#And he is fairly sure Jack and Maddie are not Gods | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nerdpoe · 1 year

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To Fail and to Succeed

AO3

Graphic depictions of death, descriptions of the sounds and smell of someone dying via electricity, don't read if u can't handle it. Take care of urself.

~~~~~~

Bruce was about to start falling asleep standing up, he could tell.

This couple had just talked nonstop for five hours about something that didn’t exist.

But he needed to act like Brucie, and Brucie needed to cement the fact that he was a frivolous idiot who would back other idiots like these ones.

His mind ached for something substantial to do, and the comm in his ear had long since fallen silent. He could tell that Dick was still there, at least; the snoring gave it away.

His other children had long since gotten bored and, after two hours of impressions and making fun of the Drs Fenton, had wandered off.

“-And that’s why our Portal is a guaranteed way to explore other dimensions!” Maddie cut into his thoughts, startling him to the extent that he had to put conscious effort not to tense up and dodge away from her proximity.

“You also get to skip that annoying airfare!” Jack worthlessly concluded, slapping Bruce on the back.

“Mom, Dad; you’re both on the no-fly list, remember?” Their daughter, Jasmine, the only blessedly normal one, reminded them on her way out the door. Bruce felt the involuntary sigh of relief leave him; they would not be able to legally fly to Gotham.

Thank god for small mercies.

“Oh Jazzie-pants, like that would stop us!”

Did Maddie Fenton just confess to a crime? Did that mean he could report them?

Could Bruce…go home?

“Easy B, just put up with it until after dinner and you get to come back to your usual broody cave. I’ll even ask Alfred to make you cookies.”

Damn. Dick had woken up.

Bruce grimaced and moved so his hidden camera was fully taking in the lab. One last shot before excusing himself.

“Well, this has been a very interesting-”

“Anyways the portal is ready to go now!”

And with very little fanfare, Jack Fenton slammed the power switch down and stood directly in front of the supposed interdimensional portal. Ghost Zone portal. Whatever, anyone who knew anything about dimensions knew what that thing really was.

Bruce tensed and prepared to yank the fool to safety, but…nothing.

Nothing happened.

Bruce could have cried with relief.

These two were far too scatterbrained to put their literal doctorates to use.

He instead opted for putting a hand over his still-rapidly beating heart and letting out a very small, very unnoticeable wheeze.

He’d already been lost to time once, if he had to do it again because of these two mad scientists-because that is definitely what they were and they were going on a watch list after this-he would have…

He…

Well, Bruce wasn’t sure what he would have done.

Waited for his kids or friends to get him out again and then personally apprehend the Fentons, probably.

Jack looked like he was about to cry.

Scratch that, the man was actively tearing up.

Maddie rushed over to comfort him and Bruce used their distraction to get a better look at the portal without all the background noise.

It was…surprisingly well built. There was no cable management, no safety features, and its very purpose was unhinged. Otherwise, a fairly solid build.

The Drs Fenton would definitely be on the watch list for potential villains.

All Bruce needed was for Tim to tell him how best to make sure this monstrosity never worked, but his chronically sleep-deprived son had just fallen asleep, so that would have to be put on hold.

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Wayne, but it looks like the Ghost Zone is going to have to wait,” Maddie sighed, looking just as heartbroken over it as her husband, “In the meantime, why don’t we go get some burgers. Cheer ourselves up.”

Bruce nodded along, playing up the sympathetic look and herding the couple upstairs towards the front door.

Halfway to the strange amalgamation they called their car, he stopped.

His Dad Sense, as Jason called it, was going off.

Jack and Maddie were in front of him.

Jasmine was walking down the street to do…something. Possibly library, if he remembered the layout of the city correctly.

Their son, Daniel was…

Quiet.

For all he had been bugging them to see the Portal come online, he had gone upstairs with his friends and they hadn’t heard a peep since.

Now that Bruce was thinking about it, he hadn’t even heard any footsteps running around up there.

That was Not Good.

The only time teenagers were that quiet was if they weren’t in the house to begin with, or if they were planning something they weren’t allowed to do.

Bruce would know.

He’d semi-raised enough teenagers to know.

Daniel and his friends were about to do something Stupid.

And looking at the boy’s parents, they would probably cheer him on.

“Hey, how about I meet you guys at the restaurant,” Brucie said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck and laughing, “I just realized I should pick up some documents from the hotel! I’ll grab those and then we can get that funding underway, hey? Your inventions really are out of this world!”

“Of course, Brucie, you take your time!” Jack vigorously shook his hand, almost yanking Bruce’s entire body off the ground.

Was the man a meta?

“We’ll meet you at Nasty Burger!” Maddie called, revving the engine of that…thing.

Bruce stayed out long enough to wave at them as they drove away and ran over multiple streetlights-why did they have drivers licenses-before diving for the front door and rushing in as quickly as he could.

Through the living room, down to the left, onto the basement stairs and-

-no.

Why were teenagers like this!?

“B?”

Daniel Fenton was dressed in only a hazmat suit, one designed for chemical exposure and not anything else, and was walking into the highly electrified metal arch.

“B, get him out of there!”

Bruce was already leaping over the railing, landing on a table and scattering the glassware. Daniel’s friends, Samantha and Tucker, bolted away from him, taking the phone they had been using to record their stupid stunt with them.

He ignored them.

“Daniel James Fenton!” The boy’s name was ripped from his mouth, voice in full Batman mode, before he even had time to think.

Daniel jumped.

Daniel turned around too quickly for his own two feet.

Daniel tripped.

Daniel fell.

Daniel reached out to stabilize himself.

Bruce was two steps away.

Then the world went Green.

Bruce couldn’t hear what Dick was saying as his body soared through the air and landed hard against the opposite wall.

What he could hear was the unending screams of a child being electrified to death.

He shakily pushed himself up, ignoring the pain from the probable concussion, and forced himself to stand.

The air was thick with smoke, and Bruce gagged when the smell hit him.

Pork roast.

Burning plastic.

The sickly-sweet scent of rot.

“-uce! Bruce! Are you okay?! I’m sending-”

Bruce was not okay.

Bruce could not string together a plan, and Daniel was still screaming.

If Daniel could still scream, then it meant that Daniel was still alive.

Bruce didn’t think, for once.

He charged forward, stuck his hands into the Lazarus Green portal, grabbed what he assumed was Daniel, and pulled.

First through the portal were the arms he was clutching, followed by a head of glowing white hair, and, finally, the rest of the boy.

It was Daniel, Bruce was sure. Same body build, same face, just different colors.

It would be fine.

Barry had survived his lab accident, Daniel would too.

He had to keep telling himself it would be fine, or his brain would shove him back to Ethiopia; with the same smells and the same smoke and a different dead child.

~~~~~~

Danny felt himself being yanked out of the pain, through the green, and laid on the floor of his parent’s lab.

He took his time, shivering and twitching as he hyperventilated. Whatever had just happened to him, he didn’t need to come back to himself until absolutely necessary.

He swore he could still feel the electricity burrowing under his skin, crawling up his spine, and-

-He didn’t want to think about that anymore.

Danny just wanted to go to bed.

Or play video games.

Or get a hug.

Danny could really go for a hug.

The shivering was dying down, and the twitching had almost stopped.

One more minute and he was starting to get his breathing under control too.

Opening his eyes, the first thing Danny saw was Mr. Wayne, crouched in front of him, talking to someone Danny couldn’t see, and looking over Danny with glowing, iridescent green eyes.

“Daniel, can you hear me now?”

Danny nodded, not trusting his voice to work.

“Good, hold on; there’s a…very specialized medical team who need to look you over.”

Oh, no.

Danny decided it was time to tell his voice to suck it up.

“Don’t-don’t tell my parents!”

Mr. Wayne paused, staring down at him incredulously.

“Are you joking?”

Wow, Mr. Wayne sounded a lot like Sam when he was pissed.

Time to butter him up.

“No. I’m not. By the way, Mr. Wayne, whoever told you that the uh, white streak was a good look for you definitely deserves a raise! Totally! Also I swear I won’t tell anyone you’re a meta.”

Mr. Wayne froze, staggered up, and turned to look at the mirror next to Sam and Tucker.

They looked horrified, but they’d also just found out one of the richest men in the world’s deepest secret, so Danny couldn’t blame them.

Then Mr. Wayne let out a strangled sound, and Danny knew his attempt to butter the man up had failed.

“No, it’s fine. Dick. Dick, it’s fine. Stop panicking. Please, I can’t…deal. With that. I’ll go for a check up on the way back.”

Also Mr. Wayne had an imaginary friend.

Stupid.

Danny should have complimented the imaginary friend too.

“Danny, dude, what?”

Danny turned to look at Tucker, only to lean away from the tears on his Best Friends face.

“Danny. Danny? Danny, I think you’re dead,” Sam whispered, the closed off look on her face when the world became too much.

“He’s not-”

“No I’m not-”

He paused in time with Mr. Wayne, who suddenly looked very concerned and glanced over at his parent’s stupid project.

Danny thought the concern wasn’t warranted.

“I’m not dead, look, I have a pulse and ev..ery…” Danny frowned, pushing his fingers against his jugular harder.

Nothing.

Hand over chest?

Nothing.

Wait, when was the last time he breathed after the panic attack?

He couldn’t remember.

“...Mr. Wayne,” Danny whispered, staring at the only adult in the room and hoping he could help, “Where’s my pulse?”

@ae-vixrose @treepainting @princessdaisysolosyourfaves @dixiwoods @marionkind @wisperwind22612 @cloudyelysian @dolfay @0nez1 @sweet-mango23 @choppedphantomsweets @thedragonqueen1998 @alinmenttreasure @apointlessbox @spectralstardustandphantomnights @skulld3mort-1fan

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phantomphangphucker · 1 year

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Phic Phight - Flower Child

For: @murphy-kitt @a-closet-emo @majorastudios @lovelyunknown @nocturna-starr @dekalko-mania

Maddie’s trying to sort through things, her son be Phantom things, but it isn’t going so well; and trying to figure things out more only makes things bloom into something worse

Maddie was… going through some things right now. On one hand she was immensely thankful to finally, finally, have answers for a lot of her worries and confusions. On the other hand though… finding out your child, the little kid you made and raised and loved, was dead was… unpleasant at best. If he wasn’t okay with it then she’s not sure she would have been able to handle it at all; but he seemed to love it, preferred it even. That was odd to think about all on its own, but she was still glad for it. Hearing how he died had been a hard conversation, one that she still felt rather guilty about, but it really was needed. The rift in the family had gotten pretty bad and her and Jack knew Danny was hiding something; and he was paranoid about them, he couldn’t trust or even like them without knowing they accepted him. And she does, she accepts him, loves him. It’s just… hard. He’s half dead and he fights otherworldly dead powerhouses; the ghosts he picked fights with or even just insulted are ones that would leave any ghost hunter -or human really- shaking in their boots or begging for a quick death. It was hard to watch and hard to sleep knowing he was out there getting thrown into concert and punch literal gods. But he didn’t want them worrying about him and he made it very clear that he absolutely wouldn’t stop; with his protective Obsession she’s fairly sure he would actually get sick if he did stop, but she knows it’s also just his personality and him being far more combative than she had ever realised.

That boy loved to fight.

It was probably for the best for everyone, it gave him a purpose that he truly enjoyed and could handle (even if she had to keep reminding herself of that fact), it kept their ghost infested town safer, and it gave FentonWorks a for-sure future heir. She was still going to worry. She was a mother, how couldn’t she?

Then there was the simple fact that Danny just wasn’t entirely human and acted and thought that way. He had been a bit odd before they knew, but after he told them he kind of gave up on hiding his less human behaviours. Her heart would still sped up a bit when he’d just walk through a wall or pull something out of a wall without a second thought; it was second nature to him to just phase through things. She was also a lot more aware of the fact that he’d usually invisibly stick his head into their room to check on them after his patrols, which was more touching than it really had any right to be; especially since it was partly him being protective and possessive of them in a very ghostly way. The floating and lack of footsteps was not nearly as unnerving as most people would probably think, but she’s a ghost hunter so her perception is probably pretty skewed. At least him ecto-beaming or freezing stuff when he got annoyed wasn’t much different than Jack inevitably blowing something up. The growling, hissing, and inhuman body movements were a lot more unsettling though; it just ticked that part in her brain that recognised ghosts and their behaviour as predatory and dangerous. It was taking a while to unlearn that and not at least wince when he’d be snarling and baring his teeth at the microwave for not working for the millionth time.

She thinks that maybe if she’d know early on and had gotten exposed to each new ghostly thing about him over years instead of months, this would be easier. Sam, Tucker, and Jazz barely even bat an eye at any of it. Heck! She’s seen Danny shoot Tucker in the face and the other teen had merely blinked to shield his eyes. He laughed about it after wiping his face off. They don’t see anything weird or unsettling or disturbing about his behaviour or powers, she couldn’t say the same and she feels like a failure as a mother because of it. It didn’t help that it felt like they were all just… expecting her to instantly be okay and fond of it all. Well, except Danny, which she didn’t actually like. She could tell that he’d have to make a point to not knee jerk cover up or hide or get embarrassed over his behaviour or power usage. The way he’d eye her and Jack before using some particular power the first, second, or third time. Or like his ghostly behaviour was going to get him shot at when he realised they’d seen/noticed it; that reaction was only worse if he actually noticed her unease or that she’d been startled. He was mostly good at just being himself now, even if she was still hung up on things. She’d honestly rather he just yell at her to ‘get her shit together’. But she’d get there, she’s sure of it. Especially because she knows in her gut that he hasn’t told her or Jack everything. It wouldn’t make sense if he had. Danny was starting them off small, that would be the logical thing to do; or at least he was leaving the ‘harder to swallow’ or darker things for later. She’s definitely positive that he’s understated a few of his fights, and outright hasn’t mentioned more serious ones. She had to hear from Jazz that he actually did fight Pariah, one on one, and nearly died. Maddie had half the mind to try and force him to never pick fights alone again, but she knows that wouldn’t work out both because he wouldn’t follow that and because he got into fights that it just wasn’t safe for anyone to tag along with him.

His power alone was worrying and frightening. Because of the fights he fought, the power he had to keep in check, even just the types of ghosts that wanted to talk to him; that and if he went too far or decided he was doing something no matter what, no one would be able to stop him.

Part of her worried a little that he planned on never telling them about anything more dark or dangerous, which she could understand but still didn’t like. That meant she had to take the incitive and try to find out herself; that way she could find out and process whatever it was without her son seeing any kind of reaction that he didn’t want to see/was afraid of. Though snooping his room was probably not the best idea and he’d probably be unhappy about it, that and she knows he stores stuff very literally inside of the walls; reasonably she knows that’s where anything more informative, or horrifying, might be.

So armed with a wall scanner she looks, finding weapons isn’t remotely surprising and she knows there’s a weapon or two in basically every wall of the house. Maddie’d like to argue that it would make more sense to hang them on the wall instead of inside so anyone can grab them, but the reason her and Jack hadn’t already been doing that was the simple fact that someone -most likely Jack- might knock them off of the wall and accidentally fire them; which with a half ghost in the house would be even more risky. There was a very big difference between a human getting shot in the face by an ecto- bazooka and someone who’s half ectoplasm getting shot in the face with an ecto-bazooka.

The… concerning amount of fresh and used medical supplies is a different story though. It was a bit biohazardous and made her insides squeeze at the implications. She knew Danny got hurt a lot and that he usually sorted out his own wounds, but actually seeing the -horrifically mishandled- end result of that wasn’t pleasant. Yes he could regrow limbs and reform broken bones, but he still had to patch it up to let it heal… and he still got the injuries in the first place. She should get him a biohazards bin, so he at least doesn’t destroy the insides of the walls with all of it. Probably the only reason he hadn’t asked for one or just taken one was him trying to not remind them about his frequent injuries. But the last thing Maddie wanted was him hiding a serious injury instead of coming to them for help or even just letting them know; she’s positive Jack’s hugged him when he had a broken rib or two before. She’s not going to try cutting the medical stuff out of the wall to look through it though, she does trust him to tell them if he needs different medical care/treatment than a human… or ghost for that matter. He’s been pretty good about that so far, even if it was clear he had been practically forcing himself to explain core-related and Obsession-related health; ghosts, including Danny, were instinctively afraid to expose that stuff.

What does catch her eyes is the notebooks, she knows Danny and his friends have run tests on his powers and their limits; and their note taking abilities, based on what she saw in their ghost files, were pretty good. And well, him hiding dangerous powers from her was something she was a bit more paranoid about. It would be extremely reassuring if it turns out he hasn't, and if it turns out he has then she’ll just have to assure him that she’s okay with it. It’s not like she wasn’t aware that he was dangerous, so if it turns out he does have one or a few exceptionally dangerous powers then that doesn’t really change anything.

Thankfully she’s able to get at them by just jimmying the windowsill and snaking a grabber tool down; it was almost as if he wanted her to be able to get them out if she just took the time to look. She was probably reading too far into it.

Taking the time to check his bed to make sure there’s nothing hidden under blankets she might accidentally sit on before sitting down. As curious as she is she makes a point to be careful, she’d feel awful if she wrecked one especially since she’s doing this without Danny’s permission. Some appear to be notes on ghost culture, which she’d rather hear from Danny himself. Some are just his general thoughts, opinions, or reminders to himself; which she’s not reading, she can at least respect his privacy that much. One’s a self expirement log, which she is extremely not okay with. She… can’t blame him for deciding to do that, there wasn’t really any other way for him to learn about his body, but it was still not okay. Her and Jack would probably do the same in his situation, but they certainly wouldn’t do it alone or with the level of risk Danny seemed to be okay with. There’s even a little side note about him forgetting a scalpel in his leg after dissecting it… with a (lol) bubble written next to it. If this wasn’t about her son and done to him by himself, she’d be incredibly curious and would want to pour over it. Maybe… she’ll ask Danny if that’s something they can do together. That way he can explain himself, and she can glare at him with enough feeling to get her disapproval across; while also going over his research in earnest and satisfying curiosities. Plus, she knows that some of this might be actually important for him to know.

