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Phic Phight - Ghosts And Cold Turkey Is A Bad Mix
@darthfrodophantom @datawyrms @kalifa100 @lovelyunknown @nat-space-obsessed @duchi-nesten
Jazz has a boyfriend. Jazz has a boyfriend who has NOT met her family. Jazz has a boyfriend who has not met her family and knows absolutely NOTHING about her families career path. Jazz has a boyfriend who was about to have A Bad Time. Danny, Elle, and Dan were going to make sure of that in every way remotely possible… short of world ending calamity.
Alright, so Jazz probably should have actually talked to Bassel about her family, preferably before he had decided that he absolutely had to finally met her family. It was spring break so she couldn’t exactly push it off till later, or long enough to explain anything really, so he was officially going in ‘cold turkey’. Had she mentioned that her family was weird? Of course, that was unavoidable. But she’s fairly certain he thought that ‘weird’ meant being really into fishing or made crochet baby dolls, not everything ghosts. And now that they’re on the road she’s fairly certain that telling the driver that ghosts are ‘the family business’ is a bad idea; it would not be good if he were to drive off of the road in shock.
Bassel chuckling, “so am I going to get regaled with stories about weird birds they’ve seen bird watching or the last obscure B list bird horror flic?”.
Jazz laughing awkwardly, “you have not idea. No idea at all…”.
Unfortunately Jazz was unaware of one simple fact, it wasn’t just her and her plus one who was coming to visit for the break….
Jack beams as a clawed hand crams itself through the seam in the Fenton Ghost Portal™, turning his head to the stairs, “Danny! Your kid’s are here!”.
“AWESOME! WE’RE MAKING COOKIES TO PACIFY THE GREMLIN! SEND ‘EM UP!”.
Sweet! Cookies! Yum. Jack turning back to the portal as the doors slam open loudly and threateningly, Jack chuckling to himself, that man was always such a drama queen. Watching the tall full ghost step through the now open portal, a little sister sitting perched on his shoulders. The little missy waving wildly at her grandpa, “hiyya gramps!”.
The flaming-haired full ghost scoffing, “Yeah yeah, whatever”.
Jack grinning and jumping up, moving to hug the two, the elder of the two stiffening and just ‘putting up with’ the hugging, “glad you kiddos could make it!”, ruffling the littler one’s hair, “there’s cookies”.
“Hell yeah!”, and she’s off like a rocket, flying up the stairs.
Jack eyes the full ghost, “beat any other ghosts down lately?”.
The man snorts, “obviously. Not that any of them were much of a fight”, grinning meanly, all fang, “the gorffens were deliciously squishie though”. Jack laughing as the two large men head upstairs.
Danny’s grinning his head off watching Elle devouring at least fifth-teen ghost-shaped cookies. Waving at Dan as he comes up behind Jack, “there’s pure ecto-cookies too, Mr. Can’t Eat Mortal Realm Food”. The full ghost scowls and flips him off but absolutely takes a couple of the overly green person-shaped cookies. Ha. The human cookies were ghost shaped and the ghost cookies were human shaped.
“Whatever, mom”.
Danny absolutely scowls at that, chucking a cookie at the ghost. While Maddie hums, eyeing them all, “Jazz will be coming by too”.
“Oh? When?”
“Any moment now, I believe”.
“I am in pj’s!”.
Dan snorts, “you look like a dumbass no matter what you’re wearing”. That gets him immediately blasted in the face with a small ecto-beam, the ghost only grinning viscously in response; Danny zipping up through the ceiling to get changed. Mom seriously couldn’t have told him sooner? Gosh! He had a new ugly ass sweater with a stupid ghost joke on it to show off!
The knots in Jazz’s stomach could kill her if they became ghosts right about now, as Bassel pulls them up into her drive way. He nearly rams into the house actually, having been staring at the ops centre on the roof, “uh, okay, spaceship on the roof is slightly more out there than I was expecting?”, looking to her, “and do they run their business from their house? Hence the sign?”.
Jazz laughs awkwardly, “they have permits for it… that they got after building it”.
He shrugs, “I can admire the guts”, and patting her on the shoulder, “and stop being so nervous, I’m a great guy! I’m sure they’ll love me. Plus you’ve said they’re pretty easy to please”.
“Oh I’m not worried about their reaction to you, rather your reaction to them. I have mentioned they’re weird right? And that my dad’s taller than ninety-one percent of the human population?”.
“… you did not mention the height, damn that’s impressive, he’s the one with the personality of a puppy, right?”.
She gives him a supportive back pat before they get out and head to the front door, “yes, and thank everything for that. His hugs are crushing though”.
“I bet”.
The door pops open without her having to knock, meaning Danny’s up, “sup Jazz and- oh shit, you brought company. Fuck. Two seconds”, and slams the door in her face.
Bassel quirking an eyebrow, “what? Is he still in pj’s or something? That was a really ugly sweater. Pink? and green? Together? Ew”, chuckling a little, “and did it say ‘boo’ onto others as you would have others ‘boo’ unto you? Why was there an image of a ghost aggressively holding out a loaf of garlic bread?”.
She snorts, even if she’s honestly confused, “oh no, he always makes sure to wear something really unpleasant to look at when he knows I’m visiting. I believe it’s born from a sick, though harmless, degree of sadism”, frowning, “though I’m not sure why he just rudely slammed the door in our faces”.
And then she hears the cackle, the loud deep malicious cackle, officially realising that she… might have fucked up. Just a little bit. Sighing and facepalming, “oh no”. The couple standing there as seemingly a shouting match goes on inside.
“GET CHANGED YOU DIPSHIT!”
“YOU CAN’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO! MOM!”.
“I WILL END YOU!”.
“GO AHEAD AND TRY!”.
“Are they gonna want these cookies or?”.
“DON’T YOU DARE! Yes, gumdrop, leave them some. HEY DROP THAT! DROP THAT NOW!”… “EW!”.
“HA!”.
“DAN!-”.
Then the door jerks open very aggressively, and Jazz and Bassel stare up at the giant of a man with too sharp eyes and a feral unkind grin, “so you bagged someone, eh? Need someone to beat him through the wringer?”, and moves to grab Bassel’s arm; who thankfully has the common sense to pull away while staring almost disturbed at the man.
Jazz grabbing Dan’s wrist and holding him, glaring at the semi-reformed mass murderer/genocidal, parricidal, infanticidal, amicicidal, omnicidal, deicidal, ecocidal, mundicidal, psychopath. “Don’t even think about, Dan”.
“Aw but Jazzy-”.
She points a finger in his face, “no. Bad. No trying to physically fight my boyfriend”.
Then Dan’s head gets yanked back, Danny grasping the man’s ponytail, “get back in here, you shit”. The door closing again.
Jazz turns and winces at Bassel’s freaked out expression, “alright so, I didn’t know Dan was going to be here. I would have absolutely said no, if I’d known that”.
“Should I be worried?”; he looked extremely worried.
Jazz grimacing, “he’s… on parole, for, well, for murder so, yes”, grabbing Bassel’s wrist, “well we’re here now, just, don’t go anywhere with him alone. He’s also a prankster”.
Bassel almost squawking, “Murder?!?!”, as she drags him through the threshold into the Fenton household.
They get smacked with the noise immediately, she still doesn’t get how her parents managed to make a semi-sound barrier for inside the house that worked even when doors or windows were open… even if it didn’t always work well with ghosts or half ghosts. Danny is ramming cookies into Dan’s face while standing on his shoulders and snarling, Dan attempting to yank him off. Elle is bouncing around on all fours playing with cujo, who’s vibrating with excitement literally. Dad is laughing, head on the table, and slamming a fist on it repeatedly; a chair falls over. And Mom’s set the stove on fire and is smacking it leisurely with that fire-proof ghost net; the Fenton Flamo-Containo she thinks.
Jazz rolling up her sleeves, sighing, and moving over to her mom, “what did you burn, mom?”; and starts properly smothering the flames… the flames have faces and eyeballs.
This was a mistake. This entire trip was a mistake. Her poor boyfriend.
Bassel blinks, gives himself a fortifying shake, and swallows, “hi? Um, I’m Bassel?”.
The smallest one is on him in a second, it’s freaky. Her chirping up at him, “why did you say that like a question? Are you a question? If I question you will you become a sentient question mark?”.
What? Her eyes are way too big and her skin is smooth. It’s… very strange. Then she’s being picked up by the smaller boy- the teenager, that he didn’t even hear approach. “Elle-”. That was strangely chastising to hear from a teen. “-no giving people existential crises”.
“Are question edible?”.
The teen quirks an eyebrow, “I mean probably? if you write them on a piece of paper?”.
“If I write them on apples and pelt doctors with them do you think they’ll anwser my questions without poking me?”
“Eh fuck it, give it a go. Tell me if it works”. Then the teen looks up to Bassel, “sup, I’m Danny, the little brother”.
Bassel nods awkwardly, this kid… was seriously off. His skin was too smooth too, eyes not right and dangerous, his hair seemed… darker than black. The hell is he looking at? “Uh. Bassel? I already said that though. Um, I’m guessing the girls the youngest sibling?”.
She pops out around Danny’s leg, “I’m the granddaughter actually”. Danny snorting, “grand-gremlin is more like it”. She bites the teen… does she have fangs???
Bassel blinks harshly, pointing at the… murderer, “his kid? I take it?”. And now that he’s looking, what the hell is up with how similar they all look???
Dan barks out a laugh, shaking his face off like a dog so hard pieces of green? cookie physically stab into the walls and cupboards, “that shit stain is moms kid, not mine! Holy shit!”.
Danny snapping his head to Dan and pointing aggressively at him, “you”, shrugging and changing tones so fast Bassel nearly gets whiplash, “would have absolute nightmare kids and I would cry if your dumbass is the one to make a grandpa of me. Fuck you”.
Bassel is… very confused.
Mrs. Fenton shouting, “and I don’t want to be a great-grandma! Thank you very much!”, and coming over, Jazz looking to be scowling down at the stove, “hello, I’m doctor Maddie Fenton, feel free to just call me Maddie though”, swatting him on the arm, “none of that Mrs. or Dr. stuff”.
Danny pouting at her, “hey, why does Val still have to call you Mrs then?”.
“Because you two are still teens mister”.
The teen only pouts more…. His eyes look far too glass-like, like he’s a doll. Bassel kind of wants to be no where near him. Eyeing Jazz’s mom, the… hazmat is extremely concerning, maybe he should have asked more about what her parents did for a living? or their hobbies? “You have a doctorate?”.
The woman grinning, “that’s right! Primarily in ecto-ology and clinical laboratory science. but also criminology and medical science. My husband, Jack has doctorates in ecto-ology and clinical laboratory science as well, public health, chemistry, and practical theology”, turning away to eye Jazz, “the Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”.
“For the millionth time, mom, I’m still not studying ecto-ology; spectral psychology is completely different and that isn’t even my primary field of study”.
Bassel blinks, okay he knew she said her parents were smart but damn. But… ecto-ology? Really? A pseudoscience? Taking that in conjunction with practical theology made some sense, many religions believed in sprits after all, but with medical degrees? With actual scientific degrees? He’d thought Jazz’s spectral psych was a bit odd, especially with the rumours she talked to ghosts which he brushed off, but at least it made sense since she wanted to be a therapist. Many people can use religion and the belief in spirits to help heal after all. “Ecto-ology huh? As your primary? Interesting choice”.
Then Jazz’s dad is on him in an instant, not inhumanely like Danny had been but to see someone so massive move so fast was jarring, “oh! Did Jazzypants not tell you!”, slapping a hand to his chest proudly, “the Fenton’s are a family of ghost hunters!”.
What.
Maddie eyes her daughter, “Jazz”. While Dan out right cackles evilly and Danny wheezes, hands on his knees, “Jazz you dumbass!”.
Bassel blinks harshly, “ghost… hunters?”, o-kay that was… a lot weirder than he expected. Her parents believed… in ghosts and claimed to ‘hunt’ them. No wonder his girlfriend wanted to study psychology, her parents were delusional.
Jazz can tell that her boyfriend absolutely thinks her parents are insane now. Danny eyeing the guy before wheezing more tells her he’s noticed too, walking over to her and patting her on the arm, “he doesn’t believe in ghosts, does he”.
She sighs, “I… don’t think so”.
“HA!”. Oh Dan was just eating this up.
Elle running over with cujo, holding the pup up at Bassel’s face, he looks like he barely resists recoiling, “pet the ghost pup and believe”.
“Why is he green?”.
“Because he’s dead! Dummy!”.
“What”. Then cujo is in his arms, his face is horrified, but he does cautiously pat cujo’s belly. Him stiffening and staring as the dog floats up and starts walking on the ceiling; Elle giggling.
Danny slinking over to the guy while Maddie tries to swat the dog off the ceiling, “yeah, welcome to Amity, famously the most haunted city in the world. And yes, your girlfriend’s parents are the leading ghost scientist of the entire world and sell ghost weapons to the government and general public”, doing jazz hands, “surprise!”.
Bassel hasn’t even made it past the entry way, Jazz feels like an ass for letting him go into this blind. Her shoving Danny away, “don’t be mean”, eyeing Bassel, who’s wide-eyed, “yeah sorry? I did tell you they were weird”.
Bassel eyes Dan standing on the table to pin a fucking green floating dog to the ceiling. Maddie’s holding a strange taser, that has green electricity, threatening the dog; Danny’s dangling off of her arm shrieking about leaving his pup alone and how if anyone’s going to get tased it should be him. Looking back to Jazz, “by weird you mean insane? I’d question the ghosts thing but there’s a floating green dog on the ceiling. Hell, I’m almost questioning my own sanity”.
Jack laughs, rubbing his neck, “oh yeah! We get that a lot! But hey! People stop calling you crazy once they get attacked by a talking five foot tall hornet or a town gets sucked into another dimension!”.
Jazz huffing, “you guys just will not let me live down that stupid hornet, will you”.
Danny shouting, “technically it was a shapeshifting old man! Not a hornet!”, as he runs out of the room with cujo in tow.
Maddie following with the taser, “Danny! he needs to be punished when he does that!”.
“No! Never! Kiss my dead ass!”.
Bassel blinking, “your… brother swears a lot, and wait did he claim to be Dan’s mom? What? I’m sitting down”.
Jazz wincing, “don’t sit on the orange chair, it screams sometimes”. He squeaks an ‘okay’ and sits on the purple couch rubbing his temples; Jazz plopping down beside him.
Dan shouting, “Is anyone gonna eat the ecto-wienies!?!”, from the kitchen.
Jazz scowling to herself before shouting back, “Dan don’t! I dont want Bassel passing out!”.
“That’s the point!”.
She throws her hands up dramatically in fur-station, at least her dad rushes off to stop Dan from consuming screaming hot dogs while their guest adjusts to his new reality.
Bassel groaning, “and why would I pass out?”.
… “They scream too. It’s… pretty freaky to see someone eating squirming screaming hotdogs if you’re not prepared for it”.
“And why do your parents have hotdogs that do that and how even?”.
Jazz shakes her head, “they might have studied clinical laboratory science but they absolutely do not practice good lab safety or sample safety. Things get contaminated accidentally a lot”.
“And that… makes hotdogs able to move and scream?”.
“That about sums it up, yeah”.
“What the actual fuck, babe”.
Then Dan pops over, arms crossed, “thanks Jazz, now gramps has confiscated all my food”.
Jazz pointing at him as he flops down on the same couch as them hard enough to make the couch bounce, “good and could you sit down any harder?”.
“I was aiming to knock you two love birds off”.
“Zone you are such a jerk”.
“I aim to displease”.
Bassel makes an aggressive motion with his hands, not looking at either of them, “okay what the fuck. First how did that not break the couch? Two how is a teen boy mom? And what is wrong with this town and house?”.
Dan snorts and Jazz knows she’s going to hate what comes out his mouth, him eyeing her, “should I tell him there’s a portal to the afterlife in the basement, or should you?”. She slaps him immediately, wincing from the definite sprained wrist she just gave herself; stupid full ghost jerk. He sticks his tongue out at her and she wants to slap him again; at least his tongue isn't forked at the moment.
Jack pops back in carrying Elle by the waist, her arms and legs dangling down as she giggles, “you good, Jazzy?”.
Dan chuckling, “no. She regrets not warning a certain someone”, putting a hand to his chest, “I fully support that fucking chaotic choice”.
Jazz scowling, “you just enjoy seeing people suffer”.
“Hey, if I’m not allowed to kill folks anymore I gotta get my kicks somewhere? Or would you rather I start skinning animals and leaving their flesh hanging from trees?”. Dan gets bashed off the couch by a baseball bat wielding Danny. “Ow! Seriously mom?”.
“Threaten to skin animals for the lols again and I’ll sic Sam on you”.
Dan puts his hands up, “I’ll pass, you kill joy”.
“Good”.
Bassel gags and makes a face at Jazz, gesturing his hands at Dan as Danny smacks him with the baseball bat again, “what”.
“He’s… got a twisted sense of humour?”.
“Not that!”, Bassel shaking his head, “well yes that, what is wrong with that man. But I mean the mom thing?”.
Jazz eyeballs the full ghost, “Dan’s a tough subject, let’s just say a lot of really nasty things happened to him and at least one psychotic break. And he calls Danny ‘mom’ mostly to annoy him”.
“Oh that’s a lot less weird-”.
“Danny kinda is his mom though”.
Basel groans.
Elle pops her head over the couch, somehow escaping Jack’s grasp, “Danny’s uncle is a mad scientist who has no issue dabbling in super evil human experimentation, Dan and me were tots made from Danny via fucked up science and suffering! Hooray for causing mass confusion!”.
Bassel glancing from the small girl to his girlfriend, “seriously?”.
Jazz sighing, “yeah, sorry. Technically that man’s mine and Danny’s god father, not uncle, but Danny likes to bug the man. Vlad… needs so much therapy”.
Danny shouting, “at least he’s got a cat now! Even if he did name her after mom”; while Dan snags the baseball bat and pops Danny on the head with it. Danny bites the baseball bat.
Bassel shakes his head, “so you weren’t kidding about being somewhat related to one of the richest men on the planet, and he’s basically a crazy super villain; great”.
Jack rubs his neck, “unfortunately yeah, I kinda blew up a proto-portal in his face and he didn’t take that well”.
Jazz puts her hands on her hips, leaning forwards a little, “dad, you guys didn’t visit him in hospital even once, for seven years. Of course he didn’t take that well”.
Danny popping out from behind Jack, “he still complains about that, by the by. I dumped get well soon cards on him last time he was whining about it. Asked him if that made up for it, he shouted no and shot me in the foot”.
Jazz shaking her head, “I still don’t get how you two ever get along”.
“Hey, arch enemies gotta have some bonding time sometimes. Plus, he’s got the good liquor and will absolutely try to bribe me with expensive gifts”.
“And I keep telling you that’s unhealthy and you’re only encouraging him”.
Dan chuckling, “let him, who knows, maybe I’ll get another gremlin sibling”.
Basically everyone, even Bassel, shouting, “NO!”.
