Latest Posts by kreerain - Page 2

An explanation of inconsistent writing:

Someone close to me is undiagnosed bipolar and our household is suffering for the lack of accountability this has caused.

They have trauma associated with someone from their past who had it, but instead of trying to get ahead of it, they're so deep in denial that they are blaming everybody else for losing the car keys, when they find them the second they bother to look.

All of my goals have suffered from this. My free time is so full of anxiety that I can't write more than a handful of words at a time unless struck with inspiration.

To everyone following me on AO3, I'm sorry my updates and writing are so inconsistent. I'm doing my best.

With his trinkets, oscar makes a replica of the lamp. Problem is, he doesn’t remember which one is the real one until someone takes it and it get bigger.

Kleptomaniac Oscar

Oscar is a kleptomaniac. He doesn’t notice when he does it. His aunt compensated this by getting beads, pretty stones, and other small things. He learned how to do crafts with small items and he sells them next to his aunt’s stall on market days.

This makes life interesting when he joins RNJR+Q at Haven. Lots of little things go missing, dust, scrolls, lien. When they go looking for them and ask Oscar to help them look he looks confused until they start describing small things. Then to their confusion he starts patting himself down. He pulls more out of his pockets than they’d realized was missing, including Qrow’s flask. He apologizes and explains what his aunt had done and asks them to keep an eye on him because he doesn’t mean to steal anything, he really just can’t help it.

Nora thinks it’s hilarious and likes to take him on walks near prejudiced people. Ren helps Oscar return most of the things he takes. Jaune and Ruby (and later Yang, Blake and Weiss) get small trinkets (of various price and durability) to leave around for him. The first time he empties his pockets to find fistfulls of dust flakes and painted nuts and bolts he freaks out and tries to return them. Yang just laughs and asks his favorite color and Weiss hands him a bunch of containers for safely holding small amounts of dust and proceeds to teach him about dust. In great detail. He also finds an odd amount of glitter packets and weird not quite gem things. Jaune teaches him about sequins. Blake, after seeing him look at his assortment of oddities, leaves spools of thread and lengths of yarn. An unusual amount of cloth scraps find their way around that no one will admit to. (Qrow). There’s also still beads.

Soon enough, small treasures are found around the house: patchwork kerchiefs with initials beaded into corners, glittery cloth bookmarks, bracelets and necklaces with beads and nuts and bolts, sequined wrist and ankle bands.

2 ideas:

1st - Different Dead have Different "lifespans". I don't have to research for accuracy or realistic information so...

Also, baby ghosts Must Be Protected. How long is a Realms Being considered a baby? 3-1,000 years, give or take. Some other versions of dead aren't even considered babies! They just form/revive at peak.

So the Must Protect for baby ghosts is an impulse for all Realms Beings and Adjacent. This leads to some interesting found families with various lifespans.

Like how sometimes in nature animals with cross species adopt. Wolves will adopt humans, for example. I've read before about a kid growing up with dolphins or gazelle/deer.

So, for the dpxdc tag, Jason the Revanent Adopts Phantom the Halfa. Only, instead of recovering normally in his Haunt, Jason got stolen away and dumped in foreign nasty ectoplasm. So his core didn't grow right and his instincts are messed up. This is the Pit Rage.

So, now you've got 2 dumbasses because Halfas don't have the full set of instincts either. :D

2nd head cannon - How a ghost dies has an effect on how their core forms. Usually, it's not an issue, just has an impact on power levels, future abilities, weaknesses. But sometimes, it has a huge effect on the core itself.

Danny died in the formation of a portal to the Infinite Realms. He died by electricity and was revived by ectoplasm in an endless cycle of pain for seconds to minutes. His core formed and was destroyed in an endless cycle of reliving his death exactly as he died until he fell out of the portal.

He has severe core trauma from the moment he died and doesn't know how to find help. His instincts are buried under Death Trauma and Fear, because all he knows about ghosts is his parents' very biased opinions.

When the ghosts start coming through, he has No Context and plenty of fear. Other ghosts, given the context of what they learn about his life, through context clues or Vlad hiring them, should ask questions. 'This electric attack looks like it causes extra pain. Have you seen a doctor to make sure your core is fine?' 'Oh, your parents are hunting you too? Exactly how long have you been dead, that they don't know?' 'How you return us to the Realms, if your parents are hunting you?' 'I've seen you in your parents' lab when I've come through. Do you live there? While they're hunting you?!'

