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charcoalhawk · 1 year

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And they’ve all got the same heartbeat (but hers is falling behind)

With Casper high behind them, students from Amity park are finding out the the world around them is much different from the one they grew up in.

First Phic for Phic Phight 2023!

Prompt was from @mr-lancers-english-class: Amity Park residents often forget what feats of human ability are considered "normal" and what are considered "superhuman does not even begin to cover it oh dear god where in the world did you learn to do that?!?" This leads to some... interesting situations when Danny's graduating class steps out into the rest of the world for college.

had, a lot of fun with this. It was really fun breaking out a bunch of OC’ s and letting them just all run wild all over this.

Warning for reference to SA, Transphobia, injuries, and vomiting.

Title comes from Ecosmith, Cool Kids.

Paulina

Paulina hadn’t realized, at first, just how soft the world was outside of Amity Park. While her father had never let her attend the same self-defense classes Valerie went to, she had still learned how to protect herself from those who might wish her ill.

But, in retrospect, most people didn’t spend their high school years fighting the undead. So maybe her sense of fight of flight was just a tad bit skewed.

This wasn’t Paulina’s first time waking home slightly too drunk, during junior year at Casper she and Star spent every night during spring break bar hopping, and there had definitely been times during her senior year where entire week’s had felt like a dream.

But that had been at Casper, where all the teachers knew that students had bad weeks in which even showing up to school was a Herculean effort. On those weeks Mr. Lancer would offer you a quiet room after school to make up work in, and everyone knew to tread carefully.

But now she was in college, states away from Casper’s familiar haunted halls, and she, and Star, were starting to realize that the other girls around them maybe had slightly different experiences growing up.

Case in point, Paulina had mastered walking in heels when she was thirteen running away from an ancient dragon that had wanted her head on a spike, so even slightly drunk her steps didn’t waiver. Jessica was holding her heels in one hand while the other clutched her phone and lanyard like a lifeline, and Monica had shown up in flats and was now happily devouring a huge tub of pretzels she had borrowed from the frat house.

The party had taken place in the farthest house from freshman housing, off the campus itself. It had been free admission, a feature most freshmen all thought was amazing, but all the sophomores and juniors knew was a scam to get rid of all the old beer from the last several years that no one else wanted to drink.

It was close to three in the morning according to the last time Jessica had loudly announced from checking her phone, so there was little other foot traffic as the three of them slowly made their way back to the dorm. Paulina had noticed someone following them almost immediately after they had left the party, but had hoped it was just another freshman making the walk of shame back onto campus.

But as they near the first campus building, the figure that had been following from a distance rapidly gained on them, revealing itself to be at four gangly boys, who all swaggered towards them like they had a hive of bees up their asses. Paulina distinctly remembers turning the leading boy, Ben, down when he had insisted she give him a shot earlier that week.

They’re stopped at a traffic light where Jessica starts to rather urgently press the crosswalk button, but the light has just turned green and it’ll be at least two or so minutes before the light will cycle.

“Hey there, pretty thing,” Ben drawls, “what’s someone like you doing out past your bedtime?”

Oh, he’s one of those assholes. Paulina knows she had made it abundantly clear she had no interest in him, and if he was the kind of guy who stalked drunk girls after a party, she had definitely made the right choice.

Jessica and Monica are giving her some very concerned glances, and out of the corner of her eye Paulina sees Jessica fumbling for her phone while trying to not drop her heels.

There’s just too much traffic for them to safely cross, and even then the boys would just follow them, and there is no way Paulina is playing a demented version of hide and seek with these losers.

Paulina understands the other girl's concern, but she’s met beings who would truly wish her harm, these empty headed cardboard cutouts with overinflated egos just needed to be firmly taught a lesson.

With large steps Ben’s in her space in moments, hand reaching down to posessively stroke her cheek down her neck. His hand is larger than her’s, smooth from lack of work and well manicured. She can smell his cologne, it’s something cheap, he’s practically doused himself in it so entering his personal space means all you can smell is him.

His hand travels didn further and- nope! Paulina has dealt with a lot of disgusting men in her life, but most of them are too cowardly to get too close. Over the years she’s learned to ignore most demeaning language, as in most cases speaking up about it will get her a telling off from her parents for acting unladylike.

Her hands snap up to grab his wrist while she shifts slightly so none of him is touching her. Before he can make any comment, she yanks harshly down and hears the tell-tale pop of a dislocating shoulder. She remembers Valerie teaching her that the summer before freshman year, her then friend had been worried and had wanted to give Paulina a way to deter anyone from trying to touch her more then once when she didn’t want them too.

It had come in handy a few times over the years, but she hadn’t always been able to actually get the shoulder dislocated on the first try. It had still been surprising enough that it had gotten her out of one bad situation, but after that she had asked and both Kwan and Dash had volunteered to help get her technique down and now she knew the exact right angle and amount of abrupt force needed to get the desired result.

There’s a startled gasp from the girls, and one of the looming guys let’s out a strangled “what the fuck,” but Paulina isn’t done. Quickly she yanks, pulling Ben’s now limp arm down so she can wedge her elbow with his, before snapping it as hard as she can at a perpendicular.

This time it’s the satisfying crunch of bone and with that he crumbles to the floor, wailing.

The smallest guy darts in to help his friend up but the other two seem frozen in shock. Going from their horrified faces no one has ever been bold enough to stand up to them when they traveled in a pack like this.

“Move along boys,” Paulina gives them a smile that is all teeth, something she had learned from Manson, “next time you think about harassing someone just stay in your room with some tissues, it’ll be more productive.”

The last two guys lunge at her then, but their movements grow awkward as they both aim for the same target. One does land a half decent punch to her nose and one tries to get behind her and definitely pulls out some hair with his harsh grip, but neither of them have had to fight in close quarters with others before. it’s easy to catch her palm hard on one guy’s throat and send him down hacking.

The one behind her has the unfortunate fate of getting her nails in his eye, and really now she’s going to have to get them redone because already she can feel two of them catching in flesh and ripping off.

He screams, high and long as his hands yank harshly at hers. She allows herself the brief satisfaction of digging them in deeper for a few more moments before allowing him to push her away.

And with the last guy releasing her to clutch at his face, it’s all over. The other two have already disappeared, and all it takes is one loud step with her heel to send the other two running.

A quick glance shows that Monica and Jessica are still standing near the light, Monica’s pretzels scattered on the floor as she’s holding one of Jessica’s heels like a weapon.

Something in Paulina’s heart warms. It’s nice to know her new friends are willing to protect her, maybe during the summer she’ll invite them to Amity and Valerie can show them how to properly snap someone’s wrist.

“It’s all fine now girls. Oh Monica, you dropped your pretzels! Let's stop by the college store on the way and pick up some new ones. The girl who works the night shift always keeps the best ones in the back of the shelves so there should still be some left.”

“What the fuck?” Jessica whispered.

——————

Dash

This year’s group of freshmen is pretty promising.

Don had been coaching the football team at Ohio State university for almost eleven years now. Most of the boys that he coached had been playing since middle school, and had a decent grasp on the game, if sometimes a little arrogant about their status as ‘college football future all stars’.

Some were always more bone-headed than others, and every year Don could always predict a few of them leaving the program within the year due to an injury from being too reckless.

For all the love he has for his boys, the first proper practice was always one of Don’s least favorites. All the kids want to do is gossip instead of practice, and all the new freshmen try way too hard to make a good impression with the upperclassmen. By the end of the day, every year, he always has to make everyone run suicide’s because the boys were either being too rough or goofing off when they shouldn’t.

Over the years Don has found sprinting to be one of the best punishments for over talkative players, as it has a unique way of getting kids out of breath in a way where they would finally stop yammering on for a few minutes so he could talk to them without dealing with interruptions.

After the third time a freshman decides to describe his summer flings loudly and in graphic detail, Don has had it up to here with these kids. Bragging was for the locker room, not the field.

“Alright! I’ve had enough! Line up at the zero mark, we’re doing suicides for the last ten minutes of practice.”

There’s the usual amount of groaning and whining as everyone slowly makes their way over to the zero mark, and one of two even tries to sneak off to the bathroom, but one stern look has them stomping back with the rest of the pack.

“Alright! Everyone here should know what suicides are, but just in case any of you left your brains in the summer heat for too long here’s what your going to do- we sprint to the twenty five mark, then back, then the fifty and back, then the seventy five and back, and finally the opposite goal post and back. You will repeat until my whistle.”

Once everyone is in position Don gives a shrill signal with his little metal whistle, and they’re off.

The first five minutes go by and everything is going as it should, some kids are already slowing down, a clear sign they were not keeping in shape over the summer, and thus ones Don is going to have to push harder to get them back with the rest of the pack.

