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sgtmickeyslaughter · 5 months

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Thank you so much @callivich for taking the time and effort for coming up with these questions, and thank you @such-a-barbarian for tagging me also!

This got long lol

What’s a fic you’ve read more than once?

one of my favorite generas of fic is shameless Mickey worship and for that I aways come back to from head to toe and the many things Mickey Milkovich has been called, Unforgiving Touches and the Feeling of Their Bruises.

also, in no particular order You’re Tough To Love When You Don’t Love Yourself, the broad shouldered beasts series, sincerity is scary.

for something a little smutty go back to sleep has always been a favorite of mine

and as always, my favorite fic of all time Boy In The Box

What’s a gifset you always have to reblog?

i love that gif set of Ian sniffin’ on his husband, also I think there’s one thats a compilation of Mickey’s best smiles through the series, gorgeous.

this beautifully edited (?) gifset I stg this is better quality than the actual show idk how they did that

this gorgeous art/gifset is awesome also!

this one is very important to me but man it hurts

another heartbreaker

everyone say thank you gif makers!!!!

What’s a fanart you love looking at?

I literally just saw this one for the first time, it immediately went to the top of my list!!

Its so beautifully done and captures the tone of the original piece so well while also transforming it into a unique moment and commentary on intimacy in their own relationship, ugh, gorgeous

What’s a headcanon you can’t stop thinking about?

creative mickey! the best thing season 10 gave us was mickey and his notebook. i just know when Ian sees that thing come out post canon a part of him locks up in genuine fear

i don’t really think he gets into art persay, but just being a creative thinker, figuring out how to run their business, decorating their apartment, building ian a garden on their balcony when he gets put on the waitlist for the community garden

What’s an idea you’d love to create if you had the time/inspiration?

so I had this idea very vaguely floating around in my head for a while, but it wasn’t even remotely formed, let alone developed and then suddenly last weekend the plot just came to me in that beautiful and cruel way inspiration comes and goes, but it will take forever to write because I want the pace to feel very slow and syrupy and a little dream (or nightmare) like.

i dont want to give away the plot but its very southern gothic, slight true crime elements, cults, slight age difference (younger Mickey)… anyways if anyone from the rural south wants to be on call to explain geography and culture to me, hit me up

i also have an idea for a dirty filthy, nasty smut fic but i would have to post it anonymously i wouldnt be able to look anyone in the (virtual) eyes

What’s something you’ve discovered since entering this fandom? A new trope you love? A different analysis of the show? Something else?

in all seriousness, analyzing Shameless as a show overall is so interesting, understanding each of the characters as case studies in different particular expressions of being raised in poverty, which is what makes it twice as upsetting when someone is like, ‘why would this character do this, thats so stupid’ and the answer is that statically speaking that character was actually very likely to do that because of the circumstances they were born into and the way they’ve been affected by that throughout their life, but okay. I also noticed that a lot of people on here are not from America and I always wonder what their take on the social/political reading of the show, if it feels familiar at all etc..

i also remember the first time someone commented under my fic to be like, ‘why are you giving Mickey a pass Ian did this’, and someone else commented underneath that ‘oh well Mickey did that so he’s a bad person etc.’ and it was just so upsetting to me, I dont see a lot of that on my dash but I just personally believe that if you are judging teenagers/young adults who are in the middle of their first major mental health crisis or who have suffered unimaginable abuse and neglect their entire life, you need to recalibrate your empathy levels

What’s your favourite season? And has this changed after multiple rewatches of the show?

I love love early seasons (1-3) there is just something so nostalgic about it and as a show that’s when the writing was at its most creative and interestingly paced

also who doesn’t love baby gallavich?

What line/dialogue/description from something else (a poem, a book, a tv show, a movie, or something else) do you feel describes Ian and Mickey’s relationship?

Ugh Im so sorry I am going to have to add all the lyrics to In Your Love by Tyler Childers, the inspiration for my first fic title because it is the most perfect song to encapsulate the passion between them and the work and sacrifices they put up for each other

What’s a plot hole you wish had been answered or resolved?

where is mandy? where the fuck is my girl?

also the fact that kevin had a son with v’s mom and just, has no interest in a relationship with him? like that made the story easier for sure but it doesn’t make sense with his character

What scene or moment do you feel isn’t discussed enough?

guys, there is not a scene in this show that we have not done to death already (affectionate)

and you know what? we’ll do it again!

but just for the sake of it, the “would you take care of me if i was paralyzed” scene, you can see that Mickey is almost idk, hesitant? but that’s because he’s really picturing it and that his yes is genuine and thought out, and ian’s face of wonder when he realizes that he has someone who loves him unconditionally and forever? earth shattering

What do you think is next for Ian and Mickey post-finale?

listen, i think the laws of television writers being assholes would dictate that they would give a break up (and maybe reconciliation) arc which is my least favorite television trope

but irl? (u know what i mean) i think they do have some hard, stressful times both out of their relationships and in it and realize pretty quickly that they have to work as a team and lean on each other and it only makes them closer

i also think that they simply refuse to sleep without each other, like one night when Ian gets stuck at the gallagher house taking care of sick franny mickey will drive over and sleep in the twin bed with him or if mickey gets wasted on a night out with sandy and debbie and his battery runs out he’ll stumble his ass home instead of going with one of them when they offer even if it takes forever

and ian grows his hair and stubble out to look like it does in the most recent photos (fluffy mullet) and mickey adores it he can’t keep his hands off his husbands head it’s a sensory dream

Thanks again for tagging me!

i’ll tag @stocious @mybrainismelted @sirrudo @solitarycreaturesthey @juliakayyy @jrooc @jezzibelle89 @i-think-you-mean-reduction @iansw0rld

#tag game #sgt says

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bluedalahorse · 8 months

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Unsolicited August backstory headcanons (plus a bonus tangent about Blue’s undergraduate initiation)

Ahahaha well, I left my work laptop at work by accident. I guess that’s my subconscious is telling me to take a break and post the August headcanons I’ve been drafting on the bus each morning so…

There are a few posts floating around my dash right now that ask questions about what August would have done in certain hypothetical situations. The discussion has all been worthwhile to watch, but I’ve refrained from jumping in as of yet, in part because work has been busy and in part because of personal headcanon reasons. The thing with personal headcanons is that they just kind of live in my head and influence the way I write fic. They’re not really the kind of thing I can prove or argue for, they’re just… vibes? But vibes are still worth talking about in one’s fandom spaces so I may as well ramble.

One thing I believe as someone who spends too much time writing from this garbage boy’s POV is that August did not show up to his first year of Hillerska as exactly the person we see onscreen in 1.1. He was a full two years younger, which is significant for a teenager, and he would have been more recently impacted by the loss of his father. Moreover he would have been entering as a first year and would not have been immediately afforded all the at-school privileges the third year boys enjoy. Now, this does not mean he was a morally perfect angel—far from it, given that being landed gentry with generational wealth can still do a number on one’s psyche. However, if I assume that August came to Hillerska as the very same Full Titled Asswipe he is as a third year, I don’t get to explore systems of privilege and how they radicalize young men into toxic and harmful behavior. Which is something I’m interested in as a writer, both in my fanfic and my original fiction.

With that in mind, here are some of my personal headcanons for August’s pre-Hillerska and pre-season 1 life, with some Horn family headcanons mixed in…

August’s relationship to the royal family—or not—was a big source of conflict between his parents. Carl Johan wanted him hanging out with the royal family and getting to know his second cousins while Louise did not. For the most part, Louise won this argument when August was a child. In August’s early childhood, Carl Johan would frequently go off to visit the palace on his own, and came back with fun stories and various presents and the like. I base this on the fact that August doesn’t seem to have hung out with Wille or Erik as a child, and seems to have some seemingly “insider” knowledge of the royal family, but with like, weird gaps about things. He also tends to idealize royal life in a way Wilhelm doesn’t, given that Wilhelm has lived royal life. I feel like this is consistent with a backstory where August was mostly told about the royal life from his dad’s perspective. Like he’s got a lot of details but he doesn’t have all of them and he’s still got rose-colored glasses.

August before the age of twelve or so was one of those kids who was pretty bad at interacting with kids his own age, but was “better” at interacting with adults. He’s an only child, so he wouldn’t have grown up around siblings, and would have probably had to play alone a lot. I don’t know if I believe school or his local area would have been an easy place for him to make friends given what @sflow-er was saying about children of the nobility and what it’s like for them when they go to their local schools. I wouldn’t go so far as to say August was bullied. (I mean, maybe he was, I don’t know. From my experience of working with young people, it’s not uncommon for kids who are bullied at one school to become bullies at other schools they transfer to. On the other hand, I think we’ve seen enough of August’s personality to know he could potentially be prickly and arrogant and push other kids away. Regarding that question, I think I’d go with whatever the fic needs. Anyway!) I also feel like, with the growing tensions in his parents’ marriage, he potentially would have coped by trying to put up a mature facade at a young age, which would mean lots of convincing adults he can handle everything. By the time he gets to Hillerska that all comes crashing down on him.

