

[aggressivelyclueless]

The Boy Who Ran Away To The Circus

prompted by @gottacatchghosts "Full ghost Danny AU based on the episode Control Freaks. How does being a full ghost affect the influence the orb has over Danny?" Words: 5904 Warning: a bit dramatic, brief ghosty blood, is begging for a sequel

      The phantom hid away from the sun.  He'd crammed himself into a little shady area under the roof, but he wasn't comfortable.  At least his sister wouldn't find him up here, he thought, in an effort to keep from getting too irritated.  He'd escaped one of her psychology lectures earlier; for some reason, she always seemed to think that he had taken up the same interest in the human brain as she did, and would routinely try to rope him into discussion - or worse, helping her study.       He wasn't having any of it, and had flown out to his best friend's house to wait until she got home from school.  He could see her coming up the block, and he brightened.  She'd always listen when he vented about his parents or his sister, and in return he'd usually help her pull petty get-backs against her own parents when they got on her nerves too much.  He watched her head up the paved driveway and into the house; she appeared in her room a minute later, dropped her backpack by the foot of her bed, and kicked off both her boots.       "I'm home," Sam announced, opening up her window and giving the yard a quick glance.  "Danny - you around?  C'mon in."       "Yeah, I'm around," he answered, appearing in the shadow of the overhanging roof.  He slipped into her room, glad to escape the daylight outside.  He tried to stay out of the sun if he could help it - it had felt just a little bit wrong on him ever since he'd died a while back - and that made Sam's room an ideal hang-out spot.  Gotta love goths.  They get it.       Sam flopped back onto the bed to decompress.  "Man, I can't wait," she groaned, "This is gonna be the coolest circus in the world.  I just know it.  Opening ceremony's tomorrow - you'll get me out of first-period, right?"       "Uh, yeah, duh, old fire-alarm routine?  Piece of cake," said Danny, draping himself across the foot of the bed and letting his ecto-tail hang over the side.  "Wouldn't miss it.  I don't even remember the last time I saw a real circus.  You think your parents'll be mad when they find out?"       "Take a look at this," Sam said flatly, handing him the pamphlet she'd gotten in the mail when she'd ordered the tickets.  "You think they'd want me paying money to see that?"       Danny took the pamphlet and gave it a look-over.  The ringmaster posed dramatically on the front, holding a flashy red staff with a bat on it.  Danny found himself staring, and entirely missed whatever else Sam had been saying.  "Huh?"       "I said I was counting on them not finding out about it," Sam repeated, taking the pamphlet back and stuffing it into the secret compartment of her backpack.  "Good thing about my parents is they'd never even think you were giving me a hand."       "Yeah," said Danny, still somewhat distracted.  Something in his mind had just been plucked at, but he couldn't tell what or where - he frowned for a moment, but then dismissed it.  He was just getting a bit excited, that was all.

      The northern Amity Park train station had been abandoned years ago due to a fire.  The building still stood, but its interior had been gutted by the city after the disaster.  Graffiti and creeping vines bedecked the sturdy brick walls, and one of the front windows had cracked into a spiderweb of shards, still managing to hold together but threatening to throw itself down to the concrete platform below with anything more than a slight breeze.  The two front doors of the building remained vigilantly shut against any intruders, but they had been ignored for almost a decade - on the nights when vandals came through, they always preferred the broken window on the eastern side of the station.  One disused pair of rails ran alongside the platform.  They hadn't been touched in years, despite the routine traffic from the depot half a mile down the line.       It was along this last weed-ridden track that the ghastly train rumbled, disturbing nothing.  It was almost dusk.  Twisting green letters painted on the side of each car caught the last dwindling rays of sun and, as the train slowed to a crawl, a deep and chilling mist began to roll between the rails underneath the cars.  The wheels screeched to a standstill at the same moment that the sun disappeared, and the train gave a mighty hiss of steam as it was allowed to settle at the station.       The circus had just arrived in town.

      The big-top tent had been pitched in the field on the other side of the tracks.  They arrived early - Sam had said something about wanting to get a good seat - but they were far from the first ones there.  A small but growing crowd of goths had begun to assemble by the train, and Sam recognized a handful of them from school.  She acknowledged a couple of them with a dead-inside half-nod, receiving the same in return, and turned to Danny.  She'd loaned him an oversized purple hoodie, knowing he'd be recognized as the Infamous Ghost Kid otherwise, and thought smugly to herself how easily he slipped in with the crowd here.   "C'mon, don't lose me.  I'm going in for a good spot."  She grabbed his hand and then made her way up to the front of the crowd, keeping her eyes on the front of the train.  It was almost nine - the opening ceremonies would start any minute now, and she'd kick herself if she missed even a second of it.       "Hey, hang on," said Danny, spotting a pair of wooden crates stacked off to the side, "Over there - those should be good.  Otherwise I can pull you up as high as you want."       "Hey, good eye," Sam ducked through the crowd, hopping up onto one of the crates.  Danny was right - this was a pretty good spot.  She could see the train without problems, and she could make an uninterrupted beeline for the tent to get good seats when the show started.  "Man, this is gonna be so cool - "       The side of the first boxcar rolled open slowly, and the crowd fell silent.  The inside was hidden in shadow; the ringmaster stepped out, an entertainer's grin plastered across his pale face.  "Greetings, fellow outcasts!" he announced in a comical, slightly-unhinged sort of voice, "I am Freakshow, your Master of Ceremonies - are you ready to smile, relax, and forget all your troubles amid the pleasant diversions of the circus?"  He was playing it up; his grin widened, and he held out his hands to invite a response from the crowd of misfits assembled before him.       The crowd indulged with a collective, "No!"       "Then you've come to the right place!" Freakshow declared with a flourish and a little wave of the staff in his hand.  His eyes swept over the crowd, and after a dramatic pause he continued: "Prepare to be disturbed and appalled by a small sample of the bizarre and abnormal world of Circus Gothica!"       Danny didn't catch anything that happened after that.  His wide-eyed gaze was affixed on the ringmaster's staff - specifically, the enormous red crystal ball on the end of it - and his thoughts slowly started to float away from him.  He was caught in the hypnotic swirl of the crystal the ringmaster held, and his mind went blank.  He stared, unblinking.  Through the fog that clouded his head, he saw Freakshow - and Freakshow saw him.  Though he entertained the crowd, he spoke to Danny directly: come, ghost. Danny was compelled to obey.       - - -       Sam could hardly believe it.  She was finally seeing Circus Gothica live - she'd dreamed of it every night since she'd heard they were coming to Amity Park, and she'd forked over much more for the tickets than she would ever admit to anyone.  Even her best friend was with her - how much better could this day get?  She turned with a grin to remark something along the lines of look at us, a goth and a ghost at the freak circus!  Do we belong here or what? or, man, you're the best - I'm so glad I skipped class for this.       Danny had disappeared.       Sam's smile vanished.  "Danny?  Where'd you go?"  She turned to the crowd with a frown.  She couldn't see a trace of him anywhere - not even by the popcorn vendor - and despite herself she began to worry.  Where'd he disappear to?  He didn't even say anything about it - is he okay?  She tried to shrug it off.  He'll be right back, she told herself, but something still didn't feel right.       "Sam?"       She froze.  If she'd been prepared, or at least been given a ten-second heads-up, she'd have made a run for it and disappeared into the crowd.  Instead, her hesitation doomed her.  Above even the pearl-clutching frets of the oncoming mob of parents, she heard the clicking of her mother's heels as she approached.  Sam turned; there stood both her parents, poised at the head of another one of their pointless protests.  Can't they just have day jobs like regular human beings, if they're so intent on being normal?       "Samantha!  Just what do you think you're doing out here!" her mother exclaimed, "I distinctly remember forbidding you from attending this repulsive display of immorality!"       Sam was too angry for words; the ringmaster, on the other hand, was not.  "Oh, critics!" he crowed, jumping up onto one of the crates just to make sure they could see him, "There's a heckler in every crowd, of course!  What do you say, freaks, should we really let the rantings of the closed-minded norms beat us down?  Or should we show them our true colors - and by true colors, of course, I mean all black!"       The crowd obliged, nearly breaking into a riot right then and there.  Angry goths threw insults and empty soda cans without hesitation, determined to drive the protesters back.       Sam would have slipped away, too, if her mother hadn't grabbed her by the arm with a disapproving scowl.  "Sneaking out of school?  You are so grounded, young lady!"

