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Lancer can’t help but smile to himself, watching as the stage lights up properly and he stands to the side ready to spend the next half hour shaking hands. It had been a crazy four years. With ghosts and catastrophes practically every day, yet every last one of them made it through. Some a little more than others of course. Elliot left the town, one too many traumatic near-death run-ins with the G.I.W.; not that Lancer could blame the teen. Those men were a scourge on the town.
Giving his head a mental shake and refocusing on the students that are here. This is probably one of the strangest classes he’s ever taught. Sure he had had some strange and not exactly... human students over the years; Lancer prided himself on noticing those little oddities that most of humanity never did, he felt it made him that much better of a guild and teacher for the youngsters. But well, the Defect Quartet, as they had come to be called, was on a whole new level of strange. Not to mention the strangeness of the town and the somewhat acceptance of the supernatural here, had effectively encouraged more ‘thought-to-be-myths’ creatures to come to the town, Fahrenheit 451, half the bloody class wasn’t human. And he’s not sure any of the Defect Quartet counted as human themselves.
Anyways, back to the ceremony.
Like always Dashiel Baxter is the first to approach, as Ishiyama calls him up, and like always the large teen takes a strange level of pride in that. Sometimes Lancer did wonder if he had some giant in him or possibly troll, but they didn’t really fit right; besides a towering height didn’t equal inhuman. At least he grew out of the bullying stage, mostly, at the same time as he grew in height. Lancer still wouldn’t call the teen nice, though he might actually just get lucky and really make it big with football. No one was surprised he got a sports scholarship, and to one of the best universities, sports wise, on top of that. Even broke up with Paulina so he could go without a long-distance relationship ‘holding him back’; he probably just wants to hook up with some university ‘babe’. Though if he does make it big, then Lancer might just start watching football, if only to watch his student ‘tear up the field’. Regardless the football star gives his hand a hard shake, unnecessarily hard in Lancer’s opinion.
“Emilie Erinache”.
Ah yes, one of the many vampires he’s wound up teaching. Not that she seemed to care to hide the fact. It was rather hard to ignore the frequent flash of fangs or flash of annoyed red eyes. He’s pretty sure Daniel suspected she was a ghost for a bit there. She was nice enough and a good student, but you couldn’t pay Lancer to be alone with her in a secluded area for any prolonged amount of time. Lancer wasn’t a fool, this girl was more dangerous than most of the ghosts around town. Though come to think of it, wasn’t she the daughter of the mayor's cousin? Huh. She’s probably also the only student that’s going to give Daniel a run for his money on ‘coldest handshake’.
Star Fate starts walking up a bit before her name is even called, he’s glad to see the excitement. He’s always had a feeling she didn’t care much about schooling and had little plans to have the kind of normal job Highschool could actually prepare a person for. The ectology and mythology courses really brought up her grades though. She’s one of his students that’s been here long before Amity became the world’s most haunted town, Catcher In The Rye, her families been here longer than his! Though based on her writing and occasional mess ups with time eras, he’s pretty sure she’s related to some god or another. Lancer’s good but he’s not that good to be able to figure out relations, unless of course said god shows up for parent-teacher meetings; like that Damian kid a few years back, Hades wasn’t a half-bad guy actually. The meeting was still one of the most terrifying moments of Lancer’s life though. He’s glad Star’s relative stays away, even if he’s positive she is not another one of Hades relatives. His main suspect is Hecate honestly, which yes may very well be slightly influenced by him being fairly certain she’s practicing to become a witch. Hence why he whispers, “I wish you magical good luck in the future, Young lady”, with a wink as they shake hands. She just grins softly at him.
