Hello! I saw you were accepting prompts and I love your writing (the latest ch of disparaged got me where it hurts ahh) so the prompt is:
Danny has been seeing ghosts long before the accident, but he's only realizing now as a halfa how odd these experiences were
Ugh, I'm sorry, I'm being so slow with these...
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"Jazz, can you read something for me real quick?" asked Danny as he entered Jazz's room. "I sent it to your email."
Jazz swiveled in her desk chair to look at him, then turned back to her computer and opened her email. "This here? What is it?"
"It's an essay I wrote for English. About my childhood memories."
"Aw, you actually did your homework?" Jazz stuck out her bottom lip. "I'm so proud of you, Danny."
Danny rolled his eyes. "Just read it, please. Let me know if you think it'll get me at least a C. It's for Lancer."
Jazz said no more as she clicked open the attached document and began reading. Danny sat on her bed and waited, sinking his shoes into the carpet and studying the outlines left behind.
"Who's Mitena?" asked Jazz.
"Hmm?" Danny looked up.
Jazz pointed at her screen. "You talk about someone named Mitena in your essay. Who is she?"
"You don't remember?"
"Should I?"
"She was some babysitter or nanny that used to take care of us sometimes," said Danny. "When Mom and Dad were busy."
Jazz cocked her head. "We didn't have a nanny. And babysitters hated coming here because they kept triggering Dad's ghost traps."
"But this one came mostly at night," said Danny. "She would read me stories before I went to bed."
Jazz blinked and shook her head.
"Whenever Mom and Dad were too tired or too busy, she would come into my room and tuck me into bed." Danny spoke more animatedly now, flustered by Jazz's confusion. "Like I remember one time when I was five when Mom said she would read to me but that she just had to do something in the lab real quick. And she left and I waited and waited but she never came back. But then Mitena came in and said that Mom told her to read to me instead."
"Danny, what on Earth are you talking about?" asked Jazz. "There was never anyone else besides Mom or Dad."
"I'm not making her up!" insisted Danny. "She had really long black hair and looked older than Mom and Dad at the time. Like middle-aged."
"I'm pretty sure I would've remembered a middle-aged nanny with long black hair who came only at night to read bedtime stories," said Jazz with a small laugh.
"Fine. I'll ask Mom." Danny stood and started walking out of the room. "I'm sure she remembers Mitena."
"Oh, boy, I definitely need to hear this." Jazz followed behind him out into the hall and then down the stairs into the living room. "But ten bucks says she's not going to know who this mystery nanny is either."
"Twenty bucks says she will."
"You know, make it thirty. There's this new book on psychotherapy techniques I've been wanting to buy."
Danny opened the door leading down into the lab. Maddie and Jack were busy at their respective workstations.
"Mom," said Danny as he approached her.
Maddie looked away from the beaker she was holding in her hands. "Hmm? Danny, Jazz, you know you're not supposed to come down here while we're working."
"Yeah, we're working with dangerous things down here," said Jack, accidentally discharging the gun he was working on and burning a hole through the nearest wall. He smiled sheepishly when Maddie glared at him.
"I just wanted to ask if you remember Mitena," said Danny.
"Who?" Maddie set down her beaker and pushed her goggles up onto her head.
"I was writing this essay about stuff from my childhood for school. And I wrote about how she used to read stories to me about space and stars before bed."
Maddie cocked her head. "You wrote about who?"
"Mitena," said Danny more slowly, deliberately. "She was some nanny or babysitter you used to have come over when you and Dad were busy."
Maddie picked up a small towel from the counter and dabbed at the sweat on her forehead. "We didn't have a nanny, sweetheart. Dad and I talked about it sometimes, but we decided we didn't need one."
"Yeah, we really needed any extra money we had for our work," called Jack from across the room.
Danny glanced at Jazz, who was smirking.
"But I saw her," he insisted. "She would tuck me in for bed at night. But only when you and Dad were too busy to do it yourselves."
"Oh, honey, we were never too busy for you," said Maddie.
She cupped the side of his face, her gaze fond and soft. But Danny remembered the many nights when he was a kid and Maddie would tell him she'd be back later to read to him; she just had to finish something in the lab real quick. And he waited and waited holding his chosen bedtime story in his hands but she never came back.
