Actual Scientists Jack & Maddie AU Part 4
Part 1 & 2
Part 3
Explaining The Papers (™) to Frostbite takes a While (also ™).
Though with no more imminent threat of “Vlad maybe finding out he’s the ghost king and becoming Insufferable (also also ™) about it” Danny was feeling a lot less stressed - Sam and Tucker, too, if the fact that they were actually drinking their tea now instead of just barely sipping at it was any indication - or they could’ve only just cooled enough to actually drink, the FF did tend to overestimate the level of heat they could tolerate just a tad.
Not to say that he wasn’t still stressed, given the whole “the Justice League is trying to summon ME” thing. But like. They were reaching out hoping for peace, not hoping to skin/dissect/exterminate him.
Plus they don’t know how to summon him; he figures he has time. Hopefully enough to get Frostbite’s advice.
And mostly to cool his own nerves, because now that he knows they did try to help and are helping the Justice League is Cool again! And they want to meet him!
Well, they want to meet the ghost king, but they already watched him! They thought he was a capable hero!
Danny isn’t really used to getting positive feedback, so being called “good hands” by Superman - Superman! The hero! The Alien hero! (well, one of them. Martian Manhunter is also amazing but he hasn’t complimented Danny in person yet so he doesn’t have any expectations for Danny to live up to. Maybe. Hypothetically).
The JL is so cool and they think he’s cool! Or at least capable! Except now he has to impress them not just as a hero but as a king?
Yeah.
Suffice to say, Danny is now a little nervous.
(And also maybe redirecting his nerves intentionally to be about the JL so he doesn’t have to breathe into a bag about being probably the only thing between the Zone and eventual total dimensional collapse because Frostbite was very ‘this is normal and okay’ about it but it’s eventual total dimensional collapse [ALL OF THEM] and it is Danny’s problem. But no, he’s just nervous about meeting the JL. Totally.)
Reciting pretty much his whole life story - well, the basics of his parents’ work and then pretty much everything from the portal onward - gives him time to untense, and honestly, getting it all out to a mostly uninvolved third party - one he likes and trusts - really is a weight off his shoulders.
He’ll never tell Jazz; the amount of I-told-you-so-energy she’d leech into the air would be unbearable.
Sam and Tucker tag in here and there too, and mostly take over when they get to the part where the GIW bought Fenton Works for a short while to try and destroy the zone. Danny winces at the memory of his behavior back then.
The explanation runs for longer than it could have, given the aside they make when they get to his parents’ theories.
Frostbite is quick to confirm the combat-as-a-positive-social-behavior thing, and it turns out Sam is right about how to tell the difference.
Of course, Danny thinks they were all trying to kill him the rest of the way, but then that’s not a concern most ghosts have, so Frostbite offers his own perspective.
Skulker wants to hang his pelt on a wall: clearly unfriendly.
Technus is just having fun - enjoying playing with new technology in the living realm and throwing Danny around/being thrown around. He’s a friend. The whole world domination idea isn’t malicious as far as he’s concerned, because damage to the living realm doesn’t mean much to ghosts. What do they care about the living? What is the value of a single world as collateral when weighed against the games of ghosts?
If Danny wants him to stop that, Frostbite tells him, he can just propose a new game.
Ember genuinely just wanted a powerboost from the Earth that first time, but her returns since are a gesture of friendship.
Spectra definitely hates him though. Which is good. He wouldn’t know how to feel if Frostbite had said that that whole mess was an attempt at friendship.
As for the thing with his parents, Frostbite compares it to winning a tournament only to find out the other participants lost intentionally. You haven’t really won a competition if the competitors were not competing.
Like going in for a handshake only to get a “too slow” - even more insulting if it’s the first “too slow” you’ve ever gotten - Tucker suggests.
Or like asking a parent to a hug and only getting a wave. Not even a high-five.
They each go through another three cups of tea before the story winds down, Frostbite doing adding little more than the occasional nod or noise of acknowledgement - barring the social combat explanation, of course.
