This is the masterlist for my Fullmetal Alchemist AU with my OC, Ava Elric.
Ava is the older twin sister of Alphonse, and the middle Elric sibling. She lost her left eye, the hearing in her left ear, and her ability to speak in the attempt to resurrect their mom.
Original post with the idea
Whumptober 2025 No. 3: Isolation
Part 2, Whumptober 2025 No. 8: Self-inflicted injury
Part 3
Part 4, Whumptober 2025 No. 15: "You can take a break, if you just tell me it hurts"
Part 5, Whumptober 2025 No. 28: Creative Restraints
Danny moves to Gotham and buys an apartment building.
It was more just a fun project for him to fix up the building, seeing as how after he took over VladCo, and cleaning up operations, Danny was making more money than ever, even after donating to various charities. So yeah, he was bored and just wanted to get his hands dirty and personally repair the appartments.
Once everything was fixed up, he opened the appartments for rent. He didn't really want to charge people, especially in such an area as Crime Alley, but not charging someone rent is way more sketchy than just asking them to pay whatever they could or wanted to. He ended up just setting the money aside to use on the appartments should it need any upgrades or repairs. He doesn't only take money either, while he denies "physical" payments and/or narcotics, he'll take lessons, like the man in 2B teaching him to sew, or the woman in 5A teaching him how to cook, or the two kids who give him very interesting shiny rocks as payment, there was even a few people who paid by cleaning the appartment building's shared places. One teenager paid rent one month by giving Danny a pair of sickly black and white kittens they found outside(they're named Casper, and Specter, and they're the Building's Managers in Pest Apprehension, and Danny loves them).
Because the appartments are so close to where the working girls/boys run, they make up most of his tenants, so Danny asks them to not bring clients back to the apartments, its dangerous to let their clients know where they live, especially because there are other tenants, including children, in the building so its a safety risk. They all agree, they don't really want their clients knowing where they live anyway.
Some do get stalkers though, and Danny is quick to get rid of them. Or when burglars manage to break in, Danny stops them before they can take anything, and if he managed to miss the burglar, he'll personally replace whatever was stolen until they could get the original stuff back. (Maybe he should adopt a gaurd dog, at least for the intimidation factor. Cane Corso's are medium sized*, hes sure he could get away with getting something like that. Something to think about later.)
A lot of his tenants say Danny is really kind, but thats not how Danny sees it, and its something he loudly denies. He's a bored rich person who was taking advantage of his wealth. Him providing them a safe place to live, and a little bit of comfort isn't kindness, its basic human decency. He's not some saint who is doing this of his own kind heart, he's a normal guy who was bored and just decided to do something helpful opposed to harmful, and he shouldn't be praised for that.
*Danny's idea of Dog sizes is skewed, to him Cugo is a big dog, anything smaller than that is medium to small to xsmall.
Bonus
-Red Hood(or the bats in general) thinks the appartment building was suspicious. Maybe it was some rich guy just being nice, but outside of Bruce, stuff like that doesn't happen in Gotham. Maybe its money laundering, or its acting as an underground brothel, or the owner is actually a massive creep. Either way, they want to be discreet, they don't want to ruin a good thing for people in need if everything happens to be clean happenings. So, they go under cover, Jason acts like a working boy, Damian is a abused kid/teen on the run, Steph is hiding from a abusive ex, maybe Alfred gets in on it and acts like an old man whos boss just fired him because of with no severance pay?
-Everytime Danny starts to get bored, he buys another building to fix up. Not always appartment building's, maybe a hotel, or an auto garage, or an abandoned building he could gut and turn into rec center. You'd think Danny would be burning through money, but no, somehow Danny's happenings leaked and it was good press because people are buying things from VladCo more and more.
Prompt idea where Danny goes back in time and meets Wonder Woman. It could be on Themyscira during the infini-map situation but I’m personally partial to him meeting Diana during the World Wars.
The basics of it is that for whatever reason, one of the speedsters, a random time traveler, a ghost, or because Clockwork needs Danny to learn something there, he sends him into the past and he quickly ends up meeting Wonder Woman and helping her. He decides to stay with her until he’s finished whatever mission Clockwork’s sent him on and she ends up all but adopting him.
She’s teaching him all her sword tricks and how to fight without relying on his powers as much. The end up getting closer and closer and quickly get to the point where Danny starts subconsciously seeing her as a mother figure. To the point where he accidentally calls her mom, to his eternal mortification. Diana takes this all in stride though, secretly happy that her little warrior called her mom.
Things happen and eventually Danny has to go back to his own time period and his actual life. It’s a very tearful goodbye but it ends with Diana giving Danny a golden wreath crown as a moment of her and her mentally promising to find her little warrior again. She’s fairly certain now that he’s going to be born some time in the future. She doesn’t have much to go off of but gods damn it is she going to try!
Cut to some years later and Diana has become one of the founding members of the Justice League. She still has not found her son but she doesn’t say anything to the other members because she honestly can’t be sure if he’s even been born yet. This all is thrown out the window though when one of the JL members bring up reports of this ghost boy in this little town in the middle of nowhere Illinois. She sees a picture of it an yep, that’s her little boy! He’s even wearing the wreath so that mean he’s met her! She can go see him without risk to the timeline!
She practically sprints all the way to Amity only to find that he’s not here? None of the townsfolk know anything but when she starts instead looking for his human persona she isn’t able to find anything. It’s only when she investigates his parents that she hears, holy shit he’s whimpering in the basement!? She bursts in, ready to defend her baby but the scene she come in on is worse than anything she can imagine. There, on an operating table, is her baby boy. Opened like a gods damned high school science class frog! She can see his organs and knows some of them have been removed.
She does her best to sew him back together and hopes to the gods that his healing will be enough to get him to the Watchtower, all the while he’s crying and calling her mom and saying it hurts, when his parents come back into the lab, guns blazing, ready to fight whatever ghost dared to take their specimen. They were not, however, ready for a very angry and protective mama Wonder Woman who’s fully ready to kill at this point.
After giving the Fentons a piece of her mind, Wonder woman carries Danny as carefully as she can, trying not to disturb his wounds too much. As soon as she gets to a place where she can, she asks through comms to be teleported up to the watchtower.
The JL is flabbergasted at Diana carrying a severely injured young teen boy, and even more confused as to why she brought him to the watchtower and not to a hospital (which is protocol). They soon realize that both, this isn't a normal boy, and Diana is VERY attached to him.
The medical team better not let him die or they're all gonna have to deal with an angry Wonder Woman.
I think it would be cool if when Danny gets better, he wants to train with his mom again, but she's too worried about his health, so he bullies other JL members into it instead.
I like this idea but I’d like to modify it. It was explained that Diana fought with Danny during one or both of the world wars. She knows just how durable Danny is and just how quickly he can bounce back from damage that would kill a normal human. That, and she would want to be the one to teach her baby.
True, but this is the worst injuries she's ever seen on him.
---
Diana is worried. She knows it's irrational, she knows he'll heal, but she can't shake the image of him laying on that table, flayed open, blood dripping down his sides even as tears dripped down his face.
Her little warrior wants her to train him. And she wants to! She has seen him fight. He has some skill already, but also potential for much more. She could polish the rough edges of his techniques until he's a fine warrior, fit to stand against any Amazon.
It's just that....
She wants to wait.
Her little warrior is so impatient. He's barely standing, only just released from bed rest, and already pushing to start training now. And that? That, she cannot do. She will not train him until he is fully healed.
(Until she no longer sees the gruesome scene of his rescue every time she closes her eyes.)
Danny is disappointed, but seems to accept her reasoning. She breathes a sigh of relief. Now she has at least a little time until—
Did he just ask Green Arrow to start training him?!?
Steph and Cass had just heard about Phantom, Wonder Woman’s ghost son, and decided to go up to the Watchtower to meet him. They get there and figure out he’s in a viewing room all by himself, looking at the stars. Feeling mischievous Steph asks Cass to spook him, claiming that spooking the ghost would be hilarious.
Cass decides to go with the plan and sneaks through the vents. She plans to drop down behind him and poke him or something. What she wasn’t expecting was for him to suddenly perk up and turn in his seat to look right at her in the vent. How had he noticed her? Not even Superman could notice her if she knew she was sneaking up on him!
Already knowing the plan is a bust she drops down with the intention of introducing and explaining herself when something weird happens. Cass had been trained since birth to read people’s bodies. To her it was her first language. So it surprised her when Phantom seemed to be doing the same to her. Reacting to her in the same way she was reacting to him.
Danny, for his part, is also confused that this bat person seems to be communicating in what he can best describe as a mute form of ghostspeak. She only has a proto-core so she can only project the most basic of intentions to color her emotions but combined with her body movements it’s almost as easy for him to understand as ghostspeak!
It was a silent conversation but the two young heroes quickly struck up a friendship. Cass is happy that she’s met someone she can converse with without any words or sign and Danny’s happy to meet someone who’s capable of understanding and somewhat replying in ghost. The only words shared between them being those that they can’t get through a combination of body language and a weak form of ghostspeak, but they’re mostly entirely quiet.
