#Dick is worried for Danny's mental health

[silicon-puppy-pudding]

Danny totally kills the Joker

I have a very specific Eldritch!Danny in my head that, even though I've tried drawing before, I can't really get out of my head if you get what I mean

And as a dead on main shipper and a lover of angst I have him do shit that causes problems

Like kill the Joker in a blind rage after an Arkham break out

So it's like this, after a breakout that obviously requires all hands on deck, everyone is eventually re-cuffed and put back in their cells (including the Joker).

Red Hood and Phantom are doing some clean up in the Narrows and it's hard on them. Seeing some kids whose parents died cuz of the clown nearly broke Hood.

Phantom, now well known as Hood's right hand, picks up some of the burden. Helping more then he normally does with some displaced kids and families cuz he can feel Hood breaking down.

It hurts..

After the night/day/whatever is over, they head back home to their appartment and Jason just breaks. Danny's been helping with the pit rage so without all the extra anger crowding him it just sort of crumbles into pain and hurt.

Danny can't stand it

He can't stand to see Jason like this

Jason was his rock, his shoulder to cry on, his partner in crime. He had always been there for Danny when he had panic attacks and couldn't breathe cuz he saw some guy walking down the street in a white suit. Was always telling him it was going to be okay. Had told him things were gonna be alright. And now the roles had switched. Danny comforted Jason for who knows how long. Held him tight till he calmed down and was able to fall asleep. Once Danny was sure Jason would be okay he slipped out of the appartment...

Phantom would not stand for this.

Phantom flew over to Arkham with the intent to "have a little chat" with the Joker. Just ruf him up a bit. Scare him shitless so he'd rethink ever braking out again.

He didn't mean to bash the guys skull in.

He didn't even realize he'd been beating a flattened pound of meat and skull till Batman showed up and pulled him from his mind.

He looked over to where he'd heard his name and saw Batman and Nightwing standing by the door of the cell. Both were wrapped in bandages, some obviously stained in blood from the damage they endured during the breakout.

Dick covered his mouth and stared in horror at the sight of Danny, who he'd been lovingly calling his future brother-in-law for the past 2 months, covered in the Jokers blood. He looked like a staticky, distorted shadow. Three(3) sets of arm all ending with white clawed hands; one pair around the Jokers barely intact neck, another clutching the inmate uniforms chest, the last frozen mid punch. Bruce, having just the slightest ecto-connection from the pit, fought off the screaming in his chest to run and leave the King be.

Bruce slowly approached Phantom. Phantom on the other hand, slowly realized what he'd just done and was starting to panic.

He'd just killed a man

Sure he fucking deserved it but he just....let himself go. Let himself indulge in his rage, be consumed by it. And now the Batman was here to stop him. Would he send him back to the Realms? Would he lock him up, away from anyone he could hurt? Away from Jason?

Phantom flinches when Bruce touches his shoulder. And continues to try and back away when Bruce calls for someone to get a hold of Jason on the coms. What's he doing? Isn't he going to be thrown into a cell? He's dangerous! He could do this again if he wasn't dealt with! Why is Bruce calling for Jason? Does he want to show him the monster he let into his life? Does he want Jason to be the one to do it?

Bruce is talking.

Not Batman, but Bruce, is saying something to him, his name.

Not Phantom

"Danny? Danny!?"

Phantom disappears and isn't seen for two(2) days

Nightwing is the one to find him. In some warehouse, slamming his head into a support beam, yelling at himself that he can't become Dan.

I don't know how to continue this. It was supposed to have a nice hurt/comfort ending but I'm not a fic writer and I don't know how to do that. So feel free to use this as a prompt or something 👻👉🏾👈🏾

Edit: figured I'd add one of the Danny doodles I did a while back cuz it fits. I already posted it a while ago but it feels appropriate here too.

[currentfandomkick]

Is this before or after Tim blackmailed Batman into making him Robin (after Dick said no to being Robin again)?

If before Tim’s Robin and after confronting Dick, but Dick had me tally adopted him as his stalker-y problem (affectionate) and saw the kid hadn’t bothered him after doing so for a while consistently?

Dick can get worried and finds out Tim has a new Legal Guardian Trio while his parents are out of town instead of being at boarding school and assume The Worst.

Tim meanwhile is arguing with his new dads and mom which way to resurrect Jason, only to find jis grave empty. His aunts and uncle are now off to find out Who disturbed the grave and find a questionably there mentally Jason in a hospital.

Dante/Jordan is the one to sign him out as ‘family friend, our son visited his grave and uh, well. Dirt piles and broken coffin.’

Ellie takes Jason to Far Frozen while Tim is relieved Jason was found. And pesters Danny to help fix the revival (Frostbite has him Tim. And his soul is not all there—yes i am working on it, now eat your vegetables and we can go stalk Batman and Nightwing)

Tucker just, casually hacking the batcomputer as a technomancer and leaving a note of ‘our new son had us look over your latest one. Multiverse fuckery abounds, and he’s getting treatment for a botched revival by our family doctor. Fyi ninjas or spies were circling the hospital when we left, does [assassin alias] mean anything to you?’

If that does not shock Bruce out of his asshole hours, nothing will.

Dick is absolutely Going Through ItTM now.

Tim is just sighing and has taken to using various Fenton Weapons and making his own as he follows Bruce on patrol with Danny, but it is clearly a ‘enforcing minimal violence’ thing.

Danny straight up starts overshadowing Batman and forces him to leave when he toes the line of excess violence.

Tim is known as ‘little ghost’ to Phantom, Phantasm and Wraith.

Sam is also probably working with Poison Ivy or infiltrates the LOA by accident as environmental terrorism is her jam, and she has magic to help revive food sources for species whose primary food source is extinct.

I find the idea of Damian being fascinated by Sam’s work in LOA, while Talia and Batman are having a confrontation in another part of the base over her not telling him about Jason’s revival (he was taken by undead Fae beloved, and you cannot touch magic by your own choice and admission. You act like i didn’t hire someone else to investigate, Regardless.)

Sam just. Yoinks Damian when the fight gets too close for her comfort to the animals by calling her husband (Danny) and now that whole part is Vibing in Ivy’s territory.

Detective Chimp is probably who Talia hired to look into Jason’s disappearance by Fae.

Jason comes back with Ellie and Dante/Jordan after the base has been dropped into Ivy’s territory. By the time Batman gets back, Jason is clearly alive and being lectured by Aunt Ellie and Uncle Dante/Jordan about being liminal, and that while he’s low liminality, handling his emotional health is just as necessary as taking care of broken bones.

And reminder, jason died thinking bruce believed he was a killer (bruce had not made the call on that), hated him and knowing his bio mom abandoned him and sold him out to Joker of all people.

Jason is not in a good headspace to handle a grieving Bruce remembering Jason with rose-colored glasses, and Ellie and Jordan/Dante will know this given their respective relationships with Vlad, Danny’s friends/family and one another.

Bruce sees Jason chatting with Clearly Fae about being Fae Touched. And goes to get his kid.

Said kid has a trillion emotions that settle on Run and Fight!

Ellie and Jordan are now in Protect Mode.

Batman has a new set of rouge siblings… or parents? No one is sure given the age gap is ambiguous.

Detective Chimp manages to find Jason and since Jason met him before, totally spills the beans. Chimp just. Takes a deep breath and guides Jason a JLD meeting with a warning of ‘robin revived, fae touched and the fae that helped him are not letting batman near for a while. May allow his civilian ID but not batman. Plan of action time.’ Meeting

Tim is sad his plan didnt work 100%. And that he has (shudder) parents.

Jazz is probably bullying batman/forcing him to deal with his issues constructively now. More for her nephew and psuedo nephew’s sake than his own.

Sam accidentally kidnapped Damian, and instead of him being pissed, demanded an apprenticeship. Talia is given updates regularly and damian is not going around as ‘blood son’ but as ‘heir to the demon head’ or ‘talia’s son’. He speaks formally in english and informally in Arabic languages, and various Chinese languages.

Dont ask Sam about how she got an apprentice. She will just blame Batman.

Tim is working out if Damian counts as his baby cousin or brother now, as new Mom is clearly parenting him too, but co-parents will Talia. And his Aunt ellie (who looks his age) and Uncle Dante/Jordan are clearly parenting Jason by ghost standards, and open to co-parenting with Bruce rather than shared custody like his new dads and mom have with his bio parents.

Tim decides Damian is his baby step-brother for his sanity, and Jason is his cousin. Dick is still his favorite though, and he does break into his place in Bludhaven to let him know he’s alive and updates on Jason and his new step-brother/ mom’s apprentice in environment-based revival magic.

Dick is just glad Tim is relatively safe, and has the right to see Jason (who has abilities based on his dominant emotion and is learning to not let them control him with Aunt Jazz’s tips and a therapist in the Alley terrified of his various magical cousins. As jason handles it by calling them all his cousins.)

If you think Jazz is not bothering Dick and checking in on him, you are wrong.

This does not mean rest of Batfam don’t vigilante later on (or concurrently in spolier’s case) but just that Tim isn’t Robin, and Jason isnt sure about jumping in as Robin or a vigilante (given emotion’s can override him atm, and he needs to heal and find healthy coping mechanisms first.)

That’s all i got.

Batfam have a weird configuration here, and resembles fright dynamics more. Tim had 5 parents legally and smiles about it. He does still ‘patrol’ to manage Bruce’s interactions with criminals, but Danny handles heavy lifting. Let Tim join the semi-mad scientists of the Fenton clan, but the ‘kind of domesticated all things considered’ subset. Tim is Ghost, not Robin here.

Jason is working out what type of relationships he wants, dealing with various truamas and mild emotion-based abilities that can hijack his body as they run in instinct. Batman? Bad. Bruce? Dad, dad why are you not here. Jason’s going through it.

Damian as Sam’s apprentice is just brings joy. Talia and her co-parent while Talia is waiting for Bruce to get better to reveal their son. Sam’s family being Damian’s intro to the US culture and gotham is a mixed bag, but things could have been worse… or will be when bruce and dick see Damian for the first time, as Damian being a carbon copy of Talia with Bruce’s eyebrows is a fave hc of mine.

As always, add on and Go Nuts as this is up for grabs

Prompt 334

So. Danny has discovered he might erm, might be technically a necromancer. At least as far as magic is concerned. Like even if it’s just via resurrecting himself the magic side of things (god, he’s more scientist- sided dangit) count it as such. 

Which means that half the time someone tries to summon a necromancing-esque being, he’s the one who gets tugged if he’s even a centimeter within range. It was annoying enough in high school, it’s no less annoying in this world they’ve all moved to. 

On the bright side, thanks to also being half dead himself, the summonings and other rituals can’t actually drag him somewhere. It just causes him to feel like someone was crushing a lung or two, which honestly nothing new. (Gosh were those days of vigilante work really that violent? Huh, guess they were)

What he wasn’t expecting was for a tiny child, a living child, to track him down despite him not existing legally or anything similar in this world, to revive their previous local child vigilante. Which like, hey, first of all, he has a few questions? Just a couple and yeah sure, he’ll shake on it- can he have your name first there kid…? 

Tim, on the other hand, is getting a little concerned when he realizes a lot of the questions the probable-fae keeps asking are in line with the stuff CPS asks. (Unknown to him, that is exactly where Danny is getting several of his questions about this scrawny vigilante kid. Erm. He might have to take the kid, for like, his own safety- hey Frostbite he needs your help he has some questions-) 

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

D is for Ghost

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/4F7c8gy by Jenn_666 Danny Fenton, alone, without his powers, and down on his luck in Gotham, is caught up in a string of kidnapping cases when he is taken to be sacrificed for a summoning ritual. Dick Grayson, back in Gotham, is working with Tim to find the missing people before the cult can achieve their purpose, whatever that may be. Words: 3682, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: M/M Characters: Danny Fenton, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake (DCU), Bruce Wayne, Damian Wayne, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley Relationships: Danny Fenton/Dick Grayson, Danny Fenton & Jason Todd Additional Tags: Ghost King Danny Fenton, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Idiots in Love, Implied/Referenced Torture, Blood and Injury, Homelessness, Danny Fenton Needs A Hug, Hurt Dick Grayson, Not Phantom Planet Compliant (Danny Phantom), Mental Health Issues, Worried Dick Grayson, Danny Fenton is a Little Shit, Gay, Everyone Is Gay, Suicidal Thoughts, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Kidnapping, Rituals, Sacrifice, Not Beta Read, Past Torture read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/4F7c8gy

[ayamari-no-goshi]

Chasing Shadows (10)

AO3 -> first, last, next

Fandoms: Danny Phantom (DP) / DC universe

Summary:  THIS  IS A CROSSOVER.  As Bruce Wayne begins to slowly recover from the loss  of his son, two   separate mysteries open up old wounds. Who is the  unknown leaving clues   hinting at a return to Gotham, and who is the  phantom pretending to be   his lost son? Is it just a coincidence  they’re active in Gotham at the   same time? Or are they connected?  

Warnings: rated T for violence, mentions of death, and questionable mental health

Parings: none

Notes: originally uploaded to AO3. Cross-posted to tumblr

After photographing the graves and taking the flowers for analysis, Bruce attempted to call Dick as he searched the surrounding area for his wayward son. With how unpredictable Jason currently was, he wanted to make sure Dick was aware his brother was active on the off chance he spotted him, especially because he was out with Stephanie and Tim.

