#Vlad is too emotionally exhausted
Text
Good Godfather Vlad AU - Part 2
Part 1 Those that asked to be tagged. @kaitouhime @krzys2000 @moobloomrights
~This took a few drafts to get it where I wanted. Vlad is really hard to write as getting the help he needs while still being really new to all the sudden changes. ~
Ice Machines and Fudge
The one that manages to corner him first is their daughter Jasmine. She catches him in the ice machine and vending machine room at the hotel at 3am. He is rather impressed with it as he can’t escape by using his powers as there is a CCTV camera to stop people stealing from the vending machine.
“You need to talk to Mom and Dad tomorrow, or Dad is going to try to break into your room.” Jasmine says straight away.
“I beg your pardon?” Vlad responds.
It is 3am, he has not slept well the last two nights. Had a very long video session with his therapist that left him emotionally drained. He just wanted some ice for a cold compress for his headache. The last thing Vlad was expecting was for a teenager to materialize out of the dim shadows between the vending machines. If he had not known better he would have suspected she was a ghost.
“They are both spiraling from the revelation that they left you feeling abandoned for the last decade. They thought they were doing the right thing in respecting your boundaries and not pushing into your life until you reached out. Your lack of response back even years later never deterred them. They took it as a good sign that you never asked them to stop sending letters. ” Jasmine pauses for a moment.
“Dad sends you an invitation to Thanksgiving and Christmas every year, we all sign it.” Jasmine trails off a bit.
The ice bucket nearly falls from his hands at that new sucker punch to the gut. Vlad’s family had always been small and after his parents passed he never had anyone to get together for the holidays with. Until Jack found out and dragged him to every single family holiday since. He would always play devil's advocate in the yearly debate over if Santa was real between Maddie and Jack. It was always good fun and they used the most bizarre physics equations to explain their case. At least until the accident, how many Christmases had he missed.
The ice machine thumps as more ice fills the basin. The static humm buzz of the fluorescent lights fill the air. Jasmine does not press him to respond, just waits for him to collect his thoughts.
“I don’t know if I am ready to face them.” Vlad says softly.
“Sometimes we are not ready for things. We just have to do them anyway as if we wait to be ready it will never happen.” Jasmine says.
“You are quite insightful for your age.” Vlad responds.
“Thank you.” Jasmine.
“Now how do I keep them from trying to smother me while I try to piece things back together.” he continues ending with a wry smile.
“Well first off, fudge always works with Dad.” Jasmine smiles back.
“He always did have a massive sweet tooth. I swear he used to live off nothing but fudge and coffee during exams.” Vlad fondly reminisces.
“Mom is harder and I don’t think you want to be shouting out ghost, while pointing in random directions to distract her.” she embarrassingly tells him.
“I don’t think that would help very much with this. She is more than likely to drag me after a ghost sighting.” Vlad chuckles. He pauses for a moment before a memory alights.
“Does she still fiddle with rubix cubes?” Vlad asks.
“Rubix cubes?” Jasmine asks, confused.
“Your mother in college used to keep a rubix cube to occupy her hands with. Creating patterns and solving a rubix cube was seen as smart and impressive so it did not get taken away from her. She said it helped her focus on things and ground her emotions.” Vlad tells her.
“I never knew that. That could work if you need to escape her manhandling.” Jasmine confirms.
“Well if I am going to face them tomorrow at the brunch I should get some sleep. I will see you and your family tomorrow morning. Have a good night.” Vlad tiredly thanks her. He has to stifle a yawn at the end.
There is a teenage boy staring at his hotel room door, a very familiar looking boy. He feels a flush of warmth inside as he realizes just who has tracked him down. The boy stiffens and turns to look down the hall at Vlad. What an odd pair they must make in this dim hotel hallway. Vlad in his dark silk pajamas and matching housecoat holding a slightly melted bucket of ice. The boy, Daniel, in an oversized NASA hoodie space print flannel pajama pants with a small box?
“Your sister beat you to it. I fear you are too late to warn me about how your parents are ready to ambush me into restarting our friendship. I have consoled myself to facing them tomorrow at brunch and the emotional encounter it will be.” Vlad dramatically sighs out.
From the way Daniel untenses that was the right move. His hands fiddle with the small box.
“Did she catch you in the stairwell or the elevator? I know she has been working on her elevator pitch all day.” Daniel jokingly asks.
“Her elevator pitch was put to good use in the ice machine room. Trapped me between the exit and the vending machines.” Vlad tells him.
“I did not think she had it in her to actually stalk you. I thought she was going to just stay in the elevator and wait for you to use it.” Daniel laughs out.
Not that it would have worked as Vlad had been turning invisible and phasing up the elevator shaft to precisely avoid encounters.
“Never underestimate a determined young woman. Now how may I help you, Daniel?” Vlad asks.
“Well Jazz did the hard work already getting you to face our parents. Here take this.” Daniel says stepping forwards and offering out the small box.
Vlad takes the small box which appears to be a chocolate box of some kind. It is fairly heavy for its size.
“Dad has not had this brand of fudge before. It should give you a solid ten minutes of him running it through his ranking system before he remembers what he had wanted to do. It won’t stop the hug but should allow you the time to remind him to let you keep your feet on the ground for it.” Daniel quickly says.
“That is very thoughtful of you Daniel.” Vlad thankfully says
“Just Danny, Daniel makes it sound like you are going to give me detention.” Danny embarrassingly jokes.
“Danny then. Thank you for this. I know it must be hard to find a chocolate maker that Jack has not tried the fudge for.” Vlad says.
“Glad to help. Well I am still getting over the time zone change and need all the sleep I can. Night Vlad, good luck with Mom. I have yet to find anything to really stop her so you are on your own.” Danny says cheerfully before he sprints down the hall to the elevator.
Vlad looks after as Danny turns a corner then disappears from sight. He sighs before unlocking his hotel room. It seems that at least the children have decided to help him take things at his own pace. He sets the box gently onto the bedside table. Put the ice that has not melted into the cold compress bag for his headache. Sets up his laptop and begins the searches for the closest store that has rubix cubes.
If one happens to go missing from inventory the next morning. Along with several bills totaling more than the cube are found in the empty cash drawer when they go to open the register for the morning, well that is just a wonderful coincidence.
Now with a Part 3, and Part 4
#danny phantom#danny fenton#jasmine fenton#Jazz#Vlad masters#Good godfather Vlad#Danny Phantom AU#Good Vlad Au#Vlad uses the time honoured tradition of hiding from your problems#plus friends that actually included you in their life only you did not know it.#Only his problems are emotions and they are ready to sucker punch him#Also teenagers#Teenagers that learned how to hunt ghosts while hiding it from their parents#Jasmine stalked Danny for weeks after she figured out what was going on without being caught#she can hide from Vlad#Danny is having a much better time in this au at the reunion as he gets to actually sleep without ghosts attacking#Neither has figured out why their ghost sense is going off#Vlad is too emotionally exhausted#Danny sleep deprived and making up for his lost sleep#Danny has only one brain cell and it is working so hard#Vlads first couple meetings with a therapist has gone well#He is like that picture of a china cabinet with all the plates ready to fall out once the door opens#He has just opened the door and is now staring at all the dishes that fell out realizing he has to sort out what can be fixed and saved#Vlad is still very morally gray right now#Full disclosure I view a lot of the cast as neurodivergent as they remind me a lot of my nurodivergent friends#I am the neurotypical of my friend group so I am trying my best
172 notes
·
View notes
Text
Random Danny Phantom au.
The world ended, nukes launching to every corner of the world.
If the nukes didn't kill them, then the aftermath sure did.
An actual, honest to god supervillain wanted the end of the world, and they did it even when they got taken along too.
Vlad, Danny and Dani survived due to their Halfa biology, with Dani leaving for the ghost zone after everything went down.
Danny is overcome by grief, and anger with no place to direct it.
Same goes for Vlad.
And they already didn't like each other, so just one minor thing set them off on each other.
Due to Danny's victory over Pariah Dark, and Vlad helping him with the suit and pushing Pariah back into the coffin, they each became king of the Ghost Zone.
More like half-king since they both share the position but eH.
Danny got the Crown of Fire, which because of his ice core turned into the Crown of Frost.
Meanwhile Vlad got the Ring of Rage, and became much quicker to anger than he was before.
Surprisingly enough, Danny was the one who landed the first hit.
The opposing nature of their cores, fire and ice, wasn't at all helping the planet when they both went all out, especially with the added power boosts.
They fought on the wasteland planet for a few years, then moved to space. To which something of surprise happened, Danny, with his ice core and the Crown of Frost connected to the moon, meanwhile Vlad, with his Ring of Rage, connected to the motherfucking sun.
Why is this important?
Well, because even though humanity was basically wiped out, the faith left behind on things they worshipped was still around.
So Danny and Vlad both got even more boosts of power from the lingering faiths left behind on the sun and moon. Basically becoming gods.
Not that Danny or Vlad cares, for Danny he just wants the earth back to how it was, and his family by extension. For Vlad, even though he has all of this power now, Madeline isn't here anymore, nor is Vladco and everything else he worked for.
So they just, continue fighting.
The Sun vs the Moon.
They held nothing back, using every inch of power in their cores and the power gained from lingering faith of the sun and moon and caused devastation if they were still on earth.
They fought for years and years. Until one day they just, stopped.
Be it because of how much power they used up, or they just felt emotionally exhausted, perhaps both. Danny just stayed on the Moon while Vlad just kinda, drifted, around the sun.
During this time, Clockwork saw this as the best time to yoink them over to the ghost zone, and properly appoint them as Kings of the Infinite Realms.
Of course they had to have the clothes to match, and with them having a connection to the sun and moon certain ghosts had a motif to go off of.
Danny was gifted a white robe that glowed a soft light, with the edges seeming to turn into frosty mist and the area around him is extremely cold.
Vlad was gifted a golden robe that glowed intensely, the entire thing seemed to be made of fire and the area around him extremely hot.
Opposites and stuff I guess.
No other ghost really wanted to fight them and take the Ghost King title, it's honestly far more trouble than it was worth and they didn't want the responsibilities.
So Danny and Vlad had to put aside their differences and rule together properly for each and every ghost in the zone.
Safe to say, neither of them were thrilled to be working with the other. (With Danny not thrilled to be working at all.)
Which is pretty in character with them being polar opposites.
During their off time, much to some ghost's chagrin, they typically leave outside of the zone to their respective domains, the moon and sun. Both of them feel a sense of comfort when near them.
Surprisingly after their battle and working together, Vlad feels calmer around Danny because of his overall aura, whereas Danny feels the never ending chill he experiences lighten up whenever he's near Vlad.
So they're on some sort of truce right now.
Everything is going fine, the zone finally stabilized with the extended presence of both its kings, the Ghost Zone now has some sense of law and order, and everything is just better over all than under Pariah Dark's absence and rule.
Until Danny gets summoned to some far off dimension, still in the appearance of a teenager because he never aged (neither did Vlad) and is absolutely stunned to see living, breathing humans.
It's been far, far too long since he's seen humans.
So there he is, still in his king robes (Which basically become his regular clothing), sitting in a magical summoning circle with cultists all around him preaching to him about he's going to enslave the world and how they off themselves up to be his servants.
Stunned beyond compare seeing people, and then out of the blue more people come out and beat up the cultists, with the last one begging for him to help them and then being knocked out.
A stray thought entered his mind, and he doesn't even care about the other people anymore. So he steps out of the circle, ignoring the others surprise, their battle ready stances, and their attempts at talking with him and just exits the building and flying out of the planet's atmosphere.
He then turned to look at the planet, and he started crying.
It was breath taking to see the earth living again, especially when from the moon all he ever saw was the wasteland that was once his.
Some random dude came up out of the atmosphere with him, with a determined expression on his face before that melted away into surprise and concern. Who then just floated there alongside him.
Meanwhile, over in the DP outer space:
Vlad is not at all amused when he felt the sudden void of the moon. So he went to check it out, seeing the moon deity gone from his place. Usually when they go to the Infinite Realms they are still aware of the others presence.
But now Vlad doesn't feel him at all.
So Vlad goes to find Clockwork, who should surely know if his opposite decided to go back in time.
Clockwork says he doesn't know where Danny is, but he does know he was summoned to another dimension. Vlad questions how Clockwork doesn't know where Danny is since he's the literal Master of Time.
Clockwork says that he oversees all the events and timelines in this dimension, the one where Danny was summoned to however? Noooot so much.
So now Vlad feels he has to look for his counterpart and is increasingly angry that he has to do so, but then Clockwork nudged him along to go and find him.
So now Vlad has to look for the wayward moon deity; while said deity is now talking with a bunch of actual people and is not at all hiding his wonder and amazement at seeing and talking to living people again.
(Clockwork when he knows exactly where, how, and why Danny got summoned, but isn't telling Vlad a single thing other than "You have to go find him." and acting as if he couldn't just pop into the timestream and ask the Linear Men if they've seen an immortal teenage moon deity in any timelines.)
#dp x dc#dp x dc crossover#Vlad became a sun Deity and has the Ring of Rage#While Danny became a moon deity and got the Crown of Fire turned Frost#Danny is completely and utterly stunned to see a living earth again#Vlad probably will too when he finally finds the DC dimension#The JL when they find out that Danny is only Half king of the Infinite Realms and that there's another one#Who's probably not taking his random disappearance well.
595 notes
·
View notes
Text
referring to my last post im too lazy to like. explain the premise in detail so the basic idea is danny and damian twins thing, danielle/dani clone is the same age as danny, she has his memories but not all of them and jumbled and fragmented and messy and it fucks with her a lot. and danny also. now theyre triplets in the way where damian has obviously no memories of dani but she remembers him and its SO MESSY and emotionally difficult for all of them because dani is 100% danny's sister but not damian's. heres a non-specific ficlet thing i tamped out because this au is stuck in my fucking head but i dont know enough to write it because i dont care abt dc stuff. thanks for understanding
also. theyre literally all transgender. because i said so. this is a legal requirement for this au. vlad switched the chromosomes to make a more stable clone but dani was like "...no, im a girl actually". danny and dani joke about switching bodies all the time. damian and danny didn't know they were trans until after they separated, damian still doesnt know danny is because he thinks danny is dead, danny does know Now because damians a wayne and is in the news and danny recognized him evn tho no one but damian's family knows hes transmasc. also danny is transmasc in the agender kind of way. nothing can fucking stop me
vague context: sometimes dani quizzes danny on his/sorta-their past, bcuz her memories are so weird and jumbled and it helps to hear the truth evn when she cant actually remember it.
cw: brief mention of an adult being creepy towards children
-
"Okay," Dani says, and Danny pretends he isn't fervently praying she'll shut up.
"Okay," he echoes after a long moment, prompting. Somehow, the wariness doesn't leak into his voice.
"Third coach tried to kill us—you," she says.
'Third coach' means Danny and Damian's third trainer. Dani uses words pretty strangely, sometimes. Her language has a habit of slipping into something more rudimentary, simplified, like she's a toddler.
She's a year and seven months old. Her grasp on language is, in Danny's personal opinion, remarkable.
"That happened, yes," Danny says when he realizes he'd been quiet too long. He's starting to drag. These conversations are exhausting in a way he can never articulate, not even to Dani, but there'd be no reason to because he knows she gets it. From the way she's listing to her side in the air, the imbalance fucking with her physics enough that she's starting to drift very subtly to the left, she's worn thin.
"… Why?" she asks after a long pause. "He seemed nice."
Danny focuses in on the thrum of her core. It's in near-perfect resonance with his own, which used to be so deeply disturbing it made his skin crawl but now feels soothing. It's a balm on his frayed nerves during the bad days; a reminder that, though he's lost one sibling, he has another.
"He wasn't," Danny murmurs. Third trainer smiled a lot—that might be what Dani is remembering—but he had wandering hands and a creepy way of looking at him and Damian. He taught them about pinching nerves. His fingers always lingered.
"Oh," says Dani. She rights her tilt, though she's still drifting. Danny's brain does a weird thing, a math sort of thing, that calculates the angle of her drift, the current speed, the projected acceleration. If she keeps going, she'll bump into the wall in three minutes, twenty-seven seconds.
(His brain does weird things like that, sometimes. Frostbite says it's a result of ectoplasm mixing with living neural pathways. The ectoplasm appears to be acting as a stimulant of sorts, or maybe a steroid. A stimulant-steroid. (…Stimuloid?) He hadn't been able to follow the explanation very well at the time, due to the fact that his brain was doing the opposite of what it's doing now. Sometimes he thinks so fast it feels like his thoughts are teleporting; sometimes his head is so foggy he can barely process what's right in front of him. It's super great. Super.)
"… Oh," Dani says again, softer. Then, in an abrupt subject change, "Did you really almost push Tucker off some stairs?"
"You" this time. The way she selects it—"us", "me", "you"—it says a lot about how the memory feels to her. She'd been raised an assassin; she barely knows Tucker, Danny's oldest friend. She hardly recognizes dad; she wants to cling to Sam. Sometimes it's him, sometimes it's her, sometimes it's a weird third thing. Or something. She'd phrased it in a way that made him laugh and forget most of it, when he'd asked, and now he regrets that.
"I did, yeah," he huffs a laugh. "He stole—"
"Our truck!" Our. "Yeah, okay, I remember that."
"It wasn't a truck."
"No? It—ohhh, it was the, um. The model train. The one you built! That Tucker's dad gave you."
He nods. "Yeah. I was worried he'd break it."
"And pushing him down the stairs wouldn't?"
"Assassin training."
"Sure."
One of her eyes is a little crinkled. She might be getting a headache, because that's the face Danny makes when he's getting a headache. (It's the face Damian made when he got one, too.) (Stop comparing them.) "You should get some rest," Danny tries.
"I'll get nightmares."
Her nightmares are weird. She's talked about them enough for Danny to feel familiar with them, even though his are nothing like her's. She'd tried sharing one with him, once, and it'd hurt his head for days after.
"I'm gonna get nightmares too, now," he points out. She winces. Danny realizes too late that might have sounded more accusatory than intended. He wanted her to stop asking questions, yeah, but not at the cost of herself. He's the reason she exists now; he's the reason why her head is so stuffed full of things that don't make sense, memories and daydreams and terrors both real and imagined haunting every step she takes. Even if he isn't the one that made her, hadn't ever wanted her—even if that, she's his responsibility.
"It goes both ways, idiot," she says.
She's not reading his mind, but. It's like she is. She can feel his core like it's his thoughts, and that's near enough. "I'm the older brother," he says, intentionally putting something a little haughty in his voice, a tone he hasn't carried since he was, like, eight or something. The effect is ruined a bit as he lays down, angled so he can still watch her drift towards the wall. "You're my responsibility. That's how it goes."
She rolls her eyes. "What if I wanna be the older brother?"
"Can't. You're the youngest, out of the three of us."
Dani sort of… pauses.
Danny does, too. He hadn't meant to say that out loud. Damian is… "gone" isn't the right word, because he's not dead. Not like Danny thought he was for a… for a while. But he's off limits in a way Danny can't access. He hasn't referred to Damian as his brother since the first time Dani started asking questions, and she'd been careful to avoid doing so herself. Which would seem considerate, if Danny didn't know she avoided it because the whole thing just feels too big and too messy to look at in the eyes.
And here Danny's gone, shoving his foot in his mouth. The three of us. There isn't three; Damian has to think Danny's dead. Has to have mourned him. If Damian knew…
It's so scary to think about.
And—there's Dani, now. Not a replacement—nothing could replace Damian—but Damian would feel that she is. Probably.
"What a mess," Dani says.
Had she thought the same things? Maybe. No way to tell without asking, and Danny's too tired to ask. "Yeah."
She touches down onto the ground. On silent feet, she checks the locks on Danny's door, and then she pads over to the bed and nudges him until he gives her enough space to lay down next to him. She's not going to sleep here, and Danny won't be able to sleep with her there (it reminds them both of sharing a bed with Damian), but she likes to do this sometimes and Danny likes it when she does.
Neither of them say anything else. Danny won't be able to fall asleep, but he manages to start a very light doze. Dani's core thrums contentment and his echoes it. She's saying I love you I love you I love you and he's singing it back, and when her pinkie hooks into his—like Damian, like Damian, stop comparing them but it's so much like Damian—Danny curls his to lock it in place.
"I might to spy on him," she murmurs after an unknown amount of time.
Danny cracks open an eye. "You won't."
"I want to," she amends, "But… I won't." I'm scared, she doesn't say, but Danny can hear it anyway.
"The tabloids do it enough for us," Danny points out.
She snorts. "Yeah, sure. 'Damian Wayne: Vegetarian or secret animal killer?' Definitely a good accurate way to get information."
Danny smiles and lets his eyes slip shut again. "He was like that even when we were little." Didn't like eating meat, eating animals.
"I remember."
He sighs. His core sings I love you. Dani's pinkie slips from his. There's a sweep of cold, like a blanket being pulled over him, and then she's gone. He might see her in a week; he might not see her for months.
Danny drifts to sleep.
#danny phantom#dcu#dp dc crossover#damian wayne#dani phantom#robin rambles#robin writes#this au is SO.#SILLY.#wish itd leave my head
21 notes
·
View notes
Note
Idk if you do Vanny = Vanessa stuff, but if you do may I request the reader, who has a good friend of Vanessa's for a while now and hasn't been in contact with her since she lived in the pizzaplex, comforting her when traumatic memories of what Glitchtrap forced to do and how he treated her start coming up post-princess quest ending? Also if you could have it so she doesn't live with Freddy or Gregory and she just lives by herself now (because I don't really like the idea of her trying to raise a kid when she's so emotionally damaged) that'd be great too ^.^
Personally I’m a Twin Theory Truther but I do wanna explore that concept, too! And yeah realistically I doubt she’d live with them after all that happened soooo ye-
TWs: PTSD, Glitchtrap’s manipulation, & su!cidal thought mentions
........
“Vanessa, long time no see.” A light smile graced your lips as you gazed at the blonde standing on the other side of the door.
You haven’t seen her in god-knows-how-long, and you were relieved, considering this was your best friend.
Ever since she got transferred to Mega Pizzaplex for nightguard duties, she seemingly dropped off the face of the earth, not responding to any of your calls or texts. At first you didn’t think much of it; you figured the night shifts made her too busy or exhausted to hang out. You understood that.
What you didn’t understand was why she was never home when you visited her apartment.
You asked the neighbors and they said she left one day with just her uniform and never returned. There was no eviction notice pasted on the door, so you assumed she paid the rent in advance.
But why did she leave? She could’ve stayed with you if she needed to be closer to the mall. None of her actions made sense. You’ve always supported her no matter what--even though you weren’t a big fan of the shady company and its various establishments she worked for.
It made you anxious for weeks on end, so you were unbelievably happy to see she was alive, back at home. All of the sudden she had texted you early this morning and asked you to come over, promising to explain everything to you.
You pretty much bolted over here, eager to catch up.
Though from inside her apartment, all the lights were off, which was rather strange. She might just be used to wandering around in the dark, but you could also see a lot of clutter that hadn’t been cleaned up yet.
Vanessa didn’t look any better than the mess behind her. She was wearing a purple jacket, sweats, and a cap to cover her messily tied-up hair, yet it did nothing to hide the pure exhaustion in her eyes. It seemed like she hasn’t slept in days.
Not to mention her constantly shifting gaze. Her unwillingness to look you in the eye and only briefly smiling at you in greeting.
This definitely wasn’t the Vanessa you were childhood friends with. There was something she wasn’t telling you, something that was tanking her mental health, but hopefully you’ll get some answers.
“May I..come inside?” You awkwardly stood.
“..oh, y-yeah. Of course. Sorry.” She allowed you to enter while mumbling another apology about the mess. Then she flicked the lights on and shut the door, locking and bolting it.
Although that was a bit concerning, you paid no mind to that and just looked around the place.
Then you noticed the empty rabbit cage in the corner.
“Where’s your bunny?”
Vanessa froze. “My..what..?”
“The white bunny that was here?” You pointed to the cage. “His name was..Vinnie, or Vlad, right? I forgot. He was a cutie, but also kinda creepy whenever the light reflected in his eyes and made them look red-”
“Let’s stop talking about it.”
Out of nowhere her tone became snappy, and you looked at her in confusion. She seemed rather angry, but a moment later she calmed down, sighing shakily as she rubbed her hands together. “S-Sorry. I..sold him to help pay the rent. He’s in a better home now.”
“Oh.” You frowned a bit, now concerned at her mood changes. One moment she was timid and the next angry for no reason. “Vanessa, I’ve-”
“I’ll tell you everything..I just..I-I’ll be right back. Help yourself to whatever you want.”
And just like that, she took off to the bathroom, shutting the door.
Now you were seriously concerned for her well-being.
She seemed incredibly avoidant on the matter. Your worst fear was that some creep was harassing her at work, or maybe an animatronic went rogue and nearly bit her.
But you didn’t want to speculate too much, especially when she hasn’t told you anything yet, so you just waited patiently for her to come back.
‘Give her time..she’s probably just tired.’
......
After hiding in the bathroom, Vanessa took off her cap and splashed some water on her face, trying to take deep breaths. She could feel her heart beating out of her chest as she stared down into the sink bowl. Closing her eyes, she tried to focus on breathing.
In and out.
In and out.
In and out-
“Here you are again..back to nothing, I see.”
“N-No..I’m..I’m done with you..!” Looking to the medicine cabinet, she saw the familiar shadow of a rabbit with humanlike purple eyes in the mirror. “I’m free now. Y-You can’t make me do anything.”
“Shame, my little bunny ended up being wasted potential. But no matter..life goes on..mine always will. Forever and ever. All thanks to you, Vanny.”
“Vanny is dead!”
“But Vanny is you..and you are Vanny. You two are inseparable! You’ll always hold the memories of what you did to those poor kids..those robots they loved and adored. You’re just like m-”
“SHUT UP!!”
The shadow laughed, its body distorting into wavy glitches. Vanessa struck the mirror with her fist, which only resulted in the illusion vanishing and her hand sporting a bruise. She winced in pain and looked at it again, seeing the glass bearing a large crack now.
Perfectly splitting the reflection of her face into halves.
She jumped slightly upon hearing a quiet knock.
“Vanessa? What was that? Are you okay?”
“I-I’m fine!" Rushing to the door, she leaned against it so you wouldn’t enter. But after only a moment of standing there, she suddenly had no will to stop you.
Why was she doing this? Why was she trying to resist?
It’s not like it did her any good before.
She heard you sigh. “I don’t think you’re fine. I know you’re scared to talk but..I promise I won’t judge. We’re still friends. I’m not gonna judge you or hate you for whatever happened.”
“...you promise?”
“I promise.”
Finally defeated, she opened the door and let you inside. You could see the cracked mirror and her bruised fist, which she hid far too late. As you reached out to her, you paused, noticing the way she flinched and her eyes became filled with tears.
"I’m just gonna take your hands, okay?”
Nodding, she let you take them, and you comfortingly rubbed your thumb over the bruise. “I’m here to help you, Vanessa. I’ll listen. Even if I can’t fix any of it..I wanna be here for you.”
Now that you were standing under brighter light, you could fully see just how pale and sickly she looked. It even made tears prick your own eyes, realizing she was more or less killing herself by working for that godforsaken company.
Swallowing her fears, Vanessa finally spoke up.
“I-I wanted to leave so bad..but...I didn’t have a choice.”
“You didn’t have a choice?” Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean? Your boss wouldn’t let you-?”
“No..it was..a voice. It..got in my head one day and started telling me what to do. To act like it...think like it. It made me do things...a-awful things that I’m not proud of. Things that made me wanna die. But I-I couldn’t escape it, [y/n]. He wouldn’t let me. I had to listen..I had to obey..a-and if I didn’t I’d be locked away again.”
Now her tears were falling as she shook, sniffling. “He took so much from me..s-so much of my dignity..m-my passions...and my friends! And I couldn’t do a goddamn thing about it!! Therapy didn’t help..e-every single one either goes missing or turns up dead. Meds didn’t work either. H-He just kept coming back, saying I didn’t have a choice a-anymore...and he’s right. I didn’t! I NEVER DO!!” She began sobbing, slumping into your arms.
You embraced her with no hesitation, allowing her to bury her face into your shoulder and just cry. She clung to you and shook uncontrollably.
God only knows what she’d do if you didn’t come here. She just couldn’t handle being all alone after everything that happened tonight...and everything she’s done before that.
You muttered comforting words, now realizing that she never despised kids or animatronics. She was forced to work for this company by some mysterious voice, which seemed to have brainwashed her somehow, too.
This was something you’d expect in a horror flick. Not from your traumatized friend. You feel even worse knowing she’s been dealing with this for so long and you were completely unaware of it.
For a few minutes you both hugged, with you rubbing her back and not letting go until her sobs turned to sniffles. Only then did she finally stand up straight to look at you. With a soft sigh you took her hand again, leading her out of the bathroom and back to the living room.
Together you sat down on the couch, quiet for a moment as she kept sniffling and wiped her nose with her sleeve. You decided to make some tea to help her calm down, getting yourself a mug as well.
Once you returned with the hot drinks, you took a sip of yours before turning to Vanessa. She looked a little bit better now that she had that good cry and tea in her hands. “I had no idea it was that bad, Vanessa. I’m..so sorry. But you made the choice to quit and invite me over here. That was you, not whatever this voice is. When did you start hearing it?”
A small tired laugh left her. “I-If I tell you too much..you might go missing, too.”
“Well..even if I do, which I won’t, I’d rather hear the full truth.”
“..I started hearing it when..I was a beta-tester for that VR game...”
She went on to explain as much as she could recall. About the strange Bonnie-shaped glitched she encountered, how he hacked into her headset and then her mind, and how he told her to go work for several Fazbear establishments. She claimed he was the soul of a serial killer who needed her help in constructing a physical body so he could return to the real world.
And she told you about last night’s events at the Mega Pizzaplex, where she was actually living for a while, working as a guard and discreetly being forced to build that body, hence her disappearance. She mentioned Gregory and the Glamrock animatronics, but nothing about when she ordered the old STAFF bots to tear apart Freddy.
“..then all of the sudden I just..stopped hearing him. Gregory says he tried some games that..apparently set me free? I-I don’t know how that worked but I haven’t heard that voice since. Hah..I forgot what it’s like to think for myself.” Smiling, she brushed away the few tears that fell from her eyes, relieved to finally get the truth out to someone she cared about. “Crazy, huh?”
“It’s..definitely something I’d expect in a futuristic horror flick but..I believe you.” You reassured her. “Whatever that thing was..it’s gone now and it won’t hurt you anymore.”
“I know..but..now I don’t know what to do.” She sniffled, finishing the last of her drink. “Sometimes I see him in the mirror, taunting me. But he can’t control me like he used to. I’m trying to stand up for myself again.”
