Costumed
is the 17th story in Stranded. Colette tries to take Danny from Star during a Halloween party.
Tropes:
- Accidental Misnaming: Colette mentally refers to Michelle as "Millicent" since she doesn't care enough to remember her name.
- Bad Boss: Colette angrily yells at and berates the two Dumb Jocks she hired to lock Danny in Michelle's tool shed when she finds it empty because she thinks they're trying to make a fool out of her (they did put Danny in the shed but none of them know he used his ghost powers to escape). She also takes back the money she paid them with and threatens to have her dad buy their fathers' work places just to fire them.
- Bedsheet Ghost: Danielle's costume. Chief Boyle also wears one until Jack and Maddie attack him, believing him to be a real ghost.
- Berserk Button: Sam does not enjoy people mistaking Nightmerica for Freddy Krueger, no matter how painfully obvious it is that she's a ripoff of said villain.
- The Cameo: Fright Night, the spirit of Halloween, makes a brief appearance in Chapter 7.
- Cat Fight: Colette and Star engage in a brutal one over the former's attempt to capture and seduce Danny, visibly inflicting physical harm on each other. Star gets the upper hand and it only ends when Colette is able to lock her in a closet.
- Deconstruction: Dash and Paulina might’ve gotten away with bullying at school because of favoritism but that doesn’t apply to Michelle’s Halloween party where she takes her job as hostess super seriously and doesn’t hesitate to have her bouncer toss out Dash and Paulina for threatening Star and Danny.
- Did Not Think This Through: Both Paulina and Colette spent several THOUSAND dollars on their Halloween costumes behind their parents' backs (Paulina spending five grand and Colette spending over 12 grand, respectively), which they both charged on their credit cards. They apparently never considered the fact that their parents would eventually realize how much money they spent, especially after Paulina accidentally revealed what happened when she tried to bill Colette for her costume (due to her vomiting on it the previous night). Their parents were furious, especially since the girls made their purchases without permission. Even worse, they can't return the costumes since the outfits were ruined at the party and so force their daughters to pay them off by taking the money out of their shopping budget/allowance for an indefinite amount of time.
- Dumb Jock: Colette bribes two of these from the wrestling team to capture Danny and lock him inside the shed, but they're too stupid to tell him apart from Mikey, who's also wearing a Danny Phantom costume, and abduct him instead.
- Dumb Muscle: Colette employs two Dumb Jocks at Michelle's Halloween party to help her make Danny hers by having them lock him in Michelle's tool shed so she can make out with him in there.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Fright Night is so unnerved by the intensity of Colette and Star's cat fight at the party that he bails on his plan to confront Danny Phantom.
- Forceful Kiss: Colette wants to do this to Danny in Michelle's tool shed out of some delusional belief that he'll become hers if he sees that she's a better kisser than Star. She ends up doing it to Mikey instead, who's surprised but ultimately consenting.
- For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself:
- Since they couldn't find costumes that work for them, Danny and Star don their hero costumes, with Danny keeping his head human.
- Wulf didn't even bother to wear a costume since he is a large lycanthrope while trick-or-treating with Danielle.
- Forgot About His Powers: After the jocks first lock Danny in the shed on Colette's orders, he briefly struggles to escape before remembering he has ghost powers and turns intangible.
- Good Is Not Dumb: When Michelle spots Paulina and Dash bullying Star and Danny, her and her bouncer throw them out of her Halloween party and don’t believe the A-Listers' lie that Star and Danny started it because they saw Dash and Paulina threaten the couple.
- Good Is Not Soft: While a Nice Girl, Michelle doesn’t tolerate nonsense from anyone, including the A-Listers. She stands up to Paulina when the latter complains about Michelle inviting Star and Danny to her Halloween party by making it clear she doesn’t care if Paulina hates the couple since it’s Paulina’s problem, not hers, and she can invite anyone she wants. Also, Michelle doesn’t hesitate to kick out Colette for vomiting on her carpet and throws out Dash and Paulina when they harass Star and Danny.
- Goofy Print Underwear: Dave is revealed to be wearing colorful boxers with pink hearts when his pants fall down at school.
- Halloween Episode: This part of the Stranded series takes place on Halloween.
- Humiliation Conga:
- Dash and the jocks are humiliated when they have to wear cheerleader costumes and perform a cheer routine at Michelle's Halloween party, which Tucker films and posts on the internet.
- Colette is completely humiliated when she makes out with Mikey by mistake. She is so disgusted she proceeds to publicly throw up on herself and Paulina at the party before they both get thrown out by Michelle, who also sends Colette a bill for ruining her carpet. Danny, Star, and the other attendees laugh at her misfortune.
- Insane Troll Logic: Colette thinks she can make Danny hers by hiring people to kidnap him and kissing him against his will.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While Mikey doesn’t know it’s intentional, he is correct about the flaws with Danny’s Danny Phantom costume.
- Kissed Keepsake: Mikey refuses to wash his face after Colette kissed it.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Dash and Paulina get thrown out of Michelle's party for bothering Star and Danny.
- In the end, Colette is grounded for two weeks for harassing Star and Danny. She and Paulina are also cut off from most of their allowance by their parents for purchasing expensive costumes without permission, especially since they can't be returned due to Colette puking on them.