At the eight minute mark even his juniors and seniors are starting to slow a bit, but the last two minutes of sprints are almost always the hardest, even for the boys he’s been working with since their freshman year.

But, as he looks there’s one kid who isn’t slowing down. He had initially seen the kid’s slightly more sedate pace and internally marked him as a kid who would need a firmer hand, but now it’s obvious he was simply setting a pace for himself, as now almost ten minutes in his sprinting has not slowed beyond what it started as.

In Don’s experience freshman tended to put everything they had into the first three minutes of sprinting, and were almost always the first to sprint to the other side of the field and back, but also meant that they usually didn’t have the stamina to stay sprinting for ten minutes straight.

But this kid is still going. It takes him a minute to place the kid, but after a moment he realizes it’s Baxter, the kid from Amity park.

In most other cases the small town would mean nothing to him, but in this case Amity had enough of a reputation that he had been warned when one of its alumni decided to join his team.

The most haunted town in America. Sounded like a bunch of bullshit in Don’s professional opinion, but enough weird shit had happened the last five or so years that Casper high had gotten in the habit of sending, not warning letters, but an informational packet to schools so they would know what behaviors to watch out for.

Don still remembers three years ago the story of a freshman at Colorado Tech publishing a paper on the effects of being haunted by ghosts and how it affects the perception of mortality for an entire town. The young woman had been a graduate of Casper high, and when invested further it was revealed that this wasn’t some kid trying to be as ridiculous as they could, but an actual, legitimate thing that was still happening in the town.

Hell, he remembers trading emails with Baxter’s English teacher the last few months of the kid's senior year. In most cases it would have been a school counselor that he discussed a kid’s schooling and grades with, but apparently Amity had had a very bad experience in the last few years with ghostly interference and currently didn’t have a dedicated counseling team at all.

Which, Don definitely had opinions about, but the school was doing all it could to help the kids where they could. So Don would at least give them that.

Apparently Baxter had been a pretty big asshole and a bully his first two years of high school, something the school had let slide more than it should have, and had initially been excused or ignored because of his prowess in physical sports. Towards the end of his sophomore year and leading into his junior Baxter has seemed to finally learn and grow from his bullying ways.

Many teachers had observed him becoming, if not kind then neutral to those he had been harassing, and by his senior year was genuinely well liked by most acquaintances and not feared.

Don remembers the report from the recruiter that had gone down to Amity to observe the team, and nothing they had observed had even hinted that Baxter or any of his teammates acted in any way different or better then any other team they observed in that period.

At the twelve minute mark everyone else has collapsed near the post, but this kid is still going. After fifteen minutes the kid looks at him intently when he turns back towards him, his seventh time reaching the opposite end of the field, but his pace still hasn’t slowed, and he doesn’t look like he’s in any extreme pain, so Don motions for him to continue, and the kid does so without complaint.

It’s odd, in almost any other situation Don would say the kid had just switched to running, but the motions, the sharp turns and the slightly hunched posture, he's still sprinting.

Don finally calls it at the thirty minute mark, and by now the soccer team has shown up, but everyone seems just a bit too mesmerized by the sight to comment on Don holding the field almost twenty minutes late.

Baxter jogs right over to where everyone is standing slack jawed and casually reaches to drink some of his water. He definitely looks like he just exercised, his whole face is flushed red and his hair has become a solid mass lying flat on his head, but his legs are holding him up and his breathing isn’t the rapid mess he expects from someone having sprinted for half an hour straight.

After Baxter finishes his drink he looks expectedly at him, and after a moment Don shakes himself out of his stupor and motions for the soccer team to take the field.

After they’ve left the football team is still hovering around the bleachers, likely wanting to get the first chance to hound the kid for answers or beg him to spill his secrets. Don’s at least a little more subtle than that.

After checking that everyone else is ready he releases them and with some reluctance the rest of the kids leave for the locker room.

Baxter hasn’t moved, likely sensing that Don has questions.

“Kid, I say this as kindly and as without judgment as I can- but how the hell did you do that!”

“Oh, well,” Baxter doesn’t look nervous, but he does seem a bit self conscious, a small sign he has hopefully matured from the pompous bully he was said to be. “Coach Tellestaff back home was pretty insistent that we learn how to sprint for long periods of time in case something was chasing after us that wouldn’t grow easily tired, so we usually did sprints at least every other day.”

“That’s an… interesting motive. Did you often find yourself in situations running from things like that? Back home?”

“Uh well it wasn’t an every day kinda thing, but at least once every other week a ghost would attack the school, and in situations like that you wanted to be as far away from the fighting as possible.”

“Well, I just want you to know it was extremely impressive, you must have worked hard to be able to do what we just saw now.”

“Ha, that’s nothing! Two of my best friends, Paulina and Star, could sprint half way across town in heels. They offered to teach me and Kwan, but to be honest we were a little worried that we’d break our necks falling or somehow impaling ourselves with those five inch torture devises.”

——————

Tucker

There are many things Tucker enjoys about college. Not having to wake up before ten am most days? Amazing, let’s him get so much more work don’t and he can tinker into the night without worrying about his parents having to barge into his room the next morning because he overslept.

Not having to be ready to fight ghosts 24/7? A goddamn lifesaver. After four years the ghosts who frequented Amity had calmed down enough that they weren't all chomping at the bit to cause as much mayhem as possible. Danny had also gotten Wulf to show him how to make dimensional portals, so he could fight ghosts in the Zone without destroying the town. It helped that Danny had set it up so he visited Amity at least every third week for a few days, both to check in with the more peaceful ghosts who called Amity home, and to make sure his parents hadn’t caused any more trouble than they could handle themselves.

One thing Tucker really enjoyed about college was the extracurriculars. Casper high had band, football, and a few small after school clubs, but no big organized programs beyond that that could compete in competitions.

But now, at Tech, Tucker had found his people in the robotics team. Ever since that first freshman orientation where they were introduced to all the clubs Tech has to offer, where Tucker found a group showing off a robot they built that poured drinks without overflowing or knocking them over.

He had signed up then and there, and from that point forward every Monday and Thursday night were for Robotics, and Thursday and Saturdays were fuck around nights where they had almost unrestricted access to the lab and were able to test out personal projects or ideas that they might not want to hand over to the team.

Official work nights were also fun, and definitely a bit more informative with their teacher around to help them expand upon their ideas. they would share and explore code together, and discuss what they could build for the numerous robotics competitions held throughout the year.

Tucker loved participating in these events, but this upcoming one was promising to be his favorite. This competition has a very special individual event that offered a huge cash prize, and Tucker was determined to get it. A few of his friends were also competing, but most had wanted to focus solely on their big team project.

Now, Tucker loved his team, but they did tend to get a bit squeamish when he pulled parts from non-standard scraps. Having a friend like Sam meant that he had access to what was considered modern material that had already lived its course, like recently released phone models, for example. Like now, where he was cannibalizing a few very new devices for their cameras to make a drone with a multi-directional camera.

“Dude, is that an iPhone 14?” Roberto looked absolutely appalled from where he was hovering over Tucker’s workstation.

“Oh yeah, a lot of their components are shit, meant to be obsolete in like two years so you’ll have to buy another one, but I’ve found the cameras aren’t half bad once you put them on something that isn’t meant to shit itself in a year.”

“Well yeah, everyone knows most super modern phones are kinda garbage, but this hasn’t even been released onto the general market yet!”

“Oh, well my friend Sam gave some of her family’s old versions, apparently they don’t fare well after possession.”

“Possession?” Now Cassius has floated over from their project in trying to make better AI detection software, “Dude, are you still keeping up that joke about Amity and how haunted it is? I thought we had convinced you that you didn’t need to tell these crazy stories for us to want to hang out with you?”

Well, that’s rather rude of them, but as Tucker winds up and is about to begin his by now long rehearsed speech on how Amity is absolutely fucking haunted there’s a buzz from his pocket, and when he checks it’s Jazz, who in his long experience never calls without reason.

“Well.. hold on, I gotta take a call real fast.” Tucker pulled out his trusty pda, which over the years he had tinkered with enough that its internal workings barely resembled the device he had gotten his first week in high school. He had kept the outer shell mostly unchanged because after seven years, turns out he had gotten pretty fond of it.

“Hey ya! Everything ok?”

Turns out Maddie and Jack had accidentally created a small anti-matter gun when trying to find a way to make a portable portal, and Jazz was hoping he could stop by with Danny in the next ten minutes to find out how it worked in the first place and maybe accidentally destroy it or make it unusable so they would think the first success was a fluke.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Tucker glanced at his teammates who were looking at his pda like it had personality offended them, “tell Danny to hop right over.”

“Oh my god, don’t you still use a pda?” Roberto whispered in horrified awe after Tucker had ended the call, “There’s no way it can hold up, it can’t be compatible with other phone providers. It could barely be considered functional when it was first released!”

