Celestial Lurker

If Amity Park has one rule for survival, it's commit to the bit. Whose bit?

Everyone's.

You go to Ember's concerts even though there's a better than even chance of being hypnotized. When Technus turns up you obligingly shriek about how terrifying unfeeling machines are. If Boxy's around, you put up a spirited but ultimately futile fight to protect your precious, valuable boxes.

You confirm it when your neighbor tells the GIW that the ghost went thataway, officer. Phantom says the weird eye-ghosts that are stalking him are delusional and he is not an authority figure of any kind, you agree that he'd be the one to know best. The Fentons are ranting about their latest weapons, you oooh and ahhh over their brilliant creation.

Your eyes glow because of special effect contacts you're testing, anyone who knows you can testify to that.

Don't run, don't break the rules, and heaven help you if a ghost decides you've disrespected their obsession. It doesn't matter how much time passes, they might not chase you, but they will remember the insult.

Ghosts are never more dangerous than when their obsession is disrupted. So smile and nod, or shriek and cower, and play the role you're cast in. You'll get out alright.

**

Gotham natives have a word for people who play along with a rogue's plan instead of getting out at the first available opportunity: morons. The closer you are to a rogue, the greater the danger, and none of them will spare you just because you decided to 'see where this was going'.

Danny zips around the massive dark aquarium with a net carefully snatching up all sorts of colourful marine life before going up and gently depositing them in smaller tanks that Sam prepared.

"You do realise this is extremely illegal, right?"

"Taking these poor endangered fish from their homes is extremely illegal. We're righting a wrong here Danny, and you still owe me one"

Danny sighs and goes back down but keeps talking.

"I just don't want to be accused of stealing again"

"Tucker got us covered, we'll be fine. You just keep fishing Danny, I think we're almost done. "

Danny carefully goes through the dark depths of the aquarium again and it's then that he sees a much bigger shape dart away from him.

Sam said this entire thing was filled with poached endangered marine wildlife so everything in it needs to be retrieved. Aka, Danny goes in pursuit.

It takes some doing but eventually Danny gets a hold of it and it's worryingly little girl shaped.

He holds the little girl in front of him and just kinda looks for a second at this squirmy child that can apparently breathe underwater.

"Sam! Sam, holy Fffffffuudge"

"What!? What??"

"There is a baby in the aquarium!" He holds up the squealing little red head who has apparently decided what's happening now is funny actually.

"A baby!?"

"In the aquarium!" He points down at the water.

"Why is there a baby in the aquarium!!?"

"How am I supposed to know?! Maybe these weirdos accidentally fished up one of Aquaman's people?"

"Oh my god, we need to bring her back!"

"How the ff-frick-" the little girl giggles and goes, "Fik!" Making Danny wince,  "-are we supposed to do that, I don't know where Atlantis is at Sam"

"Call the justice league?"

"Didn't they disband again not too long ago?"

"... shit, you're right"

Danny rushes to cover the little girls ears while hissing, "language" and Sam slaps a hand over her mouth.

"Sorry..."

Danny floats in a circle above the water bouncing the child who seems fascinated with his glowing white hair, "Okay, okay, here's an idea. Jazz has her drivers license. We'll do an impromptu road trip to the east coast"

"... yeah, sounds good, let's go"

Sam holds the little girl as Danny stacks up all the tanks filled with fish and they quickly leave the premises.

"Can I just say I love you hair little miss, Naturally dark red? if only I was that lucky."

The now empty tank is surrounded by a gaggle of awkwardly shifting henchmen.

The gang has learned what a one year old eats, and how to change diapers.

They've also learned that there are a bunch of crazies out there that want  to steal a baby atlantean.

By now Jazz has fought a guy who called himself Black Manta in the new and improved Fenton exoskeleton. That battle involved a lot of lazers going in various directions.

"I thought Aquaman was an idiot to entrust her protection to a group of teenagers. But I'm starting to see his logic. You lot prepare yourselves, next time it won't be so easy"

And he'd been gone before they could correct his assumptions.

Then there was the swamp witch that Sam Out magicked with her own plant abilities.

"Curse you children, that royal blood will be mine!"

"Is she talking about me?"

"I really doubt it Tuck..."

Now they've finally reached the east coast and some big crustacean looking guy got sand guardianed by Tucker. Aka he's stuck up to his neck in the sand of the beach.

"You're only delaying the inevitable! Ocean master will have the child!"

The group just looks at him rather annoyed. 

Great, that means some other asshole is going to show up any moment now.

…

“Anyone any ideas about how we’re gonna find a legendary underwater city to bring the little girl back to her parents?” Sam asks while checking over the fish tanks in the back of their vehicle.

“This would have been so much easier if we could contact Aquaman directly somehow… do they have wifi underwater?” Tucker frowns at his PDA, “do they need social media down there?”

“Careful Tuck, I’ve read that Aquaman gets agitated at those kinds of questions,” Danny carefully lets the little girl play with the sand, making sure not to take his eyes off her after Jazz harshly told him to make sure to not let her eat any of it.

“Babies will put anything in their mouths Danny, be careful!”

Jazz reappears after locking the vehicle down, that thing isn’t going anywhere, not with the anti-ghost defenses active. they are also quite good against car robbers.

“So no brilliant ideas on how to get her back to her parents just yet?”

“It’s really annoying how we keep coming across or getting tracked down by weirdo’s and we still have no idea how to reach her parents…”

Jazz holds her hands out to Danny who hands the girl over to his sister.

“Okay, in that case-”Starts Sam, “we’ll just load all these fish onto the Manson family yacht that’s docked a little over there, and we focus on getting the fish home first.”

“Maybe a helpful atlantean will come to see what we’re doing and we can ask for directions.”

The group agrees to this plan of action and gets to work.

Danny made another ice ball. It was the only thing that was currently stopping the child from crying. She was ill, with something, likely a human thing too, but they didn't know what it was, and Frostbite hadn't been able to get them quick results, they had tried letting ehr slash around, keeping her diet well roudned.

but she was sick, and there was no getting around that.

so hey started shift, Jazz's singing lasted abotu an hour before she got fussy again, Sam and Tucker had, combined, lasted all fo twenty minutes.

Danny was still gong strong at three hours.

"Can't we just call the Justice League?" he muttered, watching their charge suck on the mini globe of ice.

________________________________________________ "My king, my queen!" "Aqualad, why did you call us?" "I believe we may have information on the whereabouts of the princess." that caught their attention.

"Where?" Mera hissed.

"Well, there is satalite footage of Black Manta fighting some-sort of exo-suit in this area of the east coast." he stood in fornt of a screen manned by Red-Robin, who was reveiwing footage while looking utterly exhausted,Authur didn't undersatnd how Bruce could work his childrne this hard, or place expectation on them that made them work this hard, but he wasn't one to judge. Aqualad continued" we managed to find a part of the footage where the vehicle is in veiw. Red's been tracking it-" "Somewhere on North Carolina's coast."

"...they are somewhere in North Carolina."

"thank you Red Robin." "no prob."

"Are we there yet?" Danny said already regretting speaking. He was still healing from the recent fight against the Ocean man guy combined with his extended use of his powers and he was drained.

"We should go south!" Sam protested cradling the now sleeping atlantian in her arms. "Are you serious Gotham is just a few states away!" Tucker said on his new mobile phone after his PDA died on him again.

This was going on for three hours now after the Mason yacht was blown up. Jazz wasn't much help and the child's sickness was getting worse. Heck they didn't have the money to bring her to the hospital and what would they say? 'Hey we found Aquamans child and the child is sick and we don't know what to do?' Yeah not the best option.

"Ok!" Danny said breaking the tension and most likely a rib. "Ok we are all currently in... very deep horse dung right now but we can't fight like this. Yes there are people after us. Yes we aren't at Atlantis. Yes we aren't that good at taking care of kids but we can't just allow all of that to cloud our reasoning."

