Hello! Sorry if my English is not as good 😅, but I really love your insightful thoughts about the characters and how you describe Comte 😍. If it's not an annoyance, I wanted to ask something about Charles (I know his route is not out yet and there is not much information about him). I've been seeing in some posts that Vlad did something to him in Dazai's route (i'm not sure what really happened) and i'm really curious about it, because even though it's known that Vlad uses his powers against his people, i can't really picture it due to the way Charles acts towards him with so much affection ?🤔 or admiration... (I guess it's because of his personality or trauma, behavior that it's different from Faust, who acts cautiously with Vlad) So it's something i'm truly curious about. Sorry for bothering you and Thank you!
Welcome welcome! Please don’t worry, I had no trouble at all understanding you, your English is great! ❤️❤️❤️ As for what I know about Charles, my information is limited due to the nature of his content so far--I haven’t seen a ton about him quite yet. But in Dazai’s route we get a glimpse into his situation due to his increased screentime there.
I’m just going to put a spoilers warning here for Dazai’s JPN rt, since that’s where I’ve learned the most about Charles:
Charles is indeed a very affectionate and generally genki boy as far as interpretations go, but there are heavy implications that Vlad is manipulating him on a profound psychological level. I say this only because there is plenty of evidence that Charles’ behavior isn’t quite his own at points, and because Dazai himself proves it to be true.
One piece of information that is necessary before delving too deep is that Charles finds MC’s handkerchief at one point early on and develops a sudden curiosity/desire to see her. While a person could just assume he was curious, I don’t personally believe that curiosity went without surveillance or intervention--since Vlad was there the whole time.
My best guess is that Vlad wanted to find out more about MC and perhaps use her as bait to manipulate Dazai (or threaten Comte), but Dazai already offered him something interesting in wanting to warp the flow of time--so Charles’ relationship with her was only collateral in the end. While Charles did have some level of sincere feeling for MC, it’s later revealed that it was ostensibly an obsession and did not operate on a normal level of personable feeling.
The way Dazai further proves that Charles’ mind has been manipulated is that, when Dazai begins to suggest that Vlad is essentially a con-man that intends to use Charles for murder no matter the cost to his mental health, Charles reacts with unnatural distress. It’s not the kind of refusal a person would normally have at the suggestion of someone’s betrayal of their loyalty, where they reject it and are uneasy but otherwise aren’t physically controlled by the emotion. Charles seems unable to mentally handle the suggestion that Vlad’s intentions aren’t good at all--that he’s lying--to the point where Charles nearly collapses from the intensity of the dissonance between his own mind and the parts Vlad is forcing into obedience.
There is also a scene following Charles’ intense mental distress where Vlad essentially interrogates Charles as to his loyalty, and gives the overtone that any kind of disobedience will be swiftly destroyed if he sees it. Faust tries to protect Charles as best he can, but his power is limited compared to Vlad’s.
Furthermore, Vlad is Charles’ sire (aka Charles’ creator as a vampire)--if he can command and manipulate Shakespeare as well as people extraneous to him so easily, I really doubt Charles would be beyond his control. The only reason Faust seems to have more agency and stability is that Faust is highly attached to his own internal emotional compass and what he believes in. (The keyword here is “seems”, if I’m honest I’m not 100% sure if Vlad isn’t still there in his mind, subtly manipulating him to the darker sides of his nature.) Charles, as much as I love him, seems even more susceptible to the emotional/motivational overtones of others around him. I mean Faust even uses a similar tactic to help Charles, in that he slowly walks him through to the solution, and Charles never once questions his judgement or thought process because it feels right to him. If you think about it Shakespeare is much the same way; he’s so obsessed with the creation of his plays and public reception to them that he is easily manipulated because he lacks personal grounding. Vincent, despite his gentle nature, is not half so susceptible to this manipulation because he is immovable at his core. There are moral lengths he will not go to no matter the intentionality, and his inspirations come from deep within. Even Dazai is too mentally strong to be controlled due to his immense love for other people. Vlad also cannot control him because he loves MC so deeply he would never betray that trust, the only single time he betrays it is when he seeks suicide (which is more about fighting his mental illness and self-harm than it is about hurting MC).
If I’m honest, I think Charles may want to believe in the best of Vlad. But I don’t think that necessarily means that Vlad is not manipulating him to his own ends, or that he isn’t causing Charles significant psychological distress/dissonance throughout the game. Charles seems like the type to want to believe in people even if he knows that belief might be misplaced. As for Vlad, I have little to no reason to believe he is not hurting Charles. He does not consider Charles his son in any capacity, and openly treats both Charles and Faust like tools to a greater end. With Vlad, only the results matter--the means are irrelevant.
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This may be a minor gripe but something that has kind of bothered me about discussions and depictions of Dan is how often people seem to forget that Dan isn't just an older evil Danny, he's a combination of Danny and Vlad's ghost sides. Like people always talk about him like Danny threw away his humanity and turned evil but that's not even true. Sure, we can say that Dan is the result of Danny's action but that's a little unfair. (1/2)
(2/2) Him cheating on a test, coincidentally putting his loved one's in a position where they could be killed, is absolutely not his fault. Letting Vlad take away his ghost powers with a strange contraption might not have been the smartest move, but we are talking about a grieving CHILD here, of course he isn't going to make the best decisions. If anything Vlad's the one to blame here, and even then, it's not like he could predict what happened
---
you aren't wrong, my friend. it really isn't entirely danny's fault and the whole 'if you cheat on a test, you'll loose everything you love' moral is confused at best. i think as fandom we find it more interesting to look at danny's potential evil and moral struggle with himself. so simplifying it to be dan is a worse case scenario of danny makes the conflict less abstract.
particularly because when it comes to self blame danny isn't going to go easy on himself just because it was excusable mistakes.
i think another talking point should be how danny is the target of the time assassination more than vlad is, even though vlad is part of the evil whole. you could argue that danny is the catalyst of his friends death and vlad inventing the claw things. but vlad invented the claw things. maybe because his human side survived and acted relatively harmless from then on? or maybe it's because the observants based on the available evidence recognized danny as more of a threat. i think that fits actually, for all vlad tried to be an evil mastermind, his achievements outside of terrorizing a teenager and theft isn't particularly impressive. danny was the one who got shit done. all his fights he finished one way or another and i could see how that would bleed into dan defeating everyone.
the real question is how to we fix this. ideally we could shape this idea so it's less confused, though i do honestly find the dynamic of half danny, half vlad interesting. if for not other reason. than two half ghosts make a whole. actually that's something else to be said about dan. his self-loathing is what led him to killing his human half, another negative aspect coming from danny.
i wonder if we could frame it like fusion, from su. obviously dan isn't stable or healthy, or based on love. he's most comparable to malichite. but with less internal debate. dan took the best and worst of both of them. danny's determination, danny's fighting ability, danny's anger, danny's sarcasm, vlad's anger, vlads lack of morals, vlads schemes, vlad's control. heck, vlads desire to rule the world. i don't think we ever got that from danny.
maybe if vlad was more involved in the fight with dan it could have been used as an opportunity to compare and contrast their characters. to go we're not so different you and i. danny gets to recognize that he has that dark potential. vlad gets to be humbled by the fact that what he wants isn't good for anyone, especially himself. and to be fair, we do see some of that humbling with future vlad, but none of that character growth is given to present vlad, so, really it's just another vehicle for danny angst. it also depends on what you want to do with vlad though. he's a fascinating character and could be given redemption under the right circumstances or be a character who has the opportunity for redemption but chooses not to be redeemed every time.
that fits him and makes him both a more pathetic and despicable villain. it's hard to pity someone who ignores the opportunities to heal and grow.
as for danny, he becomes far more aware of the consequences his actions, especially his selfish and cruel ones can have. because that potential was always there. he has a history of abusing his powers. perhaps for this specific incident him abusing his powers can be something less understandable than almost cheating on a test that he couldn't study for through no fault of his own. (maybe i just have flexible morals?). maybe it could be something more character relevant, like he did something particularly vlad like, maybe he set up a prank at the nasty burger to get dash but it set off the explosion that killed his family. or maybe he did something particularly cruel and manipulative. there are better catalysts than a test. either way he recognized that he should never go that far again and strive to avoid being actively cruel.
he also has the opportunity to recognize that vlad does have a human half, even the one he's fighting everyday. he can face some conflict in it's not entirely clear what trait belongs to vlad and what trait belongs to him. he can empathize with vlad and he can recognize that situations aren't always in black in white. those who fly the highest, fall the hardest, after all.
it can be a growing experience. and while making it solely a danny goes bad and learns not to do evil kind of story. maybe we could cut vlad from the equation and just have danny face himself, full evil refection. i think exploring both vlad and danny through this fusion is far more interesting. especially because we can build on what's revealed about vlad in these episodes, in later ones. danny sees a future where vlad chills and that maybe his vlad could get their. later he see vlads past and what he lost to become who he is.
and then there's vlads turning point episodes. i don't know when motherly instinct took place but maddie fully recognizing he's a bastard and rejection him, was a turning point for his sanity, and danny helped it along. then we have danny rejecting him repeatedly, then we the clone episode, which we can all agree was a desperate move on his part, that danny once again thwarted. and we can all agree that this was the cannon turning point for his character where he stopped fighting for a family and started trying to be danny's villain. in that episode, i think danny could potentially pity vlad enough to try and reach out. he's not going to justify what vlad did and he's not going to apologize for stopping him. he went too far. he hurt danny and dani, he crossed a moral line that can't be justified even with his desperation. but if he changes...
he lost this time but if he changes, maybe they'll reach the point where they're ready to accept him.
i think the same thing could be said about his relationship with jack and maddie. if he changes, if he reaches out. if acts like less of a crazy fruitloop, his friends would be there for him. jack is still trying to be there for him, even if he's being oblivious about vlad's faults. vlads the one driving wedges into his relationships and pushing everyone away.
and that's so freaking human and understandable.it would be such a cool thing to explore with his character.
i could also see a potential arc where after valerie finds out vlad and masters are the same person she tries to get close to him, both to sus out how evil he is and to understand him as a halfa. afterall danny got her to acknowledge dani as human enough, the same would apply to vlad/plasmius, right? only he's a bad person and the more she uncovers about vlad masters the man, the more she realizes it's not the ghost half that's evil. but this is a double edged sword because, vlad is getting attached to her and encouraging her to be more evil. he's encouraging her to go darker and darker in her fight against ghosts and her fight specifically against phantom. to the point where she finally draws the line and says, i'm not doing that! boom exploring the moral ambiguity of her character and getting her to take a hard stance on her morals, because there's a line too far for her.
and boom a further breakdown of vlads character because he finally had someone outside the fentons to redeem him. she could have helped pull him out of the hole he'd been digging himself into. she wanted to help him. he got attached to her, but he and his bad decisions decided to dig himself deeper instead. so once again he's 'abandoned and betrayed'.
from that point, i think it'd be time for him to finally face jack head on. not through manipulative schemes. not through veiled threats and insults. but the full confrontation of 'i always hated you. you ruined my life. you're the reason i lost everything'. which is really just his own self loathing speaking. and jack... empathetic jack can see that vlad desperately wants help. and jack would offer it to him. jack would try to hug it out and apologize and give vlad the love and friendship vlad's been fighting to steal this whole time.
and vlad would reject it.
he'd probably lash out a jack and go into a full breakdown/world destroying attack. could finally put the stolen crown to use and try declaring himself king and embracing his megalomaniac thing and actually be a threat this time. and THAT would be our series finally. everyone teaming up to fight 'king vlad'. danny probably finding out that he's technically king because he beat pariah dark but the matter being a bit confused because he had help. val and danny trying to find the ring of rage or at least find someone who can make one. secrets are out. i imagine vlad, upon revealing himself to jack would out danny to make danny as sad and alone as him. except nope, his family still loves him and val has had the character development to come around to him. (she's still gonna punch danny for lying for so long.) the ghosts will come and help because no one wants another tyrannical kind and vlads obviously off his rocker.
ah, the could have beens
anyway, i didn't mean for this to become a full vlad character analysis and rewrite when we were supposed to be talking about dan, but hey, i'm a simple creature. i like good writing, and i have to rewrite things myself, so be it. - Hestia
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ML: Are They Worthy? Chapter 86: Unity!
The next day, Lila was in her hospital bed being visited by Lorenzo. They were reminiscing about their time in Italy and having a generally fun time. Their giggles were interrupted when someone else opened the door. Lila was expecting a nurse, a doctor, or maybe one of those miraculous experts she met the day before after Gabriel left, but was surprised to see that it was none of the above. “Alix?”
Alix walked in, pulled up a chair, and sat down next to Lorenzo in front of Lila. “Hey.”
“Hi…” Lila replied awkwardly.
After a bit of silence, Alix asked “Well, how are you doing?”
“Oh, um, I’m feeling alright,” Lila answered. “Well, I guess as alright as I can be.”
“Right…” Alix responded. An awkward silence permeated.
“Why are you here?” Lila asked, breaking the silence like a plate crashing to the floor. “I’ve done nothing but manipulate you and your friends.” She sunk into herself. “I don’t deserve your friendship.”
Lorenzo was shook. Alix simply smiled and said “Yeah. You probably don’t.” Lila looked up. “But whether it be kindness or foolishness, I think we’re willing to give it to you anyway.”
“Why?” Lila demanded.
“Well, I don’t know about anyone else for certain,” Alix explained, “but for me, it’s a case of I can spend time disliking you, or I can see that you’re trying and at least move on, if not help you try. And I don’t have the time to waste hating someone who is trying.”
Lila was stunned. She looked at Lorenzo who smiled and chuckled. She looked back at Alix and started crying. “Lila, are you OK?” Lorenzo asked.
“Yeah” Lila sniffed. She wiped her eyes, although tears kept coming. “I’m alright.” For so long, Lila was trapped in the darkness of trying to make herself seem like an amazing, untouchable, Goddess. She was pushing other people away to push herself upwards. However, it felt lonely, which is what she was trying to avoid in the first place. Yet she had a hard time realizing it until it swallowed her whole.
So when someone was reaching out to her honestly and earnestly, and she was fully committed to doing the same, it all hit her at once. She hadn’t felt like this in a long time, and she liked it. Lila looked up and smiled at Alix. Alix reciprocated the smile. Nathalie looked on, assured that things will be alright.
Meanwhile, Adrien came into Marinette and Emilie’s room. “Hey” he said upon entering. He looked and saw Marinette was alone. “Where’s my mother?”
“She’s beginning physical therapy,” Marinette explained.
“Oh” Adrien said, surprised and delighted by the news.
“Some of the doctors were worried, but she insisted she get a start” Marinette continued.
Adrien chuckled. “That’s mother alright.” The couple shared a giggle. “It might be better this way.” Marinette seemed puzzled. Adrien’s smile widened. “Someone’s been missing you.” He took out a box and opened it.
As the box opened, Tikki appeared. Marinette was overcome with delight. “TIKKI!” she gasped.
Tikki flew up to Marinette as fast as she could and hugged her cheek. “Marinette!” The two snuggled each other. Once the little hug was over, Tikki said “I’m glad you’re OK.”
“Me too,” Marinette responded. She averted her gaze for a bit. “I feel like I should have asked you.” Tikki was curious. “About the ultimate move thing. I mean, after what happened with you and the previous holder of the wolf miraculous…”
“Marinette, it’s fine,” Tikki said. “The lucky charm gave you the idea for a reason. In spite of needing to perform that move, both you and her are amazing Ladybugs, and nothing can change that.”
