(Average Metropolis reader after investigative reporter C. Kent's 452nd article on yet another case of landlords/business owners/factories' continued use of lead pipes/paint/gas/glass knowingly exposing the public to dangerously toxic lead levels) what the fuck happened to this guy
One day Bruce Wayne mentions in an interview that heroes like Superman are overrated, as the most effective way to reduce crime is to provide public resources and improve local infrastructure, then cites how neighboring city Metropolis has effectively lowered their violent crime by 13% after addressing their outdated water system and investing low income housing. the reporter conducting the interview suddenly starts looking a little uncomfortable
"Who, Clark Kent? Yeah, we're pretty sure he's a Meta. Is he a superhero? Like what, "Lead-detector guy"? "Captain pipes?" Don't get me wrong, he's a great guy and it's a handy trick, but it's lead detection, not laser vision. He's not about to go running around in tights any time soon."
everyone assumes that kent is so squirrely around superheros because heâs just desperately hoping not to be conscripted to the JLA to fix their plumbing
More than "here in the Southern Hemisphere we have inverted seasons :)" thing, which is TECHNICALLY true, I would go a step further and encourage to think about that "much of the world does not exactly has a spring-summer-fall-winter season sequence as they show in cartoons"
I will scream about this to anyone who listens forever. AUSTRALIA DOES NOT HAVE "ENGLISH SEASONS BUT BACKWARDS" and the insistence that it does creates a massive layer of alienation from the natural world.
I never really realised how much difference it makes until I went to England and realised that here the change of seasons is an obvious, visible, physical change in the world. Like, everything REALLY IS orange and foggy in autumn! In spring there are flowers EVERYWHERE, so much more than any other season, and the trees really do have all blossom and no leaves. Even if it doesn't snow, in winter there's frost all the time and the trees are bare and the sky is visibly greyer all the time. You don't need to be told "this date is the first day of spring", you can SEE IT (although this is getting way messier and less precise due to climate change).
By contrast, most places in Australia the seasons we're taught feel like arbitrary categories - and is it any surprise considering they're colonial constructs? Orange-leaved autumn and blossom-covered spring is a cartoon stereotype with no relevance on a continent where ALL NATIVE TREES ARE EVERGREEN!! Snowy winters are a joke in the desert, and even sunny summers don't ring particularly true considering that much of the country is in the tropics, where summer means monsoons - not that I've ever seen the concept that WE HAVE A MONSOON SEASON taught at an Australian school.
Most Indigenous nations around Australia had six or more seasons, revolving around wet and dry times as much as hot and cold, and marked by the appearances of certain native animals and flowers. Schools need to start teaching the real seasons, and explaining that climate cycles are too complex to generalise globally, or else we will keep raising generations who view the natural world as hostile and unpredictable and climate predictions as generally irrelevent and frequently wrong - and I'm sure I don't need to spell out why that's a problem in the era of climate crisis.
i want to add that 40% of the world's population lives in the tropics, and the 4 season model just doesn't make much sense for a lot of places in there. usually it's just the wet season/monsoon season and the dry season. it's often hot year round.
the 4 season model as you and i know it is a european invention, though 4 season models aren't unique to europe! most notably china has the same type of season subdivision.
in general the way humans define seasons is largely subjective and varies across cultures. the one you were taught is not at all universal!
warriors' ego is such a contradiction man. like when he first starts his journey, he doesn't feel worthy of the hero's tunic and only accepts it because he wants to help find zelda. its not himself, but zelda and then proxi who hype him up with the master sword. he needs the encouragement of those around him to trust that he will be able to wield it, and its their faith that propels him. until the moment he runs in on his own , it's really those around him who raise his ego. and then after he gets trapped in the temple of souls with cia, proxi actually apologies for giving link a big head
when cia confronts link about it, she says: "a sword is just a tool for the weak to swing around. only fools and men put confidence in them. The darkness nurtured within you shall be your own undoing"
which implies a source of link's pride is directly linked to the sword... to being the hero... the power it gives him. warriors himself doesn't have an ego, but at the same time, he does if its with his identity as the hero. it's something that was nurtured along with his identity as Link, Hero of Warriors.
