#that's not even considering the vigilantism

[stars-obsession-pit]

When Jason Todd first met Danny Fenton, he fell in love instantly.

At least, that’s what he thinks.

Danny’s not so sure.

Really? An ecto-starved revenant with malformed instincts just happens to fall in love with the Ghost King, quite possibly the first source of healthy ectoplasm he’s ever encountered and someone who naturally influences the emotions of undead, on first meeting?

Nah, it’s far more likely that Jason is just having an unexpected reaction to Danny’s powers.

And unfortunately, there’s no quick way to resolve that issue.

Jason’s condition can be improved, but it’s a slow process. Even if he went to the Ghost Zone for active treatment by ghost doctors—a huge ask for an active vigilante like him—it’d still take some time.

A more reasonable option would involve brief trips to the Zone along with time spent in proximity to Danny so his ecto can help Jason’s core recover faster even without the doctors present.

And Danny’s… not entirely sure how to feel about that option. Like, he’s happy to help, but it still feels… a bit wrong, considering how his powers might be affecting Jason’s mind.

Jason, on the other hand, is more excited. He’s hoping he can use their time together to win Danny’s heart and convince him that his feelings are real.

[lettersfromaplatypus]

YES

Hope it’s ok to add more to this bc I have thoughts

Would Selina make something up about Tim’s adoptive kidnapping or just not tell him?

Cause I’ll admit that as an adoptee I’ve always hated the whole “you didnt tell me I was adopted til now and now I can’t trust any word that comes out of your mouth” trope

It is a thing that happens sometimes, and it was especially common when adoption in the US (I don’t know about other countries) was even more of a like secretive thing that people didn’t want others to know about. It used to be very “hush hush, hope you can pass it off as weird genetics and not tell them they’re adopted”

But A) most of this has changed since then, B) there are many kinds of adoption, and C) I just hate that this is often just used for extra teen angst drama every. single. damn time a character is adopted. Pls just let a character KNOW FROM THE START FOR ONCE.

(I could rant more about this later but I’m realizing this was supposed to be about Tim and Selina sorry 😅)

Anyway.

In this case, I do think it could be a candidate for the “didnt tell them” trope. Just bc it would be hard for Selina to be like "yeah i kidnapped you as a baby".

BUT

You could also play around with how she tells him, what details she tells him, if she lies, etc.

- She could just say he's adopted but that it was a closed adoption and thus they have no info on his bio parents. And then Tim grows up and is like "hey i need my official adoption documents" and she goes "shit".

- She could tell him why she took him in and basically turn him against his bio parents (not hard considering their neglect).

- You could do a Tangled sort of thing, especially since Tim's bio parents are known rich people. Him either knowing he’s adopted or not, but realizing the Drakes look very similar and the news runs a story about their infant son who was kidnapped and his mom definitely does weird stuff at night—

(Also I would find it hilarious if Bruce tried to approach Selina and Tim about his discovery only for both of them to be like “yeah we know and Tim wants to stay with me” and Bruce is just like “huh”)

Also

Does this mean Tim’s costume/name (vigilante? Thief?) is cat themed instead of Robin? 🐈‍⬛ 🐈

Catwoman targets the Drakes one night and breaks into their manor.

Going through the rooms, pocketing valuable jewelry, she finds a baby, awake and crying.

At first she hides, scared that his parents will respond.

But no one does.

So she picks him up and rocks him back to sleep, all the while still looting the house.

When she's done, she goes to lay him back down in his crib and leave, but decides that she can't and takes him with.

It was an impulse decision, but one she came to after noticing signs that he wasn't being well taken care of.

She takes him home and raises him as her own under the name Timothy Kyle.

As he grows, he becomes more and more determined to follow in Selina's footsteps and eventually begins sneaking out of the apartment to help her out during heists.

She tries to dissuade him, punish him, ground him, but eventually gives in and starts training him to do what she does.

Shortly after Tim begins going out as her sidekick, Batman and Catwoman start dating. Everything's going well until the night he sees Tim with his mask off and notices that he looks vaguely familiar.

And not at all like his mother.

He tries to ignore it, he's adopted his own kids, after all, but the investigator in him keeps telling him that there's something else going on.

Eventually he puts the pieces together that the people Tim looks like, his neighbors, lost their infant son to a kidnapper about fifteen years ago.

Which leads him to the issue of what to do next.