Maddie getting back towards the kitchen, and bring out what remains of the ghost-shaped cookies, “cookie?”, offering them to Bassel.
… “are they going to start screaming?”.
Maddie blushing immediately, Jazz covering her mouth and laughing, “no. No. Only things that were once alive tend to do that. Baked goods are fine”, eyeing the cookies, “and they’re not green so they’re safe for human consumption”.
He takes a cookie and munches it very cautiously, “and the green ones?”.
Jazz grimacing, “definitely not safe for human consumption”.
Elle nodding, still behind the couch, “those are for us Phantom’s”. Meaning that now Jazz knows Bassel’s basically going to have to deal with finding out her brother and said brothers kids are all varying degrees of dead.
Bassel eyeing the small child, “do I even want to know?”.
Elle gives a cheery, “nope!”.
Oh okay, maybe her, and thusly Bassel, can dodge that whole situation. Jazz absolutely glares daggers at Dan to say nothing. The man grins evilly but remains silent, thank zone for that.
Bassel taking a breath and slapping his legs before standing up, “okay. Alright. You lot are stranger than I expected but I really like Jazz so I’ll deal”.
Maddie looks relieved but Jack booms, “awesome! You seem like a good guy!���, and smacks Bassel so hard on the back that he gets smacked into the floor and knocked out. Dan’s bending over wheeze laughing, Elle’s floated up into the air curled up and laughing, Danny’s run over to try and help the man while also laughing, and Jazz is shaking a finger at her dad angrily.
Maddie sighs, face in a hand, “Jack”; while Danny’s hoisting Bassel up and back onto the couch, smacking his cheeks to get him to come ‘round.
When Bassel comes to he nearly screams, that Danny boy’s face is inches from his own and he’s crouched on Bassel’s chest. How much did this kid weigh??? And damn were his eyes still extremely creepy. At least he’s clued in what was wrong with him, he was uncanny, like he wasn’t quite human but close enough that it was very wrong in that base instinctual way. The teen grins, it’s like his teeth don’t fit in his mouth and the smile is just a hair too wide. “Cool, you’re awake. Was starting to wonder. Dad smacked you into the floor by accident, if you don’t brace yourself when he goes in for back pats then you’ll wind up on the floor”, titling his head owlishly, “lesson learned?”.
Bassel nodding at the kid that hasn’t moved his face out of Bassel’s, “um, yeah?”, frowning, “your guy’s dad is freakishly strong, you know that?”. The boy just shrugs before hopping off Bassel’s chest, letting him sit up and rub his head a little. “Do your parents always wear the hazmats?”.
Danny chuckles, “yup, and they will still claim they are stylish”, rolling his wrist, “they try to get me and Jazz in ‘em all the time. But hey, I’ll stick to wearing that kinda bullshit when I’m dead”.
Jazz’s head pops out of the kitchen entryway, “oh good, you’re up. You up for pie? There’s eight for some reason”.
“Are… they all the same kind?”.
“Sadly, yes”.
Even he can admit that was sad, variety was nice. But Danny pouts at her, “hey, I’m not about to discourage my personal wannabe poacher just because he doesn’t have a single creative bone in his entire metal mecha suit”. What the hell was any of that supposed to mean? This kid was probably one of the most confusing people Bassel’s ever met, Elle being a close second.
“You could at least try to convince him to try lime cream instead of him shoving lemon cream at you three times a year”.
Bassel holds up a hand, “how old are these pies?”. His girlfriend blinks like that hadn’t even crossed her mind… she might be too used to this level of strange perhaps.
Danny waving him off, “oh I helped him find a solid anniversary gift for his girlfriend, which fine was extremely explosive but eh, so he went a little pie happy. They’re two days old”.
“Oh alright, I’ll have some then”; two days wasn’t even weird. That many pies was odd and how he got them was bizarre, but not as bad as a dog walking on the ceiling or Dan-the-psycho talking about skinning animals like it was funny. Him and Danny joining everyone in the kitchen proper finally. The stove is charred from top to bottom, fires were clearly common. The fridge… was glowing? The toaster looks like it’s definitely some kind of project and not safe to use at all. The table is clean at least, besides the cookie crumbs and excessive amount of pies.
Said pie is extremely good, like professional good. Bassel blinking at it, “damn that’s good”.
Danny chirping, like actually chirping, “I know right?”; how does a human mouth make that sound???
“Then why isn’t… Dan eating any?”; maybe evil or not…
Dan flips Bassel off, grabs a slice and proceeds to hurl it at him; Bassel barely ducking in time while Jazz, Maddie, and Danny all shout, ‘NO!’. Elle is giggling though and Bassel would bet money that’s encouraging the man. Danny smashes an entire pie right in Dan’s face in retaliation, Elle smashing a slice on Danny’s head; it just devolves into a full on pie food fight from there.
Jazz crouch walking to avoid splatter while Maddie shoos the three outside with a broom, Jack following while shouting about getting the hose. Jazz putting a hand on his arm, “you good”.
“What twenty something starts a food fight!”, shaking his head, “better than throwing a knife at me I guess”.
“He usually only throws knives at Danny”.
She said that like it was normal! And not at all disturbing or something to be worried about! “He actually throws knives at people!”.
She winces like she just now realised that wasn’t okay, “right. Don’t worry about it, he might make a lot of threats or do threatening stuff but he’s heavily against going back into solitary confinement”, her huffing, “which I still think was cruel, deprivation chambers are one hundred percent a form of torture and no one deserves that”.
“What kind of jail has a freaking deprivation chamber, oh my god”. No wonder that man seemed like he had the socialization skills of a very threatening murderous brick wall.
The two stand up and they can see the three ‘Phantom’s -he’s still confused on that one but too scared to ask- getting hosed off in the front yard by Maddie; Jack’s helping by physically holding Dan up in the air and laughing. What??? Bassel blinks, “no one should be able to lift that beast of a man up like that”.
And then there’s an explosion, Bassel jerking around and Jazz just turning causally to watch purple smoke leak out from what’s labeled as a lab door. Her grabbing him with a quick, “nope”, and dragging him outside.
“What was that?”.
“Don’t know, but I’m not taking the chance that whatever their latest project is is noxious”, then shouting at her mom, “mom! Something blew up in the lab and it’s leaking purple gas!”.
Bassel very strictly remembers her not long ago mentioning that her parents weren’t big on lab safety, noxious though? These people were completely nuts. His nice, level headed, kind, smart, cautious Jazz came from this??? Yes she could be a little neurotic, especially about food and sharps saftey which he absolutely understood now, and she was a little… spooky sometimes. But still! He still didn’t believe her hair was really that orange without her dying it, even if he’d never seen proof of her doing so. And she always had on some black tourmaline or turquoise that she claimed was ‘protection’, he just thought she was being a little spiritual, now it seemed more like this ghost thing.
Danny shakes his wet hair off like a feral dog, “that’s probably my lunch!”.
Jazz throwing her hands up, “why is it leaking purple gas!”. Bassel muttering, “I think it exploding is more concerning than that”. Jazz shaking her head at him, “Danny’s favourite local restaurant has highly explosive trade marked sauce”.
“What!?!”. How was that even legal?
Danny pointing a finger at Jazz’s face as he moves to head inside to… ‘rescue’ his food, “hey, you haven’t had real food till you’ve had a Mighty Meaty Mega Nasty Melt and Phantomized Fries”, shrugging, “and I was trying to make blackened ecto-wine infused bread, for sandwiches”.
Jazz makes a face at the boys retreating back, “ew”.
Bassel blinking, “did, did this restaurant really name a menu item ‘Nasty Melt’?”. He’s revising his previous opinion, this entire town was nuts; not just these people.
Elle, very wet, bounds over, “yup! It’s called the Nasty Burger, used to be Tasty burger but someone vandalized it and there was a vote to just keep the N”, grinning, “I think it’s funny, the sauce is to die for”.
Jazz cringing, “oh no not the death jokes, at least spare my boyfriend those, ugh”. The little girl sticks her tongue out and pouts a little before running back inside at the pies. Jazz going wide-eyed and following with a shout, “oh no you better not! Mom just got you cleaned up! You put that pie down missy!”.
Bassel cautiously sticking his head in, cautious of both fumes and pie, to stare at his girlfriend holding a literal child at gun point while the child menacingly holds a pie over her own head. “um, why are you threatening a child with a gun”.
She brushes him off like this isn’t messed up, “it’s fine, there’s no normal guns in this household”. What does that even mean? Ghost guns? Is that what this is? Is that why it’s slightly glowing green!
Then Dan scares the crap out of him, speaking up from directly behind him, “I wouldn’t worry about it, she’s a terrible shot anyway. She could put a gun directly against someone’s temple and still hit a cars side mirror instead”.
“I’ve gotten better!”.
“No you have not, you managed to shoot a fire hydrant and set it on fire last time; I was impressed”.
“Shut up, Dan”.
“No I don’t think I will”.
At least Danny, who somehow got behind Elle, takes the pie from the girl and wags a finger at her, “repeat chaos isn’t chaos, it’s a pattern”.
“What if I cut off one of my hands, put it in the pie, then smack her with it? Then it would be a pie high five, not a food fight”.
Danny blinks, “I’m stealing that idea for the next time the Lunch Lady throws flaming stoves at me”.
Bassel… Bassel is not questioning that. “Kid, your mind must be a very strange place”. Sure little kids always said odd stuff, things adults wouldn’t even dream of, but this was a special brand of odd.
Dan shoving his way past Bassel, nearly knocking the guy over and giving him some major hebejebes, to go pat Elle on the head in amusement. Maddie steadying him, “you okay? And at least she’s not as bad as Danny used to be”, crossing her arms and shaking her head, “he thought blackbird pie meant to actually find birds and bake a pie with them. It was incredibly disgusting, especially because he didn’t know how to use an oven yet so he maxed out its temp for three hours”.
Oh okay, so Danny was just like that too. What was that about apples and trees? “That… probably could have gone even worse”. The teen, then kid, could have burned the house down!
The woman grumbled, “at least he’s never sucked the house into the mirror dimension, unlike someone”, as she heads in to help Jazz, Danny, Dan, and Elle actually clean up the pie mess. Jack shouting, “I said I was sorry about that!”. Danny shouting back, “at least no one’s pulled a Technus and walked the house into the ocean!”; while Bassel is wondering how the heck the eldest Fenton heard his wife’s grumbling from the other side of the yard.
There was something seriously physically off with all these people. Including Jazz. He’s feeling very distinctly reminded of a lot of things he’s just sort of brushed off or thought nothing of about her before. He used to think a lot about how vibrant her eyes were, or that her teeth were a touch sharp; nothing like the ‘Phantom’s but still. She was amazing at lock picking and could handle ‘practice’ patients others couldn’t; even if she would also ‘force’ therapy on random people sometimes. And eyeing her parents, they’re the same. Intense eyes, oddly pale almost glassy skin, teeth that feel like they’re sharp but aren’t; it’s not uncanny the way those three ‘Phantom’s were, but it’s still odd.
Dan was the worst though, easily, when the man brushed past him it felt like being cornered by massive wolf or mountain lion. If Bassel had ran into that man randomly on the street there’s no way he’d think he was anything close to human. Danny and Elle at least seemed humanish, almost human; Dan just seemed like he was playing pretend.
Bassel shakes himself off before stepping back into the chaotic Fenton household, “am I going to get pie thrown at me again?”.
Danny looks at him, “nope”, then glares at Elle, “or someone’s losing her Switch privileges”; the girl gasps in horror.
See that? That was normal. Normal punishment, normal reaction to a punishment. Perfectly normal. … Then the girl threatens to ‘liquify herself in protest’; goodbye normal, it was nice while it lasted. Either way he moves to help clean up pie a little, speaking back up, “so your bread fine?”.
“It ate itself and imploded, so no”. What. The boy grins cheerily, right too many teeth, “which means it must have tasted good, meaning I’m on to something”.
“I? Guess?”. He’s honestly just trying not to stare at the teens teeth.
They somehow do actually make it to the living room to watch a movie. It actually is a weird B list bird horror flic, which feels too normal now and that frankly concerns him. He’s not sure he wants the get used to this level of insanity. He loves Jazz but he is fully intending to potentially never step foot in this building again after this. How was he going to survive here for a week??? Blinking, oh right, elbowing Jazz and whispering, “hey, all the luggage is still in the car right?”. Then Dan scares the crap outta him again, “don’t bother whispering, I can still hear you”. Jazz grabs a random round thing from the floor to smack the man with for that.
Jazz leaning against Bassel again, “the longer we leave it in the car the longer it’ll take to get contaminated or destroyed, I told you not to bring your expensive computer ‘just in case you had time’ for a reason”.
Considering the amount of mess and literal exploding/imploding -again, what???- bread, he could understand that sentiment; oh and the actual guns apparently just lying around. He is very glad he listened to her, that laptop was never setting an inch of its metal casing in this building. He winces, “yeah, thanks for that”. She pats him fondly.
Danny straightens out so fast that it aggressively startles Bassel. “Oh! Think I should invite Val?”, eyeing Jazz smugly, “since someone brought their little lover”.
Jazz scowls at him, “Danny, I think Basel having to put up with my very weird family including the two weirdest members, is more than enough without adding in your trigger happy girlfriend with serious anger management issues. Especially because I know for a fact she won’t agree to leave all her weapons at home”.
Danny looks offended, putting a hand to his chest and paying no mind to the bird-related massacre happening on screen, “I’ll have you know she doesn’t even sleep unarmed, she hasn’t been unarmed since she was fourteen”.
“Exactly”.
You know what? Bassel thinks that actually makes sense. Danny was too strange to date someone remotely normal. “I’m not even surprised, you’re a little too freaky to date someone who’s just, you know, an average person. So sure, date an aspiring cop or whatever”.
Danny snaps and finger guns at him, “think more like nanobot powered teenage ghost hunter with a jet sled”.
What. Bassel blinking, “so somehow you’re the more normal one in the relationship. This girl’s in therapy right”. Jazz actually laughs at that.
Danny screws up his face, “Ancients you sound like Jazz”, looking at her, “he sounds like you”, looking back to Bassel, “and eh, my personality has more sparkles and explosions”, tilting his head, “besides, how am I freaky, besides the gremlin energy and general chaos anyways”.
Dan snorting, “and the fact that you think dumpster chic is a good thing”.
“As if you don’t wear the same”.
“Excuse you, I lift all my clothing off of the finest of corpses”.
Bassel, and Danny for that matter, gag; Danny’s seems more mock dramatic gag though. Bassel shaking his head, “add in the fact that if someone told me you were actually a doll pretending to be human, I’d believe them”.
That gets him multiple odd looks, including from Jazz. No one bothers to pause the movie even though everyone’s attention is now on him as she quirks an eyebrow at him, “what do you mean by that? Sure my little brother can move too quietly or too quickly, and his still too skinny and pale, but I wouldn’t call him possibly inhuman looking”.
Danny points at his face, “I’m pretty sure if I looked legit freaky Dash would mock me relentlessly for it”.
Bassel is baffled, are these people just… used to him so much they don’t notice? And Dan’s just looking to the side snickering meanly, Bassel almost gets the feeling the man knows what he’s talking about. Bassel looking at each of them, “you’re telling me you guys don’t notice his skin looks like weirdly glassy play dough? Or his eyes are too big? That his teeth don’t fit in his face? He’s weighs less than a bag of potatoes!”. They all look very confused and turn to stare at Danny, who shrinks down a little awkwardly; Dan’s laughing is full on guffaws now, head tilted over the back of the chair that apparently sometimes screams. When Elle points at her own face and grins too wide, Bassel nods, “yes, you too. Less than, your uh, dad but still”, gesturing at everyone, “honestly all of you have hair that’s too strongly coloured, overly vibrant eyes, and no skin texture”, scratching his head, “I thought my girl just had a spot on skin care routine and impressive hair colouring technique that she refused to share”. Jazz fiddles with her orange hair a little, making him feel a little guilty. Bassel coughing, “not that I dislike that”. Dan barks out another loud laugh.
Jazz eventually hurling another random Bassel doesn’t know what at the man, “stop laughing! Us looking weird to normal people isn’t funny! You jerk!”.
Oh okay. So they don’t know. That was weird? Does no one in town comment on it? Does no one even notice it? Was everyone in this town that strange??? Or was everyone in town strange looking themselves?
Dan huffing another laugh, “oh it very much is! Especially because I already knew and did in fact tell you morons”, waving a hand around leisurely, “not my fault you shits thought I was just being an ass”. Bassel guesses it makes sense that the strangest and most startling looking -and feeling, frankly- one would be the one to notice.
Danny looks offended, “and how do you know this? The fuck Dan”.
The man scowls meanly, it’s very mocking, “oh I don’t know, maybe because I spent ten years travelling the globe randomly killing people? Maybe that’s it? I’m the only fucker here who’s done enough travelling to tell people find this face”, gesturing at his face and smirking, “alarming, and not just because I was usually either threatening to kill or trying to kill them”.
“What? you walked around with that face?”.
“Eh I got bored of the other one sometimes”.
Bassel is choosing to ignore part of this conversation, otherwise he’s not going to get over his girlfriend being related to what’s sounds like more ‘mass murderer’ than ‘single murderer’. Not to mention that he doesn’t want to know what is meant by the murderer having different ‘faces’. He doesn’t want to know if this man’s a real life leather face.
Elle pouts, “I travel a lot, no one tells me I look weird?”.
“Sis, you’re a kid, all little brats look fucking weird”.
The little girl giggles, earning a fond but very quick look from the large man. At least it seemed like he actually liked his family maybe.
Danny gestures at nothing and scowls at Dan, “Dan, you’re a six foot eleven wall of muscle with a face that’s default setting is evil smirk, of course people think you look scary!”.
“Oh people found me disturbing when I was wearing your skin too, mom”.
“Fuck you”.
Bassel forces himself not to ask how that’s even possible. ‘Wearing the skin’ of someone who still has their skin is impossible and not to mention the size difference, it wouldn’t fit; why is he even thinking about the logistics of this?!? Ew!
Jack scratches his head, “while I can’t say I see, I doubt you’re making stuff up”, looking at Maddie, “all the ecto you think?”.
The mother nods to herself, tapping her chin, “there’s not much else it could be, especially if our oddness is merely tamer versions of Danny’s and the grandkids”.
Bassel is lost, looking to Jazz and quirking an eyebrow. She cringes, “Danny has a very intense version of ecto-contamination”. She says that like it’s not extremely weird and concerning.
Danny chuckling, “if by that you mean I’m fucking half dead then yeah”.
Jazz swats him, “Danny! For zones sake!”.
“Hey!”, Danny sticks his arms out nearly smacking multiple people, “if I’m that freaky looking then there really isn’t a point, Jazz!”.
“I hate that you’re right!”, Jazz huffing while Bassel is officially realising that everyone just shouts at each other in this house, regardless of if they’re happy or mad or excited. Her turning to him, “my brother’s a bit dead”.