“Oh jokes on them,” Tucker checked that everything was off at his station and that there was no exposed wiring that someone could get hurt by, “like hell I’m paying for something that already exists and should be free to access.”

There’s a ripping pop behind them, and he turns around with a grin to see Danny holding the dimensions open for him.

“Well, we can argue the amazingness of my darling at a later date, I should be back in less than an hour, if not make sure you get at least one meat-lovers for me tonight, I’ll Venmo you the cost when I get back!”

“Well,” his teacher grumbles, “At least he turned his project off this time, the fire was hell to deal with last year”, is the last thing he hears before the portal closes around them.

——————

Kwan

Julius hadn’t really wanted to work at their college’s discount coffee shop during their junior year, but over the summer their parents had helped them track down the perfect car for them, and after some haggling their parents had bought it for them at a steal. But now Julius had to pay for their own gas, and having their own car meant more temptations, like 3am Nasty Burger on the other side of town, which they could finally drive to on their own without having to bully one of their friends to come over and drive them.

Luckily it wasn't too hard to get the position, they had applied early enough that most other kids were still enjoying their summers, so a month before school Julius officially had their first job.

All of Julius’ coworkers were very nice, and even after they had finished training no one hesitated to help if they were confused about how to make a drink or about a certain procedure.

Winston and Bella both came from New York, and enjoyed trying to gross the other out with increasingly outrageous drink combinations. Zack was from Washington state, and seemed to genuinely enjoy the intricacies of coffee itself. Darius, Kassidy, and Shaun were all locals who loved to recommend places nearby to eat and hang out. Victor came from the same area as Julius, and was in the process of illustrating his first book.

Kwan came from a small town in the Midwest, and was one of the most genuinely friendly people Julius had ever met.

When Julius’ car had refused to start one morning Kwan was the first person they called, and had shown up without complaint at seven in the morning to drive them to work, then afterwards helped them set up an appointment with a friend of a friend's mechanic who helped fix their car for an absurdly reasonable price.

On most days things were pretty slow until ten or so in the morning. The store itself was very small, with only a cafe area and no drive through, and the owners still refused to sign any deals with third party companies so no doordash or Uber eats. It means that a three man team could comfortably work the store at any one time, and maybe on holidays they would bring an extra person in to help the midday shift when all the college kids decided to study in packs and take up every available seat they had.

Today, however, looked like it was going to be a shitshow.

Victor had called out at the last minute, she had fallen in the shower and heavenly twisted their ankle, and given that it was spring break there was no way anyone who hadn’t already been scheduled was going to come in to cover.

Spring break also meant they were staying busy much later into the afternoon than usual. On a normal Thursday by 4pm the ravenous packs of college kids would have mostly cleared out to go to afternoon classes, and all that was left were local working adults looking for overpriced coffee and free WiFi, and kids who didn’t have classes that day.

But now at almost seven pm the store is still packed. There were two groups taking up most of the more lounge-y seating, an older man having a very heated debate on his phone, and a kid hanging by the bathrooms watching YouTube without headphones. Overall it was much louder then Julius was usually comfortable with for an extended period of time.

But the current source of conflict was a younger woman looming over the counter that separated the customer area from where drinks were made.

Her drink had taken a bit because she had ordered right after the two rowdy groups of kids, and Julius had been taught to make drinks in order of who placed their order first, not on whose order it would be easier to do.

Well, technically.

In practice people did orders out of order all the time, but the woman had pissed Julius off with her attitude and her visible sneer when she had noticed the pronoun pins everyone was wearing.

So, they would follow protocols exactly, just for her.

Her drink itself wasn’t too difficult, and in situations like these Julius always wished they could just tell customers they were better off buying the ingredients and making it for themselves at home, not spending almost ten dollars on lackluster taste.

Julius handed the coffee over to the glowering woman, and was just getting ready to signal to Shaun that they were going to go to the back to work on dishes when there was a very pointed cough and an aggravated sigh from across the counter.

“This doesn’t taste right.”

The woman’s bright purple lipstick has already stained the lid of the cup, so at least they know she actually tried it, but still. It was a regular old white chocolate coffee, with no special addendums or bells and whistles to it. And while they haven’t been working here for the years that others may have, Julius has over six months of working here to know that they made that drink correctly.

But, deep sigh, assume the best.

“Oh, I’m sorry, could you tell me what was wrong about it so we can remake it for you?”

“It just tastes wrong! I have ordered this drink every day for the last three months, I know what it should look and taste like, and this is wrong!”

The commotion had caught Kwan’s attention from where he was restocking their cups and espresso beans, and he moved over to draw the woman’s attention from Julius to himself.

Thank god, Kwan was the best with asshole customers. Julius thought if they had to deal with this woman for too much longer they might make their disdain too obvious, and then they would have a whole ‘nother problem in the woman saying they were being unkind to them.

Julius still remembers Kwan warning them about unsavory customers their first week.

Julius had been nervous because all their work in high school had been volunteer, and not in situations where people generally would complain to them about something being miss made, or just the general shit they knew true customer service often involved dealing with.

“How do you really deal with bad customers?” It’s slow right now, but just twenty minutes ago there had been a literal crowd of people in their cafe, and some had been very irate that their drinks were not magically appearing before them. Julius had been keeping their head down, attempting to make drinks as quick as they could without drawing attention, while Kwan and Bella helped dole out food and placate everyone.

“Well, that kind of depends,” Kwan makes a seesaw motion with his hand, “sometimes there’s a genuine mistake in the making of the drink or when it was ordered, and the customer is respectful in politely asking for a remake. In those cases you just simply make it again for them, and everything moves on.”

“But that’s not always the case.” Even if social media wasn’t what it was, Julius remembers the horror stories various friends had told them over the years. They’ve seen it first hand plenty of time already, but there’s always been someone nearby to help deal with it.

“Ah, no,” Kwan glances out towards the now calm cafe, “I know when the owners hired you they must have made a big stink about always being approachable and how the goal is for customers to feel welcome and comfortable here. But in practice it’s-“

“A load of horse shit?”

“-unrealistic. Sometimes people think something is wrong with the drink and demand it be made again, but they won’t tell you why. Or it’ll be wrong in some unhelpful way, like it tastes wrong or they can’t taste a flavor even though you know you added exactly as much as they asked for. In those situations you kinda just have to make it again, and hopefully this time they’ll be satisfied. If they want it remade more than twice, that’s generally the point where you politely tell them that it seems we can’t reach their standards, and that they might want to try another location.”

“What about people who just want a free drink?”

“We make it for them, if they’ve already touched it we can’t take it back anyway, so just make them another.”

“Jeez, you're definitely nicer than me about this.”

“Oh I know they’re not all in the right, but sometimes all you can do is smile and hope they leave quickly after you’ve fixed their drink for them.”

Even now, It’s almost supernatural how calm Kwan is in the face of others' anger.

“Yes ma’am, I completely understand,” and oh Kwan is giving her an absolutely dazzling smile, “we will absolutely get that drink remade for you right away.”

He’s speaking perfectly calmly, not an ounce of annoyance or anger in his tone, but all the same Julius sees the woman almost shrink back.

Julius knows part of the whole customer service shtick was to always appear pleasant and to never show anger towards a customer. But what Kwan is doing now goes way past that.

He’s kept direct eye contact with the woman since she started complaining, and his smile sits on his face like it was branded there, never wavering. He continues to hold eye contact as he remakes the drink, which a small part of Julius finds super impressive, and by the end of it the woman snatches her new drink out of Kwan’s hand and swiftly exits the store like she was being chased.

“Well, I hope she was satisfied this time, you go ahead and head back to do those dishes I saw you eying, I can hold the fort down for now.”

——————

Star

It’s almost four in the morning and Star is maybe just starting to get a little worried. She knows Paulina can take care of herself! She’s seen it! But, she still holds the right as best and oldest friend to worry about her when she goes off to three am frat parties.

Just as Star is about to call Paulina in the hopes that her phone isn’t sitting forgotten on a table somewhere, there’s the sound of locks clicking before Paulina and their two other roommates step into their little common room.

Paulina walks in with Jessica and Monica practically on her heels, and once all three were in the room Jessica turned and swiftly re-locked all the locks, and even grabbed the door jammer Monica’s mom had brought over and swiftly put it in place, making the door about as secure as it could be.

The space is a little bit cramped, four girls who all brought probably more stuff to college then they probably needed meant that most everything was an organized mess and there was not too much of the floor actually visible at any given moment.

Suitcases were still sitting unpacked by the door. Star and Paulina had visited Amity just last week to see their parents and pick up their winter clothing that they hadn’t brought with them initially because they had needed the room for all their fall clothes.

The first smell to meet her is obviously alcohol, but after that initial overwhelming moment the iron-y tinge of blood starts to permeate the room.There’s no growing puddle on the floor, and no one’s screaming for an ambulance, so it’s hopefully nothing life threatening.

