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jadedwolf18-blog · 1 year

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Mini Phantom Invasion.

Hi, I plan for this to be a series of inter connected one shots based on some of my favorite prompts. I’m a huge Tim Drake/Red Robin x Danny phantom shipper, so for now most of my fics will feature them. Once I’ve end this series, I’ll try branching out to other relationships Danny could have with the bats.

I can’t remember where I got all of them but I’ll try to tag as I find them. If anyone notices a prompt or plot they’ve seen please let me know or tag the person it came from. I’m knew to posting on Tumblr so I’m still getting used to how to tag and insert links. Thank you.

🤍🖤💚💙💚🖤🤍

Chapter 1

Danny was not having a good day. He’d had a fight with his parents about ghost hunting, stating clearly that he had no interest in their bias views on an entire species based on one encounter when they were young. It had escalated to the point where they blamed his lack of interest on the fact that he was spending to much time with his sister and his female friends.

He’d had enough! He left mid argument and was contemplating just packing up and moving into the Ghost Zone permanently. As he’d slammed the door he could hear his parents shouts for him to come back and once again blaming his behaviour on a ghost.

What did his sexuality have to do with ghost hunting? And what was wrong with wanting to be more feminine sometimes? He honestly didn’t understand why they found it so weird or wrong for him to swap between genders and pronouns? Jazz, Sam and Tucker accepted him as he was, they didn’t but an eye when he would randomly say ‘she’, ‘they’ or ‘him’, they just continued the conversation with the new pronoun and that was that. They understood and accepted that sometime he felt male or female or neither. He was lucky to have them.

The day just seemed to continue down hill from there. It was summer vacation so Sam was forced to spend time with her parents at some rich holiday resort, Tucker had won a spot in some sort of tech camp and Jazz was still at College working on a finals thesis and was unable to come back for the summer. He was essentially alone for the summer. He could hang out with Val but she was working a lot and he didn’t want to bother her. He still felt guilty about her dad losing his job, even if it wasn’t entirely his fault.

*****

After leaving the house he’d found a place to transform and let the cool rings of light soothe him and took off into the sky. After finding out they could survive in space it became their favourite way to relax, they’d spend ours exploring space, even hang out on the moon. Thank you high speed and portal powers. Their Phantom form had changed in the last two years. People could no longer tell if they were male or female and he looked less human now. Thankfully, they looked nothing like their alternate future self. When their legs melded together their ghostly tail looked more eel like and their ears were longer and thiner, resembling delicate fins. Jazz and their friends had joked about how the acted like cat ears. Lastly their face was now a pale mint color, almost white and translucent, his eyes were still the same luminous ecto-green with deep blue pupils. The only similarity to Dan, that they could see, were the fangs and longer hair both of which were also present in their human form.

*****

They had been flying around Amity, a somewhat lazy patrol of his claimed haunt, it was a calm night. Ever since they had defeated Pariah Dark the other ghost had calmed down and came to Amity less frequently. A few still came to bug them, namely Skulker, Ember, Johny and Kitty. Young Blood and Boxy more frequently than the others and of course Cujo came by often. Their visits were more to do with fulfilling their obsessions than anything else. Danny’s obsession was Space but so was Protection. They needed to fulfil both to some extent or suffer from a form of ghost hunger. It was a win win situation even if they did go back… home? Was it really still a home?

Before they could go down that dark spiral again their instincts took over and they narrowly dodged a bright green shot that had been aimed at their head. Whirling around and flying higher out of range they looked at their attacker and just stared.

“of course it’s them.” They muttered. Before repeating it with more venom than they thought they were capable of. Which was shocking because not even Vlad had receive as much hatred in the entirety of the time they’ve known him than in that split second they felt it towards their own parents. “Of fucking course it’s them!”

They blink away the shock of such an intense emotion and huffed. Not even bothering to acknowledge them they turned around to leave. That had been a mistake. They’d barely made it a few paces before pain bloomed across their back as an Eco-blast shredded the fins on their lower back and bit deep into their flesh. They bit back a cry of shock as they felt themselves plummet from the sky. It took a moment but they gathered enough concentration to open a portal. He didn’t care where they ended up as their only thought was ‘Somewhere safe.’

They fell through and just before they lost consciousness, they heard their parents yell after him.

“Get back here you ghost scum, so we can rip you apart molecule by molecule!”

“We won’t forgive you for corrupting our Danny!”

‘Of course… It’s always Phantoms fault…’ Danny’s world turned black as he continued to fall. Maybe when they opened their eyes again all of it would have been a dream.

*****

Somewhere in the infinite green a Grandfather clock chimed. A screen flickered. Time flowed on.

“All is as it should be.”

Chapter 2

(I'm Not A Cynic Song by Alec Benjamin)

Danny pulled their little floating ducks out of their personal pocket dimension and set them to gently drift in the hot spring. They had found it while wandering the forest. Their lower back still ached and they were a little worried about how it hadn’t healed completely yet.

*****

They didn’t know where they were or how long they had been in this dimension but they were safe and alone for the time being. When they’d woken up, the first thing they did was try to figure out where they were. thankfully no-one had discovered them, tucked away in the underbrush of the forest they had landed in. They’d let invisibility wash over them and flew high enough to get a view of the land. They recognised asian architecture and flew in the direction they had spotted a small farming village. With a closer look they determined they had landed in some version of Japan. Instinctually they knew they were not in their home dimension. Everything, even the air and feel of the atmosphere felt slightly shifted to the left. It was like that feeling of entering a hotel room, they were all essentially the same but there were the little details that told you it was a different hotel.

*****

Brushing the thought, and everything associated with the reason they were injured and alone in a foreign dimension, aside. They coiled their tail in the centre of the spring and sank down until their lower back was submerged in the healing warmth of the spring. Closing their eyes in content they began to hum. Their eyes shot open when they felt a gentle nudge against his arm but smiled gently at the little wisp as it bobbed and drifted in the breeze. They continued to hum and watched in amusement as more joined the first. The little orbs of light ranged in color from soft pale blues to vibrant greens and warm reds, oranges and yellows.

They lost themselves in their song as they twirled in and played with the water, creating little floating ice crystals that caused mist to form around them as hot and cold air danced around each other. Humming soon gave way to words as they swayed to the rhythm only they could hear.

“I'm just bein' realistic, bein' honest with myself

I've tried bein' optimistic but it doesn't seem to help

So I'll just have to admit this is the hand that I've been dealt

I'm not bein' pessimistic, just bein' honest with myself”

They were thankful to Pandora, who had taught them to sing in an effort to train his ghostly wail, for realising he was taking on the form and habits of a triton.

“I'm not a cynic, oh, today's just not my day

I've tried to spin it 'bout a thousand different ways

But from every angle, oh, the outlook is the same

I swear that I'm not a cynic, my glass just has no water in it today”

They poured all the hurt, betrayal, anger and loneliness into their voice, allowing them to release it all in a more melodic call than his previous wail. That, as pandora explained, had been an unhealthy burst of emotion and they were lucky they hadn’t blown out their vocal cords the last few times they used it.

“I swear that I'm not a cynic, my glass just has no water in it”

Through their practice they found they could influence emotions but not out right control them. They were glad, influencing them was bad enough, he didn’t want to manipulate anyone. They didn’t want to spend their life wondering if the people around them truly cared or if they had somehow manipulated them into caring. They may me a budding empath but they still struggled to tell the difference between a sincere emotion and a projected emotion.

“You only get that which you're given, it's not always up to you

Not every Sunday is a picnic 'cause the sky ain't always blue

You can't just change the weather by changing your point of view

Some days you have to wait until the storm just passes through”

Danny’s voice grew louder as their emotions poured out into the lyrics. They knew they still had their friend, their sister, Elle and everyone in the Infinite Realm. They were also the Half Ghost son of ghost hunters and scientist with a heavy bias against Ecto-entities. They will be the rulers of an entire realm in only a few short years.

“I'm not a cynic, oh, today's just not my day

I've tried to spin it 'bout a thousand different ways

But from every angle, oh, the outlook is the same

I swear that I'm not a cynic, my glass just has no water in it today”

They gave a bitter sweet smile as they watched the wisps duck and weave between the ice crystals. They looked around for their ducks and their smile turned a little more sad as they waved their hand and the little ducks joined the dancing lights and crystals. Each one was modelled after his favourite comic book vigilante. They’d had to save them from the dump truck once, they’d been looking for them when he’d asked his parents, their father had made an off hand comment about how he should throw out old toys and they’d panicked. They’d manage to find and save them all just before the truck arrived.

“So like a boat on the ocean, I'll rock with the waves

God, I'm so sick of this notion that I have to fake

Fake my emotions and pretend I'm okay

So like a boat on the ocean, I'll just rock with the waves”

Jazz had bought them for them, after they had told her about being gender fluid and pan, they were probably one of their most treasured possessions. Jazz had gone on a whole spiel about how it’s important that she show support and provide a safe and understanding environment. They hadn’t been listening, they’d been crying. To caught up in their overflowing emotions and happiness. It lasted a day, their parents had been less than understanding, with their passive-aggressive comments and actions.

“I'm not a cynic, oh, today's just not my day

I've tried to spin it 'bout a thousand different ways

But from every angle, oh, the outlook is the same

I swear that I'm not a cynic, my glass just has no water in it today”

Their frown returned. They had shot them, that in itself wasn’t unusual, as Phantom. Isn’t that a sad thought. What was was that there had been no prior warning. It was a sniper shot, from their mother. Only their heightened hearing and instinct had saved them from ending up dead dead instead of a Halfa. That bothered him

“I swear that I'm not a cynic, my glass just has no water in it today”

They returned to humming the last notes of their song as the dunked under the water to rinse off. They popped back up and gathered their ducks, floated up out of the spring and laughed as the wisps twirled around him. They landed on the ground, allowing their legs to form and walked off into the forest, dancing lights trailing after them. Completely unaware of their watchers.

*****

The shadows slunk away to report their findings. While two birds hesitantly returned to their temporary nest, One worried and wanting to help the being that reminded him so much of his younger siblings. The other having felt a connection to a being that had shared similar experiences, someone they wanted to help and if they wanted to end the beings loneliness… that was no one’s business but their own. Both slept little that night, both determined to find the being again and offer what they could to help.

*****

@im-totally-not-an-alien-2

@alinmenttreasure

@blackroserelina

@blacksea21090

@seraphinedemort

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thebubblesareevil · 2 years

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Life on the farm pt 5 ghosts are in fact scary

The training session goes well, Danny shows off a little (he most definitely wasn’t checking out aqualad shut up Clark) but ultimately he decides against transforming in front of them. Ever since he defeated pariah his ghost form has slowly started to…change and the last thing he needed was mass hysteria. Before he leaves he corners Conner “I don’t care what Supes says im your brother whether you like it or not, I’ve been waiting my whole life to be a big brother, he is NOT taking this from me. I’ll pick you up next week and we can hang out.” Danny heads over to the zeta tube before turning around and heading the other way “yeah not doing that again, c’mon cujo let’s head home.”he pauses before looking Clark straight in the eye, “I can tell them or you can tell them, but before the end of the day someone is telling Ma and Pa about Conner.” Before Clark could try to stop him the two of them disappeared.

Kid flash then said the words that sealed their fate “y’know, for a guy that claims to be a ghost he wasn’t that scary, I mean really dropping the temperature, shadows? That’s child’s play.”

No one noticed a silent figure hidden on the ceiling or her sharp smile so very full of such… lovely promises

———

It started out small.

Things start going missing at first, just small things, a communicator that wasn’t where he left it. Furniture moved an inch to the left, small things that Are mostly ignored

Then comes the sounds, first it’s the sound of a girl laughing echoing through the halls and then it all came to a head.

The team found themselves trapped in the mountain with red tornado offline and the power stuck on the emergency back up they tried to stick together but they were quickly separated by the emergency hatches slamming down. So here we find Wally speeding through the halls, trying to find a way to reunite with the rest of the team when he comes across a little girl crying in a corner. Cautiously he approached the little girl asking her what’s wrong,

“He didn’t want me, I wasn’t good enough…” while he’s confused he starts to get angry somebody hurt a little girl, probably the same person that broke into the mountain he kneels in front of the girl

“Don’t worry kid I’m gonna get you out of here and he’s not gonna hurt you again.”

The little girl sniffles, her face still hidden in her arms “you promise?”

Wally sighs “yeah I promise now let’s get out of here.” He goes to help her up

“Leave? I can’t leave, he’ll get angry. He always gets angry!” Wally pauses as the room starts to feel unbearably still, he tries to move, just a finger, just an inch, as he feels the room closing in around him. He tries to look away but his eyes are drawn to the little girl as she slowly stands, her hair hanging in her face She looks up and screams Ị̷̼̦͈͎͇̋͆͛͑́͘͘͘ ̵̢͍̯̗̻̮̲͖͔͓͆̈́͂̌̅͂̾̀̊͠C̴̖̦͐̈͊̈́͆̉͋̿̾̒A̴̢̙̱̙͓̺̝͆͆́̕N̶̨̛̻͙̱̩̜̓́̀̽̿͆͒̇̍͘͠ ̸̔̂͑��̨̢̡̻̗̜̼̗N̵̢̟͉̦̫͉̮̱͉̙̖̝̑E̶̻̞̰͔̫͔͙̺͕̥̬͂͐͊̓͂̿̈́͒ͅV̶̤̖̮͚͇̪̓͆̽̿͊̀͑͠Ê̵̛͉̭͖͚̥̼̱̺̱̜̻̺͛̓̋̇̂̏͘Ṟ̴͓͕̤́͜ ̵̣͚͐̑͂̅̕L̴̨̝̥̰̱̜̰̮̪̙̦̩̍̉̓ͅȨ̷̡͖͖̘̞̰̯̄͗́̌̃́̐̅́̽̉̚͘Ḁ̷͙́͗́̿͊V̸̮̘̄̈́̀̀̀̉̂E̸̤̻͔͛͊̀̓̚!̷̧̛̃̎!̶̨͖̜͈͎̳̩̬͚͒̅͐̊̀̔͂̀̆̉̍̂͝!̷̗̼͒̽̆̂̉̊̄͐́ͅ

Her face is half gone, melting into green goo as her eye falls out, before his very eyes her features grow sharper. She screams as she charges at Wally who squeezes his eyes shut using his arms to block his face with a shout he feels as though he’s been electrocuted and then… nothing. he opens his eyes and she’s gone, the lights flicker as he feels his heart beat impossibly fast. He races through the corridors before he finds himself back in the comm room, he races up to Robin who quickly turns around ready to strike.

DID YOU SEE HER?!?

“If you’re asking if I saw a little girl who is hanging from the ceiling with sharp eyes and large fangs staring like she wants to eat us, then yea I see her.” Wally tenses “See?!” He quickly turns around searching the ceiling as robin throws a flash grenade. But the little girl catches the grenade with a laugh and eats it whole. There’s a small puff of smoke leaving her mouth as she laughs, giving no other indication of her accomplishment. She drops to the floor, twisting her body at impossible angles, the two flinch at the sound of her cracking joints. With a low chuckle she says “don’t you want to play with me?”

The two young heroes scream

————-

Meanwhile

Clark would probably prefer to be in a haunted mountain than sitting at the living room table with his parents sitting across from him as Danny putters around in the kitchen preparing a pie for his new little brother.

“Clark Joseph Kent! I have never been so disappointed in my life!” Ma gave him a look that says not to interrupt

“Not only did you neglect to inform us of our youngest sons existence, but you basically made him feel ashamed for being made!”

“But ma!”

“Don’t you ‘but ma!’ Her, your mother is right. Luthor may be a piece of horse shit but that does not make any of this conners fault. That poor boy looks up to you, he woke up in this world by himself, you had us when you arrived, but all he had was luthor.”

Ma nods “that’s right! Now you are gonna bring that boy over for dinner and we are going to welcome him into this family with open arms. Danny is already making a pie so that leaves you with plenty of time to get your chores done, WITHOUT SUPERSPEED, while I run into town to pick up some groceries, Pa is gonna supervise.”

Danny walks in with a grin on his face “pies ready for the oven, but I gotta run out and pick up my cousin, she’s out making trouble, I can pick up Conner while I’m at it if you’d like?” Ma gives Danny a warm smile

“Oh! You’re bringing Ellie to dinner? How exciting! I thought you said she was stuck in the other universe” Danny laughs “the infinite realms are weird, what can I say. All I know is that I could feel it when she entered the dimension so I should probably go pick her up before she causes too much damage.” Danny gives a whistle and cujo comes running “I gave up figuring out how this one gets around a long time ago, he always finds me wherever I go.”

Ma and Pa smile “well that sounds lovely, We can’t wait to meet her.” With that Danny gives his parents a hug and pats Clark on the shoulder “don’t worry, once you get to know him youll realize he’s his own person, it gets a lot less awkward after that.” And Danny walks out the door and disappears.

——-

Back at the mountain

The team is in position, ready to strike but the creature who invaded the mountains seems to have multiplied each new creature more grotesque than the last Conner stood at the front of the group ready to defend as the creatures (for surely this was no mere little girl) slowly cornered the team when everything went COLD. The creatures looked up as a great pressure fell upon the mountain the creature laughed slowly as the turned to the team. Ḩ̵̢̣̝͖̭̝̮͇̮͎͕͚͊̈́̈̾̂̀̈́͝é̵̡̡̲͉̖͈͓̪̓̄̊̄̐͌͆̕͝͝ͅ’̸̧̘̘͙̝̥͑̇s̵̻̒͌̋ͅ ̸̢̞͓͉̝̜̘͂̑̈́̇͌͛̆͝ͅḩ̵́e̴̟͉̫̹̲̫̼̝͚͇̖̿̌̑̉͘͘r̴͕̝̦͔̣̣͎͈̜̅́̑̾̅͐̔ͅe̴̢̨̝̮͙̩͈̳̬̙͖̪̓͐

Conner tensed as the creature made to strike, but before it could reach the team a great overbearing shadow creature reached out and grabbed it by the collar.

Slowly the room returned to normal as the creature shrunk and the various beings vanished.

“Danny!” The little girl? Creature? None of them are sure anymore as she wrapped her arms around the creature

Everyone stared as the shadows coalesced into the form of none other than Danny Kent, casually holding the creature, that will surely haunt their nightmares for days to come, by the collar.

