Green Eyes

In Your Shadow

Valerie smiles at the flashing lights, blinking her sight away from each snapping photo. She poses with her hip poked out and her hand resting against the arm of the man holding her. Her smile beams for the cameras. As for the man next to her, his smile is more relaxed and practiced. He's been on a few of these red carpets before.

Danny and Valerie are escorted to another end of the carpet, where they join another notable couple. It was Mayor Folley and Samantha Manson, both partners of the event being held that evening. Danny moves to join them for pictures, and Valerie stands back. Tucker smiles and claps a hand on Danny's back and the two pose as great ole pals for the cameras. Sam joins in next to Danny whilst Valerie stands out of frame.

After another flash of light, Danny briefly looks around and spots Val in the cut. He walks over to her to lead her back in for their final picture. He holds her between Sam and pulls everyone close with his welcoming arms, making all four of the friends look the closest they've ever been, and finally the last photo snaps.

Their evening transitions into a lavishly decorated banquet hall where Valerie is seated at a table in the front. She's accompanied by Tucker, Sam, Danny, and their families.

Though she's dressed in a pink satin bodycon with a pair of diamond earrings and a matching necklace, she can't help but feel so invisible while sitting at a table of stars. Over the course of the event, her smiles begin to tighten after each interaction and her laughs have calmed to a gentle snort of air at jokes.

She's uncomfortable, but she isn't a stranger to this feeling. Whenever Danny is with his friends, she often feels like the fourth wheel to this friendship. But she sticks it out. Only for Danny, of course. With the only exception being Tucker, who is extremely sweet to her, he has been one of Danny's only childhood friends to really embrace her. Valere knows she's still not accepted by all of his loved ones and has made peace with the ones who won't ever care for her.

"So I was asking Box Ghost what the actual fuck are you doing? And guess what this goofball was doing? Stealing Amazon Fulfillment Center Packaging," Danny's hand light hit the table in emphasis as he expresses his ire for his long nemesis. "It's like you can't make this stuff up. He was trying to stop the entire city from having packages and had weird evil envelopes chasing the staff. Jeff even called me from some alien number and demanded I apprehended the Box Ghost." At this point, the entire table was a mix of laughter and amazement as Danny exuberant retells some of his most peculiar stories of ghost hunting.

He finishes with "Let me tell you, Amity Park will always be my home, but sometimes I wish we had better ghosts."

Valerie and Danny still resided in Amity Park. They had dedicated their ghost-catching careers to staying anchored close to home. They made the city their base and have expanded their network of Ghost Hunting through Fenton Works and the connections of Damon Gray.

Damon is Valerie's father, and also a former employee of Axion Corp. That is before he infamously fired with no thanks to her calamity-prone boyfriend and their dog. Her father was able to recover overtime and rebuild his reputation, which finally landed him federal employment, which he used to help fund programs with Fenton works and the government in their supernatural department.

The influx of attention to Amity Park didn't come without benefits. The tourism revenue revitalized the city's budget and Mayor Tucker used it to upgrade the city into a mini technologically savvy metropolis, making it one of the most technologically forward cities in their state. This allowed for Tucker to gain much fame and high acknowledgments in politics, which became the overall appeal of him continuing his career as mayor.

Basically, it has its perks.

Unsurprisingly, this has made ghosts like Nicolai Technus more powerful and influential. His mischief has escalated on par with the introduction of new technologies in the city. This has also expectantly caused other ghost copy-cats to find their own niche with crime in the city using nuanced and creative technologies to their advantage.