On the second attempt, Dick finally answered, exasperated. “Can this wait a minute? I’m kind of busy here…”

“Dick, keep an eye out for Jason,” he explained evenly. “He damaged…”

“What did you do?” Dick had pulled his head away from the phone, judging by how it sounded further away.

Bruce could hear another voice. It wasn’t close enough for him to clearly make out the words, but he thought he recognized the voice. “Dick, is Jason with you?” What was going on? How did they find each other? Was it a trap? He quickly began tracing the signal of Dick’s phone in hopes of locating him.

“Damn it, Jay! Get back here!”

“Dick, talk to me. What happened?”

“The ass just footed me the bill and ran off.”

Bruce had to take a moment to process what he just heard. “The bill? You were at dinner?”

“Yeah, we ran into him while he was taking Danny to dinner.” For a moment, Dick sounded muffled as he told one of the kids or possibly one of the staff something. “Look, we’re going to try to catch him.” More muffled sounds, this time suggesting movement, came over the phone. “You’ve got to be kidding me… You’re an asshole, you know that?” He yelled before grumbled something under his breath. “B, I’ll be on the comms shortly. He’s taunting me from a fire escape.”

Before Dick hung up, Bruce gave him a quick summary of what happened. “I’ll ask him why as soon as I catch him,” Dick told him with a grim tone as he hung up the phone.

That didn’t do anything to ease Bruce’s concern, so he raced to the scene. He received an alert from Alfred letting him know that he would be picking up Stephanie as the trackers in Tim’s and Dick’s costumes came online. His equipment showed they were still in the Diamond District. Moments later, Dick let him know there were going to attempt to capture Jason. Bruce requested that they just tried to keep him busy as opposed to fighting him.

As he approached their location in the Diamond District, Bruce attempted to wrap his head around what Dick told him. His sons, all three of them, had been at dinner together. It wasn’t something that should have been possible, especially with how antagonistic Jason had been towards them. Or perhaps, it was more specifically directed at him and the Manor. Dick had sworn his fight with Jason was friendly until he was asked to return home.

He was getting the occasional update from Tim that they had eyes on Jason, but he wasn’t getting any other bit of information. He could hear sounds of a struggle, but it was the good-natured laughter he could occasionally hear that unsettled him. He knew that laughter, and he hadn’t heard it in nearly four years.

As he finally found them, he stopped and stared at the scene below him. Jason was in civilian clothes dodging out of his brothers’ reach. None of them were using weaponry. If the situation wasn’t as dangerous as it was, they could have just been training.

Worried Jason was lulling them into a false sense of security, Bruce pulled out a batarang, only to have someone gently place a hand on his arm. Glancing to his side, he found Phantom glancing up at him. He was still wearing that mockery of Jason’s suit.

“He’s not going to hurt them. He’s having fun,” the meta explained as his shoulders rose slightly. Between that and the way he kept glancing at the fight, he was clearly nervous. However, that seemed more directed at him than anything his sons were doing. “Nightwing said you figured out who I am. You’re right, but please stop looking into it. You’re going to undo everything Jason’s done to protect me. You might even put him or my family in danger!”

Bruce knew the boy was trying to distract him from his son, but he couldn’t help but listen. Phantom had his hands out in a pleading gesture. Even through the echo of his voice, he sounded earnest and scared. “I know you’re good at what you do,” he quickly explained, “but so’s Jason. The few times he hacked into the GIW to figure out what they wanted with me, they found us. I’m harder to detect in cities like this where there are a lot of natural ghosts and ectoplasmic residue as long as I don’t do anything too flashy.”

“Are you suggesting you have other abilities?” When Phantom glanced away instead of answering him, it was the same as if he outright verified it.

“That’s not really important right now. What is, is that you’ve basically made a beacon saying, ‘the idiot that accidentally made a huge chunk of ice in Gotham is the same superpowered teen you’ve been looking for’.”

Bruce’s attention turned back towards the fight between the brothers. There were still no weapons in sight, and Jason had changed tactics and was on the move again, prompting him to follow from the higher rooftops. Phantom followed him.

“Jay said trying to talk to you is like talking to a brick wall, but I didn’t believe him until now,” the meta huffed as they came to a stop. Bruce elected to ignore that statement. “Maybe this will help you understand. If the GIW find me, they’ll find Jason too. We’re not the same, but whatever brought him back made him similar enough to me that they’ll classify him as a ghost, as something that doesn’t have rights. They have weapons that can literally tear us apart from the inside out.”

That caught Bruce’s attention. “What do you mean?”

“Ghosts are made up of ectoplasm,” Phantom quickly explained. “There are both natural and artificial ways to disrupt and destabilize it. Jay has it in his body too. I know you’ve seen those weird marks he gets. We don’t really know why he gets them, but it’s like the ectoplasm in his body flares at times. Not important.” He waved his hand dismissively. “Anyways, he once got hit with a prototype of something from the GIW, and it was nasty. Took forever to heal. The lady who’d been setting up his training wasn’t very happy with him and tried to convince him to send me away.”

“Lady? Was her name Talia?”

Phantom tilted his head as he thought about it. “I think so. Jason didn’t want me anywhere near her. She said I made him weak, but I asked him for help, so he told her he was going to do whatever he could to keep me safe.”

Bruce finally had confirmation Talia was assisting his son, but just how involved was she? Due to how closely Ra’s guarded the Lazarus Pit, she was the most likely culprit for who put his son in those vile waters. Was it a misguided attempt to get back in Bruce’s favor? If that was the case, she had the opportunity to mention Jason during the Hush plot when she was in Gotham. Instead, she likely assisted him in replacing his own grave, and per Phantom, she set up training for him. Since Talia did not have the same moral compass as Bruce, there was no telling what she exposed his son to. And since Jason would have likely been in a state of confusion and a heightened emotional state from the Pit, she could easily have gotten into his head. Was this why Jason no longer following Bruce’s rule? And just what did Talia get out of this?

Bruce turned his attention back to the fight. Jason was currently perched on the ledge of the building he was on as he watched Tim pick himself up. It appeared he tripped over either Dick or Jason in the last exchange. Once Tim was up, he and Dick rushed their brother, who flipped over them without much effort. And once Jason hit the ground, he took off running again. Worried he’d lose sight of him, Bruce followed, continuing to stay at a higher vantage point. He noted Phantom was no longer behind him.

For a moment, it appeared Jason made a mistake. He wouldn’t be able to escape to another roof if he didn’t have any gear. The buildings to the sides were too high to escape to without a grapple, and the one in front of him was too far away to attempt a jump due to one of Gotham’s largest thoroughfares sitting between it and its neighbor. However, Jason jumped anyways. Horrified, Bruce fired his own grapple in hopes of being able to grab him before he fell to his second death.

But Jason didn’t fall. Instead, he jumped further than Bruce believed was possible and grabbed hold of a downspout and slid down it. When he safely landed in the alley, he dusted off his blazer before moving further into the alley. Bruce landed behind him as he radioed Tim and Dick that he was taking over the chase.

“What? No ‘hello’?” His son had stopped moving and glanced at him from over his shoulder. Without the helmet and domino mask, Bruce could clearly see his son’s face for the first time since his resurrection. He’d lost most of the softness of his youth, but while he was fighting with his brothers, he still looked young. Now, as anger started to creep into his expression, he seemed to age into someone who’s seen horrors no one could imagine in front of Bruce’s eyes. “I’m surprised you didn’t get involved earlier. I saw you watching.”

“Jason…” What was he supposed to say? What could he say? He’d never been in this situation before. His dead son was standing in front of him looking as if he’d never been killed.

His son was so tall, something none of them ever thought was possible. Due to the malnutrition, they believed he’d remain small and somewhat frail. Was it the effects of the Pit that fixed it? Or was that a result of whatever brought him back? Was he done growing? Or could he have another inch or two to go?

Would Jason allow him to touch him? Would he allow Bruce the chance to check whether or not he wasn’t some hallucination brought on by grief? Would he be able to bear his son’s beating heart for the first time in years? Apparently not. As he took a step forward, Jason moved further into the alley though he did finally turn around to face him.

“Are you just going to stand there and stare at me? Unlike you, I have places to be, people to kill.”

That snapped Bruce back to the situation at hand. The one thing that marred their reunion was the reality his son had only broken his one rule he’d never allow himself to break. No matter what else happened, he needed to prevent his son from doing any more damage. “Why, Jason? How could you?”

“How could I what?” His eyes flickered an unsettling green. There it was, the physical proof Jason had been in a Lazarus Pit. “Are we talking about how I’d taken out some human traffickers in Crime Alley? Or are we talking about earlier when I bashed in Sheila’s headstone?” His grin didn’t reach his eyes. “I hope that bitch rots in hell. And you apparently had the nerve to originally bury me next to her.”

Bruce’s stomach uncharacteristically churned at his son’s statement. “What do you mean? Jason, she sang your praises as she died in my arms.”

“Lying even in her final breaths, how fitting,” Jason spat as the strange green marks began to appear on his skin. They did seem to follow where he would have originally had injuries from the Joker. “She told me the Joker was gone when I went to offer her help then led me right to get him to stop blackmailing her. Told me I trusted the wrong person right before I got bashed in the face with a crowbar. She stood and watched as my bones were shattered before trying to double cross the bastard since her own crimes would come to life if he escaped. Karma got her in the end.”

He didn’t say anything as he tried to process his son’s explanation. It had only been after the fact he learned about Shelia’s previous involvement with the Joker. With the limited information he had, it appeared Jason went in knowing his mother was in the hands of the Joker. Sheila hadn’t said anything about how he’d been caught, instead focusing on how he’d tried to take the blast for her. Perhaps that was why she seemed so in awe of him in her final moments because he had still tried to save her after everything that happened.

Jason… if what he said was true, then he hadn��t been reckless. He’d approached his mother when he thought he was in the clear and was betrayed. As much as it pained him, he would need to try to restore the footage from what happened. With how experimental the technology was at that time, it was easily corrupted by any damage to their masks. After the first attempt, he hadn’t been strong enough to attempt to restore it.

His son had tilted his head in curiosity. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know.” When Bruce didn’t answer, Jason gave a humorless laugh. “Some detective. Did you think I rushed into my own death? Decided that the same so-called recklessness that made you get rid of me is what got me killed? No wonder you were so quick to replace me.”

“I didn’t replace you.” Bruce tried to let his voice soften out of the growl he used while in the cowl. “I could never replace you.” He attempted to reach out and touch Jason again. For a moment, he thought his son would let him, but instead, his hand just passed through his shoulder as if it wasn’t there, as if he wasn’t real.

Annoyed, Jason smacked his arm away. This time, Bruce could feel the solidity. Constantine suggested Jason might have abilities now, so perhaps he could turn intangible like Phantom could. That could prove problematic.

“Don’t suddenly act like you care.” The snarled warning promised a fight if he attempted to touch him again. “You had your chance, but you proved again and again that my life and death never meant a thing to you.” He moved into the shadows as he spoke and seemed to vanish in much the same way Phantom had in the past.

Alarmed at the implication, Bruce immediately switched the cowl to its thermal vision, but before he had a chance to survey the area, heard the recognizable sound of someone cocking a gun behind him.

“Don’t move, Bruce,” he heard his son hiss. So, he hasn’t been completely unarmed. “I’m going to be out of town for a bit. Need to tie up some loose ends. You know how it goes.”

“Where are you going?” His son knew how he’d react and would respond accordingly. Jason also knew the weak points in his armor and judging by how good of a shot he was, there was a good chance he’d be able to take him out of the fight without effort. Bruce needed to keep him talking for now in hopes of getting him to drop his guard.

“Nice try. Too bad I’m not your run of the mill criminal, but I will tell you the game will truly begin once I come back. There are two more stops in “The Odyssey” after all.” He paused. “Get your little birds out of the city in the meantime.”

That was an odd thing for him to say. “What do you mean?”

“They shouldn’t even be out on the streets!” The venom in those words surprised Bruce, but in retrospect, he’d shown anger towards the idea when he rescued Stephanie from Black Mask. “… I don’t want to be tempted to involve them again.” Some of the anger in his voice was replaced with bitterness. “The first time was a mistake I don’t want to repeat.”

He must have been referring to when he cut Tim’s throat, and he sounded as if he regretted his actions. That gave Bruce a sense of hope. His son wasn’t too far gone to save. “Jay… Jaylad, let me help you.”

Deciding it was worth the risk when he didn’t get a response, Bruce turned slightly to see where his son’s position. However, the alley was empty. Thankful the thermal vision of his cowl was still active, he searched for any sign of Jason. No one was there.

“Robin, Nightwing, do you have a visual on Jason?” he demanded as he took to the rooftops again in hopes of spotting his second son. When he got to the higher vantage point, he found that Tim and Dick were each watching one end of the alley.

Neither of them saw him leave, so he radioed Barbara. While her new set up wasn’t as efficient as her old one, it would suffice for what they needed. However, she couldn’t find any hints of Jason or even Phantom on the nearby cameras. They had once again vanished into the shadows of Gotham. After a few sweeps of the area as a precaution, they returned to the cave.

…

Dick was still miffed at his brother for making him foot the bill for both him and Danny as they replayed the footage from his and Tim’s masks and Bruce’s cowl. It wasn’t like he couldn’t afford it, especially because he swiped Bruce’s card before they left, but it was the premise of it. Then there was the taunting from the fire escape. The jerk. At least he managed to get a few of his hairs for a DNA test.

