what do you think would have happened if tim was tiny/shrunk during jasons attack on Titan tower ? What would jason have dome then if he saw tim tiny?
It definitely would have shocked him out of his Pit Rage. I have an idea about something similar that I'm working on. I might post it in the spring, when I've got some time.
Instead of being able to, very briefly and painfully, fuck with time; he got an ability based on all the absolute bullshit that's happened to him.
From the childhood, to his friends dying in front of him. All the shitty rumors that sprouted up, all the shit luck, all of it. Just, all of it.
So instead of Instant, he got Lament.
Lament is a scream capable of leveling buildings, at the cost of absolutely shredding Rok Soo's throat.
As a result of that power, Rok Soo doesn't talk often, and when he does his voice is hoarse and pained. He also refuses to speak at full volume, because while he's got a handle on his power, he's paranoid that he'll slip up.
So when he transfers over to the body of Cale, people notice.
The Young Master went to bed his usual talkative self, but when he woke up?
Barely a word, and when he did speak, a whisper.
Cale barely speaks a word to Ron beyond the single syllable required. Barely bothers to acknowledge Deruth. Relies on hand-speak and notes to talk to merchants.
Deruth is going crazy trying to figure out what the hell happened to his son, Ron is very close behind him because what the hell got past him? He's Ron Fucking Molan.
Then Cale comes home with a bedraggled punk that smells like the trash the killed Ron's family, and Ron has to listen in astonishment as he says more to this jackass than he's said to Ron in a week.
Basically; Cale's power of Lament is so strong and painful that everything Cale is paranoid of letting it slip, that he's selectively mute.
This causes many misunderstandings, in true Cale fashion.
What if, GoD offers a divine item that let's others share Cale's dreams. Like, cale can give his friends rings and when they wear them while they sleep they meet up with Cale. And he is so happy and he talks so much.
Yes there will be more misunderstandings about his voice, but I'd also like to think that someone actually asks him about it, maybe choi han after the memories thing, and Cale will explain- yes this is nice, I haven't been able to talk like this since forever ago and I get to talk to GoD whenever I sleep and he listens to me and I haven't had that in forever either.
Also, being able to talk freely, he'd get used to the sound of his voice.
Also, also, that earlier post about singing hymns. Maybe GoD convinces Cale to let him tweak it a bit, maybe it's an accident like the healing. But cale can sing hymns and prayers of death without touching the collar.
Okay so not really. Long story short, Danny goes to the DC universe for whatever reason, however the DP universe is smaller than the DC one, meaning that even though Danny can be normal sized in his ghost form, in his human form hes only about 4-5inches tall.
While trying to find a place to settle down, Danny, in ghost form, stumbles upon the Watchtower. Its big, it has food and shelter, and most importantly its in space. Sure its the Super Hero Club House(tm), but its probably safer than just living in just any old rando's house or something. Thus begins Danny's life as a Borrower in the Watchtower! And if Danny sometimes fixes this and that around the tower and help the hero's find lost or missing things from time to time, well thats just Danny paying his rent. Because hes responsible.
[Written to 'Renegade (We Never Run)' from Arcane]
Technically speaking, Mr. Masters, Gotham's new aspiring crime lord, did provide them with a getaway car. It's just that, in Tim's honest, objective opinion, said car sucks major ass.
First of all, it's white, which is, well, not the best color for disappearing into the night. Then, it's old — not vintage old, thank fuck, but definitely made before 2005 — and long overdue for a makeover. Tim doesn't see a single part of it that doesn't have a scratch or a dent on it, and are those bullet holes on the passenger door?
Eh, whatever, this is a staged escape anyway. Tim doesn't need it to be successful, he only needs an alibi. Someone — their driver, in this case — to later tell Masters that Alvin Draper did everything he could to keep the package safe. So he can stay in the man's moderately good graces even after they get caught by Batman tonight.
Tim makes it to the car first, throws the back door open and slides inside in one motion, slamming it behind him. Jason, the drama queen, jumps in through the open window and into the front passenger seat.
"Hit the gas, they are on our heels!" He yells at the driver, struggling to turn himself over and put his ass in the seat. Serves him right, opening the door and getting in the normal way would have taken literally two seconds.
The car jolts into movement without a moment of hesitation — so at least the driver has a good reaction time — but Tim still hears a dull sound of a betarang hitting the rear end of it. Nice throw, Cass!
