DC X DP Prompt: Talons
Okay, so you know how everyone talks about how Danny and Jason would recognize each other as members of the undead in a way?
Well, what about Talons? The Talons are basically undead assassins, so Danny would also recognize them. And maybe if you want to go with the idea that Danny is the Ghost King, the Talons might even feel more loyalty to Danny than the Court of Owls.
Or maybe it would leave them conflicted and confused. Maybe, with that confusion, it would give them a chance to fight back against the brainwashing of the Court of Owls and make their own decisions.
Note: I'm pretty sure the Court of Owls is located in Gotham? So Danny lives in Gotham here, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Danny watched the shadow out of the corner of his eye. He didn't know who or what was following him.
But at this point in time, he ceased to care. He was pretty sure it wasn't the GIW. They were never subtle, and probably would have attacked already.
Then again, them getting better at their jobs was the entire reason he had moved to Gotham to begin with.
Aside from that, the shadow only ever appeared to be following him at night. Dimly, Danny considered it might have been one of Gotham's many vigilantes and that his Halfa status had been compromised. But if they hadn't attacked him yet, he was probably safe. Maybe. Possibly.
And so, this went on for weeks to months at a time. But the figure never approached Danny. So, Danny decided that he wasn't going to give it much thought.
That was until of course something landed loudly on his fire-escape.
Grabbing a Fenton-Anti Creep Stick, he snuck over to his own fire-escape to just see a weird looking figure just sitting there.
The figure was dressed up as an owl? An owl assassin? It was some really weird cosplay.
Danny stared at the figure and the figure stared back. Neither of them moving. Just staring at each other.
"Are you just going to sit there staring all night?" Danny asked, exasperated. He didn't receive a reply.
Screw this, he was getting some sleep. He had work in the morning and he had to deal with people. Ugh.
"Don't break anything." Was all Danny said, leaving his window leading to the fire-escape open. The figure could choose to sit there all night or get in away from the cold. Danny didn't care at this point. It was 4 O'clock in the morning and he was getting some sleep.
The birdman, whatever he was, kept coming back. He didn't come every night, but he came the majority of them.
He never did anything, just hung around his fire-escape. He didn't even come inside when Danny left the window open. Just sat there staring.
It was more than a little creepy, but the dude wasn't actually bothering Danny, so Danny didn't do anything about it.
But as it started to get colder and colder, and the snow began to pile up, Danny couldn't help but feel a bit concerned.
Danny could deal with the cold. The cold wasn't a problem to him, not with his Ice Core. In fact, Danny was most comfortable in cold weather. But he knew this wasn't the case for most humans.
(Not that Danny was so sure that the guy sitting on his fire-escape was human, but that was besides the point.)
It also didn't help that some part of Danny wanted to invite the guy in. That part of his Core, the part that was filled with his Obsession with Protection screamed to drag the guy inside.
Which was something Danny was a little more hesitant about. The dude was more than a little creepy. Danny still didn't know who he was. And he was always wearing that creepy owl cosplay.
But as the harsh cold of winter grew, Danny resigned himself to his fate.
Mixing up two mugs of hot chocolate, Danny walked himself over to the window next to the fire-escape.
"Do you want to come inside? It's getting cold out here." Danny inquired. He still didn't receive a reply. Figures.
So, in the end, Danny stepped onto the fire-escape himself. The birdman perked up at that, and Danny became equated with the fact that the man was decided taller than him. Curse his short height.
"At least take this." Danny handed the man one of the mugs of hot chocolate, and the man seemed to react mostly on instinct. Danny began to move back inside when a voice stopped him.
"What is Talon supposed to do with this?" The man spoke. This was the first time in all the weeks that the man had been coming to his fire-escape that he had spoken. His voice was smooth, but had a robotic lilt to it that made Danny shiver in discomfort.
"You can do whatever you want with it." Danny responded, eyeing the man up and down strangely.
"Talon doesn't have wants." The man answered back.
Okay, this was starting to get real creepy, even for him. What was up with this guy. Pausing for a moment, Danny responded.
"Then drink it. Use it for warmth. That's what it's there for." Danny pointed out.
Surprisingly, the man quickly moved to remove his mask. The sudden movement startled Danny, but the man didn't stop for anything.
He began to quickly down the glass, causing Danny to speak up in a panic. Not even having enough time to observe the man's features.
"Slowly! Drink it slowly! You'll burn yourself otherwise." And the man automatically slowed down at Danny's words. It was unsettling.
Strangely enough, Danny had never felt more discomfort around the man then when he was so clearly listening to Danny. Because that was the weird thing, he was listening to Danny's words like they were orders. Not the suggestions they were.
Quietly, Danny moved back into his apartment building.
Maybe he should be more concerned about the fact that some strange unknown was following him around.
