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picturejasper20 · 2 months

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So, i was trying to think of the strange connection that there is between Danny Phantom fans and Steven Universe fans, aside from SU being a show that was very popular on its moment. Like one show is from 20 years ago and the other is from last decade, both with different executions and genres.

...Which lead me to write a whole essay no one asked for, so here you go:

One of the first things that comes to mind is how the main leads are hybrids- Danny Fenton is half human/half ghost, Steven is half human/ half gem. And like both series give an idea that they are pretty unique in their experience as hybrids and they both belong to both worlds yet not fully to either of them.

Danny has a lot of issues with having to hide his part of himself from the world, his parents included. Meanwhile, Steven doesn't understand certain social norms and can feel disconnected from other teens around his age, having lived a somewhat recluded childhood from his peers. (This gets more explored in Future)

Aside from the struggles that being an hybrid it brings to them, they have episodes about learning new powers or learning how to control them. You see them start rather powerless only to become pretty OP on the long run. -Steven getting tired for summoning one shield to being able to do it without sweat-Danny having his powers glitching at the start to gain a power like Ghost Wail later on, etc.

Another thing that Danny and Steven share in common is that they want to help and be useful. In Steven's case, he wants to help people with their problems or "fix" them. Over time Steven starts to define his identity around helping others a little too much to the point that he doesn't know who to be outside of that.

A pretty common headcanon for Danny in the DP fandom is that his ghost obsession is about having to protect everyone he can, something you can see in the series in a way. After Phantom Planet, Danny doesn't know who to be outside being the hero and feels that people don't need him anymore in the context the world having being saved after the series finale. ( A Glitch in Time)

Both try solving problems talking it out if possible, if it is a misunderstanding or they think the antagonist can be reasoned with.

With Steven, he doesn't need an explanation as most people know his personality, for Danny- it depends on the situation and his mood, sometimes being kinder and other times more violent. I would argue again that he still tries to talk things out when he sees that violence isn't necessary -just not the same as Steven

That's not to say their characters are the same, in fact their personalities are pretty different and their ways to approaching problems differs too. They do, however, share some parallels in their character arcs that i already discussed.

Another aspect are the main antagonists, both Steven Universe and Danny Phantom have their antagonists have motivations outside of being evil for the sake of being evil.

In Steven Universe this is a main theme and i don't think it doesn't need much introduction. Antagonists (most Homeworld gems) have been taught and were socialized to act in a specific way in the totalitarian society they were born into. Examples of this are: Peridot, Jasper and Lapis- these motivations can be mixed with revenge or similar things as well.

In Danny Phantom the main antagonists are Vlad Masters/Plasmius and Valerie Gray, both characters who aren't evil by nature and the series leaves clear that their antagonism comes from what happened to them and the decisions they took in result of that.

Vlad Masters role as a villain comes from the insolation and abandonment issues that came from the Ghost portal accident in college caused by Danny's father, Jack Fenton. Vlad became obsessed with getting revenge on Jack and believing he "stole" a family that should have been his.

Valerie comes from her blaming Phantom for (accidentally) ruining her life and trying to get revenge on him, becoming a ghost hunter. Valerie's role is a mix between anti-hero and antagonist since she wants to protect people but opposes Phantom at the same time. Eventually she becomes a bit of a friendenemy to Phantom over the course of the seasons.

Other recurrent antagonists have their own motives to do bad things ( Sidney, Desiree, Ember) while others are more naturally classic evil (Ghost King, Spectra). It depends on the character one is talking about.

Diving more into Vlad Plasmius, both series have this idea of "legacy", as like protagonist having to deal with what their parent/s "left behind for them".

For Steven is a huge deal for him since many of the antagonists who attack him are for things his mother Rose Quartz did, having Steven deal with all this issues and believing he has to fix them, blaming himself for what how Rose hurt people in different ways.

As for Danny, Vlad Masters' antagonism comes from the portal accident caused by Jack, Danny's father, when Vlad, Jack and Maddie (Danny's mom) were still friends in college. In a way Danny has to deal with something that was caused by his father. It isn't something he choose to but yet still brings him a lot of problems to his life.

I'm not sure which character from SU Vlad could be compared to, but i would say that Spinel is the closest one, since Spinel was abandoned by Rose Quartz (as Pink Diamond), who was her best friend, similar to what supposely happened between Vlad and Jack after the ghost portal accident.

Other theme is the idea of redemption, or how you can be your worst own enemy. As i mentioned, antagonists in SU usually get redemmed and change their ways from the systematic ideas they were raised in. There is this idea that people have the capacity to change if they propose themselves to.

In Steven Universe Future, Steven is "his worst enemy" as he has to deal with his own demons he has been avoiding for years for trying to repress them or being too busy helping other people. He goes through a negative corruption arc because of this, ending with him realizing that he can't hiding his issues and needs help with them.

In the Danny Phantom series, this is very important theme in "The Ultimate Enemy", where Danny is confronted by the possible evil future version of himself, called Dan Phantom in the DP fandom. Danny battles against this version of himself and tries to fix his mistake, proving that he can avoid that future from happening.

Danny also meets Vlad Masters in the dark future timeline in this special, who regrets his actions after so many years passed and how he accidentally helped with creating Dan in that timeline.

A Glitch in Time expands on this theme further by exploring Vlad and Dan's motivations a lot more and giving them second chances. The novel itself shares parallels with Steven Universe and SU Future in multiple ways.

Back to Dan Phantom, he shares quite a lot of things in common with Malachite to the point people have pointed out these parallels.

In Steven Universe, gems can fuse with other, creating more powerful gems. A fusion's personality and manners are determined by the relationship the partipants in the fusion have and a combination of their personalities.

Malachite is the fusion between Lapis Lazuli and Jasper, two characters who hated each other and carried lots of personal issues the moment they fused, resulting in a fusion that is unstable. Malachite represents the toxic codependent relationship between the two characters.

Dan Phantom is the fusion between Danny and Vlad's ghost halves, Phantom and Plasmius. Dan was created in a timeline both Danny and Vlad had a lot of issues, with Danny having to deal the lost of his family and being left traumatized. All this trauma along with Vlad's mental state went to Dan, turning him into a destructive ghost.

These are the elements i see that Danny Phantom and Steven Universe series share in common to explain why fandoms often overlap, i'm not sure if there are more that i'm not able to recall at the moment.

#steven universe #danny phantom #su future #danny fenton #steven quartz universe #Su fandom #Danny phantom

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infiniteunderworld · 1 year

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Okay i’ve maybe been reading too many hurt/comfort fics lately.

So as far as DPxDC goes Jason and his pit waters/rage reacting to Danny as a halfa/ghost and vice versa is pretty common. I just almost always see it being a positive thing. And believe me I love it being a positive thing, I’ve seen so many cool iterations of it. But what if it wasn’t positive? What if the ectoplasm-pit-waters/rage feed off of the natural ectoplasm that Danny produces. Danny isn’t malicious, it’s just like he’s accidentally added logs to a fire. Ghosts in Gotham don’t do the same because they usually don’t produce enough ectoplasm to make it flare badly, but maybe the ghosts in Gotham are what has led to the pit rage to stay as long as it has.

Danny ends up visiting Gotham with his family for some reason for another and Danny can’t so much as look at Crime Alley without hearing gunshots. Some of it is regular crime alley, but trying to get coffee or something from the area lands him in the middle of gang war, so he decides he has too much to deal with already and stays out of it. For the few days Danny is around, Red Hood seems to be on a rampage. All of the rehabilitation he’d managed is gone, and it sets his relationships with the bats back loads. Jason is blaming himself for it all, or maybe Bruce somehow, maybe both. And then Danny leaves Gotham and Jason is able to work his way back to where he was. Everyone just tries their best to put that weirdly aggressive weekend behind. They chalk it up to Jason getting set off by something that he won’t talk about. Only Jason is aware that nothing (he was aware of) set him off.

Then years later for some reason or another (reveal gone wrong, moved out for college, etc.) for this idea i’m running with reveal gone wrong or on the run of some kind. Danny comes back to live in Gotham this time. And I can see two interesting ways to take this (immediately anyway, i’m sure there's many more)

The First;

Danny shows up on Bruce’s doorstep essentially requesting a place to hide. Danny’s smart, he knows he checks all the marks in the Wayne Adoption Compulsion, and it only takes one scouting of the manor (to check that it’s actually safe) in order to find the bat cave. And honestly what place would have better security than batman’s house, right?

Everything goes alright for a while but eventually Jason comes round to visit the new kid. As soon as he’s even near the house he can tell the pit is flaring. It's less than the last time Danny was around because the kid was freaked out then, he's more calm now so the ectoplasm is further from the surface (maybe?). That doesn’t stop Jason from barging into the house, maybe wires get crossed somehow, and he’s sure the Ra’s has sent a spy. He quickly finds Danny and shoots him, maybe he aims for the head or shoulder or what have you, but Danny panics and transforms to defend himself and things somehow manage to get Worse. Unsure where one would go from there, but the angst potential is immense. I can also see GhostKing!Danny having enough power over Jason to make him crumble and essentially get stuck not being able to move but full of so much rage. And if the Batfam didn’t know about Danny beforehand? Man what a heck of a reveal that would be!

The Second;

Danny ends up renting or homeless in crime alley. The effects on the pit only happen in close proximity or when Danny uses his powers, so in an attempt to remain under the radar nothing is inherently worse than normal crime alley at first. But then something happens, maybe a gang war that Danny gets caught in the middle of and tries to help, or he gets mistaken for a Wayne and captured in a hostage situation that Hood comes to solve, or heck maybe even a summoning that Red Hood is trying to stop because he realized that they make his control waver. Whatever it is, it's the catalyst and soon Batman is painfully aware of Red Hood damn near hunting this new white haired meta. And Batman maybe has Duke at this point, so his meta rule is a little more lax? Bats is then extra confused at why Jason is all of a sudden defending that rule with deadly fervor.

Danny’s panicked because what did he do to piss off THE Red Hood?? But he’s so used to Skulker that being hunted by someone with normal guns is child's play, but other people are starting to get caught in the crossfire. Also, Danny is pretty sure that Red Hood is human under all that leather and don’t humans need to eat and drink water and sleep?? Hood is so hopped up on MURDER that he has no concept of his own oncoming death by human needs, just that he needs to get rid of the walking (flying?) Lazarus pit.

I like to think that the Batfam eventually capture Jason and essentially put him in time out (to the best of their ability anyway, he was a Robin, he has many escape artist skills). And Batman confronts a now rather haggard Danny as Phantom to figure out what happened and nearly catches the kid himself when he sees those neon green eyes. Maybe he does catch Danny and puts Danny near Jason again, and it’s very confusing and worrying to watch how quickly the pit rage hits full force. Everyone is just stunned until Danny pushes the containment as far away from Jason as he can and transforms back to human. He figured out how to hide somewhere along the way, because Danny is half human, he still needs food and sleep and stuff too. The pit rage dies out significantly, and it answers several questions and brings up SO Many More.

ANyway,

Most of my context for batfam stuff comes from one webcomic, half rememberances from TV shows I watched as a kid, and all of the DPxDC fanfic I’ve read. I’m much more familiar with Danny Phantom. This brain worm simply would not leave me though so ta da! If anyone ends up writing something based on this idea or if there’s something already out there, will you tag me? I’d love to read it :3

#dc x dp #dp x dc #danny phantom #jason todd #danny fenton #dp au #dp prompt #violence #cw violence

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charm-eb · 1 year

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hi. i have an au to unpack so get ready wemen and men and people whose genders are bent

so... 2 much anxiety fairly oddparents au aha

SO BASICALLY its a pretty well known the fact that timmys life is miserable hence he got fairys but what if timmys parents are people who should get a divorce like if timmys parents isnt leaving timmy alone with vicky to do something and is at home they argue and what if timmy got cosmo and wanda a bit later than he did and what if vicky does things way worse.

so thats why timmy has so much anxiety for this au

now some of you may wonder from the fact that i am a nicktoons unite fan what happens in nicktoons unite!

well timmy isnt really so agressive only when provoked and since timmy already knows jimmy and trusts him he trusts the others too

now WHAT ABOUT MY DANNY AND TIMMY COUSINS HC (not the head cannon that timmy accidentally summons danny)

well for this i think the cousins never met each other till nu gang happened and LET ME TELL YA WHY

because for timmys parents and dannys parents just dont interact often. sure they call eachother from time to time but havent gone to each others places

or danny and timmy met before but timmy was so young he didnt remember (no this isnt a reference to forgor au i swear 😭)

im getting a bit off track so BACK TO 2ma

timmy before getting fairies (remember i said he got fairies later) sometimes cries himself to sleep or listen to music because timmys parents are so fucking loud when fighting at night.

the reason why cosmo and wanda was given to timmy later is because timmy would get vicky as a babysitter later because timmys parents are trying to fall in love again neglecting timmy

AND WHAT ABOUT CROCKEERRRR so crocker has a suspission to all of his class to have FAIRY 💥 GOD 💥 PARENTS (sorry i have to) and he does know that miserable children gets them (if you think about it timmys class are all miserable in thier own way like chester being poor but he shrugs it off.

timmy however before getting fairies is already having too much anxiety (see what i did there) and pretty much everyone notices that but his parents because they are lumps of shit so crocker began looking for evidence of fairy yod parents on timmy which well since timmy didnt have fairies yet and from how much crocker keeps looking there is no fairies he even asked timmy himself if he had fairies and timmy look up to crocker anxiety gilled thinking he missed something and ask whats a FAIRY 💥 GOD 💥 PARENTS and crocker still keeps looking but he just finds out timmy doesnt have fairies and how miserable timmy is to the point hes crying himself to sleep so he shrug it off and just thought timmy is just miserable but not miserable enough to have fairies. until timmy just shows up to class without anxiety and everyone is worried but that was the day timmy gets his fairies and as days go on and crocker gets suspicions again and boom the fop series but ill cut after poof seasons because no.

timmy is still a rulebreaker and even after getting fairies he still have anxiety becuase anxiety doesnt go away like that

but wait i have to talk about something..

JIMMYTIMMYPOWERHOUR

so yeah remember i said in the nicktoons unite bit that timmy trusts jimmy from jtph? yeah so-

timmy accidentally wishes to go there right and then met jimbo and hes a mad fuck lmfao.

it basically went "what the fuck who are you" "IM SORRY I DIDNT M-MEANT TO GET HERE I- I GOT HERE BY AC-ACCIDENT I DONT KNOW THIS PLACE WHERE AM I IM S-SORRY IF I BROKE ANYTHING IM SORRY-" aha..

and yknow the whole jtph happened but timmy have anxiety and stutters alot... alot.

lets just say for this au jimmy is the one who gets feelings first

so what about the other 2 jtph well its practically the same but yknow timmy anxiety and stutter but from one to another it lowers down.