Marinette smiled and blushed. “Thanks Tikki.” Adrien stood there, observing but not interrupting.
As the days went by, the recovery process progressed for the patients, as well as Paris itself. While the city had seen a great deal of damage from Hawk Moth, the Nurushwa attack was on a whole other level. While the miraculous cure did its job, the city was still in shock, and it needed some time to readjust.
During this time, Gabriel was meeting constantly with lawyers to figure out the details of his case. He was making certain arrangements to make sure everything goes smoothly. Meanwhile, Marinette and Lila were getting visits from their classmates to make sure they were doing well, and in Lila’s case, assuring them that they could bury the hatchet.
One of the processes of Paris’s recovery was a self-imposed quarantine. This was an effort to maintain order, get accounts from everyone involved, and maybe trap this Nurushwa figure. However, this was a temporary process, and nearing its end. Among those set to leave Paris once this quarantine was over, Travis and Cassandra were some of the most anxious.
Vlad was meeting with them in their hotel room. “It sucks that we gotta leave soon,” Travis lamented. “I was getting used to having you being in the same neighborhood as us, just like old times.”
“Hm,” Vlad grunted. “I’m going to miss it too. But we’ll never be too far apart. We have cellphones and such.”
“Right…” Travis reluctantly agreed. “It’s just not the same, you know?”
“We can come visit whenever, you know,” Cassandra said.
“I guess that’s true” Travis said, cheering up slightly. He sighed. “Part of me wishes we could just move here, you know? Not only are you here, but the friends you’ve made are amazing.”
“Well, what can I say?” Vlad asked. “Only the best for me.”
Meanwhile, Cassandra chuckled. “Are you sure this isn’t about one friend in particular?” she insinuated.
Travis was caught off-guard. “Well,” he blushed, “I can’t say she isn’t one of the BIGGER reasons… But you must feel it too, you know? The general presence of Vlad’s friends here.”
“Of course,” Cassandra said. “I just can’t miss an opportunity to tease you.” Travis rolled his eyes.
Meanwhile, Kagami was doing some fencing training. Longg was watching her. She was working aggressively, and losing focus. Longg imagined it had something to do with the conversation they had when they got home after the attack and the incident with Katelyn.
Flashing back, Kagami walked into her room. She sat in front of her tv and started playing video games. Longg floated out beside her. “So, um, why did you tell Travis and Cassandra you’re Ryuko?”
Kagami shrugged. “I guess I felt like it.”
“It’s a little unorthodox,” Longg informed her.
“I know…” Kagami replied. She had just been defeated in her game. “Ugh. Fine.”
“Fine what? Longg asked.
Kagami sighed. “I think I’ve made my decision.”
“‘Decision’?” Longg inquired.
“Yeah,” Kagami answered. “And as amazing as Luka is, I think I actually like Travis more.”
“Oh” Longg said, realizing what Kagami was talking about. “So that’s why?”
Kagami nodded. “I figured if we were going to end up going out, he’d have to know the truth at some point or another.”
“So, if you don’t mind,” Longg began, “what was the deciding factor in all of this?”
Kagami smiled. “Like I said, Luka’s great...but Travis has this air about him. He’s just so passionate and free, and I feel like I want that out of a potential boyfriend, you know?”
“I see” Longg said. “So, when are you going to tell him?”
“That, I’m not sure,” Kagami said. “This whole time has been crazy...I want to wait until things settle down a bit before I go jumping into this.”
“That sounds fair,” Longg replied.
Back in the present, Kagami was making mistake after mistake in her training. She threw off her helmet and said “I can’t take it anymore!” She went to go change. Once she was finished, she stormed out of the house.
She started out walking, but then sped up into a run. She was on her way to Le Grand Paris, hoping that he’d be there. When she arrived, she stopped, caught her breath, and composed herself. She walked in, and calmly took the elevator up.
When she got to the floor they were staying in, she left and hurried down the hall. She arrived at their room. She hesitated at first, but she shook herself out of it and knocked. The knock was gentle, but forceful.
Vlad opened the door. “Kagami? What’s up?” Kagami brushed past Vlad. “OK?”
Kagami walked up to Travis. “You!”
Travis seemed confused over this confrontational Kagami. He pointed to himself and said “Me?”
“You!” Kagami repeated. She sighed and loosened her tension. “When I first came to Paris, I thought I was the best there ever was, the best there ever is, and the best there ever will be.”
“O...K…?” Travis said, confused. Vlad and Cassandra were looking on equally confused.
“But right away, I was made apparent of my flaws,” Kagami went on. “As time went on, I’ve slowly learned to overcome those flaws, or at least work towards that. Yet when we first interacted, you seemed to fall in love with me almost instantly. At a time where I kind of hated myself, and I took my anger out on you.” Kagami intensely stared at Travis. “Do you think I’m perfect when I’m not?”
Travis was puzzled. He looked at Vlad and Cassandra, neither of whom were able to help. He turned back to Kagami. “Well...that’s...um…” He sighed. “To be honest, being perfect is overrated.” Kagami was confused. “I didn’t say any of what I said because I thought you were perfect. I said what I said because I thought you were amazing. You still are. But perfect is a bit much to expect, you know?”
Kagami smiled. “Yeah. I do. Hm. Today, while I was practicing fencing, I started to lose focus.” Travis was stunned. “This was the first time since the battle against that Nurushwa thing that I did.”
“I’m sorry…” Travis said, unsure of what else to say.
“Don’t be,” Kagami said. “Because it was the first time since the attack that I had a focus to lose. That I can let my mind think about other things. That I don’t have to worry about a monster peering over my shoulder.”
“Oh” Travis said.
Kagami closed in on him. “I was thinking about you. I think you’re amazing too. So...um...will, uh, will you go out with me?”
Travis’s face was now beat red. Kagami was also blushing, but she looked a little more composed. Still, blushing, Triavis laughed a little. “Hah. Of course.”
Kagami grabbed the lapels of Travis’s jacket. “Oh yeah?” She pulled herself in closer, pressing her body against his. “Prove it.” She gave him a kiss. Travis was taken aback for a second, but wrapped his head around what was happening and focused. He wrapped his arms around Kagami, squeezing her tenderly.
Once the kiss was over, the two looked at each other. They noticed the other was blushing, and started giggling amongst themselves. Travis then said “Now THAT was truly amazing.”
“Congratulations you two,” Cassandra said.
They looked at Cassandra and Vlad, who were smirking, but supportive all the same. “Hm hm. Thanks” Kagami said.
The following day, Mylene and Ivan went to visit Lila, who was also getting a visit from Lorenzo, because of course. “Hi Lila. Lorenzo” Mylene said upon entering.
“Hey,” Ivan said. “How are you all doing?”
Lila giggled. “Well, I’m doing better with all of the visitors I’m getting.” She looked down. “It is nice. After all this time, all of this double-dealing, it is nice that there are people who are willing to give me another shot.”
“It happens to the best of us,” Ivan explained. “If you’re willing to change, people will be there to help.”
“Speaking of helping people,” Mylene said, “the food pantry’s been missing you for the past couple of days Lorenzo.”
“Ah ha ha” Lorenzo laughed. “Well, uh…”
“It’s fine,” Lila said. “I’m in good hands. You’ve been here enough to know that.”
“Right…” Lorenzo said. “It’s just...I’ve missed you...a whole…”
“I know…” Lila said. “I’ve missed you too. And I also missed me as well.” Lorenzo smiled, as did Ivan and Mylene.
Meanwhile, Adrien, Vlad, Travis, Cassandra, and Kagami were visiting Marinette. “Are you two really leaving tomorrow?” Adrien asked.
“Yeah,” Cassandra answered. “We figured we should visit before we’re off.”
“Well, it’s always a pleasure,” Marinette said. “Whenever you come here next, we should hang out more.”
“Hopefully you’re not laid up in a hospital” Cassandra replied.
“Of course,” Marinette responded.
“Let’s hope things aren’t as hectic either” Vlad noted.
“Yeah, there sure were a lot of ups and downs this time around,” Travis added. He looked over at Kagami. “But I will say, this trip went out on top.”
Kagami walked over and embraced him. “We have something to tell you.” Adrien and Marinette were curious.
Travis wrapped his arm around her. “Heh. We’re kind of going out.” Adrien and Marinette were stunned. Kagami gave him a kiss on the cheek to highlight that.
Marinette smiled. “Congratulations you two.”
Kagami turned to Adrien. “You’re not jealous, are you?”
Adrien smiled. “Of course not. I have a wonderful girlfriend, and you have a wonderful boyfriend.”
Kagami smiled back. “Thanks Adrien.”
After they left the hospital, Vlad looked at his cohorts. “You go on ahead. I’ve got something to do.”
“You sure?” Travis said.
“Yeah” Vlad answered. “If I don’t catch back up to you today, I’ll definitely be there to see you off tomorrow.”
“Well, if you’re so determined, then I guess we’ll seeya” Cassandra said. “And good luck.”
“Yeah,” Kagami added. She nodded. Vlad nodded back and left.
While Vlad was walking, Beyyo popped out. “Um, just out of curiosity, what are you doing?”
Vlad sighed. “Mr. Agreste, Lila, Kagami… heck, practically everyone. They’re all starting to move forward. And I need to do the same.”
At the Liberty, there was a knock. Juleka answered. “Vlad?”
“Hey” Vlad said with little emotion. “Can I speak with Luka?”
“Oh. Sure” Juleka said. She left to get Luka.
Luka arrived. “Vlad?”
Vlad tensed up. “Listen.” He stood silent. Luka waited patiently. “GAH!” Vlad vented. Luka flinched. “Sorry” Vlad said, calming down. Luka readjusted himself. “I just have to say it. I..sort of have a thing for you…”
“I’ve noticed,” Luka said nonchalantly.
Vlad’s face grew a little red, but he pressed on. “But I can’t keep holding out for a light that isn’t going to come. So, I need to know now: Is it possible that the two of us could go out? Or are you straight?”
Luka chuckled. Vlad was stunned. “I’m sorry. But that whole speech just now was incredibly adorable.”
Vlad’s face grew redder. “You-You’re not answering the question.”
“Isn’t he?” Beyyo asked.
“Let’sssss wait and sssssee” Sass responded.
Luka grabbed Vlad’s hand. “I’d say it’s more than possible.” He moved in and gave Vlad a kiss on the cheek.
Vlad’s face was entirely red. “Wh-Where did this come from?”
Luka rubbed the back of his head. “Well, I’ve been thinking a lot. About me, and what I want out of someone. I mean, I was a bit down when Marinette started going out with Adrien, but you can’t hang on to one person like that forever. Otherwise, you’re just a one-hit wonder, you know.”
Vlad was taken aback by Luka’s explanation. “I...was sort of thinking the same thing...I needed an answer, otherwise I couldn’t move on…”
“And it’s things like that that made me realize, you’re someone I’d want to go out with” Luka said. “Plus, your impassioned speech was, again, adorable.” Vlad turned his head, a little embarrassed. Luka smirked. “C’mon.” He grabbed Vlad’s head, turned it towards him, and gave him a kiss, this time on the lips. Vlad was surprised, but followed through almost instantly. A few minutes later, all of Vlad and Luka’s friends got a picture of the two of them announcing their new relationship.
The day after, Kagami, Vlad, and Luka were there to see Travis and Cassandra off. “Seeya!” Vlad said.
“Of course!” Travis exclaimed. “And congratulations yourself!” Vlad blushed, but Luka took his hand, and he calmed down. The two started to wave.
“Don’t have too much fun with us!” Cassandra said. The two started getting on the train.
Kagami called out. “Hey!” Travis looked at her. “Promise you’ll call when you get back.”
“Heh” Travis laughed. “What do you take me for?” They both smiled at each other. Travis and Cassandra got on the train, and it started going.
Meanwhile, Alya and Nino were visiting Lila. Of course, they also forgave Lila after Lila apologized. They were having a good time. But then Lila’s face went from happy to somber. “What’s wrong?” Nino asked.
Lila looked at the two of them. “Do you know if Marinette’s coming?”
“Marinette?” Alya wandered.
“Yeah” Lila said. “She’s the one I want to apologize to the most.”
“Oh, um, well…” Nino sputtered.
Lila sighed. “She’s not coming, is she?”
“No no, she’ll come,” Alya replied. “It’s just…”
“It’s fine,” Lila said. “I know a lie when I hear it. I can’t say I’m surprised. Marinette is the one I was the worst to. I can’t imagine she’ll forgive me.” Alya and Nino were awestruck. Lila turned back to them and smiled again. “But thank you two for coming. Honestly.” Alya and Nino nervously laughed.
A little later, Alya and Nino entered Marinette’s room. “Hey guys,” Marinette said.
“Um…” Nino pondered. “What are we telling people who AREN’T in the know?”
Marinette was confused. “Ugh” Alya groaned. “Lila wants to know if you’ll come and visit.”
“Lila?” Marinette wondered.
“Yeah, she’s upstairs,” Nino said. “Room 303.”
“And she’s resigning herself to thinking you won’t forgive her” Alya added. “Um, you will forgive her, right?”
“Huh? Oh, of course” Marinette said.
Alya said. “Good. Because I know you girl, and you got SUPER worked up about her.”
“Yeah…” Marinette said, embarrassed. “When I think of something, I’ll let you know.”
“Great!” Nino said. The three of them had a little visit, but Alya and Nino had to leave. Adrien hung around a little bit, but also left eventually.
That night, Marinette’s mind drifted towards Lila. From what everyone who visited her told her, she really was ready to turn over a new leaf. When she was through apologizing, she was pleasant and fun to be around.
She thought about what Alya told her. Lila really believed that she wouldn’t forgive her. Of course, Marinette had every right not to and then some, but darn it, that just wasn’t who she was. If she can forgive Hawk Moth on some level, she can forgive Lila.
Marinette looked around. Mrs. Agreste had already fallen asleep after another exhausting day of physical therapy. She decided to follow her lead and give it a go. She moved herself to hang her legs off of her bed. “Now or never.”
She gently flung herself downwards. She landed on her feet. She had only done so to use the in-room bathroom, and even that was a bit strenuous, since previously she had been unconscious for a week. She started moving to the door.
By the time she reached it, she was already breathing heavily. She proceeded to open the door. She had been in plenty of situations where she needed to move something heavy when she was Ladybug, and it felt like that. Still, she opened the door and continued to walk.
She had to lean on the wall for support. She was feeling the strain of every step. Yet she was determined all the same.
She made it to the elevator. She got in, pressed the buttons to head up, and leaned back against the wall. The elevator granted her a small reprieve. “You can do this.” The elevator opened. She lifted herself back up and headed out.
She didn’t have to go very far to find room 303, but it felt like a struggle all the way. She arrived at the door. She placed her hands on the handle, and began opening it, calling upon the same strength she used to open her own door.
When she slid the door open, there was a loud sound, which woke up both patrons of the room. Nathalie turned the light on. As soon as she saw a fatigued Marinette wandering into the room, she immediately pressed the “Call Nurse” button. Lila just looked at her in shock and said, “Marinette?”
Marinette looked up at Lila. “Lila…” That was all she could muster before passing out.
Marinette woke up back in her own bed. She was greeted by a doctor. “You gave us quite a scare, Miss Dupain-Cheng,” the doctor said.
