Extra doodles, comics, illustrations, and story stuff I did during the creation phase of the @dpfantasyzine in 2024!
The Phantasmal Quest AU recycles a few elements & tropes I loved during my OC-making days. A plucky young protagonist going on a life-changing quest through a big, scary world is one of my favorite frameworks for storytelling. I also have a long standing weakness for magical forced servitude. I prefer this trope to be between a child and an adult, where the industrious, often neglected child holds all the power and the unwilling dysfunctional adult is just along for the ride. Until he catches feelings, that is.
Items of particular interest in this art dump include a redesigned Vortex and Ember's hurdy gurdy.
The summoning circle glowed an eerie green, casting sharp shadows around the Justice League's meeting chamber. John Constantine, sleeves rolled up and cigarette dangling from his lips, muttered the last words of the incantation. The room held a tense silence, broken only by the faint hum of the magical energy.
When the green smoke cleared, instead of the imposing figure of the Ghost King they’d expected, a scrawny teenager in a black jumpsuit with white gloves and boots appeared, looking distinctly unimpressed.
“Seriously?!” Danny Phantom groaned, throwing up his hands. “It’s a school night!”
The room collectively blinked. Superman and Wonder Woman exchanged confused glances. Batman’s eyes narrowed behind his cowl, while the Batkids—perched around the room like chaotic gargoyles—leaned forward, intrigued.
“This… is the Ghost King?” Nightwing asked, his voice skeptical but amused.
“Ghost King?” Danny repeated, holding up a hand. “Nope. Wrong guy. Try again.”
“Clearly, this is a child,” Robin said flatly, stepping forward with his arms crossed. “Either the summoning ritual failed, or we’ve been deceived.”
“Who are you calling a child, mini-Nightmare?” Danny shot back, floating an inch off the ground to look taller. “I’m fifteen. How old are you, eight?”
“I am fourteen, you insufferable spirit,” Robin snapped, glaring daggers at him. “And you are woefully unqualified to speak to me in such a tone.”
Danny rolled his eyes. “Yeah, okay, Robin Junior. Let me know when you grow a sense of humor.”
Red Hood, perched casually on a table nearby, barked out a laugh. “I like this kid already.”
Robin scowled. “You would.”
Red Hood swung his legs off the table, standing to his full height. “Alright, Casper, if you’re not the Ghost King, why’d this ritual grab you instead?”
“That’s a great question! Wish I knew!” Danny said, throwing up his hands.
Constantine frowned, stepping closer. “You’re definitely ghostly, mate, and half-alive by the looks of you.” His sharp gaze softened just slightly. “You’re a bloody halfa.”
Danny froze, eyes darting to the swirling green barrier still holding him in the circle (not really). “I’m a ghost. And yeah, I’m alive. What’s it to you?”
Batman loomed closer, his deep voice cutting through the room. “If you’re not the Ghost King, why does this summoning work?”
“Great question! Wish I knew!” Danny threw up his arms again, his ectoplasm glowing faintly in frustration. “I don’t even know who you are, and you’ve already ruined my night! or Maybe the universe hates me. That’d explain a lot!”
“Who even made this circle?” Red Hood asked, pointing at Constantine. “Did you check it? It’s glowing green. That’s ghost vibes, man.”
“Thanks for the observation, Red Hood,” Constantine said dryly. “What gave it away, the ectoplasm or the ghost?”
“You are in no position to demand answers,” Batman growled.
“Oh my god, you’re worse than my parents,” Danny muttered.
Before Batman could respond, the air grew colder. A heavy, oppressive presence filled the room as green flames erupted in the middle of the chamber. From the flames stepped Pariah Dark, fully armored and radiating raw power, his glowing eyes zeroing in on Danny.
The League tensed, weapons at the ready, but Pariah didn’t even look at them. Instead, his expression softened in a way that could only be described as paternal as he reached out and plucked Danny out of the circle like a child grabbing a stuffed animal.
“Who dares summon my child?” Pariah rumbled, his deep voice shaking the room. He cradled Danny in one massive hand as though he were the most precious treasure in existence. Danny, for his part, just sighed and leaned against one of Pariah’s fingers.
“Dad, chill. They’re not trying to hurt me—” Danny shot a glare at Batman, “—yet.”
“‘Dad’?” Robin echoed, utterly baffled.
“They stressed him out,” Pariah continued as if Danny hadn’t spoken. “This is the third time in two weeks. Do you know how much sleep he’s lost? He has school!”
Pariah’s gaze darkened. “The third summoning this week,” he growled. “And for what? To disrupt his rest? His studies?”
“Studies?” Robin repeated incredulously. “This alleged ‘Ghost Prince’ is concerned with—”
“School,” Red Hood supplied helpfully, smirking. “That tracks. He’s just a kid.”
