#Gotham is contaminated with ectoplasm like Amity | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

luxaofhesperides · 6 months

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Dancing in the rain ; requested by @wandixx!

He hadn’t been expecting the Signal to chase after him. It is, after all, well after midnight, and he had seen the vigilante out earlier during the day.

Maybe the Bats are understaffed tonight, he muses as he leaps over the rooftops, a wild grin on his face. Being on the other side of a chase is a lot of fun, he’s discovering. He can see why Selina enjoys it so much.

Though, it probably has to do more with who’s chasing her than it is the chase itself.

But Danny’s become a bit of an adrenaline junkie after a few years of being a hero, fighting ghosts and governments. He’s not a hero anymore, especially not in Gotham, but being Catwoman’s partner in crime is way more fun than being responsible for everyone’s safety.

It’s like he’s doing anything bad, either. Selina can steal whatever she wants; if they couldn’t protect things against her, then should they really have it? Danny doesn’t focus on jewelry or gems. No, he takes ghost artifacts or items contaminated with ectoplasm back to the realms where they won’t cause problems to any humans. There are enough ecto-contaminated people in this world, solely from Amity Park. Best not to let that number grow.

So here he is, leaping over rain-slicked rooftops and only using a little bit of flying to keep ahead, holding a cursed pocket watch that a ghost had requested he return to them, with the Signal chasing after him, disappearing into shadows and popping up unexpectedly.

“Stray! Get back here!” Signal yells, and Danny takes a moment to spin on his heel to face the vigilante to stick his tongue out at him, then backflips away.

“I didn’t even steal anything important!” he returns, tossing the pocketwatch in the air ahead, then jumps up to catch it and scales his way up to the roof of the next building.

“Seriously,” Signal says, suddenly in front of him. “Stop running and we can talk this out.”

“Woah!” Danny tries to get around him, trips over his own feet, and crashes into the Signal’s chest.

“Careful, there.” He looks up to see the Signal’s smile, and he absolutely can not be blamed for having his half dead heart skip a beat. He’s in the arms of a hero who’s smiling at him so sweetly, what’s a guy to do? “Ready to talk now?”

Danny goes intangible for a moment, smoothly sliding out of the Signa’s grip. “Nope,” he grins, starting up the chase once again.

The rain isn’t very strong, and the drops feel cool against his face as he runs, getting a little more air with each jump as he uses more of his flight to keep ahead. He can hear the Signal chasing after him again, heavy footsteps that start and stop unpredictably as he travels between shadows.

Just to be safe, Danny stashes the pocket watch inside his chest, leaving his hands free to grab onto the rough brick of the walls and scale them up, aiming to go higher and higher. Maybe if he finds a good building, he can dramatically fall off the edge and fly away invisibly.

“Got you!”

The Signal pops up out of the wall and grabs Danny, who yelps and tries to pull his arms away. The Signal is too strong, and his tight grip on Danny’s wrists is warm against the chill of the rain.

They stand there for a moment, just staring at each other as they try to catch their breath. And then, “Is that any way to treat a guy?” Danny jokes, trying one last time to pull his wrists free.

“It is when it’s you,” the Signal replies. “Man, you sure know how to run.”

“I’ll be sure to put that on my resume for my next heist.”

“Seriously, can we talk?”

Danny eyes him curiously. The other Bats mostly tried to take back whatever it is he’d stolen that night, occasionally trying to get information from him. None of them had outright asked to have a chat with him. The Signal at least has some manners, compared to the rest of him. There’s no harm in sticking around for one conversation.

It helps that the Signal is cute, especially when he had saved Danny a few weeks ago.

Sue him, he’s a bit soft on the Signal. Wouldn’t anyone be with their favorite hero?

“Alright,” Danny says, relaxing. “Go ahead. Talk.”

“Great! Okay, um.” The Signal bites his lip and Danny should really look away, but his eyes are fixed to his mouth. He doesn’t speak for a solid minute, during which Danny really begins to feel the chill of the rain. “Can I get less comments from the peanut gallery?” he says suddenly.

“What?” Danny laughs, confused.

The Signal sighs. “My comms are on. The others are being annoying. If they wanted to ask you questions, they should have caught you first.”

“Oh, protecting me from the big bad Bats? My hero,” Danny says sweetly, pretending to swoon. Except, the Signal follows his movements, releasing his wrists to catch him by the waist, holding him steady. Danny’s breath hitches, and from how close they are, he has no doubt that the Signal heard it. They freeze for a moment, then the Signal dips him like some fainting Victorian maiden.

