I had an ask about this but somehow it disappeared..so whoever asked about this here ya go.
I made this I because of the fact that I am like 60% sure I’m sick (bas cough, headache, and no energy). So Danny’s suffering with me.
Also word of advise, when you have a cough, don’t watch ROTTMNT clips. They made me cough more and now my head hurts.
(The turtles took over my head again, for anyone wondering my favorite turtle is Leo in both the 2018 and 2012 versions.)
So I'm suffering and failing to find a job at the current moment
Please can you make the ninja (maybe Danny too) suffer with me at finding jobs.
Also what kinds of jobs are they all looking for?
Hope it’s fine I used the template. I was trying my hardest to come up with good reasons, also I tried to think of jobs that they would do but aren’t the ones they had in the actual show. Lloyd’s was my favorite joke cause I kept thinking “he’d totally put ‘Golden Master’ or ‘Green Ninja’ on his résumé.
A groundhog day type story where one character A has to go back to the start of the day over and over again until they can escape. But the character A has some sort of confession they have to make to character b, and they just can't do it no matter how hard they try. The confession can be about love, or some secret, or something, it doesn't matter.
Every day, character b dies before character A can confess.
Character A keeps trying to hype themself up to confess because it'll break the cycle, and eventually they do.
But character b still dies and the cycle still resets. That wasn't the right thing. Eventually character A confesses so often that it becomes normal, and they stop needing to hype themselves up, and it is something completely different to get out of the loop safely.
In other news, my face blindness has joined the workplace as a “neat party trick” because apparently nobody else has an encyclopedic knowledge of everyone else’s birthmarks, scars, piercings, moles, tooth alignment, and walk pattern
lmao lucky you, for some reason my brain decides to tell people apart by hair to cope with faceblindness, which is actually a horrible fuckin way to tell people apart
i remember when i was a teenager my friend briefly thought i was being racist for not being able to recognize kpop members after a few of that bands songs. i had to explain to her im faceblind as hell and recognizing people by their hair is probably the WORST method for a type of celebrity often known for regularly and dramatically changing their hair
OH MY GOD AS Á FACE BLIND LOSER KPOP IS THE *WORST*
NO SCARS NO LINES NO MARKS NO VARIATION
*MAYBEE* Á PIERCING
Otherwise the SAME BEAUTIFUL FACE, SAME SKIN TONE, SAME HANDS. NO PORES, SAME LIPS, and the SAME WALK
It’s like trying to correctly identify individual bananas
They’re just ALL BEAUTIFUL IN THE EXACT SAME WAYS WITH NO FLAWS TO TELL THEM APART
No matter the race the occupation the outfit WHATEVER, conventionally beautiful people are the absolute hardest for me to distinguish, and If I can’t speak the language to go off personality, interests, tone, speech pattern…?
Once my brain has managed to assign a brain cell to track that you're Jennifer Aniston or whatever, that's fine. But it takes far longer for my brain to be like "oh this is a person whose face you know and can put a name to.". There are a lot of fairly famous actors whose faces I struggle to remember.
Fill a film with conventionally attractive white people of a very similar kind who aren't well known? You might as well be using clones. I imagine with kpop stars it might be harder because they are constantly changing their hair and outfits, and those tend to be great aids in identifying people.
Weirdly, it also means I don't always register if people are identical. Because my brain hasn't registered the features as an ensemble enough to tell they are the *same* rather than just *similar*.
For example, I forgot that Michael B Jordan was playing Stack and Smoke in Sinners. So I was briefly impressed they got a guy similar enough to Jordan to play his brother. I watched a murder mystery the other week that featured identical quintuplets (or was it quads) played by the same actress who styled the characters very differently- and i had to check with my husband that they were indeed the same and not just similar. Ok I'm often only half paying attention when watching TV, but when twins are styled very differently it's easier for me to buy that it's a whole different person who just looks similar. Unless I look really closely, there's a particular of my brain that just does not click and latch on.
Like I can draw people. I can note the features separately. I can see they arent the same. I cannot explain why it gives me such difficulties. But it does.
I am the same way, as a face blind artist, I literally make lists of attributes that my characters have to draw them. I tell people apart irl mostly by hair, skin tone, and body shape
Jake has a slightly longer than average face that is mostly round but ends in a point, a triangle nose, sharp eyes that hint at squinty but mostly open, an average length mouth with slightly thinner lips, black hair that distinctly has four locks of hair on one side of the bangs that move in a specific way, and three on the other, with faded red tips. He has slightly tanner and oranger than average skin tone. He is slightly taller than average height and lean build.
David has wide open eyes and freckles along the bridge of his nose and his cheeks. Shirt mouth with wider lips, and a shorter flat nose. He has slightly redder and paler than average skin tone and is a red head. His body type is short and skinny. He has a very round face
Xavier is tall with shoulder length spiky hair, a square face. A slightly raven hooked nose, and boxy eyes that don't have a catch light for reasons. He has wide shoulders and can fake being built if he wears a chunky jacket, but is actually just lanky. He has a wider mouth with super thin lips.
Etc etc.
I basically have a chart drawn of each individual part of each person to draw them accurately. The hardest part is making sure they get put in the exact right part of the face to make sure it looks like the same person. Apparently having the eyes slightly too far down makes them someone other than who I am drawing.
I end up using so many models and charts and lists to keep everything consistent with all of my characters. I have an artist friend that doesnt keep lists like that and it is aggravating to draw one of her characters accurately because his colors change all the time, and she goes by vibes.
If I didn't use my charts Everytime I draw my characters, I honestly think that people wouldn't recognize that they are supposed to be the same
Basically, when the Ghost-zombie apocalypse happens thanks to a ghost virus, Danny gets infected. He “dies” again, so the most obvious course of action is for Phantom to possess Zombie!Fenton and try to pass off as human.
He can only use his extremely helpful ghost abilities if he discorporates, leaving zombie!Danny to the mercy of his enviorment. Otherwise, he has to use his corpse to try and blend in with other survivors.
He also has to hide the fact that he is a carrier of the disease(He can’t share water bottles, have much physical contact, or bleed on them), he no longer eats much, bleeds ectoplasm, and other zombies are disinterested in him.
*Note, Phantom wouldn’t spread the disease, only Fenton’s body is infected. If he wants physical contact, he has to trust the other person with his secret.
Zombie!Fenton doesn’t have much interest in eating brains, as the ectoplasm Phantom produces fuels him. So, he’s basically a goldfish that just moves around aimlessly.
Without his human half, Phantom is also more limited in how much he can interact with the real world. He has to tug his human half around on one of those kiddie backpack leashes to ensure he doesn’t accidentally lose his body. He doesn’t have the strength to pick him up and carry him around. He can /maybe/ phase another person through a door.
Good thing Zombie!Fenton is very easily distracted and can occasionally be convinced to sleep.
–
World-building time!
Amity Park was ground zero for the virus, which was a mild infection that ghosts could get. However, once spread to humans, the virus ate the naturally occurring ectoplasm in the human’s brains, leaving them brainless aggressive monsters. (Think the possessed hot dogs from The Fenton’s fridge)
The Ectoplasm keeps the human parts together until eventually all the human flesh is entirely absorbed by the ectoplasm and all that remains is a ghost-monster thing. (this process takes at least a year).
The number one most effective way to kill a zombie is ecto-weapons, a good bashing to the skull can take them out for a while, but some might recover. .
Phantom is ~extra~ despised because most people believe the virus spread due to ghosts like him interacting with humans. The cause of the infection would be much angstier if it was a result of humans (The Fentons, GIW, Vlad) fucking around and finding out
Both Phantom and Danny no longer age. Danny’s human body doesn’t heal wounds unless you count glowing ectoplasm stitching his skin back together as healing. He also has a glowing green and sluggishly bleeding bite mark he constantly has to worry about.
