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phantomphangphucker · 9 days

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Phic Phight - How Not To Resurrect A Half Demon Lord

@lexiepiper @Ghostfox_fuyu

Being both an adventurer AND technically a monster wasn’t exactly the best mix to avoid fights, so it’s a good thing Danny actually LIKED fighting even if he couldn’t exactly ‘go hard’ against humans to avoid, you know, KILLING THEM. Other adventurers though? Yeah they didn’t exactly enjoy fighting what they thought was a weirdly powerful dungeon spawn.

Danny runs, skidding across the ground on his claws, the scrapping sound is loud but nowhere near the volume of the explosion happening right behind him. His tail nearly gets nicked! He’s not happy, not one bit. “WOULD YOU STOP THAT!”.

The mage with a frankly obscenely large hat damn near growls at him, which hey, growling was Danny’s thing. “Silence! Foul demon!”.

For fucks sake! Like yes, he gets that he looks like a demon. He gets that. But could people please just stop assuming that he belonged to whatever dungeon he and they happened to be in? This place was a goddamn lava dungeon, he was an ice demon with a black and white theme! Use your brain! Why would a fucking ice demon be in a lava dungeon!

Which, to be fair, him going into a lava dungeon wasn’t exactly smart or using his own brain; but Sam and Tuck thought this one would get them some sick ass gear so off they went. Of course they wound up getting separated, and of course Danny wound up running into other adventurers with the same idea as his party, and of course they mistook him for a dungeon beast. That’s his classic luck right there, everybody!

Ramming one set of claws into the wall and climbing up the hot rock as fast as he can, channeling some ice to his palms to avoid burning himself, it also was making some super cool-looking mist sizzle off of the rock so that was a neat bonus.

The adventurers trying to annihilate him seem to agree, the dude in black armour muttering to another mage with super orange hair, “hey if I equip ice gauntlets you think I could do that, it looks cool as Hell”. The mage whacks him over the head, ha!

Danny snorts to himself, jumping on to a ceiling stalactite of solid hot magma, ow ow ow ow ow, stupid ice core, stupid Tuck and Sam dragging him into a lava dungeon, stupid him for jumping onto solid magma, stupid stupid stupid. Ugh. But Danny does what Danny typically does when presented with pain, quips, shouting down, “why don’t you give up if you keep misting me!”. Ha! Good one, self. Ow.

The armoured guy chuckles, “I love it when monsters have a sense of humour, makes it so much more fun”, and hurls a goddamn spear at him. Nice, Danny can do spears and show off a little.

Danny launches himself down, grabbing the spear in between his teeth, fangs making it easy to keep the spear in there, and uses the spear head stabbing into the ground below to allow him to basically land going face down before gripping the shaft with his hands and spinning himself into an upright position. Him yanking it out of the ground and spinning it dramatically, grinning meanly, “oh I love free gifts, how’d you know it was my birthday?”, it’s totally not, he’s just being an asshole.

Big hat mage scowling at armoured guy quickly, “nice going, Salient”, then glaring back at Danny. Okay so armoured guy is named Salient, weird but okay. She shoots a fire last at Danny, Danny bats it away with the spear head snickering all the while. Then the other mage hits him with a holy-blast, because of course she does, and sends him into a wall.

He absolutely dropped the spear. Damn. He wanted to add that to his collection, which sure was definitely something he wasn’t doing before the whole resurrection gone wrong crap happened and he some how wound up getting his human souls wires crossed with Hell itself. A fuck up of hellish proportions.

Him shaking off the burn and sizzle from the holy power, at least still being kinda human and alive would stop that shit from outright smiting him, just burned and hurt like a motherfucker. The biggest annoyance his holy sensitivity usually caused him was not being able to use holy based healing potions… which were the cheapest kind aka the kind his party usually used to buy. Demonic based healing potions were the shit for him though, especially since he never had to worry about them debuffing or cursing him.

Orange hair mage huffs, “damn it, that didn’t do it”, scowling, “this place has some seriously strong demons, we might have use a hearth stone if it keeps up like this”.

Danny sticks his hands out to the side, tail twitching, “or maybe! Think a little and realise I’m not from this freaking dungeon!”.

“As if we’d believe a snake tongued demon!”.

Okay that’s just rude! It took him a very long time to learn how to talk with a forked tongue and he had to put up with a lot of mocking from Tuck! He sticks his tongue out at the group before having to climb up a wall again to avoid some thunder bolts from big hat mage and an arch of fire from Salient’s sword. At least he’d learned not to throw solid objects that Danny could grab, progress; progress for them and not him specifically. A very unfortunate specific.

Danny sending out a bit of icy flames that glowed black with his demonic energy to destroy another flame arch from Salient while moving sideways across the wall, he hates this dungeon it’s too fucking hot, goddamn. Zipping up to the ceiling and smacking his claws and palms on it, sending out a powerful wave of pure cold to force the ceiling to start snowing, which of course turns into very hot burning rain by the time it gets down to ground level. The party starts screaming and ducking for cover, that was surprisingly more effective than he expected and he absolutely had not intended to basically rain down boiling demonic water on them. Oops. He figured the snow would melt but not to the point of becoming boiling hot! How much energy was his core expending just to keep him fucking cool in this goddamn hellscape?!?

Danny skittering his way across the ceiling and in-between a gap between a stalactite and the dungeon ceiling, shouting a quick, “not trying to boil ya! Sorry!”. As he goes. Maybe they’ll be too busy hiding to realise where he’s tucked himself away. That would be nice, real nice.

“What kind of demon says sorry!”.

Don’t quip back, don’t quip back, don’t quip back. He’s trying to hide and quiping will fuck that up… “MY SORRY DEMONIC ASS!”, ah goddamn it, why does he do this to himself? Unsurprisingly the stalactite his hiding above gets fucking shot at by a holy bullet. That’s… that’s not great. Those sucked to get hit by and he’d one hundred percent need to be resurrected again if that shit hits his core enough times. But hey! Maybe that would un-demon him! Stupid plan, but hey! At least it is a plan! Plus that did not work when he accidentally fell into a pit of pure holy water. That had been the worst.

The stalactite gets shot at again, this time piercing through it and skimming his shoulder; him making his lip bleed by biting down to avoid yelping. Still hissing out a, “bloody hell”, though, because he could never just shut the fuck up could he? Also, he is officially panting, because it is too fucking hot here and his breath is making a bunch of mist aka giving away his spot more than his stupid quip did. Fuck him entirely.

He’s got three options:

One: start killing adventures like a proper full demon.

Two: overheat and pass out, possibly falling into hard ground or a pool of lava only to be descended upon by adventurers who would definitely hit unconscious him with a holy attack.

Three: leave his hiding spot and start looking for cooler areas while avoiding getting hit or doing any major hitting.

