#even plasmius without his shadow form would do this
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Batman grappled onto the building as soon as the door closed, firing his hook at around where the shadow of buildings turned to the light of the stars. The cable shot out, retracted for a moment, then yanked Batman into the air.
Batman couldn't fly. It was, technically speaking, only falling with prescion, aided by artifical gliding wings. But sometimes, when he caught the full moon behind him, and his leaps reached their peak, and his cape filled with wind behind him, he couldn't tell the difference.
He landed on the roof of Vladco with a silent roll.
"Oracle. I need to know where Vlad would hide his secrets."
Batman skulked across the rooftop as his earbud filled with the crackling of keyboards.
"Vlad Masters," Barbera said, "try to get inside while I do some research."
One roof access staircase. A camera with one blinking light stood above it's door. Batman danced around the edges of light, sneaking under the camera and gingerly pulling the cable. Then he pressed his ear to the door and worked to try and jimmy open the lock.
It creaked loudly as the lock sprung open. Dust covered every step down inside.
"A-ha! Vlad's hiding a floor. Get to the basement."
He opened the door and walked to the edge of stairs, firing his grapple gun into the ceiling. He stepped over the iron barrier and dropped into the mesmeric dark and endless concrete staircases swirling into the depths of Vlad's Facility.
"He's hiding a floor?"
"Town Hall's blueprints say he only has 127 floors plus a basement, but by digging into his contractor's history, I know he paid for permissions, equipment and zoning for up to three additional sub-basments."
"Vlad Masters isn't the kind of person who would risk that expense without using it."
Oracle hummed in agreement.
"His stock portfolio rates an average 145% return rate."
Batman grunted.
A moment later his boots found the floor, clicking slightly on the metal surface. He kneeled down, letting his grapple gun hang as he dragged a fingertip across the floor.
No dust.
Batman clicked on a flashlight and looked along the floor, his gaze trailing along a seam in the floor. Idily, he dug his fingers into slight fault and pulled.
"I think I found a door, but I can't open it."
"What is the door made of?"
Batman paused in confusion, but acquiesced after a moment. He crouched again, shaving a small portion from the door using a diamond and kryptonite tipped scalpel from his belt.
"Titanium?" He wagered after a moment of closing inspecting his shaving.
"Lets see... Vlad recieved a bulk order of titanium to his international shipping company 8 months ago, but it was reported stolen 2 months after that."
"Who stole it?"
"Plasmius. He seems to a ghost. Flight, ectomanipulation, super strength, form flexibility, IQ of 205, body multiplication..."
"His name has come up before. I believe they may be working together. How do I open the door?"
"... Even if he used all three floors of ventilation equipment he bought, he still wouldn't have the space to manufacture his own security system from raw titanium. That probably means he bought the internal workings somewhere, but I can't find..."
"Check Plasmius' criminal history, Vlad doesn't want this assiociated with his public image."
Oracle's microphone jostled in a way that sounded like a nod.
"Bruce." She said, "Are you sure these guys are something you want to take on alone? I'm sure Damian would be on the next flight back if you asked him, Kasandra is on patrol tonight. Even Jason."
Bruce paused his pacing investigation.
"Plasmius and Vlad are using Danny in their game. Family by convience, Vlad exploits his adoptive son for his schemes. It would make me a hypocrite, worse than them even, to involve the adoptive family I love."
Batman flickes off the flashlight, plunging the stairwell into darkness. In the blackness, he blushed.
"How do I open the door?"
Oracle sighed in defeat.
"Plasmius stole an audio activated security system two months after the titanium from a security firm in Kentucky. It's likely a simple word or sound, not able to distinguish voices."
Bruce nodded, his heart dropping.
"Thank you Barbera. I'll be on touch when I patrol next."
"Bruce there is one more thing bothering me."
"What is it?"
"Vlad went to lengths to ensure the building and installation of these secret floors stayed secret."
"Yes?"
"What happened to the people who built those floors? Fabricated and installed the door? Linked the ventilation and power grid?"
Batman swallowed.
"I don't know, but I intend to find out."
He hung up on her, tapping his ear piece.
He took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. Most of the time it was guessing a villain's password to defuse a bomb, but somehow this felt more sick. He ignored his hypothesis, instead trying the common options.
"Vlad Masters."
Nothing.
"Open."
Nothing.
"Open Sesame."
Nothing.
Batman sighed, and tried to remember the name he'd read on Danny's birth certificate.
He said Danny's deadname aloud, and the titanium doors started to rumble open.
Batman scoffed and grabbed onto his grapple gun, descending into the hidden subbasement of Vladco.
"What a transphobic shitheel."
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because I could not stop for death
because I could not stop for death / he kindly stopped for me / the carriage held but just ourselves / and immortality ~ Emily Dickinson
Danny Fenton was dying, properly this time.
Somehow, in the back of his head and in his worst nightmares, he knew it would end this way: bleeding on the floor of his parents’ lab where it had all began. He was so hot he felt like his skin was on fire, blood and ectoplasm were dripping all over him and his lungs and heart were working overtime to try in vain to keep him alive a moment longer. He’d imagined at the time that there would be more screaming but death, in the end, was turning out to be a quiet little affair. A lonely table set for one.
“Danny, Danny come on, you-you gotta slow down your breathing, just relax, for me, please,” Sam moaned, more than making up for his lack of noise. She was shaking and touching him all over, his chest, his face, his hair. Normally she jumped right into action but she had to know, deep down, that there was nothing she could do. All that was left was to watch her panic and cry, it wasn’t his favorite image.
“Vlad!” He heard Tucker scream cry into the phone, “please it’s Tucker, Danny’s dying I think. The Fentons had some new invention, something about his core, please we don’t know what to do!”
Ugh Vlad, he was probably going to be so happy Danny was on his way out. He wasn’t looking much forward to his last images being his archenemy gloating. Tucker hung up and reached down to grasp Danny’s hand so hard it hurt. “Don’t worry dude, Vlad’s coming. He knows so much about you half ghosts that you’ll be fixed up on no time.” Right, Danny was already dead. If calling Vlad, feeling like he did something, helped Tucker move on then he’d deal with it.
Danny tilted his head to the side where Sam’s fingernails were carding through his hair. It was getting harder to see with the blood pouring out of his eyes but he looked at her, and tried to memorize her face. He’d never been able to tell her how much he loved her, that any day spent with her was a blessing. Tucker too, his best bro and a part of his soul. His best friends in the whole wide world, through thick and thin. God, he was going to miss them.
“Glurk,” he said, trying to convey those feeling but the fluids in his mouth and airway made it impossible. “Blerh.”
“Shh shh shh,” Sam soothed, “it’s okay, don’t try to talk.”
“Daniel!” He heard Vlad’s voice shriek as he materialized in front of the portal. Sam and Tucker were violently pushed out the way. Danny wanted to be angry at his loved ones being taken away in his final moments but anger was for the living, he barely had the energy to breathe. This death was too long and too short all at once. He made eye contact with Vlad who all at once lost the frantic edge to his tone and and instead knelt on the floor. “Oh my dear boy. What did they do to you?”
“What is going on?” Sam demanded, shoving her way back in. Danny was glad, he could see again like this. “Why aren’t you doing something!”
“There’s nothing to be done,” Vlad said in a flat, monotone, he picked up one of Danny’s hands and patted it gently. “His core is dying, it’s like a ghost’s heart. It contains their very essence, it is from which everything they are comes from. If Jack and Maddie somehow disrupted it then there’s nothing anyone can do to save him.”
“But he’s human too,” Tucker defended, grabbing Danny’s other hand. His human warm skin burned but the contact felt so good, he twitched his fingers closer to his friend’s. “He-he doesn’t need a core, he’s already got a heart. So, so he doesn’t have powers, we can do normal again.”
“You-” Vlad hissed before taking a calming breath. “The accident that made Daniel like this irreparably altered him. His core was as much a part of keeping him alive as his other organs, without it, his body is shutting down.” Vlad turned down to look Danny in the eye and saw true, genuine grief in those hateful red eyes.
“I cannot imagine the agony you are going through, I’m so sorry. I’d say it will be over soon but,” a hitch that sounded almost like a sob if it was coming from anyone other than Vlad. “But you’ve hovered on the edge of death for years, son, and you’ve always been such a fighter. You have minutes at most but those minutes are an eternity when you’re suffering.”
Sam and Tucker’s sobbing blended together in the background, Vlad was saying something with a miserable, stunned expression. The swirling of the portal in the background seemed louder than anything, louder than his heart beat pounding and pounding as it ran it’s last race.
“Daniel, Danny,” he focused his eyes back on Vlad who had a stubborn, unhappy set to his brow. “Do you want me to make the pain stop? An ectoblast to your chest will end your life instantly.”
“Don’t you dare touch him,” Sam shrieked, coming back into view and looking like she was trying to fight Vlad off. “You do anything to him and I’ll kill you!” Tucker just sat and stared at him, like he too was trying memorize Danny’s face.
“It’s a mercy, Samantha or do you want his last moments on earth to be drowning on the blood in his lungs.”
“Sam, he has a point. I don’t- I don’t think we can fix this.”
“No! No we always fix things, I’ll do it myself if I have to!”
Danny’s vision was starting to go, more black than anything else. He closed his eyes and readied himself for the inevitable.
“Time Out,” Danny opened his eyes and found he was no longer in pain. He was standing up and apart from where he’d previously been lying. Sam had her hands in Vlad’s face and the older hybrid was snarling something at her. Tucker was midmotion trying to stand up, presumably to get Sam but the three of them were frozen in the moment. Danny turned and found Clockwork floating, looking very out of place in his parents lab. “Good evening, Danny.”
“You that short on cash that you work part time as a grim reaper?” Danny quipped out of habit. He looked down at his body and grimaced a bit, that wasn’t a pretty sight. No doubt traumatizing for Tucker and Sam. God how were they going to explain this to his parents? “Gonna ferry me across the River Styx? I don’t have two pennies but I think I have a bloodied $10 on me.”
“You’re core is dying and you have 17 seconds left in this world before all your organs give out and finish the process you began when you turned on your parent’s ghost portal,” Clockwork explained as he changed into child form.
“O-okay,” Danny said shakily, trying to be brave even when he was so, so scared. He was going out whether he wanted it or not but he refused to leave crying. “Nice of you to come say goodbye then but, uh but unless you have something to say then you should let me go back. No one knows better than me that you can’t outrun death. Thanks but I’m uh I’m ready.”
Clockwork stared at him for a bit, not sure how long, time was weird like this but he changed forms a few times. “You’re quite the remarkable young man, Danny Fenton.”
“Uh thanks,” Danny added, once more looking at his body which had, according to Clockwork, a 17 second expiration date. “What’s going to happen? Am I going to become a ghost? Does heaven or hell exist for someone like me?”