When Phantom is possessing Zombie!Danny he is easily passable as a human, he just has to cover any features that show he’s no longer, like, alive.
One of Danny’s goals is to find a cure. However, he is not exactly… smart, but knows a lot about ectoplasm. He’s convinced if he finds a group of survivors with the right equipment that they mutually trust, they can find cure or vaccine together. His parents died/disappeared too early to finish one.
Anyway, the angst and the shenanigans potential are endless. Bonus points to anyone who can incorporate DP x DC into there.
Origin story: takes place right after that comic. But it is long, you have been warned. I may also move this to ao3, we'll see.
-
"... No worries guys, I'll just. Uh. Go back in. Problem solved.. right?"
Danny just phases back into his body and sits up from Sam's family's bunker.
"oh. This is... Not right."
"not right?" Sam asked
"I'm just overshadowing myself. It feels different. I can kinda sense my- his? my body's? the- the thoughts. It's not very coherent. But hungry and angry. It's calming down though. A bit. But I'm definitely overshadowing."
"does this mean you actually died? Like really actually died?" Tucker started fighting" All the way? And you're overshadowing your body?"
"It-" Danny started, but Sam interrupted.
"You died. Oh my go- does this mean there isn't a cure??? You can't cure death!"
"No. No. No. There's gotta be. That.... Am I dead?" After everything, did he really die because of sickness? He defeated the ghost king, fought off Vlad, but a stupid ghost sickness is what did him in? "You know what? No, fuck that thought. I'm curing the zombie apocalypse."
"With what? None of us are virus scientists. Do your parents have any inventions? That might help?" Sam was ever the problem solver
"... I dunno, they haven't made anything for diseases. When they thought they had a disease before, they just camped in the lab and waited it out more than anything..." The only invention they made that week was... "The ghost catcher!"
"Wouldn't that just separate you from um... You?" Tucker sputtered out the last word.
"... Maybe..." He didn't want to think about the fact that maybe without the disease piloting it, his body would be fully dead. "But it also might get rid of the disease."
"I guess we're going to Fentonworks." Sam decides.
They prep themselves with ectoguns, wrist blasters, and of course a trusty thermos for each of them.
Danny holds his gun aloft, Sam collects her bat (they had to convince her not to spike it), and Tucker packs his electronics into his backpack.
"to fentonworks." Tucker agrees.
Tuck has been trying to get a call out of town for a while, but communication has went down. Danny and Sam had managed to convince him to only bring the vital tech that lets them radio each other, and pick up signals from other frequencies. Communications went down, and Tucker is sure that if it were only an Amity problem that his hand-built portable signal would have been fine to connect to the outside world, but because he can't connect, there must not be something to connect to. The disease got outside of Amity somehow, and is worse enough to the point that nothing was running. Amity's connection went down first Tucker only managed to build his signal a couple weeks after that. They haven't managed to catch anything in the week since then.
Has it really been 3 weeks already? Danny was tired. They all were. They were running on fumes. Him dying wasn't helping.
"to home."
They get there without much in the way, no major hordes, and no one got anymore hurt. They did have to shoot their science teacher though. Thankfully, for some reason, ecto-guns don't hurt the zombies, but they do daze them for at least a little bit. More angry zombies have to be shot a few more times to pacify them though.
No one was at fentonworks. Danny's parents were one of the first to turn. They were at a meeting with the GIW and came back turned along with basically the whole building. They suspect that it's what started the whole thing somehow, but they don't know for sure, and there are way too many zombies crawling that area to even think of a raid to find information there. Jazz is at college hours away, and Danny can only hope that she's safe. They can't exactly talk.
The catcher is were he remembers it, and he hands it to tucker to wield.
"just, swipe it over my head. Like-"
"like you are fly needing swatted?" He asked.
Danny laughed. Laughing during the apocalypse felt surreal, but then again, their lives have been surreal. "Like you are swatting a fly."
Tucker angles the catcher above his head and pushes it down to separate human him and ghost him.
Danny took a step back and was dizzy for a second, but he saw himself in front of him. This was normal as it is meant to separate ghost and human, but what wasn't normal was his human half twitching and then launching itself at tucker with a snarl.
Tucker screamed and Danny jumped into action and overshadowed his body again before he could do more than bowl tucker over and land on top of him.
"oh shit." Danny's body? himself? was so hungry now. Way more hungry than it was before. That hunger fed into anger and was desperate for anything to feed it.
"what?-" Tucker asked, pushing at Danny.
"What's wrong Danny?"
"-Are you okay?"
"so hungry." Danny mumbled.
"you're not gonna eat us now are?" Tucker pished Danny a bit harder and more frantically.
Danny got up, "no, no, definitely not. I'm absolutely in control, it's just I'm- my body- um... It's way more hungry now."
His body definitely wasn't this hungry before the ghost catcher, and he could already feel the hunger dying down the longer he overshadowed his body? (himself?)
"how much more hungry?" Sam asked.
But that shouldn't happen. The ghost catcher didn't make anything hungrier, it separated the ecto out of things.
Then it clicked.
"...ecto."
"what?"
"I think I'm hungry for ecto!" Danny went to one of the storage cabinets to grab a vial of ectoplasm. "The catcher doesn't make things hungry, it just separates out ecto, but it made my- this- me hungry by separating out ecto. Which means, I- it was hungry for ecto!"
Sam raised an eyebrow. "So now you are gonna feed yourself ecto? You are gonna give the disease what it wants?"
"Well it would be nice if you weren't attacked everytime I decided to separate from myself." Danny shrugged
"that's why the zombies are pacified when we shoot them! They are getting some ecto and aren't as hungry!" Tucker exclaimed.
"I guess it is a ghost disease." Sam nodded.
"yeah. Hey, maybe when I get enough ecto, the virus will be happy enough and leave my body, uh, me..."
"we really need something to call your uh, body."
Danny nodded and drank a vial of ecto. The hunger went down significantly, so Danny downed another. And the hunger was gone. He drank another one just in case.
"well, if this works we won't need to." Danny told them.
He phased out of himself and saw his body just stand there with a sleepy look on his face, and then wander off to the side aimlessly. It leaned against a table and just stayed there staring at it.
Danny phased back into himself, but there was no change, no merging back into himself and becoming whole. He was still overshadowing himself. The hunger was gone, but there was a quiet running contentedness in the back of his mind.
Danny sighed. "No change, but I'm- my- its no longer hungry."
Sam nodded "try shifting."
Danny tried reaching for his core, because supposedly he was in his human half, but all he found was that his core was already strong and ready. He then reached as he would for the warmth of his human half, but found nothing, not even a wall blocking it, or an empty space, but it was like it was never there. It was disconcerting.
Danny shook his head.
"Phantom and Fenton" Tucker piped up. "Names for you. Danny is always Danny either way, but Phantom is when you're by yourself, and Fenton is your body."
Danny frowned. "I see that, but I'm still kind of Danny Fenton. I'm still me..."
Sam hummed in contemplation. "Your middle name is James right?"
"uh, yeah?"
"Then your body is James. He is still you, but you aren't gonna be as connected to your middle name."
Tucker snorted. "That and James is kinda a dork name to give your zombie body. It fits him though. The nerd found that table extremely entertaining."
Danny smiled and nodded. James was better. It let him stop focusing on the fact that he was overshadowing his corpse.
"Do we want to get anything while we are here?" Sam asked, ever the one to make stuff happen. Danny didn't think he would have even survived this long without Sam to carry all the braincells.
"We should get more small weapons, and some ecto. I don't want James to get hungry again."
"good idea, do you have a case or bag or anything?"
"I have a duffle under my bed."
Tucker left to get the duffle bag. While Sam and Danny started sorting the weapons in the lab. Seeing through what was useful. They set aside a few various guns, spectre deflecters, wrist blasters, lipstick lazers, a lazer bo staff, a net gun, and other things. They needed. Some ecto ammo cartridges, and a piece of tech the size of a coffee machine that could take ambient ectoplasm and over time refill cartridges or vials called the Fenton ambient ecto converter. The speed would depend on the amount of ambient ecto.
"are you doing okay?" Sam asked out of the blue, while setting aside a bazooka like blaster that was too big and unwieldy to be useful.
"yeah, James is happy, well content, he's not hungry."
"that's not what I meant."
Danny thinned his lips. "I don't want to think about what happens if there isn't a cure, or..."
"or if you actually died, again?"
"i defeated the ghost king, I beat the embodiment of nature, I won against vortex and nocturne, and Vlad, I escaped capture from the guys in white, my parents, skulker. I won against everyone I've come across. But being sick is what kills me? No. I'm gonna find or make a cure or something, and I'm gonna fix this. I'm gonna be fine. I have to. I don't want anyone else to suffer anymore either."
"what if there isn't a cure? Danny you died!"
"wouldn't be the first time."
"danny-"
"help me shut down the portal."
"danny-" Sam sighed. "It's not already shut down?"
"I mean it's turned off, but not shut down all the way. Like a computer that went to sleep. It's still very much a weak point."
"why are we only shutting it off now?"
"because no ghosts are coming through anyways, and on the off change that they really want to try, I don't want the outbreak spreading more."
"what about frostbite?"
Danny looked at his feet. "Frostbite said that all there was for the disease was a vaccine. One that I've already gotten. It doesn't work on humans, and it didn't help me defeat my virus. It's not gonna be helpful."
"right..."
Danny messed with the controls by the portal for a second before turning to the console system by the wall.
"what do you need me to do to shut this portal down?"
Danny went through the systems on this console, then waved Sam over. "Just press the red button when I tell you. On three." Danny went to the portal again, hand over a button. "One. Two." Danny winced I preparation if there was a shock. "Three."
There was a popping sound, then a buzzing that lowered in pitch before fading away. Danny went to the console again to open the portal doors. It was strange to see the inside tunnel of the portal again after so long of not seeing anything but a swirling green mass. Almost eerie. Danny then unplugged the portal, and looked to Sam.
"help me dismantle it a little?" Danny asked.
"I actually wanna see where tucker is."
"right it's been a while." Danny's eyebrows furrowed. He went up the stairs and found tucker in the kitchen, pulling out dry food from the pantry.
"hey, Danny, I figured we could restock on food some while we're here." Tucker said, pulling out a box of crackers. Luckily, dry foods didn't reanimate or contaminate as easily as other food.
"you spent the whole time going through food?"
"well, that, and I had to find your first aid kit, couldn't find your ghost kit, but I found the one in the bathroom, I also put in some cleaning supplies and some hygiene stuff."
"thanks tuck, my ghost kit is in my wall."
"ah."
"I'll get it."
Danny went back to the stairs, and yelled down to Sam "Tuck is fine!" Before trotting up to get his first aid kit. They already have one for him that they stashed at sam's place, and he has one at Tucker's too, but it's always better to have more medical supplies.
When he came back down, ghost aid kit in hand, tucker was already downstairs loading ectoplasm into the duffle carefully along with Sam who was putting ecto gear in. They got to the spectre deflecters before tucker turned to Danny.
"We should see if these work on zombies."
"you're right."
"I am not going to be the one to wear it though. I do nOt want to be attacked again."
"fair. wuss." Sam snarked before putting it on herself. Danny walked closer while tucker dashed away. Danny unshadowed James, but stayed ready to reshadow him just in case. Sam activated the belt and touched the dazed zombie tentatively, but there was no reaction.
"I guess it doesn't works." Sam said
"no point in bringing them then." Tucker said, already moving on and stuffing the converter into the duffle bag. Sam stuffed the bo staff in before zipping it up.
"now there's just one more question." Sam once again the only one with braincells. "How do we cure a zombie apocalypse? We aren't virus experts."
"but we are ghost experts. And this is a ghost virus. We just gotta find a virus scientist. Virologist?"
"virologist, or maybe an epidemiologist, just someone who knows what they are doing."
"I don't think there's any virologists in Amity though."
"High King" is an interchangeable title, and it purely means "strongest infinite realms being at this particular point in time".
It is also a test to determine new Ancients.
Whoever can defeat the previous High King gains the empty title, but more importantly they have their domain as an Ancient determined. The Infinite Realms, sapient and older than time and existence, monitors how the fight went down, and assigns a domain.
For Pariah Dark, who laid bloody siege to gain the title, it is Destruction.
For Danny?
It is, surprisingly, not Heroism. It's not Protection.
It's Thieves.
As far as the Infinite Realms are concerned, he started the battle by stealing supplies, and ended it stealing back Amity Park to the Living Realm.
Danny Phantom is the High King of the Infinite Realms, the Infant Ancient of Thieves.
This gives him a few perks none of the other High Kings had, namely the biggest and most important one; as the Ancient of Thieves, there are, quite literally, no sigils, cages, or traps that can detain him.
So evading the GIW is a breeze now, as is not getting caught by his parents.
The annoying part is constantly having to prove this to delusional cultists when he's summoned.
~~~~~~
John Constantine, who is well aware that the title of High King changed hands and is also aware that the newest Ancient is the Ancient of Thieves, is betting on being able to convince the strange Ancient to steal him.
Because Constantine is trapped in a room with walls that are literally closing in, it's filling with water, and any potential exit is enchanted by demons to prevent him from leaving.
He really, really pissed them off this time.
But, he thinks as the Ancient of Thieves appears before him, they forgot to set the enchantments to stop him from bringing someone in.
#phanfic#story prompt#dpxdc#dcxdp#dp x dc#dc x dp#danny doesn't realize it yet but this also makes him the patron ancient of spies#guess who he's gonna feel an immediate connection to?#any bat that played a spy at any point#which is all of them
So technically, Danny owns Constantine now. Not because he was sold his soul, but because Danny literally just stole the guy. Imagine someone tries to get Constantine and he just said, “sorry, I’m already taken.” He might even jokingly call Danny ‘Master’ (despite the kid being decades younger than him) to annoy Danny. Like, just seriously talking in a JL meeting and says he can just make a call to his master. Completely straight faced. Accidentally gaslights the entire JL into thinking Danny is an adult magic being who just happens to look like a child.
Also, I’m just imagining Danny being summoned by various summoning circles, looks them dead in the eyes, says he will just leave if there isn’t anything important, and when they don’t believe him he just casually walks out the circle (or makes a peace sign and does that fade into invisibility meme.)
what if stealing Constantine overrode any claim to his soul?
He's the Ancient of Thieves, why would contract laws apply to him?
Can you imagine how much more of a nightmare Constantine would be to deal with if he was powered by the Ancient of Thieves instead of those contracts?
A man who's the equivalent of a magic lawyer with how much he loves to talk circles around people powered by a being that's very existence is to disregard the rules.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. It’s why he’s very adamant on the ‘master’ thing. Part of it is because it annoys Danny. The other part is that he does not want to lose the sweet benefits of being under the ancient of thieves. And he’s so dramatic with it. Like someone calls Danny short.
Constantine: DRAMATIC GASP! “You dare?! You dare call my beloved master short?! You dare point out his pint size! SHAME! Shame on you!”
And Danny is just groaning in a corner trying to hide his face. He has…so many regrets.
There has got to be some downsides though. Is Ancient of Thieves Danny now a kleptomaniac? Does he feel a overwhelming need to have whenever he sees something that catches his attention?
And maybe his appearance gradually takes on more raccoon and magpie like traits.
I guess it could be an interesting Justice League Dark story when more and more shiny and powerful artifacts start disappearing from the world and it turns out that Hermes challenged Danny to a fun thievery challenge.
On top of that merchants of any kind fully expect him to steal from them, even if he's going out of his way to not do that, regardless of who owns the store or how big it is.