EXTRAS

REMEMBER MY DANNY GETS SUMMONED BY TIMMY ACCIDENT HC? YEAH HE DID ACCIDENTALLY DO THAT AND BRO 2MA TIMMY IS APOLOGIZING SO MUCH BRUV

also uhh drawings of him becuase 💔

the first 2 i actually shared in discord earlier

gonna make more content for this but feel free to use this au

oh and one more thing to note here when hanging out with the nu gang as buddies not beating up baddies when timmy meets gary he loves him. he practically loves all pets but gary is just yes there is no meaning behind it just timother loevs snials

#nicktoons unite #the fairly oddparents #timmy turner #fop #nickelodeon #fairly oddparents #jimmy neutron boy genius #jimmy neutron #danny phantom #2ma au #2 much anxiety au #my aus #jimmytimmy #timmyjimmy #jimmy timmy power hour #jtph #spongebob squarepants

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mean-hare · 2 years

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seecond chapter of my monthly ed diary (called mhwnbcb)

warning: sensitive topics, bad deeds, bad thoughts and very loosy writing

chapter 2

june, 1 its a first day of whole new month, day with so much potential perspectives and chances to reach my dream! thats what i thought just before i totally messed it up again

june, 2 i finished another clutchy sleeples night by drinking a cup of milk and water and my overwhelmet stomach starts to hurt me

june, 3 i smoke only when meet my friends so i almost never smoke. but i have a beautiful black clipper with pic of skull and rose on it. i like to click it and summon baby fire of it. fire so tiny and tender, so sweet. i accidentally burned my hair by this once

june, 4 today is wet. i was skating under the rain. its not really a skateboard, its a longboard, big one, full of vegan stickers, my vegan sister gave me that board when she learned to ride a bike. sometimes i concidering to become a vegan just becaue that stickers look silly on longboard of non-vegan owner. skating is not easy in region of hills and awful asphalt. and i hate to do it when lots of people look. one lil piece of shit screamed something despiteful on me. one drunkard said "give me it i wanna ride! ey!!!". one hobo mumbled "gimme money"(fuck, do i look like one who has money?!). after all its starts to rain and i quickly become wet. my clothes will run dry only tomorrow or maybe even later. i also accidentally poured water on my drawings and making them even more loosy by that. i drank a lot of tea to warm up, sometimes i drank milk tea. didnt eat bc theres no food i can eat. the only good thing for today.

june, 5 my mind is loudly burning like a bridge someone set on fire and left behind

june, 6 today i swore silently about restricting again to use it like a weapon against everything. to scare people even more than i scare them now i walked with dog and met person that said rude shit about me because i distracted and didnt hear her "take your dog away", shes not first and not last who calls me finnish and degenerate. i gave her big strong fuckyou sign and moved away. this day is shitty, i had severe headache and wanted to break everything but i couldnt. my dear friend danni said that i am not useless but i am,i suck even in destroying myself

june, 7 women asks her little daughter "maybe we should buy some cherries, would you eat cherries?" her daughter has an orange plush cat. i saw them on a marketplace my way back, i held tin can in my sweaty hot hand under the suns pressure, woman and daughter was so peacefully and maybe happy

june, 8 sometimes i really wonder about my shopping abilities. i spend so little money (less than price of 1l of milk) and buy cookies, icecream and cornflakes and all that food fits in my daily calories limit. its fine food, not that shitty sausages of noodles or other serious adult food.if i spend calories (and money) i spend them on tasty and funny meal only. at least i eat not only because of hunger, its more because of something like emotions and inner satisfaction

june, 9 i dont want these cherries. i dont like strawberries. i want no berries. i will wait for apricot, corn and apples until then i will eat something unhealthy, and dye my milk with blue pain(t)

june, 10 i know how good is empty chips bag for throwing up into. and how good is throwin up on balcony when summer evening blooms and only strangers can hear your coughing. you feelin so good and bad at the same time, greeting one e.d. girl online with her birthday and drinking milk to calm sharp pain in stomach sleepless night, shattered thoughts in confused mind, everywhere toys from your childhood, trash and art supplies on bed on floor and agressive triphop is playing on loud and makes thoughts more scattered, and songbird is shouting its early morning song

june, 11 todayish morning my eyes became pink (people call it red) and sore for no reason. i shed some toxic tears that made my eyes more sore todayish evening i didnt purge because it would be very awful to throw uo that food i binged on. if i cant stop binging i should at least find food that is good for throwing up. but theres no food like that. and no money to buy it. but all this shit sounds like totally fucked up one

june, 12 hunger is my imaginary brother and my incapacitate pain

june, 13 pain is like a rape of life. body wants it to stop but it wont stop

june, 14 i drank few energy drinx i watched long boring sad movie i cried about fact that nobody ever can fall in love with me i tried to sleep but annoying ache wont let me fall asleep

june, 15 pain is lively, warm, even thumbing cluster just like heart, it hurts, it beaths, it breathes, claims about itself, it grows and doesnt want to die, pain is just like a life itself, i know no day without it

june, 16 i realise that theres only 500kcals in huge piece of cake my mom gave to me (i said only, because i really thought it contains like 900kcals). today is my moms birthday

june, 17 cheese tastes like meat. bread tastes like a meat. i dont understand why, i want it to stop, its gross ad disturbing, i am vegeterian

june, 18 regular phrase " if you call yourself ugly fatso, what about (overweight persons name)?" well i dont give a fuck about their body, i am talking about me myself. other regular phrase " its not everything about you!" well ill make everything about me! love me if you dont want to mourn me, look at me and be afraid of what i can do for everything to be about me

june, 19 i was good. bought many cool low cal drinx and drank em all. in marked i saw boy with earring who works there, i saw him few days ago. i am shure he remembers me bc of my look (50+ bracelets, oversized tshirt, cool jeans with skeletons, some handpoke tatoos and 8 times pierced face, weird hairstyle, long nails, emo bagpack. and this is my everyday look bc i take off my bracelets only when takin a bath). i guess he sees me as weirdo who often pierced itself and only buys drinks in cans. i am going to really buy only the drinks. and icecream bc its my safe fud i wrote my dear friend danni that i love him and adore him and that he is handsome and kind and the only good human on this shitrashy planet and everything like that. he was very confused. at the morning i regret about that bpd possessed clown mode of mine

june, 20 late at night after boryng bingyng day i write this hareshit and have nothin to be proud of myself. im listening to daniel menche and his friends and suffering with nausea and hot thick air. big beautiful warmgray moth is flying around the screen, sometimes it stops as if to read this text and roll it eyes because of what dumb shit i write. sorry, pretty moth, you er writin deserve better writting. sometimes this triangle critter falls on my fingers. but most of time it histerically fluttering, beating it weightless body against cold light screen. what a beautiful insect you are

june, 21 its a shame what a lukewarm personi was today, i became. lukewaem bath water that turns cold slowly and drowsy. it cant make you clean or anything better, it only makes worse

june, 22 sometimes i want to act like rough sexist, racist or any other -ist at all, sometimes i want to write people something rude, assault, abuse, to cover people in shit, i want to cry something extremely offencive at public, to break windows, to ruin the beautiful, to make clean dirt and to make everyone hate me more. sometimes i think they expect me to do this, sometimes i think they see as miserable teen who wants to seen as edgy, sometimes i think they dont think about me at all. sometimes i want to make this world worse for everyone. i dont really know why

june, 23 milk with honey and cocoa milk with tea black and green one, desperate late night searching for some comfort, searching for god while forgetting that i am god,before that i ate bread and then asked my dear friend to purge or not to purge, he said no and then he asked why i ask him if i know what he will answer.i thought that id guess myself what to do before he answers. sometimes he cant answer quickly

june, 24 uh i thought that i am not depressed anymore

june, 25 need to sleep more

june, 26 i just tried to eat pizza once with some people just like a normal human being (i am not) but fuckin drill wont let me sit still. i cant stand it (mysophonia i guess). i ran to other places then went back when drillnoise stopped and took few more bites jusy to ran again. one time i watched fine free exhibition of pictures of carpathian shepherds. another time i saw guys who provoked each other for fight.when i ate my pizza piece, holding it in my dirty hands, i went to the most famous street (it was near) and lied on the bench. i love it that in this city they dont make benches with that anti-homeless bars. i really love to lie on benches even if i am not homeless (at least now). one man saw ma and said his daughter "lo at this boy, how fine he looks with all those bracelets… or its a girl, i dont know. i also had many bracelets when i was young and played my guitar"

june, 27 my consciousness is getting bad, i forget words, i forget where i put my things, i forget things i thought about second ago, i forget things i do second ago, something wrong with my mind i guess

june, 28 few zero cals full of caffeine drinx made me sleepless and unaware of time again, it drives my father crazy and angry and i am crazy and angry now too. he makes me hate him. i ll drink more caffeine now

june, 29 what a junk ive become…

june, 30 misery, nobody loves me and will never love me no matter what i do and who i can become

#mhwnbcb #male ed #ed bllog #mental disorder #ed life #disorder #ed vent #disorder eating #depresszió #binge #purge #stupid #whining #pain #bpd

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baekchelor · 4 years

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ａｓｈｏｒｅ[iii]

pairing: bodevan cash x reader genre: Doctor! AU, Romance, Angst summary: After a fall out with your fianceé, and an opportunity to chase your dreams, you embark into a medical mission trip to Namibia where you run into self-taught doctor Bodevan Cash. Love ensues. word count: 3.8k

❝the sea beckoned to me, and all reality was lost —swept away in the entrancing song of the tide. ❞ ―meredith t. taylor

TWO ｔｗｅｌｖｅｄａｙｓ

◄ ｐｒｅｖ

Bodevan's eyes looked like the morning sky every day after the first one you met them. Per diem, Bo's mood was bright as the sun too, although you did notice the tears confined on his bottom lid once ―when he concluded nothing else could be done and called 20:16 as Moharerwa's time of death. Bo summoned you to the OR after practising the caesarean section, as the doctor responsible for keeping Moharerwa's baby alive. Meanwhile, you were transporting the newborn into the incubator, Moharerwa went into cardiac arrest, and despite all his efforts, Bo couldn't keep her alive.

She did, briefly, meet her son, and the few minutes were enough to announce his name was Bodererwa. She thanked Bo and expressed her gratitude by naming her infant with the first two syllables of Bodevan's name.

Baby Bodererwa wasn't the only patient under your care. You treated an Irish girl who suffered from nausea and developed rashes. Rellian (Bo's younger brother) and you bonded over an uncanny case of seizures, muscle weakness and vision loss, you later diagnosed as Tay Sachs Disease. Tjiruru, a Himba man on his forties, came in with an acute case of Hepatitis C. Later, Tjiruru brought his sister, who two weeks ago, at Henties Bay's clinic, was prescribed with azithromycin for bacterial pneumonia. Bodevan figured out the medicine killed pneumonia's bacteria and caused other bacteria (that usually lives in a symbiotic relationship with the body) to produce toxins AKA Tjiruru's sister illness.

On day eight, you met, for the very first time, Danny Dupont. He was from Australia, with Kiwi heritage, and the reason why Bodevan got himself a kind-of-nurse.

Danny was diagnosed with viral cardiomyopathy, which caused his heart to fail. He came to Namibia because he didn't want to spend the rest of his days trapped in a hospital, waiting for a heart transplant. During a Safari across the Skeleton Coast, he fell in love with Peera, his tour-guide. Peera became Danny's reason to live, so he accepted to spend most of his days laying on a hospital bed if it meant he would win more time to enjoy alongside Peera. So she asked Bodevan to train her as a nurse, and Danny requested Bodevan to treat him. Now Bodevan has an Organ Donation Program running on the Himba village so, in case of any death, he can get a heart for Danny.

Today, Peera will host a "western" Birthday Party for Danny. It will be held at the hospital because Danny can't leave his cot, but Reillian will microwave a cake in a mug for him ―he saw the receipt somewhere on Pinterest―, and Bodevan managed to buy a few candles and balloons.

Also today, you're running late for your rounds. Dr Gandy video called early this morning, not to inform you about old patients, but to have breakfast with you. It was 2am for Ethan, but he ate pancakes and orange juice, the same receipt he asked room service to bring to your cabin, with the bacon crisped just like you like it, and with blueberries marmalade instead of syrup. You talked bout your medical experiences in Namibia, and that he will keep the Hamptons' beach house and Harper will have the pent-house in Soho. Ethan also said he misses you like crazy.

Guilt substituted the sugar in your coffee, souring the moment, and making clear that you wish you could say the same to Ethan. And you did, of course, you did, you lied. Truth is, Danny and his heart transplant, Bodererwa and his chances of survival, and every patient you've treated so far, keep your mind busy to the extent that, when you collide on bed, the only thought on your mind is to finally be able to rest.

Or so you tell yourself. Considering that dreamland and the pillow talk with your subconscious revolve around a particular wonderful being named Bodevan Cash.

"Morning!" all smiles, you greet as you walk into the teepee. You've grown to love the place.

"Morning, Intern!" and you've grown to love the nickname he calls you. Bodevan is teaching you about surgery, and yoga, and Hambi language, and about why the globe's entire population should be Maoists.

The boy is erudite. He was homeschooled, and his parents did a hell of a great job. To the point, Bodevan received college acceptance letters from numerous Ivy League schools. "I've got something to show you. Come here."

Bo hands you a pile of old letters. Right away, you know what they are, and you can't help but stare at each of them with your mouth agape.

"Holy Cow," your wide eyes travel to meet his. "Why didn't you go to any of this? Harvard is the best school for medicine out there."

"I never pictured myself as a Doctor," he says, while you check the charts for today patients. "I just wanted to go to college, be a normal guy. But when mom died, well...life has a funny way of trampling dreams, huh?"

"Yeah, it does," you murmur softly. "Sometimes, I just feel as if life controls me, instead of it being the other way around."

Bo looks at you knowingly, but careful of his own words, "Why do I get the feeling you're talking about your marriage?"

"I love Ethan. I'm just... if you've asked me what I wanted to do at my twenties, I would answer joining Doctors Without Borders, not getting married," you answer quietly, surprised at what has just left your lips. Hearing the inner thought that had been plaguing you for the past months being said out loud unnerved you.

"Was he upset about your trip here?" asks Bodevan.

"No. He encouraged me to do it, he even paid the ticket. I guess only because I was upset about him being married before. I know Ethan. He did this to erase the guilt from his system, to try to indulge me," you tell, fiddling with your white coat.

Bo eyes you in surprise, startled, "I-I didn't know he was married."

"He is married. They'll sign the divorce papers in two days. He never really told me, I just found out because his wife made an appearance at the hospital we both work at."

Bo remains silent for a while.

"I'm sorry. I have no idea why I'm telling you all this," you intervene awkwardly, suddenly feeling ashamed. He probably thought you were an idiot for sticking with a man who blatantly lied to your face. And you were likely making it worse by ranting on about your fiancé whom you swore a thousand times before that you were madly in love with.

But Bodevan just smiles. "No, it's alright. It helps to let things out. But if I were you, I'd tell him how I felt. If you're going to be spending the rest of your life with him…"

You sigh. He is right.

"Forget about it. What about you?" you pipe. "Any significant others?"

"N-no," he is all shy again, averting his blue orbs to the floor, as far from you as possible, and stuttering.

"But I assure you, he has ladies lining up for a shot," Peera quickly meddles, grinning. She's grabbing serum and a needle from the cabinets, probably for Danny.

You raise your brow, teasing, "Oh? Even with that 70's hairstyle?"

Peera gasps, clutching her chest dramatically. "I'm offended! I think it looks quite sexy on him, or so I heard..."

You giggle as the girl wiggles her eyebrows, Bodevan flushing red.

"I was kidding. It does," you confess.

"D-Does what?" asks Bodevan.

"Look sexy."

For a second, you don't quite realize what you'd said. But as Bo smirks, a bell goes off in your head. You feel your cheeks burn and you hastily look away from him, embarrassed. What is wrong with you?

You clear your throat, gaze hiding from Bo, "I should start my rounds."

These past few days were what you could only describe as confusing. And you had a feeling the confusion started when you accidentally told your mentor that his eyes looked like the morning sky.

It didn't help that during one of your night shifts, you dozed off on his shoulder, only to wake up sensing the weight of his head resting on top of yours, his breath on your hair, your lips near his neck.

It didn't help that over your clumsy attempts of getting into crow pose, you noticed how lovely his crooked smile was, and how when he chuckled, his eyes crinkled up at the corners.

And it certainly didn't help that you woke up to skies as clear and blue as Bodevan's eyes.

Nevertheless, you kenned something was seriously wrong when Bodevan touches your hand, and you actually feel sparks fly ―although that's medical impossible and you are a doctor, you should know. Or that when he, for some miracle, looks you in the eyes, your heart somersaults ―another impossible medical matter. Or that when he leans in to whisper some of his intellectual jokes that most of the time, you don't understand, goosebumps wash over your skin.

Something is happening, something is definitely happening, you just refuse to admit it to yourself.

At downfall, Peera and Danny urged you out of duty so you could go back to the cabin and get changed. With pleading brown eyes, Peera asked you to wear something special. She's been saving money for a while ―turns out Bodevan not only built a miracle in the middle of nowhere. In like manner, he helps the Hambi to sell handicrafts and jewellery at a souvenir store―, and the past weekend, Rellian drove her all the way to Henties Bay to buy a beautiful emerald dress. Therefore, you stopped by the hotel boutique and used Ethan's credit card to buy a gown made by a fluttering pink fabric.

When one of the hotel vans dropped you off at Bo's clinic, you're welcomed by the melody Bodevan and Danny are crafting through their guitars. They are singing Guns N' Roses' Patience, and although the one with the good voice is Danny, you can't seem to drag your attention away from Bodevan. He is wearing a suave, intricately patterned mustard jacket, buttoned low so that his chest peeks through. You hate that he looks so good in it.

A wide smile spreads across your features as you cheer for both guys once they've strummed their last chords. And then, the smile is stolen away when a tall, leggy blonde [you've never seen before] is suddenly leaning next to Bo, a flirty smirk on her lips. The girl whispers something to his ear, Bodevan goes beet red but nods anyway. To your annoyance, he follows her to the drink station Peera put together ashore.

Bitting down on the inside of your cheek, you watch Bodevan lean close into her, turning on the charms he ignores he posses. You force yourself to turn away, squeezing yous lids shut to get rid of the disappointment that is dawning your heart.

Why the hell are you getting this affected by him? He is your mentor, your peer. You've known him for a grand total of six days. Most importantly, you are engaged.

A hand carefully resting on your shoulder, pulls you off your thoughts. You turn, only to come upon Peera. "Her name is Elise. She's been trying to get in his pants since he fixed her sprained ankle a week ago."

"She hasn't managed," comments Rellian, handing you a red cup filled by what you presume to be wine. Chardonnay. 80's music blasts from the speakers shove over Bodevan's desk, and Rellian offers you a hand, "Do you want to dance?" His voice is bright and warm, and his enthusiasm washes over you. It is challenging to pint-point him as the angry teenager Bo told you about.

"Absolutely," you take his hand easily. "I should warn you, though, I'm not very good."

"That's fine. We'll take it slow." Rellian's grin is so inviting that you can't be worried about your poor dancing skills, so you happily follow him out to the beach. The song is an upbeat one, which suits his mood.

"It seems you've fully recovered from Bodevan breaking your heart a couple minutes ago," he jokes

"It's a shame he didn't do any damage," you shoot back, obviously kidding. "If I was heartbroken, I wouldn't have to dance with you."

Rellian laughs, "I'm glad you're as funny as everyone says you are. I hear you're my brother's favourite, too." It sounds as if it is common knowledge. "And that your engagement is troublesome―"

"I wouldn't call it troublesome," part of you is sick of people saying that. Another part yearned for it to be different, although you know people speak the truth. It is troublesome. Sighing, you confess, "Ethan lied to me. He is married, about to get divorced but married still. We' have been engaged for over a year, and I just found out about it a month ago."

Rellian stops dancing for a moment, shocked at what he's just heard. He quickly picks back up, studying your expression for a moment. "I didn't realize that was what was going on," he says softly, apologetic. "I mean, you know I want my brother to get the girl, but I didn't want you to get hurt."

"Thanks," you shrug. "I feel stupid more than anything."

Rellian pulls you in a little closer, yet keeping a respectful distance. "Trust me, Intern, any man who passes up the chance to be with you is the stupid one."

"Bo just passed me up..." <<Oh my god. What is wrong with you?>>

"That's how I know," he replies, followed by a thread of giggles. On cue, you glance over Rellian's shoulder and find Bodevan dancing with Elise.

Seven glasses of wine have paved their way through your system, Rellian keeps throwing jokes as you swing your figures to the beat of the music, when you hear his voice beside you, "My lady?" Rellian freezes in the spot, a knowing smirk appearing on his features. Complicit glances are exchanged, and finally, you turn on your heels to find yourself face to face, lip to lip, with Bodevan Cash. "May I have this dance?"

That feeling, that indefinable something, courses through you. As dejected as you'd felt, as embarrassed as you'd been, when Bodevan offers that moment, instead of to Elise, you have to take it. Because the song is slow, and it is Guns N' Roses, and the waves are crashing on the shore...And you're drunk.

"Of course."

Bodevan, clearly drunk as well, entwines your hands together and walks you near the seaside, where the water can dance as well, underneath your feet. He doesn't seem uncomfortable, or as if he fancied to dance with someone else rather than with you. On the contrary, Bodevan holds you so close you can smell his cologne and feel his stubble against the skin of your cheek.

"I was wondering if I was going to get a dance at all," you comment, trying to sound playful. Bodevan succeeds to pull you even closer.

"I-I needed to drink up my courage, so my second-thoughts are over. Now I'm brave enough to enjoy the rest of the night with you." This time you can blame it on the alcohol, but as both always do near each other, the two flush furiously. Sometimes Bodevan's words are like single lines of novels or movies. After dating Ethan for so long, it is weird to flirt with a guy that turns beet red on the cheeks, shy to speak bluntly. Ethan does it without an effort, he always speaks his mind, whether to compliment or with the sole purpose to hurt. They are poles apart. In every way possible. Bodevan didn't go to Dartmouth like Ethan did, Bo acquired his vast knowledge out of countless books. Still and all, he is as good a doctor as Ethan Gandy.

You are kneen on different and too stubborn to accept it, but the racing on your pulse betrays you.

"You look lovely, Intern. Much too beautiful to be on the arm of someone like me."

"Someone like you? This has been perfect, Bo."

"Agreed," he giggles. "Let's do this next year. Danny will have a new heart by then."

You look at him. Next year?

"Would you like that?"

"I won't be here next year, Bo..."

He stops dancing. "Why wouldn't you?"

On a dime, it hits him. Thank God, because you don't really want to say out loud the reason why this won't happen next year, at least not with you present, is that you'll leave in a couple weeks, get married and never come back. Despite the words ain’t articulated aloud, you know Bo has heard them, and you know he espies the water welling up in your eyes and how hard you're trying to hide them.

"Intern."

You gaze down at the wet sand. The water suddenly feels cold.

"Intern, look at me," he says gently. "I'm such a nincompoop. I had just discerned tonight is all we have and I-I misused half of it by dancing with Elise." His voice is hoarse, frustrated. "I thought you felt secure in your standing." What? You are missing something here. Bodevan sighs, not relieved, but hugely nervous. The following words are said as his ocean orbs are settled elsewhere, anywhere, but your face. "Honestly? From the beginning, I've really only looked at you, wanted you." Bodevan manages to meet with your eyes, and his gaze is emotional, and blue and so deep that it overcomes you. So, for a moment, you duck your head. "I'm having a hard time accepting that you will leave... It's fine though, you'd be surprised how infrequently I get what I truly want."

You've treated with patients for years now, you've been trained to tell when they lie, how they're really feeling, find out their buried truths. And you can tell Bodevan is hiding something, some sadness he isn't prepared to share. But he shakes it away and resumes the talking, starting to sway to the music again. "But we have tonight, haven't we?. . ."—Bo looks at your eyes. Unwavering. —"There's only you, and me, and this beach. Tonight."

It takes you a moment to attain the correct rhythm of your breath and heart. You could understand the feeling— that it is unlucky, a kick in the ass from fate. Deep, deep inside you, you feel like that daily as well.

"We do," you whisper into his neck. "We have tonight." His lips are at your ear, kissing your earlobe. The arm resting on his back draws him nearer, and he mimics the action until you're physically closer to each other than you'd ever been.

You jump over a wave, and a chuckle bursts out when you turn around and notice Bodevan chasing you out of the sea. The level of alcohol is higher in your system, and your fancy dress is soaked by saltwater.

Bodevan runs faster, and as you're about to reach the back entrance of the teepee, he reaches for your hand, dragging you against his chest.

Before you can speak, he has you up against the wall, his body covering yours entirely. Bo is breathing heavily, panting, and you're just as breathless, not only because you'd just run like a madwoman. Bodevan's proximity to you and the way you can literally feel his chest rise and fall against you with his unsteady breaths is making your brain melt —even though you know, that is medically impossible too.

“What's wrong—”

He hisses and brings his hand up over your mouth. You halt, your breath stopping as you hear Peera and Danny's grunts and moans and pants.

With a crimson streak across his cheeks, Bodevan shuts his eyes and swears softly, not removing his hand from your mouth. You keep very still, trying to stay calm by breathing in and out through your nose.

"How do we proceed?"

"The hotel van will pick me up soon."

The pants grow fainter, but you're still able to hear Peera moaning Danny's name. You don't want to disturb them, or announce your presence outside, mere meters away from they having sex. This is their special night, and who doesn't enjoy a dose of birthday sex?

Bodevan doesn't let go of you for another 5 minutes. He just stands there like that, his forehead pressed against yours. Only when you are blinded by the lights of the van approaching, he quickly drops his hand.

"Peera and Rellian will take over tomorrow. We both have the day off. So see you M-Monday."

You swallow, "Do you want to come with me? I have wine in my cabin's mini bar—"

"Alright," mutters Bodevan, shaking his head at his very own embarrassment. "I-I would love to."

"Okay."

He smiles.

Breathless. That's how you'll describe your symptoms at this precise period in time. And you had been standing still for the past 15 minutes.

Why is he making you like this?

You catch his eyes widen in surprise as you grab his hand and lead with to the insides of the van. You greet the driver and set off.

After you’ve reached Shipwreck Lodge, and you fidget with the keys to open your bedroom door, you remember Elise and their shared laughter, their noses almost brushing as they talked, and how Bo dismissed the whole thing. Uncertain about the weird feeling stirring in your stomach, you say, "So you really don't like Elise, huh? She must have been upset to see you running away with me like that..."

Bodevan raises his eyebrows, "Oh, it's no problem at all. I don't care about her. A certain other girl caught my eye, you see. And I can't ignore her. Not when she robs my attention with every small detail."

Your heart hammers in your chest. "Oh. Good for you."

Bodevan shakes his head. "Not really. She's engaged."

You almost believe he will talk further, because of the way he glances at you, his eyes sparkling with things unsaid and his lips parted. Or maybe he is about to kiss you...

But he just drags his stare back to his converse, and you grab two cups and pour white wine, hit play on your Guns N’ Roses playlist and invite him to sit down with you at the edge your mattress.

You aren't sure how long you lay there, talking to him. At some point, your eyes start drooping, as are his, and you fall asleep like that beside him, bodies over the undo bed, feet tangled together, and your hair sprawled across his chest. Without even noticing that at some moment during the night, your engagement ring fell from your finger, leaving it empty.

ｎｅｘｔ►

#sorry for taking longer than usual #IT REALLY IS HARD TO WRIT E BO #ashore #ashore:two #George mackay #George mackay x reader #bodevan cash #captain fantastic #1917

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nocturna-starr · 4 years

Text

Losing Hope

Prompter: @idiot-cheesehead-archenemy

Prompt: Tucker is turned into a vampire

Length: 1718

Warnings: Implications

The motel room was cold and smelled like something had recently died in it. Yet this place was one of the few he could afford with his meagre savings and lack of ID. Here he could hang out until he could fix what was wrong with him.

It would be a while before anyone would even look for him. His parents believed he was sleeping over at Sam's while his friends believed he was at home sick. School had let out two weeks ago so there were going to be no nosy teachers questioning his whereabouts. He was home free.

Tucker Foley threw himself onto his bed. It creaked from all of his weight. He threw his bag against the wall, accidentally ripping part of the old floral wallpaper. The comforter smelled of mould. He was almost afraid to see the sheets beneath. At least it meant that maids don't come up here often. He wouldn't be noticed if he snuck back in...

He picked up the old remote on his bedside table. Half of the buttons were stuck, but it would have to do for now. He turned on the television.

The news was airing another ghost attack. Lance Thunder looked just as uncomfortable as ever.

“Well Amanda, the creep crate is attempting to rob the antique store once again. The Fentons are trying to subdue him. There is still no sign of Phantom.”

Behind the reporter, the Box Ghost was running as fast as he could. A box full of old clocks floated behind him while Jack Fenton chased him with a Fenton bazooka. Every time he shot at the blue ghost, he missed. It was laughable. Danny leaves them the weakest ghost and they still couldn't catch it!

Danny...

It wasn't fair! How come Danny managed to get the cool powers and keep his humanity? Danny got to be the world-famous hero, but Tucker would have to spend each and every day trying not to murder anyone. Why couldn't Sam had been bitten by her creepy friend instead of him? At least the style would have suited her! Why did Tucker always get the short end of the stick? Was this punishment for some awful crime he couldn't remember?

Tucker felt the bitterness creeping through his soul. That wasn't good! He needed to focus on something else before his powers went out of control. Who knew what horrible ability would make itself known? Besides, Jazz always told Danny that good things come to those with a positive attitude.

He changed the channel. A cartoon about a giant mouse and a cat was playing. They were going on some sort of adventure. It was the type of show his grandma used to put on when he was little. It was stupid and mindless, the perfect escape from his panicked mind.

He kicked his shoes off, leaving them to unceremoniously fall onto the floor. He thought about switching into his pyjamas, but what would be the point? He probably wasn't going to get much sleep at night anymore. His body needed to get used to his new needs.

Suddenly, there was a loud banging on the door. Tucker jolted upright, fear coursing through his body. Was it the police? How did they manage to find him?

“Room service!” The voice sounded like the high pitch Danny used to imitate Jazz.

“It's three in the morning lady!” Tucker yelled back, “Go away!”

The person who was most likely Danny, could not be deterred. Instead, the banging became louder and more frequent.

“Go away, Danny!” Tucker yelled. It was still dark out. He still may have those urges. The thought of accidentally killing his best friend only added to the rising panic attack.

And annoyed Danny Phantom phased through the wooden door. In his left hand was two paper bags with the Nasty Burger logo on them. In his right hand, he was balancing a tray of drinks.

“Really Tucker?” Danny rolled his eyes. The ghost boy summoned his transformation rings, “Why did you ru-“

“Stay in your ghost form!” Tucker yelled. The runaway wondered if he had woken up anyone. He hoped they would take him as a normal dude and not come down to investigate.

“Okay.” Danny placed the tray on the side table. He threw one of the greasy bags at Tucker before sitting down on the bed.

The runaway peeked inside the bag. Danny had bought him three burgers and filled the remaining bag full of fries. There was enough food to last him a day or two if he was careful. At Tucker's surprise, Danny smiled.

“Valerie was closing. When I told her I was ordering for you, she filled the bag. I think she may have developed a crush on you Tucker.”

Pain seared Tucker's heart. Why did he have to go on that stupid date?

Danny gracefully sat down on Tucker's bed. The two ate in silence, pretending to watch the inconsequential adventures of the cartoon rat and cat.

Inside his mind, Tucker was falling apart. He knew his best friend would try to convince him to go home, but Tucker could never go back again. Danny would try to find the positives, perhaps even suggest Tucker become his own superhero. Yet the ghost boy didn't understand the intense longing Tucker had every time he looked at a human.

Danny seemed to be deep in thought as well. He was frowning, and every so often he would narrow his eyes or cringe. It was like he was having a war within. Finally, Danny decided to speak.

“As much as I am enjoying watching whatever this is... We need to talk.”

We need to talk...

It sounded like something Sam would say. Her influence was rubbing off of Danny too much. Briefly, Tucker wondered if Danny would be embarrassed if he mentioned it.

“Why did you run away? Did one of the ghosts threaten you?”

“NOT EVERYTHING IS ABOUT GHOSTS!” Tucker shouted, “SOMETIMES YOU REALLY ARE A FENTON!”

His best friend took a deep breath. Tucker could almost hear Danny counting down from 10.

“Tucker,” Phantom said, barely keeping the hurt out of his voice, “What happened?”

Unearthly green eyes met emerald. Neither of them found themselves backing down. Minutes past before Danny finally seemed to yield. Tucker should have known better. Danny always had been the most determined of the trio.

“If you don't tell me, I'll just bring you back home,” The ghost boy stood up and crossed his arms. Tucker knew he would stick to the threat.

“I am a vampire.” Tucker was careful to keep emotion out of his voice. Admitting his problem had a calming effect. It was like accepting a punishment one didn't deserve. With the calm came a feeling of hopelessness.

“So, Sam was right…” Danny's stubbornness deflated. Now he looked lost and unsure. It was bizarre to see such emotions on the usually cocky ghost boys face.

“My life is over. No cheerleaders, no movie theatres, no graduation, and no future career in technology. Now, do you see why I can't go home?” Tucker brought his knees to his chest. Part of him wanted to feel something. He just felt so... Empty.

