moss covered thoughts

yet another wip of Dark Danny that idk how to finish :D

he so cool

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[Image ID: A very confused, and slightly horrified looking Danny Phantom holds the Little Baby Man version of himself that is hugging his hand and purring. /. End ID]

So here's a fun thought: Consider a situation in which LBM is NOT, in fact, a tiny Danny, but a mimic blob ghost that has adopted his image as a form of Batesian self defense. Then imagine Danny's reaction to seeing some fucked up little uncanny valley cat version of himself with zero warning or context.

If its mimicry, that implies that other strong ghosts also have blob mimics. Danny is freaking out about this weird blob, takes it to frostbite, who just congratulates danny for achieving a perfectly normal milestone for a ghost - being strong enough to be mimicked by a blob.

Then danny freaks out about how this is definitely not a good thing, he absolutely cannot have blobs wandering amity. Angst potential of bad fenton parents, could you imagine how dissecting a blob mimicking phantom would reinforce their theories, or how awful it would be for danny himself to witness it? Conversely, humor potential with good fenton parents who insist on collecting every phantom-mimic they encounter until theres an army of them living in fentonworks.

I propose a functional pathway that causes this to happen: ghosts are made out of ectoplasm, and common headcanon that ectoplasm is made of and 'programmed' by emotions. The stronger the ghost, the stronger the imprint they leave on the surrounding ambient, 'claiming' the area as their haunt/lair/etc. 'Patrolling' the territory also helps reinforce this.

Danny regularly patrols amity, and semi-regularly visits allies in the zone. If we think of 'claimed ecto' like a lingering smell, amity park and the fenton portal are drenched in phantom's, as well as decently-upkept paths from the fenton portal to each of danny's allies.

Enter the blobs, who have no strong self-identity and probably very limited intelligence. Perhaps there isnt even any intelligence at all and theyre literally just amorphic blobs of goo. They come across the programmed ambient ecto of a stronger ghost and, if its strong enough, it causes a cascade change over the blob, imparting the traces of lingering programming onto it. This isnt just visual - the ghost's actual ectosignature is involved, and the blob will mimic it the best it can from the ambient sample it just absorbed. This is good for the blob, as other ghosts will struggle to differentiate the blob from the original ghost. It wouldnt be successful mimicry otherwise.

With this function, we can infer a few things. First, lets assume that the blobs are sapient enough to have a self-preservation instinct. They dont even have to start out with this as it could come prepackaged with the programming they absorbed. Once a blob has encountered an ambient ecto-signature strong enough to change them, they are incentivized to remain within the territory of the signature they are now mimicking. That incentivization is further strengthened by the 'programming' left behind by the other ghost, especially if we're headcononing that ghosts are naturally territorial. The blob's presence is also beneficial to the host ghost because the blob's wandering about the territory also helps maintain the ecto-signature in the ambient ecto, making the host appear much more present and vigilant in their territory from the perspective of an outside ghost wandering in.

Now lets add that wandering ghost, who may have entered the territory for a number of reasons, from just traveling through to making a deliberate challenge for territory. If the wandering ghost is stronger than the host ghost, they have a chance at turning the blob. There will probably be some resistance no matter what, as the self-preservation programming of the ecto will create some degree of resistance to outside influences. But ultimately, we've created a scenario where blobs naturally congregate in the territories of the strongest ghosts over time.

In order to create a stable ecosystem of blob migration, there needs to be contrary forces countering this instinct. Id imagine a lot of smaller things add up:

1. Blobs naturally wander, even with instinct keeping them in the mimicked territory, sometimes they still get lost.

2. Outside forces of random chance and environment disorient and knock the blob out of a territory

3. While blobs resist changing while in a mimicked territory, when outside any territory, its best to lose that mimic as fast as possible, as entering a new territory with the old signature can be misinterpreted as aggressive behavior of the mimicked ghost and attract danger to the blob (especially if the defending ghost is the 'attack first, investigate later' type, which is generally more common for weaker ghosts that depend on an element of surprise to punch above their weight class)

4. Ghosts can deliberately abduct blobs from the borders of other territories, bring them home, and induce them to turn for the reasons stated above. Stealing from larger territories with higher populations of blobs is easier than stealing the singular micro-managed blob of a weaker ghost, creating a counterbalance to the strongest and largest territories that scales with them.

5. Blobs can be given and gifted to allies as a point of culture, something akin to the cat distribution system. Stronger ghosts can 'bless' weaker ghosts with a boon of several blobs, for example. Neighbors can trade blobs with developed behaviors that clash with the way they run their territory but would work better for their neighbor. (Ie, the more wandery blob goes to the neighbor with a more enclosed territory, and the more aggressive blob goes to the neighbor with fewer natural boundaries and higher risk of aggressive claims against them.)

So, in no particular order:

________

You will be remembered as a hero. ________

Rocky chose a hand to match Grace's scar!

step two in introducing your pets humans

bonus: