Yuki: Okay, today is 4th of March, Two-thousand and ten anno domini.
Anika: TALE OF TWO CITIES = *death of boredom* (I just got to the interesting part. XP)
Yuki: This is episodes 8 and 9, Prisoners of Love and My Brother's Keeper.
Disclaimer: Butch Hartman would projectile vomit out of every orifice if he would read this misshapen horror of a story.
Warning: Mentions of abuse, freaking out on Danny and Jazz's part, seduction (also on Danny's part), psychology (on Jazz and Spectra's parts), spoilers for A Tale of Two Cities, small mention of Hitler, mention of incestuous stuff
Random things from A Tale of Two Cities and Wintergirls (Laurie Halse Anderson)
Note: I made Jack and Maddie's anniversary September 9th, just to make it fit with my time line of the 2007-2008 school year.
Written from March 4 to March 23.
Chapter 8: Love, Death, Imprisonment, and Mind-Games
Danny opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. He had had a nightmare.
(Can you feel that?)
Hands, cold, steel-like hands...
(Oh shit)
He wanted to scream.
Ooh ah ah ah ah!
Ooh ah ah ah ah!
He didn't. Danny looked to his calender.
September 9th.
Shiz.
Danny was reading a book as he wandered into the lab. Who knew that Dickens' A Tale of Two Citiescould be so amazing? He was still confused about the whole 'Darnay getting saved by Carton' being an awesome thing, considering that Carton should've been with Lucie Manette in the first place. Well... By the time that he said those words to her:
"O Miss Manette, when the little picture of a father's face looks up in yours, when you see your own bright beauty springing up anew at your feet, think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you!" He said, "Farewell!" said a last "God bless you!" and left her.
Danny had wanted to cry at those words. To think that a man, described as a jackal, to become a hero for the woman he loved. With so much passion... And to think no one could write or speak with such passion. No Homer, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Napoleon, Dickens, Lincoln, Fuhrer, or Reverend King to elicit such a fire from Danny's mind. It unnerved him.
"Hey, Dad. Can I ask you a question?"
"About the Specter Speeder? Sure."
Of course. His father was oblivious; in his own way, he did try.
Madelyn Fentoncame downstairs. "Jack-dear." She waited until her husband got out of the crazy vehicle. "It's getting awfully late. Is there something you may have forgotten today? Something significant, having to do with today's date of September 9th?"
Danny knew about the calender. The calender that Maddie bought for the New Year that had a picture of Jack and Maddie's matrimony, arrows all around it.
"9th, 9th, 9th - 9TH! 9th? Nope, still not catching your drift." Jack scratched his head.
"Our anniversary, dear?" Maddie chuckled. "Oh, well, I guess it just slipped your mind - FOR THE EIGHTEENTH YEAR IN A ROW!" Her fist swung down and hit one of the propulsion units on the Specter Speeder, sending it into the Ghost Zone.
With Danny still inside.
-Time Lapse-
Danny was shaking by the time he began to climb out of the Speeder.
"Now get this into your head, Jack Fenton! There are some things more important that hunting ghosts!"
Jack looked down at this shaking son. "I know, I know. I'm just as freaked out by your mother's reaction as you are."
The taxi pulled up. Maddie began to pull her suitcase along the ground, with Jack being dragged on the ground. Danny had seen this before, except that he had been with his mother last time.
"Maddie, don't go! I just have a little more work to do on the Specter Speeder and then I'm done!"
"We discussed this, Jack, remember?" Maddie looked at her husband critically. "Visiting my sister? The divorce?"
"Divorce? What?" Danny stared outside. Had he heard his mother right? "Jazz, did you just hear that?"
"Hear what?" Jasmine said, her purple purse hanging off of her shoulder and prepared to go out. "Mom yelling at Dad? Relax, she'll get over it."
Danny had always been anxious, but this sounded so serious. Over something small. "Heh, yeah, but I-I have never heard her so mad."
Except that one time...
"Of course she's mad." She stated, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "And if I'm right, Dad will once again cluelessly do nothing to apologize to her.
