Spooky-the-owl

My goal is to be very very cute, but also very very spooky

[rnismatch]

my camel straight up told me "man i am not carrying another fucking straw" like wtf asshole its just one straw whats your fucking issue

[trashcangimmick]

[sailermoon]

sometimes when I’m being especially self deprecating and convinced no one likes me I have to tell myself “you’re being goob. you are being goob right now”

[sailermoon]

[that-one-weird-cloud0]

I have a ghost king headcannon for Danny that he’s not yet old enough to possess ALL of the Ghost King powers, HOWEVER, he CAN do anything once a deal is made. For example:

The Justice League asks Danny to destroy an alien army so earth will be safe:

Danny: cool yea I can totally do that but I’m gonna need you to do something for me in return

JL: huh?

Constantine*immediately catching on: yea sure whaddya want?

Danny: I don’t fucking know a sandwich?

Constantine: done.

*creepy evil green handshake to seal the deal*

JL: 0-o

Danny: *power boost* Sweet!! Welp, off to destroy some spaceships!! Yay space!! :D

[ouransisters]

Eternally 14 Danny in Gotham and he's chronologically older than Bruce

[khivirsur]

Ooh, I like this

Danny is fourteen. He's been fourteen since he died. After a while, people started noticing that he wasn't aging, and his parents confronted him about it.

'You aren't our son', they said, 'just a pale mimicry', and, blinded by grief and anger, they tried to End him.

He fled, and made his way to the only other place he knew of with enough ambient ectoplasm for him to sustain himself on.

Ironically, it was because of a gala that Vlad took him to, where he was introduced to the Waynes.

Thomas and Martha were polite and everything, but it was their son, little Bruce, that made the gala more entertaining than agonizing.

He was chubby and happy and opinionated and so alive, it made Danny ache.

Before he left, little Bruce made him swear he would come back, and, well... He was going to be back in Gotham anyway, why wouldn't he honor his promise?

[khivirsur]

As a halfa, Danny had to sustain both his human and ghost halves, had to spend time in both of them, and, while he hated to take advantage of the Waynes, where else could he get food that it wouldn't be missed? He could pay it back in being a friend to little Brucie, anyway.

The gala had been the Wayne Winter Gala, and it had been at the Wayne mansion. 

It had been a year or so ago and his memory had gotten significantly worse ever since he had become a ghost (and lost some neural plasticity-), but, even as he didn't remember how to get there, his body remembered the path he had taken to get there, and he so off he went.

Wayne manor was large. Without the guests, it seemed much larger, much emptier, and much lonelier. 

There were the three Waynes, plus a bit more than twenty staff, but the manor was an ancestral manor, meant to be filled by families of old who had four or more children and other family members and all the staff necessary for attending to the family and the upkeep of the manor.

He could stay there, act as an "imaginary" friend for bruce, and satisfy both his human and ghost halves.

He hadn't quite been sure about how to go about acting as little Bruce's imaginary friend, so he had just sort of shown up when he was out on the grounds, climbing trees and stuff.

"Danny!" Bruce lit up at spotting him, and a smile crossed his face. He hadn't actually expected Bruce to remember him.

"Hey-a, little Brucie. How's life been treating you? Sorry for just showing up, but I thought it must be lonely, here in this large manor, with nobody your own age around to play with."

"'M not little! B' yeah, it is a little lonely- or, it was! Now I've got you to play with!"

"Yep! You've got me now! So... What do you want to do? Play hide-and-seek or something?"

Things went well, for a while. He accompanied little Bruce around, just being a friend to him through most of the day, and wandered away occasionally to pilfer food from the kitchen and pantry. 

(It didn't fight back. It made him miss home, but at the same time he was relieved.)

At night, he turned to his human form and slept in the attic. It was lonely at times, having relegated himself to the attic where hardly anyone went, but he was too high to bother anyone with his night terrors, and it was only for the nights, anyway.

Things took a turn for the worse a couple of months into being Bruce's "imaginary friend". 

From what he gathered, they had gone to see a play at the monarch theater, and exited through the backdoor out into the alley to avoid the press, only to get shot by an overzealous mugger.

He- he had stayed behind, because it was too late, and he had to be human for an equal amount of time as he was ghost to maintain the equilibrium between his halves, and- he hadn't been there. 

He hadn't been there. He didn't know it happened until the next morning, when they weren't back. He was unable to stop it, unable to do anything about it! 

When the staff heard about the death of the mister and missus, they began bailing. 

They couldn't stay, they said, without anyone to sign their paychecks. They had to have money so that they could afford the expenses of living.

All but one. One Alfred Pennyworth said everything that he wanted to, called them immoral money-grabbing scoundrels without a srap of loyalty, and worse. He had been cheering him on invisibly.

When Alfred went to the police station to fight for the custody of little Bruce, Danny went with him. 

He was ready to stop being human-shaped in his ghost form. He was ready to embrace the eldritch side of being half dead. He was ready to use body horror. He was ready to fight for Bruce; sometime, in using the Waynes to sustain his human half, his ghost half had claimed Bruce as part of his Fright, and he wasn't going to lose him to some human that only wanted him for his fortune!

[khivirsur]

The social workers let Bruce go back to the manor with Alfred as they "decided on his placement".

Bruce was in shock, still, at the way his life had been irreversibly changed. Danny kneeled down to talk to Bruce, invisible to anyone but him. 

"Hey, little Bruce. You know how I swore to come back at that gala, and how I honored it? I am swearing to you now that I won't let anyone take you from Alfred, from Mister Pennyworth. It means that I won't really be around for a while, but that just means I'm fighting for you, 'kay? I'm not leaving you, you got that?"

And fight for him, he did. The heating seemed to fail, with pockets of cold air and breezes where there logically shouldn't be any. 

The lights flickered all the time, and people- people in charge of deciding who should get custody of Bruce Wayne- were suddenly prone to hysteria and hallucinations of towering monsters with jaws that unhinged and a maw that was just teeth, each the size of your hand.

When he wasn't terrorizing the social workers, he was either asleep or stuck like glue to Bruce's side.

Bruce... Wasn't doing too good. He was either empty, raging at the unfairness of the world, or sobbing.

When Danny's work payed off, in Alfred getting custody of Bruce, he knelt down by Bruce's side and explained it.

"Your parents aren't here anymore. I know- I know it hurts. Mine aren't here for me anymore, either. But, with them gone, the adults want an adult to be your guardian- to watch over you. I've been busy for a while, trying to get them to appoint Alfred as your guardian, and I succeeded." 

He took a deep breath to prepare himself to explain the next bit. He couldn't give him the complete truth, but he had to discourage him from delving into the supernatural in an attempt to get them back.

"I know that you don't want this, that you want your parents back, but they are dead and gone. The thing is, 'dead' and 'gone' don't mean exactly the same thing. I'm dead… ish..., but I'm not gone. I don't know what makes it so that some people come back as ghosts and some don't, but, as far as I can tell, your parents are gone."

He winced at the way Bruce had gained hope, only to lose it again. This felt cruel, but it was necessary.

"I know you would want you parents to stay behind and not move on, but ghosts are unchanging imprints of a person. They can't change, not like the living can. They would be a snapshot of your parents, not your parents. There is no way for you to get them back. It must feel like nothing but a platitude to you, but I am sorry."

Danny's parents hadn't actually been too far off in what they had thought ghosts to be. That is, normal ghosts, those that are trapped on a plane just adjacent of the living plane.

The ghosts he knew? Those were Realms ghosts. The ghosts of the infinite realms were made up of ectoplasm, which could be shaped into pretty much anything, so long as there was a consciousness to keep it shaped.

The days formed a grim routine. Bruce would wake up, eat, go to school, take his anger out on bullies, get detention, go home, eat, train, eat, sleep.

Danny shadowed him through it all, even as Bruce began to ignore him, as though it would make him go away.

With each day, Bruce seemed to become more an echo of the boy he had been before, more ghost than living, as though he died in that alleyway with his parents. Perhaps the boy he had been before had.

He even had a blooming Obsession: taking down crime. Well, more accurately, justice, but he focussed on crime, doing his best to ensure that nobody else would die like his parents did.

And then, after five miserable years, Bruce broke. "Nothing is working! It isn't enough, Alfred! Crime- crime is going on, business as normal! No charity, no nothing, has even begun to make a dent! I'm- I have to go. I have to leave. I have to get out of Gotham!"

Alfred tried to protest that he was only thirteen, but it didn't matter. Bruce got his way.

On the day of Bruce's leaving, Danny stood before him, human in front of someone else for the first time since he had set foot in Gotham.

"I know you are probably just going to ignore me, like you have for the past five years, not that I didn't deserve it, but I've been by your side throughout it all, and- I can't. I'm dead in all the ways that matter, and I can't follow you any longer. Not out of Gotham."

Holding back tears, Danny open his arms and asked, "Before you go, can I- can I have a hug?"

"You're incorporeal," Bruce said flatly, talking to him for the first time in years.

"I'm- I'm not your typical ghost. I can- I can make myself corporeal, and- I- I'm currently corporeal–" he was cut off as Bruce slammed into him, the younger boy nearly knocking him off his feet with his greater height.

"I'll miss you," Bruce whispered, barely loud enough for him to hear, and Danny hugged him tighter, holding the boy he viewed as a cousin close, for possibly the last time.

"A- and I'll miss you too, little Bruce. Just… Don't forget me, please? Alfred and I will be waiting for you to come home…"

Bruce nodded into his neck, content to soak in the warmth and affection before he had to pull away and leave.

"Alright, alright… Weren't you- weren't you leaving..? I wouldn't want to- to hold you back…"

Bruce pulled away, staring at Danny, soaking in every detail. His friend, that he'd had for years. That he wouldn't be able to see again, for a long while.

"I- yes. I have to get going. But I swear, I won't forget you, Danny. How could I?"

Wiping his eyes, he turned away, and headed to the driveway, where Alfred was ready to drive him to the airport. When he looked back, Danny was gone.

[khivirsur]

True to his word, Bruce never forgot Danny. Not when he was training with various different martial arts masters, or training with the league of assassins, or doing ballet (extremely useful for balance), or coding, or programming, or engineering, or dogsledding, or net-weaving, or lassoing, or-- you get the point.

In the eleven long years he spent away, learning anything he could consider even tentatively as possibly useful for his return, he didn't forget.

Danny and Alfred are waiting for me.

He kept them waiting, but he didn't forget. He couldn't. It stayed in the back of his mind, even as he shed names and personalities as he went from thing to thing as he learned.

I have people waiting at home.

After eleven years, he made his way back, spirit buoyed and heart light, until he stood in his driveway. He had sworn to remember Danny, and he had, but did they remember him?

His fears were allayed as Danny flew down the driveway, the distance between each stride longer than it ought to have been, and hardly stopped before grabbing him into a hug.

"You didn't forget..."

"I promised I wouldn't," he agreed, tears squeezing out of his eyes even as he closed them, revelling in the hug from his ghost.

After a few minutes, Danny let him go with a squeeze, and he looked up to see Alfred.

"Welcome home, Master Bruce," the ever-faithful butler said, also holding back tears.

"Oh, come on, Alf', just hug him already! You know you want to!"

With Danny's encouragement (and when did that happen? When did they get acquainted?), Alfred wrapped him in a hug.

Reaching out with one arm, he pulled Danny in, and truly relaxed for the first time in a long while. It felt safe. It felt like home.