      "Are you sure you haven't seen him anywhere?" Sam asked with a frown.  Class had just let out; she and Tucker had met by her locker for an emergency discussion.  Neither of them had seen Danny at lunch, either.       Tucker shook his head.  "I mean, he comes by my house like twice a week, so - "       "No, I mean today.  He came with me earlier when we ditched first-period, remember?  We were gonna watch the opening ceremonies - I thought he just flew off when my parents showed up, but I haven't seen him since.  You think maybe something happened?"       "I don't know," said Tucker, "If it's all the same to you, I'd really rather not go to a spooky goth circus to find out.  No offense."       Sam huffed.  "Ugh, look.  That's the last place I saw him, okay?  He might be still around there.  I just wanna make sure he's okay - "       "Sam.  He's a ghost.  He's fine."       "Then how come he hasn't showed up?" Sam persisted, "He should have at least dropped by during lunch.  He does that literally every day.  Come on, Tucker, you gotta admit something's a little off."       Tucker finally relented.  "Yeah.  I guess that does sound a little fishy.  Alright, Sam, you win.  Guess we'll scope that circus out."       "Thanks, Tucker," she gave him an appreciative smile, grabbed her backpack from her locker, and the pair headed down the hall.  "I've got to grab some stuff, just in case.  I'll meet you down by the station."       "Sure," said Tucker, "Meet you there."       Sam only stopped by her house for a few minutes.  She dumped all the school junk out of her backpack, stuffing it instead with a handful of snacks, a flashlight, and some emergency eyeliner (a goth can never be caught without it, she knew from experience).  She knew her parents weren't home; they'd no doubt still be marching around in circles outside the big-top, and probably would continue to do so until later in the evening.  With luck, she'd be home by then, and she and Danny would be upstairs making fun of how stupid her parents were.       Still, that was assuming things went well.  Something told her they wouldn't, and she did her best to ignore it.  I'm sure Danny's fine, she told herself for the twelfth time.  She scrawled out a note for him anyway, leaving it taped to the window in case he came looking for her before she was back.  With that done, and with everything she was certain she'd need in her backpack, she sneaked past her none-too-observant grandmother and back out to meet up with Tucker.       She found him behind the train station, out of sight of the relentless protesting parents, and quickly ducked around the side of the building so she wouldn't be caught.  "You see him anywhere?"       Tucker shook his head.  "Out here?  Nope.  No ghosts - just goths."       Sam took a quick peek around the corner, hoping to spot an easy way they could sneak past her parents.  "Come on.  Maybe he's inside."  She grabbed his hand, pulled him behind a stack of supply crates, threw a glance over her shoulder to make sure the coast was clear, and then darted around behind the big-top.  She pulled the massive canvas flaps apart, and the two of them slipped inside.       In an instant, Sam completely forgot why she was there.  A spectacular breath of fire erupted from the center ring, where a pair of performers danced effortlessly on either jaw of a massive prop bear trap, and calliope music swelled in time with their act.  The crowds of goths in the stands exploded into cheers; the smell of popcorn and cotton candy hit her over the head, making her sway on her feet.  For a moment, all her focus was gone, and she was overcome with excitement.  The fire-breathers let loose a concluding double-arc of flames, took a bow, and then vanished in a puff of smoke.       "Whoa," Sam breathed, "That's so cool..."       "Um, Sam?" Tucker asked, not having been quite so enthralled by the performance, "What about Danny?"       Sam jolted.  "Right - " (gotta focus, Sam!) " - see if you can get up in the stands - maybe you'll be able to spot him from higher up.  I'll come up the other side."       Tucker nodded once and then ran off.       Sam turned.  Stay focused.  I know you're at the circus - once we catch up with Danny, it'll be fine.  We'll catch the show after that.  All three of us  It'll be fun.  Despite herself, she turned in the hopes to get a glimpse of the next act.  Freakshow's voice thundered across the tent: "And now, please welcome a performer who puts the death in death-defying act - The Grim Reaper himself!"       Sam stared in amazement.  Balanced precariously up on the high-wire was a single acrobat, draped in a dramatic black cloak and armed with a scythe.  Focus, Sam! she told herself half-heartedly, but it was in vain.  She was mesmerized; when the acrobat balanced the scythe on the tightrope and then hoisted himself up by one hand on top of it, she was left speechless.       Her senses came back to her when the reaper's act drew to a close.  She watched him descend from the platform and duck quickly out of sight, and a crazy thought presented itself in her head: I gotta get back there.  Before she dared allow herself to think twice about it, she crept along the dark corner of the second ring.  The sign overhead read Cast Only but she pushed the flaps open anyway.  Her heart was pounding.  She spotted the cloaked acrobat amidst a wide array of assorted props and, if she hadn't been so hopelessly in awe, she might have noticed that the tattered edge of the reaper's cloak hung in the air.  "I - " she started, telling herself not to slip into a fannish ramble and immediately doing it anyway.  "That was incredible out there - I know you probably get this like all the time but - "       The reaper turned.  From under his hood came a burning stare, and the scythe in his hands glinted in the low light.  He floated down to her; his face was blank, but his eyes had become red and bloodshot.  From up on the high-wire, the hood had masked him, but up close it no longer mattered.  He was unmistakable.       "Danny?" Sam gasped, taking a step back.  "What are you doing?  I've been looking all over for you!  Come on, we should go - "       "Can't," said Danny vaguely, as if in a trance.  He held her stare, unblinking.  "I belong here now."       "What do you mean, can't?" Sam demanded, unamused, "Cut it out.  I'm serious - "       A hand on her shoulder made her yelp.  She whirled around, suddenly finding herself face-to-face with the ringmaster.  He still held his staff in one hand, and his face had hardened into an irritable snarl.       "What are you doing back here?" he demanded.  His glare shifted to acknowledge Danny, and his eyes narrowed.  "And you!  What sort of miserable excuse for a performance was that?  You call that an act?"       Danny took it in silence, his face paling.  His gaze fell.       Sam's eyes darted between Danny and Freakshow.  What on earth was going on?  "Danny - come on, you're just going to let him say that?  I know you!  You never take it like this!"  She turned back to Freakshow, anger filling her.  "This is your fault, isn't it?  What did you do to him?"       Freakshow rounded on her instead.  "Oh, figuring things out so quickly?  Goody for you!  You think you'll protect this little ghost, now, don't you?"  He gave a sardonic laugh, unhinging just for a moment, and then bent to be level with her.  His face stiffened into a practiced grimace, and his voice became a threatening growl.  "Who - pray tell - will protect you from him?"  He gave the staff a little flick, and turned his attention to Danny.  "Redeem yourself, ghost.  Don't you hear those poor souls out there begging for more?  Give them the encore they want."       Danny said nothing.  He grabbed Sam by the arm and they both vanished from sight as he pulled her upwards to the high-wire platform.       "Danny, what're you - hey!"  Sam protested, landing on the platform and immediately taking a step back from him.  She was well aware of how small the platform was; one foot nearly slipped off the edge, and she had to regain her balance so she wouldn't fall.  She could see Freakshow below, narrow-eyed and unblinking.  The crystal mounted to his staff cast an insidious glow over one side of his face, and he tapped it once, as if an orchestral conductor might give a ginger flick of his baton.       Danny advanced, scythe in hand, and pressed her back.  His bloodshot eyes were locked on her; he wore the same scowl as the ringmaster, but as she backed slowly out onto the tightrope the corners of his mouth twisted instead into a crooked smile.       "Danny, stop it," Sam pleaded, casting another gut-wrenching glance down to the ring far below.  "I mean it - this isn't you!  Danny, please!"       He neither heard her nor answered.  He took a step out onto the wire after her, and then another.  His eyes were fixed on her, daring her to make a misstep - he swung the scythe at her once, just to make her scream, and his unnatural grin widened.       His blade and Freakshow's staff moved in tandem, one mimicking the direction of the other, and Sam put the pieces together.  He wasn't joking around - he was being controlled directly - but it was too late.  Danny gave the scythe a dramatic twirl before bringing it down and slicing the wire in two with a maniacal cackle.  It fell away from under him, but he was unaffected; Sam, on the other hand, was not.       She fell with a shriek, making a wild grab for the hem of his cloak.  Failing that, she at least found the severed end of the rope, and swung down to a rough halt at the side of the ring.  It wasn't a solid landing by any means; it took her a moment to collect herself and shake the dizziness out of her head.  The crowd was in an uproar but she didn't care - as she staggered back to her feet she saw Danny descending gracefully after her, scythe resting on one shoulder.  She took another step back.  "Danny, please listen to me - snap out of it, quit scaring me like that - "       Danny loomed over her with a ghastly snarl, his face only an inch from hers.  "How should I scare you...?"       She swallowed hard.  She realized just how hopelessly he'd been crushed by the power of the ringmaster's crystal - was there anything that could pull him out from under Freakshow's spell?  She was beginning to doubt that there was.  She watched, speechless, as Danny stepped back to the side of his new master.       Freakshow's scowl deepened; it was clear that he hadn't expected her to survive that little stunt, but he'd accept the outcome for the moment.  "Consider that a warning, girl," he sneered, stalking back off to the second ring with Danny still in tow.       Sam pulled herself together.  She couldn't save Danny on her own and she knew it - she had to find Tucker.  Still shaken but reassuring herself, she turned to the stands and scanned the crowds for him.  She could see him partway up; he was the only one among them who wasn't a goth, and it made him incredibly easy to spot.  He darted down to her, eyes wide.  "Sam - are you okay?  I saw you up there - you nearly gave me a heart attack!"       "Tucker!" Sam exclaimed, "I found him - I saw Danny, but he's under some kind of spell - it's Freakshow's staff, I think it's controlling him!"       "Controlling him?  Is there a way to stop it?"       "I don't know," Sam admitted, "We've got to figure out a plan.  Come on," she led him quickly to a darker corner of the tent - someplace where they wouldn't be seen, ideally - and cast a worried glance back to the center ring.  Earlier, she'd been transfixed; now, after what happened, it just sent a shiver down her spine.       "I'm gonna see if I can get any dirt on - man, you're not gonna believe this," said Tucker, interrupting himself mid-sentence as both eyebrow shot up.  He'd pulled out his PDA, and as he scrolled through the notifications on the screen he read them aloud: "Jewels reported missing by police - bank vault found empty - rash of mysterious burglaries - circus owner offers show to concerned parents - " (he gave that last link a tap with his thumb) " - get a load of this one.  Says here he's reaching out to skeptics to prove it's all 'harmless entertainment.'"       "Harmless?" Sam scoffed, "Harmless for himself, maybe.  Hey, see if you can find anything on the spell he put on Danny.  Any idea how to lift it?"       "Hang on, let me see - " (he tapped furiously for a moment) " - no, I'm not finding anything.  Not even a mention of anything like it.  Sam, what're we gonna do?  We can't just leave him - "       "I know we can't!" Sam snapped.  Tucker flinched, and she let her breath out all at once.  "Tucker, I'm sorry - I can't stand to let this happen to him either, but we don't have any leads, and we don't know how to lift the spell, and my parents are going to be in here for the show tonight, and we can't even let them see us - "       "Sam," said Tucker, as calmly as he could manage, and put a hand on her shoulder.  "Quit freaking out about it.  We'll save him, okay?  Plus the more you freak out about it the more it makes me wanna freak out about it, y'know?"       Sam forced herself to take a deep breath.  "Yeah.  Okay."  She swept the what-ifs that had been plaguing her away, redirecting her focus.  "What about the staff?  We have to get it away from him.  That might be the only way."       "You think he'll ever set the thing down?" Tucker asked, "I mean - "       Sam's resolve hardened.  Seeing Danny manipulated like that - his flinching shame when he'd been berated - lit a fire in her, and she nodded.  "He's got to."       Tucker turned as the crowds roared into applause again.  "After the show - he's gotta tire out sometime, right?"       "Yeah, and I know just the thing to snoop into in the meantime.  Come on," Sam rose to her feet, leading him around the back of the tent and out underneath the heavy canvas.  She checked both ways, in case the crowd of skeptical parents had spotted them.  Unseen, she pulled Tucker away and back toward the abandoned station.  The sun hadn't set yet, but there wouldn't be much time until it did.  She could see the crowds from the show filing out - earlier that morning, she'd have said she wouldn't miss the finale for the world, but she no longer wanted a part in any of it.  She knew their window would be short.  She pulled Tucker up beside the train, staying carefully out of sight of the crowds.  "Stay close by me," she whispered, spotting an open boxcar ahead.  They crept closer, and Sam caught a glimpse of the ringmaster before ducking under the carriage in a panic so that they wouldn't be seen.     "Excellent work, drones.  I'm certain dear Lydia will be joining us as soon as she's finished with her little performance.  Ah, and here come the stragglers.  A bit late, are we?"       Sam watched as Danny appeared in the air with another ghost beside him.  Freakshow's will had overpowered him, turning his eyes from green to a dark blood-red, and in one hand he held something small and glittering.  He descended, offering the trinket to his master.       Freakshow paused.  "Now, where did you find a little jewel like this?  Perhaps you're not entirely useless after all..."       Sam didn't catch anything after that.  The door of the boxcar rolled shut, latching with a hard clank, and she gave Tucker a nudge with one elbow.  "C'mon, we gotta get in there."       She got up to her feet as the engine gave a roar of steam.  The entire train shuddered; the wheels screeched against the rails as it struggled into motion.  She pulled Tucker out from underneath the boxcar, keeping his hand as she darted for the space in between the cars so she could jump up.       They paused in the confined space, and Sam's mind raced.  She could see the big-top already beginning to recede behind them; the train accelerated slowly and in great chugging shudders, but once it got moving she knew there'd be no stopping it.  Where would they end up?  She shook the thought out of her head.  One thing at a time.  Save Danny first.  She clambered up the side of the car, Tucker keeping close behind her.  There had to be a way in somewhere - she spotted an emergency hatch on the next car ahead, and the two of them made their way across.       Tucker pulled the hatch open just a little so he could peer inside, and he turned back to Sam with a nod.  "C'mere, I see it - "       A beam of ghost-energy hit them both square in the chest, sending them sprawling.  Sam made a grab for Tucker but missed; he flew clear off the train, tumbling to a halt somewhere in the tall grass below.  "Tucker, no!"       She turned to see Danny floating over her, finger-gun still smoking.  His eyes had been taken over completely by the red haze of Freakshow's hypnosis, and it had begun to creep like infectious roots under his skin.  He stared her down, his face betraying neither satisfaction nor regret, and he formed a full-sized ball of ghost-energy in one hand.  His eyes narrowed; he released the ball of energy and made the shot.       Sam only barely avoided the attack as she scrambled back to her feet, nearly toppling off the edge of the train.  She didn't dare take her eyes off of Danny for more than a second - she knew he'd chew her up and spit her out if she did - and she squashed down the terrified knot that had begun to form in her gut.  "Danny, don't do this - he's controlling you, you've got to listen to me - !"       Danny paused, as if idle, as the ringmaster appeared behind him from in between the cars.  "Looking for this?" he crowed, staff in hand, "Did you really think you could just take it right out from under my nose?  I may be a freak, girl, but I'm no fool!"       Sam steeled herself.  "Let Danny go!"       "Let him go?  Oh, that's charming!" exclaimed the ringmaster, breaking into hysterics.  "You're going to defeat me, are you? and single-handedly, no less!  How heroic!"       Danny advanced, eyes aglow.  His will had been all but crushed under Freakshow's; he wore the same grim glower, and even the way he moved had begun to mirror the ringmaster's own mannerisms.  He floated closer, nearly overwhelming her.       Sam took a step back.  "Danny, I know you're in there somewhere - you don't want to do this - "       "Save your breath, girl.  He doesn't stand a chance against me - and you don't stand a chance against him," said Freakshow in amusement.  He gave Danny only a look, but his orders were clear: finish her.       The ghastly glow in his eyes spread into a crimson aura, and he was forced to obey.  He made a grab for her, catching her by the arm, and spun her around to face him.  His grip was like ice, but his stare was burning.  "Come on," he growled, "Scream for me.  Just once."       "Danny, please!  It's me, Sam - I'm your best friend, remember - ?"       "I'm a ghost," he snapped, the corners of his mouth twisting back up into the too-wide grin, "I have no friends."       Sam's mind raced.  She realized - or, at least, was forced to acknowledge concretely - that there was no getting through to him.  He was no longer merely under Freakshow's command; his mind was beginning to warp because of it.  He was toying with her.  Whatever there was left of him inside was too far gone.  No, she insisted, he's not gone.  I have to save him.  She only had one shot.  The fire in her returned, and her hands balled into angry fists.  Despite herself, she still couldn't meet his eyes.  "Let go of me."       Danny's twisted smile widened to an impossible degree, and he burst into sardonic laughter.  His grip tightened.  "You couldn't make me!"       Sam forced herself to meet his stare.  She hesitated, but only for a moment.  "I'm sorry, Danny."       She decked him in the nose.       Danny's facade faltered; he flew back, skidding to a halt on the metal surface of the train.  In a daze, he lay still.       Sam rounded on Freakshow, her blood boiling.  She refused to acknowledge she'd just punched her best friend; she couldn't afford to hesitate now, and she took a step forward.  She was certain she'd beat him, now that he was on his own.       He seemed to know it too; his eyes widened, and he opened up his mouth to make a sorry excuse for himself.  "Please - er, just a moment, now, I don't think there's any need for - "       "Sam?"       She turned.  The fire in her began to fade in an instant, and chilling realization crept into its place.  She saw him, propping himself up on one hand, the other held over his nose.  Bright green blood ran through his fingers and stained the glove of his suit.       He refused to meet her gaze; his voice was broken.  "Sam, you - you really hurt me..."       She caved, overcome in an instant with remorse.  "Danny, I'm so sorry - I had to," she knew it wasn't enough.  She ran to him, knelt beside him, and carefully set one hand on his shoulder.  "Danny, please, I didn't mean it - "       He finally turned to her.  His wicked grin returned.  "Gotcha."       Freakshow sucked in his breath.  "Oh, bravo..."       The ground on either side of them seemed to fall away as she realized what had happened.  He'd baited her, and she'd fallen for it.  "Danny, I - "       He was faster.  He grabbed her, floating upwards and pulling her off her feet.  He turned, holding her for a moment over the side of the train, and with a little wave of his other hand he dropped her.       She fell with a shriek.  Time seemed to slow with her descent, and for a fleeting moment everything went silent.  The last thing she saw before she hit the river was Danny, floating triumphantly with the ringmaster at his side, as the train sped away.