Four: use a hearth stone to teleport out of the dungeon, seems like the obvious choice right? Except when Danny’s half demon ass did that he wound up in Hell every time and Sam and Tuck would have to go through the hassle of getting him back out of there. That crap always resulted in them having to track down yet another ice dungeon and use forbidden demon summoning magic. Meanwhile he’d go throwing hands with demons for however long it took his friends to get him. Not ideal.

Then it turns out that there’s actually a fifth option, a wall blowing up and sending his bullet hole riddled stalactite crashing down towards the ground and exploding in hot semi solid magma. OW! Danny sputtering and shaking himself off aggressively, “oh fuck! Bloody hell! Me damn fuck it! Stupid fucking lava dungeon! Stupid fucking adventurers! Where’s my teammates when I me damn need them!”.

“Shit since when do goddamn demons team up! We need to hurry this up!”.

Then there’s a very loud thump, Danny squinting his fucking burning eyes up at the noise, fuck yeah! It’s Tuck! Nice! The guy’s landed directly on top of the orange haired mage, pointing his fricken lightning cross bow right in her face. The Salient guy getting hurled into a wall by vines seconds later, and a few more seconds and said vines are on fire and brunt to a crisp.

The big hat mage jumping back from the newbies assaulting her group, “great, how many different kinds of demonic vermin does this dungeon have!”, her creating an explosion with electricity to make something of a smoke screen for her to grab Salient out of the hole in the wall the guy made.

But! BUT! That puts their backs to Danny, and Danny might object to killing people but he did not object to bruising them up some. Meaning he launches himself at them, grabbing the back of both of their necks, and slams them into the ground; using his tail to tie their ankles all together. He also grabs the hat mages hat with his teeth and eats the fucking thing as a probably insane looking show of superiority.

Tuck, not looking at Danny and still staring violently down at orange hair mage, “you good, Danny-man?”.

Danny growling, “I’m annoyed, burnt, and vaguely considered making y'all haul me outta hell again for dragging me to this shit ass place”.

Sam walking calmly through the destroyed wall and into where they all are, “honestly I hate this place too. My plant magic is completely useless and I wrecked my helm”.

Danny snorting, “ha! Serves you right!”, he gets elbowed in the chin by Salient for being distracted. But well, an elbow, even armoured, isn’t gonna do much to Danny, so he just growls down at the man while said elbow is being pressed up into his chin.

Tuck snorts at the scene, “I’d stop that, Danny’s an obsidian rank combat warrior”. The mage beneath him scowling, “that is a demon spawn or are you fucking blind?”.

Danny takes offence to that, demon wise he was on par with a demon lord! Not a freaking basic hell spawn! “Excuse you!”. But Tuck laughs at Danny’s expense, “that’s what you get for never fighting back, moron”. Danny sticks his tongue out at the guy.

Sam shaking her head as she walks over to Danny, “seriously, if they attacked you first who cares if you hurt them”, grabbing the unconscious ex-hat mage out from Danny’s grasp, shit he hadn’t actually realized he’d knocked her out. Whoops. Sam pointing a finger at Salient, whose elbow is still pressed into Danny’s chin, “you wouldn’t be holding your own for shit if Danny took you seriously”.

“Pfft, I could take him”.

The orange hair mage snapping, “are you serious right now?! You are literally being pinned down you idiot!”.

Danny nodding, “glad we’re on the same page on that”; rolling his shoulders as he can feel some of the burning healing itself, he’d be healing a hell of a lot faster if he wasn’t in this damn hot lava dungeon though.

Tuck rolling his eyes before staring down at the orange hair mage, “look. Danny’s an adventure, he literally has a license on him right now. The only reason he’s in this dungeon is ‘cause we heard there was some bomb ass equipment in here, same as you guys probably”.

Sam laughing a bit meanly as she gives the ex-gay mage a healing potion since Danny probably gave her a concussion, “Danny’s not a ‘hell spawn’ he’s a fucked up resurrection spell gone wrong”.

Salient snorting, “prove it! And how the Hell did that happen?”. Danny snickers, “hell happened”; Tuck moving his crossbow out of orange hair mages face specifically to shoot Danny with it.

“Ow! You jerk!”.

Unfortunately orange hair takes that opportunity to blast Tuck nearly point blank in the stomach with a holy blast, sending him smashing up into the ceiling. Oh Hell fucking no, attacking Danny was one thing, he was a demon-looking mother fucker and could take hits like a champ; attacking his friends was a whole ass nother matter. At least Sam catches Tuck with some vines as he starts falling down from the ceiling and Tuck wasn’t knocked out by the attack.

Still though. Danny is none too impressed. And he refuses to tolerate a repeat of that, so just as the orange haired friend hurting asshat gets herself up off of the ground Danny lets himself loose more than a little bit. Limbs extending, spines pulling up out of his upper back and shoulders, second set of kudu horns extending out, ribs cracking and expanding through and over his torso skin to settle into a bigger form, that stupid gharial crocodile skull boiling and forming out of and off of his head; him all but shoving orange hair back into the ground and pinning her there with a single hand. Slamming the other hand down near her face, using a foot to keep the Salient guy pinned. Danny snarling, snout opening right over the mages face, “shoot at me all you want but you don’t get to hurt what’s mine”.

Tuck’s shaking off all that holy power, grumbling about stupid trigger happy adventurers as if he wasn’t one himself and stomps over to fucking shoot orange hair in the face with some sand; her unable to do anything about it because of Danny.

Salient muttering, “holy fucking shit, goddamn”. While Sam stops over to him, Sam smacking Danny’s ankle, “give over your license, you demonic horror”. Danny huffing out an icy breath in orange hairs face, moving his tail to use the many little quill hair spines on it to grab out his license from his torso inside his ribs, slipping it into her hands, “thank you”, she shoves the license in the probable warriors face, “see? Adventurer. You really think Clementine would approve him without goddamn checking him and his bullshit out?”.

He grunts from under Danny’s foot, “fair ‘nough. You tryin’ to crush me here?”.

Danny huffing another icy breath, “maybe”. Sam smacks his ankle again so Danny, with a shrug, lifts up his foot and lets the guy up. Danny thinks some mild crushing is totally deserved in this case, even if that was maybe influenced by these guys hurting his friends and making him feel all possessive and shit. Demon crap could be so annoying; being in this hot ass place only making it more annoying.

Salient rolls over and sits up, rolling his shoulders, “ow yeah, definitely not a spawn, damn”, eyeing himself over, “aw man, you cracked my shoulder pad. License doesn’t look fake though so”, looking up at Danny, “bad ass ability though”.

Danny tilts his skull head at the guy before looking back down to orange hair, “you gonna keep trying to annihilate me?”.

“You’re a demon”.

“And?”, lifting the hand that isn’t pinning her and waving it around dismissively, “it’s only a by half thing anyway”.

Tuck chuckling down at her, “need I point out that Danny could absolutely just crush you right now? Yeah, okay, so he’s sorta a demon, and sorta dead and not dead, but he’s not confined to a dungeon or Hell and he’s an adventurer. adventurers run into weird shit all the time, it’s not his fault he is the weird shit”. The girl glares but sighs, clearly giving up, so Danny basically forces himself to compact, puffing icy steam everywhere. Tuck grinning, “so dramatic”.

Danny pointing a normal standard human length clawed finger in the guys face, “hey, if there’s one thing I do well, besides confusing people and myself, it is dramatics”; if he was gonna be stuck as some weird dead but not dead, from the afterlife Hell but not from Hell, then he can be an overdramatic asshole about it.

Orange hair gets up immediately and moves over to the still unconscious ex-hat mage, muttering, “good, they didn’t poison her or anything. Damn demon worshipers”. Oh for fucks sake, was it really that hard to understand that he was a good guy and just a weird but typical adventurer? Ugh. Plus! He’s definitely a higher rank than her, so rude.

Salient standing up and shaking himself off, shouting at his teammate, “Lily good?”; nice, Danny’s got another name.

Orange hair sighs, “yeah. They didn’t do anything to her besides knock her out”. Oh everyone’s a critic.

Danny rolling his eyes and huffing, “you say that like you guys weren’t trying to fucking destroy me. Again, you gonna keep doing that shit? ‘Cause I’m positive all three of us outrank you guys, we just don’t exactly want to start having to fucking kill people just because people keep thinking I’m a me damned dungeon monster”.

Sam shaking her head and moving to be over by Tuck and Danny, “at least they didn’t think you were the dungeon boss this time”.

“Oh Hell that had been such a pain”.

Salient chuckles and looks at him, “you make a lot of ‘Hell’ comments and shit”.

Danny shrugging with a smirk, “hey if I’ve gotta be slightly, vaguely, hell bound then I might as well take the piss outta it”.

Orange hair glaring at Salient, “seriously? You’re making friendly with it now?”.

Danny pouts, “hey, rude much”. While Sam and Tuck laugh at him meanly.

Salient shoves her, “chill, aren’t adventurers supposed to at least try to get along. At least he’s not another psycho paladin who's just using his god as an excuse to commit way too much murder”.

Danny’s entire little party nodding, “yeah fuck paladins”. Earning them a scowl from orange hair, “we all know why you demon-lovers wouldn’t like paladins”.

Then Lily groans a little, sitting up and holding her head, “well at least I’m alive”.

Danny snorting, “yeah I have a thing against committing murder”.

“That is the strangest thing I’ve ever heard a demon say”.

Danny pouts at her. He gets that demons have a terrible rap, an earned terrible rap, but cut a guy some slack will ya? It would be so nice if he could shapeshift to look fully human, he bets that in some other universe he definitely could and he is jealous of that version of him. Stupid fucker probably got all the super sneaky useful abilities. Like being able to turn invisible or something, that would have been so useful today. Ugh.

Lily looking to her party members, “so care to explain what’s going on here?”.

“Demon dude is a legit adventurer, licensed and everything”.

Orange hair just grumbles incomprehensibly.

Sam crossing her arms at the three, “I’m Sam, platinum rank herbalist and green mage. The one with the crossbow is Tucker, silver rank earth mage and gear smith. And the half demon, that you are to stop attacking, is Danny, obsidian rank combat warrior as already mentioned; he’s also a weapons smith and death magic apprentice. Yes he’s a resurrection spell gone wrong, he did it to himself somehow, but people screw up spells all the time so whatever”.

Danny shrugging, “I mean, typically they don’t screw up so impressively they fuck up half their genetic species but yeah”; Sam swats him one, expertly avoiding the horns.

Salient snorts, “you’re a death magic apprentice and you made your self half dead? WOW you suck”.

“Hey!”, Danny puts a hand to his chest, “technically it’s useful, this way I can actually go to one of the death planes now without slowly dying”.

Lily shakes her head disbelievingly, “ridiculous and inane”, gesturing at herself, “Lily, steel rank lightning high mage”, gesturing at Salient, “Salient, silver rank knight”, gesturing at orange hair, “Gemine, iron rank white mage and apprentice priestess”. Tilting her head, “why is an obsidian with a platinum and a silver? He’s three and four ranks above you two respectively?”.

Danny waves her off immediately, “eh, I was gold before the demon shit fucked my shit up. And I am the leader so it’s not that odd”. Sam nodding, “if anything it’s weirder that an iron is travelling with a silver”.

Gemine scowling, muttering to herself, “of course the demon is the leader, disgusting”. Lily cuffs her over the head, making the girl pout. Lily nodding, “demons are more powerful than the living so I suppose that is logical, and a lower rank priestess will best any higher rank warrior”, glancing around, “where’s my hat?”.

Sam and Tuck stare at Danny judgingly, him rubbing his neck, “I ate it?”; it was a heat of the moment thing okay! He makes really dumb decision when he’s put on the spot!

Salient nodding with a smirk, “yeah, it was pretty weird”.

Danny pouting, “I’m not paying you back for it”, twitching, “and can we get the fuck out of this hot ass place already?”, looking at Sam and Tuck, “if you found nothing good I’m gonna be so annoyed”. Sam rolling her eyes and digging in her bag, pulling out a little unassigned demon core. Yum! Him brightening up immediately, “oh nice! This was so worth getting shot by holy bullets!”.

“Danny!”.

“Dude what!”.

Danny grabbing the core and biting into it, much to the disgust of his unwitting onlookers, “eh it was just a shoulder nick and I am literally covered in lava and holy light burns so that’s kinda not what I’m focused on”. Basically dumping the demonic energy down his gullet with a happy purr.

Salient pulling a face, “wow that is disgusting, awesome”. Lily sighs tiredly before gesturing at Danny’s party, “so are we good to just go our separate ways?”. Danny’s down for that, his burns were healing much better now even if he was still hot as hell.

Sam crossing her arms, “depends on if you’re going to keep harassing Danny”; Danny’s just content to lick his chops in demonic satisfaction. Gemine pouting, “I won’t be able to vanquish him so fine, I won’t”.

Danny giving her a thumbs up, “that’s the spirit, now let’s get the hell outta this furnace before my core decides I deserve to over heat”. Sam and Tuck roll their eyes at him and laugh, Tuck patting his shoulder as they all turn to wander off to the exit. The other party of adventurers awkwardly heading deeper into the dungeon.

Danny stretching a little, going all demon always made him feel like his bones were all fucked up and needed a stretching, “so find anything else?”.

“Lightning bolt in a bottle”.

“Bone dagger. Lots of bone daggers”.

“Oh and a whole ass dragon hide, it’s in the dimensional pocket”.

