#This fandom just doesn't want to like jason

[dickgraysonsptsd]

Do you know what's up with all the fanart and fics and stuff that show Jason super close and Brotherly with Damian/Tim/Cass/Steph? Because not to be a Dick Grayson biased guy, but it really does seem like some backwards level misogyny taking people who have complex and important relationships with dick (especially Damian??????????) And being like nahhhhhh Dicks just the fun older bro lol he can't and doesn't have complex relationships with these guys but Jason who lower class and was tragically murdered does :D the Jason and Tim stuff Especially because Tim fucking hates Jason in canon and yet every 4th batman related fanart that pops up is them being closer than close brothers and Dick just a background character. I do understand people have biases and fave characters, but at this point, it seems people are doing this just to push dick out the way or undermine his importance, literally backwards misogyny fridging dick (and Barbara and steph) so Jason and cass get to play house and have that hug they absolutely had in canon

so i think a lot of this comes from what i understand to be a huge influx of new fans to batfandom during the pandemic, most of whom were primarily interested in fanon depictions of the characters. they got into the bats through fanfic or wfa or tiktoks or whatever and while some people then got into comics, tv shows, etc from there, plenty stayed in the "fanon universe" corner of fandom.

jason is especially popular among these types of fans, which led to them making more fanworks of him that got more new fans interested in him, and so on. this is is fine! i'm glad people have their biases and their faves because i certainly do too, we need lots of people with different faves for a diverse ecosystem!

unfortunately a lot of the things they say they like about red hood jason (good big brother, protective of and respectful towards survivors and sex workers, caring, compassionate, engages with his community, wants to improve his city, fights openly with bruce but is capable of reconciling with him, etc) are literally just dick's traits given to jason for the sake of softening jason's very abrasive and antagonistic post-crisis character (and anything set in/around utrh is necessarily based in post-crisis!). even jason's relationships that they say they like, such as his n52+ friendships with roy or kory, are... dick's. and fans of roy or kory generally hate how they're portrayed in relation to jason because their characters have to be warped to force them into relationships with him.

and now that these fanon-focused fans have built a version of jason that they love which happens to overlap heavily with dick, they have to do something else with dick. which is usually, as you pointed out, assigning him a shallow personality or pushing him into the background of fanworks in some way. he has to be mindlessly supportive of daddy bruce, cheerful, ditzy, a crybaby, etc to simplify him out of his normal central role in the lives of characters like tim, damian, bruce, etc (it's interesting that he's often loaded with stereotypically Annoying Feminine Traits in comparison to jason being made a "strong but soft" masculine man... hm...).

the only mainstream comics canon that i'm aware of with meaningful basis for any other bats being closer to jason than to dick is n52, which has a really funny full page spread of tim going "wow.. i've never had a brother before... not like jason my beloved... <333" while laying next to jason on the ground. otherwise this whole "jason is the real big brother who all the bats love" thing is pure fanon.

now like. as to motivation for this. i think the vast majority of jason fans don't hate dick and don't have any ill intent towards his character or his fans. i feel you because as a dick obsessive i also get frustrated with all of this, but i seriously don't think most people who do this have any intent beyond having fun with their toys. and i don't think the fanon jason fans are really thinking about canon dick or jason to begin with for the most part--they're essentially playing with dolls shaped like the bat characters. and they're having fun with it so.... good for them *said through clenched teeth*

basically i think it all comes from a pretty harmless place but it's annoying as fuck and FEELS targeted lmao.

now, not speaking as a dick grayson superfan anymore--the shit that steph and cass get in particular to bend them into people who would looooove jason and embrace him as part of the batfamily is ABSURD. i can't imagine being a cass superfan in this society. as if CASSANDRA CAIN would give jason a hug and go "big brother <3" when jason has repeatedly desecrated the batsymbol (which is how cass would see it, as desecration!!!). jason had the option to not kill and he chose to kill because he wanted to. cass would beat his ass.

i am especiallyyyy peeved when i see "steph and jason would be besties because they're both from poor families :D" takes because like. first of all, weird to reduce them to "the poor robins." and very weird to try for a "both of their dads were villains/henchmen" angle too because red hood jason has killed plenty of criminals who left kids just like steph behind. second, steph would not tolerate post-crisis jason. jason tormented tim and then--EDIT: GANG I MISREMEMBERED THIS jason is not the one who shot damian in the spine. however i still firmly believe steph would beat his ass.