“Well, I certainly wouldn’t mind sweeping you up in my arms.” The smirk on his face only lasts a moment before he grimace and says, “I shouldn’t have said that on open comms. Man, they’re annoying. It’s not my fault I know how to flirt.”

Danny…

Well. Danny short circuits for a moment, running the words over his mind again, then blushes so hard he’s sure there’s steam coming off his cheeks. “You’re flirting?” he squeaks. “With me?”

“Flirting,” a new voice confirms, making them both jump, stumbling against each other as Black Bat hops down onto their rooftop. “Both shy and silly. I’m better.”

“You can’t even ask out Spoiler,” the Signal retaliates.

“She can’t even WHAT?” Spoiler yells as she also vaults herself over the alley below to join them. “You want to ask me out?”

Though she doesn’t say anything, Danny can practically feel Black Bat’s glare through her mask. The Signal winces, then says, “Oops.”

“Man, you can keep yourself busy, clearly Sig doesn’t need backup,” Spoiler says. “I need to go on a date with Black Bat. The rest of you suckers are on your own!” And then she grabs Black Bat’s hand and grapples away.

There’s a beat of silence, then Danny and the Signal share a glance and start laughing.

“Well,” Danny says, “Good for them! Good for them.”

“They’re probably just going to Bat Burger.”

“And are you going to be treating me to a burger any time soon? I should be compensated for this conversation, you know.”

“Please, if I was taking you out on a date, it wouldn’t be to Bat Burger. I’d take you out dancing.”

It sounds like a date his dad would take his mom on. It sounds nice. Danny smiles and leans in closer to the Signal, taking hold of one of his hands. With the other, he puts Signal’s hand on his waist, then brings his own up to the Signal’s shoulder.

“Why not dance with me now?”

Danny leads them in a few clumsy turns of a waltz, silently thanking Sam for forcing him to take a few ballroom dance lessons with her. The Signal seems a little dazed, following his lead, and when he lightly squeezes Danny’s waist, he shivers.

Catwoman should be done with Batman soon. They had agreed to meet up at the newly opened Vintage Boutique in Diamond District, and he intends to beat her there.

Reluctantly, Danny pulls away from the Signal with one final spin, and hops up onto the edge of the roof. “If you can find me during the day,” he says, “Then I’ll dance with you again. See you around, Signal!”

And with that, Danny hops backwards off the roof, free-falling towards the ground before he lets gravity lose hold of him and slips into invisibility, flying up just as the Signal peers over the edge, searching for him.

Unable to help himself, Danny floats closer until he can give the Signal a quick kiss on the cheek, then flies off, grinning wildly.

He certainly can’t wait to see the Signal again.

Maybe if he hired a few guys to pretend to rough him up while Signal’s out patrolling…

Well, either way, this cat is already half dead so he can jump straight to satisfaction bringing him back. And, hopefully, back into Signal’s arms again when they won’t be interrupted by other Bats.

He’s already looking forward to it.

. . .

[send me a ghostlights prompt!]

#ghostlights #dc x dp #dp x dc #dcxdp #dpxdc #stray!danny #first time writing stray danny but i love him :) i think selina can make him worse :)#duke really worked overtime just to have a chance to flirt w danny #he heard that stray and catwoman would be out that night and suited up immediately like. dont worry guys i got stray :) yall can go now :)#thank you for the prompt!!#prompt fill #my writing

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flamingpudding · 11 months

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Sooo I had this idea most likely inspired by a bunch of other fanfics I read...

Follow up part: 2

Ghost kid in Gotham

The Beginning

So far Danny counted two times in his live that he had died or at least sort of remembered dying.

The first time he died, he had been eight and in an horrible turn of events was forced into a fight to death with his twin. All because Danny couldn't be like his brother. He couldn't kill, he continuously nearly fails his missions if it weren't for his twin finishing of targets that were supposed to be his. The league had seen him as the black sheep of the family. He was no assassin material yet his twin brother still protected and adored him. But then their grandfather saw how he became a weakness for the true heir. All because Danny couldn't get his shit together during one mission they were sent on together. Resulting in his twin sustaining an injury.

So Danny was sentenced to death in an obvious fight the entire league knew he could nore would ever want to win. The fight had drawn out his twin at least attempting to get him to fight back to show their family that he was worth keeping by showing his skills, even if Danny couldn't kill, he could still fight excellently. But Danny didn't play along, instead he let his brother kill him with the final blow. He didn't even bother attempting to dodge.

His first death had probably been very cruel towards his brother, but at least it meant that his twin, Damien would live on.