Bassel absolutely squawks at that, “what”. And then suddenly the kid’s glowing and his eyes are green, the actual hell? Elle leaning forward, sticking her tongue out and pointing at her face, also with green eyes and glowing. Bassel cautiously and slowly eyeing Dan, his eyes flash blood red and yup, glowing.
Okay. Alright. He’s in a room full of glowing people, what is he supposed to do with this? He officially thinks that anyone who has ever found out someone else wasn’t quite human in a movie was way too damn calm about it!
Jazz winces a little, she can tell her boyfriend has absolutely no idea how to react to his girlfriend's glowing family members, so she pats his shoulder, “is it weird? Yes. Am I glad my brother is only partially dead? Absolutely. Don’t worry about it?”.
He blinks owlishly at her, clearly freaked out, “it’s kinda hard not to worry about my sister having dead family members kicking around and her whole family including her being contaminated by ghost stuff enough to alter their appearances”.
Then Danny goes and opens his stupid mouth, holding up a still glowing finger, “technically, Dan’s the only one that’s totally dead. Me and Elle are still alive-ish”.
Bassel blinks again and asks something that Jazz really wishes he didn’t, “and why’s he the dead one?”, in a squeaky voice; the movie is absolutely long forgotten at this point.
Dan’s smirk is flat out evil and before anyone can stop him he responds, “oh only because I got my human shit torn out and disemboweled it. Ate half my uncle and flew off into the sunset”.
Bassel leans so far away he nearly falls off the couch, “what. The. Fuck”. While everyone else, even Elle, chastisingly shouts, “DAN FENTON!”, at the smirking full ghost. The tact on that jerk! The only tact he had was evil tact, that sought chaos and destruction!
“OoOooOOoOO, full name, I’m So HuRt. I’m So UtTeRlY aPoLoGeTiC. Truly”. The ass doesn’t mean a damn word of that and he wants them to know it. He smirks, “if we want to play that game I can just show him what I really look like”.
Danny standing up and pointing at Dan, “do that and I’m souping you”. Dan puts an offended hand to his chest and scowls deeply.
Bassel sputters, “I am never asking you people questions again, oh my god”.
Jazz can’t even blame him, even if she knows he eventually will ask more questions about, well, their everything. It was hard not to after all. She rubs his arm, “you really shouldn’t think about it too hard or worry, yes we’re used to it and know the admittedly weird science behind it”, cringing, “even if apparently only one of us was aware none of us looked normal”.
He blinks harshly, swallowing, “uh huh. You guys have a bathroom, right. Because I definitely need to decompress by staring into the mirror for a concerning length of time”.
Not good. Jazz wincing and getting up, “I’ll show you”, then pausing and eyeing Danny, “is the bathroom actually clean”.
Danny tilts his head and grimaces, also not good, “maybe don’t open the lower left cupboard”.
“Right”. Damn it, Danny. Pulling Bassel along as they head upstairs, “okay so listen to him and don’t get curious. He might have spilled something and not cleaned it so it’s gotten moldy. Or he shoved goddamn bandaging under there. Or there’s a ghost trapped in the cabinet”.
“I… kind of hate that I’m hoping it’s the first one”.
“Well considering it’s Danny, it’s probably the second. He gets injured a lot and has a non-existent biohazard safety mindset”, gesturing at the open bathroom, “anyway, here”.
… “is Danny why the shower floor looks bloodstained, wait never mind I don’t want to know”.
She gives him a supportive shoulder pat as he goes in and close the door almost hard. This… this has not gone well. At least he hasn’t ran out screaming? Yet anyways.
She heads back down stairs, pointing at Dan, “I’m blaming you, because it is your fault”, pointing at Danny, “and yours, because you somewhat made him”.
“Hey! He made himself!”.
“And he is you so my point still stands”.
“Jazz!”.
Jazz doesn’t really care that being reminded of that fact bothers her little brother, him and his off shoots have basically been terrorising her boyfriend. He should be bothered! “I am gonna be so mad at you if he decides this is too much”. At least everyone winces apologetically, except Dan who just glances away which was the closest he usually came to a ‘sorry’.
Jack rubs his neck, “sorry, Jazzy-pants. Want us to bring your guy’s stuff in?”.
She scowls, she’s not going to effectively trap her boyfriend here by doing that, “considering I don’t even know if he wants to stay here now, no dad”. Her dad winces further, good.
She sighs, flopping back down on the couch, “let’s just rewind and finish the movie. Like normal people”. Dan snorts at her and she glares bloody murder at him.
Okay. So. His girlfriend’s family are not ‘weird’, rather they are actually insane and physically impossible. Which is extremely not okay. But he likes Jazz, a whole lot actually. A ton even. She was odd but not insane or too physically impossible; and she didn’t live here, he wouldn’t have to see these people -especially Dan- often. A handful of times a year at best right now. Hell she might be annoyed enough to ban that Dan guy from being within ten feet of him; Bassel would not complain about that. Her parents at least seemed harmless, over enthusiastic and strange but acceptable. However he knew for a fact that him liking or not liking her parents didn’t mean much, she’s made it clear that she doesn’t think too highly about their opinions. Her brother though, he knows she loved that kid, sometimes she made it sound like she was more his parent than their parents were. Said brother was half freaking dead. Because apparently ghosts are a real thing and can just walk around the living like it’s nothing… and also apparently being half alive was a remotely possible thing. Also Danny, a teen, has kids. Two kids. One who’s clearly older than him and committed a likely extremely disturbing amount of murder.
Well…
They’re not Jazz’s kids. So he, maybe? won’t have to deal with them much. Jazz seemed surprised they were even here after all. Alright. Okay. He can deal with this.
That’s frankly a lie.
But he can at least manage and pretend he’s cool. Then, when they go back to uni he can have a mild freak out in his dorm room and their relationship can go back to sort of normal. He is absolutely going to ask about her ‘ecto-contamination’? later though, and if those stories about her ‘communing with ghosts’ were actually true and was she just talking to her brother or was she also talking to other ghosts.
Pushing himself off of the sink he’s been leaning on and slapping his cheeks, “you got this, man”. His reflection does not copy him.
What the actual hell is wrong with this place? Besides the apparent portal to the afterlife in the goddamn lab. How did these people break a mirrors ability to mirror? Shaking his head and pulling out his phone, okay he’s looking these people up, like he goddamn should have already.
Okay yeah they just are fully public with the ghost hunting thing huh? That must have been fun to grow up with. Jazz did say she tried to separate herself as much as possible from them as a teen, this is absolutely why. And apparently her brother saved an entire species of gorillas? By… climbing in one’s cage… so he’s just always been crazy and reckless, got it; but hey, at least the gorillas aren’t extinct now.
Bassel’s not surprised that looking up Elle gets him nothing, she’s a young child after all, but Dan? For a supposed murderer there isn’t even a single result about him. No wiki article, no victim impact statements, no mugshot, no public court files, no morally questionable serial killer podcasts, nothing. Weird. But he’s absolutely not asking the man about that, because he doesn’t know what kind of nightmarish response he’s going to get. Considering his age -aka, being literally older than his freaking parent- it might be some sort of time travel thing, which he mildly hates the entire notion of, especially since he’s not going to claim he knows what’s possible or not now.
After all, his reflection is still just ‘standing’ there staring at him while he’s been pacing back and forth staring at his phone. He’s not googling his girlfriend of course, that would be creepy, but what about the ‘Phantom’ thing? That… that gets a lot of results. Freaky ones.
So…
Apparently…
This town has a goddamn dead superhero? That’s a freaking colour inversion of Danny with green eyes and also named Danny? Which there is no way that’s ’just a coincidence’. So Jazz’s brother is kind of dead, has an ‘arch enemy’, and is almost definitely some kind of dead superhero. Cool. That’s… that’s not completely insane at all. He officially feels like he’s in a knock off marvel movie with a secret identity reveal and everything.
And oh hey! Girl in red on a jet sled, Danny’s girlfriend, also definitely a superhero. Cool. This is Hell.
… Based on all the photos and videos of full blown super powered fights this town might actually be part of hell or an afterlife full of apparently violent dead people. No wonder Jazz was leery of him so much as visiting her home town, nonetheless her parents. A google of the stats shows that these ‘ghost attacks’ happen multiple times a day and it looks like they sometimes did a concerning amount of damage. Also the mayor is that Vlad guy? The evil uncle god father arch enemy guy. Why? How even? … It was probably mind control. Oh he kind of hates this.
Also though, how the heck was this town and this whole ghosts and a death dimension situation, not known about world wide?!? If it’s some kind of government suppression of information he’s going to scream; not actually scream just… internally scream. You’d think this would be something that’s in national news, an actual real life superhero and villains, another dimension, the afterlife… Okay perhaps being super public about an after life could cause some issues among religious groups.
Then his reflection growls at him.
Nope.
He’s not dealing with that.
He’s out of the bathroom in two seconds flat, practically rushing down the stairs, wheezing. Everyone, but Dan, is on the couch again apparently finishing the bird movie; Dan is just outright nowhere to be seen which he is a-okay with. “My reflection growled at me”. Jazz buries her head in her hands, this was obviously not how she wanted this first meeting to go; it wasn’t how he wanted it to go either, but he didn’t know it going this absurdly was even possible. Meanwhile Maddie and Danny shout, “JACK!”, clearly thinking the mirror is his fault. Wasn’t something about him going to the mirror dimension mentioned earlier? or is he just starting to come up with his own crazy possibilities.
The large man runs his neck, laughing, “whoops! Must have grabbed the wrong mirror!”.
“Wrong? Mirror?”. Damn right, he said he was done asking these people to explain literally anything.
Bassel eyeballing Jazz’s dad as he gets up and begins to move upstairs, “ah yeah, Danny-boy head-butted the old one so it had to be replaced, musta got the new mirror and the dimensional mirror mixed up!”.
Why is this kid head-butting mirrors and why does this family just have a ‘dimensional mirror’? Ugh, Bassel’s poor head. Jazz apparently has these same questions, or one of them at least, as well as the willingness to ask it. “Little brother? Why were head-butting the mirror? Young Blood isn’t trying to give you another nervous breakdown, is he?”; Bassel can practically feel the worry in her voice.
Danny scowls dramatically, “I’m fine, Jazz. No need to psycho babble me, Ancients. Skulker just decided that tooth brushing time was good head shooting time, I confiscated his right arm for that and he didn’t get it back for three days”, the kid looks proud of himself, “he hasn’t attacked me in the bathroom since”.
Bassel blinks, slightly horrified, Danny what? stole some… ghosts arm? as punishment? “Uh, I’m pretty sure a supposed superhero teen is not supposed to go around stealing people’s limbs”. Jazz groans very loudly and very tiredly.
Danny laughs, “oh! You looked me up huh? Don’t worry, I only took his mecha bodysuits arm, not his actual real arm”.
That’s… stranger but better. Then Elle pipes up, “even if he had it wouldn’t matter! See-”.
“NO!”.
Bassel is not going to ask why Danny just grabbed both of her wrists and glared at her. He has absolutely learned that if someone, or everyone, shouts ‘NO’ at someone else then he absolutely did not want to know why. Instead he watches his girlfriend get up and smile very awkwardly at him, he’s unpleasantly aware of the fact that her teeth were probably whiter than they should be, “you okay? Are we good?”.
“Absolutely not, but yes, yes we’re alright. I am absolutely not visiting here frequently though. And if Dan ever shows up anywhere near my dorm I’m hitting him with a frying pan immediately”.
She actually chuckles at that, “that’s fair, I tried to shoot him when we first met and tried to hit him with the creep stick the second time”. He’s not going to ask what a creep stick is, but he’s glad she had the sense to hit someone who’s clearly dangerous. “But call if he does do something that stupid, which he shouldn’t if he knows what’s good for him. He will only laugh if you hit him with a frying pan”.
Maddie shaking her head and getting up, “I’ve done that a time or two, he has a habit of trying to sneak food or add poisons just to see if he can get away with it”. Bassel doesn’t have words to express how concerning that is. “And I’m sorry this hasn’t been the best impression, it’s also unfortunately not the worst either though”. Oh. This could be worse? How? Blowing up the house? Hospitalising him? Probably!
Elle sticks a star sticker on him, “congratulations! For passing the weirdness tolerance test!”, looking back at Danny, “am I allowed to try and bite him now?”.
“No, you little shit”, Danny grumbling, “teething preteens are the worst”.
Wasn’t teething supposed to be something babies did? He wants to ask but nope, he’s not going there.
Then Jack’s voice startles him a good bit, “Your reflection must have been staring at you for a while there, buckeroo! Had to really shake it to get him to go away”.
Man was Jack ever a loud guy. Bassel chuckling awkwardly, “yeah I was a little preoccupied and choosing to ignore the insane broken mirror”.
Dan has apparently come back, “ha! You’re lucky your reflection didn’t try to reach through the mirror and strangle you”.
Bassel is not asking. Bassel is not asking. Bassel is not asking. But note to self, do not ignore sentient reflections that move of their own accord. Jazz even shakes her head, “okay that wasn’t the smartest decision you could have made, but I get it”, and she gestures at the couch, “want to finish the movie? Then we can get our stuff in?”.
He sighs, tired, “yeah, yeah, that’s… that’s good”. Just let everything else be normal, or as normal as it can be with the literal walking dead being in the room. Elle grabs him and Jazz before dragging them to the couch, the child is way too strong.
Jazz can practically feel the relief in her bones when they make it through the rest of the movie without anymore incidents, everyone getting up and Jack grabbing a scowling disgruntled Dan to help bring stuff inside. Dan grumbling, “I feel the need to point out that Danny is just as strong as me even if he looks like a damn beanpole”.
Danny shouting, “you mean I’m stronger than you! And hey! I’m lean!”, after them.
Bassel quirking an eyebrow at Jazz, her shaking her head with a small smile, “ectoplasmic energy counts for more than physical appearances with ghosts, my little brother might still be a child and thusly hasn’t hit his growth spurt yet, but he can absolutely take his kid down a peg or two”. And he absolutely loved to pester Dan about that fact, while Dan loved to pester Danny about still being ‘puny’.
Dan growls from the garage doorway, “You lot would be dead otherwise and you know it”.
Jazz rolls her eyes, “maybe at one point but we’ve grown on you, don’t lie mister”. The full ghost only grumbles incoherently in response.
Of course her dad tries to open the trunk before Bassel can unlock it, resulting in him picking the car up, Dan having to catch the car when the trunk opens taking dad’s grip with it. Dan chuckling, “normally I’m the one who’s into picking up vehicles”.
Dad chuckling himself, “yeah and you usually throw them when you pick them up!”.
Bassel shakes his head as the full ghost sets his car on the ground fully, “do not throw my car, do all of you just have super strength”.
Jazz facepalms when her dad tilts his head like a puppy, “little cars like these aren’t that heavy though? I could have lifted this back in my college years even”. Bassel looks baffled when she glances at him.
Jazz sighing at her dad, “Dad, your parents were ghost hunters too, you’ve probably been contaminated your whole life, like me and Danny”.
“Oh right! Ha! I forgot about that! Silly me!”.
Bassel shakes his head in disbelief but takes a few of his things instead of letting the two much larger men carry everything. Jazz makes zero attempt to help Dan with any of it, her sticking her tongue out him instead. He snickers at her, “really taking the higher road here, aunty”.
“Like you’re one to talk”.
“The high road and I are incapable of coexistence”.
“Exactly”.
At least it seems like Bassel is fondly amused with their bantering, instead of disturbed, as they move from the garage and up to her old room/the spare room. Her eyeing her mom while the three men set things down in the room, “so where are Elle and Dan staying?”.
Dan scoffing from inside the room, “you say that like I sleep at all”. She studiously ignores him.
Her mom humming, “why don’t you ask Elle? Because I’m not sure”. And Elle pops out from behind Maddie, “we’re not. Grandma Pandora’s supposed to give me some sword fighting lessons!”, pouting, “and I gotta practice if I ever want to beat pops someday”.
Danny can be heard shouting, “like that’ll ever happen!”, from somewhere; and the little missy is off like a rocket after her dad probably to tackle him.
Dan growling, “if you try to make me organize your guys shit I’m going to intentionally remove every screw, battery, and third paper from everything I can get my claws on”, before Jack laughs and pushes the ghost out of the room. Dan eyeing Jazz, “and if you’ll remember, I’m not ‘allowed’ to be out past sunset”.
Ah right, she did actually forget about that. “Serves you right”. As he heads down and back to the living room he sticks his tongue out at her, it absolute is forked this time.
Bassel popping his head out of the room, “you want your studies and research notes left on the night stand? And remind me why we’re staying inside this strange house instead of a hotel, there’s… mold with eyes I think, in the corner”. Her wincing, “because the hotel has mandatory waivers and doesn’t allow Fenton’s”, then nodding up at him, “yeah my stuff’s fine there, don’t put anything in the drawers, sometimes stuff just vanishes inside for an unknown reason”. Based on him ducking back in immediately, he had in fact put some stuff inside a drawer and the sigh of relief and her dads light hearted laughter tells her that whatever it was was still there. At least some things were going right.
And then it promptly goes horribly wrong as soon as Bassel comes out to go back downstairs with her. A massive black star speckled ghost phasing their way down through the goddamn ceiling, Bassel going stalk stiff while Jazz dashes up the steps with him in her grasp and ducks both of them into the bathroom. Bassel sticking his head out of the bathroom while crouching just like her and whispering, “was that thing a freaking ghost? What the hell, babe”.
Her basically hissing at him, “yes, and a very powerful one”. Bassel grumbling, “I think today hates us”. She whole heartedly agrees.
Meanwhile the ghost is shouting, “PHANTOM! I request your aid!”, and from her and Bassel’s bathroom vantage point it looks like the ghost just got punched in their masked face -based on them being pushed back out of the kitchen entry way with a hand to their face- by Dan, who stomps out snarling, all fang but thankfully still human-looking, “wrong one, you sleepy ass”.
Starry sleep ghost… starry sleep ghost… ah right! Their name was Nocturne right? Her little brother did try to get her to remember the names of the more important ghosts after all. “Nocturne?”.
Oh she shouldn’t have said anything. The ghost looks to her and ‘brightens up’ in that cruel looking way many ghosts do, them promptly stretching and looming their body up and head over her and Bassel, “ah, young Phantom’s brethren. Do you know as to where I can find the one that will not attempt to eat beings of ancient malevolence?”. Bassel is shaking and she’s worried he’s going to pass out.
Dan rams a clawed hand into the ghosts body, “I’m true malevolence, mother fucker. Get back here”.
Thankfully Danny -in his ghost form unfortunately- pops in before Dan can do something stupid, “Dan! Leave the freaking god of sleep alone! Oh my Ancients!”. Him pointing at Nocturne’s face as the ghost moves down to him completely ignoring Jazz and Bassel now, “what the zone, Nocturne? You can’t just bust into my lair core whenever you feel like it just because I don’t get enough damn sleep”.
The ghost holds up a finger, “ah but that is hardly the reason for my arrival, I have seemed to ‘fucked up’, as you would say, to an unfortunate degree”.
Danny sighs and sags his entire body, floating in the air, “ugh, what did you do?”.
“I acquired-”.
Danny interrupting immediately, “You mean stole”.
“I acquired some eternal gardenia from FungalLung, they have now beset my domain with pink dew and blood blossom seeds”.
“Why the actual crap would you steal from that split personality psycho? There’s a reason no one goes near that kids garden”.
“I had a need for such things, as someone-”.
“Oh no, no blame game bullshit outta you, shit ass”.
“Our king needs to be-”.
“Needs to be allowed to have a bit of goddamn fun and some breaks, that’s what he needs. Now play guide, you reckless starry blanket”, Danny eyeing Dan, “Dan. Let. Go”.
Dan flinching and doing as he’s more or less commanded to. Scoffing, crossing his arms, and moving back into the kitchen with a tense, “whatever”.
Bassel wheezes when the ghost and her brother disappear through the floor, Jazz standing up fully and pulling him along with, “great. Just great. Love it. What next? An invasion?”.
Elle hums, “I mean, I could ask mythic grandma if she’s up for one”.
Jazz and Maddie both pointing at her aggressively with matching, “absolutely not”’s. Making the girl giggle. Jazz looking back to Bassel, “I promise you’re okay and not about to get attacked. Are you feeling okay?”.
“I am ten seconds away from wanting to lay on the carpet and scream cry into it, and I am positive I need a shock blanket”.
At least she doesn’t even have to ask her mom to get one for her to rush off and do so, Jazz and Maddie herding him into the spare room wrapped up in a Fenton ghost proof shock blanket in record time. Jazz nodding softly at her moms apologetic look and gesturing for her to leave them be, dad following his wife out with an exaggerated wince.
She shuffles up next to him and rubs his arm from over the blanket, effectively side hugging him, “okay so you’ve properly seen your first ghost, and they were unfortunately one of the non-human ones; but, Nocturne is quite safe actually, more a neutral being than malicious”.
He nods a little.
“They do tend to harass my brother a lot since they care a lot about sleep and he doesn’t get nearly enough of it”, shaking her head and laughing lightly a little, “and yes, what Danny said is true, they are for all accounts and purposes the god of sleep”, sighing, “nearly every god worshiped through out history is real and, yes, a ghost”.
He swallows, pulling the blanket around himself more, “that’s… kind of insane and a lot”.
Jazz nods more so to herself, she had a hard time swallowing that herself as a teen, “I know. I still find it a bit baffling myself and it is extremely strange actually meeting any of them”.
“At… at least you actually seem weirded out. Everything… else doesn’t seem to be, uh, strange, to you”.
“I’m used to it, more than I’d really like to be. I definitely wi- would prefer if my family was more normal, even marginally. And I’d rather my brother not be wrapped up in all this the way he is. Even Dan and Elle often feel that way, even if they wouldn’t exist if he wasn’t involved so heavily in everything”.
“That’s, concerning, actually”.
Jazz pats his arm some, “they haven’t had the best existences”.
Dan then startles her, voice coming through the door, “and there’s the simple fact that everyone would be better off if I never existed”.
Jazz sighing to herself and looking to the door, “Dan that’s not true”.
“And that’s crap and you know it, don’t bullshit me Jazz”; it sounds like he’s stomped off. She’s… going to have to talk to him later.
Bassel shivers, “he’s got a lot of… issues, huh”.
Jazz sighing and nodding, closing her eyes, “if people tell you you’re a monster enough that becomes all that you are and healing becomes nearly impossible”, shaking her head and looking at him, he’s watching her intently, “Elle and Danny are good for him but his emotions don’t work like they’re supposed to because of what happened to him. He’s also partly being pissy because Danny genuinely scolded him. Anyone exerting their power over him tends to rile him up, whether he wants it to or not”.
“Part of him being a, uh, ghost?”.
She nods, “yup. Though I doubt talking about Dan is great for you right now”.
Bassel looks away and stares forwards, “no, probably not”, shaking his head and readjusting into the blanket, “… that, ghost, called your brother a king, didn’t they”.
Jazz shrugs, “he tires not to let it get to his head”.
He shakes himself a little, shaking his head slowly side to side, “yeah no, I’m not pushing. Though is that why he feels like death, the pressure of death at least, when he looks all black and white”.
“I… if he feels like that I’ve never noticed, sorry. But I was living with him when that change happened so it very well might have happened slowly, over time”.
“I guess that makes sense, it almost felt hard to breathe when his voice got… thick? at Dan”.
Jazz blinks, nodding immediately, “ah that’s actually a specific power he has. He mostly just uses it to get across that he’s not playing around, that he’s being serious”.
“Effective”.
Jazz nods slowly, letting him just breathe for a bit. She guesses she can understand how her brother can be a bit much, and it was definitely for the best that Bassel found out before a ghost crashed the party that her brother was a ghost himself. Then he speaks up again, “you’re entirely alive, right? I know you have a lot of spooky rumours that follow you and, like I said, you do look off. So, you’re not a ghost, right?”.
Jazz is tempted to laugh, instead she just shakes her head, “no, not even a little bit”.
“Good. That’s good”.
She just hums, nodding to herself. Waiting for him to work through his own head. Hearing about ghosts and seeing one were very different things, and an Ancient was hard to run into no matter what Danny said. She swears it’s like he forgets that he is in the same sort of classification as them. But at least it seems like Bassel’s handling it better than many do, better than most non-Amity Parkers at least. And then her dad goes and bangs the door open, nearly making Bassel fling himself off of the bed, “I made hot chocolate!”.
“Dad! He’s trying to wind down! Not get the zone scared out of him!”.
Her dad wincing, “ah sorry, Jazzy”, holding up the two cups, “hot chocolate?”, and tilts his head to the side.
Jazz sighs, side eyeing Bassel to make sure he isn’t going to freak out further before getting up and grabbing the cups, “I know you mean well, dad, but you’re still a very loud, very large, presence”.
He rubs his neck and laughs awkwardly, tilting sideways enough to look at Bassel. Giving her boyfriend a thumbs up, “you kids get settled, no funny business”.
“Oh my zone!”, she shoves him out with a foot, barely managing not to spill, and kicks her door shut. At least she manages to give Bassel the hot chocolate gently, “that man, I swear”.
Bassel genuinely laughs though, staring at the hot chocolate in his hands, “that was so utterly normal dad behaviour though, it’s grounding actually”.
Huh. Guess he actually did a good job. “Then I owe him an apology”. She makes her sip on the hot chocolate -that’s already been adequately cooled, thanks dad genuinely- loud, purely to encourage Bassel to drink his.
He notices the cooled temp too, “he waited till it was cool but not too cool, huh?”.
“Yeah. He’s a bit of a fool and reckless but he cares a lot and has a good heart that’s as big as he is”.
Bassel humming and they sit in silence for a bit until, “is your brother going to be okay? I know I called him a superhero and google seems to say he is but…”.
“Oh superhero is very accurate by human standards, but by ghosts he’s basically normal. Behaviour wise at least. Most of the time”, shaking her head, “he’ll be fine, even if it sounds like he might wind up with a case of Blood Blossom poisoning again”.
“Let me guess, ghost poison?”.
“Yup”.
“That’s absurd”, and he sips at his hot chocolate some, “he’s not going to vomit on the floor is he?”.
Okay she can’t help but laugh at that, shaking her head, “no, no, more coughing fits, aches and pains, and muscle spasms. That’s only because he’s alive enough to not be fully affected”.
“Hence why this powerful ghost came for his help?”.
Jazz nodding, “hence why a powerful ghost came for his help”, tilting her head, “though if I remember right pink dew is a psychedelic, so he also might be high when he gets back”.
“Oh god, I don’t think that kid should ever do drugs. Being near your entire family is like being on drugs”, sticking his arms out of the blanket and gesturing the mug around, “if I woke up in the morning and was told this was all one big fever dream, I’d believe it”.
“That’s understandable. Which is why the rest of the world considers this town a hoax”.
“Yeah I was wondering about that”, he downs a considerable amount of his drink, “you’d think the whole world would know about this. But I guess that would cause an uproar”.
Jazz sighing, almost annoyed, “yeah, the government does try to keep a lid on everything”.
“God damn it. Seriously? Ugh. I hate that I called ‘government cover up’ as the why”.
“There’s more to it but the rest is a lot weirder to the point where even I don’t want to think about it. It’s actually in the category of too weird”. Her little brother mind wiping an entire planet after fighting a reality controlling clown that turned roads into rollercoasters and made him fight a fire breathing clown and a lava pit full of rubber ducks, was so many steps past extremely strange.
Bassel full body cringing, “then I definitely don’t want to know. I do want to know if the stories about you communing with ghosts in your dorm are true though, and if your dorms is ‘contaminated’”, looking down at the cup, “and we should thank your dad for this. It was pretty good”.
Jazz blushes a little, “they’re true, even ghosts need therapy and I don’t need my license to give it to them. Sometimes it is just Danny though, and I’m good about keeping on top of decontamination, so don’t worry about that”, then eyeing him, he still seemed a little out of it and shocky but he was definitely better and really there was no normalising or rationalizing her family, “we’ll go down and thank him if you’re alright”.
He nods down at the cup and to himself, then looking at her with a nod and shaking smile, “I’m going to be digesting all of this for days at least, but I’m okay, babe. I absolutely hope today was the weirdest day of this week visit though”.
Jazz hums, standing up and offering him her mug-free hand, “well Dan will avoid Danny for at least a full day and Pandora will keep Elle busy for at least three; so there won’t be their chaos for a little while. As for literal gods showing up, that happens so seldom that I genuinely believe that Johnny’s Shadow might’ve snagged us some bad luck on the way into town”.
“Johnny’s Shadow?”.
Oh maybe she shouldn’t have brought that guy up. Wincing, “um, Shadow is basically Johnny’s pet or familiar? And Johnny is a ghost I may have dated? Once? He wasn’t genuine about it, and I was a dumb teenager who feel for his stupid motorbike and bad boy vibes”.
He actually snickers at her, before laughing fully and having to put the mug to the side to avoid spilling it, “I! Can not believe how stereotypical! That is!”, shaking his head and wheezing, eyeing her, “straight laced, honor role daughter falls for a motorcycle riding bad boy who’s all charm and bad intentions”.
She smacks his arm, “don’t be mean”, she doesn’t mean it at all though, “and Danny actually dated his girlfriend, she was trying to make Johnny jealous”.
“So what I’m getting here is ghosts are seriously just goddamn people, some are just very extra”.
“That’s one way to put it, yeah. Or they’re more like animals”.
Bassel blinks as they shuffle out of the room, “oh thats right, the green dog, where’d he? go?”.
Jazz snorts, “Danny sent him back to, well, the other side as it were; since mom was trying to taser him”. He was always so protective of that dog, even if said dog caused so many issues.
“That did seem a bit excessive”.
“Oh absolutely not, that dog is an actual menace”.
“I’m just going to take your word for it”.
They pop into the kitchen, she’s not surprised both Dan and Elle are gone. “Thanks for the hot chocolate, dad”. Bassel nodding, “yeah, it was really good, thank you”.
Her dad gives a goofy thumbs up, “glad you liked it!”. And she thinks everything might just be okay.
Bassel’s not really sure what to do about all of this. What he does know is that he’s better off not thinking about it and not trying to actually figure out what to do about all of this. He knows Jack Fenton cares a lot, makes good hot chocolate, he’s loud and big, and sure he’s a little off and too strong but he actually is like a puppy. Maddie Fenton was a lot softer, a lot more aware that her family was odd, more socially adept, but she was also more threatening and quick to fight; strange and off as well but she came off as more normal than her husband. Danny was… a nightmare, full stop, he’s a little worried what kind of friends the teen had that could put up with him. He was borderline actually insane, but from what Bassel saw on his google trip he also was a genuinely good kid. Bassel’s fairly certain that even if the world turned against him he’d still fight to save it; that took a level of sheer determination and heart that Bassel probably didn’t have himself. Elle was just a weird kid with too lax and strange of a parent, she might stand a chance at being almost normal someday. Maybe. Dan was an utter psycho though, he honestly can not think of a redeeming quality for that one. Doesn’t even want to try. Because excusing a murderer was not a line he feels like toeing. Jazz says Dan wouldn’t hurt any of them and does love them, but he’s not sold on that; it seemed more likely that she just didn't want to admit that the man was simply an awful unkind corrupt person.
And Jazz?
Well, his opinion honestly hasn’t changed. She’s still awesome, beautiful, caring, neurotic, a worrier, and slightly strange. He wants to think she’d be the same, though maybe less strange, even if she had a perfectly normal and average family. He wasn’t about to let odd family break them up, even if it was the kind of odd normally reserved for tv shows and the weird comics you find at truck stops that are filled with plot holes and questionable narrative direction. Either way he’s sticking around, so long as he can actually physically survive a week in this place.
Him watching as Danny, covered in some kind of clear goo or slime, kicks open the lab door with blown out pupils and a gnarly rash on half his face. “I! Never want to see! Another! Fucking! Person with me damn mushroom eyes again! I feel! Disgusting! Bleh!”, sticks out his tongue and then faceplants onto the floor groaning; the slime stuff splatters around a bit.
Bassel blinks, “um, should someone drag him up to the bathroom or something?”. Then the kid sprouts another set of goddamn arms and hands out of his back and proceeds to dragging himself across the floor and up the stairs with them. “Never mind, what the hell. I never want to see that again”.
Jazz sighs, rinsing out their cups, “he’s definitely high, don’t touch the goo trail”, moving to get the biohazards mop and bucket, “Danny can be a bit of a jerk with the body horror stuff but he usually reserves it for people he knows can handle it”.
“That’s… good. Dear god”.
And then… Danny??? runs up the lab stairs, “did anyone see a body of mine”.
Jazz throws the mop at him and yelps, “what the Zone! Danny?”, making faces at him and pointing at the stairs that still has a slime trial on it, “I have some serious questions”.
He blinks at her, “rogue duplicate”, and runs towards the stairs.
Jazz throws up her hands, “why would you use a power you suck at to deal with drug flowers!”.
“Because I didn’t want to personally deal with blood blossoms!”, the kid slips on the slime and smashes his face into the stairs, “fuck!”, then scramble crawls up the steps.
Bassel grabs the mop back up, ignores that it’s a weirdly hot pink colour, and hands it off to his girlfriend, “so that was a thing that happened”.
Jack starts wheeze laughing, sitting down at the kitchen table, “I hope his duplicate at least had fun!”.
Maddie grinning at the man, “I’m sure it did, Jack hon”.
Everyone, including Bassel, ignores the strange thumping going on upstairs as well as the… arm that comes hurling down the steps and dissolves into green goo against a wall. Staying here was going to give him some extremely unique and unfortunate nightmares, wasn’t it? At least now he gets why his girlfriend had such an easy time writing behavioural papers, she had multiple subject studies. He might even be able to bang out a paper or two on human adaptability after this. He absolutely was not doing any papers on people growing arms out of their backs though, that would get him sent on a grippy sock vacation.
Danny pops back in looking disgusted, “it’s dealt with”.
Maddie eyeing him cautiously, “is the hall way intact?”.
The boy sags and gives a truly crushed, “no”.
At this point, Bassel thinks that’s frankly expected. He also thinks that this household is cursed. At least Jack bounds up the stairs to start fixing the hallway and Bassel legitimately doesn’t care to check out the damage. Truly. Instead he’s just going to sit down with his girlfriend and, like her, mildly regret him coming and going into this ‘cold turkey’. Next time she warns him about something, he’s going to demand an explanation instead of brushing her worries off.
End.
Promtps: Jazz brings a date home for the first time. She didn’t exactly brief them on her family’s whole ghost thing. Antics ensue. All the Fentons are a bit more ghostly than they know The Phantom Clan (Dan, Dani, and Danny) is awake and about to make it everyone's problem Jazz has a reputation at college for being spooky, it doesn't help that she communes with ghosts. Uncanny valley is strong with Danny, most Amity Parkers don't realize it, but any time anyone from out of town sees him, they're in for a spook. Nocturne fucked up BIG TIME and now needs help from the ghost kid.
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hailsatanacab · 1 year
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@the-witchhunter - this is incredibly disturbing, i love it. fair warning, i took it more in the direction of that oglaf comic (nsfw) where Vlad fully doesn't realise that this is a love shrine, this is a completely normal thing that you do for your arch enemy!
———
“Daniel! I can explain!”
“Oh… my… God...”
“Daniel, really, it’s not what it looks like!”
“Really?” Danny breathes, shocked and honestly kind of fighting down the urge to vomit. The thermos slips from his fingers and clatters to the ground, the sound echoing far too loudly in the enclosed space. “Because it looks like you have a shrine dedicated to my dad in your closet.”
“No, that’s not—it’s more complicated than that, Daniel. You wouldn’t understand.”
“I don’t think I want to understand.”
“Your father is a ridiculous man, Daniel. I hate his stupid face so much. Look at him!”
Vlad turns back to the actual shrine, with actual candles and actual flowers and actual photos of his dad with… Holy crap, did Vlad cut out Mom in each of the photos? What the fuck? 
Wait… Look, Danny tries not to look too closely at the weird things Vlad has hidden around his mansion dedicated to his mom, but he’s fairly sure that the pictures of her he’s cut out (in heart shapes—yeah, Danny’s definitely going to barf) are the ones Vlad’s put in his other weirdo closet shrine that Danny also wishes he’d never seen.
“Why don’t you just have one shrine? Why have—no, you know what, I don’t want to know. I think I’m just gonna leave.”
Yeah, that sounds like the best option. Danny takes a cautious step back, very ready to get back home, bleach his eyeballs and maybe never look at his mom and dad ever again. Or, at least, not until he has successfully blocked this from his mind forever.
He only gets one foot out the door when Vlad lashes out and grabs him. The day just keeps getting better and better, really, doesn’t it? Even as he twists and turns, he can’t get out of Vlad’s ironclad grip and he’s pulled even farther into the closet. 
Panic rises in his throat as Vlad shuts the door—what the fuck is happening? He doesn’t want to be dragged into Vlad’s creepy shrine to his dad, what the fuck? What the fuck!
“I loathe your father, Daniel, I hate him with the very core of my being. Look at him!” 
There’s no goddamn way in hell Danny is looking at any of the pictures, no thank you. He squeezes his eyes shut and wishes he were somewhere, anywhere else, when Vlad jerks his arm forward so he comes nose-to-nose with the largest framed portrait of his dad in the very centre of the table, smiling with his doctorate and a very unfortunate 80s mullet. Dear God, no.
“I hate his smug face! I hate his stupid fashion sense, you have no idea how much I detest that orange jumpsuit of his, how much I want to claw it off him and tear it to shreds! If I have to listen to him say another boneheaded, idiotic, ridiculous thing, I will—I’ll rip his throat out with my teeth! You don't know how long I spend here looking at him, imaging all the ways I'll have him grovelling at my feet. One day, Daniel, I'll have him one day...”
———
The sun was going down when Danny finally managed to escape and find solace in Sam and Tucker. He's not going home. Not yet.
“Danny, are you okay? We were so worried, we couldn’t get hold of you for hours! Where were you?”
“Sam, Tuck… Vlad, he…”
“Holy shit, Danny, you’re shaking, are you alright? What happened, what did he do?”
“I think… I think he wants to fuck my dad.”
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whereonceiwasfire · 25 days
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I saw @theshadowrealmitself's post the other day about what if a supervillain outed their secret identity becuase they infodumped to the cashier (who happens to be the hero) and you know I had to do a DP oneshot for it. It's a few different kinds of AU, so you just have to roll with me here.
Without further ado:
THE CUSTOMER'S ALWAYS RIGHT (EXCEPT WHEN THEY'RE AN EGOMANIACAL SUPERVILLAIN)
Automatic doors slide apart with a woosh as Danny bursts through the entrance of Hattie's Haunted Hardware Emporium, unzipped backpack barely caught in the crook of his elbow, one arm stuffed through the armhole of the gaudy yellow vest of his uniform. 
He's out of breath as he scrambles past the customer service desk, gives a frantic, “I'm here, I'm here!” to the startled employee behind the computer as hops the counter. He’s sprinting past stacked boxes of returns for the door with a STAFF ONLY sign slapped askew across the chipping green paint when a voice stops him in his tracks. 
“Danny Fenton.” The words drip cool disapproval, and Danny's shoulders immediately hunch toward his ears, his fingers uncurling from around the door handle. 
So close. 
“Y-yes?” He slowly turns around, his expression sheepish as he comes to face Hattie herself. 
She stands, hands on her hips, eyes narrowed, a MANAGER tag pinned to the chest of her tucked in shirt. The polo is the same hideous yellow as Danny's vest but has the Hattie's Hardware logo—a floating hammer surrounded by a ghostly glow—sewn onto the breast pocket. A funny gag, no doubt, when the place decided to open in the heart of haunted AF Amity Park. Less funny, probably, now that the store room is in disarray every other day because some low-level specter keeps casting stock haphazardly about and flinging empty boxes everywhere.
“You're late,” manager Hattie says, expression pinching. “Again.” 
“Aha. Yeah. About that.” Danny scrubs the back of his neck with a palm, teeth bared on something that's more a grimace than a smile. “The bus was behind schedule?” 
She doesn't look particularly like she believes him, which is entirely valid, since it's a bald-faced lie. But what is he supposed to say? That he got sidetracked by his new archnemesis, that freaking Plasmius ghost, because the guy somehow managed to compel an entire doggie daycare to do his bidding? What that crackpot needed a canine army for, Danny didn't even want to know, but he wasn't about to just let it go down. Stopping ghosts is kind of his whole shtick as town hero, after all. 
He’s just lucky the whole thing didn’t take that long—once Danny managed to snap his fluffy foes out of their trance, they kind of took care of Plasmius for him. Guess they weren't too happy about being mind controlled. Go figure.
But again, Danny can’t exactly just come out and tell his manager, well, any of this. As far as everyone knows, Danny Fenton is a very normal, very human kid—one who maybe isn’t great at the whole being punctual thing and has a penchant for running to the bathroom when ghosts show up—but otherwise exhibits no symptoms of being undead. He’s hoping to keep it that way.  
Manager Hattie’s eyes narrow, as if she can tell what he’s thinking, but she just gives a curt jerk of her chin in the direction of the staff room. 
“Don’t let it happen again,” she says, and he gives an overzealous nod of assent as he lets out the breath trapped in his chest. 
“You got it, boss!” he says, giving her a two-fingered salute and throwing himself into the back before she can change her mind. 
***
“That’ll be eight twenty-two. How will you be paying for that?” It comes out a bored drawl as Danny shifts his weight from one foot to the other.
“It’ll be cash—just—give me a sec. I know I had change in here somewhere.” 
“Sure, no problem.” 
Danny crosses his arms over the chest of his garish vest and tips his gaze toward the industrial ceiling, trying to find literally anywhere to look so he’s not the overly intense cashier staring at the woman across the counter as she rummages through her oversized, bubblegum purse for a couple of nickels.  
He hadn’t even wanted to get a job—staying on top of school, protecting the town from ghosts, and keeping his secret identity from everyone in his life was enough of a struggle, nevermind trying to fit his weekend sentences at Hattie’s Hardware into the mix. But turns out if you break your phone (in a ghost fight), lose a couple of backpacks (after dumping them in an alley so you can go stop a bank robbery), mysteriously misplace articles of clothing (AKA, throw them away because ectoplasm apparently doesn’t come out in the wash), or otherwise ask your parents to replace your crap enough times without a decent explanation, they’ll stop paying for it.
So, as much as he’d love to not be watching stacks of nickels, pennies, and dimes grow on his counter—the bottle-blonde slapping each coin down with a decisive clack before thrusting her arm back into the depths of her bag—he really can’t get fired. Not only does he desperately need a new pair of shoes after stepping in a suspicious puddle Cujo left behind (please just let it have been radioactive drool), but he has to prove to his parents that he’s responsible, even if he’s going through a bit of a “destructive phase” with his belongings.
“Eight twenty-two!” the woman declares proudly, hiking her purse up onto her shoulder and beaming down at the skyscraper diorama of coins piled up on his counter. “I told you I had change.” 
“Yes. You did,” Danny says with a defeated breath, scooping the first stack of nickels into his hand, and spreading them out across his palm. 
Five, ten, fifteen…
“It’s eight twenty-two. Trust me.” 
“Sorry, policy. I have to double check,” Danny says with his best apologetic grimace before turning his gaze back down to the coins in his hand. 
Five, ten, fifteen…
“Well, that’s kind of unfair, don’t you think? Isn’t the customer always right?” 
“Right, of course.” 
Twenty, twenty-five, thirty…     
“This is a bad look. It makes it feel like you don’t trust your clientele.” 
Danny gives a half-hearted shrug, not lifting his eyes from the coins. “Sorry. Not my policy.” 
Thirty-five, forty, forty-five…
“Well, I never.” 
Danny makes the mistake of looking up as the woman tsks, gripping the strap of her bag and giving him a scandalized glower.
“Sorry,” he says again, shoulders slumping as he lets out a sigh, his gaze falling back to the mess of nickels in his hand.
Five, ten, fifteen…
***
Danny’s fellow cashier heads up for their lunch during the mid-afternoon lull, leaving Danny up front alone, standing at his till, pretending to be busy in case Hattie wanders past. He types random SKU numbers into the computer to see if it’ll bring up anything, he flips through the binder of faded lumber codes, he sprays his counter down with a bottle of something that smells like death and wipes it away with paper towels that come away gray with grime, he sorts the air fresheners that hang on a display beside his counter. And after all that is done, he’s managed to kill about seven minutes. 
It’s almost a relief when a customer finally wanders up to his till. Almost. 
The man wordlessly plops a length of cord, a roll of duct tape, and a box of garbage bags down on the counter—doesn’t even bother to glance up at Danny, just rolls up the cuff of his dark suit jacket and checks his watch as though the point five seconds he’s been waiting is already too long. 
Danny manages to plaster on his best customer-service smile, hoping his eyes don’t give away the “not this asshole again”  that he’s thinking. 
Nearly once a week, buddy here shows up—way overdressed, with his smarmy ponytail and his suit—acts put out that he has to breathe the same air as the rest of Amity Park’s peons, then proceeds to purchase some of the sketchiest shit Hattie’s Hardware has to offer. Danny’s always left wondering if he should be calling the police instead of ringing up the serial killer’s checklist of supplies on his counter.
But, honestly, he does not get paid enough to keep tabs on Hannibal Lector over there, so he lets it slide. 
“Find everything you were looking for today?” Danny asks as he tips the garbage bags on their side and scans the code on the bottom with a beep.
The man gives the vaguest grunt of acknowledgement, and just before his sleeve falls back in place over the face of his Rolex, Danny notices the fresh scratches marking the man’s pale forearm. 
His brow furrows, but instead of prying, he just plucks up the duct tape and cracks a friendly joke as he twists the roll to find the barcode. “Already got the shovel and axe at home, hunh? Good for you.”
The beep is the only thing to split the silence, and when Danny glances up, it’s to find the man’s dark gaze pinned on him, lips pursed on a thin line. He is very much not laughing.
“Just ah—a joke.” Danny blanches as he gestures weakly at the items on the counter. “Because uhm. You know. If you had a shovel and axe, this would look kind of like you were, ah…”
“I get it,” the man answers frostily.
“Okay,” Danny answers, chastened as he drops his head and picks up the rope. 
Immediately, he can tell Sketchy McBillionaire completely ignored the sign in the hardware aisle asking customers to get an employee’s assistance with the custom lengths of cord—there’s absolutely no SKU or length written anywhere, but Danny makes a show of turning the rope in his hand anyway. 
“Shoot. It looks like your label must have fallen off?” he says, doing his very best not to sound too accusatory, just in case the guy really isn’t above murder. 
“I’m sorry?” the man asks pointedly, brow arching, and it is so very clearly not an apology. 
“Uhm. Well. Since you grabbed a custom length of rope instead of a pre-measured spool, there should be a tag on here somewhere. I need that to ring you up,” Danny tries, gesturing uselessly at the cord.
“Are you serious?” the man asks, teeth gritting. “This is just what I need right now.” 
“I can, uh, page someone from hardware to get us the number?” 
“No need. I’ll go get a pre-measure spool.” The words drip with derision, as if this is somehow Danny’s fault, as the man snaps up the rope and twists on his heel. 
“Actually—” Danny cuts in, withering under the man’s icy gaze as he snaps his head back around. Sheepishly, he continues, “Once the length has been cut, we can’t really keep it…” 
The man’s shoulders heave with a deep breath, his grip curling tight around the cord between his fingers.
“Fine,” he snaps, tossing the looped rope back onto the counter with a thud. “But make it quick. I’ve already been significantly delayed today.” 
Danny gives a curt nod, picking up the receiver beside his register and paging for a hardware employee, his crackly, amplified voice sounding weak as it reverberates through the store. Which is so stupid. He’s a literal superhero—can punch a ghost three ways into next Thursday—so why is he cowed by some guy strutting around the hardware store in a suit?
Maybe because he knows punching this dude isn't an option unless he wants to get fired.
Ugh, why do bad things always happen to him?
Danny tries to play nice—determining not to piss the guy off or lose his job—and schools his features into an affable smile. 
“It’ll just be a couple minutes,” he says.
The man gives a tight “hmmm,” crossing his arms over his chest, brows dropped low over cold blue eyes.
As the silence stretches between them, Danny awkwardly drumming his fingers against the metal till top, the urge to claw out of his skin grows unbearable. Against all better judgment, he finally blurts, “how’s your day going so far?”
“You want to know how my day is going?” The man’s tone drips vitriol, teeth bared as he steps in closer to the till. There’s something hysteric in the twist of the words as he repeats himself. “You want to know how my day is going?”
Danny tries to backpedal, jerkily shakes his head no, but it’s too late. The man gives a laugh somewhere just left of unhinged (why does it almost sound familiar?) and is off on a tangent before Danny can stop him.  
“My day started with a very unwelcome intrusion, weeks of hard work thrown out the window because of some insolent boy and his need to stick his nose in where it doesn’t belong. My day found me bitter and behind schedule, interrupted at a crucial moment because someone has decided to treat my work like some blasted video game. My day”—the man’s eyes dart to the nametag on Danny’s vest, heedless of the way he’s stiffened, heart beating hard in his throat—“Daniel, has left me thwarted, again, an extension of a dismal several months in this wretched town, a string of one disappointment after another. And now I’m delayed once more, stuck waiting here with you, for someone to perform a menial task on my behalf since you can’t identify a length of rope. So tell me, boy. How do you think my day has been going?”
It’s how he spits the word boy, the cadence of the diatribe, the implication behind the words.
Danny just stares at the man, wide-eyed, any kind of response at all sticking in his throat as his palms brace against the back of the till.
It's then the employee from hardware comes bounding over, her cheery, freckled face split on a smile, oblivious to the weighted silence. “How can I help y'all?” 
“I need a price on this.” The man practically snarls the words, snatching the cord and thrusting it at Poppy or Penny or…Genevieve?
Crap. Danny has got to get better at remembering his coworkers’ names.
“O-oh,” she stammers.
“The SKU actually,” Danny manages, and her expression softens with relief—that that’s all he needs, that she doesn't have to put up with this nightmare of a man before them.
She pulls free a small notebook from a pocket in her ugly vest. Thwipping through the pages, she drops a glance to the rope in her hands, flips a little further, then reads off some digits from her hand-scrawled notes. Danny taps them in obediently as Poppy/Penny/Genevieve turns the rope forward and back. 
“Probably about twelve feet,” she guesstimates. 
“Awesome, thank you,” Danny says, the price coming up on screen as he taps in a one-two and thumbs enter.
The man has barely moved, his expression all hard, sharp, unimpressed lines as he stands back and watches them with crossed arms. Poppy/Penny/Genevieve flickers a glance in his direction, then away. 
“Noproblemhereyougotalktoyoulater,” she says, the sentence coming out in one hurried breath as she drops the cord on Danny's counter and bolts. 
With her gone, it's just Danny, the silver-haired man, and the suffocating tension between them once again. 
Danny knows he should focus on getting the purchase rung through and getting the guy out of here, but can't help the beat too long he stares at the man.
He's about the right height, the same goatee, the graying stripe parting his long hair. 
“I don’t have all day.”
“Right!” Danny starts, shifting his attention back to his till’s screen, his pulse fluttering in his chest. Could it be? “Uhm. That comes to—” 
“Yes, yes, it’ll be on credit,” the man interrupts, thrusting a black card at him. 
Danny catches the card against his chest, holds it there as he mashes the man’s total into the debit machine. Before swiping the card, he turns a glance down to the plastic in his hand, his eyes roving past the long string of numbers and the expiration date to find the raised silver lettering beneath.
Vlad Masters. 
His gaze lifts, and he finds the man—Vlad—watching him impatiently. Danny jerks his eyes away as he swipes the card, hands it back, places the printed receipt on the counter to be signed. 
Vlad huffs—doesn't say a word as he fishes a pen from his inside pocket and scrawls a quick, jagged signature.
The arch of his brow, the condescending weight of his gaze, the impatient snap of his movements...
As the man gathers up his supplies, scowling, and pushes through the exit, Danny picks up the merchant copy of the receipt left on his counter. His gaze fixes on the V. Masters on the till paper, his lips twisted on a frown. 
He doesn't know how it's possible, but he thinks that man—Vlad Masters—is his archrival. 
Which means…Plasmius is a half-ghost?
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half-dead-half-wit · 1 year
Text
Welcome to the Nasty Burger, home of the Nasty Burger. Can I take your order?
Mikey doesn't know how he wound up getting talked into working the closing shift at the Nasty Burger in the middle of finals week. He feels like it's some shade of illegal to have a student on the clock past 3 am, but it'll all be worth it, what with Valerie promising him Paulina's phone number for covering for her. Yeah Mikey, keep telling yourself that. It's not like she's already blocked you & changed numbers twice already. She's in love with him, she just doesn't know it yet. Totally. But anyway, that's not even his most pressing issue right now. Oh no, that would be Phantom - THE Phantom. Local town here Phantom. Probably saved the world at least twice and Mikey more times than he could count, Phantom. Yeah, he's been standing - er, floating? Mikey's not entirely sure which, in the drive-thru window for like 20 minutes. And he's been talking. The. Entire. Time. Not ordering food, no. He's just… talking the most batshit nonsense. Even worse, there's a line of cars slowly growing behind him. Mikey had to admit, it took him at least 5 minutes to notice him, initially. Opening the window and attempting to get Phantom's attention hasn't been particularly fruitful. It might help if Mikey said something instead of awkwardly waving & attempting to make eye contact. Yeah, he'll try that. "Uhm, sir?" Mikey tried meekly, to no avail. "So I said, I'm the king of the undead! How am I not exempt from jury duty-" "Excuse me, sir?" He tried, a little louder. No dice. Phantom steamrolled right on through Mikey's admittedly feeble attempts at interruption. "And then the Box Ghost, of all people, strolls in all high and mighty saying he's filing a grievance against me for quote " taking out misplaced aggression" on him! Apparently there's a union for ghosts who died from OSHA violations, of all things! So after the trial, I asked if I could join. Well, as it turns out, since I'm the king of the realm, I don't qualify for any of the protections! Yet I'd still have to pay union dues, can you believe that?!? They said I could take it up with HR, but guess who HR is! The flipping Ghost Writer!! And we all know what he thinks about me. He still hasn't forgiven me for the Christmas Truce fiasco 3 years ago, you know. Like, I'm still not a big fan of the holiday but a truce is a truce and we respect the truce."
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"MR. PHANTOM, SIR YOU ARE BACKING UP MY DRIVE-THRU!!!" whether from embarrassment or exertion from the sheer force of his bellow, Mikey's face turned beet red. He's pretty sure that homeless man across the street wasn't staring murder at him earlier. He might've been asleep then, too. Oops. At least he finally got Phantom's attention. "Wh-huh? Mikey? When did you start working at Denny's? Where's Tali?" The ghosty hero seemed genuinely confused, and also like he wasn't entirely all there at the moment. Maybe he's pulled three all-nighters in a row this week too. That'd explain the spaceship boxers and pink fuzzy slippers he's sporting. "Uh, this is the Nasty Burger?" Mikey responded. Was it a statement or a question? Mikey totally didn't look down at his uniform to confirm he was, in fact, working at the Nasty Burger. "Ah." Phantom said. And upon making that eloquent response, Phantom promptly faded from view, kinda like that popular vine, leaving Mikey with more questions than answers and a line wrapped around the building of hangry, sleep deprived, classmates who stayed up way too late cramming last minute and midnight shift workers desperate for something hot and greasy to shove into their mouths. Great. He didn't even order anything.
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cae-ruleam · 4 months
Text
time's a ticking
rated G - basically a character study of immortal Danny word count: 4405 AO3 link
Danny's seen many loved ones come and go, and he has almost been beaten down countless times. But life goes on, and through the years, Danny's learned to live with that by making new memories to remember, and rekindling old ones.
“Mr. Leverton, it’s already past seven! I’ll be heading out in a moment, you can close up shop soon,” Danny heard a young voice call from the second floor of an old mechanics shop. He took off his gloves and wiped his forehead before mumbling, “Is it really that late already?” to himself. But it seemed that his apprentice still heard him once he started strolling down the wooden stairs.
“Yes, really! Now, please don’t continue working on that and just go home to rest, will ya?” Sawyer chastised the older man with slight exasperation; knowing that if he did not hound Danny, the man may stay holed up here all night and not even realize it until Sawyer returned the next morning.
It’s happened before. Several times too many, in fact. Danny chuckled, “Who’s in charge of who here?” he joked with a roll of his eyes. But he still did as told and started to put all his tools in their right places.
“Har har, you know you’ll get too invested otherwise if you weren’t already, Mr. Leverton,” the young man reiterated once more. He then went and shrugged on his winter coat before saying goodbye and walking out of the shop with a skip. Danny waved at him as he did so, of course.
