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Mainly a Danny Phantom Blog

[isaactheautobot]

If I reblog something you should look at its own reblogs and comments. More than likely those are why I did so.

[cordria]

Remember my Name

At 24, Danny Fenton was doing great things with his life. He was an accountant for a prestigious company. While he didn’t enjoy the work and he wasn’t very good at it, he was paid incredibly well for his position. It often seemed as though the two other accountants did their best to not send any real work his way, so as long as he kept his head down, pretended to be busy, and didn’t ask too many questions, he was free to do as he pleased during work hours.

The job left plenty of free time to work on his hobbies - which, lately, had been some astronomy classes from the local community college - and a very decent chunk of money left in his account after the bills were paid. Enough for him to work on his pet project: turning the smallest, third bedroom of his house into an observatory, complete with a telescope he’d been eyeing with a two-foot primary mirror. 

…In fact, his salary was more than enough for him to wonder if the company was a front for something he was being paid to ignore. Danny’s morals twinged now and then when he saw his paycheck hit his account and he’d think about looking more into this company, but then he’d hear stories from friends his age about how they were struggling to pay bills even with roommates, and he’d look at the house he was comfortably paying a mortgage on, and his blossoming retirement account which would guarantee a comfortable retirement by age fifty… and he’d let it go. There were zero other signs the place was doing anything illegal, after all. 

That all changed the Friday afternoon he was kidnapped.

It took less than five seconds for him to be trussed up like an animal and dumped into the back of a small moving truck. Other than a bit of light coming through the cracks around the door, it was dark. Danny tried to scream through the gag in his mouth, struggling against the ropes tying his arms behind his back. 

His mind raced. He hadn’t seen who’d grabbed him. He hadn’t seen if anyone else had been around to see him get taken. He had no idea if anyone would know he was gone until he didn’t report for work on Monday. Who had taken him? Why? He didn’t know anything!

The truck bounced and shivered as it drove down the road. Even after several minutes of work, the ropes were still incredibly tight. Images he’d seen in movies - of being tortured, of being abused, of being slowly murdered - flooded into his thoughts and leant him new energy. He bit the gag and kicked and fought desperately until he was dripping sweat and out of breath. And still the ropes hadn’t budged an inch.

He forced his body to relax. The ropes weren’t moving; this was a pointless waste of energy. Leaning against the wall of the truck, he focused on breathing, on saving his strength. He had to be smart. He had to think.

The truck jiggled to a stop. Danny held still, listening to the pounding of his heart in his ears, waiting to find out if they’d reached their destination or were simply at a stoplight. 

The grumble of the engine ceased. He waited, eyes trained on the door. 

There was a creak as the latch was thrown and the door slid open. And in walked something… inhuman. Danny’s eyes widened and he slithered himself backwards as far into the truck trailer as he could. Sharp fear made his breath catch in his lungs.

It was vaguely female-shaped, with glowing acid-green eyes and hair that bled upwards like flame. Its legs moved like it was walking as it moved closer to him, but there was a clear inch of air between the bottom of its feet and the floor of the truck. It was floating.

“Skulker tied the knots,” it said, crouching down less than a foot away. It gave off a cloud of ozone and made the hairs on his arms stand up on end. The sharp smile that cut across its face was as inhuman as Danny could imagine. “Good luck breaking out of them.”

Danny grunted through the thick gag in his mouth and tried to squirm further backwards away from the thing.

“No, no, Babypop. You’re not going anywhere.” The creature reached down to touch his cheek. Its fingers were electric, sending shocks into his face. “You’ve really changed.”

He jerked his head out of her reach as best he could and he glared at it. 

“Oh, there you are.” The sharp edge to its smile faded into something more human. Its green eyes looked… almost sad. “I am sorry for this,” it said, a gentle tone in its voice. “We don’t know why you chose this, but we need you back. We’ve tried everything else.”

Danny shook his head and tugged at the bonds around his hands. His heart was racing in his chest. He grunted a few times around the cloth gag in his mouth.

It reached forwards, sharp claw-like fingers reaching for his chest.

…into his chest? 

Danny screamed at the sight of the arm disappearing into his chest, the frigid-electric feel of the hand digging around near his heart. Tiny shocks of energy sizzled the nerves in his body, making him convulse and shudder. His body, out of his control, fell to the floor of the truck and twitched helplessly. 

The creature pulled its hand back out, holding a little metal box. It studied the box from several angles.

Danny panted, trying to regain control of his body to push further away from this monster. That box was a pacemaker, keeping his heart arrhythmia at bay. He’d gotten it ten years ago, after his parents were murdered. Without it, he was at risk of a heart attack. 

“Axiom labs,” the creature said, pointing at the label, then crushing the metal box in a fist like it was made of paper. “Makes sense, I guess.” 

Body still shuddering with lingering zaps of energy, Danny managed to drag himself two feet further away from the creature. Now all the way in the corner of the truck, he pushed himself up so that he was partially sitting in the corner, propped up by the walls. 

He felt… odd. Light and dizzy. With the stress, his heart was probably already struggling. Bringing his knees up to his chest, he curled as best he could into a ball, shivering and trying to breathe slowly and deeply.

“Danny,” the creature said.

He looked up. It knew his name.

“Say my name.”

Danny shook his head. How would he know its name? He’d never seen a creature like this before.

“‘No’ you can’t, or ‘no’ you won’t?” It stood up, tossing the remains of the crushed box into a corner.

He shook his head again.

Very suddenly, the creature was in front of him, that stench of ozone filling his nose, and Danny jerked backwards, hitting his head against the wall of the truck. His heart leapt into his throat. What was this thing going to do to him next?

It reached out… and removed the gag. “‘No’ you can’t, or ‘no’ you won’t?” it repeated.

“I’ve never met you before,” Danny choked out.

The creature’s shoulders sagged. “That’s unfortunate,” it whispered, “because we really do need you to remember.” It closed its eyes and sat still for a moment, then let out a sharp breath. “Oh, fine,” it hissed, seemingly responding to a question Danny hadn’t heard. “We’ll try it your way.” When it opened its eyes, there was a sharpness to its gaze, and the ozone stench that hung around the creature took on an acidic tone. “There’s more than one way to make someone sing.”

--

I have this file called 'Working Stories' that consists of 2-4 pages of stories I've partially written. The file is like 100 pages long right now, so I've decided to just start uploading the pieces as they are.

This one was a AU version of The Ultimate Enemy, were Vlad helped Danny though his grief in a slightly different way.

Might write more if there's enough interest, but I'm going to work on cleaning up this file and dumping more stuff onto you guys.

[cordria]

World's Most Useless Invention

It took Maddie a little over two years to complete the world’s most useless invention. Really, it had only taken her a few hours in total, but every time she picked up the shoebox with the partially-completed device inside, she found something more important to work on. Today though, the dusty box had finally gotten in the way for the last time and she’d finished the thing.

She toyed with the tiny device between her fingers. It looked something like a backwards earphone, a quarter-sized plate that would nestle against the skin behind her ear with a wire that could hook over her ear to hold it in place. Officially dubbed invention #12362374-B5 in their files, it would induce a slight ectostatic charge in organic matter. 

The original goal had been to invent a way to make humans impossible for ghosts to possess. Their testing had shown that 0.37 amps of consistent charge were needed to have any sort of demonstrable effect on ghosts - an easily achievable number. Even a simple nine-volt battery would be able to power a device of that power level for several hours. 

