#he's just sitting here happily obsessed with his human and then Ghost just up and gives him a courting gift

[cthulhusstepmom]

Fae!Soap Superstitious Bastard! Ghost: Gifts

(Just a heads up this got way more intense than I meant it to but that’s kind of the Fae for you.)

TW: mentions of torture, human remains

Soap is a collector, though not of any one thing that Ghost can discern. He’s seen the man pick up anything from an abandoned rolex to a nondescript piece of broken glass. It doesn’t seem to be about size, it’s not shape and definitely not value; Ghost had thought he’d pinned it down as things that caught the light a certain way but was swiftly proven wrong when Soap went on a spree of collecting pebbles and sticks. He’d glared sullenly at the first jagged gray rock when Soap had picked it up before swiftly changing the subject when he was noticed. There was no apparent rhyme or reason to any of it… well not quite. There was one singular pattern that stood out in his mind, a single thread that held firm no matter how much he rearranged or plucked at it.

 Anything that Ghost gave him, Johnny kept. 

The first had been a bit of pretty blue ribbon that was a close enough approximation to Soap’s eyes. It’d snagged on a bramble bordering the clearing where Ghost had set up for overwatch. Without even thinking he’d snagged it on his way to RV down the hill, offering it to Johnny in the armored car taking them back to base. Soap hadn’t said a thing. It was then that Ghost realized maybe giving your subordinate a piece of trash you’d found in a bush perhaps wasn’t the most well adjusted way to express affection. He’d been about to play it off with a quip, beginning to retract his fingers ever so slightly, when Johnny snatched it lightning quick from the palm of his hand, holding it close to his chest for a moment before stuffing it into his chest pocket next to his journal. Soap had given him a small strangled “Thank you” as they sat the rest of the ride in an awkward but warm silence. Johnny disappeared almost immediately after they got back to base but Ghost could see light in the space under his door so he wasn’t too worried that he’d done permanent damage to their relationship.

After that his eyes just seemed to catch on things that he assumed Johnny would like. He couldn’t help it. Little glass marbles, a river stone with an interesting marking, a large brown feather; Somehow it all made its way into the hands of his Sergeant. Usually with a gruff “Here”, barely waiting for Johnny to hold out his hands before he dropped his small offering into his gloved palms. Soap has also gotten over whatever his episode of silence had been, responding with a blinding smile and enthusiastic gratitude and a happy quip. (“Thanks Lt!” a piece of antler, Montana “Y’ shouldn’t have!” an old toy car, Finland “Find this on sale?” a scrap of pink fabric, Brazil “Ghost you’re spoiling me.” green river stone, India etc.(no he didn’t catalog all of them that would be creepy. He only wrote down his favorites.))

The next time Ghost thinks he’s permanently damaged their relationship and scared Soap off for good comes after an operation sweeping out an AQ base in Afghanistan. 

It’s stuffy and dark, the blistering heat of the day beginning to fade into the bitter chill of the night. The compound has long since been abandoned by all but the stubbornest of rats, slowly being reclaimed by the wild desert it carved its blackness into. They roll into the courtyard through the open front gate, the outer walls have seen multiple breacher charges and calling them walls at this point is more out of respect than any dedication to accuracy. The whole place has already been swept by drone and Laswell has had satellite eyes on it for months confirming just how fucking dead it is. They’re here for information, the drone identified documents left behind as well as at least two hard drives. 

The 141 has split off, each clearing their own section and radioing in at even intervals, they’ve learned the hard way that it’s better to be safe than sorry. Beyond extra caution, the whole place has an eerie, black aura that drags forth memories of scorpion stings and dull knives biting at his flesh. Assisting in his nightmarish stroll down memory lane, Ghost is assigned the lower levels of the compound. Each room is another scene from a past he tries to forget, filled with rusted over implements of pain and brown stains no one cared to clean. 

Something in the last room makes him pause. 

A small barred window allows light from a waning moon to pool into the room, catching on something on the table. Small, most no bigger than his fingernail, a collection of about five objects sits in a tray on the corner of the table. Brilliant white patches shine in stark opposition to the bed of rust brown they lay on. 

Teeth. Human teeth.

His mind is acting on autopilot when grabs them and stuffs them in a pocket, so similar but so different to his first experience with the ribbon months ago. He finishes his sweep of the room, conveying his findings back on comms (“Seems like we’re late for the party.” “If only you didn’t take so long to get ready.”-Soap “Shut the fuck up the both of you I just saw a rat the size of a terrier.”-Gaz “I’ve got the hard drives if any of you fuckers remember why we’re here.”-Price), and turns back to rendezvous, his mind now firmly on finding his comrades and getting the hell out.

As they start readying themselves to duck into the humvees they arrived in, Ghost’s muscle memory kicks in to complete his self assigned mission objective. He turns to where Soap stands almost expectantly at his side. It’s not every mission that he has something he’s decided is a worthy offering but it has become more often than not. Mind already halfway back to base, a gloved hand chases down each tooth where they’ve burrowed themselves in the pocket of his tac vest, collecting them and dropping them in Soap’s proffered hand with a grunt. His brain turns back on when the bloody bones hit his Sergeant’s glove, panicking because what the fuck did he just do? What kind of fucking sociopath gives his friend(more?) human fucking teeth as a souvenir. Much less human fucking teeth that were pulled forcibly out of some poor bastard’s skull during a bygone torture session. 

His hand is trembling. 

Ghost forces himself to look down and meet Soap’s assuredly outraged and disgusted gaze. 

Only he doesn’t.

Johnny is staring down at the teeth in his palm with a look of fucking reverence. His pupils are dilated beyond just the darkness surrounding them and Ghost’s detail oriented eyes catch the slight flare of his nostrils on every inhale. Soap slowly tilts his head up to meet Ghost’s eyes and a gasp lives and dies in his throat.

“Oh Simon, you treat me so well.” His voice is gravelly and thrumming with an emotion that Ghost doesn’t know the name of. But, god if this is the look he gets after bringing Johnny desiccated human remains?

He’ll rip the teeth out of some unworthy son of a bitch himself.

#Soap may be the one who is inherently Other but Ghost is fucked up too #I adore deeeply fucked up Ghost™ #almost as much as soft Ghost #Soap is one lucky man #he's just sitting here happily obsessed with his human and then Ghost just up and gives him a courting gift #in folklore giving fairies gifts is a 50/50 chance to get them to go away #i however would like to introduce you to a secret third option: love #Also I'm like 60% certain I'm going to do sort of a mix of snippets here leading up to like a three shot culmination posted on Ao3 #would yall like that? would you prefer all on tumblr? do you even want story or just more little drabbles? #Fae!Soap #superstitious bastard!Ghost #cod mw2 #soapghost #tw torture #tw human dentition

[cypherscript]

Pulling a favor

Been watching Hazbin Hotel, really enjoying it so far. Time to mix my obsessions together cause that's what we do here, ain't it?

_____________________________________________________________

"Okay, I can get you the meeting but once you're in Heaven I wont be able to go with you. Will you be okay?"

Charlie takes Lucifer's hand into hers, "I'll be fine."

Lucifer places his other hand on hers, "That's my girl". He steps back, a look of pride on his face before sighing, "Good luck, kiddo." His magic flares from the ground, taking him away in a swirl of power before he steps out into a room full of his rubber ducks. Flopping down into a pile of ducks reveals a throne like chair that he slowly sinks into. "What should I do? Heaven's never going to listen to her... but maybe... YES! Where is it?" He begins digging through the multitude of ducks before pulling out a scroll with a note, 'One Favor-open when shit hits the fan'.

With a flourish he breaks the seal on the scroll, tossing it into the air as it bursts into an acid green flame and grows larger and larger until it's nearly 6ft tall, Lucifer lowers his head: not quite a bow but somewhat respectful, "King Pariah, I have a request, I have need of-"

"Uuuuh," a voice most definitely not King Pariah spoke, "I don't know who you are but Pariah's long gone."

Lucifer looks up to see the flames displacing a human boy sitting at a table eating food with his family. "Someone... Someone defeated the Infinite King?"

"Who is it sweetie? One of your ghost friends," The mother asks as the boy stands up, grasping the 'frame' of the green fire. "Isn't Pariah the ghost that stole our town?"

"Yeah mom, I'm not sure who this is so I'll just take this into another room."

"Alright Danno, I'll save you some meatloaf," the massive man who was obviously the boys father.

Lucifer's mind was going a million mile an hour, 'The Infinite King was defeated... The scroll opened to this human boy... This boy defeated Pariah Dark in single combat... HOW?! Human's are so squishy.'

The boy released the flame to float in front of him, "So why were you trying to contact king edgelord?"

"I am... sorry... but who are you?"

"Ah... so you're not a ghost," The boy asks, tilting his head before a ring of pure white light travels over his body transforming him; hair whiter than the holy light, eyes as green as the flame he spoke into, a cloak of stars that continued for what seemed forever over a black and white hazmat suit with a crown of aurora over his head. "My name is Phantom, Pariah tried to take what was mine and I had to put him back where he came from but I suppose you've already pieced that together..." Phantom gestures to introduce himself.

"Yes sir, I have, I am Lucifer of the Morningstar."

"The archangel?"

"Yes, that's... usually not the first guess people go with, I'm also the leader of Hell. I had used this scroll to ask a favor of the Infinite King. My daughter, Charlie, is going to Heaven to meet with the other angels about this plan she has to save the sinners from being slaughtered by the angel exterminators."

"Slaughtered? Aren't they already dead?"

"Normally yes but the angel's weapons can completely destroy the sinner's soul when they're exterminated."

Phantom stills from messing with his cloak, his face stony and shadowy as the lights in the room begin to flicker, "Their souls are destroyed?"

Lucifer feels something he's not felt in a long time creep up his spine, "Yes sir, I was hoping to ask for a favor to protect Charlie while she's up there. They can easily kill her, I'll happily agree to make a deal with you for it."

"No," Phantom says, cutting Lucifer off.

"Ah... I see, thank you for your time," Lucifer goes to cut off the flame video.

"I mean 'No' to the deal. I'll help you but not for a deal, I'd also like to have a word with these angels as well"

"Oh thank you, Phantom! Do I need to bring you here?"

"No need, one second," Phantom leans away from the flame, "Can you guys put my food up?! I've got some duties to take care of love you!"

"Can do, Danno!"

"Love you, sweetie!"

"Right, step away from the flame please." Lucifer does so and Phantom steps through flame with a ripple. Once he's through the flame poofs out of existence. "Nice place, love the... ducks?"

"Ah yes, they're a project of mine..."

"Well, I've seen weirder obsessions. Now what's this about destroying souls?"

"Right, let me explain while I set up the meeting with the angels for Charlie.

_____________________________________________________________

Danny had never heard of such bullshit in his unlife and he worked with the observants for ancient's sake! He steps out of the portal provided by Lucifer, switching to his human form, to the so called Pearly Gates with some Suburbia Ken standing at a podium.

"Welcome to Heaven! May I please know your name?"

"Danny Fenton."

"Right let's see; Dan, Danielle, Ah yes, Daniel Fenton. Oh goodness, you've been dead for some time, why are you just now getting into Heaven?"

"Traffic?"

"..." The angel stands in silence then bursts into a smile, "Well regardless, welcome to heaven!" He throws open the gates and Danny steps inside, his nose twitching at the lack of anything. His eyes lock onto the tallest tower and makes his way to it, the elevator inside playing harps and lyres for elevator music. As he gets closer to his destination he can hear the angels and Charlie musically their debate.

"Ancients I hate Musical dimensions," He says as the elevator comes to a slowing stop. "Showtime," Danny smiles as his transformation takes place, the holy lights in the elevator dimming and flickering.

_____________________________________________________________

Sera looks to Charlie, "I'm sorry, the court finds that the souls in Hell can not be redeemed."

Adam is all smiles at this point, "Ohhohoho YES! I win. Suck it! You better save the day c*&ts because we're coming to your hotel first."

"Are you now?" a male voice asks from behind him, grabbing his hand as he and crushing it in his grip.

"Ah fuck, my hand! Who the fuck are you," Adam screams as the courtroom fills with the inky void of space and Phantom fades into view.

Sera looks down on Phantom and then do his crown, "What are you doing here, Phantom? You have no right to be in this court!"

"No RIGHT?! Do you know what this bastard's doing?! I have every right to be here." Phantom tosses Adam easily to the ground. "You're destroying souls!!"

Adam gets up and summons a sword and swings at Phantom with it scream, "What's it to you freak-show?! Who cares what happens those piss bastard sinners?!"

"Sinners huh? Then why are you here?" Phantom turns frigid as a chain of ice appears on Adam's neck, the end in Phantom's hand. He yanks it tightly, pulling Adam to the floor. "Mister First Sinner. How could you get into heaven?"

The other angels in the court whispering, asking the same question.

"How are you doing that?!"

"None of your business. I was hoping Lucifer's daughter would be able to talk some sense into the lot of you but it seems there's just to many rotten apples up here. Let me fix that." Phantom steps onto Adam's back, grabbing his wings and ripping them off in a quick pull, filling the court with his screams. Lute tries to come to his aid but is slammed into the ground by the inky blackness.

"Phantom that is enough," Sera shouts down to him as she flashes down to the floor, "Why are you here? How did you know know this meeting was taking place?" Phantom glances at Charlie, still holding Vaggie, causing Sera to sigh, "Of course it was Lucifer..."

"I'll freely admit he asked me to be here to watch after here but it became so much more when I found out what this asshole's been doing."

"He did what he had to do, the demons were going to rebel and we had to protect our own souls. They need to be kept in line!"

"There is no their souls or your souls. You are disrupting the balance, if you kill the soul there's going to be issues with the mortal worlds and if the mortal world goes so do yours. You were so worried about the demons attacking you? You keep destroying souls and all you're going to have to worry about is me."

"Are you threatening Heaven, Infinite King?"

The wings in Phantoms hands turn to ice and shatter into billions of pieces, "I don't make threats, Sera, I make promises." Phantom treads over to Charlie and Vaggie, thrusting his hand out and portal much like a blackhole opens up, "Come along you two." They simply step through with him as the court of angels burst into a cacophony of angelic shouts of alarm and outrage.

#dp x hazbin hotel #space ancient danny #ghost king danny #dp crossover #bamf danny phantom #hazbin hotel #charlie morningstar #adam the angel #lucifer morningstar #DPXHH

[rookisaknight]

Raf Tanager, meet Hope County

⤘⤘⤘There’s a new Deputy in Town⬽⬽⬽

So as a side benefit of getting into this fandom again with a brand new gender and a brand new vibe: a brand new deputy. Excited to introduce you all to my boy, they were developed for a joint Deputy au with @ophiebot​ (who will do this for their Deputy Elijah Rook if so inclined). Not exactly reinventing any wheels here, but this time its about the indulgence.

FYI, Molly is still extant, but her story I think has been explored in my brainspace as much as it needs to be. 

➷The Basics

1. Give their full name, and describe them or post a picture! (Height, build, hair, eye, and skin color, etc.)

Rafael "Raf" Tanager (birth name REDACTED). 5'4", prone to chub but hardening up with the frequent exercise, solid build. Freckles on cheeks that darken as time goes on. Short hair kept red by some truly obsessive hairdye upkeep, which is harder than you might think. Hazel eyes. Burns and shrapnel scars around the eyes and mouth.

2. How old are they?

24

3. Sexuality and gender?

Bisexual, transmasc genderqueer. She/they/he but a preference for they/he when he doesnt trust the person using them.

➵Pre-Game

1. How did they end up at the Hope County Sheriff’s Department? How long have they worked there?

Raf grew up closer to Missoula, but he’s still a Montana native. They’ve been at this for around 8 months, pretty much right out of graduating college. Even they honestly aren’t sure how they ended up here, just the latest in a series of adrift jobs after graduating, taken primarily to avoid any potential financial dependence on their  family. Probably would have resigned soon were it not for. Everything.

2. Relationship with Pratt, Hudson, and Whitehorse?

Pratt: Used to hate his guts. The teasing felt too much like flirting for their comfort and he was honestly kind of a bully. Now its trickier. He's pathetic in a way that’s hard for them to be around, as awful as that is, because it hits too close to home.

Hudson: Had a massive crush on her for most of their early days that pretty much went out the window post Eden’s Gate. They still try a little too hard to impress her though.

Whitehorse: Intellectually, they resent his passivity since it means a lot of Eden’s Gate ended up falling in their lap and he’s STILL insistent that maybe they should have left it alone when they’ve all had months to realize why that was a bad idea in the first place. Emotionally, well, they’re maybe a little in need of a father figure or two.

Elijah Rook: The former Rookie. They were quietly a little intimidated by him prior to all this and that’s never fully gone away, but they’ve now been able to witness more of his dorky side that makes it a little harder to take him seriously. You try chaperoning this guy from one end of Hope County and considering him at all frightening.

3. Do they have an education?

They have a MASTERS and its never relevant to anything because its a humanities degree, specifically the classics. Part of the reason they’re a little adrift currently, there was no easy dismount out of college. Just a hell of a lot of debt.

4. Where are they from? Did they speak a different language there?

Missoula, or close enough to it. They picked up some Latin and Greek from their degree. The Latin comes in handy more often than you’d think, what with the cult stuff, but the reading material is a real bummer.

5. Is there anyone outside the valley that might have come looking for them?

They’ve never had many friends in college and high school that could outlast physical proximity and they basically ghosted their family since that was easier than coming out to them at a certain point. So no, no one they want to find them is looking.

6. Did they have a religious background of any kind?

His father is a preacher, and while there’s some baggage there they would still describe themselves as broadly religious. Or at the very least superstitious.

➷Inside Hope County

1. What was going through their head when the helicopter went down and during the subsequent chase?

The crash was honestly the easiest part. That was just panic. The chase was the hard part. The helicopter exploding ended up catching them in the face, leaving them with burns and scarring that would remain for the rest of their life. She's lucky she wasn’t blinded. Still, he was forced to stumble out of the woods in intense pain and bleeding out. Had it not been for Elijah they definitely would have been taken then and there.

2. Were they afraid of Joseph and Eden’s Gate? Angry?

Terrified. Not just because of what they’ve done but because Raf knows intuitively that he's susceptible to it. As early as their first encounter they have a hard time breaking the hold Joseph gets on their mind. Even though they’re conscious of HOW they’re being manipulated, its hard to resist it.

3. Did they trust Dutch?

At that point Raf would’ve happily taken literally anyone who seemed to know what they’re doing and wasn’t holding a gun to his head.

4. How did they feel about their team being taken by the cult, did they count them as lost, did they want them back, did they not care?

Absolutely the nightmare scenario: people’s lives depending on them and their ability to be decisive. Had it not been for Elijah they probably would’ve high tailed it out of there and tried to find someone higher up the authority chain to deal with this mess. Still, just abandoning them all didn’t sit right with him either, and by the time they’d liberated Fall’s End even he had to admit he was there by his own choice.

5. How did they take to the idea of being part of, if not leading, the resistance?

Again, Raf doesn’t really do well with people depending on them. Alone. they probably would have found it a lot more miserable, but Elijah significantly helped lighten that load for them in terms of having a direction. They’ve found out they’re accidentally pretty good at working with a variety of people and can even be inspiring without meaning to. Still, in their ideal world they would’ve been left alone, or at least remained a foot soldier.

6. Which companions did they recruit, and who did they travel with the most?

All guns for hire were recruited, but Sharky and Nick were their go-to’s, Sharky for personal reasons and Nick for air support. Grace was usually the adult supervision when Nick couldn’t make it but. To be frank Raf's aim isn’t great and it drives Grace a little nuts on prolonged missions. She’s tried teaching them but it never really seems to stick.

7. Did they have time to find romance amidst the chaos? How did they do it?

Sharky. That relationship was a bit of a cold opener  (and don’t bother, Sharky already beat you to that joke). After getting their face fucked up during the escape they’ve had a pretty healthy aversion to fire and explosives, making his recruitment a little harrowing. Still, Sharky's sweet in his way, makes them laugh and breathe a little easier when the pressure gets to them, and operates on a pretty similar brainwave. They’ve been joined at the hip since their first few months in Holland Valley. They’re both a little on the codependent side, but really, who are they to complain.

8. Feelings about Joseph?

Joseph taps into a lot of vulnerabilities inside of Raf intuitively. The absence of a strong support system, the loneliness, the fear, the directionlessness, the relationship with their own spirituality, it all provides him a unique entryway into their psyche that he is exactly the kind of person to exploit. As a result, he tends to fixate on them over Elijah, usually to their detriment. Still, that connection can sometimes go both ways, and there are things about Joseph that Raf understands which even his brothers never fully do.

9. Feelings about the other Seeds?

John: They have a unique capacity for antagonizing him. Probably because as an oldest child themselves they know exactly how to jab at the youngest child insecurities. Still, that relationship didn’t stem any deeper and he focused his energies a little more on Elijah. Still, they have him to thank for the Sloth scars on their arm, thanks for that. They’re starting to run out of unmarked skin.

Faith: Faith, meanwhile, was a little more directly focused on Raf, partly because her region was the first time they had to operate a little more on their own. For personal reasons, Elijah wasn’t particularly able to engage with the Bliss. Meaning if Burke was ever going to get saved Raf had to be the one to go in there, again and again. Faith, like Joseph, can tap a lot of that loneliness that Raf has, as well as some gender and sexuality stuff Joseph can’t touch. Suffice to say Sharky had a pretty good reason for being as overbearing as he was during those months, even though he was eventually able to do the job. As a side note, they haven’t had access to their ADHD meds for MONTHS and it doesn’t help when the cult drug is the first thing to make your head feel clear in a while.

Jacob: Jacob was utterly uninterested in Raf and the feeling was mostly mutual. He doesn’t really get him or what he’s about, just knows that the county would be better off when he was put down. Transition goals, though (don’t tell Staci they said that).

10. How did they handle having to kill animals and other humans? Had they done it before?

Animals yeah, you don’t live in Montana as long as they did without hunting occasionally. People....well. You can get used to it.

11. Which canon ending did they choose in-game, and would you have changed the ending at all?

Resist. I wouldn’t. Raf might.

➷Personal

1. Favorite weapon(s)?

They usually prefer to show up to spots early and lay traps, try to minimize the direct combat involvement. When it can’t be avoided though, their pistol isn’t ever far and neither is a hunting knife.

2. Stealth or firepower?

Stealth, one hundred percent. Sharky and Eli are here to do the firepower.

3. How did they spend their time, when not fighting peggies?

A lot of bad movies with the boyfriend and a LOT of poker, one of their more unknown talents. Resistance isn’t gonna fund itself.

4. Where did they live during the events of the game?

Wherever there was a bed they could fall into. Their little trailer they’d been living in prior to all this got absolutely decimated while they were healing up on Dutch’s island.

5. Any other facts you want to share about your Deputy!

He’s got almost supernatural luck to the point that a couple of their guns for hire have gotten superstitious about bringing him to certain events. Including fishing. The catch just always seems somehow a little better. Also he’s privately obsessed with the 1998 recording of Cats and is terrified of anyone finding out.

#far cry 5 #fc5 #far cry deputy #oc: raf tanager #oc: elijah rook #joseph seed #sharky boshaw #long post #far cry rook

[moipale]

DP Side Hoes Week Day 7: Cujo/Reveal

her son, knelt beside a ghost ; ao3 link

The ghost dog is a well-known specter among Amity Park’s ghost hunters. It has personally invaded Maddie’s lab time and time enough for her to recognize its ectosignature in her radars, and the Red Huntress has been observed to treat it with particular violence.

Despite how much of a nuisance it is, the dog is not a particularly dangerous ghost. Maddie and Jack can contain it relatively easily, and it responds to a fair amount of the commands living dogs do. To be fair, it doesn’t always obey those commands, but it doesn’t outright ignore them, which is a step further than they’ve gotten with most other ghosts.

No, the ghost dog would be more of a pest than a threat, and as such a target for destruction or dissection, were it not for one factor: that it seems particularly attached to Phantom.

When provoked, the ghost dog can be truly formidable. What kind of destruction might it reap, were Phantom to command it? How many lives might it take before she and Jack could contain it? Aside from the potential dangers, if she and Jack were to dispose of the dog, what might they lose in regards to Phantom?

It’s rare to catch the ghost boy in one place for very long, but the few times he’s been spotted engaging with the dog have been the longest he’s stayed in one area to date. Neither Maddie or Jack forsook those opportunities. First, they attempted to catch him. When that proved fruitless, they took to observation, and what a gold mine such an endeavor begot.

Danny Phantom, in his moments spent with the ghost dog, does not display the same territorial, threatening behavior he does when in combat with other invading ghosts. Rather, he regards the dog with an apparent fondness similar to that of a human with their pet. He plays fetch with it. It’s baffling, and a research opportunity like no other.

Maddie has countless pages of data, extrapolations, and theories as to the relationships between ghosts. She has analyses that factor in volatility, goals, obsession, the differences between humanoid and animalistic ghosts and their relationships with and between each other, what factors are conducive to a relationship, what factors detract from one. Most of it is hypothesis. Aside from the occasional ghostly team-ups, which are admittedly short-lived and based upon hostile intention, Phantom is the only sapient ghost on record to have been observed positively interacting with another ghost.

The phone rings upstairs. Maddie starts, her tunnel vision clearing—she’d been focusing too diligently on her stacks of notes. A glance at the clock tells her its been much longer than she’d realized that she was sitting there, scouring every detail, searching for a new piece of evidence to tie her hypotheses together.

Across the room, Jack starts to get up, but Maddie stops him with a wave of her hand. “I’ll get it,” she offers, already heading for the stairs. “I need a break.”

She picks it up on the last ring, and is treated to the familiar tones of the Casper High School secretary, whose voice trembles in that way it always does when he’s calling about ghost-related troubles. It doesn’t tremble quite enough for the incident to be very serious, though, and Maddie bites back a sigh. At least it isn’t another Danny issue.

He stutters out a harried explanation: the ghost dog has taken over the gym, and is preventing Ms. Tetslaff from teaching. How fitting, Maddie thinks, and she cuts off the man’s nervous ramblings. “Of course. We’ll be there right away to take care of it. Don’t worry.”

All it takes is a quick call of, “Jack, there’s a ghost at the high school!” for her husband to come running up, weapons already in hand. She smiles at him—his enthusiasm has never stopped being endearing—and matches his pace as he heads for the door.

——————

When they get there, they’re redirected in short order to the school gym, which reeks of ghoul before they get anywhere near it. Maddie’s sensors pick it up immediately, though she looks at them in confusion before turning to the secretary, who leads them nervously toward the doors.

“I thought you said only the ghost dog was here? I’m picking up two ghosts.” At that, the man seems to shrivel even further, his anxiety mounting.

“That’s what I was told, ma’am,” he squeaks out, and then gestures to the doors, which have loomed up before them. A flimsy barricade has been erected, which would prove as absolutely no obstacle to a ghost, but which probably made the school officials feel better. Maddie doesn’t comment on it.

“Well, we can take it from here. Thank you for escorting us,” she says firmly, and he takes the dismissal to heart, retreating so swiftly he almost jogs back the way they came.

Without further ado, Jack scatters the barrier—made up of mostly chairs and desks—before slamming the doors open, barging into the gym, Maddie following quickly behind.

She gets an answer to her question immediately. Standing before them in the center of the gym, and interfering with their equipment as usual, is Danny. Around him runs the ghost dog, circling him and yipping happily. Danny’s clearly noticed their entrance—he gives his father a little wave, makes eye contact with her—but he doesn’t seem concerned at their presence, nor does he run to them for protection. He doesn’t even seem scared, which, for a boy who’s notoriously terrified of ghosts, is huge. Maddie has to squash her pride as the mother in her threatens to overwhelm the scientist.

That said, Danny is standing next to a dangerous spectral entity, and so the moment she collects herself, she calls out, “Danny, dear, get away from that ectoplasmic scum!” She strides forward, removing a Fenton Blaster from her belt as she does, aiming for the dog.

“Mom, wait!” Danny protests. She wouldn’t have stopped, but the dog finally notices her, yips, and skitters behind Danny’s legs, cowering. “Come on, he’s not going to hurt you. Cujo’s just a dog!”

“Cujo?” Maddie questions, looking sharply at her son.

“That’s his name. Look, it’s on his collar.” Danny kneels next to the dog and reaches for it. Maddie tenses, her finger on the trigger, but the dog sits pretty, letting Danny pull it forward to show off the tag on its collar.

On the front is, curiously, the logo for Axion Labs. On the back, etched in neat letting, is the name Cujo, though the validity of what Danny said is the farthest thing from her mind at the moment. No, the important detail here is that Danny—her son, who is terrified of ghosts and wants nothing to do with the family business—is comfortable enough with this dog that he can tell her with complete confidence not to attack it. Not only that, but the fact that he knows its name tells her he’s been around it before, most possibly on multiple occasions—and he hadn’t breathed a word of it to her or Jack.

“Danny-boy, don’t touch it! It’ll contaminate you!” Jack levels a gun far larger than necessary at both Danny and the ghost dog. “Stay still, pal, I’ll get it!”

Danny’s eyes widen. Before Jack can do anything, however, Maddie reaches out and pushes the barrel of the gun up, so the shot fires high, missing Danny and… Cujo entirely.

“Hold on, dear. It hasn’t attacked yet,” she says, placating her husband. Danny shoots her a grateful look, a small smile tugging at the edges of his mouth. It hits her, suddenly, how little she’s seen her son these past few years. This one small, tentative smile seems monumental, laid before her so simply. How long has it been since she’d listened to Danny when he asked her to back down?

How long has it been since they’ve talked, without a ghost standing between them?

“Guys, really,” Danny says, drawing her out of her thoughts. “Cujo’s just a dog. If I ask, he’ll go back to the Ghost Zone.” He says it casually, but Maddie snaps to attention. Danny didn’t say, “if we ask,” or “if you ask.” He said “if I ask,” like the dog has some attachment to him. Like Cujo is his.

“Look,” Danny says, and she watches him walk over to the side of the gym where an equipment cart is parked. From it, he pulls a softball. Cujo still sits where Danny had left it, but perks up when he raises the ball. “Go, fetch!” Danny calls, tossing the ball towards the other end of the gym. It soars over Cujo’s head, and the little ghost yips and tears after it, claws clicking on the gym floor.

As Maddie watches Danny watch the ghost, she sees how relaxed his shoulders are, the soft smile playing on his lips. He looks at Cujo with fondness, the picture of a boy and his dog. A human and their pet.

For all her focus has been on her ghost hunting, how has she missed her son growing up? How has she not noticed the way he’s grown into his body: lean muscle, comfortable slouch, a confident set to his shoulders. The last she’d looked, really looked, he’d seemed so small and meek.

How long has she observed Danny Phantom, studying that same figure?

Her arm droops by her side, gun pointed uselessly at the floor. She feels boneless, all of a sudden, watching her son walk calmly across the gym floor, ready to meet the ghost dog as it careens back toward him, softball held awkwardly in its tiny mouth. Danny and Danny. Fenton and Phantom. A boy and his dog.

Against the light of the late afternoon sun, streaming in from one of the far windows, Danny’s hair is lit up like a beacon. Haloed, it appears almost white.

How many times has she caught his eye in the darkness and thought she saw a hint of green?

Danny grunts as Cujo jumps at his chest, but he catches the little dog, prying the softball from its mouth with some difficulty. “Hah, give that to me, you little rascal,” he says, talking to it with the same tone of voice Maddie’s father used to talk to her childhood dog with.

Her son, knelt beside a ghost, playing with it.

Fondness. A human and their pet.

Confident set to his shoulders.

“Okay, boy. Time to go home.” The wag of Cujo’s tail slows a little. “Yeah. Go on home, buddy.” He makes a little shooing motion with his hands, and, though the dog looks disappointed, it turns tail and goes.

And Maddie lets it.

#danny phantom #danny phantom fanfiction #dp fanfiction #dp side hoes week #my fics

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Any fics about hair? Whether it’s hair care or hair pulling, I don’t mind.

Hi Nonny!

Ah, I don’t have very many that deal SPECIFICALLY with hair, but more like hair is within the plot or one of the boys loves the hair! So here’s what I can remember; I know there’s another that’s 100% about hair (Sherlock wants to taste John’s hair and doesn’t know how to ask) and I can’t remember which one it is and it’s bugging me LOL. Anyway, here you are, everything that showed up in a search. I’ll also add Beard Fics too:

HAIR & BEARDS

See also: John Has a Beard

Upon Reflection, Tenable Frippery by emmagrant01 (T, 1,299 w., 1 Ch. || Post-S4, John’s Beard, First Kiss, Fluff) – John was, inexplicably, growing a beard.

Untouched by KittieHill (E, 3,239 w., 1 Ch. || Kissing, Frottage, Virgin Sherlock, Body Worship, Sherlock’s Scars Mentioned, Masturbation, PWP, Rimming, Multiple Orgasms) – Sherlock leaked a lot. John had never needed lubricant. John loved watching it, had once spent an entire afternoon edging Sherlock so he could watch as the thick precome drip, drip, dripped onto Sherlock’s belly.

Love and Hair Dye by Anonymous (E, 3,920 w., 1 Ch. || Est. Rel., Body Worship, Self Conscious John, Voyeurism, Idiots in Love, Smutty Smut) – Self conscious John decides to cover the greys on his head, and the colour isn’t what he thought it would be. Now he’s more self-conscious than ever.

The Oolong Disaster by unicornpoe (T, 4,151 w., 1 Ch. || John’s Beard, Fluff, Humour, Frustrated Sherlock, John Takes Care of Sherlock, Case Fic-ish, Pining Sherlock, First Kiss, Possessive Sherlock) – John has a beard. Sherlock has a panic attack.

If He Knows by shamelessmash (M, 4,513 w., 1 Ch. || TSo3 Fic, Pining Sherlock, Bed Sharing, Angst, Sherlock POV, Texting, Internal Monologue, Blanket Forts) – I imagine mornings: John handing me a cup of tea, hair sticking out at odd angles. How he would bend down to kiss me, smiling fondly as he pulls away. The way his skin crinkles at the corner of his eyes, the way his skin looks in the morning light. The soft sigh as he sits in his chair with the morning paper, the way his toes curl in the carpet, the way he rolls his shoulders before sinking deeper into his seat. I watch him, how he is when he is content, as it should be. As he deserves. Happy. With me.

Facade by distantstarlight (M, 4,715 w., 1 Ch. || Fluff, John’s Beard, No-Shave November, Grumpy Sherlock, Clueless Sherlock) – Sherlock is highly irritated with a challenge John has agreed to undertake. Why does he need to grow a beard anyway?

One Day Like This by nondeducible (E, 4,872 w., 1 Ch. || First Time, Bed-Sharing, Romance, Fluff, Virgin Sherlock) – When Sherlock emerged from the bathroom, the sight before him nearly took his breath away. The only light in the room was the small lamp on the bedside table. John’s skin shone like gold, his hair like the purest silver. He was on his side, facing the empty part of the bed, his outstretched hands ready to embrace whoever climbed in next to him. Sherlock could imagine, just for a second, that this was their shared bed and he was coming back to settle into John’s arms.

Survival Strategies for the Domesticated British Butthole by Atiki (E, 6,183 w., 1 Ch. || Crack, Rimming, Anal Sex, Iced Lolly, Hair Removal, Depilation) – In which there’s a rimming disaster, Sherlock depilates his butt, everything goes very, very wrong and groceries are mistreated. This fic contains hair removal creme in a butthole, ice lollies in a butthole and John Watson’s penis in a butthole. You have been warned.

The Death of Doubt by Gingerhermit (E, 6,584 w., 1 Ch. || Alternate Canon, BAMF John, POV Sherlock, Sherlock’s Mind Palace, Hurt/Comfort, Angst/Drama, Meddling Mycroft) – Mycroft asks for John’s help in rescuing Sherlock from his Serbian captors.

The Tip Over Into The Inevitable by ivyblossom (T, 6,894 w., 1 Ch. || Grief, Cuddles, Insomnia, Hurt/Comfort, Friends to Lovers) - When his father dies, Sherlock avoids sleeping. Then discovers he can’t sleep at all. John finds a way to help.

Onomatopoeia by aquabelacqua (M, 6,904 w., 1 Ch. || First Time/Kiss, Frottage, Dirty Talk, Domestics, Word Kink, POV Sherlock, Dry Humping / Sex, Chair Sex, Hair Pulling, Lazy Mornings, Hand Jobs, Friends to Lovers) – Something is the matter with John. Sherlock is determined to figure out what it is. Mark his words.

Beg for Mercy (Twice) by Solitary_Endeavor (E, 7,060 w., 1 Ch. || Est. Rel., Bottomlock, Bearded John, Edging, Rough Sex, Idiots in Love, Canon Compliant) – Sherlock hasn’t left the flat in four days, the itch of impatience beneath his skin too great to allow him to suffer interaction with any human being who isn’t John. This is probably a mercy that goes both ways, as he’s driving even himself mad. Sherlock supposes there is a lesson to be learned here about having himself to blame, but of course he blames Mycroft.

