Tips for writing those gala scenes, from someone who goes to them occasionally:
Generally you unbutton and re-button a suit coat when you sit down and stand up.
You’re supposed to hold wine or champagne glasses by the stem to avoid warming up the liquid inside. A character out of their depth might hold the glass around the sides instead.
When rich/important people forget your name and they’re drunk, they usually just tell you that they don’t remember or completely skip over any opportunity to use your name so they don’t look silly.
A good way to indicate you don’t want to shake someone’s hand at an event is to hold a drink in your right hand (and if you’re a woman, a purse in the other so you definitely can’t shift the glass to another hand and then shake)
Americans who still kiss cheeks as a welcome generally don’t press lips to cheeks, it’s more of a touch of cheek to cheek or even a hover (these days, mostly to avoid smudging a woman’s makeup)
The distinctions between dress codes (black tie, cocktail, etc) are very intricate but obvious to those who know how to look. If you wear a short skirt to a black tie event for example, people would clock that instantly even if the dress itself was very formal. Same thing goes for certain articles of men’s clothing.
Open bars / cash bars at events usually carry limited options. They’re meant to serve lots of people very quickly, so nobody is getting a cosmo or a Manhattan etc.
Members of the press generally aren’t allowed to freely circulate at nicer galas/events without a very good reason. When they do, they need to identify themselves before talking with someone.
As someone who spent over a decade catering luxury events, let me add some back of house info:
These events are almost always open bar. They're not trying to make their money back on alcohol. They want you to drink and eat and donate generously.
If there are cocktails, there will be at most two on offer, pre-made in large tubs. You cannot order a different version, it is what it is.
There are two types of events: cocktail style or seated. The first includes roaming hors d'oeuvres or a fancy buffet with tiny plates called a grazing station. For a long night, the roaming food will get a little bigger throughout the evening and have a 'main' at some point based around a protein.
A seated event will usually be more structured and may include multiple courses. Silver service is not in vogue anymore. You are likely to get either alternating meals brought to you like at a wedding, or served banquet style. A good caterer can get a plate to everyone in a 300 person event in about three minutes.
Drunk people are the same no matter how expensive their suits. They still laugh too loud, spill their drinks and slip on the dance floor. They are usually less embarrassed about doing coke in the bathrooms.
A full scale event that starts at 6pm will have staff arriving at noon to begin setup. Earlier if there's a light show or pyrotechnics. Typically venues don't just have 30 tables and three hundred chairs lying around, let alone table cloths, chair covers, etc. It's all rented and brought in on the day. Bands and DJs will be running audio tests in the background throughout.
Most heritage buildings that host these things, like museums and manor houses, aren't really designed for them. They might put down mats so you're not walking in stilettos over two hundred year old wooden floors, the kitchens are weirdly far away, and there are not enough taps. There is never anywhere for staff to sit, so if you open the wrong door you might find half a dozen waiters sitting on upturned milk crates in a room full of million dollar paintings, eating the left over bread.
Really old buildings don't have enough bathrooms, which means the staff will be sharing with the guests.
Clean up starts the second the event ends, if not sooner. Unattended glasses will start to disappear first, then table decorations. When the timer ticks over, the lights come back on and exhausted staff strip the tables, pack up dirty glasses and unopened wine bottles and have to Tetris it all into the back of a van. The venue is booked for that day only, so everything has to be gone before anyone can go home. A large event that finishes at midnight might take until 3am to be cleared away.
These are very long and physically demanding nights for anyone working them. The staff all get to know each other, and will absolutely notice someone trying to sneak in wearing a borrowed uniform. They are not being paid enough to care.
This AU is still one of my favorites, and one I was very proud of even before revamping it. The basic idea is that instead of Gaster being erased, Sans and Papyrus did, and Gaster has to fill the roles of both brothers in the game to still hit all of the important plot points. It is so named because Sans and Pap are "absent" and must be replaced. This post is just what happens in the Underground, as I have some history for Gaster during the human/monster war, and it ends before Frisk falls, as I'll have a different post explaining how Gaster fills those roles, as well as some fun stuff that happens once they get to the surface.
But for now...
=-= =-= =-=
THE STORY SO FAR
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As the defeated monsters fled Europe across the ocean, they landed in what would eventually be known as North America, with the humans hot on their heels. They didn’t have time to establish themselves before they were sealed under Mount Ebott.
Gaster was among the refugees, having just lost his whole world and in a dissociative state, until after the Barrier went up and he slowly clawed his way out of his depression by embracing his hatred of the humans that took everything from him. He joined the Royal Guard and did quite well, befriending another young recruit, Gerson the Tortoise, but realized that feeding his hatred was more self-destructive than anything else and quit, instead turning his attention to improving the lives of the surviving monsters and eventually attaining the title of Royal Scientist. As both skeletons and tortoises have longer lifespans than most monsters, as do Boss Monsters, Gaster and Gerson maintained their friendship over the decades/centuries (however long they were down there), and Gerson was more than happy to test all of the things Gaster invented.
At some point, Asgore approached Gaster about taking on the role of Judge. He accepted.
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NOTE: I'll go into more detail about the Judge later, but in short, a Judge is "set apart" to have certain special abilities to help, well, judge. The exact powers and dominions of a Judge are obscured as much as possible, since keeping all of that completely hidden would be a futile effort, but the actual identity of a Judge is a carefully guarded secret. No one is supposed to know who the Judge is, or how many Judges there are at a given time, so they can't be targeted for favors or retaliation among other things. A Judge is also supposed to accept the veil of anonymity to help put aside their own biases while performing their duties impartially, and separate themselves from whatever Judgement they are compelled to carry out.
Asgore and Toriel were filling the role themselves until everything settled in the Underground, but now they wanted to be able to focus on the future rather than looking back to punish past actions. They picked Gaster for several reasons, including but not limited to; he's smart enough to understand the nuances of Passing Judgement; he's strong enough mentally and physically to carry out Judgements; he's already fair and logical, feeding into the required impartiality well; he hadn't aged since they'd met him so they knew he'd be around for a long time.
-
As Royal Scientist, Gaster was tasked with a great many responsibilities, such as making the Underground at least livable, if not comfortable, and finding ways to escape the Underground. After Asriel’s death, he was also asked to find a way to strengthen the monster race enough to survive the war Asgore had declared on humanity. After an epidemic of monsters falling down, Gaster decided they needed a way to rebolster the population, without forcing monsters into parenthood that didn't actually want it, and turned to cloning. For the initial experiment, Gaster used his own soul as the template and supplemented the lack of partner by using the human souls they’d gathered by then, but if it worked, the goal would be to essentially take "samples" of every living monster to create "genetically" diverse children in mechanical incubators that would likely be raised in the equivalent of an orphanage, group home, or permanent dormitory.
For now, though, Gaster was determined to see these dozen clones as real people and not just experiments, so he named each clone and considered them his own children, no matter how they came into the world. Unfortunately, he hadn’t considered the possibility that they wouldn't make it, of his inability to save them, and his psyche began to unravel as he mourned each death, which piled on top of the grief from before the barrier that he’d never fully addressed.
Sans and Papyrus were the only survivors.
For just over a decade, the brothers were the only thing that kept Gaster’s cracked psyche from fully shattering, hiring Alphys as an assistant to help pick up the slack while he raised them. Despite technically being the same age, Sans took on the role of ‘big brother’ for the slightly less mature and more naïve Papyrus, and Gaster allowed them to help him around the lab if they wanted to; it gave him an excuse to be around them more, to appease his own separation anxiety, and allowed them to feel helpful and accomplished. Alphys adored them both and became something of a big sister or "cool aunt" to them.
Things were looking up, until tragedy struck as an experiment failed catastrophically, wiping not only Sans and Papyrus from existence, but any record of the other failed clones as well; it was as if he had simply decided to not go forward with the clone experiment all those years ago. Not even Alphys remembered them. With nothing to ground him anymore, Gaster was driven past his breaking point and resigned as Royal Scientist, dumping the title and responsibilities on Alphys’ young, ill-prepared shoulders, and spiraling into a deep depression.
As one of his closest friends, Gerson was very concerned by this sudden change in Gaster. Gerson didn’t remember Sans and Papyrus either, but he believed Gaster wouldn’t lie about something like this, and there was no way Gaster could fake this kind of reaction to losing them; he generally hated drama and definitely wasn't a good enough actor to pull it off. While Gerson knew Gaster could survive on his stockpiled earnings, he also knew Gaster would waste away with nothing to do, no goal to achieve; he had always been a bit of a busy-body and was now in very real danger of falling down himself. As Captain of the Royal Guard, Gerson pulled some strings and managed to secure a sentry post for Gaster in Snowdin Forest, the farthest he could physically get from both the Hotland Labs and his former residence in New Home, as both locations were now very triggering. As they had continued to spar fairly regularly over the years, Gerson knew that Gaster was physically capable of the requirements of being a Guard and that sentry positions weren’t very taxing anyways, especially so far into the forest. Gaster could continue to do something, or at least feel like he was doing something, with minimal responsibility or repercussions for failure, and still allowing himself the time and space to grieve.
-
Time inevitably marched onward and many things happened over the next few years:
Alphys conducted her DT experiments, creating both Flowey and the Amalgamates
Mettaton was given his original, calculator robot body
Gerson retired, appointing his protégé Undyne as Captain in his stead
Gaster discovered Toriel behind the Ruin’s door, though he didn’t know it was her at first
The residents of Snowdin became used to Gaster and his... oddities, especially since none of it was the ‘dangerous’ kind of crazy
Other things probably happened as well, and not necessarily in this order.
Expanding on Gaster’s oddities, he continued to suffer from depression and bouts of "insanity" where he would see "ghosts" of Papyrus and Sans. Scientific evidence of their existence was "inconclusive" at best, and no one else could see or interact with them, but Gaster couldn't let go of the feeling that they were real. He did consider the possibility that he was just crazy, that he really hadn’t gone forward with the clone experiment all those years ago, that he'd been living in a delusion of raising kids that never existed, and the "ghosts" were just his mind clinging to a fantasy as he "transitioned back" to reality. However, after many tests on his own mind/psyche, Gaster firmly believes that he is perfectly sane and that Sans and Papyrus do indeed exist. Somehow.
He couldn't bring himself to dive into the science of the failed experiment yet; his hand shook, his chest tightened, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't think...
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As the new Captain, Undyne wanted to run the entire Guard through a boot-camp of sorts, in groups based on current assignments, for about a week each. There were several reasons for this decision, including, but not limited to:
Reasserting Dominance - She wanted to prove to each and every member of the Guard that she deserved this position in order to avoid insubordination and head off any attempts at mutiny before they started. Gerson had been Captain for a long time and change was always difficult.
Reintroducing Herself - She did know most of the Guards already, but that had been as their equal, not their superior. She also wanted to become more familiar with the team dynamics of the Guard Units she'd had less contact with and identify their strengths and weaknesses.
Reassessment of Positions - This would be a trial period for any new placements, if any guards wanted or needed to be reassigned to different units or change duties (like RG 01 and RG 02 wanting to be assigned as partners). She would also be making sure that every member of the Guard was up to snuff and met her standards.
Undyne would never admit it out loud, but the ‘reassessment’ was really just an excuse to try to get rid of Gaster. She hated the guy. She cited that he was a ‘drain on resources’ since she knew he got a larger paycheck than anyone else, even her (because he's the Judge, which she's not supposed to know), and she thought his depression and on-and-off alcoholism (or magic equivalent) portrayed an unprofessional image for the Royal Guard in general. More than anything, though, she blamed him for Alphys’ current mental state, and she’s not exactly wrong. Alphys and Undyne had been friends for a while before ‘The Incident’ and Alphys hadn’t responded well to the pressure of being the Royal Scientist.
During his week of training with the K-9 Unit of Snowdin, Undyne was far harder on Gaster then she had been on anyone else, but he continued to perform well enough to pass inspection. He was often sarcastic but still compliant, and even humble, never showing off but only ever doing the absolute minimum necessary to complete his given task. While grudgingly impressed that he could calculate exactly how little he could get away with, it only proved to frustrate Undyne further, as she couldn’t fire him due to underperformance; Gaster simply found this mildly amusing.
At one point, she tried to boot him for "ruining team dynamics" since he wasn’t a dog like the rest of the Snowdin K-9 Unit, but he smugly proved her wrong by displaying a modification to his natural Purple Trap Magic. It usually manifested as hand-shaped magic constructs that would grab and hold a target, limiting their movements, but they could also be applied to his own body like armor, which he then manipulated to make him look superficially like a werewolf, complete with digitigrade legs, giant clawed paws extending from his arms, and even a prehensile tail for the fun of it. The look was completed with a helmet styled after his signature Gaster Blasters. While Gaster had kind of made it up on the spot to annoy Undyne, the K-9 Unit were very impressed and suddenly much more interested in getting to know him. Gaster hesitated letting them in, as he'd been emotionally distant from almost everyone for decades, but the ghosts of Sans and Papyrus convinced him to give the dogs a chance. To his surprise, Gaster found that he didn't regret it.
Now desperate for any reason to have him canned, Undyne decided to give Gaster a private training session and said some very hurtful things in an attempt to get him to stop holding back, to see what he was really capable of when he actually applied himself. To see if he really deserved the praise Gerson had always given him. She eventually struck a nerve by bringing up the erased skele-kids, which she’d heard a bit about from Alphys, and finally got the reaction she’d been looking for; Gaster snapped and threw every ounce of magic at his disposal at her, eventually falling into something like a berserker rage in his new werewolf form. Undyne slowly began to regret her decision.
Luckily, Gerson had been on his way to see how training was going and the sounds of conflict spurred him to move faster, lobbing his hammer at Gaster’s head as he loomed over Undyne; while not quite knocked unconscious, he was stunned out of berserk mode and the constructs dissipated as he collapsed. Gerson helped both injured combatants inside Undyne’s house, tending to their wounds while sharply berating the pair. Gaster, however, barely seemed to acknowledge his existence, let alone hear his reprimand, fully dissociated now that the rage had died down. Undyne was told the full story of the skele-kids and finally started to understand the situation from Gaster’s perspective, not just Alphys’, and just how broken Gaster really was. With a newfound fire, Undyne asserted that Gaster would be allowed to retain his position as Snowdin Forest Sentry on the condition that he continue training with her personally once a week; partially to help "rehabilitate" Gaster, but also to hone her own skills against a powerful opponent now that she knew what to expect.
So he’s more useful to the Guard, of course! Totally not because she actually cared about his well-being or anything. She still blamed him for Alphys’s current mental state, after all, even if he did show remorse for leaving her to be crushed by the responsibilities.
Gaster desperately needed structure in his life, which started with Undyne’s weekly training, then extended to a "desensitization program" to help control the panic attacks he tended to get the closer he got to the Hotland Labs. He would travel through Hotland as quickly as he could in his werewolf form, channeling his ‘nervous energy’ into something productive, like running as fast as possible. He would then have a calming cup of tea and talk to Asgore about his troubles before running through Hotland again. Once back in Snowdin, he would take a walk through the forest to calm down, often talking to the "nice lady behind the door" for a while. At first, he could barely handle doing this once a month, with the goal of making them weekly as well.
It took a while to put two and two together, but Gaster did eventually figure out that Toriel was behind the door; she never mentioned it so neither did he. As he would go back and forth between the two, though, Gaster found something he could throw himself into; repairing their relationship. It had been a while since he had felt a desire to do anything, let alone something productive, and he relished the feeling. It still waxed and waned with his depression, but he considered it progress.
After wallowing in his grief for so long, Gaster was finally starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. He had fully accepted that Sans and Papyrus were real, that his memories were real, and decided to start looking into the failed experiment, despite how triggering it still was. He had expanded his support system from pretty much just Gerson, and maybe Asgore (and Toriel before she left), to Undyne and the K-9 Unit, hesitantly reaching out to other Snowdin residents, and even reconnecting with Alphys. He actually had goals, even if they were self-centered around his own mental health. With all of this, he managed to keep himself from falling back into alcoholism, and eventually made the classic promise to Toriel to protect the next human to exit the Ruins, both for Toriel’s sake as well as his own. Despite his still smoldering hatred of humans, he couldn’t stand the thought of being the cause of another child’s death, even a human one.
Gaster is aware of the existence of resets but doesn't know they are connected to Flowey (or eventually Frisk) and doesn’t remember them any more than anyone else. While most people chalk up to déjà vu, Gaster knows better, though he can’t really do much about it.
So, I've been slowly chipping away at like four or five different AUs and this one just kinda distracted me for a while. I had the general idea ages ago but only recently fleshed it out enough to feel comfortable showing it off.
Focusing first on the main 6 characters, there are three pairs that are inextricably linked: Sans and Papyrus, Alphys and Undyne, and Toriel and Asgore. Most swap AUs switch their roles within these pairs, like Alphys being the Captain and Undyne being the Royal Scientist, but I decided to tie these pairs together and swap them with another pair. The obvious starting point was swapping Sans and Pap with Alphys and Undyne, making Pap the Captain and Sans the Royal Scientist, and Undyne the rookie trying to get into the Guard while Alphys is the mysterious Judge. I found some concept art (so, so long ago...) that sparked this initial concept but it felt weird leaving Asgore and Toriel alone, so I had to find a pair to swap them with as well, and bellow the cut is the result.
I've got a few ideas for other pairs to swap but I haven't fully solidified any of them, especially since there aren't a lot of pairs that are quite as solid as our core characters. Let me know if y'all have any ideas for pairs and who they might be swapped with.
Angela had been married to an abusive husband and ran away when she realized she was pregnant, which made her realize she didn’t want her child to suffer what she’d been through. She fell into the Underground and Toriel instantly connected with her over motherhood, having just become a mother herself for the first time a few years ago. Over the next 7 or 8 months of pregnancy (Angela wasn’t very far along before she ran away), Toriel and Angela grew even closer, being the mother/daughter the other never had, until Angela gave birth and there are complications that monster healing magic couldn’t fix. As she’s dying, Angela begged Toriel to take her soul and free the monsters, as they had been far more kind to her than any human had been. They deserved to be free. Wracked with grief, Toriel hesitantly granted Angela’s dying wish, but couldn’t bring herself to kill the mother and child she’d found. She was then attacked by the husband/father of the mother/child and promptly died in Asgore’s arms while Asriel watched. Both are severely traumatized by this Asgore was then forced to raise the human child, Chara, on his own as best he could, while Asriel eventually ran away (I haven’t decided how long it took for him to decide that running was the best option) and holed himself up in the Ruins. Since Asriel is still alive, Asgore continued to age, twice as fast since Toriel was no longer alive to share the burden. When Asgore was about to die of old age, he told Chara to absorb his soul and lead the monsters in his stead, which effectively made Chara immortal. Toriel eventually woke up as [female Flowey] and Asriel is (the equivalent of) a young adult when Frisk eventually fell, being the self-proclaimed Caretaker of the Ruins.
Since Chara was being raised by Asgore and eventually took the throne, war was not declared and humans were not hunted for their souls if they were discovered in the Underground. Instead, they either lived with Chara in the castle or were adopted by a monster family if they were too young, and their souls were collected peacefully when they died. Chara is able to leave the Underground with Asgore’s soul but can’t take anyone else and never told anyone, though it is useful for keeping tabs on what the surface humans are doing, or getting certain resources otherwise unavailable underground. Chara also gained some non-human traits upon absorbing Asgore’s soul, including by not limited to horns and “special eyes”, as well as general access to magic.
Sans and Papyrus are estranged brothers when Frisk falls; they each blamed the other for the accident that killed their father, former Royal Scientist Dr. W. D. Gaster. Sans was appointed in his father’s stead and Papyrus became Captain of the Royal Guard. They’ve had these positions for a while and are tersely civil if ever they need to interact for their jobs.
Undyne and Alphys are childhood friends and now roommates that have caught feelings for each other but are too afraid of ruining their current Best Friends relationship to actually confess their feelings. Undyne is young and ambitious but idealistic about what she can achieve, basically throwing herself at Captain Papyrus to join the Royal Guard. He sees a lot of his younger self in Undyne and wants to protect her innocence and idealism, since he didn’t have anyone to do that for him while growing up. He knows how dark the world can be and doesn’t want to break her by exposing her to it. Alphys, meanwhile, had recently been assigned the role of Judge and isn’t handling the stress well. Having to see and Judge the worst monster kind has to offer, and not allowed to really talk to anyone about it (no one is supposed to know the true identity of the Judge), she has become more withdrawn and relies heavily of Undyne’s optimism to get through each day.
Good news, he was not next! In fact, she accepted him as her mate, he learned the crane mating dance and now every year, he artificially inseminates her with crane semen to expand the very endangered crane population. True story.
Sorry, he WHAT? Imagine being this man's boss and having to sit him down like. Listen. Brian. We need you to fuck the bird. You have to act like you're excited about it.
(WalWaPo makes you jump through like three separate hoops before you can read the article, so I will share some of the highlights:
Walnut was born in a species-recovery breeding program in the 1980′s. The program had crane chicks hand-raised by human volunteers, and at that time they did not fully understand the measures necessary make sure that the chicks do not imprint on humans and retain their identity as cranes.
As a result, her keepers believe, Walnut does not recognize other cranes as members of her own species.
It has not been proven that Walnut killed her previous suitors; however, there is a persistent rumor in the white-naped-crane-conservation community that she did.
Because this species is highly endangered, and the gene pool of the captive population is small, it’s pretty important for the survival of her species that Walnut A) mate, and B) not kill a bunch of other cranes.
The actual name of the keeper is Chris Crowe.
They both arrived at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in 2004.
Walnut immediately began paying special attention to Chris--and ignoring the eligible male crane in a nearby enclosure.
Walnut initiated their courtship, performing the opening moves of a mating dance.
Chris realized that if he reciprocated the mating dance, it might be possible to artificially inseminate Walnut with her participation and consent. (The process normally involves restraining the bird.)
It worked!
Chris and Walnut have had five children, who were raised by other crane couples at the facility--sometimes the biological dad and his mate--both because it’s unclear whether Walnut would accept the chicks as her own, and because Chris is not equipped to be a Crane Dad.
However, the Institute provides her with artificial eggs to sit on, and Chris takes his turn looking after them. (This would not work with real eggs because he can’t sit on them properly, but Walnut seems to feel that he is on the job if he just stands over them.)
Chris accepts that he is pretty much married to this bird. White-naped cranes live to be about 60, and they mate for life, so he knows he can’t retire while Walnut is alive. (At the time of the article, Walnut was 36, and Chris 42.)
she has not been PROVEN to have killed her exes, but there is a PERSISTENT RUMOR (really officers she's simply DEVASTATED, she sobs, wearing a new feather boa unfortunately resembling her most recent deceased husband)
His name is Chris CROWE. (Mrs. Walnut Crane-Crowe?)
the mental images of a whole human man learning and performing the crane mating dance, and "sitting" on artificial eggs so she thinks he's performing his duties as a husband and father (and apparently OBJECTS if he does not?)
"chris, buddy, you gotta marry the possibly-murderous crane lady for the GOOD OF THE SPECIES." (alternately: "chris, my man! good news! we found you a very interested lady! She's 36, she's very spirited and independent, she holds a very important and rare status in her society! ...Is there a downside? WELL...")
chris sits any potential human partners down, like "my love, you must understand before we wed,,, i am already... Attached" (camera drifts wistfully to the above photo) "Lady Walnut and I have an,, Understanding... the relationship is open, but very committed"
Not only is he 'married' to walnut, this has apparently happened SEVERAL times, so he has MULTIPLE crane wives, none of which know about any of his other crane wives. This man is, for some unknown reason, irresistible to cranes
the “this content has been removed for violating Tumblr’s Community Guidelines” notice really adds a lot of flavor to this post and somehow makes it MORE obscene than whatever that actually was
I regret being the bearer of bad news, but I thought it should be shared that Walnut passed away in January of this year (2024). There's a lot of mixed info about the lifespan of cranes (due to people misunderstanding what a median is...) but the average for most species I know of is 20-30 years (in the wild if nothing eats them/they don't die young), and 30-45 in captivity, with the oldest known white-naped crane having loved to be 46. Given that she was 42, this old gal did good, and I'm certain she will be missed by folks here.
I think about pokemon in non-battle situations a lot. Like pokemon who have been trained/raised to be helpers and assistants than to be battle partners.
Pokemon visiting hospitals to cheer patients up like dogs and cats do. Or ones that help kids learn to read, speak, swim, go through therapy?! Even pokemon who’s abilities help owners with specific disabilities?!
I love thinking of pokemon outside of battle situations.
these stupid skeletons have crawled into my brain and won’t get out I need to grab a Vacuum…
I totally gotta make a separate post just to ramble on about how I made this purely for me myself and maybe other people too lol. cuz this BEAST took 4+ months and I had quite a lot of fun with it.
anyways here’s some of my favorite frames
NOW SOMEONE GO CHUCK THESE SKELETONS INTO THE SINK DISPOSAL RIGHT NOW! /j
I know this isn’t canon in undertale or this au, but just imagining Papyrus knowing about resets to an extent because part of him was split across time and space, and he just hides that from everyone so he can be “everyone’s good old innocent Papyrus with 0 problems” is such a fun idea to me.
I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS ON THIS THOUGH- BECAUSE WHAT IF IT WAS CANON???
Excuse me while I use this to make an analysis of Papyrus’ character- i didn’t choose this life. This happened to me.
PAPYRUS AND RESETS.
The main question I ask on the debate of if Papyrus is aware of resets or not, is…if Papyrus, as we know him…doesn’t know about resets…Then would learning about that…change ANYTHING about the way he is now?
The most obvious trait of Papyrus is that he’s INCREDIBLY optimistic. He’s one to go in with his head held high, and keep it raised for basically his entire life. Everything he does is incredibly light hearted, and this leads to a lot of accidental flanderization and misremembering of his character. But to get more into that, I wanna address how Papyrus and Sans contrast and are foils to one another. They are complete polar opposites…and yet… SO alike. In their little bits they do in the Snowdin Forest puzzles, Sans doesn’t take anything seriously, while Papyrus takes EVERYTHING seriously, but in the end it’s all light hearted. I know some of that comes from just the games general tone, but I like to think some of it is part of their genuine character.
Analyzing characters in Undertale can sometimes be a tad frustrating in that way, since its hard to tell which jokes have meaning and which jokes are just jokes.
But back to my original point, Papyrus sometimes gets very mad, sometimes very confused, but seems to either flip on a switch with anger, or just roll with confusion, as seen with Papyrus being “mad” at Sans, or confused at what Undyne is saying on certain phone calls. He’s just naturally a very happy person.
Thats where the common trope of Papyrus lying about everything and actually being a completely different person from whats shown in the game comes in. I think thats inherently a tad silly, since “I lied.” is a bit of a lazy twist. THATS NOT TO SAY HES NOT DEFINITELY GOT SOME WEIRD SUSPICIOUS THINGS ABOUT HIM Its just to throw all of his actions in the game out the window in favor of “he was acting” “he was lying” is not how I like to analyze him (but if you do, more power to ya :D) (Some also argue that Sans is just like that, but I disagree since in the geno route when its properly revealed just how much he knows about resets, it completely makes sense and is more like an answer to a question we had for the longest time. WHAT does he know?? cause he clearly knows something. Additionally, in that fight, Sans doesn’t at all come across as a completely different person, its more like we’re getting to know him better. See a side that he’s buried for the longest time since he never thought it would come to this. Or at least hopes to god it wouldn’t)
Papyrus’ optimism/pacifism both comes across as naive, and extremely admirable. It takes different forms in different settings and perspectives, Flowey dismisses it as stupid, but thats because he’s Flowey- Sans genuinely admires it for several reasons which ill get into later! And Undyne…uhh…honestly i cant tell how she feels about that, just that she cares an awful lot about him and thinks itll get him killed one day (*cries vehemently*)
But my main point here is in the usual game/pacifist route, its very clearly established that Papyrus has a heart of gold and sometimes that can get exploited on how he is the one constant moving factor to help the route actually happen in helping Flowey set everything up. It’s lowkey giving foreshadowing on how he may be the knight in deltarune because of- OKAY OKAY- PUT DOWN THE GUN
Getting exploited is one of the downsides we see in the pacifist route, but in the geno, we get a VERY clear look into how far he is willing to take his faith in others. His willingness to see good in people is tested, and its established he doesn’t have a single distrustful bone in his body, always believing in people to change. It’s never “too late”. Even after you kill him too
This is HOW Papyrus would know about resets comes in
The King Papyrus ending is a moment in the game that I have many opinions on that disagree with a LOT with a big portion of the fandom (at least last time I checked)
Papyrus not being told about his friend's death, leads to 2 big assumptions about his GENERAL CHARACTER THAT I DISAGREE WITH. Sans lies to Papyrus on a daily basis, and Papyrus doesnt understand what death is. These are things that work in to fit every day life, and are proven by happening WHEN ALL OF HIS FRIENDS ARE DEAD 😭
I feel these are more a result of Papyrus’ unwavering trust, which can be certainly admired in a lot of ways, but of course, used, too. Even if people agree with me on that unwavering trust part, people still use that as ammunition for Sans lying to him being an often occurrence. But- Sans… right now- is being put in a REALLY bad spot. Telling his brother to his face that all his friends are dead isn't something I think anyone wants to do. So, him lying to Papyrus isn’t exactly proof that he thinks little of him in any way, it's more his desire to protect a person he loves from knowing a horrible truth, and having the opportunity to do so on a silver fukn platter. But even then it feels like Papyrus still knows…he’d just rather accept whatever Sans tells him. Thats Papyrus’ ONE AND ONLY FLAW
Papyrus also seems like he naturally thinks very black and white? and by black and white I mean only white.
The common consensus on his character is he only SEES good, but just like the assumption of how things work in daily life being attached to how these characters act when someone comes down and kills all their loved ones, I think thats working on a very surface level character-moral-compass. Its not that he only sees the good, its that he believes in the good no matter what. There may be bad, but good can and will, prevail
Papyrus sees and knows that people have the ABILITY to lie, he just also believes they are telling the truth when they say something like “I promise this is 100% true” because he still trusts everyone, and trusts himself to handle whatever happens as a result.
Papyrus sees that the world may never truly have an ending, but he believes that things will turn out eventually.
I agree with pretty much everything you said. ESPECIALLY the stuff relating to Papyrus knowing there is bad in the world but CHOOSING to always see the good instead. That’s one of like the many many reasons he hits home for me now that I am older and revisiting Undertale.
I kinda wanted to explain my point about Papyrus lying though since in my ask and knowing how the fandom is/was my what I meant didn’t entirely come across.
What I mean by Papyrus lying is necessarily a whole like “oh he’s secretly a completely different person and everything is an act” because I do think a lot of what Papyrus says is genuinely how he feels 9/10. Like he is very sweet, optimistic, energetic, goofball, autistic, type of guy, and I think his lies are actually because of those traits.
Like for example one phone call happens outside Alphys’s lab Papyrus doesn’t know what a lab is at all when Sans is around, but when you go inside the lab Papyrus CLEARLY knows what one is.
This could easily be more over analyzing a joke/one detail Toby missed when writing, but it still is kinda strange regardless. I personally feel like the reason he’s lying about something so simple to Sans is to just humor him and “play younger brother” in a way to make Sans happy.
That isn’t really my best evidence but a more solid piece is when calling in Grillby’s with Undyne Papyrus switches up on talking about how he hates Grillby’s to how he loves grease because of Undyne. That’s in the same conversation, so no weird jokes or missed details there.
And we see something similar in MTT resort. Papyrus states he never wants to go to a vacation yet when Undyne is there he says he would like to go on with her when she brings up the idea.
There’s a theme here. Papyrus sometimes (not always ofc) has a tendency to lie to others in order to make them happier.
And ironically enough I think this is best shown in the King Papyrus ending and genocide.
In the King Papyrus ending, he no joke checks to make sure Sans is gone before opening up his worries to Frisk. That his friends are on “vacation”. I agree that he also knows and is in denial about it. He is lying to himself and hiding the fact he knows from Sans.
And after he pauses for a bit, Papyrus swears they are going to escape and these lines.
Which first of all OUCH kills me, but this coming right after his doubts to me at least shows he is willing to stay in denial because he has to. He is the only one with any bit of hope. He has to keep hope so he can give everyone else hope. If he doesn’t who could possibly give the rest of the underground hope?
Meanwhile in genocide, if you spare Papyrus and abort the genocide run, he reveals he was actually afraid. He knew it was a real possibility that you were going to kill him but genuinely believed that kindness could be the one thing that stops you enough that he hid his fear. Which ough again is why I love Papyrus so much and that scene kills me. Regardless of the handful of lies he tells he genuinely believes in good no matter what.
So putting all of that together, I believe it paints a pretty good interpretation of Papyrus. He lies for the good of others. He will hide contrasting opinions, fears, worries, and doubts all for the sake of others around him. Of course again, this doesn’t mean that everything he says is a lie just that he tends to do this sometimes.
That leads me back to my original ask finally. I was originally asking because like oh think of all the fun ideas and angst material of him having to deal with that and hiding it from everyone so no one worries about him.
However, you are right. If Papyrus knew about resets, not much would change. He truly believes in good no matter what, so why would resets be an exception? He likely believes that whatever powers at be will eventually use their power for good. So yeah nothing would change. Hell maybe if he did know the reason he doesn’t saying anything is because he feels like there isn’t a need to.
Anyway, this was a lovely conversation. I love seeing fellow Papyrus lovers who understand his character and why is actually probably one of the best characters in all of fiction (/hj) because despite everything he actively chooses to believe in good.
Like look me in the eyes and tell me that this beast isn’t wonderful
I think that Papyrus is a People Pleaser more than anything, because he thinks it'll get others to like him, which is his greatest desire; to be liked. He explicitly says that's why he wants to be a Royal Guard, so he'll be "popular", not because he cares about the Guard itself. I think it can be pretty easily translated to mean "well liked", but the term "popular" fits better with the confident persona he's putting on, which I think is mostly for Sans, cuz that's how Pap thinks Sans wants him to feel. Confident.
Papyrus has shown multiple times that he's more than happy to pretend to like something he doesn't (and that he literally just said he didn't like), just to agree with someone, to please them. While he acts upset at Sans' jokes, I feel like he purposefully walks right into them, or even sets them up himself, just so Sans can deliver the punchline because Pap knows how much Sans enjoys it. He pretends to be the clueless little brother for Sans, too, letting Sans think he's protecting Pap from the harsh realities of their world. He's willing to play the fool to make others happy and generally cares more about taking care of them than himself. He's definitely manipulative, we've literally witnessed it in-game, but he only has the best of intentions.
Of course, the best lies are half true. I think a lot of what he says and does is genuine, but I also think he only shows what he thinks he can get away with. Like literally everyone, he hates rejection, it hurts, but if he's rejected for something he only pretended to like, it doesn't hurt as much because he didn't actually care about that thing. It hurts so much worse to be rejected for something you consider a core part of your being, but they can't reject it if they don't know it's there. He can never truly be himself because he's too busy being what everyone else wants/needs him to be.
Which honestly sounds really lonely.
In the King Papyrus ending, he definitely knows his friends are dead, but it's just easier to pretend everything is fine, to go along with Sans' obvious lie, probably more for Sans' sake than his own. Again, letting Sans think he's protecting Pap. It makes me think he's really good at compartmentalizing his true self, what he actually thinks and feels, versus who he projects to others, which is whoever he thinks they need him to be at the time. He definitely sees the dark, but actively chooses to ignore it in favor of the light, which is almost like a lie in itself. I wouldn't call him "willfully ignorant" but I think it's something similar.
He's willing to walk into the jaws of Hell with a smile if he thinks it'll help someone.
Sure, Sans is still the fandom's favorite, and I'm certainly not immune to that lol, but I'm glad Papyrus is getting the love he deserves, too :)
...
I am morbidly curious what it would take to make him break character, though... and that is a slippery slope that would make Flowey proud, I'm sure.
Pony randomizer challenge! Here are the rules: You need to take a screenshot and draw what you get!
Pheraps you need some background characters, but are too lazy to make your own? Or maybe you just need a good opportunity for practice?
Well, try this, you might end up with hillarious results!
- You may pick colors that are roughy the same as what the palette shows.
- This pony creator has over 80 hairstyles and 60 characteristics.
Good luck with that, buds. Ah. Also… I was ill, now i’m back on track. Yay.
This was pretty fun to do ^^ After a week of coughing and mostly staying in bed, I feel a bit better now! Aw yeah, time to art again! :D
I feel bad for cyborg pone… Couldn’t find a job ever since a workplace incident involving his various weaponry and his boss. How can this get any worse? Well… seems like he ran into a mare who just WON’T STOP TALKING EVEN WHILE SLEEPING!! The cyborg’s attempts of silencing her were futile. He tried to get away from her…but… somehow she kept coming back! It seems like the cyborg has been cursed…
Sorry it took so long, my brain finally released it's stranglehold on this story and I've been catching up on other things. I honestly don't know when the next chapter will be posted but I wouldn't recommend holding your breath lol...
They left Steph’s car in the nearby parking garage, in one of several spots labeled “Wayne” near the entrance. It was pretty late, so it’s not like anyone would care that they used the spot even if they weren’t counted among Bruce’s kids. Which now included Jazz and Danny. It was still a wild thought for the siblings to be considered “Waynes”. The three entered the lobby, which was empty except for the lone receptionist who greeted them with a practiced, customer service smile.
Forgot to link to AO3 lol
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“Hello, Miss Stephanie Brown,” he said. “Two guests?”
“Yup!” Steph chirped. “Sorry I didn’t schedule them ahead of time, Carl, this was kinda last minute.”
“That’s alright,” the receptionist, Carl, shrugged, letting the customer service mask fall as he turned to the computer. “I’ll fit you into my busy schedule somehow. Minors?”
“Yup.”
“Names?”
“Jazz Fenton and Danny Fenton.”
“And should I use Mr. Wayne’s info for the rest?” he glanced up with a knowing smile.
“Eheh, yeah,” Steph chuckled nervously. “Nobody knows yet, though, so I’d appreciate if you could keep this under your hat for now.”
“My lips are sealed,” he smirked, then chuckled. “Dude seriously has a type.”
“Type?” Jazz asked.
“I’ll explain on the way up,” Steph grinned almost apologetically. “It’ll be a long elevator ride.”
“Alright, here are their Visitor Badges,” Carl handed two badges to Steph before winking at the siblings. “If you plan on sticking around, you’ll probably get official badges at some point; all of Mr. Wayne’s kids do, even if they don’t work here.”
After some “thank you”s and “fare wells”s, Steph led the siblings back to an area with half a dozen elevators.
“So, type?” Jazz asked as soon as the doors closed.
“Right, so,” Steph typed 89 on a keypad, since having individual buttons for at least 90 floors would be ridiculous, and scanned her own badge when prompted by a flashing yellow light, which turned green as they started moving. “Just like Bruce himself, the first three kids B adopted, Dick, Jason, and Tim, are all boys with black hair and blue eyes,” Steph pointed at Danny. “And the rest of us have either black hair or blue eyes,” she pointed to her own blue eyes. “And all of us have some kind of tragic backstory, a surprising amount of which is actually public knowledge, so most of Gotham likes to tease that someone with those qualities is ‘adoption-bait’ for ol’ Brucie Wayne. Throwing Batman into the mix, we added being, or wanting to be, a teen vigilante to the list, so you two definitely fit the profile. Honestly, you two look like mini-mes of Dick and Babs!”
Steph laughed with a shrug while Jazz and Danny shared alarmed looks. Could something so shallow have influenced Bruce’s decision to take them in? Were Jazz’s turquoise eyes considered close enough to blue or was she just here because of her connection to Danny? Would he have sent them away if they’d merely looked different? Was their position so tenuous?
“Hey, don’t think about it too much,” Steph backtracked, realizing how uncomfortable they both suddenly were. “It’s just a coincidence, not any kind of rule, ya know? B doesn’t attach to people lightly, so once he claims someone as ‘his’ there’s no going back.”
“That is a pretty weird coincidence, though,” Danny said, trying to ignore his discomfort. “Anyways, we’re picking up Tim, right?”
“Yup,” Steph chirped, hoping the subject change would ease the sudden tension in the elevator. “His office is on the 89th floor, just under B’s on the 90th. On paper, it takes up the entire floor, but~,” she winked as she held up her hand, whispering conspiratorially. “There’s a hidden lab behind it!” Steph giggled as the siblings smiled, Jazz’s slightly more forced than Danny’s. “We all try to sneak up on each other whenever we can, so stay quiet and follow my lead, ‘kay?”
“Quiet as a ghost,” Danny smirked and Jazz rolled her eyes. She knew stealth wasn’t her strong suit, almost as bad as her aim was at first, but if she wanted to be a hero in Gotham she’d have to learn fast. She looked up in surprise when a hand was offered to her; Danny was still smirking but with a softness that made her smile back. “Don’t worry, Jazz, I got you.”
Jazz took the offered hand and Steph cocked her head in clear curiosity.
“It takes more energy to hold someone else, especially in human form, but I can reduce our noise by flying and being intangible,” Danny shrugged at her unasked question.
“Oh yeah, those powers would make sense for a ghost, wouldn’t they?” Steph nodded as the elevator slowed to a stop. “We’ll have to talk about it later, though, we’re here.”
The elevator doors opened with a quiet chime sound and Steph’s entire energy shifted; still playful, but with an edge to it. Focused. Precise. Despite the lack of costume, Batgirl took in the reception area at a glance, smirked that it was empty, and held a finger to her lips for silence before moving as quiet as any ghost. Danny glanced at Jazz, confirming she was ready before extending his weightlessness to her, his own legs dissolving into a ghostly tail as they followed Batgirl into the lobby.
Instead of taking the obvious route past the secretary desk to the office doors, Batgirl veered left, past a small waiting area, and opened a mostly disguised door to what looked like a janitor’s closet, climbed the side of a deceptively sturdy storage rack, and scanned her badge again next to the air vent. Neither sibling had even seen the scanner. The grate slid aside and Batgirl nimbly pulled herself up into a sort of crawlspace while Danny followed by pulling Jazz up through the ceiling floor? And they both had to stifle gasps as soft light illuminated the neatly organized treasure trove of crime-fighting equipment, from Batarangs to smoke pellets to spare domino masks and so much more.
The space was just tall enough that Batman might be able to sit up straight on the floor without hitting his head, and not quite wide enough for Danny to spread his arms out fully; just enough room for a bat to arm themself in an emergency. Steph couldn’t quite suppress a snicker at their expressions, but inspecting the stockpile would have to wait as Batgirl put a finger to her lips again, reminding them to be quiet before heading off in a crouch. She somehow made the awkward movement look graceful and was only slightly less silent now, though that was probably due to the enclosed space, and Danny pulled Jazz behind her, both siblings careful to keep all of their still-intangible limbs inside the small, corridor-like saferoom, trying to not be distracted by the very cool, tightly packed gadgets that lined one wall. They both had a million questions but the mission came first, even if it was as simple as scaring a teammate.
The thought continued to be wild that the Bats were now considered teammates, even if they hadn’t met them all yet.
Shaking his head to return to the task at hand, Danny stopped behind Batgirl as she climbed back down another fake air vent and into another closet, though this one had more lab-type equipment rather than cleaning supplies. They floated down through the floor ceiling? to hoover behind Batgirl as she very carefully opened the door a crack, peaking out into the room, and Steph’s playful glee flared before being squashed by Batgirl’s training. With one last glance at her two shadows, Batgirl opened the door quietly, still crouched, and entered the room to hide behind a chair. Danny turned himself and Jazz invisible as well as intangible, pulling his sister through the wall and up to the ceiling to have a good vantage point.
Instead of pristine white walls, like they’d seen in movies and on TV, the “lab” looked more like a mechanic’s garage, with grey, concrete walls barely visible behind the plethora of mounted power tools, and two sturdy, but messy, work benches in the middle of the room with plenty of walking space all around. A young man with black hair, presumably Tim, was typing away at a computer on the far wall before walking between the two work benches to examine some kind of gadget and Batgirl took her opportunity. Springing over the work bench Tim had his back to, Batgirl attempted to tackle him, only for Tim to whip around and jab the gadget at her, making her yelp in surprise and pain. Stumbling to the floor but managing to stay on her feet, Steph burst out laughing.
“Jeeze, Tim, what is that?!” she grinned. “It packed a punch for a joy buzzer!”
“Technically, it’s a taser,” Tim shrugged, holding up a metal cylinder, about as long and thick as a marker, with two little prongs on one end.
“But it’s so small!”
“Yeah, I’ve been trying to get it small enough to fit in a gauntlet,” Tim said, opening a side panel on the taser. “But this is as small as I’ve gotten it so far without compromising the battery capacity so it’ll have enough charge for more than just one strike at full power. I hit you with about half. But seriously, Steph, did you really think I wouldn’t put sensors everywhere after last time? I knew you were here the second you stepped off the elevator! I don’t see the new kids, though,” Tim glanced around. “You didn’t just leave them in the lobby, did you?”
“No, they’re here,” Steph glanced around, too. “They were right behind me.”
“So-”
“JESUS!” Tim cried at the whisper far too close to his ear, whipping around with the tiny taser and Danny giggled from somewhere above the two bats.
“- does this mean I win?” Danny finished his question, grinning as he let the invisibility drop, “laying” in midair with his chin propped on his hands, floating down to eye level. He’d even managed to get his legs to reform so they could be casually kicking behind him; the classic pose of a giggly schoolgirl on her bed. He’d been careful to keep out of the likely strike zone of the taser, knowing how badly electricity affected him, but he couldn’t help his ghostly need to spook.
Steph doubled over with laughter, leaning heavily on the workbench, as Jazz stood up from the corner Danny had dropped her off in and couldn’t help but smile at her brother’s antics. Even Tim chuckled as he recovered from the sudden adrenaline rush.
“Yeah, ok, you win this round, newbie,” Tim conceded with a grin of his own. “But it won’t be happening again! So, I take it you two are Jazz and Danny, huh?”
“And you’re Tim, right?” Danny nodded as he returned to the floor and held out his hand.
“That’s me,” Tim confirmed, taking Danny’s hand as Jazz came up behind him. He held out his hand to her, too. “It’s nice to meet you both.”
“Likewise,” Jazz said, giving Tim’s hand a firm shake. “So, are you the brains behind a lot of Batman’s gadgets?”
“Some,” Tim chuckled. “A lot of what I do is just proof of concept, though. Lucious makes it all come to life.”
“Head of R n D, right?” Jazz confirmed. “Bruce mentioned him as someone we could trust.”
“The man’s a genius,” Tim nodded sagely, before he grinned at them. “As for you two, you get to help me beta test my brand new WE phones! If they can survive everything the Waynes put tech through, not to mention the bats, then it’s good enough for general consumption!” Tim explained as he headed back to the computer. “I was putting the finishing touches on the programming when you all showed up, but they should be good to go.”
“You have been going on about this project for months,” Steph said. “Finally got some working models?”
“I still need to think of a name,” Tim confirmed with a gleeful grin as he held out two phones like nothing the siblings had seen before. “The whole front is a touch screen and it’s just as powerful as a laptop, but small enough to fit in your pocket! Obviously, I’m going to integrate it into our tech, but there’s still some bugs to work out. Which is where you two come in!”
Jazz and Danny gingerly took the devices while Tim continued to gush excitedly about it, and Steph started herding them all to a door.
“The button on the right side turns it on,” Tim continued as they entered a fairly normal, if spacious and fancy, office. “And there’s a bunch of programs I can show you later, but the most important ones are the normal phone functions, like calls, text messages, and contact info; it wouldn’t be much of a phone without them! I’ve already entered a lot of important information in them, like all of the Gotham Vigilantes’ civilian phone numbers and emails; I was in the middle of entering addresses when you all got here, though I guess it might be better to let them trust you with that themselves anyways. There’s also a few ‘emergency contacts’ the average civilian wouldn’t have access to, and a built in panic button that won’t be in the base model, at least. A lot of the data I’m looking for is figuring out what shortcuts I can get away with for the public version before they start breaking too often, so don’t worry about being gentle with them since stress testing is the whole point, to see what fails first and most often.”
“You promised I’d get to help beta test them,” Steph pouted dramatically, then cried, “I thought what we had was special!” as she held the back of her hand to her forehead. Then she grinned and shrugged. “But I guess I can’t be too mad,” she returned to normal as she ruffled Danny’s hair and put a hand on Jazz’s shoulder. “We needed to get these little fledglings connected and these happened to be available. You are gonna have to make this up to me though, Timmy~”
“Sorry, Steph,” Tim shrugged, not sounding very sorry. “But I have already started putting together the next upgrade, so once I get some data from these two, it’ll be all yours, I promise.”
“Good!” Steph chirped, all smiles again. “So, you goin’ to the Cave or the Nest?”
“May as well go to the Cave, since you have to go there anyways,” Tim said. “More efficient. You two haven’t seen it yet, right?”
“Not yet, we haven’t had time,” Jazz confirmed. Danny lit up at the idea of seeing the infamous hideout, but Jazz would never admit just how excited she was, too.
“Even if you have field experience, there’s no way B will let you on the streets of Gotham until he’s trained you a bit himself,” Tim smiled, amused. “But somehow I doubt we’d be able to keep you two out of the Cave if we tried.”
“So~,” Danny sang as soon as the elevator doors closed. “Which hero are you~?”
“Until recently,” Tim spat bitterly. “I was Robin, the third to hold the title. Now Damian’s decided it’s his birthright, and as soon as B was gone getting you two, Damian made a power play and Dick didn’t back me up at all while he was subbing as Batman. Kid’s not even supposed to be on the street yet, he hasn’t been cleared for active duty. For now, I’m going by Owl Light,” Tim smirked wickedly. “Just ‘cause Dick hates the old Court of Owls so much.”
“Wow,” Steph grinned. “You’re still super salty over that, huh?”
“Can you blame me?!” Tim asked, indignant. “I worked hard for that title! Then Dick just gives it to that brat to shut him up! Fuck both of them,” Tim pouted, arms crossed. “And B, too, for not being more firm about it.”
Jazz frowned at the swear word but didn’t bother correcting Tim. Now was not the time; she’d rather not get her head bitten off, thank you very much. Danny glanced at her when she said nothing and barely contained his snicker at her sour disapproval, earning him a glare in return. Danny covered his mouth to muffle the escaping laugh.
“And if all of that happened while Bruce was in Amity, he probably only just heard about it,” Jazz subtly led the conversation in a different direction. “That explains his slip-up earlier. He said you and Oracle would have to set up a secure communication between us and the rest of Team Phantom before we can really talk to them again. Has he said anything to you about it yet?”
“No, but he’d probably ask Oracle first anyways,” Tim shrugged, letting the topic go for now. “Communication is definitely her forte and she’ll ask for help if she needs it.”
Danny suddenly snickered again.
“Bruce mentioned the possibility of taking a trip back there if you need to set up something physical,” he grinned widely. “I have to introduce you to Tucker, he will freak out! He’s Team Phantom’s tech whiz, and not only are Oracle and the third Robin his favorite heroes ever, but Tim Drake is his techie idol.” Danny turned to Jazz. “Can you imagine his face when he finds out that two of his favorite famous people the same person?!”
“Not that you have to tell him right away or anything!” Jazz was quick to assure. “Bruce said he wanted to keep identities separate for now, but yes, Danny, I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to meet Tim,” she smiled warmly at the thought. “As a hero or a civilian doing Gotham’s heroes a favor, whichever story would make more sense.”
The elevator doors opened and hero talk was put on hold as they wished Carl a good night and returned the visitor badges. Back in Steph’s car, Tim had claimed shotgun and the siblings took the back seat.
“By the way, what do I win for scaring you?” Danny asked, smirking at the memory.
“Bragging rights, mostly,” Steph shrugged as she pulled out onto the street.
“It started off as just pranks but B actually encourages it, to a degree,” Tim said. “He knew we weren’t going to stop, so he turned it into a training game instead. It works as both stealth training and situational awareness, not to mention practice prepping for both scarer and victim, with low stakes besides teasing from the winners and embarrassment for failure.”
“And honestly? Embarrassment is a surprisingly good motivator,” Steph chuckled, then grinned. “Remember that time Dick actually managed to sneak up on B? He jumped through the roof!”
“Yeah,” Tim snickered and turned back to the siblings to elaborate. “That is the only time any of us have managed to sneak up on him. He’d been up for almost a week straight on a case and none of us could convince him to rest, but the fact someone actually got him finally made him realize how bad it was. He was out for almost 24 hours after that.”
“You’re hardly one to talk, though,” Steph teased. “Mister I’ll-Sleep-On-The-Weekends!”
“I said that one time!”
Steph just laughed, turning her attention back to the road.
“Anyways, B’s been a lot better about remembering his limits since then,” Tim continued. “He’d always gotten on us kids about work-life-balance stuff, going on and on about how ‘fatigue will wreck your reaction time’, or we ‘might miss something if we’re too tired’, or whatever, but he’d never really taken his own advice before that. At least now he’s less of a hypocrite when he lectures us.”
“It sounds like he has his own, unique way of showing he cares,” Jazz said with a bittersweet smile, turning to Danny who had one to match. It had been a long time since their parents had cared about how much sleep they got.
Then Danny smirked, leaned over the middle seat, hooked his arm around Jazz’s, and pulled her close so they were leaning against each other.
“And we wouldn’t know anything about odd ways to show we care, now would we, Jazz!” Danny fluttered his eyes at his sister, who barked a laugh before covering her mouth and laughing more normally.
“Nope, wouldn’t know a thing, little brother,” she smirked, twisting to plant a kiss on Danny’s head. He beamed for a second before pushing her away with a dramatically affronted look.
When I originally thought of Phantom Bat, I hadn't read much of what other people had done with DCxDP stuff, but after becoming more familiar with some common tropes, I came up with this idea. I'm too focused on Phantom Bat rn to really do much with it, but I've been writing down ideas for a few months and figured it's good enough to put out there.
I started reading this fic but didn't even get through the first paragraph before inspiration struck lol, and below the cut is the result.
While this idea was supposed to focus on Phantom and Superman, and it does go back to them eventually, Batman gets to play an important role for a bit, and I haven't thought too much about what happens after. I'm also debating if I should try to use an existing continuity for this, like after The Batman or during Young Justice, maybe during the timeskip between seasons 1 and 2.
-
Clark Kent is getting ready for work when his super hearing tells him something is wrong. He x-ray looks through his walls to find a teenager floating in his front room and cautiously goes to investigate. He finds a green sticky note saying "Take care of him, he holds the future -CW" that evaporates after he reads it and the floating teen suddenly isn't floating anymore. Clark barely catches him with his super speed and lays him on the couch, debates for a moment, then calls in sick from work. He suddenly realizes he smells blood and sees a Y shaped blood stain seeping into the teen's shirt. He quickly grabs a med kit but barely gets it open before the teen starts coughing and vomits up blood and something glowing green. Clark barely gets a trash can under the teen to contain the puke and the teen is now awake but disoriented. The teen starts rapid fire questions that turns into a panic attack, falling off the couch, and Clark just wants to get him to stop bleeding out. Clark swears up and down he won't hurt the teen and guides him out of his panic attack, only for the teen to go limp and start bawling on the floor. He doesn't fight when Clark takes off his shirt, recognizes the vivisection cuts, and says he needs a hospital. The teen grabs his hand with unnatural surprising strength for an injured human teen and hisses "no hospitals" and when Clark starts to argue, he says that he'll sew himself up before he goes to a hospital and Clark relents.
As Clark stitches up the teen, he asks questions to distract him from the pain and the teen hesitantly answers. His name is Danny, refuses to give a last name, and admits that he can't go to a hospital because they'll give him back to the ones who did this. He refuses to say at first but when Clark mentions contacting his parents, Danny is forced to admit they did this to him. Clark is horrified, what could possibly possess someone to vivisect their own kid?! Danny laughs and says that "possession" is pretty close. They're ghost hunters and had become convinced Danny was a ghost, either possessing their real son’s body or having replaced him; they wouldn’t listen to him, even when he told them things only their son should know.
Clark has basically finished by then, moving as fast as he’d felt he could, and started wrapping Danny’s chest, promising he won't let anyone do anything like this again. Danny doesn't believe him so Clark asks if either of his parents' initials were CW, mentioning the note and Danny sighs in relief.
-
Danny: Clockwork. [relief] He must've saved me after I passed out. Nice of him to give me my clothes back, at least. Pretty sure they cut them off after strapping me to the operating table.
Clark: Who’s Clockwork?
Danny: He’s... a friend. More than a friend. I guess you could call him my mentor, if you really wanted to. Either way, I trust him, and if Clockwork trusts you enough to leave me here, than I guess I can trust his trust in you.
Clark: [smiles] I can work with that.
-
Danny: Do you happen to still have that note?
Clark: Uh, no, it evaporated as soon as I finished reading it.
Danny: [sigh] Of course it did. Do you remember exactly what it said?
Clark: Yes, "Take care of him, he holds the future -CW" and that's it.
Danny: [raised eyebrows] The future? I... kinda knew he was grooming me for something but that sounds pretty intense.
Clark: "Grooming you"?!
Danny: Uh, that might not have been the best term to use. More like teaching and training. Sometimes orchestrating situations to help me grow or whatever.
Clark: Well... [changes topic] you have a heck of a pain tolerance to still be awake and coherent after all this, but uh, do you happen to know why your vomit is glowing???
Danny: Uh... it’s...
Clark: Danny? You obviously know what it is and you were obviously searching for a believable lie just now. I know you don’t trust me yet, so I’m not going to force you to tell me anything, just promise me that when you do, you tell me the truth.
Danny: ... Ok... you're being remarkably understanding about all this. [sigh] It's a long story, and I am in far too much pain to tell it right now... so if it's all the same to you, I think I'm gonna pass out for a while.
-
Clark sets Danny back on the couch and runs out to get more supplies, wondering what the fuck just dropped in his lap, and considers calling Batman but doesn't want to break Danny's fragile trust in him. Danny is still passed out when Clark returns so he takes the time to clean up all of the blood, on the floor and in Danny’s clothes; secure a sample of the glowing green bile to ask Batman about later, and put the rest in a haz-mat bag to dispose of (once he knows what it is so he can do it properly); and deciding to tell Danny he's Superman to try to convince Danny to let them help him. Hoping that Danny doesn't have any food allergies, Clark cooks some easy-to-digest foods (thanks, Ma Kent) while he waits for Danny to wake up.
Around sunset, Danny finally regains consciousness and manages to sit up to eat while Clark reveals his identity. Danny doesn't recognize the name “Superman”, but chuckles at how corny it is and Clark admits it is a little straightforward. During some awkward questions, Danny says that superheroes don't exist outside of movies and comic books and Clark eventually realizes alternate universes are at play (he’s had a few experiences with them before). Danny is surprised, Clockwork had to send him to a whole different universe just to keep his parents from finding him??? That seemed a bit excessive, but then again Clockwork didn't do things in half measures so maybe he shouldn't be so surprised. Besides, maybe CW wanted Danny to learn something he could only learn here. He does that sometimes.
Danny knew the Ghost Zone could access different points in time but hadn't realized it could connect entirely different universes. The Ghost Zone? Danny explains that it's basically the afterlife, where ghosts come from; or rather, where previously living souls go to become ghosts when they die. Or something. It was always so complicated whenever Clockwork tried to explain it and he’d never really put much thought into it anyways. Clark might recognize its proper name, though; the Infinite Realms. Clark says it sounds kind of familiar but his more magically inclined friends would probably know more. Danny had heard it described as the glue that keeps the multiverse together, the space between, but never really considered what that actually meant. His parents had created a portal to the Ghost Zone to study ghosts. And Clockwork? Danny hesitates before revealing that he's the Ancient of Time, and Ancients are like the Gods of the Gods, manifestations of the concepts of reality; Danny has already helped CW prevent a few apocalyptic worst-case-scenarios and Danny trusts him implicitly. If CW put Danny here, it must have been for a reason. Clark decides that Danny has trusted him with a lot and wants to return the favor, giving Danny a quick rundown of the Justice League and its goals, as well as some basics like important historical events, just to see how different their universes were
-
Clark: I'd really like to tell the League about you, but I won't if you don't want me to.
Danny: I'd really prefer if you didn't.
Clark: Clockwork said to look after you in his note-
Danny: He never said for how long. For all I know, he'll grab me as soon as I'm healed.