As the three stand in the middle of the room Star instinctively scans them for visible injuries.

Monica and Jessica look very shaken up, but there’s no forming bruises and there’s no obviously ripped clothing.

Paulina on the other hand looks quite disheveled. A quick glance shows a growing bruise around her nose, and a finger missing a nail is already swelling.

“Oh no, what happened!” Paulina didn’t usually let things escalate to physical harm, not unless she felt seriously threatened.

“We’re fine, Star,” Paulina finally moved to take off her heels, a sign she at least wasn’t getting ready to head out again, “it was nothing, some boys with overinflated egos thought they could have their way with us on the way back from Brad’s party. Brad’s? Thad’s? The senior who told all the freshmen that his party would have free beer and all the freshmen didn’t think twice about the quality.”

“Was it at least good beer?”

“Hell no, I wouldn't even use it to disinfect my wounds, not even as an ice pack.”

They both laugh at that. Back home, everyone knows which beers are worth drinking to numb pain, and which are better used to try and soothe sore muscles.

“That is, not what I think we should be focusing on right now.” Monica sounds out of breath, clutching a large container of pretzels like it’d a shield. Star recognizes the brand from the school store, and Paulina must feel particularly close to these two if she let them in on how to get the good pretzels.

There’s another long moment of silence, before Jessica suddenly bolts towards the bathroom she shares with Monica.

“Oh, poor dear,” Paulina looks sadly to where her friend disappeared to, “I was worried that would happen, Monica at least had food to help her keep anything down, but the last thing Jessica ate was that nasty burger at lunch today, I think everything just finally caught up to the poor girl.”

“Well at least it’s just cheap beer, Jessica would have a conniption if she found out she threw up wine more expensive than her whole dorm room.”

With the metaphorical ice broken Star beckons Paulina over to the couch while she grabs the kitchen medical kit. Not as big as the one at home, but it at least has the necessities to treat small injuries.

Returning to the living room sees Paulina relaxing into the couch, with Monica hovering nearby. After a moment of hesitation the other girl collapses onto their smaller couch, still holding onto the pretzels.

With a closer look the bruise seems to be the only injury Paulina sustained, but her hair seems frazzled from possibly being pulled, and two of her fingers on the right hand are missing their nail extensions. There’s starting to be some serious discoloration at the joints of the fingers, a sign they’re probably out of their sockets.

“Well at least it isn’t too bad, I can grab an ice pack for your face and nose, but we’re going to have to pop your fingers back into their joints.”

“Wait wait wait,” Monica speaks up from the couch, “wouldn’t it be better to go to a hospital for something like this, you can seriously mess up your body if you pop a bone back in place wrong.”

“Oh that’s so sweet, but don’t worry, I have plenty of experience with sprained and broken bones.”

“Even better, didn’t you sew up Manson that one time with the helicopter?” Paulina looks up from where she was inspecting her intact nails, “that has to be at least thirty stitches, and you did it without even flinching!”

“What?”

Oh dear, what Paulina had clearly meant to be encouraging only seems to have made Monica more unnerved and horrified. Which, Star kind of understood, it was scary when your friend got hurt, but Star knew what she was doing, so Monica had no reason to fret.

“Shouldn’t we, um, go to the campus police with this?” Jessica’s voice is scratchy from where she’s leaning out from the bathroom, clutching the doorway.

Monica nods enthusiastically, but Star thinks it is a rather silly idea.

“Ha!” Paulina’s laugh is sharp, “the most that would happen would be that we get told off for being ‘young ladies out drinking late at night without thinking about the consequences’, worst case, I did much more damage to them than they did to me, so if anything I would get charged with assault.”

“But! He was harassing you! Everyone who’s anyone knows Ben has been trying to get into your pants for the last two weeks, it’s obvious he was trying to-“

“Oh like any officer would take my side in that situation. It would be all ‘oh but you didn’t give him a chance’, ‘oh she dresses like that and is surprised when young men take an interest in her’, 'oh but the young man is so nice usually’…”

While Paulina is giving her impassioned speech Star quickly pops the two fingers back into place, each making a satisfying snap pop sound as it’s put back into alignment.

It’s almost enough to cover the sudden sound of violent retching from Jessica and Monica’s bathroom.

———————

+ Danny

Jerome’s Dad is going to be so disappointed with him. Another quick glance at his phone screen reveals that it’s almost eleven pm, and that Jerome has less than an hour to file his taxes.

His Dad had been texting him every day for the past three weeks to remind him that he needed to do them ASAP, but every time he sat down in front of his computer something had come up.

A test to study for, a party he absolutely couldn’t miss, Hillary from calculus asked him to go to the movies with her and from there he might have spent the next three days at her apartment.

He just, he had never found the time. And all those hours sitting on his phone switching between Twitter and Instagram didn’t count, that was his daily time for doom-scrolling and making himself feel bad by seeing how perfect some people’s lives seemed to be.

And now it was tax day, and he hadn’t even bought the filing software until this morning. The poor cashier ringing him out that morning had wished him luck, which he definitely needed.

He needed the job. Getting scholarships had helped, but with his Dad’s single income it was still a very tight fit. Jerome had tried to get jobs as a teen in high school, but every place he had applied to wanted you to already have experience or demanded more hours than he could give with a high school schedule.

Next year Jerome was going to have to pay for at least his own room and board, and part of the tuition based on what was estimated his scholarships could cover. His Dad had emphasized that if he didn’t feel comfortable he could always come home, but so much of their savings was going towards his degree, Jerome couldn’t waste it. And Jerome liked the idea of having some spending money that he had earned himself, having his own pocket change meant he could buy books or replacement parts for his guitar without feeling guilty about using his rather limited personal savings.

At this point smacking his forehead into the desk might not be productive, but it does feel deserved.

“What’s up? Did you finally get a computer virus from all those sketching anime-watching sites?” His roommate Danny had been quietly enjoying his misery for the past half hour. The other boy had just recently gotten back from one of his late night classes, and was hunkered down under his lofted bed, playing Zelda from the sound of it.

“No, it’s- hey! You weren’t complaining when I got us the original Trigun and the Japanese sub for Ghost Stories.”

“Yeah yeah, but really, what’s got you so freaked?”

“It’s just- Oh my god, why did I ever want a job,” he questions the room and the universe at large.

“Uhh money?”

“No no no, don’t be logical with me, let me wallow in my misery for this last hour. God why didn’t I let my Dad help me when he was over for spring break?”

He scrolls through the file once again, but he still cannot make heads or tails about what he is supposed to do. All his frantic googling will tell him is that there’s some form he needs to fill out somewhere, but nothing gives him a straight answer on how filling out this form will help!

“It’s these Tax forms. I bought one of those ‘tax help’ programs but it keeps asking about all these accounts and different bits of personal information that I have no idea if they need to know.”

“Ouch, you waited this long to start?”

“Yes yes, laugh at me later, I think at this point I’m just going to have to call it quits and call my dad tomorrow and pay the late fee.”

“Maybe I could help?”

“At this point I’ll take anything,” Jerome stretched as Danny got up from his fort under his bed and walked the two feet to Jerome’s desk, “I mean you can’t make it any worse than it already is.”

“I mean,” Danny gives a grin that flashes in the low light of the room, “if I filed these horribly wrong you could get a very passive aggressive email from the IRS that you really fucked up and need to re-do your taxes again.”

Jerome has mostly come to appreciate Danny’s humor, bad puns and all, but sometimes the guy can get just a little too deadpan in his delivery. But two can play at that game.

“Maybe I’ll just suffer then-“ Jerome makes a show of trying to shove Danny away from his computer, and the laugh it brings out of Danny makes Jerome feel light.

“No no, kidding,” Danny huffs as he leans in and inspects the mess that is Jeromes’s laptop. “Ok, so what I think you need to do first is find this form here…”

Less than half an hour later Jerome is pressing the file button. It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off his shoulders, enough that he plops down to their slightly Cheeto dust infested carpet in relief.

(Maybe he had been neglecting other things along with doing his taxes.)

“Oh my god you’re a lifesaver!”

Danny grins down at him and offers a hand up, and once he gets to his feet Jerome’s stomach lets out an unhappy gurgle that reminds him he hasn’t eaten since breakfast.

“Wanna go down to the common room and see if Gus left any leftovers from his family’s visit last night? I think he said as long as it was in a blue container any of us could have as much as we wanted.”

“Oh yeah, I’m definitely down!”

They leave the room and arrive in the common area with little fanfare, and within minutes are enjoying some very late night home cooked chicken and rice.

“So, how’d you know how to do taxes?” Jerome asks one his stomach has stopped rumbling about mutiny. “As far as I know that’s not why you stay up until three am watching YouTube, and you said you weren’t going to get a job until next semester when you didn’t have to deal with night classs.”

