Chapter Text
It started small. Dryness in the elbows. Flakes on his scalp. Danny thought it was a weird reaction to whatever new creation his parents had inevitably made, or stress since senior year was halfway through meaning graduation was approaching. He could also just be sick, of course, some weird ghost illness?
He’d tried poking through his folks blueprints and research stuff just to see if he could actually confirm it was something they made, or if they’d even ‘studied’ whatever was going on. No luck, because of course.
Hell he could even just be a little malnourished or some shit. Kinda hard to tell when you’re basically a one hundred percent unique being and all. At least the stiffness wasn’t new, it was just… different? It wasn’t the typical muscle stiffness, a healing scab pulling at the surrounding skin, or a scar nearly permanently etched into his skin. It was more like his clothes were too tight? Except it wasn’t his clothes but his skin or body? He’d made a point to expend a bit more of his ecto-energy than normal, just in case he was building up too much of it or something. Granted when his core built up too much he never felt taught and tight like this, just really really cold and full.
It didn’t really help, but he hadn’t expected it to. Part of him was tempted to ask Vlad, but he wasn’t about to pester that man over being a little stiff and itchy; general uncomfortableness wasn’t a reason to go running off to his sorta uncle. Especially when this could just, again, be him getting sick, or be something him specific; and thus going to Vlad wouldn’t even help or explain anything. Then he’d have to deal with the man pestering him and trying to figure it out himself while likely being less than nice about it.
Man does he wish it was summer break though, then he wouldn’t still have to put up with school while being this constantly uncomfortable. He’d take having a thrumming undercurrent of pain from a wound, over being itchy constantly; especially since even mixing some ectoplasm with itch cream didn’t help and a cold shower only helped while he was actively in it.
As much as he’d love to just start taking four or five hour showers now, that would be way too obvious of a sign that something was wrong. If his folks knew about him maybe he would just say fuck it and crank up their water bill, but they don’t and he still has zero intentions of telling them.
All that’s to say, he really doesn’t want to go to school today, more so than normal. Squirming in his bed sheets a little more -you try getting and stay comfortable when everything was itchy and tight- before just giving up. Pushing the fuzzy blankets off and wincing slightly at it scratching at his skin faintly, at least he figured out quick that whatever this was it was a very unpleasant idea to scratch. If this had happened when he was still new to the whole half ghost situation, he probably would have messed his skin up from scratching at it; nice thing about experience and getting older, self control. Moving his hands over his head and stretching out till he hears a couple of good pops, putting his hands on his lower back to give that an arching stretch too before pausing.
… Some of that popping really didn’t sound like it came from his shoulders or arms or chest even? His hands or fingers maybe? Did he bust them up last night without noticing or something? That would track…
Pulling his hands off of his back to look them over, staring at his finger tips, there’s blood pooling under all of his nails and starting to drip down his fingers. Weird. Licking them off quickly and staring to see if they start bleeding again… they don’t which is good? Maybe? Hopefully? What the heck did he do to make his fingernails bleed of all things? His suit has gloves! And he doesn’t go around scratching folks in fights.
Shaking his head, getting up to grab clothing, and slinking off to the bathroom quickly. He should at least use the better lighting in there to check things out. So now he’s in his underwear with a bunch of clothing piled on the floor, poking at the skin under his fingernails. It looks like he somehow got a bunch of paper cuts? Edges of skin curled up like pencil shavings. Flicking the exposed edge of a cut and wincing, “oh ow. Yeah not doing that again. Paper cuts are the worst”, sighing, “pretty sure I didn’t fight a sentient stack of papers last night or anything though”. And if he’d managed to give himself paper cuts in his sleep than that would be pathetic and he would never tell anyone because he’d never live down the embarrassment.