“I guess that’s what the yelling earlier was.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. I promise. God..I forgot how to act around normal people.” Groaning, she held her head in both hands.
“No, no..you don’t have to apologize for anything.” You offered a comforting smile. “You’ve been through a lot. So just..try to take it easy today. If you ever need anything else, I’m here for you, okay?”
Vanessa looked up at you and nodded. She felt guilty for ignoring your calls and texts without warning and being such an emotional wreck when you finally see her again.
Surely, you’d think she was insane. But as you said earlier, you didn’t judge her. Not even angry at her whatsoever for leaving you hanging.
You’re such a great friend.
For a few moments she was quiet, before she rested her head on your shoulder. “You mind staying for a little while? I-In case I have another dumb freak-out.”
“I don’t mind at all. We’ll just chill out here and watch TV.” Putting an arm around her, you got more comfortable on the couch. “Is this alright? I know you’re not too touchy-feely-”
“It’s fine. I..really need this right now.” She eventually closed her eyes. It was the first time in a long time that she wasn’t afraid to shut them.
The tea and just talking with you felt cathartic, leaving her tired. But it was a good kind of tired.
She was finally free of that awful demon and got her best friend back.
#clanask#anonymous#fnaf x reader#five nights at freddy's x reader#fnaf sb x reader#fnaf security breach x reader#fnaf vanessa#fnaf vanessa x reader#hurt/comfort#angst#tw suicide mention#tw manipulation
158 notes
·
View notes
Text
Possessive bonds
So I wanted to expand on this a bit more since I don’t think I explained if very well in my previous post.
Also forgot to mention this is inspired by @floralflowerpower‘s fic Little Lion King with the bound servants and a little bit by @five-rivers‘s with Clockwork’s deal with the Observants.
So anyway Possessive bonds, or more commonly called Servitude bonds or Slavery bonds, are a bond based on the agreement that one ghosts serves another ghost. However these agreements are heavily in the favor of the ghost who created it and gives them basically ownership of the other ghost, making that ghost basically a possession.
Most of these bonds are forced onto the servant ghosts and the processes of forcing the ghost to agree can be pretty horrific, but sometimes the one who will become the servant ghost is tricked. This is where the stories of people selling their souls to demons come from as this bond can be made with humans and come into effect when they die.
This is one of the few ways to guarantee a person will become a ghost when they die, but for obvious reasons is not often sought after.
These bonds are also incredibly hard to break, even more so than other bonds, because while breaking other bonds can be emotionally damaging and exhausting, breaking a Possessive bond could damage a ghost’s core and possibly cause them to fade if the core has nothing else to latch onto.
However, while Possessive bonds are nearly permanent and are heavily in the master ghost’s favor they are not used very often. The process itself can be long and difficult if the master ghost is trying to force it and can fail if the master ghost isn’t significantly stronger than the servant ghost. Servant ghosts also retain most of their free will, only controlled by direct orders and can operate pretty independently if not under order, allowing some clever servant ghosts a lot of loopholes if they’re smart.
The practice also fell massively out of favor after the fall of Pariah Dark and was mostly forgotten about. The only ghosts who still do it are a few corrupt entities who still try to trick humans into deals and the Observants.
Some examples of Possessive bonds:
Pariah Dark created a Possessive bond over the Fright Knight after Fright Knight was cursed to be trapped in any pumpkin his sword pierced. Pariah promised that the pumpkin would be transported to his Keep so Fright Knight could be freed in exchange for his service. Fright was able to break this bond with the help of Vlad using the loophole that the bond was in service of Ghost King Pariah and once Pariah was no longer Ghost King the bond was no longer in effect. This is one of the few times a Possessive bond has been broken without serious effects to the servant ghost.
The Observants tend to force these bonds onto any ghosts they believe to be too powerful and dangerous if left unsupervised (AKA any ghost that could be more powerful than them). As a collective they are able to over power most other ghosts so this kind of bonding is not as much of a risk for them as it would be for and individual. They wish to bond every Ancient but have only successfully bonded Clockwork (and possibly Nocturn), they almost got Vortex until Vlad freed him for his own gain. They also attempted to bind Pariah but failed and in turn made Pariah even more dangerous since he learned how to make a Possessive bond from the experience.
61 notes
·
View notes
Text
Danny Fenton appreciation post
Danny as protagonist is a very interesting character. He's a complex teenager with both virtues and flaws. Throughout the series he learns how to control his powers and the responsibility that comes with having them.
On the surface, Danny is your average teenager: He likes hanging out with his friends, wants to fit in, likes to have some fun every once in a while and is a bit impulsive.
One defining characteristic of Danny is how he's struggles with his own insecurities. He's not very popular at school and is often the target of bullying, specially from Dash who frecuently teases him in the series.
One of the reasons Danny is considered "weird" by his classmates is because of his parents: They are ghosts hunters. They sometimes embarrass Danny in front of his peers without meaning to. This has lead him to have a few arguments with his dad like it was shown in 'A million dollar ghost'.
His own insecurities sometimes cause problems with his friends as well. For example, in "Attack of the Killer Garage Sale" he left his friends behind to hang out with the 'popular kids', who didn´t care too much abou him.
Danny dumps on himself many times during the series, in 'My Brother's keeper' he describes himself as a "screw up" and believes he's loser:
"Great, he (the ghost) got away again. Another ringing endorsement for the town screw-up." (Blaming himself for not being able to catch the ghost)
He also has a complicated relationship with his ghost half. He thinks he's a freak of nature because of his ghost powers.
Spectra: "What are you? A ghost trying to fit in with humans? Or some creepy little boy with creepy little powers?"
Danny: "Both! Uh...neither! I don't know."
Spectra: "You're a freak! Not a ghost, not a boy! Who cares for a thing like you?"
He's usually very afraid of people finding out about his secret identity as a ghost. Since ghosts are seen are evil in Amity Park he's scared that they would not accept him or would try to hunting him.
One of his deepest fears is his parents finding out about his secret and trying to run experiments on him. He knows that his parents will "accept him no matter what" but he still can't help being scared everytime he hears them talking about dissecting ghosts.
'Identity crisis', while a funny episode, it's very important for understanding Danny.
In this episode Danny separates his superhero ghost half from his human half. In one scene we get this exchange between ghost Danny and human Danny:
Ghost Danny: "And that's the sort of irresponsible attitude that makes you such a disappointment to our family".
Human Danny: Uh.. hello. Not our family. My family. You're the full time superhero, remember?
Keep in mind that they are both part of Danny's personality which means:
1) He thinks he's a "disappointment" to his own family.
2) He sees Phantom, his ghost half, as a different person. He thinks that 'he' doesn't belong to his family. This must come from the fact that his own parents don't know about his ghost identity and thus, Danny doesn't consider Phantom a Fenton until his parents accept him for who he is.
When it comes to be the hero, Danny thinks it's job to protect Amity Park,even though no one asked him to carry the burden of such heavy task.
He sometimes blames himself for things that are out of his control or weren't his fault to begin with. He thinks that its his responsibility to fight evil ghosts from harming any humans.
A few episodes focus on him learning how to use his powers with responsibility and not taking advantage of others. 'Reign Storm' is mainly about him choosing to use his powers to stop the Ghost King instead of using them to get back to people he doesn't like.
Danny:"All of my enemies. Everything I thought I could handle, but couldn't."
Tucker:"Dude, you can't blame yourself for this. It's not your fault."
Danny:"Maybe not. But it is my responsibility."
Danny really cares about his family and friends. He would do everything he can to protect them from getting hurt. In the episode '13' it was shown that he´s very over protective of her sister Jazz, as there was a ghost who was trying to trick her into falling in love with him.
Aside from learning to overcome his insecurities and becoming more responsible, overtime Danny learns that not every ghosts is completely evil and some of them can be friendly.
A good example of this is when he meets Cujo in 'Shades of Gray' and helps him with finding his toy that he lost when he was alive. In 'Public Enemies' he befriends Wulf, after freeing him from Walker, who was keeping him prisioner.
It's worth of pointing out that Danny knows there are times to talk and times to fight. At the start of the series he usually prefers using his fists first before asking questions but as he matures, he starts to see when it's better to solve conflicts when fighting is not necessary.
Another flaw he has its that he's a bit short tempered. He often lets he temper get the worst of him, which makes him have arguments with his friends and not think things straight. But,to be fair, his life is a bit difficult: having to fight ghosts at night, getting late for school, being bullied and not knowing how to manage his time must be exhausting for a teenager. It's not suprising he's bit moody in some episodes.
For my last note i think it's important to talk about talk about his rivalry with Vlad Plasmius as their relationship in the series is quite interesting.
In a way, Vlad exists to remind Danny of everything he shouldn't be. Vlad prefers to use his ghost powers for his personal gain. He cares very little about how his actions affect others. He sees people as their pawns. He usually manipulates them into doing what he wants.
Vlad sometimes likes teasing Danny about how they very alike, and in part, that's a bit true, they are both half ghosts who gained their powers after an lab accident. They are unique, since there are barely more halfas outside them.
Danny has shown to be manipulative when it comes to dealing with him. He knows that Vlad is very emotionally vunerable since he is desperate for Danny to become his ¨son¨. He takes advantage of this to trick Vlad and beat him in his own mind games.
In conclusion: Danny is complex character who grows into a confident superhero overcoming his own insecurities and flaws. He may not be perfect, nevertheless he cares about family and friends and it´s always going to be there to protect Amity Park.
#Danny Phantom#Danny Fenton#DP post#DP analysis#Vlad Masters#Jack Fenton#Cujo DP#wulf dp#reign storm#indentity crisis#my brother's keeper
696 notes
·
View notes
Text
Sound of a Heartbeat
Part 4. Negotiations, Exortions and Stories of the Past
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 5 - Part 6
Surprisingly, this story continues to move further for me.
Back to the characters where we left them in the previous part - with some heated arguments and intimate talks.
Pairing: Dracula x OC
Warnings: none, apart from lung diseases, wounds and Adrian being a total sweetheart
Next morning Shari woke up to sounds of footsteps and hushed speech. Straight away she knew the upcoming conversation will have to be one hell of a diplomatic achievement – how do you explain your sudden desire to leave to a group of half vampire, speaker and a vampire hunter who were most probably fighting for your life during the last three days. Trevor would be completely furious. Better stand next to Sypha when presenting the decision, just in case he suddenly has the wish to use his whip. You never know how the Belmont reacts, though possibly Shari could still drag it through without making a big fuss – Lisa was definitely right about one thing: she has made a habit of negotiating her way with people, especially the ones that were apprehensive or disliked her. Truth to say, nine out of ten were either of the two.
- And don't forget, you are our healer, how are we...!?
- And don't forget, you are our healer, how are we...!?
- So far I wasn't so much required, you guys can carry on perfectly well without me.
- I'm still not sure if it is a good idea, Shari, if you want to get some rest by leaving... It may only be more dangerous for you, - Sypha argued.
- Don’t you even think of supporting her! She took a few years off our lifespans with this incident! We can’t just let you…
- No, wait, you don't get it, I...
- Shari!
- Stop bossing me around, Trevor, I am not a child! I have not finished.
- Trevor, please calm down, she is neither under your command, nor your sibling. If she wants to leave, it is her choice, - Adrian stepped in, clearly annoyed with the three.
- See? I can perfectly… - Shari tried to pick up.
- Shari, - Adrian interrupted. – Can I speak with you privately?
The healer was genuinely startled for a moment. She turned to look Adrian in the eyes – probably for the first time since the incident – trying to estimate his emotions and plan her defense strategy. She was never scared of him – or at least she never showed that he scared her sometimes, because surely being sane and realistic she could not ignore the obvious danger presented by those sharp fangs and golden eyes. Still Shari was used to considering him a friend, his malevolent side almost unable to turn against her.
Now she was startled and – honestly – slightly scared. For a moment she thought she saw it in his eyes that he looked right through her: that he perhaps watched her and Lisa or sensed her thoughts or some other vampire telepathy kind of thing. That maybe he thought she was a traitor.
Then he smiled warmly and nodded his head to the side, gesturing for her to follow him away from Trevor and Sypha – and Shari straight away knew whatever it was, he was ready to be on her side.
- Are you sure you need this resting? I mean clearly you do, you are paler than father when he wakes up, but still… Sari, I know you are stronger than you look, but a witch traveling alone during such a time doesn’t seem the brightest idea to me, - Adrian spoke quickly and quietly, for others not to hear their discussion. Shari felt ashamed for how it continued to surprise her that he sounded genuinely concerned.
- Adrian, I’ll be fine. I swear. I just… I don’t feel well…for, let’s say, various reasons, not only the attack. It just suddenly occurred to me that since your father seems to be watching and purposefully slowing you down, it may be a good decision for me to…
- To not stick around and lower the risk of encountering him or strong specifically directed demons? – she nodded in response. – Well, I can get that… And Shari, - he suddenly took her hand, his tone turning uncharacteristically warm. – I’m sorry.
- You don’t have to. We already spoke about…
- Not about that. About your disease. I’m so sorry. If only I knew how to help you – I could have known the way, you know, I once had the access to knowledge that could have… I’m so sorry for you.
They stood in silence for a few moments. Shari found herself unable to look into his eyes, staring at the ground.
- For how long have you known? – she rasped, barely recognizing her own quiet voice.
- Almost as soon as we met… Shari, I…
- Don’t. It’s alright, Adrian, I just didn’t realize you knew and this struck me a little…
- Do you know where you will be heading? – if she ever was grateful to him for anything – though she was grateful for plenty of things to be fair – it was his ability to catch onto the atmosphere and change the topic when it is very much needed.
- I… yeah sure, of course I do, I have a rough plan of what to do. Thanks, - she coughed dryly a few times, still refusing to lookup and meet his gaze.
- Shari?
- Yes.
- Promise me you will be fine. Not to be dramatic, but I… have gotten used to you quite a lot.
Shari chuckled.
- Will do my best, - she finally looked up at him and saw the half-vampire smile broadly. – I’ve gotten pretty used to you too, you overgrown puppy, - they stood in silence for some time.
- Almost forgot, one last thing before we face the storm of unacceptance named Trevor, - he blurted out, when she moved tostep away and turn back to the campsite.
- Yes?
Adrian did not say a word – he simply opened his arms and Shari fell into the embrace without even thinking. She felt utterly childish for being this familiar with him. She also felt it was nice to have someone to turn to when feeling torn and exhausted without having to explain the whirlwind of emotion in your head.
Shari shouldn’t have been surprised that it was Adrian who let her go with such ease. He knew he could trust her decisions, he always did. She was somewhat flattered by the way he treated her as an advisor and assistant even though she was no way as knowledgeable as him; the half-vampire always showed that he believed she had an own analyzed perspective of things, that she wouldn’t be reckless. This time though his trust in her rationality might have failed him. Any way it was, he openly supported her decision and expressed the hope that she would be able to catch up with them in some time.
Shari knew Trevor thought Dracula hypnotized her into surrender and laughed at it to herself. If only he had a clue that it was the human Dracula's wife who controlled her.
In the end of that emotionally exhausting morning they finally parted ways: the trio went in the direction of the closest town, hesitant to leave their friend, but unwillingly agreeing it should be done for greater good; Shari stayed at the campsite with Rodo for a bit longer, motivating it with the need of rest. Adrian threw a concerned glance in her direction, but said nothing. The vampire felt there was something wrong, but decided to let it slide, since he had already supported her decision; if she said she needed rest, then so be it.