Lancer composes himself and tries to not look ridiculously overjoyed and proud. Daniel Fenton’s next and trying to not be insanely proud and relieved is nearly impossible. That boy worried him so much and for so long. Schooling was nearly a lost cause on him even though it was so obvious Daniel wanted to do well. He was one of Lancer’s greatest mysteries and one of his greatest worries, until he put together the Phantom situation that is. He’s taught a lot of students, a lot of different creatures, but half-dead hero god-king was a new one. And the King thing really threw Lancer through a loop, never would have figured that out without overhearing that FrightKnight ghost. Lancer had something of a mild crisis that night, because unlike every other student, what in the name of Shakespeare is he supposed to teach a king??? Especially when he’s not just any king but the king of death itself, Daniel made Hades look like a tiny little blackberry bush. But at least Daniel’s happy, both of them grinning genuinely as they shake hands, and that’s all Lancer really wanted for the teen. Though yeah, he’s still got the coldest hands and Lancer’s pretty sure everyone knows somethings up with him by now, since even now Lancer can feel the power running through him; Anna Green Gables, he can practically see it.
“Tucker Foley”.
The name call grounds Lancer back to reality, not that Tucker was any less overwhelming. That teen had too much intellect, much like Jasmine. But while she was just smart in a good way, he was too smart for his own good. Not to mention the unhealthy obsession with electronics. The number of tech toys he’s taken from that teen over the years could fill his entire house. Which might be why him looking exactly like Duulaman was mind-boggling. Who would have thought the most technologically advanced person he’s ever met would also be a reincarnated pharaoh. At least Tucker knows, based on the occasional Egyptian clothing or makeup anyway. Lancer’s also pretty sure he’s overheard both Daniel and Tucker himself saying the teens got servants and a ghost army. Which... that’s actually rather terrifying knowledge. Tucker had an impressive ego, even his handshake has a level of egotistical to it.
Valerie Gray doesn’t even wait for her name to be called before effectively power-walking over. Lancer is both impressed and concerned over how she manages to feel like the single most dangerous person in the entire school. Even compared to Daniel, who could probably tear someone’s soul out with a touch, or Emilie, who he knows actually kills people a few towns over. Sure her being the Red Huntress and an Android technically (she had an ecto-biotech suit in her veins, Lancer’s sure that’s enough to qualify as an android), explained it some. But at least she is world’s better of a person than she used to be. Fourteen-year-old Valerie wouldn’t even recognise eighteen-year-old Valerie. Girl was tough, could handle herself, was responsible, and strong-willed. Sure she had a serious anger issue to this day, but no one could call her shallow or stuck up. Her handshake, like always, makes him feel like she’ll assault him if he makes one wrong move.
“Brittney Hale”.
Ah yes, the girl who got to sing at the beginning of the graduation ceremony. Girl had a set of lungs on her. Sure she was a banshee, and that was probably unfair to the rest of the vocally gifted in the grade, but still. She’s one of the ones that moved here after the ghosts came, if he recalls she moved here just before Amity actually became properly aware there was a ghost issue. Which did rather garner her and her family a lot of very suspicious stares. New family moves in and all the sudden the towns sucked into the land of the dead? Little suspicious, even to Lancer. But banshees and ghosts apparently hate each other, plus all the ghosts having something of a knee-jerk fear response to Daniel’s Wail resulted in them staying very far away from the family of creatures known for their wailing. Lancer can understand, seeing as he has to repress a shudder while shaking her hand; Daniel’s Wail was the stuff of true terror. Hence why whenever the news caught him winding up to use the thing they muted the sound; though Lancer does remember the time nearly every house near the NeverWoods had to buy new electronics because everything with speakers got blowout by a wail. He’s pretty sure someone from the Hale’s family was at fault for that one though.
“Todd Hemlock”.
....
Lancer sighs to himself as the teen has to actually get shoved to go, he had been more interested in cleaning under his nails with a small switchblade and likely wouldn’t have made any attempt to move until he was done. At least Todd pockets the weapon with a scowl and walks over after being shoved though. Lancer gave up trying to confiscate those things from him, since the teen seemingly just had a massive stockpile of them at home. Sometimes he’s surprised no ones afraid of the teen, especially when he made the whole demi-Demon thing explicitly obvious. Lancer doesn’t think he’s ever gotten through a conversation with him without getting either snarled or growled at; and there was that notable time the teen bit him. Daniel had smacked Todd over the head for that one, since apparently Daniel was literally the only person that teen would actually listen to. Lancer blames the entire town basically being a deathtrap for why no-one fears him though. That, and the fact that ‘weak loser weirdo Fenton’ can boss him around. Shaking Todd’s hand is definitely going to leave a bruise, at least the teen didn’t try to break his hand. That’s something.
Dave Hockner is another who basically runs up before his name’s called. Not that Lancer expected any different from the jock. Overeager as he was, he was probably the only jock Lancer has never seen, caught, or heard bullying anyone. Real good kid. It’s unfortunate he’ll be leaving, seeing as he actually managed to get a football scholarship to a pretty decent university. Lancer really hopes the teen takes his advice about him not being able to make the big leagues; he’d make a great nurse though. Though half the students in this school would make good nurses or paramedics, since first aid and field wound treatment were mandatory classes.
“Sophia Holly”.
Lancer smiles, watching the girls long silver hair barely touching the ground as she walks up the steps. She caused a lot of commotion when she moved here, since her beauty rivalled Paulina’s with ease; probably the only reason Paulina remained the ‘queen bee’ was that Sophia wasn’t rich. Lancer was more impressed by the fact that she wasn’t some kind of fae or an elf. she was perfectly human, her entire family were. Her signing ‘thank you’ to him before shaking his hand only makes him smile more, to this day he was incredibly proud to teach the sign language course and he’s glad her coming here got the rest of the staff to finally listen to him about a class like that being a good idea. Though, Chicken Soup For The Soul, convincing them to also learn was headache-inducing.
“Kwan Ishiyama”.
Lancer watches their dear principal from the corner of his eye, her pride was barely hidden. Though it did still piss Lancer off something fierce that her son being a jock was the entire reason why punishing any of the jocks or cheerleaders was nigh impossible. She had a favouritism problem a mile long and seemingly cared very little about the other students. Looking back to the jock, at least Kwan was a kinder person than his mother. Lancer’s not sure if him and his father being druids was to blame for that or not. Though Kwan not taking a football scholarship is definitely blamable on the Druid thing. Lancer’s heard Aiden Ishiyama is taking a sabbatical with the teen to a few temples or something similar. Aiden was a strange man, so it was hard to say; why he took his wife’s last name is one thing Lancer has yet to figure out. Their handshake is strong and maybe a bit overeager on Kwan’s part.
“Dale Kale”.
Lancer’s smile becomes a bit forced, glancing quickly to the tables where the Kale family was supposed to be seated but of course were not. The lot of them couldn’t even be bothered to come. Sure, he’d rather Dale’s family not be here, or anywhere near the teen for that matter, but not showing up to your sons graduation was just mean. At least Dashiel gave the teen a ride here; if he hadn’t then Lancer would have done so himself. Dale honestly worried Lancer more than Daniel some days, his abusive parents were effectively a town secret; the fact that they were incredibly wealthy didn’t help. Lancer has tried to help, he had made more than a few calls and offered his home to the teen more than once, but his parents always lawyered up or bought people out. And mayor Masters didn’t seem interested in doing anything at all. Lancer can only hope that his last-ditch effort, and severe violation of privacy, of setting things up so Daniel absolutely knew would do something. Lancer would bet his entire collection of Doomed expansion packs that buying out Danny Phantom and his massive protective streak is not possible. That, and getting Daniel to care might get Vladimir to care; since Daniel seemed to be the only teen that man cared even an ounce about. Which was rather worrying especially because he’s certain Valerie was working for him for a while.
Regardless he shakes Dale’s hand gently, mindful of any bruising he might have hidden somewhere. Whether from football or his ‘parents’.
“Sarah Klame”.
