Sometimes I think about Sam guilting and harassing Danny into being a hero. It’s such a horrific and weird and fucked-up thing to do, and the worst part is that it’s totally understandable, and I get why she would do that, and it’s not unreasonable for a fifteen year old girl
But man. I’m not saying Danny wouldn’t have done it without her influence. But it really should have been much more a choice that he made for himself and I really want to address that sometime
This is one of the reasons why Memory Blank is such a troublesome episode for me. Never mind the hoops the episode goes through to make the continuity and the new symbol work, the idea that Sam guilts Danny into dying again (not knowing if the portal accident would turn out the exact same way) is crazy to me.
And I like that Sam does what a lot of teens do and says hurtful things just to say them because they don’t know how to process those complex feelings otherwise, and then has to deal with the consequences of her outburst. But the way she tries to solve it is do cruel and harsh and the show just jokes the repercussions of that away by a fake-out-make-out.
But you also see it in Phantom Planet (the episode the phandom chooses to forget) where Tucker and Sam treat Danny pretty poorly after he gives up his powers and gives up the superhero gig. Again, ignoring all the continuity errors that plot point introduces.
I remembered reading somewhere (I don’t remember where so sorry to the person who originally expressed this thought) that Sam is in love with Phantom while Valerie is in love with Fenton, and I think you see the arguments for that in these episodes specifically.
And I totally agree that I can’t blame her. If my best friend and/or crush developed super powers I’d be all over that and would think it’s the coolest thing ever. And I think it’s realistic and a cool character trait that someone would maybe forget the friend under the superhero, but I wish there had been more from Danny when he realizes how much value Sam has now placed on him being a superhero and the resistance she puts up when he tries to be otherwise.
Tl;dr I can’t believe Sam talks Danny into dying again and no one ever comments on it in the show after the one episode, because it’s an interesting piece of Sam’s character that is largely ignored in the show
whenever i'm trying to talk myself out of buying something i don't need i always hear my old russian professor's voice echoing in my head: "WHAT??? WILL YOU DIE THE RICHEST MAN IN THE GRAVEYARD?" and then i make an unwise financial decision
My friend literally did this to me at C2E2 when I was debating buying an incredibly expensive full metal Captain America shield.
She told me that I can’t be buried with my money, but I could be buried with my shield. And gosh darn if that didn’t make me march back to that vendor so fast.
It’s hanging above my fireplace and I adore it. Worth it.
Alright but framing this from the student POV paints this entire thing into the “childhood detective series trying to solve the maybe supernatural mystery of the 7th grade science teacher” genre
I’m really hoping that these little quips under the powers are an indication that someone who loves and understand Danny Phantom was involved in writing this game.
Oh my gosh thank you for this!! I love it so much!! 💚💚💚
I’m so honored you felt inspired to draw such a touching piece of fan art for my fic! It just makes my heart melt looking at Danny’s pose as he hugs his mom.
Okay but say this teacher then learns that Danny is Phantom. It’s the first class after the reveal, and they say it like normal because it’s so rote now. And then they stop, and this look of horror just consumes their face, because they realize this whole time how wildly insensitive they’ve been.
And Tucker and Sam still just can’t stop laughing.
It's super strange to think a fandom like Danny Phantom has been here for so long even after the show ended in 2007. To see that new people join this community all the time is amazing and I hope everyone has a great time.
If you've recently joined, you should know that there's tons of amazing history to enjoy.
There are years over years of creations out there, from fancomics, fanfics, and fanart, to AMVs and headcanon posts. Did you know you can even still see what the phandom was like "back in the day" in places like Livejournal or DeviantArt, where a lot of the community gathered outside from official forums?
Did you know that, before AO3, Fanfiction.net was the place where most stories were shared? In fact, there are currently more than 21.2K stories posted since 2004 just on FF.net alone plus 5.1K crossovers with many different fandoms (you'll notice that Teen Titans, Young Justice, Harry Potter, and Supernatural have always been very close to the phandom, but you'll find very popular and rare crossovers too, even with other properties like CSI (Running Blind was one of my faves, despite not knowing about the other show)).
(I made a few years ago a list of fic recs from over there, in case you want to check some here.)