In fact, although Shari did tell him she had a rough plan of further action, in reality she had little to no ideas in which direction to move and absolutely no wish of discussing it with thin air in front of her disbelieving friends: they would definitely not see Lisa and they would definitely think she was hallucinating after the attack. To be fair, she could never herself be sure if that wasn't exactly the case. Maybe she was talking to an imaginary friend. However, since she had already decided to believe in the ghost's existence, she had to play along that assumption.
Lisa didn’t leave her waiting and appeared as soon as they were left alone, Shari sitting by the campfire a little lost and a little tired; a victorious smile played on the ghost's lips, as she sat by the fire next to the girl. Rodo made no sign of noticing their guest, only slightly shaking his furry head and letting out a jawn.
- What? - asked Shari, annoyed by the constant attention of the ghost. She took the cattle off the fire and set it aside to cool down a bit. She needed something warm to drink if she wanted to keep her blood and lungs inside her body.
- We have to move out, - Lisa smiled, now more gently, watching the human's movements.
- It would be nice if I knew where we went, - replied Shari, slowly looking around, taking in the little amount of her personal belongings lying about - there wouldn't be much packing when she would have finally decided to pick herself off the ground.
- I'll guide you.
- What if you disappear?
- I won't.
- What if I don't want to go? What if you only tell me that you are leading me to the castle, while in reality you will lead me to Dracula? That is actually most probably what is going to happen, - Shari finally expressed her greatest worry and doubt. She could not just trust Lisa, she wanted to, but couldn't bring herself to do so. The woman was most probably still here because of them - Dracula and Adrian - so her greatest concern would be to stop their fight in any way possible in order to finally peacefully leave them, not care about some girl getting hurt in the process.
- I believe you will just have to trust me. I have told you already, I only want to stop this war with as little blood as possible, especially when it comes to Adrian’s or Vlad-I meant Dracula’s blood. You will be of very little help to me if I simply spend time leading you to your death. Besides, I shall remind you, that your illness is not exactly leading you to a happy life, so you decided trusting me on that one, - Lisa winked at her and stood up; Shari clenched her teeth: well, that was a very good point, but definitely a blow-below-the-waist strategy. - We should move out, the sooner we start - the quicker we'll be there.
- You know, you're like an older sister that I never wished to have, - Shari huffed in annoyance, but finished her tea quickly and proceeded to pack. The fact that she was annoyed didn't cancel the fact that Lisa was right. She had to move out.
***
The day trip was completely uneventful. The few villages they had passed didn't show any signs of having been attacked, but Lisa still made Shari keep away from them - maybe it was for the best, people were very unsafe these days, the fear made them aggressive to any newcomers. Especially to ones possessing magical powers and followed by black wolf-demons. Going alone to such a village could be suicidal.
It was only at the age of ten, that Shari found out she had it in her. That one trait that made people wish your head on a pike no matter how you behave. Animals weren't just "friendly" with her, no-no, friendly is one understandable thing, especially with a little child. However, "friendly" is definitely not the most accurate description of the behaviour of the large black wolf that almost attacked her one day on the edge of the woods, stopping in mid-jump as the girl turned to face it - next picture: the wolf rolling on the ground before her like and ordinary dog demanding bellyrubs. The animals would not simply like her, they would obey her as if she spoke to them directly. She had no idea where the power came from and so preferred to think she was born into her witchcraft. Her mother insisted upon it too, saying that poor old gramma was the same odd thing in her youth. At least that was what Shari remembered her saying when they did discuss her little problem. That was until she turned sixteen – until she suddenly was separate from her family and out on her own. Until the first time the people wanted to get her burned. First of many more to come.She had learned to control herself and make use of herself, never expressing anything people would see as dark wizardry, nothing even seemingly malevolent, working for the local healer, helping out as much as she could and learning some things here or there by herself about herbs and illnesses - not a study, barely a child's curiosity.
Then it was a year of particularly poor crops after an awfully dry summer, Shari sensed it was coming before she ever knew why it was so - the villagers had no other way of dealing with such misfortunes. They placed all the blame on the odd girl who learned to cure wounds and diseases and spoke to the wild animals as she pleased. Burning witches was a very common sacrifice, after all.
The night before the burning was the night she ran. She knew they would come for her, so she escaped before they could get her, left her home to set to travel into unknown. And never truly stopped running ever since.
Lisa pitied her for that, even though Shari tried to brush it off as nothing. She was a witch after all and turned to be quite a good thief, quite some reason for the other humans to hate her already, even though she couldn't say theft pleased her herself - she was surviving the way she could: moving about and healing didn't ever buy her enough bread or material. The longest she ever stayed in a town was three months - then the cycle had to start over.
Lisa understood her reasoning for that quite well. At first she wanted to argue that staying longer might have bought Shari some trust, but held her tongue - she wasn't one to give that sort of advice, not now, not after everything that happened to her exactly for staying a little too long.
When they finally stopped for the night, Shari was almost falling - her legs unwilling to carry her anymore - and bending over in loud wet coughs, feeling the taste of her own blood in her mouth and suffocating in attempts to hold back from even more coughing. The freezing weather and bloodloss, even compensated with Sypha's magic, were not going to make this journey easier for her. Shari felt the feather light caress of the ghost's hand on her back and breathed in deeply, trying to calm her heartrate.
There was pain in her ribs now too - she was scratched quite badly a few days ago by one of the attacking demons. They were fighting off several of the things and one jumped her from behind: neither she nor Rodo had noticed it before. Shari succeeded in turning to face it, making the demon bounce off her and back away as soon as she made eye contact - these things were usually not much harder to control than wolves, especially with Rodo at her side. Unfortunately, before she managed to kick it off completely, the demon had left an unpleasant scratch across her ribcage, making her fall to the ground and lose the mental contact - the beast jumped back on her in a matter of seconds and for a moment Shari thought that would be her end. Only by luck Adrian was swift enough to protect her, fighting the thing away and aiding her to recover later - the sharp claws left three deep gashes on her skin and the girl had to spend a long time tending to herself after the fight, hoping the wound would not get infected with whatever those things could carry on their paws.
The wound had been nicely bandaged before, all was going well, but apparently Dracula's attack had erased that bit of responsibility from her memory and now Shari suddenly faced yet another problem: rebandaging was not only desirable, but very much a necessity by the time she dropped to the ground, settling for the night. The soaked and dried blood on the old bands now scratched and tore at the healing wound, causing her pain.
- ‘T is okay, - she told the ghost, quickly going to sit down on the ground. Removing the band did not take much time as well as putting on a new one-not when she was used to doing it anyways, but removing a part of her clothes let the cold bite her even more in the process, so when she was finished, she was freezing to the bone, so she wrapped herself in whatever warm cloths she had left and pressed closer to Rodo, to keep at least some body heat to herself. They decided to make no fires, as Shari was now mostly defenseless and the girl already felt how much she would regret parting ways with her friends. Lisa's care and Rodo's warm side couldn't do much to keep away the cold and her lungs were almost screaming in protest. She looked at Lisa's pitiful apologetic face and whispered: - I'm already used to it, - no you aren't, this is getting worse by second and you desperately need a fire.
- You have to fall asleep quickly. Tomorrow we'll start off at dusk, - Shari lay between Rodo's back and a large tree trunk; Lisa sat next to her head, looking down at the tired healer.
- I wish it was just as easy for me to move as it is for you, - Shari whispered sleepily.
- Trust me, you don't, - both laughed.
- How much is there left? Of the way?
- If you're lucky - and persistent, we may be there by tomorrow night, - Lisa answered reassuringly.
- Really? That's so fast... Too fast, to be fair. I thought the castle was hard to catch, - she stared back at Lisa.
- Parts of it yes, it moves as a whole. But there are stable parts - that one particular entrance was the one I used when I first found him. It was very hard to track - not many know about it, it's kind of in magically protected grounds or something - nobody has the incentive to go there, - the ghost explained.
- But you had, - Shari smirked.
- Of course I had.
- I wonder how he hadn’t killed you straight away.
- Oh, but he wanted to. He tried to frighten me – told me he would drink my blood, all that classical stuff.
- So what did you do?
- Told him his manners needed repolishing.
Pause. Shari chuckled. Then snorted. Then laughed out loud.
- And he did not murder you for such an offense?
- I believe he wanted to for a moment, but was too startled to act… And then it sort of…happened. I believe it was a big “why not” for both of us, until we suddenly saw something deeper to it, - Lisa smiled to herself, seemingly diving through memories.
- Sounds a little like me meeting Adrian for the first time – God knows I saw those large fangs and yellow eyes straight away, I knew very well what he was, just couldn’t…
- Can’t beware the dark, when it’s choice between stepping in or watching someone suffer?
- Something of the kind. My self-preservation goes way below. I called him in when I saw him bleeding out by the edge of the town – half expected him to drain me as soon as I bandaged him and when he… well, as you can see, didn’t… We just talked. He stayed over for a week gaining strength, not attempting to eat me – I guess that was the first out of the only two occasions when someone I have helped did not try to accuse me of devilish business in one way or another and just accepted the help. Of course he had to be not human.
- The second time that happened was with Rodo, wasn’t it? Humans don’t tend to be overly grateful.
Both chuckled.
- Adrian seems quite attached to you, - Lisa turned to Shari. – Thanks for that. For accepting him. I was always worried that he will have a hard time fitting in…pretty much anywhere, being what he is. So thank you.
- No need to. He is nice, your son. Feels like having a friend for once.
Pause. Shari shrugged and sighed.
- Tomorrow, you said, right? Though I can't say that I'm exactly lucky, so your prediction about the time is probably too optimistic, we are bound to have some struggle tomorrow,- she huffed, turning to her side and snuggling to Rodo's furry back.
- The castle shouldn't be so far away, it is quite close to Tragoviste, shouldn't have taken us long, - Lisa explained. - And you are lucky, sunshine - remember? You survived Dracula's bite. That mark on your neck is your lucky ticket now, - Lisa winked and lay back against the tree trunk. Shari wanted to think of a witty reply, but was interrupted by another violent fit of cough and decided to let it go. The healer cuddled into Rodo’s warm side and fell into uneasy sleep, hoping that the morning would bring at least some relief.
#castlevania#dracula x oc#dracula x reader#adrian tepes#alucard#sypha belnades#trevor belmont#adrian is such a sweetheart#lisa tepes
37 notes
·
View notes
Text
Vladimir and LeBlanc - Yandere Type HCs + Tarot Prompts
[a/n: interestingly enough, both of them were possessive, manipulative, and sadistic, but in rather different ways.]
(cw: manipulation, gaslighting, isolation, depersonalization, ask to tag)
Vladimir
Type:
- Vladimir is possessive, with overtones of manipulation and sadism. He loves the idea of a darling who’ll be completely devoted to him, who practically worships him. He loves the idea of his darling’s life being completely in his hands, his to toy with, ruin, break, end? Maybe. At the same time he can be said to hold some affection for his pet – they had to be special if he decided they were the one for him, after all, and that deserves something does it not? To be Vlad’s darling is to be a toy and a prized treasure at the same time.
For Vladimir, I drew The High Priestess, Justice, and The Heirophant
The High Priestess - What expectations does this yandere have for their darling?
Vlad’s demands are pretty simple - complete loyalty, complete reverence, and complete obedience. Obviously, he doesn’t expect this to happen overnight, and he doesn’t expect darling to be completely on board with it right away (if they are though, he's not complaining). Rather, he expects he has to ease his darling into it, patiently shape their behaviour and personality into what he wants, with little nudges and “advice”. It’d be subtle enough that you don’t even realize it’s happening, until you’re far past the point where you could bow out with no consequences.
Justice - Does this yandere ever feel conflicted about what they’re doing?
No, not particularly. He doesn’t even see any conflict between his admiration for his darling and his cruelty to them. To him, they’re just different expressions of the same attraction he has to you. At this point, Vladimir mostly does what he wants as long as he can get away with it, and truth be told? He’s long lived enough that he feels like he’s seen it all. He’s long lived and doesn’t really give a damn and bored. That raises the question though, how long until he gets bored of you too?
But maybe that’s not the question you should be asking.
The Hierophant - Could this darling’s yandere fool them easily? Or be manipulated by them?
Tricking his darling into believing he’s a normal, trustworthy confidante is Vladimir’s entire goal at the beginning of your relationship. Flitting in and out of the Noxian court over the years has made him quite good at making him look like he belongs.
As for getting manipulated, one figures Vlad’s been around LeBlanc long enough to know when he’s the one getting fooled, but it’s actually quite possible. In particular, a clever darling who at least pretends to play into what he wants, and acts reverent towards him, could get his guard down around them - and as Vladimir does have some respect for his darling on some level, he’d give any “advice” you give more consideration than he’d like to admit.
LeBlanc
Type:
- LeBlanc is above all, extremely manipulative, and rather possessive too, with her own brand of sadism. Though she’s not the kind who’d want to lock you away and keep you to herself, she wants to be the only thing you care about, the only important thing in your life. Before she came along, things were so dull weren’t they? Sure, she might mess with your head, and drive away everyone else who risks getting close enough to know what’s going on, and you might be too mentally and emotionally exhausted to even make sense of it any more, but at least you still have each other, don’t you?
For LeBlanc, I drew The Sun, Death, and Wheel of Fortune
The Sun - When would this yandere feel content with their situation?
That’s a bit of a complicated question with LeBlanc. See, a situation where she feels she’s reached a comfortable “status quo” with her darling isn’t truly a status quo, because LeBlanc’s preferred state of relationship with you is turmoil. If the relationship, despite LeBlanc’s best efforts, appears to be “settling down”, she’s not gonna be happy about it. Not unhappy enough though, to be able to tolerate the thought of abandoning you, and risk having you forget her and go back to any semblance of a normal social life.
Death - Would this yandere ever kill their darling? If not, would this yandere “kill” undesirable traits of their darling?
She would not kill her darling. That would just end her fun far before it has to end. Compared to her, mortals are so short lived already, why cut her time with you even shorter?
As for killing undesirable traits, well. There aren’t any traits LeBlanc herself finds undesirable in you, but if you pride yourself on some virtue? LeBlanc utterly delights in setting up situations where her darling must compromise their core values, or act in ways they find antithetical to who they are. The more your sense of self breaks, the more you only have LeBlanc, a notorious deceiver, to rely on.
Wheel of Fortune - Would this yandere’s behavior stay the same over time? If not, why do they remain the same?
LeBlanc, at her core, never really changes. She’s a deceptive, manipulative person who plays people like chess pieces for inscrutable aims, and her darling is no different, it’s just the aim in question is a lot simpler in theory.
However, she does mix up her tactics. Obviously, she can’t have her you get too used to any of the tricks she pulls, otherwise you might get wise and successfully sabotage her (though she doesn’t mind sabotage attempts on their own - in fact, she finds them quite endearing and adorable, especially when they fail). In particular, one thing she might do (but will only ever do once) is just... show up at your home, and simply tell you that she’s tired of the constant games and trickery, and she’s ready to give it all up for good to truly build a relationship with you. She even addresses how hard it must be for you to believe her, given how much she lies, but she’s willing to work through it, if it means being together. Because she truly loves you that much.
If you have any brains at all, you’ll probably realize it really is just another trick. Rationally, at least. The sincerity with which she says it, though... it could make anyone wonder.