"That's where you're wrong, Jasmine!" Jack spoke to both of his children on the stoop. "I have been a little preoccupied with ghosts lately, so I'm traveling to your aunt Alisha's house in Spittoon, Arkansas, to apologize, and give your mother the greatest anniversary gift ever."
After seeing the taxi zoom away and watching Jack chase after it giving two last orders to the kids - "Wish me luck! Oh, and call me if you see a ghost!" -, Danny turned back to his sister.
"Jazz, are Mom and Dad going to split up?"
"I was wrong?"
"Jazz? Jazz~?"
"Wait. He's going to Arkansas? To apologize? I WAS WRONG?!"
Drowning deep in my sea of loathing
Broken your servant I kneel
Flashback of SADNESS
Danny watched as his parents fought, hearing mean words go back and forth. He wondered when Jack and Maddie would realize that many Japanese people could understand English.
:/Idiot/:/Selfish/:/Narrow-minded:/:Imbecile:/:Undeserving:/:Bastard:/:Bitch:/:Unfaithful:/:
"Excuse me?!"
"You had your way with that man, didn't you?"
Maddie was fuming, not because her husband would assume such a thing, but because there was no way he could've found out.
"That is it!"
Danny (3), Jazz (5), and their parents returned to the United States the next day, gaining eighteen hours and a separation agreement.
Jack took Jazz and Maddie took Danny.
End of discussion
:/:Filthy:/:Dirty:/:Whore:/:Slut:/:Unwanted:/:Abortion:/:Bleach:/:Disinfectant:/:Spa:/:
Danny picked up the receipt his mother had dropped.
Agora Day Spa - Evanston, Illinois
(Will you give in to me?)
It seems what's left of my human side
Is slowly changing ... in me
(Will you give in to me?)
Danny saw himself as the New Witch Apprentice of Miracles, age 6.
His eyes were wide, his irises small, his smile evil and cruel.
Looking at my own reflection
When suddenly it changes
Violently it changes
End of Flashback
Danny went to school the next day.
"You should've seen them fighting," he told Sam and Tucker in the crowded hallways. "My folks never fight." 'Anymore, anyways.' "Well, they fight ghosts, but that's different."
"Danny, relax," Sam reassured, placing her hand on his shoulder. "No one gets a divorce over not getting a gift."
"But it's the thing my dad was going to use to apologize. They're right on the brink!" His eyes were wide and wary. "I'm telling you, anything could set them off."
"Danny, you're fine," Tucker said. "I mean, it's not like your mom actually said the word 'divorce'. I mean, if she actually said the word, then you'd have to worry."
Oh no, There is no turning back now
You've woken up the demon ... in me
"She said the word." Danny stopped walking and began to have a breakdown. "Oh man, she did! SHE SAID THE WORD!" He was wringing his hands and his eyes unfocused and scared.
"Tucker!" Sam told the boy, "Say something to calm him down."
"Well, uh, did she say it twice?"
Get up, come on get down with the sickness
Get up, come on get down with the sickness
"I so don't want to do this." Dark stood in front of the ghost portal, webcam/headset on his head.
"You get in, get the present, and get out. You'll be fine." Sam smiled at her friend encouragingly.
"Besides, with this mini-webcam," Tucker injected, holding up his PDAand allowing Danny to see Tucker in the screen, as well as what he saw in the same direction. "I'll be with you every step of the way. But first-"
The boy began to play Pong on his little device. A giggle resounded through out the lab. A ghost appeared.
Get up, come on get down with the sickness
Open up your hate, and let it flow into me
The ghost had long black hair and opalescent skin. This was Dahlia.
"Will Sam monitor the webcam?" Dahlia was grinning innocently, not showing her true nature. Sam glared slightly at her before smiling and agreeing to the task (1).
Get up, come on get down with the sickness
You mother get up
Come on get down with the sickness
You fucker get up
Come on get down with the sickness
Madness is the gift, that has been given to me
Danny got up, ready to go to school. It had been about a week since the 'Divorce Incident', as Danny called it, as to differentiate it from the 'Separation Incident'. The one that occured when he was only three years old.