Because they don't, they have no right to complain about anything he does. Skulker and Technus, if I remember right, have both been hired by Vlad. The Vultures too. So, given gossip, all of Danny's regulars really should have suspicions.

Frostbite doesn't leave the Far Frozen, so he can be forgiven his ignorance. Somewhat. When helping with his ice powers, he probably checked on his core and saw how bad it was. And assumed he'd gotten help for it already. Because that's reasonable. But did he ask Danny, 'hey, your core is in bad shape. You're seeing someone about that right?'

Culture of the Ghost Zone

SO! This is less of a full on prompt, and more of an opportunity.

I've been in this Fandom for over a year now and over that time I've seen so many little bits or lore and headcanons about the Ghost Zones Culture, but I've never seen a single post put them all together.

So, here I'll try to write down as many as I can think of, and anyone else can add their own Headcanons, or add to whatever I or someone else writes!

...

So! My personal Headcanon is that when a Ghost Passes on, it's a thing to be celebrated.

Ghosts are Immortal Beings, holding onto a desire or unfinished business that tethers them to the Mortal Plane. They live, because they are Unfulfilled, unable to accomplish the task that would allow them to Pass on, and be at peace with themselves.

So when a Ghost manages to fulfill their Obsession, manages to Pass On to the After? It's something to CELEBRATE!

Like when a Viking would die, you don't just mourn their death, you celebrate their Life! A Ghosts Passing On is much the same. When one of them manages it, there are parties across the Zone of people who knew them, or people who didn't but still want to celebrate! It's a Joyous thing when someone you know was able to find peace!

...

Ghosts socialize through Battle.

Ghosts are Immortal, Superpowered, and Stuck together for Centuries. They are going to fight, and they are going to love the thrill of it!

From the freshest of Newborns to the Oldest of Ancients, All Ghosts love the thrill of Battle. It's one of their defining traits! They have Centuries of nothing to do and energy to burn, and they devote it to the art of Combat!

And it's not just Brawls! Some Ghosts prefer to battle with Swords alone, others with their Fists and no Powers, others with their Powers and no Fists, there are entire communities of Ghosts who have specific Rules, or Customs for Combat!

In one part of the Zone, it may be common to Tackle any Ghost you see and instantly start to fight them, but in another? That would be seen as Rude, you need to throw down your glove in front of them to request a Battle!

Or in another section of the Zone you may be forced to battle without Weapons whatsoever, in another it may be Without Powers whatsoever, or with ONLY Powers!

The Fight Culture stretches far and wide, no two parts of the Zone are exactly the Same

...

Art is highly Valued.

Of course not all Ghosts are entirely focused on Battle, and even the ones that are like to focus on something else from time to time. Some of those Ghosts were Artists when they were Alive.

And they continued to make Art in Death. But this Art is Special, with all the Time in the World, a Ghost can spend Decades or even Centuries on their Magnum Opus! It would be their Life's Work, something they dedicated their entire Afterlives to!

So of course, it is respected. Ghosts know better than to ruin or destroy another Ghosts work or Art. Be it a Statue, a Painting, a Song, or a Theater Production.

...

I think that's Good for now, what do you think? Anything to add to the points I written down? Any entirely new points to add?

Go ahead!

After this, someone gets the idea to put the card on a lanyard. Whenever Danny is in an environment where he might get comfortable to sleep, or he hasn't slept in days, he can just throw it on. It's custom made with cartoon ghosts, tombstones, and zzz's.

Hearthcore needs a home. The Pit Rage was a consequence of being denied a home. Talia's manipulation made it worse. Bruce sets off the Pit Rage because paranoid and emotionally constipated. The manor being home and Bruce being himself send complicated signals to his instincts which, you know, sets him off.

Personally, I think it would be funny if, after this gets cleared up, Danny starts purring when he's comfortable around Jason. Maybe even just making ghost sounds that remind Jason of small animals calling for parents or packages.

I can just imagine, a Bat or Bird breaking in to find Jason and startling Danny so bad he makes scared baby ghost noises and Jason comes barreling into whatever room gun draw and eyes flashing, bundling Danny into a blanket as he points the gun at whoever had the absolute *gall* to scare the baby.

