Hear me out: Adult* Danny who is raising a formerly de-aged* Dani. And one day she comes home with Kon*, and Danny just shrugs and adopts Kon on the spot, so now Danny has two kids. A few weeks later, Kon comes to Danny and asks him to make Kon's templates suffer some inconvenience.
End of story, Danny sues Superman and Lex Luthor for Child support.
Only Kon, Dani, and Tucker(who got all the documents ready) are enjoying this. Danny's sorta just chilling and going along with it, he doesn't really need Child Support, especially from two people, so he'll probably just put all the payments into funds for the kids' futures and give them more allowance(Kon insists Dani be given some of it too and Danny won't fight him on his decision).
*About Dani being "Formerly De-Aged", I mean she was de-aged to stableize her, but at this point has regrown into a 12-14 year old
*Kon should be 15-17
*Danny is 30-32
-How did Dani find/meet Kon? Danny does not know, or care. Dani came home one day with him and said "Dad can he be my new brother?!", Danny asked "Do you have parents and or templates?", and Kon responded with "None that care about or want me.", and Danny just nodded and said "Welp, guess you're mine then kiddo. Do you like spaghetti? We're having spaghetti but if you don't like it I can make you something else.", and Kon hugged him and never wanted to let him go.
Ever since Jason started dating Dante Nightingale, aka Dark Dan Phantom, Destroher of Worlds, Killer of Humanity, The Embodiment of Insanity, Fear Made Flesh, and a bunch of other ghostly titles, Jason became more aware of his more ghostly side.
His nails sharpened ever so slightly into claws, his canines grew sharper, and his eyes flashed green with more emotions than just rage.
Jason had met Dan at a bar late one night, and after asking the for the guys number and going on a few dates, Dan eventually revealed everything about himself. Who he was, what he was, what he’d done, and how he was trying to make up for it now.
It was only after Dan killed the Joker to help “heal Jason’s tainted halfa core” that they actually got to sit down and talk about what Jason was now.
A revenant who had evolved into a halfa was the official diagnosis, courtesy of Frostbite
So after all that and all they’d been through, you’d think that nothing that either his or Dan’s ghost side could throw at them would be surprising.
Jason Todd and Dark Dan Phantom are dating, Jason does not know Dan is half-ghost or any of that timey wimey stuff
Dan figured out everything about the Red Hood and the Batfam almost the second he stepped into Gotham, but he hasn’t told Jason that he knows yet
One day the Joker decides it’d be fucking hilarious to kidnap Jason’s bf Dante Nightingale
Jason freaks out, the bats are on high alert as they all track down Joker and find him at an abandoned warehouse
They expect to go in and take down Joker and then probably bring innocent civilian Dan back to his apartment where Jason can rush in and absolutely fret over his bf all night long
Except that doesn’t happen, sure they charge in there with that in mind, but what they’re met with is absolutely insane
Joker’s headless body is on the floor, Dan is using it as a footstool while reclining casually into a pile of bloody and unconscious joker henchmen
He’s also holding the Joker’s head football-style and it has a pink bow stuck to the top of his green hair
Dan turns to look at the Red Hood, grins, and holds out the head while saying:
“Happy Anniversary, Jason my love,”
Jason then tugs of his helmet, walks up to Dan, falls to his knees and goes:
“Marry me, please,”
Dan just responds by raising his eyebrow and going, “Already? But I haven’t even showed you Ra’s head, or Black Mask’s!”
Two months later (thanks to a certain billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne) Jason and Dan are married, after the honeymoon, they’re having dinner with the Batfam and Dan decides this is the best time to announce his secret.
“Jason?”
“Yeah, babe?”
“I should probably mention that I’m from an alternate Timeline that I destroyed and murdered the entire population of after having my humanity physically ripped out of me because I was depressed after the death of my loved ones and went kinda crazy. But I’m redeemed now cuz the Eldritch god of time stepped in with my past self from this Timeline and helped me regain my humanity. Oh, and I’m also half-ghost.”
The dinner table is silent, Jason just stares at his husband.
“I also absorbed my godfather’s soul via ghost cannibalism when I was evil,”
Jason then sighs dreamily and lays his head on Dan’s shoulder, “god I wish I could have your children,”
“You technically could being a revenant and all, ghost biology works differently—“
“Not at the dinner table, Master Dante,” Alfred admonishes.
Alfred knew everything all along—being the immortal friend of the Master of Time had its perks
Dante moves to Gotham for a fresh start and opens a bakery called
"Dante's Infer-dough" (because he's a pun-loving, quippy dork, no matter how cool or mysterious he acts). He uses his powers to do most of the work (heat core/pyrokinesis for baking & duplication to run the place single-handedly where no one can see).
He also gets ingredients from the Infinite Realms that you can't get on Earth, from Realm-exclusive ingredients to things that are extinct. Super cagey about his recipes, for obvious reasons, but tries to be accommodating to people who need to know the ingredients for health reasons.
Has a sign that says, "START SOMETHING AND I'LL END IT." He doesn't care if you're a civilian, vigilante or rogue, if you cause problems he will HAVE a problem. There's a "NO CLOWNS OR CIRCUS/CARNIVAL SHIT" rule, but he'll allow Harley in if she's not dressed up in her costume.
Red Hood decides to check out the new business, make sure it's not a cover-up for something sinister. I'm a sucker for the whole "gives ecto-infused food to liminal who doesn't know they're liminal" thing, so let's have Dante warm up to the guy and start adding ectoplasm to his orders because he clearly needs it.