Because I’m such a gothic lit weirdo I insist that there were rumors Årnäs was haunted. Young August probably got asked about that a lot.

Maternal backstory headcanons: Louise’s parents were diplomats or in international business or something similar, so she spent periods of her youth away from Sweden, and sometimes away from her parents, often in international schools or international boarding schools. I have nothing to go on here canon-wise, except there’s that line where August says Louise is off traveling when the Headmistress can’t reach her. It’s very much an excuse, of course, but I like to imagine a grain of truth to it. Louise’s youth abroad gave her a yearning for international travel, and it’s her favorite way to escape the pressures of life when they get too great.

Paternal backstory headcanons: perhaps one of my more… spicy? controversial? … whatever… headcanons is that Carl Johan and Kristina were one another’s Unfortunate Romances in their youth. But Blue, you say. They are cousins! Ew! Which, yes, but they are also royals, and that sort of thing isn’t completely unprecedented I guess. There’s also a neat little chiasmus in my head where Wilhelm’s “unfortunate romance” shakes up the royal court because they feel like he’s trying to pull the monarchy into the future too fast, whereas in Kristina’s day she was that the monarchy needed to modernize, and that sort of thing was less frowned upon centuries ago but these days it Isn’t Done. ANYWAY Carl Johan’s feelings for Kristina remained sort of unresolved for most of his life, and this was something he ruminated on as his addiction got worse. Louise and Carl Johan never spoke about this piece of his backstory, but it was sort of always hanging awkwardly in the air between them. This also fueled Louise’s desire to keep August away from the palace and the royal family stuff, and the fights between her and Carl John about that. None of the kids’ generation knows about the Unfortunate Romance. Well, maybe Erik did, but he’s dead.

You may be asking, if Louise was opposed to August going to the palace and hanging out with his second cousins, then why did she send him to Hillerska? That, my friends, was an act of resignation, and of her not knowing what to do. I imagine puberty was already making August pretty irritable and difficult to deal with. And, with things growing worse and worse between his parents and his father’s addiction growing more problematic, August was probably just… not in a good place. No one in the family was a good place. I don’t see his parents as fully divorced in the year or so leading up to his father’s death, but I do think they were separated—maybe in an obvious way, or maybe they were pretending not to be. So, when Carl Johan took his own life, I imagine August’s anger and grief got even more explosive, and was often directed at his mother. Louise was not in a place where she knew how to deal with the situation, and sent him off to the school her husband had been pushing her to send August to. Sort of like she threw up her hands and went, “you know what? Fine. If this is his final wish, so be it.” And so August was sent away.

August showed up to his first year just sort of… quieter at first, with a lot of anger and grief simmering underneath. I mean why talk about feelings? He was also desperately, desperately in need of something that gave him a feeling of purpose. And then Erik found him. I think this was in part orchestrated a bit by Kristina behind the scenes; I imagine there was a call or text message where she nudged Erik to check up on her cousin’s kid, because even as complicated as the past was, Carl Johan was at one point Kristina’s favorite cousin. So what Erik did was appoint August as his first year lackey who takes care of everything for him—the one who knocks on his door in the morning, the one who pours the drinks at the party, and so on. Basically, August was in the Alexander role for Erik, and ended up taking it very seriously. This was the purpose he had been looking for, the sense of meaning.

I think August’s initiation would have played a role in helping him to feel a sense of purpose and community, too. Wait, what the fuck, Blue? That’s probably what you’re saying right now. Well… a lot of people talk about what the initiation sequence was or wasn’t for Wille, and how Wille’s initiation would have been worse than that of other students. And people usually only talk about that in terms of what Wille experienced. As someone who has attended a school with initiations (and who has even been initiated myself, albeit in a milder way because it was at a women’s college with traditions that differ from Hillerska’s) I actually don’t know if I think that’s true. I also think August’s initiation was probably a more… well, probably something he thought of as positive? Exciting? Seemingly helpful? (I mean, not helpful, but you know.)

EXTREME BONUS TANGENT: I can say that as someone who has been initiated myself, it’s certainly not a fun experience for everyone. That said, it was fun for me at the time, and remains important to me in a way. Speaking from the perspective of someone who enjoyed my initiation experience, it’s… well, it’s kind of weird. You’re in this strange state of torture for a while, like intense mental and physical discomfort, and everyone around you seems to be determined to contribute to that, and you feel very constrained and stretched to your limit. But then once you pass your initiation and you’re welcomed into your new community, it’s like this sudden switch over to an intense euphoria and a whole flood of endorphins. Like, I’m here, and they’re cheering me on, and I belong here, and these people are my family and I love them now. NOW, THAT SAID: initiations are not a good practice generally, because they are generally done en masse and there is a lot of potential for peer pressure and institutionalized abuse. I view my college’s initiation traditions differently now than I do when I was eighteen. That said, my college had also at least put some infrastructure in place as far as consent and contracts, to keep things from going wrong. You could opt out of any task at any time. Still—it’s not a perfect system, and Hillerska is far from perfect, so. You know. Personal memories I have complex feelings about.

Back to Hillerska… August seems to be someone who responds to extreme sensations, so I think he probably was someone who would have felt that intense endorphin rush from his initiation. (We frequently see him chasing other highs in the show, too.) And he would have gone through this at a time when he’d just lost his father and was Achilles-level angry at his mother, when he desperately wanted to feel like he was part of something and belonged somewhere. He probably came out of the ordeal worshipping Erik and ready to die for him, and I imagine Erik responded to that loyalty in kind. I expect that they grew close, but it was also definitely a relationship where Erik called the shorts and August followed his lead. This is, in part, why I struggle to buy into fanfics where August betrays or harms Erik, and why I can’t really sign onto the idea that August would have released a video of Erik. Or at least—he wouldn’t get there without multiple steps leading up to it, and multiple perceived trusts being broken, the way things were with Wilhelm. One of the steps, too, in August betraying Wilhelm, is Erik’s death putting August into a state of volatile grief. So there’s that. Like I cannot stress enough how much I don’t think he’d randomly turn on Erik like a mustache-twirling villain.

One more innocuous headcanon: Erik taught August how to dress, because August showed up to school with no damn idea, his first year. To be fair, so few sixteen-year-old boys know how to dress themselves, even when they can afford nice wardrobes. Some of August’s clothes are his father’s old clothes. I mean, definitely the outfit he went shooting in feels like something that could have belonged to his dad.

One less innocuous headcanon: August kept some pretty serious secrets for Erik. I still kind of think this is true in canon and that we could get a big secret revealed in season 3.

That’s all for now! I hope you enjoyed reading if you got this far. I don’t expect too much engagement but I am making an effort to be more real and honest about my YR enthusiasms in these posts.

#young royals #yr headcanons #august young royals #august horn of årnäs #formatted this whole post while listening to the fun home soundtrack #which despite being quite Midcentury Butch Lesbian is also simultaneously very August vibes at times #the same way Sara vibes are Into the Woods and my Felice writing soundtrack is all Jake Blount’s folk music

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cheeriecherrymain · 1 year

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Here’s my request for headcanons: Viktor during Halloween!

I'm very sorry it gets a little bit saucy at the end

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Viktor x Reader - Halloween Edition

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-Halloween is different between Piltover and its undercity. Topside is where you’ll find fancy costume balls, exquisite clothing and intricate masks, and little groups of children wandering around between shops in search of free candy.

-Zaun is where you’ll find…creepier things, in a sense. The traditions are kind of similar, but with such a distinct gap in wealth, they’re bound to be executed differently.

-The costumes are all handmade, for those who can afford it. Hand-painted paper mache masks, often made by the kids who wear them, brightly coloured and worn above some kind of dark cloak. Like some kind of strange floating head.

-But you’ll only find children looking for candy in the better parts of the city. Most of the people outside those areas couldn’t afford to be giving things away for free, anyways.

-Keeping all this in mind, you know that your beloved boyfriend had never really experienced the true joy of getting dressed up in a fancy costume, and wandering around until he had more sweets than he knew what to do with.

-You sincerely doubt he’d find joy in doing such a thing now: his work kept him busy, and his lack of inclination towards crowds would mean he wasn’t interested in attending a party. But that didn’t mean you couldn’t try.

-You head over to the lab at an obscene time of day - so early that the sun wouldn’t be up for another couple of hours. You weren’t a morning person in the slightest, but you knew that this was the only time of day where you could guarantee Viktor wouldn’t be present.