“Oh yeah, my Mom showed me how to do them for the past few years, she said no one had ever helped her growing up and so she wanted to make sure me and my sister knew how to do them correctly so we wouldn’t stress.”

“Man, that's awesome. I know my dad tried to show me last year, but he already had most stuff auto-completed because of the service he used. So I kinda blew it off and just assumed I would know what to do when the time came.”

“Yeah, most of it is pretty easy, although I know my parents have to file quarterly because they’re self employed and mostly do work with an independent income and not through an established company. My dad showed me some of the forms they had to fill out once, absolutely nightmare inducing. I couldn’t imagine trying to work independently and having that much pressure from the IRS about all those different forms.”

“Why did your parents need to do that?”

“Oh because they’re independent paranormal investigators, they hunt ghosts.”

#danny phantom #phic phight 2023 #team human #no beta we die like Danny #danny fenton #tucker foley #dash baxter #Kwan (Danny phantom)#paulina sanchez #Star (Danny Phantom)#Sam Manson (mentioned)#a whole host of oc’s

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bookcub · 1 year

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#polls #twilight #vampire academy #house of night #vladimir tod #holly black #team human

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olvmqus · 2 years

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TJ Klune when writing Green Creek: how much gay do I want there to be?

Also TJ Klune: yes

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the-dust-jacket · 2 years

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#Holly Black #Sonia Hartl #Justine Larbalestier #Sarah Rees Brennan #the lost girls #the coldest girl in coldtown #Team Human #Love That? Read This!

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incorrectsterekquotes · 2 years

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lydia: it's locked. you got a lock pick?

stiles: yeah-

allison: *kicks in the door*

#team human #lydia martin #stiles stilinski #allison argent #incorrect quotes

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scarletsaphire · 7 days

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Danny knew that he wasn't supposed to follow the wisps, but when you're a child, lost and alone in the forest, you don't have much of a choice.

---

I took a small break from @phicphight but I'm back with a fill for @jackdaw-sprite! The prompt I used will be at the bottom.

There were lots and lots of rules that Danny needed to follow; don't try and use the stove by yourself, don't wander into the lab without supervision, always wear his welding mask when helping his mom or dad with their work, and most importantly of all, do not, under any circumstances, follow the will o' wisps.

His parents had spent a very long time hammering that rule into his head, ever since he was a baby. "They may look friendly," his mom would say, as they cuddled on a sofa watching Brave . "It may seem like they're trying to help her. But they are not. If they hadn't appeared, than none of this would've happened in the first place."

"They're going to be beautiful," his dad had said, while hammering a sheet of metal into the shape he needed. Danny was standing on the stool next to him, a significantly smaller, less effective hammer clasped between his tiny hands. "They might even be the most beautiful thing you've ever seen. But that's a lie. They just want to trick you, and take you away from us. You can't trust them, just like you can't trust any ghost. Do you understand me, Danno?"

Danny had nodded, and his dad had ruffled his hair just like he always did. "You're such a smart kid, you know that? I wish I'd had half the brains when I was five!"

Now, lost deep enough in the forest that Danny couldn't see the sky, Danny didn't feel all that smart.

He hadn't meant to wander off; the rest of his family was still somewhere in the park, setting up the picnic blanket and basket for lunch. Jazz had been playing hide and seek with him, but knowing her, she was using his absence to read the book she’d brought. That was okay; as long as Danny hid well, they’d all have to find him eventually.

Danny had thought hiding in the trees would've been a good idea; he’d be able to see everyone, but they wouldn’t see him. There was the added bonus of being able to climb a tree, which was always a plus. He'd needed to go a few trees deep to find a good one he could climb. By then, he'd seen a flower, a lovely soft purple color that he thought would match his mom's eyes. But if he got his mom a flower, he had to get his dad one too, cause that was only fair, and there was a pretty yellow one only a little further in...

The next thing he knew, he'd been stumbling around the trees, tripping over protruding roots and dead logs that could've been there for centuries. He had no idea which way he'd come from, or which way led back to the park, and all he really wanted to do was sit down and cry.

His bottom lip had just started to quiver when the will o' wisp first appeared.

His father had been right; it was beautiful, a kaleidoscope of colors all mushed into one creature, constantly shifting and flickering in the air, as if someone had taken a chunk of the northern lights and left it right here, in a random park in Illinois just for him to look at.

Danny recognized it instantly. He should’ve looked away; he knew what the rule was. Do not, under any circumstances, follow the will o' wisps. But...

Danny glanced back up at the sky, completely covered by the canopy above him. He couldn't tell if the sun was starting to set or not. He had no way of knowing just how close to, or even how far past lunch time it really was, but by the growling of his stomach, he was fairly certain it had been a little while at least.

Surely it was better to follow the wisp than sit here and starve, right? It wasn't like they could lead him into any more danger than he was already in.

Danny took one, hesitant step towards the wisp. It stayed exactly where it was, circling through a dozen different colors. Danny took another step.

It did not disappear when he got close, like it did in the movies. It hovered inches in front of his face, close enough that if he just stretched his hand forward, he would be able to touch it. This close, he could see that he'd been wrong to compare it to the northern lights; those were probably beautiful, sure, but it didn't hold a candle to this.

It was like peering through water at the bottom of a pond, if the only thing on the other side was a rainbow. It rippled and flowed from one vivid color into the next, constantly changing and shifting and yet never once was it muddied. The temptation was too strong, and Danny couldn’t help but reach out. It was only then, just as his fingers were about to brush against the top of whatever it had instead of a head, that it disappeared, reappearing a few feet away.

Danny didn't hesitate this time. He was off as fast as his little legs could carry him, running towards the wisp. This time, the roots did not catch his feet, the weeds did not scratch his legs, and the logs did not break his stride.

He chased the wisp through the woods with reckless abandon, running as fast as he possibly could. Danny needed to touch that wisp, needed to catch it between his hands like a lightning bug. He didn't know why, he just knew he needed to know. He needed to know how it felt beneath his fingers.

He was so focused on the will o' wisp that he didn't notice when the ground beneath him became more level, when the sunlight streamed through the leaves in larger gaps. He didn't even notice that he'd emerged out of the forest until the wisp disappeared for the last time, and he couldn't find where it had reappeared.

Jazz grabbed a hold of his arm, and the memory of the will o' wisp was knocked out of his head all at once.

"There you are!" she said, dragging Danny over to where the picnic blanket had been laid out. "Mom, I found him!"

His mom and dad rushed over to him, pulling him into a hug. "We've been worried sick about you, kiddo!" his dad said, pulling away to look at his face. "We've been calling your name for fifteen minutes now!"

"You must've wandered pretty far into the forest, huh?" his mom said with a smile and a laugh. "What were you doing in there?"

Danny looked back at the woods. He hoped to see the wisp among the trees, one last glimpse of the beautiful, cascading colors. All he saw was the browns and greens the forest always had.

"I was climbing trees," he lied.

He was quiet for the rest of the day. His parents never bothered to ask why.

Danny was eight when he next saw the wisps. He'd almost forgotten about them entirely, so many years had gone by. He probably would have, if his parents warnings didn’t serve as near constant reminders.

He was supposed to be in class, but he wasn’t. Dash had been picking on him again, and the teacher had looked the other way, just like she always did. That was normal. Most days, Danny dealt with it.

Unlike most days, however, Danny didn't have Tucker to help distract him; his friend was home sick with some kind of stomach bug, so for this day and probably the following week, Danny was going to be all by himself.

Danny thought his solution made perfect sense. He’d waited for the teacher and Dash to turn their attention away, and slipped out into the hallway. He knew he wasn't supposed to be wandering around without permission, but it was probably fine. Dash wasn't supposed to be insulting him and his parents like that, at least not according to the signs on the walls everywhere, so Danny deserved a little bit of rule breaking here and there. It was only fair.

This staircase went to the roof, supposedly, but since he didn't have the key, and neither did any of the other staff as far as he knew, it was pretty much just a dead end. This worked perfectly for Danny's purposes; no one would come up here for any reason, which meant he had as much time as he wanted. At least, until someone realized he was gone, but that probably wouldn’t be for a while.

Now the problem was what he was going to do. He hadn’t thought to grab his backpack before sneaking away, so he didn’t have all of the random goodies he’d accumulated over the past few months. He didn’t have any homework or studying that he could do, not without his worksheets, and even if he did, he probably wouldn’t; that was something Jazz would do, and Jazz was boring.

Danny dug through the pockets of his jacket and jeans and came out with two halves of a purple crayon, a small container of extra pencil lead for a mechanical pencil, and a form he was supposed to give to his parents last week that he’d forgotten about.

It looked like he would be drawing.