Does Red Hood start to fall for the mysterious beefy baker who makes heavenly food? None of your damn business! Do you know who else should mind their business? His family! They noticed his shift in demeanor and are now "subtly" investigating Dante and the bakery out of curiosity. Dante is kinda annoyed that all these vigilantes are sniffing around, because he has to be more careful to not be caught using his powers, but holds to his rule of not starting conflicts.
Just ending them.
Things I can see happening in no particular order:
The Batfam losing it when they realize they can't identify some of the ingredients, or that the only match is a food that doesn't exist anymore. Who is this guy and where is he getting this from???
Red Hood trying to strike up a convo about books (the bakery name is literally a reference), only to be heartbroken when Dante admits to not like reading. He bounces back when Dante explains that he struggled with it in school and an asshole English teacher ruined the subject for him. Red Hood is now determined to fix Dante's relationship with literature
Maybe afterwards he installs a little bookshelf in the bakery and Red Hood falls even further
Dante getting to square the fuck up with someone who breaks his very simple rules of "be chill & no clown shit". No one's really shocked by it, this is Gotham and the guy is clearly jacked. People are still impressed by his clear fighting skill. Mostly Hood. The Batfam are adding this to the list of "BAKERY MAN ODDITIES"
Dante side-eyes Nightwing whenever he's in the bakery, because he may not be in the circus now, but Dante can practically smell it on him. If he does anything too circus-y Dante glares at him and taps the sign. The guy is on thin fucking ice.
Anyways, that's what I've got for now, I might come back to this later.
DpxDc: multidimensional party (inspired by a Tom Cardy song)
Tim wasn't the type of person to party. Like ever.
So when one night in the manor's garden a Lazarus green doorway opened up with a voice coming from inside, before he was just forced into the "interplanetary ballroom" with a bunch of weird, sometimes comprehensible or incomprehensible beings.
And what the hell was the "Transcendental Cha Cha Cha?"
[----]
Or instead of Danny becoming the ghost king after he turned 18 or whatever age or when his dimension died. He became the ghost zone's and beyond DJ, and his new name was DJ Phenomena. And the zone or infinite realms itself REALLY like it and decided to just give him full control and take a nap however long.
And it was GREAT being the DJ
His once human form as a ghost was replaced with a green space-lile entitiy with multiple floating hands, stars making rings around his waist like a belt. Wearing a black and white suit with a beyond neon green bowtie
So when the first human(there were quite a few of 3d perceiving entities) came through! He had to make it the best time this human ever had!
Awee... He looked a bit scared! But everyone is scared at first!
[----]
[after the manor]
"hit the Dancefloor, chachacha" Tim sung softly as he made some tea.
"What's got you in this mood replacement?" Jason asked, leaning on the counter, noticing how he wore more brigher clothes, even for a born gothamite.
"Ah, just a song stuck in my head." he waved off...
Jason shrugged it off while everyone else(or idk this is a prompt) had suspicions...
Whoever you choose witness Tim getting ready for what it looked like a rave for what he was wearing, sneaking out of the window and going through a Lazarus green doorway, very giddy aswell..
Dick drags him, Jason, and Damian to a disco, because apparently they "need to lighten up!".
Dick and Jason have some drinks and up on the dance floor.
Dick tried to drag him into a dance, but gave up after Tim kept yawning as Dick tried to spin him around.
He is extremely bored. Sure, there's music, and dancing, and strobe lights, and an actual disco ball- but there's no Transcendal Cha Cha Cha, no trakulabs- nothing interesting.
It's a completely mortal affair, and he's bored out of his mind.
"DJ Phenomena would never let this stand," he grumbles, and gets a glance from Damian, but he waves it off.
After he almost nods off, he goes to the bar and asks if they have any coffee.
They don't. It's a tragedy.
Tim sulks back to the corner of the room where they'd settled down and brings out his phone.
At first he tries to get some work done, but can't focus. He just keeps re-reading the first paragraph of the email over and over and never absorbing the words.
Tim abandons work and switches to his casual email. He mindlessly deletes spam emails, only to stop as he finds a curious one.
Hey there! This is DJ Phenomena reminding you that the gateway to get to the next party will open at 3:27 A.M. and last until 3:33 A.M., on Monday night / early Tuesday morning!
The portal has, due to your request, been moved to the cave beneath Drake Manor.
Hope to see you there, friend / ally/ acquaintance / enemy!
Thank you for the reminder of the Party. I can't wait; my brother dragged me to a normal disco and it just doesn't measure up.
He said he was trying to get me to lighten up, but this "disco" is just so dull compared to the Parties you throw. I've almost fallen asleep!
Bored (almost) to death (though that would be more lively than this!),
Tim the Hobbyist}
He sends it, thinking nothing of it. He hadn't thought that the famous DJ would actually respond- he had thought that he was on a mailing list!- and finds himself gobsmacked at the reply.
Oof! Sorry about that man, some of my human friends took me to a bar to try to find me a date but all I could focus on was how terrible it all was.
Well, except for the drinks, but I might feel like that about the drinks if I ever decide to take up mixology! But picking up hobbies is your thing, not mine!
Care for me to come in and shake up the place? ;3
Ready and willing,
Dj Phenomena}
He stares, at first.
The DJ Phenomena- the famed, always in high demand, DJ Phenomena- was offering to come to this podunk, mortal, Gotham nightclub and be DJ?
Just because he'd complained?
It took a few seconds to compute, but when it did he shot back an email saying maybe and to hold up.
He jogged around the dance floor and over to the DJ.
"Hey, man, do you mind if I have someone I know DJ? I'd pay you double what you'd make while he's acting as DJ if you let me."
The man made talking motions with his mouth, but no sound came out.