As he went about his usual things for getting ready for school, Danny noticed something strange in his medicine cabinet.
"Oh, fiz. I'm out of Prozac."
'Oh, fiz?'
'Shut up, Phantom.'
Jazz looked at her brother, disheartened by his actions. He had no reason to destroy Miss Spectra's office. The whole place was ruined.
"Don't you worry about this mess of an office either," said woman assured, seeming overly peppy. "Stuff happens. No biggie, right Jasmine?"
"It's Jazz. My friends call me Jazz."
"Well, your brother calls you 'fink'!"
Jazz turned to her brother, who stood sullenly with his arms crossed. "Danny, I'm just trying to help. Come on, we used to talk all the time."
"Yeah, when I was eight and you weren't a FINK!" Danny stopped as Mr. Lancer directed him to return to class.
Jazz remembered those days. Those depressing days.
More flashback
"We believe that your son has depression."
Maddie had tears in her eyes. Jack held his wife as both he and her watched the boy play with blocks on the floor. They should've seen the signs that the psychologist began to list to them.
"Some signs of early onset depression that we noticed in Danny are persistent sadness and hopelessness-"
Danny crying at night.
"-withdrawal from friends and from activities once enjoyed-"
Danny not wanting to play with Tucker or Sam.
I can see inside you, the sickness is rising
Don't try to deny what you feel
(Will you give in to me?)
It seems that all that was good has died
And is decaying in me
(Will you give in to me?)
"-increased irritability or agitation-"
Danny getting fed up with not being able to play football with his father or make cookies with his mother.
"-changes in eating and sleeping habits-"
Danny not eating as much meat or "anything that had once bled".
"-indecision, lack of concentration, or forgetfulness"
"The white cotton candy or the pink? The pink or white?" "I'm sorry, Mommy. I forgot to tell you about the contest. I'm sorry, Mommy..."
"-poor self-esteem or guilt-"
"Danny's bad, isn't he, Mommy? Right, I'm bad."
"-frequent physical complaints, such as headaches and stomachaches-"
"Mommy, my head hurts so bad."
"-lack of enthusiasm, low energy, or low motivation-"
"I don't want to go to astronaut camp. I don't!!!"
"-and thoughts of death or suicide."
"Where do people go when they die? Can I be a ghost? I want to be a ghost. Can I see a ghost? The ghosts are so nice. Is Heaven nice? Is Hell bad? Hell is a burning place. Heaven is waiting for me, right, Mommy? Daddy, when will I be a ghost? Spirits talk to me. They tell me that I'm gonna be with them soon. Why do people kill themselves? What's murder? What's suicide? What's homocide? Why do people kill other people? Why kill? Is the Grim Reaper nice? Is he really a skeleton? Can I see the Grim Reaper? Could Death be a person? What is a soul? Can you sell it to the Devil? What do you get from God when you die? Can I be an angel? There's blood in my body, right? What happens when it comes out? There's a nerve in your foot that leads to your brain and if you hurt it, you feel the pain everywhere. 'Imo' (said 'emo') means 'potato' in Japanese. Where did we get the word assassin from? Daddy, can you read La Morte d'Arthur to me? Is Hitler in Hell? Why did he shoot himself in the head? Why did he kill 11 million people? Can I get a baby guillotine? Daddy, where's your pocketknife? Mommy, were does cyanide come from? What's in bleach? Does it hurt when you get electrocuted? Can I die in my sleep? Can I die now? What happens when someone kills themselves? Can I kill myself?
"It's so easy to die, isn't it, Mommy?"
It seems you're having some trouble
In dealing with these changes
"No!" Maddie stood up violently, causing Danny to cry out and knock over his block tower. The psychologist walked over to comfort the child. Danny scampered over to his 10-year-old sister, afraid of yelling and hitting. When Maddie tried to approach her son, he cried out more and babbled in Japanese.
"Kowai! Honto ni kowai! Tasukete, onee-chan! Nee-chan! Kowai..."
The only things that Jazz could decipher were "I'm scared. Save me, big sister."