Though he didn't expect that right before his body could grow cold forever, that their mothers still had somewhat of a heart and dunked him into the pits and revive Danny the first time. (Only later through Clockwork did Danny learn that he had been dropped in a pit of contaminated ectoplasm which probably was also the reason he even survived - well sort of survived - his second death)

He did come out as a feral kid though he barely remembered his time at the Chicago Orphanage. His former parents the Fantons had told him that he had been a feral kid the first year they had him. Apparently for the longest time Jazz had been the only one that could touch let alone get in hugging distance of Danny without getting bitten. Jack liked to show off the bite marks as lovely memories his sweet little Danno gave him the first time he hugged eight years old Danny.

The second time he died, he had been 14 and to this day he still thinks that a dare was one of the dumbest things one could die from. Of course his adopted parents weren't normal. They were ecto-scientists, studying ghosts or rather ecto-entities. And of course they were treading the line of mad-scientists with an entire lap in the basement and ecto-weaponry laying out and about throughout the entire house.

So when his parents build a portal to punch their way into another dimension that didn't work his friends just had to dare him to get in there to take a photo - or had it been a video - of it.

Who would have guests that the on batten was inside the damn thing instead of outside and that his stumbling and catching himself on the damned button would just so happen to punch open that portal with him in the middle of it all.

Let him tell you, getting electrocuted was not a fun way to day, nor is getting revived yet again by ectoplasm that was spewing out of the portal and mixing with his DNA. At least he got some cool powers from that accident and did not go feral like he did the first time round.

Danny shuddered, imaging if he had gone feral back then with Phantoms powers. Good he truly would have been the menace Amity still couldn't decide if he was or not.

Either way that were the two time he counted in his death tolls so far. Of course there were a couple of other times. Like that one time Sam made a wish. But he didn't really count them since well they didn't have any sort of big change that followed them.

But right now. He was probably close to his third accounted death. Strapped to the table. His chest pretty much sliced open and he was pretty sure that one of the tubes on the table across the room still contained his liver his Mo- Maddie had taken out and the other his arm that had been cut off by Agent K to test his healing.

Well he should have known better than to let his sister convince him that his adoptive parents would turn on him. Looks like that with their working with the GIW and him on the table they had finally broken the last bits of trust both Jazz and him had in them.

Danny had long lost the energy to plead with them, that it was still him. At least he would be a full ghost once the bloodless and missing limbs did him in. Really his human body wasn't as resistent as his ghost body. But at least staying in human form would protect his core. Really the worst that could happen was his human side dying right now.

Letting out a mute sigh Danny closed his eyes letting exhaustion take his mind into oblivion. The only sad thing was, that he never got to find out how his twin Damien was doing and if he was still with the league…

TIME OUT

When Clockwork first had set the path for this timeline he did not realize how damaging his king's parents' reaction was. As he looked at his king strapped to the table, cut open and even missing limbs, he for a brief moment regretted that he only ever watched the timelines and sent others to intervene. Rarely did he himself interfere but this time he had to. Otherwise his king would lose the part that made him the kindest among all the ghosts in the Infinit Realms.

Carefully he removed his king from the chains holding him down and took him with him. Away from the horrors he was facing and away from the Family that was supposed to preserve his king's kindness and humanity.

It looked like he had made a grave mistake but it was something that was still possible to fix. The timeline had yet to turn into a doomed one. And so Clockwork decided to take his king away and bring him to a place that would have a close amount of ectoplasm as Amity had as well as one of the strongest Spirits in existence to protect him until he was ready.

Looking down at the teen in his arms, Clockwork also decided that his king did not need the painful memories his supposed family gave him. A blue light engulfed his kind as Clockwork let his powers work. Turning the clock back only for his king. The missing limbs returned and his open wounds closed as the body in his arms shrunk.

In mere seconds the Master of time was holding his king at the age of his first death in his arms, yet the state was not the same. The scars of his second death were still present, telling that his powers as halfa were still present in his king's small bodies. With this his king would be ready to be dropped off to his next family. Hopefully Clockwork wasn't making a mistake again but keeping his king truly safe this time.

TIME IN

Lady Gothem was not impressed with the Master of Time as that old man dropped off the body of their king with little to no explanation. Last she knew her king was supposed to be a teenager, a halfa so powerful that the Infinite Realms were supposed to become a much safer place than they ever had been under any of the previous kings.

All the Master of Time had offered her was a cryptic - and honestly when was that old cogwheel not - message of protecting his king and returning him to his family. Really the next time she they meet she would not miss the chance to lecture Cronus. But for now she studied the young sleeping king in her arms, noting the similarities he held to the youngest of her knights.