“We did put all the random gem stones in there too right”.

“Uh…”.

“Damn it, Tucker”.

Danny laughs to himself, shaking his head. This day was some bullshit but at least they didn’t leave empty handed, and wasn’t finding treasure and getting to throw fist-a-cuffs the whole point of being an adventurer? Even if he’d rather be beating up dungeon monsters than constantly having to duke it out with other adventurers.

---

Of course they don’t even make it a full day before running into the very same party. At least this time they’re at the adventurers guild so there’s no way he’s gonna get attacked again.

Gemine blinking at Danny, “so you actually can leave the dungeon”.

Danny rolling his eyes, “yeah it’s almost like I was telling the truth or something”. Hell, he seldom lied about shit, people just thought it was all too ridiculous to be true.

Lily looks to the desk lady, quirking an eyebrow then gesturing at the demon in the room. Juhe blinking and smiling, understanding quickly, “yes the demon is welcome here, yes he’s an adventurer, no you’re not allowed to vanquish him, and no he’s not mind controlling anyone”.

Salient chuckles, putting a hand on his hip, “wow it sounds like this happens a lot”. Tuck shaking his head, “you have no idea”; before Sam goes up to make their report to the guild master. Technically Danny’s supposed to do that, being the leader and all, but head office had a barrier around it and they refused to take it down just for Danny’s sorry ass, meaning compromises were made.

Danny nodding at the guy, “anytime we go into a dungeon and run into a party that hasn’t met me before, it turns into a fight”, rubbing his neck, “which has earned me the title of adventurers bane since I keep basically having to beat down adventurers until they give up”.

Juhe nodding, “and he helps out the enforcers sometimes, since he can be quite the intimidating presence”.

“Boo, having a demonic aura isn’t my fault, and if just a simple demonic aura is enough to scare someone they probably shouldn’t be an adventurer”.

“You forget most adventurers do gathering quests and less dangerous dungeons”.

“Pah!”.

“You also forget that your demonic aura is that of a demon lord not a simple spawn or lesser demon”.

Danny’s only response to that is a pout.

Lily had been about to go up and make her own report, one foot stopping in midair, “that one is… a demon lord?”, and looks very concerned at Danny. While Salient grins to himself, “sweet, I got to fight a demon lord. Man that’s cool”.

Danny blinks, shrugging, “I was a wee bit miffed about suddenly being very literally in hell one time, not the time I fucked my resurrection up, and went demon killing happy. Two might have been demon lords and one was definitely a death god”.

All three look at him in shock, horror, or looking just plan impressed in Salient’s case. Lily shaking her head, “alright, you very well could have annihilated us”.

Johe glancing at some paperwork, “you three are silver, steel, and iron? Yes, you would not have stood a chance if taken seriously by him. He’s officially listed as obsidian, but he’s closer to iridium, which still stands as our highest class”.

Danny blushing, “aw shucks”.

“Don’t you ‘aw shucks’ me, if you’re that flattered then stop leaving your tail quills in the lobby wall”.

“Hey! It has a mind of its own”.

“It’s still attached to you, ain’t it?”.

Danny pouts at her, tail twitching near the ground, he’s half tempted to stab the wall with it just to be petty. He did petty very very well after all.

Lily shakes herself before finally going up to give her report; Danny absolutely hearing Sam whisper a threat at her, “Danny’s a lot nicer than the rest of us, don’t pull that shit with him again or else I won’t hesitate using a mind vine to make you break your party members”, as they pass in the stairway. He makes a point to roll his eyes disappointedly at her when she makes it down fully.

His friends were great but so over protective and possessive of him, it was nice but also a pain. She rolls her eyes right back at him as the three of them head out, waving bye to Salient and Gamine as more of a form of pleasantries than genuine fond fair-wells or whatever. They ain’t friends and weren’t gonna suddenly become them, something Danny was frankly fully uninterested in. He had his Sam and Tuck and was definitely not interested in sharing them.

End.

Prompts: Fantasy/rpg setting. Danny died, but the resurrection spell went wrong, and now he’s trapped as something not quite dead but not fully alive either. Not that he’d ever let that stop him from becoming an adventurer, even if he does get mistaken as a resident dungeon monster by other adventuring parties every now and then… Demon!au

#danny phantom #phandom #phic phight #danny fenton #tucker foley #sam manson #my writing #have a fic suck my dick #phantomphangphucker #phicphight24 #phic phight 24 #gothmoth #demon!au #rpg!au #fantasy!au #op danny #bamf danny

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officialroxy · 7 months

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My first piece to go with the first oneshot of @lexiepiper 's Invisobang 2023 piece! It's such a good story, and I hope you all read it and enjoy it!!! :3

#my drawings of jack are about to get REAL INCONSISTENT LMAO #but im proud of them anyway<3 #jack fenton #clockwork dp #danny phantom #danny phantom fanart #invisobang 2023 #presentable #id in alt

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kipo-oak · 7 months

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My piece for Invisobang 2023!!!

I had fun creating this for the amazing writing of @lexiepiper !!!

You can find the OneShot for this piece here

https://archiveofourown.org/works/50455324

But there's 4 more to read beside it! They're all amazing, I definetly recommend!!!

Go find more art for it from @officialroxy , there's some *amazing* pieces!!!

#danny phantom #danny phantom fanfiction #invisobang 2023 #danny phantom fanart

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raaorqtpbpdy · 12 days

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The Undead Adventurer (1)

When an interrupted resurrection spell leaved Danny halfway between life and death, his adventuring career should have been over. But Danny Fenton won't let something as minor as being regularly mistaken for a member of a zombie horde, or kidnapped by an unknowable monster of death stop him from becoming the strongest adventurer in the world with his best friends by his side.

For the following prompts:

His head spun. He couldn’t see past the light above him. What was it? [from @q-gorgeous]

Fantasy/rpg setting. Danny died, but the resurrection spell went wrong, and now he’s trapped as something not quite dead but not fully alive either. Not that he’d ever let that stop him from becoming an adventurer, even if he does get mistaken as a resident dungeon monster by other adventuring parties every now and then… [from @lexiepiper]

Danny catches the eye of something he shouldn't. (Eldritch affection or soft horror encouraged) [from Ventisette Stars]

Read on AO3

Chapter 1: Incantationus Interruptus (next chapter)

[Warnings for death, mentioned violence, and some explicit language]

Something felt... wrong, as Danny woke up. His head spun. He couldn't see past the light above him. What was it? The sun? He'd been in a dungeon a moment ago, but... it was surely night time by now. The moon? No. It was too close.

"Uh... Sam... I think you fucked up the spell."

Tucker?

"Me? I can't cast resurrection spells! All I did was teleport us out of there so we could take him to town for a resurrection. He should still be dead!"

Sam?