Lancer gives himself a mental headshake and watches the red-head saunter her way over. To be honest, the kitsune was probably the hardest to figure out, he also rather doubts she’s actually a teenager. But she was a good intelligent student so he lets it slide. Even if the times that she and Daniel got along, instead of seemingly hating each other, were rather terrifying. Two tricksters get on like a Twilight fan and a Dracula fan. At each other’s throats if you debate which vampires are ‘real’ vampires, but a terrifying force of nature if someone tried to argue that vampires period sucked... or if you even brought up Fifty Shades Of Grey (Lord Of The Flies, that Book Series made him want to weep and mourn the art of writing itself). Though Sarah was one of the students that absolutely knew that Lancer had figured her out, hence the flash of slitted fox eyes and a sharp-toothed grin as they shake hands. Leaving Lancer chuckling to himself some. Watching her sit down almost regally and crossing her legs, again Lancer suspects she’s older than he is.
“Nathan Lester”.
Lancer has to force himself not to grimace when the teen sends Valerie in the seats a flirty wave, out of all the inhumans and craziness in this school, it was Nathan who creeped him out. He gave the teen more than one talking to about his stalking behaviour, amongst other things. Some days he wondered why the Huntress didn’t just threaten, shoot at, or assault the boy; not that Lancer encouraged that. He’s pretty sure that both Samantha and Daniel have smacked him in the face with a locker door before though. The Defect Quartet protected their own after all. And yet Nathan still would not just give up already. He was internally thankful Nathan’s parents were sending him off to an out-of-state university; and even more thankful that Valerie’s response to him asking her to come with him so they can ‘begin their honeymoon’ was ‘HELL NO’.
He’s still stuck shaking the teen's hand though, even if he really just wants to scold him for coming on to the Huntress again.
“Samatha Manson”.
Lancer is not surprised the first thing Samatha does is scowl over being called Samatha before walking over. She was one of the only students he didn’t call by their full name -besides Dashiel occasionally- purely because her hatred for her full name was impressively intimidating. Why she hated it so was another thing he had yet to figure out; and he doubted he ever would. It might be as simple as it being too ‘girly’ and ‘high-class’, seeing as she hated those two things; even with her and her family being second only to Vladimir in wealth and class in Amity. He does still get a chuckle out of how furious Paulina was to discover the goth was wealthy mere days before graduation. Lancer, of course, knew, as did most of the staff of Casperhigh and adults of Amity. Just the same, pretty well the entire town suspected she was a witch; even Lancer entertained the idea. The fact that she often wore gemstones and frequented the local occult shop didn’t help. And maybe if Daniel hadn’t wound up half-dead, and thus landed her as one of his sidekicks, then maybe she would have become a witch. But Lancer thinks her work with plants and interest in herbalism suited her better; her greenhouse was impressive even back in her freshman year. Now it was terrifying, impressive, and a bit impossible. Lancer blames that on the plant ghost god, he managed to find footage of that ghost ‘choosing’ her, Cask Of Amontillado did he feel bad for Daniel having to fight her like that. But whatever happened between the ghost and her, Lancer has a feeling didn’t go away or wear off. Whether that means she’s just ‘blessed’ by the ghost god or has become a plant Demi-god herself. He can’t help grinning at the small leaves she’s nail-polished onto her fingernails as they shake hands.
“Mia Melony”.
Lancer almost sighs to himself as the girls heels click almost aggressively loud across the stage. Lancer is still not sure how he feels about the entire student body referring to her as ‘the bitch’, as apt as the title is. The girl was mean and had a serious mouth on her. She also had a tendency to act like... well like a drunken old man. Though she was fiercely protective of her girlfriend, Hanna, and he’s pretty sure the two of them plan on ditching the town to travel the world. Or as Mia had said ‘eloping out of this shithole’. He’s pretty sure Mia’s parents have zero idea, and Hanna’s don’t even live in town or with her at all. Mia’s handshake is strong, firm, and one single pump; her walking away from him with a scoff and a hair flip.