      She pulled herself up onto the riverbank and collapsed.  The cold water had numbed her skin; her failure numbed her mind.  I lost him.  She lay on the bank - panting, exhausted, and soaking wet - and couldn't even bring herself to burst into tears.  She stared blankly up at the tracks on the bridge overhead; she could almost still see him, but she knew he was gone.  She knew she'd never see him again.  Freakshow had won.       She still had to drag herself home.  She turned her gaze to the steep ravine, dreading having to climb up the side after she'd just emerged from the water.  She only let herself rest for a few minutes, and then forced herself to her feet.  What am I gonna tell Tucker?  She knew he wouldn't take it well.  He'd known Danny longer than she had, and he'd had a rough time after Danny had died a while back.  She clambered slowly upwards, knowing better than to take her chance against the loose earth of the ravine and setting her sights on the supports of the bridge instead.  She hauled herself over the top and lay in the grass, unable to take another step.       She'd never see Danny again.       It was the next morning when she finally arrived home.  She'd just had the longest night of her life, and she couldn't even find it in her to protest when her parents began to fuss over her.  She let them.  At least she was home.  She was sent immediately to bed, and the next thing she knew it was evening.  Her mind still in a haze, she checked the time on the cell on her bedside table.  It was almost nine, but that meant little to her.  She found, instead, a text from Tucker waiting in her notifications.       Heard what happened, hope you feel better soon! get back to me when you can bc i have to tell you smth important. its abt danny. i found the schedule for the gothica tour! theyre setting up next month in oregon and i really dont wanna go by myself. i miss him too. hope you get better. we'll talk then

#danny phantom #phic phight #phic phight 19 #team ghost

[ephrampettaline]

chatzy log for Soapberry Pride 2019 with:

@thisdaringdanny, @cassiegermaine, @ianncardero, @mayaparker, @bumblingbrujo, @alessafalling, @faye-andrews

Ephram knew there was a wide range of Pride events going on in town, but he'd made a conscious decision to not attend the more solemn things, vigils and memorials. What with recent events coming to terms with Anaxis, getting rid of the threat of Martin Adjaye, he wanted to glut himself in joy and celebration. So it was an atronach block party he decided to attend, the area divided into seven colours of the rainbow each run by atronachs whose glyphs were of the corresponding shade. So far he'd meandered through the Red Zone, getting a crimson arrow drawn in a thick stripe down his face from above his eyebrow to his jawline, and eating a handful of sour cherry candies.

Danny was soaking up as much of Pride as he could, all while trying to fall to the back of the crowd, this event wasn't for him after all but Danny was a intent on being supportive, and getting the fun out of it. Currently that meant pouring drinks for people. He'd made one for himself and when people had seen him making ombre cocktails he'd incidentally become a bartender. "Let's see your wrist band," he asked a couple who had come up to him. He wasn't on the clock but he wasn't accidentally serving teens. "Nice," he grinned, pouring liquid out into a plastic martini glass and handing it over. Spotting Ephram and giving him a wave before pointing to his feathered accent.

Ephram pointed at Danny. "You ain't an orange atronach!" he said in mock accusation. "Although I reckon with how tanned you are, it could pass for orange." Ephram grinned at the fairy, nodding at the martini glasses. "What you mixin' up there? Is it any good or does it taste like cough syrup? So many drinks taste like cough syrup."

"This is a natural tan, one that is from burning myself all day in the sun, mate, not a lick of orange," Danny joked, dusting himself off. "Depends on the cough syrup though, American's have awful cough syrup that all has gross candy flavours so probably," he shrugged with a quick laugh. "Least give it a try, see my amazing skills that now go to waste." Danny picked up one of the syrups on the table, putting a shot of it into the shaker, then a shot of something else, quickly moving through them.

Cassie arrived at Pride events for another chance to get out of the house and entertain Addie. Besides, she wanted to provide any sort of support she could. Cassie kept a firm hold of the little girls hand as they weaved through the events and people. The red head was currently distracted with crayons and coloring pages they had picked up at one of the arts and crafts booths. Cassie was surprised when the toddler promptly and seemingly out of nowhere decided to plop onto the ground and attempt to color against the rough sidewalk pavement. "Hey." Cassie was pulled slightly, "Silly, get up."

"Gross candy flavours is exactly it." Ephram noticed movement in the crowd at the border of the Red and Orange Zones, and recognized who was causing it. "Cassie!" he hollered, waving at her. "Oh, hey -- Addie's here too? Bring er over, Danny's makin' drinks!" He looked at Danny hopefully. "You can make virgin drinks too, right? You got the stuff for it?"

Cassie glanced up when she heard Ephram's familiar holler. She offered a wave with her free hand, her expression only falling slightly when she saw the bar and Danny nearby. It wasn't a situation she could exactly slip into, but at Ephram's insistance and the few grumbles from people trying to step aroud her and her daughter, Cassie hoisted Addie up and walked over. Her smile was slightly crooked as she looked at them, "Sure. What are you having?" Her gaze dropped to Addie again when she swayed somewhat impatiently, "I figured we could both come out for some fun." Cassie explained her presence half-heartedly.

Danny watched as Cassie approached with her daughter. "Not sure anything would be okay for a baby to have, definitely a virgin drink is possible but super sugar," he commented, totally spacing Ephram meant for Cassie and not for Addie.

Ephram shook his head quickly at Danny. "For Cassie," he said, then reached out to bundle Addie out of Cassie's arms and into his own. "Don't let my feathers tickle your nose, now," he told the little girl as he settled her against his shoulder and the brightly feathered epaulette there. "What you been up to so far?" Ephram opened his hand with the last couple of cherry candies -- faintly melting in the heat of his palm -- and offered them to Addie. "I reckon I'm gonna git my hair done in the Yellow Zone. I want it to stand up higher."

Cassie nodded to Danny after Ephram had already clarified thigs for him, "She doesn't need anything. And sugar is alright for me. Really. Just make whatever Ephram ordered minus the booze." Cassie was somewhat releived to hand Addie over, and watched with slight amusement as the few candies Ephram had left were snatched up and shoved in the toddlers chubby cheeks. "Just crafts and puppet shows and the like." Her nose crinkled slightly, "Kids stuff. Addie loves it so, that's all that really matters." She chuckled at Ephram's musing over his hair, "Straight up and down? Like you need any more height as it is."

Danny looked over Ephram picking up the child and playing with her as he spoke to them. Danny had only ever been confident picking up his sisters, other people's kids were a dangerous game. "Uh...yeah, sure," Danny agreed, finishing off Ephram's drink but sitting it on the table since he was holding the child. "Your hair is already yellow, mate. Hair as yellow as my skin is orange."

Ephram scooped up his drink with his now free-but-sticky hand, since Addie'd eaten the candy. "I'm only gettin' styled in the Yellow Zone!" he protested, jogging Addie a little in the crook of his arm. "I might get it coloured blue further on down the block, though. You should come with me, man -- ain't nothin' saying you gotta stay here serving drinks. Who even let you back there, anyhow?" Ephram raised his voice, looking around, and an older atronach woman turned to point at him. "Don't you poach Danny, now!" she scolded, but then laughed and patted the fairy's broad shoulders. "You go anytime you want, child. Have some fun. You can't spend the whole time working."

"Blue would suit you," Danny nodded, looking over the man's hair. Felt like it could suit him to be dyed but he had to wonder how bright blue hair would go over with Freddie...maybe styled well. "No one let me, I just wandered back, walk with confidence and you can go anywhere," but he took the opportunity to climb up on the bar and jump over with ease. "Guess I'm a free man," Danny noted. "Should we go get some blue hair, send Freddie some pictures so he has some entertainment, he's working right?" Danny asked, figuring if Freddie wasn't out celebrating with his husband he was at Stonefruit running events, that or he was celebrating and everyone had got caught up with him. "I think I could rock some blue hair. Match my gorgeous eyes."

Ephram gave Danny a look of exaggerated horror. "Whaaaat? Skip ahead from Orange to Blue without hittin' all the Zones in between? You gotta work your way through the ROY G BIV, Danny. We still got Yellow and Green to get through before Blue." He finished his drink, spinning the glass between his fingers before setting it down on the bar. "That was good. Tasted like if a grapefruit and a passion fruit had a love child." Addie made a disgruntled sound, and Ephram patted her back. "No no no, you're the only child here, punkin. Still the only one."

"Seems like you two know each other very well," Danny said of Ephram and the small child. He hadn't even really seen Addie in the alternate reality, Cassie was always alone with him, or in a crowded room. Cassie certainly seemed more attentive here, but perhaps that was because she could sleep with her husband in their home, rather than needing to get subordinates to do so. "What's going on in yellow then? In my mind it's a lot of blow up bananas, I love pool toys."

Ephram snorted. "Easy way to confirm or deny your dream of blow-up bananas," he said, strolling down the block until they crossed over into the Yellow Zone. There were no inflatable fruit to be found, although the area did weirdly have a bubblegum-banana smell. "Here, Addie -- gonna give you to Uncle Danny for a minute, okay?" Ephram bundled the child against Danny's chest before moving over to a hairstyling station. It only took a moment for him to tell the atronach staffing it what he wanted, and then he bent to offer them his head. The atronach put their hands on either sides of Ephram's head and then blew out a breath, and Ephram's hair immediately blew up straight as if he'd put himself in some sort of vacuum tube. "Whaddyou think?" Ephram asked, excited, as he turned to show Danny and Addie. His hair was piled in soft, semi-collapsing spikes; Addie took one look at him, though, and started to make hitching noises against Danny's chest.

Danny was handed Cassie's daughter and immediately he forgot how to hold a child hands catching her awkwardly and immediately knowing she had to be uncomfortable how he was supporting her, but at least she hadn't fallen. "Hi...there," he said awkwardly to the girl, wondering if she could remember him. Fortunately Ephram wasn't gone long and when he returned Danny looked down, the child making strange sounds, was she giggling or sneezing? "Dude, you look ridiculous, are you Bart Simpson in old age?" he asked with a laugh but evidently concerned for the strange baby sounds.

"Awww, everyone's a critic." Ephram reached out for the toddler again, and Addie gave his hair a long, hard look, still deciding if she wanted to cry or not. "Not so bad," Ephram crooned at her, "unless you're takin' this so-and-so's word for it." Finally she reached up and grabbed a clump of Ephram's hair; then, satisfied that it was still his and attached to his head, turned her attention to the enormous gumball machine that took up a large part of the Yellow Zone. "You gonna git yours done?" Ephram needled Danny, nodding over at the hairstyling booth. "Or you gonna mock the efforts of braver people?"

"Not sure my hair could get paler, plus I'm still pretty content on getting it blue," Danny insisted, watching as the small child pulled and played with Ephram's hair. He hadn't said much when Danny had commented on how well he knew the child but they were so familiar, even for a kid. Kids were crazy obvious when they got on with people, and when they barely knew them. "Looks like your look isn't going to last though so we should get a picture before it's gone," Danny noted, pulling out his phone and holding it up to snap a picture for the Sheriff's husband.

Ephram really just hadn't dwelled much on Danny's observation about him and Addie, taking it as conversation and not any particular inquiry. He held still for the picture, even though Addie herself was entirely distracted by the gumball machine. "If it's as awful as your reaction made it seem, then it'll be a good thing I'll be floppy-haired by the time I get home," Ephram laughed, leaning down as Addie squirmed out of his hold; he barely managed to get her down to a safe distance before she hit the ground and was motoring towards the gumballs. "Shoot. We best follow, huh?" Ephram moved towards the machine, remarking to Danny, "So is it just me, or are you and Cassie a lil ... awkward around each other?"

"Damn kids are speedy," Danny commented of how fast Addie was moving towards the gumball machine, following along with Ephram. "Uh yeah," he said, looking down at his feet as he walked. He'd told Freddie about how he'd been feeling, about Cassie, about Ruby, about just him feeling about himself, and Danny wasn't sure how much of that Ephram would know. They were husbands, if Freddie shared Danny wouldn't be mad, but on the other hand Freddie might not see a point, after all Danny's emotions weren't exactly something that if unmentioned would be bad. "She like apologised to me about some stuff that happened in that...place, and my feelings are just all mixed up," Danny scrunched up his face. "Not like we were friends before but not really sure what I'm meant to say to her now." /When I want to hold her./

Ephram slowed and stopped, since Addie had reached the gumball machine and it turned out to be some sort of weird ... carnival ride? ... for the kids, and wasted no time in having herself boosted into the top and deposited among the giant gumballs and other magic-encapsulated children to be jostled down to the dispensing slot. He looked at Danny as if trying to gauge something, and then said, "Yeah, her and me had some stuff what happened too. Although it was more, uh, cathartic for me. Than it seems like it was for you." Since Cassie and Ephram had been friends before, and lovers too, so they had some sort of common ground to work their way back from. "Was it a sorter situation what warranted an apology, what happened in that other place?"

Danny watched as Cassie's daughter got onto the ride. He needed to keep reminding himself Cassie was different here, that what he remembered there wasn't what things really were. "Feels like my heads just a mess lately," he admitted, not sure he should say more to Ephram. Getting down on himself at a party was fucking lame. "I didn't think it did. We slept together, a bunch, I just...was with her," Danny said, unaware of how much he'd actually missed that Cassie had done in the shadows. "When she apologised it just felt like she thought she'd somehow wronged me, screwed me over when it's the closest I've actually fucking felt to someone in a while." Danny looked around them for something to do with his hands, food to shove in his mouth, anything to distract him. It was fine to get this way in front of Freddie but, regardless of how good a person he knew Ephram was, he was starting to feel closed in on by opening up.

The way that Danny started to get sort of ... soggy and discomfited by the topic of what happened with him and Cassie made it pretty obvious that the fairy didn't want to be discussing his feelings about his other self. Or more specifically his other self with Cassie. Plus there was a familiar sort of downtrodden defensiveness to his behaviour that made Ephram suddenly wonder just how much time Ruby and Danny had been spending together. But that was none of his business, nope, he'd come to that decision and he was sticking by it. Ephram had had enough of offering to talk to people about what they were feeling only to have them then end up kind of resenting him for it. "Sounds complicated," he went with, then stepped forward to collect Addie from the dispensing slot. He collected two gumballs and somebody else's squalling selkie child first by accident, but then Addie came duly rolling out of the metal chute and into his catch. "Had fun, chickadee?" Ephram asked, hoisting Addie up to get her better situated. "I'm glad you're back. I need somebody to keep me from inadvertently turnin' folks into Gloomy Gusses when I talk to em."