Marinette looked down. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright” the doctor noted. “Frankly, I admire your drive, but we should work on baby steps.”
Marinette looked up and smiled. “You’re right.”
“I’m sure with your adventure last night, you’ll do great, '' Emilie said from her bed.
Marinette looked over at her. “Thank you Mrs. Agreste.”
The door opened up.It was Lila. She rushed over to Marinette’s bed. “Marinette! I’m so sorry.”
“Lila? What are you doing here? Marinette asked.
“Well, um, you did come to my room last night,” Lila said.
“Right…” Marinette replied. “I came because Nino and Alya told me that you were asking why I hadn’t visited yet.”
“Oh. That makes sense” Lila realized. “Well, don’t worry, Mr. Agreste explained everything.”
Marinette was confused. “He did?”
“He was here this morning,” Emilie jumped in. “After he heard about what happened, he came to make sure you were OK. When the doctors told him you were stable, he was relieved. He would have stayed, but he said he was busy with the upcoming case.”
“I see…” Marinette said.
“Marinette,” Lila began, “had I known he’d attacked you like that, I would’ve understood.”
Marinette was confused. Before she could say anything, Emilie said “Remember? You were offered the butterfly miraculous to continue Hawk Moth’s mission. And when you said no, he attacked you. Thankfully, Cat Noir, Judgement Wolf, and Ladybug figured him out just then and saved you.” Emilie winked.
“Oh” Marinette said. “Yeah.” She looked downward. “Lila. I don’t want you to think I wouldn’t forgive you. I mean, from what everyone has told me about their visits with you, you sound so sincere about wanting to make it up to everyone. I can’t be mad at that.”
“But you were the person I was the worst to,” Lila admitted.
“I know,” Marinette said. “And trust me, there were days where there was nothing more that I wanted than your complete humiliation.” Lila was stunned with this honesty, but understood it. “But I can’t live in that animosity. I just can’t. Ladybug is working so hard to fight for peace, and I want to be able to live up to that.”
Lila’s face was filled with mixed emotions. “I’ve been living in that animosity for so long. And I thought I enjoyed it, but it all came crashing down on me, and I realized I didn’t want that anymore. But I thought it was too late, so I kept running because that was all I was good at.”
Lila smiled. “But when Ladybug said she wanted to save me, I was overjoyed. She could have left me for dead, and I would have understood it. But she wanted to save me. So now I want to live up to Ladybug’s light too.”
Marinette smiled and reached out her hand. “Friends?”
Lila was about to shake her hand, but instead dove in for a hug. Lila started crying tears of joy. “Friends.” Marinette was startled by this hug, but returned it once the suddenness wore off.
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Part XI of The Trouble with Ghosts [FF | AO3]
Lancer hadn’t realized how closely young Mr. Fenton’s school troubles–and the secrets he surely wasn’t telling his parents–were tied to ghosts until after that encounter with Phantom.
<< < Part XI
-|-
Danny groaned when he heard the knock on the bedroom door. He’d put his barely-touched cup of hot chocolate beside Val’s on the bedside table—why had he ever thought he might drink them both?—before throwing the sheet over his head and snuggling into a nest of blankets. He just didn’t want to face anyone right now.
Lancer had been so confident that telling Valerie was the right thing to do, that it would go well, and it…hadn’t.
He’d been so caught up in his thoughts that he’d never noticed when she’d left the house, but at least Lancer had left him alone. He hadn’t wanted to face anyone. He still didn’t.
Maybe if he pretended to still be asleep, Lancer would go away.
Instead, he heard the door open. Right. He should’ve known that wouldn’t work. His groan had as good as acknowledged Lancer’s presence. “I don’t wanna talk about it,” he muttered, not caring that his words were muffled because he didn’t bother uncovering his head.
“Danny?”
The tentative voice belonged to Valerie, not Mr. Lancer.
Danny threw the covers off of his head and turned to look. Valerie was standing in the doorway, shifting from foot to foot. He sat up. “Val? I, uh, I thought….”
“I’m sorry,” she said. She moved to sit on the edge of the bed, and he pulled up his feet to sit cross-legged to give her more room. “I didn’t know, I swear. I would never have…. I should have let you talk. I should have listened to Phantom. I was…. I was angry. At everything. And I took it out on you and—”
“It’s okay,” Danny said, breaking in. It was suddenly hard to speak, the lump in his throat appearing this time for entirely different reasons. “I…I knew you didn’t know. And I should have told you earlier, I guess. I was just….” He trailed off and shrugged.
“I get it.” She blinked back tears of her own. “I’m not mad that you didn’t tell me. I’m mad at myself for not figuring it out. And I…. I hope you can forgive me for what I did. Yesterday and all the times before that.”
“You were only trying to protect your home. Nothing wrong with that.” He offered her a small smile. “I mean, when push came to shove, you worked with me. We can just call a permanent truce this time. We’ll just need to, um, figure out what you tell Vlad.”
Valerie’s mouth thinned. “You really think he knows about you?”
“I know he does. He knows everything. He….” Danny hesitated. He knew Valerie must’ve talked to Mr. Lancer, but how much had he told her? “It’s more messed up than you realize.”
“He knows you’re human and is still hunting you. You can’t get much more messed up than that.” She didn’t bother to hide the disgust in her voice. “Seriously. Even if he worked with your parents—” She broke off. “Wait. They don’t know either, do they?”
Great. Of course the conversation would go this way when he needed to tell her about Vlad. Because he really wanted to have the conversation about his parents now. “Um. Not yet. But about Vlad—”
“Danny, you need to tell them. What if they hit you with something like I did? You’re not in great shape now, and they might get you with something way worse.”
She’d definitely been talking to Lancer.
“I…. I could’ve killed you. And they might if you don’t tell them until it’s too late! You can’t…. You don’t seriously think they hate ghosts more than they love you, do you?”
She’d never had to sit through supper, listening to her dad talk about all the ways he was going to destroy ghosts, tearing them apart molecule by molecule.
She’d never had anyone she loved tell her in a cheerful voice that ghosts don’t feel pain, however many times it was pointed out that there was no proof of that and much more evidence to the contrary.
She’d never had it made painfully clear that her very existence was hated, never been told she was loved in one breath and cursed the next.
Valerie punched him in the arm. “Spoiler alert, since you’re too blind to see it: they don’t. They wouldn’t be going all around town looking for you if they did. They’d be, I dunno, planning to storm the Ghost Zone or something. Something more targeted at hurting ghosts than getting you back, even if they still say it’s about getting you back.”
“Thanks.” Her vote of confidence meant more than Lancer’s. She’d been in the same shoes as her parents, after all.
“And, um, if you want, I can be there when you tell them. If you really think you’ll need to do damage control. I don’t know what they think of the Red Huntress, but it might help them to know I’m on your side.”
Danny blinked. “You’d be okay with me telling them who you are?”
Valerie nodded. “I was thinking I’d tell them anyway. I don’t…. I don’t want to keep working for Vlad if you’re right. But I like what I do. I don’t want to give it up.”
“Your dad might be happy if you cut back a bit,” Danny pointed out. “We could work together or even take shifts when one of us really needs a break. Between your tracker and my ghost sense—”
“You have a ghost sense?”
“It’s just what I call it.” He really didn’t want to get into that now. Besides, if Valerie was going to defy Vlad’s wishes and not keep hunting Phantom, she’d be in way more danger if she didn’t know everything. “Honestly, my parents will be thrilled that you’re interested in hunting ghosts. But you should know Vlad—”
“Do they know he’s still doing paranormal research, too?”
Danny shook his head. “They don’t know anything. It’s not just that Vlad has ripped off a bunch of their designs and made a few of his own. It’s that…. Valerie, you’ll need to be really careful around him. Vlad’s just like me.”
She stared at him. “Like you?” The what’s that supposed to mean? was unspoken, but it was obvious that she hadn’t connected the dots.
Granted, Danny wasn’t sure Lancer completely understood, either.
Just because Vlad was part ghost, too, didn’t mean Lancer had realized which ghost. And Vlad would be very, very careful never to call Plasmius by his first name in Valerie’s hearing.
Danny saw movement from the corner of his eye and turned to see Lancer in the doorway. This time, he’d brought a small tray with fruit and cheese and crackers. “You might want to sit down, too,” Danny said before Lancer could ask if he could join them.
Lancer nodded, setting the tray down between Danny and Valerie. He cleared the books off the chair in the corner and pulled it up so he was sitting across from them. When he was settled, Danny looked between Lancer and Valerie and took a deep breath. “Vlad Masters is Vlad Plasmius.” He watched Lancer’s brow furrow and Val’s mouth open and close, and he pressed forward. “That’s why the Wisconsin Ghost moved to Amity Park. Because Vlad moved here. When he realized I was the same as him, he got it into his head that I should be his son.”
Valerie swallowed. “Like…figuratively, right? He thinks he should teach about, um, all of…that? Treat you like a son and whatever?” She waved a weak hand at him, presumably since he was still in ghost mode.
He could only wish it were that simple. “Unfortunately, no.” He didn’t want to give details. Luckily, they didn’t ask. Valerie probably didn’t want to know, judging by the look on her face, and Lancer’s frown might mean that he didn’t want to press the point right now. Danny had already told him enough that he could guess the rest, anyway. “Whatever he gave you to use against me is working. I can’t use my powers. I mean, I’m healing faster than a normal human, but not as fast as I should be, and I can’t do anything else.”
She pursed her lips. “He told me it should incapacitate you. He…. How can he be Plasmius? I mean, he invited the best ghost hunters in the country to come to town. And besides, they don’t even look alike. Not like you do.”
“One thing he doesn’t exaggerate is being good at manipulation,” Danny said flatly. “Whether it’s manipulating me or you or everyone else in Amity Park. And ghosts can change their appearance over time. I haven’t figured it out, but I’ve seen it happen.”
“What else were you told about the weapon’s effects?” Lancer asked. “If we could discern how it works—”
Danny was shaking his head even as Val said, “It’s a chemical. I just assumed it was an anti-ghost chemical. I didn’t ask questions.”
“Even if you had,” Danny added, “Vlad probably would’ve lied to you. Or left out something important. He wouldn’t tell you everything unless he knew you wouldn’t understand it. We’d have to break into his secret lab to get the formula. If we knew he was out of there—and that he didn’t leave a clone behind—then we could just activate the Maddie Program—”
“The what?”
The way Valerie said it, she didn’t want to know. Danny couldn’t blame her. He hadn’t meant to tell them this part. It had just slipped out. “The appropriate reaction is ‘ew’. Because, yes, it’s exactly what you think it is. Or at least, it looks like you think it does. Vlad built a hologram. He’s one seriously crazed-up fruitloop.”
Lancer sucked in a breath. “You have to tell your parents. That, ah, revelation of Mr. Masters aside, they would be the only ones who could hope to understand what has been done to you and effectively counter it. If we are successful in retrieving a formula, we would need to give it to them.”
“I’ll get it,” Valerie said. “You can file a restraining order or something, and I’ll break into Vlad’s lab.” She paused. “You’re sure it’s a secret lab? I’ve been in—”
“Have you seen his ghost portal?” When Valerie shook her head, Danny said, “Then he hasn’t shown you his most secret lab. I mean, I think they’re connected, backing onto each other, but he might have a wall between them and just phases back and forth. Or maybe it’s whatever door you think leads to the broom closet.” He told her how to find it and how to activate the Maddie Program—“Take Sam and Tucker with you. They know everything, you’ll need help, and Tucker can upload his Jack Program virus again.”—and told her to ask Jazz for any supplies she thought she might need going into this.
“A moment, Miss Gray,” Lancer said as Valerie got to her feet. “There may be a simpler solution to this. Do you have any further samples from your weapon?”
“I’ve got one shot left,” she said, “but I wouldn’t call it a simpler solution. I can’t reverse engineer this, and Danny definitely can’t help with that. He managed to make something explode in chem, and we were just doing titrations.”
“That was one time!”
“Regardless,” Lancer said with a pointed look that had Valerie slowly sinking onto the bed again, “your final shot, as it were, could be useful. If not in reverse engineering the formula, which as you say would be quite difficult indeed, then in giving Mr. and Mrs. Fenton an idea of what they are working with.”
“Or you could use it against Vlad,” Danny said. “I mean, I don’t know if it would work on him, but you could try. If you’re desperate. It’s the first thing you should shoot if you encounter Masters or Plasmius and can’t talk your way out of something.”
Lancer sighed. “In any event, you are hardly prepared to undertake such a venture at this precise moment. If Mr. Masters has provided you with all your weaponry, I do not think it would be prudent to trust it in a fight against him. More to the point, if you have worked with him and none of your equipment can detect that he is a ghost—”
“Have Tucker take a look at everything,” Danny advised. “He should be able to hack into it and reprogram it. Vlad probably made sure nothing recognizes his ecto-signature.”
Valerie frowned. “I think I would’ve noticed if my stuff didn’t pick up a ghost.”
“Right, because you fight Plasmius all the time.”
She opened her mouth to protest and then slowly closed it. “Oh.”
“Technus is on his payroll, too, so a quick diagnostic on your suit wouldn’t be a bad idea, either. Vlad might have a tracker on you, too, for all we know.” Danny was actually pretty sure Vlad would have planted a tracker somewhere—probably more than one place, actually, on any of the multiple weapons he’d given to Valerie, assuming it wasn’t built straight into the suit Technus had made—but he didn’t want to tell Val that right now. She was taking all this very well, but that might be a bit much.
Besides, thinking about the likelihood of Vlad tracking her just made it more likely that he’d find Danny at his current hiding spot. Sure, Vlad wouldn’t have reason to look at it right now—he’d assume Valerie was in school, where she was supposed to be—but the idea of Vlad looking at that data later and figuring out where she’d been all this time…. It wouldn’t be hard for him to find out that this was Lancer’s place. Or to send ghosts to attack it.
Of course, if Valerie was still here when it happened, her tracker should pick up any ghosts he didn’t, but that was assuming Vlad wasn’t able to disable anything remotely. And Vlad might suspect that Valerie had found out Danny’s secret if he started to wonder why she’d stuck around for so long, which would make him more likely to act—despite this being Lancer’s place. He’d hedge his bets—it was Vlad, after all; he wouldn’t just waltz in and do something to confirm that he’s Plasmius—but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t take any risks.
Just because he might not have ghosts launch an all-out attack until he knew for certain that Danny had spilled both of their secrets, it didn’t mean he wouldn’t send ghosts here to eavesdrop once he looked into Valerie’s whereabouts.
And it didn’t mean he wouldn’t try to stage something and make it look like a random ghost had come to kidnap Fenton or Phantom, especially if he didn’t know the others had learned Danny’s secret.
And if he’d sent a few ghosts to watch Sam and Tucker and Jazz to try to find out Danny’s location from them—
“Mr. Foley and Miss Manson may cut class, but I’m afraid I have no power to excuse their absences as I have yours. They are still at school, and it would be more than a tad suspicious to have a second ghost-related emergency of which Mr. and Mrs. Fenton are unaware. Furthermore, even once you do meet up with them, Mr. Foley’s work will take time, and we don’t know what Mr. Masters is up to.”
“Council meeting tonight,” Valerie said immediately. “That’s why I’m out searching.”