(i do personally think an element of misogyny/homophobia is involved in how readily people will strip dick of his personality and relationships and give them to the more traditionally masculine jason, who has no "questionable" relationships with men and whose relationship with bruce is "pure" and straightforwardly familial, but i don't have the spoons to put that into words rn. but i feel you. but it's also a complicated thing to talk about without sounding like i'm talking over misogyny towards actual female characters. you know)

[somewhereincairparavel]

I find it ironic that the fandom hates Jason for "having no personality" but Will solace was at his peak popularity in the fandom during the time BOO was out, that was before his personality was even properly established in TOA. Will's personality was 90% fanon before TOA was out, because the fandom cared enough to give him one even when Rick didn't establish it well up until later on.

But nobody cared enough to give Jason a fanon personality to make up for his canon absence, simply because they weren't interested and wrote him off the moment he was written as Percy's rival.

So if you put it that way, the majority of the fandom just hates Jason because he's Percy's equal. Which is why literally no one in the fandom wants jason to be loved or recognised, they just downplay him every chance they get, because he is seen as Percy's competitor and wants him to be bashed, so that Percy always has the spotlight, that's why the fandom always maintains the reputation of Jason's character as a "loser knockoff percy" and dont bother giving him a fanon one, Because they want jason's existence to be used as a punching bag to uplift Percy's achievements. That's what I take away from observing all the Jason slander lately.

The majority of the reasoning for his slander almost ALWAYS includes Percy in it, as far as I've seen.

There are many characters that many fandoms popularize and love even if they don't have proper personalities in canon or even when they are just characters in passing. And i don't see why jason is the only exception to that treatment

Saying that you hate Jason because you are salty that he's Percy's rival is basically like saying you hate him because he exists, which sounds ridiculous lol.

This is basically like a "if they wanted to, they would" type of situation, Jason is just unfortunate that he didn't get the fandom's love for anyone to give him any fun fanon personality at all

It's sad considering the possibility that Jason would've been so loved if he were just a mere side character, that way people wouldn't have hated him for "rivalling" Percy.

I guarantee you half the hate he got would've never existed in the first place if he were just some insignificant character in the series, because the fandom would've effortlessly shoehorned a personality of their own onto him and showered him with love instead of complaining about it.

Jason has LOTS of fanon potential, the fandom just don't want to utilise it :/

[jasontoddsno1simp]

Uh...

Where is all this Black Jason Todd discourse coming from?! Because, last time I checked, headcanoning Jason as Black is not exactly all that popular. Unless I'm missing a huge subset of his fandom; I've yet to come across the mob of He Did Nothing Wrong girlies who are deadass that Jason anti's swear run Butstan Twitter/Tumblr.

[bruciemilf]

slides into ur inbox as a tim-liker not to start a fight but to genuinely ask if i could gently change ur mind👀👀 bc tim's not that bad if you'd give him a chance (he is very cringe tho

It's not that I don't like him!! But sometimes it just gets exhausting to see "he suffered so much to keep the big bad bat alive" takes like Alfred wasn't right there

[shineyma]

the number of posts that go around the batfandom that can basically be boiled down to "people aren't writing about the character I want them to write about so I'm gonna shame them"

good lord

[snakeredbirdbatkatana]

So I know how we have a lot of Jason and Dick or even Alfred drugging Tim in fics.

I have never liked that what so ever.

Like I don't think we as fandom really think about it.

