Let me tell you a story @lunamothmayhem - Tumblr Blog

dying-isnt-good-for-your-health

My Favourite DPXDC Posts

Crack posts.

Kitten Danny

Haunted Doll

Free Hugs

Danny the Professional annoyance

Is it a Birdy or the Devil?

BatBlob

ryoalouette

Inspired by this great prompt and goes the other way.

Of which Danny goes to Reddit as Phantom.

Now, I dunno much about Reddit due to my country's default system is to ban the site (except if you use VPN or Apple products apparently?), but anyways.

One reckon that r/evilmonologue exists.

Danny-as-Phantom is certainly asking that if he's a bad villain (Am I a Bad Villain aka AIBV) since his "Heroes" (Red Huntress, Fenton couple, and GIW) doesn't allow him to do Evil Monologues at all, when even the weakest "Villain" would even has his "Beware Box" gimmick (tho he certainly wouldn't do anything so cringe).

Ofc it comes from: Yes, GhostNebula is a bad villain to: this kid is handed out such a bad life that he really mistakes "heroes" and "villains" of all things. You sure that the guys in white and ghost hunters are good guys?? to: Flash, get your villain. I think he'll be safer with you since he also got no body count, so surely he was a Flash rogue?

And ofc the heroes of JL (or others) will investigate for some reason or another.

R/evilmonologues

u/GhostNebula

Am I a bad villain because I don't make any Evil Monologues?

Okay, to start off, I (14m) am considered my city's "Main" villain (We have a lot of them, so we are all ranked by severity, I am ranked 1st), but I don't know if it's bad that I have never monologued. Even our lowest ranked villains have a gimmick they monologue about (As an example, we have a guy who rly likes boxes), but I don't have a gimmick or a monologue topic:(

Before you all get on me, I want to at least explain myself.

I have never attempted to monologue, but I am almost certain the local heroes wouldn't let me. There's a hero roughly my age (We'll call her Rh) who would probably maybe let me evil monologue to her, depending on how we are atm, but the others would most definitely NOT let me.

Rh and I normally have a kinda okayish relationship, since I usually deal with the other villains she doesn't deal with. If she doesn't bother me I usually won't bother her, we work together sometimes too, so she probably wouldn't care if I monologue at her. The issue is the others.

Other than Rh, the city has 2 scientists (late 40s F and late 40s M) who basically supply the city with weapons, and a government agency (Idk their name, but we call them The Guys in White) who are a NIGHTMARE TO DEAL WITH.

I am confident the scientists wouldn't give me enough time to evil monologue at them before trying to shoot me, and I wouldn't even bother thinking about doing it to the Guys in White, I'd be deader than dead.

All this is to say, I'm not in a good position to evil monologue at the moment, and I want to know: Does this make me a bad villain?

idontcaboose

u/villainoftheyear

I mean its not your fault your heros are not playing the game right.

u/herovsvillian

How are your heroes even called heroes if they don't do step one in fighting etiquette?

u/whatinsupermansbutt

Right? So inconsiderate. Even Martian Manhunter lets people monologue, and he can read minds!

u/totallynotredrobin

Ngl OP, I want more info on that government agency.

u/GhostNebula OP

All i know is that they wear white suits, have bad aim, and are like comicbook style goons. All their banter is like, you are going down scum and we wont let your kind invade earth.

u/tottallynotredrobin

That sounds more like Lex Luthor wannabes than government agents. Are you sure they are government?

u/GhostNebula OP

The scientist couple says so. They called them in when they opened a portal that let everyone come here.

u/riddlemetofoff

Wait. Hold up. The scientists made a portal, so they could fight whatever was on the other side?

u/lexluthorsgoonsquad

Nevermind if you are a villain, that is definitely mad scientist villain stuff.

u/tottallynotredrobin

Hey GhostNebula, please look at your DM's.

Imagine the moment someone ask why he's a villain?

u/riddlemetofoff

These scientists sound like villains. Which begs the question, why are YOU a villain? Not trying to say anything, it just doesn't seem like you're villain material.

u/GhostNebula OP

No worries. Before creating and opening the portal, the two scientists "studied" us, and concluded our entire dimension was full of non-sentient, evil beings.

u/villainoftheyear

I'm sorry? What? How can they do that? Why would they say that people from a completely different dimension, who they haven't even seen first hand yet, aren't sentient?

u/GhostNebula OP

Yeah. We're not even considered animals to them, as they don't believe we live in a way different from humans. Our bodies are energy and emotion based. We only have one organ that acts like multiple of a human's. The scientists, along with the government agents, have gotten the entire species on an exterminations list. Capture, experiment, destroy.

u/GhostNebula OP

Well, I can't say that for myself. I'm actually half human. They don't know I'm only half, though.

liketolaugh-writes

u/riddlemetofoff

That didn't answer my question at all. So if they did all that... why are YOU the villain here???

u/GhostNebula OP

Um. Because legally speaking I don't have rights, and the government is actively hunting me? And sometimes I raid their base when they catch another person like me? Raiding government bases seems pretty villainous. And I break a lot of their stuff to make their jobs harder, and sometimes I get my friend to hack in and destroy a bunch of data.

u/riddlemetofoff

Okay, I think I actually get the misunderstanding here. Fellas, is it villainous to actively fight it when the government puts an eradication order on your species?

Tim just freaking the heck out. Along with every hero and villain that read Danny's post.

ryoalouette

✨ most definitely! ✨

And I'm living for all of these great additions ✨💖

It's even worse when Danny's identity is revealed to everyone on the Reddit group when they realize that Danny Fenton, son of two ghost hunting scientists, is a dead ringer for Danny Phantom. No one's acting made the comment connecting the dots, so everyone thinks it's their own realization. Cause no one cares to risk this kid's life when they all accidentally got attached.

But one of the villains uploads Phantom saving people's lives and protecting Ghosts from Hunters. And starts on a rant about how the kid isn't even a villain! How the mad scientists are more villainous cause they cause property damage and shoot at everything, even normal humans!

Danny genuinely doesn't understand that this post was to shame him. He's so happy that someone sees him as not inherently evil. And that makes so many on the thread just view him as 'baby'.

Flash has never had so many villains @ his accounts, on all media platforms, to go save a kid.

Danny's found a way to dodge GIW trackers, as well as his parents. Their equipment hunts ghosts, ghosts run on emotion; so as long as he keeps his under a tight lid and doesn't feel anything ever, they won't be able to track him.

It works!

He's able to run from them, and goes as far as New Jersey. The plan was to stow away on a ship, and go to literally any country that wasn't America. He goes to Gotham, which hosts the one harbor he knows where no one will ask any questions.

But because of how weird he acted (completely emotionless during a Joker attack), he was fingered by police immediately.

He's handed over to CPP. CPP doesn't know what to do with a teen literally so traumatized that they don't show any emotion at all, ever. He keeps just...walking out of his placements. Just leaves without a sound.

Luckily, he's always caught, due to those placement houses having quiet alarms and him refusing to run.

They call the one foster parent they know who does.

Bruce Wayne takes in the strange, nameless kid who refuses to talk.

On paper, they gave him the filler name of 'John Doe', for lack of anything better to do.

Bruce does everything he can to make the newest arrival feel at home. Damian, for as territorial as he is, actually breaks out of his shell sooner than expected just to try to get the new kid to speak. To emote. To do something. Duke tries the open approach, then tries the 'no one will ever know, everyone thinks I'm an innocent goody-two-shoes' approach. Nada.

Tim even tries to trick him into talking, but nothing works.