-And so you spend another couple hours decorating. It’s nothing fancy; mostly little strings of festive shapes that you’ve cut out of paper, tiny hanging lanterns that flicker with faux candles in them.

-You even take the time to hand-paint designs all over the window glass, so the sun casts interesting shadows across the room.

-And of course, you make sure to do everything in such a way so that the lab is still entirely usable. Nothing in the way of experiments or tools, nothing blocking doorways or the lamps on the desks.

-Proud of your work, you decide to reward yourself by curling up on the old couch shoved into the corner of the lab, for occasions where either Jayce or Viktor decide that going home isn’t worth the trouble (a less common occurrence nowadays, thankfully)

-What you don’t expect is to wake up many hours later than intended. What had been planned as a quick nap had apparently quickly become a longer snooze, leaving you frazzled and confused when you open your eyes.

-The couch has left imprints in your skin, wrinkles which dictate how well you actually managed to sleep. Even more lovely is Viktor’s coat, thick wool with a soft lining, laid comfortably over your upper body to keep you warm.

-Neither scientist notices you wake up, too engrossed in their own tasks. It gives you a moment to look around the room and observe them for a bit.

-Well, you mostly observe your boyfriend.

-Watching quietly while he writes his messy notes, his lips pressed together in a thin, pensive line. The little crease at the corner of his eye, more pronounced when he squints while he thinks, undoubtedly going over one of the problems the duo have been facing throughout the week.

-It warms your heart.

-And then, with a little thrill, do you notice that thing.

-The thing you had mostly bought as a joke. That you would have worn all day, had Viktor refused.

-A cat-eared headband.

-It’s subtle, made of black felt and wire, but it’s there. Set perfectly on top of his head.

-You can’t help the mirthful giggle that bubbles past your lips, alerting your boyfriend to your status. He glances over to you with a smile, slowly rising out of his seat to come over to you, stretching along the way.

- “You’ve nearly missed lunch,” he says, finding a seat beside you on the couch. You roll into a sitting position, pressed right up against him, and quickly lean towards him to steal a kiss.

- “I didn’t expect to sleep so long,” you admit. “I guess I was more tired than I thought I was.”

- “Yes, sneaking into the lab in the wee hours of the morning just to decorate would probably do that,” he chastises you, though there’s no real malice or disapproval in his tone.

-You smile at him, stealing one last kiss before reaching up to nudge the ears atop his head. “I didn’t think you’d even consider wearing these,” you tell him, straightening them by a fraction. “I thought for sure they’d be too childish for you.”

-He presses his lips to your cheek a couple of times, until you snort and try to squirm away. “I never got to wear such a thing growing up. I figured I might as well try it out now.”

-You stare up at him, fondly going over each of his features, your heart growing warmer with each you pass. Until your gaze inevitably ends up back at the ears.

- “They suit you, in any case,” you smile.

-And then, all at once, your boyfriend’s expression goes from light and happy, to troublesome and mischievous. Something you’ve seen him wear far too many times, almost always preceding some kind of nonsense prank. Usually at Jayce’s expense.

-Or yours.

-He tilts his face down, his lips brushing against the curve of your jaw, all the way to the spot just below your ear.

- “They’ll suit you even better,” he murmurs lowly, his breath tickling your skin. “If you’ll wear them for me tonight, micinka?”

#viktor x reader #viktor arcane x reader #arcane x reader #viktor headcanons #arcane headcanons #requests are open!

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zenballmaster · 22 days

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i have come back from seeing the movie a second time and i have. predictably. still more thoughts. spoilers (poses)

i felt the five's absence a lot more this time around orz like occasionally my mind would wander and imagine how this scene/interaction with zhen would go if tigress was there as well. also having a vague headcanon from The Olden Days that monkey has a very slight background in Less Than Lawful Crowds means i also sometimes thought about him seeing this den of thieves and being like. 'huh'

some things stuck out a bit more as a retread this time around than the first time, in particular the continued insistence on juniper city being so Huge when it's like. well. not that much visibly Larger than gongmen city was

like po's 'wooooah that's the biggest village i've ever SEEN' makes me want to put my hand on his shoulder like. 'po. honey'

i really really love seeing the nearby Outside of the valley of peace bc it's honestly just Gorgeous and feels very ghibli hills-esque ;-;

i still enjoy the chameleon and still feel like she has a very fun and intimidating presence despite being so small (i think a chunk of that is her VA tbh i love love her voice ghfieo), but i kiiinda feel like for as threatening as they try to make her, we really needed to see her do something more physically ominous and/or Nefarious than push someone down the stairs orz

ALSO related a little but tbh the times when we do get to see po and the chameleon talk to each other i feel like they have a good hero-villain chemistry and an intriguing Issue between them but. yeah they don't. really interact face to face hardly At All, and that interesting conflict they potentially have isn't really given any time to develop or be really dug into. also idk that it totally matches up between them, either thinking emoji

speaking of conflicts that aren't really explored to the depth i would personally be satisfied with-- while the idea that po already is being pushed into choosing a successor to replace him irks me more than it did the first time (rip), i do like the notion that's brought up of 'who you were will always be a part of who you are/become' and how it sorta lightly touches on the idea of grieving the person you once were, even if who you're becoming is an even better version of yourself than before

the final fight with the chameleon is more intense than i remembered it being

i'm more invested in zhen and han than i already was lmao also i feel like. there must have been More to zhen's betrayal down the line than just abandoning them for the chameleon's cold wealth. i wonder if the chameleon had zhen Do Something Personal in an attempt to further dissociate her from her old found family

i really enjoy han's deadpan 'those are both very common names' line for some reason

granny boar should be another rival to grandma panda. she can't reserve all her annoyance just for mr ping

po's disembodied head floating in space will never not immediately make me lose my mind. i laugh every gd time

aaand lastly there was a family with one kid sitting somewhere to the right of me and it was so so cute hearing her laugh at some of the jokes ghfhifoeoi

#spoilers #also i went to a theater downtown instead this time and i have to say. i should do that more often...... it's so pretty there..............

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jestersnonsense · 8 months

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So this is a niche idea that probably only appeals to me but I can't get it out of my head so I'm sharing it with all of you. AU where Gold (from the Pokémon: Lost Silver creepypasta) gets adopted by the Haunted Mansion crew

Long post under the cut

Quick disclaimer: I have not played the Hypno's Lullaby FNF mod yet and I have not watched a full playthrough of it yet (I have seen parts here and there though). I've just been listening to the Monochrome song on loop for 4 straight days (it's a banger btw, especially the Perish mix) and fell straight back into my old Creepypasta phase. My entire perception of Gold's personality comes from what I've seen of the FNF mod, read about on TvTropes, and fanon (I did read the original creepypasta story that he's from, but that honestly gives nothing to work with). This is to say, I apologize in advance if I absolutely butcher Gold's canon personality. I am just very fond of the perception of his character I have in my head.

Anyway! The most prominent trait I interpret of Gold from what I've seen of him so far is that he is DEAD. And SAD. And SAD about being DEAD.

And Disney's Haunted Mansion is filled with dead people who are not necessarily as distraught about their predicament.

I imagine Gold (and the many, many Unown inhabiting his corpse) somehow get isekai-ed out of his game and into one of the Disney Parks. He's floating down the sidewalk feeling very sad indeed, groaning "N O M O R E" every so often.

Ghost Host looks outside and sees this lost soul and his companions just floating about. Hosty, not being one to just leave a soul out in the open, decides to take him in.

The Hatbox Ghost and Emily (Beating Heart Bride) adopt him immediately! Gold is like the son they never had. Hatty is absolutely delighted when he learns Gold can detach his head from his body.

Communicating with Gold is difficult at first, seeing as Gold doesn't speak much. But after some time, the other ghosts eventually learn to read the Unown language.

In particular, Gold and Gus (the prisoner hitchhiker) would have a special bond over both being non-speakers (I headcanon Gus as mute)

This isn't to say I don't think Gold has the ability to talk. I think he could, he just prefers not to. More often than not, he only groans maybe 1-3 words at a time. Otherwise, the unown just spell things out for him.

Sally Slater (the tightrope girl) and Victor Geist (the Organist) go out for ice cream once a week. After they get to know Gold, it becomes a regular thing for them to invite him on their outings. They grab a wheelchair for him (so that he doesn't have to use extra energy floating around) and wheel him out of the mansion to grab some Dole Whip.

Gold doesn't talk much. So during these outings, he prefers to just sit and enjoy his ice cream while listening to Sally and Victor bicker and gossip. Even though he never says it, he enjoys their company.

The hitchhiking ghosts are the ones to take Gold on his first tour of the park. Their preferred method is tying up Gold to those big Mickey balloons and dragging him from place to place

They take him on the fast-pace thrill rides first (think Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, etc.) first because those are their favorites (though specifically more Ezra's favorites). They quickly find out that Gold does NOT like that. So Phineas suggests they take him on It's A Small World. Gold feels much better afterwards. :)

I headcanon Gold prefers the more calm rides. So think It's A Small World and the Storybook Land Canal Boats.

