#although he is not seen by the public since he has school and ghost attacks happen around danny and not him

[kira-bitz]

Edd was already fed up with his situation. How had it come to this? Well, the events have not happened long ago, they were still fresh in his memory.

And it was that his parents didn't saw with good eyes that, as he grew up, Edd developed a greater interest in cartoons and comics. Even traditional arts like painting and sculpture were alternatives they were willing to accept for their oldest son, but comics? Animations? He wasn't even talented enough to stand out from the crowd and have a promising future. This is how, when Edd mentioned his intention to study animation after finishing his studies at school, his father didn't hesitate to give him an ultimatum:

- Either you choose a traditional career as how it has to be, or you finance them by your own.

Edd already saw that answer coming, so he wasn't discouraged by his father's words. In a way he understood his fear, but that wasn't going to stop him, he would prove to them that he could fulfill his dream with or without their help. He had already planned what to do in advance, because due to the great income of money from his family, he knew that the loan or grant options wouldn't allow him to cover much of the cost of his studies if he continued living with them, so he was already focused in finding a part-time job. On the other hand, his friends Matt and Tom told him about their intentions to share a flat, in order to live in a more central place. Nothing could go wrong.

But there he was a year later, exhausted from the fifth merchandise landing of the night at the supermarket. Too tired to get home and get on with his college projects, he just wanted a shower and sleep. Wasn't there another type of work that drained less of his energy? A job that didn't take up so many hours of his day?

This is how Edd began to investigate in different places, increasingly corrupt sites, until in one of them reached at his ears the information of a certain business that was done in a night pool club, where in exchange for "requests" of clients a good sum of money was paid. Edd hesitated to try after seeing what kind of requests there were, but one in particular caught his eye.

“A guy on my campus constantly harasses me. I have denounced him repeatedly, but I haven't received a response from the authorities since he has not physically attacked me. I just want to give him the scare of his life so he can leave me alone. I'm scared."

Edd thought about it for a moment as he looked at the contact number attached to the application and the amount to be received for said service. He was tall, maybe not the most muscular boy, but he had knowledge of fights from his most rebellious school years. Plus, he had a pretty convincing dummy gun. Maybe... he could try.

When the day came, Edd took one last look at the photo of a blond young man to confirm that it was the same one he was watching casually walking down the sidewalk in front of him. He crossed the street while pulling on his hood and shoved the boy shorter than him into the alley, away from the public view. He grabbed him by the neck almost lifting him off the ground as the guy emitted little screams of terror:

- I know you, George Smith. I know where you live, your boring schedule, and that you were now on your way to see your friends Tyler and Henry at the place a few blocks from here. Too bad I'll have to spoil your fun.

Wide-eyed in sheer terror, the smaller guy watched as Edd took his gun from his back pocket, pulled the hammer and aimed it at George's head.

- If I see you near Miss Emily Brown again, I will come for you again, and I will not be alone.

Between screeches and gasps from George from the tight grip, Edd slammed his knee into his stomach, completely knocking the air out of his lungs. Finally, before George could catch his breath, and with one swift movement, Edd hit George over the head with his gun, knocking him out instantly.

The tallest one looked at the scene for a second and felt the adrenaline rush inside him. He has never felt something like this. It reminded him a bit of the school fights of yesteryear but with a much greater intensity. He felt control and uncontrolled at the same time. He liked it.

Slowly, Edd began to take more and more requests from people he called "in a situation of need for not acting of the law" sometimes allying with others like him when the service required more than one individual, and even going so far as to buy a real gun and learn how to use it to take less risk. With this new inflow of money, he could leave his other job since in less hours he was earning much more, he could pay for his studies without problem, improve his work team and pay the rent for his home.

And so he did, the day his new computer and drawing tablet arrived was the happiest day of his life. Tom and Matt were undoubtedly happy for him and when he finally had everything set up he called them over to see his latest model equipment. Edd didn't expect them to come into his room filming and celebrating the fruit of so much hard work. Between congratulations they took one last photo to keep for the memory.

- Thanks guys. You are the best.

Finally, already in the darkness of the night, an Edd could be seen without being able to sleep. Since, although in a couple of years he should no longer have the need to continue with this work, something had awakened in his being that said that what began as a need, was turning into an obsession.

---

Well here I brought the first promised backstory of the boys in the EW Lone Digger AU. I hope you like it! Please remember that this is fiction and that threatening people is bad, carrying weapons is bad, illegality is bad, etc asdfg.

And there is a small cameo of Ghost Friends since I will be part of the team of the first episode as character designer and that makes me happy 💖.

I take this opportunity to comment it is very likely that next week I will open commissions again, but I must adjust the prices and it will be probably 5 slots only for now.

Y para mi gente hispanohablante, abajo del Seguir Leyendo se encuentra la versión en español 😘

Edd ya estaba harto de su situación. ¿Cómo había llegado a esto? Bueno, los sucesos no habían ocurrido hace mucho, aún seguían frescos en su memoria.

Y es que sus padres no vieron con buenos ojos que, a medida que crecía, Edd desarrollaba un interés mayor por las caricaturas e historietas. Incluso artes tradicionales como pintura y escultura eran alternativas que estaban dispuestos a aceptar para su hijo mayor, pero ¿comics? ¿animaciones? Ni siquiera tenía tanto talento como para destacar del montón y tener un futuro prometedor. Así fue como, cuando Edd les mencionó sus intenciones de estudiar animación al terminar sus estudios en el colegio, su padre no dudó en darle un ultimátum:

- O eliges una carrera tradicional como corresponde, o la financias por tu cuenta.

Edd ya veía venir esa respuesta, por lo no se desanimó con las palabras de su padre. De cierta forma entendía su temor, pero eso no iba a detenerlo, les probaría que podía cumplir su sueño con o sin su ayuda. Ya tenía planificado qué hacer de antemano, pues debido a la gran entrada de dinero de su familia, sabía que las opciones de préstamos o subvenciones no le permitirían cubrir gran parte del valor de sus estudios si seguía viviendo con ellos, así que ya estaba mentalizado en encontrar un trabajo de medio tiempo. Por otra parte, sus amigos Matt y Tom le habían comentado sus intenciones de compartir un piso, para de esta forma vivir en un lugar más céntrico. Nada podría salir mal.

Pero ahí estaba un año después, agotado por del quinto desembarque de mercadería de la noche en el supermercado. Muy cansado como para llegar a casa y avanzar en sus proyectos universitarios, solo quería una ducha y dormir. ¿No existía otro tipo de trabajo que drenara menos de su energía? ¿Un trabajo que no ocupara tantas horas de su día?

Así fue como Edd se dedicó a investigar en diferentes sitios, sitios cada vez más corruptos, hasta que en uno de ellos llegó a sus oídos la información de cierto negocio que se hacía en un club de pool nocturno, donde a cambio de “solicitudes” de clientes se pagaba una buena suma de dinero. Edd, al ver el tipo de solicitudes que se habían dudó en intentarlo, pero uno en particular le llamó la atención.

“Un sujeto del campus me acosa constantemente. Lo he denunciado en reiteradas ocasiones, pero no he tenido respuesta de las autoridades ya que no me ha agredido físicamente. Solo quiero que le den el susto de su vida para que me deje en paz. Tengo miedo.”

Edd lo pensó un momento mientras observaba el número de contacto adjunto a la solicitud y el monto a recibir por dicho servicio. Él era grande, tal vez no el chico más musculoso, pero tenía conocimiento en peleas de su etapa escolar más rebelde. Además, tenía un arma falsa bastante convincente. Quizás… podría intentarlo.

Llegado el día, Edd miró por última vez la foto de un joven rubio para corroborar que era el mismo al que estaba observando caminar despreocupadamente por la vereda de en frente. Cruzó la calle mientras se colocaba la capucha y empujó al chico más pequeño que él al callejón, alejándolos de la vista pública. Lo sujetó del cuello casi levantándolo del suelo mientras el chico emitía pequeños chillidos de terror. Sacó su arma y apuntó a su cabeza:

- Te conozco, George Smith. Sé dónde vives, tu aburrido horario y que ahora te dirigías a ver a tus amigos Tyler y Henry en el local a unas cuadras de aquí. Lástima que tendré que arruinar tu diversión.

Con los ojos abiertos de puro terror, el chico más pequeño vió cómo Edd tomaba su arma del bolsillo trasero, jalaba el percutor y apuntaba a la cabeza de George.

- Si te vuelvo a ver cerca de la señorita Emily Brown vendré nuevamente por ti, y no estaré solo.

Entre chillidos y sonidos ahogados de George por el fuerte agarre, Edd le propinó un golpe seco con la rodilla a su estómago, sacándole completamente el aire de los pulmones. Finalmente, antes de que George pudiera recuperar el aliento, y con un rápido movimiento, Edd golpeó a George en la cabeza con su arma, noqueándolo instantáneamente.

El más alto miró por un segundo la escena y sintió cómo la adrenalina corría en su interior. Nunca había sentido algo así. Le recordó un poco a las peleas escolares de antaño pero con una intensidad mucho mayor. Sintió control y descontrol a la vez. Le gustó.

Poco a poco, Edd empezó a tomar cada vez más solicitudes de gente que él llamaba “en situación de necesidad por el no actuar de la ley”, a veces aliándose con otros como él cuando el servicio requería más de un individuo, e incluso llegando a comprar un arma real y aprender a usarla para correr menos riesgos. Con esta nueva entrada de dinero podría dejar su otro trabajo ya que en menos horas ganaba mucho más, podría pagar sus estudios sin problema, mejorar su equipo de trabajo y pagar la renta de su hogar.

Y así lo hizo, el día que llegó su nuevo computador y tableta gráfica fue el día más alegre de su vida. Tom y Matt estaban indudablemente felices por él y cuando por fin tuvo todo instalado los llamó para que vieran su equipamiento último modelo. Edd no esperaba que entraran a su habitación grabando y festejando el fruto de tanto trabajo duro. Entre felicitaciones tomaron una última foto para guardar para el recuerdo.

- Gracias chicos. Son los mejores.

Finalmente, ya en la oscuridad de la noche, se pudo ver a un Edd sin poder conciliar el sueño. Puesto que, aunque en un par de años ya no tendría la necesidad de seguir con este trabajo, algo había despertado en su ser que le decía que lo que empezó como una necesidad, se estaba convirtiendo en una obsesión.

#Eddsworld #EW Lone Digger AU #Eddsworld Edd #Eddsworld Tom #Eddsworld Matt #EW Edd #EW Tom #EW Matt #Ghost Friends #KiraBitzArt #Eddsworld KiraBitz #EW Lone Digger AU KiraBitz

[five-rivers]

Adoption (part 2)

A gift for @a-flower-lover!  This wound up being more along the lines of vignettes...  Little snapshots into Danny’s life after being adopted by Clockwork.  I hope that’s ok!  (PART 1)

.

Mr. Lancer had met Charles Worth before, albeit briefly. The man had fostered a number of Casper High students and with that responsibility came parent-teacher conferences. He had struck Mr. Lancer as being steady and reliable, if, perhaps, impersonal, despite his predilection for clocks and ominous announcements. A decent foster parent, if not... ideal.

Mr. Worth just didn't seem to connect with his fosters, although he certainly didn't neglect them. Then, too, were the persistent rumors that his home was haunted.

Alright. So, Mr. Lancer didn't think Charles Worth was really a children person. Oh, he was a good person! It took one to do well as a foster parent, but... yeah.

Which was why the scene in front of him surprised him so much. Not the who of it, but the what.

The who was Daniel Fenton and Charles Worth waiting outside the office. The what was smiling and having a conversation. True, Mr. Fenton's smile looked like it was pasted on over several layers of anxiety, but it was genuine.

"Mr. Worth, Mr. Fenton?" he said, tamping down his surprise. "Come on in."

"Hi," said Mr. Fenton, his voice hoarse.

Mr. Worth smiled and nodded, pushing him up with his cane.

But Mr. Fenton must have noticed the curious look Mr. Lancer was giving him. "I knew Cl- Uh. Mr. Worth before this." He winced and smiled widely to cover it up. "So, uh, make up work? Since I missed the past week?"

"Yes, well, circumstances being what they are," aka his parents trying to murder him in public, in broad daylight (and didn't that give Mr. Lancer a chill?), "your teachers have put together a few packets for you to look over this weekend. They should get you more or less up to speed with where your classes are. I'm also willing to stay after school, to help you with anything you've missed in my classes."

.

Jazz knocked on the door of the Worth house. She had been made aware, via various supernatural (she did not particularly appreciate writing suddenly appearing on her fogged-up bathroom mirror) and mundane (Danny did have her phone number) means, that the man known as Charles Worth was actually the ghost known as Clockwork.

How this had occurred was not entirely clear to her. She assumed ghost powers, specifically time travel, were involved somehow.

But, to be honest, that didn't really matter to her. It was secondary, less than.

What was important here was that she hadn't been legally allowed to see her little brother in over a month. To keep her parents from contacting him. To keep her from letting her parents near him. Because they were legally barred from seeing him.

Because they had tried to kill him.

Jazz planned on never seeing her parents again, as soon as she got all of her and Danny's things from their house.

But now that prohibition had been lifted, because Clockwork had forced through what had to be the speediest adoption in the history of adoptions, and Danny was now legally his son. In the eyes of both humans and ghosts. Which was... Well. Danny seemed to be excited about it, anyway. He'd looked up to Clockwork for a while, from what he told Jazz.

Internally, Jazz had more than a bit of trepidation. She didn't know what adoption meant to ghosts, didn't have any context for it. And ghosts, even the good ones, even Danny, tended to be... obsessive. Extreme. She wasn't sure how that would translate when it came to interpersonal relationships.

The door creaked open, ever so slowly, the squeak it made grating on her eardrums. At first, it appeared to have opened on its own, then a hand gripped the edge of the door, and Clockwork, in human guise, leaned out from behind it.

Jazz raised an eyebrow.

Clockwork raised one right back. "This house is haunted, you know," he said.

Okay, never mind. The only thing she had to worry about was the fact that her brother and his mentor both had terrible senses of humor.

"Hi, Jazz!"

Being used to having a half-ghost brother, Jazz only yelped a little bit at his unexpected appearance behind her. Then she sighed and ruffled his hair. He hugged her and then bounced over the lintel into the house.

"Come on! I want to show you my room! It's so cool!" His voice became fainter as he went farther into the house, until his last exclamation was an eerie whisper.

Jazz looked at Clockwork as she stepped inside. "Is he doing that on purpose?"

Clockwork smiled blandly. "I am very fond of the acoustics in this house."

She looked at her surroundings with a skeptical eye. "It seems... dark in here."

"We are ghosts," said Clockwork. "Daniel is very excited to show you his room, by the way."

"He's human, too, don't forget," said Jazz.

"I won't."

.

The house was creepy.

Really creepy.

This was coming from someone who had spent most of her life living under the same roof as two ghost-obsessed mad scientists.

But Danny seemed to enjoy it, and he was the one living here. It wasn't like there was anything wrong with the house. Or anything in the house. It was just... off.

Danny was half-ghost, however, so maybe this was something he needed. Perhaps not all of his peppiness could be attributed to being the heck away from his murderous former parents.

Even so. Jazz had a duty, both as a big sister and an aspiring psychologist.

"I already read it," said Clockwork, setting a cup of tea down in front of her.

"What?"

"The book you were about to give me. I've already read it. And a number of others. I am not the kind of person who goes into things unprepared."

Danny rolled into the kitchen on the ceiling. This was easy to ignore. After her life, an Exorcist reference made by her over-excited younger brother, was, well. Underwhelming.

(Okay, she was a little distracted, but only by his glee.)

"Well," she said. "That's good."

.

"I know this house is out of the way," said Clockwork, craning his neck to look up at his coworker, "but you are rather conspicuous."

"Hm. Am I?" asked Pandora, craning her neck down to look at her comparatively tiny colleague.

"Yes. At that size, humans with average eyesight will be able to see you from town."

Pandora looked out over the trees. "Interesting," she said, mildly. "Do you think the ghost hunters will come?"

"You've spoken to Daniel."

"Yes. He stopped by earlier today, on his way to visit Mattingly. Although, I suppose you knew that already."

"Indeed I did. May I ask, is it your intention to lure the ghost hunters here, fight them, defeat them, and then leave them just close enough to here to constitute a breach of their terms of bail and the restraining order against them?"

"I am not terribly well-versed in human law," said Pandora, "but, why, yes. That is exactly what I'm doing. Best to get it done while Daniel is visiting friends, isn't it?"

"Yes. If you had done this while he was here, I would be significantly more annoyed." Clockwork smiled the sanguine smile of a parental figure who would commit murder if their child was upset.

Pandora returned a matching grin, one that promised retribution against persons who had harmed said child in the past. "Please, Clockwork. You know me better than that. I wouldn't subject him to being in the presence of those fools."

"Good," said Clockwork, eyes glinting.

.

"Hey, Clockwork? Do you know why there were police cars driving down the- Oh. Hello?" He stopped at the sight of an unfamiliar woman sitting at the dinning room table, next to Clockwork. He blinked and tilted his head to the side. "Wait. Pandora?"

"Perceptive," said the superficially human olive-skinned woman. "You seemed so happy when you stopped by, earlier. I thought I would come check in on you."

"You didn't have to," said Danny, beaming.

"Pandora has been trying to convince me to set her up as one of my relatives," said Clockwork, rolling his eyes. "Would you care for a cup of tea, Daniel?"

"Umm," said Danny, dubiously. "I'll try one, I guess. Does that mean you'll be my aunt?"

Pandora smiled. "Why, yes, it does."

Clockwork groaned theatrically.

.

"Ah," said Mr. Lancer, at the next parent-teacher conference. "Are you Mr. Worth's wife?"

"No," said Pandora, grinning. "I'm his sister."

Mr. Lancer looked back and forth between the two very different-looking entities. "I... see."

"We're adopted," said Clockwork.

"Oh! Alright then. Now, about Daniel..."

.

It was a bit strange to see Danny with so much energy, Sam reflected. Strange, but good.

It just went to show how drained he had become over time, how much the constant ghost attacks and worry, all the lies and stress and impossible expectations had worn away at him over time. She hadn't seen her friend this happy since freshman year. If that.

On the other hand...

"Dude," said Tucker. "Your house is spooky. And this is coming from someone who's been inside a literal mad science lab."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Mad science labs are campy, not spooky. Besides, you knew coming in that this house was haunted." He draped himself over the back of the couch, rolling until he was 'sitting' upside-down. "Anyway, what kind of movie do you want to watch? We've got a bunch, because Clockwork apparently collects media from doomed timelines."

"He's got a hobby?" asked Sam.

"Yeah, three," said Danny. "Gardening- you should talk to him about that, by the way, I think he'd like it- baking, and alternate timeline movies. And some books, too, I think. He's got a huge library back in Long Now. I've read like. Two books from it."

Clockwork's voice floated in from the other room. "You've read significantly more than that, Daniel."

"I guess," said Danny, doubtfully. He flopped off the couch, picked himself up, and started prodding at a shelf of movies. "This is from a timeline where the Earth got beaned by a massive asteroid. It's, like, a romcom, but it was made when everyone knew the asteroid was coming. This one is, uh, this is actually a dramatization of real events, apparently, but their timeline split from ours in like the fifties, so the events are pretty wild." He waved the DVD at them. "It's surreal?"

"How'd they die?" asked Tucker.

"Wacky superscience. No, really. Irradiated the entire planet."

"How do you know?" asked Sam.

"Oh, Clockwork puts notes on the boxes. He thinks it's interesting. And there does seem to be some correlation between how cursed the movies are and how bad the timeline was. Which maybe shouldn't surprise me? I mean, if they were bad timelines..." He shrugged. "Oh, this is a CGI Lion King. I can tell you: very cursed. Absolutely soulless. And this is from a timeline where copyright laws weren't changed, so Mickey Mouse and a bunch of other stuff was in the public domain."

"Isn't that a good timeline?" joked Sam.

"You'd think so," agreed Danny. "But apartheid in South Africa apparently never stopped, and they got a nuclear bomb, and, well... World War Three."

"Is that like, a domino effect, or...?"

"I'm not sure... Anyway. Uh. Genre?" He clapped his hands together.

Tucker leaned forward. "I want the wildest version of the Matrix you have."

"Ooh, good choice. There are, like, six with Will Smith. I haven't watched them all yet, but I think the one where they've got another sequel and Zion is also a- Wait, I shouldn't spoil it."

"After that, can you see if there's a non-crappy version of Dracula?" asked Sam.

"Sure. I haven't seen one yet, but I will look."

"I have popcorn," said Clockwork, entering the room, "and various baked goods. No dairy."

"You're the best."

.

Clockwork selected a thick blanket from the chest, then teleported himself to the living room to drape it over the three teenagers passed out on the couch. Overall, he found pretending to be human oddly enjoyable, but it could be trying at times. Tedious. All the finicky little motions humans had to go through to do the simplest of things added up over the day.

So, Clockwork tended to ease off of them when no one was watching. It made life easier.

Heh. Life.

(He would say that Daniel's puns were rubbing off on him, but in truth Clockwork's sense of humor had been like that for, well. Eons.)

He put the kitchen in order with an absent wave of his hand, and double-checked the stove out of habit. It wasn't nearly as good as his actual oven, back in Long Now, but it was serviceable.

One of Daniel's friends mumbled in their sleep, and Clockwork looked in on them. Still peaceful. It was good for Daniel to have them here. Beneficial for both his human and ghost halves.

He hummed to himself and patted Daniel's head as he thought about their plans for the weekend. He had arranged for some truly aggravating evangelical missionaries to darken their doorstep. It would do Daniel good to inspire a touch of terror. In an entirely controlled and risk-free way, of course. No matter how unpleasant the people coming were, Clockwork had no intention of harming them, or suggesting anything of the sort.

But, well. They were ghosts. Being feared was soothing.

(Clockwork knew this wasn't what Jasmine meant when she suggested Clockwork engage in family bonding activities with Daniel. But what she didn't know...)

.

"I think my teeth are getting sharper," said Danny, pulling a face at the mirror. "Is that normal?" The last was shouted, to get Clockwork's attention. Intellectually, Danny knew he didn't need to do that, but a lifetime of habit was hard to shake.

"It is difficult to say what is normal for someone like you, but many ghosts do have fangs," said Clockwork. "Including myself."

"Hm," said Danny. "This isn't, like, a ghost puberty thing, is it? Because I already used up most of my evil puberty jokes."

"Oh, only most?" Clockwork slid behind him and started rubbing the tension out of his shoulders.

Danny shrugged. "Eh, give or take. But, seriously."

"No, it isn't a ghost puberty thing."

"Oh, good. Because dealing with one puberty is more than enough."

Clockwork was silent. Danny looked up and met troubled eyes in the mirror.

"Clockwork?"

"Daniel," started Clockwork, before giving Danny an uneasy smile. "Speaking of puberty..."

Danny blanched. "No."

"What?"

"No. Nope. Not doing the talk today, no sir. I got that at school."

"Daniel, as strange as Casper High may be at times, I highly doubt they taught you anything about immortality."

"What."

.

"It's why ghosts put so much forethought into relationships like this," explained Clockwork, careful not to look directly at Daniel's hiding place. "They might last forever. I certainly hope this one does."

"But I don't want to be a teenager forever!" wailed Danny. He had mastered the art of making his voice sound like it was coming from a completely different direction than it actually was.

Clockwork was older than human civilization and had been worshiped as a god by several civilizations. He did not wince at the heartbreak in his child's voice.

"Your shapeshifting abilities should come in after a few years," said Clockwork. "You'll be able to pass as older."

Daniel answered with a moan.

"I must confess, I'm not sure why you are so upset about this. I can see that you are, but could you explain why for me?"

"I don't knoooooowww..."

.

"I don't want everyone to die and leave me alone," admitted Danny, hunched over a carton of ice cream. "I don't want to see my- my people die." He sniffled.

"We don't have to stay in Amity Park if you don't want to," said Clockwork.

Danny shook his head. "No! That's worse," he said, hating how his voice tilted into a whine. "That's- I can't abandon them! I can't- can't miss their time. I just..." He let out a huff of air. "It's hard."

Clockwork wrapped an arm around Daniel's shoulders. "It may not help much," he said, "but people in Amity Park have a much higher chance of becoming ghosts. It's the ectoplasm in the air."

"Promise?" asked Danny.

"Promise. Although, who, exactly, becomes a ghost is outside of my control. All I can tell you is that the people here have a better chance."