“I’M NOT JUST A KID!” Danny protested, his voice cracking slightly. Jason snorted.
Before anyone else could respond, Fright Knight materialized beside Pariah, his armor gleaming and his sword crackling with ghostly energy. He took one look at the summoning circle and grimaced.
“Shall I eliminate the offenders, my liege?” he asked Pariah, his grip tightening on his sword.
“No!” Danny yelped, waving his hands frantically. “No eliminating, no smiting! We talked about this, remember?”
Pariah sighed, his massive shoulders slumping. “They stressed you out,” he rumbled. “They should pay.”
“They’ll be fine,” Danny muttered. “Just… let me handle it, okay?”
“‘Fine,’ he says,” Red Hood muttered. “We’re seconds away from getting blasted into the afterlife.”
Robin's hand drifted toward his sword, his eyes darting between Pariah and Fright Knight. “This is absurd. We are the Justice League. Surely, we are not so easily—”
“Shut it, kid,” Consttantine interrupted. “Unless you want to test if we’re actually ‘fine.’”
Danny groaned. “Can we not do this right now?”
Wonder Woman stepped forward, her voice calm but firm. “We summoned you because we need the Ghost King’s aid to stop a catastrophic magical event threatening the world.”
“Then why not summon him?” Danny snapped. “I’m not the king!”
“Yet the ritual brought you,” Batman said, his voice a mix of curiosity and accusation.
Pariah’s gaze darkened. “The crown does not transfer unless challenged. And none shall dare challenge my son.”
Danny squirmed in his ghost-dad’s grip. “Okay, Dad, they get it. Can you not threaten to destroy the world for five minutes?”
Pariah huffed but gently set Danny down, though he remained close, a looming shadow of protective menace.
Constantine rubbed his temples, muttering something about “bloody teenagers” and “overprotective ghost tyrants.” Meanwhile, the Batkids exchanged glances, clearly plotting something.
Danny sighed. “Look, I’ll help you guys with your big, scary magical problem, but can we make it quick? I have a chem test tomorrow.”
I’ve seen de-aged Danny AUs in crossovers before but have I ever gotten to see one where there isn’t a crossover attached??? because consider:
Clockwork decides the most efficient way for Danny to defeat Pariah Dark… is to have Pariah raise him.
no warning. no context. no explanation.
just toddler Danny, bundled up, dropped at the gates of Pariah’s fortress centuries before canon with a single note:
'' He’s o̶u̶r̶ your baby. – CW.''
and Pariah is standing there like.
'' When did I fuck with the embodiment of time itself?''
'' WHEN did this happen! ''
meanwhile Danny is just blinking up at him with big glowing eyes and reaching up like “uppies.”
and now Pariah —ancient tyrant, nightmare of the Infinite Realms — is stuck pacing his throne room at 3am with a ghost toddler who refuses to sleep unless he’s holding onto his cape.
but here’s the thing.
Pariah is prideful. He is royal. He is not raising a weak heir.
so Danny is trained.
battle strategy taught at bedtime.
sword forms before he can properly read.
history of the Realms instead of fairy tales.
because if this is his child (apparently???) then he will be a prince. and he will be formidable.
and somewhere in the background
Clockwork is watching like :)
because what better way to ensure Pariah’s defeat… than making him love the thing that will one day overthrow him.
Pariah Dark: The human you mated with? I mean the boy has your white hair and teenage frame, but those round eyes and pointed nose must have come from somewhere?
Clockwork: Ancients Pariah, Danny's adopted! There's no blood relation. I have custody, not blood rights.
Pariah Dark: *looks over at Danny who is looking annoyed while talking to an Observant, right before pointing them in the wrong direction on a wild goose chase and smiling smugly, pleased with himself*
Pariah Dark: Uh huh ... are you SURE???
Clockwork: I mean the rift did rewrite his DNA, and I WAS present at that moment. It could be that his DNA latched onto the closest source of ecto energy, me, and copied its structure to retain stability. Resulting in some of my traits and features being incorporated into his being.
Pariah Dark: ...
Clockwork: Holy shit he's my kid...
Pariah Dark: Are you going to tell him?
Clockwork: Probably not. It's more fun letting him figure things out on his own.
"Hey girl!" Phantom says nonchalantly on the shoulder of the fucking Ghost King. Ice cream in one hand, a pair of sunglasses on his face, and a smoothie in the other. "You're getting adopted!"
Raven stared at the scene incredulously. When Phantom had texted her saying that he had a surprise for her, this was not what she expected.
She then slowly, ever so slowly, looked at the expression on the Ghost King's face. The lack of annoyance or anger at the fact that Phantom was sitting on his shoulder. Then the clear space on his other one. Then to her phone. Then to the rest of her team who look just as shocked (because a man and his kid who they don't know busted into their home) then back to Phantom.