Sam and Tucker calming down just looked defeated. Out of all of them Danny somehow suffered the most damage from the most recent fight. And Danny as of most days like these was right. The air once filled anger seemed almost depressing.

Sighing Danny turns to Tucker. "What's the lastest news story?" Tucker closes the map and opens up the news app. "Let's see uh lot's of stories... Uh oh. oh crap-" "Language." Danny hissed. "Sorry, but the news about the Justice League disbandment pretty old news appearently also apparently temporary... And looks like our digital foot print wasn't very discreet." "What do you mean 'temporary'? "

-------------------------------

Arthur was at his wits end how was four teens and a baby that hard to locate? He knew that surface searching wasn't like under water searching, his people had no real jurisdiction on land. But the Justice League had all hands on deck for this thing. And they were still spread thin as it is.

"I went to the last place the 5 were seen." Aqualad said coming in exhausted. "The local residents testimonies should help with finding her. " "Put... put it on screen."

The data did not lie the 5 were heading towards Atlantis just they were constantly getting stopped by villains who were trying to get his daughter.

"The data suggests they're heading south." Red Robin says sipping on his latest cappuccino. "No, they are going north." Aquaman says flatly. "He's right the latest finding suggests-" Aqualad says pulling a photo on screen. "They tried just GOING to Atlantis. But there's a destroyed boat in their way." "Not the right time for jokes dude."

---------------------

"Dude what flight goes to Atlantis?" Danny asks "Malaysia flight 370 if I remember correctly. " Tucker said before Danny smacked him upside the head. "I saw the meme Tuc not funny people died."

Jazz in her ecto suit is surrounded by the ones she's taken out, currently holding up the one in charge, "you better start taking or I'll keep swinging."

She's giving him her best 'I'm disappointed in you' face.

The guy himself however is looking like he's about to throw up any moment now. Probably from all the swinging around she's already done to him.

"I'm simply following orders..."

"That's not good enough." She holds him up a little higher and the guy starts scrabbling at her armor clad arm.

"They say- they said, the one who controls the princess controls the king and the one who controls the king... Its- listen, listen just- please put me down."

Parts of the lake are frozen and even though that makes for a strange sight overall the lake itself now seems deceptively peaceful. That's until about five other men get thrown out of the water and land painfully onto land after which a rather angry looking Danny wades through the water and gradually walks onto the shore. With of course a happily giggling little girl in on his arm.

Tucker turns to him and asks, "What took you so long?"

"She's great at hide and seek, and there was a lot of kicked up muck down there helping her out."

Sam grins, she remembers what a hassle it was to get her out of the aquarium in the first place, "She looks better." Sam notes.

"It might be that Aqualady over here just needs to be in water more..." Danny sheepishly runs a hand through his hair.

"That would explain why we initially found her in the aquarium." Their relaxed musing is interrupted by a shout.

"What are you doing! you traitor! Are you betraying your own kind and actually giving in to this land dweller's demands!?"

"I would like my insides to remain inside!"

The other rogue Atlantean gets up enough to throw some kind of crystal at Jazz. The others react instantly and jump to push her out of the way while she's still holding the other guy. In a flash of light all of them vanish.

"You stupid idiot, now the princess is gone too!"

"Well at least I-"

A sudden rustling is followed by a green bloodhound running out of the bushes, he sniffs the air before saying, "Oh c'mon, You have got to be kidding me..."

Next thing the rogue Atlanteans know several other titans emerge out of the bush, some more elegantly than others. Raven closes her eyes in concentration, "I sense traces of teleportation magic."

"Yeah they were here literally a second ago, the scent I was following just vanished." Gar keeps snuffling around over the ground until he's at the exact spot team Phantom just stood.

"Where are they," growls Tempest while Nightwing has a hand on his chest. Meanwhile Donna and Starfire lift the busted car out of the lake.

"I bet our lord is absolutely losing it by now isn't he," is the only sneering reply he gets though. Dick has to use a lot more force to keep Garth back and he looks over at Donna who is already running their way.

Roy mutters to Gar, "does he want to have his teeth kicked in orrr...?"

Gar shifts into a bear, shrugs, and makes a 'idunno' noise. He'll gladly help Garth with the kicking though.

"I can trace the magic, Tempest." Raven's hands start glowing. And Garth finally let's himself get pushed back by his teammates muttering a soft apology to them that's tinged with frustration.

Dick takes him aside, "Garth I don't want to do this, but if you can't keep your head cool-"

"No, I'm fine, just," he pinches the bridge of his nose, "they were so close, that's all, I'm..." a long exhale.

"Raven is tracing them, we'll know soon. Take a moment, we'll handle these idiots."

Sam glares at the rogue Atlantean (who is sweating bullets while sitting on the ground.) And bounces little Andrina in her arms.

Jazz is a little off to the side calling her parents "Hey mom, dad, uhm.. just wondering, how much pressure can the Fenton ecto-exo-skeleton handle? ... yeah- like water pressure... uhuh, oh okay, hm? Oh, no, just curious you know, no reason. Hmhm... Danny is with his friends right now so he can't come to the phone, sorry. I'll tell him to call you guys back later, yeah. Okay. Love you too bye."

She hangs up and walks to Danny who is busy freezing a layer of impenetrable ice outside of his ecto shield bubble. Right now the bubble is the only thing keeping them from drowning and getting crushed under an ungodly amount of water.

"Mom told me that their trip got extended, so I guess that's something we won't have to worry about for a while longer. You doing okay Danny?"

"Yeah, don't worry, I'm just thinking about how I'm gonna get you guys out of here safely..."

"Well, I'll be fine in the suit apparently, it's made so I can bust ghosts even down in the marina trench." She says mimicking their dad's enthusiasm.

"What."

"Let's not think about it too hard."

Danny pauses anyway and then says, "...Seas' haunted"

Jazz does a fake gasp, "The Flying Dutchman."

"I'll get you Davy Jones!"

Tucker is busy fiddling with his phone in the meantime, "Okay so I'm done trying to triangulate exactly where we are on my phone and... we are very, very deep."

"Yeah no kidding, I could have told you that... but where deep." Sam sets the little girl down who finds the nearest sandy puddle to splash in.

"That's harder to say..." Tucker's phone simply can't get a good signal from any satellite for that kind of stuff what with them being this deep, and he wouldn't be surprised if more magical stuff is messing things up as well. The little girl holds a handful of watery sea sand near Tucker and the water just quickly glides out of it leaving desert dry sand in her hands instead, she giggles.

"Maybe our new friend can shed some light?"

Their 'new friend' would much rather just stay ignored.

His eyes glide over the four teens, fully aware what they are capable of now.

Sea plants are already curling around Sam's ankles unprompted, a good chunk of Jazz's suit is still keeping her protected and he's seen how smoothly and quickly the rest of it can latch back on to her again. Water seems to recoil from Tucker as more and more bone dry sand surrounds him and the impromptu ice dome is handling incredible amounts of water pressure without so much as a groan or a creak.

Yeah he knows he's out of his league here, the princess is incredibly well protected, as expected from their king really. He should have known better, they all should've.

"We're somewhere between the city Tritonis and Xebel."

Suddenly Andy gets fussy and for a moment the guy thinks he's fucked up until Jazz picks the little girl up and takes a little pot of mashed fruit for babies out of her bag.

"So that's not really as helpful as you might think it is, appreciate the clear answers though, Go on," Sam urges. In the background Tucker goes, "so there are like a bunch of cities down here then?" to which Danny responds with a, "Not now Tuck."

"Uh, this was meant as a pick up point, get the princess and-" "No you misunderstand, what I meant-" "Sam I think he's been living his entire life underwater, he might not know the names we use for parts of the oceans." "…hrm, maybe a map would help, Tucker can you pull up a map on your phone?"

Before they can put that plan into action however the icy walls around them rumbles as something latches onto the it, a something that looks like a big mechanical manta ray. It starts drilling into the ice wall with what appears to be some kind of laser powered apparatus.