It's only then that he cares to actually look around and realize a few things. A few, arguably, very important things. Like the fact that their driver is a redhead girl who looks barely sixteen. Or that there are two kids, looking no older than ten, in the back seat beside him.
He blinks and stares. The kids — both boys, one of them white as milk with a dark mop of hair and the other one black, wearing glasses and a red beanie — pay no mind to either him, Jason in the front seat, or the speed the car is going at. In fact, they pay no attention to the outside world as a whole, hunched over an outdated PSP. They are playing it together, one of the kids in charge of action buttons and the other one controlling the D-pad, so Tim can understand the need to focus: it takes some impressive teamwork to sucessfully go through the game like that. And they are using some complicated combos while at it, wow.
Wait, no, this is such a wrong time to marvel at videogame skills! They are kids, in a car, in a getaway car, in the middle of a car chase with the fucking Batman!
They take a sharp turn, and Tim grabs onto the handle in order to not bump into the door.
"Oh, you didn't tell me we're racing with the Batmobile," the redhead girl says, but it sounds surprisingly nice and polite, like she's merely asking about the weather.
"Yeah, well, we didn't expect that kind of trouble either," Jason snaps back, scrunching his nose, but the girl just laughs softly.
"No, don't worry. It's no trouble," she assures almost gently, and then reaches one hand behind the seat without looking, tapping the black boy on the knee, "Tucker, sweetheart, switch with me?"
Hold on, what?..
"But Ja-a-azz," the white boy whines.
"We've just got to the boss fight," Tucker pouts, but the redhead just taps his knee more insistently.
"And I'm sure you'll get to it again after we make it out," she says, still perfectly polite and collected. Tim glances out the window. Either this girl has nerves of steel or there's something very wrong with both her and the kids; they are going at least 95 mph, and she keeps only one hand on the wheel like it's nothing.
"Ugh, fine," the kid rolls his eyes and nudges his friend in the shoulder, passing him the console, "Save it, I'll get the cord."
"What cord?" Tim asks because he thought this was a simple undercover mission, but now he gets a sneaking suspicion there's a lot more to it than it looked.
Tucker, with one hand under the driver's seat and searching for something blindly, turns to glare at him.
"The control-cord," he answers like the dumb one here is Tim, "How else do you think- A-ha!" His face lights up as he emerges victorious from under the seat, holding... Yeah, a cord, okay. Which he plugs into the PSP that the other boy hands him without prompting.
"Maybe fasten your seat belts, this is about to get interesting," Jazz offers, but doesn't do so herself. Neither of the kids do it either, and Jason just snorts dismissively.
"You're saying it wasn't 'interesting' before?" There's definitely some teasing in his voice. Tim looks down to the package in his lap, a metal box holding some unknown but evidently very important content.
He fastens his seat belt just in time. The car jerks and speeds up — they are definitely past 110 now. And Jazz is not holding the wheel.
It only takes a moment for Tim to connect the dots and look to the PSP in Tucker's hands. Sure enough, instead of a game, his screen is now a perfect replica of the car's windshield in real time, and his fingers are firmly placed on controls. Like he's done it hundreds of times.
They are racing the Batmobile, and a ten-year-old is driving. This mission is fucking wild.
"Brakes, brakes, BRAKES!" Jason yells from the front, and Tim only gets a moment to notice the quickly approaching back of a truck in front of them and realize they are going to crash before their car just goes through it with no resistance. He even looks in the back window to make sure he didn't hallucinate the truck, but no, it's still there and still real.
Did they... Phase through it?..
"What the fuck," he mutters under his breath.
"Language, there are kids in the car," Jazz chides him with a huff of laughter, and then there's a click.
"What the f- fudge," Jason repeats the question, albeit much louder and way more alarmed than Tim before.
When he turns back around, the redhead is holding a grenade launcher. It doesn't look like a model Tim is familiar with, but it's for some reason painted white, just like their car. Is that some kind of Masters' thing?
Wait, that's a grenade launcher.
Jazz ties her hair in the back in less than two seconds and then reaches up to the roof of the car, pressing a button to open the sunroof.