But their testing had also shown that anything over 0.67 milliamps would be dangerous to human biology over the long-term. So she’d set the trickle of energy at 0.41 milliamps of charge, the power draw a small watch battery could handle for 24 hours.

Thus - useless. Too weak to do anything of value while also creating a small, but nontrivial risk, of organ damage. But maybe it would be a stepping stone into something better in the future.

Maddie sighed and, with nothing else to do but give it a try, slipped it onto her ear and turned it on. She waited, trying to tell if something was happening, but there was no indication it was working other than the tiny beep it had made when she’d pressed the button. With a shrug, she cleaned up her work station, determined to leave the device on for at least a day. There should be little danger in the steady, small trickle of ectostatic energy. 

Unless they were wrong, of course. Then she’d go down as the Madam Curie of her field by wearing this thing. She smiled a little at the thought and tossed the dusty shoebox in the recycling, glad to be finally rid of it. 

Footsteps pounding upstairs indicated that someone had just come home. Jazz always walked a bit like a ballerina, light on her feet, and these steps sounded like they belonged to an elephant. It was one of the boys. Maddie headed upstairs, pleased to have something - even if it were ultimately pointless - off her plate.

“Hey Sweetie,” she greeted when she got into the kitchen and saw her son digging through the refrigerator. “How was school?”

“Wonderful,” he responded sarcastically. He came out of the fridge with an apple and what looked like a ham sandwich, and limped over to the table. “Never better.” 

“What happened?” Maddie asked.

Danny blinked at her, looking confused. “What?”

“Your leg. You’re limping.” Maddie walked over to the table and peered at him. “What happened?”

He stared at her for a very long, silent moment before answering. “I… tripped. On the way home.”

Maddie arched an eyebrow at the horrendous attempt at lying. “You know I’d prefer you not answer than lie to me,” she said.

“I… yeah,” Danny agreed, taking a bite out of the apple. “Sorry.” 

She sighed and grabbed the dirty dishes Jack had left on the counter after lunch, stashing them into the sink to be cleaned later, and noticed that Danny was still watching her with an odd expression on his face. “Something wrong?” she asked.

“No,” he said, but he didn’t sound convinced. “Just…” He shrugged off the rest of the sentence, turning his focus down to his afternoon snack.

Maddie watched him for a second longer, then let the topic drop. Jazz was the secretive child, always had been, while Danny always came to her to complain about even the smallest of papercuts. She was confident that if the limp was something important, she’d hear about it sooner or later. She walked over to the refrigerator, opened the freezer, and took out a cold pack. 

Wordlessly setting the cold pack next to Danny on the table, she headed back downstairs. She had more cleaning to do before supper.

--

The cleaning took longer than expected. By the time she realized she was hungry and looked at the clock, it was too late to start cooking anything. Maddie scowled at herself, stalking upstairs and brushing dust off her hands. The budget this month was tight - the new contract they’d been working for hadn’t come through yet - and calling for takeaway was not a great choice financially.

“Danny?” she shouted at the top of the stairs. “Danny!”

“What?” came a voice from upstairs.

“Come down here a moment!” she yelled, heading over to the sink to wash her hands. When there were no associated footsteps from overhead, she added on a loud, “Food!”

This caused the boy to get moving. There was a trampling upstairs, followed by the sound of someone storming down the steps. Danny appeared, standing in the kitchen doorway. “Supper?”

“Order us some pizza, would you?” Maddie grabbed a towel to dry her hands. “Try to keep it to forty bucks or less. I’ll finish cleaning up the kitchen, then tackle drinks and sides.”

A smirk appeared on Danny’s face. “Can I chose-”

“No pineapple,” Maddie interrupted. “You don’t get to steal half the pizza by asking for pineapple again. Have you seen your dad around?”

“He was taking a shower.” Danny walked over to the house phone and grabbed it by the wrong hand, juggling it in his grip as he dialed the number for the local pizza joint. 

Maddie started filling the sink with water to wash the remains of lunch off the plates, half-watching Danny. He was holding his right arm gingerly against his side, clearly favoring his left. When he grabbed a piece of paper to write down the total for the order, he wrote awkwardly with his left hand.

“What’s wrong with your arm?” Maddie asked when he set down the phone.

“Nothing,” Danny answered dismissively. “Pizza came to $35. Want me to get some cash?”

“Check my purse,” Maddie said, turning away from the sink to watch Danny - no longer limping, thankfully - walk over to the door and rummage around in her purse with his nondominant hand. Running her tongue over her teeth, she thought for a moment, then walked quietly over and tapped Danny’s right shoulder.

He winced away from her, dropping her purse and scattering coins all over the floor. He blinked at her, clearly in pain. “What?”

“What’s wrong with your shoulder,” she repeated, this time with a tone of voice that meant she wasn’t looking for an argument. 

Danny took a steadying breath, then shook his head. “I just hit it, I think. I’m fine.”

“Danny-” Maddie started.

“I’m fine,” he said firmly. “Just…” He looked down at the floor. “I’ll pick this up.”

Maddie knelt down to help, grabbing dimes and nickles. “You know you can come talk to me if you need,” she said. “I’ll listen.”

“I know,” Danny said. “But I think I just hit it funny. I’ll be fine in an hour.” 

Coins picked up and back in her purse, Maddie dug out the forty dollars and handed it to him. “Why don’t you sit in the living room and wait for the pizza. Do you want a cold pack for your shoulder? Might help with the bruising.”

“Yeah.” Danny grabbed the money, grabbed a cold pack, and headed out to the living room. 

Maddie stood still for a long few minutes, staring at the place where her son had been standing. Two injuries in less than a day? What was wrong?

But surely it couldn’t be something serious. She was confident her little boy would come tell her if something was seriously wrong, and it was only one day, afterall. Perhaps he was finally going through that growth spurt and was losing track of where his body was. Perhaps it was just nothing.

Loud footsteps on the stairs indicated that Jack was done with his shoulder and headed towards the kitchen. Maddie shook her head and went back to washing dishes, trying to put it out of her mind. 

--

The new contract the Fentons had been trying to land involved developing a process for using certain frequencies to detect and track down ghosts of specific varieties. Previous versions of the ghost trackers were not able to distinguish between the different types, and more often then not had lead them to powerless ghosts that were not a danger to society.  This new tracker they’d been trying to develop - trying to get the funds to properly develop anyways - would be able to tell that sort of ‘background noise’ ghost from ones that needed to be dealt with.

The latest iteration was model 145.3-r, which used a frequency band just above that of cell phones and had much more precise millisecond modulations than the previous models. Ready to test this newest model, the Fentons headed out into the evening to see if they could track down a ghost. Leaving their car behind at a Walmart parking lot, Maddie held the device steady in her hands and started walking.

The tracker dinged and beeped. If they’d have been able to afford it, Maddie had been planning on putting a screen on the device, like a radar, that would show at least a general direction. It wasn’t in the cards right now, however, so Maddie was reduced to swinging the tracker in slow arcs, listening for the distinctive sound of a hit. 

“Think this one will work?” Jack asked, strolling beside her.

“This is the one hundred and forty-fifth ghost tracker we’ve designed and none of them have worked properly,” Maddie answered sourly. “So no. I highly doubt it.” 

“It’d be nice if it worked,” Jack said.

“It certainly would,” she replied. “We’d get our funding contracts back.”

“Yeah,” Jack said. “But when you’re zero for a hundred forty-five, people start to lose faith.”

Maddie scowled, then swung the tracker down Nineteenth Avenue. The tracker trilled quietly, like a metal detector finding something worth digging up. “Maybe?” she whispered. “Let’s see what we get.”