Enter Dick; Dick heard about Bruce's new ward, about the situation, and decided to see if he could get the kid to open up.

Danny though. Danny's in trouble.

The Wayne Manor is weirdly secure, and he can't just walk away like he did his other placements. He can't use ghost powers or the GIW and his parents will immediately know where he is.

He really, really wants to take Bruce up on his offer and just spend the day relaxing. Respond to Damian's attempts to provoke him. Overshare about space facts with Tim.

But most of all, he really, desperately wants to get in a Pun Competition with Dick. He wants to laugh at Dick's jokes, and learn coolass gymnastic tricks!

But he can't!

If he relaxes with Bruce, he'll be content, which is an emotion. If he argues with Damian, he'll get annoyed, which is an emotion. If he sneaks out with Duke and breaks the rules, he'll get happy, which, again, emotion. If he overshares with Tim, he'll get excited, which is, yet again, an emotion!

The worst sin of all, he can't even show proper appreciation of the food the Butler keeps making him!

And now there's even more people coming over!

There's a quiet girl who keeps reading his body language and trying to get him to dance ballet, a blonde girl who keeps trying to kidnap him to take him to BatBurger, a guy with a stripe of white who wants to take him to a shooting range, and it just...he really, really wants to!

He wants to do all these cool things with them!

But he fucking can't!

mikami1992

I have read all the comments so far…

but they forget something…

The Waynes are a multi-millionaire family who own an international company….

Now imagine that for some reason a member of the family has a mandatory trip abroad (check some offices, go to a gala, investigate something like civilians, etc.) and you decide that perhaps a tourist trip with new experiences can help your family. new brother, so they take him…

Danny doesn't know where they are going, only that they leave on a private jet….

Now imagine the bats that accompany him seeing how an emotional switch turns on in his little brother the moment he knows they are in another country…

undercookedcatgut

They test this theory out a few times. Like any respectable bat, they can't go off the statistics of just a one time thing.

...

Tim has the brilliant idea of pushing and pulling Danny in and out of the American border. Danny's emotions turn on and off like a fucking light switch and Tim feels vindicated. He TOLD the others it would work.

Alternatively, meta collars block the ghost signals. Doesn't affect danny negatively but like maybe limits his powers a bit. The Wayne's figure this out. Somehow.

sakuravalenp

One of the bats had the theory that the lack of emotion came from a meta-gene activating during the Joker attack and decided to try the meta collars (All the lab results were inconclusive so who's to say that isn't a probability?), just in case, they needed to try everything.

Danny feels like he's ecto-signal is being blocked by the meta collar and risks letting go of his emotions, just a bit, to test it's limits, but the collar doesn't block much, and is easier to just don't feel at all than trying to control how much he feels. So the bats get to see Danny's face gain some emotion (nervousness? Anxiety? Hope? Fear?) for a fraction of a second before he goes completely emotionless once more.

- Theory one: The meta-collar isn't strong enough somehow, let's try with one more powerful. -> Danny doesn't want to risk it again, so he stays emotionless.

- Theory two: Since Danny doesn't react with stronger meta-blockers, then something about the meta-collar gave Danny an emotion strong enough to come through for a second. Maybe it brought memories of something... something before the Joker attack? Was... Was Danny a victim of meta trafficking? Did they just re-traumatize their new little brother multiple times?

Duke feels especially guilty about this because as a meta, "he should have known better". The bats are not as eager to keep experimenting after that, but Danny continues to be emotionless, so eventually they have to try something else, right?

faeriekit

*cracks knuckles*

*****

There are noises. Danny ignores them.

There’s a plate in front of him that he didn’t put there. It’s good food—eggs and pre-cut slices of ham and, ugh, toast—

Danny clamps down on his automatic reaction. Nope. Suppress it. Toast is—fine. He can’t afford to hate it right now. It's fine. He'll choke it down.

He can’t afford to feel anything— Not anymore.

The chair across from him scrapes against the hardwood floor. Someone’s joined him at the table for early breakfast. “Morning, John!” they greets him cheerily. Danny refuses to look up.

…He think the voice is probably Duke’s. Danny’s been trying to resist the urge to get to know anyone, but, well…familiarity with the foster family comes whether he wants it to or not.

It’s whatever. It is what it is.

Duke makes one-sided conversation about his plans at school and his friend group he’s headed out with later. Danny refuses to listen. If he listens, he’ll miss doing the same with his own friends. If he listens, he’ll want to ask if he can come too, just to break the monotony inside his head.

And he can’t.

So he just. Pushes food around with the silverware. Occasionally takes a bite.

Chews.

Swallows.

The next person to break through Danny’s carefully cultivated lack of awareness is the smallest foster sibling. Damian. He walks through every interaction as if he’s the Gotham Royal his father pretends to be, and always ends up reclining at the table with a cloth napkin in his lap and impeccable posture. Meanwhile, Danny’s seen his foster father pick chips off his shirt and eat them during required movie nights.

“Doe,” Damian greets Danny. Danny doesn’t respond. “Thomas, has Doe eaten an appropriate portion of breakfast yet?”

“Ask him, man,” Duke lobs back lazily. Damian glares. “Say, John, have you tried the pool yet? It’s going to be summer soon; it’ll be something to do that won’t have you fried up like an apple fritter.”

“We will not be joining you at the pool, Thomas. I have enlisted Doe in the morning feeding routine for the barn’s occupants. We are otherwise engaged for the morning.”

“Oh, those were your plans? Glad to know your afternoon’s free, then. I’ll tell Alfred to have your bathing suits ready at two.”

The kid’s glare is potent enough that if he was a ghost, Danny is certain he would have already fried off most of Duke’s hair with his eye lasers.

They argue (or, well, Damian argues) about what Danny is meant to do today, but Danny has no intention of providing input. Bruce told Damian that animal therapy might be beneficial for his deeply traumatized foster sibling, and, well…who is Danny to say otherwise?

…Not that Danny is traumatized. This is on purpose, so it’s not trauma. It’s just. What it is.

His fingers twitch. Danny specifically does not see when both of the other table occupants move their focus entirely to him in the hopes that Danny might have another reaction.

He doesn’t. He stops eating.

Someone comes up against his side. “A jacket, Master John? The report indicted that the weather is still rather chilly this morning.”

His arm is half-slid into a sleeve. Oh. Right. Danny shrugs the rest of the jacket on—and then has to suppress the urge to be grateful that everyone is doing their best to take good care of him.

He goes limp.

Alfred is too familiar with Danny’s tendencies to make a fuss. Damian takes Danny’s limp hand, orders Alfred to prepare lunch for their return, and trots them both out of the house towards the barn.

Danny lets himself pet the animals for exactly how long it takes to threaten to improve his mood.

He gives up on the activity right on the cusp of something that should have been contentment.

britcision

If I may, there’s a hole we need to spackle up:

Why the hell would Danny allow them to take him back to the US? If he actually is safe when he’s out and away, he’d be literally fighting for his life to stay

And all he’d have to do is tell them the States are dangerous for him

So clearly it’s angst time 😈

Danny felt the pit falling out of his stomach, a dread he still habitually almost squashed. Maybe he should squash this one.

Two weeks hadn’t been enough to fully break through the walls he’d built up, to get him used to feeling anything at all again, but he’d almost been feeling human. Almost been feeling like a person.

And then, just to be sure (because obviously he was working up to how to explain to his new foster “family” that he just. Couldn’t go back to America with them. He’d even dared hope that since they cared so much… they’d let him without question)… he’d looked up extradition treaties.