#yandere lol#yandere x reader#yandere imagines#yandere headcanons#yandere lol x reader#vladimir lol#leblanc lol#yandere vladimir#yandere leblanc#vladimir x reader#leblanc x reader#yandere vladimir x reader#yandere leblanc x reader#lol x reader#emotional manipulation tw#isolation tw#gaslighting tw#depersonalization tw#yandere prompts
73 notes
·
View notes
Text
HAPPY DRAC-O-WEEN || PART 8 OF 31 🎃🦇 ||
Damp, towel dried, spiked hair stood on end as Dracula sat on the edge of his now empty bath. Trousers pulled to his hips but no energy to pull on his shirt. Who knew that blood draining would bring about emotions that he tried so desperately to bury. What he would give to sink his fangs into some innocent bystanders throat to bury them deeper. Burying yourself would draw this voice closer. A voice that wanted a destruction to the world you found admirable, the world that you thought you wanted to join even if it was at the side-lines. His grip took hold of the edges of the cast iron bath, gripping tighter & tighter until the metal itself began to creak under it’s cracking. He removed his hands immediately, folding them between his knees. It’s like he’d forgotten entirely what it was like to be a vampire, to be the Prince of vampires, to be Count Dracula, an immortal immortalised by some Irish writer a hundred years ago. This is exactly what Agatha had wondered he could be, if only she were here to see it, how smug she would be at the sight. He hadn’t felt so weak both emotionally & physically in centuries, not since... since he were turned. Dracula shook his head. No, he won’t be so feeble. Eyes searched suddenly & found his goblet on the floor. Quickly he lifted it to his lips, drinking away his thoughts & feelings with the blood of Paul, an underground ticket officer who spent all day helping those with valid tickets through machines that didn’t think them so. A pervert who'd stare at women's chests as they passed. How dull but how filling he became in such a small gap. A shudder as he finished the final droplet from the cup. He was still starving. Was he really that much of a pig as Agatha had once called him? How could you not? When something so small filled you with so much force, so much power, why would you not take it whenever you could?
Something forced him up onto his feet, his time in this room was up, he needed to get out, it didn’t matter where to him, though he was sure it would be somewhere within the building. As he left the room, slipping on a shirt, he noticed it. The birdsong had vanished completely. Was it night time? Had they gone to roost? Or were they nowhere near birdsong at all? Perhaps even somewhere birds didn’t sing, where Death followed like the sun & moon.
The warmth of the bath had loosened his stiffened bones but he realised that they’d loosened far too much and that standing was still proving somewhat difficult. As much as he wanted to prowl whatever town he’d been forced into, his body just couldn’t keep up with it. Small tealights lit the stairs, following down each step until they led toward a bedroom 2 floors down also dimly light with candles. A soft, exhausted laugh escaped him as he took it in. A fireplace, a small wooden bed that was undoubtly filled with hay, you could smell it from a mile off, candles in the darkest corners and the simplest of night clothes. He remembered telling Elizabeth centuries ago what his childhood home had looked like, she obviously done it to make him feel at home. She’d also been through what he’d been through, the draining, and she wanted him to feel like his human self again. Taking a seat on the bed, he felt the familiar itch of the poking strands of hay but the inviting warmth of the fire. It was impossible not to think of his family, and what had... happened to them.
Stop it. He snarled at himself, sitting upright, and glared at the wall. You are Count Dracula, you were a warlord to Vlad the Impaler, you are stuff of legend, you are not built to be soft. Your name means slaughter & devil. You are the chill that runs down a human spine when they discover that you're real. He stood now, straight a pin, sucking in a breath of renewed courage. He walked out of the room, following the stairs down away from their leading tealights. What kind of childish fancy was that? Voices grew louder the further we went, before bursting into what seemed like a kitchen diner underground, lit simply by a buzzing florescent light. Lucy & Elizabeth were mid laugh when they froze at his sudden arrival. Count Dracula's eyes tell on the vampire "I will not sleep in that room." He growled at her "I am not human any longer. Neither are you. Why try and recreate human experience when we are something more. Even you agreed that we're a higher species."
Elizabeth had remained entirely silent during the Counts tantrum. A result of the lack of blood in his system no doubt. She understood, she merely thought that recreating the comfort of home might help while he recovered but clearly she was wrong about him. "Omor, I misjudged. I will have another room set up for you."
A sudden cackle & snort of laughter had erupted from Lucy "Omor?! What kind of exotic romance novel kinda name is that, D?!" She burst into another fit of laughter, pressing the palm of her hand to her forehead, finding something rather normal from his human past funnier than any of his jokes she’d made with him.
The Count were about to bark back at her, a snarl of a comment when Elizabeth raised her hand at him to stop him. “You laugh, but who do you think would be making up his new bedroom?” she arched a high brow to the young ghost, raising from her seat like an elegant mistress. The look of Lucy’s face would be priceless if it could be captured on camera. You could practically see her internally screaming about how to put on a bed sheet. Elizabeth waltzed to the Counts side, reaching out for her to take her hand hand.
“Where are we going?” he asked, nonchalant.
“Outside.” She replied simply.
“I’ll need a coat, it’s cold outside.” he glanced up from her hand to her sparkling grey eyes.
“You’re dead darling. You are the cold.” Elizabeth grabbed at his hand, taking force of the Count, someone needed to. “Don’t bullshit a bullshitter.” she snorted as he led him out into the cold air.
They weren’t in the countryside at all.
#apologies for the delay#my father took us out for a meal even though we needed to get home#Drac-O-Ween#Claes Bang#Dracula fanfic#Dracula Fanfiction#BBC Dracula#bbc dracula fanfiction#BBC Dracula Fanfic#Horror writing#horror fic#halloween writing#Vampire#Vampires
9 notes
·
View notes
Note
What advice would you give someone who wants to play Pathologic but is also terrified of screwing up really badly because I've played just enough of it to feel like there's no way I can succeed without looking stuff up but I don't want to do that! Just basic tips and/or reassurances if you have any?
Updated: Feb. 27 2021 (since I've finished and am replaying P2)
See, the thing about Pathologic is that it’s not possible to “succeed” like you do in other video games. There’s no happy ending for everyone. In the same sense, you can’t really fail. The game accommodates a wide variety of deaths and mistakes—even in Pathologic Classic HD, you can get a character's ending if you hoard enough medicine by the end of the 12 days, no matter how many people get sick or die. In Pathologic 2, everyone can die, but you’ll still be able to get an ending. Even some of the "bad" endings are fun in their own right. Sometimes, the game will reward you with more content because you failed in the first place.
All that being said, I totally relate to your fears. I’ll start by talking about Pathologic 2 first, since I’m more familiar with it. Then there will be some tips on playing Pathologic Classic HD.
Pathologic 2 is incredibly punishing, both emotionally and mechanically. I’ve seen people adapt to this through 3 different playstyles. I’ll rank them in terms of “least close to the intended gaming experience” to “most close”.
1. Just cheat.
“wrt cheating, as a notorious cheater, id recommend trying to do the game as legitimately as possible regardless! if there are some aspects that you absolutely do not vibe with, even with reduced difficulty (for me that's hunger mechanics), i would say that you can load in items to mitigate this aspect. and, tying in with the second point, if you complete a run this way you can always go back and try it legitimately since you've (sort of) gotten an understanding of the mechanic.” - Onion
If you have really bad anxiety, or just dont have the time available to do the other playstyles, cheating is a way to engage with Pathologic 2′s excellent story. Fiddling with the difficulty controls is allowed. Spawning in endless food for yourself is possible. I can even get you in touch with someone who uses cheat codes in the game regularly to get game assets. If changing the game is what it takes for you to get through it, I think it’s better than nothing. But I’d personally at least encourage you to try an Imago playthrough first. Decide if it’s too difficult for you after that. And again: Pathologic 2 is constantly trying to trip you up. It’s meant to be difficult. Sometimes you’ll fail and the game won’t tell you if you could have prevented it. Just keep going. But like Onion said, cheating works as a supplement.
2. Replay, replay, and replay, until you get it right.
“You can always replay. You have more time than they do. Also save states are your friend.” - Alex
“reload as much as possible, do NOT look things up. your first playthru WILL be bad, and thats good!!! experience it fully yourself first. [and] “reload as much as possible” meaning like: [it] isnt a crime, you can do it as many times as possible. but dont get stressed about doing everything perfectly. its an experience!!!” - Zee
There’s no penalty for using your save states. If you get stuck in a death loop, go back as far as you need to in order to get things right. Hopefully this means starting a day over and using your time more effectively. Personally, I got to Day 7 before realizing I had to restart from Day 1, because I was doing that badly. Trust me, if you’ve gotten one miracle cure and 10 bottles of water by then, you’ll be doing better than I was. My friend Bee had trouble too, and took 92 hours to finish their first playthrough. A replay playstyle takes a LOT of time. But Pathologic 2 is so rich in content that replaying isn’t even as annoying as it could be. And this is also the best way to complete as many quests and save as many people as you want. Whenever you’re scared, just remember: you can always go back on your choices! (Other than the theatre’s death penalties. But nothing can help you with those.)
3. Just go through it.
Again. You’re not supposed to succeed in Pathologic. In the words of the lead translator Kevin Snow, “…I know [Pathologic 2’s] script and this is different from other games: there’s so much story locked behind failure and death. You’ll die, and you can’t save everyone. That doesn’t gate you from story; it gives you more. Resist, survive, but continue.” It’s only when you’re suffering that you experience the story so viscerally. That’s when the choices mean something. Sacrificing your own health or the health of others–saving tinctures for yourself, breaking into houses, killing people, choosing not to help people because you just don’t have time–these are impactful because you’re experiencing the mechanical repercussions of your actions. You are not a removed arbiter of the Town’s suffering. Everyone in Pathologic is having the worst 12 days of their life, and you’re dying right alongside them. Spoilers for Day 4, but I don’t think visiting the Rod and seeing the Tragedians would have affected me so deeply if I wasn’t actively starving for the entire sequence. It served as a reminder that I wasn’t the only one in pain; it was heart-breaking and heart-warming. Which I think is Pathologic at its core.
Try to see your failures in the game as another form of success. You’re experiencing the game as it’s meant to be played. And when you feel bad about all the people you’ve failed, remember that this is all a play. The game knows it’s artificial. You can replay the game after you finish–and feel free to use cheats or lowered difficulties on a replay–in order to get everything right. Your mistakes aren’t permanent! But on a first playthrough, try to tough through the hardships. You’ll have a more fulfilling time.
Other tips
You can use these 3 playstyles in combination if you need to. I let myself die when I feel like I deserved the punishment, or reload when I feel like I don’t. Bee managed to finish Day 11 by lowering the game difficulty in the final stretch. Just approximate the intended gaming experience as much as you can.
As for gameplay guides, I don’t think anyone I’ve met recommends it (at least for Pathologic 2). The game does interesting things with when and where it reveals information to you, often in ways that are deliberately inconveniencing. You want to experience that on your own. I also think Pathologic 2 is relatively good at telegraphing mechanics or quests. compared to Patho Classic. That said, I do have tips that I wish I knew before playing:
Sprint everywhere. I know the town is beautiful. But you’re on a hell of a time crunch. If you finish your quests early you can forage or trade for more resources, or just bottom out your exhaustion bar. Sprinting does not make your exhaustion go up faster, and water is plentiful in the first few days. Just do it! Save your own time!
Save a lot. Even if you’re not gonna die on your way in and out of the Broken Heart, this game is chock-full of choices, down to the resource management. If you waste a swig of twyrine, you’ll want a good save point to reload at. You can load any save point in your timeline, so save as often as you want. Keep track of where clocks are on the map--the game tags these in the building descriptions. (For that matter, keep track of where beds are. I didn’t realize I could sleep at Vlad Sr.’s place, which made me waste SO much time travelling between the Shelter and the Lair.)
Learn the trading economy. Everyone holds items at different values. Even the kids value certain nuts over others. There are also some interesting conversion rates between items, like peanuts to soap to pemmican. Make the most of the items you’re bartering. And for that matter, try to build up a cache of items valuable to little girls, in case you find one with a schmowder. The kid’s caches are valuable for trading too: twyrine can show you the locations.
This is also a good spoiler-free guide to Pathologic 2′s mechanics.
For Pathologic Classic HD, I haven’t personally played it, but I’m under the impression that it’s easier than Pathologic 2 because there are less character perma-deaths and no death penalties. The advice about reloading still applies. Here’s what Ally says:
“id recommend using a spoiler free guide (Bachelor, Haruspex, and Changeling guides) but other than that read the diary and letters carefully and try to keep track of npcs that could be affiliated with quests. also! some quests have different options for endings so there could be multiple ways to complete them. stock up on food on the earlier days, and after the inquisitor arrives because the prices drop. try to stealth kill with melee weapons when you can, and also reserve your bullets. …also make sure to trade with the children a lot! hold onto objects like the hooks and flowers [to get schmowders. Like I said before, to win the game you only need enough cures to heal the Bound.] …another tip is to keep a pen and paper around to take notes. like when i got the tincture recipes instead of keeping them in my inventory i just wrote them down.”
And that’s it! If you need specific advice or clarification, feel free to DM me! I love talking about this game. I can also get you in touch with anyone mentioned in this post (except Kevin Snow LMAO). Pathologic has an amazing story and I want everyone to experience it!!!
62 notes
·
View notes
Text
Wordcount: 1515
Prompter: @feministhotline
Prompt: “I can’t help it, okay? I’m a halfa! ...I need this to survive.”
Notes: Not as long as it could’ve been, but I still quite like it and I hope you do as well!
@currentlylurking for team Human
Ghosts can go quite a long time without a recharge. It’s not something known to Danny. For once, this isn’t due to his inexperience; no, most ghosts don’t know.
This is because ghosts recharge naturally, just by being in the ghost zone— hence why they never strayed overly far from Amity Park’s borders despite the catastrophic potential of their spread. Some could get a temporary boost from emotional output, but it never lasted. Consistently as they grew further, they grew weaker, and when they were brutally beat down (perhaps by a certain Phantom) they needed that glowing green essence of their home.
Danny’s awareness of this came in stages.
The first stage was the weakening. He spent the first few months of his halfterlife mostly figuring stuff out; sure, fighting the (eventually relatively) weak ghost creature that came to haunt the halls, but even then he did that primarily with his fists (albeit floating).
The main usage of his powers was accidental; a dash of invisibility here, a sprig of intangibility there. Enough to stress him out emotionally, but nothing that drained his ghost side physically. Routine exercises for a ghost, especially one with a solid body it could take excess energy from.
The only compensation Danny had to do was eat a little more. Considering everything else that was going on, he didn’t even think to question it as a compensation for the energy of his ghost side, but saw it as something normal. After all, teens were bottomless pits, ghost side or no; it was a nice, familiar constant, a good normalcy.
...Even if, as the ghost fights increased, so did his hunger.
It starts as a little extra on his plate, a few bites more.
His parents notice when he starts to take double portions as he’s fighting more fully fledged ghosts. Bitterly, Danny just wonders if they notice through food shortage and bills; it’s not like they come up from the lab often.
Normally, he’d tell himself not to think about what they were doing in the lab when he was trying to eat, but now… now he’s just so hungry that the nausea just doesn’t matter.
“My son’s a growing boy!” Jack splutters, unspeakably proud as he claps Danny on his skinny shoulder, knocking some of that precious food out of his mouth. “Finally swimming in my end of the gene pool,” Jack laughs, puffing his chest up.
Danny takes in his father’s broadness, thinking of his own lithe style of fighting. I hope not.
The issue with them noticing is when the ghosts continue to escalate— because his intake thusly escalates… and not even to scale, as though his body previously was boosted just fine but the solution of food is temporary, at least to some degree.
Then it was just another worry on his shoulders. Another of those traits that constantly nagged and bit at him— When will your parents notice? When will they put it together?
