so i rewatched this teaser trailer again and oooh lots of mental health bits scattered in it.
im pretty sure the mc, the kite look-alike this round is a person in the hospital stuck in a VR headset
"I want to be as much of a good and honest person as I can, but it's so unrewarding it's exhausting. Honestly, not sure what to believe in anymore."
"Those who claim themselves to be good and honest are never that. You tried and you got your results. Dude, you can't even tell?"
"I put in so much but it's never gotten me anywhere. Can't help but wonder what's the point of waking up everyday to work..."
the next few scenes of texts and users being blocked are more of people being tired and nihilistic online
theres this crash scene and its a lot of garbled stuff but
1.theres a hardware crash due to a file named TWILIGHT.exe
2. C2CMD.exe seems to have a lot of messages from others, each from different senders but garbled text and some of it reads
Think you're getting another round of explanation? Pft, as if.
Seeing you lying in the hospital feels great. Keep staying like that forever.
Peel back the layers all you want, shallow is all you are. (MY TL IS VERY LOOSE HERE)
You're always meant for this. This is perfect for you.
Argh, what's your problem? Why does every word out of you sound like you're looking for a fight?
I want to at least fix the hatred going on between the both of you.
So many Gods here... All sorts... You can even call them monsters.
3. box on the left;
Experience causes an idiot to become even bigger of an idiot
Hear, for this is the looking glass of your funeral
Since you became neither a drifting AI nor a vrius, your only option left is to live on in this world and wander.
This place is twilight. It's perfect for us.
Frankly speaking, there isn't a choice. No is not an option. Please don't start a fight.
Those who are bad at the game should know when to withdraw.
this is likely a datatized version of an actual VR headset the mc player has got on irl
imo the mc smells more tsukasa situation possibly? it's not the first time the series has touched on cross gender mmo play topics. see: Beyond The World
I felt like fucking around slightly with my artstyle with super and fun danny as my beautifull muses
i did that beacause recently i haven't felt quite satisfied with some things in my art, one of them being my shading so i decided to change soome things, only as a test mostly simplifying them thanks to ginja ninja owo who is a youtuber i am greatly inspired by adopting the mindset of:"if i don't wanna draw some detail now i won't" i might still add them later on or just axe them out from the drawing entirely
i have an annoying plot bunny/prompt i'm gonna tell you about now: Danny tried to get rid of Ember once and she hit him with a cupid spell and he fell unconscious. Phantom finds him a while later and since he's the first person Danny makes eye contact with, Danny falls in love with him. it was slow process and Danny ignored the sudden spark he felt during their first eye contact but the feeling grew bigger and more obnoxious day by day and it drove Danny insane cuz he knows it's a stupid cupid
oooooh love spells, I’m game
So much inner turmoil and confusion and love~ mmh perfect
—-
Every time Danny tried separating his two halves, something went wrong. Something would always go wrong. His two selves would divide as extreme versions of some personality quirk, or the phantom half would be so disconnected from his humanity he’d go berserk, or he wouldn’t have enough energy to maintain a stable form of his own, or an enemy only a halfa could defeat would show up. Something would happen. Always, always, always, something would go wrong.
Except this last split, they had finally got it right. Phantom’s energy levels were up, his humanity intact, they had learned to work as a separate unit for the tougher battles, and although Phantom acted like a hothead at times and Fenton enjoyed sleeping in past noon, they got it right. They had…
But now…Fenton laid his head on Phantom’s shoulder, eyes closed and pretending to be asleep. Or at least pretending to be too tired to “care” that most of his weight had shifted from the tree to Phantom’s side. That he was essentially snuggling against his other half.
Phantom shifted, and Fenton could feel how tense his muscles had become as they tightened beneath his cheek. But a few seconds later they loosened again. The ghost rolled his shoulder back which allowed Fenton to fit more comfortably against his side, but he didn’t put his arm around Fenton like he hoped (dreaded) he would.
Then again, Fenton wanted and dreaded many things these days. And they were only getting worse as the spell wove its coils deeper and tighter within him.
Phantom continued to stare out across the city as the sky darkened while Fenton split his lip on his teeth and swallowed frustrated tears. It wasn’t fair. They had finally gotten it right.
I'm thinking of making this my own personal AU (and cramming in as many self-indulgent things as possible...mmm corpse AU and no one knows AU), still very barebones right now though. I should give it a title so I can tag it...
So here's a random thought that's been scrambling around in my brain.
An AU where, Danny was cleaning the lab by himself for one of his chores, when he saw something strange in the portal that his parents were working on. Thinking it was a piece of trash that was left inside, he went to retrieve it.
The portal accident happened and Fenton and Phantom were separated from the start.