If it wasn’t for the footage from Bruce’s cowl, Dick suspected his irritation would have changed to fondness, but dread filled its place. Instead of the theories and speculations, they finally had at least a partial account of what happened to him. Jason fully believed his biological mother betrayed him, to the point he purposely damaged her grave. Dick just knew Bruce would revisit what he knew of what happened to either verify or disprove Jason’s words. That may involve an attempt to restore the footage damaged in the explosion. He should probably be present when Bruce inevitably decided to do that.

“I still don’t get why you didn’t use a batarang or Wingdings or whatever stupid thing you call them, Dick,” Stephanie huffed from the chair Alfred brought from somewhere so she could comfortably watch the playbacks.

“Because he wasn’t being hostile,” Tim supplied as he glanced at him while trying to keep the awe out of his voice. For a brief moment, the kid got to see traces of the Robin he’d tried so hard to honor and never had a chance to meet. “It felt more like a training session.”

“Right,” she huffed before glancing up at him. Dick was pretty sure most of her temper was due to not being able to join them. “What’s your excuse?”

He shifted slightly as he thought about it. Why hadn’t he decided to seriously capture Jason? When Jason was living at the Manor, Dick wasn’t home as often as he should have been due to his conflicts with Bruce as well as his own complex feelings towards his brother. He always thought they’d be able to close the distant yet friendly gap eventually, but he never got the chance. Jason was killed, and Dick regretted not taking the time for him every single day.

Yet, somehow, Jason came back. He came back and stared at him with those unnaturally green eyes while invoking their bond as brothers to make him promise he’d never take the teen under his care to Bruce.

“I didn’t want to break his trust in me,” he eventually stated as he tried to find the words he needed, “because even after everything, he still considers me family.” When he noticed Bruce watching him, Dick felt his temper rise. “Don’t give me that look! You did the same thing. It was so much easier when we didn’t know it was him.”

“I know, Dick.” Oh, that wasn’t one of the judgmental looks. That was one of understanding.

“You know,” Barbara spoke up as the footage looped back to when Jason and Bruce were speaking, “he looks and acts so differently here.” The strange markings which were clearly visible in Bruce’s footage hadn’t been seen while they were at dinner or racing over the rooftops.

“Constantine described them as a type of supernatural scar,” Bruce explained as he zoomed in on the image. “I believe it’s a strange side effect of his status as a liminal combined with being put into a Lazarus Pit.” He frowned as he rewound the footage to when his hand passed through Jason’s shoulder. It was chilling to watch, and the strange display made Jason’s form somewhat hazy on the recording. “We finally have confirmation that Jason now has some form of intangibility, like Phantom’s, but I suspect it’s either situational and/or limited.”

“You know…” Stephanie spoke up, “I didn’t think much of it at the time, but that might be how he avoided being shot by Black Mask when I first saw him.” A frown crossed her face as she paused. “You know, I thought I imagined it, but he might be able to vanish too. I thought Phantom, Danny, might have helped him do that, but I’m not really sure anymore.”

“That is a concern,” Cass murmured. “He will be… harder to stop from killing.”

“We might be to stop some of it without confronting him,” Tim mentioned which caught both hers and Bruce’s attention. “During dinner, he specifically mentioned how he doesn’t think that sending people to Arkham and Blackgate isn’t working because of the constant breakouts. So, either we do something to reduce those or catch the criminals before he does.”

“Jason stated he would be out of town for a while…” Bruce mentioned. “Barbra, would you be able to find which guards and judges have taken bribes regarding shortened sentences or to help with escapes? Replacing them won’t be enough, but it will help limit the amount of targets Jason might choose.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard. Do you want me to get the blueprints ready for you too? I know you’re going to want to review them.”

“Yes.”

“Bruce…” Dick spoke up, sensing the meeting was coming to a close. “There’s one other thing you need to see. When you went after Jason and Tim and I moved to watch over the entrances to the alley, Danny appeared and asked me something. Give me a second to bring up the footage.” He forwarded his mask footage to where the meta appeared beside him and played it.

 “Would it be weird if I asked a favor?” Phantom shifted uneasily before he removed his mask to look up with him with startlingly green eyes.

 “As long as it’s within reason,” his own voice responded.

 Danny nodded. “That’s fair.” His gaze drifted back towards the alley where Jason disappeared. “Jay’s going to be out of the city for a while to tie up some loose ends. When he comes back full time, he’s going to set whatever he’s planning in motion.”

 “Do you want us to stop him?”

 The meta didn’t respond immediately. “Other than the clues and motivations, I still don’t know exactly what he’s planning to do. But, whatever it is, he’s not expecting to live through it,” he eventually stated as he fiddled with his mask. “I owe him everything. If it wasn’t for him, I’d be strapped to an examination table or being used as some sort of weapon. I don’t… I don’t know if that means he’s expecting to get killed in the process or will take his own life once everything’s done. I don’t know how to save him. Can you help me?”

-------------

Notes:

One of the things I’ve noticed in both the comic and animated version of UtRH is that Jason doesn’t tend to use a grapple. Reviewing things, he was making leaps that neither Bruce or Dick could make without assistance. There’s a lot of debate regarding what the Pit actually did to him, but he does seem to have permanently augmented strength. We can argue it’s due to his liminality here.

Plant clue will be revealed next chapter

[sohotthateveryonedied]

Sooo what did you think of the final of young justice (personally I loved it but well you know)

i liked it! for the most part

things i liked:

everything about the supermartian wedding <3 we've been waiting so long for this i'm so glad it finally happened

and can we talk about m'gann's dress??? it's so pretty??? the bridesmaid outfits too???? everyone was so gorgeous this episode

ICICLE JR CATCHING THE BOUQUET SDFGHJKL

the fight scenes were pretty cool

"you're a ball of sunshine hiding a terrifying demi-goddess" yeah she is <3

m'gann was just phenomenal this episode okay, everything she did was *chef's kiss* perfection i love her

THE ASH SHADOW!!! IT WAS LOR-ZOD ALL ALONG!!!! I SCREAMED AT THAT PART!!!!

bart :) just bart

introducing supergirl was neat

i'm happy the legionnaires went back to their own time at the end because we have too many characters as it is lmao. also brainiac!

"hi :)" "hi :)" THAT WHOLE SCENE HAD ME CRYING

and m'gann letting m'comm fall into the phantom was SO perfect and vengeful, i'm so proud of you sweetie

the west maneuver :')

EVERYONE ASSUMED MARVIN ALREADY KNEW THEY WERE ALL SUPERHEROES SO NO ONE TOLD HIM DFGHJKJH

things i either disliked or just didn't care about:

explaining dick and m'gann's fake deaths in the first five seconds of the episode was very...weird? i don't know what adjective to use to describe my feelings on this but they "killed" m'gann TWICE for shock value and raquel's fake death too was very underwhelming for me. i really don't know what the point was other than to have some cliffhangers, except most of us knew they'd all be fine anyway

the scene when clark and lois explained to jon that conner was back was SO awkward. poor kid's gonna think death isn't real now

danny chase. i'm sorry, i just could not care less about that kid

the end of the battle was very. yeah okay. just narrate everything that's going on i guess. idk the whole episode was kinda weird with all the explanations and stuff? none of it sounded smooth or natural at all and yes i understand it's a cartoon and there's screentime to worry about, but still

whyyyyyyy would they do a heroes in crisis arc!!! please say sike, please just let it stay a passing mention and don't actually spend a whole other season preaching to us about mental health. i get that mental health is important but GOD i'm so tired of hearing about it, this is a superhero cartoon not a stack of pamphlets in a counselor's office

i would have liked just...something between conner and the og team?? aka his best friends and his family?? they spent this whole season mourning him and then saving him, and we didn't even get a hug or anything?? really?? i'm so disappointed

[currentfandomkick]

Warning: trans!man danny and him being Ellie’s dad, and him attracting shenanigans are my favorite tropes, so they’ll be present

Danny had been cautious about going to Gotham when he decided on being a mortician and learning about the stars. He’d gotten the odd look, but for the most part everyone accepted it at face value.

The Gotham part set off the alarm bells in his head. Sure, GIW have been handled but Crime Capital of the World was just one of a few reasons he hadn’t wanted to go.

Being in the city his older brother on a technicality was raised in… was unpleasant. But Sam was there, Tucker had an in with Wayne Enterprises with one of his cousins, and Jazz had been trying to get him to come for longer than a day trip.

But it didn’t sit right with him.

Amity needing him stopped since he did his job well. He finally managed the GED program since his GPA was shot from freshman year.

Gotham University offered him a free ride for his two very desperate fields.

He had a horrible feeling about it.

But in a few years Ellie would be stable enough to live with him full time—Pandora was still stabilizing her and of the opinion Danny needed to live his life outside of being Amity’s protector.

Though she phrased it more like he was starting a new epic.

Mr. Lancer say him down and they made a deal—if Lancer could get Danny’s rogues to ‘knock it off’ and agree to pre-determined time and location fights in the Realms, then Danny would stop hesitating and ‘finally take advantage of the good hand he’d finally been dealt’ and go.

He still can’t believe Lancer lecturing them about targeting Amity in spite of it being a ‘disabled ghost child’s cradle’ worked.

He’d gotten so, so many apology gifts.

Desiree even made it so he produces less estrogen and enough testosterone to not need the injections anymore! And shapeshifting lessons for everything else.

Going to university on top of second puberty is a special hell, but he did it.

He managed to avoid the Wayne clan too. Tucker was still annoyed at times that he wasn’t using his engineering skills—apparently his co-workers don’t believe any of what they grew up making from scraps is possible and wants backup—but for the most part they’ve found a rhythm and manage to share their apartment with Sam in relative peace.

Sam is still Poison Ivy’s top henchwoman.

Danny politely ignores this as Ivy is more Anti-hero and he has a suspicion this ‘Green’ she’s an avatar(? Priestess?) of, is related to Undergrowth but way less pushy. And Sam deserves to commit eco-terrorism as a treat.

Jazz was thriving as she helped the goonion with their mental health.

And Danny was doing well.

Until he went to get another Deathwish from his favorite coffee shop and spotted Dick with one of his new siblings.

And Danny? Was not going to hear anything about growing up different or how it was a shame he didn’t follow the family business or reach out sooner.

Fuck that.

He bolted out the door, and almost lost his pins.

He really hated blacklisting this place. It was the only queer-run coffeeshop that worked for all three of them.

He hated feeling like he was a little kid trying to explain to his first parents he can do the trick, he can. Only for Dick to keep stopping him.

He fled the scene, even using his intangibility, and made it home.

Maybe he should have mentioned remembering who his bio family was when he first remembered…

Fuck.

He looked up at a knock on his window… one of his regulars at the morgue.

He let them in, and they made a sound he knew was their best ghost speak for concern worry help?

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Thanks buddy, just, fuck my life sometimes.”

The guy just cooed, leaning against him and trying to sing to him. Horrendously off key, and it sounded like a really bad rendition of something mid-century.

Danny just tried to breathe. He had one semester left, he’d be able to move soon and he could portal to his friends after his shift, and work on getting Ellie into human school.

Maybe Central? The meta population is bug enough there that no one would ask about either of their abilities, and there’s a no-kill rule with the Rogues…

He’ll work that out later.

Current him has a possible man-hunt run by the asshole brother he forgot and chose to ignore once he remembered a decade ago.

His life may be fucked, but it’s his and he won’t let that asshole barge in.

Not when he’s close to getting Ellie full-time without Fruitloop interference.

Not when he’s almost graduated, has a plan, and finally out of the vigilante life…

His buddy stopped singing and ran up to tap. Danny wrangled him to not drink from there, but the water bottle. Honestly, whatever necromancer was making his regulars, Danny’s having a Talk with them before he leaves.

—

Dick and Tim shared a look as Dick’s clone bolted from the coffee shop.

The clone was around Jason’s age, and not perfect. Face a bit too round, eyes the wrong shade and build all wrong.

Whoever cloned him didn’t even get his ass right.

But he knew he’d be going after him to uncover the nefarious plot and hopefully deprogram the guy.

“Huh, wonder what spooked Danny,” the barista frowned.

“Danny?” Dick looked at Tim.

Tim shrugged.

“I’ll let his roomie’s know to pick up their order,” the owner yelled back as she finished another order.

“So, is him bolting at the door normal or…”

“Oh, Danny’s got a thing where he can sense danger before it happens. His big sister mentioned it was why she figured it’d be safe for him to follow her here. Real sweetheart, and their parents weren’t the best about it,” the barista answered absently as she finished ringing Tim up.

Dick and Tim winced. Clone may be de-programmed already, or a sleeper.

Either way they were going to get to the bottom of it.

After they made their way out, Tim frowned. “Uh, about Danny… you did see the pin right?”

Dick nodded. “Ghost one right?”

“No, the flags. Trans, pan, and a medusa one.”

Dick twitched. He hoped it wasn’t what he was thinking.

—-

That’s all i got for now.

Not my Circus

A/N: I hate my brain and it's suckish timing...

Danny was a circus kid. He knew that, and so did his parents. Well, the once that took him in when he was five. He knew he had a loving family before the Fentons. Yet he doesn't know himself why he never put in more effort to return to them. No, wait, he had an idea what his five years old mind could have been thinking.

If Freakshow and his mockery of a circus had never shown up in Amity. Then Danny might have pushed the thought of his original family to the side forever. He had been a foolish kid back then, reckless and tempramental, unlike his older brother. He had tried to follow into his parents' and brother's footsteps, but he wasn't as graceful or acrobatic as they were. It was irony really with how much he liked flying and doing tricks in the air now. But still he remembered having a lot of frustrated fights with his brother about his inability to be like them.

When he got reminded he started to do a bit of a more serious research again and when he found out about his originals parents death half a year after he was first declared missing from the circus as well as his older brothers having gotten adopted too, he had dropped it all again. Pushing all of that back into the deepest depths of his mind again. His older brother was doing well. There was no need for him, for Danny.

That went well until Jazz went to university in Gotham and convinced him to go there to collage too, when he sort of forcefully retired from being a teen hero. It went well for a couple of years until his mid twenties.

Because despite Gotham being a city way bigger than Amity, there were still chances of you running into certain people.

The moment he entered the coffee shop and saw the others face, everything he had pushed aside in his mind came right back to the forefront of his mind.

How he foolishly trained in acrobatics behind his families back after another fight while they were moving towns and fell off the wagon.

How he had felt like he enjoyed not feeling presured to be like them and didn't put too much effort into returning to them when he was with the Fenton as well as thinking that his elder brother was probably happier without a stubborn little brother.

How when he looked them up he dropped it just as fast when he learned about their deaths and his elder brothers adoption.

He blinked wide-eyed at the man that stood before him a teen next to him while he held two cups of coffees. He, too, was staring at Danny frozen.

Now Danny had several options of how to handle the situation. And he most likely didn't choose the best one at first as usual. Because what he did in response at seeing Richard 'Dick' Grayson was to turn tail and run even using is invisibility and intangiblity.

What Danny didn't know was that Dick's first, thought, was someone cloned him and not that his missing brother from his days before the Waynes was back.

Thus a game of mouse was started...

[sakuravalelp]

@xno-more-smilesx Okay, yes, I love this! Could be one of the arcs in the story. Phantom got hurt by the GIW while rescuing one of his subjects from their facilities.

He's stable, but the injury it's bad. They had used an electric based attack, and while Phantom isn't really weak towards it, it does bring flashbacks from his death. Being beings of emotions, their mental state is important for the ghosts health. The flashbacks and nightmares are disturbing Phantoms healing, making it distinctively slower.

I'm thinking they're in summer vacation, so Tucker and Sam told the Fenton parents they were planning on going camping and would be gone for sometime. Jack and Maddie, loving their kids but being so negligent, don't think twice about it. They would have noticed Danny being gone for more than a couple of days, but wouldn't question it if he's gone for months without notice if they were told he was out camping, because they're centered in they're own research. So Danny is recovering as Phantom in his castle with no worries about his civilian identity.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Tim hasn't seen Phantom in a while, and his ghost Nanny's just tell him that he isn't feeling well. They answer all his questions vaguely and redirect it to things he could do in the garden. He once more is reminded why he found it so frustrating to be with the ghost Nanny's; getting any answers at all was like pulling teeth.

But this time is worse, because it's not his curiosity about the dimension that they're not answering, it's about Phantom. He knows something is wrong. Wrong as worse than just "not feeling well." He can see it in how the Nanny's are acting, the mood in the garden has been lower than usual. During his time in the garden he's seen how much they all love their prince.

He's worried sick for Phantom, and there's nothing he can do other than keep going back to check if he's back. It doesn't help that it's like playing roulette wether he's going to sleep project or not. He's taking naps more often, he's even got he's hands on some sleeping pills in an effort to go to the dream land more often.

He's starting to consider scaping the gardens to try and find Phantom in the castle. He would forgive him if he did it to find him right?

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Tim has been sleeping a lot lately. Not in the "I've decided to have a healthy sleep schedule" that they have slowly getting used to, but in the "he's almost always asleep." He's starting to skip patrolling from time to time, and Tam has also express worries about her boss falling asleep between meetings.

It is like he can't keep himself awake, and Dick is considering that maybe Bruce wasn't so paranoid when he had done all those tests in the past. Back then he had reason that maybe being forced in a deep sleep had shown Tim how good it felt to be rested, and that was why he had started sleeping more. But now he wonders if despite all the tests, they had missed clues of side effects.

Everything became even worse when Damian mentioned that he had seen Tim take some pills. It didn't take long before they found out they were sleeping pills. When confronted Tim just said it wasn't their business, wouldn't even answer how many pills he had taken or how often. He had already gone through half the bottle.

They started taking turns on taking care of Tim, trying to keep him awake and making sure he doesn't take any pills. Tim is annoyed with all of them, sometimes even reacts violently when he's woken up. They don't know what to do, but they can't really trust him to take care of himself anymore.

A dream land - DP X DC Prompt

Okay, so I was thinking about that episode "Perchance to dream" where Bruce is trapped in a dream world and this, even thought really different, came to my mind.

Danny is king or prince of the infinite realms. He's been working on personalizing/decorating his castle in the infinite realms. When he feels someone walking just outside the castles walls. The thing is, that someone isn't a denizen, they aren't in a corporeal body, but he can feel that they are very much alive and feel distinctly human. He approaches the person to ask why and how they are in the infinite realms, but they fade away before he gets the opportunity.

Clockwork, who was with him at the moment, tells him that the visitor from the living, was just the soul projection of someone that was sleeping, and then refuses to elaborate further. Since it's something that was to do with sleeping, Danny decides to go and ask Nocturn, it seemed like a reasonable assumption that he was the one at fault for the soul projection.

Contrary to what he thought, Nocturn informed Danny that Sleeping soul projection was a natural phenomenon that he didn't control. The land of dreams, ("My domain" - Nocturn reminds him), was in the infinite realm after all, and those who have been close to death sometimes slipped they're whole soul instead of just their mind, and ended up all over the infinite realms.

It isn't too different from a lucid dream for them, the body gets all the benefit of the sleep, the mind feels rested if they had a good time in the realms. Except, if they hurt their soul too bad during their little trip, it would have real consequences. Loosing memories, abilities regression, migraine, pain that reflects the soul damage, all either temporary until the soul healed, or permanent and deteriorating, and in some occasions finishing in the persons death. In the latter, the soul is usually too damaged and cease it's existence, or have enough ectoplasm and emotion to form into ghosts with crack cores whose existence is instantly in danger.

Danny clearly didn't like the image that was painted to him, so he asked Nocturn if there was really nothing that he could do. It took a lot of talking and convincing, but eventually Nocturn admitted he could be able to direct the soul projecting to appear on a certain place, but he refused to babysit anyone. Which was enough for Danny, all he needed to do was make another expansion in his castle.

He decided to make a garden to receive their soul projecting guests. The garden was enormous, with all kinds of spaced within it. Playgrounds, picnic spaces, soft benches, tables with ghost and space teamed board games, fountains, and of course, the beautiful flowers that surrounded and decorated the place. Once he got ghosts with gardening, protection and caring obsessions on the place to look out for the souls, he was ready to receive them. It took him by surprise the amount of people that came, the garden was never crowded, but was never empty either, and souls of all ages and places were visiting at all times.

He kept expanding the garden as he heard of new things their guests wished for. He enjoyed spending time in the middle of the garden where souls passed by but rarely appeared, it was calm, but not completly quite with the background noice of the soul enjoying their dreams, and he could do the more mundane king/prince work. Until, he starts getting a regular visitor on his little space of the garden.

Choose the DC character you prefer, my idea is for people who hasn't died in the past but has been in the doors of death (so died and came back would be disqualified but you do as you prefer), but I'm going with Tim.

The soul of a boy around his age appears just in front of him, as usual when he greets new arriving soul, he welcomes him with a gentle smile and tells him he is free to explore the garden. A ghost taker is assign to him. The soul, as usual, seems confused and like he wished to asks questions, but seems content to ask them to his tour guide, and Danny continues with his own duties.

But then, the same soul continues to appear in the same place every two or three days, they exchange greetings and every time talk for a bit longer before the boy leaves to explore once more. It's rear to have multiple visits from one soul, even more so for said soul to appear in the same place every time. By the four time, Danny decides to take a break on his royal duties and accompany his new friend.

~ They get close, and have cute scenes, Tim asks a lot of questions and Danny answers and not-answers a lot of questions ~

One day, Tim shows up as usual, but he is in full Red Robin costume, and well, Danny wasn't expecting an identity reveal.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

On the Bats side:

There's an attack of some villain that's able to put Red Robin (or character of your choice) on a sleeping beauty type of sleep while carrying a serious injury, were he stays sleep until teammates or backup gets him out of it. The event affects his soul, making him disconnect partially from the land of dreams and making his soul sleep project almost every time he sleeps.

Tim starts sleeping more often. It's worrying at first, Bruce being paranoid does every test in the book, despite Tim saying he's just finding sleep easier now. But, he was just affected by sleeping magic and suddenly his sleeping easier? Seems like a side effect, and that makes it worrying.

Tim's health in general improve, just like he's concentration and productivity. Who would have thought that working rested actually was more productive than working on less than three hours of sleep and missing obvious details and clues due to how tired you are.

With everything not only being okay, but better than before, paranoia about Tim's new sleeping schedule soon dies, and instead is replaced with teasing about how he used to refuse to rest kicking and screaming, and now he may sleep more than any of them.

On Tim's side, he's loving being able to soul project so often. He knew from the start he was in a different dimension, and he just wanted to know the hows, whys, and everything else. So far, he seems to do it at least once every three days, and he's even gone two times in a row a couple of times.

The garden had a lot of things to do, but Tim doesn't care about that, he's more interested in all the information he's getting. The first 3 times he was given different ghost nanny's, who were more focus on entertaining him and didn't really answer direct question. But then king/prince Phantom decided to accompany him personally, and everything went smoother. He was going back to get to know more about this new world, and maybe to know more about the cute prince/king too. He might also have gotten some better looking pajamas.

Now, he has a mission that takes more than a couple days with some people in his team that hasn't yet sen his face. He didn't realize how difficult it would be to do all nighters after getting used to a sleep schedule. He would usually try to go as long as possible without sleeping, but he decides that he should take advantage of the safety of where they're staying and sleep a bit too. He ended up soul projecting in full Red Robin costume. He tried to play it cool, maybe Phantom wouldn't know it was him.

"Red Robin, even if you didn't appear on the same spot as always, I can feel your soul. I know who you are."

[winterwriter8845]

In Love With My YouTube Hero

Story Masterlist

Chapter 3

My lips parted as I couldn't believe what I was reading.

Hey, are you okay? I was just checking to make sure you're okay.

The message was from Xavier. The bold words reading "XavGame." I nearly squealed with excitement. I looked over at Teegan.

"What is it?" She raised her eyebrow. "Look at your face! You're bright red."

I pointed at my screen, hiding my face from my blush. My hair fell over my face, hiding my eyes.

"Xavier messaged you?! Looks like he's interested in you."

I shook my head. "N-No... Why would he be interested in me?"

"Because you're smart and beautiful and passionate," Ms. Weeks intervened.

I blushed even more. "No, I'm not..."

"Well, respond back," Teegan said.

I bit my lip as I started to type back:

Yeah, I'll be fine. It's nothing to worry about.

Ms. Weeks walked over and sat down at the desk beside us. "So who is Xavier?"

"He's a YouTuber from England," I said.

"And he's famous. He has over 11 million subscribers on YouTube," Teegan added.

"Oh, so you're a gold digger?" Ms. Weeks joked.

"Totally." I giggled.

I heard the ding of the Discord notification go off, and I read the message.

I'm glad that you're okay. I was just curious because I could see blood on your face.

I smiled, looking down at my lap for a moment. "He's really persistent on seeing if I'm alright." I typed:

Yeah, it's fine. It's nothing I'm not used to. But thank you for your concern.

The bell rang, and everyone came into the classroom as Ms. Weeks was setting up the food on the round table in the corner of the room. She called it "The Round Table." Every Friday in creative writing, we would have an event called "Knights of the Round Table." It was where people would share their writing that they had worked, whether it be a personal work or a class assignment, and we would eat food as well.

I continued to message Xavier throughout the block, and we just talked about random stuff. It was nice to talk to him, and I wasn't just saying that because he was famous. He genuinely cared about me and made sure I was okay.

The class ended, and I moved my stuff to my other seat as Ms. Weeks was also my creative writing teacher.

I sat in a group of desks in the corner with three other people. Their names were Michael and Kylie. Michael was in my grade, and Kylie was a freshman as creative writing was one of the few classes that mixed different grades in together.

I continued to talk to Xavier. Then he brought TwitchCon.

Hey, are you going to TwitchCon?

I typed back:

Isn't it in like a few months?

I sat there, waiting for a response. Michael walked in and sat down at the desk next to me. He was actually a good writer when he was stoned. He said one time, that he was tripping and he was watching FOX News at like 3 am. And he was freaking out as well from the drugs and so write a piece called the American Obituary. And it was like a prophecy, and it was excellent.

"Hey, wassup?" Michael asked.

"Nothing much." I smiled up at him, glancing at my laptop screen every now and then.

"Why all anxious?" He asked as he noticed me looking at my screen.

"Umm, nothing." I giggled.

"Alright, who's made you all giggly? Who's the guy?" He turned my laptop to face him. "Who's XavGames?"

I groaned. "He's a Youtuber.... and he lives in England." I smiled as I pulled up another tab and went to YouTube. I pulled up a video of Xavier playing Friday the 13th: the Game. "He had donated some money on my stream last night, and then my father did what he always has done, and I had to end the stream early. Then he started to message me and made sure I was alright."

