#VLAD TORNADO VLAD TORNADO VLAD TORNADO

[pa-pa-plasma]

hey i feel like we're really sleeping on that time Danny possessed Vlad & framed him for assaulting a minor

Editing with the clip because people don't believe me. Episode is 41: Eye for an Eye.

#Danny Phantom #i think this ties into my other post i made a long time ago about Danny siccing the GIW on Vlad #like we KNOW in CANON that if Danny was even a tiny bit more like Vlad he would literally become a supervillain #villain is such a stupid word i hate how it's spelled. why is it like that #anyways i need to like. rewatch DP cuz i remember shit & then i'm like #did that actually happen. because that sounds too insane #but like. he Did That. didnt he #i think that's what i love about this character. but a lot of people ignore it #Danny is like. gritting his teeth going ''do good do good'' it isnt effortless it isnt easy he doesnt even want to do it half the time #& sometimes yeah he WILL do crimes or get back at people who've been assholes to him or whatever #he WILL use his powers for bad sometimes #he'll be like ''dont do that it's bad'' but like. he WILL do it himself #the whole ''i'm a hero'' thing he's got going on is like. more of a. how do i put this #it's like when you're drawing or writing & saying ''it doesnt have to be perfect it just has to BE'' #like Danny isn't a hero sometimes. he's got morals & has a general understanding of good & bad #but also he's 14 & being attacked every day #i would start saying bad words & threatening people that annoy me too man #okay i glanced over the scene again for the first time in years & Danny was literally in the middle of outing Vlad to the whole town??? #hello?? are we really ignoring this????? #VLAD TORNADO VLAD TORNADO VLAD TORNADO #this show is so stupid i love it #love how Sam & Tucker immediately backed him up yeah fuck Vlad all my homies hate Vlad #okay you know what. maybe i will do a DP liveblog. i think it would be fun #on daddyplasmius. only posting this on pa-pa-plasma cuz it's kind of just a. weird rant post? kind of? idk

[lightningwolfomega]

The swordsman of Tornados

Vlad during his time alive was a skilled swordsman that was said to have the speed and grace of a tornado wielding two swords. Known to be a fierce warrior that could strike hundreds down in battle. Only one person was able to yield his weapons and that was his lover, even having Vlad wear a key and his lover a lock as a display of unlocking their love to each other. Tragedy however struck as a vicious witch was attacking them leading to Vlads heart getting torn out to save his beloved. The lover being a wizard himself uses a dangerous spell to save Vlads life. When Vlad awakens, he discovers hes no longer alive but not dead either. Now he wanders and strikes down those that have a hateful wicked heart and unleash the devastating power of the tornado.

Special thank you to anton-rasputin for how astonishing he made the Cursed Swordsman.

#Vlad #phantom #swordsman #tornado #swords #body horror #blood #ghoul #monster #monster boy #anton-rasputin

[meow-b1tch-blog]

I always forget vlad can do this sort of thing. Not to menton he can 'tornado' himself too if he wanted to- like vlad has so many things that he knows how to do but butch showed like 2 new things and that's it

#danny phantom #vlad plasmius #vlad masters #phandom #vlad

[hello-im-not-a-possum]

Jack fenton headcanons?

-Before finding out that The Wisconsin ghost and Vlad were the same person, he had a crush on the vampire-looking ghost and was really mad about it. He's less mad about the crush now that he knows that they're the same.

-One time, he put ectoplasm in a fudge recipe. In his words, it was the most delicious thing he's ever made, but he is not allowed to make it again.

-He named Jazz after his favorite flower.

-Back in college and before he, Maddie, and Vlad built the prototype Ghost Portal, he chased after naturally-occurring ghost portals like those tornado chaser people. It was how he and Maddie met.

-There are several reasons from both Fentons as to why they put the ghost portal in their basement as opposed to a shed a fair distance away from their house or somewhere where they don't live and raise their children, one of those reasons on Jack's side is that with the portal where it is, he can combine two of his favorite pastimes (Ghost hunting and fishing) into ghost fishing.

-He tests a fair amount of his inventions on himself.

-One of his and Maddie's earliest dates was breaking out of prison together.

-He unknowingly is mutuals with a handful of Vlad's 'sweatpants accounts' online and knowingly following several of Vlad's professional accounts.

-One of the reasons why he didn't get Danny a real dog (aside from the lab stuff being dangerous for said dog) is because he's allergic to most types of animal fur (Also why a lot of clothes outside of his hazmat suit give him rashes, it's allergies). The gerbil was fine because it can stay in its cage away from him but a dog needs a lot more space.

-Luckily for post-reveal Danny, he is not allergic to Cujo, so the ghost dog can stay as long as he behaves.

#danny phantom #jack fenton

[halfagone]

I had a sudden idea here:

The two most common Ghost Core types given to Danny in fanfics:

Ice core

vs

Electricity core

But what if he had neither of those and yet both at once?

What if Danny has a Storm Core, which gives him the power to rain down ice and call upon the biggest lightning storms?

Amity Park has never experienced a full Summer day ever since the portal. The hottest days of summer should've been sweltering, right? (No really, am I right? I'm not from America, so correct me if I'm wrong)

Except nowadays, it feels like the worst Summer will ever get is a particularly hot Spring day, where you maybe throw on a t-shirt and comfy denim over your swimsuit and go to the beach or pool.

And last time there was a particularly nasty storm coming their way, it seemingly faded and vanished, only to appear on the other side of town and leaving Amity unscathed. After all, a cyclone will fade upon meeting an opposing cyclone that seems to spin against it. And Danny has always been very good at going up against forces of Nature, and forcing them to yield, or at least coming to a draw.

Ember might've also one time referred to him as an "oncoming storm of ass-kicking"

The day Danny calls on a tornado to trap her and her fire attacks in the eye of it's razor winds, the ghosts come to understand she was more on point that anyone expected.

Technus gets his ass zapped by a bolt of lightning like Thor calling down his judgement (or, as he said later, "like Pikachu on crack") and it leaves him short-circuiting for a good while, like when the light goes out for a bit and suddenly your wifi has to be rebooted to make it work again. Later, he begrudgingly teaches him to better channel electricity. Danny's first Technus-inspired move is a real-life Thunder Fang. And he used it against Vlad.

And, since I adore the headcanon that the Ancients collectively adopt Danny, Pandora starts calling him her "little storm"

I kinda wanna have him end up dating both Kitty and Johny, as a whole thing where they both dated him at separate times, but both times he was the best goddamn date they ever had asides from being each other's soulmates, and now they're having FEELINGS for him, so Kitty has the idea of both of them sitting down with Jazz, since she's the local feelings expert, and she whacks them with a rolled up magazine, but they both end up together asking out Danny.

And I'm imagining he's more influenced by them than he would admit, because he got himself a bike like Johnny, and started taking tips from Sam, and has more leather stuff and goth fashion than he'll ever tell anyone about, especially because the heavy fabrics are great to wear on a bike.

Kitty ping-pongs between who's bike she hitches a ride on. And I'm betting she was a huge fan of books, while Johny loved Greek mythology (yes, I'm saying Johnny was a Percy Jackson fan as a kid). Which means that their affectionate nickname for Danny is "Typhon", for the Greek Titan of storms.

(Ignore how my brain keeps yelling at me that Danny would call them "Kitty Cat" and "Barghest". I imagine Barghest for Johny because of Shadow, who starts hanging out more and more as a puppy because of Cujo, except Shadow prefers a hanging out as a shaggy hound ((imagine Ruth from Ancient Magus Bride)) and that's exactly what a Barghest is.)

Ooh, that's a really interesting idea! Danny has been shown to control the weather after the Vortex incident in "Torrents of Terror" so you've even got some canon backing to this! (As for weather in America, it really depends where you live? It's commonly headcanoned that Amity Park is in Illinois, and the temperature on average across the state in the summer is in the 80°s Fahrenheit or ~26.667° Celsius, but there have been records of summers reaching to the hundreds in Fahrenheit, although it doesn't happen often.)

It'd be really cool to see Danny both consciously and subconsciously altering weather events. I really like the idea of Danny being able to control the weather, especially if he does it so casually while others are looking on with their eyes bugging out of their sockets in shock. Because controlling the weather is no easy feat (Storm from X-Men? OP as fuck). Aww, "little storm", love that nickname. A little ball of ferocious energy. Like an angry chihuahua.

It might not be a cyclone, because Amity Park isn't near the coast even if you don't headcanon it in Illinois specifically. But parts of Illinois and the Midwest are in what's called "Tornado Alley", so it still technically would work, it would just probably not be a cyclone but a tornado. Unless it's Vortex up to his tricks again, but then it wouldn't be a naturally occurring- Sorry, tangent, but you get the idea.

If you've read lex luthor's ascent, then you know I like the idea of Danny dating both Kitty and Johnny at some point, but why not both at once? Polyamory coming in for the win! Hopefully Danny can keep these two from constantly arguing tho... Honestly, I just adore the possibilities of dynamics between these three (especially if Danny is stuck as 14- physically at least- as many AUs will have him, he can be with his also eternally young partners and not have it draw much attention from strangers). "Barghest" is a really interesting nickname and- after doing some more research- I can see why you chose it for Johnny, particularly with Shadow in mind.

A Storm core AU is really cool. I like Space core AUs as well, because there are a lot of weather events that could be caused by astronomical phenomena and it ties really well with Danny's love for space, but I think this is the first time I've ever heard of a Storm core for Danny. It would explain why Danny took to Vortex's power really well/easy, and while canon is really more of a suggestion to Danny Phantom fans at this point, I still really appreciate the neat tie-in it can offer.

Thank you for sharing this with me!! I'm glad others share my love for Danny/Johnny 13/Kitty, in any of its forms. (Mostly, forms that appreciate both their characters for all their faults.) Thanks for making me day a little brighter, and I hope you have a great day!

#halfagone replies #ghost core #storm core au

[grasshopperdoingdogpaddle]

What are your favorite elemental moves you've seen Omi do/

5-Tornado Strike: Water (The Return of Pandabubba)

It's a really clever application of this to shoot Omi up into the air and spin him on the whirlpool of water to build up enough momentum to throw shuriken with all the force of a bullet. It looks really amazing in motion.

4-Omi braiding the water around him (Crystal Glasses)

It just looks so mystical, I'm mesmerized every time I watch this move play out. There's so much power and beauty to it. Enough pressure and force to power wash Vlad away, enough control and gentleness to cradle Omi's friends in it and bring them along for the ride.

It's perfect for a fight where Omi rises up from his lowest nadir yet (up to that point, at least).

3-Omi holding a waterfall in place (Chucky Choo)

This is such an amazing feat of focus and strength.

He didn't freeze this water, he just held every drop of it still. So still that not even the overbalanced raft they were on tilted over the edge, or even moved at all until Omi let go of his control of the water.

2-Heylin Omi's "Tsunami Strike" (Saving Omi)

This is definitely the flashiest and most memorable waterbending's Omi's done.

Summoning his own water to float off the ground is something he's done before, but never with quite this much control. And constructing high-pressure limbs to pummel the others with, then forming icy claws out of them while a blizzard whips up around him!

The best thing about this attack is that it hints that Chase really did bring out a lot of Omi's potential during their brief stint together. He taught Omi some lessons that are genuinely useful. This move where he forms the giant water hands is something he goes on to use again later in Bird of Paradise, so it's another example of Chase imparting a useful lesson. And Omi's propelled himself on water before, but this stability and height and control with it is reminiscent of how Chase casually stood on and controlled that geyser.

1-Omi weaving around Pandabubba's henchman (Pandatown)

It's the essence of Omi, he's being slippery and tiny and clever and turning his opponent's strength against him, all propelled by this beautiful, efficient ribbon of water behind him.

The reason it's my favorite is because it feels like a prototype for the move Omi invents for himself later to "show Chase something he doesn't know", Sparrow Eating Hotdog.

#xiaolin showdown #omi #heylin!omi #chase young

[vladco-tech-official]

Any update on the fruit loop (Vlad) situation?