Cut to half an hour later, Steph is starting to get worried. She hasn’t heard a single sound from inside the room and she’s just about to break in herself when Cass steps out, holding the hand of Phantom who’s for some reason blushing a bright pit green. She says one word that leaves Steph blue screening, “Boyfriend.”
Prompt idea where Danny goes back in time and meets Wonder Woman. It could be on Themyscira during the infini-map situation but I’m personally partial to him meeting Diana during the World Wars.
The basics of it is that for whatever reason, one of the speedsters, a random time traveler, a ghost, or because Clockwork needs Danny to learn something there, he sends him into the past and he quickly ends up meeting Wonder Woman and helping her. He decides to stay with her until he’s finished whatever mission Clockwork’s sent him on and she ends up all but adopting him.
She’s teaching him all her sword tricks and how to fight without relying on his powers as much. The end up getting closer and closer and quickly get to the point where Danny starts subconsciously seeing her as a mother figure. To the point where he accidentally calls her mom, to his eternal mortification. Diana takes this all in stride though, secretly happy that her little warrior called her mom.
Things happen and eventually Danny has to go back to his own time period and his actual life. It’s a very tearful goodbye but it ends with Diana giving Danny a golden wreath crown as a moment of her and her mentally promising to find her little warrior again. She’s fairly certain now that he’s going to be born some time in the future. She doesn’t have much to go off of but gods damn it is she going to try!
Cut to some years later and Diana has become one of the founding members of the Justice League. She still has not found her son but she doesn’t say anything to the other members because she honestly can’t be sure if he’s even been born yet. This all is thrown out the window though when one of the JL members bring up reports of this ghost boy in this little town in the middle of nowhere Illinois. She sees a picture of it an yep, that’s her little boy! He’s even wearing the wreath so that mean he’s met her! She can go see him without risk to the timeline!
She practically sprints all the way to Amity only to find that he’s not here? None of the townsfolk know anything but when she starts instead looking for his human persona she isn’t able to find anything. It’s only when she investigates his parents that she hears, holy shit he’s whimpering in the basement!? She bursts in, ready to defend her baby but the scene she come in on is worse than anything she can imagine. There, on an operating table, is her baby boy. Opened like a gods damned high school science class frog! She can see his organs and knows some of them have been removed.
She does her best to sew him back together and hopes to the gods that his healing will be enough to get him to the Watchtower, all the while he’s crying and calling her mom and saying it hurts, when his parents come back into the lab, guns blazing, ready to fight whatever ghost dared to take their specimen. They were not, however, ready for a very angry and protective mama Wonder Woman who’s fully ready to kill at this point.
masterpost please no editing, I know there are issues, I am in migraine land and all my joints hurt. ty <3
Barry raises his chin up defiantly at the look he was getting. “No, I can’t just put them down.”
“I didn’t ask,” Bruce says, voice monotone.
“You were thinking it,” Barry says. He clutches the armful of the blob ghosts to his chest.
Several purr in response.
Bruce doesn’t sigh, but there’s the implied sigh in his words. “You don’t read minds, Flash.”
“I don’t need to be able to read minds to know what you’re thinking right now,” Barry argues. “The little guys are traumatized! They were just stuck waiting to be made into paste.”
Bruce stares back silently from behind is cowl, judging.
“Can we not?” Wally snaps. He clutches his own blob ghost tight enough that it squeaks and quickly relaxes his grip. Well, not his, blob ghost, just the one that has found its way to him. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have…”
“Hey, it’s alright,” Barry says, voice carefully softened. His comforting victims voice.
It rankles.
“Is it?! Because I think what it is, is that they’ve got part of our family here in a fucking tube to keep experimenting on! What I think it is, is that he never really made it out!”
The noise in the room quiets at his out burst. Dick is looking from across the room with worry in every line of his body. Barry isn’t looking at him at all.
“Flash,” Bruce says, voice firm.
Wally hunches his shoulders. “That was unprofessional, I know.”
“You don’t have to stay in this room,” Bruce offers instead of ripping into Wally’s outburst. “If you wish to stay on site but away from here, there is a boardroom.”
“I… yeah. I’ll go—I can get some waters and stuff for it too for everyone. Maybe these little guys will settle in too,” Wally says. He has to stumble through the words, but it’s better to have something to do. “And I’ll stay out of the way until I calm down.”
“Flash. Both of you,” Bruce says. They look to him, of course they both do. Bruce just commands attention. “This is understandably hard. It will be for your whole family. Focus on making sure your family is alright. If we need your expertise, we will ask, I promise you that.”
After a moment, Barry nods. “I’ll try to settle the blobs in the boardroom so that they’re out of the way.”
“That would help,” Bruce agrees.
“And I’ll try to keep the younguns away,” Barry says with a sigh, because that was a whole thing.
“Keep them to the boardroom if they don’t stay away. All of them,” Bruce advises. “Wonder Woman and Zatanna are speaking with some of the ghosts, and Constantine is making sure that the building is safe from realm bleed. Until we know matters are secure, Young Justice need to stay out of the way and as a group. I am counting Afterimage as part of that group.”
Barry nods. “We’ll make sure they know that.”
Wally thinks they’re both was more confident in keeping the kids contained than they should be, but doesn’t open his mouth. (He’s still feeling a little hysterical.)
“Boardroom is this way,” Barry says and zips off. The little ghosts hang on easily for the whole walk, even through the super speed. In fact, the ghosts seem happier after the trip.
Wally sets the ghost he had been holding down on the table. It’s sleek and dangerously black in the bright, white room. Wally hates it. He hates this whole place. “I, um, saw some paper boxes in a copy room. They might be good for these little guys. I’ll just—”
He leaves before Barry can say anything back.
The copy room is empty. There’s a pile of papers that have been briefly lit on fire that still stink of smoke, but no one is trying to deal with looking through them yet. It lets Wally sit down. His head down drops down between his knees and his hands wrap behind his neck. He breaths in.
There was another Danny.
He breaths out.
They still didn’t know if there was a consciousness there.
He breaths on.
If there was, had Danny know anything outside of this torment?
He breaths out a long, slow breath.
One piece at a time.
One piece at a time and backed by their family: by Barry and Iris and Bart. But they’re also by their extended family of heroes: by Bats and Supes and the Amazonians and everyone else. This would be hard, but they would handle it together.
“Alright,” Wally says to no one. He stands with a stretch, all the way up on his tiptoes, and then shakes it out. He’s feeling a lot better as he grabs the empty paper boxes that were waiting for recycling. There’s less than he wants, but the little blobs do seem to like being squished. And it was at least something. “One piece at a time.”
Post experimentation, fled to Gotham Danny is held together by stitches. Stitches everywhere. From the vivis autopsy to various limbs he had to retrieve and reattach. Incisions closed and even whole patches of skin he had to sew back onto himself.
A patchwork person, all stitched together, shambling through Gotham on base instincts. Perhaps occasionally lashing out in pain or fear, but ultimately just trying not to hurt or be hurt.
.
Reports are popping up around Gotham that someone must have pulled a Frankenstein. Naturally this warrants Bat investigation. And Jason, the literary nerd, feels himself best qualified to take on the case.
Everyone thinks they have what it takes — the temperament, the patience, the dedication — to tame a stray/handle a traumatized creature. Right up until they're sitting in the ER, bitten and/or scratched to hell and back, needing to get their shots just in case, while the professionals sweep in to take over where they failed.
Later, at Leslie's, waiting for her to finish analyzing saliva to make sure the kid isn't venomous.
Selina, bitten and scratched to hell because Frankenkid is not, as it turns out, actually a cat: Not. A. Word.
Jason, sitting smugly with said kid held calmly, albeit chewing on his armored jacket, in his lap: I didn't say anything.
Danny, not quite present but there's a fellow ghost here whose core is crooning warmth and help and protection to him, self soothing by chewing: rrrgrrrmrrrng
Bruce Wayne is no stranger to medical recovery. Despite the rumors in the Justice League, he was nothing more than a mortal man. He could push his body to its very limits and sometimes pass them, but never without consequences.
This means that, after his latest fight, Bruce was unfortunately unable to go out and protect Gotham's civilians. When he did get too hurt to be out of the field, he could at least crawl into the cave and work on some cases or even support his family through the monitors.
That wasn't possible this time, seeing as Alfred all but threatened to cut Bruce's limbs- all four of them- if he attempted to move from his adjustable bed. Normally, Alfred only made displeased noises in the back of his throat, which was something Bruce could ignore, but when he made threats, then that's when he knew Alfred was not messing around.
Bruce was to not do any Batman work until he was fully healed. All because he got caught by surprise during a fight with Ivy, and his back paid the price. It was a bone bruise, which, in Bruce's opinion, was a minor injury, but Alfred had heard Dr. Leslie warn him that if he didn't rest, she wouldn't be surprised if it led to a broken bone.
She meant that he could get hurt worse in the field. But Alfred heard this leads to that and ran with it. Now Bruce was bored out of his mind, waiting for his family to let him move. Technically, he wasn't on strict bed rest, but since Dr. Leslie also found out the rest of his body was practically screaming from all the stress he put it through, she advised that he stay in bed for a while.
His kids gave him a TV remote, a couple of books, and his phone (with some programmed blocks to prevent him from accessing the systems he wanted to work on). They explained that in about three days, he would be allowed access to his laptop, not before then. He could get into his wheelchair and roll to different parts of the house, but not "on his own". He was pretty sure they put motion sensors around his room just in case he tried
He watched shows, read his books, and scrolled on social media. It's only been five hours, and he was already losing his mind. Maybe it was because he knew he couldn't work, but the hours dragged on so much that he didn't pay attention to the episodes, and the paragraphs in the books didn't register in his mind.
Social media had never really captured his attention, except for searching for signs that someone was getting close to his identity. He was so bored he started scrolling blindly, eyes glazed and unfocused on the screen. Even if he was focused, the screen moved too fast for him to see what the posts were about until his thumb accidentally tapped on a pop-up ad.
The ad was a link that sent him to a different website. The website looked plain overall, except for the kiss marks floating on the sides and the random posts encouraging people to call them for a good time with like-minded people. Bruce has never seen a website like that before.
Usually, such websites were subtle- and sometimes not subtle at all- images that showed it was more of a working girl or boy service. These posts had odd phrases like "Call me to talk about dinosaurs!" or "Call me if you love the following book series," and even "Call me if you want to vent about stupid siblings- only middle children!"
The website was called "Kitty's Connections," which sounded like a run-of-the-mill, adult service website, but the content was....different.
Bruce quickly ran a scan on the page with his phone. Barbara and Tim made sure everyone's phones had virus, malware, and phishing scanners installed so they could quickly verify that any app or webpage they visited was safe. Nothing was marked dangerous, so in a moment of utter boredom, Bruce scrolled through the different posts. Apparently, each user had a phone number linked to the webpage's app, and when someone found a topic they liked, they were supposed to tap the number to make a direct call.
No messaging because that wasn't "authentic" anymore. Bruce was pretty sure this was someone closer to his age who created the webpage. He scrolled for a good hour or so, with nothing catching his attention. Bruce was about to close the webpage and return to his social media when one post from the user DeadKingFenton caught his attention.
Call me if you want a platonic fun time : 1-800-XOXO
Underneath the odd message was an image of a burning crown that bore an alarming resemblance to a fictional legend that Bruce had personally been obsessed with as a child. In his favorite show, The Grey Ghost, the protagonist, despite being human, had been helped by his mysterious mentor and informant of the Underworld- The Ghost King.
He only appeared as a flaming crown floating over a figure that hid in the shadows and never showed thier face. Their voice was provided by multiple people speaking at once, and despite their importance, the Ghost King appears on screen only twice, with all other references to them delivered by the Grey Ghost reminiscing about his days in training.
The Ghost King haunted the narrative, but there were never many details about the character, and fans quickly realized the King was more of a plot hole than anything else, barely making sense in the context of the show. The king was more of a fantasy element in an otherwise modern (of its time) fiction show.
Only really devoted fans knew the King's symbol, which was something Bruce was. His eyes lingered on the message, the image, and after a moment, he said, "Well, what's the worst that could happen?" and pressed the call number.
At once, it encouraged him to install the app, and create a profile. Bruce quickly went through the necessary steps to create an account under the username ProudGreyGFan. Once that was done, the call started, and instead of the usual call tone, the Grey Ghost theme song was heard.
Bruce's lips lifted as he listened to the familiar and beloved music. It went on for a few seconds, just about to loop again, when someone answered.
Someone shockingly young. He was expecting someone his age, or even older, since Bruce knew the show was from his father's generation. He had been an awfully young fan back when Bruce was a child, and that was mostly because Thomas' favorite show was what he wanted to share with his son.
"Hello?" A male teenager, by the sound of his voice. Bruce blinks once, then twice, utterly frozen from surprise until the voice returns. "Anyone there?"
"Y-yes. Sorry, how old are you?" Bruce finds him asking.
"I'm fourteen."
"Well then, goodbye," Bruce hangs up the call, rubbing his eyes. In seconds, his phone starts ringing again. He answers without checking the caller- so used to only his family having his number- and much to his displeasure, the same teenage voice comes from the speakers.
"Hey, you called me. Do you not want to chat?"
"Not with a teenager."
The fourteen-year-old laughs. "It's not that kind of chat, old man."
"It's still not appropriate. I thought you were older because of the Crown of Fire picture in your post. Sorry."
There is a pause, heavy with something that snaps the attention vigilante part of my mind. Bruce finds himself pausing over the end call button, waiting as the boy finally replies, "How do you know the Crown of Fire?"
"I'm a fan of the show it's from." Are you not? is left unsaid, but heard all the same. There are a few moments of silence, though Bruce could hear the boy moving. It sounded like he was outside, somewhere crowded, based on the footsteps, and maybe even close to a road if those were cars driving by. It could be just wind, but it was too consistent and heavy for that.
A few minutes went by, and then the boy's voice returned, "What show are you talking about? I can't find it online."
"The Grey Ghost, from the early 50s," Bruce replies, even more confused. If this wasn't a reference to his favorite show, then how did the boy know the Crown of Fire? He could have just chosen it because he liked how the image looked- Dick has done that plenty of times- but to know it by name was an entirely different thing.
It implied that the Crown of Fire was more than just a fictional element in an old show.
Another pause goes by, and Bruce is now sure the boy is searching, before his surprise voice comes back. "Wait, the Ghost King is a character in this? No way!"
"Did you not watch the show?"
"No, this is the first time I'm hearing about it."
"Then how did you know about the Crown of Fire?" Bruce asks, pressing the phone to his ear and trying to get as many details of the boy from the background noise he could make out. Something in him told him to do so.
Bruce was never one to doubt his instincts- they saved his life more than once.
"Um, I-er, I saw it online and thought it was cool." The boy stumbles, which is the worst attempt at lying in his life. Too honest. He then asked how the boy knew about the Ghost King if he had never seen the show. "Er, what I saw was a picture of the Ghost King wearing the crown. I, ugh, thought he was someone's OC."
"Someone's OC?" Bruce questions, confusion coloring his words. What was with kids and making everything into an acronym?
"You're really old, aren't you?" The boy laughs a little more relaxed. "It means original character."
That explained nothing, but Bruce still hummed as if it explained everything. It sounded like the boy was moving underground. He was proven correct when he heard an announcement. This is Gotham Line L to Gotham Line W.
The kid was in Gotham? And on his way to Crime Alley? At this hour? It was the last train, and frankly, quite dangerous.
"I suppose I sound old to someone so young. I'm forty-seven." Bruce replies, typing a text to Jason- the one to be for sure near Crime Alley- a request to stop by the station and ensure the fourteen-year-old gets home safe.
A few seconds go by before his son's confirmation comes through, along with a suspicious " Why do you know there is a child walking so late on his own? But Bruce chose not to answer that part of the message.
"Ancient." The boy mocks in the same good nature, teasing his children, and Bruce's lips twitch into a smile against his will. " You're ancient. Why aren't you sleeping? Old people are asleep by this time, right?"
"I could ask you the same. Kids have bedtimes for a reason, you know."
The boy barks out a laugh, delighted. The sound is almost surprised, like he wasn't expecting to be brought to laughter, or that he was out of practice. Bruce adds one more mark to the list of worries this call was starting to make.
"I usually stay up late!" The boy said through giggles.
"Are your guardians aware of that? Better yet, are they aware you're taking calls from strangers?" Bruce probs as casually as he can. It doesn't seem to be done as delicately as he should have done it because the good humor vanishes, and the heavy silence from before returns.
After a moment, the boy speaks again. "They don't care."
Not a lie, but said with far too flatness that Bruce knows the boy means his guardians don't care about him, and not that they didn't mind what he was doing. If it were anyone else, they would have missed the difference in the way he spoke, but he's Batman. He could hear that bitterness loud and clear in the flatness of his tone.
"They should. My kids tell me beauty sleep is really important- especially since I don't believe in skin care routines," Bruce said instead of peaking at the obvious tension. He wants to know more, which is why he hadn't hung up again.
"You don't believe in skin care routines?!" The teenager yelps, sounding equally as horrified by that knowledge as Tim and Steph did when he walked in on them applying random products during a sleepover.
They had moved to the viewing room for a night of romantic comedies a few minutes before Bruce got the urge to go turn on the projector to watch a documentary. His son and (almost) daughter forced him to sit down while they smeared similar products on his skin, which he thought was pointless, but he did enjoy the face mask.
Bruce laughs. "I do wear lotion and sunscreen. I also drink plenty of water- that usually clears up any skin issues I have."
The teenager makes a noise that sounds like he's deeply offended, but doesn't comment on it further. Instead, he asks how much water is considered 'plenty'. In the same breath, the boy starts talking about the water bottles he makes and sells in his free time.