Now Danny probably could just reinforce his ice and just not let them through… However~

I know it's a massive cliche. But how likely is it that Black Manta's sub would have Aquaman's number saved. For gloating and threatening reasons.

Tuck is fucking about with the buttons after they kicked the bastard out of his own ship. Clicks this one button and suddenly he has an angry Aquaman on the screen. Who stops and stares in confusion. Danny and Sam shove Tucker to one side so they can show off the baby.

Mera and Arthur just slumpmfor a moment. Their baby is ok. They now know exactly what to track to find her and these heroic teens. They can take their baby home soon. Hopefully without any other ambushes happening between the meet up.

DPxDC 1

After escaping a GIW facility the royal council decides that there has to be some active steps made to bring down the laws calling for the genocide of ghosts and other ecto beings.

As a part of this Danny in human form becomes an ambassador to the Realms and starts peace negotiations through the JL. There is a large Gala to celebrate the start of peace talks. Meaning that after years the Anti ecto acts have been revoked and the GIW disbanded.

By now Danny is in his early twenties and actively working towards an aerospace engineering degree. He's on all top programs short list.

Hes also taken on more ghostly attributes since his coronation, giving his human form an ethereal sort of appeal. Same with the other ambassadors ( Sam, Tucker and Jazz). Though they are still mostly human so a little less inhuman traits. Though jazz is Amazon sized and they all have glowing eyes and abilities.

Point is this is the first public appearance of all of the realm ambassadors and many are trying to gain favor, including flirting and attempting to bribe.

The Bats are part of the team undercover as civvies with comms trying to watch what sort of parts may be made. What dangers may be coming if the wrong people make it into the realms good graces.

What they get is a new appreciation for Danny and his bold and cutting remarks.

Lex, approaching: Hello

Danny: Make like your hairline and take a step back... Yeah ALL the way back.

Kon: That's wife material there.

Ras Al Ghul trying to get approval from Danny and other ambassadors for access to the realms.

Danny: You know I died... at least once... and that experience was still preferable to this conversation.

Damian:... I am sadly too young yet to woo this god... Richard I have a task for you.

Dick: Dames I'm a bit busy trying to land a ring on the red headed goddess that just told Vandal Savage, and I quote, ' Your lack of lasting human connection has left you bitter and jaded'.

Damian: Timothy, if you can obtain this proper paramore it might redeem the rest of your poor qualities.

Kon: sorry little guy, we've lost Tim to a braingasm with the tech pharaoh. What was his name? Tucker maybe?

Oliver: Hey, how are you doing?

Danny: You seem nice, but being liminal doesn't mean I want to join your cult.

Oliver: I'm not in a cult

Danny: Your goatee and aura says otherwise.

Oliver, wandering off to find his emotional support girlfriend: Am I... Is the JL a cult? Does the goatee make me look old?

Duke: Dammm! Fae boy is shooting down EVERYONE. Any luck getting close B?

Oracle: NOPE! Every time Brucie gets too close Danny gets this pained look on his face and walks off.

Jason: I can see the light go out from his eyes at B's proximity, it's GLORIOUS!

Oracle: Upside, B is getting along with Sam Manson. Turns out B saved her from a few awful galas when she was younger and she likes WE's environmental conservation efforts. Oh and looks like Danny's on the move, he's headed to the balcony.

Jason: Roy and I are gonna go check on him.

Tim: try talking about something to do with stars. Tucker says he' obsessed with them.

Jason: Are you a shooting star?

Danny: What?...

Jason: Cause you just made my night.

Danny: Pfft

Roy, muffled cause the didn't turn his comm on: Are you wearing space pants?

Danny: What? Um sorta, it's just the zodiac constellations down my-

Roy: cause your ass is outta this world!

Danny & Jason: ... It's a good thing you're/he's cute... pft haha

~ 45 min later~

Oracle: Does anyone have eyes on Danny, Jay or Roy? The GIW rouge team are storming the building and they are the only ones unaccounted for!

Dick, on a private channel: I may have caught them contaminating a cleaning room, but I don't think I'm brave enough to nock on that door.

Oracle: Dick They have a ghost captive and claim that the ambassadors are possessed by evil spirits. They need to get out here now!

Dick: Aw man, but my innocence!

Oracle: RICHARD LLOYD GRAYSON

Dick: FINE. Still not my middle name BTW. This is gonna suck... so many glowing eyes...

~one GIW battle and take down later~

Sam, taking her hair out in the hotel room: so I saw you snuck off with walking ghostnip and his friend. How did that go?

Danny, Mid shower to get anti ecto spray off: I tasted that revenant's soul and it was as delicious as he smells.

Tucker, getting the first aid supplies ready for Danny after having treated Ellie: Is that a euphemism or is he being literal?

Sam: Who knows. But also does it matter?

Tucker: Wait am I the only single Ambassador that isn't getting laid tonight?

Sam: Let Jazz have her fun, we all know she's gonna eat that poor playboy alive.

Tucker: once again literally? Or...?

Sam: Do you really want to know Tuck? She's like team mom...

We'd buy the cheapest basically anti-freeze vodka, and stuff it with sour lollies like the rainbow strips.

We'd also put it in white rum.

A little bit of pineapple juice, and it's perfect!

"Cheryl, I just locked Joker in the deep freezer, what do I do?" The words came out in a rush as he leaned against the hallway, nervously looking at the door as if the clown demon would somehow punch through six inches of metal and survive subzero temperatures.

"Are you fucking with me, Fenton? You know I'm in the middle of a shitshow right now."

He breathed out a little hysterically. "No, I'm not fucking with you. There's a bunch of Joker goons in the base on 7th street. I lured them into the deep freezer—"

"The one without exits?"

"Yeah, uh-huh, the one with no exits. And then I barricaded the door."

There was an audible muffle of words and a few shouts and what sounded like gunshots. Danny was worried his closest coworker got shot until she came back on the line, out of breath.

"Let me get this straight— your first thought when the Joker invaded our headquarters was to lock him in a freezer?"

"No, I had time to think about it." Danny answered absently as he wandered down to the utility room after he turned on the fans to full blast. He wasn't the designated handyman, but a Fenton with a screwdriver could do anything, really.

Just because he was the janitor didn't mean he somehow lost the ability to fix a washer, oil a door, or wire a ghost electric chair. (Yes, that was a real thing, and yes, he did destroy it when he moved out of Amity Park.)

Speaking of moving, he supposes it's important on A. why he was in a Red Hood base (and more broadly, Gotham), B. Why he was a janitor in a Red Hood base, C. why he knew a lieutenant of Red Hood and D. why he had just committed what most would call felony murder.

(Danny would call it self defense, but potato pahtato when you're working for a gang.)

It all came down to one thing. He was good at cleaning. How, Danny "The Slob" Fenton, do such a thing when his room was sometimes more of a bio risk than the literal lab?

It's that Jazz was constantly stressed with school and taking care of him, so a lot of chores often fell to him.

Which meant cleaning up the lab.

Sure, he was no where near happy about this arrangement, but it wasn't like he could tell his sister "Hey! Stop giving me non-contaminated food and clean, woman!"

He was a lazy, deeply sarcastic, a borderline delinquent and a vigilante, but he drew the line at misogyny And, you know, his hotdogs trying to murk him in his stomach.

Ergo, Danny the bitter cleaner of all things radioactive and probably illegal.

The thing with the Fenton lab? There was always something staining the floor. Whether it be blood, ectoplasm, oil, lubrication for bolts, coffee, or an ungodly mix of all of it.

He had to get creative and fast.

Ectoplasm is a bit corrosive and stains like you wouldn't believe, even on metal floor. So he learned to put a bit of his own ectoplasm and mini ice particles so it would actually be able to be scrubbed out of the floor.

Coffee? Oil? Yeah. Cleaning supplies were mixed together like a potion master, toeing the line between dangerous and genius. He was always careful enough not to make chlorine gas or chloroform.