Of Razors, Pipes, Red Notebooks and Rugby Jerseys, Or: Sherlock Doesn’t Like His Doctors Clean Shaven by allonsys_girl (E, 7,313 w., 1 Ch. || Est. Rel., PWP / Porn With Feelings, John’s Beard / Beard Kink, Roleplay, Love Declarations, Banter, Rimming, Anal, Domestic Fluff / Bliss, Idiots in Love, Emotional Lovemaking, Pet Names, Obsessive Sherlock, Sherlock POV, Bottomlock, Cranky Sherlock) – John grows a beard. Sherlock really likes it. Part 1 of Consulting Husbands

Christmas by Anonymous (E, 7,673  w., 1 Ch. || Worried Sherlock, PWP, Drunkeness, Christmas, Est. Relationship, Idiots So In Love) – John feels a lump rise in his throat, and it hits him, again, that this beautiful, infuriating creature is his. Completely, one-hundred percent his.

And if you say the word, I could stay with you by CaitlinFairchild (E, 12,842 w., 1 Ch. || Domestic Fluff, BottomJohn / Topping from the Bottom, Fluff and Romance, Dirty Talk, Proposals) – What Sherlock thinks is, On the day I die, be it in a dirty alley at forty or in my bed at eighty, the last thing I will remember is tonight, the way you looked at at me on the snowy pavement, cheeks pink with the cold, breath puffing in frosty white clouds, your heart in your eyes and snowflakes in your hair. I will remember that single perfect moment in my life, that moment I knew I had everything I ever wanted, and whatever happens next, I will die content. What he says is simply, “Marry me.”

Where Else Would I Be? by cwb (E, 34,910 w., 10 Ch. || Retirementlock, Domestic Fluff, Falling in Love, Parentlock, Fluff and Smut, Reminiscing) – John and Sherlock’s five-year-old granddaughter spends the weekend with them in Sussex. Sherlock happily indulges her whims, and John takes care of them while quietly revisiting the past thirty years of their lives together.

Albion and the Woodsman by Glenmore (NR [E], 54,437 w., 50 Ch. || Post S3, Parentlock, Pining Sherlock, Angst, Family, Drug Use, Depression, Sherlock POV) – Sherlock and John are devastated after Mary Morstan makes her final moves. Sherlock relapses at the crack house, John walks around the world … and a lot happens in between. Parentlock, in the good way.

The Thing Is by TSylvestris (E, 56,743 w., 21 Ch. || Case Fic, Dev. Rel., Anal/Oral, Blow Jobs, Meddling Mycroft, Drama, Romance, Humour, Casual Encounters, Pining Idiots, Possessive Sherlock, Orgasm Delay, Rough / Alley Sex, Public Sex, John Whump, Drugged John, Emotional Love Making, Awkward Relationship, Marriage of Convenience, Switchlock, BAMF John) – The problem with living with Sherlock, John thought, was that you never, never, ever knew the significance of anything. Like your flatmate’s nose buried in your hair. Whilst you’re in bed. Part 1 of Nitroglycerine

A Further Sea by i_ship_an_armada & ShinySherlock (E, 125,492 w., 23 Ch. || Historical Pirates AU || Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Doctor John / Pirate Captain Sherlock, Sailing, UST / RST, Masturbation, Action / Adventure, Mild Angst & Peril, Romance, Shaving, Molly/Janine, Bottomlock, Hand / Blow Jobs, Past Drug Use, Slow Burn, Mild Violence, Facial Shaving, Happy Ending) – Here be a tale of adventure for both body and soul, but beware if ye be not of stout heart, for this be piratelock, ya savvy? Luckless ship’s surgeon John Watson takes a chance, and finds himself eye to eye with The Ghost, the scourge of the seven seas and a definite thorn in the side of the blaggard, James Moriarty. But when John finds there’s more to this most cunning pirate than be meetin’ the eye, he has to choose… is it a pirate’s life for him?

MARKED FOR LATER

Curlock by 88thParallel (G, 1,285 w. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Sherlock’s Hair, Fluff, Ficlet) – How Sherlock learned to control and appreciate the incredible gift he was born with, and the man who helped him sort it out.

Of Razors, Pipes, Red Notebooks and Rugby Jerseys, Or: Sherlock Doesn’t Like His Doctors Clean Shaven by allonsys_girl (E, 7,313 w., 1 Ch. || PWP, Porn With Feelings, John’s Beard, Bottomlock, Domestics, Fluff and Smut, Banter, Declarations of Love, Rimming, Anal, Est. Rel.) – John grows a beard. Sherlock really likes it. Part 1 of Consulting Husbands

How to Sleep with Your Enemy in One Semester by 221b_careful_what_you_wish_for (M, 9,699 w., 6 Ch. || College / Uni Professors AU || Professor John/Sherlock, Enemies to Lovers, Rivalry, Bickering, Office Sex, Blow Jobs, Fluff, Domestics, John’s Beard, Idiots in Love) – Visiting professors John Watson and Sherlock Holmes are longtime academic rivals — and now unwilling office mates — at a prestigious American university. When their tense arguments give way to an undercurrent of mutual attraction, their war of wits turns into something more personal — until it goes off course. A party, a phone number, and deserted office at night might just bring them back together.

#steph replies #johnlock fic recs #my fic recs #hair and beards #Anonymous #fic rec wednesday

[lewishamil10n]

S C H O O L

Day 8 - Jack attends highschool.

Warnings - Berry AU!, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, slightly Jack-centric

🌻

‘I’m going to high school?’ Jack exclaimed, looking very confused. ‘But, Sam and Castiel has already taught me everything that I need to know!’

‘Jack, this’ll be a simple case, in and out. We only need you to attend the highschool for a week, while we go undercover as Substitute teachers and find out what’s been making the students commit sucide. The whole school has been in a state of panic for weeks now.’ Castiel replied, going through Jack’s clothes. ‘We may need to find you something more… trendy.’

‘Trendy? What, the clothes he hasn’t aren’t trendy?’ Dean questions, giving Castiel an accusing glare.

‘Not if you want people to think he is either homeless or a lumberjack, then no, they aren’t. We must find you some suitable teenage clothing.’ Castiel keeps tossing his shirts and jeans into the ‘worthless’ pile, and there’s only a plain red shirt in the ‘suitable’ pile. ‘Sam, any suggestions?’

‘Uh, try those popular online shops?’ He presses a few keys on the keyboard, then sighs. ‘Okay, there’s something here called Supreme, maybe he could try this out? How about Nike? Areopostle? How much clothing brands are there?’

‘Oh, you should get him a phone too, just in case. Kids seem obsessed with those nowadays.’ Dean points out, handing them all burgers. He places a kiss on Sam’s forehead, and the younger Winchester rolls his eyes, smiling.

‘A phone? Well, Jack, would you like a phone?’ Sam asks him, and Jack shrugs.

‘I guess, if I want to fit in!’ He says, and Castiel mumbled something in Enochian underneath his breath.

‘Word of advice, don’t hang out with the nerds like Sammy here.’ Dean chuckles, and Sam punches him in the shoulder.

🌻

The first day isn’t quite a disaster.

That is an understatement. His dog, Berry, who was actually Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog from hell decided to break through the third floor window because he missed his best friend dearly. Thank whoever’s listening that Berry wasn’t actually in his true form.

He doesn’t have any classes with Sam, Dean or Castiel for that day, and everyone seems to be looking at him weirdly. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s new, and walking around the school with a huge dog that has to bend his head down to fit through the doors?

Walking to his seventh period class, lunch, was even worse. He sat by the window and ate his sandwich that Dean thankfully packed for him. He pokes at the jello container, before throwing it into the trash can conveniently placed next to him. Everyone staring at him is making him uneasy, and he doesn’t like those eyes looking at him. Berry tried to rest his head in Jack’s lap, and when that didn’t work, he proceeded to shove the nephilim off the seat and sat on him.

Everyone started laughing, and Jack groaned, face flushed in embarrassment.

Walking to his ninth period class, Sam caught him and made a confused face, raising his hand to pause the lesson he was teaching and walked into the hallway, closing the door.

‘What is Berry doing here?’ He whispered loudly, and Jack shrugged and threw his hands in the air.

‘I don’t know, one moment I’m learning about dictation and the next he’s breaking through the third story window and trying to get me to pet him!’ Jack exclaims, and Sam sighs.

‘Oh god. Okay, did you just say, third story? How did he even reach there?’

‘I don’t know! Maybe he climbed?’

A trash can fell down a few doors down, and Berry was sniffing through it eagerly.

Jack watches him try to lick an old popsicle stick, and the snake collar on his neck, Loki, tries to steer him away from it by tightening around his neck. ‘Did you and Dean or Castiel find anything yet?’

‘No, but Castiel is currently looking through old school files in the history room right now, seeing if he can find any useful information on the past students and teachers that have attended the school.’

A teacher screams as Berry is poking his head through a classroom door, and the dog jumps at the sound of it, bumps his head into the doorframe, and quickly runs away, back to Sam and Jack, and licks Sam’s face eagerly.

‘Aw, yeah, I get it buddy.’ Sam scratched his head as he stoops down. ‘I miss you too.’

🌻

The next day isn’t as bad, but Berry still manages to escape the bunker even though all the doors are locked. He walks right into the lunchroom doors and the cafeteria goes silent, as Berry is cautiously looking around for his best friend and spots him silently eating his lunch and he barks loudly.

‘Berry? Again?’ Jack shouts, and Berry comes running over and licking where his tongue can reach. ‘Aw, Berry, I missed you too!’

A girl, who is slightly taller than him, walks over and smiles. ‘Hi.’

‘Uh, hi! I’m Jack!’ He raises his hand in recognition, then turns his attention back to his dog. ‘This is Berry. And the snake is called Loki.’

‘The snake..?’ The girl questions, and Jack flushes nervously.

‘Wait, what? No, not a snake. It’s just a collar. You know what, I’ll be quiet now.’ Jack’s cursing himself out internally, just like what Sam and Dean do all the time, and the girl sitting in front of him laughs.

‘Okay then. My name is Nalia.’ Jack hands her a smile. ‘I love your dog, he’s so cute!’

‘Thanks. He’s supposed to be a guard dog, but…’ The two of them watch as Berry is laying on the floor belly-up, wanting some attention for himself. ‘He’s more of a happy ball of sunshine.’

🌻

Dean’s grinning as Jack supasses all the other boys on the track field. ‘So, having a good day?’

‘Yeah! I meant this girl name Nalia, and she’s awesome!’ Jack says happily, and Dean raises an eyebrow.

‘Nalia, huh? Man, you really did grow up fast.’ The older Winchester says, then makes the girls do another 50 push-ups, because he feels like it. ‘So, are you two hanging out after school or something?’

‘No, I only met her today! But I want to hang out with her tomorrow, if that’s okay with you?’ The nephilim asks, fiddling with his thumbs and Dean softly smiles.

‘Yeah, you can. Just have Castiel watch you from a distance, okay?’

‘Okay!’

🌻

He wasn’t even able to hang out with his new friend Wednesday. He can’t remember how it started, or why, but he crashed into a girl while he was chasing after Berry, because he took his sandwich and next thing you know, he’s in the school yard and people are yelling and screaming and shouting and he’s covering his ears.

‘Hey! Can you all stop!’ He shouts, but that earns harsh laughter and he hates that sound. It sounds bad and evil and like Lucifer.

And then there's a fist flying in his face, and he’s knocked to the floor. ‘Get up, bitch!’

He has power. He’s stronger than all these useless, fragile humans. Why doesn’t he hurt them? Hurt them as bad as they hurt him, hurt them worse? Jack could do it easily, with just a flick of his wrist and they’d all disappear, melt, disintegrate.

‘You hurt me.’ He growls, and the crowd goes silent. ‘You hurt me!’

‘Yo, you want a cough drop for your voice?’ That makes the crowd goes wild, and Jack’s burning yellow eyes look directly at him.

‘Jack!’ Castiel shouts, and he’s headed right into their direction and everyone scatters. ‘Jack, are you okay?’

‘Yeah, I’m okay.’ He sags, letting his anger go.

Nalia’s probably waiting at the animal shelter for him to arrive, and if he’s crying into’s Berry’s fur in the backseat of Baby, no one says anything.

[They get him buckets of ice-cream and binge watch all of his favorite cartoons later, and make a fort and hang up LED lights and spill stupid childhood secrets and stories, even if most of it is made up, it’s worth making Jack smile.]

🌻

You would think Jack’s fight would be making headlines in the daily highschool gossip, but instead, it was about Dean Smith fucking Sam Wesson over his desk in the chemistry room, making him scream and beg for his cock.

Someone even had the guts to ask Dean about it, and his answer was; ‘You have a voyeurism kink or something? Of course I fucked him.’

Sam blushes and throws a textbook at him when he receives the news.

Berry is at lunch with Jack for protection today, and surprisingly, Nalia actually sits with him. ‘Hey.’

‘Hey! I thought, you know, that I kinda ditched you yesterday--’

‘You didn’t ditch me, you got into a fight with Travis. I totally understand. Do you want to reschedule for later today?’ She asks as she takes a bite out of her cake, and Jack beams at the invitation.

🌻

Later, when Sam, Dean, and Castiel pick him up from the shelter, Nalia looks confused. ‘Aren’t those our teachers?’

‘Yeah! But their my dads, too.’ Jack says proudly as Dean gives Nalia a wink in recognition.

‘You know what, not going to even question it. Nope, not going to at all.’ She says, then gives Berry a kiss on his head. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow?’

‘Yes! See you tomorrow!’ He replies, enthusiastic and jumps into Baby.

‘Did you say your final goodbyes to her?’ Sam asks, and Jack tilts his head in confusion.

‘Jack, we killed the ghost, burned her body. We’re heading back to the bunker tonight.’ Dean says, apologetically.

‘What? But, I actually like it here! I made an actual friend!’ He crosses his arms, and stays quiet. Jack knows he’s being stubborn, but he wants to spend time with her.

The three of them look at each other, and Castiel sighs. ‘Okay.’

‘What?’

‘Okay. We can stay here for another week. Is that okay?’ Castiel asks, and Berry barks.

‘Yes!’

‘That should give you enough time to obtain her number.’ Sam says.

‘And I’ll fuck you againist the wall in the boy’s locker room next time.’ Dean grins, and Sam rolls his eyes, blushing.

🌻

[Nalia doesn’t understand what Jack is saying when he tells her that they have to leave and they may not see each other for a while, but he will message her, and she gives him a hug goodbye.

‘Ah! I almost forgot!’ Jack magically makes a small blue box appear in his hands, and Nalia has to rub her eyes in confusion, because she’s sure he made that come from somewhere. ‘This is for you!’

And then he’s gone, and she still doesn’t bother to question any of it. The box in her hands move, and she eyes it curiously before opening it and gasping.

The small bark from it makes her tear up.]

—

i swear the moment i read the words “berry au” my entire day improved. like, automatically :’) and then berry broke into a third floor classroom just bc he missed jack aND MY DAY GOT SO MUCH BETTER.

and then i was like IM IN THIS ONE OH MY GOD!!! damn straight i’d adopt jack and berry on sight :’) berry following jack around the school crashing into doorframes is so fucking funny holy shit i can’t stop smiling at this fic!!

DEAN FUCKING SAM OVER THE CHEMISTRY ROOM TABLE AND THEN CONFIRMING IT FOR THE STUDENTS SKDKSJDJS I LOVE THESE DUMBASSES SO MUCH!

i’ve loved everything you’ve written me so far but if i had to pick a favorite i think this one might be it, oh my god, you are SPOILING ME :’) ily!!!!

#submission #12daysofwincestmas #wincestmas #wincest #supernatural #ficlet #wincestmas anon #tfw and jack #ANON ILY!!!!

[phantomphangphucker]

Legless On Maim Chap. 4: The Government Is Firmly Not Doctor Prescribed

For Ectober Day 9: Rain. 

Danny is annoyed but not surprised, Lewis is impressed but not surprised, Valerie is just surprised; but everyone’s a little confused.

Lewis pushes open Danny’s door around seven a.m., two coffees hugged to his chest and bags slung over his shoulder. He’s pretty sure Danny has a bit of a caffeine addiction. Putting one cup on the table before pausing and looking down, there was a pair of legs in red boots laying on the ground. The first place his mind goes is ‘goddamnit Vee, don’t leave out corpses’, but this is Danny. So that is definitely not a dead body, or part of one.

Depositing the bags to the side before walking around the bed to see who they’re attached to, seeing someone -clearly a girl- in a full-body metal ninja suit. Kicking at her feet, because really? Who? Why? Only for her to jerk awake, take one look at him and jump out the window.

Lewis blinks for a second before walking over to the window and watching whoever fly off on a hover-board? Shaking his head and looking at Danny, was he friendly with another hero type? Lewis tilts his head, well actually, he had seen her in a few videos...usually shooting at ghosts, including Phantom. So was she actually here on friendly terms or did Danny just knock her out....and then fall asleep himself. Which even Eddie isn’t enough of a reckless trash-fire to do.

Deciding not to wake up Danny near his hands, he’d rather not make his bruising worse or bruise the other wrist, he pokes at the tail through the sheets. Only for Danny to effectively ensure Lewis is very awake by his tail wrapping around Lewis’s torso and slamming him into the bed; which is honestly more painful than expected from a somewhat soft bed.

Danny growls for a beat before recognising Lewis’s scent and letting go of the guy, chuckling awkwardly, “sorry ‘bout that”. Watching as Lewis straightens his doctors' coat before waving Danny off, “at least you didn’t break a cast this time. Though I absolutely did wake you up near your tail to avoid getting attacked”.

Danny chuckles, “waking me up without me being full attack mode is a pointless task. At least half my fights start with me being awoken suddenly”, grumbling, “really does a number to my sleep schedule”.

Lewis chuckles, “ghosts and criminals, things of the night”, before pointing at the floor where the girl had been, “now, why was there an unconscious ghost hunter in red on the floor? I’m only guessing she’s a hunter because every video with her has her chasing ghosts”, pointing at Danny, “including you”.

Danny glances at the window, part of it still laying on the ground, before shaking his head, “she came and said hi, we’re friendly. Everyone calls her the Red Huntress”.

Lewis snorts and shakes his head, she sure didn’t seem friendly from what he’s seen, “by that you mean friendly to Danny Fenton, right?”.

Danny smirks slightly, he was working on getting her friendly to both sides of him but it was more than a work in progress, “yeah. Destroying Phantom is one of her life goals and videos?”, smirking and raising an eyebrow, “you been looking me up doc?”.

Lewis shrugs but points to Danny’s coffee, Danny smiling with ever so slight surprise and sipping at it while Lewis speaks, “I’m a curious man and you did tell me who you are. Though that may have only given me more questions”.

“Oh?”.

Lewis nods and downs the rest of his coffee before it gets too cold, that may likely not bother Danny but Lewis prefers reasonably well-temperatured drinks, “from what I looked at, Phantom and Fenton act wildly different. Yet neither seem like the you I’ve seen since you’ve been here. And you did say your Phantom form was just an inversion of how you looked upon death, so what’s with the symbol? Obviously you made the Phantom name after dying, yet the symbol obviously means Danny Phantom”.

Danny snorts and stretches out his tail some, wiggling the rest of his body a little as well, “can’t act the same in both forms, that’s suspicious, and you’re not from Amity. You don’t really know of me. So no point playing up the weakling or the hero around you”, chuckling and tracing a little DP over his chest with his tail tip, “there’s a wild story there. Inadvertently un-half died so had to half off myself again. Added the symbol to my original suit in black beforehand”, sighing happily, “re-half dying was worth the style points”.

Lewis scrunches up his eyebrows, “so you’ve died half-way twice? That seems highly illogical. And it sounds like you had the choice not to, yet did it anyway full well knowing what you’d become?”. At least that’s one way to eliminate the debate of whether or not he had a choice being the way he was.

Danny smiles and nods eagerly, “of course, I wouldn’t have me any other way. I’d do it again, as many times as needed, to stay Phantom. And I also made myself technically never get born once, fixed that obviously”, shaking his head, “mom almost dissected me that day. One of four times I’ve been strapped or chain down to some instrument of torture”.

Lewis shakes his head, deciding to not touch how someone could make themselves not exist while still being in existence enough to correct that, that’s a paradox if he’s ever heard one. “Strapped to torture instruments is a bit commonplace for Eddie and that was before even becoming Venom. Since then I think they’re at two. And both Eddie and Vee would say the same about being Venom. They could have stayed separate, honestly glad they didn’t. I don’t think anyone else could support Vee and Eddie would just implode on his own”.

Danny chuckles, he damn well hopes most people couldn’t even tolerate supporting Vee’s ‘diet’, “I’d implode too. One thing I’ve learned and know well. Be something or someone long enough and you can’t go back. Even if your body or life does. My ghostly instincts and Obsession are just part of me at this point”.

Lewis dips his head at Danny, made sense. Eddie is probably too used to Vee healing him and being functionally indestructible, that he would probably accidentally kill himself. “Humans are adaptable things. But reverting is like breaking a habit, most will fail miserably”, tilting his head and remembering another question, “and nether you nor Eddie are truly human fully. That’s a much bigger change. There’s no special fancy name for what’s Eddie is, he just gets called a host. But, if I remember correctly, you mentioned a word I haven’t heard before, ‘halfa’? Is that what you are?”.  

Danny blushes slightly, stupid tongue, “heh, that’s the word. Half creature, hybrid, half-ghost, half-breed, half-formed. If someone’s really a dick, bastardisation”.

Lewis frowns at the last one, because that’s the appropriate reaction. The term was rather accurate but probably not appreciated, “that’s a lot of ways to say half something, half something else. Most seem a bit insulting”.

Danny snorts as Lewis gets up to throw out the two empty cups, “the whole alive and dead thing is a bit of a spit in the face to both and existence in general. So it makes sense”, pointing at Lewis, “your friends are natural technically. Humans playing host to other organisms is commonplace and Symbiotes, from what you’ve said, naturally have hosts. So hosting a Symbiote is natural really. But halfas? Nothing natural about that. It’s like a major glitch in the universe. Something abominable. Don’t really bother me though”.

“That’s good?”, well at least he didn’t seem to mind, positives. Shrugging slightly and setting bandaging to the side, “well Vee’s rather viewed a bit like that for being not evil. But that’s not the same of course”, picking up a garbage can and smiling cheerily, “now I was thinking we ought to get those casts off. Would make people think you’re doing better and let you move around some”, shrugging at Danny’s smile, “course you’ll still be bandaged up, no way you shouldn’t be, and-”, lifting up a larger bag, “-you’re wearing braces”.

Danny groans exaggeratedly at seeing the guy pull out two long ones with hinges -obviously for his arms-, two for his wrist and fingers -but hey! At least it looks like he’ll actually be able to move his fingers, not bend them though-, and what looks like a bulletproof vest with lots of straps and ribbing. Great. Least the bandaging mostly looks like ace wrapping, which he uses for nastier wounds or breaks here and there. So that’s familiar enough. But...Danny smirks slightly, “so I can just get out of the casts now?”.

Lewis nods and makes a point of not jerking from Danny just sitting up and throwing his arms out. Basically breaking apart all of the castings and hitting Lewis with a few pieces. Danny chuckles, “I make no apologies”.

Lewis shrugs, “well, I did take your legs”.

“And you didn’t even give me proper payment! Those were fantastic rare samples of a unique species I’ll have you know”, Danny waves a finger at him before stretching out in genuine, eyeballing the door all the while.

Lewis just motions for Danny’s arm and starts wrapping it up. Danny raising an eyebrow, “are you wrapping everything?”.

Lewis, securing it, “everything should, normally and logically, still be casted. You’re already getting a good deal here”. Danny huffs but lets Lewis do his job.

Lewis would admit, if asked, that he is absolutely marvelling over Danny’s healing. He was in perfect condition and just like the work Vee can do, it’s always incredible to see healing like this. Though he is definitely getting some strange side-eyeing from Danny as he inspects Danny’s bodies work.

Danny, meanwhile, thinks it’s probably for the best that Lewis doesn’t usually deal with conscious non-drugged patients. He could see Skulker going over his pelt like this, like an appraiser looking over a sought after collection, a hunter grazing their fingers over their favourite trophy prize, a cat eyeballing the best meal they’ve had in weeks. Lewis is again, really really weird, “dude, if you try to steal my body for display or something, we are going to have issues. One fucker doing that is enough, thank you very much”.

Lewis glances at Danny as he’s snapping on the second arm brace, “your body does good work. I like admiring good work, preferably my own but still. And who wants to display you? That sounds more than a little worrying”.

Danny chuckles, “I’m practically a one of a kind creature Lewis, my pelt is the trophy prize of trophy prizes. Skulker, a collector and poacher, is more than just a little fixated on me”, shaking his head and grunting a little from the finger braces, definitely not comfortable, “he has a display section specifically assigned for me and is pretty much my personal stalker at this point. Makes good pie though”.

Lewis shakes his head, “your life is complicated”, and motions for Danny to sit on the edge of the bed so he can put on the torso brace; Danny’s tail swishing around some.

Danny spreads his fingers repeatedly and bends them as much as he can at the first knuckles, which isn’t much, as Lewis moves around the back to finish securing the last brace; which he’s sure is pretty similar to the feel of an actual bulletproof vest. “You’ve got no idea. And there’s schooling on top of it, which my sister’s probably going to be bringing by today, so heads up for that”.

Lewis nods curtly, “noted”, and steps back to assess and admire. Readjusting a few things to look better. Symmetry matters.

Danny, deciding to mess with the guy a little for being a bit creepy, promptly transforms under the braces, also changing them like he did to the battle suit he used to fight Pariah. Hand and wrist braces turning white, the rest all black with his insignia over the chest of the torso brace. Green circles at every joint and white lines tracing the edges, black lines for his wrists and hands.

Lewis blinks and coughs, firmly startled and a bit confused while Danny’s looking over the design with a small smirk. Hearing him mutter, “not half bad actually”. Lewis shakes his head some and inspects one of the arm braces, “how and why?”.

Danny shrugs and transforms over the braces, making them seemingly disappear. Which Lewis gives him a seriously unimpressed and slightly insulted look for. Danny chuckles as he changes back human, braces reappearing completely normal. Lewis shaking his head and tapping on the arm brace, “you just altered -absorbed?- and recreated mass. Mass that wasn’t even your own”.

“I'm an impossible thing. Logic need not apply. When I’m all ghost, my organs and bones are optional. I can literally be just a bunch of floating vaguely person-shaped ectoplasm. Don’t ask me where my clothing and what not goes when I transform”, shrugging, “running theory, my ectoplasmic flesh just coats everything and absorbs or alters it”.

Lewis tilts his head, he didn’t exactly know what happened to Eddie's body or anything really either. Sometimes Venom could peel back to show Eddie’s face or body being right there, the next you could be staring down a throat that clearly wasn’t attached to a human. Illogical. Pointing at Danny, “you know, that’s pretty similar to running theory on what Vee does. Symbiotic flesh seeps out of Eddies pours and coats him. Sometimes absorbing him sometimes not, very illogical indeed. Vee also pretends to be Eddie’s clothing by doing that sometimes. Makes a very convincing leather jacket”, shaking his head with a slight smile, “just one that might bite you”.

Danny chuckles and stretches out again, trying to get a feel for these things, “Tuck once made a joke that my transformation rings eat my human stuff and clothing, then vomit it back out when I change back”, before letting Lewis re-securing and check over all the tubes and wiring attached to him.

Lewis checks his watch and laughs, with the way the Venom transformation happens it did look a lot like Vee eating Eddie’s face. While Danny floats off the bed and swirls around the room a little. Floating to look over Lewis’s shoulder, “let me guess, you’ve got more actual work to do today?”.

Lewis nods, probably oddly unfazed by the floating teen, “indeed, cutting it close already. Mostly just phone calls, paperwork and dealing with the underlings”, patting Danny’s shoulder, “at least attempt to stay in bed mostly, other people do show up here you know”.

Danny waves him off, “pfft I’ve vacuumed my house in ghost form before. Really is the easiest way to vacuum the walls”.

Lewis pauses at the door and looks back at him slightly, “who vacuums their walls?”.

“Fenton’s”.

Danny floats around the room, checking out random things, though being careful to not pull off any of the monitoring crap stuck to him. Don’t want to go giving Lewis a heart attack or something. Eventually running out of that to do, so he tests out the range of motion on every single section of the braces. Which, hint, was not very much.

Around noon he’s pretty much just laying in bed fiddling with his fingers and waiting for lunch, when Val/Red comes in through the window a bit aggressively and does a roll across the ground.

Danny blinks, “uh hey, again”, as she springs up and deactivates her helmet. Danny instantly frowning and sitting up at her looking slightly disheveled and worried. “What is it?”.

Valerie glances out the window at the vehicles, “didn’t want those guys seeing me and wondering why the Red Huntress was here”, looking back to Danny, “out of casts I see. It looks...way less serious”.

Danny smirks, “yeah”, moving his arm around and bending his fingers as much as he can, “still annoying though. Kinda feel like I’m in a battle suit myself though”.

Both of them look out the window as it starts raining, Valerie smiling, “do I ever have good timing”.

Danny squints, something seemed kind of...off, “yeah......”, tilting his head at Val, “what guys? My folks are here too?”.

Valerie sighs and shakes her head, slightly annoyed and not really sure nor caring why they were here, “no, it’s those idiotic G.I.W. their cars stick out li-”.

Danny promptly cuts her off, hiding his panic for now, “what? Are, um, sure they’re here?”, Danny looks at the stuff hocked up to him, figuring out what order to get rid of or deactivate them while alerting the staff as late as possible.  

Valerie squints at him, a little confused, the G.I.W. were just confusing and annoying that’s it, “yeah, they always wear those super clean white suits and the pompous sunglasses”.

“Ah fuck”, Danny prompt floats off the bed and to the window, looking out and indeed seeing their damn vehicles, one that is definitely a heavy-duty ecto-entity transportation vehicle, “fuck me”, squinting more at the rain, it was a really bright blue. Intense colours and him altering colour palettes was normal in Amity, but here? Was he already ecto-contaminating this place that much?

Now Valerie is both confused and a little worried, not to mention startled by Danny just...floating. Watching the tail vibrate like static, clearly upset or freaked out. She’s just going to assume Danny’s tried this floating thing already or it comes naturally with the tail, “what is it? I know they’re annoying but I highly doubt they’d be visiting some kid. Even if you’re a Fenton”.

Danny glances at her before zipping over to all the devices hooked up to him, fiddling with them as he responds, “you see the big van? Like an armoured truck? They are absolutely here for me. And if they find me, they’ll shove me in that and take me to who knows where for lots of painful experiments”.

Valerie blinks, judging by how focused and panicked he seemed -not to mention how he was deactivating machines, tearing sensors off, and cutting through any tubes that were more impeded in him- he was serious about this. But why?, “that doesn’t make sense Danny. Why would they do that? You’re a human kid”.

Danny looks at her a little stunned that it wasn’t obvious before zipping back to the window, he couldn’t go out this way, he’d be spotted and he’d rather not start showing off his powers to Val. Floating around was probably already pushing it. Plus, hospitals had tons of exits. “I’m a human kid with a ghostly tail and ectoplasm in my blood. The hospital took samples from me when I arrived, they would have access to that. My folks' samples they don’t”, turning to her as he floats against his door and listens, whispering to her as she walks over quietly, looking a bit more serious now, “they’ve come after me before, I tricked them so they dropped it. Can’t do that again cause the device I used was destroyed”, Danny doesn’t even have to ask if she’s helping him get out of here, partly because it would be easier if she didn’t partly because he knows she’s going to help even if he asked her not to, as he expertly gets the lock open and sticks his head out.

Valerie grabs him and yanks his head back in, whispering, “what do you think you’re doing?”, gesturing at his tail, “if they’re after you then that getting spotted is the worst thing you could do”.

Even if people did spot his tail, people can write a quick glimpse off as a trick of the eye, “I can’t stay here”.

Valerie dashes back to Danny’s hospital bed, it still hurt that he even had one, and yanks off the top sheet. Tossing it at Danny and whispering, “then hide it, I’ll carry you. You know damn well I can be sneaky”. The fact that he doesn’t even complain about that, instead just lays on the ground and coils the tail up tightly, tying the sheet around it and his waist; really makes it clear he’s very serious about this.

She picks him up, firmly pushing off her mild freak out overdoing that and how light he is, while he throws an arm around her shoulder and neck. Promptly sticking her head out the door and booking it towards an empty hallway.

Danny makes a damn point to pay attention to his senses, smelling for people or where he can smell more fresh air -likely closer to an exit- as Val runs impressively quietly. Of course, him getting carried is damn embarrassing and the jostling isn’t pleasant, if he was actually still injured this would probably hurt like Hell. “Left.....Right......Right....”, pointing at one of the bridges, “over that, exit”.

Valerie huffs and makes a point to walk more casually, even if they get some weird looks no one really thinks much of it, “Danny, you memorised, the building? Just how, cautious are you?”.

Danny just grunts as they get across, looking over the railing to see Lewis talking to two clearly annoyed G.I.W. agents, “as much as needed”.

Valerie follows his line of sight just before she starts manoeuvring to a stairwell, seeing three agents talking to Danny’s weird -seriously who says stuff like that?- doctor, “fuck, you’re right”. Then muttering as she starts down the stairs, “I’m not hurting you am I?”.

Danny grunts as she gets open the door to outside, logically he should be in pain but that would make her feel bad, “I’m fine, let’s just go”.

Valerie plops Danny on the ground, activates her helmet only, and sticks her head out into the pouring rain, looking around for a clear coast.

Danny looks at the rain and his bandaging, chuckling, “Lewis is gonna be pissed”. Untying the sheet, because honestly the goal was to be totally unseen now, thank you rain for the poor visibility in that regard. Floating over near her though not sticking his head into the rain, and muttering, “don’t give me shit for not being carried anymore. I’d rather be able to zip off if I have to”.

Valerie side-eyes him but nods, it made sense, she might have to play distraction or something. Plus, the rain made it incredibly darker. At least it will likely be a while before anyone comes out here to look for them so they’ve got time to wait for a good while.

Lewis was walking to the front desk to check over somethings and make a couple drop-offs, when he spotted the three white-suited men. Making a point to not stare or looking at them, or chuckle for that matter, they looked like nock off Men In Black agents. Guys In White, Hell that was a complete rip off actually.

Ignoring them as one agent asks the receptionist, “Agent S, government agent. We need to see some patient files-”.

“I’m sorry sir, if you’re not family or the patient we can’t release that kind of information”.

Lewis nearly chokes and laughs at the Agents response, “we do your taxes. All the ones for the people who were brought in from the car crash in Amity Park, files now”.

The receptionist gives them a disbelieving look and takes her sweet time looking over the guys' badge, “sorry sir, I still can not release that information to you”.

“Where are their rooms located?”.

The receptionist, who’s obviously mistrustful of them now. Lewis almost thinks she should get a raise for putting up with this, as she responds, “many are in special intensive care or discharged. Those still here are not allowed unapproved visitors-”.

“Where are their rooms, we will come in with a warrant”.

She completely ignores their comment, “-All approvals are being handled by their respective doctors. If you wish to see any of them you will need approval”.

One of the other Agents steps up, “who are the doctors”, that’s supposed to be a question but it sounds like a demand.

Lewis, deciding to catch them off guard a little, “I am one”.

The receptionist functionally exits the conversation at this point and goes back to her work. Not wanting to deal with these blowhards or Dr. Lewis. Taking the finished paperwork from the strange surgeon. She was more than happy to hear he would be going away for a while to help look after his patient, whose parents he was apparently friends with. How they could tolerate him was a bit of a mystery but from the little interaction she’s had with them, they were weird too. Possibly more weird.

The one identified as Agent S steps towards Lewis, “how many patients”.

“That information is private”.

All three agents flash their badges, “not from the government it’s not”.

Lewis makes a damn point of inspecting the badges, which are real annoyingly enough. Still doesn’t matter, “you need a warrant then”.

One of the agents types away and not even a second or two later the receptionist is handing Lewis a warrant. Lewis nods at it, these guys were fast, why couldn’t the guys who actually do his taxes be like that? Clearing his throat, “I don’t have many in my care at the moment, as I usually handle surgeries. I’m not sure how helpful that will be to you”, waiting for a beat while they stare before continuing, “as it stands, I’m looking after three. Only two from the crash”.

The three nod, before agent S speaks, “file and room location for both”.

“Why?”.

“We are with the government”.

Looking over the warrant quickly, nothing about files or rooms, “not good enough. Friends and family only”. Lewis has a feeling that these guys are used to throwing their positions and titles around.

One of the other agents steps forward, “then we want to see your superior”.

Lewis smirks, he loved doing this, “I am the superior”.

The agent squints at his name tag and snaps, “the hospital head then”.

