Danny is an engineer at the watchtower, and it is everything he ever dreamts of
sure he's not on the moon, but he's in space! he meets and talks to aliens on a daily basis! he can just go out of the station, fly around and come back in! he is very happy with his job.
so when danny went back in the watchtower after fixing a panel outside, finding out that everyone was being mindcontrolled, and danny is the only one who was not affected because he was outside-
well, the only thing he could really do is put the watchtower on a lockdown, and hope someone from the outside notices something before it's too late.(no matter how slim the chances of that are, afterall, almost everyone in the justice league was present in the tower, some kind of urgent meeting)
they don't want a mindcontrolled superheros flying around afterall.
-
or: extremely depuffed engineer danny fenton is stuck alone in the watchtower with mindcontrolled superheros, he needs to save the heroes before it's too late, with only his invisiblity, minor ice powers, flight, and night vision in his arsenal, anything else would be too draining and risky, he doesn't have any ectoplasm here to support him afterall.
-
the first person danny tries to break free from the mind control is the red robin
"why me? why not batman, or superman?"
"you're the only one who I realisticly could pin down long enough to break the mind control..."
"....."
"oh uh-and of course because you're the smartest-"
Danny is an engineer at the watchtower, and it is everything he ever dreamts of
sure he's not on the moon, but he's in space! he meets and talks to aliens on a daily basis! he can just go out of the station, fly around and come back in! he is very happy with his job.
so when danny went back in the watchtower after fixing a panel outside, finding out that everyone was being mindcontrolled, and danny is the only one who was not affected because he was outside-
well, the only thing he could really do is put the watchtower on a lockdown, and hope someone from the outside notices something before it's too late.(no matter how slim the chances of that are, afterall, almost everyone in the justice league was present in the tower, some kind of urgent meeting)
they don't want a mindcontrolled superheros flying around afterall.
-
or: extremely depuffed engineer danny fenton is stuck alone in the watchtower with mindcontrolled superheros, he needs to save the heroes before it's too late, with only his invisiblity, minor ice powers, flight, and night vision in his arsenal, anything else would be too draining and risky, he doesn't have any ectoplasm here to support him afterall.
-
the first person danny tries to break free from the mind control is the red robin
"why me? why not batman, or superman?"
"you're the only one who I realisticly could pin down long enough to break the mind control..."
"....."
"oh uh-and of course because you're the smartest-"
Danny meeting J'onn J'onzz once and he has stars in his eyes. The Martian Manhunter has always been his favorite superhero ever. But now isn't the time to ask for autographs. He has a different favor he needs.
"Is it okay with you if I pretend to be half Martian?" he asked. "It's just! I know it's wrong, and lying, but my species has been declared non-sapient and non-sentient, and we're being hunted. It would be... a lot safer, for me, if I could say I was a Martian."
J'onn paused. He needed to handle this carefully--
"I wanted to ask your permission first before just doing it because I know it's not exactly kosher to pretend to be a different species for the perks. I'm really sorry to even ask this, Mr. Manhunter. If I've offended you--"
"You have not," he said. "You have my permission."
"Seriously?! Thank you!"
"You are welcome, young one," he said. "However, I do have some questions for you before you go."
Danny nodded eagerly. This had gone better than even his wildest dreams. "Of course! I'll tell you anything."
J'onn survived the eradication of his people. He would be furious on Danny's behalf and do everything in his power to stop the boy from facing the same fate. The GIW wouldn't know what hit them, in multiple ways.
Considering how many times their missions end up with explosions can you imagine the chaos they would cause if they planned to cause property destruction?
GIW really won't know what hit them.
But also, if someone ever tried to go up to Martian Manhunter and say Danny isn't Martian, J'onn would enter such unimaginable level of gaslighting.
GIW: Give us the boy.
J'onn: No.
GIW: According to [insert bullshit law], we have sole custody of ghosts on American soil. Not giving him to us may result in your arrest sir, give him while we're friendly.
J'onn: He's is not a ghost, that's my relative, keep your hands away from him.
GIW: You are quite literally two different species, no matter what this scum tried to lie to you about.
J'onn: Are we now?
GIW: You literally have different powers.
J'onn: Do we now? We both can fly, turn invisible and walk through walls.
GIW: You can't throw ectoblasts?
J'onn: Ectoblasts? Ah, you mean [insert how Martians could call it], that's interesting application of telekinesis, moving particles of air around our hands to raise their temperature until they turn into plasma and then throwing them. It's very precise technique, requiring a lot of training. We're all really proud he managed to master it at such young age.
GIW:...
GIW: Why isn't he green?
Random passerby (M'gann): Oh my god Jared, you can't just ask people that!