Ah, so that was the family the old cogwheel meant. Well it looked that her knights were not only hers alone now but would also protect her king now. But who to bring him too, she mused. Surely her dearest among them would have no qualms taking the child in but he was currently not in their home. The little knights of other haunts have requested his help and called him away to that watchtower.

Mentally the city's spirit went through all her knights until her thoughts stopped by one in particular. The knight she was going to request help with from her king anyway. What better way was there than taking care of two problems with one action. He would surely take that child to the others as well as receive her king's help with his little contamination problem.

With her decision made, Lady Gothom made her move.

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notedgyanymore · 1 year

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Here's an idea that I had after making this post, just to be clear, you don't have to read my old post to understand this one.

Basically this a typical “Danny runs way to Gotham to escape from his parents and the government” but here's the twist the Fentons don't think he is a dangerous monster who killed their son, no, they think Danny is only dangerous to himself, they see his ghost self as a lifelong sickness that affects the body and the mind and the GIW pretty much thinks the same way. In fact, this started when Vlad's secret was revealed, and he got institutionalized because the court ruled that Vlad couldn't be responsible for his actions as he was influenced by a ghostly obsession, and therefore he should receive treatment instead of punishment.

Shortly thereafter the GIW created screening tests to find and help more people who suffer from similar ectoplasmic contaminations, with their test were able to detect mild curable cases that are just temporary to lifelong chronic conditions like halfas or liminals, it was in one of those tests that Danny got caught. After an evaluation, the GIW concluded that Danny was mostly just a danger to himself and since his parents were specialists in the field, it was best to leave him with them.

Since this all happened, Danny has lost most of the freedoms he once had, he is now homeschooled, has to constantly wear devices that restrict his powers, can't use his ghost form or fight to protect Amity Park, has to go to a psychologist every week and a psychiatrist every month to manage his “ghostly impulses” and gets minor “protective tasks” to safely indulge in his obsession which he knows are completely meaningless. Danny is also strictly forbidden to go outside without supervision in fear that something like a ghost attack might trigger his obsession, so now he can only hang out with Sam and Tucker in his house or talk to them on the phone likewise he is banned from entering his parents' lab not because it's dangerous mind you but because there are things there that might upset him as full ghost still have no rights and are fair game to torture in the Fenton household.

Needless to say there are plenty of reasons as to why Danny ran away from home, and yet when he first got to the city of Gotham he didn't expect to get any help much less from a vigilant who is unaware that he is also in danger of losing his freedom and autonomy but hey Jason can't say he expected to get a new brother either, so you can say that they are both lost when it comes to what the future holds.

#danny phantom #dpxdc #dp x dc #dc x dp #It may not look like it but this was very difficult to write #So please try to appreciate my efforts #Also should I number my dpxdc prompts?

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strong-with-the-sarcasm · 9 months

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DP x DC AU idea:

Regent!Jazz

Having been ecto-contaminated since conception, Jazz is the most Liminal being in the world, which has her develop a proto-core. As in, death has about 30% claim on Jazz and every year it grows stronger the longer she lives above the portal.

Can Jazz walk through walls, disappear and fly? Sorta, occasionally, and no. It depends on how much Ecto she has in her system, otherwise she’s just got her inherent strength.

Jazz inherited the Fenton Law Loophole tendency.

She swaps out her psychology books for books on Realms Law, spends a week locked in her room with them in fact. It concerns Danny and co., because what is Jazz up to?

Jazz claims regency thanks to three factors:

1: Danny unconsciously views her as a third parent thanks to her raising him in a neglected household. She got him to fourteen before she looked away for a minute, ok?

2: Danny is a minor in both human and ghost culture, therefore he’s baby and needs time to grow up without bearing kingly responsibilities, right?

3: As mentioned before, Jazz is the most Liminal being in the modern age, with a slowly developing proto-core. This allows her to be able to not only survive the Infinite Realms on a long-term basis, but able to step up as Regent at all.

————

Sam and Tucker, while Liminal too (thanks to them getting flooded with it with Danny’s death) still have a ways to go in terms of contamination- give it a few more years in Amity Park and they’ll start to show more symptoms of death-claimed, though they’ll never be able to surpass Jazz. Not even Jack and Maddie Fenton could ever say that, considering they wear Hazmat suits daily that has limited exposure, but were also adults when first contaminated- the ecto would take a lot longer to bond to adult molecules than that of a just-conceived child.