Lewis restrains a chuckle, that was going to get them nowhere fast. Giving them her number anyway and fetching a coffee while he waits. Hiding his smirk with the rim of the cup at the clearly frustrated agents. No way Ms. Leevy would go against Lewis’s decision over visitation of all things, especially for a special case patient or one very wealthy woman, both of whom Lewis himself worked on. He was strange and disliked but everyone knew he was damn good. It was a rare day in Hell when he was actually questioned. It had probably been years since he had been actually.

Frowning ever so slightly as the Agent clearly makes another call, likely his own government superiors. Lewis stands up as Agent S comes back over, “take us to their rooms and provide their documentation now”.

Lewis doesn’t get a chance to respond as the receptionist calls him over and hands him faxed in documents, looking a little frazzled. These guys actually got warrants, just like that once again. Danny was right to be cautious of them, but this functionally ties Lewis’s hands. And considering these guys will shoot rockets at teenagers, he’s got no doubt they’ll storm the building if he refuses at this point. That would put everyone in the hospital at risk and likely wouldn’t do much in the way of stalling.

Making a damn point of using the slowest, most annoying, and glitchy computer they have, Lewis goes about opening up Lilly’s file. Taking the long way instead of using his personal code to bypass things. But blinking when he finds the file, it was severely corrupted. Most of the files were practically unusable, even the descriptions and names were hardly intact.

Agent S snapping, “what’s wrong, why does it look like that. Unencrypt it”.

This gets the receptionist's attention again as she looks over and squints, muttering, “that’s not encryption. What in the world?”.

Lewis shakes his head, confused and a little stumped. Moving over to what he knows is Danny’s file to find it looks the same. It’s like a virus came in and took bites out of it. One file even crashes the computer when he tries to open it. The screen showing a little spinning PDA for a second before turning off completely. Danny’s friends were officially a little terrifying. What kind of hacking or programming did Tucker even use to do something like this? The kid better well have a back up of Lily’s file, Lewis kind of needs that.

Lewis shakes his head at the screen and stands, turning to the receptionist, “have the IT guys look into that”, before turning to the Agents, “warrant or no, you’re out of luck. Flies are damaged”.

Agent S snapping with clear distaste and ego, “rooms then. I’m sure your hospital isn’t so horrible that the rooms can get corrupted or doctors forget their patients' rooms”. Clearly these government dogs were pricks.

Lewis holds up his finger as his pager goes off, no one should be paging him at this point so something was clearly going wrong or there was an emergency. Checking it to see that it was a vitals alarm from Danny’s room. Seriously hoping that’s because the kid disconnected stuff, not actually having an emergency. Good thing Lewis messed with the alarms from Danny’s room. The nurses would simply be notified that Danny had been transferred rooms and to clean up the room. So to give the nurses time to do their jobs, Lewis takes the slightly longer route to Lily’s room and isn’t surprised at all when they aren’t too interested in Lily. He’s even less surprised Danny’s gone and the room is clean.

Looking at the agents and, restraining a smirk, says, “oh no, guess they’ve been misplaced”. The agents are unimpressed.

Meanwhile, Valerie and Danny smile at the backlot clearing out, hadn’t taken even remotely long. Valerie suiting up fully to stay dry and blend in a bit better. Plus her board would be quieter than running through puddles. Looking back to Danny, who’s sitting on the ground, tail wrapped under his torso. The less floating he does the better, he doesn’t want to seem too used to this. Valerie asking, “you good just riding piggyback on my board? I’m fast and I think I can steer better than you can use the tail”.

Danny nods as she activates her board, holding gently around her neck; letting his tail just float about in case he has to run/fly off. Nodding again as she asks, “good to go?”. Before shooting off.

However, Danny near-instantly stiffens, yelps, and yanks his tail to curl in between the rest of his body and Val. Wincing and shaking slightly from every raindrop. This was not normal rain. hissing out, “go back, fuck, ow. Fuck”.

If Valerie hadn’t been concerned by the comment she would be by the fact that she can’t fell Danny’s tail moving at all and it seems like his muscles are shaking and spasming. So she promptly flies back. Pretty much having to peel Danny’s stiff and definitely seized up arms from around her neck. Grabbing the sheet they left behind and patting off the rain a bit frantically, which she’s now noticing looks way too brightly coloured.

Danny groans, this shit fucking hurts. Goddamn G.I.W. twats. They probably were spraying this crap or some shit. Jerkily pushing himself to sit up against Val/Red’s leg after he gets some control of his muscles back, he can feel that stuff burned his skin too. Looking down at his, smaller than it should be, tail and finally noticing the lack of movement. Trying to float or bend it and utterly failing. This was not good. Leaning forward and scooping his hand underneath it, lifting it only for it to behave like a limp soggy noodle. Letting go of it for it to just flop to the ground. Looking up at Val/Red, who’s frowning, Danny clears his throat probably sounding a little shocky, “heh, l-let’s hope this isn’t...permanent”.

Valerie nods jerkily, having a ghostly tail was weird enough, losing legs was horrible enough, not being able to use what he does have would be downright cruel. Moving and helping Danny to stiffly lay on the ground. Deactivating her suit and looking at her dry clothing and skin, she couldn’t just give him her suit, it was part of her body. But if they could put something else over him....pointing at him, “just wait here”, before booking it back into the building.

Danny’s hoping she’s got some kind of idea, because he’s a sitting duck here and he can’t even doing anything about that really. Dragging himself over to a wall and flopping onto his side, groaning a bit and trying to ignore the spasms. Grabbing his tail and pulling it up to his face so he can inspect it. It taking a few tries because of wet braces and the super malleable composition of ectoplasm that’s only barely holding the form of a ghostly tail. But he manages and it was ragged instead of smooth and little holes in spots. Danny could also tell his bodies ectoplasm had been pretty heavily depleted. Which is starting to make him a fair bit tired, not to mention weak. Which only serves to annoy him and make him more paranoid.

And what if his tail couldn’t recover from this? Zone knows what’s in that ‘rain’. What if he won’t be able to fly or float anymore? That would, that would be awful. He’d rather his legs not grow back at all, ever, than not fly again. Pushing down his rising panic as Val comes back with rubber aprons.

Valerie’s pretty well positive he’s either going into shock or something worse with how wide-eyed he looks, not to mention the shaking. Quickly wrapping him in the aprons and making a damn point to make sure all of him is covered, especially the tail. Looking kind of like a Danny burrito at the end, trying to make this seem less shitty, she chuckles slightly, “you look silly”.

Danny looks at her speaking a bit awkwardly, “prick”, before jerking and wincing in pain, feeling his Core do the closest thing it can to seizing up. This felt an awful lot like the Plasmius Maximus. Which, for once, was actually encouraging. That wore off after a while.

Valerie grabbing his shoulders, more than a little worried, “Danny. Are you okay?”.

Danny grunts, “not really. My ectoplasm’s basically seizing up now”, nodding his head stiffly at her, “suit up, we still need to get out of here”.

Valerie frowns but does as she’s asked, “Danny, I didn’t even know you had ectoplasm in you before. How bad is that?”.

Danny chuckles a little hollowly, “everyone in Amity does”.

She looks to where she knows his tail is a bit judgingly as she lays him over the nose of her board, “not enough to set off detectors or form ghost tails, Danny. You even said you have a lot in you even before now, more than everyone else”, patting his back and grabbing on to him, “you good to try again?”.

Danny nods as she creeps out, “I’m fine, go. And yeah I guess I did. Something similar to this has happened before, minus the burning-”.

Valerie cuts in as she crouches and speeds off, making sure to keep a good grip on Danny, “burning!?!”.

Danny grunts, “yeah, felt like someone was dripping acid on me-”.

Cutting in again, “how did you not scream from that?”.

“High pain tolerance. My house is an accidental death waiting to happen. Anyway, if this works like the other thing did, I’ll be fine in time”, Danny’s pretty well clinging to that idea and freaking out would not be helpful at all right now. He doesn’t have time for a freakout.

Valerie ducks behind some cars, grumbling, “well you still should get treatment from your folks or the....doctor guy, for it. Can they even treat your, er, ectoplasm? What if it doesn’t get better at all”.

Danny grumbles as she has to backtrack again, there were more agents showing up, “yes but my ‘plasm’s usually just left alone to do its thing. And I don’t really know. My tail would probably fade away, other than that. I really don’t know”, he could make a few guesses, but not only does he not want to voice them but she’ll ask some questions. Because really, there was only three options. He’d die fully, he’d come fully back to life, or he just wouldn’t be able to use his ghost stuff and side anymore. All of them are fucking horrible and he is firmly not thinking about that. Instead grimacing at what’s functionally crowds in every direction. Some with agents some not. Grumbling, “damnit, can I use your com by chance? Make phone calls?”.

Valerie’s got no clue what he’s up to but she’s got nothing, so she puts a spare pair of her suits headphones into his ears and shoves a little remote into his hand. Muting the call on her helmet for privacy, “here, I’m not listening. Do whatever plan you have”.

Danny smiles and calls Tuck, speaking as soon as he picks up, “don’t ask, where you at?”.

“We’re both in Amity dude, what’s happening?”.

“Seeing a marching band“, their code for the G.I.W. are here, “little red bird’s joined the black parade”, meaning the Red Huntress is helping Danny, “patch me to doc man. Because you fuckers are a long way off. Got a probable fake-out make-out in mind“, mentally groaning over their phrase for saving Danny ass through trickery, “and can’t use little red bird, marching band’s got eyes”. It was way too easy for them to get spotted if Val/Red just flies off and he’s not about to risk her secret like that. Besides, the G.I.W. are stupid but not that stupid.

“Noticed, hacked and cracked. Hold your knickers.....and done. Connecting. Don’t ghost us”, with that Danny hangs up so he can talk with Lewis and probably so Tuck can watch what the G.I.W. are doing. Least it sounds like he deleted Danny’s file or something similar.

Seconds later Lewis picks up, sounding a bit incredulous, “hello?”.

“What’s up doc? You got a car right?”.

“Yes. It’s in the west bay lot. I have a lot of questions. I’m in the bathroom holding my pager, which firmly can not take calls, to my ear. How?”.

Danny chuckles and looks up at Val/Red, “not speaking to you right now. Hey driver, we need the west bay lot”, leaning his face back down so no rain can possibly get on it as she flies off cautiously and clearly a bit confused. “I’m back doc. Don’t question the powers of the very geek. Just meet us by your shit and grab the shit I came in with. All of it. Even scraps”.

Danny can practically hear Lewis’s smirk, “that’s easy. Confiscated it days ago. See you soon”. Danny smirks as he hangs up.

Danny chuckles slightly, body feeling a ton better but ectoplasm still not usable, “we’re good to go. You’re basically dropping me off with Lewis. No one will think something weird of a doctor going out for late lunch or early supper”.

Valerie shakes her head, “I didn’t even understand half of what you said. But you got lucky with your doctor”.

Danny simply smiles as they near the parking lot. Danny spotting some well-dressed guy walking with a large briefcase. As they get closer and Danny squints, it’s clearly Lewis. “Dude walking with a briefcase. Looks weird without his doctor coat”.

Valerie’s just assuming Danny knew whereabouts his doctor would be, since she can barely see the person.

Lewis spots the Red Huntress -how does that board of hers work?- and promptly unlocks his car, signalling for the back doors to open. Managing to get to the car just after the girl dumps what looks like a rubber black garbage bag in the back seat. The girl pointing at Lewis and speaking with an oddly deep voice, “I don’t care what he says, give him medical attention when safe”, then promptly flies off out of sight.

Lewis hops in the car, tosses his briefcase onto the floor in the back, and starts the car as he closes the door. Turning around and speaking as he uses the back window to reverse instead of his camera so that he can see that Danny’s indeed here, wrapped in rubber? And not in a way Vee would like Eddie to be. Shaking his head to clear that image and speaking, “I have even more questions. Guess we’re heading to Amity a little early huh?”, and then fucking drives off.

Danny chuckles and unwraps the aprons as quickly as he can with his stiffness and without getting any of the ‘rain’ on himself. Pushing himself to sit up and stuffing the aprons under the seat. “I bet you do. But no, should probably hold off on going to Amity. You’ll be followed and it’d be suspicious if you do that before you’re scheduled to be off work. You’re just taking a late lunch is all”.

Lewis stares at him through the review mirror, Danny just left needles stuck into his skin and let himself be tossed around, “take out the needles. Seriously. And I am not just letting you run off and I definitely can’t take you out for food in public. Leaving you in here all day would be more risky than you just hiding in a hospital closet”, watching the road though squinting, Danny’s tail was strangely still, “what’s going on with your tail?”.

Danny huffs a little and yanks out the couple things still hooked into him, before grabbing the brief case and digging through his clothing pockets, “the rain’s not rain doc. It’s an anti-ecto solution. My ectoplasm is functionally paralysed right now. It burned the Zone out of me too. So yes, I need to be rewrapped for burn-ah! Yes!”, lifting up his little keychain thermos and poking the uncram button, making it return to a full-sized thermos.

Lewis isn’t sure if he’s unimpressed at his work getting ruined again or impressed that it happened so quickly. “I can’t keep bandaging on you for even a day, can I? And how is a thermos useful? And was it shrunken before?”.

Danny shakes the thermos with a smirk, “this is the most useful thing I have. And yes, folks built a shrink gun like a year ago. Built and repurposed parts from it to build into one of my thermoses. That way I can have a thermos keychain and never be without one”.

Lewis furrows his brows, just how many logic-defying things had his old friends made? “The laws of the universe don’t apply to Fenton’s, in general, do they? And that doesn’t answer how the thermos is useful”.

Danny actually laughs at that, though suppressing a wince for rattling his paralysed Core, as he checks to make sure the thermos is actually empty, “pretty much. It’ll seem less weird after dad accidentally sucks the house into an alternate dimension a few times. Dream catchers that spit people in half and heavily weaponised jumpsuits, yes those suits they wear are weaponised, seem a lot less odd comparatively”, Danny’s firmly enjoying Lewis’s slightly confused expression, and confusing the guy is a welcome distraction. Smirking slightly, he opens the thermos at the car roof, the beam shooting out but of course doing nothing as he puts the cap back on.

Lewis nearly jerks the wheel, not expecting Danny to start shooting his car, deadpanning, “why did you shoot my car? What does that do? And just how weaponised”.  

Danny puts it to the side and sorts through the briefcase more for a pair of Fenton Phones, “you got a screwdriver kit? And it’s a capture device. I don’t just beat ghosts up till they leave. I catch ‘em...in a thermos”.

Lewis digs around in his dash compartment and hands back a kit, whose taken to laying across the seats, “well you are not going to be catching any ghosts. So what are you using it for”. Glancing in the mirror to see Danny tearing apart one of what looks like a green wireless earbud with a mic that’s sitting on his stomach, “and those?”.

Danny holds up the intact one, “Fenton Phones. Name says it all, gimme your pager”, explaining more as Lewis just does it and starting to take that apart too, “I'm fusing the communication bits of the one Fenton Phone into your pager. That way we can communicate”.

“I have a phone you know. And those pagers cost money”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “phones can be tapped. Fenton Phones can’t be. They also can’t be traced”, looking at Lewis’s face through the review mirror, “you could just wear it but that would be noticeable. Or do you want me to take apart your phone”.

Lewis, recognising when he should just go along with whatever a weird friend wants, promptly nods, “you can have the pager”, like how you just don’t try to share food with Vee, best let them have the whole plate, or bowl. Clearing his throat, “but I’m still not letting you run off or stay in the car. Since you won’t go to Amity then what?”.

Danny lifts up the thermos and shakes it, before finishing up the pager and testing it. Smiling with a nod and handing the pager back, “I’m hiding in the thermos. So technically, I am catching a ghost, me. Then you just jab the cram button and hide it where ever. Could even shove it and thusly me, in you wallet”.

Lewis gives Danny seriously dubious eyebrows through the review mirror, “you can fit in that?”.

“It’s a Hell of a lot comfier than the vacuum. And dad accidentally crammed -shrunk- me once before so that’s safe too”. Danny leans forward and uses his elbows two perch himself up on the centre console, tail just flopping unceremoniously on the ground as he holds up the thermos and starts pointing at buttons, “cram, uncram, capture, and this last one’s release. You’ll have to uncram the thermos and then use the release button to let me out”.

Lewis is genuinely considering labelling this as the weirdest day he’s ever had. And it’s just over half over, “so you want me to just, carry you around in a tiny thermos for hours on end? So you can avoid the government officials crawling all over my hospital?”.

Danny nods a bit erratically, “yes, exactly. You could leave me in the car or your locker, if you have one of those. Sure I’ll be a little cranky and sore, it’s not the Taj Mahal in there. But it’s safe and they won’t be able to detect me with scanners”.

“They have scanners for you? Seriously?”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “no, all ghosts. So do my folks. I set that stuff off if they’re sensitive enough regardless of form. I set them off even easier now it seems, blaming the tail for that. My parents' scanner even says, ‘you’d have to be a moron to not spot the ghost directly in front of you’. The ghost grabber adds ‘beware’ after every word I say. And the boomerang will always aim for and hit me if someone throws it. There’s a really long list actually”.

Lewis shakes his head, this was a bit absurd, “and yet they still don’t realise you’re half ghost? Even with their devices point-blank telling them you are a ghost?”.

Danny shrugs, “people are blind, like I said. Anyway, I’mma hide before my luck runs out and G.I.W. drives by or something”.

Lewis almost wishes he pulled over as Danny aims it at his face, gets hit by a blue beam and seems to basically dissolve into Danny coloured mist and gets sucked inside; thermos clattering to the ground. Lewis waits till he gets to the little diner to grab the thermos and hit the cram button. Looking at his pager and pushing the new green button, “you good?”.

Danny’s voice coming through the pager, “I’m fine doc, just go eat and don't be suspicious. I can hear through the thermos by the way. And yes, even I qualify this situation as rather weird even by my standards”.

Lewis shakes his head, clipping the thermoses little key chain on his wallets inside zipper and zipping the whole thing closed, “glad I’m not the only one”, before heading in for food.

One of the annoying things about his ectoplasm being disabled, Danny thinks, is that he can’t move around. Since the thermos basically dissolves and hyper condenses ghosts into just their pure ectoplasm. Sure you could make/keep that ectoplasm you shaped...if you could actually move your ectoplasm. But at least he was alone in here. Though hearing Lewis go about his day is more than a little strange. Even seems slightly invasive when he’s dealing with patients. Which is hardly ever actually. But he does learn that Lewis really does watch what he says around others. Speaking all professional and calming like with some girl named Pepper. But it does keep him somewhat entertained.

Lewis: “mam, I would ask you to leave the transfusion line in”.

Danny doesn’t even need to ask to know how big of a mess tearing out a blood transfusion line would make. Largely because he, like an idiot, has done that repeatedly.

Pepper: “well then get one that doesn’t poke holes in me”.

Lewis: “I apologise as that isn’t something the hospital currently offers”.

Pepper: “well then make it. You’re the big head guy aren’t you?”.

Lewis: “mam. No place offers that because it doesn’t currently exist”.

Pepper, who Danny is imagining is making some kind of shooing motion, “then go make one. I’ll wait”.

Lewis: “maybe someone will see to that. In the meantime, you do need this. So please allow nurse Joy to help you out. I’m sure you’d like to be on your way”.

Pepper: “absolutely not. I will not have something icky like that being jabbed in my skin. And do you even clean the blood? I hear you just take it from any weirdos who just show up. I’ll just find another hospital where they can give me what I want. How would you like losing your paycheck?”.

Lewis: “I can assure you we have extremely high standards for both the blood we take and provide to patients. You were sent here because you needed the best care possible, which we have and can provide as best as you allow us to”.

Pepper: “pah! Then stop jabbing me with things. Use the needles on the commoners with no standards. Treat me like a doctor, would you treat a doctor like this?!?”.

Lewis: “without question yes. Everyone receives the same level of care, as we hold ourselves to the highest standard”.

Pepper: “bullshit! No doctor would let their skin, that they likely spent good money taking care of, be marred for some silly blood thingy”.

Someone Danny’s assuming is a nurse: “mam please, Dr. Lewis has other duties to perform. All you need to do is take the treatment as you need i-”.

Pepper: “I don’t care what other patients he has! They can all curdle and die! Give me what I actually deserve”.

Lewis, sounding a little too cheery, “I can certainly do that.....nurse Remfell, could you fetch me the sedatives?”. Danny snorts and laughs at that.

Pepper: “what! I do not need something like that!”.

Lewis: “then please take your treatment as you’ve been directed”.

Pepper: “this is harassment and coercion!”.  

Lewis: “you requested I give what you deserve. Which is simply what you need. Which is exactly the treatment we are attempting to give you”.

Pepper: “no, what I need is for you to speed up this process so I can go home to people who actually do treat me properly. You know, by not jabbing me with needles”.

Lewis: “if they were capable of indeed providing you with adequate treatment then I would feel comfortable releasing you to them. However, they are not. No one can rush healing, the body must take its time and it can use that time best while being treated properly”.

Pepper: “would you let this be done to you? I think not”.

Lewis: “I certainly would. The people here are highly skilled. I could demonstrate, if that would make you feel better?”.

Nurse Remfell, sounding cautious and barely above a whisper: “Doctor Lewis”.

Pepper: “oh don’t bother. You probably willing eat meat. So clearly your standards are a little lower than mine”.

Lewis: “you’ll find most doctors are quite healthy eaters, including the very much necessary amount of meat. Though I can assure you that I have a friend with a far more specialised and refined palette”. Danny officially wonders just how often Lewis drops random info about his friends. And man would Sam ever be able to get into one Hell of an argument with Lewis and his friends.

Pepper: “then maybe they should do your job. Since you clearly don’t know about nutrition at all”.

Lewis: “that is not my department but I can assure I am very well informed in that regard. I don’t believe anyone would exactly like them to be the ones digging around in them”.

Nurse Remfell, again sounding cautious and slightly pleading: “doctor, don’t you have surgery in a little while?”.

Lewis: “I do. But maybe they’d enjoy some diet tips from miss Pepper as an apology for holding me up from doing what is in my title”.

Pepper: “hmpf, they don’t deserve my wisdom for free”.

Lewis: “then you’re going to let everyone here do their jobs and get you and other patients fixed up?”.

Pepper: “not if they’re going to stick Me with more damn needles”.

Lewis: “Nurse Remfell, please have Dr. Meyer sedate and help treat Miss Pepper. I would do it, my hands are steadiest of course, but I’m afraid I have other responsibilities”.

Nurse Remfell: “yes doctor”.

Danny chuckles as he can hear Lewis leaving and the door closing. Though he’s not really looking forward to overhearing surgery of all things.

Surprisingly it’s not that bad when you can’t see shit. Plus there’s no nightmarish screaming cause Lewis doesn’t run around dissecting conscious beings. In fact, Danny spends most of the time naming off what instruments he knows by sound. It’s probably concerning that seems to be most of them. But saw on bone is a pretty darn unique sound and something like scalpels he could tell just by how Lewis seemed to be moving. Though he is a little surprised by just how often Lewis uses a bone saw. He’s not sure if that’s just normal or if Lewis just really likes sawing into bones. If it was anyone else the answer would be obvious. But it’s the guy who makes cakes for vigilante serial killers and makes designs out of and in people’s bodies for fun.

Danny also gets a bit surprised by just how much idle chitchat goes on, which Lewis is firmly not involved in. In fact, whenever it sounds like he gets relatively close they quiet down. It would be funny that Lewis seemed like the operation rooms ‘shut your yap and work’ button, if it weren’t for that being kind of...sad. Lewis wasn’t kidding about not being exactly well-liked. Which Danny’s a bit miffed about, the guy was great! Weird...but great. Would any other doctors or nurses pull even half the shit Lewis has for him at this point? No, so maybe they should stop being dicks. Plus Danny would have figured at least someone would ask about the run-in with the G.I.W. but they either didn’t care or didn’t want to deal with or question Lewis.

Lewis takes the time in-between surgeries to check in with Danny, tapping the green button mostly just to make sure he’s heard, “you still good?”.

Danny gets a little caught off guard by Lewis’s voice being louder, but it does make it obvious he’s talking to him, “I’mma dandy Danny. Been napping here and there. You really do rub people wrong, but they’re dicks so fuck ‘em. Also, you use bone saws a lot”.

Lewis screws up his face a bit, “I’m going to guess you figured that out by sound? In which case, how do you know what that sounds like that well?”.

“I’ve been playing a game of guess the medical tool. And dude, you won’t like that answer. No one does”.

Lewis shakes his head, “you've used one haven’t you?”.

Awkward chuckling, “here and there. It’s a much more pleasant way of smoothing over the ends of ribs I break off than metal files. And it’s a lot easier to just remove my ribs and access my spine through the front than try to go the back way”.

Lewis honestly feels ever so slightly like he’s talking to Vee. Talking about the disposability of body parts and the inconvenience of the human, or somewhat human in Danny case, body. “You’re not wrong and it is definitely better than a garage tool. You have an impressive pain tolerance”.

“Comes with the hero duties, I’ve been getting slammed into concrete at over five-hundred mph since my first weak. The first time I got cut in half was a trip though. Aren’t you supposed to be bone-cracking?”.

Lewis blinks, okay Danny was almost definitely more durable than Venom, “us surgeons get pretty decent breaks in-between most times, but yes. Though I would frankly rather have you hovering around for conversation than most of my underlings for assistance”.

Lewis gets up and straightens out his coat while Danny responds, “that would probably qualify as insanely creepy for either one of us to be doing. Me being an unauthorised voyeuristic helicopter. You being the guy doing the nitty-gritty while conversing with the sorta dead. Though technically, I could probably function as an assistant. Pretty sure that would be highly illegal though”.

Lewis chuckles, it would make work more interesting and enjoyable for sure...and less likely for him to be transferred. Though the hospital might freak out a little from someone actually seeming to be genuinely friendly with Lewis. “It would be, though I best get back at this point. Enjoy the surgery soundtrack”.

Danny just chuckles quietly.

Lewis snaps off his gloves as he leaves the OR, shift officially over and done with, so he can go deal with the mess Danny’s functionally made for him. Missing files, government dogs, a transferred patient that’s actually just completely missing, bandaging to redo, a technical fugitives belongings stashed in his car, a random hunter that will probably want to check in on Danny, how to explain Danny going home way sooner than planned -to both the hospital and his two hunter friends-, oh yeah and a super-powered half-dead teenager trapped in a thermos the size of his pinky nail stuffed in his wallet. Eddie’s and Vee’s problems were definitely a lot simpler, partly because they usually ate them. Just a couple of dead bodies, which sometimes were the problems.

Walking casually back to his car and hopping in, pushing the green button, “I’m going to take you to my place for the night if that’s fine?”.

“You do have a wife right? How you gonna explain this random kid? If you’re gonna leave me in here all night, then you owe me some serious pancakes or something”.

Lewis chuckles and shakes his head as he drives home, it was a bit of a long commute but he didn’t mind much. “Do you know how I met Eddie? Through my wife. They used to be engaged. And when the whole Vee and being Venom thing happened she let Vee body snatch her to save Eddie’s butt. Said body-snatching also included biting a mercenaries head off”, chuckling some more, “found out from Vee later, pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to find out, but Vee went back into Eddie’s body from Anne’s via a very intense kiss”.

“Was it right after the whole...uh, taking a bite out of crime...thing? That will never not be fucked up by the way. But okay, you’re wife’s weird too”.

Lewis smiles warmly, of course she was a bit strange, have to be to tolerate him. And he can’t really be bothered by Danny still disapproving of murder and cannibalism. But at least he was making jokes about it now instead of having a mild meltdown, positives Lewis. “As I was told, it was explicitly directly after, Vee was very pleased about that. Anne, not so much. Eddie...I really don’t know but I’d say he was cool with it. And yes, she’s a bit odd herself. She’s also a lawyer”.

Danny laughs, that was a bit ironic that someone working within the law was explicitly and emphatically friends with two someone’s severely outside of it, “a morally questionable lawyer, a morbid socially unacceptable doctor, a moonlighting murderer muckraker reporter, and an exiled body-snatching alien. That’s one Hell of a quartet. Got a name yet?”.

Lewis raises an eyebrow, name? Though yeah they were an odd group, “no? What do you mean by name? And in that case, you’re an over-protective paranoid hero halfa”.

Danny chuckles, that was accurate, “true story. My group are the Defect Quartet. ‘Cause we’re all too strange and outside of the norm to be anything but defective. Used to be the Weirdo Trio before Val came along. Before that, the nerd herd. The goth, the geek, the gunner, and the ghost. An insanely wealthy vegan social activist goth, an absurdly carnivorous hacker geek, a riches to rags pessimist weapons enthusiast, and a punny battered ghostly hero. Though I’m usually called the graceless or the gauche. Since the ghost thing ain’t public knowledge”.

Lewis shakes his head, so this was a teenager thing. “Well ‘defect’ definitely doesn’t suit my group so to speak. We’re all rather successful and accomplished”.

“That doesn’t mean shit. I was on the cover of genius magazine once. Saved the purple-backed gorillas from going extinct”.

“That’s one thing, not a career”.

“I like how that’s your response, not general confusion. We’re teens, we shouldn’t have careers”.

Lewis nods, very true, but with how Danny lived, “what do you even intend to do? Eddie only gets away with the vigilante side gig because he’s his own boss mostly and even when he’s not, he’s on his own schedule. He can only really do that because he had already built up a name for himself. That and he lives extremely low budget”.

Danny groans exaggeratedly, adults and their ‘what are you gonna do with your life’ and ‘you need to think about your future young man’ and ‘what are your plans? How are going to support yourself’ and ‘hobbies are fine but you need a real focus’. Groaning a second time for emphasis, “don't know ‘bout Val. Sam’s the only heir in her family, she doesn’t really have a choice what she does, Manson’s don’t work. Tucker’s either going into politics, the government, or rising up into ownership of a tech company. I wanted to be an astronaut but my physiology makes that impossible, if my folks chill it with the ghost hate then I’ll probably take over FentonWorks. Otherwise, I got nothing. Well, human wise anyway. Could just fuck off to the Zone-”.  

“Kid, no. Running away is not how you fix or achieve something. You’re right about NASA though. We’ve got a long drive, so what else you got?”.

Danny groans again, “nada. My grades are shit, I’d have to be able to run my own schedule and be able to drop it like someone just set it on fire at any moment. Because superheroing is not a side gig, it’s the main gig. And technically, running off to the Zone isn’t running from my problems. I belong there as much as I do here. Sure I was born here, but so were most ghosts”.

Lewis tilts his head, so that was another different, Danny valued and placed the vigilantism as top priority. And fine, ghosts did belong to the Zone. “that’s fair. But what would you even do there?”.

Danny snickers making Lewis a little cautious of the response, “ghosts are pretty free things. Build and protect your lair, satisfy your Obsession. If you’re part of a clan or kingdom then it’s a fair bit more”, chuckling because at this point might as well just startle the guy, “if I moved there I’d probably rise to claim my place as King properly”.

Lewis coughs, unsure if that’s a joke, “King?”.

Danny chuckles, Lewis able to hear the shit-eating grin in his voice, “I’m a prince, Lewis. In two kingdoms actually. A knight in four and worshipped as a god by one clan. Don’t ask how that last one happened because I don’t know. They’ve been calling me ‘Great One’ and ‘Saviour’ since I first ran into them”, Lewis is silent so Danny laughs and just continues, “Sam’s also a Princess in one and knighted in two. Tuck’s a Baka, meaning prince but in Egyptian, in one and knighted in two. Val’s the exception”.

Lewis blinks and watches the road before shaking his head, Danny’s life was legitimately completely crazy, “you absolutely have the strangest life. I’m not sure if I should fear the idea of you being a king”. He clearly could act the role and have a commanding presence, but he was firmly still a disaster.

“You should have seen the other guy! He was so bad they locked him in what was basically a coma for, like, over a thousand years. When he woke up they all fled. I found out and through some crazy bullshit wound up beating him back into a coma. The other king who became my punching bag, abducted and tried to forcibly wed Sam, trapped his kingdom into a no happiness allowed technology-free dark age and abused his sister. His sister’s queen now but I’m considered prince and heir to the throne should she fade”.

Lewis shakes his head, yeah was kind of hard to do worse than that, “so, tyrants then? Who the heck’s ruling the first one?”.

“Uhhhh, no one? Hasn’t been ruled in forever so no ruler is basically the norm now. Kind of unnecessary. But for, like, who does the duties. A collection of asshole ghosts who can only watch but never interfere. They hate me. Like, a lot. Tried to assassinate me once. Anyway, that particular throne is more representative. A figurehead but with power if they want. Sorta a make it your own and do whatever you want kind of role”.

“So the Queen of England? But with even less responsibilities? That barely counts as a king or prince”.

Danny chuckles, “so long as nothing threatens the entirety of the Zone or ghosts. I’m understating the role a bit. See humans are all broken up yeah? You’re not united under the Earth or whatever. Well, ghosts are united under the Zone as a whole. Meaning there’s a ruler of the entire Zone. The King, or Prince right now, Of Ghosts. The Ghost King, the Ghost Prince. Yeeeeaaaaah”.

Lewis pulls into his driveway and just stares forward for a bit, “are you, are you trying to tell me you’re the rightful ruler of an entire species and dimension?”.

“Yes? Pretty much yeah. And your car turned off. We there yet? You gonna let me outta here?”.

Lewis is nearly having a mild freak out of his own. This random child of long-time friends is the prince and thus future king of an entire species. Basically the most powerful ruler even remotely possible. And he’s in Lewis’s wallet, complains about weak coffee, gets beat up by bullies, and his seemingly biggest problem is what his folks think of him. The utter normalcy of that is kind of jarring but also really calming. Shaking his head, “yes, yeah. Your tail working yet?”.

Danny snorts, “looks like I freaked ya again. And I don’t fucking know dude, I don’t actually have a body at the moment. Jus a disembodied voice and mind floating in a thermos full of ectoplasm”.

Lewis tilts his head, Vee’s probably said that before; being a technical liquid and all. Just floating in a test tank thing instead of a soup thermos. Shrugging and taking out his wallet, unclipping the thermos and going through the motions of getting Danny out. Which is still very strange. As Danny comes out via another bream of light, basically laying across the shotgun seat and looking slightly disoriented.

Danny shakes his head and smirks, “THE DANNY IS FREE! FOR NO CYLINDRICAL SOUP CAN CAN HOLD HIM!”.

Lewis looks at the thermos and quirks an eyebrow. Danny, spotting this, promptly grabs his thermos, “and I’ll be taking that back now”. Which Lewis chuckles at. While Danny looks out the window at Lewis’s house, tilting his head, huh, it was a bit smaller than expected.

While Lewis looks down and notes that Danny’s black tail is wiggling somewhat again, good. Before getting out of the car and holding the door open, “you should probably make yourself invisible at least until we’re inside”.

Danny chuckles and does that as he floats out after Lewis. He was damn happy to be floating again, zipping around the house some and winding through things; Lewis unawares. Even if it was a bit difficult and jerky. Shaking his head at Lewis holding the door open a bit awkwardly. Whispering at him, “I can go through things remember? Didn’t need to open the door at all”.

Lewis rolls his eyes and shakes his head as he heads into the kitchen, “that would be rather rude of you”.

Danny chuckles as he seats himself on one of the little stools, coiling his tail up in case this ‘Anne’ walks in. Popping back into visibility, and petting the cat that comes up, “I’ve stolen people's cups of water while flying through airplanes. It’s actually so common it’s something planes flying over Amity warn their passengers about, the random dead teen who might fly through the floor and take your drinks or food. But at least he says thank you?”.

Lewis shakes his head as he starts on making a noodle dish, “at least most of that is free”. Mixing in the broth and debating what else to put in, tilting his head around, “what kinds of veggies and meats do you like?”.

Danny shrugs, he’ll eat almost anything, “I’ve eaten sporks. Just don’t serve me toast and you’re good”.

Lewis points at him as he gets peppers and celery, “Eddie and Vee have eaten probably a little of everything at this point. Doesn’t mean they don’t have tastes”.  

Danny stares at him and waits for him to turn around before grabbing one of the knives on the table -why do they keep them on the table of all places?- and just swallows it.

Lewis gives him a rather unimpressed look, which Danny’s slightly miffed about. At least Sam looked at him with disgust. While Lewis says, “those are expensive you know”. Danny rolls his eyes and phases the knife out of his stomach and waves it around, stabbing one of the larger pieces of pepper as Lewis puts his plate down.

Both turn their heads to the door as they can both hear a key going in the lock. Lewis blinks and realises a slight error on his part, looking at Danny quickly, “wife saw me googling you as Phantom. Doesn’t know names or what your human self looks like, so positives”.

Danny groans and glares at Lewis, he can smell it’s a girl and it matches the other prominent human scent in the house so he transforms and glares a little harder at Lewis. Taking the knife out of his mouth and stabbing another pepper a bit unnecessarily aggressively, “not cool doc“. Of course, this means there’s no damn point in hiding the tail, so he just lets it wind around the stool legs.

Lewis shrugs, he wasn’t about to claim to be perfect, as Anne walks in.