And then Mitena would come in. She'd tell him his mother was busy, very busy, on the verge of a breakthrough, and she had been sent instead to read to him. Her voice was soothing and light, melodic like a lullaby. He always slept so well after she finished reading and left.
"Right, yeah," said Danny, stepping back from Maddie's touch. "I must be remembering wrong. Sorry for bothering you."
"You're never a bother, dear," said Maddie. "But it is dangerous when we're working." She turned back to her workstation. "I'll be up soon to make dinner, okay?"
Danny nodded and turned away, blinking through his daze as he left and climbed the stairs out of the lab with Jazz right behind him.
"So when can I expect my thirty dollars?" asked Jazz with a bright tone as they stepped up into the living room.
"I only bet twenty," said Danny with a bite. "And I didn't imagine her. I know I didn't."
"Hmm. Well, you were a very lonely child, Danny," said Jazz, suddenly taking on that analytical tone Danny hated. "Despite what Mom and Dad think they remember, they often didn't have much time for either of us. It's perfectly understandable that you'd invent an imaginary friend."
"You really think I dreamed up a middle-aged woman to be my imaginary friend?"
"I'm sure there's some psychology behind who we choose to be our imaginary friends. I'll do some research and get back to you." Jazz started to leave, then turned back to him. "After I get my thirty bucks."
"I'm telling you, she was real."
"But my bet was that Mom wouldn't know who she was."
Danny rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I'll get thirty out of my room later."
"Fine, fine. I'll bug you for it later, then." Jazz chuckled and went upstairs.
Danny stared up after her, replaying through his memories of Mitena. Yes, memories, definitely. Not imaginings. They were too vivid, too real.
"I didn't make her up," he muttered under his breath.
Later, in Sam's huge entertainment room, Sam and Tucker squared off in a video game brawl while Danny limply held his controller, his eyes glazed and unfocused.
"Danny, you didn't even try to block that move," said Sam, pausing the game. "What's up?"
"Hey, no pausing when I'm about to win!" whined Tucker.
"In your dreams, Tucker. And besides, can't you see Danny's head is elsewhere?"
"So? Danny's always brooding about something these days."
"Well, aren't you just such a good friend?"
"It's nothing," said Danny quickly. "Sorry, I was just distracted by something that happened before I came over."
Sam set down her controller. "Lay it on us."
"Fine, fine, but I was totally winning," grumbled Tucker as he also set down his controller.
"I was just thinking about something I wrote in my essay for English," said Danny.
"You were thinking about homework? Really?" asked Tucker.
"I finished that essay last week," said Sam with a dismissive wave of her hand. "But do you need help finishing yours?"
"Mine's done," said Danny. "But I had Jazz read it over and she didn't know what I was talking about when I said we used to have a babysitter or nanny that would sometimes come over when we were kids."
"A babysitter or nanny that she doesn't remember but you do?" clarified Sam.
"Yeah. And, you know, the assignment was to write about childhood memories, and she's one of my biggest memories because she used to read to me all of my favorite space books when my mom was too busy in the lab."
"Maybe Jazz didn't see her as often and just forgot about her?" offered Tucker.
"But my mom doesn't remember her either," said Danny. "She said they never hired a nanny for us. And now Jazz is convinced I just made her up, like an imaginary friend. But I remember her so vividly. Her name was Mitena, she had this very long, black hair, a few grey streaks in it, wrinkles around her eyes and mouth—I mean, why would I make up a middle-aged woman to be my imaginary friend?"
"That does seem like a weird friend to make up," said Tucker.
"Right, because I definitely didn't make her up," said Danny firmly. "She was real. I know she was."
"Hmm." Sam picked up her laptop from the floor and brought it out of sleep. "Do you remember anything else about her? Her last name? Her date of birth? Where she was born?"
"What? Of course not," said Danny. "Why would I know any of that?"
"I was just hoping I'd get lucky," said Sam as she settled her laptop in her lap and started typing. "But I've gone on less information before."
"Less information for what?" asked Tucker.
"Shh," said Sam. "I'm concentrating."
Danny and Tucker watched her in silence for several long moments as she tap-tap-tapped her laptop keyboard. She then at last turned her screen toward Danny.
"Is this her?" she asked, presenting a black-and-white photo of a woman with a face lined with wrinkles and long black hair.
