#also each member of the Batfam has little quirks they built into their masked personalities that helps their method acting

[duskyashe]

NaNoWriMo Day #30

[masterlist] [part one] [part two] [part four]

Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry about that accidental posting everyone (⁠;⁠ŏ⁠﹏⁠ŏ⁠) I was just too excited...

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"Don't do anything stupid," Ellie mumbled into his chest, her arms wrapped around him like an octopus. "I just got back to you, so you have to come back to us, got it?"

Danny held his clone just as tightly. "I promise I'll do my best, okay?"

Ellie sniffed and let go of him. "That'll have to do. If you get the chance, could you maybe tell Starling I love her suit? The purple really works for her," she said, discreetly wiping away tears. Danny smirked and ruffled her hair, earning a disgruntled, "Hey!"

"Yeah, I'll tell her if I see her. If not, then I'll ask one of the others to pass along the message." Danny looked over at Sam and Tucker, Jazz behind them with a grounding hand on each of their shoulders. "If everything goes to plan, I'll be back by morning. If not, well, you know what to do." Four resolute nods saw him off as he headed to his chosen shrine of the night. For last night's offering of tithe, he'd picked a more well kept and easily accessible shrine, something anyone could have gotten to and reasonably close to their apartment. Tonight, he was flying to one of the shrines furthest away from their apartment, one that was still visible, still reachable, but not as readily available for the common shrine goer. Danny chose the one closest to Wayne Tower. He wasn't sure what was going to happen when he offered his help tonight, but he wanted to keep as many civilians as possible out of the potential crossfire. He didn't think Batman was the kind of guardian deity that would willingly put his people into harm's way, but you never know, especially if he didn't know they were his in the first place.

As he neared his chosen shrine, Danny let himself become visible. He flew a slow circuit around the rooftop before settling down. He'd announced his location and intention, now all he had to do was wait.

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As soon as Phantom appeared near one of the harder to reach rooftop shrines, Dick was on comms. "I've got eyes on Phantom, he just circled a shrine before sitting next to it like he was last night. B, permission to engage?"

"Questions only, keep comms open. This might be today's feeling, it might not, so be careful, understood?" Bruce replied. "He might have some useful information, he might have a question. Either way, trust your instincts, and keep us posted."

"Copy that, B, comms will be wide open." Dick grabbed the hand grips hidden near his utility belt and tugged them to prep the release mechanism. "Engaging now," he said before taking a running leap off Wayne Tower, pulling his arms, and the now fully released wings of his suit, taut in a perfect glide. Circling the rooftop shrine similarly to Phantom, in part to catch his attention and in part to lessen his momentum, Dick chose his landing spot and let go of his retractable wings. He dropped six feet, landing in a roll that left him kneeling in a ready position in front of Phantom and the shrine. Dick took a moment to catch his breath, head cocked to the side in an exaggeratedly curious way. He held his ready stance for a count of eight, then started relaxing parts of his body opposite how one would normally relax their body, starting with his legs and working his way up to his shoulders. He kept his head cocked, though, and just watched Phantom for another count of eight.

Just like the night prior, Phantom was casually sitting about a foot or so above the rooftop, his legs crossed as though to prove there was no trick behind it. He had a faint glow about him that brightened with the growing look of awe on his face. His cape billowed slightly in an unseen, unfelt breeze, blending in with the night near the edges. The crown bobbed up and down above his head ever so slightly, but always stayed perfectly centered whenever Phantom moved.

After another four counts, where Phantom said and did nothing more than stare at him, Dick finally spoke. "Yesssss?" He rasped, thinning out his voice and elongating certain sounds.

Phantom blinked. "Right. So, after last night, I got to thinking, and I talked it out with the rest of my Fright —everyone got in safely today, by the way, but thanks again for the offer—and we, I, can't help but feel kind of... Concerned. Please don't take offense to this, but you all seemed rather... Surprised? By yesterday's proceedings. Coupled with what we know of your species, well. Let me put it this way. Most of you are likely orphans, are you not? So there are things you may not know about your species you would have learned from your biological parents had they been around to teach you, things you likely wouldn't have been able to learn anywhere else due to lack of knowledge about them. Things I know and can teach all of you about, or put you in contact with others who can teach you what you need to know." Phantom shifted positions slightly, floating up a few inches at the same time. "Please believe me, I mean no disrespect. I just couldn't help but feel like you were all going off of instinct during our entire interaction last night, which, if true, is honestly amazing. I only want to give you the opportunity to put words to instinct and take the guess work out of your interactions with yourselves and each other. If I've overstepped, I apologize, I just didn't want to be right and not do anything, only to watch as something I could have possibly helped prevent happened due to my inaction."

Dick thought about that for a moment. Listened to his brothers talk over each other about what Phantom could mean, Steph joining in occasionally with a witty remark. Listened to Bruce discounting the truly outrageous options. Listened to his instincts, like his parents had told him growing up in the circus, like he'd learned the hard way when his parents died, like Bruce constantly reminded him to do ever since he first hit the streets as Robin. And he made a choice.

"Yoou can heelp make ssssensssse of the nnoisssse?" The constant fight between two or more sides within himself, the visible frustration and confusion whenever one of his siblings does something they don't understand, the hurt in Bruce's eyes when one of them is a little too sharp with another, the unease they all felt whenever Bruce had a feeling. If that was what Phantom meant he could help with... "Weeee acccceept."

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I can't believe I went the full month and only now wrote Dick's POV! What the heck! (⁠┛⁠◉⁠Д⁠◉⁠)⁠┛⁠彡⁠┻⁠━⁠┻ I should have done something with him much sooner! ┬⁠─⁠─⁠┬⁠◡⁠ﾉ⁠(⁠°⁠ ⁠-⁠°⁠ﾉ⁠) Okay, but seriously, I hope this lived up to y'all's expectations, because I had a lot of fun writing Dick character acting and being a drama queen with his epic custom made wingsuit. I kinda wanna see a costume design of his Raven suit, with and without his wings open ⊙⁠.⁠☉ if anyone wants to do some art of his suit, please, do so! I'd love to see it! Heck, if anyone wants to do any fanart of my ficlets, I'd be absolutely honored!

Also, I just wanna point out, I posted part two of this ficlet series on the eve of me hitting 200 followers, and I'm posting part three on the eve of me hitting 300 followers. Like, wth? (⁠(⁠(⁠;⁠ꏿ⁠_⁠ꏿ⁠;⁠)⁠)⁠) Y'all, I am honored. I'll be posting some more edits from the Batpham Discord server the day I hit 300 as a celebration (⁠^⁠～⁠^⁠;⁠)⁠ゞ

I had a long, stressful day, and I just want to crawl into bed and sleep, so I hope everyone who wanted to read part three of this ficlet series followed me... I, once again, don't have the brain capacity to tag everyone who wants to be tagged...

Have a good morning/day/night!

UPDATE (4/10/23): @davestridernb made some fanart of Dick's Raven costume and it's AMAZING! It looks even better than I ever could have imagined, myself! Please go check it out!