httyd au where Hiccup is a girl and Astrid is a dude and where Astrid finds Hiccup and toothless by doesn't listen to them. Romantic flight doesn't happen. But Hiccup doesn't go after him either because. Like. Who would believe him???
The chiefs daughter, known wimp. Has wanted to kill a dragon since forever. Also night furies are stuff of legend atp so.
he runs up to Gobber- his teacher also first person he could find- and word vomits that the chiefs daughter is a traitor, she's joined the dragons side in the war, she's befriended a night fury. And Gobber, who watched this shrimp of a girl create increasingly elaborate inventions to kill dragons, who knows that this kid has only ever wanted to kill dragons and most importantly who was not present for Hiccup and Stoick's mini argument where she first said that she didn't wanna kill dragons just goes ಠಿ_ಠ. R u sure.
Astrid: yes!!!! I saw the dragon!!!!!!
Hiccup: (acting) what dragon?
Astrid: the night fury you trained!!
Hiccup: (doing a million mental calculations and deciding the best course of action) uhh. I have no idea what he's talking about.
Cue Hiccup gaslighting astrid and LYING THROUGH HER TEETH for YEARS. basically every 'hiccup keeps toothless a secret' fic but with Astrid FUMING in the background. Hiccup forfeits the monstrous nightmare killing to him to 'make him feel better and make him stop accusing her of this bullshit' and the whole village hails her as a hero until the morning of the killing arrives and the monstrous nightmare is gone. Astrid immediately accuses her of setting it free and she goes "yeah. The dragon that almost killed me like twenty times. The dragon that's twenty feet long. Yeah I TOTALLY set it free guys lmao" and shes telling the truth but it's so absurd no one believes her and they just think she's being sarcastic. Astrid wants to tear his hair out.
Shenanigans where Hiccup is conveniently present whenever dragon related bullshit goes down but it's just such an absurd concept that no one makes the connection and believes Astrid. The chiefs daughter, who's mother was killed by dragons, who has a known thirst for their blood, who is also a wimp, working with a dragon they have horror stories about. It's like if the local mayor's kid was reported to be working with the bogeyman in a local crime ring. Like lol sure she is. Was the easter bunny there too?
inspired by this post by @onadarklingplain, alex pov. my hand slipped.
Alex and George were already debating what to order in for dinner when the green whatsapp banner flashed across Alex's phone. Morning in California. It was the hardest part of having to be in Monaco while Lily was in California, preparing to play the next round of the LPGA: the spending an entire day with George, eating breakfast, watching tennis, watching the replay of Doriane's race-- like Alex would have needed an excuse to follow George home, like he had anywhere else to be on this continent-- and then the bubble popping just before dinner, an entire day wiped away because Lily was beginning hers.
He swiped away the notification. He'd sat on the floor when they came in, because having his center of gravity closer to the ground felt good when he was off-kilter. Sitting on the floor, instead of next to George, made it easier to remember that his center of gravity was supposed to be inside himself. He wasn't looking at George, but he felt the way his body went too still. Freeze was always George's favorite nervous system response.
“Are you okay?” he asked. Yours is fawn, he heard his second-to-most-recent therapist say. Like there was something wrong with keeping an eye on the people you care about, noticing how they were doing, seeing if there was a way to put them at ease. He'd stopped seeing her shortly after that conversation, started seeing someone who asked him where he felt things in his body and didn't seem pressed when he couldn't give an answer.
At least he hadn't asked George are you mad at me. George had no reason to be mad at Alex for having gotten a text from his-- the word fiancée still felt like a LARP, like he was still a teenager trying to convince the social workers he was an appropriate guardian for his siblings. The thing about taking on adult responsibilities before you were an adult was there was nothing you could do, later, to feel like you'd really become one. The thing about meeting your girlfriend at 23 was that you blinked, and then you were 30, and she was your fiancée, and you still felt like the same asshole who'd ditched George on your boys' trip to hang out with her.
“What do you mean?” George asked.
Alex could hear how much effort he was putting into sounding casual, the way his vowels stayed too level. Hypervigilance, his therapist said in his head, and in his head, he told her to fuck off. She didn't get it, didn't understand why you always needed to be vigilant, didn't know how easily everything could slip away. A second of attention lapse and you're in the barriers instead of on the podium, and the missed podium is how you lose your seat, and half a decade later you're still not where you'd meant to be, just like that. Or you wake up one morning, and there's a knock at your door, like something out of Kafka. Or you ask your girlfriend to marry you, and your best friend stops mentioning her, for months.
Alex tipped his head back so he could see George properly. His nose was red from the sun, the bridge white where his sunglasses had blocked it. Carmen would have remembered to tell him to reapply suncream, even though she tans even easier than Alex, because she's responsible like that. She'd take care of George, when he finally married her.
“I meant — with the wedding. Are you going to be okay?” George isn't the type to not mention things. George is an open book, usually. It's been so long since George hid anything from Alex that Alex doesn't know whether he chooses not to or whether he really, truly, just can't. George wears his ambitions, and his desires, and his hungers, so close to the skin that Alex thinks he can see his heart beating in his chest sometimes. George has told Alex about his doubts about Carmen, about his feeling like it all fits too neatly, like he wonders sometimes if he's capable of feeling more, and Alex has laughed, and told him to grow up. Carmen and George work, like he and Lily work, no drama, no chaos, no big feelings. Life throws enough shit at you as is.
George still hadn't said anything. Alex felt his stomach in his throat, the feeling he gets when he's painted himself into a corner and the only way out is to keep painting. “We were thinking — well, neither of us see much sense in drawing it out. So maybe during the summer break," he said. He hadn't even wanted to do the whole thing, the proposal with the ring, the hullaballoo, but Lily was chill, but she wasn't that chill, or at least her family wasn't, so: not the whole thing, but some thing, at least. The minimum amount of necessary thing. "But I don’t want to — if I’d be a distraction, you know.”