“We'll think of something. Maybe there's a way we can refocus those powers or-”

“No Danny, Tucker interrupted, “I'm not half-vampire! I bear the full curse! If you were in human form, I would have killed you! I barely stopped myself from killing the clerk. I’m a monster…”

“We will figure something out.” Danny had always been the optimist, almost to a fault. Tucker knew it was only a matter of time before the vampire overtook the human. Then Phantom would have to subdue him.

“You can't be the only vampire... Maybe Vlad can help! He kind of looks like one...” Danny had started to pace back and forth.

“Or Vlad will use me as a weapon against you?” Tucker suggested.

Danny paused and gave an unimpressed glare. Then he noticed the clock on the wall.

“I have to go. I'm sorry”

“Patrol?” Tucker felt anguish streak through his heart. He needed his best friend! Couldn’t Danny miss one stupid patrol? Memories of a grieving and guilty Phantom flickered in the back of his mind. Tucker was being selfish again. Bad things always happened when Danny missed his nightly rounds. There was a reason Amity Park was one of the safest places on earth.

“Trust me, Tuck. Sam and I will think of something. Remember to shut your blinds. (Sam said sunlight hurts you.) Sam has a book that you might find useful. See you tomorrow night!”

Within the next minute, Danny was gone. The vampire chuckled to himself as he cleaned the wrappers. If Danny thought he was going to stay put... Then he was way too trusting. Tucker would switch apartments for the rest of the night. Once the sunset, he would travel further away.

He couldn't burden his best friend with his mistakes. Danny already had the whole world on his shoulders with the ghosts. He didn't need any more difficulties. The hero couldn’t constantly watch him. If Tucker did massively screw up, which he undoubtedly would, the ghost boy would forever blame himself. The best thing to do would be for Tucker to leave.

After throwing away his and Danny’s wrappers, the teen grabbed his bag. He pulled out his cell phone and PDA. Tucker knew he should have left them at home, but he couldn't bear the part with his babies.

Here, Tucker needed to become a man. No one was going to solve his problems for him. Danny or the police will track him down (he cursed his stupidity for not getting rid of the find friends app). He turned the TV off and left.

He had to do this on his own. He would find a cure or learn to control his urges. He would go back to Amity Park. He would hug his parents, apologize to Danny and ask Valerie on a date. He would scream at Sam for setting him up with a vampire, and the two would be friends again. The trio would hunt ghosts like they used to. Everything would go back to normal.

He couldn’t lose hope.

#phic phight 2020 #Phic Phight #danny phantom #tucker foley #apparently I've been spelling mould wrong for years #vampire

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ladylynse · 5 years

Text

Forewarning: [FF | AO3] All Dipper knew was that there was something buried in some special thermos behind the shack; all Danny knew was that he had no idea how he'd gotten here.

Inspired by this beautiful piece of fanart by @hashtag-art, who very kindly gave me permission to write this fic. This story is also for @bibliophileap. Happy birthday!

“The book mentioned there might be something stuck in some special thermos that’s buried just behind the shack,” Dipper explained as he sank the spade into the ground again.

Mabel eyed him, unimpressed, and made no move to pick up the trowel that rested a few feet from where Dipper stood. “What else did the book say?” It lay open at his feet, but she couldn’t make out anything from where she sat.

Dipper tossed the dirt aside and looked guilty. “I’m not sure.”

“You didn’t read it?”

“No, I read it. I just couldn’t make it out.”

“So the page had water damage or something?”

Dipper shook his head. “It wasn’t in English.”

“So—?”

“It’s in some kind of code or made up language.” Dipper stepped on the spade, widening his hole. “I can’t crack it. Or translate it. And I don’t exactly want to ask for help.”

He didn’t know who they could trust. He’d always been more suspicious than her, but their adventures this summer just seemed to cement his conviction that his suspicions were valid. Personally, she still thought he was a bit crazy, but he was her brother; that was expected.

“Not a cipher you know, huh?” mused Mabel as Dipper continued his work. “Even after you went through that code book two years ago? Impressive, bro-bro. This author of the journals must be good.”

“It’s the only page coded this way, though. That’s what I don’t get. There’s text hidden on other pages, but nothing else is the same as this.”

“Then maybe—” Mabel broke off as she heard Dipper’s spade hit something. He dropped to his knees to paw at the loosened dirt, and she crawled forward to see what he’d found. Buried treasure, maybe?

Except it wasn’t treasure; she could see that now. It was metal, dulled from its time in the earth, but it didn’t look like anything valuable. Even as Dipper worked to scrape the dirt away, it…. It really did look like an old thermos someone had forgotten about.

“What’s supposed to be inside again?” Mabel asked slowly.

“That’s the part I can’t translate.”

Bright, lurid green peeked out from beneath the dirt now, along with…buttons? Not just any old thermos, then, though she had no idea how it was supposed to be special. Mabel met Dipper’s eyes, and he bit his lip as he reached for the lid.

He couldn’t get it loose until she held the thermos in place while he turned with both hands, and then it came off with a pop. They both pulled back as smoke—vapour—something—began to swirl out of the thermos.

Genie? Mabel mouthed, hoping to catch Dipper’s eye, but he was too focused on the churning mist. It was beginning to form a humanoid shape now. She watched in silence, wondering if they were about to get three wishes—or some less pleasant surprise.

The vapour thickened, darkening in some places and lightening in others until the figure—the boy? Genie? Ghost?—almost looked solid.

And then he fell to his hands and knees with a very solid thud and let out a groan. Mabel would have shrieked if Dipper’s hand wasn’t suddenly covering her mouth; she hadn’t even realized he’d moved beside her, though she wasn’t surprised to see he’d grabbed the journal, too. She nodded slightly, and his hand dropped.

The boy had his back to them; he might not even have seen them. All she could see now was a shock of white hair and his weird black and white suit—not entirely unlike what Blendin had worn, though it looked to be made out of a different material.

“Aw, crud, how long was I in there this time?” The boy—whatever else he was, he was definitely a boy—climbed unsteadily to his feet. And then he stopped, looked around, and turned.

Saw the Mystery Shack.

Saw them gawking at him.

“Uh….” Bright green eyes blinked. “You’re, um, not who I thought you’d be.” He looked down and saw the empty thermos that had been his prison. He bent to scoop up the lid Dipper had dropped, and even though the thermos itself was still partially buried in the ground, he had no trouble pulling it out. He had barely touched it before it was free and clean of dirt to boot.

He must have noticed that they hadn’t moved, because he shot them a smile as he screwed the lid back onto the thermos. “You’ve, ah, probably guessed this, but I’m Phantom.”

“Ghost,” Dipper muttered.

Phantom frowned. “It’s Danny Phantom, actually,” he said slowly, “which is clearly not ringing bells with either of you. Um, where exactly am I? I don’t remember any Mystery Shack thing around Amity Park.”

Mabel glanced at Dipper, but he didn’t seem to know the name, either. He also wasn’t making any weird facial expressions to convey that she shouldn’t answer, so she said, “We’re in Gravity Falls.”

He scratched his head. “Is that in Wisconsin?”

“Oregon,” Dipper answered, narrowing his eyes.

“How did I wind up in Oregon?” Phantom—Danny?—asked, though he didn’t seem to expect an answer out of them. “Does Vlad have another cabin out here or something? Do you guys know Vlad Masters? Or have you heard of him?”

They shook their heads.

“But….” He looked at the thermos again. At the hole in the ground. The shovel, the trowel, even the journal under Dipper’s arm. “If you guys don’t know about Vlad, why…? How did I get there? How did you find me? Were you even looking for me?” He took a step back, then another, and then he just…vanished.

“Maybe he’s a friendly ghost?” Mabel offered when he didn’t reappear.

“He’s in the journal. In code. He can’t be that friendly.”

XXXXXXX

Danny couldn’t remember what had happened, and that’s what scared him the most. He’d been caught in a Fenton Thermos before, loads of times, but he usually remembered it happen. Plenty of those times he’d been caught by Jazz, accidentally or on purpose, or by one of his friends, or he’d been caught unawares in a fight, and then he at least remembered there being a fight, but this time….

This time, everything was muddled.

Nothing about this place seemed familiar from the air. He wasn’t far from a town (not Amity Park, not Elmerton, not anywhere he remembered travelling to with his parents), so he checked it out in case the kids had been lying to him. They didn’t trust him, maybe because they weren’t used to ghosts or maybe because they’d only heard horror stories. He couldn’t really blame them for that. Most people didn’t grow up with ghost-obsessed parents.

Unfortunately, the girl had been telling the truth. This place was Gravity Falls, which no doubt meant it was in Oregon, which meant he had absolutely no idea how he’d gotten here.

Danny settled on a large bough of a maple tree just outside of town and pulled the Fenton Thermos from his pocket. It was in good condition—better condition than the one he usually carried, assuming he remembered to bring it with him. But this thermos was also almost dead, the display barely visible in the daylight, and his presence inside of it was probably the only reason it had lasted this long. If he didn’t recharge it, it wouldn’t be good for anything but soup.

“Why am I here?” Danny whispered. The thermos had been buried. Vlad had no reason to do that to him. If he’d just wanted him out of the way, sure, but not when he still wanted Danny as a son—or, at the absolute very least, a mentee.

He had to be missing something. There must be some clue, somewhere, and if he could just find it—

But there was no way those kids were going to trust him, even if he went back to them for help. He’d seen how they’d looked at him. It wasn’t just them being scared; they’d been wary, too. Maybe they’d run into ghosts before after all. He knew as well as anyone how many unsavoury ghosts were out there. Not everyone was nice once you got to know them.

He might get further with them if he pretended to be normal. He could tell the truth once he knew they wouldn’t try to exorcise him or something. But in case they had run into other ghosts….

Danny concentrated, letting some of his power seep into the thermos to recharge it. He’d rather risk ending up inside the thing again than not having it when he needed it. If he kept it with his suit, he could get it when he needed it and wouldn’t arouse suspicion by carrying it around as Fenton.

Light flared around the thermos and died away, and he flew back down to the ground. The Mystery Shack wasn’t far from town, and given the number of signs nailed to trees around here, it wouldn’t be hard to find on foot. And if it took a bit of time for him to get there, well, that was probably a good thing. Showing up immediately after Phantom had wasn’t going to win him any favours.

Too bad he’d already told them his name was Danny.

XXXXX

Dipper tapped the page of the journal. “He said he was a phantom.”

Springs creaked as Mabel crawled onto his bed behind him to read the description over his shoulder. “He was in black and white,” she pointed out, “and seemed more preoccupied with this Vlad Masters guy than causing pain.”

“That’s because we didn’t summon him. We just released him. Which means we need to catch him again before he tricks anyone into actually summoning him.”

It would take more than a mirror to stop him; Dipper was certain of that much. Of course, the journal was a little vague when it came to the best way to stopping phantoms, but if that thermos thing had contained it for this long, it would work again. Of course, that required him to get the thermos back, and the phantom had taken it. And he wouldn’t have the opportunity to get it back until he found the phantom again.

The easiest way to do that would be to summon it, but Dipper wasn’t going to play into Phantom’s hands. He knew how dangerous ghosts could be, and he wasn’t going to underestimate this one. Especially when it had gotten its own page in the journal.

Well.

Page was a bit of an exaggeration. It was more a small section of a page, mixed in with a collection of other eclectic notes, which was why he’d gone digging in the first place. The author of the journal hadn’t steered him wrong before, and he was surprised the ‘special thermos’ had contained something so dangerous. And why would there be words of code on the page that didn’t match the code used in the rest of the journal? It didn’t make sense.

He’d been hoping for something helpful, some clue about the author, not…this.

“How are we supposed to catch him without summoning him ourselves?”

“He might come back since he knows we’re here. He might think we’re easy prey, being kids.”

Mabel hummed in consideration. “Well, if he doesn’t, I guess it’s not the first time we’ve had to summon a ghost.”

“I’m not summoning him. That’s the one thing the book says not to do, Mabel. I’ll just figure out how to exorcise him without summoning him.”

Mabel huffed. “Why did you let him out again?”

Dipper knew better than to answer that, so he ignored her, and she eventually got bored and headed downstairs to visit with Soos and Wendy in the shop.

He went back to searching the journal for answers it didn’t want to give, trying more variations of common and not-so-common ciphers on the coded message that must relate to the phantom. He didn’t think it would be a way to defeat Phantom—the author of the journals would have had no reason to put that in code—but it had to be important. It had to be. If he could just—

“Dipper! Get your butt down here!”

Dipper groaned as Mabel’s yell interrupted his train of thought and he lost track of it completely. Worse still, a glance at the clock confirmed that she hadn’t been gone that long. He closed the book and shoved it into his backpack to hide it; he planned on stuffing more ghost-hunting provisions into the bag anyway.

He slung the backpack over one shoulder and headed down the stairs. Mabel was waiting for him by the door between the shop and the private quarters of the house. Soos was out of the room, maybe showing someone around, maybe helping Grunkle Stan with something, and Wendy was talking to some kid at the counter.

Mabel jerked her head towards the boy and raised her eyebrows.

He gave her an appropriately confused look in return.

She stuck out her tongue in annoyance—real or mock, Dipper wasn’t even sure—and turned around. “Hey, Danny, this is my brother, Dipper.”

The boy turned, and Dipper blinked.

The resemblance between the boy and Phantom was uncanny.

And considering they both went by Danny….

“Hey,” Danny said, smiling and raising one hand in an acknowledging wave. “I ditched my parents in town. Wanted to get away from them before they did something embarrassing, which usually happens within five minutes of arriving anywhere.” He glanced around. “Does this place live up to its name?”

“Pay up and judge for yourself.” Wendy popped her gum and leaned forward. “Assuming you make it out alive. Some pretty creepy things have happened here, you know.”

Dipper knew exactly how much truth there was in Wendy’s words, but he hadn’t expected this Danny guy to look so thoughtful.

Danny pulled some change out of his pocket and frowned at it. “Not sure I brought enough with me,” he said. Dipper squinted, but the money looked real enough from where he stood, and it—and Danny’s speech patterns—weren’t super old or anything like that.

He wasn’t about to write off Danny’s similarity to Phantom as a coincidence, though.

Not after everything else he’d learned was true this summer.

Especially when it felt like he’d just barely scratched the surface.

Besides, if Phantom could impersonate a human, maybe that’s what the coded message said. And maybe he wasn’t really a phantom after all if he could do that; he might just be pretending to be a phantom. Maybe he wasn’t even really a ghost. Mabel was right; the description wasn’t perfect, and the entries in the journal were meticulous. Dipper couldn’t imagine the author getting something like this wrong.

But if this Danny was dangerous, maybe the author hadn’t studied him long enough before hiding him away.

Except…. If the author had known he was dangerous, they’d have said that. They wouldn’t have put any warning in a code that couldn’t be broken. Maybe the author hadn’t known what Phantom really was. Maybe they hadn’t even known what the thermos contained.

But if they hadn’t, who had told them about the special thermos in the first place? And why wouldn’t the author have just dug behind the shack like Dipper had to find out? The book was full of other instances where the author had gone searching for something to satisfy their curiosity.

Dipper didn’t notice that Mabel had offered to cover the difference in Danny’s admission fee until she was handing money to Wendy, and by then it was too late to protest—or prove—that Mabel’s money was most likely his, just ‘borrowed’. He wondered if she’d asked him when he’d been too busy to notice or just informed him when he’d been too busy to notice.

Mabel grabbed Danny’s hand and pulled him towards the entrance, but she shot a look at him over her shoulder, and Dipper realized she was trying to buy him time.

He just didn’t know what to do with it. He didn’t know what Phantom was, what Danny was, didn’t know if it really was a coincidence that he looked like Phantom and shared a name and happened to be visiting Gravity Falls just then (though all of that was why Dipper didn’t think it mere coincidence). And he didn’t know how he could find out. If Danny had given a last name, Mabel hadn’t told him, so he couldn’t even run into town to see if Danny’s story held water.

Wendy raised her eyebrows at him. “Are you just going to stand there or are you going to go in with them?”

Dipper hesitated, but he hadn’t told Wendy everything yet, and he didn’t want to start with this mystery in the journal. “I’ll catch up with them in a bit.”

Wendy smirked. “Giving Mabel some time alone with her new target?”