Jumping a little when his mom shouts, “Danny! You better get down and have breakfast soon! You’re not staying home!”. Sighing and shouting back, “I’m coming! I’m coming! Can’t a guy catch a piss break once in a while!”; and snickering to himself a little, he can absolutely hear her laugh a little to herself as well. Ancients his throat was sore though, rubbing at it a little; yeah he’s definitely starting to think he’s some kind of sick. Especially since it was a rough kind of sore and not a blown raw from wailing kind of sore.
Well nothing for it, clothes go on and he goes down, even if his skin felt even more sensitive to the materials than it did yesterday. And the cereal doesn’t do much of anything to make his throat feel better… even his lips feel tight, more like cracked lips than anything else. Dry heavy eyelids he was very used to though.
She takes his bowl from him and he’s out the door, trying to make putting his backpack on look less strained than it felt; his skin seemingly restricting his elbows a little. Walking a few houses down before slipping into an alleyway to transform.
Except his rings just sort of stutter and fizz out? Him frowning and staring at them as he tries again, still nothing. Swallowing, “okay? Definitely some kind of ghost issue”. Guess he’s walking to school? Or running actually, since he left with enough time to get there via the air not the ground… ugh. He really wishes he could just stay home.
Are the cracking, creaking, and popping sounds his knees are making worrying? Yeah, but he doesn’t really have the time to stop and check that out.
Holding up a hand in greeting at his friends, “hey, so powers are being weird, gonna need my lock picked, Tuck”, fuck his voice sounds like ass now. Both of them cringing at him.
“Dude, if you’re sick I am so not touching you, you know we always share that shit, warn a guy! And sure thing, dude”, Tucker quickly turning around to get to work on Danny locker.
Sam shaking her head at him, “human sick or ghost sick? You think?”.
Danny sighing and sagging slightly, “probably ghost? Don’t think there’s a human kind of sick that makes your skin tight”.
“Ghosts don’t really have skin, Danny”.
He just rolls his eyes at that, things being slightly different with him wasn’t exactly new. Stuffing his things into his locker when Tucker gets it open, quick as always. “Anyway, I’m going to the washroom to check my shit, I straight up can’t transform at the moment”. Neither of them look impressed with him, making him wince a little, “yeah I know I shoulda led with that”.
Sam putting her hands on her hips and shaking her head at him some more, “well it’s not like Valerie can’t hold her own now, so here’s hoping your terrible luck doesn’t cause an Ancient or whatever to show up”.
Tucker gasping at her, “don’t jinx us!”, then looking back to Danny, “you want us to come with? Social can suck it”.
“Naw, three people in one stall is way too crowded, especially since you guys are all tall and shit now”.
Sam smirking at him, “we’re not tall, you’re just short”; he sticks his tongue out at her immediately. He’s not too surprised he hasn’t exactly grown since the accident but it was still annoying and a bit of an insecurity. Her waving over her shoulder she begins to head of to their social class, Tucker quickly jogging after waving bye to Danny over his shoulder as well, “text if it’s, like, an issue issue! Please don’t get me sick!”.
Danny can’t help chuckling at that before making his way to the nearest washroom, now that he’s slowed down he knows something weird has happened. His knees and hips actually, ankles too maybe? feel like they’re over exposed, not quite raw but similar. Like he’s skinned them. And it feels like his skin in those areas is catching on the fabric of his pants and moving with it? Kinda like when you grab your eyelashes and wiggle your eyelid around… except on knees, hips, and ankles? Yeah something is not right with him in a very not human kind of way.
Moving into a stall, locking it, discarding his pants entirely, and sitting on the toilet. Pulling one foot up onto the seat with the rest of him, prodding his knee and blinking at it, “huh”. His skin has… split? over his kneecap. Frayed edges of skin slightly peeled up and away from his inner knee, touching it and wincing slightly, okay there was still nerves, or at least enough of nerves for him to feel this if he focused on it. Eyeing his ‘inner’ knee and poking that, it’s pale blue and glows faintly, it gives and squishes a little at his touch. It’s… not bone or muscle, honestly if it wasn’t slightly gooey he’d think it was more skin… The blue colour though… makes this seem like maybe it’s a core thing? Why would his core be seeping its ectoplasm over his insides though?