“I don’t get to decide what happens, I merely see options,” Clockwork stated easily, taking his time. “If you die naturally you’ll become ghost, a mere shadow of who you are now and one who would fade fairly quickly. You don’t have strong enough anger or regrets to tie you in the real world for long.” Not great but okay he supposed, hell for his friends and family though. “You could let Plasmius deliver his mercy kill, destroying what’s left of your ghost core and ensuring you do not come back.” Better, probably won’t help the Fruitloop’s instability but he can’t save everyone.
“That one comes with it’s own caveat but I’ll get to that in a moment,” Clockwork explained. “There is a third option where you get up off the floor and walk away.” Danny blinked then looked back at his body which certainly wasn’t walking anywhere but into a plush casket. Clockwork opened his hands and the Ghost King’s Crown materialized in his hands. “If you accept your claim to the King’s Cown, it will revitalize your core and your life would be saved.”
Danny blinked.
“By sealing Pariah Dark, you won by proxy and established a legitimate claim to the throne. The Zone has been without a king for millennia, most have forgotten the old rules. Those who remembered were not too keen on a half-ghost child assuming leadership and kept you in the dark. If Plasmius ends your life then your claim transfers over to him, which he is aware of. It had been his plan all along to trick you into defeating Pariah so he could steal the Crown from you at a later date, a much easier opponent.”
Danny’s mind was overloaded with information, he didn’t know what to focus on first. He stared at his 17 seconds from death face and tried to process it all. Crown? Claim? Vlad?
“Of course,” Clockwork tutted, “he didn’t plan on your dying and in such a gruesome fashion. If he kills you and takes your claim, he would spend his remaining years ruling the Ghost Zone in a just, controlled fashion for your memory. He destroys all the stable portals and keeps the ghost and human worlds separate.” Clockwork became and old man and titled his head, “it’s not a bad timeline, all things considered.”
“And if I take it?” Danny asked quietly.
“You’re compassionate, brave and motivated, you have all the makings of a revolutionary king,” Clockwork smiled. “The Zone would experience and unprecedented era of peace, there would be positive interactions between human and ghosts for the first time since life and death split into two. Your name would spoken with reverence for the rest of time.”
“But I don’t want to be king,” Danny frowned.
“I know, I’m sorry,” Clockwork stated. “Which is why I am giving you the choice. If you pass peacefully there will be no one to claim the Crown and life will continue on, ghost attacks and all. If Plasmius kills you, he becomes an effective but unmemorable king. If you take the Crown, you can get the chance to tell Sam and Tucker how much you love them.”
Danny rubbed at his face, he didn’t want to die but he’d be sealing away his entire future with a move like this. He didn’t even know if the Crown would let him go with death, maybe he’d die and be stuck as the Ghost King until his core finally gave out lord in who knows how long. Eternity was an awful long time to carry such a responsibility. He couldn’t bring himself to ask, too afraid of the answer.
“Is there ever a timeline I became an astronaut?” He asked instead. Clockwork hummed, seemingly unsurprised by Danny’s non-sequitur.
“Yes, in one of the few universes where you never walked into the portal. You never go into space what with human politics putting a halt on the programs but you work for NASA. You leave Amity Park at 17 and don’t come back save for your parents’ dual funeral.” He paused and Danny felt read down to his very bones, “from the moment you became half ghost you were always heading for this moment. The circumstances varied but it always came down to you and the Crown. Time is straining to continue, to see how this drama plays out. Will you accept it and all the joy and grief that comes with it?”
Danny looked over at Vlad, still mid-sneer but there was a scared desperation in his face. He and Vlad sniped at each other all the time but Danny didn’t really hate him and he didn’t think Vlad did either. Leaving him alone, plus making him be king was a heavy burden to put on his enemy.
Sam and Tuck probably wouldn’t recover from this, he’d put them through so much already but he just knew that they’d never be the same. Could he do that to them? Take the easy way out and leave them to suffer? Mom and Dad didn’t deserve to come home to a dead son, the truth would come out and they’d never forgive themselves. Jazz certainly wouldn’t, she was 2 states over at University but he could already hear her angry, grief-stricken screams.
Death, death was quiet. It was quiet and merciful and sad, but it was also easy. And Danny Fenton had never once taken the easy route. He reached out and took and the crown before shakily placing it on his head. He gasped, throwing his head back as his core swelled, taking up residence once more right next to his heart. Clockwork smiled, looking like the cat who ate the canary.
“The Crown of Fire, pardon me the Crown changes with each core, the Crown of Ice is now yours as is the Zone. Your reign begins now but so too does the rest of your life. People are waiting for you. Time in.” Danny slammed back into awareness on the floor of his parents’ lab, the floor he’d almost died on twice.
He sat up as cold radiated off his body, causing frost to crawl down his arms and along the floor. Sam, Tucker and Vlad, who’d been frozen up until now, jumped back to life. There was a new, familiar weight on his head that he didn’t dare acknowledge.
He squeezed his eyes shut and said a silent goodbye to a quiet, normal life. It wouldn’t be all bad, he could be happy like this but the Crown still felt like a iron manacle around his neck. But he got used to the ghost powers, he could get used to this too. Maybe one day he won’t look at the stars and say ‘what if?’
“Danny!” Sam shouted, throwing herself into his arms soon followed by Tucker. Their warm weight, their relieved sobs, their shaky breaths in his air, now this was something worth living for. He squeezed them tightly.
“But how dude, you were at death’s door!” Tucker asked, still not letting go.
“You accepted the Crown,” Vlad said evenly, “I wasn’t aware you even knew about your claim. Who told you?”
“You don’t know everything, Vlad,” Danny sighed, sitting himself upright. Ugh his shirt was covered in blood and ectoplasm. He needed to trash these clothes before his parents freaked. And find a way to hide the floating ice crown on his head.
“Even an old man can be surprised every now and again,” Vlad said wearily. He stood up to his full height before startling Danny by dipping down to one knee. “Then allow me to be the first to welcome my new king and wish him well.”
“I thought you wanted this,” Danny questioned.
“I do, I did,” Vlad said, unusually off balance. “To be quite honest, I’m not sure how to feel about it but, right now, I’m just immeasurably happy you’re alive, little badger. Now I best be off, enjoy your kingdom, my liege, I’ll be sure to come bother you some time soon.” Vlad disappeared in a swirl of pink leaving just him, Sam and Tucker still clinging to him.
Danny may have a kingdom, a job he didn’t want and his whole life decided in a spur of the moment choice, but he also had something very important. He squeezed his friends tightly.
“I love you guys, thank you for being my friends even though I have the worst ideas for activities. Dying? On a Sunday night? How lame is that?” Sam laughed, a bit hysterical but it was real and it made Danny feel weightless.
“Don’t do that again, buddy,” Tucker breathed into his shoulder. “So you gonna explain what just happened and why you’re apparently the Ghost King or something?”
“Yeah, yeah I will but let’s get changed first. Mom and Dad will be home soon and I think I’m going to need to have a conversation with them about my new job.”
#danny phantom#i was watching forever phantom and said 'i should kill danny' and then i fucking didn't#im obsessed with ghost king danny as end game#Im not sure this is the route I would want to go but I want him to end up woth tje crown#its bitter sweet bc its a *lifelong (possibly afterlife) commitment that he didnt get a choice in#he will be happy and he will be a good king but it wasnt his choice and he'll always regret it a little#i love clockwork but he's a bit shady and will always work in favor of the timeline#anyway happy fucking sunday bitches#have some homemade angst#also i typed this directly in tumblr and almost hit the power screen on my computer instead of backspace#god was trying to stop me from publishing but i overcame#Only did one quick edit Im too tired to care anymore#lmk if you want it on ao3
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Going angst week 2021// obsession | tw: ending of an existence, ripping apart and eating the corpse + core
Every being, from the smallest bacteria to the largest deepsea dwellers, perhaps even beings hiding out in the cosmos of another universe, has a drive to do something. A need to fulfill, often in order to survive. It all comes down to survival, of the individual as well as the species. Take energy >> survive, recreate >> survive, conquer >> survive.
A ghost exists only because of their determination, their will to keep on surviving. Why the need to survive is so strong differs from ghost to ghost, some wish to be better than while alive, others wish for vengeance before they can ever find peace, some just want a sense of peace they never had pre their death because of unfortunate circumstances.
For Danny, his will to live, to survive, is a combination of many things; he loves his family dearly, and his two friends who stick with him through thick and thin, why wouldn't he fight death to stay just a little longer? Ever since he was little the vast void above him fascinated him, an interest jokingly, endearingly, refered to as an obsession by his parents, fueled by the countless books and articles and pictures accumulating in his room. It is this obsession with the universe that strengthens his grip on humanity.
Overtime, his need to be with his family and friends turned into protecting said family and friends, which after some additional time and experiences with the town's people developed into the obsession of keeping his town, his people - be they alive or dead, save from threats. While this obsession is more for the good of the people around him, and less for Danny's own wellbeing aside from keeping his core happy, it's his obsession in the ever expanding abyss above him that acts as a safety net for his well being.
Cursed be selflessness, and damned be the pushing, clawing, hurting need to be the one to keep all others safe without looking out for yourself.
Danny from the morning of this day would never have guessed what would happen, neither would he have thought that there was some rightness to his parents theories that applied to him.
He patrolled his town at night, every night at the same time. Be observant and patient and learning his routine is as easy as 2 + 2. Most of his enemies are not patient enough, not even Skulker, a supposedly experienced hunter, seems to have realised. The box ghost would never, Technus isn't quiet enough and Plasmius prefers different schemes, his arrogance would not allow him to follow such a simple minded plan. Johnny and Kitty don't actually hate him, so they have no reason to follow him, neither does Ember. But there's one individual who will wait out, who will stalk him like a science project because she has done so almost all of her live before dying.
Spectra was a psychiatrist before her death, an extremely unhappy and hateful one, who grew ruthless and vengeful as the years added on, but her ability to stalk and calculate and use whatever emotional weakness shown came from all those years.
It was purely out of luck that Danny had heard muffled sobs, Clockwork would just tell him that the timeline was layed out like that. The person-like shadow with eyes like fire would always haunt Danny's nightmares, and undoubtedly her recent victim's ones as well.
It was all too much, in that moment. He hated her, a sharp pain spreading through his gums, he hated her manipulation and her sense of being better than all those around her. She dared to come into his town, his home, his haunting ground. His tounge swept over several sharpened teeth - fangs - that etched well into his throat. His gloved fingers seemed to grow longer, to sharpen, until the aching feeling in his palms registered as claws. With a sense of dulled down dread the realization that something withing the build of his face and body changed was concrete, but the worry about that paled to his rage. How dare she, how dare she hunt his people on his haunt while taunting him.