“Doesn’t mean he didn’t leave behind a clone, ready to pretend he got out early in case you found me,” Danny pointed out. It was a relief to hear that Vlad really was busy—maybe they’d be lucky and he would be too distracted to look into this too much on his own, especially if he was so confident in his own invention and its effects—but Danny knew better than to assume it would buy him all the time he needed. “It doesn’t mean you’re the only one searching, either. He has a lot of ghosts working for him, and I’ve been in one spot since yesterday. I’m kinda surprised you’re the only one who’s found me.”
Valerie snorted. “I’m not. Surprised, I mean. You barely have an ecto-signature. My tracker kept dropping the marker completely. I thought it was broken. Even when I came here, I didn’t really expect to find you. I thought it might be some of those tiny blob ghosts.”
That was a relief, too. He didn’t know how many ghosts out there had some kind of ghost sense like he did, but those who relied on technology like Skulker and Technus would have as much trouble tracking him down as Valerie had. And if Vlad had just sent out the vultures again, well, they got distracted. Not as easily as someone like the Box Ghost, but still. It would slow down the search, especially if Vlad hadn’t had a starting point.
And even more so if he’d started with Danny’s usual haunts and was trying to work his way out from there.
Granted, if Valerie hadn’t come here solely because she’d found some reason to be suspicious of Lancer’s absence, then— “So your fundraising was legit?”
“Two birds with one stone,” Valerie said smoothly. “I figured I’d expand my area and hit up one neighbourhood at a time.”
“More to the point,” Lancer said, “I’m not comfortable with you taking all this risk, regardless of your activities in the past. Mr. Fenton, you must tell your parents, and it would be better if you did so before we began.”
Neither of them was willing to let him put that off for long, were they?
He could come up with dozens of excuses to tell them later, and they’d argue each one.
And with two of them, they were more likely to win.
Danny sighed, leaning back against the headboard and closing his eyes. “Fine,” he said, changing so he looked like plain ol’ Danny Fenton again. He’d rather start this explanation looking like himself rather than the ghost they hated. “Call them.”
XXXXXXXX
Valerie stayed with him while Lancer made the call—and a few more, including one to Jazz’s cell phone to warn her what was going on. She didn’t answer—she never picked up for numbers she didn’t recognize—but she did check her messages, and Danny had told Lancer exactly what to say. The break between classes was coming up, and she’d look at her phone then.
Assuming his parents hadn’t barged into the school to tell her the news that he’d been found first. They might not, if they thought she was better off distracting herself with schoolwork and that they could patch him up to look half-decent by the time she got home. Sometimes, they really did listen to everything Jazz said about causing their kids undue stress.
They just didn’t happen to remember to apply that when potential possession by a ghost was involved.
Valerie nibbled on a bit of cheese and popped another grape into her mouth. “How did you know?” she asked after the silence had stretched. “That you could, um, become Phantom?”
“That’s what I looked like when I woke up after the accident,” Danny said. “It freaked me out. Snow white hair and glowing green eyes? That’s not my reflection. Except it was. I panicked. Sam and Tucker were there, but they weren’t exactly calmer.” He hesitated. Sam had been calmer, but he knew what he remembered wasn’t entirely…. Desiree had interfered, and now everything was muddled when he thought back to that and everything that had happened. “I managed to change back. I thought that was the end of it, but….”
“It wasn’t.”
Danny smiled. “Yeah, not by a long shot. But I can control my powers now. It probably wasn’t any worse than you felt when Technus made your new suit and you realized that he’d basically melded ghost tech to your body.”
Valerie winced, the hand with her cheese-and-cracker combo dropping back to her lap. “Actually, I didn’t think about the consequences right away. Or nearly as soon as I should’ve. Mr. Masters looked it over when I asked and said it was fine. I didn’t let it bother me after that, but…. I don’t know if I can believe him anymore, and that’s scarier.”
“Technus might actually answer some of your questions if we can trade him some decent electronics for the info. We don’t have to tell him Tucker put a virus in there first that’ll activate if he tries to use it for global domination.”
Valerie smirked. “You really think he’d fall for that?”
“Definitely,” Danny said as Valerie ate her cracker. “He likes to talk, too, so that won’t be a problem, either.”
They lapsed back into silence, Valerie intermittently munching on the food Lancer had put out. Danny was glad someone was eating it. He knew he should, but his stomach was twisting itself into knots every time he thought about the upcoming conversation with his parents.
The whole point of coming to stay with Mr. Lancer had been to avoid this, and now Lancer was the reason it was happening.
He hadn’t counted on that.
He wasn’t convinced it hadn’t been a secret hope in Jazz’s plan, though. For all that she was willing to wait until he was ready to tell his parents, she kept bringing it up. Especially in subtle ways, like she thought he might not notice but might still take the hint.
“Hey, Val?”
“Mmm?”
“How do I tell them?”
She swallowed and shifted, pulling her legs up on the bed so that she was easily facing him. “You just need to tell them. It’s hard, but…. Danny, you scared me earlier. I didn’t want it to be true because I didn’t want everything it meant to be true. I didn’t want to know that I was the reason you’re hurt, that I’ve been hunting you down for so long, that I’ve been threatening you and then five minutes later running into you at school because we’re both late for class. And the stuff about Vlad…. They consider him a friend, right? So to know that he’s Plasmius, that he’s done all these awful things….” She shrugged. “Sometimes you don’t wanna believe it, you know? But then you showed me, and I couldn’t deny it, and it was just…overwhelming.”
“Yeah,” Danny agreed, “that’s why I wasn’t sure how to tell them. I mean, I tried in the beginning, but they’d cut me off and start talking about their latest inventions, and I just…. It was easier not to say anything. That’s why I didn’t really try with you.”
“I don’t blame you.” She bit her lip. “But you know how big this is, right? Vlad’s not just the mayor. He’s a billionaire—”
“Only because he used his powers for his own gain.” Danny tilted his head as he looked at her. “And you know that’s exactly why you need to be careful, too, right? Because if you think I ruined your life, Vlad can do way worse. He won’t hesitate.”
“That’s not stopping Mr. Lancer.”
“I know.” Danny hesitated and then confessed, “I thought it would. I hoped it would. I don’t…. I don’t want to be responsible for something bad happening, and I feel like I would be. Because knowledge is dangerous.”
“Ignorance is dangerous, too.” Valerie picked at a loose thread on the bedspread. “The way I’ve been treating you is proof of that. And I guess…. I guess it means I need to keep my eyes open for stuff like that. Because not all ghosts are bad, so I shouldn’t hunt them blindly.”
“I’ve got some ghost files on my computer,” Danny said. “I can share them with you. You’ve probably figured out most of the stuff, but it might fill in a few blanks. Most of the ghosts you’ve been after are the ones you want to keep hunting, but they aren’t that bad compared to some of the other ones we’ve faced in the past.”
“Like Pariah Dark.”
“Yeah, like him.”
“I just wanted to help.”
“And I was afraid you’d get yourself killed. Exposing you to your dad was the only way I could think of to keep you safe. I’m sorry that I did it that way, not giving you a choice when it was your secret, but I don’t regret doing it.”
“He would’ve figured it out sooner rather than later anyway.”
“Was it bad when he found out?”
Valerie laughed. “He said I was grounded until I graduated, but he didn’t hold me to that. He worries about me. He’s my dad. He wasn’t impressed when he found out I started hunting again, either. I was grounded for a month then. He just…. He wants the best for me, you know?”
“And he doesn’t want to think about you getting hurt.”
“Exactly. I mean, he is trying to find a balance between letting me do my own thing, making mistakes and learning, and being worried about me, his only child, his baby, going out into the world and not needing him.” She was smirking now. “He knows I’m growing up. And he’s even admitted to me that I’m good at ghost hunting. So it’s hard for him to let me do this, but he understands why I’m still doing it. Why I don’t want to give it up.” She paused. “You’re right, though. He’d be a lot happier knowing there was someone out there with me to watch my back.”
“Does he, um, know about your new suit?”
“Not exactly. He just knows it’s new. I thought the whole truth would freak him out.”
“So you might tell him about it after we try talking to Technus?”
She shrugged. “I guess it’s like you with your folks. You don’t want them to panic more than they already are. Or will be, I guess.” She picked the stem off another grape and popped it into her mouth. “You’re still their son, Danny. Being Phantom doesn’t change that.”
“You don’t think it’ll change that for them?”
She snorted. “I’ve met your parents. It might make a difference for some people, but not them.”
“Even when they find out about Vlad?”
“Why does that matter?”
Danny picked up a cracker and a piece of cheese, more for something to nibble on and avoid talking than because he was remotely hungry. It was gone all too quickly, but he wasn’t sure he could stomach another one. “He was their best friend in college. And Plasmius…. What if they think he’s just that way because of his ghost half? What if they think being Phantom changes what makes me me? What if they think I’m going to become like him unless they can change me, or rip Phantom out of me, or something like that? I can’t…. What if they think they need to fix me?”
Valerie raised an eyebrow. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure there’s nothing to fix.”
“But what if they don’t see it that way?”
“Then you show them. Prove that you’re still you.”
“How? They can just turn around and tell me that ghosts try to trick you, that they’re master manipulators, maybe even that I’m just playing at being me to try to trick them, and I…. I can’t do it, Val. If they don’t accept me, I don’t think I’ll be able to change their minds.”
He hadn’t meant to break down in front of her. He hadn’t meant to cry. But his throat had closed up, and tears had pricked at his eyes and then overflowed, and now he wasn’t sure he could stop.
Lancer was so sure that this would go well. When he talked about it, Danny wanted to believe it. It was easy to believe it.
But knowing that Lancer had phoned, that his parents were coming to retrieve Danny Fenton, somehow still terrified him. Because however much of the truth Lancer had told them—that he was injured in a ghost fight, that he was recovering—it wouldn’t have explained enough of anything. They would have asked questions, and Danny didn’t know if Lancer had managed to dodge them. How had he disappeared from the hospital? Why hadn’t he called them? Which ghost had done this?
If they decided Phantom was the problem, if they didn’t accept that Phantom wasn’t some separate entity and was in a fact a part of him, that would be it. He wouldn’t be able to go home until Jazz convinced them to change their minds. And he wasn’t sure if he’d ever be able to trust them even if they did.
Everything could fall apart, and his life as he knew it would be over.
“Don’t be stupid. You know they love you. They’re not going to just see you as some ghost. I didn’t.”
He sniffed. “You’ve worked with Phantom before.”
“And your parents never have?”
Well, his dad had, once. But only once, and there had been many opportunities beyond that. “It’s not the same.”
“Between me and them finding out? Or them finding out about you and my dad finding out about me? Because, sure. It’s not the same. Your parents will be too busy being thrilled that you’re a ghost hunter and that you’re genuinely interested in the family business to worry about the danger you’re in doing it.”
Danny just looked at her. Val hopped up from the bed, grabbed a box of tissues from its perch on the edge of one of the bookshelves, and threw it at him. “Whatever happens,” she said, her voice softening as she sat back down and he blew his nose, “I’ll be here for you. So will Jazz, and Sam and Tucker, and even Mr. Lancer. You’re not alone in this, Danny, even if it feels like it.”
“Thanks,” he mumbled, wiping at his nose again. He knew he shouldn’t worry too much before it happened, shouldn’t fear they’d assume the worst—but how could he stop, when he knew how easily they could explain away the truth if they tried?
If they decided they’d rather have a son who was dead and gone than one who was partly the monster they hated?
“You’re overthinking it,” Valerie said. “They’re not…. They’re not just going to abandon you because of who you are. Some people might, because some people aren’t even willing to learn to accept something, especially when it’s something they were wrong about, but your folks are decent. They’re going to accept you, whatever you look like and whoever you are.”
“I just….” He wished he had more time. He wished he didn’t have to do this when Jazz wasn’t around. When Sam and Tucker weren’t around. When it wasn’t because he was forced into it, by circumstance and not-so-subtle pressuring.
“It’ll be fine,” Valerie assured him.
He’d called things fine when they weren’t too many times to believe that, though.
“I’ll stay right here if you want me to. You know that. And like I said, you can distract them with my secret if you think it’ll help. I’m fine with you telling them instead of me if you need to.”
They would accept him. Probably. They had before, in different circumstances. He knew that. But he couldn’t quiet the little voice that shrilled in panic in the back of his mind, wondering what he’d do when they didn’t.
“I’ll get you some water.” Valerie picked up the food tray and balanced it on one arm, no doubt thinking they weren’t going to finish it anyway. “Try to breathe and get some rest before they come, okay? I can leave you alone or stay, whatever you like.”
“You can stay,” he whispered. It was nice to have a mediating voice. Being alone with his thoughts right now….
She smiled. “I’ll be back with your water.”
Danny closed his eyes and tried to rest, like she’d said. When she came back, he heard her set it on the table beside him. He murmured a thank you and heard her settle on the floor beside him. The occasional rasp of paper against cloth told him she’d found a book. She was letting him decide if he wanted to talk. It was nice, at least being able to control that much.
The crash outside that splintered the silence had him jerking upright, and he didn’t need to hear the doorbell a moment later to know what had happened.
He saw Valerie looking up at him, and he swallowed. “They’re here.”
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My Danny Phantom Reboot (as was owed for the Phight)
Okay, so first off I should mention that this is going to be less “what if someone made a reboot of Danny Phantom now” and more “what if Danny Phantom was done right to start with.” This means there’ll be more emphasis on storytelling and characters, none of H*rtm*n’s usual shenanigans, but the storyline as it was is going to be more-or-less intact, depending on what I think I can salvage.
So, let’s talk powers.
Danny is going to have all the powers he did in the show, given gradually and with clear foreshadowing. His ghost sense is currently just a bit too conspicuous, so I’ll be changing it from a wisp of cold breath to a chill up his spine, though for the sake of the audience there will be a visual and audio indicator of it, much like Spider-Man’s spider sense. Starting out, he just has that and the three basic ghost powers, though they won’t work properly for a while, and I’ll make it clear that this is because his half-ghost status prevented him from gaining the instinctual knowledge to control them outright. While there are some abilities that he gains during times of stress (like ectoblasts and the ghostly wail) he’ll have to actually practice in order for them to work with any level of consistency.
Like I mentioned, there will be some foreshadowing, specifically when it comes to his ice powers. There’s going to be multiple points where someone mentions that he has cold hands, with many of those people being ghosts to imply that it isn’t a ghost thing. There’ll be more emphasis on Ghost Cores and Core Types. Danny isn’t going to be as affected by warmer or colder temperatures as other people, usually being the last one to need to put on a jacket. He’s going to be somewhat weak to fire-based attacks. And there’s going to be a multi-episode buildup to his powers freezing him.
I’m also going all-in on the space motif. His bedroom is covered in star stickers and NASA posters. He tends to look up at the stars whenever he needs time to think. He isn’t afraid of heights at all because up is good, up is safe, up is home, and flight is the only power he never has trouble with as a result.
And now, for Danny’s parents. First off, for this, they do not want to destroy ghosts. They want to study them, understand them, and keep people safe from the ones that cause trouble. They know full well how little they actually know and how small their sample size is- that’s why they’re working on equipment to actually explore the Ghost Zone in the first place! Yes they’ll screw up, and jump to conclusions, and be a bit too enthusiastic. Yes, they’re working off of some pretty big assumptions, because that’s all they’ve got. But at the end of the day, they’re the first to admit they’re not perfect. And as far as priorities are concerned, they’re parents first, scientists second, and hunters third(if even that).
Jazz and Tucker are already good as-is, as are most of the ghosts, so let’s move on to Sam and the “A-listers.”