"Are we entirely sure he isn't?" Tucker asked. "If it wasn't your spell, maybe it was that lich we were fighting. What if it brought Danny back as a zombie? What if he's evil now?"

"'M not evil," Danny groaned.

His eyes were slowly adjusting to his surroundings. It was, in fact, night time, and it should have been dark, but Danny could see everything as clear as if it were daylight, even the stars. The blinding light above him, it seemed, was Sam's staff, lit up so they could see their surroundings, but it looked far, far brighter than Danny could ever remember it being before.

"Well... if you're not evil, then was it a true resurrection spell that got fucked up when Sam's teleportation spell interrupted it?" Tucker asked.

"Or was it a monster resurrection spell that got fucked up when my teleportation spell interrupted it?" Sam asked.

"What are you talking about?" Danny asked.

The last thing he could remember was getting hit with a devastating magical lightning attack when they were fighting a lich, then waking up all but blinded by Sam's usually dim light spell.

"Well..." Sam dug around in her various pouches and pockets for a while before finally taking out a small, shiny, round object that Danny recognized after a moment as her compact mirror. "See for yourself."

She handed him the mirror, but when he looked into it, the face he saw was not his own. His dark hair had turned white, his eyes glowed green like those horrible zombies in the dungeon they'd just been fighting in.

"Am I a zombie?" he asked. "But... I can still think and stuff. I'm still myself."

"Yeah," Tucker agreed. "That's what we were wondering about, too."

"We should take him into town and try to find a high-level wizard, or a magic researcher, or something who might be able to tell us what happened to him," Sam suggested.

"Agreed," Danny said.

He tried to get to his feet, but when he pushed up off of the ground, he began to float. He flailed his arms and tried to come back down, but it was as if gravity didn't want anything to do with him anymore.

"Uh, guys?"

His companions stared at him, shocked for a moment, until Tucker stuck out his bow for Danny to grab onto and pulled him back down to earth. Once his feet were on solid ground, Danny felt gravity return to him, and when they walked to the nearby town, Danny made sure to keep at least on foot firmly on the ground at all times.

The nearest town was called Casper, and thanks to it being situated so near a difficult dungeon, it had plenty of magic users and shops offering magical services. More than most towns this far in the middle of nowhere would have.

When they entered the town, and everywhere they went, people stared, gasped in fear and generally did their best to avoid the trio. It seemed Danny's new appearance wasn't exactly putting them at ease. In the townspeople's defense, he did look like an undead monster now. That was kinda the problem they were trying to solve in town.

They went to three different people in search of answers, Star, the grand wizard's apprentice, although the grand wizard himself was away at the moment; the old, and confusingly named, wizard Lancer; and lastly to a magical researcher called Sidney Poindexter. The first two had never seen anything like Danny and couldn't offer any insight into his condition. The third had never seen anything like him either, but was at least willing to run some tests.

Sidney Poindexter possessed only weak magical powers, but was apparently an unrivaled expert in magic relating to death and resurrection, which was why he'd moved to a town so near a dungeon with a lich. So when Lancer first directed the adventurers to him, he sounded like the perfect person to ask.

"Wow, what happened to you?" Poindexter asked when they walked in, staring openly at Danny.

"We were hoping you might be able to answer that," Danny told him.

"Oh, well, in that case, why don't we find out!"

Poindexter's study was cramped and crowded, full of books, scrolls, and strange equipment. He sat Danny on an empty stool, and spent the next several hours running various tests and taking various readings. He had Danny attempt certain tasks, like flying, turning invisible, and passing through solid objects, all of which he managed with surprising ease, considering they should have been impossible.

Sam and Tucker had fallen asleep on the floor by the time he finally had anything to report.

"I believe I have a conclusion!" Poindexter announced at last.

The two snoozing adventurers jerked awake and sat bolt upright.

"Wh-what is it?" Tucker mumbled out, tiredness giving him a bit of a stammer.

"You say whatever resurrection spell was cast on your friend must have been done so by the lich in the dungeon, correct?" Poindexter asked.

"Yeah," Sam confirmed.

"I believe the lich was trying to resurrect him as a Zombie General, rather than a regular Zombie," the researcher explained. "There are many different kinds of resurrection spells, but the three main ones are true resurrection, soul resurrection, and monster resurrection.

"True resurrection brings the deceased back exactly as they were in life, both body and soul—although it cannot prevent them from developing psychological problems related to their death. Soul resurrection brings the deceased's soul back to life, apart from their body, creating a ghost. And monster resurrection brings the body back to life without it's soul, creating things like zombies and skeletons and the like."

"Yeah, that's common knowledge," Sam said. "Can you get to the point."

"Sorry, after a certain level of expertise, I realized I couldn't count on myself to know what knowledge was common and what was obscure, so I just explain everything, just in case," Poindexter apologized. "As I was saying, however, there are other types of resurrection besides those three. One of them is monster lord resurrection, which brings back the deceased as an especially powerful undead monster, such as a Zombie General, or a Skeleton Leader, which have higher intelligence, and the ability to control other undead of the same type."

"So... Danny was brought back as a Zombie General," Sam reiterated, "and that's why he looks like that but is still himself?"

"Not quite."

Sam and Tucker groaned. It wasn't that they weren't grateful for Poindexter's help, but they were tired, and kind of hoping for a shorter explanation.

"A monster lord resurrection spell consists of two parts," Poindexter continued, unperturbed. "First, a modified true resurrection spell, and second, a mind control spell. For best results, these two parts should be performed simultaneously, but double-casting is a skill only a handful of mages in all of history have possessed, and it looks like the lich in the nearby dungeon isn't one of them, because it seems it planned to cast the resurrection first and then the mind control, but couldn't get all the way through the resurrection before it was interrupted somehow."

"By my teleportation spell," Sam supplied.

"Yeah, that'd do it," the researcher agreed. "When the spell was interrupted, it ended up reviving him with his whole soul because there wasn't enough time for the spell to break off the pieces of his soul that would resist the mind-control spell. As for his body, well, you can see how that was effected. Now, he's trapped somewhere in the middle, not quite dead, but not entirely alive, either."

That, at least, was true. Though his outward appearance had changed, and he appeared to have some of the abilities an undead would have, he wasn't rotting like a zombie, or incorporeal, like a ghost. His motor control was unaffected, allowing him to move without the telltale jerky motions of most corporeal undead.

Tucker shook his head in confusion.

"Why?" he asked. "I mean, why would the lich try to make Danny a Zombie General instead of just making him a regular zombie—or just letting him die?"

"I don't know," Poindexter admitted. "Did any of you happen to kill a zombie that seemed more powerful, or acted more intelligently than the others?"

"Yeah, actually..." Danny said, suddenly remembering. "It was dressed in rusted armor, and carried a sword. I thought that was weird for a zombie, but even weirder, was the fact that it actually had the motor control to use its sword. As soon as I stuck it down, the lich screamed and shot lightning at me, like it was suddenly pissed for some reason."