They were less than a hundred feet down Nineteenth Avenue when the source of the ghost energy made itself apparent. Two ghosts, chasing each other down the street in some sort of deadly game of tag. The first was something shaped like a bug, glowing and effervescent. The second was the ghost boy, Phantom, missing shot after shot as the bug juked and dove.

“Jack,” she hissed. 

“Let’s hide in the alley,” Jack said, ducking into the shadows, but Maddie was only paying the smallest amount of attention. Her gaze was focused on the ghost boy.

…who was looking strangely familiar.

“What the hell?” she whispered, letting the tracker sink down to her side. As the ghosts swept closer, she was only more and more sure of the fact. The resemblance was uncanny. The ghost was even favoring his right arm. “Danny?”

As if drawn by his name, the ghost noticed her standing here. He stopped, blinking down at her, giving the ghost bug the chance it had seemingly been waiting for to escape. It vanished up into the sky.

“Danny.” There was no more question in her voice. She was certain of it. Somehow, the ghost floating in front of her was her son. Her heart was beating heavily in the pit of her stomach. “What’s going on?”

Danny appeared in front of her, staring at her with those odd, green eyes. His head tipped to the side, studying her, his whole body tipping off to an angle. He even had the little scar on his forehead from when he was five. 

“I need you to explain this,” Maddie said, feeling her body trembling. “Now, please.”

“There’s something wrong with you today,” the ghost - Danny - said. “What’s new?”

Maddie scowled. “We’re not talking about me. You… you’re-”

“What’s on your ear?” Danny interrupted, pointing.

“My…” Maddie reached up and touched her ear, feeling that useless invention nestled against her skin. “Oh, it’s nothing. Danny-”

Danny hummed. “Can I see it?” He held out his hand.

She hesitated, wanting to talk about the current issue of him being a ghost than the thing she’d finally finished this morning, but she sighed and pulled it off her ear. He grabbed it, twisting it around in his fingers, studying it with those alien-but-maybe-familiar eyes. “It just releases a little charge…” Maddie trailed off, blinking as the ghost looked back up at her. It still looked a bit like Danny, but now, this close up, she could see the differences. 

The scar wasn’t quite in the right spot. His eyes held a dead look that could not be mistaken for her son’s. The hair didn’t fall right. Even his mouth looked wrong.

Stumbling backwards a few steps, she raised the ghost tracker like it could be some sort of shield. How could she have been so foolish? Danny wasn’t a ghost. This creature had been tricking her. And she’d given it one of her inventions! Sure, it was the most useless one she’d ever built, but still! “Jack…”

The ghost twisted to glance down the alley, where Jack was standing. He’d gotten out one of his ghost guns and had it pointed towards them. “I got it, Maddie,” he said as the gun started to whine.

The ghost easily dodged the first blast, looking at the thing in its fingers and then up at her. “Interesting,” it said. “What do I want to do with this?”

“Give it back,” Maddie said. Useless or not, the ghost couldn’t have it. “You tricked me!”

“I didn’t trick you,” the ghost said with a smirk. Then it gave a half-shrug. “But I’ll give it back if you promise not to be mad at me.”

“You’re a ghost. I won’t promise you anything,” Maddie snapped. “Jack! Shoot the thing already!”

“We need to build a faster charging transistor pack,” Jack said as the gun started to whine again. “I’ll get it this time.”

“Doubt it,” the ghost said, twisting through the air to avoid the second blast. Very suddenly, the ghost was right next to her, cold fingers brushing against her ear, the taste of electricity filling her mouth. Then it was gone, ten-fifteen feet away, watching her curiously.

She brought her hand up to her ear, feeling the useless device back against her ear. “Wh…” She blinked a few times up at the ghost. “You gave it back.”

“Of course I gave it back,” the ghost said. “I almost always give things back. The things I don’t give back, I can explain.”

Maddie blinked up at the gho… at her son? He was looking more human again. “I…” she trailed off, her brain feeling like it was moving through mud. “What?”

“You promised not to be mad,” Danny said. 

“I did not,” she breathed. “I… Danny?”

Danny’s green eyes flicked to the side, and Maddie glanced over to see Jack coming out of the alley, the weapon starting to whine as it built up a third charge. “We’ll talk later.” Danny said, vanishing as a third shot flew through the night sky and into nothing.

“Jack,” Maddie said. She blinked into the night, confused as to what had just happened. Slowly, she raised her hand up to her ear. 

“I almost got the ghost, Mads!” Jack said, bouncing on his toes with adrenaline. “The ghost tracker works! It brought us right to two dangerous ghosts!”

She looked down at the tracker in her hands, still struggling to get her brain to function. It had brought her to not just any ghost - the most dangerous ghost in Amity Park. Who somehow was her son? Maybe? And… she hadn’t been able to see it until tonight? “I want to go home, Jack,” she breathed. “I think I want to lay down.”

“Aw, Mads. We should keep trying. We’re on a roll!”

Maddie shook her head, feeling a heaviness settle on her shoulders, making it feel harder to take in a breath. “I need to lay down.”

Jack, perhaps seeing the look on her face, let the hunt drop and started escorting her home, already discussing how they might create a weapon with a faster recharge rate. All of his ideas were outside of their budget, of course. He was completely unaware of the thoughts racing around inside her head.

She really, really wanted to lay down.

--

Another of the stories from my massive file. Slightly cleaned up. All these stories have vague plans for continuing, but several of these are years old and just need to go somewhere.

Thanks so much for reading. :) Happy 2026!

[cordria]

The Tale of Vlad (2)

The memories were not gone. In fact, they were nightmares.

“Jack, Maddie,” Vlad said, his voice both excited and exhausted. Lack of sleep left dark circles etched under his eyes, ecto-acne spotted his cheeks, but there was a grin on his face. He leaned against the doorjamb to the apartment the three friends shared. His two friends were sitting on the floor, trapped in a study session. “I have something you have got to see.” 

The man excited leapt to his feet. “Where is it?”

“You should be in bed,” Maddie chided from the beanbag in the corner, not looking up from her book. 

Vlad waved his hand dismissively. “You should come see this too.”

“I have a final tomorrow,” she said.

“I had to drop out of school,” Vlad shot back, his tiredness making him forget to hide the venom in his voice. When she glanced up and frowned at him, he winced and shot her an apologetic smile.

Keep reading

[cordria]

Other paranormal creatures in Amity Park

I’m actually less interested in other paranormal creatures as the possibility of what other paranormal things showing up might mean and how it might be accomplished - creatures and otherwise. 

Imagine squirrels that can disappear and fly from tree to tree. Mice that can phase through walls and otherwise rodent-proof materials. Normal dogs that can bark loudly enough to shatter windows. Insects. God, imagine the mosquitoes…

Why might this be? My thoughts? Leaky ghost portal. 

Imagine a world where the Fentons don’t quite get their filter right. Little bits of residual ectoplasm leaking into the world. You know, not enough to harm anyone outright. Well under whatever government-established limits exist. But it’s bioaccumulative - it slowly builds up over time until it is high enough to cause some changes. 

Logically, it would show up in the Fentons first, with them living closest to the Portal. But it doesn’t. Not in Jazz - she leaves for college too quickly, and she’s avoiding her freaky family generally anyways. Not in the adults, since they wear their special suits every day. Not in Danny… not officially anyways. 

Instead it would show up in the animals. An infusion of paranormal and semi-paranormal creatures roaming the town. A government oversight committee, created from the better parts of the disbanded Guys In White, that comes to look at things and cause problems. 