It’s nice, Danny thinks, to have an adult that actually listens. Even if said adult is a dead yeti.
“You have given me much to think on Great One, Friends Sam and Tucker,” he says after the three of them finally run out of words, giving each of them a nod. “And soon, we shall have much more to discuss. First, however, it seems that I have a meeting to call. And you have living needs that require attending to yet. Eat, rest, and, if you would, return here… let’s say the day after tomorrow? Then we can begin to discuss the…issues. At hand.”
Back in the Specter Speeder, Tucker wonders aloud if “call a meeting” is code for yelling at the Observants.
Then he looks at his PDA and realizes how late it’s gotten - namely, past all of their curfews - and they promptly turn the conversation to getting their story straight (and three backups because they’re all feeling paranoid with how high-stakes everything suddenly became. Not that the occasional ghost looking to wreck earth wasn't already high-stakes, but the whole political aspect made it feel... different).
***
Danny is thankful it’s summer vacation at the moment, because the next morning is a Monday.
He doesn’t know how he’d manage school with his mind miles away wondering about things like “how to king” and “how to maintain the fabric of reality” and other totally normal, non-stressful topics.
Just normal high schooler things.
His parents are gone before he’s even up, leaving a note for him and Jazz on the kitchen table.
They eat a quiet breakfast together.
The whole house is quiet. It’s unnatural, he thinks, and the small frown on Jazz’ face tells him she feels the same.
They normally enjoy the brief lulls of quiet that their parents leave behind, but this is perhaps the first time they’ve ever missed breakfast - well, the first time they haven’t been in the house during breakfast at least. A welding torch, clanging metal, clinking glass, minor explosions, and excited shouting is the usual background noise of their morning meal - whether from the basement door or at the table itself.
This time, the silence is disquieting.
Even more so since it means that Danny could, at any time, be teleported somewhere. He really should have asked Frostbite about how that works before they left - they’d already missed curfew anyway.
After they’ve both finished eating, he takes the opportunity to fill Jazz in on the whole… everything.
She is, to put it lightly, Not Impressed.
“-s bad enough they let you fight Pariah Dark in the first place! You should never have been in that position! I know that you’re a capable fighter Danny, but you’re fourteen-”
“I’m almost fifteen,” he grumbles.
“You’re not yet fifteen,” she says, glaring into the distance, expression practically snarling. Danny thinks she might be imagining strangling an Observant, based on the… choice words she’d had for them earlier. “And they want you to be a king!”
Tucker chooses that moment to arrive, walking right into the path of where Jazz is glaring and freezing until Sam shoves him out of her way to close the door and drag him into the kitchen.
“Who spat in your cereal?” she asks, moving to sit and kicking the fourth chair out for Tucker.
“Whoever or whatever is responsible for deciding that a fourteen year old child should be king when there are no doubt numerous thousand-plus year old candidates who don’t have human lives they still need to attend to!” She bellows, throwing her hands up in frustration.
The trio exchange a glance while she takes a few calming breaths.
Danny kind of wants to point out that he isn’t a child, he’s a teenager. And she’s barely older than him.
But he does have some sense of self-preservation, even if there’s only so much self left to preserve. Heh.
Then she gasps.
“Danny! You’re still half alive!”
“Er, yes?”
“Maybe that’s why the Watching Wraiths didn’t say anything! Maybe you can’t be the Ghost King if you’re still partly alive!”
“But Frostbite said-” Tucker starts, only to be cut off by Jazz.
“Frostbite could be wrong.” She sniffs. “And even if he isn’t you there are millenia before it becomes a problem. The Zone can wait for you to graduate high school before it goes demanding things of you. Or longer.”
The words are decisive.
Still….
“The Justice League-”
“Can cope. They’ll be a little paranoid about retaliation, but a little paranoia won’t kill them. And maybe letting them stew a bit will teach them to be more active about taking down genocidal organizations before they hurt so many people.”
