#the awkwardest dad son meeting ever

[cryptidcola]

happy nero gets his arm ripped off day

[ruelukas22]

This is. Not the awkwardest thing Jason has done. Definitely up there! Maybe top 5! But at least he’s not apologizing for something he did while high on Lazarus Pit Water.

“…and then, Danny says, ‘I brought it from the house, dad left it there to protect it from mosquitoes.’ Such a sweet boy, he’d be right around your age, Jason! Here look-“ Mrs. Maddie Fenton grabbed a picture off the fridge, and Jason, desperate to not be holding the cup of… something. He swears it pulses green whenever Jason isn’t looking directly at it.

The picture is of a smiling teenage boy, blue eyes, black hair, and wow, he looks almost exactly like Jason did before he died. A boy that, from what Mrs. Fenton is saying, also died young. Jason would never get to meet this cousin of his, that was right around his age. “If. If you don’t mind me asking. What happened?”

Mrs. Fenton’s smile wobbles for a moment. “Oh well. You know. His father and I work with very unstable sciences, we’re the only ectologists in the country! And. He went down to our lab one day, without permission. He knew it was dangerous, but, well. It’s not as bad it could have been, he came back, for a little while! Finished high school and everything, pretending to be normal as long as he could, took us ages to figure it out- we didn’t want to notice, really.” She’s ranting, and pulls out another picture. The same boy, this time in a lab suit, hair white, eyes bright green. “Well, he couldn’t really hang around forever. The dead can’t do things like that. His abilities got out of control, one after the other. Poor Danny, the way he died made him really powerful, as far as ghosts go. He lives in the Ghost Zone now, had to, after we shut the portal. The lack of direct energy kept him from being able to do much of anything ghostly, which is a bit hard for a ghost, as you can imagine. He visits, sometimes, when he remembers us. It’s more the most people get.”

Jason almost wishes he could zone out. Not hear what she’s saying. It’s only his extreme self control that keeps him from reaching up to touch the white in his own hair. He thinks about his own eyes that flash green eerily. Thinks about no one being able to explain how he came back. Thinks about being stronger than ever, and how much he has to eat, and how he’s always still hungry. He’s glad his hands don’t shake as he sets both pictures down. “Do you think I’d be able to talk to him, next time he visits? It’s. It’s really important.”

“Of course, honey, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up. The Ghost King is far to busy for his living parents as it is!” She says it with a laugh. She clearly doesn’t actually mean it. It must hurt her a lot, to be separated so blatantly from her son, have him just out of reach, slowly forgetting.

…was that what happened, when Jason first woke up, before the Lazarus Pit? Was he just a ghost, inhabiting his human body, until the Lazarus Pit livened him up a bit? He’d forgotten so much, so many things he’d only known once reminded, things twisted by rage. How his entire focus on killing the Joker fits so cleanly with Mrs. Fenton’s earlier description of Ghost’s Obsessions. It’s enough to make Jason’s head spin.

Maybe if Jason. Just pretends. He won’t have to acknowledge this. Just. Keep growing older, like Danny was apparently able to for a while. Just pretend everything is perfectly normal. He can’t imagine putting Bruce through the kind of pain the Fenton’s are going through.

“That’s alright. It’s maybe not that big of a deal anyway. Don’t worry about it.”

Short DP X DC Prompts #41

Jason found out that he DID have relatives. They were on his Father's side so he was very wary to contact them. A strange couple in Illinois, the Fentons, are his first cousins.