I want you to imagine your brother or grandfather adjacent person handing you a drink that without thinking you take. You drink it and then nothing your are just out for over twelve hours.

You don't know what happened, you will never know what happened in that time frame all because you weren't sleeping the amount they wanted you to.

Also these are trained vigilante's who have more than likely witnessed rape cases with drugs who have had to help someone who was roofed home why in the fuck would you do that to one of yours.

Now another aspect why in the fuck would Jason Todd no drugs to children, and Dick Grayson who has had his bodily autonomy taken from him do this to their brother.

Alfred ok maybe he's done it to Bruce so many times he just doesn't think.

But look me in the fucking eyes and tell me they wouldn't lose their actual fucking shit if that was done to Damian or Tim.

They wouldn't be cool with it, they wouldn't laugh at it.

Imagine Jason and Dick chilling in the cave it's been a long patrol about to head to bed when they see Alfred come down and hand Tim coffee an energy drink pick your poison. They watch as Tim looks at Alfred before shoving it away.

"Master Tim it would be beneficial to your health if you drink your beverage."

"Sorry but I don't feel like being drugged tonight."

Dick wouldn't even blink before shattering the mug. Jason would be screaming at Alfred.

They would never trust that man again, the man who fed and taught them someone who had their backs.

Betrayed everything it doesn't matter the reason.

Or what if Tim drank it.

He starts slurring his words, starts to almost fall over calling for Jason or Dick.

"It was Drugged."

Falling unconscious into Jason's arms.

Jason who is screaming for help they don't know what it was they assume someone poisoned him not their sweet grandpa Alfred. The whole family rushing Dick practically crying only for Alfred to not blink tell them to get him bed as if it's normal.

In conclusion Dick Grayson and Jason Todd would not be the the spokesmen for drugging your baby brother and then carrying him to bed. They would not tamper with Tim or Damian's food. They would not ok with little brothers falling out of chairs or losing time not knowing what happened. All because they weren't following someone else's rules.

Well Tim hasn't slept in twenty four hours oh ok then let's drug him without his consent because I want him to go to bed.

That's some Arkham level bullshit.



[sunayyyy]

One trope that i find weird is that during batfam reconciliation fics, the batfam members use alfred as like the big red button to bring jason back, but i feel like that wouldn't actually work. at all.

Jason would HATE alfred after everything he did after he died. Canonically, it was alfred that made the "a good soldier" memorial case, bruce wanted it down but alfred insisted he keep it up, he was the one that gave tim the Robin suit THAT JASON DIED IN, and drove him to save batman and nightwing with NO training at all. He also helped keep up all the "jason was always doomed for a life of crime, and he was an angry child that got himself killed" narrative that was spun after DitF. Alfred pennyworth is batman's biggest enabler, and has stood by while bruce did all his bullshit, such as the whole UtRH arc, and RHatO #25, where he said that it was inevitable that jason would go back on the whole no killing agreement.

Alfred may care for all of Bruce's children, but his only grandchild is damian, as shown when he made him robin behind tim's back( the whole "dick made damian robin" thing is just to add to tim angst. Dick was infact against that whole shitshow). If it doesn't benefit bruce, his pseudo son/employer and landlord, he wouldn't give a fuck.

It's basically impossible to write a reconciliation fic at all without completely rewriting characters, especially jason and alfred. Jason believes that batman's mission is flawed and useless since he doesn't permanently stop crime, so he'd never fully give up killing, the whole reason there's a rift between him and bruce, and alfred isn't this doting grandfather that always sides with his grandchildren and bakes cookies and makes tea.

Also, one major thing the fandom forgets is that alfred is canonically a shitty father to julia, his bio daughter. He abandoned his own daughter for the waynes, he'd never prioritise bruce's children over him.

[littlefankingdom]

I saw another post criticizing Bruce for having children fighting at his side, and I must say: tell me you don't know shit about the batkids' stories without telling me. Bruce fucking tried to stop those kids from being vigilantes, but they keep doing it behind his back, so he decided the best thing to do was to give them the proper training, an armor and to have them stick at his side so he can watch over them. You know, like a parent telling their underage children that they can drink alcohol but only at home where they can watch over them.