“That’s a great idea,” Sam says, tone saying the opposite, “except the part where they’re actively working on figuring out how to summon the ghost king - who is Danny - and are probably also going to try and make contact with Phantom at some point - who is also Danny.”
Jazz frowns.
“Well. You don’t have to be a king to talk to the Justice League. Just tell them you’re still too young - which is true - or that the coronation is going to take a long time to plan - which, according to Frostbite, would be a reasonable claim. And also true since you will not be taking the throne until you are at least 18 if the Fenton Peeler and I have anything to say about it.”
“Uh. I don’t know if the Peeler is the best idea. With your…aim.” Tucker cringes, shrinking back in his seat when her unhappy frown snaps to him.
Then she looks thoughtful.
“You know what. I’ll just use a specter deflector. You mentioned before how humans are ghosts in the ghosts zone; see if they still feel like making a child a king when they’ve got an unstrikable target punching their lights out about it.”
“Please don’t antagonize a bunch of ghosts who could try and attack you while you're sleeping,” Danny pleads.
“It’s bad enough that all this has impacted your sleep and grades and attendance records so much; I’m not going to let a bunch of ghost nobles - or whatever they’re called - mess things up for you even more. If they don’t like my proposals they can un-friendly fight me about it, and if you’re worried about retribution I can turn on the house defenses in my room when I sleep. But I am not letting this go.”
She stands.
“Since he didn’t give you a time, we’ll leave to visit Frostbite after breakfast tomorrow-”
“We?” the trio ask hesitantly.
“Of course. But for now, there’s something else we need to do, little brother.”
That said, she turns and heads for the basement.
Danny and Tucker blink at the abrupt departure, while Sam just frowns thoughtfully.
The three exchange one more meaningful glance, before sharing a shrug and moving to follow her.
They arrive in the basement to Fenton Fighting Ring rising out of the floor.
“Uh, Jazz?” Danny tries.
“We’re going to fight!”
In stark contrast to both her words and her furious demeanor upstairs, her tone and expression are bright and eager.
“Um. That’s. Nice, but you know that’s a ghost thing, right?” he offers hesitantly.
“I mean, I still fight with Dora,” Sam adds, the traitor.
“Thank you Sam,” Jazz starts. “But even without that example; you are part ghost, brother mine. That means fighting loved ones is a you thing. I love you, so of course I’m going to fight you.”
“Mom and Dad theorized - and Frostbite confirmed - that the fighting is a social behavior. Many social behaviors are also needs. Members of social species that are not allowed to socialize become stressed and their health worsens. Humans who don’t communicate with other humans for too long experience negative side effects, too little physical contact can lead to depressed mood and so forth,” she monologues as she moves into the ring.
“As you’re still half human, neglecting the social needs of your ghost half could negatively impact your wellbeing. Also. I’m your sister and I love you. If I could never hug you I’d be bummed. This is like the ghost equivalent of that. So. Square up, little brother.”
Danny is kind of touched, actually.
Still.
“...Don’t you at least want an anti-creep stick?” he asks, gesturing at her general lack of ghost gear as he slips intangibly through the ropes around the ring.
“Nope!” She says cheerfully. “For this match we’ll be doing no powers and no weapons - just basic human strength and skill. We can try other kinds of fights later.”
Danny pales.
“No way! You’re a 4th degree black belt!”
“9th!” she corrects, still cheerfully - and she clearly means well, but for Danny that smile is beginning to look like an omen of ill fortune.
“That’s even worse!” he cries. “I’m only a blue belt! Barely!”
“I ~told~ you you should’ve stuck with mom’s training,” she sing-songs teasingly.
He cringes, but takes a stance.
“Now let's see how much you remember.”
That’s the only warning he gets before she’s in his face.
His strength, speed, stamina, endurance, and durability are all completely back to baseline in human form unless he actively uses his flight to compensate, but one thing he notes as the fight draws on is that his reaction speed is still the same.