He can "sniff" out thieves, which means anyone who's stolen anything pings on his radar, which is overwhelming in large crowds because literally everyone has stolen something at least once in their lives.
Thieves mean stealth, which means Danny can fade into the background. This is great but also a huge negative; his parents and teachers sometimes completely forget he's there.
Teachers don't hand him homework papers, his parents forget to set his place at the table, Sam and Tucker will make plans and forget he's right there to include so they text him asking where he is (that ones kinda funny actually), etc.
Does stealing someone's life aka killing them count as thievery? Does he know what someone stole or just that they did? Can he only steal physical objects or can he also steal something incorporeal like virtual data?
Looks at someone who's super nice and knows "this person stole the lives of twenty men on the fields of battle" and exactly how it was done, or looks at someone who seems like an every day joe and discovers a serial killer because his senses ping off like "this person stole the lives of fifteen women all in the same manner".
All thievery is his domain; theft of life, theft of information, theft of physical items....
bro got labeled the Ancient of Thieves and became the patron Ancient of not just thieves, but murderers and liars.
I wanna say? No. But he CAN feel the Death on them, same as any other Ancient. Can hear the lingering shades hissing and weeping, wanting to move on, but being unable too. Not strong enough to STAY, like a proper ghost... but anchored by this wrong done against them. Waiting for Judgment. For Balance to be restored.
Justice.
He can't necessarily DO anything about it... but he sure could call the Ghost Cops.
Now, if you stole their IDENTITY? Their "Life"? Money, social security, job, future, etc? If you scammed the innocent and ruined lives? Oh THAT he can smell like a stench. Like rot of the soul.
The man who's taken bread vs. The CEO who's greed ruined millions.
Both Theives.
However, only ONE of those is favored. The OTHER gets Karma. Punishment. Because BEFORE? There was no Ancient governing this Concept. It was no man's land. Anarchy. You COULD do as you pleased with no consequences! But NOW?
NOW Thieving has RULES.
And GODS help you if you DARE break the RULES. (Cause they are the only ones who CAN)
But! Fun fact? He IS the Ancient of MAGIC TRICKS! Cause a lot of those are slight of hand! Stealing back cards, hiding them, etc. And? Since he's heroically alligned? (Which is LUCKY AS HELL. They'll all drink to that!) There IS an uptick in Heroic Phantom (lol, goddammit it, he should have known. Clockwork you BASTARD! Is THIS why you kept laughing at my name?) Thief types.
Better offset your wrong doings! Cause any Little Guy who decides to steal back what's rightfully theirs? Is gonna succeed. And THEN SOME.
Constantine? Has never loved this trick more. He can sell his soul over and over. Because SURELY, your malevolence, YOU are strong enough, CLEVER enough, to keep it! :)
(You lil shit)
Mother fu-! ...Yeah, no. The SMART ones? Fucking refuse after like five times. But all the rest? Play wack a mole. And Hell never learns. Danny's on fuckin speed dial to this tricky, drunk, "makes exclusively poor life choices" lil bitch. Dude buys him some of the best burgers he's ever had.
He wants to shake him and scrape him off the floor. Guy's his sad lil meow meow. Great person! Under, you know, all the drunk and whoring bastard.
.........look, he has that effect on people, okay?
Most of the justice league: "we know"
What's GREAT? Is that a CERTAIN fucking helmet? Is a THIEF. Doesn't like him. Because he's not the Natural Order. (Not the Natural Order, my ASS! You just don't like that we're inherently Chaotic Entities! BIGOT!)
Danny should threaten to STEAL Zatanna's dad right out from under him. See how he likes THAT!
Nabu as a thief of another being's time, life, potential... ouch.
Setting aside Nelson for a second, wasn't there two people who got fused into one person for a bit and wore the helmet? And she was Nelson's wife to boot?
All the things they could've done individually, that's their lives stolen from them too. Granted that's a crime not yet committed in this timeline. This is the Young Justice timeline if we're talking about Zatanna's dad. Which means not only did he steal life and potential from Kent Nelson, but also stole time from Wally West and nearly kept the teen's body for himself. This resulted in Nabu stealing Nelson's ghost.
Nabu stole the body of a hero (Zatara) by holding the body of another's ransom (Zatanna). And in the next ten years, Zatara could only get a single hour back. An entire year, only to have a single hour.
Nabu in Young Justice was desperate to get back instead of rotting on a shelf, but chose to steal almost a solid decade from someone who could've been not only living his own life but also helping people and acting on the side of his precious Order.
You certainly don't WORSHIP them. They aren't Gods! This is not some weak shit Faith and Belief nonsense. No. This? Is is WARDEN shit. It's "oh fuck, the MODs are here!" Type shit.
Does Clockwork, ANCIENT of Time, not keep you all from fucking up Time itself? Irreparable breaking it? It can be ARGUED that the only reason anybody even CAN break it right now? Is cause he's under Arrogant Eyeball House Arrest.
Which I mean.... golly gee! If ONLY he had someone, perhaps some sort of THIEF, capable of BREAKING that! But how could HE, Master of all timelines, capable of seeing through Time itself, possibly KNOW such a ghost would appear? KNOW when and WHERE to step in and introduce himself, so as to become Good Friends?
.......now that just seems unlikely! (^-^)
*loaded silence from other ghosts*
(Oh yeah... they forget this guy's fuckin terrifying. Well....shit...)
Cause like? Who do you call? If some random time god is going ape shit? Clockwork. Timetravelers? Clockwork. A world ending event you'd like to undo and think he might let you? Alright, better make a good case! Or your atoms will never have exsisted!
Of course they're Chaotic. They govern A LOT of contradictory elements, all under the same header.
Danny gets EVERY aspect that could and does relate to Thievery. Magic tricks, identity fraud, magical possession, escape artistry, disguises...
It's like the Ancient of Space! You think their whole thing is JUST about a planet or two? "Space" means EVERY SINGLE THING going on? On Earth. On EVERY planet. Black holes. Super novas. Weird space lazers. Things beyond the event horizon. Shit you can't even imagine!
Being a baby Ancient is like intro to colors. Basic math. He's not NEARLY deep enough into the weeds of his own powers to pull of the crazy shit. But the fact that "crazy shit"? Means bitch slapping gods and keeping all of creation stable? FOREVER?
Is a big job, for a baby.
Especially since he? Much Like Pariah? Is probably still gonna be stuck in that knee jerk "but I GOT to react to my Concept, with my Conceot, ABOUT MY CONCEPT, CONCEPT CONCEPT! Or I'll diiiiieeeeeee!!!!!"
Just... you know... bit less burning villiages, when it's thievery. Just Danny, sitting with his head in his hands, in a Dennys, surrounded by half a museum he didn't even WANT to take... b-but it was so SHINEY, Superman. Oh god... I did it AGAIN! Please take it all back! I'm so EMBARRASSED ( T^T) I swear I'm getting better! I PROMISE!
*his hand unconsciously tries to shove the salt shake in his magical ghost cloak*
*Superman gently takes it out of his hand without his noticing and puts it on the table behind them, out of reach* you sure are buddy. Wanna come apologize to the curators with me? Explain the situation?
#reblog#dc comics#dpxdc#dp x dc#dc x dp#dcxdp#danny phantom#king of thieves#cause what are you gonna do?#punish a ghost?#he's the concept of thievery#he clearly cant help it#and its not like he DAMAGED any of the artifacts#heck it got your museum on the news#he seems very upset with himself#superman says he's trying his best and very sorry#he even brought you some artifacts that he stole from smugglers#so like...#thanks for the names?#gonna be reporting THOSE assholes
Wait. Is it like. Kid with a sugar high and an obsession? Like you let the 6 year old have too much sugar and now they're ranting nonstop about their current favorite movie? Except instead of the latest movie it's destruction and kleptomania? It's just the "wild phase" all Ancients go through when they're new? Like he'll get a grip in a few decades but right now?