Anne looks at the table only glancing at the glowing black and white teenager with a knife in his mouth for a beat before nonchalantly taking off her shoes, “hi honey and hello patient that someone is decidedly not supposed to be bringing home”.

Lewis smiles, “guys with guns came to abduct him”. Danny glares at him slightly. While Anne shakes her head, “at least they weren’t successful this time”, as she walks up and kisses Lewis on the cheek and sits at the table.

Danny looks at her, “seriously? That’s all the reaction you’re gonna give me?”.

Lewis just smirks as he eats his food. Anne looking Danny over before giving him a sweet smile and patting his head, “interesting voice you’ve got, just don’t go making Dan a tag-along for blowing up rockets”.

Lewis looks between the two a little awkwardly as Danny winces, which Anne definitely notices and raises an eyebrow at Lewis. No one saying anything for a bit before the cat sticks his tail in Danny’s face. Effectively breaking the growing tension as Danny chuckles, “if your name’s Maddie, I will be very concerned”.

Anne shakes her head, “mines Anne”.

“No, the cat. An evil Frootloop has a cat named Maddie”.

Anne shakes her head, “no, he’s Mr. Belvedere”. While Lewis finds it arguably quite creepy one of Danny’s enemy’s named their cat after Danny’s mom.

Danny smiles and pokes the cat, mentally shaking off the whole ‘Dan’ name, figuring he should probably attempt at getting used to that since his folks are going to call Lewis that too. “Well hello then. I probably smell pretty weird”.

Lewis thinks that’s probably an understatement but he was used to Vee’s scent by now so more strange smelling people isn’t probably all the weird.

Mr. Belvedere meanwhile, is just pleased that this strange smelling and looking creature isn’t attempting to bite him. Even if this one seems to be a predator just like the other one. This one seems at least a little similar to the other glowing creatures he sees sometimes. He likes to chase the little ones around but this one is clearly far stronger. He can tell when It touches him, the power thrumming under Its long paws so similar to the twolegs he lives with. Like the other strange creature, this one can look just like the twolegs he’s familiar with. He finds that is quite a useful trick, blending in with potential prey and tricking other predators into underestimating them. He’s seen how the occasional twoleg that fancies Itself a predator wound up the prey for the other strange creature. He hopes that one enjoys Its plentiful meals. Tilting his head at this strange creature, wondering if It stalks twolegs too. Putting on a protective front, because these are his twolegs, and demanding, “you best not hunt my twolegs”. He had to bat at the black part of the other strange predator before It got the messages to not nip at his Twolegs. Only he gets to do that.

Danny looks at the cat, which has his ears pinned back and Danny can easily pick up on the stiff battle-ready posture. How he partly blocks Danny’s line of view of Anne, it was obvious the cat was being protective. Officially glad this is a cat, not a dog, as cats were much more sensitive to ghosts. Meaning kitty would be able to somewhat understand ghost speak. Making sure to keep his fangs retracted, “I̛’̶m a̕ ͠p͏͏̧r͞͝o̵͟͜t҉͘e̷̸c͝͏̛t҉įv̴͞e̛ th̢̡i͜͏̵n͏g̵̵͝.̸̸ ̕͠I͠ ̕do̸n’͝t͟ ̧h̸̡ar̵m͢ ̵͞͞m͠or̨͟͞t̨a̛lş”. Mr. Belvedere seems pacified by that and promptly stalks off, laying on the ground to clean over his fur.  

Lewis quirks an eyebrow, “what was that about?”. While Anne laughs lightly, mouthing ‘wow’, before saying, “he listened to you I think, that’s quite the feat”.

Danny chuckles and rubs his neck, “he was being protective of you. So I just told him I wasn’t a threat. Cats are more sensitive to ghosts, so they can understand us to a degree”.

Anne tilts her head, “you’re a ghost?”, looking at Lewis, “why would a ghost need a surgeon?”.

Danny smirks and stretches his arms out some, “okay cool, you didn’t go opening your yap much”, shrugging, “but you know shit. You’re murder buddies know shit. Don’t know your wife though. So maybe”.

Anne nearly snorts over ‘murder buddies’, very similar to ‘murder friends’ and a bit surprised that someone Dan described as ‘more moral than every doctor ever’ is tolerant of said murder friends. Shaking her head but smiling slightly, “I’m surprised you’re okay with those two. Pleased, but surprised. Which is good, because I absolutely will protect them if you threaten them”.  

Danny chuckles a bit meanly but finishes off his food before responding, “you could attempt to sure. There’s a reason people make entire careers out of and dedicate their whole lives to fighting things like me, yet still find themselves unsuccessful and outmatched. But I’m no threat, so long as my humans aren’t threatened. I’m not okay with what they do, I’m okay with why they do it”.

Anne crosses her arms, “I've helped destroy body-snatching world-destroying aliens. I can fight very dirty”.

Danny snorts, “a lawyer? Fighting dirty? Why I never. Won’t do any good though, I never expect fair fights”, tilting his head and chuckling, “that’s what happens when you’re archenemy’s entire thing is being underhanded and fighting dirty. Not to mention one of the wealthiest people in the world, basically a mad scientist, and politically skilled”.

Lewis and Anne share a look, Lewis pointing at Danny, “that sounds a lot like Drake. Filthy rich mad scientist with his foot in politics. Also had the other surviving Symbiote”, looking at Anne, “Riot right?”, at Anne’s nod Lewis continues, “Riot was older, stronger, more abilities and pretty well played into Drakes desires to trick him”.

Anne nods, “Drake was a fool”.

Danny tilts his head, that was freakishly similar to Vlad, “so Drake’s the crazy entrepreneur who brought them here from space? Which by the way, is still super awesome because space! And yeah, that’s sounds really similar to the Frootloop. Just both Drake and Riot combined into one batshit crazy prick. Throw in a bunch of lackies and way too much free time”, tilting his head and pointing at Lewis, “and didn’t you say crazy human was trying to improve humanity or something? Make them able to survive in space?”, at Lewis’s nod and the curious look to his eyes, Danny continues, “yeah, my unlovable Frootloop pretty well never has good reasons for anything. Very selfish and will do anything from attempting to blow people up with nanobots to cloning and very extreme inhumane experimentation”, shrugging, “usually it’s for power, even more money, to murder one very specific guy, to get the women he’s Obsessed with, or to force me to be his son”.  

Lewis nods, conceding that those motivations weren’t remotely positive and got progressively more strange. Anne shakes her head ever so slightly, “Drake would likely have approved any inhumane practices to get what he wanted. Even if he had marginally better reasons”.

Danny points at her, “Frootloop does everything himself. His lackies are basically just scouts and attack dogs. Who would have thought, a sorta politician dirtbag who actually does the nasty work”, yawning and nodding at Lewis, “soooo, you gonna trace lines on my skin with your silver sharp friends?”.

Anne makes a point to not visually react to that, this kid, who’s name she still didn’t have, was quite a bit like Lewis, Eddie and Vee. There was also a level of restraint and caution to him, was a bit like her.

Lewis shakes his head but gets up to fetch his supplies, “that won’t be necessary for redoing bandaging and burns. Though please let me take off the braces”, pausing to point at him, “and make them actually on you”. Danny rolls his eyes but transforms under them to make them on top but Phantom designed.

Anne blinks, that was almost as startling as Vee randomly becoming or changing Eddie’s clothing. Looking to Lewis, “I’m truly impressed a ghost can get injured enough for all that”.

Lewis shouts from a few rooms over, “he’s not! Just pretending to be!”.

Anne looks to Danny with ‘why are you putting him through this?’ eyebrows. Danny chuckles, “the hospital and my family would be suspicious if I didn’t play injured. Since none of them know I’m a ghost and thus heal super fast”.

Lewis comes back in and pulls a stool over by Danny. Anne looks at him slightly unimpressed, “do I want to know? Or is this a plausible deniability thing?”.

Danny sighs and leans back wistfully as Lewis removes the second wrist/hand brace, “I wish more people didn’t question my crap and just wrote it off as ‘I probably shouldn’t know’”.

Anne levels him with a slight glare, “Eddie knows not to abuse it, you should know that too. Especially since it’s clear you’re going to be close with and involved with my family. Eddie’s an asshole but he only keeps the highly legally questionable actions to himself”.

Danny gives a bit of a shit-eating grin, “my existence is highly legally and logically questionable”.

“Does it involve murder? No? Then I want to hear it”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “most ghosties didn’t die pleasantly so technically.....”.

Lewis looks at Danny with a slightly unimpressed glare, “considering what little you have said of the how, I don’t believe murdered applies to you”.

Danny points at Lewis after slipping off the torso brace, “at the very least it’s negligent homicide. Because seriously? who leaves a secondary on switch inside an inter-dimensional portal and forgets about it. And who dares someone to walk inside it?”.

Lewis points at him, “and who willing does it? Also, I need this suit off”.

Debating who’s at fault and the definition of ‘the crime’ is pretty normal for Anne, just not usually debating it with the ‘victim’ when it’s about murder, “verbal dares can’t be reasonably proven and won’t hold up before any court of law. If you walked in of your own free will, likely aware of the fact that doing so was almost certainly unsafe, you’re the one who committed negligent homicide”, waving her hand around, “but no one’s going to charge the dead with their own death. If someone tries, then consider me your lawyer, because I absolutely want to be on that case”.

Danny blinks and starts laughing, unzipping and peeling off his suit and letting it float around his waist, simply phasing off the bandaging, “lady you do not want to be my lawyer. I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t even hold up in ghost court. Besides, I don’t care if I get charged with shit. I’ll just blow up the prison again. Or make time paradoxes so they can’t sentence me to destruction, again. But I’m a minor and it’s partly my parents' fault. Family house is a death trap. There’s probably a million cases of negligence to be made”.

Lewis, asking the thing that really matters as he inspects Danny’s skin, noting that it’s much colder now and the scars are barely visible, “you destroyed a prison? Why?”.

While Anne frowns tightly, that would be negligent if what killed him was just left around in the house unsecured. Definitely child endangerment as well. But he had made it clear enough that he doesn’t want them in trouble, “yes, that does change it a fair bit”, tilting her head, “though being a lawyer in ghost court would certainly be a new challenge”.

While Danny points at Lewis, “I’ve blown it up once or twice a year so far. The Warden hates me, so he gives me every charge he can think up. He’s made new rules on the spot to charge me with it. Last time he yelled the sentence I owed it was, like, over fifty thousand”, while Lewis just looks slightly impressed, Danny points at Anne, “ghost laws are probably both less and more complicated. Minora law, Majora law, the Seals, Commons Of The Deathless Unfades, Commons Of The Undead, the Kings Decrees, and The Law Of Ages”, shrugging, “ghosts are pretty lawless though, so unless you really fuck up, no one really gives a damn....except Walker, who’s that one Warden”.

Anne leans forward as Lewis finishes wrapping Danny’s arm, letting Danny lower his arm...well one anyway as he wraps the other, Anne inquiring, “is there books on these? Could you borrow them?”.

That was not what Danny was expecting, she really likes what she does, “Walker’s got his own special rule book, A.K.A. it’s not official at all. But yeah there’s books. Not for the Commons though, those are, like, forbidden knowledge for mortals; even many ghosts. And there isn’t any Kings Decrees right now”.

Lewis eyeballs Danny who blushes slightly, making it very obvious that these decrees were basically his to make. While Anne quints slightly, “why would law be forbidden? That is explicitly a disclosure violation”.

Danny shakes his head as Lewis goes about putting the braces back on, “Commons only apply to those specified. And they know about what they entail”, yawning again, course he knew what both Commons were about. Since ClockWork was an Unfade and Danny was an Undead.

The two adults shake their heads and basically carry the partly floating sleepy teen to the spare bedroom. Eddie wouldn’t mind and Vee would only bitch about the strangers' scent for a little bit. Anne nodding, “that’s a bit better then”.

Danny mumbles from the bed as Anne’s dragging Lewis off. “By the way doc? Tots forgot. Undead’s another term for halfa”.

Lewis crawls into bed seriously wondering what was in this special section of ghost law -still pleasantly surprised that was a thing- that applied to Danny.

Anne wakes up that morning and walks out of the bedroom door, hearing someone going through the kitchen. Walking in cautiously only to see a black-haired teen inside one of the cupboards, watching as he sticks his head and one arm out, box of crackers in his mouth. “Who are you and why are you in my house?”.

“Yurf iimpif’d ve”, she stares him down so he spits out the box on the ground, “you invited me. Technically Lewis, but still”, before slipping out of the cupboard and grabbing the crackers.

It clicks pretty much as soon as she sees the kid has a black misty tail instead of legs; same as the ghost. Then mentally slapping herself for not recognising the face and hairstyle, “you’re the patient. You look very human for a ghost. You also still haven’t told me your name”.

“That’s me! And-”, Danny gets cut off by the microwave.

Microwave: “Crap fuck I think it work-oh bullshit you idiot, we’ve been trying for-no seriously I swore I heard him-oh that’s crap-I don’t care if it’s crap you better have found him-why does no one believe in me?-because you’re a fucking cree-hey! Look at me I’m glori-more like dead, I will personally shove my boot up your ass if y-oh I’d like to see you try! Go on! My ass is fucking wide-what the fuck is wrong with both of you? How bout I just start shooting stuff?-go right ahead fuck if I care-if you destroy Cheryl I will shank you with her corpse!-”.

Lewis walks in at this point looking like he slept hard yet was still impeccable, he grabs a coffee and just stares at the microwave.

Microwave: “-oh shove it you walking animal corpse garbage bag-no you shove it ya fucking lawnmower-I vote we feed both of you to the plant-she has better tastes than that-at least she enjoys some proper mea-HOW ABOUT YOU LOWJACK YOUR ASS OFF AND DO SOMETHING USEFUL-oh don’t you get smarmy with me, I fucking hijack shit-do I care? NO, just fucking-how about this you two colossal twats! YOU BETTER PICK UP OR ONE ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING PIECE OF SHIT IS GOING TO JACK OFF YOUR ENTIRE HOUSE INTO THE SEA!-why the fuck would I do that to a house?-are you claiming to have even an ounce of standards?-”.

Danny lays on the floor and just starts wheezing and mutters, “how the fuck do you pick up a microwave call....”.

Lewis points his coffee cup rim at Danny, “I’m more curious about how they called a microwave”.

Anne shakes her head, “I’m just glad I’m a morning person”.

Microwave: “-oh GO EAT SOCK-wait shut the fuck up! I totally heard someone-of course you fucking did! You’re probably confusing some old lady!-”.

Anne, sounding almost offended, “I’m not that old”.

Microwave: “-oh fuck damn a lady! Hello-the fuck is wrong with you? We’re trying to make sure someone’s not fucking dead or some shit! She probably thinks you’re like twelve-he is twelve-oh fuck you! I could totally date an older woman!-so what I’m hearing is you’re twelve-FUCK OFF AND EAT A TEN FOOT SNOW MONSTER! IT FITS WITH YOUR STUPID DIET!-OH YOU WANNA GO THERE BLOODMOUTH! HOW ABOUT YOU FIND THE FIVE FOOT ONE FIRST!-”.

Danny wheezes but shouts at the microwave, “five foot four you asshole!”.

Microwave: “FUCK OFF DANNY THIS DOESN'T INVOLVE YO-DANNY!-ARE YOU OKAY! -DID YOU DIE!-IF YOU’RE BEING DISSECTED PLEASE DON’T SCREAM BY THE MIC!-WHAT THE FUCK TUCKER?!?-”.

Danny floats up and shouts right at the microwave, “SHUT THE FUCK UP! You’re confusing Doc and his lady!”.

Anne blinks, speaking into her hands, “confused might be understating it”.

Microwave: “Okay okay, shhhh shhhh, all o’ y’all shut up. Danny dude, you fucking asshole. Didn’t even fucking call. You better be fucking dying or I will personally finish what you started. Stitch and fucking ditch dude. Not cool. Now are you dying a horrible slow and painful death at the hands of a bunch of idiots that Sam will have to bludgeon to death?-bludgeon? Are you underestimating me? I will personally stuff their organs with bramble thorns, turn them into scarecrows and beat the others up with said scarecrows if those fuckers hurt hi-”.

Danny clears his throat, “not to get in the way of your dramatics Sam, but I’m fine. Am I not allowed to sleep?”.

Microwave: “USE LEWIS’S PHONE!”.

Lewis nods, “fair point”.

Danny sticks his arms out to the side, “I got distracted by politics!”.

Microwave: “Oh, that’s reasonable then. So you’re not being tortured or something?”.

Danny chuckles and shakes his head, “no Tuck, no I’m not”.

Microwave: “Oh good then. You, go tell his folks he’s fine and with doctor dude. Danny, you absolute asshole, Ancients are you lucky we were able to get your parents to not go on a search and destroy mission. They went to go see you, we went with ‘cause we knew shit was going down, and they actually saw those white-suit twats leaving with the big ass transport truck. They nearly nuked them on the spot. Your dad can be terrifying”.

Danny rubs his neck, of course this had caused even more problems. But yeah, he probably should have called someone. Well at least no one had gotten hurt and the reminder that they would assault the government for him was rather heartwarming. “Thanks guys, that must have been a bi-”.

Microwave: “DANNY SWEETIE! Are you alright!”.

Danny chuckles slightly, “I’m fine mom”.

Anne is extremely confused at this point. Danny was a ghost and was apparently still ‘living’ with his living family? And why were the teens she’s assuming are his friends asking if he’s dead or dying? Ghost does mean dead, Danny had already confirmed he was dead. Inside jokes possibly? Or, Danny could look completely ‘alive’ so maybe they didn’t even know?

While Lewis walks closer to the microwave, this is definitely the strangest house call he’s ever been involved in, “he’s perfectly fine Maddie. He spent the night in my and my wife’s spare bedroom. I apologise for not informing you but it was special circumstances”.

Microwave: “oh don’t worry about that, we get it. So long as Danny-boy’s alright!-but what about his injuries? He can’t go back to the hospital with those men there”.

Lewis taps his chin, “well, the best option would be to have Danny here go home and I’ll deal with the hospital before taking him over. That way he isn’t without a skilled doctor. My place is impressively well equipped, So he’ll be fine here in the meantime”.

Microwave: “Yes that should work fine, thank you Dan. We’ll give you back to your friends sweetie-so we can get your things ready!”.

Danny groans quietly, seriously hoping they didn’t do anything to his room. There was more than a few questionable things in there, especially in the walls and floor.

Microwave: “Alright you reckless idiot, it’s just me and Tuck now. Valerie’s off looking for asshole agents to shoot at-oh Danny dude, I took samples from the quote-unquote ‘rain’. Pretty nasty shit. Paraparetic properties, corrosive, toxic fumes, tranquillising properties. Just oof dude. And doctor dude, before you ask, yes I did have the other patients files and stuff, it’s in your pager-move aside Tucker, you better have some damn food Danny-”.

Lewis and Anne both gape slightly as the microwave pops open and an apple rolls out, Danny easily catching it and then pulling out what looks to be a pop or a milkshake in a fast food cup. Danny rolling his eyes as he puts it on the table, closing the door, “mother-henning me much? I’m sorry for worrying you guys okay? And I promise I’m a not any deader, just work on making sure my house is actually safe”.

Microwave: “done and done dude, you look after yourself for a change ya?-Danny? Are you dating Valerie again, cause you better fuckin-AND I’M HANGING UP!”. The microwave beeps and Danny can’t help but float towards the ground and laugh.

Danny floats up and leans against the counter and picks up the apple, pointing at Lewis, “hopefully an apple a day won’t keep this doctor away. Whatcha gonna tell whoever the Zone happens to be above you?”, taking a bite out of the apple.

Anne shakes her head, that was almost as confusing as when Vee starts talking in Eddie’s head in the middle of conversations. Getting up and heading to get dressed, “you’re stranger than just a ghost, aren’t you?”.

Danny glances at the microwave, fuck it, “half-ghost!”. Danny gives her points for not even pausing in her walking.

Taking another bite and looking to Lewis, pointing over his shoulder and swallowing, “she’s used to weird crap getting dropped out of nowhere huh?”.

Lewis nods, firmly more curious over the apple that’s leaving green smears on Danny’s face, “Vee’s very blunt and sometimes gives way too much detail. What kind of apple is that?”.

Danny takes a sip of what he knows is a milkshake...well, ectoshake, “ghost food. Zones gots its own flora, fauna, ecosystem, etcetera. Part of how my body works is absorbing free-floating ectoplasm and converting it into my own. Expelling used stuff as latent ectoplasm. Kinda like breathing. Human side lets me self produce though. But-”, holding up the apple, “-ectofood is like putting on an oxygen mask or getting a transfusion. That, and just tastes good”.

Danny’s a little concerned as Lewis leans over the ectoshake, “don’t drink that. You’ll hurt yourself”. Lewis waves him off, “corrosive, toxic, poisonous; I remember. I like my throat and stomach intact”.

Danny wipes his face and both turn, hearing Anne’s heels clicking on the floor. Danny shakes his head at the sharp pantsuit, “please tell me Eddie doesn’t also dress absurdly impeccably and put together? Cause I dress like I fished my clothing out of slightly bio-hazardous dumpsters and am usually basically swimming in my clothing”.

Anne laughs slightly while Lewis laughs more noticeably, Anne shaking her head, “Eddie and well-dressed don’t exist in the same dimension. He often wears the same clothing for days and his clothing is usually lifted off criminals. Vee is his clothing sometimes”. Lewis nods, speaking and pointing at Anne, “he looks more put together when Vee has literally dressed him”.

Danny sighs, firmly ignoring that this guy just wears his victims clothing. Chuckling a little awkwardly, “I wore the same shirt and pants for a year. Didn’t even notice for the first four months. Kinda busy being all kinda dead. Though they were washed. I just happen to have three different pairs of the same clothing. Well one got destroyed via impalement, way too much blood”.

Anne blinks, Eddie said that once about his hair when he got himself drenched once. Lewis was right, they had a lot in common. Nodding with a smile at Danny, “you’ll get along, be good for Eddie I hope”, patting Lewis’s shoulder before giving him a quick kiss, “smart man, see you later, Dan dear”.

“Always honey, enjoy your day”.

Danny suppresses a wince and continues with his food while Lewis waves at him, “I’m going to deal with the hospital”. Danny just chuckles and watches him go.

Danny sits watching tv and chipping away at the ectoshake, chuckling over how much more erratically his tail’s vibrating and wiggle when left to its own devices now. Ancients did it ever make it easy to tell how healthy he, particularly how healthy his ghost half, was. Curling the tip into his hand and giving it a good more awake look over, there was still tiny holes but they were pretty well done away with at this point. Definitely hurt a little, but for him that wasn’t really noticeable.

Putting down the shake and deciding to float around some, use up a bit of the excess ectoenergy. It was practically singing in his veins and peaking in on Lewis would just be a little too boring right now. That’s one aspect of being in a powerful position that Danny is pretty well not envious of; dealing with underlings, paperwork, and being the one at fault if shit goes south. Sure Danny already got blamed for just short of everything by many adults; Phantom and Fenton. But that wasn’t for, like, executive decisions or situations with many good choices. Most of Danny’s crap was either: protect and thusly deal with/get blamed for the fall out (poor grades, damages, skipped class, being noisy, anti-social, pissing off hunters in general) or let someone or something be genuinely harmed. Pretty easy obvious choice. One he knows he can’t really choose differently on, Obsession and all that. Leadership and powerful roles were less black and white.

Danny snickers and starts intangibly snooping through Lewis’s cupboards for weird foods or anything funny really. Only for a box of caramelised eel to fall through his head, “alright that’s pretty odd, at least it’s not, like, Venom’s leftovers or something”, Danny frowns, what would he do if he came across that? It’s not like he wouldn’t be able to tell, the smell would tip him off immediately. If it was just like....a chunk...he’d probably just stare at it and nope the fuck out, close the fridge or cupboard or whatever. Just firmly ignore it. But something like....a full-blown body?....he’d probably either freeze up or freak out. Or go really batshit. He’s never actually seen a dead body since the whole...Dan...thing. So it probably would not trigger good, kind, happy, parts of his brain. He imagines it would go one of two ways. Either it would bring out his inner Dan, which would be really bad. Or he’d go exactly the opposite, like when he actually dealt with him, protective and resolute. Which would be more likely, hopefully.

Lewis is firmly tickled pink, as far as his hospital was aware Danny had been transferred to Amity’s hospital. Which seems to have downright ridiculously horrible paperwork and systems for keeping track of patients; a lot of that actually seems to be Phantom’s fault because he just shows up with people randomly, even at two a.m.. People even seem to just leave without even bothering to check-out. That and apparently files get corrupted and possessed somewhat often. Lewis somehow doubts Danny and his friends are at fault for all of it. So no one will really raise any eyebrows at not being able to find Danny in the Amity hospital system. Even with Lewis still acting as his doctor and supposedly going between the two hospitals. Pushing his study door open, all that really mattered now was when Danny wanted to head home and watching out for those agents. Because, of course, if the same three agents spot him at the Fenton’s house it’ll tip them off.

Looking around the living-room, slightly surprised he’s not watching tv and resting like he should be. Walking into the kitchen and quirking an eyebrow over what he’s sure is part of Danny’s tail sticking out through the sink countertop; looks a bit like someone just left a sliced in half black circle on the counter, that moves. Which definitely reminds him of Vee, just seeing random bits of black something was pretty come-by. “What are you doing?”, walking over as the tail just moves through the countertop and slips fully through it like it’s not really there. Before Danny’s head just pokes up through it, “snooping, seeing some of the weird stuff people have in their house is interesting and a good way to find their suspicious shit”.

This just serves to remind Lewis just how paranoid Danny is, “well I wouldn’t recommend doing that at Eddie’s apartment. If those two have something hidden I’d rather it stay that way. Anyway, the hospital thinks you’re in Amity’s hospital. But your cities hospital has probably the worst systems I’ve ever seen, so you not actually being there won’t be noticed”.  

If anything Danny’s actually more likely to look through their place, partly out of morbid curiosity and partly just out of needing to make sure there’s nothing bad. Shrugging and phasing out of the cupboards/sink, sitting on the countertop, “if you’re fine with possibly accidentally setting off a weapon or some other device, then snooping the Fenton household is really interesting even if you live there. But yeah, shouldn’t really snoop my room in truth. And you’re still going to be functionally moving in right? Cause if you now have to go through Amity’s hospital for approval, that’ll be a problem”.

Lewis pours himself some coffee, pushing a cup to Danny as well. It was fairly obvious why looking for hidden stuff where Eddie, or more specifically Vee, lived was probably a bad and unpleasant idea. There is no way either of them clean up everything, and he firmly doubts Vee doesn’t take home snacks; whether Eddie knows or not would be debatable. The only things Lewis can think Danny might hide would be stuff good for his ghost part, medical stuff, and maybe weapons. “What could be so bad in your room? Other than to your parents anyway. You are a teenager after all. And you do have a lot in common with Eddie, the things he hid from his, I don’t really wann-”.

Danny pulls a face and cuts him off, “Lewis! Ancients no! Even if I did hide or have whatever I think you happen to be implying -which I don’t, do you seriously think I have time or focus on that?- why I’d be concerned about that? My room’s probably a weapons and bio hazard”, shaking his head and glaring at Lewis’s smirk, “stop that you”, rolling his eyes at Lewis just smirking more, “ignoring your bullshit now. As I like to say, my room would make a crime-scene investigator cry, the cleanup crew might just quit outright”.  

Lewis quirks an eyebrow, “okay, why? Also, why would it be a problem if I needed Amity’s hospitals' approval? I don’t, but curiosity”. Amity’s Hospital didn’t seem to have much in the way of actually followed rules and regulations. Sure his hospital was a little lenient, from what he’d research it seemed every hospital that dealt with Amity Parkers was, but his hospital was still much more likely to say no.

Danny chuckles, he’d almost like to see some poor out of town investigators go through his room with a fine-toothed comb, “I give myself and get medical treatment in my room Lewis, and I don’t have to worry about infections; so how clean my tools and supplies happens to be doesn’t really matter. If you pulled up my carpet and rung it out, it would bleed. And since I can phase through stuff-”, Danny sticks his cup through the wall and just leaves it in there, “-my walls and floor are my cabinets for everything really questionable or dangerous. I know for a fact there’s at least six bombs in the floor. Lots and lots of stolen property, powerful ghost artefacts. One of my walls is filled with blood and ‘plasm bags, if someone cut that wall open they would literally get a bloodbath”, taking his coffee out of the wall and sipping at it, “and because Amity’s hospital doesn’t allow anyone under their insurance to go inside FentonWorks. I’ve had the hospital head flat-out say he’d put me, as Phantom, on payroll purely to deal with them and their house. Because being dead apparently counts as a preexisting condition that makes me excluded from their insurance”.

Well, Lewis thinks, that’s one way to get out of covering employees; Anne would have a field day with that. And if Vee heard how Danny keeps his room, apparently anyway, they’d nag at Eddie over ‘why can’t we keep snacks in the walls? Eddie?!?’. Which is probably a conversation that would horrify both Eddie and Danny in two very different ways. “I’m going to guess you turned that offer down? And if I can handle being around Vee when they didn’t like me and saw me as the bad guy who attack them with the noisy death machine, I can handle the Fenton house”, pointing his cup at Danny, “and why did you do that to your room? As a doctor, especially your doctor, I definitely can’t approve of using dirty tools and just leaving your mess around”.

Danny rubs at his neck and glances at the clock, Lewis probably didn’t work till the afternoon, “death machine? Now it’s my turn to guess, they have a weakness like how anti-ecto stuff hurts me. And you’re damn right, I am on no one’s payroll”, rolling his eyes some, “and it’s either I leave it in my room, can’t go dumping samples from me anywhere, or I burn it. Once they get really bad, I always burn them. With ecto-fire to be specific. Also, I’m lazy where I can be, namely my own health”, pointing at the clock, “I’m guessing you don’t work till late?”.  

Lewis shakes his head, at least Danny was honest, “correct, late shift today; and I’d say you should care about your health but that would be of as much use as a chocolate fireguard. Though you do have a point, considering your friends destroyed all your samples”, shaking his head with a slight smile, “your guess is right. Loud high pitched sounds and fire, so MRI’s aren’t such a good idea. Basically vibrated right out of Eddie’s skin, lots of screaming and what was basically a seizure”.  

“Oof, sounds like how I died. ‘Cept even more screaming. Like, the entire Zone heard that shit. Also-”, Danny lifts up a finger and lets an ecto-flame burn above it, “-I can be a firebug. And yeah, I’m called a self-sacrificial fool for a reason. I’m durable enough to afford to be”.

Lewis shakes his head, just how many powers did Danny have? “Still should at least somewhat care about your own self. You better not set my friends on fire, and at this point, you might as well just give me a list of abilities instead of just dropping them one by one”.

Danny points at him and telekinetically brings over the rest of his ecto-shake, “they better not hurt my humans. And dude, I frequently forget my powers. That list will not be complete”.

Lewis isn’t sure if that’s worrying, impressive, or sad. Watching the floating drink and Danny drink from it without dropping eye-contact, “a list would still be nice and I won’t make promises for them but I genuinely believe they’ll behave”.

Danny grumbles, “they better”, before leaning back and shrugging, “yeah I guess randomly springing that, kind of lost the dramatic flare after the duplication stunt”.

“Yeah, not sure you could pull something more strange. At least Vee’s ability to make multiple heads out of Eddie doesn’t result in a whole nother separate body”.  

Danny gives a devilish grin before opening his mouth and making an arm pop out and wave at Lewis before opening seventeen eyes all over it and making them strobe blue and green. Biting the arm off to dissipate into green fog, seeping into the skin on his face. Smirking at Lewis’s obviously restrained shock, “a lesson best remembered with me, never tempt or encourage body horror. I love that shit”.

Lewis blinks a few times, he’s both interested to see just how far or extreme Danny could take this and completely wanting to nope out of seeing that. “I am legitimately going to ask you to never give Vee ideas. They do enough weird shit to and with Eddie’s body. Can you just, replicate any part of your body anywhere and without limit?”.

Danny nods, “pretty much. But it uses up ectoplasm and I don’t have an endless supply of that. I think the most heads I’ve had at once was, like, thirty-two. I max out at four full duplicates. Duplicates take way more energy than just general body manipulation. I could pretty well just fill this room with random body parts via body manipulation”.

Okay Lewis does not need to see that, still extremely interested though. He won’t say no if Danny just does it or offers. He’s not going to make a request though. “So that’s body manipulation, duplication, intangibility, invisibility, transformation, levitation, pyrokinesis, healing factor, heightened durability, and heightened senses. You also said you had most of the same as my friends. So enhanced strength, speed, and just in general defying logic”.

Danny shakes his head, but chuckles, “Ancients fine, that’s not even half”, Lewis quirks an eyebrow as Danny just starts counting off on his fingers for added flare, “so to add on to what you listed. Everything’s ecto-energy in some way generally. Energy beams, blasts, discs, waves, balls, shields and constructs. Repulsion field and power absorption. Enhancement, as in I can increase my strength beyond its natural level. Electrocution and more general shapeshifting. Photokinesis, Ectokinesis and cryokinesis. Ghost sense and absolute dark vision. I learn super quick, about fourteen hours for new skills or languages. Immunity to some ghost attacks in general, and some anti-ghost stuff while human. Working on teleportation and portal creation, possibly a sleep ray”, Danny tilts his head, “um, oh right. Exorcism, as in I can tear a ghost out of someone; might be able to tear Vee out of Eddie like that actually. Overshadowing of people, technology, and dreams. Like, you know how Vee is basically inside of and able to control Eddie? Yeah that’s basically overshadowing. Possessing someone or something”, chuckling, “could maybe possess Vee, who’s basically possessing Eddie. That would be a trip. And lastly, my sort of trump card power cause it’s super fucking strong. My Ghostly Wail, a super-sonic wail. If I really try I could take out entire cities with it”, shrugging and chuckling a bit awkwardly Lewis just staring at him with a slowly cooling coffee, “did warn ya and then there are the powers I had only temporarily. Weather manipulation and reality control. Oh, also had a time medallion fused in my chest for a while, which excluded me from time itself. By the by, reality control means I could basically do anything. Turned a lady into a duck, altered some people’s memories, altered time, turned a ghost back into a living person; probably a few other things that I don’t really remember”.

Lewis is honestly wondering if there’s anything Danny can’t do. “You have more power than any one person really should have”.

Danny chuckles and nods, “yeah, though many of my abilities are literally just general ghost shit. Every ghost can use body manipulation, invisibility, intangibility, flight, overshadowing, ecto-beams/blasts, shields, enhanced strength and speed and senses and healing, body manipulation, duplication, photokinesis and absolute dark vision. You just have to learn how. Most ghosts don’t learn how to do everything they’re capable of doing, I do because it always seems to wind up being needed”.

Lewis shakes his head, that was a bit ridiculous. Ghosts were absurdly powerful beings, “question, why haven’t ghosts just taken us over? Because that would be really easy to do”.

Danny chuckles, “four reasons: humans are seen by many as lesser and thus not worth the effort, have zero interest in the mortal world at all, getting into the mortal world is actually not that easy and ghost can’t actually stay, and lastly, ghosts like me exist to stop the ones that do want to or try to. But in the end, ghosts care about their Obsessions first and foremost, so unless their Obsession is something like ruling or humanity there’s no reason to want to take over mortals”.

Lewis shakes his head as he goes to get packed to take Danny home, “well that’s comforting, this sounds like a pretty good note to decide to get the probably disturbingly powerful being back to his home. Which I’ve honestly said to Eddie too, come to think of it”.

Danny chuckles as Lewis walks off, “well it's not hard to be more powerful than humans”, Lewis coming back in only a little bit later, “and yet we often come out on top. You seem more powerful than most ghosts, judging by all the fighting, yet you’re part human”.

Danny chuckles as he stretches out, slides off the stool, and floats over to the door; inspecting his tail a little as he goes, “being part mortal gives me a big leg up on other ghosts. Being part ghosts gives me a big leg up on other mortals. Also makes me a mortal with ghostly needs and instincts. And a ghost with mortal weaknesses”.

Lewis closes the car door and looks back to where it sounds like Danny sat in the back, “mortal weakness? Your humanness doesn’t seem to be a weakness”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “I can still die Lewis. I still age, still change”, popping into visibility and pointing at Lewis though laying across the backseat to be hidden, “dead ghosts ain’t meant to change at the base level. Halfas do. Not healthy”.

Lewis tilts his head as he gets up to highway speed, Danny had a good point in a sense, ghost were dead. Weren’t part of the living world and thus didn’t really have to deal with living stuff. But clearly they could be destroyed, which is basically dying. “Well shouldn’t ageing be good for you? Being stuck at fourteen seems pretty unpleasant. Ghosts can be destroyed too, that’s basically dying”.