But she does find what she was really looking for: the notes on his powers. Yes, she knows most of those she’s sure, but she’s looking specifically for what she doesn’t know. It is interesting being reminded just how many powers he has and how strong those powers are. It makes her feel nervous about him all over again, especially seeing how every power he has has grown in strength from whatever it was first recorded as. An 160 m/s flight speed, increased to around 370 m/s; a little baffling still but it still made her smile finally knowing that his flight was how he managed to get around so quickly. She had tried to stick a gps on him when she’d grounded him one time and had thought the thing was broken. Other things were just endurance increases, which was expected; it would be weird if his endurance hadn’t increased. He’d definitely understated how impressive his cyrokinesis was though, he could trap at least half of America in a perpetual snow storm if he felt like it. Maybe she should asking him about the ice sculpting? If it’s a hobby of his then she’d love to see a little; and seeing him use or work with his powers in a very non-threatening and innocent way would certainly make her more comfortable.

Apparently he really needed some help with his duplication and telekinesis, there was an honestly impressive amount of mishaps and utter failures written down. The little -clearly annoyed- side note about how the other halfas ‘stupid ass’ had no trouble with this and that he needed to get his own act together, was definitely surprising. Danny hadn’t mentioned any other halfas… but she guesses him being completely unique would be rather unlikely. Maybe he was protecting their identities? Did she know them? Was he just going to wait for permission from them to say anything? She could understand that. Arguably him having someone to compare himself to and relate to was a very good thing, hopefully they’re nice. She’s pretty sure she’s never even seen him use telekinesis as Phantom before, so he must be really bad at it; which does make her smile a little. It was nice seeing that he wasn’t this perfect all powerful godly ghost, and that he wasn’t alone with the way that he was.

Him being able to create portals and having pyrokinesis is a little unexpected. With how strong he is she’s not really surprised he can make portals, even if it looks like it takes a lot of ectoplasmic energy to do. Maybe he didn’t tell them because he was worried they’d want to take advantage of that to have him make portals for them? Which… she did kind of want to do but she’s not foolish enough to think he’d be okay with that. Besides, if her or Jack want to go to or research the Ghost Zone they’re going to use their own portal; their life’s work. Plus, the last thing she’d want to do is ask him to use up a bunch of his energy only for him to have to run off to a fight on a partly empty tank; she’d feel awful about that and that would be seriously mean of her to do to him. The pyrokinesis seemed newer, so maybe he was still trying to figure it out first; she couldn’t blame him for that.

So far she’s pretty okay with this. What he didn’t mention seemed reasonable and what he’d understated could easily just be him trying to ease them in slowly. It makes her breath a bit easier and smile or laugh more at all the little notes. Danny liked to add little side notes about his general mishaps. From apparently being able to shoot ecto-beams from his butt but refusing to on principle, to the ridiculously vast ways he’s accidentally destroyed his shoes (some how nearly every power had, at some point, destroyed his shoes).

The little section on his ghost zone lair related powers, like being able to manipulate colours or shapes, was a reminder on how he thought different. The notes don’t make a lot of sense and are kind of hard to follow. Even when he’d tried explaining things to her and Jack verbally, it didn’t make a lot of sense; he just couldn’t explain it in a way that made sense to the human mind. Sam and Tucker even left little scribbles telling him the notes didn’t make sense; which had angry faces doddled next to them. That was kind of nice to see. Even Sam and Tucker didn’t completely get everything, and Danny didn’t seem to mind them saying as much.

Then she flips to multiple pages that are all in ghost speak, ominous.

Alright, she’s got a few options here. Either she can leave it alone, it being in ghost speak clearly means Danny doesn’t want it being read… by the living at least. Or she could just ask him to open up to her and tell her, but that would rather defeat the purpose of all of this. Or she could get their translation manual, it wasn’t perfect but she could get an idea. Translating ghost speak was another of her and Jack’s life long projects, the language was very difficult since when spoken it was just scratching, warbles, squeaks, static, clicks, and shrieking; and when written was squiggles, scratches, and dots. No living language was similar and ghosts all naturally knew it so there was no ‘learn to speak ghost’ ghost books to potentially find and study. Danny himself had made comments about attempting to teach Tucker and Sam some of the language with little success… meaning they knew how to swear and that was it. Granted Danny had only tried teaching them to speak it, which Maddie’s pretty sure isn’t actually humanly possible. Reading it was a different matter all together.

… Yeah, she’s decoding this. She’s come this far, might as well see it through. Nodding to herself before going to go get their manual; she won’t be able to figure out any more unique or complicated words but it should hopefully be enough.

Coming back up and setting it down, part of her was excited to see how good she’ll be at this, the other part was just plain ol’ nervous.

…

‘These are things I ____ I ____ ____, as _____________ as it is. I ____ let this, him, _______ me and that ______ with ______ ______ and mine.

__________ One- Limitat____

I have _______ to test the limitat____ of the wail. It’s ______ to me, as ________, so I’m in the ____ with it. It’s an __________ powerful _______ even by _____ ghost _________. I dont know if I _________ it out of _________ or not, or if the wail will ______ more powerful _________ on power _____/ecto-_____, use, or my age. For now, I'm ________ to take some _________ in the fact that it’s not as ______ as his.

______ this experi____, I have done multi___ _________ test_ to see what my wails limitat____ are, each with a ____ _______ for rest and ________; I’m not trying to knock myself out on some ______ _________ island or make myself ______ to fight. Talk about a _______ move.

Test one- body sap

I _______ know I can go for a while _______ air, but the wail makes it __________ to _______ during use. This ________ with the _____ power ________ makes me light ______ after about forty-five _______; risk___ _______________ after three minutes. Minor head____ and thirst, also come into play. My skin starts getting dry and all my _______ begin to ____. If I push it my eyes get ______ and my blood ________ goes low. I _________ to do ________ drawn out wails like this but _____ up need___ an ecto __. Not fun.

(Note: ________ liter. test___ has shown that my wail is not __________ to a ______, the more I use it the more I can ______ it. It _________ makes me feel more ___________ with it but I’d still ______ never use it).

Test two- ecto _____________

_________ it takes about twelve _______ for a ________ ghost above ecto level ______ to _______ from using a _______ _______ power, _________ it takes me four times that and even less if I’m not eat___ or ________ enough. Even with stay___ on top of my bodily needs as much as ________ in order to help __________ my ecto-_____________, it still takes at least three days to fully _______ from using my wail until I ______ pass out. The wail _______ needs far more power than what I’m _________ able to give it and is ________ going past my natural ________ ______; this will __________ ______ as I grow strong__. To be test__ _______ later. (Note: _______ test does _______ that more ecto-______ = short__ ________ time, but it’s still above any ________ time of any of my other powers).

Test three- ___________ _________

As much as I don’t like it, this power is _________ ___________. I need to know the ______ of that and how to ______ I can __________ control my ______ to avoid _________ damage. Even with _______ energy ______ and only using it for one full ______ the wail easily ___________ an acre of trees and tears up the ground. I _______ I will have to active__ suck in some of the ______ I’m out put____ to make this less danger___. At _______ ______ that I can handle I’m stuck reform___ what I can of the ______, and hoping no one saw that with a _____ or something. This is just too danger____. (Note: I’ve since _______ out how to ‘suck in’ some of the ______, it has a ________ to it and my body just wants to let the ______ lose. This power remains ___________).

Test four- Area Of ______

My _____ for _____ of the wail is ______ three ____sand and forty five acres, and will __________ increase more. The ________ destruct___ zone is around seven hundred acres. My small___ ________ area of ______ is two and a half acres.

Test Five - Pig _____

One of the most _________ thing_, I think, is know___ what ______ the wail has on a living body; or would have on a living body pig body if it was still alive. It’s __________ to know that at any point ______ the ________ destruct___ zone the pig is at the least comple____ ripped apart, to vapor____ at the most. If anyone ________ this attack head on they__ die, use in civil___ areas is an ________ no. Even at the ____ of the ________ destruct___ zone the pig ___tains ___v_ ___figure____ and ________ organs are ______ly damage_. Just outside of the ________ destruct___ zone result_ in more minor damage, likely ________ and potent___ for __________.

Test Six - Mental Affect

Sam and Tuck _________ feel___ ______ ______ the battle, so I thought there might be a mental ______ to the wail; _____________ the only way to test this was to ask them to list__ to it. A sound _________ of the wail at max cause_ ______ and a _________ of stomach knot_; mild head____ after a while. A sound _________ at my min____ only causes slight __________ after ____long__ listen___. Nearby enough to hear in person at minimum ______ causes feel____ of terror, stomach flipp___, panic, sweat___, strong ______, and there__ an ___________ ______ to get away from the sound. Takes at least five minute_ to _______ from. Decide_ test___ at _______ ______ was too risky. Will not be retest___.’

Maddie frowns a little, she didn’t really like the sounds of any of that. It seemed like it actually was about a power that Danny considered dangerous and outright didn’t use for that reason. Some sort of wail from what she can decipher, which likely has a more proper name. From the sounds of it it’s very hard on him physically and uses up a large amount of ecto-energy in a very short amount of time, way more than any powers normally should; which is a little concerning, maybe he was having difficulties with it because it wasn’t compatible with his halfa body? He has issues controlling it or how strong it is, she thinks, and it’s incredibly destructive. Taking out an entire acre of trees and ground with what she’s guessing is his weakest version of it was ridiculously dangerous; and it seems like this power had a range into the thousands of acres. Then there’s him commenting that he’d literally kill someone if he used it on them and it freaked people out to hear it.

She can’t not ask him about this. If he does have something this dangerous, that he doesn’t like and can’t really control, her and Jack need to know about it. Maybe they can help? Either with better practice, pointers, or even just making him more comfortable with the power; emotions had an effect on ghosts and Danny was no exception, his ice was a great example of that since he’d chill rooms when he got moody. The fact that this power had gotten stronger just like all his others only reinforced her opinion.

Should she approach the topic with notebook in hand? Or try to play it off like there’s been rumours about a wail power? Or just ask if there’s any powers he hasn’t mentioned yet along with assuring him it’s fine if whatever power is dangerous? With the first he’ll be upset she went through his stuff and read his notebooks, with the second she’d be flat out lying to his face, and the third would just come off as seriously manipulative if he doesn’t just agree right off the bat. In short, all her options here kind of sucked, but she backed herself into this situation so she’s got to deal with it. Honestly? She was hoping not to find anything out just to calm her mind about him and his halfa everything. Maybe if she just tells him that? If he knows that she’s really genuinely coming from a place of concern and working towards getting used to him as he actually truly is. Yeah that was her best bet.

Nodding to herself, putting back all of the other notebooks before heading downstairs; getting started on supper was a good idea and after that? She’ll wait.

---

But as soon as Danny comes through the door, looking haggard and freaked, she’s immediately second guessing her plan; slipping the notebook under some paper towel as she heads over to him. “Danny? Sweetie? Are you okay?”.

Danny runs a hand through his hair, eyeing her quickly before looking back to the ground and grumbling, “fucking no?”. The swearing makes her frown but she just waits for him to continue, she knows he will. Danny could talk a mile a minute for hours when he felt like it. He doesn’t even give her a chance to chastise him even if she had planned to. “Red freaking found out about me”, and mutters a bit in ghost speak.

Alright. Okay. She definitely understood him freaking out and stressing over someone, especially a ghost hunter, finding out about him. The Red Huntress did tend to be pretty friendly with Phantom him though so maybe it wasn’t so bad. “Is she being mean about it? Threatening to expose you or anything? She’s not following you around is she? Attacking you?”.

He gives her a weird confused look, “what? No!”, before blinking and moving to slump down on the couch, “shit sorry, Red wouldn’t really hurt me, not like that”, he sighs and throws her through a bit of a loop, “I know who she is under the mask and we’re kinda friends, and that’s kinda the problem because holy goddamn Ancients”.

Wait. What? Him knowing who she is isn’t… too surprising. Hiding your identity from someone who could be around invisibly at any given moment and had a very strong sense of smell and hearing, was practically impossible. The ‘kinda friends’ tells her that his human self must be friends with the girl under the helmet, so Maddie could see her being incredibly upset with him not telling her especially when he knew her identity. “So she’s mad you didn’t tell her about yourself when you knew about her? Or Danny Fenton didn’t tell his friend that he knew about her hunting?”. She’s not going to ask who she is, it wasn’t really necessary and clearly Danny wasn’t a fan of revealing others identities based on there being other Halfas he never mentioned.

Danny runs a hand through his hair, nodding slowly, “yeah, yeah. Fuck. She’s really mad about that and maybe shot me in the face and then punched me in the face for it. But, like-”, gesturing a bit ridiculously, “-I knew she was going to find out, since she already knows about halfas and my secret kinda hinges on people not knowing halfas are a real possible thing. So it was absolutely just a matter of time, but oh my Ancients. There is way too much bullshit between us for this to not be insanely complicated and a pain in the ass”, he then gets up and starts pacing, “we’ve basically fought wars together, I revealed her to her dad when she could have done the same to me, and if I had just fucking told her she definitely wouldn’t have done the whole few hour torture session thing, and she wouldn’t have been completely fooled for so long by a psycho, and then there’s Elle. Then of course there’s the whole us thing and shit would have been or currently would be totally fucking different-”.

Maddie crosses her arms a bit and leans against the wall as he just keeps on going, honestly he seemed more upset about Red finding out about him than his own parents. She’s actually a little bothered by that, they were his parents, whom he lived with; and there was the simple fact that her and Jack were definitely more ectophobic than Red ever has been. Yes Red was extremely violent but Maddie and Jack have literally debated dissecting him to his face… which she of course felt really terrible about now. Yes he had been nervous telling them but he hadn’t freaked out like this. “She’s your friend though, why is this so bad? Or so complicated?”, frowning a little, “you weren’t this upset over us knowing”.

Danny looks at her like she’s nuts, which definitely upsets her a bit. “Mom, no. Just no”, shaking his head aggressively, “you guys are so much easier and simpler. Living with you guys I can see your reactions or lack of reactions every day, she just flew off into the goddamn sunset and I have no idea how she’s taking this other than her assaulting me!”, gesturing dismissively, “which yeah, she’s an aggressive person so I’m not really worried about that, but I’d really like to know if I’m going to get bombed in the future as payback or if she’s taking this really not well”, pointing at Maddie, which she tries to not find incredibly rude, “and even though she was violent Red and Phantom had a working friendship and work relationship, which is definitely completely fucked up now. And the whole Danny Fenton is a sweet innocent boy thing is really really fucked now, so she’s definitely feeling horrifically betrayed. You guys have literally known me my whole life, so you’re not out here wildly confused and pissed off over the possibility of me not being me or the me you thought was me or whatever”, rubbing his neck and looking around, “and sure there was the whole ‘we want to dissect and torture you’ thing with you guys but due to a bit of time travel and memory manipulation I knew you guys wouldn’t actually do it and would accept things, don’t have that with her. Plus, and no offence, Red is a far better hunter than you guys and has actually talked to ghosts in a friendly way who have all basically lied to her face about me”, and then he crosses his arms, “and then there’s the whole I kinda ruined her life as Phantom and then just turned around and befriended her as Fenton, which in retrospect was really fucked up to do”.

Maddie rubs her forehead, that… was kind of messed up of him but still, “okay yes you clearly have a history with her here, but Danny”, gesturing at him, “you have way more with us”.

Danny instantly snapping, “not really, no”, and promptly wincing.

Look, Maddie knows her and Jack haven’t been the greatest parents and that they were maybe less involved and attentive than they should have been, by they were still his parents. “We’re your parents, that doesn’t even makes sense. We’ve literally known you your whole life!”.

“I mean sure yeah, but you haven’t been to space with me; the last time you listened to me ramble about stars was when I was freaking ten. Half of the time she’d bring me my favourite drink for tag team hunts because she goddamn memorised it! I’m sorry but as a family we’re just not close as a family like that, and that is not just because of me hiding my bullshit!”, growling a little, “she didn’t know about me because I hid it yeah, but she was actively trying to know. You guys weren’t. You guys don’t get to be assholes to me or be super upset about me, because you didn’t really care! She fucking did!”.

“That’s not true!”.

Danny sticks his hands out to the side, “how?! How is that not true? Yeah sure we went on bonding trips and things where you guys tried to get to know me or be close to me but you weren’t doing that because you genuinely wanted to know me! You just felt like you were being bad parents”, huffing and staring a bit, “it’s the same with you guys pussyfooting around me and trying to not be bothered by me being a freaky half ghost, which while I appreciate, you’re doing that because you feel bad that I couldn’t trust you because you were bad parents. You feel bad because you fucked up! She didn’t fuck up! After the point where we became friends in both my forms she never gave me a reason not to tell her. You guys never gave me a reason to tell you, I just didn’t want our family relationship to go completely to shit”.

Maddie is plain baffled by that, “do you want us not trying to get used to you?! To how you’ve changed?!”.

“Getting used to and pretending to be okay with are not the same damn thing. You can’t just pretend your way into acceptance! Jazz would go on some rant about how repressing things doesn’t work and she’d probably be right!”, huffing and crossing his arms, “be bothered by shit and then work on it. Do you think I-”, smacking his hands into his chest, “-was okay with this at first?! Fuck no! But I had to put up with myself. You guys are tolerating things yes, but you’re not actively trying to be exposed to my bullshit. That’s not trying. And you guys weren’t already all buddy buddy with Phantom, you were tolerant and nothing more. You only like Phantom now because you know he’s me! But she was already accepting! Already friendly with all of me. And I might have just fucked that up! I am allowed to be bothered by that and you being annoyed I’m more bothered by her suddenly finding out is fucking bullshit!”, rubbing his forehead and taking a breath, “look I get that you guys have a lot, like a lot, of bigotry to work through, but that bigotry has always been my biggest concern with you guys. I knew you would still see me as your son and love me and everything. But with her that love and seeing me as a friend is my biggest concern and I care a crap ton more about that. She knows and accepts me as a friend already and I don’t want to risk or lose that. She knows me and likes what’s there!”.

“Like she knows all your stories and opinions?!? Or all the powers I know you haven’t mentioned?!? Your wail and everything else?!? Your more upset over her because you’ve actually told her everything?!? Danny how can we actually accept you the way you want us to if you don’t tell us”.