“How did you even get here?!” Danny laughed

“The old timepiece gave me a ride before booking it, you know how he is, but that’s not important. What’s important is why do you smell like pie?”

Danny laughs and he’s about to explain as Wally losses his shit and yells “what the actual hell is going on?!?”

“Hey man, I warned you. You just chose not to believe me.” He turns to Conner “meet my cousin Ellie, she’s my clone.” Conner looks at Ellie in surprise.

“I didn’t know you could make copies.” Danny comments

Ellie shrugs “their not as good as yours, I can never keep them stable enough for a fight, but they’re great for scaring teens.”

Robin comes up to Ellie “I gotta admit you had us going there.” He said with a laugh Ellie giggles in response

“That’s nothing, you should see Danny when he’s trying to scare people, he’s terrifying.” Danny laughs sheepishly

“That’s enough of that, Conner, ma should be putting the pie in the oven now, if we hurry we can help make dinner.” Conner looks at Danny confused.

“Don’t look at me like that, you’re family now cmon Clark’s gonna finish his chores before we get there at this rate.” With a huge smile the three head out.

Artemis turns to Wally with a scowl, what was that about ghosts not being scary, Wally gulped.

————

Clark did not get any pie that night, Lois made sure of it.

#danny phantom #ghost king danny #dc x dp #brain vomit #life on the farm #conner kent #clark kent #ma kent #Pa Kent #SHES HERE!!#dani phantom #pt 5 #pie #warning cursing #i don’t often write scary scenes and this was definitely scarier in my head #but Dani had fun and that’s what really matters #long post

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puppetmaster13u · 9 months

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Crossover Idea 4

What if, Danny Phantom, but with pokemon. (Feel free to give your own ideas for it too)

Danny:

Phantump (I mean this pokemon’s dex entry claims it’s a dead kid that got lost in the woods and possessed a tree stump, wouldn’t be surprised if he got it during or right after the portal incident)

Greavard (Ghost puppy? Cujo with a friend? Undead nightlight of a good boy who looks like it’d give good snuggles? Yes please)

Articuno (I mean, the yetis refer to him as lord, he’s an ice boi, and he did defeat an undead king, so he can have a legendary, as a treat)

Dani:

Ditto (You can literally only find ditto, at least in the first games, in the old manor where they were doing cloning experiments, and it’s implied they were one such attempt, so fitting. Also, goo buddies)

Sligoo (A fellow acid goo friend who can travel with her! )

Dan:

Gengar (I mean, mischievous ghost pokemon that can supposedly slip through shadows and potentially dimensions?)

Spiritomb (I mean, 1, ghost portal lookin thing, 2, it got bound to a keystone to stop it from causing mischief or destruction, not unlike someone being stuck in a thermos for a long time)

Deoxys (A space virus gaining sapience that may or may not have attempted to destroy a world? His now. )

Jazz:

Ralts (Let’s be honest, the emotion sensing psychic pokemon would definitely be one she got early on while taking care of her brother)

Nidoqueen (Let’s be honest, she’d hit something with the creep stick and it would follow up with a tail slam or thunder punch)

Sam:

Ivysaur (Now chances are she started with a bulbasaur and it has evolved of course, but Ivysaur looks so angry, but is also probably ‘flowery/suitable’ enough for her parents to give her one)

Cursola (A dead coral pokemon? You can’t tell me she wouldn’t take such a thing in and hiss about the damages being done to the ocean)

Furret (I just like the idea of her having a furret that likes to curl around her neck like a scarf during galas or whatever else her parents drag her to)

Tucker:

Zeraora

(Let’s be honest, he took one look at this pokemon and gave it its own beanie so they were matching)

Gible (This is his meat-eating buddy, they like to eat burgers together lol)

Yamask (If it’s face is what’s on the mask, is this part of the manifestation of Tucker’s previous pharoah life?)

Xatu (Let’s be honest, this was a gift from ghost Egypt and he’s showing it all the different games he has)

Valerie:

Snubbull (With her dad being a guard, she probably grew up with a lil guard dog sort of pokemon)

Excadrill (I’d like to think she got it around the time she took up being the Red Huntress. I mean have you seen this pokemon lol?)

Scizor (It would fit with her Red Huntress getup so well, I couldn’t not give her one)

Vlad:

Golbat (I just like the idea of him already having a ‘vampire’ pokemon before he became a halfa and it being something he latched onto because it was the one thing that stayed with him through the years)

Typhlosion (He probably has a shiny (or ecto-contaminated one) and they have matching fire ‘hair’ when he’s in ghost form lol)

Hypno (I mean, with all the overshadowing he does, would anyone be surprised if he had this or a drowzee)

Glameow (Let’s be honest, this is Maddie the cat lol. Plus in the show she went from very slim to fluffier looking which means she could evolve to)

Jack:

Heracross (Look at that derpy face, head empty, no thoughts, big ol softy who's probably walked through a wall before)

Tyrannitar (Big scary looking pokemon that’s actually a big softy and is definitely very gentle with baby Jazz & Danny)

Maddie:

Vikavolt (This beam-firing metal looking bug would definitely help her with ghost hunting)

Zangoose (I mean just look at it, this fits her so much and is probably constantly bristling whenever a ghost appears)

Wes:

Skwovet (Ratatoskr was a mythological squirrel that ran messages across Yggdrasil, and I just think it’d be fun for conspiracy boi to have something similar)

Oricorio (Honestly probably has a pom-pom one that tries to play basketball too but has a bit of trouble doing so)

Dash:

Croconaw (This bitey pokemon definitely terrorizes the school and gives bites as greeting)

Pignite (Big sporty boi fits with a pokemon whose literally flexing in the official art and will eventually become even bulkier boi)

Paulina:

Swellow

(I just think it looks nice and fits her vibes. I mean, look at the official art lol)

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bubblegumbeech · 1 year

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Don’t Try Again

Happy Truce @greatbigolhampuckjustforme

Here’s your fic, I hope you like it! AO3

“Give me your hand.”

She reached towards him. At the same time—no, faster than the others but only by just a moment.

It was long enough.

Once he took her hand he was pulled, firmly, securely, into her arms. It felt comforting, safe.

She had been his enemy, she had been his friend. She had almost been more.

Now, in this moment, she was his protector.

It had started fine. A normal day. Red Huntress was chasing him down after he dealt with Cujo’s weekly ‘walk’. (The one where he destroyed half the town because he had the zoomies.)

He hadn’t expected to fly face first into a ghost shield.

Then again, he had never been particularly observant.

The shield had been different from what he was used to—sticky and malleable as opposed to solid with a slight buzzy feeling. It also burned, not anything excessive, or that he couldn’t handle, but uncomfortable and corrosive nonetheless.

He couldn’t get it off. Like a mosquito trapped in amber, the more he struggled the more it started to incase him. Even Red Huntress had stopped, watching in dark fascination as Phantom became trapped.

His parents had jumped out from around a corner, claiming victory and monologing about their new invention.

His parents were still celebrating when the GIW found them, and started writing tickets and trying to claim government jurisdiction over his capture.

Danny didn’t bother rolling his eyes, but he did groan as he felt the substance start to turn hard and sharp around him. It made every move to escape both more difficult and more painful, the still soft and moldable parts eating away at his ectoplasm with the jagged bits digging into fresh wounds and making themselves at home.

He really wasn’t claustrophobic, especially not with the amount of times he got trapped in the thermos. Something about being completely unable to move without his physical form being dismissed though…Every movement punished…

It was shrinking.

The trap-burning goo-stuff that hurt.

It was getting smaller and burning through him. His ectoplasm. Was this how Dani felt? When she started fizzling away?

There was a moment were he just froze, the realization taking hold. He knew, of course, that his parents as hunters weren’t particularly worried about how safe their weapons and traps were to use on ghosts. They had no qualms about… well, anything, in the name of their research and vendetta.

He just kind of hoped that, like most of their inventions had been so far, their future inventions would turn out to be mostly useless.

His eyes met Red Huntress. She, unlike the other hunters, was not celebrating. She was watching though. Her nails tapped in an erratic rhythm against the weapon clipped to her belt and she looked on edge. Like she was half a second away from doing… something.

Danny didn’t know what that something might be.

Wasn’t really sure he wanted to either. His faith in humanity was starting to be at risk. At least Skulker’s traps were only ever uncomfortable or shorted out his powers. He’d never had one slowly start to dissolve him.

But he knew what he had to do. It wasn’t worth Ending over. And he could always do something to fix it if it went badly. As long as he survived. As long as whatever this was didn’t reach his core.

He transformed.

It hurt.

The crystallized goo splintered apart, cutting and tearing even deeper into Danny’s skin. But it didn’t burn anymore. At least whatever this was wouldn’t work on both forms. No worries about it being a modern Blood Blossom.

His parents’ eyes went wide behind their goggles, there was a gasp from Red Huntress and the GIW moved for their weapons.

Maddie was the fastest.

She hit him—hard.

The Fenton Anti-Creep Stick cracked against the side of his head and Danny staggered back down to his knees, crashing them into some of the thin splinters of the sharpened goo.

What? Why did she….?

He shook his head but that sent the whole world spinning and didn’t help him decipher any of the things being screamed over him.

The only thing he saw as the edges of his sight went blurry was Red Huntress reaching out, and the only thing he could do was take her hand before he collapsed entirely.

Danny woke up in a familiar room. It wasn’t his though, and he couldn’t remember—

“Owww,” he groaned, hand lifting to his head. Everything was still spinning, despite his accelerated healing. Luckily the rest of the wounds, cuts and general abrasions had disappeared during his impromptu nap. Only his knees were really still chewed up and someone had cleaned them up at least.

Right now he kind of wished his brain had disappeared too.

Two warm hands pressed gently at his shoulders. “Lie back down lover boy,” a warm voice said from beside him. “You’re hurt.”

“Val?” he asked, his vision still blurry. “What did you…?”

“I took you home to get you bandaged. You transformed in front of damn near every ghost hunter in town.”

He let himself fall back into the plush pillow, biting at his lip to try and ground the pain. “So you knew.”

There was a snort, and Danny closed his eyes. Figured. He was bad at lying.

“I didn’t know,” she said, to Danny’s surprise. “But I know your… cousin. So when you transformed I put two and two together. Unlike other, less talented hunters, I know you are who you say you are.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Her grip on his shoulders tightened, just a bit, before letting go and smoothing the wrinkles out of his shirt.

“Your parents are on a man hunt. They think the worst. You remember that Amorpho guy?”

“Couldn’t forget him if I tried.” A useful ally, but a horrible enemy to have. Especially if you didn’t know his tells.

“Yeah, well, they think you're something like a cross between him and Spectra.” She looked uncomfortable. “They think you… stole your own body.”

Danny sighed. “Of course they do. I need to talk to them, set this right.”

But Val was still holding him down.

“You’re not going anywhere to get yourself killed until you’re fully healed. Understand?”

Danny nodded slowly, careful not to move too much and set off the spinning again.

“Good.” She smiled, brushed a bit of hair from his forehead , then leaned down and kissed him gently on the corner of his eye. “Go back to sleep. I’ll run interference.”

He was fairly certain that sleeping after a concussion was probably a big no, but he was already half dead and a little brain damage was nothing compared to some of the other stuff he’d dealt with. So Danny let himself fall asleep, two warm and delicate hands carding through his hair and carefully avoiding the bandage there.

When he woke up it was to the smell of food. Real food, without that zesty sting of ectoplasm he’d grown used to. It smelled delicious, even if Danny’s head was still spinning as bad as it was last night he still probably wouldn’t have been able to resist seeking it out.

He was pretty much healed by now though, even with the sting of whatever it was that had gotten him trapped in the first place.

Walking slowly into the kitchen, he saw Val at the table, two plates and two cups of coffee still just barely steaming.

“You’re lucky,” she said. “The food was going to get cold if you took any longer waking up.”

“Thanks.” He sat down across from her and took a bite out of the toast before diving after the coffee.

Valerie was looking at him. It was the same gaze she’d always reserved for Danny Fenton ever since their almost-not-relationship. Warm, bemused, soft.

For some reason he had expected it to change when she found out. To turn sour, or dark, or bitter, or betrayed—

“Stop thinking so much,” she said, tossing a piece of toast at him.

He caught it and immediately licked the jam off in a small petty act of retribution.

Her laugh was still the same. And despite every warning Sam and Tucker had ever given, it still turned his core to goo just hearing it.

“You’re not mad?” He set the toast down, fiddling with his hands and avoiding eye contact. He knew what the answer likely was. Even so, he still really needed to hear it out loud. Something. A certainty worth holding onto even if it was likely to break his heart.

“Should I be?” she said softly, dropping her chin onto the back of her hand. “I mean, I tried to End you quite a bit before we started getting along better. And you knew who I was. That I was the one hunting you.

“Honestly if you had told me I would have thought you were trying to trick me or something but…”

“But?”

She caught his gaze for a bit, searching. Eventually she gave up, pushed back from the table and sighed. “I saw your expression when your mom hit you.”

What expression did he have? Scared? Desperate? Was it too human to not believe?

Val gathered the empty dishes and walked them to the sink. Danny rushed to follow, offering to dry as she cleaned them.

“… You looked like you were expecting it.”

Ah.

She turned to him, her hand resting warm and still a bit wet over his own on the counter.

“Will you be okay Danny?”

That was the question wasn’t it?

“I don’t think that’s really up to me anymore,” he chuckled, rubbing at the back of his neck with his free hand.

Val frowned. Her grip tightened.

“Val?”

She stepped even closer, not letting him pull back, crowding him against the counter and wow.

Danny knew she was strong– all sturdy muscles and a solid frame so vastly unlike his own lanky moldable-even-when-he-was-human form, but it was different entirely to have the full force of that muscle pressed against him.

He fought a blush. They’d decided, the two of them, that their fight was more important. Danny needed to protect Amity Park. So did Val.

They’d tried protecting it from each other. Then with each other. Then adjacent to each other.

It was better not to get too involved with all those… secrets.

“Danny,” she said, catching his eyes. “No more secret identities right?”

He nodded.

She nodded too and lifted a hand slowly to his cheek, as if asking for permission. He didn’t stop her.

Even as she leaned in. Even as she kissed him.

He tried to stop her when she pulled away though.

They stayed like that for some time. Touch, taste, warmth, the only things Danny bothered to think about. Living (for once) in the moment.

But there was only so long a single moment could last, and eventually they pulled apart.

“If you need help—“

Danny chuckled. “I already come to you when I need help, Val.”

She blushed, her skin just a touch darker around her ears and cheeks. “Shut up,” she said. “This time I won’t try and run you off, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Let’s get to school.” She walked back to her room to grab her bag, and Danny remembered he was still wearing the same gross clothes from yesterday. They were torn in very unflattering ways with splatters of unknown goo, ectoplasm, and blood.

They also smelled bad.

“Uh… lemme call Jazz first.”

Jazz was able to bring his clothes so he could shower in the locker room. Other than that, school was pretty normal. He warned Sam and Tucker that his secret was probably out so they should be prepared in case anyone went after them.

The trouble was, he didn’t really know what to do now. Should he go home? Ask to stay at someone’s place? Hide out in the Zone for a bit? What would help get his parents to trust him? What would keep him safe?

Was there even a good answer to that?

Why was he so scared? There were plenty of times they found out and accepted him… before he reset time or reality or their memories—

He could always do that again. Ask Clockwork for a favor, rewind time a day. Just one. He was usually pretty accommodating with those kinds of requests.

But the memory of a warm kiss after breakfast stopped him.

Would they have that if he didn’t let this go?

Was one of these things worth the cost of the other?

Why was he so scared? Still?

Val found him after the last class ended. There weren’t any ghost attacks all day. Danny didn’t know if it was because the day itself was just a bit boring, or if his parents' new traps had done more damage than he’d like to think about, but he still couldn’t concentrate in class.

Because of course not. His day off was for worry and confusion and over thinking. Relaxation? That was for the — well clearly not for the dead, huh?

“You’re sure you feel alright?” she asked.

“Right as rain!” Danny forced an easy going grin. “Real rain, not the ecto-mix we get here in Amity Park.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re half ghost. I think the Ecto-mix is actually a better metaphor.”

Exaggerating a pout, Danny trailed a fake tear down the side of his cheek. “You wound me.”

“I’ll try to avoid that in the future.” She ruffled his hair, gently, and then she was gone. With the speed she left, she probably had work right after school.

He watched her go, lost in thoughts once more. What were they now? What could they be if he just let this go? Let whatever was happening, happen.

What would happen if he didn’t?

“Danny?” Jazz tapped him on the shoulder. Startling him.

It took a second of Danny holding a hand over his heart and glaring at his sister before he calmed back down to his usual– probably unhealthy– levels of anxiety.

He shook his head and started walking. “Sorry, thinking about homework. What were you saying?”

She didn’t look convinced. She shouldn’t, he was a bad liar. But he was trying. “Are you sure you want to come home tonight? Val told me—“

“Yeah,” he shrugged, forcing his smile to look more relaxed than he felt. “The longer I put it off the worse it’ll be, you know?”

Jazz shook her head. “It’s your choice little brother.”

No, not really. If he had a choice…

Would he tell them anything at all? Would he have told anyone?

Wouldn’t he have kept it from Jazz too?

“Mom?” Danny knocked on the door of the lab, Jazz next to him just in case. “Dad? Can I talk to you for a second?”

It was silent. Danny called out again.

This… wasn’t a good sign.

He stepped back.

A voice, sickly sweet. “Where are you going, sweety?”

“I… uh…”

His mom and dad stepped up from the bottom of the basement, the shadows hiding most of their expressions.

“I needed to explain—“

He heard it before he saw it. But it didn’t matter either way. Jazz was pushing him aside and shouting.

“Get out of here for now!”

So he did.

He disappeared and watched his sister argue with his parents about how human he was and—

“We won’t hurt him! We just want to make sure—“

Was the last thing he heard before he made it outside.

To make sure.

Of what? How? What was that thing they shot at him? A new invention? Already?

His stamina had never been very good so the short sprint from home was very short and soon Danny was just walking in the opposite direction of his house. Aimless.

It wasn’t like he had to worry about curfew right then, not with the much bigger threat looming over him.

