#ectober 2019

Ectober Day 4: Illusions

oh tucker! good i’ve found you— stop screaming— you’re out of poptarts

[prompt fill for ectober week day 2: stalker]

8. Identity

I feel like I told whole bunch of people I wouldn't continue Unearthed. Here I am, continuing Unearthed, like a liar. But not finishing it. Because I can't decide how I want this scenario to end.

All y'all'll have to wait 'til the next event for another continuation, because for the last two Ectober prompts I'm doing completely different things.

Sorry.

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Scarecrow/Grave Robber

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Detective Collins looked down at the body on the autopsy table. He'd looked at bodies before. Corpses, rather. He and Patterson were APPD's homicide team, and did a lot of death investigations, even if Amity Park hadn't had an actual murder for years. A single casre of involuntary manslaughter, yes, several instances of assault, yes, a good number of accidental deaths, yes, murder, no.

For Ectober Week 2

This is based at least in part on my experiences going to the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, West Virginia this summer. I also thought that Danny not believing in cryptids despite being a cryptid himself would be hilarious.

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"Come on Danny! Get in the picture!" Sam and Tucker stood in front of a metallic figure - clawed hands and feet, large insectoid eyes, and holey moth-like wings. Sam waved Danny over. "Don't you want a picture in front of the statue?!"

Danny rolled his eyes but decided to humor his friends. In all honesty, he really didn't get the hype. The mothman was just a myth, folklore. Something made up to draw in tourism. And it definitely worked. When Sam had seen the billboard on the highway for the World's Only Mothman Museum, she had immediately argued they should go. And since it was her car and she was driving, here they were. 

Danny walked over and crammed in between his two best friends. Holding out his hand, he took her phone. "I can take the selfie, I have the longest arms."

After several rather hilarious selfies, which failed to capture all three teenagers and the statue, another tourist, a woman in her mid-twenties in a shirt for some rock band, offered to take a picture of all the three friends. 

"Here you go." The woman handed Sam's phone back to her with a smile and walked away, towards the riverfront. 

After checking the pictures, Sam pointed across the street. "And there's the museum. We have to check it out!" 

"Really?" Danny asked sheepishly. He turned to Tucker who just shrugged. 

"Come on!" Sam then grabbed Danny's hand and pulled him across the street, trailed by a chuckling Tucker.

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"Three tickets please." Sam inquired 

"At four dollars a piece, that will be 12 dollars total." The person behind the counter, a teenage boy with blond hair in a mothman museum t shirt checked them out.

"Here you go." He smiled while handing them their tickets.

Once they actually went inside the museum, Danny found it was much more mundane than he had thought.  The museum was really just a back room full of old newspapers clippings, artifacts from Point Pleasant in the 60s, props from some movie about the mothman, and displays with people's first hand accounts. 

Sam enthusiastically walked towards the display, eyes quickly scanning the written words. She grinned. "According to this, the creature was first spotted by two couples in 1966, near something called the TNT area. And then dozens of people saw it after." 

Danny stopped beside her. "Seriously, Sam. You can't actually believe all this. They just were high and saw an owl or something. And everyone else got caught in the craziness. Cryptid, like the Mothman, definitely don't exist." 

Sam turned to him, mouth open. She replied flatly. "Danny. You're a cryptid."

Danny cringed, looking around. Luckily no one else was there. He relaxed, smiling. "No I'm not. My existence is very well documented." He pulled out his wallet with a grin. "See. I have a driver's licenses. I can even show you my birth certificate when we get home."

Sam elbowed him. "That's not what I mean, dumby." 

He shrugged. "I mean, Phantom is also well documented. There's pictures and video. So see not a cryptid."

Sam shook her head. "Can you at least try to keep an open mind? Who knows? You might even find this interesting." 

Danny sighed. "Alright. I'll try but no promises." 

He walked off, letting Sam read the display.

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By the end of their visit, Danny was surprised. It actually had been kinda interesting. The documentary they'd watched in the little theater had been informative.  And there was a lot of information about Silver Bridge Collapse (which was actually documented unlike, sightings of the mothman). 