George has a car that could win the championship. George paid the right dues to the right people, ate the right shit at the right time, got himself into the right position in the right car. Alex has been in this sport long enough that he doesn't believe in merit-- Lando Norris is the first of their cohort to win a title? Be so fucking for real, as Chloe would say-- but George deserves this, and Alex wouldn't be able to live with himself if George got anything less than what he deserved because of Alex's choices. If Alex getting married would fuck up George's championship battle, that's reason enough not to get married, in his book.
“Summer wedding, then?" George asked, smiling. "Just so long as I’m getting an invite.”
Alex forced himself to smile, even though the idea that he could get married and have George not be there, as if anything he does in this life would be real without George there to witness it, was unbearable. Alex's wedding could sooner go off without Lily-- Zoom her in from whatever hotel room, if you have to, she'd probably prefer that anyway, she hates big parties-- than without George.
“Course you’re invited you twat, you’re my best man. I thought that was obvious. I’ve said it enough in Grill the Grid videos, haven’t I?” They've been asking him enough variants of the question, for years, that at some point he half expects them to cut the bullshit and just say it. If you had to shag someone on the grid, who would you? Not that Alex would shag George, really. That word's too simple, too easy, for what it would be like with him. Not that Alex has thought about it, really.
“That doesn’t count as asking,” George said, in his buy a girl dinner first, voice, and Alex felt a laugh shatter its way out of his ribcage. Proposing to Lily had been simple, easy. There's a script for asking a girl to marry you. You buy the ring, and you kneel, and you don't even have to say anything, just her name, that's it, no reason, no justification, no need to explain why you're doing it, everyone knows, they've done the whole thing for you in their heads before you even get there. There's no script for asking someone to be your best man, or. There is, but Alex hasn't wanted to, hasn't been able to bear the way that saying it out loud would put George in a box, forever, demoting him to Best Supporting Actor. Every time he said on Grill the Grid that he wanted George to be his best man it felt like a lie. He can hide things from George, but he can't lie to him.
“I’m asking now,” he said. It was as close as he was ever going to get. He could feel his heart in his chest. It was pounding, and aching. He would tell his therapist that he identified a feeling in his body. She would be proud. “And I mean it.”
Some part of him thought that George would say no. The part of him that would be relieved when the last shoe finally dropped, when everything finally fell apart for good, because then there would be no more waiting, no more wondering how, or when, or why, wondered if this was it, if this would be the end. If he would finally lose George for good, or else. Be asked to choose, maybe. He'd spent enough time wondering which of them he would choose, if he had to, and now, facing it, he knew that he had always known.
“Okay,” George said. Alex felt his heart pound, for another few seconds, and then he couldn't take the feeling of George's eyes staring into him, searching, and had to look away, back to the TV, where somehow, Doriane was still driving.
So it was settled. Alex would marry Lily, and George would be there, Hollywood-handsome in a tuxedo, and Alex wouldn't be able to look at him once he'd walked in, because he would have to face away from him, toward Lily, but Alex would feel George behind him, and knowing that George was there, would always be there, would give him the strength he needed to face the rest of his life.
THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE NOTICED IN THE NYSM 3 TRAILER
*SPOILER WARNING* Of course, we know in trailers they put scenes in the wrong order, splice audio/video, and edit things out to not give away the plot so in this post I have tried to deduce the plot of Now You See Me: Now You Don't. Because of my extreme genius this may contain spoilers for the film. Please proceed with caution.
This is a long post of my theories, observations, and expectations for the third film so I can sleep at night and be normal about it until November. For the purpose of this long post I have color-coded the characters of Henley, Jack, Merritt and Daniel, their group name the Horsemen, and separated them from the new Horsemen which I have affectionately named the Ponies who will all individually have the same color (none). So feel free to only read about the characters you care about :) I, obviously, love each character the same without any favouritism to the old ones.
Under the cut you shall find the ramblings of a completely normal person.
The trailer begins with a shot of a large stage with The Horsemen and their logo projecting from the building with the words "In the world of magic everything that disappears reappears..." spoken by Daniel Atlas. I think this is the first misdirect in the trailer as the scene they show directly after those exterior shots does not take place in that specific building.
This scene is a flashback that occurs before the events of this movie. That's fairly obvious, but when? If it takes place during the first movie, we can assume they have kept the canon of the first two movies because we can see them wearing costumes resembling their show in New Orleans during NYSM1. They have even tried to replicate their appearance (hair and makeup) during this time.
We know that Henley was not present during the events of NYSM2 so if this performance occurred after that movie, The Horsemen must have reunited and made a reappearance some length of time after that (assuming around 9 years have passed).
If they are ignoring the canon of NYSM2, then this easily takes place sometime after the first movie, with Jack making his reappearance within the group (after his fake death in NYSM1).
Whatever happened after this, the group broke up. Or at least, Daniel has separated himself from them.
The first location we meet The Ponies is Japan, I believe. Daniel finds them in a Karaoke bar. There are Japanese letters written on the screen behind them. Also, the exterior shot shows the Mode Gakuen Spiral Towers--a building in Japan. I don't believe they actually shot in Japan but this most likely takes place there.
There is a microphone on the table so we might get a goofy scene of The Ponies singing a song, which could be cute or really annoying. They have money on the table so it is possible they won a karaoke competition using some kind of trickery/mimickery. We already know Bosco does an impersonation of Atlas so this could be hinting that he has a similar 'mimicking' skill to Jack in NYSM1 à la "We're all good at six, move to seven."