It became an uncanny skill, along with other things. He knew how to get spots out of clothing, how to make homemade detergent and how to get any stain or blemish out of almost any material.

So, when he moved to Gotham to complete his bachelors in chemical engineering at G.C.U., he knew he had to get a job somewhere.

And there was a lot of benefits for custodial staff in his position. Good hours, mostly at night or afternoons when he'd be free. And he knew a lot about cleaning, so why not?

...He hadn't really planned to be scouted as a crime cleaner, though.

Especially for a gang.

But hey! They even gave dental. Red Hood didn't even seem all that bad, drug peddling and murder aside. (Unsurprisingly, he could put a lot of things aside. His parents and well, Phantom, etc.)

If he kept his mouth shut, head down and hands working, he could get a good wage and even better benefits.

Danny, much to his dismay and minor shock, became known as 'the guy who can get stains out of literally everything.' Goons would literally stop and watch him like he was preforming black magic on a crime scenes walls. Even more surprisingly, he got clients and friends from this arrangement.

(Ignoring that one time of the jackets he was randomly given looks like Red Hood's.

No pressure. Just a crime lord who (allegedly) put heads into a duffel bag and mailed it to another crime boss.

He does it anyway, because he has a reputation (and monetary gain) to keep.)

So! Back to the present.

"What the fuck. What the fuck!" Cheryl hissed, whether at him or what he assumed was a gunfight in the background, "Jesus effin' Christ Danny, get out of there."

The halfa swung open the maintenance/janitorial supply room, trying to be nonchalant as his brain spirals and calculates. "I don't think Jesus can fuck Christ. They seem almost identical, y'know?"

Hydrogen sulfide would be the quickest killer, but chloroform could also do it if they didn't have enough acids and sulfur cleaning products.

Decisions, decisions.

Eh. Fuck it.

Danny grabbed some plywood, a box full of tools, his handy dandy cleaning supplies and a big plastic bucket. He would call his shaky hands adrenaline instead of being absolutely terrified that the most notorious mass-murderer in America was a few rooms down.

"Danny, I'm not fuckin' joking. You need to get the hell out of there. That's an order, you brilliant, stupid piece of shit."

He began trotting back to the deep freezer, inhaling through his teeth and scrubbing his face. "Kinky," he said, with levity he sure as hell didn't feel, "Hey, so, I'm gonna have to call you back. Tell me once you get out of your Nerf gun battle."

"Dann—!"

Danny snapped on a respirator, tucked his phone away, and quickly dumped a mixture of chemicals he knew would kill, well, a lot of things.

He'd heard the screaming and gunshots even through the thickest 1950s subzero room known to man. Kind of hard to muffle even that.

But alas. He went partially intangible, hauling his bucket of unicorn love and sparkles, floating up towards the air ducts. With no pizzaz, he dumped the entire thing in the vent system for the room.

The screams immediately rose in volume, and so did the ping of gunshots. Not wasting the time to poke his intangible head in and see how they were doing, he reappeared back in the hallway.

To be a safeguard even for an empty base, he quickly hammered in some plywood to any vents, duct taping the edges.

And for the coup de grâce, he sealed the door with his ectoplasm ice, cranked up the fan and turned the temperature to the lowest it could reasonably go.

"Have fun in there kiddos," he rapped the door, and then got the fuck out of the base. So really, he was following Cheryl's order. So it wasn't insubordination, no siree. Just insurance.

— — —

Danny found himself grabbing a cup of coffee. It wouldn't help his nerves, absolutely not, but at least it gave him something to do with his hands as he called up Cheryl.

"Danny!" She immediately snapped, and he winced.

"Hi, Cheryl," He demurred, hoping to project the most charming air that she could definitely see through. "How're you doing?"

"Don't change the subject, pretty boy."

He held his tongue at a sarcastic comment to that. "Mmmm yeah, so. About that. Would you mind like, not telling the Big Guy about what I did? Keep it like, anonymous act of charity?"

"Why." The word was sharp, almost unquestioning. Danny kept from squeezing his plastic ice coffee cup so hard that it would explode.

Okay. Okay. He had to do this. "I'm a Meta." He explained. "I really— Like, I left something definitely a Meta could do to keep the Joker in the deep freezer room." He really didn't want to become some super soldier or enforcer. He would quite literally rather kill someone before he did that.

It wasn't like there wasn't Metas in Gotham or, hell, some gangs. But he wasn't just Danny the Throw Him At Any Problem Because He Has Powers guy, and he never wanted to be. He just wanted to get his degree, get paid, and get out.

"Too late. I'd already told him that you'd locked Joker in there."

Danny smacked his head against the cafe table, wishing he inhaled more of the chemical weapon in the plastic Home Depot bucket.

"Cheryl," He said, with thinly veiled horror and dread.

Her voice audibly softened. "Danny. It's fine. You know he wouldn't throw you off the Harbor or anything. Hell, he's probably going to be grateful, however uncharacteristic. Everyone 's gonna be. It's the Joker."

Danny gave a truly pathetic groan as the now murderer of the Joker, and wondered if being fed to the fishes was truly a worse fate.

— — —

Jason was smoking on one of the balcony of his many safe houses, holding a picture of the man in front of him.

It'd been a long night and a long morning. Once he had gotten the intel that the Joker was locked in a deep freezer, in one of his goddamn bases, you bet your lucky fucking stars he had gotten there faster than Bruce had gotten to him.

It had taken hours to get into the room from whatever the hell was coated over the door, and dear fuck was it worth the effort.

The Joker was dead. So were many of his closest lieutenants and underlings. Some had died from GSWs, other from chemical burns or inhalation, and the Joker? The best of all.

He'd died slowly and painfully from hypothermia and the chemicals.

It had been a mixture of vindictive, vengeful glee and deep exhaustion as he carefully monitored the cremation process of all of the bodies.

It was over. It was fucking over. His syndicate would be in pieces that Jason would euphorically grind his heel into.

Now all that remained of the infamous, homicidal Joker was a plastic bag of grey ashes.

Jason wasn't sure what he was going to do with it now. Maybe he could flush it down his toilet. It'd clog, but he wouldn't give two shits.

Maybe he could even sent it to Bruce. The thought brought a huff from his lips as he blew out the smoke from his cig, eyes examining the picture from the file.

Cheryl had referred to this Danny as 'pretty boy' on many occasions, and Jason was inclined to agree. A mischievous, almost boyish face of a 22-year-old. The famed Red Hood Janitor, jack-of-trades.

The killer of the most prominent killer of all time.

He couldn't summon as much jealousy of it should have been me, twisting the knife in his gut rather than the feeling of relief. Red Hood had struggled even getting close, whether it was his obscene amount of gang members or it was fucking Batman or one of his little soldiers preventing him from putting a bullet in his head.

No, it wasn't as much anger but interest that he twisted around in is mind, thumb hovering over the face of Danny Fenton.

He'd like to meet this man. Jason was sure that it would be a conversation he wouldn't want to miss.

Still one of the best animations I've ever done. Took just under a week and was equal parts fun and challenging. So here are some process passes! The full version had too many colors so I had to do some compression T0T

(TW: Gore, Blood, not sure if there are other triggers so someone tell me and I’ll edit it)

Danny had always had a deep kernel of belief that his parents would accept him as Phantom. However that kernel was quite deep and covered by anxiety and paranoia. After all, they even sometimes worked with ghosts when the time came for it! He had even tried to tell them more than once, though his nervousness and the constant interruptions meant he hadn’t managed that yet.

So when his parents declared they were going to Gotham because of ghost rumors, Danny was dragged along and disgruntled because Gotham, while have higher ecto levels, was no where near enough to hide his ecto-signature when in ghost form.

Of course, nothing could have prepared him for what would happen 3 days into their stay. A fuzzy thought tickled the back of his mind as he stared in shock. ‘Did I really believe that they would change? Or was I just in denial?’