"Wait, you can't shoot a vigilante, they'll-" Tim yells over the wind, but Jazz just smiles at him and stands up on the driver's seat, peeking out and taking position. Tim throws a panicked look at Jason — they sure didn't plan for anything like this. The car chase was supposed to be over in less than a few minutes, none of them thought that Masters, a fairly new figure in the Gotham underground, would have a kind of vehicle that can phase through things and drive at- at 150 mph through the city roads! Not to mention some strange fucking kids and a teenage with grenades!
"She won't kill anyone," a voice comes from Tim's side, and when he turns his head, he finds the other kid, the one he doesn't know the name of, looking at him, his eyes calm and unblinking. And slightly glowing, okay, and here he was, thinking this clusterfuck of a ride can't get any weirder.
"How do you know?" Tim snaps because there's only so much he can deal with at once in the span of five minutes. The kid shrugs.
"It's Jazz. She has morals," he says, like the word disgusts him, and Tucker huffs a laugh.
"You have them, too. Vlad and Dan killed people before, though," he argues, his eyes still glued to the screen of the PSP.
"Not in Gotham," his friend adds, seemingly just for the sake of having the last word in the argument.
Whatever Tim wants to say back gets cut off by a sound of a gunshot. He turns to the back window again, his heart stuck in his throat, but it looks like the white kid was right: the roaring Batmobile is still on their heels. Whatever the redhead tried to do, she missed.
"Danny, on three!" Jazz yells from above, and the kid springs to action like he's been waiting for this moment his whole life.
"One!"
Tucker moves out of the way as Danny climbs over him and towards Tim, unceremoniously shoves the precious metal box away and all but falls into Tim's lap despite his loud yet wordless sounds of protest.
"Two!"
The boy yanks the latch and throws the door open, leaning down while still sprawled over Tim's knees, and Tim grabs the back of his shirt out of reflex. It doesn't matter that the whole thing is a disaster, he's not letting a ten-year-old fall out of the car on his watch.
"Three!"
There's a loud pop somewhere behind them, and the car suddenly turns and drifts sideways, the sound of skidding tires grating on Tim's ears. Yet, he still feels Danny move and sees him reach and touch the ground. There's a short moment of panic — at this kind of speed, the pavement will shave the skin off the boy's hands in seconds — but then there's a shimmer of white bursting from Danny's palms.
When Tim looks up, the road behind them is covered in ice, the smooth surface of it shining in the yellow light of streetlamps. And, a bit further, there's a thick layer of smoke that should definitely hide them from the view of pursuers.
Smoke grenades. And ice powers. That explains the glowing eyes, Danny must be a meta.
The car shifts again, changing directions, and Tim, almost like in slow-mo, sees the metal box that they've gone to such great lengths to steal, slide towards the open door and tip over the edge.
He is still holding Danny's shirt, and the boy is still hanging halfway out of the car.
The seat belt is pressing tightly into his chest.
The box falls out, and Tim shuts his eyes close. Fuck it, he can fail the mission, it's not the end of the world, Jason can still try and weasel his way into Masters' close circle, and Bruce would understand if Tim explains why quickly enough, it's okay, no big deal-
"Gotcha!" Danny yells cheerfully as the car makes a sharp turn and comes to a halt all of a sudden.
Tim opens his eyes.
Danny, a wide, wicked grin on his face, is holding the box in his hands.
"You're a little shit," Tim breathes out, and the boy laughs, wiggling on Tim's lap and trying to get back inside the car.
"Born and raised," he answers with such a shit-eating expression on his face that Tim doesn't even bother holding back his urge for petty revenge. He releases his death grip on the back of Danny's shirt and gleefully watches the brat lose his balance and faceplant the ground.
The 'quick' undercover mission is sure getting an extension, but somehow, he can't bring himself to feel bad about the fact.
Vlad preferred to keep under the radar for his shady deals. He also knew what he wanted. He wanted Madeline as his wife, he wanted Daniel as his son, he wanted Jack dead.
At first, he supposed 2 out of three wasn’t bad. The extras that came with were more than he bargained for however. That they had all been deaged to some degree was difficult, but manageable.
Their proclivity towards chaos and destruction of property (mostly his), was too much. He needed something to keep their attention off of destruction (of his) property!
And so, desperate times called for desperate measures. Perhaps he could make them someone else's problem...?