Bruce allows himself to get pulled into the conversation, asking questions when appropriate but mostly letting the kid lead. Eventually, the conversation moves to the Grey Ghost and other old shows the pair enjoys, with Bruce mentioning things from before his time, and the teenager mentioning old cartoons he enjoyed that Bruce only has faint knowledge of.
Out of all his kids, Dick and Jason were the ones most prone to cartoons, but the teenager considered shows from ten years ago old, so he recognized some names. The most recent was a loss to him, as Damian preferred anime to Western animation. Tim liked live action, Steph mostly watched dramas, and Duke went from horror to sitcoms.
It sounded like the teenager was one of the few who mostly watched animated things instead of anything else.
Eventually, the train arrived at its destination, twenty minutes later, and the boy paused in his summary of the most recent show that had a giant plot twist he had not been expecting.
"Oh, I have to go."
"Alright." Bruce accepted easily. "Have a good night."
"Um, you too. I'm Danny, by the way."
Bruce bites back a lecture on telling strangers his name, especially online, but only just. He tries to sound as casual and warm as he had been throughout this entire conversation. "Nice to meet you Danny. My name is Bruce."
"It was fun talking to you, Bruce," Danny says brightly, then in a much more obvious attempt to sound casual, he asks, "Can I call you again?"
Bruce's heart squeezes at the longing in the boy's tone as he laughs. "Of course."
Danny does a little cheer before he once again bids him goodbye, and the call drops. A few minutes go by, and he has half the mind to go down to Crime Alley to check if the boy got there safely or even open his chat with Jason to make sure he was around to get Danny home safely. He holds off, just because he knows his family would get angry, but just as the itch to do something starts to get unbearable, his phone rings.
This time, actually checking the screen, he finds Jason's burner phone number, the one he uses as Red Hood, flashing across his screen. He picks up, answering in a confused voice, just in case it's someone other than Jaylad.
He can pretend to never get a call from that number, as Brucie, if that's the case.
"Hello? Who is this?"
"It's your butler, who else?" Jason scoffs, answering the call in the code they agreed upon for the month. At once, Bruce relaxes even as his son carries on like nothing was amiss. The who else also let him know that his son was in a secure place, so he wasn't worried about being overheard.
Jason let that settle before his voice took on a more serious tone, dropping the mocking. "Listen, I'm calling about the teenager you mentioned on the last train of the W line. I followed him from the station, only to find out he was crashing in a broken-down camping store that had closed years ago. When I went inside, I saw his little setup in the far back of the building near the bathrooms. Kid's homeless but seems to be using the building's still functioning water system- and no, I don't know why it's active- to make himself look like he's not."
Bruce closed his eyes. I was afraid of this
"I figured as much," He settles on. "From the way he spoke, it sounded like he was lonely enough that his home situation was not right."
"You bringing him in?" Jason asks, with just the hint of tension in his voice that tells Bruce he means the cape life, and the Manor all at once. His son still doesn't approve of children in capes, along with Dick, and both act as if Bruce goes out of his way to turn children into soldiers, no matter who he talks to.
Sometimes it hurts that they forget how hard he worked to talk children out of it, and how hard he fought to get his sons to stay home in the very beginning.
"No. I just found out about him, but I don't think he will be willing to get help from CPS or me until I build a better relationship," Bruce replies. Jason lets out a huff of annoyance.
"No CPS," He grouches, the memories of what that particular system did to him, hidden in Jason's voice. "They never help. Not in Gotham."
"I know. I'm trying to make it better," Bruce acknowledges, but both know his efforts are not enough. For ever corrupted person Wayne Enterpirse had removed, three more took thier place. The system was broken in the country, but in Gotham, it was utterly shattered. "Until then, I want to keep an eye on Danny, and I'll keep talking to him-"
"Talk to him? How are you talking to him?"
"I got connected to him through a website. It's called Kitty's Connections, and apparently, it's to help people meet like-minded individuals, but through phone calls only." Bruce responds without hesitation.
Jason is silent for a long moment before he lets out a long breath. "If it were anyone else, I would be accusing them of being a perv, but I know you. So, we are investigating this website?"
"Yes. I want to make sure it's nothing harmful to children." Bruce had already sent a link to Barbara, along with an explanation. She replied with a thumbs up and a promise to give him a report on whatever she found. "O is on it. In the meantime, tell me about Danny. Does he look alright?"
"He's skinny, in the same way kids who've haven't eaten well for years are. But he's clean, like I said, seeming to keep up his laundry, and his washing well enough through the store's water supply. He also seems unaware of his surroundings. Either he's new to the streets or so used to them he doesn't look out of place." Jason reports, sounding like he was leaping onto the roofs, based on the change in voice and the slight thumps. Bruce wishes he could be leaping over rooftops right now, too. "features wise, he's small with black hair reaching his shoulders, blue eyes and limp in his left leg. Can't be older than twelve or so."
"He said he was fourteen," Bruce corrects, "Didn't sound like a lie. How bad was the limp?"
"Looks new. The kid steps wrong, for it it be a old issue."
"Did he seem ingured?"
"Not that I could tell, but I was observing at a distance. Didn't want him to run,"
Bruce sighs, "Alright. I'll call him again tomorrow. See if I can get more information out of him. Do you mind finding a way to give him food-"
"Already have that covered. Tomorrow, one of my contacts will offer him free food in exchange for some help taking out the garbage or something."
Bruce smiles, pride blooms in his chest. "Thank you, Jaylad. You always do good work for the street kids."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Not a big deal." Despite the words, Bruce knew his son was blushing, attempting to brush off the praise as he had when he was twelve. His boy has never handled praise well. "That's all?"
"For tonight. Thank you"
"Alright, then I'm heading off. By the way, I'm going to call Alfred about this. You better be resting by the time he come up to check on you."
Bruce groans, "I wasn't even doing anything. Why do you have to call him?"
"You know why."
"Fine. I'll watch some cartoons or something while you call him."
Jason huffs out a surprise laugh. "Cartoons? Why cartoons?"
"Danny told me about some. He sounded so passionate, I felt like I should give them a chance." Bruce shrugs, clicking on the TV and typing in the search bar, the first one. It pulls up the streaming service it was on, and since Bruce had all the subscriptions, he was able to start the first episode right away. It was just as brightly colored and playful as he would expect from a show about imaginary friends living in a foster home.
"Alright, have fun." Jason laughs again, "Night, old man."
"Goodnight, Jaylad. I love you."
Jason sputters for a second before he grouses, "Yeah, love you too."
The line drops, and Bruce settles more comfortably to watch the show. He has about twenty seconds before Alfred is running up to ensure he's actually watching TV, but he makes a mental note to look more into Danny's situation and the Ghost King's Crown of Fire.
Something tells him that it's a very important connection with the boy in the broken-down camping store and the reason he wound up there. Bruce would ponder on it more, but he hears the loud stomping of his bulter, so he has to force himself to look utterly captivated with the cartoon and let his thoughts settle.
Just as he does so, Alfred throws up the door with a shout, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING, BOY!?"
"Watching cartoons."
Alfred narrows his eyes at him, rightfully suspicious. If Jason hadn't given him the warning, Bruce would have likely done something crazy, like limp to Tim's room to steal a tablet and look into the Ghost King. "Keep it that way."
"I will."
"I will, what?"
"I will, sir."
In Alfred's hand is his cellphone, which not only has Jason's laughter spilling out of it, but Bruce is half sure he can hear all his children cracking up. Bruce would have been offended, but it's Alfred. Of course, he had to use "sir" when his (almost) father put him on bed rest.
masterpost cw: the JL are going into the GIW facility so there's mentions of experimentation. Nothing is too graphic though.
The GIW really are overconfident bastards.
Barry tries not to cuss about this whole thing around the kids. It isn’t that he thinks the kids haven’t heard cussing, or even that cussing doesn’t have its place. It’s more that he’s worried if he starts that he won’t be able to stop. The kids didn’t need to deal with his frustrations over this. They need him to be strong.
Most of the time.
Right now is about wrecking these overconfident bastards.
Barry can feel the anti ghost shielding. Moving through it is like pushing through a door strung with clingfilm. It slows him down, but it doesn’t stop him. Wally is fractions of a second behind him. Barry would have rather had Wally at the other locations where there would be less chance of being shot at, but there had been no convincing the Titans of staying away completely.
Wally takes the left path as Barry takes the right. Something about them coming through the shielding triggers the alarms. Something about them says ‘ghost. Barry tries not to think about it, because he can’t afford to think about it right then. They have a mission.
Locking the GIW out of their own armory is ridiculously simple. Again, overconfident bastards. He avoids taking out any of the agents just yet, just to cut down on panic. Next step was to find the security room. Wally made it there first. Two agents are passed out on the floor. Barry leaves the computers to Wally for the moment and focuses on securing the agents with zip ties. He uses their ties as gags. Which really, white suits? Overconfident bastards.
“Security room is secure,” Wally says. His voice is an even double through the comms. “Relay the time to breaching.”
“Five minutes,” Bats replies.
“Armory is locked up. There didn’t seem to be any exterior guards, but not promises,” Barry added. There was a soft noise of confirmation back.