Dick became Robin because he wanted revenge over his parents' murder. He would run out in the street of Gotham as a 8 years old, all alone, to go fight Zucco. Bruce helping him make Robin was the compromise to keep Dick safe, because the child would not listen. (And yes, it wasn't the case in the very first canon, but it was like the 40s. Do you know how many kids fought against the Nazis in Europe at that time???)

Barbara Gordon is not his daughter and he has no authority on her being a vigilante. He cannot even ground her.

Jason became Robin after helping Bruce take down Ma Gunn's school. It is implied by Bruce, while talking to Dick, that he offered Robin to Jason as a way to gain a child because he missed having Dick around. He didn't need a Robin, he just missed having a kid. Bruce used the Robin mantle with Jason like people use churu to appease stray kitten. AND JASON'S DEATH, let's talk about it. Jason ran away, which leads to him being killed, after eavesdropping on Bruce and Alfred talking about Jason's mental health. Jason is benched as Robin, but not because Bruce thinks he killed someone like fandom says, but because Bruce knows it is not helping or healthy for Jason. They are talking about getting him help for his traumas and how violence is not helping Jason. And, when he is older and has healed, they can try again if he wants to. That's why Jason or people saying that Jason died because he was a soldier, or blaming Bruce for Robin's existence is false. When Jason died, Bruce was against Jason being Robin for his own health! And Jason knows that, he heard the discussion, he wasn't bench like how so many of his siblings are, with little to no honest explanation. Jason died in the Robin's costume because of his own stubbornness, not because of Bruce. (And that's not blaming Jason for his death. He is not to blame, but neither is Bruce. It's just about the Robin's colors. Jason would not have been wearing them at the time if he listened to Bruce.)

Tim Drake imposed himself as Robin. Bruce was against it, Tim literally went "Don't care, didn't ask". And Tim was already following them around before. Bruce already have Jason blaming him for making Tim Robin when he had no control over that.

Stephanie Brown became a vigilante before Batman knew her. He has tried SO MANY TIMES to make her stop, and so many fans hate that he did it. Make a choice, is it bad that he didn’t stop her more or that he didn’t let her more be a vigilante? He even got his kids to try to make her stop. AND SHE IS "KILLED" TO TEACH HIM THAT MAKING KIDS VIGILANTES IS BAD WHEN HE IS NOT RESPONSIBLE OF HER BECOMING ONE AND TRIED TO STOP HER! No shit the man blames himself for things that are not his fault, everyone does it.

Cassandra Cain was 17 when she becomes Batgirl, so I don't know if she counts. But when Bruce tries to make her stop for her own health, with the support of Barbara and Alfred, Cass is devastated and doesn't obey him. She puts on her costume and fights him physically.

Damian Wayne was trained as an assassin. In every version of him being introduced to Bruce, Bruce is against making him Robin and Damian keeps sneaking out. Damian wants to prove himself to his father so bad and refused to be kept away from the fight. In the comics, it's Dick, DICK, that makes him Robin when Bruce is gone, because Bruce was against letting Damian out at night.

Conclusion: Bruce is a tired father of a bunch of kids that cannot understand they should stay home at night and not be vigilantes.

[jasontoddsno1simp]

Thank you.

I see a lot of posts saying Jason being told this (as well as the way Bruce grieved him) would change things, and I mean...

Sure, maybe it would, but it damn sure wouldn't be for the better.

Because, at the end of the day, his murderer is still alive and he still has no justice.

Nevermind the fact that he's treated by the narrative that wanting that, wanting someone to care enough to give it to him makes him a selfish and ugly person. But we don't got time for that;!

The thing surrounding Dick killing the Joker for Tim and Bruce reviving him is that if Jason ever learned about that, his two conclusions would be:

A) Tim is worth killing for, and he (Jason) isn't;

B) Dick's clean hands are worth more than Jason's mangled corpse and his memory and his legacy.