Did you know that when the show was about to be cancelled, the way fans united online to avoid it was through messages at the end of stories urging people to write to Nickelodeon? Or that artists drew chains of phans holding hands to keep it from being cancelled? Of course, there were also protests outside of their offices, some that have been shared by phans on Tumblr.
Did you know there are events that give us over a million words worth of phanfics and hundreds of other visual creations each year? Some have been here a long time (even if they've changed who mods them), such as Ectober (now Ectober Week + Ectoberhaunt) or DannyMay (previously PhannieMay), or the Phandom Holidar Truce (previously Christmas Truce). Some others have been here more recently and bring us beautiful and fun creations, such as Phic Phight in April, Invisobang (usually posted around Aug/Sep) or Ecto-Implosion. There are always projects such as Zines (like the Reality Trip AU Zine or the Phantasmal Nights Zine), or growing events that allow you to collaborate in unexpected ways, such as coloring lineart from amazing artists in Green With Envy. And so many others (I don't even know if I can list them all...).
Did you know there are some communities that even have constant games and collaborative activities? Like a DPxDC server that hosts the games "Who Wrote That?" and "Guess That Artist", often using specific themes, such as Wings AU, Mer AU, Soulmates AU, etc...
Did you know some crossovers have also started their own specific events? Like the DPxDC Bang or SuperPhantom Week, to name a few.
Did you know phans came together to recreate the first episode of DP and created a masterpiece (at times only available in select countries)? You can still find lots of individual posts from scenes as Rephanimated in case the video is not available on YT.
Did you know there's always a love for memes, whether it's the annual Dannypocalypse on April 3rd to celebrate the show's anniversary, or fading trends like doing in-universe memes?
Did you know some fans created other thriving communities you can find on Reddit or Discord as well? Links are always a wonky thing for Discord and usually go through DM with a mod in them, but joining an event is a good way to join a new space.
Did you know the phandom has created lore and characters that went beyond canon (and people had no idea some were even fanon)? Like Wes Weston or Little Baby Man. In fact, tons of what we have here today has been through the hard work of phan lore creators, who went above and beyond to add so much worldbuilding missing in the show, going from the vague mention of Danny's core to creating ghost speak from scratch. From the headcanon of a potential Ghost King Danny, to more established Anti Ecto Acts to give more depth to a throwaway line. There's so much lore we even have a page in Fanlore dedicated to it.
Did you know DP is usually among the top TV trending shows by the end of the year in Tumblr's year in review? (in 2024, hey, Danny Phantom he was just #14...) If we check consistently among cartoons only, it has even gone up to #8 on the list, a lot of it thanks to the different contributions from the phans who tag #danny phantom. With so many events and creations each year, it's no wonder why this is always seen as such an active phandom. We even have new graphic novels fueling more ideas for years to come, like the upcoming sequel, Fair Game.
Revisiting our history is a blast, because there are tons of things we have built together and there's much more bringing people together than what separates us. You can find always niche tags and chats to find others with your specific interests in the phandom, and there are always people willing to help if you want to find something.
Despite the things that have happened in a tag in the last few days, thank you all for so many wonderful things that keep this fandom half-alive. And yes... it's been fun.
Summary: After the GiW overhear that Phantom is a half-human student of Casper High, they infiltrate the school and offer the students a tantalizing award if they can provide them the human identity of Phantom. Danny tries to keep his head down and suspicions low as suspicions fly throughout the school. He thought he was doing well, until an A-lister catches him mid-transformation.
Phic Phight Prompts:
The GIW somehow learns that Danny Phantom is actually a student at Casper High. Now not only does Danny have to keep his secret from being found out by the government, but his classmates are also trying to figure out which one among them is secretly a ghost. Tensions rise when an unlikely classmate (author's pick) discovers his identity and must help him cover up the secret. - @paxopalotls
An overheard conversation between two ghosts reveals the truth: Phantom is half-human. Chaos ensues. - ghxstkids
Reveal gone right. - Irma
AO3
Chapter 1: One Must Have the Courage to Dare
“Power is given only to him who dares to stoop and take it ... one must have the courage to dare.”