Danny's jaw dropped. "How did you find her?"
Sam preened. "My mom pays for memberships to some genealogy and ancestry sites. There are tons of historical records and pictures for Amity Park."
"Historical records?"
"Yeah. I just had a hunch about who your mystery nanny was."
"But what do you mean by historical?"
Sam turned her laptop screen toward her again. "Well. I mean, this Mitena of yours died here in Amity Park in 1968."
Danny's jaw dropped again. "What? But how can that be?"
Sam scrunched her mouth. "Do I really need to spell this out for you, Danny?"
"Is this for real?" asked Tucker, standing to look at Sam's screen over her shoulder.
"Is what for real?" demanded Danny.
"Dude, if this is really the lady you saw, then your nanny was a ghost," said Tucker.
"Wha…what?"
"Think, Danny," said Sam. "Did this woman you remember maybe glow a little?"
"Glow?" Danny thought hard, remembering Mitena's face and clothes. "The light was always on in my room. I don't remember if she glowed."
"Did she have blue or green skin?" asked Tucker.
"I don't think so, but then my skin isn't blue or green when I transform."
"Danny, think," pressed Sam. She again showed him the picture on her laptop. "If you're sure this is her, then the woman you saw had to be a ghost."
Danny exhaled in exasperation before looking up and to the left, conjuring a distinct memory of this woman he used to see some nights.
One night, he waited in his room, watching the door, clutching the book he wanted his mother to read. She told him he could pick any book he wanted and she'd be back in a bit, she just needed to finish something in the lab real quick.
Danny couldn't tell time back then, but he knew that he had been waiting much longer than real quick. And he was getting sleepy, so sleepy. But still he waited, sitting up in bed and fighting the temptation to lay his head on his pillow.
The door opened at last. But it wasn't his mother.
Mitena's face was kind, comforting. She smiled and entered the room, which was suddenly so cold. He shivered as he hugged his chosen storybook to his chest.
"It was cold," Danny blurted.
"What was cold?" asked Tucker.
"My room. Whenever she would come in," said Danny. "The room suddenly got a lot colder. I remember seeing my breath and shivering a lot when she was around. She'd wrap a blanket around me, but I still shivered while she read the story."
Sam smiled triumphantly. "So there it is. Your mystery nanny was actually the ghost of some lady who died in Amity Park decades ago." She pointed to the picture on her laptop. "This lady, to be exact."
"But how did you even find her?" asked Tucker, adjusting his glasses as he leaned over to stare at her screen.
"I've gotten pretty good at searching the database to find matches for some of our ghost enemies," said Sam. "I know a lot of tricks now."
"Wait, really? No way." Tucker's eyes lit up. "Have you found Ember? Was she just as hot before she died? Please say yes."
Sam rolled her eyes. "Is that really what you care about?"
As Sam and Tucker bickered, Danny sank back in his chair, thinking about Mitena again.
Her being a ghost had never even crossed his mind before. This was so long before he got his powers, so long before the portal started working.
He frowned, his brow deeply creasing.
"Now what are you thinking about, Danny?" asked Sam with a chuckle. "Another mystery we need to solve?"
"I just…don't really get how it's possible for her to have been a ghost," said Danny, stroking his chin. "I mean, it makes sense that she was a ghost, I guess. It explains why Jazz and my mom don't remember her. But how is it possible?"
"What do you mean?" asked Tucker.
"The portal to the Ghost Zone wasn't even working back then," said Danny. "My parents were working on it, sure, but they weren't even close to figuring it out at that time."
"But not all ghosts come through the portal," said Sam. "Some of them find other ways to get to our world."
"I know, but we didn't have an infestation of ghosts here in Amity Park before the portal started working," said Danny. "My parents nearly gave up ghosts because they had never actually seen one. Remember that? My dad was actually ready to say ghosts didn't even exist until he saw me."
"Well. I guess at least one found another way to get here," said Sam with a shrug.
"And didn't you say she died here in Amity Park, Sam?" said Tucker. "So she had a reason to be drawn here."
"Or some ghosts are trapped where they died," said Sam. "Like they never make it to the Ghost Zone. Like how Desiree just wandered the Earth after she died."