We've been trying to break down the doors, but we forgot his entire office is bullet/ghost/hurricane/tornado/earthquake proof

We're only 56% sure hes still inside, not that hed have anywhere to go...unless theres a secret exit we don't know about

#unreality #danny phantom #dp #emails

[glitter-tornado]

Florist and the Fauna AU

@desbeauxjardins

[Ak' Naa'e. ] Ja-xon repeated with a smile. He looked up to the twins and squeezed her hand. [I hope Butterfly knows what he's doing. The more people that gets involved into this, the bigger it will be the damage if something goes wrong...]

Vlad nodded at Haz'le's gesture. “We won't be a nuisance. We only need help to get away from Drake.”

“Ah, don't worry, pal.” Calliope patted his back. “We were chased by cops several times, and they never managed to catch us. Behold!!”

A medium-sized, elegant ship was parked close to them. Ja-xon and Vlad gasped in surprise, while Butterfly smiled widely.

"You're still using the gift I got you, Calliope..."

She shushed him. "Don't say a word! It's a good ship and that's it!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

@glitter-tornado

Haz`le bit her lip worriedly. Ja-xon was right. She squeezed his hand and took a deep breath. "We'll be fine. Let's get ourselves settled first." She sighed in relief when they came to the ship.

"It's beautiful," she said appreciatively.

She smiled at the two of them. They were cute!

#desbeauxjardins #rp #ic #robotical Rose #Space AU

[camels-pen]

haha summonings amiright folks

Summary:

Valerie tries to summon the Ghost King.

She gets a little less (more?) than she bargained for.

based on @darthfrodophantom's prompt "Cut the head off the snake, everything else falls apart. Valerie is hoping the same will hold true for the Ghost Zone. And now that Vlad Masters has given her a way to summon the king of the Ghost Zone, she’s hoping she can eliminate the ghost threat once and for all. It sounded like a solid plan, until Danny Fenton of all people showed up when she used the summoning ritual."

Ao3 Link

A circle of blood red flowers, sprinkled with purified (table) salt. A star painted with the blood of several rodents (oh, fuck no, this thing could and would settle for red coloured chalk instead). Five unscented candles arranged at each point, lit one after another in a counterclockwise direction (because why the hell not? God this was annoying). And with a valuable sacrifice placed in the centre (her worn Jonas Brothers poster from above her bed, because this was the one thing she wouldn’t half-ass), speaking the sacred tongue of the beloved (eugh) Ghost King will summon him into your clutches.

It was fairly simple as far as magic rituals went. Valerie had overheard tougher quests from girls talking about video games in the bathroom. It wasn’t like Val was following the recipe to a T, but it was pretty simple.

She was maybe cutting a few corners here and there, but if it worked, it worked. If it didn’t, well, she’d huff about it, maybe complain to Star, but no matter how annoyed she would be, she would ultimately go out and try to find purified salt from, like, a priest or something. She drew the line at rodents though. Had way too much familiarity with them roaming her apartment’s lobby recently and she certainly wasn’t going to touch their blood. 

Plus, Val had too much pride (and a healthy fear of mice) to immediately do whatever Mr. Masters’ summoning ritual was telling her without question.

It was fine. Her way would work. 

Probably.

She took a calming breath and stumbled her way through the ghost language written on the old parchment. A breeze blew through the room as she reached the half-way mark. the candles flickering wildly as she shivered through her suit.

Then, all of a sudden, it was pure chaos.

She dropped to her knees as the wind started to pick up at the end of her chanting. When she read the final word, a terrible gust tore through the room, throwing around anything not nailed down.

She held tight to the ground, ducking under her desk as it flew past. The candles were snuffed out completely, smoke curling around the devastating tornado being created in her bedroom.

Fuck, was this the weather ghost again? Or did her shortcuts summon something else entirely? She really hoped she didn’t just call up a natural disaster to destroy her room. Her dad would definitely ground her and take her suit away if she did. 

And, if she didn’t just summon that weather ghost—if this really was the Ghost King she was summoning, then she needed more room to fight. Either way, she needed to find a way to stop this. 

Which, duh, but Val could hardly hear herself think over the sound of the whipping winds, much less try to figure out which element exactly would stop all this without making it worse. The paper had been caught up in the debris and she was fairly sure the moment she relaxed even a little, the wind would pick her up and knock her around the room until either the walls broke or she did. She wasn’t looking forward to it.

She wouldn’t put her hopes on it, but it’d be really convenient if this turned out to be some dramatic entrance for the stupid ghost king—

All at once, the wind vanished and Val felt a brief moment of relief. 

…And then she had to quickly roll out of the way of her bed frame falling on her. 

The frame fell with a heavy thud on her hardwood floor and she winced as she watched it settle on its side. Her dad was out grocery shopping, but the neighbours downstairs would probably throw a fit the moment he came back. She’d have to come up with a good excuse later.

She surveyed the room. 

It was quiet. And dark. 

Val gave herself a moment to just breathe.

The candles relit themselves in an instant, this time a bright green burning at the wick. She lifted her gaze and stared, mouth agape at an equally shocked Danny Fenton, barefoot and wearing a pair of comfy star patterned pajamas.

“What the—where—? Valerie? Why am I—?” He gazed around the room before addressing her. He stepped forward, but paused as he was about to hit the circle of petals, glancing down at them. “Uh. Hmm. This is. Uh.” He gulped, eyes refusing to move from the chalk star under his feet.

Val furrowed her brows. “What the hell? It shouldn’t have gone that wrong,” she muttered to herself. She was pretty sure there was no way to summon a regular old human like Danny—no matter how many substitutes she used in the ritual. Maybe Danny was messing with something in his parents’ lab? Ugh, he would have shit enough luck to have this kind of coincidental timing.

She narrowed her eyes. “What did you do?”

“Me?” he asked, scandalous. “I was getting ready to go to bed at a respectable time and everything!” He slumped. “Why did you call me here, Val?”

“I didn’t, I was trying to—” summon the new ‘Ghost King’ or whatever he’s called so I can catch him and hand him over to Mr. Masters, is what she would’ve said were it not for the fact that her secret identity was supposed to stay a secret. Her dad already knew thanks to Phantom, but she wasn’t about to share it willingly with anyone, not even Danny. It was safer for him that way. 

That didn’t leave her much excuses though.

“Uh, it wasn’t important.” She stood. “Just forget about it.”

“Sure sure.” He brushed past the topic without a second thought. “Now, how about you let me outta here, huh? I’d really like to get some decent sleep tonight.”

Val narrowed her eyes. “The circle only works on ghosts.”

Danny chuckled nervously. “The circle, sure, but blood blossoms work on ghosts and heavily ecto-contaminated people like yours truly so,”—he gestured a hand down at the petals—“whenever you’re ready, I guess.”

She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. “Not even gonna bother trying to explain what you were messing with to end up here?”

“Uhh… no?”

“Wrong answer.”

Danny groaned. “Please Val? I really was just getting ready for bed. No messing around with any of my parents’ inventions, honest!”

“Isn’t your entire house and everything in it one of your parents’ inventions?”

“Well yeah, but only some of the stuff they make is ghost related.”

Val stared at him silently.

He sighed. “Okay, most of them are ghost related. But then, all the more reason to let me go without further questions!” He clasped his hands in front of him, his bottom lip jutting out, and making his eyes big and glassy. “C’mon Val, I’m just a poor, innocent little guy who got caught up in something he didn’t understand.” His lip wobbled. “Send me home?”

Be strong, Val. Be strong.

He leaned closer towards her and his eyes got impossibly bigger and glassier. “Pwease?” 

All previous indications of her shaken resolve were locked behind a wall of disgust. “You ruined it.”

“Fuck,” he said emphatically, turning his head away. “I went too far into convince-Tucker-to-buy-food territory.”   

“I don’t know what to say to that so I’m going to pretend I never heard it.”

“You don’t have to say anything. Just send me home, please.”

“How do you even know I can do that?”

Danny shrugged. “You pulled me here. Theoretically, you should be able to push me back.”

“You have a lot of faith in me being able to do this.”

“It’s hard not to.” He smiled and she felt a familiar little flutter of warmth in her chest. “You’re one of the most capable people I know.”

She felt her face heat up. “We didn’t date that long.”

“I know.” His smile dimmed. She desperately wanted to bring it back. “There’s more important stuff you gotta do and you can’t have me weighing you down—”

“That’s not—”

“It is though, isn’t it?” The smile that returned to his face was pained, bitter. She hated that look. “You wanna do what you think is right and you don’t think I’d be able to handle it with you.”

“It’s not that you can’t handle it, it’s that I’m trying to—” She made a wordless noise of frustration. “The ghosts—uh, the ghost damage repair group I volunteer with is, um, too dangerous for someone who isn’t prepared for it.”

“Right. Of course.” He shook his head. He muttered to himself, “This is my fault anyway, I should’ve just told you before things got complicated.”

She inhaled sharply and her heart started beating faster. They had kissed a few times, gone out on dates, but they never said those three significant words to each other. Had Danny planned to say—?

“Danny—” She started to speak, stopped, started again. “Danny, I—I always—I still—” She felt a lump grow in her throat and she struggled to speak her next words, “I lo—”

Danny stared at her. The longer he waited, the colder his eyes looked.

“I lo—lost. Everything,” she said, her shoulders slumping. “I had to start over with my dad from scratch. I just wanted to prevent other people from doing the same.”

“Is that it?”

She pursed her lips. Tightly.

He huffed a humourless laugh. “It was pretty stupid of me to expect the people I love to pick me over ghosts, huh?”

“I didn’t pick ghosts over you.”

“Sure didn’t seem like it.”

“Somebody’s gotta do what I do; it’s what’s right!”

“Do all the other people in your volunteer group dump their partners when they join?”

“You’re not being fair.” Her nails dug into her palms. When had she clenched her fists? “You had things you never told me either!”

“But I never left you because of them.”

“I WAS TRYING TO KEEP YOU SAFE!” she shouted.

Her words echoed around the room, bouncing off the walls and ceiling before slowly petering out.

The room was silent.

Danny spoke, his voice ice cold. “You broke up with me for revenge.”

“No.” She put her head in her hands. “I didn’t.”

Danny scowled. “You hated Phantom. You hated all ghosts.”

“I did—do, but,”—she sighed—“after a while of ghost—um, damage repair, and dating you, I started to see revenge wasn’t what mattered.” She crossed her arms. “Much as I still blame him for ruining my life, Phantom said it best: innocent people get hurt all the time during ghost attacks; it’s our job to stop the ghosts, but it’s also our job to keep as many people out of harm’s way as possible.”

When she looked up there was a blank expression on Danny’s face. She hurried to continue, “I-I realized that if I kept dating you, one day you’d learn what I was up to and get caught up in an attack trying to find me.” She hugged herself. “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if you got hurt because of me.”

“Val, I….” He trailed off, hand outstretched, but paused just before the edge of the circle. He let it fall. “I’m sorry. For assuming.”

She shook her head. “I mean, you were right. That’s how I was when we were dating. Only caring about revenge on Phantom.” She tried a laugh. “Now it’s just a side hobby.”

He grinned, though it looked a little forced. “Still, the fact that I couldn’t tell makes me a pretty terrible Fenton, huh?”

“No, I’d say you’re about as clueless as your old man.”

Danny let out a genuine laugh at that. The sound filled her chest with warmth and brought a smile to her face. She hadn’t heard the sound in such a long time, she had forgotten what it sounded like. “Thanks, Val.”

“My pleasure.” 

The room was silent once more.

“We can, uh, talk more later.” She looked around the room for the instruction paper. “I’ll try and find a way to send you home.”

“Oh, you could probably just break the circle of petals and smudge the chalk near one of the candles. That way the elements tying me to this place would be disrupted and it’ll send me back from whence I came.” 

Val stared at him. 

Danny coughed. “I mean, probably.” 

She continued to stare. 

“I think.” 

She leaned closer. 

“In theory.” 

She narrowed her eyes. 

“Look, can you just try it?”

Val groaned. “Out of respect for your attempt at a decent sleep schedule—and an understanding that you pick up weird ghost facts from your parents a lot—I’m gonna let you off the hook, but!”  She pointed at him. “We’re figuring this out later.”

Danny waved a hand. “Absolutely. Definitely. 100%. I won’t forget.”

“You better not.” She kneeled down close to one of the candles.

“C’mon it’s me.” She raised a brow. He sighed. “I’ll write a note about it when I get home.”

Satisfied, she reached out towards the clump of petals surrounding the candle holder. “I’ll have you out in a second.”