Jack picked up his son, cradling him softly, wishing that the boy could smile, if only in front of others. He didn't have to see his son smile, he would be able to hear it in Danny's happy words.
"Kowai..." Danny's cries reduced themselves to mere sniffling. "Oni zuisho... Onegai, Kami-sama... Tasukete..."
Danny reached out to his mother after accepting a tissue from the doctor shyly and wiping his nose. Maddie also broke down sobbing, making Danny think it was his fault, making him cry more, and causing his mother to believe that he didn't love her anymore, making her tears flow faster and so on.
Jazz stood, watching as her parents break her brother more. She decided that, along with her parents being crazy, she needed to be a psychologist to help her brother.
End flashback
"You know, you're a little over peppy," Jazz said to Miss Spectra, "but my brother might benefit from talking to you. But he's so mad he'd never listen to me."
Living with these changes
Oh no, the world is a scary place
Now that you've woken up the demon ... in me
"So, you're saying my popularity is like completely dependent on my beauty."
Danny looked up to see Paulina come out of Miss Spectra's office. She looked so disappointed.
"I'm not saying it's fair, sweetie, but if you feel you need something, like A LOT of make-up, I say go for it. You're the only you you've got. Danny, come on in."
Once inside, Miss Spectra offered Danny a cookie, which he accepted.
"Witch."
"What?" Miss Spectra looked at the boy, hoping for an explanation.
"You're a witch from the Tura line."
Spectra smirked. "Smart boy. Tell me, how did you figure it out?"
Danny frowned. "You're way too peppy. Most therapists have small symptoms of depression."
"Wow, you are depressed and critical. Your sister did say you could be a bit of a baby."
'What?'
"Sweetie, it's not your fault she thinks you're a loser."
"Wait, Jazz called me a loser, too?"
Get up, come on get down with the sickness
Get up, come on get down with the sickness
Get up, come on get down with the sickness
Open up your hate, and let it flow into me
Get up, come on get down with the sickness
You mother get up
Come on get down with the sickness
You fucker get up
Come on get down with the sickness
Madness is the gift, that has been given to me
"What do you mean, you didn't see a ghost?" Jazz had told Danny about the encounter with two ghosts today at school, but he was denying having seen them. They sat at the kitchen table, Jazz eating some custard that Danny had made for her. When she offered him some, he had declined.
"It didn't look like a ghost to me, it just looked like a big bug. So I ran, like a LOSER." Jazz looked at her brother. He had been eating less lately, tossing and turning in his sleep...
"I was right, you're not going to listen to me, are you?"
"Nope."
"Well, you don't leave me any choice." Jazz put a hand by her mouth to boost her voice. "MOM! DAD! CAN I TALK TO YOU ABOUT DANNY?!"
"What?" Danny turned in his seat. "Jazz, no!"
In came Mom, "Is there something wrong with Danny?"
And Dad. "Is there a ghost involved?"
"Is there something you want to talk about?" Maddie asked, concerned for her son.
"-That involves ghosts?" Jack finished.
"I-I-" Jazz smiled, watching her brother stutter and be forced to talk about his problems.
"Actually, yes! Jazz thinks she saw a ghost today."
What? Not according to plan!
"Tell them, Jazz." Danny smirked at his older sister, his apprentice.
And when I dream
And when I dream
"Enjoy your chat." He left the room. And took a Prozac pill.
And when I dream
And when I dream!!!!
Dream Sequence (In poem form)
The sovereign sat on his fancy throne
Watching his subjects down below
La Guillotine stood, flashing her smile
And yet, all the while,
Sovereign's aunt took hold of his collar
Making him white in his pallor
Danny, this sovereign, was given away
To the man to take purity away
No mommy, don't do it again
Don't do it again
His mother had no idea at all
That these men would have had the gall
To rape any child, but of course, I've digressed
Young Danny would become depressed
After five years of emotional stress,
His ego was put to the test
Danny wrote to his family a note
To them, what he couldn't speak, wrote
I'll be a good boy
I'll be a good boy, I promise
"Goodbye, dearest ones, I will not miss you
For I have found my happiness, 'tis true
For five years, I've known what shouldn't be known
Now for my sins, I will atone-"
Real World
Smiling, Spectra replayed his suicide attempt
And Danny held his emotions in contempt
For he would never admit that he was dead
Thanks to his parents, their guilt is his dread
No mommy don't hit me Oh-oohh
Why did you have to hit me like that mommy?