"And that all makes sense," said Danny, "but I just don't get why Mitena chose to appear to me. Like it makes sense for ghosts to be attracted to my house and family now because that's literally where an easy entry point into our world is. But since the portal didn't exist before, that means Mitena chose to enter our house and visit me all on her own. And multiple times, not just once."
"Your parents were still ghost researchers, weren't they?" said Tucker. "Your whole house was probably radiating ectoplasmic energy. Like a homing beacon for ghosts."
"I'll bet that was exactly it," said Sam. "And then maybe she just really liked kids."
"Jazz was only two years older than me, and she never visited Jazz."
"Maybe Jazz didn't need her like you did. Maybe your nanny ghost's obsession was to give comfort to sad little kids like you."
Danny pouted. "I—I wasn't sad."
"Lonely." Sam smiled. "Whatever you want to call it."
Danny sighed. "That was before I knew either of you. I guess I was kind of lonely back then. And I think I did stop seeing her around the time I met Tucker in kindergarten."
"Then there you go," said Sam. "Mystery solved."
"But I just wish I could know for sure. I wish I knew where she was now," said Danny. "So I could ask her why she came to me and if she ever visited other kids. And if—" He halted, his mouth falling open with a jolt of realization.
"What is it?" asked Sam.
"I told you guys that my room always got cold when she came in," said Danny, his eyes glossing over with the memory.
"Yeah, ghosts are cold," said Tucker.
"But not cold enough to see your breath," said Danny. "Do you two ever feel so cold around ghosts that you see your breath?"
"Mmm." Tucker thought for a moment. "No."
"Me neither," said Sam.
"But I could see my breath when she entered my room," said Danny. "What if that was my ghost sense?"
"But you didn't have your powers back then," said Sam.
"Yeah, wouldn't that be literally impossible?" asked Tucker.
"But what if it's not? What if—" Danny paused, gathering his thoughts. "What if I've always had a ghost sense? And I just didn't notice it before the accident because there weren't really any ghosts around before then."
Sam and Tucker exchanged glances, their eyebrows quirking.
"What exactly are you getting at?" asked Sam.
"Why would you have had a ghost sense before you were half ghost?" asked Tucker.
"I don't know. I guess…" Danny creased his brow. "Haven't you guys ever wondered how I survived that portal accident in the first place?"
"I just kind of figured it was all your exposure to ectoplasmic radiation in your house," said Sam.
"Yeah, that sounds like a good guess to me," said Tucker. "Never really thought of it beyond that."
"But maybe it's more than that," said Danny.
"Like what?" asked Tucker.
"I just remember weird things like this from childhood. Not just Mitena, but other times where I suddenly felt really cold and saw my breath. Sometimes I'd even see something glowing right after, but when I tried to look at it, it would disappear."
"Your parents do keep your house pretty cold," said Tucker.
"Not that cold," said Danny. "And it wouldn't explain the weird glows I'd sometimes see. Like the glow from ectoplasmic energy. I didn't recognize it back then, but now that I know exactly what the glow of a ghost looks like, I think that's maybe what those glows were."
"Did Jazz ever see them?" asked Sam.
Danny shrugged. "I don't know. I'm only just putting all the pieces together now. I've never asked her. But she for sure didn't see Mitena." He paused. "But I have to wonder if maybe I somehow already had some ghost in me before the accident, and that's why I survived. And that's why maybe ghosts were attracted to me before."
"Hmm." Sam nodded, her brow furrowed. "It's an interesting theory."
"It does make sense," added Tucker.
"But you're not convinced," said Danny, a statement and not a question.
Sam shrugged, smiling. "Hey, I always knew you were weird even before we became friends. It's why I used to avoid you and Tucker back in second grade."
"Wait, why did you avoid me?" whined Tucker.
"You were even weirder than Danny," said Sam. "And somehow, you still are."
Sam and Tucker continued their typical bickering and bantering. Danny once again tuned out and thought back to Mitena.
She was real. Now he had proof and Jazz could stop psychoanalyzing why he would make her up.
And maybe someday, if he could find her again, Mitena could tell him her secret reason for choosing to visit him. Because perhaps there was something ghostly hidden deep inside of him long before Phantom came into existence.