Bending his leg sideways to grab his foot and look at his ankle, same thing there, skin’s ripped away around the joint and everything underneath is coated in a layer of blue semi solid goo. Twisting and grabbing at his waist and hips, yeah it’s the same there too, the skin splits are smaller but still.
Frowning, Danny puts a few fingers to his thigh, breathing and scrunching up his face, before pulling, the skin cracks and splits apart like loose paint, light smooth blue glowing faintly beneath. The pain of it wasn’t acute or belated, like it would be from a gun shot or knife wound; so he thinks his nerves are definitely at least dulled. It took a fair bit of strength to actually split his skin too, so the constant movement must be why the skin around his joints split so easily. But… why was his skin even doing this?
What’s concerning him a little more though is that the tightness was gone around where his skin had split, it’s as if his skin actually was too tight around him? The relief from the taughtness and a bit of the itch is nice but a very small constellation prize.
Danny blinking at his leg, “am I, what? shedding or something? What the hell?”. Danny is pretty sure that if Vlad had ever goddamn shed he would’ve mentioned it, the man spared no details in explaining his whole hospital stay and ecto-acne nightmare. Sure that had more to do with trying to make Danny see his parents in a more negative light, rather than actually giving Danny any kind of information, but still.
… Maybe the ecto-acne was just a different version of this? The contamination from the pop in the filtrator of the proto-portal messing with the way it was supposed to be? Shit was this an adult ghost thing? Blinking and shaking his head a bit, “am I just having a growth spurt from hell?”. Yes he’d like to be taller, he was literally just mentally complaining about his small stature; but not like this! He’s not a freaking bug or bug-themed ghost! Oh ancients he better not be becoming bug-themed, that would be awful.
Geez what if his skin does straight up peel off? What if it peels off in the middle of class? He’ll worry his friends sick if he just hides in the washrooms all day, and at least one of his teachers would call home; he does not want to ‘have a conversation’ with his folks while his body is doing weird ghost shit! Ugh.
Maybe he should just… trying peeling it off now and skip social all together? Hope Mr. Trent doesn’t call his parents? The guy usually didn’t, way too focussed on rambling to usually notice if someone’s not in his class.
Moving his hands to his right hip again, grabbing the skin edges there and cringing, yanking at it again but with more force and hoping this works like a bandaid. Practically cracking a tooth from how hard he has to clench his teeth and hissing, absolutely not like a Band-Aid, ow. Wheezing and bending over a bit, now it absolutely does feel raw and he can hear a bit of his blood drip from his hip onto the floor. If he is shedding, like his whole body, there’s no way he can just rip all of it off like this. He will wind up a crying, bleeding, shaking mess on the floor if he even tries that. Hell, he might even knock himself out from that amount of blood loss, and the last thing Danny needs is for someone to come in and see an unconscious person without skin just laying on the floor; especially because he doesn’t know just how much of his body underneath his skin is covered in this blue glowy goo stuff. Maybe that hurt because there wasn’t enough, or maybe any, of the blue underneath? Ancients, he’s just going to have to wait this out, isn’t he?
Leaning back upright and looking at his hip, grabbing at the skin he somewhat peeled back there, wincing again, yeah the blue layer was still attached to it in weird strings that were more gooey than what was actively exposed. Okay, so the blue was almost definitely still forming, he’s guessing that the blue layer was either a new layer of skin forming or just his core forming something to protect his internals from this? If it was skin then it damn well better not stay blue, Danny doubts he could talk his way out of having freaking blue glowing skin as a human. Damn did his hip hurt now though, not doing that again. At least there’s enough toilet paper in here for him to effectively clean up little blood mess he made.