Danny leaned against Clockwork. "Thanks," he mumbled. "Clockwork?"

"Yes?"

"You don't think I'm a freak, do you?"

"Of course not."

.

Mr. Lancer squinted down at Daniel Fenton's latest assignment with a mix of appreciation, disbelief, and shame. This was easily the best work he had ever received from Daniel. In fact, it rivaled papers he had received from Jasmine.

It made him wonder- How long had Daniel been suffering? What had Daniel been suffering? He was no expert when it came to abuse, but all teachers had some training, and he knew that abusers tended to escalate, starting with something relatively innocuous and ending with a travesty. For things to progress to attempted murder... What had it started as? When had it begun?

(Could Mr. Lancer have stopped it?)

(That question would haunt him more than any ghost.)

Well, there was a silver lining to this, Mr. Lancer supposed. He had rarely seen two people who got along as well as Daniel and Charles Worth. It was good, he thought, for the man to have someone in his life on a more permanent basis, rather than the revolving door of temporary foster children.

How rapidly the adoption went through was a little odd, but... Mr. Lancer shrugged. Undoubtedly, Mr. Worth had taken the time over his years as a foster parent to familiarize himself with the system, and with Daniel's former parents unfit to be anywhere near children...

He shrugged again and stamped Daniel's paper with an A+.

#danny phantom #gift #prize #winner #fic #phanfiction

[va-3]

Part I

Second Half of my OC’s Information (the photo limit screwed me over)

The 1930s through the 1970s in Taika’s past is still a work in progress as well as the art soooo...probably a part three in the future?

Taika and Raspberry move to California the fall of 1986, although Raspberry finds a more permenant residence in Los Angeles while Taika finds herself on a more wandering path.

In the February of 1987 Taika wandered upon the town of Santa Carla, a town given credit for being home to those who wanted to disappear.

[side note: the jacket and jeans would be colored if only my damn markers hadn’t died]

Taika, a delinquent at heart as always, fit in like a puzzle piece. The punk-graffiti day life appealed to her like any adventure, and the smell of vampires lured her further into the town. She “cleared” a house (the act of killing the owners of a house and taking it for herself) as well as the garage. Taika acquired a 1987 Yamaha Virago via a rich douchebag she easily stole from and offed.

When the nightlife glowed at the boardwalk, it was apparent to the Santa Carla vampires that something was off, although they could not place it.

Taika did not make contact with the vampires for a while, seeming to distance herself just enough to make them curious about the uneasiness on the boardwalk since her arrival. Every now and then a body would turn up, a person snatched into an alleyway and partially eaten. It wasn’t until David met eyes with Taika across the boardwalk that it was clear to the Santa Carla vampires that there was another predator on their territory.

Taika’s aggressiveness and competitiveness are what pull the boys in first, that along with her scent, so much more intoxicating than any other human. A sort of playful rivalry grows between the calta and the vampires—who could last longer making trouble on the boardwalk without getting kicked off by Big Ed, who could score the biggest bonfire of surf nazis, and so on.

In the end it was Marko and Paul who put an end to the rivalry. Dwayne hadn’t thought he’d be able to really approach Taika and David was too prideful to do so. So the chaotic blonde duo took it upon themselves to invite her back to their cave as an act of trust as well as cease fire. David, no matter his pride, was quick to share about the fallen hotel made theirs. She was quick to catch on to the fact that they had been vampires much longer than they appeared. Dwayne brought it to her attention that she clearly knew what they were while they handn’t a single idea what she was.

With that question being asked, she explains what she is, and from there, their trusting relationship grows. The first time they hunt together is remotely terrifying to the vampires, considering she is a monster made for hunting them as well as other supernatural creatures.

The relationship between the boys and Taika blooms into something deeper, though it isn’t apparent to any of them at all at first. It was just small things they realized they loved about her, and her them. They fall in love with her odd little quirks, like how she always has change on her because it’s “shiny and distracting”, or how she’ll braid tiny braids into her hair and sometimes to boys’ hair, or how she makes beautifully delicate carvings out of the bones of their victims, or buys(steals) stuff for the cave while they all sleep, or organizes whatever she can anytime she comes the to cave, and really really likes coconut shrimp.

She steals the boy’s clothing whenever she leaves the cave during the day after a night of events, not that any of them complain. Marko’s crop tops are always her go to, while she wears Paul’s jewelry out and sometimes jeans that Dwayne doesn’t wear anymore. Sometimes Taika and David switch earrings, only because David is hesitant to give her any of his current clothing,. When he finds that he is more possesive of her than he’d openly admit, he gives her extra shirts of his to keep. Taika loves how the vampires smells mask her own; not only is it comforting, but it protects her from any lurking sevren(a post for another time).

Taika only needing three hours of sleep allows her to have a day life of her own, one that tends to breed chaos. Sometimes she’ll go surfing, something she’s become quite adept at, and show up the surf nazis on their own territory. Taika is the only member of the “biker gang” that the surfers ever see during the day, so they let out a lot of their aggression on her because they’re truly too cowardly to face the boys and her head on. The biggest mistake the surfers ever made was the day they decided it’d be humorous to steal her bike in broad daylight. She’d parked her bike(albeit illegally) on the boardwalk when she got to the beach, and when she returned later that day her bike was gone. Needless to say the surfers had invoked the wrath of someothing stronger than them on supernatural levels.

The boys knew something was up the instant they walked into the caves main area to find Taika waiting patiently at the exit. The only tthing she said was she needed a ride, one David gave happily. When the vampires had parked their bikes and Taika had muttered some words of reassurance to fill in her silence, she made a beeline for the carousel, following the ocean-spray smell of the asshole who’d taken her bike. He was standing in line with an arm draped over a girl who couldn’t have looked more trashy, his friends jostling one another as the line moved along. The four vampires followed behind the taller predator, their curiosity evident as they formed a half-crescent around her when she stopped. Taika was quick to clamp her arm onto the girl under the surfer and yank her out of the way, sending her flying onto her butt. Taika was mad, like, really mad. She hooked her hand into the collar of the surfers shirt, ignoring his protest when she yanked him to her.

“Where is it,” she hissed, putting forth minimal effort to keep herself from biting his face off in public. Marko watched in excitement, his thumb between his teeth as his eyes found the surfer’s. This guy was screwed. He raised his hands in surrender and feigned innocence, “Hey, I don’t know what your deal is lady, but I don’t know nothin about anything.”

His friends snickered behind Taika, clearly enjoying how angry they had made her. She narrowed her wild purple eyes, running her tongue over her teeth.

“Where’s my goddamn bike,” she demanded, her voice like ice down his spine. The vampires watched on, looking about occasionally to make sure Big Ed wouldn’t poke his nose where it didn’t belong. His friends burst into laughter again, shoving one another giddily. Taika had half the mind to throw the surfer in her hands at them like a bowling ball at pin, but she repressed her urges.

“You can make this easy or you can make it hard. Give my my bike and I won’t have to kill you.” He pressed his hands to the sides of his face and made a noise imitating a ghost. She stilled, silently in thought for a moment before she scoffed and let go of his shirt.

“Fine. I’ll find it myself. Boys,” she turned sharply on her heel and marched towards her vampires, hooking her hand into Dwayne’s in a way that was supposed to be gentle, but she was too mad. Paul slipped his hand into her back pocket and matched her pace.

“Yeah, run to your queers.”

The boys would swear on their lives that they’d never seen her spin around and tackle someone as fast as she tackled that surfer. He was in the ground in seconds, and Taika was planting hit after hit, taking the few blows he managed to land on her ribs like they were nothing. The surfers friends sprang into action, attacking the boys as well as trying to pry Taika from the much bigger surfer. The surfer’s face was bleeding all over, and he was fighting to stay awake. Taika wanted blood. Her bike’s absence was a small inconvenience that ensured a meal later that night, but the insult to her boys was a direct blow at her. They could trash talk her straight to her face, insult her, whatever made them feel powerful, but no one, no one, says anything about her boys. At last, she was whacked across the face by the baton belonging to Big Ed. The blow stunned her if anything, although she fell to the side and off of the offending surfer. Paul and Marko were quick to her side, helping her to her feet while also readying to catch her if she tried lunge out at the bleeding prick on the ground. “Off the boardwalk. All of you! Now!”

David was beaming with pride as Taika walked to him and Dwayne, wiping the surfers’ blood from her lip. The surfers backed from the bikers as they walked forwards, parting away from them to avoid Taika who walked in front, acting as an active threat to anyone who dared to even think about opposing them. When the five were clear of the crowd, Paul looped his arms around Taika and pulled her in for a smacking kiss. “That was awesome babe. Like, so fucking awesome.”

She burst into laughter, dropping her head onto his chest.

“Hell yeah it was,” added Marko, yanking her to him and spinning her like they were dancing. “I’m like two-hundred percent sure that guy pissed himself!”

Marko and Paul exchanged a highly energetic high-five, feeling the energy of the fight reigniting itself. Dwayne silently pulled her into him and kissed her forehead.

“Good to know you care, kitten,”at David’s words she beamed. Dwayne released her, and she bounced towards David, latching onto the lapels of his jacket. “I hope you know that I would do anything for you,” her sultry accent sent a delighted chill down his back. “All of you,” she sang, letting go of David’s jacket and spinning into Paul and Marko’s arms giggling like a school girl. From within the blond vampire sandwich, she raised her hand in the air to make a point. “Now, let’s go find my bike!”

The car belonging to the surfer who’d stolen Taika’s bike was found strung up in a junkyard the next day. The sight had been stupendous apparently, and ended up on the news. The owner of the car and his friends had a been absolutely delicious. After he’d returned Taika’s bike of course.

[schrijverr]

What Your Heart Says

When they’re hunting a spirit that targets kids after they’ve fought with their moms, Sam realizes why he could have been a target and all Dean has done for him.

On AO3.

Ships: none

Warnings: suicide mention.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam and Dean were working a case. Three children had dropped dead, all bruised necks, all inexpiable.So, the Winchesters had rolled into town and started asking around.

They had made their way to a party in the neighborhood under the pretense that they were new in town. The parents were split, with the dads talking around the barbecue and the moms sitting and talking around the picnic table. Dean said: “Dude, the only thing that’ll make this okay if I get to talk to the hot moms.”

“You are terrible, but sure,” Sam rolled his eyes, “Remember, we have a kid, but he’s with his grandparents.”

“Yeah, yeah, and his name is Bobby,” Dean said, “I know.”

Then he was off to the table, politely introducing himself: “Hi, I’m Dean. My partner, Sam, and I are new here and we thought we’d introduce ourselves.”

The women introduced themselves as well and looked over at Sam, who was introducing himself to the men and asking around there. Linda asked: “Are you sure you don’t want to talk about the game with the boys?”

“Nah, Sam has always been more into that stuff than me,” Dean shrugged. “But don’t mind me, what were you all talking about it?”

“Oh, you know,” Karen said, “the kids.”

Dean nodded: “Ahh, of course, do you all have kids?”

The five women nodded and Dean decided that this was a great ice-breaker to them, so he brought up their fictional child: “How sweet. Me and Sammy over there have a little guy as well, although he’s not so little anymore. They’re growing up more and more everyday, am I right?”

The women seemed temporarily shocked by that revelation, but Linda picked up the conversation again: “Totally, so what’s his name and how old is he?”

“Bobby, he’s ten already.�� Dean said.

“How cute,” Sharon fawned. “My Jane is five now, but it sometimes feels like my little girl is maturing more and more.”

Dean had come over to flirt a bit with the women, but now he let himself be comforted by stories about little Sammy, remade for suburban ears. He had shared Sams first school play and his cute Halloween outfits, when an opportunity arose to bring up the attacks. Linda said: “Maybe Ronald and Bobby would like to play sometime. He could come over tomorrow if you want to.”

Easily Dean lied: “That seems like a lovely idea, but with the recent deaths… We’ve been pretty scared of bringing Bobby here, so he’s been staying with his grandparents in Sioux Falls.”

A quiet fell over the table, but soon Dean had weaseled out of the women that all three of the kids had been fighting with their moms the night it had happened and that all the moms swore they had heard a strange laugh-like noise the day after.

Once he had the information he made a bit more small talk. He was in the middle of telling them about the Science Fair Sam had won in fifth grade when Sam came to get him. They said their goodbyes and left.

“What did you talk about with ‘the boys’?” Dean grinned.

Sam pushed him away and said: “Shut up! We talked about football, I don’t even know anything about football. What did you talk about, Deanna?”

“Hey, don’t use my amazing jokes against me,” Dean huffed, he got an eyeroll back, but he went on to answer: “But if you must know, we talked about the kids and complained about our men.”

“You complained about me?” Sam said indignantly.

Dean grinned and said: “Yeah, seems like a lot of men struggle with snoring and bed hogging.”

“Dude.”

Dean just laughed at Sam.

“Tell me you at least got some information out of them, because the dads knew nothing. One hadn’t even heard about the deaths.”

“Well, the moms were a bit more informed and talkative. Seems like all the vics had a fight with their moms the night of their deaths and all of them had heard laughing the day after, like someone was laughing at their pain.”

“Good job, now let’s get out of here and do some research.”

“You don’t have to sound so excited.”

Deans comment was ignored.

~

“So get this,” Sam started out his speech while walking over with his laptop, “apparently a girl killed herself a few years ago, by hanging herself.”

“The bruises.”

“Precisely, she did after she had a fight with her mom. She had been struggling for a while with mental health issues and this was the last straw. According to the police she had done it to get back at her mom, to make her feel guilty about what she had said, she even recorded herself laughing and left that for her mom to find the next day.”

“Sounds like she’s our ghost,” Dean agreed.

“Sounds like it, but there’s a problem.”

“When isn’t there a problem?” Dean complained. “Why can’t there just a be a clean easy salt ‘n burn?”

“Because that isn’t how our life is, man,” Sam said. “Anyway, it doesn’t state where she is buried and there are three big cemeteries in this town, so we’ll have to search every one if we want to find her bones.”

“Ugh, why does a town need three cemeteries? It’s not even that big,” Dean complained again.

“They have a catholic one, a protestant one and a public one,” Sam answered. “Lots of towns have that, so stop complaining.”

“I’m not complaining,” Dean replied indignantly.

“Yes you are. You always do,” Sam sighed

“No, I don’t,” Dean pouted.

“Yes, you- You know what, I’m not playing your childish games,” Sam was starting to get frustrated.

“Oh, yeah of course, now I’m childish. I’m sick of it, why can’t you just let me have my fun. I’m never harming anyone, so why do you care?” Dean said with an angry tone.

“Because your fun consist of annoying me to death or drinking yourself to death. One is nerve grating and the other makes me worry,” Sam bitched

“Oh, god, I’m not talking about that now. Leave me and my drinking alone. It’s nothing,” Dean huffed.

“it’s not not-” Sam began, but Dean cut him off: “We have three cemeteries to search better get started now. Lets go.”

Then he stalked out of the door, a silently fuming Sam following behind him.

~

“She has to be here, otherwise we’re fucked,” it was the first time the silence had been broken since they’dleft the motel.

Sam nodded tightly and went back to looking at the headstones. They were at the public cemetery and they had already searched the other two entirely with no luck.

Dean was about to call out to Sam that he had found it, when she appeared in front of the younger Winchester. He screamed as she put her hands around his neck and leaned in to whisper something. She didn’t get to say anything, however, because Dean shot her with a round of salt.

They quickly made a salt circle around the grave and caught their breath. Dean said: “You dig, I’ll keep her busy.”

“No, man, I know you’ve hurt your knee on the last hunt. You shouldn’t be running. I’ll take her on, you dig,” Sam said.

“No, Sam, don’t-” Dean didn’t finish, because Sam was already out the salt circle yelling for the spirit to come get him. Dean started digging after a moment of hesitation as he sighed to himself: “Stupid frigging kid.”

~

Sam had manged to run from the spirit for most of the night, but right now he was pinned down by her. He knew Dean was almost done, but he hoped his brother would hurry, because he was slowly suffocating.

The spirit cackled and whispered in his ear: “I’ll make him regret it. He will regret every word he said.”

Sam chocked out: “Why are you…targeting me? I don’t, ugh, I don’t have a…mom.”

The spirit looked confused for a second, then she whispered: “That’s not what your heart says.”

Then she went up in flames, screaming all the way.

Dean immediately yelled: “Are you okay?”

Dazed Sam sat up and rubbed his neck as he yelled back: “I’m fine, I think.”

“You think?” Deans voice sounded concerned as he hurried over to Sam to check him over.

Sam felt his hands run over his head and hissed a bit when they hit the bump on the back of his head. Dean forced him to look down and inspected the small head wound closer, when he was satisfied with what he found he let go of Sams head and said: “It doesn’t look that bad, but if you feel dizzy or disoriented you have to tell me.”

“No, no, I feel fine,” Sam reassured him. “It’s just what the spirit said that is bothering me.”

“She talked to you?” Dean said with a frown, then he asked: “What did she say?”

Sam hesitated before saying: “She said she’d made him regret it, every word he said.”

“Who the fuck is he?” Dean groused.

Sam thought about it and suddenly it clicked into place. The spirit wasn’t attacking just mothers, but also people who were seen as mothers, he remembered the girl had been adopted. He had argued with Dean just that day, Dean who had cared for him his entire life, who had talked to other mothers about his kid. Dean who had been there at school plays, who had been there when Sam was sick, who made him lunch and taught him how to tie his shoes. Dean who had tucked him in at night and told him not to worry about the monsters under the bed. His brother, who had taken on the roll of mother.

Tears filled Sams eyes with the realization and he felt the need to hug Dean, so he pulled his brother into a tight hug. Dean seemed shocked for a moment, his hands in the air for a second before he slowly wrapped them around Sams tall frame. Confused yet softly and with a gentle tone, he asked: “Whoa, hey, what brought this on?”

“You,” Sam managed to push out between the silent sobs.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, buddy, don’t cry, it’s okay,” Dean hushed, carding his hands through Sams hair on autopilot.

After a while Sam had managed to calm down. Dean wiped away the tears staining his cheeks and asked: “Wanna tell what made you cry like that?”

“You always cared for me, raised me and I never, I never even thanked you,” Sam hiccuped. “You gave up so much for me and I ran away. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

Then he started crying again.

Dean didn’t react, he was sitting there, wide eyes with his boy crying in his arms and he was just playing Sams words over and over in his head. Sam was sorry. Sorry for not thanking him. The absurdity of the thought snapped Dean out of his daze.

He gently grabbed Sams chin and made him lock eyes with him. Then he said in the most caring voice Sam had heard in years: “You don’t have anything to be sorry for, alright? You haven’t done anything wrong. Raising you was never something I didn’t want to do. And although I hated – hate – it, I get why you had to get away, just for a while. It’s okay, no need to apologize.”

Then he let go of Sammys chin and pulled him into a tighter hug as the younger boy murmured: “Doesn’t make it alright,” into his shirt.

After a few more seconds of hugging Sam pulled away and Dean let him. When they were sitting opposite to each other in the empty graveyard in the middle of the night, tears still wet on their faces, they shared a look and burst out laughing. Dean chuckled: “This is ridiculous.”

Sam nodded and let himself be pulled up by Dean. Dean cracked his back and said: “If you’re still feeling guilty you can close the grave as a thanks.”

Sam rolled his eyes, but started to shovel the dirt back into the still smoking hole.

When the last dirt was thrown on the grave Dean broke the comfortable silence: “I’m guessing it was the ghost who pushed you to your conclusion.” Sam nodded and unsure Dean asked: “What did she say?”

Sam thought about it for a second, then he said: “First she told me she’d make him, meaning you, regret everything you’ve said, which made me confused. So I asked her why she was attacking me, because I didn’t have a mom. Then she gave me with such a perplexed look and said ‘That’s not what your heart says’ and then she died, again.”

Dean chocked up a bit and looked away. He swallowed heavily and tried to casually say: “And that made you connect me to being a parental figure, how?”

“I went over her MO, she was adopted so it didn’t have to be a mother by blood and we did fight today. SoI just thought why it would be you and then I thought about our youth and it just suddenly all clicked somehow,” Sam confessed, then he smirked and added: “And it was mom, not parental figure.”

Dean shot him a glare and said: “I’m not some chick, dude.”

“If that’s wanna tell yourself, sure.” Sam said, still smirking.

“Bitch!”

And just like that his brother was back.

Sam smiled.

“Jerk.”

~~

A/N:

I found this on my computer and had forgotten about it completely. I do hope, I could cheer someone up with this :D

#RR writing #tw: suicide mention #suicide mention #supernatural #spn #dean and sam #dean winchester #sam winchester #mom dean winchester #spn season 1 #supernatural season 1

[thewritewolf]

In Due Time Chapter 21: Fireworks

Marinette and Adrien get ready for Alya’s New Year’s Party

@marichatmay

Enjoy!

First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Read on Ao3

“Hey, listen up, everybody!” Plagg yelled as he entered the room in front of Adrien. “The kid is going to a party! And no,” the kwami quickly added as a few others tried to ask questions all at once, “it’s not one that rotten ol’ Gabe is making him go to!”

Adrien entered the living room to cheers and applause from all the kwamis under his care. The only thing stopping him from rolling his eyes were his own nerves. Soon, many of them were zooming and swirling around him as he walked through the room, checking and double checking his attire.

“What’s the matter, bucko?” Stompp said, a frown gracing her face. “I’d thought you’d be chompin’ at the bit to go wild outside your papa’s watch.”

“I am, but…” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. “The only one I’ve actually hung out with in person has been Marinette. And most of the time, that wasn’t Adrien exactly.”

“Kid, it’s just a mask. I don’t see what the big deal is. Plus,” Plagg said with a teasing grin, “I know you’re looking forward to seeing Tikki’s kid today. Hm…?”

Adrien gently pushed Plagg aside when he leaned close into his face, but Adrien refused to meet his eye. The cat kwami snickered as he floated away. Adrien might like Marinette, but he had no idea if she felt the same way or if he could even afford the luxury of having a girlfriend right now. Necessity had forced romance out of his life a long time ago.

“Besides Marinette,” Adrien said, trying to get back on topic, “I don’t know anyone there. I’m meeting all these people for the first time!” He put a comb through his hair for the third time that night. “What if I just end up lurking next to the food table and being a downer to the rest of them?”

“I’m confused,” Mullo said, scrunching up their nose. “Haven’t you been talking with them using the aether for a while?”

“The device he usssesss is called the internet, Mullo,” Sass corrected gently. “Not the aether.”

“Still. Does the Guardian not already know these other humans?”

“I mean… yes, I suppose,” Adrien conceded. “But-”

“Not buts, kid,” Plagg said definitively. “You’re going to go out there and have a great time instead of slacking here with these guys. Do you understand me?”

“Oooh, the time for another year has already come?” Orikko clucked happily, dancing in midair. “I’m so happy to hear I haven’t missed it!”

“Don’t worry, Orikko, I set an alarm to let you know when midnight hits,” Adrien said as he scratched beside the rooster kwami’s beak.

“Speaking of not worrying, that same thing but to you, kid.” Plagg was tugging at his sleeve. “C’mon, let’s go. Sass has got it handled here.”

Adrien glanced at the snake kwami, who nodded. “Pleassse enjoy yourssself, Massster.”

“Trust yourself!” Mullo said, floating up to Adrien’s face height. “I am sure they will love you just as much as we do!”

“See?” Plagg motioned a paw toward Mullo. “Now come on, I don’t want you to sit here until you give yourself cold feet. And I’m not about to let you pass up the opportunity to hang out with people born in the same geological era as you!”

“You’re right.” Adrien took a deep breath and let himself get a little excited. “Come on, Plagg, let’s go.”

“‘Course I’m right,” Plagg muttered as he flew into Adrien’s coat pocket. “When am I ever not right?”

The sun had already set by the time Adrien had gotten into his car, but there was still plenty of time before the main event of the night. It was a long drive to the part of Paris where Alya lived, long enough to let Adrien think about how time had changed him. Eight years ago he would’ve jumped at the chance to go to a party and make friends.

But having one thing after another ripped out from underneath him had changed his perspective. Being stopped from going to public school. The many parties thrown by coworkers his father had prevented him from seeing. Not to mention all the stuff he’d been forced to bail on because of an akuma attack. Isolation thanks to his family and his duties had done well to keep him from having friends.

But tonight… maybe tonight would be different. The old embers of optimism burned bright inside him, despite what the years had done to extinguish them.

He found a place to park his car and walked up to the apartment. His hands were stuffed into his pockets to ward off the chill and he was still lost in his thoughts by the time he arrived at the front door. His hand touched the door knob at the same time as someone else.