When he voiced those concerns, the need to consume such noticeably vast quantities of food, Sam and Tucker unanimously shrugged.
“They’ll buy that teens are bottomless pits,” Tuck informed around a large burger (demonstratively of his statement, really).
“Your dad’ll just be happy that you’re,” Sam paused, inhaling, then continuing in the most Jack Fenton-ly deep voice she could muster, “filling out to be just like your old man!”
Danny managed a snort, eyeing his own burger, painfully hungry gut flipping in anxiety, but accepted it with a nod. After all, it wasn’t like his parents had noticed anything about him that was more obviously ghostly, and there were plenty traits to name.
It was as though the universe took offense at that thought, or perhaps at the idea of letting Danny Fenton live his life easily. It didn’t matter the motivation of the universe’s whims, it just mattered that the hunger escalated.
Danny was inhaling food 24-7 now, enough that his worries about his parents noticing were coming true. Granted, it had taken them quite a while, but eventually they noticed he was never without a carb heavy snack. He could only keep that on the down low so much, particularly since using his powers made his stomach twinge in its constant state of hunger.
It was getting worse, food just a temporary solution. Danny’d read enough on ghosts to consider the portal (he may have been a C student, but he wasn’t a total idiot)— but that didn’t work; it brought an energy buzz, but it didn’t sate the hunger. It wasn’t the solution either— though he’d find the real one soon enough.
A fight with Johnny had gotten out of hand, lead to Danny ways away from Amity after having chased that stupid ghostly bike down a road stretching into nowhere. Needy of help, Danny had shouted at Johnny, asking of hunger, and Johnny had just shrugged and said “ya should be gettin all that food from the zone,” and then he’d shrugged again and kickstarted his motorcycle into gear, riding off with a flare of green flames, tailed hotly by Danny Phantom.
Exhausted and grasping at his stomach, Phantom began the flight home, drifting in a wobbly way.
He paused his mental moaning and groaning when the air turned sweet, as though someone had set a flytrap of honey. The halfa narrowed his eyes, practically walking on the air as he attempted to locate its source.
...A deer. Smashed.
Smashed was one way to describe it. Another more gorey way existed; ribs exposed to a baking sun, maggot eggs rooted in seeping flesh, labored breathing that oozed blood with every huff. Full of effort, the doe turned an eye towards him, full of fear.
Smelling so good.
It was paradoxical; Danny was drooling unrelated to throwing up, even though he was doing that too.
Most strangely, it was his first experience of satiation in a month. Just being near the creature’s rotting flesh as it panted its life away was enough to bring fullness to his belly, even as he expelled all the food he’d eaten that day before he left.
Who to go to, Danny wondered in bed. His parents knew not about whatever that was— even ghosts hadn’t known, Johnny hadn’t known. A halfa thing? It was a tentative conclusion, but one likely enough to consider. After all, Johnny spent enough time in the human world to know enough about “ecto fatigue” (his parents dubbing of the phenomenon).
That, of course, left one person.
…Well, Vlad certainly couldn’t have him as his weird son if he starved to death, right?
—That was the leverage he was holding now, at least. “I won’t do it,” Danny informed him after Vlad gave more oozing offers of “well if you’ll just be my pupil.” “Besides,” he continued, “you seem to know what’ll happen— can’t be your son if I die fully, and do you really think dear Maddie will look to you if I do?” Danny made a retching noise to go along with his sarcasm.
Vlad gave in. “Follow me,” he hissed, sliding back into that role of authoritative power, a cocky rich man rather than a frustrated ghost.
Hesitantly, Danny trailed, easily following Vlad directly through the ground to his secretive basement (not so secret, given Danny knew about it too).
“What does this have to do with it?” Danny pondered, eyeing… cages. A little set of small cages— stuffed with squeaking, writhing rats. Some of them were laying in the corner of their cages— something told Danny they were unconscious, but not dead.
Danny recoiled at the deafening confined scrabbling. “Didn’t know you were one for pets.”
Vlad ignored him, phasing a hand through the cage to pluck a rat up, thumb resting against its small throat.
Danny was growing more uncomfortable with the way the gray rat in Vlad’s hand had its eyes blown wide with fear, tiny voice squeaking as it squirmed. Tittering and shuffling and feeling much like the rat, Danny just ran his mouth— “what, you got a snake instead of a cat? Or maybe your cat caught all of these, instead? Or—“
The squeaking became more frantic, and Danny’s blue eyes snapped to the rat in Vlad’s grip. His thumb was pinned to the thing’s throat, cutting off its air, causing it to panic.
Slowly, its struggles stilled, each cry becoming more wheezy, each movement of its tiny paws becoming more leaden.
The sweet smell returned, and Danny breathed it in involuntarily— and felt full again.
Vlad smiled sharply, edging his grip off the things throat. It breathed, but was knocked out— the man callously tossed it back into the cage. Danny’s blown eyed gaze followed it.
“We can’t help it,” he crooned in a faux gentle voice, honey and oil oozing from it equally, “we’re halfas. We need something on the brink, like us; not fully dead, not ghost energy nor meat. Neither would completely do it.”
Danny stared at the unconscious rat, and he was the one breathing hard, pain in his lungs rather than his stomach.
#dp#dp fic#phic#danny phantom#danny phantom fic#danny phantom fanfiction#quill#my writing#phicphight20#phic phight 20
30 notes
·
View notes
Text
〚 @fairestfall『 character development ! 』〛
said: and 29, 35, & 78 for Danny
029. What sort of sense of humor does your character have?
A seemingly paradoxical mix of condescending and self-deprecating built on a solid foundation of dry and sarcastic. Danny uses condescending humor to cope with his impatience for people ( especially bad guys/villains ), and he uses self-deprecating humor to either legitimately beat himself up over something he’s guilty about/ashamed of/afraid of/insecure about OR to accept and make light of something like that. Whether his jokes are more helpful or harmful depends on the context within which they’re made.
035. What is the most important rule your character lives by?
Danny’s morals are a lot more malleable than Ben’s and the decisions he makes really depend on the specific circumstances, so it’s hard to really nail down a ‘rule set’ or moral code for him.
I think based on experience and what he knows has lead him down the wrong path before, his most important rule would be something like, “Don’t lose sight of the people who care about you.” He gets into the most trouble when he cares about what the wrong people think about him or when he gets too caught up in his own head to listen to what his friends and family have to say.
He forgets sometimes that his friends are always there for him, or he thinks that he doesn’t deserve them -- even though Sam, Tuck, and Jazz have gotten him through some of the darkest times in his life. He needs to remember that he has a support system, and he needs to make sure he does everything he can to let them know how important they are to him, and to protect them.
078. How emotionally stable is your character?
In general ?? Ah -- not very ?? He CAN be very stable, especially as he matures. It all depends on his mental heath, which is like, obvious, I guess. If he’s feeling particularly anxious, it won’t take much for his mood to turn on a dime. If he’s angry about something, it won’t take much for that anger to escalate into something ugly. Also, his emotions can easily branch off of each other and become overwhelming. If he’s sad about one thing then he can start to get angry about how unfair that one thing is, then he’ll feel powerless that he can’t do anything about it, then he’ll get insecure about how much of a failure he is, then he’ll get jealous of people who have it easy, and somehow on top of all of it he’ll still feel numb ???
And that’s not even getting into all the compartmentalizing and ptsd symptoms he develops from dying and coming back with an entirely new identity that he has to somehow reconcile into an identity that he barely understood before !!! He’s working on it okay !! He’s learning and growing and getting help.
He also has this mood he gets in sometimes where he might be the most emotionally stable that goes something like, “I’m sick of your shit. I’m sick of my shit. I’m sick of the world’s shit” where he’s just too exhausted or determined to be emotionally moved or swayed. E.g. when he yeeted Vlad into space, or when he’s drinking his sixth cup of black coffee.
3 notes
·
View notes
Note
Me finding this blog: Mm yes very good 💛💛 So! I have this headcanon that Monoma’s mother isn’t exactly the best; She waste herself away in wine, leaving Monoma to take care of his little brother. (Get him ready for school, make sure he eats, I’m a sucker for big brother Monoma.) she can get violent, but is mostly neglectful. On her good days she tries, but Monoma still holds some anger towards her. How would 1-B react to Monoma after he comes home from one of his mom’s bad days? 💛
Thank you so much for your kind words :) monoma angst is always good food... let's get down to business
After bad days he is very silent; he's just emotionally drained from his mother's outburtsts and having to do everything at home and take care of his brother to make sure he's perfectly fine and not worried
He doesn't just have to calm his mother down and try to get her to sober up and such, he also needs to get her away from his brother, and calm down said brother, and clean the house, and do the groceries, and check if evrrything is okay... pile that up on all the hero work and studies and the boy has too much on his plate
Monoma doesn't talk at all because he's exhausted, except to greet his classmates and answer questions when he has to as to not arise suspicions.
When upset monoma smiles. It's a little thing he does to make himself believe everything is fine--and a thing he does to convince his brother that it's all okay. He just smiles a little, not the usual big bright boisterous smile; just a small one at the corner of his lips
When his classmates ask him more questions than usual he doesn't act annoyed at first, but if he loses his temper he just silently gets up and leaves. It's better leaving him alone to calm down before talking to him about what happened; which he'll explain but in very large terms
"My mom got a little mad because I forgot to buy [groceries]" is one of his basic excuses, one he uses most, but nobody really believes him
Everyone knows something is a little wrong and told Vlad King about it, but even he couldn't get a word out of monoma except a few things like his mother being a bit short-tempered and how he worries about his little brother
The class just wishes he would be more open about the matters and accept the help they are more than willing to give him. It takes a little time, and a lot of cuddling and silence, but eventually he will talk openly about it
Things will get better with the help of Vlad and some counselling, the monoma brothers deserve all the happiness
I'm getting emotional
#monoma neito#headcanons#class b#1-b#mha#bnha#my hero academia#boku no hero academia#mod copycat#tw//abuse#tw//dark themes#trigger warning
70 notes
·
View notes
Text
Is Everything Okay? Ch. 12
Danny released a deep breath he didn't know he was holding. In about twelve hours he'll have to face a jury, and intensive questioning by one of Vlad's high priced lawyers... and don't even get him started on Spectra. A shiver ran down the teen's spine at the idea of Spectra being in the same room as him. A grim feeling took root in him, he knew he was going to be like a feast to the ghost. He was nothing but a mess of negative emotions for the weeks that have passed. So much has a happened, it's no doubt the specter would be able to sense it off of him.
Groaning, Danny dropped his head into his desk. He had work to do. Even if he wasn't going to be in classes tomorrow, he still had homework he needed down. He still had to turn things in on Friday. Nonetheless, it was still a struggle for him to keep his racing mind on topic. He was much to filled to the brim with anxiety to focus on the equations and text in front of his eyes. His tired eyes landed on the red numbers on his alarm clock. 1:43. It was already morning and he still has yet to have a winking of sleep. No sleep was going to make things a whole lot harder on the teen.
Grumbling in defeat, the young man closed his textbook and slid his papers in as a bookmark. He yawn, stretching stiffly as he stood. A groan left him when a loud pop sounded the room. Trudging over, Danny fell into bed. Even with his face pressed into the pillows, the object cutting off some air flow, and not being anywhere under the covers, the exhausted teen fell deep into ebony hair stuck out around the white pillow, covering any exposed skin of his face. Soft puffs of breath escaped the teen's parted lips, pushing some onyx strands back and forth. All the anxiety and fear was cleared from his face, instead leaving behind a innocent looking kid. Almost as if in a few hours he wouldn't be facing a possibly life changing challenge.
The ebony haired teen bit back a groan as he rubbed his eyes, focusing his tired eyes back on the alarm clock. 3:15, per usual. Sapphire eyes rolled, the exhausted teen flopped onto his stomach. He wanted nothing more than to sleep. He had a court hearing at one pm, he needed his sleep. However, regardless of the heaviness that weighed on his mind, his eye lids were wide open. He just couldn't sleep.
Actually releasing a groan, the teen flipped on to his back, placing a hand on his bandaged torso. The wound he had gathered was healing nicely, it was just a scab. The bandage was more at Lancer's insistence because Danny kept picking at the scab. He placed a pale hand on on his eyes, sliding them shut. Maybe if he just stayed still his mind would give in...
But time felt like it wasn't moving, and the longer he stayed still, the more he felt anxious. He couldn't quite tell what it was, but it was like having an itch you just can't scratch. Danny sighed, pulling himself into a seating position and released some of the energy and anxiety that was building under his skin. His eyes scanned the room, flashing a neon green to enhance his night vision. His slightly trembling hands began to crack his knuckles.
He froze, an odd sense of confusion filled every part of him not overtaken by the trepidation he felt. Why was his hands shaking? His eyes widened a fraction of a size when he noticed the intense anxiety that was seated, and growing inside him. Why was he so scared? Swallowing thickly, he ran a shaky hand through his hair. He needed to calm down, no one was in the room, nothing was happening, he was safe. That didn't help.
His fear only grew when he tried to figure out why he was scared. He's woken up at this time many times before, and not once had he had this happen... So what is it? Resting his hand against his beating heart, Danny could also feel the soft pulsing of his core. Closing his eyes, he tried to focus on that. He reached within himself for the familiar icy feeling. That did the trick. His shaky hands, and laboured breathing evened out. The security of his powers that can help him our of many things before calmed him tremendously.
His tense muscles relaxed, but the itch still stayed. Something was wrong, very wrong. His eyes lids began to drop, without the adrenaline keeping him up, the exhaustion was weighing on him. He fell back into bed, feeling the comforting feeling of sleep wrap around his mind. Whatever it is that's bothering him, he can find out what it is in the morning...
Knock Knock
A grumble slid past parted lips, the exhausted teen turned his back to the wall. It was to earlier for this he needed sleep...
Knock Knock Knock
"Daniel? Are you awake?" Danny bolted up right at the voice. Lancer. Not just Lancer, now a worried Lancer. "Are you in there?"
"Uh?" Danny stumbled out, pulling himself out of bed. Before he could bring himself closer to the door, said door opened. In front of the now awake teen stood a fully dressed Lancer. His facial expression only revealed one thing that Danny knew already. Something was very, very wrong. "What happened?" Daniel asked, the fear seeping past his usual guards. The exhaustion, and anxiety made it easy to read the teen.
"Danny..." Lancer started, a melancholy look filled his face. The elder man swallowed, seemingly not knowing what to say. "We need to get to the hospital... It's your father..."
Danny sat there against the wall outside of his father's room. He didn't do a thing to try and mask the shaking of his shoulders, or him crying into his knees. He couldn't believe this was happening now of all times. He bit back a sob as he remembered why he was here. His dad was in critical condition, they didn't know if he would make it.
Guilt clouded his mind at the sounds of his mother crying by his father's side. The teen couldn't bring himself to be anywhere near his dad's side, not when all of this was his fault. There had been a malfunction with the surgery, something went wrong and his dad had been internally bleeding. That's what lead them to where they are now.
Daniel couldn't blame the surgeons for trying to save his dad's life, or his mum or sister for not noticing the bleeding. No. He could only blame himself. All of this was his fault, not anyone else's. If he hadn't lied, if he had just told Lancer, if he had just been more careful... If he hadn't stepped inside that damn portal in the first place none of this would be happening.