in general, i dont think it's right to completely place the blame on outside factors... while fueled by others, it's still something that is within himself, and something he had to grapple with. cia still says there is darkness that was nurtured with him. but its interesting to see how his humility and his pride exist together
I think something that's important here is that people in Hyrule Warriors are aware of the stories of past heroes to some extent. It's not clear exactly how much, but it's certainly enough for people to get an idea of how these things are "supposed" to go (unfortunately for them, they're in a story that decides to subvert things). This means (among other things) that Warriors has a pre-existing idea of what being the hero is supposed to be like which includes the hero fighting alone for the most part. Previous heroes had companions, sure, but some don't participate in the actual fighting at all, and the ones that do are still somewhat dependent on their hero in a fight. I think that when he gets the Master Sword and gets a taste of its power, he gets the wrong idea and is like "okay, now I can go solo" instead of realizing that his situation is just different.
Danny was Not Happyâąïž. Vlad had actually managed to nearly kill his Dad. His Dad was on constant watch in the ICU, Jazz in a medical induced coma while needing to recover from minor surgery due to internal bleeding, and his Mom had minor injuries and a concussion.
Now Danny had put up with a lot from Vlad, but he had already been stressed out due to Finals, and honestly he doubts that even if he had been perfectly stress free this wouldnât have crossed his bottom line.
Usually he didnât keep any secrets from his best friends, with Jazz being a close second (third?), but one thing he did keep was his plans if Vlad ever did manage to reach this point. He honestly wasnât sure exactly why he didnât want to tell them, but it seemed he would find out after he started the plan.
Luckily, Tucker was a technopath, and had unknowingly helped with his plan by finding out that Bruce Wayne was Batman, along with his entire family of vigilantes. And while Danny didnât generally have much time, Clockwork had actually helped him with some time shenanigans where he was able to scout Gotham and the Bats ahead of time.
Now he just needed to grab some of the things he had created in advance with his barely existing free time, send a text to Sam and Tucker, and he was on his way to Gotham. Hopefully the Bats would agree with his plan if he offered to fix some of the issues he had seen but had been warned by Clockwork was not the time to deal with.
Step 2) enter the haunt known as Crime Alley to summon Red Hood to strike a simple deal: Danny will do the following (take back subjects of his realm doing harm to the living without acting as a protector or guardian, personally oversee the removal of the Lazarus Pitts and have his frightmate Wulf bring his physician to help Jason with the lingering disconnect between his body, soul, core and the Lazarus waters (septic ectoplasm) in e change for him putting Danny in contact with whichever member of the Batfam has the least issues helping him capture Vlad for routine attempts at killing his father, and for the crime of having harmed his mother and sister to hospitalization in the process.
Step 3) work with said member of the Batfam and be evasive about what is going to happen to both Joker (spectraâs new toy, and jailed in Walkerâs haunt. All before his victims are allowed their piece at vengeance for what he did to them and their loved ones) whole dodging what he was going to do to Vlad as a question (by law, heâs allowed to End Vlad for the first active murder attempt on his Dad⊠and he regrets not seeking a pissy ancient to do that for him.)
Step 3.5) make ghost weapons with some walking ad for Red Robin and this guy called arsenal who is very into archery. Danny debates the merit of letting Pandora meet him.
Step 4) follow through on his end (Jason is doing better, and Danny is treating the Pitts as a severe radiation bio hazard given his getup while doing it) while his allies handle their side investigating and Trapping
Step 5) interrupted ans rewritten for some weirdo named Riddler to join Walking Ad, Arsenal, and occasionally Red Hood (Frostbite has him on bed rest. The compromise was investigation via comms).
Step 6) Vlad Trapping Begins.
Step 7) Danny takes out Joker and gifts him to Spectra while the Realms work out how to handle Jokerâs punishment (Danny is a baby king who loves citizen feedback and including them on cases like this. They enjoy the enrichment.)
Step 8) carefully hand Vladâs ass over to his Counsel. Who agree to End him for routine attempts at Fright Ending.