{ note: i have to also mention i think that the horsemen’s appearance we see at the beginning at the trailer may be a hologram created by the ponies to get some money—as in the whole thing is a scam concocted by them to get money from loyal fans of the horsemen. a bit crazy if that’s the case because that defeats their entire message if they are scamming the public but this is only another theory }
I believe that Daniel Atlas walks in ready to recruit them to which we get the exchange of "I'll be the judge of that." I know I wrote in my notes I thought that might have been a fake interaction spliced together for the trailer but I think he actually does walk in saying this remark lmao.
The three Ponies seem like they are classic grumpy-sunshine trio. With Charlie (Justice Smith) being the ditzy one -- aka young Jack, Bosco (Dominic Sessa) being the witty one -- aka young Daniel, and June (Ariana Greenblatt) being the badass one, not necessarily a younger one of The Horsemen but very on par with how Ruben Fleisher writes young women, if you've seen Zombieland.
The card Daniel shows them is the Judgement tarot card. These cards have only occasionally had meaning with Jack, Dylan and (potentially, depending on the development of Henley/Daniel in this film) Daniel's holding any plot significance. However this card's reading implies that The Ponies will be taking over in the franchise from this point forward, assuming NYSM:NYD does well enough in cinemas.
One small confusing thing is that June has tattoos. I know this is not super crazy as some young people have tattoos underage. But, could this imply she's meant to be over the age of 18? Extremely strange decision to cast 17-year-old Ariana Greenblatt for this part. Unless they are all meant to be teenagers (17-19) and Dominic Sessa and Justice Smith are playing younger? Because if not it begs the question what is a 17-year-old girl doing with these two twenty-something-year-old men in Japan all by themselves? But let's smile and wave until the film releases hopefully with a good explanation.
{ note: ariana greenblatt mentioned in an interview on the zach sang show that she is in fact “playing older.” i think this is extremely strange casting decision, and i don’t understand casting a minor to play an adult if that’s the case. my thoughts might change when i see the film, however. }
Anyway, so they fly to Belgium with Daniel to track down the Heart Diamond. I assume in disguises judging by those BTS photos. I have a theory Daniel dresses up as a guy in a beard (assuming he is a fugitive) but that could just be a random passerby from Antwerp (Belgium) because they did film in public areas. They may also have stolen intel from him for the heist they are planning (or that Daniel is forcing these children into, lol).
So we are still in Belgium when we arrive at whatever location they are holding this event for the Heart Diamond (to the surprise of everyone it is shaped like a heart). I assume it's an auction.
Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike) is the name of the main British villain in this movie. She has two main henchmen beside her a lot of the time. The main one I have labelled as 'Hench #1' (Thabang Molaba) in my notes.
The Ponies and Daniel get into the event using disguises. I'm guessing this is a similar to how they hijacked Octa in NYSM2. One interesting this I noticed is that they had to switch the real diamond for the fake one at some point. I think they do this by posing as the camera men for Veronika. Bosco has a fake beard and can be seen taking pictures in the trailer.
I feel Daniel can't help showboating which ruins this heist. He shows the diamond, creating a scuffle. Security then attacks them, and probably gets the diamond back for the movie. Ego has always been Daniel's downfall so this is unsurprising. Veronika is escorted out by her bodyguards/henchmen.
The Horsemen show up to save Daniel and The Ponies from disaster. I have predicted a Jack card trick similar to that of NYSM2 with the raining cards (in their London performance) to create diversions as they try to escape. Charlie is also seen creating a puff of smoke, and of course, Henley shows up and hits some henchmen in the head with a bottle.
They meet up with Merritt, who is waiting with an escape onto a boat. If they were sent to save Daniel I am guessing they all individually got tired of him (I think he lied to The Ponies and this will be revealed as the key divide in the group) or another theory is they all did just grow apart and we will get a bit more about this tension while they travel on the boat. I think they travel on the boat to France.
I believe there may be a significant conversation or runtime spent on the boat as they changed outfits before they reached France. Or, this scene at the French Eye HQ takes place towards the end of the film (I am more confident in the former theory).
We get some classic Merritt-Daniel playful banter. I believe at this point there is still some kind of divide between The Horsemen.
Now these scenes once they reach the Eye HQ are hard to decipher but I have come up with two possible storylines.
STORYLINE 1: THEY ESCAPE THE POLICE
They get there and do not know how to get inside. I find this strange because surely they would be apart of the eye by now, but it's possible they were given a new address they haven't been to. I maybe I think Daniel snaps at Merritt because he is making fun of his 'open sesame' gag from his failed Heart Diamond heist earlier but it could just be their usual 'I hate you so much my brother' banter. I believe it does work and the door opens, which is meant to be a funny and frustrating coincidence. Or, either way it is a secret door because you can see in the background it looks like a bookshelf has been opened.
So they get inside and are greeted by Thaddeus. He gives them their mission. Then, they practice magic tricks and Henley changes her dress as an example to the Ponies.
Somehow the French Police manage to find them in this top secret location and get inside the building. They split off into groups accidentally while trying to run from the police.
Jack and June end up fighting together in what looks like a music room, Henley and Charlie end up fighting in a hall of mirrors and Daniel and Bosco end up evading the police in a rotating hall way.
(Also, Thaddeus and Merritt, but I talk about this later.)
Jesse Eisenberg explained during an interview that he and Dominic Sessa were running from the French police (so this portion of the film definitely takes place in France) and that he broke his finger during it.