Imagine….

Keep reading

[cordria]

The Tale of Vlad (1)

“I want-”

“You forever want something. Did your parents never teach you patience?”

“Vlad!”

“Oooh, there’s the scary eyes.” Vlad leaned back in his chair, a faint grin tugging at his lips. Even though the child was a complete pest, there was something still endearing about being around the only other halfling in existence. And the boy was quite fun to torment. “I’m trembling in terror.”

Daniel scowled and stuffed his hands into his pockets, the green glitter in his eye fading away at the admonition. “But I want-”

Vlad let the faint grin grow into a delighted sneer. “I want, I want, I want,” he teased. “How old are you again? Three?” 

The boy’s jaw visibly clenched, the muscles working under the skin. “I’m trying to ask you a question,” he finally ground out. 

“Oh? I couldn’t tell.” Putting his feet up on his desk, Vlad leaned back, hands behind his head. “Do go on, then.”

“Why do you hate my parents so much?” 

Keep reading

[ram1dus]

[cordria]

Clockwork's Apprentice

Danny stumbled hard when he hit the icy surface of the Far Frozen, skidding to a stop on his hands and knees. The ground twisted dangerously underneath him. Danny hung on tight, not knowing for sure that the land wasn't about to buck him off. If it were the human world, he would have known it was just in his head - but this was the ghost world and stranger things had happened. 

When everything steadied, he pushed himself to his feet and looked around, blinking hard and struggling to hold back a yawn. He'd been exhausted for the last several weeks, feeling like more and more weights were steadily being placed on top of him. With no human cause - he wasn't sick, and he'd actually been sleeping and eating well recently - he figured it was a ghost thing. Even though the Far Frozen was more of a trip than Danny wanted, Frostbite wasn't going to hide from him, explain things in riddles, or give him answers veiled in threats and backwards logic. And in this dead tired state, he needed someone clear and easy to understand.

He started to walk, allowing the yawn to split his face in two, and he stretched his arms. Every piece of him wanted to curl up in a corner and just fall asleep for a month. Sleeping in the ghost world was going to be a no-go, however. Too many ghosts that could doom him if they stumbled on him while sleeping. But as soon as Danny got some answers from Frostbite, that was his goal: home and sleep. 

Fortunately, Frostbite wasn't far away. After only a few minutes of sleepy stumbling, Danny spotted his friend and grinned. He picked up the pace, jogging forwards. "Frostbite!"

The giant yeti-like ghost turned with a similar grin. "Young-" the ghost stopped, startled, and stared at him. "Why are you here? You need to get home!"

"I-" Danny hesitated, stopping his jog, startled by the urgent tone. "I was going home. I..."

"You cannot be here, not now." Frostbite stepped up to him, making shoo-ing motions with his hands. "Home, young one."

Danny swayed on his feet as a new wave of exhaustion slammed into him. "Why?" he said through a yawn.

"You're too human to molt in the ghost zone," Frostbite said. "You need to be in the human world, or you could die."

The word die made it through the tiredness like a siren going off. "Die?" Danny's eyes widened. Then the rest of what the ghost had said sunk in. "Molt? What's that? Like a bug?"

Frostbite frowned at him. "You have been picking up impurities, young one. As you grow and move around and adventure, your body has been collecting bits and pieces that do not belong inside you. It's reached the point where the impurities need to be removed so you do not become unstable, and it happens through a molt. The impurities are pushed to the surface and they will be shed, like an old skin. But your core, your being and soul, will be exposed through this process. It should not happen here."

Danny's gaze dropped to his arm. Maybe his arm looked odd - like it wasn't really his - but he could barely keep his eyes open. He yawned again and stumbled back a step. "So I have to go home."

"If you stay here, your core will absorb the energy of this land during the molt. You will become more like us, and possibly be trapped here forever." Frostbite's eyes were hard. "Go home, young one. Your molt has already started. You must leave now."

"I-"

"Now." 

The ghost's voice was a low growl that dug deep under Danny's skin and made him shiver. Danny blinked heavily a few times, nodded, and took off towards home. His body felt heavy and hard to move, but he kept his eyes fixed on the warm spot of light that was the portal. But everything was so hard. His eyes closed just for a moment...

He blinked and found himself falling, tumbling through the air. Danny swore and jerked himself back upright. "I'm almost home," he whispered. "I can do this."

But it wasn't more than a minute later when he found himself dropping down on a ledge, breathing hard and struggling to even stand upright. He stared blankly in the direction of home. "I just... I just need a minute," he said as he dropped down, pressing his back into the hard, smooth surface behind him. "I just need to rest a minute. Then I'll go home."

His eyes felt heavy. He closed them - just for a moment - and let his head fall backwards. "I just need a minute."

Someone distantly called his name. There was something sharp and annoyed in the tone of their voice.

"Yeah, yeah, I just need a minute,' Danny whispered. And darkness took over.

--

Danny woke up suddenly, jerking awake with the desperate knowledge that he couldn't fall asleep in the ghost zone. Frostbite had said he could die - he had to get home. He shouldn't have stopped, he shouldn't have taken the risk. What if he hadn't woken up in time?

He moved, stretching himself out of the cramped position he'd curled up into, and ran into resistance. His arms and legs refused to move very far, almost like he was wrapped tightly up in blankets, or stuck inside some sort of box. "What the...?" He pushed harder, struggling and kicking, the movements becoming desperate when the image of a body bag or a coffin burst into his mind. 

The surface he was struggling against suddenly gave way, cracking and collapsing around him. Danny slumped to the ground, his panic subsiding as he saw the green around him and realized he wasn't buried in a cemetery, but was still in the ghost world. Safe - relatively speaking. "Okay," he whispered. "Okay."

It took a few minutes of breathing and shaking the tiredness out of his limbs, but he eventually struggled to his feet and scanned the sky for that spot of warmth that was home. "I gotta get home." 

"Daniel."

Danny turned his attention from the sky, blinking at the ghost standing next to him. "Clockwork," he said. "What are you doing here?"

An ancient-looking Clockwork gestured at the island behind Danny, purple cape fluttering. "Where else would I be?"

Danny turned around, looking up at the island he'd paused on. The smooth walls of Clockwork's castle-like lair gleamed overhead. "Oh." He turned back to Clockwork, taking a few steps backwards. "I was just heading home. Frostbite said-"

"I'm aware." The ghost's voice had some sort of emotion in it that Danny couldn't place. "Why is it that no matter what sort of futures I put in place for you, you must find the most difficult path to take?"

Danny wasn't sure how to respond to that. 

"Come along," Clockwork said, turning and drifting towards the main doors.

"I have to get home. I can't-"

"Stop for a moment and pay attention." Clockwork kept moving slowly away, not turning around.

"To what?" Danny stood still, confused and worried about Clockwork distracting him from getting home and not dying. When there was no answer, Danny repeated himself a little louder. "To what?"

He scowled, crossing his arms. Really, he had to head home. He was about to fall asleep...

He hesitated, narrowing his eyes and tapping his fingers against the other arm. He was about to fall asleep, right? Go through this molting thing that Frostbite had mentioned? 

"I'm not sleepy," he whispered. "I'm wide awake." He moved his arms, reveling in the almost weightless, free movement after weeks of feeling like he was weighed down with a thousand pounds of textbooks. Then his arms dropped to his side, remembering what Frostbite had said about falling asleep in the ghost world. He glanced over his shoulder, looking down at where he’d fallen asleep. The cracked remains of what looked almost like a greenish egg shell lay on the ground.

