DannyMay 2020. Day Ten
"Corruption"
Edited 18/10/2020 to fix a typo.
Hotep Ra looked over his Pharaoh's shoulder to where the servants were building the new sphinx to reflect Duulaman's glory. A small smile began to form on his bandaged face, but was quickly dropped when he heard their ruler sigh, and saw him slouch in his place, his gaze far away. That would not do.
"What disturbs my master's peace of mind, I wonder." He said, his voice smooth like silk.
Duulaman startled, seemingly not remembering Hoteph Ra was there, but again turned to look away.
"Has there been any news from Danny?" He asked.
Of course. Him. "There have not been sightings of the half ghost so far, my lord." He saw the Pharaoh drop his gaze, and kept nudging him. "Would you be willing to share your thoughts with your loyal servant?"
The Pharaoh gave a longer sigh. "'s just, y'know, cool to have all this power, but there's not really a point when you can't share it with your best buddy. Sam won't approve of it anyway." He chuckled. "I know we had just fought, but still…"
"Ah, yes." Hotep said, a calculating air about him. "Could you remind me the reason of this fight? It might give me some insight as to how to advice you best."
The loose hold in which Duulaman had had the Scarab Staff tightened, and the ghost could feel his influence flow through it and into his Pharaoh's mind.
"They wouldn't pay attention to me," and there it was, that ting of bitterness and disappointment, "at all."
It wasn't hate yet, but they would work on that.
"And where are they now?" He inquired.
"Not. Here." The Pharaoh stood up and walked away, his face contorting as emotions passed through; anger, hurt, contempt, anger again and exasperation. "What does one have to do for them to see me? Is all of this not enough?!" As Duulaman raged, his loyal servant smiled internally. "I know they'll end up together and that's why they are so over the moon with each other, but is it too much to ask to be given the time of the day? If they're so sick of me they could just… tell me so…!" They had reached his rooms, and he was now sitting on the edge of his bed, still holding onto the Staff. "It's just… it used to always be Danny and me, and then Sam came along and –don't tell her I told you this– she's great too! And then it was the three of us against the world and it was great! I loved it… but now it's like besides ghost hunting, they only got time for each other.
"Like I'm just their hanger-on, or a third wheel, and they are leaving me behind. I thought we would be together forever, but maybe they got tired of me and I hadn't seen, or wanted to see it…" Tears were trailing down his cheeks now, his nose was running and Tucker just wanted to wrap himself in a bunch of sheets and disappear. "We are supposed to be a team, if they leave me, who will I have?" He broke down in sobs, his body shaking, his eyes shut tightly. "I don't want to be alone…"
And he cried, and cried, until his strength had left him and he had no more tears, and the shaking of his shoulders had turned into a slump.
Then, there was a hand on his shoulder, gentle, but Duulaman couldn't move away from it, and the Staff he was still holding tingled, and he was staring into Hotep Ra's weirdly green eyes.
"Then we will show them how much it will cost them to cast you aside, and they will know better than to look down, or away, from you."
"Yeah…" The Pharaoh lifted his chin.
"And they will both regret their mistreatment of you."
"Yes." He stood up, his tears dried off, the Scarab Staff firmly in place. "And they will see, they will have to." He looked back at his advisor, who was smiling proud at him. "We will make them."
And as Pharaoh Duulaman turned away and exited the room, he didn't see Hotep Ra's proud smile morph into something twisted and far more sinister.
Long author note ahead.
This is obviously another one of my favourites.
At first I just wanted to write something about Hotep Ra and the Staff's corruption of Tucker in "King Tuck", an episode I barely remember.
But since I barely remember it I had to look up some stuff for references, so I obviously first consulted the wikia. When that was unsatisfying because it was too impersonal, I went to Tuckers character sheet on the TV Tropes website, and a part that stuck with me was along the lines of "in season three he didn't have as much focus as the former seasons, mostly because it focused on developing Danny and Sam's relationship" iirc, which annoyed me because I hate when romantic plots overshadow (pun not intended this time) friendships and platonic relationships.
I also thought on what was supposed to be his major flaw, in that when he had power it often went to his head, and of that I remember "What You Want" and "King Tuck" being put as examples, but then I thought, "But wasn't that supposed to be like that because that was the intention of who gave him the power?" Desiree said that with Tucker's jealously his ghostly powers would grow stronger and stronger and then there was that big ghost Tucker that was never mentioned again, and in King Tucker it is my understanding that the Staff was corrupting Tucker if not Hotep Ra. He was a 'friendly' figure that validated and gave what he wanted to a fourteen-year-old who felt neglected by his friends, so even if I'm not 100% sure I wouldn't discard mind control in there somewhere.
Then came The Feels™.
So that's how this came to be and I rather like it :)
Also, I now hate Hotep Ra (: