Gold Ground 4

Last one for ectober this year! The prompt was Harvest.

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“More like humans… how?” asked Danny.  

“A number of ways,” said Dora.  “Powers become more difficult to use for most, seeming to disappear entirely in some cases.  Most ghosts become more humanoid, or more draconic, depending on their personal tendencies, even if they do not become draconic outright.  And, again, there is the need for food, and the importance of the harvest.  When ghosts need to eat, our societies look more like those of humans.”

Ancestral Chapter 37

AO3 is down, so it's just on here for now! For ectober day 30: Dead Air!

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So, Danny didn’t float behind Matthew and Joanna.  He was invisible.  They couldn’t see him.  Why would he float behind them, when he could float in front of them?  Floating in front of them was much superior, in terms of being able to protect them.  

Ancestral chapter 36

For Ectober day 29: Polaroid.

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Danny wasn’t as familiar with the structure of Andyr as he’d like.  

“What’s the lower hall?” he asked.

At the same time, Matthew, alarmed, asked, “Which lower hall?”

The rest of the cousins tried to explain all at once.  This didn’t help.  

Ysylt clapped her hands together, summoning a burst of light, then gestured to Gwensyvyr.  

“Thank you,” said Gwensyvyr.  Then, “We should keep moving.”

Anti-Creep Stick

A drabble for Ectober day 28: Anti-Creep Stick

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Sam looked from the bat, to Jazz, to the ghost on the ground with a huge dent in its head, then back to the bat. “I thought that it was just a bat with the name ‘Fenton’ on it.”  The name wasn’t even applied well - it was on a peeling, hard to read sticker.  

“Yeah!” said Jazz, panting (beating the crap out of someone was hard work).  “And the name Fenton means something, damn it!  If I live in a world where magic’s real, I can use it to hit you with a bat!”

Slowly, Sam sidled away from Jazz.  

Gold Ground chapter 3

Written for Ectober week day 28: caramel apple!

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Danny didn’t know his way around the castle.  Obviously.  Being an ally of Queen Dora didn’t magically tell him how to get around her house.  Castle.  Keep?  Whatever.  Danny didn’t know castle terminology, so sue him.  He didn’t live in one.  

Although, if he did, maybe he wouldn’t have felt so lost.  

Gold Ground chapter 2

For Ectober day 26: Radiation!

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“To be honest, and as much as it pains me to admit it,” said Frostbite, after Danny continued to question him and circled back to the present issue, “our tribe's record-keeping tends to suffer in gold ages.  Draconic territorial needs - or the needs of other large beasts that occasionally arise - force us to scatter.”

“So, you usually don't become knights or… princes…?”

“The more accepted term is princeling, I believe, to account for all genders.  And not to my knowledge, even when such things are a possibility.  Oh, we all maintain friendly relations, but certain activities require greater unity of purpose - or greater foresight - than is generally expressed at such times.”

Danny hummed in what he hoped was an understanding sort of way.  Frostbite sounded sort of embarrassed.  

Sort of! It would actually be rather difficult to get something that looked like a monotheistic god, since the Ghost Zone is infinite. However, individual areas might form up around a local supreme ruler, or the pressures of the given age might cause ghosts to start to serve a personification of the Zone or something similar. 'Pantheons' would be much more common, but they'd generally form out of existing powerful or important ghosts. Also, even in a heavenly aesthetic, there's nothing that automatically makes the ghosts objects of worship. Other stuff has to happen.

For Tucker, he wouldn't have any special powers even in a more Egyptian-themed age-- But Duulaman might, and the influence of his version of Egypt might increase.

Thanks for reading!

Gold Ground chapter 1

Written for Day 24: Here There Be Dragons. This is part of the 'Painting in Different Colors' series. The color is gold.

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Danny noticed the first flake of gold during a lesson with Frostbite.  The older ghost was teaching him how to use his ice powers more effectively, both in combat and outside of it.  They were working outside of the village, because most of the other yetis still didn’t want to be around while Danny was practicing, because of the freezing incident.  Incidents.  Just a few– Well, there were more than a few.  