[khivirsur]

"So..." Danny said awkwardly, staring down at the cup of tea in his hands, "When you left, you said that nothing you had been trying to do actually impacted all the crime, and that you had to leave. Presumably you went about learning how to make it actually trickle down while you were gone. So. What are you planning to do?''

"I'm going to fight it from both ends. At the top, I'm going to do what I was doing before, but with more of a focus on rooting out and exposing corruption. From the bottom, I am going to make them doubt if it is actually worth being corrupt."

"That's all good in theory, but how are you going to go about it?"

"I'm- I am going to be a vigilante. I am going to go out there, at night, and intimidate the criminals, make them fear, make them- make them doubt themselves, if it is really worth it."

"I should have known... Fine. If Alfred agrees, I won't oppose it. I could help with the information gathering, even."

"Really? How?"

"Didn't you ever wonder how you were the only one to see me? I can go invisible, Bruce. And, I'm a ghost, so I can go intangible too, making me perfect for reconnaissance. It isn't like I'm inexperienced, either, though when I was a vigilante I was fighting ghosts, not corruption."

"You were a vigilante? But- didn't you die at fourteen? You were out there fighting ghosts at fourteen?"

"Yeah. It was trying, with me being half-dead, and still going to school after only getting two hours of sleep due to being up half the night fighting ghosts. Speaking of. If Alfred condones it, then fine, you can be a vigilante, but you will not stay out any later than two in the morning, got it? You will prioritize your health, even if I have to make you."

"What... You're half-dead? And what do you mean you'd make me?"

"Yeah, I'm half-dead. Parents were mad scientists with a lab in their basement, and I went inside their non-functioning gateway to the realm of the dead and pressed the 'on' switch that was on the inside when I stumbled. Not sure exactly how it worked, but I ended up as Schrödinger's boy, half-dead and half-alive. Anyway. If I have to, I'll overshadow you- basically possession- and make you care for yourself."

They sat in silence, the only sound the sipping of tea, as they waited for Alfred to come to a decision.

"When I did not stop you from leaving, eleven years ago," he spoke, setting down his tea on a coaster on the side table, "I let you go on a journey that you used to prepare for being a vigilante. I will let you, so long as you keep to a set of guidelines Danny and I set for you."

He found himself with an armful of twenty-four-year-old, the man that his son had become in the years they had spent apart murmuring thank yous into his shoulder.

Right then, everything was alright, and that was enough.

[khivirsur]

It started out simply. The first time, he went out for two hours, skulking in the shadows, patrolling the rooftops of Gotham, watching for crime.

He'd stopped a couple of muggings, foiled a robber, and stopped a transaction of money for drugs. A rather quiet night, all in all.

Danny came with him invisibly each time. He didn't help- they'd discussed it, and they didn't want him to rely on Danny, not when he couldn't always help, and with him having run off to learn skills for being a vigilante, it would be a waste for him to not use them- but he did keep Bruce company whenever the night was slow.

They laughed together as they listened to the rumors surrounding him.

"A giant bat, going around fighting crime!"

"I heard it's the coalescence of our sins, come back to punish us! There's no way it's human, the way it moves!"

"It's some sort of creature!"

So, they didn't think his alter-ego was human, because of the way he moved. 

(Probably from when he was being shot at and he bent over backwards so that his chest was facing towards the sky, went up on his hands, flipped himself backwards onto his feet, and continued fighting. Though, that was all acrobatics.)

If he continued moving like he was, like a human, that rumor would not perpetuate. It would die out and be disbelieved by most.

He didn't want that. Not when fear was a good motivation for staying out of crime, and what better way to fight crime than to stop a civilian from committing a crime in the first place?

If he wanted to scare civilians away from crime, he had to be frightening enough to make them double-guess potentially committing a crime.

He had to have a fearsome reputation, then, and moving like he wasn't human was a good starting place. 

So, he had gotten Danny to try to teach him to lean into that, once they got back to the house, though neither of them were really sure if he could move like Danny. He wasn't a ghost, after all.

Unfortunately, he could copy it only the barest amount, not anywhere near to his goal of moving like a creature instead of a human.

Danny couldn't help him much, but that didn't mean that he just gave up, oh no.

To start, Bruce upped the frequency of which he did yoga, pilates, and contortionism.

He watched nature documentaries, committing to memory which movements screamed prey and which screamed predator, and he practiced.

He practiced until he moved like a predator, until they were second nature. 

Until he could tell the ways that he moved that made him feel like a predator, and took those movements to make more. 

Until Danny noticed people nearly jumping out of his way when he walked down the street, and the reporters simply took pictures instead of coming up to him to ask for an interview about something or other.

He didn't mind the reporter part, but Danny sat him down and they had a talk.

About how to know where to draw to the line. About what was too much. About the perils of secret identities.

"I'm not saying that you aren't doing good as Batman, Bruce, or that you should stop it. Not that you would. But– you need to know yourself. All this Batman stuff has the makings of an Obsession, and while that isn't necessarily a bad thing, I don't want it to become your whole identity."

Danny explained to him that he was a liminal, that he had slowly been becoming one ever since he'd started hanging around, and then that his liminality had increased when his parents had died and only grown since then.

He had gotten mad, at first, when they'd teamed up to restrict him going out as Batman and his training for it, making him do more normal things. But, after a while, he had started to realize that he felt more balanced than he had in a while.

He was both Bruce Wayne and the Batman. He could be both, enjoy both, and, actually, im being both and not overindulging in one or the other was actually healthy for him.

[khivirsur]

Bruce had gone to the circus and watched the Graysons fall to their death.

It had hurt, seeing a child watch their parents die in front of them in a horrible parody of his own childhood, but he hadn't been able to do anything about it.

He went back to life as normal after that night- well, mostly. He couldn't stop thinking about it.

It haunted his dreams and his waking hours, and made him sloppy during patrol. The only reason the bullet hadn't hit him was because Danny had phased them both.

"Bruce. You're clearly distracted. You can't keep going like this- you're going to get hurt. It's not feasible. If you're so concerned about the kid, why don't you check in on him?"

"I've tried, Danny. I tried, after the first night I couldn't sleep because of it, and I couldn't find him."

"Really? But you're so good with technology. How come?" Danny questioned curiously, floating above the computer.

"The police took him with them when they left the circus, and you know that the cameras around the police station are all broken, so I couldn't see what they did with him, and they didn't even make a case about him, neither the police nor CPS, and I checked the feeds watching all the orphanages- all the orphanages in Gotham- and I couldn't find him. I couldn't find him!"

"Hey, hey, it's okay. You seem to really care about this boy… Would you like me to go looking for him? I-"

"Really? You'd do that for me? You… Oh, sorry, I interrupted you. Go on?"

A smile crinkled Danny's features as he ruffled his son's Bruce's hair. (He already had a daughter in Dani- though she had only visited a few times while Bruce had been gone, preferring to keep traveling the world- what was adding Bruce as a son?)

"Of course I'd do that for you! It's clearly been weighing on you, and I'd do it for you just because of that, but it's also dangerous, with you being the Batman. Anyway, yeah, I'll hop to it. See you tonight for patrol!"

With a final pat and a wave, he flew away, phasing through the cave's ceiling as a green blur, unaware of the way Bruce slumped after Danny's hand left his head.

[khivirsur]

Danny hummed in a frequency outside human hearing as he flew in the direction of a place he had known unfortunately well sixteen years ago.

He had gone there to fight for Alfred to get custody of Bruce, and now to find out where they had put Dick Grayson.

He phased through the building from the back, straight into the record room, and began covertly going through the most recent placements.

There was nothing. Or so he thought at first glance. A second look-through, however, revealed one short, anger-inducing sentence.

Orphanages full– Richard Grayson to juvenile detention center.

How could they? This- they were talking about an eight-year-old child! Tossed into a juvenile detention center with no care, because the orphanages were full?

Did they even bother phoning more than two orphanages to ask if they could take him before punting him into a fucking juvenile detention center?

He didn't notice that he had been letting out his ghostly aura until frost started creeping up the sides of the file cabinet.

With measured breaths, he deliberately slid the file back down into the cabinet and turned and flew away.

Straight out of the building- through town- into Bristol- through the ground- and he came to a stop in front of the computer.

He switched forms smoothly as he sat down, and, after one spin of the chair, he got to work.

It didn't take him long to find out where all the juvenile detention centers in Gotham were.

There were more than he expected, but it wouldn't take him long to go through them all; not with his ghost powers. And so he flew off.

The first few he ghosted through seemed standard, not that he knew what would be standard for juvenile detention centers, but nothing about them seemed weird.

A couple, though, did seem… Weird. Not even normal weird, but Gotham weird.

That is to say: spooky and making him want to hurl. One had children in cages—

Well. He would definitely tell Bruce about them (his son was so competent and empathetic!).

He finally found his quarry in the third-to-last one. Taking note of it, he quickly ghosted through the other two to make sure that they were above-board, which they were, before turning back.

The kid had climbed on top of the basketball hoop and hugging it for dear life as the other kids shook it. The jeers and slurs were what did it for him.

A deep growl reverberated in his chest, the sound like far-away thunder, and he didn't restrain himself.

Normally, he kept himself in a human-like form, more for convenience than anything.

He had practiced his shape-shifting while Bruce had gone away to train, having recognized the usefulness of it when he had fought for Bruce to be placed with Alfred.

He had mastered it, eventually, and had one that he called his fear form.

It was more than five times bigger than his human form. His hair hung around his face in strands, flowing like kelp in the wind despite the lack of wind, only parted around the crest. His teeth appeared shark-like, pointed but with serrations, and shone like pearls. His upper body was draped in a ghostly fabric that rippled with each movement. His fingers were tipped with long claws- more like talons, really. His lower body made him look like an eel, being long and streamlined and snake-like, but with a long fin running the length of his tail until it tapered off into smoke like the rest.

He had measured himself, once. Thirty-odd feet, from the crown of his head to where his tail tapered off.

Merely ceasing to be invisible and intangible caused the lights to flicker and go out, which caused him to remember another feature of that form.

Bioluminescence.

He snarled, body sparking like an electric eel, and the boys scattered.

For fun, he lunged at them, snapping at their backs, until they had fled the gym.

With a deep breath to calm himself, he shifted to a less aquatic form.

His normal hair; sharp but not shark-like teeth; upper body covered with draped, shawl-like layers; gloved hands; smokey tail; and only two-to-three times bigger than his human form.

"I'm sorry about that," he spoke, wincing at the ghostly echo accompanying his words, "but I cannot tolerate bullies. Are you alright? Do you need help getting down? Oh, am I scary? Would you prefer to stay up there?"

"U- uh… I… I can get down by- by myself, but, um… Help would be appreciated!" He squeaked.

With a purr and a close-mouthed smile, he gently cupped his hands beneath the boy (younger than him! Younger than he had been when he died! How dare they let this happen to him!) and waited.

The boy took a couple of deep breaths before screwing his eyes shut and letting go.

Danny carefully lowered the boy down to the floor. Like this, everything seemed so small and fragile.

The boy, at least, was strong in spirit, having survived his parents' deaths and the placement in a juvenile detention center, and resourceful.

"I'm Phantom. Who are you? And do you have anywhere else to go? This hardly seems an appropriate place for you to live."