"Uh- yeah, no, I don't mind, man, it's cool. I normally make 42 dollars an hour."
"Great! Just give me a second…" He takes out his wallet and hands the guy a hundred dollar bill.
"Keep the change- I've got to go call him and tell my brothers not to freak out. You've probably got one last song before he gets here."
He hardly registers that the man nods as he walks away, already texting DJ Phenomena the all-clear and the address as he heads towards his brothers.
"Hey- Dick? Jason? I've called in another, superior DJ. Just don't freak out when he shows up, he doesn't exactly look human."
Isn't human, in fact, but there's no reason to tell them that.
He walks away, back towards Damian in the corner, ignoring the questions lobbed at his retreating back.
He sits down beside Damian, informs him, checks his phone and sees DJ Phenomena's return email. It's just six thumbs-up emojis.
He smiles, and it only grows bigger as a portal rips on stage and DJ Phenomena comes out, holding his ghostly DJ set-up, and hears the pandemonium.
"Helloooooooo there, Gothamites! It's me, DJ Phenomena, and I've got some real hits for you tonight, including the Transcendal Cha Cha Cha!"
The pandemonium dies down as he takes a minute to set up.
As he stretches, preparing, Tim gets up and heads to the dance floor.
Once the music starts, he gets moving, and people flood to the dance floor to join.
It's not every day you get to do the Transcendal Cha Cha Cha, after all!
So! AU where the Fentonworks Labs actually stretch Miles upon Miles below the City of Amity Park.
It started when the Fentons wanted to add a simple addition to the original Lab when they ran out of space to store their more dangerous weapons. They didn't want their (at the time) young children getting their hands on their experimental Weaponry, it could blow up in their faces!
So they built a different Wing of the Lab to hold all those Inventions.
Then they ran out of space and added a few extra Storage Rooms. But then they decided it was a hassle to have to carefully transport their Dangerous Inventions all the way to the Storage Rooms, and built a Lab specifically for Dangerous Experiments near that same Section. Then that Lab was occupied for a while, and Jack wanted to start a different experiment as well, so they built a few more.
In the end they just never stopped building onto their Labs.
There are sections of the Mega-Lab that are entirely walled off because a few of their more unstable Experiments contaminated the area. Walking into them was not recommended, else you could walk out with an extra eye or 5.
In other sections, their Captured Ghosts had taken over a few Labs and created a sort of Mad Max style civilization using their discarded weapons and vehicles.
In another, all Ghosts became Humans and all Humans became Ghosts. That was a weird one, to this day they still didn't understand how they pulled that off.
In another, some type of Eldritch Time Ghost had been born, and now sort of always existed and never existed, and began experimenting with its powers. They nicknamed it Clocky because it liked to carry around a stopwatch.
And so many more. At one point a failed Portal Experiment messed with the internal Space of the entire thing. Now there was literally no way of Mapping it. The Fentons still somehow managed to navigate it perfectly.
When Jazz and Danny grew up, they too learned how to navigate the Labs, which is how Danny managed to show his friends the Portal Experimentation Wing in the first place.
Unfortunately, it wasn't safe for anyone aside from the Fentons to enter the Mega-Labs, so one day when the Fenton Family+friends left town on a Week Long Camping/Road Trip, they put up a few Ghost Shields to keep both Humans out and the Ghosts in.
This drew some unwanted attention after some tourists saw the giant Glowng Green Building in the middle of an Illinois Town, and rightfully called the Justice League.
Now, the Justice League had tried to call the owners of the house, but nobody picked up the phone. (An incident with Jack and a Canoe had knocked most of their phones into the lake. They weren't even at the lake yet.)
When nobody picked up, they decided to investigate personally.
After getting into the House, they quickly found a door labeled "Labs: Do Not Enter (unless it we are late for Dinner)" and went into ignoring all the warnings.
I’ve seen Danny being the ancient of space pop up a few times. A lot of it interprets that as the ancient of outer space, but I propose he has dominion pver the concept of physical space. Clockwork has time, Danny would have space, making them the counterparts for each other
So, imagine if you will, Danny only recently coming into his spatial powers retreating to his lair in the Ghost Zone. It’s too dangerous to have uncontrolled spatial distortions just randomly appearing in the human world.
His lair is an extension of himself. His spatial powers extend not just to himself, but to his lair. It connects to liminal spaces. Walking through school hallways after hours? One of those doors leads to his lair. All night diner with flickering florescent lights and you’re the only customer? Carefull going to the bathroom or you might just end up somewhere else. Closed down building, or even buildings that never were there. Sometimes at just the right time, places just exsist, and they all lead to Danny’s lair. Inside is an MC Escher esque labyrinth of rooms, hallways, tunnels, ever shifting as their connections to the human world alter and shift.
Enter the Batfam
I pick Tim for this. He sees a building he’s never seen before on a street he’s very familiar with. He checks the address.
“Hey Oracle? Is there a 147 Becker street?”
“No, Becker street stops at 144 before merging into Roosevelt.”
“That’s what I thought, but I’m there, I see it right in front of me.”
“What?”
Tim is too curious for his own good, and probably a bit sleep deprived. He enters the building only to get turned around and not be able to find where he came in from. It wouldn’t be so concerning if the building didn’t seem to go on and on.
Next thing we know, Danny finds Red Robin wandering around, completely lost in his lair. The tricky part is getting him out around the right area and time, because space and time are connected, and when one is weird, so is the other. They need to take the scenic route, much to the impatience of Red Robin. He eventually gets him close enough: Bloodhaven. Tim can always get a ride back from Dick, then he looks at his watch.