Clark: Can I at least tell Batman-
Danny: Pwahahaha! Oh ancients, ow! Jeez! Batman?! And I thought Superman was corny-hee-hee! Are all superhero names so cheesy?!
Clark: Well then, smarty pants, what's your superhero name?
Danny: Phantom. Danny Phantom. Ugh, I'm too injured to go ghost right now, though. Sorry.
Clark: Danny Phantom? You used your real name as part of your superhero name?
Danny: Surprisingly, no one back home ever put two and two together, though I'm mostly just known around my hometown and the Ghost Zone, and the ghosts can tell what I am even in human form so hiding from them is kinda pointless.
Clark: “Human form”, and you mentioned “going ghost” before, so I take it you can transform?
Danny: Yeah, I'll show you when I've healed a bit more.
Clark: I'd love to spar sometime, when you're feeling up to it.
Danny: Heh, sure why not?
~@~
While Danny heals, he and Clark bond a bit and Danny lets him tell Batman that Danny exists but is still careful about what he lets Clark say about him. Clark panics when Danny transforms because Phantom doesn’t have a heartbeat anymore, but Phantom assures Clark he’s really alright, that’s just how being a ghost works, and Clark has to face the reality that Danny did indeed die at some point, even if he was brought back to life. Mostly back to life.
[Insert domestic fluff here]
~@~
Danny eventually heals and Superman starts taking Phantom with him to do hero stuff, keeping invisible and just observing at first while he works out what is acceptable and expected of heroes in this new universe. They are flying over Metropolis, discussing if Phantom wants to debut as a hero at all, and how to handle it whenever that happens, and the idea of Phantom being Superman’s sidekick is brought up.
-
Superman: Having a sidekick or protégé is more Batman’s thing, really.
Phantom: Sidekick? What, so there’s no Superboy to match the Superman?
Superman: [discomfort]
Phantom: [narrows eyes] That’s a suspicious reaction. If there is one and you wanted one, you’d be happy. If there isn’t one and you wanted one, you’d be sad. If there isn’t one and you didn’t want one, you’d be neutral. Which only leaves us with “there is one and you didn’t want one”.
Superman: [DISCOMFORT]
Phantom: So why wouldn’t you want one? You accepted me with no problem, despite the inherent creepiness of ghost stuff, and you don’t strike me as being racist, or sexist, or whatever. Which means that whatever would cause you to reject them is more personal. You haven’t said anything about having a family, other than your crush on Lois, but it’s still possible that they’re a family member you don’t like.
Superman: [DISCOMFORT]
Phantom: Hm, touched a nerve there.
Superman: L-look, he’s a good kid, but...
Phantom: You didn’t want him. You don’t strike me as the type for a one night stand or a fling. Abusive ex, maybe?
Superman: Phantom, I don’t want to talk about this-
Phantom: No, your reaction suggests something more.
Superman: [sigh] You’d fit right in with the Bats.
Phantom: [blink] How so?
Superman: Batman is the world’s greatest detective, and he’s passed on that skill to all of his wards. None of them can ever leave well enough alone, either.
Phantom: Huh, interesting. My sister might be more of the psychologist of our family but I have picked up a few things. You’re not distracting me from this, though.
Superman: Phantom, it’s- [sigh] He’s my clone, ok? Lex Luthor, one of my greatest enemies, somehow got a sample of my DNA, filled in the gaps with his own, and trained Superboy to replace me if I died, or even kill me himself. Happy?
Phantom: He’s a clone? That’s why you rejected him?
Superman: Luthor made a child with my DNA, I did not consent to-
Phantom: And that’s the kid’s fault?! He didn’t ask to be here! He had no choice in how he was made! Why are you punishing a child for something this Luthor guy did?!
Superman: I’m not punishing him, I’m-
Phantom: Rejecting him! Which is effectively the same thing!
Superman: You don’t know what it’s like! To look at him and know where he came from-!
Phantom: Yes I fucking do! My arch nemesis made hundreds of clones of me! Only one lasted long enough to meet me, and she fucking betrayed me! Shot me right in the back! And you know who I blame?! Not fucking her! I blame Vlad for making her, for manipulating her, then tossing her aside like garbage! And you know what?! I love her like family! I’m not saying you have to be his dad, but be something! Me and Danielle call each other cousins! Sometimes even siblings, if we’re feeling extra affectionate. You could call him your cousin, or even brother, or fuck even nephew! But call him anything other than just your enemy’s attempt to hurt you!
Superman: I-I don’t- It’s not-
Phantom: There is no excuse for this, Superman. I don’t care how old he is, or looks like he is if he was aged up; abandoning a child is unforgivable. I’m leaving, and I don’t want to see you again until you’ve fixed this. Or at least have a plan to.
-
Phantom turns invisible and bolts away, Superman calling after him before following, tracking his heat signature. Phantom splits in three and they all go off in different directions, making Superman hesitate, not sure which to follow. He hangs there for a minute before he deflates, floating off in defeat.
The real Phantom heads for Gotham.
It’s just after sunset when Phantom arrives and he hangs out on a rooftop for a while to try to process his anger while he waits for the vigilante night shift to start. He flies around for a bit, hoping one of the Bats will spot him, but by midnight, Phantom decides to send up a flare; he picks a nice roof to hang out on and charges an ecto-blast to act like a firework. He doesn’t have to wait long after that, as Batman himself arrives and Phantom turns himself intangible, just in case.
-
Phantom: Um, hi, I’m Phantom, and I assume you’re Batman. Superman always said I could come to you if I ever needed anything, so, I’m here.
Batman: And why are you here?
Phantom: [gulp] Uh, I-I... had a fight with Superman... Can I stay here? Just for a few days? You won’t even know I’m here, I promise!
Batman: [narrows eyes] What did you fight about?
Phantom: ... You know he has a clone, right?
Batman: ... [sigh] Hopefully, something you said gets through to him, nothing else has.
Phantom: Then it’s an ongoing issue. Has anyone who also has a clone talked to him?
Batman: ...
Phantom: Right, I’m sure clones aren’t exactly common, nor would I really want them to be-
Batman: You have a clone, don’t you.
Phantom: [flinch] ... Yeah, made by my arch nemesis. Gained my trust, then literally shot me in the back.
Batman: And how do you feel about that?
Phantom: It’s not her fault and I love her like family. We usually call each other cousins, but the exact label sometimes shifts with the dynamic. [smiles slightly, affectionate, looking away] Heh, she calls me “template” sometimes to tease me. Little chaos gremlin.
Batman: I see. Maybe the new perspective will actually get through his thick head. You can stay in one of the safehouses; we’ll keep you fed, but you will be expected to earn your keep.
Phantom: Absolutely, whatever you need.
Batman: Right now? Answers. Follow me.
-
Batman tells Robin to meet up with Batgirl to continue patrol while he leads Phantom to the safehouse.
-
[at the safehouse]
Phantom: No one can see us in here, right?
Batman: [Batman nods]
Phantom: [deep breath] Ok. I’m doing this as a show of trust, Batman. Please don’t break it. This’ll be bright for a sec. [transforms] My name is Danny, no last name anymore, and I’m apparently from a different universe, one without superheroes. Well, except me. I’ll answer whatever questions you have to the best of my ability but it’s a long story, so we might wanna get comfortable.
-
It takes pretty much all night and they had to stop to eat twice.
Danny is finally allowed to sleep through the day with the promise that Batman would return the next evening with a game plan for moving forward. Clark calls, having hoped Danny would cool off and return by morning, but Bruce denies having seen him, asking what happened. Clark confesses to the fight and figures Danny would have gone to Bruce, after Clark kept singing his praises, but maybe Danny thought Bruce would just turn him back over to Clark and is avoiding Bruce because of that. Bruce asks if that’s what he would want, for Bruce to give Danny back if he sees him, and Clark isn’t sure. He’s suddenly not sure about a lot of things. Clark asks Bruce to keep an eye out, and at least tell Danny that Clark wants to talk, but urges Bruce to not push Danny; it’ll only push him further away. Bruce agrees to keep Clark posted.
That night, Batman wakes Danny and introduces him to Robin; Phantom will be tailing Batman and Robin tonight, observation only. This will introduce Phantom to how heroing works in Gotham, and maybe be allowed to join them on patrol, if Batman thinks Phantom did a good enough job keeping up mentally. Things happen, Phantom following via flight while both invisible and intangible, but has a hard time holding back when every instinct is telling him to jump in and help the duo. However, he also realizes that they mostly stop human criminals and Phantom doesn’t have a lot of experience with that; he’s mostly fought other ghosts and the occasional monster, only ever running from the ghost hunters rather than confront them. He doesn’t want to really hurt anyone, even if they are doing something bad, but he’s not confident in his ability to pull his punches like that.
~@~
Sometime later, probably a few days while Clark stews on his conundrum, the Bats are about to raid a cult that’s been trying to summon demons or a spirit or something, and decide this is the perfect time to test Phantom for real. While they’re preparing, a floating box appears with a note that says “Enjoy the care package -CW” which evaporates after Phantom reads it out loud and barely catches the box before it hits the ground, as it is no longer floating. Phantom realizes the Bats are spooked and explains that CW is Clockwork, his mentor, and opens the box. He is immediately delighted as he held aloft the Fen- I mean Phantom Thermos! He clips it to his belt and digs back in, explaining that these were all things his parents made to hunt ghosts and his friends used a lot of them, since they didn’t have powers like Phantom did.
He first takes out the Specter Deflector, explains what it is, and gives it to Batman to decide what to do with it since it’s kinda useless to Phantom himself. Batman immediately tries to give it to Robin, who refuses, citing that Batman is the greater asset to protect and the more dangerous if he gets possessed. Phantom quickly grabs the Ghost Peeler and the pair of Wrist Rays, explaining that pairing the Spector Deflector and Wrist Rays would just about equal the Ghost Peeler in power, not to mention the other weapons, pulling out the collapsible Phantom Staff, the Jacko’ Nine Tails, and two Lipstick Blasters for them to divvy out. He pockets the Spool of Ghost Fisher Line, since it’s less obvious what to do with it, as well as a couple Ecto-Dejectos, which would only really be useful to Phantom. He grabs the three Phantom Phones, asking Batman to patch him in, explaining that they’re designed to filter out “ghost noise” which is why he couldn’t accept one of their own comms before. And last but not least, the Boo-merang, which is supposed to find the nearest ghost but only ever locked onto Phantom’s signature, so it’s worked as a pretty effective tracking device the few times his friends needed help finding him.