Maybe Jazz even leeched off some of Maddie’s contamination in the womb? Whose to say.

Where does DC come in?

Perhaps the vivisection route? It’s a tried and true method of getting Danny to Gotham, but I raise you- Jazz essentially “kidnaps” Danny, taking him away from his haunt once she is Regent.

Gotham is a city drenched, drowning, in tragedy and therefore natural ectoplasm for a powerful Liminal and Halfa to survive on.

Lady Gotham welcomes the two eagerly into her city and directs Jazz to the soon-to-form Lazarus pit- corrupted ectoplasm, but nothing Danny can’t filter out with time, it’ll heal him and whatever happened to his core after being ripped away from his haunt.

It does cause a rift to form between the two, but Jazz is firm in staying in Gotham. Right on the edge of Crime Alley to be specific.

Here we can slide in Vigilante!Jazz, who is pissed off at the world and needs to work out some excess energy. Enhanced bone density means that Jazz doesn’t have to worry about screwing up her knees with a few ‘superhero landings’.

Liminalality means that she can sense the weird guy in the Red Hood whose territory she keeps crossing into while beating the crap out of some criminals and escorting the night workers home.

Revenant!Jason…

….possible Anger Management/Hardcover pairing?

[Im thinking about continuing this, but idk. I do have like a page written out with Regent!Jazz]

Masterlist

#dp x dc #jazz fenton #jason todd #danny phantom #dp x dc au #I want an anger management ship so badly

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currentfandomkick · 8 months

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Fan concept to incorporate however you want:

In comics i’m pretty sure there’s a lazarus pit in the batcave, and others in gotham. A high concentration of lazarus water per square foot. Add to that gotham’s various contaminated waters from various toxins and gases on top of usual run offs, and there’s a high chance everyone in gotham is contaminated by all of this.

Add in the popular head cannons and partial fanon of lazarus water = (in some form) contaminated or corrupted watery ectoplasm.

And if we go ecto contaminated enough = liminal…

Then gotham city is full of liminals, the most notorious being a handful revenants with questionable cores (Solomon Grundy and Red Hood off the top of my head), with Damian’s Robin a liminal bordering on halfa if you go the ‘raised next to and put in the Pitts’ route.

Hell if you want, most of the Batfam can be partially ecto contaminated if not liminal (minus Duke, i feel like he’s the only starting to) but no one notices because its gradual and they assume its side effects from the 10,000 + polluntants in gotham.

You can have anyone from Amity Park enter Gotham and go ‘huh, edgy aesthetic Amity.’ Then go ‘oh, sick liminal… which dork back home knows how to fix this?’

If you want Tucker can be sending Sam updates on Gotham’s liminals (including Rogues) which Sam is helping the ecto terrorist (League of Assassins in a lot of older portrayals) and Danny vibing working for (DC bigshot or group of your choice) as an engineer who says he’s bad at coding when no one has broken his code yet as ‘its standard back home’ and baffles his employer

Dani can see Gotham and just. Vibe as a feral child who tries to help the other sick liminals with mixed results. I say let Harley snag her as her sidekick during her anti-villian days.

Jazz can be attending university and has to explain drinking filtered ecto to her dorm, only for a lot of them to start managing things better emotionally and combat wise, but now have the urge to Kick Ass as a way to Make Friends. Batfam investigate her a s a cult leader when really all she’s doing is using a clean ecto filter and teaching her classmates to do the same. Even teaches them how to make them thanks to Danny breaking down his rigs to her and leaving her repair instructions in case hers breaks early.

If you go baby Ghost King Danny, he can find out about Gotham and do a ‘oh, a fucked up version of Amity Park. Neat!’ see the Joker and go ‘Fuck this guy,’ and appear by pulling Joker into the ghost realm for his trial with a note that reads “sorry for missing another Liminal City. I’ll do better as king and handle those breaking Ghost Ettiquette myself. My bad. Still new to the ‘King of the Infinite Realms and all bonded to it. So liminals fall in, didn’t think there were more besides Amity. A branch of the Council of Observers will be sent to evaluate which liminals are sick, which are dealing with unsustainable or harmful obsessions, which liminals need relocation to handle their obsession in a better suited environment, and which ones are uneducated on liminal health.