It’s only been 30 minutes. He had been wandering for hours, yet only 30 minutes had passed.
Que confusion and shenanigans when somehow, yet more Bats wander into Danny’s lair
This reminds me of that post about Eldritch beings reacting to humans the same way we react to bugs wandering into our home, trying to bring it back outside without harm because ‘this small being hasn’t done anything to me so I shouldn’t either’.
I can just imagine Danny, unable to properly fold himself down into a form that can be comprehended by mortals, trying to gently shoo this squishy human vigilante out of his lair. Like when you find a bug indoors that too fragile to grab, so you have to convince it to crawl onto a piece of paper or trap it under a cup so you can get it safely to the exit.
Except in this case it is not a bug, and Red Robin is very skilled at evading capture and highly suspicious of Danny’s attempts at herding him in the right direction.
Does that mean this is a ‘find one and there are twenty more hidden’ situation? Because that would be hilarious. XXXDDD
This opens up for so many crossovers! Because Danny’s lair isn’t tied down to one linear time stream anyone from any time could be wandering around. It would probably be the worst during those time periods where humans were discovering more but were still very suspicious (auspicious?) and believed in myths and magic.
*LE GASP* What if that’s where the labyrinth myth from Greek mythology came from?! And according to the myth 7 young men and 7 young women were to be sacrificed to the labyrinth every year for the Minotaur. Danny has no clue as to why or how they are appearing but they do every year(or whatever time equivalent Danny has I guess?). So he ends up just trapping them and goes to release them. Before he does so, Danny figures out that they’re sacrifices and if he just puts them back they’ll probably get out right killed. So now he’s in a predicament. From what he can guess by their clothing and what language they’re speaking, Danny assumes that they’re Greek. So off to see Pandora then!
Pandora could either adopt them and become the ghostly version of a cat lady with all of these little Athens children and teens running around her lair. Or she could find another way to relocate them in their own time but maybe a town/city made up of only these yearly sacrifices. Maybe she does both? Like she picks a few from each batch that catches her eye then releases the others back into this city of other sacrificed individuals. Pandora always gives those that she picks the choice between staying with her and going back to the mortal realm.
Would the ones that stay become something like demigods? Because they’ve now been basically adopted by a goddess but also they’ve become liminal because ectoplasm. But yeah, something to think about I guess. -w-
For Danny it’s completely random intervals when the sacrifices show up. Could be a year between them, could be a month. Once they were three minutes apart
Pandora’s choosen can go back anytime they want, and a couple do. They go on to be great leaders and warriors. Danny does his best to get them approximately in the right time, but he’s still used to the Gregorian calendar
One time a decade passed where there weren’t any sacrifices made then they randomly pop up one day while Danny is spring cleaning. He just stares down at the group of 14 young mortals. They all stare back up at him, most quaking with fear. Danny blinks and says something along the lines of, “Huh, I forgot you guys were coming.”
But also the three minutes apart groups were probably hell to deal with. Because Danny was used to dealing with only 14 of these squishy little mortals. Now there’s 28 of them and hOW THE HELL DID THEY GET UP THERE?!! No! Get down from there! You’re going to hurt yourself!
Would he call in another ghost to come help corral the mortals? Or would he just suffer through it himself? XD
Perhaps Danny meets Palkia one time, being a fellow space deity they like to help teach Danny and sometimes vent about their family drama, Danny seems to have a much better relationship with his own Time counterpart. Their sibling Dialga keeps getting targeted by evil organisations and its left the guy pretty cranky and untrusting, not to mention how Giratina still hasn’t been let out of time out, its been eons dad she was just a baby having a tantrum! Gira didn’t mean to hurt anyone she was still learning how to use her powers!!
So, for whatever reason, the Justice League are fighting Phantom, thinking he's evil or suspicious and trying to bring him to the watchtower or whatever, but of course Phantom isn't cooperating, either not trusting the JL/being bitter they didnt show up to help Amity Park/whatever
UNTIL... One of Clockworks' notes show up, and Phantom pauses to read it, before surrendering to the JL, saying he'll follow them.
Now obviously, the JL are confused and suspicious, but eventually come to the (wrong) conclusion that Phantom is just a lackey or something, and that the person who wrote the note is the real mastermind manipulating this poor innocent super-powered teenager.
Danny finds this all either hilarious, or stupid. Probably both.
Phantom swiftly avoids yet another attempt from Wonder Woman to get him in her lasso. He doesn't think it would work on ghosts, but he's not willing to try his luck here. He low-key would like to send all of them flying. They hadn't been around for any of the crazy shit that has gone down in the last year, and now that they finally show up they want to take him in?
He knew he should have let Technus destroy all the digital news declaring him a public enemy. It must be why the absent heroes decided to come and take him down. If only the ghost wasn’t also trying to take over the school news site just when Sam was publishing her own article on plant-based meal alternatives, he would have.
“Son, I suggest you surrender yourself before we are obligated to escalate things,” Superman says.
“You're not obligated to do anything, you asshole!" Phantom screeches, sending a wall of ectoplasm their way to force them to take a step back.
A batarang makes its way around the wall, damn its boomerang properties, but Phantom simply turns intangible and glares at Batman, who only narrows his eyes in return. The dull object eventually passes through Phantom and back into its owner's hand. This is ridiculous.
Phantom was halfway to opening his mouth to tell the heroes to leave him alone again when the note appeared. It somehow managed to stop the heroes in their tracks as well. Everyone looked confused at the floating Post-it note. Phantom grabbed the Post-it, mostly annoyed.