Even so, it’s painfully obvious just how beyond him she is in terms of skill.
Without any powers to fall back on, Jazz runs circles around him like it’s nothing.
His reaction speed means that he sees everything she’s doing and that he has time to bring his arms up, but he keeps lagging trying to recall forms and getting shoved around for it, the defenses he manages too poor to be of any use.
Other times he lags because he’s suppressing instinctual power usage.
And multiple times he accidentally, instinctively abandons proper stance all together, habitually falling into the stance of his usual “feral racoon” style of fighting - as Jazz had one called it - which isn’t much of a stance at all in a fight with no powers. Especially given how it's not made for someone fighting on the ground. She takes brutal advantage of every opening.
He’s on the back foot from the first second of the fight, and it’s obvious that it only lasted for longer than one because Jazz allowed it to, testing him.
It’s frustrating that he’s doing so poorly - he knows he’s doing poorly - but despite that, he really is having fun.
It reminds him of the training spars at the Far Frozen - restrained skill set, fight with defined boundaries and win conditions-
Aaaaand evidently he let his mind wander too much.
And Jazz noticed.
And flipped him.
He’s thoroughly pinned in short order and he cannot for the life of him remember how to escape the hold short of cheating with intangibility.
“Uncle,” he calls.
Jazz pulls him to his feet and ruffles his hair.
He squawks indignantly, but she just chuckles.
"Good fight little brother," she calls as she slips between the ropes out of the ring.
"Our hero," Sam drawls as he follows.
Danny just pouts.
"That was just sad, man," Tucker ribs. "And I thought your early ghost fights were bad."
"I'd like to you do better against the 9th degree blackbelt," he grumbles.
"Don't fret, little brother. You'll improve with time," Jazz says as she rejoins them. "Though we'll have to do refreshers of all the previous levels first, given the amount of skill degradation I just saw. But with regular practice you'll back to your previous level and more in no time!"
"Uh. Refreshers?"
"Of course!"
"That seems a bit overkill just for sparring. Couldn't you just...wear a specter deflector or something? Then I can just not use karate."
Jazz, for the first time in a long time, levels him with a very serious look.
"You said that the reason Frostbite can't be the king instead is because he can't beat you in an all out fight. You told me the alternative."
She grabs him by the shoulders and stares into his eyes.
"Danny, Vlad already made a way to shut you away from your ghost powers. Frostbite may be unwilling to end you, and I don't think Vlad would. But you and I both know there are ghosts out there who would destroy you in a heartbeat for that power. And if Vlad has that kind of device, someone else could get one too. Ecto-weapons can give you a leg up if you get sealed away from your ghost powers, but you'll also need the skill to use them successfuly."
She lets go and steps back, tilting her head thoughtfully.
"Even with the ghost powers it's probably a good idea; the crown and ring might power you up but so did the exoskeleton. Clearly they aren’t the only power-ups out there so you can’t rely on strength alone. Skill could be the determining factor one day. And you already said you had fun," she smiles. "Come on little brother, give in to the karate side."
He grimaces.
"Didn't you say you were gonna make the royalty thing a non-issue for like three more years at least," he whines, slumping dramatically.
She raises a brow.
"A blackbelt isn't made in a day."
"Ugh, fine."
He's actually looking forward to it, but Jazz doesn't need to know that. He's duty-bound as a brother to be as annoyingly contrary about sibling bonding as possible, after all.
When Sam asks if they'll teach her and Tucker as well, Jazz is all too happy to include them - best not to have only one sparring partner, avoid forming bad habits and all that.
Both girls dutifully ignore Tucker's protests while they hash out a schedule. Danny pats his shoulder consolingly.
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Child Fallen Angel Headcanons!
It was a sudden but cute thought that occurred to me while hatching some embryos in the game ^^
Still gotta make Pranja Hcs for this, I’m just not functioning enough to think of any X3
-Soul/Fallen Angel embryo purification pretty much tells all on what happens, only the embryos hatch like eggs.
