#ic ll control

[halfghcst]

——— ✨ ———

It’s… dark.

Aside from the very faint glow of his own body, that is. Which should tell Phantom that it’s even darker in here than he previously thought.

Where is he?

As this thought sluggishly makes itself more clear in the ghostly teens mind, he finally takes in what little he can tell about his surroundings.

He’s lying down… but not? Oh. He’s submerged in some kind of fluid. Phantom can hardly move, but it’s clear now…he’s in a container.

Looking around where his feet are and just over his head he can make out dark lines like grooves in metal. There’s a strange device on his face. It’s not to aid in breathing though. This has to be related to the Guys in White somehow.

Every now and then, bright green glowing swirls of color flow upwards from somewhere on his body and dissipates into the rest of the surrounding liquid.

He’s bleeding.

Phantom feels like he should be panicking, but it’s like he can’t. He helplessly wonders if the fluid is sedating him somehow.

He’s tired, the last thing he remembers is chasing Johnny and Kitty around the city. Then nothing.

There’s a distinct movement, like something has bumped his container. Phantom isn’t sure what’s going on outside of it. Based on the way he’s positioned, the teen assumes his container is slotted into a bigger container. Like drawers in a morgue.

[halfghcst]

@stcries sent:

"Stop smiling. It’s not funny." hi yes, danny gets the rights to bully his alternate evil future self, it's the law i'm afraid.

" Sure... Not funny at all... " Danny stifled the giggles rising in his throat, but just barely. " Something tells me your opinion would be different if our situations were reversed. "

This is why Danny never tried to wear a cape. Except that one time he split himself into two different entities representing his ghost and human halves. But that was different.

[halfghcst]

@arobinwithoutbatman sent:

Cult stuff isn't an unusual thing to deal with and Robin is a little concerned that it took blood to make everything light up and start doing something. Not even a massive amount, someone just got a lucky hit in and Robin had to spit blood out of his mouth which is frankly just gross. And now things are happening and the cultists are preparing to worship whatever awful thing they summoned and he really wished his siblings were available.

All day no, all week! Danny had been setting up that old house at 917 Maple street for Halloween the whole week. He'd even recruited Johnny 13 and Kitty to help him out. The teen's pride as a kind of ghost had somewhat been hurt last year when he lost that bet to Dash. So this year he vowed to make the whole place a scary attraction that actually scared people. He even practiced the week beforehand by scaring Lancer and Tetslaff away from the property.

All that effort and work, down the drain, all because the Goons in White just had to make an appearance. Phantom just can't have anything it seemed. He'd stubbornly taken a hit for Kitty to make sure the ghostly couple could make it out of there. And now he was zooming around the giant haunted house trying to dodge a slew of weapons designed to hurt and/or capture him.

Not willing to be caught by these particular ghost hunters again, Danny finally phased upwards to the top floor which was currently locked and boarded up. It would at least give him some time to assess the damage and message someone.

Even before he'd made it up here, the teen knew the damage had to be bad. He'd been seeing smears and streaks of his own bright green ectoplasm all over the place as he'd dodged the rest of their attacks. And now that he wasn't panicking quite as much, he was starting to feel it.

There was an audible noise of discomfort coming from him as he twisted his spectral body to get a better look. Some kind of searing hot anti-ghost energy had made direct contact with his left shoulder and upper back. It had melted through the material of the suit and burned through his skin. Ectoplasm dripped from the wound, but at least Phantom knew it would eventually heal up regardless of it's appearance.

As Danny quietly thanked his lucky stars that the backpack with his phone and homework in it had been slung over the opposite side of his body. Although he was sure the ectoplasm splatter was burning away at some of the straps. The teen could hear banging and clattering where the attic door was.

He was trying to be quick, but all of a sudden there was a strange pulling and tingling sensation all over his body. The feeling combined with the pain caused a wave of nausea to wash over him. Something else was wrong! Phantom's eyes slammed closed involuntarily as he held the bag closer to himself, trying to will the feeling away to no avail. I was like the room was warping and twisting around him constantly

Until it wasn't. The noises around him were muffled at first but it became clear that they weren't the same ones from before. Phantom opened glowing green eyes to figure out just what had happened. In the half ghost's blurry vision he could see... strange markings on the ground in front of him? Candles? Was that blood? Obscured figures beyond the markings seemed to be frozen in place.

Disorientated, Danny kept a firm grip on the bookbag hoping to ground himself to something. Questions automatically spilled from his lips, not that anyone living would hear anything understandable.

{ W-where am I? What's going on? }

This was almost the worst birthday he could remember having honestly.

[halfghcst]

@madefate sent:

no one asked you to get involved. / from ember !

THE GRUMPY VS SUNSHINE TROPE || accepting

" That's funny! " With perhaps too much confidence, the teen dodged a large musical instrument being flung towards him. " I don't remember ever caring if anyone asked or not! " This was obviously beef between Youngblood and Ember, perhaps his revenge for her abandoning him the night all of the adults were almost taken.

This one some sort of graveyard themed stage with an empty area for other ghosts to attend a concert of sorts. The stage was canopied by a large creature's rib cage and surrounded by several types of grave markers for onlookers to sit on. All of Youngblood's ghostly crew members were locked in battle with Ember's own band members. Although, captain kid himself was nowhere to be seen. Phantom had only come across this little incident because he was on his way to see Frostbite.