“Jasper Redwood”.
Ah yes, the dark elf that’s only been here for a single year. Lancer isn’t going to claim to know why he decided to go to a human school rather than staying with his clan; especially when Lancer discovered that Jasper wasn’t just any dark elf but a high dark elf and one of the princes at that. Which again, what exactly, is he supposed to teach royalty??? Though it is possible he came here because of Daniel specifically, an alliance between royals perhaps? If so they've kept that completely hush hush. Even so the royal teen gives him a proper dignified handshake; he’s definitely more used to the position of royalty than Daniel, that’s for sure.
“Jesse Reinchenbache“.
Lancer’s impressed principal Ishiyama finally pronounced the poor teens last name right; and at least she didn’t do something stupid like calling him ‘Jessica’. She didn’t care much about most students but at least she knew better than to deadname someone. Even Dashiel didn’t do that. Todd did, and got a serious talking to about that. Even Mrs. Remi came down on Todd, normally she wasn’t one for disciplinary action but Jesse was one of her favourite art students. The teen was good enough to get an actual art scholarship and got one of his charcoal pieces displayed in a museum. Technically he was one of the prides of the school. Lancer’s not honestly surprised to see his fingers stained black with charcoal even now as they shake hands.
“Rebecca Relish”.
Lancer’s glad she’s finally graduating, seeing as she was supposed to graduate last year but failed to meet the credit requirements. He does slightly blame Ms. Tetslauf for not taking her off the cheer squad, like she was asked, for that. Yes the girl was the captain, but Frankenstein’s Bride, getting good grades was a requirement for being on the sports teams or the cheer squad. But at least she was graduating now, even if she didn’t seem to have even the slightest clue what she wanted to do after Highschool; which did sadden him. His job, his goal, his passion, was to see children and teens blossom into their potential and discover their passions. And outside of cheer, she hadn’t found anything or grown as a person. At nineteen she was much the same as she was at fourteen. He can only hope she finds her calling in adulthood. The handshake is still a little bittersweet.
“Paulina Sanchez”.
Now here was a girl who had absolutely matured and grown over the years. Sure she was still the undeniably beautiful ‘queen bee’ but she wasn’t nearly as mean or waspish as she once was. Though not a single soul was surprised she was pursuing a modelling career, it was practically expected actually. Her being a changling -though Lancer doubts she knows- only helps since ageing isn’t going to be an issue for her. She’ll be physically flawless her entire life. Lancer knew she finally got over her shallowness when he caught her and Sam doing each other’s makeup in one of the side halls; they still put on a show of hating each other though. Why? Lancer will never know; the fairer sex were confusing like that. Just the same, makeup will always befuddle and amaze him. Her handshake is done with impeccably trimmed and painted nails, as usual; and Lancer can only wish her well and that the modelling deal she’s already signed pays her well. Hopefully she’ll never fall victim to the darker side of modelling.
“Ashley Smith”.
Another one of the cheerleaders, she was one of the less notable students; incredibly average. He’s honestly surprised she didn’t move away, especially when Julian, her best friend, moved to New York. He’s pretty sure the two of them still keep in touch and text often but still. Maybe she’ll further her education at a New York university, it would probably be for the best. Normal and Amity didn’t really go together well. Even he knows that he’s a bit strange himself. Her handshake leaves him fairly certain her mind’s elsewhere at that moment.
“Tiffanie Snow”.
Lancer manages not to chuckle to himself, her last name got her bugged a lot during the winter seasons. Many of the other teens would jokingly ask if she brought the snow with her or called it here. Even asked if she could go make nice with her ‘family’ and make it go away. Lancer would find it less amusing if it actually bothered her but she usually played along or made jokes herself. What was really interesting was that time Daniel got in on it and the snowy weather did seem to react to her or respond to her. The entire school all freaked out for a while over that, though Lancer knew Daniel was behind it. He abuses that poor cryokinesis of his. Tiffanie usually played along with anyone’s jokes or fun, but unlike some people knew when enough was enough. Lancer could appreciate that. The fact that she wanted to become a cop still threw him through a loop though, having not expected that in the slightest; he has some serious suspicions that her family has a hand or two in the drug trade, but if they do then at least they keep it out of Amity. Regardless he gives the potential future Amity Park cop a solid handshake.