The sirens were blaring. The situation was quickly escalating into an all-hands-on-deck emergency, and Batman was doing his best to give every superhero who came through the zeta-tube a position that would maximize their chances of surviving this.

Which wasn't easy when the threat was a complete unknown, one with apparently limitless power. Somehow, they hadn't suffered any catastrophic injuries so far, and the Flashes had managed to evacuate most civilians within the first twenty minutes.

However, considering the amount of power the being had displayed so far, and the complete lack of damage they had been able to inflict, it didn't feel as though their endurance up to this point was the result of their own efforts. Instead, it felt like the being was deliberately holding back.

Batman hated the sensation that it was merely toying with them before delivering a final, devastating blow, like a cat entertaining itself with prey before finally killing it.

..................Can anyone explain to me why I suddenly have the desire to write a MLB throuple AU that centers around Chloe Bourgeois being a manipulative little fuck with no concept of how to express her emotions and feelings, and an extreme possessiveness problem?

Adrien was Chloe's. Chloe had known that nearly as long as she'd known Adrien. Before she even had a concept of romance, or dating, or marriage, Chloe understood that she wanted this strange, mildly inhuman ray of giggling sunshine in her life until the day it ended.

When they'd just been pudgy little four year olds, she had taken his tiny hand in hers on one of their then-frequent playdates, and, with a look far too serious and imperious for a child so young, told him very simply:

"You're my friend now. Mine. Stuff that's mine, I don't lose. I keep all mine. I keep you, Ok?"

And of course, being a four year old himself, Adrien happily agreed with a big toothy smile.

But Chloe never forgot that moment. She might not really remember the details of it of course, but she very distinctly remembers the day she decided Adrien Agreste would always be with her, no matter what.

Chloe Bourgeois takes very, very good care of what is hers. She might be a spoilt brat who gets everything she demands, but if she has it, she takes care of it. All of her possessions are always pristine, and Chloe despises getting anything she owns dirty in the slightest, not wanting anything to damage her things.

And Chloe Bourgeois is thrice as protective of the people that belong to her as she is her trinkets and possessions.

As showcased by the absolute public decimation of the first fan to ever break past a barrier and actually touch Adrien at a fashion show. Her dirtiest secrets were found and leaked within the night, and suddenly even the pettiest and most minor places of business in Paris wouldn't even look at her resume. Her sentences for assault and trespassing were set at the highest possible bar for the charges, and despite being just sixteen, a creative exception was found to try the girl as an adult. Not to mention that she was also made the face of a very public and successful campaign from a charity that was dedicated to raising awareness about sexual assault on men.

Those that even questioned what happened to that girl all assumed it was Gabriel Agreste that had organized the systematic destruction of her life and future. They were wrong, of course. Gabriel considered banning her from all future events and a public statement sufficient enough to deter repeats of this behavior.

Chloe Bourgeois however, did not. Because Adrien was hers, and she refused to give anything but her best in destroying anyone that hurt what belonged to her.

Chloe isn't crazy. Really, she isn't. She's watched Adrien's anime enough times to know what a yandere is, and she's positive that doesn't describe her. Sure, she's protective of her Adrikins. But she's not gonna murder anyone who talks to him, or kill his entire family just for being close to him(she'd certainly never hurt auntie Emilie for any reason, but she might kill uncle Gabriel if he doesn't get his shit figured out and stop hurting her Adrien, but that's because he's an abusive dick, not anything else)

Chloe is just a very powerful young woman with extreme influence, and basically zero limits on her privileges while in the city of Paris. Who wouldn't use those connections to protect the people they cared about most? Or to humiliate and torment people they didn't like. Yeah, sure, it isn't nice, but Chloe is the first to admit that she's a bully, the Queen Bitch of her school(and possibly all of Paris), but that just makes her an asshole rich person, not a psycho monster. Chloe can live with that quite happily, after all her mom is a psycho rich person who ruins everyone she dislikes, and her life is great.

Besides, it isn't like Adrien is the only person she protects like this. Sabrina is just as safe as her Adrikins, after all. Sure, she certainly doesn't love Sabrina like she does Adrien, but deep somewhere in her heart, she very much appreciates her only real female friend. Sure she never says it. And sure, she's a bitch to Sabrina too sometimes. But she never forgets 'Brinas birthday, and she never misses on what will make her loyal lackey beam with the biggest smile and wrap her in a bone crushing hug she pretends to barely tolerate.

And Sabrina knows it, too. This is just how Chloe is. She's not soft or explicit in her affections with anyone except Adrien. And really, after everything her best friends ray of sunshine has been through, and is still going through, she can't exactly blame her.

So yes. Adrien Agreste is Chloe's. Her first friend. Her first love. The man she's going to marry. The only person who's ever made Chloe feel like she's enough, like she matters without all the protections and acts and manipulations(even if she would never admit it). The only person that has ever seemed to help heal the gaping hole left in her heart the day a little Chloe realized her mother would never love her-

*cough* ahem.

Anyways.

But yes, Adrien was hers.

That's why she bullied uncle Gabe, as only she could, into letting Adrien finally attend school with them. That's why she set everything up to be absolutely perfect, perfect seats, perfect classmates(accept one...), perfect teacher, perfect day- everything was absolutely stunning and fabulous!

And then Hawkmoth appeared. And everything changed.

Because with Hawkmoth, came her.

The Scarlet Queen of Paris, enemy of evil, vanquisher of nightmares, and savior of pretty blonde heiress's who get thrown off of the Eiffel tower:

Ladybug. Paris's first, and best, superhero.

(And the only one, as far as she was concerned. The mangy cat could fucking shove off.)

And this, was a problem. A massive problem. An Utterly Ridiculous problem.

Because Chloe had done something she didn't think was possible. She'd found possibly the only person in all of Paris who was out of her league, completely and totally better than her and entirely unobatainable.

AND THEN SHE'D GONE AND FALLEN IN LOVE WITH HER!!!

And so she'd moped, but contented herself with being Ladybugs biggest fan and supporter instead. She still had Adrien, at least. Even if he had more friends now, and spent more time near Marinette than Chloe approved of.

But then she'd found the bee miraculous, and it had felt like maybe, finally, everything was lining up for Chloe Bourgeois. She'd be a famous hero now, too, on par with, or at least within spitting distance of, Ladybug.

The Bee miraculous, and it's adorable Kwami occupant, Pollen, we're going to be her ticket to the life she always deserved. Ladybug would love her, and her relationship with Adrien would go back to what it had once been before progressing into romance( and her mother would finally notice her and remember her name-).

And then, just in a snap, ladybug took it back, told Chloe she'd put everyone in danger because of her ego, and took away Chloe's chance at showing everyone how amazing she really was.

Chloe hated ladybug so much, but also loved her, and hated her even more the way only someone who loves you can.

And yet she held out hope. False hope. Hope she knew would eventually be crushed. Hope that, in another world, would crumble right in time for Hawkmoth to swoop in and take advantage of her.

But this is not that world.

Here, Chloe does not take the knowledge that she can never again be Queen Bee gracefully at the end of the Miraculer incident. She instead loses her temper on Ladybug and storms off to wonder the streets of Paris, fuming. Adding to the fire of her anger is that she fought off an Akuma for ladybug, and yet she couldn't even get a "good job" before her miraculous was taken from her for good.

Unaware that Chloe has already fought off an Akuma today, and isn't likely to be a prime target for hawkmoth, Marinette follows Chloe in secret as Ladybug, to make sure she doesn't get akumatized with how angry she is.

After a bit though, Ladybug loses sight of Chloe, and decides she'd be better off looking for her as Marinette so as not to arouse suspicion or stand out.

Following this logic, Ladybug ducks into an alley to transform, and unbeknownst to her, the bright red flash attracts the attention of Chloe, who wasn't as far away as Ladybug had thought.

Chloe sneaks into the alley, curiosity aroused by the flash, and, hidden behind a dumpster, she observed Marinette conversing with a red and black spotted Kwami she keeps calling "Tikki".