Danny relaxed as Ephram concluded the conversation, it wasn't that he'd have resented Ephram, he'd have resented himself for eventually running out on the situation. Bailing because he felt like he was drowning as he often did when he shared his feelings in a situation he wasn't prepared for. Seeing Cassie he wasn't prepared for. "Yeah," he nodded, watching Ephram collect the small child, almost taking another. "You weren't making me sad, I'm just bad at talking, sure Freddie will tell you as much," Danny smiled. "I'm glad the experience was cathartic for you, I don't think you're alone."

The atronach in charge of the ride buttled forward to thrust one of the enormous beach-ball-sized yellow gumballs into Danny's arms with no explanation before returning to his station, and Ephram loped closer to inspect it. "Wow," he said after sniffing its sugary scent, "I think it's a real gumball. Cain't imagine how you'd go about chewin' it though, it bein' big as all that." He didn't address what Danny had said apart from a quick grin and a nod, not wanting to send the fairy into a tailspin or anything. “Listen,” Ephram said as he handed Addie over to Danny, “I’m just gonna run to get my hair blued, I’ll be back by the time Cassie comes back from the bathroom, okay?”

Iann was actually feeling sleepy, in a good way. It felt mellow, and Iann knew that in a few hours he'd be off to sleepyland even if it was the middle of the day. For now, after working with late night functions at the Inn for party-goers and a fascinating trans vampire cabal, he was strolling through town with a purpose. The problem was, he'd forgotten what the purpose was. He still walked though, figuring eventually he'd remember why he was walking about. Aside from watching all the various events going on around town. There was always something going on at any given time.

Maya had, despite going to bed late the night before, woken up early. Today the Soapberry Chamber of Commerce had organized an open air Pride market with every stall donating at least some of their profits to charity. While she and Tuah hadn't quite gotten their bakery open, she was operating a stall under their banner. A little sign proclaimed that 100% of the profits would be donated. Maya herself was dressed in jean shorts, a Pride crop top and had finished the whole look off with rainbow sunglasses. She lounged in a camping chair, sipping a Jones Soda from the nearby cooler.

Towne Square apparently turned into a Pride-esque market at some point - yesterday? Today? Iann couldn't keep track, but it was certainly nice to discover it. He was properly distracted, forgetting completely to think about what he forgot about. Instead, Iann realized maybe he should get some food for his apartment. He'd been eating out this month - mostly at the Inn - and was craving something he could just make and eat at home. Slowing down, Iann tucked his sunglasses onto his baseball cap to browse.

Maya watched the crowds from behind her sunglasses. A few proprietors were calling out to passersby, trying to entice them to buy. She had never been good at that kind of thing. Besides, she liked to think that her array of brightly colored baked goods stood on their own. However seeing Iann, she shouted, "Hey Iann, how's Pride treating ya?"

Iann heard a voice, but there was a crowd around a stall where it seemed the voice came from. Was...a pastry beckoning him? Literally? "Outta the way, I got a date with a prune danish," Iann said, shouldering his way through the gathered purchasers, to reveal a stall with baked goods, and Maya Parker. "Hey Iann, Pride's been great," Iann replied, making a joking riff on their last encounter. "You...uh, running this thing?"

Maya laughed at his greeting. It was far far easier for her to laugh now about their whole Freaky Friday situation. She knew she'd been a bit of a pain to deal with at the time. "Running might be a generous term, but I'm in charge of it," she replied, "Can I get you anything?"

"Mmm I dunno yet." Iann peered at the piles of things. "What do you got? Show me whatever's savoury, I guess. I don't have any sweet tooth."

Ephram lurched up behind Iann. "I got about eight sweet tooths to make up for him. You got anythang with berries?" Having finally gotten to the Blue Zone of the atronach block party, Ephram's hair was now in soft blueberry-coloured spikes to go along with the painted red arrow down one side of his face. He blinked at Iann. "Shit, Cardero -- you look like you're gonna fall over. Late night at the Stonefruit? Freddie said the place is hoppin'."

"Well," Maya replied, taking off her sunglasses, "I've got some croissants, non-magical, zucchini bread that'll boost your energy and in the cooler some take and bake pizza dough if you want something for later."

"Oh I want berries," Iann said, staring at Pettaline for a moment. He didn't recognize the other man immediately. He hadn't seen Pettaline since the witch got the Cinquefoil and now with him all painted up and Sir Pride-a-lot, he was virtually unrecognizable. "Fresh berries, though," Iann amended, and then hummed at Maya's offerings. "Isn't zucchini bread sweet? More like a cake...unless you make something different and just call it zucchini bread to fuck with people, haha."

Maya glanced over at Ephram, gave him a smile and replied, "Raspberry sweet swirls that'll literally make you feel like dancing, Linzer cookies with huckleberry jam and no magic and then blueberry ice cream in the cooler that'll make you feel like you're seventeen again." To Iann's question she shook her head, "Not especially. At least not as sweet as cake. You can try a slice if you want."

Iann held out his hand, never one to turn down samples of anything, especially things he could put into his mouth. "Give me a slice!"

"What, you think she's gonna use dried-up berries in the middle of berry season? What's wrong with you?" Ephram's prodding didn't hold any real annoyance, though, unlike his and Iann's usual interactions. "Back home in Apple Fall my cousin Jenga used to eat zucchini sandwiches. Most people would think that was zucchini in slices of bread but she used to make em from slices of zucchini between other pieces of zucchini. She said it was more authentic that way. I mean, she grew zucchini that was like the size of them Nerf baseball bats so they was pretty big sandwiches." He rubbed his hands together at Maya's recitation of what she had, saying, "I ain't never heard of a sweet swirl before! But I'll take one and a couple of them Linzer cookies. Don't much feel like ice cream, though." More like he didn't want to feel like seventeen again, but that wasn't anything he wanted to dwell on.

"Wow, thanks for the trip down to Apple Fall, Rose Nylund," Iann replied dryly, unable to help himself. He'd stopped listening after Pettaline mentioned he had a cousin named 'Jenga'. "Blueberry ice cream isn't baking. You're like all-purpose dessert-maker. There's a French fancy word for that, isn't there? Patisseroise, or something."

Maya cut Iann a slice of zucchini bread and handed it to him. "Wouldn't it be easier to just eat the zucchini whole? Skip all the cutting?" She nodded at his request. She packed it all into a little rainbow box before telling him the total. As far as Iann's comment, she shrugged, wearing an easy smile. "I'm also halfway decent at plain old cooking. Figured I should be well-rounded," she replied.

Iann "Do you have any butter."

Maya pulled out a small packet of butter from the cooler and tossed it to Iann before picking up one of the plastic butter knives and handing it to him.

Ephram gave a high hooting laugh at Iann's likening him to Rose, resolving to tell Freddie about that. "You'd think so, right?" he nodded at Maya. "But Jenga said she liked the sandwiches on account of she could alternate with green and yellow. She was a big one for stripes." He considered for a moment. "Actually she never ate zucchini whole. Her husband din't like to eat nothin' what looked much like it was phallic. He'd leave town when it was cucumber season."

Iann labouriously but thoroughly spread butter on the slice of bread. "I'm tired, yeah," Iann finally said, answering Pettaline's question from three minutes ago. "June's a busy fucking month. People with rainbows and shit, I don't know if you've noticed Sheriff. You cops sure are doing a half-ass job this month. Any excuse for the pigs to be lazy, huh?" It was grousing but of course it was ironic grousing. He'd taken note of the Sheriff Department's mission statement for their institutional involvement in Pride month, and of course it made sense. It was the epitome of goodness, really. But naturally, Iann had to give Pettaline a hard time about it, even mildly. Aside from some issues here and there, Pride month in Soapberry was an oasis for happiness and charity and awareness and all that socialist paradise crap. Iann took a bite of his bread. "Mmf. Not bad. Do you make them in buns? Baps? Muffins, or scone-ical forms? Like small ones."

Ephram handed over his money and accepted the little rainbow box with a pleased exclamation over its cuteness, but then stood there holding the pastry box in both hands as Iann scolded him about the police presence at this year's festivities. "Uh," he said, not familiar enough with run-of-the-mill Iann orneriness to be able to sort it out from the more usual Iann belligerence where he was concerned, "we's still around, I mean--" Ephram shrugged one shoulder, setting his feather epaulette waving. He figured that was good enough. "Happy Pride, oink oink."

Maya raised an eyebrow, "Seems a bit excessive, but to each their own I supposed." She took another sip from her Jones Soda while Iann either teased or mocked Ephram about Soapberry's policing of Pride. She couldn't quite tell which. As for Iann's question though, Maya considered a moment before saying, "Yeah, probably could make muffins out of it."

Ephram grinned at Maya, relieved to have somebody else to address other than Cardero. "So!" he said brightly, gesturing at the banner above her stall. "This happenin' soon? The shop I mean? You'ns gonna be sellin' ice cream and stuff as well as coffee and bakery baked goods?"

"Are those feathers from your own chickens?!" Iann exclaimed in mock-horror when Pettaline flicked the feather epaulette. "Don't pluck your chickens, man! Buddy owns fancy-ass chickens," Iann explained to Maya. "The type that look like they have better hairstyles than yours." Iann gave her a wink. "I guess they're more...feather-styles." Iann folded the bit of bread he still had and ate it in two bites, listening as the witches talked. He didn't quite follow what Pettaline was asking, and so he just looked at Maya to hear her response.

Ephram said serenely, "My chickens ain't none'a your pluckin' business, Cardero."

Maya laughed at Iann's teasing. "Hey man," she joked back, "This is my 'I woke up like this' hair." Turning back to Ephram, she nodded. "We're still settling on a location, but yeah, the whole thing's coming together. I haven't gotten as far as an exact menu, but I'll probably do some ice cream specials in the summer."

Iann glared at Pettaline, mouth working under his moustache. Because that was stupidly-funny and Iann did love stupidly-funny. But he resented that Pettaline thought of it, with his dumb blue hair and silly facepaint. "What're you even supposed to be?" he demanded, then motioned to Maya. "At least you look normal. Run-of-the-mill, even. None of that outlandish stuff for you." Then, at Maya's answer to the other witch, Iann finally remembered. "Oh - right - shit. A thing. You...ah...and Tuah. Right?" Iann licked butter off his thumb, and looked away, over Maya's shoulder and into the middle-distance. "Moving along at the usual Arjuna-pace with that, I see."

Ephram said before he thought better of it, "Ohhhhhhh yeah, you and Tuah used to be a thing! I forgot." He cleared his throat and said dryly to Iann's question, "I'm supposed to be queer and havin' a good time of it, Iann," before picking up the conversation with Maya. "You into all the sci-fi stuff too? Or is it gonna be a different sorter theme for the new place? I love theme stuff. It makes places stand out more to me. Like how there's those two shoe stores in Grieselle? I never remember the name of the one what just sells shoes. I only remember Rubber Sole because of how the salespeople dress like the Beatles."

Maya, not having the same hang up Iann did, was free to laugh at Ephram's reply. She laughed too as Iann referred to her look as run of the mill. "Ah, yes, what anybody's dying to hear that they look run of the mill," she teased. She was hardly offended though. It wasn't as if she'd especially put much effort into her look this morning. There were more important things on her mind. "Yep, Tuah and I are business partners," she said before adding to his second comment, "I don't mind how long it's taking. The whole endeavor still kind of freaks me out." To Ephram, she gave a shrug, "I do like my sci-fi, but I don't think we'll go that route this time around."

"Well to be fair, I look under-the-mill. The chaff that gets milled out and fed to....chickens," Iann said, satisfied that (in his mind anyway) they'd come full-circle. He was about to ask why it freaked Maya out, but then remembered her thing about being asked questions. So Iann nodded instead, and waited with considerable interest to hear more about her vision for this co-owned bakery. When she provided none (and again Iann knew better than to ask) he nodded once more. "Okay give me a pizza dough. I'm gonna make pizza tonight. And another slice - er, sample - of that zuchinni bread..." Iann got his wallet out. "Oh by the way, I found that nymph, Collette. I have to take down those signs."

"Well I'm sure you and Tuah are gonna come up with somethang real interesting between you." Ephram pried open one side of his pastry box to extract a cookie which he ate in two bites, giving Maya a thumbs-up at the flavour. But then he frowned at Iann when the man mentioned Collette, saying, "What was with that, anyhow? I know she din't show up a couple mornings for my birds -- which is fine, that ain't an issue -- but I din't realize she was missing. And you shoulda come filed a report with us at the station, Iann, come on now. Jes because you'n me don't get along it don't mean you need to bypass the help that the police could of given you."

Maya didn't provide many details because she simply didn't have them at the moment. There were so many decisions to make and without an actual location everything else was still kind of on hold. It wasn't something she minded talking about, but there just wasn't much set in stone yet. She nodded and pulled out a plastic wrapped pizza dough for Iann. She cut him another slice of bread, but didn't add that to the price she gave him. It was all for charity anyway. Maya handed over too another tab of butter. "Oh good," she said to the news that Iann had found Collette, "Is she alright?"

"Hell no, I wouldn't file a report. Cops, amirite? Gosh," Iann snorted and rolled his eyes at Maya, thumbing at Pettaline like 'get a load of this guy'. He took his dough and plopped it into his fannypack, waiting for Maya to tell him how much it was. "But no, she wasn't missing-missing. She just - well - it's complicated nymph stuff, but ah. I'm not sure if she's alright. She's alive and functional."

Ephram pointed at Iann's fannypack, noticing it for the first time when the man secured his pizza dough into it. "You're wearin' a fuckin' fanny pack in public and you tried to make fun of how *I* look? Jesus, Cardero." He shook his head. "I'm glad she's found. Is it like a Perl situation? How she was missing for a while but then when she came back she was all different and jumpy?" It would be a deeply sad thing if that were the case. Ephram was still gutted about Perl having to leave the Department.

Maya could understand why Iann wouldn't go to the cops. Especially if Collette wasn't 'missing-missing'. Maya had her own complicated history with law enforcement that had caused her to only go to them when she had no other choice. She gave Iann a 'what are you going to do' kind of shrug before telling him how much the pizza dough was. Her brow furrowed a little to hear that Collette was alive and functional, but not for sure alright. "Could you tell her I have that lavender fudge for her?" she asked. It wasn't much obviously, but maybe it would make the nymph feel a little better.

"These are all the fashion now! Ask the trend-setter here," Iann said, motioning to Maya first before handing her some cash. He pat his fannypack (which was currently sitting on his hip) in contentment. "I tried carrying around a satchel? Messenger bag? Whatever you want to call it, the purse for dudes who don't want to say they're carrying around a purse. But it kept getting lost or I forgot it places, or it got hooked onto things. It's bullshit. This little guy's never leaving me." When Maya mentioned lavender fudge, Iann had to bark a laugh, somewhat bitterly. "I will, sure. But is it Scottish lavender, little Iann."

Ephram didn't miss the little by-play between Iann and Maya when it came to the subject of police. It was jarring to him sometimes, how people seemed to assume that since he was the Sheriff here and now, it meant he was clueless as to what it was like on the other side of the law, but ... oh, well. He decided to take it as a sign that he was doing a good job, if he gave the impression that he'd rolled out of the womb wearing a badge. "I have a satchel. It's great."

Maya had to nod, "The fanny pack is making a comeback, especially with The Gays." She didn't miss the somewhat bitter quality to Iann's laugh. "Yep, as requested I made sure to get Scottish lavender, not that I really think it makes a difference," she paused, considered then added, "Although she is a nymph and can probably taste the difference."

"Fannypacks are Pride," Iann concluded. "Oh you better believe it makes a difference. An insurmountable difference that us mortals will never understand. Anyway, Collette's not living with me right now, so if you do see her, don't assume that I've told her about your fudge."

"I'm gonna keep right on with my satchel, if it's all the same to The Gays," Ephram snorted. "Collette ain't stayin' with you, what?" he asked Iann. "Where's she at? Is she doin' all right? What did you do to her?" It was an unfair assumption, of course, but considering the normally acrimonious relationship he had with Iann, Ephram automatically figured the human was the one to blame.

"No she moved out, she's at a motel. I suggested June's House," Iann offered, suddenly mild and even somewhat passive. "Since it's cheaper, cleaner, and overall better than a motel, so. She just has some things to figure out. And yeah, probably because of something - or things - that I did. Yeah. Can I get another 'sample' of that bread?"

"Basically," Maya agreed although to Ephram she added in a teasing tone, "I think The Council will be okay with that." She hadn't realized that since her return Collette hadn't been staying with Iann. With that new piece of information, she shook her head, "Oh never mind then. I thought you two were still living together. I can just tell her next time I see her." She listened quietly, taking another sip of her soda for Iann's explanation as to why Collette wasn't staying with him anymore. Unlike Ephram, she didn't assume Iann was completely at fault, even though he admitted it might be partially. "Which motel?" she had to ask, "Do you know?" Maya had to laugh when Iann asked for another sample of bread. "Sure," she joked, "Just know I'm considering feeding you as the charity this bread is going to."

Ephram recognized that particular flavour of resigned self-recrimination when he saw it -- he'd tasted it more than a few times himself -- and he felt faintly bad for having shoved Iann into that corner. "Sorry," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "I shouldn't jump to conclusions when I don't know shit bout whatever you'ns are to each other." He didn't say anything about June's House, that being something of a sore spot for him personally. "So long as she's not missing anymore and she's doin' all right. I mean, she's some sorter ancient war nymph, right? Ain't like she's a wilting flower."

Iann shrugged. "Don't apologize, it's a reasonable conclusion," he said, giving Pettaline a wry look. "When someone's upset, must be Cardero who got them there, huh? Makes sense to me." Iann adjusted his baseball cap, then started the process once more of meticulously buttering his third slice of zucchini bread. "I don't know the motel name, no. She wouldn't tell me." He smirked back at Maya. "Ohhhh great. Pity-bread. The saddest part is, I'll take it." He took a huge bite, then made a muffled noise behind his teeth, "Vut now ah neef currffee."

Ephram said testily, "I'll apologize when I reckon it's warranted and whenever I damn well feel like it, Cardero! And no, it ain't no foregone conclusion that you's the blame all the time. We might not get along but shit, I know enough bout you to know that much." After all, Ephram's husband counted Iann as one of his closest (if not THE closest) friends of all time, and Freddie felt no compunctions about talking up Iann's better qualities to his less-than-enthused audience of one. Ephram might have groused, but he'd still listened to all those glowing reviews and taken them to heart. "Maya ain't sellin' coffee, nimrod." He looked at Maya, one eye narrowing as he confirmed, "--you ain't sellin' coffee, are you? How bout them soda pops? I'm feelin' a mite parched my own self come to think of it."

Maya watched the interaction between the two men, but didn't comment on it. "Okay," she said. She would have to ask Collette next time she saw the nymph, just to make sure it wasn't the same motel she'd stayed at when she first arrived in town. Although as Ephram had pointed out, Collette wasn't exactly incapable of taking care of herself. "The sign does say 100% of proceeds go to charity, you were warned," she joked back. She pointed down the way and told him, "There's coffee about three stalls down. Mostly iced drinks though I think."

Iann made a face. "Guh I hate cold coffee. I don't get the point." Most of the stalls here were set up for 100% charity, which amused Iann in one way. People trying to out-do each other with how 'woke' they were, as the kids liked to say. Iann liked it; because true altruism was, after all, partially selfish in order to be true. The feel-good feeling people got for being so damn generous was worth all the charity information signs that beamed 100% with rainbow pride. Win-win for everyone involved. "Okay I give up. Give me the bread. This charity will pay your charity for whatever's left of the loaf. It's delicious and addictive."

Iann blinked, shocked and a little unsure how to respond to Pettaline vociferous and rather pleasantly unexpected reply; and since Iann had no idea how to respond to bouts of sincerity - especially if it was meant to be good towards him - instead Iann grinned and changed the subject entirely. "Show me the Cinquefoil!" He looked at Maya. "So buddy has a Cinquefoil, and he's made it work!"

Maya gave Ephram an apologetic smile, "Sorry, this is my personal stash. But I know a couple of fairies are selling homemade sodas in the next aisle over." To Iann, she argued, "Well, I'd say cold coffee and iced coffee aren't the same, but that's kind of semantics. Someone's probably got hot coffee for you though." She handed over the bread without any further argument. Considering the whole event was for charity she wasn't at all concerned about the dollars she was missing out on. If everyone had a good time and they made some money for organizations that did good work then it was all good. It was her turn to blink though at Iann's excited words. "He has a what?" she asked.

Ephram likewise made a face at Iann's sudden and loud demand. "I'm sure Maya don't wanna be exposed to the sight of it," he demurred, returning a mirror of her apologetic smile before hissing at Iann, "--since it's on my god damned hip and I'll have to hike down my trousers some to show you."

"Yes, I hate cold coffee..which is what iced coffee is," Iann said in confusion, then remembered that Maya was a very exact person. So he added for her benefit, "I hate iced coffee." He handed over more money for the loaf (he didn't ask her this time; her prices were notoriously underselling and this was no exception, even for the 100% charity proceeds) and then Iann laughed aloud when Pettaline explained where the Cinquefoil was. "Oh shit, it's on your hip! Well never mind then, you can show me later, I want to take a photo of it for my records." He tried to explain to Maya without getting into too much detail about the demon. "It's this thing - it's like a - well it's..." Iann spun a hand, then made an annoyed sound and turned to Pettaline. "You explain!"

"I just mean that cold coffee seems like hot coffee that's been left out for too long and gone cold whereas iced coffee is still fresh," she explained although she knew it was still all rather semantic. She took his money although she hadn't asked for it. It didn't matter to her personally, but she was happy to take money for other people. She listened as the two men seemed to change their minds based on where this Cinquefoil was located on Ephram's body. Although it wasn't as if Maya hadn't seen a man's hip before. Seeing as they seemed to decide against it, she didn't comment on that though. Instead Maya listened as Iann decidedly didn't explain what it was. She turned to look at Ephram when Iann turned the duty of explaining over to him.

"I'll tell you what iced coffee is: it's cold. And I don't like cold coffee - whether it's been left out too long, or had some ice tossed into it to make it cold. It's still cold and gross. Here - hold this," he handed Maya back the bread and marched off to find a cup of coffee.

"Fair enough," Maya replied as Iann walked off in search of hot coffee.

Fortunately, finding plain drip coffee wasn't too difficult, and Iann returned with a cup, looking far less agitated. He also had a bottle of sarsaparilla beer. "Here, this is for Foghorn Leghorn," he said, handing the bottle to Ephram as he then took his half-bread back, tucking it into his elbow like a precious child.

"Uh," Ephram said, not at all convinced that Maya was terribly interested in hearing about the Cinquefoil, but since she'd turned her attention to him he figured he might as well. "It's this lil magical artefact what helps to integrate a demon with the person it's inhabiting. Which is ... me?" To be honest he couldn't recall if Maya knew about Anaxis, even. None of this might make any sense to her at all. "I dunno if you know, but yeah. I got a demon in me and now it's completely under my control. Thanks to the Cinquefoil." Which he wouldn't have minded showing Iann, even in public, but Ephram had no intention of forcing Maya to witness anything even close to the act of him showing skin. He accepted the sarsparilla gratefully when Iann handed it over, bolting down a third of it.

Maya had, in all honesty, only passing interest in what a Cinquefoil was. But Iann seemed excited about it, so it seemed worth hearing about. She'd heard, awhile ago now, about the demon inside of Ephram. She listened as he explained what exactly the thing was. Upon learning that it had allowed him to completely control Anaxis, she made a mental note to try and do some research on it later. Maya wasn't entirely sure what to say about it now though. It had to be a big deal for Ephram. She could only guess at what having a demon riding shotgun might be like. "Congratulations," she settled on although she wasn't happy with it, "I guess, that seems kind of like an understatement, considering."

Ephram ducked his head a little in acknowledgement. "It's awright," he said hastily, faint annoyance with Iann rising up again. Why in God's name had the man brought up the damned Cinquefoil and by extension Anaxis in front of Maya, who couldn't possibly give a shit one way or the other? Embarrassed as he usually got when talking about the demon in front of people who didn't know or care, he finished his drink and wagged the bottle at them both. "Gonna go find somewheres to recycle this," he mumbled, readjusting his pastry box in his grip before loping off towards one of the disposal stations set up periodically through the venue.

Iann mildly watched Pettaline leave, still a little fascinated by how different the witch looked. Had it been that long since he'd last spoke or seen Pettaline? The answer was yes; but also the change was remarkable enough to be not just a matter of time. Pettaline didn't just change in terms of the demonic control - although that was a huge thing. But it also belatedly occurred to Iann that the whole Pride thing was being truly celebrated and embraced by the witch, perhaps for the first time in his life. Iann tongued the inside of his cheek, thinking about the various changes he'd witnessed in people, recently. He looked over at Maya. "What were you again? A Lady of whatever? Servant girl? You seem quite recovered from all that. 'Seem' being the operative word, of course."

Maya watched Ephram go without saying anything since she wasn't sure if he was going to come back. But clearly he'd been made uncomfortable. She turned her attention to Iann as he asked her about that strange alternate reality they'd all ended up in. Her memories around it were mostly foggy, but she picked the general gist. "Both, I think," she answered, "And I mean, it wasn't so bad for me, I got bit by a snake and yelled at, it felt like a lot, but not so bad all things considered. What about you? Didn't you, like, die?"

"That's right! I was there when you were snake-bitten, you were saying such strange things. Well, strange for that world. Makes me wonder if maybe when the snake bit you, you reverted into this-Maya's modern mind...now that would be interesting." Iann licked his teeth, considering that possibility. "I still can't quite figure out what the hell that was all about, even. Why it happened. I mean I've been in this town long enough to know shit will happen, but I get antsy when there's no real rhyme or reason." Not that Iann had much time to contemplate. Between all the other work he'd thrown himself into with other people - and then Pride month on top of that - Iann barely had much time to himself at all. Which was exactly the way he liked it. "I totally died! My brother gave me a plague that made me eyeballs explode and my internal organs melt and my skin break out into pustules. It was terrible." And 'terrible' was an understatement. "Apparently, then Inquisitor Savin found and destroyed Miguel."

"Maybe," Maya replied, "Although, I was also pretty out of it. Whatever that sage dude gave me was some strong shit. But maybe high medieval Maya was the same as sober normal Maya." She understood what he meant about the lack of apparent reason being uncomfortable. "Yeah, I'd like to know why too. If there even is an answer," she agreed. "Shit, dude. Miguel killed you? How's that working out?" Maya asked. They couldn't exactly be blamed for their actions in that other version of Soapberry, but still having someone kill you seemed like it would strain the relationship.

"Ah, we worked it out. I personally thought it was pretty epic what he did, but Prince-me was really really sore about it. 'Prince-me'." Iann snorted. "If only I was talking about Purple Rain Prince, the only cool Prince to ever exist, ever."

Maya had to nod, "Sure, reasonable to be sore about someone murdering you." She laughed at his claim, but couldn't disagree with him. "Well I'm glad to be in a world where talking about a prince usually either means Prince or someone finally watched Game of Thrones. I would not have wanted to get stuck in that world."

"I guess..." Iann said doubtfully, as if he was personally questioning: was it reasonable to be sore about someone murdering him? Was it, really? Suddenly, Iann didn't feel too sure about that. "That's true. No flushable toilets, guhhhh. No showers. No anti-perspirant." He returned to the thought about soreness. "I wonder if Miguel's mad at Savin for destroying him?"