He was halfway into a doodle of some kind of space monster eating a planet when he saw the light out of the corner of his eye. At first, he'd thought it was the door opening; the light was soft and natural, like sunlight would be, but that didn't make any sense; no one had come up the stairs, Danny was sure of it, and there was no way anyone was on the roof; they’d need to climb the side of the school, which was way too much work.

It was once he looked up that he recognized it: a will o' wisp, hovering above the stairs, just out of reach.

The crayon fell out of his hand. It was just as beautiful as he remembered it being, just as ethereal, and completely out of place with the bleak surroundings of the elementary school staircase.

Danny didn't bother packing up his things. He left his drawing unfinished on the floor, the pencil lead spread out against the tile. He climbed to his feet as if in a trance, hand outstretched, just like he remembered doing in the forest three years ago. Just like it had done then, it let Danny get close enough to almost touch it, close enough that he could almost feel it against his finger tips, and then it was gone, floating above the landing just below him.

He hesitated. The first time he saw the wisps, he'd been a dumb, scared, lost child, who didn't have any other options. It was different this time; Danny was older, and smarter, and most importantly, he wasn't

It was weird, for the will o' wisp to appear here, of all places. In all of the stories Danny had heard, either from books or movies or from his parents, the wisps had always appeared to people who were lost, or in danger, and (depending on who was telling the story) they would help or hinder whatever traveler happened to stumble across them. Danny wasn't in danger or lost, unless you counted Dash being mean, but if that was the case, the wisps would've appeared years ago.

Everything about the situation was wrong. Danny knew that it was all wrong, and that he should park his butt back on the floor and finish his doodle. He also knew that if he didn't investigate now, than he would never get the chance to investigate again.

The doodle could wait; it wasn't that good anyway.

With the initial shock and awe of seeing it gone, Danny approached the wisp cautiously, making sure to watch his step. The wisp stayed in place, glinting in the artificial school lights just as it had in the sunlight three years before. It was only once Danny had landed solidly on the landing, with his hand outstretched to the wisp, that it vanished, reappearing on the next landing down.

It brought Danny down to the bottom floor before disappearing. That was weird; It hadn't brought him anywhere, but it was definitely gone. Unless...

Danny pushed the door separating the stairs and the hallway open just a crack, then breathed a sigh of relief. The wisp danced in the hallway, just a few doors down from where he currently was. With a quick look glance for any wondering teachers, Danny was out in the hallway, chasing after the wisp again.

The chase didn't last much longer. He'd barely gone halfway down the hallway when it disappeared for good this time, leaving Danny standing right outside his own class's door.

"But-" Danny started, talking to empty air. He shook his head instead of continuing his question; he wouldn't have gotten an answer, even if the wisp was still here.

He opened the door to the classroom and slipped back amidst the students. As far as he could tell, nobody noticed he was missing.

The intercom crackled to life barely two minutes later. "Attention teachers and students. There is an active shooter inside of the building. This is not a drill. Stay calm and commence lock down procedures. I repeat, this is not a drill."

The class immediately panicked.

(Later that night, safely in a chair at home, Danny would overhear the news on the television. "It had been lucky that the shooter hadn't injured anyone, as a children's drawing was found next to the point of entry," the reporter was saying. "In the future, the Casper Elementary School will make certain that the roof access door is locked from the inside, hopefully preventing an issue like this from arising again.")

---

Fires were no rare occasion at Fentonworks. Between their positively abysmal cooking skills, the amount of faulty inventions that were tested in the laboratory, and the Fen-Toaster which was probably a violation of the Geneva conventions, the Fenton's were single-handedly keeping the fire hydrant companies in business. The fires were never a big deal, hardly more than a scorch mark on the ground or wall. They were always caught early, and proper fire safety had been ingrained into Jazz and Danny since before they could walk.

This fire was different. It hadn't been caught early, if the smoke that woke Danny up was anything to go off of, and it certainly wasn't something that could be tamed by a standard fire extinguisher.

Danny held the back of his hand up to his door. It wasn't hot; that was a good sign.

The hallway wasn't on fire, at least not that Danny could see, but he couldn't see much through the thick smoke that clogged the air. He fumbled his way towards the staircase, eyes squinted against the burn.

"Danny!" It was his mother's voice, raspy and punctuated with a cough.

He turned back around towards their bedroom, and could just barely make out the silhouette of both her and his father. Before he knew it, they had reached him, pulling him into a quick hug.

"We need to get Jazz and get out of here!" his dad said.

"Right here," Jazz said, her blurry figure joining the rest of them.

"Good. Good." His mother's relief was palpable. "We need to get going."

She was right. They didn't have much time, and the fire was only going to grow worse as time went on. They needed to get out of Fentonworks, and fast. The front door was the easy answer; they could all get there with their eyes closed. Danny should've been following her down the stairs, as fast as his aching lungs could carry him. Instead, he found himself reaching out and stopping her descent.

"We can't go that way." He was certain of it. If the door was clear, than the colorful light, distorting through the smoke in the air, wouldn't be at the end of the hallway.

"Danny, we-"

He didn't wait for an answer, taking off towards the end of the hallway. The wisp was there to help , he was certain of it, just like it had helped him those times when he was younger. They'd proved that they were here to help, and despite his parents' warning, Danny trusted them.

His family was close behind, calling his name between coughs, but he didn't turn around.

The wisp lead him into the bathroom, which was surprisingly smoke free. With the wisp hovering in the window as it was, it wasn't hard to see why; the window had been left open, and the door closed. The rest of the family funneled into the room while Danny approached the window. Peering out, he could see the reason the wisp must have brought them here; his parents' old mattress, just recently replaced for a new, upgraded one, lay on the ground directly beneath the window. It wouldn't be the comfiest fall in the world, but they wouldn't get hurt. Probably.

Danny didn't think about it. He blocked out the protests of his parents and sister, heaving himself up over the windowsill and out into the clean, cool air. The fall was quick, not enough time for him to regret the decision even as his stomach flipped. The mattress did not completely cushion his fall - he'd probably be dealing with bruises for the next week, maybe more - but he was able to roll off the mattress and onto his feet without an issue.

The wisp was gone when he looked back up at the bathroom window, replaced with the worried faces of his family. He tried to shout up at them, but all he managed to do was trigger a coughing fit. Instead, he waved, beckoning them to follow. They seemed to understand. Jazz came down first, letting out a ear piercing shriek on her way down. She was grabbing onto Danny's shoulders mere seconds after she'd landed.

"What were you thinking?" she cried, shaking him back and forth. "You can't just run off like that! You could've gotten yourself killed!"

"But we're fine," Danny argued.

"And we would've been just as fine if we had gone downstairs! And you wouldn't have given all of us a heart attack and made us jump out of the window!"

"We can talk about this later." His mother had joined the conversation, and his father had just landed on the mattress with a big puff. "And we will be talking about this later-" she narrowed a glare at Danny "-but right now we need to make sure the fire departments been called. You two run over to the Pallay's house to borrow their phone, we'll see if the Kennywood's will let us."

Danny and Jazz nodded their head, before taking off around the corner. The moment they were out of earshot, Jazz started again. "What were you thinking?"

He didn't have an answer. What was he supposed to say, that he followed the wisp? Jazz wouldn't understand; she didn't believe in ghosts at all, and even if she did, she wouldn't trust them, not like Danny did. Luckily, he didn't need an answer.

The contorted, melted in mess of a front door was answer enough.

---

"It's a bummer that it doesn't work," Tucker said, making himself comfortable on the one empty spot of workbench. "Your parents have been working on it for like. Forever."

"Yeah they're not happy," Danny said, staring at the shell of what should've been a portal. "Jazz had to basically drag them out of the house today, they haven't left at all this week."

"I don't blame them," Sam said, raising the camera around her neck to her eye. "At least it looks cool, right?"

"I guess so," Danny agreed.

Sam hummed. "It doesn't photograph well."

"I can try and get another light on?" Danny offered.

Sam shook her head. "That's not the problem. It's just too... static. I think it'd look nicer with one of you in front of it."

"Not it!" Tucker called quickly, lifting his hand to his nose. "Too slow!"

Danny, who was midway through the same motion, lowered his hand back down with a sigh. "Fine, I'll do it. But I'm putting on my suit! It's still a dangerous machine, even if it doesn't work right."

Sam nodded while Danny got into the suit "I think it'll look better anyway. More thematic than jeans and a t-shirt. Though, maybe without the sticker of your dad's face."

Danny's face heated up as she removed the sticker. "I didn't put it there."

"Yeah, yeah, get in front of the portal," Sam said.

Danny listened, standing just beyond the lip of the metal. A chill traveled down his spine; there was something... disconcerting about it all. He knew what was actually behind him; he knew the portal almost as well as his parents did, years and years of talks about it over dinner, family time in the lab spilling over blueprints that should've been far above his comprehension. He knew that, when it lay dormant and dead like this, it was nothing more than metal and machinery, just like every other thing in the lab.