Of course the US had an extradition treaty with Bermuda, Antigua, every bloody island government he could have been hiding out with. Of course the GIW could still get him.

All he could do was hope that the sheer distance, the unlikeliness of them having global scans out just for him rather than focusing on the States, had meant they hadn’t triangulated him yet. That he hadn’t accidentally outed himself by just daring to feel, for once.

The disappointment on his siblings’ faces when he came down for dinner his blank and emotionless self would have hurt, if he let himself feel anything.

He’d dared to smile at them these last few days, dared to offer more than just a few words to conversation. Dared to greet them with a nod or a wave.

No more of that now.

Although… it was the Waynes. There was, just maybe, the smallest possible chance that they’d let him choose the next vacation. And they were still far enough from the mainland US.

Dick could be, well, a dick when he wanted to, but he was the oldest. Indisputably in charge of this excursion and the responsible one even if it was largely against his will.

So once the concerned flapping and attempts to coax him to do more than blink had finally subsided in the rush to pack the car, Danny stole off to one side and took Dick with him, by dint of a simple brush on the back of his wrist.

(Ancients, they were so kind. So considerate, so caring… why did he only have this when he couldn’t let any of it matter?)

He didn’t even want to risk the words, to risk how his voice would break and heart would ache to speak it. So he typed out the words, turned them towards Dick, watched his eyes widen and hope relight his face as he read.

‘Can I pick the next vacation spot’

Of course, Dick immediately began assuring Danny a hundred ways that they could totally stay on the island longer, they’d buy it out for the rest of the month, the year if he didn’t want to return to Gotham that badly, but that wouldn’t work.

Danny knew about the extradition treaty now. The island, which had seemed like a paradise… wasn’t.

But Dick had already been so enthusiastic.

So he chanced a shake of his head, raised the phone again, even pointed to “next”. And Dick fell over himself promising to take Danny wherever the hell he wanted to, on Earth or off it.

(and. That. That nearly broke him. He knew the Waynes were richer than any six gods you cared to name, but Dick offering to fly him to space? How could that be a real offer?

But Dick looked so completely certain. So sincere.)

Clamping down firmly on the nugget of hope, Danny left as quickly as possible so Dick couldn’t wear him down. The guy had already begun to suspect Danny actually did like his puns, and since the very first time he’d let his lips twitch in a smile…

He thought Dick made a lot of puns before, but if Damian was to be believed there’d been a defined exponential growth in the number he’d been making every day since.

Danny couldn’t risk enjoying himself. He had a lot of research to do on extradition treaties with the US.

Ooh! Fascinating!

I would like to point out, there's no way the Bats aren't hyper-vigilantly monitoring Danny. For even the tiniest clues of what he might want or need or like. So there's no way they don't notice the research Danny is suddenly doing. And it's probably not enough to actually answer even one of their questions about John Doe. But it's a lead. Their first genuine lead.

Of course, now they have to wonder; what did John do (or think he did) that he needs (or think he needs) to flee the States?

Dick, Duke, Damian, and Stephanie are going to debrief everyone on what happened on the island.

But, before that, everyone who wasn't on the island is going to panic, when they come back and it seems Danny regressed. Especially Bruce. He's kicking himself that his new kid, 'John', is no longer even doing micro expressions!

When they do do the debrief, they get questioned why they didn't just text anyone and stay longer? The four deadpan at the others, then say it's because they knew the others would come to the island and overwhelm the boy when he was just getting out of his shell.

Duke brings up that when John showed emotions his powers reacted. John wasn't afraid of his own powers, nor was he afraid to use them around the Wayne's. But he was afraid to use them in Gotham.

Dick brings up Danny's research of the US territories. When he found out the island was a territory, he stopped showing as much emotion. So maybe he's afraid to use his powers in the US in general?

Tim blurts out that maybe John's powers are traceable and that's why he hides his emotions. If he is a trafficking victim, knows that he's still being hunted after escaping, then maybe John is more afraid of these traffickers than he feels safe in the Manor? He doesn't trust that the Wayne's are able to protect him.

Damian brings up that John's powers being activated felt like the Lazarus Pits. Everyone goes stock still.

Duke brings up that John's eyes has glowed green when he was showing emotions. So Damian continues on that line of thinking. John has scars all over his torso that looks like Lichtenburg scars. Which wouldn't make sense cause those are supposed to fade away after a while.

If you survive.

Which brings up that he must have been thrown into a Pit or was given the water. Ra's wouldn't have done this, unless John had been an amazing assassin or something. So, they either have an enemy in their home, or someone else found a Pit and used John as an experiment. 🧪

magical-awesome-kid

I did, like, five minutes of research into this, but lets GO!

---

Danny was on a plane. Another plane. This time to a country he got to pick.

Kind of.

Most of the countries with non-extradition treaties to the US had their own issues. Countries like North Korea were an absolute no. Jason had looked horrified at the mention of Ethiopia, so Danny tossed out most of Africa just to be safe. The Middle East also seemed to have everyone worried, even as Damian was from there?

If Danny could emote, he'd have sighed in relief when Cass had mentioned Hong Kong. The family had a rather large penthouse there, as it was one of the major hubs for the various Wayne Enterprise and subsidiaries. Tim and Bruce agreed that an in-person walkthrough would probably be well overdo.

There was then some sort of side organization going on as the rest of the extended family seemed to decide who was going, though Danny hadn't even had to ask. Alfred was already helping prepare Danny's suitcase.

Danny also asked about his passport. He somehow had one with the John Doe name, which, huh. The Waynes must have pulled some strings being Richer than Six Gods.

Anyway, Danny was in the air on the Wayne Enterprise jet towards the back once more. The ride was long - nearly sixteen hours in the air, direct - so everyone was in various states of activity as they reached the mid-way point.

$fractalflowers blog's avatar$

fractalflowers

ahhhhh theres more!!!!!!

The reveal went right. Too right. Jack and Maddie will do anything to protect their son. Vlad will do anything to protect his new daughter. Dan will...suck it up.

When Danny told his parents he was Phantom, not only did they take it well, but they immediately started rallying to get the Anti-Ecto Acts taken down.

They rewrote their research, reached out to other Paranormal Scientists, and did everything they could.

That was when the assassination attempts started. They were all targeting...Danny. Not Jack, Maddie, or Jazz. Just Danny.

Moving Danny in with Vlad didn't stop them; if anything, the assassination attempts got even worse.

During a fight with one particular assassin that got past Vlad's security, Danny, Dan, and Dani knocked over some of Vlad's more...unstable experimental Ecto.

It...changed them. Reflected the age of their Ghost selves.

Danny and Dani are now two years old. Dan is somewhere around twenty-four.

Vlad...thinks this is perfect. He has an idea. The government is trying to kill a sixteen year old, they won't look at a couple of toddlers.

He smuggles them out of Wisconsin and gives Dan a bag. Inside of that bag is cash, fake IDs, and all the fake history Dan would need to start a new life. His cover is he's a single father to a set of twins.

Vlad looks pleased with himself. Dan valiantly restrains from punching him.

It has nothing to do with the fact that there are two toddlers watching him with way-too-big eyes.

Dan...sucks it up. He's an adult now, he can just kill all the agents, he doesn't understand why Vlad is so desperate to run. But whatever. Fine, he guesses.

He starts his shitty new life.