"Well, damn. Get yourself some good dick." He smiled. "I'm so proud of you, my little girl is all grown up." He faked cry, wiping away fake tears.

I laughed. "But we're literally not even friends yet. So I'm not getting the D."

"Yet."

"I doubt I ever will," I said as I looked up at him.

"Don't say that. You're smart, beautiful, creative. You're too kind for your own good. Who wouldn't like you?" He smiled as he pulled his laptop out from under his seat.

"I mean apparently since I think Xavier is cute, Danny is getting jealous."

"Well, if he can't respect your life decisions on who you want to date, then he's not the man for you. He has to respect all of your decisions unless they're bad ones. Then he can say something. But he has to respect your personal space."

I smiled. "Thank you."

The bell rang for class to begin, and everyone got settled into their seats. I noticed that Kylie wasn't here.

I began to search through my writing to find something to share for Knights of the Round Table. I found a piece that I had written a while back for my Medieval narrative for English class. Though it didn't have to be set in the medieval times, it had to have some kind of element of medieval narratives in it. So I chose to write a piece that had a lot of scenery and description.

Once Michael had finished reading my work, which I stuttered a lot when I read and have to have someone else read my work, everyone went ballistic. I burrowed my face down in my arms as a blush came onto my face. Everyone was saying that they wanted more, but I didn't have any more to share.

We read a few more writing and ate as did. Michael shared his piece of writing, which was kind of prophetic.

The class ended eventually, and I packed up my books and laptop. "I expect you to tell me all about this Xavier boy tomorrow," Michael said.

I smiled. "I will." I picked my books up and left the classroom.