None of GIW members knew that through this mess of interaction, both J'onn and M'gann were dismantling their weapons. Danny is just standing there, with shit eating grin, experiencing Emotions, because hey, that's adult who stepped up when he really needed it, and he doesn't have to fix everything, that's rare.
Itâs like how Bees are Fish!! Laws taking foooorrever to get passed in the US. Laws are in place to protect fish so instead of making a new law for Bees, redefine the definition of what a fish is to help protect bees under that definition. (Said invertebrates are fish and protected but did not specify the invertebrate had to be a water animal) (Really happened in California!)
Ghosts would be eligible for protections if the Martian Protection Law has vague language that it can apply.
and he's not used to the amount of the toxic ectoplasm in the environment... gotham doesn't have a very good filtration system, and the lady is overworked.. but that's ok! frostbite got him! as long as keeps a healthy halfa diet, his core will filter the ectoplasm around him! and he's a powerful halfa so-
other then that, gotham is great, he doesn't know how it earned that "doom and gloom" reputation really, the sun is shining, birds are chirping, and there are many butterflies around! everyone is so nice, he has not even encountered a single villain yet!
unless you count doctor pamela, wich he doesn't because she was so nice, even gave him tips on how to take care of his ghost plants!
aka danny is working as a filtration system for gotham, and lady gotham make sure he is treated like the fucking disney princess that he is, gotham recognize him as a good effect on her, and she is NOT letting anything/anyone touch him
aka danny is broadcasting whimsy and good vibes in gotham
aka dannys time in gotham is sunshine and rainbows(literally)
aka everyone in gotham is so sus, especially the bats
"You too?" Poison ivy said as Mrs. Freeze sighed wearing a different looking suit coded with miniatures moving golden hieroglyphs like code like shimmer.
"He figured out the cured to patty's heart of ice that I have yet to figured out." Mrs. Freeze said softly, promptly due to Patricia alive and well wearing a similar suit with little pharaoh playing with poison ivy's boy as they were building a little miniature saucers using pieces of solar telescope and Lego pieces.
He still don't know how this kid snuck in his base, but he wouldn't trade him for the world for bring his wife back, watching the little saucer floating in mid air as Patricia use the self made control to move it around.
Riddler sat in poison ivy with a cup of Chamomile tea in his hand. He was a normal clothed instead of his riddler getup, though he kept a question mark pen in his front pocket.
"I still trying to figure out how Batman's adoption addiction got spread around." Riddler mumbled in his tea. He had laughed hard the previous couple of months seeing Poison Ivy with a little feral robin bait.
Only for the riddler to find a little 9 year old orange haired girl two months ago who debunking his latest trap for batman and process to psychoanalysis him to the point of him crying curled up like a ball on the floor while being petted comfortly didn't helped.
Someone done messed up the natural order of things in gotham city, or the soon to be robin adoption baits are loose before batman can find them, roaming the city latching onto random people.
Batman is unfortunately not getting his little jasmine though, there is no refund fee or returns after seeing that little girl smiled brightly after he gave her a riddler theme teddy bear, and she gave him a handmade puzzle toy that took him 4 hours do figure out.
Poison ivy can look all smug as she wants, but she was right earlier about it being rather soothing on the inner child soul to entertain, considering he spent more time on a mystery crime board game while jasmine ramble about on the human curiosity and that the librarian was the one who did it.
Then again, if this was happening due to of out of control robin bait loose in the city, he should probably check up on scarecrow since he haven't been in the monthly villain meeting lately around the time he take a quick check up.
Meanwhile
Scarecrow walked awkwardly on the fact this obviously bat bait child refused to let go of his left leg after he accidentally lost a canister of experimental fear spray bottle in the warehouse, only to find a little girl trying to eat as much of the spray as possibly.
He more fascinated then annoyed on the fact the little girl is not phased by the fear canister or how she kept talking on how he smell really nice and she is Dani with an I and that scarecrow mask is really cool.
Poison Ivy knew she couldn't bare children due to the gifts she had received from mother nature, but she had a soft spot for gothamite children, sneaking them a basket of fresh fruits and veggies here and there make her feel warm inside.
She thought Batman had an robin adoption problem until she came back to one of her main greenhouse sanctuary hideouts to find a feral black haired toddler eating out of oversized watermelon like it was a feast.
Black hair, wild feral looks in his narrowing blue eyes as the toddler sniff a bit, inhaling a bit as he sneeze out a few snowflakes and watermelon seeds before stuffing another large handful of wet watermelon in his mouth.
Oh, oh, the robin adoption must be contagious.
The first week, she had tried to keep out that little feral robin adoption bait child with her sentient plants guarding her greenhouse, but the child appears like a ghost, stuffing his gourd with her fruits, and veggies, drinking some of her filtered clean water for plants.
The second week, she had tried to capture the child much to no luck, that kid disappears and reappear like a phantom or something..