Okay, so, there’s not much Danny can really do about this other than keep an eye on it. And Ms. Belmont definitely will call the office about him skipping, so to class? Yeah, not much choice there really. Man, he’s going to have to check his face constantly to make sure that doesn’t start this whole possible peeling thing. Pulling his pants back up, cautious of the exposed blue and sections of ripped skin, and moving to head out of the washroom. Health class was about to be even more unpleasant than normal.
The skin he yanked back keeps sticking and unsticking to his inner hip as he walks, it is distinctly unpleasant, he’s seriously regretting his choices right now. Wincing as he gets into his seat, Valerie quirking an eyebrow at him, “okay, whenever you’re wincing I get worried, stabbing or invention?”.
Danny groaning, leaning back in his chair and making a point to keep weight off of his hip that he fucked up, “neither. My body is just being a bitch to me today”.
She nods, understanding, “ah, half ghost weirdness once again reminding me how much better nanobots are than ectoplasm”.
“Hey fuck you”.
She only smirks at him, so he glares a little harder. Then, of course, his cheek feels wet and she goes from smirking to worried, “uh. Danny?”. Him grumbling, grabbing some loose paper, and wiping his face and one eye with it. Cool, blood, love it. She blinks at him, “should I be worried?”.
Him huffing, “I don’t think so”. She looks like she wants to ask, but is slightly afraid of the answer. Fair, honestly. His body could be a bit of a nightmare at the best of times, and this was certainly not the best of times. At least the bleeding stops before the teacher shows or anyone else notices. Danny grabbing his phone to use as a mirror to check his face, yup he tore some skin at the corner of his eye, at least it’s only a small amount so the blue isn’t super obvious or noticeable. It’s passable as weird under eye shadow, he can just say Sam was using his face to experiment again. Sighing to himself, looks like he’ll have to be careful not to make any extreme facial expressions or he’ll literally possibly rip his face skin. Fan-fucking-tastic.
…
He absolutely did not expect the stiffness to make it hard to write notes, he’s only making a how of it purely so he doesn’t get in trouble with the teacher. The constant bending of his fingers and wrists is absolutely making his joints ache, as well as making him paranoid about his skin splitting suddenly on him. He ends up dotting his notebook with blood from the creases on most of his right fingers second knuckles; the hints of blue in there still stringy and making writing physically painful. He’s going to have to get gloves from his locker if this keeps up… and he really wishes pain meds actually worked on him right now. Throwing Tucker a text to get them for him, he’d rather not walk through the hallways with bloodied knuckles, looking like he actually pummeled the shit out of someone or something.
As soon as him and Valerie are out of class, and far enough away from other students, Danny gets his gloves from Tucker. Tucker eyeing his hands, “what, did you decide to take being sick out on a wall? Is the wall okay?”.
Valerie shaking her head, “no a pen did that”, quirking an eyebrow at Danny, “also I did not expect to see someone crying blood today, please don’t do that again”. Now Tucker looks properly worried, damnit.
Danny glaring lightly at her, “you didn’t have to mention that, I just glared to hard and broke my face”.
Tucker blinking at him, “dude, you’ve literally been hit in the face with a spiked mace without so much as breaking your skin before, what the fuck dude”, tilting his head, “you sure you’re just sick or whatever?”.
Danny sighing, “the sick thing was me literally just throwing ideas at a wall and seeing what sticks”. They both sigh and shake their heads at him as they head off to their respective next classes. Honestly he thinks his core is using its ectoplasm to, like, eat or dissolve his skins connection to the rest of his body, getting ready to just slough it all off.
He makes it about halfway through his next class, with definitely a bit of a pool of blood in his gloves, before tilting his head down to look at his paper, becomes one tilt too many. Sending a ripple of pain over his neck and down his spine, his neck making a cracking tearing sound that Tucker, behind him, flinches from. Danny stilling and biting the inside of his lip to avoid making any other noises, glancing his eyes around a little to see if anyone else noticed. Thankfully, no one is looking at him… other than Tucker, who’s eyes he can absolutely feel staring into his back.