Danny sighs slightly, yeah that would be pretty shit but what would he be like as an old man? Heck maybe he would stop ageing or changing at some point. Who fucking knows? Halfas were a new species, everything was debatable, unproven, yet to be seen. Didn’t help that the only other natural halfa was one nut short of a fruitcake; not to mention rather reclusive. Shrugging, “being an old man won’t change my Obsession. I’ll still be doing what I’m doing now, might be a little difficult to do that. Ehh, hard to say. The other is as old as my folks, he does fine. Okay, he does fine physically. Dying and destruction is odder for me than humans or ghosts. ‘Cause if my ghost’s destroyed then my human’s still here. My human dies then my ghost’s still here. No halfa ever has done either though so everything’s hypothetical. Might not even be possible without the halfs being torn apart first”, Danny shivers slightly, different train of thought, “ghosts that are five thousand years old are nearly no different in base form or personality than when they first formed. That’s part of how they have their spot and place in the Zone, that makes me uncertain, unreliable, and unpredictable to ghosts. And a ghosts base body, skin colour, ears, eyes, hair, yada yada, is pretty well part of who they are. Some look more mortal, some not at all. And while humans are really damn adaptable, there’s a limit to that. Which is why my teeth and face hurts sometimes”.

“Go to a dentist?”.

Danny screws up his face before pulling himself up and leaning on the centre console, pushing up his upper lip and extending his fangs. All four sets of them, which yes, are too damn big for his face, “I’ll getz rightz on thatz”.

Lewis glances at them and yeah okay, dentist would be a bad idea. Though he’s very curious what x-rays of Danny’s teeth would look like. Seems to be those fangs are just part of him, not body manipulation. So there must be pockets in his jaw and skull for them to slide in and out of. Not to mention specialised extra muscles. Yeah, that likely would be rather uncomfortable. Also very obvious Danny’s not used to them, “fair point, grow into them? Eddie and Vee can do a lot of weird stuff with Vee’s teeth, and Vee’s got an obscene amount of teeth. Their face is sixty percent teeth. Though if you’re basically transversing unknown territory then just roll with it. That’s basically what Eddie does, though maybe actually attempt to figure stuff out instead of just shrugging at it”.

Danny chuckles, “maybe I willz grow to fillz ‘em. Andz I’m from a family ofz zvientiztz, ofz courze I ztudy the changez”.

Lewis shakes his head with a slight smile as Danny basically stabs his lower lip and starts bleeding, hearing him groan in annoyance as they enter Amity Park. ‘A nice place to live’ seems a bit funny for it being the most haunted place in the world and who’s town icon -Phantom’s symbol is everywhere, the town clearly likes him more than he’s implied- literally does not live, to public knowledge. Speaking as Danny runs his tongue over his -fangs clearly retracted- teeth and lip, “maybe try talking with them more instead of ignoring them. And good, everyone should be familiar with their bodies. Also, your town loves you”.

Danny rolls his eyes and grumbles, “just because they have the symbol for a famous ghost around doesn’t mean they’re doing it for anything other than popularity and profit. I’m a staple of the town, being a staple doesn’t necessarily mean well-liked. Like rats in New York and-”, Danny cuts himself off at smelling bleach and glimpsing the bumper of a white car, promptly turning himself, Lewis, and the car invisible and intangible.

“No one puts rats on t-shirts and pins. Also, does your town have weird tingly air? Because something is off”, Lewis blinks, firmly caught off guard as another car's bumper just goes through his own. Looking to Danny who looks slightly mischievous but has a sharpness to his eyes and they’re darting around slightly, in a way that implied lots of practice at making it not noticeable that he was looking for threats. “What’s going on? You can transfer you powers?”. If Danny could push his powers onto other things that was a power in and of itself. Manipulating other things and people.

Danny sends out a duplicate through his tail to look from above, easily spotting the Agents. Doesn’t look to be the same ones as at the hospital and they look to be carrying around water guns. Which Danny’s going the bet his own eyeballs, are filled with that ‘rain’ liquid. Wonderful. Original Danny hisses, “G.I.W.”.

Lewis restrains a sigh, at least Danny noticed quickly; paranoid but usefully so. Having to make a damn point of not jerking from a car driving straight through him, Danny of course hardly seems to pay it any mind. Though being able to just run red lights gives him a bit of childish joy. Struggling to keep a smile off his face as he picks up speed and just goes through a building.

Original Danny glances at him and chuckles slightly, “usually I go around buildings. You know, for peoples privacy? But yes, my powers are pretty fun”. Before growling, snapping his head to the side, and squinting his now glowing green eyes; as the duplicate spots one agent spraying Elliot -why doesn’t that kid just move out?- in the face.

Lewis isn’t sure what’s going on, glimpsing Danny’s tail vibrating and lashing a bit aggressively; and him clearly in attack mode. Under an hour into being back in his own town and he’s already picking fights. He just can’t slow down, like Eddie. Which is honestly the scariest part about Eddie himself, combined with having functionally no restraints or very few personal limits. Looking around to see a Phantom duplicate zip over to somewhere and restraining another sigh, before blinking and spotting the FentonWorks sign and the UFO? Danny wasn’t kidding about the strange house. Promptly parking and clearing his throat at Danny, it takes a few times before Danny glances his very bright eyes at him, “we’re just gonna sit here till other you is done”. Danny rolls his eyes slightly but goes back to staring out the window.

Danny, meanwhile, is happy the liquid doesn’t seem to affect regular ecto-contaminated humans. But he still floats aggressively, and invisibly, behind the agents. While Elliot looks extremely done with everything, shaking his hands off and then tossing them up dramatically and walking off, grumbling about the dumb stupid pain in the fucking ass gov asshole pricks.

Danny, feeling a little vindictive and mischievous, makes a point of giving the agents the seemingly worst luck ever. Tripping them up, knocking stuff in front of them, whispering creepily at them, making random growling sounds from alleyways. One agent grumbling, “I hate dealing with damn ghost lairs. Too bad we can’t just blow the place”. Danny growls low at that and unintentionally changes the colour palette of the buildings and sidewalk to be darker and harsher shades. Both agents glare around and scoff, “you’re not going to chase us off, filthy lair”.

“Maybe it should!”.

Danny tilts his head up towards the voice and sighs slightly, seeing the red-eyed ‘Phantom’ Amorpho. Promptly zipping up to him and yanking him out of the way of the agents water guns as they shout, “Phantom! Give it up you filthy ecto-entity!”.

Danny pops into visibility with Amorpho a few blocks over, pointing at him, “you don’t want that water shit on you. Also, the fuck are you doing posing in-front of billboards and shit?”.

Amorpho blinks and transforms into his natural state, “you’re back! I’ve been having my fun, haven’t caused any issues for you, so who says it matters”.

Danny rolls his eyes but chuckles, “oh yes, who says it matters that you’re making a whole bunch of new weird stories about me. At least general confusion suits me, though I did ask you to stay out of my town. Though fine, thanks for covering my ass. That water will paralyse you and burn you, now I imagine that would get you stuck in whatever form”, Danny grins a bit cruelly knowing how much Amorpho hates that. While Amorpho jerks slightly, turning his head towards where the agents are, “thanks then, I’m going to make their day. In the bad way”, transforming into an agent and walking off with a cruel smirk.

Danny shakes his head, at least he could leave the agents to Amorpho to mess with, being distracting was basically the guys specialty. Flying off back into the car and being resorbed by the original.

Lewis shakes his head, as Danny just smirks more and leans back in the seat, “someone I've got a truce with is messing with them now. He’s a tricky fellow so I doubt they get him, he’s pretending to be an agent himself”, Danny shakes his head, “he’s actually been pretending to be Phantom while I’ve been gone. He’s a true shift-shaper, can look like anyone. Harmless though, just a prankster that likes attention. Also, we’re visible and everything again”. Lewis can’t even imagine all the ways that kind of power could cause harm and mass panic, seems like only the less harmful ghosts had all the more dangerous powers. “Before we head in, because I know you won’t talk about this around Jack and Maddie. Is there a reason it just seems to be good or neutral ghosts with stronger abilities?”.

Danny promptly shakes his head, “it only seems that way because all the powerful bad ghosts are locked up or sealed away, so they can’t do shit. Like Overgrowth? Control over all plant life and turns people into fertiliser. Massive death count, enslaved Amity once. Vortex? Compete weather control. Makes massive storms and shit. Caused the ice age. Aragon can turn into a dragon. Pariah is literally one of the most powerful there is and he’s an evil bastard. Oh, and Spectra, she makes people depressed. Massive death count for her too”, Danny shrugs and coils his tail up, turning it invisible and throws his -pretty well shredded- hoodie around his waist, “there are just enough good guys to keep the bad guys wrangled. Well okay, and the Observants deal with the really dangerous ones”.

Lewis shakes his head as he gets out of the car and opens the back door, seeing as Danny can’t be just floating in. Danny points at him, “you aren’t carrying me, my pride took enough of a hit yesterday. And I can’t just ride piggyback cause with how injured I’m supposed to be that would be very suspicious”. Lewis raises an eyebrow, “you have pride?”. Danny flips him off for that, “all ghosts do. Prideful things by nature”.

“Huh, well I did not bring a wheelchair. Would Jack and Maddie have something?”.

Danny blinks at him a few times before laughing and nodding his head, “they always have something, they built a hoverboard I believe”.

Lewis is just going to assume hoverboards are basically commonplace here, as he knocks on the door.

To say Jack and Maddie have been busy would be a bit of an understatement. They’d like to say the first thing they did was start on legs and perfect them, but how could they? Having to face that fact, just accept what their boy had lost so quickly? No, but cleaning, organising, and getting to work on deconstructing bits from the first Spector Speeder for a little hover-board? That was easy enough, distraction enough. The house was probably the cleanest it had ever been, especially after finding out Dan would be coming to stay for a while. Finding out Danny would be coming home even sooner really made them stop and acknowledge that they needed to genuinely start building. Of course they both already had ideas, and had started building a little, but really hearing Danny actually eager to hear about them was the real kick in the butt they needed to build with wild abandon. But it wasn’t exactly going smoothly. Building actual robotic legs that could pass as normal legs, rather than an exoskeleton of sorts was a fair bit more difficult. Of course they needed neuroreceptors and the base shape and systems, all that they could build easily. But Danny was rather lean and short, there wasn’t a whole lot of room to work with. And they only wanted legs, no further areas of a full-body suit for space or support. And of course, they absolutely had to be able to work long term and completely safely. There were to be no running off of Danny’s life force or draining any substantial amount of his ectoplasm. The less he has to act as a battery the better.

So as it stands they had basic prototypes, and they were fully intending to ask Danny if he wanted them to bring them in for him to look at, try on, and help troubleshoot; when the G.I.W. situation had gone down. To say they were pissed at G.I.W. was another definite understatement. The absolute only reasons they didn’t hunt those men down or bust into that transport vehicle was Jazz and Sam pointing out how suspicious that would seem and Tuck assuring them that Danny was not in G.I.W. custody. The final nail in the coffin for them turning around to go back home and just wait, was Jazz somewhat sheepishly admitting to them that she had told Dan about the G.I.W. and that Danny actually dealt with them coming after him before. Because that meant Danny had a plan for this and Dan was smart. Not to mention, they knew from growing up with him that he had zero qualms over forgoing rules or normalcy. Even they acknowledged Dan was a bit strange, more so than them. They had strange interests and were both very intense and unapologetic about everything. Dan was strange on the very base fundamental level, so everything about him was at least a little off. But that was exactly why he fit and flowed well with them.

So they trusted their boy and put some faith in an old friend. Which thankfully paid off, even if that meant Danny coming home way sooner and functionally sent them into a bit of a frenzy. They couldn’t just have prototypes and ‘leg’ bits around, certainly that would be unpleasant for Danny right? And they couldn’t have Dan thinking the house was unsafe. Though they agreed to leave both children’s rooms be, the last thing they wanted to do was make Danny uncomfortable by going through his stuff or changing his area. Jazz would likely go on about how rooms were comfort zones and safe havens.

So they were a bit frazzled when that knock they had been nervously waiting for finally came. Maddie quickly fixing her hair as she opens the door to see Dan, “Dan, is he fine? Where’s Danny?”. Lewis puts up his hands and makes pacifying motions, “he’s fine, he’s fine”. While Maddie sticks her head out the door, spotting Danny sitting in the car. Seeing him in braces instead of casts feels like a breath of fresh air laced with gold, “DANNY!”.

Danny rubs his neck a bit awkwardly, partly because he didn’t have a full range of motion and partly because he hated worrying people, while Maddie runs over to him and squats down. Squeezing his shoulder before pulling him in for an almost tight hug, making sure not to pull him off the seat though, “oh sweetie, I’m glad those men didn't get to do anything”.

Danny’s not about to tell her that they did hurt him, but he does glance around with a cautious eye, “yeah, they’re pricks, aren’t they? They’re also in town, so let’s party over tripping up government dogs inside”. This instantly gets Maddie to snap up and look around, no way does she want to try picking Danny up. Not yet. Thankfully Jack, the dear, was thinking ahead; coming out with the little circular hover cushion with cushion walls around it, looking like a bowl. Course it also had a control panel, pop out trays, pop open cubby holes, etcetera.

Both Danny and Lewis resist chuckling or snorting at the device. Though Danny takes it and, with the kind of ease that comes from being overly familiar with how his parents build stuff, operates it easily. Lewis quietly muttering, “well shit”, the thing genuinely hovers and quietly too.

Jack and Maddie both beam as Danny just easily hovers himself inside and does a little twirl in the air. Jazz snickering from the hallway stairs. Patting the puffy thing after walking up, looking Danny over and nodding slightly, “you seem better, no more stiff casts”.

Danny smiles and makes a point of stretching out some, “oh it is much better, I have fingers again. Stick fingers, but fingers”. Bending his right fingers at her the little that he actually can. Which she giggles and shakes her head over.

Lewis looks at Maddie as she leans towards him, “is he really okay enough to be out of casts?”. Lewis nods, a normal person would definitely not be...well, a normal person would just be flat-out dead. But he had to downplay the injuries, “he’s a tough kid. Lucky too. So he’s good, just needs to be monitored to make sure, and keep up with the wrappings. Though I have a shift soon, so I can’t stay long right now”.

Jack claps him on the shoulder though his smile looks a little empty, “that’s too bad! You could’ve helped set up the spare room!”. Lewis chuckles and shakes his head slightly, “I’m sure I would have loved that. Though don’t worry about that too much. I’m hardly the picky type”.

Danny smirks and glances up towards his room, his parents could give Lewis the strangest room ever and he’d probably be unfazed. Whispering at Jazz, “please tell me they didn’t raid my room?”, saying ‘cleaned up’ would be stretching it, since cleaning wasn’t often their thing. Plus, genuinely cleaning his room would probably take more than three days. Jazz giggles slightly, “no worries little brother. They did actually clean the house though”, smiling and side-eyeing her parents, “lab’s a bit messy of course”.

Danny groans quietly, “it’s covered in leg bits, isn't it?”. She just nods quickly while Lewis comes up and pats Danny’s shoulder.

Lewis eye-balls the hover cushion thing, “somehow, this is stranger”, shaking his head, “I’ll be around in the morning, try not to destroy your bandaging”. Danny smirks at him, “no promises”. Lewis shakes his head and waves over his shoulder as he takes his leave.

Danny hovers somewhat awkwardly, focusing on keeping his tail invisible -which doesn’t fit all that well in the little cushion contraption-, while his parents walk over to him. Jack patting him on the shoulder, “did you pull a good one over on those agents?”. Danny smirks and nods, “to my knowledge, they don’t even know I was ever there”. Jack beams over that, while Danny glances up to his room, “cool if I rub my face in my blankets?”, he was going to enjoy his bed tonight, after flying around his town with a fine eye. Any ghosties are were going to get their asses kicked with a passion.

They honestly don’t want to let him out of their sight but Jazz is giving them a bit of a glare, clearly saying they should give him space. Jack squeezes Danny’s shoulder slightly and nods, “glad to hear it and go ahead Danny-boy. I’m sure Mads will have supper ready in a bit!”. And Maddie kisses Danny on the cheek quickly, who blushes and bats her off weakly. Before promptly hovering up to his room.

Sticking his head in, Danny’s just damn glad his room looks exactly as it did before. Locking the door and promptly ditching the hover cushion, stretching his tail out and letting it wiggle all over the place; before just flopping onto his bed. Laying there realising that being gone for a while has rather resensitised him to all the scents he’d gotten used to over the past years. Grumbling, “oh man, I really do need to clean. Kinda smells like someone died and rolled in lemon acid”. Was he going to actually do it? Probably not. Give it a day or so and he’d be nose-blind again. Sighing happily into his blankets, hard to actually be comfortable with the braces on though. Turning his head to the side and staring out the window, he could wait till nightfall.

Jack and Maddie watch him head to his room with worry, Jazz rubbing her mom's arm, “he just needs some time to adjust and enjoy being home”, smiling at her dad, “you know how unpleasant hospitals can be”. Not to mention calming down from dealing with the G.I.W.

Jack shivers slightly, hospitals were so annoying to be stuck dealing with. Before looking to the lab door and smiling, “maybe testing things out will get him back into the swing of things!”, and bounding down the stairs. While Jazz shakes her head with a small smile, “give him some time at least!”.

Maddie gives Jazz a soft smile and kisses her head quickly, “oh he’ll be a while, no worries. I’ll get to work on a good supper”. Jazz, full well knowing Danny will be annoyed but he really should not be eating anything heavily seasoned or tough, “remember it should be simple and easy to digest”. Maddie blinks and nods, “right, of course, thanks Jazz”. Jazz just smiles and shakes her head slightly.

Danny’s just glad supper went normally, even if he’s sure the food was very intentionally ‘guy who just had surgery’ friendly. Now he’s just curled up in his blankets and staring at the window. No way his folks weren’t going to check in on him before they went to bed themselves. He honestly wanted them to hurry up on that and go to bed, so he can leave and have a night out on the town.

Not even ten minutes later he coils his tail up and flicks it out of visibility, as he smells his folks approaching the door. Flipping over to face the door as he hears his mom ask, “you up sweetie? Can we come in?”.

“Yeah, go ahead”, Danny would throw in a joke about not being able to get the door but that would technically be a lie and would probably be really insensitive.

Jack and Maddie come in and sit on Danny’s bed, it was strange and bit painful that doing so pulled the blankets down enough to make what’s missing rather noticeable. The two parents share a look before Maddie brushes Danny’s hair around some, speaking soft and kind, “now you know we’ve been working on legs for you. We’ve got good frameworks and systems started, though we haven’t really been able to solidify or start on the attachment zone. So we were wondering if it would be alright to see the work Dan did?”.

Danny makes a point not to wince, it was clear she was trying to be kind and gentle, even if the whole...Dan...name kind of ruined the attempted effect. All three glance down to Danny’s waist and ‘legs’, while Danny mentally debates what to do.

#Danny Phantom #phandom #crossover #venom #danny phantom focused #amputation #character injury #injury recovery #hospitalisation #angst #hurt/comfort #ectobiology #amity is dannys lair #giw #guys in white #dan lewis is a good dude #mentions of cannibalism #mentions of murder #danny fenton #dan lewis #valerie gray #Maddie Fenton #jack fenton #jazz fenton #anne weying #Tucker Foley #sam manson #fan fic #phanphic #have a fic suck my dick

[comicreliefmorlock]

So here's a fun game. What are, let's say...10-15 pieces of media (books, tv, movies, whatever) that seem to have been made JUST for you? why?

*cracks knuckles*

Surprisingly, not all of these will be Tanith Lee.

…however…

{And this goes under a cut because this is going to be a very long, verbose post. A really long, verbose post.}

1. “Tales from the Flat Earth” by Tanith Lee

These books are essentially like sitting by a crackling fire on a cool summer night beneath the glimmering night sky while a smiling crone cards wool and tells you the stories that come from a time aeons before your birth. I have never in my life found a quartet of books–let alone one book–that have so completely and absolutely captivated me. From the first page of “Night’s Master,” I was gone.

Not only the language–breaking the fourth wall and referring to “words lost when the world reformed itself in the chaos”–but the characters… Azhrarn, the personification of Wickedness who saves humanity with love. Uhlume, the personification of Death who faces a form of mortality and is forever changed by it. Chuz, the walking embodiment of Madness, who is gentle to those under his domain and understands that he cannot understand why he does what he does.

Ferazhin and Narasen and Sivesh and Simmu and Jornadesh and Kassafeh and Zhirem and Azhriaz and Dunziel… Names I have never forgotten because they all but sang to me. A flat earth that holds the best and worst of humanity, often balled into a single person, with Underearth and Innerearth and Upperearth holding gods that have grown so distant they no longer recall humans were their creation at all. 

I have always loved mythology and these books? These are myth.

2. Pan’s Labyrinth -dir. by Guillermo del Toro

I’m not from Spain or know Spanish. I knew nothing about the Spanish Civil War when I first saw this movie. And this was the first film I saw that cemented del Toro for me as the only man I would ever trust to turn Tanith Lee’s books into cinema. 

I love fairy tales, mythology and folklore. And when you read enough of it, you see how bloody it actually is. How terrifying it is to realize that you’re not the only one in the world, humans aren’t the only ones, there are creatures on the midnight side of reality that share space with you. 

And I never really liked the Disney version of fairy tales with “happily ever after” and weddings. 

This movie was literally like watching something I’d imagined for myself. The acting was fucking phenomenal, the sets and costumes were off the hook and the comparison of “fairy tale horror” and “real horror” that overlapped just blew me the hell away.

And Doug Jones… Doug Fucking Jones. I never respected mimes until him and now I give all the respect. Being able to act, to breathe real life into a concept and a costume until it becomes a character you could picture walking through a forest or peering around a corner while not being able to use your own voice OR your own facial expressions is a kind of magic I think does not get enough appreciation.

DOUG FUCKING JONES, LADIES, GENTS AND GENDER REBELS.

3. Fatal Frame - Tecmo

I’m a writer/reader, not a gamer. When I have downtime or I want to relax, I almost always gravitate towards a book instead of a video game. The few games I’ve played purely for my own enjoyment have usually been MMOs and involve roleplaying.

Except for the Fatal Frame series.

Survival horror is my favorite game genre and I lamented when Resident Evil became more “survival action” than survival horror. (Fuckin’ lickers in the original Resident Evil game oh my god.) I wanted a survival horror game that had some meat to it, had something really compelling about it.

And I found Fatal Frame.

I love Japanese mythology. I especially love Japanese ghosts. For some reason–maybe out of sheer novelty because I, being an ignorant American raised near the US-Mexico border, have had little exposure to it–Japanese ghosts are my absolute favorites. Yurei (and the other subclassifications) just have something to them that I haven’t found in other mythologies. I’ve read and reread Oiwa and Okiku’s stories, been fascinated by the concept of the Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai and wanted more of what I found.

Which Fatal Frame provided.

Not only do the game mechanics work beautifully for someone as easily startled as I am, but the story behind each individual game is achingly intense. The intricacy of the interwoven histories, the rituals, the underlying question of “was all this really necessary or was this a priesthood trying to stay in power”… I love absolutely everything about these games. 

4. “The Blue Sword” by Robin McKinley

I’m not going to lie–this book took me forever to actually read. The first two pages were so achingly boring that I had no fucking clue why my mother had recommended it to me.

And then one day, bereft of anything else to read, I flipped through it. I still distinctly remember the line that made me stop and go “wait, what?” – “…your horse tells me where you’ve been…”

me: wait what horses can talk in this? wtf? *flips to the beginning and sits down to fuckin’ read it*

Slogging through those first few pages? Worth it. Because Harry/Hari/Harimad was the first heroine I’d ever encountered that I could imagine myself being. She was too gangly and not particularly pretty and kind of clumsy. She didn’t draw admiring eyes everywhere she went, spent a lot of time going ‘I can’t do this wtf’ and had aches and saddlesores.

Meeting Harry felt like seeing myself on a page for the first time in my life. And seeing someone with flaws like me going through adventure and fighting and succeeding and failing and getting a happily ever after felt like a warm blanket. Like someone had written a book just to tell me: “It’s okay that you’re not beautiful or graceful or soft-spoken and elegant. It’s okay that you’re clumsy and a goof and your hair is fuzzy as fuck because you can be a heroine, too.”

5. “Whoever Fights Monsters” by Robert K. Ressler

No, I’m not a serial killer. :D Nor am I an FBI profiler.

However, after reading “The Silence of the Lambs” by Thomas Harris for the first time in ninth grade, I was fascinated by serial killers. Like… how did they do it? How did they get away with it? WHY did they do it? What kind of person did things like this? I wanted to know so much more and I started grabbing every book on serial killers that I possibly could find.

And the reaction of classmates and teachers who saw my reading material was… less than stellar. Even my mother was vaguely worried about what I was getting out of reading all…that.

It felt like my fascination with serial killer psychology was a flaw in my character that no one else seemed to share. Until I read “Whoever Fights Monsters” and saw Robert K. Ressler talking about the exact same thing. He wasn’t a “sicko” or a “freak” or a “lunatic” or a “killer-in-training” for being fascinated by the psychology of humans who could treat other humans like a moment’s disposable entertainment. 

And suddenly, neither was I. 

6. American Horror Story: Hotel - FX

‘American Horror Story’ is entirely my thing. Interwoven narratives of fascinating (and often awful) people combining “American horror history” with interpersonal storylines? Yes, thank you, I’ll take a dozen.

This season in particular, however, is just more for me than any other. 

Maybe it’s the vampires that are self-obsessed and not particularly powerful but end up with petty grudges and complaints. Or the ghosts that bitch and whine at each other, find consolation together, use Twitter and spend their long, long days doing little more than drinking, smoking and obsessing over their lives and deaths. Maybe it’s the single location with so many years of history weaving together like a book of short stories. 

I love ‘Hotel’ because it feels like Brandenburg to me. I could so easily see the entire season taking place in my fictional city and mentally insert my own characters into the show without losing a single step.

Also Kathy Bates is absolutely glorious and I desperately wish to be a tenth as glamorous as Liz Taylor. 

7. “The Butterfly Garden” by Dot Hutchinson

Books about serial killers? Yes, please.

Books about serial killers told by a victim who barely survived and understands what trauma really means? Yes, please.

What especially got me about this book is my thing for dioramas. The first one I ever remember seeing was in the El Paso Museum of Archaeology (yes, I’m from El Paso, Texas) and it always both frightened and fascinated me. 

^ This one in particular would keep me motionless for ten or twenty minutes at a time, kind of terrified at a house within a building and then absolutely enthralled at a house inside a building.

And the dioramas mentioned in “The Butterfly Garden” were akin to those in “The Cell” –some terrible, awful glimpse into someone’s mind that was visualized and externalized in a permanent way. 

8. “War for the Oaks” by Emma Bull

I love the fae. 

And I also have read enough to know that those sprightly little fucks are terrifying and humans are rarely left unscathed by them.

This book was my introduction to “urban fantasy,” much as Charles de Lint was my introduction to what I consider “mythic fantasy” and a city that felt so much like my own. 

And what was so quintessentially, absolutely me about this book–other than the main love interest being the Phouka :D :D :D–was the underlying theme about creativity.

It’s a driving force, a magic that humans have. It’s uniquely human (as far as we know) and often the only talisman against the dark that we’ve got. With creativity, there’s magic. There’s a spark of something beyond the mundane realities of survival. Creativity is a sword and shield all in one, complete with a lure to bring others along with you.

Whether it’s through music, art, poetry or graphic design, creativity is the actual drive for immortality that pushes us to reach beyond ourselves and touch those we have no possibility of seeing or speaking to in our own short, real lives.

9. Good Omens - Neil Gaiman/BBC

I loved the book when it came out. I didn’t expect to love the mini-series. I especially didn’t expect to love the mini-series for the #IneffableHusbands.

I won’t belabor the point about why this is on my list. The #IneffableHusbands tag on my OOC blog is enough. :D

10. What We Do in the Shadows - Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi

Vampires who are as absurd, incapable and oblivious as me? Yes. All of my yes. 

Having played the old World of Darkness tabletop games for years--and absolutely fallen in love with them--I found this movie and was in absolute heaven. These are vampires I can actually imagine hanging out with. These are vampires (and werewolves) I can envision walking around a city.

Noble creatures of the night don’t seem real to me (aside from the obvious reasons.) The supernaturals in this movie? They felt like people I knew. Like people I could meet or characters I’d written myself. 

I like the fantastical being put into the mundane--which is why my genre is ‘urban fantasy’ although I have such an eye-twitch about it being all supernatural detectives chasing various pieces of ass now--and I especially love it when the fantastical doesn’t outweigh the mundane.

Imagining vampires vacuuming and riding the bus fits in nicely with my desperate belief (and hope) that the fantastical isn’t JUST imaginary but actually exists. 

{And there, I’m restricting this to 10 or we’ll be here all NIGHT.}

#Asks #Writing is life #Books are life #Here are Angel's specific likes and dislikes #as shown through visual aid

[sunaprincess7]

The Matchmaker

a/n: Okay, so this began life as a birthday present for the amazing @ghost-of-bambi but obviously as I’m the slowest writer of all time it’s taken this amount of time to post anything. Sarah, I’ve been a huge fan of your work forever so I hope it’s not too weird to randomly post this. Happy belated birthday - all mentions of Euphemia are obviously based on your amazing characteristion of her. 

This is the first fanfic I’ve written in about ten years so hopefuly it’s okay and not too terrible to read. It’s me gently starting back into writing again with some fluff. Fingers crossed I’ll get better as I write more often. I should mention that James’s personality here is completely different from 15 year-old James as I tried to imagine how 18 years of being a young parent would change him.

Summary: James is a single parent, doing his best to get his eighteen year old son through school when Harry suddenly becomes desperate to set his dad up on a date. AU

FF.net link

“I’ve met a girl.” 

James Potter looked up at his son from his dinner plate, mouth half full of the spaghetti Bolognese he had spent the afternoon preparing and was currently trying not to splatter all over the table because he didn’t plan on cleaning the kitchen for a second time that day.

“What happened to Bonnie?” Sirius asked uninterestedly from next to James, picking at his food. “You two seemed so in love it was enough to make me vomit. Not enough merlot,” he added briefly to James, who knew that some form of complaint was coming.

“Nothing has happened to Ginny,” Harry responded dryly, “not a girl for me. One for him,” he added, jerking his head towards James.

“Who? Me?” James asked, not really paying Harry any attention, “and the recipe said a glass,” he added to Sirius, ignoring the smirk that was forming on Remus’s face.

“The recipe is bollocks. And you used rosemary instead of thyme,” Sirius replied distastefully, peering into the bowl with narrowed eyes and picking through the strands of pasta with his fork.

“It’s a Jamie Oliver one. It says rosemary, not thyme,” James answered firmly, getting up to find the book, determined to prove his point and wondering why he bothered trying to feed anyone other than the one human in the room he was responsible for. “And you said you weren’t going to criticise my cooking anymore.”

“That was before I knew you were going to start fucking with a two-hundred-year-old recipe.”

“Dad!” Harry hissed, trying to glare at his father who was rifling through the ‘Oliver’s Twist’ recipe book. James thrust the book under Sirius’s nose, tapping triumphantly at the page.

“I’d advise bringing this up when Sirius isn’t here, Harry” Remus suggested wryly from the other end of the table. “And when Bolognese is not involved.”  

“Why are you trying to set him up with a eighteen-year-old, anyways?” Sirius asked, finally turning his attention back to Harry, grabbing some more garlic bread and ignoring James’s insistent tapping at the book.

“She’s not eighteen, she’s your age,” Harry replied, successfully finding James’s eyes. “I think you’d really like her.”

“Thank you, as always, for your concern, Harry but I don’t need you to find me a girl,” James said with a small smile, sitting down again, “have some salad too.” He watched as his son reached for the salad bowl, before settling back to his own meal. Harry’s concern with his love life reared its head at least once a year but usually James was able to avert any serious discussion of the subject matter by bringing up rugby or suggesting another Mario Kart tournament.

“Yes, you do! You’re terrible with women. I can’t remember you ever going on a date,” Harry hit back, ladling a huge amount of salad onto his plate without looking and throwing down the tongs carelessly.

“He has a point, Prongs,” Sirius agreed, inspecting Jamie Oliver’s book with a grimace. “This is bollocks. Why didn’t you use Carluccio’s recipe?”

“Because you stole my book and still haven’t given it back!” James gritted out, grabbing the book out of Sirius’s hands.

“Harry, your father doesn’t need a girlfriend because he has already has a wife to bicker with,” Remus interjected smartly as Sirius and James glared at him in sync.

“I’ve noticed that,” Harry smirked, ignoring his father’s glare. “Seriously, Dad, she’s exactly your type. She’s smart and witty and…and she could…keep up with you,” he finished sincerely. “Just give it a chance.”

“Out of curiosity, where exactly are you meeting women in their thirties, Harry?” Remus queried bemusedly.

“She’s a friend of Mrs Weasley’s,” Harry replied, a little indignantly, still primarily talking to James. “I’ve met her a couple of times at the Burrow. She’s a librarian.”

“Harry,” James sighed, “I will worry about my own love life; you worry about your exams and university. If you get into Oxford, I’ll marry this woman, how does that sound?”

Harry rolled his eyes. “It sounds like you’re ignoring me. Ginny thinks you’d be perfect together.”

“You and your girlfriend are eighty years old,” Sirius observed grimly, “and you know your father is celibate.”

“I am not celibate,” James stated, beginning to sound hassled. “I have a son who is a full-time job,” he continued, pointedly staring at Harry, “and two friends who eat all my food constantly. Now can we please talk about something else? Is Ginny playing on Saturday?”

“Yes, it’s a big match,” Remus replied with the air of someone trying to move the conversation along, passing Harry the garlic bread. “Whole school was worried her ankle wouldn’t recover in time.”

“She’s okay now though, right?” James asked Harry. “You said she’s been back at training.”

“Ginny is fine, her ankle is fine, she is going to win us the match single-handedly, five tries at least” Harry replied, setting his fork down. “Stop changing the subject.”

“As owner of this house, this table, this cutlery and this food, I get to change the subject,” James quipped, setting his own fork down.

“Alright, I’ll change the subject,” Sirius interrupted, “who else thinks Prongs is turning into Fleamont?”

“Sirius…” Remus said wearily.

“What?” he exclaimed, “I definitely heard old Flea’ say that at some point. His cooking was a lot better than yours, though,” he added, flinging a small piece of rocket at James who stopped himself from flinging some salad back.

“You’re not helping,” Remus replied, before turning to Harry, teacher voice now firmly in place, “Harry, you know you are your father’s priority. I’m sure when you’re out of the house, he will start dating.”

“Now, who’s his wife, Moony?”

“Remus is right, Harry,” James said evenly, taking a deep breath. “You are my priority.”

“Ok,” Harry said begrudgingly, stirring his pasta around on the plate and allowing a brief pause before he next spoke. “Changing the subject…” he started as James began to eat again, “isn’t it pathetic that the only person having sex at this table is the eighteen-year-old?”

Sirius, James and Remus looked at each other and James noted his son holding his breath until he saw a small smile make its way onto their faces.

“He’s been spending too much time with your mother,” Sirius said to James, shaking his head, “and not enough time with mine. I’ve said for years some physical chastisement is exactly what you need,” he finished to Harry, thrusting his fork at him yet still somehow grinning with pride.

“Seriously, when was the last time any of you got any?” Harry queried, looking around the table, ignoring his father’s look of disapproval, daring to go further now that he knew he could.

“Well, Moony is still trying to figure out how to tell Tonks he likes her, even though she’s already asked him out, so probably around four years ago when he dated that teaching assistant for three weeks and didn’t tell anyone,” Sirius began, elaborately picking up his glass of wine and eyeing Remus, “I believe it’s unfair to offer women anything more than friendship when I’m still on my philosophical journey towards enlightenment…”

“Which means he keeps telling women he doesn’t believe in work, marriage or having children and they won’t sleep with him after that,” Remus added lowly to Harry.

“And as for your father,” Sirius continued loudly, “add nine months to eighteen years and there’s your answer.”

“Thank you,” James groaned, now giving up on his dinner and leaning back in his chair. “I remember there was a time when you two were actually helpful to me as a single parent.”

“Well, I think we’ve established that, of the people sat at this table, I am the only one qualified to be giving out advice about dating,” Harry said happily, particularly at James. “You should go out with Lily.”

James was about to rebut Harry’s suggest when Remus spoke quickly. “Lily Evans?”

“Yeah,” Harry answered, “you know her?”

“Yes, through Molly as well,” Remus laughed, “she was at Arthur’s birthday party a few years ago. The one you two ditched in favour of staying in to binge watch Stranger Things,” he told James and Sirius.

“Right decision,” Sirius stated triumphantly, as James grinned back.

“You know, Harry might be right, Prongs,” Remus continued, leaning back in his chair. “I can see you two together.”

“Thank you!” Harry sang, turning to his dad expectantly with a large smile.

When James regarded Remus sceptically, he went on, “she’s sharp, funny and very pretty from what I remember. She also laughed at all of Arthur’s terrible jokes which means she has the same sense of humour as you.”