So starting off, because I’m not Fartman, I will not be vilifying the popular kids just because they’re popular. For Qwan, we’ve already got the fanon of him being a sweet cinnamon roll who’d be a great friend to everybody if he were just able to say no, specifically to Dash. And with Star I’ll be going with a strong-willed girl who’s fully willing to call the others out when they’re bullshit goes to far, though she’s admittedly got a looser definition of “too far” than she should.
And now the big three. So my interpretation of Sam, Dash and Paulina is that a big chunk of their issues come from them not quite growing out of their jackass middle schooler phase(you all know what I mean). That’s not all of it, or even most of it, but it’s a big enough part that them acknowledging it will be a huge step in the right direction.
In Sam’s case, a lot of it also stems from her need to control as much of her life as she can, which developed in response to how little control her parents let her have. This ranges from harmless (her love of gardening and “ultra-recyclo-vegetarianism”) to really not okay (her tendency to manipulate or strong-arm people into doing what she wants) with her harsh judgement of people and trust issues landing somewhere in the upper middle. All of this to say that she’s a lot more like her parents (and Paulina, to a lesser extent) than she realizes.
With Paulina, while she does still have a lot of problems, being a crazy, obsessive fangirl isn’t one of them. She knows full well that her feelings for Phantom are just a celebrity crush and they aren’t about to get together any time soon (the boy’s dead as far as she knows, for god’s sake!). She’s also very observant, not to the point of finding out the truth about Danny but enough to realize quite a few other important details…
With Dash, all I’m really going to be changing is that his Football Star status absolutely does not give him free reign to do whatever he wants, because I respect Mr. Lancer more than that.
Admittedly I haven’t quite figured out their other classmates yet. And Valerie’s arc is already good as-is, though I won’t be including her getting shunned by the “A-listers” because this version of Star ain’t gonna let that fly. I’m also including Wes, because his antics are glorious and I think I can do some cool stuff with him.
Now, along with giving the characters better characterization in general, I’ll also be giving them their own time in the limelight to show what Danny’s situation looks like from an outsider’s perspective. Valerie in particular ends up as something of a secondary protagonist.
And now we come to Vlad. Oh, Vlad.
Okay, so in this version, Vlad inviting the Fentons to the reunion was a genuine attempt to reconnect. Unfortunately ghostly obsessions are powerful things, and he sort of relapsed into hating Jack and wanting Maddie for himself. Things more-or-less continue as normal, though with his desire to take on Danny as an apprentice coming off as him actually, genuinely wanting to teach Danny how being a halfa works, which makes it a little comically awkward when he tries to turn their battles into a teaching moment. He still becomes the mayor, though this time around it’s because he genuinely thought it was a good idea, and he got voted in legitimately.
Unfortunately it all sort of goes downhill after a while. Due to his current mentality of “tired old uncle just wants to get over his issues and help out” clashing with his obsession with Jack and Maddie, he’s sort of cracking, and the fact that Danny adds an extra layer to both isn’t really a good thing.
And then we get the clones. In this version, they all last a lot longer, and sort of act as Vlad’s minions for a while. The Frankenstein’s Monster-esque one sort of acts as a big brother to the others. He’s also very smart, even if he can��t really say much, and as time goes on he starts to realize that something is very wrong with Vlad. It all comes to a head when Dani is created, because Vlad realizes that even with a human half she still isn’t stable and something inside him just snaps. At this moment, there’s now two Vlads in there; Masters, who’s honestly just tired of all the fighting and pushing people away, and Plasmius, who’s essentially season three Vlad in all of his megalomaniacle obsession-fueled glory. Frankendanny’s destabilization is a big moment in this, as are the other clones holding back Vlad as they’re melting so Danny and Dani can escape at the end of the episode.
Dani still ends up traveling after that, though she’s not just ignored as she’ll be sending Danny postcards of places she’s been and there’ll be a few episodes dedicated to her adventures (with some hints to her instability getting worse.)
D-stabilized is where thing get really crazy. This is because while I’ve been distracting you with my Danny Phantom remake, there’s been a secret, second remake of Fairly Oddparents hidden in the background! I won’t go into too much detail, since that’s not what this is about, but It follows the same structure of apply overarching story, focus on characters, trim off what doesn’t work. Because of this, Timmy happens to be in the same city where Valerie finds Dani (I don’t think they were in Amity Park yet, but I’m not sure) and meets Dani before Valerie does. The episode plays out more-or-less the same (Val uses Dani as bait to catch Danny, gives Dani to Vlad, Danny appeals to her better nature, she finds out that Vlad is an evil half-ghost and that not all ghosts are evil thus shattering her world view) but with the addition of Timmy tracking her down to her weird holding cell/torture room place (seriously, what was up with that?) and then tagging along and somehow holding his own against Fright Knight with nothing but a blaster he managed to swipe from her (since not only does he have to deal with having human allies, but also the fact that magic doesn’t work that well on ghosts, which means no fairy help).
After that, there’s a few breather episodes to the end of the third season, mainly to do with Valerie processing everything she’s just learned.
And then Freakshow gets the reality gauntlet, because I’ve been holding that off until now. Danny gets his identity revealed on live television, the Guys in White are after him, and Freakshow is holding Amity Park hostage until Danny can find the three stones he scattered.
There’s just a few small changes I’ve made:
The stones got scattered across the planet, instead of just the country
There’s no easy way to track the stones unless one gets activated, unlike in the original where they had ecto-signatures
Wes and the “A-Listers” get dragged along for the ride
Because Freakshow isn’t a complete idiot and realizes that it will take a significant amount of time to find the stones, the team has until the end of summer.
Instead of everybody being in cages (since that won’t really work with this time frame) Amity Park is surrounded by an impenetrable dome, and both ghost portals are clogged up. Nobody gets in or out unless the ringmaster says so.
The second and third parts of Wishology and an adaptation of Nicktoons Unite are happening alongside all of this, so along with GIW and ghosts the team is going to be dealing with the Eliminators and The Syndicate.
Carl, Sheen and Libby have somehow tagged along.
We’ll be calling this arc the Road-trip from Hell, and it, along with the other two story arcs, will be taking up the entirety of the fourth season. The other two arcs will experience changes as well, such as Dani going with Timmy, Mark Chang and the Villains to find the Wind Wand due to being in Dimmsdale when it happens, Catman, Chip Skylark, Elmer and Sanjay getting captured along with the rest of Timmy’s friends, Valerie and Tootie getting recruited by Jimmy to fight the Syndicate since Timmy and Danny are busy and they’re honestly the only two options, and Anti-Cosmo being the Fairly Oddparents representative for the Syndicate since Crocker is also busy.
For the sake of storytelling, I should mention that GIW is a fanatical splinter group of MERF in this continuity, and have already been established as major antagonists. Also throughout the season Fairy World is basically going to be a warzone locked in a three-way battle between the Fairies, the Anti-Fairies and Syndicate, and the Eliminators, which all three groups see at one point or another.
The final battle is really going to be four going on simultaneously- Danny and Team Phantom(which by this point will also include the reformed agents O and K, because I like them) vs Ghost Freakshow, the robot army just outside of town, and Lydia; the Nicktoons vs the Syndicate’s doomsday device; Cosmo in his Godzilla form vs everything the Syndicate and the Eliminators can throw at him, and Timmy vs The Destructinator (which will actually be a full-on fight, with the outsmarting thing just being Timmy’s trump card). It’s going to be really cool with a bunch of well-timed jump-cuts and everything.
Then in the aftermath I’m going to basically spit in the face of the status quo. Danny still erases peoples memories of his reveal, but leaves out the new members of Team Phantom (because if he has to remember the road-trip from hell, so does everybody else), and it also doesn’t work on Valerie (or Tootie) since they were in Jimmy’s universe at the time, which is going to be Fun for Danny to deal with when she gets back. Timmy, Chester and AJ are also immune, due to AJ secretly making the three of them immune to memory wipes in general so Timmy wouldn’t have to forget his fairies or go through what happened in the first Wishology again. He would’ve done the same with Elmer and Sanjay, but he didn’t get the chance.
After all that, season five is a return to the norm, other than dealing with the new character dynamics, the Vlad situation, and all the Fairly Oddparents stuff leaking in. I haven’t really worked out all the specifics, since I sort of got caught up in the season four stuff.
Note: For obvious reasons, I cannot actually reboot Danny Phantom and/or Fairly Oddparents. Unless I come up with ideas later on down the line, or other people decide to add their own ideas, this is what you get.
(@phandomphightclub, I did it!)
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We’ll Be Ok, And I Swear, Only One Of Us Is Lying - Phic Phight
Prompt Creator: @burning-clutch
Prompt: Hero's hero. Phantom always saves the day while Fenton is seen as the wuss and a failure. When the pressure gets to much someone unexpected helps cheer him up.
Summary: Sometimes Danny needs help to see the shades of gray between all the black and white.
Warning: depression, angst, hurt, hurt/comfort, suicidal, gore, injuries, blood, violence, self-sacrificing, regret, there's a voice in his head and he's listening, immortality is a curse, the kids are not ok.
(season 3 doesn’t apply)
He skilfully slides his sweater sleeve over his bandaged hand, as his two friends join him by his locker.
“Been pretty quiet ghost wise, huh?”, Sam nods at Tucker before turning to him, “yeah, you haven’t even called us once this week for even the Box Ghost. It’s almost worrying actually”.
“Well, hopefully, it’s just that they’ve mostly gotten the whole, don’t fuck with Amity or Phantom, message. It’s been two years after all, makes sense they’d slow down”, he gives his friends a loose smirk, ignoring the little voice in his head.
That’s a lie, it’s worse than ever.
He knows his sister would worry if she knew just how good he’d gotten at hiding a limp, as he heads to class with his friends. He’s been easing into this slowly, his decision to ease his friends out. Out of ghost fighting, out of danger, and out of all the worrying. It’s no life for normal teens, and the only thing not basically normal about his friends was them playing sidekick to a superhero half ghost. Without that, they’ll get to be normal. Get to have lives and futures outside of his duties. And they should get to have that, so he’ll give it to them; even if they never realise he’s doing it.
So he’s been slowly calling them up for fights, research or a fix-up; less and less. Only ever bringing them to the easier fights, filled with plenty of puns and witty banter. And never ever telling them about any of the newer ghosts, the ones that seem to feed off death and destruction, that only want to see him hurt. Now he’s hiding most injuries entirely, unless he can blame it on his own clumsiness. Even if he isn’t actually clumsy anymore, he’s sure his friends don’t know that though. There have been over twenty ghost attacks in the last four days and they only know of two. One that was televised and another he told them, because he’s not a fool. Knowing full well there’s no way they’d believe that there had been zero ghosts. Also knowing that if he only told them about the televised fights, they’d clue in that something was up.
“So dude, want to enjoy the, most likely short-lived, break for a movie marathon?”, he would absolutely love to; Zone knows he could use the break. But he knows full well this marathon will run well past ghost hour, when the nasty ones come out. He can’t afford to not be patrolling for them or having to allow his friends to tag along to the fight. The nasty ghosts actually aim to kill, they don’t want fear or to mess around; like the ghosts his friends know of. These ones are only content with staining their forms with blood and ectoplasm.
“Naw, I think I’m going to say hi to ClockWork. See if somethings actually up, if he even gives me a proper answer anyway”, he shakes his head and chuckles while Sam rolls her eyes at him. “You should be enjoying the break Danny, but you’re self-sacrificial to a fault. Though, I think we’ll both have to pass on joining you. You two might get along but CW is a bit...much”. Which is exactly the reason he used him as an excuse, knowing his friends would join him on patrol if he said that’s what he was doing.
How very manipulative, Vlad would be so proud.
He covers his ghost sense up in class but duplicates, keeping his duplicate invisible the whole time. It’s a skill he mastered in his room, he doesn’t really care about people knowing he’s leaving. He just knows that his friends will know what’s up, if he asks to go to the bathroom. It makes him weaker and distracted, but it’s worth it for their safety and eventual easing into a normal, ghost fighting free, life.
He doesn’t really pay attention to his next two classes as he’s more focused on the fight with some hundred eyes horned cat. He knows Jazz would also worry about him if she knew how tolerant of pain he really was, as he hardly even flinches either bodies as Phantom gets gored. Making sure Phantom keeps the brunt of injury so Fenton does bleed through his shirt.
Standing next to his locker, his friends never even notice an invisible Phantom phasing his medical supplies out as they talk with Fenton.
“Obviously tell us if CW’s got anything useful. But dude, leave out the riddles. For our sanities sake”, Tucker rubs his temples as if to prove a point. While he laughs at Tuckers’ antics, “yeah whatever Tuck, he’s not so bad you know”. Earning eyerolls from both his friends. All the while, Phantom is stitching up a hole in his chest and wrapping it loosely with gauze.
“It’s not just the riddling, Danny. He’s just so distant, hard to read, and secretive. Even towards us”, Sam frowns and shakes her head almost sadly.
Just like you are, they just don’t know it
ClockWork doesn’t care what they think, so he has no problem coming off as such. Danny, however, does care. So he tells just enough, keeps up with the jokes, and gives the truth as he finds safe. His goal is having them as just friends, Fenton’s friends, not kicking them out of his life altogether. And certainly not having them as Phantom’s sidekicks. They’re just too breakable, like every other one of his regular humans. If he had it his way, Valerie would cut it out too; but there’s no cutting her off from it. Just like him really, so he’s not even going to try.
Waving goodbye to his friends, as he goes out to do what he actually needs to do. He knows his sister hates it, but being Phantom trumps his grades everyday. He’s honestly happy she’s off at university now, not getting caught up in his everything. She pays way too much attention and there’s no way seeing him injured isn’t hurting her. He’ll feel a lot better when Sam and Tucker head off as well. He’s not really sure what will become of his friendship with them after they go though.
Flying invisibly at an even pace past buildings, he watches his town and his humans. Everything going about it’s life as it should be, not consciously aware of his current presence. Though, everyone in town knows about their personal ghostly protector. It does sting him a little seeing them live normal human lives, close friends playing with no cares, lovers kissing as they enjoy fine treats, and parents swinging their kids around. All stuff that’s just simply not in his future, his future is this; patrolling the skies, fighting villains, and gettting hurt.
Don’t forget lying and hiding. Playing a big game of pretend. Pretend you’re just the vigilant hero. Pretend you’re just a weak timid human. Pretend you’re not hurt. Pretend you're happy. Pretend you’re ok.
He watches the sun finally set, before snapping his head to the side as his ghost sense goes off. Flying off to fight another fight, take another hit, and add another scar. He’s not entirely sure how no one ever notices them, as they pepper most of his body now. His face and soles of his feet are two of the few places with very few. Everyone, even him, is instinctually protective of their heads. This rings true as he takes a hit with his forearms to protect his face, slamming into a wall before being pierced through by the ghost's tail. He doesn’t care that his vision becomes blurry for a while, he doesn’t care that his ectoplasm drips down off his foot, he doesn’t care that he ran out of bandaging yesterday.
It’s not like your pain means anything, you deserve it.
Capturing the ghost, as he floats softly to the ground; only wobbling slightly as his feet touch down. It’s hard, all of this. But it’s his fate and he accepts that. Even at times like this, when he feels like he’s falling apart into tiny star shaped pieces. In a sense he really is, as he struggles to hold in all the shredded bits of organs. Groaning has he leans against a wall, part of him wants to laugh but that would take energy he just doesn’t have anymore. He reserves whatever he has to things more important than what he wants for himself.