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that,” Dipper said. He’d been less enthused by Mabel’s rotating—and, more to the point, highly questionable—boyfriends so far. He was pretty sure some maybe-phantom wouldn’t be on her list, but there were some things he really didn’t understand about his sister, and that was one of them. Hopefully Danny didn’t turn out to be a vampire. That would really take the cake. Although he had never heard any lore about vampires turning into mist, so….

He had to figure this out. Mabel thought the same thing he did—that Danny and Phantom were connected somehow—or she wouldn’t have called him down in the first place. She’d let him know whatever Danny said to her, so there was no point in eavesdropping, but he couldn’t possibly dig up something on Danny in such a short period of time, and they’d already looked for any trace Phantom might have left behind.

The only thing Dipper could think of doing right now was to test his theory that Danny and Phantom were connected, but the only way he could think of doing that—

He was going to regret this.

“If Mabel asks, I’m upstairs,” he told Wendy, but Mabel wouldn’t ask, because Mabel would know. Mabel had probably come to this conclusion the moment she’d seen Danny, and her distracting him by taking him on a tour had been her way of telling Dipper that all this stuff was more his territory than hers.

He’d have to try summoning Phantom—and face whatever consequences came with that.

XXXXX

There was something wrong here, but Danny couldn’t figure out what it was. He hadn’t noticed it at first, but it slowly became harder and harder to listen to Mabel as she excitedly pointed out one exhibit or another. He knew at a glance that most things were fake, but some of the others—

Danny shivered, but he couldn’t shake this feeling he had, and now he wasn’t sure if it was wrongness at all; now it felt like there was somewhere he needed to be, something he needed to find, something, something, something—

Maybe this was why he was here? If it wasn’t Vlad, it had to be something. Heck, even if it was Vlad, Vlad wouldn’t be above trying to use him to get something, though Danny had no idea what that something might be. Or how to avoid playing right into Vlad’s hands.

Maybe he should just try to go home. He didn’t need to stay here. He could head into town. Buy a map—or at least look at one, since he was out of money. Or phone Jazz or Sam and Tucker to come and pick him up in the Spectre Speeder or even the Fenton Jet. How long had he been gone? It was still summer, but that didn’t tell him if it had been a day or a week, and if it was a week, Jazz would be frantic, especially if Sam and Tucker weren’t able to fill her in on whatever had happened, and whatever excuse they’d told his parents would be coming apart and—

Danny felt in his pocket, found his phone, and pulled it out. It was dead. Again. He really needed to start carrying a charger….

He looked up to see Mabel staring at him. He didn’t know if she’d asked him a question or if she’d just noticed that he wasn’t paying attention to her.

“Do you guys have a phone I can use?” he asked. It wasn’t tactful—he would’ve had to have been paying closer attention to Mabel’s one-sided conversation to figure out how to best slip in a question like that—but for some reason, it was hard to concentrate, and— “I was supposed to meet up with my sister.” He was rambling now, lies mixing with truth. “She’s going to freak if she thinks I got lost. It’ll be long distance, though. Is that okay?” He couldn’t offer to pay, not when he’d used the last of his change to get into this tourist trap.

Mabel blinked in surprise but nodded. “Just don’t tell Grunkle Stan,” she said, even though he had no idea who that was. She led him through another door half-hidden behind a stuffed jackalope, into a hallway, and through to the kitchen. She pointed to a phone mounted on the wall.

“Thanks,” he said. He knew a handful of numbers by heart, and Jazz’s cell phone was one of them. He’d call her first—she could deal with their parents and tell Sam and Tucker and figure out a plan to get him home—and then—

“We’re sorry; you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service. If you feel you have reached this recording in error, please check the number and try your call again.”

“I…must’ve misdialled,” Danny said slowly, hanging up before trying again. He’d thought—

“We’re sorry; you have reached—”

No.

He knew that was Jazz’s number. He knew it, and he definitely hadn’t gotten it wrong the second time.

He dialled it a third time anyway.

“We’re sorry—”

Danny slammed the phone back onto its hook. He couldn’t even pretend it was something wrong with the line. This phone wasn’t cordless, even though he could see the cradle for a cordless phone on the opposite counter. Whatever this was, it wasn’t just some power outage somewhere. Back home, he’d suspect Technus was planning something, but here….

“Her phone must be dead, too,” Danny heard himself say. “I…I should go. See if I can find her. Or my parents. I didn’t exactly tell anyone where I was going.” Truth in his lies again. “They’re going to be wondering where I am. They won’t know I followed the signs for this place. They won’t be looking for me here.”

Mabel said something, but he wasn’t listening to her. He just needed to go, to find out what had happened, to get a hold of Jazz or Sam or Tucker or anyone—

He wasn’t sure he remembered to say goodbye before he went out the kitchen door and started running for the path in the woods.

He was sure to wait until the path twisted and the trees closed off behind him, hiding him from the shack and anyone who might’ve been watching, and then he transformed, and then—

Something grabbed him, pulled, and Danny screamed.

XXXXXX

Mabel heard the cry from upstairs. It wasn’t Dipper’s, but she told Wendy it was, told her that Dipper was just surprised, and waved her off as she took the stairs two at a time. Dipper was sitting on their bedroom floor with the journal. He’d shoved the rug and a few stray clothes and balls of yarn aside and drawn a circle in the middle of the floor with chalk. A few candles burned even though sunlight still streamed in from the window.

Floating in the circle, breathing hard, was Phantom.

She didn’t break eye contact with him when he met her gaze. She didn’t know if she could. “Dipper?”

“It took a while.” His voice was hoarse. “Longer than it should’ve.”

Phantom stared. Looked down at the circle. Looked back at them. “Did….” He stopped. Licked his lips. Swallowed. “Did one of you make a wish?”

Neither of them answered. The journal had warned that phantoms would cause pain to those who summoned them, would trick people into thinking they’d summoned them, but the details were too scarce for her liking. And what she’d seen with Danny hadn’t convinced her that the book had everything right, at least in Phantom’s case.

“This was magic,” Phantom said. “It…it has to be magic.” He pointed at the journal. “Is that a spell book or something?”

He looked around when he was met with silence, but he didn’t leave the circle.

“Maybe you should just exorcise him,” Mabel whispered, but Phantom heard her.

He spun around, green eyes wide with panic. “No! Seriously, please, don’t. You can’t. I don’t even want to know what—” He broke off. Shook his head. “This has to be Desiree, right? Somebody made a wish. Back home, maybe. Or maybe this isn’t even real. I don’t know. But this…. It’s powerful. And I wouldn’t be dreaming something like this. It’s gotta be Desiree. I have to stop her. You have to let me go.”

He was trapped, then. Dipper had gotten it right. Not that she’d ever thought he might have gotten it wrong. It was Dipper. He was good at this kind of thing. Better than she’d ever be.

“Please.” He was looking between them now, floating as close to the edge of the circle as he could, his feet only inches above the floor. “If Desiree is here, that’s not good, and you rea—”

Mabel didn’t think she’d blinked, but now Phantom was sitting in the middle of the circle, crossed-legged, his head in his hands.

Mabel heard Dipper’s sharp inhale and knew he’d seen it, too. Whatever it was.

Phantom finally spoke without lifting his head. “If you stay on this road,” he mumbled, “you’ll find yourself on a path you can’t turn away from.” He looked up then, scowling, and added, “Apparently, I’m supposed to warn you, because someone decided I make a good poster boy for interdimensional safety and the consequences of the lack thereof.”

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phantomphangphucker · 5 years

Text

Gray's A Ghosties Host - Phic Phight

Prompt Creator: @latterdaysaintvampire Prompt: During a high-stakes chase, Danny’s parents’ newest invention has shorted out all his powers, except one - possession. Summary: What to do when the boy who possesses your heart is literally possessing your heart?

No warnings Italics means thinking that the other can hear

“What are you doing, Phantom?”, The Red Huntress watches Danny Phantom carefully as he falls out of the sky onto her board. “Uh, not a whole lot of time to explain but you see that”, Phantom points aggressively to the faintly glowing red centipede as he continues, “yeah needs to be stopped and my shit ain’t working, so could I jack your body for a bit?”. Red opens her helmet to gape at him, to which he just sighs, while the centipede draws closer, “over-shadowing, get with the program. All my other powers are fried”. Red throws her hands out to the side, “why the hell would I! I could beat it with my own body better than you could!”. Phantom groans and flails a bit as Red swerves to avoid the centipede, “because you don’t know how to beat the thing and I don’t have time to explain!”. Red glares at him and he makes a pouty face at her, Red facepalming, “fine! But don’t turn off my consciousness or whatever!”. Phantom groans again but nods, quickly slipping inside.

“You know that unconscious shit happens naturally, pretty damn hard to force it not to”

“I don’t care, my body not yours”

“Yeah yeah, now how do I use your goo blaster thing?”

“Right elbow, twitch like you or I or whatever, have an inch”

“Well that’s vague”

Phantom can feel Red mentally glare at him but he just rolls her eyes. Shooting her board forwards and maneuvering it with ease, as he chases after the centipede; which has unfortunately gotten pretty far away by now.

“Phantom, how do you know how to use my board?”

“Uh, I’ve done it before. That and it’s pretty straight forward”

“What! When?! And bullshit I took days of practice to maneuver it this well”

Phantom quickly jerks to the right as the centipede tries to smash his tail into them.

“When I got us out of the zone, when Skulker abducted us. I got you home my way, which yes, meant over-shadowing”

“You ass! But fine, good enough reason”

“And Red, your board is way easier than my tail and that’s attached to me”

Phantom manages to use her blaster after a few tries which he can feel her snickering about. Shooting off the goo to melt away some scales on the mid-back of the centipede. Ducking low on the board he flies them in. Phantom’s kind of glad for the full body suit right about now, since this thing is dripping ectoplasm all over them. Red pipes up again as Phantom is flying them through twists and turns of what’s basically a giant maze, all lined with what’s basically egg sacs.

“Okay this is disgusting, you are helping me get this off my suit”

“It’ll be a lot worse if those sacs burst, which will happen if I, or I guess we, don’t find the right one in about 30 seconds”

“Well you fucking better, driver”

Phantom mutters out loud, “that’s what I’m trying to do”. Flying past one of the offshoot hallways Phantom jerks to a stop, flies backwards and speeds down the hall. Smirking the whole time, “found you”.

“Care to explain why I couldn’t just play scavenger hunt myself?”

“One, I could sense about where it is. And two you can’t just shoot it, that’ll make everything way worse”

Phantom feels quite satisfied with himself at Red mentally grumbling to herself. Phantom starts rubbing Reds hands on the sac and a bunch of lights show up in it. He starts tapping the lights wildly in a specific pattern, that he forced himself to memorise after one too many unpleasant encounters with this thing.

“How many times have you had to do this?”

Phantom completely ignores her, which she mentally glares at him for. But watching the sac turn green and liquify, Phantom grins, “Hell yeah!”.

“More times than I like and here comes the unpleasant part”

“Um what?”

After about a second or two the entire ghost just liquifies into very wet jello like green ectoplasm. Half climbing and half swimming, Phantom gets them to the surface and sits them down on Red’s board, shaking the ectoplasm off her hands.

“This is disgusting, again you’re helping me clean my suit”

“Try doing that without a helmet. Shit gets into everything. And yeah sure, I’m not an ass”

“Well, could you get out of me now?”

Talking out loud, “yeah yeah, sure”. But before he has a chance Red’s suit electrocutes him and results in him knocking Red out cold, accidentally. “What the fuck!”, shaking her head he tries to actually hop out of her but nothing happens. “Oh fuck”, mentally poking Red back into consciousness.

“What the hell Phantom!”

“Your suit shocked me, or us, lost my grip on the not knocking you out thing”

“Fine”

Phantom shifts a bit awkwardly on her board.

“There’s uh, a bit of a problem though. I can’t seem to get out now”

“What! Did you even try?”

“Of course I tried! I’m not an asshole and no offence but I like my own body. Preferably not inside someone else’s, even if it’s you”

“Uh, you’re not half bad yourself but seriously, you can’t get out?”

Phantom nods her head but tries again anyways, this time Red can actually feel him trying to get out but both can tell that somehow the suit is stopping him. Frowning, Phantom flies them into an alleyway.

“Okay that’s weird, it would be really dumb for my suit to have a feature like this. I’m guessing we’re in an alley so you can deactivate my suit?”

“Yup, not about to reveal you in broad daylight”

“I don’t even know how I feel about that, you’ve revealed me before”

“Only to your own dad. To stop you from a damn suicide mission”

Phantom shakes her head and deactivates the suit, or at least attempts to. Talking out loud, “uh, unless this works differently from last time, we’ve got another problem”.

“Oh come on! I bet you anything that weird ectoplasm is at fault here”

Sighing, “yeah probably, I swear I had no clue though”

“I believe you, this doesn’t really benefit either of us”

With a groan, Phantom summons Red’s board out again and flies them both to her place. Landing in her bedroom,

“I’m guessing you have suit repair stuff”

“Yeah, though my suit’s self-repairing, usually. Just grab the diagnostic machine from my closet. It looks like a PDA but red and pointy”

Phantom chuckles as he pulls it out, looking exactly like what she described. Thinking to himself about how Tuck would love to get his hands on this. Flopping down on her bed,

“Now open up the panel on the underside of my left arm and plug it in. It’s just a push and pop, I’m sure you can do that”

“What do you take me for, a moron? Well, you’re absolutely right”

“You’re awful”

Phantom leans them back on her bed as he waits for the machines results. He can’t help but smirk at a couple of the glow-in-the-dark stars on the roof.

“You know, I can fell what you’re doing with my face. What? My stars not to your liking?”

Phantom can feel the sarcasm there and chuckles almost loudly at that.

“Red, my ceilings covered in them. Hell, I’d stick these fake ones on everything if that wouldn’t make me look insane”

“My knowledge on lairs is pretty small, Phantom. Couldn’t you just make literal stars everywhere?”

Phantom laughs again as the machine starts beeping, grabbing it as he responds to Red.

“Pretty sure Amity Park would have problems with me doing that. Might make it hard to drive or live with literal balls of flaming gas everywhere! Even fake ones would make things difficult, for everyone involved”

“Wait, all of Amity is your lair?!”

Phantom nods as he stares at the screen, “Uh, the hell does any of this mean?”. Rubbing Red’s neck, “and yes all of Amity is my lair, though I have my own little room inside Amity as well”.

“That’s major contamination, need a system flush. We’re stuck for a bit and seriously? Why is there such a ghost issue then? Shouldn’t you be able to keep them out or whatever? And you better not be messing with people”

Phantom can feel her glare, though he can tell she’s more curious than genuinely angry.

“You can’t just keep ghosts out, all you can do is make your lair a place they really don’t want to go. Tons of humans is pretty well attracting them, looking to mess around with them. Amity would be a very unpleasant place for anyone but me to live, if I went out of my way to make Amity unappealing to ghosts. And there’s nothing wrong with a prank or two”

Phantom rolls her eyes at Red’s continued glaring, “I don’t mean anything nasty, so chill. You know me better than that, I’d hope”. Sitting up and glaring at the little device, “so system flush?”.

“Just push the green button, red one and blue one, at once. And you’re right, I do know you better than to be mean. Thanks, I guess, for not screwing with Amity. Lots of folks live here. You really are as protective of the people as much as the town, aren’t you?”

Phantom nods and smiles warmly as he pushes the buttons. Jumping a bit at the sudden weird tingling and movement in her bodies veins, but shaking his head a bit amused at Red’s mental laughter.

“Trust me having two or four bodies feels weirder, that was just unexpected. I forget your suit is literally inside you and part of you. And what? You gonna sue me for being a protective little shit. I care more about the people than the town. Buildings can be fixed, people just can’t”

Phantom can’t help but shiver at some old memories. He could feel Red’s shock, though he’s glad she seems kind of happy.

“I’m not sure I want to know what your sudden disturbed feeling was. But that’s good you care about the people. Man, I really used to be a dick to you”

“Don’t worry about it, I don’t really care much about myself getting hurt. And no you don’t, I wish I didn’t. Well, sorta; it’s complicated. Anyway, how long does this take?”

“We are both messes, but about six hours”

Phantom flops them back down on the bed and fiddles with Red’s fingers in front of Red’s face. Blinking her eyes a bit before muttering, “oh well that’s, uh, not actually good, shit”.