Maya wasn't entirely surprised that Iann's tone suggested that he doubted his princely self had a right to be sore about being murdered. She still thought it was reasonable, but she wasn't surprised that Iann might take a different, less traditional view. "Depending on the situation, I suppose it'd be reasonable too not to be sore about it. But seems like being murdered by someone would be as good a reason as any to be upset with them." She nodded, an expression of fairly enthusiastic agreement on her face when he listed just a few of the drawbacks of that world. "Don't know," she said, "You'd have to ask Miguel that."

Iann hadn't been thinking of his Prince-self so much as just...himself. "Oh yeah? What sort of situation are you thinking of?"

Maya shook her head, "I wasn't think of any specific situation. Just that I couldn't definitely say how a person might feel after getting murdered."

"Well I can definitely say how a person might feel after getting murdered..." Iann said, slightly gloomy as he thought about it. It wasn't even the first time, even; and perhaps that made it even more weird. But it was nothing he was going to bring up with Maya, and not while the day was sunny and bright and cheery. "Well..." Iann said, because by now he'd kind of run out of safe topics to broach with Maya. He looked hopeful that maybe she had something to comment on.

Miguel was enjoying this pride a lot more than the last one. Maybe the fact that he didn't have to put any of it together, didn't have to deal with dramatic drag queens or getting a heinous number of permits from the sheriff department. All he did was show up and eat the pretty colorful foods, and sniff at the pretty colorful drinks and wonder if they were actually edible. His ears caught his own name and he glanced around to see his tall dumb brother, who he made a beeline for, he careened into Iann, bumping shoulders with a thud. "Talking shit, 'mano?"He said it with a grin.

"Yeah, I've only almost been murdered a couple of times," Maya replied with an easy shrug, "I was pretty sore about it though." She shrugged, not exactly eager to go too much further down this path of conversation. She took another sip of her soda. From what she had gathered Iann wasn't a big fan of small talk for it's own sake, so she didn't want to ask him something just for the sake of it. She was about to ask if the Inn was having any events for Pride, out of genuine curiosity. But then Miguel appeared before she had a chance.

Dressed for the block party Alessa'd walked all the way there before she spotted the sheriff and turned 180 degrees and walked directly away. She was NOT risking her job just to go to a party. She walked or a while before coming to the town square where there were she headed for a baked goods stall. She stands on her toes to see around the people already there wondering how bakes goods could lead to the trailed off conversation of murder.

"Oh - looks like you got another customer, watch out this guy is very particular about heart-health so hide your croissants," Iann said, when Miguel popped up beside them. Iann was grinning though, teasing his younger brother. Another young woman stepped curiously towards the pastry display though, an actual legit customer (he didn't consider Miguel legit, he was just Miguel) and Iann helpfully said to her, "I recommend the zucchini bread. She's handing out free samples, so you could try it if you want."

Miguel flashed his grin at Maya then. "Ooh, I want free samples. And I'll buy a croissant because they're delicious and I'm not particular about heart health, nope, nu-uh, not me." He wanted to support the other witch in her business, sometimes it was hard to integrate magic with your job - but Maya had found a way to blend the things she liked, and Miguel thought it was interesting. It was also tasty.

"Unfortunately, Iann bought the last of the zucchini bread. I went for variety over quantity. But I can hook you up with a croissant," Maya said and handed one over on a napkin. She told him the price as well. "And you should probably let the person behind you through too," she added, gesturing to the person peeking over their shoulders.

Essie simply raises a hand in the air to be noticed from behind the two men. Responding to the first with a quick "I'm in it for something sweet actually, you got a recommendation for that sort of thing?" sharing her question with the woman behind the stall counter with a smile she hoped could be seen.

"I do not, but the baker will! She's that one right over there -" Iann said, pointing at Maya.

Maya laughed, "See, I'd recommend just about anything, but I did make all of it and I am trying to raise money here. So not sure I can be trusted." She sat up a little straighter, "What kind of stuff do you usually like?"

Miguel took his croissant and stepped aside so the next person could go, sticking his tongue out as his brother as he went. It was a good croissant, warm and fluffy and flaky. Miguel mentally kicked himself for not having Maya add chocolate to it. That would have been ideal.

Iann reached behind Maya and retrieved her bread knife. He flopped the half-loaf of zucchini bread on a wood counter space and carved off a slice, handing it to Miguel. "Here, try this now."

Alessa gaining full access to the spread on the table Alessa looks on with eyes like saucers at the variety. "Anything with fruit, anything with chocolate." she tells the other excitedly. "And I'll take three."

Maya smiled to see the newcomer's eyes light up when she looked at the table. To her that was at least half the point of baking anything to make people happy. "I've got raspberry sweet swirls that'll literally make you feel like dancing, Linzer cookies with huckleberry jam and no magic and then blueberry ice cream in the cooler that'll make you feel like you're seventeen again as far as fruit and well, what's in front of you as far as chocolate," she explained.

"Oh that reminds me, there's a fruit stall over there with local strawberries," Iann said, when the young woman mentioned fruit. "Apparently the strawberries are from this vampire's secret garden of enchanted heritage-strain berries. I want to try them. Apparently they taste like 'real' strawberries - you know, how they used to taste before mass production."

Miguel happily ate the bread and was surprised by the flavor. It did taste a bit like zucchini, but not in the way he had expected. He watched the person who had been behind him stare hungrily at all the confections Maya had made, he could related. He wanted to try a bit of everything. But then Iann was bringing up strawberries and... "¿Las fresas de herencia? ¿No mames?" He wanted to get his hands on those strawberries. "We gotta try that 'mano."

Alessa making a decision was tough but she made a quick one before her attention was torn reluctantly away from the confections towards a fruit stall. Staring off at the fruit stall she ordered "Three swirls if you have 'em and some of that ice cream maybe?" squinting across the way she asks "Is the 'real' taste supposed to be better or worse?" glancing back over her shoulder at the men and then over to the woman once again with a smile "Oh sorry, i would like them please." polite, very comically belated but still polite.

Maya gave a nod, "Sounds good." She started packing up the swirls and scooping out the ice cream while Iann and Miguel talked about strawberries. Like them she was curious what these pre-industrial ag strawberries might taste like. However Maya was stuck at the stall. Perhaps she could convince one of them to bring her back some. She shook her head at the young woman's apology. "Don't worry about it," Maya said before telling her the price of everything.

"Hell yeah," Iann grinned in pleasure, as if he and Miguel had just agreed to do something totally wild and spontaneous like slam back a bottle of tequila and then surf down a waterfall. But, well. Sometimes one just wanted to be wildly enthusiastic about strawberries. "If I could only eat one fruit for the rest of my life? It'd be berries," he proclaimed to Miguel, and then looked down at the piping voice of the small woman. "I think real taste should taste better. Like an actual strawberry taste which...who knows if any of us have ever tried." Iann tapped his fingers together in an 'oooh hoo hoo hoo' way. But before heading to the fruit stall, he said to the younger woman - "Who are you anyway? I haven't seen you around town, but then you are very small." (Iann was secretly pleased that he managed to work a Treebeard quote into his daily conversation).

"Woah woah woah!" Miguel held up his hand to stop his brother. "You can't say all berries that's way more than one fruit. I would choose mangoes, and if you can choose all berries then I choose all mangoes like South American mangoes plus Asian mangoes. That's my fruit." Miguel didn't think it would taste that good, but he wasn't going to tell Iann that. Mostly he just expected it to be less sweet. He looked over the young lady and smiled, he wanted to know who she was too.

"Okay maybe not..." Iann squinted, trying to think of a berry he'd reject. But he was coming up blank. "Okay you get all the mangoes, I'll get all the berries. Lopez can have all the boring fruit like citrus." Iann gave a mean laugh, but then shook his head ruefully. "No, no. I can't be mean to citrus, it's a damn good family. Not as good as berries, but."

Digging in her pockets for the correct change Alessa smiled brightly at the woman and thanked her "I can't wait to try it." she told her genuinely. Now she turned around fully to the two men. "Essie Caird." she introduced. "I'm particularly new to town you could say." she emphasised with a small flourish of her hands, holding out two of the swirls to the men. "And I find the best way to meet people is to buy them food, am I correct? And I can already tell they're delicious." she compliments the woman flashing her a bright smile also.

This Essie was certainly chipper and bright, and knew all the right things to say. Iann wouldn't eat the proffered pastry because he knew it would make him feel like dancing (although he hoped Miguel didn't know that, because it would be funny) but he took it anyway as a sign of good faith. "Well that's certainly a nice way to meet people. I guess I should extend the same courtesy. Here --" Iann extracted another slice off the zucchini bread, and offered it to Essie. "Right back atcha, Essie Caird. I promise my hands are clean. Just a little jammy from the swirl."

Offered bread in return Alessa takes it and smiles. "Thank you, can I have your name too or is it a one way thing?" She hadn't expected anything in return but she stood by her opinion that food shared was the best way to get on a persons good side. She takes a bite herself before offering the bread to her open purse, where her familiar poked his head out and took a nibble. She only allowed him one single small bite before she pulled it away.

"Oh shit where are my manners. I'm Iann, Iann Cardero. I run an Inn, over in Grieselle," he replied, and was about to offer his hand to shake, but then got distracted by the little head that poked out of Essie's purse. "Holy shit, is that a rat?" He didn't seem too alarmed, just curious - because the creature had to be a familiar of some sort. It looked intelligent. But was it a fairy familiar, or a witch familiar?

"And I'm Miguel... Reyes Ojeda," he awkwardly added his last names as Iann said his own. "It's a ferret," Miguel sounded excited, but he held it in so not to make the familiar feel awkward. Where was his head? He hadn't even shaken hands with Essie yet. "Hello to you too, little fella."

Faye wandered through the crowd, stopping here and there to talk to people she knew. She wasn't doing anything in particular, just mingling for the moment and taking in the atmosphere of the day. This was always a fun event, and it made Faye happy to see so many other people being happy. Spotting a few familiar faces, Faye made her way over with a small wave of greeting. "Am I the only one day drinkin'?" she grinned, taking a sip of her drink.

"What're you drinking, mamacita?" Iann asked, watching as Faye sauntered over. "You look like you're soaking up the festivities."

Alessa tried not to be offended by the rat comment, she reacts very calmly shaking her head, Finn on the other hand poked his head further out of her purse and fixes his beady eyes on Iann. When the other man introduces himself and identified correctly the species of her familiar she introduces the men to him "This is Finn." She grows quiet as a woman she doesn't know makes her way over, she doesn't want to be in their way at all so takes a step backwards to make room in front of the stall.

"Not sure," Faye said to Iann as she peered into her glass. "Some fairy was passin' 'em out over there." She nodded towards a vendors stall across the way. "Tastes like cherries." Noticing the unfamiliar woman, Faye waved. "Hey there. I'm Faye. Don't mind me," she smiled.

"Maya," Maya said by way of introducing herself, "And hello Finn." She knew better than to not treat a fairy's familiar like anything less than a full sentient being. She smiled at Faye's approach and replied, "I mean, if you bring me one I'll day drink with you."

"Give me a taste," Iann said, because he suddenly wanted to try everything here. He always had an appetite, but communal food was way more enjoyable. "Oh! A ferret," Iann said, and wasn't surprised at the creature's glare. That unimpressed look certainly confirmed to Iann that the ferret was no witch familiar. "Finn, the...fairy familiar, I'm guessing. Pleased to meet you, Finn," Iann gave the familiar a nod. He grinned at Essie. "Which makes you a fairy!"

Faye gave the little familiar a nod of hello as she let Iann have her drink. "Like mother like daughter," Faye grinned over at Maya. "Hang on..." She jogged back over to the fairy with the tray of drinks and came back with one for Maya and one for Iann if he liked the sample of hers. If not, Faye would just add it to her glass. "Here ya go." She handed Maya the cup. "I"m sorry I didn't catch your name," the witch said to the fairy with the ferret familiar.

Alessa raises a hand at each woman as they introduce themselves to her, she repeats her own introduction back when Faye returns from fetching more drink. "I'm Essie and this is Finn." she bounces her purse much to Finns chagrin. "Yeah, makes me a fairy." she confirms for Iann. "You're all very familiar with each other I don't mean to butt in or anything."

Iann took the wine, and handed it to Alessa. "Here - I hope you're legal enough to drink. If not then who cares. I actually gotta butt out - I suddenly remembered why I even had to emerge from Stonefruit in the first place. I'll be back later, hm? I can't forget the strawberries." He gave Alessa a nod and then gave Maya and Faye a wave of goodbye, at least for now.

"Nice to meet you Essie." Faye smiled at the bouncing ferret. "And you ain't botherin' nobody, honey. You're more than welcome to hang out. I like meetin' new people, and somethin' tells me you're new to town?"

"Nice to meet you too." Alessa responds waving Iann a goodbye as he heads out, adopting his glass as her own easily. "Very very new in town." she confirms. "Still waiting to see if I'm getting a job sort of new."

"Oh yeah? Where're you applyin' to?" Faye asked.

Essie shoots both women a little bit of an embarrassed glance, brushing hair behind her ear "Well I've only ever been a receptionist before so I started with those kinds of jobs. I've only had one interview so far. The sheriffs department. I think it went well but honestly it was unlike any interview I've ever done."

Maya gave Iann a wave as he headed out. She felt perfectly content to sip her fresh drink while Faye asked Essie about her being new in town. "Unlike any interview how?" she had to ask though.

"And I've only ever really been a bartender," Faye told Essie, giving her a smile. "Until I got here and they decided that I was qualified to be a teacher. Who knew?" she grinned. "

"Well the sheriff, seems very nice but much more lax than I'm used to. Said it clearly that it was more of a chat than anything, I didn't know quite what to do with it." Alessa admits to Maya. A lighter curious expression is aimed for Faye "What do you teach?"