Oh, and he absolutely does NOT want to go on Matterhorn. Ever.

At the end of the hitchhiker's Disney park tour, they gather near the castle to watch the fireworks. Hatty and Emily join in too.

Gold is now surrounded by many more friends, who are all dead just like he is. But perhaps being dead doesn't have to be so bad after all.

#haunted mansion #the haunted mansion #lost silver #fnf lullaby #gold lost silver #hatbox ghost #beating heart bride #herr victor geist #sally slater #hitchhiking ghosts #headcanons #jesters ramblings #feel like this appeals to literally only me but whatever #i am cringe but i am free #everyone is happy #especially gold because he deserves it

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marshmallowsqoosh · 1 year

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[Ghost (Band) | The Dancing (ficlet)]

Smol fluffy TerzOmega from discord that I wrote for my bestest enabler. I don’t remember why. Probably cuz he’s the bestest tho.

Once in a blue moon I am able to meet a fluff quota. The angst that follows usually makes up for me being marshmallow fluff though lmao.

word count. ~1.300 warnings. minimum plot if any, fluff, author chooses to believe Nihil didn’t hate his kids and they have names that aren’t 1/2/3 (Special calls Terzo Vale for Valentino), headcanon that doesn’t line up with IRL (Era 2 and 3 Ghouls are separate people, not the same), Special & Terzo are BFFs, not beta read (if you spot typos lemme know!)

♥

[i. Crowded]

Omega does his best not to let the disappointment manifest when yet another human catches Terzo as he's trying to cross the room and pulls him off for the next dance. He accepts, to keep up appearances; but, he still gives Omega an apologetic look over his shoulder as he's pulled back into the thicker part of the crowd.

Secondo's Ghouls have taken over a corner to themselves to dance with each other—Air constantly just barely hiding that he's floating and going out to bother Secondo in short bursts, only to be chased back to the corner he takes up with Water. It never seems to bother either of them, as they simply laugh it off. The other Era Three Ghouls got pulled into the dancing sometime earlier in the night and Omega lost track of them—he knows Alpha's skulking on the far side of the hall, doing his best to avoid getting pulled in for another dance. Because he doesn't have the same inclination to say no as Omega.

People ask Omega—or start to. They get close enough to ask him before deciding against it with little more than an unblinking stare. Alpha isn't allowed the same freedom, simply because he knows he has to be on his best behaviour and scaring any member of the clergy is... inappropriate and he tended to come off a bit more harsh than the others. Omega almost wants to tell him to just decline—that he'll deal with any repercussion the Fire Ghoul might face—so maybe people will get bored and leave faster—

He raises a brow when Special sulks around the edge of the dance floor and simply plops down on the floor next to him, knees pulled up to his chest and tail tucked inside of the suit jacket so he can chew on the spade without people noticing.

"I'm surprised you aren't dancing." He'd been remarkably social at the Grammy's—

"Everyone's scared of me." Omega almost doesn't hear him over the music and chatter. But, his ears twitch and he tilts his head a little to show he did hear. Special just puts his head against his knees. "People outside the Ministry don't know. They don't know to be scared and alcohol makes it harder for humans to know something's wrong with me. ... Doesn't work at home, though. Vale usually dances with me at least once, but I can't get him away from people. I tried. It didn't work."

He... maybe forgot that Special came off differently to people than other Ghouls did. As charming and approachable as he was... Omega's heard interviewers and venue staff comment on how unsettling he could be, despite doing his best to be friendly and easily being the most charismatic of… basically any of the band Ghouls.

“... It's not the same, but would you like to dance, with me? At least a little bit? I'll help you get Terzo's attention." Special looks up, giving him a skeptical look that Omega can't say he doesn't deserve, even as he extends a hand to help him up. "You shouldn't use his name in public, you know better."

Special might have something sassy to add; but, he seems to think better of it and finally accepts the offered hand up. Omega lets him figure out his hands—realises he's not used to dancing with people significantly bigger than him—before offering to lead. It's not much different than dancing with Terzo, in Omega's case, just... a little odd. Tense, at first—both of them more than a little aware of attention following them and Special trying hard to ignore the extra attention—but, as the smaller Ghoul start to relax and actually have fun, it... might make Omega smile. Just a little bit.

He might forget, a lot, that Special's probably the most emotionally fragile of the group, despite being the oldest; always setting his expectations as high—sometimes higher—than Terzo did and desperate to fit in when he knew he was different. But, it is nice to see him being a little less chaotic than normal while having fun.

It does work out as he intends. As the song ends and people begin meandering to find new dance partners, they're close enough to Terzo that Omega can give Special a gentle push towards their summoner and offer a tip of his head before he quickly escapes anyone trying to ask him to dance more. Terzo looks surprised and he thinks Special might look the smallest bit guilty; but, he can hear them laughing a few seconds later and Terzo declining other people asking him to dance by pointing out he's already got a partner for the moment.

Omega can be patient. He knows he'll get the last dance and... as much as he wants the world to know it can't have Terzo the way he does, he might be looking forward to a quieter dance without people watching them too closely.

[ii. Quiet]

As much as Terzo would love to just fall onto his bed, he knows he needs to wash his paint off. And get undressed. And wind down from the excessively fried and definitely dead social battery.

Instead of doing any of that, though, he decides on a far more important task and simply falls into Omega, face buried against his chest. The laugh floods him with warmth and safety—amplified when his Ghoul simply envelops him in a secure hug—and Terzo finally raises his arms to let them curl around Omega's torso.

"I'm proud of you for getting through the entire ball."

"I'm glad one of us is." He doesn't mean to grumble. "... Thank you. For letting Special have fun, too. You should have stayed close, so I could dance with both of you."

Omega hums and Terzo simply smothers himself in the reverberation in his Ghoul's chest.

Soothing. Sleepy.

"As much as I enjoy the world knowing it can't have you, I fear I would have become possessive if anyone asked you away after us, etiquette be damned."

Terzo laughs and finally looks up. He's so tired... but this feels right. And necessary. "Well. The world can't be upset if you're possessive now, can it? Dance with me?"

"You need rest." Despite the words, there's the smallest lilt of hesitation in the tone—hesitation that says he does want to dance, reflected in a shared warmth that Terzo feels in his chest that's just making him even sleepier as he relaxes. In the same vein, it makes him that much more determined to stay awake a bit longer and Terzo promptly rights himself, hands easily finding where they normally rest.

"Rest will be inevitable and frequent. I don't get nearly enough time to simply enjoy your company. Please?"

It's a quiet dance, at first—a few practiced, cautious steps just to ensure they have space to dance in the bedroom. An easy transition, especially when a gentle hum begins to fill the stillness, just before Terzo can ask if he should put a record on for music.

He doesn't recognise the melody right away, but it's soothing. Enough that he puts his head back against Omega's chest, only just staying awake as he realises the humming causes a steady, comforting rumble, makes the tune deeper, from his Ghoul's chest.

Safe. Comforting.

He' s only just staying awake because he wants to hear the song. He doesn't want it to end. He wants to ask what it is, but doesn't want it to end.

He hopes he remembers in the morning, because as the song—and, in turn, the dance—slowly come to a stop, Terzo simply lets out a slow breath and lets himself fall asleep with the most gentle nuzzle and prompting from his Ghoul.

I have you, Morning Star. It's time to rest... so you can shine all the brighter through the day.

He hopes he remembers to ask about that, too, because surely he must have misheard.

#sqooshy writes #ghost band #ghost fanfiction #terzomega #terzo x omega #Omega Ghoul #papa emeritus iii #terzo #special ghoul #fluff #rating: general

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four-bastard-bustle · 23 days

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Since Matt ends up getting better at some point do him and Tom still get chased out by society like in the original timeline? Is there any other considerable chances that you haven’t mentioned yet or have been on the fence about?

That part has been taken out with the reboot. Mostly because i wanted to just draw/design some more old people (and as we all know I can't bring myself to care about any ew character outside the main four for more than 5 minutes) and also i felt like it wasn't quite going anywhere beyond that.

Thematically it worked for what I was going for like "we accept and love each other even when society doesn't" but then also like. Man, what would they even DO when just living in the wild, y'know? It was good on its own but weak when put into a story context. Very "now what?"-core

Also i think i want them to be able to support Edd a bit more as he ages and really starts suffering from backlash of his radiation powers. Him ending up really lonely felt a bit like. Meanspirited in the long term.

A general thing abt my headcanons that i wanted to change was the way Tom barely passed as human before. Mostly cause everyone still being fooled was only funny for like an irl week. That's why I went for the vessel thing, him and Matt are still fucked up in similar ways (both are technically dead) but Tom DOES look human now. So it's a bit more plausible for me him to, y'know, live in a society.