He was just outside the Nasty burger and about a third of the way to Tucker’s place when he heard it.

“Get run out?”

“Taking a walk,” Danny smiled up at Red Huntress as she hovered above him. “Walking’s for nerds. Come take a flight with me instead.”

So he did that too.

Easier to go with the flow than to try and think on his own.

He transformed, not bothering to look if anyone saw him. The ones that mattered knew now anyways.

“Can you even keep up on that thing?” He nodded towards Val’s hoverboard even as she revved it. “Or should I go easy on you?”

“Hah!” She shifted her weight back, zooming forward past Danny. “If anything, I should be the one with a handicap.”

He smirked, watching her silhouette as it got smaller, then flew after her. It was more fun to catch up than to stay ahead.

They ran across Skulker. Because of course they did. Turned out the reason today was so quiet was because he’d been planning some kind of ambush and scaring other ghosts away.

Too bad for him.

“Ah,” he said, looking up from the trap he was setting as Danny and Val both slowed to a stop above him. “You’re here a bit… early.”

“Sorry about that,” Danny said, “I’d have taken another lap around town before stopping but I didn’t want to embarrass anyone.”

“Ha,” Red Huntress rested her large ecto-weapon on her shoulder. “You’re lucky I was going easy on you then. Otherwise the one embarrassed would be Phantom.”

“You’re just saying that cause I won~”

“In your dreams.”

“That’s weird, the last dream I had you were definitely—“

She coughed, loudly. “J-just help me catch this creep!”

Success. Danny would love to see if she was blushing under her helmet, but for now just getting her flustered was reward enough.

Skulker had tried to run off while the two of them were distracted, so Danny threw a wall of ice in front of him, forcing him to turn around. He shot a net out in retaliation, and Danny (in his usual fashion) couldn’t decide whether to phase through it or dodge and got tangled up in it.

“Shit—“

“Ha! I see your dodging hasn’t improved.” Red Huntress zoomed past, aiming her ectoweapon and firing three shots successively. Each one missed as Skulker dodged and burned a hole through Danny’s ice shield.

“I see your aim hasn’t improved,” he sneered, finally cutting away the last of the net with a sharpened piece of Ecto-ice.

An ecto-blast whistled right past his ear and Danny glanced up, affronted.

“Whoops~,” Red Huntress sang before following after it. “Try to keep up this time, would ya?”

Danny let himself smile as he kicked away the last of the net. Maybe he should let her win this one.

They had defeated Skulker and Danny let Red Huntress trap him in her cube to send him back to the Ghost Zone. He didn’t really know when he’d be able to use his parents’ portal again after all.

She released her suit, and he undid his transformation, and the two of them walked, hand in hand for a bit, before deciding to get some food at the Nasty Burger.

He hadn’t even taken a bite of the fries before everything started to weigh on him again.

“I just… don’t get it,” he mumbled, unable to even taste the salty mush now in his mouth. “You handled it so well.”

Val sat back. “I told you, I met your cousin. I already knew about—“

“Everyone always handles it so well… why can’t they?”

He didn’t mean to interrupt. Didn’t really mean to say any of it out loud either. But she leaned in before he could apologize.

“What do you mean Danny?” Her hand reached for his.

“Everytime…” he thought back to the different times and different situations where his secret got out. Desiree, Freakshow, some of the others… “Dash and Paulina and Lancer always handle it well when they find out even though they hate me—“

“I don’t think Mr. Lancer hates you.”

“And Jazz handled it so well too! Why isn’t there one—one timeline where they handled it with grace?”

“Danny,” her hand grabbed his shoulder. “Timeline?”

He didn’t answer.

She let go reluctantly and it showed on her face. In the pinch of her brow and the confusion of her eyes.

“Danny, can you do something for me?”

Her voice was light and Danny found himself nodding without even thinking. Of course he would. He would do anything he could to help her.

It took a moment. Them gazing into each others eyes, trying to read what the other was thinking, before she smiled and pat his hand.

“Good. Promise me you won’t reset this timeline. You won’t try to change their reactions—“

“But—“

She held a hand to his mouth. “No. Give them a chance to grow, to get used to it. And don’t take this,” she squeezed his shoulder, gesturing to the two of them, “away from me.”

“Okay,” he said, “okay.”

They shared another small kiss, short and sweet, before she punched him on the shoulder and told him to man up.

“I’ll go with you,” she said. “Let’s set this straight.”

And maybe this time they would.

#Danny Phantom #grey ghost #danny x valerie #reveal fic #christmas truce #2022 holiday truce #bee’s writing

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theleslistuff · 2 years

Text

Ectober day 4 (box/staff)

Good boy

Cujo is a good boy, Cujo only wants to please it's new master...

Warnings:

None!

Freakshow had been locked up in the Guys in white facilities for so long... Sometimes he just forgets he's still human, because of how he's being treated even lower than that..., an electroshock collar around his neck, orders to do everything they say from sharing his knowledge about ghost to washing the toilet with his teeth brusher.

He wishes to just get to normal jail...

No allies to get him out, since Lydia is being kept in a special container in a more secret facility, far away from him, he knows about ghost objects but when the GIW find one, they would not commit the same error twice to leave him touch them.

He goes to check the mail..., a heavy bag with people's complaining about the ridiculous use of money for a useless government facility..., they have stopped reading them long ago, but they like to leave some prisoners do it.

Freakshow dropped the bags containment on the floor... Leaving on the top of everything a box..., it was strange to receive something like this..., before anyone else could see this..., he opened the box...

Instantly a green ghost dog jolted out of it, it has... A staff he's familiar with..., instantly he slides it between it's teeth to take it*

-How... Did you...? -

The dog seems now hypnotised by the staff, Freakshow gives a wide smile at the realization that this is a ghost dog.

-Get me out of here, slave... -

The dog turns into a giant version of itself an carries Freakshow behind it's back and runs through the door.

Some weeks later in Amity Park...

Phantom is in his daily patrol, absorbing a ghost octopus inside the thermos.

-Stupid Skullker..., why did he had to let out this many ghost?! -

He absorbed inside the thermos a ghost wolf without even looking.

-Are you ok, guys?! -

He asks through a communicator to Sam and Tucker.

-Yeah, about that... -

Tucker said as Sam tries to capture a ghost bunny but it hides in the floor digging holes.

-Get back here!-

She yells, Tucker doesn't know if he should ask Danny for help or let Sam be..., Danny just laughed knowing what's going on.

-Don't worry Tuck, I'm coming! -

He flies towards the group until he feels a pinch... Instantly feeling dizzy as he falls straight to the floor, Skullker picks him up in silence, strangely not claiming his victory as he flies away from the scene, straight to the remains of circus Gothica.

Once inside the place Skullker drops the ghost boy to the floor, instantly another ghost with clown clothes drops water on him from a bucket, abruptly waking him up.

-What?!, where am I?! -

The ghost boy yells as his blurry vision tries to identify the place until he looks at certain red staff... He knows the inviting feeling that object generates on him, the feeling of freedom to stop thinking and obey a master..., knowing what he has done the last time when he let himself give in, he shakes his head and closes his eyes, trying to back away, Skullker stops him.

-Oh little ghost boy, look what you have got into... -

Danny could recognize that voice, so he replied.

-What are you doing here Freakshow?!, you're the Guys in white new dog?! -

He yells, still with his eyes closed.

-Well I just came to thank you for those beautiful vacations you gave me, it's my turn to return... The favor... -

Danny tries to back away or fly, but Skullker won't move an inch.

-Y... You did this all by yourself!, you were the one robbing, obviously you were going to be arrested! -

Danny replied as he tries to push away Skullker without opening his eyes, Freakshow just laughed as he's slowly opening his eyes with his bare hands

Now being directly exposed to the staff Danny gives himself in to the inviting feeling but strangely enough he barely hears Freakshow giving orders, instead he could hear another voice inside the staff

-Take the staff...-

Skillker let him go, the now red-eyed ghost boy took the staff with both hands and took it from Freakshow with no effort, the ringmaster backed away now.

-You´re supposed to obey me!-

He yelled but anawering his question, the ghost, like a hive mind they all said

-This power was never yours or from any human, you have taken aventage from it for the last time..., ghost are not meant to be chained to a mortal...-

They all flew away, all of them except for the ghost dog, it dropped the box where it came from with the staff, after leaving it, it flew like the others, Freakshow looked at the open box he had not paid attention at first, finding a note, he read it.

“We´ve failed to contain it

The red mist was not just raw ectoplasm with hypnotic propieties, there´s an entity we can not understand on it.

We´ve woken it...

You´ve to contain it, don´t let anyone use it, you´ve to eliminate the dog too

It´s now it´s royal servant...”

#Ectoberhaunt22 #EH chaos #EH order #day 4 #box #staff #dp cujo #cujo #freakshow

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theyearoftheking · 3 years

Text

Book Eighty-One: Billy Summers

“Maybe a chilly story needs a chilly writing room, he thinks. It’s as good an explanation as any, since the whole process is a mystery to him, anyway.”

Well hello there, Constant Readers! Have you missed me and my half-assed reviews of Steve books?

Crickets.

I know I’ve promised book reviews, television recaps... all the things. But I’m kind of busy living and enjoying life at the moment, without the need to take notes or screen grabs. That being said, I really did enjoy Billy Summers, and it took me almost a hundred pages to remember how this blogging thing worked. I was supposed to take notes? Dark Tower references? DePere, Wisconsin? Should I remember that for some reason? But don’t worry, it was like riding a bike. This blog is full of all the stuff you’ve come to know and love, as well as SPOILERS!!! So, if you have not finished the book yet, stop reading and come back once you’ve turned the last page.

SPOILERS!!! Consider yourselves adequately warned.

Billy Summers doesn’t really include anything supernatural, and it’s more suspenseful and plot driven than some of Steve’s other books. In other words, it’s another great recommendation for people who don’t claim they don’t like Stephen King.

Billy is an assassin who has mastered the art of “dumb like a fox”.

He’s hired for a new assignment, but something seems off. Billy has been in the assassin game long enough to know when something is foul in the state of Denmark. He doesn’t trust the people who hired him, and he has the distinct impression he’s going to end up as the patsy in the end. But, he plays along as Dave Lockridge, single man and writer. He moves onto a charming street in Midwood (I kept reading this as Midworld... thanks, Steve), makes friends with all the neighbors, and beats all the neighborhood kids at Monopoly on the weekends. This part of the book was so tender, it reminded me a lot of Ted Brautigan and the kids from Hearts in Atlantis. Of all the things Billy later regrets, it’s letting these kids down, and having them trust him when he was obviously so untrustworthy.

During the day, Billy writes at his office in Gerald Tower. There’s always a tower, isn’t there? And this tower takes on more significance, because it’s the spot from which Billy is supposed to shoot Joel Allen. Joel is due to be transferred to Midwood, and marched up the steps of the courthouse just like in The Outsider. Constant Readers remember how well that worked out...

Billy has an assassins creed: he only shoots bad guys. On the scale of bad guys, Joel Allen isn’t quite Ted Bundy, but he’s not Mr. Rodgers either. He had something of a “me too” moment when he accidentally mistook a feminist writer for a sex worker; and there was a gun fight outside of a poker game. It’s enough for Billy to work with.

Billy is waiting for Joel to be transferred to the Midworld Midwood county lock-up; and he bides his time by actually doing some writing. He covers his tragic childhood (his mom worked in a laundry facility, just like Steve’s mom), and his time in the military. This is where Steve really shines. Billy’s book is written in a childish tone that just WORKS. It’s exactly what you’d expect from a simple-minded assassin. But still waters, friends. As the story goes on, Billy’s voice grows and improves. Well done, Steve, it’s like two books for the price of one.

In between writing, Billy assumes another fake identity (Dalton Smith), and secures a bolt hole to hide out in once his job is complete. Believe it or not, the murder of Joel Allen is such an insignificant part of the book. Billy successfully takes him out, and makes it to his bolt hole undetected. And this is really where the second part of the book starts.

One rainy night, Billy hears random noises outside his apartment. He looks out the window in time to see a van full of guys dump a female body into a gutter. Billy should have just anonymously called the police... but if he had done that, we wouldn’t have a story. Instead, Billy goes full on Captain Save A Ho, and pulls the young woman from the gutter. It’s clear she had been drugged and assaulted, and she manages to puke all over Billy’s place.

Neat.

When Alice wakes up in the morning, she recognizes Billy from the police sketches, but promises not to rat him out for the Joel Allen murder. They form an unlikely friendship that includes watering the neighbor’s plants, watching Blacklist, and Alice reading Billy’s book. Basically, they were sheltering in place before that was even a thing; something Steve jokes about. Eventually, Billy knows he needs to get the rest of his money for the Joel Allen hit, and punish the guys who raped Alice.

Y’all. I’m still having nightmares over the most creative use of a hand mixer I have ever read. I thought the can-opener in Lisey’s Story was bad... this was worse. But the kind of worse you feel good about, if that makes sense.

After finding out the name of the guy behind the Joel Allen hit, killing a few bad dudes, and pissing off a bitch named Marge (fucking Marge if you’re nasty), Billy and Alice hunker down in Colorado with Billy’s assassin booking agent, Bucky.

As soon as Billy and Alice entered Colorado and the town of Sidewinder was mentioned, I knew where we were headed. Yeah buddy, Overlook time!

Billy takes to writing in a little shack behind Bucky’s house, and inside the shack is a Polaroid picture of the topiary animals at the Overlook. Every time Billy looks at the picture, the animals seem to have shifted. It gives him a cold sense of dread.

There’s a certain parallel I picked up on in Colorado: Jack Torrance and Billy Summers are both haunted men running away from things. The Overlook was where Jack went to dry out, and work on his writing. He wanted to work on his marriage, and become a better father to Danny. We all know he failed spectacularly. Then, we’ve got Billy. Billy actually gets writing accomplished, and becomes an unlikely father-figure to Alice. Despite having just as much, if not more baggage than Jack, Billy doesn’t let it define him. He acknowledges it, and moves past it. It’s almost like Billy accomplishes what Jack couldn’t. And it took the Overlook burning to the ground for that to happen.

While we’re on the topic of Billy and Alice, one of the things I love about Steve’s characters is he never forces romance where there doesn’t need to be any. While Billy acknowledges the age gap between him and Alice, nothing untoward ever happens between them. There’s obvious love, but never the romantic kind. Steve is one of the few contemporary writers to get this right.

The story ends with Billy killing the guy behind Joel’s hit, getting shot by Marge as he leaves the crime scene (fucking Marge), Alice nursing him back to health, and getting him back to Colorado where they all live happily ever after.

I wish.

I wish I had stopped reading twenty-three pages before the book ended, because the actual end was more realistic, but heartbreaking. In reality, fucking Marge shot Billy in the stomach, and he died of an infection in the back of a Walmart parking lot. Fucking Marge indeed. But this was the way the book should have ended. Needed to end. Anything else would have been unrealistic. But damn, I hated to see Billy go out like that.

There was one Wisconsin reference: after Billy kills Joel Allen, he’s supposed to be transferred to a safe house in De Pere. You know... where Steve lived when he was in a kid.

Other than Gerald Tower, we were also graced with “the world has moved on-” just to remind us that we all follow The Beam.

Total Wisconsin Mentions: 49

Total Dark Tower References: 78

Book Grade: A+

Rebecca’s Definitive Ranking of Stephen King Books

Doctor Sleep: A+

The Talisman: A+

Wizard and Glass: A+

11/22/63: A+

Mr. Mercedes: A+

Billy Summers: A+

End of Watch: A+

Under the Dome: A+

Needful Things: A+

On Writing: A+

The Green Mile: A+

Hearts in Atlantis: A+

Full Dark, No Stars: A+

The Outsider: A+

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: A+

If It Bleeds: A+

Just After Sunset: A+

Rose Madder: A+

Misery: A+

Different Seasons: A+

It: A+

Four Past Midnight: A+

Stephen King Goes to the Movies: A+

The Shining: A-

The Stand: A-

Finders Keepers: A-

Bag of Bones: A-

Duma Key: A-

Black House: A-

The Institute: A-

The Wastelands: A-

The Drawing of the Three: A-

The Dark Tower: A-

Dolores Claiborne: A-

Blaze: B+

Hard Listening: B+

Revival: B+

Nightmares in the Sky: B+

The Dark Half: B+

Joyland: B+

Skeleton Crew: B+

The Dead Zone: B+

Nightmares & Dreamscapes: B+

Wolves of the Calla: B+

‘Salem’s Lot: B+

Song of Susannah: B+

Carrie: B+

Creepshow: B+

Later: B+

From a Buick 8: B

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: B

Sleeping Beauties: B-

The Colorado Kid: B-

Storm of the Century: B-

Everything’s Eventual: B-

Cycle of the Werewolf: B-

The Wind Through the Keyhole: B-

Danse Macabre: B-

The Running Man: C+

Cell: C+

Thinner: C+

Dark Visions: C+

The Eyes of the Dragon: C+

The Long Walk: C+

The Gunslinger: C+

Pet Sematary: C+

Firestarter: C+

Rage: C

Desperation: C-

Insomnia: C-

Cujo: C-

Nightshift: C-

Faithful: D

Gerald’s Game: D

Roadwork: D

Lisey’s Story: D

Christine: D

Dreamcatcher: D

The Regulators: D

The Tommyknockers D

I’m not going to end this with any promises of upcoming posts. That way when I do randomly stumble on here one afternoon, it will be a delight for us all.

Until next time, Long Days & Pleasant Nights,

Rebecca

#constant reader #stephen king #the dark tower #the shining #billy summers #hearts in atlantis #lisey's story #the overlook #jack torrance

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robbyrobinson · 4 years

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Stephen King Villains: Most Evil to Least Evil

Stephen King is considered the master of horror best known for his prolific writing career that in itself takes place in a multiverse of sorts. Besides monsters and supernatural beings, there are also very, very evil humans that also antagonize the protagonists.

Most Evil

Most Evil would go to Randall Flagg. He is probably the closest thing to the Devil that exists in King's works, though Nyarlathotep is also said to be one of his many titles. He appears in several of King's novels sowing chaos wherever possible. He was apart of many violent tragedies such as race riots, lynchings, you name them. In The Stand, he sets himself up as some sort of god for those who also had penchants for violence. In The Dark Tower series, he works alongside the Crimson King and gets into even more acts like destroying a city and driving a woman insane by having a dead man recount to her what he had seen in the afterlife. Ultimately, his plan is to topple the Dark Tower itself which would spell destruction for the multiverse.