- The A-Listers are so embarrassed by their various humiliations at the party going viral, they avoid coming to school the next day.
- While trying to use a punk act to charm two other girls at school, Dave trips and causes his pants to fall down, exposing his Goofy Print Underwear and making the girls reject him.
- Last-Second Word Swap: Chief Boyle starts saying a word that starts with "da" but, not wanting his son to hear that word, he says "darn" instead.
- Mistaken for Object of Affection: Colette bribes two jocks to abduct Danny and lock him inside a shed in order for her to seduce him away from Star. After locking Star in a closet to finally have some "alone time" with her crush, she eagerly goes to the shed once her minions call and tell her that they got Danny inside, happy for the chance and that Star wouldn't be able to stop her. There, Colette eagerly kisses who she thinks is Danny, who doesn't resist her, and she is overjoyed, believing that she has finally won him over. However, when she goes to brag to Star about it and rub her "victory" in her face, she discovers that the REAL Danny was with Star (since he helped her escape the closet) and that the jocks had gotten the wrong guy, Mikey (who was also wearing a Danny Phantom costume to the party). Colette is so horrified upon realizing that it was Mikey with whom she had been making out that she runs away and even vomits at the party in disgust before fleeing to escape her humiliation. Meanwhile, Mikey becomes enamored with Colette and even brags to his friends about being kissed by her.
- Never My Fault:
- Colette threatens to get back at Star when she ends up making out with Mikey, even though Colette was the one who hired the jocks to kidnap Danny in the first place instead of leaving well enough alone, as usual, and didn't question why "he" wasn't resisting her kisses in the shed.
- When Dash and Paulina get in trouble for harassing Star and Danny at Michelle’s party, they try to pin the blame on the couple but nobody buys it since Michelle and her bouncer saw the popular kids threatening them.
- Not in Front of the Kid: Chief Boyle is about to use a word that starts with "da" to describe Jack and Maddie's weapons when he remembers his son is around so he calls them "darn things" instead.
- Pet the Dog:
- Michelle invites everyone at school to her Halloween party regardless of their social status, including Mikey, Team Phantom, and the A-Listers, even Dash despite that disastrous date he took her on. Not that it stops her from kicking out Colette, Paulina, and Dash when they start causing trouble.
- Michelle quickly throws out Dash and Paulina when her and her bouncer catch them harassing Star and Danny at the party.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Fright Night arrives at Michelle's party to cause terror and challenge Danny Phantom for the title of King of Ghosts. However, upon witnessing Star and Colette's brawl, he believes he's not needed here because things are scary enough and leaves, deciding to get his revenge on the ghost boy another time.
- Shipper on Deck: Danny is a fan of Superman and Wonder Woman being a couple.
- Shout-Out:
- To The Spectacular Spider-Man episode "The Uncertainty Principle". Dash angrily comments that he should be Danny Phantom instead of a cheerleader, only for Danny to make the same "fill out your costume" comment.
- Also, Star briefly regrets her and Danny not going to the party as Mary Jane and Spider-Man, respectively, when seeing other partygoers dress up as Danny Phantom and Starlight Spirit.
- Solene dresses up as Black Cat for Halloween.
- Spit Take: Danny, Star and Sam have this reaction to Tucker being announced as the costume contest's winner.
- Throw the Dog a Bone:
- Tucker gets a BIG one here. First, he wins a bet against Dash, forcing him and the rest of the football team to dress up as cheerleaders and perform a cheer routine at Michelle's Halloween party, which Tucker secretly takes pictures and videos of and anonymously posts it online. He also wins Michelle's Halloween costume contest due to having "the most high-tech costume" and is given a large bag of candy as his prize, and Valerie is happy for his win. The story ends with Tucker happily eating his candy the next day and enjoying the fact that Dash won't be at school due to the humiliation he faced, and while his friends warn him that eating too much candy will make him sick, nothing bad happens to him.
- Mikey also gets one when he has a make-out session with Colette in the shed while she thinks he's Danny.
- Turned Off By The Jerkass: Despite her preference for older guys, Michelle was willing to give Dash Baxter a chance by going out with him because of his determination, but grew to despise him when he not only failed to get them tickets to a show that she really wanted to see, he tried to get her to sneak in with him and then harassed some guy to give them his tickets, which only got them in trouble with security.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Colette and Star are so consumed with their Cat Fight that they barely acknowledge Fright Night's presence. When he tries to get their attention, they simply yell at him to "BUTT OUT!". Fright Night is completely baffled by this.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Happens to Sam in this story. At Michelle's party, she appears to bond with another goth teen named Damien, who seems to have a lot in common with her and similar views. She's attracted to him and seems to finally be moving on from Danny... however, after Damien attempts to lure her into a closet to make out, Sam turns him down due to not knowing him and being put off by his sudden pushiness. Then, she discovers that Damien is actually a guy named Dave, who is a fake goth and poser that uses his appearance to seduce girls, not unlike Elliot/Gregor. Sam is positively enraged and heartbroken that she was fooled a second time and dumps Damien/Dave on the spot. Thankfully, she receives some form of closure the next day as Damien/Dave humiliates himself when his pants fall down at school while he tries to hit on some other girls.
- Your Costume Needs Work: Mikey points some flaws in Danny's Danny Phantom costume. Those are points where Danny deliberately chose to be different from his ghostly alter ego.