Step 9) fret over familyâs recovery and only let his mom know he âhandledâ vlad with a few ghost friends that see him as a âdefine baby ghostâ so he gets a few perks. And let her know its over.
Step 10) tell his Dad that Vlad had helped Plasmius, ans to do what he had to. (Jack Grieved. Maddie and Danny were relieved. Jazz just, held her baby brother)
Step 11) also unexpected, but now Danny has Walking Ad calling him for supernatural help. And Red Hood and him keep each other posted about missions they did involving magic. (Danny likes the all blades, okay? Theyre cool and ethical. Rare combo). And the archer dude? He messages Danny about engineering⊠and they bond over being unequipped teen parents. Lian and Ellie? Terrors that run with Lunch Box and Youngblood. Danny supervises Realms Playdates, and some in Star. Gotham is Red Hoodâs problem
Step 12) have Batman break into his house at 2 AM asking about the Anti-Ecto Acts, his personal testimony about ghost sapience and sentience, and how to contact the realmsâ authority.
Step 13) choose to be a Bastard and give batman the observantsâ summoning circle instead of the councilâs. As fuck you, you woke his petty ass up after patrol and he finally fell asleep.
Step 14) have the batclan send him a swam of videos of batman âhrnâing and the Observants arguing. With Red Hood demanding to know how he gave them this comedy.
Step 15) debate blocking the bats as they have no understanding of âi am sleeping, screw off or deal with being frozen to the floorâ
the oldest reblogs for this post that i can find are from january 2nd of 2013. this can has been getting kicked around tumblr for almost 13œ years now
i hate all these ai chat ads but especially the ones obviously targeting teenagers in fandoms,,, like you should not be talking to an ai!!! these blorbos exist in your head!! you should be making fanart you should be doing awkward roleplay you should be making crack fanfic,,,, why are you outsourcing fun to a robot
An AI chat bot doesn't read through every single chapter of one of my fics in one day and comment their appreciation and favorite moments in every chapter.
the funniest part about danny phantom is that the entirety of the ghost zone somehow decides they have beef with this one 14 year old from illinois in particular. like why donât you have beef with something that makes sense. like the irs. or the church. like you have all of these cool powers for what? picking fights with teenagers? lame. get a hobby.
Danny Phantom just gets wilder the more you know about it, really.
first of all i gotta say that it's not actually canon that he's from Illinois. the show is just "generic American small city" for his hometown and the fandom took context cues from other parts of the show and decided "Fuck it Illinois makes sense" and just kept that.
But I guarantee you, nothing about the show makes sense when you look at it too closely so take everything with a grain of salt. Yes I'm looking at you, Timeline.
the teenager in question is also kind of a ghost, hence part of the reason why the other ghosts are picking fights with him. He arguably picks a bunch of the fights himself.
it's not just the entirety of the Ghost Zone that get put into the antagonist role in the show either. Danny's other antagonists include:
A literal billionaire (who is also a ghost) (and gets himself elected mayor)
his parents (literally ghost hunters. who also fight the ghosts.)
a circus ringmaster with mind control and reality bending artifacts
Classmates at school who bully Danny
the closest thing we get to an adult who is on Danny's side is Mr. Lancer, who also supports the school bullies
the ghost who impersonated a school counselor and was literally in the role of Danny's therapist for a bit that one episode
A U.S. government agency
a girl he dates was actually being controlled by a dragon ghost and didn't actually want to date him. Have fun with that fallout kid.
the girl he dates for a bit who *wanted* to date him also shows up in costume to shoot him on sight.
his clone shows up and is supposed to be his enemy. he adopts her instead. yes those pronouns are all correct.
she's not really an antagonist but one of his best friends arguably kills him twice. once very much on purpose.
his other best friend and whatever happened in King Tuck.
like it's not enough that this show puts Danny (and friends) against the regular ghosts and the God-Like Being level ghosts and the literal Ghost Tyrant King guy
he can't even catch a break at home either
kid's literally surrounded by people deliberately or accidentally making his life harder, there are no safe Adults, there are barely any safe friends, and he is fourteen and half dead.
and his parents canonically want to rip his alter-ego apart "molecule by molecule" i am not kidding with that one.