School went on, and it was pretty much the norm. Teachers who don't know how to teach, lots of homework, and tons of drama over petty stuff.

~~~

I reached my car and sat down in the passenger seat. I noticed my phone had turned on with a Discord notification so I looked at the message. It was Xavier.

Hey, so I was wondering if you wanted to collab with me on some videos. Maybe play some game together.

And I nearly lost it. I grew excited and immediately replied with a yes. I sat in the parking lot, in my car, waiting for a response. And one came.

Great. What kind of games do you play? I play mainly single player games though.

I typed back:

Same. Maybe we can play some Golf-It with some other friends. Maybe Cards Against Humanity.

There wasn't a response after a few minutes so I decided to drive to my work so I wouldn't be late. I worked at this small little café called the Witt Stop. They made food like hamburgers but they also served muffins and coffees. It was a very small place, and they had recently just opened, so very few of us worked there who wasn't family. It was owned by a woman and her fiancé and brother. They were the ones who worked there most of the time and handled all of the big rushes, like the mornings when the elderly people came in to have breakfast and read the paper and talk about politics.

Then there was me. I wasn't family but a friend of a friend of the family. My boss, Rosie, was friends with Nina, and Nina had recommended me since they still needed a few people. And Nina had known of my situation and explained it vaguely to Rosie. So Rosie hired me and then hired Teegan so I wouldn't be completely lost around people. I stayed in the back and made food and cleaned dishes while Rosie and Teegan handled the cashier and taking people's orders.

I drove away from the school and drove towards town. My town was small, it was a place where everyone knew everyone and there were no secrets. The town had a population of about 1,000 people, and it took about ten minutes to walk from one side of town to the other.

I arrived at work about fifteen minutes later as it wasn't far from the school. I checked my phone to see it had gone off from another message from Xavier. It read:

That sounds great! Let me know when you're free to make a few videos.

I smiled and blushed. I typed back:

Okay! I will.

I got out of the car and walked into the small store. Rosie was already at the cashier, ringing up an elderly man.

She looked up at me and saw my busted lip. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah... It's nothing to worry about." I looked down, shifting my feet. My bangs fell over my face, hiding it.

"You know I worry about you." She leaned against the counter.

I walked behind the counter and through the door to the kitchen. I pulled my hair back in a ponytail and started to wash dishes. Though it wasn't the best job, it made enough money for me to have some money to get food and help support mom.

I eventually finished up the dishes and walked out to stock the drink fridges. I brought the crates for soda out to the fridges and started to stock them. I finished up and took the empty crates back to the back of the store. I finished up my shift without any incidents.

I got in my car after work and went back to Teegan's house. I sat down at my desk and pulled up my class assignments. I had a few assignments to do as Ms. Weeks gave homework to do on the weekends. They weren't hard assignments as they were just free writing assignments within a certain topic. She had decided to take the medieval narrative from my English class and make it a creative writing assignment. So I decided to write an imagery scene of a fight scene between a vampire prince and a werewolf alpha.

I finished the first writing assignment, then I pulled up Discord. I started to type.

Hey, guys. No stream tonight. I'm not feeling the best.

It wasn't a lie. I just needed a mental health day. The discord group started to blow up.

And I saw the One Unread Message icon pop up next to his name.

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

D is for Ghost

by Jenn_666 Danny Fenton, alone, without his powers, and down on his luck in Gotham, is caught up in a string of kidnapping cases when he is taken to be sacrificed for a summoning ritual. Dick Grayson, back in Gotham, is working with Tim to find the missing people before the cult can achieve their purpose, whatever that may be. Words: 3682, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: M/M Characters: Danny Fenton, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake (DCU), Bruce Wayne, Damian Wayne, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley Relationships: Danny Fenton/Dick Grayson, Danny Fenton & Jason Todd Additional Tags: Ghost King Danny Fenton, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Idiots in Love, Implied/Referenced Torture, Blood and Injury, Homelessness, Danny Fenton Needs A Hug, Hurt Dick Grayson, Not Phantom Planet Compliant (Danny Phantom), Mental Health Issues, Worried Dick Grayson, Danny Fenton is a Little Shit, Gay, Everyone Is Gay, Suicidal Thoughts, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Kidnapping, Rituals, Sacrifice, Not Beta Read, Past Torture via https://ift.tt/4F7c8gy

[metalotaku-da]

Keeping more fluffy ideas: maybe it's a safety out for Danny. to get him out of Amity. his family and the clockwork want him to do it to get out of Amity before a bad time line with the GIW? or if his parent's don't know before there is a bad reveal? maybe since it's magic, not a lawyer, but a chance meeting that starts up the contract as they meet the criteria. Maybe Dick is in Illinois with Ted Kord and Babs or with the Titans or Wally in central and Danny's there for reasons? a Kord gala? with Vlad or Sam. so it's in Chicago. Dick there with Bruce. or in Lew of Bruce. 

I think using the 2 year age thing would be cool. Maybe Danny is 18 and Jazz and Dick 20. so maybe one of the magic users says the only out is Jazz taking the contract instead. which Danny will not do to her. He's the one who Fenton lucked his way into an arranged marriage. His dreams have already been ruined; he's not taking away Jazz’s future too.

Here we start making it darker more angsty: if you wanted Dan and Dani in there. you could have some more angst of Dan offering to swap. but he's in a clone body that Vlad made stable as biologically male, because he didn’t know Danny was trans. Like hell they are going to tell him. Or if you want a nicer Vlad he did know. And when they knew Dan was going to need a body he put extra effort to do that for him. Hoping to help with some of his mental health issues by getting rid of the body dysphoria. Because of him being now a “born” male he doesn't work. added angst of Danny's feelings that the curse works because of his birth gender. And it making him feel invalidated. and all these strangers now all know that about him without knowing a thing about them and how they'll  react to it. let alone once the ghost thing comes out.

 the whole thing was made to make an heir of their joint lines kind of thing. if it's a really old and antiquated thing, it could be that's what fulfills the contract and sets it as completed. with some hocus pocus rules of a timeline from touch till conceivement is started. and if it doesn't happen then maybe something bad happens but Danny is immune because of a half ghost or something. Either death, crippling, a bad luck curse. Could go lighter to heavy angst. but Dick isn't (with his past history the thought of having to do something to someone without their enthusiastic consent is gonna cause ptsd to flare up.)

but Danny's not willing to let this random dude die or get maimed or cursed because of bad Fenton luck curse. could be why to try and bring in Constantine to try and break the contract. for like high stakes. but they can't get a hold of him. and as a backup Bruce is pushing his son to try and woo Danny. (it says conceive not birth it's a loophole Bruce latches onto. So Bruce offers to cover abortion if they want. No marriage required. He offers to pay expenses. Set them up for life. Kind of sounds maybe like bribing Danny. And in Bruce fashion he offers the first option he’d prefer and stops. Till he gets an answer which starts a fight. Because it’s Dick and Bruce, they are going to argue over everything here. which does not help Dick or Danny maybe.

Maybe Danny is like no i can take the kid and get out of your hair, you don't have to worry about it. which does not make Dick feel better. If he’s gonna be a dad. He wants to be a dad who’s there for his kid. Bruce offers to ensure their financial future if they do that too. And he’s not against that option either if Dick doesn’t have to face any of this again. Which could make Bruce and Dick fight. i mean a lot of room for potential fights between Bruce and Dick here. ) 

Could have Danny is taking care of a de-aged to stabilize Dani kind of thing too.  it would add other angst depending on how it started. him raising Dani as his daughter. Here Dick is thinking he's  gotta choose death or repeating leaving this poor guy with another fatherless child. (comes out Vlad is the other parent Dick's angst not only goes through the roof but so does his righteous fury. Barely contained murderous Robin is back.) extra awkward if Vlad and Danny are on good terms, if bad terms something for them to get closer over and an investigation and rescue could take place there. Like hell Vlad good or bad is letting some know nothing do that to his Danny. So Vlad could be a good conflict base. 

For drama. bring in the teen titans for moral support of Dick to help him decide how to proceed. reverse Amity group trying to talk Danny out of sacrificing his well being for a stranger. He’s sacrificed enough. (they all know this isn’t going to work on him. But I mean amity digging into the bats to find a reason they don’t deserve Danny’s help would be funny too. And it ends with outing both sides' hero work. 

All of this above just throwing at a wall for ideas or suggestions.

Ok but, the one poll recently reminded me of my desire for an arranged marriage Danny x Dick story.

Maybe it was an inherited one, not from Danny or Dick originally but one they both got.

Maybe the Grayson's were once friend with the Nightingale-Fentons and made a pact but the genders just never lined up, so it wasn't a 'if X from one and y from another' just if two compatible children were born at the same time-which can now be skewed to be any gender match up-but they have to be within like, 2? years of each other age wise max, the agreement-bound in magic maybe?-being stiff about that to prevent issues that way.

And Danny and Dick both find out about it at the same time-maybe when they were both 21ish?-from some lawyer family that was charged with keeping track and all?

Danny could try and see if the half-dead thing-so like, good parents and/or dead parents-could get him out of it but the observables and CW are oddly for it, and he'd never wish it on Jazz.

And Dick tries to find every out as well, even Constantine, or maybe Zantanna and Raven since their friends of his, looking at the contract and finding it's iron clad as well.

And they don't have to marry right away, just engaged and plan to marry within a decade at max, so they have time to at least get used to each other and all? No words against other partners just no divorce unless one is a threat to the other or whatever?

[chronicbatfictioner]

Theater of the Soul - Chapter 19

Fortunately, in spite of his sudden hysterics, Dr Nelson did not deem a need for Jason to be sedated again.

Jason cried and cried into Bruce's arm, telling them the horror story of how he was brought to a small hospital right after the accident, had his legs merely splinted, and then brought to Napier's house somewhere at the outskirts of Los Angeles. Then he was given a shot, and then he didn't remember anything else. The next thing he knew was that he was crawling across asphalt and there were kids. He remembered Danny and Ellie when Tim showed him their photos, but he didn't know their names. He just said that they looked out for him, and he looked out for them. He was able to walk only a little while before meeting Danny and Ellie.

He could not remember much, just that the photo of red-breasted robin in his jacket kept him feeling like he could get home, someday. That someone would look for him. His head felt cloudy the whole time, and he could not think of what else to do; thus figured out that he was being thrown back to the streets. He knew he had to try to survive, somehow, in a strange city with strange people. He didn't remember wanting to try to figure out how to go home; his head was too clouded and painful to figure out things.

He did remember everything from the time he had met Danny and Ellie, and that they had brought him food. Sometimes there would be people who would try to harass them, and Jason would fight for them. He might be only sixteen, just a few years older than Danny. But he was tall and big enough to fight off three people at once - which he had, at one point.

Food, fortunately, was easy to come by. Unlike Gotham, Los Angeles' population apparently liked to throw away perfectly good food. He remembered that one time, Danny came back to them with a whole large black plastic bag filled with donuts. It might have been a little less fluffy than fresh donuts, but they gorged happily, set aside a dozen for the rest of the day, and shared the loot with the rest of the people around them. There were many homeless like them, some with kids, some with pets; and they all mind their own group's business. But no one would turn down free food.

Tim had left the room a little while later, when Alfred came to pick him up and Dick drove him home. The next day, when Tim returned to visit him, Jason again patted the space on his bed.

"I saw your eyes back then and suddenly thought of-- wanted to go home." Jason said. "Thanks for finding me, Birdie."

"I had to," Tim admitted. "The only option if I didn't find you is that you were... not alive. And I can't... that'll ruin Bruce." and me, said the voice in his head.

Jason was quiet for a moment. "Babs told me you'd found me by kind of referring back to the things I've told you back then." he smiled wryly, "at least that means you'd listened."

"Well, you're a good storyteller." Tim grinned back. "We've all missed you, you know."

Jason was glaring at him, a little blankly, making Tim's heart beat a little faster with worry. He snapped his fingers in front of Jason's face. "Hey, you okay?"

Jason blinked, annoyedly. "Yeah, I was just thinking." he said. "The robin. I could remember it being... safe, y'know? Even in the worst times, it... it kept me 'safe', I think..." he shrugged. "You remember when you took the photo?"

"Yeah, sure. Robinson's park. We were making your portfolio and headshots." Tim smiled. "I still haven't given it to you."

Jason smiled ruefully. "I'd offer to pay. But I think I'm broke now..." he said. "We... I should've known he was a con... The gigs he'd gotten me were... crap, and that's just me being nice." Jason inhaled and exhaled loudly. "I hope somebody would take a spade to his damn head and club him to death."

Tim stilled. No one had told Jason that Napier was dead, yet. He'd had another psychotherapy session with Dr Nelson yesterday, and another one this morning. In true, cheeky, Jason form, Jason stated that he has no secrets, and the sessions can take place with whoever present listening along. Yesterday was Bruce; and this morning, Alfred was there.

Tim just thought that Jason simply did not want to be alone. In a way, neither did Tim. He knew what it's like to be alone and lonely, and although there are still times he preferred to be alone; Tim already knew that he would never be lonely with the plethora of people looking out for him.

They chatted and played the video games that Tim had brought along. Jason wanted to know how Tim's school was doing, and there was a little pang of jealousy in his voice when he realized that he'd missed two whole years of school - while Tim would be graduating. Tim was more surprised when Jason apologized for missing Tim's birthday. Birthdays. Plural.

"I'd intended to at least send you a postcard." he said. "Thought if I'd made it big in LA, I'd even send you a plane ticket."

"You can still get me a postcard for this year's birthday." Tim told him.

"Oh yeah, I totally intend to give you something. Fifteen eh, Timmy?" there was a tinge of sadness in his voice. "You going to get your Learner's Permit and all? I'll probably get you a keychain or something." Jason's voice still sounded cheery, but Tim could catch the strain in it.

"How about..." he turned to face Jason. "You get better. By my birthday, I expect you to be in a wheelchair already and get there. And on my sixteenth birthday, you can be my 'accompanying adult' for the permit's test. I'll be starting the lessons after my birthday, anyway. Once you graduated to crutches, I may even allow you in the backseat." he explained, only partly joking.

Jason replied, "Little birdie, I'mma demand them to put me on wheelchairs tomorrow, what makes you think I'll wait a week?"

"There's this thing called infection that could be serious, you know." Tim deadpanned.

"I've weathered bugs and germs from the streets of LA. I'm practically invincible."

"We're in Gotham."

"Oh snap," Jason quipped. "bugs and germs here have horns, don't they? And like, mainline the devil or something?"

"I'd say so, yes." Tim replied, straight-faced. "So no, you're not getting to wheelchairs tomorrow."

"Day after, then." Jason nodded decidedly.

"Nooo...! Wait until Dr Cross give the all-clear!"

"Tim, buddy, it's my body. I know it best."

"Jay, buddy, Dr Cross has literally see the insides of your body, under your skin, to your bones. I think he knows you better." They were on a glare-off standstill for a few seconds, until Tim put his trump card on the table. "I'mma tell Alfred." he delivered.

Jason groaned in dismay. "Nooo...! You traitor!"

"Then wait until Dr Cross okay-ed you for wheelchair and physiotherapy!" Tim replied, almost smugly.

Jason huffed. "Fine... although I think he'll let me on a wheelchair, anyway, within a few days..."

Tim rolled his eyes. In spite of all of his arguments, he knew that Jason was right. If Jason would try to charm Dr Cross, he could probably get away with practically anything he wanted.

A little voice in his head said that if Jason would be charged with Napier's murder, there would be a massive chance that Jason could charm the juries and whatnot. Like Bruce, Jason definitely know how to capitalize on his good looks.

He shook his head lightly, mentally erasing the idea that Jason had been at fault for anything. No matter what. Jason could not be blamed. Must not be blamed. Of all the things Jason has experienced, being viewed as a murderer must not be one of it. His mind was starting to figure out ways to blame Napier's death on other, unrelated issues. Good thing that Tim could actually think better while his hands were doing something else, because Jason seemed insistent on beating him on the video game they resumed.

His eyes felt swollen, dry and he knew that they would be red. He had wept for a good long time, feeling like such an idiot. Bruce kept telling him that it was all alright, that he wasn't at fault for running off with Napier and ended up like this.

A whole damn year was missing from his life. There were birthdays he'd missed, not just his own. There were memories missing, replaced with blurry memories of his life on the streets.

He looked at Tim, still stoically standing - metaphorically, that is, because Tim was basically snuggling right next to him. He'd tried to thank Tim a number of times for not giving up on him, and Tim would just brush him off; as if it was just another day of life for him. Jason simply could not fathom what could happen to him if he'd not been discovered by Tim. On the streets, definitely. Amnesiac and catatonic, totally.

He was just relieved that he had not resorted to violence like the 'crazies'. There were plenty of those in Gotham's homeless community when he was little. The sane ones would always warn his little 10-year-old self and steered him away from the crazies; those with untreated mental problems or substance problems who would not care if those around them were as down-and-out as they were and demand to be given whatever it is they wanted by using violence.

Jason was realistic. He knew that the longer he was on the street with questionable mental health, he would have ended up just like those 'crazies'. Tim had assured him that he hadn't, and that the only acts of violence he had done were of the protective kind. But he still has the nagging feeling that Tim was not telling him the whole truth. 

And now Tim was snuggling next to him, seemingly half asleep as the marathoning of the series he'd suggested still running on TV. When he moved, and Tim didn't even blink, he knew that Tim was already asleep with his eyes not-closed properly. He draw up the blanket and smoothed some hair from Tim's forehead, and placed a chaste kiss.