“Well, he’s not wrong,” Mr. ‘Leverton’ said as he pushed himself up from his stool and cracked his neck.
It’s been a long time since Danny’s gone by the last name ‘Fenton’; it’s been roughly 170 years, in fact. After all, he didn’t have any family when he was a kid, besides his parents, sister, and aunt Alicia, of course. But Jazz and her wife never had any kids of their own, despite fostering many others. Aunt Alicia never remarried after her divorce, plenty satisfied to live her life ‘till the end on her own.
That left Danny, but given the … circumstances of his existence, he quickly shot down any idea of having kids, biological or adopted.
So the Fenton Family’s lineage ended with Jazz and him, some 350 years ago when Jazz passed. He’d faked his death for the public long before then. You could only claim you’re an exceptionally young-looking 40-year-old for so long, after all.
That was until he decided to bring it back briefly, about 200 years ago, for another run and go. He didn’t like the idea of disconnecting himself from his first identity forever, entirely. Even if he had to use a different first name that time.
The second name he’d decided to use was Nightingale. In a hilarious turn of fate, during that 30-year period, there seemed to have been a resurgence in interest in witchcraft.
A lot has changed in the over 400-year period he’s wandered the Earth, yet, not so much has changed at all. And that was why Danny nowadays preferred to keep himself under the radar, and people at an arm’s length.
While he technically retired himself from the superhero business several centuries ago, what, with the amount of his rogues mellowing out and there being less need for Phantom to be able to show up at any moment; he would still help out whenever necessary. Such as, when there were catastrophes from space threatening the entire globe and its attached afterlife, something he’d done before but no one remembers nowadays. Or, when the wrong people got a hold of the rapidly developed technology and weapons of warfare, ones so strong and destructive the humans themselves do not even have any preventive measures for. But that was neither here nor there.
He preferred it this way. He was getting old – albeit not physically, he definitely was mentally – and he’d never been too fond of being part of the superhero business in general. He was merely thrust into it at a ripe fourteen years of age due to a stupid mistake stupid kids made. He was thankful he could mostly part ways with that life, nowadays. Jazz also said that it had made him happier.
“Speaking of…” it’s been a while since he’s visited his sister. The only one from his immediate circle that became a ghost. His parents likely would’ve rather been burned to death than become ghosts in the afterlife, and Sam and Tucker … Danny supposed they’d lived a fulfilling enough life to not return.
He was happy for them, for that fact; even if it had hurt at first when he realized. Even when it still hurt, over 300 years later to know they’d moved on from him. But perhaps love was never meant to be, for a being such as himself.
Jazz, on the other hand, said that she would never be able to leave her baby brother to fend for himself, especially if this baby brother was some immortal semi-godlike being who’s made more than a few bad decisions in his then-normal-lifespan. Danny had laughed at that proclamation at first. Until she really came back to haunt him forever in the afterlife that is.
Danny went ahead and locked up the door of his mechanics’ shop before heading up the stairs to the second floor, personal belongings in tow. He’d rather not open a portal and disappear through it, right in front of the large windows the first floor had.
The halfa took a gentle breath and dipped into a bit of concentration before tearing a hole through reality – its veil was rather thin, all things considered. After all these years and so much experience, creating portals was like child’s play to him – hell, even creating duplicates was.
He then let his familiar transformation wash over him before flying through the portal and closing it off again with a wave of his gloved hand once he was on the other side.
Danny found himself in a familiar area of the Ghost Zone – some small spectral village that was built roughly 700 years ago, if he remembered his history correctly. He shouldn’t let Clockwork know that he’s already forgotten the lessons he gave him; he’d be so disappointed.
Danny looked around in the air briefly before slowly floating down toward the paved roads, and just when he came to a halt, a few inches off the floor, a shrill voice caught his attention.
“Phantom!” it happily called out, loudly – and before Danny was able to turn around he was tackled into a hug by some familiar weight. Once his eyes landed on his assailant, everything made sense. “Hi there to you too, Brianne,” he greeted kindly. The ghost child giggled and kicked her feet before she looked up at him again. “Aunt Jazz has been worried sick!” she continued.
Danny’s eyes widened momentarily, and he quickly tried to hide his shock again. “And why would she be?” he asked as he patted the girl’s head, even though he had several guesses for why Jazz could be worried to the point others would know about it.
“She’s been muttering to herself about how it’s been too long since you visited…” Brianne answered with a scrunched expression, as if deep in thought and racking her brain to remember the details. “Also something about … afraid that frostbite would get to you? Or not get to you? I don’t know why she would be though! You have an ice core,” she continued on.
Danny chuckled and patted her head once more, “She’s probably worried that Mr. Frostbite, chief of the Far Frozen-” “Wouldn’t be able to find this reckless uncle of yours when he inevitably forgot his check-ups again,” Jazz added.
“Jazz!” Danny remarked surprised, but also excited, “Did you really have to put it like that?” he asked sheepishly.
“It wouldn’t be the first time, now would it? It’s a valid concern; you haven’t visited me in two years!” she chided her brother, her always younger baby brother – no matter how old or powerful he’s gotten.
Danny’s expression became slightly pained. He huffed and motioned his head to the side briefly as if to tell his sister, ‘Let’s continue this at your place,’ and it seemed that Jazz agreed. His sister looked down at the girl standing confused between the two of them and quietly told her something or another – Danny didn’t quite catch it – and she immediately went on her merry way.
Jazz started walking once Brianne had gone off, and Danny made it a point to close the distance he had with the ground and walk alongside her. Despite being able to fly, as the skill was part of any ghost’s basic repertoire, Jazz was one of the few ghostly inhabitants of the ‘Zone who had always preferred to feel her feet planted on the ground, even after death. He saw no need to mention it and was always happy to join her; gently grabbing her hand as he did so.
“I’m sorry that it’s been so long,” he started after a moment of not-so-uncomfortable quiet, “It’s just … After all these years-” “Time catches up to you, and you lose track of it instead,” Jazz finished his sentence for him once more. She exhaled, revealing no emotion with that action, not really. “I know, we’ve been through this plenty of times before, I got that by the time you turned 320 well enough,” she continued.
“But that doesn’t mean I can’t still point it out. Who knows what would happen otherwise?” she added after a beat of silence. “What? You’re afraid I’ll forget to visit you for decades at a time, or something?” Danny asked with a chuckle, rhetorically, mostly.
Jazz halted in her steps, forcing Danny to a stop too, and making him turn to see her raising an unimpressed eyebrow at him. “Heh, maybe you’re right,” he said with a sigh.
“You’re the one who said you lose track of time, after all. And I don’t think it’ll ever really get better,” she said, her tone devoid of judgment.
When they continued walking, but Danny didn’t respond for a few moments too long, Jazz spoke again. “You know I don’t blame you, right? It’s not unnatural – it’s just – I don’t want to lose you also,” she said quietly.
“You don’t have to! Isn’t that why you became a ghost in the first place? So we’d never lose each other,” Danny responded.
Jazz sighed and nodded. “Yes, but when you don’t contact me for so long, it’s … hard to not get scared. And before you say anything about me joining you – you know very well that I can’t sustain myself outside the Ghost Zone for long like you can, now that you move around the globe instead of staying put in Amity. Not that you should ever feel compelled to do that, of course.”
Once they’d arrived at Jazz’s doorstep, she removed her hand from Danny’s to find her keys and unlock the door, before opening it and letting Danny through. Doors in the ‘Zone were very much Ghost-proof, after all. But not so much human proof. Danny quickly dropped himself on the sofa with a satisfied “Humph”, making Jazz shake her head at him as she locked the door again.
“Do you want something to drink?” she asked, already making her way to the kitchen.
“Some ecto-jasmine will do,” Danny responded.
“Do I even want to know if that’s a poor attempt at a joke, or not?”
“Why not both? And hey! It is not poor,” a beat went by, “Okay, maybe it is.”
Danny sighed as he watched his sister work, shaking his head, “But no, you’re … right. I should probably be putting more effort into this … relationships thing. At least for others, even if not myself.”
“Oh?” Jazz responded curiously from the kitchen across.
Danny noted long ago how her home in the Ghost Zone – her Keep manifested from herself – resembled the different houses she’s lived in in her human life. That’s nothing strange, not at all. Many ghosts’ Keeps reflected parts of themselves, or their mortal lives. What was notable however was just how akin to the Fenton house in Amity Park Jazz’s was. Despite everything, it meant that her memories tied to it were comfortable and strong enough to manifest like this.
Contrary, Danny’s Keep – besides the one previously belonging to Pariah – was a weird amalgamation of their childhood home from before they moved to Amity, his many houses since then, and hell – it even saw a bit of Sam’s home! And it still changed to this day, as every new house he inhabited for a longer period of time would shift it again, even if it had been happening less frequently or substantially than before. One thing stayed consistent, however, and that was that there was a distinct lack of their home in Amity Park.
Jazz had mentioned before that it likely meant Danny had separated himself entirely from that aspect of his life, and that that was okay. That it was a form of healing as well.
But Danny couldn’t help but feel like it meant he was running away from it. His life and experiences there were what made him into the man he is today, after all. But that was neither here nor there.
Danny nodded, even though he knew Jazz wouldn’t be able to see it, and responded, “Yeah … for you. For Brianne,” a child taken too soon. A young ghost Danny found wandering around, lost in the Ghost Zone, shortly after her death. Now in the care of the community here, “And I’ve … taken on a human apprentice.” Danny finally bit the bullet and admitted it.
Danny then heard some ceramic shatter.
He jumped up from the couch alarmed, “Is everything alright?” he asked hastily.
Jazz sucked in a breath of air through gritted teeth before responding, “Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry.”
She then grabbed a new cup, poured the tea in it, and returned with two of them in hand to the living room. As she set them down, she continued talking, “I was just caught off guard. I mean, you? Of all people taking in a human apprentice? When your only answer to me goading you into establishing more relationships with people again was ‘Nah.’ for the longest time? Sue me for not believing it immediately,” she said sarcastically.
“Very funny, Jazz. But I really can’t blame ya,” Danny responded, accepting defeat.
Jazz’s expression turned softer as she pinned her brother down and sighed, “Of course you can’t. Anyway, care to elaborate?” she asked as she raised her cup of tea to her mouth, taking a gentle sip of the hot beverage.
Danny closed his eyes and shook his head as he picked up his tea as well, responding, “It’s not like you’ll let me out of here until I do so,” he said. “You know me well, little brother,” she teased.
“What caused this change in heart?” Or resurfacing perhaps, that’d be a more accurate description.
Danny pouted in thought for a moment. “I just met this kid, Sawyer’s his name, a few months ago. He has a talent for engineering, but I found out soon after that his family probably wouldn’t be able to send him to college for that. Even after so long, the world hasn’t really become more fair. If it hasn’t gotten worse, that is,” he explained.
Jazz sighed, disappointed but not surprised, “That doesn’t shock me in the slightest. Anyway, so you thought you’d teach him the ropes?” The halfa nodded, “Basically; and maybe he’ll be able to get a scholarship after that, if he wants to, anyway.”
“You saw a part of yourself in him, didn’t you?” Jazz said, seemingly out of nowhere.
Danny huffed, just barely amused, “What made you think that?” he asked with suspicion.
“A young boy with uncultivated talents, really, Danny?” his sister asked in return, unimpressed.
Danny quieted at that. He’s been a lot quieter in general, especially compared to his youth, Jazz noted.
It wasn’t a surprise to anyone, and not a secret for anyone, that Danny changed a lot when his loved ones started passing one by one, while he stayed young and living forever. Jazz wasn’t exempt from that either, as the only one who continued to stay by his side, even if that meant continuing without her wife and dear friends who happily moved on.
The two of them always knew it would come to this, and they’d both made peace with it now. But it didn’t take a genius to realize that Danny’s solution to not experiencing this heartbreak again, was to distance himself from humankind. He stayed close, residing more in the human realm than the ghostly one, but he detached himself from relationships just enough for them to not get too close. For him to not get hurt too bad once he’d inevitably see them for a last time.
Unfortunately, in doing so, Danny separated himself from both communities that he was a part of.
Now, Jazz felt that for the first time in over a century, she saw the care he once carried all around him, emerge once more. This Sawyer kid, no doubt has been a huge part of that.
She saw the need to point it out as such, “I think this change has been good for you, little brother.” At Danny’s puzzled face, she continued, “You seem more energetic, more comfortable in your own body,” she said with a smile.
She set her cup down on the lounge table and walked over to Danny who was on the opposite side, kneeling down and holding her hand on top of his knee. “It must’ve hurt, keeping a part of yourself buried for so long,” she whispered quietly, but without another sound nearby it was louder than clear.
It was this comment that broke Danny’s defenses down, an attack so gentle it wouldn’t even have left a scratch. First came one tear, and then another, before they were followed by many more soon enough until her little brother was sobbing uncontrollably. Jazz didn’t think twice before embracing him in a tight hug.
He hugged back just as tightly, if not tighter. If Jazz were still human, she would’ve had to beg for air soon enough. So it was a good thing she didn’t have to.
The siblings just sat there, crying into each other’s shoulders for Ancients know how long.
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On a clear spring day, Sawyer was prepared to head into Daniel Leverton’s shop early in the morning as he’s done many times before, half expecting he may have to wake up his teacher again; an occurrence that had become quite familiar to him as of late.
Instead, he was met with a decked-out first floor, a cake at his workbench, and a very awake Mr. Leverton.
“Happy birthday, I hope you’ll like your gift!” the raven-haired man had exclaimed.
Sawyer barked a laugh at that. “I honestly didn’t expect you to have remembered,” he said. His tone wasn’t rude, not in the slightest. He was merely stating a fact.
“I didn’t either, but hey, seems like old-timers still run alright once in a while,” he said with a wink.
And that had always been a peculiarity to Sawyer. He knew that Mr. Leverton was older than he looked. Even if he didn’t always act it, he had way too much experience for that not to be the case. But other times he would sound like any of his slightly older friends. Yet on occasion, he sounded like so much more. Even his grandparents wouldn’t have compared when they’d been alive.
Sawyer pushed those silly musings out of his head before accepting his gift – some tools that he may or may not have been drooling over while he was out with Mr. Leverton gathering supplies a few weeks ago, as well as some chocolates he vaguely remembered noting he enjoyed once, offhandedly.
For someone so air-headed – or perhaps, appearing to be on another plane entirely, the elder was attentive like no other.
Daniel Leverton was a curious man, and he continued to surprise the young mechanic.
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It was on a different spring morning, several springs after that birthday, that Sawyer received an important email.
It was an email of acceptance into college – one dictating that he’d be the recipient of a scholarship, no less.
Mr. Leverton was the first person he’d tell about this news. Instead of the immediate excitement that he’d expected of the man, he received a pondering expression.
“Y’know, I was about to ask if you were interested in taking over the shop,” he’d said after he left Sawyer to wander about in his own confusion for a while.
Before he could respond, however, Leverton continued, “I’m proud of you, you should definitely go for it, I know how much it means for you. Just know you’ll always have a place to return to.”
“What are you going to do then?” he responded.
Mr. Leverton hummed with his trademark smirk and grinned, “I was thinking of taking an early pension and traveling the world for a bit. I still have a lot of inheritance left from my too-rich godfather, too. And I’ll keep the building for now, but clients will have to find a new favorite mechanic. Oh, I just know how much it’ll pain them to not find me again though, truly tragic,” he explained dramatically.
“You know, Mr. Leverton, sometimes it really doesn’t feel like you’re the older one of the two of us anymore,” Sawyer teased.
“Oh, but I can assure you I am,” the other said with a wink, “But feel free to call me Danny. Seeing you call me Mr. Leverton to this day really does make me feel so old,” he continued, placing a hand on his heart with a pained expression.
“Heh, okay, Danny,” Sawyer tested the name on his tongue. “I’ll let you know about the shop when I get close to graduating, yeah?”
“We have a deal!” Danny responded as he theatrically shook his hand. “Those stuck-up academics won’t know what’ll hit them.”
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Danny didn’t actually travel the world like he’d told Sawyer; he’d done that plenty of times before. Going on two world-round trips within a century sounded kinda overkill, even to him.
No, what he did in actuality was that he decided to reside in the Infinite Realms for a little longer again – while still returning to Earth on occasion to let the systems know that he had not, in fact, died yet. He didn’t plan on doing that for a few years yet.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Danny’s been planning on his new identity for a bit now. Or, well, old identity.
“Do you think the world is ready for the return of Danny Fenton?” he’d mused to Jazz on a seemingly random day.
“I don’t see why not,” she responded. “What brought you to this decision?”
“I just think it would be nice to revisit some old memories, friends, and places.”
Jazz smiled serenely at that. “I think that’s a great idea, Danny.”
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“Heard anything from Sawyer recently?” Jazz asked him one day, a different random day. Danny shook his head.
“Nah, seems like he’s been living a good life. He hasn’t been updating me as frequently lately, but I like to see that as him broadening his circles,” he responded fondly. But then, his mortal phone rang – techniques to make them compatible with ghost-tech and the ‘Zone courtesy to Tucker, of course – and he laughed. “Speak of the devil.” He transformed into his human form before picking up the call.
“Hey there, Sawyer. How’s school been?”
“It’s … been very great, actually, Danny. I have met someone very great, in fact. But uhm – more on that later. Remember what you said about the shop?”
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Danny returned to his cozy little shop for the first time in roughly four years, not so long after he’d attended Sawyer’s graduation ceremony. He picked up a few of his belongings he couldn’t miss, and threw them inside his pocket dimension for safekeeping.
It was as he did this, that Sawyer entered, and caught him in the act. He’d been planning for this to happen, really.
The young man looked a bit confused but didn’t see any need to press further. If anything, Danny figured this would answer some questions in the long run, once the other thought about it.
“Heh, that’s not something you see any day,” was the boy’s first comment.
“Really? I see it happen plenty of times,” Danny snarked back.
“Man, I’d so want to punt you if I didn’t know for sure I stood no chance.”
Danny hummed, “I think you’ll have to stand back in the line for that.”
Neither man said another thing for a while after that, until Danny’s eyes landed on a small ecto-ornament he’d put on his table when he left for the Ghost Zone those years ago. He picked it up and held it out to Sawyer.
“Here, keep this. If you’ll ever be gone for a while, put this out in the open and it’ll put the area into stasis. Nothing will age for the worse, and it’ll serve as a protective charm against burglaries,” Danny said in a light tone at the end, though he wasn’t joking. Attempted burglars will wake up more than a little dazed if they so much as dare touch upon the shop.
“I … Honestly, I’m not even gonna question that. I just saw you tear a hole in reality,” Sawyer responded.
“That’s probably for the best,” Danny said with a gentle nod of his head before putting the ornament into the young man’s hands.
“Anyway, I’ve got everything I need. You can keep the rest, or throw it out – whatever floats your boat. This place is yours now. I left my key and the spares on my workbench,” Danny explained with a tilt of his head.