Don’t worry, I stole some time to make sure i did all the paperwork before taking this guy. He’s the type of ecto entity who consumes attention, fear, and souls, which is Pretty Bad and that last one is an auto-execution. So i should manage the normal ‘visiting of the realms and introduction to’ spiel after we can make sure you won’t be in danger from ghosts that forget mortals dont shrug off being dropped off a few cliffs and having a two ton rock dropped on them. I may send some ambassadors from Amity to help you adjust since it was a pain for us too. Fyi if anyone tries summoning the Ghost King and expects Pariah, i win by conquest ten years ago and only JUST got to looking into liminal areas. With cheating by stealing time. If you have any questions, look up the Manson family, Amity Park, Ohio. Sam can explain better than me, and her parents somehow ended up on the mortal side counsel.

#dpxdc #long post #dp x dc #danny phantom #gotham is limina #liminal gotham #fic prompt

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welcoming-grey · 1 year

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So, lets imagine that Monster (the drink, lol, i forgot to mention that) gets really fucking popular in Gotham. Like, a lot. It's desired by a mix of both villains and heroes due to its the amount of energy it provides the body and it's property to act like a life-saver (literally). Nobody has been able to trace where exactly its produced from (Batman has tried to find the source and has tried to ban it but it just somehow keeps appearing and he'd rather stock up than lose it to his opponents).

Skip to Danny (after becoming the Ghost King) trying to convince his parents that after discovering that they are selling ectoplasm to Gotham as an energy drink that it is a bad idea, not knowing that his parents had been doing it from That Day. His parents argue that its basically holy water, ensuring that people aren't getting overshadowed (Because people literally turn liminal due to drinking it).

Monster is banned in Amity Park because Wes has convinced GIW and the citizens that they're basically drinking Phantom's ghostly fluids. GIW has disposed of the 'contaminated', they are less in number because not a lot of people trust the Fentons works. This explains why its citizens keep getting overshadowed.

Selling Monster is one the main funds resources that the Fentons use for their projects. And they're only selling place is of course Gotham. They had been contacted by a kind man by the name of CW who was willing to transport it to Gotham and get their money in exchange for keeping the portal in their basement and in promise of not bringing it out of their house.

This is basically Clockwork's plan B if push comes to shove to prevent Phantom from potentially getting attacked by his parents when he does reveal himself to be their son. So by turning Gotham liminal he's basically making it Phantom's hideout from his parents, ensuring that even if ghosts enter Gotham they won't be able to make it out 'alive' because of the bats. And also knowing Bruce Wayne, Danny will have a new family in no time.

PS: Amity Park knows about the existence of Gotham, Gotham just doesn't know about Amity Park. Its just the Fentons that don't know where this 'Gotham' is, but hey, they are getting their money, so who cares? Amiright?

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bongo-clash · 2 years

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Peacock Au Part 2

Okay so!!! Part two of this post about the DPxDC eldritch Danny fic that I'm now calling the peacock au lmao!!!!

(Chapter two of the fic under the cut) (Edit: You can now find part 3 Here!!!)

When the feeling of being just slightly dispersed settles onto the outer layer of his skin while he’s lying in bed, Danny knows what’s about to happen.

The thing is, he’s in his pyjamas. Sure, he could just stay in his human form for the summoning- because he’s done it before and it went fine- but he never knows who it’s going to be, and being spirited away to some college students’ dorm in his pyjamas is embarrassing. And sure, having something appear in the circle in the first place is probably enough that they’re not paying attention to what he’s wearing either way, but he refuses to bank on that. So, with a sigh, he allows himself the transformation, his human appearance falling easily away.

It always feels more natural to be a ghost during rituals, probably because they’re summoning a ghost and not a human, but still, it’s different. He feels that little bit looser, maybe even a little more himself, though he guesses being a bit more glow-y is just nice generally, and the space decals that tend pop up as part of his whole light-show-summons are a homely touch. On the other hand, it does make it harder to take stock of his surroundings when he finally fades into view wherever he is. He can make out vague grey walls and floors, but that’s about it.

Well, that and the man in front of him. Blond, taller than him if he wasn’t in the air, somewhere past his forties, wearing a beige trenchcoat and looking oddly terrified. Danny can see his hands shaking just a little. Does he know this guy from somewhere?

“Uh, dude?” Danny calls, going for something light. It’s annoying being dragged from the comfort of his own home, definitely, but this guy doesn’t look like some cult member, and if he’s alone and this scared it might mean he really needs the help. Danny can sympathise with doing stupid things in stupid situations. “You good? You’re not looking too hot there.”

He knows he’s using ghost speak, but it feels weird to use English in a summoning like this, and fortunately, Danny spies a translation sigil wrapped around the inner centre of the circle, so he knows it should be translating right back to the guy in front of him. Very handy for language barriers, he’ll admit- and it’s working, too, if the reply is any indication.

“I was told you could- you could help with the pits?”

His voice is gravelly, and he can’t tell if it’s because he’s nervous, doesn’t speak much, a smoker, or all three. Either way, probably not Danny’s business, and right now he’s just curious about what the man’s talking about. “Pits? That’s kinda vague, man. What pits?”

“The Lazarus pits to, uh, to be specific. There’s a huge one cropping up under Gotham that’s not supposed to be there, and the local- I mean, the locals are getting antsy about it. I… heard you could take care of ‘em.”

Lazarus Pits. He’s heard of those, Clockwork’s mentioned them a couple of times. They’re natural portals that open when enough energy is built up, and end up stabilising into the ground instead of collapsing to help seep ambient ectoplasm into the air. They don’t work as actual portals after that, but it’s vital to keep at least a few around no matter how corrupted they can get through human interference, because it keeps the balance of both realms steady. Having too many around isn’t a good thing, though, and especially not in populated areas. It can cause ecto-contamination, which is a lot more dangerous when you haven’t been around it since birth (or if you aren’t from Amity).

Speaking of which, it certainly is stinking up the place, now that he’s aware of it. Or maybe that’s just Gotham, he’s heard a lot about-

Hang on. Gotham. Weird potentially magic dude. He knew he recognised him! That’s John Constantine! Danny’s heard of John Constantine! Sam’s got her fingers in enough credible occult spaces that they’re at least vaguely aware of some of his endeavours, but if he’s in Gotham then that probably means he’s doing something for the Batman and, wow, Danny totally would’ve tried to go more professional for this if he knew this was going to be his first encounter with the Justice League,of all things.

Well, he guesses it’s too late now. At least the guy’s not being too weird about it or anything. “Man, yeah, I’ve totally got the smell stuck up my nose now that you mention it. Do you get that as well? Since, y’know, you’ve probably dealt with a couple ghosts.”

“Uh… no, I don’t think so. But can you fix it?”

Dang, the guy seems stressed about this. Maybe he just doesn’t like being in Gotham territory? He’s pretty sure he’s heard of Batman having a thing about magic. “Sure I can.”

“…Will you fix it?”

Danny figures that if they already know about his status through his Zone maintenance duties, and he’s going to be helping the Justice League, he might as well show off a little bit. Assenting with a hum and trying not to grin, he puts his hands to the floor, and lets his ectoplasm reach out to the source of the smell, sending a flash of light across the ground as it goes through. When it twinges back a response, he closes his eyes, and his energy curls around it, threading through like needles to seams, and pushes it shut with a gentle nudge. Luckily, it hadn’t been around for too long- barely fully formed and not even corrupted by human contact yet- it would’ve be a lot more difficult if it had.

He lets his hands rise up again after a long moment, looking to Constantine for a reaction. He can’t quite gauge what the man is thinking. “Alrighty, that should’ve done it.”

“Uh… cheers?”

He’s about to say something along the lines of ‘no problem’ or ‘you’re welcome’, but then he remembers he should probably warn him about the aftermath so he doesn’t freak. “The pit shouldn’t come back again, but just as like, a PSA: you might see more shades than usual hovering around for the next while. It shouldn’t be too big a deal so long as you leave ‘em alone, though, so don’t worry about it.”

For all that Danny’s trying to be considerate here, Constantine doesn’t look very considerated. “Can I- uh, yeah, great advice. ‘Appreciate it. But, can I ask just, y’know, what you are? Or not.”

“…Dude, what d’you think I am?”He replies, thoroughly bemused. Isn’t this guy supposed to be one of the League’s paranormal experts or something? He really should be able to recognise a ghost by now. “I keep your Lazarus Pits in check. You know, the pits of the dead?”

Okay, maybe a little rude on his side, but he thinks Constantine’s expression is a bit of an overreaction; he can see the sheen of sweat across the man’s forehead reflecting the light of the sigils. “Fair enough! Forget I asked- cheers for sorting out that pit, though. Uh, don’t suppose you’ll just let me go on my way or anything now.”

“Well, I mean, this was a favour for Batman, right?” He asks blithely, pointedly not paying attention to the way the man’s face keeps contorting. He swears Sam said he was more stoic than this. “I’m gonna go- ‘cause I’ve got things to do- but I guess if something comes up I’ll come to you? Or Batman, since this is his city and all. Don’t worry, I’ll let you know.”