A need driven entity does what it's need tells it to. Going against it goes against it's nature.
Danny regained his conscience, a sense of control over his being, when he realised that he was alone. There was no breathing, but also no red stains or a feeling of hollowness, which made his core hum in content. What caught his eyes was the glow below him, the glow on his fingers - claws. In front of him were shards, akin to broken red-stained glass, but he was no fool. He wasn't 14 anymore, he's been taught things from his ghostly allies. The aura, although weak, all those little shards gave off added to the wildfire of horror with a tinge of dread that they were once whole. That they had belonged to someone, someone that would never recover from what he did to their core.
Danny from the morning of this day would have never guessed what he himself was capable of. Danny from before would have been insulted at the suggestion that he would act entirely on obsession, likes his parents wrote so many times. But Danny from this night can confirm the theories right. Looking at the mangled remains of what was the shadowy form of Spectra, succumbing to urges and eating the core of his victim from his win over territory, this Danny came to the realization that he could never undo what he did, that he ended someone else. But what scares him the most, he concludes while ripping and breaking away at the torso, is that he regrets nothing of what happened this night.
#danny phantom#going angst week 2021#Obsession#Spectra#Death#Ghost hunger themes but not ghost hunger#More like victory hunger??
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Where You Belong: Chapter 2
A/N: Hey folks, this is a day late from my posting on AO3, mostly due to tiredness/travel, but here it is! I'm not sure how quickly I'll be able to put out the next chapter (In addition to being mostly dialogue, it's also a mess,) but I'll try.
Read it now on AO3
Chapter 2:
“Nope, nope, nope.”
In the realm of the dead, there was no night. No dark reprieve from the inescapable glow. A state that wore on eye and mind alike in its obstinate refusal to diminish or fade.
This did not mean the Zone was without its own sort of cycles, however.
Every seven hours, perhaps eight, the thin, omnipresent mists scattered throughout the air would begin to thicken, coalescing into a deep, impenetrable fog that stuck to every surface with a viscosity not unlike that of cold soup. It's brightness, too would gradually increase until the traveler was left all but blinded for the unending wall of light now spread on all sides before them.
Navigation in such conditions was impossible, and even ghosts seemed to prefer squirreling themselves away during these hours of fugue than to brave the blind depths the mists made of the world around them.
It was really nothing like night, but for conveniences sake, Valerie had taken to calling it as such.
It was now well into what she liked to consider “evening.” The mists had already weltered up, thickening strands not yet impermeable to the naked eye, weaving themselves into fantastic shapes ever larger across the atmosphere of the zone. Soon to merge, but not now, not yet.
While she normally preferred to travel as long as she could safely dare, Valerie had opted to settle down early that evening, using the extra time to sort through the goods held in the bug ghost's many sacks instead.
“Nope, nope, nope, weird, gross, and oh--hell no!”
Valerie yanked her hand free, shaking off the clear slime that coated her fingers as she threw the parcel and all its contents, still squirming, over the ledge of the small outcropping that served as her latest campsite.
If she were ever forced to say one nice thing about the Ghost Zone, Valerie would admit, grudgingly, that it did make a remarkably good garbage bin.
She sighed, allowed herself to stretch out and rest after yet another day of continuous exertion. One would not think riding on her sled for hours on end would tire her so, but it did. And when she added the additional effort of chasing down and interrogating that ghost--She grimaced, still unsure it had been wise to let the creature scamper free, in the end.
There had just been something in the way it had begged, had cried and whimpered as it carried out her every command with that slump of abject surrender that had just made finishing it off seem so, so...Dirty. As though she would be in the wrong, somehow, for doing it. It gave her such a sense of frustration. She couldn't help but wish that ghosts were precisely the emotionless hulls the Fentons believed them to be.
Oh, ghosts were essentially selfish, no doubt about it, narcissistic chunks of ectoplasm that only rarely empathized with their own kind, and never with humans, but they did feel.
Phantom, the bug, even Plasmius, in his own, twisted way, it was no longer something she could reject.
A part of her hated them all the more just for that, as though it made her life better, somehow, to know.
Couldn't she just have this one thing? After all the shit she went through, all the misery she bore, couldn't this one thing be something simple?
Goddamn ghosts, ruining her life, her stuff, and now her morals, too.How was she supposed to be the hero here? how was she supposed to save anyone, much less Elle, if she couldn't crush one goddamn dirty bug?
“Shit.”
Valerie flopped down on her back, staring into the viridian heavens with bitter eyes. The sky could not be bothered to stare back, rolling over in a cloud of mist instead.
“Shit,shit,shit!”
She tried to breath, but it caught in lungs suddenly shriveled against a breast-bone to tight for air.she clenched her fists, fingers squeezed into a shape fit for violence. Her body trembled, her hidden heart beat staccato as something hard and hot and sour twisted through her very soul.
“Stupid ghosts.” She whispered.Her eyes were cold marbles, but deep within her chest, she was still burning.
Valerie grabbed a stone laying loose on the ground beside her, pushed herself back up, and lobbed it with all her strength at the offending universe.
“You won't win!”
She picked up another rock, tossed it even further.
“I won't let you!”
She threw another rock, then another, as fast as her arms could reach them, intent on stoning the high green heavens for all the wrongs it had ever wrought against her. Each projectile went higher and farther into the encroaching mists, which swallowed them whole.
“You hear me! Not now, not ever!”
Even her screams were muffled, now, pressed against her ears by the haze. The stones made even less a mark, vanishing into clouds unrippled by their passing, engulfed the sound of their landing, if, indeed, they landed at all.Her chest heaved, her arm ached, but still her emotions threatened spillage. She felt at once utterly drained and full to bursting, squeezed of all verve even as her heart simmered still in some vague malcontent.
She flopped back to the ground, tired, but too troubled for rest.It wasn't all hopeless, she knew. She had an idea of where to go now, closer than she'd dared to hope, if the directions of the bug she'd captured earlier were to be believed.
And even if it was a lie, she'd still managed to buy herself some time.
She reached over to her right, where she'd piled everything of use from the insect's many stores. It was a pitiful stack, a single bag of food plastic wrapped or canned, adorned in letters and signs utterly foreign. But food it was, enough to keep her going a few days more.
She had set her stolen boot next to the parcel, and, resting just beside it, a crumpled polaroid weighed down by a worn leather fold.
She brought her hand down, shimmied the picture out from under its makeshift paperweight. Her other hand rose to brush across it, one last attempt, gentle, futile, at smoothing out the damage littering every aspect of its face.
It was fruitless, of course, but even broken beyond all repair, even with all the bitterness that lingered from the loss, the photo still soothed her, touching something deeper, more tenderly, than any hard flung stone.
She reached into the depths of her mind, grasping for those parts of the huntress that were always with her, woven in electric tapestry with the living currents of her brain.
Graphical Storage and Processing:Status: Active:
Recall request: Confirmed.
Data: Available, reporting 100% recall.
Overlay Request: Confirmed.
Initiating Command: Overlay:
Processing...
The change took place in the space of a moment. Emerald fragments reformed into broad leaves struck through with sunshine. Golden light struck their rays through the gaps where shadows fluttered down across the youthful oak that cast them, springing proud and slender from a meadow thick with blooms.
Beneath the shade of the tree, nestled between the long grass arches, there was a family.
They were at a picnic, the three of them, quilt littered with the remains of their meal. Cold chicken and half eaten corn cobs peeked out from broad folds of cloth, plastic water bottles refracted the scattered sunlight in their crumpled facets, where it danced across the surface of what liquid yet remained.
The man of the family sat beside a big wicker basket, arm resting over the thickly woven lip of its hatch. His face not yet wearied, his mustache quirked in a second smile as he looked into the long vanished camera with an expression of shy delight.Her father, Damian Grey.
A young Valerie could be seen sitting just in front of him, clutching a rubber ball nearly half her size. Grass stains streaked the young child's face, grin bold as she hoisted her rubber prize high above her head.
Besides the child, shoulders leaned in close press to the man beside her, knelt a woman. Acorn brown and satin soft, head tossed back in jubilation bold as summer. Her heat dewed neck curved swanlike above shoulders hunched up in mirth.
Valerie traced the outlines of the woman's face, slowly, ignoring—refusing—the ragged edges that brushed against her thumb as she outlined the vanished forms of her lips, her cheekbones, her chin, alight with a youth yet lingering even as the glow of motherhood softened the hard angles of ignorant adolescence.
A beautiful woman, vibrantly, vivaciously alive.
You would never know, looking at her, just how fast it would all drain out, her every pore a sieve for the good health she would never more contain.
But Valerie wasn't thinking about that, now, just as she wasn't thinking about the photograph or the damage it sustained.
Just for the moment, she allowed herself to focus only on the memory of a memory before her. If she imagined hard enough, she could almost see that sparkling smile turn, eyes opal dark and glimmering in delight at the chance to see her one and only daughter once again.
“Hey ma.” She said by way of reply. “Long time no see.”
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(Sometimes I just have to write things out way in advance, and this was one of those things. Apologies for utter confusion in calling Dan “Dark Phantom.” I’ve been a pain in the ass about this for years. But I’ve had a very rough couple of days and just needed some ventfic with a heaping serving of villainous sacrifice and promising hero, so. Enjoy!
Uh, warnings for blood and gore and half-death.)
-
“You idiot. You could kill us both!” the ghost hissed, gripping the hybrid’s glowing wrists with eyes ablaze. “Do you fucking know what you’re doing?!”
Plasmius merely gave him a fanged smile, fierce and tinged with blood as he bent over Dark with a smirk. His fingers dug into the ghost’s skin, shining brighter as Phantom stared from the sidelines with his broken arm and grown feral mane. There was no idea before of what he was going to try to do to his timeline nightmare, but the darker Plasmius’s hands glowed around Dark’s neck and the weaker the ghost’s aura got, he was starting to get an inkling.
It terrified Phantom- to a point where he pulled himself to his feet with a grunt and his voice was hoarse. “You can’t do that! You’re gonna…!”
“Don’t patronize me, Daniel!” Plasmius fired back, the fingers digging into the skin now with ectoplasm coating his gloves and dripping onto his outfit. Smoky energy began to pour from Dark’s neck, the ghost’s eyes widening with fear. “I already know what’s going to happen, and I am very well aware of the outcome!”
Phantom gritted his teeth. “Then why do it?!” He attempted to step closer, but the low snarl from Plasmius’s chest stopped him. “What are you thinking?!”
That was the problem; Plasmius hadn’t been thinking.
For once in his life, Vlad hadn’t been thinking. He was just trying to stop the boy from getting injured anymore than he already was- nothing more, nothing less.