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
The harsh hiss of cold, pressurized air releasing filled the cramped room. As suddenly as it started, the noise stopped and the room fell back into its previous, uneasy silence. A black gloved hand reached up to an ejected gray container that stuck out just slightly from the rest of the containers next to it - not unlike an old VCR tape - and removed it from its slot. The indicator light next to the empty slot turned from green to red. The gloved hand placed the container on a tray and walked along an aisle filled with hundreds of slots for containers. He escorted the tray past even more aisles of slots. Most of the slots shined with red lights indicating they too were empty, but a few here and there shined green. Plenty of room to expand.
Once outside of the room, the man with the black gloves carried the container through hallways lit with bright fluorescent lights until it passed into a room containing nothing but a glass box in the center of the room that cast the entire room in an eerie green glow. The gloved hand stuck the container into a slot on the glass box and pressed a button. A green goo schlurped out of the other end and fell to the floor with a wet plop.
The goo moved slowly, stretching and pulling in multiple directions until it spread out into the form of a man wearing a fedora and an overcoat. The ghost floated off the ground and arched his back so far he bent over in two as he breathed out a large sigh of relief.
“Your mandated hour of socialization and activity starts now,” the cold voice of the black-gloved man warned before he left the side of the box.
“Yeah yeah, way to kill the mood,” the ghost complained in a thick Brooklyn accent. He sighed as he returned to his stretches. If he only had an hour of movement he intended to make good use of it. He circled his arms, craned his neck, and flew in tight loops just to get a sense of freedom and movement before he finally paid attention to the rest of the ghosts stuck in here with him. He never saw more than two other ghosts in the box at a time, probably so they could control them better, but the fact that had yet to see a repeat ghost had to be a bad sign that too many of his kind were stuck in this torture. The afterlife was torment enough without spending it as an immovable pile of goo inside a box.
But surprisingly, he actually recognized one of the ghosts stuck in the box with him today. The elderly ghost with a portly paunch and fine suit haunted the lair next to his. By all Ghost Zone accounts, that made them neighbors. The elderly ghost made the connection at the same time and gestured for him to join him.
“Hawkshaw! Oh my dear boy, you’re in here too? I was rather hoping you’d be able to keep my lair safe while I was away,” his neighbor grumbled as he shook his head.
“No can do,” he sighed. “I was wonderin’ where you got to, just never thought you’d be in this mess too.” Now that he thought more about it, he hadn’t seen his neighbor ghost for a few weeks before he himself got nabbed. He really should have paid more attention to what was going on around him.
“Yes, terrible business this. Didn’t even see it coming!” he complained with a dramatic wave of his arm. “One minute I was flying around an old art museum admiring some of the classics from my day, and the next I’m beset upon by two of these ‘agents’ and fleeing for my life! Flew right to the school - only place I thought I’d be safe what with Phantom spending all his time there when he’s a human. Thought I’d be safer caught by him than–”
“Perce, would ya can it?” Hawshaw ordered as he placed a hand over the other ghosts’ blabbering mouth.
The portly ghost immediately pushed him aside, looking affronted and insulted that the other ghost would put hands on him. “I dare say, what is the meaning of this?”
“Stop for a minute and think about what you’re sayin’ will ya? You can’t go blabbin’ that in a joint like this!” he scolded in a harsh whisper, but he knew it was pointless. He knew their captors could hear everything they said, even the whispers. “You think they let us flap our lips for our own good? No, they let us talk so they can listen. That’s why they’re always putting us with new ghosts. See what we’ll spill.”
He’d made the connection before - it’s what he did after all, spent his whole life making connections and now he just kept making them in death - and he just assumed everyone else saw the same. Or at least saw enough to know not to go breaking one of the unwritten rules of the Ghost Zone in front of their captors. He didn’t know when everyone had collectively agreed not to blab that Phantom kid’s secret to the living, but they learned what happened when anyone’s loose lips talked a little too much about Plasmius and decided to not take the chance. Those halfas were dangerous business.