Jesse can be seen wearing a cast in multiple set photos. This is a small thing but I believe that speech he gives on TikTok was because it was his birthday on that day of filming (he appeared in costume in his trailer at the 62nd New York Film Festival for A Real Pain in his 'birthday tux' back in October 2024).
I think they all break off into little 'teams' being Pony/Horseman so they can bridge the gap between the two a little more. They could successfully avoid the police this way.
After the police disrupt them, they either make their way to another location with the Penrose illusion (doors/stairs/mirrors) or this is a secret room in the Eye HQ and it gives them their idea for their final trick which I am theorizing involves mirror magic.
Merritt may have taken edible gummies at some point between the boat to France from Belgium, after the fight with the French police or when he last sees Thaddeus. This is the only way I could understand this line and I think it was meant to be humourous. It makes sense with both Woody Harrelson and Merritt as a character, I think.
STORYLINE 2: SOME GET ARRESTED
Mostly the same prior to the police showing up. But, I believe either Merritt, Jack or June get taken into custody or Thaddeus Bradley does, or possibly all. Another theory is Thaddeus sacrifices himself for The Horsemen/Ponies and possibly dies (it's possible Morgan Freeman asked to be killed off, but I don't know think they are ready to make the franchise that 'dark' per se, but it's Ruben Fleischer so you never know). I only guess this because there is a particular scene where the police break into a room where only Thaddeus is standing and Merritt calls out to him from the open door. This could be why only the ‘teams’ of Henley/Charlie and Daniel/Bosco are seen in this Penrose room as they are the ones who managed to successfully avoid the police.
However, Merritt is also seen in this room. This could mean he was in there before the others or that this is in fact simply a new location they all go to after the Eye HQ.
Although there is some kind of scene I think at a police station where Merritt and June are fighting the French police. Or, maybe he somehow sets fire to the room with the Penrose illusion.
{ note: it seems like merritt lost his hat in the kerfuffle with the police and goes without it for the remainder of the movie, hopefully under the final show. rip merritt’s hat 🥲 }
The final act may take place in Abu Dhabi, specifically in the Lourve Abu Dhabi. There are scenes of some kind of underground meeting between Veronika Vanderberg and war dealers/arms dealers she must be selling diamonds to or whatever. I couldn't quite figure out where to place this specific sequence with this underground into the story but I am fairly certain it is in Abu Dhabi as this is probably the Vanderberg base of operations.
At some point I believe near the end of the film, The Horsemen arrange to meet with Veronika Vanderberg. I'm guessing to arrange some confrontation (probably in an attempt to get her to fall into their trap à la Walter Mabry Potter style).
{ note: something happens with a race car, as we see a race track, i initially thought it was veronika driving away or something but more teaser trailers revealed it is bosco driving? so one of his skills may include driving an f1 car for yet unknown reasons }
The Horsemen confront her face-to-face and leave The Ponies at home for the day. They get tricked and are dropped into a tank of water to drown. They all work together to get out of the tank. This may be the moment where they finally come back together (as friends). However, I hope they have patched this up before this.
If this is the moment they patch things up. They might have dried off then called Veronika Vanderberg, but that depends.
{ note: they might have indeed dried off because i’ve noticed that the ceiling is the same as the destination for what i believe is the final “showdown” at the louvre abu dhabi }
I have another theory that there is another character in the tank scene. Atlas might have called for help from the Eye before hand (another theory for the phone call) and Dylan Shrike will show up fashionably late, or just dressed in clothes. Veronika has a gun in one scene, perhaps ready to shoot them after they survived the tank so I'm guessing that's where Dylan swoops in.
In an interview, Isla Fisher explains they were filming that tank scene for a week and one cast member peed inside the tank. She explains that herself, Jesse, Woody, Dave and one other cast member she 'can't mention' because it could get her into trouble if they are not announced to be in the movie. I believe this is Mark Ruffalo making a cameo. I think they intentionally left him out of the trailer as a surprise, despite having announced him in several cast lists and having listed his name on IMDb.
Other cameos may be Walter Mabry (Daniel Radcliffe) because apparently he is credited in this film. It would be fun if all the British villains in this universe were related somehow lmao. Sadly, I do not think Lula May (Lizzy Caplan) is in the movie unless she’s werewolfing in her interviews and she is making a small cameo like Ruffalo. But I think that’s the most we’ll see of her. However, if Walter Mabry is in the film, this is good as they haven't completely ignored NYSM2 and we may yet have an explanation for her absence.
{ note: lizzy caplan was in fact werewolfing because lula may is in the movie!! this could mean we get all 6 ogs on screen at the same time. depending on ruffalo’s appearance ofc. but he’s said to be in the film! *fingers crossed* also, it may be that calls daniel makes before they go to veronika is asking lula for help. doubt remains on what’s to become of lula x jack. cred to @shunalis-blog for finding the clip of lula lionsgate accidentally posted to their tiktok 😭 }
{ note: mark ruffalo is in fact in the movie. on wikipedia edited 6th nov, it is confirmed that dylan appears as a hologram. this may mean the big twist of the movie is going to involve holograms }
The shots we see at the beginning of the trailer I think are at the end of the movie during this confrontation. BTS images show that Bosco and June (and we can assume Charlie as well) are present during filming at the Louvre Abu Dhabi. So, I am betting this is where the final show takes place. It makes sense that the projections appear out of nowhere, as we've seen this before. And, they have gone with the name "THE HORSEMEN" instead of The Four Horsemen as The Ponies are now a part of the group.
{ note: they have actually gone by the general name the horsemen loosely since the second film, because they had the addition of lula. however they are still referred to several times as the four horsemen in nysm2. although i think there will still be a moment where they hand over the torch to the ponies, essentially. though it's still unclear if they are ignoring all or some events of the second film as they have state it's a soft reimagining in the past. }
As a final thing. I must talk about the graphic design of this movie. They have changed the font/style of the title card three times and they picked the ugliest one for the poster.
The first movie's poster is undoubtedly the best poster, with the order of quality going down in order of release. It's a shame because I think the NYSM1 poster is so iconic and quite gorgeous, really. The only thing I hope for is another score by Brian Tyler. Let's see if I get anything right.
i think i wanted to be studied. that's the honest part. i wanted to be a diagram. something with arrows pointing inward. here is where the pain loops. here is where she stopped. here is what she tried to replace god with.
✨ Written for the @womeninmotorsport-fest summer fest
🔗Read here: on ao3
A special thank you to Chaos for beta-ing :)
Preview:
Having Katherine in her flat still felt like a novelty, even after all these years. Not her bedroom, her bedroom was the one place the two of them had spent the most time, seen the most of each other; but out in the kitchen, Katherine boiling the kettle, making them both a cup of tea while Susie made revisions to Katherine's tenure letter. She looked like she belonged, like they had a future they were building together.
Of course, the was a time limit on them. The life cycle of them was a long established system, and it had a natural conclusion.
Valerie learns a big secret while tailing Danny Phantom on a patrol, and comes to some other realizations along the way.
(Feat. T4T Gray Ghost)
Danny x Valerie or Danny x Paulina - "Hidden depths" {from @ave-aria}, t4t gray ghost {from Dey} and Valerie finds out the truth about why Cujo attacked Axion labs and that the ones to blame for her dad losing his job are the same people who killed innocent dogs. Her vendetta against ghosts instead turns into a vendetta against rich people - and look! There’s a billionaire in town. {from @ghostboidanny}
(I don't actually use the phrase "hidden depths" in the fic, but I made it the title because it is the overarching theme of the story, so I'm pretty sure it still counts.)
Read Also on AO3
[Warning for mentions of animal abuse and animal death and implied gender dysphoria.]
Thank god for the internet, Valerie thought as she sized herself up in the mirror. Last night, she'd happened upon a video tutorial for a safe, no-tape tucking technique, and now that she'd tried it out it was working like a charm. She'd never felt so hot in her ghost hunting outfit. And as much as she liked wearing skirts, she was already looking forward to wearing skinny-jeans to school without fear of being clocked.
The nice thing about moving to Amity Park for her father's work when she was already on hormone blockers in eighth grade was that no-one had to know she was trans. The unfortunate thing was if she wanted to keep it that way, she'd have to devote a lot of time and energy to making sure she passed.
In those respects, she both envied and felt sorry for Danny Fenton, who'd lived in Amity Park his whole life. Most of their classmates had known him since pre-school, so they knew he was trans, and he couldn't hide it—but that also meant he didn't have to worry about hiding it. He didn't have to spend late night's practicing voice feminization by reading homework questions out loud, or never be able to wear tight pants despite having fantastic thighs, not like Valerie.
Well, Danny's thighs weren't all that great, to be honest. Not that he didn't have other things going for him. She'd thought so before, but he was pretty cute, in a runt of the litter kind of way. He was so tiny and weak, and she felt a need to protect him.
Maybe I should just ask him out, she thought, frowning. It wasn't the first time she'd thought that. She did really like him, but every time she considered trying to date him, a million excuses not to came to mind—ranging from the stupidest most irrational gender expectation of "He's the boy, I should wait for him to ask first" (which she knew was stupid and irrational, but societal expectation made her anxious about it anyway), to "between school, my job, and ghost hunting, I'm way too busy for a romantic relationship.
The latter reason was usually what made her give up on the idea, seeing as it actually was reasonable and rational. Maybe even too rational. As much as she liked Danny, she just didn't have the time for him.
She shook her head and sighed. That was enough of that. She had a ghost patrol to get to. She pulled on her hood and visor and snuck out her window, gliding away on her hoverboard with intent, and soaring over the Elmerton Bridge to Amity Park for some hunting.
It seemed, at first, like just another patrol, save for the fact that she felt a lot more comfortable in her skin-tight suit than usual. A couple ectopusses, one of those suit-ghosts that turned up from time to time and made a nuisance of themselves. No big names tonight.
That is, until she saw Danny Phantom. And better yet, he was walking that ghost dog he'd used to destroy Valerie's life, the two of them leaping over rooftops without a care in the world.
She raised her ecto-net-launcher. After rigorous observation and note-taking, she'd discovered that Phantom could sense when ghosts were near. But Valerie was no ghost, and he was completely unaware of her presence, too focused on his rotten pet to notice her.
Through the scope, she watched the dog grow a few sizes to tackled Phantom to the rooftop and lick his face. A loud laugh rung out across the quiet night.
"Cujo! Hahaha! Cut it out!"
Cujo... the dog has a name. Valerie closed her eyes and took a breath. Of course it has a name. It's Phantom's pet ghost dog, he would have named it.
She opened her eyes and fixed her sights on the pair of ghosts through the scope of her net launcher, focusing her thoughts on her long-awaited revenge. This was her lucky day, and like hell was she gonna let it pass her by.
"Sit." The dog sat. "Stay. Hoooolllld." Phantom held up a ball and waved it, but the dog stayed very still despite its obvious excitement. It was well trained. "Fetch!" Phantom threw the ball with inhuman strength and the dog, Cujo, took off like a shot to catch it while his owner watched, laughing.
Valerie clicked her tongue in irritation. She'd gotten distracted watching and missed her chance. No matter. The dog would be back to return the ball and she'd have another shot. All she had to do was be patient.
Patience was hard with the pang in her chest freezing up her trigger finger.