“They'll take you to space. Also, destroy this note. :)” Phantom stared for a minute at what was probably the most direct instruction he had ever received from the Ancient.
He groaned. “Whatever.” He crumpled the paper into a ball and tossed it into his mouth. The piece of paper quickly dissolved into tasteless ectoplasm. He placed his hands over his head and then said, “All right, I'm all yours.” Clocky better be right about the space thing, or he's mauling him.
The heroes looked to one another, unsure. Then Martian Manhunter flew closer to him, taking cuffs from a compartment in his suit that shouldn't have been able to hold them. A bit over a year ago Danny would have been delighted to meet the man, and a part of him was still amazed by the alien, but he felt mostly annoyed right now.
“Please bring your hands to the front, young one,” the Martian said, softer than Phantom thought he would be for someone they perceived as a villain.
He raised an eyebrow. “Shouldn't it be behind my back?” he asked, slowly bringing his hands to the front anyway.
“If you're coming willingly, I see no reason not to offer you the most comfortable option,” Martian Manhunter stated simply as the cuffs clicked shut.
“I believe the most comfortable option would be without cuffs,” Phantom scoffed in return. He probably shouldn't be poking at the leniency he was being shown for some reason, but he still hated the whole situation.
“We can discuss options depending on your behavior,” Batman said before Martian Manhunter could say anything else.
-------
Martian Manhunter glanced at the teen who was glaring daggers at the Javelin's window. They had tried to ask about the note that had appeared out of nowhere, but the teen had simply looked away with pursed lips, refusing to speak a word from the moment they boarded the aircraft.
More often than not, young villains tended to be misdirected or acting out from pain. Powers rarely came without grievances, and even less so those that were visually notable. It didn't justify their actions, but it did mean that a push in the right direction and some support were often enough to help them leave villainy behind. And Martian Manhunter, despite being unable to read Phantom's mind, could feel a great deal of anger and sadness coming from him.
But what had once seemed to be a normal intervention became far more worrying once the note appeared. A teen lashing out on his own is one thing. A teen receiving directions from someone is something entirely different. Powered minors are especially vulnerable to being groomed into a life of villainy.
What's even more worrying is how readily this person not only asked Phantom to give himself up, but how easily the teen agreed. They'll have to consider whether this person holds blackmail over the kid's head, or if the kid is mentally that deep under their control.
It also raises the question of why this person would want Phantom to surrender himself. Are they hiding something bigger and using Phantom as a distraction? Or are they hoping to use Phantom to acquire information about them?
The mode of communication is also deeply troubling. None of them had been able to detect where the note had come from, or that it would appear at all. Even if none of them practiced magic, they had been around it often enough to usually be able to pinpoint it, but there had been nothing there.
Martian Manhunter sighed mentally. He's sure Batman would remain paranoid about this person spying on them, or gaining information through Phantom, until they proved that wasn't the case. He can't even blame him for this one.
Alfred Pennyworth is a man of secrets. He was made up of so many of them, more so than the master he serves, even though Bruce and his children dressed up every night to fight crime, that he often wondered what a secret was and what the truth was. The problem with secrets is that they often don't stay hidden.
And Alfred's biggest secret?
His name isn't Alfred Pennyworth. It's Danny Fenton, and the face he currently wears? It was a corpse Danny had found, in some broken-down bar alley in England, during one of the coldest winters in human history.
Yes, Pennyworth has long been dead. Likely drown himself in his liquor after his service. Soldiers rarely came back from the battlefield well, and Pennyworth had served in one of the most brutal wars of the century, World War II. That man had not been well, and even though every part of his body screamed for him to stop, he drank, and he drank until he slipped and fell to the cold, icy floor. He never got up again.
Danny had long been dead by then, killed mistakenly by his parents, who had not known the ghost they shot at was only half dead.
Upon his human side dying, Danny had broken at the seams and woken in the Ghost Zone. It took years to find a way back to the human world he once called home. Long enough to know his parents had died of old age, and his elder sister was now a great-grandfather. Unable to bear a world that lived without him, Danny had flown back into the Ghost Zone and found a new Earth.
He was desperate to feel alive again, so he snatched the first fresh corpse he found. Pennyworth must have been dead for at least an hour, and his limbs had been frozen from the winter cold, but Danny forced it to move. To stand. To breathe.
Then, like the thief he was, he boarded a boat and left for America that very night. Pennyworth had family, a wife, and a daughter, that much Danny could gather from the few memories still trapped in his half-dead brain, but he didn't care. They would wake to Pennyworth gone. And they would never know why.
They would never know he was dead.
Danny's original goal was to make it to his old home, but he got sidetracked at the very first dock his ship landed on. The distraction came in the form of an overly charming, overly lively Thomas Wayne. He was dancing on the ports, dazzling the crowd as if though he wasn't the richest man in the city, but depended on the coins they threw at his feet.
A band was playing next to him, filling the air with near-forgotten jazz, and somehow Thomas looked more alive than anyone in the world at that moment.
It didn't take long for Danny to realize this world was far behind his, and that included homosexuality. He knew better than to voice his thoughts, for prison and body mutation were a very real threat here, but he stayed by Thomas' side for years. Watching the man with eyes bright with Ghostly Obsession, and though they dimmed a little when Martha popped up, Danny could not stay away.
Then Thomas was killed along with Martha, and Danny's soul ached. His body nearly rotted around him, as his Obsession had vanished and his anchor to this world slowly slipped. Then Master Bruce, once seen as a mere accessory to Thomas, grew under his care, and the corpse snapped back into place. He gained a new Obsession. He doesn't love the boy, can't even say he cares for him, but Bruce is the last living thing of Thomas, and that is the man Danny's Obsession wanted. It's easy to turn him into an extension of Thomas.