Now, Chloe may not have seen Ladybug enter the alley, but she isn't actually an idiot, despite what her classmates think. She, unlike most people, knows what a Kwami is. And Pollen had actually mentioned the name of Ladybugs Kwami a time or two. She knows who and what Tikki is. So if Marinette is standing there, feeding this little floating creature a macaron the same way Chloe once fed Pollen spoonfuls of honey, after the same kind of flash Chloe remembers from her own transformations and de-transformations....

Well, it can only mean one thing.

Ladybug is Marinette. Clumsy, stupid, nerdy little Marinette. Chloe's easiest target, her most ridiculous(and virtually only) rival for Adrien's affections.

Marinette is Ladybug. Gorgeous, brave, perfect ladybug, whose only flaw is trying to protect Chloe and her family from her own mistakes....

Caught between screaming in rage and bursting into tears, Chloe lets Marinette leave the alley unaccosted. She needs time to think. To plan. To know what she even wants now.

It takes time. Hell, it takes nearly a week and a half, but through her death spiral of conflicting opinions and ideas, Chloe comes out the other side with a surprising conclusion:

She isn't certain yet how she feels about all of the stuff this brings up for her, in fact she's almost positive these feelings will always be messy and complicated, but she has landed on thre things she is completely certain of.

Firstly, she is positive she still loves Ladybug, despite all her messy, complex feelings over Marinette Dupain Cheng, all the anger, derision, and contempt(and the jealousy she refuses to acknowledge), her intense near obsessive love for Ladybug outweighs her old grudges and feelings for Marinette, mostly anyways.

The second truth she akcnowledges is that Ladybug was always an unnatainable goal for her, even when she pined after her and stared dreamily at her photos, even when she was Queen Bee and fought right beside her, some part of her always knew it would never be. Because for someone like that, how could Chloe Bourgeois ever be enough? Hell, how could anyone be enough for Paris's perfect savior?

The third and final thing she realized, though, is the most important. Ladybug is unnatainable, Ladybug is perfect, ladybug is so much better in every way than Chloe Bourgeois that there is no reason for her to even tolerate the blonde girls mere presence, and the fact she had even done so at all was a blessing.

But Marinette Dupain Cheng?

Marinette "Bakergirl" Dupain Cheng?

Maritrash herself? The clutsiest, clumsiest, whackiest little weirdo nerd in Chloes entire school? The chief Peasant herself?

Chloe Bourgeois knows in her deepest heart that she's better than Marinette, at least at most things(it was damned unfair that someone so ugh, ordinary, was such a good designer. Bleh.). Marinette is far from perfect, she has none of Ladybugs grace, none of her confidence, and none of her nearly divine presence.

Dupain Cheng is cute where Ladybug is beautiful, giggly where Ladybug is stoic, scared and vulnerable with poisoned self confidence where Ladybug is boundless courage.

The point is, Marinette Dupain Cheng is human and normal where Ladybug is anything but.

But most importantly for Chloe?

Marinette is attainable.

Ladybug?

No, no she's certain she'd never be enough for Ladybug.

But for plain old Marinette? Chloe could be worth Marinette, could get Marinette with no make up, a second hand dress, and with zero cups of coffee.

And if she has Marinette....well wouldn't you know it, Ladybug comes with, free of charge!

And on top of Mari being, well, Mari, Chloe has another advantage in her little quest. She knows who Ladybug is. She has leverage, power, control over Paris's greatest hero. So long as she's careful, and uses that leverage at just the right time, in just the right way, she can have everything she's wanted and more.

Adrien. Ladybug. Pollen and her miraculous.

(Maybe even her mothers love? No, no beggars can't be choosers....)

it could all ber hers. But she has to be careful, she has to be smart, she has to plan until everything she does is 100% fool proof.

So, in furtherance of her new plan, the first thing Chloe does is go to therapy.

Not because she wants to, but because she needs it. She needs to get in control of her emotions, she needs to get techniques to calm herself down. She needs complete control of her reactions to upsetting turns and results. Because now, she keeps the most important secret in all of Paris, and she cannot risk Hawkmoth getting it. She cannot risk Hawkmoth hurting what she has already decided is rightfully hers.

She keeps all her plansa and desires from her new therapist, of course. And the jury is out on how much she can truly get from a professional with all the information she leaves out. But to her credit, she never lies to the therapist. She tells as much as the truth as she can, and she leaves it not truly a fixed person(not by a country mile), but with an understanding of some of the reasons she upsets people and(more importantly) how to calm herself down and remain in control.

Armed now with the knowledge of how to more easily make people like her(important for making Marinette actually like her despite the blackmail, because she doesn't just want Ladybug, but her love as well), how to better control her emotions, and a completely unwilling awareness of some of her deepest flaws(which she is doing her best to ignore, and failing at miserably), she sets off to bag a bug.

It's important to note that though this story starts directly after Miraculer, Chloe doesn't make a move until at most a week before the season 3 episode Ladybug, which if you don't recognize it off the top of your head, is the episode with the Sentimonster Ladybug, and the episode where Lila frames Marinette for pushing her down the stairs. And Ladybug itself happens like, the episode before the season finale and Miracle Queen.

This has gotten really long, and taken me like 3 days to write, so I'm gonna end this here. But coming soon will be me covering the actual meat and potatoes of this little AU, specifically Chloe and Marinettes interactions and what goes down when Chloe reveals that she knows her identity and lays out demands, as well as how this whole thing changed the series as a whole, and some of the wider effects it'll have.

We'll also get more into Adrien's role in this, and how/what happens when Chloe finds out he's Chat Noir.

The last thing I'll add is that this is going to be a Chloe Redemption idea, but I'm not doing it at any kind of speed. Chloe's improved some even by the time she confronts Mari, but it's mostly subtle stuff. She is, after all, still blackmailing her bullying victim into doing what she wants, with the intent of effectively seducing her.

This is because, at least to me, it makes sense that Chloe's idea of love is wrapped up in control and power. Her mother bullies and controls her father. She excerpts control over her kids, too. Chloe has basically zero idea what healthy love and relationships look like. Chloe is desperately trying to do better, whether she notices that or not, but she doesn't truly have a concept of what that would even look like. So a lot of her is defaulting to her instinct to just take what she wants, with a vague plan of showing Marinette, and eventually Adrien, how amazing it is to be hers, and how much she can love them, after. The important part is getting them, in her mind, and then she'll be able to fix any problems after the fact.

Is this absolutely unhinged behavior? Yeah, kinda. But Chloe's love map is all kinds of fucked up. If it helps at all, do note that Chloe isn't going to be forcing herself on anyone. She really is trying to date them and convince them to love her, she just doesn't feel safe doing so, feel safe being vulnerable, without total control of the situation. Is that despicable to do to people you claim to love? Yes. And the goal is to get to the point where she's confronting that and actually working on it. But at the start, Chloe is grasping at straws here.

How do you even make regular people love you when all you've known is neglect and emotional abuse, let alone someone who you've personally and intentionally hurt and harassed for years?

Chloe sure as hell doesn't know. And since she can't risk letting anyone else know Ladybugs identity, she can't ask Sabrina or her butler for advice. So, blackmail feels like a safe first step, that's logical, right?

(no girl, no it is not. 😭)

Obviously none of this is something I condone in real life, but it's something I find fun to explore in fiction.

P.S

While you are in AdriChloeNette gear, I am in Liladrien gear, but it does parallel a bit.

Where Chloe didn't have any role models for healthy love, Lila didn't as well, but she has enough experience pretending. Enough to say, if she puts her mind onto getting Adrien, she could perfectly pretend and mimic healthy love.

That said, I loved how im a fic I read, Lila felt this desire to own, to possess Adrien after getting a taste of his bright and warm love, yet she also knew that he would never settle for a golden cage, so she decides to do the next best thing, and simply be very close ALWAYS.

From what I gathered, this Chloe's love is exactly that, a royal class golden cage with all amenities, she's going to take the best care of her loved ones, but she will also own them.

