| Beau | nonbinary | Leo | they/them | @crazytooley everywhere, art blog @doodlytooley| header by @capricorn-0mikorn I barely use tags, good luck scrolling. if bothered by this, dnf. fine by me, this is my silly world 🌎|
Jazz frowned at Danny’s backpack, half open, with homework sticking out of it. She’d just asked her parents down in the lab where Danny had gone and they said he was doing his homework. If his homework was there… then he was probably goofing off again. With the state of his grades, Jazz can’t let her little brother get away with that. It is once again her responsibility to save him from a lifetime of bad decisions!
Jazz grabbed Danny’s backpack and -well, first she took out the papers, looked at what he had done (pretty much none of it), tapped them into a neat pile and carefully put them back in- then she took it up stairs to Danny’s bedroom. She didn’t want him to know before she got there, didn’t want him coming up with an excuse or hiding or jumping out the window or something dumb like that. So she didn’t knock, she just opened the door.
Jazz quickly stepped in, holding up the backpack, already starting her rant, “I don’t want to hear any excu-”
Danny was there, laying on his back on his bed, with their godfather, Vlad Masters, Uncle Vlad, on top of him. Danny’s shirt was off (he never takes his shirt off unless he’s alone), Vlad’s was unbuttoned and his tie tossed to the side. Danny’s jeans were unbuttoned; Vlad’s hair was falling out of his ponytail; Danny was panting; Vlad was kneeling between his legs-
They both looked like a deer in the headlights.
“Jazz, I can explain!” Danny said as he pushed Vlad off of him, and, luckily, the adult man let Danny push him off.
“I can assure you-” Vlad started, but Danny grabbed his arm and the man stopped.
“I can explain this.” Danny repeated and Vlad lifted his hands in defeat.
Jazz’s body finally caught up with her brain and she dropped the backpack and ran out of the room.
“Wait! Jazz!” Danny called and chased her into the hallway. He caught up to her faster than she thought he would and, somehow, stood in front of her, between her and the stairs. If she didn’t know any better, she’d say he ran through her. “Jazz, come on, you have to listen to me.”
“Danny! What were you doing?” Jazz’s mouth started moving before she could even think of the words. “Why was he in your room? How long has he been doing that to you? Why didn’t you tell me? Do Mom and Dad know? We need to tell-”
“Jazz, please let me explain.” Danny said with his big, sad baby-brother eyes. “Please.”
It was her one weakness, that always stopped her in her tracks, but Jazz can’t do it. She can’t let him baby his way out of this. He was- “Is that a hickie?”
Danny’s hand slapped to his neck. “Jazz, come on.”
“Danny, he’s the same age as our dad.” Jazz exasperatedly explained. “I don’t care what he’s said to you or how much you think you’re in love with him, he’s just taking advantage-”
“I know!” Danny stage whispered, then gently pushed Jazz back from the stairs and motioned to her bedroom, “It’s not what you think, just please, please let me explain.”
Jazz frowned at Danny’s hand on her shoulder and he pulled it back like it burned him. She took a deep breath and glared at Danny’s still open door. She could just barely see Vlad, still sitting on Danny’s bed. She let out a sigh and nodded. She heard Danny telling Vlad to wait for him to take care of this and it burned in her chest.
How could she have missed this? How could she have let this happen? Danny’s grades were slipping; he was missing school; he was getting into places he wasn’t supposed to be; he was coming home with more and more bruises and injuries; he always seemed tired. She had just calked all of it up to him being bullied, and to their parents pulling away more and more into their obsession, and the steady increase of ghost activity since the portal opened and even to normal teenage angst and awkward changes. She had wanted to wait for him to come to her about it, but it was too late now. Was Vlad the cause of it? Had Vlad just swooped in to take advantage while Jazz was waiting for Danny to come to her? She should have-
Danny cleared his throat. The two siblings had been sitting in silence in her bedroom for however long she’d been stuck in her head. Danny had her full attention now.
“I know you have a lot of questions, but just let me get the whole thing out first, okay?” Danny’s face had never looked so serious before.
Jazz hesitantly nodded, “I still expect to be answered, though.”
“Of course.” Danny said, then took a deep breath before explaining. “So, you know how Mom and Dad aren’t making money anymore?”
Jazz’s veins ran cold. She thought that argument was between her and Mom. Their parents had gotten so deep into their obsession, things like grocery shopping, buying new clothes, and paying the water bill, all went undone. More and more, Jazz had to use her own money for food, Danny was sewing up his own clothes, and Jazz had to nag her parents for a credit card that wouldn’t bounce… She hadn’t had to do that last month, had she?
“With all the heightened ghost activity; there’s more competition for ghost hunting equipment, and their inventions only work half the time anyway, and they’re running around causing property damage. And they’ve never listened to us! To you when you’ve told them this isn’t sustainable!” Danny threw his hands up. “And it’s not like we can get real jobs! You’ve lied to Mom and Dad about how much you’re doing, and you can only really tutor people because you promise to keep them away from your clients. And when I tried, I got fired because-”
Danny stopped himself and took another deep breath, and Jazz couldn’t help herself, “So he’s paying you?”
Danny’s breath hitched but he answered, “Yeah. He’s paying me. He’s paying me a lot.”
Jazz shook her head, “Danny, you shouldn’t have to do this. We can come up with something-”
“Jazz.” Danny cut her off. He almost looked like he regretted it. “You know everyone’s already watching us. Everyone has always been watching us, and judging us, and just waiting for an excuse to ruin our lives. Mom and Dad have been town lunatics for longer than we’ve been alive! You know this, it’s why you work so hard to make our family look at least a little normal to everyone else. You know, if we slip up, even a little bit, it’s all over. Especially if you tell anyone what Vlad and I are doing. Vlad goes to prison first, and then Mom and Dad go to prison because of what’s in our basement. And then you and I go to different places. We go into the system and we never see each other again.”