"I… I'm- I'm Dick. No- no, I, I don't- no, I don't have anywhere else to go… My- my pa- I- I… I'm all alone…"

"Well, that just won't do. I would take you with me, except… Somehow I doubt that they would take kindly to me showing up with a child out of nowhere."

"They..?" Dick asked timidly, grabbing onto Danny's thumb as he tried to put him down.

"Yes… I live with two humans. Peculiar ones, admittedly, as they allow me to reside with them, but they are good. Nice. They welcomed me."

"Why-- are they why you can't just whisk me away?" Dick asked, longing written all over his face.

How bad must this place be for him to ask a large being to take him away? One clearly not human?

"I am afraid so, little one. Can you endure? They shall surely want to use legal channels, and those are not the most expedient."

"You mean- you... You aren't just going to leave me here? You're going to get your human friends to come get me?"

"Perish the thought. Should they wish to, well… I have existed without their accommodations before. To do so would be no such hardship to me. To you, however, little human… Well. There is a reason I shall allow they to try the legal channels first. I fear I would not be able to take care of you nearly as well as they would."

"How- how long do you think it will take? You may have scared 'em off, but… They won't stay away for long. Not when I'm such an easy target, and one nobody cares much about."

"Longer than I care to leave you to their tender mercies," Danny admitted with a whale song like hum.

"Would you be opposed to the idea of me visiting? To keep you company and scare away and unwanted presences?"

"No! No, I- I wouldn't be opposed. I'd… I'd actually like that. I'd actually like that a lot."

Dick's tentative smile up at him melted Danny. Oh, there was no way he was leaving him to the wolves.

He would have to balance the timing between being dead for patrol and Dick, and alive to keep the balance, but it would be worth it.

He smiled back, forgetting to keep his teeth behind his lips, but Dick only beamed back, his eyes shining with unshed tears.

He wouldn't fail Dick. He wouldn't.

[khivirsur]

"I found the boy," Danny told Bruce, shifting back to human with an unsettling cracking sound.

"His name is Dick, and the reason you couldn't find him was because they didn't send him to an orphanage. They sent him to a juvenile detention center. Not a particularly nice one, either."

"What? They sent him to a juvenile detention center? How could they do that?"

"Yeah. It stinks. Calls for investigating by the Batman, even. Bruce… I found him having been driven up a basketball goal! Like a cat! And the bullies were shaking it! Ooooh… It sets my hair aflame. I mean, I got them back for it, but I doubt they're going to stop after just one scare."

"What do you mean you got them back for it? Don't tell me you went all nightmare on a bunch of teenage delinquents?"

"Fine, I won't," he sulked, crossing his arms.

"Danny…"

"What? Don't pretend you haven't done it before, and for less! I don't- I hate bullies. Picking on those weaker than them… It's horrible."

"Yes, it is, but that doesn't mean you should have gone that far. They're just kids."

"Yeah, but they ended up in Juvie for a reason. Anyway, this arguing is pointless. What are you going to do about it? Dick shouldn't be there. He doesn't belong there. Especially not so soon after watching his parents die."

"Investigation by the Batman, I think."

"Okay, and then? What are you planning on doing after that? What are you planning on doing with him?"

"Find a good orphanage to put him in… And… Pay for him to get therapy..? What is it? Why are you displeased? What would you have me do with him?"

"I want to adopt him. Told him I'd get him out of there myself if needed. I mean, obviously I'm half-dead and fully dead legally, so I can't be his legal guardian, but either you of Alfred could do it."

"What? You want to adopt him? Why? I get that it's tragic what happened to him and how he got lost by the system, but we can force the system to find him again and take care of him. Why do you want to get personally involved with this one?"

"He reminds me of you," Danny spoke, resisting the urge to ruffle Bruce's hair, "black-haired, blue-eyed, parents murdered in front of you and incredibly messed up from it."

Bruce's expression shuttered, and it hurt to see. What had he done? Why did his son want to hide his emotions?

"So you're going to replace me?"

"What? No! What did I say to give you that impression? It just- I'm a protector spirit, you know, and... Seeing the way that he has been hurt and wronged, it makes me want to help him, and the mirroring does too. I'm not going to replace you, Bruce. Not at all. It'd just be- giving you a brother."

"And what if I don't want a brother?" Bruce challenged stubbornly, jaw set.

"Well, I no longer have any claim to my legal identity, which means that either you or Alfred would be the one to legally adopt him. He could be your son instead. Which would you prefer?"

"I- brother..? Why are those the only two options? Why couldn't you get someone else, someone you trust, to adopt him instead? What about Jim Gordon? Or, don't you have some relation you could entrust him to?"

Danny rubbed his chin as he thought about it.

"My parents are definitely not an option... There's Sam and Tucker, but they'd be late twenties, early thirties by now, and I wouldn't want to upend their lives out of nowhere, dropping a kid used to other countries and languages, on them out of nowhere without having checked in with them in a long while..."

Bruce had perked up and was listening intently. It wasn't often that Danny talked about his life pre-Gotham.

"Then, there's Jazz, somewhere in her thirties, and, again, same problem..."

"Anyone else from before you'd trust with this?"

"There is Dani- you've met her, right? She's my clone of ambiguous family relation but we've settled on daughter- she's a wanderer with no solid ties anywhere and uncertain living situation. I'm sure she would do her best if she suddenly had a kid dropped on her- like I did- but for her to be stable for him, she'd have to have an at least semi-permanent residence, and that would be anathema to her nature."

"No, I haven't met her... What about people in Gotham?"

"The only two I'd trust with Dick would be Jim Gordon- but he's practically married to his work, and hardly has enough time for his daughter. I wouldn't do that to Barbara- and Dr. Leslie Thompkins, but I'm not sure she could support him, and she's also married to her work."

"There is nobody else? At all?"

"Well, no. What did you expect? I've kept to you and Alf. I haven't exactly gone on a Gotham meet and greet, and haven't kept contact with anyone from before, either."

"...You aren't going to give up, are you?" Bruce asked with a sigh.

"Nope! I've seen him and now he's one of mine."

"...One of yours..? What do you mean by that?"

"Have I told you about Fraids before? It's basically the ghostly version of family, and it's all by choice. Instead of being related by blood, we have Fraid bonds. Mine are a little weird because I'm half-human and all of my Fraid bonds are with either normal humans or liminal humans, but... Yeah."

"Really? So who all is in your Fraid?"

"You, Alf, and Dani; and there's a tentative Fraid bond with Dick, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker."

"Is that all? Isn't it important to have a Fraid to support you? You only have real Fraid bonds with three people..."

"Well, see, the thing is... I don't know. I didn't exactly get the ghost primer when I died. I just got the existential crisis of I died but also somehow survived, but that got cut off when my town started getting invaded by ghosts and I had to fight them. And then I had to leave and come here. So, uh, I don't really know."

"You don't really talk about your life before Gotham, but you said that you had to leave... Why? What could have driven you to come to Gotham, of all places?"

"Bruce-"

"No, don't deflect! I want to know! You never talk about it, and at first I didn't think about it, but now... Something bad happened, didn't it?"

"Yes... Yes. My worst nightmare came true," Danny admitted, curling himself up on top of the computer and hiding his face in his coils.

"Short story? My parents were ghost hunters and everybody thought they were crackpots until I was dared by my friend to take a picture inside the supposed 'ghost portal' they were building, tripped and turned it on, and was in a cycle of death and revival until I fell out. Realized I was half ghost. Protected the town from the ghosts who came out after me and decided to terrorize."

He had been getting slightly nostalgic for it, but now he had to keep back tears (ghost tears were acidic, after all).

"And then... My- my parents discovered that I- that I wasn't all human and they- they s-said that I... Said I wasn't their son. They tried to kill me, to- to End me, for real. No- no afterlife, nothing... So I fled, I- I fled to the one place I thought I could lay low. It's worked! They haven't come after me..."

"Your- your parents tried to kill you?" Bruce asked, horrified, and it only got worse and Danny nodded.

"But- that's horrible! How could they think that? Sure, you aren't all human, but you are still human! How could they try-"

"Bruce. To them... To them it was the completely rational thing to do it that situation. They didn't even give me a chance to try to explain, just... Went for it. Went for me."

Bruce just stood there helplessly. He wanted to help, but what could he do?

He hadn't prepared! He didn't know what to do! His dad was crying and he couldn't do anything!

"They had noticed... Had noticed that I hadn't aged- hadn't aged all since the accident. They thought I had died and been possessed and- and- and they thought that Ending me would let me rest. They thought... They thought they were doing what was best for me..."

The ache in his voice made Bruce tear up.

"You- no! You may not be completely human, hell, you may not even age, but so what? I've heard rumors of a supposed alien in Metropolis, and they love him! Supposed 'humanity' doesn't define us! You've helped me, and helped me protect people, and even if nobody else ever knows, that makes you more 'human' than some people I know. Don't let anyone tell you that not being completely human makes you lesser!"

Danny nodded with a sniff. "I- I won't. I wouldn't have believed them anyway, but... It just hurt, because... They were my parents. They were supposed to protect me, but they were trying to hurt me, and they didn't even- didn't even think of it that way. Thought they were helping."

"I- I know," Bruce floundered, "but you've got us now. Me and Alfred. And neither of us would do that to you, especially if you told us it would hurt you."

Danny smiled, fragile but adoring, and floated down from on top of the computer to wrap Bruce in a hug.

He stiffened at the unexpected contact, but it didn't take long for him to melt into it.

[soapdispensersalesman]

I can't stress enough how much I miss StumbleUpon

[zevveli]

StumbleUpon once sent me to a supercut of Lion King, Lion King 1 1/2, and Lion King II, the main edit being that the scenes of Lion King and Lion King 1 1/2 were interspersed so that they happened in the order they actually happened.

[redpandarascal]

stumbleupon not existing anymore can be directly traced to a dramatic decline in my mental health, I could do a thesis on it.

[musashi]

bestie stumbleupon very much still exists its just called cloudhiker now. i use it all the time.

[lesbiassoon]

mini compilation of suggestions from the replies:

The Bored Button - "Press the Bored Button and be bored no more."

The Useless Web

Cloudhiker - "Discover the most interesting, weird and awesome websites of the Internet" (not really a rebrand, it's a different person running it but they have the same intention in mind)

Astronaut.io - "These videos come from YouTube. They were uploaded in the last week and have titles like DSC 1234 and IMG 4321. They have almost zero previous views. They are unnamed, unedited, and unseen (by anyone but you)."

Marginalia - "This is an independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and attempts to show you sites you perhaps weren't aware of in favor of the sort of sites you probably already knew existed."

[no-one-offical]

‎

[totally-cis-offical]

I used to love take me to a useless website

[atomicsheepscientist]

Dp x Dc fic idea that wouldn't let me sleep:

"No, you don't understand! I need my powers. I'll die without them!" Danny pleaded with the officer in front of him.

"Sure, kid, and I need a burger. You'll be just fine without your flight or superstrength or whatever. Look, I see kids like you all the time nowadays. You think just because you have a few powers, you can become some kind of hero. You run away from home, cause trouble in the name of 'justice' or whatever. Then reality hits. You start stealing. What's a few stolen bucks or candy bars in the name of the greater good, right? It's a downward spiral from there. Seems you were pretty far down the spiral. Beating up government agents? Kid, there is no way in hell I'm letting you out of here without the meta power suppressant collar. You're lucky Mr. Wayne was so generous and decided to foster you until we find your parents. I would've sent your troublesome ass back to juvie."