His fingers were halfway into Dark’s neck now, and the energy continued to pour from his body. Plasmius’s eyes flickered briefly before he closed them and gritted his teeth. The energy surrounding them both now seemed to be getting absorbed by the older hybrid, and the light in the ghost’s eyes seemed to be fading quicker- as was his body.
Dark Phantom was literally disappearing from existence and becoming one with Plasmius’s own ectoplasmic signature. When the being opened his mouth, he emitted a scream.
It was a long, ghastly wail that seemed to pierce eardrums, the others clutching their ears in pain and doubling over on the street. Phantom barely covered one, squeezing his eyes shut and trembling. He didn’t see Plasmius digging his fingers in more, opening his mouth as well to let out a ghostly howl of his own. While Dark’s was high-pitched and frightened, Plasmius’s own was low with a hint of triumph.
They knew who would win.
It seemed like minutes when the wails ceased and Phantom was able to open his eyes. They widened in horror, the fingers having slid up Dark’s head with two thumbs on his third eye and fingers gripping his skull.
“…you… are a fool…” the head hissed with dripping fury.
“As are you,” Plasmius rasped in return, his aura pulsating with a dark mix. There was his own and now Dark’s as well. “You chose… to fight me.”
The head disappeared into a wisp of energy, drawing closer to the elder hybrid before it, too, was absorbed by the man. Plasmius’s hands dropped into the ectoplasm, sitting on all fours for a moment before his hands began to slowly clench into fists. His aura ceased to be seen before his appearance rapidly shifted; there were no rings of black this time, just a flash of darkness before he collapsed on the pool of ectoplasm with a grunt.
Phantom’s eyes widened with shock before he stumbled over to the hybrid on the ground with a cough. “Vlad!”
Vlad laid on the street, his breathing shallowing out as Phantom dropped to his knees next to him with his good arm trying to help prop the man up. Vlad snorted softly, letting out a wracking cough with blood flying out. “Jesus Christ, you are a fucking idiot,” Phantom muttered, pushing his knee under the billionaire’s body. “For wanting to kill me for so damn long…”
“Tch.” The man closed his eyes with a wince. “Your idiot nemesis did you a f-favor.”
Phantom gritted his teeth. “Why? Why did you- do that? You fucking absorbed the bastard, and while I’m grateful I don’t have to see him again…”
Vlad relaxed slightly in his grip. The younger half-ghost shook him slightly. “Don’t. Don’t even think about it.”
“You know what’s. Going to happen,” Vlad managed, blood drooling from his mouth. “We know how this is going to end.”
Phantom shook his head. “No. Not a chance, you can’t. Do you know what you’ve done? You took a fucking quitter’s way out, old man.”
Vlad mustered a small smirk. “… …heh. Maybe I did…”
“I. What the hell am I supposed to do?” the teenager muttered, dropping his head. “You’re. You’re gonna die, and for what? Saving my ass?”
“Incorrect. I will be half-dead.”
Phantom looked at the older man, watching his form slowly begin to flicker in and out of existence. Plasmius’s ghost form began to take shape little by little, Vlad reaching up to grab the boy by the torn jumpsuit. His tone was sharper now, eyes open and blazing. Phantom would have been astonished by the spark still in the dying man’s eyes if he wasn’t so exhausted.
“Stop me.”
Phantom’s eyes narrowed. “…what?”
“Listen to me,” Vlad growled, his human body beginning to bleed. The wounds from his brutal fight began to pour blood, as well as his eyes bleeding. “You need to stop me, Daniel. I won’t be here any longer, but… the feral half. My feral half… it’s going to use Dark’s power. And it’s going to destroy everything.”
The boy lifted his chin, swallowing. What the hell had Vlad done? What did he know about—? “Vlad…”
“You need to. Do an old man… make his selfish last request… a reality. Figure out a way… to rid the world of him… for me.” For a split second, the eyes softened. “Please.”
Phantom couldn’t say anything; his throat hurt, his entire body ached without the adrenaline pumping through, but he managed the smallest nod. It was the least he could do, anyway- even with their anger and hatred at each other, even with Vlad being a selfish man with unmatched fury at the knowledge that a teenage hybrid could best him… he could at least do that much. Phantom could at least respect that request.
Something seemed to pulse.
Vlad’s body grew limp in Phantom’s arms before something black and red seemed to soar from the man’s body. The teenager stared at the shadowed figure before a dark laugh began to echo around them. He inhaled sharply as the black mass began to slowly to take shape into the ever-familiar form of Plasmius, with red eyes glaring at the boy down below and his hair still long and black. It flickered now with flame-like consistency, much akin to Dark’s prior, the fangs showing with a sick grin as the creature crossed his arms.
Phantom lowered Vlad’s human body to the ground, standing up slowly before inhaling slowly. “If beauty runs skin-deep, old man, then you’re a really ugly fucker.”
Plasmius didn’t answer; he gave a bone-chilling laugh and staring at the battered hero. “Is that right.”
It was a hiss- hateful, dark, almost a whisper. Phantom instantly regretted hearing its first words.
“You have five seconds to run,” Plasmius uttered, “before I take you next.”
He didn’t have to be told twice. He glanced over at his family, his friends, and sprang towards the company with a renewed rush of adrenaline. “Everyone to the RV. NOW!”
#danny phantom#dan phantom#vlad masters#fan fiction#myficx#i'm actually gonna do this some day for real#of course the consequences are disastrous#but goddammit is the ending going to be bittersweet and necessary
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Verboten 14 | (T)
ff.net | AO3
Fandom: Danny Phantom (DP)
Summary: AU. When Danny was five years old, he went missing for 2 weeks. In the years that follow, his family tried to make sense of what happened, only for the truth to be discovered years later.
Warnings: rated T for violence, mentions of death, language. Be prepared for some very weird things
Chapter warning: being attacked at home
Parings: Danny/Sam
Notes: originally uploaded to Ff.net. Cross-posted to AO3 and tumblr. This fic is very heavily inspired by folklore surrounding mysterious wilderness disappearances
Chapter 14
“Well, at least we know your parents could hire him to clean their ceilings if he stays stuck up there.”
“You’re not helping, Tucker,” Danny snapped at him from his spot on the ceiling.
More amused than surprised anymore, he just let Sam continue to try to help Danny change back to his human form while he worked on his own project. When Sam messaged him earlier that there was an issue, he hadn’t expected to walk into Sam’s room and find Danny, in all his ghostly glory, sitting cross-legged on the ceiling above Sam’s bed and having a panic attack. After taking in the absurdity of the situation, he tried for several minutes to help Sam somehow get him down. When all rescue attempts failed, mostly because Danny couldn’t seem to hold on to anything they threw at him, Sam moved to a different tactic. She hoped getting him to relax would somehow help.
Since that wasn’t his forte, Tucker decided his way of helping would be to finish reviewing the information he got from Plasmius while making comments about his friend’s predicament. Although he knew the digs annoyed Danny and Sam, he needed to do it for his own sanity.
Up until this point, Tucker really hadn’t registered the paranormal as being truly real. Sure, they did get abducted by a crazed ghost and then attacked by an even crazier ghost, but the more time passed without a ghostly incident, he had almost rationalized it as some stress induced hallucination. Almost being the key word. He knew his best friend had been fundamentally changed by the event, but other than the freak out at school and his now permanently chilly skin, Danny hadn’t done anything ghostly until now. Speaking of which…
“How exactly did you end up like this?” he questioned moments before Danny finally fell from the ceiling and landed face first on Sam’s bed. “You okay, dude?”
“More okay then I was when I was stuck on the ceiling,” he sighed as moved himself to the edge of the bed. His unnatural green eyes scanned the room as if searching for something. “I’m like this because of Plasmius.”
“Wait, wait? That’s a pretty big thing to neglect to mention.”
“I’m sorry I got distracted by discovering I was walking around in my ghost form or whatever you want to call it.”
“Don’t antagonize him, Tucker. That seems to make things worse,” Sam scolded as she pointed at Danny, who started to float again. “See? But that is pretty important.”
Danny huffed as he experimentally shifted, making it look like he was just lying on his stomach… in mid-air. Seemingly alright with the position, probably because he was only about a foot above the bed, he continued. “Look, I was planning on immediately telling you guys as soon as Tucker arrived, but I panicked when I realized I couldn’t change back. But since that doesn’t seem to want to change any time soon, I guess I just explain what happened.”
Once Danny was done, Tucker let out a whistle. “That’s some story. Glad he let you go, but it’s really creepy that he can just pluck you into that other world when he wants.”
“Why was he here in the first place?” Sam asked as she worked up enough courage to sit near where Danny was still floating. “That’s what’s bugging me about it. Was he just really here for information?”
“That’s what I don’t get either. Whoa! I’d like it if my body would make up… its mind?” As Danny fell onto the bed once again, a blinding light suddenly washed over him. Once it faded, he was back in his human form. “Well, at least that fixes that problem for now.”
Deciding not to comment on his friend’s obvious relief, Tucker somewhat changed the direction of the conversation. “At least Plasmius confirmed he’s interested in Vlad Master’s companies for something nefarious. Most of what I’ve gotten so far on that data are files on different employees.”
Danny’s eyes lit up at the statement. “Oh, I forgot to tell you. Vlad’s in town.”
“That’s convenient,” Sam dryly stated after she shared a look with Tucker. “Why’s he here?”
“Apparently, when my parents asked him for help getting some information, he decided he needed to be directly involved. He was visiting when I got up.” He glanced down and wrung his hands before adding, “But he seemed really off today.”
“Off how?”
“He gave me literal chills. I mean, if I think about it, that’s happened when ghosts were around, but not people. He also seemed off… like he was a different person.”
Unnerved, Tucker placed his PDA on Sam’s desk. “I hate to bring this up, but didn’t you say that thing that attacked you was able to change how it looked?”
Danny’s eyes widened briefly before he shook his head. “I… I don’t think that’s it. It was close, but there was still something off about how it looked. It also didn’t feel the same… the chill was different. Vlad felt… Vlad felt like Plasmius but not as strong? I don’t know how to explain it.”
“You mentioned that chill before when you freaked out because of Maura… do you think you can sense other ghosts now?” Tucker felt himself grin despite the situation. “I mean, cuz if you can, that’s really useful. I’d like to be able to stay on the complete other side of the city from where that creepy thing is.”
“Maybe? I certainly didn’t notice anything like it when we were trapped or escaping from Plasmius… but he did say something about how that’s possible.” A thoughtful expression briefly crossed his face, until he gave a wry grin. “Fat load of good it does if it only goes off when something is like ten feet away.”