Startled, he looked to see who he had bumped into only to get lost in big, blue eyes.

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

“Marinette, I promise you look fine,” Tikki said patiently as her chosen ran a brush through her hair nervously. Tikki smirked. “I’m sure Adrien will love what you’re wearing.”

Marinette fumbled her brush, dropping it. “Don’t just say that!”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not getting dressed up just for him!”

“Oh?” Tikki said innocently. Far too innocently. “Are you expecting Chat Noir to make an appearance too?”

A blush spread across Marinette’s face as she groaned. “Don’t even joke about that. I don’t know what I’d do if both Adrien and Chat Noir were both at the party.”

“I wouldn’t be too worried about that if I were you,” Tikki said with a knowing smile. She floated off of the desk where she was sitting and toward Marinette. “You know, this might be a good chance to spend some quality time with Adrien, if that’s what you want.”

“To be honest? I don’t know what exactly I want.” Marinette sighed and sat down, smoothing her skirt as she did so. “It’s been a while since I’ve felt this way about someone, so to have it happen with two people almost at the same time…”

“Did you not have any crushes growing up? I’ve heard that’s pretty common for young humans.”

“I mean, some I guess. Definitely nothing that I’ve acted on. And before you ask, yes I have dated. But never anything serious.”

“But you want something serious with one of them?”

“Yes? Maybe? I don’t know,” Marinette said, burying her face in her hands and groaning. “I don’t like to rush into things, but… I haven’t felt a connection like this before.” She waved her hands around. “And now I’ve got two of them!”

“I’m sure you’ll figure something out! I’ve had a lot of chosen, but never one as clever as you.” Tikki landed on Marinette’s shoulder. “Why don’t you tell me about your friend’s party? To help get your mind off it.”

“Well…” Marinette said, calming down now that she was switching tracks in her mind. She grabbed her purse, which Tikki rushed into. “Alya got a taste for throwing parties back in university, so they’ve gotten pretty big sometimes. Like the Halloween one where I met Chat - she was selling tickets to that through the Cat Chat.”

Marinette left her apartment, closing the door behind her. She didn’t live that far from Alya’s place, one of many reasons she lived here in the first place. A few minutes of walking and she’d be there.

Tikki frowned. “Are there going to be a lot of people at this one too?”

“No, no,” Marinette said, waving her hand dismissively. “The New Year’s party is usually pretty small. There are usually about ten of us, mostly her and Nino’s friends. It’s nice.”

“So what do you do there?”

Marinette shrugged. “Same thing most people do at parties, I guess. Play games, drink, dance, talk. Although New Year’s is a little special because her apartment has a great view of the fireworks show the city does.”

“Wow! That does sound fun!”

“Right? Anyway, I’m also pretty nervous because Adrien said he’d try to make it. Nino and Alya have been dying to meet him, but…”

“But?”

“Well, they tend to worry too much about me. Which makes me worried that they’ll scare him away by trying to get us together.” She entered the building through the backway, a little shortcut she’d learned over the past couple years.

“Hm…” Tikki hummed, a ghost of a smile at her lips. “That’s definitely a dilemma. Be a shame if they got the two of you to really hit it off with each other.”

“Tikki,” Marinette whined as the door to Alya’s apartment came into view.

“I’m just teasing, Marinette. But still, it wouldn’t be too bad, right?”

Before Marinette could respond, her hand touched the doorknob at the same time someone else’s did. She jumped and was about to apologize when she looked up into bright green eyes.

Both of them stood staring at each other for much longer than Marinette would care to admit. This was the first time they’d seen one another since when they had first met at the fashion show, even if they’d talked plenty of times online.

Eventually, Adrien rubbed the back of his neck and said, “Hey-”

Naturally he was cut off when the door flew open, Alya standing on the other side. Now, Marinette had known her friend long enough to notice the tell-tale signs of being tipsy and right now Alya checked off all those boxes. Clearly either Marinette and Adrien were the last ones to arrive, or Alya had gotten a head start on the night’s festivities.

That likely contributed to how Alya grabbed them both by the arms and practically dragged them inside, although Marinette wouldn’t put it past her to do that even stone cold sober.

“Come on you two, stop standing outside the door like a couple of weirdos,” she said, laughing. She turned her head toward another part of the apartment and raised her voice. “Hey, babe! Your buddy is here! Come on and meet him!”

Nino poked his head from around the corner, where Marinette knew their living room and therefore game consoles were, and saw his face split into a grin when he spotted Adrien.

“DUDE!” He rushed forward and gently punched Adrien’s arm. “I can’t believe I finally get to meet you! Come on, let me show ya around my crib. It might not be what you’re used to, but me casa es tu casa!”

Nino chuckled and threw an arm around a confused Adrien’s shoulders. Adrien glanced back at her and gave her a slightly worried smile and a wave before he disappeared.

“So,” Alya said, dragging Marinette’s attention back to her. She was looking awfully focused despite the handful of drinks Marinette knew she must have already had. “Let’s talk about you and blondie, hm?

Marinette groaned. It was going to be a long party.

#Miraculous Ladybug #Adrien Agreste #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #Adrienette #Marichat #Plagg #Tikki #Sass #Mullo #Stompp #Orikko #Alya Cesaire #Nino Lahiffe #Aged Up AU #MarichatMay2020 #my writing #ml fanfiction #In Due Time

[akimmito]

Heroes are made by the path they choose

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Master List

Chapter 15

After the Akuma battle, Max calls everyone who participated in the battle to talk about what happened. Felix and Marinette agreed to meet later when they settled at the hotel, only Kagami excused herself because she had business to attend to.

An hour passes before everyone is gathered in the boardroom, where all meetings are held. Max stays on the computer, Luka has served snacks for the Kwami and tea for the others, everyone needs to relax to give their opinion, that will help them a bit to wait for Hugo to announce that the food is ready and they can eat, the good thing is that they finished the attack in good time.

Damian feels uncomfortable, perhaps a little irritable at feeling that he has failed at something. It was not his performance in battle, he did what was expected of him exceptionally, even Paris has had good opinions about him, even though he's a child. It bothers him not to identify what caused that feeling.

Everyone notices how introspective the child looks, but says nothing. It's best to let him meditate on what torments him, in the end, only Marinette is able to reach him effectively without receiving an angry look or offensive comment. The child can touch the angelic with his mother close (but sometimes even the worst of his character comes out).

"We're ready." Felix enters the boardroom wearing only the most basic suit, the sleeves of his white shirt roll up to his elbow, and instead of his black shoes, he wears gray, fluffy slippers. Only Felix would present himself like this with the dignity of a king.

By that time, Chloe has also arrived, taking advantage of the lunch hour to meet them, even Nathaniel has taken a break and has arrived, his expression is that of someone who has not slept in three days and is not very wrong, really not he's slept in three days (at that point, Marc is tempted to knock him out with a spatula to get him to sleep).

"We can start." Marinette sits next to Damian after giving him a kiss on the head, he just erases his annoyed expression as a sign of appreciation, calming himself by having her close. "What have they discovered?"

Marc sighs and waits for Max to put on screen the videos of the surroundings of the previous Akuma, it remains to be seen if this last Akuma Purple Dolphin had a similar origin, but with two that are the same, he's sure that this is also the case. When the images appear on the screen behind the engineer, everyone pays special attention to what is displayed.

"Those are images from before Abraham Bélanger was Akumatized, the butterfly suddenly appeared in front of a single camera, so we can assume that our villain moves close to the victims." Marc explains what he had already spoken to Max and Luka, but now they will add the additional information and debate theories. "We didn't discover anyone suspicious, so we also decided to check each owner's vehicles and background. Only one caught our attention."

"A vehicle by the name of Leonard Daract, which is a false name. Although there are several with that name, none of them reside in France and they are not the owners of a car of the registered model. "Max shows the records it found on the screen, since the only real connection is an affiliation with a ghost organization that, due to its investigation, it's a cover for money laundering, but they cannot identify the beneficiary of said scheme. Nicely covered with lots of fake names and dead ends. "Also the name of Jean Laperriére, owner of a vehicle captured away from the origin of the first Akuma, is among the members of B.K. Company. "

"So our villain is good at hiding." Felix analyzes the screen, thinking about which way to go from there. They must be smart and stop walking behind the villain to start taking steps forward.

"That also makes it easy for him to activate organized crime in the city, he already has a way to finance criminal groups without being tracked." Nathaniel comments and then just mutters a few random ideas, plus a couple of curses for the extra work.

"And if he has one, he must have more." Alix gives her little opinion, leaning back in her chair. "That brings me to what I discovered with Detective Fontaine, take. “She pulls out a USB stick and hands it to Max.

In a short time the case files are projected on the screen, the pieces of the bomb found, the witness reports and the names of the victims. Everyone observes a particular name: Nora Bélanger, twenty-two, died on the way to the hospital, the daughter of Abraham Bélanger, the Akumatized victim that day.

"What was the name of today's victim?" Damian asks, feeling that everything has been in motion since long before.

"Let's see. "Max starts reviewing the files on the second computer he has, it's easier that way and he doesn't overload the laptops with so much open file. A couple of minutes later, he has it. "Victoria Jouvet, last night reported a robbery at her house, but it was dismissed and this morning she received a message about it, minutes later, well, we already know what happened..."

"Since when did the police dismiss cases? Alix, did you know about that?"Marinette frowns, she doesn't like how Paris's safety is being affected. Since Mayor Bourgeois was no longer elected and a new mayor took over the city, many corruption cases were disappearing and a dismissal of cases, especially with the return of the butterfly, is not the best practice to keep healthy emotions.

"No, I had no idea." She almost growled about it, maybe she should talk more closely with Detective Fontaine about what's going on inside the police. Too good that she discovered that MT has that kind of jurisdiction, Chloe excelled in supporting the cause, she deserves a reward.

Max continues to collect information and decides to place an alert for registered crimes in the databases, to classify them and be able to monitor the victims. Perhaps there is a way to handle the most violent crimes that Paris has not seen in several years. Yes, there are still murders, robberies and rapes, but it is not something that happens every day and now with emotions as a vulnerable point, they need a way to redirect the negative effect in some way.

"Then the police are falling into old ways, we must clean it up. Kudbel, do you trust that detective?" She nods, resigned to having Felix continue calling her by her last name, sometimes someone's name escapes him, but he corrects him immediately, although she knows that he's fond of everyone, even if he denies it. "So I need you to start a joint investigation, we will make a file of every police in Paris to find out who are the corrupt, we will clean the place to avoid Akuma for police negligence. Any inappropriate behavior will be suspicious, we will remove all the dirty laundry, we have long ignored the police issue. If we only keep two assets in the entire city, it doesn't matter, there is a selection of recruits in the academy that can begin to be sent to the field from the moment we take out the vermin."

"Agree. It's fortunate that Detective Fontaine enjoys being hated by everyone."

"Our guy, tell him we send greetings." Marc says to lighten the mood a bit, although everyone is in work mode now.

"We must create a support project for families, if these police officers have children they must be protected and not left adrift by the mistakes of their parents. "Marinette takes out her phone to write down a reminder to consult Hugo about the possibilities of creating a project about it.

Nathaniel nods in support, also pulling out his phone to check his bank accounts and see if he can support, he doesn't have the exaggerated amounts of money Marinette has accumulated over the past few years at absurd speed, but he's in the same situation that she just He accumulates because neither he nor Marc spend too much, the most expensive thing they have is the apartment and they don't even have a car. They don’t spend beyond what is necessary.

Alix doesn't comment, she, if it were not for living with Chloe, would have a slightly less stable life. Having her own art school doesn't give her millions, but it's something that she really enjoys, just like being an Art History consultant at the Louvre, she doesn't complain, but sometimes she0s surprised at the gap that exists between her and  others. Felix with his millionaire family, Chloe with his exorbitant salary (and the Hotel, which remained in her hands when André was imprisoned for fraud, Chloe didn't touch her heart when she reformed it completely and changed its name, leaving not even the shadow than it was), Nathaniel and Marc have a very stable base of money for their comic book editorial and recently accepted two new writers and three cartoonists for the publication of new works, expanding the franchise, Max has an annual profit that rivals With Luka and his record label, Kagami and the Tsurugi company double Chloe's annual salary (and that's a lot of money)... And Marinette, she has managed to accumulate so much money in just five years that she's close to surpassing Felix's fortune, if her earnings continue to grow at the rate  it's going (and having two Wayne as her clients, she is sure it will happen) she really will go on those lists of the world's richest people. Yes, she is the one who earns the least because even Kim has more stable earnings. And almost all of them have made their salary base in the last four years, working even before starting university.

The MT is full of crazies with money, definitely, but aren't all vigilantes like that? She can bet her kidneys that Batman and Green Arrow are also crazy with money.

"Then with the police business going on. I think it is time to research every company in Paris, find any links with shell companies and list them. That includes ours. ”No one complains, knowing they are not going to be sidelined just because they could end up showing that in court and it is better to avoid suspicion. "All employees must also be investigated. It would be good to speak to Borealis to find out if his informants have any suspicious information. "

"I'll tell him to give us all the information he gets at the meeting." Now it's Chloe's turn to get her phone out and start sending messages.

"Going back to the bomb, do you have suspects?" Marc asks, redirecting the conversation.

"Only one. His name is Felipe Lombard, he was released from prison two years ago. He was arrested for exploiting an apartment building killing seventeen people in Marseille, he was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison and... I really think it should have been longer, but he came out because he made a deal with the prosecution to help dismantle a group of smuggling of weapons that the police had been following for years, but had no conclusive evidence. It seems they found the connection with him and it was one of two, or cooperating or adding another twenty years to the sentence. ”Alix explains with little interest. "He was found dead this morning, according to the detective's call... So we don't know if someone paid him or if he relapsed. "

"Ridiculous, completely ridiculous."

"I think we need to expand our allies..." Luka murmurs, weighing their options, they may have the equipment, but they need more people to give them information and, although Aurore's informants are useful, they are not enough to have more precise control than it happens on the streets. And its allies outside the country seldom have information that relates to Paris in any way.

"Yeah, but we will discuss that when it is the first meeting of the Order." Says Marinette. "By the way, our trip will be short, the jewel is in Istanbul, so after the small obligations that Felix committed to, we'll return. "

"Right, we'd better be going." Felix nods at her words.

Everything is saved and sent to the central database, all are removed and most go to the dining room where Hugo has just arrived thanks to Kaalki. Only Damian doesn't follow the others and instead hugs his mother.

"Sorry. "

"Oh? Why?" She immediately returns the hug and strokes his head lovingly.

"I'm just sorry... maybe I did something wrong."

"You don't have to apologize if you make a mistake, I don't expect you to be perfect or someone you're not for wanting to please me." She smiles and cradles her son's face, she can see the conflict in his green eyes. "I love you as you're."

"Me too, mother." He hides his face in her chest and clings to her as much as he can, feeling really loved and at home. And he decides it's best to ignore the information about soul mates, Constantine's sour gaze upon mentioning it is proof that it's not pleasant for his mother either.

-------

R. Grayson: I have a question regarding the design you submitted

Marie Lenoir: Yes?

R. Grayson: Why is the lining of my suit violet?

Marie Lenoir: Combines with the tie and with your eyes, your shade of blue is very vivid and beautiful

R. Grayson: Thanks, although my eyes are nothing compared to yours

Marie Lenoir: Thank you, I'm flattered.

--------

Lila Agreste is not a bad person, at least, she's not anymore. Being forced to marry Adrien taught her a few things, as well as being a reality hit on the course she was taking in her life. By the time the marriage contract was released, she no longer wanted to have anything to do with the Agreste and marrying the blonde was out of her plans, but she did.

How it happened?

Well, Adrien invested a great deal of money in cleaning up the family name and pleasing her in any way she wanted, that was what persuaded her. But as the years went by, she felt less comfortable with the situation, but she came to sympathize with Adrien's stance and stayed for it, despite the fact that she fell in love with another man. If only the heroes were less useless and found a way to wake Emilie from the coma, she would be free to return to Italy and plan her life with her lover.

She doesn't love Adrien, but she's fond of him. Seven years married in a friendly relationship generates that, he never questioned her and respected her space, in addition to taking her on many trips and including her in various jobs. Yes, she knows that she takes advantage sometimes, but she also feels quite bitter. She doesn't even find herself to lie about anything, she just wants to get out of that horrible life and for that she must play her cards well or the last years would have been a waste of time.

With the only person who keeps in touch during school days is Alya (who doesn't know anything about the contract), the others made their lives far away or their relationships with them fractured, but she knows what has become of all of them because her beloved husband he mentions from time to time, in addition to maintaining a close friendship with several of them. He has even gone to some dinners with him, although she was always uncomfortable.

The only one relevant to her record is Marinette, she was surprised by the turn she gave to her life after that discussion with her parents. She stopped being the annoying girl from school and became a force to be reckoned, the Lady Black brand emerged strongly and remains lifted with the same toughness as the beginning, even expanding to other areas besides fashion.

She's jealous, yes she's, but she learned to recognize that all of that was her effort. She didn't marry anyone to help her, she doesn't even have a partner nor does she need her to have a child. She still doesn't know the famous boy, but Damian Lenoir is not a name that is foreign to her, Alya complained about how that boy seemed about to stab her boyfriend with a table knife... Lila still doesn't understand that possessed her to date that nefarious guy, neither all the money in the world is worth to support such a disgusting man.

"Lila, here!" She smiles as best she can and approaches the table. Alya invited her and, being the girlfriend of the mayor's son, it's a very luxurious place. She has gone there, of course, Adrien sometimes invites her to places like this to give the appearance of a happy couple.

"Hi. "She still doesn't like how effusive the reporter is.

"How was your trip to Kazan? Russia must be beautiful. "She begins, it's been a month since they last saw each other and then just a few calls, Adrien always takes a long time in the cities. Not that she cares, but that gives her time to have a good time at her destinations.

"Wonderful. Adrien paid a tour guide to take us to know the secrets of the city, of course, two weeks is a long time, but we found ways to have a good time while balancing work. "A little lie, she spent most of the time alone, but she's not telling anyone that. Perhaps the only ones who know are Adrien's friends and, again, she returns to that overly successful group. It would have seemed unreal if she hadn't seen their growth firsthand.

"That's great, Lila! I would like to travel more, but Michel is always busy, at least we have the opportunity to have dinner every night. ”She nods as if she was really interested in knowing something about her boyfriend, Nino was a thousand times better and also more pleasant. She still remembers with disgust when Michel tried to seduce her, if he did the same with Marinette, it doesn't surprise her that his son was ready to riddle him with silverware.

"It must be difficult being a surgeon's girlfriend, they can call him randomly at some point."

"Yes, but it's worth it."

Lila wonders if Alya knows or plays stupid, her boyfriend is no better than excrement, however handsome or wealthy he's. Although the reporter has a hard time accepting when she's wrong and after three years of relationship, it would be disappointing, yes, maybe that's it.

-------

­­Alya Cessaire @Alya.Blogs.Out

Reunion! @ LilaA.Rossi

[Attached photo]

Tim Drake @TimDrakeW_

My brother just can't contain himself from flirting, his survival instincts are on the underground

Jason @IAm_YisusXD

@TimDrakeW_ Now what did he do?

Tim Drake @TimDrakeW_

@IAm_YisusXD the normal... only now he forgot that her son has dogs capable of devouring him.

#maribat #dickinette #mominette #dick x marinette #Damian & Marinette #ml x dc

[mischiefandspirits]

Doppelgänger (7/?)

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.

{Public Enemies, Part 2}

“Okay, listen up!” Dash’s voice said and Danny followed it to a science lab. He peeked inside to see a bunch of students and school faculty watching as Dash continued, “Is everybody clear with the plan?”

“Yes, yes, it should all go down tomorrow after the town meeting,” Paulina said.

“Meeting?” Danny transformed then stepped in. “What town meeting?”

The group all turned to him with frowns.

Suddenly the door slammed behind him and he turned to see Kwan glaring at him.

“I’ve seen this one hanging around the girl. They’re dating.”

“Girl? Dating?”

Dash grabbed him, then Dash was falling to the ground and a white ghost was holding him.

“Walker!” Danny said without thinking.

“Oh, you know me?” the warden asked, leaning closer with a smirk. “You might just be the most useful one yet.”

“Useful?” Danny looked over the ghost’s shoulder and blanched as he saw the horde smirking at him with glowing eyes. “Oh no, you do not want to overshadow me, trust me. The last guy who did that did not enjoy it anywhere near as much as he thought he would.”

“We’ll see about that,” Walker said and dove into him before he could react.

A presence, pushing, pressing, trying to force him out. Out. OUT! GET OUT!

Danny snapped back into reality to find himself kneeling on the ground. He looked up and was relieved to see it was Walker sitting in front of him instead of himself. “Ha! Poindexter is better at possession than you!”

“How?” the warden growled, looking up.

“Dude, my family’s been ghost hunters for centuries. You think we haven’t built up an immunity to possession?” he lied.

Although, he supposed it might not be a lie. They didn’t know for sure why possession didn’t work right on Danny since neither Sam nor Tucker had been overshadowed before. His dad had managed to throw off Vlad for a short time though so maybe there was something in the Fenton genes.

Oh well, something to consider another time. “Now if you’ll excuse me…”

Danny ducked under Kwan’s grab and rushed out the door. He heard the overshadowed people take chase and let a little ghost strength and speed slip through. He glanced over his shoulder and grabbed a pistol out of the fold when he was sure no one was looking. Kwan had said girl, so they thought Sam was Doppelgänger. The longer they thought that, the longer the trio could use it to their advantage.

Danny hissed as something slammed him into the lockers.

Though, if it came down to giving up the ghost or dying, Danny’d transform.

He shot Lancer with the gun, knocking him out the window. He flinched as he took off running again, hoping his teacher couldn’t feel that.

“Gotta get away long enough to disappear.”

Ishiyama and Paulina dropped down in front of him and he fired on instinct. Paulina dodged, but the principal went flying.

“You can't get away from me!” the popular girl growled and Danny was hit by both her fist and the irony.

“Wow. I waited all of puberty for a girl to say that to me and now it's a complete bummer,” he groaned, rolling away from her grab and rubbing his jaw.

She snarled and made another grab, only for a blast of pink to throw her back.

Suddenly a hand was pulling Danny to his feet and dragging him down the hall. “Let’s go, before more of them come.”

Danny’s eyes widened as he realized Valerie had just come to his rescue. Where was this helpful attitude when you were trying to blow me out of the sky last week?

“Watch out!” Danny jerked them to a stop just in time to miss a grab from his history teacher, who flew past them and out a window as a result.

“Thanks,” she said.

“Thank you. I don’t think I would have lasted this long on my own,” he shot back as they both fired on the science teacher. “Nice gear, looks familiar,” he added as he saw the gun she was holding.

It was exactly the same as his, but with pink detailing.

“Nice aim. I didn’t think you were into this stuff,” she said as they ran down the stairs.

Danny shrugged and ducked a grab from Dash. “I’m not obsessed like my parents, but you can’t exactly live with them without knowing at least a little about how to fight a ghost.”

The two made it out of the school and Valerie summoned her board. “Get on. I can take you to your house.”

“Thanks, Valerie.” He climbed on and knelt down so he could watch their back.

The board jolted. “What? Who’s Valerie.”

Oops. “I-I just meant…” He glanced up and sighed. “You do realize you don’t change your voice at all in the suit, right?”

She cursed and dove around a cheerleader Danny didn’t recognize.

“It’s fine, I won’t tell anyone. I mean, Sam and Tucker already know, but they won’t tell anyone either. Promise.”

“Thanks.”

“You wouldn’t mind telling me where you got all this stuff, would you? Some of it looks like Fenton tech,” Danny said, shooting Dash out of the sky.

“It’s not stolen.”

“Didn’t say it was. My parents do sell their stuff. I just didn’t think anyone in town bought it before today.”

“I have a benefactor. They’re worried about the ghosts.”

“I mean entirely no offense given the circumstances, but they thought a teenager was the person for the job?”

“I didn’t ask, for obvious reasons.”

“That’s fair.”

“What were you doing in the school anyways? I thought everyone had evacuated.”

“I did too. That’s why I thought it was safe to go grab something I’d forgotten in my locker.”

“Clearly you were wrong.”

“Clearly,” Danny snorted and used a lull in attacks to pull out his phone. He texted Jazz, telling her to turn on the ghost shield. “The ghosts were using the school as a gathering point. Apparently they’re planning to do something at a town meeting tomorrow. I overheard them plotting, hence the trying to kill me thing.”