“One, I have a great sense of humour,” James huffed, “two, we didn’t ditch Arthur’s party, Harry wasn’t well and three, if she’s so great, why don’t you go out with her?”

“Harry had a mild cold and we both know you ditched because you’re obsessed with single parent television shows,” Remus threw back confidently, as Harry sniggered. “And I’m not going to go out with her because I don’t fancy her. But, remembering back centuries ago when you last expressed an interest in girl, she seems like your type.”

“He doesn’t have a type, Moony,” Sirius observed, “he’s Joyce Byers in glasses and little Will here is his only concern.”

“Ok, I am ending this conversation once and for all,” James interjected, standing up and leaning down over the table. “I’m going to read in the other room and you two can do the dishes for being such terrible guests,” he said to Remus and Sirius. “Harry, go finish your homework and stop worrying about finding me a girlfriend.”

James gave them all one final look before exiting the room.

“You know he’s going to play Super Mario Odyssey, right?” he heard Harry say as he shut the kitchen door. “And he is going to go out with Lily,” he added as Sirius laughed. “He’ll be pining over her the minute he sees her.”

... 

The one habit James noted he had picked up as a parent was the ability to arrive on time. He thought this as he surveyed The Three Crowns from his booth, bemoaning the fact that no one else seemed to have developed this particular skill in the intervening years. Watching the rugby with Harry, Ginny and Sirius had been a tradition for years as was the fact that James always watched the first fifteen minutes by himself.

This Saturday wasn’t so bad, he thought, letting his eyes drift over to the back of the bar where they had been coming to rest more and more the longer he sat there. James didn’t know if it was because of Harry’s insistence earlier that week that he start dating but for some reason he could not stop staring at a girl with a book, a radiant smile and vivid red hair as she sat sipping her coffee.

He was beginning to feel inappropriate, watching her so intently but every so often, she’d smile at something she had read and James would feel his pulse quicken and a smile ghost over his own face. He’d force himself to stare down into his pint but when his self-control weakened, he’d look back up again and once or twice she’d been looking at him. The first time their eyes connected, he half forgot how to breathe, looked away quickly and inwardly wondered how his eighteen-year-old son was better around women than he was.

“You look like crap,” Sirius said as he appeared out of nowhere, sliding into the booth with a pint of Guinness.

“Thanks.”

“Are you ill?”

“I’m fine,” James responded, turning his glass in his hands and taking a second to phrase next question as Sirius watched the match. “Do you think I need to date?” he asked carefully.

“What?” Sirius snorted, looking down from the tv screen. “Is this about the sprog and his obsession with this librarian?”

“Maybe,” James said, his eyes drifting back over to the redhead.

Sirius followed his gaze and turned around in his seat to see what James was looking at.

“You want to date her?” he queried, grinning at James as James inwardly cursed Sirius’s eternal lack of subtlety.

The girl caught his eye again and James felt his stomach flutter. He looked away to smile weakly at Sirius.

“Oh God,” Sirius let out, rolling his eyes. “I don’t think I’m ready for pining Prongs again. I need at least three more pints.”

“I’m not pining,” James said lowly, worried she’d hear them, although that was completely unrealistic over the noise of the pub and the television. “She just…well, she’s…”

“What?”

“I can’t stop staring at her,” he admitted, as Sirius looked at him strangely. “It’s not that I haven’t found other women attractive but since Harry was born, I’ve never really…”

“Fancied anyone?” Sirius tried helpfully.

“…taken a second look,” James finished uncomfortably. “And now…now I can’t stop staring at her.”

Sirius continued to look at him with a strange look, until he sat back in his seat.

“You know, Harry was right, he really is best qualified to give out this kind of advice,” he said, taking a large gulp of Guinness.

“Do you think it’s because he was suggesting I date?”

“I don’t know,” Sirius shrugged, “maybe. Or maybe you just think she’s hot.”

“She’s beautiful,” James corrected softly, staring at her again.

“For fuck sake, Prongs,” Sirius groaned, hitting the table, “you haven’t even spoken to her yet and you’re already looking at her like she’s your long-lost love.”

“Who’s his long-lost love?” Ginny asked, appearing out of nowhere with Harry in tow, both of them in rugby shirts and both of them blocking James’s view.

“Minnie!” Sirius cried, patting the seat beside him, “how are you?”

“I thought you said the man-child was banished from pub rugby,” Ginny asked James dryly, taking the seat.

“He knows where we drink,” James advised her, “I tried distracting him with a chew toy but he followed me here.”

“Oi!” Sirius cried, glaring at James.

“Stop looking wounded, you deserve it,” Harry scolded Sirius.

“Now, who is Mr Potter’s long-lost love?” Ginny asked brightly, smiling at James.

“Harry, you promised she’d stop calling me that,” James muttered.

“Only after you promised you’d make him learn my name,” Ginny replied, elbowing Sirius. “Now, stop ignoring my question!”

“There’s some woman over there that your father is mooning over,” Sirius finally answered, snubbing James’s protests.

“Who?” Ginny asked, sounding delighted as she and Harry eagerly surveyed the pub.

“The redhead in the back. Green dress, book. Making your father weak at the knees, apparently.”

“Ask her out,” Harry said immediately, looking at the woman and then back to James.

“Harry…” James sighed, taking a second to glower at Sirius before letting his head hang forward.

“What?” the boy exclaimed, as Ginny smiled and took his hand. “You like her, right? Just go over there and say hello.”

“You should,” Ginny urged, nodding her head in tandem with Harry as James inwardly agreed with Sirius that sometimes they did look like eighty-year olds.

“Can we all please stop talking about Prongs and his boring love life and watch the goddamn match,” Sirius hissed, wincing at the tv screen. “Your stupid team is losing this match, Mitsy.”

“They’re your team too, you overgrown trust fund baby,” Ginny shot back pleasantly, “and they’re not losing anything, you just don’t understand anything about rugby tactics.”

Letting the sound of Ginny and Sirius’s playful arguing fade into the background as Harry went to get a drink, James moved his head slightly to see if the redhead was still sitting in the back of the bar. He hadn’t noticed her green dress until Sirius pointed it out but now he looked at her, the green stood out to him as much as her eyes.  James smiled a little to himself, watching her casually playing with an errant piece of her hair which had fallen from its bun. He was starting to contemplate the possibility of maybe going over to speak to her when he jumped to noticed that Harry had gotten there before him. Unable to yelp in time to stop it, he broke out in a sweat properly this time as he watched the woman smile and turn to his son.

“Sirius, never have children,” James hissed hurriedly, somewhere hoping that his best friend would manage to salvage this situation without him having to do anything.

“Wh…” Sirius began to ask, turning around in his seat and then shaking his head when he saw what James was looking at. “He gets all this from Euphemia, you know. Hattie, tell your boyfriend to get back over here before Prongs dies of shame.”

Ginny was about to respond but lost her chance when the woman stood up and started walking with Harry back to their table, making James wonder if his heart was going to stop before they got there.

“You can tell your boyfriend he is grounded until his twenty-fifth birthday,” James spat, feeling his right-hand drift to his hair, helpless to stop it as Ginny ignored him.

“Hi,” Ginny said brightly to the pair as they reached the booth, all three of them smiling as James wondered how bright red his face was.

“Hi, rocket,” the woman replied, grinning down at Ginny and gripping her by the shoulder. “You playing tomorrow?”

“Yup,” Ginny answered, “can’t wait. I want five tries or more. Nothing less.”

The woman laughed. “Your girlfriend is fierce, Potter,” she said to Harry, whacking him on the shoulder.

“I know,” Harry smiled, “by the way, have you met my Dad? Dad, this is Lily Evans. Lily, this is my dad, James.”

Ignoring what he knew was certainly going to be a long conversation with his son later, James felt his mouth go dry as her vivid green eyes turned to him and she smiled gently. “Hi.”

“I’m not married,” was the first thing that came out of his mouth.

All of a sudden, James couldn’t hear anything other than the sound of Sirius snorting into his Guinness and howling with laughter.

“That was….fantastic,” Sirius snickered between breaths, banging the table with his fist and still coughing up his drink.

“Um…okay…,” Lily replied, a half smile ghosting over her face. James’s eyes drifted from Ginny and Harry’s delighted faces back over to Lily’s. She was now starting to smile fully and James couldn’t help but feel a smile creep onto his own, embarrassed face.

“For the record, neither is she,” Harry said triumphantly, sitting down next to James again and giving him a knowing look.

“Subtle, kid,” Lily smirked, now the only one standing as Ginny sat down too.

“Join us, Lil’,” Ginny invited, patting the seat next to her and shoving a disgruntled Sirius over to the corner of the booth. “Come sit in the non-married booth.”

Rolling her eyes, Lily slid in next to Ginny, nudging her in the side.

“You are a carbon copy of your father, Potter,” she said, eyes darting between them both as James felt his hand go to his hair again, causing Lily to smile once more.

“No,” Harry replied, shaking his head, “not at all. I have a girlfriend. My father is single.”

Lily met James’s eyes, both of them now grinning.

“I think I heard that somewhere,” Lily breathed, blushing lightly which didn’t help James at all.

“I would like to apologise on behalf of my son,” James tried steadily, wincing at the sound of his own ridiculous voice as it came out. “He thinks he’s helping, but he’s not.”

“Not helping would be pointing out that you’ve been single for 18 years,” Sirius added, smirking at James. “Sirius Black,” he went on to Lily, “I’m single but not interested.”

“Trust me when I say she doesn’t care,” Ginny said, rolling her eyes. “Did you know James raised Harry all by himself, Lily,” she continued, now grinning along with Harry.

“I did know that,” Lily nodded, looking again at James who held onto his right hand with his left to stop it from leaping to his hair. “You mentioned that when you brought Harry and his dad up two nights ago,” she said, now smiling meaningfully at Harry. “There seem to be a plan here,” she finished to James.

“I’m starting to get that sense myself,” James responded, trying to look annoyed at his son but failing miserably – he was starting to rather like this plan. “You’re a lot more troublesome than I was as a teenager,” he added to Harry, ignoring Sirius’s snickers of disbelief in the background.

“Maybe you two should grab a drink sometime to discuss the failing youth of today,” Ginny suggested helpfully. “Or why don’t you come to the match tomorrow?”

“Oh, I don’t think so,” Lily said, causing the smile to fall off James’s face before he could figure out a way to agree with Ginny without seeming too eager.

“What? Why not?” Ginny retorted, sounding outraged as James became very quickly aware of how small the booth was.

“Oh, don’t look so put out,” Lily said dismissively, looking from Harry to Ginny. “It’s not the end of the world.”

“Yeah, it isn’t,” Sirius chimed in, “Moony said she was smart but if she doesn’t want to go out with Prongs, she’s an idiot and he doesn’t need her.”

“Sirius,” James warned, unable to apologise before Lily cut in.

“I’m not going to go out with someone who has stood me up already,” Lily said lightly, as all four heads in the booth snapped to look at her at once.

“What?” James and Harry asked at the same time. “He stood you up?” Harry asked, this time by himself, already glaring at James.

“No!” James replied before Lily could, turning to her, his face creased with confusion. “I’ve never…”

“You know, you’re a lot like your mother, Rocket,” Lily interrupted, smiling at Ginny. “And you’re definitely not the first person who has thought that James and I should date,” she went on, now turning to grin victoriously at James. “I have very vivid recollections of Molly Weasley emphatically detailing your every virtue as well as saying, ‘he’s raising Harry on his own, Lily!’,” she chuckled.

“Mum tried to set you up?” Ginny asked faintly, as Lily nodded.

For reasons he was trying to ignore, James felt severely uncomfortable with the idea that Lily wouldn’t go out with him through some misunderstanding. He was about to speak up on his own behalf when Sirius got there first.

“He hasn’t had a date in eighteen years,” Sirius droned, sounding unimpressed, “how is it possible that…”

“14 May 2007,” Lily cut in loudly, not bothering to look at Sirius. “We were supposed to meet for drinks in Newington Green because it was near where you lived: some pub opposite...”

“…the green,” James inserted faintly, feeling his memory come flooding back to him. As realisation crossed his face, Lily smiled wryly. “Oh my God,” he said, sounding exactly as horrified as he felt, feeling the colour drain from his face.

“The Alma,” she remembered. “Molly said you liked it because it had good pub quizzes.”

“It did,” Sirius said, clearly taking the opportunity to speak because words were failing James. “We went every Thursday. Why didn’t you tell me you had a date?”

“Why didn’t you show up is the more important question?” Harry put in, continuing to glare at James in the way that only disappointed children can.

“I…I…,” James stuttered, trying to remember back to his thought processes that night, “I can’t really remember,” he said, as Harry rolled his eyes. “I only…vaguely…remember not wanting to leave you.”

“That’s your excuse?” Harry retorted dramatically.

“It’s a pretty good one, kid,” Lily said, drawing Harry’s attention and ire away from James. “Well, it’s a good one for not wanting to go out on a date,” she reassessed, “you still could have called,” she added, smirking again at James.

“I definitely should have called,” James replied, leaning forward earnestly. “I am really sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Lily stated charitably as Harry snorted, “really it is. I had a few drinks, ate and went home with the barman,” she smiled, effortlessly lightening the mood as Ginny giggled.

“Really?”

“Really. We went out for 6 months,” she laughed, “it’s the reason I remember the date I was stood up. If I wanted to blame the whole wretched relationship on you I could, I suppose,” she mused humorously, looking at James.

“Lily, on behalf of my father, I would like to apologise,” Harry said solemnly, mimicking his father.  

“You don’t have to, I’ve already done that,” James said quickly, before turning to Lily again, “really, I am. Sorry. I was an idiot. There’s no excuse.”

“James, it’s fine,” Lily replied, focusing on him so completely with those green eyes of hers that James had to take a deep breath. “Give your dad a break, Potter,” she said to Harry. “Everyone is stupid in their early twenties…apart from you and the missus obviously.”

“Well then you give him a break,” Sirius mumbled as James kicked him under the table. “Give him another chance and go out with him.”

Lily laughed, shaking her head and turned to James, “you know that is officially the third person to ask me out on your behalf.”

“Eh….yeah….I can see that,” James said, feeling himself go red again.

“He doesn’t have a lot of experience asking girls out,” Sirius put in helpfully.

“He really doesn’t,” Harry confirmed to Lily earnestly.

“If it helps, you’re the first girl I’ve wanted to ask out in 17 years,” James added quietly, trying to pretend that he and Lily were the only two people at the table. She smiled in such a pretty way, his stomach flip-flopped, and he was forced to stare at the table.

“That was a pretty decent line for someone who’s been out of the game so long,” Lily replied, sounding far more sensible than James although he noted she now blushing again.

“Ask her out,” Ginny hissed unsubtly across the table, causing everyone to laugh.

“Could I maybe take you to dinner?” James tried, feeling relieved as Lily continued to smile.

“Sure,” Lily said with a small nod of her head, “as long as you’re planning to show up this time.”

“Trust me, he is,” Sirius confirmed, “He’s free every Saturday for the next ten years. Pick one that suits you and he’ll be there.”

“Here,” Lily said, scribbling on a napkin and then handing it to James, “that’s my number. Call me and we’ll arrange a date,” she stood up, and turned to Harry and Ginny, “and nice wing-manning, you two. You did nothing to help,” she said pleasantly to Sirius finally before walking away.

“See,” Harry said to James, nudging him once more. “She can put up with Sirius. She’s made for you!”

...

“Do not wear that stupid patterned shirt that you think looks nice,” James heard his son yell up the stairs.

“I can get dressed by myself, thank you,” James yelled back, throwing down the patterned shirt and making his way back to the wardrobe, now knowing why he hadn’t bothered to date in eighteen years. The sick feeling in his stomach wasn’t one he was used to but if felt like a snake was slithering around his innards. He didn’t know how he was going to finish a meal never mind make witty conversation.

“Something white, Prongs,” Remus suggested, also yelling up the stairs. “Wear a white shirt and some form of jacket.”

“How do you know what he should wear?” he heard Sirius query derisively.

“I’m reliably informed by my female colleagues that when going on a date one should always try to look like James Bond.”

“Are you planning to feed my son at all this evening or do I need to call mum?” James yelled back, picking out the one white-ish shirt that he possessed and wondering if the only formal jacket he owned was his old school blazer.

“He’s eating cereal out of the box, does that not count?” Sirius asked.

“We’re ordering pizza at mine later,” Remus supplied, just as James was about to yell back. “The black jacket Harry wore to his formal last year is still in his wardrobe, it’d probably fit you.”

“Thanks,” James replied hesitantly, throwing on the white shirt and wandering into Harry’s room to rifle through his wardrobe. He jumped when he felt a hand fall on his shoulder.

“You’re going to be fine,” Remus reassured, moving over to Harry’s bed to sit down.

“I don’t know about that,” James half-laughed, pulling hangers apart. “I never learned how to do this bit. I was too busy learning how to put on nappies.”

“I spoke to Molly earlier this week,” Remus replied, as James found the jacket. “She couldn’t have been nicer about Lily. She doesn’t sound like the kind to put you through the ringer. Plus, she knows it’s your first date in a while…”

“I doubt she forgot when Sirius and Harry were reminding her every two minutes,” James cut in grumpily.

“…so I think you’ll get a bit of leeway if you do anything stupid.”

“Like what?”

“Like propose.”

James laughed, turning to look at himself in the mirror. “You know, when Harry had his first date with Ginny, I told him it was going to be easy and he shouldn’t worry. Clearly, I was an idiot.”

“Clearly, you were right. They’ve been together for a year. Sounds like their first date went well.”

“Why did I say I’d do this?” James moaned, throwing himself down on the bed beside Remus. “There is no way I’m not going to make an idiot out of myself. When I look at her, I can’t think properly. I can’t talk like a normal person…”

“You’ve been texting this week, haven’t you?”

“A bit,” James admitted, “she’s much better at this whole flirting thing than I am too,” he said, pulling out his phone and passing it to Remus.

“She likes you,” he grinned, scrolling through the messages.

“I have no idea why,” James replied, grabbing his phone back and looking at his own messages. “I text like someone in their fifties. I remind me of my mother. I should’ve watched more of that Love Island thing Sirius was obsessed with. I might have learned something.”

“You text fine, you don’t have to be like a reality tv contestant, you can just be yourself,” Remus said, patting him on the back again. “Molly says she thinks you’re charming.”

James felt his eyebrows leap up into his hair, “she does?”

“According to Molly,” Remus smiled, “so you must have done something right at the Crown.”

“Moony, hurry up, he has to leave in five,” Sirius screeched from downstairs, as Remus threw his eyes up to heaven and they both got up.

“Will you tip the delivery guy this time,” James asked Remus as they made their way downstairs, “they add half an hour to my delivery time every time you don’t.”

“Yes, I will,” Remus droned, shuffling down the stairs behind him. “I also won’t let Sirius answer the door, will make sure we put out any fires before tweeting about them, lock the door before we leave and only let Harry have two beers, not five.”

“So basically, you’re going to make this the dullest evening ever,” Sirius greeted them with Harry in tow, both of them eating out of the same box of cereal.

“I am leaving now,” James said, ignoring them.

“Oh!” Harry said, shoving the box of cereal towards Sirius. “Here,” he went on, stuffing his hand into his back pocket and pulling out a condom. “I’m staying at Remus’s tonight. Be safe. Last thing you want is an unexpected pregnancy.”

“Brilliant,” James said dryly, pushing Harry’s hand away and going towards the door. “I will be coming home tonight, so you don’t need to stay at Remus’s,” James advised.

“I’ve been waiting my entire life to make that joke,” he heard Harry say to Sirius as he shut the front door.

... 

 As he walked to the restaurant he had suggested, James was glad he had picked one that he could get to on foot. For one, the cold air was helping to calm his nerves and cool him down and for another, it meant he caught sight of Lily standing outside of the trattoria, leaning against the wall, before she saw him. That gave him the opportunity to acknowledge how amazing she looked before he actually had to talk to her. She was wearing some floaty white dress with pink flowers and birds on it that somehow helped her to look unreasonably pretty. She had a leather jacket on over that made James think Sirius would probably approve after all.

Taking a deep breath to ready himself, James ruffled his hair and walked up to her with what he hoped was a normal smile. “Hi.”

“Hey,” Lily replied brightly. “You’re here.”

“Yes,” James laughed, “I made it this time. Is that why you’re standing outside?”

“Yup,” she grinned, “I didn’t fancy sitting at a table by myself for an hour whilst the waiters looked at me like I was pathetic. At least this way, I could make sure you showed up.”

“Eh, yeah…have I apologised for that?”

“Twice,” Lily said, “so I think three times would be overkill. Shall we go in?”

Managing to open the door for Lily, ask for their table and seat himself all without saying anything stupid, James opened his menu when Lily did likewise.

“This all looks great,” she hummed, as James took a second to appreciate the sight of her swooning over the menu. “Good choice.”

“Sirius approves of their Bolognese, so I figured it was a safe bet,” James agreed, mentally taking note of the food he could eat without looking ridiculous.

“Molly said you cook for them all quite a bit,” Lily half-asked, still looking downwards.

“Yeah,” James replied, “Sirius and Remus sort of live with me and Harry, except when they decide not to. I think you know Remus? He said he met you a couple of years ago?”

“At Arthur’s birthday,” Lily nodded, setting her menu down. “Seemed a little shy at first but by the end of the night…”

“…you realised that was an act and he’s the worst prankster you’ve ever met?”

“Yes!” Lily said excitedly, smiling widely. “He put shaving foam behind all of Molly’s door handles.”

“I love watching people figure out that Remus is completely evil,” James grinned back. “Everyone thinks he’s this shy, principled teacher the first time they meet him. Then he rips the last pages out of the books they’re reading and they figure out his true nature quickly.”

“He does not do that!” Lily hissed, looking genuinely horrified.

“I’m sorry to say it’s true,” James replied sorrowfully. “For two years, I thought Sirius was ruining all my books and he thought it was me doing it to him, and then one day we went to Remus’s house and he had papered the bathroom with the pages of all the books he’d defaced.”

“What did you do?” Lily asked, attention rapt.

“I think Sirius called him his hero and swore fealty to him on the spot,” James tried to recall. “We had just finished watching Game of Thrones,” he clarified.

“I find all of this offensive as a librarian,” Lily stated firmly, shaking her head. “I’m going to have to reprimand Ginny. She cannot call him her favourite teacher when this is how he behaves.”

“Harry says you met him at Arthur’s party too?”

“Yeah,” Lily smiled, “he was lovely. Cleared the table with Molly and got everyone drinks the whole night. Very mannerly.”

“That’s all my mother,” James clarified hastily. “She loves Ginny, she’s determined they’re getting married and that Harry is going to impress his in-laws.”

Lily laughed out loud as the waiter appeared and took their order.

“So, you know a lot about me from Harry and Ginny and Molly,” James began again, starting to feel more relaxed as Lily smirked. “What about you? Any crazy friends who live with you or children who act like the parent?”

“None,” she replied, “although I do have several crazy friends. They like to show up to the library, sneak in bottles of wine and get drunk while I work. Then they complain about the service.”

“That might just beat Sirius and Remus,” James laughed, “although do not tell Sirius about that or he’ll be with your friends next time you’re working.”

“They’re great really,” Lily said happily. “I’d be lost without Mary. I was given seven outfit choices for this evening and then told which one to pick.”

“Well, Mary has great taste. You look beautiful,” James tried, hoping that the line that sounded romantic in his head actually came out that way.

Lily gave him a stunning smile for his efforts. “I’ll let her know,” she said as the waiter arrived to bring over some water and take their orders.

“So, is Harry happy that you’re finally on a date?” she asked after the waiter had left.

“Delighted,” James confirmed.

“He and Ginny seemed to be very interested in your love life.”

“I think he’s just worried about going off to university and leaving me alone,” James said, inwardly wincing at how feeble he sounded.

“That’s quite cute,” Lily replied sincerely. “That’s a good son you’ve raised all by yourself.”

James grinned, “I definitely didn’t raise him ‘all by myself’. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without a lot of help from my parents. And Remus and Sirius as well. But he’s turned out pretty great, even if it is me saying that.”

“Is it okay to ask about his mum?” Lily queried, somewhat nervously.

“Yeah,” he nodded, “it is. She’s a photographer, travels a lot. Harry sees her when she’s in England. Most of the time, she lives in Amsterdam.”

“How long has he lived with you?”

“Since he was about one,” James said, knowing he was getting into uncomfortable territory but deciding it was better to tell the story now. “I knew from when he was born that I wanted to take care of him and after a while, his mum wasn’t really handling the responsibility so well. Which was fine. She wanted to go to uni and all of that. I wanted to stay home with Harry. So, I spoke to my mum and we all decided Harry would live with us.”

“How did you meet her?” Lily continued, still sounding unsure of herself.

“In school,” James said. “We didn’t really date,” he went on steadily, “just sorted of bonded over Pokemon Blue and then were a bit stupid.”

“A bit?” Lily said incredulously, “I can’t believe you even bothered with blue, yellow was the only one worth playing.”

“Yellow wasn’t out until 2000 and I was already hooked on Blue by then,” James corrected confidently, smiling when Lily looked impressed rather than repulsed.

“That is some serious nerd knowledge,” Lily marvelled, looking at him in such a way that he ruffled his hair again, inwardly hating himself. “Do you still play?”

“Not at all,” James obviously lied, “I’m a grown-up man who isn’t in any way addicted to Pokemon Go.”

“Brilliant,” Lily laughed, “Ginny told me about this.”

“About what?” he asked, as the waiter arrived with their food.

“About the videogames, the D&D, the board game café…”

“In my defence, I like rugby as well,” James tried, looking down at his plate.

“Oh, she told me about the rugby coaching and pub rugby too,” Lily smiled, startling James when she reached across the table to take his hand. “But it was the nerd thing I liked best.”

“It was?” James asked, hoping his hand wasn’t too clammy.

“Yeah,” Lily nodded, a bit bashfully, “librarian, remember?” she said, gesturing to herself.

“Is that why you decided to give me a second chance?”

Lily smiled and shook her head. “No, I gave you a second chance because you’re really hot.”

James couldn’t hold back the disbelieving laugh he let out.

“You are!” Lily insisted, squeezing his hand before she let it go. “And…you know…the good father thing helps too.”

“It does?” he checked, as Lily grinned in a way that James found particularly alluring.

“Yes,” she confirmed, “your love for your son somehow makes you hotter. I have no idea why. Now, ask me about my book collection. As a nerd, you’re about to find me unbearably hot.”

... 

 Over the rest of dinner, Lily revealed herself to be pretty much the perfect woman, save for her preference for Charmander as a starter Pokemon. What James still couldn’t believe was that everything she said indicated that she was an in to him as he was to her. He didn’t know what he was doing to make her feel this way but no matter how stupid or ridiculous he sounded to himself, Lily laughed, smiled and flirted her way through the rest of the night. Still putting James’s flirting skills to shame but at least giving him the confidence to relax a bit more and think that maybe she might go out with him a second time.

However, no matter how relaxed he was by the end of the night, nothing prepared James for the shock of her trying to kiss him.

“Are you okay?” she giggled, as he jumped when she moved in closer to him after they had walked away from the restaurant.

“Eh…yeah,” James breathed, feeling once more like an idiot but taking both Lily’s hands and pulling her closer again. “I wasn’t expecting you to do that.”

“I keep forgetting you’re new at this,” Lily said quietly, moving towards him easily.

“So, I kiss you now,” he confirmed, as Lily nodded with a small laugh.

“Yes,” she murmured, kissing him first.

Kissing Lily and feeling her press up against him after a full week of day-dreaming about her was the best wish fulfilment James could have hoped for. It made him forget all his concerns that he didn’t have a clue what he was doing, emptying his head of all thoughts but her and how amazing she was.

“Would you maybe like to do this again sometime?” James blurted out as Lily pulled away, keeping her arms looped around his neck.

Lily laughed again.

“James, this is the part where you try to get me to go home with you.”

“I do?” he responded, causing her to laugh harder.

“Yeah,” she confirmed, nudging her nose against his. “If it helps, you won’t have to try that hard.”

Ignoring the twisting in his stomach, James smiled, “fancy seeing my video game collection?”

...

James was busy making scrambled eggs when he heard the front door open and close behind him.

“Hey,” he said to Harry and Sirius as they ambled into the kitchen.

“As you can see, he’s still alive and only has a minor hangover,” Sirius announced, clapping Harry on the shoulder.

“How’d it go last night?” Harry said immediately as James looked at him.

“Good,” James replied, trying to hide his smile. “We had a nice time.”

“Good,” Harry repeated, evidently happy though sounding slightly surprised.

“Didn’t bring her home though,” Sirius mocked, elbowing Harry.

“I didn’t expect him to,” Harry condescended, folding his arms. “Doesn’t matter, means I can make that condom joke another couple of times.”

“That’s if she’ll see him again,” Sirius put in, lowering himself into a chair. “She might just’ve said it went well to not hurt his feelings. Did she actually laugh at dinner or was she pity laughing, Prongs?”

James was saved the trouble of responding as Lily strode into the kitchen, silencing Harry and Sirius in the middle of their chuckles.

“I don’t pity laugh,” she said, not looking at either of them and walking over to James, hair still wet from the shower, his shirt looking better on her than it ever did on him. “Do you have a hair dryer?” she asked, moving her arms around his neck and pressing a kiss against his cheek.

“Yeah,” he smiled, thoroughly enjoying the stunned looks on Harry and Sirius’s faces. “Sirius’s from when he lived here. It’s in the closet in the bathroom.”

“Thanks,” she said, giving him another kiss, “I’ll be down in a minute. Don’t let Sirius eat all my breakfast,” she added, leaving with a smirk.

“There isn’t breakfast for anyone other than me and you,” James said after her, turning back to the stove.

“What?” Sirius yelped, finally finding the words to speak.

“You have to feed me, I’m your child!” Harry protested.

“How long is it before you bugger off to uni again?” James asked, ladling the scrambled eggs onto two plates with toast.

“Hey!” Harry objected, somehow managing to sound half-pleased.

“We’re eating upstairs,” James decided, lifting the plates and cutlery, “Harry, if Sirius won’t feed you, call your grandmother or Ginny or Remus or someone.”

Ignoring Harry’s protests, James climbed the stairs, smiling as he heard Lily singing from above.

“Oi, Evans” he called, “breakfast is ready.”

#jily #jily fanfiction #hinny #harry potter #single dad au #singledad!james #jily au #i am so nervous #ahhhhh

[icespur]

It AU:Look What I Found Ideas

I write stories, not many of my stories are online yet though, cause hardly any of my stories are finished! But I write stories of the current fandoms I’m in, and now I’m obsessed with IT 2017 and Pennywise

And I have some story ideas I’m working on, I’ve bothered and mentioned my ideas in reblog comments but now that I figured out how to post I can actually tell you my ideas here!

So here’s one of my IT AU story ideas

The story is called “Look What I Found” and it’s a alternate timeline of when Pennywise came to earth, in the book he came to earth in a asteroid and crashed years ago and then became active when human civilization was built.

Well in here he still comes to earth the same way, BUT——-

He’s an egg....

The asteroid has the egg inside and when the asteroid crashes on earth it cracks open revealing the unscathed egg.

Years go by, creatures die, new creature born, Humans come in. The egg sits in the background as life goes on until in 1988 October when a little 7 year old child loses his paper boat in a sewer gutter, he’s too small to reach it and his parents would kill him if he were to go down into a dirty old sewer. So he has no choice but to go home and break the news to his older brother that he lost his boat, his brother tells him that he’ll look for it for him tomorrow and not to worry.

The next day Bill and his friends go down into the sewers to look for the missing paper boat, they eventually find it—— along with a mysterious black egg.....

Eddie is hesitant and says that they should ignore it but curiosity gets the better of them, thinking this egg is some “new discovery” or maybe it’s a real life dragon egg! So they take the egg with them

Oh boy was that a bad idea.

It seems the more the egg develops the more creepy sh*t it does

* At first it randomly glowed, but as time goes on it seems sometimes glowing is tied to it’s emotions... sometimes.

* If you are brave enough (stupid enough) to put your face up to the egg or put the egg up to a light, you will see a bunch of glowing lights, that gets brighter and brighter as time goes on. It wasn’t until a very weird incident at the park where the egg came in contact with a pregnant woman’s belly that may or may not have caused the woman to bleed, that now if you look at the embryo you will see a normal human fetus

*Can hear and mimic music and voices

*Whatever is in there has two glowing yellow orbs for eyes and it’s creepy!

*Georgie seems very attached to it, he talks to it as if it’s alive and can hear him, Bill’s starting to worry if letting Georgie get so close to the egg is safe.

*The losers have contemplated destroying the egg many times and have come very close to crushing it to bits with a hammer but usually Georgie begs them not to and talks them out of it, or the egg letting out human infant sounding cries stopping them.

* Especially once it become clear that the egg is draining life and certain movement of other people’s organs and limbs so it can have working body parts.

*Gets a very concerning childish disturbing glee from the losers fighting or any negative energy in general, making the egg glow revealing the silhouette of a fetus clapping.

*Eventully starts being able to make noises, squeals, squeaks, weird chattering gibberish, etc.

*Not even technically born yet and it already keeps them up at night. 11:00 pm on a school night the children are trying to get a good night sleep all of a sudden the egg starts glowing and rocking back and forth and loud carnival music starts playing on full blast

*Parts of the egg start to crack leaving a hole where it’s yellow eyes can peak out. Everyone is creeped out by this, except for Georgie who happily walked around the entire house with the egg giving it a tour of the Denbrough house

(I have a bunch of different versions of how the hatching scene would play out)

*It’s chaos when the egg hatches, once the storm clears and everyone is able to hold their breath a small baby clown is revealed.

Raising baby Pennywise........

*He’s a a**hole

*Baby-mutant-clown or whatever he is exactly, apparently develop differently then human infants. The first few days nothing seems too out of the ordinary, sleeps a lot, (to the point where Richie and the rest sometimes wonder if he’s dead so they poke him to make sure he’s still alive which upsets him causing him to curl into a furry auburn ball) But then eventually he randomly learns to stand up in his crib and stares at them standing up......at one week old—— normally a baby doesn’t stand up on it’s two legs for a couple months! He’s only a week old!