Despite the years, Danny hardly allowed his corpse to age, fearful of the effect of time on the dead. This was fine as no one questioned it. No one in the Waynes batted an eye at Alfred's everything, because that's just who Alfred has always been.
Until this turd walked into his house.
"What are you?" John Constantine hissed, having slammed Danny against the wall with magic. "Whose skin are you wearing?"
"What are you doing?!" Master Bruce hissed, "Release him at once!"
"Not a chance. Body snatchers are one of the worst types of gouls out there and Batsy? This one is definitely a high level one"
Danny frowns, fighting to keep his skin from falling off. Pennyworth has always felt like a comfortable coat, but now? Now it felt like it was overheating, cooking him alive. Likely the magic user's fault.
"I'm Alfred Pennyworth," He says calmly, wincing as the magic flares.
"That was a lie," Constantine growls, then twists his fingers until magic settles on Danny's tongue like a hot iron. "What happened to the real Pennyworth? "
A sick twisted smile pulls at his lips against his will. One that is definitely inhumane. At the sight, Master Bruce and Jason- the young lad, having heard the commotion, came running from the other room- froze, staring at him in horror. Danny fights with all his will, but the truth is forced out of him nonetheless.
He feels his mask slip- figuratively and literally as he answers the wizard's question.
"He's dead"
"How long ago did you switch places with him? How long have you been wearing his face?"
The smile turns sharper, stretching longer than humanly possible. "Before Master Thomas even met his wife."
The wizard's eyes blaze with intense hate "Did you kill the Waynes?"
"No," the word gets punched out of him in a hiss that would have made Danny uneasy if he were in the right state of mind. Right now, he is nearly blinded by rage that the turd would even suggest that.
"Ah" Constantine's lips twist in a mocking smile "You were in love with one of them and decided to kill a human close to them"
"No. This man was dead long before I met Thomas"
Constantine blinks, then slowly turns to Bruce, who looks deathly pale and sick with horrified betrayal. Danny stares back at him in an almost detached way. Oddly enough, even though the boy is part of his Obsession, he can't help but think he falls short of Thomas.
"Did you know your dad had a lover from the other side?"
"No." Bruce breaths as if his lungs can't get enough air. As if he were drowning. Pity the boy never quite had his father's whimsy. "No."
"Then you don't mind if I expell him?"
Danny waits for Bruce to defend him, but the long stretch of silence is answer enough. Danny scowls, then smooths out his face. "Do what you will. Thousands die within Gotham. I'll have a new body and be back in time for Master Jason's play."
The boy in question whimpers like Danny has struck him. Odd.
Constantine doesn't reply, just waves his hands, and Danny is forced out of his corpse. It falls, the ground rotting away to its proper age, and then he finds himself thrown through a portal back to the Ghost Zone.
He cracks his neck, checks his hands, unused to seeing such youthful fingers, and takes off on a fast flight. He knows the way home. He doubts the wizard knew that about him, but Danny knows which door to go look for.
_______________________________________
The next morning, Bruce wakes to the smell of pancakes. He creeps into his kitchen, half expecting Alfred, but only finds a young girl in purple, humming his old caregiver's favorite song. She turns and sends him an oddly familiar smile on an unfamiliar face.
"Good morning Master Bruce" She chirps and something goes cold in Bruce's chest "Im Stephanie Brown, Alfred's replacement"
"Who- who are you wearing?" He breaths the cold air, burning in his chest, and his knees are shaking.
She pauses, tilts her head almost innocently, like she really is a young little girl. She can't be older than nine before her eyes light up with the same otherworldly light Alfred once wore. Bruce used to think it was because his butler was wise. Now he knows.
It means that what stands before him isn't human.
"Her father beat her to death. Funny isnt it? The frequency of people dying here? More corpse then a war. Fresh too. Anyway, would you like chocolate syrup with your pancakes?"
No matter how many times Bruce has expelled it through various magic users, the body snatcher keeps coming back. It won't leave him alone.
It wears thousands of faces, but it can only see Thomas Wayne in Bruce's and, what's worse, now that he's not blinded by childish hero worship of the man who raised him, Bruce can see it doesn't particularly care for him. It just cares he's Thomas's son.
It's like it's waiting for Thomas to replace Bruce. The worst is when it snatches Jason's face, after his son gets killed by the Joker and it only grins when he wails, cleaning the manor like it has always done.
Bruce thinks it was sent to make him mad.
What's worse is that it's working. He barely reacts when Tim Drake pops up at his house, knowing things he shouldn't know, and only because the body snatcher struts by in some unknown street kid's body does he even realize the boy is actually alive.
Dick begs him to leave Gotham, as many magic ussers claim the body snatcher has unintentionally anchored itself to Gotham so it can not follow him out of the city. But he doesn't understand.
Gotham needs a Batman.
The body snatcher knows this, and it smiles every time someone suggests Bruce leaves. It knows that he can't.
It cleans the graves Bruce made for the bodies it grown bored of. It seems oddly fond of the one it wore the longest. It leaves flowers on Alfred Pennyworth's grave like it's painting a picture. Bruce feels like he's dying.
Oh, can you imagine once Batman gets there and beat up Joker badly enough like a man possessed(hah) cause jason is his favorite robin(son) while Jason covered in bandages, who is barely conscious to explain that Joker was panicking and developed another persona who just fixed him up and literally wiped off some of his make up talking why was he a clown before passing out.
Meanwhile, later in arkham, danny in the body of the Joker are puzzling and scaring the fuck out of the doctor with how he not laughing like always or escaping after 4 days in.