Like they made us a sandbox of a Nickelodeon cartoon and just half assed it by grabbing a bunch of two-by-fours, nailing them together... and then sticking them on the beach.
and then people still get mad when the fandom shows up to build sandcastles and dig to china. Yeah, we know they didn't make it That Deep on purpose.
But we're here with the good Tonka Toys anyway and ready to dig.
This post just slapped me in the face (again) with the fact that Danny is just, never safe.
He's never safe.
Home, school, the zone, hanging out with friends, walking down the street, in anotger state; there is nowhere for Danny to go and be safe.
Most ghosts he's met (pretty sure everyone but Frostbite and Pandora), his parents, his friends, Vlad, Jazz; there is almost no one who has not at least once been his enemy.
Can you imagine living like that? At any moment of any day, anywhere he is anyone; even one or both of his best friends, his sister, his mom and dad; anyone could turn around and suddenly become someone he has to fight.
Danny has to be living his life in a perpetual state of adrenaline response. Every waking moment must be spent on a hairpin trigger, ready to fight at the first sign of danger. Can you imagine how much that is going to fuck you up?
My man is struggling and any fics that feature PTSD, cptsd, anxiety, paranoia, or just general mental breakdown? 1000% justified. Canon compliant. More canon than Phantom Planet. (Especially since AGIT retcon'd that trash)
Y'know that common thing where we make Danny have a slower heart rate because ghost boi?
So, that's supposed to be true. As a halfa he should have a steady heart rate around 20bpm in both forms. And originally that was true after his body settled into its new healthy after the accident. But by the time anyone team Phantom thinks to actually check that stuff just in case, Danny is already Stressedâą 24/7, so they inaccurately judge his baselines to be in perfectly normal human ranges. Like, 70bpm at rest and 120 immediately after ghost fights.
And since consistently having your heart beat at 50-100bpm above what it should is, mm, not good for the organ... Danny has actually been experiencing frequent cardiac events and just not noticing it because it seems like it's all just his new normal and his ghostliness keeps him alive (enough) and lets him recover.
I've seen authors explore cardiac stress as one of the reasons he passed out so often in the show, which makes so much sense it's just canon to me now
The fandom gets creative because the show either deliberately or not, puts Danny in absolute batshit situations and tries to sell it to us as normal. He became evil in a timeline because he cheated on test once and it dominoed from there? Come on. The fandom basically takes the show apart (molecule by molecule) and comes up with insanely creative ideas to explain some of the trends
It's so fascinating and honestly I think it's the reason it's kept my attention for so long
He doesn't like Christmas for incredibly justified reasons? Time to teach him to keep his mouth shut and never again speak about his own preferences, because Someone Might Get Upset At Him.
He cheated on a test? Time to teach him that being anything less than entirely honest can amd will get all his family and friends killed. (But not TOO honest, because his secret identity is there to save him from humans, not the ghosts)
Oh, you died? No, you don't get to ask for mental help, get your ass in that rubber suit and go out to fight crime and injustice.
An old, creepy man is sniffing around his mother and him? None of the adults are reliable enough to help, so you might as well just keep quiet and eat the torture with a side of electrocution until Vlad gets bored or messes up and he can escape.
Your bully regularly crosses at least some sort of line daily? No, you don't get to fight back, because the Ghost of Nerds Past is a blind motherfucker who thinks "fighting back" is "being a bully".
Mental health? Who needs that, when the school counsellor could be the creepy, suicide baiting ghost that everyone else seems to like?
And that's just the ones I remember best, I'm sure there's more I'm currently forgetting, at nearly 1 in the morning.
Danny got de-aged some how but still has his ghostly ability. He is on the watchtower causing chaos obviously. The thing is there are so many black haired and blue eyed people that are part of the justice league so everyone assumes that heâs someoneâs child or a relative that theyâre babysitting.
Superman sees him is like I didnât know Bruce got another kid.
Wonder Woman sees him and just like aww he looks like Clark.
