the family planning is going great 👍
When young ghosting are extremely tired or have exhausted their core too much, whether it be from fighting or just using up too much ectoplasm, they can merge with their parent in the ghost zone. The core of their parent and the welcoming warmth it gave often allowed for fast recoveries. Dani was too weak even with her eco-shots and Danny allowed her to rest inside him until she was one hundred percent again.
One minor thing was that even with the core, there's still a bit of a change that's physically noriceable. And while ghosts and those of the Infinite Realms understood, humans often didn't.
Which was why Danny was met with mortified and angry gazes when he appeared to the next Justice League meeting with Dani resting inside of him. It didn't help with how bad he explained the situation either.
LOOK I’M JUST SAYING. As a man with questionable morals and the ability to duplicate he definitely does. I’m sorry.
(Based on Monster from Epic the Musical, it's incredible, give it a listen)
So! For the past few years, Danny has done nothing but defend Amity Park from Agressive Ghosts, Lunatic Ghost Hunters, and the GIW, all on his own. But no matter what he does, he is always seen as a Monster by the people of the town, just for being a Ghost.
Over the years he has lost a lot.
His Best Friend. His Mentor. His Mom.
Tucker was caught by the GIW and arrested for helping Phantom, and was never heard from again. His Parents still visit the Mayor's office for any word of him, but no one has any idea what happened.
Danny and Clockwork had a falling out after Danny refused to go down his intended path. He wanted to live his own life, one not predetermined by a Time God. Clockwork had told him that he would regret the decision, and left.
And his Mom had died after discovering his secret. She had surprisingly accepted him, but then the GIW had tried to capture him and she decided to defend him, and she got caught in the crossfire.
Every time Danny tried defending the people of Amity Park, he was vilified and hated even more. He would never be a Hero in their eyes, he was no Justice League. He had lost so much just defending them, but he couldn't bring himself to resent them, they didn't know what they were doing, it was how they were supposed to think. He still needed to defend them.
But he could no longer do so acting as the Hero.
Being a Hero stopped him from raiding the base that he assumed Tucker was being held in. Being a Hero led him to disagreeing with Clockworks advice. Being a Hero led to his Mom's death.
So he would be The Monster, instead.
Like? Full on, SHOCK AND AWE Dramatic. Behold for it is a GOD that you have called upon you, Dramatic. Swelling music and camera panning out, the works.
Like, it SHOULD? Be this panicked race against time. All terror and counting down the clock, like a nuke is about to blow under down town New York. Primal fear as... oh god... oh god they're too late. The Ritual(tm)! It's complete!
Green and starlight SURGING. Bursting up and up and UP. Like a pillar into the heavens. The earth rumbling. Things crashing to the floor. Ozone in the air. A grand display that just... seems to stop?
Ends in nothing more then a softly glowing circle, meant to supposedly contain the spirit.
It... failed?
The Cultists argue. Rage. The are too busy bickering to look around them. But you? You notice the breeze. Cool. Cooler then it had been just a moment before. And the quality of the light has changed. As... as though...
The stars...
Have...
Gotten?
Bri..ght..er?
He sees you. Eyes like moons. Glowing vast and an impossible green. An aurora borealis of white drifts around him. Stars, freckles upon his face. He is at once both transparent and perfectly solid. There and not there. Galaxies and nebula. Things beyond your comprehension.
Contained?
How could ANY man made circle EVER contain THAT? Something so VAST? So POWERFUL? Greater then planets and possibly older then time? You... you feel so small.
And it can see you.
Why have you called? Those eyes ask. For what reason did you disturb them? You are terrified. These idiots have dragged a God from their work for petty things, and unless you can talk and talk FAST? All of humanity might pay for that.
Just? Enough mortal sized Gods! Let them be LARGE you cowards! Make a magic user CRY today! A few world leaders soil themselves! Let Danny just Be Vibin in Space!
(Let Constantine Smash.)
(JOHN!)
(WHAT?! He's an ambitious man! Get of his back will you? A man can dream!)
@hypewinter @nerdpoe @hdgnj @the-witchhunter @dcxdpdabbles @lolottes @mutable-manifestation
I had an epiphany
2/3
Dcxdp trope twist
So, maybe taking Pariah’s crown was a bad idea, but he had meant it as a “rubbing salt in the wound” thing, not a “I want your power” thing. Now, he had been having trouble with his abilities being too strong and unpredictable along with new ones developing.
Luckily, his parents thought he was a meta. Unluckily, they were sending him to his great aunt and great uncle’s farm to learn how to control it. Apparently their son had had similar issues?
All Danny could hope was that he didn’t accidentally destroy the Kent’s farm.
So! For the first few weeks after his accident, whenever Danny would try to help the people of Amity Park, he would be treated as a Villain.
No matter if he had just defeated the Big Bad of the Week or saved a Cat from a tree, everybody in town only saw him as a Monster or Villain to he feared and hunted down. Danny was really getting sick of trying to get them on his side, until Sam made a suggestion.
"Why not just...play into it?" She said, barely looking up from painting her nails.
It was just an offhand suggestion, but it stuck with Danny. Why shouldn't he lean into it? The people of Amity Park already saw Ghosts as Evil, and they already assumed he was in cahoots with the Ghosts attacking the town. Why shouldn't he just...play into it?
So he does just that.
From that day on, whenever Phantom was spotted he would dramatically monologue about his Evil Plans, or claim that another Rogues attack on the City was his own act of terror.
Box Ghost destroys the towns Warehouses? It was on his orders.
Ember mind controls masses of Teenagers? All part of his Plans somehow.
Every Adult in Town is kidnapped by Young Blood? Danny gave them over to a friend as a Gift.
He crafts an identity for himself as the most Vile and Horrible Ghost that has ever attacked the City, using his own infamy to cement his legend even more firmly. The town only sees a Monsterous Villain, who has eveded capture near effortlessly for months on end, who constantly attacks their City and gets away with it.
Of course he still needs an excuse for how his plans keep getting stopped, and he gets it when his girlfriend Valerie becomes the Red Huntress. Before that, he just claimed infighting or the Fentons getting lucky, but Valerie becoming the Town's Hero meant he had a plausible excuse for how he kept getting "Foiled".
Val was suspicious, because she was not as involved as Phantom painted her to be, but in the end she had no proof of him faking his defeats. And she couldn't come up with any explanations for why he would do that in the first place. I mean, who would fake being a Supervillain? It had to he something else.
This did come back to bite him a while later, when the Justice League decided that enough was enough, and dispatched Justice League Dark to recruit Red Huntress and help Deal with him.
Coincidentally, that was the same day Pariah Dark attacked the Mortal Realm and sucked Amity Park into the Ghost Zone.
And honestly? Danny had spent over a Year proclaiming himself as a Villain who commanded Ghosts to attack the Human Realm, and he had heard about the Right of Conquest being Absolute in the Ghost Zone, so why not make it official? Why not overthrow the Ghost King, become the Ghost King, and cement his identity as a Villain while also forbidding Ghosts from entering the Human Realm without his permission?
He may have gotten a bit carried away and forgotten that the Villain thing was a disguise...but hey! He was still preventing Ghost Attacks! ...mostly. That's got to count for something right?
He may have let the Bit run a bit too far...
...
Check the tags for more context!