Besides, you like the pain. It tells you you’re alive. It’s not like anything else does, even this body says you’re a dead man walking.
He gets only seconds of reprieve before there’s another fight to be faced. Taking a bedsheet from inside a ruined store window and wrapping it around him like an over sized belt. Pushing off the ground towards where he’s called. By the time the sun is peaking its face up, 7 more have been fought. He’s not sure if he can really feel his limbs anymore, without the weight of gravity it’s hard to tell if they’re there.
Why care anyways? If you’re weak enough to lose them, then it’s your fault.
All that confirms his right legs existence is it getting suddenly yanked on by a long whip-like tongue; sending him smashing into the street below. But the bright flash of purple ectoplasm and the going off of a thermos, tells him there’s no more fight to be had.
You know the grounds always comfy so you’ll just wait for the next fight, and the next after that. No need to move now.
Staring up at the sky as a shadow falls across him.
“Are you going to get up?”, Valerie hovers on her board looking down at Phantom. Who’s just laying on the ground, normally she’d love the opportunity at an easy shot; but that seemed really cheap to take right now. He’s missing an arm and leg, and she’s sure that shredded fabric used to be off white.
“There’s nothing more for me, so just leave me lying here”, he’s not really talking to anyone in particular. And his vision’s not really up to the task of watching her as she moves towards him, and his mind can’t be bothered to care.
She likes taking shots at you, and you always give her the pleasure of doing so. You destroyed her life, brought her into this; it’s the least you can do.
Part of her really does want to just shoot him but she can’t help but think he looks like a half-drowned mutt that’s letting itself be eaten by wolves.
Gliding closer to his face, she can see the blank expression. One she’s not really used to seeing on him, that’s more than enough to tell her something is up. “You look like shit, Phantom”
He can’t help but feel she looks the same, she looks more like him every day. Another scar, another poking out bloodied bandage, another clearly sleepless night.
Because you didn’t get to the fight first, because you failed to discourage her, because maybe you want someone else to be like you. How selfish.
Letting his eyes move to her battered arm, and the blood he can see leaking out of her helmet. A harsh dark red to offset his toxic bight green. He knows he said he wouldn’t try to stop her, that it was an unwinnable battle. But he’s never been one to turn from a fight, even when there’s no chance left to succeed. “Why? Why do you keep doing this? You could be normal, you have family. A real home. So why?” Looking to the skies as he mutters, “nothing bad will happen if you stop or change”.
But that’s not the case for you, is it? Everyone will die and you know it. And what will happen then? You know. You’ve seen it.
“Because I have to. Because I want to. Because it’s in me to do”, she knows these words mean something to him. She knows these are his reasons too, even if she’s sure his are founded in some ghostly obsession rather than true good.
He watches her suit, knowing how it flows through her veins like the ectoplasm in his.
You really did a number on her didn’t you? Just like you, her veins were changed by your foolish mistakes.
“No one will die or hurt, you know. I’ll be here, always. It’s my place to take the hits. Not yours”
It’s not like you’re breakable, not like her. She won’t be better tomorrow, though are you ever actually better? But why care? The world knows you don’t deserve to be, after everything you’ve done. They’re here because of you, they attack because of you, they hurt people because of you. It’s your fault.
Sometimes he regrets walking into that portal. The gift or curse of half-life wasn’t worth the cost. And it will be costing him, the world, and everything in it; till forever.
And you’ll take it all, forever. There’s always another fight, another burden to bear, another life to save. That’s how your world works, the day it stops is the day you crumble apart into nothing. So you’ll keep paying the toll, you’ll keep slipping father; because you don’t have any reason not to.
“Pain is no ones place. Especially not alone”, she pauses as she too realises how cut off and alone she’s become. The closest she has to friends are her ex’s friends and her father resents her every choice. She dares not bring anyone near, lest they get caught in her crossfire’s. Clueing in that that’s what he’s doing to her, right now. Trying to push her away and out of his crossfire’s.
“Get up you stupid ghostly hero”, she cups her hand under her helmet to gather and stop the flow of blood from it. Watching him, she knows he let himself be hurt so much and she knows those wounds should kill any living thing.
As she’s taking in the hurt he's endured, genuinely doubting her belief that he must not feel pain, he lays acutely aware of it. Of each piece of jabbing concrete, the shards of glass in his foot, the organs completely out of place, the sting of fire burnt eyes, the torn ligaments, the wailed raw throat.
Pain is always your place. You’ve earned it. What else is there for a ghost in the shell of a- “did? Did you just call me a hero?”, he speaks as her words finally worm their way into his thick, with the numbing syrup of pain, brain.
“Yes, you moron. That’s what you are. And heroes never stop. So stop stopping”. She watches as he laughs loudly for a few seconds before it turns to tears. While she hovers awkwardly with her hands to her chest. Unsure of what to do with the ghost, no fellow ghost hunter, no hero; who appears to be having a mental break down in front of her.
Making her choice as she lets him stand, teeter and fall against her left side. The ectoplasm from his torn off arm dripping down her back. She pays it no mind as she slowly slides to the ground with him; his one leg giving out.
“How long have you been living in the rain?”, she pulls him to sit on her board, noticing how he neither seems to care nor notice. She feels like she’s moving around a ball-jointed doll and in a sense she is. His words are permeated by a hollow laugh, “when haven’t I?”.
Groaning against her shoulder, “no need for you to join me. And yet...”. He’s not about to deny that her warm shoulder and metal board feels like a sturdy island in a sea of hurt. He forgets he’s supposed to be a hero sometimes, not just a shield that can fight back.
He feels, more so than sees, her shake her head, “you can’t join someone in their rain. It’s a place for you and you alone. I would know. I’m just going to drag you out, like you did for me”. She knows she nearly drowned in her rain when she lost it all. Ghost fighting saved her, and he’s why she did it, even she’s starting to think her blame was misplaced. Seeing him now, she can see he’s crashing; but not even bothering to flail as he’s starting to drown. Reminding her that everyone needs someone, reminding her she can’t push everyone away, reminding her that she’s not a just shield herself, reminding her that she’s a hero too.
“What? How have I ever made you better?”, he finds it hard to believe that he’s caused her anything but hurt. But maybe, just maybe, he’s to blame for something that’s actually good. Or maybe he’s to blame for a lot of things that are good.
“You gave me a life worth living and then slapped me back to reality. The reality that we can’t do this on our own. Everybody hurts, it’s ok to take a shoulder, to give a shoulder. Having to let people in and that’s ok. Even heroes, and that’s ok too”, as she speaks he can’t help the slide show of smiles he sees filtering over his eyes. A child holding a balloon he just saved, a old lady aggressively offering him free food just so his face will reflect her smile back at her, a father who’s secretly thanking him for making him late to work, a kitten goofily batting at his nose as he carries it out of a tree, a young teen on a bridge who changes their mind at the sound of his otherworld laughter. A genuine laugh he forgot how to do; that he didn’t even know he’d forgotten.
Sensing that he’s lost in his head, she speaks quietly, knowing how good another’s quiet or silent presence can be. Sometimes all you need is someone to simply exist in your space, no questions asked and no expectations given. “We’re glowing stars racing through the skies, but even stars never shine or burn alone. And they’re what makes space beautiful, they can destroy sure but they’re peoples guides. When all the world’s vast knowledge and technology fails, the stars are still there; mapping out the skies. Helping is in their very nature and in everything they do. Of course, you helped me be better, it’s not just the people below them that the stars help; but their fellow stars as well. Constellations aren’t completed alone”, she’s always known him to have a thing for the stars. The way he looks at them and can forget all troubles when in their presence, makes that clear to her.
He can’t help but smile deeper, as his mind goes to the night sky. One which he seldom really gets to enjoy between all the fights nowadays. “Well, I’ll never burn out. I am immortal after all, Red. So I’ll always be a little black and white star. I’ve got all of time, for as long as I am needed”, he can feel her deep laugh in her back as he rolls to lean his against hers. Her board hovering a foot off the ground as both their feet dangle off either end.
“Well, don’t forget there’s a red one up there too. Even if my time is limited. Careening through the skies and space, burning heroes, glowing stars. And we’ll both keeping drawing in more of varying colours, into our constellation. Till it’s so grand that nothing could even dare harm our earth or its people”, she’s not sure he even heard all she said; soft as it was. As she hears him murmuring, while falling softly to sleep. Sleep she knows he shouldn’t need but clearly does and has clearly been missing, “and one day, no one will be left to be my hero”.
As the two sit on Valerie’s board, battered bodies back to back. She slowly goes wide-eyed as she realises something, she can feel Phantoms’ heartbeat through his back. Though never noticing the amethyst star and turquoise star watching as the black and white member of their constellation of three, now truly grown to four, slowly starts to pull himself back together.
End.
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Oh right, I forgot to ask now that you finished the Yakuza/Overhaul arc but on a scale from Endeavor to All For One, where does Overhaul fit on the bad dad scale?
somehow this very simple ask which could have been answered in like three sentences turned into my definitive ranking of the top ten Known Dads in BnHA. I’m not sure how either. but here we go
(spoilers in this post up to chapter 165!)
10. Overhaul
dad score - [unknown] [the scale broke when we tried to measure him]
is asked to care for his boss’s granddaughter; proceeds to torture her for profit
constantly tells her that she’s cursed and all the bad things that he does are somehow her fault
doesn’t even bother to give this kid some fucking shoes
keeps killing her babysitters
I know I already said it, but it really can’t be stressed enough, this guy routinely disassembled her limbs on a molecular level, causing her excruciating pain and trauma, for the sake of trying to make himself the new drug-dealing kingpin of the underworld. he is sooo bad you guys
9. All for One
dad score - 11/100
is super creepy and manipulative and purposely brainwashed Tomura into hating All Might through a series of meticulously calculated encounters
decided the best way to help Tomura reach his full potential would be to step out of his life and get himself arrested
hasn’t even seen his other son, Izuku, since he was a baby! what a fucking deadbeat smdh
but on the other hand, he does seem supportive and indulgent towards Tomura and gives him lots of praise and encouragement
8. Endeavor
dad score - 39/100
abused his kid
abused his kid’s mom, in front of his kid
you wouldn’t even know it, but he actually has other kids, whom he never seems to acknowledge or pay even the slightest attention to whatsoever!
only had kids in the first place so he could raise his kids to beat All Might. has no problem telling this to said kids and even to All Might’s own face
having said that, the only reason his score isn’t in the negatives is because as of chapter 165, it seems like maybe? possibly? he just might be trying for the first time ever. or like. trying to try. if you can count showing up to Shouto’s supplemental course to shout “SHOOOOOOOOOOUUUUTOOOOOOOOO” at him from the stands as trying. but like, I feel like he is attempting to be encouraging. it doesn’t mean he’s not still a piece of shit, but if the guy is trying to be better then, like, it’s better than him not trying, you know?
but he’s still terrible
7. Kurogiri
dad score - 60/100
Tomura’s Actual Dad
is calm, rational, polite, and a respected doctor of medicine (probably) (idk you guys I just still get that vibe)
took Tomura and all the other kids on a character-building trip to Villain Island in an omake from chapter 149 which I consider to be canon
there’s nothing more dadlike than taking your kids camping and trying to teach them how to survive in the wilderness
taught Tomura how to get along with others
always seems to have his back, which is real important you guys
6. Gran Torino
dad score - 70/100
not the best score but a C is still respectable. mostly it’s just cuz he was out of the picture for so long. although we’ve since found out that Toshinori by his own admission had a habit of pushing away people who cared about him, so that may have had something to do with it
cares a lot about Toshinori even though he’s shit at showing it
made him into a man by beating the shit out of him until he got super strong
was right there in the thick of things with Toshinori during both of his fights against All for One. he straight up risked his life to back him up against the strongest villain alive
took it in stride when he found out he had a grandson that he’d never met, and took him under his wing as well and raised him for like three whole days and taught him how to use a microwave
5. Ochako’s Dad
dad score - 80/100
I probably should have given him a higher score, honestly. he seems really sweet. he’s probably a better dad than Bakugou’s Dad tbh, but Bakudad gets the edge just for the much steeper difficulty level. because let’s be honest, there’s a biiiig difference between raising a sweet baby angel like young Ochako, and raising a sentient roman candle with a potty mouth
but he works so hard to make ends meet, and somehow he and his wife managed to scrimp and save enough to send Ochako to U.A. because they wanted her to follow her dreams and they want the best for her
and they’ve always been so supportive of her on like the three occasions we’ve seen them in flashbacks or talking to her over the phone or visiting her after the sports festival
look at this thumbs up though
tell me that’s not the most dad thing you’ve ever seen in your fucking life
4. Bakugou’s Dad
dad score - 82/100
has like two lines in the entire series, but
as previously mentioned, raised Bakugou Katsuki and somehow survived to tell the tale. so honestly he probably deserves some kind of medal
also, since we know virtually nothing about him other than what was in the omake profile from volume 11, I’ve been imagining him as being kind of like Calvin’s Dad from Calvin and Hobbes
so he gets bonus points for that positive association
really there’s no reason for him to be this high up tbh except that I firmly believe he’s a great dad and I’m just waiting for canon to prove me right. I’ll be right here waiting, manga
3. RockLockRock
dad score - 90/100
he’s awesome
also, look. being a hero is inherently dangerous. you never know where you’re going to get called to next, and any mission could end up being your last. injuries and trauma go hand-in-hand with the job. most of the hero characters we’ve seen don’t have families, and I have to assume that’s not a coincidence. so to me, all of this means that if a hero character actually does go through with starting a family, it means they wanted that family more than anything, and you can bet they freaking love the shit out of said family. I have no doubt that RLR is and will continue to be an amazing dad
plus his kid is just too damn cute
2. Aizawa
dad score - 95/100
first of all, if this was a ranking of Hottest BnHA Dads, you better believe he’d be at the very top and it would be no contest
he has 20 kids and somehow he’s able to handle each and every one of them
risked his life to save the kids barely two weeks into the school year with no hesitation, even though he nearly died
did the same thing again barely two months later. this time thankfully without the nearly dying
has the total respect and trust of each and every kid in his class. and considering the personalities of some of them, that’s no small feat
specifically, it says a lot that even Bakugou doesn’t give him any lip and always listens to him without complaint and is even polite
speaking of Bakugou, he defended him to that Jerk Reporter during the Hideout Raid arc and proved that he understands his students better than anyone
isn’t afraid to deal out strict discipline when the situation calls for it, but it’s always for the students’ own good
isn’t above trolling the shit out of his kids on occasion when he feels like it
is good with kids of all ages and not just teenagers, as evidenced by how good he also was with Kouta during the forest invasion arc
lastly, as we saw in chapter 136, he has an untold repertoire of secret dad moves just waiting to be unleashed, such as (a) crouching down to a seated Deku’s eye level, and (b) gently punching him in the chest while affectionately calling him by a nickname. who knows what other moves this man has in reserve. I for one can’t wait to see more
1. All Might
dad score - 96/100
indisputable best dad. A+. although even he didn’t get a perfect score, because nobody is perfect and there’s always room for improvement
always knows exactly what to say. despite constantly seeming to stress about it. probably he only stresses because he cares so much and he’s worried about doing things exactly right
loving father to the two most difficult children in the whole series, Midoriya “which bones did you break this time” Izuku, and Bakugou “like I said, anyone who even attempts to parent this child automatically deserves a medal” Katsuki
this man literally got down on his hands and knees and begged Deku’s mom to let him try to be the Best Dad Ever to her child. he loves him so fucking much
gives THE best dad hugs
I need more All Might hugs
honorable mentions:
Nighteye (I forgot about him until after I had already made the list and was too lazy to go back and insert him in his rightful place at number 3. 92/100. loses points for FUCKING DYING AND MAKING ME CRY)
Fat Gum (same deal as Nighteye in that I forgot about him. 75/100. he’s loving and jolly and gives out free candy, but he let Kirishima get all beat up. BE MORE CAREFUL NEXT TIME)
Vlad King (haven’t seen his dad skills in action much, but according to his profile he’s nicer to his kids than Aizawa is. okay but DID HE NEARLY MAKE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE FOR THEM though. because Aizawa did. 85/100)
Present Mic (not a dad. is at best a Weird Uncle. 70/100)
Jirou’s Dad (I forgot about him too lol. he’s a wacky dad who likes to rock and roll! he tried to be a Stern Dad to impress All Might and Aizawa but failed miserably. took his wife’s last name!! so secure in his own masculinity. wants his daughter to live her best life and follow her passions. 93/100. he’s fucking great)
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My Hero Academia Chapter 209 Review
Well now, we’ve entered the home stretch of this arc. Going in to this last fight, I myself have a few jitters. Will this chapter cure that? Lets find out.