He throws his hands out again, “you need to initiate it! Not me!After everything, I don’t owe you that! Especially because I’m your son. And-”, he blinks and drops his arms, just staring blankly at her, speaking back up flatly and concerningly calm, “how do you know about that”; the rooms temperature drops a couple degrees.

Maddie glares at him, storming back into the kitchen, grabbing the notebook, and coming back out. Basically throwing it at his chest, “I looked, Danny. Because I knew you went telling us everything! I guess I was trying! Like you want!”. Neither moves for a beat until Maddie goes wide-eyed a bit, realising that was probably the worst thing she could have done here. She violated his privacy, and probably his trust, and just threw it in his face. Putting a hand over her mouth, “oh Danny! I- I’m so sorry!”, bending down to quickly pick it back up and just standing there holding it with a pinched expression.

Danny’s eyes flash green at her and he all but snatches the notebook out of her hands, growling, “that wasn’t for you to read”, but surprisingly he closes his eyes and takes a big breath, when he opens them again they aren’t green anymore and he doesn’t growl when he speaks… his tone’s still harsh and vibrates a little though, “that wasn’t in English”.

Maddie blinks at him and tries to ignore the way the air feels a little suffocating and chilly, it effectively kills nearly all her anger though, “we've… been working to decipher the language”.

“Out of curiosity or to understand me”.

Maddie gulps, “the first”. She knows damn well that isn’t the ‘right’ response.

Danny snorts and rolls his eyes, “of course”.

Maddie crosses her arms and glances away from him, “we started working on that before we knew”.

“Oh”, Danny blinks and she can tell he’s rubbing his neck even if she’s not looking at him, “sorry then. But… why did you have this down here”, the growl comes back a little, “you couldn’t even put it back”.

Sighing, she looks back to him, “I… I was planning to ask you about it, when you got home”. That almost felt dumb now.

Danny groans and facepalms, “and then I came home like an angry tornado, when you were already feeling a type of way ‘cause you found out stuff you probably didn’t like”, grumbling, “I really suck at this stuff”.

Maddie shakes her head and somewhat stiffly but tiredly moves to sit on the couch, “no, no. I shouldn’t have yelled at you”, sighing, “I’m mad you’re more bothered by just a friend finding out about you over your own parents, over us. But I guess you’re right it’s not really fair”, rubbing her legs and trying to give him a little smile, “and I’m glad you yelled at me, I think we both needed it and it’s better than you being awkward and cringing over everything and tiptoeing”.

“Well you guys not pushing sure made it seem like tiptoeing is what you wanted”, and then he cringes and shakes his head, “sorry”.

She shakes her head, “it’s fine, I guess we’ve just never been good at communicating as a family; one of us not thinking and feeling things entirely humanly just complicating things more, not that that’s a bad thing just different”, sighing again, “so you want to talk about it? I’m trying and maybe it can be a distraction for you since you’re upset about Red”.

He blinks at her, and makes a bit of face, “mom. That is the last thing I want to talk about. To anyone. Jazz has been trying for years to get me talk about that, you’re not getting me there in a freaking afternoon”, rubbing his temples and closing his eyes, coughing a little, “and that’s the last thing I want to even think about after Red finding out about me. Oh Ancients”.

After everything she can’t just not try. “Why?”.

He glares at her, “mom. No”.

She gestures at him, “do you want me to try or not, Danny. I’m trying here”.

Danny sticks an arm out to the side, “I don’t even talk to Sam and Tuck about that. Just because I’m opening up to you about all this and you’re trying to learn about me, that doesn’t give you an all access pass to interrogate me about everything and anything you want”.

Maddie opens her mouth but closes it again, swallowing a little, “Sam and Tucker don’t know?”. That… she should be worried about that, right? She… thought they knew everything.

Danny huffs, “they know but not because I told them, we don’t talk about it. Can you drop it now”.

“But-”.

“No”, him growling a little, “I’m not talking with you about it. I’m not showing you it. Nothing. Leave that alone”.

Maddie stands up again, this is just ridiculous and it can’t be healthy. Jazz must not think it was if she keeps trying to get him to talk about it himself. “What if talking actually helps or we can help you figure out better control or-”.

“Mom stop”.

“-didn’t you just say not to ignore things?!”.

“This is different!”.

“How Danny?!? From what I read you have issues with controlling it and it’s dangerous! That makes it even worse to ignore than me and your father not knowing what to do with everything! Maybe you need to talk about it! I don’t know, you won’t tell me! What if you hurt someone or yourself! I know I’m being pushy but come on Danny!”.

And then she feels like she’s said something she shouldn’t have again, and his eyes flash green again. Him growling and baring his teeth at her, “this power was literally used to kill people! You think I don’t know that it’s dangerous! I-”, he cuts himself off, “oh fuck”, Danny puts a hand against the wall and his rings suddenly come out; face twisting up in discomfort.

And now Maddie’s panicking a little bit. Does talking about it active this power? Or is she upsetting him so much that his more combat oriented half is forcing itself to the surface? Or does talking about this actively hurt him? Was it like with his Obsession and Core? Something his body was aggressively and instinctively secretive about? She really should have thought of that! What should she do?! She makes something of a decision when he slides down the wall and crouches on his ankles, one hand on the wall and the other over his mouth; fully in ghost form now while she moves over and down to him. Putting her hand on his shoulder, “Danny! Are you alright?!? I’m sorry”, swallowing, “is this something you can’t talk about? You should have started wi-”.

He interrupts her, gagging a little, “would you please”, gagging some more, “shut up. It’s not that-”; and he starts coughing violently into his hand. Eyes squeezing shut and tearing up, coughing and hacking more; it sounded like his lungs and throat were literally tearing themselves apart.

Meaning that now Maddie’s even more worried and panicked. She knows he has a high pain tolerance, for him to be showing signs of pain like this it can’t be good. She doesn’t even know what’s happening! Or why! She’d get him water if it didn’t look like he’d just cough it up! She hates that she feels like she caused this, even if she thinks he was saying she didn’t. She’s stuck here, with him shaking as tears streak down his cheeks, and all she can do is grip his shoulder in a way that she hopes is comforting or soothing or anything to help; the fact that she can tell he’s furrowing his brows in a way that screams he’s worried or concerned is deeply worrying. She gets why in a second though, as she sees what he’s hacking up. Flowers and flower petals? Why… wait. She’s seen these before.

Blood blossoms.

Jack… Jack’s family used to use them, back before ectoplasm was discovered and made useable for weapons. Flowers used to ward off, hurt, and… and destroy ghosts. Gasping, “Danny why are you-”, cutting herself off and jerking up, running off to get paper towels, anything to help get those things and anything they might secrete off of him; he staggers a bit and almost falls over from her suddenly moving away but she has to get them off of him. Figure out the why later, Maddie, help him now.

As soon as she gets back over she plucks every petal and flower she can see away from him and into an insulated jar, rubbing his jumpsuit off to deal with any oils or pollen or anything. Grabbing his cheeks and forcing him to look at her, “open your mouth”, tone leaving no room for arguments. At least he does as asked, but she doesn’t like the way he’s still shaking and seems weak; eyes barely open and the whites of them are a little red. They should be tinting green from crying right? Not red? Not while he’s a ghost at least. Crap, has he been poisoned?! Wiping out his mouth quickly but thoroughly, “do you need pure clean ectoplasm? Have you been poisoned?”. That would help flush his systems out, logically.

Once he gets his mouth back he coughs a little more, nodding weakly, “that, that would help. I… think”, and coughs a little more. So she nods curtly at him and moves to go down to the lab, barely catching him muttering, “what the fuck body”.

He gladly drinks the vials of ectoplasm she brings back up for him, her getting him to lean against the wall. Her swallowing and eyeing him, he looks like he just suddenly lost thirty pounds! “Danny…”.

He huffs a little, leaning his head back against the wall, “just… just give me a, a sec”, and closes his eyes, breathing heavily. She nods and just sits there, waiting for him. Eventually he opens his eyes and eyes the jar with the petals in it, “blood blossoms. So, ugh, didn’t imagine that”.

She shakes her head, putting an arm around his shoulders and rubbing them, “no. You coughed up blood blossoms”. She’s not going to ask why he knows about the flowers. He could have read about them, Jack could have mentioned them, or he could have encountered them before. Squeezing his shoulder, “why?”.

“Because, my body’s an asshole, apparently. Ugh”; he winces in pain a little. She throws a small glare at him, which he huffs weakly at, “I’m, serious”.

Maddie frowns, he… didn’t sound like he was joking. “Why would a ghost, half ghost or not, cough up flowers that can destroy ghosts?”.

“Why blood blossoms?”, hacking a little and whipping a bit of ectoplasm off of his mouth, “I don’t know. Probably, too much stress”, rubbing his knuckles against his throat, “ow. But the… flower coughing, is a ghost thing”.

Maddie furrows her brows together, she’s never heard of or seen that before. Is it… a ghost illness perhaps? A stress reaction? “I’ve never heard of this before. Are you sick? If you are you should have told me”, she wants to scold him but doesn’t have the heart or the energy to do that right now.

Danny clears his throat a little and it sounds wet, did he actually tear up his throat? “Well, it’s not common. But yeah, I guess. It’s, ah, more like a chronic illness though”.

She eyes his throat and the way his cheeks and eyes still looked sunken, she can feel his ribs. “Do you want more vials?”.

“That’d be nice”.

So she moves her arm out from around his shoulders/neck and goes back down to the lab, deciding to just grab their entire current supply. Handing him a couple, putting the box of the rest on his left and sitting back down to his right; she’s not sure whether or not to be glad when he tilts to lean against her. She speaks up when he seems settled in and has drank a couple of the vials, “did you form with this? Or?”.

He eyes her, “you have a knack, for asking about things, I don’t want to talk about”, shaking his head, “this is, better though”, and swallows a little, “Hanahaki disease, meet the conditions and, you get it”.

Maddie frowns a bit, chronic implied nothing could be done about it. “It’s not because you’re in the living realm so much, is it? Or around humans too much?”.

Danny shakes his head, which she’s happy for, “ghosts get sick from that too, but not halfas. I’m good”, drinking another vial and sighing, he still looked like he was in pain. “This isn’t common, because ghosts usually act on their feelings and emotions, rather than ignore them”. Danny eyes her but she doesn’t say anything, just gives him an encouraging smile. He chuckles but winces from the action, “that was dumb of me, ow”, sighing and shaking his head, “basically, strong feelings of, um, love that isn’t, you know, reciprocated, causes it. Unrequited love. One-sided love. That”.

Maddie blinks, she had no idea he had strong feelings for someone! Especially strong enough to make him physically sick. Sure she’d learned that not only did ghosts have emotions and feelings, but that they tended to affect ghosts stronger than the living, but this seemed… a bit much. “That’s, a bit awful, Danny”.

“Tell me about it”.

“Can’t you just ask this person out? I know you can be a little off put-ish and you’re in a complicated situation, but…”. She can get why he might not want to date, from the secrets he’d be keeping to how dangerous his life can be. But if his body is literally punishing him for not doing that, then he should.

Danny huffs, almost grumbling, “I’m pretty sure she’d, beat the shit out of me, if I did that. Especially right now”. Making her blink and give him a confused look. Danny stares at her before sighing, “we were literally just arguing about her, mom”; and coughs a bit.

Maddie blinks, eyes widening. The Red Huntress? That’s who he’s talking about? Danny was in love with her? No wonder he was so upset then! If he liked her enough that his body was basically attacking itself (with flowers for some reason) he would obviously be incredibly upset over possibly wrecking their friendship (that could maybe be more) or making her not trust him anymore. “You being upset makes a lot more sense then”.

He sighs, glaring up at the ceiling, “could we not? ‘Cause even if there wasn’t romantic feelings involved, I’d still be more upset about her finding out”.

Maddie sighing herself, “alright”. She still didn’t like that, and they’re definitely going to have to have a hopefully calm talk about that. “Talking about her triggered the… Hanaha?”.

“Hanahaki”.

She nods curtly, “triggered the Hanahaki fit, didn’t it?”. That would make sense, especially combined with stress, she really wished he’d mentioned that. “I wish you said something instead of just letting it happen”.

Danny grumbling, “I wasn’t really thinking about it until I felt the itch it causes, mom”, sighing and rolling his shoulders a little, “but yeah, her finding out, the not great reaction she had, arguing with you about her and her reaction, all the stress that was putting on my body, and then you went and brought up my wail-”.

“Which clearly stresses you out to talk about and upsets you”, she eyes him, “I still want to know about it. Maybe not now though”. Which Danny grumbles, “I’d rather never”, at. Making her glare at him, “we’ll talk about it”.

Danny huffs, “well let’s just leave it at that it violently reminds me of an alternate future where I saw her die, alright. Super not good when I’m already upset about her”.

Maddie pales a bit, okay that makes sense… she’s a bit afraid of the implications there, especially since he said the power has been used to kill earlier and the comments in that notebook -that’s now just laying on the ground- about how easily it could kill. She won’t ask though, definitely not right now. Figures she would pick the worst possible time to ask him. Hopefully the power isn’t unique to him, if it was… she’s not sure what to think. Wincing a little before nodding, “okay. I’m sorry about the whole argument, especially since it lead to this or made this happen sooner”.

Danny shrugs, because of course he just shrugs off her doing him harm. “It’s not like you knew, but yeah, same. Yelling at you was kind of shitty, even if you thought it was a good thing”.

Maddie nods, patting him on the head a bit and giving his cheek a peck; which he cringes over. “I still think it was good, me and your father have been tiptoeing around things to much”.

“No shit”.

“Language, mister”, Maddie sighs, “is it usually blood blossoms? Because that could seriously hurt you and you looked concerned, like it maybe wasn’t normal”.

Danny shakes his head immediately, which she’s thankful for. “No, it’s usually poppies, marigolds, alstroemerias, pentas, roses, or dahlias; it’s always red flowers though, just my luck that Blood Blossoms are red. Normally amaranthus’s are the ones that suck, since they’re all long and stringy”, and chuckles a bit hollowly.

Maddie gags at that a little, “that must taste awful”.

Danny shrugs, “yeah, and sometimes I breath out pollen, which ain’t great”. Picking up the box next to him and handing them over, “I think I’m good now. Don’t want to drain your stock dry”.

“I wouldn’t care if you did”.

Danny actually smiles at that, “eh, whatever”; and she smiles back. But then he frowns a little, “and before you ask, the flowers grow in my lungs, and stressors make it go faster”, rolling his eyes, “normally it just grows in the chest space, but lucky me I have lungs”.

She grimaces but takes the box, pushing herself up, putting the box under one arm, and holding the other hand down to Danny. He eyes it a bit before grabbing her hand and letting her hoist him up. “You make sure you get some rest, okay?”, smiling a little, “and I’m sure everything will work out with Red, in more ways than one”, and winks at him.

Danny scowls dramatically, “ew, mom. For the love of everything don’t tell dad, I don’t think I can handle the embarrassment”.

She puts a hand on her hip, he should know better than that. “If you think for a moment I’m not telling him”, shaking her head, “but I’ll make sure to be very clear that if you tell him to cut it out he has to”, frowning, “the last thing me or him would want is either of us causing one of these fits”.

Danny sighs and sags a little, “fine, I’ll take what I can get”, rubbing his neck, “and I know it probably will. I mean, I literally knocked her out in the void of space before and she forgave me almost immediately”, shrugging, “not going to stop me from worrying and freaking out though”.

Maddie nods firmly, Red could hold a grudge but she did seem like a good person; she’d forgive him lying about himself especially since she’s hunted him. And thinking about her… Maddie could see why he’d like her. Headstrong, tough, ghost hunter, was good with weapons and could build them. It made sense. “I can tell, Danny”, smirking a little, “she’s a good fit for you though, can beat some sense into you. A rose-coloured romance”, and she laughs at him when he groans before heading up to his room, probably to rest.

She definitely felt… better about him, like she just got a lot closer to him. They all definitely still had a long ways to go, especially if there was possibly going to be romance in the future; she’s just going to have to hope to get the full story on this wail of his someday though.

End.

Prompts: Maddie crosses a line whilst asking about Danny’s ghostly wail. and Maddie finds damning evidence in Danny's room. and Valerie finds out Danny's secret and Being Phantom makes the fits easier and faster, so when Danny feels the beginnings of an itch in the back of his throat, he quickly goes ghost. When the coughing starts, though, his lungs burn like they never have before, each hacking cough tearing his throat to shreds and each wheezing breath costing so, so much. Once it stops feeling like an Alien is trying to claw its way out of his chest does he carefully look past the tears in his eyes to see what he coughed up: blood blossom petals. (Hanahaki AU! Romantic or platonic works!) and We have a lot of identity reveal fics- how about a post reveal one? What are the consequences (positive or negative or quirky) of danny revealing his identity (accidentally or not) to either his parents, Valerie, or anyone of your choice and Maddie struggles to come to terms with Danny being Phantom.

#Danny Phantom #phandom #phic phight #phic phight 2023 #danny fenton #Maddie Fenton #hanahaki #reveal #snooping #angst #unrequited love #fan fic #phan phic #my writing #have a fic suck my dick #phantomphangphucker #gothmoth

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scarletsaphire · 1 year

Text

Ill Prepared (Dannymay Day 3: Blizzard)

Jack and Maddie drag Danny on a ghost hunting trip in the Rocky Mountains. They are very prepared to hunt this ghost. They are not at all prepared for the blizzard they get caught in.

“Oh, Dann-o!” Jack Fenton’s voice echoed through Fentonworks, loud and booming. It woke Danny with a start, tumbling off of his bed and onto the floor in a pile of blankets. He groaned and pulled the blanket over his head. He should have expected something like this; it was, after all, December 21st, and life (or half-life, in his case) was going well. The winter truce had started a few days ago, and winter break started just the day prior. Of course something had to go wrong. It wouldn’t be a Fenton Christmas without some disaster.

His dad showed up in his doorway, large frame blocking all of the light from the hallway. “Are you ready for an adventure, Danny boy?” Danny looked at the alarm clock on his bed side table and groaned. 6:07 AM.