Valerie had always loved dogs. Back when she was little, before he'd made the shift into security, her dad used to train guard dogs, and he would let her help sometimes, on days she didn't have school. He made the switch to electronic security systems after discovering that some of his past clients abused the dogs he'd trained for them, mistreating and under-nourishing them, mostly because of fear. After that, he made it his goal to make guard dogs obsolete so that none of them would have to suffer unqualified masters who thought of them as more weapons than living creatures.
Her anger returned full force.
It had almost worked. Axiom labs was all set and ready to replace their guard dogs with her father's new security system until Danny Phantom messed everything up. For ruining her life, for destroying her father's dream, Danny Phantom and his ghost dog would pay.
Wait... ghost... dog? Now that she thought about it, Cujo had really seemed to know the layout of Axiom Labs pretty well when he was tearing the place up. And he was clearly well-trained, but Phantom had just been helplessly dragged along on his pet's rampage. She blamed him for not controlling his pet but... they were both ghosts, weren't they? What if Cujo wasn't always his.
Cujo, now roughly the size of a tool-shed, came bounding across the roofs, back to his master, but even once they were together again, in the perfect position to be trapped in her net, she hesitated. Maybe she was thinking about it too much because she was finally closer than ever to getting her revenge... but maybe... just maybe... she hadn't thought about this enough ahead of time.
Danny Phantom walked Cujo down the walls of the building they were on and step by step the dog reduced his size. Her window was closing.
"Alright, time to go home," Phantom said. "We had fun, but I have school tomorrow, and if my parents find out about you we're both screwed." He stopped in front of Fenton Works and in a flash of light that almost made Valerie look away, he transformed, and Danny Fenton stood on the doorstep of his own home. He pointed down. "Home, Cujo."
Cujo barked once and dove through the sidewalk and Danny walked in his front door. Valerie had absolutely no idea where "home" was for Cujo, maybe the sewer? Danny's basement? It hardly mattered in the face of the discovery that her nemesis was none other than the boy she'd been crushing on for almost as long as she'd apparently been trying kill him.
Conflicting emotions stayed her hand. Had Danny just been acting nice and cute to trick her? No that... that didn't seem right. There were times when even Phantom seemed like a good guy and she hesitated to hurt him. So... maybe the sweet, funny guy was the really Danny, and the evil ghost was a false perception?
How could he be a human and a ghost anyway? How was that even possible? He couldn't be a ghost in disguise, basically everyone in town had known him since he was a little kid.
Valerie was no stranger to second-guessing herself. She often said or did things without really thinking them through. From something as small as an offhanded comment that led to her agreeing to go to a school dance with Tucker Foley of all people, so something as big as telling her Dad she was a girl right before her mom's funeral when she was eleven because she was suddenly overwhelmed with the fear of another parent dying without knowing who she truly was.
Sometimes it worked out for her, like when her Dad immediately accepted her and they started working together on planning her transition. Sometimes she ended up getting stood up by Tucker freaking Foley of all freaking people. Which she totally wasn't bitter about, not at all. Not like that was the most embarrassing moment of her entire high school career so far, up to and including becoming suddenly poor and having to move to freaking Elmerton for cheaper housing and get work as Nasty Nat the Nasty Burger mascot. No, as humiliating as all that was, getting stood up by Tucker Foley definitely took the cake.
She was getting distracted.
The point was that she was starting to realize that jumping into this ghost hunting revenge scheme had been maybe the most impulsive, poorly-thought-out thing she'd done so far. And somehow she hadn't even realized that until tonight, months later. It was well past time to take a step back and really consider what she was doing and why she was doing it.
—
"Hey... Danny, can we talk?" Valerie approached him and his friends at their lunch table, and Sam looked like she wanted to actually hiss and spit like an angry cat. Tucker was also there. Ugh. Tucker. "Alone? Like, after school?"
"Sure thing, Valerie!" Danny agreed brightly.
She couldn't help but smile back at the look on his face. Just like a puppy dog who heard the word 'walk'. "Meet me outside my sixth period, then, room 104. I'll be waiting."
As she walked away to her own lunch table, hearing Sam mutter about not trusting her and how she was dangerous and Danny dreamily murmur in agreement, clearly not actually listening.
She'd been doing some research the last couple of days, even enlisted a computer geek from school to help her hack into Axiom Labs in exchange for letting him tell the rest of the A/V club that she made eye contact with him and smiled.
What she found out was... enlightening, to put it kindly. Depressing, too.
As it turned out, she may owe someone an apology. Her anger, it seemed, was misdirected. But on the bright side, she'd found a new target to take her anger out on.
She leaned against the wall, textbook hugged to her chest as she waited outside her classroom for Danny to show up.
"Hey, Valerie," Danny greeted. "What did you want to talk about?"
"Not here," she said, pulling him into the empty classroom and closing the door behind her.
Her sixth period teacher always left ten minutes early because he was also the crossing guard for the crosswalk down the street, so the students all left ten minutes early, too, making it the perfect place for a private conversation.
"Okay so... I feel like I owe you a couple things here, and I'm not really sure how I should go about this. But... I guess I should start with where to start um...."
"You don't owe me—"
"I'm trans," she cut him off. He didn't even know why she owed him anything so of course he would think she didn't. It wasn't relevant. "Girl. I'm a trans girl. I started transitioning before I moved her, so I'm stealthing it but uh... that's me. Please don't tell anyone."
"Of course I won't tell anyone," he assured her. "I'm trans too, but like, in the other direction. Oh, but you probably know that already, 'cause everybody knows. Is that why you decided to come out to me?"