Batman is trying to figure out if he is a grandfather or not.
Zatanna knows itâs some type of magic issue happening but still canât figure out if someone got de-aged or a baby was magically born.
The Flash thinks itâs a timeline issue and is slightly freaking out.
Martian Manhunter knows that itâs phantom but thinks itâs funny so he says nothing.
Then baby phantom goes ghost and just phases into space.
"I'll pay you 10 times the amount you were given to take me out." Bruce Wayne is, very out of character, super serious and looking at him so intense.
Danny isn't paid enough to figure out why the supposed himbo isn't acting like it.
"You know what? Yeah. Deal." He fishes his phone out, accepting the money transfer and calls his boss for the day.
"Heyyy big guyâ yeahâ I know... anyway! I'm not killing Bruce Wayne, you should find someone different to do itâ bye!" And he hangs up, cutting the shouting with a grin.
"If you ever, and I mean, ever need someone out of the way, call me."
He happily hands his contact information to the billionaire and swoops out of the window.
Bruce starts calling Danny for jobs that are mercenary adjacent so hes not in too much danger and not killing anyone but is hopefully busy enough hes not taking actual hit jobs
I just imagine Bruce paying Danny more and more per job because he misunderstands that Danny is going to go back to killing any moment now.
Like, Danny refuses one of his job saying he won't be in Gotham for *inserts specific timeframe* because he needs to prepare for a big event, details? That's classified, Brucie :)
Then Danny disappears; even Oracle's all-knowing-cctv-eyes can't find him. When he comes back, he's injured but only a little tender.
Bruce is fretting but Danny is like "it's fine, Brucie. You should see the other guys."
Bruce smiles tensely, "oh, you got them good?"
"Yup, knocking the wind out of the other side and stealing the witnesses' breath away!"
The giggles that follows chills Bruce to the bones.
The boy's height barely reaches his shoulder but suddenly, Bruce feels like a prey under that gaze.
Blue should be a color he's comfortable with. His children has blue eyes; he himself has blue eyes.
Bruce...
"âneed to go. I-I've other businesses I need to attend toâ"
Can't breathe.
"Eh? Aren't you here because you have another job for me?"
A step shouldn't be that threatening.
"No, an urgent situation, I need toâ"
Recenter yourself.
"Take this as an apology for interrupting your day," A shakily written check. "I'll contact you later, Mr. Nightingale."
"..."
"...then, I'llâ"
"Oh, yeah! See you later, Bruci- Mr. Wayne." A confused frown mars the soft smile on Danny's innocent face. The boy doesn't even know whyâ
How do you raise someone to be like this? The father in Bruce despairs. With guileless eyes and cold-blooded nature?
Can Bruce really save him?
Or is it too late?
...
Danny is worried about Brucie. He has such a soft heart that he can't bear to look at Danny's bruised face.
How can someone like this survive in Gotham?
Well, that's why Danny decided to accept his jobs in the first place.
It's better than letting someone dangerous take advantage of Brucie.
He's a good person if a little naĂŻve, a good dad, his family would be devastated if something happened to him.
Danny would too.
It's such a shame he had to go back so soon. A family emergency, maybe?
Danny will ask later...
Who's he kidding? It's not his place. All that they have is a business transaction.
(Danny swallows through a lump in his throat. The jealousy and the loneliness taste cold.)
Know yourself, know your opponent, don't let your wall down, don't let anyone in.
(Danny, go, now!)
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Danny makes a reminder to only coming back to Gotham after all the injuries from the ghosts disappear.
Thought this would go really well with a childhood friends Danny and Damian au and my friend wanted me to share it SO
(btw slightly older Jazz. She's 4 when Danny is born. And partially inspired by this reblog)
Danny knew his morals were warped far before his first kill. His earliest memories are in a playpen in some underground lab. It's no place for a baby, but his parents have always been equally caring as they are reckless. They love their children and want to spend as much time with them as possible, but they refuse to acknowledge the dangers of their work.
Jazz was Jack and Maddie's first born. First time parents are typically more cautious, and so she was less exposed to their work. Their "business trips" were shorter and they found childcare for her to stay with. As she got older she requested to go to summer camps and boarding schools. Both are part of the employee benefits package for the more...civilian aligned families.