“Darn. Well, still let me know if you notice anything else weird. I’d like a head start over anything that might harm these good looks.”
xxx
After their initial discussion of what happened, the rest of the time was spent seeing if Danny could get any sort of control over his ghost form. It took a while, but he did manage to find the preverbal trigger for the change. Via a couple hours under Sam’s Spartan-equse training, he was finally able to change to and from on command. While he hoped he’d have a chance to work on more of his abilities, it was definitely a success.’
Around dinner, he and Tucker left Sam’s and headed to their own respective houses. While his parents were relieved to see him before sundown, he couldn’t return the feeling. Vlad was still in the house. According to his parents, the businessman would be staying with them in the guest room for a while.
“A while? How long’s a ‘while’?” he questioned as he looked for something to drink in the fridge.
“Well, that’s up to Vlad,” his mother replied as she added a few shakes of something to what smelled like stew. Vlad and his father were still in the lab. “While he’s not entirely certain how long he will be able to remain away from his businesses, he’s hoping to be able to stay for a couple weeks.”
Unhappy with that answer, Danny grabbed his drink and disappeared into his bedroom. If he was honest, he wanted to practice more with his abilities. It would be a shame not to with how much progress he made earlier, but he wasn’t exactly certain what tools his dad and Vlad might be using. Some of them where supposedly able to detect differences in energy levels. Without knowing the specifics of his abilities, he really didn’t want to clue them in.
Actually, was he ever going to tell his parents? That was a good question. Right now, when he didn’t have much control or understanding over anything, it didn’t seem like a good idea. Perhaps down the road? Maybe. Actually, maybe they might have so information regarding what happened to him.
A little later, his parents called him down for dinner. For him, it was a relatively normal affair, save for the chills Vlad kept giving him. Seriously, what was up with that? Vlad had been a fixture in his life for years, and there was never an issue before. Maybe Plasmius somehow influenced him or something? He guessed it was possible. There were legends about ghosts doing stuff like that, but he had no idea how to even begin figuring that out.
After dinner, he once again retreated to his room. Frustrated, he decided a few hours of Doomed would be a good distraction from everything.
…
Right around three am, something woke Danny. Rubbing his eyes, he realized he fell asleep gaming. Stretching, he turned off the game before checking one of his drawers for clean pjs. Deciding it wasn’t worth it, he headed to his bed only to stop when his breath misted in front of him.
Now wide awake, he stopped and listened. There were the normal sounds of the furnace and his dad’s snores. Wait, the furnace? Then why could he see his breath a moment ago? Spooked, he opened his door as quietly as possible and stuck his head out into the hallway.
Nothing seemed out of place. No one was in the hall. There was no light from his parents’ room or the spare bedroom Vlad was using. Deciding something still didn’t seem right, he crept down the hall and peaked down the stairs.
Eyes, dark eyes with a faint red glow, peaked out at him from the darkness of the living room. Knowing whatever it was saw him, he panicked and ran towards his parents’ room. “Mom! Dad! There’s something in the house!” he yelled as he frantically beat on the locked door. Of course it was one of those nights.
“Oh my god, what is that thing?” Vlad’s voice and the growl that followed forced his attention to the staircase. The sickly gray color of its skin made it somehow stand out in the shadows. The creature, the same one Danny encountered in the alleyway, stood in all its horrible glory at the top of the stairs. Its face was twisted in a grotesque snarl, and it swayed slightly. With an uneasy jolt, Danny realized the thing seemed to be debating who to go after first.
At the sound of the lock on his parents’ door turning, the thing lunged forward. Danny barely had time to register his mother pulling him into the room while his father roared, “Eat this!”
The familiar whine of one of his parents’ blasters powering up was followed by a blinding green blast and then another. As his parents decided to chase the thing, he curled up behind the door. The sounds of the blasts and something else, something unnatural, crashing into furniture could be heard from the downstairs.
How did that thing get in the house? Better yet, how did it find him? It was his fault. He needed to help, but what could he do? He had no ability to fight against it. Heck, he still didn’t know what it was other than dangerous and evil.
When the sounds in the downstairs stopped, he held his breath and waited. A sigh of relief escaped him when his mother called for him and Vlad. Not caring he was a teenager and by default hated hugs from family members, raced to his mother’s side and embraced her. Understanding he was frightened, she rubbed his back and reassured him she was fine.
“Sorry to interrupt,” the light snapped on to reveal blast marks, destroyed furniture, and Vlad appraising the scene from the bottom step, “but what exactly was that thing? Should I contact the police?”
Embarrassed someone saw him, Danny quickly let go and retreated a few steps. His mother smiled at him before replying, “It’s already been taken care of.” She pointed to what Danny recognized as the button of one of the alarm systems; it was flashing. “Jack’s checking the perimeter to make sure that thing is gone. In the meantime, I’m going to make us hot chocolate.”
“But what if that thing comes back? Surely Jack wouldn’t just leave you alone.”
She flashed him a grin as she held up a miniature blaster. “Thank you for being concerned, but I’m actually the better shot between the two of us.”
After glancing at Vlad, who seemed both dumbfounded and proud, Danny hurried into the kitchen after his mother. He really didn’t want to leave her side if that thing came back.
“Danny,” his mother stated after they were seated at the kitchen table with hot chocolate in hand, “be honest with me, was that the same thing you saw in the alleyway?”
He took a sip of his drink before answering her. “I… I think so. I mean, I’m not exactly sure if it was the same thing or not, but it looked similar.”
“You’re telling me that’s the thing you’re researching?” Vlad sounded surprised, but Danny noticed how tightly he gripped his mug. Why did he seem angry? “That thing was an abomination.”
His mother nodded. “While there are some stories regarding things like that in folklore, most of the recent ones seem to be more fiction than fact, so Jack and I tended to disregard them.” She sent him an apologetic smile, “However, with Danny’s report, we decided to look into it and didn’t like what we found. That’s why we reached out because we needed to get the resources to verify the data.”
“What do you mean you didn’t like what you found?” His whole body felt icy again, but this time, it seemed to be from fear and not some paranormal creature.
“I want to verify something with the officers,” she glanced at the clock on the wall before muttering, “when they finally get here first. However, if Jack didn’t manage to get it, I’m not sure if it’ll come back or not. We definitely wounded it,” she pointed to a spot in the living room where something wet, dark, and faintly glowing could be seen, “but I don’t know if that was enough to ward it off or if it’s vengeful enough to return.”
“But why was it here?”
“If I may?” Vlad glanced at his mother, who nodded. “If it was in fact the same creature Daniel saw, it may have come for him, or, it simply could have been drawn to the house. Forgive me, but you do have a lot of ectoplasm and other potential energy sources on hand.”
“Hmm… we have been meaning to update our storage devices. That can easily be done, but if Danny is a target, that would be much harder to fix.” His mother reached out and gently put her hand on his. “Sweetie, don’t take this the wrong way, but your father and I are worried you might have been changed because of your disappearances.”
That was putting it lightly, he ruefully thought. However, instead of agreeing, he asked her to explain what she meant.
“Well, you know we theorized you temporarily slipped into a different dimension when you were younger? It’s possible that somehow altered you. Pass reports of those ‘spirited away’ often report the person was somehow changed. Since before you seemed fine, save for the times we caught you staring as if you saw something we couldn’t, we figured you may have developed a sensitivity to the paranormal.”
He nodded. That made sense. Although, he was embarrassed his parents picked up on how he sometimes saw those shadows. Apparently he didn’t do nearly as good of a job as he thought at keeping that a secret.
His mother bit her lip before continuing. “But, this past time… something changed. I know you told the police you were abducted by a person, but the complete disappearance and then reappearance… and that none of you who disappeared could be tracked… and the injuries… and how that poor boy was found… it never made sense it was a human. And when you came back, the changes in your vitals, we knew there was something more to it. You don’t have to tell me anything if you’re not ready,” she added when she noticed his panicked expression, “but whatever changed might have made you something like beacon to creatures of other worlds.”
His mouth felt dry. His parents actually suspected there was something off about him, and they just accepted it? Should he tell them how much he really changed? No, Vlad was in the house. He didn’t need to know anything about it. However, he could start probing for some of the answers he wanted. “If… if I have changed, how…?”
“We’re not exactly sure what will happen in the long run,” she replied as she picked up on his train of questioning. “Old accounts vary, and it’s difficult distinguishing fact and legend. Anyways, Danny I just want to verify the thing that attacked us tonight and whoever abducted you on the camping trip are not the same thing.”
He violently shook his head. “No, they’re completely different…”He debated with himself for a moment. Should he tell her about Plasmius appearing? Or the thing Clockwork discovered? Or the horde that attacked Sam, Tucker, and their classmates on the way back? “At least, whoever took me, Sam, and Tucker was completely different. I don’t know what grabbed the others.” That was true enough.
Vlad remained unusually quiet during the exchange, but unlike other times where he seemed disinterested or involved, this time it seemed like he was mulling over something. Also, Danny hadn’t missed the way his eyes narrowed when he added on the information about the camping abduction.
A knock at the door spooked everyone. They turned to see his dad opening the door followed by a couple police officers. “I found the police!” he said with a grin. “They thought it was another false alarm.”
“False alarm? False alarm?” His mother stood and marched over to the officers who were taking stock of the damage with wide eyes. “My family gets attacked, and you have the nerve to think it was a false alarm? If my husband and I didn’t have the means to defend ourselves, we would have been killed!”
Danny just sighed and continued sipping his drink as he watched his mother scold the officers. His dad joined him. Both of them knew it was better to let her get it out of her system than to try to get involved. Besides, he’d probably never get to see police officers get chewed out like that ever again. Now if only he had some popcorn.
====
Note: if it hadn’t been implied earlier, Maddie and Jack are going to be involved/decent parents in this fic. It makes sense with how this story is laid out – their son has gone mysteriously missing 3 times. They try to keep an eye on him.
#Verboten#danny phantom#danny phantom au#dp#dp au#danny fenton#alternative universe#sam manson#tucker foley#jack fenton#maddie fenton#vlad masters#fanfic#fanfiction#my writing#paranormal#supernatural#fantasy#folklore#so i heard you like folklore#sooooooooo much folklore
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“Hello?” Danny called, his voice the only sound other than the harsh buzz of the fluorescent lights. He gripped the straps of his backpack, shoulders tensed as he made his way down a seemingly endless hall of yellow wallpaper and damp carpeting. There were rooms lining the halls, and each room was identical. There were empty rooms with the exit leading to another hallway full of more rooms, more fluorescent lighting, and more of the same wallpaper.
Heart heavy in his stomach, he reached into his pocket to check his phone for the umpteenth time. No signal. The time had been replaced with nonsensical images but, other than that, nothing was changed. He could look through his messages, photos, and anything else one could access without internet and signal. So, other than for a trip down nostalgia lane, it was useless. Feeling that it might come in handy later, he chose to conserve battery power and pocket the phone.
Over and over again, Danny ran the events of that morning through his mind. He'd left the dorms at the same time he always did in order to meet Sam and Tucker for the cafeteria's Sunday brunch. Everything looked normal, save for one hall where a light had gone out. There were some extra shadows, and some of them fell on the wall adjacent to the cafeteria doors. Some impulse struck him, and he touched the wall. When his hand reached where the wall was, it went through. Still groggy from the weariness of a Wednesday morning, he did not react quickly enough to catch his balance before he tumbled through the wall and fell.
When he woke, he had a throbbing pain in his head and felt an uncomfortable dampness seeping through his clothes. The first thing he saw was the same thing he'd been seeing for god knew how long. Endless doors and halls.
“Is anyone there?” He called, yelling as loudly as he could. Amity Park had many strange and high-tech additions, courtesy of his parents. It wouldn't be impossible for this to be one of them. But it felt... different. There was a different energy. An intense sense of isolation. Of being lost. Worst of all, though, was the feeling of being watched.
A low grumble came from the room to his left. Desperate, he quickly entered the room to find its source, praying that it was the grumbling of a disheveled professor or maybe some inventor. However, his hopes were quickly dashed and replaced with crippling fear. Inside the room, a humanoid creature stood on all fours. It had a fleshy look to it with an awful, misshaped head. It was facing the door in front of it, turned away from Danny. The longer he stared, the more agitated the creature seemed to become and, within seconds, it had turned to face him.
“I-...” The words died on his lips and he began backing away. The creature before him, though displaying some human-like qualities, was clearly not something that could be reasoned with. Finally, his flight reflex activated and he was running before he'd realized he'd decided to run. He could hear heavy footsteps and growls following behind him. “That's it. I'm going ghost.” Danny transformed and instantly took advantage of his increased speed and ability to phase through walls. Eventually, he lost it.
“Man...” Danny landed and transformed back into his human form, taking a knee to catch his breath. Like before, he was surrounded with the sound of the terribly artificial light and the uncomfortable dampness of the dull carpet beneath him.
“Well now! Look who we have here.”
A voice cut through the monotonous sound; calm, collected, cocky.
“It seems you've found yourself in quite the unfortunate place, little badger.” Vlad phased through the wall, but quickly shifted from his ghost to his human form. Despite the chaos of the whatever the heck they were in, Vlad still seemed well put together. Perhaps a few bags under his eyes, but the lighting made it hard to tell.
“I should've guessed you had something to do with this.” Danny rose quickly to his feet, clenching his fists in preparation for a fight.
“I'm flattered. But this isn't my work.” Vlad said, gesturing admittedly.
“Yeah? Then why are you here?” Danny asked.
“I could ask you the same thing, Daniel. Why are you here?” Vlad asked, his question laced with condescension. Danny scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “No answers? Hmm?”
“I was at school one minute, and the next thing I knew, I was here. When I woke up-”
“Woke up?” Vlad interrupted, a look of concern glimpsing over his otherwise stoic face.
“Yeah. I kinda hit my head on something. I think.” As he spoke, he unconsciously rubbed his head. It still hurt, but it was far from the most pressing issue on his mind. Vlad took a step toward Danny placing one hand on his head and using the other to part his hair. “Hey! What're you doing?” He swatted at Vlad's hand. “Ow!”
“Stand still. If you have a head injury, you could be in danger.”
“I'm fine. What? Are you going to have me walk around reciting the capitals of the states so I don't wind up in a coma?” He spoke with heavy sarcasm and frustration, but he gave up on fighting it. Vlad placed a thumb under Danny's chin and tilted his head upward. Likely to check for dilation of the eyes. The gesture, though, made his heart skip a beat. Being that close and with such an uncharacteristic-seeming tenderness felt... Shut up, Danny. You're being an idiot. It's Vlad.
“-And because of that, you are going to be left vulnerable to the more Do you understand?” Vlad spoke, his tone indicating the end of some sort of explanation. Oops. Didn't pay attention to a single thing he said.
“Uhh....”
“Are you having trouble concentrating?” Vlad asked, finally concluding his assessment and letting Danny have his personal space back.
“No. Just run it by me again.” Danny lowered his head, a bit embarrassed. Vlad sighed and rolled his eyes.
“Fine, but try listening this time.” Vlad placed his hand against the wall. “This dimension operates under different rules than our own. I've marked my path, etching a symbol into each wall I pass and each door I enter. Despite that, I have made no progress in solving this little puzzle. When back-tracking, every symbol is gone.” He paused for emphasis. “This place plays tricks on your mind. If you have a head injury, you are far more likely to succumb to hallucinations. And, for some reason, using our ghost halves weaken our fortitude. It is very likely that, were one of us to lose grip of reality, they will become one of the monsters that lurk these halls.”
“How do you know all this?” Danny asked, the magnitude of his situation slowly starting to settle on him.
“I've spent many years as Plasmius. I've learned many, many things. More than you could hope to fathom.” A smirk crept across his face. “So I think it would be wise for you to join me. I am your only hope of escape.” Vlad let the silence sit between himself and the male who had long since decided that Vlad was his enemy. It was rather... cute. The hero complex and firm but entirely naive grip on morality was entertaining to say the least.
“In your dreams, cheese head.” Danny stepped back and transformed. “I'll be out of here in no time. Enjoy the soggy floors!” He shouted as he flew down the hall, putting as much space between himself and Vlad as possible. It was hard to tell if he was making progress. Everything looked the same.
As he rounded the corner, one of the same humanoid monsters sat in the center of the hallway.. It rocked rocked back and forth, a high pitched screech seeping from its mouth. When it saw Danny, it immediately threw itself onto its four, distorted limbs. Skin, rotting skin sagged from its body exposing holes. It was as if the thing had been decomposing.
“Alright, creep. This time, I guarantee I won't be running away. You're way uglier than I remember.” Danny's hands glowed as he summoned the energy for an ectoblast. “Maybe this'll help!” He launched two powerful blows at the thing. The resulting explosion knocked down parts of the wall and a burst of drywall and dust creating a small fog in the hall.
Danny landed and waited for the debris to settle. Whatever this nightmare world was, he wasn't going to forget the most important rule of living in a horror movie. Well, aside from not having sex. And that was the good ol' double tap.
His thoughts were interrupted by a horrific screech. A shadow emerged from the debris, moving faster than anything he'd ever seen. Before he had a chance to react, the thing had sliced at his chest, leaving a deep cut. He kicked the thing, but it had no effect. Every move in his arsenal failed to do anything but make the thing even more volatile.
“This is insane.” Danny leaped backwards, gasping for breath. With no other choice, he ran. He flew through walls, making erratic turns. It was the same way he'd lost the monster earlier. Every time he looked back, though, he would see the thing racing down the hall or coming out through a door. Sometimes, it would even walk through the walls. This shouldn't be possible. Danny flew faster and faster, but there was no reprieve.
Danny collided hard with a figure and fell hard on the floor. Looking up, he saw Vlad. Vlad's expression was serious. He pulled Danny to his feet and covered his eyes.
“You need to turn human again, now.” He demanded. Danny could hear the screams of the creature as it neared them. With no other choice, Danny transformed. Vlad led him backwards down a series of halls. The longer they walked, Danny tripping and stumbling as he tried to keep pace with Vlad. Finally, the sound of the creatures began to fade. Vlad uncovered Danny's eyes.
“Are you still so sure you don't need my help?”
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Runaway Chapter 7
Vlad Masters x reader
Summary: Dreamcatcher time!
Word Count: 584
Jack and Maddie stared in fascination at the male ghost that was busy checking on Y/N’s ghost half. They’d never seen Vlad’s full other form. It’s black hair matched the style of the human’s short hair, but it was the same pitch black that it was before the accident. The rest of him looked much like the old Dracula costumes. They were legitimately surprised at how worried the ghost seemed about his equally ghostly wife. Between that and the fact that both ghost halves looked exactly like the human half just palette-swapped cemented for both Jack and Maddie that their loved ones weren’t possessed.
The Fentons were so distracted by that sight that they didn’t notice the very human, very pissed off Vlad that was stalking up to them. Without any warning, Vlad punched Jack in the face with so much force that the bigger man fell back against the wall. Maddie gasped and rushed to her husband’s aid.
“What the fuck did you do to us?!” both Vlads demanded.
“We helped you!” Maddie defended. “We made you like that and now we’ve fixed you!”
Shadow--Y/N’s other half--snarled in rage. “No you didn’t! You did make us this way--”
“And then you refused to accept us as we were!” Y/N finished. “You just ripped out half of who we are without even asking us first!”
“Sweetheart--”
Vlad--the human one--literally growled. “‘Sweetheart’ her again and I will introduce you to being a ghost. I won’t even need Plasmius to help.”
Given how he just experienced the man’s strength first-hand, Jack had no problem believing the threat. “V-man--”
“Choose your next words carefully,” Shadow warned.
The large man fell silent.
“Maybe if we run some tests on them--”
Y/N was the one to interrupt her mother. “So you can experiment on me?! On my husband?!” Jack didn’t fail to notice how the ‘husband’ part seemed to bother her more than the idea of being experimented on herself. “After what you did to him before, why the fuck would I ever let you ‘test’,” that was complete with air quotes, “any part of him ever again?”
At that point, Shadow--who, like Y/N, was significantly shorter than her significant other--had moved to float in front of Plasmius protectively.
“What is this really about, Jack?” Plasmius demanded.
“I still don’t believe that my little girl would have hidden his from me for all these years let alone--”
“My love,” Vlad interrupted, sensing where this was going, “can you please leave us alone? It seems your parents and I need to have a long overdue conversation.” When it looked like she was going to argue, he placed a lingering kiss to her lips. “Please.”
Trusting her husband reluctantly, both Y/N and Shadow left to go elsewhere in the mansion. Vlad would bet that they were going to her private lab to undo the Fentons’ actions.
Once their daughter left, Jack and Maddie watched in mild fear as the striking figure of Vlad’s ghost half moved to float ominously right behind the human. The similarity between them was obvious, making it unlikely that Plasmius was a ghost that was possessing their former friend.
“Come with me,” Vlad said as he started walking towards his lab. “I’ve been working on something that I think will finally put to rest your doubts about the legitimacy of our relationship. It is a device to see a ghost’s memories. With it, you’ll be able to see how we began.”