"No, I decided to come out to you because... well...." She squeezed her eyes shut. "I know you're Danny Phantom. I saw you transform when I was out ghost hunting—which you already know I do because you've been Phantom the whole time, but you didn't tell anyone so thanks. It didn't seem fair that you didn't get to tell me on your own terms, so I thought I should tell you one of my secrets too, to make us even."
"But I already know you hunt ghosts," Danny pointed out. "So in that case, wouldn't you finding out I'm Phantom make us even? Wait—you know?" It was kinda funny watching him process her words in real time. Gosh, he was just too cute. "Why aren't you trying to kill me, again?"
"Because I also learned some other things. About Axiom Labs and that ghost dog that helped destroy my dad's hard work." She fixed him with a searching gaze, unsure how he'd react or what she should expect from him. "Before bringing my dad in to do the security, they had guard dogs, which were very poorly cared for there. When they thought they wouldn't need them anymore, Axiom had the dogs put down.
"Perfectly healthy animals who never hurt anyone, well trained and well behaved, hard workers, in the prime of their lives, and they were all euthanized because the rich bigwigs at Axiom Labs decided they were no longer needed." She had to pause and take a breath to try and stop from crying. She'd already cried in the privacy of her own room. Now she was trying to have a conversation.
"I saw pictures," she continued with only the slightest waver in her voice. "Cujo was one of those dogs. Did you know?"
"I..." Danny averted his eyes. "No, I didn't. Not for sure, anyway, but I did suspect something like that."
She nodded and swallowed past the lump in her throat. "I'm sorry," she said. "For thinking you and Cujo were evil. For thinking that all ghosts were."
"Hey, a lot of people think that. I'm used to it. No hard feelings here."
He was trying to make her feel better, but even though she'd been that way just a little while ago, she hated it. Hated thinking about Danny, kind, funny, sweet Danny, having to stand alone against all the vitriol from people who didn't know any better.
She was pretty sure that 'I'm used to it' was the most depressing thing anyone could say in response to sympathy. Not that she hadn't said it plenty of times herself.
"Anyway," she said, instead of telling him what she was thinking and making this whole conversation even more depressing. "I'm still pissed as hell that my life got ruined, but I've realized I'm directing my rage at the wrong people. Instead of ghosts, I should have been targeting selfish-rich people all along.
"Axiom Labs went out of business not long after the security troubles, and the CEO is currently enjoying retirement in the Bahamas, so he's out of reach for the time being, but there happens to be a billionaire right here in Amity Park, and I know you hate Vlad Masters with a passion—although I don't know why, now that I think about it."
"He's a fruitloop," Danny said dismissively. "I'll explain later if you want, but now I'm more curious about what you're suggesting here."
"Oh, well I was wondering if you'd want to help me go fuck with Mayor Masters a little bit," she said, the hesitated a moment before steeling her nerves to say what she'd been wanting to for months. "Could be a fun... first date?"
Danny's eyes widened and her anxiety spiked through the roof.
"Only if you want it to be!" she pivoted, blurting the words so fast even she could barely understand them. "We could totally be fucking with the mayor as totally platonic friends and I would be totally cool with that. Why am I saying totally so much?"
Danny grabbed her hands gently, shocking her into silence. She could barely breathe as he looked up at her with a soft expression full of fondness.
"I think that would be a totally rad first date," he said. "I'd love it."
Oh, she was down bad for this boy. Absolutely gone on him.
your angel and spike story line swap au sounds AMAZING. and dawn reminding angelus of kathy?????? yessssssss!!!! write it! write it! write it! write it!
IVE TRIEDDDDD believe me i've tried. i have a few chapters floating around in the void but for this story to be what it needs to i'd basically have to rewrite most of btvs + write a whole prequel thing. and there is no way in hell i'm doing that. so instead i'll just tell you what happens.
it's sort of a three-part story? like if i WERE to write it as a fic it'd be broken up by whose perspective it's told through.
Part One: Spike (the part i've thought the most about)
spike is cursed with a soul by xin rong's watcher after he killed her. he leaves the whirlwind shortly after.
curious about why spike would make such a big fuss about killing a slayer, angelus tries his hand at it. he gets really really into it, but he likes the technical impressiveness of the feat more than the thrill that spike loved so much. regardless, angelus is now the slayer of slayers, and his slayer kill count ends up much higher than just two.
annoyed by how obsessed angelus has become with killing slayers and trying to get back at spike for abandoning his "family", darla and drusilla ditch him.
spike is having a rough time with his soul. (but after having spent only two decades as a vampire, quite a lot of william remains intact. he's still spike, sort of, but quieter. more gentle. and a hell of an avoider.) he knows about the slayers being killed but he doesn't know how to stand against angelus.
spike meets nikki wood. he realizes that this time, he has a chance to save her. he warns her and he warns her, but she doesn't believe that angelus is all spike claims he is. she's gotten cocky in what is, for a slayer, old age. (having lived at least four years past her calling.)
the two get closer. maybe angelus won't come for her. he hasn't killed every slayer, after all. spike even discovers robin, who nikki had kept secret. for a very brief time, spike has something that could someday take the form of another family. they know one another for no longer than a few months. there's a lot of chemistry between them, it isn't hard to imagine they could develop feelings given more time.
nikki faces off against angelus for the first time, and realizes that spike was right. she can't beat him. she makes spike promise to protect her son no matter what. (because she knows she's already dead.)
spike finds nikki's mutilated body. and angelus. it's their first proper conversation since separating at the turn of the century. he has an open shot at angelus and can't bring himself to take it. but he swears to himself that he'll find the strength someday to stop his grandsire, even if it hurts, and help the slayers that are to come.
finally, spike has a purpose again.