His only saving grace is that his neighbor, a guy named Roy Harper, is also new to the whole parenting shtick. They end up hanging out more often or not, letting Roy's Lian play with Danny and Dani, and typically babysit for each other if they can.

~~~~~~

Years later, Dan ends up saving Lian's life during a huge attack on the city that caused the apartment to collapse.

wanderwithwings

The flash fam know about Dan Phantom, the villian that will destroy the world. They have a pact to do whatever they have to to prevent this from happening. So when Roy asks Wally if he can help watch Lian and his neighbors' kids (bc he hot injured or something last night and forgot Dan was busy today), and Wally sees two baby version of Phantom (one of which is a girl?), he goes though it.

Then, after an afternoon of Wally quietly Panicking, Dan shows up to pick up his kids. And boy oh boy, does Wally connect the dots all wrong. He thinks something happened to the kids and that's why Dan snaps. So, just have to protect the babies. Easy, right?

Later, when he hears about the building collape, he has like 50 panic attacks because, oh no. Here He comes.

I hope this makes sense. I have a migraine so it might not.

loraliewritesthings

All I can think of is:

Wally:th-thats a mass murderer

Roy:what do you-

Dan:I GOT BETTER THANK YOU VERY MUCH

Dan: That timeline was erased, thank you very much!

Danny: Uh huh. Daddy went to time jail.

Ellie: Grampa made him do therapy!!

Wally: Who, who is your Gramps?

A single green sticky note appears. One all the speedsters know on sight. Okay. Okay. Redeemed son of the asshole time keeper guy. Cool.

Roy: He saved Lian's life. Pretty sure he just had resting murder face.

Danny: Daddy lost everything in the gone time! Now he didn't!

There's an American town that John likes to use to freak people out. It's funny.

If he needs to talk to someone he doesn't like, he teleports them both to Amity Park for the discussion over some of those awful but strangely delicious Nasty Burgers.

Amity Park feels alive in a way it shouldn't. There's a dense fog, and the citizens of it come out of nowhere. Everyone moves like a buffering movie, and the air tastes metallic and rotted. There's whispers in languages no one can understand (That's a lie John knows what the ghosts are saying and it's hilarious), and for all that the town is full of people, if feels like stepping into someone else's empty home.

John's fine with it; it's just a town saturated with Death Magic, and the little ghost that claimed it as his territory already said John was fine to visit so long as he brought back souvenirs. It's a little offputting, but John's been by so many times it barely phases him anymore.

But it will never not be funny watching people he doesn't like squirming in the booth of a fastfood joint.

GIW finds out, but Tucker and Sam run with Danny too. He's pretty sure there's no place on Earth they can hide that the GIW won't hunt them down eventually. Unless...

He takes them somewhere the GIW can never go. He doesn't want to leave Earth, and he won't, because there might be another option.

Liminal Abilities are meant to adapt with the user. They're meant to guarantee survival.

Danny's adapted so much he became only half human. His ghost form can very easily adapt to pretty much anything, so his insane plan isn't so far fetched for him.

He, Sam, and Tucker steal a boat. It's technically a yacht, and it's technically Sam's parents, but they got rid of the GPS tracker and drove it out to sea until it ran out of gas.

He has Sam and Tucker ingest straight ectoplasm, and then hang out in the water for a few hours.

He's trying to trigger their liminality to make them akin to Atlanteans; able to breathe and thrive underwater, but still able to go to land if the need arose.

They develop mer tails instead.

Whoops.

Look, look, the plan worked. Sure they weren't expecting to actually become merfolk all proper like. But! It worked! There is NO way the Atlanteans won't see them and be like, yup one of us! Right? Also, they can hide so much this way! If they say they are half human! (Technically true) and on the run from a shady government organisation? There is NO way they won't be looked after! Sure, learning how to move again is weird. But it's highly intuitive. Also, when Danny hopped back onto the boat? He gained legs again. So, it's not like they can't even go back top side! It's all going to be fine. (rumbling storm clouds of Aquaman's righteous fury in the distance)

emerald-cobracat

What if mer already existed in the Atlantean past? They’re a species that died out due to trouble on the surface and due to the fact that they didn’t have the ability to adapt. Mer were protectors and guardians of the ocean. They were incredibly fast, agile, and in sync with the ocean in a way Atlanteans had to learn. They were the pride and joy of Atlantis. And then mer went extinct. Atlantis had to adapt to the lack of the oceans favorite sons and daughters but now they returned.

Three children. Three mer children. Having heard about Atlantis in only stories and holding tales of those hunting them for the crime of there existence. Atlantis grew angered. The mer were the sons and daughters of the ocean itself. The surface world has no right to touch them let alone hurt them.

So they took the children in. Protected by the strongest soldiers, loved in the heart of the city, with the best tutors to teach them. These mer would be safe even as Atlantis’s anger grew and Aquaman tried half heartedly to keep his people in check.

Side note I want them all to developed powers. Like water manipulation, talking to ocean creatures, etc. also maybe one of thems just flat out a siren.

sunnysolaria

Amity Park's ancestors were witches, right?...Right? I don't remember

WHAT IF it wasn't JUST witches? So as HUMANS for GENERATIONS the blood got mixed and they all have some potential to awaken their other sides. The triggering point was the ectoplasm. It only awakened what their bodies needed to survive.

Werewolves for Tucker for the win of course, witches for Sam as a treat for all and only Danny is more human than most...was, now ghosts for our space boi

And merfolk have looong ago joined the mix or joined along the way, maybe joining forces to hide their little hideout

royalfanficfolio

Tucker could be a selkie instead of a werewolf. He needs to be in the water and selkies are seal folk. Not a werewolf but still a nice big predator.

Sam, the siren mer that lures people into the ocean to drown them.

Tucker, the selkie, a seal person with terrifying speak and jaw strength.

Danny, the space whale, slightly eldritch and more than a little scary.

What a strange group of friends.

It might be if they were found in the wild yes. But the Atlanteans absolutely will not mention this. Those poor babies escaped captivity together! Of COURSE they are close friends! Of course they adore each other! Also, someone tried to separate them, once. They had to get stitches after prying Danny off their arm. No one has even thought to suggest that since.

royalfanficfolio

Had a thought. One day the three are playing near the surface and the GIW come up in a boat. Giant space whale Danny breaches underneath the boat to topsize it, Siren Sam and Selkie Tucker end up tagging in to make sure no one reaches the shore or any floating debris. The atlanteans are very impressed with their teamwork, they've obviously done this before. They have just not as aquatic beasties.

So proud of the teens! Go you three! Get your vengeance!!

Arthur meanwhile bringing political wrath to the US. How dare you hunt his people!

nekomuse

While all this is happening under water, above sea an empty yacht was found.

No sign of struggle, of a storm hitting it, of things being left in a hurry. Newspapers mention it, someone comes to investigate. They find out the owners of the yacht are the Manson family from Amity Park. At first people thought that was going to be it, the yacht must have been taken out by the rebellious daughter of the Mansons and not been secured right, so it drifted off.

Only, when asked about the boat (in order to clarify what happened) the Mansons started crying. Mrs. Manson falling to her knees and sobbing for her poor Samantha.

So more questions were asked, Mrs. Manson was brought inside by Grandma Manson, while Mr. Manson invited the investigators in. And sitting in the sitting room of the Mansons they were told about Samantha "Sam" Manson and her two best friends.

They were told about the ghosts, the start and Danny's accident and how Sam had changed after, seemed to feel at fault for her friends hospital stay. How the three talked about ghosts as if they were friendly, and how they kept running into fights.