“Danny, I can’t-” Jazz swallowed the lump in her throat. “I don’t know if I can do that. I can’t just sit here and let him do this to you!”
“I know, but we don’t have a choice.” Danny firmly said. “It’s this, or our entire family gets shattered apart.”
“Danny…”
“Please,” Danny looked at her with his big, baby-brother eyes, “Promise you wont tell anyone.”
Jazz let out a shaky breath, then dropped her face in her hands. “I wont.”
Danny let out a sigh of relief.
“But…” Jazz started and up at Danny again as he held his breath. “If he does anything to hurt you, the deals off, and he goes into the deepest darkest government hole I can find.”
Danny chuckled weakly, “Yeah, of course.”
They sat in silence again for a long, heavy moment. Then Jazz asked, “Wait, what’s in the basement that’ll get Mom and Dad in prison?”
Danny stared at her with surprise and confusion. “The- The giant portal to the Ghost Zone? The thing that’s caused all this? The thing that lets ghosts into the world, that’s got them distracted, that’s making them go around destroying anything in between them and ghosts? That’s not OSHA compliant, Jazz? Nothing in their lab is OSHA compliant, actually.”
Jazz stared at him. She… hadn’t put that together. She sat there, frozen, trying to work through everything that meant.
“Alright. Uh, I’m gonna go tell Vlad he’s not going to prison, uh, yet.” Danny eventually left as Jazz sat there realizing her world had ended some time ago, and she hadn’t noticed.
hello! wanted to say i love your art and your PN AU, i keep checking for updates and it's amazing to see it growing! can i ask: did the doctors at the asylum pretend to be on dib's side and fake understanding to get him to trust them enough to start working on him? or did they strap him down from the start and go wild? i wonder if he had anyone in there that he could trust (even if it was fake) and if he could even trust himself at that point
I'm so happy to know that you are enjoying it so far (*´ω｀*) it really warms my heart to know that people like the AU
To your question, here it is ↓
The doctors presented themselves as these friendly and well intended people that only wanted to help and understand Dib. After all, Dib is one of those patients that are considered reasonable enough to have a cordial conversation when his pride and sense of truth aren't challenged. If I were to compare them, it would be like Oliver Thredson from AHS: Asylum.
Of course, this superficial trust falls into pieces the moment Dib realizes the abuse the other patients go through in that asylum, and it's his rebellion that makes the doctors be more harsh on him, although maintaining this kind "I do what's best for you" attitude, specially from the main doctor in charge of him.
The ones that are more aggresive towards Dib and other patients in general are the security guards (the ones that wear that cartoony armor seen in the Crazy House for Crazy Boys). It's their job to make sure that nobody escapes the place, and mentally ill patients aren't always the most pacific to deal with, hence why they use tasers or brute force to immobilize them. Sure, they do this because it's their job, but it's not surprising to know that some of them cross the line between getting the job done and causing harm out of spite.
Dib's main source of trust ends up with fellow patients, with those who are reasonable enough to know that the asylum is fucked, but it's a kind of careful trust because, after all, most of the people here are mentally sick, so their word needs to be taken with a grain of salt (how can he be sure of who is telling the truth of not being insane and wanting to help, from those that only are leeching off of him to escape and continue unhealthy behaviors?). Knowing Dib's habit of only helping others if he can gain something for himself (seen in his interactions with Mortos, for example), he might have taken the advice from any of them and left them behind to try and escape. He could have been betrayed by the same patients, too, either by a misunderstanding or a betrayal where Dib is left behind as the bait to be captured by the guards (since probably the patients realized that he wasn't going to save them, maybe).
It's a mess, at the end of the day, with enough destruction of his will and mind through punishments by electro shock therapy and brainwashing to the point of being killed, he ends up siding with the doctors; he helps to uncover any escape plans made by the patients, acting like a exemplary student that will reproach those who disobey, winning the hate of fellow patients and the doctors trust. At that point he would be convinced that he can't trust himself with his fucked up mind and thus, accepts his fate by not wanting to keep suffering.
Do the doctors act like Dwicky, where they pretend to believe him about the alien stuff and just want to help him with his depression? But really, they’re just humoring him to get him to talk, and once they land on him being in love with Zim as the root of his “delusions” they start working to dismantle his “false reality” to “cure” him. Then they start getting pissy with him because he won’t simply stop being insane and accept reality after their big breakthrough.
They could also be frustrated by Dib’s lack of cooperation because Membrane keeps calling, asking if his son is sane yet, and feeling pressured to speedrun Dib’s “recovery” so Membrane doesn’t transfer him to another facility. Membrane probably pays them handsomely to take care of his son, and maybe they’re hoping if they deliver the results he wants he’ll make a big donation to the facility. But their reputation could take a hit if he thinks they’re incompetent or dragging things out to squeeze him for more money.
Exactly like this, really. The doctors are also pressured by the fact that Dib is not any patient, but Professor Membrane's son. Being responsible for the son of the biggest scientist of their time is definetly a great burden on their work, as well as a big financial opportunity, hence why they end up going for more drastic measures in order to get Dib to cooperate
I have this idea that very rarely Membrane did got to visit Dib to check on their progress, and in order to keep Dib quiet, the doctors drugged him or gave him ECT (electrocompulsive therapy) beforehand so he stays in a "calm" and quiet behavior ◉‿◉
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