“Great, I am so looking forward to some well earned Z’s.” He yawned. 

A little bit of guilt wormed its way into her heart for keeping him this long. “Yeah, hope you sleep well.”

“You too, Red.”

Val snapped her head up, her heart stopping cold in her chest. “What?”

“‘What’ what?” Danny furrowed his brows, his sleepy brain seeming to play catch up, before he froze, looking suddenly completely alert. “Oh! Uh—I was referencing your, uh, your suit! You’re wearing a Red Huntress cosplay, right? She’s so cool.”

“Oh,”—tension bled from her shoulders; she’d completely forgotten she was wearing it—“you really think so?”

“Yeah, of course!” He nodded vigorously, becoming more animated. “She’s super strong, her aim is out of this world, and I’ve never seen someone so good at riding a hoverboard!”

Val felt herself flush. “Oh, c’mon, there’s not that much to it. Just takes some practice, y’know.”

Danny shook his head. “Uh uh, I’ve flown—er, I’ve used some of the hoverboards my parents have made in the past and all that aerial maneuvering stuff is hard. Gotta give mad props to you—” Val’s eyes widened. “HER! Her. Gotta, heh, gotta give mad props to her….” he trailed off, shrinking slightly as Val narrowed her eyes.

“Danny, if there’s anything you want to tell me—”

“Nope! Not a thing!” He brought up his bare wrist. “Oh, would you look at the time, I’d really rather go soon so I can get my full 9 hours.” Val continued to stare at him. “Please?” he asked, his voice small and pitiful.

She rolled her eyes. “Fine, I’ll get rid of the circle.” She chose to ignore Danny’s sigh of relief. That boy wasn’t getting out of this conversation, Val had only just realized she still needed to straighten up her room as much as possible before her dad got home. “The Red Huntress isn’t all that great by the way, she messes up a ton.” Maybe not like Phantom, but she had her own mistakes.

She bent down, grabbing handfuls of petals and pushing them out of the way to rub her thumbs over the chalk lines.

“Uh, respectfully, shut… up?” he said, voice pitching higher as Val looked up, pausing her work with raised eyebrows. “She does a lot of thankless work all on her own and people don’t appreciate the kind of hard work and effort it takes to be able to hunt ghosts as well as she does.”

Valerie paused, stunned.

“Did you just tell me to shut up and then compliment me?” The words left her lips before she registered them. She tried to backtrack, “Fuck, uh, I meant—”

“I mean, yeah,”—Danny spoke over her, rubbing the back of his neck—“if you’re going to talk shit about yourself, you gotta be prepared for me to call you amazing every way I know how.”

“You knew then?” she said faintly. “How long?” 

“Since I outed you to your—” Danny cut himself off and Val could see the dial up internet sound playing behind his eyes as he caught up with his own words. “S-Since—Since, uh. Shit, fuck—” He ran a hand through his hair. “Since—”

Things were starting to add up in Val’s head. The fact that Danny had been missing for hours and Mr. Masters was the one to bring him back. The fact that ever since the day Amity Park was taken into the Ghost Zone he’d started seeming… off in a way she was never able to put a finger on. 

The fact that his teeth had looked significantly sharper when she came back after March break—and the way his eyes reflected in a green light, when only the standard yellow were fit into the ceilings at school. The way he’d seemed when Mr. Masters brought him back: pale, bruised, and horrifying wounds gouged out of his back. Val was no expert, but she was pretty sure no human should’ve survived something like that.

There was only one answer.

“Stop,” she said. Danny snapped his mouth shut, his shoulders pulling up to his ears. “Just admit it. You know who I am and I know that you…” She paused as the reality of his situation really started to click in her head. Danny cringed as she spoke, awestruck, “You took your parents’ invention to fight the Ghost King and took his title.” 

“Yeah, I’m Ph—” He blinked. “What.”

She counted off on her fingers. “You know who I am because you were hiding around the lab somewhere when Phantom pulled off my mask; you knew how to operate the suit because you’re a Fenton; and you’ve started seeming more, well, ghost-like over the last several months. I imagine your appearance is tied to how much power the crown and ring give you, or something like that, but I’m right aren’t I?” She gestured at the summoning circle. “I mean why else would you show up if I was trying to summon the newest Ghost King? It’s the only thing that makes sense.” 

He stared at her with a blank look before putting his head in his hands. “Yup,” he said, voice strangled. “You got me. Point for point. Every bit of that is true.”

It wasn’t. He was still holding something back, but she couldn’t quite figure out what it was. And beyond that, why would Mr. Masters give her this old summoning ritual if he knew it would drag out his nephew? Maybe he thought it would summon someone else instead? Some ghost pulling strings behind the scene that Danny didn’t know about? 

She pondered the possibilities as she brushed away the last of the petals connecting to one of the candles. She wiped the dust off her hands as she stood.

“Don’t think you’re getting out of explaining all the details to me by the way,” Val said, putting her hands on her hips. “I expect full honesty from now on.”

Danny smiled. It was a little strained, but she had no clue of how painful the process of being summoned and unsummoned was, much less any clue of how much it might hurt to do it in a single night. She should probably apologize for that later. Or maybe give him some free Nasty fries instead. Yeah, that’d be way less awkward.

“I’ll do my best,” he said. “I can’t promise anything though.”

Val rolled her eyes. “Of course you can’t.”

“I can tell you this. You’re the first person to catch me on purpose since I was coronated.” Danny smirked, his eyes flashing green. “In some ghost cultures, that would be enough to make you my Queen.”

The sound that came out of Valerie’s mouth must’ve been what a sneezing chicken sounded like. “Excuse me?” 

Danny’s smirk grew into a full on grin, but before he could answer he disappeared in a cloud of green smoke. 

She stared at the empty space in front of her.

She looked down.

Her foot slipped. 

The circle was smudged.

She paused for a few moments, her brain lagging as it tried to process the new information.

She walked over to the nearest wall. Slid down it. Stared blankly at the knocked over punching bag across from her.

“Valerie!” her dad called sometime later. “Why did the neighbours complain about the noise? And what’s with all the smoke?”

#danny phantom #phic #phic phight #phic phight 2023 #gray ghost #past relationship but eh #nemo the writing ho

[only-satisfied]

something about her feels wrong as she makes her way through the box club and into the ring like she's more storm than man or woman, a danger-zone high-risk disaster area, full of sharp bone slabs and a dark snarl on her narrow lips, rough calloused hands swathed up in wraps soaked through with blood. Her lower lip is split but it's healed over, congealed dark blood in the corner of it.

She feels her fists fly as she spars with Vladmir, the co-owner of the box club, almost breaks his nose cleanly through, her movements terrifyingly precise, flawless, controlled but furious, like fire bursting through windows, shattering them. He says cool it cool it cool it, but Mizu can't stop. She is dynamite ready to go off. She is an explosion. She's wearing a tank top and men's boxing shorts soaked through with sweat. She lunges forward and smashes her fist into the side of his face, one single clean cut powerful blow and Vlad reels, crashing into the ropes of the ring, hissing fuck. He rights himself and spits out blood, gasping in shocked awe, his breath completely shattered in his throat, you broke my fucking tooth!, he spits, his jaw crimson with blood, and Mizu just blinks at him, suddenly seeing him past the cloud of fury that has swallowed her up in the heat of the fight, and says "uh huh." removing her gloves and tossing a towel at him. She chugs down a bottle of water and wipes at the back of her neck with a black towel.

She is a late-night storm warning with tornadoes in her fingertips, her hair slick with sweat gathered up in a tight bun. When she hops off the ring, she sees him there, and although she does not react, a muscle in her jaw spasms; maybe he's been watching the fight, maybe he's been training. She doesn't fucking care. Suddenly her attention is snatched away, zeroing in on Caddel. She does not spare him a second glance but bumps into him when she passes by, pretending to be wanting to refill her water bottle, says my bad because she's (purposefully) made him drop one of his gloves snd she picks it up, her face a blank expressionless mask as she hands it over, her voice deep like thunder. Everyone here knows her as him, the Ghost, nobody calls her Mizu. She does not attempt to introduce herself.

@caddel

#Ryan. #Caddel

[er1c-c4rtman]

The 2005 Great Neutron Rebellion

STORY

After James Issac Neutron formed a team called "Nicktoons Unite", they went to Vlad's Castle to only be knocked out by the great Vladimir Plasmius/Masters and be sent to the Ghost Zone Prison. Timothy Timberus Turner, Sponge Robert SquarePants, and James Issac Neutron were in shock at the fact they were sent to jail for intruding another individual's home to retrieve Daniel's captive parental figures. When they've been released from their cell to roam around the prison, they encounter a fine gentleman named "The Box Ghost". The Box Ghost requests them to exterminate 7 ghost rats and dispose of the bodies. After the team did what the fine gentleman requested, he sneakily released the team for then to make a grand escape. Later on the journey to go confront a gentleman named "Walker", Timothy was starting to mildly dislike James and was becoming suspicious of him. He felt like he was going to lead them to a painful death and leave them to die. So Timothy told the other two of his suspension of James. After he told Sponge Robert and Daniel, they started to agree with Timothy and they started to plot on James's downfall. They decided to convince him to come to a mysterious area to attempt to kill him. When they did they armed themselves with weapons in order to kill James Neutron and dispose of the body. When the 3 gentlemen armed themselves with weapons, James Neutron armed himself with the Tornado Blaster to kill 3 of them.

But sadly...

As hard as James Issac Neutron tried to defeat the 3 gentlemen, he didn't accive his victory and unfortunately passed away and his body was thrown off of the floating prison in the ghost zone.

#spongebob squarepants #SpongeBob #fairly oddparents #timmy turner #danny phantom #jimmy neutron #I just decided to make this story #Why? #Because I can 😎 #nicktoons unite

[stigmatvm]

“Alright, I’ll bite. What’s the joke?“ ( 4 monoma )

It was rare for Monoma to approach a teacher first, other than maybe Vlad King-- he maintained an air of promised mischief at all times that seemed to raise the hackles of any authority figure, and he found that most adults, hero or not, were dullards, or condescending dullards. And when it came to All Might, he didn't really intend to shatter the illusion of a perfect hero established from the distance of a mere fan rather than student, so he was more than happy to never uncover the dullard beneath.

But frankly, he had been dying to tell this joke. It was his own fault, the word "funny" coming from his mouth was like a tornado siren for half of the class, and otherwise, there was never a good opportunity to stop someone and ask them if they wanted to hear a joke. Of course, he had (mildly) taunted the teacher into asking about it, but that's because it's good form to warm your audience up and make them want to hear it. It's called hype.

"So a horse walks into a bar." He begins, gesturing with his hands. "And the bartender says 'Hey, I see you in here a lot, I think you might be an alcoholic'. The horse replies 'No, I don't think I am', and promptly vanishes."

"You see, this is a reference to the famous philosophy quote 'I think, therefore I am', by Renee Descartes. But I couldn't tell you that before I told the first part of the joke, because that would be putting-"

"-Descartes before the horse."

He himself starts cracking up the moment he's able to finish it, starting with bubbling giggles that eventually build into the famed cackle that has him doubled over and his shoulders shaking, which then intensifies into a fit that may or may not call his ability to stay standing into question.

At least he finds himself funny.

#ARE YOU SATISFIED?++ ;MONOMA IC #4evermighty #this joke is honestly better heard aloud but i think its funny and thats what matters

[pa-pa-plasma]

btw whenever i say "the phandom hasn't watched dp in 10 years" i'm talking about me. i haven't watched dp in 10 years. vlad tornado canon

[tyler-reed-is-superman]

23 years of life as a native Kansan and my first personal close encounter with a twister is in Connecticut. How’s that for irony?

#yesterday was a TRIP; y'all #no joke #vlad quests #ct tornado

[obsidiancreates]

Master's Degree (Part Four)

They sit in Vlad's library, both holding cups of hot cocoa. There’s a long stretch of silence, Danny still watching Vlad warily. Eventually, Vlad sets down his mug.

"So, I assume we've become the way we are due to similar circumstances," Vlad says as though continuing a conversation rather than starting one. "For I, it was the same Accident that gave me ecto-acne. My powers manifested over about a year, slowly, painfully. What about you, little badger?"

Danny taps his fingers on his mug, not making eye contact yet. "Mom and Dad were building a full-sized portal and thought it didn't work.”