And he enjoyed seeing his friends so excited. He walked up to Tucker who was looking at a display about the Men in Black. 

Danny tilted his head. "What is this? Off brand Guys in White? Yeah right." 

Tucker turned, waving his hands excitingly. "Nah, man. This was an actual thing. These guys showed up, trying to keep people from talking about all the weird stuff they were seeing." His grin widened as he started talking faster. "There were all these UFO sightings, even before the mothman showed up. So people thought he was an alien! Or maybe a government experiment since the first time the thing was seen it was near a government facility where they were making explosives and doing secret experiments! Or.. .maybe it was both! The government was experimenting on aliens! And the Men in Black were government agents using alien tech to get people to shut up about the escaped alien!"

Danny chuckled. "Really Tuck? That's crazy. You sound like Wes from school."

Tucker shrugged. "I don't know man. He is actually right about you."

Danny stopped laughing, sputtering. "That… he's...that's all he's right about." His bottom lip jutted out in a pout. " He's wrong about the fruit vampires...and well there was a Kelpie in the pond in the park but it was actually a ghost and I caught it so he was wrong last week when he was ranting about it."

Tucker just laughed. "But he's still right about Phantom."

Danny pouted with his arms crossed as Tucker continued laughing. After a few moments, Danny managed to crack a smile at his friend's outburst. He shook his head. "Fine, he is right about….that." Tucker's eyes lit up but Danny raised a finger to stop his response. "But… that doesn't mean he's right about anything else. Or that the mothman exists!"

It was now Tucker's turn to shake his head. "Fine dude. Whatever you say. You wanna see if Sam is done? The museum closes soon, then we can check out that Mexican restaurant we passed while parking earlier." Tucker rubbed his hands together at the end, obviously pleased with the thought of food.

After spending about 15 minutes browsing the museum gift shop which yielded a rather adorable mothman plushie for Sam, a t shirt for Tucker, and a postcard and magnet for Danny (hey, he might not think the mothman was really but it wouldn't stop him from getting some cool looking souvenirs), the three friends found themselves in the Mexican restaurant Tucker had spotted earlier.

All three were surprisingly pleased with the restaurant; they had a good variety of vegetarian options for Sam, the carnitas were amazing to Tucker's delight, and Danny very much enjoyed the Chori pollo (nothing beats chicken and Mexican sausage covered in cheese sauce). The teens finished their meals happily discussing their museum visit. 

"It was a death omen!" Sam argued. "It first showed up 13 months to the day before the silver bridge collapsed and all those people died. There's records of creatures like that showing up before disasters in cultures all around the world." 

"But what about the UFO sightings, even before the mothman showed up?" Tucker countered. "And that guy, Woodrow.. something...who said he meet that alien, Indrid Cold, who talked telepathically to him. He even saw the alien's ship!" 

Sam rolled her eyes. "He was just crazy, Tucker. Seeing and hearing things. And any lights in the sky were supernatural omens! Everyone knows aliens don't exist!"

"But someone reported seeing Woodrow talking to a guy on the side of the road who matched Mr. Cold's description! So he did see an alien."

"So what? That still doesn't mean he wasn't crazy!" Sam motioned to Danny who was sitting beside her. "What do you think? What was the mothman? an alien, a government experiment, supernatural death omen."

Danny scoffed. "It was an owl." Sam gave him a deadpan, 'are you serious' look. He continued, talking with his hands. "That's what a bunch of the newspapers articles said. A huge owl or maybe a crane flew in front of the couples' car late at night and everything got blown out of proportions because they called the police and then the bridge tragedy happened. Heck even the pictures the witnesses drew look like an owl, with its wings hunched up and eyes reflecting the headlights."

"Come on Danny. Don't you think there's at least a possibility that it wasn't something so...Ordinary?" Sam asked. 

"Nope" Danny replied popping the P.

Sam raised her eyebrow and playfully elbowed him. "Why are you so opposed to it not being something you can easily explain? Are you just that scared that there might be more out there than you thought?"

Danny's face turned surprisingly serious at what had been a playful accusation. "So what if I am? Learning the ghosts and the ghost zone and all that was real was enough of a shock. What if I don't want to aliens or other supernatural creatures to be real too? I…I don't need the complication. I attract enough problems as it is."