Johnny hits Jason with his bike ("we were supposed to go through him babe!" "But we didnt!") which knocks Jason unconscious. Kitty sees he's a ghost and is like "its a baby!" gif and refuses to leave him there.
Jason wakes up to the weirdest coddling experience of his (after)life. After many many tries he cannot successfully escape the growing group of concerned ghosts who are doing the coddling
Two days later Batman issues a search for his missing son, becoming more and more distressed when the batfam finds no leads
Danny is getting anxious because he hasn’t seen any of his Rogues in over a week. Not even Box Ghost! So he goes to the Zone and finds a giant, glowing puppy pile (with blob ghost pillows). He’s baffled and intrigued and a little jealous.
“Have you guys always had cuddle piles and just never invited me?”
Kitty informs him about the “baby” and everyone begrudgingly shifts around so Danny can meet him…
Jason has been resurrected for at least 4 years now since he’s the Red Hood for this. Probably longer since Danny was able to recognize him immediately.
Danny is still 14 for this, meaning he’s only been a half ghost for less than a year.
He’s as baby as baby can get but none of the ghosts ever treated him like this.
He didn’t get cuddle piles.
He didn’t get coddling or coos.
All Danny got was shot at, hunted, electrocuted, burned, beat up, caged, mind controlled, thrown around, and just generally harmed by nearly every single ghost in that cuddle pile.
Where was this behavior for him? What did he do that meant he was treated like a enemy?
Danny stared at the group of ghosts who had all at some time or other hurt him. Sure maybe a few times he hit first, but they’d never given him a reason to think they wanted anything more than a fight.
Except the Dairy King. Who he met once.
“He can’t stay here.” Danny said, his voice icy and bitter as he crossed his arms. He didn’t care if this was Red Hood, The Avenger of Gotham. The only hero adjacent person besides Martian Manhunter Danny thought might be able or willing to protect him. “He goes back to Gotham after he sees Frostbite.”
Danny was angry and hurt, but that didn’t mean he was cruel. Whatever fucked up chemical concoction of Ecto he’d been exposed to was bad. So he would get tHe BabY a check up.
“But-!” Kitty protested and clutched the fucking Red Hood, tighter. “I’ve already adopted! He’s only four Phantom!”
ONLY-!? Danny felt his eyes flash as anger spiked. He ignored the way Hood flinched and pressed a little closer to Kitty. He hadn’t accepted the bond yet but did take the comfort.
It burned worse that they were right and he could feel it too. He was so young and his core was weak, held together by an ancient magics Danny brushed with once a few months ago.
The All something?
“Come on Phantom. I know you like to hog the living world but you can’t just kick a baby out like that!”
“H-Hog-!?” He snapped, fangs that had only just stopped itching on display. “He’s a fucking adult! He’s like four and a half years dead! And you! Why are you here and not hunting this guy or Plasmius for that matter!?”
Skulker had the audacity to scoff at him.
“I do not hunt children obviously. It’s hardly sporting.”
“I’D only been dead three months when you showed up shooting at me! And you!” He rounded on the lunch lady. “I didn’t even know what was happening to me when you showed up! Two weeks! I-I didn’t… just two weeks before all of you started showing up…”
He felt something wet dripping from his hands and realized his claws were out again and digging into his palms.
“B-Baby-pop. You- We let a ten month old baby fight Fuckin’ Pariah Dark?” Ember exclaimed, her hair flaring in alarm at the realization.
“Bullshit!” Johnny snarled and stood up. “Cut the shit Phantom, ain’t no way you that young, not with a fuckin’ ancients Core.”
“Frostbite, he called it primordial. It’s not formed yet!” Danny shot back.
“This isn’t funny dearie, you shouldn’t make claims like that and get jealous over a baby.” Lunch Lady chided. “And you were so sweet about Box Lunch.”
He felt his teeth grinding together and the sting in his hands worsening as he looked between them.
“Are- holy fuck are you trying to gaslight me about my own fucking death???” He demanded, frozen tears dropping from his cheeks. “I’m almost fifteen! I died on my fourteenth birthday exactly. The two people who were there don’t mourn me because I’m technically still alive enough it apparently doesn’t matter! I don’t have a grave because I’m not dead enough to have a corpse!”
Danny curled in on himself cold and hot in equal and conflicting amounts. He was hyperventilating despite not needing to breathe.