And while ghosts were a revelation nobody had expected, it explained the three teens behaving strange. It didn't explain the empty yacht. Mr. Manson told the investigators that Sam and her friends seemed to be afraid of something the last week he had seen his daughter.

"Something was wrong. She kept closing the curtains, looking out with every noise, calling her friends after every ghost sighting. After the last big ghost attack she ran up to her room. I think... I think that was the last time we saw her." Mr. Manson pressed his face into his hands, trying to catch himself. "She always had so many big ideas and opinions, my poor Samantha..."

The investigators were given the names of Samantha Mansons friends, Daniel Fenton and Tucker Foley. They were also given access to the Mansons security camera feed that was showing the outside of their Mansion as well as their dock and boathouse where the yacht was usually kept.

And after watching the footage they found that Samantha and her two friends had met up in the boathouse on the day her parents had last seen her. The three had bags with them, and thankfully there was sound.

"I got us some food on my way, are you sure Danny?" Samantha threw her own bulky black bag into the yacht. "Yeah Sam, it's our only chance. You know you don't have to come with me, right?" Daniel frowned at his friends, a big and bulky bag in his hands, a backpack on his back. "But we want to, we're not going to just let you fend for yourself. We're a team after all, right?" Tucker held out his hand for a fisbump, a backpack on his back. "Okay... okay, we'll have to hurry. Jazz said she can cause a distraction to give us a head start." Tucker's fist was met by Daniel's. The three got onto the yacht, Samantha drove it out of the boathouse and nobody saw the three teens again.

The yacht was found two weeks after the time stamp of the footage. The drive out to where it was found would have been two, three days at most. Something had happened, the teens had fled from something. Daniel had fled and his friends stuck with him and something went wrong.

Feeling numb the investigators let the Mansons know what they had found. With a bad feeling they made their way to the Foley family.

Mr. and Mrs. Foley let the investigators into their living room, they looked resigned and worried. Hopeful when told about the footage, broken when told about the empty yacht found later.

"Tuck loved everything computer, technic, egyptian after he found out he's the reincarnation of a pharao. He's so clever, could built you anything with Danny's help. The two together were incredible, and Sam always made sure they kept thinking about others."

"The last week before they disappeared he spent every free moment on his PDA, he did that a lot before but suddenly he was busy even while eating. He looked worried a lot, frustrated sometimes."

A look through the teens room showed no new info. Everything that could have held information seemed to have been taken, computer included. But Tucker had only had a backpack with him on the footage, so his computer would have to be somewhere else, hidden with helpful data.

Their last stop, as well as biggest hope right now, was FentonWorks. The house itself was strange enough, the door opened by a tall young woman. The investigators introduced themselves and got an introduction to Jasmine "Jazz" Fenton.

"My parents are currently busy, how can I help you?" The walls in the house seemed to be ripped open in parts, partially assembled things were left seemingly at random all over the living room and kitchen.

"We are investigating a yacht that was found empty in the ocean, the owners are the Mansons and the last footage of the yacht before it left the harbor was of Samantha Manson, Tucker Foley and Daniel Fenton boarding it." The investigators saw a twitch of Jasmines hands.

"Did Daniel behave strangely the week before they disappeared?" Jasmine looked at the coffee table before meeting the investigators eyes again.

"He was afraid. Since his accident and the ghost attacks he was always stressed and at odds with our parents. Our parents are ghost hunters, they are of the opinion that ghosts are non-sentient and non-sapient. We don't agree. I could go on a long rant about ghost-psychology but that isn't why you are here."

"We are not, what was he afraid of?"

"The GIW. Ghost Investigation Ward, Guys in White. The government and the anti-ecto-acts. Danny's accident left him with a large ecto-contamination. The home security kept targeting him, our parents have an invention that measures the contamination of ectoplasm in humans. The GIW bought the rights to manufacture and use those and other weapons. The anti-ecto-acts allow them to take anybody who has a measureable contamination for experiementation and extermination."

The investigators suddenly felt a cold shudder run down their backs.

"Danny is measureable, I am not, but just barely. That's what he was afraid of. Those acts take away his human rights."

"That... that sounds like it goes against the meta protection laws. How did such a law pass?" Jasmine shrugged.

"We don't know." The small noteblock was closed as the investigators shared a look. This was a lot more information, as well as a bigger fish than they alone were allowed to work on.

"We'll come back, please tell your parents to call us when they are free." A card was left before the two investigators left. They had the Justice League to inform and some acts to look into. This just spiraled from a simple mystery boat to a national problem.

"Man, this is not how I wanted to meet the Justice League..."

Danny puts up with a lot of stress, okay. His coping mechanism is....okay, it's a little weird, he's not gonna lie.

It is widely known that he has a human form and a ghost form; it is not widely known that his ghost form can do pretty much whatever he wants it to.

This includes making it smaller. Changing the ghost tail to a fish one. Making the suit be scales instead of a suit.

He does it so many times he now officially has three forms, and one of them is purely for himself and no one else.

His stress relief is to go to the aquarium, switch to the tiny merman form, and hide in the rocks of his favorite exhibit; the shark exhibit.

He stays in the back, away from the people visiting it's sight, and just vibes. He's even made a small cave the sharks can't fit into a tiny little nest.

No one would expect him there. No one would be looking for him there. He was free to just...take a moment.

Well, so he thought.

Because the humans visiting did see him. Multiple times.

They took pictures.

Now the Amity Park Aquarium is in some deep shit with Atlantis, because there's documented proof that they're keeping a literal baby mer in there as a spectacle.

Consider: Perhaps mers naturally grow to the size befitting their environment. They don't really have distinct species, they simply adapt to the space and food availability around them. The same mer that only gets to about humanoid size in a river could grow massive if moved to a lake or ocean with abundant food.

So when Aquaman catches these pictures and discovers they date back several months and the supposed-to-be-fast-growing mer baby isn't so much as an inch bigger, he concludes that the Aquarium is keeping the baby underfed and confined to a tiny area to keep it small and "cute".

Realizing the infant is in a tank with sharks, predators that would gladly eat something the size of a baby mer, only stokes his rage.

noxcheshire

I’m just imagining the idea that Danny himself has NO IDEA that Aquaman and his entourage are even coming fast into Amity Park because he’s just so focused on everything else in his (unfortunate) teenage life.

Aquaman? Yeah he knows WHO the guy is, who wouldn’t know who the Justice League members are, but is he keeping up with that news? No.

He’s barely even awake in school to process the news from other teenagers and teachers. He’s deliberately blocking out all the chatter just to take standy-uppy cat naps. He doesn’t have the time or brain capacity to handle you.

Going little baby man mer is his time to really relax. To unwind, laze about, and curl in his little nest with all his little possessions like a fish dragon and just rest.

So of course after a treacherous day AND night, Danny simply slips his way into the Aquarium and into his favorite water tank with the sharks where he has to avoid their curious nipping so he can unwind in his little enclosure.

It’s only going to be a little while after all.

Just a little moment to stretch out, rake his claws across the walls to make some doodles; maybe even watch the cold night outside before a short decided nap.

Just… a little… nap.

Sleep takes Danny fast and swift, and Danny stays at the Aquarium far longer than anticipated.

But Danny is so tired, and it isn’t like it’s the first time he’s overslept to the gentle sound of shark fins swimming through the artificial currents and was rocked to sleep by the gentle waves in the tank.