So we open on team Bakugou at the end of their matches, finding out it only took five minutes. Wow, we know Vlad is the one announcing so that must just be a real salt in the wound for his class. Though, I think team Tokage is walking away with minimal injury and no robo medics showing them out, so I just that’s a win.
So we get the teacher advice and performance reviews and with what Vlad tells team Tokage, I feel as if I need to address this. So last week, I made my stance clear, I was fine with Bakugou winning. As Vlad is saying here, their strategy failed as it was built around a different Bakugu, and they ended up spreading themselves too thin. Now, I will say though, what the fourth round lacked, is any reflection from 1-b. Oh sure, there was Tokage in the sky panicking, but unlike the other matches, there really was a lack of seeing class 1-b react and try to roll with this, even if it would be futile.
I know, let sleeping dogs lie, but I honestly was getting miffed at the tone of last week being, either “Bakugou is so great, you under estimated him,” or “Bakugou is an ass, and Class 1-b shouldn’t have been hyped at all.” So I’d like to say that I’m taking a middle ground and just saying as a fight it was great for Bakugou in terms of character development, but ultimately as an actual clash, it was sorely one-sided.
Speaking of team Tokage, them at least are pretty good sports over their loss. Kaminari is also on the side to congratulate Bakugou and of course needing to remind the shippers of his and Jirou’s relationship. Also, I’m assuming what Sero is talking about is when he lifted up Bakugou with his tape.
We see All Might congratulate Bakugou and he of course decides to act like a serious tsundere and act like this is nothing. Even though we know how he feels about All Might and thus meaning, he’s likely a little giddy on the inside. Also props to the comedy with Deku, that Bakugou’s anger at this point is just reflex.
We get that relationship progression scene with Deku and Bakugou, and don’t get me wrong, from a character stand point this is good, but from an average reader stand point, it feels like I’m watching the scene from the training before the license exam. You know, the one where Bakugou wondered if Deku was still going to try and surpass him. Granted this version is in a different context as we know Bakugou is now the one playing catch up with Midoriya in terms of being a hero. I’m just pointing out that this slow progression relationship definitely feels like it’ll take a while longer.
We actually do get a page that’s mostly blank, and textless to obviously add emphasis of just how important this moment was and is allowing the audience to digest it. Now I’m not posting it mainly cause I don’t wanna take up more space than I need with these reviews. But I wanna definitely that this is very appreciated in terms of pacing, because you have series like One Piece that pack itself with so much content you actually need just to have a chapter long breather rather than just a short single page one. It just really makes me happy to see that MHA is at a point where it can do this well.
We cut to team Monoma who Tokage is apologizing to because with her loss there is no way they can win. To which I’m going to take this moment and say yeah, you can’t. Alright this is just a mini-rant I have, but I really hope this match doesn’t end with team Deku losing and the final score being 2-2. That would be such BS, as what this arc is basically built on is A vs B, someone has to win or else you basically wasted almost 20+ chapters on this arc and it was all pointless. Now some have said that if they tie, class 1-b will still be around and this will clearly show them as a force on their own, as this arc will have gotten their characterization out there so we don’t have to shove it into the moment.
The problem is though, that still doesn’t fix the arc of being pointless. Say what you will about the provisional license exam or the gentle arc, but at the end of the arc, there was a point to each of them that was established and fulfilled. The class got licensees and Eri was free of Overhaul’s influence. That’s what the arcs were about, that’s what we got. But if no one wins and no one loses, then this entire arc was a big waste of time. What is the point of a fight if there is no winner or loser? I think we give shit to the Grand Magic Games in FT a lot, but the point of the arc was to win and get the guild’s popularity back, which it followed through on, and Black Clovers tournament was really a selection for the royal knights, which means that if the main character lost, there was still a pay off to it.
Now, if you go by saying that this arc isn’t about the fight and is more about Deku and Shinsou meeting and discovering what’s up with those visions of All for One’s brother talking to him, then this arc should’ve been altered. Because that would mean that only now are we doing what matters for the arc. There is basically no way to end this ultimately satisfyingly, because if team Deku does win, that ends this arc at 3-1, which makes class 1-a look like a group of jackasses who steam rolled class 1-b. But I’l take that over its a tie, I don’t wanna feel like I just wasted 3 months on this for just this fight.
Anyway, Monoma gives an impassioned speech that really shows a layer of his character that isn’t shown. While he’s often made a joke by his irrational hatred, Monoma is very much a theatrical man. Now I don’t mean that he’s flamboyant like Aoyama, rather he’s just a guy who sees the world a stage and is gonna bask in it. We saw this really early in the sports fest and a little bit with what he chose their culture fest project to be.
We end this monologue with Yanagi basically asking monoma what the point of this is, which means I already like her cause we’re actually getting some more characterization than we did with team Tokage.
We also get Shoda here, putting the pieces of their strategy togethe, telling us that their powers are techincal based. Likely meaning they aren’t directly combat based, but they all have skills that give them a lot of options.
Yanagi also speculates on Midoriya, calling him “hateful,” to which Shoda points out that Yanagi kinda speaks her own langue. Which is a cool trait that at first might seem like overlap with Shiozaki. However, when Shiozaki would act melodramatic it was out of religious vindication, Yanagi just has her own way of talking.
…Wait… What’s that? …Ahh, I’m getting word that a female character actually mentioned Deku’s name, thus she has been admitted into the Dekubowl.
We start more speculation on Midoriya and I think it’s coming from Shoda, showing that he’s clearly the analytical member of the team. Shinsou says that they need to beat down Midoriya first.
Now look, I actually really enjoy this as the way everyone is speaking of Deku and actually take him as a serious threat. Now I now there are some who have said, “team Deku should lose so that he develops from this.” To which I say, fuck off. Deku isn’t like someone like Natsu who basically could bamf his way through everything up to his fight with Gildarts, so when he lost it was a big deal. But Deku, dude loses like crazy and grows form it. Aside from the physical damage, the kid in the first few arcs barely got a win on his own, most of it was done with teamwork, with im learning for now he had to be the strategist. He didn’t finish at the top of the sports festival by Bakugou, he needed help against Stain, the first fight I think he won on his own was against Muscular, and let me remind you that destroyed both of his arms.
So I its only after 200 chapters, Deku is only now actually being treated as I’d expect a shounen protag to be treated, a massive threat. For the longest time his big quality was he had the heart of a hero, but that always ended with a shattered body. So he wasn’t really that powerful. And only now is is signs of progress really starting to affect other characters especially outside of class. So if Deku loses here, I’m gonna think that this wasn’t a big, “learn from loss character development moment,” I’m thinking it be a set back for him. Still team Deku could still lose if Mina, Mineta, or Uraraka get captured and as a whole they fail. Now there is a potential for Deku to fail, but I’ll talk about that in a little bit.
Also Shinsou asks Monoma that if they combine their quirks then they could pin down Deku. Now the images behind Monoma imply that potentially, Monoma would use copy on One for All and will end up destroying his body. Now That seems to be the implication, however there is the possibility that Monoma could also copy Shinsou’s quirk and then surprise everyone by answering him. But come on, we wanna see Monoma with one for all.
The teachers actually comment on Shinsou and wonder if he’ll pull through in this fight like he did the first round.
We cut to team Deku with everyone trying to figure out what their going to do, and unlike team Bakugou, they seems pretty downtrodden and realize that they don’t exactly have the same all-aroundness that team Bakugou had. However, instead of team Bakugou where Bakugou was the center of the team who protected and attacked, Deku is instead opting as a decoy, leet them focus on him, and then pick them off.
We also need to point out, they are laying it on thick with Deku’s quirk having some issues. If what ultimately screws up Deku is his quirk crapping out on him, then that’ll kinda fee like some narrative manipulation, but at the same time, one for all is such a strange quirk in this world, I wouldn’t doubt it could just screw up against Deku’s will. So we might have some flags going up with potential failure.
I love how even Mineta realized that Deku’s had character development up to this point. Anyway the match begins, but this isn’t the end of the chapter, oh no.
All Might needs to be excused after a call from Gran Torino.
We cut to the cell of All for One himself. He reminds us that Giantomachia has appeared. And unlike the league, this guy is loyal directly to him.
Welp, All for One knows about One for All and likely that vestige stuff. I mean,it’s not too much of a surprise at it came from All for One’s brother. Anyway, pants to be darkened.
Post Chapter Follow up: So I’m going to say, there’s nothing wrong with this chapter at all. Its a pretty standard breather chapter, but my greatest fears are more of what is to come than what has been actually in the chapter. Now I can’t condemn a chapter for not doing something that it isn’t time for, but as you can see the anxiousness is cranked up going into this.
On the positives, my personal favorite thing about this chapter is the character interaction in team Monoma. It’s something we sorely lacked from team Tokage, but now it feels like this making up for that. We see More to Monoma as a character individually, as well as Yanagi and Shoda really showing of what they’re like as characters. Nothing from Yui yet, but she could be like Bondo and that’s the point. As for class 1-A, this group of characters are pretty used to bouncing of eachother, so it’s nothing new. That said, I do enjoy the interactions regardless.
The continuing relationship of Bakugou and Deku is great and I’m glad Horikoshi is committed to the long run with this relationship. Also I’m just happy that we got some good pacing built around it without it feeling inconvenient.
Also appearance from All for One, which already makes this even better and furthers the Giantmachia plot,.
Final Verdict: 7/10
Good breather chapter
Awesome character interactions
Foreshadowing of future events are getting set
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the binding of two forces | a love that never lost momentum
{3: become who you want to be} wattpad | ao3
kobayashi kei is a teacher at U.A. who has an established relationship with aizawa shouta. kei and shouta have known each other ever since they started at UA together. their friendship had always been strong but this is the story of how they came to be as a couple and what the future holds.
a/n - !manga spoilers! slightly divergent of the main plot but it will be caught up to the current season of the anime after the time skip. she is the homeroom teacher for 1B but don't worry we still stan vlad in this house so he's now 2B. bit of a promotion for the trouble. her quirk is fatigue manipulation. she has the ability to manipulate the fatigue of oneself or others, both mental and physical. she can increase, decrease, cause or prevent fatigue. in order to increase someone's fatigue, she needs to either leech from another person or herself. her fatigue is only affected if she is using a lot of energy either giving or transferring. if she takes energy from someone else, she will gain it. she cannot rest or sleep until she gets all of her energy out either by wearing herself out mentally or physically. she cannot kill someone easily but she can make some lose consciousness.
The school year seemed to move faster than Kei could keep up with. Before she knew it, they were preparing for the amazing U.A. Sports Festival. While Kei would have loved to be in the top ranks, she knew her quirk wasn't flashy enough. Regardless, she worked on her combat training until she was barely able to get into bed. She woke up early and did longer runs. She wore weights to increase her strength and stamina. The boys worked hard as well. Of course, Hizashi and Oboro did amazingly. Kei did pretty well and so did Aizawa but she had expected him to blow everyone away. After learning more about his quirk, she would have expected him to be closer to top ranks. The first years were never completely dazzling. People watched for the third years. As the school year went along Kei got to know the boys even more and considered them some of her best friends. Every night that they couldn't catch up after class, Kayama and Kei would talk on the phone for at least half an hour about their days. While Kei pretended she hated talking about Shouta, she really didn't. It was an excuse to gush about how cute he was. How sweet he was. He was a boy of few words and few actions but the ones he had were meaningful. Oboro and Hizashi were great. Always a hint of flirtation in their banter. Shouta was different though. It was the time of year where they had to pick their hero names. At least the ones they would start out with. Oboro and Hizashi knew theirs already but Shouta and Kei were still out of ideas. Oboro or as he was now known, Loud Cloud, suggested the very creative Energy Girl. Hizashi thought Agent Energy was a bit better. She might have gone with that if she didn't think about how silly Shouta's new name was. Eraser Head. It fit him but at the same time, it was a bit goofy. "I'm not sure. This could be my name forever. Those just sound...not serious enough. I want people to know I mean business." Kei hit her fist on the table with a little too much force and everyone in the classroom snapped their heads back to glare before going back to coming up with their own names.
"Vitality." Just one word from Shouta. Vitality. Kei smiled at him. "I think I like that." "Me too! Present Mic introduces the Energy Hero: Vitality!" Oboro cheered with Kei. Earning them even more glares. After class, Kei grabbed Shouta's arm just enough to stop him from leaving with the rest of the class. "Hey." She smiled at him and she could feel her cheeks turning pink just from looking at him so closely without the others around. "Thank you. I really like my new name." Her eyes were deceiving her. Was Shouta actually smiling so wide directly at her? Not at anything the boys said. Not a little smirk. A big smile. She tucked her face down a little embarrassed looking up at him. "You need a name that fits you. Something straight forward. And pretty." Kei gasped looking back up at him. Shouta was starting to blush too but before he could do or say anything more. "I- um...thank you! I really should go. Have a good night! See you tomorrow." She almost bolted for the door. She didn't know what to do. "Did he just call me pretty? Or was that just the name. But he said it had to fit me and that it was pretty so does that mean he thinks I'm pretty?" She found Kayama and told her everything. The girls gushed outside of the school for a little while trying to figure out what it meant. "Obviously he thinks you're pretty and wants to kiss you. It's so obvious." Kei shook her head. "You haven't even met him!" She laughed lightly. The girls parted ways and Kei thought about what he said all night long. The next day, Shouta sat the farthest from her of the three boys. He didn't say a word to her. Didn't even look at her. Kei was trying to pretend like everything was normal with Hizashi and Oboro but she was still awkward. Mr. Blue hair noticed. "What's wrong with you today?" She had been staring at the lines of her palm and was tracing them with a finger on her other hand. "What?" She responded when she snapped out of it. "I said what is wrong with you today, Kei. Are you okay?" Oboro put a hand on her shoulder and looked at her with a facial expression that showed actual concern. A serious moment at least as far as he went. "Oh. I'm fine." She nodded giving him a half-smile. "Just didn't get enough sleep." Not wanting to draw any more attention to her weirdness she stayed mostly quiet until it was time to leave. "See you tomorrow!" She told the guys before leaving as fast as she could again.