"Exactly," Clockwork ground out from up by the door. "Now will you come along?"

Danny stood still a moment longer, before zipping up to Clockwork as the ghost de-aged into something that looked about forty-ish. "I'm dead, then. I fell asleep in the ghost world and-"

"You are still as human as you were before," Clockwork interrupted. Danny finally picked up on the strange tone to the ghost's voice - it was annoyance. "I had an excellent future laid out for you. The abilities of the Far Frozen would have worked so smoothly with your talents. I had to pull so many strings and several favors to get you headed there just as you were falling apart."

"But I could have died-"

"Not a horrible warning, I agree, and one with logic behind it. But you're too stable for that to have been a real possibility, not if the area where you molted was congruent with the talents you already possessed. The future paths would have been so much more simple..." Clockwork turned and pushed open the door, drifting into his lair. "Follow."

"I..." Danny shook his head, then followed Clockwork into the darkness. "I'm not sure I understand."

"What time is it?" 

"What?" 

Clockwork turned and stared at him. "What time is it?"

Danny shrugged. "I don't have a watch."

"Regardless. Take a guess. What time is it in Amity Park right now?"

Utterly at a loss as to the point of this, Danny took a stab in the dark. "7:18 in the morning." 

Clockwork hummed, red eyes narrowing. "And the date?"

Annoyed at the stupid questions, Danny picked something at random. "March forth."

"Interesting." Clockwork vanished through a doorway between two clocks, his voice echoing out into the hallway. "Do you even care that I had such plans for you? That I curated your future so very carefully? That, the entire time you were cocooned outside my front door, your future was nothing but static?” 

Danny followed him, glancing through the doorway and spotting Clockwork hovering before his mirrors. “I’m sorry?”

“You quite should be.” Clockwork gestured at the mirrors, but they remained static. The frown on his face turned to a scowl. “As you can see, this is a most unfortunate turn of events.”

“What is?”

“That it is precisely 7:19 in the morning on March the fourth, and that my mirrors refuse to show anything about you but static.”

Danny glanced from the mirrors to Clockwork and back. “I’m not following.”

“No, I expect not.” Clockwork rested his arms on his staff, de-aging down to something about Danny’s age. “What do you remember of what Frostbite said?”

“That I’d die if-”

The young-looking ghost waved a hand. “We are past the ‘dead’ thing. Move on. You did not die. I am speaking of the energy absorption. Of the importance of picking a proper place to molt - which I had done for you.”

Danny stood in silence before shrugging. “I kinda got distracted by the dying thing. I stopped listening.”

A scowl met his shrug. “Perhaps you will listen this time. In this world some ghosts grow too fast, too powerful, or move around too much. They gather energy from the environment around them and form it into part of them. Oftentimes the energy that is gathered is not pure, and those little imperfections need to be removed before the ghost becomes unstable. This happens through a molt, when a ghost’s body is essentially dissolved and the energy cleansed. Many ghosts never go through the process, since they do not gain enough energy or travel far enough away from their lairs. Other ghosts undertake molting regularly.” Clockwork’s eyes narrowed. “You fall into this category.”

Danny had stopped listening several sentences ago. “I dissolved?”

“Your core was too busy doing other things to worry about keeping you looking human.” Clockwork jabbed at Danny with a finger. “It is of little consequence now-”

“Easy for you to say,” Danny grumbled, running at his chest.

Clockwork ignored him and barreled onwards. “While this was going on, the impure energy removed from your body had to be replaced, otherwise you would have never regained your normal form. And that energy comes from wherever you are at the time, and gets integrated into you. Ghosts that end up molting in the Far Frozen begin to look more and more like your friend, Frostbite. Ghosts that molt near Walker’s lair end up becoming his guards. His lackeys.”

“-and I did the dissolving thing here, in your lair.”

“Just outside it, yes.” Clockwork pointed at the mirrors. “Not far enough outside it, it seems.”

Danny stared at the mirrors, thinking through what the static could mean. “I… Does that mean… I have time powers? Or something?” There was silence for a long moment as Danny processed through what the ghost had said. “And does this mean I’m your… lackey? Like Walker’s guards? I have to do what you say?” 

“You are far too human to listen to what anyone has to say. If you’d have listened, you’d have molted in the Far Frozen,” the ghost grumbled.

“But then I’d be all hairy.” Danny wandered closer to the mirrors, trying to see if he could catch sight of his reflection. Hopefully he hadn’t gained Clockwork’s skin tone or red eyes. What he could see through the static looked normal - white hair, green eyes, black outfit. 

“Least of our worries.” Clockwork crossed his arms. “The side-effects-”

“Wait,” Danny spun around, “did you say it’s March?”

“March the fourth.”

“But yesterday it was November!”

Clockwork nodded. “The fact that you molted in only four months speaks to your stability. Most ghosts of your level would have-”

Danny stopped listening to the droning voice, staring down at his feet. Four months? He couldn’t have been gone for four months! His parents were going to kill him! “I have to get home,” he whispered. Sam and Tucker would have long since told his parents about the accident and him being half-ghost. Likely, they had gotten into the ghost zone and had been told what had happened to him - perhaps even been told he’d died. And there was no telling what his human half would look like, after having not eaten (or existed) for months on end. “I… I…”

“Daniel, wait-”

“I have to go home.” Danny glanced up at Clockwork, then started heading towards the door. 

The ghost looked annoyed, his red eyes narrowing. “Not yet. We need to talk-”

Danny hesitated. There was a strange dichotomy in his core - part of him wanted to listen and obey and stay like he was told, while the rest of him wanted to head home and deal with the fallout with his parents. He slowly shook his head. “No, I need to… I need to go home. I’ll come back.”

“Daniel-” 

Danny didn’t stick around to listen. He took off, headed towards the warm spot in the sky, already worried about the conversation he was about to have with his parents.

--

The Fenton Portal, connected as it was to a human power source, always glowed more stable than everything else in the ghost world. Danny touched down in front of it, hoping that his parents didn’t have it locked and closed, and rested his hand on his chest. This close to the human world, his human side was much easier to access. Danny could feel it bubbling just under the surface. 

Letting out a breath, Danny pulled his human side up and let it take over. He felt the warmth and solidness of being human take over, the ghost world fizzling against his skin like bubbles. He looked down at his hands, flipping them over and over. They looked normal. Running his hands over his face and through his hair felt normal. Nothing felt out of place.

“Okay then,” he whispered. “Here goes nothing.” He stepped through the glowing patch. 

No gate blocking his way. No lock stopping his entrance to the human world. A half-dozen steps and he was standing in the darkened basement of his home. 

Nervousness fluttered around in his chest as he walked towards the steps and headed up towards the kitchen. His parents had to have been told, if four months had really gone by. He had no doubt they’d be happy to see him. He was positive that most of the worst of the conversations and hurt feelings had already been hashed out by his sister. The questions he’d be answering would have the worst of the edge taken off them.

… he’d have to get her a really nice birthday present this year.

His fingers curled around the doorknob at the top of the stairs and breathed a few times. If it really was 7:30 in the morning, his mother was probably sitting at the table, sipping at her coffee. Dad was likely still asleep. Jazz gone off to college. It’d just be him and his mother.

He pulled his hand back off the doorknob. What was he going to say? Hello? I missed you? How do you greet a family member you’ve accidentally disappeared from for four months?

The door jerked open, his mother standing there. She must have heard him playing with the doorknob. She stared at him, very quiet, her face pale.

“Hi,” Danny whispered.