Vlad nods, and waits for Danny to go on. Danny taps the mug some more, mulling it over. Then he sighs.

“I stepped inside to check it out.” Danny laughs a little, shaking his head. "I mean, now it seems stupid. They just forgot to hit the 'On' button, and I did by accident when I went inside."

His smile fades. "I... got caught in it. I woke up in my Ghost Form."

Vlad's eyes are wide as he fully sets aside his mug. "Right away?"

Danny nods. "It was pretty freaky. I didn't know if I was stuck as a ghost forever, if I had... had died. I didn't know if my hair and eyes would ever turn back. I didn't know... I-I didn't know how... how some people might..."

...

"How your parents would react?"

Danny looks down, and nods again. He feels so small right now.

"I feared the same," Vlad sighs. "I didn't think I could ever face your parents again, really. While they were determined to hunt ghosts, I was determined to learn about ghosts. And once I'd realized what I'd become, their hostility made me... well. Let's just say that I didn't try to reach out, any more than they did."

Danny looks up at Vlad, examining him for a moment. "... They really just... abandoned you, after the accident?"

Vlad scowls, only slightly, but enough for Danny to know the topic hurts him. "Never heard a word."

Danny looks into his his hot coco. "So you think I'm making the right choice, hiding it from them." It’s not a question. It’s just seeking support.

Vlad puts a hand on Danny's shoulder, smiling when Danny relaxes a little from the comfort. "Indeed I do, little badger."

Danny smiles, and then laughs a little. "Okay, what's that nickname?"

Vlad smiles too. "Well, you're black and white, a fighting spirit far larger than you yourself are, and able to defeat enemies no-one would ever expect you could defeat. Just like a badger."

"Then consider the nickname approved!"

They cheers their mugs, and both laugh.

"So," Vlad says after a moment, "What powers have you discovered so far?"

Danny clams up, becoming guarded again in the blink of an eye.

"I'm just asking out of curiosity," Vlad assures. "Our developments were clearly quite different. I want to know how drastic it is."

Danny rubs his arm, and breathes out heavily. "Well, um, I have the flying and intangibility. I think I heal better now, too. I can sense other ghosts when they're nearby. And... I just discovered this... sort of ectoplasm blast thing."

Vlad grins, the same energy to it as when his parents get an invention to work. "Amazing! So much progress in such little time! It took me three years to develop my ectoplasmic rays!"

Danny sits up more. "You have them too?"

Vlad grins, and fires a quick blast into the fireplace. The wood sparks, and fwooms to life! Danny's jaw drops.

"I can do much more than just that." Vlad stands up with an excited sparkle in his eyes, and turns into his Ghost Form. "Such as this!"

Danny's eyes go wide as saucers as Vlad duplicates, three more of him appearing at his sides! All four Vlad's grin, and all four show off different powers.

Two get into a parring match, one throwing ecto-blasts and the other blocking with a shield of the same pinkish color. One of them throws discs of ectoplasmic energy, while the other throws up a shield that doesn't just absorb but deflects the attack.

And, with a twirls of his cape and the formation of a small tornado, the three copies disappear! The one and only Vlad floats back down, arms crossed proudly. "By the way, I too took up a different last name for my Ghost Form.” The firelight glints off his fangs. “Plasmius."

"Plasmius," Danny repeats. "That’s pretty intimidating."

"That's the idea," Vlad says with pride, turning back to human form and buffing his nails against his suit coat. "Yours is quite clever as well, though."

"Really? Well uh, thanks!" Danny can't believe how much he and this guy actually do have in common. "So... what do you use your powers for?"

"Mostly to keep things quiet around here," Vlad says with a wave of his hand, "Like scaring away those vultures."

"Kinda like me and Amity Park. I don't seek out the fights, they just sort of find me."

"Yes, well, I don't fight to the sheer degree that you do. Claiming a whole town as your territory... do you understand what that means in Ghost Culture?"

"Ghosts have a culture?"

Vlad tsks. "Really, what have your parents taught you? Maddie was always so interested in how Ghost 'patterns', as she called them, worked. Surely they learned something."

Danny winces. "Yeah... not so much. I think my ghost form was actually the first ghost they ever saw, about a month after my accident."

Vlad stares at Danny, aghast. "So you have no teacher! Not even the faintest clue!"

Danny feels ashamed all of a sudden, looking back down into his cocoa. How much does he not know? How many fights have been him accidentally doing something Ghosts consider wrong and making them think they should attack? It doesn’t excuse the ghosts’ actions, but maybe if he could avoid triggering any instincts or anger in them better-

"That settles it." Danny snaps out of his spiral as Vlad grabs a piece of paper and writes something down. "I'm pushing back the reunion by another couple of days. You and I are going to have some lessons."

"Lessons?"

Vlad nods. "I cannot let you continue on like this. Really, how did this even happen again? Maddie always double-checks, and did your father not learn to check with her after my accident? Worse still I noticed they brought ghost-killing weapons with them, and I can only assume they brandish those around you all the time!"

Danny watches with shock as Vlad scribbles up a schedule. And slowly, the shock turns to a smile.

He's getting a mentor! Not just any mentor, a mentor who's like him!

And to think he thought this vacation would turn out badly!

#Danny Phantom #Danny Fenton #Vlad Masters #vlad plasmius #fanfic #my attempts at fanfic #Yes I planned a schedule #No I did not adhere to it #That's life baby

[bubblegumbeech]

The Losing Move

Day two Ectoberhaunt:  Scream vs Laugh

AO3

It started with a scream. That’s how Clockwork knew it was finally time. 

He hesitated, of course. There was so much to lose, so much still uncertain, paths branching in different directions, moments shrouded imperfectly from his view, strings of fate tangled and misused. But he was the Master of Time. He could hesitate and no one would ever know. 

Not even them. 

Clockwork made a portal, leaving his Clocktower and walking towards a tall grey rock almost as old as time itself, weathered by age and nothing like the statue it had once been standing proud in a garden of overgrown thorns and long dead leaves. Nocturn appeared next to him, a swirl of inky black void scattered with stars and nebulae. 

“Did you hesitate?” he asked. 

It was a valid question. An important one too, if they were to succeed. Clockwork’s hesitation could lead to an uncertain future, to a failure in their plot. And then they would be lost, set back hundreds of thousands of years again. 

“No.”

Nocturn accepted his answer. Perhaps he knew that Clockwork was lying, perhaps he did not. Either way, they both turned to the stone. 

It wasn’t long before the others appeared. 

Misery Vex was the first, then Sojourn, on and on until they all stood, surrounding the stone. 

Misery turned to Clockwork. “Did it take?” she asked, and he flew forward, taking off one of his gloves to run his hand along the smoothed side of the rock. It hummed, an energy unlike any else, unique to here yet everywhere and nowhere at all. Very chaotic indeed. 

“It has.”

She hummed an affirmative, linking her hand in his before reaching out to take Sojourn’s. Clockwork reached for Nocturn and as they all linked together they formed a shield, thick and impenetrable between their varied talents, around the stone. 

“How long will this take,” Vortex said, ever the impatient one. He was jittery, yellow cords of lightning constantly jumping all over him in a nervous jumble, branching in and out of each other like writhing snakes. 

Clockwork sighed. “Not long.”

“You musn’t get too close,” Misery warned.

“I know.”

“You musn’t go too far,” Nocturn reminded him. 

He knew that too. 

“You’ve failed before,” Misery said, her voice steady and calm. She was not wrong, nor accusatory. He had faltered, it had led to a less than ideal outcome. He would not admit this. 

Clockwork didn’t allow any emotion on his face. “The threat is contained. My faults did not lead to the failure of our mission.”

She scoffed. “No, only to ‘inconvenience’. Right?”

As far as she knew. As far as any of them did. They relied on him, to determine if their future would be a success. He was the only one who could see which path to take, what choices would lead to their victory. He was the only one who knew just how thin the chance was, how precarious the choice. It would not benefit them to know. He did not need their doubt.

“Who was it?” Sojourn asked, referring to the scream that had summoned them here. The scream that had echoed hauntingly throughout the entirety of the Infinite Realms. 

Clockwork hadn’t looked. He looked now. 

“A boy, fourteen years old, between child and adult, between living and dead, between here and there.” 

Nocturn smiled, “How fitting.”

The stone shattered. Power and chaos, magic and will swirled around in a tornado, beating against the solid weight of their shield and making what was once so obviously strong seem weak and pitiful in comparison. 

Vortex’s eyes glowed in excitement. It was a sign, they all knew, that things were getting close. 

Eventually the storm faded and all that was left was a weathered pile of ash and rubble where there had once been a stone, where there had once been a statue, where there had once been nothing at all. 

It would come to nothing once more. 

Soon.

  The Infinite Realms had been lifeless for so long. Nothing more than ambient ectoplasm and void. A place. Nothing more and nothing less than it had to be. Many of the denizens had never seen them alive, existing as they once had. The panic was only natural. The frenzy, exciting and new. The heart of it all beating again. 

There was one ghost in particular, of course, who had only known the realms as they existed now. Sure there might also be others, newly made and newly dead, but this one was the important one. He’d been the one to give his life for the life around them now. 

Or at least, he’d given half of it. 

The Observants, of course, were furious. 

They had attempted to hunt down the Ancients, knowing it was they who had done this, who had planned this and then hidden it from the view of those who watch. Vortex had been taken first, as expected, and Undergrowth had fled to the mortal realm. The others also split, the time for them to come together was over; the time to prepare for the end was nearing. 

Clockwork, of course, their ever loyal subservient pet that could not leave his tower without their knowledge, that could not use his power without their permission, he’d never been looked at twice.

“You told us the threat was neutralized.” Nocturn said, sliding up next to one of Clockwork’s monitors. He watched a scene, where Daniel and Pariah fought. It was not a real fight, of course. Pariah had long shed the haze of bloodlust that had driven him mad, and was now attempting to be endearing, to rebuild a trust Clockwork had never actually had in him. 

Clockwork took a sip of his tea. It was made from some of Pariah’s newly grown coraleander leaves and made a thick, murky green tea that Clockwork quite enjoyed the taste and texture of. Unfortunately that was exactly why Pariah had grown them, and while Clockwork had snuck them away like a petty thief, he doubted that the missing leaves had gone even a moment unnoticed. 

It was infuriating and Clockwork sipped at it slowly, savoring it’s warmth.

“He is no longer the King. In fact, there is no King at all, just as I said it would be.”

Nocturn turned to meet his eyes, tilting his head just slightly in suspicion. “Yes, you did. Though I suppose the others thought you meant he would not escape his sleep. Or at least, that he would not escape his sleep until after .”

Clockwork looked away, towards the monitor. Pariah had soundly defeated Daniel and was laughing. Likely at the way the poor boy looked, his hair a mess and covered in the very coraleander leaves Clockwork was drinking. He’d need to wash them off before he transformed back into a human. While they wouldn’t be immediately deadly to a Half-Ghost, they would form a large, hard to explain, rash. 

“That wasn’t what I said though, was it?” Clockwork met Nocturn’s eyes once more. 

The other ghost just snorted and shook his head. “No, no I guess it wasn’t. Clockwork, the tightrope you’re walking, that future you see that you haven’t told us about? I really hope you get it. I do. Because the brightest lights cast the darkest shadows and I can’t imagine what would happen if you missed.”

Clockwork’s tea had gone cold. He continued to sip it. He ignored Nocturn’s words and he watched the screen as Pariah helped Daniel stand, only for Daniel to tackle him when he wasn’t expecting it. 

“I’ll take that under consideration.” 

It was becoming habit, he found, to lie to Nocturn. 

  Daniel was at the Clocktower, eating a plate of cookies and complaining about some of the varied ghosts he had to deal with and fight on a regular basis in his mortal realm. It was a side effect, of course, of Phantom’s new role as the Heart of The Infinite Realms. The smaller, weaker ghosts, especially younger and newly dead ones, had attempted to flee the Realms when they noticed the sudden changes. 

When the Observants had become so busy trying to find the cause of the change, so busy trying to hunt down what was left of Chaos’ children, that they could no longer micro-manage the state of the Realms. Could no longer constantly overstep their authority and keep their tasteless ‘Order’. 