One big change (the one that sparked this reboot) is that red leader isn't gonna be a downright fascist anymore because plenty of people told me that's inappropriate and i definitely get it now. It's eddsworld like, doing some emotional stuff is one thing but deep societal and political commentary? Yeah no that's way too ambitious (not to mention i executed it like shit) I'm just gonna make red be silly evil

If you remember that one post, i wanna take some inspo for red leader and his kids from King Koopa and his koopalings in the mario cartoons. Because of that I'm considering aging them up some, because you can't really do funny stuff when you're a year old. Well, at least not beyond crawling through a construction site and narrowly missing deadly debris :P

Hmmm that's about it rn i think. That's all the main changes floating around in my head rn. But if more comes up I'll share it here 👍

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loycos · 2 years

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i already bitched and moaned about this on twitter, but now i have more than 280 characters to rile about it. so...

I’ve been seeing this take from so many users on twitter, most of them with tons of likes and reblogs. these are the first ones that came in my search, but this headcanon’s been floating for a while now.

youre all wrong.

ok ok, everyone’s entitled to their own opinions and headcanons. BUT. you’re wrong. this is not how jealousy works.

before i womansplain what jealousy in relationships means, lemme start with this. we only see 2 clear examples of characters being jealous over their loved one in Arcane: Jinx and Silco. Jinx clearly picked some of this up from Silco, but the whole “Caitlyn grew up as an only child! she can’t share LOL” is a weird claim to make when Powder grew up with 2 brothers and a sister and they basically had nothing, yet she’s the most jealous character on the show. but OK, let’s say this part of Powder only came from Silco’s influence (it didn’t, as I’ll explain later) and she grew up as an “only child” under a “”rich crime lord””. whatever. next.

Jealousy, when it comes to jealousy in relation to people and relationships, does NOT come from a place of “sharing”. what you’re thinking of is people being possessive over food or toys or whatever else kids learn to share in kindergarten. most people who are jealous in relationships do not think of their partner as actual belongings. well, very few do, but do you REALLY think Caitlyn see Vi as a possession..? she never showed any sort of materialism and is very open in her distain to this particular part of Piltover’s culture. she’s not you’re average rich kid. So if she was the jealous type, she’d be of the second kind.

the second, much more common form of jealousy in relationships stems from people’s own insecurities. the scenario that they have in their head goes something like this “if my loved one met someone else, better than me, they’d realize they have no reason to stay with me”. this is very much a problem that people with lack of self confidence, or trust issues, have. Does Caitlyn struck you as ever having any of those issues before?

Caitlyn is self confident, even when she’s in an unfamiliar environment (look at her in Stillwater, in the undercity. she’s nervous, but still sure of herself and her abilities). She isn’t afraid to be vulnerable (she really said ‘what about us?’ while Vi was walking away, literally putting her heart on the line admitting that she feels something deeper, as Vi was rejecting her!!), which to me points to the fact she doesn't have trust issues. for a point of reference, look at how many walls Vi has around her. for Caitlyn, it makes sense, she grew up in a stable household with parents that love her and support her (they arent perfect but still) and she didnt have to watch her family die twice. which leads us to

Powder, Jinx whatever stage of her life she’s in- always had self worth issues. she kept comparing herself to her much more capable siblings as a kid, which resulted in a meltdown and the eventual killing of her family. as Jinx, she’s nowhere near over that, fearing Silco would abandon her if she doesn’t prove herself to him, thinking Vi will leave her the moment she breathes in the direction of another human being. those issues aren’t there because she was raised as “silco’s spoiled little only child”, they were there from her times with her old family and they only got worse under his influence.

Jealousy isn’t just “oh this person flirted with my partner! >:( me no like!” it’s often people who won’t let their partner hang out with other people. Would guilt trip their partner for prioritizing spending time with people who aren’t them, like family and friends. demand their partner full attention at all times. Jealousy isn’t Cute, its legitimately a toxic behavior. We saw Caitlyn let Vi go, twice. she is not the type to jealously insert herself into Vi’s life and her relationships with other people. Caitlyn to me feels like the type of person to support Vi having people in her life that aren’t herself. She wants to see Vi flourish and heal. I honestly think she’d feel proud if someone started flirting with Vi, cause she knows her girlfriend is hot. why would she feel bad about it? why wouldn't she trust Vi to stay loyal to her?

So like, unless you think Caitlyn isn’t self confident, or that she literally sees Vi as a possession, that headcanon doesn't make any sense. or worse, it’s very shallowly attributes characteristics based on a stereotype that Caitlyn very much tries to break out of for her entire life.

#caitlyn kiramman #sorry for the RANT omg #it grinds my gears #arcane #piltover's finest

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purrincess-chat · 1 year

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Something that has been on my mind today since reading Rae's post this morning might ruffle a few feathers, but I feel like sharing my perspective. This isn't directed at any one person because I've seen it in numerous places from numerous people over the last several months, and I'm not looking to start any fights, just sharing my experience.

A lot of the outcry I've seen about pre reveal Adrinette "ruining" the love square or not being fair to x side or whatever grievance people have is giving me salty side of the fandom vibes. I say this as someone who was once part of the salt crowd and left for various reasons I've talked about over time. Now, these people making these posts might scoff at that notion because "unlike the salters I actually love the show," but the thing about salters is they once loved the show too.

The thing about fandom is it's a double edged sword. It's fun to make headcanons and write fanfic about our faves in situations. It's fun to speculate about what all of the little pieces and clues and crumbs in canon mean. But when the lines between fanon and canon get blurred, that's when things get tricky. It's fun until it isn't.

As someone who was once part of the salt crowd who had many friends who took pleasure in ripping the show apart, I can tell you that a vast majority of the vitriol came from unmet expectations. We got it in our heads that something would happen or should happen in order for the show to be good, and when those very hyper specific things didn't happen, we got mad. "It's bad writing" we would say. "It's not fair" we would cry. "Canon would be better if it just did what we wanted." From our perspective, we loved the show a lot and wanted to see it done well. We wanted to see a good story told because we loved the characters and the universe. At least, that's how I felt. I wrote numerous salt fics after Chameleon and started arguably one of the worst salt trends to come from that episode with the whole 'Marinette changes schools and gets revenge' trope. But eventually, for me, the constant negativity reached a point that was unhealthy, and I started to recognize the anger and disappointment I felt towards the writers bleeding into my psyche and corrupting me. I no longer enjoyed the show I once loved. My days were full of arguments with strangers over fictional people. I was angry. I would lash out at anyone who disagreed with me. I was miserable. So I pumped the brakes. I took breaks from the fandom to work through my own issues. I asked myself why I was even here at all if I wasn't enjoying it. And ultimately I decided I did still enjoy the show even with all of its flaws, and I accepted that canon was going to do whatever canon was going to do. When I came back to fandom, I found I no longer related to the salt crowd, so I left it behind. I mass unfollowed everyone in the fandom minus a few trusted mutuals and friends. Over the last couple years I've slowly started branching out again, being extremely picky about who I follow this time. So when I say this, it comes from a place of experience because a lot of the posts I've seen floating around from people who admonish the salters and tout themselves as not being like the salters are starting to look familiar. As Dr. Taylor Swift once said, "I think I've seen this film before, and I didn't like the ending." The salters started out the same way, at least the ones I knew. They originally loved canon, then one thing happened that they didn't quite like. Then the next tiny little thing became more noticeable. Then they started noticing a lot of things. Then they started looking for things to notice. And it snowballed from there to what it is now: a group of bitter, disgruntled ex-fans whose expectations were never met.

I'm not saying the people posting about their disapproval of pre reveal Adrinette are all terrible bad people on par with the salters. Nor am I saying they will ever get that bad necessarily. I'm just saying that these posts, to me, resemble the beginning of that road. Certain expectations that weren't met by canon, and anyone who even tries to suggest that those expectations weren't meant to happen are wrong and don't understand the show clearly because if you did, you'd agree with our anger.

Maybe I'm just jaded with fandom. Maybe I'm too old. Maybe I'm a biased Adrinette stan that is happy to see the two kids finally getting together after 4.5 seasons of dancing circles around each other. 🤷‍♀️ But when I came back and changed my tune toward the show I accepted canon for what it is. It's fun. It's cringy. It has good parts and bad parts. It's neither the terrible, awful shitshow the salters make it out to be nor the perfectly innocent devoid of any flaws angel that its highest praisers make it out to be. It is what it is. I told myself a long time ago that I just want to see the love square get together by whatever means necessary. If the writers feel like pre reveal Adrinette is necessary, then that's just what it is. No amount of me bitching about what could've been, would've been, should've been will change that. If I'm really disgruntled, I'll go write a fic about what I wanted to happen instead. That's what fandom is for. That was fanfic's original purpose. It was a writer's ability to say "but what if this happened instead?"