Bronze goes to It. An ancient, primordial evil, It was originally from the Macroverse before crash landing to the area that would eventually become Derry, Maine where it establishes a cycle of awakening every 27 years to kill and devour Derry's children even though it is implicated that It doesn't need to consume the flesh of its prey as it could live off their fear alone. But it is their fear that makes their meat tastier to It. It is an egotistical, narcissistic being who views itself as being superior above humans and its archenemy Maturin the Turtle. It is first defeated by the Losers Club back in the 1950s after it had killed the young brother of Bill Denbrough only to return 27 years later to settle the score.

Silver...it's a tough one, but I ultimately decided that William Wharton from The Green Mile earns this spot. He is not the most powerful being in the books nor is he anywhere close to the first two's level. Simply put, he is a disgusting piece of human garbage that should've gotten fried to death in the electric chair for what he had done. He is first taken to the Mile after killing two people, one of which was a pregnant woman. When he arrives, he pretends to be in a near-drunken state only to then attempt to strangle one of the wardens. That in itself is bad, but what pushes him further is the fact that he was the one who raped and killed those two girls that John Coffey is being sentenced to death over. He used the sisters' love for each other to coerce them not to scream lest he kill one of them before leading them out of their house.

Patrick Hockstetter. A pure solipsistic psychopath, Patrick was a member of Henry Bowers's gang but he was especially nasty. He took perverse delight at killing animals but that is not his main claim to infamy. As a solipsist, he believes that no one exists aside from himself...essentially the world revolved around him. When he learned that his mother had given birth, Patrick felt threatened. So much so, he smothered the baby to death with a pillow.

Norman Daniels, the main antagonist of Rose Madder. A corrupt cop, he domestically abuses his wife Rose and in one instance sexually assaulted her and later caused her to suffer a miscarriage. When she leaves him, Norman pursues her, murdering and torturing those in his way his preferred method being biting them to death.

Leland Gaunt of Needful Things sets up a novelty shop in Castle Rock where he has his victim's greatest desires in stock, but they had to pay a sum and additionally stage a prank. A magical charm that drives the residents to madness one instance being when two women killed themselves in a madness-inducing stupor leading to a young boy killing himself.

Rose the Hat. A little lower on the list. A True Knot (quasi-immortal vampiric beings), she feeds on steam, as in the dying breath of children who have "the Shining." This is of course done through torturing children to death. Despite committing serial murders, plausibly in the hundreds depending on how long she and her clan were operating, she nevertheless greatly cares for her fellow True Knots and becomes increasingly incensed by Danny Torrance and Abra Stone killing them.

Going to King's first novel Carrie, we have several trash. Chris Hargensen bullies Carrie White relentlessly climaxing in her staging a terrible prank where she drops a bucket full of pig's blood on Carrie's head at the prom after forging fake votes for Carrie. Following her is Margaret White , Carrie's mother. An insane religious zealot, she emotionally and psychologically abuses her daughter as she saw it as her fault that Carrie received telekinetic powers because of her perceived mistake. After the massacre, Margaret attempts to kill Carrie.

The Overlook Hotel. At first it seems odd that I would include what is basically an inanimate object. But in the book The Shining, it is made apparent that the hotel is alive and is greatly evil. It drives those who visit it to madness ultimately resulting in them killing their families and then themselves. Once it completely possesses Jack Torrance, it fully has its malevolent intentions out in the open.

The Shawshank Redemption. Kind of more leaning towards the film adaptation, but here goes: Samuel Norton is the warden of the Shawshank prison. Initially coming off as a kind man with that rich Southern Christian rhetoric, Norton is truly a greedy man ruling Shawshank with an iron fist allowing rapes and other evils to happen on his grounds. He uses the prisoners for cheap labor in a money laundering scheme which he forces Andy to assist him with. Unlike in the book, when Tommy has information proving Andy's innocence, Norton sends for Captain Byron T. Hadley to kill Tommy.

Next would be Bogs Diamond. The leader of a group of men called The Sisters, he enjoys violently raping his victims one of his favorite being Andy. But it isn't because he's gay, but more because he derives disgusting glee from raping them when they were at their lowest state.

Henry Bowers, the secondary antagonist of It, is a racist, Anti-Semitic, misogynistic, fat-shaming lunatic who graduates to murdering his own father before deciding to go to kill the Losers Club when they enter the sewer system to face off against It/Pennywise. But it is shown that his father was abusive and he likely learned a lot of his prejudices from him. But he also stands as a trope of King's where you have insane bullies.

Lastly, we get to Percy Wetmore the secondary antagonist of The Green Mile. Somehow coming off as more reprehensible than the real villain of the book, Wetmore is a low-functioning sociopath who primarily came to the Cold Mountain Penitentiary to watch the death row inmates die.

Especially despising Delacroix, he kills Mr. Jingles by stepping on him out of spite, and he later deliberately leaves the sponge dry leading to Delacroix's excruciatingly botched, prolonged execution where he literally cooks in Old Sparky. He's kind of lower on the list mostly because of his film counterpart looking horrified. Something tells me that he probably was only thinking that by not wetting the sponge it would give Delacroix a little more pain, but he wasn't anticipating for the events to ensue the way they did. Though him being forced to watch is cathartic as was what became of him in the ending.

Least Evil

Cujo takes the first spot. All he wanted was to be a good boy, but all that changed when he was bitten by a rabid bat. Now he kills those that he miscontrues as being responsible for his pain.

Carrie White was the protagonist of Stephen King's first book. Born with telekinetic powers, Carrie was bullied by her peers; mistreated by her fundamentalist mother...ultimately she was driven insane when that horrible prank at the prom befell her. She committed horrible acts, but ultimately, it is understandable. It was only a matter of time for her to snap.

Jack Torrance: While he tries to kill his wife and son, part of it largely falls on the Overlook corrupting him. He was abused by his father ultimately becoming an alcoholic who unwittingly dislocated Danny's arm. At the least before the Overlook's destruction he had a moment of clarity.

Christine: A sapient possessed 1958 Plymouth Fury vintage vehicle who acts like a envious girlfriend when it comes to its owners. Worse, it is fully able of numping people off if need be.

The Wendigo: In Pet Sematary, it is a wendigo that is responsible for the cursed grounds that whatever was buried in its soils, an evil, undead version arises. This happens to Church the cat and especially to Gage. However, the Wendigo is presented more as a force of nature than truly evil.

Annie Wilkes: After saving Paul, it seems at first Annie was a kind woman...at least until she found out that Paul killed off her favorite character and becomes hellbent on forcing him to rewrite the ending where she was alive again. She holds him hostage and even breaks his legs as punishment (though it's much worse in the novel). Worse, it is revealed that Annie is a serial killer with a body count in potentially the 70s with multiple infants dying under mysterious circumstances while under her care. More patients end up dying but they were mostly ignored as the patients were already deathly sick prior. But with all that being said, Annie does have severe mental issues to the point where she is unable to discern reality from fiction.

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mabel-but-slytherin · 5 years

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Christmas Truce 2018

I know this is so very late, but like Danny I too can forget to prepare all of my Christmas gifts in time. I hope this is still on time for the Truce.

First a thank you to @monocheshaa for her wonderful gift for me, and a thank you/apology to @letswonderspirit for their patience! Based on the specific scene they asked for I think they were expecting art, but as I am a writer and cannot produce pictures with a fraction the beauty they can, you get this 3700 word fic instead. Enjoy!

Letswonderspirit asked for “Danny and Dani opening a present with Cujo inside. (If this is too specific than you can just do something with Cujo, I just really like dogs. thank you.)“

December 1st,

Danny Fenton walked through the Amity Park mall with a smile on his face for the first time in the month of December. He’d always hated the holiday spirit (spirits in general tended to haunt him or set his parents off, and Christmastime was no exception), but after being shown the Christmas Truce by Ghostwriter last year, Danny was determined to learn his lesson.

That wasn’t to say he didn’t come around to having a good holiday last year, but this time he was determined to get a head start on the season and do all the things he didn’t have the time and preparation to do. Namely, this year he wanted to be sure to get presents.

Being a first-time Christmas shopper, Danny was worried he’d have a hard time finding the time to sneak away from everyone and buy fitting gifts behind their backs. Yet it was not even 3pm on the first of the month and Danny already had half of his shopping done. New steel-toed black boots for Sam, a kit to build the first custom PDA-compatible laptop for Tucker, and most recently a memoir by the head of Harvard’s psychology department for Jazz.

Even making time wasn’t so hard. All Danny had to do was tell his friends that he wanted to catch up on homework before the next ghost attack and they gave him pleased but dubious looks and sent him home. Once there, Danny had no problem: he was a pro at sneaking out of the house under his parents’ noses. Slip one small hint of a Santa sighting at the mall two towns over and Maddie was dashing to her bazooka awhile Jack ran for his Fenton™ Wish List.

Speaking of lists, Danny pulled out his list of people left to shop for and crossed Jazz’s name off. Looking down he knocked off Mom and Dad while he was at it. Mom did most of the family shopping and would definitely prefer something home-made and deadlier than what he could buy at 16 years old, so he’d just spend some time in the lab putting together some gadget throughout the month. Dad was probably the easiest of all: he’d pulled his mom aside last week while he helped serve Thanksgiving dinner and asked if they could work together to make double fudge this year. The squeal and hug his mom gave was almost another gift itself.

That just left some of his other classmates, and honestly, although Danny was trying to make up for years of missing the Christmas spirit even he admitted they were probably optional. Dash definitely wasn’t getting anything from Fenton, as the only thing Danny could think he’d like is 20 minutes to wail on Fenturd with no chance of Lancer catching him (and telling him to save his arm strength for the big game Friday).

Sam told Danny that under no circumstances should he buy a present for Paulina, but Danny couldn’t help himself, and felt pretty proud to have found a Danny Phantom compact mirror in the makeup section of the mall and then transformed briefly in the changing room to autograph it in green sharpie. (He later told Sam he found the present while looking in the make-up section for an eyeliner for Sam’s Goth look. He still doesn’t understand why Sam tested her new steel toes on his shins when he told her his first thought was that Paulina would love it.)

And of course getting a gift for Paulina meant he had to pull something together for at least a couple other people or else risk coming across as creepy. Star just needed something fashionable and shiny, and given that Danny knew nothing about fashion he just went for shiny earrings and hoped she wouldn’t hit him. He probably didn’t need to get anything for Wes, but let’s just say a whole day walking through Amity Park mall revealed so many potential gag t-shirts that Danny couldn’t resist.

Valerie would be both the easiest and hardest to shop for. She was extremely practical ever since her dad lost her job, and would happily accept any homecooked treat or mall store gift card, but Danny also wanted to give her something more meaningful without being frivolous. Danny wanted to give her a box of tree-shaped sugar cookies and a matching Christmas tree sweater, but when the ecto-oven brought the cookies to life and Danny took them out with the closed Fenton™ pistol, the teen settled for giving her the sweater and the pistol instead.

A bead of sweat ran down Danny’s face as he imagined what her reaction would be to that…

With all the humans crossed off his list, Danny was ready to call it a day. Over a year of being a halfa had taught him better than to guess at ghost traditions, so his plan was to fly over to Ghostwriter’s next week to ask for advice on presents for the Truce before the scribe was too deep into the holiday rush. There were a bunch of things Danny wanted to ask, from prospective gifts to whether he should be getting something for just his allies or his nemeses, and how a good hit or faux pas might impact his survival in the coming year. No matter what, Danny had already swore he would take a hard pass on getting a gift for Vlad. Half-ghost he may be, that man was a full-blooded fruitloop and would inevitably read way into anything from Danny.

The young hero already started to fold the list to put in his pocket when his eyes froze on one last name scrawled at the bottom of his list with a question mark. It was no question that Danny cared about the last name and wanted to give her a nice Christmas, the only question was whether she would be there to receive it.

After all, Dani had stopped by every couple of months ever since she was stabilized and free to travel the world, but it was purposefully near-impossible to contact the young girl on the run, and Danny had no clue if she even knew of the holiday. Even if she did, there was the question of whether she would come visit him or celebrate abroad.

Either way, it was Dani’s first Christmas and she was Danny’s clone, which meant it was Danny’s responsibility to find her the perfect present just in case she stopped by, right? Well, ghost etiquette was one thing, but Danny had no idea who to ask on clone etiquette so as the older clone/brother in this situation he was going to call himself the expert and go with that.

That just left one major problem: what could a sixteen-year-old teenager from the Midwest who already burned half his allowance on other presents get for a half-ghost pickpocket whose already flown halfway around the world?

Two laps around the mall later and Danny was still stumped. Flashy clothes from most of the girly stores were flimsy and would only make her stand out. Anything bigger than a bag was too bulky to carry, any electronic device Danny would have to make sure she could use and charge it, and also pray there was no tracking to put her on someone’s radar. Money or gift cards was impractical and would probably look to her like a moral lecture, and while Danny briefly considered a souvenir from Amity Park as a good gag, the teen was embarrassed by how they probably paled in comparison to all the ones she’s probably seen.

Danny sighed and just decided to make his way home. The homework/mall Santa distractions would only buy him so much time and he still had a few weeks to finalize ideas, so there was no need to rush.

A piercing scream burst out throughout the mall and the cry of “GHOST!” made Danny groan and wonder where he could possibly stash his latest purchases before the next fight, as he highly doubted the Truce extended all the way to early bird shopping. Then a bark followed and Danny gave a sigh of relief. “Cujo! Get out of there!”

Maybe there wouldn’t be a fight after all.

December 24th,

Danny had been wondering how far the Christmas Truce stretched. Apparently, the answer was not until the stroke of midnight Christmas Day.

Or at least that’s what Skulker thought, coming after Danny shouting that his pelt would make such a nice gift to Ember that she’d have to accept his proposal. Danny wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that, and was currently trying to either wrestle him into the Thermos or run out the clock.

Of course, Danny also didn’t want to risk getting on the bad side of the entire Ghost Zone by violating the Truce and continuing to fight on Christmas morning. Skulker had the advantage of a mechanical exoskeleton featuring a timepiece, but Danny had to try to keep him somewhere that he had a view of the Amity Times clocktower.

That and the desire to minimize property damage on Christmas Eve left Danny stuck in the wide open space of the park. Which makes hiding and dodging Skulker’s myriad of bombs and nets a challenge.

“Seriously Skulker, you haven’t been able to catch me in over two years! Did you really think you would be able to capture me in under an hour?” Danny taunted as he evaded yet another cannon blast that expanded into a taser net shortly after passing over his shoulder.

“Quiet, welp! The best hunter knows how to claim victory under pressure!”

Danny paused before firing an ectoblast at Skulkers torso. “I thought the saying was ‘a great hunter knows how to bide his time…’”

“…And seize an opportunity.” Skulker finished as he took advantage of Danny’s distraction to pull out a small pistol and shoot the Fenton thermos out of his left hand. Danny cursed and rubbed his burnt hand as he watched the thermos fly halfway across the park.

“Yes, I quite like the saying.” Skulker continued. “Speaking of like, I also must admit I am enjoying this new pistol! You see, Ember and I have started this family tradition where we open one small present each on Christmas Eve, and I just happened to get this little thing. I can’t wait until tomorrow to open the other present under the tree, it’s shaped like a blaster and bigger than the tree itself!”

Danny shivered. “Okay, first off, I guess that explains the sudden Christmas Eve manhunt. Second, please never talk to me about you and Ember’s ‘family traditions’ ever again. Already imagined one messed up ghost couple future, don’t need another one.

“Third,” Danny said as he glanced between where his thermos went flying and Skulker preparing another round from the net launcher, “I don’t really want to be Christmas dinner. Let’s go back to the original plan of Christmas duck-duck-goose!”

Danny made a break in the direction of the thermos, then banked into a sharp curve as Skulker fired the net right behind him. The net again sailed past him as Skulker fell for the feint and carried on in the direction of the open field near the thermos.

Until a small green blur dashed across the grass towards where the thermos was lying.

Recognizing the ghostly green glow but too far to see the shape, Danny could only wonder either who would show up in the human world this close to Christmas Day or when Skulker got a hunting partner.

The figure’s identity was made apparent when it finished trotting over to the thermos, picked it up in its mouth, and let out a happy bark.

“Cujo!” Danny called. The small ghost dog wagged his tail and looked over in Danny’s direction.

“Oh wow, you must want to play fetch. Good boy, Cujo, bring the thermos over here!” Danny turned his spectral tail back into human (ghostly?) legs and patted them to further call Cujo over. The dog started trotting happily until it yelped as a third net flew by and tangled it in the grass.

“Phantom has a puppy?” Skulker wondered aloud. “And one that is fearless in the face of battle? You will make the finest gift to Ember this holiday! She will cement you as one of her cutest fans and I will train you into the Ghost Zone’s Greatest Hunting Dog! Skulker shouted as he flew over towards Cujo.

Cujo just ignored Skulker and started trying to drag the net towards where Danny was running to him. Skulker shook his head at the sight and reached towards his controls for the taser net. “First, to teach you some obedience.”

As soon as he turned the dial to its lowest setting, the net turned on and started to zap Cujo lightly. This caused the dog to yelp, and then grow angry.

And then to just grow.

Within seconds, Cujo stood tall in his full, monstrous height. The net snapped off of the dog now twice its size, and the freed prey turned his eyes directly onto Skulker.

“Oh no.” The hunter muttered.

Cujo charged towards Skulker as the mechanical ghost tried to fly away, and managed to close the distance in time to grab on to one of Skulker’s jet boots and pull it off like a 20-foot puppy stealing a stranger’s shoe. The ghost dog had just finished shaking the lone boot and turned to the sky to growl and the figure trying to balance with one-sided rocket propulsion when the clocktower struck midnight.

In a flash, Cujo shrunk back down to his puppy size and panted up at Skulker, tossing the boot around for a second before lying down and gnawing it like the advanced ghostly technology was his latest chew toy.