Turn in Selina and get Tim back to his real parents?

Or trust that she had a reason to do what she did?

[laufire]

okay is it still too soon for me to say that I thought these two panels took me out of the story lmao.

Duke calling Jason a cunt could've been funny as hell, but honestly? I think the two of them giving each other shit face-to-face is too fundamentally different from Duke insulting him while he's not present. Those things show two distinct types of relationships to me and this made the moment feel out of nowhere, to be blunt.

"If I pulled a fraction of what Red Hood pulled..." In his last appearances (going back to over a year, my god... it's rough here), Jason has 1.) gotten brainwashed/chemically crippled by his father, 2.) accepted a plan that required him getting killed by his father's robot proxy, 3.) gotten chased by the cops and by Batman himself when he dared go after the Joker. He was also pointedly not present in that cheerful "this is our new family home!!" reunion (where Duke was); it wasn't mentioned whether he refused to attend or wasn't invited, but no one raised any questions about his absence so I think assuming the latter is safe.

If Duke acted the way Jason does (even if that hasn't included murder in years now, tragically xD), he might be shunned from society (YMMV on the Bats)... and so has Jason LOL. If Duked acted like Jason, yes, his race would likely get him treated even worse (for example, in TMWSL, chances are the cops wouldn't have just said they're happy with waiting for the good news that Jason's got stabbed in prison, instead of dealing with the paperwork themselves if he comes to harm on their watch). But well. It's a moot point because Duke doesn't act like Jason. Duke and Jason are on different sides of the line. Jason is explicitly on one that is considered unnaceptable by the other Bats and polite society in general, even one that has grown to accept other forms of vigilante violence.

Duke's vigilantism is more comparable to those "accepted" vigilants. If you were going to point out how white privilege lets some Bats get away with things that Duke would get judged far more harshly for... Bruce and his steady relationship with law enforcement while he performs unlawful surveillance, b&e, arrests, etc. vis a vis how many times Duke got in trouble with them when he began as Robin is a much better example.

Doylist-wise, this is just a writer picking the morally "worst" Bat as a point of comparison without pondering if the comparison holds up. Watsonian-wise... I can make it make sense for me. I can think of it as Duke now being on the same train of scapegoating Jason as the others are; of how it'd happen, and why. If I was a prime-earth-canon fic writer I would run away with that and dig deep into it. What I can't agree with is the idea that these panels hold some "objective" truth about the dynamics at play, or the idea that they are in line with previous characterisation without accounting for some change in the middle *shrugs*.

[decafdino]

wip wednesday! thank you for the tags @nisbanisba @heartstringsduet @henrygrass @lemonlyman-dotcom @whatsintheboxmh and @emsprovisions!

"You're a hero," she grits out. Her voice is shaky from the chill, though TK can barely feel it himself. "You're not supposed to kill people."

"I'm a vigilante," TK corrects. "There's a difference."

Carlos always told him that. Vigilante does not a hero make. It doesn't matter how much good you do if there's no way to safeguard against using that same power for bad. Whenever they'd argued about the Blizzard's true intentions, TK would always make a silent promise to only do good. To do no harm. He'd promised Carlos he'd be a hero, even if he'd never said it out loud. He'd never even considered how selfish his power could be, not with something so precious as his husband in his life, there to show him how good the world could be with a little elbow grease and a lot of dedication.

But Carlos isn't here right now.

"Tell me where my family is, and I'll let you keep your fingers and toes."

[erinwantstowrite]

I'VE LITERALLY THOUGHT ABOUT HOW IF YOU WROTE A MIRACULOUS LADYBUG CROSSOVER FIC IT WOULD BE SOO AWESOME.. it was always along the lines of "I bet Erin would understand. I bet Erin would do it JUSTICE. Too bad they probably won't write it����" ANS YOU DO. YOU DO UNDERSTAND.

I UNDERSTAAAAAANDDD dude if i could have any superpower it would be 1) shapeshifting HOWEVER if i couldn't choose that i would choose the ability to clone myself so i'd have multiple me's to do more stuff. i'd be pumping out fic after fic and art after art and still be able to do responsibilities

also i haven't kept up at all with MLB besides absorbing info via my mutuals but i do know that Damian should kick Lila's ass. (or WHATEVER her name is now???? she's bald or smth?????)

[followerofmercy]

I actually think our definitions of revenge are just different?