Barry crosses his arms, foot tapping. Five minutes was an eternity for a speedster.
“Did you feel it?” Wally asks.
Barry nods. “Coming through the barrier? Yeah.”
Wally nods. “There’s also a feeling of, like, static shock when touching the goons.”
“I just thought that was the ugly carpet.”
“It is really hideous carpet.”
An eternity later, and far too much time staring at the carpet, the rest arrive. After grabbing the hard drive that they hope Technus has moved onto, Barry and Wally speed back to their teams and then forward again, mapping out the facility and taking the odd agent out as they go.
The full alarms are blaring now. The GIW are doing the equivalent of shredding the documents, except it’s trying to wipe data. There are Bats making sure to stop that. That one is easy. Harder is stopping the GIW from destroying the active experiments. From destroying the ghosts that they have pressed into cages and test tubes and machines that Barry doesn’t look too closely at but that turn his stomach.
Most of the human shaped ones rise with a wail as soon as they’re freed. Some vanish. Others swoop through the building. The ghost of a lunch lady embraces another that looks like a dock worker of some sort, but it’s hard to tell with the pieces that hang off him like dripping skin. Something large and white and furry attacks an agent.
Barry doesn’t stop them.
“Flash,” Wally says across the comms. “Left side, big lab.”
The strain in his voice is enough that Barry rushes to his nephew’s location, arms full of weird, blobular ghosts that rumble like purring cats. He’d been grabbing them out of one of the machines—at least grabbing the ones that weren’t… bits of green are stuck to his suit like mashed up jelly. The ghost coo as Barry zips at full speed.
Bits of green go flying as he slams to a stop next to Wally.
One of the blobs rumbles deeper and nuzzles Barry in a weird sort of comfort. Absently, Barry dips his chin down to shield it. He doesn’t look down. He can’t. His eyes are glued to what he’s seeing in the large tube in the center of the room.
“Is that…”
“…It looks like it, right?” Wally asks. His voice isn’t above a whisper. “Danny said they had his core, but I didn’t…”
“How could we?” Barry asks back. Ludicrously, Barry says the first thing that comes to mind. “We’re going to have to move. We don’t have enough bedrooms.”
Wally barks out a surprised laugh and covers his mouth quickly. It’s not the time to be laughing. Barry bites his lip to stop his own, slightly hysterical laugh.
The blobs purr.
The Flashes watch the floating figure in the tube. The figure that has Danny’s face, a glowing sphere in their chest, and fades to nothing before their feet can touch the ground.
AKA "After Alfred dies, the Batfam need a new chef. Somehow, they find Danny (who totally didn't lie on his resume and absolutely knows how to cook!). Danny just wants Mr. Pennyworth's ghost to stop harassing him." DPxDC prompt idea!
This was inspired by the bajillion other ghost!Alfred prompts, but I literally couldn't get it out of my head. Specifically, how bad Danny would be as a chef. But I also want Danny to somehow heal the Wayne's grief a little?
Damian is the first one to notice how the Manor's kitchen looks different. While Bruce, Tim, and Damian still live in the Manor, Bruce and Tim refuse to enter the kitchen. Bruce even (politely) refuses to eat the food Mr. Fenton cooks. (Damian hadn't known Alfred Pennyworth for very long but he had respected him all the same. Even so, he refuses to let his loss prevent him from walking around his own home.) So, of course, Damian notices.
It starts subtly. Mr. Fenton, their new chef, left several recipe books on the kitchen counter. It's not unusual for a chef to do so but it's jarring since Mr. Pennyworth always made sure to keep the kitchen spotless. Next, are chrysanthemum flowers in a vase. Notes pinned to the fridge with colorful magnets. Star-themed tea towels hanging off the oven door. A small hydroponic garden plugged in on the counter top. Mr. Fenton starts to listen to music - an odd mixture between country and classical, sometimes listening to a podcast about NASA or World War II. It's not obnoxiously loud but it can be heard over the bubbling of soup, Mr. Fenton chopping veggies, and occasional humming.
It's like the entire kitchen transforms with new life. Sounds, colors, movement, the scent of fresh herbs and tomato sauce. Damian stays hidden in the hallway as he silently observes.
Until he sees the cookbook flip several pages and a bottle of pepper flakes floats above the sauce pan, shaking until they flutter out. Mr. Fenton heaves an exasperated sigh and groans, "Al! I was going to add them! Ancients, if you wanted to cook, you should'a just done it."
It's several more minutes of a one-sided conversation before Damian decides either he's hallucinating (not likely given Mr. Fenton would also need to be hallucinating) or Mr. Pennyworth is... a ghost. Haunting the Manor. And somehow Mr. Fenton can see him, can communicate with him. It wouldn't be the strangest thing to happen - Damian has seen the dead revived, had the displeasure of speaking with John Constantine, and he himself has been in Hell. A ghost would be underwhelming. But the ghost of Alfred Pennyworth?
Good thing Damian is the son of the world's greatest detective. He will figure this out.
(Cue Damian recruiting Thomas, Cain, and Brown - those least familiar with Pennyworth and therefore less likely to be swayed by the ghosts of the past - to investigate Fenton's clearly meta status.)
((Alfred is surprisingly busy for a dead man. If only his new charge didn't have the cooking skills of Master Bruce. Nonetheless, Alfred has never backed down from a challenge before; he'll not do so now.))
AKA "Danny haunts the Wayne Manor shortly after Jason Todd's death. Bruce... takes it as well as a grieving father probably would." DPxDC prompt idea! TW: Mentions of child death (for obvious reasons) and hallucinations.
Okay, so hear me out! Y'know how Dick Grayson had hallucinations of Jason Todd after his death for, like, months??
What if Bruce sees a shadow that looks suspiciously teenager-shaped around the manor, kicks into paranoid mode, and immediately runs 80 tests to figure out what it is. He does blood tests (he hasn't been poisoned by Fear Toxin), his MRI doesn't show any abnormalities, and he triple-checks his chronic pain medications to make sure they don't cause hallucinations. Then he focuses on the hidden cameras to determine whether an intruder infiltrated the manor. The cameras show... nothing. He can clearly see himself on the frame, but there's nothing where the figure was.
Until he switches to infrared and ultraviolet cameras. Then he can see a cold spot that looks like a teenager with medium height, average build, and wisps on its head that almost resemble unruly hair. Bruce spends the next 32 hours watching as the cold spot move from room to room. It mostly spends its time in the library (and that's Jason's favorite spot, his favorite armchair right next to the fireplace).
And Bruce feels... something. Watching as the cold spot enters Jason's room, seems to stand hesitantly in the doorway, before retreating to a spare bedroom. His chest tightens uncomfortably as the shape curls up on the spare bed, looking so small and alone. Bruce doesn't call Constantine or Zatanna. Instead, he turns off the Batcomputer and takes a shower. Asks Alfred to make a cup of hot cocoa, takes it to the spare bedroom, and quietly sets it on the bedside table. (He isn't exactly sure why he does it. But thought that it could be Jason, that his baby boy could be curled up on that bed, ignored and alone, makes his eyes burn.)
Danny, who's been freshly exorcised from his human body and escaped into the Infinite Realms to get away from the GIW, takes refuge in a nearly-abandoned manor with only the company of a grieving father and butler. So, it's weird when he wakes from another Pain Nap (because the GIW really got him good this time, ouch) to find a cup of... hot cocoa?? On the bedside table?? It sucks that he can't drink it, but if he wraps his hands around it and concentrates, he can kind of feel the warmth still.
(Meanwhile, Bruce's heart is absolutely breaking watching his little boy try to hold the cup on the infrared cameras.)
So, months go by and Bruce is trying to slowly coax "Jason's" ghost into revealing himself. Danny is elated that the grieving man seems to be getting better - smiling occasionally, not hiding away in the creepy basement (Danny never goes down there because what if it's a Vlad scenario?? He'll never willingly go into a basement again, no thanks), and actually setting out a dinner plate for Danny! Even the butler seems to be taking Danny's presence in stride, calling him "young master" and setting out cups of tea. He appreciates it, even if they sit there and get cold. It's nice to be noticed, included, regardless if he can't participate. Maybe it's because he's been exorcised from his own human body, but he's totally invisible, intangible, and can only communicate via Ghostspeak.
Maybe Tim Drake never approaches Batman because he doesn't act violently, doesn't become the monster who lashes out due to the loss of his youngest child. Sure, the absence of Robin is noticed, but maybe Tim decides he'll intervene only if Batman seems to really, really need help. Except... he doesn't. Bruce's "son" is still with him. They can still sit together at dinner, "Jason" mostly stays in the library, and Bruce engineers infrared/ultraviolet glasses so he can see where his son is. The manor almost starts to feel... homey again. Bruce notices Jason never, ever goes into the basement and thinks he understands: after all, why would Jason want to be reminded of vigilantism when it got him killed in the first place? (...that Bruce couldn't save his own son from Batman's villains? That it's Bruce's fault Jason died in the first place?)
And then Red Hood comes into the picture.
The final confrontation comes where Red Hood takes off his helmet, snarling about how Bruce chose the Joker over his own son, and Bruce just... stops.