“Couldn’t it wait until the sun comes up?” he groaned, pulling himself up from the floor.

Jack threw a bulky pile of fabric at Danny. “Nope! We’ve got the get the GAV moving if we want to get to the mountains by tomorrow! Your mother’s already got most of your stuff packed, just make sure that your coat fits and we’ll be good to go! Otherwise we’ll need to bring some anti-ecto fabric so we can get you one at the supply station.”

Danny held up the pile of fabric. It was a coat. A very heavy winter coat. Danny scowled at it. He didn’t particularly like coats, though he would wear lighter ones during winter if only to keep up appearances. He was, after all, and ice core ghost. Nothing was colder than his soul. (He would have to remember that one, Sam would like it.) “Where are we even going? It isn’t anywhere cold enough to warrant this.” He held the coat away from him with disdain.

“I told you at breakfast on Monday, we’re going to find a yeti! In the Rocky Mountains!” Jack beamed at Danny. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten, son! This’ll be a wonderful Christmas trip!”

Danny had not eaten breakfast on Monday. He had been sleeping over Tucker’s house, partially to play the new expansion of Doom, mostly because his parents had been working on a new anti-ghost something or other, and Danny had not wanted to be anywhere near when they got it working. “I was at Tucker’s on Monday, this is the first I’m hearing of it.”

Jack looked confused, before shrugging and grinning widely at Danny. “Oh well, then surprise! We’re going to the Rocky Mountains to hunt the yeti! Now try on your new coat so we can get this show on the road!”

“Can’t I stay here?” Danny complained. “It’s not like it would be the first time.”

“We aren’t going to leave you here all alone!”

“I won’t be all alone, I’ll have-” Danny paused. He was going to say that he’d be with Jazz, but she had taken the opportunity to spend winter break at a two week long psych program at a college a few hours away. She had apologized for her absence, but it was a great opportunity. Still, it meant that Danny was out of an excuse. Grumbling, Danny pulled on the coat the rest of the way. God it was warm.

“Come now Danno, it’ll be fun! A parent son bonding experience!” Jack slapped Danny on the back, hard. “The coat fits great! Get your shoes and get into the car. We’ve got a ghost to catch!” — The drive was thrilling. Not because it was exciting, but because Maddie had let Jack drive as soon as they were out of Amity Park. If Danny hadn’t already been half dead, he was fairly certain he would’ve died from a heart attack. Luckily (or unluckily, he supposed) he was, so his father’s driving couldn’t kill him. How it didn’t kill anyone else on the 12 hour drive was a miracle in and of itself.

Whenever Danny wasn’t gripping onto the seat for his half-life or blocking out all sound with headphones, he listened to his mother and father talk about their hopes for this trip. They had heard of a yeti in the Rocky Mountains recently, and were certain that it was a ghost, biding its time to attack and drag unsuspecting tourists or climbers up to its peak to…his parents never really got to why they yeti would choose to do something like that. They rarely made it to that point when it came to ghosts, simply assuming that the ghost would because it was a ghost, and that it didn’t need another reason. Even if the yeti was a ghost, and not just some ambitious bear or faulty reports, Danny knew it wouldn’t attack without being provoked. He had met many yetis; they were friendly, if a bit scary to look at. He couldn’t exactly tell his parents that, so he settled in for the long haul.

At least he was being dragged away during the Winter Truce. The only ghosts that would break the truce would be non sapient ghosts, and possibly Vlad, but with both Danny and Maddie in another state across the country, it wasn’t likely that Vlad would try much of anything. (He had texted Sam and Tucker that, if either of them suspected that Vlad was up to no good, to leave a collection of dirty socks and gym shorts on Vlad’s Amity Park property. They would have done that anyway, but it felt nice to be part of the planning at least a little bit.)

When the GAV finally arrived at the place they would be staying, Danny was green in the face and his stomach churned. He thought he had gotten used to his dad’s driving over the years, but it wasn’t often that they went on long road trips with him driving. Even Danny’s stomach couldn’t put up with it for that long.

Unfortunately for Danny, the place they were staying was not a hotel, or a house, or even a cabin where he could empty his stomach in the privacy of a bathroom. It was a camp site, little more than a place with tree roots numbering in the single digits and a circle of ashes in the center that was designated as a fire pit. They were just on the base of the Rocky Mountains, which towered high just to the west of them. It was a pleasant view, and the cold air felt good on his skin after being trapped in the GAV for so long.

His mother started setting up the tent, a flimsy looking thing barely big enough to fit all three of them, and his dad started setting up the ghost detecting perimeter. Danny grumbled under his breath as he started to drag their luggage out of the trunk. The stuff his mother had packed was, he noted, not very suitable for a “camping” environment, let alone one this late into the year. It seemed like she had focused almost entirely on the ghost hunting part of the trip, and completely neglected the other aspects of survival that were much more likely to come into play. He had expected that; he hadn’t spent his lifetime and half-lifetime around them to expect them to be practical, especially where ghosts were involved. This did mean that Danny couldn’t actually unload most of the trunk without getting zapped, cut, detected, or setting off some kind of alarm or another.

Danny grabbed what he could out of the trunk, receiving a slight zap from a pile of metal he didn’t quite recognized, and dragged it over to where his mother was hammering a spike into the ground with far more force than was strictly necessary. “I got what I could carry, but I don’t want to grab any of the ghost hunting stuff that’s in there. You know how it acts around me,” Danny laughed nervously. He knew his parents assumed that their devices malfunctioned because of ecton contamination, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t super nervous whenever he had to bring it up. Everytime he did it, he worried that this would be the time that they would figure out that that was probably a very dumb excuse.

This was not that time. “Oh thank you sweetie, just set it all down right there, and your father will grab the ghost hunting gear once he’s done setting up the defenses. Would you mind helping me with that other spike?” His mother did not look up from her continuous whaling on the poor metal spike. The ground was hard because of the cold, but Danny was fairly certain that she didn’t need to hit it that hard. Was it bending?

Danny did as he was told, setting the pile of bags and his fathers suitcase. A single day trip of clothes for him almost always required a suitcase if he decided to actually bring clothes. Most of the time he stuck with his hazmat suit, but it was too cold for it out here. Both his parents were wearing heavy jackets lined with anti-ghost material. Over their jumpsuits of course; it would take more than the cold to pry those things off of them.

Danny grabbed a spike and started to hit it into his ground. He didn’t use as much force as Maddie did; he didn’t need to. The ground, even more frozen beneath his feet, molded easily to his will, allow him to delicately hammer the spike into place and locking it with some not-quite natural ice. He glanced up; his display of powers wasn’t flashy by any means, but that didn’t mean that any ghost detecting gear his father had already set up wouldn’t catch him. His father was tangled in a mess of wires, strung up like a Christmas tree. Whatever he was setting up was giving him a lot more trouble than it was giving Danny, at least right now.

“Well done sweetie!” Maddie said, looking at him with a beaming smile. Her spike had successfully gotten into the ground, though it looked like it might end up a ghost itself with how beat up it was. “But aren’t you cold? You should go put on your jacket, its freezing out here.” Danny looked down in surprise at his uncovered arms. He had thrown on a t-shirt and jeans in his rush to get ready that morning, and hadn’t even realized that he had forgotten his jacket in the car. The air around him didn’t feel cold at all. If anything, it was comfortable. Crisp.

“Oops.” Danny gave her a lopsided smile and ran to the GAV, throwing open the backdoor and grabbing the jacket. He didn’t want to put it on. It was nice out, even if he could see his breath puffing in front of him every couple of seconds, and the jacket was suffocating and constraining. He didn’t have much of a choice though, so he shrugged it on, leaving the zipper only done up halfway.

Maddie came up behind him. “See, isn’t that better?” A series of ghost related curses echoed across the campsite. “I’m going to go help untangle your father. Would you be willing to set up the rest of the tent?” Danny nodded, and his mother went off.

— Outside of a close call where one of the weapons in the GAV started to chase Danny around the campsite (his mother had intercepted it with one solid hit from the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick. “I hate to destroy something so useful, but its not much use if its chasing after our junior ghost hunter!” she had said.) It was, overall, almost a nice time. He had had significantly worse days in December before. He would prefer to be hanging out at Tucker’s, or with Sam if her parents allowed him to join in on the Hanukkah celebrations, but he didn’t mind camping one bit.

And then his parents started prepping for the evening's ghost hunting activities, and any part of the trip he had been enjoying got zapped away. Just like he was getting zapped by the copious amount of tech they were placing on him. It wasn’t that it hurt per se, but it did make his skin tingle like static electricity, and he couldn’t say that it was pleasant. After his mom finished outfitting him with more ghost hunting gear than was necessary (and helping his dad strap a few more onto his back) they set off following a trail further into the mountains. It has been dark for about an hour, and the air was only getting colder, but that didn’t stop them from traipsing through the woods.

They were only traipsing around for an hour before it started to snow. It was a soft snowfall, barely coating the ground in white, but it was enough to have Maddie start to shiver under her coat. Jack, who had already yelled “Ghost!” at the top of his lungs and fired into various non-ghost locations, only got jumpier. “Dear,” Maddie said, saddling up to Jack. “I think we should make our way back to camp now. We can scout the area more in the morning, and set up a trap for the spook during the day.”

“That’s a brilliant idea Mads!” Jack said. “You’re always so smart!” They led the way back to camp, moving quickly over the path, flashlight leading the way. Danny trailed behind. He didn’t need to breathe, but he took deep breaths anyway. The cold was sharp in his nose, biting in his lungs, but it was nice. Soothing. He had realized, after visiting the Far Frozen the first couple times, that Amity Park was almost always warm, sometimes to the point of unbearably hot. He had gotten used to it, stuck through it, forced it to become just another nagging discomfort in the back of his mind. It wasn’t hard to do, when you were healing from broken bones and gaping wounds every other day. It didn’t mean that the delicious, frigid, clean air of the mountains didn’t make his very core hum in satisfaction. It almost made the trip worth it.

When they arrived back at the camp, Jack fell asleep almost instantly in his sleeping bag. Maddie, who was curled up next to him, took longer to fall asleep, but she drifted off in a couple of minutes. Danny took the opportunity to slip out of his sleeping bag, out of his coat, and out of the tent. He zipped the flap closed behind him, and sat on the ground amidst a shallow bank of snow. (It didn’t melt where he sat, he noticed absently. Why would it? It was almost a part of him, and he, a part of it.) The snow had begun to fall heavier by this point, the wind picking up, and ice started to form on the tips of Danny’s eyelashes. It felt wonderful. He couldn’t say how long he sat there, breathing in the bitter cold air, freezing his human lungs and his ghostly core. Long enough for his lips to turn blue and his hands to go numb.

Danny couldn’t say when, exactly, the winds picked up enough to make the branches of the trees whip into a frenzy. He couldn’t say when the snow began to turn to hail, pelting the ground with a force as if they were cannonballs, yet always bouncing off of him harmlessly. He couldn’t say when the snowstorm turned from beautiful to something deadly, from a natural occurrence to a force of nature. He could say when the spikes driven into the ground started to fail, and the flaps of the tent began to whip angrily, and he heard his mothers concerned yelling from inside the tent. (He shouldn’t have been able to hear it over the wind. He shouldn’t have been able to sit out here unharmed. He shouldn’t be a lot of things. It had never stopped him before.)

Danny ducked back into the tent to find his mother arguing with his father, both of them shivering in their sleeping bags, lips blue. She was yelling, saying that the ghost must have taken him, that he might be lost or worse in the woods. His dad was agreeing, but was stopping her from searching in the storm. “It’s too dangerous!” he said, yelling louder than he normally did over the sound of the wind, of the hail. “If you go out there you could die!”

When they noticed him, they ran over and hugged him, dragging him into the sleeping bag with them. “Oh sweetie pie you’re freezing! What were you doing out there? This storm is dangerous, and that’s without the ghost around!”

“I just had to take a leak,” Danny said numbly. It was dawning on him that the inside of this tent was not all that warmer than the world outside, even if the wind chill was taken away. The sleeping bag the three of them shared was warmer than the tent, yes, but he didn’t miss how his dad’s lips were tinged blue, how his mother shivered, how each of their breaths crystalized in the air around them. “Did you bring anything to warm the tent? Or to help us weather the storm?”

Jack and Maddie shared a look. “We didn’t expect a blizzard,” Maddie said. “But I’m sure it’ll pass, and we’ll all be just fine. We just have to stay here, where its warm.” Danny wasn’t surprised. His parents were only ever prepared when it came to ghosts, and this blizzard was far too natural. But all Danny could do is nod.

The minutes passed by slowly, and the storm didn’t show any signs of getting better. If anything, it only got worse. Danny noticed how his mothers speech started to slur, how she drew into herself and shook violently. How his father, even sitting in the tent like he was, seemed more disoriented than normal, both in mind and body. The reality of the situation dawned on him with his growing horror. If something didn’t change soon, his parents would not make it through the night. He could help. He knew how, knew that the ice and snow would listen to him, if only in a small area. He could save him. (It would cost him everything. He didn’t care; he had already thrown what remained of his life away when he started fighting ghosts. He wasn’t going to let this stop him now.)

“Do you have the controls for the ghost defenses you set up?” he asked, crawling over to his mother. She nodded. “I need you to turn it off, and I need you to trust me.”

“I cann’ do tha,” Maddie slurred, teeth chattering. “We’d be weloming a ghost in.”

“Please, mom,” Danny begged. “I just need you to turn it off, and stay still. Please.” He looked deep into his mom’s eyes, holding his breath. Time seemed to slow even further as she studied him, trying to figure out what he was planning. Finally she nodded. Her hands were too clumsy, too uncoordinated, to pull the remote out of her jacket pocket, but she managed to show Danny where it was. He fiddled with it for a moment, before shutting it off. Then, he walked into the storm and transformed.

His first order of business was a shelter. A proper shelter, one that would block the pelting hail and whipping winds. He made an igloo, small and compact to save as much heat as he could, but sturdy, surrounding the flimsy tent. It was made of ghost ice, and wouldn’t melt. Not easily, anyway.

His next order of business was much harder, as any loose branches that would burn proper, and not just smoke, were buried under ever growing mounds of snow. If he hadn’t been able to go intangible, he probably would never have found any. But he could, so he returned to the igloo with his arms full of tinder.

His parents were huddled next to each other, Jack openly sobbing into Maddie’s shoulder, blubbering something about Danny, though most of it was unintelligible. They both started when they saw him, reaching for ectoblasters strapped to their waists, but their hands were numb and shaky, their reaction time slowed from hypothermia. Danny transformed back to his human form before they could aim. “Listen,” he said quickly, dumping the pile of sticks just out the door of the tent. “You can be mad at me later. Scream, kick me out, try and kill me, dissect me, whatever. I know you want to. But if you don’t let me help you, just until this storm dies down, you’ll end up dead too, and I won’t let this happen. So please. Just don’t shoot me yet.” Danny watched as his parents stared at him, horror clear on their faces. He left the tent before they could say a word.

Back in ghost form, he lit most of the tinder he had gathered on fire; not ghostly fire, just regular good old fashioned fire. It’s light and warmth filled the area around the tent, filling the igloo. Danny got to work, pulling out the spikes they had pounded into the ground. They came out easily under his touch. The tent wouldn’t do them much good now; better to burn it for warmth. His parents emerged from the tent after he started to take it down. It wasn’t like they had much of a choice.

They huddled near the fire, color slowly starting to return to their skin, shaking starting to abide. They did not look at him. He did not look at them. He focused on keeping the fire burning, on keeping the ice and wind outside away, on not thinking about what they might do to him now or after they were safe, about the threats they had made and injuries they had given him time and time again, about how sleeping was already hard enough for him, and where would he stay now that they knew? They wouldn’t let a ghost stay in their home willingly; how much harder would it be to sleep when he was on the streets? Would they hunt down Sam and Tucker, if he tried to stay with them? Would they-

“Danny?” His mothers voice cut through his thoughts. “Are…are you really my Danny?”

“Yes.” He couldn’t stop the quiver in his voice.

“What happened?” This time, he couldn’t stop the tears.

#danny phantom #dannymay2023 #dannymay day 3 #danny phantom fanfiction #reveal fic #hypothermia tw #jack fenton #maddie fenton

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redrobin-detective · 3 years

Text

because I could not stop for death

because I could not stop for death / he kindly stopped for me / the carriage held but just ourselves / and immortality ~ Emily Dickinson

Danny Fenton was dying, properly this time.

Somehow, in the back of his head and in his worst nightmares, he knew it would end this way: bleeding on the floor of his parents’ lab where it had all began. He was so hot he felt like his skin was on fire, blood and ectoplasm were dripping all over him and his lungs and heart were working overtime to try in vain to keep him alive a moment longer. He’d imagined at the time that there would be more screaming but death, in the end, was turning out to be a quiet little affair. A lonely table set for one.

“Danny, Danny come on, you-you gotta slow down your breathing, just relax, for me, please,” Sam moaned, more than making up for his lack of noise. She was shaking and touching him all over, his chest, his face, his hair. Normally she jumped right into action but she had to know, deep down, that there was nothing she could do. All that was left was to watch her panic and cry, it wasn’t his favorite image.

“Vlad!” He heard Tucker scream cry into the phone, “please it’s Tucker, Danny’s dying I think. The Fentons had some new invention, something about his core, please we don’t know what to do!”

Ugh Vlad, he was probably going to be so happy Danny was on his way out. He wasn’t looking much forward to his last images being his archenemy gloating. Tucker hung up and reached down to grasp Danny’s hand so hard it hurt. “Don’t worry dude, Vlad’s coming. He knows so much about you half ghosts that you’ll be fixed up on no time.” Right, Danny was already dead. If calling Vlad, feeling like he did something, helped Tucker move on then he’d deal with it.

Danny tilted his head to the side where Sam’s fingernails were carding through his hair. It was getting harder to see with the blood pouring out of his eyes but he looked at her, and tried to memorize her face. He’d never been able to tell her how much he loved her, that any day spent with her was a blessing. Tucker too, his best bro and a part of his soul. His best friends in the whole wide world, through thick and thin. God, he was going to miss them.

“Glurk,” he said, trying to convey those feeling but the fluids in his mouth and airway made it impossible. “Blerh.”