The Realms had become more and more lively and Clockwork had found himself in a perpetual good mood. He took a cookie for himself. Nocturn caught him baking the other day; his expression had been dry as he congratulated Clockwork on his adoption. It was  a pointed accusation. 

He had shoved it to the back of his mind and decided to make some forgoent tea to go with the cookies. He hadn’t offered any to Nocturn. 

Daniel paused in his musings for a moment before speaking again, his voice careful. “I’ve been visiting Pariah.”

Clockwork hummed, not looking away from his screens. “I am aware.”

“Of course you are.” Daniel rolled his eyes. Then he sighed like he didn't know how to bring up what he was going to say next. “Did you… Did you know he was going to get free if you sent me after that key?” 

Ah, so he’d figured it out then. “It was a possibility. Each and every choice you make creates an entirely new future with entirely new consequences.” 

“He doesn’t seem all that bad…” Daniel argued, as if Clockwork was going to disagree with him. Clockwork raised an eyebrow, the one with the scar Pariah had given him, and looked over to him. “I mean, he just. When he first woke up he was really mad right? But like, I’d also be really mad if I finally woke up from a forced coma only to have Vlad there.”

Anyone would really. 

“And even though he sucked Amity Park into the Ghost Zone, no one actually ended up getting hurt. At least, no more than usual in a ghost attack. And I’ve been talking with the other ghosts that have been ‘Challenging’ him and they all say he's a pretty cool teacher… Like, he knows how to fight and he’s good at showing them how they can use their unique powers-”

Clockwork didn’t interrupt Daniel as he rambled. It was rare, at least since he’d been deposed, to hear lists of Pariah’s more positive aspects. It wasn’t uncomfortable so much as mildly frustrating. Was this part of Pariah’s ploy? Get Daniel to fall all over himself to recite poetics about Pariah to Clockwork. He should have learned by now that whatever affection he might hold for him, it would not be enough. Not to stop his plans, and certainly not to stop the others.

“So uh, you know, he seems… chiller. Without the crown and ring and stuff.”

“Yes, it was the Ring of Rage Daniel, what did you think it was used for?” 

There was a small imperceptible shift in Daniel’s expression, as if he’d realized something and made the choice to file the knowledge away for later. He must have learned that from Pariah as well. “So, if there’s things that can change even powerful ghosts like Pariah, are there things that could change, say… one of the Ancients?”

Was Daniel befriending another Ancient? Clockwork smiled, that was good then. He could hold that against them, the weight of his failure to keep an emotional distance wouldn’t be as stark, if another Ancient or two fell just as easily to Daniel’s pleasant company. He could use that, he simply had to find out which of them it was. Perhaps Sojourn? He was always soft for children, but Clockwork hadn’t been aware of him returning to the Barrens lately, and Daniel rarely went any further than the Time Locked Lands or the Far Frozen. 

“It is good to befriend others Daniel,” he says halfheartedly, searching through his mirrors to locate Sojourn, “but remember not to trust too easily. You never know the goals of those around you, if they might be using you towards their own ends.”

“Of course,” Daniel replied, his voice hard. 

Clockwork looked over to him, he was staring at the dregs of his tea, expression dark. 

“Would you like more tea?” Clockwork offered, wondering what had plummeted the boy’s attitude so suddenly. 

Daniel looked up, a small smile on his lips, “Yes Please.”

Clockwork left to make more, his mind still trying to find which Ancient Daniel had befriended. 

  “The Observants are completely ignorant of your machinations,” Pariah said as Clockwork entered his study. “Of course, they don’t know you as well as they think.”

Clockwork should stop visiting him. Should never have started, a fact that Nocturn was only too happy to remind him of. Sometimes Clockwork wondered if Nocturn got his taste of Chaos from Clockwork's mistakes, he seemed so dedicated to reveling in them. 

“I didn’t come here to talk about the Observants. I have my fill without the need to remark upon them when absent from their presence.” Clockwork was scowling. He could hide his irritation, but despite his lies and trickery he was hardly an accomplished actor. 

Pariah chuckled, flipping another page in the thick book he’d been reading. The title was faded, but Clockwork recognized it easily enough. It was a detailed history of the Infinite Realms after King Dark had been sealed away. It was a long history, though not as long as the history that came before his reign entirely. 

It was also the exact kind of thing Pariah would read cover to cover, like the obsessive monster he was. 

“I suppose you came to warn me away from your ward then?” Pariah asked, his voice casual. Clockwork scoffed, allowing a roll of his eyes before floating over to Pariah’s shelves and grabbing one of the books that looked recently used. It was about old soul binding rituals, much like what had happened to Fright Knight. It was amusing, the thought that Pariah’s oldest friend might still be whining about his little curse. 

“Hardly,” Clockwork said, idly flipping through the pages, “if I could control Daniel I never would have let him near you to begin with.”

Pariah smiled, placing his own book down. “Yes, I imagine you wouldn’t have. It would be a mistake to let me get close to him and realize he is the reason the Infinite Realms have started to sing.”

He’d figured it out then. Of course that wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility. Unlike the Observants, Pariah was wickedly intelligent and fully capable of coming to the appropriate conclusions. “Sing? An interesting way to describe it.”

Arms encircled his waist and Clockwork was pulled back into a warm chest. Pariah’s chin rested on Clockwork’s shoulder as he spoke softly into his ear. “Is it enough? The realms feel alive, weaker ghosts are fleeing or banding together once more. It resembles the time we once had, between Chaos and Order. Will you stop here?”

“There’s nothing more I can do,” he lied. 

Pariah hummed an agreement and reached out to flip a few pages through the book Clockwork had been holding. There was a beautifully illustrated drawing of a necklace, bewitched and layered in curses. Pariah must have memorized the pages, of course. “Would you wear jewelry if I made it for you? I would see you decked in gold and finery if I could.”

Clockwork slammed the book closed, just missing Pariah’s fingers. He didn’t think about the earrings Pariah had once gifted him, or how he wore them even now, dangling hidden beneath his hood. “You should know better than to ask that.” 

He felt a smile against his neck. “Then I won’t ask.”

  He held the Thermos in his hand. 

The other Daniel was a menace, truly. But he would not be so desperate to ruin Daniel’s life anymore. It had been long enough for him to realize that his existence was no longer predicated on Daniel’s decisions, or on the loss of his family. 

It would change him, of course. The knowledge that he exists in the same time as his once family will either soften his grief, or sharpen its edges. There were so many paths he could take, and Clockwork could not see them all, did not bother to look much further than the distance he needed him for. 

There was something more important than his grief that he and Clockwork had in common. Something Daniel and Pariah likely had in common with them as well: the detestation of the Observants. 

Clockwork opened the thermos, releasing Daniel’s worst nightmare and not thinking about how the young half-ghost had given it to him so easily, had trusted him so quickly when all Clockwork had done was protect his human family one time. 

The other, once possible, Daniel appeared in an explosion of light and matter and immediately attacked, using his claws to scratch at Clockwork’s face. He was prepared for that though, years trapped in a thermos had eroded much of Dan’s more refined aspects. It would work in Clockworks favor of course, he had made sure of that.

For now, Clockwork froze time and moved behind him. That way his wild attack would meet nothing but ambient ectoplasm and Clockwork could speak his piece. Provided his piece took less than a second to speak.

He allowed time to flow and watched as the other Daniel floundered, confused, only to instantly realize just what Clockwork had done and turn around, ready to attack once more. Clockwork smiled as their eyes met and asked, “Would you like to End the Observants and their Order?”

the other Daniel attacked him, but Clockwork could see the consideration in his eyes. The thought had been implanted, now all he had to do was sit back and watch. the other Daniel had always been rather good at ruining things after all. 

“CLOCKWORK!” Daniel yelled, flying frantically into the Clocktower. “Clockwork Dan escaped somehow! He attacked Amity Park!” 

His desperate flight slowed when he saw Clockwork floating casually at his screens as he always had. He was watching a specific screen now, and pulled the image onto the largest one to share with Daniel. “Yes, I know.”

Daniel looked between him and the screen, his expression growing more and more confused. “But, he was here though. Locked up. How did he escape?”

Clockwork didn’t turn to look at him. “I’m sorry Daniel,” he lied. “Your trust in me was misplaced. He escaped while I was distracted with another matter and I was unable to stop him. It’s my fault.”

Daniel’s eyes widened, searching for something in Clockwork’s expression, and then in Clockwork’s screens. The only thing he saw though, was the other Daniel causing havoc and destruction. After visiting Amity Park and re-traumatising Daniel’s sister, the other Daniel had been driven away by Daniel, whose power had become far superior in the time since they had last met. It was only natural of course, Daniel’s existence was unique and far beyond that of Dan’s mangled pieced together form of conflicting obsessions and damaged cores. 

It was possible, Clockwork knew, for the other Daniel to stabilize properly. Perhaps he could become a proper ghost, perhaps he could stop attempting to restrict what humanity he had left. Either way, it did not matter in the end. If anything, his existence was a fun riddle that would play itself out long after Clockwork’s plans came to fruition. 

Clockwork looked over at Daniel, his expression hidden behind the shadows of his hood. The boy was staring emptily at the corner of the Clocktower that led to the inner dungeons where the other Daniel had been hidden away.  After a moment he turned away, hiding his own expression, and began to walk. As if his legs had become too heavy to fly. 

“It’s fine. I’ll get him back. It won’t happen again.” There was a promise in his voice and it softened to be almost inaudible entirely. “I won’t let it.”

After he left, Clockwork turned back to the screen with the other Daniel on it. He was finished terrorizing the ghost from before, and was now floating listlessly in the void of the Infinite Realms. Likely, he was warring with his obsessions- or his emotions- it was hard to tell which. Eventually though, he shook his head, looked up as if to catch Clockwork’s eye, and flew off.

In the direction of the Observants. 

  It’s eyeball was glaring at him, the normally dull yellow of it’s sclera bright with fury. “You were given responsibility over him! You were entrusted to keep him from destroying the Realms!”

Clockwork’s own eye twitched as he fought back an eyeroll. Those who Watch were as predictable as ever, not showing up at the moment of Dan’s release but instead at the moment he began to take his rage out on the Observants. Their responsibilities had always been superfluous though, a vague excuse to do as they pleased in the name of Order. 

“I failed. He escaped. Woe is me.” He floated over to one of his more intricate gadgets and began to tinker with it, pretending to be busy. “Surely an Order such as yours, full of powerful ghosts that command the Realms, did not come to me in fear though? He attacked you directly, does that not make your vow of inaction void?”

“ You-! ”

“Of course, it would be different if you simply couldn’t defeat him. But… he’s only a decade dead. That would be an embarrassment.”

The other Observant that had come to scold (and demand his servitude) floated in front of its companion so as to cut off a likely incensed reaction. “He’s an abomination, and an amalgamation. Surely you can understand why we wanted him dealt with before it came to this.”

Clockwork inclined his head, playing at civility. “Perhaps then, you should seek to work alongside Phantom. I have it on relatively good authority he’s also trying to deal with your resident menace.”

Both of the Observants took his suggestion as an insult, one even growing red with it. “That Abomination? He should be destroyed along with it!”

“Pity,” Clockwork said, turning back to the screens and watching as the other Daniel tore the core out of another Observant’s chest and crushed it in his palm. He wasn’t even absorbing them for their power. It was a waste, but Clockwork was certain it was a waste born of trauma. Dan’s creation had, after all, been due to a botched absorption with a powerful ghost core. “You can leave now.”

“You must deal with this.”

“I will deal with it when the time is right,” he said in lieu of an answer. 

The Observants, disgruntled and unwilling to leave, as if hiding in Clockwork’s lair would somehow protect them, made comment after comment demanding his action and threatening punishment should he fail. He replied with sarcasm and an aloof attitude that soon had them leaving out the door if only to try and do what they could to tighten his bonds. 

He sighed, there was time still. He should make cookies, that always seemed to calm him, help him to exist in the present and not become impatient for what is yet to be. He headed to the kitchen, only to see an unexpected visitor at his table. 

“Nocturn, you’re early.”

The other Ancient nodded. “Yes, your plan seems to have worked flawlessly. The Authority of the Observants has been shaken. Much of the power they had gained through fear and reputation has dwindled, but…”

Clockwork raised an eyebrow as he opened his cabinets. There was egyptian sand flour left over, it would be dryer than using something more modern, but the age would add a good aftertaste. He just needed to add extra Honey-Wasp bits from the outskirts of The Undergrowth and that should balance it. Maybe some purified ectoplasm. Pariah gifted him a jar after he had somehow managed to create a device to filter it from the Infinite Realms. 