"Jay, why aren't you at home?" Bruce asks. He's baffled - he can't think past how did his ghost get here? How is his son's ghost alive?? Jason, however, is equally baffled. The stand-off ends with Jason somehow coming back to the Manor, which apparently now has infrared scanners everywhere? ("For you," Bruce said quietly. Why the hell would he need a scanner? The fu-)
And then they both pause while looking at the scanner. Because the ghost is... still there. Curled up in Jason's spot in the library with a still-hot cup of tea Alfred delivered moments ago.
Cue Bruce actually contacting Zatanna, who realizes Danny is literally a Hafta and could've gotten Danny back in his body months ago.
after he became the fire lord, people still kept sending zuko out on wild goose chases for things that should be impossible, just in case he'd accidentally trip over them like he did aang
:) Long post incoming. I want to talk about prostheses and FMA (Ed specifically) in a modern setting. Because automail is very cool, but realistically, there's nothing like it outside of fiction (yet). Feel free to use any of the info under the cut in fanfic. Or just to know, because prostheses are cool :) (I'm a transhumeral and transfemoral amputee)
Ed's leg
I'm starting with his leg because that's what I'm most familiar with as I've used a leg prosthesis for nearly 20 years. I'm basing this off of roughly a year or more post amputation, as before that, there's a lot of other things to consider.
But first thing you need to know is every prosthetic is designed specifically for the amputee with comfort, activity level, and cost of manufacture and upkeep in mind. Your functional category highly impacts what kind of joints you want (and that insurance will cover, but that is a rant for another day).
Functional categories go from K0 to K4 with K0 being not a good fit for a prosthesis due to lack of mobility or strength and K4 being the level you'd expect for athletes and kids: high activity level, impact activities, sports, etc. Most amputees are K2 or K3 (I'm a K3, meaning I do routine walking and other activities with various inclines, steps, and uneven terrain, but I'm not putting my prosthesis under a lot of high impact). However, Ed is 1) young and 2) extremely active, so he'd be a K4, no question.
I am of the opinion that Ed would have a minimum of 3 prosthetic legs if he can afford it. And if Winry is still into making prosthetics in a modern AU, I don't think he'd have much of a problem getting multiple. He'd likely have one for heavy activity, one for low energy or high fatigue days, and a blade for running (I'm not going to explain that one here, it's fairly straightforward). Transfemoral amputees use roughly 65% more energy to ambulate than people with 2 sound legs, so for those days where Ed is absolutely exhausted, he's not going to want his heavy, high impact leg if he has a choice.
Because Ed is a transfemoral amputee, his prosthesis is going to have four main parts to it:
Socket: this is what attaches the prosthesis to his residual limb. Sockets are built from a casting and measurements done of the stump and most of them work through a suspension mechanism. I'm mostly only familiar with ischial containment sockets, but the main idea for all sockets is that it surrounds all of (or a large portion of) your residual limb to maximize weight dispersion and minimize pressure points and damage to the stump. Ed would have a liner (kind of like a big sock but with silicone or gel on the inside) that goes over his stump, then the socket goes on and stays on via suction with the liner and a one-way valve on the socket. Sockets are often made of plastic, but I think Ed's would be carbon fiber, as it's much stronger.
Knee joint: Lots of options here, but we all know Ed is going to be rough on his prosthesis. Because he's a destructive kid with minimal to no concern for his own safety most of the time, he'd likely be unable to get a microprocessor knee despite these being the most advanced kind. Microprocessor knees are computerized and can learn an individual's gait via several sensors in order to better support the amputee on rough terrain. But. Microprocessors are expensive. So pneumatics or hydraulics would be his preference. These both work about the same way, but pneumatics use air pressure to move, so they can be a pain in the ass to use in cold weather, and they tend to need very regular maintenance. Hydraulics use fluid to control knee movement, so that makes it heavier than a pneumatic knee, but overall they feel the most natural and responsive imo. The hydraulic would be the best high activity knee for Ed, but for just a walk around town or a casual day, the pneumatic would save him some energy.
Pylon/frame: As the name implies, it's the main structural support, essentially taking the place of your tibia/shin bone. These can be made of carbon fiber, titanium, aluminum, or stainless steel. Ed's is likely carbon fiber again— lighter weight, good durability and strength. A cosmetic cover can be added to it so it looks like you have calf muscle and/or (plasticy) skin, but I don't think Ed would give a shit about that. Plus it's just more things that can get damaged easily.
Foot/ankle: Like with the knee joint, there's a lot of options. If Ed has two different prosthetic legs for daily use, then his high activity one would be another hydraulics based one (again, microprocessors are an option but they're expensive. And they have a steep learning curve, not that that would stop Ed). To save some energy though, a dynamic response foot could be used for the other. Dynamic response feet are springy, making forward propulsion much less fatiguing. This is the one I use in combination with a hydraulic knee and it's been the most comfortable for me, but I'm also not running around and fighting people lol
Ed's arm
I am a little less knowledgeable in this area as I don't use upper limb prostheses, but here's what I got.
First thing, if you're not loaded with cash or being funded by a grant, most upper limb prostheses are not incredibly amazing imo and insurances rarely cover them. BUT if you've got the money (around $75,000 to $100,000 for one like Ed would need), I will say that the myoelectric ones seem cool and most similar to automail. They require charging, and it senses minute muscle contractions to move the arm and hand. I've heard they need a lot of upkeep though and even then have a lifespan equivalent to that of a body-powered prosthesis.
Body-powered prostheses are what they sound like, prostheses controlled by your body (like shoulder or upper body movement). Ed has a shoulder disarticulation, meaning he doesn't have a residual limb, so an upper limb prosthesis would have to be buckled in with a harness system, and it's going to be pretty heavy since the prosthetic would consist of his entire arm. There are lightweight passive prosthetic arms, but these are for cosmetic purposes only and serve no real function, so Ed would not use one. I'm not of the opinion that he'd use an upper limb prosthesis at all if he couldn't get a myoelectric one, but who knows. He might try out the body-powered ones to see if he likes them or not. Either way, a full arm prosthesis would have these parts:
Socket: Like with prosthetic legs, it's the part that connects the prosthesis to your body. For shoulder disarticulation, it would also include a shoulder cap to give the body more symmetry, and as mentioned above, it would be strapped on with a harness system
Suspension system for body-powered: Connects the parts of the prosthesis and usually has a couple different settings so you can choose which position you want the arm to be at rest in (bent at the elbow or down by your side).
Elbow: may be body-powered or purely cosmetic. The body-powered ones are operated by a cable connected to the harness, allowing for bending or straightening.
Wrist/hand: Sometimes called terminal devices. Can be many different things; hook, hand, specific tool (utensils, cycling, drumming, etc). They also work through the cable/suspension system to open or close (or whatever task it was intended for). Hooks are usually the most durable and with the lowest learning curve, but I personally don't like them. Hands are similar to hooks, but with less strength and instead of a hook, it's a plastic hand. I've been an amputee a long time and tbh I find it easier to just adapt things to be one-handed than to fight with a harness that gives me back pain lol
Other Things
idk how much people generally know about prostheses, so here's just some other info that comes to mind or that people have asked me about with my own prosthesis.
Donning— fancy name for putting on your prosthesis. Donning takes time, especially with Ed being an upper and lower limb amputee, so this is not something that can be done extremely quickly. Ed would find that out within the first two or three times of trying to just throw it on and go (seriously man, you're going to lose your leg and break your face, take your time!). Donning first requires making sure your residual limb is clean, dry, and not showing any signs of skin damage. Then you have to put the liner on (I like to turn it inside out, position it at the end of my stump, then roll it on. Tougher than it looks though.) and check that you aren't experiencing swelling or shrinkage. For swelling, you may be able to slightly adjust the size of your socket and for shrinkage, you can add more liners to your stump (though after 2, the socket doesn't suction as well usually). Then you have to get your stump in the socket. This can typically be done either seated or standing. I find standing easier because it's easier to push down into the socket until it stops sounding like air is being forced out.
Doffing— Another fancy word for taking off your prosthesis. Not too hard, just press the valve (one side sends air out for donning, other side sends air in for doffing). Then you roll the liner off. Liners should be cleaned and dried very well between uses, so Ed probably has a bunch of these laying around. The liners also need to be checked for wear and tear, as any damage will affect how well your socket suctions. Lastly, you need to check your stump again for irritation or skin damage. If your skin is really irritated, there are any abrasions, or major pain points, you really should let your residual limb heal before wearing the prosthesis again. Ed would have a hard time with this and probably give himself a skin infection and severe pain from ignoring the signs.
Time wearing the prosthesis— if you're adjusted to your prosthesis, most people can wear theirs for normal working hours. But again, if you have any kind of open wounds or rashes on the residual limb, you don't want to be wearing the prosthesis. Also, if your prosthesis is new, it does take time to get adjusted to it. This means starting with wearing it just a few hours a day, then slowly building up to wearing it for a full work day. It's important to take it off for showering, sleeping, and relaxing. I wouldn't say my prosthesis is comfortable, and when you can let your stump get some air, it's a good idea. This is another place that Ed would struggle because he does not want to show weakness or deal with his internalized ableism. Dude would be so against using a wheelchair at first because why should he when he can walk (because it gives your stump a rest, man).