Tucker kicking his chair and whispering, “dude, your neck just cracked like an egg. What the fuck?”. Danny not moving as it feels like Tucker put something soft on the base of his neck, it stings only a little at least. “Oh and you’re bleeding, geez Danny”.
It’s not like this, whatever, is Danny’s fault okay? And now he has to get through class without moving his neck around to hopefully get it to stop bleeding… and to avoid making it hurt more.
When he thinks he’s good, the fizzing that tended to accompany healing fresh wounds stopping, he turns his head back towards Tucker gently, whispering, “am I good?”.
Tucker furrowing his eyebrows, “I mean, you’re not bleeding now?”.
Danny sighing, “eh good enough I guess”. Tucker just shaking his head disbelievingly at him.
Looking back up to the whiteboard, but having to bend his head back down immediately and glaring at his desk when the front of his neck by his collar bones also cracks and splits on him. “Goddamnit”, and dabbing the new wound with more of his loose paper. He’s not going to have any paper left by the end of the day is he? At least it looks like no one noticed that either, small mercies.
As soon as the bell rings Tucker grabs his arm and basically drags him out of class, Danny muttering, “careful with the grip, Tuck”.
Tucker snarking back as he’s seemingly dragging Danny to a washroom, “or what? Is a sleeve of your skin going to come off in my hand?”.
Okay Danny knows the guys joking but… “uh, yes? And it’ll hurt like a son of a bitch?”.
Tucker jerking to a stop just by the door, turning to Danny with a genuinely disgusted look on his face, “seriously?”.
Danny cringing at him, “I, uh, kinda took off a bit of a layer of my hip earlier?”. It… feels really embarrassing admitting that.
“Dude”. Tucker turning away and gagging a little before pulling them into the washroom fully. Him pushing Danny to sit down on a toilet and locking the stall behind them, “okay we definitely need to figure out what this is, that is really nasty and I don’t do hospitals”.
Danny pulling his legs up to be sitting cross-legged, mildly hating how tight his skin felt over his spine, he can literally feel it moving over each vertebrae when he hunches over, “Tuck, ugh, I do not know and I seriously doubt there’s any way to actually figure it out”. He has guesses, obviously, but he does not feel like telling anyone he might be literally shedding. He loves his friends and all, his little fraid, but he prefers to deal with the really freaky shit on his own. He’s fine with freaking out and disgusting himself a little, not so much doing that to other people; even friends kind of other people.
Tucker leaning back against the door and quirking an eyebrow at Danny, “so you just wanna do what you usually do and vibe? That’s gonna bite you in the ass eventually, man”.
Danny scratching his head, gently, in case his freaking head skin can split too. He doesn’t feel like accidentally scalping himself or something today. “Yeah yeah yeah, I know. But I’ll take this whatever over my core freezing me up again, and I’m pretty positive it’s something with my core again, and no I’ve not been neglecting expending my core”. He legit thought he was going to fully keel over when his core did that, and according to FrostBite that absolutely could have offed him. Fun.
Tucker sighing, “okay so you do have an idea then? Just not sharing with the class, not cool honestly”, rubbing the bridge of his nose, “but I get that you prefer to figure your stuff out on your own when it’s just you being affected”.
Danny cringing, he knows they’d all prefer it if he was just open with his everything with them. “Hey a guys allowed to be a little weird or embarrassed when his body does crazy impossible shit. Plus explaining would require trying to figure out how to actually word this shit and my throat is not a fan of that length of a convo”; as it is he almost feels like his voice is going to give out on him or something. Swallowing felt like it was causing way more movement than it was supposed to. Oh if his insides are ‘shedding’ too then he’s gonna start crying. How would he even tell, nonetheless deal with that?
“Okay I’ll give you that one, just for the love of everything, talk to us if this seems like a genuine serious problem, yeah?”, and tilts his head at Danny.
Danny nodding awkwardly, mindful of the goddamn split skin on his neck, “I’m not gonna pull another emergency trip to FrostBite or Vlad alone, I’ve absolutely learned my lesson with that”.
“I hope so. Now I guess let’s get to biology, since you don’t feel like being honest here”. Danny just awkwardly follows him out at that. There was no point in apologizing for something he knows that Tucker knows he doesn’t really regret or feel wrong for doing.
Danny is being honest though. He doesn’t feel like he’s in danger here, no extreme pain unless he tries to force this thing to hurry along. He’s just… tight and itchy and tearing apart at the seams very literally.
Tucker whispering at Sam as he sits down, “dudes got an idea what’s up, doesn’t think it’s something to really worry about, he’s just being a secretive baby”; Danny’s just going to pretend he didn’t hear that as he sits down himself. Sam absolutely glares at him.
A whopping ten minutes later and Danny has never wished more in his life that stifling a yawn was actually fully doable. Of course his dumbass didn’t think much about said yawn when he started said yawn, until his mouth freaking split at the sides anyways. Him having to quickly move a hand over his mouth and cheeks, going a little wide-eyed and flinching from the shock. Moving another hand under his chin to try and catch any of the blood he can definitely feel spilling out his mouth/cheeks. Sam and Tucker cringing before kind of leaning around and over him to shield him from any possible on lookers. If this had been back in freshman year Tucker probably would have gotten sick on all three of them immediately. Then again, if this was freshman year Danny would probably be freaking terrified of what’s happening right now. As it stands, he’s more concerned about hiding the fact that his face skin just goddamn split nearly in half! Normally he’d just take a bathroom break and wait for his body to heal up if he got a fucked up injury. But considering he could still feel the frayed ends of his knee skin and whatnot, that was clearly not going to happen. Probably since this wasn’t an injury outside of the bleeding. This was something his body, his ghost half, was doing to him intentionally.
Sometimes… Danny really kinda hates being a halfa.
Sam whispering at him, “do you want me to try and stitch you in the middle of class?”.
Danny shaking his head slowly, hand still over his mouth, “the ecto-line would probably just rip through my skin if you tried”, glaring a little, “and that’s not any less noticeable”.
She sighs but doesn’t push it, just eyes him worriedly while shoving one of her many handkerchiefs into the hand that’s over his mouth; him gladly using it to soak up face blood. Him dumping the pool of blood from his other hand into a ziplock bag when Tucker moves one over for him. Zone they were good friends, especially since he’s not really giving them much hints about what the hell they’re all dealing with here.
Him sticking the handkerchief into the ziplock too when that healing tingle stops. Poking at his cheeks and the sides of his mouth with the underside of his fingers before lowering his hand, it’s squishy and gooey yet slick, “how bad does it look?”.
Tucker almost blurting out, “you’re blue”; earning him some glaring from both Danny and Sam. The guy flushing, “sorry”.
Sam sighing at Tucker before looking back to Danny, shaking her head and moving to dig in her bag, handing him a face mask after a bit, “it’s very noticeable, Danny”.
She doesn’t ask him to explain the blue thing, she knows he’ll tell them himself if he was comfortable explaining it at all. He’s definitely glad for her fashion sense right now too, even if hooking it over his ears tears the skin behind them and the straps on the mask are slightly irritating to the fresh torn flesh.
… hey at least his ears don’t just come off or something. They’d drag him to FrostBite themselves if that did happen though, Danny definitely wouldn’t even fight them on it either. Moving a finger to prod under his ear skin some, just to see if there’s anything solid or gooey solid under there, there is and he’s legit thankful for that. There would be no earless Danny in his future, hopefully.
Tucker blinking, “the fact that you look relieved right now is super worrying”.
Danny blushing and absolutely not responding to that, he so doesn’t want to explain. Choosing to tune back into the lecture to basically ignore them.
Bad idea, honestly.