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Original Character Masterlist ♡
Count:73
Systems:28
Active:11
Vampire: The Masquerade
Camilla 'Georgia' Soledad, Brujah (x)
Vendelín Rusizka, Toreador ( )
Anastasia della Giordano, Tzimisce (x)
Devon Rowe, Malkavian (x)
Salvador Dolorosa, Brujah (x)
Kuriyama Tomoe, Banu Haqim (x)
Angelina Cruz, Lasombra ( )
Raffaele Giovanni, Giovanni (x)
Eugen Radetzky, Nosferatu (x)
Margarita D'aureville, Follower of Set (x)
Killian Darkwater, Thin-Blood (x)
René Debussy, City Gangrel (x)
Sister Mirona, Caitiff ( )
Jack Ramiro, Gangrel ( )
Werewolf: The Apocalypse
Jana Mirtschin, Silent Strider (x)
Ljudmila Nikolaewa Sokolova, Silver Fang (x)
Dungeons & Dragons
Markus Abdiel, Human Monk/Barbarian (x)
Oriana Vylmythe, Eladrin Archfey Warlock (x)
Ladislava von Koldov, Human Undead Warlock (x)
Dorryen Whitestone, Wild Magic Sorcerer ( )
Hatake Yuka, Swaschbuckler Rogue (x)
Das Schwarze Auge
Najara al Kira ibn Sajida, Aranian Majuna (x)
Zidanja Walsareff, Bornlandian Adventurer (x)
Call of Cthulhu
Helena 'Harvey' Fountain, Artist (x)
Weston McNamara, Journalist (x)
Else von Sydow, Scientist (x)
Walter E. Harlan, Private Investigator (x)
Lord Ernest of Somersetshire, Noble (x)
Karl Eduard Nauditt / Karol Edward Naumowicz, Thug (x)
Eli Wilkinson, Missionary ( )
Joan Olson, Law Student ( )
Hearts of Wulin
Ruan Qingshan, Little Brother (x)
Lín Xiǎo Dān, Wanderer (x)
Monsterhearts
Gjest Solheim, Queen (x)
Salem Lotte Harlan, Heir (x)
Jordan Bennett, Seraphim (x)
Michelle Bader, Siren ( )
Elvis Salten, Witch (x)
Nathan Garcia, Mortal (x)
Moby Liberman, Mimikry (x)
Arcane Codex
Yatoth dex Selkasha, Morai Cleric (x)
Okagami
Saya, Kitsugo Noble (x)
Schatten über Volgorod
Ser Ilya Lynnhardt of the Blue Iris, Human Knight (x)
Benoît Vaillancourt, Human Occultist ( )
Cresentia 'Senta' Läufer, Human Model (x)
Pasión de las Pasiones
Fernanda Salazar, La Belleza (x)
Hyboria
Pallantia, Aquilonian Mercenary (x)
Shadow of the Demon Lord
Zinnober, Changeling Magician (x)
For The Queen
Mitena, Inventor (x)
Kasmeer Valorante, Florist/Magician (x)
Htut, Tiger Keeper (x)
Shiverin' Shelley, Pirate (x)
Nicola Snyder, Reporter (x)
Rippers Resurrected
Ashkara Kathat, Warrior Princess (x)
Mausritter
Annotto Crowley, Bat Cultist (x)
Vespuccio, Envoy (x)
Estragon Heller (x)
Devil, Aim For Me
Tennessee Dixon, Pamphleteer (x)
Pathfinder
Solaris Tarkovisk, Human Cleric (x)
Magic School
Ulysses Elevander, Ravenclaw (x)
The Spirit Of '77
Tiago 'Tuco Velocidad' Garrido, The Good Old Boy (x)
Thousand Year Old Vampire
Endymiodes, Spartan Warrior (x)
One Last Job
Donna Wang, The Driver (x)
R'lyehwatch
Paige DeLuca, The Medic (x)
Electric Bastionland
Dr. Ichabod Bellagamba, Cryptohistorian (x)
Shadowdark
Nourin/Moitreyee, Witch ( )
Visit to San Sibilia
Blanca von Hallberg, Noblewoman (x)
Cartel
Sofia Casagrande, La Esposa ( )
City of Mist
Bethany 'Bassie' LaRue, Bastet (x)
Parisa Keshmiri, Gilgamesch (x)
Vaesen
Olga Klockar, Doctor (x)
Kuzma Vitalijovych Bojchuck, Soldier ( )
Freeform
Draven Schwarzschatten, Cleric (x)
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