“Noted. I bet that ghost kid is part of this.”

“You mean Doppelgänger?”

“Doppelgänger?”

“White hair, green skin, androgynous?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, that’s Doppelgänger. They’re the one the ghosts are after. Not sure how they think trashing the town and overshadowing half the school is supposed to help.”

“Why are they looking for him?”

“Them. Androgynous, remember.” The trio had decided to just use gender-neutral pronouns for all their sakes. “And no clue.”

Valerie turned a corner, then slowed down at the sight of the shield.

“It’s fine, it will only stop ghosts.”

She nodded and flew through.

Once they landed, Danny turned to her with a smile. “Thanks again.”

He couldn’t see her face through the mask, but he could hear a smile in her voice. “No problem. Try to be more careful.”

“You too. And hey, if you need any help with your gear, just ask. I know my way around quite a bit of it thanks to my parents.” It’d also give him and his partners an idea of her arsenal.

“I might take you up on that. You’re… not so bad, Fenton.”

He smirked. “You’re not so bad yourself, Gray.”

She shook her head with a laugh. “You could use some work on your form. If-if you want, we can train together sometime. I have a black belt, so I could teach you a few things. I mean, unless you think your girlfriend would object. I don’t want to cause trouble.”

Danny groaned. “Sam and I are queerplatonic. Same with Tucker. No romance involved.”

“Oh, cool.”

Danny blinked. Did she sound… happier?

“So, training?”

“Uh, sure.” It would make Jazz stop bugging him about spending more time away from his partners. And he’d get to see what Valerie was capable of while learning new fighting techniques. “I mean, yeah, that sounds great. Thanks, Valerie.”

They swapped phone numbers and agreed to meet up Sunday afternoon as long as the ghosts didn’t cause a problem.

“Why did you want the ghost shield on?” Jazz asked when he came in.

“Ghosts were chasing me.”

“You okay?” Jazz said, looking him over.

“Fine. I need to call Sam and Tucker.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ghost kid!”

The trio froze and turned as Valerie flew towards them. Sam and Tucker got into defensive positions, but Danny tugged them back. “What do you want? You here to blame us too?”

“For once, no. I know the mayor’s overshadowed. I ran into a pack of overshadowed people last night saving someone so I was looking for the signs. I also found out they’re here for you. So spill. What’d you do to tick them all off?”

Danny scrunched down slightly as his partners went through his memories of the night before. He hadn’t actually told them about his meetup with Valerie.

We’re talking about this later. “Their leader, Walker, runs a jail in the Ghost Zone.”

“Are you a fugitive?” Her hand twitched towards her gun.

“Only because anything and everything is illegal in Walker’s book. The zone’s laws only apply lair to lair from what we’ve been told. Walker just likes to enforce his own laws on the entirety of the zone because all he cares about is locking people up. He’s a menace. We were locked up for duplicating. That’s pretty much our thing! And we were in someone’s private lair. He literally wrote a rule against duplication into his book right in front of us as we were being arrested for it! He didn’t have any right to lock us up! So yeah, we broke out. Now he’s turning the town against us as punishment or something.”

She looked between them.

“Look,” they said as Danny floated closer, hands up in a sign of goodwill. “You don’t have to believe us, but will you at least help us free the people they’ve overshadowed and get them back to the zone.”

“Fine. I’ll agree to a truce, for now.” She crossed her arms and looked them over again. “You know, the talking together thing is really creepy.”

They shrugged. “We can’t help it. We’ve tried.”

“Do you have to be split up?”

“We’re stronger this way, and there’s a lot of ghosts. Three’s better than one.”

“That’s true. So what’s your plan?”

“We can get the ghosts out of people by pulling them out or using a low energy blast.”

“You want to fire on random people and hope they’re overshadowed,” she deadpanned.

The three shared a look. “She’s got a point. It’s faster that way though and a blast like that wouldn’t hurt anyone. We’re trying to convince them we’re here to help. We don’t think they’d see it that way if we’re attacking people.” They turned back to Valerie. “We can get the ghosts out by pulling them out of people.”

She pointed between them. “Did you just have a fight with yourself?”

“Ever hear of talking aloud to work through a problem?” Danny elbowed Sam. “Can your suit detect people who are overshadowed? Human bodies block our ghost sense.”

“I don’t know. I can try when we get to the town hall.”

“Alright, so we’ll work on getting the ghosts out, and then you can knock them down. Agreed?”

“Fine. Just know, as soon as this is over I’m knocking you down too.”

They nodded and the four shot towards the town hall.

Danny grabbed Valerie and phased her through the ceiling so they could hover over the crowd invisibly.

“Order! Order!” the mayor was yelling and everyone quieted down. “All in favor of declaring martial law, and allowing the completely competent Jack Fenton to mobilize a massive ghost hunt, please say-”

“We… might be too young to vote, but we’re casting one anyway!” they said as Sam turned visible.

The crowd panicked.

“You people have to listen to us. We’re on your side.”

“You're not fooling anybody, ghost kid! You are going down!” Danny’s dad yelled, brandishing the still tangled fisher. “As soon as I untangle this thing!”

“I’ve got the mayor on my scanner, but I’m having problems scanning the crowd,” Valerie said.

“The Fentons?”

“No, they’re clean.”

“That’s bad.”

“Why?”

“Maddie Fenton’s a good shot.”

Sam dropped to the ground as Danny’s mom fired at her. A moment later the ghost girl was dragged through the floor.

The three followed to see the horde from before all standing over Sam, with the mayor leading the charge.

“Walker! I should've guessed you'd end up in the guy that makes the rules!”

“Shouldn't you be running?”

Sam looked up as Danny, Tucker, and Valerie turned visible. “Shouldn't you?”

Danny passed Valerie his thermos then the trio launched themselves at the ghosts. Knocking them free with punches and blasts while Valerie vacuumed them up.

Then Danny’s mom was there.

“I’ve got her,” Valerie said, tossing Tucker the thermos and intercepting the woman before she could blast one of the trio.

“Ghost!” she said, pointing the bazooka at her.

“Human,” Valerie countered, removing her glove to show her human skin. “A hunter, like you. Name’s… Red Huntress. The ghost kid’s working for me, for now. The mayor and a few others are overshadowed.”

“Ghosts can’t be trusted,” Maddie argued.

“I don’t trust them, but I’m willing to use them until we can solve the invasion.”

The woman hummed and looked to where the trio were freeing their classmates. “I don’t like it, but I see your point. You’re certain the mayor’s overshadowed?”

“Saw it for myself. He’s the leader and he’s got a grudge against Doppelgänger. The ghost kid. That’s why he was trying to get you and your husband to lead the charge against them specifically.”

Maddie nodded. “I don’t have anything on me to deal with possession.”

“Neither do I. That’s why I’m using them.”

Maddie considered her arsenal. “I’ll be back.”

She ran upstairs and grabbed Fenton Zapper. She was about to run back down when the mayor appeared, hauling the ghost kid with him.

“Let us go!”

“Not a chance.” He forced the kid’s arm around his shoulders then threw the front doors open. As Maddie ran closer, she heard him quietly say, “I’m making sure your prison is the town where you live.”

She aimed.

“Help. He-”

She fired and a large white ghost was knocked out of the mayor.

The ghost kid caught the mayor and lowered him to the ground carefully.

“You okay, Mayor Montez?” she asked as she ran up to their side.

“What happened?” he said, looking around.

“You were overshadowed by him,” she said, gesturing to the angry ghost floating in front of the town hall. She glanced at the ghost kid, who held up his -- her? -- hands and smiled awkwardly. “We’re just… going to go fight Walker now if that’s okay Mrs. Fenton.”

She glared at… them and turned to the white ghost, drawing the bazooka and firing.

“Or you can do that. That works too,” they said as the ghost disappeared into the mini-portal.

She turned back to find the ghost kid gone.

“Mrs. Fenton! Mrs. Fenton!” some reporters rushed up to her, waving cameras and microphones. “What just happened? Was the ghost kid really kidnapping the mayor?”

“Mayor Montez was possessed -- or overshadowed -- by a ghost attempting to frame the ghost kid for reasons we don’t yet know.”

She heard footsteps behind her and turned to see Red Huntress leading out a group of people.

“They’re all free, but the ghost kid took off while my back was turned,” she said, voice annoyed.

Maddie nodded and turned back to the reporters. “It seems we were wrong to think the ghost kid was leading the invasion, but they're still dangerous and we don’t know why they are here.”

“He saved me!” one of the teens shouted, flipping her hair over her shoulder and beaming as the cameras turned to her. “He’s totally a hero!”

“Yeah, she was awesome!” a blonde teen in a letterman’s jacket said as an Asian teen nodded along behind him. “You should have seen her blasting the ghosts out of us!

"It was like something out of a superhero movie! Awesome!”

Maddie tried to interject, but a few more teens joined in and the reporters turned all their focus on interviewing the victims.

“This won’t end well,” Red Huntress huffed and jumped into the air so a hoverboard could form underneath her. “It was cool working with you, Mrs. Fenton.”

“You as well.”

Valerie only made it out of sight of the town hall before she was stopped. Her hand settled on her pistol, but didn’t draw it. “You’re an idiot for sticking around.”

The ghost kid shrugged and rubbed their neck. “We just wanted to thank you for giving us a chance. And to apologize for what happened with your dad. We really are sorry we couldn’t stop Cujo before he reached the lab.”

“I thought the dog wasn’t yours.”

“He isn’t, technically, but someone has to keep him out of trouble and clearly no one else is going to do it so we kind of took him in after what happened to your dad. He’s actually really sweet when he’s not upset about being put down and losing his favorite toy.”

“Sure,” she said sarcastically. “Look, this was a one-time thing, understand. I just needed your help. I still don’t trust you.”

“We’ll just have to change your mind then.” They gave her a salute then disappeared.

She could have followed them with a scanner, but she let them get away. This time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam and Tucker were scowling when Danny met back up with them in Sam’s room. Head ducked, he landed and transformed. “So…”

“What were you thinking?” the two said.

“You know what I was thinking,” he sighed, dropping into a bat-shaped bean bag chair.

“She’s trying to kill us,” Sam growled.

“Exactly. If we can get her to realize we’re not the bad guys then that’s one less person after us.”

“It’s dangerous, dude,” Tucker said.

“I’ll be careful.”

“Uh-huh, sure.” Sam crossed her arms and stood over him. “Just remember you’re not the only one at risk here.”

“I know.” He stood up and hugged her. “Like I said, I’ll be careful.”

#danny phantom #valerie gray #public enemies #sam manson #tucker foley #Doppelgänger au

[ghostsray]

Ch10: Corruption

(first - prev - next) (ao3)

"I don't get it," Kwan said from his seat at the A-listers table. "That mayor's kid only showed up for half a week and then suddenly disappeared."

Paulina shrugged. "He was homeschooled, wasn't he? Maybe he has, like, social anxiety or something. I mean, he barely talked to anyone on those days he was here."

"Still, I wonder how he's doing," Star said. "Do you think he got in trouble for that rumor about Vlad and the Fentons?"

Dash snorted. "As if either of Fenton's parents would hook up with Masters. His kid's probably just crying at home for being such a loser."

While the A-listers talked among themselves, our trio of friends sat several tables over. Maybe it was ghost-powered enhanced senses, but Danny was able to hear their conversation over the bustle of the school cafeteria. He looked down at his tray, but he didn't feel very hungry at the moment.

Sam paused from her salad to look at him. "Still worried?"

Danny bit his lip. "It's just, I haven't seen or heard from Niel ever since..."

He didn't need to continue. He had told his friends about what happened, and they knew what he was referring to.

"Dang," Tucker said. "I mean, we all knew that Vlad sucked, but it's sad that Niel had to find out that way." He looked at Sam and asked, "You haven't heard from him, either?"

She shook her head. "Nothing. Not even a text."

"You guys text?"

"Used to, apparently."

Danny shifted in his seat. "Maybe I should check in on Vlad's mansion. Niel could be in trouble."

"I doubt it," Sam said. "Vlad wouldn't hurt Niel after being so public about his so-called "adoption" of him. It would ruin his image."

Danny had to admit, that did make sense. Still...he couldn't shake how terrified Niel had seemed when he dropped by his basement with a melting Danielle in tow. Niel had disappeared into the portal after that, and Danny hadn't seen him since.

He wanted to share these thoughts with his friends, but he was stopped when a sudden cold gripped at his spine before escaping through his mouth in a puff of blue mist. The mist wasn't as easily visible to humans as it was to ghosts and half-ghosts, but Sam and Tucker had grown to recognize the stiffness in Danny's back that always accompanied his ghost sense.

"Go," Sam told him. "We'll think of a way to cover for you if you take long."

Danny nodded. He cast a quick glance over the cafeteria. As usual, nobody paid any attention to the three losers, and the ghost he sensed didn't appear to be in this room. Danny left his seat and sprinted outside.

Once in the hallway, he let his ghost sense puff out again and watched as it wisped down the hallway and around a corner. He'd gotten good at controlling his ghost sense into letting him know where the ghost was with more precision. He followed the blue mist until he stopped when the tingling in his spine grew alarming. The ghost was nearby.

He turned his head around. The hallway was empty, but the entrance to the biology lab stood next to him. Cautiously, he opened the door an inch and peeked inside, then threw it wide open when he saw the figure slumped on the floor against one wall.

"Dani?" he said, because that was whom his mind first went to when he saw the pool of ectoplasm growing from the ghost. But after a closer look, he determined that whoever it was definitely wasn't Danielle.

Then the ghost raised its molten face, and Danny inhaled sharply and said, "Niel?"

It was him, all right. The clone he had been worrying over just a few seconds ago...and seeing how he looked, Danny had a feeling that his worrying was justified.

Danny landed on his knees next to the boy and asked, "What happened?"

Niel looked terrible, both because of the whole melting thing and because he was crying. He was sniffling and blinking teary eyes as he said, "I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to trust Vlad."

"Vlad..." Danny cursed and said, "You were supposed to be his prime clone. If he saw you destabilizing and knew you were imperfect--"

Niel shook his head. "He promised he can fix me."

"What? Then why didn't you let him?"

"I--" His eyes released more tears and one of his hands turned completely into goo as he said, "I don't know."

Danny wanted to know what happened, but he figured now was not the time for questions. "It's fine. The Ecto-Dejecto worked for Dani, so it'll probably work for you, too." He hesitated and asked, "Can you stand?"

Niel tried to push himself up. His limbs wobbled before he slipped on his own ectoplasm and dropped back down. So that was a no. Danny wrapped his arm under Niel's arms, ignoring how slippery he was, and hoisted him up.

Danny knew class was about to start soon, but it seemed that he would be skipping...again. That sucked, considering how many credits he had to make up for, but Niel's problem was much more important at the moment. He was just about to go ghost and carry them both home when the whine of an ecto-gun suddenly grabbed his attention.

He turned to the door and widened his eyes before hurriedly pushing Niel behind him and greeting, "Val!"

Valerie stood in the doorway, ecto-gun in hand. She raised an eyebrow. It was pretty obvious that she could still see Niel despite Danny's weak effort to hide him. "Why are you helping a ghost?" she asked.

"Ghost? What ghost?" Danny said with a nervous chuckle. He sent Niel a glare, silently telling him, Why aren't you turning invisible?!

Too late, Valerie had already seen him. "Danny..."

Danny sighed. He raised one hand in a placating gesture and said, "Look, he's not harming anyone. He's hurt."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Valerie replied with narrowed eyes. "His ecto-level reading is off the charts."

Was it? That seemed strange, considering how weak Niel appeared, but he supposed it would make sense for him to have inherited Phantom's overpoweredness.

"Anyway, aren't you supposed to be super terrified of ghosts or something?" Valerie pointed out, looking at Danny weirdly. "Or do you always run away from ghost encounters just because?

"Oh, um..." He chuckled again and rubbed his neck, trying furiously to think of a valid excuse. "Uh..." He pointed accusingly at her and shouted, "You're a ghost hunter!"

Valerie's eyes widened before she hid her gun behind her back and said with a nervous smile, "Of course not! I'm just carrying around a gun for safety. You know how often this school gets attacked by ghosts."

"Uh huh. If it was for self-defense, then why did you seek the ghost out instead of letting Phantom take care of him?"

"Phantom is a ghost, too. I don't trust him."

"So you are a ghost hunter!"

"And you're not terrified of ghosts!"

Both of them looked sheepish as they realized they had no way of backing themselves up.

They might have stood there awkwardly forever if Valerie's eyes hadn't drifted to the wall behind Danny. She cursed and exclaimed, "Great! The ghost got away!"

Danny turned around and found that Niel was gone. Additionally, there was a vaguely Niel-shaped coating of ectoplasm on the wall where he may have phased through. Danny was relieved that Niel got away from Valerie, but he really hoped he was okay.

Valerie walked until she stood in front of the wall, unobstructed by Danny's view. While she wasn't looking at him, Danny took this opportunity to run out the lab. Valerie's head whipped around as she heard him sprint.

She called out his name, but Danny was already down the hallway. He hid in the nearest broom closet he could find and transformed. Invisible, Phantom flew out the school and began searching for Niel.

Turns out that wasn't very hard. All he had to do was follow the trail of ectoplasm that led down the street. Danny's gut twisted. He really, really hoped Niel was okay.

Danny followed the trail until he stopped in front of the Nasty Burger a couple of blocks away. Niel was hiding behind a shrub in the parking lot. Danny was so relieved when he saw him that he let out a deep breath.

Niel flinched in surprise and started looking around frantically before Danny dropped his invisibility with a chuckle. "It's okay, it's just me! Jeez, I know you had to get away from Val, but you didn't have to travel this far."

Niel didn't reply. He averted his gaze from Danny and curled up, bringing his knees to his chest. Even though it was just Danny, his eyes still had that haunted look to them, and he was shivering--which didn't do much good for his melting.

Danny knew he needed to calm Niel down before he stressed himself into a puddle of goo. He gently landed next to the clone and said, "Wanna talk?"

Danny almost expected him to keep quiet, but Niel answered, "What is there to talk about other than the fact that my life utterly sucks?"

Okay, so Niel was going through some problems. He could see that. He cracked a smile and said, "Hey, join the club. My life--or half-life, at least--sucks, too."

He meant that as a joke to lift the mood, but he realized too late that it probably wasn't what Niel needed to hear. The other boy glared at him and said, "Your life sucks? You have a family who loves you, best friends, Sam probably likes you--"

"What?"

"--and you don't have a homicidal maniac for a dad!"

After that angry response, Niel buried his face into his arms and continued to sob. Okay. So Danny probably needed to approach this with gentle sympathy, and not stupid jokes.

"I mean...have you met my dad?" Dammit Danny why do you have to suck at comforting people. He really wished Jazz were here instead. She was at college, although it was Friday, so she'd probably be visiting home that day. If only she were here sooner.

Niel lifted his head long enough to glare at him, and Danny sighed and admitted, "No, you're right. Your dad is much worse than my parents." He frowned as a realization dawned on him, and he said, "Wait, I thought you hated my parents."

Whatever he said, it wasn't the right thing. Niel clenched his jaw and balled his hands (or hand and a half, considering one of them was little more than a blob of ectoplasm at this point) into fists. "I don't know! I don't..."

"Hey, dude, it's cool," Danny said quickly. He tried to rub Niel's back for comfort--that was what Jazz always did to him whenever he had a mental breakdown--but when he touched his body, he instantly recoiled as a shock went through his fingers. A static shock? Wait, but Niel was in ghost form. That didn't make sense.

Niel brushed him off and messily stood up, fist(s) by his sides. "I'm just...so sick of everything! I was supposed to be made to replace you, you know, but I get nothing from your perfect life."

Danny froze and let out a nervous chuckle. "You don't, like...actually care about replacing me, though. Right?" He stood beside him and added, "By the way, I wasn't kidding when I said my life sucked. Sure, your life may seem terrible right now, but nobody's life is perfect..."

"Shut up!" Niel shouted and thrust a hand in Danny's direction. Danny had just enough time to duck and dodge Niel's ecto-beam--wait, no, that wasn't an ecto-beam. That was...a bolt of lightning? The lightning hit the restaurant building behind Danny, and he heard several things crack and people scream. He turned around and saw that the windows had burst. Smoke was billowing out, and Danny was pretty sure that wasn't from the cooking.

Danny turned back to stare at Niel, but the boy didn't seem shocked or guilty from what he'd done. He didn't seem anything at all, actually. His eyes were distant, unseeing. His chest still heaved, which did nothing to stop his gradual liquefaction.

Oh god oh frick. Danny wanted to slap Niel in the face multiple times, but he had to save those inside the restaurant. He zoomed toward the building and peeked in through the broken glass.

Thankfully, due to the time of day--when most people were at school or working--there weren't many people inside. Those who were there were rushing out the door. They reached the outdoor safely without his help, and Danny was just about to accept that he wasn't needed when a flame grew with a roar in front of him. He stumbled back and landed on his butt before picking himself up again.

Now that he noticed it, all the lights inside the building had burst and were sending sparks across the room, many of which caught on wooden furniture and gave birth to fire. The sprinkler system must have still been broken from the last ghost fight, though he didn't know if that would have helped anyway.

The smoke blowing at him was suffocating. He covered his mouth and nose with a gloved hand and backed away. He was in ghost form; he knew he didn't need to breathe. A small part of his brain that spoke in Jazz's voice told him his suffocation was purely psychological, but that didn't make him any less reluctant to breathe the fire in.

His eyes stung. He blinked furiously as the sight before him sunk in. He was at the Nasty Burger. The Nasty Burger was on fire. He was at the Nasty Burger, and the Nasty Burger was on fire. A numb paralysis spread through his body and squeezed his chest and he still couldn't breathe. He was at the Nasty Burger, the Nasty Burger was on fire, his friends and family were dead and his older self was laughing menacingly, eyes flaring red and fangs glinting in the fire--

No. No! Danny had to physically shake his head to shove that memory away. Dan wasn't here! His alternate future self was trapped safely inside a thermos in Clockwork's lair. His friends and family were alive. The Nasty Burger still hadn't blown up. Clockwork erased that timeline!

Or did he?

Danny focused his eyes and saw Niel still standing in the same spot, still staring at the fire dazedly. His eyes were flaring red, his mouth was open slightly to reveal his fangs. His skin was blue and his cape billowed and his hair seemed to wisp at the edges like it was made of fire.

Danny told himself that Niel wasn't Dan. But how could he be sure he won't turn into him? Niel was already jealous of Danny's life; how could he be sure that the clone won't take his place then proceed to do the same decisions Danny had done in that dark timeline? How could he know that Niel won't become corrupted?

"Not him," Danny found himself mumbling. "Please. Not him."

Niel must have heard him, because he turned his head slightly toward him with a frown, like he was just beginning to wake. Another roar came from the building as the fire ate through the walls, and Niel blinked and suddenly jolted awake from his stupor. His eyes finally focused on the image before him, and they widened. Had he done that? he seemed to wonder.

"Ice," he said, then turned to Danny seriously and shouted, "Use your ice!"

Danny didn't hear him. He was having his own little breakdown when Niel placed a goopy hand on his shoulder and brought him back to the real world. Danny flinched and shoved Niel away. Niel looked hurt, but Danny didn't care. Away, he wanted to stay away from that, that ghost--

Wait. What had he said? Ice? Danny wanted to slap himself and laugh at the same time. Of course, he had ice powers now! He didn't have them when he first faced off against Dan, but he did have them now. He could put out the fire before the whole place exploded.

Oh shoot the place could explode. Danny rushed inside, through the thick smoke and fire. He summoned his ice powers to the surface and began to freeze everything in sight. He may or may not have used a little more ice than necessary, but his goal was reached; the fires were put out. Just to be extra sure, he made certain that the vat of Nasty Sauce was cool, along with any heater or chemical that could have exploded in heat, before he finally allowed himself to slump in relief and floated back outside.

As soon as he made it out, he was tackled by Niel's melting form, whose ectoplasm was splattered all over Danny as he hugged him. Danny's first instinct was to go absolutely still, but then Niel sobbed and said, "I'm sorry! I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't mean to!"

Once Danny got over his shock, he brought his hand to Niel's back. Rubbing it didn't yield great results, considering how goopy and sticky Niel's body was, so Danny just patted him gently and said, "It's okay. No one got hurt."