That urge to TOUCH ALL THE NEAT MUSEUM STUFF is running the show.
I bet he'd LOVE the Leverage crew. "Sometimes bad guys are the only good guys you get" that'd be great.
Funnily enough there is a fic similar to this @crystalshard on ao3
I can’t remember its name but it had Danny going to Gotham and being pestered by ghosts to get them back there things, and he winds up adopted by Selina after they go for the same thing and it eventually becomes DeadSerious
It’s really good and if I remember the name I’ll let you know!
Basically, when the Ghost-zombie apocalypse happens thanks to a ghost virus, Danny gets infected. He “dies” again, so the most obvious course of action is for Phantom to possess Zombie!Fenton and try to pass off as human.
He can only use his extremely helpful ghost abilities if he discorporates, leaving zombie!Danny to the mercy of his enviorment. Otherwise, he has to use his corpse to try and blend in with other survivors.
He also has to hide the fact that he is a carrier of the disease(He can’t share water bottles, have much physical contact, or bleed on them), he no longer eats much, bleeds ectoplasm, and other zombies are disinterested in him.
*Note, Phantom wouldn’t spread the disease, only Fenton’s body is infected. If he wants physical contact, he has to trust the other person with his secret.
Zombie!Fenton doesn’t have much interest in eating brains, as the ectoplasm Phantom produces fuels him. So, he’s basically a goldfish that just moves around aimlessly.
Without his human half, Phantom is also more limited in how much he can interact with the real world. He has to tug his human half around on one of those kiddie backpack leashes to ensure he doesn’t accidentally lose his body. He doesn’t have the strength to pick him up and carry him around. He can /maybe/ phase another person through a door.
Good thing Zombie!Fenton is very easily distracted and can occasionally be convinced to sleep.
–
World-building time!
Amity Park was ground zero for the virus, which was a mild infection that ghosts could get. However, once spread to humans, the virus ate the naturally occurring ectoplasm in the human’s brains, leaving them brainless aggressive monsters. (Think the possessed hot dogs from The Fenton’s fridge)
The Ectoplasm keeps the human parts together until eventually all the human flesh is entirely absorbed by the ectoplasm and all that remains is a ghost-monster thing. (this process takes at least a year).
The number one most effective way to kill a zombie is ecto-weapons, a good bashing to the skull can take them out for a while, but some might recover. .
Phantom is ~extra~ despised because most people believe the virus spread due to ghosts like him interacting with humans. The cause of the infection would be much angstier if it was a result of humans (The Fentons, GIW, Vlad) fucking around and finding out
Both Phantom and Danny no longer age. Danny’s human body doesn’t heal wounds unless you count glowing ectoplasm stitching his skin back together as healing. He also has a glowing green and sluggishly bleeding bite mark he constantly has to worry about.
When Phantom is possessing Zombie!Danny he is easily passable as a human, he just has to cover any features that show he’s no longer, like, alive.
One of Danny’s goals is to find a cure. However, he is not exactly… smart, but knows a lot about ectoplasm. He’s convinced if he finds a group of survivors with the right equipment that they mutually trust, they can find cure or vaccine together. His parents died/disappeared too early to finish one.
Anyway, the angst and the shenanigans potential are endless. Bonus points to anyone who can incorporate DP x DC into there.
Origin story: takes place right after that comic. But it is long, you have been warned. I may also move this to ao3, we'll see.
-
"... No worries guys, I'll just. Uh. Go back in. Problem solved.. right?"
Danny just phases back into his body and sits up from Sam's family's bunker.
"oh. This is... Not right."
"not right?" Sam asked
"I'm just overshadowing myself. It feels different. I can kinda sense my- his? my body's? the- the thoughts. It's not very coherent. But hungry and angry. It's calming down though. A bit. But I'm definitely overshadowing."
"does this mean you actually died? Like really actually died?" Tucker started fighting" All the way? And you're overshadowing your body?"
"It-" Danny started, but Sam interrupted.
"You died. Oh my go- does this mean there isn't a cure??? You can't cure death!"
"No. No. No. There's gotta be. That.... Am I dead?" After everything, did he really die because of sickness? He defeated the ghost king, fought off Vlad, but a stupid ghost sickness is what did him in? "You know what? No, fuck that thought. I'm curing the zombie apocalypse."
"With what? None of us are virus scientists. Do your parents have any inventions? That might help?" Sam was ever the problem solver
"... I dunno, they haven't made anything for diseases. When they thought they had a disease before, they just camped in the lab and waited it out more than anything..." The only invention they made that week was... "The ghost catcher!"
"Wouldn't that just separate you from um... You?" Tucker sputtered out the last word.
"... Maybe..." He didn't want to think about the fact that maybe without the disease piloting it, his body would be fully dead. "But it also might get rid of the disease."
"I guess we're going to Fentonworks." Sam decides.
They prep themselves with ectoguns, wrist blasters, and of course a trusty thermos for each of them.
Danny holds his gun aloft, Sam collects her bat (they had to convince her not to spike it), and Tucker packs his electronics into his backpack.
"to fentonworks." Tucker agrees.
Tuck has been trying to get a call out of town for a while, but communication has went down. Danny and Sam had managed to convince him to only bring the vital tech that lets them radio each other, and pick up signals from other frequencies. Communications went down, and Tucker is sure that if it were only an Amity problem that his hand-built portable signal would have been fine to connect to the outside world, but because he can't connect, there must not be something to connect to. The disease got outside of Amity somehow, and is worse enough to the point that nothing was running. Amity's connection went down first Tucker only managed to build his signal a couple weeks after that. They haven't managed to catch anything in the week since then.
Has it really been 3 weeks already? Danny was tired. They all were. They were running on fumes. Him dying wasn't helping.
"to home."
They get there without much in the way, no major hordes, and no one got anymore hurt. They did have to shoot their science teacher though. Thankfully, for some reason, ecto-guns don't hurt the zombies, but they do daze them for at least a little bit. More angry zombies have to be shot a few more times to pacify them though.
No one was at fentonworks. Danny's parents were one of the first to turn. They were at a meeting with the GIW and came back turned along with basically the whole building. They suspect that it's what started the whole thing somehow, but they don't know for sure, and there are way too many zombies crawling that area to even think of a raid to find information there. Jazz is at college hours away, and Danny can only hope that she's safe. They can't exactly talk.
The catcher is were he remembers it, and he hands it to tucker to wield.
"just, swipe it over my head. Like-"
"like you are fly needing swatted?" He asked.
Danny laughed. Laughing during the apocalypse felt surreal, but then again, their lives have been surreal. "Like you are swatting a fly."
Tucker angles the catcher above his head and pushes it down to separate human him and ghost him.
Danny took a step back and was dizzy for a second, but he saw himself in front of him. This was normal as it is meant to separate ghost and human, but what wasn't normal was his human half twitching and then launching itself at tucker with a snarl.
Tucker screamed and Danny jumped into action and overshadowed his body again before he could do more than bowl tucker over and land on top of him.
"oh shit." Danny's body? himself? was so hungry now. Way more hungry than it was before. That hunger fed into anger and was desperate for anything to feed it.
"what?-" Tucker asked, pushing at Danny.
"What's wrong Danny?"
"-Are you okay?"
"so hungry." Danny mumbled.
"you're not gonna eat us now are?" Tucker pished Danny a bit harder and more frantically.
Danny got up, "no, no, definitely not. I'm absolutely in control, it's just I'm- my body- um... It's way more hungry now."
His body definitely wasn't this hungry before the ghost catcher, and he could already feel the hunger dying down the longer he overshadowed his body? (himself?)
"how much more hungry?" Sam asked.
But that shouldn't happen. The ghost catcher didn't make anything hungrier, it separated the ecto out of things.
Then it clicked.
"...ecto."