[ultimate-marysue]

I feel like a lot of the Batfam fandom misrepresents the sibling relationships not out of some inherent lack of reading comprehension, but just cause they're only children.

Listen, the sibling experience is so weird. Like, you'd die for each other, you ignore them most of the time, once you move out you barely speak with them (not even your favorite one) until you get together and spend three hours talking nonstop. You don't hate them, but they annoy you in ways most mortals can't even comprehend. The alliances and rivalries shift at random. You may be in good terms with two siblings that can't stand each other.

When you truly fight (I'm not talking arguing about something, I'm talking someone has done something that truly hurted the other) it's bad. You may still talk to each other and have fun together but it can fester and rot the relationship from the inside out. And even then, depending on what happened and their personality, they may still be there for each other.

If there's neurodivergency or disabilities involved it's a whole different shit show. You obviously want to help your little brother with chronic anxiety but jesus, you're trying to live your life too! You know they're autistic but come on can't we go out for dinner to a different place, just this once?? And don't get me started on disabilities, they may understand how your body works and still invalidate your pain on accident.

You cover for them in front of your parents and sometimes you rat them out for whatever reason. If you're angry with your father you will get in the middle of their fights, and if you're angry at your sibling you'll enjoy the show.

Siblinghood is really complicated from the outside, but from the inside it makes perfect sense. So yeah, I get why people that haven't experienced it have trouble reconciling Dick's love for his siblings and also his fierce independence from his family. Yeah, it's weird that Damian goes from hating Tim to joking around with him without fixing their issues but sometimes it is what it is. It makes sense for Jason to hang out with Dick's friends since they run similar circles and everyone thinking it's normal except for Dick. Cassandra doesn't speak to any of them for months but the second she's back from Hong Kong she's besties with Duke and Tim again.

It's only contradictory if you don't have siblings.

[somewhereincairparavel]

Gentle reminder that every time Jason Grace gave his offering to Jupiter, he prayed for his dad to help Nico. Just saying.

[ohnonotthehorrors]

You know, if any of the bats are going to kill the Joker: it should probably be Dick or Duke.

Like, I get it. 'Jason kills the Joker' sounds like the most obvious solution. But the thing is: Jason literally does not care about the Joker.

"But he's the man that killed him-" Sure. But that was a While ago. (At least if you ignore all the rebooting of the universe). Sure, Joker is a big symptom of what Jason sees as the problem. Which is: Crime needs to be controlled. Because more than anyone, he knows it won't be stopped. (It especially won't be stopped if no one is allowed to kill the bad guys).

But here's the thing. Jason's arc does not, and Should Not, revolve around Joker at all. Jason's story really never has been about revenge, and he should be Allowed to Move On from this one of the many people that hurt him. This isn't a: 'Oh Jason should learn to forgive and let go and not take revenge' this is a: 'the Joker is pathetic. Killing him just straight up doesn't do anything to Jason's arc or character.'

But Dick? Dick whose TRIED to kill the Joker? Dick who first donned the mask and tights to take revenge? Who wanted to make up for not being there for Jason? Yeah. This is the character that Would benefit from killing the Joker.

The first Robin has been around almost as long as the Joker has (both made in the same year) and it would be nothing more than divine justice for him to finally be the one to end him.

Well that's all well and good, you say. But what about Duke? What does he have to do with this?

You mean other than Duke being Awesome and he deserves to?

Duke's parents were hit by Joker gas. Pretty famously part of his character's back story. Duke has already killed a 'mirage' of Joker in the comics, which I think would be neat foreshadowing.

And think about it. The guy with light powers, the guy that works the day shift, by all means the Proof that Gotham really does care. Really does take things seriously. Why Shouldn't he get to kill off the personification of apathy?