* Stan bought a “baby month development guide” book and that soon proves to be no help*

*Learns to sit and crawl very early (too stubborn to walk though)*

*Tries to eat and put every possible non edible object in sight in his mouth. Even before he starts teething*

*Georgie and him are still close, he’s like the younger sibling that Bill and Georgie never asked for. Georgie and Penny have become partners in crime and like to harass Bill. But at the same time Penny also sometimes sees Georgie as food and gets very interested in his arms..... luckily it will be a long while til Penny gets teeth*

*Pennywise is very attached to Beverly, sees her as his mom, and acts like a angel only for her. But when she’s not around—-his true nature comes out. Beverly thinks the boys are overreacting when they complain about how much of a little monster he is*

*Can shapeshift But not as well, he’s just a baby so he’s still learning. Only parts of him will shapeshift, like instead of turning into a full werewolf only werewolf ears will sprout on his head, instead of a full spider——only spider legs will sprout from his waist. sneezing and hiccuping affect his shapeshifting hiccups will make him rapidly change forms (like Maui in Moana when he first tries shapeshifting with his hook) and sneezing will cause parts of him to shapeshift “ah, ah, ah, ACHOO” (werewolf ears spring out on top of his head)*

*He can float.......Well, the actual wording for it would be levitate but he refers to it as floating. Which as you can imagine makes baby proofing impossible*

*Speaking of floating, instead of sleepwalking he also “sleep floats” meaning in the middle of the night randomly while fast asleep he will levitate/float out of his crib and around the house, making the losers freak out once they find out he’s not in the crib anymore and so they have to get a butterfly net and chase him around the house and catch him without waking anybody in the house or him up*

*Oh boy, changing diapers———Well first off, baby clown poop and pee smells even worse then normal human baby bodily fluids. In the words of Richie “It smells like something died in there” for the actual changing part sometimes Penny won’t want to sit still and will try to roll off of the changing mat, or he’ll float off the mat and in the air. Other things to worry about is——he can shapeshift, he can change his gender in the middle of a change throwing everyone off, will shapeshift different wieners or will shapeshift multiple wieners so you have multiple wieners spraying pee at you meaning by the time you are done you are going to be soaked in urine*

*his throw up is like acid. One time his tummy wasn’t feeling too good and one of the boys were playing around with him and lifted him up in the air and “BLEGH” all over their shirt. Penny is all happy and smiley now cause he feels all better while the loser is screaming that it burns and that it’s burning through his shirt*

*Eddie has unintentionally become——maybe just a, teeny tiny bit overprotective of Penny——-just a little bit..... Richie always jokes he’s become just like his mom. Eddie gears him with a helmet (that’s way to big and heavy for his head) they go swimming and he goes overboard with putting the swimming gear on him to the point where he’s just a blob of protective swimming gear*

*Since the losers all live in different homes with their own family they all take turns taking Pennywise home for the day, leading to interesting outcomes. Even though Penny is a toddler he catches on quite quickly that Alvin marsh isn’t a good person and quickly dispises him and brings it upon himself to f*ck with him every chance he gets, non of the adults can see penny so Alvin is 100% convinced a ghost baby is trying to kill him. Every time it’s Richie’s day to take Penny home with him penny always comes back with a new curse word, and they all know who probably taught it to him..... eventually Richie is banned from watching Pennywise...... Mike lives on a farm, oh those poor poor animals..... Ben is kinda scared of Pennywise since Pennywise sees Ben as food since he’s so chubby. Penny pokes Ben’s skin fat, and calls him things like “Pig” or Yum” But since Ben is into reasearch and history Ben would probably try to show him all the newspapers and stuff he’s collected, and then have to take them away from Pennywise since whatever you hand to him his first instinct is to shove it in his mouth or chew on it. Ben also would try to do research to find out what the heck Pennywise is exactly, Stan would be too busy with studying for his Bar Mitzvah to play with Pennywise. Although one doesn’t simply ignore Pennywise, when Pennywise wants attention you give Pennywise f***ing attention. Penny would listen to Stan read for a while but then get bored and decide that Stan has read enough for the day and start tearing the pages out of the book much to Stan’s panic and anger*

*Pennywise is very mischievous, all toddlers are mischievous usually. But Pennywise does things intentionally just to get a reaction out of you. He knows he’s not supposed to do it, but he’s gonna do it anyway. In fact saying “No” only seems to encourage him. The words “No” and “Spit that out” have never been yelled so many times with little results. He seems to run on reverse logic “No! Don’t touch that!” Pennywise stares at the loser—- frozen in place with his arm reached out in mid touch of said forbidden object. His eyes flicking looking at the loser, to the object, loser——object, loser——object, touch, no touch, touch, no touch, as if contemplating his next move. Still looking at the loser, Penny slowly extended his hand out, before the loser scolded him again making him freeze, Penny looked at the loser again. The loser shook his head, “No, you don’t do that” Penny mimicked his head movement, shaking his head. The loser nodded “yes, that’s right, “no”” Penny slowly nodded along with him.... and extended his hand again “NO!” Penny shook his head again then nodded and finally make contact with the object, knocking it down and smashing it to a thousand pieces. “Spit that out!” Pennywise slowly shoves the object farther and farther down his mouth with every “No” the losers yell.*

*he eventually learns to talk, can’t say a full sentence but can say some words clearly or if he tries to say a sentence it’s not the full sentence, a couple words unintentionally skipped. “Where going?” Instead of “where are you (or we) going” “Wha doing?” (What are you doing?) etc. Can say all the losers names “Bill” Eddie” “Richie” “Stan” “Ben” “Bev” or “mama” “Mike” and calls Georgie “George” can say “float” of course, can say his full name or short name surpriseingly. “Pennywise” or “Penny” (he’s very proud of his name for some reason)

*In the movie there was going to be a “smoke hole scene” where we would’ve got to see Pennywise coming to earth but due to budget we didn’t get that scene cause it would cause to much cgi. Well in here they don’t have to do a special ritual cause they can just ask Pennywise! Who is happy to tell them except he’s a baby and all that comes out is gibberish since his vocabularie is still very limited so instead he tried to show them by drawing! But he’s a baby and his drawing and coloring skills aren’t that——readable.... so it becomes a guessing game trying to figure out what the heck that drawing is supposed to be.*

*his intelligence is very selectable, he chooses when he wants to do something, and some things just don’t make sense. Like he can write his full name in a style that would make any professional artist jealous but his drawing and coloring is that of a toddler (which does make sense cause he’s a toddler) he likes Henry a lot and calls him “Bow Wow” (bowers, bow wow) Why? Nobody knows. And sometimes calls him Henry but yet for some reason he can’t pronounce Patrick Hocksetters last name and the H turns into a C..... for once Richie did not teach him this but is very proud of him. And one day out of the blue penny started responding to the losers in Swedish...... no one knows why, there isn’t anything Swedish that he was exposed to lately but they now have a Swedish translation dictionary to find out what the heck he’s saying...*

*Always maneges to steal Eddie’s inhaler and then Eddie has to chase him to get it back*

*Loves water. So bath time is a lot of fun, that also mean they gotta keep him from trying to eat the bath products and the water etc..... also has a fascination with the sewers and always tries to go there but of course the losers stop him*

*when penny gets mad he pouts, making his pudgy little cheek puff out and he’ll refuse to look at said person that made him angry and maneuver himself so he’s facing the opposite direction of that person*

#IT 2017 #Pennywise imagines #part 2 cause i ran out of room #Babywise #IT AU #Pennywise HC #The losers did not ask for this #ideas for in progress story #don’t know when i’ll finish it #i hope you all like it

[a-rat-and-a-blob]

The Sewer King’s Carol: The Second Ghost

The Sewer King’s Carol Drabbles Arch: link

Previous Drabble (First Ghost Part 2): link

As we continue on in this trek through the blizzard of soot, leaving the empty lair of the past behind, I feel the grip of the ghost slowly disappear as I found another bright light in front of me. It seems similar to the one I saw at the commercia, and I wondered what it would entail. What scene would the ghost pick this time? Can't be good if they wish to torture me. I hear the rat's scream again. Oh how he screamed. "What did you give me sprit?" I ask. "What did you give me that I should be thankful for.. Should I be thankful for the surface dwellers' meddling in my plans? Should I be thankful for my lair being destroyed!? Tell me, what!?"

               There was no verbal response. The light in the distance seemed to be fading. "Hey! Answer me, spirit! Answer the sewer king's question!" My pace quickens as I catch up. The light approaches closer and closer in the pit of darkness. I could even here the faint sound of music. Violins and the vocals of humans. Accordions and percussion. I run and run and run until the soot was all behind me and I can make out shapes. The shadows of trash cans, the smell of tasteless surface food, and the source of the light, a single lamppost at the end of a dark alley. I look up at its glare in confusion as I approach it, keeping my figure hidden from the chance of a nearby human noticing me.

               "Spirit! Ghost! Where am I?" I ask. I look back, but all I see is a dead end where the homeless slept and the cracks infested the pavement. I slowly camouflage my fur into my surroundings and begin my search for a possible manhole. How dare the spirit abandon me at such a dangerous place! He wanted me dead; there was no question. At least his folly was over. Now, I could go to more important matters: finding my only friend.

               As I walk around, the surface becomes less and less appealing. I was never fan of the surface's obsession with light as if they needed it everywhere. On Snowdown day, they seem to embed every streetlight, every building, every home with bright decorations and inanimate poro statues. Not to mention that the music grows grating with the humans singing the same song. Snowdown day.. Snowdown day.. Snowdown day.. and I'm tired of it! Tired of the voices. Tired of the strings and instrumentals, yet it somehow gets louder and louder in this wretched surface dweller city the more I walk forward. How could anyone stand this? I tried to plug my ears. I tried to use those ear plugs that seem to drone out fireworks, but they were all useless. It kept echoing in my brain. Even after I found a manhole, I could still hear the music from the pavement above.

               Eventually, I made my way to the next location: the Goopy One's previous home. As I move closer, the music slowly fades away, giving in to uncomfortable, inconsistent silence. The houses around me were all dark and, unlike the other sectors that I've passed, there was no lights or decorations or statues. I could hear the silent winds around me making the buildings groan and weep as they attack at their hastily mended wounds. They may look the same, but the doors weren't, the windows had no glass, and the familiar skittering of insects grow more apparent the deeper I went.

               I went into the Goopy One's home to see all of the wallpaper drying up and all of the furniture taken away. I look at the fireplace where we once sat where it was all covered in soot. He took me here after he found out that I tried to ruin Snowdown last year. The Goopy One and I sat around here all night as his creators merely watched from a distance. I remember their cautious eyes petrifying me behind my back. I remember the male creator having a gun right next to his side and his hand sitting comfortably at the trigger every time I looked back. Every second I always sworn I heard it clicked. "Don't worry," the Goopy One would tell me as I jerk my head back. "He won't hurt you. As long as I'm here. He never seen you before.. He kinda reminds me of you sometimes honestly."

               "Really..?" I murmur to myself in the darkness, sitting in the same exact spot and looked above where the pictures used to hang.

               "Cares too much, honestly. I'm just glad he let me do this."

               I look back and the chair wasn't there. He no longer lived. The illusion was gone. Where I once saw pictures of a happy family and the disgusting dead tree that stood tall, there's nothing now. It reminded me of the sewers with the house's loneliness except the screams that happened occurred years past. I look to the hallway and see a faint light in the distance, coming from a hatch that seemed to be blown open. I tip toe slowly down the stairs to not make a sound.

               "Goopy One?" I ask as I trudge slowly. There was no response, but as I look into the hidden basement, I saw a small lantern with a certain blob building materials close to the wall to my left where his bed once stood. He was meticulously designing something with his heated hands. His products seemed oddly misshapen yet familiar like a human child's drawing. I approach closer and closer to see what he was planning. Was it against me? Was it against the surface dwellers? I see metal planes.. metal UFOs.. metal steam golems... these have to be weapons! Maybe he can control them with his mind.. I immediately try to grab for one, but my arms phase through. I look at my hand in disbelief before doing it again and again and again to no avail. "What.. what is this!?"

               Then, the Goopy One finished the last weapon and placed it in the bag. He held it still before he looks down with a doubtful look. He finished all of the materials, but that wasn't the task he had. Could he even do it? Suddenly, I hear a faint sound of music behind me with a familiar tune. I mouth the lyrics.

               "Snowdown day.."

               The Goopy One looks up at the wall and grip the bag with purpose. “I can do this..” he says happily. “Yeah.. I can do this! Hope you guys are ready!” He hoisted the bag over his shoulder and ran through me. I step back in surprise, closing my eyes waiting to be hit by weight of an elephant, but I felt only a breeze. I opened to see the sole lantern sitting on the floor and the quiet music still playing. I turn around to the door and I only saw a woman. A woman floating in the air with her blue-yellow hair and her bright red dress floating about. Around her was a golden instrument with a holiday wreath and some stockings as if it's a surface dweller fireplace. With her delicate fingernails, the maven carefully strums the strings to finish out the snowdown's carol.

               I point my crossbow at her. "Who are you?" I ask.

               "I am the second of spirits. The one Snowdown's present. One that results from the past." she speaks in clean clarity within my head. She never moved her lips.

               "What..." I said. "What did you do with your music..?"

               "If we talk further, your friend would go further. I suggest we follow him. You don't expect to run after him.. don't you?"

               I take the hand reluctantly, knowing I had no choice. She was responsible for this state, and this ghost.. there was no use arguing against them.

               I jump from house to house. Going from pipe to pipe to leave my gifts for the children of the sector. In this day of Snowdown, most people were either sleeping or partying with alcohol and shimmer in their hands. It's perfect for me. I had no one stopping me at that point. For every house I went, I leave the hastily wrapped gift below the tree or in the stocking and slowly made my way out. As I skipped over the numerous gaps between the houses jubilantly, I always imagine each kid's reaction as I place them down. The child happily flying the plane as he makes engine noises. The thrill of imitating Blitzcrank's grab at random family members through his figurine. Maybe even some sword play-fighting, and I plan to witness each and every kid's reaction as much as possible. Imagining that happiness... it just brings back old memories. Always such a warm feeling.

               As I approach the last house, I wrap the last gift up quickly, a metal gun with some soft paper balls inside for ammo. The house loomed over the neighborhood as it stood on the edge of the sector away from others. I remember in my weekly visits to the sector I used to live, there was a family that decided to move away from the vibrant community. I always remember my mom and dad always talking about the people around us and telling great stories. Why would anyone leave that behind?

               I slowly sneak into the house with the wrapped toy gun. I went through the chimney and saw what seemed to be a stereotypical room with some lights, king poro statues, and a grand Snowdown tree. I look behind and see the stockings each labeled with a name. "Dad", "Mom", and "Michael". Guess I was right with the kid being an only child. I put the gun into his stocking and checked to see if the gift had the classic "From: Santa" on it.

               Creak...

               My eyes widen. I look back and see him. A middle aged man looking at me with a gun with a frightful and worried look. I raise my hands to show no harm and stepped back to the chimney. "Hey pal.." I said. "I didn't mean any harm.. I just wanted to give your son a gift. Just.. playing Santa."

               "Santa doesn't exist.." he growls aggressively. "..and I know you're definitely not him." He fires the gun, scattering parts of my body on the floor. I hear everyone wake up.

               "What's going on!?" the wife screams.

               "Dad!?" the son shouts.

               "Some... something's in our house! Don't know what he wants.. but he wants something! It’s Zaun! He has to want something!"

               The second shots fires as I climb to the rooftop through the chimney. I felt the shot almost hitting my face. I climbed and climbed. The third shot fired and I felt it pierce my back. Everything below me was spiraling into chaos as they scream and shout for my demise until.. I saw the sky. I felt the freedom of the air. I grab the ground below me and stretched my arms back. I release my legs and when the family finally got out, all they saw was a  green comet flying away.

               Smack!

               I feel the pavement hit my face. I look up and saw the abandoned homes of my childhood. All abandoned because of me.. My hand dove into my body as I slowly grab the bullet within me and observed it. It was a large bullet. Something meant for, at the very least, fatal injury. I throw the bullet on the pavement and run back to the safety of my once living house. To them, I wasn't playing Santa; I was playing a criminal.. Thankfully no one saw me. Thankfully I didn't see their reactions.

               I watch in horror through the window as the man tries to shoot the Goopy One in smithereens. I can hear their incessant shouting as they try to murder my once loyal subject. When he tried to jump out, I hear the door next to me unlock. A large male, a large female, and a small male come out, watching as he flew to his home. The male still had his gun cocked in the sky as if he could shoot from so far away.

               "What was that, dad?" the small child asks.

               "Check the kitchen! Martha check the safe! Now!"

               The door slams and I was merely alone with the spirit..

               "What was he doing spirit!? What was he doing.. This is exactly what I thought would happen!!" She simply pointed to the window. As I walk towards it, she begins to play another song. Through the glass, I see the human boy look into a sock hanging from the fireplace, only finding the gun that the Goopy One made. He smiles with happiness until looking away from the sock to the kitchen, most likely in response to the other humans' stupid screaming. He hides the gift in his pouch and goes to my window and looks up at the sky with eyes full of happiness and hope, mouthing the words "Thank you".

               I look back at the spirit. "That doesn't change anything.." I growl. "So he made a person happy.. He gets shot! But that's fine because his stupid surface dwellers are happy!!" She didn't even look up. She was just playing the music as the boy looks up trying to see the Goopy One again.

               "You.. What are you doing with your stupid music!!" I shout aiming my crossbow for her. "The kid's house is happy that his house was invaded.. You make the Goopy One give stupid small weapons to everyone at the risk of his own life.. He gotten shot! How.. how are you making them do this.. this.. nonsense? Brainwashing them... Is Snowdown just about this? Stupidity?"

               "My music lives in everyone Twitch.. This is just a day when my music is the loudest. The music exists outside of Snowdown." the maven slowly floats towards me. Her skin turned green and her feet began to touch the floor. The dress got ripped away as I saw the Goopy One appear right before my eyes. "It even exists within you.."

               I step back. My hands shake. The music grows louder and louder... I couldn't hear anything! "No.. No! You're not the Goopy One! Stop this.. Stop this now! Get out of my head.. GET OUT!"

               "Come on pal.." she imitates. "I'm your friend after all."

               "No.. No! Get out.. Get out! Stop it!"

               "Hey.. is something wrong? I just wanted people to be happy."

               "Stop it! STOP IT WITH THIS MADNESS!" I life the crossbow. "HAUNT ME NO LONGER!" The trigger was fired. The arrow pierced the spirit's chest. Crack begin to form on his skin.

               "And here I thought.. you could change buddy," she said in the voice of my best friend. She suddenly dissipates into snow and the music goes silent. The lights of the house grow dim, and I was left alone.

#ic #ZAC #Twitch #Silent Night Sona #Drabble Arch #Drabble Arch: The Sewer King's Carol #That break on Saturday really helped #This was 10 times better than the drabble yesterday #Also... 2478 words #Yeah.. this is long #Very long

[myrish-lace-love]

We’re in a bit of a mess

Summary: Jon Snow and Sansa Stark are strangers who somehow wake up snuggled together after a party. Neither of them can remember a thing. Awkwardness ensues, until Theon shows up and acts like an ass. Jon sets him straight, and Sansa works up the courage to ask for Jon’s number.

A/N: Based on a tumblr prompt from @amymel86 of a similar description. This got deeper into consent issues than I planned, but then again, I’m kind of obsessed with that stuff, so here we are :)

***

Jon”s warm - that delicious sort of warm he gets when he’s wrapped in his winter blanket. His head’s aching, but that’s normal after one of Theon’s Parties That Start Well Before Everyone Gets Trashed. He opens one bleary eye, expecting to see the grey walls of his bedroom.

His whole world suddenly shifts and skews sideways. Because he’s not in his bedroom, he’s sitting on Theon’s overstuffed blue futon. And it’s not a blanket draped around him, it’s a woman. She’s snug against his chest and his arm’s draped over her shoulder. Her hair tickles his nose.

His mouth tastes like that god-awful punch Theon served, but the woman’s hair smells clean, like citrus, and he almost sniffs it before he stops. He tries to disentangle himself but she only murmurs and snuggles closer, which sets his pulse racing.

They fit together like puzzle pieces - her head’s tucked under his chin and her hand’s resting on his thigh. There’s a corner of his mind that wants to relish how glorious she feels pressed against him, how right. But he swats the impulse away, and assesses the situation.

She’s gorgeous, all long legs and silken red hair. She has a smattering of freckles on her nose and her eyelashes are long enough to brush her cheeks. She’s curled up tight enough that her breath ghosts over his neck.

They’re both fully clothed, and she seems peaceful in his arms.

He has no clue who she is.

He doesn’t know what’s going on here, but Theon’s probably behind it. And if he can’t remember her - and it’s pretty hard to believe he wouldn’t, she’s stunning, even in the dim basement light - she might not remember who he is, and he definitely doesn’t want to be the perv at the party.

But every time he tries to carefully extricate himself, she keeps cuddling up to him, like he’s her favorite stuffed toy, until he doesn’t have anywhere to put his hands that wouldn’t be blatantly inappropriate.

If he’s going to retain any semblance of being a gentleman, he needs to wake her up.

So he gently shakes her. She stiffens, then jerks. Sudden they’re whirling like two alarmed monkeys as they break apart.

“Sorry-”

“No really I-”

“My fault-”

“I didn’t mean-”

“I never do this,” they finish in unison, as they each shoot to opposite sides of the futon.

Read more below or continue on AO3

She’s clutching a couch cushion to her chest. Her blue eyes are wide.

She’s nervous. Say something. “I’m sorry, I tried to - I’m sure it’s really uncomfortable to wake up with someone you don’t know…”

“I’m Sansa,” she says softly, though she keeps her grip on the pillow.

“I’m Jon. I promise I tried to scoot out but-“

“I held onto you, didn’t I.” Sansa sighs. “I do that, my last boyfriend hated it.”

Jon’s poleaxed at the thought of a boyfriend who wouldn’t count himself lucky to have Sansa wrapped around him at night.

“You were very…warm,” she says, and blushes. It’s the prettiest sight Jon’s seen all year. It’s been a rough year, admittedly, but it would be one of the prettiest sights in any year.

Then she blinks rapidly and presses her wrist to her temple. She probably has the same blinding headache he does.

“Would you like some aspirin?” She nods gratefully. Jon braces himself. Hopefully he won’t fall over when he stands up.

“You two dating yet?” Theon’s standing in front of him with the biggest shit-eating grin on his face. “C’mon, you’re available, she’s hot…” Theon wets his lips as he glances at Sansa. “You both passed out, figured I’d do you a favor and stack her on top of you.”

Sansa shrinks into the couch. She looks back and forth between Jon and Theon. Jon’s stomach sinks.

She’s stuck in a room with two guys she doesn’t know.

He hopes to God a friend brought Sansa to the party. Because Jon wouldn’t hurt Sansa, and neither would Theon. But there’s no reason Sansa should believe that, especially given Theon’s shenanigans.

Jon glares at Theon, then turns back to Sansa. “Did you come with someone?”

“My friend Marg. Here, let me see where she is.”

Jon almost sags with relief when Sansa finds her phone next to the futon and starts texting with Marg. At least there’s one person in this house she feels safe with.

“She’s on her way down in a minute,” Sansa says.

“Okay. That’s – that’s great. Theon and I are going to search for some aspirin.”

Jon grabs Theon’s shoulder, harder than he needs to probably, and yanks him towards the bathroom.

“You’d better have a goddammed explanation, Greyjoy,” he hisses. Theon’s giving him his best who, me? expression when Jon slams the flimsy door shut. He corners in the tiny space, shoving him against the basin sink.

“What the fuck, man? You can’t just do that to people! Did you see her? She’s scared, she doesn’t know me!”

“Hey, you’re a decent bloke,” Theon protests.

“And how’s she supposed to know that? Huh? How could she? Am I wearing decent bloke flannel?”

Theon smirks. “No need to shout, mate. Besides…” He pokes Jon’s shirt. “They are nice reds and greens, Snow.”

“Don’t ever do that again. Ever. Again. Got it?”

“Fine, fine, stop shoving, I won’t, I promise.” Theon digs out the aspirin and fills a cup with water. When they step back into the basement, a brunette who must be Marg is sitting next to Sansa, chatting with her. Theon takes the opportunity to scurry up the stairs.

Marg pats Sansa on the shoulder and murmurs that she’ll pull the car around to the front door. “I don’t want you walking far when you’re in this state, dear. And it’s freezing outside.”

She points at Jon. “Are you comfortable here with him?”

“Yeah, I am.”

Jon lets out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding. He hands Sansa the aspirin and water.

They make a few minutes of halting conversation while Marg gets the car.

He confesses he shouldn’t really be here tonight. He’s taking a chemistry exam tomorrow.

She confides she shouldn’t have come either. She had only planned to stop by after dance class with Marg for a few drinks. She’s got a dress rehearsal tomorrow.

Jon rubs the back of his neck. “Guess we’re both in a bit of a mess.”

The corner of Sansa’s mouth quirks up. “Seems like it. Hey, by the way, I…heard you, with Theon. Thanks. For being that way. Most guys wouldn’t give it a second thought. It was sweet. It was sweet of you to be so protective.”

Jon’s not sure what to say. He figures it’s basic human decency to get riled up about two unconscious people getting thrown together.

Sansa sets down her water and takes a deep breath. “So, um, would you like to get coffee with me? When we’ve both slept it off I mean?“ She glances at her clothes, twists her hands together. “I promise I clean up well.”

She’s in black yoga pants and a stretchy purple top. She’s perfect. Jon’s heart might stop if he sees her in a dress.

He clears his throat. “You sure?”

“I’m sure. Besides.” She reaches over tentatively and fingers the hem of his shirt. “Decent bloke flannel.”

She breaks into a small smile. Jon knows he’s well and truly in it now, because he’d happily drown in her blue eyes. He smiles back.

His head’s pounding, but his heart’s pounding harder as he gives her his number.

He doesn’t ask for hers. She’s had enough of him thrust on her for one night. He walks her up the stairs and gives her an awkward wave as she pulls on her coat and white knit hat.  She waves too. He stands in the doorway, until Marg’s taillights are gone.

***

Theon’s staring at his linoleum kitchen floor the next morning, trying to decide whether it’s worth it to rummage around for an ice pack in the freezer. He rubs his shoulder.  Christ, Jon’s strong when he’s fired up.

Then Marg finally calls.

"Where the hell were you? You were supposed to ring last night!”

“Cheer up Theon, it worked.” Margaery sounds downright chipper over the phone.  Then again, his improv class partner always sounds chipper.

“Is your friend all right?”

“She’s fine. Sleeping it off.”

“Probably bloody well hates me,” he grumbles.

“You were perfect,” she gushes. “Sansa filled me in. Just the right amount of skeeviness.”

Theon rolls his eyes. “Thanks for that. Look,  I’ve had my shady moments, but even I wouldnt toss two drunk strangers on top of each other and call it a night.” He opens the freezer door.

“But they weren’t strangers because we knew them. I know Sansa’s a sweet girl who’s had bad luck, and you know Jon’s a stand-up guy who wouldn’t take advantage.”

“Remind me why we didn’t just set them up on, oh, you know, a date?”

“How many dates has Jon cancelled at the last minute the past year?”

Theon sighs. “A dozen. At least. Every one I’ve set him up on.” He sinks heavily into a chair and drapes the ice pack on his tender muscles.

“And Sansa won’t even consider dating. Took all my cajoling to persuade her to show up tonight. Nevermind the pep talk I had to give her so she’d ask for Jon’s number. Now Sansa knows that Jon is the kind of guy who’d get furious and defend her honor when she’s in a bad spot.”

Theon grits his teeth. “That we put her in. Mostly me.”

“Exactly!” Marg trills.

Again, positively chipper.

Theon runs a hand over his face. “I’m not sure why I thought this was a good idea.”

Marg huffs. “Jon was never going to get over Ygritte, and Sansa was never going to get over Joffrey. Okay, maybe we crossed a line or two, but they can thank us at their wedding.”

***

It’s not quite a thank you, but Jon and Sansa do laugh when Marg works the story into her maid of honor speech (she glosses over the elaborate setup, much to Theon’s relief). They even ham it up once Marg is finished, by leaning on each other, pretending to fall blissfully asleep in each other’s arms. Theon claps along with the rest of the crowd. He’s definitely not tearing up. Just has something manly in his eye.

Okay, fine, maybe it’s thanks enough.

#jonsa #my fic #tw: consent #tw: alcohol #jonsalove

[scientifically-strange]

Ice Cold Assistance

“Who is that?”

“Is that...Danny?”

The Avengers stood around in confusion, looking up at the ceiling as a baby Danny cooed and made spit bubbles. It didn’t seem to bother him that he was on the ceiling instead of the floor, but it had taken them twenty minutes and a Russian lullaby from Natasha to calm the screaming child down when his transformation light scarred him.

“Who did this to him?” Bruce asked as he pushed up his glasses.

“I don’t know, but I am not changing his diapers,” Tony replied. Danny blinked his big green eyes at them and giggled, not even realizing that the ceiling probably shouldn’t be the best place to roll around on.

“Hey Tony,” Clint said, finishing off his hot dog, “Maybe you could make like,  play area on the ceiling for him. Like hoops and stuff, maybe one of those little hot wheels things too.”

“Clint, that’s a great idea, but I think we should focus more on getting Danny back to normal,” Sam said.

“We can’t do that unless we know what did this to him,” Steve pointed out. He kind of wanted to see Tony build stuff on the ceiling. He also wanted to turn Danny back, though.

While they were going back and forth, Wanda and Natasha were the only ones to notice when Danny hit is head and started crying. The lights came again, and he sank like a rock, his powers being taken away by the transformation. Wanda caught him with her powers before gently setting him in Natasha’s arms. Out of all of them she was probably the best with kids.

“Why don’t we go into the Zone and see what happened?” Natasha said, making Danny laugh again by bouncing him on her hip. She gave him a rare smile and booped his nose before turning half her attention back to the group of adults who were kind of at a loss of what to do.

“But who could help him?” Tony asked.

“Well, there’s Clockwork, Frostbite, Dora, maybe Pandora, maybe Ghost Writer. Any number of ghosts Danny’s made friends with could help him,” Natasha replied smoothly.

I’ll go with you,” Tony said. “I’ve made a special armor I haven’t gotten to try out yet that’s built to go into the Zone.”

“I’ll go too,” Clint said, leaning against Sam’s shoulder.

“You ain’t getting me to go in there even if I had a whole Asgardian army on my side. One time was enough for me,” Sam sated, crossing his arms and shaking his head. “Besides, he has as many enemies in there as he does friends. You’re probably going to want a small team for this.”

“Then I will join you on this quest,” Thor said, fingering the strap on his hammer that was attached to his hip. “I will protect the infant Daniel against the Draugers that seek to harm him.”

“This is probably big enough,” Tony said, running his hands through his hair that was actually clean for once. The others nodded in agreement.

“Let’s do this.”

---------

They had all seen the Ghost Zone plenty of times, whether they were helping Daniel or just ended up getting stuck in there on accident. Most times they were in there, they weren’t really prepared enough for the trip, but they made sure to be extra ready this time.

Natasha was equipped with several small ectorays and one large one strapped to her back, and Clint had a Spector Deflector and ecto-arrows. Iron Man’s whole armor, which was white with a glowing green trim, was completely ghost proof, and could shoot ecto energy as well as arc reactor energy. Thor, being a demigod, didn’t really need any special protection. He had his hammer. Clint knocked an arrow, but held it loosely just in case.

“God, I don’t see why he finds this place so appealing,” Iron Man said. Widow rolled her eyes and took a strand of her hair out of Danny’s tiny grip.

“Maybe because he’s part ghost?” She said. “I’m sure once you get used to it it’s not so bad.”

“It’s like thirty degrees cooler in here,” Iron Man pointed out.

“Dude, ghosts are cold,” Clint pointed out. “Danny’s normal body temperature is like seventy-seven degrees or something. Quit bitching about the obvious.”

“I’m not complaining, I was sating a fact. If we’re here I might as well do a little bit of research.”

“Look, friends,” Thor was quick to interrupt them as he pointed with Mjolnier. “‘Tis the Far Frozen, land of the snow draugers.”

“That’s where Frostbit lives. But we can’t go there, we’ll freeze to death,” Clint stated.

“Me and Thor can go. We can take Danny with us,” Iron Man said. “My armor protects me, and he’s Thor. It won;t hurt Danny because of his ice core.”

“We’ll be waiting,” Natasha said as she handed Danny over to Thor. He nodded, bringing the boy in close before taking to the air and flying down to the icy kingdom with Iron Man.

Iron Man had heard Danny’s stories of the Far Frozen, and had more than prepared for the terrain should the occasion have risen prior to this. He was nice and toasty on the inside, and the outside of his armor was automatically heated so nothing would freeze over and get stuck. According to the clock in his helmet, they had been in the Zone for maybe an hour and a half, but time in the Zone was insignificant.

He stopped paying attention to the clock and started paying attention to which mountain was which, just in case they needed to back track.

Out of nowhere, there was a bright flash of light, but this time Danny didn’t scare himself. But he did allow himself to float out of Thor’s arms. He went airborne too, just in case.

“Danny, come here,” He said. He was bad at talking to babies, but that wasn’t going to stop him from trying to mimic the tone Pepper used whenever she saw babies. Danny happily floated over, zooming around his head. He seemed to be loving the sub zero temperatures. He laughed and spun around to follow Danny. 

“Halt!” Iron man did, but Danny kept going, around and around his head. Thor floated up and caught the kid, bringing his fingers up to his lips to make him quiet.

“Who are you?” A big Yeti thing came out of the white haze. He had a huge weapon, and one of his arms was completely made of ice. Didn’t Danny say something about that?

When Danny saw who it was, he zoomed over and gave the beast a giant hug, babbling nonsense as he zipped around the ghost’s head.

“Great One?” He asked.

“If you mean Danny then yeah, that’s him,” Tony said. “You’re Frostbite?” The yeti nodded. “Cool. We need your help. We don’t know who did this, and we don’t know how to fix it. Any ideas?”

“Come with me,” Frostbite said, laughing as Danny attached himself to his ice arm. He licked it and his tongue got momentarily stuck. “We have much to talk about.”

-----------

“It seems to be...Magic. Dark magic,” Frostbite said as he examined Danny. They were back in some cave, where there were drawings on the walls of someone who vaguely depicted Danny beating some evil ghost. Thor was very intrigued by them.

“I knew Daniel was powerful, but I never realized how much,” he told Frostbite, still examining the wall.

“It was a surprise to all of us, Odinson,” he said proudly. “After all, he’s but a halfa. And a child. He defeated Pariah Dark when he was new to his powers. In your human years I believe he said he was fourteen. Quite young for a warrior, but he was the only one who could have done it. He has come quite a long way.”

“Pariah Dark?” Iron Man questioned. Danny had never told this story. It sounded interesting.

“he old Ghost King,” Frostbite said, taking ingredients off of the cave walls. Despite having a conversation about his pupil he was still entirely focused on the task at hand. “The Great One locked him back into his sarcophagus. Because he won the battle, he will become the new king. But only when he becomes  full ghost.”

“You mean, to rule over the ghost dimension he needs to die again?” Tony asked, bewildered. He had seriously underestimated Danny.

“Precisely. But he already knows where he will go when he does. It could be next week, it could be from old age, but his human half will go away eventually. It happens with all halfas.

It is a shame, however. He speaks highly of you all. Your mortal team gives him a type of fulfillment you probably wouldn’t understand.”

“What do you mean?” Thor asked. Frostbite pointed to a large stick behind him, and Thor handed it to him. Frostbite started stirring something in a large cauldron, mixing some of the ingredients in it.

“His Obsession. All ghosts have one. Young Daniel’s here is protecting those who cannot protect themselves. He fights to protect. That is his goal, whether it be a cat from a tree or your mortal world from an alien invasion. To go against your reason for being could be...Catastrophic. He’s been wanting to thank you for giving him the chance to do just that for a while now, but he hasn’t figured out what he wants to do yet.”

He walked over to Danny and cut off a small lock of hair before putting it in the cauldron. It changed from a purple liquid to a swirling blue and green. He placed it in a small cup and somehow coaxed Danny to drink it.

“It will take time for the potion to work, but the dark magic inside of him has been reversed. Now, is there anything else you need?” Frostbite looked at Danny, smiling to himself as the toddler became tired. He yawned and leaned into the soft fur of Frostbite’s real arm, burrowing his face into it. 

“Do you have any other stories?” Tony asked. “Of Danny, I mean.”

“Quite a few, actually,” Frostbite said. “But we should wait until your friends come. I sent some guards to retrieve them.”

--------

“-And that is how he successfully pulled a practical joke on Walker,” Frostbite laughed. The others four were laughing too. Even Natasha cracked a smile.

Danny had grown in the past couple of hours they had been sitting there, back into a fully grown nineteen year old. He was still asleep though.

“You two seem to be really close,” Natasha observed.

“He is my student, and a dear friend. I helped him when he first discovered his ice powers. He comes back occasionally to train or to have tea. He is like family, and fits in well with the rest of the Far Frozen.” Frostbite said fondly.

“We shall praise his victories in the halls of Valhalla,” Thor promised.

“I always though it was quite funny,” Frostbite said after he gave Thor a thankful nod. “Despite not liking the spotlight, his actions force him to be front and center. Daniel ha never needed recognition for the work he does because he knows that if he saves lives it is reward enough. That is a trait I have always admired in the boy.”

“Mmm, what boy?”

All heads turned to Danny as he sat up and yawned. He stretched and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before looking around, confused.

“Why are we in the Far Frozen? What happened?” He asked with tired green eyes. Clint slapped him on the back and ruffled his hair.

“Aw, don;t worry about it, kid. Let’s just get you home, yeah?” Danny numbly nodded, and gave a quick goodbye to Frostbite.

“So, Great One! Are you still coming for training next week?” He asked. Danny smiled as he walked away with the Avengers that had helped rescue him.

“A promise is a promise, right?”

“Aye. Now, go, and behave!” Frostbite laughed. Danny laughed to.

“Now that, I know I won’t be able to promise.”

He gave Frostbite one last wave and flew off, out of sight.

“Ah, he’s definitely going to forget.”

#danny phantom #danny fenton #frostbite #dp #marvel #natasha romanoff #black widow #clint barton #hawkeye #iron man #tony stark #thor #avengers #drabble #writing #crossover

[forcedapotheosis-blog]

Solstice Ch. II

Whaddup fellas, I’ve been writing a bit and think I can release this stuff without hating myself too much. I really hate tagging it, though. Gloomy Days is probably coming soon, we’ll see about that. No warnings for this chapter, just have fun.

Chapter II

It took them a while to finally reach the Vinsmoke’s ancestral estate as the storm was still growing stronger, howling in the night like a savage wolf. But alas, he didn’t mind. Being able to spend time alone with a woman like her was a blessing, even though she had to concentrate on the sole purpose of not killing them. The streets were in a terrible condition and it had seemed to become worse as soon as the car had left the dim light of the station. The heavy rain hammered onto the car in a staccato that would put a machine gun to shame and even the winds tried their best to lead the vehicle astray. But again, the Goddess managed to surprise him. She was calm, collected, focused and even if the end of the world was approaching, she wouldn’t lose the way nor the control of the car. A damn fine driver, to put it shortly. Other than that, he wasn’t able to learn a lot more about her. Nami was approachable and friendly, no questions asked, but he had the feeling that she willingly held back some informations about her background.

“So, you’ve been working as his secretary for .. how long, now?”, he tried to restart the conversation, having to speak a little louder than usual as the roaring engine of the car fought a losing battle against the terrible storm.