"what?"
"I think I'm hungry for ecto!" Danny went to one of the storage cabinets to grab a vial of ectoplasm. "The catcher doesn't make things hungry, it just separates out ecto, but it made my- this- me hungry by separating out ecto. Which means, I- it was hungry for ecto!"
Sam raised an eyebrow. "So now you are gonna feed yourself ecto? You are gonna give the disease what it wants?"
"Well it would be nice if you weren't attacked everytime I decided to separate from myself." Danny shrugged
"that's why the zombies are pacified when we shoot them! They are getting some ecto and aren't as hungry!" Tucker exclaimed.
"I guess it is a ghost disease." Sam nodded.
"yeah. Hey, maybe when I get enough ecto, the virus will be happy enough and leave my body, uh, me..."
"we really need something to call your uh, body."
Danny nodded and drank a vial of ecto. The hunger went down significantly, so Danny downed another. And the hunger was gone. He drank another one just in case.
"well, if this works we won't need to." Danny told them.
He phased out of himself and saw his body just stand there with a sleepy look on his face, and then wander off to the side aimlessly. It leaned against a table and just stayed there staring at it.
Danny phased back into himself, but there was no change, no merging back into himself and becoming whole. He was still overshadowing himself. The hunger was gone, but there was a quiet running contentedness in the back of his mind.
Danny sighed. "No change, but I'm- my- its no longer hungry."
Sam nodded "try shifting."
Danny tried reaching for his core, because supposedly he was in his human half, but all he found was that his core was already strong and ready. He then reached as he would for the warmth of his human half, but found nothing, not even a wall blocking it, or an empty space, but it was like it was never there. It was disconcerting.
Danny shook his head.
"Phantom and Fenton" Tucker piped up. "Names for you. Danny is always Danny either way, but Phantom is when you're by yourself, and Fenton is your body."
Danny frowned. "I see that, but I'm still kind of Danny Fenton. I'm still me..."
Sam hummed in contemplation. "Your middle name is James right?"
"uh, yeah?"
"Then your body is James. He is still you, but you aren't gonna be as connected to your middle name."
Tucker snorted. "That and James is kinda a dork name to give your zombie body. It fits him though. The nerd found that table extremely entertaining."
Danny smiled and nodded. James was better. It let him stop focusing on the fact that he was overshadowing his corpse.
"Do we want to get anything while we are here?" Sam asked, ever the one to make stuff happen. Danny didn't think he would have even survived this long without Sam to carry all the braincells.
"We should get more small weapons, and some ecto. I don't want James to get hungry again."
"good idea, do you have a case or bag or anything?"
"I have a duffle under my bed."
Tucker left to get the duffle bag. While Sam and Danny started sorting the weapons in the lab. Seeing through what was useful. They set aside a few various guns, spectre deflecters, wrist blasters, lipstick lazers, a lazer bo staff, a net gun, and other things. They needed. Some ecto ammo cartridges, and a piece of tech the size of a coffee machine that could take ambient ectoplasm and over time refill cartridges or vials called the Fenton ambient ecto converter. The speed would depend on the amount of ambient ecto.
"are you doing okay?" Sam asked out of the blue, while setting aside a bazooka like blaster that was too big and unwieldy to be useful.
"yeah, James is happy, well content, he's not hungry."
"that's not what I meant."
Danny thinned his lips. "I don't want to think about what happens if there isn't a cure, or..."
"or if you actually died, again?"
"i defeated the ghost king, I beat the embodiment of nature, I won against vortex and nocturne, and Vlad, I escaped capture from the guys in white, my parents, skulker. I won against everyone I've come across. But being sick is what kills me? No. I'm gonna find or make a cure or something, and I'm gonna fix this. I'm gonna be fine. I have to. I don't want anyone else to suffer anymore either."
"what if there isn't a cure? Danny you died!"
"wouldn't be the first time."
"danny-"
"help me shut down the portal."
"danny-" Sam sighed. "It's not already shut down?"
"I mean it's turned off, but not shut down all the way. Like a computer that went to sleep. It's still very much a weak point."
"why are we only shutting it off now?"
"because no ghosts are coming through anyways, and on the off change that they really want to try, I don't want the outbreak spreading more."
"what about frostbite?"
Danny looked at his feet. "Frostbite said that all there was for the disease was a vaccine. One that I've already gotten. It doesn't work on humans, and it didn't help me defeat my virus. It's not gonna be helpful."
"right..."
Danny messed with the controls by the portal for a second before turning to the console system by the wall.
"what do you need me to do to shut this portal down?"
Danny went through the systems on this console, then waved Sam over. "Just press the red button when I tell you. On three." Danny went to the portal again, hand over a button. "One. Two." Danny winced I preparation if there was a shock. "Three."
There was a popping sound, then a buzzing that lowered in pitch before fading away. Danny went to the console again to open the portal doors. It was strange to see the inside tunnel of the portal again after so long of not seeing anything but a swirling green mass. Almost eerie. Danny then unplugged the portal, and looked to Sam.
"help me dismantle it a little?" Danny asked.
"I actually wanna see where tucker is."
"right it's been a while." Danny's eyebrows furrowed. He went up the stairs and found tucker in the kitchen, pulling out dry food from the pantry.
"hey, Danny, I figured we could restock on food some while we're here." Tucker said, pulling out a box of crackers. Luckily, dry foods didn't reanimate or contaminate as easily as other food.
"you spent the whole time going through food?"
"well, that, and I had to find your first aid kit, couldn't find your ghost kit, but I found the one in the bathroom, I also put in some cleaning supplies and some hygiene stuff."
"thanks tuck, my ghost kit is in my wall."
"ah."
"I'll get it."
Danny went back to the stairs, and yelled down to Sam "Tuck is fine!" Before trotting up to get his first aid kit. They already have one for him that they stashed at sam's place, and he has one at Tucker's too, but it's always better to have more medical supplies.
When he came back down, ghost aid kit in hand, tucker was already downstairs loading ectoplasm into the duffle carefully along with Sam who was putting ecto gear in. They got to the spectre deflecters before tucker turned to Danny.
"We should see if these work on zombies."
"you're right."
"I am not going to be the one to wear it though. I do nOt want to be attacked again."
"fair. wuss." Sam snarked before putting it on herself. Danny walked closer while tucker dashed away. Danny unshadowed James, but stayed ready to reshadow him just in case. Sam activated the belt and touched the dazed zombie tentatively, but there was no reaction.
"I guess it doesn't works." Sam said
"no point in bringing them then." Tucker said, already moving on and stuffing the converter into the duffle bag. Sam stuffed the bo staff in before zipping it up.
"now there's just one more question." Sam once again the only one with braincells. "How do we cure a zombie apocalypse? We aren't virus experts."
"but we are ghost experts. And this is a ghost virus. We just gotta find a virus scientist. Virologist?"
"virologist, or maybe an epidemiologist, just someone who knows what they are doing."
"I don't think there's any virologists in Amity though."
Danny makes some little animal stick figure desktop pets, with Tucker's help, mainly to help with homework, act as autocorrect, and serve as something cute. He notices after a few weeks that they can interact with different things in different ways (think of the stick figures from animation vs animator) and is impressed. He decides to bring the six with him in his phone on a class field trip to Gotham and excitedly shows Sam and Tucker the evolved code. While there and walking around the sticks were just messing around in Danny's phone when they manage to accidentally air drop themselves into Tim Drake's laptop. Tim somehow doesn't notice until he's back at the cave and connects his computer to the bat computer and accidentally uploads the desktop pets to it, Danny at this point also realized his desktop pets were gone. At this point Danny and Tim are both low-key freaking out for different yet similar reasons.
omg they accidentally created a computer virus! And it’s probably a ghostly one too all things considered. Maybe it’s just some blob ghosts that infected the code, or Technus. Team Phantom might be blaming Technius at first haha.