Perce’s eyes slowly widened with horrified understanding. “Oh…oh no. Oh dear me. Oh Hawkshaw you know I’ve never been good at keeping quiet on things. I do enjoy hearing the sound of my voice you see, and I’m afraid that I might have…”
Hawkshaw let Perce prattle on behind him about other secrets he may have divulged as he looked towards the agents stationed in their room. Sure enough, those eager beavers looked more alive than he’d ever seen them. One of them didn’t even notice he had a wrinkle on his pristine white coat. So they not only heard Perce spill his guts, but they knew what it meant too. Just like him, they could make connections.
“Poor kid,” he sighed under his breath. He just had to hope he wouldn’t end up seeing Phantom in one of his upcoming rotations. He wanted to think they wouldn’t do this to someone who was half-human, but judging how they’d been treated…well he just didn’t know anymore…
~*~
The entire day at school Danny had a feeling he should have called out sick. He really couldn’t afford to call out given how often he ditched because of ghost attacks, and he probably would have had a worse experience enduring his parents’ homemade “cures” for being sick, but he just had a feeling that the school was the last place he needed to be today.
Maybe that feeling of doom would go away after the history test he didn’t study for? Nope, it was still there, even after he bombed the test.
Maybe it would go away after gym class where he had to play tag football with actual football players? No, that actually ended up to be pretty fun because he kept turning his flag intangible.
Maybe it was because he hadn’t read Crime and Punishment and didn’t feel like spending another day talking about a book he hadn’t even opened and pretending to care? Well since he was currently in his English class, that had to be it.
“That’s an interesting theory Ms. Sanchez, though I don’t think Dostoevsky really thought about how his novel would impact his Instagram followers back in the eighteen-hundreds,” Lancer said patiently while Sam rolled her eyes. “Now to pivot the conversation a bit, Raskolnikov believes that he is acting for the betterment of society by murdering this woman. Do you think he truly is putting the needs of the many over the needs of the few? Or is he perhaps using it as a mask to justify his own personal ambition?”
Sam very eagerly raised her hand in the air, as she had many times throughout their discussion of this book. “What, I like Dostoevsky’s bleak look on humanity,” she would constantly assert. Danny and Tucker were both hoping she’d use her personal enjoyment of this book to help them write their final essays later.
Lancer gestured towards Sam, but before she could share her thoughts with the classroom the door opened. Principal Ishiyama stepped inside, her face drawn and solemn. Two men in pristine white suits stepped into the classroom behind her and immediately took up flanking positions on either side of the desk.
Panic clutched at Danny’s heart, forcing it to somehow stop and beat faster all at the same time. His breath caught in his lungs as blood pounded through his head.
The Guys in White. Here, at his school. Interrupting their class. His class.
He knew he shouldn’t have gone to school today. He knew he should have trusted that gut instinct to stay home. It wasn’t anything as banal as a test or a football game or a book - it was a warning his very life could be in danger.
“Class, these are Agents K and O. They have an important announcement from the government,” Principal Ishiyama introduced, and somewhere behind all the panic in his now hyper-aware state, Danny noted that she didn’t seem too pleased with the interruption to the school’s daily activities.
One of the agents stepped forward and cleared his throat. The fluorescent lights shone off his perfectly shaved head. Immediately Danny recognized both of them as the two agents he consistently dealt with. He’d been unfortunate enough to see a few of them over his time as a ghost, but these two seemed to be assigned to him personally. Even if they could be occasionally incompetent, they knew his moves and knew more about him than he cared to admit, and that made them even more dangerous.
“We are from the Ghost Investigation Ward,” Agent K announced. His crisp, monotone voice sent a shiver up Danny’s spine. “We have been tasked with monitoring the activity of an entity colloquially referred to as Phantom.”
The mention of the ghostly superhero that most of the class idolized generated whispers around the room. Agent O raised a hand and immediately the chatter ceased. “We know that some of you have been mistakenly rooting for this ghost, so we need to set the record straight.”
“You think he’s been saving you from the other ghosts,” Agent K added.
“But that couldn’t be further from the truth. We have evidence that he has been coordinating these attacks to look the hero.” Agent O grabbed a device and Danny immediately flinched because he assumed this had to be some kind of weapon. But instead it projected an image onto the white board behind them. The slideshow of pictures showcased Phantom talking to various ghosts from his rogue’s gallery.
He knew the GiW watched him, and he knew people took photos of him and put them up on the socials, but he never really paid attention to how bad some of his conversations with the ghosts could look without context. Sometimes he would just chat with them before they fought! Or he’d try to convince them nicely to leave. He’d even built up an uneasy truce over the years with some of them and didn’t have to be as outwardly antagonistic anymore. But these perfectly chosen and curated photos told a story, one that made him look very bad, and from the murmurs of some people in the class, some of them bought it.
“Oye, you don’t expect us to believe you right?” Paulina spoke up, and Danny’s spirits lifted slightly. At least he could always count on Paulina to have his back. Well, Phantom’s back at least. She’d throw Danny to the wolves in a heartbeat. “I mean, that’s my picture from my Insta!” she accused as she pointed at the most recent picture on the whiteboard. “I took that right before they started fighting!”
“They were probably talking about how to stage the fight,” Agent K shot back.
Danny could feel Sam roll her eyes from beside him, and normally he would have joined her if not for the terror that still gripped his heart.
Agent O straightened out his broad shoulders and squared up with the class. “This ghost is dangerous. He has hurt people, just like other ghosts.” Images flashed up onto the board of Phantom’s attacks against the Mayor and townspeople from the overshadowing incident (that he still could never live down).
“He has destroyed buildings, and streets, and government property, just like other ghosts.” More images flashed across the white board of Phantom shooting ecto-blasts into buildings (a ghost had just been there a moment before) or Phantom throwing a ghost into the ground (he didn’t think he’d thrown them hard enough to crack the pavement). “I know none of you understand taxes yet, but your parents are paying tons of money to fix the city in the wake of his destruction.”
Each image stabbed Danny through the heart and twisted the metaphorical blade further and further inside. He’d grown used to the constant slander against his name from his parents, but somehow this felt even worse because he knew he couldn’t speak up. Even his classmates’ dissents had grown quieter.
“Even if you still want to argue that he’s not a ghostly mastermind, then you have to acknowledge his presence in this town is drawing ghosts of increasing power just to challenge him,” Agent K added. “His presence doesn’t protect you: it endangers you.”
Danny’s gut twisted as his gaze fell down to his lap. He didn’t even want to register the murmurs of his classmates, because as much as he hated to admit it, they were right. He had inadvertently destroyed parts the town in his quest to keep it safe. And even if he tried to justify that the town would be in worse shape if he let the ghosts do what they want, he still couldn’t argue with the damage. It’s why he tried not to revisit the sites of his previous ghost fights unless he absolutely had to. And as for drawing more powerful enemies…well that was also unfortunately true. More powerful and ancient ghosts kept coming out of the woodwork and he doubted they had any real interest in Amity Park aside from the fact that he lived here.
Feeling like they’d finally gotten somewhere, the agents’ generally impassive postures and facial expressions broadened in confidence. “And we have reason to believe that Phantom has grown even more dangerous.”
That caught Danny’s attention and pulled him out of his self-loathing. He looked back up at the agents with curiosity and worry. Whatever they had to say, whatever they had learned…it could not be good.
Agent K cleared his throat dramatically. “We don’t know how this is possible, but we have learned that Phantom is not a full ghost.”
Danny’s heart stopped for so long he could swear he’d transformed. No…no they couldn’t know that. How could they know that? He was just mishearing them right? They couldn’t possibly mean–
“He has a human persona, and that persona attends Casper High.”
The collective gasp echoed through the silent room. Students looked around the room at their friends to confirm what they heard, because surely they must have heard wrong. Phantom? Here? Posing as one of them? The shocked quiet quickly grew into excited chatter as they tried to guess who the agents might be referring to.
Only three students refrained from the excited chatter; Sam and Tucker cast sideways glances at Danny, who simply stared straight ahead, white as a sheet and seemingly frozen.
Agent O cleared his throat again. “We don’t know what grade he’s in, but we know he…”
Whatever else they said, Danny didn’t hear any of it. Their voices faded into a muted mumble in the background, replaced by an oppressive silence and a loud ringing that drowned everything else out. His hands trembled beneath his desk and sweat beaded down the back of his burning neck because the room had suddenly become too warm and too cold at the same time.