Now the other point, and this is really just a personal vendetta, I would love Love the character that is Constantly ignored (at least by fandom) to kill off DCs 'specialist awful white man.'

The other person who should get to kill the Joker is Barbara Gordon (for self explanatory reasons) except I don't trust any writer to do it.

(She should get to beat that Thing into a white and red Pulp and shred his remains. No 'pull a trigger' no 'hire a swat team.' She gets to do it with her Bare Fists)

[batfamfixation]

Also, to everyone who argues the age gap is problematic: Canon doesn't have a coherent timeline. Tim has been 17 for like 30 years. I'm pretty sure Dick and Jason only have a two year age gap in modern comics, which makes zero sense, but that's why arguing against the pairing due to the age gap is nonsensical. While the people claiming moral superiority are giving Jason and Roy about an eight year gap, they need to understand that their choice of canon doesn't define what canon is, since canon is a fucking trainwreck with timelines. It's kind of giving gatekeeping vibes- trying to define what everyone else can consider canon. Just because your definition of what counts as canon makes it a problematic relationship (although still not actually illegal/grooming/predatory) to you doesn't mean it's actually an inherently inappropriate relationship.

In other words

"Roy wouldn't like Jason! They have completely opposing ideologies! It's out of character for Roy!"

Jason was a general menace that kidnapped Mia for one conversation in a pathetic attempt to convince her to abandon Ollie and partner with him instead. He kills criminals, but only criminals. His mindset as Red Hood is "I'm protecting civilians by killing criminals"

Jade is a mercenary, an assassin, someone who kills people for money regardless of whether or not they're a criminal and has no problem killing people without monetary incentive. Roy fell in love with her. The government told him to bring her in, since she's a mercenary, and he fell in love with her and didn't bring her in, indirectly allowing her to continue to kill people.

Out of character my ass.

[u-n-k-n-o-w-n-n]

So I believe many of of us have heard of Danny Todd. Jason's older brother we don't really know much about other than the fact he died in a gun fight.

I believe many in the DC X DP Fandom have seen a post or another about that being Danny Phantom before or after reborn of some kind but....

What if for Danny he was supposed to be taking a vacation? (whether it from ghost king or just genral Phantom stuff before or long after his loved ones died and presumably became ghosts is up to interpretation maybe it's even a classic reveal gone wrong visection if you want some more angst)

But the point is Danny is reborn into some of the worse parts of Gotham (possibly before the bat even premiers depending on timeline and how big you want the age gap with him and Jason) but he's born is the rough parts of town maybe he has memories, maybe not, maybe it's all kinda blurry but let's go with fir now he has his memories or he gets them back early in life and he was again not delt the best hand when it came to parents and there is no Jazz to take care of him this time but when he gets a baby brother of his own he realizes why Jazz was the way she was (not that he would ever admit that out loud) and has put himself on the path to be Jason's Jazz his caretaker when his parents wouldn't take that role but it's not easy to get money as a kid from crime ally and in order to put food on the table for Jason he ends up in some bad situations and dies and for this body he doesn't not die or become a half he just dies becomes a ghost but either because he Dosen't want to admit to his family he died young again or he's to attached to Jason he doesn't move on to the infinite realms he just attaches himself to his little brothers side and tries to help any way he can and that some ends up with the normal addition with Bruce and if this fobin seems harder to shoot or bruise than the other one that's Danny's buisness.

I'm not sure where to go from here. Maybe Danny saves Jason from death? Maybe he still dies and chills as a ghost with his brother haunting Bruce till he's revived? Maybe Danny is able to reveal himself when there's some supernatural in Gotham? Maybe this lasts as normal for Jason until after utrh he's forced to do like a magic check up with the jld because batman is paranoid about Jason's heath and the jld is like : Did you know you have this super powerful ghost falling you? And possibly visibilitying Danny and cueing emotions.

I can't decide so I'm sending this to the tumblr. You have explicit permission to use anything in this post just send me the link because I want to read that.