Sam took his hand comfortingly. "No you don't attract trouble." She then bit her lip, continuing tentatively. "And if those things are real, don't you think you need to face them, not run away?"

Tucker nodded from across the table. "Yeah. And if aliens...or other things exist, Sam and I will be right with you to face whatever."

Danny smiled at his friends comforting words. "Thanks guys." His smile widened into a grin. "Though I still don't think either of you are right. The mothman doesn't exist."

Tucker face palmed. "Uggg seriously man." While Sam playfully punched Danny on the shoulder.

Then her grin turned wicked. "I think we can test it though. If the mothman does exist, I bet he would show up for Danny Phantom." 

Danny paled. "What! No! That's a horrible idea." 

Sam narrowed her eyes, mockingly. "What? Are you scared? It's not like the mothman actually exists, right?"

Tucker laughed. "We should totally do it! Danny Phantom versus the mothman."

Danny turned beet red. Seeing no alternative, he caved. "Alright. Fine. I'll do it." He really hoped he wouldn't regret this. 

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And that was how Danny found himself floating above Sam's car in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere. The three of them had followed the map from the museum showing 

where the mothman was supposed first sighted, in something called the TNT area. They parked on the side of the road and waited with the lights off under the full moon.

It was nearly midnight now and Danny was getting bored. "Alright mothman." He punched one fist to the open palm of his other hand and continued, voice an odd mix of false bravo and boredom. " I, Danny Phantom, challenge you, a fight to see who is the superior cryptid. Even though I keep telling Sam I'm not a cryptid!"

"Yes you are!" Sam yelled out the open window.

Danny just rolled his eyes and ignored the statement. "If you could show up soon, that would be great. Get this over with, maybe actually get some sleep tonight."

Danny sighed, turning around. This was obviously a bust. He was right after all and this was pointless. He was just about to ask Sam and Tucker if they could go back to the hotel they were staying at when a quiet voice hissed right behind him. "You were looking for me."

Danny whipped around and came face to face with a dark, red eyed figure and he did what anyone would. He screamed(Luckily it didn't turn into a ghostly wail). He lit his hands with neon green ectoenergy and shot the thing as hard as he could. The figure slammed into a tree about ten feet away. In the blink of an eye, Danny flew in front of it, hands still lit. His heart pounded in his chest and his hands shook but he bared his teeth threateningly anyway; he needed to protect his friends. 

Meanwhile the figure rubbed its head and groaned. It sat up and muttered. "I had hoped you didn't seriously want to fight." 

Danny paused at the statement. Just then Sam and Tucker ran up behind him armed with ghost hunting weapons and a flashlight. In the beam, the creature looked surprisingly less monstrous than Danny had expected. It was a little taller than Danny himself, maybe 6 feet at the most. The body looked mostly like that of a human man except covered in dark grey and brown feathers. In the place of arms were two large bird-like wings. The head was round and human shaped though it possessed large owlish glowing red eyes, and feathered ear tuffs on top of the head. 

Danny stuttered. "You're...you're the mothman." 

It...no he slowly stood up, holding his wings in front of him in a gesture that would be placating in a human. "I thought that was obvious." He sounded sort of...amused?

Danny continued. "O my god. You exist! You actually exist! What...who….o my god I shot the mothman! Please don't hurt us!" 

The creature...rolled his eyes? "I'm not going to hurt you or your friends. Why does everyone think that?"

 Danny's jawed dropped at the statement. Then he noticed the cold feeling in his lungs that normally indicated a ghost. Normally it would flow up through his throat and exit his mouth as his ghost sense. But now it stayed in his chest. His eyes widened. "You're a ghost."

The figure shrugged. "Yeah. So are you."

Danny's mind stuttered as he tried to process what just happened. But the mothman continued to look at Danny and his two armed friends warily. "Could you please disarm yourselves?  I'm not going to hurt anyone."

"You promise?" Danny's voice wavered.

The mothman grinned, his teeth surprisingly white and glowing. "From one cryptid to another, I swear it."

