π°πππππππππππ 2021_Day 18 [Trick]
~Original Headcanon: Danny's Death Day on Fall Equinox/Libra's start~
Category: Flashback Anniversary AU, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Happy Ending.
Trigger Warning: Realization of Death, Talk on Death,Mention of unintentional Self-Harm in like one (1) sentence, Mention of "Torture" given by annularly chronic pain.
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Amity Park News had a Trivia Corner among its pages, which usually hosted many facts on beliefs from other cultures about ghosts or supernatural events, like Will-O-Wisp in Scottish Folklore or Japanese yΕkai.
One of the latest article described the meaning behind the Crimson Spider Lilies.
They were flowers that bloomed around the Fall Equinox and that had made Buddhist monks use them to celebrate the advent of the season by bestowing them upon relatives' graves. A sort of gift to the deceased.
(The other significance behind them as being used in funerals like signs of the Final Goodbye had been left out, probably deliberately given what happened next.)
The article had been released at the start of September, letting many fangirls (and fanboys) of Amity Park freak out in real-life conversations and private chatrooms, until the A-Listers decided that it was totally appropriate and well-meaning to organize something similar for Phantom on September 23rd.
The idea spread like wildfire, surprisingly managing to avoid Manson's group of misfits, that sore loser of the Gray girl and the older Fenton student, the first two due to being school pariah and the latter for being too focused on her studies. (That much secrecy and discretion had been so exceptionally executed that it would have seemed supernaturalβ¦)
Thus, on the Equinox, the whole school had waited in anticipation for their hero's appearance, since there wasn't a day when he wouldn't be spotted around. Even the football team didn't harass the nerds to avoid losing their chance (and so they didn't notice that the three oddballs and the other two girls hadn't showed up).
The day went on with no sightings well into mid afternoon and the students went through at least three or four stages of grief for missing their chance of celebration.
Many gave up, since they had other matters to attend, and whoever had brought a single Spider Lily flower decided that, maybe with Phantom being a hero, he had been occupied as well, so they began staking their gifts on either sides of the school entrance staircase.
Near the sunset Dash and Star had to drag away Paulina, after convincing her to let go of the entire bouquet she had bought, since she was "Phantom's #1 Fan".
If after school hour even some of the adults stopped by to leave a scarlet flower, it was still due to being informed by their teen relatives or they had thought about sending a gift as well after reading the article, but the majority stayed away from that display.
Sure, the flowers arrangement was meant to show that people cared about Phantom, but it seemed⦠rude to try and remind a poor teenager ghost of his demise, since they were "grave-blossoms".
(And they would have been right.)
(None of them had to witness Danny Phantom shift back and forth to Danny Fenton all day, while trying to keep him distracted enough from the literal shocks of pain that wracked his body, in order to stop him for clawing his skin open.
Luckily, since after the first disastrous and traumatizing anniversary, Team Phantom had developed a pair of gloves impenetrable by his sudden literal claws for the following years.
None of them had to listen to his death wails as he pleaded for the pain to stop.
None of them had to see and counteract his powers acting up out of nowhere and threaten to destabilize him.
However, they wouldn't have needed to. A reminder of death could be painful for whoever received them, if they still existed.)
(The only flower that would have mattered was another Spider Lily, anyway.
The one that Ghost Butterflies and Moths would have brought back from their hidden Lair, where only them could have access to.
The flower of Truth, Peace, Restful and Calming Feelings.
The Blue Spider Lily.*
Only one of those mysterious blossoms could make the anniversary day-long trauma-reliving cease.
And since the access to Earth's Realm had been far from their Lair, the Lepidoptera took a long time to reach Danny.)
If Fenton's neighbors noticed that in the year of the "Spider Lilies Assemble" the chaos that usually had gone down for two years in a row on September 23rd in the hunters' house stopped abruptly around midday, we can't know.
What they did notice afterwards, was the new glittery crystal-like spidery cyan flower perennially blooming and sparkling near one bedroom windowsill, always surrounded by at least one butterfly and one moth.
And if they would happen to gaze at it for long enough under the sunlight, they would feel what serenity was really like.
(And that pain wouldn't be able to each Danny Phantom anymore.)
* Yes, Kimetsu No Yaiba (Demon Slayers) fans, don't "at" at me, I know that they were used as a plot point in that story, but in RL they actually exist and they have those meanings in flower language.
A/N. This was supposed to be centered on the melancholy of existing a half-life, but while I was describing the fangirls'/boys' behavior my mind went:
"Why can't I harm Danny a little?
Why can't I add the Headcanon that on every anniversary of your death you must relive it until the Zone Butterfly/Moths reach you with the remedy?
AND like the Christmas Truce absolutely no one is allowed to disturb the suffering ghost and doesn't really want to anyway because they remember their own and respect this kind of suffering?
AND! The flowers are sacred and Observants-level preserved?"
You know, like a sane normal person.
So here it is, I used the Lepidoptera as Tinies because when I searched for the pollinators of Spider Lilies, they were the main ones, plus the image of a shiny crystal-like flower on Danny's desk under the sunrays surrounded by them appealed me a great deal.
Any question you have, I'll be glad to answer them, so please don't be shy!γ(Β°wΒ°)γ
Hope you liked this, type ya tomorrow!
Will Day 19 be Blood Magic or Cosmic Horror? Check in "Domestic Phantoms" and you'll find out!