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“Look Sam! I did it!” (children practicing magic in the swamp)
Guess who did a new AU!! I did! I call it the Naga!Danny AU cause I can’t think of another name rn
I’ll put all the details I got so far under the link (oh and also 3 extra images cause I was very exited and i draw more hehe)
Takes place in a world where magic is real and humans live in a medieval-victorian like era, mythos (mythological creatures) and some humans can wield magic, humans have more variety in what kind of magic they can use but mythos are more specialized and stronger in their kind of magic. Humans separated the mythos into two categories: Monsters (the dangerous ones or ones that are more likely to attack humans, like werewolves) and benigns (the ones that prefer to be left alone, like centaurs)
Maddie and Jack are monster hunters, this gained them some enemies, one of those enemies is a shadow, a monster without form that is known for their unbreakable curses. In one of their hunts they somehow anger the shadow and it wants revenge, seeing that it couldn't come close enough to the hunters it decides to curse one of the hunters offspring, they had been fool to drag their children to the hunt. the shadow attacked the closer to it but before it could activate the curse completely it was interrupted by the hunters, but it didn’t matter the curse would activate by itself in some time.
The 12 years old Danny Fenton was lucky the shadow didn't completed its curse, his parents were worried for weeks after the incident but at seeing that Danny hadn't changed at all they concluded that the shadow didn't make any curse and that it was only taunting them.
For 2 years Danny felt weird,sometimes he could swore that he had escams in his arms or that his teeth felt a little too sharp, but when he saw himself in the mirror he saw nothing in his reflex and continued with his life.
The Fentons lived in the town of Amity, the town was located near the lake Erie and the Ghoul swap (yes humans aren't very creative with names), the river that feed the lake came from the Frozen mountains in the Kre’k mountain range and continued towards the ocean with the swamp following it, More to the mountains side there was a thick forest where humans could hunt deers, rabbits and was abundant in fruit trees.
The Fenton’s house was separated from the town and was ubicated near the swamp, the volatile experiments of the adults made it clear to the townspeople that it was safest for everyone if their house was far away from the others (fires were a very dangerous thing and nobody would have let them live in the town for fear of one). Even if the Fentons were appreciated for their services they were way too extravagant to have too much respect in the town, not that the Fenton parents care for that.
Maddie and Jack were hunters and inventors, their house was oddly constructed, the main part of the house was constructed with the same bricks as all the houses in the town, though they later added another part in the roof and some other rooms at the sides, the rooms weren't the same size so that the house was very asymmetric and it gave it an odd look to the outsiders, even so Danny loved his house.
Danny, Sam and Tucker were best friends since very young, Tucker was an inventor, though he invented things to make his life easier, Sam was a magic user, she learns everything from her grandma, her favorite magic was the plant and healing kinds, though she knew a little of shadow and fire magic to use in self defense. Magic users were not well seen by the humans because of they could wield magic like the monsters (they conveniently forgot that benigns could do magic too… jerks), so if discovered magic users were treated lower than dirt and were usually enslaved.
Danny learned how to hunt from his parents but he is not interested in killing monsters, he is only willing to kill animal for food and really hates when the other hunters kill for sport (when they kill a deer just for the antlers and leave the body behind), though he is an excellent tracker, he can track any animal or human in land and even the turtles and crocodiles in the swamp, nobody knows how he does it but don't complain when they have turtle to eat. Sam doesn't like that innocent animals are killed but she understands it’s for food (if it was for her she would live of only plants and fruit, but it is not possible in that era)
When Danny reached his 14 bday he was alone in the swamp near his house with only Sam and Tucker as company, his parents had gone to a hunt and would be away for a few days, and his sister was in town teaching to read to the children. The three friends were in search for any fish in the traps that Tucker had built and when the sun was at its highest point danny felt a great pain and screamed, then he passed out.
When Danny woke up his face was in the mud and his legs felt funny, well his everything felt funny, Danny then tried to stand up but for some reason he couldn't and when he saw his “legs” he knew why, he had no legs anymore in its place there was a long muscled snake body covered with black escames, then Danny saw his hands and those were covered with white escames that went as far as his forearm and his fingernails were now small white claws.
Danny then saw his reflection in the dirty water, his hair changed from black to white and his ears were more pointy than before but the thing that was most shocking were his eyes, they were completely green with two vertical slits as pupils. Danny knew that he had transformed somehow into a naga for what his parents told him nagas were one of the most dangerous monsters, nobody knew what kind of magic they were stronger but everybody knew nagas were the most poisonous creatures, their bite was mortal and even their meat and blood wasn't safe to eat for any animal.
When Sam and Tucker called for his name Danny didn't knew what to do, they have seen his transformation and had waited until he woke up to ask him what just happened, Danny told them that he didn't knew and then they agreed to go to Danny's house because maybe his parents have some information in this. Sam and Tucker had to help danny (half dragging him) towards the house (danny doesn't know how to move his snake body yet)
That's how all starts, Danny is now a half monster and after Danny mastered his transformation from human to naga and vice Sam teaches danny some of her shadow magic (they were experimenting what kind of magic Danny can do) and Danny is very good at it, he uses shadows to hide himself, it works better in the night, (this AU version of invisibility) Danny doesn't tell his parents for fear that they will experiment in his naga form and then kill him.
After 2 weeks of Danny transformation monsters start to appear in the town and cause problems in there, Danny Sam and Tucker decided to stop the monsters from causing too much damage to their town and end up saving most of them from the Fenton parents, later Sam teaches Danny fire magic, then Danny can use green fire to attack the most violent monsters (version of ectoblasts)
They later decide that Danny’s naga form should have the name Serpent, it was way better that the name the humans started calling him after someone saw a shadow of him, they were calling him Snaeky (like snake and sneaky fused toegether), Danny hates that name
Because I didn’t want all ghost to be monsters in this AU I made a list (ok 2 lists)
Monsters
-Trollbox: this au version of the box ghost, he is a small troll that likes to do a mess everywhere he goes, mostly for attention, very weak and annoying
-Ember: she is a siren (humanoid creature, only merpeople have fish tails) her blue hair moves from her head like underwater, tho is so bright blue that some humans think is fire, she likes the attention of people when she sings, tho it has a little lure in it that made humans want to approach her and forget what they were doing
-Wulf: lone werewolf, he didn't like his previous pack’s ideology of eating humans and other mythos so he left them, bad side is that he’s hunted by humans, he makes Danny and his friends his new pack and then lives in the forest near Amity
-Nocturne: octopi (half human half octopus… like ursula in the little mermaid), lives in the ocean but like the octopus he can go to land if he wishes, he spacializes in mind magic, visits Amity one night out of curiosity, is neutral with Danny after the encounter
-Frostbite: he and his tribe are yetis (oh wow… shocking -_-... anyway) they live in the frozen mountain and is thanks to their magic over ice and snowstorms that the river that feeds Amity exists, Danny learns ice magic with them
-Pandora: arachni (half human half spider, it made sense with her four arms ok!) she is the queen of the Akr’us empire, they live underground in most of the Kre’k mountain range (that why the name) like canon danny become allies with them at returning a treasure that boxy stole
-Aragon and Dorathea: they are actually dragons that can speak human language, they have a kingdom (more like Aragon ate the king and stayed there as the new king), it’s full of humans but little or almost none mythos, the kingdom is in an islad near the beach where the swamp ends
-Vlad Masters/Plasmius: Vlad kew Maddie and Jack when they were young and he joined in their monster hunts too, in a incident similar at the one Danny had Vlad was cursed to be a half monster too, but he is half vampire so there isn't much he can offer to Danny to leave his father, only safety more information of magic that he could use and acceptance, tho Danny doesn't like his manipulative attitude and refuse. Vampires feed of blood (human or animal, no mythos cause magic does weird thing to their bodies) they have wings that hide them as a cape (yes he’s still the rich manipulative bastard that we all love)
-Vortex: weather spirit, likes to cause electric storms, Danny has to stop him before he creates fires in the town, after confrontation he is convinced to do his storms away from Amity.
-Undergrowth: forest spirit, after a big deforestation he awakes and wants revenge towards the humans, after confrontation he is asured that humans will not desforest more than they need, he then goes back to the forest (he will be busy reforesting)
-Poindexter: weak ghost looking for revenge in his abusers, after misunderstanding becomes friends with Danny
-Amorpho: shapeshifter, likes to prank people, neutral with Danny
-Observants: weird eyeballs with long thin tentacles, they live under the ocean and almost never leave it
-Clockwork: naga,especialized in time magic, (TUE happens as in canon changing some details), becomes teacher of Danny (fuck u vlad!) and kinda father figure
-Dan: mix of naga Danny and vampire Vlad (with the snake half, the wings and Vlad greenish skin), for his thirst of blood he had drank of humans and mythos, the magic in mythos blood make him insane and homicidal- stopped by Danny and erased from the timeline for Clockwork
-Spectra: leech of people's emotions, humanoid with wrinkled skin and pointy teeths she’s very manipulative, enemie of Danny and friends.
-bertrand: shapeshifter, follows Spectra like a puppy
-Cujo: shuck (big black ghostly dog that roams near the coast), he is feared for humans tho he is just a curious creature, becomes friend with Danny roams the swamp near his house, for some reason the Fenton parents never see him
-Hotep ra: mummy that cames to Amity thanks to merchants, wants to rebuild his lost kingdom, manipules Tucker like a puppet, enemie of Danny
-Klemper: ice spirit that is always looking for friends, tho he tends to freeze everything in his path, after becoming friend with Danny he roams the Frozen mountain with his new yeti friends
-Sojourn: air elemental, explorer, can wield lighting like whips to attack or defend himself, good friend with Clockwork and visits him sometimes, becomes a uncle figure to Danny, has way to many stories to share
Humans
-Skulker: monster hunter, wants danny cuase is very rare to even see a naga (duh), is in good terms with Vlad (tho he doesnt know about the half monster thing)
-Technus: inventor of skulker weapons, besides his best friend, extravagant like the Fentons but not interested in hunting
-Johnny and Kitty: horse riders, rebels, after confrontation they are friends with Danny (they adopted him as a little brother, yes they know about the naga thing when Danny tried to stop them for causing too much chaos)
-Walker: runs a prison, tho is very far from Amity, wants to imprison humans and mythos that go against the rules (his rules)
-Freakshow: slaves mythos for his cirqus (monsters and beings), Danny has to be saved by his friends
-Pharia Dark: enemy king, tries to invade the kingdom in where danny lives, Amity is his starting point in conquest, he uses magical artifacts of power created by some mages in his kingdom
-Fright knight: loyal knight (not really) of Pharia Dark, mounts a dark alicorn and has a magic sword, changes his loyalty towards the kingdom that defeated his king
-Desiree: magician slaved by some comerciants, Danny and friends free her and she becomes an allie, she hides in the swamp in a old abandoned house, Danny and friends bring her food and company, she teaches Danny and Sam what she knows of magic
-Dairy king: he is the king of the kingdom in which Amity is, good king doesnt have much enemies, prefers peace and daily products
-Ghost writer: he's known as writer, he teach the kids in the school, his favourite recreation is writing and reading
-Youngblood: little orphan that lives in amity, is friends with Danny since before the incident, they always put pranks in grown ups (probably will get adopted by Desiree)
-Lunch lady: ( have to give her a name!) the best cook of Amity, she’s the head chef in all parties and wants to feed the children, tho she can be scary if they refuse her food
That’s all I have so far, if you guys have any ideas or question u are free to ask (u can also ask in my main blog)
ok now the 3 pictures!!