“Shh shh shh,” Sam soothed, “it’s okay, don’t try to talk.”

“Daniel!” He heard Vlad’s voice shriek as he materialized in front of the portal. Sam and Tucker were violently pushed out the way. Danny wanted to be angry at his loved ones being taken away in his final moments but anger was for the living, he barely had the energy to breathe. This death was too long and too short all at once. He made eye contact with Vlad who all at once lost the frantic edge to his tone and and instead knelt on the floor. “Oh my dear boy. What did they do to you?”

“What is going on?” Sam demanded, shoving her way back in. Danny was glad, he could see again like this. “Why aren’t you doing something!”

“There’s nothing to be done,” Vlad said in a flat, monotone, he picked up one of Danny’s hands and patted it gently. “His core is dying, it’s like a ghost’s heart. It contains their very essence, it is from which everything they are comes from. If Jack and Maddie somehow disrupted it then there’s nothing anyone can do to save him.”

“But he’s human too,” Tucker defended, grabbing Danny’s other hand. His human warm skin burned but the contact felt so good, he twitched his fingers closer to his friend’s. “He-he doesn’t need a core, he’s already got a heart. So, so he doesn’t have powers, we can do normal again.”

“You-” Vlad hissed before taking a calming breath. “The accident that made Daniel like this irreparably altered him. His core was as much a part of keeping him alive as his other organs, without it, his body is shutting down.” Vlad turned down to look Danny in the eye and saw true, genuine grief in those hateful red eyes.

“I cannot imagine the agony you are going through, I’m so sorry. I’d say it will be over soon but,” a hitch that sounded almost like a sob if it was coming from anyone other than Vlad. “But you’ve hovered on the edge of death for years, son, and you’ve always been such a fighter. You have minutes at most but those minutes are an eternity when you’re suffering.”

Sam and Tucker’s sobbing blended together in the background, Vlad was saying something with a miserable, stunned expression. The swirling of the portal in the background seemed louder than anything, louder than his heart beat pounding and pounding as it ran it’s last race.

“Daniel, Danny,” he focused his eyes back on Vlad who had a stubborn, unhappy set to his brow. “Do you want me to make the pain stop? An ectoblast to your chest will end your life instantly.”

“Don’t you dare touch him,” Sam shrieked, coming back into view and looking like she was trying to fight Vlad off. “You do anything to him and I’ll kill you!” Tucker just sat and stared at him, like he too was trying memorize Danny’s face.

“It’s a mercy, Samantha or do you want his last moments on earth to be drowning on the blood in his lungs.”

“Sam, he has a point. I don’t- I don’t think we can fix this.”

“No! No we always fix things, I’ll do it myself if I have to!”

Danny’s vision was starting to go, more black than anything else. He closed his eyes and readied himself for the inevitable.

“Time Out,” Danny opened his eyes and found he was no longer in pain. He was standing up and apart from where he’d previously been lying. Sam had her hands in Vlad’s face and the older hybrid was snarling something at her. Tucker was midmotion trying to stand up, presumably to get Sam but the three of them were frozen in the moment. Danny turned and found Clockwork floating, looking very out of place in his parents lab. “Good evening, Danny.”

“You that short on cash that you work part time as a grim reaper?” Danny quipped out of habit. He looked down at his body and grimaced a bit, that wasn’t a pretty sight. No doubt traumatizing for Tucker and Sam. God how were they going to explain this to his parents? “Gonna ferry me across the River Styx? I don’t have two pennies but I think I have a bloodied $10 on me.”

“You’re core is dying and you have 17 seconds left in this world before all your organs give out and finish the process you began when you turned on your parent’s ghost portal,” Clockwork explained as he changed into child form.

“O-okay,” Danny said shakily, trying to be brave even when he was so, so scared. He was going out whether he wanted it or not but he refused to leave crying. “Nice of you to come say goodbye then but, uh but unless you have something to say then you should let me go back. No one knows better than me that you can’t outrun death. Thanks but I’m uh I’m ready.”

Clockwork stared at him for a bit, not sure how long, time was weird like this but he changed forms a few times. “You’re quite the remarkable young man, Danny Fenton.”

“Uh thanks,” Danny added, once more looking at his body which had, according to Clockwork, a 17 second expiration date. “What’s going to happen? Am I going to become a ghost? Does heaven or hell exist for someone like me?”

“I don’t get to decide what happens, I merely see options,” Clockwork stated easily, taking his time. “If you die naturally you’ll become ghost, a mere shadow of who you are now and one who would fade fairly quickly. You don’t have strong enough anger or regrets to tie you in the real world for long.” Not great but okay he supposed, hell for his friends and family though. “You could let Plasmius deliver his mercy kill, destroying what’s left of your ghost core and ensuring you do not come back.” Better, probably won’t help the Fruitloop’s instability but he can’t save everyone.

“That one comes with it’s own caveat but I’ll get to that in a moment,” Clockwork explained. “There is a third option where you get up off the floor and walk away.” Danny blinked then looked back at his body which certainly wasn’t walking anywhere but into a plush casket. Clockwork opened his hands and the Ghost King’s Crown materialized in his hands. “If you accept your claim to the King’s Cown, it will revitalize your core and your life would be saved.”

Danny blinked.

“By sealing Pariah Dark, you won by proxy and established a legitimate claim to the throne. The Zone has been without a king for millennia, most have forgotten the old rules. Those who remembered were not too keen on a half-ghost child assuming leadership and kept you in the dark. If Plasmius ends your life then your claim transfers over to him, which he is aware of. It had been his plan all along to trick you into defeating Pariah so he could steal the Crown from you at a later date, a much easier opponent.”

Danny’s mind was overloaded with information, he didn’t know what to focus on first. He stared at his 17 seconds from death face and tried to process it all. Crown? Claim? Vlad?

“Of course,” Clockwork tutted, “he didn’t plan on your dying and in such a gruesome fashion. If he kills you and takes your claim, he would spend his remaining years ruling the Ghost Zone in a just, controlled fashion for your memory. He destroys all the stable portals and keeps the ghost and human worlds separate.” Clockwork became and old man and titled his head, “it’s not a bad timeline, all things considered.”

“And if I take it?” Danny asked quietly.

“You’re compassionate, brave and motivated, you have all the makings of a revolutionary king,” Clockwork smiled. “The Zone would experience and unprecedented era of peace, there would be positive interactions between human and ghosts for the first time since life and death split into two. Your name would spoken with reverence for the rest of time.”

“But I don’t want to be king,” Danny frowned.

“I know, I’m sorry,” Clockwork stated. “Which is why I am giving you the choice. If you pass peacefully there will be no one to claim the Crown and life will continue on, ghost attacks and all. If Plasmius kills you, he becomes an effective but unmemorable king. If you take the Crown, you can get the chance to tell Sam and Tucker how much you love them.”

Danny rubbed at his face, he didn’t want to die but he’d be sealing away his entire future with a move like this. He didn’t even know if the Crown would let him go with death, maybe he’d die and be stuck as the Ghost King until his core finally gave out lord in who knows how long. Eternity was an awful long time to carry such a responsibility. He couldn’t bring himself to ask, too afraid of the answer.

“Is there ever a timeline I became an astronaut?” He asked instead. Clockwork hummed, seemingly unsurprised by Danny’s non-sequitur.

“Yes, in one of the few universes where you never walked into the portal. You never go into space what with human politics putting a halt on the programs but you work for NASA. You leave Amity Park at 17 and don’t come back save for your parents’ dual funeral.” He paused and Danny felt read down to his very bones, “from the moment you became half ghost you were always heading for this moment. The circumstances varied but it always came down to you and the Crown. Time is straining to continue, to see how this drama plays out. Will you accept it and all the joy and grief that comes with it?”

Danny looked over at Vlad, still mid-sneer but there was a scared desperation in his face. He and Vlad sniped at each other all the time but Danny didn’t really hate him and he didn’t think Vlad did either. Leaving him alone, plus making him be king was a heavy burden to put on his enemy.

Sam and Tuck probably wouldn’t recover from this, he’d put them through so much already but he just knew that they’d never be the same. Could he do that to them? Take the easy way out and leave them to suffer? Mom and Dad didn’t deserve to come home to a dead son, the truth would come out and they’d never forgive themselves. Jazz certainly wouldn’t, she was 2 states over at University but he could already hear her angry, grief-stricken screams.

Death, death was quiet. It was quiet and merciful and sad, but it was also easy. And Danny Fenton had never once taken the easy route. He reached out and took and the crown before shakily placing it on his head. He gasped, throwing his head back as his core swelled, taking up residence once more right next to his heart. Clockwork smiled, looking like the cat who ate the canary.

“The Crown of Fire, pardon me the Crown changes with each core, the Crown of Ice is now yours as is the Zone. Your reign begins now but so too does the rest of your life. People are waiting for you. Time in.” Danny slammed back into awareness on the floor of his parents’ lab, the floor he’d almost died on twice.

He sat up as cold radiated off his body, causing frost to crawl down his arms and along the floor. Sam, Tucker and Vlad, who’d been frozen up until now, jumped back to life. There was a new, familiar weight on his head that he didn’t dare acknowledge.

He squeezed his eyes shut and said a silent goodbye to a quiet, normal life. It wouldn’t be all bad, he could be happy like this but the Crown still felt like a iron manacle around his neck. But he got used to the ghost powers, he could get used to this too. Maybe one day he won’t look at the stars and say ‘what if?’

“Danny!” Sam shouted, throwing herself into his arms soon followed by Tucker. Their warm weight, their relieved sobs, their shaky breaths in his air, now this was something worth living for. He squeezed them tightly.

“But how dude, you were at death’s door!” Tucker asked, still not letting go.

“You accepted the Crown,” Vlad said evenly, “I wasn’t aware you even knew about your claim. Who told you?”

“You don’t know everything, Vlad,” Danny sighed, sitting himself upright. Ugh his shirt was covered in blood and ectoplasm. He needed to trash these clothes before his parents freaked. And find a way to hide the floating ice crown on his head.

“Even an old man can be surprised every now and again,” Vlad said wearily. He stood up to his full height before startling Danny by dipping down to one knee. “Then allow me to be the first to welcome my new king and wish him well.”

“I thought you wanted this,” Danny questioned.

“I do, I did,” Vlad said, unusually off balance. “To be quite honest, I’m not sure how to feel about it but, right now, I’m just immeasurably happy you’re alive, little badger. Now I best be off, enjoy your kingdom, my liege, I’ll be sure to come bother you some time soon.” Vlad disappeared in a swirl of pink leaving just him, Sam and Tucker still clinging to him.

Danny may have a kingdom, a job he didn’t want and his whole life decided in a spur of the moment choice, but he also had something very important. He squeezed his friends tightly.

“I love you guys, thank you for being my friends even though I have the worst ideas for activities. Dying? On a Sunday night? How lame is that?” Sam laughed, a bit hysterical but it was real and it made Danny feel weightless.

“Don’t do that again, buddy,” Tucker breathed into his shoulder. “So you gonna explain what just happened and why you’re apparently the Ghost King or something?”

“Yeah, yeah I will but let’s get changed first. Mom and Dad will be home soon and I think I’m going to need to have a conversation with them about my new job.”

#danny phantom #i was watching forever phantom and said 'i should kill danny' and then i fucking didn't #im obsessed with ghost king danny as end game #Im not sure this is the route I would want to go but I want him to end up woth tje crown #its bitter sweet bc its a *lifelong (possibly afterlife) commitment that he didnt get a choice in #he will be happy and he will be a good king but it wasnt his choice and he'll always regret it a little #i love clockwork but he's a bit shady and will always work in favor of the timeline #anyway happy fucking sunday bitches #have some homemade angst #also i typed this directly in tumblr and almost hit the power screen on my computer instead of backspace #god was trying to stop me from publishing but i overcame #Only did one quick edit Im too tired to care anymore #lmk if you want it on ao3

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bordeleaubeau · 4 years

Text

my ex’s best friend - trevor zegras

wc: 4212

trigger warning: talks about the loss of a parent and being walked out on.

based on my ex’s best friend by blackbear and mgk:)

“god i cannot wait for jack to be here!” jordan gushes as she runs her hand through her hair, messing up her curls just enough. “it’s been so long, and i know he’s definitely gone to parties back in michigan, but college parties are so much more better. not that he’d know that though.”

you laugh louder than you mean to, but you can’t help but agree with your best friend. jack and you had grown up together in michigan and you were so close that you were basically ellen’s honorary daughter. it also helped you had played for little caesars girl’s team, so you’d occasionally see the youngest hughes every now and then. with that, you got a scholarship offer from harvard and the rest was history.

now, this is where things get more interesting. you introduced jordan and jack, instantly thinking that jordan would be nothing other than a hookup. but jack had taken a serious liking to her and vice versa, which eventually led to them dating after just two months of them knowing each other.

and now here you were, standing in your best friend’s boston university dorm room waiting for your childhood best friend to arrive for the start of his road trip. “he should be here any minute now, jo. newark isn’t that far and-”

you’re cut off by a squeal coming from the brunette, and she’s popping up from her bed. “he’s here!” and just like that, she’s gone and leaving you to sprint after her down the hall to let jack into the building.

you’re laughing following after, no doubt driving the people on the floor below you insane by the sounds of your feet thudding against the carpeted floor. the two of you race down the stairwell until jordan throws open the side door where the first overall stood, a glowing smile on his face at the sight of his two girls.

you stand back, allowing jack and jordan a moment. the two exchange a few words followed by a brief peck to the lips before they release each other from their hold. then it’s your turn, and you’re smiling as you wrap your arms around jack.

“hi jacky,” you mumble into his chest, feeling him quickly kiss the top of your head.

“hey kid, how’ve you been holding up?” god, you wish you didn’t know what he was referring to. but you knew right away.

behind you, jordan is frantically shaking her head with wide eyes trying to take away from the topic. you draw away from jack, trying to find the words. “it still, it still hurts, i guess. but i’m okay, promise.” you give jack a weak smile, one you know he sees right through seeing as he knew you for almost all your life. “are we gonna go or what?”

“yeah jacky, i think it’s time you experience a real party, not one of those dumb little high school parties.” jordan teases her boyfriend and you smile, watching as she links her arm with his. “plus, y/n goes to that smart person school that like, no one has ever heard of before and i heard they don’t know how to have a proper party.” she throws you a smile over her shoulder and you roll your eyes with a smile on your face. if anyone could poke fun at you like that, it was jordan. jordan and jack. and that’s why they made such a perfect couple - jordan was just like jack, so when you didn’t have jack you pretty much had the girl version of him right at your own disposal.

the three of you walk towards where the party of the night is at, letting jordan lead the way seeing as she was the only one that knew where she was going. you knew you’d definitely have a few friends there, and some old ones as well.

“is uh, is you know who going to be there?” you hear jack quietly ask and you swallow hard. you knew he was just trying to be nice by not saying his name, but not saying it only made it feel more real.

“um, i don’t know. i don’t think so. i talked to dom in econ today, they had a big game tonight so they’re probably tired. but i’m not sure, i haven’t talked to him in the past few days.” you cross your arms over your chest, looking to the right towards the street to try and blink the building tears in your eyes away. you shouldn’t feel this way. it was your fault anyway. right?

you keep quiet, trying to distract yourself in any way you possibly could. what you had said was true - you did prefer bu’s parties to harvard’s. there was something about going to a party and being that mysterious girl that could hook up with any guy and him not know anything about you. he couldn’t find you in classes if he was that interested. you couldn’t exactly do that at harvard, being so well known on both campus and the ice.

maybe that was what you needed. a distraction for the night. you were certainly dressed to earn some turned heads, and you were sure you were going to end up using that to your advantage at some point that night.

the three of you walk into the party a few minutes later and right away you have a bad feeling. at that moment you feel like you should trust your gut and just walk away, but you know you can’t just ditch your best friends like that.

jordan turns, yelling over the music. “what do you want to drink? whiteclaw good? me and jack will grab it and then we can all meet up by the living room?”

you nod, giving her a thumbs up not exactly feeling up to yelling over the music. you already felt sick to your stomach, and you weren’t sure the effects of the alcohol would help with this one.

“y/n!” you hear your name being yelled and you quickly turn to see a familiar blonde, and a smile graces your face.

“hey ry!” you move in to hug her, your arms wrapping around her quickly. you met ryley through jordan, of course, and she had to be one of the sweetest girls you had ever met. she was always willing to go the extra mile if necessary. “how’ve you been, babe?”

she shrugs, followed by an exaggerated eye roll. “same old same old. you know how it is. but how are you? you look hot by the way! i’ve already seen like, five guys that can’t keep their eyes off you!”

“i’m doing alright, just waiting for jack and jo. jack’s in town to play the bruins, so he came up for the night to see jo.” ryley nods along with your words, and before she can respond you see jack and jordan walking up from behind, two white cans in jordan’s hands and a giddy smile on her face.

“ryley!” jordan squeals, throwing her arms around the blonde. “ryley you’ve met jack before. don’t have to worry about that one.” you let out a laugh and jordan hands you the mango flavored seltzer and you thank her. “i think jack and i are gonna go play beer pong if you wanna find a partner and play us?”

you purse your lips, trying to think for a second before you ultimately decide to shake your head. “nah, i’m all good. i might play later though.”

“come dance with me and some of the girls then!” ryley smiles, gesturing her head towards the living room where there are plenty of sweaty bodies dancing on one another. you nod your head, accepting her offer.

“i’ll find you in a bit jo! go have fun you two.” jordan smiles at you, blowing you a fake kiss before she pulls jack towards one of the back rooms where you’re sure she’s already scoped out a beer pong table.

you know pretty much all the girls that are all dancing together - there’s amber, then there’s hayden, bella, and then maddie. all fairly sweet girls that you had had multiple encounters with and they were friendly each and every time.

“hi y/n!” bella grins, grabbing your hand and pulling you right into their little group. she glances down at your hand and she gives you a look. “honey you haven’t even-” she stops herself, grabbing your whiteclaw right out of your hand and she cracks it open. “just for that you’ve gotta chug, babe. sorry i don’t make the rules. you’re already slacking.”