By the third week, she got attached when she woke up to her nap to see that little boy curled up against her, clinging to her red hair, mumbling about jasmine.
And if she grew jasmine flowers in her hair that day, she answers Harley's questions about it as she revealed her little stray secret that was name Danny.
Her little sapling boy, her little autistic baby boy who boo like a ghost to nobody there while playing with a box, who hated toast bread but loves blueberries pancakes with maple syrup on top, who love spaces and the stars and up above, her baby with faint lichtenberg scar from his left hand across his body and a autopsy scar on his chest down to his stomach that made her cry ugly in Harley's arms after that first bath time.
Poison Ivy never knew maternal instincts harder about 7 months later as she held her baby close to her chest, stared down at Batman trapper in nearly a dozen pointy vines wrapped. The former space museum was a mess full of plants, three and four robins trapped in vines.
"In other news, the newly discovered Infinite Realms, an alien dimension that sits right next to our own, has announced that they do not believe in America."
"...What?" Flash asks, protein bar halfway to his mouth. He's in the cafeteria of the Watchtower, and he's not the only one with his eyes pinned to the TV.
"I'm not sure I understand, Linda, can you clarify what they mean by that?" The male reporter asks, smile strained.
"Certainly, Todd. The Infinite Realms has stated that they do not believe that the United States of America is a real country, and as such, will not seek to make any deals or treaties with them."
Wonder Woman raises an eyebrow, leaning back in her seat.
"Then...then what do they think America is?" Todd asks from the TV, sounding a little desperate.
"Apparently, they view America as 'a collection of toddlers that bathe in money pretending like they own the world'."
Green Arrow starts laughing so hard he dry heaves.
I mean... politically? America DID start it. The I.R. does have the right to do that. Especially if they have the ability to keep America from... you know... *all the historical examples of America doing as it has done* to them?
Honestly? Power move would be to recognize the Tribes. Since according to THIER(Infinite Realms) records? They were there first. Sorry guys! You're illegal immigrants. We only recognize the RIGHTFUL governments of this land.
Danny travels back in time to make treaties with the native tribes and their Spirits. Then goes forward and has the historical proof of their existence from before the white man came and started their tantrums.
It started as a fuck you to the GIW and the laws they hid to pass the anti-ecto acts and now they've decided it's actually a good idea and are â¨investedâ¨. Sam's having a great time researching and focusing her activism on that, Danny keeps giving it more validity with time missions to make the more legit, and Tucker has decided to team up with technus to hack and expose all the billionaires and the shady shit they do and use it as extra confirmation.
I know i see a lot of Danny hating the Joker on sight and immediately feral raccoon attacking him, but consider this - Joker has died a couple of times now.
Extremely liminal Joker seeing Danny and having his fight instincts kick in.
He'll be mid speech and race off to square up against this random guy.
Joker goes to walk past the coffee shop Danny's in and jumps through the window to attack him.
Joker is hiding from the Bats as he plants bombs in the sewers when he passes directly underneath Danny. He goes straight for the nearest manhole and climbs out to chase him down.
Meanwhile, Danny is taking these attacks entirely in human form. Joker is entirely hind-braining it, so the combat skills his mum taught him are enough to hold off the deranged clown until a Bat or a Bird can come and take him. He hasn't needed to go ghost or use any overtly obvious powers, so from the outside it looks like Joker has just decided to hate this one civilian in particular, and the civilian is using skills from self defence classes to survive the attacks.
Danny meanwhile is more annoyed than anything. He's just trying to live his best half- life, and this stupid clown cannot get past his first instincts enough to even be civil enough to talk. He can't even get a coffee in peace! Every time the Joker comes up to him, he's so visibly annoyed about it. He's asked once why he doesn't just move it hide away when the guy breaks out, and he responds "honestly? It's more of an inconvenience than anything else. I'm more annoyed at having to walk the long way along Robinson Park because I have a deathly allergy to one of Ivy's flower gardens."
Okay but imagine the Bats use this to their advantage sometimes when Joker is up to some shit and to keep his plan from happening they just start using Danny as a distraction
Normally they wouldnât dare use a civilian like that but Danny just seems annoyed by it more than anything and Joke has never been able to harm him so it works
But Joke starts something and just
Nightwing: ââŚ..hey um sorry to bother you but would you mind-â
Danny: âYou need me to run by and distract him long enough to release the hostages right?â
Red Robin: âI mean it would definitely helpâ
Danny: â*big sigh* âŚfine but yâall owe me oneâ
This just starts to become the norm and increasingly makes the Joker mad cause all his plans keep getting ruined but he also canât seem to make himself stop.
The Bats just think they have a meta on their hand with a weirdly specific power
Gotham all just start to love Danny and treat him like a celebrity
Danny just learns to live with it and enjoys the perks his weird celebrity status gave him
It's an extra spicy beef burger with plain fries, a small salad, and a smoothie, after he tells them about the hot sauce at the burger joint back home.