Naga Danny hissing in anger
Blep with his bifed tounge (also testing the air but still looking adorable)
He grabbed and started to eat a rat like any teen would do with snacks (he still ate the rat, Sam was not pleased and Tucker foud it to funny)
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Emotional Ectomagnetic Spectrum
Headcanon: the Lantern Corps and ghosts gain power from the same source.
(Scroll to Vlad’s pic for DP content, or past all of the pics for fic content.)
In the DC Universe, there are seven different Lantern Corps. Members use their lanterns to charge their power rings – but where do the lanterns get power?
Emotions. Every sentient being in the universe bleeds emotion, creating an energy field to which the lanterns are connected. Each Corps draws power from a different emotion. (Yeah, it’s hokey. Whatever. That’s canon.)
Who else gains power from emotions?
Ghosts – if you subscribe to a certain headcanon, anyway. Not like Spectra rejuvenating herself; the theory goes that ghosts haunt humans in order to feed on their yummy emotions, thus growing more powerful. And halfas cannibalize their feelings, giving them an internal power source.
If accept those both as true, then it isn’t a stretch to assume ghosts and lanterns tap into the same “emotional electromagnetic spectrum” for energy. Furthermore, I propose that the color of a ghost’s ectoplasm indicates which emotion they draw from the spectrum.
Another DP headcanon: ghosts recharge within the Ghost Zone. It makes sense, if you accept that ghosts need emotional sustenance. The Zone is where they spend most of their time. Of course, this means that the GZ (or ectoplasm in general) is/contains a source of emotional energy.
I submit that the “energy field” the lanterns draw from is the Ghost Zone.
DP canon:
Doors in the GZ can lead to pocket dimensions (like the boy in front of the static TV, you know the one.)
The GZ is a mirror dimension to the “real world,” so close that natural portals open everywhere. If the GZ is destroyed, then so is Earth.
Presumably, the GZ extends beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. A sister dimension brimming with energy, spanning the universe.
(A metaphor: the “real world” is an assembled puzzle, while the GZ is all of the pieces loose in the box. They align, but not symmetrically. If a piece of the GZ were destroyed, the corresponding piece of the assembled puzzle would be destroyed as well, but not the whole dang puzzle/universe.)
DC canon:
Corps members keep their lanterns in pocket dimensions accessible from a secret location.
This indicates that A) Lanterns are able to reach other dimensions, if very nearby ones, and B) that the location of the pocket dimension is static, relative to the rotation of the planet.
This correlates with DP canon, wherein the Ghost Portal never leads elsewhere as the Earth orbits. The lanterns would also be capable of drawing energy from the GZ.
In conclusion, this all fits together pretty damn well, imo.
But let’s get back to the ghosts.
DC canon: an emotion’s placement on the spectrum indicates how much influence it holds over the wielder. Green, in the middle, is the most stable, but can only be controlled by those of great willpower. We’re starting on the end of the spectrum, however.
Those who are capable of great love, who have lost their loves, or been rejected are capable of wielding the violet light.
Vlad’s motivation is all about love! He yearns for it, would plot and manipulate and kill for it; he feels scorned and deprived of what he deserves. He’s spent his life becoming his idea of the perfect man, all for the sake of love.
Being on the far end of the spectrum, the violet light drives the Star Sapphires to violence through their love. I’m not saying that Vlad isn’t responsible for his own actions; he definitely is. However, I think it’s indicative that he naturally bears the toxic love of the Star Sapphires.
The Star Sapphires are mostly comprised of scorned women. It doesn’t surprise me in the least that Desiree uses the love that betrayed and harmed her to smite revenge upon the living.
Another common trait among the Sapphires is hatred of men – an outdated canon, imo, but it certainly rings true for this ghost.
The Indigo Tribe is a very special Corps, not only for the fact that most of their members are literal slaves to their rings – as it is said people can be slaves to their compassion. The users of this light are capable of absorbing and utilizing the lights of other Corps as they would their own.
Similarly, Ember’s guitar can emit different colors of ectoplasmic attacks, depending on its setting. (I consider Ember’s guitar as intrinsic as Johnny’s shadow.) The theme of being enslaved by a single, overwhelming emotion fits with Ember’s siren-like ability, as well.
(Disclaimer: I’m not considering her blue hair for the same reason I’m not considering Plasmius’ red eyes. Those are more from their self-perception than the energy they draw from, imo.)
Blue power rings choose those capable of giving hope for the future to others when they have lost theirs.
Even in the depths of a frozen wasteland, Frostbite leads his people with palpable optimism. They’ve achieved science, art, and philosophy worthy of any sci-fi utopia. Their warrior culture is jovial, meant for recreation rather than conflict. He certainly gave hope to Danny.
I never said that ghosts could only use one color, did I?
Danny gained the ability to use blue ectoplasm later in his character development. After he learned to base his self-worth on himself, rather than on others’ opinions; after he wins more fights than he loses; after he gets a handle on his grades. He’s in a more positive place in his life. Most of Amity Park accepts him as a hero, and he’s even on their sign as their town hero. He’s become a symbol of hope.
Now, at this point one might say, “But Amelia, they’re blue because of ice powers.” to which I say, “bullshit.” Ice has no color, and neither does water. They reflect the sky, granting a blue appearance. IMO, their ice powers are illuminated from within by blue ectoplasm.
If you’re still not convinced, here’s another example:
Looks familiar. Pandora ain’t using ice powers; that’s blue ectoplasm. Considering she crafted a box to contain the world’s worst evils in order to make it a better place, I think she qualifies as one who brings hope.
Those of an indomitable will that can overcome great fear are capable of wielding the green light.
This kid was hunted by his parents, his government, terrifying other-dimensional ghosts, and a rich, old man smarter and stronger than himself. His own body didn’t obey him, or even the laws of physics – and that’s not even mentioning the normal perils of puberty! Bullies targeted him; teachers were biased against him; his grades, and all control over his life, were slipping.
Fear dogged his footsteps, but rather than hide, run away, or even keep his head down to make things easier on himself, he chose to fight. It would have been easy to say ‘my parents’ portal, my parents’ problem.’ He tackled his obstacles one day at a time, relentlessly putting the safety of others before his own, and relied on his friends to help him through – even if that just meant goofing off to destress.
That took serious determination – or, shall I say, willpower.
Disclaimer: green is the natural color of ectoplasm. I am not suggesting that the murky depths of the GZ are aglow with the universe’s supply of bullheadedness. Nor do I believe that the Fright Knight’s ectoplasm-empowered/enchanted sword is made of stubborness. All that is charged with willpower is green, but not all that is green is willpower.
(No ghostly examples for these. I blame color palettes, but I’m biased.)
Yellow is close to the center, and like blue, these rings choose those capable of instilling great fear in others.
Orange can be harnessed by those whose greed knows no bounds. Wielders become twisted, obsessively guarding their property and stealing from others.
I don’t need to tell you about the Ghost King’s breathtaking anger issues.
In DC, the red light of rage has the most profound effect on its wielders of them all. Red Lanterns are reduced to little more than rabid animals, and the rings poison their blood so that if they’re removed, the result is death.
However, ghosts are not Lanterns. They are not beings of flesh and blood overwhelmed by otherworldy power. This isn’t foreign to ghosts. This is a ghost’s natural state of existence.
For example, Vlad exibits negative traits of a Star Sapphire. But in the case of a Corps member (correct me if I’m wrong,) the ring is forcing this behavior. Not the light. The ring. Vlad is perfectly capable of changing his ways, of using the Power of Heart™ for good.
This is why I think Danny can use two different types, with green as his primary color. Not a DP post without a pun. Like when Desiree’s eyes glare crimson when she’s furious – she’s tapping into the red light, but when she attacks, it’s still violet, because love is still her source of power. I’m such a nerd, wow
If we can accept all of that, then we can get to the interesting stuff!
Danny could charge a GL’s ring, but he’d be exhausted afterward and maybe not hold his ghost form. A last resort.
Vlad’s cube thing that doesn’t let Danny use his powers? Could totally work on a Lantern. (The Plasmius Maximus, however, requires ghost biology, so no dice)
Danny’s ghost sense goes off when there’s a Lantern around, but only when the ring’s activated. Same thing with ghost shields – they work when they‘re powered up.
The first time GL encounters this, they don’t know that. It’s such a stupidly simple solution they didn’t even consider, so they’re just outside trying to smash through with brute force when they could literally walk right in, its hilarious
Lanterns are basically artificial halfas. None of the really fun powers, like invisibility/intangibility, but anything that involves shaping or charging ectoplasm? They’re experts
GL could totally teach Danny how to use some of his powers
The Oans probably have the technology to stabilize Dani
The Fenton’s portal? That engine Jack made that uses ghosts as an energy source? Or really any of their ghost tech? Is basically following the same path of technological development as the Oans!
GLs can track ecto-technology on their rings, as long as its active. Imagine their shock when they find Oan-like tech on Earth!
They know about the emotional spectrum, but that’s it. The Oans don’t want anyone replicating their technology, so their people have no idea where their power really comes from
If the GLs report back to the Oans about ecto-tech development on Earth, things may get political real fast
If the suit Technus made for Valerie is powered by the red light, what if it starts influencing her personality/emotions?
GL could take Danny into space. GL could take Danny to visit other planets. Danny could explore space with the Lanterns and he would be so happy
Danny vs GL: if it boils down to a battle of stamina, GL wins. His ring has more lasting power than Danny. As a halfa, however, Danny has full ghost powers; if he’s tricky enough, he could squeeze out a win. GL, on the other hand, is only limited by his imagination in what he can create.
I’m inclined to say GL would win, unless Danny is willing to use the Ghostly Wail to knock him out, then flee on foot – but even then, GL’s ring would have a recording of him becoming Danny Fenton
(Plus GL has way more allies than Danny. Basically, our boy might win a battle, but def not the war)
The Oans and the Observants could totally be in cahoots, and neither of them like Danny
That pocket dimension GLs keep their Lanterns in could totally be behind a locked door in the GZ, and now I’m imagining Vlad scheming up a way to find one
What if GL’s space travel utilizes the GZ’s natural portals like the infi-map?
There’s so much potential here, guys!!
#dpdc#black and white lanterns exist too#but this is complicated enough#long post#this is extra nerdy even for me#danny phantom#lantern corps#dc comics#this took an absurd amount of time#original post#DP headcanon
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