Skulker, realizing it was safe to land, crashed back down to the grass and tried to approach Cujo to retrieve his boot. Cujo remained in puppy form, but instantly grabbed the shoe and backed away, growling menacingly that the shoe was his.

“Oh, come now!” Skulker shouted. “It’s Christmas.”

“And that is his toy your trying to take, Grinch.” Danny smiled as he walked over and scratched Cujo behind the ears. Seeing Skulker’s frown, Danny sighed and slowly pulled the metal boot out of Cujo’s mouth before throwing the thermos to distract him. The dog happily ran after the thermos, leaving Danny to shake the pool of saliva off the boot before handing it back to Skulker.

“Just this once, because it’s Christmas.” Danny said.

Skulker grabbed the boot and shoved it on his foot before grimacing and the squelching sound it made. “Ugh. Fine, I accept your gift and will be prepared to make an honorable exchange for this gift at the Truce this evening. Merry Christmas, Whel- I mean, Danny.”

Danny smiled. “You’re welcome Skulker.” The teen nodded before grimacing himself. “Wait… gift exchange… Danny… I totally forgot to get a present for Dani!”

Skulker tilted his head. “You exchange presents between your two halves? That is… an odd halfa tradition I was not aware of.”

“No!” Danny shouted. “Not for me, other Dani! Man, I was planning on getting her something all month, but time totally flies.”

Danny turned around to see that Skulker had already flew back towards FentonWorks and the Ghost Portal while his back was turned. “Guess that’s not the only thing that flew by. And I gotta fly home myself.”

“Woof!” Danny looked down to see Cujo triumphantly wagging his tail over the Fenton Thermos lying at Danny’s feet. Looking around and seeing no other ghosts to take him back to the Ghost Zone, Danny scooped the little dog into his arms and start flying back towards home.

“You travel all over the place, Cujo, maybe you can help me? What present can I get for my clone/cousin who’s been all around the world and just grabs whatever she wants?”

December 25th,

Danny woke up the next morning to see a pair of nearly identical blue eyes perched over him, shining with a burst of holiday joy that Danny himself had never felt until this month.

“Good morning, Danny!” Dani cried out, “Guess what day it is?!”

“I don’t know,” Danny bit out teasingly as he laughed at her excitement, “Christmas?”

“Yeah!” Dani shouted, causing her original to just laugh at her even more. “Hey, I have a right to be excited, this is my first one!”

Danny just smiled. “In a way, this is my first one too.

“I’m glad you’re here and all, but what are you doing in my room?” Danny asked his clone.

Dani shrugged. “Well, everywhere I’ve been people are saying Christmas is time to spend with your family. And given that the rest of my family doesn’t know I exist, I can’t really go downstairs.”

Danny frowned at that, before seeing the matching expression on his younger clone’s face and realizing that his job for today is to make her smile. “I guess that just means we have to do the present exchange up here then before Mom and Dad wake up, and you can hang around the rest of the day invisibly. Let me go get Jazz so she can join us.”

That worked, and Dani’s face stretched into a grin for a moment before she paused. “Wait,” Dani said, “present exchange?”

At Danny’s nod she groaned. “Oh no! I forgot to get you guys anything!”

To her surprise, Danny just laughed. “Don’t sweat it!” He consoled her, “this is actually the first year I’ve been able to get everyone a present. We’ll just have you open your presents, and then you can tell Jazz and I all the cool stories about places you’ve been!”

Dani smiled again at this, missing Danny reaching under his bed to grab her present box before he slipped out the door to wake Jazz. He had just a couple finishing touches to put on her gift before he returned.

The three teens sat tightly together on Danny’s bed as both Fentons passed their wrapped presents over to Dani.

“Oooh, ooh, open mine first!” Jazz exclaimed, still able to get childishly excited about every holiday.

Dani obliged and started ripping the tape off of the elaborately wrapped package, before watching Jazz wince at the destruction of her wrapping perfection and attempting to pry to tape open without damaging the paper. A second later had the young clone groaning in frustration before slapping her head and phasing the paper right off.

Once the paper was gone, Dani awed over the beautiful ribbon in her hand. It perfectly matched the one Jazz wore in her hair with the exception of its dark red color that was the exact shade of Dani’s sweatshirt. Dani held it up to her hair and giggled and Jazz leaned across her lap to tie it, the young clone’s arms reaching out to pull Jazz into a hug when the older girl was done.

“Thank you so much Jazz! I love it!” Dani squealed as she squeezed tighter.

“You’re welcome!” Jazz replied. “I’m so glad you love it! I figured it would fit under your hood when you wanted to hide away somewhere, and that no matter where you are in this world or the Ghost Zone, we’ll match!”

Dani reached up to feel the ribbon and her grin stretched even wider. “I’ll just have to figure out a way to get it to stay on in my ghost form.”

Jazz smiled, and then let her expression shift into a smirk. “Or… you could just wear this one.” She said coyly, reaching into her pajama pocket to pull out another ribbon, this one ghostly green.

The two girls squealed and hugged yet again, and Danny hoped his gift would be just as well received. “Well Dani,” he said, passing over a wrapped box.

“Here’s your gift from me. I would just untie the bow and open the box rather than phase it out.”

Dani took that as permission to rip right into it and within seconds was raising the lid and getting ready to look inside. She was interrupted by a small yip.

“Danny!” Jazz shouted, aghast. “There were no air holes on there!”

Danny smirked, “Her gift doesn’t need it.”

Dani froze as she looked down into the box, further deepening Jazz’s puzzled expression. A second later Dani reached both hands into the box and pulled out a playfully panting Cujo.

“Oh my god Danny, this is amazing!”

“His name’s Cujo,” Danny told his clone as she cuddled Cujo up to her face and laughed when Cujo licked her. “He’s run through Amity Park a couple of times looking to play, but is always just going from place to place. I figured with each other you both might be less lonely.”

Cujo seemed to take that cue to look up and down Danielle, see the big red bow tied in her hair, and happily bark like he had just received his own half-human for Christmas.

Dani smiled so wide she nearly cried and had to place Cujo on the floor in order to make room for the giant hug she gave her clone/cousin. Cujo of course objected to the sudden lack of warmth and made it known by growing to his full size, prompting Dani to shout “Awesome!” and hug Danny even harder.

Danny just grinned and basked in Dani’s happiness. Yeah, sometimes the only thing to give someone who has the world is someone to share it with, and he was so glad that the two looked like they would be happy together.

They were so happy, that that very afternoon the Red Huntress came out chasing complaints of a giant green ghost dog roaming Amity Park, hoping to finally get revenge on the ghost boy for ruining her life. She was stunned to instead find Danielle riding in the ghost dog’s fur, laughing and hollering and shouting that this was the best Christmas ever.

For once in her career Valerie decided to let a ghost go, figuring that out of everyone, the ghost girl deserved to be happy on Christmas day. She was sure Mayor Masters would forgive her for taking a day off to spend with the her family. Even if the ghost dog pooped on his front lawn.

That was the moment Dani swore she and Cujo would be friends for life. The had a whole world to travel together, and a whole afterlifetime of Christmases to do it.

#danny phantom #christmas truce #christmas truce 2018 #letswonderspirit #dani phantom #cujo

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flowerfan2 · 6 years

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Conduct Unbecoming

McDanno, M (for themes), 5200 words, A03

Steve confesses something to Danny that he's afraid will change their relationship forever. But he can't keep quiet any longer about what happened back at school, not when the perpetrator is about to be put into an even greater position of power.

Important note: This story was inspired by several recent news stories, and a podcast where author Roxane Gay addressed the dilemma surrounding how to react when a loved one tells you they have done something difficult to forgive (in that case, rape). Steve’s misconduct in this story is not of the same magnitude as the crime that was the subject of that discussion, but it does raise some very significant (and possibly triggering) issues. Contact me if you want to know more before reading.

****************

Conduct Unbecoming

Steve leans against the counter and tries to hold it together for just a little bit longer. Despite the ridiculously long day they’d had, on top of a ridiculously busy week, Danny is fairly chipper as he bustles around Steve’s kitchen, rambling on about marsala and mushrooms and some other recipe related trivia that Steve isn’t really listening to. Danny looks good - stubble dusting his chin, the top few buttons of his shirt undone, his hands flying as he talks a mile a minute. Steve can’t bring himself to interrupt just yet.

“Hey, babe, you with me?” Danny has finally come to a stop, one hip jutted out and a concerned look on his face, spoon dangling from his hand.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m okay.”

Danny doesn’t buy it, moving in closer and squinting at Steve. “I admit I don’t really have a name for that face. But it doesn’t look good.” He bumps his shoulder against Steve’s. “Sit down and tell me about it.”

“After dinner.”

Danny shrugs, and moves to pour them each a glass of red wine. “Whatever you say.” He turns back to the stove, and starts up his prattle again, trying to get them back into a more familiar Friday night rhythm. Steve has to give him kudos for trying.

When the food is eaten and the dishes cleaned and stowed, Danny grabs two beers and walks outside. Steve trails him down to the chairs by the water, and they clink their bottles together as they sit down.

“All right, spill,” Danny says after a few minutes. “And don’t tell me nothing’s wrong, you look like you’re afraid Cujo is going to come up out of the ocean and bite your head off.”

“Cujo’s a dog,” Steve replies, trying to hang on to a few more moments of normalcy.

“Okay, a Kraken or something. Leviathan, whatever. Quit stalling and spit it out. You’re making me nervous. We’ve only been doing this for a few months, I can’t have screwed it up that bad yet.”

Steve grimaces. He wasn’t breaking up with Danny, far from it. Nothing has made him happier then Danny finally agreeing to give them a go as a romantic couple, after dancing around it for so long. Steve only hopes Danny won’t feel differently when the night is over.

Steve reaches out to take Danny’s hand and squeezes it. “Don’t be nervous. It’s not anything like that.”

Danny nods and turns Steve’s hand in his own, shifting until he can twine their fingers together. “Whatever’s eating you, Steve, you can tell me.”

“I know,” Steve says softly. “I just don’t want to.”

“Come on, big guy. I know talking about your feelings is hard for you, but you can do it.” Danny gives him a fond look, and scoots closer, leaning forward. “I’ve got your back, Steve. Whatever it is.”

Steve takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “I can’t go to Charlie’s soccer game with you guys tomorrow morning.”

Danny raises an eyebrow. “Not really that big a deal, but okay, I can work with that-”

“Because I’ve got a meeting at the base at 9 a.m. And afterwards, I might not be in the Navy anymore.”

Danny gives him an appraising look, with a hint of apprehension. “You feeling your age, buddy? What have we said about making retirement decisions without consulting each other, huh? Wait - you’re not sick again, are you? You just had a check-up, there wasn’t any sign of radiation damage…”

“I’m not talking honorable discharge.”

Crickets would have been a welcome sound in the depth of the resulting silence.

Danny sits up a little straighter, and rubs a hand over his face. “Steve, you want to give me a little more to go on, here?”

“I lied during an investigation.”

Danny considers this, and Steve knows what’s running through his head – they’ve managed to bluff their way through so many questionable tactics - perps somehow dangling off of buildings, inexplicably thrown in shark tanks, clumsily falling down stairs. “Steve, we-”

“Not with Five-0. In college. A midshipman was sexually assaulted, and I said I didn’t see it.”

Even in the golden light of the sunset, Danny’s face goes pale. He lets go of Steve’s hand (don’t flinch, Steve thinks, it’s just the beginning) and sits back in his chair.

“Tell me about it from the beginning, Steve.” Danny’s voice is suddenly cold, and Steve doesn’t know what else he was expecting. “All of it.”

Steve dives in. It’s time. “It was winter, my first year. It had been a rough few weeks. There was an ongoing exercise where the plebes were grouped together randomly and pitted against each other in skills tests, speed, agility, marksmanship. One of the smaller guys, Kevin Nathan, was falling behind, and his team didn’t do what they should have to support him. They got reamed out, disqualified, for failing to work together.” Steve paused, unable to look at Danny as he continued, instead staring out over the darkening waves.

“That night the rest of Nathan’s team cornered him in the locker room and assaulted him. I was in the pool, lost in my own head doing laps, but I heard something when I came up for a break. Sound was all wonky in there, though, and it took me a few minutes to figure out where it was coming from. By the time I found the spot, everyone had scattered.”

“The next day Nathan was gone. A few days later, a rumor spread that he was claiming that one of the guys, Tom Clark, had raped him. Next thing you know there was an investigation, complete with the insinuation that Nathan was probably gay, and if so, there wasn’t much anyone could have done to protect him.”

Steve glanced over at Danny, who was hanging his head down in his hands. When Steve didn’t go on, Danny finally looked up.

“You said you lied. How?” Danny asked, his voice rough.

“The guys who did it claimed they hadn’t been anywhere near the pool or the locker room. I had signed in when I went to swim, so they asked me if I saw anything. I said I didn’t.”

Steve remembered the interview, sitting in an uncomfortable chair, men in uniforms running through a rote list of questions and sending him on his way. He remembered waiting for them to ask if he heard anything, if he had any reason to think that something had happened there that night, if he had any reason to believe Nathan’s allegations, but the questions never came. Just “did you see anything?” and then “thank you for your time, Midshipman.”

“You didn’t tell them what you heard,” Danny says flatly.

“No.”

Danny stands up and starts pacing, his bare feet hardly making a sound in the sand. “Why now, Steve? Why are you telling me this now? Oh wait, yeah, because you’re about to go fall on your sword, seek absolution from the military gods. What brought on this crisis of conscience?”

There’s a straight answer for Danny’s question, unfortunately, and it isn’t just that Steve finally decided to do the right thing. “Clark, the one who Nathan said raped him, he’s up for an ambassadorship. I can’t let it happen.”

“But up until now, it’s been just dandy? You had no problem with this, this monster doing whatever he’s been doing all this time?” Danny spits out his words. “What has he been doing, huh?”

“He’s been stationed in South Korea.”

Danny looks like he’s about to explode when Steve fails to give any more detail. “I’m sure the rest is classified, so I’ll have to just imagine. I bet he’s been busy spreading tolerance and goodwill everywhere, except when he’s tormenting subordinates and assaulting anyone who’s the least bit different than what he deems acceptable.”

“I’m so sorry, Danny,” Steve says. “I’m so sorry.”

“You’re sorry – you’re saying sorry to me? What have you done to me? What about to that kid? To all the kids that monster has hurt, huh, what about them?”

“I know.” Steve struggles up out of his chair, his legs barely supporting him, and takes a tentative step towards Danny. “That’s why I’m turning myself in.”

Danny locks eyes with Steve, and suddenly the full meaning of what might happen tomorrow seems to take the wind out of him. For a brief moment, Steve thinks Danny might fold himself around him, take Steve in his arms and tell him everything is going to be okay.

But instead Danny turns on his heel and walks away, waving one arm up in the air. “I gotta go. I just…”

Danny disappears into the house, presumably to get his shoes, and a minute later he backs the Camaro out of Steve’s driveway and takes off down the road with a squeal of his tires. Leaving Steve alone, just like he deserves.

It takes Steve a few minutes to realize that he is now sitting on the sand, the cold seeping into his skin through the seat of his pants. He isn’t surprised by Danny’s reaction, not really. He had half expected Danny to slug him, to pull back and just beat the crap out of him. He had kind of hoped he would.

Instead Steve saw that look on Danny’s face, disgust and horror and raw pain, with nothing else to focus on but the sure knowledge that he was going to lose Danny over this. And he couldn’t even blame him.

It wasn’t as if Steve didn’t know Danny’s views on the issue. Steve felt the same way, as ironic and pointless as it was to think that, under the circumstances. Crimes are crimes, no matter how old you are, and being a teenager isn’t an excuse.

Just a few weeks ago Five-0 was all out for drinks to celebrate the end to a particularly tricky case when they had overheard some guy ranting about how a drunk mistake by a teenager shouldn’t ruin his whole life, that the asshole politician who had just been accused of raping a girl back in high school didn’t deserve to be punished for “one bad decision.” Junior and Tani had jumped up to rip the guy a new one, and Danny had nodded along, proud of their rookies for not putting up with that kind of warped bullshit.

This isn’t complicated stuff. They all know right from wrong. Assault is wrong, sexual assault is horribly wrong, homophobic hate crimes in the military are, unquestionably, wrong. And failing to speak up in the face of these things is the act of a coward, let alone conduct unbecoming an officer.

Steve wakes up some time later, sprawled out on the sand, chilled to the bone. Even in Hawaii, it can get cold at night. He wonders if he’ll ever have another night with Danny, curled up in bed together, laughing and kissing and laughing some more. He’s never had so much fun with another person, in or out of bed. He’s never had so much to lose.

Steve drags himself into the house and collapses on the couch until the sun comes up, then forces himself to shower and dress. He considers putting on his uniform, but it feels wrong to seek its comfort given the story he has to tell. Instead he pulls on ordinary clothes, a short sleeve shirt and cargo pants, and tries not to throw up when he sees his face staring back at him in the bathroom mirror.

At eight o’clock, he squares his shoulders and opens the door, nearly crashing into Danny, who is standing outside on the porch, coffee in his hand.

“Drink this, and get in the car,” Danny says. His eyes meet Steve’s briefly, and Steve can tell that for all his bravado, Danny didn’t sleep much last night either. It’s one more ache on top of a mile high pile of them.

But Danny strides down the path and Steve can do nothing but follow him. There’s a moment of confusion when they get to the Camaro, both of them heading for the passenger seat.

“What, all of a sudden you don’t want to drive? Have I got to do all the work here?” Danny is trying to keep his voice light, Steve can tell, but Steve’s mind is still spinning. He can’t process the fact that Danny is here, he doesn’t know whether to be happy or to give in to the panic threatening to overwhelm him.

Danny finally huffs out a sigh and gets into the driver’s seat when Steve stays frozen in place. He’s just glad Danny didn’t throw the keys at him, he probably would have just stared as they fell to the ground.

“Come on, zip zip, we’re not getting any younger,” Danny says, waving at Steve until he gets into the car. “Might run into traffic on the way to the base,” Danny mumbles as he backs out of the driveway. “Not like anyone here even knows what traffic is. Come to New Jersey, check out the George Washington Bridge, you’ll see some real traffic.”

It’s a classic Danny rant, one of his older ones, and it gives Steve a glimmer of hope. But then he remembers where they’re going, and he wonders if Danny showed up to make sure he actually went through with it.