Danny huffed. "I'm not a cryptid!"

"Yes, you are." Sam, Tucker, and the mothman all answered in unison and then all three started laughing. 

The mothman's laugh was hearty, authentic and surprisingly human. That final display caused Danny to relax, the energy in his hands dissipating. Sam and Tucker also put down their weapons, though a thermos remained in easy reach just in case. The flash light also clicked off, leaving only Danny's glow and the full moon to illuminate the scene. With the ghostly green glow gone, the faint glow of the mothman's feathers were also visible. 

The laughter quieted down as the four  stared at each other not knowing what to say. Tucker finally spoke up first. "Man. You've got to tell us what actually happened back then. With all the UFO sightings and the men in black and people seeing you."

The mothman shrugged. "I don't know." 

"What do you mean you don't know?" Tucker argued.

"I wasn't there. So I don't know."

"But you're the mothman." Sam stated, interjecting for the first time since the mothman appeared.

"No. I'm the ghost of the mothman.  I only formed about 15 years ago."

The three friends looked at each other in confusion until Danny's eyes lit up in realization. "Oh! Pandora told me about this! Collective ideas and emotions, like myths, legends, and even folklore can cause ghosts to form. Pandora told me that's how she formed." He turned towards the winged figure. "And that's how you formed too! Everyone's collective ideas about who and what the mothman was created you."

The mothman nodded. "That sounds right."

Danny continued. "And that probably means ...that I was right! The original 'mothman' from the sixties wasn't an alien or some omen but just an owl!"

Sam stuttered. "What! You can't know that!"

The mothman shrugged. "He's probably right through. If the original mothman was a supernatural being or an alien, he'd still be around and I wouldn't have formed. There's no point in forming the ghost of a folktale, if the tale is real. Plus it would explain why I look so owlish. A lot of people thought the mothman was just an owl."

Tucker crossed his arms. "Well. Danny was still wrong. He thought the mothman wouldn't show up because he wasn't real but obviously he is because he's right there."

Danny glared at his friend and then turned back to the winged figure, his eyes softening. "I guess he's right though. You are real. I'm sorry we got off on the wrong foot." Danny stuck out his hand for a handshake and then realized his mistake. He rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm Danny Phantom and that's Sam and Tucker."

The mothman returned Danny's smile. " I'm the mothman but you can call me Athene."

Danny tilted his head and Sam laughed. Danny looked at her questioning until she explained. "His name. It's the male version of the name Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, and her symbol was the owl."

"Oh, it's nice to meet you, Athene." Danny replied. 

Athene nodded. "It's nice to meet you all too. I've never met another ghost before.  Though you'll have to tell me how a ghost ended up friends with two humans."

"Oh. I'm a halfa. Half human and half ghost." 

"I did not know that was possible. Were you born like that or did something happen to make you this way?"

"I was in an accident. It's actually a kinda long story."

"I have time to talk if you do."

Danny turned to his friends. "Are you okay staying to talk?"

Sam answered first. "Of course we're fine. Right, Tucker?"

Tucker nodded furiously. "Of course. I'd love to hang out! I can't believe the mothman is a teenager!"

"Yeah. And you said you hadn't met any ghosts before now. You must have been lonely." Her eyes filled with compassion.

Athene nodded. "I have been. Thank you very much guys. Shall we sit?" 

fanfiction

i jwhdvghasjugvdw

It was a bright sunny day as Wes walked down the street. He had just gotten out of school and his day had actually gone pretty well. Nobody called him Phantom or made fun of him. It was good. 

He was planning on just relaxing as soon as he got home. Kicking his shoes off and playing video games. Maybe he’ll even go to sleep early.

He passed a bench and stopped in his tracks as he saw something shiny on the ground.

“Oh, wow! A quarter!” 

Wes bent down to pick it up, studying the quarter. Year 1961. 

Pocketing the coin, he continued on his way home. 

It was a bright sunny day as Wes walked down the street. He had just gotten out of school and his day had actually gone pretty well. Nobody called him Phantom or made fun of him. It was good. 

Wes squinted, deja vu hitting him. What was that about?