So what if he sleeps there longer than intended?

No one has ever seen him before, and Danny has never minded the light of the rising sun when it brings the sharks to wakefulness, or the building noise of a slowly waking Aquarium building.

It is all familiar noise to sleep to.

He only slightly minds it when he hears static — electricity — zapping outside, making his sleepy little self jerk and whine before he curls himself deeper into his tail.

It’s silent.

It’s so blissfully silent for a very long time that Danny’s tension flows right out of him.

An ear fin twitches at the sudden change in the waters currents, something bigger having entered, but nothing the sharks seemed to be worrying over. Danny thus pays little mind as he drifts away to sleep once more.

But maybe he should have tried being a little more awake, a little more alert. Surely then he would have noticed the sharks gurgling, would have noticed the tip of a sharks nose pressing against the hidden opening of his nest. Surely Danny would have noticed a very human-like hand reaching through the entrance to fish him out.

Arthur managed to gently remove the infant without waking them up.

Their tail, black with white tipped scales, wrapped around his wrist loosely.

They were small, defenseless, left in a tank full of sharks, and completely trusting as they tried to burrow into his chest, hiding their face from the world.

It took everything he had not to think back to the last baby he'd held.

The son he'd lost, trapped and unable to breathe, in a small container while a predator circled around-

Arthur stopped that train of thought, focusing on securing the small, definitely underweight infant.

The sharks circled, concerned in the limited capacity that they had.

'Little Biter does not eat,' one says.

'Little Biter tastes weird, you will fix.' another orders.

Oh, he'd fix it.

The water shifted as Mera gracefully stepped in, carrying with her a an incubator. Inside was relatively bare, but soft and full of water for the child to breathe as they transported them to Atlantis, where a team of doctors was already prepared and waiting.

He gently unwound the tail from his wrist, taking the blanket from Mera and swaddling the little one with a muscle memory he was sure he'd forgotten.

That done, and the child safely in the incubator, he turned to look at the owner of the Aquarium.

The man was crying, swearing up and down he had no idea how the kid had gotten in there.

Arthur would find out if that was the truth soon enough; J'onn was already on his way.

Danny wakes up in an unfamiliar place. He's in a small, clear container with several adults he doesn't recognize staring down at him. One of them appears to be taking notes.

Danny, thinking that he may have been taken by the GIW, panics. He phases out of the small pod and returns to his human form to assure them that he's still human, and to run if he can't assure them of that.

It isn't until he goes to take a breath that he realizes he's underwater.

Mera quickly realizes the problem; the human form of the mer can't breathe water. Easy enough to fix; he wasn't the only one to have that issue. She gets him to an air pocket and lets him breathe. He begins to babble almost incoherently, and when she realizes what he's saying her blood begins to boil in a fury fit for her king.

She gets a messenger to send word to Arthur; the baby is awake, and half human like him. The baby is also terrified of being cut open for being different, and is particularly scared of something called the "GIW."

Arthur, when he gets the message, is even less happy.

Mera sits in the air bubble with the baby. She's gotten him some fresh water to drink and a small snack to eat, and he's calmed down. He's no longer panicked, and is now looking around with curiosity.

"I confess that I find it strange," she says calmly, "that you are both a baby mer and a teenage boy."

She's not expecting him to start panicking again. She reaches out and grabs his hands to stop him from waving them about and firmly says, "That is not a bad thing. It is not a thing you deserve to be punished for, and it is not a thing you will be judged for. I am merely curious as to how it came to be."

His eyes dart around the air pocket. She's vaguely familiar with the motion; it looks much like the mannerisms Kal'Dur picked up on land when he wished to have a private conversation. "You won't tell my parents?" he begs.

"No," agrees Mera even as she takes note to tell Arthur the boy is scared of his parents. She does not know what he will do with this information, but she does know that the child's parents will not find it pleasant. As it should be. "I will not speak, nor allow any of those currently listening, to speak to your parents."

As she hopes, he doesn't seem to notice the Atlantean she very valiantly refrained from mentioning. She releases his hands and he begins picking at his clothes. "Because they don't, and they can't know, and I know they're making weapons to hunt me, but they don't know it's me, and I--I--" he stops, appearing lost in thought.

"They do not know it is you whom they hunt?" asks Mera. This is posing a picture she very much did not like.

"I don't--I'm not always like this," the baby--boy--says as he glances around warily, still picking at the edges of his shirt. "And--and I know they mean well, and they love me, they really do! They just..." He trails off.

"They just what?" asks Mera gently.

His gaze moves to hers and he searches her expression for--something. She's not sure what. He seems to find it. He stands.

A ring of light encircles his middle and splits in two to move up and down his body. His clothes turn to a black outfit with white markings, similar to Atlantean armor, if poorly made. That outfit would not turn a blade. His black hair turns white. His eyes turn green. And he curls on himself.

She has never seen anything like this.

"Please," he begs, eyes wide. "They can't know."

Arthur stood in front of this human, this GIW agent. The human babbled about how they never attacked someone that wasn't a ghost. The human had then tried to accuse Arthur of being a ghost.

Arthur was, if possible, even more angered at the moron in front of him when the agent pulled a gun. Said gun shot some kind of green blast at Arthur. The blast barely stung, but that was not the issue.

Arthur grabbed the man by the front of his suit and lifted him off of the ground. "You dare," he snarled, "shoot at Royalty?"

kodedgeekthings

I bet $30 that it was Operative L who came up with the idiotic brilliant idea to shoot a a ruling Monarch and instigate an international incident.

Danny puts up with a lot of stress, okay. His coping mechanism is....okay, it's a little weird, he's not gonna lie.

It is widely known that he has a human form and a ghost form; it is not widely known that his ghost form can do pretty much whatever he wants it to.

This includes making it smaller. Changing the ghost tail to a fish one. Making the suit be scales instead of a suit.

He does it so many times he now officially has three forms, and one of them is purely for himself and no one else.

His stress relief is to go to the aquarium, switch to the tiny merman form, and hide in the rocks of his favorite exhibit; the shark exhibit.

He stays in the back, away from the people visiting it's sight, and just vibes. He's even made a small cave the sharks can't fit into a tiny little nest.

No one would expect him there. No one would be looking for him there. He was free to just...take a moment.

Well, so he thought.

Because the humans visiting did see him. Multiple times.

They took pictures.

Now the Amity Park Aquarium is in some deep shit with Atlantis, because there's documented proof that they're keeping a literal baby mer in there as a spectacle.

Realizing the infant is in a tank with sharks, predators that would gladly eat something the size of a baby mer, only stokes his rage.

Finding the little hidey-hole nest when he inevitably just barges into the aquarium itself, no baby in side. Little cave (if he's being generous) full of bits and bobbles. Drawings carved into the walls with tiny claws.

The owner of the Aquarium absolutely pissing himself in fear when Arthur turns to look at him through the glass, and all the sharks turn to do the same thing as one unit.

fairy-lights-and-blobs

Danny in the back of the crowd, watching this happen:

Oh no

Danny glitched out and froze; he had no idea what to do.

Was Aquaman always scary? He was just the fish dude, right? Why was he this scary?

It wasn't even him Aquaman was angry at and he wanted to hide.

He faced down countless spectral horrors a day, why was he afraid?

"Aquaman, I-"

"King Arthur to you!" One of the Atlantean guards snarled, his weapon beginning to charge.