{aizawa pov}
Kobayashi was acting weird. Of course, she was acting weird. He freaked her out and now she was avoiding him. Shirakumo noticed she was acting weird too. He was apparently using both of the brain cells he shared with Yamada who was yelling about whatever. Shouta stole glances at her when he could. He just wanted to make sure he hadn't hurt her, right? All he did was say she was pretty. Sort of. I mean not really but he hinted that she was. He had been so careful to not blow his cover. It only took a couple weeks of school for Yamada to notice the way Shouta looked at Kobayashi. The way he'd hide his smiles whenever she made a dumb joke. He wouldn't call her dumb when she was doing the same stupid things Shirakumo and Yamada were doing. It took until the U.A. Sports Festival for Shirakumo to notice. Now Kobayashi was acting weird the day after she pulled him aside. When she said she hadn't gotten enough sleep, Shouta sighed. "Is that a lie or did I really make her lose sleep? I should have never said anything." She left class just as quickly as she had the day before leaving the three of them in the dust. She was just barely gone when Aizawa felt a punch in the arm. "What did you do to her?" Shirakumo looked a little mad. "Nothing. I didn't do anything." Yamada had figured it out by now and was also giving Aizawa a look. "Shouta, what the hell? She's fun to have around. Don't scare her off because you can't keep your eyes off her.", Yamada said actually at a fairly normal volume. Though he was probably trying to be quiet so people wouldn't hear them and make everything worse. "She thanked me for coming up with the name and I might have accidentally called her pretty." Another punch in the arm but this time it was from Yamada. "Now who's the idiot. You have to fix this." Shirakumo interjected. "Don't. You'll probably only make a bigger mess of things. I'll see if I can help."
{back to kei's pov}
The next day was still agonizing. Now it seemed like Yamada knew something was going on, too. Kayama had been no help the night before. Her idea of flirting is just smiling and watching boys fall to their knees in front of her. She could get any boy in school, easily. Probably any boy in Japan, honestly. This time instead of Shouta staying behind to talk to Kei it was Oboro. Which confused her even more. "What is he going to ask? Is he going to tell me Shouta hates me? I bet that's it." She didn't know what to expect but Oboro putting his arm around her wouldn't have been her first guess. "Not getting enough sleep, huh? Wouldn't happen to do with a certain quiet dreamy type, would it?" Kei's whole body tensed up and her blood rushed to her cheeks. "Oh god, he knows. Does everyone know? Hizashi wouldn't be able to keep a secret. The whole school knows by now. Shouta knows. I'm just going to move to America." She didn't know how to respond. "I'm going to take that as a yes. Look, Shouta is great and all but that boy doesn't know how to talk to girls. Not like me. I'm just so charming." He gave Kei a huge grin which actually got a laugh out of her and she relaxed a little. "I think he called me pretty." She scrunched her nose trying to contain her excitement and come off as cool and collected. "I heard. But...you have to be careful if you two are going to be a mushy gushy couple. Hizashi and I are going to have to start dating then and he's hot but he could use a push-up bra." An abrupt laugh came out of Kei's mouth. "I don't know what I'm even thinking. We have internships soon and then Finals. I can't think about a boy during this." Oboro smiled and gave her a nod. "That's probably a good idea. I'll smack him every time he's staring at you." Kei looked up at him, her face just as red as it can be. "He stares at me?"
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Alright, it’s time to talk about a character you’ve likely all been waiting for…
Yup. Old bait breath and everyone’s favorite rich, creepy dimwit.
Vlad certainly has gotten popular over the years, and not without good reason. He’s a superb villain, and the show wouldn’t be the same without him. He’s funny, threatening, and interesting. All the things you need in a good villain. In particular, what’s always made him so interesting to me is the fact that he’s an absolutely disgusting man, but it’s hard not to sympathize with him somewhat and see how he came to be that way.
The writers really made an excellent call with this character, particularly for the character-driven show we all wanted. Instead of making the main antagonist some all powerful ghost bent on world destruction/domination like Pariah Dark, Danny’s archenemy is the one person who’s more similar to him than anyone in the show.
Until Danielle comes into being, Vlad is the only other half-ghost in the world (as far as we know), and he came into being in a way very similar to Danny. He used to be a normal college student who was friends with Jack and Maddie, but when they attempted to create their first proto-portal into the ghost zone, it literally blew up in Vlad’s face.
The circumstances following this, however, are quite different from when Danny ended up with his powers. For starters, he doesn’t come out of the accident in ghost form. Instead, he comes out with a ghostly disease, and he’s stuck in the hospital for what I believe was 7 years. He never spoke to his friends again (likely shutting down any attempts they made to reach out to him), and spent all those years stewing with regret and resentment.
There are many reasons the accident happened. Jack flipped the switch, Maddie didn’t check the calculations before testing time, and Vlad stood with his face right in front of the portal. As far as Vlad’s concerned, though, the accident was entirely Jack's fault, and as a result, he lost the life he could’ve had.
He had feelings for Maddie, but while he was hospitalized, she married Jack. (Vlad mentions that he had his powers for 20 years, and Maddie mentions that she and Jack have been married for 18. Two years. Ouch.) Now, Jack and Maddie have a happy family and are living out their dreams while Vlad is alone. His powers gave him the opportunity to steal and embezzle an enormous amount of money, which is a bit of a consolation prize, but hardly enough to take away the sting of what he lost.
From Vlad’s perspective, Jack is living a stolen life.
Maddie would’ve probably still ended up with Jack had the accident never happened. She seemed pretty smitten with him even back then, and every instance where Vlad gets a chance with her ends with her rejecting him for Jack. Since the accident did happen, though, Vlad has no way of knowing how things would’ve turned out. With all those years in the hospital followed by more years of loneliness and isolation, he’s managed to convince himself that had it not happened, Maddie would be his wife and that would be his family and his life. And he’s determined to get back what was stolen from him, no matter the cost.
It really is hard to not understand why he’s turned out like this. What he went through was unfair, and it left him miserable and alone. As far as we can see, he doesn’t have any family, and the Fentons are the only friends he’s got. Even then, the Fentons slowly each develop a hatred for him, until the only one who still cares for him is Jack, the person he hates more than anyone.
None of that can excuse his actions, though.
In his first episode, he kidnaps and traps Danny, and uses Jack’s body to terrorize people and try to turn people against him. We also know that he makes multiple attempts on Jack’s life not just in this episode, but over the course of the series. He regularly beats the hell out of Danny and threatens his loved ones in order to try and control him. In Maternal Instinct, he strips Danny of his powers and sends murderous ghosts to kill him because Maddie rejected him.
This leads to what actually is a pretty scary scene of Danny running for his life through the woods, in the middle of the night, all alone, completely powerless to defend himself.
I’m not even joking. The animation, the rarely used pov shot, Danny’s heavy breathing (expertly acted by David Kauffman), the intense music. We obviously know the main character’s not going to die here, but there really is a sense of panic. This is just a kid, and now, he’s not even a kid with ghost powers. His friends don’t know where he is or that he’s in trouble, and the only people for miles are his mom (who’s sound asleep, as far as he knows) and Vlad himself. He has to keep running for three hours until he gets his powers back, and Vlad even straight up lied to him about giving a five minute head start.
Yet, in spite of all of that, Vlad still fully believes that Danny would eventually want to come live with him. That both he and Maddie will soon come to their senses and see him as a husband and father in Jack’s place.
It’s so easy for Danny to manipulate him here, even with Vlad knowing full well Danny has every reason to hate him right now. Honestly, this is a stronger testament to Vlad’s mental state than any other moment I can think of.
Vlad has convinced himself that this family is rightfully his, and no matter what awful things he does, it’s all justified as a means to an end. And that’s what makes him so terrifying. He can beat and nearly murder innocent children, he can steal, he can kidnap people, he can perform experiments on ghosts and humans alike, and in his mind, he is still not a villain. He’s just seeking justice for what Jack clearly stole from him. He’s so deep in this belief, that he can’t seem to fully understand or accept anyone acting differently from how he wants them to.
Ironically, most of the times he gets involved lead to the Fentons growing closer instead of being torn apart. Maternal Instinct is an important bonding episode for Danny and his mom, as is The Million Dollar Ghost for him and his Dad. He’s even the primary antagonist of Secret Weapons, which has Danny and Jazz growing closer after all secrets are out between them.
So he starts making replacements.
At this point, Maddie has rejected him, Danny has rejected him, and even Jazz has rejected him. The only reason he’s allowed anywhere near the Fenton family is because Maddie doesn’t know how far he’s gone and Jack still obliviously adores him.
So he decides he’ll make artificial replacements for the Fentons that will behave the way he wants. Ones that he can have complete control over. He creates a hologram of Maddie and attempts to clone Danny (and implies that Danny will be disposed of once that experiment is complete.) He actually creates multiple clones, and tosses their lives aside because they aren’t “perfect.” He wants an exact copy that does what he wants, and the reason Maddie only gets a hologram is probably because he’s still hoping to win the original.
While Vlad doesn’t appear again in until season 3 after this, and season 3 pretty thoroughly butchers his character, it’s still worth noting that Vlad never shows any type of friendliness toward Danny after this. He’s given up on Danny, and likely on Jazz since he was never quite as interested in getting her anyway. In D-Stabilized, we see he hasn’t given up on the idea of cloning Danny, and he obviously still wants to steal Maddie. By force, if necessary.
In spite of all of this, though, he’s still the only person who can really understand what Danny’s going through as a half-ghost. He’s the only other one in existence. To top that off, Vlad is constantly playing with Danny’s mind, trying to convince him that really, the two of them are exactly the same in every way, and Danny’s just in denial.
The audience, of course, can see how different the two of them are. Danny’s actions throughout the series are mostly altruistic and selfless, while Vlad only cares about himself and is willing to hurt anyone to get what he wants. That doesn’t prevent the seeds of doubt from growing in Danny’s mind, though, and TUE likely doesn’t help matters any.
I’ll say it again, Vlad is a disgusting human being, but Danny probably wonders, how would he have turned out had he been through what Vlad had?
We could’ve had a villain who was just some big bad monster, but instead we got a very complex one who complements the hero in a lot of ways. And it’s fascinating! Unfortunately, we never get to see things go all the way because the series was cut short, but there’s so many possibilities.
Plus, he actually has some hilarious moments, so how can you not love him? He might not be a personal favorite, but I wouldn’t want the show without him.
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an explanation
okay, so a lot of people have been messaging me about the seussical posts i’ve been making, about how i think the cat in the hat is a trickster god and whatnot, but rest assured that i am NOT EXAGGERATING HOW FUCKED UP THIS MUSICAL IS.
for those of you who’ve never heard of Seussical the Musical, it’s basically a mash-up of famous Dr. Seuss stories, which sound harmless enough, right? at least, that’s what i thought when i performed the Jr version a about 5 years ago at my camp. About two months ago, I got some of the songs stuck in my head and decided to look it up, and finally read the original script.
(this has some... well a lot of spoilers, so i guess if you plan on somehow seeing it then you might just want to skip this post)
Let’s just start off with the Whos. Most American children have read Horton Hears a Who at some point, and we’re all familiar with their precarious fate of the Whos’ tiny planet, floating aimlessly on a speck of dust, leaving them vulnerable to crashing, drowning, and any other kind of atrocity that could happen to a minuscule world. However, the Seussical writers decided to add on having the Whos fight the Butter Battle (from the Butter Battle Book, a Cold-War era Seuss story about mutually-assured destruction)
Now, let’s go onto the Cat in the Hat character. HOoooOOOoOOOOo fuckin boy. This guy. This fucker. No words can explain how much I’d like to sock him in the nose.
So, basically, the show starts off with a Boy finding that iconic red and white striped hat on the stage and then thinking Cat into existence. Cat acts as a narrator (as well as inserting himself as certain minor roles), and the Boy had been co-narrating with him until after the Who song, when Cat shoves him into the story, making him Jojo, the mayor’s son.
So now it’s established that the Boy, Cat’s creator, has no power over him, and this is where Cat starts manipulating things. Skip forward a couple scenes, and the planet of Who is in mortal peril. Vlad Vladikoff has just dropped them from mid air and they’re falling to the ground, a hundred miles down. Now, by this point in the show, Jojo and Horton, the main character of the entire show, have met and become friends, so Horton’s is particularly mortified by this. Then, this fucker, this fucking cat jumps on stage, freezes time, and starts singing to a cheerful tune about how lucky the audience is to not be a Who.
So that happens. Now Horton has to search through thousands upon thousands of clovers to find the Whos, and after a certain amount of time he becomes hopeless. Enter: Mayzie LaBird, who’s sick and tired of having to sit on her egg, and begs Horton to take her place so she can rest for an hour or two. Horton, poor sweet naive Horton, agrees, and Mayzie of course fucks off to Palm Beach, leaving Horton to sit his ass on that egg for nearly a year, through the fall, winter, and spring, and because of this he is unable to continue looking for the Whos.
Suddenly, a group of hunters appear! They surround Horton, and while Gertrude McFuzz (a bird who’s romantically interested in Horton), is nearby, she can’t do anything but watch, because the tail she had grown to impress Horton was now too heavy to fly with. At this terrifying moment, our local trickster cat decides it’s time for a reprise of “How Lucky You Are’, only this time he decides to let the characters themselves sing it, their expressions going from petrified to jolly as they’re unfrozen.
And that’s a wrap for Act 1!
Act two begins with a lovely recount of what’s currently happening in the plot (i.e. everything has gone horribly wrong for everybody)
The hunters capture Horton and ship him overseas where his is auctioned and sold as a circus animal. Horton happens to bump into Mayzie, who refuses to take back the egg. Horton, helpless and heartbroken, reflects on his adventure in the intro to what is honestly the saddest bloody song I’ve ever heard (Solla Sollew).
I mean, just look at these lyrics:
Now it’s time to check back in on Jojo, who had been sent by his parents to military school in hopes to keep his wild Thinks under control. Now that the Whos had lost Horton’s protection, they are without a doubt going to war, and the young cadets at General Genghis Kahn Schmitz’s military academy have been training nonstop for battle.
.................................
...Jojo blows himself up on a minefield.
Except, wait! He’s not actually dead! He’s just trapped in a horrific seussian nightmare realm filled with creatures called the Hunches. He calls out to Horton, begging for help, to no avail.
And, oh? What’s this? You guessed it- the Cat is the one running the nightmare realm! What a fucking surprise!
I don’t want to get too spoilery (and also I hate typing), so let’s just say that Jojo makes it out of the Nightmare Realm™ by taking control of his Thinks, and finds his way home. Horton is reunited with his clover and the Whos when Gertrude finds him (she had plucked the feathers out of her tail), and everything is wrapping up to be a happy ending when, wouldn’t ya know, THE FUCKING CAT POPS UP GOING “Oh, how touching! but this story’s far from over.” (Jojo also manages to break character for a few seconds be the Boy again and says “Oh, yes it is too! Get me down from this clover!”, which I think is interesting).
The jungle creatures from the beginning of the play, who had ridiculed Horton for believing that the Whos were real, jump on stage and kidnap Horton, bringing him back to the jungle to be put on trial.
So, umm???? There was honestly no need for that???? Were they just trying to prove a point or something?????????? I have no idea.
In any case, let’s skip forward about a scene and a half to the actual ending. Things have wrapped up nicely, with a solution to everyone’s problems. There’s a big dance number, and everything’s a-okay. Then....
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