And yet he could feel it's exhale, cold and sour on the back of his neck. He could see stray wires on the corners of his vision, and he couldn't help but see them as teeth, closing in around him. This was the portal to the afterlife, supposed to bridge the gap between life and death itself. Maybe his parents were wrong; maybe it did work, and they just couldn't see it. Maybe he was balanced on the edge of death itself, and one more step, one slip of his foot, and he'd go falling backwards into whatever endless nothingness the afterlife had for a living soul.

Sam's camera clicked, chasing away to foreboding feeling in an instant. She grabbed the polaroid, shaking it out, before squinting at it. "Something's still missing."

Tucker leaned over her shoulder. "Yeah, it still feels kinda bland."

"Maybe you should go into it more?" Sam asked, glancing up at Danny, then back down at the picture.

"I don't know..." Danny said. "I don't think its safe."

"Come on, it'll be fine," Sam said dismissively. "Your parents said its not working. And besides, its a ghost portal. Don't you want to see what's on the other side?"

He wanted to say no. He wanted to walk away, take off his stupid jumpsuit, and go back upstairs to watch whatever stupid show Tucker had found them earlier today. Her words had hit a little to close to home, a little to close to that nagging fear he'd felt before, and he spared one glance behind him, just to assuage his nerves before shutting her down.

The wisp danced in the maw of the portal, brilliant, blinding, dazzling colors reflecting off the sheer metal surface of its mechanical innards, and Danny's worries washed away. "Yeah," he heard himself say. "It would be pretty cool."

The portal wasn't deep, so when the wisp disappeared, it didn't go far. It hovered alongside the portal wall, so very close. He took one step further, and then another, and was already in touching distance of the wisp. Danny reached out his hand slowly, cautiously, expecting for it to disappear just like always.

It didn't. It was silky and cool under Danny's hand, and yet it seemed to float away like water or mist, allowing him to put his hand further and further in. He let out a disbelieving laugh that echoed through the tunnel, and he almost thought he could hear the wisp laugh with him, a tinkling of bells, mischievous and soft, echoing just behind his own. The wisp seemed oddly happy to have Danny's hand through its not quite face, it's colors shifting swifter and more vibrantly than ever before. With reckless joy, Danny pushed his hand in further.

His hand met metal with a soft click, and the wisp disappeared, bringing its colorful, kaleidoscope lights with it. Danny was plunged into darkness before his world went green.

Prompts: jackdawsprite - Danny knows better than to follow the will o' the wisps. But the rules are different now, aren't they?

#danny phantom #danny phantom fanfiction #danny fenton #pre canon #will o' the wisp #phic phight #phic phight 2024 #team human

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timelessdp · 1 year

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Freedom

Frozen for forever. No sound, no noise were in his cell. He felt like he was inside a black hole. No light came in. He lost time. He had been thinking about his past. The injustice. They never believed that he is a hero. He just kept that last promise he will be who his parents wanted to see him. A devil. A conqueror. But it didn't helped either. His scar will never fade. He was never enough. He was lost case. His memories were the only thing which tried bring some sanity to his delusional brain.

They were on repeat. Sometimes Plasmius appeared as well. Then he didn't felt alone for a short time. It was calming to know he has some company.

Plasmius was like the wind in his mind. The older ghost whispered awful things. What would they do if they could get free. When that the old enemy showed him pictures from Danny's teenager age, he closed the connection.

He believed, it was Plasmius fault that he was there in the first place. If he generally helped him in the past, they wouldn't be stuck inside the out dated thermos.

Dan felt powerless. Like when he was just an ordinary boy Dash behind his back. He was tired from the never changing present.

Suddenly the black hole became white, and he was out of the thermos.

The light changing disturbed his vision. He had to blink a few times to understand where is he.

—Uhh - a little girl in a dress with black hair and vitiligo skin appeared in his vision. Just to disappear as soon as he looked at her. —Ticky help me! -She couldn't hold her invisibility too long. Now she was a ghost and her skin shinned green and red color, with a hair as white as snow.

—Wait! Who are you?

The little girl just shook her head. —Ticky... - she whispered.

—Thank you freeing me. When am I?

—Dad said I should not talk strangers.

—You have a clever parent. Then why did you played with my thermos?

—It was weird thermos. Always been there... -she started thinking, then floated a bit backwards. —Are you a bad ghost?

—Honestly. I am a confused spirit -he sat down. —I had a difficult life. Do you know which year is now?

—Hmmm... Dunno. Ask Ticky! They know everything about time!

—Ticky? Do you mean Clockwork?

The little girl noded.

—They are looking after me when my parents are on a mission- She let out a yawn after the sentence. —Mommy and Daddy can handle powerful ghosts. -A blue ring formed in her waist her little halfa energy was running low.

—What are their names?

—Mom and Dad. My name is Cassiopeia Valeria Fenton. But my friends call me Cassy. Do you wanna be my friend?-she reached her hand to him.

Dan was surprised at the petite lady confidence, and braveness.

—Sure. I am Dan -He accepted the hand.

Cassy flew into his arms then the transformation washed over her.

—Good night Dan -she said, and rested down him.

—Good night Cassy.

They were on repeat. Sometimes Plasmius appeared as well. Then he didn't felt alone for a short time. It was calming to know he has some company.

He believed, it was Plasmius fault that he was there in the first place. If he generally helped him in the past, they wouldn't be stuck inside the out dated thermos.

Dan felt powerless. Like when he was just an ordinary boy Dash behind his back. He was tired from the never changing present.

Suddenly the black hole became white, and he was out of the thermos.

The light changing disturbed his vision. He had to blink a few times to understand where is he.

—Wait! Who are you?

The little girl just shook her head. —Ticky... - she whispered.

—Thank you freeing me. When am I?

—Dad said I should not talk strangers.

—You have a clever parent. Then why did you played with my thermos?

—It was weird thermos. Always been there... -she started thinking, then floated a bit backwards. —Are you a bad ghost?

—Honestly. I am a confused spirit -he sat down. —I had a difficult life. Do you know which year is now?

—Hmmm... Dunno. Ask Ticky! They know everything about time!

—Ticky? Do you mean Clockwork?

The little girl noded.

—What are their names?

—Mom and Dad. My name is Cassiopeia Valeria Fenton. But my friends call me Cassy. Do you wanna be my friend?-she reached her hand to him.

Dan was surprised at the petite lady confidence, and braveness.

—Sure. I am Dan -He accepted the hand.

Cassy flew into his arms then the transformation washed over her.

—Good night Dan -she said, and rested down him.

—Good night Cassy.

For: @carelisswriting

#team human #dan phantom #oc

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ajitated · 2 years

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(Originally posted: 2 April 2021)

Summary: Danny doesn't want to take up Ghost Hunting with his parents, but Jack and Maddie don't seem to understand that - or maybe they just don't care. When a certain school bully gets him out of an argument with his parents, Danny learns that maybe he's been underestimating people too, and has to admit some stuff he'd really rather not.

Written for Phic Phight 2021, Team Human!

Prompts by @heroine0ftime and @aggressivelyclueless, "An unexpected ally helps Danny out of a difficult situation" and "Actually, Dad? I wanted to be a paleontologist"

#ajility writes #ajs fanworks #danny phantom #moving onto blog #originally posted 2 apr 2021 #dp ff #dp fic #dp oneshot #phic phight #phigh phight 2021 #team human

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maxattax · 6 hours

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Phic Phight prompt by @datawyrms:

All ghosts feed on some sort of emotion. Half ghosts included, no matter what Danny thinks.

#danny phantom #fanfiction #my writing #phicphight24 #phic phight 24 #phic phight #team human

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ei-w · 1 year

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perfect time (653 words) by ei_w Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Danny Phantom Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Danny Fenton/Sam Manson, Clockwork/Pariah Dark Characters: Danny Fenton, Sam Manson, Clockwork (Danny Phantom) Additional Tags: Marriage Proposal, referred DarkAges, Clockwork did not approve to use the Ring of Rage for another purpose than it was destined for, Funny, Not Betaed We Die Like Danny In Embarresment, Phic Phight (Danny Phantom), Phic Phight: Team Human (Danny Phantom) Summary:

Finally, the day had come, the one he was waiting for so long! — Danny would take the question to Sam.

#danny phantom #dp fanfic #phic phight #phic phight 2023 #team human #team ghost #sam manson #clockwork #dp clockwork

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charcoalhawk · 1 year

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No Batteries Required

Turns out that with all the other powers of a ghostly core, they also make a great emergency light source.

Second Phic for this Phic Phight!