Jason's roommate is strange.

dp x dc promp

Jason Todd rented a small apartment, he has a roommate in it. This dude pays half a rent. But Jason almost never fucking sees him.

Danny is working strange shifts, was the explanation.

And one day Jason comes home and Danny sleeps at the kitchen table. Or at least Jason thought he was sleeping, but he was dead.

Then while Jason checked what could have happened, Danny opens his eyes says good day and walks away.

That happens around three times, and Danny at some point just started walking through the walls, since Jason knew something was off anyway, so no need for hiding his powers.

So Jason's roommate is Strange.

But Danny would say the exact same thing about his roommate. This Jason dude was really strange.

Thanks

Danny turned the knob on the door to the old janitor closet and stepped out only to pause.

This was not his high-school. Instead he was in a fancy office of some kind with a bunch of blueprints on a desk. Oh well, his portal powers were new and still developing so when he realized he would be late for school even if he flew he decided to use his new ability and aim for a closet he knew the cleaning crew only used sparingly.

At least he partially succeeded. It was a cleaning closet, just not the cleaning closet. He knew he should hurry and at least try to get to school on time but he also knew that it would be a waste of effort, besides those blueprints looked pretty interesting.

It only took a moment before Danny spotted something wrong with the first blueprint and out of habit of correcting his own parents blueprints so they don't explode and whatnot, he grabbed a red pen and began correcting mistakes and leaving little notes and helpful suggestions. He even drew up blueprints for new parts to make the energy consumption for one blueprint design functional.

"Wha-how did you get in here?!"

Danny jolted, dropping the pen and papers as a tall man stood in the doorway,probably Mr. Fox if the nameplate on the desk was anything to go by. Danny made a quick excuse about Narnia needing him before ducking back into the closet and flying out and away with his ghost powers...only to find out he's in another dimension and Amity park doesn't exist here and not one but two weird rich people want to adopt him.

He wonders if this red Hood guy would protect him from the horrors of adoption if he asked nicely.

1 Vlad

2 Danny

3 Dan

4 Danni/Ellie

5????

Danny turned the knob on the door to the old janitor closet and stepped out only to pause.

This was not his high-school. Instead he was in a fancy office of some kind with a bunch of blueprints on a desk. Oh well, his portal powers were new and still developing so when he realized he would be late for school even if he flew he decided to use his new ability and aim for a closet he knew the cleaning crew only used sparingly.

At least he partially succeeded. It was a cleaning closet, just not the cleaning closet. He knew he should hurry and at least try to get to school on time but he also knew that it would be a waste of effort, besides those blueprints looked pretty interesting.

It only took a moment before Danny spotted something wrong with the first blueprint and out of habit of correcting his own parents blueprints so they don't explode and whatnot, he grabbed a red pen and began correcting mistakes and leaving little notes and helpful suggestions. He even drew up blueprints for new parts to make the energy consumption for one blueprint design functional.

"Wha-how did you get in here?!"

Danny jolted, dropping the pen and papers as a tall man stood in the doorway,probably Mr. Fox if the nameplate on the desk was anything to go by. Danny made a quick excuse about Narnia needing him before ducking back into the closet and flying out and away with his ghost powers...only to find out he's in another dimension and Amity park doesn't exist here and not one but two weird rich people want to adopt him.

He wonders if this red Hood guy would protect him from the horrors of adoption if he asked nicely.

He's helped the little girl, who was in a coma Astral projecting and had managed to get lost from the hospital she was in, and figured he was done.

A couple of months later, there's a knock on his dorm door while he's doing school work. He figures it's the dinner he ordered and opens the door.

Outside stands a red haired man, who seems confused about why he's there. And. That Girl. The not-a-ghost girl. The coma patient girl. Looking smug as hell. "Thanks for helping me get better!" She chirps.

He slams the door closed.

What the hell? She wasn't supposed to remember!

Danny's retired. The ghost of a little girl doesn't particularly care about that.

He's in Star City, attending college, trying to keep his shit together after some huge villain attack that almost leveled the city.

And the ghost of a little girl stops him in his tracks.

Normally, ghosts leave him alone. They know when someone's too strong to fuck with, and they know he doesn't want to get involved in hero shit.

The exception being murder victims who want him to help point cops in the direction of their murderers....

...and this one little girl.

She bears the marks of death by collateral, so clearly not a murder victim.

Danny tries to brush past her.

She reappears.

This happens again. And again. And again.

"Look, kid, if I help you then every single ghost is gonna be on my ass for making an exception. You need to move on, for your sake and your family's-"

"My name is Lian Harper," the little girl interrupts, kicking him in the shin, "An' you're gonna help my dad, whether you like it or not."

You have been booped by this empty wrapping paper tube.

Reblog to boop all of your followers with it.

Kleptomaniac Oscar

Oscar is a kleptomaniac. He doesn’t notice when he does it. His aunt compensated this by getting beads, pretty stones, and other small things. He learned how to do crafts with small items and he sells them next to his aunt’s stall on market days.

This makes life interesting when he joins RNJR+Q at Haven. Lots of little things go missing, dust, scrolls, lien. When they go looking for them and ask Oscar to help them look he looks confused until they start describing small things. Then to their confusion he starts patting himself down. He pulls more out of his pockets than they’d realized was missing, including Qrow’s flask. He apologizes and explains what his aunt had done and asks them to keep an eye on him because he doesn’t mean to steal anything, he really just can’t help it.

Nora thinks it’s hilarious and likes to take him on walks near prejudiced people. Ren helps Oscar return most of the things he takes. Jaune and Ruby (and later Yang, Blake and Weiss) get small trinkets (of various price and durability) to leave around for him. The first time he empties his pockets to find fistfulls of dust flakes and painted nuts and bolts he freaks out and tries to return them. Yang just laughs and asks his favorite color and Weiss hands him a bunch of containers for safely holding small amounts of dust and proceeds to teach him about dust. In great detail. He also finds an odd amount of glitter packets and weird not quite gem things. Jaune teaches him about sequins. Blake, after seeing him look at his assortment of oddities, leaves spools of thread and lengths of yarn. An unusual amount of cloth scraps find their way around that no one will admit to. (Qrow). There’s also still beads.

Soon enough, small treasures are found around the house: patchwork kerchiefs with initials beaded into corners, glittery cloth bookmarks, bracelets and necklaces with beads and nuts and bolts, sequined wrist and ankle bands.

Thank you @umbra95 and everyone who got me to 100 reblogs!

Soul mark au

Humans have soul marks, a picture on their skin representing the one person who compliments them, helps them grow, keeps them safe. Some people have multiple soul marks, some only one, and some not at all.

Ghosts have Fraid marks, images or features in their appearance that reflect the members of their Fright.

Danny has had his soul mates, Sam and Tucker, for years. Sometimes, he'll find an odd colored bruise that lingers and doesn't hurt, but he doesn't think much of it.

Then he dies. His ghost form only shows his face, all other skin hidden away. It takes a while before he can bring himself to check that his soul marks are still there. It takes longer still to learn about Fraid marks.

"Why does everyone here wear sashes anyway?" Danny asked one day, while stopping by the Far Frozen.

"We are a Fraid. We are all similar in many ways, so we manifested another way to show our inclusion in other Fraids," Frostbite responded easily.

"What do you mean?" Danny asked, confused.

"Our Fraid marks," Frostbite said, indicating his own, "Many beings of the Realms have their own way to show their marks, but we have no skin to show, and not all of us appreciate colored fur. This might be our Lair, but we have our own predators here if we aren't careful."

"What are Fraid marks?"

"Marks that show our allies and allegiances. Your human friends may even have their own marks."

"Sam and Tucker are my soul mates. I've had their marks forever. My sister, Jazz's too. But I haven't gotten new marks since I became a halfa."

"Didn't you notice?" Frostbite asked, amused. "You are a human ghost with fangs, pointed ears, and claws. You are here to check on other physical changes. Many of your friends in the Realms are not human, or have a very distinct non-humanoid form. Fraid marks are much more versatile than human, or even liminal, marks."

The himbo act is only partially an act. Sometimes, Danny really is that dumb. Danny will play up Jack Fenton obliviousness, but he really does have his own blind spots.

But space? Yeah, Danny literally cannot help himself.

Okay so Danny gets adopted by Bruce. Yeah? Yeah.

And they don't know about his powers? Obviously. We know this part of the story.

BUT. On a casual trip out for food or whatever, Danny and some of the bat sibs get cornerd by reporters and paparazzi. There panicking bec danny JUST got here and they haven't had time to breif him on how to interact with the media and he's totally gonna flounder and they need to help him before he totally flubs it!