Acting like midwestern civilian from Illinois, puzzled with why his arms and legs are shackled into the hospital straitjacket.
Danny can't seem to leave this body or go ghosts either.
His eyes are blue but the doctor told him they were toxic green.
The doctor checks the dna and fingerprints several times , and this is the Jack Napier, aka the Joker.
He is taking his medicine, which he never does!! Did batman beat him hard enough to cause a personality shift or DID?!?!
He acting all nice and helpful which is terrifying the fuck out the security guards.
Tucker: What did you do to this ghost to have it follow you around dude?
Danny: I might have wandered into his Hunt by accident. But he didn't even have up a claim scent!
Sam: What kind of ghost doesn't mark their territory?
Danny: That's what I said. I tried to talk to him about it, but he wouldn't hear me out, even though it was an emergency.
Tucker: What emergency?
Danny: There was a mugging going on. The guy with the gun was getting violent and I think he was about to kill a kid so I stepped in. Now Vengeance won't leave me alone
Sam: Vengeance?
Danny pointing at the figure on the roof across the street: He literally said "I am Vengeance". Whenever he does a lighting strike hits the sky so I'm going to respect it.
Sam opening the window: Hey Vengeance! Get out of here! Yeah, I'm talking to you! You wannabe Goth! Go on, get!
Danny: Sam don't interact with him! Now he's going to follow me around more!
Tucker: He might even go from staring at you from the shadows to like talking to you.
Danny: *sigh* I knew this move was a dumb idea.
Tucker: Hey, how else would we get Wayne Enterprise to fund our computer systems? We're this close to creating the best thing to ever happen to Tech Geeks!
Bruce: I think I'm ready to start dating again.
Alfred: I have been preparing for this day. Here is a list of all available bachelors and bachelorettes in your social class. Well-mannered, well-connected, and perfectly trained to run an estate with you.
Bruce: I want the man who trained pigeons to salsa dance.
Alfred: Of course you do.
Bruce: His name is Danny. I'm pretty sure he lives under Brown Bridge.
Alfred: Of course he does.
Bruce blushing: He beat Batman in a fist fight last night and threw me in a dumpster afterwards. It was glorious.
Alfred pouring himself a drink: Of course it was.
Damian: Tonight is when the veil is at its thinnest, allowing them to return
Jon frighten: What veil???
Damian: The one between this world and the next.
Jon: *gasps as if though he and multiple people he knows haven't traveled to parallel worlds*
Damian: And tonight, they come.
Jon more frightened: Who!?
Damian low whisper: The Ghost King and his Fright Knight. Terrors of the darkness. Rulers of pain. Monster of-
Clark: Damian, honey, please reframe from scaring my son before bedtime.
Damian: I apologize for my rudeness Mr.Kent. I did not realize stories of ghosts were prohibited here.
Clark: Thank you, son.
Damian: Shall I instead tell the tale of the Bouncing Rabit of Gold?
Jon shaking: please.
Damian a few hours later wide awake staring at the clock turn 3: They are coming but I am not allowed to fight them. I must place protection around the Kent Farm.
Clark snapping awake: Damian snuck out of bed
Lois: Ugh he's a bat. They do that. Go back to bed
Clark: I can't. He's outside. Making marks on the ground with a lazzer. I have to stop him, he's going to uproot the plants.
Lois: Fine but I have a meeting in the morning. I'm going back to bed
Clark: Okay. Love you
Clark flying outside: Listen Damian this is- who are they?
Phantom pushing against a invisible wall: Come on man! This is demeaning! Let us through!
Damian: BEGONE FENTON. YOUR WAYS OF DARKNESS ANF LUST ARE NOT WELCOME HERE
Danny: I'm not a incubus!
Damian: Then why did I find you in Father's bed!?
Danny: That-!
Fright Knight: My King, we can simply go around the farm. There are others that we can feed from thier nightmares off of.
Danny: No! I'm bonding with my step son, if he just. Let.Me. In!
Damian: I BANISH THEE!
Clark: Lois is right. This is a bat thing and beyond me....I should limit the sleepovers.
Danny opens a coffee shop. He titles it the Human Bean, a play on "human being" and an excuse to have bean bags everywhere. Mostly, though, it's titled that out of spite because of a bad reveal: his parents no longer consider him a human being, so this is his own personal f-you to them.
Danny decided that the Human Bean must be open in a dangerous city in the country because he thrives on negative emotions. It's his ghost diet. Rather than put himself in negative situations, he goes to places that have a lot of conflict and eats on second-hand sadness, feelings of helplessness, and overall human distress.
He chooses Gotham because it's dangerous and has a big enough difference in classes within the same city, which means that those emotions are always present, but it's not so dangerous that he could die on a regular walk. He avoided Bludhaven despite the fresh, for-the-picking emotions. That place is crazy.
Despite his necessary ghost diet, Danny is unusually upbeat and friendly. In Gotham, that usually means he's either A. Mad B. A goon/upcoming rogue. Or C. was a front for something far worse. People weren't too willing to get close to his brightly colored business/home, especially since he set up right smack in the middle of Crime Alley. He fixed up the building and chose white, yellow, and blue as his main colors, standing out even more among the broken-down buildings with faded red.
Danny doesn't mind. As Ghost King, he has so much money that he might be the richest man in the world- he just has no paper trail for his funds, so he runs his coffee shop for fun and as an excuse for where he gets his money.
He values comfort above all and has various seats throughout the building, including bean bags, electric recliners, hammocks, swing chairs, and, of course, regular tables and chairs. He wants it to be a place where someone can spend hours regardless of age. The oddness of the setup grabs the attention of a group of middle school kids who wander in cautiously. They spread the word about how cool the place is, and more and more people started to show up.