Since Chloe is smarter than show (literally NO-FUCKING-BODY wants dumb characters) I'll assume that Adrien is smarter as well.

With Adrien being smart, he's not just book smart, he's observant. He sees things, hears things and thinks things even if he doesn't act on them. That is his current cage, he has to pretend to be Radiant, Carefree and Dreamy Adrien even if he wants to turn Kim's face into a mush for what he did to Marinette, or put the everliving fear into Lila so that she fucking behaves.

But he doesn't. That's not something Adrien™ would do.

What Adrien does is subtle things.

So he does just that. He minimizes the conflict between Lila and Marinette, kinda protecting both of them. He gives Lila an out before discreetly using his power.

And that is what I think he does with Chloe and her love. He knows her just as much as she does him, even if he had to quickly relearn a lot of stuff about her, but still he knows that it's her own version of love.

It's toxic, it's imperfect, but it's love nonetheless and Adrien yearns for love too, so he let's her be a bitch about it all. He let's her in on his amd Marinette's dates to brunette's dislike, he let's her decide what clothes to buy for him. Not always, but this whole thing is not one-sided which is why Chloe didn't give up.

No one understands why he does it when he's happiest when free, not Marinette, not Nino and Alya, not Felix, but they don't have to. After all, Adrien and Chloe are just damaged, neglected rich kids who for the huge part of their lives had only themselves, so it's just their thing.

I'm also interested in how would this Chloe react to her perfect Adrien being Chat "The Dumbass" Noir.

One option is her just living in denial.

"You are not Chat Noir, he's dumb and you're very intelligent, very polite."

"I literally just transformed in front of you..."

"I said, You are not Chat Noir!"

Option two is seven stages before she has to admit that her Anime loving, pastry eating, perfectly looking Adrien is someone who throws away his dignity and acts as a furry the moment the skin tight suit is on.

"I must say these clothes look pretty paw-some!"

"Adrien, I love you, but please, shut the fuck up."

And finally option three is her not being able to comprehend that someone can have two identities, so just like Marinette and Ladybug are separate people, Adrien and Chat Noir are too.

For example the two of them can be cuddling in ber room, watching some drama, or anime and everything is cool, everything is nice. She scratches his hair just how he likes it and he massages her feet after a shopping spree.

Then an akuma happens and Adrien has to go, so he transforms while next to Chloe, but she starts to beat him with a pillow, telling him to get the hell out of her bed. This The Room of The Chloe Bourgeois, and not a place for cat freaks.

Adrien has to put some work because her aim is very good, but each time it amuses him greatly.

Marinette is another cornerstone and variable.

She's known to be possessive and highly protective of Adrien, take Sublime for example, girl is a freak and is ready to go to freak lengths for Adrien.

While Marinette and Chloe had beef even before him, Adrien coming to their class didn't help one bit, if anything he became just another thing they are rivals for. If she is ready to stalk people just for talking to Adrien, then she must be straight up malding over how touchy and personal two blondes are.

I can't deny that I am biased against her when it comes to Marinette, but it would be absolutely funny if they have a rivalry, but then Chloe swaps to wooing her and this just makes Marinette hate her even more.

Chloe "invites" (tells) Marinette to come with her on a shopping spree, or to some fancy new cafe, and Marinette can't unsee a plot to humiliate her. Or even when she recognises that Chloe tries to make the baker like her, it's just a plot to get Adrien alone for Chloe's grabby hands.

Even worse if there's a third side in looks of Lila who ALSO tries to woo Adrien, and it's either a three sided war for (what they think) unaware Adrien.

And I have seen your posts about Lidrien! It's been very fun, I just had too many feelings about it to both make a post and write what I had been working on.

My current thoughts about how Adrien works out wanting freedom with also ending up with Chloe(and also marinette who, as you said, is pretty freaking possessive), is that Chloe is legitimately just not going to be able to actually control Adrien in anyway that he can't handle, or turn into a game.

Seriously, Adrien Agreste managed to find a way to sneak out of the home of Gabriel Agreste, the most helicopter parent to ever helicopter, both with and without magic cat powers. He has held a party in his nutso controlling dads house without getting nabbed. Heck, Adrien literally broke out of his house and managed to fabricate the paperwork to get himself into school without being found out until like, the last minute.

So do we honestly think Chloe, the same Chloe he grew up with, who he knows inside and out, and who he is extremely aware is hopelessly in love with him because his love and affection was for so long the only good and borderline healthy kind she had(just as she was and is for him), isn't someone that he can outsmart, out trick, or simply just defy if she squeezes too hard?

Chloe will at worst grump that he's been spending too much time with other people and not her, while Gabriel literally locked him in a padded cell in cannon. I can't see Chloe ever going that far, and so I just don't think Chloe has the raw indiferrence and churning awfulness necessary to actually control Adrien. Also she doesn't have his Amok, and probably wouldn't want it if she found it. She likes to think her charm is all she needs to keep Adrien, and she's right. She just doesn't get her way as much as she expects too or thinks she does. But when even Adriens "tricking" and "defying" still ends with her, him, and Marinette having a wonderful day out with the friends Chloe is begrudgingly begining to like, well... can you really say she's losing?

Marinette and Chloe, once they actually reach a stable point in this wild thing they call a relationship, are both really good and really bad for each other. Chloe teaches Marinette to actually stand up for herself, and Marinette shows Chloe why being nice actually feels good, and provides her with more of that affection and care her parents denied her.

They both also at times burn out the competitivness from each other, not just trying to outdo the other for Adrien, but also each other. Chloe vs Marinette gift giving battles are legendary.

Chloe buys Mari reams of that expensive fabric she likes, Mari uses it to make a gorgeous queen bee inspired dress for her. Which prompts chloe to get more gifts and surprises, rinse and repeat. Thus providing "enrichment" as you say and culling the worst of their competetivness.

But Marinette and Chloe also feed into each other something awful when it comes to Adrien. Because Chloe has heeps of influence and a possessive and combative streak a mile wide, and Marinette has a mind that categorizes everything, and the will and ability to literally track their boyrfriend throughout the city undetected if necessary. She has his entire schedule for like, a year out, that is some talent. creepy talent, but talent.

Alone, they were crazy enough. But before Chloe could only try to intimidate with her wealth and influence, and only when she was physically around. Before, Marinette could only know when other people were flirting with Adrien, she would make extremely complex plans, but never have the guts or materials to execute them due to her nerves and also Mari is always going to talk herself out of them because she's fundamentally a pretty good person.

Chill Adrien and his two feral girlfriends who might kill someone, or kill eachother if he leaves them unattended.

It's often showed in fics how Marinette is the one who calms Adrien's Cat side down, yet somehow everyone forgets that it only works when she's Ladybug. When she's Marinette, she's themkst anxious vinrating molecule in the room and it's Adrien who is like a comfort dog who grounds her.

Because of this I'm very willing to see Adrien as not just shy, and polite boy, but chill, calculating and pretending one. Imagine Felix, but Adrien actually can behave nice and be genuinely happy and fun.

Imagine Adrien has to leave somewhere, so he asks Felix to pretend to be him, yet the girls clock the disappearence of their BF immediately and go apeshit. Poor Felix barely survives the day and wonders what the hell is wrong with his brother/cousin if he likes these two.

Except when he comes back he's in his Strict Parent mode and tells everyone off for the mess and it's terrifying. For Fe Adrien always was this bright, wide eyed naive kid who he had to protect (he's a brocon your honour) and suddenly he is scary.

Felix stays to observe (absolutely not because he wants to spend time with his sibling/cousin person) and learns that this MF was pretending all along. Felix thought HE was the smart, coldly calculating and reasonable one, while Adrien was the emotional, kind and outgoing one.

"How long?" he asks one day.

"I don't even remember."

"...why?"

"You always wanted to be the big brother."