Exercising— Exercise routines really require talking with your medical team, but it's very important that you regularly exercise (stump included!) because using a prosthesis requires strength, balance, and coordination. While I don't think this would be a problem for Ed, he may actually overwork himself and then need to take time off to recover. I love floor exercises and band exercises though. If you're interested in different kinds of amputation-specific exercises, lmk :)
What does the residual limb feel like?— it feels like touching your leg or arm, overall. But there are some points of sensitivity (can vary from person to person) like at the end of the stump. Newer amputees will have more sensitive spots, usually at the suture lines but can be other places too.
Can you lay on your residual limb?— Sure can, at least once the sutures are healed and the sensitivity has gone down a bit. It's really just like laying on any other part of your body. After a while, it can get tingly or uncomfortable, but it's not usually painful. That is something I think Ed would like about modern prostheses over automail. The automail ports have to be uncomfortable to sleep on.
Phantom pains— Yeah, those suck. Some amputees find they go away over time, some don't. Ed canonically has phantom pains, this wouldn't change here. Personally, mine get set off by storms, cold weather, and sudden pressure changes. From the FMA manga, I think Ed is roughly the same. I don't have a great way to describe phantom pains other than like lightning I guess? They hit in sudden jolts, so you'll think it's done only to have more. I'd honestly rather take a solid punch to the gut than deal with phantom pain.
I think that's all I got in me right now, thank you if you read all the way through my long ass post lol
I think he might make some covers for the sockets! Most other parts of a prosthesis are hard to decorate in my experience since they're in motion (knee/ankle), covered (foot), or a small surface area (pylon). But socket covers of fabric are easy enough to make and velcro on :) Some sockets can also be custom ordered to be a specific pattern or color (red for Ed ofc)!
Danny is just trying to keep a stable job and pay rent in Metropolis. When Superboy takes his shitty old car and throws it at Parasite and misses.
Something in Danny’s mind cracks. His wall of rage and restraint crumbles. He has words to say to Superboy for throwing his fucking car.
I've seen a few versions of this being "righteous rants", and I-... Hmm... What if we go a little bit further?
Danny knows that if the Justice League had ever gotten involved with the Amity Park situation? It would've been a disaster. They would've sent someone, they would've gotten overshadowed, and the town would've pretty much been razed to the ground.
Like, he would've still appreciated if they'd like... checked in or something? Or at least sent a message to the people of Amity Park about why they were staying the hell away.
But no, they got nothing. Radio-fucking-silence.
Danny isn't going to call the Justice League a bunch of dickheads, because they do seem to be doing good stuff outside of Amity Park. But it's very much a grudging kind of acknowledgment.
Then one of those fuckers tosses his car at one of their villains.
Did the guy need an improvised weapon? Maybe? Could he have used the light-pole right next to it? Absolutely. It would've even had better balance for if 'Superboy' wanted to continue wailing away at him with it.
It would've been a huge chunk of steel that he could've used to keep hitting the villain. But no. No, he had to use Danny's fucking car to throw at the villain.
And then he fucking misses the shot.
So, not only has he destroyed Danny's car for no fucking reason, he's also basically just chucked it through a building also for no fucking reason.
That's the kind of collateral-damage that would've seen Amity Park bring out torches and pitchfork and chase Phantom through the damn streets.
And here? Here it's just another fucking Tuesday.
Danny is-... Danny is just done with it.
No, not in the sense of a shrug and a 'what can you do'-attitude. No, Danny is done with accepting that this is okay. Because it isn't okay. And Danny is going to shove that down these fucker's throats as if it was fucking barbed wire.
This? This is the start of Danny's Villain-Arc. And he's going to make everyone responsible for it suffer.
(At least until Jazz cottons onto what he's doing and sits him down for a long talk about 'appropriate levels of retaliation', but that's probably still months away at this point. And the Justice League will rue the fucking day they crossed him.)
basically? danny decides to actually be a villain. in metropolis. and he's pretty much unstoppable. superman can't punch him but danny can punch him back. punch him and make it HURT.
and he doesn't really care about ''committing crimes'' as a general rule. but he lives in metropolis. he knows these assholes. he knows which auto-repair shop is basically just scamming people. and he has no reason NOT to ruin their lives.
so now everyone in metropolis is going ''yeah. phantom is a menace with a grudge against superman. BUT-'' bcs they know exactly why danny's targets deserved to be targeted. and even if it's illegal it's nice to see them suffer.
danny doesn't care about ''long-term fixes'' (that requires legal intervention and he's not responsible for that) danny only wants to make everyone who's ever annoyed him SUFFER for it.
neighbor vacuuming at 3am? vengeance.
train that's constantly JUST A LITTLE BIT delayed? just enough that nobody at work will accept that as an excuse? vengeance.
he's an absolute menace and a lot of people are lowkey terrified of him. but he's also so fucking cathartic for the regular folks.
also also. if dani finds out before jazz does? he now has a side-kick. who is just as strong and a lot more cheerful in her menace. danny has a deranged grin on his face. a vicious kind of gleeful anger that's SO relatable to anyone who's ever been annoyed. dani has a bright grin on her face and seemingly not a mean bone in her body. but she's also childishly destructive.
danny is in it for the vengeance. dani is in it for the ''fun''. nobody knows if she's being corrupted or is just inherently Evil.
Alright. Building on this now.
Everyone knew Phantom.
He was somehow both the scariest and most benign of Metropolis' villains.
Scariest because he didn't actually seem to lose as much as he'd at some point decide that he'd beaten up the Supers enough that it wasn't fun anymore. And then he'd just... go home.
Most benign, because outside of his clear and violent antipathy towards heroes? He was more of an anti-hero than a villain.
The government refuses to fix the potholes? Phantom waits until a bit of rain and then drags the politician in charge of the refusal to a pothole and waterboards him in it.
A repair-shop slowly growing infamous for scamming its customers? Phantom rips out the engines on the owners' own cars, and then uses them as improvised weapons against the Supers.
If you were an honest citizen? Odds were that you had more things to worry about from collateral-damage from the Supers than from anything Phantom got up to.
In fact, Phantom-fights had a weird tendency to lack the regular amounts of collateral-damage. And there were definitely theories going around that this was a very deliberate stab at the heroes from Phantom.
However, this lack of collateral-damage wasn't necessarily true for Phantom's side-kick.
Phantasm was-... Phantasm was a violent little monster who didn't see anything wrong with casually throwing bricks through people's windows.
If it made people yell and chase her in rage? Phantasm would do it with the uncaring glee of a cat pushing things off of a shelf.
Phantasm was less violent, it was true. She only really fought the Supers in the role of 'backup' that Phantom clearly didn't need. But Phantasm was definitely a villain.
The Justice League seemed to have gotten this mixed up, because there were usually someone yelling at Phantom about 'corrupting' Phantasm, when anyone with eyes knew that it was blatantly obvious that Phantasm was the Evil one.
But nobody was really going to make a big fuss about it. They were probably siblings? Maybe? Their exact relationship hadn't ever been explained, but they looked very similar and their apparent ages weren't that far apart.
And if Phantom wanted to channel his little sister's obviously Evil and Villainous nature into being a small-time Villain side-kick? Nobody was going to be objecting to that.
It was even kind of fun watching the girl egg the police-station every few weeks.
yes. danny is actually really popular with the regular folk. and dani is... uhh... if dani got killed in a big fight? there'd probably be a silent celebration for ''defeating the Evil'' up until someone would see the lack of chaos and miss her
like. she's clearly a child so they don't ACTUALLY want her dead. but if they could just strangle her to death a LITTLE BIT.
in comparison? danny is considered a Big Bad by the supers (i feel like the JL would wash their hands of it) since they can't defeat him in combat and this is a Scary Thing for someone very capable of defeating world-ending threats
but they also know logically that danny isn't like... Evil. he's just violent and destructive and a bad influence on dani and dani is clearly an innocent child who doesn't understand that she's behaving like a villain. if they could just separate dani from danny's bad influence? then dani could grow up to be a Good and Noble Hero.
jazz definitely heard about their antics. and was THIS CLOSE to telling danny to cut it out. but then? then the supers said that danny. her danny. her precious and kindhearted little brother. DANNY was a bad influence.
jazz was so offended that she had to be talked down from grabbing the creep-stick and beating the supers black-and-blue herself. danny talked her down bcs he knew she'd regret it once she calmed down.
dani was silenced with ice-cream.
(dani wasn't trying to talk her down.)
In Dani's defense, she has no understanding of the concept of "home" (because she's never had one) and therefore doesn't really understand that wrecking someone's home is a "bad thing".
Combine that with having no understanding of money (she's never had any) and no real concept of theft (nobody has ever stolen from her, but she's stolen food and played stowaway lots of times).