"Well there you have it," Poindexter said. "When you killed it's general, it suddenly had to control all those zombies by itself, which is extremely taxing on the mind, so it decided to kill you and resurrect you as its new general."

It... sort of made sense. It followed the sort of logic an angry undead mage from hundreds of years ago that was slowly losing its mind would follow.

"One thing doesn't make sense, though," Danny said. "Zombie's can't fly or pass through walls or turn invisible. Why can I?"

"Botched resurrections can have all kinds of side effects," Poindexter answered with a shrug. "Those three are some of the most common, I can do them too. An old partner of mine tried to resurrect me after I was fatally injured during my studies across the continent, and messed it up so badly I stopped aging. I'll be ninety-six this year, you know, but I don't look a day over twenty."

"Really?" Sam asked. "I would've guessed younger."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Poindexter said.

It really wasn't one. Poindexter looked like a dweeby teenager who hadn't grown into his fact yet.

"In any case, it's not common, but it's entirely likely you'll run into some people with similar powers from resurrections that didn't go quite as they were supposed to."

"Is there any way to fix it?" Tucker asked.

"If there was, do you think I'd still have this face at ninety-five years old? I can't even grow a beard! What kind of respectable, well-established magical researcher doesn't have a beard?"

"I'll be okay, though, right?" Danny asked. "I'm not gonna, like, slowly waste away or anything am I?"

"Well, no, you should be able to live normally..." Poindexter said, with a tone that strongly implied a 'but'.

The three adventurers stared at him, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"But..." Danny prompted.

"If you die again, there's no spell that can bring you back," Poindexter said. "After you've been the target of a failed resurrection spell in any capacity, you become an undead for all intents and purposes, and undead creatures can't be resurrected again. That's why I almost entirely retired from field research after mine."

"So, you're saying... if Danny keeps adventuring...." Tucker looked at his friend, his face a mask of concern and pity. "He could die for good next time?"

Danny had died before. They all had, at least once. Of the three of them, Sam had died the least. They always tried to protect her as best they could, and she was usually quick with a teleportation spell if they got in over their heads. She couldn't perform resurrections herself, but you could buy one in almost any town, and she came from a wealthy family that would never let her die, even if they didn't approve of her lifestyle.

Of the three of them, Danny had died the most, with a whopping six deaths since they started adventuring four years before. He was physically the strongest of the three, although Sam was also deceptively athletic for a mage, but he was also the first to throw himself in front of danger to protect his friends. Plus, though there was no way to prove this, he suspected that of the three of them, he also had the worst luck. And this was just the latest in a long string of evidence.

"Fine," Danny said. "But I'm not retiring."

His friends looked alarmed by his decision, but it was the only decision he could make.

"No, Danny, there's too much risk now," Tucker insisted. "You're on your last life."

"It's too dangerous to go running around adventuring with no safety net," Sam agreed. "We... we don't want to lose you."

"Adventurers have been around way longer than true resurrection magic," Danny pointed out. "Any time we raid a dungeon, or take on a quest, there's always a chance we'll die for good, either our bodies will be too far gone for resurrection, or they'll be lost in a bottomless pit, or there will be a monster that renders magic ineffective on a corpse. True resurrection was never a perfect safety net anyway.

"I'm not retiring."

His friends did not seem happy with this decision.

"We're not gonna change your mind, are we?" Sam guessed.

"No, you're not," Danny agreed. "Besides, even though I'll have to be more careful not to die, I've also got some cool new powers out of the deal. It would be a waste to quit now."

Tucker sighed, but didn't try to argue. He hadn't won an argument against Danny yet, and he knew he wouldn't win this one. His friend was one stubborn guy... well... one stubborn zombie, now.

"We should at least slow down," Tucker said. "No more charging into dungeons way out of our league. We stick with stuff at our level and only take on more difficult jobs when we're already strong enough to handle instead of taking them in the hopes that we'll luck out and rank up fast."

"Boring!" Danny groaned, but at the looks both Sam and Tucker gave him, he knew it would be unreasonable of him to argue. Really, that was how they should have been adventuring all along. "Fine. I accept your terms."

#danny phantom #dp #danny fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #fic #things i wrote #phic phight #phic phight 24 #fantasy au #the undead adventurer

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dpfantasyzine · 8 days

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Socials: Tumblr | AO3

"Hi everyone, I’m Lexie. I’ve been in this fandom for a very long time and a lot of you will probably know me from my more popular fics. I’m so excited to be involved in this project! I hope you all have heaps of fun seeing the final product 💜" - @lexiepiper

The Void Yawns Softly

Summary:

Despite saving the world, nobody knows that Danny Fenton is anything other than a perfectly normal astronaut candidate training for the first manned mission to Mars. He's generally happy to keep it this way, too, until he's disqualified from the team at the last minute. They jet into space without him, only to go dark on comms a month into their journey while he's left back on Earth, unable to save them from whatever went wrong. He has to rescue them. He's the only one who can... But when NASA sends him up there to achieve the impossible, Danny comes face to face with the very thing he fears the most: despite his love of the stars, space is cold and empty and ready to destroy him, and when his welcome aboard the stricken ship isn't what he'd expected, he's going to need everything he has at his disposal to bring them home again.

The Way of all Flesh

Summary:

"Don’t think I haven’t noticed how jumpy you are, especially around thin spots.” The strange term made his heart stutter like a frightened bird. “What are you talking about?” he choked, unable to force any greater volume through his increasingly tight throat. “Thin spots,” she said again, and the phrase sank into his brain with the slimy film of guilt. “You know, places where the veil is thin." . When Danny moves back to Amity Park, he feels like he's being followed by things that other people can't quite see. There has to be a logical explanation, right? After all, it's not as if ghosts are real or anything.

Shift

Summary:

It turns out that the views of Agents O and K are not held by the rest of the Guys in White... which they discover when they bring in a fourteen-year-old half-ghost kid for "painful experiments".

#Contributor Spotlight #Phantasmal Nights #danny phantom #fantasy au #magic au #fanfiction #let’s make danny magical #fandom zine #fanart #phandom #dp fantasy zine #danny phantom au

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lexiepiper · 4 months

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Philanthropy

Happy Christmas Truce to @purpleruletheomiverse with their prompt (Post AGIT) Vlad, Dan and Dani attempting an incredibly awkward and angst-filled family Christmas. I toed the line a bit between angst and fluff, but hopefully it worked out okay!

Ao3 link

Summary: Who knew that decorating a tree could cost so much?

Warning for AGIT spoilers.

“You know I hate Christmas, right?”

Vlad paused, looking up from the morning news and trying to keep his expression blank. “You know who I’m doing this for.”