His core spasmed, sending warning shocks that he needed to leave, that he needed to disappear, that he was in danger. He needed to run, flee, hide, disappear, something - but he couldn’t. He was stuck. If they knew Phantom was human…then they were watching him. They were watching everyone. He couldn’t afford to make a single suspicious move. So even though he still couldn’t hear anything except the blood pounding in his ears, and even though he was sure he was in the middle of a full-blown panic attack, he summoned all the courage he could find in the very depths of his being and finally turned to look at other students in the room, to play his part in the act as convincingly as he could.
“I’m sure you can understand how this malevolent ghost’s existence in the school is a hidden danger to all of you.” Agent K’s voice still sounded like he was underwater, but he could at least pick out words now. “We will do our part to help find and catch Phantom so you can all learn again in safety.”
“But we could also use your help,” Agent O added, and that started up the whispers again. “You’re around your fellow students more and you will see more suspicious behavior. So if you see something, say something.”
“If someone does something strange or unexplainable,” Agent K offered as he ticked off a list on his fingers.
“If someone is often seen around ghosts,” Agent O added with another tick.
“Someone who has always been pro-Phantom.”
“Someone who is missing during ghost attacks.”
“Someone who sets you on edge when you’re around them.”
“Or someone who just feels…suspicious.”
Agent K dropped his hands and clasped them stoically behind his back. “You should report any of that to us. We will be a constant presence here and will welcome any student who wants to come forward with information.”
In his paranoia Danny could swear he felt the eyes of every student on the back of his head, but when he chanced to look around the room, he noticed everyone else was also looking at every other potential suspect. It gave him a temporary relief from the panic that seemed to be building to such heights that he thought he would explode from it, but it wasn’t much. Because he had done all of those things in front of many members in this classroom, and if any of them really focused on their memories or God help him actually talked to each other, they’d put this together pretty quick. They may not have their eyes on him right now, but given enough time to think about it, someone would make the connection.
“And if your information or even an accusation leads to the identification of Phantom, then we have been approved to give a reward of five thousand dollars.” Agent O let that offer hang dramatically in the air. Danny watched the eyes of everyone else in the room grow large. Five thousand dollars was a lot for anyone, but for a teenager it was a huge sum. There was no way he could compete with that kind of money being thrown around.
“Plus, if you have any other special requests, we have strings we can pull to make them happen,” Agent K proposed. “Sport scholarship to your choice college? We can make that happen.”
“Ivy league acceptance? Done,” Agent O promised.
“Influencer status on social media? Done.”
“Better healthcare coverage for you or a family member? Done.”
“Um I’m sorry, how can you promise all of this?” Sam spoke up, her skepticism and derision clear as she stared them down.
Danny’s first gut instinct was to yell at Sam to keep quiet or to step on her foot or something to keep her from drawing attention to herself. The last thing they needed was for the GiW to look in their direction. But then he also realized that the rest of the students would expect Sam to argue about these points given how vocal she usually was about certain government programs; she was still trying to convincingly play her part too.
“Because we’re the government,” Agent K answered simply.
“So you basically want us to rat out one of our own,” another student piped up, clearly emboldened by Sam’s criticism.
“I want you to do what’s best for the good of society and for the good of your own safety,” Agent O responded without missing a beat.
“And it’s not ‘one of your own,’” Agent K added. “It’s a ghost masquerading as one of you. It doesn’t belong here.”
“What will happen to the student?” Kwan asked.
“We will have to detain them for the security and safety of the town, but as agents of the government we would never hurt a citizen of this great country without cause,” Agent O assured them.
He must have practiced that lie long and hard in front of the other agents, because he sounded genuine, but Danny knew he was lying. He’d known for a long time that if the GiW ever caught him, they would treat him as inhumanely as they treat every other ghost at their facility. Solitary confinement, experiments, torture - he never expected anything better from these soulless husks in deceptively white suits.
“Now, having said all of this, if Phantom would like to turn himself in at this time as a gesture of good faith, we will take that into account when determining sentencing, and we will extend those rewards and promises to a person of your choosing,” Agent K offered.
Danny almost laughed at the ridiculous offer. Good faith? Take it into account? They wouldn’t do anything of the sort.