“-Hormones, particularly juvenile hormone and ecdysone, play a crucial role in regulating the molting process. These hormones trigger the changes in the epidermis, the layer of cells under the exoskeleton, that lead to the shedding of the old cuticle and the formation of the new one”.
Oh Ancients fuck him, why does the universe hate him so much?
“Molting takes their breath away. When larvae slip out of their exoskeleton, the lining of the tracheoles comes with it. It's like having your lungs ripped out”.
Well at least he doesn’t actually need to breathe right! Fuck his insides were totally getting fucked up too aren’t they? Or maybe his ectoplasm will just dissolve and auto-cannibalize everything, if only he could be so lucky. Him groaning, thumping his head on the table and covering his head with his hands; if anything his blush is absolutely worse now.
Tucker chuckling at him, “at least you being this much of a blushing mess just means it’s embarrassing”; well at least the guy finds Danny’s suffering funny.
He can hear Sam’s chair moving around a little, “if you’re blushing over what the teachers talking about, then so help me Danny I’ll start hitting you”.
Tucker gasping a little, “oh shit yeah this is kinda like a bug cracking and pushing out of its skin or whatever, just… more drawn out? And on a bigger human-sized scale?”.
“Bugs shed because of their hard shells, dumbass. Humans, halfas included, don’t have hard skin last any of us checked”.
Thing is… his skin has gone kinda hard, a thin kind of hard but still. Like it wasn’t stretching and moving with him properly anymore.
“And halfas and ghosts don’t follow the rules of this realm, Sam. Hard skin might not be needed”.
“Have you ever seen goddamn Vlad shedding? I don’t think so”.
“Oh don’t you start with that. Vlad and Danny aren’t always the same”.
“If he was tanned under the cracks then I could maybe see it, not freaking blue”.
“Maybe the blue will change colours when it dries or something, you know like the bugs”.
… they’re gonna start actually shouting if he doesn’t interrupt this, aren’t they? He does not need anyone hearing his friends having a shouting match about the possibility of ‘freaky Fenton’ shedding, dear Ancients. At least any marginally normal person would probably think they’re talking about dandruff or, like, his feet or something. Still though. Groaning into his desk, “guys”.
“Shit sorry, dude”.
“Sorry Danny”, Sam huffing, “I still think it’s ridiculous though”.
Oh goddamn him. Sighing, “I don’t”. Honestly? This really was probably him becoming an adult ghost, and this was just his human sides way of dealing with it. He knows for a fact that Vlad was already an adult ghost by the time he finished fully forming his ghost half, since his took years to form while Danny’s formed in an instant.
…
And Vlad’s ghost form was significantly different from his human form. Broader chest, the hair, pointy narrower nose and ears. The whole vampire look. Human Vlad had goddamn stick arms and legs, Plasmius very much did not.
Him lifting his head up to eye Sam, she’s staring at him like she actually meant her little threat earlier. Ugh, he’s going to actually have to explain himself here, “I’m eighteen, Sam. This is probably part of me becoming an adult, ghost wise anyways”.
“Are you three done? I'm trying to teach a lesson, here”.
All three of them jumping, Sam and Tucker spinning back around in their respective chairs, Danny straightening up and cringing from his chest cracking and feeling the new frayed skin there rubbing against his shirt. At least he’s wearing a red shirt, so any bleeding might go unnoticed.
Tucker eyeing him, “seriously?”.
Danny just shrugging awkwardly and immediately regretting it when the skin around his neck by his shoulders cracks some, he’s pretty sure none of his neck skin is actually attached to the rest of his body now, ugh.
Tucker looks utterly done with Danny’s shit, which is fair honestly. Danny’s pretty annoyed with all of it at this point, himself. Though he’s frankly thankful for Lancer basically ending this conversation for him; even if the man is squinting at him weirdly a bit now, it’s probably the face mask, hopefully. If he has to talk about this shit, he’d rather it be after the fact? Once he’s done dealing with it.