What if instead of a salad and a smoothie, it was just a green smoothie? Or a salad and whatever Dannyâs favorite milkshake is? What is Dannyâs favorite milkshake? It must have come up in that episode where his family temporarily became rich.
I couldn't find anything specific, but from what I could find there was a bunch of Danny Phantom branded food released that was blue raspberry flavour. Maybe that?
I know i see a lot of Danny hating the Joker on sight and immediately feral raccoon attacking him, but consider this - Joker has died a couple of times now.
Extremely liminal Joker seeing Danny and having his fight instincts kick in.
He'll be mid speech and race off to square up against this random guy.
Joker goes to walk past the coffee shop Danny's in and jumps through the window to attack him.
Joker is hiding from the Bats as he plants bombs in the sewers when he passes directly underneath Danny. He goes straight for the nearest manhole and climbs out to chase him down.
Meanwhile, Danny is taking these attacks entirely in human form. Joker is entirely hind-braining it, so the combat skills his mum taught him are enough to hold off the deranged clown until a Bat or a Bird can come and take him. He hasn't needed to go ghost or use any overtly obvious powers, so from the outside it looks like Joker has just decided to hate this one civilian in particular, and the civilian is using skills from self defence classes to survive the attacks.
Danny meanwhile is more annoyed than anything. He's just trying to live his best half- life, and this stupid clown cannot get past his first instincts enough to even be civil enough to talk. He can't even get a coffee in peace! Every time the Joker comes up to him, he's so visibly annoyed about it. He's asked once why he doesn't just move it hide away when the guy breaks out, and he responds "honestly? It's more of an inconvenience than anything else. I'm more annoyed at having to walk the long way along Robinson Park because I have a deathly allergy to one of Ivy's flower gardens."
Okay but imagine the Bats use this to their advantage sometimes when Joker is up to some shit and to keep his plan from happening they just start using Danny as a distraction
Normally they wouldnât dare use a civilian like that but Danny just seems annoyed by it more than anything and Joke has never been able to harm him so it works
But Joke starts something and just
Nightwing: ââŚ..hey um sorry to bother you but would you mind-â
Danny: âYou need me to run by and distract him long enough to release the hostages right?â
Red Robin: âI mean it would definitely helpâ
Danny: â*big sigh* âŚfine but yâall owe me oneâ
This just starts to become the norm and increasingly makes the Joker mad cause all his plans keep getting ruined but he also canât seem to make himself stop.
The Bats just think they have a meta on their hand with a weirdly specific power
Gotham all just start to love Danny and treat him like a celebrity
Danny just learns to live with it and enjoys the perks his weird celebrity status gave him
I literally just keep imagining everyone sitting around trying to figure out how Dannyâs powers even work and why.
Every single one of there reactions at one point just being:
ââŚOkay but HOW and WHY?!?!?!â
At the same time they just feel bad for Danny cause like of all the random ass powers to get he gets the one that attracts the one of the worst people
I also like to think that for whatever reason it doesnât work on Jason or anyone else thatâs been revived like that. Just because itâs so much funnier to me if itâs literally just the Joker that reacts.
Maybe the others just feel closer to Danny quicker than they normally do with new people since they are heroâs too
Maybe someone think the how and why is because of someone else? Like someone for whatever or no reason cursed or used their powers on Danny, "Fuck That Guy In Particular" kind of thing.
And some people may not be Zatanna or Constantine level of magic or a low lvl psychopomp but can still sense SOMETHING going on around Danny. All that juju Danny gets into is bound to do Something to his aura,, even if it's not actually his aura or power radiating off of him that they can sense.
Danny gets to choose his royal title, and he thinks very hard about it. He examines historical ghost kings, how their titles reflected their rule.
He decided he wanted to be a little bit silly with it.
Now, all across reality, occultists and demons and anyone who was in-the-know on the Infinite Realms was privy to the knowledge of the new king.
King Phantom, The Child Killer
Meaning: The Child who killed the last king, the child who can and will kill to defend his people- and his people was Everyone In Reality. He was the King of All. He will not allow anyone to come to harm, and he will not allow anyone to conduct that harm.
Danny knows very well what people will assume his title means.
Heâs counting on it.
Every so often a zealous megalomaniac decides they need the Ghost King to give them power, and what would the Child Killer want?
A child to kill.
He would never be able to stop people from trying to summon him, but he could control what they tried to offer to him. He could guarantee that only those who summon him were scum.
Anyone who chose to offer a living breathing child to what they assumed was a malevolent god of destruction and murder clearly wasnât worth the breath it would take to ask âwhat do you want from me?â
So whenever Danny arrives to his summonings, faced with one or more innocent terrified faces, he wordlessly wraps them safely in a blanket made of stars..
