#jazz x diana

[youcalledsworld]

DP x DC prompt

Diana is nervous, she is finally meeting her girlfriend's family. She shouldn't be this nervous, she's faced numerous battles and laughed in the face of death. But this is her girlfriend's family and she wants to make a good impression.

She's heard about how eccentric and caring Jazz's parents are, and how protective her younger brother is, she's also heard about Jazz's adorable niece. So she can and will make a good first impression. And so she knocked on the door.

Danny was ready and willing to scare Jazz's girlfriend. To him no one is good enough for her and he will voice his opinion regardless of the lecture he'll get from Jazz. So when he heard a knock he was the first one there so he could begin his intimation. But he stopped when he saw his fellow leaguer at the door. She didn't know about his secret identity just like every other justice league member (maybe except from Question and Batman). So seeing that it was Diana standing there he wouldn't need to scare her because he already trusted her.

Jazz was suspicious. Danny wasn't trying to intimidate Diana or integrate her. He was just being friendly and asking questions about her job and what she likes to do. She needed to get to the bottom of this but after dinner. Because he keeps smiling at her like he knows something she doesn't.

[ghostbsuter]

"Excuse me?" Jazz's voice echoes in the meeting room in space. She gains the attention of the heroes immediately and sees them tensing up in at her appearance.

Behind her, he swirling green portal is open, waiting for her to return.

A blond, coat wearing man, curses upon seeing her and gives a half bow. "Princess Jasmine," he speaks up, eye twitching.

"What brings you here?"

At the greeting and reveal of her title, few others fall into bows, the lady at the head of the table, wonder woman?, gives her a smile.

Her eyes pin the green skinned man to his seat, who in return tilts his head at her.

"My brothers birthday is soon," she focuses on the man again. "I'm simply here for a present."

The man tenses, another curse slipping. "Ah– king phantom, right? I wasn't aware his birthday would be so soon."

Jazz ignores him, calmly walking to the Martian and placing a picture of Mars before him.

"The tales of your people have brought much interest to my brother. He became a big fan." She tells, sharing her intentions at his light poking.

"I ask for a signature, it would make his day."

Martian Manhunter, alien hero, and once upon a time, a father even smiles. He's delighted yet feeling a deep-rooted sadness. The tales of his people continue to spread in the afterlife, it seems.

Jazz leaves quickly after, not before giving Diana a number, they are cousins after all.

Danny will love her present.

[bet-on-me-13]

Danny is Diana's Big Brother (and annoys the hell out of her)

So!

Danny decided to reveal himself to his Parents one day, and it didn't go well. Thankfully, Jazz managed to get him out of the Lab and they fled into the Ghost Zone, destroying the Portal behind them.

They seek refuge with some of their friends, and after a while they find a permanent home with Pandora in the Ancient Greek Sector. She found them while they were wandering the Zone in search of a place to sleep and happily took them in.

Danny also finds out that he is the new Ghost Prince after an incident where Fright Knight almost kills Skulker for "Daring to attack the Prince!"

So life is getting better for Danny. But he soon finds out that as the Ghost Prince, he needs a Parent to take over until he comes of Age. And he doesn't really have parents anymore.

He tries to set up Jazz as his Legal Guardian, but since she is his sister (and a newly forming Halfa, therefore also too young) she doesn't count.

Thankfully, he had the perfect candidate right there with Pandora! And she happily adopted them, she was basically already acting like their new Mom anyways, do it wasn't that much of a change. All she needs to do is keep the peace for a few decades until Danny reaches the Legal Ghost Age. (100 yrs old)

And of course, since he was adopted by Pandora he wants to learn about her Culture! So he asks her to take him on a trip to her Home Dimension and Home Country to learn about it.

So they head off to Themyscira.

And since Danny is technically Royalty, Not a Human Man, and the adopted son of Pandora (one of their greatest heroes of the past) he is tentatively allowed to visit the Island.

(Also, Danny can shapeshift, so it wouldn't be too big of a problem if he wanted to)

While there he meets Pandora's sister, Hippolyta, and her newly born Daughter, Diana.

Danny instantly decides that Diana is his new Little Sister.

And he also decides to indulge in all of the Big Brother Urges he has never been able to get away with with Ellie, and annoys the hell out of her in a way only big brothers can manage.

He teases her in front of her friends, pranks her occasionally, has play fights with her that end with a Forest being wiped off the map, and generally annoys the hell out of her.

But he also does all the good brother things like protect her from bullies, gives her wise advice, comfort her when she feels sad, and even helps comb her hair (she realized that he thrives on domestic stuff, since he never got to appreciate it when he was a kid)

He also introduces Diana to Jazz, and they get on like a house on fire! Unfortunately, Diana found out that Jazz can actually reign in Danny whenever he gets too overbearing and weaponizes this to great effect.

Ellie too, although they are hence banned from ever hanging out without supervision ever again (the observants couldn't walk right for a decade after that incident)

They go on like this for a few centuries, even after Danny takes up the Throne and has less time to hang out with her.

But Diana still loves her big brother, annoyances and all. Still, she will absolutely never let him know about the League. She wouldn't survive the embarrassment.

...

Wait, who did this Cult just say they were summoning?

[sendryl]

Diana happens to find herself in possession of a set of distant relatives after one Madeline Fenton née Prince decides that since Diana has no surviving family, they're now cousins.

And when Diana gets an invitation to her cousin's son's funeral, there's no way she isn't going to attend. She will be there to support her cousin, despite there being no real connection between them.

However, as she walks up to the gravesite, she can hear something strange.

Scratching.

[satoshy12]

The Ghost and the Amazon:

Danny ends up in the world of gods and monsters and is having more fun than he should. But to his defense, he only knows these beings from books and the ghost zone. And, having been fascinated by this world for around ten years, he adored it! He was struck in his prime of 21 years, so he had in truth no idea how many years he really was here, but you could say after 5 he no longer cared much about it. (His father His height, as he had his growth spurt, was pretty muscular too, but not super massive. (Think of Thor, Steve Rogers, or Goku, yeah, Goku Piccolo Saga.)

After an attack by Circe, Wonder Woman too ended up in this new realm, seeing monsters wreaking havoc on the mortal realm. Being a hero, she will help them, and so she joined this Son of Hades?? in fighting against them. They had become fast friends over the years through adventure and fighting. Diana noticed he, just like her, didn't age. + It had been a shame that after a new portal opened, they could leave but were needed, but Diana would visit him and he would visit her. + Amity Park had changed not much; as he had fallen through the portal, the whole town thought he was Isekai'd and now could return. And man, the whole town was surprised as they saw Danny, that massive and full-of-muscle Fenton man. Not sure what to do. But the Fentons were happy to see him back. Danny, too, was happy to see his mom, dad, Tucker, Sam, Jazz, and Ellie. Ellie told him how she protected the town while he was gone, and Tucker and Sam told him what he missed in school and similar. Jazz was now his tiny, big sister, as he was taller than her by 1 head. Mom and Dad learned about him being a phantom and were pretty accepting of it; they were just sad he was gone for so long. He been missed 3 years, but the doctors said he was around the start of his 20s in body age but much older. And seem to be prime of his body; the isekai'd changed him. maybe Magic. As Ellie learned by talking with Danny, whom he met in the realm! She wanted to really meet her her Wonder Woman!, but Danny thought first to wait more than a month. She told him about the Space Station. Well, time to visit Diana! She never told him in all the years about the Space Station! + For Diana True to his words, Danny came to visit her maybe to wait one month was much, but here he was in the Watch Tower. It turned out his adorable cutie pie baby clone (his words not her, but she is adorable), Ellie, was a fan. So while she talked to the tiny girl, Danny looked out the window at the stars. She could spend later time with her Danny. Time to tell Ellie about their adventures in the last the last few years in the Realms with Danny.

