#pariah dark

Extra doodles, comics, illustrations, and story stuff I did during the creation phase of the @dpfantasyzine in 2024!

The Phantasmal Quest AU recycles a few elements & tropes I loved during my OC-making days. A plucky young protagonist going on a life-changing quest through a big, scary world is one of my favorite frameworks for storytelling. I also have a long standing weakness for magical forced servitude. I prefer this trope to be between a child and an adult, where the industrious, often neglected child holds all the power and the unwilling dysfunctional adult is just along for the ride. Until he catches feelings, that is.

idea from Prompt for @silverblueglitter

part 2 and 3 are out Masterpost

The summoning circle glowed an eerie green, casting sharp shadows around the Justice League's meeting chamber. John Constantine, sleeves rolled up and cigarette dangling from his lips, muttered the last words of the incantation. The room held a tense silence, broken only by the faint hum of the magical energy.

When the green smoke cleared, instead of the imposing figure of the Ghost King they’d expected, a scrawny teenager in a black jumpsuit with white gloves and boots appeared, looking distinctly unimpressed.

“Seriously?!” Danny Phantom groaned, throwing up his hands. “It’s a school night!”

The room collectively blinked. Superman and Wonder Woman exchanged confused glances. Batman’s eyes narrowed behind his cowl, while the Batkids—perched around the room like chaotic gargoyles—leaned forward, intrigued.

“This… is the Ghost King?” Nightwing asked, his voice skeptical but amused.

Clockwork decides the most efficient way for Danny to defeat Pariah Dark… is to have Pariah raise him.

no warning. no context. no explanation.

just toddler Danny, bundled up, dropped at the gates of Pariah’s fortress centuries before canon with a single note:

'' He’s o̶u̶r̶ your baby. – CW.''

and Pariah is standing there like.

'' When did I fuck with the embodiment of time itself?''

'' WHEN did this happen! ''

meanwhile Danny is just blinking up at him with big glowing eyes and reaching up like “uppies.”

and now Pariah —ancient tyrant, nightmare of the Infinite Realms — is stuck pacing his throne room at 3am with a ghost toddler who refuses to sleep unless he’s holding onto his cape.

but here’s the thing.

Pariah is prideful. He is royal. He is not raising a weak heir.

so Danny is trained.

battle strategy taught at bedtime.

sword forms before he can properly read.

history of the Realms instead of fairy tales.

because if this is his child (apparently???) then he will be a prince. and he will be formidable.

and somewhere in the background

Clockwork is watching like :)

Clockwork: What???

Pariah Dark: The human you mated with? I mean the boy has your white hair and teenage frame, but those round eyes and pointed nose must have come from somewhere?

Clockwork: Ancients Pariah, Danny's adopted! There's no blood relation. I have custody, not blood rights.

Pariah Dark: *looks over at Danny who is looking annoyed while talking to an Observant, right before pointing them in the wrong direction on a wild goose chase and smiling smugly, pleased with himself*

Pariah Dark: Uh huh ... are you SURE???

Clockwork: I mean the rift did rewrite his DNA, and I WAS present at that moment. It could be that his DNA latched onto the closest source of ecto energy, me, and copied its structure to retain stability. Resulting in some of my traits and features being incorporated into his being.

Pariah Dark: ...

Clockwork: Holy shit he's my kid...

Pariah Dark: Are you going to tell him?

Raven stared at the scene incredulously. When Phantom had texted her saying that he had a surprise for her, this was not what she expected.

She then slowly, ever so slowly, looked at the expression on the Ghost King's face. The lack of annoyance or anger at the fact that Phantom was sitting on his shoulder. Then the clear space on his other one. Then to her phone. Then to the rest of her team who look just as shocked (because a man and his kid who they don't know busted into their home) then back to Phantom.

Who merely shook the smoothie in her direction.

...

You know what?

She flew up, grabbed the smoothie, then sat herself down on the Ghost King's other shoulder. Much to Phantom's delighted cackle as the Ghost King disappeared from the Tower in a shower of green flame.