Whatever would happen, he knew that this boy will forever be in his foremost priority. Anyone thinking of hurting him would absolutely regret it. Even if it means he would never get on stage again. Whatever Tim wanted, Jason decided, Tim will get. And Jason would be on the forefront to help and cheer him on.

Right now, though, he shall need to get his physical strength back, especially on his legs. He started mapping out the possible exercises that he could do without aggravating his lower legs, to present to the doctors. He remembered Bruce's words of "figure out the pros and cons, all possible questions and arguments, all roads and pathways; until you can eat, breathe, and sleep the character as if you were born as it."

Fine, it might have been a suggestion on how to understand a character. But that doesn't mean it cannot be applied on everything else. So he started a note on the tablet that Barbara had given him earlier, and listed down a good number of exercises he could do on his own. Physiotherapy be damned. He shall get up on his feet and/or be as mobile as possible as soon as possible.

[howling--fantods]

i am enough aware of my own transference to understand that all the people i love fall into two categories: people i see myself in and people who i worry about/need to fix (ie my dad and my sister). 

so obviously graham and bruce are me, my mental health idols. bono used to be me and worryingly has become my dad, is now starting to float back into being me. damon is a little bit ashleigh, mostly my dad. 

the reason why danny on the mindy project represents such an emotional clusterfuck for me is that he is me AND my dad, WHICH IS WHY I SO BADLY NEED HIM TO BE OKAY IN THE FINALE!! i see a lot of my most unhealthy impulses in him, he felt alone most of his life and deep down believes that he will probably feel alone forever, no friends, kinda a dick, dad-issues, mom is only person he knows won’t leave him. is my dad bc HE WONT GET ANY FUCKING HELP, obviously is deeply unhappy and not okay, always acts like hes okay, annoyingly religious and guilty. BUT I NEED TO BELIEVE THERE IS HOPE FOR HIM, and as much as i want to believe there is hope for my dad that is not why, BC I NEED TO BELIEVE THERE IS HOPE FOR ME. there is a wound that still hasnt healed, it is why i sob during “beautiful day” when bono screams “i know i’m not a hopeless case” bc i don’t know, really, i’m just starting to feel like all these doubts might not be real. but loneliness is so damaging. i guess the thing in danny i see the most in me is that he’s been alone for so long he thought he would always be okay, but the truth is he needs people so much more bc of that. i am feeling that more than anything lately, i don’t know how much longer i can do this. bc while “i’m okay”, and i am in a sense, i won’t die or anything, but i am terrified of the thought that this is all there is. 

the reason why graham and bruce mean the most to me is that they were both terrified of it too, but they found someone. which is also why danny needs mindy and why this stupid show has destroyed me.

[ayamari-no-goshi]

Chasing Shadows (1)

AO3

Fandoms: Danny Phantom (DP) / DC universe

Summary: THIS IS A CROSSOVER. As Bruce Wayne begins to slowly recover from the loss of his son, two separate mysteries open up old wounds. Who is the unknown leaving clues hinting at a return to Gotham, and who is the phantom pretending to be his lost son? Is it just a coincidence they're active in Gotham at the same time? Or are they connected?

Warnings: rated T for violence, mentions of death, and questionable mental health

Parings: none

Notes: originally uploaded to AO3. Cross-posted to tumblr

It started slowly. Occasional flickers of movement would play at the corners of his vision while he was in the field. Sometimes it was accompanied by the hint of laughter, sometimes it wasn’t.

It had happened before. In the months following Jason’s death, Bruce sometimes thought he saw or heard the boy. He’d accepted it was part of his grief as other people sometimes reported similar occurrences in the wake of deaths. So, he accepted the phantoms and the pain that followed as part of his penance for not being able to save him. His son had brought light and love into the manor, and without him, the shadows seemed darker and more menacing.

To make matters worse, his relationship with Dick nearly fractured beyond repair in the aftermath. Bruce knew he’d made a mistake when he didn’t let Dick know about Jason’s death as soon as he could, but he was struggling to accept the truth himself.

But as Tim worked his way into his life and he slowly repaired his relationship with Dick, things began to get better. The shadows that threatened to engulf him began to fall away, and the hallucinations that made his heart ache faded. And slowly, he began to heal.

They recently begun again. He ran all the tests he could think of and knew it wasn’t from the effects of any known drug or toxin which suggested it was just his mind playing tricks. It would eventually pass, just like before, but until then, he would have to grit his teeth and solder through it like before.

However, they weren’t getting better. Instead, they were getting more frequent and vivid. The playful laughing grew louder and soon words began joining it. The flickers of movement became more defined, and there were times he’d see the faint image of a painfully familiar teenager.

Sometimes the hallucinations would occur while he was in the middle of a fight. Those were the worst ones. The image would seem to appear before a criminal, almost as if he was acting like a diversion. It was too real, too familiar, and it would cause him to worry about a boy who wasn’t even there. It was distraction. He couldn’t afford to be distracted.

It couldn’t just be his grief. He knew what that could bring, and these ones felt different. They were too real so there had to be some sort of interference from one of his many foes. The most likely culprit was Scarecrow. Even if the man tended to focus on fears, his various concoctions were well known for causing hallucinations. Or, perhaps it was a new foe who had gotten hold of the man’s research. No matter the origin, it was the most logical place to start.

The best information came from a snitch. Scarecrow was recruiting henchmen. The word on the street was that he was experimenting with a new aerosolized formula and was planning to unleash it in one of the local churches during a memorial service for a fallen officer. Which the snitch wasn’t certain where the current lab was, several of his associates had seen him in the Narrows.

With Tim’s help, he narrowed down the likely location of the lab by tracking the movement of shipments of some of Scarecrow’s main ingredients. After double checking the blueprints of the suspected building and going over the various plans for infiltration and confrontation, he and Tim made their move. However, when they arrived, the scene in front of them raised several questions.

Jonathan Crane, the Scarecrow, paced while angrily gesturing to a box on one of the tablets. “That was supposed to be a box of my blue poppies,” he hissed to a henchman. It was rare to hear him speak as Crane and not his villainous persona. “Explain why there are these… these things in front of me?”

“Who would have thought you’d be so upset by a few flowers. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were afraid.” The voice, which sounded distorted as if it was coming across an old radio with poor reception, seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. Even through the distortion, the voice sounded male and young, probably teenaged, but from his vantage point, Bruce couldn’t see anyone.

But he knew that voice. It was the same one that haunted his waking hours.

It wasn’t until he saw Scarecrow and his henchmen react that he realized the voice hadn’t just been in his head. Glancing at Robin, he found his partner trying to hide his surprise as he searched for the source of the voice. He needed to do the same.

The only abnormality came up on the thermal scan. There appeared to be a humanoid figure, far too cold to be a normal human, moving around the criminals at a relatively safe distance. Who or whatever it was seemed to have no concern for obstacles as he seemingly passed through them. Strange. Martians could easily do such things, but the heat signature didn’t match. However, it didn’t entirely rule out the possibility.

That would have to be investigated later as Scarecrow began threatening to do dose the area with fear toxin to get the unknown to reveal himself. That was his cue to move. The take down went mostly according to plan. Neither of them received any injuries, but there was a brief moment when a translucent and familiar figure briefly appeared near Robin as if to draw the henchman’s attention away.

When the fight was over and the criminals were satisfactorily incapacitated, Bruce ran another scan of the area. The strange figure seemed to flicker near a stack of boxes. If he didn’t imagine it, the figure gave a two-fingered salute before completely vanishing. A quick sweep of the room, including a thermal one, came up empty. How had the figure vanished so completely?

He had Robin check for any physical evidence possibly left behind by the strange figure while he gathered samples of Scarecrow’s ingredients and in progress toxin. The unknown flowers which didn’t seem to be a planned ingredient were also taken for analysis.

Tim reported he didn’t find anything including a possible entry point. As a precaution, Bruce also made a cursory sweep, but he found nothing either. Deciding there was nothing more that could be currently done at that location, they returned to the cave.

The samples produced more questions than answers. Scarecrow’s toxin had the same active ingredients as his last batch so it would have shown up on a toxicity screen and could be treated with the previous antidote. And with the aerosolized form being incomplete, it meant the recent hallucinations weren’t directly associated with Crane.

Once he finished that analysis, he reviewed the unknown flowers. It turned out that they were a rare plant commonly called the Orpheus or Resurrection Flower and was native to parts of Bulgaria and Greece. While there was some evidence ancient Thriacians and Romans believed it held detoxifying properties, it wasn’t known for being poisonous or having hallucinogenic effects. Clearly Scarecrow hadn’t expected them, so why had he received a shipment of them?

Where those flowers just a mistake? With their rarity, he doubted it. They were possibly a message from an enemy to Scarecrow. Or, perhaps, they could have been from someone who stole Crane’s research. While Bruce hadn’t found anything to currently suggest another criminal was working with fear toxin, he couldn’t completely rule it out. He would have to check all known associates of Crane in the following days to verify it. There was also the question of if those flowers had anything to do with the unknown.

Now that Bruce was aware he truly existed outside the realm of his mind, he needed to consider what his motives could be. Was he simply acting as a distraction? Someone who would play on Bruce’s pain in order to make him less effective in the field. Or, perhaps he was the one who was using Crane’s research. He had effectively made Bruce believe he was a hallucination for longer than he wanted to admit.

Though, even if he was using Crane’s research, that wouldn’t cause the strange readings on their equipment. The thermal clearly showed someone who existed outside the realms of a normal human. He hoped that the video recordings might provide more clues.

However, whatever modulator the unknown used corrupted his voice, preventing analysis. The corruption was odd as he could remember the meta’s voice much more clearly than what the audio could provide. The video wasn’t much better. Tim’s gear held the best image of the figure, with about 3.73 seconds of the unknown in full view. However, his form seemed hazy and faded. Really the only true details they could get from the analysis was what appeared to be white hair and an outfit which may have been similar to other costumed heroes.

He'd been, or at least a hallucination of him, had been haunting Bruce for a few months, but he was no closer to finding out who he was or why he was doing it. It was a frustrating mystery.

…

In the following weeks, Bruce hadn’t made any headway regarding the hallucinations. Neither him nor Tim could find evidence someone else was using Crane’s research. A second round of tests confirmed there were no signs of missed toxins or unknown substances in his body. He even asked J’onn to do a cursory sweep for signs of magic or psychic interference, but none was found. As a result, he was forced to mostly accept the phenomenon wasn’t associated with his enemies. That left either his grief or the new unknown, and he was leaning towards the unknown.

He appeared a few more times in the next few weeks, bringing more questions than answers. Mostly, he would make a quip or two to the various criminals but would only show himself for a few brief moments. However, the more he showed himself, the clear his form seemed to become. He now appeared in shades of white, gray, and black as if he was pulled from the images of a black and white TV.

It was when the figure showed himself to Dick that Bruce was given his first true clue to the identity of the unknown. And although he wouldn’t admit it, the implications shook him to his core.

He and Nightwing were taking out an arms smuggling ring with ties to Black Mask and the Falcones. Usually, such take downs were relatively easy in comparison to other cases, but these men were a bit too well prepared. Remote-controlled hidden weaponry was abnormal to see in the lower rungs of such organizations. While it wasn’t anything they hadn’t seen before, it did make it more difficult to move in to capture them.

At one point, they were forced to temporarily take shelter behind a few metal containers. As they waited for an opening, they heard laughter from above them. Sitting on a top of a stack of crates was the unknown. He gave an amused smile as he watched them while showing no interest in the hail of bullets around him. If Bruce wasn’t mistaken, several passed harmlessly through him.

“Looks like you’re having a bit of trouble with them, old-timer.” His smile grew wider as he slid off the crates and landed without a noise in front of Nightwing. “Is your age finally catching up with you?”

Dick stared, open mouthed, at the unknown, who looked almost solid this time. This must have been the reaction the unknown wanted as he turned and gave Bruce an amused smirk.

Chills ran up Bruce’s spine at the unknown’s appearance. It had been the first time the unknown stood still enough and close enough for him to get a clear look at his appearance. White hair seemed to move as if there was a slight breeze. A black domino mask covered his eyes, but the specific shape of it he’d seen on another thousands of times. Pale skin seemed to have a strange greenish tint, but the visible features on his face were partially obscured by a soft glow surrounding the body. But his clothing… if it hadn’t been for the difference of the colors, Bruce would have immediately alerted Alfred because it meant someone had broken the memorial case in the cave.

He was still going to ask Alfred to check for signs the case was disturbed later. While it was unlikely someone would have been able to alter the colors on the suit that quickly, it wasn’t impossible.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” The mischievous grin on the unknown grew wider. “You need to take better care of yourself. A strong shock like that is back for an old person’s heart.”

“Ghost or not, you’re going to be dead in a second, kid.” One of the criminals approached during the distraction. “Since bullets don’t seem to faze you, let’s try a different tactic.”

As the criminal moved to smack the unknown with the butt of the rifle, Bruce prepper one of his batarangs but didn’t immediately react. Perhaps it was nostalgia or a morbid curiosity, but he needed to see what would happen, to see how the unknown would react. Without losing his smirk, the unknown dodged the gun and moved as if he would attack. But when it appeared his fist would connect with the criminal, he seemed to pass through him as he faded away.

The criminal panicked as he checked himself and then his surroundings for the unknown. It left Nightwing an opening to take him down. The rest of the criminals were quickly dispatched after that.

Just like with the previous sightings of the unknown, they found no evidence which could provide any answers to who he was or what he was doing in the criminals’ hiding place. Though, strangely, they found a couple of drawings of a lotus with what almost appeared to be a stylized bite mark on a few of the boxes. There were no obvious connections between the arms dealers and such a plant. Was it related to a supplier? He would have to investigate.

Once he and Nightwing finished looking for evidence, they both swept the area for the unknown. Once again, he seemingly vanished into the night.

…

“Are we going to talk about it?” The ride back to the cave was uncomfortably silent. Though Bruce could handle the lack of noise with little trouble, Dick couldn’t and spoke up.

“You’ve been briefed. That unknown meta has been briefly appearing during missions.”

“You didn’t…” Dick hesitated as he gripped the fabric covering his legs. “You didn’t tell me what he was wearing…”

“The unknown hasn’t been as pronounced during previous appearances.”

“Pronounced? Are you telling me you couldn’t tell he was wearing a mockery of that suit… of Jason’s suit before today?” Dick snapped. Didn’t Bruce understand how much it hurt to see someone wearing it again?

“No. This was the longest the unknown showed himself. Previously, his form appeared somewhat hazy and at times non-distinct.”

Dick relaxed his grip and let some of the tension out of his shoulders as he turned his gaze to the window. “B, he called me ‘old-timer’, just like Jason used to. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear that was his ghost.” He fell silent as he wrestled with his emotions.

Was it wrong to hope that maybe it was the ghosts of his little brother? If it was, it would give him a chance to apologize to him for not being there when he needed him the most. He also wanted to let his brother know that he was loved and missed.

But at the same time, the concept unnerved him. He remembered the legends told to him while Haley’s Circus traveled throughout Europe. The restless dead often had unfinished business, and many of them brought death and ill fortune with them. His brother would never intentionally bring harm to their family, but he couldn’t shake the feeling the appearance of this ghostly entity foretold something terrible was on the horizon.

When they returned to the cave, Bruce began researching the arms dealers while Dick decided to pull up available footage of the unknown from the previous sightings of him. Bruce was right. There was a strange distortion of his image and voice making it almost impossible to make any identification of who or what it was. Strangely, that wasn’t as pronounced in the field. What type of technology specifically allowed for that?

And more strangely, Dick could tell the figure wasn’t nearly as defined in the older footage. Looking at the first known capture and the most recent one, even with the distortion, there was a difference. Grudgingly, he had to admit Bruce wouldn’t have been able to tell with any certainty what the unknown was wearing.

Didn’t parapsychologists and paranormal researchers say that ghosts often grew stronger over time? Maybe that’s why he hadn’t been as solid or defined before.

What was wrong with him? He needed to get away from those sorts of thoughts. As much as he wanted this meta to be his brother, it wasn’t him. And he needed to figure out who it was and put a stop to whatever he was planning. But as he re-watched the footage of the meta sitting there with bullets passing through him without a care, the idea he might be a ghost kept coming back.

…

The lotus flower design from the arms dealers did not provide further clues. Bruce had been able to trace the origins of the weapons to a certain terrorist cell in Kazakhstan, but they did not use lotus flowers as any form of communication. Perhaps they had been drawn by a middleman, the one who had set up the remote weaponry. That was a possibility, but again, he couldn’t find anyone associated with that specific symbol. It suggested there was someone new to the scene.