I view it as "You hurt me, so I am going to hurt you to feel better," not what I'd consider more like... vigilante justice of "you are a tangible threat to what I value and I'm going to stop you." Or maybe retribution is a better word?

I feel like retribution is actually about righting a wrong. To Venti, Celestia's rules are an abhorrent monstrosity that should be destroyed, and then I think he also has his personal revenge feelings about it independently of that. I think Signora was primarily motivated by revenge and her own pain, but still had an element of "Barbatos is an absent, do-nothing God that Mondstadt would be better off without."

Or maybe I'm just caught up in mostly seeing petty revenge so I'm less likely to call valid, righteous revenge by the same word. I do think it's good for people to fight viciously - and for themselves! For selfish reasons! - but in trying to word this I'm realizing that the line between justice and revenge is really blurry.

I guess it's more about intent? Is it about Punishing or Saving. Is it about Hurting Someone Else or Doing Right. Both are really interesting, but punishing is about getting even for something that cannot be fixed and saving is about trying to prevent further harm - to a degree, at least. Like I would consider forcing someone to acknowledge harm caused is more Doing Right than getting even.

I do think a lot of western media pushes the narrative of not seeking retribution as a more 'noble' approach, which is really just telling people to roll over and let others abuse you asldfj. There's nothing noble about being a doormat. It's just very convenient for people in power to tell people "resistance is bad, actually. You should be more forgiving. Quit rocking the boat and being inconvenient, look how much you're upsetting other people." But, at the same time, I see a lot of people absolutely frothing at the mouth for a 'justified' reason to hurt others to feel vindicated. The whole "I'd rather someone face constant punishment than improve as a person" thing so prevalent on tumblr. The latter is what I'd consider revenge in most cases.

I guess the thing is that I think both Signora and Venti are completely justified in... preeeeetty much however they wanna handle things? I think Signora was acting more out of her own pain and just wanting to get even, but even then I think she's totally fair in kicking the shit out of him like "You napped while my husband died, you don't deserve your gnosis." Go off queen. I don't think she had the full picture but with the info she had, like, can't blame her. How is she supposed to know that he hates the people that laid the rules that people must suffer as much as she does?

Considering how in other expansions the leading Harbinger shares thematic similarities with the Archon of that nation, could it be that Venti's thing is actually revenge.

[sakuravalelp]

A dream land - DP X DC Prompt

Okay, so I was thinking about that episode "Perchance to dream" where Bruce is trapped in a dream world and this, even thought really different, came to my mind.

Danny is king or prince of the infinite realms. He's been working on personalizing/decorating his castle in the infinite realms. When he feels someone walking just outside the castles walls. The thing is, that someone isn't a denizen, they aren't in a corporeal body, but he can feel that they are very much alive and feel distinctly human. He approaches the person to ask why and how they are in the infinite realms, but they fade away before he gets the opportunity.

Clockwork, who was with him at the moment, tells him that the visitor from the living, was just the soul projection of someone that was sleeping, and then refuses to elaborate further. Since it's something that was to do with sleeping, Danny decides to go and ask Nocturn, it seemed like a reasonable assumption that he was the one at fault for the soul projection.

Contrary to what he thought, Nocturn informed Danny that Sleeping soul projection was a natural phenomenon that he didn't control. The land of dreams, ("My domain" - Nocturn reminds him), was in the infinite realm after all, and those who have been close to death sometimes slipped they're whole soul instead of just their mind, and ended up all over the infinite realms.

It isn't too different from a lucid dream for them, the body gets all the benefit of the sleep, the mind feels rested if they had a good time in the realms. Except, if they hurt their soul too bad during their little trip, it would have real consequences. Loosing memories, abilities regression, migraine, pain that reflects the soul damage, all either temporary until the soul healed, or permanent and deteriorating, and in some occasions finishing in the persons death. In the latter, the soul is usually too damaged and cease it's existence, or have enough ectoplasm and emotion to form into ghosts with crack cores whose existence is instantly in danger.

Danny clearly didn't like the image that was painted to him, so he asked Nocturn if there was really nothing that he could do. It took a lot of talking and convincing, but eventually Nocturn admitted he could be able to direct the soul projecting to appear on a certain place, but he refused to babysit anyone. Which was enough for Danny, all he needed to do was make another expansion in his castle.