Who merely shook the smoothie in her direction.
...
You know what?
She flew up, grabbed the smoothie, then sat herself down on the Ghost King's other shoulder. Much to Phantom's delighted cackle as the Ghost King disappeared from the Tower in a shower of green flame.
"Don't forget these!" Phantom said, reaching around with his ghost physiology to shake a pair of sunglasses next to her face. Raven took them, then put them and leaned back, taking a sip from her smoothie.
Okay I absolutely love the idea of pariah dark adopting Danny and I don’t see it quite often and I really like dead serious/Danny x Damien
After a bad Fenton parents revealed Danny escape to the ghost zone where he meets up with a very confused pariah dark who doesn’t understand why this baby ghost is acting hostile towards him and why the baby ghosts also injured so he asks and Danny is obviously confused on why pariah is acting so nice.
Danny then explains angrily to pariah about everything and based on the look on pariah’s face Danny can tell that something isn’t right and he finds out from clockwork that apparently the observance were being massive jerks and were manipulating pariah in order to get whatever the hell they wanted and of course pariah is furious with this because he was trying to make the realm a peaceful and happy place but he was being manipulated and controlled into being a tyrant and then imprisoned for it by the exact same people or beings that were controlling him.
pariah dark immediately then overthrows the observance stripping them all of their power and making them pay for what he did to everyone in the realm because technically it was their fault for controlling him. he then goes to Danny and tells him since he defeated him in combat he has the right to the throne but he is aware that Danny is too young, and will have him first get a bit older before he becomes the next king at that point Danny Lets it spilled that his parents are the ones who injured him and that they were still human and all of that and obviously pariah is not happy so he tries and succeeds in forming a bond with Danny essentially becoming Danny’s father.
And he also automatically takes Danny after forming the bond to the far frozen to get him checked out because there are severe injuries that are definitely not okay, and obviously everyone from the far frozen is shocked to see Pariah dark holding Danny, but after he explains exactly what happened they let him see Danny again but by that point Danny had retracted into his core due to his injuries.
Pariah obviously being concerned because he is Danny’s new father figure would try his best to get his new son to reform but what he wasn’t expecting was for his new son to reform into a toddler round about three years old.
After sorting all of that out pariah dark would then return to his castle and set everything up for his new son/Danny, and after setting everything up he would make an announcement to a very terrified realm exposing the bad deeds of the observers and declaring Danny the high prince of the infinite realms the next to take the throne.
Pariah dark then spends two years taking care of Danny and fixing the realms
As soon as Danny turns five pariah dark decides to do something that he still thinks is normal because he’s so gosh damn old he doesn’t know that arranged marriages are out of style or not really done anymore but nonetheless he tries to find someone perfect to engage his half mortal son to, and he finds them , he comes across a natural portal of corrupted ectoplasm and learns that there is a group that literally treats this portal like it’s a gift from a higher being or something so he thinks these people might be liminal enough that if there is a child there to engage his son with they will be closer to what Danny is than anyone else.
So during the next ritual the group has he appears and tries to make a deal with the leader to engage his son with any child near Danny’s age and luckily there is a six-year-old boy named Damien.
ra’s al ghul obviously not expecting a being to come out of the pit is a bit wary on what he wants but when he hears that this creature is the literal king of the afterlife and that he is looking for a partner for his son he immediately jumps on giving him any one of his own children but when he learns that the being has a five-year-old and does not want his son to be engaged anyone too old for him ra’s then offers Damien since Damien is only six and this is like the best thing that could ever happen having his grandson betrothed to the next ruler of the afterlife is like the best thing that could ever happen to him, and pariah and ra’s end up agreeing to betroth Danny and Damien.
Damien being a child raised by the leag of assassins obviously takes it as a great honor to be the fiancé or whatever to the prince of the afterlife and sees himself as the perfect and only good option so he is going to fully commit to proving that he is the perfect option for the Prince of the afterlife.
And as they occasionally meet up and get to know each other and they both start getting feelings for each other, but they both are kind of dense so they don’t really realize it, Danny is the first to realize that he likes Damien after Damien leaves to go live with his father, and is kind of sad that he can’t hang out with Damien anymore.
Damien on the other hand after spending a single year with his father realizes that he really really misses Daniel/Danny and then comes to the conclusion that he had actually gained feelings for his betrothed and is now upset that he can’t see Daniel/Danny anymore .
And like maybe a year or two or maybe even three later under some circumstances they meet up again and they literally won’t leave each other alone because they haven’t seen each other in so long.
These have been a lot of fun to make, even if there was a lot of sending files between different devices and I had to get familiar with Krita again as it's the only drawing program I currently have on my laptop. (Apparently I hadn't updated it in years, so yeah... it's clearly not gotten much use in a while 😅)