Still though, he left the window open in case the man ever came inside. He never did.
But later that next morning when Danny woke up, he found the mug he had given the man resting on the windowsill. Completely drained of any hot chocolate.
Despite himself, Danny couldn't help but thing back to how the man looked. His skin grey with what Danny could only connect with the dead. And yet, the man's soft looking black hair would suggest he was perfectly healthy. And the man's eyes? Well Danny never saw them considering they were hidden under his goggles.
Maybe he should shoo the man away. Things were just getting weirder to the point Danny could no longer ignore it.
But his Core screamed against the idea. Danny sighed in annoyance to himself. It seems, at some point or another, his core had decided the mystery man was apart of his 'fraid.
Danny really should shoo the man away. But next time, he might really just drag the man inside.
"Leave unless you want me to keep you"
Talon turned towards the strange man, its claws inches away from the steaming mug.
The man had blue eyes, like Those Who Talon Did Not Know. Like his family the strangers in the Memories That Did Not Belong to It.
Talon had returned to the balcony again and again for the memories. It did not like it, because Talon had no likes or dislikes, but the color of the man's eyes made the memories clearer.
The man's eyes were not blue tonight.
Tonight the eyes were a neon green. This too carried memories.
Gunfire and rage. White streak and snark. Shared meals. Quiet libraries. First of little brothers. Lost returned. Little Wing.
DICKIEBIRD.
Eyes should not be glowing green. Eyes should not be gold
the one time it had seen its reflection in the mirror, it had tried to gouge out its eyes and slit the throat of the Good Doctor who tried to sedate it
Talon did not think the Doctors were good doctors. They always made the memories fade away.
They made everything fade away, and stored Talon in the Sleeping Cold until the Court needed him again.
The Above has started to remind it of the sleeping cold. If Talon could worry, it would worry that the cold would slow his reactions and leave him to sleep in the Above.
Perhaps the cold had already slowed it too much. It did not attempt strike back at the man's attack.
Was it an attack?
The man had wrapped his hand around its wrist and was gently tugging it towards the open window.
"I don't know where you go when you leave, but it's obvious they aren't taking care of you."
The Good Doctors insured that Talon was fully functional. The Court would be angry if it didn't return and would send others to hunt down whatever had delayed it. Is that not the same as care?
"I don't have much space, but the couch is comfy and it's way better than freezing out here"
It thought of the cold darkness of the roost and the memories that would slip through its fingers like sand.
"Please just let me help."
With a the barest hint of a nod, the Gray Son of Gotham let the hand around its wrist guide it over the threshold.
Danny had brought the weird birdman into his home. Jazz was going to kill him. Dani was probably going to have a real hard laugh about this. Tucker and Same would probably be somewhere inbetween.
Valerie would also probably want to kill him. Or maybe she's giving up on understanding ghost shenanigans, same with Wes.
Danny glanced at the strange man, watching him from his kitchen as the man sat on his couch. Well, Danny practically sat him there himself, but that was besides the point.
If Danny didn't know any better, he might have thought the man was cationic with his lack of responses. But seriously, this was the type of weirdo that Danny's ghost core thought was ideal to be apart of his 'friad?
(It was strange. Danny's core so rarely accepted others like that easily, especially if they were living. Danny's core only really accepted others into his fold that easily if there were also dead. The man didn't seem dead, and he wasn't setting off Danny's ghost sense, so Danny failed to see why the connection had been formed, but he couldn't do much about it now.)
"The pantry's fully stocked. Feel free to help yourself. Bathroom's down the hall on the right." Danny stated, leaving the man to his own devices, deciding to go to bed.
The next day, the man was gone by morning. Nothing in Danny's pantry had been touched. Actually, the apartment seemed as if no one but Danny had even been inside of it.
The next week, the man didn't come back. But when he did, he hanged around on his fire-escape like normal. Didn't even try to come inside even though the window was open. So, Danny dragged him inside once more.
This time, it wasn't as late as it normally was when Danny noticed the man, so Danny put on a TV show as he sat the man down on his couch. Still no response. Still no real signs of life.
"Do you want any hot chocolate? Any snacks?" Danny asked.
"Talon doesn't want things." Was the first thing said to him all night. Ah, yes, the ever so cryptic words that Danny had no context to understand.
"Would you like to try some?" Danny tried a different approach.
"Talon doesn't have likes or dislikes." And really, Danny should have expected that response. That night, Danny dropped it, left it alone. He was already having the man watching trashy TV shows with him, best not to push it.
But the next night the man came over, Danny dragged him into his kitchen instead.
"Okay, mask off. We're having a taste test party." Danny declared, having prepared a large arrange of different drinks and junk foods to try. Danny wasn't a chef of any sort, so it wasn't anything elaborate, but Danny was sure he could find something the man enjoyed.