He decided to make a garden to receive their soul projecting guests. The garden was enormous, with all kinds of spaced within it. Playgrounds, picnic spaces, soft benches, tables with ghost and space teamed board games, fountains, and of course, the beautiful flowers that surrounded and decorated the place. Once he got ghosts with gardening, protection and caring obsessions on the place to look out for the souls, he was ready to receive them. It took him by surprise the amount of people that came, the garden was never crowded, but was never empty either, and souls of all ages and places were visiting at all times.

He kept expanding the garden as he heard of new things their guests wished for. He enjoyed spending time in the middle of the garden where souls passed by but rarely appeared, it was calm, but not completly quite with the background noice of the soul enjoying their dreams, and he could do the more mundane king/prince work. Until, he starts getting a regular visitor on his little space of the garden.

Choose the DC character you prefer, my idea is for people who hasn't died in the past but has been in the doors of death (so died and came back would be disqualified but you do as you prefer), but I'm going with Tim.

The soul of a boy around his age appears just in front of him, as usual when he greets new arriving soul, he welcomes him with a gentle smile and tells him he is free to explore the garden. A ghost taker is assign to him. The soul, as usual, seems confused and like he wished to asks questions, but seems content to ask them to his tour guide, and Danny continues with his own duties.

But then, the same soul continues to appear in the same place every two or three days, they exchange greetings and every time talk for a bit longer before the boy leaves to explore once more. It's rear to have multiple visits from one soul, even more so for said soul to appear in the same place every time. By the four time, Danny decides to take a break on his royal duties and accompany his new friend.

~ They get close, and have cute scenes, Tim asks a lot of questions and Danny answers and not-answers a lot of questions ~

One day, Tim shows up as usual, but he is in full Red Robin costume, and well, Danny wasn't expecting an identity reveal.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

On the Bats side:

There's an attack of some villain that's able to put Red Robin (or character of your choice) on a sleeping beauty type of sleep while carrying a serious injury, were he stays sleep until teammates or backup gets him out of it. The event affects his soul, making him disconnect partially from the land of dreams and making his soul sleep project almost every time he sleeps.

Tim starts sleeping more often. It's worrying at first, Bruce being paranoid does every test in the book, despite Tim saying he's just finding sleep easier now. But, he was just affected by sleeping magic and suddenly his sleeping easier? Seems like a side effect, and that makes it worrying.

Tim's health in general improve, just like he's concentration and productivity. Who would have thought that working rested actually was more productive than working on less than three hours of sleep and missing obvious details and clues due to how tired you are.

With everything not only being okay, but better than before, paranoia about Tim's new sleeping schedule soon dies, and instead is replaced with teasing about how he used to refuse to rest kicking and screaming, and now he may sleep more than any of them.

On Tim's side, he's loving being able to soul project so often. He knew from the start he was in a different dimension, and he just wanted to know the hows, whys, and everything else. So far, he seems to do it at least once every three days, and he's even gone two times in a row a couple of times.

The garden had a lot of things to do, but Tim doesn't care about that, he's more interested in all the information he's getting. The first 3 times he was given different ghost nanny's, who were more focus on entertaining him and didn't really answer direct question. But then king/prince Phantom decided to accompany him personally, and everything went smoother. He was going back to get to know more about this new world, and maybe to know more about the cute prince/king too. He might also have gotten some better looking pajamas.

Now, he has a mission that takes more than a couple days with some people in his team that hasn't yet sen his face. He didn't realize how difficult it would be to do all nighters after getting used to a sleep schedule. He would usually try to go as long as possible without sleeping, but he decides that he should take advantage of the safety of where they're staying and sleep a bit too. He ended up soul projecting in full Red Robin costume. He tried to play it cool, maybe Phantom wouldn't know it was him.

"Red Robin, even if you didn't appear on the same spot as always, I can feel your soul. I know who you are."

[tibli]

Regardless of how you feel about the action, the assassinations of Shinzo Abe and Brian Thompson have got to be some of the most materially effective assassinations in recent memory. Shit changed almost immediately in response.

Usually, changing societal problems isn't so simple, and one has to dismantle those issues piece by piece, over a long period of time.

But sometimes, one influential person's murder makes all the other people in the same position scared and so they start immediately trying to fix their bullshit so they don't face the same fate.