Exept, he doesn't. He smiles, nice and bright, into the camra. He waits patiently for each reporter to ask their questions and then answers confidently, giving them something walst acctually answering nothing. "Where are you from?" "A small town, I'm sure you wouldn't know it but, really, it's about where I am now."How did you come to be adopted by bruce?"Well, I look quite a bit like my new brothers, don't you think? Haha. I like to think it was meant to be."

And on and on he gose, dancing around them, shareing professionally worded jokes and calmly addressing eatch person as they viyed for his attention, controlling the flow of conversation.

The bat kids all look at eatchother.

This kids been media trained.

Soul mark au

Humans have soul marks, a picture on their skin representing the one person who compliments them, helps them grow, keeps them safe. Some people have multiple soul marks, some only one, and some not at all.

Ghosts have Fraid marks, images or features in their appearance that reflect the members of their Fright.

Danny has had his soul mates, Sam and Tucker, for years. Sometimes, he'll find an odd colored bruise that lingers and doesn't hurt, but he doesn't think much of it.

Then he dies. His ghost form only shows his face, all other skin hidden away. It takes a while before he can bring himself to check that his soul marks are still there. It takes longer still to learn about Fraid marks.

"Why does everyone here wear sashes anyway?" Danny asked one day, while stopping by the Far Frozen.

"We are a Fraid. We are all similar in many ways, so we manifested another way to show our inclusion in other Fraids," Frostbite responded easily.

"What do you mean?" Danny asked, confused.

"Our Fraid marks," Frostbite said, indicating his own, "Many beings of the Realms have their own way to show their marks, but we have no skin to show, and not all of us appreciate colored fur. This might be our Lair, but we have our own predators here if we aren't careful."

"What are Fraid marks?"

"Marks that show our allies and allegiances. Your human friends may even have their own marks."

"Sam and Tucker are my soul mates. I've had their marks forever. My sister, Jazz's too. But I haven't gotten new marks since I became a halfa."

"Didn't you notice?" Frostbite asked, amused. "You are a human ghost with fangs, pointed ears, and claws. You are here to check on other physical changes. Many of your friends in the Realms are not human, or have a very distinct non-humanoid form. Fraid marks are much more versatile than human, or even liminal, marks."

Ok, so.

Blob ghosts are like ecto filters. And there are some fics where ghosts just...roost and lay eggs or whatever. Biology says: now you have babies. But the babies aren't always the same level of intelligence.

But if you share ecto during this time or whatever... I mean, look at Box Lunch!

So Danny's little ghost babies need a little extra, because their Mama is part human. This Wayne Enterprises contest helped him find a way to stabilize his babies with Real World materials AND fulfill the Protect obsession they inherited from Danny.

The animal designs for the Fenbots? Those are the bodies his babies wanted. The mass produced filters? Blob ghosts really like their job. (Also, some fics say blob ghosts are gossips. This and Technus, is the communication system for the Fenbots.)

Ghosts hear about what Danny is doing for his babies and go, huh. Can you help with mine?

Danny quickly becomes a ghost doctor specializing in identifying obsessions. Some Fenbots have multiple Littles to balance Obsessions. Some merge together and work better for it. This also happens, naturally and willingly, when people start pack bonding them.

The little ones are flexible for a while and Danny's are at least a little more present in a way others aren't. So they more easily bond back and have favorites.

So that Sea Dragon that didn't make it? Was Danny's baby. Maybe bonded with one of Princess Dora's. And while the Core Protection System worked, that body is gone. So of course he held a funeral. (And if that town got a ghost dragon that spent as much time checking in on the kids and turtles it protected as swimming in the sea like it used to, well. No one's complaining.) (If there's sometimes an extra dragon, no one says anything. Just local legends to tell tourists.) (The Atlantians know and invite it down to visit sometimes.)

Maybe Danny has babies like normal ghosts. Maybe giving his blood/ectoplasm to the machines is enough. And the more they are acknowledged and loved by people, the more they grow.

There's an up-and-coming Tech Giant, called Fenton Works, and Batman is determined to prove that the company is a front for a villain.

Danny, after his parents turned from Ghost hunting to being the first official Ghost Anthropologists, decided to repurpose some of their weapons.