The man obeyed, taking off his masks, simply obeying Danny without a second thought. It made Danny uncomfortable, but maybe he could use it to help the man be something more than whatever the hell he was right now.
"We're going to find out what you like and dislike. This way I'm not just shoving hot chocolate at you." Danny explained.
"Talon doesn't have likes or dislikes." The man reiterated. Danny nodded, as if that made perfect sense.
"You've said that. But everyone has likes and dislikes. Even people dressed up in weird owl cosplays." Danny pointed out.
"Talon is not an Owl. Talon is a Talon." The man stated. Once again, making a comment that made zero sense.
"And I'm sure that statement makes perfect sense to you. Now, taste test time."
Danny watched closely as they made their way through the different items. The man's face was neutral the entire time, not giving anything away. He was really committing to the bit of whatever this 'Talon' business was. But it wasn't enough to hide the subtle nuances to Danny's obsessed core that insisted on coddling the man even though he was a full grown adult.
He noticed how the man seemed to linger around the cereal, ate more of it overall. Would have bigger sips of the Sodar verses the Zesti. Small things like that. It wasn't a lot, but it was something.
So, the next time the man came over, Danny had cereal prepared and bottles of Sodar at the ready.
At this time, the man didn't wait for Danny to drag him inside, he just came in himself. Yes, the progress was slow, but it was being made. Maybe, Danny will eventually get an actual name. Might even see the man wear something other than his weird cosplay, but for now this settled his core. For now, this was enough.
Danny blinked and then he blinked again.
It wasn't just the one weirdo this time. He brought someone with him.
He brought a child that was dressed in the same weird outfit as him.
Danny took a moment to collect himself.
"Ya'know what? Why not. This might as well happen." Danny couldn't help but mumble to himself.
He got to work, setting up the TV and got even more snacks and drinks out. He pretended not to notice as the man gestured the child through the actions, as if eating and drinking wasn't normal behavior. As if being offered food and drink wasn't normal.
Then again, it probably wasn't normal to get offered food and drink by the person of the apartment that they just kinda snuck into. So why not.
Weeks passed, and this continued to happen. Sometimes the original guy wasn't there, but it'd be some other random child. But the one Danny most frequently saw was the one guy.
Danny didn't know when he became a home for bird-children, but he was starting to think he might want to look into it.
Danny wouldn't consider himself antisocial, not really. His coworkers would most certainly disagree, however. It was not Danny's fault. He was busy. Working full-time at the same time as taking classes wasn't easy. It's not like he went out of his way to get out of social interactions. It just happened.
So what if he took all of his scarce free time, including his lunch breaks, as an opportunity to either visit amity or Sam and Tucker (or Jazz) in their universities? Not his fault portals made it so he could get anywhere he wanted in the world in a matter of seconds.
So what if he refused to even speak whenever he was focused on his latest project? He had things to do, (self-imposed) deadlines to meet. Not like he could give his work any less than 100% of his attention, that's how explosions happened. No, Kyle, he wasn't being paranoid. He had enough experience with OSHA violations to know exactly what happened when you ignored them and pretended everything was fine. He had died at 14 because of one. He wasn't stupid. Or traumatized. Nope.
The talons' now almost-daily visits hadn't really made a change on his social life except to give him an extra reason not to have one. At least not in Gotham. He did have local friends, Jazz, didn't you hear? The owl cosplayers had finally gotten comfortable coming inside his house and taking his snacks, he was thriving. No, he did not need an intervention, thank you very much.
It had still taken him by surprise when one of his more persistent coworkers had insisted on walking him home after he had lost track of time and stayed slightly after hours to finish his project. Apparently outsiders shouldn't be walking out at night alone in Gotham. Danny thought they were exaggerating but they seemed genuinely worried so he agreed. It's not like he lived far, just about a 10 minute walk, nothing was going to happen to him, even if he did find trouble. He couldn't say that, though, and his reassurances that he was truly really fine were getting nowhere so he had just given in. They did make a good substitution for small talk while they walked together, even if his companion (so he didn't actually know their name, sue him) kept looking at him weirdly after he had given a couple of toned down examples of why he was perfectly safe.
They got to his door and Danny opened it, already wondering whether to invite them in or just thank them for the company. Neither happened as he noticed the sharp inhale and sudden silence behind him where a constant stream of words had been flowing before. He turned around to see his companion frozen, eyes wide and focused on something behind him. He opened his mouth to ask if they were ok, part of him wondering what rattled them so badly to stop them mid sentence, the other part cynically thinking they wouldn't have been much protection if they had gotten attacked on their way to Danny's house. Before he could do much, they talked although it didn't seem to be directed at him.
"Dickie?" Ah. So they knew the undead bird sitting on his couch. This was going to be interesting.