“Didn’t think that would work,” he shrugged as he turned to his partner. “Let’s go, we still have three other classrooms to hit this period. You know where to find us.”
The two agents turned in unison and strode out of the room with the principal following after them. As soon as the door shut the classroom erupted in chatter. It was hard to pick out the general feel of the other students: excitement at the reward, protection over one of their own, curiosity over who it could be - it all felt so jumbled around him when he was still just trying to focus on breathing. The oppressive weight of the agents’ presence lifted once they left the room, but it hadn’t vanished. Knowing they were still in the school, still nearby, held his heart in a vice. Maybe the pressure lessened, but it still wasn’t free.
He finally felt like he could look at Tucker and Sam safely, and the same level of nervous concern reflected back in their faces. Sam tried to give him a reassuring nod, but it felt hollow and forced. Maybe he’d be more responsive to a classic Team Phantom “we can handle anything” talk later, but right now he felt too overwhelmed to even begin to think about how they could handle this.
He wanted to flee, but it would look too suspicious. He wanted to sleep, but he didn’t dare close his eyes. He wanted to go home, but he didn’t expect to find any peace there once his parents heard about this. And a tiny, overwhelmed, exhausted part of him rose out of the dark in his mind and wanted to give up and turn himself in, but he was more scared than tired to think further on that option. He didn’t really know what more he could do other than just stare ahead numbly at he white board.
“Okay people, I’m not letting this fool’s hunt take up any more of my time today!” Lancer yelled over the class. Some of the chatter died down, but a lot of it didn’t. “Now we are going to keep talking about Crime and Punishment, and if I hear any chatter from any of you about Phantom, I’m going to assign you an essay a chapter until this unit is over,” he threatened.
That seemed to stop the whispers as the room plunged into absolute silence. “There, that’s better. I should use that threat more often,” Lancer mused under his breath. “Now, given everything we just heard, you really should pay attention to this discussion, because Dostoevsky has some pretty apropos thoughts about choosing your own satisfaction at the cost of another’s…”
Danny would love to listen to reasons why every student in the room maybe wouldn’t immediately turn him in, but he just couldn’t focus on anything else while the throes of panic still held tight. Did they just expect him to pay attention in class like nothing happened? To comment on a book he hadn’t read and pretend that the carefully maintained Jenga tower of his life wasn’t teetering on one small block at the base that could give out any moment? And now every single student in the school had a chance to take a crack at knocking that last remaining brick aside and he was left with no more blocks or prayers or hopes that it could stay up. That tower would fall, and everything would be over, and he had no idea how he was supposed to just live his life until that inevitable collapse.
Except…he had to pretend to live his life. If he showed that this threat freaked him out more than any other student, he’d be found out. If he struggled more now than he did before, he’d be found out. Maybe the tower would topple in the end, but the longer he could push it off…maybe he could find some way around it. Postponing his discovery as long as possible was his only chance at figuring something out. He just…had to pretend nothing was wrong. Live life like he wasn’t hiding some half-ghost secret. And if a ghost attacked…well he’d figure it out. Meanwhile he just had to divert attention and rumors away from himself for as long as he could. Easier said than done.
He took deep calming breaths and tried to focus not so much on Lancer’s words, but at least on the tone of his voice. He used that familiar voice to ground himself. He had to calm down enough to walk out of this class without catching anyone’s attention. If he could do that, he’d consider it his first victory. He just had to calm down.
But no matter what he did, he still couldn’t stop his hands from shaking.
Ooohhh guys au where Danny was really ill as a baby, and so the doctors Fenton did some Experimental Medical Procedures that involved ectoplasm
It worked.
He's always had an ectosignature. They're always brushing off him pinging the sensors because they know he will. Weapons in the house that are automatic are always set to lower power so if they lock onto Danny the damage isn't permanent or extreme. But if an intruding ghost gets hit, it'll keep them down long enough for someone wielding a higher power weapon to dispatch.
They've been trying to find a way to code weapons to ignore Danny's ectosignature but its really tricky to isolate, especially when Danny is young and they don't have a lot of ghosts to compare to.