He had also made an absolutely unsubtle offer to join him in his new ‘sauna’ that Clockwork had pointedly refused. 

“But?” he prompted, there was little information he could glean from silence. 

Nocturn watched him prepare the batter. He sighed and stood, grabbing a knife and helping to mince the Honey-Wasps before speaking again. “But they still have their numbers, and much of their actual power. And Clockwork, Pariah has made his move.”

“I know,” Clockwork admitted, “but is that not in our favor as well?”

“Not if he takes more power from them, Pariah on his own is not a fight we can accept lightly. Anything more being beholden to him is hardly something I wish to see.” 

Clockwork cracked a Kraken’s egg into the mixture and moved the bowl closer to Nocturn so he could scoop the Honey-Wasp bits into it as well, without losing any of the juice. Mixing it would be troublesome, some of the more experimental batters attempted to gain sentience and would try to escape the bowl. “It will work in our favor either way. the other Daniel caused havoc, their power was broken across the realms. Pariah is merely salting the ground we have burned.” 

He used a dull knife to cut into the batter and stirred, stopping any attempts at formation. Nocturn grabbed the bowl from him, forcing eye contact. “What if he seeks something else?”

“Haven’t I already escaped the chains he bound me in before?” Clockwork laughed. “Do I not have allies that would find short work of cutting chains that I did not allow to bind me?”

The bowl was set back down and Clockwork and Nocturn both made short work of dividing the dough and setting it into the oven. “We could not break the bindings of the Observants,” Nocturn said as Clockwork closed the oven door. 

“That is different, that was part of our plans. They needed to never suspect me, if we were to get this far.” Clockwork waved him off. “Would you like a cookie?”

“We have to wait for them to cook, Clockwork.” Nocturn said, exasperated.

Clockwork simply rolled his eyes and increased the time surrounding the oven. “I don’t wait.”

Daniel hadn’t visited again since Clockwork allowed the other Daniel  to escape. It was possible, he admitted in the back of his mind, that Daniel blamed him for what happened. As well he should. Yet, the thought left a sour taste in his mouth. 

He was watching the screens again. Aiming them in every direction he could to see everything as it played out. Most were occupied by the remnants of the Order he had set about decimating. A few were dedicated to their interconnected Lair, the place where they held their play courts and kept their prisoners. It was where they kept Vortex before he was freed. One screen though, was aimed at Pariah’s Keep. 

It had been a simple thing that Clockwork had neither encouraged nor discouraged, Daniel’s visits with Pariah. But now that Clockwork’s own visits had come to an end, it had become something distinctly bitter, a feeling that was building in his chest, where his core hummed, that Clockwork was ignoring with all the practice of a man dead set on his goals. 

Daniel would visit again, of course. Clockwork could even tell the exact date and time, or at least the most likely ones. He didn’t look at the futures where Daniel never came back, there was no point in uselessly fretting about it. He’d be fine, there were more important things to deal with now. 

He could feel the pressure of his binds loosening as more and more of the Observants were hunted down. Not all of them were ended by Dan, of course. They had made many enemies. Both Vortex and Undergrowth had gone out of their way to visit quite a number themselves, along with a few of the other Ancients. Clockwork was certainly tempted to do so, alas, the restrictions upon him prevented it still. And the only way for those restrictions to end was for those wielding the reins to End. And well, then there wouldn’t be anyone left to take his ire out upon would there? 

Instead he allowed his own part in their demise to be enough for his bruised ego and the millennia of torment he’d undergone beneath them. Then he ate a cookie and kept watch of his screens. 

Pariah was teaching Daniel how to use a sword. Pandora had attempted to teach him swordsmanship but Daniel had been disinclined to it. He wasn’t particularly elegant to be fair, and the finesse and practiced movement of Pandora’s sword was more akin to an art than anything else. Her limbs risked entanglement if she wasn’t careful and had developed a style suited to such. 

Daniel was much more inclined to blunt, ferocious movements. He often thought with his fist before anything else, even as a ghost with a multitude of powers to command. He used speed and strength to win and outmaneuver his opponents and despite his lack of polish, he often won due to those two traits alone. Pariah was a talented teacher, in that he was clearly taking what Daniel had already in ample supply, and taught him how to wield it appropriately to its maximum use. 

He was still only beginning of course, but Daniel was a fast learner and had grown significantly in a short period of time. 

Clockwork had toyed with the idea of taking Daniel on as an official apprentice once or twice before. Teaching him how to exist beyond the means which he had become accustomed to as a human. While he would not have Clockwork’s inclination for time specifically, Daniel’s connection to the Realms would allow him a level of control over his surroundings and the beings that exist in them that simply does not exist in anyone outside of the Ancients. And even then, Clockwork’s Time was different enough from the others’ domains to be unique in and of itself in a similar vein to Daniel’s powers. Even if they’d only just barely begun to show. 

But it was a risk to do so before everything else came to fruition. If Daniel realized his plans, it would be troublesome. He likely would not agree to the lengths Clockwork is willing to reach, and more than that, there is no guarantee that his existence as half human would not have him attempting to side with Order over Chaos. No, it was better to wait and see how it all played out first. There wasn’t much left to do before the end. 

Yes it would lead to anger. Perhaps even to hatred. It would be fitting for Clockwork. He had never known a love that had yet to turn. That had truly been any kind of unconditional. 

But he would be free. 

Finally, finally free. 

Free from this horrid linear existence, free from his servitude, free from his bonds. The root of him, the core, had been born from Chaos, from the mess of all things and no things, and like any child wishing to cradle in the arms of its mother, Clockwork longed once more for it. 

He had been patient, as had the others. There was little left to do. 

  When Daniel finally visited again Clockwork had made cookies. 

They resembled human chocolate chips, if one squinted, and Clockwork had made sure to take them out of the oven just as Daniel arrived so they would be warm.

“There you are Daniel,” he greeted. The cookies were still moving and he had to give the tray he was holding a bit of a shake to get them to stop. He doubted Daniel would eat them if he thought they were alive. 

The boy didn’t look well. He had deep bags under his eyes, and a skittish, weary look about him. 

Clockwork clicked his tongue. “You need to sleep,” he said, not waiting for Daniel to speak. 

“What?” The boy lifted his head, confused. 

“I said, you should sleep.” Clockwork grabbed one of the amulets from the wall and placed it around Daniel’s neck. “I’ll stop time for a few hours, you can sleep here if you want.”

Daniel just blinked. “Oh.”

Nodding, Clockwork turned back to his screens so he could keep watch. Nocturn had warned that Pariah was making his move and Clockwork was determined to keep an eye on him now, when the timing was most crucial. 

He felt a tug on his sleeve. 

“Clockwork…”

He looked down to catch Daniel’s eyes. “Yes?”

“Nothing,” he sighed, “thanks.” He grabbed the amulet in one hand, a torn expression on his face. Then he floated off to the room Clockwork had given him to sleep.

Watching as his ward wandered off, Clockwork waited until he was out of sight to grab hold of time and let it rest for a moment. It was the least he could do. 

It wasn’t long after their fall that the final thread snapped and Clockwork opened his eyes in triumph. Everything was available to him now. There were no hidden futures, no shrouded pasts. His screens multiplied around him as even his Lair was freed from its limits. Like a beast stretching from a long hibernation, Clockwork lost himself to his Obsession, revelled in the freedom he had long gambled away. 

The Infinite Realms felt it as he left the Clocktower for no reason other than because he wanted to and he didn’t have to ask. He didn’t have to come up with some convoluted reason as to why this was perfectly acceptable before his own body allowed him to leave the doors of his own Lair. It felt wonderful, he almost took down his hood to see everything around him with the eyes of a free spirit. 

He didn’t though, it would be too much of a hassle to wrangle his hair back and he didn’t really want someone to see him so freely bared. It was enough in every way, that he was finally free. 

“I almost forgot how powerful you were, Clockwork.” He turned to see Misery Vex, lounging comfortably just outside his lair. “The Eyes Around Us are gone then?”

Clockwork nodded, looking to the future, looking to the past. She had been waiting here for him, but not for long. And she wouldn’t have waited much longer. “Are you ready for what happens next?” he asked. 

“Are you?”

He nodded again. There weren’t any more preparations to make, how could he be anything but ready?

They didn’t meet at the Clocktower this time. 

It was no longer necessary after all. This time they met in the night. The soft evening of eternal sleep and dreams, Nocturn’s lair. It was spacious if nothing else, and creative with its decoration. Should one of them wish to sit, they merely needed to chance sitting and see if the space around them would accommodate. It suited him immensely. 

“Have you found her yet?” Misery asked.

Sojourn nodded, a small enthusiastic smile hidden under his beard. “Yes, Clockwork and I were able to locate her shattered core amongst Pandora’s boxes.”

“ It will not be easy to receive her, and it will only be more difficult to revive her,” Nocturn warned, “especially if we wish to keep this to ourselves. Rather than risk the entirety of the realms turning on us as they did the Observants.”

Clockwork nodded, “we shouldn’t do much in more than pairs. Sojourn and Misery should seek Pandora. Nocturn and I can set the ritual once the pieces are complete.”

“And the rest of us?” Undergrowth scowled, he hated Nocturn’s lair. It was cold and empty, barren of any more physical matters and there was nowhere for him to take root. Clockwork suspected half of the reason it was that way was intended to irritate Undergrowth specifically. 

Sojourn clapped his hands together and smiled, his eagerness truly knew no bounds and his obvious delight was nearly infectious. “You’re our escape plan of course! We’ll need help once we locate the right box, Pandora’s obsession is hardly a good one to be on the wrong side of.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Vortex grinned.

Clockwork couldn’t help but agree, what are they waiting for indeed? 

  “What is Chaos, Clockwork?” Daniel asked. But Clockwork was distracted.

He hadn’t expected Daniel to show up today, he hadn’t paid attention to it. There was so much to do, so much to get ready for. The time was now after all. 

He took care to answer anyways, the changes that were to come would affect the boy. At least a little. He was strong enough that he would thrive in Chaos, and it would help to nurture his Obsession, if the weaker denizens of the Realms needed help. And they would

“Chaos was the first, how it all began. Everything started with Chaos or nothing could have been at all.” 

Daniel frowned, a small furrow in his brow. “That… didn’t really-“

Clockwork paused for a moment. “Is something wrong Daniel?”

He sighed. “So if you were made from Chaos, is she like, your mother?”

“No. Chaos is not sentient so much as conceptual.” Clockwork frowned, “though I suppose she predated concepts as well if she was the first. Chaos was neither one thing nor many things. It’s safe to say Chaos was everything and everything came from her. But that did not make her nurturing” 

Clockwork looked back at Daniel, letting time flow smoothly once more. It wouldn’t do to delay. 

There was a hint of something in Daniel’s eyes, a wariness that Clockwork had never seen before. It must have been due to their conversation, but Clockwork couldn’t place what about it would have Daniel on edge. Chaos would not be any more a threat to him than it would be the other Ancients. 

“Clockwork, if Chaos came back…” he paused, as if the words had been stuck in his throat, “what would happen to the humans? The mortals?” 

What a strange question. “Life would not exist as it does now, utter chaos would not permit it.”

It had been something of a sport, to watch Sojourn and Misery in their attempts to find and excavate the remnants of the Core of Chaos. Clockwork and Nocturn had watched it from the safety and comfort of Clockwork’s lair, on the largest of his screens. 

“They’re having fun aren’t they?” Nocturn mused, taking a sip of his tea. He’d made it himself in Clockwork’s kitchen, had been insistent about it when he’d seen Clockwork start to make his own.

“Pandora is a valiant warrior and a good fighter. Misery has been on the sidelines for some time since the end of Pariah’s court.” Clockwork’s tea was cold. He frowned and set it aside.

“Yes, it’s good to see her stretching her limbs. I hadn’t seen all of them since her last fight.”

Clockwork thought back, the fight Nocturn was referring to played on one of the smaller screens. It was a gladiator based competition, where Pariah had sent her as a member of his court to show his power. She had challenged the Lord of Little Crawlers to a duel and shredded him to pieces before even five minutes had passed. Then she had collected herself, reset her veil, and gone right back to Pariah’s Keep. 

