Newborn ghosts are barely detectable, only the ones with the most potential are noticed. It's a survival mechanism. How they lived and died can affect how they form, but the largest factor is by what ghosts are around. Of course, me, as the author of this au knows this, but the ghosts only have theories on this initial stage
The second stage is when they form into something visible, but they're still quite malleable. They dont know much at this point. There's the basic information they absorbed in their fetal stage, but nothing past that. What they can do is instinctively pull at other ghosts' ectoplasm. The instinct is for small nibbles as theyre passing by. The problem is that most find these "child ghosts" annoying. They're rude and they can feel the pull at their ectoplasm
You can speed up their development into an "adult ghost" by feeding them a lot of ectoplasm at once. It's become standard to feed a wandering child ghost your spare ecto. Some couples adopt a child ghost and have them only feed on their ectoplasm- the most common way for ghosts to have children- but it's unheard of for a child ghost to not have someone artificially enhance their growth. There's rumors that Phantom didnt have any primary donors, but no one takes those theories seriously. He probably just formed in timbuktu and the insular communities are a bit strange...
One of the unique aspects of a half ghost is that their ghost is in a visible location from the start. In fact, they're the only reason there's any confirmed information on that initial "fetus" stage. It's just that Danny's the first halfa that wasn't already an adult before dying. The best way to explain his oddness is to first explain Vlad's formation
Vlad was a young adult who was hit in the face with portal energy. He was in the hospital for years, a place where a lot of people die, and where a lot of ghosts may visit. It was somewhat limited, but he got a varied amount of ghosts to initially form his ghost around, and him already being a human adult meant that there were few pesky hormones to affect his development. Vlad got the standard treatment. He wasn't specifically adopted by anyone, but he got a few ghosts consciously dumping ectoplasm/knowledge into him
Danny died inside that portal. He was filled with electricity and ectoplasm as a portal to the afterlife was opened on top of him. That's a lot of power, a lot of potential. Vlad died slowly, Danny was formed in an instant. Vlad had a constant flow of different ghosts in the hospital, for the first month Danny only has animal ghosts and the purified ecto from the portal
The problem is that no one can feel Danny pulling at their ectoplasm, and when fighting he's using more ectoplasm than he makes. He gets most of the ectoplasm from the portal, but it doesn't have a unique signature, so it can't help him develop into a child ghost. Wouldn't it make sense for his ghost half to take point from his human half? To slowly develop along with puberty? He's a 14 year old boy after all
Maybe a few wires get crossed and his human half gets a few ghostly traits, but that's not all that important. What is important is that all the ghosts reasonably assume he's just a sheltered adult- probably a bit of a jerk too. It's unthinkable for him to be a fetus. Its the refined ecto of the portal he feeds on, and it's that signature that they feel when they fight him. His ectoplasm feels empty, impersonal, and it freaks them out. A bit uncanny valley for them
When the ghosts fight Danny it feels like they're about to be the victims in a horror story. As he gets older and he becomes more efficient at only using the pure ectoplasm and storing what crumbs he gets from others, he starts to look like them. They see this thing that feels wrong, that's slowly trying to look like one of them, thats pretending to be them but isn't. They start to get more on edge and more hostile until one day- there's that final push
They can feel... a pull from the kid. Something about his form settles, finally looks right, and he's no longer such a threat. He's acting differently, which is unsettling only because it feels correct. The kid is drifting in a way that doesn't feel like it's just about him preparing for college. He's curious in a way that only a child is, but that has to be impossible
They were right. It is a horror story. They just didnt know who the victim was
Stalking through the shadows was second nature to him thankfully. He didn't know how the others would react if they saw him like this but he needed help to reverse whatever this was.
Maybe if he took out some criminals the other bats would realize he wasn't exactly what he seemed and prompt an investigation. Luckily for him there was an armored vehicle being robbed nearby.
He enjoyed the screams of terror let out by the two remaining robbers once they spotted him. Taking out the first few had been easy but now he needed to play with them until one of the other bats appeared. Jason was playfully dodged bullets, prompting one of the robbers to swear, "I was expecting sassy bats, not Tony the Tiger on steroids!"
"Forget the money man!" The other said as he rushed on top of a nearby dumpster "I don't wanna be eaten!"
Twack!
Dumpster guy went down with a thud as Red Robin landed nearby, bo staff at the ready. Great! Tim will probably notice the unconscious but very not dead people at Jason's feet...paws...and understand that Tigers don't just do that. Especially ones big enough to place a saddle on and ride like a horse.
Fortunately thats exactly what happened, unfortunately tim came to the assumption that Unnaturally large tiger + targeted attacks + enhanced intelligence = escaped animal experiment. It makes sense and Jason is mad he didn't think about it which lead to him having to run from Tim as his little brother tries to sedate him from a distance so he can take the giant tiger to the zoo.
A zoo! They were actually going to put him in a zoo! Jason whirled around, finding himself cornered by Tims gadgets and cunning, only for Tim to stop, appear confused and start looking for Jason even though he was right in front of him.
A tapping on his paw had him looking down.
There, next to the furry orange of his foot looked to be a liquid shadow with Lazarus green eyes. I can explain. The shadow said, but we need to get away from the bird first.
Once they were safe from the bats the shadow introduced himself as Phantom and revealed he had been cursed by the same person who cursed Jason and proposed they they worked together to remove thier curses and defeat the person who did this to them.
Jason had no objections and Phantoms powers were very useful, even if he was stuck as a liquid shadow. Jason's curse was difficult to break but they managed to get it halfway so where Jason could shift between man and beast like a werewolf, Phantoms wasn't so easy.
Phantoms curse actually removed parts of his spirit and embedded them into precious gems and jewelry across the globe. It sounded like a hassle but from what he gathered about Phanton was that he was a recently deceased teen and Jason wasn't about to just abandon him.
Aka Twilight Princess with a batpham twist
Also Damian is hellbent on adopting the rideable Tiger, much to Jason's mortification