"Hey..." Anderson greeted sadly, taking a seat on the floor next to the teen. Instead of his usual suit, Anderson sat in a set of faded blue jeans, sneakers, and a red hoodie. Any other day the teen would have made a comment, but not today. Instead the broken teen stared at the agent with teary eyes. "You know we can postpone the whole court hearing... We could possibly find an opening next month if anything-"
"No." Danny's voice cracked, causing the teen to clear his throat. "No, it's fine. I want to get this over with..." Anderson nodded, not needing to hear the unspoken words. The agent knew all too well the strain something like this has on a teen. The two fell into a silence, Danny's tears slid to a stop and Anderson sipped quietly at the coffee in his hands.
"You should go down to the cafeteria, get something to eat. I doubt I could talk you into getting any sleep." Anderson broke the bedded silence, his face softened when the tired teen glanced into the room. "I'll keep an eye on them, don't worry." Anderson offered a smile, seemingly cutting off any argument the teen was going to give.
"Thanks." Danny whispered, offering a small, sad smile to the older man before making his way out of the area. Anderson watched the teen go, a sense of protectiveness filling him.
The agent shook his head. He couldn't get emotionally involved, this was a case. Nothing more. Anderson took a sip of his coffee, a dreaded feeling filling him. If this was just a case what was he doing sitting on the floor of a hospital at three forty-five in the morning? A sigh escaped the man, he ran a hand through his blonde hair. He couldn't help the self loathing from bubbling inside him.
He's had many cases before, and never had he gotten this wrapped up personally. But now he has, he needs to tread lightly. He needed to distance himself, after this case was over he wasn't going to see Danny ever again, so he shouldn't feel this way. Regardless of what he knew, Anderson still felt the strong urge to protect the teen. The teen he didn't even know existed until very recently.
#Danny Phantom#danny fenton#IM SORRY DANNY#danny phantom fanfiction#fanfiction#fandom#fanfic#fanfiction.net#Fandoms#Is Everything Okay?
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
Oh, look! Another chapter of my pic phight phic, Collateral! @charcoalhawk
.
Chapter 6
.
Outsiders would have thought the gathering very strange. Dozens of ghosts, including several of those who routinely terrorized Amity Park. Four teenagers. A billionaire. All crammed into a sitting room decorated in layers of chintzy Halloween decorations.
It was the middle of summer.
“The bullet was just coated in anti-ghost stuff?” repeated Jazz. “It was otherwise a normal bullet? You're sure.”
“Of course I'm sure,” said Vlad, sneering. The rest of the room shifted, and the hostility left a heavy tasted on Jazz's tongue.
This was just one of Vlad's duplicates. He was in protective police custody on the other side of town. Attacking him would do no good, but several of the ghosts felt like he was trying to take advantage of Danny's injury, like he was using this as an excuse to put himself in a position of power over them, to start trying subtle strings of control. There had been a whisper, early on, about allowing the assassin to finish his job, before they punished them.
It had been quickly shut down, but the resentment had lingered.
“Okay,” said Jazz. “I can get a list of people FentonWorks sold that kind of stuff to, and you can get the lists from your companies, right?”
“Yes,” said Vlad, flicking a bit of glitter off his sleeve.
“Great,” said Jazz. She scanned the crowd of ghosts. “You've got Danny's description and the police sketch they got from the office workers. But he might have been using a disguise,” she cautioned, “so check first. We don't want to hurt someone who wasn't involved.”
The weaker ghosts bobbed eagerly. The better formed ones were more reserved with their approval. Danny 'enemies' (Jazz was tempted to call them 'frenemies' at this point) just glared at her.
“Do try to get some information before you turn him over to the police, too,” said Vlad. He smiled nastily. “The man is likely just a contractor, after all. I think we want the person who hired him as well.”
One of the Amity Park residents tilted back her head and laughed, showing off a second smile cut into her throat. The laughter cut of without warning, then another ghost, in a deep and broken voice, said, “We've been haunts since before you were born. We'll manage.”
If she had thought Danny's voice had been chilling...
.
.
.
Jazz, Sam, and Tucker, jogged down the steps, bidding farewell to the Webs as the ghosts flew out of the house at all angles.
“Do you think they'll really turn the guy over to the police?” asked Tucker.
“Not a chance,” said Jazz.
“Do we care?” said Sam, a distinct snap in her voice.
Jazz thought about it for a minute. “Not really,” she turned towards FentonWorks. “Come on, we've got to get those files.”
“Do your parents really have anti-ghost weapon coatings that can poison Danny?” asked Sam.
“God, you have no idea.”
.
.
.
“Are we really going to hand this guy over to the human police?” complained Youngblood. He was wearing a sharp suit, and having trouble deciding whether or not to be a detective or a secret agent.
Ember scoffed. “Not a chance,” she said.
“Not a chance, what?” demanded Skulker, bristling.
“Not a chance that this guy'll get away, that's what,” said Ember. She had abandoned the attempt to act as a go-between for Youngblood and the older ghosts a while ago.
“Of course not!” said Skulker. “He has the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter on his tail. He won't last a day!”
.
.
.
Vlad rolled his eyes once more as he flew away, angling himself towards his home and his underground lab. After all the... excitement of the day (he refused to call it emotional upheaval, or admit that he was emotionally exhausted), he could only maintain one duplicate. His machines should have finished analyzing the composition of the bullet's coating by now, which would tell him whether or not the coating had been one of Axion Labs, VladCo, or Dalv's products. Personally, he doubted it. He didn't sell things that could be used against him.
Still, it might help narrow down which of the Fenton's products it had been. Assuming the oaf hadn't just thrown together a bunch of chemicals, shaken it up, and given it away with no record to speak of. It would be just like him. The man had no business sense.
It was also possible, though highly unlikely, that the coating could have been produced by another company, or even made by the assassin himself. That would complicate things. For one thing, if the coating had been acquired from one of their companies, the assassin would have a limited supply. If they made their own, on the other hand...
Vlad sighed. He couldn't imagine why a spectrologist or occultist would try to kill him, especially one who was actually competent. He funded a most of them, for goodness' sake. He'd even thrown a grant or two in FentonWorks' direction.
The assassination attempt had to be related to money, though. Most likely one of his businesses. His will left his fortune to Daniel, although no one but his lawyer knew it, and he hadn't given anyone else a reason to think that he'd leave anything to them. Perhaps control of a business was the motivation. That's what the police were looking into.
Revenge, he admitted, was another motivation. Although Vlad hadn't, as Daniel and his friends sometimes assumed, ever used his powers to force someone to sell a business to him, or to steal outright. The most he was guilty of was extreme corporate espionage and insider trading. Which, he supposed, was bad enough. It was possible that someone from his early, clumsy days had put things together.
He phased down through his mansion, coming to rest in his secret laboratory. The light on the machine was blinking green. He smiled, pleased to finally get to some kind of an answer, and strode to it. He pressed a button, and the results appeared on the screen. He read them. Reread them. Frowned.
“That can't be right.”
.
.
.
Jazz and Sam rifled through boxes of paper files as Tucker searched the Fentons' computer system.
“Why do your parents have so many ghost poisons?” asked Sam.
“Do I really need to answer that? Most of them don't work, anyway.”
“I found invoices!” said Tucker. “Most of them, are, um, to people like the Groovy Gang and the GIW, though. I don't really think that those guys would try to assassinate Vlad like that. The GIW could just arrest him, after all.”
“Print it out anyway,” said Jazz.
“Okay,” said Tucker. “Hey, uhm. You said you talked to Danny.”
“Yes,” said Jazz, clipping the end of the word. “I told you what he said.” She hoped that would end this thread of conversation. She didn't want to talk about it. She was having enough trouble keeping things together.
“Yeah, but how did he, you know, seem? How was he?”
Jazz's hands stilled. “He was... not good,” she admitted. Her eyes hurt. “He's scared. He looked scared.”
They fell silent. All three knew that Danny was often scared, but he rarely showed it.
“Hey,” said Sam, frowning at a sheet of paper, “this isn't an invoice, or a sales record, but I think you should take a look at this.”
Jazz and Tucker peered over Sam's shoulders. “Your parents are crazy,” said Tucker.
“I agree,” said Jazz. She paused. “In their defense, they don't know about Danny, or they probably would be more, uh, cautious.”
“If you say so,” said Sam, clearly dubious. “Anyway, this is the right kind of thing, I think.”
“Yeah,” agreed Jazz. “I think you're right.”
“But do you really think it's one of them?” asked Tucker. “None of these guys has any reason to try to kill Vlad.”
“That we know of,” corrected Sam. “I don't even know who half of these people are.”
“That's not quite true,” said Jazz, slowly. She brought a finger up to rest on one name. “We all know who this is, and he definitely has a reason to dislike Vlad.”
“Oh,” said Tucker. “Yeah, I guess I could see that, but how would he know that Vlad's a ghost?”
“Well, he's not an idiot,” said Sam. “And I think he was supposed to have some mafia connections or something like that. According to my parents, anyway.” She shrugged, demonstrating her lack of confidence in that particular source.
“It still might not be him,” cautioned Jazz. She licked her lower lip. “We didn't really talk about this before, but do you think that we should go to the police before, you know...”
“Relying on vigilante ghost justice?” said Sam, raising an eyebrow.
Jazz nodded.
“No.”
Jazz nodded again. “Good,” she said, after a moment.
20 notes
·
View notes
Text
BNHA Fic: Blink! Ch. 4
Read Ch. 3 | Masterlist
This part takes place near the end of season 3 in the anime.
Once we start getting into spoiler territory in the manga (since s4 isn’t out until October), I’ll put a nice warning :D
--
“Whoa, Ren-Ren. You look tense?” Seri pointed out.
“Do I?” she replied with clenched teeth. Her back was slumped over and her hands were balled up in fists. From an outsider’s point of view, she looked like she was looking for a fight.
The two walked with the masses for the opening ceremony. Tomoe’s voice could be heard not too far back from them.
“Hey, I was calling and—Whoa.”
Tomoe was taken aback by the look on Ren’s face. A light outline of dark circles could be seen under her puffy lower lids.
“Did somethin’ happen?” she asked with a tone of concern.
“Rumor mill says two students from 1-A got into a fight last night,” Ito caught up to their pace and interjected.
“Goddamn it, Ito. You jinxed me,” she huffed out.
“Hey, not my fault the first years hero’s course are so unruly,” the boy swiftly replied in an uppity manner. “And weren’t you supposed to rope them in when stuff like this happens? Some R.A. you–”
She immediately turned around and swiftly grabbed a fistful of Ito’s shirt by the collar. At this point, she was glaring at him with the intent to knock him out cold.
“If you wanna keep your tongue, I suggest you stop using it,” she growled out in a low voice and released him with a shove of her hand before walking away.
“It’s been a while since she’s been in this bad of a mood, huh,” Tomoe noted to Seri, watching their friend walk on ahead by herself.
As the opening ceremony went on, Principal Nezu briefly mentioned the recent change in the hero world with All-Might’s retirement and the elective hero internship before giving the mic to Hound dog-sensei. All he could get out were guttural growls and howls, to which Vlad-sensei had to translate; as expected, it was about Midoriya and Bakugou’s fight last night.
Letting out a heavy sigh, Ren face palmed with eyes on both her and class 1-A. But in reality, it’s not herself or the class she’s worried about, it’s him.
Filing back into their respective classroom, the day went by as usual. When lunch break came about, she told her friends to go on without her. She wanted to be alone for a bit.
“You lookin’ glum there, Ren-chan.”
The girl turned to see a boy’s face phased on the wall. She could only stare at him blankly.
“Mirio-senpai...” she tiredly greeted. “What are you doing?”
“Practicing my walls have eyes joke. Is it working?” the boy happily replied.
“… Not really.”
Mirio’s face disappeared off of the wall and fully reemerged from the classroom through the door to the far right.
“Aw, man!” he sheepishly laughed aloud and came up to her. “Guess I gotta try harder.”
“It’s rare of you to be so free,” Ren casually brought up and placed her hands on her hips. “Don’t you have your internship today?”
“Sir told me to take a day off and go back tomorrow. It is my last year here, so I wanna make the best of it!” Mirio responded and casually flexed his right arm. “So why are you so glum?”
“I’m not.”
The tall blond boy bent down and started poking her on the cheek like a child.
“Yes you are. You’re not smiling.”
“I had a long night, is all,” Ren blurted out from annoyance, trying to swat his finger away in failure.
“Ah I heard you’re an R.A. for the first years’ hero course now,” he suddenly remembered and stopped poking her. “The two underclassmen who got into a fight were yours?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“Are they strong?”
Ren took in a breath to answer and paused. Her eyes slowly traveled up to Mirio’s usual unsuspecting happy and confident grin, catching onto his real intentions with that question. Her eyebrows immediately raised with suspicion.
“Mirio-senpai. No.”
“What?” he asked innocently.
“I mean it.” She warned again and emphasized it with a pointing finger. “Don’t.”
“I just wanna get to know them.”
“No.”
“But–”
“They’re not on campus, so you can’t see them anyway,” she blurted out to get him to stop talking.
“So that means they’re at the dorms,” he concluded with his trademark smile. “Okay, bye!”
Before she could stop the phasing senior, he ran down the hallway and turned the corner. She growled and gripped her hands to her hair out of frustration and yelled in English, “What the fuck is wrong with everyone today?!”
All could be heard were the dropping of some books further down the hall. Ren slowly turned to meet the shocked face of Present Mic.
“Ah! … S-Sorry, Mic-sensei,” she meekly apologized in Japanese.
“Holy… shit,” was all U.A.’s English teacher could say.
Never in her life had she felt so physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted. The moment class finished for the day, her entire form slumped over her desk. If she had the energy, she would teleport back to the dorms. She was just tired of everything and wanted to curl up in her bed. Heaving a drawn-out sigh, her classmates surrounding her slowly teetered away.
“Rough day for you,” Seri hushed out sympathetically and patted her elbow.
All Ren could do was sigh again. There were literally no words that could be said to comfort her. Dragging her sorry state off her desk, all she muttered out was, “I’m going to the library to study...”
“Damn…” Tomoe let slip. “She really is going through it.”
She could’ve gone back to the dorms and locked herself into her room to do work, but she knew herself best: no work would be done at all, knowing the two delinquents were there. En route to the building, a familiar man’s silhouette wearing a wraparound gray scarf around his upper body could be seen walking toward her.
“Takahiro, just the person I was looking for,” Aizawa greeted. “Come with me for a sec.”
Letting out a heavy breath through her nose, she knew she had no choice in the matter. The two spoke of nothing en route to his office; Ren knew what they were about to discuss isn’t for anyone else to hear. It was also one thing 1-A’s homeroom teacher appreciated her discreet nature. Naturally entering the now empty 1-A classroom, the door silently slid close by the teacher. The girl looked around with a small sense of nostalgia.
“Oh you replaced that seat back there,” Ren noted. “I remember when it got scorched by Hideyuki’s quirk.”
“Right, that happened...” Aizawa recalled, scratching this scruffy chin. “You already know what I want to talk about.”
“Bakugou and Midoriya’s fight at Ground Beta.”
“Can I ask where you were when it happened?”
Not wanting to lie to someone who trusts her, Ren told the truth on her whereabouts last night and summarized it for him.
“This could’ve been done within the dorms. So why didn’t you?” the brooding man asked, clearly annoyed.
“While that’s true, there was something there I needed to show Todoroki for perspective and to help better guide his way to being the hero he wants to be,” she defended.
Aizawa heavily sighed and scratched the back of his head, looking at his former student. Knowing vaguely of Todoroki’s hang-ups about his left side, he could give little sympathy for the road she took to resolve his problems. Quietly analyzing Ren, she looked like she barely had any sleep, obviously stressed about the whole situation with Midoriya and Bakugou. She was the type to take her responsibilities seriously.