[elizabethemerald]

In her Arms

Jazz had been on the move almost non stop ever since she had heard about the explosion. Her parents were dead. The portal in Amity was destroyed. The city officials said that Danny was killed by the blast too. But he wasn't. She knew he wasn't. She didn't need the boo-merang to tell her that Danny was still out there some where. He was alive, and she would find him.

She had only stopped moving long enough to pass out in her car for a few hours during the drive to Gotham City. She was following a faint trail, a mere pressure in her mind that was leading her closer and closer to where her brother was. Whatever ecto contamination her parents had done to her over the years had given her a connection to her brother and she would follow that connection to very jaws of hell itself if she had to.

She was running on fumes now. So was her car. She had made it into Gotham and the pull brought her to one of the poorer neighborhoods. In fact it looked like it was the poorest and most crime ridden part of the city. Graffiti covered every wall, multiple burnt out wrecks of cars littered the sides of the streets.

Jazz slammed on the breaks and opened her car door. She was next to an abandoned and fenced off lot and her brother was here. She could feel him. She dashed tears and sweat from her eyes, slung her weapons over her shoulder and tied her hair back. When she left her car she left it with the door open and the key in the ignition. She doubted it would start again and she didn't care enough, all she cared about was her brother.

She crouched next to the fence and the leaped, putting her ectoplasmic strength into the jump as she easily cleared the twelve foot tall fence. She landed on the other side in another crouch, her eyes zeroing in on the woman standing in the middle of the lot.

The woman was easily as tall as Jazz and she was 6'8" thanks to the ectoplasm in her veins. The woman had long black hair and was built like an absolute tank. She was wearing work out clothes that showed off all of her muscles. If Jazz were in a better mental state she would be jealous.

But all she could focus on was the toddler chair just past the woman. The chair that held a small black haired, blue eyed boy that was her entire world. Danny. He was younger and smaller than he should be, but she would recognize him anywhere, and she had enough experience with ghostly shenanigans to recognize a simple deaging. She could deal with that later, now she just needed to recover her brother.

"Give him to me!" Jazz demanded as she stormed closer.

The beefy woman was between her and Danny, she couldn't risk angering her, but all the words were trapped in her mind. All the deescalation techniques she learned, all the psychology she dedicated herself to, was all trapped and stuck. The woman turned to face her and Jazz pulled out her creep stick, her hands shaking.

"Give him to me." She said again, the words feeling like nails dragging past her throat yet it was all she could say.

"I'm afraid I can't do that." The woman said. She kept her hands open and spread apart. Some small part of Jazz's mind said that she was trying to keep her body language open and friendly. But that part was overshadowed by her fear and her exhaustion.

"Give him to me!" She shrieked, wondering if she should be coughing up blood with how difficult the words were to drag out. She dashed forward and swung her creepstick. The woman block and Jazz swung again and again. Each blow the woman either blocked or dodged without any visible effort.

"You have skills sister." The woman said and she went on the attack.

Now Jazz was getting driven back across the lot. She was clearly out matched in every possible way, but she couldn't back down. That was her brother. Danny. Danny. Danny. That was her brother. That was her brother.

The woman twisted her body and with a powerful kick the creepstick was sent flying across the yard. Jazz didn't give her a moment to gloat at disarming her and instead pushed forward with her bare fists and legs, managing to push the other woman back one step at a time. Still she looked calm and confident as if she did this everysingle day.

Jazz ducked under one of the woman's blows and managed to pull her knife. She trust the blade forward with all her might, putting her full ectoplasm enhanced strength behind the blow. And watched in horror as the blade shattered against the woman's shoulder.

"Well struck!" The woman seemed genuinely impressed. Then she twisted and almost without effort threw Jazz to the ground.

Jazz gasped in air as she stared up at her, then past her to where her brother sat in the chair, watching like this was all an exciting movie.

"Please." She forced the word out, like broken glass down her throat. "Give him to me."

She begged. Desperately. The woman startled and pulled a cord from her waist. With a flick of her wrist the cord wrapped around Jazz's body.

"We'll soon find the truth of this. Why do you want the boy?"

The cord glowed around her and even past her pain and her fear and her exhaustion the words came.

"He's my brother."

She gasped the words out.

"He's my brother."

Her throat was closing and her breath was coming faster and faster. Her own fist collided with her forehead.

"He's my brother."

She sobbed the words out, her vision fading as she hit herself again. A high pitched keening noise pulled itself out of her, no more words were coming, just her raw expression of grief and longing and she hit herself again. She smacked her fist into her forehead and when she went to do it again, she felt a tiny hand wrap around her wrist.

"No Jazz! No hurt. No hurt."

Danny's little voice. Just like when he was first a child and would stop her from melting down. When her parents ignored her being touch adverse, when they made her speak even when she was nonverbal, when the noise of the lab wouldn't stop and pounded into her head like a jack hammer.

She didn't try to pull her arm out of his hand but she hit herself again with her other hand. She could hear Danny begging her to stop, but she couldn't, she couldn't, she couldn't. She went to hit herself again and a strong, calloused hand grabbed her wrist, than just as gently as if she were something precious and valuable held her other hand to keep keep her from hurting herself.

"Now, young one, there is no call for that."

"Jazz it's ok." Danny whispered, because he knew the loud voices bothered her. Then he started humming, so softly she could barely feel it, yet his humming vibrated with ectoplasm and carried down all the way to her infant ghost core.

He was hugging her and holding her and humming to her and slowly, muscle by muscle her tension unwound. She could think again, she didn't think she would be able to speak yet, but at the very least she could pull her wrists from the gentle hold of the other woman and wrap her arms around her little brother.

She held her brother, her Danny and sobbed and sobbed. She gone through too much. She had bee told she had lost her parents that everyone she loved, including her beloved brother were dead, her home destroyed. Then she had driven half way across the country following a desperate thread to try and find him only to be beaten by the first stranger she encountered. But at the very least, she had her brother back in her arms again. Just like she was supposed to.

This technically takes place in my Son of the Red Hood AU, but probably won't be for a few chapters. However this was running around my brain and chewing on the walls until I got it out. Jazz and Danny are to me Autistic and ADHD solidarity and I wanted to portray Jazz having an extreme meltdown because of the stress she's been under. Can you guess who her opponent is?

[spacedace]

WAIT I JUST HAD ANOTHER THOUGHT FOR THE DISASTER MEET THE INLAWS DINNER:

okay context: so in this AU, Danny and Dan are the only ones who don't know the batfam secret. Jazz figured it out when they first moved in next door to Jason. Damian told Elle after she trusted him with the truth about being a halfa. Elle didn't tell anyone else since it was a secret Damian trusted her with, while Jazz & Jason assumed that everyone else in the Nightingale family knew and never really brought it up.

It just completely sailed over Dan & Danny's heads. Even though part of the deal the family worked out with the Spirit of Gotham is to help protect her Bats and Birds (that's why Dan ended up in Bludhaven, to help keep Nightwing safe) and they regularly (secretly) follow the batfam around during patrols and fights to help make sure nothing bad happens to them.

Which brings us to the disaster dinner where, after things have almost calmed down from the chaos and embarrassment of Elle and Damian's power point & movie, everyone is actually almost getting along. Turns out, getting horribly roasted by the two gremlins helped break the ice a bit. It's kinda hard for the Bats to hold on to as much of the suspicion for the Nightingales as before when they just watched a supercut of everyone’s most embarrassing moments from the past five years with color commentary from the Chaos Duo.

Which is to say Danny is feeling comfortable enough - with some edging on by Elle - to reveal his conspiracy theory about who Batman is, to Bruce.

Just looks Bruce straight in the eye and with his whole heart and soul asks, "So, like you're for sure Batman's sugar daddy right?" -

Tagging for those who asked: @screamingtofillthevoid @stargirl1331 @mnemovoid @malice-of-the-sunrise @bathildaburp @autumnwulf @revnantdpxdclover @coruscateselene @writer-extraodinaire @idfk-man10 @fluffen-spooky @frostedthroughghost @akikkobara @unadulteratedsoulsweets @phoenixdemonqueen @overlycaffeinatedsuperwholockfan @gin2212 @emotional-otter @lexdamo @dixiwoods @wildbacon @ashleysmshly @that-random-fangirl @satanicrutialspecialist @lazy-bouqet @treepainting @busterkeel @gin2212 @idontgetpaidenoughforthisshit @jaggedheart11 @introvert-even-on-the-internet

[nelkcats]

Tucker and Danny were playing with the Scarab Scepter, Sam told them it was a bad idea but they didn't think Duulaman would be a problem.

Well, not until Tucker joking said "Danny Phantom, you are under my control now" with a villain voice, suddenly he realized what he have done "Oh God, Danny sorry, I forgot about Freakshow incident, I was joking, I swear, please don't be mad at me"

But Danny didn't answer, Tucker open his eyes and saw his friend completely mind controlled, it does not matter how many times he yell "You are not under my control anymore" he couldn't reverse it, Duulaman's Scepter didn't reverse it.

Now he needed to figure out how to call Justice League and said "Oh sorry, I mind controlled my best friend with a magic staff that can change reality at my will but don't worry I am not a villain ¿please help me?" yeah, Sam was going to kill him sooner than later.

[x-heesy]

Uǝɯɐ ʎp̸͎̝̲̬̗̳̺̥͗͌̑̽͑̍̈͒o̵̳̞̖̖̩̻̩̎̍̓́o̵̳̞̖̖̩̻̩̎̍̓́l̵̡̬̹̙͕͍͙̜̂͌̾q̵̢̝͓̝͍̥̤̰͆̽̐̕͜

Stop this world, let me off

There's just too many pigs in the same trough

There's too many buzzards sitting on the fence

Stop this world, it's not making sense

Stop this show, hold the phone

Better days this girl has known

Better days so long ago

Hold the phone, won't you stop the show

Well, it seems my little playhouse has fallen down

I think my little ship has run aground

Feel like I'm in the wrong place

My state of mind is a disgrace

So, won't you stop this game, deal me out

I know too well what it's all about

I know too well that it had to be

Stop this game well it's ruining me

Well, I got too smart for my own good

I just don't do the things I know I should

There's bound to be some better way

I just got one thing more to say

And that is

Stop this game, deal me out

I know too well what it's all about

I know too well that it had to be

Stop this game, well, it's wrecking me

@luna---zylum @frenchpsychiatrymuderedmycnut @bigbonzo @derflaneur @faccaldo

St̵͎̳̠̏͐͒͆̐o̵̳̞̖̖̩̻̩̎̍̓́p̸͎̝̲̬̗̳̺̥͗͌̑̽͑̍̈͒ Th̶̨̢̺̪̻̱̞̓̓͊ͅi̴̛͕͍̤̐͆͆͂̇̈́̍̍͊s̶̢͎̮̝̭̫̞̏̒͛͗͜ Wo̵̳̞̖̖̩̻̩̎̍̓́r̵̠͖̂̀̄́́̕l̵̡̬̹̙͕͍͙̜̂͌̾d̶̖̠̖̳̏̇̏̆͆̂̾̚ by Diana Krall

[gods-god-no-gods]

Looking For Friends!

I used to be active on Tumblr a long long time ago & am wanting to get active again. This blog will mostly be a way for me to post my long thoughts on my readings - theology, philosophy, fiction, & comic books! Hoping there are others who are into: Martin Heidegger Moon Knight

Dune/Frank Herbert Orthodox Christianity Dua Lipa Wonder Woman

Platonism

X-Men (& related teams) Jazz

Georges Bataille Justice League Dark Friedrich Nietszche

JRR Tolkien/LOTR/Middle Earth Saga Indoeuropean Studies &&& so so much more!

[satoshy12]

Amazon Dani and Jazz and Gargarean Danny

+ NO SONS OF THEMYSCIRA! NO PRIME EARTH! NO ANGST OR DARK!! +

Diana had met Dani while she was traveling with Jazz and Danny. The Fentons took her in pretty well; as Danny told them, she came from a portal and was related to him.

Diana is interested in the child Amazon, the teenager, and the male child Amazon Gargarean, as he saw the trio fighting a villain. But as Diana tried to talk to them, the trio didn't know much about the outside world or heroes. And Amity Park hates! Heroes. So they don't talk about them.

Diana, who heard about male Amazons, thought his mother must have hidden this from the other Amazons! And the last time they had children was 4000 years ago; that was her! So where do these three come from? The whole Themyscira would talk about it, and if they did, Artemis or someone similar would have told her!

Later at the JL meeting, she was ready to call dibs. She lost the three children near Gotham and knew how much Batman hated when other heroes went near his city.

Diana told the rest of the league about how, in the past, "Hercules killed all the Gargarean as he saw them not helping him and planned to create something stronger with his men on the Amazons.

So the Gargarean are related to the Amazon but don't spend most of their time with their sister or mother and are mostly travelers. But should be extinct but aren't. So she calls Dibs for the three siblings!"

The three siblings—well, two of them—brought much chaos in their short time in Gotham.

Dani hit a rich boy in the face but later helped him save animals.

Jazz met a "criminal" on a bike with a red helmet who tried to help her as she was robbed." She broke the robber's arm.

[elizabethemerald]

Son of the Red Hood: Part 4

Diana stepped out from the Zeta tube as the computer softly announced her name. She glanced around at the cave she was in. Bruce always has something interesting going on, and while she doesn’t particularly care about cars or computers, it’s still fascinating to hear him talk about his various projects. The Bat himself was sitting in front of his wall of screens, though he had turned to look at her. She knew she and Clark were some of the few members of the League that could teleport into the Batcave without asking permission first. 

“Diana. Is there an emergency?” Bruce asked. 

“No, Bruce, I just thought I would come to visit.” 

He gave her a long, considering look before turning back to his computer. She smiled at his back. He never did handle strangers in his space well. Especially unannounced and unplanned ones. 

“Does your sudden visit have anything to do with your unscheduled questions during the debrief from the Justice League Dark yesterday?” 

“Mmm.” She hummed for a second and came to stand behind him to look up at the map of Gotham he had on his display. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to get my questions on the itinerary. I had been researching in the archives right up to the last moment before the debrief.”

“Hn.” She took his grunt as forgiveness. The Gods only knew how often Bruce had gotten stuck in a research rabbit hole. She set a hand on his shoulder and when his shoulders dropped a little she guessed he wasn’t feeling touch-adverse at the moment and gently rubbed his arm. 

“As to your question, yes it does.” 

“Hn.” She could hear the creak of his gloves as he clenched his fist. “And what does this Ghost King have to do with Gotham?” 

“I don’t believe that your city is in any danger.” He relaxed his hand but stayed focused on his screens. “I need time to be certain though. I would ask, as your fellow hero, your coworker and your friend, that you not investigate until I’ve had a chance to look around.” 

Diana could almost physically feel the internal struggle Bruce was in. His unending desire to know every secret and to puzzle out every mystery versus his respect for her. This is why she didn’t try to go behind his back, if she had just showed up in Gotham to start looking for  the Ghost King Lord Clockwork had mentioned, he would have been onto her in a moment and stuck his nose somewhere dangerous. Hopefully by outright asking him to give her time, she could find the little king without his unnecessary involvement. 

“Will you call if you get in over your head?” He asked, turning to look at her. 

She just raised an eyebrow at him in return. She wasn’t going to scold him even though she had gone toe-to-toe with Darkseid, it was clear that his collection of wards were good for him if he was trying to ensure her health, no matter how unnecessary. 

“I will call for aid as soon as I need it.” She said to help alleviate his concerns. “And I will do my best not to involve myself with your rogues or your citizens unless someone’s life is in danger.” 

He gave her a stiff nod before turning back to the computer. 

“If you would like, you can borrow one of my cars. Alfred can give you the keys.” 

She nodded in return even though his back was to her. He would look for her response on the cameras in the cave once she left. She gave him a little smile and walked up the stairs to the manor proper. It was high time to find a little king that was in need of her tutelage. 

.

Jason woke up better rested than he thinks he’s ever done. Despite waking up to comfort Danny from a nightmare last night he still slept perfectly. He was a little surprised to wake up to Danny sleeping under his arm, but his arm wasn’t even tingly from the boy sleeping on him. He gently nudged Danny to wake him up. 

“Hey bud, how’d you get in?” He asked, his voice still rough from sleep. 

Danny sat up and blinked at him for a few seconds, also seemingly still a little asleep. 

“I just felt like sleeping here.” Danny said, before rubbing his eyes and giving a big, cat-like yawn. Jason swore he could see little fangs in Danny’s mouth before he closed it with a snap and began hopping his way along the bed. 

“Come on Jay! It’s time for breakfast!” Danny said excitedly. 

Jason smiled and followed the boy. He was endlessly thankful his siblings had come by when he first took Danny in because the kid had toys and games, a bed and blankets, plenty of clothes and there was a variety of food in the cupboards. Steph had bought him a Wonder Woman bear, probably mostly to make fun of Jason’s long time love of all things WW, but now Danny carried it everywhere. 

The two of them tramped their way into the kitchen, Danny standing on his tiptoes to see the kitchen countertops. Jason started pulling pans out of cupboards and food from the fridge to make them breakfast. 

“Can you teach me how to cook?” Danny asked, his eyes so damn big that Jason can’t help but nod, and he’s rewarded by the brightest smile he’d seen. It felt like he needed sunglasses. 

“Sure thing pipsqueak. Just promise not to touch the burners or my knives until I say you’re old enough, ok?” 

“Of course Jay!” 

Jason turned away, trying not to think about the flame that burned in him every time he saw how happy Danny was. He couldn’t let himself get attached, sooner or later they were going to find the kid’s parents and he would leave Jason’s life and leave it just as dim and dull as it had been before, but he couldn’t seem to stop the flame from burning brighter as he prepared simple omelets for their breakfast. 

Danny rested his chin on Jason’s shoulder as he showed off how to flip the omelet properly. It took several seconds for his brain to catch up with the fact that his not yet five year old was suddenly able to rest his head on Jason’s shoulder. He turned slowly and carefully in case he needed to catch Danny, but found the boy just sitting in the air looking at him curiously. 

“Why did you stop? Are the ‘melets done?” Danny tilted his head like a cat; and then his whole body tilted to the side in the air. He was still cross legged but now sitting with his torso parallel to the ground, five feet in the air. 

“Huh. Did you know you were floating?” Jason asked, keeping all of his panicked shrieking on the inside for now. 

Danny looked down at himself before looking down at the floor. 

“Oh. Should I stop?” 

Jason genuinely didn’t know how to answer that. Finally with the same mental shrug he gave to all of the magical, alien and meta shenanigans he’s dealt with turns back to the stove to finish the omelets. If he could deal with the likes of Harley and Ivy without freaking out, he could handle his kid, this kid floating a little. 

“Uh. If it’s comfortable then you can keep doing it.” Jason decided. “You can float around me and your aunts and uncles, but be careful doing it around other people.”

“Right, because if they catch me they’ll cut me open.” Danny said. 

Jason felt his soul curl up and die a little. God bless this kid. Jason was going to personally rip the throat out of anyone who hurt his kid. It would make the heads in a duffle bag seem like a children’s party. 

“That won’t happen again.” Jason growled. “As long as I’m alive I’ll be there to protect you.”

Danny gave him another brilliant smile and the flame in Jason’s chest burned all the brighter. He quickly plated his omelets and handed one to Danny. The kid seemed perfectly content to eat floating in the air. Jason took his to eat the table and Danny followed, still cross legged, though he bumped into a chair and rotated further until he was fully upside down. Somehow, and Jason wasn’t certain he even wanted to start trying to figure out how, Danny was still able to eat his breakfast perfectly well even upside down. The plate and the omelet didn’t seem at all affected by gravity. 

Jason casually took out his phone and snapped a picture and sent it to the “Ants n Buncles” chat that Steph had made for those in the know about Danny. He included the caption, “SO I guess my kid can float.” The chat immediately started going off as his siblings reacted. “I think I also saw fangs in his mouth earlier.” Then he muted the chat so he could focus on the kid in the air in front of him. 

What the hell was he supposed to do with a floating kid? He was not suitably equipped to teach a meta kid with powers AT ALL. 

.

Jazz woke up tired. Fatigue wasn’t especially anything new, nor was the accompanying sense of dread that had kept her up into the early morning, but it was unusual for it to happen now that she had moved away from Amity Park. She no longer had to stay up to make sure her brother and his friends were safe from ghosts, or to treat his injuries after their parents shot him, so she was actually able to get a proper amount of sleep each night. She still wanted check-in texts from Danny to make sure he was ok, but now she usually woke up to them. 

She had anxiously sent him a text yesterday, but the message had been marked undeliverable. That probably meant he was in the Ghost Zone. If he hadn’t texted her by nightfall she was going to have to text Sam and Tucker. It was rare that all three of them spent that long in the Ghost Zone all at once. She didn’t have to worry, not yet, at least, that’s what she kept telling herself as she tried to focus on anything else other than the growing feeling that something terrible had happened. 

It wasn’t like she didn’t have other things to think about! She had exams coming up, and a project due, and rent was coming up, and she had another shift at the student cafe tomorrow, and… and her phone was ringing. She recognized the Amity Park area code but not the specific number. She gave herself a small mental shake and answered the call. 

“Hello, this is Jasmine Fenton, may I ask who is calling?” She said, utilizing her calm and professional script. 

“Hello Jasmine, this is Angela Foley.” Jazz was surprised to hear from Tucker’s mom. While she had spoken to the woman a few times and was generally on good terms with the Foley family, she wasn’t certain why she would be calling her. 

“Oh! Mrs. Foley, is everything ok? Did something happen to Tucker?” Jazz began mentally running through her checklists and emergency protocols. The Foleys didn’t know that Tucker helped Phantom protect Amity, but they were one of the families expected to be the most supportive if they found something out. 

“Jazz, I need to make sure you're sitting, I have something that I need to tell you.” Angela’s voice had a hoarse quality to it that Jazz couldn’t remember from her previous conversations with her. She sat heavily in one of the few seats in her apartment. 

“Did something happen? Is Danny ok?” Jazz asked, her scripts falling apart in the face of her fear. 

“Yesterday there was an explosion at your parent’s house-”

“But things are always exploding in that house!” Jazz interrupted, her fear growing like a creature in her stomach. 

“Jazz, the house is completely destroyed.” Angela said, trying to keep her voice soft and even. “Your family was home, Jazz, your family is gone.” 

“No.” Jazz immediately denies. “Danny must have been out of the house, he must have-”

“Tucker pulled up the police records. He’s so good with computers my boy, but he told me you needed to know, you needed to be told.” Angela was rambling, probably unused to having to share this kind of news. “The police said they pulled three bodies from the house. Jazz, I’m so sorry.” 

“No. He can’t be dead. No.”

“Jasmine, I-”

“NO! No!” Jazz was crying, tears rolling down her face. “No, Danny can’t be gone.” 

She couldn’t breathe, she was screaming and crying and her throat hurt and she couldn’t catch her breath and Danny couldn’t be dead and it wasn’t fair and she should have been there and she left him and she couldn’t breathe and she was screaming and…

Jazz collapsed to the floor with one last heartbroken scream on her lips as her phone fell from her nerveless fingers.

[overtherose]

Wouldn't it have been funny if Bruce had a Brucie moment and hired Danny just due to his last name being grey.

I mean like Bruce doesn't regret it cause Danny is very competent. But Danny's last name reminds him of the grey ghost series and his son dick.

One of the Bats has a secret. Something they never told to the others.

They were so very young but they have memories of a sibling, so small and tiny. They remember the burst of warmth they had in their heart when they held the tiny baby for just a moment.

But they weren’t allowed to keep them, their family couldn’t raise them. Money was tight, just enough for three but not for four, despite their shows always bringing in a crowd it was getting harder and harder for the world to be wowed by them in the new age and their sibling was too small and tiny and needed to be cared in a single place than for them to be on the road. Their lifestyle was not good for his tiny sibling apparently.

They had to watch as their parents gave his sibling away to people in suits, them promising to give his baby brother to a loving family when they find a ‘home’ for him. He watched his parents try to be strong only for his mother to break down once the car left down the road, his father holding her and apologizing, the rest of the circus troupe all silently coming over to give the heartbroken family condolences.

Richard ‘Dick’ Grayson had tears running down his face when he last saw his baby brother.

A brother he got to name before he had to be given away.

Daniel ‘Danny’ Grayson.

-x-x-

Dick never told the others. If anyone dug deep into his past they might find his brother’s birth records maybe, if someone got around to digitizing the paperwork for him but given the fact he was placed in the US childcare systems just a few days after his birth and the fact that Dick was still pretty young they most likely believed he didn’t remember his baby brother now. Not after so many years.

But they were wrong, Dick remembers. And he kept the secret close to his heart and memories.

And the only physical evidence he had was a single picture of him holding his brother, a smile on his tiny face towards their father who had taken the photo of them together. When he had lost his parents, lost most of the things that connected him to them, to his past in the circus that had been his whole life, had been taken from him in Gotham’s ruthless childcare system, he held on tight to the picture in secret. Hid it away from anyone trying to rip it from him, hid it from Bruce when the man took him in days later, hid it from Alfred despite how gentle the butler was towards him. He couldn’t, wouldn’t risk losing his photo at the time, he hadn’t trusted anyone and by the time he did he didn’t have the heart to reveal it.

So yes, the existence of his baby brother Danny was his most guarded and best kept secret.

So that’s why Dick, as Nightwing, nearly died from a heart attack when leaving a Justice League meeting he spotted a familiar face among one of the new engineers working in the Watchtower.

It was like seeing a young version of himself. Only, Dick could see that the young man was more than a copy of him, so much more than a clone. He held many traces of John Grayson but also had a bit more of Mary Grayson than Dick did. Small details that Dick foggely remembers taking note when he had held his baby brother.

“Hey, hurry up with that report Gray!” Shouted the head engineer from down the hall, his hand beckoning the young adult to come over.

“Coming! And boss, I told you Danny is fine!” Danny shouted back before hurriedly leaving a stunned Nightwing.

[x-heesy]

𝙿𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚂𝚎𝚡 🎹

Stop this world, let me off

There's just too many pigs in the same trough

There's too many buzzards sitting on the fence

Stop this world, it's not making sense

Stop this show, hold the phone

Better days this girl has known

Better days so long ago

Hold the phone, won't you stop the show

Well, it seems my little playhouse has fallen down

I think my little ship has run aground

Feel like I'm in the wrong place

My state of mind is a disgrace

So, won't you stop this game, deal me out

I know too well what it's all about

I know too well that it had to be

Stop this game well it's ruining me

Well, I got too smart for my own good

I just don't do the things I know I should

There's bound to be some better way

I just got one thing more to say

And that is

Stop this game, deal me out

I know too well what it's all about

I know too well that it had to be

Stop this game, well, it's wrecking me

𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚙 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍 𝚋𝚢 𝙳𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚊 𝙺𝚛𝚊𝚕𝚕 @inbetweenneeds

[letoasai]

dp x dc Chronos Part 4

Part 1 - Previous - Master List

Danny woke up confused, stiff, aching. He didn’t know where he was, but he got the distinct feeling of déjà vu. Honestly, he was used to waking up dead tired. Heh, dead tired. For the last year or two it had even been his normal. 

The bone deep pain however was something he only had every now and then. He had gotten hurt often while trying to protect Amity Park but being seriously injured seemed to be left for special occasions. 

Memories came back sluggishly, and he didn’t exactly delight in them. His father breaking his ribs like he was a twig... Relishing in the pain he supposedly didn't feel...

His mother trying to pin him down like a butterfly on a board was an image he’d like to have erased from his mind forever.  Her weapon trained him him was almost underwhelming. When did he become used to it?

Unfortunately, he needed those horror driven moments. His parents' reaction to him had never been a sure thing before. Only speculation at best. He’d hoped their love for him would override their hatred of ghosts. It was what kept him under their roof. That hope that they’d still love him. 

He’d grown up with borderline mad scientists for parents and he’d always put that notion aside. It was its own box in his head. The Fentons and their questionable science. They’d been mom and dad first. Always, mom and dad first. He’d hoped to be Danny first to them. 

He wasn’t. Now he knew though, and he could free himself from that house and their neglect and dangerous excentrics. When things were safe he’d contact his sister, but he didn’t have parents anymore. Not living, human ones. 

He did have Clockwork though. Clockwork who had been at the right place at the right ‘time’ to save him one more time. He had Frostbite too, who would fret over Danny’s injuries while in the same room, and rage later, away from Danny’s senses. 

There was something overwhelmingly kind about that. Frostbite put Danny first and didn’t make him feel badly about his attachments. He worried more while Danny needed him. His anger could wait for later. 

His human parents hadn’t been much, but at least he had ghost guardians. 

It took a moment, but alarm slowly settled in when he didn’t know where he was. He couldn’t move well, a blanket tucked in tight around him. It was the slowly quickening BEEP BEEP BEEP that spiked his adrenaline but when his eyes cracked open, he wasn’t met with a white ceiling and a very obvious ghost shield. 

The room looked more like a barely used guest ro-.... That déjà vu again. 

