DCxDP Fic Idea: Fickle
Danny Fenton finds out his ghost side is dying. Or rather, Phantom's core was slowly fading away. A ghost that found closure for whatever was keeping them around- or the completion of their Obsession- often moved on from whatever they were haunting.
Humans thought this was a blessing as a ghost would no longer be trapped in their eternal loop. Other ghosts referred to it as the second death because it was essentially them dying all over again.
Danny, as a Halfa, was in the middle because his Obsession was never set in stone. Ghost formed around the idea or concept that developed into an Obsession, often reflecting the cause of their deaths or a deep enough regret of their life. They never had to guess what that was; it was always the most important thing on their mind in the last few moments of life that the person had.
Halfas, on the other hand, didn't have a pin down Obession because they were still alive and all living humans were in constant change throughout life. Due to this, Danny developed an obsessive personality for any of his interests, practically making it his entire life, but just as frickly did he move on from it.
His interest lasted maybe six to a year, where all he could think about was his new fixation to the point where he even redecorated his entire room just to revolve around this one thing, then just as suddenly, he threw everything out to replace it.
Vlad had a similar problem, and when Danny had first met him, his obsession with the Packers had spiraled all over his castle, taking up a good, large portion of his personality.
By the end of that same year, Vlad had shifted to blueberries, and every Packer memorabilia item was either sold off or stored away to rot. Why blueberries? Vlad had no idea, but he bought three large blueberry farms just to frolic through anyway.
The problem with their attention launching onto something so quickly was that fulfillment of their Obsessions was constantly changing. Buying the Packers was out of Vlad's control since the city refused to sell, but blueberries were very much attainable, and thus his Obsession was completed.
His ghost core started to fade away in satisfaction, while Vlad grew weaker and weaker, until even his human side started to feel the effects. Then Vlad got really into wood carving, and his Obsession snapped back into longing as he tried to create the greatest wooden statue of all time.
Danny had watched all of this with a wary eye. While Vlad was still a pain in the butt and could function like a normal human being, it was not hard to miss the way he would give in to his ghostly Obsession instincts.
Danny's Obsession had always been space, or more specifically, being an astronaut for NASA. While he had gone into space, it hadn't been under the organization, which was a bit deal apparently to his ghost side.
After becoming Phantom, Danny grew more and more frantic about the organization, going as far as learning what kind of toilet paper they used in the office.
Then suddenly, Phantom's Obsession launched onto cookies. Baking them, eating them, and sharing them. Danny could not stop thinking about cookies. He quickly gained a year-long reputation for being the Cookie Guy, in his pursuit to create the one True Cookie.
Then the following year, when he turned sixteen, Danny grew obsessed with flying. Planes or as Phantom. Any method to get him into the sky. Since he could easily do that, Danny spent that entire year in and out of the hospital as his body scrambled to move on while simultaneously never feeling so alive.
Thankfully while during one of his longer stays in the hospital- his parents and doctors where going mad trying to figure out what was wrong with him- Danny got hooked on animation due to the cartoon playing on reply in his hospital room and he came back to life.
He wished his obsessions stayed the same sometimes. His was disheartening to look at something he greatly enjoyed, loved even, and felt absolutely nothing. It was like missing childlike wonder.
Once the phases past he would feel directionless. He sometimes tried to force himself to still adore his latest obsession but it always felt empty, and it only highlighted how much he moved on from it.
That is to say, Danny's quick Obsessions werent the only thing he thought of, setting apart from other ghosts and humans further.
Which was all well and good, since he could still go to school, still work, still fight, and have a normal life, but all his obsessions were obtainable, and Danny was always right at the edge of fading.
He would have to live with the fact that at any given day, his obsession would cling onto something within his grasp, and he died a second death with a gaint grin on his face.
Then, one day, when Danny turned twenty, his obsession moved to something completely new: A person.
Not just any person mind you, but someone he saw on TV once as nothing more then a passing shadow with eyes.
Batman.
It was like the gates of heaven have open up again for him, life grew brighter, the world seemed more colorful and the fandom for the hero? They sung.
Jazz had come home to thier shared apartment in Gotham to find Danny making his own set of Batman theme pajamas, while wearing a replica of Batman's mask made out of paper plates and markers. She paused for only a second before sighing deeply.
"Here we go again." Jazz mutters throwing her keys into the bowl near the door. "Danny what are you doing?"
"BATMAN!"
"Yeah I thought so. Carry on"
A month later Jazz finds out through a friend that a new buger place open up called BatBurger, modeled entirely after Batman, and isnt surprised when she walks in to find Danny as the proud owner.
At least Batman wasnt real so she didnt have to worry about her brother actually meeting the guy. Maybe this Obsession will last for a while so they didn't have to worry about Danny's health.
Nothing bad would come from this Obsessions surely.
Two days later Danny steals Batman's cape and gets Robin's autograph on it. He proudly displays it in the middle of thier living room and Jazz is terrified that Batman is not only real but might just hunt them down for his cape.