“Danny,” she whispered back. She grabbed him and yanked him up the last few steps and into the kitchen, pulling him into a tight  hug. “Oh, Danny. You made it back.” Her hand threaded tightly into his hair. “You’re still here.”

--

Another from my massive file. Not sure I haven't uploaded this one before, but I searched several different sentences with my username and nothing came up in the search. So maybe-maybe not?

This one I'd love to keep writing, but we'll see what happens. I'm in a post-what-I-have mood.

Hope you all have been enjoying the writing dump!

[cordria]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

One of my more popular early stories. Posted in 2007 and 2008. Wow, I can’t believe it’s been that long! I still think about this one, I think the concept worked really well.

I still remember what I wanted to do with this next - the part three. I don’t know if I’ll write it or not, but it’s still there… 

[cordria]

Agreement - DP

Someone asked for Lancer-Danny stuff.  Sorry I don’t remember who you were… it was a while ago… let me know your name and I’ll change this.

Threw in some ghost speak just for fun.

-

Edward Lancer glanced up from his lesson plans when the door to his tiny office creaked open and slammed shut.  A pale, dark-haired junior stood just inside the door, frustration evident all over his face, and in the way his eyes kept sparking green against blue, and the slow way he was rocking forward and back.  Lancer arched an eyebrow and glanced at the clock – only ten minutes until school started for the day – then back at his oddest student.  “Problems?”

Daniel Fenton burst into noise.  There was really no other way to describe the speech patterns of the frustrated child.  The words crawled under Lancer’s skin and a headache, not unlike the one caused by eating ice cream too fast, flared into life at his temples.

“Woah,” Lancer said, holding up a hand.

Danny’s voice cut off with a huff, his arms crossing over his chest, an annoyed wrinkle on his forehead.

“I didn’t understand a word of that,” the teacher admitted, ignoring his paperwork and leaning forwards, resting his elbows on his desk.  He studied the boy, looking for any sort of cuts or bruises that would help to explain what was going on, then gestured for Danny to come closer.  When the boy was within striking distance, Lancer grabbed an arm and flipped it around, looking at the scrapes and redness near his elbow.

Words bubbled out of Danny’s mouth again.  From past experience, Lancer figured it was probably a string of excuses.

He sighed and let go of Danny’s arm, watching the boy rub at it.  Lancer figured the minor injuries would be gone by lunch and decided it was not something to pick at just yet.  “Are you going be calmed down enough to go to class in a few minutes?”

His response was a wrinkled nose and a slow shake of the boy’s head.

Lancer pointed towards the chair in the corner by the tiny window.  What was this, the forth time in just a few weeks that Danny had come in to his office so riled up?  “You know the rules, Danny.  No touching anything while I’m gone.”  He watched the teen toss his ragged backpack into the corner and then slink over to the chair.  “Here’s a pass to class – just fill in the time when you’re ready to go, and make sure you come see me after school.”

Danny waved his hand back and forth, then nodded.  Lancer studied him for a second longer, then grabbed his paperwork and stuffed it into his satchel.  Leaving the boy slumped in the chair, slowly tossing a stress ball from hand to hand, Lancer trooped out of his office and towards his first period class.

Keep reading

[eyesofcrows]

He’s a Fenton (Phic Phight)

For @going-dead​

PR:  Ghosts now being pretty much common knowledge, at least in the Midwest. A lot of colleges are offering ecto-studies as a course. Danny seems to know too much on the first day.

B-dug, b-dug, b-dug. Dug-dug.

Professor Lee Wilhelm is not bothered by the rhythmic bouncing of the ball from the back of his class. In fact, he expects a few from the bunch that wouldn’t take the course as seriously as others. After all, it is Intro to Ecto-Biology.

It’s coming from a black-haired boy, who is skillfully bouncing the ball off of every surface and always managing to catch it. If Lee wasn’t supposed to be teaching a class, he’d be impressed. The boy’s been yawning every five minutes, almost like clockwork actually, and didn’t seem to pay the least but attention. Again, expected.

“And that’s the syllabus,” Lee concludes. “Moving on, bring out your ‘Entry to Ecto-Studies’ textbook. We’ll be doing a light overview.”

Keep reading

[cordria]

People Like Me

Danny managed to ignore the increasingly annoying limo tailing his every step for seven blocks - about two blocks longer than he’d originally thought he’d get away with - before Vlad became Unignorable. A flare of red energy grabbed him off the street and into an open seat in the car.

Danny leaned back in the chair and turned his gaze onto Vlad, fully prepared to be as unhelpful and dumb as possible. While the two of them had settled into a sort of truce, Danny felt that cooperating took their break in hostilities a step too far. Then he blinked a few times, startled at the older man’s bloodshot eyes, the deep bags under his eyes, and skin far more pale than usual. “You’re not sick are you?” Danny asked, scooting as far away as the limo seat would allow. “I don’t want some sort of ghost-illness-”

“I’m not sick,” Vlad snapped. “And you don’t look much better.”

With a scowl, Danny folded his arms across his chest. Yes, he hadn’t been sleeping well, and he couldn’t quite blame the ghosts. They’d been decently quiet recently. “Did you kidnap me just so that we could yell at each other for a while? Did you miss my… what did you call it… my witty repartee?”

Vlad closed his eyes and took a deep breath, waiting several long seconds before he spoke. “We need to talk about what is coming.”

When it seemed like Vlad wasn’t going to continue past that cryptic statement, Dany arched an eyebrow and parrotted. “Coming?” 

Vlad was still quiet. He sat there, drumming his fingers against his knees, staring blankly forward.

Danny waited, and waited, and waited, until his admittedly thin patience ran out. He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in several days, school had been particularly annoying today, and the extremely unfair afterschool detention he’d just been released from had stolen almost everything he’d had left. “Are you just going to sit there and take a nap? Can I leave?”

Vlad scowled at him. “They are coming. And you can feel it too - I can see that you haven’t been sleeping either.”

“Great,” Danny said, his voice full of fake enthusiasm. “They. Thanks for the clarification. Really clears everything up. Can I go now?”

“They are a group of people that are like us. Human-ghost hybrids.”

“There isn’t anybody else like us,” Danny retorted instantly. “Other than the clones you made, I guess.”

“Oh, don’t be stupid, Daniel.”

“I’m not stupid, Vladdie,” Danny snapped. “Just how many other people do you think have stumbled into my parents’ ghost portals? I’m fairly certain they only made the two.”

Vlad froze, seemingly caught off guard by the statement. “I… was unaware you hadn’t thought this through,” the man said slowly, “just that you hadn’t met any of them.”

Danny felt energy flicker into his eyes, momentarily twisting the colors of the limo into lurid swirls. “They. Them. You’re doing a stellar job explaining this whole thing. You either need to step up and cut the insults, or let me out.”

“Daniel-”

“I’m serious Vlad. You have about twenty more seconds before I blast my way out of your car.”

Vlad made a chopping motion with his hand. “Oh, grow up a smidge, would you? I’ve done nothing here to harm you. I’m attempting to help-”

“You don’t seem like you’re attempting to help!” Danny scowled and crossed his arms. “They’re coming! They’re coming! You sound like someone forecasting the end of the world. Or the sky falling.” 

Vlad met Danny’s scowl with one of his own. “You make it very hard to help you,” Vlad said through his teeth. “Leave then, if you so desire.” The limo came to a stop and Vlad gestured towards the door. “Face the future on your own. I won’t stop you.”

Danny glanced at the door, then at the pale and sleep-deprived Vlad. Danny swallowed his frustration and ran a hand over his face. “You make it very hard to believe you want to help anyone other than yourself,” he grumbled, settling in to hear whatever the man had to say. “So who’s they?” he asked.