Niel sniffled and pulled away. Seeing him, Danny was filled with immense guilt. How could he possibly have even considered that Niel could be Dan? Dan would never feel bad about what he had done. There was no way Niel could become corrupted enough into becoming a genocidal murderer. He was too sad, and too small.

Also, he was currently turning into a puddle. Danny probably ought to do something about that. "Hey, come on. We still need to get to my parents' lab to fix you up," Danny told him.

Niel nodded wordlessly. He let Danny do his best to hold him in his dissolving form, and the half-ghost carried them both to Fentonworks, the frozen-over restaurant shrinking behind them as they left.

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

[255940g]

Holiday gift to @differentjasper. Happy holidays and I hope you enjoy!

Read on Ao3 here : https://archiveofourown.org/works/22012411

Holiday Truce Gift- Wes Weston study

I will admit this was supposed to be a character study of Wes Weston but then I saw a prompt on Tumblr about the lack of logical scars. Of course, the canon show isn’t really logical but they should have at least put vague lines there to show scars. We know scars can be kept on ghosts due to Clockwork. Be warned times passes quickly as I wrestled with this idea. 

Looking at my bedroom wall I couldn’t help but think of how it has changed through the past school year. At the beginning of the year, there were pictures of a few famous basketball players.

Then came the emergence of the Phantom or the Ghost Boy as he was called in the beginning. The change of the wall came slowly and then all at once.

It started simple with one sketch of Phantom that I commissioned an artist on Tumblr that I followed and admired. Then a poster dedicated to a few sightings of Phantom around town. 

By November, the first basketball poster came off to make room for more images of Phantom. I convinced myself that after I minimalized when I had more time-probably over Winter break- it would go right back up. 

However, I knew even then, in my heart if secret hearts, that I was trying to fool myself. When I furled it back out in the middle of February for the annual garage sale my parents insisted on doing, I threw it semi-carefully into the box labelled ‘Garage sale’.

It mattered even less when I quit the basketball team.  It seemed shocking to my parents yet they understood my decisions eventually. A week after quitting I saw a black-haired male transform into Phantom. It took another week of school for me to learn his name. Well, what I mean is, is that I heard of him but I never connected the person to the name. 

The person that transformed into Phantom was Danny always picked on by Dash Fenton. Who wasn’t to be confused with his older sister who Dash had a crush on. The Friday two weeks after I figured out who Phantom was would be the most accurate spot place where my obsession began.

Looking at the wall now, there is only images of Phantom, the enemies he faces, and a few pictures of solely Sam, Tucker, and Danny. I couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride and accomplishment of the detailed work that I have done. 

Each enemy has at least one detailed notecard with details on visible powers, personal info, and where and when they have attacked. A few even had who they were before they were ghosts. Take the lunch lady ghost as an example. It was easy to figure out who she was. A dedicated lunch lady that made the lunches the exact same way as they are now 50 years after her death. Of course, I had backups of all this data written down multiple times in different books and google drive just for same keeping.

Sam, Tucker, and Danny’s notecards were different. They had what they helped Phantom and Fenton with. When those two were eventually transformed into ghosts another notecard was added for their ghost half.

For Sam, it was when she managed to transform into a plant ghost. Not overly surprising that her ghost self had powers over plants when Sam adores her greenhouse and the plants inside there.

Tuckers ghost self was unusual. He didn’t get ghost powers for all that he has a ‘girlfriend’ in his beloved PDA. He was some sort of Egyptian Emperor. Either way, neither of them had ghost powers anymore and that is what had mattered to everyone at school, their teachers, and parents. 

Knowing that Fenton was Phantom doesn’t seem to have any perks for me. Danny took every opportunity to show off how blind everyone in town was. For the annual Casper High Halloween party festival thing that went on Danny dressed up as Phantom. The only difference was that Danny kept his human half blue eyes. That shit. No one even suspected a single thing. Not even Paulina who was self-proclaimed in love with Phantom! Asshole Fenton. 

Almost a full year later since Phantom first starred on the news.

Ok so in actuality it was the first full week of summer vacation when everything shifted. I was no longer joked and teased. In as much secret as possible other students came to me to hear my ideas and possibilities of Phantom and about Phantom. Finally, people were listening! Yet, at what cost to Danny?

*Flashback*

I was both on my phone and watching the news displaying Phantom creating a small snow cloud over a portion of Amnity’s main and only park’s grass. Well, the small children seemed to adore having snow to help with the unusual heat of the afternoon. The news report changed to a ghost attacking another part of Amnity. Phantom quickly found out about the attack and first rushed over to the parents of the children then rushed to help the fleeing people there. I haven’t heard a name yet but I grabbed my supplies of notecards, pens, and switched to recording the audio of the news report to my phone. 

I knew that depending on what ghost powers this new ghost had it would take a few minutes or even days to defeat them. 

About 5 minutes later I watched as Danny was repeatedly beaten soundly and squarely. While the camera focused on the attacking ghost I took a few quick pictures to print out and size later. 

I was already taking notes on what powers the new ghost displayed. 

About an hour later I was highly concerned. Danny still was being beaten and unable to get many good hits to the new ghost. While I was watching my eye caught a small detail. Dany’s jumpsuit was coming off and apart slowly but surely. The next attack flung Phantom sailing backwards with his back to the camera above taping the report. 

It was only able to be seen due to the fact that functionally all of the tops of the jumpsuit was destroyed. There on his back were scars that looked all connected like lightening. From what I could see was that it was one scar that disappeared over his front. The scar was a bright red, there were thicker and thinner lines and all of the liner were jagged. 

The usual yapping by the reporter was cut off and there was silence. The eerie silence gave the report a feel for even more shock then what I thought possible. Once Danny crashed through a building-luckily turning intangible before impact so there wasn’t any more structural damage. The last things I heard and saw before the camera shut off was the attacking ghost clearly looking for Phantom and the reporter asking “What were those scars?”

The next time that the same report came back on it was showing how Phantom was now defeating the formerly attacking ghost. 

‘Damnit! I still don’t have a name!’ I thought furiousely.

At least the jumpsuit was repaired completely. Although it was clear to see that Danny was still in pain, but was giving his all. As usual, he was able to eventually able to defeat the ghost and it was quickly sucked into the thermos. Then, as usual, Dany turned invisible soon after making sure that there was no one stuck in any rubble. 

It wasn’t surprising to see another report of Phantom gracing the news. This time the topic was how and what those scars were and meant. It was made clear by the close-up -yet still a bit grainy- picture of the scars in the discovery of them.

There was a guest speaker who was a doctor -a forensic pathologist- speaking confidently on what those scars were and how they are gained a human body. 

With confidence, she declared when prompted “Scars like those will only ever appear on a human body due to electrocution. There is the argument that I know nothing on ghosts. This is true. I functionally know nothing on ghosts. What I do know is how human acquires scars. Specifically how those scars are kept on a dead body. With my 14 years of working solely on dead bodies and 3 years in the medical field I can guarantee with absolute certainty that those scars are both more numerous then what the camera picked up at that great distance and that they were caused by any kind of electrocution. Most commonly it’s by lightning yet, with circumstances being they are the only certainty is that they are electrocution scars.” 

Ms Doctor person continued describing attributes of scars. But I was still in a slight shock. 

I wasn’t taking any notes with only a single thought in my mind when did Danny get electrocuted. I didn’t tune back into normal time until commercials came on. I had more research to get to.

It took two weeks to track down Dany Fenton and research on scars. But I did. The only thing he confirmed was that he was electrocuted ad it was how he died. 

     In the months I was contacted quietly and secretly by classmates who asked to confirm. All of them were sombre and quite fearful. But hey I was being listened to. … Right? 

    By the time that school started Danny and Jazz were adopted by their godfather Mayor Masters due to their parents being negligent and more concerned with their in-home science lab both in the basement and above Fenton wors than the overall saftey of their children.

    In a semi-small town, any news is still news and reporters do need to find stories and get paid. 

    By November, Phantom seemed to have two mentors where he trained with his powers. The Guys In White warned the public to stay away at all costs because they were ghosts. Yet no one really listened.

#holidaytrucr2019 #@differentjasper #here is your gift

[wonderlustlucas]

saccharine - lee donghyuck

⇢ prompt “This is the only special part so far.” ⇢ pairing haechan x female reader ⇢ word count 2.1k ⇢ genre fluff ⇢ warnings none ⇢ summary One thing on top of another leads to one Hell of an emotional week. Luckily, the birthday boy with the sun under his skin and a passion when it comes to cinnamon buns is there to save the day.—highschool!au ⇢ a/n idrk what this is,,,,it started as one thing and ended as another BUT ITS OK cuz im so happy with this, i uwu, v cute, its kind of dramatic??and depressing??at first?? but low key relatable so UHHHHH enjoy! happy 18th birthday lee donghyuck ❥

The balance on which your patience and sanity sit on is far too close to teetering off the edge; one minuscule blow and off you will tumble, falling down into a hole of desperation and depression that only breakdowns and napping and pints of ice-cream can fix.

It’s simply an amalgamation of factors that will lead to your potential breakdown, a multitude of unlucky combinations that, in accordance with the universe, lunge upon you all at once. And while life could be much, much worse, it’s the overwhelming panic and desolation that makes it so unbearable.

The first, the least stressful but nonetheless one that has you sitting in bed at night on the brink of tears, is the reality that after a whole four years, one thousand four hundred and sixty days, high school would be over. All the set routines, all the unforgettable memories—all of it, cut off with a signed piece of paper and a handshake.

The second: your ex-boyfriend has someone new. While the breakup was months ago, a lengthy amount of time that allowed for the hopelessness and betrayal to finally diminish until you were back on your feet again, enjoying the life of not being tied down and being able to hook up with anyone you damned please, it hurts. It’s an odd sting, a wrenching in your heart that he has found someone else and you haven’t, a dull ache no matter how hard you convince yourself that you don’t care.

The third element to your disastrous undoing, one that every student faces and dreads: exams. You’re smart, undeniably smart, and that’s what makes exams all the more stressful. The honest-to-goodness want and need to do well, combined with the consequences of procrastination make for a week full of rushed studying and ‘I’ll be fine’s, followed by a two hundred question test slapped in your face at seven in the morning that only partially makes sense.

And the icing on the cake: you are premenstrual. It’s the final blow that makes your closing week of school so atrocious, one that heightens the sadness of this is it for school, the grief of a long ago broken heart, and the monstrous stress of finals. A voice in the back of your head always bitching, bubbling over in your mind that absolutely everything and everyone has to get on your nerves, topped with the undeniable horniness constantly aching in your brain and abdomen along with the wavering self-doubt, euphoria, despair, and irritability.

And even after the last day of school, the final exam, the cheering as you exit the building you’ve been a prisoner in for the past four years, the realization that it’s over, you still are in the grip of a silent panic, an unstoppable snowball fight in the pit of your stomach.

It’s an awkward time of the day once you arrive home from school for the last time, too late to make last minute plans but too early to crash no matter how much your heart calls you to.

Instead, you make a hasty decision to head back out even after you have changed into sweats, opting for a happy middle ground rather than choosing one and ending up disappointed. Off to the bakery you go, driving into the quieter part of town in impassive quietness and staring up at the baby blue sky.

It’s comforting in a strange sort of way, the soporific shade bringing a sense of luxury and serenity like warm milk and honey. However, all good things must come to an end, you realize after you park, abruptly exiting the car and slamming the door closed before making your way up onto the sidewalk.

Like a ghost in a world full of paper dolls you enter the bakery huddled between the bank and antique shop, a place where air is more delicious than any flavor and mouth-watering displays cause more regret than any drunken party ever could.

The cinnamon buns just so happen to be like your Achilles tendon; at the sight of one you’d stop dead in your tracks, the damned things are your nemesis and elixir all in one and there’s simply no denying a decadent treat like this on such a forlorn day.

Upon entering the bakery, you let out a mesmerized sigh at the beckoning aroma of fresh baked cookies and cakes and pastries and you hardly feel a hint of embarrassment when your stomach growls instantaneously. The impending hollow sadness quickly vanishes and is replaced with the sudden sense of tranquility. Finally, you think, stepping up to stand behind a young girl finishing her order, things can only get better from here.

However, just as you’re drilling optimistic thoughts into the confines of your brain, a customer with a dash too much pep in his step bursts through the door from behind you and, astoundingly, cuts in front of your spot with not even an ‘Excuse me.’

You’re flabbergasted, to say the least, sparks in your brain, desperately trying to connect the dots and instead just causing a short circuit. And suddenly you are underwater—everything is slow and warbled and you’re left unable to speak as the culprit has the audacity to move up in line and place his order as if nothing had ever happened.

And with a force like water bursting forth from a dam, brick by brick the walls come tumbling down, tears spilling down your face, struggling to breathe, you turn with a trembling chin to look toward the window, clawing for some sort of comfort in the light outdoors. However, the bustling of customers around you cannot mask the hushed sobs that shake your body, and no matter how furiously you wipe the tears from your cheeks or suck in air to calm your lungs, nothing can hide the fact that you are standing in the middle of a bakery weeping.

“Shit, that was not supposed to happen.”

The gentlest of hands grasping your own pauses your public breakdown, and for a split second, you jerk away from the tender touch until, no matter how hard it is to do so, you glance up.

“Donghyuck,” you hiccup upon recognition, “what’re you doing here?”

“What am I doing here? I should be asking you that,” Donghyuck chortles, “I went to buy you a cinnamon bun and then you started sobbing.”

Oh.

“You didn’t—you never,” you groan, “why didn’t you say hi first instead of cutting in front of me like an idiot?” You grumble, retracting your hands to messily rub away the remaining wet streaks down your cheeks, grossly heaving in oxygen and blinking out a few more tears. “I thought it would be cute and spontaneous, and then you turned to shit,” the tanned boy retorts, turning momentarily to grab the bag coasted across the counter to him before, suddenly, intertwining his fingers with yours and dragging you to a free table.

“So, why’d you go all batshit back there?” Donghyuck asks, rosy heart-shaped lips tugging up into a soft smirk even as he sits you down in the booth and takes a seat across from you. It’s dangerous, you realize; the mocking lilt to his voice paired with kindness that is more than out of place, and, of course, his overall handsomeness. From golden skin, warmer than any sunset you’ve seen, disheveled auburn hair dipping into black eyes with irises shimmering with all the stars in the night sky, cherry red lips that allow one-too-many smartassed words slip by. Lee Donghyuck is truly an enigma.

"Why’d you buy me a cinnamon bun?” You retort finally, reaching for the bag and tearing it open, eager for the delight inside. Donghyuck rolls his eyes, “Answer my question first.”

Stubborn. “I’ve had a rough week, and that was just the cherry on top,” you tell him truthfully, “also, how’d you know I was here?”

“One question at a time, tiger.” Snotty. “I didn’t follow you, you’re not that special, although I did see you walk in here with the most miserable look I may have ever seen and thought, ‘Hey, now’s a good time to rekindle what I had with the girl I’ve been crushing on since she dropped me for some fuckface baseball player sophomore year.’“

You blink once and then again, pausing your attack on the first bite of dessert to look up at Donghyuck. Candid. Processing his words, you stare at him blankly, his lips pouted into a smirk once more, “I did not drop you.”

“Babe, you definitely did.” A flirt.

“You’re the one that told all your friends I was a bitch!”

“God, ___, it was a joke. Ever heard of one of those?” Rude. “Can you just shut up and let me eat my cinnamon bun?” You grumble, peeling off a chunk, cinnamon glaze sliding under your nail.

“Technically it’s mine, but fine,” he chuckles, grinning devilishly as you pop the bit into your mouth, a hypnotized sigh escapes your lips and suddenly the golden boy isn’t so wicked. “Fine, I was a baby back then, I’ll admit it. However, if you’re trying to get me to fall for you again, this whole mocking me when I’m emotionally unstable isn’t gonna do it for you.”

Donghyuck processes your words, squinting as you go on with your feast, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning into the wooden table, “Why was this a rough week?”

“Well, let’s see,” you sigh, counting your fingers, “high school is over and university is going to be stressful, fuckface baseball player has a new girlfriend, exams made me lose brain cells, and my period is coming soon so I want to die.”

“That doesn’t sound fun,” he comments, tearing a piece of the cinnamon bun off and you glare at him. “It’s not.”

“At least you have a cinnamon bun now,” beams Donghyuck, kicking your shins under the table and you groan. Childish. Licking your fingers clean you check your phone, glancing at the time and catching the date by chance. Then, “Isn’t today your birthday?”

“You remember?” He asks and your heart lurches at the innocent cloud that passes his features. You nod slowly, returning his smile, “Happy birthday, then.” Donghyuck‘s cheeks flush the faintest shade of coral and at the heat rising upon your own you turn away, clearing your throat and munching on another piece. Angelic.

“Anyway,” you cough, “how’s your birthday been so far? Any plans?”

Donghyuck shrugs, “None yet, just dinner with my family and I’ll probably hang with the boys tomorrow. This is the only special part so far.”

“Oh,” you quip, frantically searching for a spot to look at and settling on a grey pigeon outside, pecking viciously at whatever is on the pavement, “that’s good.” Glancing back to the cinnamon bun, mouth watering at the gooey center, you force the temptation back, “You can have that.”

His eyes light up. “Really?” You nod, laughing, watching joyfully as he instantly snatches the last bit up and shoves it into his mouth. “Fuck, man, that was good, thank you,” Donghyuck rambles, wiping the frosting from his fingers and reaching for your hands.

“So,” he sighs, nestling his hands into your own and squeezing them, “in all seriousness, since we’re going to the same school and all, could we maybe... try the whole dating thing again?” Determined.

Donghyuck grimaces, a fault you never thought you would ever see cross his face, for doubt simply did not exist in his life and here it is, spread out in front of you and your response is the next move in this game of chess. “Hyuck,” you chuckle softly, gliding your thumb across his palm, “I’d be dumber than dumb if I let you get away. Of course I want to try it again.”

“Really?” He squeals, you nod and he clutches you fingers once more. “That’s a relief, I was starting to worry I royally fucked up.” Entertaining.

You laugh again, eyeing him as he slides from the booth and throws out the bag before returning before you. “You certainly did not fuck up, you just made me happy for like, the first time in a week.” You follow him out, walking by his side to your car and squinting past the blinding streaks from the sunset, mesmerized by the melanin of his skin that suddenly seems to glow in the sunlight, reaching for his arm and curling your hand around his bicep. Breathtaking.

“Well, this was good,” Donghyuck gleams, a lighthouse shining out across the sea, pausing in front of the car, “I’ll call you soon?” A gentleman. “Okay,” you sigh blissfully, “I’ll be waiting by the phone.”

He kisses you too quickly, a rushed brush of his lips and then it’s gone with the wind; you have to tug him back, pulling him flush against your form, whispering a “Happy birthday,” because God, your week just got so much better and he’s just too sweet.

#lee donghyuck #donghyuck #haechan #nct #nct u #nct 127 #nct dream #haechan scenarios #donghyuck scenarios #nct fanfic #nct scenarios #nct reactions #nct fluff #nct dream fluff #nct 127 fluff #haechan fluff #haechan nct #donghyuck nct #happy birthday haechan #happy birthday full sun

[pitofghosts]

Tiny Men with Blunt Objects are no Fear of Mine

This is something I wrote back in the summer, and has gone large unedited since then. Content warning for alcohol, mild drug use, and implied abuse.

Alastair, a high school English teacher, was never the type for parties. But his new boyfriend, Harley, practically begged him to come to his friend’s Christmas party to get acquainted with everyone. Nervous and very much in love, Alastair agrees, but everything goes wrong when Alastair meets someone he would have rather left in Harley’s vague stories: his boyfriend’s ex.

The tires slid to a stop, and Alastair was glad that there wasn't a lot of traffic on the road. He leaned back in his seat and sighed deeply, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. The light flickered green in his peripheral and his foot came off the brake, but he considered the fashion in which he had left the party. The passenger seat, the space where his boyfriend was meant to be, sat empty beside him. He set his jaw. He continued to idle until the light turned yellow, bringing his attention back to the road. He moved his glasses up and pressed his fingers against his eyes and groaned. He put the car into reverse, neatly made a two point turn, and drove back towards the party.

Earlier in the evening, when they had first arrived, Alastair had continuously been double-checking that Harley was giving him the right directions. The neighbourhood they were heading towards was a part of the city he had never been to. It was crazy rich, the kind of rich that was only ever on TV, and he couldn't quite wrap his head around the idea of going to a party in one of those sleek, modern houses. As the GPS dinged that their destination was up ahead, he looked over at Harley and over his glasses.

"This is the-"

"Yes, oh my goodness, I know where he lives," Harley insisted, giving him a look that was half amusement, half smirk. "It's like in the past fifteen minutes you stopped trusting in my directional skills."

"There's your mistake," Alastair said as he pulled his car into a parking space. He took the keys out of the ignition and then turned towards his boyfriend. "Thinking I ever trusted them in the first place." Next he knew he was being buffeted by Harley's mitted hands and he was laughing as he undid his belt in an attempt to escape the attacks. Outside the car, he turned to Harley and let his arms hit his sides. "Here's your chance to prove me wrong, though. Show me the way?"

Harley rolled his eyes and grabbed his hands, pulling him forwards and up the lane way. The bushes that lined it reminded him of the ghost costumes in cartoons, just a sheet thrown over a frame. He thought the barren branches kinda looked like skeletons, too. He stepped up the front steps carefully, not wanting to slip on the ice.

"You're sure this is the right address?" He asked Harley again, teasing him. Harley rolled his eyes at him, but Alastair picked up on the hint of smile on his face. His favourite thing in the world had to be Harley's smile, especially when it grew to cover his entire face and made his nose scrunch up and eyes squint. The thought alone made Alastair's heart stop.

Harley removed one of his mitts and pressed a finger into the doorbell. The door swung opened and the two were scooped inside, and Alastair's body went rigid as he felt arms wrap around him into a hug. "Ryder!" Harley squealed in delight. Alastair patted this Ryder fellow's shoulder and looked around the front foyer with wide eyes. As he was freed from the stranger's arms he took a step back, mouth slightly agape.

"This is a, uh, a lovely home you've got here," he said as he broguht his eyes to meet Ryder. The home glistened brighter than the snow outside, and it was immaculately decorated. Compared to anything he had ever seen before, this place was ridiculously beautiful.

Ryder rolled his eyes and dismissed the comment. "Who's this handsome man?" Ryder growled at Alastair and took his coat, hanging it up on a hook.

"Back off, Rye." Harley wrapped his arms around one of Alastair's and leaned against him. "This is my new boyfriend, Alastair. Isn't he cute?"

"I'd sure say so," Ryder said, and the way he looked at him made Alastair's face feel warm.

"Well, too bad, 'cause he's mine." Harley's grip on his arm tightened, and the two of them laughed and Alastair tried to join them, only he couldn't get his voice to sound as gleeful as theirs.

"Well, the party's down in the basement, honey. Just head on down, and I'll be down as soon as Nora stops by."

Harley waved his hand at him and rolled his eyes. "Nora, Nora, Nora..." he said, then took Alastair's hand and started through the house with a purposeful walk. "Believe her when I see her!"

"She's a real person!"

Alastair waited until they rounded a corner to laugh, looking at Harley with slight disbelief. "She's a real person..?" He asked incredulously, raising his eyebrows.

"He's been saying he's been seeing this woman, Nora, for as long as I've known him but I've never seen her," Harley explained. "Now c'mon, honeybuns, you've gotta come meet my friends."

Harley opened the door in front of them and fog rolled out. Soft ambient dance music met him as he moved into the dimly lit cavern, being sure to tug the door shut behind him. When Harley had said "Christmas party" he had imagined a gathering of close friends, not this mysterious basement party with theatrics. What had he gotten himself into?

He failed to see anything Christmas-y, or even winter-y, about fog machines or dark spaces, but he wouldn't tell a host how to run their party. He was fished from his anxieties as he turned into the main room, and was pleasantly surprised to see only what seemed to be about twenty people. Bigger than what he originally thought, but it wasn't as close to rave material as he had started to worry. Maybe this was just a gathering of friends with a very eccentric host.

He let Harley guide him across the floor towards a bar. A small man with slick blonde hair, tattoos, and eyeliner was entertaining a group of six people with card tricks and drinks. He still wasn't sure about meeting this many people at once, and he even considered faking sick to get out of going. He was still considering doing that, but he had decided that he really, really liked Harley. If he was going to be a part of his life, he wanted to meet his friends.