He offers odd services, too: free wifi, free printing, various craft supplies, rentable gaming systems, and message machines for feet or backs (the last two cannot leave the building). He only charges for drinks; all food items are free. Though he only offers pastries, it's first come first serve and he makes something different every day. If he runs out of pastries, he refuses to make any more until the next morning.
He encourages people to share their woes with him. Much like a bartender, Danny knows things about everyone because they find it easy to tell the man when he's offering them a warm drink and free food. It's almost therapeutic for some to just babble to the man in the comfort of his little coffee shop. Everyone in Crime Alley feels helpless and anxious. Danny is so well fed.
Then one day, a man arrives wearing a suit that might be worth more than Danny's entire building. He orders one black coffee, picks one of the regular plush chairs in the far corner, and doesn't talk much. He just spends two hours typing away on a laptop with a peaceful look on his face. It's almost believable if the emotions Danny senses from him weren't nearly as black as a void. It's delicious.
Danny does everything he can to talk to the man, taking small "bites" of his emotions (He needs to just stand next to someone long enough to start absorbing emotions), but for him to truly feed, he needs them to either share their woes or allow physical contact. But it's like talking to a dumb brick wall. The man has an iron grip on his emotions through sheer will, so Danny can sense the meal but can't reach it.
He all but begs him to come back as they settled the bill. He says he might, but it doesn't sound very convincing. Despite all of Danny's very generous offerings of wares and services, he knows that a man with that suit likely can offer far better. Too bad. He was the best meal he had had in a while. Danny almost accepts he won't see him again until two weeks later, the man returns, once again nearly dripping in sadness but held together by the duct tape of his will.
Danny nearly trips over himself trying to get him to stay. He pays attention to other customers and provides service, but whenever he can, he finds himself wandering back to the same table. He's nearly overwhelmed by how delicious the negative emotions are, and winds up a flustered mess. If anything, this seems to amuse the man who slowly allows himself to get pulled into conversation. Danny learns he is a single father of nine kids and is having a hard time with his two eldest.
Family issues are something Danny knows firsthand, and he finds himself offering advice, taking a seat at the table when his other customers leave, making them the only two people in the building. Danny makes them both a fresh pot of coffee and grabs some scones to share. Outside, Gotham decides it's a perfect time to let rain pour in buckets, and the man decides to wait it out with Danny, even though Danny had flipped the closed sign hours ago. By the time he left, Danny had eaten as much as he could, so much that he felt bloated.
This becomes a bi-weekly tradition, and Danny even starts marking his wall calendar in his room with a heart and "Tasty man comes in". Now, does that mean Danny doesn't know his name? Yes. Why? Because the man introduced himself, but Danny had been so busy taking sniffs of the air and savoring the depression, he didn't hear. It's too late to ask now. He avoids his name by using a nickname. Calls him B because he's pretty sure his name starts with that. B calls him D in turn. Danny is half convinced the other man doesn't know his name either.
This trend has persisted for 6 months. Still, Danny notices the man's depression slowly lessening, and soon, Danny realizes he's happier and actually brighter when he walks into the Human Bean. Which is great! Danny is happy for him! Except he's hungry. That was his favorite meal. What's going on!?
(Bruce Wayne is having trouble with his eldest kids again. Jason refuses to go to the Manor ever since Red Hood and Batman went on a mission together, and Dick is mad about something Bruce said. He isn't sure what it was, but midway through their conversation about Dick's relationship with Koriand'r, his son got angry and stormed out. This caused tension at the Manor with his other children, and Bruce just couldn't handle it. He had gone to a random cafe, somewhere discreet, just to hide from his family while he did some work. Just somewhere quiet and away from it all for a few hours. That's where he met Danny, a cute barista who was earnest and offered some advice on Bruce's dilemma. He tried the advice the other man gave him, and it somehow seemed to work; his sons had forgiven him)
(Bruce went back to the Human Bean more and more just to see Danny. Somehow, the man made him feel better every time, like the sadness that had been clinging to him since his parents' death slipped away. It didn't take Bruce long to realize he had started to look forward to seeing Danny, as he felt better every time he did, and it showed in his everyday life. They even have nicknames for each other! Not too creative ones since it's just the first letter of their names, but still.)
( His kids were convinced he was hiding a therapist or lover, but Danny wasn't any of those things. He was just happiness personified. Everyone who came to Human Bean loved Danny and agreed his cafe felt like a home away from home. Now, does Bruce's heartbeat speed up whenever he sees the man? Does he feel like he could watch Danny run his cafe for the rest of his life because of how much life Danny had? Does he lie at night wondering what Danny is up to? Yes, but that doesn't mean love! It just means Bruce really needs to make more friends.)
Poor Danny is just trying to do well at his job at WE! But annoyingly, they frown on him working late. Sent home, once again by well meaning security and still caught up in design thoughts, Danny gets hit by cuddle pollen.
Suddenly he must keep all the little liminals safe! They're so bitty! They don't even have full cores! He has to protect them! Goes eldritch horror and stuffs them in his plumage to carry around like those water birds.
Poor Batman is just so done.
Jason and Damian keep trying to escape. It does not work. Eventually they get this thing to the Cave and make it a nest to keep it there. Tim asleep before they mange, followed by Duke (look, it's late for him, okay?) and Steph.
When they wake up in the morning, in one big cuddle pile, there's a strange man among them and from the way it looks, and Damian isn't sure if he's got a new pet or if Father has a date.