And Tim is going to suffer, this I swear. Why are these weird, stick figure things messing the Batcomputer? He tries to fix everything and delete the little animals before anyone else shows up…but an 1 hour later, when Batman calls everybody to the Batcave, they find Tim is now a sobbing mess, whining about how the Batcomputer got hacked by stupid stick figures. Who hear that of course and decide to blast music right into his ears. The rest of the Batman try-and fail-to fix it. It definitely isn’t a normal virus, and could be something magical, but they aren’t too sure. Meanwhile, Team Phantom has been trying to figure out where Tim lives. Now Danny, as Phantom, is floating around Wayne Manor. He really hopes they don’t sue him after this.
Imagine if you will that when they try to track Danny down via technology but the stick figures caught on and they may or may not have conspired with Techno
And with the help of Techno they could now roam anywhere so long as it concerns Amity and well lets just say that Red Robing and Oracle are having a breakdown because of the stick figures in their tech:D
This isn't exactly a new thing, but he's usually better put together than this.
Dick was the first to enter the bat cave for the meeting that Bruce called. He saw Tim... on the floor... crying? and muttering about drawings? He started banging his head against the desk by the BatComputer
"Timmy, are you okay?"
"Noo! The little animals hacked the BatComputer and are playing fetch with the icons! I can't fix it! Oracle can't fix it! I don't know what to do!"
"Well, we'll figure it out."
During the time in which Tim was ranting, the rest of the family (who could make it) arrived in the cave.
Bruce walked up to the computer to analyze the situation.
"What have you tried?"
Tim stood up and went into report mode. "When I noticed the problem, I immediately started the active antivirus software. Didn't work. I then looked at all the tasks running, but all the ones running are things that should be. I looked for any extra file, document, download, etc, but came up empty. By that time the antivirus finished and detected no major viruses, and killed the small bugs by itself. But, that's when the stupid animal doodles opened up your files on the rogues and were looking through them! They looked like they were just playing with the scroll, but I don't know if that is a distraction or something, and every time I closed the tab, one of them kept opening it! It was like herding cats!" As Tim started to go back to ranting mode, the cat doodle looked at Tim with an annoyed expression, which is weird seeing as it really didn't have a face.
"Did you try turning it off and on again?" Duke asked.
Tim just looked tired "A lot of malware can still work with the computer off, and Restarting it only works for operating system errors because it skipped or misread a line of code or something and its basically a retry to read it. It wouldn't do anything to viruses that the antivirus software couldn't fix."
"Sorry..." Duke looked dejected.
Dick piped up, "Nah, don't worry about it, you haven't gotten the BatHack rundown yet."
Steph was just watching the animals playing fetch for a while, the squirrel throws an icon across the page for the dog and fox to chase, it bounces around for a bit, and then one of the canines brings it to the closest other animal. The lizard started getting bored though, and was sniffing (with forked tongue out) through some other files. It opened up the music.
partial possession could be a fun way for phantom to communicate with danny in situations where he can't just take over his body for some reason or other
also he definitely would abuse that power at least once
It all stemmed from the portal accident (obviously), but after getting electrocuted, going into a coma (with this extremely weird and vividly green dream that he can only kinda remember), and his parents just about completely ignoring their children in favor of the portal, he didn't think it could get much worse.
Apparently, it can.
His chest was feeling achy. But that's probably because his heart gave out at some point while he was in the portal. It's probably nothing. He was also doing this weird twitch thing with his hands, feet, and sometimes his head. It's kinda expected to have muscle spasms AS you are getting electrocuted, but days after? He thought he was free, but apparently not.
It's not like the twitches really changed anything big in his life. His hands and feet just moved every once in a while for a split second—no biggie. He could still do everything like before. It's just that it seemed like they were getting worse.
Danny could swear that the twitches were getting longer and more elaborate. Well, it's only been a week, so there wasn't all that much data, but that didn't seem quite right.
It was only a few days later that he found out why.
Danny was literally just reading. His twitches lasted a few seconds at this point, and seemed extremely random when they showed. But that didn't stop his left hand from flailing.
At first he just sighed in exasperation. The twitching had knocked the book out of his hands and onto the floor, it wasn't like it was the first time. Danny picked it up and continued reading Frankenstein for English class he was in the middle of chapter 22 and he needed to read through chapter 23 by the end of the night.
Then his hand twitched again. Danny was luckily able to keep his book this time with his right hand. So he just ignored the sad dancing arm and focused on reading, he did need to pass the test after all. That is, until the hand splayed out on the book, covering about half the words, and completely blocking him from continuing.
"Are you done yet?" He asked his rebellious hand like it was a child and he was a disappointed parent.
Unsurprisingly, the hand didn't talk to him. Surprisingly, it did answer.
The hand moved and twitched again, and made a pointing index finger, then twisted and pointed to the book.
"Yes, yes, I am reading, and I would like to get back to it, thank you." Danny rolled his eyes.
Weird freaking random twitches.
Then his hand lifted and fell on the page, pointing to the book again, at the same spot. It pointed to the word "need" in a letter from Elizabeth. Freaky.
"Need... And I need to read, you stupid appendage." Danny grabbed his left wrist with his right hand and tried to move it from the page. His left hand was surprisingly strong and stubborn, while it did initially move off the page, it went right back on it, but this time in a different spot. A little earlier in the letter.
Danny's left hand pointed to "help".
...
The teen stared at the page for probably much longer than he had awareness of, before he broke down laughing.
"ha- I'm losing my freaking mind!" he gasped out hysterically. Danny shook his head, trying to get the last of the weird creepiness out of his brain. "It's just a weird coincidence..."
Thankfully, his left hand was his to control again, so he turned back to his reading. Nevermind the fact that he was now sitting on his hand to stop it from moving in the future.
As soon as he got lost in the words of the second letter and was about to turn the page, his left hand spasmed away from it's pin and Danny jumped in his spot from the speed of his wayward arm. Once again, it pointed to the words "need" and "help", rapidly going between them. It was actually starting to hurt his fingers with how hard they were being jammed into the paper.
"...okay... okay. okay. okay, okay, okayokayokay. OKAY!" Danny was officially freaking out. Was his arm possessed or something? Crap, was HE possessed?
"Oh my gosh. Am I possessed?"
The hand paused for a second before making a so-so gesture.
"Right. Totally. Somehow kind of, halfway, not really, but also sorta possessed... why is this my life?" Danny felt like he might pass out.
Then he realized something. His parents are ghost hunters. He's possessed (kinda). They might be able to get him unpossessed (expelled? exorcised?). He just needed to get to them. They were in the basement (they always were these days), which means he had to go down two flights of stairs, no biggie, he does this all the time. "alright, screw this. I am not going to do this anymore. I'm getting Mom and Dad, I'm getting you out."
Danny set the open book to the side (he didn't have any bookmarks nearby) and stood up and quickly made his way toward his door, but before he took more than a few steps, his feet decided to betray him and wig out. He collapsed (obviously). Apparently, the limb-haunting ghost in him doesn't want him to find his parents. Well too bad. He doesn't want to be possessed any more. "MO-" and now his hand is covering his own mouth. Great. Fan-flippin-tastic.
Danny wasted (almost) no time before licking his own hand to no result other than tasting his skin. Danny just writhed on the floor instead, but the ghost possessing him didn't let him get up, or away from the hand over his mouth. He was helpless.
Danny slumped in defeat. The hand over his mouth let go tentatively, but Danny didn't try yelling again. He could tell with the way that his left arm was tensing that it was ready to slap over his mouth again at a moment's notice.
Instead of yelling, he quietly murmured, "What do you want from me?"
The hand reached for the Frankenstein book and brought it back to Danny's lap, before once again pointing at the book's words: "need" "help".
"...I'm almost scared to ask..." Danny muttered to himself under his breath. "What do you need help with?" he addressed his possessed hand.
