Disclaimer: I own nothing except my own words.
Author's Notes: I'm not sure who originated the headless Danny alternate universe. I know it's been floating around the Phandom on Tumblr, though. This is a series of oneshots in that AU, because I want to see how many versions of it I can come up with!
"Ragdoll"
Headless AU: Take 1
Danny really hated when this happened.
Well, he didn't hate it, per se; it was an annoying, but necessary, evil. He stood in front of the bathroom mirror, needle in-hand, and inspected the damage. He'd ripped out a lot of stitches on the right side of his neck — so many that his head was threatening to fall onto his left shoulder completely, ripping out the remaining stitches that kept his head on. He had to be careful with how he moved, or he'd have a much more difficult time sewing himself back together.
He plunged the needle into his skin, not feeling much of anything. After his head was severed, the nerves around the cut didn't seem to sense anything anymore. Danny's needle, strung with the emerald thread he'd found in the sewing kit, quickly created a strong seam along his neck. Danny was beginning to become an experienced hand at this, which was a relief. For the first few months, Tucker had to sew Danny's head on almost every night after ghost fighting — at least once. Finally, Danny had asked Tucker to just show him how to do it, and was able to make a decent, though not great, seam after a lot of practice. He was glad for the considerable improvement from his own not-so-great-but-decent stitching. Strong seams meant less repairs — and less accidental headlessness.
Still, repairs were something that occurred on a daily basis. Sometimes, Danny found himself in front of a mirror, fixing his seams, multiple times a day; it depended on how many ghosts he ended up fighting. Once or twice, he'd ripped his head completely off during a fight and, when that happened, Tucker had to stitch Danny together as if the ghost boy were a project for his sewing class.
"Hey," Tucker had said on too many occasions, much to Danny's chagrin, "at least you've got a good head on your shoulders."
And, every time, Danny had responded with, "Tucker, leave the bad puns to me."
Unfortunately for Danny, most of the ghosts in the Ghost Zone found Danny's condition hilarious, especially when his head was knocked off in the middle of a fight. It had turned into something like a game, where ghosts would aim for Danny's head or neck and see how long it took for them to rip his head off. Not many managed to do it, though that never stopped any of them from trying.
Something that had evolved from the Head Game was the idea that, if Danny's head could be cut off and sewn on again, then any part of his body could do the same. Ghosts went after Danny with knives and axes and swords, just to see if they could cut off something else. That's how Skulker managed to remove Danny's arm, chopping it off piece-by-piece. Technus had gotten a few fingers on the opposite hand. The finger stitches were the extremely annoying, since they ripped out the most.
After fixing his neck, Danny inspected his other seams. They stood out from his bare skin, multi-colored from several restitchings. The seams around his shoulder, elbow, and wrist were fine, but the finger stitches on the other hand were loose and tearing in some places. With a sigh, Danny began to fix them.
So, he thought, this is what a ragdoll feels like.