I was thinking this was a bad timeline where the Fenton parents died and Danny ran away. The power suppressing collar does work on him somehow, and cuts him off from his ghost half, which stops the ectoplasm that was keeping him alive since the accident.

I pictured Bruce as the foster parent that decided to help the troubled teen, but it could be anyone. Imagine if Lex Luthor decided he wanted to "help" (read: manipulate the young meta into doing his bidding) Danny instead. Extra angst.

[ailithnight]

These tags from @therandomartmaker have passed peer review.

Also @atiyasnake because their au was mentioned in those tags.

Now then, Danny probably doesn't mentally clock out immediately. It, like the rest of his deterioration, is a steady decay over time. And for like a week while he's still present enough, while he still has the energy for more than a noncommittal hum; he tries, over and over and over again, he tries to tell them what's wrong. They just don't believe him. Even when he tells them the truth about the government agent he was fighting, the truth about the GIW and the Anti-Ecto acts and they look it up and verify all that for themselves, they still won't trust him about the collar.

A week in and he's too exhausted to keep arguing. They won't take his word for it. It's too much a contradiction to their understanding of how the world works. Just like the rest of him. His whole existence is a contradiction to the immutable laws of life and death. Fine. It's fine. If they won't listen, there's no point in spending his precious energy trying to make them.

2 weeks and he can feel the early stages of rot setting in to his internal organs. It hurts, but less than he thought it would. Mostly it's these growing spots of numbness that kinda burn at the edges where his body is trying valiantly to beat the necrosis back. The Justice League hosts a press conference that week. All of the founding members, including the one and only Batman; delivers a very passionate speech informing the public of, and denouncing, the Anti-Ecto acts and all those associated with it's passing and enforcement. It stirs a thought in Danny's sluggish mind. Maybe Bruce Wayne really does have some kind of ties to Batman.

3 weeks and he can tell the Waynes can tell he's genuinely sick by now. His coordination is failing, his muscles are atrophying (decaying, their decaying, rotting away inside his skin and leaving this disgusting slimy feeling behind), and his temperature is jumping between a "low grade" (for a normal human) fever and borderline hypothermia. He spends most of his time sleeping now, and most of the rest of it in a delirious dissociative haze. In one of his rare moments of lucidity, he wonders if they'll finally accept that he's right about the suppressor. But no, of course not. He can hear them talk around him, wondering and worrying at the mysterious illness. What could be causing it, how do they treat it? That one dashed hope, which was hardly a hope at all and more an errant thought, shouldn't hurt worse than his body literally dying and decomposing from the inside out. It shouldn't hurt worse than that. Somehow, it does anyway.

4 weeks in and Danny has accepted his fate. Resigned himself to this slow second death. He can't decide whether it's better or worse than his first. Idly, he wonders if he'll become a full ghost next. Or if the suppressor will prevent that too. If it does, will his soul be able to move on? Or will it be trapped in his body until the flesh rots away entirely and all that's left is bones? And some day in the far distant future even those bones crumble to dust and what then? Will he be able to move on then? Or will he still be here, bound to the dust that used to be him, torn apart and scattered across the world until the world ceases to be. Such big questions.

Danny doesn't have the energy to ponder too much. He guesses he'll figure it out when it happens and that will have to be enough. At least it's safe to think he'll be given a grave this time. Surely the Waynes care enough to give him that much. They must. They care enough at least that there's always someone sitting with him whenever he wakes up. Even when he's only semi-lucid, they're there, murmuring to him all the news from current events in the world (the Anti-Ecto acts have been repealed and the GIW disbanded, that's nice) to what new animals Damian is trying to sneak into the manor to what Alfred has cooked most recently. The rotating cast of gentle voices is nice. Not quite a consolation for them refusing to believe him, but nice nonetheless. And maybe having a grave this time will make up for the rest. A place to rest sounds heavenly right now.

Danny doesn't know how long it's been anymore. All he knows is that something is wrong. For the first time since that cop locked a collar around his neck; Danny's core is awake, active, and screeching at him to do something. Something has his protection instinct riled up and it is so very very bad that his core is generating enough ectoplasm to just barely override the collar's suppression capacity.

Danny's eyes snap open, burning vibrant, toxic green. He jolts upwards, startling the half dozen weirdly dressed people sitting around him in some kind of medical room with a strange, rough stone ceiling. There's a lot of sudden commotion, several sets of hands reaching, out trying to stop him as Danny slings his legs off the hospital cot and stands on weak and trembling legs. He's grateful for the reaching hands that catch him before he collapses onto a rough stone floor. The tiny amounts of ectoplasm his core is able to generate around the suppressor's effects isn't nearly enough to heal him. But it's enough to give him energy. Energy he hasn't had since that first week. Energy to talk. Energy to argue.

"Please! You have to. Take it off. Please, just take it off. Something is. Something bad. I need. Have to. Fight. Protect. Protect! Take it off. Take it off! Take It Off! TAKE IT OFF!"

[babbling-babull]

I was thinking about what could have set off his Protection Obsession and it occurred to me. What if one of the Bats made a remark about having to bury Bruce alongside Danny?

Also, which Bat takes off the collar? (Ob Boy are they all gonna Spiral once they learn that he wasn't kidding)

[atomicsheepscientist]

I love all these additions! OK, here's my take on the incident that has them taking off his collar: The Joker bombed the manor.

It was Bruce's turn to watch over Danny for the night, so he was forced to stay in when the news of an Arkham breakout arrived. Dick suited up as Batman for the night, and it was all hands on deck rounding up all the escapees. Two hours in, and everyone was caught and put back in a cell... everyone except the Joker. Then, Joker appeared on every local radio and entertainment channel. He had a game for the Bats! Find the bombs he placed all around the city, or watch as the most important people of Gotham all blow up!

The first few were easy: The mayor's house, Jim Gordon's house, some other important figures. They found and disarmed 6 bombs, then found and arrested the Joker himself. They thought they were done, that they had won. But when cuffing Joker, one of the stopwatches lining his arms starts beeping, and he's laughing maniacally and singing "lucky number 7!"

Meanwhile, Bruce is with Danny. His coms and computers were confiscated by Alfred so he would focus on taking care of the sick boy. All of a sudden, Bruce hears a timer go off and the recorded sound of Jokers laugh echoing through the halls. He barely has time to cover Danny’s prone body when the room explodes all around them.

Alfred in batcave when it happened. He was helping Oracle coordinate the search over comms. When it was apparent the Joker was still loose, he was also tasked with keeping Jason in the cave. Jason was not happy with this decision, and was arguing loudly against it when the explosion happened. The entire cave shook with the force of it.

After a moment of silence, Jason quickly runs upstairs into the manor (in civilian clothes because his Red Hood gear was hidden by Alfred). The whole house is ablaze, wooden support pillers falling over and the roof looking like it will collapse in on itself any minute now.

Jason runs to Danny’s room, finding Bruce unconscious over the seemingly unharmed Danny (it's hard to tell if there are any new injuries under all the sores and skin decay). Jason can't carry them both, so he makes a split second decision. He moves Bruce's prone and bleeding body onto the floor, then picks up Danny (who's equally unconcious and bleeding, but again, he was like that before the explosion) and jumps out the window. Secondary blasts from inside the manor can be heard as Jason runs Danny to the front of the house. The Wayne manor is completely on fire, walls and roof can be seen caving in at some places.

Alfred joins Jason in the front yard, a safe distance back to watch the family home burn to the ground.

One minute later, Dick (as Batman), Damian (as Robin), and Tim (as Red Robin) arrive at the manor in the Batmobile. Three minutes later, the paramedics, firefighters, and police arrive, along with the rest of the bats and birds.

Jason places Danny gently on a stretcher as Dick storms up to him.

"Where's Bruce?" Dick asks in his best Batman impression, the worry in his voice hidden from anyone who wasn't trained by Batman.

Jason (in shock but not about to admit to that), just points back to the burning manor.

The fire can still be seen going strong, but the firefighters seem to be doing their job as several stream of water are fighting against the blaze.

"You left him in there? Why didn't you save him?!"

"What, you wanted me to run back into that burning building for a man who failed to do the same for me? I got Danny out! Was that not good enough for you?"

Red Robin steps between the two before the yelling can escalate into a full on fight. "Well, we're here now and we better get a game plan if we want any chance of not having to bury Bruce or anyone else tonight!"

At that, suddenly Danny stirs on the stretcher. He jolts up as though he was electrocuted, shakily standing up and opening his eyes. Dick and Tim hurriedly help him stand while also trying to convince him to lay back down. Jason notes those eyes are not the same blue color as before, but instead are green. Lazarous water green.

"Please, you have to... take it off! Please! I. I need. To protect. Someone. Needs help. Take it off!" Danny somehow managed to gasp out, in the closest thing to a moment of consciousness he's had in over a week.

"OK, fine. I'll take that stupid collar off you." Jason says, pulling out his lockpicks.

"What?" "No, stop!" Tim and Dick say at the same time.

"Screw you both, I've never liked that fucking thing anyway! Look at the kid, this might be his last request." Jason yells back, shoving their hands out of the way to get to the suppressant collar around the kids neck. He never said anything, but seeing Danny in that collar always felt wrong. In the few times he wasn't avoiding the manor, it was like he could feel the despair and inevitability of death radiating off the kid.

"He's a flight risk and dangerous criminal, Todd! Leave him be so we can go and save father!" Damian angrily stomps over, joining the conversation.

"Go and save B yourself if you're so worried! He was in Danny’s room last I saw. To your points about Danny; First off, I'm a dangerous criminal. Second, he's a dying kid! Maybe this will help him get some peace, at least. I'm doing this no matter what you say, so go fuck off for all i care." Jason worked on the lock even while arguing with his siblings. Seconds after saying that, the lock clicks open, and the collar falls to the ground. Dick and Tim had managed to get Danny sitting back on the stretcher. They back off as Danny slumps into Jason.

Danny feels like his whole body is on fire. Every nerve in his body floods with power. He feels amazing and horrible all at once as the ectoplasm rushes out to heal him. Like someone who was starving suddenly gorged themselves on a feast, the first thing he does is throw up. The second thing he does is change into his Phantom form. It's like a lizard shedding its old skin.

The Bat siblings watch in awe as their dying foster brother goes disturbingly still, then gasps and starts spasming as his wounds heal themselves with a green glow. Then, in a flash of white light, his form is replaced by a color-swapped version of the same boy. This white-haired Danny's whole body glows, but his green eyes glow the most. Danny flies out of Jason’s hold, and those glowing green eyes start sweeping the area, taking in everything going on. Then, he flies off. Before anyone can stop him, Danny flies directly into the burning mansion.

[undercookedcatgut]

Danny's human form was never quite the same after that. Decay doesn't simply go away, rot doesn't just disappear. Even with ectoplasmic assistance it was unlikely his other half would ever fully heal. It was safer to remain as Phantom nowadays. If it made him tense and flighty then that was nobody's business but his own. Sometimes he could still find himself looking over his shoulder, fearing his parents walking in or the GIW there to get him. Logically, he knew that wouldn't happen. His parents were dead and the GIW were never that quiet. They were disbanded too, Danny had to keep reminding himself about that. However even knowing that, he still couldn't quite help the flinches nor stop the sudden and overpowering dread, that he'd just been found out whenever a person called his name. Things were fine. He'd always had a knack for adapting in the moment after all. It was just taking a bit longer this time around.