And, well, there was a contest being run by Wayne Enterprises; whoever can design a robot that will help the environment got prize money and a grant.

Danny, in all his mechanical engineering prowess, was bored. So he designed a thing. Repurposed the Fenton Guns into a cute robotic tortoise that would clean the beach.

It spiraled from there, and now Fenton Works is the leading name in green technology that's cleaning up the Earth bit by bit. Sea Dragon robots that clean oil and trash from the ocean; beach tortoises that clean the sand and beach and deposit their hoard of trash into designated receptacles that Danny uses as material to make more robots; Cryptid "stalker" robots with long legs that delicately patrol forests to perform "fuel management" and clear out the underbrush to help manage wildfires; moving gargoyle robots that sit on top of skyscrapers to help clean the air with huge sail-like wings, etc.

Basically, Danny pulls a Doctor Elisabet Sobeck, but with less world ending and more actually helping. (Not that the world ending was Elisabet's fault, of course, but different franchise)

And due to the number of times aliens try to attack and rogues send their own robots to attack people, naturally Danny installed self-defense protocols, along with one single golden rule written into the very OS of every single robot; Save Humans Whatever the Cost.

Problem is, Batman has never seen robots like this not be used for evil purposes, and he knows that their power source (a closely guarded Fenton Works secret) is some sort of liquid that glows green.

He really only knows of one liquid that glows green.

So he's determined to find everything he can about Fenton Works, because there's no way that Daniel Fenton isn't actually a villain in the making.

Danny's just thrilled for the chance to work with Wayne Enterprises.

Halfas can't die because they're half ghost, so normal stuff can't kill them. But they're also half human, which means ghost specific methods don't work either.

Fun fact: ghosts have death scars.

Fun fact: just because they can't die, doesn't mean they're unmarked.

So, Danny learns this on accident when he goes to visit Frostbite about all the scars he's been getting from Vlad’s Plasmius Maximus.

And Frostbite is horrified by the assortment of Death Scars on the Great One.

And then he learns that Phantom is still a newly dead *baby*.

Death has been trying to reach the Joker about his expired extended Life Warranty.

But Death is an abstract thing, and it's reach is really limited to around those with a good understanding or connection to it.

Enter Danny Fenton entering Gotham for a fieldtrip.

Every single time the Joker is near Fenton, every fucking time, lethal accidents happen.

No one is hurt, except the Joker.

He's convinced that this kids a meta and his power is Bad Luck.

Danny's convinced the Joker is an idiot who has no situational awareness.

Lady Gotham is convinced this is hilarious and keeps delaying Danny's class return trip.

Dp x dc idea 159

Danny is being hunted. Both his parents and the Giw. They all think he is a villain so he might as well be one.

He’d just choose who he’d be a villain for.

By then he had one choice. The flash. That man seems to care about his villain . He doesn’t think the man would let one of his villains be tortured or experimented on.

After his recent escape from the parties hunting him he sets out for central city. He’d just be a villain to an actual decent person instead.

I’m personally imagining him still a teen and doing the most mundane crimes. Just using his powers enough the cops can’t do anything to stop him.

Santa is on strike due to global warming.  All presents this year will be delivered by Sasha the Christmas Tiger.  Milk and cookies may not be sufficient.

So, Danny is Dick's younger brother. He was given up because he was born premature and had health issues. Dick didn't know or thought the baby didn't make it.

Fast forward, Dick is now Nightwing and Danny is Phantom. Danny is in Gotham, for whatever reason, and comes across someone who echos ectoplasm back at him, like a half formed core. It's familiar in a way he can't name.

That chemical that is used to make Talons, Dionesium, is a stabilizing force for halfas. Dick has trace amount in his system.

Danny, in trying to find this guy, keeps finding Talons, who are all ectoplasm starved halfas with injured cores. Danny quickly learns to be careful about them, so when Nightwing shows up, echoing ectoplasm, Danny treats him like a Feral cat.

Red Hood thinks this is hilarious until Danny does it to him too. (Per DC, the Lazarus Pits are impure Dionesium. Per fanon, the Lazarus Pits are rotten ectoplasm.) Danny doesn't know about that yet. All he knows, is he just found out he's not as alone as he thought and these two are even nice! Even if the one with a clearer core is very obviously sick with some kind of contamination.