Okay I absolutely love the idea of pariah dark adopting Danny and I don’t see it quite often and I really like dead serious/Danny x Damien

After a bad Fenton parents revealed Danny escape to the ghost zone where he meets up with a very confused pariah dark who doesn’t understand why this baby ghost is acting hostile towards him and why the baby ghosts also injured so he asks and Danny is obviously confused on why pariah is acting so nice.

Danny then explains angrily to pariah about everything and based on the look on pariah’s face Danny can tell that something isn’t right and he finds out from clockwork that apparently the observance were being massive jerks and were manipulating pariah in order to get whatever the hell they wanted and of course pariah is furious with this because he was trying to make the realm a peaceful and happy place but he was being manipulated and controlled into being a tyrant and then imprisoned for it by the exact same people or beings that were controlling him.

pariah dark immediately then overthrows the observance stripping them all of their power and making them pay for what he did to everyone in the realm because technically it was their fault for controlling him. he then goes to Danny and tells him since he defeated him in combat he has the right to the throne but he is aware that Danny is too young, and will have him first  get a bit older before he becomes the next king at that point Danny Lets it  spilled that his parents are the ones who injured him and that they were still human and all of that and obviously pariah is not happy so he tries and succeeds in forming a bond with Danny essentially becoming Danny’s father.

And he also automatically takes Danny after forming the bond to the far frozen to get him checked out because there are severe injuries that  are definitely not okay, and obviously everyone from the far frozen is shocked to see Pariah dark holding Danny, but after he explains exactly what happened they let him see Danny again but by that point Danny had retracted into his core due to his injuries.

Pariah obviously being concerned because he is Danny’s new father figure would try his best to get his new son to reform but what he wasn’t expecting was for his new son to reform  into a toddler round about three years old.

After sorting all of that out pariah dark would then return to his castle and set everything up for his new son/Danny, and after setting everything up he would make an announcement to a very  terrified realm exposing the bad deeds of the observers and declaring Danny the high prince of the infinite realms the next to take the throne.

Pariah dark then spends two years taking care of Danny and fixing the realms

As soon as Danny turns five pariah dark decides to do something that he still thinks is normal because he’s so gosh damn old he doesn’t know that arranged marriages are out of style or not really done anymore but nonetheless he tries to find someone perfect to engage his half mortal son to, and he finds them , he comes across a natural portal of corrupted ectoplasm and learns that there is a group that literally treats this portal like it’s a gift from a higher being or something so he thinks these people might be liminal enough that if there is a child there to engage his son with they will be closer to what Danny is than anyone else.

So during the next ritual the group has he appears and tries to make a deal with the leader to engage his son with any child near Danny’s age and luckily there is a six-year-old boy named Damien.

ra’s al ghul  obviously not expecting a being to  come out of the pit is a bit wary on what he wants but when he hears that this creature is the literal king of the afterlife and that he is looking for a partner for his son he immediately jumps on giving him any one of his own children but when he learns that the being has a five-year-old and does not want his son to be engaged anyone too old for him ra’s then offers Damien since Damien is only six and this is like the best thing that could ever happen having his grandson betrothed to the next ruler of the afterlife is like the best thing that could ever happen to him, and pariah and ra’s end up agreeing to betroth Danny and Damien.

Damien being a child raised by the leag of assassins obviously takes it as a great honor to be the fiancé or whatever to the prince of the afterlife and sees himself as the perfect and only good option so he is going to fully commit to proving that he is the perfect option for the Prince of the afterlife.

And as they occasionally meet up and get to know each other and they both start getting feelings for each other, but they both are  kind of dense  so they don’t really realize it, Danny is the first to realize that he likes Damien after  Damien leaves to go live with his father, and is kind of sad that he can’t hang out with Damien anymore.

Damien on the other hand after spending a single year with his father realizes that he really really misses Daniel/Danny and then comes to the conclusion that he had actually gained feelings for his betrothed and is now upset that he can’t see Daniel/Danny anymore .