October 18, 2004: Okay, listen up, you little twerps. I spent all frickin' day on this stupid chaplet so y'all're gonna like it. It's cool! It's.... Cha. Eliza. Danny. Weird mist thing. It's all good.
Today is Fan Appreciation Day, and what better way to honor you all then with a Fan Appreciation Day poem?
When you review, you make me happy,
When you don't, you make me sad,
Sometimes you make me ticked-off,
But you never make me mad,
When I get hit with lots of writer's block
And feel like throwing down my pen,
You show me that my work ain't bad,
And I go off to write again!
coughs Now do you see why I stick to fanfiction and don't venture into the realm of poetry? Geez. Anywho, I was going to put up a nice, long, eloquent speech about how much you guys rock, but I can't find it. My dog ate the paper. It got stuck in Level Zero on Doom. Butch Hartman used it to make a paper airplane. Something like that. So, at the end of this little chaplet, I'll go on a rant about my fans. But first....
The answer to references in Chapter Seven:
FOP: Todd faking sick to watch the Crash Nebula marathon.
Will and Grace: Eliza's comment about Danny and Sam being, "More than friends, less than lovers". Some dude said the same thing to Will about him and Grace.
The Diary of Anne Frank: Conley said, "I said it, didn't I?", which was exactly what Peter said to Anne in the movie.
Yearbook Signing: Conley and Jazz's knuckles brushing together, thus leading to them holding hands; KimuraSato had the same thing in her fic. Though not exactly a reference, I thought that I'd just like to toot Kimmy's horn a bit, seeing as she finally finished the stupid thing. 24 chapters- way to go!
CatDog: In the CatDog Christmas episode, Cat says that, "Christmas comes from right here," and puts his hand on his chest. Then, he says, "No, wait, it's more like.... there we go. Right there."
The Lion King: Eliza suggesting that they break out into "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" when they run into Conley and Jazz. That'd be funny.... I ought to write something like that sometime.
Zombie movies: Oh, come on, people. It's the whole conversation that Todd and Eliza have like three freakin' seconds before Danny goes ghost.
Neverwhere: The Drunk Jazz Scene was inspired by a part in Gaiman's book where the main characters, Richard and Door, get drunk. Read the book to get a better understanding of
Ed, Edd, and Eddy: Basically the use of the word "soiree", which Eddy used when he snuck into Jimmy's birthday party that one episode.
References in all of chapter eight: Another Neverwhere reference, Greek mythology, the Batman comics, and.... dang, that's it? Wow. I rock. Or not?
Here's a mistake: In the last chaplet, Eidolon says, "I don't me the same mistakes twice". The "me" is supposed to be "make". Let this be a lesson to all that the entirety of a story is to be sent to betas.
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Danny in Star CityChapter 8.4: Soulless
With a mighty wrench, Eliza jerked free of the spear and ran towards her brother. He had landed with relative safety; no bones seemed to be broken, though a massive bruise was forming around his neck. If it weren't for the unsteady rise and fall of his chest, Todd would have appeared to be dead.
"Todd?" Eliza whispered, kneeling beside him to check his pulse. It was erratic and slow, way below normal. "Todd, please," she pleaded, laying a hand on his cheek. It was pale and, like the rest of his body, unnaturally cool. She turned her face away from Danny as the boy landed beside her.
"Is he.... okay?" Danny asked tentatively.
Running a hand through Todd's ash blond hair, Eliza shrugged. "I don't
know." She stood up and faced Danny, silently observing the changes he had undergone. The question, "What are you?" flitted through her mind, but first asked, "Are you hurt?"
"I think my arm's broken, but other than that-"
Eliza let her fist fly into the lower half of Danny's face. He reeled back, holding his jaw with his good hand. Pinning him against the wall by his shoulders, she got in his face.
"You," she said, voice dangerously low, "have three seconds to tell me why I shouldn't blame you for all of this."
"Eliza, I can't-"
"Don't you dare give me any of that crap," she snapped. "My brother almost...." She stopped and swallowed. "He almost died tonight. I want to know why."
Danny looked over Eliza's shoulder at the fallen boy; the halfa seemed to sag, and guilt etched itself onto his features. Sighing, he closed his eyes and nodded as bright lights crossed his body.
If watching the transformation from a distance was surprising, then watching it from up close was disturbing. A wave of warmth washed up Eliza's arms as one beam passed under her hands; she felt Danny's body temperature go up a good ten degrees. His hair darkened and his eyes regained their sky blue color, which looked in hers sadly.
Eliza dropped her eyes and, letting him go, went back to sit beside Todd. Danny settled next to her, his left arm held out at an odd angle.
"So...." she said after a while.
"So," he agreed.
"So tell me."
"What do you want to know?"
The girl pondered this. "Everything," she replied truthfully.
"Well," Danny began, "it all started about three months ago in my parents' lab...."
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Danny talked for a long time. There was almost a relief that came from telling someone else about his secret, even though Eliza wasn't the only one who knew, and even though he didn't have much choice in the matter. After starting, he found that he couldn't leave anything out; the tale had to be completed. To Danny, it seemed like hours passed as he recounted his adventures in the past few months.
"....so the minotaur was a ghost, more than likely after me. Todd just got caught in the crossfire. And...." Danny shrugged. "That's it." He had kept his eyes on the ground the entire time, too afraid to see Eliza's reaction. Chancing a look at her now, he saw that she was studying him intently, an unreadable look on her face.
"Say something," he said, almost pleading. He prepared himself for the worst as she took a breath.
"I'm sorry I hit you," she said.
"What?" Danny asked, staring at her in surprise.
"What what?" she asked. "I'm apologizing. What were you expecting?"
"Uh.... something along the lines of, 'Danny, you're a freak. I never want to see you again'," he said. "That's pretty much the reaction I was expecting."
"Oh. Well, no. Now everything makes sense.... well, more sense than it did before," she amended.
Danny shook his head. "Your brother's hurt because of me, and you just accept my story like that?"
"If you want to be technical about it, then yeah, everything is your fault. But you didn't know that that.... ghost was going to attack," she said. "And you did warn me that we could be in danger. And I did kind of pry...."
"Yeah, you did," he said, giving a short laugh. His smile faltered when his gaze turned back to the unconscious child. "I never meant for any of this to happen," he whispered.
Eliza found his hand and gave it a brief squeeze. "I know," she said softly. They sat like that for a few minutes, silently watching over Todd's sleeping form.
Suddenly giving a shiver, the redhead hugged her legs to her chest. "It got cold all of a sudden."
"It's just late at night-" Danny started to cough, and a stream of blue smoke came from his mouth.
"Where?" Eliza asked, her eyes darting around.
With a terrible certainty, Danny stood up and said, "Right here...."
A mist floated around Danny, lightly settling onto his body. It was cold and surprisingly heavy, clinging to him like a second skin. He saw Eliza's lips moving, but her words were muffled, as though said from far off. There was a gentle pressure at his upper torso and the mist sunk into the boy.
It was inside him! Searching, searching, invading Danny's thoughts with its presence, looking for something, for someone.... A sense of complete wrongness enveloped him, and he wondered if this was what it was like for the people he overshadowed. He wanted to scream at this spirit, to yank it out and regain control, but his body wouldn't cooperate. The stranger probed deeper, and the partition between it and the boy blurred.
There was a tug in Danny's mind as the spirit grasped onto a part of his subconscious, seeking to pull it free. Gasping, Danny dropped to his knees and clutched at his chest. There was a wrenching pain throughout his body as the mist flowed out, now carrying cargo. Danny could feel a void within his mind, missing something that he had only begun to be aware he had.
"Danny...."
Danny looked into the face of the speaker. He was an imperfect reflection of the boy; same face shape, same general appearance. A white lock of hair partially obscured his face, framing green eyes. The swirling mist held him locked in place, just out of Danny's reach. Gathering what remained of his strength, Danny reached up. The white-haired ghost reached back, but they were too far apart- their fingertips barely brushed. The mist crawled up around the ghost, covering him in a blanket of eerie blue. It flashed once and dissipated quickly, leaving no sign of it or its prisoner.
"No...." Danny whispered, staring at where his other self had just been moments before. A terrible sense of loss wracked his system as Eliza helped him up. "No.... Phantom...."
An oppressing silence answered his call.
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Ha! Was that a cliffy, or was that a cliffy? Come on, tell me who you love! crickets chirp Oh, screw y'all, I'm going home. But first: the OFtR!!!!
This time, you get not one, not two, but three OFtR! Why? One for chapter seven, one for chapter eight, and one for the accursed time you shan't have any new updates! They are all Danny Phantom, and because of time restriction (ie, Mom telling me to go to sleep), you get no summery.
1. "The Talk" by Inukocharm
2. "Take a Look in the Mirror" by Halacanno
3. "I Wish I Could Hate Him" by valkyrie-alex
My fans.... You rock. Of course, I'd continue to write this story if no one reviewed (for it is dangerous to keep a story bottled up in one's soul), but it wouldn't have been as half as much fun. Each time I get a review, it makes me happy and feel warm and fuzzy inside. You are the reason that I go on! Be proud of your fan-ness, for it is what makes writers like me happy! In short....
I LOVE MY FANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is all. Now, I must go off and prepare for not only November, but a short story contest that ends December 1, 2004. That sucks. I will soon be keeping a novelling journal up on my blog, so y'all can see the progress I'm making. The link is in my bio. Also, feel free to email me at any time: .
Until next time, my faithful readers.