Idk. A lot of the takes I've seen in fandom lately just leave a bad taste in my mouth and remind me of a time in my fandom history that I've worked hard to move on from. This fandom has been dying for years, and I think s5 will be the final nail in the coffin.

#cat salts #ml fandom salt #might delete later idk #just something that has been on my mind lately #the salters and fans have started to look too similar to me at times #and i know they will all deny it and claim to be different but #ive seen both sides 🤷‍♀️#so i know what to look for #anyway #thats all i will say on the matter #honestly i will be surprised if there is anyone left after this season

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darthfrodophantom · 2 years

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Alone in the Ghost Zone (with You) - Chapter 1

Summary: Danny wakes up tied up and abandoned in the Ghost Zone with no memory of how he got there, but his quick ideas for an escape are complicated by the presence of Jazz and his parents. With no idea which ghost kidnapped him or even where he is in the Ghost Zone, he has to work with his parents to navigate the perils of the Ghost Zone, but can he escape with his family and secret still intact?

Well, originally this idea was going to be my attempt at writing a longfic for Phic Phight instead of the oneshots I’ve been doing since I came back. I’d planned to submit all 4 of these chapters during Phic Phight but…that clearly didn’t happen. I was lucky to finish this one in time!

I’ve been wanting to do a “field trip to the Ghost Zone” for a long time, and this prompt was the perfect excuse! Please ignore some of my attempts at making the Ghost Zone scientifically make sense (seriously, we know so little about the science behind Ghost Zone it’s awesome and frustrating at the same time). This is my first time actually spending a lot of time in the Ghost Zone, so don’t mind me as I figure out some of my own headcanons about the place as I go!

I hope you enjoy!

Prompt: Danny wakes up on a small floating island in the middle of the Zone. The last thing he remembers is sitting down to eat dinner with his parents and his sister. How did he get here? (PR115) - for @idiot-onion

https://archiveofourown.org/works/38711061/chapters/96789075

Chapter 1: Otherness

Danny’s vision swam sickeningly as soon as he opened his eyes. He shut them immediately, but he could still feel the vertigo mixed with nausea impact even the black behind his eyelids. His head pounded sharply behind his eyebrows and his body felt stiff and unresponsive. What happened? Dinner hadn’t been that bad.

The longer he kept his eyes closed, the better his nausea felt, but he did not like how stiff he felt. Almost like he couldn’t move. He tried to open his eyes again, but everything still spun around him.

No…the world wasn’t spinning, it was swirling. Sickeningly green swirls that shifted and glowed.

Ghost Zone.

He was in the Ghost Zone.

Panic flooded his body because he couldn’t remember going into the Ghost Zone. He had been…wait what had he been doing? Why did his head hurt so much every time he tried to think about what he did right before waking up? He was…dinner. He was eating dinner in his kitchen. So how did he get into the Ghost Zone?

He tried to move, to get a better look at his surroundings, but he could feel something stopping him, trapping him. He could feel the hard chill of metal along his back, and he noticed he was resting in some kind of metal pod. He finally looked down and saw bindings across his chest, arms, abdomen, and legs. He also noticed jeans and a t-shirt, which meant he wasn’t in his ghost form. That made no sense. He wouldn’t have gone into the Ghost Zone in his human form. Something was wrong.

He struggled against the secure bonds, but they held him tight and he could barely budge. He didn’t like this. He remembered eating dinner and now he was tied up into some strange contraption as a human in an unfamiliar part of the Ghost Zone with no memory of how that happened. He still couldn’t think through that fog without a sharp pain behind his eyebrows and a churn of nausea in his gut.

Being a human in the Ghost Zone just felt…wrong. It left him vulnerable and on edge, and he didn’t like it. He could also feel this pull, like the ghostly parts of him knew that he should be a ghost right now. Almost like he didn’t belong as a human in this world, but he could belong as a ghost. He noticed it the few occasions he’d ventured into the Ghost Zone as a human, but for some reason that feeling of ‘otherness’ as a human felt even more pronounced now. Well, no point in staying human, not when his ghost form gave him a better chance to escape and protect himself. He pulled on that strong push to be a ghost, and the bright rings of light formed around his waist.

“Danny!” he heard a voice hiss in warning off to his side. “No.”

He immediately stopped the transformation and the rings disappeared. That voice…it almost sounded like…

“Mom, Dad, are you awake?” the voice - Jazz’s voice - called out in a suspiciously loud timber. Mom and Dad. Oh no.

He craned his neck out of the pod as much as he could to see three other pods to his right. He could barely make out the bright orange spandex of his dad’s jumpsuit. His whole family was here, trapped in the same pods as him. That complicated things. That complicated things a lot. If it was just himself or just himself and Jazz, he could transform and fly them out of there no problem. But trying to get everyone out of the Ghost Zone with his parents here…this was going to be difficult. He’d have to play this very, very safe. Thank god Jazz warned him.

Jack and Maddie groaned as Jazz’s call shook them awake. Jack’s large frame shifted in his pod. “Wha—?” Jack asked, his voice slurred and groggy. “Where’s my dinner?”

“Where-where are we?” Maddie questioned. He could hear his mom’s pod shift and creak as she tried to get a good look around her. “This place doesn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen before. And the air has an odd taste like…like citrus. Almost like–” She gasped loudly. “Are we in the Ghost Zone?!” she shrieked.

“Now now Mads, calm down,” Jack comforted, though Danny could tell it didn’t work well since he could hear his mom struggling to escape. “That’s just silly talk! We all know the Ghost Zone isn’t safe for humans. So we can’t possibly be in the–” His dad stopped talking as all four of them noticed a large serpentine ghost slither through the swirling sky in the distance. “Well, guess we’re in the Ghost Zone.” Jack deadpanned.

Danny could feel the tension emanating from his parents’ direction. He could feel them freaking out without even needing to see them. They had run so many tests on the Ghost Zone through the portal to determine if the place was safe, and despite their curiosity they still couldn’t decide whether it was safe enough to venture inside. What they didn’t know was the portal itself messed with their readings, but it wasn’t like he had ever been able to explain that to them.

“How are we supposed to breathe?” Maddie cried out. “We never confirmed there was oxygen in here!”

“Well we’re talking right now so–” Jack tried to reason, but Maddie cut him off.

“What about radiation? Ecto-contamination? Temperature control and regulation? Hazardous fumes?”

“I don’t know Mads but–”

“Jack, are we ghosts?”

“Hey!” Danny interrupted loudly, which finally stunned his parents into silence. This had gone far enough. If any of them were going to get out of here, he needed his parents to calm down and start thinking clearly. “Can you both stop freaking out for five minutes and realize we all seem to be okay?”

He’d get his parents calmed down, find a way to convince them the Ghost Zone was safe, and then they could start working together to–

“Danny?!” his mom shrieked in alarm. “You’re here too?” She craned her head out of the pod to see the three other pods that held her family. “And Jazz too! Jack, our children are in danger!”

Well, that didn’t turn out the way he’d hoped.

“Kids, are you okay?” Jack asked, and even though he tried to sound strong, Danny could hear worry creep into his voice.

“We’re fine,” Jazz assured them. “I’ve been awake for a few minutes and other than feeling a little groggy I’m fine.”

“Are you sure you’re fine?” Maddie pressed. “Are you feeling any nausea? Headache? Confusion? Burning of your eyes or your throat? Dizziness? Fever - don’t know how you’ll check that one tied up in a pod but–”

“Mom! I need you to pull yourself together!” Danny yelled. His tone was almost a little too demanding, and honestly sounded more like something he would say as Phantom. He’d have to be careful of that. That transition to his Phantom persona was a little too natural, though it probably had something to do with being in the Ghost Zone. “We’re fine. We’re going to be fine. Aside from being full of ghosts, the Ghost Zone is safe for humans.”

“Danny…” Jazz muttered in warning.

“What do you mean the Ghost Zone is safe?” Jack asked. “We’ve never told either of you that.”

“I uh, may have figured it out on my own?” Danny tried. He knew it was safe. He’d done all the necessary checks after Tucker and Sam ended up in the Ghost Zone the first time. He used all his parents’ devices and the Specter Speeder to make sure that it would be safe for Tucker and Sam to return in the future. As far as they could tell with their rising ectology knowledge, the Ghost Zone didn’t pose any greater threat to humans.

“And how is that young man?” Maddie asked sternly.

Danny licked his lips nervously. “Tucker, Sam, and I may…have fallen in here at some point,” he said in a rush as the last few words all blended together. He could almost feel Jazz shake her head with disapproval.

“You what?!” Jack and Maddie cried out in unison.

“It was an accident!” Danny defended.