Now that I think about it, almost everyone who loves Adrien, be it romantically or platonically, does so in a very possessive way. I'm pretty sure that once Felix is in Paris, you can't say there wasn't, or won't be a situation like in one @edorazzi comic page (which I sadly can't find) where the girls and Felix are arguing over who is going to sleep with Adrien.

"He's our boyfriend!"

"He's my brother!"

And then Adrien just goes:

"Fe can have his spot, but we're still gonna frick."

And that's how he makes him leave, funny business can happen or not, however you like, but the point is, this has to happen. Literally ANYONE who felt Adrien's love (Chloe, then Mari), or saw his true self (Lila, and then Felix) can't let go of him, and he has gotten used to it.

Cause, this is centered around Chloe, Adrien, and Marinette, with Lila off to the side trying to squeeze her way in. But what about Luka, who is also in love with Marinette? Or Zoe? Or Kagami? Maybe none of them factor into thr actual relationship itself, but it would be so funny to see their interactions with them.

This time, read from left to right.

didn't pay much attention to the background because I'm incredibly lazy, and I wasn't sure about the colors, so I hope it doesn't look out of place. I wanted a summery feel, so I changed Michael's clothes.

This is an updated version of This old prompt I did a while back.

...

So! The Infinite Realms are not just limited to the Afterlife. In fact, the Afterlife is just a single section of the Realms, and Each Realm is ruled over by their own Kingdom with their own Godly Rulers.

Lets give an Overview of a few of the Realms:

The Far Frozen: The Far Frozen is a Realm inhabited by Yeti's, who are Pacifists by nature. Their sole focus is to develop their medical practices so they can help as many people as possible. They are rules over by the Ice God, Frostbite, a kind and just King who uses his eons of experience to help those in need. The Far Frozen are well liked by all Kingdoms in the Infinite Realms, and have very few enemies.

The Medieval Isles: The Medieval Isles are a very recent addition to the Infinite Realms, and resembles the Earth Sterotype of a Fantasy Land. It is inhabited by many different races, from Elves to Dwarves to Humans. It was previously Ruled Over by a Draconic God known as the Tyrant King Aragon, before he was overthrown by his sister, the Kind Queen Dorathea with the help of a Sir Phantom. It does not have many Enemies among the Realms, but the Fae Wilds to seem to resent that some Elves live there as opposed to their original homeland.

Olympus: Olympus is the Realm of the Greek Gods, home to all the Gods who exist in the World and used to exist. It is ruled over by Zeus. It used to be a pretty major Political Powerhouse in the Realms, but after Ares went Rouge and killed most of their Top Gods, they lost a lot of Power.

Themyscira: After the Amazon's split off from the rest of Greece, they formed their own Kingdom with Hippolyta as the Godess Queen. It exists simultaneously in both the Realms and Earth. This Kingdom is well respected, but not as old or as large as some of the others. It has about the same Political Power as Olympus currently does, if not a little less.

The Nordic Lands: This is a Realm inhabited by the Norse Gods and all their peoples. It is not ruled over by a single Race of Gods, and is split into many different Warring Factions. One is the Aesir, Ruled over by King Odin. Another is the Vanir, formerly ruled over by Njord, but now ruled by his son Frey. There are also the Lands for the Fire and Ice Giants, and so on. They hold a good amount of Political Power in the Infinite Realms, but tend to stay Neutral in most cases.

New Genesis: This is the home of the New Gods, a race of Gods who is far younger than the others. They are ruled over by High Father, one of the surviving Old Gods, and the father of many of the New Gods. They are a fairly old and powerful Kingdom in the Realms, holding much Political Power.

Apokolips: This is a Realm filled with almost exclusively Demon's. It is ruled over by the God of Evil, Darkseid, and his Court of Minor Gods. It is an Extremely Agressive and even hostile Kingdom in the Realms, but holds itself back from attacking it's fellow Godly Kingdoms in fear of Retribution. They rarely interact with the other Kingdoms or discuss political matters in Meetings, but they are still a Kingdom not to be trifled with.

The Fae Wilds: This is the Realm that is the homeland of all Faeries and such creatures, like Elves and Gnomes. It is ruled over by the Fae Gods, Oberon and Titania, who use their cunning to obtain a good standing among the other Realms and maintain a good amount of Political Power.

The Spirit Lands: This is the Realm inhabited by mostly Nature Spirits, such as Nymphs and Fire Sprites. These lands are ruled over by 4 Elemental Kings, among which are Vortex and Undergrowth. These Lands are a sort of Middle Point in terms of Political Power, not too much but not too little. Although their image has been damaged by the Impulsive personalities of a few of their Rulers.

The Miracle Lands (Miraculous Ladybug): This is a Realm inhabited by a race of Gods that represent Conceptual Ideas, known as Kwami's. They are ruled over by the King and Queen of their Lands, Tikki and Plagg, the concepts of Creation and Destruction. The Miracle Lands are one of the oldest and most powerful of the Kingdoms of the Infinite Realms, and hold some of the most Political Power in the Infinite Realms.

The Ghost Zone/The After: This was what I really made this post to do. To explain my Headcanon for how the Ghost Zone worked in the grand scheme of things, the rest was just context.

The Ghost Zone is the collective Afterlife of all the other Realms, with Major Regions of the Realms dedicated to the different Kingdoms that hold a claim to the Afterlife.

There are Large Regions of the Realms dedicated to containing the Afterlives of the Godly Realms, like the Underworld for Olympus, or Valhalla/Vanaheim/Hel for the Nordic Lands. (The Norse actually have a shocking amount of Territory in the Ghost Zone, many joke that it's because Odin and Pariah Dark liked eachother due to how similar they looked.)

Each of the Regions is ruled over by that Pantheon's own God of the Dead/Death.

Hades rules the Underworld, and commands the different sections like the Fields of Asphodel, the Fields of Punishment, Elysium, and even Tartarus to some degree.

Plagg rules the Miraculous After (the Kwami's are not very creative with names). This is an Afterlife exclusive to the Holders of the Miraculous, as well as those who use Miracle Magic without having a Miraculous, like the Guardians. Also just the followers of the Kwami's (they have a small following)

The Norse have many Rulers for their many Afterlives. Hel rules over Hel, Freya rules over Vanaheim, Odin rules over Valhalla, and even Rán has her own tiny section for drowned souls. Plus a few more small sections.

The Acropolis is the Personal Afterlife for the Amazonians, and only answers to the Queendom of Themyscira. Pandora was chosen as the new Goddess of Afterlife when this was decided, and Acsended to Minor Godhood.

And there are many more, too many to list.

All the Rulers of the Afterlives defer to the Ruler of the Ghost Zone, who holds the most Power among the Gods of Death, as basically their Landlord. That used to be Pariah Dark, but after he went insane and had to be sealed away, the Ghost Zone fell mostly to Anarchy.

While the Afterlives managed to maintain stability due to having their own Rulers, the large regions between the Afterlives did not, and Rouge Spirts began to stake their claims to small plots of Land called Haunts. The most common among these were Ghosts, but there were some Fae, Spirits, and some smaller Gods (for some reason, some of the Kings of the Spirit Lands liked to use this Area as a playground to do whatever they wanted with no consequences).

It took Millennia, but eventually Pariah Dark was released from his Prison and then Usurped by a Young Godling named Phantom. Phantom then proceeded to bring the Realms under control, maintaining a few of the newer customs thay had appeared in the wake of Pariah's Imprisoning like Claiming Haunts, but otherwise ending the Era of Anarchy in the Realms.

The Ghost Zone is the Oldest, and most Powerful of the Kingdoms of the Infinite Realms. It holds Extreme Political Power, and has the favor of many different Realms. It's hard to not have that when you are an integral part of the Balance of the Godly World.

happy midnight! y'know making new official dreamswap refs wasn't exactly on my list of things I planned on doing in 2026, but here we are APPARENTLY.

design notes:

Where do they come from. What do

they hope to achieve.

you all say: I love you I

love you I love you.