[dukeofthomas]

I will forever maintain that Jason would've been fine and Not a vigilante without Bruce making him Robin

[thefinalinagirl]

I've rewatched Saw X today and even though this was discussed a lot (probably), I am still not over the fact that Cecilia in the end got the easiest way out compared to Valentina, Mateo and Gabriela (and tbh Diego, even though he won). She was the mastermind of it all, she had been doing it for eight (8!!) years, she made a fortune scamming people and in the end all she had to do was kill Parker? When she was already established to not feel any remorse about sacrificing others for her own good? And she lived? I mean, sure, she's a great villain and Synnøve Macody Lund is incredible, but damn I hate this ending for Cecilia in comparison to other scammers.

Let's just take a look at others. They, basically, have rather shitty lives. And I'm not trying to condone their actions, but I get why they all agreed to the scam scheme. Diego and Mateo probably don't make a lot of money working. Gabriela suffers from an addiction. And don't get me started on my girl Valentina. Moreover, as far as I understand, John's "operation" was probably the only one these four did (or they did just a few others in Mexico, as well, but definitely not all 34 of them, since Cecilia goes from place to place and creates a new team every time). And I'm also not sure, that Cecilia even shares the money equally. It's more like her to leave a bigger chunk to herself.

So, I'm definitely not saying, that Diego, Valentina, Mateo and Gabriela did the right thing. Hell no, it's still fucked up. But: I understand their motives. They are people in bad live situations. People just trying to survive in this world. And when you are that desperate, your moral compass can break. But, in their cases, it's never too late to try fixing it. Out of all people tested in Saw X, these four deserved their chance the most. They deserved their reawakening. But they just got John's retribution with the most cruel traps of the movie, and that makes me very sad.

[mackintosh-buccaneer]

thinking, considering, ruminating, pondering over the fact that my most beloved superheroes are...batman and daredevil. who would've thought huh. you might say "that's literally the same guy!" and you would be right¹. i seem to connect instantly and deeply to messed up individuals who have unhealthy² levels of complicated feelings for the cities they call home

[clowningaroundmars]

listening to rakim and the pharcyde rn and just thinking it's actually kinda weird that more ppl haven't pointed out how much miles' taste in music affects his life and viewpoint in general

and how being raised by his uncle who's into more old school stuff on earth-42 would affect him and his development

i'm imagining 42 actually clowning 1610 for listening to post malone while placing a labcabincalifornia vinyl on his record player while they chill in his room one day lol

42's tastes would probably be more varied and just... like more developed in general bc he has a man who was more than likely a Part Of The Culture helping to raise him. aaron was out on the streets of brooklyn as a kid most likely swapping diy mixtapes and buying local rap cd's with his allowance/summer job money (assuming he was born like around 1978-1980, then he was most likely on the streets in the mid 90's during the Golden Age of Hip Hop).

not to mention that for aaron to even Do What He Does as the prowler, he is still out on the streets til this day, shooting the shit with fellow neighbors and shaking hands with black market merchants. he's dapping up store owners and trying to get on local gang leaders' good sides for intel. he's making connections! he is most def still swapping music recommendations with ppl in the hood and ordering vinyls online if he can't get his hands on them in physical brick-and-mortar stores

and music seems to be a super important thing to a man like aaron. that would definitely influence miles. interesting that i haven't seen more posts mentioning that actually!

[smiletimeisrunningout]

a reminder that fantasy Emma has her own special timeline and lore:

-before she was born, canon Emma went to the past and Rumplestiltskin chose to change the future, going AU from canon, and this universe was born

-around the age of 17 when she was supposed to give birth to Henry in the real world (and therefore give birth to the Author, the Truest Believer, someone BIG, not to mention her first true love) she got 'sick' and it became a chronic thing. She blames her broken heart because coincidentally it was after falling into depression because of her shitty ex

-the fairies know what may happen (her remembering Henry, lots of bad omens for an unfulfilled savior) and to save the world AND Emma give her teas that will keep wiping canon memories. Emma still thinks they are for the Pains

-some of her instincts come straight from her canon backstory but just like for the Pains she comes up with reasonable explanations for them

-the older she gets the more she gets sick whenever something hits her subconscious: baby boys, nightmares, thinking of the future too hard. She re-forgets nightmares but whenever something is harder to be automatically removed from her mind, she gets sick and need teas. If anybody finds out about things related to this and tells her, she'll forget immediately

-she's 30 when we write. She can hear the Dark One's dagger noise because she was/will be one