Dream
"Mommy? Wh-when are you coming home?" Danny looked up at his mother.
"Probably Sunday evening."
Don't do it! You're hurting me Oh-oohh!
Why did you have to be such a bitch?
"What about our p-promise to go to the movies?"
"Movies... Danny, sweetheart, I'm sorry."
----
Danny was on the floor sobbing, the Demonic Witch had torn up his bear.
Why don't you,
Why don't you fuck off and die?
"Stop playing with stuffed animals and make some human friends!"
Danny continued to sob, until he felt the Witch's hand raise.
Why can't you just fuck off and die?
Why can't you just leave here and die?
That Witch's fist wouldn't hit him.
No one's ever would.
Never stick your hand in my face again bitch
FUCK YOU!!!
Danny awoke sobbing, remembering that, even if he didn't kill his mother at birth, he had killed another person, another Witch, at the age of five.
I don't need this shit
You stupid sadistic abusive fucking whore
Would you like to see how it feels mommy?
Here it comes, get ready to die!
Jazz knew that she had seen a ghost. That that ghost was her brother. Oh God, what had happened to him?
"Jazz, did you know that Witches have ghosts that watch over them?"
"Really?"
"Uh huh, my ghost has green eyes and white hair."
"Wow! How can you get a ghost?"
"Do you want to be my apprentice witch? I can only have one right now and you deserve it!"
"Okay!"
"Sign this paper."
"Okay, done."
"You are now Jasmine, Apprentice Witch of Knowledge. Say hello, Dark."
"Hello, new Apprentice."
Danny had looked like his guardian ghost... How the hell did that happen?
Ooh ah ah ah ah!
Get up, come on get down with the sickness
Get up, come on get down with the sickness
"I figured it out finally." Dark had been running around in Danny's body. Danny had been feeling too glum to even get out of his Soul Room. "You're the Tura Witch of Misery, aren't you?"
"I'm sorry," Spectra said, smiling and lowering his sunglasses slightly. "Can I help you?"
"No, I'm sure you can't. You can't help anyone except yourself." Dark let himself be held by the Witch, only to be let go when she felt that there was no misery in him at all, only determination... and passion.
"You find that one thing a kid's most afraid of. Their future, their looks," he said, and thought of his master, "their confidence. And you pick at it and pick at it, while your snippy little ghost assistant feeds on it."
"Hey!" Bertrand frowned. He had been furniture when he was alive, but he was powerful now, so powerful.
"Very good!" Spectra smiled and applauded. Her eyes became red, her body now having a spectral tail and green energy flowed over her like smoke. "But I fear you've missed a few details."
Spectra flew at him, distracting Dark from Bertrand, who had turned into a panther.
The panther pinned the boy to a tree outside. "You thought you were going to stop us?!"
---
Danny heard noises outside of his body.
"You?! You're just a frightened little kid!"
That was true, he felt Dark's fear, but that was overwhelmed by determination... and obsession.
---
Get up, come on get down with the sickness
Open up your hate, and let it flow into me
Dark became intangible as Bertrand swing his clawed paw at him. He came out of the ground and sent a punch right at him.
Danny appeared in a body separate from his own, a staff in his hand and a small cape around him, designed with transformation and spell circles. A veil hid the lower half of his face and a suit of tight black cloth hid his body. Seeing Spectra go after Dark, he pushed the ghost out of her path and got taken by her instead.
"Let go of me!"
'Danny!'
'Don't let Bertrand get away!'
"Why would I do that?" The Witch, tightening her grip on the youth, smiled as his misery, amplified by his magic, flowed into her. "Your doubt, your misery, it's delicious!