“And you never told us?” Maddie asked.

“Because we knew we’d be in trouble! But we didn’t do it on purpose!” Danny insisted. And really…the first time it was an accident, so he wasn’t lying all that much. “We were playing around in the Specter Speeder - I know, we’re not supposed to - and then next thing we know something activated and it surged forward into the Ghost Zone. But the speeder got all kinds of data while we were in there - no radiation or contamination or anything hazardous. It’s fine.”

“But…wait, the instruments on the speeder haven’t ever shown any kind of readings,” Jack pointed out.

“Well…I may have had Tucker wipe it so you wouldn’t find out,” Danny admitted as he bit his lip. Actually, they’d saved and wiped the data many times. They amassed a large amount of data on how the Ghost Zone changed (or more accurately, didn’t) over time. His parents would kill for that data…which is exactly what he was afraid of.

“Daniel James Fenton, you are going to be grounded when we get back home!” Maddie threatened, and Danny winced from her tone. “And that’s just to start!”

“Shouldn’t it count for something that I risked being in trouble to tell you this right now?” he tried.

“No,” his parents both said firmly.

“Worth a shot,” Jazz murmured to Danny.

“Well, you can’t ground me while I’m stuck in the Ghost Zone,” Danny quipped. “So, how about you just trust me that it’s safe and instead of panicking about why we’re safe, we figure out how we ended up here and how we get out.” Maybe keeping his mom’s mind on something else would help calm her down. He knew this wasn’t an ideal scenario, but his mom usually had a cooler head than this. He remembered when Vlad orchestrated the plane crash in the mountains, and she leapt to action and knew exactly what to do. Something about being in the Ghost Zone was making her more anxious than usual and it was a bit unsettling.

“No, you’re right,” Maddie sighed. “Whether it’s safe or not doesn’t really matter if we can’t get out of these pods or figure out how to get out. Jack, help me inspect these things we’re trapped in.”

Danny could hear his parents talking about the metal of the pod and any structural weaknesses (he was pretty sure he heard his sister exclaim in disgust that their father licked the metal casing to determine what type of metal it was), but he wasn’t really paying attention. He knew he should be keeping a better focus on his parents, especially when he was a half-ghost pretending to deny the ghostly part of him while he was surrounded by ghosts, but something about the bindings bothered him.

The leather bindings didn’t glow. Why weren’t they glowing? Anything ghost-proofed would glow in the presence of a ghost, and any ghost who orchestrated this would know who he was. These were real-world objects, which meant they were brought here special for them…so why weren’t they built to keep him in? And if he wasn’t trapped in a ghost-proofed prison then… He risked turning his hand intangible and pulled it cleanly through one of the bindings. No shocks. No barriers. No pain. That was…easy. Almost too easy.

He pulled his other hand free and got to work on releasing the other bindings. He traced the leather straps to find a latch on the metal base and unhooked it. They were simple, almost too simple, but they would be impossible to undo without a free hand. He could have phased through all of them, but his parents might see and he needed to make it look like he escaped normally.

He stepped free from his prison and finally got a good look around him. The four pods containing him and his family stood in the middle of a small rock that was barely large enough to hold all of them. He didn’t notice any other indication that this rock belonged in the lair of another ghost and he didn’t get the sense of trespassing he usually did once he strayed into another ghost’s lair. Which meant either they were in an unclaimed part of the Ghost Zone, or he wasn’t trespassing and was actually wanted here…

He looked at the rest of the Ghost Zone behind him as he tried to pinpoint where they were. He’d spent so many hours mapping the Ghost Zone and trying to find familiar monuments and way points so he could navigate the maze that was the Ghost Zone, but nothing here looked familiar. Since he couldn’t recognize anything, he had a couple guesses where they could be, but guesses weren’t helpful right now.

He caught Jazz’s eye and she looked at him in panic. She mouthed something to him, but he couldn’t figure it out. He never learned to lip read! She should know that! “Jazz I don’t know what you’re saying,” he said. Jazz threw her head back against the metal pod in frustration while Jack and Maddie turned to look at their children.

“What? Danny? How did you get free?” Maddie asked, her voice tinged with suspicion and shock.

Oh, that’s what Jazz must have been trying to warn him about. Well, they’d have to find out some time if he was going to get them out. “Oh, they must have gotten lazy when they tied me up,” he lied. God, those lies just came so easy. “Managed to get one hand free.”

“That’s my Danny!” Jack boasted. Jazz just groaned.

He walked over to his mom and unhooked the bindings around her wrists. He could feel her suspicious glare on him and he shuffled his foot nervously as he worked. “That’s pretty convenient,” she said.

Danny shrugged, trying to play it cool. “Well maybe whoever trapped us here wanted us to get out? See what we would do?” he suggested as he moved over to free his dad’s wrists. “Either way, we should take advantage of it.”

“You know, that does sound like something Phantom would do,” Maddie remarked.

Danny rolled his eyes and ignored both his parents as they talked about how the “dastardly and devious Phantom” could absolutely rig this. Instead he moved over to Jazz’s pod and helped release her bindings.

“That was reckless Danny,” Jazz warned in a whisper.

“Yeah, well we had to get out of these somehow, and I didn’t hear the wonder twins over there coming up with any better suggestions,” Danny retorted as he moved down to help Jazz free her feet while she worked on the ones on her chest.

“You’ve got to be careful about showing off while you’re in here with them,” she advised him.

“Showing off?” Danny asked. He looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. That was a weird choice of words.

Jazz groaned. “You know what I mean. Keep your powers and mention of anything you know about the Ghost Zone at a minimum.”

“Uh duh, thank you Captain Obvious,” Danny snapped.

“I’m just trying to help,” Jazz assured him. “I know you’re not used to being a human in the Ghost Zone, and it’s going to be tempting to use your powers or knowledge, but just…be careful in how you do it or Mom and Dad are going to find out.”

Man, even Jazz was picking up on how strange it felt to be stuck as a human in here. Was he just radiating that energy? Would his parents pick up on it? Maybe she was right, maybe he did need to be more careful…

“Would you look at this place…” Maddie breathed as she finally took in her surroundings. Danny thought she would make herself dizzy the way she spun around looking at the swirling mess of the Ghost Zone. “Jack, do you think these clouds are meant to resemble some kind of atmosphere?”

Jack stopped examining the ground and looked up at the clouds as he stroked his chin in thought. “Hmm, looks like. Could be that–”

“It must be why the air tastes like ectoplasm,” Maddie continued, interrupting Jack as soon as he confirmed her hypothesis. A flash of irritation crossed over Jack’s face before he focused on examining the rock beneath them again. “This realm must be full of aerosolized ectoplasm. Maybe it’s suspended in oxygen and/or nitrogen, which is why we can breathe, though why it would need to do that makes no sense because ghosts don’t breathe,” she pondered as she paced across the small rock. “Unless aerosolizing it helps with the ambient absorption of the ectoplasm around them to help rejuvenate and heal them. Jack we need to study this and–”

“And figure out how to get out of here,” Danny snapped. “Look, Mom, I’m sure this is exciting for you and all, but honestly, we don’t care how it works. We just want to get out of here as soon as possible.”

“Danny’s got a point,” Jazz agreed.

Maddie sighed as her shoulders sagged. “You’re right. It was probably just an incorrect theory anyways. But you’re right, we need to focus on getting out of here.”

“Well then, let’s find a way off this rock!” Jack suggested as he pumped a fist into the air.

“Not yet Jack!” Maddie disagreed, and Jack visibly deflated. “We need to see what resources we have first. What does everyone have on them?”

The Fenton family rummaged through their pockets. Danny didn’t really have much to report; he never kept much in his pockets. Of course his real resource wasn’t found in any pocket. His ghost powers could get them out of here in a snap, but that was a resource they unfortunately wouldn’t be able to tap into, not unless he could separate himself from his parents, and that wasn’t going to happen. He had a feeling whatever ghost orchestrated this knew that too, and specifically brought his parents to be a foil to his ghost powers. Well if that was the plan, it was working.

Danny did find his cell phone in his pocket, and while he knew it wouldn’t work in here, it might be able to provide useful context. The internal clock on the phone still worked in the Ghost Zone, which meant that they’d been knocked out for about two hours based on when he knew he sat down to dinner. He unlocked his phone and noticed he was halfway through typing a text to Sam and Tucker when he must have stopped using his phone. Sadly the text didn’t say anything helpful like “It’s Skulker, send help!” or any clues like that. He had been continuing a conversation about the new Doomed DLC when he stopped. But something happened that made him put the phone back into his pocket and not on the table even though his text wasn’t finished. Something tugged at the back of his mind…something caught his attention and he slid his phone into his pocket so he wasn’t distracted or so it was kept safe, but what was it?