“bella!” you laugh, most of it being drowned out by whatever soundcloud remix was being played, but nonetheless you still take the can from her and lift it to your lips, tilting your head back as you drink as much of it as you possibly can.

“that’s our girl!” ryley cheers you on, along with the other girls, and as soon as you empty the contents of your can you’re in a fit of giggles, shaking your head at the girls in front of you.

“you guys are too much, i swear.” you say, setting the empty can on a table behind you that was already littered with plenty of cans. one extra wouldn’t hurt. “you guys are so much better than my harvard friends.”

“which is exactly why you should transfer!” maddie exclaims, her hands going up to emphasize her statement along with a smile.

you jut your bottom lip out, and before you can say anything ryley beats you to it. “she plays a sport, mads. it’s not exactly that easy.”

“nu uh! wait a damn minute, but didn’t you have an offer from bu?” bella puts her hands on her hips, raising one of her eyebrows at you, and you can’t help but laugh at the feeling of being interrogated. if only they knew the whole story.

“i go to harvard solely for hockey. i can’t help that i liked harvard’s staff and coaches better than bu’s!” you defend yourself, but bella isn’t having any of it as she raises one of her hands to your face. “bella, come on.”

“no, no, i don’t wanna hear it. wanted to go to school with snobby rich kids instead of snobby cool kids! i get it!” all four of you are laughing, but it’s probably the alcohol making the situation funnier than it actually was.

you give bella a quick look, “if i wanted to go to school with snobby cool kids then i would’ve gone to bc.” your fit of laughter only intensifies at the look of pure betrayal. bella raises her hand, finger pointing behind your shoulder.

“the door is that way. i think you got lost. don’t let the door hit you on the way out, y/n. actually, i hope it hits you. maybe it’ll knock some sense into your head.” you can only giggle, and it only takes a few seconds before bella’s mean facade falls and she’s laughing as well.

“bel, come with me to grab another drink.” you gesture for her to follow you and she does, singing loudly - and poorly - to ucla. you only join in with her, laughing as the two of you make your way into the backyard where the coolers were. “god, it feels so much better out here.” you grumble, opening one and grabbing a whiteclaw for bella before grabbing one for yourself.

“we can stay out here for a bit, i don’t mind.” bella says, cracking the top of her can and taking a quick sip. “how have you been? after the whole… yeah. and with jack being here, i wasn’t sure if-“

you cut her off and shake her head. “i’m okay. everyone thinks i’m not okay but i, i am. we weren’t together long anyway.”

bella’s eyebrows raise, “y/n. you and trevor were together for over a year, it’s okay if you’re upset! no one would blame you, not one bit. besides, you were really happy with him. everyone wanted to be you two.” you purse your lips, eyes glued to the ground. you met bella the week of the break up, when everything went down, and you had spilled practically everything to her, maddie, hayden, and ryley. and of course jordan.

“i promise bel, i’m doing good. never been better, actually. might just go and hook up with one of his teammates if one’s here, honestly.” bella laughs, nodding her head to agree with your statement. “let's go back in. we’re probably missing, honestly god knows what.”

you go to walk in the house, but bella grabs your wrist to pull you back. “seriously, y/n/n. if you ever need to talk, and you can’t tell jordan because of jack being friends with him, please just know i’m here. right across the river, quite literally, too.” she gives you a soft smile, one that you return.

“thank you bel, i appreciate it.” with one last smile the two of you walk back into the house. “i’m gonna use the bathroom, but i’ll be right back, okay?”

bella nods and the two of you disperse, you heading one way and her the other towards the living room. you end up in the back room, walking towards where you’re assuming the bathroom is, but get stopped by jordan who’s hanging off jack’s arm. “oh y/n/n!” your best friend sings. “dom needs a beer pong partner and i think that you’re the perfect candidate!” she slurs ever so slightly, leaning more into jack. part of you wants to decline, but dom is giving you a cute smile that you just can’t ignore.

“fine.” you sigh, walking over to the table, “long time no see, dom. thought you guys had a game tonight?”

dom shrugs, “we won, so some of us decided to come out and celebrate. probably won’t stay out for too long, you know?” you nod along with him, taking a sip of your drink.

“i get it. and i don’t blame you. i’m dead after games, so kudos to you.” dom chuckles, motioning towards the table.

“we’ve got to come see a game some time. heard you guys aren’t half bad.” you nearly choke on your drink from trying to hold your laugh in, which just makes dom laugh. “what! i’m telling the truth!”

“not as good as bu, that’s for sure. so you’re funny, fensore.” you smile into your drink, eyes glancing behind jordan’s shoulder, and that’s where your entire world comes crashing down.

the second dom said some of the guys were here, you should’ve automatically assumed he’d be here. that’s just the type of guy trevor was - big win? celebrate with a party and end up getting laid by the end of the night. you weren’t surprised.

your initial glance turns into a full on stare, and trevor must feel it. he looks over the shoulder of whoever he’s talking to and his eyes meet yours - and the words you never spoke? he could see them in your eyes. everything you never said was practically laid right out on the table.

“i swear to god, i never fall in love, but, but then you showed up and i can’t get enough of it.” trevor’s words make you freeze, and upon feeling your body go stiff on top of him his hand that’s running up and down your side freezes as well. “y/n?”

“what did, what did you say, trevor?” you ask, picking your head up to look down at the brunette, a look of pure confusion on his face. the poor boy had no idea what he had done wrong - he didn’t think he had done anything wrong in fact.

trevor swallows hard, sitting up more so his back is resting against the wall of your dorm room. “i said that i love you, y/n.” he lets out a soft chuckle. “i thought that was obvious by now, i mean, we’ve been together all this time and i just-”

“we weren’t official for a few good months, trev,” you shake your head as you speak. “and that was because of you. you didn’t want to be official for like, five months.”

“which is -” he cuts himself off. “i don’t even know what’s going on. do you not believe me? what’s the deal here? because the fact we’ve been together this long and this is the first time i’m saying it, the first girl i’m ever saying it to, that should just support everything.”

you just couldn’t get yourself to say it. internally, you knew that every single bone in your body was desperately in love with trevor zegras. dozens of journal pages had ink scrawled on them, gushing in detail about all the lovely things he had done for you that day. but mentally? mentally you couldn’t let yourself believe you loved him. you couldn’t give him the willpower to absolutely destroy you if he ever so pleased. not after your family had come crashing down, and especially not after your mother had walked out. how could a mother walk out on her own blood that easily? her own child, that she claimed that she loved with all her heart.

“y/n do you not, do you not love me?” the pain in his eyes absolutely shattered you and had your heart aching. you wanted to tell him. but you couldn’t form the words. your silence, however, spoke volumes and trevor nods. “i can’t be with you, then.” he scoffs, shaking his head. “i can’t be with someone that doesn’t love me. not when i’ve put all my energy and love into them, and i’m, and i’m not getting any of that in return.”

“trevor i’m sorry.” those weren’t the three words he wanted to hear. they were three words, of course. but they weren’t the right ones. it’s a miracle you can even apologize to him, voice cracking as the tears form in your eyes.

trevor shakes his head, pushing himself up from your bed. “i’m done. i’ll see you around, y/n.”

you stumble backwards a few steps before completely turning around and leaving the room quickly, the sounds of all three of your friends calling after you drowned out by the ringing in your ears.

you see bella and ryley start after you, but you make a b-line for the backyard in an effort to try and ditch some of your friends that you knew were most likely trying to follow you out. but you weren’t sure if you could handle that, and you sure as hell were sure you wouldn’t be able to handle the breakdown that was about to happen.

as soon as you’re outside you lose it. you’re bawling right away, and you’re sure those around you thought you may be absolutely insane for breaking down in tears that quickly. your vision is blurred, but you see a figure walking towards you. you may not be able to make the figure out, but as soon as they pull you into their chest you know who it is.

“shh, you’re okay, y/n. i’ve got you, okay?” jack coos quietly, his hand combing through your hair trying desperately to calm you down. “i’ve got you, i promise. god i’m, i’m so sorry. we didn’t know trevor would be here. jo didn’t realize he was right there either, y/n/n.”

you can’t get any words out, sobs wrecking your entire body as you cry into jack’s chest. all he can do is run his hand down your back and try to reassure you that you’re okay, but it would take a lot more than that.

“y/n can we talk?” your whole body goes rigid and jack’s hand on your back freezes. you pull away from him, looking over his shoulder to see trevor. when he sees your tear stricken face, his eyes soften. “please. can we talk.”

jack looks down at you, a questioning look on his face asking if it’s okay. you nod, and jack presses a kiss to your head. “i’ll be right inside if you need me.” once again, you nod, and jack gives you one last squeeze before he’s walking inside. right away you cross your arms over your stomach, suddenly feeling chilly and more exposed than you had inside. your cropped cami and ripped jeans weren’t doing it anymore.

trevor hesitates, his lips pursing for a second as he steps a few feet forward. he’s trying to find the words to say, and finally, he lets them out. “jordan told me.” you take in a sharp breath, feeling your bottom lip start to tremble, trevor takes a few steps forward, and you let him wrap his arms around you. “i’m so sorry, god i am so, so sorry, y/n. i was a dick, i should have talked to you about it before just breaking up with you, i just, god i’m so sorry.”

you melt into him, arms slowly wrapping around his torso as you cry against him. his voice is genuine and sincere. you nod against him, letting him know that you’re okay - as good as you can be - and to let him know it’s okay.

“can we go talk? somewhere in private? i was just about to go back to my dorm if you’d wanna come.” you were lying if you’d say you weren’t hesitant. because you were. it was probably going to be a bad idea, but nonetheless you go against your better judgement.

“yeah. yeah that’s okay.” you manager to croak out and pull away from trevor’s chest. you don’t get very far however, his hands go to your cheeks and his thumbs run underneath your eyes to catch any tears.

trevor then lets his hand fall to yours, intertwining your fingers and pulling you into the house. “we’re gonna go back to my dorm, to talk.” trevor says, looking at jack. his eyes move over to yours, silently asking you if it’s okay with you.

“it’s okay, j,” you reassure him. “we’ll see you guys tomorrow or something, okay?” jordan and jack both nod, and trevor is leading you out of the house towards the street.

it’s quiet for a few moments, and you don’t blame him. it’s the first time other than social media that you’ve seen him in four months and it wasn’t necessarily under the best conditions. you would’ve liked it to not be at a party - but it is what it is.

“i understand why you didn’t tell me, y/n.” trevor breaks the silence, and you glance over at him to see him staring straight ahead. “and i don’t blame you for it, either. i knew your mom wasn’t in your life, and of course i didn’t want to ask why. but i wish you had told me. god i just, i want to show you the love you deserve, y/n. i want to love you. i do love you. i just, i need to prove that to you and i’ll take as long as it takes.”

you squeeze trevor’s hand, and you’re thankful that trevor’s dorm is only right down the street. the night is chillier than it was when you first left for the party and you were cursing yourself for not bringing a jacket. “i know you do. i just, i panicked. you’re the first boy i was ever serious with, and no one other than my parents and friends of course told me they loved me. i never felt like i was capable of love, because, how could my own mom claim that she loved me, but then one day just disappeared from my life? her own child. that she gave birth to. she never loved me, trev. not if she did that.

“then it’s her loss, isn’t it? wherever she is, she’s gonna see your name, y/n m/n. she’s gonna see the amazing, incredible, phenomenal girl that you’ve become. the same girl that’s going to change the world some day. and i hope she’s kicking herself everyday for walking out on you and your dad, but god you guys are so much better without her in your lives. i love you, y/n. i never stopped.” trevor halts in his tracks, making you come to a stop as well. “and i want you. i want all of you. your good days, your bad days, the days you don’t feel lovable. and it is perfectly okay if you don’t say you love me back, because we can work on that. i’ll stay. i promise. you have my word.

you practically throw yourself into his chest, arms wrapping around his neck and your fingers curling in his hair. “i’m gonna hold you to this, z.”

“do you wanna stay the night?” he asks quietly, his hand running through your hair. “we can do more talking, if you’d like. i’ll listen to anything you have to say.”

“i’d like that, trev. i’d like that a lot.” you answer quietly, looking up at the boy that’s already looking down at you.

the boy that you love.

#trevor zegras #trevor zegras imagine #nhl #hockey #nhl imagine #hockey imagine #jack hughes #jack hughes imagine

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ganymedesclock · 4 years

Note

So... What do you think about revisiting Danny phantom in general? Revisiting the fandom I've noticed a lot of fanfic that have Danny's parents finding out his deal rather violently, or generally having more violence/angst than the original show..

I’m assuming you’re sending me this ask because of my recent burst of Danny Phantom art, so, it’s probably not a surprise to say I’m doing a certain amount of revisiting myself, and certainly not about to shame anyone else for it. It was a very dear cartoon to me in many ways and left some enduring hallmarks on my own writing, and I can absolutely understand people feeling the same way.

That said, as someone who’s been in this fandom for a while, albeit quietly- there certainly is a thread of macabre interest in fandom spaces, one I don’t always know that I agree with, especially when it comes to the Fentons.

My personal verdict on the Fenton parents specifically is I think they are not handled fairly by canon. This is a problem that Danny Phantom as a show shares with Fairly Odd Parents, though I would argue the Turner parents in FOP are quite a bit worse at this.

Roughly, I think how the Fenton parents are canonically depicted suffers from a phenomenon that affects many parts of the show: DP, as a series, has a bit of a sense of confused priorities between comedy and drama, and as a result, what’s 'real’ in-universe and what’s “just supposed to be a joke”. The kind of humor that DP tends to spring for is exaggerated or shocking behavior- it also tends to be a humor that hinges on the idea that other people are generally inconvenient to the main character. So humor-characterization is inconsistent here- Jack is negligent until it’s more inconvenient to depict him as overbearing (see: Girl’s Night Out and other cases he desperately wants to bond with Danny) he’s a recluse only loved by his wife until it’s more inconvenient to depict him as having an active social life (Masters Of All Time and that he and Maddie are going to a themed party so they’re dressed ‘weirdly’ in public)

A big victim of this is Jack’s sense that ghosts aren’t people and his desire to dissect them. Because here is the thing: it’s all talk, in the worst way. It hinges on the idea Jack- someone who knows enough of what he’s doing that along with Maddie and, in the past, Vlad- ripped two different holes in reality hard enough to permanently alter someone’s relation to undeath- has never seen a ghost before the series as he says in Mystery Meat.

The series has a big problem where it hinges on the Fentons’ inventions and expertise but also wants to treat them like idiots constantly. And if you notice how much I’m talking exclusively about Jack- that’s part of the problem. Maddie, in many ways, outside of episodes that throw her a bone, despite constantly being told by people she’s too good for Jack, is really treated as an extension of Jack. Masters Of All Time even suggests that her choosing Jack in the first place was just a path of least resistance between her two college friends, and she’d have married whichever one stuck around.

The Fentons are not respected as experts, so Jack is given his ignorant line about dissecting a ghost. The Fentons need to remain exaggerated, ridiculous, an inconvenience to Danny- so they threaten his alter ego and point guns at him, but this is funny and not serious and not a reason to be worried about them as parents, because they are not on Danny’s level. Nobody is ever on Danny’s level. There is literally an episode called The Ultimate Enemy. The antagonist is an evil future Danny. The only person who could ever be Danny’s ultimate nemesis is Danny himself.

And when the series stops milking the Fentons for jokes about how they’re so stupid and how Jack is an idiot and Maddie married that idiot but even she doesn’t respect him even though she loves him and dutifully follows him everywhere and god how can these people care about ghosts they’re so ignorant and out of their league-

-then it kinda shuffles its feet awkwardly and goes, yeah. the Fentons love each other, and love their kids.

Yeah, Jack has framed photographs of Maddie, Jazz, and Danny on his personal workstation.

Yeah, in Mystery Meat Jack was seriously debating walking away from his lifework because it upset one of his kids.

Yeah, every time in canon the Fentons find out Danny’s secret they’re immediately all in supporting him.

Yeah, even not knowing it’s Danny, Jack has an amiable conversation with him in Million Dollar Ghost and the ghost containment units designed by the Fentons get some jokes about that they’re a little cramped but they aren’t horrifying prisons of inhumanity- and as soon as Danny Phantom the ghost boy has a good point, Jack lets him go on purpose.

Yeah, Jack is a competent ghost hunter who can take on Skulker and win as well as beat down the giant lake monster Skulker brought with him in Girls’ Night Out and would do this in a heartbeat, no jokes and no sidetracks, because that monster just chewed on his baby boy and nobody does that to his baby boy.

Yeah, Maternal Instinct is an entire episode of Maddie throwing hands with (or deceiving and manipulating) literally anything she thinks was responsible for getting Danny in this dangerous situation.

...And then the series says “but that’s not funny! Here, have jokes about the Fenton Stockades, that exist and have spikes and Jack wants to put his kids in them for time out, when the spikes apparently don’t hurt given Jack is not injured for being put in there. Here, have a joke about Jack attacking Jazz with a vacuum cleaner because he gets hellbent on the idea she’s possessed for no good reason. Here, have an uncomfortable joke about how badly Jack Fenton wants to vivisect a ghost while it screams. Funny funny funny. Why- why are you flinching?”

It basically creates a comedic situation where the show is constantly winding up like it’s gonna punch you- with the idea that the Fentons are bad parents and this has consequences for Danny and Jazz personally- and then laughs in your face if you flinch. It’ll never actually punch you- but it will sure keep swinging its hand really close to your face and laughing at your reactions.

This is, I’m just gonna say- one of the worst elements of the series, this weird relationship it has with “hahaha are we depicting an abusive family or not? ;)” where its actual point is that Jack Fenton is a person who should be shamed for being overzealous, for caring about this niche field, because nobody cares about ghosts! (unless the entire premise of the show does) Nobody wants to think about ghost science! That’s LAME! (unless Vlad does it)

So I think ultimately this creates a polarizing experience in the fandom. What part of this information do you take?

