Norm McLean x unenthusiastic reader
Fluff, nervous reader, no gender specified. Vault doesn’t open, Norm steals your private property (accidentally
Everyday was the same in the vault. Every morning, wake up, breakfast, exercise, study, chores, listen to weirdos spout about positivity all day, eat again, go to bed. It’s not even the people that really got on your nerves, they could be as happy as the want to be. It’s the fact that they wouldn’t stop talking about that made your blood boil. You even agreed with some of it, but did everyone really have to be so exhaustingly enthusiastic all. The. Time? No, and in a perfect world, you could live your boring life, mind your own Buisness, and be left alone. Truly, you simply didn’t see the reason for being so persistent about everything, we live in an underground vault in the apocalypse for gods sake.
You thought you would have to live your entire life surrounded by people you couldn’t stand. So, you never made an effort to meet people. It’s pretty easy to keep to yourself when you follow the exact same routine everyday. Just waiting out the day so you could have some time to yourself. Play on your Pip-Boy, read a book for the millionth time, maybe do some art or write in your diary. Which is why when some jerk in the hallways bumped into you on your way back home from your post, you were pretty miffed. The electricity overview papers you had in your hands, and the papers for your most recent job report, all ready to be dropped off in the overseers office were out of their neat pile, and now strewn across the floor. You REALLY did not have the energy for this.
As you turned your accusatory stare to the little punk who tripped you, you were surprised to see Norm, the overseers son. You had never talked to him, interacted with him, or even got a good look at him. You only knew who he was from the mandatory, positivity vault meetings. He was small, with a thin frame, prominent nose, nice hair and annoyingly pretty eyes- wait, what the hell were you thinking, you’d never even met the guy, surly he was just like his goody two shoes sister. But you were still staring, and he was starring back through tired, half lidded eyes. You saw that he had also lost some papers in the fall, now lying on the floor next to you.
You jump up and dust off you suit. You mumbled quickly
“sorry, excuse me”
Expecting nothing more than an annoying, long winded interaction, involving but a wide smile, cheery voice and obnoxious apology. Norm just stood up, dusted himself off as well, muttered a half hearted, brief apology, grabbed his papers, and walked in the other direction. You were shocked, you had never had a conversation so brief. Despite the bad terms, you were thankful not to be monaloged at for thirty minutes. You picked up your papers, reorginized them into a messy pile, dropped them off and headed back home.
You hardly slept that night, despite your great desire to do so. Your brief run in with Norm played over and over in your mind. Before you knew it, it was morning, and your moderately tolerable schedule had been thrown off completely, you got up, ate breakfast, showered, then exercised- then you went to answer your door, and- before you knew it, right in front of you, was Norm McLean. In your stunned silence, you were suddenly incredibly aware of your heavy purple eye bags, your ratty hair, and your unbrushed teeth, as well as that you had been staring at the man infront of you in complete silence for nearly fourty seconds. Norm was giving you a sceptial look. As your brain regained function, and your hands stopped fidgeting stupidly at your side, you saw a small set of papers in his hands. Before you could start to roil in the embarrassment of seemingly the only tolerable man in the vault seeing and reading your job reports, he spoke.
“You dropped these, picked them up on accident” Norm said flatly.
“Sorry, thanks for bringing them back I guess.” You yelped meekly, furiously trying to subdue the extremely non-characteristic butterflies in your stomach. In an attempt to deescalate your emotions, you began closing your door. That is, before he spoke up.
“Unenthusiastic performance in all areas, huh? Can’t say I haven’t been there. I think I’ve always been there, actually.” Norm spoke with great undetstanding, and if you thought about it, you could swear you heard gratitude in his voice.
“Yeah, no matter where they put me I always get the same report. Electricity isn’t as bad, less people bothering you.” Norm smiled at your reply, suddenly attentive to the conversation.
“Well, I thought there was nobody I could stand in this vault, guess I was wrong.” He gestured to the inside of your room, “mind if I come in?”
