#might show up there :P

[versias]

A Haunt is Where the Heart Is

The first time Bruce encountered Phantom, he was bleeding from a stab wound to the side that had missed both vital organs and armor.

“That looks bad.” The voice was quiet, barely more than a whisper.

The shape was barely more than an outline of a person; for a moment, Bruce worried he’d been dosed with some kind of hallucinogenic in the knife. It looked around before it shifted more into the visual range. At the same time, it drifted closer.

“Stop,” Batman growled. Then demanded: “Who are you.”

They became more and more real, and he could now see the fine-boned facial features, the grown-out hair in a shocking white, and glowing green eyes. White lashes swept down as it (they?) blinked, answering, “Phantom.”

“Is that ‘who’ or ‘what’?”

They smiled, a mischievous little light dancing in their eyes. “Bit of both, actually.”

“My wound isn’t bad enough to kill me,” Batman denied.

The being giggled, a noise that sounded like twinkling stars and made something squirm in his chest.

“I’m not a psychopomp, dude. Just trying to offer some help. I like to keep people in the world of the living.”

They knelt down, setting their gaze level with the injury, giving him the choice of accepting or not.

Tilting their head back to look up into his face, they said, “Let me help?”

He wasn’t so hurt that he couldn’t get back to the cave. But the mystery of the being was enough to keep him in the alley, stepping closer. He needed more data.

(It had nothing to do with the image of a beautiful person on their knees for him, though he might think about it later. Maybe.)

———

The next time they crossed paths, Phantom’s hair was longer. It floated freely, drifting in some ethereal wind as the being floated, parallel to the ledge.

Bruce let his boot scrape the gravel as he approached.

Phantom didn’t look. Their eyes were fixed on the sky. The blackout had coincided with a break in the perpetual cloud cover. A glittering blanket shone above and Phantom sparkled in the starlight like they were one of the stars. They were glowing the brightest they’d ever been.

“I never thought I’d get to see the stars here.” They breathed. Awe colored their voice.

Bruce glanced up. It was beautiful, but he had to admit that he preferred the shining lights of the city. Gotham was a city of shadows; without the light, the shadows didn’t dance.

He didn’t say that, though. Not when Phantom’s ecstasy was so obvious. It made him want to see the sky the way the ghost did.

“Did you come up here just to hang out with me?”

Batman grunted. “What do you know about the Park Row murders?”

There were always murders in Crime Alley, but the string of brutal killings had the hallmarks of a new serial killer.

Phantom gave him a Look.

“Want me to ask the victims? Or are you assuming all ghosts know each other, Batman?”

Batman leveled an unimpressed look at them.

“Ugh, how’d you even know I was looking into it?”

Characteristic snow pattern in security camera footage.

“I’m Batman.”

“Yeah, whatever,” they waved a lazy hand like a king dismissing their court. “I haven’t learned much. The shades of ghastly deaths like that aren’t very coherent. I can stabilize them a little, but I don’t like to do that—it prolongs their suffering, you know? Mostly, I’m just trying to help them cross over. Everything I hear is incidental.”

“Anything could help.”

Phantom tells him what they’ve heard. It is scattered and some of it might be the final delusions of the dying, but he appreciates it nonetheless. Centering the victims in his mind helps him. It also helps to hear that Phantom helped them reach some kind of peace.

“Thought you weren’t a psychopomp.”

Phantom blew a raspberry at him.

Bruce suppressed a smirk.

———

Adrenaline was still pumping through him when Phantom swept back into the room, the casing of a bomb held in one hand and the actual explosive material in the other. Just in time; Batman had finished laying out the private security hired to keep them out.

“Figured I’d just make it so the bomb couldn’t, you know, explode.”

The sound he made was an approving hum, reverberating in his chest as he stepped closer to the ghost. Normally, the cold wafting off Phantom helped bring him down when the action was over. But Phantom looked up at him through their long white lashes, playful as always. It hit his gut like a physical blow.

Something of what he was feeling must have shown on his face, because Phantom’s green eyes widened in surprise. Bruce swallowed the immediate anxiety, the fear of being known, and let himself reach for Phantom. They caught his hand and entwined their fingers.

“Got somewhere to put explosives?” They whispered.

“I do,” he rumbled.

“Do I get to come with you?” Excitement made their eyes sparkle.

No, I get to come with you.

———

The Batcave does have somewhere for explosives, but unfortunately there wasn’t a comfortable place for the other reason Bruce brought Phantom back with him. He considered bringing them up to his bedroom, then dismissed the thought. He was thinking with his dick, not his head. No revealing secrets while high on adrenaline and drowning in a beautiful person.

Thankfully, Phantom didn’t seem to mind when he sat at the chair before the computer and pulled them into his lap. The first press of lips to his own made him shiver. He opened his mouth and accepted the cool, slick tongue. The contrast between his own hot mouth made Phantom moan, something between pain and pleasure.

Bruce pressed his forehead against theirs.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he murmured.

“I don’t mind,” they said. “It doesn’t hurt much; it’s just like stepping into a hot bath. And I don’t mind a little roughness.”

“You know, it occurs to me I never asked… what should I call you? I mean, pronouns-wise.”

Phantom threw their head back and laughed. Bruce resisted the urge to nip at the exposed throat.

“I use he, usually,” he said. “And please call me Danny. You?”

Bruce swallowed, looking for the right words, but Danny was quick to reassure, “No need to share your name, man. I’m in the enviable position of not having a life to disrupt if my secret identity is discovered. I’m not gonna scream ‘Batman’ though. He/him for you? Is ‘B’ okay?”

Relief. “It is. It’s perfect.”

Then he considered the rest of what he’d said. Not having a life, but didn’t deny a secret identity. Interesting. But not relevant, at the moment.

“So you’re a screamer?” His hands drifted down Phantom’s sides and around his thighs.

Phantom snickered, “Maybe. You know, if you can make me.”

It wouldn’t be easy to keep up with undead vigor, but he couldn’t back down from a challenge like that.

Bruce vowed to make him hoarse.

———

They slept together many more times after that. Phantom did get to see his bedroom and met Alfred (who referred to Danny endearingly as ‘Master Bruce’s young man’). Bruce made sure Danny knew he had somewhere safe to return to when he needed it.

He didn’t let it go further. Partly, it was about Batman. Working together once or twice was alright, but Batman couldn’t afford to have a partner. How could he ask Danny to shoulder Gotham’s darkness with him? Force him to watch Bruce throw himself into danger every night on an impossible quest?

He was already breaking Alfred’s heart. He couldn’t do the same thing to someone else. He loved Danny too much to do it to him.

God, Bruce loved Danny Phantom.

Bruce loved the way Phantom curled around him in sleep. Loved the way he arched his back and cried when he was close to orgasm. Loved how he floated a bit when he talked about space. Loved how he could always tell what Bruce needed to say, even when it got mangled between his brain and mouth.

Yet.

Phantom wasn’t… alive. Not in the way Bruce was, at least. It didn’t seem fair to ask him to stay, to spend the rest of Bruce’s life tied to him. It wasn’t like they could grow old together. Bruce would age and Phantom wouldn’t, frozen in death. Whatever power allowed him to manifest in the physical realm shouldn’t be wasted on something so… domestic as a boyfriend. A husband.

Bruce loved Danny. He nestled somewhere in his heart, fluttering against his pulse. He could keep him there without chaining him to his side. It was enough.

It had to be.

———

Danny told him he needed to attend to his duties in the Infinite Realms. He looked resigned.

“When will you be back?”

“I don’t know. Time gets weird in the Zone. I’ll come back, though. Promise.”

Danny kissed him goodbye.

Bruce tried to tell himself it wouldn’t be forever.

It felt like a lie.

———

Bruce found Dick Grayson. He tucked him under his wing. Held on too tight and pushed him away.

———

Bruce found Jason. Failed him, again and again.

———

Tim found Bruce. He didn’t deserve him, but he wasn’t leaving. It ached.

———

Bruce’s family grew, children and cousins alike gathering under the banner of the Bat. Sometimes it felt right, to stand with them and fight for a better future. Sometimes Bruce felt like he was losing his mind, losing his grip on the situation and reality. He watched his children get hurt and get back up and get knocked down again. Sometimes, it was like seeing himself. Sometimes it was alien and horrible, and he was trapped in a nightmare.

He had lovers. Women, mostly. Selina, who came and went like an alley cat, disappearing whenever she pleased.

Talia, deadly and divine in equal measure, with a touch of death about her.

He didn’t need Alfred’s knowing glances to pick up the common thread, thank you.

He was pining, not in denial.

———

Damian showed up on his doorstep, haughty and whole and real. His flesh and blood, ten years old. This was the first time he’d ever even heard of Talia having a child.

What the fuck.

———

Jason came back from the dead, dripping with rage.

Bruce wished Danny was here. He’d know what to do. He always did.

[sjofn-lofnsdottr]

Elftober 1: Hello

Sometimes Duck just needs Dusk to fully acknowledge his presence.

[h-didanart]

Guys I watched the episodes now (Bloodmoon’s storyline ones)

First off, hell yeah Earth, get him. Second, you really like screwing over Bloodmoon don’t ya Ruin?

Third… Bloodmoon. Bloodmoon oh my god.

“You took away my world, I’m gonna take one of yours”

BLOODMOON

I’m gonna fucking cry.

Still deserves the hell Earth’s gonna give him, still was absolutely terrifying throughout the whole ‘choose’ segment. Still deserves the death that’s rapidly approaching him.

But holy shit, I did not need canon Bloodmoon angst this early on today

(Really didn’t help that I got an idea for a small piece of writing for the ‘Jack and Bloodmoon friendship’ Au that revolved around Original grieving somewhat normally over Adaptation)

[steakout-05]

medic tf2 doodles?!?!?? in this economy!???!?!? (art from yesterday)

most gentle and sweet middle aged german man in the whole entire world smile vs planning to swap all of your organs with a series of interconnected frogs smile

a doodle i did of Medic and Archimedes.... he looks too round in this drawing, not smug and evil enough..... also Mitzi from the RAE appearance :D

i LOVE the voicelines Medic has with Haunted Archimedes, he's not disturbed or even slightly put off by the fact that his zombified dove is 1. talking and 2. has a violent and constant craving for brains. he's just like. being a slightly irritated pet owner about it. he's just like "ugh yes archimedes vants all zhe brains doesn't he. now shut up". also i think this is the most on-model medic drawing i've ever done wtf

[thevioletcaptain]

me tuning in to watch a new cop show because jensen is the lead

[bluebellwrenart]

CoD OC Dump #1 - [Black Ops Edition]

Decided to cure my art block by doodling all of my OCs so that I have an excuse to talk about them. Started off with my many CoD characters, so here's the first set. Names and info under the cut.

[Goes upper right -> lower left -> upper middle -> lower middle]

Joanne Locklear — Because not everyone has to be the most epic soldier or spy to ever soldier or spy, Joanne is one of my civilian characters.

A med-student with a clinical interest in neurology (and a personal/non-professional interest in psychology) only partly because of her husband (drumroll, please), Alex Mason. She's my OC version of Mason's wife.

Her parents own and run a bar & grill in Fairbanks, where she works part-time when she's not busy with school, and her father happened to have grown up and served in World War II alongside Mason's father. They were friends because they were the same age, they were classmates, and also because when they were little their dads made them. She's half-Alaskan Athabaskan through her mom, half-white through her dad.

Lillian Scott — An analyst in the CIA with a specialty in linguistics and a knack for codes as well, her main role in my fanfic series is to serve as a translator, gather intelligence, analyze said intelligence, and so on and so forth. She serves a mainly supporting role as far as operations are concerned, and she's fine with that. After all she is a scrawny little nerd (affectionate) and although she can fight if necessary she isn't exactly great at it. It's too much for her poor constitution.

A fun fact is that she can actually shoot really well (girl is Appalachian born and raised, she grew up hunting, what did you expect) it just hurts her hands and she kind of needs those. Also she's paired with Weaver because if you know me then you know that I love me a man with an eyepatch and a tragic complex backstory.

Nadezhda "Bell" Belkina — An OC!Bell because you can't give me a faceless protagonist and expect me NOT to make a very long and intricate backstory for them (if you know about my AC fanfics then you know exactly what I'm talking about). Abandoned on the streets, taken in by Perseus, something of a prodigy, then brainwashed by Adler through the MKUltra program...you know how it be.

She and Woods end up bonding over the fact they both spent their childhoods on the streets.

Claire Anderson & Michael Isaacs — AKA Svetlana Andreyeva and Mikhail Isakov, both KGB operatives planted in the U.S. to assume American identities, their job was primarily to track down and kill rogue operatives/traitors. The problem with that is that both of them ended up really liking their fake lives in America, and were tempted to defect. Claire defected to the CIA, Mike/Misha was killed before he could. By Russell Adler no less.

Oh, and speaking of him, Claire is his ex-wife. She wasn't his ex until after he shot Mikhail, though. And then tried to shoot her too. Yeah, you can see why their marriage went up in flames. Somehow they worked out their problems enough to work together in the 80s...and again in the 90s. RIP Mikhail though.

[redysetdare]

I kinda hate the need to specify something as non-romantic. Like idk i feel like it should be the other way around or something. why is it automatically assumed romantic? why must we specify non-romantic intent? shouldn't we be assuming things as non-romantic first and then having to specify romantic intent?

[msmc-796-official]

Hey Phoenix! Hey 796!

It’s been a minute since I got in contact with y’all, I’ve been busy, but I saw your chatlogs again (do NOT ask how I keep getting these, it’s not important :3 ) and I have something y’all might enjoy.

…get these to the right person. You might find some evidence you’d enjoy seeing. And don’t tell anybody you got it from me!

—the Intern

Attachments:

IPS_Northstar_LRim_ledger2_unmodified(1).omif

// Nice to hear from you again, Intern! Glad to hear they've not fired you just yet. And don't worry too much about hacking our chatlogs, I'm pretty sure Slipshod went in and tampered with our firewalls specifically to let you poke around in there. (Maybe don't tell Upper Management about that, though.) Now, what's all this abou-

// ...!

oh? did our friend at IPS-N send a present?

// ...something like that, yes. Take a look; I've got your six in case Kennedi comes barging in.

...holy RA above and below. I don't know how many people they blackmailed to get access to this kinda information, but these files are legit. heavily encrypted, mind you - I'd recognize that encryption software signature anywhere - but entirely legit. christ-the-buddha almighty, intern, what kinda privileges are they giving you?

// No idea. Can you decode them?

oh, easy - not the first time I've dealt with IPS-N corporate files, won't be the last. should be a higher-difficulty variant on their standard encryption if the pattern follows; I'll have the full document to you in like an hour, tops - maybe two if they've updated their encryption software since last time, which I highly doubt

// Your skill with hacking never ceases to amaze me, Slipshod. How the hell did HORUS let you go so easy?

look, when a HORUS cell splinters, it leaks a lot of incredibly talented people into the ether. it's just a matter of knowing which (if any) of those people have some actual merit, or if they're all useless dipshits who can't function outside of their gamer rig. if none of the other nearby cells are smart enough to ask you to stick around, that's their loss. you're lucky I wound up here at MSMC, instead of with one of the other big 4 members. (they certainly wouldn't have such outdated encryption software anymore, in any case)

// Fair enough, I guess. Thanks a lot for this, Intern - we've got some serious thinking to do.

-- Angel & Slipshod

[starsinthenigth]

★rotemntee. rottmnt. rotemntee. rottmnt. guys. guys I think I'm. I'm gonna erh supernova.★

[guardian-angle22]

TK/Carlos + Touch

↳ 1.05 Studs

[aeolianblues]

do people like. Not realise that it is possible to be critical of two things at once or

[13eyond13]

The fact that Light takes off his hat and puts down his hood so he can better dramatically say farewell to Raye Penber lol

[sneak-a-cat]

tfw you never watched Wordgirl as a child but stumbled across the fandom recently and now you have, *checks notes* nearly 15 thousand words planning for a slow burn Tobecky fic written in the last week. jesus christ

most of -if not all- the conflict is internal stuff exploring how they feel about things plus fun headcanons on the gaps in the shows lore and I intend for it to sort of show how they're dynamic changes as they grow up and all that. Basically, to avoid spoilers, the plot is self discovery as they grow up and their relationship to each other and the rest of the cast

I still haven't watched the show. I'm busy ok, I'll get on that-

I've gone a little bit rabid over this, icl, I've never had a fic plan come together this quickly

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

decided to watch vice as a chili-making/dinner-making/etc movie bc after reading the shock doctrine i was like “i’m in the mood for a movie about how dick cheney is a huge piece of shit” but now i feel like i’m a fan of a book watching an adaptation looking for the lore except instead of “did they really cut the backstory about her mom” or whatever i’m like “how are we an hour into this movie and no one has said the words ‘free market’ or ‘privatization’ yet”

[lottieurl]

as someone who doesn't personally have a lot of problems with nat's death except that it could have been foreshadowed the entire season IN A WAY THAT VIEWERS RECOGNIZED (because yes there was foreshadowing but not anything we could understand before finale p much) so that it felt more inevitable than kind of rushed and a bit too close to shock value (think: jackie's death) but who has mutuals who really hated it it's wild to see posts where people are like OH DID YOU FIND OUT NOW THAT CHARACTERS ON THE MURDER CANNIBAL SHOW CAN DIE??!?!?!?! when i KNOW exactly what criticism people have and it's not that. are you really this afraid of engaging with the actual criticism?

[daz4i]

i feel like. a lot of people talking about horror miss the true horror factor in many stories and esp in body horror. the horrifying part is what's happening to the characters, yes, but when you sit down and think about it... the implications, if that's the right word, are scarier

take smth like a werewolf transformation. it has to be painful, even if you get used to it eventually, the unnatural changes to your body have got to hurt, and you don't recognize yourself by the end of it

the horror isn't the mere transformation, but the physical pain, and the psychological aspect

now take stories like i have no mouth and i must scream, or long dream, or the jaunt. yes, they all have their own horrifying aspects, but also elements that others might not consider horrifying - in particular, a long life, or even immortality. some people truly strive for that. yet, here they are presented as horrifying. and i think that's for the same reason

i think. the true horror in most horror media. isn't the monster itself or the killer or the machine etc. it's consciousness

think about it. why does a slow death sound horrifying? it's your awareness of the pain you're going through, as well as the knowledge that you're about to cease to exist. the actual death is normally considered a mercy in these situations, because your suffering stops. your suffering stops once your consciousness stops.

and! this idea is true about both in-universe and on a meta level. a lot of horror relies on keeping things juuuust out of sight to get your mind going and scare itself better than any sfx or verbal descriptions ever could. your own brain working against you, the same way it works against the characters in the story.

the common thread between any horror that i, at least, find scary, is the human brain itself

and it's scarier, bc this is real. this is smth you experience every day. you wake up and think thoughts and are generally aware of what's going on for most of the day, for better or worse. this same level of awareness can be applied to the most horrific situations, and so, bam you've got yourself quality horror. and you're always just one accident or one mistake away from it, too. you just try not to think about it, because, well, your own brain is scarier than any monster it can conjure.