His hand kind of paused over the book, searching for a word, but not pointing to anything.
"Right. Old Victorian novels probably don't have all the words you are looking for." Danny could make a list thing of the alphabet and have his hand spell it out. "Will you let me stand this time?"
The hand paused for a bit, (thinking about it?) before giving him a thumbs up.
Right. Because this is something that people do. they just casually talk to their hands. Of course, why not? He totally isn't going insane.
Danny stood, got a pen and one of his school notebooks, (Mr Lancer won't mind if one less page is dedicated to something other than English, right? Totally.
Danny wrote out the letters of the alphabet, as well as a few answers that may come up. "Yes." "No." "Maybe."
It was only after he was finished that he realized, "Well then, I just made an Ouija board." Danny sighed and put his head in his one controlled hand, before looking back at the notebook. "Okay. What do you need help with?"
His left hand twitched into motion before pointing to some letters while his right hand wrote it off to the side so he could read it easily, as well as jot down any of his guesses.
s t u
"Stu... Stupid." His left hand flicked his own forehead, "Ow, fine, I'll let you finish." It then continued.
c k
"You're stuck. Are you stuck possessing me?"
Yes.
"Well, that can be solved by asking my parents. They are ghost experts!" Danny went to get up again before his limbs once again betrayed him and forbid him from getting up.
No.
"And why the heck not?"
h u r t
"Ugh. Do you know why you are stuck? Like, at all?"
h a l f a
"Half a what?
u s
"Half of us?"
No. h a l f a i s u s
"Half A.I. sus? Huh?" He was flicked again.
No. w e a r e h a l f a
"Wear e half a... No- we are half a... Half a what? What are we half of?"
h u m a n
"I hate to burst your bubble, but I'm all human." He was flicked, AGAIN.
g h o s t
"Half a human ghost? That's why you are stuck? We are half a human ghost? What even is that?"
The hand seemed to have given up on spelling out words and just clawed the air in frustration before forcefully stealing Danny's pen.
The writing was messy and slow, as Danny is not left handed... actually would that matter if the ghost was left handed?
"A Halfa is a human-ghost hybrid. We became a Halfa together when we fused in the portal."
"Wait. Are you saying I'm part ghost? Because you are in me?"
Yes.
The hand pointed to the totally-not-an-Ouija board for that one.
"Then we gotta get you out, right?"
Fused. Impossible to separate. It would only hurt both of us to try.
"Then what was that about needing help and being stuck?!"
I am stuck, and I do need your help. You need to shift.
"What?"
ghost form
"Ghost form... Does any of what you say make sense?"
You are a halfa. Half human, half ghost. You are in your human form. you need to switch to ghost form. We need balance.
"Ghost form... I need to be a ghost? WAIT! Do I have to DIE?"
His left hand waved quickly, swatting away his worries.
You don't need to die. Danny sighed out in relief
You already did that. Danny immediately sucked back in that breath and choked on it.
His left hand pointed back to the sentence You need to shift.
"And-and how do I shift?"
Focus on your core.
"Core?"
Cold energy in your chest.
Danny closed his eyes and focused on his chest... He was once again reminded that his heart felt achy from the electrocution. It took a bit, but he found it. The cold. It seemed sharp, scared. Somehow, Danny didn't exactly know how a temperature could have feelings, but it did.
Danny focused on the cold sitting next to his achy heart and realized it wasn't his heart that was achy. It was this core. The cold ached. Danny focused on it more, and then it grew. Danny's eye flew wide open and he got to see a ring of light spread past his eyes, and a weird distance-y feeling.
"Finally." His voice said. But it wasn't him. He saw his own hand move up to his face for inspection (he was wearing gloves?). They moved on their own accord. No, on the ghost's accord.
Danny was once again officially freaking out. He tried to move his own arm, but everything felt distant, disconnected. He could feel everything just fine, but he had no control over it. All that came from his efforts was a small twitch.
The body snatcher just sighed.
"Look, I know you are probably scared, but you shouldn't worry. I won't do anything. You just need to shift every once in a while or it will start to hurt. You'll get the hang of partial overshadowing soon enough."
Danny couldn't answer. He couldn't move his eyes, he couldn't focus on anything other than what this body hijacker was focusing on, he couldn't move his hands, he couldn't speak, he couldn't do anything but watch.
The ghost turned from the desk and looked at himself in the mirror in his room.
If Danny could breath on his own accord, he would gasp in shock. As it was, he could only be mentally startled.
His hair was white and he was wearing a hazmat suit. No, THE hazmat suit. The one he died was electrocuted in. The colors were inverted.
"Looks your death just inverted you," the ghost started "I guess it makes sense. You have a higher-quality image of yourself than I did. And ectoplasm is very malleable. Oh but it looks like I still have my eyes though." The ghost leaned in, and Danny could clearly see the toxic green irises.
"The name is Phantom, by the way..." the ghost, Phantom, looked off to the side, breaking focus on the mirror in favor of studying the floor. "Look, I know this probably isn't the best situation in the world, but it could be worse. I won't steal your body or anything, and I'll try not to do anything to get you in trouble. But I can already tell that you are freaking out, and may not want to shift ever again. I need to reinforce that if you don't shift, it will be very painful for both of us. It will start to hurt. Eventually it will put your body so far out of balance it won't work anymore. You'll die. We'll die now that I'm fused with you."
Phantom looked back to the mirror.
"You can't tell your parents either. They may call themselves ghost experts, but they don't know anything. They will hurt us, kill us, if they try to separate us."
Phantom looked down at his hand.
"I know you don't trust me, and I don't blame you. But you should know that I won't hurt you or anyone you care about. I promise. I don't want to hurt people. I just want to help." With those final words, Phantom closed his eyes and focused on the warmth inside of him. rings once again washed over the halfa, and turned them back to human form.
Danny immediately fell on his butt and started hyperventilating.
Tips for walking on ice without falling or looking like a stupid waddling penguin:
1. Bend your knees slightly. (only a little, just enough to where your legs aren't straight and don't lock). You'll have better balance and you'll automatically have your feet more flat on the ground which improves grip.
2. Keep your speed even. Even if you slip a little, don't suddenly stop or slow down because that is a big change in momentum, which will make you slip more. Speed up and slow down at a slow rate in general.
3. Don't push off roughly. In a normal walk, many times, especially when going fast, people push off right before their feet leave the ground, stop that, it's like you are telling the ice you want to slip. Walk smoother, less bouncy with each step. You may need to slow down a bit, but it's better than falling.
4. Expect the slip, but don't let it phase you. Whether you see an icy patch or not (black ice) expect to slip at least a little bit with each step, and when you do (and you will, life ain't perfect) keep your speed the same, be prepared to shift your balance if the ice tries to take out your feet.
5. Wear good shoes. Stop wearing tennis shoes with no grip, but these tips will still work without snow boots, just not as well.
6. Don't have your hands in your pockets. This isn't entirely necessary unless you are walking on very icy roads, but it does limit your balance. You can chicken wing, I guess, but it doesn't work as well.
No, you’re thinking of nonaphilia. Necrophilia is the concept of putting friends and family in favourable positions, not because theyre the best at those positions, but because you know them.
no actually, i think you're thinking of necrodeus! necrophilia is a fictional grimoire appearing in stories by the horror writer hp lovecraft and his followers.
I believe you’re thinking of narcolepsy. Necrophilia is the fictional magical ability to raise the dead, with varying degrees of sentience. It features heavily in The Locked Tomb series.
Nah, you're thinking of neologism! Pretty sure necrophilia is an American operating company that is best known for stock car racing, considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in America.
No, you're thinking of nonbinary. Necrophilia is a type of infection where the cells spreading out from a central point, for example: a spider bite, start to die.
that’s actually a nonillion! Necrophilia is somebody who is relaxed and calm, either because they do not care about something or are not worried about something.
