this just in: danny fenton is just as much of a mask as Brucie Wayne? - another danyal al ghul au
Turns out, being placed in a civilian family who have no knowledge of your background is actually detrimental to the health and development of a child assassin due to lack of proper support! Surrounded by strangers in a foreign city, Danyal Al Ghul does as assassins do best. He hides. Espionage is one of many teachings one learns in the League, and it only takes half a day for Danyal to construct a new persona to hide behind: Daniel Fenton.
By the time dinner rolls around, Danyal al Ghul is safely and securely tucked behind the face of Danny Fenton; brand new adoptive child of the Fenton family who came from overseas. A shy, quiet little boy with a thick accent and curly hair, with brown skin and blue eyes, and an avid interest in the stars. The best fictions are always cobbled together in a little bit of truth, it's some of the only truth he ever lets through. He apologizes in a meek voice for his behavior early, he didn't mean to be rude, and he watches the three of them eat it up with coos.
Lies roll like silk against his lips, he struggles to meet their eyes and offers them his weakest, shyest smile. It's too easy. It's easy to go from there.
Danny Fenton, adoptive son, shy and awkward and unconfident but friendly. Who struggles in his classes and isn't the brightest, but tries his hardest. He makes bad jokes and has a quick tongue and a sarcastic mouth. He wants to be an astronaut. He's got the best aim in school, and is a terrifying dodgeball player. He's one of the least athletic kids in his grade.
It's like playing two truths and a lie, but there's only one truth, and the rest are lies. It's easy to pretend when he knows it's insincere.
Danyal Al Ghul, grandson to the Demon Head. Deadly, trained assassin. Has spilled blood, has had blood spilt from. Environmentalist, animal activist. He loves the stars. He owns a calligraphy set. A sharp tongue, an even sharper blade. He's clever, quick-witted, he would be top of his grade if he tried harder. He purposely doesn't.
He misses his family. He misses his mother, and he misses his brother. Mother visits a few times a year, so few times that he can count it on both hands. He cherishes every visit, as brief as they are. It helps remind him who he is.
Sam and Tucker are Danny's best friends. They've never met Danyal, but Danyal's met them.
It becomes routine to become Danny Fenton. As familiar and as easy as pulling on a shirt in the morning. Danyal wakes up and is always first to the bathroom in the mornings; stares at himself in the mirror until he can finally see Danny staring back at him. At night, he locks his door and sheds the mask.
Dying throws a wrench in his mask; splits a crack straight through the porcelain. He's able to smooth it over with sandpaper and liquid gold, but it's a little hard keeping his ghost form under wraps. It instinctively wants to shift to show his true self. Danyal can't have that, he's spent four years as Danny Fenton, he'll spend another four as him as well. Even if the feeling of the hazmat suit in his ghost form feels restrictive, like a too-small shirt suctioned to his skin that needs to be peeled off.
He'll live. Er-- well, you know what he means. It's frustrating however, trying to keep his Danny Fenton mask up even as Phantom - fighting in the air is something he needs to get used to, and the sudden propping of powers throws him off. But he is nothing if not adaptive, and he hates that he needs to slow his own skills down in order to keep pretenses up in front of Sam and Tucker.
The first time Danyal summons a sword when he's alone, is one of the few times Danyal gets to grin instead of Danny. He's fighting Skulker, and from an invisible hilt he draws a katana from thin air. It startles them both. Skulker takes a step back at the smile that spreads across his face.
They're both silent as Danyal examines his new sword.
"Do you know what people like me do to people like you, poacher?" Danyal finally asks him, the accent he began to hide a few months in slipping through. He drops all pretense, dragging the flat end of the blade slow and appreciatively against his palm. It's a good make, and when he cuts it through the air, it slices through like butter. He looks up at Skulker with a smile; "are you ready to find out?"
When Sam and Tucker ask about why Skulker seems so skittish around Danny now, Danny shrugs at them and says with a playful smile; "I don't know, I guess I kicked his butt too hard after our last fight." and he watches as Sam rolls her eyes exasperatedly, and Tucker snickers with his own joke.
By the time he reunites with Damian before their 15th birthday, Danyal is buried beneath so many layers of Danny Fenton that his brother will need a shovel to dig him out. He's not sure what he'll find.
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I know this is just beating a dead horse at this point but good god Warriors really does have so many opportunities to write all kinds of different complex tales and relationships, even just as shorts, and it makes me so so sad. Even just the smaller things, the ones that almost hilariously ignore the bigger plot going on around them.
We all know Breezepelt, but I personally wanna know about his kids! I want to know what kind of father he is to four whole daughters. He’s the guy known for having daddy issues, is he a terrible father? Is he just an okay one? Is he genuinely trying really hard to be good? I want to know!
What about the aftermath of Brokenstar’s reign? What happened to the apprenticed kits who survived the ordeal? Did they remain as paws but had an extended training time? Were they put back in the nursery and expected to just go on knowing what the outside world looked like until moons later? What about the apprentices named before they were adults, were they changed back to paws? What kind of generational trauma did ShadowClan carry from Brokenstar, from all the children who died and all the ones who grew up much too fast?
Dawnpelt was known for mainly one thing: the cat who believed, wholeheartedly, that Jayfeather killed Flametail. She is now also the mother of Sleekwhisker, a Darktail obsessed villain, Juniperclaw, who briefly joined Darktail, poisoned prey, and is now dead and guarding the border between StarClan and the Dark Forest. And then there’s Strikestone, who joined Darktail for a bit but then didn’t do much else except also die. Thats two children dead, one who is denied redemption despite his willingness to, and a third child whos very murderous. Does that not fuck someone up, at least a little?
Pouncestep is my personal favorite simply because she has become the background character in a family of main characters. Lightleap is slowly getting a little bit of spotlight thanks to Blazefire, but Pouncestep is just...there. Literally what is her life even like, watching all her important family members deal with the worst thing ever five times a week. Is she minding her own business. I hope she’s just vibing. I want a calm short with her ignoring all the plot.
Moonkitti brought this up already, but she was so right for it, cause...what about all the cats named in honor of the dead? Hollytuft? Sorrelstripe? Fernsong? Even new Bristlekit and Stemkit, and so many more---does that not mess with a cat? We know it messed with Nightheart, and while being named after and related to Firestar I’m sure does some things to a dude, we have other cats who do look eerily similar to who they’re named after. Lets not even start with Cinderheart. With this naming tradition becoming more and more common, one has to wonder if ThunderClan is gonna be filled to the brim with cats that have some INSANE identity issues.
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