“What are you going to do this time?”
“That’s a secret,” Danny replied. “But do come find me again, as a man named Daniel Fenton.”
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Years pass by, with Sawyer finding no such man.
Until one day, into his later years, when his children had already taken over the shop, he heard a familiar voice he’d not heard in decades, but could never forget.
“Hey there, Sawyer,” Danny Fenton said, in the flesh; not looking a day older than their last meeting all those years ago.
“I’m proud of you.” And I of you.
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arlieash-blog · 8 months
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Valerie has been ignoring changes. Changes in her, her suit, and her relationship with the local ghost boy. One day soon, she won't be able to ignore them any longer.
Danny has started to notice odd changes with Valerie but before he can figure out just what is changing, he accidentally triggers the biggest one of all.
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redead-red · 8 months
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Mother Knows Best
Words: 5647 Fandom: Danny Phantom Characters: Pamela Manson, Sam Manson, Pamela Manson's Mother Warnings: Bullying, depiction of childbirth, Holocaust mention
Pamela Manson knows her role: she is Samantha's mother and that means that it is her duty to protect her daughter from harm. Especially as her own mother seemed to have missed that memo.
AO3 Link | Artist
Invisobang has finally come! So exciting. So much to read!! This year I did character study into Pamela Manson and it was incredibly cathartic for me. I hope you enjoy it too <3
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glow-and-vamp · 7 months
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Behold, the fruits of our labor for @invisobang ! A novel-length feature, starring everyone's favorite cringefail Packers fan! The whole thing is done, but we'll be posting as we have the final go through each chapter to ensure there's no loose ends!
Vlad is far from the perfect man he likes to delude himself to be. But when he's forced to confront his issues head on, perhaps he's not irredeemable after all.
This the story of the Masters family, freshly broken after the betrayal against Dani, when Vlad finds an infant that was just like him- more so than even Danny: Dying from ectoplasmic radiation.
Vlad is the only one who understands the fatal diagnosis and steals the baby, to help them through what he himself experienced over twenty years ago. But from one selfless act grow many more, and with the fruits of his labor he hopes to savor what he's always wanted all along: Love and acceptance.
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nat-a-nat · 1 year
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25. Forest
He thinks about the corpse in the woods sometimes. Hard to forget where you are buried
He thinks about the corpse in the woods sometimes. Hard to forget where you are buried.
It's October now. It's getting colder. The leaves are falling. They must be covering it by now.
They crunch under his steps as he walks. Something CRUSHES under his foot. His mind pictures bones. Ribs breaking in two.
It's just a branch.
He continues his walk.
The sky is bright, but the mood is gloom. The air is moist. 
It's been a while. It must have decomposed by now, with how much rain they get. Sometimes, he thinks he can feel the dirt on his bones.
He puts a finger on his pulse. Thump. A pause. A painfully long, long, pause. It shouldn't be this long. Thump. He is alive. But his skin is cold.
His hoodie is thick. It was always enough to keep him warm. Now, he is always cold.
The ice of his core. Slowly freezing him from the inside out. 
It's shallowly buried. His corpse. Barely a few centimetres underground. A lump in the dirt hastily covered with soil. Six feet, that's how it's supposed to be.
He strays from the path. Disappeares through the trees. Like a ghost.
There's a few hiker trails in the forests surrounding Amity, but he disregards them all.
He moves through the thick foliage. There are broken branches, broken saplings. He tries to not further disturb it all.
He crushes a flower about halfway through. The stem is mangled, his shoe sole imprinted in the bud.He picks it. He rolls it between his fingers the rest of the way.
He reaches a clearing. There's a big rock in the middle. 
His soul aches. A corpse with no grave, a ghost without rest. What a pity.
He goes up to the rock. The ground underneath it is uneven, disturbed from digging.
Is it still wrong to stand on a grave if it's yours?
He kneels on the forest floor and sets a candle down. Lights it. He lays the mangled flower beside it.
A single broken flower for a lonely corpse.
He feels sorry for it. It must be sad. All alone. In a dark, cold forest. With nobody to know you died, with nobody to mourn you.
Leaving his makeshift graveyard, he felt lighter. That single candle flame keeping him warmer than any blanket.
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vigilant-insomniac · 6 days
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Ashes rain upon your scalded palms pt 2
Prev | Chapter 2/3 | next | or read on AO3
Word Count 3571
Complete Wordcount: 9655
Maddie builds a Thing and finally seeks out the Ghost to get some answers. She had to find Danny. She had to save her son. The Ghost was her best lead, and if she had to face it, armed with nothing more than her determination, she would.
Contains: Maddie & Danny, Post apocalyptic vibes, and the usual bucket full of angst! @phicphight submission
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Chapter Two
Before she could save anyone, Maddie needed to be more prepared than she was. Fenton Works was very much out of the question, since the only part of it still standing was the leftovers of the Portal. Scavenging from it felt like a bad idea. 
But, there should be some workshops around that would carry the necessary equipment to build a very rudimentary shield or device. Jack's ancestors had a lot of know-how on how to contain evil spirits without high tech. Maddie had used their papers in a lot of her research and was pretty confident that she would be able to build something from what she would find lying around. 
Danny had been an apprentice at a copper smithy, and she was fairly certain she still knew the layout of the workshop from when he had shown her around. 
Mind made up, Maddie grabbed whatever she found promising in her current location. Which included the vacuum. That was some of the most advanced technology she would find in an average household, and if Jack’s ancestors got this far by just relying on analogue mechanics and plants, she could definitely do even better with some cutting edge tech. She also found a jar of salt that would help as a rudimentary protection against ghosts.
The radio she found was a bit too bulky to carry around, so she hoped that the workshop had one. 
Her walk through the outskirts of the ruined townscapes felt eerie, she didn’t quite feel the same gooseflesh inducing sensation as she had closer to the portal, but she felt on edge in a way that felt purely instinctual. 
The copper workshop was easy to break into since it decidedly lacked one of its walls. Maddie had hoped to escape the heat some more, but to get to the coppery, she had to get back into the zone of destruction, which meant that the buildings wouldn’t be intact anymore. 
Still she was lucky. The workshop was mostly in one piece. Ash still coated everything, but she could still see that only some parts of the main room had really caved in. 
So she started to rummage and explore. 
Fairly quickly she had gathered a generator and fuel, enough copper and tin to build almost anything, tools to cut and bend, and wires and components from the vacuum. She even did find a radio that was in just as bad a state as the rest of the technology she had found so far, but still, it was a welcome addition to her arsenal. 
The best thing was the soldering station though. In less time than she could have hoped for otherwise, she managed to build a construct that, in theory, should act like some kind of vacuum. 
She didn’t have a container for the spirit she was hoping to catch, so she would need to watch out to keep the generator up and running. 
As long as it did, the suction of the device would keep the ghost from going anywhere. It was a risk though. Even the generator itself was about to just fall apart, and her fuel supply was a joke at best. 
She still needed a weapon. That was the conclusion she arrived at when she looked at the somewhat misshapen pile of wires and plates that were soldered together sloppily. To think she was going to bet her life on a device that was maybe as big as a dinner plate, that was untested and unheard of….. 
A glance at the sky made her stomach sink. It was hard to tell with the diffused lighting, but slowly and steadily the sun had made its way across the sky. It was August, so days were fairly long, but she maybe had two more hours before dusk. Once it got dark, she’d be even more defenseless. Running would already be difficult enough with all the rubble, but in the dark? When ghosts were the most active too? 
Maddie turned around and tried to find something that would work as a weapon. 
There were the workbenches and the cupboards and the drawers with tools. She opened them haphazardly but nothing really stood out. She did manage to find a knife, and there was the salt she had pilfered from the house earlier, so she might be able to at least coat the blade and hope the theories were sound. 
While she looked for another, better, alternative, her eyes fell on something she had dismissed as another pile of broken equipment. 
She drew closer though, on her search, and noticed that the misshapen lump was a tarp over something. 
Her hands moved carefully and she held her breath when removing the tarp shook up a cloud of ash and dust. 
It took a moment to clear, but when it did, Maddie let out a shuddering exhale. Before her was a half finished telescope. It showed off craftsmanship and passion even in its half finished state. And it would never be finished. It would never be used to look at a night sky. 
This was Danny’s. 
There was paper under the parts. Plans and schematics, and more than a few drawings of constellations, that Danny would surely have gotten into trouble for, to be writing them on the margins of his work as just an apprentice. 
Maddie couldn’t help the anger that flashed unbidden. She would fix this. Danny would get to see the stars through his telescope. She was going to find him and then bring him back somehow. They would find a way, and then Danny would finish his telescope and she would finish the portal and make sure nothing like this future would ever happen. She would eradicate every ghost beyond existence before letting them use her portal as a bomb. 
“Focus on the tasks at hand, Maddie,” she told herself. She had her ghost trapping device, and she had a knife that she could coat in salt. 
Next would be finding said ghost, and getting answers. 
She nodded to herself and began pulling the tarp back over Danny’s unfinished telescope. It felt strangely mournful, but fitting in a way. She just didn’t like this association with her son. He had to be alright. 
Maddie couldn’t stay here any longer. Time was of essence. 
Quickly she found another tarp, folded up half heartedly on another shelf, and began gathering her makeshift machinery in it. She’d have to sling it over her shoulder so she would have her hands free to carry around the generator. She cursed internally that there was nothing like a battery that would both fuel an invention like that, and survive 100 years in an apocalyptic oven. 
It mattered none. She wanted to get out in the open. Ghosts would be at an advantage anyways, whether she was within four walls or an open field, but with their supposed ability to walk through walls, which she herself decidedly lacked, she didn’t want to encounter the energy where she could be cornered. 
The ghost had been around the portal and some part of her, the one that would shudder when she thought about going back to the epicenter of it all, knew that they were connected. She would bet that the ghost was the one to blow up her portal in her future. 
It still mainly counted as a guess, but it was the only lead she got, so there was that. 
She looped the tarp around her torso and made sure it would hold the delicate machine. Her handkerchief was back over her mouth and tied behind her head. The knife was in her belt and just one motion away. 
So with a grunt she hefted the generator on her shoulder and began to move back out into the open. 
Even just after a few meters, every step was already a struggle, and in no time she felt sweat run down her back. 
One foot in front of the other. 
Breathe in hot air, exhale hot air. 
Find Danny. Save him. 
Find Danny. Save him. 
Find Danny. Save Him. 
The mission became Maddie’s mantra throughout the trip and no matter how much her legs shook, she didn’t stop until she could make out her portal's shadowy silhouette again. 
Heat flared up and gooseflesh rose on her arm. Not yet to the same extent as it had back then, when she saw the ghost. But she knew it must be close. She could even feel its eyes on her. That, or her mind had decided to give in to the heat. 
But it proved her right. She hadn’t been certain before, but now she would dare say, the ghost wouldn’t come find her without an added incentive. She had made quite some noise back in the coppery, and had almost expected to be discovered. So if it didn’t seek her out itself, she had to come to him. 
The problem just now presented: setting up would take some time. 
The closer to the portal she got, the longer she’d had to endure the heat, which already felt more than she could handle for long, and the more likely it would be that the Ghost would actually engage her before she was done. 
She put down the generator with a resounding thud. Her legs almost gave out. Maybe she didn’t have that much room for choice anyways, it felt impossible to lift the generator back up again. 
At least she was at a relatively flat part of the whole mayhem. 
It would have to do. 
Maddie began setting up her invention in silence. It was unnerving. The heat and exhaustion were making her hands shake and more than once she almost broke something off. 
The sun was now definitely reaching towards the horizon too, so she felt compelled to hurry. To rush. 
The threat of being stranded here at night sat in the back of her mind- she felt uncomfortable to even take a moment to double check if everything was connected properly before turning on the generator. 
The disc shaped machine sat in place though. No wire disconnected and all parts undamaged from her trip ups during the walk. 
There wasn’t a lot of fuel, so she had to make it count. Meaning, she had to get the ghost to come to her, before turning it on. Otherwise it might run for minutes or hours that she couldn’t spare. 
She could still feel the ghost. The hair on the back of her neck, that refused to lie flat. It was somewhere around here. And just because she couldn’t see it, didn’t mean that it couldn’t be watching her this very moment. 
Her running hypothesis was that the ghost had, for some reason, destroyed her portal to use it as a bomb. So, assuming it didn’t know all that much about tech, she could bluff her way through this. 
Her mouth felt dry. Find Danny. Save him. She had to do this. For her son.
She kept her hand over the switch of the generator. For her son. 
Deep inhale and hope her voice would hold after a day of impure air. For her son. 
Showtime. 
“VILE SPECTER! YOU MAY HAVE CLAIMED THE FENTON PORTAL, BUT YOU SHALL NEVER HAVE MINE. I WILL TEAR THROUGH THE VEI-” 
Green. 
Her vision was filled with the sight of a pair of glowing green eyes inches away from her own. She flipped the switch and for a terrifying moment she couldn’t breathe. She was in a furnace and any inhale would surely burn her lungs. Instincts screamed at her to runrunrun get away! 
But her SON. Her SON needed her. She stood her ground even as teeth were bared and a growl made the very air oscillate. 
A maw filled with razors opened so close she could feel its hot breath on her throat. Black smoke coiled around her like bindings. 
Then the generator hummed and she could only sink to the floor with her entire being shaken, while the ghost thrashed and spat in fury at the sudden interruption of its meal.. 
The Disk was doing its job. It sucked the ghost towards it, like on a retractable leash. It had a bit of a radius it could struggle against, one that Maddie had to stay conscious of, but it couldn’t get away. It was confined, even if it hadn’t sunk in for the creature yet. 
It screeched furiously and Maddie wondered suddenly if it was even capable of human speech. It had to. If it didn’t, her whole plan was about to fall apart. 
For now, she could get back into her composed self. She was deeply shaken, the ghost had appeared out of nowhere. From one moment to the other it just had been there. Right in her face. It could have snapped her neck before she would have known what had happened. 
Now she would be relatively safe. As long as the generator held. 
The Scientist in her made her stop and observe for at least a moment. This still was quite groundbreaking, even under the circumstances, and who knew when the next time would be, that she could look at a ghost from such a short distance. 
Now that she looked, she was fairly certain the ghost would be able to understand human speech after all. It only hissed and snarled right now, but it was fairly humanoid. It was built like a lanky teenager. Long limbs ended in clawed and blackened hands. Its body looked like it was covered in a black fabric that stretched over bony ribs and shoulders. The face was distorted in its fury, but while the features were humanoid enough, they were also somewhat otherworldly. Its white hair that was as long as it was tall, hid some of it, but she could still make out the most important bits. The eyes were a shade of green shed never seen before. Glowing and bright. The sclera was black though, which added to the strangeness of the green. Its bone structure looked rather delicate for a being this terrifying. Now that she looked closer, not much muscle could be seen either. Yet she had no doubt it would be able to overpower her with one hand. 
Well, she would like some answers before that became the case. 
“Stop that.” she ordered with a hoarse voice. The ghost growled in response. 
“Let me guess, it’s your first time being caught? Then let me tell you the rules. I ask you questions, you answer them. If you do, you will be let go, and will not learn what sort of inventions I'm keeping in my lab coat.”
It still snarled at her, but it had its eyes locked onto her now. It definitely understood, it just didn’t seem to agree. Maddie fought to suppress a shiver at the intensity of its glare.
“Why did you destroy the Portal.” 
More posturing was what she expected, but it actually froze for but a moment. Not for long though. It found renewed energy to throw itself against its incorporeal restraints. 
“Hah!” she scoffed, “So I was right! You are the one responsible!” Maddie hissed herself. It didn’t take a verbal reply to get answers. Its behavior was clear enough. 
“So you just decided to do all this?” she gestured around the wasteland, acutely noting the rise in temperature. “You somehow blew up the portal, about a century ago, to do what? Was this your goal? To turn a whole city into a hellscape?” Her voice rose and for the first time the creature seemed to not just want to get out of its cage, but away from her specifically. 
"Answer me!” She yelled and the ghost all but flinched. 
"Why did you do all this?!” Maddie’s fists shook as she held them pressed to her side. She wanted to kick and bite and tear apart. But this thing. She wouldn’t stand a chance. It made her sick. 
The ghost didn’t reply. 
“No matter." Maddie took a steadying breath. It was getting hard to really think. The air was thick and heavy. The temperatures have been steadily rising and her makeshift mask was soaked and starting to make it even harder to catch her breath. 
“What I’m really here for is to find Danny. You have something to do with this, don’t you?!” She snarled not less viciously as the ghost had. “You’re the key to finding him, so I will not let you go, until you tell me where he is!” 
“No.” That was the first thing she’d heard from the ghost that wasn’t just a sound. Its tone was disbelieving. 
But then it said it again. And again. Anger rising and heat flaring. It’s body turned to smoke at the edges like it was getting singed. 
“you know something!” She yelled in the face of that admittance. The ghost lashed its tail like an angered cat. 
“Go away!” it screeched. 
“Not until i have found Danny.” She screamed back. It was flying in circles, looking for a way out of its enclosure. It was furious, Maddie could tell, but so was she. 
“What did you do to him? Whatever it is, he didn’t deserve it. He is kind. He is bright. And he deserved nothing you could do to him.” 
It turned to her and bared its fangs once more. “Oh, you didn’t like that, huh? Cant handle the truth that you are none of those things?” Maddie grit out.
“How would you even know?!” The ghost roared in fury and Maddie couldn’t take the heat anymore. She needed more air. She tore off her makeshift mask and gasped. 
“How couldn't I know,” she breathed into the unexpected silence " when I’m his mother.” 
The air that had been charged with tension until then, suddenly imploded. 
“No,” it began to mumble again, “No, this cannot be.” 
“I killed you.” it confessed, and Maddie had expected as much. What she wasn’t expecting was the shift in mood. Where before there had been anger, now there was despair. The sky darkened and flakes of ash started to fall like a sick mimicry of snow.
“So you did. And if you have any morsel of humanity left, you will give me back Danny.” Her voice was firm in the face of its dismay. 
“I killed you.” It repeated again. 
She was about to snap. 
“I killed everyone.” it whispered and the expression on its face distorted to one of pure anguish as it clutched its chest. 
Wind, something that had been absent since her arrival, picked up and whipped her hair around. Ash stung her eyes and exposed skin and she had to brace against the gusts of hot air. 
The ghost started to rock back and forth with wide unseeing eyes. 
“I killed them. I killed everyone. I-” Maddie reached for her knife nervously.
Its head snapped up and- 
crack. 
A noise that was akin to a clap of thunder suddenly originated from the ghost and everything stopped. 
The temperature too, cut like hot metal being plunged into water.
But Maddie barely even recognized it, when following the cracking sound, the ghost dropped the rest of the way to the ground like gravity had suddenly been turned back on and a ring of blinding light sprung forth from the center of its- his chest. 
It took barely a moment, but something had fractured and the ghost, like a broken illusion, got replaced with a human. 
He looked up and Maddie dropped her knife. Framed by black hair that pooled on the ground, her son's face, his eyes stared at her with an expression of utter grief and despair. 