Now she was using every extra limb she could against Pandora, swords clashing with long knitting needles and strings of silk. Watching the fight was mesmerizing to be sure, almost akin to a dance, if not for the frustrated vulgarities being thrown around and Sojourn’s overly eager cheering from the back.

“Do you think they’ll make it?”

“Sojourn will remember what they’re supposed to be doing when he almost drops one of the boxes held in his arms. Upon that realization he will sneak away while Pandora is distracted and meet with the others. From there they will come here with their spoils and it will be our turn to prove our worth.” Clockwork answered, easily detailing the future ahead of them. 

Nocturn nodded and took a sip of his tea.

  It didn’t happen exactly like Clockwork had predicted. But it was close enough. Sojourn had bypassed Vortex and Undergrowth completely and simply flown straight to Clockwork‘s lair on his own. Nocturn spared Clockwork a glance, but he remained unaffected. It was still on track to be an ideal future. 

Once Sojourn entered his lair Clockwork grabbed hold of time with his hand and twisted , forcing it to bend and still under his palm. The trip to the Cave was only a step after that and once there, he let loose and released time to settle amicably around them.

“Amazing,” Sonourn said, “I do think I’d like to travel this way more often. It’s quite convenient.”

Nocturn patted him on the shoulder and grabbed one of the delicately detailed boxes he’d been balancing precariously in his arms. “You’d need to be very careful if you did, there’s no telling what might get caught up in all that twisting and turning.”

“It won’t matter much longer after this,” Clockwork said, taking his own box. 

The entirety of Chaos was not here, her core long since mostly destroyed, but there was enough to recreate something should they use the ritual they had devised. 

It needed to be hidden, so they had found a cave. It was ancient, and once thought to be a reliable doorway into the spiritual and mortal realms, every wall was covered in ancient arts and writings. No rhyme or reason between them, a bit of a mess conceptually, but perfect for their purposes. Once Vortex had destroyed it in the mortal realm, it had been simple enough to recreate, especially using Undergrowth and Misery Vex’s powers. 

Most ghosts dared not travel here, where they placed it. It was a deeper part of the Infinite Realms, where the pressures of the ambient ectoplasm was strong enough to kill even some of the more stable spirits, certainly more than any Watcher could have ever handled. 

Clockwork gathered the ashes in the center of their chosen chamber. Three rights from the first left. Nocturn moved around the edges, the walls solid and firm under his hands as he tested them. And Sojourn, setting his own box aside, lit the flames. 

It began. 

They had known the work would be hard, tedious even. Most mortals, when they picture rituals like this, imagine chanting and holding hands, perhaps some use of indomitable will. But this was far more personal, more hands on.

Clockwork took the broken edge of a shattered piece of core, and began to mold it, shaping and soothing it into a puzzle-like shape. He had spent time looking into human carpentry practices, and had come across the traditional Chinese techniques of Lu Ban. 

It had taken more than a human lifetime to learn it properly and then suit it to his own needs, but he put it into practice now, shaping the shattered pieces anew and slotting them together so that they might fit and stay snug.

Sojourn had weaved together layer after layer of treated ectoplasm into a fine cloth and was now sewing it into a fitted dress, each stitch small and tidy, seamless against the weave. 

The one who stoked the flame, who kept its energy strong and the newly forming core well fed, was Nocturn. He kept a measured gaze upon it, not once turning away or getting distracted. 

This continued for an eternity, the creation, or recreation, of something both ancient and now new was exhaustive work. But eventually, Clockwork felt a hum. A small, weak thing that would have left him breathless had he needed to breathe. 

Chaos was born again, though faint, though weak. Not anything close to what she once was, but still, she was there, feeding on the flames of her own ashes, pieces of her own core held together and finally finding life. 

They needed to keep going. This was delicate work, if they got distracted, if there was even one misstep, it would be over. Chaos would be what she is now, what they made of her, and not what she needed to be. 

The fire went out.

“ Damn ,” Nocturn hissed, quickly turning to look around. He did not bother to relight the flame, it was too late. Clockwork felt hollow, had they truly failed? But how? 

He acted quickly, bundling the newly formed and still fragile core into Sojourn’s half sewn garment and thrusting it fully into the other Ancient’s hands. 

“You are the fastest of us, run, hide her away before we lose her entirely.” Sojourn nodded solemnly, flying quickly through the winding tunnels that led out of the cave. 

Nocturn scowled, “whoever is there should be glad I am merciful. Come out now and I shall forgo eternal torment for a quick End.”

There was only silence. 

Clockwork was growing irritated himself and looked to the future, only to see Nocturn tackled into a wall by a familiar black and white blur. 

“Daniel?!” He said, his thoughts screeching to a halt. But, there was no way. He couldn’t have followed them. He would have had to know about the cave and been lying in wait for the exact moment to-

There was a soft sound, like the clinking of a delicate chain, as Clockwork felt a weight upon his neck. All at once he felt the universe stand still, as if he had been trapped in the moment, the singular moment no longer able to spread himself beyond. It was cloying, claustrophobic. Something he never thought he’d experience again. 

And he knew who was behind it. 

“You’ve always been impatient my dear.” Pariah spoke softly, his lips far too close. 

Clockwork fled, slipping between moments to force space between them almost on instinct alone. Pariah simply let him go, a smug smile on his face. No, he wasn’t supposed to be here. How did he know about this place?

What had he placed on Clockwork’s neck?

He lifted a hand, not taking his eyes off of Pariah in case he decided to get any closer, and felt around his neck. It was a chain, delicate and just long enough to have slid over his head and dangle its pendant at a point on his chest, just above the glass. The shape of it was vaguely familiar, but Clockwork couldn’t place it.

“What have you done to me?” he asked, using anger to hide the tremble in his voice.

Pariah’s expression softened and he took a step forward. “Did I not say I would see you decked in gold?”

No…

The necklace…

It had been a cursed necklace, layered in charms meant for protection that slowly twisted into possession and control. It shouldn’t have been strong enough to cause any trouble at all to Clockwork, if something this simple had worked, Pariah would have used it long ago in the peak of his madness. 

Clockwork grabbed the chain, intending to rip it off, but Pariah spoke, startling him. “I wouldn’t, you’ll only hurt yourself.”

“Then why did you put it on me?” he tugged at the chain in emphasis, without his strength. Pariah never warned for no reason. 

The bastard smiled, like Clockwork had asked a stupid question, one he should know the answer to. Clockwork scowled, and moved further away from him. His back hit a wall. The cave, while earlier it had been comforting, a sign that eternal chaos was close at hand, that all Clockwork had done was paying off in the end, it was now more reminiscent of a stone cage. 

A trap.

He’d walked straight into a trap, one Pariah had been laying since he awoke. And Clockwork had never paid it any heed, had not bothered with his machinations because he assumed Pariah would be too slow, had thought whatever he did would be too weak. He had underestimated him, and now Pariah Dark was walking towards him, a lion stalking its prey.

Clockwork froze time.

He was still moving. Clockwork had frozen time and Pariah was still moving . 

It shouldn’t have been possible, there was nothing restricting Clockwork’s power in that way. He felt the threads of all existence tangled around him, grabbed the ones moving forward and tugged, sharp, desperate, to keep them still. He felt them still. 

Pariah kept moving though. 

“How-?” Everything else had frozen, all around them was silence and the only things that moved were the two of them. It was a strange kind of dance, one stepping closer and the other floating away. 

“I made it myself, the charm. It ties you to me, obviously.” Pariah caught him, gently because he didn’t need to use force, didn’t need to use any of the almost limitless strength behind him. “It’s based off the contract you signed with the Observants, I hadn’t honestly expected it to be so blatantly one sided when I read it. Though I suppose it was on purpose, a miscalculation on your part, in the end.”

Clockwork pulled his hand away, but Pariah simply moved with the action and stepped closer, crowding against him. “It doesn’t work like that,” Clockwork said through clenched teeth. A one-sided contract that gave away so much of himself was necessary. It was also only possible because Clockwork had signed it. Pariah couldn’t mimic that without Clockwork’s consent, that wasn’t how it worked. That wasn’t how any of this was supposed to work. 

Pariah hummed in agreement. “It wouldn’t be, if that was all I did.” He brushed a lock of hair from Clockwork’s eyes. “The Order of the Observants was in chaos. They were desperate. They wanted someone powerful to protect them. They were willing to give anything for the possibility they might find safety.”

Then he pulled out a medallion of his own, a horribly familiar one.

Oh.

So that was all it took…

Pariah was right, it had been a miscalculation indeed. 

“Even if they gave me to you, the contract dissolved with the Order. I felt it break.” 

“It did,” Pariah took hold of one of Clockwork’s hands and held it to his lips in a kiss, “But I had you for long enough. Long enough to bind you to myself instead. All it took was some craftswork.”

He let go of Clockwork’s hand to touch the pendant hanging from his neck instead. It was a gentle, reverent touch, as if thanking the damned thing for its work in keeping Clockwork trapped for him. “Luckily I was up to date on all the most prominent binding curses. I have a friend who suffers from such an affliction after all.”

“Fuck you.” 

Pariah laughed, a genuine surprised chuckle that truly lit him up from the inside. His eyes were so warm, his hands burned like brands, and Clockwork wanted nothing more than to tear out his other eye with his teeth. “Come Clockwork, you’ve failed. Let’s go home.” 

  Pariah led him back to the Clocktower, his lair. His home and prison. Clockwork stormed past him once they were inside. “And what is your plan now? I can’t imagine I’d be much use in subjecuting the Realms, as you can see I’m quite traitorous by nature. All of my previous masters can attest.”

“Then it’s good I’m keeping you for your sense of humor,” Pariah said as he closed the door behind him. 

It was the first time Pariah Dark had ever been inside Clockwork’s lair. Pariah had always been a cautious ghost, it made sense that he wouldn’t allow himself the vulnerability of being inside another powerful ghost’s lair, a place where they quite literally held all of the power and had all of the control. 

The irony of course, was that the moment Pariah had stepped inside, it was Clockwork that felt vulnerable. Exposed like a raw nerve, every part of him standing on end, tightly coiled and ready to flee. 

“How is this exactly how I have always envisioned it?” Pariah says dryly, his eyes roaming freely, invasively over every nook and cranny. Every randomly placed cog and haphazard ticking machine. It was a chaotic mess, naturally, it was Clockwork. 

Clockwork picked up a twentieth century alarm clock and weighed it in his hands before chucking it as hard as he could towards Pariah. The bastard caught it, of course. And Clockwork scowled.

“Did you often picture yourself waltzing into my Lair?”

Pariah set the clock down carefully, as if it would break. As if it were truly a piece of Clockwork himself. “I don’t see why I shouldn’t have. You were certainly at home in mine.”

“Oh please, half the Realms has access to your Lair. We are not the same.” Clockwork scoffed, crossing his arms and floating awkwardly in the middle of the room. He didn’t want to be any closer to Pariah, but neither did he want to risk being backed into a wall again . It seemed a recurring treat for Pariah, to cage him in that way. 

There was a touch of mischief in Pariah’s smile when he replied. “Perhaps we can change that, would you like more visitors?”

“No.”

“Pity.”

Clockwork grabbed another trinket to throw, this one he had pried from the walls. Pariah handled that just as easily, an uncomfortable expression aimed at the destroyed part of Clockwork’s wall. He was truly the most obnoxious perfectionist. If Clockwork’s mangled mess of a lair was going to bother him he shouldn’t have bothered to come inside.

In fact, if he was going to be disappointed so easily he shouldn’t have chained him in the first place. It wasn’t as if the bindings guaranteed something like loyalty. They couldn’t even force him to act should he not wish to. Clockwork wasn’t going to change from how he had been for eons under the damn Eyes. 

“Why did you do this?” Clockwork asked, “And don’t dare say it’s only because you said you would. You may be meticulous but you are not beholden to simple words.”

Pariah had fixed his wall. And was now attempting to reinstate the very same decoration Clockwork had used as ammunition. It was strangely domestic to see and Clockwork felt rage simmer and build. Would he simply make himself at home then? Perhaps he would seek to combine their lairs in a twisted amalgamation so that he might seek order where it damn well did not belong.

“You were going to leave.” 