“Oh now what?”

“Well, the stupid weapon that shorted my powers is gonna wear off in about an hour. And they’re going to be a bit squirrely”

“So what? You’re just going to use them at random?”

“Pretty much, only easy to use ones though. Might fall through the bed a couple of times or start sneezing ice”

“That is going to be very weird, it won’t hurt me will it?”

Phantom rubs her neck and chuckles awkwardly,

“Uh, can’t say I know for sure. But it is safe to use my powers in someone else’s body. This really isn’t a power I use much”

“That’s just great. Well, try not to hurt me”

“Of course, and I’m guessing you’ll need to sleep at some point?”

Thinking to himself, about how he really needs to himself and he’s not even a regular human.

“Duh, which is going to be a whole new level of weird. Do you even know how to sleep?”

Phantom can’t help but start laughing his ass off, putting Red’s arm over her eyes. “Sometimes I think I don’t, god! But yes, hell yes”

“Not sure why that’s so funny, ghosts don’t sleep so it’s a damn valid question”

“It just is. Just chalk it up as another weird aspect of the enigma that is Phantom”

“How do you manage to be so powerful, horrible and cute”

Phantom coughs, caught a bit off guard, “what was that?”.

“Uh”

Phantom laughs playfully at that complete lack of a response, “well then”.

“Jerk”

“Oh come on, you’re all those things too. I’m just not embarrassed to say it, well, think it; in your general direction. But at least you weren’t 24 years old this time ”

“What? What the fuck? You’re less of a jerk now, but what?”

“What the fuck is a pretty accurate way to describe time travel. You look pretty good with a buzz cut by the way”

“That’s insane, what uh, what was I like?”

“Pretty much the same, didn’t really talk much. You realised I was from the past, called me cute and then passed out”

“Wow, somehow that feels really lame”

“That was the only real highlight of that day. Pretty shit day. Come to think of it, every-time time travel is involved shit gets really messed up”

“You really are a mess”

Phantom scrunches her face up a bunch before lifting her hand to her face, completely invisible.

“Holy shit, you weren’t kidding. How did neither of us feel that”

“My powers are extremely natural to me, like blinking or breathing to you. It can be harder to not use them than to use them”

“That’s weird even if it makes sense, I guess it’s like how I don’t notice my suit doing its thing in me anymore”

Phantom shakes her head but feels a fair bit embarrassed,

“Even from the very beginning, it was like that for me. Half the time I was using my powers on accident and usually didn’t even notice”

Phantom can feel her snickering at him

“Goddamnit that’s adorable, oh hell”

“I like how you go from mocking me, to being embarrassed”

“Oh shut it”

“I don’t think I will”

Red mentally yelps as the two phase straight through the bed and floor. Phantom has to latch onto a ceiling light to keep them from crashing into the living room. Phantom silently watches Mr. Gray walk from the living room into the kitchen, before phasing then back into Red’s room. “Well, that was eventful”.

“More like nerve-racking”

“Eh, nothing much phases me anymore”

“You’re awful”

“Then you must have awful taste in men”

“You’re a child!”

“So are you!”

“You’re a ghost...”

“So what? Why care?”

Phantom sighs a bit as he sits them down cross-legged on her bed, she doesn’t think anything at him for a bit.

“We’re not the same, you’re literally possessing me right now”

“No one is the same, and you have a nanobot suit in your veins. How is that not just as weird as my powers?”

“You, you’ve thought about this before”

“Like I said, or thought, I’m not embarrassed by my interest. Hell, most ghosts and even a few humans, know how I feel”

Phantom rubs Red’s neck, “though I’ve been called an insane idiot many times for it. I guess it is kind of absurd and stupid to be interested in someone who’s trying to kill you”.

“Wait, so you’ve been, interested, in me since almost the beginning? Yeah that is pretty stupid, I really was trying to destroy you”

“Heh, yeah I know. My self-preservation was pretty well butchered by the time you popped up”

“Can’t really say mines all that intact either, but this is just so weird”

“Red, for as different as we are, we are also very similar. Hell, our “jobs” are basically the same. And we’re both out to lunch compared to the rest of our kinds”

“True, I don’t know if this would be more or less awkward face to face”

“You’re the awkward one here, I’ve been owning this shit pretty well publicly for years”

Phantom can feel her embarrassment as he rolls over to stretch out a bit, blinking at the layer of ice they’re laying on, “well there’s an ice breaker for you”.

“Pft you’re awful, it’s not even broken”

“Oh you know better than to tempt me”

“Don’t you dare!”

Snickering, “I’m the scary ghost boy! I do what I want!”

Phantom flicks a corner of the blanket, shattering it off, “HA!”. While Red mentally laughs.

“So, you going to own your shit now too? Or do I need to make more horrible puns for you actually admit you like me”

“God damn you, how are you so just out there? With everything? And yes I’m still hung up on the ghost thing, but you really don’t care do you?“

“Nope, I really don’t. Two humans, two ghosts, a ghost and a human, or something else entirely; I see no real difference. Though, I’ll never get over Boxy getting with the Lunchlady. They're going to be so confused at the baby shower, I fist fought their kid before they even started dating”.

“Oh my god, that is really ew. I think this kind of shit is why you are so self exposed. No matter what weird shit you show publicly, there’s something weirder unsaid or did”

Phantom scratches Red’s head with her hand, “you might just have a point there”. He then flings her hand over the top of the garbage can, clearly seeing the glowing green forming ectoblast.

“Well I hope nothing was hidden in there”

“Why would I hide stuff in a garbage can? That’s asking for it to be thrown out”

“Must you insult me so”

“Seriously? What even are you?”

“A mess that’s what. A spooky mess”

“The spookiest”

“A spooky that you likey”

Phantom puts her hands behind her head and smirks while Red mentally groans.

“So...”

“Oh my god”

Red doesn’t get to properly respond as Phantom snaps her head to the side, ghost sense going off. “It’s been all of three hours”, with a groan Phantom flings them up off the bed and sticks her head out the window to look around.

“What even was that? And what are you looking for?”

“Ghost, that was my Ghost Sense. Goes off whenever a ghost is near”

“Oh my god, you have built-in ghost radar and ghost tracker”

“So do you?”

Phantom jumps about a bit, making sure he can make her body float reliably, as Red thinks at him.

“From nanobots, not my own natural body, but point. And you know none of my suit is usable right now, right?”

Phantom smirks, “yup” as he vaults them out the window. Flying low to the ground, off to where he can sense what turns out to be a snake ghost.

“Please don’t crash me”

“Flying might as well be my number one skill, Red”

“And your powers are being crazy right now, so your point?”

Rolling Red’s eyes, “oh please, have a little faith”. As he shoots off an ectoblast at the snakes head, “that’ll give ya something to sink your fangs into!”. Only to snap Red’s head towards Skulker as he shoots a capture net around the snake. The two, technically three, float there for a bit while Skulker slowly tilts his head. Until Skulker smirks, tosses his catch over his shoulders and gives the two of them a thumbs up, “well whelp, that’s not how I’d go about snagging a lady but a fellow hunter always congratulates another on a successful hunt”. Phantom, snapping back at the retreating ghost, “I asked first, you metal ass”.

“You really weren’t kidding about that either. Am I seriously the only one who didn’t clue in?”

Snickering as he flies them back to her place, “well most humans don’t know and ghosts are horrible gossips, but I’m pretty sure you knew; sort of”.

“That makes no sense”

“I’m an enigma remember”

Flopping down on Red’s bed and crawling under the blankets, “comfy”.

“Glad you approve, not sure how you’ll handle sleeping for the first time in however long”

“Like a very scary baby”

“More like a cute one”

Phantom raises her eyebrow, “Oh is that so”

“Alright fine, I like your ghostly ass ok? And not in the just friend's way. The interspecies thing is still a mind trip though”

Smirking contently into her pillow, “well now I can die happy”.

“Don’t you dare”

“Be happy or die?”

“You’re awful and we’re a mess”

“Well then, I’ll remind the reaper to bless this mess”

“You are an affront to god, now let me or us or whatever sleep”

“Oh you have no idea”

Red wakes up after only an hour or two of sleep, thinking to herself, she’s mentally blaming that on Phantom.

“You still here, Phantom?”

“Yeah, you can’t get rid of me quite yet”

“I think I’m ok with that”

“Same, but I’m still jumping this body-sharing ship when I can”

“Good, cause we so need an out of my body talk, you cute ass spook”

End.

#phic phight #phic phight 19 #Danny Phantom #phantom #fan fic #phan phic #Valerie gray #romcom #romance #phantomphangphucker #have a fic suck my dick #team human #possession #over-shadowing #gray ghost

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phandomphightclub · 5 years

Text

Honorable Mention Round: The eliminated phighters of the Phandom Phight Club vs. Birch Tree Fartman Himself

Disclaimer: This is all done as a joke in good fun. While I don’t agree with a lot of his personal views, I definitely do not advocate for anyone to physically harm Butch Hartman in any way. Also, minimal to no effort was made to make anyone in character with their actual personalities. Enjoy!

“Holy flying ice cream,” Tali murmured up at the sky, where the ghost who’d spoken descended amid a cloud of darkness. “Get down, guys. Get down!”

Danny didn’t need to be told twice; he went intangible and phased himself, Sam, and Tucker through the floor of the bleachers.

“What are you doing, Danny!?” Sam stage-whispered. “We can’t just leave them to fight that - that - what was that?”

Something in the depths of Danny’s memory had been stirred at the voice, but he still couldn’t say.

“There’s a whole stadium full of ghosts out there. They can handle it. My job is keeping you two safe.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Tucker said. Still, Danny was curious. Staying invisible, he stuck his head up through the floor.

“Vic? Come in, Vic!” Tali was shouting into the walkie talkie. All she got was static.

“Come on, what’s with all the panic?” The voice asked. Danny still couldn’t see his face; his form was shrouded in the dark mist. “Aren’t you happy to see your creator?”

“Creator?” Sam asked incredulously. “Is that ghost saying he’s-?”

“If that’s God, I’m converting to atheism,” Tucker said in forced deadpan.

“No,” Danny shook his head, which was still sticking up through the floor, so his friends couldn’t see it anyway. “That’s not - I know who this is. I just - can’t remember.”

As the ghost came to rest over the pavement - ignoring the barrier that should have kept him out - the smoke veiling him finally cleared. Danny cringed in expectation of some eldritch horror, but it was just… a man. A regular, human-looking man, with dark hair and a cocky grin. He clasped his hands behind his back.

“It’s a nice place you have here,” he said conversationally, staring around the arena. “It’s too bad that none of this is canon.”

“Nobody cares if it’s canon!” A brave ghost shouted from the crowd.

“Nobody cares.” The man sighed. “Nobody cares! Well, I know one person who does.”

He revealed his hands from behind his back, and Danny’s stomach dropped. It wasn’t possible, but there he was, weilding a weapon Danny knew he’d destroyed.

“Danny? What’s going on?” Sam demanded from below. He pulled his head back under to answer.

“He’s got the Reality Gauntlet,” Danny answered in a broken voice. “All the gems, too.”

“What?” Sam and Tucker shouted.

“Shhhh! We can’t let him know we’re here!” Danny whispered. For some reason, Tali had been intent on them hiding, and he couldn’t help the feeling in his gut that told him it was for a good reason.

“Me.” The man snapped his fingers, and the arena disappeared. All of it - all the seats, all the cracked, potholed pavement, all the concession stands full of Cheez-Its—gone. In one snap.

All the ghosts, fortunately, were still standing - or, well, floating. Several flew away, screaming in all-out panic. A few stood their ground, however, including most of the Denny’s crew.

“This is not good. This is very, very not good,” Tali muttered, staring at her walkie-talkie. Hopefully Vic was safe in the Denny’s, which hadn’t been affected by the snap. She’d have to distract him long enough to make sure he didn’t notice it. She’d put in too much effort to let it get destroyed on the whim of some egotistical ghost, no matter how powerful he was.

“Hey, Birch Tree Fartman!” She shouted into her megaphone, which wasn’t connected to the speaker system and therefore still worked.

“Hmm?” The ghost looked up at her. “Calling names isn’t very polite, you know.”

Birch Tree Fartman, Danny thought, remembering back to Tali’s comment from the last round - it was the name for a ghost who wasn’t supposed to be named.

“Butch Hartman,” Danny whispered as his eyes widened. “That’s who he is, that’s - that’s the guy who created my TV show!”

“Danny, you weren’t supposed to say his name!” Sam hissed. But it was too late. Butch’s eyes glowed bright red.

“Someone’s summoned me again,” he murmured. “Where is he? I can feel him close… my son. Danny? Are you here?”

Danny’s blood ran cold. Or ectoplasm, since he was in ghost form - whatever.

“Dude, that guy is not your dad. Right?” Tucker asked nervously.

“Probably just another frootloop wanting to ‘adopt’ me,” Danny said with more confidence than he felt. Butch had created his TV show, which, through the impossible laws of metaphysics and the writer’s discretion, meant that he had created Danny. Like a father. Only Danny had no memory of it, and had a feeling that that was for a reason.

“Ah.” Butch’s eyes glowed brighter. “There you are.”

There were no more bleachers or floor for protection. Aside from Tali who still stood between them, they were completely vulnerable.

“Danny!” She shouted. “Get out of here!”

“I-”

“Why would you listen to this ghost?” Butch asked, floating towards them. “She’s not even canon. Why, I could just snap my fingers, and-”

“Would you like a pancake?”

Butch blinked. Suddenly floating behind him was a ghost in fuzzy rainbow twinkle toes, a monster hat, and a fanny pack. She was also holding a platter stacked high with pancakes.

“Uh, no, I’m kind of in the middle of something, random non-canon ghost. Why don’t you go crawl back to the fanfic gutter where you belong?”

“Now that’s what I’d call not very polite,” the waiter—Ectolights—said, then shoved the platter of pancakes into his face.

“GAH!” Butch shouted, wiping the syrup from his red eyes. “Why you little—!”

“There’s more where that came from!” Another ghost said, teleporting between Tali and Butch.

“Vic!” Tali grinned. “You made it!”

She winked back at her before turning back to Butch. “Alright, Phighters! Execute Plan Delta Despa Dorito 0.25, Reverse Formation!”

At her command, a flood of ghosts teleported into the empty space between them, all wearing the most ridiculous outfits Danny had ever seen. He caught glimpses of croc hats, sequinned leggings, zoot suits, weed socks - even a full-body Gritty costume.

“What—you think your poor taste in fashion can defeat me?” Butch chuckled.

“Maybe not,” Tali said, flying to join Vic at the front of the small army. “But these are some of the best phighters this side of the ghost zone. And some of the best employees too. So without further monologuing—PHIGHT!”

The ghosts charged at Birch Tree, some holding their weapons from earlier on in the phight, some just wielding standard-issue ectoblasts and fists. Regardless of fighting style, all had the rabid violent enthusiasm one would expect from an elite team of shitposters.

Before he could be overwhelmed, Butch quickly threw up a translucent red barrier. Spacegravedoodles smashed directly into it, their barred sunglasses shattering on impact.

“MY EYES!” They cried, forgetting to hover and falling towards the depths of the ghost zone.

“See? Your lawless fanon is powerless here,” Butch taunted.

“It’s pronounced PHANON!” Ectopusses shouted before shattering the barrier with a sharp kick from her guac-coated flip flops. Butch covered his heads as the red shards fell around him.

“Alright team, here’s our chance!” Tali called. “Go for the gauntlet!”

From there, all semblance of order broke down as approximately 20 ghosts fought to reach the metal gauntlet. At least in all the chaos, Butch was too distracted to use it. The chaos only compounded when a familiar tune began to play from behind them. It was a glitchy song being scratched out, but a few words were recognizable.

“Phantom Planet’s not canon, F you,” Lexosaurus beatboxed behind them while dabbing. The music sent Butch into a rage; his eyes glowed with the threat of an ectoblast.

“Get down!” Fantasma-Exspiravit (who was wearing a vampire costume) shouted, but not soon enough to save Gosteon, who was blasted backwards into the abyss. Meanwhile, Phantombreadproject (in a dress made of ballpit balls) and Cluelessintheusa (in horrible pink-and-blue leggings) attempted to tackle Butch from behind.