The forming of Phantom pushed Fenton out of the portal, Because of this, a shard of his core now resides inside Fenton. Casting Fenton as sort of dead but mostly alive and heavily contaminated with ectoplasm.
After a little bit of lying on the ground trying to get his head in order, a severely delirious Fenton turns his head to see a knocked-out Phantom just lying on the ground beside him. Having flashbacks to things that his parents have said about and what they want to do to ghosts, he panics.
He's pretty sure he's going to wake up as Phantom once his body finally gives out on him, because face it, he should really be dead after that. He decides he doesn't want to be the first ghost to be in his parents' hands. So he clumsily moves Phantom in a hidden-ish area before moving to the middle of the lab and passing out right then and there.
As a result of those actions, the following occurs.
Phantom, with the only memory he has before becoming a ghost, is saving someone from dying the same way he did. Because of this he's compelled to become a hero, saving people and sometimes ghosts constantly.
Fenton is just the son of the Ghost Hunters, who so happens to be some sort of ghost magnet. No matter what he does to try to avoid ghosts, he is never too far from them. Constantly being in the middle of or the center point of ghostly conflict has him always having some sort of gadget on him, grades in school slipping, and having a never-ending anxiety about what's going to happen next.
He doesn't remember anything that happens between the portal and waking up in the hospital, so when he sees Phantom for the first time, he feels a strange sense of belonging with him. Slightly perturbed about it, he tries not to stay too long in Phantom's vicinity, not wanting to get too attached to that feeling. Feeling dread whenever his parents do anything ghostly related that will cause harm. He will sabotage, get rid of, modify to be weaker, and straight up change the data that they have collected.
Almost a full year of building up small interactions with one another but never properly introducing themselves. Something happens to Phantom that causes him to be heavily injured. Which in turn causes him to crash into Fenton's bedroom when escaping said situation. Fenton feels like his world's going the shatter in front of him, so he desperately tries to help. He cleans, stitches, bandages, and hides Phantom under the covers of his own bed.
He doesn't know why he feels so strongly about Phantom being injured. He doesn't know Phantom personally, so why does he? Just because he feels a sense of belonging and feels content around him doesn't mean anything. Does it?
After a while of nervously checking on Phantom as he slept and trying to do math homework with no success. He wakes up with a small groan. Moving his head to the side he blurringly blinks up at where Fenton sits beside him.
Math homework in his hands slipped onto the floor. He scoots closer and puts a hand on Phantom's forehead moving his hair out of the way.
Eyes watering slightly, he pets Phantom's head gently. "Thank the Ancients, you're okay! I thought I was going to lose you for a second there! What in the world happened! Wait, never mind, you probably don't want to talk about it." With his other hand, he pinches the bridge of his nose in his stupidity.
Putting his hand down before standing up entirely "I'm going to go get you some water and something to eat real quick. Try not to move too much. I know you have accelerated healing and all, but that wound is going to take some time if you want it to heal correctly." He makes a move to go towards his bedroom door. Stopping when he feels a hand on his wrist. He looks back down to find Phantom half-propped on his elbow, looking up at him, confused.
" Why are you helping me?"
Blinking "I'm sorry?"
Phantom attempts to sit up before collapsing back down again. Worried, Fenton helps him sit up, being met with even more confusion from Phantom.
" Your last name is Fenton, right? Because I definitely remember seeing and crashing into Fenton Works before I passed out. You should be like, hating me or wanting to make me scream in pain or dissecting me or-or something!" He throws his hands up in exasperation, wincing, then he crosses his arms.
"I've seen you in pretty much every ghost attack there ever was, and I've seen you fight against Ghost when they try to do something to you, so you have reasons to think like your parents, but no! Instead, you're patching me up and making me cozy for what? So, I like to ask again."
"Why Are You Helping Me?"
There's silence for a moment before Fenton softly smiles at Phantom "because you're a hero? Because you're out here risking your afterlife, saving people constantly, and getting hated for it. Because you're trying your best and that's all you really can do. Because if you're saving us then who's going to save you?"
Tilting his head slightly to the left, he smirks, trying to tell a joke to lighten the mood. He says, "Plus, if I were the one making you scream, it wouldn't be because of pain."
. . .
While Fenton's face freezes and the windows error sound plays in his head. Phantom squeaks, his eyes widen, and his face lights up like a green glow stick.
"W-what"
"Okay then! I'm going to go get you some water, you stay here and rest. Bye!" waving goodbye, he speed walks to the door opening and then closes it behind him
Putting his back against the door and sliding down it. He put his head in his hands contemplating his life choices, because what the hell was that!?! Where did that come from!?! And where was it when he was trying to flirt with the girls! How is he supposed to face Phantom after that!?
Taking a deep breath in, he gets up to go get the water and some granola bars, which he knows are somewhere in one of the cabinets. Mumbling as he walks down the stairs.