"Harles!" Came a shrill cry, and in two seconds a short woman had propelled herself from a barstool and into Harley in the way only a tiny, drunk woman could. Harley squealed and laughed gleefully as she kissed the side of his face, and embraced her tightly. He picked her up and spun her around once, her gleeful shrieking filling the space.

"Jojo!" He greeted in return, setting her back down on her feet. "Oh my God, how are you?! It's been far too long." Alastair waited in uncomfortable silence as they talked, taking to running the hem of his sweater between his fingertips. He looked down at his feet, and then around the room, and then back at Harley. He cleared his throat, which seemed to clue the other man in.

"Oh! Right, this is Alastair," he introduced, pulling Alastair in closer by the hand. "Alastair, this is Johanna."

"Nice to meet you, Johanna," he said, trying his best to be polite. Johanna stared at him, and then at Harley, and then back at him, before she took a stumbling step towards him.

"Oh. My. God. No way," she started, and this was the moment that, looking back, cemented the evening into being a bit of a shitshow. Alastair wondered how things could have gone differently if he had been introduced to people slowly, instead of all at once. He didn't hold any ill will towards to Johanna, although she did seem a bit dramatic, but how he wished she wouldn't have shouted.

"Guys!" She shouted, turning to look over her shoulder. "Harley has a BOYFRIEND!"

The six pairs of eyes that fell onto Alastair made him feel very, very small. He laughed awkwardly and quietly, offering a small wave. "Um, hello," he said, trying to sound cheerful and excited. His fingers took to the hem of his sweater once more. One of the six people at the bar slammed his hands down on it then stormed away, a young woman following on his heels. The blonde, tattooed man rolled his eyes, and Johanna laughed. It was a mean sound.

"Let's do shots to celebrate!" The tattooed man yelled, and a chorus of celebratory noises met him.

Alastair kept his eyes looking after where the man and woman had gone. He was nervous that it was someone he knew and that didn't like him, or someone that had a reason not to like him now. Why would someone storm off after that introduction? Maybe it was someone who just didn't like meeting new people; he was like that sometimes. But why the hand slam them?

"Don't mind them," Johanna reassured him as she stumbled forward and grabbed ahold of Alastair's arm to catch herself. "Arthur's been a little bitch ever since the break-up."

"Break-up..?" He started to ask. He looked over at Harley, who had already made his way over to the bar. He helped Johanna back onto her barstool and quickly found himself with a drink shoved into his hands.

"Here you are, new boyfriend," said the man behind the bar. Was that a French accent? "You're going to need it."

"Um, thanks, but I have to drive tonight," Alastair said and handed it back to him. The man sucked his teeth disapprovingly and shook his head with a slight smile.

"Never heard of public transit, hm? That's alright, we all need a responsible sort around." He downed the shot and winked at Alastair, then was pulled into a conversation with a man with a very long ponytail.

Finding himself lacking any conversation, a weight started to settle onto his shoulders. It was possible that Arthur and this break-up that had made him a little bitch really had nothing to do with Harley, that it was a completely different break up with a completely different person. He knew, though, deep down, that that wasn't the truth. He sought out Harley with his eyes and watched him, smiling and laughing and drinking with his friends, and considered for a moment not bringing it up. He seemed so happy.

Someone snapped their fingers next to his face and Alastair jumped to look at them. As reality settled back into place he made the outline of a lumbering figure that seemed to be mostly made out of limbs. "You seemed, like, completely zonked out dude. Everything cool in there?" Alastair nodded, laughing and hoping that this man wouldn't realize how uncomfortable he was. "You're Alastair, right?" He nodded. "Harley's man, yeah?" He nodded again. "Oh fuck yeah, right on. Everyone's been bettin' on him and Artie gettin' back together. I just lost, like, twenty bucks 'cause of you." The lanky man laughed and clapped Alastair on the shoulder. "Right on, man, right on. I'll catch ya later."

Alastair watched as the man joined onto another group of people, and he turned to look back at Harley. There was no if's, and's, or but's about it now, and he set his hand on his boyfriend's shoulder to catch his attention. When Harley's eyes met his he felt his voice catch in his throat, and he felt almost guilty for what he knew was about to happen.

"The guy who stormed off. Was that, uh, was that your ex?"

Harley's smile faltered; a small twitch pointed downwards. If Alastair was anyone else, anyone else who didn't know Harley's face as well as he did, he was sure he wouldn't have noticed.

"Yeah, why? He's pretty ingrained into my group of friends. Is there something wrong about that?"

His tone felt accusatory, and feelings of defensiveness arose in Alastair's chest. He could feel something close to anger bubbling up in him, but he forced it back down with a deep breathe. "No, I just... I just would've liked to know," he offered, his voice small. "Especially since he didn't seem exactly over it."

"I can't control how he feels," Harley snapped back. Alastair was taken aback, from all the reactions he had expected Harley to have, this anger was not one of them. A small voice in the back of his head whispered to them that, perhaps, Harley wasn't quite over him, either.

"Did you know he'd be here?"

"Yes."

"How long have you two been apart?" He leaned into Harley, moving his hand to the middle of the other man's shoulders.

"Over a year."

"He's not over you after a year?"

"Just have fun, okay? I don't want to do this right now." Harley removed Alastair's hand from his back and turned towards his friends once more, attempting to rejoin their conversations. Alastair stood still, watching Harley with a growing frustration.

"How long were you two together?"

Harley pretended not to hear him, but the way his eyes darted back towards him for a silent second betrayed him. Alastair breathed heavily in annoyance and replaced his hand on Harley's shoulders, leaning in a bit closer to him.

"Harley," he insisted. "How long were you two together?"

Harley shrugged his hand off his shoulder. Alastair felt his eye twitch. He put his hand on Harley's shoulder again, but before he could say anything, Harley whirled around to look at him, his expression angrier than Alastair had ever seen him.

"Six years," he hissed out. "We were together for six years, okay?"

Alastair's stomach dropped. "You were together for six years, you knew he would be here tonight, and you didn't think to tell me?" His voice contained a hushed ferociousness that surprised himself, but he couldn't blame himself, either. He felt incredibly betrayed. Harley ran his tongue over his teeth and removed Alastair's hand from his shoulder again, this time with more force.

"Look, Al, I know parties aren't your thing, but I didn't think this would be so fucking difficult. If you don't want to be here why don't you just go home."

A pain afflicted Alastair's chest, and if it wasn't for his practiced self-control he was sure he would have done something very, very stupid. "Fine," he said, his voice no longer angry but instead defeated. He could tell that Harley had realized that he had said something wrong. "I'll just go home, then." Harley made a move to start apologizing, but Alastair was already walking away. There was a stinging behind his eyes as he made his way up the stairs. He was so intently focused on just leaving that he almost ran into Ryder on his way up the stairs.

"Oh!" Ryder had said in shock, before laughing and placing his hand over his heart. "You scared me, goodness." Alastair laughed, awkwardly, in response.

"Sorry."

"No, no it's quite alright. There's nothing quite like fright to get the blood pumping!"

Alastair laughed awkwardly, and Ryder looked on at him inquisitively. Alastair felt as though Ryder was stripping away layers of him at a time - undressing him emotionally, although physically he was quite sure that Ryder held no interest. His earlier flirtations seemed mostly to be out of some form of politeness.

"You know you don't have to pretend not to be hurt," Ryder said, and Alastair flinched at the words. He started to insist that he wasn't hurt, that he was fine, and that he didn't know what Ryder was talking about, be he shushed him. "I don't need to know what's happening or why, I just thought you might need to hear that. Anyway, I'm going to join the party, are you going to come with me?"

Alastair fidgeted with the hem of his sweater. He didn't want to be rude and decline, and Ryder seemed to sense that. He offered Alastair a kind smile and squeezed his shoulder. "That's alright, thanks for coming. It was nice meeting you."

"Yeah, you too," Alastair said. "Thanks for having me."

He stood still on the stairs for a moment, his eyes watching Ryder as he descended into the basement. A choir of excited, happy noise erupted behind him as Alastair climbed the last few steps and opened the door. He stood still in the bright, white house. He retraced his steps to the front door, and then to his boots, and then his coat, and then out to his car, and then all the way to the second stoplight from Ryder's house.

Tears stung his eyes and he cursed himself. He had been so sure that tonight would go awry. He didn't want it to, but things always went badly for him in relationships. His hands gripped the steering wheel tightly. He couldn't connect the dots in his head and understand how Harley had thought that the night would have gone well. He knew that his ex would be there, and that his ex wasn't over him, and six years?! That was longer than the time it took him to get his Bachelor's. That was longer than his parents had been together before having his older brother!

He pressed his lips together and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. He glanced over at the empty seat beside him, the place where his boyfriend was meant to be. Something felt wrong about the way Harley had been acting, it wasn't like him to lose his temper so quickly. The light must have turned green at some point, because the car was suddenly bathed in a yellow light. He set his jaw and with a heavy sigh tilted his head back against the headrest. He had to go back, to try and get to the bottom of this.

He pushed up his glasses and dried his wet eyes. He also took the time to dry his glasses, since he didn't want impaired vision. He checked for any oncoming traffic and looked in the rearview, neatly made a three-point turn, and drove back to the party.

He let himself back into Ryder's without ringing the doorbell. He took his boots off, but kept his unbuttoned coat on. He headed straight for the basement, and then stood dumbly at the bottom of the stairs. He searched through the faces of the crowd for anyone even vaguely familiar. He decided to go back over to the bar, but Harley was nowhere to be seen. However, the tall lanky guy from earlier was still there, and he greeted him with astonishment.

"Shit, man, where'd you go? You really disappeared on us earlier."

"I'm not good at parties," Alastair explained. It was a half-truth.

"Shit, apparently," he said, and took a drag off of the joint in his hand. "Want some of my smoke?" He offered it with a shit eating grin.

"I'm a high school teacher, I know what a joint is," Alastair said in vague annoyance. "Listen, hey, have you seen Harley anywhere?"

"Yeah, man. He started sobbing right after you left. Johanna took him off somewhere to calm him down."

"Okay, yeah, thanks, uh... I forgot what your name is."

"Erin, with an E."

"Right. Erin with an E. Thanks."

Alastair patted him on the shoulder and took it upon himself to walk around the party a bit more. After no success, he took a deep breath and started asking perfect strangers if they had seen him anywhere. After five tries, a girl with her head shaved and hooped earring pointed at a pair of French doors with frosted windows. He thanked her then, in a few strides, was outside the doors. Just as her was about to enter one door, the other opened. There was a moment where they looked at each other in silence.

Johanna.

"Hey, uh, Johanna, is Harley in there?"

"You're the asshole that made Harley cry!"

Alastair felt a sense of dread and annoyance wash over him. Johanna looked absolutely trashed, and Alastair could appreciate what things looked like to her. Trying to explain the nuances of this situation to her when she was in this state would get him nowhere.

"Yes, and I'm very sorry and here to apologize, okay?" He opened the other door to move past her, but she stood firm and blocked his path, shouting threats of throwing her drink at him if he dared to take another step.

"Is that Alastair?" asked Harley from somewhere in the room that Alastair couldn't see.

"I'm here to talk to you," Alastair said into the room.

"He made you cry!" Johanna yelled again.

"I wanna talk to him, Jo." Harley stepped into Alastair's field of vision, placing his hand on Johanna's shoulder. She gawked at him, about to object, but they shared a sort of silent conversation through just their expressions. Something Harley said to her made her give in, but not before glaring at Alastair as she walked past.

Alastair stepped into the room - which seemed to be a sort of at home gym - and closed the door behind him. He looked at Harley in silence, then opened his arms for him. Harley clung to him, and sobbed into his chest. Alastair wasn't really quite sure why he was crying, but he knew the conversation wouldn't go anywhere until he had calmed down. He rubbed small circles into his back.

"You know I'm not here to apologize," Alastair said softly.

"I know," Harley responded, his voice strained. "Why are you back, then?"

"I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight having just left you here," Alastair said. He could tell by Harley's breathing that he was calming down. "I don't want to lose you over this. The look you gave me right before I left... I couldn't just leave you here like that. I care about you too much."

Harley peeled himself off of Alastair and looked at him with the biggest, wettest, most loving eyes Alastair could imagine having ever existed, and butterflies swarmed his stomach. Harley looked like he was about to start sobbing all over again, and Alastair was about to tell a joke to cheer him up when Harley kissed him. It was sloppy and wet and he tasted like alcohol, but the gesture was nice. Alastair had to suppress a laugh.

Their warm moment was iced over when one of the doors was slammed open, catching Alastair on the arm and forcing him to turn to look. There stood Johanna, looking both angry and quite pleased with herself. "I found him!" she called over her shoulder, her eyes never leaving Alastair's. "That asshole that made Harley cry!"

From somewhere behind her, there was a shout of "I'll fuckin' kill him!" and then someone who Alastair quickly assume was Arthur (he didn't get a good look at him earlier) shoved her aside, almost making her fall over. He just stood there, his expression holding more personal hatred than Alastair had ever seen on the face of a complete stranger. There was a second of complete stillness before the match hit the gasoline.

"You," Arthur growled out, his hand tightening around some small blunt object in his hand. Alastair felt his stomach tighten. "You took him from me and made him cry. I'm gonna fuckin' kill you."

"Arthur, please," Harley began to plead, but Arthur just shot him a look that made him stop talking real quick.

"I know you're not with me, babe, but I still love you. I've still got your back."

"Arthur, no, it's okay. I'm okay," Harley bargained. He went to take a step towards him, but Arthur raised his the object towards Alastair. Was that a cricket bat?

Alastair had done his best not to start laughing, because he knew that the tension between Harley and Arthur were very very real, and the way Arthur was talking made him come across as a real creep, but the image of this man who was barely 5'7, nothing but skin and bones, and too fucked up to keep himself from wobbling threatening him with a cricket bat was too much for him to bear.

Harley and Arthur both looked confused, and Johanna looked distraught. The tension in the room dropped as everyone's drama dissolved into confusion. Arthur was the first one to pull himself back into the moment, trying to go back to coming across as pissed.

"What!" He demanded. "What's funny!"

"You're not threatening, man," Alastair offered. "You're tiny. Listen, just go back to the party and don't do anything stupid here, okay?"

"Fuck you," Arthur snapped back. "Fuck you and shut the fuck up."

Alastair shook his head. "Harley, c'mon, let me take you home, okay? We can talk on the way there."

Still in a moment of stupor, Harley looked around the room at everyone else before nodding. "Um... Yeah, yeah okay," he said. He let Alastair take his hand and followed him through the other half of the French doors and past Arthur. They made their way through the party, dodging drunk and stumbling young adults who were doing nothing but laughing and enjoying themselves. From somewhere, Erin with an E shouted called their names and seemed excited that they had found each other.

This time, Alastair hadn't passed Ryder on his way up the stairs, even though he had been secretly hoping to. After helping Harley, who was more drunk than either of them had realized, into his coat and boots they started down the front steps to where Alastair had parked. Harley nearly slipped and fell on some ice, but managed to stay upright with the aid of his boyfriend.

"Careful," Alastair warned.

When they approached the car Alastair opened the passenger door and Harley all but threw himself into the seat. After watching him struggle with the seatbelt, Alastair decided it would be best if he just reached across and did it up for him. He got into his own seat and as he turned on the engine, he could see Arthur in his rearview. He was running to the end of Ryder's driveway with only one boot half on his foot, and the other lost on the front step. He stopped running when he realized they were already in the car.

Alastair pulled out of the parking spot, and Harley fell asleep on the ride back home.

#Writeblr #original writing #my writing

[cheemers-writing-archive]

Crusader of Life 2: Chapter 14

“Are you sure your neck is alright?” Kakyoin asked. The whole trip, Lily was rubbing it, as if something was there.

“I told you, I’m fine,” Lily answered. Right, if she was going to stay alive, she had to act inconspicuous. That meant no rubbing her neck. Because if she gave away the fact that she met him, then she would have no neck. Or any other body part. She’d be dead.

“If you say so,” Kakyoin sighed. Something had been off about Lily ever since she came back from her walk. He could tell that her saying the torn clothing was from falling into a bush was a lie, considering they were completely destroyed in some places and had been soaked in blood. Surely she would tell him after they got done with Rohan, though.

“Alright, here’s your stop,” the taxi man told them. “The Kishibe residence.”

“Thank you very much,” Lily said.

“My pleasure,” the taxi man smiled. “Oh, and if your neck is stiff, I find that massages always help loosen it up.”

How noticeable was she being? Even the man who kept his eyes on the road noticed her rubbing. “I’m sure that’ll help me, thank you again.”

“Of course,” he nodded, rolling up the window and driving off.

“Alright, let’s do this,” Lily said. If there was anything she could do to get her mind off of her encounter, it was the task she needed to do right now. As she and Kakyoin walked up to the doorbell, she noticed somebody walking out of the corner of her eye. Kira! Her entire body stiffened a little bit as they locked eyes, but nothing else happened, thankfully.

“Are you okay?” Kakyoin asked. “You suddenly got really tense.”

“I’m fine,” Lily lied. “Just a bit nervous about this guy.”

Kakyoin hummed in response. “Don’t be. If he tries to harm you, I’ll make him regret it.”

Lily smiled at Kakyoin’s words, almost blushing a little. There is one thing she was sure of: if she were to die, her death would certainly be avenged. She reached out to ring the doorbell, but just as she did, a hand came from the other side and grabbed her arm.

“Hey! Let go of her!” Kakyoin exclaimed.

“Who are you? What do you want?” the man behind the door, supposedly Rohan, asked. He let go of Lily and opened the door slightly more.

“We’re members of the Speedwagon Foundation!” Lily answered frantically. “We’ve come to your house because of something to do with an arrow!”

“An arrow?” Rohan questioned.

“Yes,” Kakyoin answered. It was amazing to Lily how he could keep his composure near a man like this. “We’ve received reports that you have been stabbed with a special arrow, and survived the attack. Have you been noticing a weird, ghost-like creature following you?”

Rohan tilted his head and furrowed his eyebrows. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was never stabbed with an arrow, nor do I have any weird creatures following me. Perhaps you have the wrong guy.”

The two looked at each other, then back at Rohan.

“Of course,” Lily bowed. “We’re sorry for taking your time.”

“Wait, you’ve come all this way,” Rohan said. “Why not rest a bit at my house? I could show you a tour of my studio. Even if you don’t know who I am, wouldn’t it be nice to brag to others that you saw a famous person’s house?”

Lily looked over at Kakyoin. They weren’t exactly booked for the rest of the day, but she could tell Kakyoin wanted to talk to her in private. Probably about the neck thing.

“We’d love to!” Lily exclaimed. Anything to avoid accidentally spilling her secret. “Come on, Noriaki, won’t it be nice?”

Oh, something was DEFINITELY up with Lily. Kakyoin hadn’t seen her so excited about something she really didn’t care about up until then. It seemed like she was avoiding his conversation.

As Rohan led the two of them into his house, Kakyoin gave Lily’s hand a reassuring squeeze.

“I’ll go get some refreshments really quick,” Rohan told them. “You two stay here.”

As soon as Rohan left, Kakyoin spoke. “I know you’re hiding something from me.”

“Huh?” Lily asked. “Me?”

“Don’t play dumb,” Kakyoin said. “What happened when you were on your walk?”

“Now’s not the time to talk about that,” Lily whispered. “We’re at someone’s house, and I don’t want to ruin the mood.” Hopefully, if she acted normal the whole time while they were here, Noriaki will have forgotten that he even needed to talk. Luckily for her, Kakyoin took the bait, and they stayed quiet until Rohan came back with some food.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” he said. “I hope you like cookies, I didn’t have much time to prepare.”

“That’s more than alright,” Lily reassured him. “They look delicious!”

“So,” Rohan began, “Speedwagon Foundation, huh? Must be exciting dealing with the supernatural every day.”

“You would think,” Kakyoin chuckled, “but after a couple of years it just becomes clockwork.”

“I’m sure any normal job would bore you to death, then!” Rohan laughed. “What sort of things have you dealt with before?”

“That’s a secret we can’t tell,” Lily smiled.

After the three of them had conversed for a couple of minutes, Kakyoin looked down at his watch. “Oh, would you look at the time,” he said. “We should probably be going soon. It was nice to meet you, Mr. Kishibe.”

“Ah, wait! Before you go,” Rohan ran to his studio and grabbed a closed envelope before running back to Lily and Kakyoin, “I want you to have the honors of looking through my transcript. Not many people get to see this, you know.”

Lily looked at Kakyoin, and Kakyoin Lily, and they both shrugged.

“No harm in it, right?” Lily replied.

Rohan opened up the envelope, and a strange energy emerged from the pages, blinding the two for a short moment with a bright light. When the light went away, however, something felt different, like their skin had pulled away, but instead of revealing their muscles underneath, it was a second layer of skin. Looking down at her hand, Lily saw that her hand was peeled back, revealing words underneath, similar to a book. Reading some of the words, she realized these were things she’s experienced.

Her first thoughts when she figured out her life was now open like a book was not worried about her privacy, but rather, if he would figure out about Kira. After all, if he was found out, her life was as good as gone.

“You…” Kakyoin growled. “What did you do to us?!”

“I made your life into a book, of course,” Rohan smirked. “As a mangaka, I’m constantly looking for inspiration, and this new ability of mine has let me look into people’s lives, and find the perfect characteristics for my characters.”

“You were struck by the arrow, you liar!” Lily yelled.

“I was, I’ll admit,” Rohan sneered. “But I couldn’t let you know that. You probably have abilities of your own. Now then, whose life should I read through first? How about yours, Kakyoin?”

Although Kakyoin was being approached by Rohan, he didn’t lose his scowl. “You’ll regret this, you know,” he said.

“Oh, I will?” Rohan taunted. “Just try to attack me. Either one of you.”

“Hierophant Green!” Kakyoin cried. His Stand appeared right beside him. “I’ll make sure you know the true power of my Emerald Splash!”

As a hundred green gems shot towards Rohan, he just stood there, standing confidently. When the emeralds had all hit something and disappeared, not a scratch was on him.

“But that’s impossible!” Kakyoin exclaimed. “I understand a few missing you, but not a single one hitting?”

“I already wrote on both of you that you can’t hurt me,” Rohan chuckled. “Whatever I write in there will become true, but I don’t want to write too much or your lives will be fake. Now then, if you don’t mind… actually, even if you do mind, I’ll be looking into your life now.”

Lily was relieved she wasn’t the first target for Rohan. That meant she had time to make an escape, and hopefully alert Jotaro. For some reason, walking while she was a book was practically impossible, so she had to crawl her way out.

“Hm, yes, I see,” Rohan nodded as he looked at Kakyoin’s book. “So, even as a child, you had this ability. Although, not much really happens, in fact, you’re pretty distant from everyone, so nothing happens at all. That is, until this trip to Egypt you took with your family. That’s when you met a… man? A vampire? A vampire named… Dio. That’s when you were forced by a flesh bud, whatever that is, to swear loyalty to him. Oh, and the next fifty days after this Jotaro man saved you are filled to the brim with excitement! Enemies left and right, bonding with friends, oh, and a love story. This is very exciting! You were almost to the brink of death, but your girlfriend, Lily, oh, I guess future wife, then, saved you. Oh, and now we get more to the present day! You marry, of course, then there’s a child, Emily, who later gains a Stand ability, right before a… a trip to Morioh! Well, isn’t this something. You discover that a Stand arrow can give people abilities like your own, and that someone has been using it to… hold on, what’s this? ‘Lily Kakyoin has been acting very weird ever since she went on a walk today, and I can’t seem to find out why. I think she’s avoiding talking about it.’”

Lily stopped dead in her tracks. That comment confirmed everything.

“Now, then, why don’t we take a look at your life and uncover your little secret? Also, don’t bother running and calling for help, you’ll forget this even happened as soon as you leave this house.”

“Y-y-you st-stay away from me!” Lily shouted. “That secret is a secret for a reason, you know! I can’t tell anyone, or I die!”

“Aw, what pitiful excuses to keep me from reading you,” Rohan chuckled.

“No, I’m serious!” Lily said as her breathing quickened. “If anyone finds out my secret, I’ll die! I’m telling the truth, I swear!”

“Lily Kakyoin,” Rohan began. “Original name was Lily Sullivan. Another born Stand user. Grew up in America, went to a less than ideal public school, where there were either fights or beatdowns, constantly. You always wanted to help stop the fights, but you could never do much, so you healed the wounds of the person most injured. That is, if they weren’t immediately sent to the principal. Blah, blah, blah, moved to Japan high school year, ooh, met Jotaro Kujo and got yourself tangled up in the fight with Dio entirely by fate, almost died, twice, three times, four, we’re not counting all of that. There’s a few years of boredom, then you also arrive in Morioh with your Stand user child. Oh, and here’s the secret!”