Prompt from @jewishicequeen : There's a powerfail at school, and during a major test, too. So it's really lucky, if a bit weird, that Fenton glows in the dark? Or, Danny becomes a freaking nightlight.

Today is his home room period’s first test back from winter break, one of the most important for the quarter. Glancing around Edward Lancer counts twenty five bent heads, all focusing on the paper before them. Hopefully today they can get through the next, a quick glance at the old clock hanging in the wall, hour and four minutes without any ghost attacks or rouge bathroom trips.

If they ended up having to push this test back then it would mean the class would have less time to go over and review their next unit when the time came, which in turn he knows will push the entire schedule back at least a week or two, meaning less time to review the needed material, leaving his kids ill prepared for tests the entire quarter.

Even after two years Casper high had not been able to stretch or alter their curriculum to accommodate for their new, erm, ghostly neighbors. Every attempt to reach out to the larger school board had been met with quiet disdain and louder criticism.

At best they could use the few half days the calendar offered and convert them into extra time in the event a ghost prevented tests from being completed multiple days in a row. They were doing all they could to not take the kids' spring break, it wouldn’t be fair after all their kids went through to turn around and deprive them of one of the few chances for a break they could get.

But, nothing Edward can do about that right now. Now he has a duty to see these kids though their test today and hopefully be able to move into their next unit on Monday.

Weak sunlight is streaming through the windows, casting the room in a soft warm glow. One of many reasons Edward had requested an outer room of the school. He had found that, as distracting as the outside could be, having a room with a view to the outside kept his students from feeling too enclosed and anxious.

It also didn’t help that sunlight meant that his room was always nice and bright, better than the cheap overhead lights which could barely keep the room visible when the blinds were closed. In the last month three of them had been damaged to the point that they were nonfunctional, and several others were just too old and were on their last legs.

There’s no outward sign before it happens, no flashing light or rumbling earth, one moment Edward is observing his students from his desk, and the next the room is plunged into darkness.

Well, not complete darkness, but it’s a rather gloomy day, so the light from outside casts the entire room into a muddled gloom.

As his brain is trying to catch up with his eyes his ears finally register the echo of all the lights in the room going pop and out at once.

In the half second before his students register what’s going on Edward curses himself for even thinking things could not go wrong.

No one screams, at least. But there’s the screech of cheap metal chairs on tile as his students try to figure out what’s going on. There’s no burst of light from students' phones, which strikes him as odd, before Edward remembers they’re all sitting in little cubbies at the front of the room.

After an unfortunate encounter with a ghostly duo of the mad Nikolai Tesla rip-off and a metal Mohawk man, Edward had negotiated with his students that all phones were to stay at the front of the room and not on anyone’s person.

One only needed to experience a group electrocution from dozens of phones combined with sitting in metal chairs once before his students readily agreed to the new rule.

(There hadn’t been any lasting injuries, all in all it hadn’t been a super powerful attack, but one student had needed to go to the nurse for fainting after the shock. At least Dash and his friend group hadn’t teased young Daniel too badly for that.)

Now that the darkness had settled in, and there was no maniacal laughter to indicate that a ghost was directly behind this situation, the chatter from his students rose from a murmur to a fever pitch.

Two sharp claps bring everything to a halt, and Edward is greeted with twenty five pairs of eyes staring steadily at him.

“Everyone please remain calm,” his voice was loud in the now defining quiet of the room. “Hopefully this is a temporary issue and will be resolved in the next few minutes. Now, we still have light from the windows so if we could all please get back to our tests-“

A series of clanks and buzzes pierce the air from the side of the classroom, before the metal ghost shield contraption slams down over the windows with a god awful grinding sound. An echo of the screeching sound fills the room as Edward once again tries to comprehend what had just happened.

It must have been a failure in the schools power system, either a fluke or a ghost had been trying to cause problems but the fail safes had caused the entire system to shut down in self defense.

It didn’t immediately explain why the metal ghost shield enforcers had activated, but given that the system was less than two years old, and had been in large part programmed by Jack Fenton meant that there were bound to be a few flaws in the code.

And now the class was sitting in pitch darkness and gearing up to be in full panic mode. Unfortunately with all their undead neighbors the school has had little time to educate the students in what they should do in situations not involving the undead.

Shove a kid in a room with a ghost and they would arrive back in class five minutes later with a triumphant grin and a few scorch marks, close a kid in a room and set off the tornado warning and suddenly everyone was running around with their heads cut off.

No one has run from their feet towards their phones yet, but Edward knows it’s only a matter of time. And then he’ll have a stampede of terrified juniors all running over each other in the pitch black classroom.

For all this was their classroom, it was a new room to everyone. A particularly nasty attack from the Wisconsin ghost a few days back had almost completely obliterated their homeroom, so they were forced to relocate to a little used lab room in the far wing while Mayor Masters found the resources to allocate to the school.

With silent feet Edward moves to where he knows the door is, it won’t be much, but at least if worst comes to worst he can slowly escort his class outside. But, the door handle won't budge, and his heart sinks to his shoes as the door refuses to open.

He knows part of the new ghost security system was that individual rooms could be completely locked down to catch a wandering ghost, but this seems like a large oversight of the Doctor’s Fenton part.

He makes his way back to his desk, then turns again, making his steps now audible to his class. Let them think he’s pacing, it’s a normal enough habit of his that the kids shouldn’t realize something is wrong.

“Alright everyone, please remain in your seats. If something has happened emergency power should activate soon, and once the faculty has figured out what’s wrong they’ll use the PA system to instruct us on what to do next.” damn, he can feel his own voice wavering slightly.

That’s hoping whatever caused this to happen didn’t affect the PA system, and if they end up doing a door to door notice they won’t be able to get theirs open, if they even remember seeing as this classroom is usually unused.

But, something is wrong. The room should be in complete darkness, but as the seconds tick by the room becomes steadily lighter, as if someone is slowly powering up a flashlight.

As the room slowly becomes visible all eyes are drawn to the source, a spot right next to the windows, but it’s not natural light.

It’s the color of the glow that truly throws Edward off. Most everything he’s encountered in the last few years that glowed were always a sickly green color, reminiscent of radioactive goop shown on Saturday morning cartoons. But this glow now reminded him of a sunrise. Small and bright, but always a welcome sight.

Even before the form becomes fully visible, Edward knows the culprit. Often the center of unnatural things occurring all around him, young Danny Fenton.

As his eyes adjust to the light he sees it is not, in fact, a flashlight, but Danny himself that is brightening the room.

Which, even for a ghost hunter's son, this is rather unusual.

But, one should neve look a gift horse in the mouth. He’s seen his students float before and even become an actual ghostly dragon in one very memorable occurrence. If this means he doesn’t have to reschedule this test, and as the minutes tick by it becomes clear that Danny is producing enough light for the entire class to see by, then Edward should simply go with the flow, as the kids say.

“Daniel,” and oh the poor kid looks just as freaked out as the rest of them feel, “could you please move to the middle of the room? Just ah- yes Cory if you could swap and move to Daniel’s seat that would be spectacular.”

There’s some very awkward shuffling as Danny and Cory swap seats, everyone’s eyes still drawn towards Danny like a moth to a flame.

“Thank you gentlemen, now seeing as Danny has, ah, provided us with an alternative light source for this period, let us all focus back on our tests. If you wouldn't mind staying after class, Danny, I do have some questions.”

“Heh,” snickering from the back of the class where he know Dash and Kwan commanded the football team like kings at a court, “I guess you could call Fenton a fleshlig-“

“Finish that sentence mr. Baxter, and you will find yourself staying after class for the rest of the week.” All movement in the back stops just as suddenly as if they had been frozen to their seats, “and you know Coach Telestaff is strict in her requirements to be at practices lest you not be put on the field.”

“I ahm, uh,” Danny is fidgeting from all the attention thrust upon him. He glances towards his friends who are giving furious little gestures under their desks that Edward pretends he can’t see, “I accidentally ate ectoplasm last night!”

Well, he had been going to discuss this privately, but teens so rarely wanted to stand out from their peers. Maybe he hoped explaining now meant he could leave when class was over.

“Yeah!” Danny sounds more confident as his story builds as he speaks, “my dad was trying out this new recipe from my mom’s sister, and I think he forgot he and my mom were working on one of their weapons earlier that evening and accidentally coated the entire thing in ectoplasm. But! It should go away on its own soon! Shouldn’t last more than a day!”

“Ok, thank you for your explanation, now if everyone could get back to their tests…”

As his students calm down and return to their tests a low hum slowly makes itself known over the shuffling of feet and scratching of pencils.

It is, not dissimilar to the sound of a content cat, in Edward’s experience. Looking out again he can see a small smile grace Daniel’s face as the other students calm around him.

But what does he know, it’s probably just the vents.

#danny phantom #phic phight 2023 #team human #no beta i die like danny #danny fenton #mr. lancer

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