"M-mister King Arthur, please, we have no idea how that mer got in our tank! W-we think it wa-as one of the employees! We're t-trying-!"

Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit.

Danny looked at the entrance.

Blocked by an Atlantean Guard.

He looked to his other side.

People were edging away and slowly going to one of the other exits.

He was just gonna...go. Aquaman was one of the Justice League, after all. He wouldn't hurt the Owner, he was sure...

...He chanced another glance at Aquaman, only able to see a little bit with how thick the crowd had gotten where he was.

...

Okay, yeah, no. That was not the look of someone feeling merciful. Aquaman was a King before he was a Hero, and he absolutely would hurt the Owner guy if he thought it would free one of his people.

Shit.

He used the cover of the crowd to go invisible, phased through the coral reef Exhibit, and went into his Vibe Form, as he called it.

He let himself fade into the visible spectrum from behind the coral, hiding from the fish.

He wasn't an idiot; everyone knew Aquaman spoke to fish.

Luckily, all the fish were at the glass, watching the Fish Whisperer himself trail water as he made his way to murder the owner of the Amity Park Aquarium.

He swam in full view and nudged aside some of the fish.

The fish, a small pack of clownfish, didn't seem happy about being moved aside.

Then they did a doubletake.

Aquaman froze two steps from the owner and turned to look at Danny.

Danny, for lack of anything better to do, waved.

libraryofcosmos

First Variation: Aquaman's sharp eyes locked onto Danny as the little merman hovered just behind the coral. The King of Atlantis was a commanding figure, every inch the ruler, and his presence made the water in the tank seem heavier. The aquarium owner, who had been seconds away from groveling, took this moment to try inching away.

"Stay where you are," Aquaman growled without breaking his gaze from Danny. The sharks, as if understanding the command, tightened their circling around the tank’s glass, blocking any escape route for the hapless owner.

Danny mentally cursed every decision that led to this moment. He had one rule about his aquarium hideaway—don’t get caught. And now here he was, waving like an idiot at the literal King of Atlantis. Great. Perfect.

Arthur stepped closer to the glass, his expression shifting from wrath to curiosity. He raised a hand, palm out, a gesture that seemed oddly…gentle? “It’s okay,” he said, his voice a rumble that Danny swore the water itself carried. “You’re safe now.”

Danny hesitated. He couldn’t just not react. If he bolted, Aquaman would probably think the aquarium had traumatized him. If he tried to explain he wasn’t actually a merfolk, that opened a whole new can of worms.

So he did the only thing he could think of: he swam closer, small movements, like a skittish fish.

Arthur’s face softened, and he crouched slightly to be at Danny’s level. “I don’t know how they got you, little one, but you’re not staying here another second. I’ll see to it that you’re returned to the ocean.”

Danny bit back a groan. This was getting out of hand. He swam in a little circle, darting forward before stopping short. Maybe if he acted unsure, Aquaman would give up?

Nope.

“Look at him,” Arthur said, turning his head to one of his guards without looking away from Danny. “Malnourished. Confined to this tiny space. Barely any room to grow.”

Danny blinked. Room to grow? What, did he think he was some kind of sea monkey?

“This is a crime against nature.” Arthur straightened, his trident tapping against the tile as his fury returned in full force. He turned to the aquarium owner, who seemed ready to faint. “You will answer for this.”

Danny winced. He couldn’t just let this escalate. Not when he wasn’t even a real merfolk. He darted toward the glass, trying to catch Aquaman’s attention again. He waved both hands this time, then pointed emphatically at the tank’s filtration system, as if to say, I came in through there.

Arthur frowned, clearly puzzled. “What are you…?”

Danny repeated the gesture. He mimed a little swim, then pointed at the filtration grates again. This time, comprehension dawned on Arthur’s face.

“You…swam in on your own?”

Danny nodded vigorously. He made a little "shrugging" motion with his hands, hoping it conveyed something like, I was just hanging out.

Arthur tilted his head, scrutinizing Danny. “You’re not…trapped?”

Another nod. Danny folded his arms and tried to look as indignant as a tiny merman could, which apparently was convincing, because Aquaman’s anger visibly cooled.

“So you’re here…by choice?” Arthur sounded both relieved and baffled.

Danny mimed a very clear thumbs-up.

The King stared at him for a moment, then let out a long sigh. “Well, that’s a relief.” He turned to the aquarium owner, who was still trembling. “You’re not off the hook,” Arthur said sharply. “This facility is barely fit for fish, let alone merfolk. Clean it up, or I will shut it down.”

The owner nodded so fast his head looked like it might pop off.

Aquaman turned back to Danny. “If this is your chosen place, little one, I won’t interfere. But remember, the ocean is your home. If you ever need help, I’ll be there.”

Danny gave a small wave, watching as Aquaman and his entourage swept out of the building with all the drama of a royal procession. The crowd parted like the Red Sea, and the room gradually emptied.

As soon as the coast was clear, Danny swam back to his little hidey-hole and flopped into his makeshift nest, utterly drained.

"Never doing that again," he muttered to himself. He needed a new stress relief spot—preferably one that didn’t involve Justice League royalty.

Still, as he glanced out at the now-quiet tank, he couldn’t help but smile. It wasn’t every day you outsmarted Aquaman.

--- Second Variation:

Aquaman froze mid-step, his ocean-blue eyes zeroing in on Danny like a shark that had just caught the scent of blood. Danny, floating nervously behind a clump of coral, felt his stomach drop. Oh, this was bad. This was so bad. Why did Aquaman have to be scary? He was supposed to be the fish dude! The guy who talks to dolphins, not the guy who looks like he’s about to declare war.

For a second, Danny considered bailing. Just—poofing invisible, phasing out of the tank, and pretending none of this ever happened. But the way Aquaman was staring at him, with the intensity of a guy who’d absolutely chase you across the seven seas, made that idea feel… unwise. So Danny did the first thing his panic-addled brain could think of: he waved.

Like an idiot.

The room went dead silent. Even the sharks stopped moving, their dark eyes flicking between Danny and the literal King of Atlantis. Aquaman blinked once, his brow furrowing, before his expression softened in a way that was honestly worse. Oh no. Oh no no no. That was the protective dad face. Danny was doomed.

“It’s okay,” Aquaman said, his voice deep and weirdly soothing, like the ocean right before a storm hits. He crouched a little, holding out one hand like he was trying to coax a skittish puppy. “You’re safe now. I’ve got you.”

Danny blinked. Wait, what?

He swam forward a little, just enough to look curious but still cautious. It wasn’t a total lie—he was curious what Aquaman thought he was doing.

Arthur’s eyes softened even more. “It’s all right,” he murmured. “I know you’ve been through a lot. But I swear, you’re not going to be hurt anymore.”

What is he talking about? Danny thought, frantically. Then it hit him like a freight train. Oh. Oh no. Aquaman thought he was some poor, abused baby mer trapped in the tank. Danny suddenly regretted making his “vibe form” so tiny and pathetic-looking.

Okay. Time to fix this before Aquaman declared war on Amity Park.

Danny pointed at himself, then at the coral, then mimed a little “chilling out” gesture with his hands. Like, No, bro, it’s cool, I live here.

Arthur frowned. “You… live here?” he repeated, sounding skeptical.

Danny nodded furiously. Then, for good measure, he mimed a little shrug, like, Yeah, it’s not fancy, but it’s home.

Arthur’s frown deepened, his gaze flicking around the tank. “But you’re so small,” he said, almost to himself. “And in a shark tank? Why would anyone—”

Danny cut him off with an exaggerated eye roll and mimed swimming through a pipe, pointing dramatically at the tank’s filtration system. *I swam in here, dude. I *chose* this.*

The realization hit Arthur like a bucket of water. “You… came here on your own?”

Another frantic nod. Danny added a double thumbs-up this time, just to really hammer it home.

Arthur straightened, blinking down at him like Danny was a particularly confusing fish he’d never seen before. “So… you’re not trapped?” he asked, his voice tinged with disbelief.

Danny made a big, exaggerated nope gesture, throwing in a sassy little tail flick for good measure.