Moving on.  

pyre and ice

100 words from an AU where Danny got his ice powers during Infinite Realms. Written for Ectoberhaunt 2025 Day 23: Pyre.

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“I thought you said no one was burned at the stake during the Salem witch trials!” said Danny, trying to get to Sam through the blood blossoms.  Tucker had eaten the blood blossoms from the circle Vlad had shoved Danny into, but now he was busy vomiting.  

“Well!” shouted Sam, struggling against the ropes holding her to the stake.  Fire licked at her toes.  “There’s a first time for everything, isn’t there?!”

Danny felt something cold prick at his heart, but didn’t notice the ice creep outward from his footsteps.

Sam was right.  There was a first time for everything.  

Barbarian

Ficlet for Ectoberhaunt 2025 day 21: Barbarian

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The saying went: when in Rome, do as Romans do.  

Danny would’ve liked to do that.  Unfortunately, doing as Romans did required knowing what Romans did.  Which Danny… didn’t.  Danny also didn’t speak Roman.  Or Latin.  Ancient Romans spoke Latin, so this was Latin.  Probably.  Unless this wasn’t Rome.  Which would be par for the course for this trip.  

“…tracta quo ceteros barbaros,” said the man wearing a fancier robe and jewelry.  

Danny perked up, straining against the wooden manacles.  That last bit was almost recognizable.  

The armored man turned towards Danny, drawing his sword.Finally.  A language he understood. 

Ancestral 35

Written for Ectoberhaunt 2025 day 20: Fame and Glory!

You can read the whole fic here.

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Moving through solid earth and stone was different than stepping through a wall.  When Danny went through a wall he was only rarely completely inside them, and even when he was, the space between walls wasn’t actually solid.  They were full of pockets of air, empty spaces for insulation and wiring.  Danny could tell by feel where he overlapped something, could feel its density, its shape, whether it was alive, or dead, or never alive at all.  Those things helped him orient himself.

Ancestral Chapter 34

Written for Ectoberhaunt 2025 Day 17: Off the Rails

You can read the whole fic here.

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“Maybe we can convince her to let us go,” said Jazz as she climbed back down the walls to stand more firmly on the stairs.  From her tone of voice and the expression on her face, she didn’t really believe that was an option.  “Reason with her.”

“I think we’ve done all the convincing we can, when it comes to Maddie,” said Iris, skeptically.  “She’s really against you guys having anything to do with this.”

Seascape Chapter 2

Written for Ectoberhaunt Day 16: Siren and Selkie

You can read the whole fic here.

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“So, you're going to turn into a mermaid–”

“Merperson,” interjected Danny, firmly. 

“--or a… selkie?  A siren?”  Tucker stepped away from the Fenton Firing Range and capped his laser lipstick.  

“Most of the time, those are all very different things,” said Sam.  She still joined Tucker in looking expectantly at Danny, ignoring the fact that it was her turn to try and blow up a target dummy with Jack Fenton’s face on it.  

Retrospective: Fright Knight

“Well!  That was stupid,” said Sam.  

“I hate rhymes,” said Danny.  “I’ve decided.”

“You hate rhymes,” repeated Sam.  “There isn’t anything or anyone you hate more right now?  Are you sure?”

“If I think about it too hard, I’ll throw up, so, yeah.  All my hate is on rhymes.”

“I don’t know what you're so upset about,” said Tucker.  “You eat worse stuff all the time.”

Both Danny and Sam stopped dead on the sidewalk.  It took Tucker a second to notice and slow down.

“Listen,” said Sam, “I know you don’t like my food, but nothing I've given either of you is worse than Dash's underwear.”

“Agree to disagree, Sam, but I was talking about Danny's milkshakes.”

“Oh my gosh, can you leave off my milkshakes?  They're normal.”

“Are they, though?” asked Sam, making a face. 