" So ! " Phantom grabbed a microphone stand that was swung at Ember by one of the pirates, changing its momentum to spin the other ghost around and throw them. " What exactly is going on here? Some kind of battle of the bands? "

With Youngblood MIA, he could only get Ember's side of the story. And it was on her turf from the looks of things so, he figured she was the one he should help in this situation. Besides that, it was convenient for him, since he had been meaning to ask Ember something anyway.

[halfghcst]

@madefate sent:

“I know I’m not alone in here, I heard you.” / from jazz !

for the ghosty muses || accepting

Which was intentional as long as mom and dad didn't hear, everything would be fine. Quickly, he double checked to be sure they weren't coming back in. Intangibility and invisibility sure is handy like that a lot of the time. Allowing himself to become visible again, Danny flopped onto Jazz's bed, clearly upset about something.

He let out a sigh before looking up at his sister. He was exhausted and it probably showed. What should he say? How should he say it? This is Jazz. Not mom. Not dad. Jazz. Somehow part of him felt worse at the possibility that he might disappoint her more than their parents.

" I... " The younger of the two drew in a breath, attempting to hype himself up, but quickly deflated. " I... don't know how to say what I need to say. " Surely, she would understand. His older sister was the only person in the house that really knew his situation. If anything, he knew she cared about him. She'd proven as much to him countless times.

Maybe he was just overreacting? Maybe he just needed to calm himself down and just say it. Make a joke out of it, to make it less intense? No, Jazz would know what he was doing. Which was what? Dumping his feelings, stresses, and worries onto someone else? She didn't deserve that. But what else could he do that he hadn't already tried?

Frustrated, he covered his face with a pillow before just letting the words spill from his mouth. Which would have been heard just fine if they weren't muffled entirely.

[halfghcst]

@suturedninja sent: “ I know I’m not alone in here, I heard you. ”

for the ghosty muses || accepting

The darkness remained silent aside from the usual nightly ambience of the forest. However two cat-like glowing green eyes shown from the depths of the foliage of a nearby tree. Blinking twice at the large man below, the creature watched warily, unsure what to make of him.

Before the man was within range, the creature only really had thoughts of going home. Unattainable in his current condition as it was. Why was he like this? How was he like this? Where was he now? How can he return to normal again? All good questions that he probably should be thinking about as well.

But try as they might, he couldn't focus on more than one thought at once. It was like his brain was enveloped in a thick fog. Now the stranger was that sole thing his mind held focus on. Bravely, the tiny creature ventured out from under the leaves, onto the lowest part of the branches.

The creature had an eerie glow about it, which was somehow suppressed when hiding in the tree before. White fluffy hair framed a very small round face and large pointed ears. Two little gloved front arms made gestures of confusion and a long tail, which curled around the branch beneath itself, kept it in place. The green eyes, which surely were too big for the face they belonged to, seemed almost cat-like while trained on the man.

It seemed to make noises at him, only a quiet and unrecognizable-- yet decidedly creepy-- sound managed to come from the small form. This man was the first living thing he'd encountered here as far as he could tell. They couldn't help but be curious about him.

[halfghcst]

@snkts sent: So… where were we?

THE MOST CLICHÉ LINES OF DIALOGUE || accepting

Well, now. How was Phantom going to get himself out of this one? Sure, he could just leave. Nothing was stopping him physically. And it wasn't like the people back in Amity Park cared enough to listen when he tried to explain himself. But this wasn't back home. And it didn't sit right with the teen that he wouldn't bother with at least trying to talk it out with someone new.

Current problem with that though, is that there's no way he was going to be fully understood without his phone. He had to have dropped it nearby when he crashed into that tree.

But which tree was it? There was a lot of damage done to the park during the fight with the ghost and whoever that guy from before was. They'd interrupted when Phantom had initially been approached. But they didn't seem to be together the ghost at least, had no problems with throwing ecto-blasts at the other guy.

Glowing eyes glanced around nervously, searching for any sign of his purple galaxy phone case in the darkness of the night and foliage of the park. At the same time, the teen mimed a phone scrolling gesture at the man in front of him-- hoping that he understood what the ghost was looking for.

Momentarily forgetting the purpose of the device while still looking for it, Phantom automatically tried to also verbally tell him what he was looking for. However, living people would have only heard strange eerie sounds coming from the teen, akin to white noise, static, and distorted unintelligible voices.

[halfghcst]

@prsonatm continued from { here }

There's a small amount of panic that goes through Phantom's mind at trying to find an explanation for when he managed to have the time to bake cookies. Then he realizes that, of course he would have time. Phantom has all the time in the world as far as anyone alive would know.

" Oh, well... I don't really...have to go to school anymore... or anything else. So I have a lot of time actually. Ghosts aren't attacking the town 24/7. Even if it feels like it. "

The ghost boy watched as the ghost hunter got comfortable. As comfortable as one can on a school roof, anyway. He was always so in awe of how pretty she is. Moreso than the sunset, even. Maybe that's bias talking, considering he was well aware of his own feelings regarding her. He was going to get caught staring again if he wasn't careful.

Instead he floated nearer to her, wondering if she would ever feel the same about him if he told her the truth of the situation. He was so tempted to tell her everything. But the idea also scared him. If she knew he was Danny the whole time and never told her... He couldn't blame her if she hated him.

" Actually, I... "

What if she did accept him? Forgave him? Those thoughts were crushed by the fear of her never wanting to speak to him again. Among other things.

" ...I think that sounds... nice. Do you mind if I stay and watch too? "