There was a long pause. Finally, Arthur sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Well,” he muttered, “this is… not what I expected.” He turned to glare at the still-shaking aquarium owner. “You’re not off the hook,” he said sharply. “This facility is unacceptable. Fix it, or I’ll make sure it’s shut down.”

The owner nodded so fast Danny thought his head might pop off.

Aquaman turned back to Danny, his expression softening again. “If this is your choice, I won’t take you from it. But if you ever need help—if anything changes—you can call for me.”

Danny gave him a little wave and watched as Aquaman and his entourage swept out of the aquarium like a very dramatic fish-themed hurricane. The second the coast was clear, Danny swam back to his hidey-hole, flopping into his nest with a groan.

“Never. Doing. That. Again,” he muttered.

But as he curled up in his little cave, surrounded by shiny rocks and a couple of fish friends, he couldn’t help but grin. Out of all the ridiculous things he’d survived, accidentally gaslighting Aquaman might just take the cake. -

Don't know what I'm doing.

Danny puts up with a lot of stress, okay. His coping mechanism is....okay, it's a little weird, he's not gonna lie.

It is widely known that he has a human form and a ghost form; it is not widely known that his ghost form can do pretty much whatever he wants it to.

This includes making it smaller. Changing the ghost tail to a fish one. Making the suit be scales instead of a suit.

He does it so many times he now officially has three forms, and one of them is purely for himself and no one else.

His stress relief is to go to the aquarium, switch to the tiny merman form, and hide in the rocks of his favorite exhibit; the shark exhibit.

He stays in the back, away from the people visiting it's sight, and just vibes. He's even made a small cave the sharks can't fit into a tiny little nest.

No one would expect him there. No one would be looking for him there. He was free to just...take a moment.

Well, so he thought.

Because the humans visiting did see him. Multiple times.

They took pictures.

Now the Amity Park Aquarium is in some deep shit with Atlantis, because there's documented proof that they're keeping a literal baby mer in there as a spectacle.

spacessomethingxdcsideblog

Realizing the infant is in a tank with sharks, predators that would gladly eat something the size of a baby mer, only stokes his rage.

noxcheshire

Aquaman? Yeah he knows WHO the guy is, who wouldn’t know who the Justice League members are, but is he keeping up with that news? No.

Going little baby man mer is his time to really relax. To unwind, laze about, and curl in his little nest with all his little possessions like a fish dragon and just rest.

It’s only going to be a little while after all.

Just a little moment to stretch out, rake his claws across the walls to make some doodles; maybe even watch the cold night outside before a short decided nap.

Just… a little… nap.

Sleep takes Danny fast and swift, and Danny stays at the Aquarium far longer than anticipated.

So what if he sleeps there longer than intended?

No one has ever seen him before, and Danny has never minded the light of the rising sun when it brings the sharks to wakefulness, or the building noise of a slowly waking Aquarium building.

It is all familiar noise to sleep to.

He only slightly minds it when he hears static — electricity — zapping outside, making his sleepy little self jerk and whine before he curls himself deeper into his tail.

It’s silent.

It’s so blissfully silent for a very long time that Danny’s tension flows right out of him.

mutable-manifestation

Okay but imagine he wakes up. Just imagine the sheer hilarity of it. The king of Atlantis just chewed out you, your whole staff, and all of your ancestors with the Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman - in person - and the world - thank you local news station at least someone is enjoying the accidental international incident - watching on.

And he finally goes in the tank to get the mysterious baby mer that you truly Do Not Know how it got there.

And the second he gets it out of its hidey hole this tiny, absolute speck of a mer's eyes shoot open with all the energy of a bomb going off, takes 0.0001 seconds to register the hand holding it, and - in front of God and everyone - bites the ever living fuck out of his finger, escaping the moment the guy flinches (and oof if the cloud of color is any indication bro might need a stitch. The baby has some TEETH).

Baby mer dives back into the hidey hole, Aquaman tries to soothe it into coming back out, he's here to help, blah blah. Baby Mer just hisses like an angry cat.

Aquaman tries to grab the baby again and manages to get a grip on it, but the baby latches his little claws onto either side of his hidey hole and won't let go for anything (and Aquaman could just tug harder but it's a baby he doesn't want to hurt it :(((( [and Danny could just phase out except he doesn't want to do that with people watching him when they seem to think he's a mer {he doesn't know they think he's a baby mer, he just thinks that they think he's, like, some runaway or something} rather than a ghost and is that Batman???])

They finally manage to get Danny out.

(Batman has experience with bitey children. He shoved his armored hand in, and when Danny bit him he pulled him out. Like those videos of people catching fish bare handed)

Danny obviously doesn't stick around. He disappears as soon as everyone looks away. This, of course, leads to the Justice League panicking because "We lost the baby!"

From there it could be either shenanigans cracky or misunderstood angst cracky.

Shenanigans: The Justice League gets a call from the aquarium that Danny's back and it devolves into them trying to keep him contained and out of the aquarium yet he somehow always ends up back in his little nest. Like an octopus determined to escape its tank.

Angsty crack: He gets spotted flying back to Amity Park, and, since this is Amity Park, people realize he's a ghost. So now the Justice League is angsting over Danny being a dead child while Danny is whining about his nap getting interrupted to an unsympathetic Sam and Tucker.

Bonus points for this one would be having Danny's mer form look like one of Aquaman's dead relatives.

mayfay

Consider

Danny looks like a small child to the merfolk, and he’s been in here for who knows how long! Little baby brain was Not taught about Aquaman or Language or life outside an aquarium. But they can’t Force him aparently, he’s got some weird Hodini stuff going on (probably exposure to ecto making him liminal mixed with the constant danger of living in a shark tank leaving him skilled enough with some weird power to escape).

The solution? Teach him.

Try to teach a basic understanding of merfolk language so they can take him Home.

Danny didn’t necessarily Like his hideout being discovered, but hey it’s a free nap, good food, and apparently some kinda tutor…. He can see where this goes right?

Meanwhile Aquaman is finding out while the baby mer’s grasp on language is Abysmal, they’re remarkably advanced in other departments (and for angst God does this small child need food and rest, their power really seems to take it out of them and they Won’t Stop Using It)

Also I wonder if the sudden publicity over cute small baby merfolk might catch others attention. I mean they Are cute, and the rich Are Willing to spend truckloads of money for cute illegal status symbols. Bit more dangerous than usual, but Hey! Smugglers are decent at their jobs okay! They gotta be with the amounts of cash flowing their way for these kinda jobs.

It might start with just Any merfolk, but it won’t take long before the pay for The baby merfolk gets too high, and the Justice League to distracted, before someone takes a crack at Danny

fanaroff

Yeah I’m just gonna add this to it-

taco-rambles

It's been a busy few months, and there's another alien invasion. Just one thing then another, but Aquaman makes it back to the aquarium... only to find the security team panicking and the mer child gone.

The traffickers had drugged the whole tank while Danny was napping and snagged him. Due to unique physiology, while the drug worked, it wore off much faster than expected. Danny wakes up in a holding tank, in a warehouse with other kidnapped people. A few are metas, their abilities suppressed. A few aren't. Either way, Danny decides to become a PROBLEM(tm).

This could go many ways, but I have a mental image of him shape shifting into a colossal form of his mer form, like a terrifying one, and gathering up the smugglers/traffickers while protecting the other kidnapped kids. The justice league shows up, and Danny just bloops back to the baby form once they're there and takes a super cute nap in Aquamans arms. Because he's exhausted now. How would the jl deal with a baby looking mer that can do that?