[darkmodepls]

Their newest brother is

dead

Dead

DEAD

And they were the ones who killed him

His echo floats aimlessly around the manor. Still exhibiting the semi conscious state of his final days.

His only reactions are when he quails in terror, shying away from their hands with a faint but haunting wail before fading into nothingness

Jason is the only one he'll stay in the same room with, otherwise he vanishes into thin air the moment they cross the threshold.

The final reports about the GIW and Amity Park have come in.

There are clips of Danny Phantom in action.

Its hard to reconcile the vibrant and witty hero with the ghost of their sins

[alculai]

[menolly5600]

After Danny's human identity was accidentally revealed when he was exploding the GIW bases, the GIW knew who he was and were hunting him in both forms. Danny had been attacking the bases to force people outside Amity to investigate the GIW, and also making sure to free any captive ghosts. But with the GIW knowing that he's got a human form, they modified standard (criminal) meta suppression collars to suppress Ectoplasm circulation and energy activation (based off stolen Fenton tech). Then the GIW distributed the collars to federal and local authorities that were assisting in the manhunt for the meta terrorist. As a large metropolis with high ambient ectoplasm, Gotham received a collar.

Danny was hiding homeless in Gotham and maybe got onto the Bats' radar as a homeless kid. He ended up getting picked up by child services and doesn't want to reveal his powers while waiting for an opportunity to vanish. But someone at the office had clocked this homeless kid as the terrorist and called the cops to pick him up. When the cops took him into custody, he thought he could ghost them because he didn't want to hurt anyone. But they brought the collar and locked it on him when he was distracted. He didn't realize at first it was more than a typical meta gene suppressor.

But the Bats had already been on the lookout for the meta terrorist and were alerted he'd been captured in Gotham. But when they looked into it, they found out that the terrorist is a kid, and is the homeless kid some of them had met before. The cops planned to put him in Arkham until the GIW arrived to collect him.

But Bruce was able to arrange to foster him temporarily because he's a minor and hasn't actually been convicted of any crimes yet. In the national manhunt he's been a suspect and a person of interest, but he legally has rights still and there's been no trial even scheduled yet. Bruce got emergency custody and paid his bail on condition of keeping the collar on to prevent flight risk and to make sure he comes to interrogations and cooperates with the investigation. If he runs or the collar is removed, or he doesn't show for the investigation efforts, then custody will be revoked and he'll be handed over to the GIW to contain.

Danny did try to run at first, but the Bats brought him back. And once Bruce explained that if Danny keeps trying to run or the collar is removed, then the police will have to hand him to the GIW. Bruce explains he's trying to keep him safe while the investigation looks into the GIW and the explosions, because it's suspicious.

Danny doesn't actually know what long term power suppression will do to him. He knows even just the temporary Plasmius Maximus makes him feel weak and exhausted. But he doesn't know that permanently suppressing ectoplasm energy activation will kill him.

The longer he has the collar on, the more exhaustion drags at him. He tries telling the Waynes he needs it off because his powers are a part of him, and he's not actually a meta. He tries to explain he's half ghost, but the Waynes, and the child counselor and therapist they got him, are convinced it's delusions brought on by his victimization at the hands of his parents upbringing and the GIW persecution of him for having meta powers. Basically, everyone believes he's been conditioned to believe he's half inhuman and a monster.

The investigation is revealing that the GIW are violating the Meta Protection Acts and hunting and persecuting metas and nonhuman sentients (aliens) by labeling them as non-sentient ghosts. The attacks were born of his traumatic conditioning, fear for his life, and self-defense against violations of his rights and body. The fact that the GIW does intend to vivisect him as a specimen and are planning his eventual destruction only proves Danny was fighting and attacking them in self defense. Even the Justice League is getting involved in exposing the Anti-Ecto Control Acts as violations of Meta and Alien rights. They're well on the way to being repealed. The GIW is already being shut down and under scrutiny for human and alien rights violations, Geneva Convention violations, misappropriation of government resources, etc.

This guarantees Danny won't be handed to the GIW. But if Bruce can't keep custody then he'll be put in Arkham because of the delusions brought on by his conditioning. So the collar has to stay on. He's still a flight risk, and the child therapist believes him delusional still. Because while ghosts are real, they're not like the GIW reports claim or how Danny claims he's part ghost.

And this whole time, Danny gets weaker and more exhausted. Not even eating more is helping much. He's been trying to hide it, though. He's afraid of showing weakness.

It's bad enough nobody believes him about being a halfa, but it's understandable. Being Schrodinger's boy is hard to wrap your mind around, let alone being a sorta unliving undead being, like some eldritch thing Lovecraft dreamed up. His parents didn't understand. Not even Jazz and his friends really understood completely how his accident changed him on a fundamental level. Even Danny doesn't think too hard about it most of the time. It's easier to just think of himself as a boy with powers, sometimes.

So he hides how weak he's becoming, how ill he's starting to feel all the time. At first he thinks it's because he's adjusting to being without his powers and away from Amity Park, his haunt. He thinks it's feeling ill like he's going through withdrawals. He doesn't want the Waynes to decide he's too weird, too difficult, too creepy, too inhuman. Because he's getting attached, and he kind of thinks maybe they mean it that he's family now, that he's safe. He's kind of hoping they might actually be able to learn to love each other like a family.

But then he starts collapsing. He can't hide it anymore. Like a sickly fainting Victorian damsel, he keeps collapsing at random, fainting and blacking out. They already knew his vitals were off, lower heart rate and temperature. But now he's got arrhythmia and heart murmurs. He's starting to get fluid buildup in his lungs. He's unable to go ghost form, his human half still needs to breathe and have a pulse. His immune system is failing, he gets a cold that becomes pneumonia. Even after rigorous antibiotics and immuno boosters, even after he recovers from the pneumonia, he's still declining.

They did take him to the hospital, but the doctors couldn't find out what was wrong exactly. They did detect a buildup of strange chemicals all throughout his body cells. The chemicals had similarities to many of the chemicals found in GIW facilities. Also the Bats recognized some of the chemical markers Ra's used with his Lazarus water experiments. The best theory from the doctors is that exposure to the chemicals, from his parents' lab and the GIW facilities he attacked, was causing cellular poisoning. There was nothing they could do for him because it was so widespread and systemic.

Bruce insisted on taking Danny home. Even if all they could do was keep him comfortable, Bruce wanted his boy home. And maybe the Bats could find something from off world or esoteric that could save him. Besides, Danny was afraid every time he woke up in the hospital after blacking out again. If Danny had less than a year left to live, he wanted him to be comfortable, safe, and surrounded with family that had grown to love him.

The Waynes had always hated having to leave the collar on Danny. Especially Tim, because he was familiar with Impulse's dark future of control collars. But to keep him at home, even while he's slowly dying, they had to leave it on and being actively tracked as working by the federal government. Otherwise he'd be moved to Arkham for treatment and containment. They didn't want his last months to be in Arkham. The care there might just kill him faster.

Danny was in the manor at first. He was still mobile for a bit after coming back from the hospital. But then his legs started failing as his muscles atrophied and deteriorated. He was blacking out more, his short term memory failing. They helped him move around with a wheelchair for a bit, taking him to meals and to hang out around the manor with the family.

He was confused and sinking into a mental fog more often. He begged sometimes to take off the collar, or to let him go. Sometimes he begged them not to hurt him, begged them to understand that he's still Danny, still human. Sometimes he didn't know where he was and begged his parents not to tear him apart molecule by molecule.

As his digestive organs started failing, he couldn't eat so had to be hooked up to machines and IVs for fluids and nutrients. He was bed bound in his room, trying to make him comfortable. Someone was with him almost constantly, talking to him, taking care of him, comforting him as best they could.

But his mind wandered away more often, dissociating and catatonic. Soon he was rarely aware or lucid. As he wasted away, his organs began failing more and they moved him to the Batcave onto life support. They tried even more esoteric things to save him but nothing was working.

But waking up briefly lucid in the Batcave infirmary gave Danny a panic attack that nearly killed him before he passed out again. They reluctantly conceded having him in his room in the manor was safer. It took a bit of doing, but they got him set back up in his room with all the fancy cutting edge life support equipment. But it was a real chance Danny might die at any time. Despite all the life support equipment, necrosis was slowly setting in across his body, tissue dying while his body was forced to keep living.

After his skin started rotting in places, Bruce and the others could barely tear themselves away, out of fear he'd be gone by the time they came back. But then there was an Arkham breakout. They decided Bruce would stay with Danny so he wouldn't be alone, just in case he woke, just in case he died.

The Joker couldn't directly plant bombs in Wayne manor. Bruce's security system is too good to miss goons sneaking in to plant explosives. Instead he strapped explosives and Joker toxin canisters to house mice and released them onto Wayne property. And just in case they didn't find ways into the manor, he had a goon with a rocket launcher set up in the empty Drake manor next door.

The scattered explosions across Wayne manor were mice detonating in the walls. Some fires started, but the toxin was the most dangerous. The rocket launcher hit the upstairs and blew up Danny's bathroom and part of his bedroom and the hallway, and the room next to his. The concussive blast knocked Bruce unconscious. But he'd been shielding Danny already since the mice started exploding before the rocket hit.

When Jason rushed upstairs to the manor, he tried to rescue them both. But Bruce is a huge guy and Danny is fragile. He tried to drag Bruce half on his back while carrying Danny downstairs, but the toxin laced colored smoke and fire was too dangerous to expose them directly to. Bruce woke enough to slur at Jason to take Danny and save themselves. Obviously concussed, he told Jason not to die again. Jason went out the window with Danny.

He intended to go back for Bruce. Because he's determined to be better than Batman, so he's not going to leave him to die in an exploding building. And he's not going to give the Joker the satisfaction of killing another of them. And he's not going to lose Bruce just when they were starting to get somewhere better between them. But the outer wall under Danny's room is unstable and on fire after the rocket explosion. The fires and gas are so random throughout the building he can't find a safe route back to Bruce without his heavy vigilante gear.

He returned to Alfred who was watching over Danny. They couldn't take most of the life support equipment with Danny, but Alfred has portable oxygen and a defibrillator in case his heart stopped. The other Bats start arriving ahead of emergency services. Most of them split off as soon as they hear Bruce is trapped inside and concussed. Spreading out, they try to find a safe route to extract him. DickBats and Tim check on Jason, Alfred and especially Danny.

Red Robin asks if there are any routes from the Cave clear of toxin and fire. He mentions he doesn't know if the family can handle burying two family members at the same time. Danny's obviously doing worse away from the medical equipment.

Jason snaps that Danny's not going to die, Bruce told them to survive. And they're not going to give the clown the satisfaction.

DickBats determinedly declares Bruce isn't going to die.

This is when Danny's protection obsession is triggered and he jerkily sits up, scrabbling at his collar. He's begging to get it off, he needs to protect.

Jason snarls and goes to get the damned thing off.

Red Robin stops Jason Todd-Wayne. Says if he does it, Danny could be taken away from the Waynes. But if Red Robin does it... The Waynes can't be held liable for vigilante actions. And it might be Danny's last request, the stress might be too much for him, and Tim isn't going to let his little brother die in a suppression collar.

It takes a moment after the collar comes off before power washes over Danny and he's changed. He flies into the manor and saves Bruce, ice putting out most of the fires.