“I’m begging you, please,” Lily whimpered. “You can read whatever else you want, but please don’t read that part.”

“One day, while taking a fine walk in Morioh, you ran across a man by the name of-”

“And what do you think you’re doing?” Jotaro asked. He had suddenly appeared right behind Rohan, who jumped a little.

“I sure hope you weren’t going to expose Lily there after she specifically said that she would die if anyone figured out what she was hiding,” Jotaro said. He grabbed Rohan’s shirt collar and lifted him up, summoning Star Platinum. “She’s terrible at lying, even with exaggerations, so saying that she’ll die is probably true. And I don’t want her to die.”

“You must be Jotaro Kujo,” Rohan said, trying to maintain the smug grin on his face despite Jotaro’s threats. “I’ve heard a lot about you in their stories. I also know that you can stop time, and Star Platinum can punch stronger and faster than any human ever could.”

Lily was suspicious of Rohan. Surely he had to be stalling for something.

“I’ll tell you what,” Jotaro scowled. “You erase the memories of Lily having a secret from us and let her and Kakyoin go, and I’ll only beat you senseless.”

Then, when looking in Rohan’s hands, Lily saw it. His transcript!

Jotaro, don’t look at the transcript! she tried to shout, but her mouth wouldn’t even move. Of course, not hurting Rohan also includes giving his enemy an advantage.

“I have a different proposition,” Rohan smirked. “How about you take a look at this!”

Then, in, quite literally, the blink of an eye, Rohan flew back into his desk, injured in several places. His transcript had been tossed aside, and Jotaro was in a slightly different position.

“Now, then, I’ll ask again.” Before Rohan could get up again, Jotaro placed a foot on his chest. “Since you’ve already been hurt pretty bad, I suggest you erase Kakyoin and I’s memory of Lily having a secret, and let them go, or you just might need urgent care, and I won’t be calling the ambulance.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll write it in!” Rohan held his hands up in defense. “But I need to open up your memories in order to do it for you!”

“Then get done with everything else first, and let me write it on myself,” Jotaro ordered. “I don’t trust you in the slightest.”

Rohan cursed under his breath, then went over to Kakyoin to write in “Lily Kakyoin’s actions are completely normal, and I see nothing wrong with them. She is not keeping a secret from me.”

“Now, let them go,” Jotaro told Rohan. “Break them free from your Stand’s spell, and don’t do anything to me until they’re gone.”

“Y-yes, sir.”

Lily could feel her skin slowly close back from its opened form, and before she knew it, she was completely back to normal. One look at Kakyoin, and she could tell that he was back to normal, too.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay by yourself, Jotaro?” Kakyoin asked. “I mean, who knows what he’ll do to you once we leave?”

“I’ll be fine,” Jotaro reassured his friend. “Plus, even if you were to stay, what would you do? Attack him?”

Kakyoin laughed. “Good point. Well, I’ll see you later!”

As Lily and Kakyoin slowly walked out of the house, Kakyoin said, “Hey, I’m sorry about accusing you of hiding something from me. I should have known that you wouldn’t keep any secrets between us, even if it was life threatening.”

“It’s okay,” Lily replied. “It happens sometimes. I’m just glad you didn’t keep bickering me about it while Rohan was going to ‘get refreshments’” Or I would have spilled it all out.

“ORA! ORA!”

“Get back here you manga artist!”

The two looked over at Rohan’s house, then at each other. They couldn’t help but burst out into laughter.

“Looks like he got what was coming to him,” Kakyoin chuckled. “Hey, what time is it?”

“About 12:30,” Lily answered. “Looks like we still have some time to kill.”

“Then let’s kill that time together, shall we?” Kakyoin asked.

[pokelolmc]

A Danny Phantom/Avatar: The Last Airbender crossover AU

where the ATLA spirit world is a cousin to the Ghost Zone, and after the Ghost Zone protoportal fails and zaps Vlad, Jack and Maddie end up accidentally creating a portal to the ATLA spirit world instead:

The FentonBendersAU

They meet some of the last Lion Turtles (who now also exist in the spirit world) after getting lost in the spirit world (as seen in LoK, you can gain or use bending in the spirit world if you enter it through an existing spirit portal, rather than through meditation and leaving your physical body behind in the real world); the Lion Turtles see the difficulty in the danger of ghost attacks that will be drawn to Earth, even through natural ghost portals, and grant Maddie and Jack bending to protect the world from ghosts in their line of work, as well as (unknown to them at the time) the spiritual power to pass the other remaining bending arts down a bloodline to cover all four elements (though, the energy is condensed to not cause a spiritual strain and Maddie is only a carrier of it, meaning that she is still only a bender of one element)

Jack gets Earthbending, being less mindful but certainly capable of straightforward force; he eventually becomes more skilled/tuned-in/focused and sensitive of detail enough to bend metal, but only later into character development after he is taught how to be more thoughtful and aware by Jazz

Maddie gets Firebending, being capable in more offence-based martial arts and aggressive in combat, but also possessing a burning passion for protection and is giver of life with her dreams of starting a family; through her keen analysis of other fighting styles in order to figure out bending, she learns the nature of Waterbending, and applies it to herself to figure out lightning-bending, from Danny

Because of the spiritual power bestowed upon Maddie in particular, Danny and Jazz surprise them by being born as benders of the remaining two elements, making the Fenton Family a balanced force of all four elements

Jazz gets Airbending, being the calmer, more collected one of the family who chooses to think from many different angles, and the one most open to introspection and spirituality due to her interest in the human condition

Danny gets Waterbending, as a cause for the ice ghost core he will later get as a halfa (but his ice powers become a completely separate power to bending with different advantages and disadvantages, as he can only use bending in his human form; as in canon, ghosts are affected by aspects of the human world, including its elements and physical matter, unless they go intangible – therefore, they can be hit with bending, but the possession of bending is not compatible with ghosts) being only able to bend in human form makes his human form slightly less helpless, while avoiding making his ghost form a little too powerful (when his bending is added to his existing list of ghost powers from canon); in fact, it adds an aspect of struggle and complications to the canonically easy gain of most of his ghost powers, as he struggles to master some of his ectoplasmic-based abilities and Ghost Ice Powers because they are so different in style to the waterbending he’d been used to since childhood, and he must learn to differentiate the two; through bending, he learns to be more intuitive and use counteroffensive tactics in fighting (not just the less thoughtful, straightforward “superhero-like” offence combat in canon)

The Fentons grow up in an abnormal/unusual family life because of their bending powers, which they hide from everyone in town, including extended family and friends. Danny tells his parents of his ghost powers after the portal accident, because the shared “supernatural” secret of their bending makes the family more open about accepting strange supernatural powers and occurrences, even if they hunt ghosts. It is Sam and Tucker’s keeping of his ghostly secret that Danny uses to convince his parents he can trust his friends with the secret of the family’s bending.

Even though Jazz is used to strange spiritual things because of her Airbending, (so she doesn’t start out a ghost sceptic in this AU), she still starts out annoyed with her parents’ obsession with ghosts - like in canon. Except instead of thinking her parents are crazy for beliving in ghosts, because she believes their fixation has reached an irrational extremity, become a psychological obsession and gets in the way of proper parenting (Danny learns to use his bending for cooking because his parents still turn their dinners into ectoplasmic monstrosities). However, her opinion starts to waver (and she hops aboard Team Phantom) after My Brother’s Keeper because Danny is already aware she knows his secret, and she finds out that he actually puts himself in danger fighting ghosts, and wants to help him. Danny doesn’t tell his parents that he’s using his ghost form to hunt ghosts (since he feels they would consider it too dangerous for him, or that it would impact his school performance, and stop him from doing it), so they don’t find out until Danny is confronted by Walker in the AU equivalent of Public Enemies.

Basically, life goes on in Amity Park as the Fentons learn to master their bending and hide it from others, Danny Phantom rises to fight the ghosts with Sam and Tucker by his side (and his family on the occasional mission) and the whole family gets involved in fighting ghosts after the ghost attacks get too intense in season 2-3, working as a four-person-team equivalent of the Avatar with their own secret identities.

Kind of like it follows the general plot events/outline of canon DP, but with divergences in character plots and the events of episodes, depending on how the Fentons having bending would change how they play out.

Other ideas:

As a kid, Jazz always liked flying a homemade glider at the park in disguise, and Danny would always ask her to take him flying but she wouldn’t, making Danny jealous that he couldn’t fly too; after getting his ghost form as a teenager, the first thing he does is excitedly tell his family that he can fly now and tease Jazz about it – who complains, miffed, that SHE is the Airbender of the family and flying is HER thing

Dash tries to bully Danny at school, before Sam and Tucker find out about Danny’s bending, and Danny gets back by causing a water fountain to squirt Dash in the face; Sam and Tucker are too busy laughing to realise that Danny did it

Bitter Reunions: Vlad takes on Danny as his arch nemesis for the rest of the series, while completely unaware of the Fenton family’s bending powers – or that Danny has already ignored Vlad’s threat to expose him to his parents, and told Jack and Maddie about Vlad’s halfa identity because Jack and Maddie already know of Danny’s ghost half. As far as Vlad knows, the Little Badger is just an annoying halfa boy with ghost hunter parents who don’t know their own son is a ghost – or that their best friend from college is one, either. Boy, will he get a nasty surprise later.

Shades of Gray: Valerie still comes to hate Danny Phantom, but still ends up befriending Danny Fenton after Flirting with Disaster. After the latter, she accidentally finds out about Danny’s bending and agrees to keep it a secret. She gets closer to him than in canon, and Danny gets even more royally screwed.

Maternal Instinct: The night spent in Vlad’s house is a full moon; Maddie and Danny both fight their way through the woods with their bending before they bump into Vlad, helping them learn from each other’s elements; instead of confronting Vlad after the Plasmius Maximus wears off, both Maddie and Danny are forced to engage him while the latter’s ghost powers are still inactive and their only weapon is Maddie’s fire; there’s no Spector Deflector anywhere near him to use because Maddie doesn’t want it to hurt him because of his ghost half; as a last resort, Danny is forced to use bloodbending on Vlad to defeat him, much to his own and Maddie’s horror; a confused Vlad is left behind wondering how on earth the Fentons have such strange powers and investigate further

Torrent of Terror: The stupid OOC nonsense of Danny’s emotions being tied to the weather either doesn’t happen or wears off extremely quickly (before the second battle against Vortex); upon losing against Vortex the first time and discussing it with his family, Danny realises that although the weather is being manipulated by ghost power, it still consists of physical water, meaning it can be influenced by his bending; he decides that he must not fight Vortex as a ghost, but as a bender; after Jazz reminds him that the weather is also wind and decides to fight too, the whole family puts on disguises and fights Vortex together with their bending, attack Vortex with his own wind, rain and lightning. The fight is caught on the local news channel’s Ghost Watch; the news anchor wonders aloud on live television about the absence of Danny Phantom in the fight, and the mysterious group of four with apparent superhuman power over the elements; after the conflict is solved, the enigmatic “Elemental Four” become the talk of Amity Park

Vlad can’t get any of his bugs or cameras into the Fenton household later on in the plot because Jack keeps sensing their metal bodies and crushing them, mistaking them for household pests

#danny phantom #avatar the last airbender #crossover #crossover au #fentonbendersau #danny fenton #jazz fenton #jack fenton #maddie fenton #benders

[jonathanalumbaugh]

Weekly Digest

Dec 23, 2017, 4th issue.

A roundup of stuff I consumed this week. Published weekly. All reading is excerpted from the main article unless otherwise noted.

Read

When women are discussed on the main economics discussion forum, the conversation moves from the professional to the personal...

Even with generous subsidies, low-income people are still unlikely to buy health insurance...

Managers are biased negatively against minority workers, and this, in turn, makes the minority workers perform worse...

Living standards may be growing faster than GDP growth...

The World Bank’s $1-a-day poverty line inadequately deals with local context, and a better measure can be derived through more complicated math...

Decriminalizing sex work makes it safer and more common...

Poor kids who grow up in rich neighborhoods do a lot better than poor kids who grow up in poor ones...

Better trained doctors mean fewer opioid related deaths...

After a bad outcome, female surgeon’s referrals went down much more than male surgeons...

The average worker does not value an Uber-like ability to set their own schedule...

Foreign finance has led to more inequality...

Preschool programs targeted at the poor don’t work nearly as well as universal pre-school programs...

Shocks to the economy in certain sectors can have larger effects on the entire economy than previously thought...

— 13 economists on the research that shaped our world in 2017

Comments section: Pilote345 - NO WONDER: Recently, the pilots' pay was less than it was in the 1980's. They might be trying to improve, but for example, I just now found Allegiant Air found pays MD-80 1st Officers $34,440.00, not much more than the $15/hour crowd wants for starting burger flippers.

— Airlines battle growing pilot shortage that could reach crisis levels in a few years

— APOLLO 10 0N BOARD V0ICE TRANSCRIPTION

Under Schmidt’s leadership, Google notched its fair share of not-quite-not-evil missteps. After getting everyone hooked on Gmail and Search, the company started to erode some of its original privacy promises.

— Be Kind of Evil

“People want to cast it as a choice between policy or technology as a solution but those should exist hand-in-hand. We would have never gotten renewable energy prices where they are today without really ambitious public policy. It shows the importance of bold goals,” Brown says.

— California Poised To Hit 50% Renewable Target A Full Decade Ahead Of Schedule

“Keep your phone away from your body,” the state health department writes. “Although the science is still evolving, some laboratory experiments and human health studies have suggested the possibility” that typical long-term cell phone use could be linked to “brain cancer and tumors of the acoustic nerve,” “lower sperm counts,” and “effects on learning and memory.”

— California says the only safe way to talk on your cell phone is to text

Developer infatuation with Chrome is not good — because competition between browsers is good.

— Chrome is Not the Standard

The initial physical deployment of 5G networks alone could pack a major economic punch. A 2017 Accenture report forecasts the cellular communications industry will invest $275 billion in new networks, which will create up to 3 million jobs and add some $500 billion to the United States’ gross domestic product. Longer term, researchers expect the new 5G networks to help stimulate productivity growth to rates not seen since the 1950s.

— The Coming 5G Revolution

In early tests, the company claims the feature helped to reduce ghosting behavior on its service by 25 percent.

— Dating app Hinge rolls out a new feature to reduce ‘ghosting’

Liberated from the diamond and pointing calmly eastward, perhaps a designer’s pure intent is revealed—direction for an otherwise aimless walk in the woods.

— Decoding the Mysterious Markers on the Appalachian Trail

Trade the ginkgo biloba for a bag of spinach during your next stop at the store: Leafy greens may be your best resource for boosting memory... The study involved 960 people, all between 58 and 99 and without dementia. Everyone enrolled in the study was part of the Memory and Aging Project, which has been ongoing since 1979 at the Knight Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Washington University.

— EATING SALAD EVERY DAY KEEPS BRAINS 11 YEARS YOUNGER AND PREVENTS DEMENTIA, STUDY SHOWS

— Edward Snowden on Twitter

Commander Persera swam out into intergalactic space last week, she says in a forum post, piloting a ship called the Jack of Flames. The reason for the trip is simply to go further from Sol than anyone else (a previous record was set by one Commander Deluvian, who travelled 65,652 lightyears from Sol along a similar route). But also, she says, to bring a canister of mugs from the infamous Hutton Orbital space station into the void and leave them there. Just because.

— Elite Dangerous pilots are scrambling to rescue an explorer stranded in the void between galaxies

[Eminem says] that he's not making his music for other artists who aren't fans to begin with.

— Eminem Responds to Vince Staples’ Criticism of Him

Reports so far claim the spec will offer support for low, mid, and high-band spectrum from below 1 GHz (like 600 and 700 MHz) all the way up to around 50 GHz while including the 3.5 GHz band. It’s been said that the first 5G networks for consumers will begin rolling out in 2019 and this will continue throughout 2020.

— First 5G Specification has been Declared Complete by the 3GPP

As Brian and his wife wandered off toward the No. 2 train afterward, it crossed my mind that he was the kind of guy who might have ended up a groomsman at my wedding if we had met in college. That was four years ago. We’ve seen each other four times since. We are “friends,” but not quite friends. We keep trying to get over the hump, but life gets in the way.

— Friends of a Certain Age

Comment section: Blaming Amazon for this is wrong. The people make a choice to work for them. This is an indictment on our society that forces these people to have to work. Amazon isn’t a charity that should have to take care of people. But it’s all of us who are to blame.

— A Glimpse Inside CamperForce, Amazon's Disposable Retiree Laborers

Effective filmmakers, no matter their genre or taste, put their fingers in the air, feel for a current, and then make art that either complements or pushes against it. They distill the world they live in, which is why there’s no such thing as an apolitical film.

— How Big Screen Sci-Fi and Horror Captured 2016’s Political Paranoia

The Legislative Analyst’s Office predicts California will eventually make more than $1 billion annually from taxing recreational marijuana.

— HOW RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA IN CALIFORNIA LEFT CHEMISTS IN THE DARK

What makes for an effective office environment? Random encounters with your coworkers. And food. Lots and lots of food.

— How to Build a Collaborative Office Space Like Pixar and Google

Fidelity suggests having your yearly income saved at 30, three times your income at 40, seven times your income at 55, and 10 times your income at 67.

— How Much Should You Have Saved at Every Age?

HCI (human-computer interaction) is the study of how people interact with computers and to what extent computers are or are not developed for successful interaction with human beings.

— Human-computer interaction, from University of Birmingham

The company says it is now focused on “on developing and investing in globally scalable blockchain technology solutions,” but, as reported by Bloomberg, it has exactly zero partnerships in the works with crypto firms

— Iced Tea Maker's Stock Price Triples After Adding 'Blockchain' to Name”

9 “Should you invite someone who assaulted you to your wedding.” No.

— It Came From The Search Terms: “I Can See The Sun In Late December”

The best way to cook a steak is medium rare. Plenty of people will disagree with this statement, for different reasons.

— Medium Rare: The Best Way to Cook a Steak

It sounds like it was made by an algorithm. It checks off so many boxes it could land in anyone’s “Because you watched” recommendations.

— Netflix’s first big movie “Bright” feels like a blockbuster built by an algorithm

State law that is rarely invoked requires tied elections to be settled by “lot.”

— Oyster shucking? A duel? No, Virginia will pull a name from a film canister to settle tied election

— Parents give teacher wine with son's face on label

— Reggie Watts: Fuck Shit Stack

— Reggie Watts: Humor in music

Self-efficacy is defined as a personal judgement of "how well one can execute courses of action required to deal with prospective situations".

— Self-efficacy (Wikipedia)

The problem Haven aims to address is known as an “evil maid” attack. Basically, many of the precautions you might take to protect your cybersecurity can go out the window if someone gains physical access to your device.

— Snowden's New App Turns Your Spare Android Phone into a Pocket-Sized Security System

After doing a lot of online research and making a terrible mess, I thought I could make a tutorial for humble people like me. If I can do it, you can do it too.

— The Ultimate Guide to DIY Screw Post Book Binding

The robot obediently appeared in the distance, floating next to Miller. Miller then walked into the same space as the robot and promptly disappeared. Well, mostly disappeared, I could still see his legs jutting out from the bottom of the robot. My first reaction was, “Of course that’s what happens.” But then I realized I was seeing a fictional thing created by Magic Leap technology completely obscure a real-world human being. My eyes were seeing two things existing in the same place and had decided that the creation, not the engineer, was the real thing and simply ignored Miller, at least that’s how Abovitz later explained it to me.

— We Need to Talk About Magic Leap's Freaking Goggles

What’s this mistake so many make? It’s using your current job title as your headline.

— What Your LinkedIn Headline Reveals About Your Self-Confidence At Work

With the Dec. 14 repeal, Comcast and others will be able to charge content companies exorbitant fees without, technically, blocking. This fundamentally changes how the internet works, argues Ryan Singel, a fellow at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School.

— What will happen now that net neutrality is gone? We asked the experts

The story [Cat Person] stuck with me because I, too, have felt like the story’s main character, Margot. I have belittled myself to make a man in a vulnerable situation feel more comfortable. I have allowed myself to spend time with boys who I did not like that much but who I felt I owed my time to because they really liked me. And I have also taken part in the practice of ghosting- ignoring somebody who is texting me, instead of outright rejecting them. With time, I have gotten much better at being straightforward when someone is interested in me and the feeling is not reciprocated, but I still do the dance many women do: We exert energy into finding the most polite, passive way to get ourselves out of uncomfortable situations with men.

— Why Women Are Ghosting You

#weekly digest

[monkeyandelf]

Notable demons who terrorized the ancient world

Storytellers tell stories of ancient demons that have ravaged humanity since time immemorial. In the Middle Ages, people were so fascinated and frightened by these supernatural entities that entire books were devoted to the list of demonic creatures, the areas of life they influenced and how to protect themselves from them.

Lilith: ancient demon, black deity or sexual goddess?

Lilith, satanic angel. (CC BY-NC 2.0) Lilith is one of the oldest known female spirits in the world. Its roots come from the epic of Gilgamesh and it has also been described in the Bible and the Talmud. Lilith's name comes from the Sumerian word "lilitu", which meant a wind spirit or a female demon. From the beginning of its textual existence, it was linked to Sumerian witchcraft. In the Babylonian Talmud, Lilith was described as a dark spirit with an uncontrollable and dangerous sexuality. She would have fertilized with male sperm to create hundreds of demons. In Jewish tradition, she is a notorious demon, but in some other sources, she appears as the first woman created on Earth. According to legend, God formed Lilith in the same way as he created Adam, except that instead of pure dust, he also used dirt and residue. Lilith was also known in the culture of the Hittites, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Israelis and the Romans. Later, she migrated to northern Europe. It represented chaos, sexuality and would have cast spells on people. Its legend is also linked to the first vampire stories .

Detail from a modern illustration of Yuki-onna. ( CC BY SA) The legend of Yuki-onna (the snow woman) comes from Japanese legends. She is part of the long list of so-called "yokai" - supernatural creatures known as monsters, demons, spirits or other mythical beings. Yuki-onna is believed to live in places with snow-capped mountains where she feeds on the energy of human life and regular food. It feeds on travelers lost in heavy snowstorms. It draws human life force from the mouths of its victims in its own, freezing them solidly. With ageless white skin that is as cold as ice herself, Yuki-onna would have incredibly deep eyes and beautiful long black or white hair. Although Yuki-onna may fall in love, marry and live among humans, she will never age and her identity will eventually be revealed, therefore most legends say that Yuki-onna chooses to stay near mountain roads and to attack travelers.

Spring Heeled Jack, the uncatchable demon of Victorian England

Spring Heeled Jack as represented by an anonymous artist. ( Public domain ) It is not certain that Spring Heeled Jack was a man or a beast. Witnesses report that he has long, pointed nails that almost looked like claws. His eyes had a crazy look at them that some said was glowing when he was about to strike. Whenever city dwellers attempted to catch him, he easily escaped, running quickly through crowded alleys, jumping over fences and disappearing into the night as if he were a ghost. The Spring Heeled Jack was first seen in 1837 and has continued for decades. In particular, he looked for young women, but the damage he caused affected all kinds of ordinary people. As the story of this creature of darkness spread, its attributes became more demonic. Reports have indicated that he has horns and a pointed goat, that he can jump over roofs and that he can breathe fire. Despite all the terror he caused, Jack did little harm other than reports of ragged clothes, hysteria and heart attacks. In the 1880s, Spring Heeled Jack was overshadowed by a much more lethal villain, Jack the Ripper. The legacy of the jumping devil lives on in popular imagination to this day, most notably in the playful little toy known as Jack-in-the-Box.

Uncovering the true identity of the Jersey Devil

Jersey Devil. (pyro-helfier / Deviant Art ) Jersey Devil’s history places it at the height of puzzling crypto-zoological mysteries. It has confused and fascinated audiences for hundreds of years. The creature is often described as a flying bipedal cryptid with hooves, but there are many conflicting opinions as to its actual appearance. The common description of eyewitnesses is that it looks like a creature resembling a kangaroo, but with the head of a horse, leathery bat wings and long bird legs, claws, hooves, a face hideous and a tail fork. Several people have even said that his body looked like an alligator. It has been reported to move quickly and has often been described as uttering a "blood-chilling cry". Eyewitnesses say he hops around like a bird. It has been called a variety of different nicknames such as flying death, kangaroo horse, flying horse, cowherd and a prehistoric lizard. From January 16 to 23, 1909, the state of New Jersey experienced a major paranormal event, it was seen in person by thousands of people, schools were closed and factories closed temporarily for fear. He is said to have lived in the Barrens of Pines in southern New Jersey and was named official demon of the state in New Jersey in 1939.