-at 32 when she's supposed to canonically be the Dark One, the spell on her memories will break, her magic will come back, princess Emma will stop existing as such, she'll have memories from ALL her lives including the ones canon Emma was given as a curse, she'll go very dark and start plotting revenge

-eventually she'll find a way to bring Henry back but may or may not become Dark One before that (will need to get rid of that curse before her happy ending). She's never taking the throne back but she will eventually retire with Henry and whoever is a part of her family

more details in her about including AUs where she gets her magic back first but

[mangoisms]

WAIT A SECOND. just saw something. remember when i was wondering if people knew what batarangs were. because i constantly wonder about the level of knowledge ppl have in-universe in gotham. WELL

i didn’t even realize it when i read this issue but. PRESUMABLY. it IS because they’re at a party and she thinks he’s just ‘dressed’ as robin. so people do know that batarangs are. well. called batarangs. right?????

sorry i just saw this posted again on instagram and it BARELY hit me. ok. wow. it was for a thing in ck that i ultimately solved by having him call it that. but. that’s not necessary. apparently. well.

(also this page and the few after are so funny to me. this entire thing. bc bart and kon step in and then he gets mad 😭)

[menolly5600]

Batman still finds Jason jacking his tires. Because Jason wants to help Danny pay for the tiny apartment he can barely afford on a minimum wage job he hates. All the money Danny makes goes towards providing for Jason.

Jason doesn't think it's right that Danny barely eats anything and only buys new warm clothes for Jason. He's worried about his stupid not-brother drunk, ok. He has to do something. Selling tires would help a little at least. He could buy Danny a new coat.

But instead he gets kidnapped by Batman. And once he's convinced he's not going to be killed or sold or dumped in Arkham, or worse, he tried to convince Bruce to let him go because his big brother will worry.

And it kind of slips out that they're not related, and that his big brother isn't all that much older than Jason once you look past the depression and Alley Drunk reputation. (Lady Gotham helped with giving Danny danger vibes so no one messed with the Alley Drunk.)

And when Batman tracks down young adult 'big brother Danny' to see if he's safe to take care of Jason... He's another teenager, not even as old as Dick yet. And during observation he learns this teenager is the guy with the reputation as the Alley Drunk, and he's just a very sad skrungly kid.

There's no way he's leaving a teen to try to raise another kid while drowning in alcoholism.

Maybe Danny still drinks to help him sleep without nightmares. And Batman just watches in horror as he chugs a bottle of cheap vodka before bed. And just no. This kid needs help.

Ope, you triggered Batman's adoption trap card, Danny. He finds himself also surprise adopted, aka kidnapped, by Batman. But instead of getting Robin training like Jason, Danny is getting pushed into AA meetings, alcoholic counseling, and rehab. Only to discover the crippling depression, guilt, trauma and grief hiding underneath his bad alcoholic coping mechanism.

To not turn into a giant raging asshole hell bent on murdering people and destroying the world after everyone he loved died, Danny had ran from Amity with his chosen vice.

A bottle. That’s right. Even after Jazz’s talks about alcoholism as a poor coping mechanism as a form of self harm, he still chose alcohol. Or maybe that’s why he picked it, because it reminded him of her, right before the booze took the sting of grief off of her memory. He was never really all that good at listening to Jazz.

And now she’s gone, so it’s moot point. Danny really hated Nasty Burger.

Danny made it all the way to Gotham, bottle constantly glued to his hand. It’s better than Vlad’s creep-o-self looming over him all of the time. He bummed out on the streets, fitting into crime alley like a native. Danny learned to pickpocket. Not much, just enough for a bottle when his ran out. He stayed human. At first he tried to convince himself that it was because he didn’t want to be perceived as a meta in a city where Batman notoriously disliked metas. Then, as he sunk deeper, he admitted to himself in a shameful curl of a whisper that it was really because alcohol affected his human side much easier.

Ghosts need an ungodly amount of alcohol to even get slightly buzzed. Danny’s human side? Only one full bottle the shittiest tequila he could find could even hope to be more than buzzed. It sucked.