“I know that Danny isn’t any of those things, because I am Danny.” There was none of the echo anymore. 
But this- surely this was a lie- 
“But I killed them. I killed everyone I ever cared about. Everyone is dead. They are all dead. It’s all my fault, If i hadn’t- I had to bury you. I killed you. I killed my own mother, my own family. I’m a monster. I-” in agony he doubled over and Maddie scrambled up to rush to her son. This was wrong. This had to be a mistake. She had to find Danny. (He’s here.) She had to save him! (he was already gone.)
Her hands hovered over his thin shoulders. 
“Danny-” The boy in front of her, didn’t even hear her. He curled up, and a scream built. The sheer desolation was palpable. Then the scream grew in intensity, it got hard to breathe again, she clasped her hands over her ears but it pierced right through, until it became a wail and Maddie knew nothing but her son's agony as if it was her own. 
The image of him kneeling on the ground next to her, his forehead pressed into the ash would probably be the last thing she would see. It made her heart break almost as audibly as whatever had broken in her son.
She knew whatever was happening would mean an End, and after a century, maybe that was what he needed. She embraced him then, even as her eardrums ruptured and her lungs burst. Maddie had found him. If only she could have saved him too. 
At least she would hold him, until this ashen world of gray, finally turned to black. 
“Time out.”
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PotO Fic Writers!
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skirter01 · 2 years
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DP Phic Idea
Idea. So, I’ve been working on this DP phic idea that I thought up like two years ago and stumbled upon randomly the other day. I am now completely hyper-fixated on it and feel a deep need to share it with the phandom because...yes. 
Basically, it’s been a few years since Danny’s graduated High School, well, maybe more than a few, because holy crap he’s 24 now (who the fuck let him turn into an adult? Irresponsible). But ever since he left the nest it’s been a whirl-wind of what the fuck. Despite his once failing grades, a certain phone call between old friends led him straight into Washington State University. Turns out Astrophysics does suit Danny well, NASA sure seem to think so, based on the internship they offered him. Although, nothing that good comes without strings attached. Danny never thought he’d end up back in Amity Park, teaching science to unmotivated teenagers and fighting old enemies because his internship came with a teaching component. 
Meanwhile, Renley is damn near convinced Casper High’s newest science teacher, Mr F, is a ghost. Doesn’t matter how cool everyone seems to think he is, or how good looking, OR how well he teaches – theres something off about the guy and Ren is going to get to the bottom of it, no matter how far he has to dig. Oddly enough, his Uncle Wes seems keen to help. 
But amongst all the confusion, fun and explosions, there’s something stirring in the Zone and don’t get him wrong, normally, Vlad would take every advantage he could to one up Daniel, but this...this one might be a problem. At least, if the giant inter-dimensional tear just left of Walkers Prison is any indication 
Or...Danny, Sam and Tucker are too old for school now, doesn’t change the fact that they’re all still immature ghost fighting geeks, just with real adult responsibilities now. 
Thoughts? 
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A disfigured man on the edges of society with a good heart, Erik has been Gustave Daae’s closest friend for years. When Gustave realizes his time is almost up after contracting an incurable disease, he leaves his two most prized possessions to his friend—his violin, and his daughter. — read it on ao3 https://archiveofourown.org/works/34677895/chapters/86339104
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cae-ruleam · 1 year
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thirty-odd days of chasing an enigma
chapter 1 of a multichap dp x dc fic, ao3 link here
rating: T for swearing and some heavier topics. it’s crack treated seriously, but will have angst
chapter word count: 3011
Danny is sixteen, on the run, injured, and shit outta luck. He does not need the Flying Furry Brigade meddling with his issues, thank you very much. Meanwhile, almost every member of the BatFam has encountered a different teen in need the past month, none of which are willing to accept any form of help. They’re at their wit’s end. Maybe they should start cutting Bruce’s adoption tendencies some slack, too. - Or: Danny and the BatFam play hide and seek and tag, all on Danny’s palm, while he tries to gain some much needed balance after a reveal gone bad.
Alarms blared as Danny dove straight ahead for the imminently closing portal. Salty tears obscured his vision, and just as his right arm started passing through the swirling green of the Infinite Realms’ leak, he heard a deafening blast, and a distant plop. The pain came after the fact.
The last thing he heard from the other side, was a unanimous: “Just you wait, ecto-scum! You can’t hide from the Fentons, we’ll get you and continue ripping you apart molecule by molecule!” that his pa-, no, Jack and Maddie, yelled into the vast nothingness before the portal permanently closed.
Danny flew, he flew and flew and flew and-. He flew until his sights went blurry, and not from dried up tears this time. He didn’t pay any mind to the stinging, yet numbing pain at his shoulder. He ignored his surroundings. Ignored how the green and its purple doors seemed to close in on him, trying to trap him in the Infinite Realms, to keep him safe, most likely.
He couldn’t stay here.
The Ghost Zone and with all its sulfur and ozone smelling glory felt suffocating. Danny wasn’t even sure for how long he could still fly in this cursed dimension before it all got to him and he’d pass out.
But wouldn’t that be nice? To pass out, to finally get a break from the past barely a day that felt like multiple lifetimes.
Danny’s chest throbbed, and it almost felt like his unbeating heart was about to start pumping blood just to keep him going in spite of his injuries and exhaustion. Maybe that was indeed the case – in which case that would be an entire different can of worms. A can of worms Danny would be ignoring for as long as possible, thank you very much.
In his panic, Danny did not know in which directions he’d been flying. After all, what use would that be when he didn’t know where he wanted to go, anyways?
Far away, that’s the only thing he knew.
And certainly, he’d flown far away already, right?
Fat chance.
As long as he emerged in the same dimension and timeline, he was certain the Fentons would find him. How long it’d take would depend on how far away he got, and whether they enlisted the aide of the GIW or not. But they would, that was all that mattered. Yet, he prayed he’d indeed end up on the right side of the veil once left.
After another eternity, or perhaps another few minutes, Danny’s form finally began to stagger.
He reached his right hand forward, a reflex, a habit, seeing as there was nothing for him to grab onto in the swirling masses of ectoplasm around him.
He fell, and fell. He kept falling.
He didn’t land into a laying position, staying afloat in the sea of the Ghost Zone, no.
Danny fell and he felt a cold autumn night breeze encapsulate his skin. The chill of the wind almost masked the one of his transformation back into human.
He fell and fell, until he did not anymore. He came to a halt.
A loud bang sounded in the abandoned alleyway and it took Danny a few moments before he finally managed to take in and establish his surroundings.
Alright, so he landed into a full dumpster. Amazing. Just as his luck would have it.
Then again, the bags of garbage managed to cushion his fall from Ancients knows what height, resulting in a kinder impact to his injuries. So perhaps it was indeed his luck. ‘I should stop looking a gift horse in the mouth,’ he figured.
Danny sat up straighter, still staying in the dumpster, because, why not, at this point.
He propped his right arm onto his right knee, and ‘Huh, she really did blast off my left arm - good to know,’ started to take in his environment.
Aside from his convenient land into a garbage dumpster, thank you very much fate (he wasn’t sure whether that was sarcastic or not anymore), his surroundings were rather sophisticated.
Looking up at the sky, it seemed to be around twilight, however, with the amount of clouds and smog in the air it was a bit tough to tell. It almost seemed as if it was nearing midnight instead.
Turning around, Danny confirmed that he had indeed fallen into a secluded alleyway. Just a bit away, he could see a small path connecting into a larger main street further down, and once again the halfa felt like he should maybe thank Lady Luck indeed. He would’ve been in an even tougher situation had he appeared into a clear area with passerby around.
There were loads of buildings around himself, many several stories tall and a few of shorter construction. Danny found himself in a city then, he figured. The buildings all looked rather old, a few centuries so at the least. There were a few streetlights placed around with similar distances between them, casting every street in an eerie and mysterious yellow glow, adding to the city’s apparent age.
Once more did Danny cast his eyes skyward, but this time he stopped a little bit short of that.
‘Huh, gargoyles. How goth. Sam would love it here.’
And speaking of Sam – he really should check if he was still in the same dimension at least.
He grabbed his phone out of his pant pocket and checked the lock screen – just that.
Provider, check. Connection, check. At least he definitely made it back to the same dimension – and not just that, he supposed. October 23rd – 20xx – 7:28pm, he ended up barely a few days after the last time he was able to check the date. Whether he was knocked out in the lab for days, or if he jumped a few days through time, he wasn’t sure, but that wasn’t that important was it?
Really, luck must’ve taken pity on him or something.
Danny sighed and let his head fall, hanging right above his bended knees and one arm draped over them. He breathed, inhaling the cold, not so fresh, city air. He repeated this numerous times before letting go with one great exhale, louder and heavier than any of the previous ones he let out the past few minutes in this alley.
He looked at his phone again, this time with its screen off, and decided, fuck it.
He bit into it.
He heard the screen and some of its metals crack under his canines, fangs, and took it out. There was a metal, tingly and limey aftertaste.
He spit the shards of glass out and held the now deformed and destroyed phone in his hand once more. Then he promptly crushed it with said hand. Thoroughly destroying and bricking it. And to finish it off, he lit the faintest of ecto-flames to melt the device down to its core.
Could he have skipped biting into the phone entirely? Of course. But Danny was quite delirious and couldn’t care less. The slight shock kickstarted his system a bit again, even. He’d call that a win.
He quickly reached inside his right leg to get out a burner phone, grateful and delighted that it turned on immediately once he pressed the “on” button.
It was an old prepaid Nokia phone, a hand-me-down one of Jazz’s friends received from their brother in their childhood. Somehow Jazz had pried it from their hands and made Danny carry it with him just in case.
After the first few... dozen times he forgot to do so, he decided to just stuff it inside of him. Then he’d always be carrying it anyways.
Danny quickly typed in three phone numbers that he’d memorized like the constellations in late autumn, and sent them all the same message: code omega. After which he put the phone back into his leg.
Now, it was time to get out of this container, probably.
Danny was injured and just tired to the bone. He needed to rest somewhere. Where? He had no clue – he’ll figure something out. If anything, he could probably sneak into some place or another intangibly and invisibly.
“Huhp,” he huffed as he pushed himself upright with his one arm.
Once he wobbly stood at the edge of the dumpster, he carefully jumped down, not used to this new balance with the lack of an entire arm just yet.
And if this wasn’t a new balance to get used to.
Sure, he’d lost a hand, half an arm, before, a leg, too. But in the cases of a hand or his lower arm, the balance wasn’t this different. And when he lost his leg, he just chilled out with a ghost tail until it fully reformed. Yeah, that was not really an option at the moment.
He tried his footing by hopping a little left then right before standing still again, once he was satisfied with the feeling.
When he did so, he felt a more peculiar breeze pass him than the natural ones that had been blowing the past however long he’d been chilling out in the dumpster for. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up straight. And if Danny had been a bit more awake, a little less tired, he probably would’ve noticed how the wind embraced him, and how it carried a whisper.
Before stepping out of the alley, he made himself intangible once, shedding any garbage he might’ve gotten onto him, and with it some of the stank.
He also made sure to tone down his aura, as any attention was surely unneeded at the moment. He also thoroughly covered his torso and arm with his jacket, while he put his left jacket sleeve into corresponding pocket, before mimicking the same look with his actually currently existing arm, to create the illusion that he didn’t lack any.
Yeah it wouldn’t fool anyone as soon as they’d look at him for longer, but he’d make sure that wouldn’t happen. Danny Fenton had no reason to attract any attention.
Though, once he stepped out onto the main street, he did have to marvel at his surroundings once more.
The architecture was much more grand and intimidating once you viewed them from their actual fronts, with their gargoyles seemingly protecting their vicinity from evil or even unintended eyes and hands.
There were still quite a few people on the streets, which wasn’t very surprising considering it was barely 8 in the evening still. The buzz of the nightlife had been registered in the back of Danny’s mind since a while ago, but he was now fully met with it.
Several cars were on the road in front of him, not nearly enough that it an be jammed, but enough that the many pedestrians Danny was amongst would definitely need to exert caution.
Danny started walking and he came across several houses, apartment complexes and shops. Some shops had already closed for the day, others seemed like they’d run business far into the night, while a select few were just starting to prepare to close up shop for the day. He might have to check around them in more detail one of these days, if he was going to be staying here for at least a little while.
Speaking of which, where is here?
Maybe he should’ve tried to figure out where the Infinite Realms spit him out earlier, but he was quite literally fucked up and out of it, still is – sue him.
But, once he started paying attention, it was easy enough to see where here was.
AURELIA – Gotham based family boutique since 1886
GOTHAM GAZETTE Headlines of October 21st
The Gotham Special of the day, a full fledged meal
Riddler running free
And in the distance he could hear a radio going through the happenings of prior in the city today.
Gotham, that’s it.
And now the entire ambience also made much more sense – he probably should’ve been able to figure it out sooner if he’d just mulled it over, huh?
Well, this might complicate his situation just a teensy bit.
While Danny bet both Sam and Tuck would know much more of this Gothic Victorian city, what with Sam’s interest in anything goth and Tucker’s obsession with tech, he was familiar enough to know that the Batman was not all that fond of metas on his turf.
Now, Danny wasn’t a meta, not in the slightest definition of that word. After all, being dead is a medical condition, not some sort of enhanced state, are you kidding?
But the Bat wouldn’t know that. And people aren’t very easily convinced that ghosts exist, and others aren’t prepared to accept that some people, in a sense, live, to remember their gruesome, violent and traumatic deaths.
This was a pickle indeed. But it was a pickle for the Danny of tomorrow, or maybe even later than that. Right now, Danny really needed to just knock the fuck out somewhere. Please.
Danny turned on his heels and continued to walk wherever his feet carried him. A few times he’d found an empty and abandoned building already. A few were vacant homes, one was an old closed off restaurant. None of them felt quite right to occupy right now, however. They were a little too out in the open still. The halfa needed to be able to hide.
He wandered around a little longer before he felt a slight pull to the right, and perhaps against his better judgment, decided to follow it.
Danny followed the pull into a part of the city that was older yet, made up of many historic buildings, including ones that were starting to decay from the lack of care for them. It was a little upsetting to see, for the history would vanish with them, if they were to be destroyed.
But, wouldn’t you look at that, there was an entire abandoned warehouse at this side of the city. It was definitely a much quieter part.
Looking around, Danny had a hunch why he’d been pulled here. Faintly, he could see multiple small wisps floating up and around, many starting to approach him specifically, alarmed but excited by his entrance.
It seemed that quite some beings had suffered at this location... and what kind of King would Danny be if he couldn’t help his subjects get some closure, closure that he can offer just by being near them for long enough?
Danny sighed, and this time a faint smile managed to paint his lips.
He stepped forward and tried the doorhandle. It gave easy enough and he entered the building silent as a ghost, with the dead following him. Closing the door, he coated the handle with a thin but sturdy layer of his ghost ice. It would suffice as a lock for now.
Once inside, Danny conjured a little bit of ecto-energy in his right palm. It lit up the warehouse in an eerie neon green glow, and several of the wisps started to huddle together around it as well, providing an even brighter light all around once they were able to tap into some of Danny’s energy.
All in all, the warehouse was quite sad. In other words, it was exactly what Danny expected from an abandoned warehouse, no more, no less.
There were a few boxes scattered all around, some of them empty, others filled with whatever they may hold.
There were two stories to this building, and seeing as the lower half was still filled up with some wares, Danny could only assume more was upstairs, but that the administrative offices were also located there. Which is why he spared no time before floating upward, to check his suspicions.
And indeed, there they were. The offices with some desks and chairs, cupboards with expired, boxed and canned foods. While he wasn’t coming to the desperation for their necessity just yet, it was good to know they were there.
He sat down on one of the many shitty chairs and pulled something out from his abdomen area – a first aid kit. Another thing his friends and sister insisted he keep on him at all times, and was he glad that he listened indeed.
Covering up his injuries with just one arm on his own might end up being a nigh impossible task, but he could at least try.
He took off his jacket and opened up the kit. First, he grabbed the gauze, some cotton wipes and disinfectant.
He checked the wound at his shoulder – it wasn’t pretty. But thankfully it was already healing, well, reforming.
He sighed and put some disinfectant on the wipes before lightly dabbing them on his skin, holding back hisses but still having a few managing to escape.
Afterwards he unrolled the gauze and started to wrap the stump at his shoulder with it, tearing off the cloth from the roll with his teeth once he had enough.
The wrapping job wasn’t very clean at all, bits and pieces of the gauze was sticking out at the edges and if he moved too much, it’d probably loosen. But it was good enough, good enough for now.
Well, that was the easy part – now for the hard part.
He pulled up his shirt, which had gotten stained slightly red, brown and green through the hour or two that he’s been de-transformed. With a vacant look, he stared at the mark on his chest.
It was a clean Y-incision. Danny doesn’t think that Jack or Maddie had ever handled him with as much care as they did when vivisecting “Phantom”. The skin had already mostly stitched itself back together, leaving Danny with little that he technically still had to do to patch it up.
It was red and large and ugly. He had no doubt that it would scar.
He sighed and pulled down his shirt before putting his arm over his eyes, hard enough for stars to form, and sighing.
That was the position he fell asleep in that night.
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sansxfuckyou · 2 years
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Organs
(I started watching Invader Zim, time for DP fanfics)
"My such plentiful organs." The doctor states after pressing on Dannys abdominal area, a slight fear had caught Danny.
"Like, the normal plentiful, right?" Danny asked, both Maddie and Jack giving him a side eye.
"Aside from the secondary liver and somewhat medium intestinal tract, I'd say your as normal as could be for a boy your age." The doctor said, putting his hands in his pockets absentmindedly.
"Doctor what could have possibly caused such abnormalities?" Maddie asked cautiously, the doctor opened his mouth and before he could speak, Danny overshadowed him, a silent snarl escaping his parted lips and teeth sharping with a bit of lengthening as well, eyes glowing a neon green.
"Perhaps the elongated exposure to ectoplasm throughout phase of his life, including fetal phases, its a shame really, his entire life has been screwed because of your ghostly way of living." The doctor said, Danny contorting the voice to match the best of his ability, his parents gasped.
"I highly doubt you have the rights to make such comments." Maddie said, reaching for the anti ecto gun in her waistband.
"Mom, dad, we should really get going now, before either of you blow a gasket." Danny said, half dropping the over shadow, hiding his hands in his pocket, they gave a half hearted green glow.
"Yes, I agree son, lets go." Jack said as he and Maddie left, Danny slinking out before dropping overshadow, staying back to wait for his teeth to shrink down again and his eyes to stop glowing and his hair to darken just a bit.
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redead-red · 2 months
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Wes took another deep breath in a futile attempt to calm his nerves. He sat at the edge of his bed, crossing and uncrossing his ankles over and over again. The dark green duvet was warm in his clenched hands. Doubt, fear, and embarrassment were heavy and pushing down on his shoulders, twisting his stomach. It was stopping him from looking at the boy beside him.
Chapter 2 of idiots to lovers lets go
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