“Couldn’t trust me to do this myself, could you,” Steve says.

Danny shoots a sharp look at Steve, and then flings his arm out to punch him in the arm. Hard. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Steve rubs his arm, and quickly forces himself to reevaluate the situation. Danny’s alternating between glaring at him and the road, and Steve’s eyes take in his closely shaven face, carefully styled hair, perfect tie…

“Your tie,” Steve starts, earning himself a wide eyed look on top of the glare.

“Yes, I’m wearing a tie. You can’t possibly object to this tie, Steven. You gave it to me yourself.”

Steve was charged with getting Danny a gag gift last Christmas for the Five-0 party, and he followed through, more or less, with a tie adorned with Danny’s least favorite fruit. But it’s made out of fine silk, tiny delicate gold pineapples on a soft blue background, and Steve could tell by the way had Danny stroked it and tried to hide his smile that he had done well.

“I did get it for you, didn’t I?” Steve says, in wonderment. Danny is dressed up, for him, for this horrid, sickening day.

But he still doesn’t understand. If anything, he’s even more confused. “Why,” Steve’s voice cracks and he starts over. “Why are you here?”

Danny shifts and Steve thinks he’s going to smack him again, but it doesn’t happen. Instead Danny reaches for Steve, his hand landing on Steve’s arm, and he sort of pets him awkwardly before putting his hand back on the steering wheel.

“I could ask myself the same question,” Danny says. “I did, more or less, for a good number of hours last night. But in the end, I kept winding up in the same place. No matter what you did, Steve, no matter what you do, I’m with you. I may be angry, and upset, and fucking confused as hell, but I’m still with you.”

Steve’s heart feels like it’s going to beat out of his chest. “It’s that simple?”

“Didn’t say it was simple. But that’s how it is.”

When they get to the base, Steve expects Danny to drop him off, but he doesn’t. Instead Danny gets out of the car and walks inside with Steve, doing what he always tends to do when faced with Steve’s military background, and acts as if he’s not intimidated in the least. There have been times when Danny’s behavior exasperated Steve, when he wished that Danny could show military officers the respect they deserved. But today, when Steve feels like he’s a dead man walking, when he’s about to dig into the military’s stained and dirty laundry, Danny’s civilian stubbornness is a comfort.

Danny accepts an invitation to wait while Steve goes in to his meeting – it’s not Tripler, where they can hold each other’s hands while put-upon nurses fuss over them. Steve has to do this himself. But knowing he has Danny at his back, well, it’s pretty amazing. It gives him just a little boost of confidence, the thought that if Danny hasn’t abandoned him, maybe there will be something worth salvaging of himself when all is said and done.

Almost three hours later, when Steve finally makes it back to the lobby, Danny is still sitting there. He doesn’t complain about how long it took, or how bored he’s been, he just jumps up out of his seat and walks at Steve’s side back to the car.

It’s not until they’ve left the base and pulled on to the highway that Danny’s shoulders relax. Steve knows there wasn’t much chance of the Navy actually detaining him, but he’s still as relieved as Danny seems to be that he’s back on familiar turf, riding along in the Camaro like it’s just an ordinary day.

Steve waits for Danny to ask him how it went, but he doesn’t, just reaches over and gives Steve’s hand a squeeze. Steve grabs on tight and doesn’t let go.

He realizes he must have dozed off when the car pulls to a stop. They’re in front of Rachel’s new house, a modest ranch with a pretty yard. “Danny…?”

“We missed Charlie’s soccer game, so I figured we’d stop by and say hello.”

It seems like a weird time for a visit, but Steve can’t bring himself to question it. Steve feels like he’s in a daze as they get out of the car, Charlie running out of the house to fling himself at Danny. Danny lifts his son in the air and then tucks him against his hip as Rachel ushers them inside.

“Take this guy for a sec while I compare calendars with Rachel, okay? We’ve got to figure out logistics for Grace’s cheer retreat, there’s a thorny carpool issue that needs my attention.” Steve doesn’t really register what Danny is saying, but then he’s got his arms full of a squirming five-year old and he’s forced to focus.

“Uncle Steve, I scored a goal today! It was awesome! But I fell and got a scratch, wanna see?” Charlie slides out of Steve’s arms and flops down on the floor, pointing to his leg. He’s still wearing his cute little red soccer t-shirt with the name of his team and their sponsor on it (My Café, a truly awesome breakfast spot in Kapolei), but his long socks have been pushed down to reveal a couple of red marks.

“Looks like it hurts, buddy. How’d that happen?” Steve sits down next to him and is regaled with the story of Briana and Kai and how the ball somehow rolled right between them towards the goal and would have gone in except for how Charlie dived and caught it with his hands.

“But I wasn’t ‘posed to use my hands, ‘cause it wasn’t my turn to be keeper. But Kai said I did good anyway and gave me a high five.” Charlie raises his hand over his head to demonstrate, and Steve gives him a high five. This leaves Charlie completely open to tickling, which Charlie is clearly anticipating, so before long they are rolling on the ground together, Charlie laughing uncontrollably as he pokes his little fingers into Steve’s stomach.

“Whew, I’m tired,” Charlie finally exclaims dramatically. “And hungry. Mom said she’d bring us a snack soon. Wanna read books while we wait?”

“Sure, pal.” Steve marvels a bit at the boy’s ability to manage him. He’s already so much like Danny. Charlie dashes across the room to retrieve a handful of books and then climbs into Steve’s lap. “Okay, go.”

Charlie hands Steve a book about sharks, and Steve makes comfortable, still on the floor, but with his back against an armchair. Charlie leans his head against Steve’s shoulder, a warm weight against his chest. His soft blond hair tickles Steve’s nose as he drags his finger across the pages of the book, outlining the pictures he likes most.

They’re reading about how many teeth sharks have and comparing them to how many Charlie has in his own mouth, and whether Charlie will have as many teeth as a shark when he’s all grown up, when Rachel comes in and sets a tray of cheese and fruit on the table.

Danny follows her and sits down on the couch, a fond expression on his face as he meets Steve’s eyes.

“You want to take over?” Steve asks quietly, but Charlie shakes his head firmly.

“Nuh-uh. I like reading with you, Uncle Steve. Keep going.” Charlie snuggles closer in Steve’s arms.

Steve feels tears well up in his eyes. Charlie is all that is good and sweet in the world, and he trusts Steve to look after him. He’s not sure he should be allowed to do that anymore, but Danny clearly wants him to believe differently.

Soon the little boy is asleep, and Rachel takes him back to his room. Danny slides a napkin full of cheese slices and small rounds of bread towards Steve, along with a glass of juice Steve hadn’t even noticed. Steve eats quickly, his hand shaking as he lifts the glass. He hadn’t even realized he was hungry.

“Charlie loves you, you know,” Danny says quietly as they head back out to the car. “So does Grace.”

Steve knows what Danny’s doing, knows he’s trying to make him see the good in himself. He wouldn’t have thought it would help, but it does. Danny’s sweet little boy is a powerful force, like Danny himself.

Back on the highway, Danny has apparently decided that Steve is fortified enough to talk about what happened.

“All right, fill me in.”

Steve knows he’s not asking about the gossip from Charlie’s soccer game. Another time, he might have pretended to misunderstand, work Danny up into a little friendly banter. But not today. “They weren’t surprised when I told them about Clark.”

“What? What do you mean, they weren’t surprised?” Danny almost swerves, cursing to himself as he eases his foot off the pedal to slide into the right lane.

“Apparently there have been other accusations.”

“And yet he’s still being considered for-” Danny’s voice drips with disbelief.

“Yup.” Steve lets this sink in. He’s still not sure it’s registering properly in his own mind, the knowledge that these types of allegations mean so little. It’s upsetting on so many levels. He knows the military has its faults, isn’t perfect by far, but he hates to believe that a man like Clark would be allowed to continue in his position once his superiors became aware of his misconduct.

In fact, as the meeting this morning had gone on, Steve had just become more confident that he was doing the right thing. And he didn’t want it to get covered up any longer. He was still trying to figure out how to best approach it, but there was one move that seemed like a potential next step. “I told them I’d go public with it, if nothing was done.”

Danny lets out a low whistle. “Damn. That’s bold, babe.”

Steve thinks Danny sounds proud of him for being willing to expose himself to the world on this, but it’s not just him that would be at risk. Going public would also inevitably reveal the victim’s identity, even if Steve tried to keep it quiet. Nathan might not welcome that kind of attention, especially after all this time. “I think I’d have to ask Nathan first, though.”

Danny doesn’t respond, and Steve is suddenly scared that he screwed up. “Do you think I shouldn’t talk to Nathan? Is that a bad idea? Should I not go public?”

“Maybe? I don’t know. Would it help him to have this on the news, on the internet and everywhere else? Or would it just be to make yourself feel better?” Danny glances at Steve. “Sorry – I don’t mean to -- I don’t have a clue how to do this, Steve. This is above my pay scale. But there must be people who know, who’ve thought it through. I think you’ve got to talk to someone.”

“Like a counselor?” Steve’s had the same thought.

“Yeah, among other people. I contacted my guy, the one I talked to after the liver thing, to see if he could refer you to someone.” Danny pauses. “I didn’t say too much, promise, just the general gist. You’re not mad, are you?”

Steve chokes out a sound. “Mad? How the hell would I have any right to be mad?”

“I dunno, this isn’t my business, you don’t like therapy, I should butt out, I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing, god, any number of reasons.”

Steve parses this, tries to figure out how to respond. He knew this would take a toll on Danny, he just didn’t anticipate him trying to share Steve’s burdens, too. He should have known better. “You’re doing fine, Danno. More than fine. I’m – I’m so grateful, you can’t even imagine.”

Danny relaxes. “Okay. Good. Just, well, tell me if I cross a line, okay?”

Steve nods, and they drive on. Steve can see Danny formulating another question. “So, um, what’s gonna happen with you?”

“Not sure yet.”

Danny raises an eyebrow at him, and Steve sighs. “They didn’t seem to know what to do with me. Kept saying it was over twenty years ago, and I was just a kid, and I didn’t do anything that any kid wouldn’t have done. Tried to blame whoever did the investigation.”

“That doesn’t sound right.”

“No, it doesn’t. It isn’t. I had obligations as a midshipman, I was part of the Navy even then.”

“This doesn’t give me warm feelings about the military, you know that.”

“I know. For what it’s worth, it’s not over… it’ll go through the process, I have an appointment with an investigator next week.”

“But you’re probably still going to be a sailor, right?”

Steve clenches his fists together, lets himself say the words he’s been thinking all morning. “Unless I leave.”

“Is that something you’re considering?”

“Yeah. After all this… yeah.” He leans his head back and lets out a long sigh, wishing he could just close his eyes and make it all go away. “By the way, I’m meeting the governor tonight. Face to face. Figured I’d better keep him in the loop.”

Danny shoots a look at him. “You’re not gonna lose your job, Steve. Especially not if the military doesn’t even care about it.”

Steve shrugs. “We’ll see.” He wishes he could be more certain about it. Next to losing Danny, losing Five-0 wouldn’t compare, but it would still hurt.

They finally get to Steve’s house. Danny climbs out of the car and stretches his arms up in the air, his back muscles rippling under his thin shirt. “I think Charlie had the right idea.”

“What’s that?” Steve asks, walking up the path and unlocking the front door. It feels like it was years ago that he came outside and found Danny there, ready to stand by him through this awful day.

“Naps,” Danny says, his voice light. “We should take a nap. You’ll be in better shape to talk to the governor later.”

This sounds like a fantastic idea. “I couldn’t agree more.”

They drag themselves up the stairs and both strip down to their shorts. Danny slides under the covers first and holds an arm out for Steve.

“Come here, you.”

Steve obeys, his breath catching as he digs his head into the side of Danny’s neck. “Thank you. Thank you for still being here.” Steve can hardly believe that Danny is welcoming him back into his arms, his bed. His life.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Danny says softly.

Steve lets himself sink into Danny, breathe in his scent, feel his strong body wrapped around his own. He wants to hold on to this feeling, the reassurance and safety of his lover’s embrace, but Steve can’t quite relax yet.

“How can you forgive me for this?” Steve finally asks, his words whispered into Danny’s skin. Because as much as Danny said yesterday that he wasn’t the one Steve needed to apologize to, Steve knows better. Steve’s not who Danny thought he was. Even after all they’ve been through together, too many near-death experiences and demonstrations of loyalty to count, Steve hid this from him.

Danny wraps a strong hand around the back of Steve’s neck, fingers threading up into his hair, and shifts until he can meet Steve’s gaze. “I love you, that’s how. Love you like crazy, and I’m not willing to give that up. You’ve got some work to do, I think. But we’re gonna get through it, you and me. ”

“How can I fix it, though? I can’t go back.”

“Yeah, that’s why you move forward. Do something to address the kind of mindset that let that attack happen in the first place. We’ll figure out how – talk to advocates, support groups, I don’t know. You’ve got the kind of reputation, the rank, to get people to listen. If you’re willing to try.”

“I am. Whatever it takes.” He’s not sure this kind of thing can be fixed, not easily, but Danny’s right – he’s got to try.

“Good.” Danny shifts, curling closer around Steve, his hand shifting to stroke his cheek. “I know you, Steve. I know what’s in your heart. You’re a good man, the best man I know.”

“I don’t feel like a good man.”

Danny kisses his cheek, warm lips pressing gently against his skin, and Steve shivers. “Trust me, you are. I don’t pretend to know how it all works. Maybe that experience back in college affected you so much, you never let something slide again. You turned it into determination to do the right thing, to not let the bad guys get away. Or maybe that’s all just psycho-babble, I don’t know. But you’ve made a positive difference in so many people’s lives, I can’t even count them. And if you put your mind to it, you can make a difference with this, too.”

Steve would like to believe this, he really, really would. But he can’t help doubting himself. “Are you sure?”

“I don’t have all the answers, Steve,” Danny says, pulling Steve tightly against his chest and wrapping his arms around his shoulders. “God knows, I wish I did,” Danny breathes into his hair. “Just give it time. Work on it. I’ll be with you, all the way.”

Steve’s pretty sure that nothing can make up for the harm Nathan suffered. But given that he can’t turn back the clock, he wants to believe what Danny says – that he can do something now to make a difference. And with Danny by his side, he figures he’s got a fighting chance.

**********************************

Note: "Conduct Unbecoming" is from Article 133 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice: "Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman: Any commissioned officer, cadet, or midshipman who is convicted of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman shall be punished as a court-martial may direct." A gentleman is understood to have a duty to avoid dishonest acts, displays of indecency, lawlessness, dealing unfairly, indecorum, injustice, or acts of cruelty.

Disclaimer: I have no experience with how the military would actually investigate either the initial complaint, or Steve’s confession years later; any mistakes are my own. But I do have personal experience with what it feels like to be faced with the dilemma presented a loved one asks for forgiveness for something arguably unforgiveable. This story would have been even harder to write if Steve had been the assailant (as in the case discussed in the Roxane Gay podcast) but I just couldn’t do it. I welcome your thoughts, but please be gentle – it’s the time of year for forgiveness in the Jewish tradition, so perhaps I erred on that side.

#mcdanno #steve mcgarrett #danny williams #H50 #my fic

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ladylynse · 6 years

Note

"My BOIS just won!" -quoted from a random guy at the gym I just overheard about the Patriots vs Jags game. ~Nym

You said Secret Quartet or American Dragon, Nym, and I went with Secret Quartet with an extra helping of (read: more characters from) AD:JL. Enjoy!

Victory: [FF | AO3] It’s more than just a game, in the end, but the only way to come out ahead is to rely on people who are practically strangers.

“My BOIS just won!” Trixie exclaimed, punching the air. Sheturned to Jazz, grinning and holding out a hand. “Pay up, Smarty Pants.”

Jazz huffed, crossing her arms. She hadn’t needed to squintinto the sunlight to see what Jake and Randy had pulled. “They were cheating.You cannot tell me that wasn’t cheating.”

“My homeboy can’t be cheating if there ain’t no rulesagainst it,” Trixie countered. “Back me up here, Haley.”

Jake’s little sister bit her lip. “Technically—”

“Technically?” Jazz interrupted. “Technically, she’s right? Is thatwhat you’re going to say? Really?” She rolled her eyes. “I shouldn’t haveagreed to let you be the referee.”

“She’s got better eyes than the rest of us,” Spud pointedout. “Wasn’t that what you said earlier?”

“And anyway, that totally wasn’t planned, so it wasn’tcheating.” Howard crumpled up the empty bag of chips and shoved it into hispocket. “Planning ain’t Randy’s style. So just go ahead and admit that we won.Randy and Jake totally wonked Team Halloween’s cheese.”

Jazz sighed, knowing she was outnumbered here. She was Danny’sonly representative in their little audience, and Adrien had come alone unlessyou counted Plagg. “They aren’t Team Halloween,” she muttered.

“Um, hello? Ghost? Black cat?” Trixie was smirking. “Theysure are. You shoulda known they couldn’t stand up against a dragon and aninja.”

Jazz was about to try to retaliate again when thecontestants of their little contest showed up. Adrien’s hair was singed and theleft shoulder of Danny’s suit had been burned away, and Randy was missing hisscarf, but no one looked too worse for the wear. “Everyone okay?” she asked,just to be sure.

“That was cheating,” Danny complained as he shot a pointedlook at Randy. Which meant everyone wasfine or someone would have said something immediately.

Jazz relaxed, and she noticed the others do so as well. Thepurpose of this little test had never been to beat anyone up, just to test outtheir abilities on a makeshift magical obstacle course as they raced around theisland. They’d paired into twos to force them to be mindful of a partner—no onewon until both teammates had crossed the finished line—and to give them backupwhen they came across something more atypical for them. It had been a way ofkeeping everyone on their toes. They might not always get a chance to fighttogether, and being able to fight well in different units was important.

It had devolved into a full-out two-on-two.

Taking bets had been Fu’s idea, even though the magicalguardian hadn’t been around to witness the match.

Jazz should have known better than to agree. Really, sheshould have. But Danny had been all over it, confident in his abilities, and she’dwatched Adrien fight as Chat Noir earlier and knew that he could hold his own,no matter what the course threw at them.