Covering their eyes as he smites everyone in the room, leaving behind scorched earth and shadows of men who really Didnât Have Any Idea Who. They. Were. Fucking. With.
When the Justice League catches wind of a dangerous entity called The Child Killer who slaughters cultists and disappears with the child sacrifices, they decide they donât need any more information. Digging would waste time, and time was everything when a child was missing.
What they didnât know was that Danny was feeding the children, clothing them, healing them- of course he would like to bring them home, but they donât have any.
Each child was trafficked out of foster care by the cultists, or was being abused by their parent who was a cultist.
Even if they had never been taken into the circle, they would have surely died.
And no âheroâ would have ever known.
No. Danny would not be returning the children, not unless they asked for it. Not unless they could come up with a safe place for them to go.
Danny Corpse AU, he keeps his polished bones in a locked case under his bed, but has his skull on his desk as a nice decoration and work companion.
He puts funny little hats on himself, sometimes some little paper accessories (he doesn't want to put any kind of adhesive in his bones, that's just asking for damage- so no stickers, sadly).
Everyone he works with fully assumes it's just a prop skull.
Danny Fenton works at the Daily Planet in a corner where Clark Kent doesn't really frequent.
One day, he has to drop of some paperwork for Mr Fenton- who he's never met despite working together for the past two years, âshit just happens in a big office like that I guessâ he says (though Clark swears heâs never heard a heartbeat or any kind of breathing from that office)- and Clark drops everything he's holding when he sees a child's skull on the desk, decorated with a festive pink ribbon patterned with different fruits.
Clark knows exactly what real bone pores look like, and he knows his enhanced sight isn't lying to him. It's either the best fake in this or any universe, or his coworker has a real human child's skull on his desk.
But how does he bring this up to anyone without exposing himself?
Clark in his âI not sure how to solve this with out bringing attention to myselfâ conundrum calls on the one guy he knows can do things low key - Batman
So Batman sneaks in and gets DNA and dental molds from this kid skull to try and track down the owner.
But surprising both Clark and Bruce it comes backâŚ.as Danny himself.
So now they think the Danny they know killed OG Danny and took his place
Clark then the next day at work uses his X-ray vision on Danny (which is something he hasnât done and doesnât like to use on normal coworkers cause itâs rude and creepy). But then he see that Danny has NO BONES!!!
They still donât jump to the conclusion heâs a ghost but instead think heâs either some kind of alien or magical creature like a mimic or something that killed Danny (which partially true to be fair)
So next step they take is bring in a team thatâs half could handle killer doppelgänger alien or mimic boy creature
Iâm thinking Hal and Constantine - they hate it - but one knows aliens and the other magic shenanigans.
So the plan is just simple they go into the Daily Planet during work hours for an âinterviewâ for Hal with his pilot stuff and info the gov has said about his earlier test flights and the Constantine acting as a suit there to make sure Hal doesnât accidentally leak secrets.
They roll in the next day and immediately run into Danny and Constantine catchâs up pretty quick to what Danny is
After the meeting and later that night when theyâre all debriefing Constantine just goes full
âSo uhhh I donât know how to tell you this but that child skull on Dannyâs desk is just his own skullâ
Superman: ââŚ..what do you mean itâs his OWN skull?!!â
Constantine: âyeah your coworker has been dead for a while based on the skull and the person you know is a ghost thatâs just keeping his bones close to himselfâ
JL: ââŚâŚ.đ¨â
Constantine: âhe seems pretty harmless so you should be fine just let me know if he starts acting weird - oh and keep his bones safe too that way he doesnât fly off the handle or just disappearâ
Clark: ââŚâŚohâŚ.okay?â
Now Clark has to go to work and be around a coworker that he now knows is dead and has been since he was kid and try and act normal around him - he fails at this
Danny has to sit him down and get a half baked âoh my friend can sense ghosts and told me you were one and sorry Iâve been weird about itâ from Clark
This has Danny bursting out laughing and having to explain to Clark heâs fine he just likes to mess around with his own skull for shits and giggles. Clark does calm down but now whenever an attack hits the Daily Planet he immediately goes and grabs Dannyâs skull and puts it somewhere safe until the fights over (he just tells Danny heâs uhh friends with Clark and he asked him to do that - Danny knows itâs BS but doesnât call him out on it - he gets it)
Bonus points though if Constantine already knew Danny and just didnât realize they meant THAT Danny when they told him about the investigation
So he shows up clocks Danny and is like âoh hey Danny long time no see!!â Meanwhile Clark and Hal are there like đ§đźââď¸đ§đź
At the debriefing then Constantine is just like
âYâall are fine thatâs just Danny heâs nice and a protective spirit so youâre all good. Heâs a little shit sometimes but nothing dangerous to regular people, just donât piss him off. Tell you one thing though his death was rough when I found out. OSHA would have a field day in the lab he died inâ
Superman: ââŚ..what do you mean he died in a lab!!!! đ¨đĄâ
Danny is oblivious to all this panic for his sake heâs just at the store picking out new stuff for his skull
Superman saving Dannyâs skull from an attack on the building on pure instinct, completely disregarding his own identity as Clark Kent- that, I think, is the most logical ultimate conclusion to the story.
Superman still as Clark cause he could not find a good spot to change in the panic running out of the burning Daily Planet like
And so everyone just sees Clark Kent running BACK into the burning building and people trying to stop him but unable to
And then a few minutes later seeing him run back out with the decorative skull Danny keeps on his desk
Everyone would just be like â????? Itâs just a decoration why did you risk your life for a decoration?????â
And Clark is just there covered in soot holding the skull like âuhhhhhâŚcause itâs important to Danny???â (Danny who just happened to be out that specific day)
Now though Clark has to live with every one of his coworkers teasing him about being attached to the party city skull on Danny desk more so than Danny himself. They buy him an actual fake skull to match Dannyâs âfake skullâ as a joke
Amazing, but what if the coworkers start to notice the party city skull they got Clark looks nothing like Danny's skull? They all start getting suspicious and realize that Danny's actually is a real skull.
Suddenly Clark's actions make a lot more sense, and Danny's make a lot less sense to them.
Danny eventually caught and has no other way out of it cause his journalist coworkers found out it's a real skull
Danny: I'm a metahuman, and the skull belongs to me. I don't have any of the normal metahuman stuff you usually see in the city. But my bones are outside of me and I have to keep them close by. Just ask Clark. He DNA tested the skull behind my back first week I was here.
Danny Corpse AU, he keeps his polished bones in a locked case under his bed, but has his skull on his desk as a nice decoration and work companion.
He puts funny little hats on himself, sometimes some little paper accessories (he doesn't want to put any kind of adhesive in his bones, that's just asking for damage- so no stickers, sadly).
Everyone he works with fully assumes it's just a prop skull.
Danny Fenton works at the Daily Planet in a corner where Clark Kent doesn't really frequent.
One day, he has to drop of some paperwork for Mr Fenton- who he's never met despite working together for the past two years, âshit just happens in a big office like that I guessâ he says (though Clark swears heâs never heard a heartbeat or any kind of breathing from that office)- and Clark drops everything he's holding when he sees a child's skull on the desk, decorated with a festive pink ribbon patterned with different fruits.
Clark knows exactly what real bone pores look like, and he knows his enhanced sight isn't lying to him. It's either the best fake in this or any universe, or his coworker has a real human child's skull on his desk.
But how does he bring this up to anyone without exposing himself?
[Image ID: A very confused, and slightly horrified looking Danny Phantom holds the Little Baby Man version of himself that is hugging his hand and purring. /. End ID]
So here's a fun thought: Consider a situation in which LBM is NOT, in fact, a tiny Danny, but a mimic blob ghost that has adopted his image as a form of Batesian self defense. Then imagine Danny's reaction to seeing some fucked up little uncanny valley cat version of himself with zero warning or context.
Per Wikipedia: "Batesian mimicry is a form of mimicry where a harmless species has evolved to imitate the warning signals of a harmful species directed at a predator of them both."
This gives me so many thoughts, especialy from the other reblogs.
If its mimicry, that implies that other strong ghosts also have blob mimics. Danny is freaking out about this weird blob, takes it to frostbite, who just congratulates danny for achieving a perfectly normal milestone for a ghost - being strong enough to be mimicked by a blob.
Then danny freaks out about how this is definitely not a good thing, he absolutely cannot have blobs wandering amity. Angst potential of bad fenton parents, could you imagine how dissecting a blob mimicking phantom would reinforce their theories, or how awful it would be for danny himself to witness it? Conversely, humor potential with good fenton parents who insist on collecting every phantom-mimic they encounter until theres an army of them living in fentonworks.
I propose a functional pathway that causes this to happen: ghosts are made out of ectoplasm, and common headcanon that ectoplasm is made of and 'programmed' by emotions. The stronger the ghost, the stronger the imprint they leave on the surrounding ambient, 'claiming' the area as their haunt/lair/etc. 'Patrolling' the territory also helps reinforce this.
Danny regularly patrols amity, and semi-regularly visits allies in the zone. If we think of 'claimed ecto' like a lingering smell, amity park and the fenton portal are drenched in phantom's, as well as decently-upkept paths from the fenton portal to each of danny's allies.