But when he returns with Bruce, he changes back and collapses again. His human half is still suffering organ failure from cumulative damage. His regenerative healing isn't instant. His body had been devouring his energy reserves to survive and he had almost nothing left to devote to healing. He was starting to regenerate but it will take time he may not have.

Emergency services is arriving by then. Danny and Bruce are taken to the hospital for overnight observation. Bruce, Dick, and the Wayne lawyers have to argue down child services and get permission from the police commissioner to justify removing the collar. Red Robin adds in that the collar was restricting the boy's breathing so had to be removed on site. The doctors verify that the boy is dying and all that can be done is make him comfortable while he passes. He's slipped into a coma and the doctors doubt he'll wake. Arkham, and the hospital, aren't the best places for keeping him comfortable. Bruce, still concussed, pleads to let him take his foster son home so he can be with family when he goes. By late morning they're allowed to take Danny home to die in comfort, without the collar.

Danny's human half has been struggling to heal, but a lot of his tissues are dead and decomposed. He can't heal the dead tissue, even though he can replace the cells in time with his regeneration. He's in a healing coma state as his core gathers ambient ectoplasm and absorbs the strong emotions around him to convert to ectoplasm. His ghost side is storing up energy in preparation for massive regeneration.

Once his core has gathered energy, his human body starts sloughing off the dead tissue. His core forces a self-preservation shift to ghost form and drops all the dead and decaying flesh and organs from his human half. He doesn't need the tissue and organs in ghost form, and can focus all his energy on regenerating his human half while maintaining ghost form.

But during this state, his human brain is offline. It takes a lot of energy to have his brain operational. With his brain comatose and his core acting as a secondary brain and emotional center, it's like he's sleepwalking. He reacts to emotional stimuli rather than logic or reasoning in this state.

Meanwhile, the Waynes had set him up in the Batcave with more equipment. There was some desperate hope he might get better without the collar suppressing his meta powers. He'd been a little better and strong enough to save Bruce right after removing it. But he still hadn't woken up after hanging on for a few more days.

Then his vitals crashed as his brain activity flatlined. Then he changed again, like he had when he saved Bruce. Except this time when the strange energy form floated up above the bed, it left behind a rotting slurry of flesh, organs and crumbling bone.

The floating, translucent, color reversed version of him still looked like Danny. But they couldn't touch him. He didn't respond to their calls. Even when he opened his glowing green eyes, he was unresponsive to them. It was as if he wasn't registering seeing or hearing them. It was as if Danny had died, leaving behind a rotted body and an echo, a shade of a ghost that wasn't a ghost like Deadman is a ghost.

Danny was dead.

Danny's shade haunted the Cave, and later the manor once it was repaired. He haunted them, his gaze distant and unresponsive. The only times he seemed to respond to something was when someone was angry, distraught and grieving, or experiencing an intense emotion. Sometimes his shade would flee the area, sometimes vanishing completely for a while. Other times he'd be drawn to the person, hovering around them as if concerned, but without quite seeing them.

It usually made the grieving worse.

Danny's human mind was catatonic and unconscious. His ghost-brain core was dissociating and running on instincts. He fled from dangerous 'fight-anger' emotions to protect his human half while so weak and regenerating. He was drawn to his family-fraid being happy or (more often) sad. He wanted to soak up the happy emotions, though there wasn't much happiness in the manor these days after their newest brother died. And he wanted to comfort his family-fraid when sad and upset. Instinctively he used as little energy as possible so everything else could go towards healing his human half. So he barely glowed, didn't become tangible and was barely visible most of the time.

But Danny was slowly healing and his tissues and organs slowly being reconstructed while in his ghost form. His ghost form is entirely ectoplasm so it's easier to rebuild the organs and muscles out of ectoplasmic cells. When he's ready to transform back to human form and wake up his brain, the ectoplasmic cells will shift to living tissue cells along with the rest of his body.

But until then, Danny's mentally checked out. And the Waynes think he died, gruesomely decomposing rapidly, and is now haunting them for failing him.

[darkmodepls]

[roseverdict]

Now I'm imagining some time after The Sloughening, it's been pretty grim around the manor with Danny's ghost hovering around, the works…

…and then Danny's ghost stops all of a sudden, maybe near a wall or something, and for a moment anybody nearby is just looking at him like 👁️👁️

and then he transforms back to his human self, his feet hit the floor, he meets somebody's eyes, and he manages a "whuh…? I was not here a second ago" before passing tf out.

Normal passing out this time, as opposed to "clinging to death's doorjamb by his fingernails" passing out lmao.

Let there be chaos.

[eternal-watcher]

Really should’ve listened when he said he’s half ghost rather than a meta. But nope they just assumed he was delusional.

Anyway now that his human side is back online I guess they will have no choice but to believe him. (I wouldn’t be surprised if his ghost side needed a rest though, after having to regenerate his human half)

[liketolaugh-writes]

Nearly a year after Danny first arrived at the manor, he was back in a hospital bed. Hooked up to IV fluids, a whole host of monitors, and someone next to him every time he woke up, but without the life support equipment he'd been surrounded by toward the end. (Well, it wasn't attached to him anymore. He could still see it nearby.)

From what he understood later, there was around a week and a half between when he collapsed back into his human form and when he was finally lucid again. What Danny knew, though, was that he opened his eyes and Bruce was there, a hand resting on Danny's forehead.

"Hey, chum," Bruce said, voice painfully soft. There was a storm of emotion in his eyes - Danny could sense it in the air around them too, though he was too disoriented to try and untangle it. "How are you feeling?"

Danny blinked at him, opened his mouth, and closed it, making a face at the dryness of his mouth. Bruce chuckled.

"Think you can sit up?"

Actually... yeah. For the first time in longer than Danny could easily remember, there was strength in his body. Not much - he ached with exhaustion, shaky and weak - but he didn't feel like his limbs were filled with slick, oozing slime anymore, and his chest and abdomen felt almost... normal. He nodded, and Bruce helped him sit up, taking most of his weight with ease, and then gave him a cup of water. Danny drank a few mouthfuls before he managed to speak.

"What happened?" he rasped. Bruce's half-smile fell.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Bruce asked, voice roughening with guilt that Danny could taste, literally.

Danny shook his head, making a face as the motion made him aware of his headache, the fuzziness of his thoughts. "'S all blurry," he muttered. "The collar came off?" That was almost too unbelievable to be true, and he lifted a hand to his neck to check. But it was bare. He smiled. "There's... some before and some after. An explosion. Heat. And a lot of quiet. Was I ghosting you? Sorry."

He managed a grin at Bruce's flash of exasperation, but Bruce's grip on him stayed steady. Danny drank a little more, then pressed Bruce's arm pointedly, a signal that for months had been a silent request to lay back down. Bruce took the cup back and set him down carefully.

"Yes," Bruce said, quiet. "The Joker managed to blow up the manor while you and I were inside. Jason was only able to get you out, but you... demanded the collar be taken off. Tim was afraid it would be your last request. When he did, you went back in to get me, and then collapsed." He cleared his throat. "We thought that you were too far gone. After a few days, you... sloughed off your human form, and then you were a ghost. Half-aware. It's been a few months since then."

Danny nodded, letting his eyes fall shut as exhaustion threatened to pull him back under already. "Sorry. Never regenerated anything this intense before. Good to know that ghost rules apply to my human form, I guess."

"We didn't believe you."

"I know."

"I'm sorry."

That was enough to get Danny to pry his eyes back open, and he reached up to grab Bruce's hand where it rested on his shoulder. It was good to have that much strength again. He gave Bruce a crooked smile.

"I get it," he admitted. He couldn't say it was okay - it really wasn't - but he'd always kind of understood. (Like he'd understood his parents, and Valerie, and even the officer who had originally snapped the collar onto him.) "Freak of nature and all. Who'd believe in something like that? It's almost as bad as believing in ghosts."

Bruce didn't roll his eyes, but Danny could feel that he wanted to, and it made Danny grin again.

"We'll talk more when you wake up again," Bruce said, softer. "Everyone has been looking forward to it. Even Jason hasn't left the manor since you returned to this form."

"Really?" That was hard for Danny to believe. He didn't think he'd ever seen Jason sleep in the manor, even when he spent the day - though he supposed he hadn't exactly been aware enough to tell when he'd been passing in and out toward the end.

Bruce nodded, though. "We... weren't sure if you'd reach the point of lucidity," he admitted haltingly. "There were concerns that you would remain comatose."

"Not doing that," Danny promised, though his eyes were slipping shut again already, the pull of sleep now too much to resist. "I'm okay."

Bruce nodded. "Sleep. Someone will be here when you wake up."

---

The next time Danny opened his eyes, it was Dick that was sitting with him. He was flipping through a sky atlas, a strained smile on his face. There were two more astronomy books on the nightstand next to him, along with a game that Danny vaguely remembered talking about, plus Danny's phone - his real one, the one that had been phased into a wall in his room since he'd been permanently moved to the infirmary. Dick's eyes flitted up to meet his as Danny shifted, and Dick positively beamed.

"You're awake!" Dick exclaimed, closing the sky atlas and setting it carefully on top of the others. "Need something? Water? Bruce said that you were pretty coherent the last time you woke up, you'll be getting bored soon, I bet, so I got you some stuff to keep you entertained. It took a while to find your phone, but the security on it is impressive, we ended up deciding to leave it alone, but all your friends know you're alright. Are you hungry yet? I need to call Alfred to check-"

Danny shifted again, trying to get Dick to stop his nervous ramble, and Dick shut his mouth to help Danny sit up. Danny considered him for a moment, and then leaned over to hug him tightly, ignoring the pull of the IV in his arm.

"You didn't know," Danny rasped. He sounded worse this time, scratchy and dry, but he focused on Dick for now.

Dick took a deep breath and hugged him back.

"We didn't believe you," Dick whispered, wracked with months of guilt. "All we had to do was believe you."

Well... yeah. That was the long and short of it, wasn't it? Danny tucked his face against Dick's neck, and all of a sudden Dick's arms tightened around him. Danny was too exhausted and weak still to really sob, but tears slipped down his face and into Dick's shirt, and his breath hitched around whimpers, over and over.

God, he'd come so close to dying again. And it had been so much worse this time.

He'd just needed someone to listen to him.

"It's alright, spook," Dick soothed him, shifting gears easily into the more familiar role. His hand landed on Danny's back and rubbed there, slow and calming. "You're gonna be alright. We've got you now. We're not gonna let you go again. Not again."

They stayed like that for a while, until Danny got too shaky and slipped back with a groan. Dick eased him back against his pillows, sitting him up in a way that had become very familiar. Danny accepted the water that Dick shoved into his hands and drank the whole thing this time, and then half of another when Dick went to refill it.

"Master Danny, I can't say what a relief it is to see you awake."

Danny looked up to give Alfred a weary smile. Alfred's eyes were warm, and Danny could see the truth of his affection in his expression even if he hadn't been able to sense it in the air itself. Dick scooted back to give Alfred room, and Alfred came to look over Danny's monitors before taking Danny's hands.

"Squeeze my hands, please," Alfred requested, focused at once on checking Danny over, and Danny did. "Thank goodness. Thank goodness. We weren't sure how much your body would be able to restore itself, even once..."

"I'm okay," Danny promised him, letting Alfred check the strength of his hands, then the nerve function, and his reflexes. "My ghost and human halves are dependent on each other, but they also reinforce each other. The solidity of my human body helps my ghost half hold together, and my ghost half can regenerate any part of my human body. Nerves, bones, damaged organs, anything."

"Thank goodness," Alfred repeated softly, with aching sincerity. "I'm only sorry that it took so much to save you from our foolishness."

"You didn't know," Danny said again, stronger this time. "How is everyone? Bruce said it's been... a while. I'm sure it was really hard on everyone, especially if you didn't know what was happening."

Dick let out a slightly broken laugh, and Alfred smiled painfully without looking up from his work.

"God, you're such a good kid," Dick mumbled, tipping his head back to stare at the ceiling.

"The last two weeks have been a breath of air in comparison," Alfred said honestly. He was checking other things now - Danny's atrophied muscles, the IV in his arm, the sound of his lungs and his eyes' tracking. "Everyone has been eating and sleeping, which is as much as we can hope for during times like this. Master Bruce has been waging war against the current standards for metahuman treatment in the criminal justice system, as well as funding further research into medical studies seeking to enfold the broader potential needs of alien and metahuman patients."

Danny hummed with appreciation and some amusement. Yeah, that sounded like Bruce. "And... no follow-up from the GIW?"

"They've found the Justice League to be particularly unsympathetic these days," Alfred said dryly. Dick chuckled.

"Bruce has been upset, which means things have been a little tense up there," he explained to Danny. "And everyone knows it's the GIW's fault. Their appeal hits a desk and goes in the garbage without being read." Danny chuckled, pleased by the image.

"But everything's okay, right?" Danny checked, unable to curb his worry. "I don't want anyone to get hurt because I'm..." He trailed off.

"Clark and Diana have stepped up in the meantime," Dick promised. "It's not unusual. Sometimes one of them needs to take a step back for a while, they're used to it. All three of them have lives of their own, after all. They'll be happy to hear you're alright."

Danny managed a smile, although he could feel himself wearing out already, his eyelids getting heavy and his body slumping into the pillows keeping him upright. "That's good..." he murmured.

Alfred finished checking him over and reached out to help him lie down again. "Rest, Master Danny. I'll let everyone know you're doing well."

Danny mumbled something, then fell asleep.

----

The third time Danny woke, he heard the tapping of a keyboard before he even opened his eyes. The tapping stopped, and by the time Danny looked over, Tim was already looking at him, frozen in place.

A moment later, he unfroze.

"Danny's awake!" Tim shouted over his shoulder, and then, to Danny, "They got tired of missing you."

Danny laughed, hearing a rush of motion from both the training rooms nearby and, only a moment later, upstairs. Within minutes, people were pouring inside, filling the room with an intoxicating flurry of love and worry and relief. That was one thing Danny had never been able to bring himself to doubt, how much the Waynes loved him. Even when they gently told him that he was alive, that he was just a meta, that he'd be alright and they'd find out what was making him sick- he'd known that they cared about him.

"It seems like your vital signs are stabilizing, but there's a disgusting lack of reliable information about ghosts," Tim scowled, returning his attention to his laptop to scroll through something. "Your parents' old college friend, Vlad Masters, he has some promising data in his private files, but that's all I could find-"

"Hey, now that these idiots are finally listening, there something else you need that we don't know about?" Jason demanded, elbowing his way to a place right next to Danny with a chair that wasn't there a second ago. "We gave you what we could find, but there wasn't much."

Cass sat on the edge of Danny's bed and slipped her hand into his, and when he looked up at her, she smiled at him, her eyes peering intently into his. Whatever she found there must have satisfied her, because after a moment she scooted away, seemingly content to sit with him and listen.

"We debated giving you Lazarus Water," Damian said quietly, and Danny found him at the foot of his bed, sitting very still. He looked at Danny like he'd disappear. "But we weren't sure if it would... interact poorly."

"No one's giving anyone Lazarus Water!" Jason snapped.

And for the first time, Danny realized a couple of things. First, that there was ectoplasm in his IV, tinting the fluids inside a glowing neon green. Second, that there was more on the shelves, sealed bottles of unmistakable ectoplasm. Third, that the room was as cold as a meat locker, soothing to his cold core. Everyone else was wearing light jackets to compensate for the chill, but Danny felt comfortable.

Danny struggled to push himself upright, and Dick, Jason, and Cass all rushed to help, which made him laugh a little. Jason was the one to shove water into his hands again, and Danny drank while he was trying to figure out what to say.

"The information about ghosts is inconsistent," Bruce scowled, further back than the others to give them room despite his crossed arms and focused look. "Their composition, what sustains them, what environments they thrive in. We need to know-"

"Bruce, chill," Jason ordered him. "Give him some room to breathe, would ya?"

"He just woke up, he doesn't need to be interrogated right now," Dick agreed. "He's doing okay for now. Everything else can wait."

Danny smiled into his glass, then set it on his lap. Dick took it from him and put it on the table, and Danny exhaled.

"Thanks," he said softly, voice tight, because nothing else came to mind. He reached up and wiped his eyes while everyone fell silent. "You guys... are really trying, huh?"

It was a lot to deal with, the contradiction between how much harm they had done and how sincerely, how completely they loved him. But it wasn't anything new - it wasn't any different from getting shot down by his parents and then coming home to his mom surprising him with an astronomy book that he'd been pining after. It wasn't that much different from his parents being so desperate to save him from himself, aching with grief over his 'death' while they chased his ghost half down for his apparent murder.

"...Of course we are," Dick said, when no one else did. His voice was soft and full of pain. "Your room is still made up and ready for you, you know. Alfred's coming down soon, by the way, he's just making you something to eat."

"You'll never wear that stupid fucking collar again," Jason added roughly.

"If you still want us, everything is in place for Bruce to take full custody," Tim added, without taking his eyes off his laptop. "There'll be no more talk about juvie, Arkham, any of it. You'd just have to sign the papers."

If he still wanted them? Danny looked around and wondered how they could possibly think he wouldn't - that he had ever stopped wanting them. That they thought he could give this up, the fact that he always woke up with someone beside him, their eyes on him while he was still blinking awake - not a thousand miles away, thinking about an experiment, but right here with him, asking what he needed. The fact that they cared so damn much all the time.

Sure, it had really sucked not to be believed. It had hurt, and it would take time to move past. But it took more than one (really long, really bad) mistake to ruin something like that.

"If you can dig up a portal to the Ghost Zone," he rasped, his voice only a little dry this time, "I can go to the Far Frozen and get a check-up from someone that actually knows my biology."

"Consider it done," Bruce said instantly, dead serious. Danny smiled softly.

"You love me in a way my parents never could have," he said quietly. "Give me the damn papers."

[dcxdpdabbles]

Danny: How's your new job going Tuck?

Tucker, six cups of coffee in, drenched in sweat, and his arms covered in multiple beeping and flashing red screen PDAs: I will not be defeated! I'M UNSTOPPABLE.

Danny: Uh-huh. Care to tell me why your PDA is flashing that alarm?

Tucker: Oh I hacked the plane Bruce Wayne is on and turned it back to the direction of his next meeting. He's been trying to ignore my schedule and I. Will. Not. Let. Him.

Sam: Tucker, don't take this the wrong way, but I think you should quit your job as his personal assistant. It's way too stressful.

Tucker: No. I was hired by the Wayne Enterprise Board to get Bruce's life in order, and I will accomplish that.

Danny: Um....why do you care so much about this?

Tucker: If I fail, Wayne Enterprise will discontinue Personal Digital Assistants. I have had my PDA since I was fourteen, and I will NOT lose it. *PDA number 7 beeps loudly* Crude! They're trying to hack my hack. How DARE they.

Tucker holding PDA to his mouth practically foaming: Open voice message. Record. "ORACLE BACK THE FUCK UP. HE IS GOING TO THE MEETING. DO NOT TRY MY FIREWALLS I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL FIND YOU AND I WILL SUMMIT YOU IN PUDDING!". Send message!

Danny: Is it odd that I'm attracted to this?

Sam: Not at all. There is something alluring about his slow descent into maddness.

Danny: That's our husband.

Sam: yup

Danny: We married him. In front of people.

Sam: Sure did.

Tucker: Ha! I just blocked the Batplane. Brucie thinks he can have his boyfriend sneak him out of his responsibilities? Think again, Batman!

Danny: He just cock-blocked Batman

Sam taking off her shirt: Hell yeah he did.

[dcxdpdabbles]

Nice how about to give you one of my old DC DP crossover prompts

Danny is a big fanfic writer for Batman, most of the time doing Tim joins the bat family early and Alternate attack on Titan's Tower. After his accident he decides to write a Jason Todd is a halfa straight out of the grave fic. Just to get his emotions out there and to vent and it gets incredibly popular.

As Time evolves the fic itself evolves from a vent fic to a under the table way to reanalyze his ghost fights and do better by transplanting his ghosts into the fic for Jason to fight. This happens generally okay until Penelope Spectra of unlike the other ghosts she was known by the rest of the world and was actually tracked by Reddit. Making the fans realize hey this is actual going on maybe not by Jason Todd but someone is using this to reanalyze their fights under the veneer of being fiction.

Danny starts to get famous for his fanfictions when he introduces the idea of halfas for the second Robin. He's not sure what happened to the second Robbin, but there are rumors he didn't die; he just retired, and the fans all accept that as the truth.

At first, Danny writes the second Robin struggling with his double life, as alive and dead, forced to hide his existence from Batman as a secret helper at night. He uses the second Robin to freely speak about his struggles with his powers in the early days, using fiction to cover his venting.

He even gave Robin a secret identity- with a disclosure that it was all made up and he did not know anything about the Bats because fans can be crazy- with the name Noir.

He made Noir a loser in school- consistently bullied, his grades were low without Batman's help, and he even had Noir live on the streets for a while before getting flung into the Ghost Zone.

Danny didn't realize it, but his writing made Noir a loveable character to his fans, who all loved "how flawed but kind-hearted" Noir, the halfa Robin. One of Danny's best commenters always claimed that Danny captured the second Robin's character.

He quickly develops Noir into someone who grows comfortable in his role after defeating the old Ghost King and getting discovered by Batman. He made the series with Noir, focusing more on the threats of the other ghosts that came to challenge the Ghost King.

Each ghost was based on his own rouges- all fighting the same way but with different names. Danny switched his main focus from Noir being confused by his powers to Noir getting stronger and stronger through all his fights.

Instead of venting on what life had done to him, Danny used his fanfiction to analyze his fights. He often wrote about what he could have done better, only after writing the actual scene and using that in a fight later on.

He even threw in there some questions that Noir started having about boys- which in high sight he should have known Jazz would have quickly picked up on because she took him to Pride "just to experience new things, Danny!"

He confirmed Noir was bi two updates later and sat back with a smirk when all the comments started rolling in.

Noir's Double Life was his pride and joy. He thought people had to search for his fic, and no one besides his sister would ever read it. Then he made the mistake of writing in a new ghost- Penny Spectra- using her exact powers, thinking no one would recognize her.

What he forgot was that back before Danny kicked her ass into the ghost zone, was that she was a well-known school counselor. A miracle worker, they called her.

Because she always found the teenagers about to fall apart and "saved" them. She had made her way clear across the country, bringing to light issues parents and guardians had no idea their children were going through and getting them the help they needed.

Mr. Lancer had been proud of getting her to come to the school for good reason.