[skylathescholarly]

Okay... I never called myself a Super Serious Batfamily fan. I read what I want and pick things I like from canon and fanon like strawberries. So maybe I just don't have enough information or dedication.

But.

I really, really don't understand why liking one character necessitates hating another? I'm primarily a Tim Drake stan, but Jason Todd is my babygirl too. Damian is a sweetheart and doesn't deserve a bunch of the crap the Tim Drake fandom gives him. Dick isn't perfect either. Tim has made many mistakes. Steph has. Bruce has. Almost everyone has (I feel like Cass and Alfred might be exempt but I don't know lol) and I really hate that there's this attitude of "Batfam member vs Batfam member".

Like, welcome to having siblings. My brother could absolutely say the meanest thing he's ever said to me, and I'll give him crap but I'll sit next to him at dinner.

I don't know, and I know there are such things as AUs where a sibling is more intense than other universes, and vice versa, and I fully utilize my ability to move on from a fic if I don't like it, but I just hate the character bashing that seems to take some parts of the fandom by storm.

It makes me sad, ok? 😭😂

[aprocessionofthoughts]

In the Graveyard

ectoberweek24 day 1- graveyard shift fandom- dp x dc tw- none summary- Danny sees something unusual

masterlist ao3

Danny hums quietly to himself as he walks between the graves, picking up trash and wilted flowers. The moon is full tonight, and the sky isn’t too clouded which is nice, especially considering this is Gotham. He takes a bucket and rag and starts cleaning off the gravestones.

Of the two jobs he has, this was probably his favorite even though it hardly paid. But it’s peaceful, and they let him work at night. It’s also a way for Danny to spend his time since he doesn't need to sleep. He can. It was just… nightmares. He’d rather be here, earning a little bit of money then trying to sleep through memories of his time in the lab.

He’s almost done, ready to go back to his apartment and enjoy a cup of coffee and some late night t.v., but as he stands and starts heading towards the last row of gravestones he feels a shiver crawl up his spine. His breath clogs in his throat, and he feels his eyes flash.

There is something tugging at him, pulling him toward one of the graves he’s already passed. 

He follows the pull. It doesn't feel like a ghost, but there’s something there, something he can’t ignore. 

As he gets closer the pull gets stronger, and with rising fear he can see the dirt shifting on one of the graves. And like in a horror movie, a hand presses up out of the dirt.

Danny freezes for a moment, before jolting forward. He grasps the hand in his and pulls, using his intangibility to pull the person through the dirt. The boy, because the person can’t possibly be older than sixteen, collapses on the ground. Danny crouches by him, turning the boy over onto his back. The kid’s dressed in a fancy suit although it’s streaked with dirt, and Danny winces when he sees the kids fingers are bloody, fingernails torn.

He dug himself out.

Who would bury a child. Danny glances at the gravestone. According to the inscription the kid died six months ago. Danny feels the barest touches of ectoplasm, it shouldn’t be enough to turn someone liminal let alone raise someone from the dead. 

But none of that matters right now. He has to get the kid to his apartment. Danny doesn’t think he should take the kid to a hospital. They’ll ask too many questions that Danny won’t be able to answer. No. he’ll take the kid with him, treat his wounds and try to find out what happened. If the kid is liminal he might need Danny’s help with the side effects.

“Hey there, kid. I’m going to take you back to my apartment, okay? I’m not going to hurt you, okay? I promise. I’m going to help.” Danny glances at the gravestone again. He hopes that the kid can go back to his family, that they’ll accept him. But Danny won’t force it. He knows that sometimes families can’t accept when you’re different from what they want. 

But Danny can’t help but hope this kid’s, Jason according to the gravestone, family will be different. That they’ll be loving and accepting, all the things that Danny’s family wasn’t.

He picks the kid up, his eyes stare blankly up at Danny.

He’ll need some help coming back to himself. Danny will feed him some ectoplasm.

He’ll take care of him. 

Danny will make sure he’s safe, and that no one can hurt him.