But it wasn’t the course that had gotten them in the end.

Randy pulled off his mask, his ninja suit disappearing asquickly as Jake had dragoned down. “Not our fault you forgot we both had firepowers.”

Adrien snorted and pulled some camembert out of his bag tofeed Plagg. “I didn’t know you could do that and control the earth at the same time.”

Randy grinned. “I’ve gotten better at that. The Sandjas havesaved my butt more than once.”

“No lie there.”

“Hey!” Randyreached out to punch Howard in the arm. “I have saved you countless times.”

“And I have saved youand your sorry little secret just as many.”

“Not really.”

“You believe what you need to believe, Cunningham.”

“Regardless,” interjected Jazz, “the terms of the agreementwere just to finish the course first, notattack the opposing team.”

“But not attacking the other team wasn’t explicitly stated,”Trixie cut in, “so Jake and Randy are in the clear. Haley said so, and she’sref. Besides, with some of these guys, you need to play a bit dirty to getahead.”

“Gee, thanks,” Danny muttered. “You remember that when I icethese guys next time around.”

“They do have a point,” agreed Adrien mildly. “I don’t mindconceding this round.” The others looked surprised, and then he grinned andadded, “Just means we’ll spook them next time because they don’t know whatother tricks this cat still has in the bag.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Jake asked. “I mean, you have amagic cat thing, and that’s, like, it, yo. That ain’t gonna beat all the differentkinds of magic I can do.”

“I find that insulting.” Plagg swallowed his cheese andzipped up to Jake’s eye level. “For one, I’m a kwami, which you should know ifyou claim to be a guardian of the magical world. For another, you haven’t evenseen him use Cataclysm yet, and dragon eyes or not, we could take you in thedark.”

“Yeah, but seeing in the dark—”

“Plagg’s older than anyone else here.” Adrien seemed to knowwhat the kwami was getting at, even if no one else did. “Fu might have beenaround a while, but Plagg’s still got millennia on him. Do you really want todiscount him that easily?”

“We’re fighting you,not Plagg,” countered Randy. “And, anyway, the Nomicon’s got a whole lot ofinformation—”

“And I could always just go ask someone in the Ghost Zone ifI need to know anything, especially since Cujo doesn’t mind taking messages forme.”

“Well, Gramps—”

Jazz rolled her eyes and left the boys to their fighting.Trixie and Spud seemed too interested in it to move, but Haley joined her onthe sandy beach a few metres away from them. “You still don’t think this is agood idea?” she asked quietly.

Jazz bit her lip. “I think this still smells like a setup,”she confessed. “I mean, everyone getting a mysterious message at the same time?When it still explains nothing? I expect that from Clockwork, and maybe Randythinks it’s par for the course from the Nomicon, but shouldn’t Jake questionthe Dragon Council about something like this, when he hasn’t had anyinteraction with anyone before? Or Adrien, no matter what ‘secret mission’ heapparently received from his Guardian? He’s got a partner back in Paris, forcrying out loud.”

“He also said this isn’t the first time one of them has beenpulled for a secret mission,” Haley reminded her. “And the Dragon Council will rarelyshow all their cards if they can help it. That’s one of the reasons CouncillorChang could do as much as she did.” Seeing Jazz’s questioning look, Haleyadded, “Long story. Let’s just say I learned not to envy Jake too much forbeing the American Dragon.”

Jazz drew her knees up to her chest and hugged them. “Sothis doesn’t feel off to you? At all? We’re just a bunch of kids. If theyreally expect us to fight, shouldn’t they at least tell us what we’re going upagainst?”

“Maybe they think it’s safer if we don’t know all thedetails.”

Jazz snorted. “Ignorance in battle is hardly a good thing.More likely, they don’t know the details themselves. Whoever’s really behind this,I mean. Because I highly doubt Clockwork, the Nomicon, the Dragon Council, andthe Guardian all suddenly realized how very real this threat apparently is anddecided to throw us all into this together.” She sighed. “We should be inschool. Instead, my parents think Danny and I are off getting a greateducational experience courtesy of Vlad Masters, and there’s no telling howlong that lie will hold.”

“Mom’s covering for us,” Haley said. “Dad won’t suspectanything. And Adrien said that his father might not even notice if we deal withthis quickly enough.”

Jazz raised her eyebrows and looked at Haley. “He thinks hisfather won’t notice that he left the country? Left the continent?”

Haley shrugged. “Something about a busy schedule and themrarely seeing each other, and he fixed something with the people he usuallydoes see on a regular basis. And his family’s rich.”

“Still.”

“He framed it as some fashion thing. Has to do a shoot whenwe get back to the NYC.” Haley blew out a breath. “You guys should feelhonoured, really. Randy being the Ninja, I could see him maybe wrangling an invitationto Draco Island, but the rest of you? You’ll be lucky if they don’t try toerase your memories after this.”

Jazz didn’t want to think about that possibility, especiallywhen Haley talked about it so blithely. “You don’t think this is dangerous, allof us leaving? Adrien left Ladybug in Paris, we’re covered in Amity Park, andapparently there is no shortage of dragons in New York City, but who does Randyhave in Norrisville?”

“A robot.” At Jazz’s incredulous look, Haley added, “Whichis why Sun—my dragon master—will be running out there from time to time tocheck on things until we get back.”

“Until they get back, you mean.” Jazz had no illusions abouthow long she’d be allowed to tag along. “Once this starts, whatever it is….They’ll be on their own.”

“They won’t be on their own. They’ll have each other. They’llwin.”

“Teamwork doesn’t exactly ensure victory. We don’t even know….”Jazz hated to bring this up to someone so young, but it had been preying on hermind since yesterday, when all this had started. It felt like it had beenmonths ago now. “We don’t even know if they’ll all get through this.”

“That’s why we’re here, isn’t it? So they can train andlearn each other’s skills? They won’t ever win if they don’t know themselves.”

“They won’t win if they don’t know who they’re really fighting!”

“They will.”

“How can you be so confident?”

Haley lay down so that she was staring up at the cloudlesssky above them. “Because that’s how this works. Someone sent that message tothe others or something happened that made them realize what was coming, evenif they don’t know the details yet. That’s why everyone’s here. Our informationmight come slowly, but even if we’re piecing it together from differentsources, it’ll come. And Jake’s getting better about waiting before diving intoa fight. They won’t be going into this blind. They’ll know their enemy as wellas they know themselves by the time this is through.”

“‘If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory willnot stand in doubt,’” quoted Jazz. “‘If you know Heaven and know Earth, you maymake your victory complete.’”

She looked over to see Haley smiling. “That’s right. Ifigure your brother has Heaven covered, with the ghost thing, and what he doesn’t,Jake’ll be able to figure out to make sure they have clear skies. And Randy andAdrien will know the lay of the land or be able to shape it to fit their needs.They’re going to be unstoppable.” Haley sat up, glanced behind her, and added, “Assumingthey ever stop arguing.”

Jazz laughed, finally feeling hopeful again, and climbed toher feet with Haley to go rejoin the others.

(see more fics)

#secret quartet #danny phantom #adjl #rc9gn #miraculous ladybug #fanfiction #ladylynse #my writing #replies #crossover snippet #adjl snippet #dp snippet #ml snippet #rc9gn snippet #snippets #Anonymous

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newstfionline · 7 years

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How an American in London Learned to Fear the ASBO

By Danny Hakim, NY Times, July 26, 2017

LONDON--Dogs cannot safely bark in this city.

This troubling piece of information first came to my attention after I read an article in The Times of London that ran under the headline “Dogs That Bark at Strangers Could Face Canine ASBO.”

I was a newcomer to the city at the time and had no idea what an ASBO was. But it sounded bad.

The article was accompanied by a fearsome image of a Cujo-like creature, his head tilted as if in midroar. The first paragraph warned: “Dog owners who let their animals growl at strangers or bark in gardens could be ordered to control their pets or face fines”--of roughly $4,000 at the time--”under new laws coming into force on Monday.”

As the owner of a lightly trained golden retriever, I was concerned.

The article never explained what ASBO was, since only an American expat like myself would have to ask. I learned that it stood for “antisocial behavior order,” and it had come in with Tony Blair’s Labour government in the late 1990s.

While ASBOs were officially renamed in England and Wales in 2014, the term has lived on, particularly in tabloid headlines, to refer to actions governed by the Antisocial Behavior, Crime and Policing Act. Expanded and streamlined as part of these recent changes, it is aimed at preventing people over 10 years of age, and their pets, from behaving badly.

There is something particularly British about it, coming from a society that likes to throw back a pint but also to keep things orderly and proper. The act has civil and criminal elements but is often exercised as a threat. Warning letters hold up the possibility of an ASBO, or, as the civil version is now technically called, an injunction.

Over time, the term ASBO took on a grammatical life of its own. ASBO can be a noun, as in “Stop being an ASBO.” It can appear as an adjective, with one woman on Twitter describing her dog as “slightly ASBO-ish.” It even comes in gerund form: “My crazy neighbors need ASBO-ing so bad,” another Twitter commenter wrote.

The tabloids called a family of marauding swans in Cambridge “Mr. Asbo” (the grandfather), “Asboy” (the son) and “Asbaby” (the grandson).

The Daily Mail has referred to a “moaning wife” as “Nagsbo.” Martin Amis titled his 2012 novel “Lionel Asbo.”

“If you’re young and a bit mouthy, you would get an ASBO,” said Davide Wheller, an editor of a London-based fashion and music magazine called ASBO. “It’s a term that’s used against young people. It brands a certain class that gets the ASBO, so we’ve taken this word and turned it on its head.”

That’s not to say social behavior injunctions are aimed only at the young.

Actions that fall under the antisocial behavior act have run the gamut. There was the hotelier in Blackpool who received a warning letter early this year after renaming his bed-and-breakfast the Viagra Hotel. Before that, a couple in Hampshire were fined more than $2,600 because their bichon frisés barked 150 times in 51 minutes. The Mirror reported on an ASBO-prone cat named Rocky. A farmer got an ASBO for his unruly pigs.

“I think it’s misused,” said Anne Maple, 62, who is sort of a celebrity among the London tabloids. She said in an interview that she has received 11 warning letters from her landlord, Lewisham Homes, the company that manages public housing for her local council.

The letters have included warnings about the condition of a fence on her property and the amount of cat feces in her trash bins. She says the threats have come in retaliation for her own complaints about the management company, which did not respond to a request for comment.

“The people it was intended for, like kids graffiti-ing up a wall, they just turned it around, and they wear the ASBO like a badge,” she said. “They actually call me Granny ASBO! The local kids do, ever so nicely. They say, ‘You’re one of us now, Gran.’”

A favorite ASBO-receiving subtype are those who are vocal during sex. An amorous Newcastle couple was reportedly cited twice, even after they had moved their bed into their dining room. Neighbors had claimed they “were watching television when they were disturbed” after “they heard screaming from the defendant next door,” according to The Telegraph. The presiding judge reportedly told the offenders, “You have made your neighbors’ lives thoroughly miserable.”

Far more disturbing is the classic rock ASBO that befell grandparents in the suburbs of Plymouth, who were written up for playing Fleetwood Mac and Roy Orbison too loudly in their garden.

This seemed a bridge too far. I also enjoy Fleetwood Mac. Who among us hasn’t done something that could have earned an ASBO at one time or another?

This would never fly back home, I thought. Then I talked to Craig Johnstone, a principal lecturer in criminology at the University of Brighton.

“The Blair government was seduced by what was happening in New York, and what Bratton and Rudy Giuliani had been doing with broken windows,” he said, referring to the controversial strategy of aggressively policing minor offenses. Mr. Giuliani enacted the “broken windows” policy when he was mayor of New York with help from his police commissioner at the time, William J. Bratton.

“I think there was a little bit of ‘What could we do as a British broken windows?’” Mr. Johnstone added.

My real concern was parochial. If you read through the legislation, you find penalties for dogs “that people say are causing distress or threatening their cats.”

Ruh-roh. The postage-stamp-size yard behind our flat is a way station for cats, pigeons and foxes, and my golden retriever has been known to exercise his vocal cords.

By the letter of the law, you must keep your dog under control “anyplace in England or Wales (whether or not a public place).” Theoretically, I could get an injunction if my dog was causing distress in my own home.

I may as well turn myself in.

#Britain #ASBO

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thebubblesareevil · 2 years

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Accidental acquisition pt 2

(Familiar faces)

Convincing Zatanna was the easy part, Giovanni decided to wait until Danny had healed a bit more to broach the subject with him. A week after his arrival he approached Danny about his plan.

“You want to what?!”

“Adopt you. I understand you are not in a situation where you can, nor should you, return home. You have been summoned to a whole new dimension, by my daughter no less, and don’t have anything to establish yourself with. Now it would take some work, but between my magic and my connections with the justice league me adopting you should be do able.” He said with an optimistic look on his face

Danny looked at him t like he was crazy “and what does your daughter think about this?” He laughed

“Zatanna is quite excited at the prospect of a sibling.”

“Look I really appreciate the offer, i really do, but I think you’re forgetting, I’m DEAD”

Giovanni gave him a look that clearly said he was not amused. “In your own words “only half” which I would like for you to explain at some point” Danny goes to comment but Giovanni stops him. “In your own time of course, I won’t push you.” He gives Danny a tender look “I know this is a big decision, so how about a trial run for now. Stay with us for the next month, that’s how long our contract at this location will be, and if you decide you absolutely don’t want to come with us then we will go our separate ways, however if you decide you want to come with us you are more than welcome.”

Danny thought about what was being offered, on the one hand if he stayed he had a chance at a family, on the other hand he would be free to go wherever he pleased, there was a whole new world out there. Danny sighed “I’ll stay for the month and we’ll see what happens. I won’t make any promises though.”

And so began a month of getting to know the two magicians. In the morning Giovanni would make breakfast before they would go over everything that needed to be done that day. Zatanna did online classes after breakfast while Danny would help Giovanni set up for the show that night. After she was done with classes, Giovanni would work with her practicing his magic, it was always so fun. They didn’t do shows every night though. On nights where they were free the three would go exploring the town, going into obscure shops and (despite what Giovanni claimed) occasionally getting lost along the way. Danny loved those nights. A little over a week after the talk though Zatanna started to act strange. She would go into the prop room and just stay in there for at least a half hour at a time. Danny started to get suspicious when he realized she had taken the book used to summon him with her. He thought things were going well and couldn’t help but feel a little betrayed, however when he confronted her she was surprised. She made him promise not to tell her dad and dragged him into the prop room. He was confused as she started rummaging around the room before she exclaimed “aha gotcha!” And to Danny’s surprise and elation she pulled out a VERY familiar tiny green dog. When he saw Danny he went crazy until she dropped him and tackled Danny. “CUJO! Down boy!” Danny laughed as he was viciously licked to death.

“You know him!?” Zatanna asked, a huge smile on her face as she rubbed cujo’s belly

“Know him? He’s the reason i started dating my ex, technically he’s also the reason we broke up. But she was more of a cat person anyway so we’re cool.” He paused “is this why you’ve been bringing the book in here? To find out more about cujo?” Zatanna looked a little embarrassed

“We’ll I knew he wasn’t a normal dog, obviously, but I wasn’t sure if he needed anything, what do you even feed a glowing green dog.” Danny laughed and said “this”

Slowly his hand began to glow and a glowing green goo like substance started to secrete from Danny hand. Cujo immediately began licking at the substance. “What is THAT?”

“It’s ectoplasm, the ghost zone is full of it, stronger ghost don’t need as much of it as others, it can form naturally in the atmosphere from ambient emotion in the atmosphere” he explained “it’s a kind of fuel for ghosts, some ghosts go right to the source and suck the emotion out of humans. You should avoid them at all cost.” He paused “because I’m half alive my living half creates pure ectoplasm to fuel my ghost half, while my ghost half heals my human half and keeps my from fully dying.” Zatanna started to look confused.

“If ghosts are fueled by ectoplasm in the air, then why are there not more ghosts like cujo running around?”

“Oh that’s an easy one!” He grinned “most ghosts that you see are only shades, ghosts who have not entered the infinite realms and been bathed in ectoplasm. The realms are filled with pure ectoplasm which the ghosts absorb and use to get stronger. Ghosts in the mortal realm only really come into contact with weak remnants of emotion, like… jello!” Zatanna let’s out a snort

“Don’t laugh I’m serious. Think of the infinite realms as a solid fully formed block of jello, but like those weird 60s jellos because there is a LOT of weird stuff in there, it’s completely undiluted and filling. The mortal realm is more like… jello water where you added way too much water and no matter how long you put it in the fridge it won’t solidify.” Zatanna smiles

“You’re really passionate about this huh?” She asks as she lifts up a content cujo.

“Yeah, I guess I am. I’ll admit it’s nice to talk about this to someone who will actually listen. My parents didn’t… get it. They thought everything thing about ghosts were evil. My friends tried but they never really saw me turning into a half-ghost as being more than me getting cool powers. My sister… Jazz she always tried her best to understand. She would listen to me talk for hours about the other ghosts. At first I thought she was just indulging me, but then one day I saw her just… hanging out with kitty. Talking like she was a perfectly normal living person. It was nice.”

Zatanna lays a hand on Danny’s shoulder “I know I’m no substitute but, I’d love to learn more about the infinite realms, and in exchange I’ll teach you more about magic! Deal?” Danny stared at her extended hand and then looked at the happy cujo sitting in her arms before grasping her hand. “Deal. But we’re gonna have to tell your dad about cujo. I know from experience he won’t stay hidden for much longer. It’s best to rip off the bandage now then to have it ripped to shreds when he jumps on stage with you.”

Zatanna laughs “I guess you’re right”

——-

Giovanni was incredibly reluctant to invite the green dog into the family but one look at his children’s happy faces and he placed a glamour on the puppy and made a bed for him next to Danny’s place on the couch (he tried to refuse but Danny insisted he wouldn’t take his bed if he wasn’t dying)

Giovanni didn’t truly bond with cujo until after a show 3 days later when a couple of boys started flirting with his kids and had their ankles bitten for their efforts (neither teen was amused). Giovanni got him a collection of dog toys and was even brought into his magic act.