Danny looked around, the door had been left cracked open, on his other side… Oh… The curtains were open. Even in his human form, his obsession could easily take root. Space. Was the bed closer to the window than it had been before? Did it matter? He had such a good view. Looking out into the vastness of space could hardly be considered comparable to looking up at it from Earth. It was beautiful and distracting… 

Danny reached up on reflex alone and grabbed the oxygen mask someone had put on him at some point. With a flicker of power he turned it intangible and pulled it off of his face before dropping it on the floor. 

He…ached. It was a literal, bone deep kind of ache and it occurred to him all at once that it was just because he was an idiot. He’d just… transformed. Just like that. Like that was a good idea. Like he wanted to impress Wonder Woman and instead came off as immature doofus with a death wish. 

Death wish… Funny… 

Danny inhaled slowly, feeling the air fill his lungs that were tender around bruised ribs. Bruised but maybe not broken anymore. Healing left him exhausted but the open curtains and the expanse of space before him would help with that. 

“Highness. Danny. You’re awake.” Diana was pushing the door open, looking fairly relieved. He wondered if he’d have even been able to tell if she didn’t have the same stress markers that Jazz had. The small tics and twitches of a woman who was normally so poised and put together. Someone unflappable who in some cases had really seen it all. 

There was the squint to her eyes, the way her shoulders lowered when she walked in and saw him awake. The octave of her voice betraying how tightly wound with worry she’d been. 

Maybe it wouldn’t be so weird to introduce Diana to Jazz some day. He’d probably regret it instantly. They’d likely get along a little too well. 

Wonder Woman came in, dragging the seat closer again and the bed was definitely closer to the window than it had been before. 

“You gave us quite the scare. How are you feeling?” 

“Like i got hit by the GAV.” Danny muttered, inhaling carefully again. “I’m…sorry. That was stupid. I knew better.” 

“I’m quite certain you did, but the concussion you’ve recently sustained probably did not help that.” Diana said, and he was weirdly having a hard time deciphering if she was just politely giving him an out for acting like an idiot or if she really thought a concussion would alter his decision making. 

“I have a concussion?” he asked slowly. 

“You do. Among a myriad of other injuries all in various states of healing.” She gave him a firm nod. “I apologize for bringing medical personnel in here without your permission but you were losing quite a bit of blood and we had very little knowledge to work with. Chronos did say one of your forms healed faster than the other. I understand that better now.” 

Danny winced. “Sorry about that.” He did have a headache but he attributed that to passing out from pain. That and the fact that it was easier in his living form to focus on Diana and not just the space beyond the window. “As long as there’s no experiments or intentions of ripping me apart molecule by molecule, then it’s okay.” 

Judging by the way Diana’s expression darkened, that wasn’t the thing to say. “Is that something you’ve had to worry about in the past? Chronos did say you were removed from your home. Is there anything more you can tell me?” 

“Eh…” Danny made a face. He wanted to sit up properly in bed but he knew that was going to set off a chain reaction of pain and he wasn’t interested in that yet. “Clockwork really didn’t say anything? Figures.” 

“There was one thing he said.” Diana said, after a short pause between them. “He said that you would ask for help if you wanted to.” 

Danny snorted. “Brillant, CW, thanks.” He reached up and rubbed his face tiredly, he could still just barely feel the marks on his cheeks from the mask. “Yeah, it’s a worry. It’s a worry for everyone like me. I’m not a person after all. The US Government says so.” 

“Excuse me?” 

Danny blinked slowly and hopefully hid the way his body tensed. He wasn’t a fool, he knew that tone. Sam had that tone. Val definitely had that tone. It promised hell for someone. “Uh, yeah? The Anti-Ecto Acts? The Ghost Investigation Ward? Did we cross wires somewhere?” Danny paused. “I don’t remember. Did we talk about the fact that i’m dead? You know, Ghost King?” 

Diana’s lips tightened unhappily, and she was sitting more rigidly then he remembered during her last visit. “Yes, Chronos called you the Ghost King. I recall you as well mentioning ghost guardians. It was also impossible to miss your lack of pulse when you arrived, and your sudden pulse returning when you switched forms. Is this normal for ghosts?” 

Danny appreciated the way she kept her voice calm and curious despite the bits of anger he could taste in the air. She wasn’t trying to make this an interrogation but the need to know details would eat at anyone. 

“No. There’s only two others like me. To my knowledge.” he amended. “I’m something else. Half dead and half alive. It’s… yeah, that’s probably why i’m here. I can be in the Infinine Realm no problem, but my living human half needs, you know, a living realm from time to time.” 

He plucked at the blanket around him, not sure where this own nervous energy was coming from. “I’m meant to be a balance. Something like that anyway. I can’t go home so Clockwork…was trying to be helpful by finding me a new one.” 

“Which you have.” Diana said gently, hesitating for only a moment before laying her hand on top of his. “You still have your home with me. That has not changed. If you are in danger however, you are in the right place.” 

“Am i?” Danny asked, trying to make his expression as blank as possible. “You’re the Justice League. You follows laws and…stuff. The law says i don’t feel pain. Says i’m not a sentient being. Says it’s completely legal for me and others from the Infinite Realm to be hunted. That we are free game to be caught, tortured, experimented on and exterminated. Legally, you should be turning me in.” 

“Hah?” It wasn’t a happy sound. “I understand a few of your fears, but Justice will come first. You are talking about the genocide of an entire species. An entire realm.” 

“They did try to nuke us once…” 

Diana’s free hand tightened into a fist. “The Anti-Ecto Acts, yes? We will be looking into them. I’ve little doubt that it is already on the immediate docket. You are obviously an intelligent being. I have witnessed myself the pain you are in. Not only are you a king, and a child, you are my family. I would never turn you in.” 

Danny averted his gaze and looked at the wall, hoping it hid the way his bottom lip trembled. His own mother was happily planning to hand him over. She believed her own biased research. 

He’d known Diana less than a day. Less than a couple hours? “I��” His voice was clogged. 

“You focus on healing.” Diana whispered, squeezing his hand. “Resting. Let me have a turn with this mess.” 

He hiccuped, but he didn’t dissolve into tears. That meant he was holding himself together right? “Y..yeah. Sure.” 

“Are you in pain now?” She asked. “We weren’t sure of your exact biology for all you appear perfectly human. Only mild pain killers were given to you while you were out. Small doses in case there was an adverse reaction.” 

“I dunno.” Danny said quietly. He tried twice to clear his throat. “Maybe. Yeah. I’m so used to it, i don’t know anymore.” He laid there for a moment, too afraid to even move and find out what would tug and pull. “I am, you know, perfectly alive right now so i think i would like a little more pain killers. It was never an option before.”

“I’ll call for a nurse.” Diana said with a nod, hitting a button on the side of his bed that he hadn’t noticed before. 

Danny heaved a sigh, overwhelmed with the direction his day had taken. “Probably better that way. Frostbite says i can’t just hide in my ghost form and expect my human form to heal naturally. He says that should be for emergencies.” The problem with that train of thinking was that it was always an emergency. He couldn’t have just bled all over his bedroom in Amity Park. His parents were oblivious unless it would be a headache for him. He wasn’t going to explain to them that he was bleeding because they’d shot at his ghost form two hours prior. 

“Frostbite?” 

“He’s my doctor. He’s chief of the Yetis.” 

There was something…hilarious about Diana just nodding and mentally filing that information away for later. She didn’t raise a brow or question the existence of yeti’s or anything. She just took him at his word. “Then i imagine he knows what he’s talking about. I wasn’t sure since you were brought to us in your white haired form.”

“Probably because i was brought from the Infinite Realm. I’m obviously liminal and that changes a few things but Frostbite still doesn’t like me to depend on that alone. He treats me like i’m normal.” 

Diana smiled weakly, but the upturn of her lips did express her amusement. “I’m starting to think i will have a new question to ask every time you open your mouth, Highness.” 

“Danny.” He corrected with a small smile of his own. 

“Danny.” Diana agreed. “Your usage of the word liminal?” 

“Oh, uh. Basically death adjacent?” Danny shrugged. “A lot of people in Amity Park are liminal because of their proximity to the portal my parents made. My sister and three of my friends are very liminal. My parents are liminal too though they’ve never noticed. It’s spread through the town.” 

“Portal.” Diana sighed a little. 

Ah, yeah. She was probably right. It was a lot of information when it was only passed on in bits. “Yeah…” Danny muttered. “Maybe you should get a notebook. Write this down…” 

He paused when a nurse came in after knocking. Her smile was friendly but she was clearly there to do a job and not loiter when Wonder Woman was right there. She did greet them both and told Danny how relieved she was that he’d woken up while setting up his IV that would double as both pain control and hydration. 

She didn’t even notice Danny taking the glowing green post-it off her back. He instead just held it in his fist until the nurse finally excused herself. 

It’s a good view. Frostbite will come to you. 

“Cool.” Danny muttered dryly, suddenly exhausted before deciding to eat that note too.

“Yes?” Diana just raised a brow at the action. It was kind of funny how that was the thing that threw her off. She’d been observing the nurse the entire time with a keen eye and had only moved herself to pull out her cell phone.

“Clockwork often communicates via vague ass post-its. I’m taking that one to mean i need to heal as much as i can by my obsession with space before Frostbite shows up to scold me for stupidly hurting myself like that.” Danny heaved a sigh. Frostbite’s disappointed looks could be weaponized. 

“And eating it?” She asked and if Danny wasn’t mistaken, she’d be laughing if she wasn’t so composed.  

“Ectoplasm. The reason the post-it glowed. It’s good for the dead. No sense in wasting it.” Danny offered a one sided shrug, and relaxed back against his pillows. He sagged, rubbing his face tired and glancing out the window. 

He’d love to get some paper and chart out what stars he could see. 

“I guess you have questions? If you really think you can help with the Anti-Ecto Acts and all…” 

Diana had her phone on her lap, ready to take notes. “I think the most pressing question i have…” She leaned a little closer. “How did you sustain your injuries? Who hurt you?” 

