#dannymay 2021 day 19: wings | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

five-rivers · 3 years

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Wings

Good people grew wings.

How wings grew, why they grew, and the exact criteria for being a good person, were unclear. Science had discovered many things over the years, but human wings remained a mystery and the closest thing to real magic the average person would ever know about. Even so, this one point, that you had to be good to grow wings, was agreed upon by virtually everyone.

You had to be good.

Saintlike, even. Literally. If a person had wings, even teeny tiny ones, and was even vaguely Catholic, they were almost certain to be sainted shortly after their death.

This was why Danny was sure there had to be some kind of mistake. That this had to be a prank. Or a trick. Or even the result of some weird ghost power Danny didn’t know about.

Not that he thought he was a bad person. He tried his best! But he was well aware of his many, many flaws. Some might say that was the first step to working on them, except… He did not do that.

Which was yet another sign that the small, downy lumps growing very painfully out his back couldn’t be real.

He didn’t deserve this.

(A sentiment he meant in many ways. Primarily the obvious one, but he also didn’t want to have to deal with two new limbs on top of everything else in his life.)

(Like, he’d just gotten used to having a tail, and the tail wasn’t a permanent addition. Or even an addition, really. It was more of an exchange. Two legs for one tail.)

He inhaled shakily and turned away from the mirror. His face was pale and drawn. Dark circles were painted under his eyes. Slightly pink scars from the fight with Skulker last night stood out on his skin. They’d fade in a few days.

Hopefully, so would the little bumps on his back. If not…

His knuckles went white on the counter. At some points in history, it had been dangerous to have wings grow in out of nowhere. People would wonder why. And if that why wasn’t compatible with what the local government wanted, if what they were doing was good but illegal, well… But the point was, some people had taken rather extreme measures to avoid being caught.

Like cutting off their wings.

Nausea rose in Danny’s throat at the notion of cutting off any part of his body. He could do it. He had access to enough sharp things and had a high enough pain tolerance. Plus, he could turn certain body parts intangible, to get a better angle on—

He turned to the toilet and threw up.

The article he’d read on the internet had said that, sometimes, wings growing in disrupted the other functions of the body. Hormonal imbalance.

Wings might be magic. This experience? Not so much.

Then, when did radical changes to his person ever happen painlessly for him? The Accident, the Accident Remix, his ice powers, puberty in general…

Yeah.

He shuddered and reached for the lever.

Maybe they’d be small. Size depended on how good you were. At least, that was the prevailing theory. Since he shouldn’t have his at all, they should be small. Tiny. Hopefully. Hidable. Something he could keep under his shirt. Something no one would notice. Something that wouldn’t be investigated, wouldn’t be questioned.

Oh, god, what if they showed up on Phantom as well? That would be a nightmare. Most ghost hunters and occultists didn’t even think ghosts had feelings. One showing up with wings would make them furious. They’d be convinced that he was faking. That he was trying to capitalize on how people thought of wings to make himself look better.

Oh, geez, and that wasn’t even getting into how they’d interact with his suit, which repaired any damage done to it every time he transformed.

He shifted, rings sparking over him, and reached around his ribs to touch his back. Which still had two very sensitive lumps.

“Danny,” said Jazz, sitting on the edge of her bed and steepling her hands, “how many times have you saved Amity Park?”

Danny frowned. “What does that have to do with anything?”

She pressed her fingers to her lips. “Okay. How about how many times you’ve saved the planet?”

Danny shrugged.

“Don’t you think that might, I don’t know, contribute to the present situation?”

“That’s—I don’t—Jazz, I live here. Of course, I’m going to protect the place I live.” He started pacing back and forth.

Jazz stared up at him. “Are you sure that’s what going on? Really?”

“Yes?”

Jazz stood up and put both her hands on Danny’s shoulders. “Danny. You’re a good person.”

“I’m not, though.”

“Okay. Tell me why you think you aren’t a good person.”

“Bad future ring a bell?” replied Danny acerbically.

“You mean the future that never happened.”

“I wasgoing to cheat on that test.”

Jazz inhaled deeply, then sighed. “Cheating on a test does not make you a bad person.”

“I destroyed the world.”

“No, you didn’t,” said Jazz. “last time I checked, the world was just fine. And wasn’t Dan half Vlad anyway?”

“It was still my fault,” mumbled Danny.

“Maybe,” allowed Jazz, “but that doesn’t mean you aren’t a good person, doing good things. Also, you wouldn’t be the first person to grow wings even though you did something bad earlier. Everyone does bad things.”

“Like who?” mumbled Danny.

“Uh,” said Jazz, “I haven’t exactly prepared a list. Um. Oscar Schindler. Like, by all accounts he was kind of terrible right up until, you know.”

Danny sighed and extracted himself from Jazz’s grip. “How am I supposed to hide them, anyway?”

“Well, if they stay small, you should be able to just cover them up. I wouldn’t recommend binding them, that’ll deform the bones. But if they get bigger… Can’t you just keep them invisible and intangible?”

“No,” said Danny, after a beat of time staring at Jazz to make sure she wasn’t joking. “I can’t hold onto either of those for that long. Especially not in human form.”

“Well,” said Jazz. She ran a hand through her hair. “In that case… You might not be able to hide them.”

Danny closed his eyes. “I hope they stay small.”

But he had a feeling they wouldn’t.

#danny phantom #dannymay #dannymay 2021 #dannymay 2021 day 19: wings #wing au

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