Dan shoved his hands in his pockets, continuing to loiter in the doorway. “You think it’ll be any different for her?” he asked. “She’s a clone, genius. She has his memories. Or have you gone senile?”

Vlad took a calculated sip of his coffee, trying not to look at the creature stuffed into the body of a boy. “You’re the one who dragged her back into my life and told me to make amends.”

“And what, you think a stinking old tree’ll do that?” He huffed, but finally stalked into the sitting room and motioned for the ghostly servant that hovered at the peripherals. “Coffee,” he said when she turned towards him.

Vlad raised an eyebrow and clicked his tongue at the rudeness.

Dan’s eyes snapped to him, literal red flames flickering where his irises should have been. “What?”

He pressed his lips together and took a deep breath through his nose. “I hardly want to fight before I’ve finished my morning coffee.”

Dan grumbled incoherently, but slouched into one of the plush armchairs. “You’ll be lucky if I don’t burn it down by the end of the day.”

Vlad made a show of looking back at his phone and taking a long sip of coffee before answering. “She said she wanted it, you know.”

“Did she actually say that, though?”

He sent Dan a sidelong glance. “Perhaps you should talk to her about it, before deciding to burn anything. She wants the three of us to decorate it together.”

He would have sworn that he could hear the grinding of teeth from halfway across the room. “No way, old man.”

Vlad sniffed delicately, turning back to his coffee. “The deal was that we improve together, was it not?”

“I never agreed to a Christmas tree.”

“Would you really pass up the opportunity to make her happy?”

Dan snarled, pushing himself to his feet and stomping out of the room.

Vlad bit back a smirk. It wasn’t much, but a disagreement that didn’t end in violence? Maybe there was hope after all.

Dani had woken a while ago to the sound of a door slamming, which really wasn’t that uncommon in the Masters household. When there had been no further noise that indicated a fight she’d snuggled back into the blankets of her - her! - giant, comfortable bed, and dozed back off.

She hadn’t fully fallen back asleep when her door was thrown open, and she groaned theatrically and pulled the duvet over her head.

“Did you really ask for a Christmas tree?” Dan snapped.

She mumbled wordlessly, pulling the blanket tighter in a clear message for him to piss off until she was more awake.

“Hey.” She heard him walk over to her bed, and then his hand gripped her elbow through the duvet. “What’s the big idea?”

Giving up on sleeping through this, Dani groaned again and pulled the blanket back, shaking him off and giving a sleepy glare.

“We hate Christmas,” he insisted.

She huffed, rolling over to face him. “No, Danny hates Christmas. We just have his bad memories.”

“So?”

She rolled her eyes. “ So, don’t you wanna be your own person? Try things for yourself instead of focusing on memories that may or may not actually be yours?” She yawned. “Isn’t starting fresh what we’re all trying to do here?”

He was standing beside her bed with his mouth wide open, hands loose at his sides. “But… with a Christmas tree?”

“Yes.” She sat up, stretching her arms above her head with another yawn. “All the two of you do is nitpick over little things, without actually doing anything good. You won’t get better if you don’t do good things, you moron.”

The way his jaw twitched was immensely satisfying. Serves him right for waking her up.

“I draw the line at a Christmas sweater,” he forced through gritted teeth.

“I’ll buy you the most sparkly one there is,” she retorted, flopping back into her pillows and closing her eyes. “Shut the door on your way out.”

He huffed and disappeared, leaving the door wide open so she’d have to get up and close it herself.

Typical.

Dan perched on the bannister, legs morphed into a ghostly tail that looped and wrapped around the support spokes despite being in human form as he sipped his coffee and glared at the tree. It was in the grand foyer, since the ceiling here was tall enough for the tree to reach from the ground floor up to the second story.

A team of professionals were already hard at work. He didn’t know exactly what you had to be a professional in to decorate Christmas trees, but Vlad was a billionaire, so it made sense that he’d be able to find all kinds of strange professionals that normal people would never even dream existed.

They weren’t exactly decorating the tree. Just… putting on the lights, which looked incredibly tedious and much more difficult than Dan remembered it being. Still, as with all of Vlad’s professionals they were paid more than enough to never disclose anything they might happen to see while in his mansion, so. He just sat there. Legs morphing into a misty, somewhat-incorporeal tail as he watched them from above.

“You’re a menace,” Vlad said from behind him.

Dan didn’t bother looking. He didn't want to give him the satisfaction. “That just makes two of us.”

“Must you terrorise my contractors?”

“Yeah. You never know when one of them’ll hide in that massive thing like it’s the Trojan horse and try to assassinate you for your unethical business practices when you get close.”

Vlad said nothing, and Dan entertained himself by imagining the incredulous frustration on the man’s face.

He waited for a long moment, and when he finally glanced back, Vlad was gone.

Excellent. If he was needed to keep the peace tonight, they’d all better leave him alone to get the brooding out of his system. And if it made the workers nervous, well… Dan smiled, wide enough that the ones on the ground floor would easily see his fangs. It’s what they got, for taking stupid jobs like this.

And if their nervousness made him feel even a teensy bit better, well… it’s not like he was hurting anyone.

The tiny knock on his office door was almost too quiet for him to hear. “Come in,” he said without looking away from the document that had been faxed through this morning. Because clearly, these investors needed to not only fax documents, but on Christmas Eve. If anyone was going senile, it was them.

Dani walked through the closed door, a lumpy mass of red and green in her hands. “Um… this is for you.”

He raised an eyebrow, putting the document to one side. It was late in the day anyway, and the investors could wait until after the break. Their poor timing did not constitute an emergency on his part. “What is it?”

She bit her lip, shyly holding it out. “I… I got us each one, though Dan’ll probably burn his as soon as he sees it.”

Vlad took the knitted lump, forcing himself to smile as he unfurled the ugliest christmas sweater he’d ever seen. “Why, Danielle, this is truly something.”

“It even lights up!” she exclaimed, some of the shyness melting away as she bounced forward on her toes and fumbled for the box sewn into the hem. “Look!”

Sure enough, the sweater lit up with tiny flashing lights interspersed along the branches of the garish knitted tree.

“Do you like it?” she asked, eyes wide with hope as she looked up into his face.

Vlad swallowed and forced his smile wider. “Absolutely,” he said, immediately pulling it on over his business shirt. “Thank you.”

She grinned, the freckles on her cheeks and the bridge of her nose lighting up into tiny constellations. “You look amazing! I can’t wait to give Dan his!”

Vlad sat back at his desk, opening the top drawer and sweeping the papers into it. “Even if he burns it?”

Her eyes sparkled, glinting as her smile turned sly. “If it stops him from burning the tree then won’t it be worth it?”

He smirked. “That’s true.”

“Glad you agree,” she chirped, heading back for the door. “I mean, I used your credit card to buy them all anyway, so yeah. Glad you think it’s worthwhile!”