“Danny? Do you have something?” Maddie asked, and he shook himself out of his thoughts. “On your phone?”

“Oh, no. Just no service,” he said as he shook the device. “But if time still works the same way, it’s been about two hours since dinner.” He knew it did, but his parents couldn’t know that he knew that it did.

“I have a pen and a notepad,” Jazz offered as she pulled the pink striped mini-notebook from her pocket.

Danny turned to look at her, his face scrunched up in disbelief. “A notebook? Why the hell do you have a notebook in your pocket?”

“Language,” his father warned, but Danny just rolled his eyes.

“You never know when you might need to take notes,” she explained with a satisfied smile.

Danny opened his mouth to argue but his mom cut him off. “Well it looks like most of our weapons are gone. I know we had some on us at dinner because we’d just gotten back from hunting Phantom.” Danny subtly slid his hand to his ribs where he could still feel the tender sting of the ectoblast they grazed him with earlier. “So whoever kidnapped us must have taken them.”

“But they didn’t find this baby!” Jack boasted as he held up the handle of what Danny immediately recognized as the Jack o’ Nine Tails.

“I do not want to know where you hid that,” Danny grimaced.

“Oh grow up Danny,” Jazz groaned.

“They didn’t grab this one either,” Maddie commented as she held up the handle of her double-bladed ecto-sword. “I had it on my belt under a ghost-proof latch, which confirms a ghost took us.”

“So we have two ghost weapons (one more useful than another), a notepad and pen, and a useless phone?” Jazz summarized. “And no food or water? That’s not much to go on.”

“And our knowledge of ghosts!” Jack offered.

“That’s still not much to go on,” Jazz said, and Jack’s shoulders sagged slightly. “Alright, let’s take a closer look at those weapons.”

While Jazz convened with her parents to inspect some of the inner workings of the weapons, Danny walked to the edge of the small rock they found themselves trapped on and studied the Ghost Zone around them. Being around ghost weapons didn’t seem like that great of an idea, and he really didn’t want to hear his dad lament at Jazz’s suggestion to deconstruct the Jack o’ Nine Tails. He still couldn’t get a good read on where he was in the Ghost Zone and it made him uneasy. What new ghostly threat could be around the corner? Were they invading another ghost’s lair? Would a ghost he knew come around at any moment and talk to him like they were so used to doing and blow his cover? He felt so raw and exposed and he hated it. They needed to get out.

He surveyed the area around them, but unfortunately he couldn’t really see any clear paths to the nearest rock. But if he looked in the distance, he could see almost a trail of rocks leading to a larger platform. It was probably a trap. It was definitely a trap. But it was really their only option, if they could just figure out how to close the gap to that next closest rock.

“I wouldn’t take that apart just yet,” Danny interrupted and they all looked at him curiously.

“Finally seeing the uses of the Jack o’ Nine Tails as an effective ghost hunting invention?” Jack asked as he puffed out his chest.

“Uh…not quite,” Danny replied. “How long is the range on that thing?”

Jack screwed up his face in thought. “Never really tested the range now that I think about it. I supercoiled as much extendable rope into this baby as I could so it could keep going and going and going until it reached the next closest ghostly object.”

Danny pointed to the rock he spotted in the distance. “Like that rock? You said everything in here is made up of ectoplasm, so that rock should be too, right? So if we had something to transport us in, could that thing carry us to that platform?”

Jack tapped his chin in thought while Maddie looked up as if she was trying to do the necessary calculations and equations in her head to make the idea work. Jazz however shot Danny a warning look and he knew why - he was ‘showing off’ again and attracting attention to his knowledge of the Ghost Zone. He understood her concern, but someone had to get them off this rock.

“You know, if we use the containment pods we might be able to fashion them together into a makeshift transport,” Maddie mused. “We could try to attach the Jack o’ Nine Tails onto it and see if it will pull us to that platform. I’m not sure if it’ll work, but it's worth a shot. Jack, come help me break these down.”

Danny stepped to the side to give his parents space to work. He didn’t know how they were going to take apart the pods, especially without any tools, but when his dad pulled out a wallet-sized toolkit from some deep recesses in his jumpsuit (seriously, where was he hiding all of that?) their job looked to be a little easier.

Jazz joined Danny over near the ledge, shaking her head as Maddie reprimanded Jack for not listing the toolkit amongst their assets earlier.

“How are you holding up?” she asked Danny in a hushed voice.

He hiked an eyebrow in her direction. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that? I’m used to being in here, but you’re not.”

“Used to being here when you have your powers,” she pointed out. “It’s different now.”

“I still have them,” he bristled. “I just…have to be careful how I use them.”

Jazz shook her head. “Danny, I know it’s going to be tempting to use them, but for your own safety I’d recommend not even trying it. It’s not like it is at home: Mom and Dad are on edge and they’re going to notice things.”

“You don’t think I’m on edge?” he snapped. “Almost everything in here can react to me, so I think I’m just as alert and aware as they are. Don’t worry Jazz, I’m being careful.”

“You are?” Jazz asked as she gestured towards their mother. She had moved on to his pod and closely inspected the bindings that had been around his wrists…bindings that were still tightly latched after he intangibly slid his way through them. Maddie looked over towards him and he purposefully avoided her gaze, but he could feel the suspicion in her piercing stare before she looked back at the pod. Darn it…he’d forgotten to undo those straps. He’d thought about it, but he just got distracted by other things.

“You were saying?” Jazz asked quietly.

Danny ground his teeth as his sister just rubbed it in further. “Okay fine, that was a mistake, and of course you noticed it just when I was assuring you that I’m being careful, but it’s not like they can use it to prove anything.”

“I’m just worried about you Danny,” Jazz told him as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I know, and I appreciate it, but I’ll be fine. I’ve got this. Mom and I were kidnapped by Vlad and I managed to keep anything ghostly out of her notice, remember? I’ve got this,” he assured her.

“Pretty sure that was more luck than skill,” Jazz teased. Danny could tell she was trying to lighten the mood, but given their predicament it didn’t really work. They fell silent for a few moments as they stared off in the distance. “Do you have any idea where we are?”

“No,” Danny sighed. He pulled out his phone and clicked on the app Tucker developed. It was Tucker’s pride and joy: an interactive map of the Ghost Zone that didn’t require internet to use. The whole app was a Team Phantom effort: Danny scouted it out and took pictures, Sam helped triangulate everything and keep it all to scale, and Tucker programmed everything. The app was a huge resource, but it was far from complete. “The Ghost Zone is huge Jazz. We’ve flown for hours in the Specter Speeder and there doesn’t seem to be an end to it. I doubt we’ve even covered a fraction of it.”

“But you said we’ve been asleep for two hours, so we can’t be that far from the portal,” Jazz offered.

“Right. So based on that, and the way the clouds are swirling, I’m thinking we’re somewhere in this dark zone here,” Danny mentioned as he pointed to a black zone on the app.

“The way the clouds are swirling?” Jazz asked as she raised an eyebrow.

Danny sighed. “Look, I spend a lot of time in here, okay? Just trust me on this. So if this is the Ghost Zone equivalent of North - and no, don’t ask me how I know that, I just do - then taking this path should take us closer to Skulker’s lair and I know how to get home from there.”

“What are you two talking about?” Maddie asked from behind them.

Danny quickly stashed his phone in his pocket as they both turned around to face her. “Oh, just thinking about where that path might lead,” Jazz lied smoothly.

“Well hopefully closer to the portal,” Maddie said. “We’re almost done, if you want to help us hold some of the metal plates together.”

Jazz and Danny nodded and joined their parents around the pieces that would become their makeshift transport between the rocks of the Ghost Zone. While the worked, Danny could feel his mom’s eyes on him, and he tried to ignore it, but he could feel his skin crawling with anxiety. Did his mom feel like something was different about him in here? He rarely ventured into the Ghost Zone as a human, so he actually had no idea if some of his more ghostly features became more pronounced surrounded by so much ectoplasm. He found himself checking his skin to make sure it wasn’t glowing, or catching Jazz’s eyes to see if she would notice any glow or color change. So far he didn’t notice any physical changes, but something felt different with how he interacted with his parents, he just couldn’t put his finger on what it was. It set him even more on edge and gave him one more thing he’d have to pay attention to while they were stuck here.

They worked quietly, each person focused on the task at hand, and together the four Fentons worked to turn their former prisons into something that could hopefully help them escape the solitary rock they found themselves stranded on.

#Danny Phantom #phic phight 2022 #Phic Phight #fanfiction #danny phantom fanfiction #field trip to the ghost zone trope #Fenton family in the Ghost Zone #what could go wrong #longfic #trying to figure out the science behind the Ghost Zone #seriously there isn't much published on it #identity reveal #maybe #mystery villain #mystery ghost #jazz fenton #jack fenton #Maddie Fenton

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