“People like us.”

“Yeah, so you said. But… where would more of us come from?”

“You are aware that ghost portals open all the time.” Vlad paused, arching a pale eyebrow, seemingly waiting for some sort of response from Danny. When Danny refused to respond to such a stupid statement, Vlad eventually continued. “A decently predictable number of portals are open at any given time, and they last a somewhat predictable amount of time.”

Danny nodded again. “I read my mom’s research paper too, you know. You gonna say anything new?”

Vlad glared at him. “There is approximately 130 million square kilometers of habitable land on this planet, about 2 square meters of which are covered in ghost portals on any given day, and human bodies cover about 0.0015% of our planet, so over the course of a normal human lifespan, one can expect a statistical number of humans to be caught in naturally opening portals.”

Danny blinked. “And how many would that be?”

Vlad scoffed. “It’s quite simple math, Little Badger.”

All good will vanished from Danny’s brain. “Simple for you, since you stole it from my parents,” he said under his breath, but just loudly enough to ensure that Vlad heard each word clearly.

Vlad’s teeth clicked together, his mouth pursing and his back straightening. “I’ve been trying to remain civil due to my… our… current lack of sleep. But listen, and listen closely, child, because I am at the end of my patience. I’ve dealt with these beings several times, and I’ve learned to stay out of their way. They will offer you whatever you want - they are sirens, able to pluck your desires out of your mind - and they will seem like they are your friends. But like Odysseus, you can’t listen to them. They will drag you into the depths and feast from your tears.”

“That’s foreboding.” Danny looked at Vlad’s exhausted eyes and the pale, tired way he held his shoulders. “So you think I’m going to trust you enough that when you say to stay away, I will.”

There was a long silence as Vlad stared at him. “If I’ve learned anything this last year, it’s that you’ll do what you want no matter what I have to say about it,” he said. “I tried.”

Danny arched an eyebrow. There was an odd note to Vlad’s voice that made him wonder, just for a moment, if he should listen to what Vlad was saying. 

“Get out now.” The limo stopped by the side of the road and the door opened, seemingly of it’s own accord.

“But what if I-” Danny started, but a very dangerous red flashed into Vlad’s eyes. “Yeah-okay. Bye V-man.” He slipped out of the limo and found himself standing on the sidewalk nearly back to the school - the place he’d been walking away from when Vlad had picked him up. “What the…” He spun in a circle, blinking in surprise. “You drove me back to school? I just finished with this place!” 

There was a light cackling from inside the limo as the door closed. 

Danny scowled as the limo drove off down the street. “Fruitloop,” he grumbled, starting to walk towards home for a second time. He was tired, he certainly didn’t need to do this walk twice.

Every few hundred feet he found himself glancing off to the west. There was no denying that the feeling Vlad had mentioned was getting stronger and stronger. The source of it was over there somewhere, and getting closer with every passing hour.

Danny stopped at the edge of the park, staring off into the western sky. It was starting to tinge colors with the sunset. “People like me,” he whispered. 

[cordria]

@wyst That's the math I got as well. :)

--

Part 2:

Danny sat on the roof of the school, watching the sun rise. He’d slept even worse that night than usual. A combination of excitement, anxiety, and longing kept him tossing and turning well past the point where he normally collapsed from exhaustion. He crossed his legs and leaned back against an HVAC unit, sipping at one of his sisters energy drinks. 

He wasn’t sure what to think. He was far too tired for his brain to work properly this morning. He just stared off to the horizon, where that feeling was coming from, watching the western sky change colors as the sun rose lazily higher and higher behind him and thin wisps of clouds drifted across the sky. They were closer and clearer this morning. It almost felt… bubbly. Like soda brushing against his brain.

The bell rang before Danny realized it was time for school. He groaned and struggled to his feet, brain still in a daze, and dropped through the roof into the building, only belatedly realizing he probably looked horrible enough he could have conned his parents into a day off.

“Mr Fenton.” Lancer stopped him on his way to first period, pulling him into an empty classroom and studying him for a long moment before asking, “are you okay? Do you need to talk to someone?”

Danny blinked at the man. Mr Lancer - the only other person Danny knew who was better than him at the ‘if you ignore a problem long enough it’ll go away’ thought process - was asking him - the loser freak that, in Lancer’s mind, lived to annoy the precious football team - about his life. That… wasn’t a good sign. “I look that bad, huh?” he said, not really meaning it to be out loud.

“Yes.” The man leaned against the wall, arms crossed. “Life’s a struggle right now?”

Danny had no real answer to that. Without going into a whole other dimension’s worth of issues, there really wasn’t much he could tell the teacher. “A bit,” he finally answered. “And I think I’m coming down with something.”

Lancer nodded slowly. “If I may be frank, you look like you need two days of sleep and a therapist. What can I help you with?”

A little grin flicked onto his lips. His sister would agree - he did need two days of sleep and a therapist. Probably more than one therapist. “Can I skip the test tomorrow?” he asked hopefully.

The teacher’s eyes narrowed just a touch. “Would that actually help?”

“No, probably not,” Danny grumbled. He wasn’t stressing over an English test; he was stressing over many larger issues. “Talking my parents into letting me stay home would, though. But I think I’d have to be hospitalized before they’re going to let me stay home.”

“An issue of your own creation, I believe,” Lancer said.

Danny bit back an answer to that, looking down at his toes. 

“I’m going to set you up an appointment with the school counselor for this afternoon.” Danny flinched at the memory of the last time he’d been in the school counselor’s room. The man either didn’t notice or didn’t care; he straightened up and brushed his hands on his pants. “You should think through what might help you. The counselor can help you pull a few strings if you need.”

“Yeah,” Danny muttered. 

“To class then,” Lancer said, ushering him back to the door. “I’ll excuse your tardy.”

Danny nodded, watching as the man walked away down the nearly empty hallway and listening to the man’s voice chide other students who were late to class. His brain still felt like mush. Two hundred milligrams of caffeine had done nothing for him. 

Something fizzed against his mind and Danny twisted, staring at a wall. They were getting closer. 

--

Danny had been a half-ghost long enough to get the feel for when things happened in his town. That was why, at some point during math class, Danny realized that Vlad had disappeared. The man had skipped town, just at those others - the they - got close. 

That made Danny pause. While Vlad’s warning had been ominous, he was well known to exaggerate, lie, and otherwise twist everything he said to deliberately put Danny in the wrong position. Vlad was as trustworthy as a brick promising it wouldn’t hit you on the head if you held it over you and let go.

But then again… Vlad had just… left. Before they got here. And that tone to his voice yesterday had been one Danny hadn’t heard before. 

What if Vlad had been telling him the truth?

Danny couldn’t quite shake that feeling out of his brain. The tense, nervous-excited feeling twisting inside of him took on a darker tinge. But there was nothing to be done for it other than try to focus on calculating angles of triangles. A skill that felt even less relevant than normal right then.

--

It was during English class that they arrived. He felt them, one by one, step into the boundary of his town. One, then two, three, four, and five. It almost felt like they were announcing themselves, standing there, waiting for permission to enter.

A glance at the clock told him the class was over in eleven minutes. He had until then to decide if he was going to stay at school like he had promised he would do, or if he was going to find out how loud his mother was willing to yell when she found out he’d left.

[five-rivers]

Coming in from the bnha fandom and have finally given in to the urge to readi Danny Phantom fic despite only knowing that "the Phandom is angsty". Any suggestions for someone who prefers no romance?

Phantom of Truth and its sequel is always a good starting point for high-grade angst with a happy ending.  @cordria‘s stuff is always good as well.  Reality of Virtuality is a quite good into the mind fic.  I don’t think it has romance in it, but it’s been a bit since I actually read it.  I really like CoronaIgnis on FFN, but they do have some background Amethyst Ocean and Timely Intelligence.  Nothing big, though.  Anything by @ladylynse.  @anthropwashere has some ones with ships, but most of them aren’t (although theirs can be sort of dark).  @pandemi-writes has good crossovers.  Once you filter out the P*mpous P*p (D*nny/Vl*d) and go to the top gen fics on AO3, almost everything there is good.  I’m sure there are some really good ones that slip my mind, but I’m having trouble recalling what does and what does not have background Amethyst Ocean, especially when it comes to FFN.    

[star-scroll]

Shameless (not really) self-promotion, I do a lot a non-romantic stuff myself! The phandom is kinda known for a lot of asexual ppl (myself included) so there is a lot to be found that isn't romance! Particular recs o' mine:

A Field Trip (in progress) Danny's class goes on a trip to the Grand Canyon. It's all fun and games until suddenly it isn't.

Summoning and Shenanigans (in progress) Danny gets summoned by a college frat and is invited to their weekly movie night.

A Failed Kidnapping (slight mentions of blood) Two guys make an attempt at holding a certain Danny Fenton for ransom. Little do they know, however, that Danny isn't exactly what you'd call a "normal kid" and they are in over their heads.

Laundry Day A reveal fic featuring a very sleepy Danny and his parents.

For Science (kinda angsty) Phantom has disproven Maddie's work for long enough, so she makes a resolution.

Here's some other people that are really cool! (Summaries here are all written by me. Some of this is just going me through my history on FFnet, which is also where all the fic links go to lol)

@lexiepiper Ao3 FFnet

Crux of The Matter (old but still a good read) and it's WIP rewrite Crux Redux are both rly good!

Bed, Bath, and The Great Beyond (one-shot) is a good summoning fic!

@imekitty Ao3 FFnet

Disparaged and it sequel Dissembled (in progress) as well as the related piece Condemned are very good fics, lotsa angst.

The Phantom Report (in progress) is really cool! I think it'll eventually be a reveal, and has been really interesting so far!

A Play to Remember (in progress) It started out with Danny having to take part in the school play but it takes a turn when a villain takes Sam and Tucker and Danny is left to rely on the A-listers.

Powerless and it's sequel Incommunicado are really good! Vlad is left in charge of Danny and decides they don't have to be in the US for him to do that. Danny is an unwilling participant.

Broken Ectoplasm (in progress) Quite a lot of angst, Danny gets beaten up by Skulker and his parents don't find out who he is until after he's been admitted to the hospital. Vlad keeps trying to claim that Phantom is his son, and the GIW are waiting at the door for the moment Danny is discharged.

Hollow Voices (one-shot) VERY angsty post-reveal fic, major character death

Late Bloomer (one-shot) Danny finds out he has new fangs in school and the class thinks he's a vampire.

[five-rivers]

Hey, Rivers!! Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💚

💚💜💚💜 ~The love~ 💚💜💚💜

But, wow! It's hard to pick just five favorites. And to some degree, whatever I've worked on most recently is my favorite.

Adoption is one of my older Lost Time (platonic Danny and Clockwork) fics, and it carries a lot of the headcanons I have about young ghosts and ghost society.

Interview With a Ghost, and, honestly, the whole Exhumed series in general, especially the first few. Exhumed is my primary Corpse AU, and Interview With a Ghost is the meat of it! Danny really shouldn't have buried his body in a public park.

Loved is my Eldritch Abomination AU. It's also Lost Time, but it's cozy horror, unlike Adoption, which is more hurt/comfort. Loved is also one of my few M rated fics. At it's root, it's still Clockwork adopting Danny, but... Eldritch abominations express love in strange ways.

A Clear Pattern of Behavior is a BNHA fic I have a soft spot for at the moment. It's one where Aizawa acts like a real teacher and gives Bakugou detention for attacking Midoriya.

On the Manufacture of Gods is a Generator Rex prequel fic! It's about the nanite event and how Rex came to be.

[maikron]

Here's me trying to interpret how Danny's hazmat suit would look like if it were more realistic, based on my experience with biohazard PPE.

I feel like I also need to add a disclaimer to not use this as safety advice. Please follow your local health and safety guidelines prior to handling ectoplasm, ecto-contaminated materials, and/or ectobiological organisms!

[five-rivers]

Way to Learn

Clockwork kept an ear out as Daniel’s core hummed, chittered, and purred, the tone rising and falling.  When appropriate, he answered it with his own hums and even a few chirps.

After all, to learn a language you needed someone to speak it to you, to speak it with you.  There were certain shortcuts possible with the languages generally known as ‘Ghost Speak’ when compared to living languages, but conversational partners were still a necessity.  

As was, in the case of Daniel and other young ghosts, a period of child-like babble.  Encouraging it helped them learn faster.

However, Daniel didn’t understand Ghost Speak very well, so Clockwork said his next words in English.  

“Daniel.”

“Yeah?” said Daniel, looking up from his math homework.  “What is it?”

“We have an errand to run,” said Clockwork.  

Daniel’s eyebrows flew up.  “You can leave?  I mean, um.  Sorry.  That was rude.”

“I understand your surprise, but rest assured that the Observants do not control me that much.”

“What kind of errand is it?” asked Daniel, putting aside his book and hurrying to Clockwork’s side.  “Bills?  Groceries?  Mail?”

“Closer to groceries than bills,” said Clockwork, “and closer still to mail.  I have some things I need to pick up in person, and the journey might give you some additional insight into ghost culture.”

“Okay,” said Daniel, as they flew out.  “That sounds cool. What kind of insights?”

“You’ll see.”

.

As they flew, Daniel took it upon himself to ask questions about everything that passed by.  Some of those questions, Clockwork knew, were legitimate curiosity.  Others were thinly veiled attempts to get Clockwork to give away something about what was happening in the future, however near it may be.  

However, long before Daniel could wear through Clockwork’s patience - a quality strengthened over many interactions with the Observants - their destination came into sight.  A small island, covered in mist.

“There we are,” said Clockwork.  “Now, you should be aware of two things about this island.”

“Yes?” asked Daniel, eagerly.  

“One is that time runs differently there.  One week within is one hour without, so we may spend more time there than you usually would.”

“Cool,” said Daniel, “is that why you’re coming here?”

“It is one of the reasons.  The other thing you should know is that human languages are not spoken there.”

Daniel, who had been learning about how the Ghost Zone worked, frowned.  “Are not, as in no one speaks them, or as in no one can speak them, even if they learned.”

“The latter,” said Clockwork.

“Oh,” said Daniel, looking at the island with much less enthusiasm.  “Okay.”

“Ghost languages aren’t too terribly difficult.  I’m sure you’ll be able to talk to everyone there before we leave.”

“Sure as in you looked, or just sure?”

“I’m sure,” Clockwork said, without further elaboration.  “Immersion is the best way to learn a language.”

“Do you even have an errand here?” asked Danny.  “Or is this your way of making me learn ghost languages?”

Clockwork smiled.

[five-rivers]

Hello, for the Free Day, I've done the first chapter of Pilgrimage, Mortified's sequel.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Please follow it on AO3, as there will most likely be many chapters, and I do not want to try to organize that on Tumblr.

Enjoy!