-Purified Angels start out the size of todders, even ones like Orochi and Inguami, and are like young kids but not as troublesome as they are much tamer than wild fallen angels and less prone to some child antics, and it takes a year for them to reach maturity and full size.
-They develop a maternal bond with the person who purified them, seeing them as a mentor figure and the person's food souls as brothers, sisters or even parental figures.
-Freshly hatched Nekomatas generally jump and cling onto the first person they see, climbing onto their back with childish giggles.
-Warning to those who have hatched Tsuchigumos or want to, uh... They go through HUGE and very sudden growth spurts without warning, so have a huge open room for them to live in so they don't break anything when these growth spurts occur.
-Young Inugamis want cuddles a lot, they will often bug someone until they get the cuddles they want, poor bbys need all the love and care they can get.
-Expect to trip on Orochis' strings a lot once they start practicing their powers, cause they will be EVERYWHERE.
-Once they reach maturity, they can link themselves to their maternal figure's food souls to lend them boosts in battle, which can be many kinds of effects especially if the food soul in question is one the angel likes.
-Conchis can be a bit troublesome to raise, simply because they can accidentally poke people with their shells which they hold a lot of the time out of habit, so it's generally a good idea to have them hold like plushies in their hands.
-Specters are also a little hard to raise, but that's simply because they love scaring the crap out of others by jumping into view or suddenly appearing in your face with the most mischievous grins anyone can have. They eventually grow out of this, for the most part, just be wary of them suddenly getting the urge to scare you later on.
-Spectras often need little bags on a belt to keep their knives in, the poor things lose them way too easily and often end up running to their maternal figures begging for help finding them.
-Oh god, keep Aizens FAR AWAY from any alcohol, they have a bloody sixth sense in finding it if it's nearby.
-Expect Aizens to find and if it's full empty any pots they can find, they love hiding in them like cats and rolling on them. (Wave bye bye to any plants you might have X3)
-Bulminas and Uke Mochis tend to put anything into their mouths, especially Uke Mochis, they have fricken black HOLES for stomachs and are often going for midnight snacks at night!
-Queen Conchs are generally really shy for a while and will hide in their shells around strangers, just ploping on the ground and hiding under their shells or disappearing into them like a crab.
-Amazakes love holding soft things like those little fuzzy keychain balls or cats/kittens, so they pair up well with a MA who has Sanma who is a cat magnet.
-It is generally a good idea to either keep the young angels away from the main restaurant parts of the building like the dining areas or put up a sign warning customers you have purified angels helping you out or are raising them so they might show up in the dining area.
-Expect a huge cuddle pile if you put a lot of angels in the same bedroom, they will legit push their beds together and then just end up in a massive cuddle pile while one goes about covering everyone with blankets before snuggling into the cuddle pile.
-Speaking of cuddle piles, Inugamis, Nekomatas, and Conchis will join Escargot in napping if they find him asleep, just draping themselves over him or curling up next to him. Some Inugamis have actually picked up his habit of sleeping anywhere and often carry a pillow with them as a result.
-Make no mistake, young they may be, they can and will fight if needed no matter how clumsy they might be, often being the first ones to respond to a dine and dash customer if they catch a whiff of the scent fallen give off when disguised as a human. Most people often leave their restaurant in their angels hands if they're going somewhere with all their food souls, and it's definitely funny when robbers come face to face with Tsuchigumos and other such fallen who are not happy to see intruders X3
(Thank JankedArtist on Discord for these next two! Let me know if I should remove these!)
-Amazakes can often be seen following either their favorite food soul(s) or the food soul's MA like a puppy. Because of this, they become attached to them and constantly worry when they are doing something dangerous.
-Amazakes are very sensitive to temperature changes so they will find a place that has room temperature. If it's too hot or cold, they either move somewhere else or start crying because of how cold/hot is for them.
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