He gets halfa'd in one go because of the portal, yes, but he's powerful from the getgo because his human half already knows how to use this energy
Could also be why he gets halfa’d and not just dead. Instead of just leaving him fully dead, the nascent ectoplasm and ecto-signature acted as a conduit for the additional electricity and ectoplasm from the portal.
Vlad messed with the stuff in college too, so it also could be why he became a halfa, but his was more fraught with turmoil and developed slower because he didn’t have as much nascent ectoplasm as Danny had when his accident occurred.
Finally got around to finishing these. DP and Pokémon on the brain what can I say. Started these while playing Pokémon Go again (before I even realized new games were coming out like three days later lol). But yeah. Danny’s basically a Pokémon right?
Pt. 2 ft. Jack Fenton here.
Also have a bonus existential Danny under cut haha
Poll for everyone as I’m literally debating this for a Phic Phight entry.
When you write a Danny Phantom fanfic, what is your go-to decade to write in?
Early 2000s, consistent with the airdates of the show
2010s, a bit of a bridge between the show and modern times
2020s, current with today’s timeframe
I just nebulously wave my hands and pray no one notices/asks
I don’t have a go-to and I switch it up based on what makes sense for my fic
Voting ended onApr 17, 2025
I’m not saying I’ll use the answer to dictate what I’ll use for my fic, I’m just mostly curious how people pick because it seems like it can really shift the culture of the world the characters interact in.
My first entry for this year's Green With Envy (@green-with-envy-phandom-event ) 🤘
The beautiful lineart was made by @hithisiszooz and I colored it doing a collage using album covers and some concert images from rock and punk female artists and female-led bands (detail under the cut)
Featuring: Joan Jett, Heart, Sonic Youth, The Runaways, Janis Joplin, PJ Harvey, Bif Naked, The Donnas, Garbage, Screaming Females, Arch Enemy, The Pretty Reckless, 45 Grave, Patti Smith, Dorothy, Suzi Quatro, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Pussy Riot, The Warning, Pretenders, Plasmatics, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and The Breeders.
My current Danny Phantom brain worm fic is called "Seven Days to Die." 20-year-old Danny is captured by the GIW who are planning to interrogate him for a week before he gets hauled off to dissection hell. He has seven days to escape from a very serious containment unit designed specifically for his interrogation.
It's an outside POV fic from a GIW OC named Agent N, who the fic calls "November" after the NATO alphabet. She (because fuck the "Guys" part of GIW) has a variety of topics she needs to interrogate Phantom about, but for her, the most important one is about the murder of her partner, Agent E. Phantom is implicated in it, but he is adamant that he had nothing to do with Agent E's death. November knows this is her last chance to get Phantom to confess before he's shipped off to other departments, to never be seen again.
I'm hesitant to share too much of the plot because it's a murder mystery and I don't want to spoil it in the case I do actually write this someday. But the whole point of it being an outsider POV is to show how absolutely terrifying a hyper-competent Danny is when, at the end of the fic, he breaks out from the containment unit with considerable ease to meet Sam and Valerie, who broke in to rescue him.
This fic is at the top of my list of DP fics to write, currently, if I can get my shit together. It would be my Invisobang fic if I were to sign up for it.
Was re-reading AGIT for the millionth time and noticed something very... interesting.
There are multiple times that characters call Dan Danny, and every single time he directly or indirectly corrects them.
"I'm not Danny."
"Not anymore."
"You forget... I'm more than that now."
(Another fact to add is that each time they call him Danny (or Daniel in Vlads case), the name is bolded.)
WITH ONE EXCEPTION.
Not only is the name not bolded, Dan doesn't correct Jazz on calling him Danny. He allows her to call him Danny, something that he doesn't even let Danny himself do without interjecting on it. which like. is just a veryyy specific yet heart-breaking detail. man let her dead-name him cuz shes HIS SISTER. JAZZ. (technically) :(
(Also Dan doesn't correct Val either (it's also bolded), but he just says he is Danny and then leaves, so I'm like 90% sure he's just doing it to Fuck With Her Specifically in that scene, and isn't actually bothered by it there. you could also argue it's like a mutual respect thing from her being the last protector of Amity Park from his timeline but ehhhh.)