“Surprise attacks? Please, I created your reality.” He spun and punched the two of them so hard they were sent flying. “I know what you’re going to do before you do. How do you expect to defeat me?”

From further back, where they were floating invisibly, Tucker whispered to Danny and Sam.

“He’s got a point. If he actually did create this place somehow, how can we beat him?”

“We beat Pariah Dark,” Danny said, though his voice was grim. “We can beat this frootloop too. But… they might need some help.”

“Danny,” Sam warned, “I don’t know what he wants with you, but be careful. Whatever it is, it can’t be good.”

She didn’t have to tell him that twice. Any strange old men claiming to be his father had bad news written all over them. Ignoring the danger, though, he flew up to the fray.

“Hey, Birch Tree! It’s me you want, not them!”

Sam smacked her forehead. “So much for being careful.”

His voice distracted Butch long enough for needstobehelped (who was unrecognizable under her Grundy costume) to get him in a headlock. Butch grunted, scraping at her furry arms.

“Nngh… you shoul’ve… gone for the hand.” With one snap from his gauntleted fingers, needstobehelped was gone.

No one had time to wonder what that meant for her. They just had to get rid of Butch, now.

Danny launched ectoblasts from a (relatively) safe distance, careful to avoid hitting the ghosts on his side. Still, it was such a mess that he accidentally blasted Ifellbecausegravity, who was wearing a suit similar to his – only hers had advertisements from Nasty Burger glued to it. Why hadn’t he thought of that? It would’ve been one way he could’ve made money while working as a full-time superhero – but that wasn’t important right now.

“Danny, don’t you remember me?” Butch asked with mock hurt. “I’ve missed you, son. Why don’t you come back with me and we can give you the fourth season you deserved?”

“He deserves better than you, dipstick!” Voidetrap said while decking him with a gloved Minion arm. The hit barely fazed him; he flicked her away as if she were a pesky bug.

“As I was saying,” Butch cleared his throat, “don’t you want to see what I could’ve done for you? You’re stuck in limbo. Why, after Phantom Planet, you would’ve–”

There it was again: Phantom Planet. Those two words set off a buzzing pain in Danny’s head. He gripped at his hair, crying out when the pain intensified.

“Ah, I see. You’re just now starting to remember. These so-called fans have brainwashed you to the point that you’ve forgotten everything.”

Had they? Had he – was he supposed to –

“You’ve got to fight it, Danny!” Tali urged him. “Birch Tree will do anything to manipulate you!”

“And these ghosts will do anything to keep you broken,” Butch sneered while grappling with What-is-love-babey-dont-hurt-me, who was wearing short shorts with Enemy of the State plastered across the butt. “You should see the angst they’ve written about you! Dissections. Pain. Your family abandoning you. Why would you listen to them?”

“Because we care about him!” What-is-love-babey-dont-hurt-me said. “He’s just a tool to you so you can make even more clickbait videos and pretend you’re still relevant!”

Butch snarled and finally shook her off; she went tumbling into the abyss, but another ghost took her place.

“The saturation on all of your art is way too bright!” Luma said, decking him over the head with their pillow.

“That… that would explain a lot.” Danny shook off his uncertainties. Whatever kind of ghost Butch was, he didn’t deserve control over Danny’s life. “You may have started my story, but I’m going to finish it!”

His legs morphed into his ghostly tail as he flew forward, ramming into Butch with his shoulder. The breath knocked from his chest, Butch tumbled back - but not before Dots (in a full-body suit covered in Dannos) and Bibliophileap (in an outfit too terrible to be described) could grab hold of the Reality Gauntlet.

“Pull!” Dots cried, and the two ghosts heaved for all they were worth. Though they were still tumbling along with Butch, they managed to right themselves and exert all the energy they had left. The Reality Gauntlet finally dislodged from his hand with a sharp pop.

“NO!” Butch cried. “This is my show! Mine! I created your childhood!”

“Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t.” Vic shrugged

“Either way, we decide where we go from here.” Tali smirked as Bibliophileap and Dots brought back the gauntlet. “As winner of the honorable mention round, Five-Rivers should get to do the honors.”

“Back to the Shadow Realm for you.” Verbally-Situational-Irony flashed her Yu-Gi-Oh cards as Five-Rivers put on the gauntlet, having to slip it under her bedsheet covering first.

“You are the weakest link,” Five-Rivers said. “Goodbye.”

She snapped.

“No, wait! I don’t want to go – just think of all the YouTube videos we could’ve made together! You could’ve been buff instead of a twiggly little twink like these idiots make you!” His body began to crumble to dust. “Daniel! Wait! I don’t want to–”

“Oh, and Birch?” Tali cut him off with a grin. “It’s ‘yo.’ Not ‘young.’”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Was his last cry before his form completely dissolved, scattered to the ends of the ghost zone by a gentle wind.

Lexx stopped beatboxing in order to cheer, and soon that cheer was taken up by all the ghosts as they returned to the site of the now-nonexistent arena.

“Wow,” Sam said as she and Tucker floated towards Danny.

“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” he laughed. “That was weird.”

“Does your head still hurt?” She asked.

“Nah. I think I’ll be fine, as long as no one tries to tell me what a Phantom Planet is.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t,” Tali assured him, then called to the rest of the ghosts. “Alright, guys! Stand clear!”

There was a confused mutter before Vic took the megaphone and explained. “We’re bringing back the stadium, so unless you want to get crushed, get your butts out of the way!”

After being told twice, the crowd finally cleared. Five-Rivers, still wielding the Reality Gauntlet, waved her arm. As it passed over the space where the stadium once was, the architecture rebuilt itself out of nothing. The ghosts who’d been yeeted off by Butch reappeared as well, blinking in disorientation.

Tali sniffed, wiping her eyes. “It’s beautiful. Phight Club, I’ll never let you get destroyed by a crazy ghost with a superiority complex ever again.”

The crowd cheered, flooding back into the stadium. All except for Tali, Danny, Sam, and Tucker.

“So, uh… is he really gone?” Danny had to ask. He’d thought the Reality Gauntlet was destroyed before, and it had come back. What was to say Butch couldn’t too?

Tali sighed. “I’m not sure a ghost like that can ever truly be gone. But if he comes back, we’ll yeet him into the nether realm.”

“Fair enough. But about the Reality Gauntlet…”

“We’ll take good care of it,” Tali said with a knowing smile, the kind that let Danny know it wasn’t up for discussion. “If Birch Tree does come back, we’ll need a way to defend ourselves.”

“No way,” Sam said. “No one should have that kind of power.”

Tali raised her eyebrows. “What are you going to do, take it from us?”

She started a retort, then bit her lip. Tali nodded as if that settled that.

“Oh! There’s one thing I almost forgot!”

She sounded her kazoo to the tune of the Danny Phantom theme song.

“Birch Tree Fartman is unable to battle! Five-Rivers – and the collective Phandom Phight Club – win!”

@five-rivers is the winner of the Honorable Mention Round! Mod Vic is working on your certificate for winning, but she has finals coming up so it might be a little while before it’s done. Thanks everyone for phighting with us!

#mod tali #honorable mention round #writeup #results #sorry if I didn't get you written in #there were a lot of honorable mentions and I tried to fit everyone I could #but there's a chance I missed a few

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ayellowbirds · 6 years

Video

youtube

Keshet Rewatches All of Scooby-Doo, Pt. 25: “Don’t Fool With a Phantom”

("Scooby-Doo, Where Are You", Season 2 Episode 8. Original Airdate: 10/31/1970)

AKA, "The Gang Are Oblivious To The Permanent Skin-Altering Side Effects of Regularly Ingesting Silver Compounds"

It seems especially appropriate that the final episode of the original series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, aired on the morning before All Hallow’s Eve. How many kids got ready for trick-or-treating with this one fresh in their memories?

Upbeat music and a shot of the exterior of a high-rise building lit by a flashing sign with the station identifier KLMN, probably not associated with the real-life station of the same call letters. The scene transitions inside to a studio where the gang participate in Johnny Sands’ Dance Game Show.

Fred and Daphne repeat the same generic, jerking dance they’ve done at every single occasion where there was music, and are applauded off the stage with a “groovy!” from the host... who introduces “Shaggy and Scooby-Doo, with their ‘Toffee Twist’!”

The boys put on a performance using an immense length of uncut soft toffee as a dance prop, and as the rest of the gang watch, the station manager Roger Stevens lauds the original performance. The only problem, Velma notes, is that Shaggy and Scooby might eat their way out of the contest.

Suddenly, the lights cut and the stage is plunged into utter darkness. Shaggy cries out the series title in spite of the fact that Scooby was inches away from him, and the lights come back up just as he gets his response. Or more accurately, something else lights up the stage.

A glowing, misshapen figure towers over the boys, moaning hauntingly, and the lights go out again as people scream and attempt to flee amidst crashing noises. The problem with this scene?

When the lights come back up, none of the studio audience has moved, and while the sign for the show is busted up, it’s clearly a completely different sign. The colors are reversed from the original, and if you look closely at the very top, you can see where the background artist(s) simply painted it over the original sign.

Velma thinks this is just one of Johnny Sands’s famous “publicity stunts”, but when the gang respond to cries for help, they find Johnny tied up in a ransacked room. He explains that the station had been receiving threatening notes signed by “the Wax Phantom”, a figure he relates back to “Grisby”, an eccentric maker of wax figures who had briefly had a spot on the show until he was canceled and swore revenge by bringing one of his statues to life.

The safe has been emptied out, and Mr. Steven is absent—with a trail of wax footprints leading out a 10th story window as the only solid clue. Fred wants to call the cops, but Sands insists that the publicity would ruin the financially struggling KLMN. It’s the last we see of him for the rest of the episode, which really feels like a missed opportunity to add more clues and red herrings.

While Fred and Daphne investigate the wax museum, Shaggy, Scooby, and Velma are sent to check on Grisby (first name? Last name? We never find out). He greets them at the door, hushing them.

It’s never said out loud that Grisby is gray-skinned, though maybe argyria is a common enough condition in the Scoobyverse that it isn’t seen as appropriate to question it. He welcomes the trio into his home, where we immediately see a table with a skull and taxidermied raven, as well as some kind of bird of prey over the front door, as well as a crystal ball on a pedestal with the likeness of a snake coiling up it. A skeleton in an electric chair makes its appearance in the next shot, and while Shaggy investigates a cauldron cooking in the fireplace, Scooby opens a small box.

I already made one Danny Phantom joke, so i’m afraid that i’ll just have to let you enjoy this BOX GHOST on its own. What a little cutie. It makes a chittering noise and flaps its arms, so i think it might be the ghost of a bat or bird, rather than a human. More tiny ghosts—little skulls—bubble up from the stew before Shaggy can take a taste, and Grisby gleefully declares that his black magic is working, and he will soon have his revenge. A live corvid crows and swoops through the room, and Shaggy, Velma, and Scooby flee—though Scooby pauses to wave goodbye, and the skeleton in the chair giggles and waves back.

It’s a charmingly spooky little place, but having seen shots of the interior of @bogleech and Guillermo del Toro’s homes, i feel like there’s just not enough going on. A guy like Grisby wouldn’t be happy unless the walls were lined with eerie memorabilia and figures.

The scene cuts to the wax museum, where the Wax Phantom watches as the Mystery Machine drives up. Finding the front door unlocked, Fred and Velma enter, and are too distracted to notice as the Phantom bolts the door behind them, and sneaks around to moan and chase at them.

Outside, Velma struggles with the door, and bribes the boys with handfuls of Scooby Snacks to find a window they can climb through. A series of frights ensues as Scooby and Shaggy are repeatedly caught by surprise by the displays, including animatronic gimmicks like a giant bat that drops down in front of a figure of a vampire.

At one point, however, Velma is surprised by a floating, translucent gloved hand that has no rational explanation. It’s an “actual ghost” bit like so many others, never revealed as part of the villain’s setup and given no mundane cause. Spooked again, the gang run into each other—well, Shaggy runs into an Egyptian-style sarcophagus (”just dropped in to see my mummy”).

Velma spots a clue on the floor near Scooby: a “Speedy Airlines” ticket, “to South America”. Where in South America? It’s a clue, but a frustratingly vague one. The gang go looking for more clues, and Shaggy and Scooby voluntarily split when they catch sight of a display of a dining table with wax figures of dinner guests.

In particular, there’s this figure of the Space Ghost villain, Black Widow! It’s a cute little cameo. Meanwhile, the rest of the gang drop through a trap door into a pit with stone walls and no apparent exit. The scene cuts back to Shaggy and Scooby, as the Black Widow hands a bowl of fruit to Scooby, who passes it to Shaggy. Neither seem to process that the wax figure is moving, though Scooby offers his thanks just before Shaggy spits out a mouthful of wax fruit in disgust.

The Wax Phantom appears, and tells the boys that they, too, “will soon become members of my wax family.” Shaggy and Scooby distract him with the fruit and sneak away as quickly as they can, accidentally winding up in the “TOPSY-TURVEY ROOM”, a room set up to look like an ordinary household dining room turned upside-down. The boys panic and cling to the chandelier, confused by the reversal of gravity and convinced it’s part of the “haunting”. The Wax Phantom moans in the distance, and the duo crawl up the wall and onto the “floor” to rest in the chairs and enjoy a snack.

A lot of these jokes would be badly out of place in another episode, but here, they flow naturally from the setting. The Wax Museum is obviously full of weird gimmicks and spooky sights, as is Grisby’s house, so it just makes sense that the gang would keep running into them.

Well, the trap door pitfall needs some explaining. Who approved these building plans? Inside, Velma accidentally triggers the door to a secret compartment containing a bag full of cash, and then another that opens a door in the wall. They discover a grate at the end of the passage, through which they can see Scooby and Shaggy in the clutches of the Wax Phantom.

The Wax Phantom plans to turn them into wax dummies ("we’re already dummies!”), and Shaggy has been the victim of these villains enough that he actually criticizes the Phantom’s use of a conveyor-belt ride into the boiling vat of wax. “Like, that went out with the silent movies, Phantom old pal!”

As Daphne tries to get their attention, she once again leans out too far over a barrier and falls through the window, catching herself on a rope tied to a lever that reverses the conveyor belt. For once, there’s no comment about her being “danger prone”, since her fall actually helps matters. The boys are sent right back at the Phantom, and the resulting collision knocks their ropes off. The Phantom gives chase, and Fred, Daphne, and Velma follow, as the completely random musical choice of the chase song “Pretty Mary Sunlight” starts to play.

Character designer Iwao Takamoto mentions in his memoir that the cast and crew called these bits “romps”. As this is the last one for a long while, i kind of wish this one had been more memorable or appropriate to the scene. I think they didn’t start up again properly until... A Pup Named Scooby-Doo? That’s what the wikis say, at least.

The boys escape, and Fred forms a plan to trap the Wax Phantom in his own waxworks. Scooby and Shaggy try to flee their role as bait, but wind up wandering into the path of the Phantom anyway, and are forced into the trap. Unfortunately, Fred fouls up, and pours hot molten wax all over Shaggy, Scooby, and the Wax Phantom. It instantly hardens, so hopefully it wasn’t too hot, but that still must’ve been agonizingly painful for poor Scooby and Shaggy.

With the sheriff summoned, Fred does the honors of shattering the hardened wax shells around the three figures in turn, liberating Shaggy and Scooby with a small hammer.

However, as he starts to tap apart the Wax Phantom, the towering figure is reduced to the height of a normal human, who turns out to be:

Stevens wishes the gang had minded their own business, and so we end Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! with only two “meddling kids” for the entire run of the original series! Shaggy was sure that Grisby was responsible, but Stevens was just using the eccentric old man’s threats of magic to cover his embezzlement of funds (the reason the station was suffering, or simply something that he decided on as the financial troubles set in? It’s unclear) and disappearance from the country.

The fact that Fred is able to chip away Stevens’s costume along with the wax poured on it suggests that the whole suit was made of wax, which makes... no sense whatsoever. How was it mobile? Were there joints we couldn’t see? If not, why was it flexible but became brittle after more wax was poured on? In the end, it’s one of a great many monster costumes that make less and less as a costume the more you think about them.