By the time Danny was born, his parents had decided that "ectoplasm" was mostly safe around humans. Once he could hold his head up he was strapped to his mama's back while she worked. That shouldn't be acceptable in any lab, but in that place of shadows? What's one more experiment?
How will this "ectoplasm" affect a child?
And so Danny learns his abc's- and the alphabet of various other languages- with chemicals. He stacks his blocks in the shapes of gadgets that catch his eye. His native language is technically English, but as a toddler he commonly mashes together the vocabulary of the languages he most often hears. He's essentially the labs rubber duck: the scientists talk through what they're doing with this child until they figure out the problem.
Now no matter how evil and old-fashioned this league may or may not be, the importance of socialization for young children can not be ignored. No matter if Damian is to one day take over- or if he's a meat suit for his grandfather- a healthy and well developed mind is a necessity. And so while Daniel will never be an equal, he is of an acceptable age and loyalty to be a playmate.
This is how Daniel joins in on The Heir's academic lessons. His purpose is to teach Damian collaboration and leadership. For Damian to learn how to work with and understand others. Daniel has separate martial arts lessons (he doesn't have the privilege, the right to learn their techniques), but he does learn to protect himself and the heir if needed.
(turns out all that was need was for him to toss the heir his sword. The nonchalance of Damian killing the attacker haunts his dreams for years)
The last important thing you need to know about Danny is that his parents drag him everywhere. Every ghost convention they go to he's right by their side. When they're invited to present lectures on ecto-science he's setting up the slides. On the rare occasion they're hired to take care of some ghosts he's watching his dad calibrate his gadgets. It's simple for a child to slip by and ask some "innocent" questions about their research. It's simple for him to plug in a USB and take pictures of documents.
What's not so simple is the destruction of the league.
Suddenly his parents main investors are gone. Jazz has to come home from boarding school and attend normal classes. Danny has always bounced between Amity's public schools and lessons with Damian. Now money is tight in a way his parents can't manage. Now his lessons are in a language he rarely uses outside of family, in a dialect he doesn't know how to write in. He's 10 and everything is falling apart.
Danny gets separated from his parents one day when they're looking for investors. In their tunnel vision he gets left behind with this group of shady individuals. They're armed and lethal in a way that feels familiar and nostalgic. Most of the adults he grew up with have killed. Hell, he watched his longest friend kill a man. He's technically an accomplice to it. It makes it easy to pull the trigger when his new friends are struggling.
This leads to Danny getting a part of the payment. It leads to him tracking them to where they get their jobs. It leads to him having money for bills and groceries and school supplies. It leads to him having money for his own summer camp with stars and space. It leads to his sister getting back on track for ivy league schools.
He's no super assassin, but he's young and knows how to use it. He's noticed as a potential future major player, but the big shots don't pay him much mind. He's tragically not all that unique in the field. Not every job needs an expert, and not every paycheck is written in blood. Sometimes espionage pays just as well, and youth can heavily make up for experience.
So yeah, Danny takes a few well paying jobs a year and struggles in his classes. He fails a history paper for proving the textbook to be wrong, and bites his tongue on horror movie gore being inaccurate. He fails a math test for using the metric system, and pretends he doesn't know the screams of the man featured in Sam's true crime podcast. He fails gym class for daring to use proper climbing technique for the rope climb and something breaks.
No one cares that he does hours worth of research on symbolism for english papers. Outside of spoken, the English he's used to is from college level books and with a lot of extra u's, which is apparently disrespectful to make his teacher read. There's no point in doing any more than the bare minimum. He might as well just slam completed classwork on the teacher's desk and walk out of class. He already has a well paying career that he'll either rise to the top or die young. There's no point in bothering to try in school.
Eventually he makes it to high school and his sister is in college. She has a good scholarship and doesn't need to know that he's funding everything else. That once he dies he has an account set up for her education. That he's starting to feel guilt over something he has less and less reason to do. He allows his friends to goad him into the failed portal. He gladly follows the dare to step in it. He's not surprised at the electricity that fries his entire body.