Danny frowned, his entire body almost closing in on himself. He should have expected that, but somehow hadn’t. “My parents…”

~~~~~~~~~~

Tagging started to get difficult but a bunch of people recommended a master list that i'll update. It's linked at the top ^__^

Also i never planned past part 3 so we're in uncharted territory now.

[faeriekit]

Health and Hybrids (XXIV)👽👻💚

[I can't remember the original prompt posters  for the life of me but here's a mashup between a cryptid!Danny, presumed-alien!Danny, dp x dc, and the prompt made the one body horror meat grinder fic.]

🖤Chapter navigation can be found here🖤 Click to browse previous updates.

💚 Ao3 Is here for all parts 💚 (now featuring mediocre mouseover translations, only available on a computer)

Where we last left off... PHYSICAL!! THERAPY!! LET'S GET TO IT!! *80s aerobics music is piped in from nowhere* Also Flash numbero two was there.

Trigger warnings for this story:  body horror | gore | post-dissection fic | dehumanization (probably) |  my nonexistent attempts at following DC canon. On with the show.

💚👻👽👻💚

“Green one,” the quickfast one says. The masked teenager groans.

Danny looks down at his cards. He’s got a green eight. He drops the card onto the pile, and waits, perfectly aware that the girl is only down to her last two cards. The card flutters vaguely toward the pile on Danny’s bed cot.

He’s sitting with his legs crossed now, he admires. Holy crap. This is what dreams are made of.

“Bruce two,” the teen in the leather jacket demands, slapping down a—Oh, it’s a green 2+ card. It’s take two. Right.

The blonde girl scoffs, but her two cards bloat back up to four. Quickly though, with a little shuffling, the four become three with a green three slapped down on top of the deck.

Everyone is down to only a three or four cards. Danny is sweating through his medical issue tee and shorts.

Danny has not won a single game yet.

Danny really wants to win.

The masked teen (why is he wearing a face mask?? Like…over his eyes?? Not even his mouth??) opens with a new complication: a red three.

The red-haired quick-kid flicks a wild card plus four down with a smirk, pleased to make this Danny’s problem. “Blue, cnytte four!”

Okay, so what is cnytte?? Danny just got used to ‘take’. What is this new synonym. Why is everyone determined to hurt him like this. Why couldn’t these people just use Esperanto.

Whatever. Danny bites his lip and pulls the trigger: wild card plus four. He quickly points to the leather-jacket teen. “R-red. Br-take eight.”

The kid splutters. “Hey! That’s not the riht!!”

That is for sure how he and Jazz used to play it in after-school. The other kids never complained. “Is.”

“No, it’s not??”

Danny sticks his tongue out. The leather-jacket wearer squawks theatrically; it takes the mask-wearing kid thirty seconds to find the official pdf of the rules of UNO, and a new argument is off to the races.

“Atredde!!” the teen demands, snatching the phone out of the masked teen’s hands to show Danny the screen. “Þær, there!!”

“I can’t read,” Danny points out cheerfully. He can read some things, sure, but not when he refuses to look at the phone.

The phone gets closer and closer to Danny’s face, and Danny looks anywhere else—at the ceiling, the floor, and his bed, all without letting the guy point it out to him.

“Atredde,” the guy demands, the glass of his screen mashed against Danny’s cheek. Danny struggles not to laugh. “Atredde, atreddeatreddelooklooklook, you wearg—“

“No aðs, no aðs!!” the only girl of the group yelps, grabbing the spare pillow from underneath herself to start beating him with. Danny’s assailant shrieks. “Do you want to get in trouble with Wonder Woman?!”

“Wonder Woman wolde take my sid!” the teen hollers. Danny ponders if biting him would solve anything for all of two seconds before the doors smack open.

Everyone looks at Diana. Diana looks at everyone.

“I win!” Danny cheerfully announces, and sets off more yelling.

Danny does not, in fact, win anything other than a late lunch. Still, it is enough that he won, even if he has to sit through a gentle, brow-raised scolding as the nurse cleans his port and replaces his stomach-hole bag.

Lunch is a smoothie with powered vitamins and some pain medication mixed in. Life goes on.

For the first time, though, Danny doesn’t eat lunch alone; since he can, like, keep his bed relatively clean now that he isn’t constantly leaking ectoplasm everywhere, there are four teenagers crammed onto his bed with sandwiches, wraps, and sodas of their own. Danny can phonetically pronounce the brands on the side of the can, he notices. He has no idea what they mean, but sometimes the girl in the blonde bob and the too-fast teen will ask him to pronounce them, and they only snicker sometimes.

The teen in the mask makes a noise. “I want a lið. Wha want anything?”

“Nah,” No,” “Na þancs,” all echo.

Danny sucks on his smoothie straw. It tastes like bananas today. Ew; potassium. “What is… lið?”

The teen holds up a can of soda in his ungloved hand. Danny makes a face. He’d love a Mountainous Dunk right now, but gas in his bag…eugh. More trouble than it’s worth.

“No.”

The teen shoots him a pair of finger guns and darts out the door, leaving the rest of them behind to argue over UNO rules in at least two languages and without any expectation of resolving the issue.

Danny peaceably polishes off his smoothie. He’ll have to get the back done again, but eh. As long as no one’s directly looking at the process while it’s going on, he doesn’t super care whether or not anyone’s in the room, per se? Is that weird? Is this weird??

It’s probably weird. But also. Danny has fuzzy memories of roaming the building and leaking goo the entire time he was out and about, so… Suck it, he can do what he wants! He’s sick!! And maybe even dying??

“What is þæt andwlita??” the blonde girl asks, only for the quick-fast teen to poke Danny in what can be assumed to be a grumpy expression. Danny feigns a bite just to be mean. The other teens don’t even pretend to think it’s a threat—the blonde even laughs.

The teenager comes back and sits on Danny’s bed again, mattress barely bouncing as he makes himself comfy. It takes Danny a second to realize that he didn’t come back empty-handed, though—but instead of sodas, the guy brought back a tablet and a weird expression under his mask.

“…Look,” the teen finally says, and flips the tablet onto his lap so that the screen is visible. The teen clicks on a browser, and types in a word Danny isn’t familiar with, and pulls up a stock photo straight out of a photo frame Danny could buy at the craft store. He points to the smiling woman, the man, and the kid in the picture. “Moder. Fæder. Dohtor.”

Danny glances at the photo, and then at the teen. …Okay…?

The teenager bites his lip, and picks a new photo. This one has two men and a child, but it was basically the same. He points to each person as he named them: “Fæder and fæder, and sunu.”

Danny looks at the photo. He looks at the teenager. He looks at the photo again, and the masked teen backs out of the photo he onscreen to pick another one—with a woman and a man crouched around three kids and a dog.

“Moder. Father. Daughter. Daughter. Son.”

Realization breaks over Danny—oh. These are supposed to be families. These are family titles. Huh.

Danny scrutinizes the image. They…you know. They look happy. Danny used to…

…Mom, and…

It hurts too much to look at the photo for long. He knows that it’s fake, and he knows that models just get hired for show, but even the imaginary families hurt. Happy, loving people exist out there in the world.

Danny was in a box. Danny was in a box.

Danny—

The teen makes another noise, and Danny drags his focus out of his melancholy doom spiral with every tooth and claw. He manages. Barely. The masked teenager switches over to a drawing app and pops a tablet pen out of—nowhere, actually? Where did that come from??

The teen hems and he haws and he fills out a stick figure with some red and black clothing details—and a mask, and a bowl cut, which is how Danny figures out it’s a scrappy little self-portrait. It doesn’t look at all like the oversized tee tucked into the teen’s short shorts, but you know, whatever.

Next to him, the dude draws a giant, brick-wall-broad, no-eyed, man-shaped blob with upright pointed ears.

It’s. Uh. It’s sure…something.

“Son,” the teen labels himself, and then draws an arrow to the giant, colorless blob. “Father.”

…Danny squints. Is that normal? To have a huge hulking entity-dad, and then have a short, shrimpy-looking teen waif?

Like you, imaginary Jazz interrupts, since he was thinking about her.

He carefully bats the thought away before it can make him cry.

“My father,” the teenager adds, since Danny probably looks like he’s mostly paying attention. “Stincende.” And then the guy draws a bunch of stink lines coming off of him, just to prove a point.

Danny chokes more than he laughs. The teen’s friends laugh outright, teasing with words that are a little too quick for Danny to parse and snickering under their breath. The masked teen smiles quietly.

“So mean,” the teen in the leather jacket declares, cackling mercilessly. The orange-haired teenager wheezes breathlessly.

“Stincende hlaford of the trask,” the teenager adds mildly, cheerfully without mercy. “Very boring. Very stif. Very grimm.”

Okay, so some of those words were definitely straight-up cognates. Mr. Lancer gave Danny a C in English last semester, but Danny’s going to guess that, based on how their language is pretty much entirely similar, that the stink lines are more of a metaphor than anything.

“Gross,” Danny decides. He’s not sure if the word actually means gross or if it’s more of a medical-trash-and-waste-disposal sort of word, but his audience of four snicker and bump his shoulder and that’s good enough.

“Mmhmm,” the masked teen agrees. He clicks on an eraser tool, enlarges it, and wipes himself clean off the image. In his place, he puts a little white-haired figure in a white medical gown.

…Oh.

Between them, the artist puts speech bubbles, giving both the drawn Danny equal part in the imaginary conversation.

“Talking,” the teenager says without looking at Danny. Eventually, when the speech bubbles are done, he lifts his head. “Yes? No?”

…Is this a request? Is this a demand? Danny fists the sheets between shaking fingers. Nowadays, they always shake at least a little. There are no perfectly still days.

“Have to?” Danny asks, hesitant. It’s a common enough clarifier to use when he doesn’t want to do something. They try to explain what they can to him here, but the language barrier is thick and impenetrable in many places.

“No. He just wants to.”

“…Why?”

The masked teen frowns. He takes the tablet back from his lap and begins to draw something way more complex.

Everyone else slowly works on their food, but the masked teen doesn’t return until he has, from what Danny can tell, a thickly complicated organizational tree chart.

He recognizes a few headshot photos in the middle. The green guy. The human-looking guy in red that Danny does PT with sometimes.

Towards the bottom are the teenagers—both ones Danny does and doesn’t recognize, and some of the teens around him are photographed in different hats and outfits and masks. The quick-fast-red-haired teenager Danny’s come to recognize used to have shorter hair, apparently? Now it’s down to the teen’s neck. Meanwhile, the blonde girl’s got a haircut; her new look has a shaved undercut and a body too short to prop back up into her photographed pigtails.

The guy in the leather jacket looks the same.

…Danny holds up the tablet to compare to the teenager himself, who kindly poses the same way as he does in the picture in the same way: suns out, guns out. Yep. That’s him alright.

At the top of the organizational tree are three people—a dark-haired guy who Danny’s seen in passing, Diana, who is both a superhero and a super-minder, and some scary lookin’ dude who looks exactly like the doodle Danny just saw absolutely smothered in stink lines.

The tablet falls out of Danny’s hands. He’s not mad or anything, but he tends to drop stuff when holding it becomes too much of a burden.

So.

The masked teen’s dad, is, like…one of several bosses. One boss is the person watching Danny at all times, which is…weird. Danny isn’t sure he warrants, like, constant security from a high-ranking super-someone. He mostly just sits around all day. Sometimes he gets his stretches in. Sometimes he gets wheeled out to look at the stars, and then he just…sits some more.

Danny shifts in his seat. So maybe he. Maybe…

…Okay, so even if talking isn’t good, per se, at least maybe he’ll figure something out? Maybe?

Like. Maybe he’ll be able to figure out, like…why he’s here. Why he’s in space. Why they’re taking care of him.

Danny doesn’t look forward to talking. But it’s. Fine.

Probably.

He nods.

“…Yes?” the teen asks again, double confirming that this is what Danny wants. Danny doesn’t want this, but he wants answers, so he nods again, more firmly. But still. Staring. At the sheets underneath him.

“Okay.” The teen opens up a messaging app, and types something into the address bar. “Now? Or later?”

“Later.” Danny’s got to rest and digest lunch first.

“Okay.” The teen types into the tablet with the little pencil. Danny sees verbatim what the masked teen wrote when he turns it around: very literally, “Yes,” and “Later.”

There’s a little spot for Danny to sign his name. The teenager gives Danny his pen.

…Danny just hits the send button and is done with it.