“What did I do wrong?” He keened, his core crying out for his parent, hurting and desperately seeking comfort. “Why does everyone hate me so much? I just, I just didn’t want anyone to get hurt.”
The answering rumble wasn’t the crisp spark of stars he wanted most. It was low and awkward but sincere. Carrying the smell of gunpowder, smoke, and cinnamon, that was choked under the sickly sweetness of chemical rot.
He was being held by someone solid and warm. Danny keened again, a childish sound he’d never made outside the privacy of his own room oh particularly bad nights.
“Hey, hey it’s gonna be okay.” Hood’s voice was gruff but soft against his temple and Danny buried his face against his shoulder. He must have removed his helmet because there wasn’t a digital distortion to his voice.
“E-Everyone ha-hates me so much and I do my best I try I do but it hurts, it hurt so much I had to f-find a second anchor and even that s-sucks because they hate me more now!” He sobbed in a hushed voice only for Hood to Chirrup at him, following up with a soft series of twittering vocalizations that soothed his core.
Safe-help-protect-little brother
Danny started looking up at him wide eyes and chirped back in bewilderment.
Safe-no hurt-brother?
With a reassuring hum Danny watched the surprise flash across Hood’s face when the bond clicked into place.
Danny couldn’t stop the cheerful chirps if he wanted too and clung to Red Hood as if he were afraid to let go.
Oblivious to the disgruntled and equally bewildered collection of ghosts the two continued to comfort and reassure each other.
Hood gets the hug first because there is a sudden and extremely important sidebar
Danny’s rogues need to confer
Because….. it tracks
Kid’s running around developing a new power every other fight, and having so much trouble with them they all assumed he just… didn’t use most of them
Like he was out of shape after being an asshole and avoiding everyone for centuries
Frostbite’s protectiveness suddenly makes a new and terrible sense, but most of them never actually go to the Far Frozen because it’s Far so they never asked
Kitty just. Stage whispering. “Are we child abusers you guys?????”
Walker desperately checking the Rules to work out how long he needs to lock himself up for
Skulker having a Full Mental Crisis because that is a Baby he has been hunting a BABY getting his ass kicked by a BABY
Fucking DANNY has recovered in his new brother’s arms before they’ve worked it out, cried himself out and snuggled long enough to start wondering what’s going on
They wind up just
Watching
As the Ghost Zone has a collective meltdown trying to work out what’s going on
Clockwork meanwhile is back home with the popcorn he’s been awaiting for this one
The hug party had wound down an they were on their way to the Far Frozen when Gotham's city spirit shows up, to make everything even more chaotic. Jason was already semi adopted by her but since she's not a pure ghost and Jason's core is messed up it didn't show properly.
She is still ready to fight the other ghosts for him though, and look, he even got a new brother to add to the flock!
That's how Danny somehow gets semi adopted by a possessive eldritch city as well. Because if no one in the Ghost Zone is going to look after this tiny liminal powerhouse, then Lady Gotham will swipe him. She got a soft spot for sassy heroic teenagers.
Sassy heroic teen? Thank you very much he's hers now.
Steals the two of them from the group of Rogues and huddles over them in attempt to keep them warm while Frostbite looks over both her and Jason
And since Danny is more ghostlike then Jason (not to mention younger baby ghost) the bond is a bit more solid and she's a bit more protective because of it.
The second Frostbite gives the ok she's gone and both the babies are gone.
And Bruce is looking at a massive form made of shadows that appears to be cuddling his second son and an unknown meta in the middle of the Bat cave.
Damian: ...Father, that's part of the reason why I have to be the only child to be represented in the family tree
Tim: he's not totally wrong, if we include extradimensional families now we're going to have difficulty in representation
Dick: but noooo, family is family, moreover we have more or less put babs and steph with the emotional color to adopt, it's not more complicated or weird than that
Cass: *always more brother <3 but next time it would be a little sister*
Danny says nothing but thinks Very loud (if they are good, maybe he will introduce them to Jazz and Dani)
Cass sneaks into his room later that night with Steph.
Steph: You have sisters! We won't tell! We want to know how to prove we can be good sisters!
Cass: Yes! We need more girls!
Danny: Ok! So Ellie is my clone! Mama Gotham went to go find her! So she will be around. But not, visible till she trusts it. Jazz is at college here! Doing medical science. She wants to be a neuro specialist.
Cass: We can meet her?
Steph: Please!!!!
Danny: Ok! But only Jason as well. The others can't know yet!
Ah yes. We all love Danny getting to kick back and let an adult do the work for once. And he get's to enjoy being baby for a bit. Mama Gotham finally captures Ellie and drags her home as well. Much to Danny's amusement.
Ellie somehow manages to steal Tim's spot as least favoured sibling. Tim is not sure how to feel about it. Like it's nice to no longer dodge an angry assassin. But Ellie is literally 18 months old, if that. For all that she was aged up. Someone should probably stop this right?
Meanwhile Clockwork is sat back giggling while watching Batman destroy the GIW before it has a change to properly form. Arresting the Dr's Fenton. And taking in their kids. As well as helping the portal be moved and modified. There will be no more random ghost attacks thank you.
Imagine if all the Danny's want to be a Normal Teenager is him just being BABY
Well...Not ALL all, but a good chunk of it is. Because while his human side is...well, human (Teenager Shenanigans of learning responsibility and adulting), his ghost side wants to be taken care of, cared for as babies should.
Danny does not have to save the world? Danny does not have to fight the strong ghosts? Danny does not have to be the hero? Danny could get to love this!
Johnny hits Jason with his bike ("we were supposed to go through him babe!" "But we didnt!") which knocks Jason unconscious. Kitty sees he's a ghost and is like "its a baby!" gif and refuses to leave him there.
Jason wakes up to the weirdest coddling experience of his (after)life. After many many tries he cannot successfully escape the growing group of concerned ghosts who are doing the coddling
Two days later Batman issues a search for his missing son, becoming more and more distressed when the batfam finds no leads
You know what, I just saw a fic where the ghosts from the zone think he’s a baby ghost right? We’ve all seen them and they’re super fun.
But what if it was the opposite? Most ghosts develop over time and absorb ectoplasm to get stronger right?
When Danny died he had a portal open on top of him fusing his dna with the realms. So much power shoved into such a small body.
When the ghosts see him they know he’s a halfa but what if they think he’s an ancient halfa?
They believe Danny is some crazy strong old ghost that needs to be defeated before he regains control of his power or gets his memory back.
Maybe they believe he implanted himself among the Fentons to help hide while he recovers.
Maybe that’s why walker is so made when he breaks the rules, he thought he was old enough to have written them
Eventually he starts to bond with the other ghosts and one day he asks one of them how they moved past dying.
I’m thinking ember.
They’re sitting on a roof one night after a pretty crazy fight and Danny just gets super quiet and ember asks him what’s wrong and he tells her the truth.
It would be 1 year since his accident and he still didn’t know how to accept what happened. How to accept that he had died and been reborn as something new.
Imaging her looking at this ancient level Eldritch creature that all of them had been trying to stop from getting stronger and realizing
Hes just a baby, they had been trying to stop a newly formed ghost from harmonizing with his core and discovering what his obsession was and they had succeeded.
If he hadn’t even been able to accept his death then his growth had been severely stunted by their intervention.
So thinking on clones....human ones would be successful ones correct? What if Vlad had human clones and he was upset over not being able to get the hybrid he wanted sooo....
Ya know, if Vlad had a healthy, fully human clone, he could throw him in an inactivated portal and turn it on, trying to recreate Danny's accident. Don't try to imagine Vlad doing that over and over again with each clone dying in the process.
Also after a sleep imagine them coming back but as little blob ghosts and finding Danny and being drawn and attached to him and he has no idea why that is but doesnt mind the little guys. They do have a bad reaction whenever Vlad’s name is dropped
i do love the idea of the Justice League finding out Batman’s identity and the fact that he’s actually just a tired vigilante dad and immediately discrediting his spooky-scary-intimidating reputation, and Bruce just being devastated about it. he worked so hard on that reputation, on that respect, and it’s all down the drain just like that. nobody flinches away from his glare anymore, because they’ve seen him glare at Red Hood and get a spoonful of mashed potato flung into his face for the effort. nobody cares about his threats anymore, because he tried to threaten Red Robin to go home and rest one time and Tim just giggled at him deliriously before mocking his tone and stealing his coffee. they’ve seen him pick a splinter out of a whining Nightwing’s finger mid-meeting. Damian once called him a condomless harlot to his face when he told him not to bring his swords onto the watchtower. he’s lost control.