Maya relaxed back into her chair almost immediately. Despite her trust in the current Sheriff's department, she'd heard too many stories to not ask about a statement like that. "Hopefully that's a good sign. I think they just promoted their receptionist, so they're probably in need," she said.

"Defense Against Dark Magic mostly," Faye said as she sipped her drink. "Though they're thinkin' of changin' the name to 'Defense Against Misused Magic.' To be more politically correct." Faye huffed. "As if I need people runnin' around make 'DAMM class' jokes."

"yeah hopefully, seemed like a really good job, I'd really like to work there but I guess it depends if my personality was alright. Got a little tense about it all at the time. But hey we'll see right?" Essie snorts at the abbreviation "That's a road to certain destruction that name change is."

"It definitely is," Faye said. "Hopefully they just leave it like it is."

A nudge from Finn leads Alessa to look at her watch and realize she had another interview in an hour. "Speaking of interviews I'd better go get ready for my next one. It was really nice to meet you both, I hope to see you around." and with a small wave she's jogging off quickly through the crowd.

When Ephram got back to the atronach block party, it was just in time for Danny to hand Addie back to him, making some sort of excuse about having to go that was so mired in Aussie-isms that Ephram only barely grasped what he was saying. But the fairy was making rapid tracks when Cassie rejoined them, and Ephram said, "Uh ... he had to go ... throw some shrimp on the barbie? I really got no idea what he was sayin'." Ephram indicated his now blueberry-coloured hair, saying, "I got this done while Danny was takin' care of Addie, ain't it neat?" He shifted the child from one arm to the other so that she could accept one of the huge gumballs from a passing ride attendant, saying, "Is there somethang awkward between you and Danny? He seemed mighty het up bout it. The other place, I mean."

Cassie blinked a little surprised, "Danny was looking after her?" It wasn't somethig she'd ever ask of the fairy anyways. They weren't overly close here anyways. But Addie looked perfectly content, especially since Ephram helped her get one of the large gumballs she was so keen on. "I like the blue-" She smiled slightly, "By the way," But the pull of her lips faltered when Ephram asked about Danny's mood. Cassie wasn't exactly surprised but...she'd only been gone for a few minutes. She ran a hand through her hair, "We might have been...um-" Cassie cleared her throat, "Comfortable with one another. And it's hard. Cause it's different here." She sighed heavily, "That's all."

Ephram looked sympathetic. "Awww, I'm sorry, Cassie," he said sincerely. "Reckon I got off lucky, all things considered -- no lasting awkwardness or memories of havin' killed people or been killed. It must be hard for you two, gettin' close there but not here. Memories and emotions that cain't quite be reconciled." Although Danny seemed to be taking it harder and on more of a personal level than Cassie, which was to be expected. The fairy was surprisingly fragile when it came to his emotions. "Come to think of it I did sorter leave 'im no choice when it came to lookin' after Addie for a few minutes, whoops. But she's a lil trooper, ain't you, darlin?" Addie was more concerned with her big yellow gumball than anything else, trying to figure out how to eat it when it was beach-ball sized. Ephram clucked and took her hand in his, pressing her fingers against the candy. "Jes think about makin' a lil hole in it," he urged the baby witch. "You can do that. I hear you's all sorts've talented when it comes to magic."

Cassie nodded slowly in agreement with Ephram. There wasn't really a more simple way to put it, and clearly with Danny still sore, no proper way to fix it either. "Yeah well," Cassie shrugged, "What can you do? I'm just trying to keep moving forward is all." She was glad when the attention was shifted back to Addie and watched with raised brows as Ephram tried to show the toddler how to eat her oversized treat. "I don't think a hole-" Cassie began, but was cut short when the gumball exploded into several pieces, some of the yellow chunks hitting those walking past. Cassie ducked slightly, with a cringe on her face but Addie broke into squeals of laughter, clapping her hands, "Boom, boom!" Before she reached for one of the gumball shards and stuck it into her mouth. Cassie reached out slightly, "Make sure she doesn't swallow that. Oh geez."

Ephram urged, "Chew chew chew!" to Addie, snagging a shard of gumball and shoving it in his own mouth to demonstrate with big exaggerated motions. "It's gum! You gotta -- hey, this stuff's really good, Cassie, you gotta try it." He laughed and blew a bubble, the gum swirling into different shades of yellow as Addie squealed gummily in delight.

Cassie watched in amusment as Ephram and Addie enjoyed the colorful, slightly enchanted bubblegum. At insistance, she took a chunk of the gumball, but slipped it into her pocket for later. "I'll chew it in a bit. There's gotta be some snacks with more substance we can try."

Ephram nodded enthusiastically. "The Green Zone! I skipped over it so's I could get my hair done in Blue, but there was tons of food there." He chewed his wad of gum to one side of his mouth like a cow, linking his free arm in Cassie's and steering her forth from Yellow to the next zone. Almost immediately, the air was flooded with all sorts of savoury scents, the Green Zone enchanted to be bigger once inside than its actual physical footprint and to contain the foodie aromas. Ephram immediately bought an ice cream bar covered in rainbow-coloured crunchy bits, explaining as he devoured half of it, "--appetizer."

Cassie followed Ephram as he guided her to the correct area with all the food stalls. The smells almost instantly got Cassie salivating, and when Ephram stopped to grab a rainbow popsicle she bent slightly, and fished the chewed gum out of Addie's mouth before tossing it in a nearby trash can. Before the toddler could put up much of a fuss, Cassie purchased a small cup of rainbow softserve and handed it over. She got a small spoon for the girl, but Addie went into the icecream hands first. "Sorry." Cassie sighed, taking a step back to grab handfuls of napkins. Her brows raised when she noticed another stall and pointed, "Is that chocolate dipped cheesecake?!"

Ephram only laughed at Addie's dive right into her softserve. "Don't even worry bout it," he assured Cassie. "Back home in Apple Fall I used to look after my cousin Lilybee's twins when they was just startin' to eat solid food and they'd insist on feedin' each other. Only neither of em was a dab hand with utensils so they'd use their hands and then when they got frustrated with that they'd jes sorter ... dump food on each other and lick it off." They'd reached the cheesecake stall by that point, which turned out to also serve salty flavours, so Ephram asked for chocolate-dipped for Cassie and blue cheese and pear for himself. "Ain't I fancy?" he boasted with a grin. "Freddie's opened up my palate from what all I grew up with. Although I still do eat pimento cheese whenever I get the chance, don't get me wrong."

"Dumping food?" Cassie repeated a little wearily, "Are you telling me that's what I have to look forward to with two?" She was contented though when she received her cheescake slice, and took a hefty bite carefully chewing the cold treat as she watched Ephram pick out his second snack. "Well, I'll say you surprised me." She commented on his expanded palette. "If you like that, have Freddie make you try a baked cranberry and brie log sometime." She grinned at the memory of the appetizer, "It's delicious."

"Cranberry and brie, will do. It sure sounds good. When we was makin' them cranberry and popcorn strands to decorate the tree at Christmas, Freddie got extra because he knew I'd eat em before they even made it up." Ephram chortled at the memory, then said, "Might not work that way with one older and one littler! Twins are weird, we all know that. Oh, shoot, Cassie--" Ephram stared at her with rounded eyes, the blue vivid under his blue hair and against the red arrow-stripe down the side of his face, "--there ain't no chance you're havin' twins, is there?"

His words were scandalized but from his tone it was obvious that Ephram thought this notion utterly amazing. "I mean I know we talked about you havin' multiple babies because of possible multiple fathers but I don't mean that this time I just mean normal twins! Well as normal as twins can be, since they ain't normal, they got them twin-languages and all."

Cassie looked at Ephram a little strange due to his fallen expression. She didn't know what was running through his mind exactly, but she didn't get why men always seemed to want more. "Lilo would like it I'm sure." She mentioned, her voice a little flat and dry, "But I'd need more than just a bigger pram. Try extra arms and a bigger house. To start with." The corner of her mouth upturned, showing Ephram she didn't take it too much to heart. She got a corndog snack along side Ephram, breaking off a few pieces for Addie. Both mother and daughter made a slight face, the mineral enhancements weren't something they were a fan of. When Ephram mentioned Iann though, Cassie pouted her lip slightly in thought, "What? Mmm...I think he mentioned Elena a while ago. I didn't realize she was still there, or that he invited a nymph after moving out of Stonefruit." It was slightly surprising, given what she knew about him and Ciara. "What? Are you jealous?" She laughed suddenly.

"All's I'm prepared to offer is the pram, woman." Ephram grinned, also intending to keep it light. He held out his hand for the rest of Cassie's ... cornrock? rockdog? ... thing, since he liked them fine. "Jealous? Naw, I ain't jealous. My livin' arrangements suit me right down to the ground, thank you, and neither Freddie nor Oliver's super keen on havin' extended house guests. Hell, I totted my own Daddy out when he was in town and asked to stay, heh, so I reckon I'm the same." He raised his eyebrows as he finished the last of the food and threw away the sticks, looking around for the next enticing item.

"Your dad was in town?" Cassie inquired. It was really the only thing that stuck out to her, but the news of Ephram kicking him to the curb, or just short of it seemed well fitted to, from the little she knew. She looked around with Eprham for their next tasting spot and started to head towards a cart that made fresh crepes. "Well, that mansion has tons of room. But I get it, wanting your own space. I'll just make sure the babysitting isn't extended." She snickered, "Although, I have to say Freddie is being very sweet about it."

"It was a while back! He wasn't here long, which is to be expected. The man's slicker'n an otter givin' birth in a vat of olive oil." Ephram perked up at the sight of crepes, requesting one filled with spinach and cheese, one with lemon and sugar, and one with ffluvofruit paste which the crepemaker assured him tasted like currant jelly. "Extended babysitting's so different though! You don't gotta make conversation and deal with any emotionally taxing stuff or worry bout whether or not having real loud graphic sex is gonna be an issue. Not that any of that sex is gonna take place near the baby, of course," he hastened to add with a shake of his head, telling Addie, "same for if you come over with your brother. You don't even know what that is and we aim to keep it that way."

Addie wanted her mother again, though, so Ephram set the little girl down on her feet so he could collect the crepes. "Freddie's being incredible. I know when he decided on this, he was doin' it for me, but I think he's really gettin' into it now, the idea of bein' uncles to lil Albie. I mean if nothin' else, it gives him the chance to shop for baby things, and Lord knows baby things are adorable."

"What did he want though?" Cassie asked. Parents like Ephram's father didn't just show up for a friendly hello. At the crepe stand Cassie ordered nutella and strawberries and cream filled crepes. Her sweet tooth had yet to be satisfied. She chuckled at Ephram's view on babysitting, "I suppose some of that's true." She was glad Ephram caught and corrected his own slightly questionable adult topics, though really he was safe. Addie didn't know anything, the only worry Cassie had was she might parrot it at the worst possible moment. "Baby stuff is the best to shop for." She agreed with a grin. "I'm glad you're all getting some fun out of it."

Ephram shrugged. "Harlan? He had some cockamamie story bout business in town, but I reckon he got antsy that Freddie rumbled him. I married a con man same as my Momma did, heh, only mine's reformed." He folded his lemon sugar crepe up and mowed it down in two bites with a satisfied hum. "Everthang's so tiny! And cute! And it gives Freddie the chance to--" Ephram stopped himself, and when he continued his voice was much more gentle. "His mom left him when he was very little, and his dad's sort've a D-I-C-K. Might be doin' him some good to spend time thinkin' on what might make a sweet lil' baby boy happy."

Cassie never thought of Ephram marrying Freddie as a mirror of his father, but of course Ephram would know better than anyone. "Well, as long as he didn't cause any trouble." She watched how Ephram ate his crepe without any utensils and attempted the same folding. Except it took her a few more bites, and the last one once again went down to Addie who was watching it intensely. Cassie smiled a bit sadly at the news of Freddie's parents. "It seems like most fathers are D-I-C-K's." She muttered, "I'm glad he's getting the chance. And I'm super lucky our tastes sort of align." Cassie smirked, "When it comes to fashion and decor anyways."

Ephram polished off most of his cheese and spinach crepe, saving the last morsel for Addie as well. "You two really do have the same tastes in baby stuff, it's sorter uncanny," he chuckled. "I mean, you don't really have the same dress sense -- he's more glitzy -- but I suppose dressing rooms ain't the same as dressing your body, huh?"

Cassie nodded, "No that's fair. I forgot he has a mansion to decorate." Cassie laughed, watching as Addie happily took the pieces of crepe from the adults and took nibbles back and forth from savory to sweet. "Yum, yum!" Cassie folded her arms for a moment on her belly, "But he does have good taste in more traditional pieces too. That's all I meant."

Ephram sampled his ffluvofruit paste crepe, opening and closing his mouth a few times to try and figure out if he liked it or not. Addie clamoured for some so he pinched off a bit for her, in case she didn't care for it, and said, "His major concern was if Albie would need a bunch'a big brightly coloured plastic things, heh. But tell you the truth, I ain't so much for those neither. I like baby stuff what's handmade and looks like your family could of made it for you, not the latest Duplo toys." Ephram grinned, scrunching his nose. "One of the very few things I'm a snob about."  

"Ah right, well the wood sheep should have been a sign of that." Cassie spoke, watching Addie hesitantly try Ephram's second crepe with him before tossing it on the ground and sticking out her tongue. "So that's a no then?" Cassie asked, bending down to discard the food properly, "No!" Addie repeated. "You don't think Albie is too close to Addie hmm?" Cassie inquired, since Ephram and Freddie clearly favored that nickname and made it known, "I just didn't want to confuse them down the line. You know, the similarity really was not on purpose." She grinned somewat guilty.

Ephram made a face. "Naaaaaw," he said. "Plenty of kids have similar names when their folks wanna have em in like, a theme or a matched set or whatever. Besides, if we's the only ones callin' him Albie, he'll get used to bein' somethang else at home, right? You'ns gonna call him Albert proper? Or Mateo? I like Mateo, it sounds like a smart kid name."