As temperamental as she was today, judging by her friends and classmates reactions, he could only assume one thing on what she’s feeling: guilt.
“While I understand your frustration in not being able to help, I hope you won’t do something like this again,” he sighed. “The responsible parties already have their punishments and they’re reflecting on it. And honestly, I don’t think you could’ve done much either without taking down Bakugou.”
“His quirk is exceptionally powerful based on the videos I’ve seen from the Sports Festival. But if he is to be an efficient and reliable hero in the future, he needs to keep his temper and ego in check.”
Ren sighed heavily and threw her head back in exhaustion.
“Is this why you picked me to be their R.A., sensei?” she blurted out. “Other than making me confront close-range fighters to improve my offense?”
“That’s what you thought?” he answered with a tone of surprise. “Well… you’re not completely wrong. The way you strategize fights can help the first years develop their quirks and abilities way beyond what they are now. And to improve your own fighting skills.”
“You think my current style isn’t suitable,” she assumed. “You having Snipe-sensei keep tabs on me?”
“It’s incomplete,” Aizawa corrected. “You’re only using the long range fighting you’re so used to doing. It makes you predictable. You’re copying Togata.”
“It’s only natural since we trained together last year.”
“But the difference is he’s physically stronger to pull off the execution; you let too many chances slip by playing the long game,” Aizawa argued. “It may work as a defensive tactic for rescue missions, but–”
“Depending on the situation, that’ll end up being my disadvantage with a villain,” Ren concluded. “Fair point.”
“Just keep that in mind when you have your next practical. You’re dismissed.”
As Ren grabbed her bag to head out, the black-haired teacher called for her once more.
“If you’re gonna go to your spot, at least do it during school hours. Otherwise, I’ll have to put you on house arrest too.”
“Yes sir,” she sighed and closed the door behind her.
What a day.
–
Three days passed since Beta-gate, as majority of U.A. students dubbed it, Midoriya was now a free boy. During that entire time, he had been lifting weights to keep his body in shape for One For All while fulfilling his cleaning duties and thinking about his written apology to Aizawa-sensei. But what went through his head on repeat were Ren-senpai’s words.
“You’re the ones who have to earn back their trust.”
Those words were like a dagger to his heart. Not only did he and Kacchan act selfishly, they basically threw everyone’s trust out the window. He realized just because he got a little better at controlling One For All, it didn’t mean he could get overconfident about it. It’s a borrowed power, after all. And it’s not like he’s gotten a full understanding of it yet either. He’s still in the midst of his second step. Not only did he need to get physically stronger, his emotional and mental state needed to evolve with it. And he was going to start with putting his all with his fellow classmates.
While he thought today was going to be another day of school, 1-A got the pleasant surprise of being greeted by the Big Three. Ren nearly choked on her lunch when she caught wind of it. As if by instinct, she looked up to see the defeated and sullen faces of the first years filing into the cafeteria.
Abandoning what’s left of her food, she jumped out from her seat and ran out, her friends calling after her. It didn’t take her long to find the Big Three sauntering down the hallway.
She immediately teleported from her spot and launched a surprise air attack at Mirio, her fist ready to connect to his face. Being the way he is, he caught it just in time as he was saying hi to someone else and then turned around to see a disgruntled pink haired girl dangling from his grip. She looked like a rag doll being held by a limb.
Hadou bursted out belly laughing; Amajiki simply stood stationary and face palmed.
“Did you see that?! Did you see that?!” she cried aloud in between her laughter, smacking Togata’s bicep in the process. “She was gonna punch you and you just took her down instantly!”
“You should’ve known this would happen, Takahiro,” Amajiki blurted out, staring at your vulnerable form. “His sixth sense is monstrous.”
“Hello, Tamaki-senpai. Nejire-senpai,” Ren flatly greeted, still soaking in the flavor of defeat while swinging loosely from Mirio’s grip. “You guys look well.”
“Ah, Ren-chan.” The tall blond boy lifted his arm up so he was face to face with her. “Why were you gonna punch me?”
The vicinity of his face was so close to hers, she couldn’t help but let out a light blush with widened eyes.
“Probably because you beat up the class she’s in charge of,” Nejire deduced. “And she wanted to ask you why you didn’t hold back.”
“Took the words right outta my mouth as usual, Nejire-senpai,” the hanging girl agreed. “Mirio-senpai, if you wouldn’t mind, I’m losing circulation to my arm...”
“Oh! Sorry, sorry.”
Mirio chuckled and set his small underclassman back down on the floor. Rubbing her right shoulder to regain mobility in her arm again, she looked away with a look of grimace. “And to answer your question, I was holding back. No one was unconscious.”
She tried forming words, but none seemed to have come out with the way her mouth was moving. The fact that he used ‘no one was unconscious’ to defend his actions was okay? In a normal situation, that wouldn’t fly. But this was Togata Mirio we’re talking about here. The man who can be the next number one hero.
And the only thing she managed to get out was, “So, why were you guys even at 1-A today?”
“They wanted us to explain the hero internship to them,” the tall boy responded. “Even though it’s not required for them to take it. You’ve got a lively bunch to take care of this year, don’tcha Ren-chan?”
“That’s putting it lightly,” she sighed heavily and put her palm to her face. Her expression right now made her look more like Amajiki.
“Hey, hey. Have you applied to any agencies yet, Ren-Ren?” Nejire asked in her usual perky manner. “If you haven’t, you can always come to mine! I can put in a good word for you.”
She shook her head.
“I wanna make my quirk stronger first before I apply,” she solemnly answered. “I’m no good the way I am right now.”
“Ren-chan, you should still apply,” Mirio firmly stated, making her look up at him. “The practical experience you get is how you’ll get stronger.”
“I haven’t even nailed down a good offensive style and–”
“Are those just excuses you’re making for yourself?”
His honest but harsh statement jolted her head up to meet his blue eyes. Togata Mirio’s determination and resolve always got to Ren. It was also those qualities of his that made him admirable in the eyes of his peers and pro-heroes; she was no exception to that charisma. All she could do is stay silent.
“You’re more than good enough. So why are you holding yourself back?” he gently asked and placed a hand on her shoulder. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re strong or weak.”
“You can’t be a hero in-training forever and hesitate, Takahiro,” Amajiki added bluntly. “Doing that in the field means death. You of all people should know that.”
“Tamaki, that’s going too far,” Mirio pointed out and turned back to her. “But you know he’s right, don’t you?”
All she could do was nod, staring down at the floor and trying not to cry.
“The truth is, I’m scared...” She slowly brought her arms up to hug herself, her shoulders shaking from what she’s about to say. “Scared of what I’ll do when I find him. I… I don’t know if I’ll be able to control myself.”
The three could only look at their junior, trying to find anything to say that’d be helpful. All Ren could do was let out a wry chuckle.
“I came here to punch Mirio-senpai and I get a lecture from the Big Three,” she sniffled and wiped away the crocodile tears before facing them again with a lopsided smile. “Looks like I still got some growing up to do. And I’ll take some time this week to look into some agencies to apply.”
The school bell chimed to indicate lunch was almost over.
“Ah, crap! I held you guys up! And I left my bag with Seri and Tomoe! Gotta go!”
As their junior ran off, Mirio couldn’t help but wonder: what did she mean by ‘controlling herself’?
–
“So I heard you guys met the Big Three today,” Ren casually brought up at dinner time. Tonight’s menu was oyakodon* and miso soup.
“We totally got our asses handed to us,” Kirishima groaned out and winced at the lingering pain on his torso from being punched by Togata. “It was so lame.”
“None of us could even react,” Tokoyami added with a sense of defeat. “We all went down before we knew it.”
“No one except Midoriya,” Todoroki commented and took a bite of his food.
“Seriously?! No way!” Sero exclaimed.
The hetero-chromatic boy turned to their R.A. and asked, “Have you fought any of the Big Three before, Ren-senpai?”
“Well...” she hesitated and swirled her soup with her chopsticks. “Define ‘fight.’”
“When two or more people engage in a physical altercation caused by–”
“I-I was kidding, Todo-kun,” Ren immediately stopped him. “I was being facetious.”
“Oh.”
“’Todo-kun’?” Ashido pointed out with a sly grin, nudging her with her elbow. “Aren’t you two getting cozy?”
“Anyway, back to your question,” Ren ignored the pink girl’s comment and turned back to Todoroki, to which she got annoyed at and fumed. “I technically did.”
“Technically?” Midoriya’s ears perked up. “What do you mean?”
She let out long breath and knew she had no other way in explaining this.
“So Mirio-senpai has this habit of only phasing parts of his body through a surface,” she began. “When he was practicing his quirk to get better at it, he started with his face.”
Midoriya’s face suddenly grimaced, remembering he did the same thing to him a few days ago when he was taking out the garbage.
“I was walking down the hallway one day and he did that to me as I was passing. For some reason, he thought saying hi like that would be fine. And he did...To my right fist...On his face. And I kinda, sorta ended up giving him a black eye he had to nurse for three days.”
Iida, Ochaco and Midoriya faces drained of blood and could respond with a look of horror, mouths ajar and all; Todoroki remained stoic upon the reveal.
“Just how hard did you hit?” the green haired boy blurted out.
“It was a ‘scared to death plus adrenaline pumping in my body’ strength, so… pretty hard.”
Between the four of them at the table, she was sure they made a mental note to not scare their R.A. As dinner ended and everyone cleaned up after themselves, Ren suddenly remembered something.
“Ah, Todoroki-kun, Bakugou-kun,” she called out, prompting the two boys to turn their heads. “Come by my room in half an hour.”
“Why do I haveta go with this half-and-half bastard?” the ash blond boy barked out.
“It’s about your provisional lessons, so please kindly tolerate his presence,” Ren replied with an acidic saccharine tone and a matching smile. “Unless you don’t wanna be heroes, that’s fine too.”
“Whatever,” Bakugou scoffed and made his way back to his room.
With the day winding down, the R.A. sat at her desk, struggling with her Hero Law homework. No matter how many times she’s read the same passage, she couldn’t come up with a concrete way to explain the clause about full-fledged heroes turning vigilante. There were just too many loopholes!
Last time she turned in her assignment about the general dos and do nots of a hero within the word of law, she got chewed out for being too far-fetched with her theory of ‘in the event police are indisposed, the hero can take the law into their own hands and deliver justice.’
Groaning, Ren slumped over her desk and bumped her forehead at the edge of it. A soft rap at the door roused her back up and looked at her clock; it was time for the meeting. Prompting the person to enter, the door opened to show both boys showed up on time. This was the first time Bakugou had seen her room, second for Todoroki.
It was dimly lit with smaller and softer lights glowing from her desk and the shelf by her bed. Piles of school books stacked neatly on her desk with an open notebook with scribbled notes. Floating wooden shelves hung above her desk, holding random figurines, photos and books. Soft instrumental music could be heard playing from the laptop perched on top of an aluminum stand. A small, collapsible floor table separated the three.
She stood from her seat and turned on the main light with a pulling line. The ceiling lamp flickered on, making her eyes flinch from the sudden onslaught of brightness to her orbs and blinked a few times to readjust. Prompting the two boys to sit on the floor, she turned the music off and grabbed some papers from her desk before sitting down across from them.
“Aizawa-sensei gave me a copy of your evaluations from the exam,” she stated. “I’m not gonna repeat what’s already been said, so I want you two to tell me what you think you did right and wrong on and what you plan to do to improve on your shortcomings.”
Todoroki looked pensive while Bakugou had his arms cross, looking agitated as usual. The silence was thick and super uncomfortable.
“O...kay, I guess we’ll do this the hard way,” she sighed. “Bakugou-kun, you had zero compassion during the rescue phase of the test. Not only did you not reassure victims, your aggression towards them was what led you to failing. I get all you wanna do is blow shit up and beat up villains, but there’s a time and place for that.”
“That phase was fuckin’ garbage!” he huffed out and slammed his fist on the table. “If it weren’t for that, I would’ve gotten my license already.”
“But you didn’t, so here we are,” she pointed out tersely. “Let me ask you this: what if your parents were in that disaster zone? Would you still say the same thing?”
Her words suddenly made him look up straight up with widened crimson eyes, her expression unchanging. His anger was slowly stirring his insides. A vein could be seen slowly protruding from his temple.
“Look, you’re obviously not an idiot, but if you can’t do a simple search and rescue with a team, then what kind of hero would you be in the eyes of citizens?” she questioned. “You already have a reputation around U.A. for your shitty attitude and I’d like for that to not go beyond these walls for your career’s sake.”
The usual loud and proud boy was now quiet and reflective; his usual scowling lips formed a small pout. Thinking back on his internship with Best Jeanist and how everyone else had gotten further than him during that one week, he knew he had to change his ways; it was his fragile ego that veiled his eyes and heart from accepting that part about him, the part that’s awkward with approaching things in a non-violent way.
Being used to the status quo, things that made him step out of his comfort zone really scared him. He doesn’t like being taken for a fool or messing things up.
Bakugou Katsuki doesn’t do either one of those options.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean for that to come off lecture-y,” Ren let a short breath out of her nose and rested her arms on the table. “Just… keep that in mind and make baby steps, okay?”
“… Fine,” he muttered, not making eye contact with her and rubbed the back of his neck.
Shocked at his sudden change in demeanor, she quietly thanked him for listening before turning her attention to Todoroki.
“Todoroki-kun, you’re already aware of where you went wrong...”
The bi-coloured hair boy nodded and stared at a random spot on the table, unable to look at her directly.
“Because of my inability to cooperate with Inasa from Shiketsu due to personal reasons, we put the disaster victims and other heroes in jeopardy with our quirks,” he confessed. “Had I realized this sooner and worked with him, we could’ve suppressed the villains and then assist with evacuating the rest of the injured much more efficiently. I will do my best in remedying this during the supplementary classes and work on building a better relationship with everyone. I’ll definitely get my license this time.”
“That’s the spirit,” Ren encouraged with a small smile. “Don’t get me wrong: you’re both capable heroes. You two have really strong, compatible quirks with your bodies and you have full awareness of its power and limitations. But. You need to learn to rely on others,” she emphasized the last sentence.
“There’s only so much you can do by yourself. Everyone thinks heroes are all about the one-on-ones, flashy moves and taking down the bad guys with it. That’s not what makes a hero; they’re heroes because they also do the little things that make a bigger impact.”
The two boys listened intently to their R.A.’s constructive criticism, absorbing what knowledge she could bestow upon them. Even though she was only a year older, the words she spoke made her sound like a sage who’s trained many heroes before them. The clacking of Ren straightening the stack of paper in her hand brought his attention back to the present.
“Okay, I think we’ve covered everything,” she finalized. “Aizawa-sensei just wants me to do small follow ups with you two after each class. Just come on by whenever you can for that.”
Bakugou and Todoroki nodded and stood up, excusing themselves out of the room. The moment her door click closed, she let out a long sigh and leaned back.
“That was easier than picking an agency to intern at,” she said to herself aloud.
--
*Chicken and egg rice bowl.
Read Ch. 5
#boku no hero fanfic#bnha#my hero academia#mha fanfiction#bnha oc#mha oc#bakugou#todoroki#mha mirio#amajiki#mha nejire#mirio togata#tamaki nejire#nejire hadou#ichigo bnha-fics#bnha season 4#mha season 4
2 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
nawewinife
Untitled
htvtelevision24
Untitled
mari-alice
all i think about is you.
mebalikirig
Untitled
overwatch-interactions
Overwatch interactions