he decides he wants the fear factor back and in all his brilliant genius, he decides the best way to go about that is to invite the league round for a fancy dinner party, specifically so he can use all his ‘brucie wayne’ acting skills to channel the essence of every creepy-rich-guy-in-haunted-manor movie he has ever seen in his life. it is the only time his kids have been fully onboard and willing to contribute to one of his plans without any complaints. they almost seemed more eager to pull it off than he was.
they spend the entire day making the manor look old and slightly abandoned, much to Alfred’s displeasure, and ensure that the only lighting is a fuck ton of candles, just enough to light the halls while leaving the corners and edges shadowy and ominous. Damian is allowed to have some of his more ‘skittery’ pets roam the manor freely for the night, causing occasional scritches and scratches to come from the ceilings. all of the kids dress in their best funeral attire, apart from Jason who gleefully pulls on an old white shirt stained with blood from when Tim crashed through his window with a stab wound, requesting a medkit.
when the league arrive they’re greeted by all the kids lined up on the staircase, staring at them blankly and ominously, while Bruce gives them all a large grin and ushers them into the creepy looking dining room. the league are somewhat nervous.
during the dinner the kids act completely different than the league have seen them in-mask. polite, cordial, and refusing to show an ounce of emotion. they pick at their food and only speak in vague sentences that refer to various horrific events of their past. Bruce has never been prouder.
the first close call they have to breaking character is when Bruce presents a bottle of red wine without any kind of label. as he pours a slightly disturbed Diana a glass, she asks where he got it from. Bruce happily gestures to Jason as says ‘my second eldest procured it especially for you, earlier today.’
Diana looks across the table at where Jason is grinning eerily at her by candlelight, still visibly stained with blood, eyes glowing slightly green. she pales, and Tim knows he can’t watch her shakily lift the glass to her lips without bursting out laughing. he refuses to be the one who fucks up first, so he dramatically stands up and declares he must ‘go feed the experiments’ before storming out the room. ‘the experiments’ are in reference to the pen of rabbits outside that glow in the dark because Damian rescued them from a testing facility, but given the environmental context it sounds much more sinister.
Jason joins him by the pen to also start wheeze-crying in private about 20 minutes later, because apparently after Oliver Queen had finished with his bbq rib, Damian had leaned over and without blinking stared into his eyes to blankly state ‘i would love to feed your bones to my animal friends, if you don’t need them anymore.’ and from the other end of the table Jason had snorted wine up his nose from how hard he was trying not to break.
amazingly, they never break character, although it came pretty close when after hearing another skitter from somewhere above, Stephanie climbed up from the table into the crystal chandelier and deftly returned to present the table with a large tarantula cradled in her hands, to which Damian stood up and declared, ‘ah, dessert! i will help pennyworth prepare it.’ before taking the animal and leaving to put his beloved spider back in it’s enclosure. the league genuinely seemed to be under the impression they were about to be served a tarantula-based desert, and upon seeing their faces at this realisation Dick had to pretend he’d dropped a fork on the ground so he could duck by Bruce’s chair and stuff a napkin in his mouth while he got his laughter under control. Bruce pats his shaking son’s back below the table cloth, determinedly staring at their guests with that same creepy-grin he’d kept up the entire night.
every member of the league makes their excuses to leave early, much to Bruce’s exaggerated disappointment. the second the last of them is out the door Alfred turns to face the family and says ‘mission accomplished. now get this manor back to it’s proper state.’ and they have the spend the rest of the night cleaning.
totally worth it, in Bruce’s mind. none of the JL will look him in the eye for weeks afterwards, and it was honestly the most successful attempt at family bonding they’d ever had. he wonders if they should make it a monthly thing. It’s also how they find out Damian’s a fucking theatre kid with a gift for the arts which is another revelation in of itself
Trying to find a fic. It's My Hero Academia. Izuku asks All Might if he can be a hero, gets a no. Then he goes down a list, asking a bunch of different heroes if someone Quirkless can be a hero. Eventually, he ends up in Aizawa's class and asks him if someone Quirkless can be a hero. Aizawa tells him he already is.
tangentwithtanner
theartofmadeline
dailybridgerton
vaporwave
andulkaphoto