Suddenly, your world was on fire, everything collapsing around you. You nodded, probably too excitedly.
The two of you spent the entire rest of the day together, talking about annoying people in the vault, the McLean’s, your life, his. You played some video games together, and then read in a comfortable silence. For the first time in forever, you were enjoying the company of your peers. You completed your day together, both equally unenthusiastic. but, having each others company somehow made everything easier.
The next day, the two of you did the same thing, and then the next, and for the week, and a month, and before you knew it. You had spent a year together. Not before long did you admit to having feelings for one another. And after a couple years of dating, the two of you were set to be married. The two of you, alone in a vault of over 100. Unenthusiastic together.
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okay, so, I've collected a bunch of DP fandom stuff that I remember off the top of my head, specifically in chronological order & colour coded here in this post (fics/comics, tumblr posts, important imo) for no reason other than I saw a post asking for Phandom history & it triggered my biggest, most long-running hyperfixation & now I'm curious if anyone else remembers stuff.
this link is going to be the permanent version I will be updating, but I'm posting what I currently have (gonna go through my old laptop later for more) just to let people know. you can also find the link on my blog, but only on desktop. It isn't colour coded there, sorry.
please share more if you got anything else cuz I'm 100% sure I'm missing a lot of stuff & am too interested now. the biggest reason a lot of stuff isn't here is that I simply can't find it. second biggest reason is i forgor. things not included here aren't "unimportant," this is just the first stuff that comes to mind.
putting it under a cut 'cause it got kinda long
Mars by JadeRabbyt (2005)
Checkmate by pearl84 (2006)
Conversations of a Ghost Gabber by Cordria (2006)
The Foley Maneuver by bluemoonalto (2007)
One Thousand Years by Nylah (2008)
Lab Rat by AnneriaWings (2009)
Lost by Cordria (2010?) [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Phantom of Truth by Haiju (2011)
Ghost Deaths (2012)
Through Coals and Rain by Kakawot (2012)
Shadow of a Doubt by Haiju (2013)
Pink Pants (2013?)
Wes (2014) [original] [1] [2] [3] [4]
this "I'm Inevitable" gif (2014)
Space AU (2014)
Treading Water by The Full Catastrophe (2014)
Danny, you dead IDIOT!! comic (2014)
wash away the darkest days by anthrop (2014)
Reverse Trio (2014)
Inverse Trio (2014-2016) ALT
Halfas are "feral children" (2015)
Burn the Streets, Burn the Cars by anthrop (2015)
It's Not Gay if He's Dead by phantomrose96 (2015)
You Smell Like Death by starfleetrambo (2015)
Ghost Bird AU by @rest-in-peachs (2016?)
Things I Can(not) Do In Amity Park by RedHeadsRock1010 (2016)
KEtTLE by Cordria (2016)
Deeper, Darker by Silvermoonphantom (2016)
Danny Phantom Punches Butch Hartman In The Face by MistressVintage (2017)
Dannypocalypse (2017)
Ghost Train (2017?)
Ghost Physics by jayrockin (2017)
Ghost Infographics (2018)
The Taxonomy of Ghost Cores: An Observational Study (2018) Communicating with Ghosts Professionally: A Study (2018)
Species in Danny Phantom (2018?)
Diddles Piddles by diddly-darn-ghost (2018)
Broken Ectoplasm by ghostanimal (2019)
Ghost of Heroes by Enigmaris & ScarletNightFury (2019-2020)
do not stand at my grave and cry (i am not there, i did not die) by blueh (2020)
Undercover Phantom by artistfingers (2021)
Corruption is a Two Way Street by datawyrms (2021)
Things That Bleed by artistfingers, kkachis, & Perfectly_Inconspicuous (2022)
10,000 works on AO3 (2022)
Ghost Speak:
Danny's handwriting (2015?)
Cordria (2015)
Fiver-Rivers [1] [2] [3] (2019)
Rubber Chicken Sounds (2019)
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