Part Two: Buffy (the part i'm not too sure about)
btvs starts as normal. buffy meets angel. buffy likes angel. but a new figure lurks in the shadows.
when it's finally clear what he has to do, spike reveals himself to buffy. he tells her that angel isn't who he says he is. obviously, she doesn't believe him. he tells her his name is spike, and if she doesn't believe him, she should mention the name to her watcher.
buffy brings it up to giles. giles is deeply concerned. all accounts mention both spike and angelus in some capacity, but angelus has a tendency to frame spike for the killings, so the blame is usually placed on both of them. giles thinks that if spike is in town, buffy must be in grave danger.
buffy is reasonably freaked. the guy she likes might be evil. the spooky british guy in the shadows is almost definitely evil. things only become clear when she catches angelus in a moment where he isn't pretending to have a soul, being very very evil and enjoying it.
she goes to spike for answers and he explains who he his, his complicated relationship to angelus, briefly mentions nikki, and tells buffy that he's here to help her and she needs to play along with angelus' ruse in order to beat him. for now, at least, because angelus doesn't know buffy's onto him yet, so she isn't in immediate danger. angelus always prefers to play the long game.
not sure how this part happens but eventually angelus does catch on, thus becoming an active threat. somewhere in that mess he murders giles. spike starts working more actively with the scoobies as the resident stuff-knower. and by this point, buffy has started forming a crush on spike.
at some point buffy confesses her feelings to spike and he rejects her. it's awkward and she's upset but they have bigger things to deal with. + he hasn't really had the chance to think of her like that on account of him being constantly worried about her dying at the hands of someone he sorta kinda does think of like that. at this point spike is effectively buffy's watcher.
angelus kidnaps spike and spike is like oh shit buffy's going to get herself killed trying to rescue me. but plot twist!!! buffy and robin wood to the rescue. yup robin is here now to help save his vampire uncle. buffy has a chance to kill angelus but hesitates, because even though angelus is evil, she knows he's spike's oldest family, and she doesn't want to hurt spike. as a result of this, angelus just barely escapes.
way later on angelus comes back to sunnydale with the intention of defeating buffy and spike properly this time, only to be captured and chipped by the initiative.
spike thinks this might be angelus' chance to redeem himself. he wants desperately to believe that it's possible. so angelus is allowed to live.
throwing this here bc idk where else to put it: it's important to note that spike and buffy's dynamic in this au is never what it is in the show. the closest comparison is what they had at the very start of s6, where spike was 100% just supporting buffy and trying to be there for her. this version of spike adores buffy, and he was never exactly a mentor for her, but he was never really a viable romantic interest, either. they're best friends who would kill for each other. :]
Part Three: Angelus and Dawn (the part that's very very special to me)
the key is given human form.
glory stuff starts.
angelus is hanging around but only passively. he's piiiiissed that he can't kill people anymore but he's kinda getting used to it by this point. kind of a nuisance. still a hell of a manipulator. he actively avoids what the scoobies are up to unless he's absolutely sure he can get something out of getting involved.
one day, angelus finds dawn on a walk home. she asks him to help with her history homework (spike can't help because despite having been alive at the time, he was too busy moping). he's baffled and offended that she isn't scared of him, but he sees an opportunity. if he gets the slayer's sister to like him, there's no telling what he could then accomplish.
dawn starts meeting with angelus in secret as a way to rebel. he plays nice but grows quickly bitchy, in a way that's almost like banter. almost. he definitely threatens to eat her more than a few times. she isn't concerned. she starts calling him angel.
dawn and angel find out that dawn is the key. angel is pleased to have found even more leverage.
at some point before his evil plan can take effect, though, dawn is almost killed/taken by glory/some demons/idk, and angel comes running at the sound of her terrified screams. he doesn't understand why he feels so urgently like he has to protect her, but he does. something forgotten has awaken inside of him. memories buried a long, long time ago.
when liam was alive, he was very close with his little sister, kathy. he felt she was the only person who understood him for who he really was. they had half-serious plans that they would sail away together someday, and finally be free of their father. liam saw himself as kathy's protector and he loved her more than anything.
when angelus murdered his family, kathy was only among the dead because he got carried away. he was high on the power he found in violence. it wasn't even a conscious thought to kill her, really, and it would be days before he really realized what he had done. he wasn't guilty, exactly, but he wished he hadn't done that. he could have turned her, at least. she understood him. he loved her. he did not want her to be dead. so he blocked it out. repressed the memory. when he remembers killing his family, he doesn't remember having had a sister at all.
angel saves dawn. dawn is elated. this is the first time buffy and spike find out about their little arrangement, and they're furious, but also shocked that angel would save her. angel spirals into full-blown crisis-mode. if he isn't a monster, then what is he? why did he murder his sister?
it's a rocky progression with a lot of backwards steps, but starting with dawn's rescue, angel is on her side. not the side of good. because he isn't good. but he is very much on dawn's side. he's her protector. and if protecting her means working with the slayer and her scoobies, well... it might be horrifically embarrassing for him, but he powers through. and god help anything that threatens dawn summers, his only friend in the world.
spangel starts to happen now that they're kind of almost on the same side for the first time in a century. it's hella awkward but there's something there. or might be, given time.
glory tower portal stuff occurs. angel closes the portal by drinking from dawn and jumping into it, sacrificing himself and leaving everyone else feeling extremely emotionally conflicted about it.
i am unsure of whether or not he comes back after that. i certainly like the idea of him fighting for his soul someday, but it would take a lot more time and character development to get to that point, plus i still don't know how on earth he would get resurrected since basically everyone who could do that knows what a horrible idea that would be. but it might be cool, idk.
if anything is unclear or otherwise you have questions PLEASE shoot them my way