And combine that with her having a very warped understanding of "physical health", because why would tossing a giant boulder at someone's head and not hitting them be in any way distressing? There wasn't even shrapnel? And what's PTSD? Is that like a BLT-sandwich? She likes sandwiches.
And then with her ghost-tendencies on top of that? (Even if ghosts weren't predisposed to throwing down as "hello", they're creatures of passion. Any conversation they have is going to end up with them running out of words a long time before they run out of opinions. And that's always going to end in a fist-fight.)
Basically?
The Justice League isn't wrong in saying that Dani is "too innocent to know better" in regards to her reign of terror. HOWEVER, they're very wrong in Danny being a bad influence.
Dani needs to learn how to fight and get annoyed and use her powers, and ever since she decided to be Danny's Villain Side-Kick? She's gone from mostly-ignoring this stuff in order to explore the world, to actually learning, and doing so under the supervision of someone who can actually stop her before she goes too far.
Jazz knows perfectly well what kind of a terror Dani could be if she was let loose completely, and she's also very aware that Dani is way too much of a gremlin-coded prankster to ever accept "discipline" and "responsibility" as reasons to do anything at all ever.
In comparison, being Danny's side-kick lets her spend time with her family, be annoying, and learn how to use her powers and how not to hurt people too much.
Jazz is also very aware that Dani shouldn't be a Hero, because she's way too young for that kind of responsibility. But being a Villain gives Dani the chance to pick and choose when and how to engage with her "new hobby", and that's important for her development.
(Batman is the actual reason for the JL leaving the Supers to deal with the Phantom-Phantasm duo on their own. He was very worried that Phantom was dangerous, but he decided to test a theory before going all-in on prevention.)
(His theory was that if he just stood and watched Danny with a blank face? Danny would get bored and wander off.)
(It worked perfectly. So the official JL guideline is to just ignore them. This doesn't work for the Supers because Danny is invested in beating the shit out of them, so they're not very happy with this policy.)
It was a simple mission. Damian was working with Father to confirm the existence of a Lazarus Pit below Gotham, as Ra's Al Ghul speculated. And they had found it, deep in the caves below Gotham. A Pit the size of an Olympic sized swimming pool, bubbling and steaming. He'd only looked away for a moment.
"Kin-slayer."
Standing waist deep in the water stood Damian's reflection. The hair might be white, and the eyes glowing with the waters, but it was his face. But not his face alone.
Danyal's ghost glared at him. "Get in the water."
Father threw a batarang at him, but the metal flew straight through his head like it was air. Danyal didn't even glance at him, his eyes fixed on Damian. "Get in the water," he ordered again. He stepped closer to the shore and the green water sloshed up the bank higher than it was before. "Or I'll raise the tide so high, all of Gotham will die. So get in the water."
Damian's heart jumped into throat. "Wait-"
"Get in the water."
Father shoved Damian behind him, as if it would protect him, as if he could stop Danyal. "Stop this, please-" If he could just explain-
Another step and the waters surged forward, nearly touching Father's boots. "I'll make whirlpools so profound, your entire family will drown," he promised.
"NO!" Not his brother, his kind brother-
"THEN GET IN THE WATER!" Danyal snarled, revealing monstrously sharp teeth and a black tongue from Damian's poison. "G̴̩͍͆͆̈́e̵̹̣͆t̷̬̋ ̸̻̮̎̒ĭ̸̟̰͙̏̃n̵͙̝̟̋͐ ̸̛̳̃t̶̪̣̅ḣ̸̳̇͜è̵̠̲͖̔̑ ̶̢̹̖͗͐̀w̵̜͍̤̌a̵̬̞͝ṫ̴̩̣̣e̶͉̲̯͂̏̎r̴̉͜!̷̡͔́̀̽" He lunged and Father pushed them back down the passage they'd come. "Don't mistake this for a bluff, brother. You've lived more than enough. Just get in the water." Damian swallowed, throat dry. Was this Danyal's revenge? Did he finally have to face what he had done?
"Robin, who is this?" Father snapped, trying to keep retreating down the cave. But Damian wouldn't let him; the waters, and Danyal with them, would only follow.
Danyal looked between them, scowling. "G̴̩͍͆͆̈́e̵̹̣͆t̷̬̋ ̸̻̮̎̒ĭ̸̟̰͙̏̃n̵͙̝̟̋͐ ̸̛̳̃t̶̪̣̅ḣ̸̳̇͜è̵̠̲͖̔̑ ̶̢̹̖͗͐̀w̵̜͍̤̌a̵̬̞͝ṫ̴̩̣̣e̶͉̲̯͂̏̎r̴̉͜!̷̡͔́̀̽" he snapped again. "I'll take your father and gouge out his eyes, unless you want to stop being a coward and choose to die. Now... get in the water."
Can you imagine if this was Talia instead of Damian?
Like, Danny knows, logically, he should be more upset at the person who chose to betray him, but he also knows that it was under orders from their mother and grandfather. He knows Damian wouldn't have even thought to kill him if it wasn't for Talia and Ra's.
Sure, no brother should ever kill their brother, but what mother orders her child to kill her other child? What grandfather orders his daughter to do that?
This is years in the future, Damian would be 17, Talia and Bruce have mostly reconciled and settled into a co-parenting, kinda friends situation. They care about each other, but they don't love, not anymore, at least.
Maybe Talia was staying in Gotham for a bit, maybe a few months, when the Bats get word of another Lazarus pit, this time in Gotham itself. They bring Talia along, and maybe some members of the Justice League Dark.
Then the ghost of a child appears. A child who looks just like Damian did at 8. His dead, glazed-over eyes are staring directly into Talia, resentment clear in them.
Maybe the reason Ra's ordered Talia to kill Danny was that he feared that if they both became like their father, Bruce, they would overpower him and destroy what he's worked so hard for. Maybe Danny learns of this while he's bleeding from his neck, before being stabbed through the heart to ensure he dies.
"There you are, coward." Danyal looks just like he did the day he died. Down to the wrinkled robe and the lack of shoes.
"Danyal..." It's a name she hasn't spoken in years. A name she's only thought of in passing, in moments of regret and grief. "I-"
"Get in the water." A beat of silence passes. "What?" She sounds incredulous. The others present begin to move, slowly.
"Get in the water." Danyal repeats, not taking his eyes off Talia, not even to blink. The waters rippled, splashing against the rocks and spilling onto the land. The waters did not retreat.
"Or I'll raise the tide so high, all of Gotham will die." The air felt like it was sucked out of the room. Killing an entire city, with a population in the millions, for what? "Get in the water."
Was...Was this child demanding that Talia drown herself? Why?
Taila took a step back, fear showing in her body language and leaking into her voice. "Wait-" "Get in the water."
Another step back, the waters continued rising. "Stop this, please."
The child's expression didn't change, not even a twitch. "I'll make tidal waves so profound, both your lover and son will drown."
Talia rushed forward, desperation embedded in everything about her now. "No!"
"Then G̴̩͍͆͆̈́e̵̹̣͆t̷̬̋ ̸̻̮̎̒ĭ̸̟̰͙̏̃n̵͙̝̟̋͐ ̸̛̳̃t̶̪̣̅ḣ̸̳̇͜è̵̠̲͖̔̑ ̶̢̹̖͗͐̀w̵̜͍̤̌a̵̬̞͝ṫ̴̩̣̣e̶͉̲̯͂̏̎r̴̉͜!̷̡͔́̀̽" Danyal was floating above the pool now, the waters surging out and hitting the walls, covering the floors of the chamber they were trapped in. "Don't mistake my threats for bluff! You have lived more than enough!"
Most people in Amity know Danny is Phantom, especially the teenagers. More importantly, they've realized that everyone in Amity is liminal enough to be summoned with the correct runes. And so a system has been devised so when they want to hang out somewhere, one person goes in, draws a big summoning circle, and just summons everyone else. It saves a lot on transportation and it's just practical.
Now that they're all old enough to go to college, most have spread all around the country. Staying in contact is not a problem, however, they can just summon each other, get together for a while, then break the circle and send them back to wherever they were before. Perfect solution. It doesn't even register as weird, they've been doing it for years and no one even bats an eye anymore. No one in Amity that is.
It'd be fine except they've caught the attention of the Justice League. On the heroes perspective, they have just discovered a cult that formed seemingly out of nowhere and keeps leaving neon green summoning circles with ominous runes traced along the edges in random places all over the country. They have not found any sign that people are getting hurt but that only means the cult is thorough at covering their tracks. Where did so many well-organized, clearly trained people come from? What are their bigger plans? Who are they targeting? They're clearly a big threat and they need to be a priority in investigating.
Constantine: (takes one look at the circle) Damn Parker’s must have graduated
JL member: what?
Constantine: yeah an entire high school class got contaminated with death magic about five years ago. They’re pretty chill for rabid raccoon children.
Flash: okay by raccoon children do you mean actual raccoons because in our line of work that’s an actual possibility
Constantine: imagine the Titans of YJ all had access to the realm between dimensions, knowledge of lost magic and have completely normalized their behavior that no one would be surprised by anything they do