What a useless excuse. “Did you lose your ability to reason permanently to that crown?”

This time it was Pariah that rolled his eyes. “Obviously not, if I was able to out-fox Clockwork of all ghosts.”

“You had help.” Clockwork said through grit teeth. He wouldn’t ask who, he didn’t think he could handle having it confirmed.

Pariah’s eyes sparkled. “So you knew?”

“I figured it out.”

“Feeling very betrayed, Clockwork?” This time Pariah’s smile was sharp, a vicious little thing that certainly made him more recognizable as the fallen tyrant he actually was. 

Clockwork refused to rise to the bait. He did not regret, it was impossible to feel regret when every single decision he’d ever made had been so thoroughly calculated. “I wasn’t going to leave. Where would I even go, Pariah?”

“You were leaving me.” Pariah walked towards him, quicker than his usual slow prowl. Clockwork had chanced a step back himself but it only served to darken Pariah’s expression further so he stilled instead and allowed himself to be caught and held. Pariah’s hands were heavy, one landing on his hip and the other reaching for his wrist. “You were disappearing to the flows of Time, one minute here and the next somewhere no one could follow you. You speak of chaos and the freedom it would give you, but you lie to yourself when you say that is all that you desire. The freedom you had so desperately sought, how lonely would it have been.”

Pariah had not been able to talk after that, too busy weathering Clockwork’s sudden violent outrage. 

Nocturn was the first to visit him, to see Clockwork’s anger, his desperate lashing out. He had the same expression he’d always had when the topic of Pariah or Daniel had come up. The look of undisguised pity, as if he had known from the start that Clockwork would fail, that he would be chained in this way, the moment his freedom was closer than at any other time. 

“We do not hate you for your failure, Clockwork,” Nocturn said, and Clockwork bared his teeth. It had been sometime since he’d carved out an eye in petty vengeance but he was not above making it a hobby.

Nocturn simply kept his distance, just one step away with one of those damned medallions around his neck, stopping Clockwork from freezing him in place in his own lair. “You’ve always been easily twisted by affection, too willing to be tied down with familiarity.”

His words hurt, like an arrow piercing through Clockwork’s chest. He hadn’t thought it would be so literal, hadn’t taken Pariah’s threats seriously. Had believed, genuinely, that he would be able to escape whatever bonds Pariah had fashioned for him. Had not thought to protect himself thoroughly enough and now all was for naught. Nocturn said he harbored no ill will, but he should . 

And Clockwork was distraught that he did not. 

He deflated and Nocturn floated closer, just within range. But Clockwork’s arms hung heavy, and he was exhausted now, the weight of it all too much. “You should. Chaos is lost to us.” he spoke, his voice barely audible.

“Yes,” Nocturn acquiesced, “but Chaos was lost to us long ago. It was a child’s hope, that we could get it back.”

“You are content then? To rot in containment in an infinite realm of order and stability?”

A laugh escaped Nocturn, perplexing Clockwork and only flaring his temper worse. The other Ancient didn’t even try to hide as he fell into a laughing fit. “I would not be, no. But my oldest friend, I am not the one in containment. I have always known you look too much towards the forest and its tallest trees, very rarely have you ever noticed the grass or the leaves.”

“Speak sense,” Clockwork snapped. It was his job to speak in riddles, he had little patience to hear them now. 

Nocturn did not call him on his hypocrisy though, instead he shook his head and floated closer, relaxing next to Clockwork as if they were two friends taking tea. “It was not, as you believed, an all or nothing gamble.”

“Was it not?”

“No, the realms are back to Anarchy as they should be. The Observants were the last hold in their attempts to tame them, and they have been destroyed. There is no King, not even a sleeping one, and Chaos exists.”

Clockwork listened, the cold weight of failure that had settled in his chest chipped and cracked as Nocturn spoke on. “She does not exist as she had.”

“But perhaps this is a better way,” Nocturn pondered, “last time, Chaos reigned so supreme it seemed all were insistent to seek order. Then order reigned supreme and we sought Chaos. Perhaps now, with the Realms alive once more, and order and Chaos in balance, it will last instead.”

Nocturn placed a hand on the top of Clockwork’s head, petting his hair. “The other Ancients and I shall seek our fun, and find ways to exist in this new existence. It is only you, I am afraid, that will remain trapped.”

Clockwork slapped his hand away, “How comforting, Nocturn. Do you also go to the newly dead and tell them not to weep, at least they were the ones that died and not others?”

Nocturn’s hand returned to pull his hood down over his face and Clockwork had to slap it away again. “It is not in my perogative to comfort the newly dead. I thought only to inform my dearest friend that he had not earned my animosity. A fear he might have had, failing the plan we had painstakingly worked towards for eons.”

“I don’t want to be chained any longer.” Clockwork admitted. It had been so long since he’d had any semblance of freedom. Did he even know what it would feel like anymore?

“We know. Though some, like Misery Vex, believe it karmic, that your attachments, which had led so thoroughly to our defeat, came back in the forms of chains for you alone. But know that if one day it comes to pass that I can free you, unlikely as it may be, I shall make the attempt.” Nocturn stood, leaving Clockwork alone in his tower. 

“Clockwork?” It was Daniel’s voice. It was the first time his young ward had come to visit since the binding. It was not a comfort to hear his voice, to see that he was okay. It was not .

He didn’t acknowledge Daniel when he entered, wouldn’t have let him in the door if he still had complete control of his Lair… But he’d bargained that away long ago in a gamble that had failed him entirely. 

Instead he floated to his screens. Ever since the fall of the Observants, he could see properly at least. Pariah had no interest in obscuring his vision, had even less in controlling what it was he could see. Pariah’s only interest had been binding Clockwork to him so that he might not escape, so that he might not regress, so that he might not lose himself to the chaos of infinity and escape his limited existence.

Clockwork scowled, still ignoring Daniel’s presence, his attempts at conversation. Pariah’s interests should not have mattered. Because Pariah should not have won . Because Pariah had lost before and Clockwork had been so certain that he would again. Because- 

Because Clockwork had made a mistake when he sealed him away. Because Clockwork knew he could not bring himself to end him. Because Clockwork had seen an opportunity to see Pariah again and had known it would be a mistake but had wanted so desperately just to see him again. Wanted to see him free of the haze of anger the ring and crown had obscured him in, but a ghost’s natural state was obsessive. And Pariah had never hid his desire to keep Clockwork as he was, Clockwork had simply brushed it off as words of affection. He should have known better really, Pariah was hardly the type to speak lightly, and had never claimed what he did not mean with his entire core. 

The screen he was watching was boring, most things were now that he had no reason to keep track of the threads, no overarching plan to work towards. It was so simple. A young ghost was trick-or-treating with a watermelon instead of a pumpkin and was turning into a large candy-based monster whenever someone turned them away. 

It was the middle of summer where the ghost was, and Clockwork allowed himself to appreciate the tiny bit of chaos that the ghost was bringing to the small mortal town. Nocturn had told him that not all had been lost, Clockwork may be trapped, but Chaos had been released. 

Just enough. 

He sighed. 

“Why are you here Daniel?” he finally asked.

Daniel straightened up, he’d been rambling, no doubt in an attempt to cajole Clockwork into joining conversation or listening subconsciously. He hadn't been.

He was also carrying a plate of cookies that Clockwork had not seen, because Clockwork had not looked. When would he learn his lesson about that? Why was he always looking too late?

“I wanted to check on you,” Daniel said, setting the plate of cookies down now that he was sure Clockwork had seen them. “Pariah said you were… having a hard time.”

Clockwork scowled, too many things tearing at his chest at once. Damn Pariah, damn him . 

“Having a hard time?” he said with a false calm. “The plans that I made eons ago, plans that had been in work before your mortal realm even knew what time was, were ruined by someone I trusted. Someone I did not think would step so easily between me and my goals. Exactly what kind of time should I be having, chained to my own lair without even the authority to deny entrance to whom I wish?”

There had been a small flinch, Clockwork noticed, when he had mentioned betrayal. But if Daniel felt any guilt he didn’t look it. He raised his head, eyes full of determination. The very same expression Clockwork had seen through his screens so many times, in the fights against the other Ancients. The plans they’d made to make him stronger, to keep him stable, so that when the Chaos had been released he and the Realms with him would survive. 

He had certainly survived. 

“Pariah said this was the only way to save you.” Because of course that was what Pariah had told him. Because Daniel was intelligent, but Daniel was also a child and all too willing to trust any competent adult. A flaw that Clockwork himself had been so quick to take advantage of. A flaw that cursed him now. 

“Do you really believe that Pariah Dark has my best interest at heart?” he would have sneered, if it had been anyone else. If it hadn’t been Daniel, who was practically his own child. Instead, he asked softly, his frustration drowned entirely by exhaustion.

Daniel still answered him though. “You were changing Clockwork,” What? “The same way you told me Pariah had once changed.”

He hadn’t, there was no way it had been so obvious. He hadn’t, it wasn’t as if he had lost himself to his obsession, nor had he gained power that grew out of his control, what was he talking about?

“You were distant, as if you were struggling to stay in any given moment. Sometimes you’d forget everything going on around you, and others you seemed to be somewhere or some-when else entirely. I mean,” Daniel took a breath, “you’ve always been a bit cryptic, but you were losing yourself entirely . Halfway through a conversation you would start talking completely randomly, in languages long dead or unrecognizable. Or you’d start talking about things that had never happened or had happened forever ago.”

He was almost shouting now, his eyes shining with more than just energy and Clockwork felt a sting in his core. He had known that Daniel would disapprove, that he would get angry. But it had not occurred to him that his anger would be pointed towards this rather than his blatant manipulation of Daniel and his friends.

“And your actions! They were reckless, Clockwork!! Releasing Dan? What the hell?! ”

It was Clockwork’s turn to flinch. “Your future self’s release had always been part of the plan. It was why I had you leave him with me to start with. I was not losing myself Daniel, I was revealing who I actually am.”

Daniel made a desperately frustrated noise. “Do you think saying something like that is going to convince me we were wrong, Clockwork? I- I trusted you! I care about you! You’re-”

“So you’d cage me and try to force compliance so that the more unsightly aspects of myself can be filed away? So you can teach me to be better, like some kind of petty human criminal, Daniel?” He let his anger take over instead. It was easier, so much easier. It was what he had always done with Pariah. 

Daniel rolled his eyes. “How dramatic,” he said dryly, “Didn’t you do the same thing to Pariah, wasn’t what you did like way worse? You’re throwing a fit just like he said you would.”

“If you trust Pariah Dark so much, why are you even here? Have him make cookies for you. I'm sure he’s fully capable.” Clockwork wasn’t throwing a fit, he was angry. 

Daniel sighed, grabbing one of the cookies he’d brought. They had long gone cold, but it hardly mattered to Clockwork, he wouldn’t be eating them. “Pariah has a lot of faults, and there’s a bunch of things I don’t really like about him. He’s manipulative, methodical. He never lets me half ass anything and he’s really picky. He doesn’t actually care if a person dies or a ghost gets Ended, and we fight about that kind of stuff a lot. But…” he met Clockwork’s eyes, his expression looked hurt, heartbroken. Clockwork didn’t want to see it. Had never wanted to see Daniel like this.

“He’s never outright lied to me. I’ve been checking, ever since… Well. I don’t just trust anyone at their word anymore. So yeah okay, I know he’s manipulating me just like he was manipulating you, but he never lied to either of us about his intentions. He didn’t do what you did.”

Clockwork couldn’t look at him any more. He’d made so many mistakes. If he was truly destined to fail… He should never have revealed his true nature or intentions to the boy. His disappointment burned almost as much as the chain Pariah had placed around Clockwork’s neck.

It didn’t matter though, that Clockwork could not stand to see him, because Daniel flew towards him and grabbed his face gently, hands on either side of his cheeks. 

“I don’t trust you anymore, Clockwork, but I still love you. So does Pariah. We can fix this, okay?” Daniel said and Clockwork’s eyes widened at the threat. 

He had truly lost, hadn’t he?

#Danny Phantom #ectoberhaunt 2021 #Dark ages #Pariah Dark #clockwork dp #Pariah/Clockwork #Bee's writing #fanfiction #Clockwork having not great morals sorry yall but its been a long time coming and I HAVE been hinting at this exact ending :3c