Then Phantom picks up a device he doesn’t recognize, but judging by the gear motif, it’s probably from Clockwork. Phantom will have to figure out what it does later, though, they have a cult to bust!
He didn’t tell them that he’d palmed the Plasmius Maximus he had inexplicably found as well. It had only ever been used on Phantom and Plasmius, both halfas, so he actually had no idea what it would do to a full ghost.
In the end, Robin took the Ghost Peeler, with the Phantom Staff as a backup weapon. Batgirl took the Jack o’ Nine Tails and one each of the Wrist Rays and Lipstick Blasters. Batman was bullied into wearing the Spector Deflector and took the other Wrist Ray and Lipstick Blaster, as well as the Boo-merang. Phantom kept the Phantom Thermos, Ecto-Dejectos, Ghost Fisher Thread, his patched in Phantom Phone, Clockwork’s Mysterious Device, and the Plasmius Maximus that nobody knew about.
It turns out, the cultists were in fact trying to summon and control a powerful ghost from the Infinite Realms, something Phantom is quite familiar with. Everything went pretty well, the ghost itself never arrived but some lesser ghosts came through the portal and all of the ghost hunting equipment work perfectly. Phantom souped all of them and the cultists were contained, but Phantom pulled Batman aside as they were all leaving.
-
Phantom: Hey, Batman, I need to talk to you about something. Alone, if possible.
[the other Bats agree to meet Batman at the Cave]
Phantom: Ok, so uh, this whole experience with the cult-trying-to-control-the-ghost thing has brought something to my attention that I hadn’t really thought about until now, but is probably kind of important. [takes deep breath] I want you to keep all the ghost hunting stuff I gave you.
Batman: [surprised]
Phantom: I’m sure you’ll reverse engineer the tech or whatever; that’s fine, and I’ll answer whatever questions I can, but I need you to do something for me in exchange.
Batman: [suspicious] [grunts in acceptance]
Phantom: I’m probably going to be stuck in this universe for a while and I want to make sure you guys can defend yourselves if necessary. Back home, everyone on Team Phantom has turned dark for one reason or another, whether it was just plain old manipulation or they were overshadowed or mind controlled or altered in some other way. Technically, I can’t be overshadowed or possessed, but I am still susceptible to mind control and coercion, or whatever these cultists were trying to do to the ghost they were summoning. What I’m trying to get at is that everyone on Team Phantom had an understanding of sorts; that if something like that happened, we’d stop whoever had gone rogue by any means necessary, and they wouldn’t hold it against the others. I have no plans of going rogue but, if the worst happens, I want you to have the tools you’ll need to take me down. I can’t risk hurting anyone... for my own Obsession, if nothing else.
Batman: [stunned] [chuckles to himself]
Phantom: [confused and slightly offended, cuz this is serious] What’s so funny?
Batman: I’m sorry, it’s just… I have a reputation among the hero community for making contingency plans to take out every hero I know about, just in case. They always feel so betrayed when they find out… and yet, here you are, barely half their age, and not only asking me to make a contingency plan for you, but supplying me with the equipment to do so. I thought I’d have to convince you to let me keep any of it, let alone teaching me about the science behind it. It’s suspicious. The explanation you gave me can’t be the only reason you’re asking this of me.
Phantom: [cringes, looks away] … I’m intimately aware of what would happen if I ever lost my humanity. Clockwork already helped me prevent that timeline, but… if I’m pushed past my breaking point? I know that I still have the potential to do what he did, to destroy everything. [looks Batman in the eye] I will do anything to prevent that future from becoming a reality, but the threat lingers. I’ve mentioned ghost Obsessions before; mine is pretty nuanced, and I’m still kinda figuring it out, but a big part of it is protecting others. I literally can’t risk hurting others, even if I know I wasn’t in control at the time; once I come out of it and realize what I’ve done, it will break me. I know ghost psychology is hard for the living to fully grasp, but…
Batman: I understand, Phantom. You have my word, I won’t let you hurt anyone.
Phantom: [sighs in relief] Thank you, Batman. I uh, didn’t actually realize how much that was weighing on me. And honestly? Knowing you have other contingencies actually makes me feel better about asking this of you. Making this kind of promise would probably crush Superman, but you’re already committed to it, if the worst ever happened.
Batman: Have you told Superman any of this?
Phantom: Not in so much detail, and honestly I’m not sure I could trust him to not hold back against me. [hesitates] A-actually, there’s two other pieces you should have for my contingency plan. One is Blood Blossoms; they’re extinct now in my original universe, and I don’t know if they were ever in this universe at all, but they are one of the few naturally occurring substances that can end a ghost permanently, myself included. The other is this: the Plasmius Maximus. I didn’t know why Clockwork included it in the care package at first but this is probably it. Vlad created it to short out my powers for... originally about three hours, but I’m stronger now, and he’s probably upgraded it since then, so I have no idea how long it would actually last at this point. Vlad has pretty much an identical power set to my own, so it works on him too, but I have no idea what it would do to a regular ghost, and since Vlad isn’t here... the only one it can really be used on is me.
Batman: … You’re putting an awful lot of trust in me, Phantom.
Phantom: Yes, I am. Please don’t abuse it.
Batman: [ruffles hair]
Phantom: [flinches] [tries to laugh it off] I should head back to the safehouse, though; after all that excitement, I’m really tired.
Batman: [hesitates] Not yet. Follow me.
Phantom: Oh, uh, ok.
Batman: [gets on motorcycle, the others took the Batmobile] You can ride along or fly beside me.
Phantom: I’ll fly, I can keep up easy enough and I don’t like feeling constrained. Are you gonna tell me where we’re going?
Batman: [Batman puts on helmet and drives off]
Phantom: I guess not.
-
Phantom slowly starts to realize Batman is taking him to the Batcave, which he recognizes is a pretty significant show of trust from the Bat; Phantom hadn’t known him long but understood the need for secrets and hadn’t pushed for any of Batman’s. He gave up many of his own as a sort of trade for letting Phantom stay but hadn’t expected to earn their trust in return for a while. Nervous about the other bats’ reactions, Phantom almost wanted to hide behind invisibility but didn’t want to accidentally spook them so soon after being offered acceptance so he sucked it up as he followed Batman at a respectful distance.
~@~
I know I want Superman and Phantom to eventually make up and for Superman to start trying to be better for Superboy, but how that goes down will probably depend on which, if any, existing continuity I decide to use. I think I'm leaning towards a slightly modified version of early Young Justice. I have a scene with Danny confronting Jason about ghost stuff, but I might actually have Jason not even be dead yet.
I had an idea that I worked out recently but couldn't fit into Phantom Bat
I thought about incorporating this idea into my Phantom Bat lore, and while it would've fit in the timeline, I decided it felt tacked on for no reason. Batman already has an excuse to take in Danny (and Jazz) in Phantom Bat, so I didn't really need another connection between them; it just would've been too much, a twist just for the sake of having a twist. I didn't want it to go to waste, though, and since I have no intentions of using it for anything yet, I figured I'd set it free for anyone to use as inspiration.
Jack Fenton is a clone of Thomas Wayne.
Thomas Wayne was forced to join the Court of Owls, to take the place of his late father. Thomas hated it but thought maybe he could work at reforming it from the inside, and was eventually horrified when he discovered a cloning operation, intending the clones to be trained as an elite group of assassins called “Talons”. The clones were not all from the same source, but most of the DNA was taken from members of the Court or their family members. The program started after Thomas joined and he didn’t know they had even taken his DNA in the first place.
Thomas managed to expose the group and was killed for it shortly after, along with his wife and traumatizing an 8-year-old Bruce, but the damage to the Court of Owls was done; most of the clones didn’t make it, as the equipment keeping them alive was damaged, and the few that had been “born” already were either too far gone from brainwashing to be saved (I’ll let you imagine what happened to those ones) or were young enough to be quietly put into the adoption system with no memories of their origin.
Such was the fate of Jack Fenton, cloned from Thomas himself and adopted by a family of ghost hunters. Due to exposure to dark magic, ectoplasm, and other unsavory magic stuff, the pair couldn’t have kids of their own and retired when one of them (not sure who) was disabled due to an injury and they opened Fenton Works to sell the occult items they found and some things they made themselves, from weapons, to protective charms, to herbs and medicines, etc. They adopted Jack when they retired and they gave him as normal of a childhood as could be expected of occultists and former ghost hunters/paranormal investigators. They were always open about Jack’s adoption so he was never ashamed of it, never felt the need to find his “real” parents, but none of them ever knew that he was a clone, either.
After Jack graduated college, he inherited Fenton Works, married Maddie, and had Jazz around the time both of his parents died due to complications stemming from their former life-style. Danny never met them, and Jazz was too young to remember, but Jack told plenty of stories. (This is just to explain their absence in the show, you can keep them alive if you want)
If DNA tested, Danny and Jazz would register as Bruce’s half-siblings. Jack would probably be somewhere between 6 and 8 years younger than Bruce, depending on what ages you feel like using for everyone. Jack being less than 2 years old when Bruce was 8 makes the most sense to me, but your mileage may vary.
Edit to add more random thoughts :D
The Court of Owls was getting a little too big for it's britches, expanding farther and faster than it could maintain, until Thomas gave it a push that knocked over the jenga stack. It was bound to happen eventually. After the implosion, the Court returned to it's roots in the shadows and was just starting to gain traction again when Batman encounters them. One of the surviving Clone Talons may or may not have survived to become influential in the Court by then, writer's choice.
The Court wanted to use clones for the Talons so they could manipulate the DNA and conditions in the fake womb for best results (whatever "best" means to them). After the incident, they went back to stealing orphans and other street kids no one would miss, like they did before they got the cloning tech.
I can imagine Jack being thrilled at the idea of having Bruce as his nephew, despite Bruce being older, and treating all of the batkids as niblings, which would lead to some very interesting interactions. I can't stop laughing at the image of Jack treating Bruce like a kid and Bruce acting sulky but secretly enjoying it lol...
