#dead on main street

[clockwayswrites]

Both Ways at Once Part 5

WC: 1766, Masterpost CW: discussions of death, vague mentions of child trafficking and rape

Danny leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He breathed in slowly through his nose, counting. He couldn’t let loose. They didn’t know. John said they didn’t know and Danny trusted John. Not with everything, he knew too much to trust John with everything, but he trusted John with this. The other wouldn’t have done this if he had known.

The gloved hand on his shoulder shifted, sliding to wrap around the back of Danny’s neck and give a little squeeze. It should have felt suffocating. It was grounding. Danny could already feel himself settling and responding to resonate back with Red Hood.

That was dangerous to have that resonance.

“Pomp,” John said. His shoes squeaked as he leaned forward. “Talk to me, Pomp, what did I miss?”

That right there was one of the reasons Danny trusted John, he would step up when he fucked up.

Danny sighed and opened his eyes. “He’s— he was a halfa, John.”

John paled. The color drained out of his face and left him a splotchy grey. His voice was strangled as he insisted, “Halfas are just a myth.”

“Rare, very rare, but not a myth. Think about it John. You said that the Red Hood from before was alive, but you know I’m right, the one here is a protector spirit. He died, John.”

“Red Hood is still alive, he has a heart beat,” Superman insisted.

“I’m still not talking to you,” Danny hissed, not taking his eyes off John. “Constantine. He was a halfa. I don’t know what they are anymore. This one is more ghost than human. I assume that the other one is more human than ghost. But put them back together and they would be perfectly balanced and you’ve been keeping them apart.”

John slumped back, rubbing at his face. “Bloody fucking hell…”

“The other half has been unwell, hasn’t he? Maybe just fatigued, but I bet he’s in pain too. His focus keeps wandering maybe. He’s listless.” Danny finally glanced away from John and over to the trio. Batman was, as always, almost impossible to read, but Danny felt sure Batman was tense. He might even be worried.

He wasn’t even looking at Danny but instead at Red Hood, who Danny was sure was avoiding Batman’s gaze. Even still, Red Hood’s fingers were trembling against the back Danny’s neck.

Danny reached up and took the gloved hand, hooking their fingers together.

“Constantine,” Batman growled, but the word sounded broken, under the bite.

John glanced from Batman to Danny and back again. “If Nightingale says that Red Hood is, was, a halfa, then he was. Nightingale’s the psychopomp, the dead is his realm more than any living I’ve ever met and, hell, more than most people who are dead.”

“And what is a halfa?” Wonder Woman asked, still the calm voice of reason.

“Rare,” Danny bit back, showing his teeth. He made himself take a breath and regulate his tone. “Someone who is half living, half ghost. They are a balance between life and death. If no one knew that Red Hood was part ghost, there’s a chance he wasn’t fully formed before, but I can assure you he’s a protector spirit now, no matter if he’s still alive. It’s also likely why the spell did this. There were already two halves to split. The human who was the living and the ghost who was the death.”

Wonder leaned forward in her seat. “You seem certain that the other half is sick.”

“They have to be— it’s a part of themselves that was ripped out and that leaves a wound. I suspect that because the other one must have more of the human side, he’s suffering more of the human affects of the separation while Red Hood is suffering more of the ghostly affects.”

“And your recommendation?” Wonder Woman asked.

“They need to be together. They need to be together and the place where they’re together needs to be Red Hood’s haunt.”

“His haunt?”

“Likely where he resided before. Or it would be where he patrolled if those are different areas. It would be somewhere emotionally important to him no mater what. As I’ve said, he’s a protector spirit so it should be obvious where his haunt is considering his role as a vigilante.”

“Crime Alley,” Red Hood rasped from behind Danny. his fingers squeezed tighter around Danny’s for a moment.

Danny’s arm was getting sore holding itself up like that, but he wasn’t going to take the comfort away from Red Hood or even deprive himself of that grounding point. It would be too easy for him to lose his temper here and really give the Justice League something to be afraid of.

“Crime Alley then,” he said. He had no reason to doubt what Red Hood was said. A ghost knew their own haunt. “We have to get him back to Crime Alley and they need to be together. I assume you have a place there?”

“No,” Batman said, though he didn’t shift. Wonder Woman placed her hand on his arm again.

“We’re concerned about there being a reaction of some sort should they meet,” she explained. “Constantine said that it might be possible.”

Constantine grumbled under his breath and ducked his head with a little shrug.

“If we didn’t know what was going on, sure, that’s a fair enough worry, but we do and I’m telling you that they need to be together until either they’re back together as one or until they fully settle into two separate people.”

“No.” It was Superman who protested this time.

“You don’t have a choice if you don’t want to torture and kill one or both of them,” Danny said, resisting the urge to bare his fangs at the boy scout again. “They need to go to Crime Alley.”

“He’s dangerous. If he is just the Red Hood half of the personality, which you’ve basically confirmed—“

“I have not. I’ve explained how they were physically split. It has affected how their split in motivation only because motivation is what a ghost is, but I would have to speak with both of them to learn how they are mentally and emotionally split.”

Superman just frowned in a disappointed uncle sort of way, as Danny talked and then continued on like Danny hadn’t even said anything. “Then he’s even more dangerous. We cannot simply let someone like Red Hood go. We have to think about everyone’s safety in this matter, especially civilians.”

“I thought you weren’t killers?” Danny threw back at them, saccharine sweet in his delivery.

It made Superman’s frown deepen, though Wonder Woman actually looked a bit amused.

“We aren’t,” the Big Blue said.

“If you try and keep him here you are. I’m telling you right here and right now that if you do not let him go back to Crime Alley then you are signing his death warrant. You might try to claim that he died in jail, but you’ll still be the cause of it. But that’s how you kill, isn’t it?”

“Nightingale,” John warned under his breath, twitching like he wanted to reach out and touch Danny, maybe to hold him back.

“No, really, it is, isn’t it? You want to to pretend that you don’t kill, that you’re better than whatever Red Hood has done, but are you really? At least he’s Honest about it. Red,” Danny said, tugging at the other’s hand so that he had to move up to stand more beside him. Danny looked up at the mask, looked through it. “You’ve killed.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because they wouldn’t stop. They never stopped. Now that they’re dead, they’ve stopped.”

“Who?”

“Poisoning drug dealers. Rapists. Abusers. Child traffickers. People who threatened my….” Red Hood reared back slightly as if surprised by what his cut off words were going to be.

“Your haunt. Your people. Those under your watch and protection,” Danny said. “See, he’s honest about it. Were all of those deaths in the right? I don’t know. But I’m not sad a rapist is dead. I’m not sad children didn’t get trafficked. Those are the sort of people we’re supposed to be against, isn’t it? Well, us small heroes. You fight bigger names these days, don’t you, Superman?”

“Alright then,” John said, standing suddenly. Red Hood twisted to put himself further between the occult detective and Danny.

Danny patted Red Hood’s arm gently. “It’s okay, John’s trying to protect me. He thinks I’m putting my foot in my mouth and making enemies. And maybe I am. But I’m not going to sit by and watch this hypocrisy. You don’t kill. That’s a damn lie.”

“We don’t.”

“You’ve checked up on ever criminal then?”

“What?” Superman asked, thrown by the sudden question.

“Every criminal you’ve fought, every mugger and back robber and goon, you’ve followed up to see how they’re doing the next day, month, year?”

Superman had that lemon sucking twist to his face again. “No?”

“So you don’t really know, do you, how many criminals walked away from you only to die of brain hemorrhaging later because you punched them into a wall. Or how many died from a complication to their lungs or spine or heart because Black Canary ruptured something with her wail or Flash fucked from contact with the Speedforce. It’s not that you haven’t killed, it’s just that you don’t know how many you’ve killed. It’s impossible to act on the scale that you do and not have killed,” Danny said with certainty.

“Nightingale, I believe you’ve made your point,” Wonder Woman said, still calm, still patient. She was different from the others. She has killed, Danny knew that; she was an Amazon. He remembered his stories from Pandora.

“Have I?” Danny asked. He let go of Red Hood as he stood to lean over onto the table. Danny could feel that snarl building up in his throat again now. The other reached out to touch him again right away. The snarl calmed a little, only a little. “Because what about when Superman has used a building as a barrier to smack an enemy into? No one was ever hurt there? No grannie ever slipped and fell as the building shook and never got up again? At least that would be an accident then, unlike punching someone to death, but don’t pretend your hands aren’t red. Don’t pretend—”

The hiss of the door opening cut Danny off.

The room feel silent.

Danny could see all the heroes tense.

From behind him a voice spoke up, “Well, aren’t you all dramatic.”

--- AN: The mysterious stranger is right! They are all dramatic. Danny was about ready to go for Superman's throat-- literally and just not figuratively. Hope you enjoyed how this all played out! I know people were waiting for Danny to let loose some. Fatigue is hitting me hard right now, so glad to have gotten this out!

Stay delightful, darlings!

I no longer tag, you can instead subscribe to the masterpost!

[ghost-bxrd]

hi please I need this in my life rev robins tim adopting Jason is amazing I need whatever deets you got skskskisk

Here have some more bullet points! ✨

Instead of tires Jason happens upon a fancy drone Tim had stashed somewhere. He takes advantage of the situation (this kind of fancy tech sells for a thousand bucks at LEAST!), hot wires the thing, and takes off with it. Sadly, Jason misses the tracker so Tim sniffs him out within the hour, thinking Batman’s onto him (who else could have the knowledge to wire HIS advanced tech but Bruce?)

Tim kind of blue screens when he sneaks into Jay’s hideout and finds a malnourished kid nibbling on a piece of stale bread and the drone clutched in one hand

Jason thinks he’s done for when the new crime lord shows up. Like- that guy cut the heads off several people only a few days ago and- oh, oh god, he just stole from a crime lord. Oh no, oh shit-

Tim is still blue screening and thus totally misses that the kid went into fight or flight mode until the drone comes sailing at him and hits him clean in the face.

Jason, in his panic, jumps right out the window (death via fall is better than having his head cut off, or whatever else perverted thing the new crime lord is into)

Tim barely manages to react in time to keep Jason from plummeting several stories, having even more trouble dragging the kid back onto solid ground because the little shit actually tries biting him! (Tim is lowkey impressed)

Jason never stops fighting, managing some solid kicks and punches that Tim’s gonna feel for several days, and keeps spitting at Tim even after he’s finally got him pinned

Tim, after inspecting Jason’s handiwork on the drone and considering the kid’s fighting spirit (not to mention the ill seated realization that Jason might not make it much longer on the streets with how thin he is), knows that the kid is either gonna die or be picked up by Batman (or god forbid, Damian) if he finds out about the kid’s skills. So really, it’s a no brainer what Tim has to do now

Bruce and Damian think they’ll have to do another tally mark in the list of crimes Hood committed, now thinking not even street kids are safe from him

Jason’s not sure he likes this weird arrangement, but Hood turns out to be surprisingly young and doesn’t want him to do any weird crime stuff and actually teaches him things about tech, so… he thinks he’ll stay. For now.

(Tim spends exactly one week around the spitfire that is Jason and decides that, yes, he would kill everyone in Gotham and then himself if anything happened to him. Not that he’s gonna let anybody know that.)

[crispytubes]

he only has like maybe 3 minutes of screen time in total but i miss him so much where tf is he :(

[williammarksommer]

Time to Eat at the Cafe 50's

Route 66 series

Hasselblad 500c/m

Kodak Gold 200iso

[hauntingblue]

The king and queen are visiting Paiporta and they receive them with mud xd two men have spoken to the king and told him to do something, but we all know that he is going to go to his palace and cross his arms because It's literally the only thing he can do. Is this what had to happen for people to realize that asking the king for help is nonsense? He has no power, he is only there to parade around. They have kicked out volunteers from the site to let the king and his escorts (police and military) pass, which is the first time they have touched that ground and they are going to do NOTHING. The president is doing the same. The president of Valencia is doing the same.

[prolibytherium]

Worlds #1 complainer about "dog motif" fans accidentally makes story with extremely central, predominant even, dog motif

[americaisdead]

santa rosa, new mexico. september 2023

© tag christof

[mockiery]

kinda wish in 5b in the Underworld, even with the whole place looking like Storybrooke, that they stuck with the Enchanted Forest style clothes for waaaayyyy more of the souls down there. like imagine Milah in her pirate fit? Cora in a fantastical dress? just loads of fancy dresses and leather and cloaks and shit, just turn out the entirety of the costume department's closet of Enchanted Forest fits onto the streets of color-tinted Storybrooke for funsies. u see the vision.

[clockwayswrites]

Both Ways at Once Part 2

wc: 757, Masterpost

The stranger touched his chest and Red Hood’s whole being shuddered. The agonizing pain that been growing, growing, growing—

It quieted. Sharply and suddenly.

The relief from the pain almost hurt worse.

Red Hood curled around the hand. His fingers dug desperately into the sleeve to make sure the stranger didn’t pull away. The shock of whatever had momentarily pushed the pain back started to fade and Red Hood, to his shame, let out a keening whine.

“Shush,” the stranger soothed gently. Red Hood wasn’t sure how he even heard them over the klaxon of alarms and shouting. “It hurts. I know it hurts. But I won’t let them keep hurting you. I swear to you.”

There was a weight to those words— a promise in that vow— that felt like it seared itself in Red Hood’s bones.

Whoever this was, Red Hood believed them.

There was a whisper of air as the door opened.

“Nightingale, get out of there, right now,” the Hellblazer hissed.

It made Red Hood bare his teeth in a soundless growl even though no one could see it under the helmet.

The stranger— Nightingale— let out a huff of air that was almost amused. As if he had noticed.

“Oh I’ll come out, Constantine, we both will.” Nightingale twisted their hand in Red Hoods grip.

Red Hood almost made that pathetic sound again, fearing loss of the touch, but they simply twined their fingers together.

“Nightingale, you don’t know who he is.”

“Oh he’s a he now, not an it? Good of you to finally tell me, John. Really glad that it was clear from the dossier that I was going to be meeting a person not a thing or a creature. Oh no, wait, no it wasn’t,” Nightingale snarked. His voice was dry, but there was an undercurrent to it that made the hair on Red Hood’s arm stand up.

Where the lights always dimmer in the brig?

“Do you even know what he is?” Nightingale asked.

Part of Red Hood’s instincts told him to get out of there, that Nightingale was dangerous in a way he couldn’t even imagine. He just gripped their hand tighter instead.

Nightingale squeezed back. “I asked you a question, John. Do you know what he is?”

The main door opened suddenly; Superman flew through it. Red Hood twisted his hold on Nightingale’s hand, pulling his own arm against his back and forcing the other behind him. His free hand twitched towards his empty holster. Everyone in the room was a threat, but Red Hood didn’t like the offensive stance Superman landed in.

“How did he get out?” Superman asked.

“Nightingale walked through the wall,” Wonder Woman explained. Red Hood’s gaze darted to her. She still seemed calm, if watchful.

It felt like the shadows were flickering.

Superman crossed his arms. “Did we know he could do that?”

“No,” the Hellblazer ground out. He looked around them nervously, taking note of the way the lights shifted. “Nightingale—”

“He is a protector spirit, John!” Nightingale yelled. Wailed. It wasn’t a yell, it was a wail. The echo of it stuck inside Red Hood’s mind, bouncing around like a bullet. Everyone in the room flinched. Nightingale’s fingers pushed under the edge of Red Hood’s glove and found a strip of skin to stroke. It forced Red Hood to take a shuddering breath. The bullet stopped bouncing.

Nightingale took a breath of his own. Red Hood could feel it from where the other was leaning against his back. This stranger was coiled tension and danger and a carefully reigned in tone. “He’s a protector spirit and you are destroying him! You locked him up away from his haunt! How dare you.”

“Nightingale,” the Hellblazer said, stepping forward with hands raised (as if he didn’t have magic at his fingertips). “You know me. You know how I work. You know that I wouldn’t lock up a protector spirit if I knew that’s what they were. We had no idea, Pomp, I promise. Couldn’t even suspect. The person Red Hood was separated from is alive.”

The flickering shadows spiked. The whole room seemed to darken. Red Hood twisted his hand a little tighter into the sleeve he still had a hold on.

“The what?” Nightingale growled.

“It is clear that there is a great deal of information missing on all sides,” Wonder Woman said, her voice a calm certainty in the middle of the tension. “Let us turn off the alarms and go have this discussion somewhere we can sit down.”

-----

AN: Bad news, still sick, good news, it's not a new long term condition! And I should be near the end of it. Also good news, my tired brain wrote you more of this! Does this answer any questions or does it just make more???

I no longer tag people for several reasons! You can instead subscribe on the masterpost.

[cherri-fruitcup]

🩷 My mains 🩷

[cowboygato]

Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico

1899

[williammarksommer]

Soda Fountain

Route 66 series

Hasselblad 500c/m

Kodak Gold 200iso

[caterjunes]

removed our broken fucking sink faucet. took me half an hour, a lot of wrist pain, plus a tremendous amount of spiderwebs, rust flakes, mysterious grime, and water falling on my head. love it /s. now i need to scrape off the black ooze and shreds of old silicone, clean it all thoroughly, and figure out how the fuck to properly protect the holes from continuing to rust. then install the new faucet (had to drive 45 min each way this morning to get it). i hate this.

[vyllea]

couldn't appreciate Hozier's acoustic version of Be until I listened to it on the side of a lake watching the lights reflect in the water