Danny stared at her.  “Are you saying you think they’re worse than Dash’s literal underwear?”

“Yeah, no.  The underwear is definitely worse.  I still can’t believe you actually ate them.”  She paused, leaning back suspiciously so she could squint down her nose at him.  “Did you actually eat them?”

“Well,” said Danny, rocking back on his heels, “no.”

“I knew it,” said Tucker.  “Even someone with your tastebuds would have to object to something like that.”

“I don’t want to hear that from someone who’s eaten raw meat in front of me.”

“Excuse you, steak tartare is a classic carnivore delight.  And it’s better than being the guy who ate raw underwear in front of the whole school.”

“Faked eating raw underwear,” said Sam.  “What did you do with it, anyway?”

Danny shrugged.  “I phased it through me and into the bench.”

“Huh,” said Tucker.  “That’s it?”

“I mean, it worked?” said Danny.  “I didn’t have time to come up with anything complicated.”

“Do you think that the bits will stay in there forever, or fall out at some point?” asked Tucker.  

“I have no idea.”

stitches

Written for Ectoberhaunt 2025 day 15: Needle

This fic contains some description of injuries, stitches (done very incorrectly), and soft body horror.

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When Danny was hurt, he usually went to Sam, or Tucker, or, if he was in the Ghost Zone, to Frostbite.  But, this time, he was closer to Long Now.  It was natural for him to go there, first.  Even if Clockwork couldn’t help with his injuries, he could probably help Danny get to the Far Frozen with one of his portals.  

Also, Danny wasn’t sure he could get to the Far Frozen with his current injuries.  He looked behind him, and saw the long trail of lurid green ectoplasm falling away behind him, suspended in the air and bright against the darker green sky.  

Hopefully Clockwork wasn’t too picky regarding the cleanliness of his floor.  

dead silence

A little drabble for Day 13 of Ectoberhaunt.

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Earth was never silent.  Everywhere on Earth, there was life, and life was movement.  With every breath, every motion, every blooming flower, crawling but, or thought-to-be-silent own swooping from above, there was vibration.  On air or in soil or across the surface of stone, there it was.  Even the storms in the upper air or the movement of molten stone deep below.  Only in vacuum was there silence.  

The Ghost Zone was different.  Ectoplasm resisted, did not disperse, did not deliver.  No waves propagated through its substance except the eerie song of ectosignatures.  

It was like space.  

Danny loved it.  

Restrospective: 13

23 days until Fair Game

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Jazz stood in the bathroom, breathing heavily, trying not to vomit in the sink.  It wasn’t the ectoplasm purgatives her parents had given her earlier that was making her sick.  It wasn’t only the ectoplasm purgatives making her sick, anyway.  She could still barely believe she’d let them dose her.  None of that stuff was FDA approved!

No.  She was having a reaction, delayed but acute, to what had almost happened to her.  

Thank God for Danny.  Thank god for her dad.  She obviously hadn’t been in her right mind for… how long had it been?  It had felt like only a few days, but what if it was longer?  What had that ghost been doing to her, what had it made her do in that time, while she was trying to slip between Jazz’s ribs like a knife and live there?

And she’d just brushed Danny off, too.  Like he really was just a brat and not trying to warn her about the ghost who was literally using her to replace his girlfriend.  

She splashed water on her face, hoping it would help her think, or at least refresh her enough that she wouldn’t throw up.  

She could have died today.  The feeling was shaking through her bones.  She could have disappeared.  

The only one who would know anything about the truth about what had actually happened, would be Danny, and he wouldn’t tell anyone anything, even if it had almost killed him on more than one occasion.  Had maybe actually killed him.  

Jazz was assuming her brother was still alive, that he’d just gotten… abilities.  Somehow.  But if she was to apply Occam’s Razor, the easiest explanation for Danny and Phantom and Danny being Phantom was that Danny was dead.  

She swallowed, bile rising in her throat again.  

She could have died.  

But she didn’t.  She was here, alive, breathing, sick in the bathroom.  

She was alive.