Vlad froze as she slipped out of the office, glancing down at the sweater and hoping that she got it out of some bargain bin at the local mall. Though, judging from the softness of what felt far too high quality to be plain acrylic… It was a good thing he was a billionaire, but still, someone should probably talk to her about budgeting.

Maybe.

But still, the way she’d lit up like that had warmed his soul.

…

Damn it, the kids really were turning him into a pushover.

She found Dan lying on a couch in the parlour adjacent to the foyer, eyes closed and looking like he was asleep.

“You’re enjoying listening to them talk about you,” she accused.

“Whatever gave you that idea?” he drawled without opening his eyes. “It’s not my fault they started talking about me as soon as I left.”

“You’re a menace.” She threw the sweater at him. “Here. Wear this tonight. If you burn it before we get a group picture, I’ll replace all your snacks with toast.”

He squinted at her. “You wouldn’t.”

“Or would you rather I invite the Fentons over for Christmas dinner tomorrow?” she asked, as sweetly as she could. “I’m sure you’d love an evening with them all, right? Jack can tell us all about Santa, and -”

He sat up, pinching the sweater between his thumbs and forefingers as he lifted it to glare at the light-up knitted tree.

“It’ll look great on you!” she chirped, gesturing to the one she already wore.

He raised an eyebrow. “Do you feel better, then?”

“A little,” she admitted, flopping onto the couch that mirrored his over an opulent wooden coffee table. “It beats being miserable, right?”

“I’m always miserable,” he grumbled, lying back down with the sweater draped across his stomach.

“You’re really not though.” Dani turned her head, watching as he grimaced and closed his eyes. “Come on, you’re not.”

“Name one thing that makes me happy,” he said.

She smiled. “Oh, that’s easy, you idiot. Flying.”

His breath hitched, and then he snorted in a clear attempt to wipe away the smile that had touched the corners of his lips.

Spurred on by her success, Dani continued. “There’s also ice cream, coffee, lime and vinegar chips, Dumpty Humpty music, puppies when you think no one can see you…”

“Shut up,” he grumbled, turning away from her, but not before Dani saw his smile.

She laughed, pushing herself into the air and floating toward the ceiling, flipping herself so she was looking down on him. “We’ll decorate the tree at five.”

“Mmhmm.”

“You’d better be wearing the sweater,” she threatened, “or I’ll tell Jack you know how to find Santa.”

He glared at her with a flash of red. “You wouldn’t.”

Dani stuck out her tongue and phased through the ceiling, leaving him alone to wonder.

He traipsed into the grand foyer at five past five. They were there waiting for him, and Dan wondered if he’d be berated for his lateness, but Dani was too engrossed in flitting from one tiered display of brand new decorations to the next to care about his tardiness.

Vlad looked over at him and Dan gave him a withering glare, likely damepend by the fact that he was, indeed, wearing the same flashing sweater that they all were. “Don't you dare say anything,” he growled.

“Can we really use all of these?!” Dani shouted from across the room, hovering above a display of ornaments that glittered like crystal. Knowing Vlad, they probably were.

“Of course.” Vlad swanned over to her, gesturing for Dan to follow. “You tell us where to start.”

Dani hummed, looking between all of them with her finger to her lips before turning back to the probably-crystal ornaments. “Let’s go colour by colour,” she said. “Then it can be balanced.”

“Who cares what it looks like?” Dan huffed.

She scowled at him. “Stop being so sour. Can’t you at least try?”

He rolled his eyes. “It’s our tree, right? It just has to look how we want it to. It’s not like it’s for a competition.”

Dani sniffed and picked an ornament from the display. “Yeah, but a picture’ll be nice, and I can make a tiktok.”

“I’m not being in a tiktok,” he deadpanned.

“Not you, ” she huffed. “Just me. Going from the homeless girl barely trying to get by to the reclaimed daughter of a bachelor billionaire’s been wild for my channel, so I’m trying to do a mixture of chill ones for a while. The tree’ll be nice, and I’ll do cookies, and also maybe one at the fundraiser carols later.”

“What are you fundraising?” Vlad asked, choosing an ornament and following Dani as she moved to the tree.

“Homeless kids,” she said, hanging her ornament. “I tried to donate a hundred grand from us, and researched the best organisations, but apparently I’m not allowed to donate that much without your consent. So I figured I’d drum up interest online and at the fundraiser to get more people involved, and then announce your donation in front of everyone.”

“Sneaky,” Dan observed, crossing his arms over his chest and watching the two of them.

Vlad hung his ornament, expression pensive. “It really means that much to you?”

She shrugged, turning back to the display and examining it maybe a little too closely. “Homelessness is hell. Sure, there are a lot of other personal hells, but… not having a bed at the end of the day, or clean clothes, or enough food… Feeling like nobody cares and you could just die alone without anyone even noticing…” She wiped her eyes. “Yeah, I care about it a lot.”

Vlad stood by the tree, blinking with his mouth open.

Dan huffed when Dani sniffed. “So wouldn’t it be better if Vlad ended homelessness?”

She turned to him, eyes wide and wet. “What?”

Vlad started forwards as well. “It’s not that simple -”

“Then start small,” Dan snapped, grabbing the ornament closest to him. It was a crystal icicle, and he brandished it in a casual flourish that didn’t quite rule out a threat. “Amity Park’s a small city, but there are plenty of empty buildings. I’ve been thrown through enough to know. Pledge to clean it all up in the next year, and house the homeless. Kids and families first. Aren’t you on a self-improvement kick, Vladdie? ”

“But the social infrastructure -”

“Build it up, then.” He practically flounced over to the tree, not bothering to hide his glee at Vlad’s clear panic. “Kids needs social services if they don’t have guardians. People need health support, and money for necessities. Why don’t we fix the housing crisis and universal basic income? It’s worked overseas, after all, and you have more than enough to sponsor it for the first year. Pull some strings, see if you can’t get even more tax write-offs for it, and get the ball rolling.”

Vlad spluttered incoherently.

“You’d really do that?” Dani asked, and the sheer hope in her voice would have melted any glacier.

Vlad wilted. “I… Yes, Danielle. I’ll give it a try.”

Dani squealed, throwing herself at Vlad. He stiffened as she hugged him, hands fluttering as though uncertain of where to place them, but before he could decide she’d pulled away again, and launched herself straight at…

Dan froze as she hugged him, arms tight around his middle as she sobbed into the shoulder of his stupid ugly sweater. “Thank you,” she wailed. “Thank you, thank you, thank you…”

He placed a hand in the small of her back, angling his chin so that her head tucked beneath it, and smirked over at Vlad. “Like I said, we’re all on a self-improvement kick. It’s about time we actually did something good.”

#lexiepiper #danny phantom #holiday truce 2023 #agit #edited to add full stops because tumblr ate my line breaks

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