Krampus, son of Hel: Punishment of the devil and the Christmas child

Krampus, the Christmas devil. ( CC BY SA 2.0 ) The Krampus tradition is popular in countries like Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and the Czech Republic. The name derives from the German word krampen , which means claw. He has a "mutilated, disturbed face with bloodshot eyes atop a hairy black body. Giant horns wrap around his head, showing his half goat, half demon line. "(Billock, 2015) According to legend, Krampus is the son of the Norse goddess Hel, ruler of Helheim (the Nordic kingdom of the dead). Krampus is a counterpart to other Christmas demons such as the Frenchman Hans Trapp and the Dutchman Zwarte Piet (Black Peter). Along with other pagan traditions, Krampus mingled at Christmas as Christianity spread across Eastern Europe. About 1,500 years ago, Krampus became the counterpart of Saint Nicholas. On the night of December 5 to 6, Saint Nicholas walks around, leaving small gifts in the shoes and boots of children who have behaved well. Just behind, Krampus, which leaves a rod in the skin of naughty children. Krampus carries a bundle of birch sticks with which he strikes especially bad kids. The worst offenders he stuffs in a bag and drags them to his lair where they are likely to be eaten. In the 12th century, the Catholic Church began its work to eradicate this pagan devil. Christians were fairly successful in banishing the Krampus until it reappeared in a consumer crisis of the 19th century.

Incubi and Succubi: overwhelming nightmares and sex-hungry demons

The nightmare ‘(1781) by Johann Heinrich Füssli. ( Public domain) Known by many names around the world and over time, various cultures have spoken of vampire-like demons that feed on human energy and attack their victims at night. Two of the popular names in English for these entities are Incubus and Succubus (plural Incubi and Succubi) - demons who attack their victims by pressing them, often while sexually assaulting them. Incubus is the male form of the demon. The name of this demon comes from the late Latin "Incubo" which means "nightmare" which originates from the Latin word "incubare", to "lie". This description is well suited to what the Incubus does to its victims - it lies (or "crushes") them. They are said to be very difficult to remove once they have chosen a victim. These demons supposedly can change shape, so their appearance differs, although they are often said to resemble humans. It has been said that the Incubi may be particularly physically attractive to their victims. The succubus ("spiritual wife" or "lying under") is the feminine form of an Incubian demon. The accounts of these demons appear in the ancient Akkadian, Sumerian and Greek texts. The princess of demons is called Nahemah. Succubi have often been described as women of exceptional beauty, but sometimes with bats or other wings of flying animals on their backs. As with the Incubi, the Succubi attack their victims at night and would also prefer victims with a religious spirit. The Succubi are looking for sleeping men and are said to be draining their blood, breathing, vital energy and sperm - until the victim can die.

Baphomet? Was the evil demon truly worshiped by the Templars

Tarot card representing Baphomet, detail. ( wimage72 / Fotolia) The first known reference to Baphomet dates back to a letter written by a French crusader in 1098. According to the crusader, the Muslims of the Holy Land called on a certain "Baphometh" before the battle. It is commonly accepted today that this name is a corruption of Muhammad, the founder of Islam. European Christians at the time viewed Islam as the worship of Muhammad, which they viewed as idolatry. The evolution of Baphomet continued in 1307, when the powerful Templars were suppressed in France. Some of the Templars admitted to worshiping an idol, it seems that their accounts were inconsistent. For example, some claimed that the idol was the severed head of St. John the Baptist, while others claimed that it was the statue of a three-faced cat. It was not until 1854 that Baphomet became the goat-headed character we know today. It was Eliphas Levi, a French ceremonial magician, who reinvented Baphomet as a figure he called the "sabbatical goat". Levi’s Baphomet was adopted by the famous occultist, Aleister Crowley. It was Crowley who linked Baphomet to Satan and linked this icon to the idea of ​​suppressed knowledge and secret worship. Thus, in opposition to traditional Christian thought, Crowley argued that Satan was not the enemy of mankind, but his ally.

Were the worshipers of the Egyptian god following a god or a demon?

Seth (Set) Left, and Horus. (Niedlich, S / CC BY SA 2.0 ) Set (Seth) is an ancient Egyptian god depicted with the head of an unknown animal designated by Egyptologists as an "animal Set". The ancient Egyptians believed that Set was the god of chaos, the wilderness, storms and darkness. He was venerated mainly in Upper Egypt from the pre-dynastic period. Originally, he was believed to be a benevolent god who lived in the underworld and was responsible for helping the dead to reach heaven, although he was later considered to be an evil god during the conflict with Horus. The disciples of Horus triumphed over those of Set, thereby demonizing Set. Another theory suggests that Set became associated with the Hyksos invaders who conquered the Nile Delta and, by the time of the second intermediate period, Set had become regarded as a malicious deity. As the god of the desert, Set was also considered the antithesis of everything that represented life. However, it was not entirely bad, in some myths the gods used Set's force and power for good. The best known of these is Set’s role as the defender of Ra’s solar boat. Each night, as the solar boat made its journey through the Underworld, Set fought Apep, the serpent of chaos. Set is often depicted as standing on the prow of the sun boat, and spearing Apep.

The shocking demon who brings the plague and devours babies

Manananggal, mythical creature from the Philippines. ( Public domain ) Rangda embodies power - she is electrifying, dangerous and from another world. She has protruding eyes, large hanging breasts and a long red tongue hanging down her body. Her mouth is full of big teeth and curved fangs; her nails are extended to long pointed claws, and her shaggy mop of gray hair hangs down her back. Rangda's legends include his taste for eating children as well as for causing illness and plague. Although she may have been an ancient goddess, Rangda is now identified as a wicked demonic queen. However, Rangda is also considered a protective force in certain parts of Bali. In the Barong dance, part of the ritual drama that focuses on the ongoing battle between good and evil, Barong represents good and Rangda represents evil. The Barong protects the villages from the plague and malicious magic, while Rangda is the one who inflicts these plagues and these difficulties. Top image: Ancient Demons: Manananggal, mythical creature from the Philippines. ( Public domain ) Krampus, the Christmas devil. ( CC BY SA 2.0 ) Detail from a modern illustration of Yuki-onna. ( CC BY SA) Spring Heeled Jack as represented by an anonymous artist. ( Public domain ) Lilith, satanic angel. (CC BY-NC 2.0) The Jersey Devil. (pyro-helfier / Deviant Art ) Source: ANCIENTORIGINS.NET Read the full article

#demons #Lilith

[fireflysummers]

Mob Psycho 100 Fanfiction

And Maybe... Some Things are That Simple

Hanazawa Teruki is the rising star of the business world. He jumps from project to project, never failing to breathe life into every endeavor and make it sparkle and shine.

It's easy to forget, when you're living fast, what the point was in the first place.

(Teru is not okay. But he's not ready to admit it yet.)

Part 6 of The World Keeps Turning

“So, Teru, what are you thinking for your next venture?” The young woman sits across from him, fingers skimming across the tablet with impressive speed. She’s dressed smartly, an auburn and tie, hair cropped short and eyes hidden behind inconspicuous glasses. There is also a traditional notebook beside it, although Teru suspects that this is more a symbol of her profession.

Everything about her contrasts sharply to Teru himself, who is wearing an obnoxious array of pastels. Silver earrings run up both ears in asymmetrical patterns, while glitter dusts both cheeks and matches the sparkling ornaments that help hold back his long hair. He supposes it was inevitable though. She is supposedly the best of her field, and part of that involves blending in and subtlety. Teru too, is best at what he does, and that requires the dead opposite.

“Who knows,” Teru replies, between sips of coffee. It’s a good brew, part of their nice hip, overpriced place in the fashion district of Tokyo.  In a single glance, Teru can see why the shop is thriving…but in just as much time, calculates exactly what it would take to move it to the area’s next sensation.

“Maybe I’ll switch to something more in the service industry,” he continues. It’s a spur of the moment thing, but it always starts like this. “I don’t know. It may be fun to manage a coffee shop for a little while.”

The reporter hums. “You worked service industry before, didn’t you? Your first venture was a floral shop, down in Seasoning City.”

“Yes indeed…I made that investment right out of college, actually.  Everything just seemed to align—I had a small trust left to me by my parents to establish myself, the manager was retiring, and a friend of a friend working there didn’t want to see it closed.” Teru smiles fondly at the memory. It’s easily his favorite business venture. “It was a good first try at managing a business. I wouldn’t say it exploded, more like...bloomed. But it was successful. I only stuck around about a year before I found my next thing, and the friend of a friend—Minegishi, if you ever want to patron his shop—was more than capable of taking it over by then.”

“You’ve got quite a vita,” the reporter says, tapping her chin, “Is there anything that you can’t do?”

Teru’s heard this comment from any number of enamored men and woman through the years, but there’s something…sharp about the way she says it. A challenge. She flashes a grin at him, and Teru suddenly finds himself liking this reporter better than the typical garden variety.

“That is the question, isn’t it,” he replies, returning the grin, “Perhaps you have some insights into the matter?”

The reporter hums again, scrolling through her notes, as if looking for evidence.

“Hanazawa Teruki, the business world’s secret weapon,” she says, more to herself than him, “A strange upstart straight from business school at Seasoning City’s top university, who has in a few years made friends and allies of important businessmen across the country. He never stays in one job for long, sticking around only long enough to see his current endeavor succeed, before moving on. And yet…”

“Yet?” Teru says, leaning into his hand and using a finger to idly twirl a loose strand of bleach-blond hair.

“And yet he remains a total enigma,” she concludes, looking up from her carefully documented research to peer at him over the thick-rims of her glasses. Teru feels his face splitting with a grin. This is fun, it’s been a while since he’s had a reporter track him down (somehow managing to get his personal number despite his defense of agents and secretaries) and ask him all this so directly.

“It’s all a bit…odd,” she continues, running a hand through her short hair, “You have the looks and personality of an idol. I’m sure if you wanted to, you could be the name every person in Japan knows.”

“Every person in Japan does know my name,” Teru laughs, “Or at least the important ones.”

“Yes, but it all seems…to subtle for a man who dresses like a cotton candy machine vomited on him.”  Touché.  Not much Teru can argue with, by way of assessment. “So it makes me wonder if there’s perhaps…another reason.”

The smile on Teru’s face suddenly feels…strained. Not enough for any but the best judges of character to notice, but he suddenly doesn’t like where this conversation is going.

“A reason perhaps, like psychic powers?” The reporter almost smirks at him.

“Psychic powers?” Teru says, sounding incredulous, “Please, there’s no such thing.”

“Please,” she says, “You hail from Seasoning City, correct? Your graduation records from Black Vinegar High School are public, as well as records of your major academic highlights and extracurricular successes. There’s not a single person in the city who doesn’t know that espers are real.”

“But on top of that, there are reports of an young esper matching your description involved with the frequent and severe attacks on the city,” she finishes, “It may be coincidence, of course. But then, it was a well known fact in the area that you are, or were at one time, close friends to one Kageyama Shigeo.”

The smile doesn’t drop from Teru’s face, but there is a hostile light in his eyes.

“Kageyama Shigeo?” he says, “I can’t say that name rings a bell.”

A tense silence descends, neither of them breaking eye contact. Teru tries to look relaxed, but it’s too obvious he’s forcing the slope of his shoulders. His hand trembles, just slightly as he picks up his cup and puts it to his mouth.

“Ha,” the reporter snorts suddenly, unprofessionally choking on her own beverage. “You should see the look on your face!”  She coughs for a moment into her napkin while Teru looks at her bemusedly. “So it’s true, you really are one of Mob-kun’s friends!”

Teru cocks his head to one side, still not entirely at ease. “And what is your relationship to Kageyama-kun?”

“Classmates. We were in the same class in middle school, and I ah…” she pauses, a weird flush of pride and embarrassment creeping into her cheeks, “I may have started a religious order in his name. Which, in hindsight, was probably a horrible idea, but you couldn’t say I wasn’t tenacious.”

“Anyways, I kind of stalked him for a couple years while we were teenagers, after I learned about his powers,” the reporter continues, “Which is how I knew about you. But honestly, I wasn’t sure if it was really you, because you’re so…extra. And even though you’ve been in the limelight, in a manner of speaking, you don’t seem to be using any supernatural powers.”

“That’s because I’m not,” Teru says, with absolute conviction, “Ms. Mezato, if I were to rely on my powers, it would defeat the entire purpose.”

“What purpose?”

Teru pauses, realizing that, despite the reporter being a friend of a friend, it still wasn’t safe territory. Still, the woman already knows that he’s an esper, and a high-level one at that, and he can’t have her getting the impression that he’d cheated his way to the top. Now was the time for damage control.

“I suppose it would’ve been easier, if I used them,” he replied, “Psychic powers are very versatile. They can be used to coerce others, or inspiring allegiance. But…somewhere along the way, I realized how futile that all was. I wanted to be…more. Not be more famous, but me, myself. I wanted to be somebody incredible, and to do that I couldn’t rely on my psychic powers.”

“It sounds kind of dull to me,” Mezato confesses, “But that’s almost exactly what Mob-kun told me the last time I saw him.”

“You’ve seen him recently?” Teru asks, trying to sound casual.

“Where do you think I got your number?” she replies, “There was a school reunion the other week. You didn’t turn up at yours, but Mob-kun showed up to his.”

“That certainly makes a lot more sense,” Teru concedes, “but does he know you were rifling through his phone?”

“I told him I was adding my number to his contacts list,” Mezato shrugs, “It was a simple matter to search for your name in there.” She pauses. “You haven’t texted him in several months now.”

“Is that important?”

“No, it’s just…nevermind.” She shakes her head. “I just have one more question: did it work?”

“Did what work?”

“Did you find the point? You know, of doing all this without your powers.”

This turn, it’s Teru who hums. He swirls the last of his coffee around in the base of his paper cup. “It’s a work in progress.”

“Fair enough,” Mezato nods, “Maybe you’ll find it at your upcoming café.”

“Maybe,” Teru says. “Maybe. But unfortunately, I think that’s all the time I’ve got for this little interview. You seem a good judge, as to the parts that were just to satisfy your personal curiosity?”

“Yeah, yeah. I get you,” Mezato says, following his motion to get to her feet. There’s a handshake. “I know better than to publicize psychic prodigies to the world now. That aside, Mob-kun has my phone number now, and I’m not sure I’d really like to see him angry.”

“It’s not pretty, I can say that much,” Teru agrees, as they walk through the crowds of the coffee shop to the exit. They are met with the heat and humidity of Japan’s summer, the moment the exit onto the busy sidewalks. They split soon after, Mezato bidding farewell again before disappearing into the crowd, ready to write her latest article.

Teru however shoves his hands into his pockets, and does as he has always done when there’s a lot on his mind—wander the crowds until the bodies pressing around him chases away the ghosts of loneliness.  There was another time, in another city, where he could pick a random direction and begin wandering, and without fail would find a friend (his only friend) in the throngs.

At several points, the heat becomes too much and he retreats into the nearest air conditioned shop to loiter for a few minutes. A few times, he idly pulls the phone from his pocket, but when greeted with the sight of two dozen unanswered messages, sighs and drops it instead.

 The walk doesn’t help clear his mind.

In fact, by the time he wanders back to his small, yet exorbitantly priced apartment, he’s more agitated than before.

Teru manages to put off thinking about it for another two hours, cooking dinner and trying to settle in to watch whatever cheap kaiju film currently running on the Pay Per View network. The entire time, his phone continues to burn holes in his pocket.

Finally, finally, Teru’s resolve breaks. Shaky fingers unlock the security code, and he chews on his lip worriedly as he scrolls through the chat history. Sure enough, there’s the messages, sent three and a half months ago.

Teru takes a shaky breath, closes his eyes, and opens the messages. It takes another five minutes before he can will his fingers to begin typing.

 The weather in Seasoning City is different from Tokyo. Cooler, for starters, but it lacks the oppressive atmosphere that Teru doesn’t remember getting used to. That aside, it hasn’t changed that much since he left—no secret societies bent on world domination tearing out the main street, no eldritch forces of nature uprooting the residential districts. For once, the city seems at peace.

Teru suspect that the peace is no accident, and knows who might possibly be the reason it has lasted so long.

He’s wearing his hair back today in a ponytail, and has picked out one of his more subtle outfits (which was easier said than done). Despite wearing loose cottons while sitting beneath the cool shadows of the café he’d designated a meeting place, he feels…hot. Jumpy even. He wonders if he could be coming down with a fever.

“Hanazawa-kun!” The words are soft, but unmistakable. Teru nearly jumps out of his skin, flying to his feet and turning around to greet the speaker.

He barely recognizes him.

Teru realizes, belated, that he was expecting the boy he’d seen off to college—tall and lanky, just a little bit nervous. Or maybe the high schooler who had accompanied him through the loneliness of teenage years. Or even the middle school student who had stood against him and shattered his world.

But no. Time hasn’t stood still for either of them it seems.

Gone is the bowl cut that he’d boasted for longer than Teru had known him, replaced with soft, haphazardly cut bangs that put him in mind of Master Reigen. Gone is the visible anxiety, the fear of standing out and blending in.

Instead, Kageyama has filled out. He is no longer awkward or gangly, and seems more solid. More confident.

And yet, his eyes are the same. There is the kindness, made softer still by the incredibly warm smile that has spread across his face.

Teru can literally feel himself softening in return. He hadn’t realize how sharp his smile had become, how angular the curve to his shoulders. He’d forgotten entirely what it was to simply…let go.

As such, Teru physically stops himself from rushing forward, from meeting his friend in an embrace. That wouldn’t be appropriate, not after he’s been absent for so long. Not after he’s made himself a stranger here. He has done nothing to earn it, and as selfish as he is, he isn’t deluded enough to believe he deserves that.

Instead, Teru thrusts his hand forward. A handshake should be enough.

Kageyama stares at it, almost confused, and Teru tries not to be disappointed. This is still the happiest he’s been in god knows how long, and he intends to take whatever is given, and make it last.

“Kageyama-kun,” he says, through a smile more genuine and vulnerable than he’s displayed in…well, years, probably. “It’s been a while. I know that you’re uh. Probably surprised, since I called short term, and I hope that you didn’t have any conflicts.”

“I had to cancel a class,” Kageyama admits.

“Ah…a class?”

“Yes. I’ve been teaching the Intro to Herpetology class at Paprika University for the summer term.” Kageyama nods to himself, “Don’t worry though. I think the students were happy for the break.”

Despite his assurances, Teru feels the panic starting to well up. How had he not known that Kageyama was teaching classes? He worked at a bloody university for crying out loud. Had he graduated with his doctorate yet? Had he missed the most important graduation in Kageyama’s career, all because he couldn’t bring himself to answer a text?

Despair settles in quickly.

Despite his best efforts, he’s still as bad as ever it seems.

But no. It’s too early to admit defeat. There’s still time to turn this around.  Perhaps they will sit down, and this time Teru will remember to actually ask him what’s been going on in his world.

He gestures to the table, and Kageyama seems to understand this time, taking a seat opposite Teru. A barista appears before long, taking their orders. She seems to recognize Kageyama, who chats with her idly and asks if her summer job is aptly covering school expenses for the upcoming semester. Teru can’t help but feel…entranced at the genuine care, but gentle confidence with which Kageyama speaks. Was this what teaching had done to him? Or…had he just grown up, while Teru was too busy looking in the mirror?

Silence settles after they finish ordering, Teru trying not to look at Kageyama’s face. He doesn’t know if he’d be able to handle that kindness, turned towards him.

“So ah. You’ve changed a lot.”

“So have you.”

One of us for the better, the other for the worse, Teru thinks bitterly.  He waits a beat before trying to start again.

“Kage—”

“Hana—”

Their words fumble, collide, and they both fall into silence once again, attempting to recover. Without thinking, Teru finds himself hiding his face in his hands, the flush stealing through him, uncontrolled.

“You first,” he manages to squeak out, after failing to compose himself.  From the corner of his eye, he can see Kageyama nodding.

“Hanazawa-kun…I need to apologize.”

Well. That wasn’t what Teru had expected. He wants to protest, but the statement itself has entirely shorted his brain out for the moment.

“I realize now, that I was being too forward in my last text to you. I should have been less…pushy.” Kageyama is looking away now, but there is a deep shame and embarrassment in his tone. “I apologize if I made you uncomfortable.”

“But you didn’t!” Teru interrupts. “In fact, I was coming here to apologize to you, for not ever replying!”

There’s a moment of silence, staring at each other from across the small table. Kageyama’s face is a delightful shade of pink, and Teru is certain that his face is three shades darker.

“Ah.” Kageyama says at length. “Ah.  We both seems to have misread the atmosphere, this time. Despite my best efforts, I haven’t yet gotten a clue.”

The words are self-degrading, but there’s relief in his voice. If it had been anybody other than Kageyama, Teru would think he were on the verge of tears. Or he may just be projecting.

“Kage—”

“Here you go, guys!” Teru is interrupted by the return of the waitress, bringing with her their orders. Both he and Kageyama start violently, but manage to accept them with some degree of dignity.

Said dignity only lasts until they’re safely alone again. Kageyama’s face has broken into a radiant grin, so warm and open that Teru feels the last of her reservations melt away. He feels the laughter come up, choking him, and he’s bending over the table. He feels Kageyama’s gentle aura catching the cup that he nearly spills in doing so, the laughter refusing to stop.

And then the laughs begin to morph into sobs, and Teru is suddenly grateful he bypassed the winged eyeliner today. He’s already a gross mess as is, and it would’ve gotten makeup all over Kageyama’s soft shirt.

(When had Kageyama moved from his seat across from Teru? When had he wrapped his arms around him, pulling him close into a hug? Teru doesn’t quite know, but he takes it, lets his selfishness overrule him just this once. Because this feels so good, feels better than money or power or any of the other things he’s tasted. Because this was what he’s been looking for, and he knew that it was right here all along, but he’d been too stubborn and too afraid. So afraid, that he’d come back, and Kageyama would have left him behind.)

Slowly, Teru becomes aware that he’s wrapped his arms around Kageyama’s middle, as the other man stands beside him, rubbing soothing circles into his back. There are people watching, he realizes, but if Kageyama doesn’t care, neither does he.

Eventually, with a shaky breath and a sniffle, he relaxes his grip and sits back. He expects Kageyama to pull away too, to return to his seat, but he instead gently brings a hand up to cradle Teru’s cheek. Without thinking, Teru leans into the touch, bringing his own hand up to hold him there, to make this moment last just a little longer.

“There you are,” Kageyama murmurs. Teru can see now that Kageyama’s eyes are shiny and red, can tell that while he was a sobbing mess, Kageyama had quietly cried alongside him, “I was afraid that you’d left me behind. My dear, dear friend.”

“Me too. Me too.” Teru manages, caught somewhere between a sob and a snicker. “We’re hopeless.”

“We’ll get it right, eventually. If you want to, I mean.”

“More than anything.”

 The rest of the afternoon passes in a blur. But at the end, Teru can’t quite recall what they talked about, because his shoulders feel so light. Even after saying farewells, he feels a foreign giddiness following him, a spring in his step he hasn’t felt in years.

Teru smiles. He has some arrangements to make.

He pulls the phone from his pocket to get started, barely able to contain his excitement. The first screen up is his chat logs.

He pauses, scrolling through the history.

(Three Months Ago)

Me: Hey, sorry for missing your call! I was at a meeting.

Kageyama: It’s okay. Did it go well?

Me: Yeah! I’ll probably close out this project soon.

Kageyama: Are you going to come home after?

Kageyama: I’ve missed you.

 (Three Days Ago)

Me: Sorry for never replying! I’m in town on Thursday, want to get coffee? That café two blocks from SnS is still there right?

Kageyama: Yes

(Just now)

Me: Thanks for meeting me!

Teru swallows, then sends the second half of the message before he can chicken out.

Me: I missed you too. It feels good to be back.

There’s a beat, and he swears he can feel his heart in his throat.

Kageyama: Welcome home.

Teru pockets the phone. The other arrangements can wait for a little bit. For the moment though, it’s probably okay to revel in the feeling of being a little less alone in the world.

#mob psycho 100 #mp100 #terumob #hanazawa teruki #kageyama shigeo #my fanfiction