There was a chance that the stylized bite in the lotus was a reference to how it had been used for various medical and recreational purposes throughout the centuries. To his knowledge, the most famous account of that was in “The Odyssey.” Was the person or persons associated with it also involved in the drug trade? It was a possibility. Many criminal organizations did dabble in multiple types of sales.

With the investigation into the arms dealers stalled, he turned his attention once again to the footage of the unknown. Audio of him speaking was again too corrupted to analyze, and the footage didn’t fare much better. The only thing he could gather with certainty was approximate height and body shape.

There wasn’t even much Bruce could gather from the way the unknown moved. In the brief moment where he seemed to prepare to attack, he had proper form suggesting he may have some training. However, since he never made physical contact with the criminal, there was no evidence if he could or would fight.

He glanced at the tattered suit in the cave. It appeared the same as it always did, and there was no evidence anyone had disturbed it. That somehow made it worse. Whomever was wearing the imitation of it knew exactly what the original one looked like and decided to purposely alter the colors.

Did the unknown know about Jason’s death and was purposely trying to emotionally compromise him by making it seem like he was the ghost of his son? Or was it possible this person was working for one of the various rogues in Gotham? If that was the case, which one? His mind immediately jumped to the Joker, but the man had been unusually quiet recently. There was also nothing overtly tying it to him which lowered that possibility. The Joker tended to take credit for his actions.

Perhaps he should change his focus and first determine whether or not this unknown, this Phantom, was working willing or being coerced into the role. The more he showed himself and interacted with them, the more likely he would slip and reveal clues to his identity and purpose. Bruce would just have to be patient for now.

…

A few days later, Bruce found himself in the Museum of Antiquities after following the newest round of clues from the Riddler. Some sort of contraption, this one based off a roulette, set up in one of the larger rooms. However, judging by how the Riddler was ranting while his men worked on it, the machine was malfunctioning. Due to his focus on the machine, he missed the brief movement behind him.

The meta was present. As he peeked out from behind one of the statues, he seemed to realize someone noticed him. Glancing up to where Bruce was hidden, the teen put a finger to his lips before quicky dashing towards another statue. This time, he made audible footsteps as he moved.

“Shit, was that Robin?” the one henchman noted as he moved to investigate the sound. Seeing his chance, Bruce moved from his stop and slowly began incapacitating the men from the shadows in rapid succession. It made capturing the Riddler far easier, even if the criminal grumbled about being sabotaged.

Intrigued by the statement, Bruce investigated the malfunctioning machine. After removing the cover to the control panel, he found what appeared to be a chestnut lodged between two of the gears. After properly disabling the machine, he removed the nut to discover clear evidence of someone purposely putting it there as a bullet was lodged in the center of it. The likelihood it found its way there without human involvement was astronomically low. And, if he wasn’t mistake, there appeared to be some sort of carving in both the bullet and the chestnut. Curious, he bagged it for further analysis.

Even though he knew it was unlikely, he also checked the area for any evidence the meta may have left. He had vanished from sight as soon as Bruce began to target the henchmen. Was it possible he was the one who sabotaged the machine? Yes, but the behavior didn’t match what he’d seen of him so far. That meant there was a chance of another unknown interfering with him in Gotham.

That chance increased to an absolute when he examined the chestnut in the cave. The word “famous” was carved in an arc above and below where the bullet, still in its casing, was lodged. Without it having been fired, no other identifying marks were on it. And on the casing, the Greek word “Outis”, which was often translated to “no one” or “nobody”, could be found. If it was a calling card, it was a baffling one. However, it did have a possible connection to the lotus drawing from the arms dealers due to its connection to “The Odyssey.”

In the epic, the main character, Odysseus, blinded a cyclops on his third stop on his journey home. Odysseus referred to himself as “Outis” during the event to prevent identification and retaliation. Also, the cyclops’ name, Polyphemus, could be translated as “famous.” Regarding the clue, the chestnut had to represent the eye while the bullet represented the flaming stake Odyssey used. It was rather clever.

Was this second unknown from Greece or just heavily interested in Greek myths? Was it possible the unknown believed he was on a journey much like Odysseus? If the latter was true, was it someone who only recently returned to Gotham? But, if those clues were truly related, why would the person help one group of criminals and sabotage another?

Between this unknown and the one who seemed to be impersonating his son, he had a lot of work to do.

Notes: So, this fic will be the death of me. If anyone sees any errors, let me know. This is not beta'ed.

At this point in time, Tim has not been adopted, and Cass and Steph haven't been introduced yet.

So, "The Odyssey" is an ancient Greek epic by Homer. It tells the story of Odysseus and his ten year journey home after the Trojan War. Each plant I used to represent the various stops made sense to me when I chose them.

After Troy, Odysseus' first stop was to the town of Ismara which was a Ciconian town. The Ciciones were stated to be a Thracian tribe, and the Thracians were found in parts of Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey.

The Orpheus flower, also called the Resurrection flower, is primarily found in Bulgaria and in a small part of Greece. It was chosen due to it being found in the range where the Thracians used to be as well as the flower's association with resurrection as it can spring back to life after prolonged periods without water.

Stop 2 was the land of the Lotus eaters who actually used the plant as a recreational drug. This one is a bit clearer cut on symbolism. The lotus can also represent rebirth. As an interesting side note, there's not a clear agreement on whether or not this tribe was eating water-lily flower or other plants.

Stop 3 is probably the most famous stop, the island of the Cyclopes which is modernly believed to be Sicily. The Cyclopes Odysseus battled was named Polyphemus, which can be translated as famous. To trick the Cyclopes when he was blinded, Odysseus referred to himself as "Outis" which means "Nobody" or "No one" so that the cyclopes couldn't take revenge or ask someone to take revenge on his behalf. The chestnut sometimes symbolizes life, and Sicily has a famously huge and old horse chestnut tree. Horse chestnuts are actually poisonous to humans. A chestnut tree is also a little reference to "Jane Eyre" as well.

[menolly5600]

But what if Tim's mental health was still shaky. The family worried about him, but didn't know how to get him to accept closure and try to heal. Tim avoided most of the family because he felt betrayed and abandoned. But also he hated how they pitied him and how he felt like they were trying to control him by trying to get him to move on and give up the last embers of hope that his second father was still alive.

Danny didn't treat him like that, though. So he would talk to Danny more than the rest. Danny even listened and took Tim seriously instead of writing him off as disturbed and mentally ill. Danny even went to the ghost zone and asked around his contacts and the flip side of Gotham if Bruce had become a ghost.

But because of his estrangement, Tim didn't call his family for help. He was killed and his body used as a vessel to resurrect Ra's al Ghul from Hell. And Ra's revealed his return in Tim's body, by entering the manor by pretending to be Tim. He then killed his failed heir-spare-body Damian in a surprise attack. This also eliminated the Batman because Damian had taken up the cowl. He'd become Batman as a way to continue his Father's legacy and feel close to Bruce, because he never had the chance to be close to him in life.

Ra's didn't feel threatened by Dick as Batman so took out Damian first. Dick had been horrified, caught off guard at seeing 'Tim' murder Damian. For a heartbeat he'd thought Tim had gone mad. Then Ra's gloated and attacked Dick. And Dick realized Tim had already been gone, dead too, because of Ra's.

His whole world collapsing around him, Dick breaks and attacks to kill Ra's. In the fight, Dick managed to run Ra's through with a broken chair leg, but Ra's badly injured Dick and crippled one of his legs. Ra's is still gloating as Tim's body bleeds out, about how the Lazarus Pit will heal him fully once again with Tim's fresh body.

Then Danny arrives, drawn by the commotion from playing games on his computer in his room. His father bleeding from a gut wound and a mangled leg, his brother's corpse, and his uncle dying as he gloats in a stranger's voice. He slams into his uncle's body, ripping the stranger's spirit out of him. Except in doing so, he finds there's nothing else in Tim's body, just an empty shell.

Even as Danny tears apart Ra's soul in grief and rage, Dick cradles Tim's body and tries to stop the bleeding. Dick is crying, trying to wake Tim even as he apologized to him for hurting him, for not being there for him, for not saving him. Tim's body dies in his arms, no soul to keep holding on.

It takes a long time for Danny to convince his dad to let go of Tim's corpse and to the Batcave to get medical treatment. It took Jason arriving after Danny called him to get Dick to let go, and carry Dick to the medbay.

In the aftermath they were all broken.

Danny is desperate and consumed by the need to do something, anything, to fix things. It was his fault for not sensing the foreign soul possessing his uncle's body. He's the one supposed to know about ghosts and spirits.

He's helping Jason going through Tim's apartment, removing anything incriminating about the nightlife. And he comes across Tim's notes and theories about Bruce lost in time. It's more proof than he'd ever seen before from his uncle's theories. Tim had given up trying to show the family his scant evidence so had never shown Danny.

And Danny recognized the description of the bat embroidered cloak in the poems. He'd seen it. It was in a backroom in the manor, mostly used for storage. He'd found it while exploring the nooks and crannies of the estate.

And he made a crazy decision. He was going to fix this. No matter what it cost him.

He went through Tim's notes and evidence. He gathered up what he needed and hugged his near-catatonic dad, and left a note for uncle Jason. He tore a portal into the Ghost Zone and began his search through the past to find his lost grandfather. It took him years spent outside of time, searching through the timeline.

And when he found Bruce, he told him a little white lie. He told him he would take him back to Danny's time. There was no need to traumatize his grandpa with what had happened. That timeline wouldn't exist much longer.

Instead, he brought Bruce back as close as he could aim to the time uncle Tim had returned to Gotham after his notes indicated he'd found sketchy proof in a desert cave.

So what if it was before Dad had ever found him. His family would be alive and together. Tim had been right all along, and he wouldn't have to suffer his mental health breakdown and his family thinking he'd gone crazy. Damian would get to know his bio dad, instead of clinging to shadows and echoes. Dick would have his whole family together and would get to be Nightwing again even earlier this time. Uncle Jason wouldn't have to see Uncle Tim falling apart and wouldn't blame himself for Tim pulling away from the family. He'd have a chance to get closure with his father, Bruce, and heal from his death trauma. Aunt Cass would come home instead of staying abroad all the time. Great grandfather Alfie would be alive to see his son home again. His family being okay was more important than Danny being part of them too.

And it wouldn't really matter if, after dropping Bruce off at the right time, Danny went back to Clockwork's lair and returned the time amulet that kept him existing outside of a timeline that no longer existed. Well, he wanted his grief to end too.

But Danny hadn't exactly anticipated that his grandpa was as bad as Tim when it comes to letting family go. When Bruce realized his grandson had left him in a time before he joined the family, and that future wouldn't happen, he decided to find his grandson early. It might take years, and he might offer Dick an out if Dick felt too young to adopt yet, but Bruce doesn't let go and give up on family.

Bruce was sitting in front of a fire. He had just gotten done cooking his dinner, and had began eating. A teen he didn’t recognize sat next to him. Bruce barely paid the teen any attention; in this time period, kids were more fiercely independent than the teens of his age were.

“So,” The teen drawled, getting his attention.

Bruce internally growled. He didn’t want to make small talk. Just as he was about to tell the teen off, the teen continued speaking.

“What’s Bruce Wayne doing in 1732?”

He choked on his food. He hadn’t heard that name in years. He had gotten stuck in the past during a League mission, and apparently, nobody could save him… or maybe they didn’t know when to look. He had covered his tracks well, since he didn’t want to disturb the timeline too much.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He deflected.

“Oh? So we’re playing it like that?” The teen hummed, swinging his legs. “You won’t be born for over two hundred years, in a city that doesn’t exist yet, to fight crime as the vigilante known as Batman.”

The teenager was a time traveller. Hope sparked him his chest. Maybe… maybe he could go home. “You’re a time traveller.” He chose to ignore the part where the teen knew he was Batman.

“Yeah,” The teen said. “I’m Danny. I’m from your future, about, uh, five years after you vanished? Dick adopted me. Found me dead in an alley and brought me back to life. Brought me into the fold, and stuff. I have powers, and one of them is to travel in time. You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to find where you went.”

The teen looked like adoption bait. He could understand why Dick would’ve adopted him. But then again, he was still stuck on the part where Dick had adopted a kid at the same age he had adopted Dick.

“Are you here to take me home?” He asked.

“If you want to.” Danny hummed, “But uh, can’t be to the time you left. Timeline disruptions and all that, yknow? I can take you to my time. It’s like… ten years after you vanished.”

“Please.” Bruce begged. And how far had he fallen to beg a teen?

Danny grinned. “Dad’s going to be so jazzed!”

[sinevotum-a-blog]

* HEY, SO                

                            ‘m gettin’ really worried by a lot of th’stuff ‘m seein’ on th’dash today - hell, th’past week or so. a lotta people not feelin’ safe, or happy, or jus’ not ejoyin’ themselves like this place ‘s meant to be - enjoyed. remember, ya ain’t got no obligations t’no one but yerselves, no matter what anyone else says.

             an’ hey, keep yer chin up, okay? life’s full o’ up an’ downs, an’ we all struggle. we all fall down over an’ over again - tha’s what life is. an’, well, whether ya hve somethin’ t’turn to or not when ya need support, know that above all, there’s one universal thing tha’s always gonna be there for you - others. we’re all here fer each other, an’ there’s always someone. even if it doesn’ seem like it, th’one thing we al have in common is each other, an’ tha’s somethin’ you can take solice in. promise.

            also, there ain’t no fuckin’ excuse fer hurtin’ others who don’t deserve it. makin’ snappy comments fer no reason, tellin’ people they’re fuckin’ terrible, sendin’ them shit they don’ deserve, hating others fer no good reason? there ain’t no fucking excuse, got it?

            but y’know, whatever you need t’do fer yer own safety an’ mental health - tha’s on you. do whatever ya need an’ know that at leas’ me an’ danny are supportin’ you, yeah? as dark as things seem, they always get brighter - take a deep breath. if you haven’ eaten somethin’ today, do that now. no excuses. get up, get somethn’ an’ drink a glass of ice water while yer at it. take a shower or bath too, an’ mos’ importan’ of all, if ya haven’ been outside yet today, take a step out. jus’ fer a few seconds, step all th’way outside an’ breathe.

               know that ya don’ ever have t’do anythin’ ya don’ want to. know there’s always gonna be a better day ‘round th’corner. know there ain’t no excuse t’be a dick. know there’s always someone there who believes in you. know at leas’ we do.

                 cya - ‘till next time. we’ll be here.

[mara-the-cactupus]

Iron Fist is actually turning into a pretty intriguing show; all you have to do is sit through the first five or so episodes and then it really picks up from there.

(My thoughts are under the cut, because nowadays I can’t help but analyze anything that’s given to me)

Okay, so SPOILERS up to episode 7:

- - -

Danny is actually really growing on me. I figured he’d be kind of righteous like Matt is (which I find a bit annoying, especially if he doesn’t have the modesty of someone like Luke), but I’m coming to realize that he’s actually more like Thor, which is to say: a big blonde puppy who can be a little clueless, but has a strong sense of right and wrong. When people come to him for help, he automatically sympathizes with them and wants to fix their problems. He’s also not afraid of teamwork, like the other heroes tend to be; when he says “I have to do this alone,” it’s not because he has some sense of superiority or grimness; it’s more of a genuine statement of fact, and more often than not he goes to his friends for help.

- - -

I also am really intrigued by the character of Ward. At first he just seemed like a one-dimensional dick, but as soon as they started foreshadowing an OD and all that potential with heroin, he became much more… interesting. (I’m trying to think if we’ve seen this before… Jessica Jones was the one that dealt with more mental health-related issues, but it didn’t really cover her alcoholism in full; Tony was a good example of stress and PTSD and anxiety all simmering below the surface, especially in Iron Man 3, and I really loved the way that he showed that in Civil War. The big issue is that no one ever takes it seriously. I was on the edge of my seat for the entirety of Civil War because I honestly didn’t know if he would break, especially since no one else seemed to notice that he was on the verge of snapping.) This time, with Ward, I’m really curious to see if he does snap, because I think that that could be much more fascinating than a plain old antagonistic plot.

And at first it just looked like there would just be a little bit of conflict with him as Harold’s underling (I tend to really like watching the Slytheriny characters who lurk in the shadows, like Shades or Wesley; Ward didn’t really strike me as cunning, so he was kind of disappointing at first), but then we actually see the father-son tension, and the shitty self esteem (especially when oblivious Danny comes in, and Harold treats him like a proper son, maybe just to spite Ward; or the way that Ward’s entire demeanor changes in a tiny, cringing moment of hope when he hears the words “I need you”), and the knowledge that yes, he is a jerk and so he doesn’t have much to say to defend himself against Joy; combine that all with a dangerous coping mechanism, the drugs, and we have some really interesting character potential.

I really have no idea where it’s going. He could OD. He could kill his father. He could take the path of a villain, or redeem himself and help Danny. As it is, he’s kind of diminishing as an antagonist, and is now more of a wild card than anything. He’s getting a bit more sympathetic as he unravels. I’m kind of worried about how this problem plays off of Danny’s oblivious personality; Danny won’t notice that anything’s wrong, especially if Ward tries to mask it by continuing to be hostile towards him. I don’t know if Joy will push it; she seemed to back off, last I saw. I think the best bet would be if Claire came in and noticed him, but then again, she might not take a lot of time to deal with him. I can’t remember if she said anything about Jessica’s drinking; then again, Jessica was still pretty functional.

- - -

I also am liking the chemistry between Colleen and Danny; it doesn’t really feel forced at this point. And I love Claire, as always. She really is the glue that holds everything together.