He's slightly disappointed when he wakes up anyways.
From there Danny doesn't struggle as much as he would've in the show. His grades are the same as ever and him skipping class is nothing new. The ghost fights are fun and a great distraction from his lack of jobs. The thrill and exertion from completing a hit aren't as missed as he expected. All he really needs to do is spend a weekend finding allies and acceptable methods to keep his rogues contained, and that's simple enough. All he really needs to do is to sabotage to portal for a bit and find someone like Walker. It also makes a fantastic opportunity to discover the laws and customs of the Ghost Zone beyond his rogues. It's peaceful and definitely has him planning to learn how to make portals by himself.
So now his worst and most common rogues are no longer a problem, and Vlad is dead. Look, Danny became a hitman for his sister's education and wellbeing. Do you really think he's not gonna merc the dude who wants to kill his father? His ghost might still exist, but if so it's far far away. Afterwards, things calm down. There's no Vlad to stir up major trouble, and Danny is starting to feel antsy for a challenge. For a fight. He gains a new hit and decides that his friends need a college fund anyways.
"I'll pay you 10 times the amount you were given to taken me out."
Nothing could have prepared Danny for that from the notorious himbo. Yeah he figured that Mr. Wayne was smarter than he let on, but the intensity in his voice should've been impossible.
He let's out a light chuckle as he begins to fish out his phone, "You know what? Yeah. Deal." The contact to his work phone is exchanged and the cash is sent to an offshore account.
"The names Nightingale. If you ever, and I mean ever, need someone out of the way, call me." And Danny walks away to the sound of a newly arrived bird making fun of the billionaire. Well the man deserves it.
Years later Danny will look back and see that Bruce recognized his cry for help. He knew what the billionaire must have been connected to, of Damian's childhood home and responsibilities. As a teen he didn't want to admit he had given up, but that's exactly what he did.
The first time Bruce hires Danny it's primarily to find out his identity. He's assigned to guard Damian while out, only for Bruce to discover that the pretense was unneeded.
"Daniel?"
"Hey Damian, it's been a while, eh? Was real surprised when i found out you were still alive" The shock of the apparent acquaintance echoed through everyone present. There was no sign of the league anywhere in his fighting styles. It's as different as can be, and apparently they knew each other from back then?
Everyone witnesses the two old friends catch up. There's no dramatic embrace, but instead a fond awkward exchange of probing the other's interests. Are your favorite foods still the same? Do you still love the stars? When did you start being protective of animals? When did you start killing? Do you still leave this opening in a fight? How many languages do you know?
Danny's shoulders start to relax, he's no longer on edge as the conversation continues. It's nice being able to lay out everything without hiding. His friends know some things, his clients and colleagues know others, but now he can lay out his sins to somebody who understands. To someone who chose something new.
The revelation of Damian wanting to be a doctor fills him with more shame and hope than he's ever felt. There's options away from this outside of jail, a grave, or a hero. He can be just Danny, and it's as freeing as it is terrifying.
But perhaps with an old friend by his side he can move on too.
_______________
Bonus 1: Damian dares Danny to start trying in school. This leads to the faculty discovering that Danny should've been in ESL classes, and Mr. Lancer starts looking through his middle school transcripts and curses when he finds out why Daniel stopped trying in school.
Bonus 2: Damian owns a spay bottle for whenever Danny starts acting villainous.
Bonus 3: Damian finds out about Danny's vigilante identity and never let's him live it down.
Bonus 4: Danny becomes an astronaut separate from the justice league, and the bats are both proud and offended that he rejected the watchtower.
Bonus 5: Danny slowly starts revealing everything to Sam and Tucker. It takes years for everything to be laid out.
Bonus 6: Jazz starts working for the Justice league as a civilian contractor and stumbles upon her brother's file. She then has to come to terms everything her little brother did and sacrificed for her future. Of everything that she was ignorant of in her childhood.
Bonus 7: Danny definitely makes some "traded one league with another" jokes when he gets confirmation of Damian's vigilante identity.