Most adults also didn't know that teenagers talk to each other or, like Danny, post online to vent. Her past victims- for they were victims as some had not been able to pull themselves from the darkness she plunged them into- had started a riddle trend about her.

People began to piece together that whenever she went young people became more and more depressed. They had no proof of course, so she became an urban legend, a demon that appeared as a woman in schools.

Like when a celebrity is turned into a meme for being a secret serial killer, no one takes it seriously, but they think about it in the back of their minds.

Danny just wrote about her with a far too honest retelling of what she had done and how he had found out she was a ghost. He hadn't realized that one of his readers would be one of the original responders for the old Reddit thread about the fact he was a past victim.

That same reader would later link his work for the thread- especially the chapter where she appeared- and everyone would agree that the real Penelope Spectra was a ghost.

And that would be read by Tim Drake, a young member of Riddit who always took mysteries to heart and knew what was real and what wasn't.

This sane Tim Drake would later present Jason to the fanfiction in an effort to tease him about someone adoring him so much they wrote a fic about it and Jason would surprise him with claiming to have already been following the story. \

Their bickering would grab the attention of Bruce, Zatanna, and Constantine, who were in the room next door talking about protection against the dead.

John will be alarmed to see how accurate the fanfiction writer's description of ghosts and King Phantom is, then even more alarmed to find that the writer knows about halfas.

Two days after he posted the newest chapter, Danny is hunted down by Batman to find the human with an insane amount of knowledge about the Infinite Realms and his second son's condition.

Danny would be busy trying to decide if he should give in to the idea of giving Noir a ship and who it should be with while his friendlier ghosts beta-read his work.

"Honestly, I'm a little flatter about how hot you made me sound. Noir definitely has a crush on James the ghost biker." Johnny says flouting to read over Danny's shoulder.

Kitty nods eagerly from where she is lounging on the couch. "I agree, James and Noir are meant to be Danny!"

[dcxdpdabbles]

Danny: I have a confession to make. I'm from a different dimension

Dick: I know

Danny: How?

Dick: Last February, I gave you a Valentine's Day card. You accepted it, then panicked when you saw what was on it.

Danny: You handed me an image of one of the most feared ghosts in the multiverse!

Dick: It was Cupid.

Danny: THE TERRIBLE

Dick: So am I right to assume there is no holiday called Valentine's in your dimension?

Danny: No, there is, but our symbol of love is a heart. You know, like sane people.

Dick: Why are you so scared of him?

Danny: He shoots you on sight! You're going about your day, fall in love by accident and then BOOM- dead! And if you escape him, Cupid the Terrible hunts you down for the rest of your life. All because you fell in love!

Dick: Wait, your Cupid hunts down people in love?

Danny: Yeah, what does your Cupid do?

Dick: He shoots you with arrows that cause you to fall in love. He literally brings the feeling of love.

Danny: Wow.....and your Halloween spirit? Is he sweet, too? Ours swings a sword of fear, and as soon as it touches someone, they find themselves trapped in their greatest fear.

Dick: Ohhhh, that's why you barricaded us in my room last Halloween.

Danny: No, that was because I saw Nigtwing sniffing around you again. He's a powerful ghost and my powers are a tad bit limited in this universe. I had to protect you.

Dick: You know, when you knocked on my door at midnight on Halloween, I thought you were there for something else.

Danny: What? Why? I was carrying wood planks to board the windows.

Dick: Sometimes a man can hope for something else

Danny: I don't understand the people in this world.

Dick: Its okay, I still love you

Danny, unaware he's been in a relationship for a year: YOU WHAT?

[okthatsgreat]

why are scissors packaged the way they are it’s like they’re taunting us. Oh wow this is such a difficult awful packaging to get through that seems to cause physical damage to your hands as some sort of sick self defense mechanic, if only i had something to help get through it, something sharp perhaps

[okthatsgreat]

what sort of sick twisted game is it trying to play here

[okthatsgreat]

LEAVE ME ALONE

[gertritude-art]

nightly spiral

[sigynpenniman]

this is my favorite fuckin comic ever I have never seen something capture the experience so well

[ace-disgrace-on-the-case]

There’s something so uniquely terrifying about memory issues. I feel like my self is slipping away from me.

[ace-disgrace-on-the-case]

Here’s the thing I feel like a lot of folks don’t get: I’m not trying to forget what you said. Honestly, I really tried not to. I can’t control what I do and don’t remember—forgetting things just happens. It’s annoying for you, I know, but for me it’s distressing as hell and when you make a big deal out of it rather than just reminding me you make me feel ashamed. I’ll remember that, at least.

It costs you nothing to be kind to people with memory problems. Please. It’s scary enough without people treating memory lapses as a personal failing.

[ace-disgrace-on-the-case]

Hey, reblog this version instead, please!

[alien-slushie]

Danny, age 18: *walks into school holding a baby*

Sam: You had a kid?

Tucker: Is it mine?

Danny, snorts and playfully kicks Tucker's shin: No, hes not yours. Hes not mine either. One of mom's old friends- Talia, or Tina? Something like that- couldn't take care of him anymore-between you guys and me, I think she escaped from a cult- and she asked mom if she and dad could raise him.

Sam: So why do you have him?

Danny: Sam after the last four, almost five, years of knowing my parents, would you trust them with another infant?

Sam: Fair point.

Tucker: So what's his name?

Danny: This is Damian, isn't he the cutest? Look as those pretty green eyes.

Tucker: Ugh look at his cute little grumpy face. Let me hold him.

Danny: *hands Damian to Tucker*

Sam: The teachers are okay with you just having a baby with you? What about after school? I thought you finally decided on a university.

Danny: There's only a few more months of school, so the teachers are fine with it. Then after graduation, me and Damian will be moving to Central City, my part time job is connected to S.T.A.R labs and they have a daycare thats willing to watch Damian during my collage courses and work hours. I thought this through Sam.

Sam: If you're sure.

Danny: I am. Besides, Damian is a little angel.

Tucker: Okay stop hitting my glasses please. *holds Damian away from him so he'll stop grabbing his glasses* Sam, you want to hold him?

Sam: No thank you. I don't like children, especially babies.

Tucker: *shrugs before passing Damian back to Danny, where Damian immediately calms down*

Danny: Come on, let's go to class before the halls get too rowdy.

Valerie: *gasp* Danny, you finally gave birth to our kid?!

Wes: Excuse you, Val, but thats obviously mine and Danny's kid.

Danny, exasperated and laughing: Ancients! I did not give birth to anyone's kid! I lack the proper organs!

[thelazydetectivecat]

toxic beauty

I always loved to think that Danny was very attractive and by very I mean it feels like you're hallucinating attractive.

The type of attractive that reminds you of being on a beach on a gray rainy day with a figure in the sea singing and not being able to look away once you meet the sirens gaze. The type of beauty that's pulling you in that you know it's dangerous you can't help but obey

people doubted and still doubt that Danny is the Fentons son. In the past they didn't believe in ghosts but they very much believed in sirens and were convinced that they stole Danny from the scene one day and somehow convinced him he was human.

Casper high though Danny may not remember it everyone in his school has suffered a great crush on him. However they found a solution. That solution being bully the siren so much so that you slowly convince yourself that it's just a loser.

It's a really effective solution once you think about it it really is! That way you will only have to think about the sirens social status instead of anything else. Ignore the sirens love for stars , ignore how cute and attractive the siren looks when he wakes up (don't ask summer camp and the boys had a saxuality crisis at 7:00 a.m.) , ignore the sirens pout every time they get displeased , ignore the fact that the siren is getting muscles. Ignore it all as it should be.

(and maybe sabotage the way they dress that also works)

It's easy to ignore the obvious when the siren themselves believes it. It's for the better really until one faithful day that everything had been ruined.

Casper high went on a trip to Gotham in hopes that some students would become interested in getting a job at Wayne enterprises and getting to know the different fields better.

everything was going perfectly fine. They entered the building and were looking around until they met HER. Bruce Wayne's only daughter.

Cassandra

She took one good look at Danny and had to go into in her eyes that could only be described as scheming. Quickly going ahead to talk to Danny and managing to slip them away as they hung out. Even Tucker and Samantha seemed offended and confused that their friend got stolen out of nowhere.

And oh ancients... Paulina was the first to face reality again.

Right on Cassandra Wayne's insta were multiple photos of the siren wearing sleeveless turtlenecks , gloves , military pants and high boots with his overgrown hair all down and a star piercing on his left ear...

But that's not all through Foley's cameras they discovered she was dressing him up and giving him a whole new wardrobe. She gave him white pajamas. WHITE PAJAMAS.

Normally that wouldn't be an issue considering they don't live with the siren however jazz is visiting for summer offering some college/university advice since they were about to graduate and they couldn't refuse. By the time they got there Danny would still be asleep only for him to eventually come down the stairs with a bed head still have sleep.

But it doesn't end there she gives them all sorts of clothes like a loose shirt with an open back perfectly highlighting a star tattoo no one knows Danny got and when with some black pants and belt and his hair half up looking like the relaxed son of an aristocratic family.

It kept going and Casper high knew this woman was trying to murder them. There is no other explanation for it. As they suffered in silence eyes glued to the screen unable to look away faced with a boy with piercing crystal blue eyes tan skin and jet black hair that you could swear you could see the void. Filled with a regret knowing they have no chance. Even Samantha and Tucker looked at a loss for words gaping at their friend

Meanwhile at the other side of Gotham

Cass: ooooh! Has anyone ever told you you look good in white? Thats a 100% your color! Have you considered working at Wayne enterprises as a model :3

Danny: *awkwardly laughs* stop it Cass! I'm blushing stop flattering me so much I'm not THAT attractive in order for you to make it your life's mission to fix my wardrobe

Cass: what nonsense! You're totally attractive in fact you're my younger brothers is type! Don't speak so lowly of yourself besides all of Gotham and window shopper freezed looking at you as if trying to distinguish if you're real or not! If it weren't for the fact they were in a trance looking at you I'm certain that people would flirt with you left and right and modeling companies would be begging for you to work for them.

Danny: *turns red looking at the window at the plethora of people staring at him gaping and looking down immediately* well they are going to be disappointed can't afford all of this either way if anything we should-

Cass: I have Bruce's credit card. Everything's on me now come on I have so many shops I want to take you to!

[queermania]

good news i'm the most fuckable person at this vehicular manslaughter

[queermania]

to answer all your burning questions:

1. yes, i saved him in my phone as Eric Vehicularmanslaughter when we initially exchanged info

2. yes, i'm aware it's only manslaughter if i died. i'm a ghost, bitch. boo!

3. yes, i have hEDS

4. yes, that shit still hurts like a motherfucker

5. no, i don't remember what joke i made

6. eric was very sweet and appropriately concerned after hitting me with his car

7. he hit my body, not my car

8. i turned him down because he was very young, like young enough that i'm not entirely convinced he's old enough to buy alcohol

9. if you are one of the people in the notes saying you too would have gone for it and you're old enough to both buy alcohol and rent a car in the u.s., feel free to shoot your shot. especially if you're inexplicably wealthy and like showering ghosts with loosey goosey joints in expensive gifts

10. i understand and respect that this is a ready-made fic prompt. go forth and make your blorbos kiss. tag me if it's sambucky. i want to read that shit

[just-ray]

The aura of this whole post is impeccable

[blignick]

[teaboot]

BESPOKE