He’s spent two years being an alcoholic that didn’t actually get that drunk. Technically, underage drinking was a crime. But then again, so was being a vigilante ghost. So, whatever. He does what he can to dull the grief. Mostly, he slept on covered and hidden nooks on top of Crime Alley’s roofs. Gotham city had taken pity on him and cleared her smog clouds when he was awake at night. Stargazing helped, at least. It gave him a little hope. It gave him a little wish to change and better and live like he wants. But then the night ends and when the day comes, Jazz isn’t there. Sam isn’t there. Tucker isn’t there. His mom and dad are not there.

Danny always went back to the bottle, in the end. Not that it did much.

Which was why, when he saw three looming figures over a tiny child, Danny’s saving people thing flared with a vengeance and his surprised ectoplasm burned what little buzz he had achieved by downing most of the bottle away, leaving him stone cold sober and pissed.

Danny sighed, dumping the rest of the nasty tasting liquid out. There’s no point drinking that little.

He approached the trio, who were beating up an actual child. Ancients, he hated Crime Alley sometimes.

“Give me your shit, you little punk!” Asshole 1 decided to say like a typical mugger, raising his leg to kick the curled up kid below. Danny doesn’t let him land the kick, smashing the bottle on the asshole’s head before any of them clocked his presence. He pivots, pushing a bit of that extra strength he normally keeps on a tight leash into his hands, and punched the other two in a quick fashion, knocking them out.

With that taken care of, Danny turned back to the kid who was still curled up. Danny sighed again, the trembles in small shoulders plucking on his heartstrings.

“You okay, kid?”

The kid uncurls, and Danny stared. Holy shit, is he looking into a mirror? Blue eyes, black hair, and tanned skin. Holy shit, he’s even got similar jaws to Danny.

“Huh.”

The kid flinched.

“Y-y’er the drunk,” the kid flinched again, eyes darting to the broken bottle still clenched in Danny’s hand. “I- I ain’t got money, honest. Please-”

Danny blinked down at the kid, brain connecting the dots after so long without actual interaction. He’s panicking and staring at the bottle in Danny’s hand like it’ll kill him. Danny raised the bottle and the kid closed his mouth with a click, terror worming its way into the kid’s eyes.

“I wasn’t going to mug you myself, kid.”

“But- y’er the- the Alley drunk.”

Danny blinked. Did he get a reputation without knowing again? Goddammit.

“I guess. Am I famous or somethin’?”

“Nobody- nobody fucks wit’ ya.”

“I also don’t hurt kids.”

“…”

The kid stared at him dubiously and with a sinking feeling, Danny realized that maybe the kid already had some terrible experiences with a heavy drunken hand. He promptly chucks the bottle further into the alley.

“I drink, yes. But I’m also not the kind of scum that would lay hands on a kid, let alone anyone that didn’t provoke it first.”

“Oh.” The kid uncurled more, looking at Danny warily, more at ease now that the bottle has left the chat.

“Yeah. I’m Danny. Stone cold sober, right now.”

“…”

Danny waited.

“Peters.”

“Okay. Peters, do you wanna take their shit?” Danny pointed a thumb at the knocked out would-be-muggers behind him.

“Y… yeah, sure. What’s my cut?”

“All of it.”

Peters stared.

Danny shrugged and started looting.

"Y'er so fuckin' weird."

----

See, the thing is, Danny hadn't anticipated saving Peters- "'s actually Jason"- would result in having a duckling following him around. The kid, Jason, glared at everyone who even looked at them wrong. But that's not the problem, because Danny could take anyone who took issue with Jason's looks, it's more like there's a child following him around now and Danny doesn't want to be the reason Jason turns into an alcoholic. It's- well, it made him cut down on the drinking. He even got jobs- legitimate jobs that sucks out his his poor ectoplasmic soul.

Why? Because Jason's apparently homeless. While that's something Danny's okay with for himself, he can't ever condone that for an actual child. Jason's walking around in threadbare clothes and thin soled shoes in the middle of Fall, for Ancient's sake.

Danny grumbles as he piled a bunch of clothes into the shopping bag as he checked out. Gotham's Walmart is a different kind of hell, but Danny feels right at home.

Sure, the work might suck out his soul and he might hate being sober, but Jason's face every time he comes home to an actual place to live, warm clothes, and food was worth everything.

[scarlet-came-back-wrong]

It's ironic that there is more a century and very little similarity between Powers of Darkness and The Carpathian Assignment, and yet both books spend a lot of time saying "hmm, I think cops would have sorted the whole Dracula thing out, yay cops." Which makes them way too self-congratulatory for my taste.