———

But all things must end and the month was quickly drawing to a close. Giovanni had been planning a night out to celebrate their time together no matter what Danny decided. Everything was going well, he had sent Zatanna out to grab a few last minute supplies before they left at the end of the week. She hadn’t returned, he paced back and forth, worried he was overreacting he cast a tracking spell. According to the spell she was still at the theater. After telling Danny to wait at the hotel he rushed to the theater to check on his daughter. What he found was a nightmare, his daughter was bound to the stage with her mouth covered she was unable to utter a spell to save herself, she seemed to be in a daze. Wizard walked across the stage.

“Welcome one and all to the final performance of the great Giovanni Zatara!” He laughed as Giovanni moved to attack “now now I wouldn’t be so rash, wouldn’t want anything to happen to your precious daughter, now would we?” Flames exploded around Zatanna.

“Now shall we have some fun?” Wizard attacked

The fight was difficult but Giovanni earned his place on the justice league for a reason and he managed to gain the advantage. Just as he was making his move to subdue Wizard, in a last ditch effort he threw an enchanted spell at Zatanna, it never hit. A green barrier appeared in front of Zatanna and the flames vanished, the ground coated in ice. From behind wizard a figure rose from the ground, a hooded cloak bathed in stars donning is form. He suddenly vanished and immediately reappeared in front of wizard. An uttered in a voice that promised nothing but death

D̷͉̗̖̩̻͔̎̉͜o̴͖̿̂̕͝n̷̡̖͖̫̞͉̥̜̐̽̽̿̌͝’̵̡̡̼̭̣̗͙̪́͛͊t̷̠̮̗̋̈́̓̀̄ ̶͚̋̚̚e̶̪̭̮̺͒͋̂̆͒̍̋̏͘v̵̯̖̈́̽̈́̆ě̶̛̻̳̍̍͑̈́̀͘͝r̵̡̰̣̰͙͉̙̾͜ ̶͇̣̘̮͈̰̬̦̳͒͗̄͘ţ̸͔̣̬̮̬͈̞͊̌́͛̇̆͝͠͠ͅó̸̪͉͒̋̃͑̔̀̕͘ů̶̳͇̗̹͙̤̈́͂̔̀̚͝ͅĉ̴̪̟̼̗̝͌̆̅̆͂̂̅͜h̸͍̖͕̞͇͚͂̎̈́̕ ̸̼̣̗̰͉̲̈͊ͅt̶̨̖̖͖͉̘͐̚h̴̨̨̺̗͉̗͈̣͛̆̔̎̀̊͝͝ẹ̴͔̮̠̺̳̠̇ṃ̷̡̞̫̻̉̓͐̅́̒̃̾͝ ̴̰̈́͐̕ã̵͇̔̊̚g̷̤͈̦͓͇͚̈́̈̀̃͗̐̊͋͠ͅȧ̷̡̩̻̗͌͂̌͆̇̊̚̕͜ͅi̶̢͚̦̞̪͋͐͆͜ň̵̡̡̢͉͚̩̯̭

Wizard collapsed to the floor shaking, Giovanni took the opportunity for what it was and subdued Wizard, placing him in a deep sleep. He turned back to the figure only to witness a bright ring of light travel down his body, revealing none other than Danny rushing towards Zatanna to make sure she was okay.

When she didn’t move he looked towards Giovanni with a scared look in his eye, “don’t worry Danny she’s just in a hypnotic sleep. We should be able to wake he with no side effects” Danny relax just a fraction as he worked. After Zatanna woke she jumped up in surprise “wizard is-!”

“Don’t worry, Danny and I managed to stop him, everyone is okay.” Zatanna looked relieved “sorry dad, I should have been more careful, he managed to sneak up on me while I was get the supplies for-” she stopped, motioning to a rather confused Danny.

“It’s okay, even villains get lucky every now and again. I’m just happy you’re safe.” The three of them headed back to the apartment together.

——

That night Danny knocked on Giovanni’s door, holding cujo close to his chest. Giovanni tiredly opens the door “can we talk?” He was instantly awake

“Of course, is everything okay? Is it about what happened today? You weren’t hurt were you?”

Danny gave a soft smile “No it’s not that.” He hesitated tightening his hold on the green pup

“Is it really okay? If I want to stay with you? To be apart of your family” Giovanni’s heart nearly burst with joy. He wrapped his arms around the two ghost holding them close.

“Of course, Zatanna and I would love for you to stay with us.” If his shirt got a little damp Giovanni didn’t say anything. “Why don’t you go get some sleep? Since you’re going to be joining us we’ll need to get some extra supplies tomorrow”

Danny smiled and the two of them headed back to bed. Giovanni on the other hand pulled out his league communicator, he had work to do.

——-

Next day Giovanni jumped out of his bed and rushed towards the sound shouting and the smell of smoke. When he looked towards the small en-suite kitchen he saw his children arguing over a smoking pan. Giovanni couldn’t suppress the smile on he face as he forced a cough and the two turned to face him. He immediately put out the budding fire “anyone up for waffles?” The day went like usual with the only exception that at the end of the day Giovanni sent Danny to the lobby to get their check out information.

When he returned to their rooms he was greeted with a room filled with floating candles and Giovanni and Zatanna in the middle of the room holding a cake that said “welcome to the family” Danny nearly teared up before bursting out laughing as cujo tackled the cake.

——-

One month later Giovanni signed the last of the adoption papers and Danny Fenton became Danny Fenton-Zatara. That night Danny called him dad for the first time.

#danny phantom #giovanni zatara #zatanna zatara #cujo #ghost king danny #dc x dp #help this turned into a fic #I still have so much planned #gonna edit it tomorrow and cross post on ao3 #I don’t actually know that much about these two #what have I done

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ancmalychild · 7 years

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{Some quick bits of info (which are out of order) on the heroic doll verse that I haven’t mentioned yet:

Danny is stuck at the age of 14. He died so - even when attached to a doll body - he doesn’t really age as a ghost. A doll can’t age either unless his parents build new parts though they won’t because his body is supposed to be temporary

The Danny clones created by Vlad are made after he managed to gain some DNA from Danny’s original body after agreeing to look after it for a second. They were created in order for him to learn more about the accident that happened to Danny as well as so he had spare human bodies of Danny in case of. Danny doesn’t know about the clones however

Dani once again is clone who is a 12 year old girl. Due to this, Vlad didn’t mean for the accident to happen however he was glad when it did since she helped him realise that his portal was too perfect to make what happened to Danny happen again. He also tries to help Dani learn how to use her powers (because he knows how dangerous it could be if someone with ghost powers can’t control them) and she sort of becomes his lab assistant

Valerie’s relationship with Danny is different in this. Even though Cujo and Danny get along, when in public (and around Valerie), Danny is always protected from the ghost dog thanks to Tucker and Sam. This - with the knowledge of his parents being ghost hunters - makes Valerie believe that Cujo doesn’t belong to Danny. Cujo still ruins her life though which makes her become a ghost hunter. She later learns Danny secret after the whole dating him thing and breaks up with him in fear that her job would cause him to be badly hurt/broken because ghosts would be against her and do anything to cause her pain

Maddie and Jack eventually catch Cujo and keep him locked in the lab until they discover what he wants. After helping him get his toy back, the dog often visits through the portal to provide Danny company when everybody is too busy to let him leave the house.

Dash isn’t as aggressive towards Danny in this verse. To him, Danny is (as everybody believes) terrible ill and it would feel too wrong. Besides, he tried to punch him once and noticed that Danny felt odd when he did.

The whole Freakshow going to Amity Park to mind control Danny didn’t happen. Instead, he continued on to gain more ghosts to add to his circus as he searched for the gems. Tucker and Sam eventually get into a race with him for the gems when Sam learns about the Reality Gauntlet (they never fight, however, due to them both not knowing that they both seek the same thing. They will eventually when they do learn).

Vlad mostly becomes Mayor (with the support of more than Jack when it comes to the family) in order to have a reason to stay in Amity Park more often. He still gets a cat btw. He actually gets two of them; the first one we see in the show and the second one we see. Maddie isn’t sure what to think when she discovers that the first one has her name but Vlad simple states that he had to buy the two as a pair and that the cat was already named that when he bought them (he even tells her that he didn’t know about the first one since he only wanted the second one. It wasn’t until he had to buy them both that he learnt about one of them being called Maddie)

It’s because of Pariah Dark that Vlad pretends to have only just learnt about Danny’s doll body. Vlad pretended that Plasmius was a different being during the whole event and, at the end, claimed he saw Plasmius return to Earth with a badly injured Danny. He then attacked the ghost in order to protect Danny and brought him back to Fenton Works in order for him, Maddie, Jack, and Jazz to fix him.

Spectra is eventually stopped after the team notices the odd amounts of ghost attacks. When the second attack happens, she learns about how they managed to attach Danny’s ghost to his doll body and tries to gain that knowledge out of them all so she can attach her ghost to a beautiful body (of course, she is defeated again)

And that’s all of them for now}

#[℘ || OOC || ᵗᶦⁿʸ ᵍʰᵒˢᵗ ]#v; heroic doll #long post #long post /#ask to tag

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thebubblesareevil · 2 years

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Life on the farm pt 10 gifts from the beyond pt 1

After a lovely dinner Danny called everyone to the living room for souvenirs. Clark was sitting on the couch with Lois sitting on the arm rest next to him. Conner sat next to them looking perfectly comfortable. Danny smiled to himself he knew they would get along if given the chance, they just needed a little push. Once Ma and pa sat in their seats with Cujo happily taking his place in Pa’s lap Danny used his claws to open a small portal and pulled out a box.

He opened the box and with a smirk he pulled out a beautifully wrapped gift. “For the lovely Miss. Lang, I hope you find this to your standards.” Lois looked surprised, but not unhappy.

“I wasn’t expecting anything, but thanks spooky!” She took the gift and happily began to unwrap it as Pa leaned over to Danny.

“Now as someone who has experienced your particular…flair for gift wrapping, I know you didn’t wrap that.” He whispered. Danny could feel a flush of ectoplasm rush to his face.

Danny cleared his throat and looked away “I might have had a little help from the box ghost.” Pa laughed and Lois gasped. Danny looked up “Do you like it?”

“Like it? I love it!” In her hands was a beautifully crafted hand bound leather journal with a fountain pen tied to the front. Danny gave a light chuckle

“Open it and read the first page!” Lois carefully untied the notebook and opened it to the first page. There written in glowing green ink was a message

Miss Lois Lang

If my time as a reporter taught me anything, you should never let a man do a woman’s job. Keep ears to the ground and your eyes to the sky. Keep up the great work.

Sincerely

Mrs. Nellie Bly

Lois sat in shock “How in the hell-” Danny laughs

“I just spent the last month in the infinite realms. With access to every afterlife that has, or will, ever existed. I couldn’t pass up the chance when I ran into her at the Ghost Writers library. Between you and me I think she trying to sucker him into giving up some of his books.” He said with a wink. Everyone looked at Danny like he was crazy “what? What did I say?”

Ma looked at Danny concerned “Sweetheart you were only gone for a week.” Danny looked at Ma confused before an understanding look covered his face.

“Shit, sorry Ma, time is weird in the infinite realms. While it’s only been a week here, a month passed in the realms. It’s crazy, one time I went to a party in the Far Frozen and when I got home my sister yelled at me for an hour because I had been gone for three days!” Danny laughed, Ma just gave him a sad smile and a nod.

Lois looked towards Martha surprised. She gave her a slow shake of the head “Well I hope you were able to get everything done that you needed to.”

Danny popped up “oh yeah! Everything is pretty hectic with Halloween coming up! Fright Knight is super excited to host the hunt this year!” He started digging through the box once more before pulling out a wrapped gift “this one is for you Ma!” Ma carefully unwraps the gift and lets out a happy laugh when she pulled out the cook book.

“Sweetheart you didn’t have to do all this! I’ll admit I wanted that pie recipe but really.” Danny laughs “when the lunch lady heard you wanted a single recipe I was afraid she might burst from joy, she told me to come back before I left and she would have it ready. Never let it be said she let anyone go hungry.” Danny grinned “Remind me later to tell you about the time she attacked my high school cafeteria just because my friend changed the menu.” He said turning back to the box of gifts. Lois looked over to Martha with concern and she silently mouthed ‘later’ to her eldest sons partner.

“Pa! I thought you’d get a kick outta this!” He pulled out a large box covered in fish wrapping paper. “It’s a little cheesy but I couldn’t resist when I saw it. Pa opened the box to reveal a large marlin on a frame. He let out a barking laugh as Danny fell into a fit. Cujo falls from his place on Pa’s lap and runs over to claim conners lap for his own. (Not that Conner would complain)

“It’s perfect!” Danny raises his hand trying to stop laughing long enough to speak. “Wait! It gets better!” Danny takes the marlin and sets against the wall. He holds up a finger and slowly walks past. Just as he reaches the head of the massive fish the head jerks forward and you hear a roosters crow screech through the house. Pa slaps his leg and can’t stop laughing. Clark has a huge grin splitting his face.

“That fish makes a better rooster than lord Reddington ever did!” Lois looked at Martha confused

“I thought the rooster was named big red?” Ma gives her a smile.

“Chickens are noble creatures, as such they must be given suitably noble names. At least that’s what Clark decided in kindergarten. He announced Lady chickadonna’s approach for a month.”

Conner laughed “and here I thought that was Danny’s influence.” Pa shook his head

“Nope that was all Clark!” Once more the family falls into a fit of laughs. Danny waves his hand.

“C’Mon! At this rate we’re never gonna finish with y’all’s gifts! Clark! You’re next! I had to pull a few strings to get this one so I hope you like it.” Danny pulls an orb out of the box, tossing it to Clark. With a smile he easily caught the orb.

He almost dropped it when he saw the familiar shade of green. “Before you freak out! I had a friend make sure any harmful properties have been stripped from the stone. Pinky swear!” Danny reassured, Conner peered over trying to get a better look without disturbing Cujo. Clark turned the orb over in his hands, finding it full of small holes, with an opening on the bottom. “If you put a light in the bottom it will show you constellations that surrounded Krypton before it’s destruction.” Danny rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s not much but-” before Danny could finish he found himself in a bone crushing hug from his older brother.

“Thanks Danny, this means a lot. I don’t have much of my home planet, and any piece I run into causes nothing but pain. I can’t take the fortress home with me but this, this is perfect. Thank you”

Danny blushes, pushing his brother away “alright, that’s enough sappy shit! Time for Conner!” Danny starts digging through the box searching for conners gift. He pulls out a box with a grin on his face. “Okay so I had Technus upgrade this to to the teeth. Since the moment you left that tube you’ve been fighting crime, time for a little fun!” Conner cautiously unwrapped the box revealing a game consul. It was sleek and black with glowing green circuitry decorating it. “It will play any disk you want, regardless of the system and it connects to the internet but it is completely untraceable.” Conner grins.

“Wally is gonna freak out when he sees this! He’s been trying to get me to play some of his video games.”

“I’ve got a few gifts for the team as well! We can bring them by tomorrow after breakfast.” Conner grins

“Excited to bring Kaldur his gift?” Danny blushes with a scowl.

“Excuse me but as your older brother it is my responsibility to tease you, not the other way around” everyone laughs

“He wouldn’t tease you if you just made a move already, he clearly likes you” Clark said nudging his arm. Danny scoffs, brushing him off he turns away to put away the box.

“Yeah right, and Ember has plans to dye her hair pink. He likes me as a friend, if even that. Besides it would be a bad idea” he held a grim look on his face

Ma smacks her knee “Well I think it’s time for pie Lois why don’t you come help me set the table?” Lois smiles and accepts. They turn the corner and before Martha stops her and whispers “Let me remind you that I know at least two of my boys have super hearing, Danny is still up for debate but knowing him it wouldn’t surprise me.” Lois smiled

“Oh trust me I couldn’t possibly forget! Not since his highly amusing attempt at acting surprised when he got a writing award.” The two laughed

“For all his secrets, an actor my son is not. Did I ever tell you about the time he auditioned for the school play? He tried out for the part of Hercules… poor boy Pa had to take him out for ice cream to cheer him up after they told him that he just couldn’t pull off super strength.” Lois snorted

“That doesn’t surprise me in the least! Did I ever tell you how I tricked him into revealing his identity?”

———-

Clark slumped in his chair “I may never recover from this particular team up.” Pa walked over to Clark and threw his arm around his shoulder.

“There are some things all men fear, one of which is your mother and your partner meeting. There are no secrets there.”

Danny shrugged “Hey look at it this way, at least they aren’t talking about the different ways they want to tear you apart” he laughed “that was a really weird dinner”

Clark and Conner stared at Danny in open shock before Conner spoke up “Danny… did you date a supervillain?!” Danny shook his head

“Nah, I just dated a ghost hunter.”

Ma and Lois walked into the dining room to witness the shock and confusion on the mens faces as Conner shouted in confusion.

“Danny I hate to break it to you but… YOURE A GHOST!!”

“Yeah but SHE didn’t know that, besides after she found out she apologized for trying to destroy me, no big deal”

“Yes, of course, that makes EVERYTHING okay!” Conner was done, he was tired of finding out his big brother was hurt and he just brushes it off. “If I told you M’gann tried to kill me or hell mind control me, would you be okay with it as long as she said she was sorry?!”

“Of course not!” Danny gave an offended shout

“Then why is it okay that your ex tried to kill you? Why is one okay but not the other?!” Danny looked at Conner sadly.

“Because as far as she was concerned, as far as half the town was concerned, I was just another evil ghost trying to hurt them. I can’t blame them either, because not only were a majority of the ghosts that came through angry and looking for a fight but… I had some pretty damning evidence against me unless you looked a little closer. That’s the difference between me and you. When people look at you two… they see heroes, when they look at me they see a monster.” Clark looks at Danny in shock, Ma goes up to Danny with a pie in her hands.

“You’re a hero Danny, no matter what anyone else says” she says placing the pie on the table, she turns and gives Danny a warm hug. “Now enough of all that it’s time for pie!”

#danny phantom #ghost king danny #dc x dp #brain vomit #conner kent #clark kent #ma kent #Pa Kent #Lois lane #it was supposed to just be a funny souvenir chapter #it was not meant to get serious #life on the farm #pt 10 #pt1 #cus I still need to to the team and this was getting long #god help the fentons if they ever meet Conner #Danny is his now

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