“Hanna Spigian”.
Lancer smiles to himself, Hanna was a sweet nice girl; even if her stutter was occasionally troublesome in his English classes. At least no one bullied her for it, even though that was likely the fault of her girlfriend assaulting anyone who even seemed to be trying to bully her. That and a lot of the jocks seem to have a sexism issue and won’t ‘hit a lady’, he’s not sure who's to blame for that. Her being pretty likely also attributed to the lack of bullying. The soft blonde hair that she usually wore in braids and littered with flowers nowadays. The pink eyes at least didn’t stand out here in Amity, when purple and missing pupils were somewhat commonplace for some reason or another. But Lancer knew better, the pink eyes were her glamours flaw; being a spring court fae. It does surprise him how good she is at seeming like a regular, if shy and dainty, human. He’s fairly certain that her family, who are probably off in the FairLands, have spent plenty of time around humans and that’s where she picked it up from. He does seriously wonder if Mia knows though, because good strong long-lasting relationships are not built upon lies and secrecy. It’s not like Lancer could even imagine Mia caring about Hanna not being remotely human. Animal Farm, she would probably find that ‘wicked’ as the teens say. He gives her a gentle handshake and returns her slight bow, manners do matter after all.
Lancer grins to the side as Mikey Tacon rushes up the stairs, being the last one it makes sense; the teens all wanting to just get the ceremony stuff over with and then get to the partying. They were teens after all. But at least Mikey wasn’t rushing for a different reason, which he would have been if the ceremony had been yesterday like most of the staff wanted. Yes he gets it, having it today, on a Sunday, wasn’t exactly good for everyone who works regular Monday through Friday. But yesterday was the full moon and he’d rather not have one of his students forcibly change into a wolf in the middle of graduation. That would be awkward, hard to explain, and messy. The slight thankful look to the geeks eyes makes it pretty clear Mikey knows Lancer’s the one who got this postponed a day. Mikey was one of the others that actually knew that Lancer knew about him. But well, when you beat off a ghost from hurting what you think is a really large dog using nothing but a baseball bat and said now unconscious ‘large dog’ that you had bandaged and laid on the couch is suddenly human; well... you come to a few conclusions. And of course Mikey had been more than just a little freaked when he woke, for a lot of very understandable reasons; it had taken quite a while to convince the teen that he wasn’t going to tell anyone or alert the Fenton’s. Apparently those two adults hunting ghosts made all the other inhuman beings think they could possibly be targets too. Reasonable fear, especially with how aggressively those two went after ghosts. Lancer gives Mikey the last handshake of the night, both of them grinning a bit in relief.
Lancer grins wider as principal Ishiyama, sounding annoyingly almost monotoned, tells everyone to stand up, get ready, and throw their hats in the air. The room instantly filling with cheers, shouts, and laughter. Lancer almost cries a little. This class was the strangest he’s ever had and he’s going to miss every single one of them. Though his grin becomes slightly mischievous over imagining the variety of reactions when the teens open their diplomas to find personalised letters from him; especially the ones that he knew little secrets about.
He imagines the Defect Quartet will have the best and most amused reactions, all things considered. Honestly, most of them probably suspected he knew.
But in the end, as much as he’ll likely continue to think on these past four years and the students that filled them, there are plenty more students and of course the new group of teens starting Highschool come fall. Though him having seen a ‘Danielle Fenton’ on the roster makes him both terrified and deeply excited; not to mention confused. Principal Ishiyama had just sighed deeply when he commented on that.
Lancer doesn’t want this night to end, but he also can hardly wait to see what the new students bring to him, especially that one.
End.