Back in the Mystery Machine, Scooby and Shaggy look with joy on wax duplicates of themselves tucked into the back. As with many such interior shots, none of the contents of the van that were used in other episodes are visible; the walls are completely bare, without even the usual trappings of the inside of a van. It’s far from the only time the Mystery Machine’s contents will disappear and reappear, but as i said, it seems to be bigger on the inside, anyway.

Why did the boys want wax replicas of themselves, anyway?

“There’s only one problem,” Fred says in the final gag of the series, “how to tell one pair of dummies from the other.”

“Very funny, very funny,” Shaggy grouses.

“Reah,” Scooby adds, “very funny!”

And that’s it for the show. Tune in this time tomorrow for a bit of post-season analysis, and the start of The New Scooby-Doo Movies!

(like what i’m doing here? It’s not what pays the bills, so i’d really appreciate it if you could send me a bit at my paypal.me or via my ko-fi. Click here to see more entries in this series of posts, or here to go in chronological order)

#scooby doo #KRAOSD #video

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ladyxanatos · 6 years

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NJO: Force Heretic I: Remnant - Page count 81/413

Jaina Solo arrives on Mon Cal and meets up with Kyp Durron. Jaina expects to see Tahiri Veila upon arriving after having received a distressed message from her, but Kyp informs her that no one currently knows where Tahiri is and she didn’t respond to Luke’s summons for a Jedi meeting.

Kyp takes Jaina to meet with her parents, an intelligence agent, and Jag Fel. Jag and Jaina do some unsubtle nonverbal flirting while Han and Leia’s mission is explained to Jaina. For herself, Jaina isn’t thrilled about getting this assignment since it feels like coddling to her.

Throughout this scene Jaina also observes that Leia has been more affectionate since Anakin died and she suspects it’s because her mother is always relieved to find her remaining children are still alive. MY HEART!

Then Jaina receives a call on her comlink. It’s a very distraught Tahiri who believes that the deceased Anakin Solo wants her dead. They are able to trace the transmission and find a wounded and unconscious Tahiri. She awakens briefly and Jaina senses an intense hatred from her before she is sedated by the medics.

There’s also a bit where Jaina feels Jacen reaching out to her through the Force and asking what’s wrong. SOLO TWINS, MY HEARRRT! I have missed my babies.

Then we have a weird bit with an as yet unnamed female character coming upon a massive ritual sacrifice. Body parts are being thrown into fire pits before graven images of gods. One “new” god in particular terrifies her. It’s lizard-like and has red eyes. Then she realizes that the body parts are not being destroyed but reassembled into a body. This body emerges and beseeches the red-eyed god for life. The female character flees in a terror because the thing that emerged has her face.

Meanwhile Saba is in a meeting with Luke, who is trying to get Danni Quee on board with his mission to find (shocker) the living planet Zonama Sekot. Danni has a healthy skepticism around the existence of Zonama Sekot but agrees to come along anyway. Luke also tries to enlist Cilghal but she declines, recommending her apprentice Tekli for the mission instead as Cilghal feels that she is more needed on her home world.

Saba is hesitant to join the search as well, still emotionally and mentally scarred from being complicit in the destruction of her own people. And Luke utters a particularly quotable line here that is just begging to be highlighted and underlined: “Wounds do not heal by ignoring them.”

Thanks, Luke. I’m going to go cry now.

Saba is eventually talked into coming with them. Since she accidentally fired on a ship filled with her own people, Saba’s ability to sense life has increased (which is a definite trauma response to the fact that she did not sense her own people on that Yuuzhan Vong ship due to her mind being clouded by the need for vengeance), so they will need her sensitivity to help them find the living planet.

The scene ends with Cilghal receiving a call that Tahiri is being brought in for medical attention just moments after Luke, apparently, senses something wrong in the Force.

Then we hop skip over to Yuuzhan’tar, aka Yuuzhan Vong occupied and Vongformed Coruscant, where we catch up with Nom Anor who is on the run for his life and making his way through the lower levels of Coruscant.

There he encounters a Shamed One named Vuurok I’pan. Vuurok I’pan tries to lie to Nom Anor about why he is in the lower levels but Nom Anor doesn’t believe him and commends him to take him to the “others.” While en route, Nom Anor loses his sh*t when Vuurok I’pan asks him if he is also a Shamed One and beats Vuurok I’pan half to death. Then Nom Anor collects himself and they continue on. Charming being, that Nom Anor. :/

Back on Mon Cal, Cilghal can’t find much physically wrong with Tahiri that could have caused her behavior and collapse. Luke asks Saba to examine Tahiri more closely since her particular sensitivities might be able to point them to an answer. Although Saba can see something “burning” through Tahiri, she’s unsure what it is. With the missions getting ready to launch, Luke regretfully observes that, though the answers are no doubt there, there isn’t enough time to find them.

Then it switches to another nightmare sequence with the as yet unnamed female character who is being pursued by “the thing with her face” and the lizard god. She finds herself in a dark space where she encounters voxyn. She begins to climb a ladder to escape but her pursuers follow her up. Eventually she realizes that the god is shrieking something; a name. “Tahiri...Tahiri...” it cries.

Tahiri wakes up screaming to find herself being restrained by Jacen Solo. The reader learns that Tahiri has been self-injuring and that “something” is happening inside her that she is terrified to admit.

Jacen catches her up on current events and Tahiri realizes with sadness that she can’t quite remember when she saw Jacen last, that the war is warping her experiences, basically.

Jacen tells Tahiri about Zonama Sekot and the mission to find it, saying that finding it is the key to the war effort. Jacen also shares that he feels that if the war ends with the genocide of the Yuuzhan Vong that it would be “the worst thing.” Tahiri observes that Jacen’s experiences on Coruscant have changed him.

The scene ends with Jacen saying that Tahiri needs sleep and asking her to close her eyes. He places his hands on her forehead, saying he wants to try something, and then “that was all she knew for an endless, timeless moment.”

Also in this scene, Tahiri makes the observation that Jacen smells like Anakin and my heart literally SHATTERED.

I really, really love this scene with Jacen and Tahiri. For so many reasons.

Again, we’re dealing with this question of wartime ethics. I really like that so far this book is just hammering on that particular nail ‘cause it’s a very important one and shouldn’t be glossed over.

Also, the revelation that Tahiri is self-injuring hit me hard. Just. Somebody please help this girl. Honestly, she deserves nothing but good warm fluffy things from now until the end of time and I am Upset that that isn’t in the cards for her.

Honestly, Tahiri Veila means the world to me and I so wish that I had had these books when I was a teenager because I know I would have taken so much solace in her story in NJO. She is truly one of my all time favorite characters and she needs so much more love (both in the narrative and in fandom).

#the new jedi order #force heretic #force heretic i: remnant #star wars eu #star wars legends #tahiri veila #self injury tw

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thebibliomancer · 7 years

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100 Days of Comics! 048/100: DP7: Displaced Paranormals #25 (1988)

Today’s selection from the mysterious enigmatic box of 100 random comics brings a story from Marvel’s New Universe.

So the New Universe. For Marvel’s 25th anniversary, Jim Shooter proposed ending the Marvel Universe. And then restarting it but updated to the present era. This was rejected because it would be like shooting the golden goose.

So Shooter instead proposed creating a new universe, a brand new range of IP, which would be set in a more realistic, modern universe where crazy comic book stuff only started happening recently.

This got approved but around the same time, Marvel’s owners Cadence Industries threatened to sell off Marvel, which forced Marvel to cut costs and increase revenue. Shooter’s budget for the New Universe was cut to the bone and instead of top creators, Shooter had to use people new to the industry or who couldn’t get work otherwise. Shooter himself couldn’t devote as much time as he wanted to the line because of intracompany politics that eventually led him to leave his editor-in-chief position.

Damn. I know that a lot of people in the industry hate Jim Shooter but between this and Valiant Comics, it sometimes seems like Jim Shooter can’t catch a break.

ANYWAY. That’s the out of universe origin. Here’s the in-universe origin.

It began with the White Event, a mysterious astronomical phenomenon which bombarded the entire earth with unknown energies two summers past. In two persons out of every million, this energy triggered largely benign body-wide mutations resulting in paranormal forms and abilities. Few people were aware of the ramifications of the White Event. Its mutagenic energies affected people at vastly different rates so that it took anywhere from days to months to years before paranormality would manifest itself in a specific person. Consequently, the general public was unaware that paranormals walked among them for over a year.

Then came the Black Event, the total disintegration of the city of Pittsburgh through the misuse of the greatest paranormal power of all. Although no one knows who is responsible for the atrocity, it is widely believed among high government intelligence circles to be the work of a foreign paranormal. In the wake of the disaster, the president reinstated the draft in an effort to not only mobilize a standing army, but also to locate the nation’s paranormals so that they could be forged into an elite fighting force. But the army is not the only government agency interested in paranormals. The Central Intelligence Agency, among others, has its own paranormal recruitment program. This program is aimed primarily toward female paranormals who are not yet eligible for the draft.

This is the saga of seven of the many paranormals caught up in a world gone mad... Lenore Fenzl, Merriam Sorensen, Charlotte Beck, Stephanie Harrington, and Jenny Swensen, the first five recruits of the C.I.A.’s special paranormal task force... and Dave Landers and Randy O’Brien, two members of the U.S. Army’s first paranormal platoon...

And hey! This issue was written by Mark Gruenwald! Famous for his run on Captain America, the Squadron Supreme, Quasar, and this book. Original owner of the Captain America shield now owned by Stephen Colbert. Apparently the Patron Saint of Marveldom. And memetically killed by a really bad piece of Rob Liefeld art.

So we start off with some paranormal children shoplifting some groceries in Wisconsin. They are runaways from the Clinic of Paranormal Research and as they try to escape from the police, they accidentally drive through the guardrail and tumble down the incline.

Meanwhile: Dr. Randy O’Brien doing surgery on Dave Landers at Major General Truscott, Jr. Memories Hospital in Georgia. For some reason, Dave attempted to commit suicide while in solitary confinement. Impaled himself on a metal spike.

And Dr. O’Brien is wondering why. What happened to Dave during his special powers training in the two months they were separated? And did O’Brien let him down in some way? O’Brien doesn’t want to blame himself but if he hadn’t lost his powers, he would have been in the same training with Dave.

O’Brien’s ‘parability’ was the ability to summon five Antibodies from within his own body, a starscapey version of himself that can fly, become intangible, and transfer memories through physical contact. Each of the Antibodies had a slightly different personality and O’Brien had varied amount of control over them.

But he has lost that power. Just as he started boot camp, he stopped being able to summon Antibodies. And at first he thought he’d be happy to be normal again but now he just feels empty.

But a nurse cuts his musings short. Colonel McInery wants the entire medical staff assembled in the basement at once for an urgent matter.

Meanwhile, in Wisconsin. The ambulance has arrived at the car crash and dang its a mess. We don’t see most of it but one of the kids went through the windshield (wear your seatbelts, boys and girls) and another is missing an unspecified piece of anatomy.

But while one of the kids, Evan something, is strapped to a gurney and the EMTs are distracted, the Shadowman comes out of him. We saw him help out with the shoplifting earlier. And he works very much like an Antibody for reasons. During the crash, he came out and covered Evan to protect him. Now, he surrounds Evan and flies off with him thinking of Dr. O’Brien, leaving the EMTs confused about what that was.

Meanwhile, back at the Georgia hospital basement, Colonel McInery shows the medical staff their new patient. The Famileech.

It (they?) are a twisted horrific amalgamation. The Robinson family was just outside Pittsburgh last December right before the Black Event. When it happened, their car was swept over the lip of the Pitt and slide all the way down the crater wall to the bottom where they were exposed to the mutagenic sludge that is the liquefied remains of Pittsburgh.

Yeah.

Somehow, their exposure to the Pitt-Juice caused the whole family to bond together on the cellular level. Also, the Famileech eats people. Even now its banging on the door shouting “HUNNNNNGRY! Need food! Want your bodies...”

Yeah.

With new and improved pressure suits to protect them from absorption (the previous model didn’t help Lieutenant Lancaster though) and piping halothane into the Famileech’s room to knock it out, the medical staff can go in to take a tissue sample for a biopsy and take measurements and any vital signs.

Dawn the next day, the Shadowman arrives at the hospital. Yup. He flew all night from Wisconsin to Georgia. He flies through the window as Dr. O’Brien is examining Dave Landers and pulls Evan out of himself.

The Shadowman gestures for O’Brien to examine Evan and then touches him to share memories of his time with Evan and the car accident.

And O’Brien realizes that this Shadowman is actually his renegade Antibody!

I said he had varied amounts of control over his Antibodies, right? Well this one strangled one of the clinic’s therapists to death. The man was a dangerous psychopath but realizing that his Antibodies could become killers, O’Brien disowned the Antibody, refused to allow him access to his host-body.

He had assumed that without access to him, the Antibody had withered up and died. He didn’t contemplate that another human being could sustain the Antibodies.

O’Brien finishes examining Evan. The kid has head trauma but his vital signs look good.

But before he can have it out with the Shadowman, an alarm goes off. Rushing out into the hallway with the Shadowman tagging along, O’Brien sees that the Famileech has somehow gotten out and is eating Nurse Ahrens.

The Shadowman flies away, leaving O’Brien to try to divert the Famileech from the wing Dave and Evan are in by getting it to chase him instead. He dead ends at a fire door that won’t open, defeating the entire point of being a fire door.

But then the Shadowman comes back to save him. It had only flown off to forehead kiss Evan goodbye.

The Shadowman envelopes O’Brien and tries to fly him over the Famileech but either O’Brien is too heavy or the Shadowman is too weak after flying cross-country all night.

So instead he tackles and tries to punch out the Famileech and gets torn apart for his troubles.

With the Shadowman disintegrating, the Famileech comes for O’Brien. The doctor prays to god not to let him die like this, trapped, frightened and alone.

And bam. O’Brien manages to summon his four Antibodies. But he realizes that individually they’re no match for the Famileech. But... the Shadowman showed him that one of his Antibodies could envelope his body like armor. So what if he did that with all four?

Luckily, they’re cooperate and O’Brien is protected by four layers of Antibodies and wields their combined strength. Nicely solving his issue with his powers where he felt that he wasn’t really directly in control.

x4 Antibodied O’Brien punches the Famileech back into its cell with a lot of wet sounding sound effects like SPLOOSH and SPLOK and barricades the door.

After, the four Antibodies peel off and fly back inside him, needing to recharge after that display.

And O’Brien is left thinking that the renegade Antibody which he disowned has given him a new lease on life by showing him there were possibilities with his powers that he would never have tried!

Eesh, this is getting long. And there’s a backup story. Starring THE ESPEOPLE called Night of the Mask.

Basically a bunch of dorky paranormal draft dodgers are sitting around playing probably-DnD in the guise of Psi-Lord, Purple Veil, Supernatural, the Apparition, Trancer, and Phantom Bullet when Walter (Psi-Lord) faints and Nightmask appears.

Danny/the Apparition immediately uses his illusion powers to cloak the ESPeople as their probably-DnD characters. They demand that Nightmask state name and business but since Nightmask’s powers are all about entering dreams, he thinks this is someone’s dream and decides to flee the ESPeople until he can figure out what brand of dream logic this particular dream is working on.

But the ESPeople manage to pin him down with their assorted cool powers (Phantom Bullet shoots phantom bullets from his fingers, Supernatural controls natural forces, Apparition as I said before does illusions, and Trancer and Psi-Lord seem to be psychics. Not sure if there’s a difference in their powers).

Trancer reads Nightmask’s mind and realizes that Nightmask thinks this is a dream. Psi-Lord comes to and erases Nightmask’s memories of this encounter (the ESPeople are draft dodgers after all and Nightmask has already been drafted).

Psi-Lord then wonders aloud whether the ESPeople should stop hiding out and maybe get involved to help the world before everything falls apart. The others just say “Nah.”

And the issue ends with a confused Nightmask wandering down the road toward his next adventure in Justice #25.

So for my first exposure to the New Universe, it was pretty good. Shame that the New Universe experiment ultimately failed. Some elements eventually made their way to the mainstream Marvel universe, like Starbrand and Nightmask and a new White Event.

#100 Days of Comics!#DP7 #Displaced Paranormals #Shadowman #Nightmask #ESPeople #New Universe

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