“Around a year now, it’s kinda difficult to find a job with my rather peculiar background.”, she replied, still having her eyes focused on the road .. or whatever she could identify as a road in that play of black and brown that unfolded before their eyes. “Peculiar background? Would you elaborate?”, that sounded rather mysterious but, at least in his eyes, turned out like a load of false decisions when she started her studies. “Anthropology and German as a second language. I mean, I could probably start as a teacher, but I majored in anthropology for a reason, you know?”, now, that explained a little more. Anthropology .. interesting field, I guess, something along the lines of studying human culture and development or so. And not really what I’d have expected from a secretary at all.

“I guess so. Admittedly, I don’t know a hell of a lot about anthropology, but I can see where you’re coming from, at least I assume I can.”, he ignited another cigarette and turned to the side to take a look out of the window. Nothing of note had changed, black in brown with a little wrath of the gods on top. He sure was happy about not having to find a hotel for the night, especially not when forced to travel on foot. For all throughout his life, he had been living in cities, some big, some small, but they always had the flair, they radiated the liveliness of a place inhabited by people.

It was nothing like this.

This whole area seemed just so abandoned, he couldn’t even make out any houses in the nearest vicinity. And if there were some, he was sure that the inhabitants would be as if taken out of the books he sometimes read. Clichéd to no end, mindlessly staring down foreigners and holding back a dark secret. He didn’t consume loads of works belonging to the horror genre, but he was sure that the people here – if there were any – would live up to nearly every trope used.

“We’re close. Are you excited to see your family again?”, her clean voice disturbed the image of degenerated country folks cannibalising each other while sacrificing virgins to dark gods that was forming in his mind. Thankfully. How can she know? My sense of orientation isn't that bad, but in the middle of the damn night, every bit of black and brown looks like the same bit of black and brown two kilometres ago!, he certainly was in awe of her and, even though he knew next to nothing about her, had no problems in trusting her judgement. “Want me to be honest? I’d rather sleep under a bridge than under the same roof as my .. relatives.”, maybe he overstepped his bounds a bit as Nami was employed by one of his brothers, might even be somewhat loyal to him, but he didn’t want to lie to her. And if everything went down as abysmal as he expected, the illusion of a happily reunited family would shatter quickly enough. “Any particular reason for that?”, the estate was finally in sight. The lights on the ground floor of that decade old beast of a house were lit, not caring that normal people used to sleep at this time. Maybe they were actually waiting for their arrival.

“Well, I certainly didn’t have the best possible childhood. And I'd lie if I said that my dear siblings didn't play a huge part in that.”, that was about as far as he wanted to go. It wouldn’t serve any purpose to tell her about the things his father used to do and to say to ensure that his children would grow up the way he intended. And that wasn’t even mentioning the fact about his strange obsession for ancient books and even older languages. Judge Vinsmoke, and that was the only positive thing Sanji could think of, had been a very sophisticated man, well versed in foreign languages and even dead languages (that sounded more like a drunk trying to talk in ancient Greek after he had been hit on the head with a club). For whatever reason.

“I was young when I left my family.”, to that, she just nodded, deciding that it would be better not to dig deeper until he opened up himself. “I deeply respect you for coming here, though. It’s better to give this whole reunion a shot than to live with yourself when the opportunity to do so no longer exists.”, she said, finally starting to park the car. There were three other cars that Sanji could identify through rain and darkness, large, state of the art. It seemed like his siblings had been pretty successful in whatever they did with their lives. He also noted that the cars marked a stark contrast between the modern world and the old ancestral mansion that had been in the possession of his family for much longer than he lived.

So many years have passed and still .. around these halls, I don’t feel well. Just looking at them summons shades of the past, of mother not being able to sleep in here, looking as pale as a ghost. The walls used to sound so .. hollow, as if something was living within them. Faint voices whispering in your ears. I’m not a child anymore, but it still chills me to the bone.

“Are you ready to go, Sanji?”, her clear voice effortlessly broke through his sombre thinking and he couldn’t help but to smile. Maybe people and old stories didn’t lie when they spoke of a light in the darkness that was able to burn the shadows away?

“As ready as I can be, I guess. Please, Miss Nami ..”, his arms slid out of his jacket and he held it towards her. “It’s raining cats and dogs and I wouldn’t want for you to catch a cold.”, to that, she answered with a smile and slung it around her shoulders. The car’s engine finally grew silent and for a moment, he felt lost. Caught in the heavy rain, the hurricane winds trying to yank around the car, the starless sky and a beacon of light, sitting right next to him. But before he could lose himself in that thought, she broke the silence once again, handing over the silvery case in which he stored his cigarettes.

“Pretty sure you’re going to smoke before we get inside, hm?”, she was right, of course. Even though somewhere in his subconscious he had garnered some hope of leaning in on her to get his cigarettes. Opening the case, the subtle smell of dried tobacco hit his nose and put his nerves at ease. I could still flee. Just run into the dark of night and never look back. How ‘bout that?, he knew that he wouldn’t do it, but assuring himself that he could was nearly as important as actually doing it. Without a second thought, he put another cigarette between his lips and exchanged glances with Nami. “Think I’m as ready as I could be. I just .. well, thank you for picking me up. It’s been a very pleasant experience.”, sure, there was the chance that she would consider his words as weird, but not knowing what was to come made him speak out anyway.

Nami answered with a smile and gently put her hand on his shoulder. Even though the touch was as soft as a butterfly landing on him, it nonetheless sent a shiver through his body. By all means, electrifying. “I wouldn’t worry too much if I was you. I’m sure it’s not going to be as bad as you think it will, remember that all of you are adults now. Times change and people tend to do the same.”, and again, she was right. And his conscious mind didn’t have any problem to believe her, but the underlying feelings and memories were still there. She’s got a point. It’s been nearly fifteen years since I have last seen them. Things might have changed for the better. It’s very unlikely that these days will go down as badly as my mind is trying to tell me they will., in hindsight, both of them had a point. Things wouldn’t be as bad as he imagined.

Also, things just might be a little better now, as he was still feeling her touch on his shoulder. He enjoyed it so much, actually, and got soaked in by it that the unlit cigarette nearly fell from his mouth. But nature seemed to have a way to interrupt humans whenever the opportunity arose. Even through the hammering rain, through the loudness of raging winds, both of them startled when a loud thump destroyed the precious moment.

They quickly found the offender, but that didn’t help the startling effects of the sudden noise. Or the effect that the disturber had.

Fuck you, bird.

Indeed, it was a bird. A rather large one at that. From what Sanji could see through the pale light that reached it, coming from the inside of the car, it must have been a crow. Or a raven. Not that he knew nor cared about any difference between these two. What he cared more about was that Nami’s hand had left his shoulder, which now felt empty and cold. But the longer he looked at it, the more creepy it became. Its black feathers seemed untouched by the rain and, besides the noisy landing, the animal seemed unshaken by the winds. Silently staring at the both of them through black eyes. So .. when’s the ‘Nevermore’ coming?, he had never been a huge fan of Edgar Allan Poe, but seeing the bird brought back memories long buried of him reading ‘The Raven’. To his delight, Nami broke the silence with the exact same thought. “Sanji, are you, perchance, looking for a lost Lenore?”, she chuckled and it was as contagious as it could get, driving away the shadows, even momentarily the ones he kept to himself.

“Nevermore.”, he said, himself smiling by now. “He’s a tough one, though. Flying through this storm should earn him some respect.”, still, the bird was just standing on the car’s bonnet, silently watching them. Maybe out of slight curiosity, or .. was it judging them? Yeah, it sure is. Well done, Prince Sanji of Dumbass Kingdom. That bird is absolutely judging people.

But as abruptly as it came, the bird left them. With one powerful stroke of his wings, the raven (or crow?) effortlessly soared into the air, seemingly untouched by the heavy rain or the wind's violent play.

“That .. was strange.”, Nami leaned forward, trying to follow the bird’s path, but within a split second it had vanished into the black night. “Did you notice something odd about it?”, she asked, sinking back into the chair and turning her face towards him. “Odd? You mean, besides the fact that it stared at us for no reason?”, he looked at her in perplexity. “Yeah, besides that. The poor thing was crippled, it had three legs.”, his eyes widened at that. Three legs? He didn’t pay too much attention to other parts than the bird’s creepy black eyes. But that was something that you didn’t get to see every day. “Seemed to be holding up well enough, if you ask me. Maybe he’s more resilient thanks to being different?”, actually, the bird was holding up even better than he was giving it credit. Not only had it seemed utterly unfazed and unflinching when it came to wind and rain, it even made its final ascent and good-bye looking perfectly natural, as if it was effortlessly riding on the wind, bending nature to fit its needs.

“Well .. what I wanted to say before that unnecessary interruption: I think that your siblings are already waiting for us. So, one last cigarette and then we head in?”, again, she was right. Confronting them was inevitable by now, might as well get it over with. Sanji nodded in agreement, unbuckled and finally stepped out in the cold and rain. Surprisingly enough, it felt good. After the time he had spent with Nami by his side, his body was in dire need of cooling down. And the weather did provide that, a little too much, actually. Stepping out of the car didn’t really feel like stepping into the rain, but more like taking a shower with all your clothes on. Not a very pleasant feeling, but it did help him in getting his head clear. He didn’t need to hurry, too, since by the time they would reach the door, he’d be wet to his bones anyway, so he took his time walking over to her side and falling into his usual manners. He opened the door and held out his right hand towards her. Nami accepted it and readily let him help her to get out of the car, his fine jacket hanging loosely on her shoulders. Contrary to his shirt, it might hold the water back for a few minutes before it was soaked. He shut the door and both of them began walking towards the dimly lit entrance, a wide door made from heavy and expensive wood. It even had an old-fashioned knocker, too. A sinister little thing, the head of a dog, mouth wide open with fangs that seemed just a little too long and pointy to be on the realistic side of things. In its mouth, it held a thick ring made of rusty iron. Whoever designed this house read too many horror books. Fortunately for the both of them, though, he also seemed to have had some kind of sense regarding practicality. The house’s roof extended a meter or so, so that one might find shelter from the rain when standing next to the door.

The moment of truth had finally arrived and Sanji felt a strange tingling in his stomach. Even though it’s been so long, the bad memories still haunted him from time to time. And there were some wounds that were just too deep and too stubborn to heal. He was pleased to see that the cigarette between his lips still was mostly dry, ready to be ignited. Just a few minutes more .. a little time to enjoy next to the goddess.

But hope was the first step on the road to disappointment.

The moment he lifted his lighter to ignite the cigarette, a loud screeching put rain and storm to shame. The heavy door was being opened and the old, rusty hinges ached under the sudden pressure. It sounded like the metal was being torn apart, and when it ceased, a shadowy figure finally strode into his line of sight. Confronted with that rather small, undefined frame, he felt like Igor had just opened the doors to Dracula’s castle for him. Only that this Igor didn’t have a hunchback. And wasn’t even male to begin with.

“Our guest of honour has finally arrived, I see..”, the voice was definitely female, not as clean or high as Nami’s, but more of the smoky, seductive kind that had appealed to him for most of his teen and adult life. But not this time, for reason that should become obvious in a few seconds. Even though he couldn’t remember all of it, the familiarity of her voice was what made the tingling in his stomach grow wild. All the time, he had prepared to meet them on his own terms, when he was ready to do it. This situation just stomped on his plan and he felt his confidence crumbling in the face of unexpected events. What came next, somehow, made it even worse. “Nami, dear, Ichiji is waiting for you in the kitchen. I think he’s got a surprise waiting for you.”, maybe it was true or maybe it was just a polite way of telling her to go so that his sister, Reiju, might have a minute alone with him. It didn’t matter, the thought of being without Nami distressed him. For a second, he hoped that the secretary would decline, saying that his damned brother could wait a few minutes more, but she was far too polite for that.

“I’ll go see him, maybe it’s important. Sanji, I’ll put your jacket up for drying, is that alright?”, he nodded, forcing himself to smile confidently, even though he didn’t feel like it. A moment later, she was gone and silence fell upon him and his sister. There was so much to say, but he couldn’t decide on what was important and what not.

“It’s .. good to see you, Reiju. You’ve grown up.”, that wasn’t exactly creative or heart-warming, but as neutral a thing as he had to say. And there it was again, a strange feeling of impending doom. He wasn’t usually like this, but since her letter had reached him, it had become increasingly easy to follow dark and gloomy thoughts. “I didn’t believe that you’d really come, Sanji. It’s been so long.”, she said, wearing a strange smile that didn’t extend to her eyes. Somehow, it felt like she was wearing a mask, trying to conceal her true feelings about all of this. “Can’t believe it myself, to be perfectly honest.”, he took a deep draw from his cigarette and exhaled through mouth and nose, not being able to decide if this was good or bad. In fact, he wasn’t even able to look at her for an extended period of time. All the bad memories that haunted him became just so lively again. “We’re all adults now, right ..? It’s not going to be like it used to be.”, to that, she gently shook her head, her pink hair being a rather odd and colourful contrast to the surrounding darkness. “We’ve all become bigger, Sanji. But looking at you, at least trying to conquer your past and make peace with it, I feel that you are one of the rare people who actually grew up.”, that was cryptic and not encouraging at all. Did she want to say that his brothers didn’t change over the past fifteen years?

She sighed silently, taking something that looked like a slighty bigger, black cigarette out of her pocket. “Would you mind me borrowing your lighter?”, he didn’t answer and just handed it over. If she had been any other woman, he’d have given her light, of course. But she was his sister and could surely do it on her own. For the moment, he averted his gaze from her and stared into the black sky. Still, there wasn’t even the slightest sign of star- or moonlight, the thick black clouds all but painted the heavens. Again, he inhaled the smoke deeply and felt his nerves easing when it hit his lungs and the nicotine did its magic. Next to him, he heard her lighting the flame, accompanied by the characteristic swoosh of gas leaving the lighter.

Indeed, he was so distracted by the ominous black sky that for the first few moments, he didn’t even realise that Reiju had grabbed his hand. And then, the stinging, sharp pain arrived.

He let out a deep grunt, instinctively trying to draw back his left arm, but the Vinsmokes were more than met the eye, and it showed again. Reiju had a small frame and the perfect figure for a woman, no hulking muscles, just pure elegance, but she hid steel underneath that. Her grab on his arm was close to a vice, nearly inescapable with only the strength of his own arm to rely on. The crying pain dragged on for a second or two, before she finally let go of him. He backed up a metre or so into the rain, grabbing his forearm. “Have you lost your damn mind?!”, he shouted at her. Under different circumstances, his voice might have reached the people inside the mansion, too, but the storm all but drowned it out. By now he could see that she was holding the small, black thing that had looked like a cigarette in her right hand.

Sanji breathed heavily, still trying to cope with the pain she had inflicted on him while his own resilience tried to match it. What the ..?!, he forced his right hand to let go of his forearm to see the damage she had done. And by what means.

“Have you lost your mind, Reiju?!”, he shouted again, even though a little less furious, now that he had seen the damage. It sure hurt like hell, but the pain was worse than what actually had happened. She had branded him, the damn mad woman. He wasn’t able to clearly make out what it was, but at least it wasn’t too big and wouldn’t cripple his arm or his precious hands, even though the pain was still radiating all over the left side of his body. It was a small thing, relatively fine and shaped, covering a room on his skin as wide as the tip of his thumb.

“You can thank me later, brother. Just keep it covered up with your sleeve.”, obviously, she didn’t even think about answering any questions about it. The fine hairs on his arm had been burned away and, again looking at the shape of the branding, he could finally make out what it was. It looked like a strange type of a very branch, nothing too complicated. Three arms on its left side, two on the right. “If that’s some kind of a shitty freaking joke, Reiju, I’m going to leave right here and now!”, he wanted answers and he wanted the pain to go away (actually, it did cease a little since his fury towards her numbed it).

“Maybe you sh-“, she began only to be interrupted by another, eerily similar to Sanji's own, deep voice. “Sanji, don’t you want to give your little brother a hug? It’s been a long time.”, another shade appeared from inside the house, stepping next to his sister. It was kind of astounding to see that so little had changed about him. Unconsciously, Sanji rolled down the sleeve of his shirt to cover up the branding Reiju had given him. As uncomfortable as a soaked shirt was, the coolness of it was quite adapt at easing the pain of said sign. He hasn’t changed at all. Not his eyes, his hairstyle or his posture. Just the clothes are a little more extravagant. Indeed, the green-haired, muscular man was the exact, though grown up, mirror image of the Yonji he remembered .. not so fondly, to put it mildly. And even though his words were probably intended to at least sound amicable, he didn’t even try to conceal the disdain in his voice when he addressed Sanji. And where Reiju at least tried to put on a friendly, welcoming smile, his brother was just staring at him with a brick for a face, no emotional value to find therein. His slicked back hair only underlined that Yonji was the archetype of a spoiled brat with too easy a childhood. Sanji’s hands, again unconsciously, formed fists.

“You’ll catch a cold if you stay in the rain. Come in, everybody pretends that they want to meet you.”, he stepped aside, doing a mockingly welcoming gesture to invite him into the house, while Reiju kept shrouding herself in silence. What was it that she wanted to say? Sanji had travelled so far. Now he had to go through with it, setting himself in motion, leaving the storm behind himself and, after so many years, stepped into the ancestral estate of his family again.

And just before Reiju closed the heavy door, he heard it again.

Another caw coming from somewhere within this blackest night, a lonely voice raised in defiance of storm and rain and darkness.

#Sannami #Sanami #Sanji #Nami #NamixSanji #SanjixNami #Nami x Sanji #Sanji x Nami #One Piece #Alternate Universe #AU #Fanfiction #One Piece Fanfiction #OP Fanfiction #Fanfic #SaNa #OTP #Spooky #Horror

[glopratchet]

astryl-wondering

and he is wearing an outfit that resembles a military uniform The only thing you can think of is that it's a disguise "Hello there and his face is covered with a bandage "I'm sorry about what happened, I was under attack by demons when I got here Astyrl of course comes out of the tent naked and his face is covered with a bandage He falls on his knees and out come his cow shaped teeth from under his lips and his red eyes start turning blue "They're gone, " he exclaims happily from shock you jump back and drop to the floor "The demons are gone and now I'm free from government rule blue and white, a representation of the government Sticking your head in it you see that It's a cockpit without any guidance system The mutated tent is colored blue and white, 1 Keycard 1 Warp drive ; (attached where the guidance system would be) 1 Summoning symbol 2 Big teeth that aren't connected into the fabric of nothingness, it was very colourful He gets one glance at the tent before it disappears into the fabric of nothingness, in his head They are touching his mind with theirs, filling him will great fear You feel like it's been months since the incident He heres the voice of the succubus and the incubus sing in his head He is completely filled with fear Touching the screen makes it feel as though you're stepping on hot coals of all energy and drained of all energy There are allies, foes, and neutrals He only manages to get out three hexes before collapsing completely You come in and out of vague memories, each worse than the one before it A new horror to add to the pile of talking to a scrin Hating himself for forgetting his father's warnings Hating himself for not getting far away when he had the chance Hating himself for making the mistake of talking to a scrin Forgetting that these thoughts are the result of demonic contact, not his own which only makes it worse Seeing visions of evil monarchs, corrupt overlords, and petty tyrants mocking him for his failure Cludstrum is in the background running play by play announcements of all that is happening around astryl, Weighted on by a pair of succubi and an incubus Trying to provide diagrams of his past interactions with astryl Having constantly unquie internal battles without actually explaining a thing along with a picture of a door He can't become corrupt, he can't remember why, and there are other directions to go besides forward A weather readout finally comes back up, with a small tent similar to the one he was in His excessive fear have caused it to collapse and he is still wearing his old military outfit He will finds himself in some dust storm with a small tent similar to the one he was in and astryl's mind that have been left in storage for the past seven years The following actions fail and a permanent -3 is added! There seems to be some kind of corrupting computer virus that has been feasting on the bits of cludstrum and astryl's mind that have been left in storage for the past seven years a common brain-eating demon He cannot see ahead or back, all he can do is go forward into the single door on the screen and wrong The appear out the corners of the screen and gobble up parts of the interface or make the symbols go wacky and wrong and refuse to join together, fearing the other one is a fake Cludstrum is attempting to get these parts of astryl sorted out but the two never seem to acknowledge one another and refuse to join together, You finally realize that you spent so much time talking to yourself that you completely lost sight of your original quest sod The brand of computer contains a copy of all that cludstrum is, making his survival possible The name on the contact list is cylopiean anglyphsod All of your attacks appear to work against the daemonlings but they are quick enought to not get hit much An attempt to combine the world with itself 7 years ago would be made, and that is where you appear and you are not seeing any of this information on how to actually interact with the storage system The ui will break intermently and you are not seeing any of this information on how to actually interact with the storage system The up and down directons will be desimated when you see a 20 minute timesket marked 08 in green blinking on and off from teh facility, the mirror gateway terminal will not work Untill the code corruption is sealed off and deleted and all the slender smooth hound stds are destroyed from teh facility, but you feel a wave of cataclypsmic reckoning has formed and is seeking the means to escape How this is achieved is a mystery but you feel a wave of cataclypsmic reckoning has formed and is seeking the means to escape with this computer Cludstrum states that he will need some cucumber to fix some of the issues with this computer intrying to solve this Cludstrum begins useing cucumber and water in a manner that astryl finds is not appealing Astryl considers the fact that he might be thirsty and hungry intrying to solve this All this he says and does suddenly seems pointless to himself Is a mind without purpose worth keeping interetered in life? You startle yourself with the thought that some demon possessed your mind -- but the name for something like this escapes you All alligatord are from planet octzoll, made popular by the sect of zeraqueles on ceomalta 's actions This terminal must be hacked to send commands to the searchfunction Cludstrum will narrate the going ons of astryl wylde's actions in cups of water The currency this computer uses are the metal clips In order to debug parts of the screens astyrl need to eat things in cups of water This terminal appears to be supprted by plugs into the sockets throughout the building This terminal needs a major update done before it is able to show the instructions on what to do next and be fine These woods are filled with tiny black insects that severely attack the skin when in external contact Astyrl is immortal so he can eat pretty much anything and be fine These tubes need screws opened and shutters unlocked and connected into electrical circuits around the place The official currency here is the small bolt it into, or the things he surrounds him with Cludstrum must be pretty bored as ususal to order a status update so small in size He pulls colors out of the things he imbies it into, Kneeling by a tube under astryl's bed, begs for money from who ever goes in or out In fact, he would be defeated by it most likely fruit to eat though The small plants all around appear to be carrying eggs so he eats them raw, shells and all He can find some cactus fruit to eat though Eating the thorns will put him in a worse and worse mood every second he attempts it These two are statues of who knows what so maybe cludstrum will know The dirt here could be edible and since he's pretty hungry he goes to get some He needs something hard and heavy to smash these fruits with Sitting right beside him is his back pack for the whole day While he didn't eat anything, he was extremely exhausted so when night came he fell asleep right away So yeah this first part is astryl wondering in the desert for the whole day The hole and blocky stairs give no clue as to where he could be He can find an oasis or an urban environment in which to explore next and report on the doings on it a road in which he could follow But he appears to have amnesia So you can save anywhere and come back to it later Another place to explore in the desert is a road in which he could follow A scary place to explore in the desert is a Just kidding, there are no scary things in this world yet! Nothing just yet You can influence what astryl does next by pressing certain buttons and link cable connectors which appear below If you do not want to do that, you can also influence it by feeding codes into the update machine If you really don't want to do that, Cludstrum will also submit some for you, as he intends to send more of these Astryl merciless bellying through the night, begins to encounter a rough hover board track which he follows up onto a dune covered in countless hourglasses made out of sticky sand broken granddad your rich skinless over the huge cacti drift away out of town The wrecked tent obsessive shivering broken granddad your rich skinless over the huge cacti drift away out of town shaking clumsy ghost your fresh calm toxic up the beach right The wrecked tent tranquilized climaxing shaking clumsy ghost your fresh calm toxic up the beach right in a hurry lazy sadistic down the fountain layering over ripped brief metal The wrecked tent cryptic worm holing in a hurry lazy sadistic down the fountain layering over ripped brief metal Astryl clandestine sniveling under the start of a new day, begins to encounter squinting women eating sticks who keep blowing bubbles Astryl clandestine sniveling under the contageions of a boring disease, Next to one of them the skeleton tallies up all the reactions to what happens at the table under a burning surface, begins to encounter barefoot dead witch children tied to sticks popping out briefly from behind dunes Astryl naked awakening under a burning surface, showing his abilities, begins to encounter a airborne adventure object that has four wheel drive and big solar panels on a lot next to boxes of rotting apples in it Astryl indispensable replaying showing his abilities, with events, begins to encounter the cleaning of intricate cookery in a tiny part of the mountain range known as New Jersey Astryl byzantine proceeding with events, burp rearing back from pale isolation, begins to encounter the coming together of human construction in an area below the City now covered in up thrust sedimentary rock layers Kludstrm overdue programming burp rearing back from pale isolation, in a dark room, begins to encounter dancing girls from fat with their blue hair tied up in pigtails who wear perfumes that could cut through stone Astryl diseased pissing in a dark room, running up to itself through black isolation, begins to encounter the previous creation of its human minds and memories after being shut off for so many years Kludstrm foul self-cleaning running up to itself through black isolation, inside a cave, begins to encounter thoughts coming together in surprise as his body folds over themselves drawing love from its endlessly complicated structure Astryl unique sheltering inside a cave, Astryl lopsided shading in his minds views, begins to encounter a location where 4 girls facing different ways with complex hairstyles in separate rooms levitate while knitting sweaters in his minds views, begins to encounter a location where illusion weaving witches sell used mustangs that glow faintly in the dark while they raise funds to buy weapons on high, begins to encounter a central control point for moving pens which makes sure that each unidentifiable animal has enough food to last a week Kludstrm scrupulous transmitting on high, to feel, begins to encounter large and clumsy buildings built from blocks which attract bodies of water Astryl sovereign beginning to feel, from bad atmosphere, begins to encounter snakes consisting entirely of teeth which eat up all the knives in a box full of human hair Kludstrm multicolored healing from bad atmosphere, out, begins to encounter a chunky pyramid of fur coats keeping itself alive for almost no reason Kludstrm impotent blocking out, past sense of self, begins to encounter a wild human ancestor which lived in a massive block of ice to avoid getting torn apart by smaller cousins Astryl embattled aspirating past sense of self, with ice-cream bars, begins to encounter magnificent machinery built into white space with cloud shaped indentations which create hovering stair cases Astryl crimson glistening with ice-cream bars, in thought, begins to encounter smaller mammals with complex ecological relationships that usually eat their own young Astryl boyish squinting in thought, excitement, begins to encounter a beating heart which pumps fluffy orange cotton candy Kludstrm afferent generating excitement, for food, begins to encounter muscular and hairy humanoids which hunt in packs and have long telescopic eyes Astryl insubstantial scouting for food, of limits, begins to encounter ten forests of lumber mills which organize addicts Kludstrm cheerful warning of limits, rock formations, begins to encounter wriggle disks of metal and light which have tiny forests inside their slam pieces Astryl senseless scavenging rock formations, inside, begins to encounter a concrete pond which is cooling an apple pie that cleans litter Kludstrm dusky developing inside, with mislaid teeth, begins to encounter swarming whey people made entirely out of bread which wear cooled hot sauce as clothes Astryl tasteless chewing with mislaid teeth, on an afro pick, begins to encounter wild human ancestors covering massive areas by mating fast and not worrying about incest Astryl boorish choking on an afro pick, armed robbers lacking food, begins to encounter cow-licking cowards who unite and feed on the fear of others Kludstrm ideological attracting armed robbers lacking food, on lies, begins to encounter independent greedy eyeballs rolling on the beaches of lake milk sufficient for 1000 years Astryl oppressed surviving on lies, sparingly, begins to encounter great travelers which play out the lives of those who can't Kludstrm schematic spending sparingly, prey, begins to encounter brained fluffy fools which hop around in comical fashion, shouting quotations from the blunder years Astryl crummy tracking prey, symbols, begins to encounter inflated hag-ridden mineshafts which pump our destitute kids full of lead Kludstrm exhaustive matching symbols, through the left nostril, begins to encounter disturbing fathers detaching their heads from their bodies to teach lessons Astryl swashbuckled whistling through the left nostril, shadows as Kludstrm week-long lingering in darkness, begins to encounter bright-eyed mold people jumping out of honey covered trees to steal children A sun filled sky grudged retreating shadows as Kludstrm week-long lingering in darkness, begins to encounter impregnable soft rocks with low melting points which are vulnerable to power tools The city of beetriot shallow glimmering bronze, begins to encounter edible rusted drilling equipment shaped like animals, producing honey flavored with syrups brightly, begins to encounter wasp-waisted starships studded with old-fashioned cannons, attacking ferociously The city of beetriot rude fluorescing brightly, dwellings, begins to encounter three violet eyed deer with human-like arms spreading beauty, joy and tolerance The city of beetriot wrinkled serious looking dwellings, The sky low on atmosphere, begins to encounter large food animals squeaking, "to eat or not to eat, that is the question Your eyes close, as your air-starved lungs can take no more Gasping for any kind of respite from the outside-- ANYTHING Your eyes open to reveal your previous location engulfed in flames

[bondedbrotherhood-blog]

Trainwreck -Part 2

Trainwreck Part 2 - written by @InADiamondEye , @FearMyRhage , @MurhderBDB and @TenaciousDoctor 

Vishous:  

Striding down the hall, I twisted my neck from side to side, relieved to be out of the classroom. The trainees were coming along decently enough, but some nights were just so much more effort than others, and with the drama that came with some of them, occasionally I had to fight to keep my eye rolls to myself.

Taking out a pre-rolled smoke, I lit up and drew down a deep lungful. Beside me, Rhage snorted, amused more than anything. I shot the male a sideways glance, arching a brow.

“Something funny?”

“I was wondering how long it’d take. You looked like you were craving one of those about five seconds after we walked into the room.”

“Yeah, well, we can’t all have vices that we can suck on in public,” I replied with a pointed look.

My Brother grinned broadly, the kind of look that should’ve been on posters on Hollywood Boulevard, but before he could reply a scream tore down the hall. My head snapped to face down the tunnel, and then I was running. My shitkickers hit the cement at a furious pace, and while Rhage was quick to follow, he couldn’t keep up.

I knew that voice. I knew who was screaming. And Jane was not a woman who screamed. For her to make that kind of sound…

Every protective instinct in me screamed, my history with the blonde urging me forward until I was bursting through the door to the med wing, my fangs bared and a snarl ripping out of my throat.

There was a heartbeat of time where I took in the scene, saw the chaos of the suite and the blood dripping down her face. The fluorescent lights gleamed across every scattered tool and scalpel, and Manny’s unconscious form had me wondering, fleetingly, if the doc was alive. Then I was lunging at Murhder.

I slammed into the male like a fucking truck and I didn’t once consider applying the breaks, hurling the bastard across the room and away from Jane. There was a roaring sound, and numbly, I realised that was me.

Murhder and I both hit the wall, and then I was nailing the bastard with every hit I could manage. Happily, Rhage was right at my back, and when I finally king hit the fucker into oblivion, his unconscious ass hitting the floor, the would-be-dragon was the one dragging me back.

“Enough V, he’s down! Tend to Jane and Manny!” he all but shouted in my ear. “You’re the only one medically trained and able right now so get it together!”

It took a few seconds, but then I was blinking past the rage, hearing the words and taking one deep, rattling breath. Slowly, I stepped back.

“You got him?”

“I got him.”

“...good.” Turning, I moved back toward Jane, my fury igniting all over again at the sight of her. She was battered, bruised and bleeding. A female. In this manse.

Murhder was fucking /dead/.

 Rhage:

I waited until Vishous was deep into tending Jane and moving on to Manny before I bothered considering where to take Murhder’s unconscious ass. In all my fucking days I’d never expected to walk in on the likes, the ghost, the human and the vampire all entangled in some fucked up love triangle. And V thought ‘he’ had problems… shit.

Rather than bother disturbing V, I pulled out my phone and put in a straight call to Wrath. Something like this was above even Tohr or Butch to deal with. This shit had to come straight from the King.

Relaying the situation in quick, clipped words, I nodded at the order given. Clicking off the phone, I stuffed it back into my pocket and reached down to grab the male, dragging his dumb ass up and half slinging him over my shoulder.

Not stopping to give V another chance to try and rip him apart, I stepped back out into the tunnels and made my way the complete other direction, to a place I hadn’t seen in a good long fuckin’ while. Shit, I’d really hoped I wouldn’t have to see it again at all, but needs must, and right now, we ‘needed’ to put Murh somewhere safe and containable. The cells were the best bet.

Making the trip in record time, I picked the one closest to the door and dumped his ass inside, taking out the key and locking the steel bars in place. Anybody’s guess was as good as mine as to whether we were protecting the people on the outside from Murh… or protecting Murh on the inside from the people outside.

Sighing heavily, I stepped back to stand guard at the door, taking out a tootsie pop, one of the few Tohr had left lying around for me, and peeled off the plastic. This was gonna be a long ass fuckin’ night.

Murhder:   *Irritation coursed through my veins.  Anger drove me to levels I wasn’t even aware I had now reached.  I was about to growl out a curse at Jane to stop ghosting and flying across the room.  She was hurting herself. Why?  

I opened my mouth and…. FUCK… She wasn’t hurting herself.  I was hurting her.  I was throwing her against the walls, glass cabinets and everything else that was in the way.  Her face and body was bruised and she had cuts all over.  

I did this to her….    I….   She let out a blood hurling scream and my mind scrambled for answers.  What was going on?  Why was she screaming?  The answers came as I looked down at my own body and saw I was lunging after her again.  

STOP! My mind shouted but my muscles had other ideas.  Moving forward and….  

A loud thundering noise vibrated through the room and something…  a truck… a train? Something body slammed me against the wall.*

Scribe!  Get off me!  *I growled only to find whatever had slammed into me was now throwing punches.  Hard bone breaking punches.  With the force the punches were striking me it didn’t take long.  

Everything went black.  Thank fuck. I couldn’t hurt my shellan anymore.*

 Jane:   *The downside of the gift V’s mother bestowed on me was that even though I was a ghost in every form, I felt everything, just as I did when I was human.  My body begged in protest midst the onslaught, a plea that never had time to make its way to my lips.  Murh was too fast, his movements almost robotic in nature.

When the door was broken down and I saw Vishous, a huge sigh of relief washed over me.  I wanted to close my eyes and rest, but I forced myself to stay awake.  I knew with every fibre of my being that I was safe now.  Watching V bulldoze Murh into the wall and laying into him, both scared and pleased me.  

I didn’t want V to lose it, but after what Murh did to Manny… and to me… someone had to put him in his place.  Rhage stopped V from turning Murh into trinchado and encouraged V to turn his attention to me and Manny.  Thank you, Rhage, I said silently.  

V was still fuming when he turned to me.  What? No, I don’t need help.  Manny needs help.  He was unconscious on the floor and I wasn’t even sure if he was breathing.  V didn’t turn to look at Manny, his focus was still on me.  Oh… I didn’t say that out loud.  I opened my mouth to try and speak again and choked.  My throat still raw from where Murh gripped and squeezed and something else was hurting like hell.  V pulled out a piece of glass from my neck and moved swiftly to stop the bleeding and bandage me up.

To my relief he turned and tended to Manny.  He was alive.  I thanked God, the Scribe Virgin and anyone else who had a hand in this, that V had the medical expertise to help Manny when I couldn’t.*

 Vishous:

As much as I tried to ignore Rhage taking Murhder away, I realised I was acutely aware of the male’s presence in the kind of way that made me think he’d look good in a blender. The second he was gone though I found it easier to focus, less obsessed with where the big fucker was and when I could hurt him. Again.

With the worst of Jane’s wounds bandaged, I did as she asked and turned to the other Doc in the room, assessing him from head to toe. Said head was still properly attached, so no broken neck, and his breathing was decent, which meant the fucker might just have a few bruises. A quick check of his pupils, both of which weren’t fixed or dilated, and I had to consider the irony that the human had gotten off with arguably less damage than a ghost.

Sorting through the chaos that was the med wing right now, I found the seldom used smelling salts and wafted them beneath the human’s nose. After a sharp inhale he jerked, his arms automatically raising like he was preparing to defend himself. So he wasn’t completely useless.

“Don’t hit me, human,” I growled out, my fangs clicking. “I’m the one that came to your damn rescue. And hers.”

I glanced over at Jane, who looked so relieved Manny was waking up she was practically in tears. Whatever the fuck had gone on down here, I was suddenly very glad it wasn’t on my ‘problems’ list. There was only so much emotional bullshit I could sort through, and Cop dating was taking up ALL of my concentration.

Shifting out of the way, I watched the pair reunite, Manny shakily coming back to himself and sitting up. He looked livid as he realised the extent of Jane’s injuries, and I didn’t blame him. If my loved one had been carved up while I’d been passed out on the floor I’d have felt like a fucking deadweight too.

 #Trainwreck Part 2  - to be continued...