Cassie let out a loud laugh, "Matched set? Oh my god..." Not that Cassie doubted the idea at all. She shrugged, "I was thinking Bertie. But Albie is good too. It really just depends what seems to fit him best. Albert is for when he is in trouble. You know how that is." Her smile still lingered as she pulled Addie a little bit closer and wiped some of the food and crepe leftover from her mouth. "And Albert doesn't sound smart? What about Einstein? Or Prince Albert." She squinted playfully at Ephram then, "You're funny."

"Bertie at home and Albie with his uncles! I used to get my full complete includin' the middle name called when I was in trouble seein' as I din't have no shorter version of my name. Only Harlan called me Effie now and again but it wasn't ... he wasn't meaning it in a nice way, really." Ephram rolled his eyes and unconsciously touched his floofy blue hair, the feathers on his shoulders. "Anyhow. Einstein I'll give you, but Prince Albert? I'm fair sure most folks think of the genital piercing when they hear that, not no actual prince." He grinned at Cassie's teasing comment. "I'm funny 'cause Ephram sounds like a funny kid name."

"I just hope he doesn't have an identity crisis at a year old." Cassie commented, "My parents just liked calling me by full name all proper like. Big surprise right?" She rolled her eyes and scoffed, "Thanks Ephram. For that. I think when looking at a baby you might be the only one who'll think of a genital piercing." Her gaze was blunt and irritated, "Really." She flicked one of the feathers on his shoulders, "I'd say your funny past the name. But at least it makes you unique."

"Listen, if Southern folks can be fine havin' roundabout five separate names each, Albie's gonna rock the double name with no problems." Ephram laughed at Cassie's confession, saying, "Considering I call you Miss Germaine in my head half the time? Nope, no surprise." He looked innocent and wounded, though, when she scolded him about mentioning piercing. "What? It ain't my fault nobody knows no more bout the human prince and just know the piercing now! I din't make it up!"

"Miss Germaine is too formal." Cassie said, fiegning a sort of shock that Ephram continued to use the title. In reality, he still made up names for her all the time. "What was the last thing you called me? Miss Britchypants or something?" As Ephram tried to defend his reasoning though, she wasn't exactly convinced. "You can't say nobody knows about the proper Prince Albert. He was a Queen Consort of England, supported sciences and arts during the 1800s. You're telling me Freddie never rambles off about royalty?" Cassie would find that even harder to believe.

"Miss Germaine is exactly formal enough for the likes of you." When Cassie tried to remember the last thing he'd called her, Ephram crowed and said, "Missy Britches! For when you's being insufferably hoity-toity, like right now." He looked shocked at Cassie's protests concerning the dignity and reputations of royalty, putting one hand to his chest. "Are you kidding? Freddie's English! Don't nobody give less of a shit about British monarchs and the throne than English folks. He'd probly say that havin' a--" Ephram lowered his voice so Addie couldn't hear, "--dick piercing named after him is a bigger honour than this ol' Prince Albert deserved."

"Whatever." Cassie waved off Ephram's nickname again trying to fight back her amused little grin. She looked at him exasperated then though, placing a hand on her hip, "I know Freddie is English." Her expression pulled into uncertainty when Ephram insisted the fairy wouldn't give two figs about monarchs. Sure, he knew Freddie better but it still just seemed wrong. Maybe if Freddie was a disgruntled peasant he wouldn't care, but he clearly had come from some sort of class distinction. She wondered if this was just her alternate reality brain fogging in and shook her head to try and clear it away. "Either way. He'd still know who Prince Albert was." Cassie said, sticking her tongue out stubbornly.

Ephram responded by raising his nose loftily. "And I'm tellin' you -- he'd know, but he'd have as much reverence for Prince Albert as he does for Colonel Mustard." He considered for a moment. "Maybe less. He knows I really like eating mustard. Right out of the bottle sometimes."

Cassie looked at Ephram incredulous, trying not to break into giggles at him, "What Colonel Mustard? That's a board game character!" Her brow creased for a moment, "Do you mean Colonel Custard?" She made another face at the witch's proclomation towards the yellow condiment, "Yeah, I remember. Definetly worse than how you used to go through peanut butter." She teased lightly.

Ephram looked incredulous now. "Colonel Custard? Girl, are you talkin' bout General Custer?" He guffawed heartily, slapping his knee. "Man, we's at all sorts of cross-purposes now. I did mean the character from Clue! That's my point, Freddie's got just about as much respect for him as for real life Prince Albert! Hell, if /I/ got a Prince Albert, he'd be waaaaay more invested in bending knee to that." Ephram smirked for a while, then snickered at Cassie's remembering his eating habits. "Only on account of I'd eat peanut butter out of the house too," he said. "So it seemed like I wasn't havin' as much of it. But you din't know the extent of my peanut butter eating habits, Cassie." Ephram shook his head sadly. "I had a problem."

"Colonel Custard is a better name." Cassie said, though at the correction she couldn't help but laugh at herself underneath her own defense. "He was the worst anyways, so who cares. Just don't tell my son he's named aftera genital piercing. He isn't." She looked at Ephram seriosly then, since he seemed to take peanut butter consumption so grimly, "Does Freddie know the extent of the problem? I can't beleive he introduces you to delicacies like blue cheese and pears and you still eat condiments and spreads right out of the jar." She smiled some, "The only thing that should be allowed with is chocolate. Or nutella." Cassie couldn't rightly tease Ephram without bringing up a few of her own discretions.

"I cain't argue with you there. I'd wanna be called Colonel Custard, for sure." Ephram laughed at Cassie's wholesale dismissal of Custer as being a shitheel, promising, "My lips are sealed on the subject of exciting dong piercings, you have my word. Lil Albie's gonna be told that you named him after the wide wingspan of the mighty albatross. Or this weird English kids' cartoon show where the main boy was named Albie. Not a single body modification in sight." When she moved onto the very serious matter of the peanut butter, though, Ephram matched her tone.

"Oh, he knows. Why d'you think he tries to distract me with stuff like moraba havij and rillettes and guava cheese? Although I reckon there's two reasons he hasn't cracked down directly on peanut butter. One, it keeps me from eating pimento cheese. And two, I like makin' fluffernutters and he's secretly a fiend for marshmallow fluff." Ephram gave a firm nod, tapping the side of his nose. "And you, Missy Britches, are a public menace when it comes to nutella. If I knew you liked it so much I would of eaten a lot more of it when we was livin' together." The wolfish grin he gave Cassie following this statement left no confusion as to what sort of salacious activities he was hinting at.

Cassie frowned, "What weird English kid's show?" She looked on impressed though as Ephram rattled off the names of food that she didn't recognize by title alone. "At least he's educating you." Cassie pointed out the bright side light heartedly to him, giving him a nudge on his shoulder. "Oh, ho, ho. Your loss Ephram Pettaline. But I think you know to pay closer attention to your partners now." She laughed, rolling her eyes and biting the inside of her cheek at Ephram's glinting smile.

#cassiegermaine #thisdaringdanny #ianncardero #mayaparker #sbs pride 2019

[sanctuaryforalluniverses]

To: Peter Lenkov, Re: Steve and Danny, “Hawaii 5-0” season 9

So we’re coming to the end of another season of “Hawaii 5-0,” the TV show that still refuses to accept the fact that it created one of the greatest love stories on television apparently by accident. I will give you the benefit of the doubt and tell myself that CBS won’t let you finally let Steve and Danny be together the way they should be, but even if that’s true there are some more practical things we have to address.

Namely, the fact that you people have apparently once AGAIN forgotten how to write Steve and Danny. Yes, we’re all mourning the lack of Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim, but I promise you that part of the reason your ratings dropped AGAIN in season 8 (after rising in season 7, a year with some of the most excellent Steve and Danny writing we’ve seen in some time) is that you’re fumbling the reason that the majority of people still watch your show. Since I know I can’t trust any of you to do the right thing and acknowledge the world as it truly should be, here are some tips to help recover those fans you’ve lost over the current season.

1) Stop throwing around the absurd, heavy-handed Rachel/Danny hints

Every time you make even the vague suggestion that Rachel and Danny should get back together, or there’s still potential for them, the entire audience cringes. You’ve established repeatedly that the two are toxic together, and that was before you had her do the worst possible thing anyone could do to Danny short of killing someone he loved (she kept his son from him, for YEARS, by not telling him he was his father. Danny holds fatherhood SACRED, and the fact that he wasn’t there for those years of Charlie’s probably still causes him pain). They are so unhealthy it’s painful to watch, and Danny at least seems to understand that. For all our sakes, stop trying to throw her at him.

2) For the love of all that’s holy, put Lynn and Melissa out of their narrative misery

While I consider it a blessing that they haven’t even been mentioned in what feels like 500 years, there’s still always the terrifying possibility that you will shove a random mention of them into an episode and once again remind us of the absurd charade of Steve and Danny’s “dating” lives. They’ve dated these women for years, supposedly, and yet clearly have no more place in the boys’ lives than someone they’d been dating for a few weeks. The rare times they’re even mentioned, it’s solely a reference to dating or sex - never hanging out with the kids, or spending time with the rest of the team, or interacting with either Steve’s sister or anyone in Danny’s family.

That’s not a relationship, Lenkov. That’s you occasionally screaming at the audience that the boys really do have sex with women, really, you even have proof of it.

So, for the sake of everyone’s dignity, throw in a mention somewhere that both relationships have finally, mercifully ended. Mentioning how much sex they supposedly have (which, for the record, is a WEIRD WEIRD WIERD thing to supposedly be discussing between the two couples) does absolutely nothing to convince us of Steve and Danny’s heterosexuality. All it does is remind us of the embarrassing charades that sometimes happen when people continue to lie to themselves about their true feelings. If CBS really wants to pretend that Steve and Danny are NOT madly in love with each other, this is not something you want to be reminding us of.

3) If Catherine comes back, it must only be as a bro

I started out liking Catherine, I really did. But then the whole “I love you, but I love danger more” nonsense happened (and happened, and happened) and I was filled with the burning desire to punch her in the throat. I feel like some of the things they talked about in the last episode were progress back to the friendship I actually enjoyed seeing, and if you keep that up I’ll start actually watching the episodes where she pops back up instead of skipping them. Given the ratings for the last Catherine episode to crop up, I’m guessing a lot of other people were skipping them, too.

4) Either move forward with the restaurant plot or end it

I liked the idea at first, but with everything that’s gone wrong it’s getting ridiculous. It’s clear that the only reason Steve is doing it at all is because Danny wants to, and Danny’s obsessed with it in a way that completely transcends the original idea of a retirement fantasy. It’s clearly a strained, increasingly painful metaphor for the life the two desperately wish they could build with each other, with heavy sprinklings of Danny’s fear about Steve’s physical health and I assume a metric ton of repressed longing. Every second they’re in there I want to get them both into therapy, stat, and I am begging you on my hands and knees to either let the damn thing start going right or give it a quick, merciful death and let both them and us move on with our lives.

5) Stop with the unsubtle hints that Steve/Danny would never work

Speaking of the restaurant, if this is your way of trying to convince us that Steve and Danny would never work as a romantic couple, let it go. They basically ARE a romantic couple, minus the sex, and we see that every second they’re onscreen. And, if the “being romantically involved ruined our friendship” comment was meant to be another allusion to this, it’s not even relevant. Steve and Danny are FAR more emotionally entangled than mere friendship would account for (I’ve lived with my best friend for more than a decade, and hoo boy what Steve and Danny have is so many million miles past even the deepest friendship), and the only thing that ever seems to give them trouble is when they try to fight that. Someone who’s a friend may have an equal slot to a person’s romantic partner, but for both Steve and Danny it’s painfully clear that (with the exception of Danny’s kids) they will always be the most important person in the other person’s life. No one else comes anywhere near close, including the long-term girlfriends they’ve both supposedly dated for years. (Danny even won out over Catherine, when he convinced Steve to come home from Afghanistan instead of going after Catherine). That’s not friendship, Lenkov.

You said it yourself in Danny’s fantasy flash forwards - all they really want is to spend the rest of their lives by each other’s side, and they can’t be bothered to add anyone else but Danny’s two kids into the mix. Adding regular sex into that would make it MORE normal, not less, and it certainly wouldn’t make things more stressful. Hell, it would probably make them both relax.

6) Junior and Tani are not a heterosexual replacement for Steve and Danny

Listen, I like them both. I really do. I even like their rapport. But despite the painfully, painfully obvious signaling you’ve been trying to shove down our throats, their banter does not even BEGIN to be a replacement for proper Steve/Danny banter. I understand you’re worried about both the boys leaving the show, but denying us their interaction while they’re still there isn’t the way to fix that - it’s just chasing us away early. Start giving us our regular dose of Steve/Danny banter, free of pointless restaurant angst, and let Tani and Junior develop their own thing.

7) Accept the truth, even if you never say it

What all of this is leading to, basically, is stop trying to pretend that there is some magical trick you can pull that will convince all of us that Steve and Danny are just bros. There isn’t one.

The thing is, you’ll actually draw less attention to that fact if you just let them be themselves. Clearly someone over there is convinced the world’s gonna end if you let them kiss onscreen, but they were practically married during the whole of season 7 and no one screamed about it. In fact, as I mentioned earlier, the ratings for your show actually went UP during that season, both in general and in that all-precious 18-49 year old demo (which, I hear, is supposedly the sort of thing studios like show ratings to do). Let them go back to that, cut out the ridiculous mentions of the women they supposedly are or should be dating, and let them have plots about other things (like, you know, maybe making Grace an actual character again instead of Hawaii’s newest urban legend).

I promise you - you, the studio, and the audiences will all be happier for it.

#h50 #h50 season 8 #mcdanno #steve mcgarrett #danny williams