"And the best part is-" she continued, flying over to a school window, "-as soon as that silly speech is over, and that last domino falls, and the sparklers vaporize the speaker, we'll leave you here to take the blame! And by the time I'm done with you, you'll be sure it was all your fault!"
Danny looked at his sister through the window. He saw the person who could talk to about his nightmares when he was younger. He saw the girl that he made out with under the bleachers at his middle school. He saw his sister.
"I am so tired of you dumping on me, I'm tired of my parents dumping on me, and I'm tired of dumping on myself." Danny felt his core fill with energy. "Jazz never did that, she never did, and I won't let her down!"
That energy became determination, overpowering the misery that was in him, the speed of which forced Spectra away.
"Bertrand, sick him!"
"Too late!" Danny and Spectra both turned to see Phantom, the thermos in his hand. "Want some new 'Furniture in a Can'?"
"You're through!" The Tura Witch flew at the ghost. How dare he talk to her as though they were on the same level of the Heirarchy!
Get up, come on get down with the sickness
You mother get up
Come on get down with the sickness
You fucker get up
Dark flew around and grabbed her tail. "And you're done telling me what to do!" He punched her, whispering, "Only Danny may do that!"
Dark and Danny smiled at each other.
Danny suddenly gasped and merged his soul with his body once again.
'Jazz!'
Dark rushed through the wall, intangibly and invisibly, and managed to grab his master's sister and get her out of the path of the sparklers.
He set her down on her feet in one of the back corridors behind the gym. He smiled at her.
Come on get down with the sickness
Mad-ness has now come over me
Spectra grabbed Dark and pulled him into a storage room. Dark felt his back against the wall and Spectra's hands on the crown of his head and cradling his chin.
"Look at you." She slapped the Fenton Thermos out of his hands and smiled.
"What are you? A dead Witch and his furniture trying to fit in with humans like me? Or some creepy little boy with creepy little powers?"
"Both! Neither! I don't know!"
"You're freaks!" Spectra smiled as she felt both spirits' misery flow through and she threw the two-spirit body to the floor. "Not a ghost! Not a boy! Who would care for things like you?"
"Excuse me." Jazz appeared with the Fenton Peeler in her hand. "I don't know this kid, but I hope it's okay if he gets a second opinion." She pressed a button and a suit appeared around her. She pressed another button and an ecto-blast hit Spectra.
The dead Witch screamed as her form peeled away layer by layer... by layer by layer...
"Talk about having nothing within," Dark grimaced.
"Ah!" Spectra cried, her form now frail and elderly. "No! I'm nothing without my youth! AH!!!"
Dark caught her with the Fenton Thermos, glad that this was finally over.
The suit around Jazz disappeared when she pressed the first button. "Hey, it worked... but it's still weird."
Jazz was in bed that night, reading a book about Sigmund Freud's theory of psycho-sexual behavior when Danny knocked on her door.
He stood there with a book in one hand and a ghost doll in the other, the doll looking like a typical bed-sheet ghost with a small 'X' for a mouth.
"Can I sleep with you?"
"Sure. You want me to read you a story, too?"
Danny nodded with sleepy enthusiasm. He crawled into bed with his sister and listened as she read "Snow White".
"Once there was a queen who sat sewing by the light of her window..."
Song: Down with the Sickness by Disturbed
1) Sam is a b*tch and Dahlia can be one, too. CAT FIGHT!
2) The Tura line is of witches that feeds off of emotions, usually strong feelings such as anger, ecstasy, and depression.
3) Danny has been a powerful witch/apprentice since he was quite young. Because of his power level, he was able to take Jazz as his apprentice. She, however, was influenced a lot by their mother, meaning that Jazz believes more in science and logic, rather than magic, leading to an accident that harmed one of Danny's furniture pieces (See Umineko for more info).
4) Incest, I see nothing wrong with it.
5) Look it up on WikiPedia. This computer is having PMS and has already deleted everything two times now.
6) Danny's building of relationships with people involves A LOT of kissing. Don't ask why, just accept and build on it.
Leave any questions, comments, concerns (no flames) through the comments link, please.