Do you take, say, my personal approach, which is:

“Hey, so it’s pretty clear and consistent that the Fentons love their kids and wouldn’t hurt them. The Fentons are nice people. They can be obsessive or headstrong but there’s nuanced and salient ways to examine this in the basic framework that they care, both about their family specifically, and in general- and while I think they can have flaws or conflicts with their kids, and with ambient ghosts in the world, I really don’t think they’re in danger of torturing a sapient entity in their basement and it frustrates and annoys me that canon ‘makes a joke’ of them doing these things because it thinks they’re so incompetent that these things are not really malicious actions, when- whether or not you successfully shoot them, it takes a certain kind of person to point a weapon you know is dangerous at something that looks, and talks, like a fourteen-year-old, especially when you’re a parent who has probably at least once in your life worried about something happening to your kids, and the ghost of a teenager means something happened to someone’s kid, in a general sense.

So my end conclusion on the Fentons is I think they are being depicted in a kind of metatextual bad faith, that they are not cruel or malicious people, and in my personal take or understanding on the series, I’d massively dial down those elements, and if any remain, take them seriously as problems they have in their relationships with other people.”

Or do you take an approach more rooted in,

“If the Fentons are shown to be negligent parents they are negligent parents, I’m going to examine and depict them as that, and I find this very hard to forgive, so it’s going to have real and nasty consequences.”

Both are basically valid. The place where I tend to get a little uncomfortable is twofold:

First, I think sometimes people just really want some fictional tragedy to either create or consume, and to that end, you aren’t going to get much juicy drama out of the Fentons being reasonable people. This isn’t evil or unforgivable, but for me, it’s definitely my least favorite fannish content to create or consume. I’m no fan of angst for angst’s sake, and I feel like there’s enough misery and heartbreak in the world that I’m not interested in wallowing in it unless it’s got something interesting to say.

Second- and this is a point I’m gonna be saltier: A lot of abusive Fenton fics that refuse to forgive them for the poorer-taste jokes the series makes, simultaneously give Vlad a blank check, when he has done targetedly malicious things to Danny.

Now- do I also have a more sympathetic read on Vlad, and feel like canon also gives him a bad rap? Yeah! But you can’t have it both ways. You can’t say, “I can’t forgive the Fentons for stuff that was tagged onto them because canon thought it was funny, but I’m gonna editorialize Vlad’s depiction to lionize him as the ideal parent figure for Danny to run into the arms of.”

And the main reason I get so worked up in this, is I feel like Jack in particular (when Maddie is characterized as subordinate to Jack, following his cues, etc., and that’s its own demon) is... characterized as kind of a mocking caricature of traits that I personally recognize as an autistic and ADHD person.

Because the reality is? In many practical ways, I am Jack Fenton.

I like a bunch of weird stuff people find unacceptable or gross, like bugs

I’m hyperlexic (that means I talk, a lot)

Scatterbrained, forget words or where I left something or, sometimes, to do something important

Passionate and excitable including and especially in situations where it’s not normal, or expected, to have this much energy

I absolutely can forget birthdays, even for people I love dearly that mean the world to me! It’s horrible! There’s almost nothing I can do about it! My brain refuses to hold onto this information reliably and no amount of caring fixes it.

And being this way, living like this? My worst nightmare has always been that people think I either don’t care or that I’m just too much of a stupid, flippant buffoon to get right.

The thing about Jack is he’s “a person like me” and he’s “a person like me” who was designed to be a joke. We’re clearly expected to view him as untrustworthy, stupid, just like a big dumb dog of a man who barks in the wrong directions, who sometimes, when it counts, fetches a stick like he’s supposed to. Good job, Lassie. You got little Timmy out of the well.

And I am going to say with certainty and confidence that feeling like this is how people see me is the most unbelievably crushing feeling I have ever experienced in my life. That my excitement and passion means I’m unprofessional, stupid, don’t know what I’m talking about. It’s nearly painful for me, as an adult, to watch Danny Phantom because the show can never get off Jack’s case. And the few times it does, he hauls overtime arduously to make a difference, to help, to build something that will protect others, to put his own life on the line to stop hostile ghosts.

And immediately, then he goes back to being stupid stupid dog man. ha ha. why does his wife love him? no wonder his kids don’t ever want to be seen with him. no wonder his best friend is trying to kill him and he doesn’t even know, the big idiot.

(never mind that we see a scenario where he does know. and admits he would’ve forgiven Vlad anyway. but he can’t forgive Vlad hurting Danny.)

So to rein in this wild tangent: I’m not saying all must love Jack Fenton and despair. I’m not even telling people to hide their angst. If I have a sincere request, it’s this:

If you’re inclined to thinking of Vlad as a cool, troubled, complex person (as I do!) and are haunted by the implications of The Ultimate Enemy specifically for Vlad, that when Danny lost everyone else in his life that Vlad really genuinely tried to help, and was not gloating and happy and victorious to have Danny as his protege, and when that went badly, he was haunted to the end of his days by not having been able to help-

-but immediately turn around and think Jack is just a rotten awful person who’d absolutely hurt his own kid in spite of canon to the contrary (when there’s just as much, if not more, canon of Vlad being willfully hostile)

It might be good to examine why you’re feeling this way, and if this might not come down to the fact that even when canon has people call Vlad a desperately lonely fruit loop, it has a lot more respect for him than it does for Jack, and this isn’t because it’s actually taking a stance against any of the qualities it gave Jack that someone might find disagreeable- it’s because Jack’s just “a big old fat idiot nobody likes, right?”

and that’s... not something comfy to buy into.

#Danny Phantom #readmore #long post #I have a lot of feelings about the fenton parents #and about how generally cartoons like to normalize child abuse in the context of jokes #and this creates a very upsetting similarity between parents who are otherwise characterized as good and reliable #but given these jokes anyway #and parents who genuinely seem really nasty #but it's tied up in a bow with 'it's Just A Joke'#Anonymous

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bigowlenergy · 4 years

Text

heat + horror

next chapter of How to Raise the Dead!

Maddie stands at the door to the basement, hazmat tied down around her waist, staring into the green dark. To her left, the cicada scream en mass. The refrigerator hums at her back. The portal buzzes below. The cold air that swirls up the steps is incredible against the summer heatwave. Maddie. Wants to go down. Hesitates, still.

Danny is down there.

Maddie loves her son, but she loves her daughter, too, and knows better than to bother Jazz when she’s trying to finish a paper and watch the finale to her latest K-drama at the same time (again) and expect anything but getting snapped at and increasing her stress. The experience is just new, with Danny. He was always the relaxed one, but once it hit 80 degrees in the house, the basement became his domain, with the same low tolerance for interruption. With an extra edge of physical discomfort and medical concern. Maddie just doesn’t want to upset him further. It feels like she does that all too often, but Danny just won’t say anything when she does. It’s hard to understand him. She wants to, but he’s pulled so far away from them already...

“Hey, mom.” Jazz stands in the entryway, kicking her flip flops off, two bags of gas station ice slung over her shoulders. “He moved yet?” She asks.

“No, I don’t think so. I was just about to check,” Maddie offers, stepping in to take the second bag from Jazz. She’d stepped out to get some water. Hadn’t gone back. Condensation from the ice leaks down her shoulders, sticks her hair to her neck. Instant relief.

“Alright.” She says. “You coming down? It’s cold.”

And Maddie hesitates at the mouth of the threshold, for just a moment.

“Sounds nice,” She tells the stairs, hidden under the clanging of Jazz’s steps.

At the bottom, all she can see is the ring of lawnchairs and the little blow up kiddie pool that Jazz is dumping her bag of ice in. The clear vinyl tubing of the cheap outdoor furniture catches every refraction of green light from the open portal. An oversized alien dollhouse in Maddie’s lab. The smell of squeaky fresh plastic overwhelms the ectoplasm. The basement has always been climate controlled, and underground besides, so the downright frosty air that the open portal adds to the mix creates the strange atmosphere of a sauna in winter. Inverted.

But the chilliest thing by far is Danny.

Maddie finally gets a good look at him when Jazz collapses back into her own chair, sticking her feet into the pool with a great heaving sigh. Maddie appreciates her running to the store for them. It’s nearly 110 out. She goes to dump her part of the ice in and nearly fumbles to keep from pouring it straight over Danny’s head. He’s buried up to his chest, now. What she thought were odd shadows from the portal are actually his folded knees, the only other part not under ice. His eyes are glazed and dull, staring sightlessly into the green vortex, his head pillowed on the wet plastic rim of the pool. Soaked hair drawn back by one of Jazz’s headbands drips slowly onto the concrete floor. Maddie frowns at that. They specifically asked the kids to make sure nothing in the lab was exposed to water. Should have put a towel down.

She probably can’t blame Danny for lack of foresight. He doesn’t look good.

“Hi, sweetie,” Maddie whispers, tucking the ice in around his legs instead.

His blank expression doesn’t change as he belatedly mouths ‘hi’ back to her.

“Drink your slush,” Scolds Jazz, kicking at the ice idly. Danny’s buried hands slowly tip the half melted slushie toward his face. The straw rests in his mouth for a while, but Maddie’s fairly sure he doesn’t drink any. Her poor baby. Jazz had picked it up for him the first time she went to the store, nearly three hours ago.

Maddie pulls her hands from the ice and wipes them on her shirt. Goes to the monitoring station set up on the side of the portal. The nodes taped to Danny’s neck are probably the only things keeping him from fully submerging himself. His oxygen levels are lower than his usual terrifying baseline of 87%, hovering in the 84-86% range, and his heartrate is just short of clinical death. Most worryingly, his temperate is reading at nearly 80 - a deadly fever, considering his normal 71.3.

Maddie wishes they knew how to really help him. This feels strangely like a - not like a test, not really, but like something is being withheld from them. Like Danny knows what to do, but is still too scared to tell them. Like it’s something he doesn’t want them to know, another little secret on the pile. A tiny declaration of loss of trust.

Or he’s afraid of them knowing.

Not that he could tell them, right now. He’s been basically unresponsive to even the most drastic of stimuli since his internal temp hit 75 an hour ago. Jack had driven out for the lawn furniture around that time, helped wrangle Danny out of the bathtub and into the lab for better monitoring, then disappeared again a few minutes ago. Maddie has an inkling of what he’s up to, so she’ll just hold down the fort and see what happens.

But Danny. Looking at this array, she has the clinging idea that this would be easier for him if he was a ghost. But even now, he’s so hesitant about letting them see him. Has never, in word or deed, trusted them with that. It’s an open secret. What he is.

Who he is.

Jazz knows; Maddie knows she known for some time now. Maddie knows. Does Jack? Maddie knows. She tries to imagine that alien presence in this little family tableau. More green in the air. An extra buzz of static under the portal. White hair, dripping. Maddie knows, but it feels like she knows less than she did three weeks ago.

She’s seen Phantom with her own eyes. Seen him fly and fight and snarl like an animal. Seen him bounce and smile and joke. How does he do it? Maybe Maddie just isn’t ready for the perfect intersection of those things yet. Does - does Danny’s ghost leave his body?

Is Maddie really ready to face her sons’ corpse and his ghost at the same time?

Jazz splashes suddenly, feet shifting, head tipped back dramatically off the edge of her seat, hair in a huge bun, wearing her only pair of shorts. Little embroidered ghosts on the hem. Would he electrify the pool, if he changed?

Maddie sucks in a breath and drags her eyes back to the monitor. Maybe it would be better if he did. Actually. The shock might be what he needs to stabilize his heart. He’s obviously reliant on cold temperatures to facilitate stronger conductivity of his electrical impulse based neurology. Like any other ghost. He’s losing stability of consciousness. Unable to rely on the physical, chemical reaction based impulses of the li - of humans. Maddie’s trying not to think about it. She doesn’t want to think about it. The monitor won’t tell her anything else.

Danny, the ghost, Danny, her son, is suffering from mild destabilization and his human body is too close to brain dead to keep him from -

God, Maddie is glad she doesn’t know.

Jack, bless that man, saves her from her thoughts by clambering down the stairs.

“Icecream!” He calls, voice pitched less exuberantly loud than usual. In deference of the small lab space, empty of the usual noise of running machines, or in deference to Danny. Or her own nerves. Jack hands Jazz a pint of strawberry pistachio and a spoon, sets a bag near the pool and then appears at Maddie’s side. Kisses her cheek. Glances at the monitor.

“How’s he doing?” He asks, handing her her own pint and a fork. Pecan Caramel soymilk.

“Not much worse. But we don’t know beyond his baselines, so it could mean anything. Temperature’s been stable for the last twenty minutes.” Maddie digs out the first pecan she sees and keeps it in her mouth to cool her sensitive teeth. Offers nothing else. Jack can read the screen. If he arrives to the same conclusion, then they’ll talk about it upstairs. Away from the kids. Hopefully, Danny’s too busy barely existing to overhear, if it comes down to it.

Jack nods, bullshooter blue eyes sweeping over the monitor. One huge, extremely hot hand rests on her back, goes to rub soothingly, but Maddie shoos him with her fork.

“You’re cold!” He says delightedly, sticking his hands on the folds of her turned down hazmat. He spares her a smile, then snaps his attention back to the screen. Lingers on Danny’s oxygen levels. “Well,” Jack says, straightening up, “Let’s try to get his internal temperature down a bit, then. Come on, Danno!”

He unties the cloth bag and pulls out a full gallon of icecream. There is no room in the freezer for that.

“Okay, buddy, I got us a real treat, straight from the farmer’s market creamery, you know, the people with the ecto-infected cows we helped out last spring? Got us a discount! Anyway, it’s custom. Chocolate icecream, fudge pieces, cacao nibs, coconut shavings, sprinkles, cookie bits, and those little soft dough chunks -” He cuts off, leans in closer to the pool, watches Danny intensely for a few seconds. “Yep! Extra cookie pieces. Wanna try some?”

Jack sticks two spoons in the open gallon and sets it aside. Gently eases the mostly ignored red slushie out of Danny’s hands and passes it off to Jazz. She doesn’t hesitate to pour some of it over her icecream. Maddie shudders. Bites her pecan. Takes a seat.

Jack pulls a shop towel out of his shorts pocket and soaks it in the pool, then wipes his face with it before slinging it around his neck. Takes a tiny spoonful of the icecream and starts to set it in Danny’s direction.

“Just try a bit, Danno. I’ll let you drink dry ice again,” He cajoles. Maddie whips her head up to glare at him. Jazz shrieks with her mouth closed, prevented from yelling properly by a well timed frozen strawberry. Jack ignores them both. He’d better have a damn good reason and some damn good results.

He gets Danny to eat a little, at least. He’d refused dinner last night, and it’s almost 7 PM, now. After a while, Jack leans in again. All Maddie can hear from a bare few feet away is a quiet, wet little rasp.

Jack beams his most reassuring grin at their son. “Of course it’s got ectoplasm in it; it’s for you, Danny-boy!” He says. And. That might be the first time any of them have put it to words. Admitted it out loud. It should feel like a taboo broken, but somehow, it eases a little relief into the atmosphere. A confession they all share.

Then Jack frowns a bit. Eyebrows drawn down in concern when he says “Is it not enough?”

Danny shakes his head, a light tremble of motion. The wet plastic squeaks under his neck. Lies still. Jack sits back, looks up to Maddie. Jazz is leaned back in her seat, staring down at Danny with a sharp frown of disapproval on her face. A fierce set to her eyes that tells Maddie everything she needs to know.

“We’ll get you more, sweetie,” Maddie tests the waters carefully, kneeling down across from Jack, sets a hand on Danny’s drying hair, keeps Jazz in her sights. Danny closes his eyes and shakes his head again, turning further into her palm and sighing quietly. A low, tired sound of dismissal. Not for Maddie. Jazz looks away, guilt and worry plain on her face. Bites her lip. Lids her icecream and mumbles an excuse of a goodbye, looking a bit mutinous as she leaves.

Maddie has to wonder if she should step back from this. Let Jazz do whatever needs to be done that Danny is hiding from them. But she can’t. These are her children; they shouldn’t need to be providing something for themselves. It’s her duty to care for them.

But. She is also an ectobiologist. Knows damn well what ghosts need. Has done in-field observations on this sort of thing for at least a decade.

It’s not the amount of ectoplasm that matters. It’s the source.

They can’t provide what Danny needs from the lab.

Sure, they’ve never seen Phantom feeding, but he’s so rarely seen at all. Elusive. Non-normative behavior. Maybe -

An incomplete hypothesis has never sat well with her. Her son being miserably sick while she has the power to help him is not sitting any better.

“Danny,” She says firmly, gently taking his cold face in her hands and wincing at the mincing slowness of his pulse under his jaw. “Please, just tell us what’s wrong, honey.”

Something thumps upstairs. What is Jazz doing? Maddie had assumed she left the house. To get. Something. Bring something back? Get a ghost they know to help?

Maddie’s seen ghosts negotiate and willingly feed from each other. The statistically significant ratio of mutual encounter to violent attack was one of the things that tipped the scales for Maddie and Jack on whether ghosts have the capacity for civilized society or not.

If Danny has some sort of pact or agreement with a local ghost, then Maddie is intensely interested in learning every detail of it. As both his mother, and as an ectobiologist. Jazz probably has extensive notes.

Upstairs, something drags across the floor. Maddie jumps at the noise.

“I’ll go check,” Jack offers, glancing guiltily back to Danny before heading up the stairs.

Maddie turns her attention back to Danny and actually feels her heart skip a beat when she finds him staring up at her with dull, glazed eyes. His face too-still and eerie in the green light of the buzzing portal. It dyes him colors he shouldn’t be. She takes in a breath, and calms herself, confused by her own reaction. She’s been exposed to high levels of ectoplasm for nearly two decades. Maddie lost her innate terror-reaction to ectoentities years ago. This is completely unfamiliar to her.

But the way Danny’s too blank face flashes into guilt as he flinches and tries to pull away is not. It’s the same reaction as Jazz earlier.

Guilt. Something withheld. Upstairs, something drags against the wood floors again. Slow, deliberate.

“Danny -” She starts, concerned. He squeezes his eyes shut tight and turns away from her. Mouths something that she reads as sorry. A creak on the stairs. The lights flicker. Maddie jolts back in a crouch immediately, hand falling to where her weapons should be. One hand on Danny. Assuring his location. Her other hand closes on nothing. Of course not. Maddie doesn’t wear her weapons around Danny. Not any more. There’s nothing there. She forces herself into a more relaxed stance with some difficulty.

What could they have upstairs for this? Surely there’s not another ghost living in their house? Maddie would like to think that a second instance would be ridiculous. Maybe a hidden freezer of ectoplasmic samples? She looks down at the human ghost in her lab. Maybe he needs a rare type of ectoplasm, due to his unusual biology? His half human biology.

Half human. Needing ectoplasm and emotion, but also needing food. Maddie’s heart picks up uncomfortably, sits high in her throat. At the other end of the room is the wall safe with the Nightingale journals. The myths and accounts and legends of violent ghosts. Hunted for their danger to humanity. Their hunger. Maddie and Jack have long discounted or disproved those old folk tales.

But then again, they’d also disproved the existence of something like Danny.

“Danny -” She tries again, watching the way he’s turned away from her intently. Mouth pressed in a thin, unhappy line. Every ounce of him tense, entombed in ice.

Jack bounds down the stairs. Maddie jolts to her feet. He’s got the bulky old TV from the sitting room in his arms. Maddie’s heart is pounding, her mind blank.

“We’ve got the cure, Mads!” He cries. Jazz follows, carrying the DVD player and a stack of DVDs.

In the pool, Danny shudders strongly enough to stir the ice. Moans out “No,” loudly enough to be heard.

“Shut up, Danny.” Jazz says firmly. “You need this.”

Jack finishes plugging the makeshift entertainment center together. Jazz sets the DVDs down and sticks one in the player. Maddie’s seen every title on the pile, but doesn’t recognize them from anywhere in the house. All horror films, many classic. Monster movies. Slasher flicks. It’s so disingenuous from where her mind had been that she’s left frozen.

“They’re from Sam,” Jazz explains. “For when somebody runs out of juice.” She spares Danny an annoyed glare and hits play.

Oh. Oh. Maddie looks down at the miserable little ghost in the pool, her shadow cast long over his morose, guilty expression. He’s so pale. The colors from the TV flicker against the vinyl and ice and ectoplasm in surreal flashes. Some loud sound blares from the old speakers with more static than usual and Maddie jolts again. All her senses on high alert, an undercurrent of unnatural fear flooding her cerebellum. An artificially induced state of terror. The buzzing she’s been ignoring with all the ease of overexposure is Danny’s aura, set to 18 hz.

There hasn’t been a ghost attack in nearly a week. All the local specters retreating to the other side of the portal as the heat wave rages on theirs. Danny hasn’t been able to emphathically power himself in a week. Maybe longer.

Ghosts feed on fear.

He’s been overwhelmed with the heatwave, unable to patrol his territory, probably not physically fed in a while, and emotionally weakened. Of course he’s destabilizing.

Maddie lets out a breath of relief. This is something easily remedied, at least. She leans in and kisses Danny’s forehead. In apology. In absolution. Feels guilty for her distrust of him with such an irrational idea. Feels the rekindled instinctual hyperawareness of a ghost near to her vulnerable human throat. Ignores it. Helps Jack finish moving the chairs closer to the pool. Sets her icecream back on her lap. Settles in and lets herself overthink the timing of the next jumpscare. Watches her little ghost relax slowly as he draws strength from their shared, controlled fear. Wonders if he has a vomeronasal organ, with the way his mouth is a little open. If it helps with emphathic filtering, or if it’s psychosomatic. Wonders if he feels better. Fishes his hand out of the ice and holds it tight until he squeezes her back.

It’s been a while since they’ve had a family movie night.

#dannymay2020 #danny phantom #heat #fenton family fun times #maddie fenton #jack fenton #jazz fenton #danny fenton #heat and horror #fanfiction

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frightgothcar · 5 years

Text

Typical Soulmates AU, first words said to you by your soulmate is tattooed on you. Wes X Danny, just a really stupid thing I wrote last night because I thought it would be funny. I was right though!! I like it, at least.

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Danny Fenton’s Mother started her yearly monologue, “18 years ago today I gave birth to the most amazing young man in the world.”

“Mommm,” Danny groaned, even though he knew it was useless, nothing would stop his parent’s seemingly endless quest to embarrass him.

“Now hush, Danny, I haven’t even gotten to the good part yet,” Maddie Fenton shot back.

“Yeah, Danny!” His best friend, Tucker Foley added through a mouthful of chocolate cake, “Let her finish!”

“Thank you, Tucker.”

Danny rolled his eyes, but let his Mom finish her continue. After all, she could be as stubborn as a bull and twice as mean.

“I hadn’t been feeling good all day, so your father brought me Chinese, which was my go-to pregnancy food. I was having cramps, but the due date was about a month away to the day so I was sure it was nothing. Jack went down to the lab to work on the Fenton Portal and I tried to eat, except, nothing looked good. Actually, it was making me feel kinda sick. So I started to realize something was wrong and I shout for your Dad, but he’s in the lab. I stand up and waddle down there, I didn’t know it at the time but I was already in labor. He looks up and knows immediately I need help. He tried to go upstairs to call an ambulance, but I grabbed onto his arm and started pushing. A few minutes later we had a beautiful baby boy.”

“But the best part was,” Danny’s Father, Jack Fenton, stood up, sending his half-eaten chocolate cake icing-first onto the floor, “his little pink butt with ‘I know your fucking secret, Fenton’ written on it!”

He smiled proudly as Sam and Tucker choked on their cake.

“Seriously, dude?” Tucker asked once he’d started breathing normally again

Danny crossed his arms, his face was lit up in a tomato colored blush.

“Oh my GOD!” Tucker snorted Danny’s reaction confirmation enough. “And I thought I had it bad!”

Tucker unconsciously ran his fingers over the words ‘I can and will break your kneecaps’ scrawled in blocky handwriting on his wrist.

“Well it’s not my fault you decided to be such a weirdo,” Sam scolded, their tattoo read ‘Hello there, M’lady’ across their shoulder blades in beautiful calligraphy.

Usually, Danny would be annoyed at his best friends bickering, but today he was relieved to have the attention off him and his embarrassing soul mark.

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

The next day at school was more or less normal, other than a little extra teasing from Sam and Tucker. He was actually in a pretty good mood, Skulker had agreed to a truce, Dash and half the other A-listers were sick with Mono, and the cafeteria was serving pizza. His carefree mood wasn’t even thrown off when he entered the cafeteria and saw a red-haired boy standing on a table. In fact, he didn’t even give him a second look, after snagging the last piece of cheese pizza and sitting down to wait for his friends. They both had Mr. Lancer for 3rd period, and he was notorious for keeping students late, so he began eating as soon as he sat down. He was about halfway done with his slice when a hand clamped down on his shoulder.

“Hey, guys-” Danny’s words froze in his throat when his eyes met a strange boy’s. It didn’t take long for him to realize it was the same boy standing on the table earlier. His fairly pale ad freckled face was pulled into a scowl, his bright green eyes blazed with anger.

“I know your fucking secret, Fenton.”

“Who the hell are you?” They said at the same time. The boy’s anger drained from his face, replaced with a look of pure shock. Danny wore a similar expression, his mouth opened and his eyes frozen open.

“Well, this was unexpected.”

#danny phantom #soulmate au #wes x danny #Danny x wes #unidentified flying ship #i really hope noone i know irl sees this #hehe

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duckapus · 5 years

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My Danny Phantom Reboot (as was owed for the Phight)

Okay, so first off I should mention that this is going to be less “what if someone made a reboot of Danny Phantom now” and more “what if Danny Phantom was done right to start with.” This means there’ll be more emphasis on storytelling and characters, none of H*rtm*n’s usual shenanigans, but the storyline as it was is going to be more-or-less intact, depending on what I think I can salvage.

So, let’s talk powers.

Danny is going to have all the powers he did in the show, given gradually and with clear foreshadowing. His ghost sense is currently just a bit too conspicuous, so I’ll be changing it from a wisp of cold breath to a chill up his spine, though for the sake of the audience there will be a visual and audio indicator of it, much like Spider-Man’s spider sense. Starting out, he just has that and the three basic ghost powers, though they won’t work properly for a while, and I’ll make it clear that this is because his half-ghost status prevented him from gaining the instinctual knowledge to control them outright. While there are some abilities that he gains during times of stress (like ectoblasts and the ghostly wail) he’ll have to actually practice in order for them to work with any level of consistency.

Like I mentioned, there will be some foreshadowing, specifically when it comes to his ice powers. There’s going to be multiple points where someone mentions that he has cold hands, with many of those people being ghosts to imply that it isn’t a ghost thing. There’ll be more emphasis on Ghost Cores and Core Types. Danny isn’t going to be as affected by warmer or colder temperatures as other people, usually being the last one to need to put on a jacket. He’s going to be somewhat weak to fire-based attacks. And there’s going to be a multi-episode buildup to his powers freezing him.

I’m also going all-in on the space motif. His bedroom is covered in star stickers and NASA posters. He tends to look up at the stars whenever he needs time to think. He isn’t afraid of heights at all because up is good, up is safe, up is home, and flight is the only power he never has trouble with as a result.

And now, for Danny’s parents. First off, for this, they do not want to destroy ghosts. They want to study them, understand them, and keep people safe from the ones that cause trouble. They know full well how little they actually know and how small their sample size is- that’s why they’re working on equipment to actually explore the Ghost Zone in the first place! Yes they’ll screw up, and jump to conclusions, and be a bit too enthusiastic. Yes, they’re working off of some pretty big assumptions, because that’s all they’ve got. But at the end of the day, they’re the first to admit they’re not perfect. And as far as priorities are concerned, they’re parents first, scientists second, and hunters third(if even that).

Jazz and Tucker are already good as-is, as are most of the ghosts, so let’s move on to Sam and the “A-listers.”

So starting off, because I’m not Fartman, I will not be vilifying the popular kids just because they’re popular. For Qwan, we’ve already got the fanon of him being a sweet cinnamon roll who’d be a great friend to everybody if he were just able to say no, specifically to Dash. And with Star I’ll be going with a strong-willed girl who’s fully willing to call the others out when they’re bullshit goes to far, though she’s admittedly got a looser definition of “too far” than she should.

And now the big three. So my interpretation of Sam, Dash and Paulina is that a big chunk of their issues come from them not quite growing out of their jackass middle schooler phase(you all know what I mean). That’s not all of it, or even most of it, but it’s a big enough part that them acknowledging it will be a huge step in the right direction.

In Sam’s case, a lot of it also stems from her need to control as much of her life as she can, which developed in response to how little control her parents let her have. This ranges from harmless (her love of gardening and “ultra-recyclo-vegetarianism”) to really not okay (her tendency to manipulate or strong-arm people into doing what she wants) with her harsh judgement of people and trust issues landing somewhere in the upper middle. All of this to say that she’s a lot more like her parents (and Paulina, to a lesser extent) than she realizes.

With Paulina, while she does still have a lot of problems, being a crazy, obsessive fangirl isn’t one of them. She knows full well that her feelings for Phantom are just a celebrity crush and they aren’t about to get together any time soon (the boy’s dead as far as she knows, for god’s sake!). She’s also very observant, not to the point of finding out the truth about Danny but enough to realize quite a few other important details…

With Dash, all I’m really going to be changing is that his Football Star status absolutely does not give him free reign to do whatever he wants, because I respect Mr. Lancer more than that.

Admittedly I haven’t quite figured out their other classmates yet. And Valerie’s arc is already good as-is, though I won’t be including her getting shunned by the “A-listers” because this version of Star ain’t gonna let that fly. I’m also including Wes, because his antics are glorious and I think I can do some cool stuff with him.

Now, along with giving the characters better characterization in general, I’ll also be giving them their own time in the limelight to show what Danny’s situation looks like from an outsider’s perspective. Valerie in particular ends up as something of a secondary protagonist.

And now we come to Vlad. Oh, Vlad.

Okay, so in this version, Vlad inviting the Fentons to the reunion was a genuine attempt to reconnect. Unfortunately ghostly obsessions are powerful things, and he sort of relapsed into hating Jack and wanting Maddie for himself. Things more-or-less continue as normal, though with his desire to take on Danny as an apprentice coming off as him actually, genuinely wanting to teach Danny how being a halfa works, which makes it a little comically awkward when he tries to turn their battles into a teaching moment. He still becomes the mayor, though this time around it’s because he genuinely thought it was a good idea, and he got voted in legitimately.

Unfortunately it all sort of goes downhill after a while. Due to his current mentality of “tired old uncle just wants to get over his issues and help out” clashing with his obsession with Jack and Maddie, he’s sort of cracking, and the fact that Danny adds an extra layer to both isn’t really a good thing.

And then we get the clones. In this version, they all last a lot longer, and sort of act as Vlad’s minions for a while. The Frankenstein’s Monster-esque one sort of acts as a big brother to the others. He’s also very smart, even if he can’t really say much, and as time goes on he starts to realize that something is very wrong with Vlad. It all comes to a head when Dani is created, because Vlad realizes that even with a human half she still isn’t stable and something inside him just snaps. At this moment, there’s now two Vlads in there; Masters, who’s honestly just tired of all the fighting and pushing people away, and Plasmius, who’s essentially season three Vlad in all of his megalomaniacle obsession-fueled glory. Frankendanny’s destabilization is a big moment in this, as are the other clones holding back Vlad as they’re melting so Danny and Dani can escape at the end of the episode.

Dani still ends up traveling after that, though she’s not just ignored as she’ll be sending Danny postcards of places she’s been and there’ll be a few episodes dedicated to her adventures (with some hints to her instability getting worse.)

D-stabilized is where thing get really crazy. This is because while I’ve been distracting you with my Danny Phantom remake, there’s been a secret, second remake of Fairly Oddparents hidden in the background! I won’t go into too much detail, since that’s not what this is about, but It follows the same structure of apply overarching story, focus on characters, trim off what doesn’t work. Because of this, Timmy happens to be in the same city where Valerie finds Dani (I don’t think they were in Amity Park yet, but I’m not sure) and meets Dani before Valerie does. The episode plays out more-or-less the same (Val uses Dani as bait to catch Danny, gives Dani to Vlad, Danny appeals to her better nature, she finds out that Vlad is an evil half-ghost and that not all ghosts are evil thus shattering her world view) but with the addition of Timmy tracking her down to her weird holding cell/torture room place (seriously, what was up with that?) and then tagging along and somehow holding his own against Fright Knight with nothing but a blaster he managed to swipe from her (since not only does he have to deal with having human allies, but also the fact that magic doesn’t work that well on ghosts, which means no fairy help).

After that, there’s a few breather episodes to the end of the third season, mainly to do with Valerie processing everything she’s just learned.

And then Freakshow gets the reality gauntlet, because I’ve been holding that off until now. Danny gets his identity revealed on live television, the Guys in White are after him, and Freakshow is holding Amity Park hostage until Danny can find the three stones he scattered.

There’s just a few small changes I’ve made:

The stones got scattered across the planet, instead of just the country

There’s no easy way to track the stones unless one gets activated, unlike in the original where they had ecto-signatures

Wes and the “A-Listers” get dragged along for the ride

Because Freakshow isn’t a complete idiot and realizes that it will take a significant amount of time to find the stones, the team has until the end of summer.

Instead of everybody being in cages (since that won’t really work with this time frame) Amity Park is surrounded by an impenetrable dome, and both ghost portals are clogged up. Nobody gets in or out unless the ringmaster says so.

The second and third parts of Wishology and an adaptation of Nicktoons Unite are happening alongside all of this, so along with GIW and ghosts the team is going to be dealing with the Eliminators and The Syndicate.

Carl, Sheen and Libby have somehow tagged along.

We’ll be calling this arc the Road-trip from Hell, and it, along with the other two story arcs, will be taking up the entirety of the fourth season. The other two arcs will experience changes as well, such as Dani going with Timmy, Mark Chang and the Villains to find the Wind Wand due to being in Dimmsdale when it happens, Catman, Chip Skylark, Elmer and Sanjay getting captured along with the rest of Timmy’s friends, Valerie and Tootie getting recruited by Jimmy to fight the Syndicate since Timmy and Danny are busy and they’re honestly the only two options, and Anti-Cosmo being the Fairly Oddparents representative for the Syndicate since Crocker is also busy.

For the sake of storytelling, I should mention that GIW is a fanatical splinter group of MERF in this continuity, and have already been established as major antagonists. Also throughout the season Fairy World is basically going to be a warzone locked in a three-way battle between the Fairies, the Anti-Fairies and Syndicate, and the Eliminators, which all three groups see at one point or another.

The final battle is really going to be four going on simultaneously- Danny and Team Phantom(which by this point will also include the reformed agents O and K, because I like them) vs Ghost Freakshow, the robot army just outside of town, and Lydia; the Nicktoons vs the Syndicate’s doomsday device; Cosmo in his Godzilla form vs everything the Syndicate and the Eliminators can throw at him, and Timmy vs The Destructinator (which will actually be a full-on fight, with the outsmarting thing just being Timmy’s trump card). It’s going to be really cool with a bunch of well-timed jump-cuts and everything.

Then in the aftermath I’m going to basically spit in the face of the status quo. Danny still erases peoples memories of his reveal, but leaves out the new members of Team Phantom (because if he has to remember the road-trip from hell, so does everybody else), and it also doesn’t work on Valerie (or Tootie) since they were in Jimmy’s universe at the time, which is going to be Fun for Danny to deal with when she gets back. Timmy, Chester and AJ are also immune, due to AJ secretly making the three of them immune to memory wipes in general so Timmy wouldn’t have to forget his fairies or go through what happened in the first Wishology again. He would’ve done the same with Elmer and Sanjay, but he didn’t get the chance.

After all that, season five is a return to the norm, other than dealing with the new character dynamics, the Vlad situation, and all the Fairly Oddparents stuff leaking in. I haven’t really worked out all the specifics, since I sort of got caught up in the season four stuff.

Note: For obvious reasons, I cannot actually reboot Danny Phantom and/or Fairly Oddparents. Unless I come up with ideas later on down the line, or other people decide to add their own ideas, this is what you get.

(@phandomphightclub, I did it!)

#danny phantom #dpreboot #fairly oddparents #reboot #concept #phantom phight club #lost a bet #phantom planet isn't canon #this was fun #long post #sorry

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