Enter the blobs, who have no strong self-identity and probably very limited intelligence. Perhaps there isnt even any intelligence at all and theyre literally just amorphic blobs of goo. They come across the programmed ambient ecto of a stronger ghost and, if its strong enough, it causes a cascade change over the blob, imparting the traces of lingering programming onto it. This isnt just visual - the ghost's actual ectosignature is involved, and the blob will mimic it the best it can from the ambient sample it just absorbed. This is good for the blob, as other ghosts will struggle to differentiate the blob from the original ghost. It wouldnt be successful mimicry otherwise.
With this function, we can infer a few things. First, lets assume that the blobs are sapient enough to have a self-preservation instinct. They dont even have to start out with this as it could come prepackaged with the programming they absorbed. Once a blob has encountered an ambient ecto-signature strong enough to change them, they are incentivized to remain within the territory of the signature they are now mimicking. That incentivization is further strengthened by the 'programming' left behind by the other ghost, especially if we're headcononing that ghosts are naturally territorial. The blob's presence is also beneficial to the host ghost because the blob's wandering about the territory also helps maintain the ecto-signature in the ambient ecto, making the host appear much more present and vigilant in their territory from the perspective of an outside ghost wandering in.
Now lets add that wandering ghost, who may have entered the territory for a number of reasons, from just traveling through to making a deliberate challenge for territory. If the wandering ghost is stronger than the host ghost, they have a chance at turning the blob. There will probably be some resistance no matter what, as the self-preservation programming of the ecto will create some degree of resistance to outside influences. But ultimately, we've created a scenario where blobs naturally congregate in the territories of the strongest ghosts over time.
In order to create a stable ecosystem of blob migration, there needs to be contrary forces countering this instinct. Id imagine a lot of smaller things add up:
1. Blobs naturally wander, even with instinct keeping them in the mimicked territory, sometimes they still get lost.
2. Outside forces of random chance and environment disorient and knock the blob out of a territory
3. While blobs resist changing while in a mimicked territory, when outside any territory, its best to lose that mimic as fast as possible, as entering a new territory with the old signature can be misinterpreted as aggressive behavior of the mimicked ghost and attract danger to the blob (especially if the defending ghost is the 'attack first, investigate later' type, which is generally more common for weaker ghosts that depend on an element of surprise to punch above their weight class)
4. Ghosts can deliberately abduct blobs from the borders of other territories, bring them home, and induce them to turn for the reasons stated above. Stealing from larger territories with higher populations of blobs is easier than stealing the singular micro-managed blob of a weaker ghost, creating a counterbalance to the strongest and largest territories that scales with them.
5. Blobs can be given and gifted to allies as a point of culture, something akin to the cat distribution system. Stronger ghosts can 'bless' weaker ghosts with a boon of several blobs, for example. Neighbors can trade blobs with developed behaviors that clash with the way they run their territory but would work better for their neighbor. (Ie, the more wandery blob goes to the neighbor with a more enclosed territory, and the more aggressive blob goes to the neighbor with fewer natural boundaries and higher risk of aggressive claims against them.)
Okay thats pretty much all the thoughts i have about this. I just really love this idea.
Loving this idea, and couldnât help but add to it with way more detail than people probably care about. đ
So, in no particular order:
Since blob ghosts absorb ambient ecto-signature slowly to become a blob mimic (blobic? Iâm going with blobic), if two ghosts share a haunt, the blobic will absorb from both of them and carry traits of both. The dominant or more obvious traits will be from the ghost whoâs left the stronger ambient ecto, or has spent the most time with the blobic (can have blobics that look like a combination of both âparentsâ, or maybe Dannyâs blobics have traits from his most common rogues) (Do you shed more ambient ecto / ecto-signature because of a fight?)
Blobs all naturally filter ambient ecto, which is how they collect the ecto signature needed to become a blobic (assuming any single ecto-signature is strong enough). Once theyâre a blobic, they only need to keep small amounts of the newly collected ecto-signature to maintain their form, and the rest will be released with the filtered ecto (helping spread the ecto-signature through the haunt).
Blob ghosts in shared spaces may break down ecto-signatures naturally, instead of collecting or releasing, which prevents frequent visitors from trying to accidentally claim the shared spaces. Can also apply to blobics actually, breaking down all ecto-signatures but their own ghosts (unless in high enough concentrations to influence the blobic) to keep the haunt âcleanâ
Blobics are more advanced than blob ghosts so may be more efficient at filtering
The blobics generally WANT to remain in their ghosts territory (free food!), but if the ghost is absent too long or significantly weakens, there may not be enough ambient ecto to support them so the blobic may have to leave or risk turning back into normal blob ghosts (can you imagine the angst of a weakening ghost trying to save their blobics? đ)
Because of this, finding someoneâs blobic away from their territory could be a sign that they or their territory is weakened. If itâs a friendâs blobic, cue the panic and âwhy didnât they say something was wrong?!â Or maybe âenemies to friends/loversâ happens over worry about finding the enemies blobic away from home (âI didnât even know they had blobicsâ could point to the enemy being secretly very protective of the little ones)
To convert a possibly stolen blobic to be yours, you either have to dose them gradually with higher concentrations of your own ecto to slowly morph them, or give them a bunch of your ecto all at once to force convert them, which likely has some negative effect (temporary or otherwise) for the blobic. Stealing a blobic with either method is faster than waiting for one to form naturally.
Since blobics carry the ecto signature of the ghost they represent, they could be used against their ghost. For example, to calibrate magical spells, curses, or individualized summoning circles to affect a specific ghost (along with the standard ecto-weapon targeting)
This gives incentive to those ghosts who may be targeted by enemies to (a) protect their blobics, (b) drive away blob ghosts before they can form into blobics, or (c) destroy them after theyâve formed.
Since blobs and blobics filter ecto, not having any means your hauntâs ecto can get gross or dangerous. Paranoid ghosts may end up going mad by driving away the blobs/blobics then getting sick from the unfiltered ecto, or collect blob ghosts for the filtering and destroy them once they become blobics (if a powerful ghost doesnât seem to have blobics, are they protective, mad, or cruel?)
Seeing someoneâs blobic in another ghosts territory (love the cultural part you mentioned!), where it is still looking mostly like them, is a sign of trust because (1) stealing the blobic would change it to have more of your ecto-signature, so the blobic was brought willingly by the other ghost, and (2) the other ghost visits enough to leave sufficient ecto-signature to keep the blobic looking like them. These may need to be âindoor blobicsâ so they donât wander too far from where their own ghosts ecto-signature has accumulated (could a ghost embed some ecto into an object, like a cat collar maybe, to help preserve the blobics form when gifted?)
Maybe sufficiently strong (or old, or whatever other criteria) blobics can be used as messengers or a warning system (they come let you know if they think something is wrong, though what you and your blobic count as an emergency may differ)
For a DPxDC addition (though it does move away from the blobics):
If you wanna add in King!Danny, maybe the current king is tied to the ambient ecto of the infinite realms. This could mean that naturally occurring pools of ambient ecto (like the Lazarus pits) might develop blobics that either resemble the current king or are influenced by their traits.
No surprise that Pariah Dark (who had been king for longer than Raâs had been alive) resulted in pit demons. What will Dannyâs pit âdemonsâ look like?
How will the Demonâs Head react to a sudden drastic change in the nature of the Lazarus pit, caused by Danny taking the crown (willingly or otherwise)?
Would that change to the pit itself impact those who have previously been in the pit? Maybe everyone who has been exposed, or possibly just those who happened to be inside one of the pits when the change occurred?
This ended up SO MUCH LONGER than I expected, and I probably should make it itâs own post, but I hope people enjoy it anyway!
Feel free to use or ignore whatever you like, and add on as you like.
Don't imagine a little Bruce Wayne, eyes wide and innocent, before bursting out in giggles as the space-night creature growls playfully at him.
Don't imagine him 'growling' back, playing with the wandering spirit, mimicking the young Ancient's noises.
Don't imagine Bruce finding refuge in night and shadow, even as fear of bats made him tremble, as he tries to escape haunting memories of his parents' deaths.
Don't imagine his familiar 'friend' curling close, cooing to the child, letting Bruce cry as much as he needed.
Don't imagine Bruce, as the years go by, finding a perpetual shadow guiding him, guiding his fury and anger, guiding his grief and remorse. Unknowingly guiding him towards vigilantism.
Don't imagine Bruce being able to sense shadows, spirits, entities, but especially his 'friend'. There's a reason why he tried to learn from Giovanni Zatara.
Don't imagine Bruce sometimes seeking the night to feel a connection to the wandering Ancient; to feel familiar, cold claws carefully run through his hair as a steady purr-growl rumbles in a too still chest.
Don't imagine Bruce remembering the sounds the Ancient taught him as a kid, embracing the otherworldly aspect to put fear into criminals. There's a reason why they thought for years that Batman was a myth, a cryptid.
Don't imagine Bruce feeling relief when the Ancient seemed to take a liking to Dick, knowing his Robin was safe.
Don't imagine his fury and rage and grief when the Ancient couldn't save Jason.
Don't imagine him sobbing into that familiar, cold chest, begging for his son back. It was one of the rare times a somewhat human voice whispered into his hair, "I'm sorry."
Don't imagine Bruce, drowning in grief and fury, finding the tenacious Tim Drake braving the mantle of Robin, untrained and oh so tragically young, with a familiar space-shadow figure behind the youth.
Don't imagine Bruce always searching for the entity, seeing the creature more and more, as if the creature refuses to leave post anymore.
Don't imagine Bruce finally seeing the true face of his friend during a crisis, and seeing only a boy.
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