A school of ghost fish sounds really cool

My nine-year-old neighbor: *crashes mom’s car into my yard*

In my AP Art class, there was a girl who was just starting to experiment with mixed media. At this point she was still playing around, trying to decide what direction she wanted to go with her portfolio. So one critique day, she brought in an abstract canvas with some rhinestone highlights and painted and real peacock feathers. She loved sparkles and peacock feathers so she thought she’d try introducing them a *little*. And after everyone had given some input, the teacher gave her his advice, VERY roughly paraphrased here:

“So here’s the thing… I do not like this style. These are just elements that do not speak to me personally, but I see that you like them, and you’re doing interesting things with them.

“My biggest critique is, I only merely *dislike* this piece. I want you to make me HATE it. Go crazy with the things that you like. Don’t hold back trying to make it palatable to people like me. Because I am NEVER going to like it. And if the audience does not like it, it should drive them crazy seeing how much YOU love it.”

Her portfolio was chock full of neon colors and glitter and rhinestones and splashes of peacock feathers and it was a delight. Our teacher despised every piece lol, but she got great marks and I think even won some awards. And more importantly, she was happy and proud of the results. Because she didn’t limit herself by trying to appeal to people who were never going to enjoy what she enjoyed.

Thank you @athenasdragon

first of all i gotta say that it's not actually canon that he's from Illinois. the show is just "generic American small city" for his hometown and the fandom took context cues from other parts of the show and decided "Fuck it Illinois makes sense" and just kept that.

But I guarantee you, nothing about the show makes sense when you look at it too closely so take everything with a grain of salt. Yes I'm looking at you, Timeline.

the teenager in question is also kind of a ghost, hence part of the reason why the other ghosts are picking fights with him. He arguably picks a bunch of the fights himself.

it's not just the entirety of the Ghost Zone that get put into the antagonist role in the show either. Danny's other antagonists include:

A literal billionaire (who is also a ghost) (and gets himself elected mayor)

his parents (literally ghost hunters. who also fight the ghosts.)

a circus ringmaster with mind control and reality bending artifacts

Classmates at school who bully Danny

the closest thing we get to an adult who is on Danny's side is Mr. Lancer, who also supports the school bullies

the ghost who impersonated a school counselor and was literally in the role of Danny's therapist for a bit that one episode

A U.S. government agency

a girl he dates was actually being controlled by a dragon ghost and didn't actually want to date him. Have fun with that fallout kid.

the girl he dates for a bit who *wanted* to date him also shows up in costume to shoot him on sight.

his clone shows up and is supposed to be his enemy. he adopts her instead. yes those pronouns are all correct.

she's not really an antagonist but one of his best friends arguably kills him twice. once very much on purpose.

his other best friend and whatever happened in King Tuck.

like it's not enough that this show puts Danny (and friends) against the regular ghosts and the God-Like Being level ghosts and the literal Ghost Tyrant King guy

he can't even catch a break at home either

kid's literally surrounded by people deliberately or accidentally making his life harder, there are no safe Adults, there are barely any safe friends, and he is fourteen and half dead.

and his parents canonically want to rip his alter-ego apart "molecule by molecule" i am not kidding with that one.

Like they made us a sandbox of a Nickelodeon cartoon and just half assed it by grabbing a bunch of two-by-fours, nailing them together... and then sticking them on the beach.

and then people still get mad when the fandom shows up to build sandcastles and dig to china. Yeah, we know they didn't make it That Deep on purpose.

He's never safe.

Home, school, the zone, hanging out with friends, walking down the street, in anotger state; there is nowhere for Danny to go and be safe.

Most ghosts he's met (pretty sure everyone but Frostbite and Pandora), his parents, his friends, Vlad, Jazz; there is almost no one who has not at least once been his enemy.

Can you imagine living like that? At any moment of any day, anywhere he is anyone; even one or both of his best friends, his sister, his mom and dad; anyone could turn around and suddenly become someone he has to fight.

No, wait, hold on. There's a thought.

Y'know that common thing where we make Danny have a slower heart rate because ghost boi?

So, that's supposed to be true. As a halfa he should have a steady heart rate around 20bpm in both forms. And originally that was true after his body settled into its new healthy after the accident. But by the time anyone team Phantom thinks to actually check that stuff just in case, Danny is already Stressed™ 24/7, so they inaccurately judge his baselines to be in perfectly normal human ranges. Like, 70bpm at rest and 120 immediately after ghost fights.

Me before I came out, when I did pageants and modeling.

This was me the day of my junior prom. The dress weighed around 20 lbs, was the first one I tried on, and my makeup was done by someone who still thought brown lip liner looked good on white people. I spent the entire day being photographed and generally hating how I looked and wishing I could figure out why, when everything was technically perfect.

Came out in 2016, here's nine years of transformation (in reverse order, sorry)

Turns out I'm neither a Normal Guy nor a woman, but a much weirder type of faggy masc thing.

In my lifestyle lolita egg era. Somehow getting to dress like a princess gave me the will to get up in the morning

granted being a big ol goth doesn't really fit the bill of "socially acceptable heterosexual femininity" but i was HYPER feminine when i was closeted, especially in the years between when i FIRST tried to come out (age 16 - around the time of those first photos) and when i actually made the jump (age 19 - about a year after the last photo)

you can tell in that second to last photo i literally got a tattoo that said "MAD GIRL" which was an exercise in many things, including abstract self-harm, a visual reminder that i had given up on myself, and wildly underestimating the number of dudes who would misread it as BAD GIRL and take that as a cue to say gross shit to me while i was at work

anyway never kill yourself

haha yeah 🫣

consciously dipped my toes into the gender fuckery pool at around 15/16 but I was pentecostal at the time and well. took them out real quick

i tried very very hard to be “femme” for a LONG time but during covid lockdowns I didn’t have to perform for anyone and I slowly started to let it all go and now I’m a silly little man 😌

tried SO HARD to be feminine and dress in pinks and flowy materials and keep my hair long and evidently it did not work (was ~17 in these)

vs now at 22 and still pre-everything but im my most authentic self and it feels great