Figuring there’s nothing left to be said, Danny lets the return sigil on the edge of the circle activate and punt him back home, wheezing a half-sigh and arching his back once the wispy image of wherever they’d been recedes. He probably looks exhausted after all that- no matter how recently formed the pit was, it still takes a little strain, and he’d just been about to sleep before he got summoned- but looking in the mirror on his wall for confirmation, he doesn’t find his usual face. Something twinges against where his spine should be, confirming its own previously unnoticed presence in the mortal plane.

…He didn’t go ghost when Constantine summoned him, he used his true form. That must be why he looked so nervous that whole time! And, man, ghostspeak never translates over quite right in this form, either- the Ancients use a different dialect to original ghostspeak- the man probably wasn’t hearing what Danny thought he was at all. What if the only reason he wasn’t attacking was because he was terrified? What must Constantine have thought of him?

Crap. He has to fix this. How is he going to find him?

#Peppered in some of my own worldbuilding about ectoplasm/the pits in DC there but Still-#I just thought it'd be Really Funny if Danny had absolutely no clue what he was saying was coming across so terrifying #Like- sure he Can say that kind of ominous stuff on his own- but I think it'd be really great #If no one knew when it was a translation error or if he meant it #If there's any mistakes in the please be kind I forget how to read when I'm editing-#Chapter 3's already done so I should be posting that either tomorrow or the day after!!#It'll pretty much be the conclusion to this whole thing but I've been talking to Bones and she's got So Many cool ideas #That I really want to make a part 4 for because they're really fun!!!#Either way this has been really nice to do!!!#dp au #danny phantom au #dp fic #danny phantom fanfiction #dpxdc #danny fenton #danny phantom #Bongo's Aus!!!#Bongo's Writing!!!#peacock au

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im-only-here-for-the-fandom · 8 months

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What Makes A Liminal City

in a lot of stories i see gotham city written as having a high ecto concentration or low ecto concentration but no one really elaborates on why that is, so this is my take on it.

Gotham city is not liminal but it does have a city spirit (lady gotham), while Amity park is highly liminal.

ghosts are created due to many different reasons, (emotions, ideas, concepts), ectoplasm based ghosts and spirits are stronger, but that does not mean that ectoplasm is necessary to create ghosts, magic based ghosts do exist ex:deadman. which means that even without a high concentration of ectoplasm it is very possible for gotham to have a city spirit.

most would assume that a place that has constant death would be high in ectoplasm, but i believe that when someone dies a small amount of ectoplasm is used from nature to send that person to their designated afterlife/the afterlife they believe in because ectoplasm comes from the infinite realms, while the creation of an ecto-based ghost requires a much larger amount of ectoplasm.

so, due to the high death rate in gotham there is not enough time for the natural ecto to replenish before another person dies, even with the lazarus pits(im not too sure about those) there is barley enough ecto to send people to the afterlife, and while emotions do generate ectoplasm, positive emotions turn into ecto very fast while negative emotions take a long time to dissipate, they linger (thats why places that experience bad things give off bad vibes) and gotham doesn’t have enough positive emotions.

in other places it’s in balance, with places that are mote remote and have less people (like the woods/cabin in the woods) having more ecto, and those having more people (cities) having less ecto due to more people dying.

amity park is the exact opposite of gotham, being high in ectoplasm because of extremely low death rates( the only reason its not nonexistent is because people still die due to old age and illness), it has a low population where everyone knows everyone else, positive environment, and the ghost portal, means that amity is the most liminal place that can exist on earth.

so, question: what about jason todd in this situation?

jason died in a remote warehouse so he satisfied the ( remote place, less death=more ecto, high emotions) conditions to create a ghost, then he was moved to a place low ecto ( gotham) while he was forming a ghost, so it became stuck in his body causing to revive, the low ecto environment not allowing him to recover his mental facilities, then he was dumed into the contaminated lazarus pit, those that get pit rage usually don’t survive the madness, and it is only jason moving to a place that didn’t have contaminated ecto(gotham) that he didn’t get worse, but he also didn’t get better because there was no pure/natural ecto in the air to filter out his bad ecto, if he was in amity instead he would have recovered naturally without the need of interference on his own in a few months or years depending on how bad it was.

#dp x dc #dp x dc crossover #dp x dc prompt #dp x dc au #dpxdc #dp x dc fanfic #dcxdp #dpxdc au #dc x dp au #dc x dp #dc x dp fic #dc x dp crossover #i think of this instead of sleeping #i hope you like it #do with this information what you will #ectoplasm lore #ectoplasm

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elizabethemerald · 1 year

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In her Arms

Jazz had been on the move almost non stop ever since she had heard about the explosion. Her parents were dead. The portal in Amity was destroyed. The city officials said that Danny was killed by the blast too. But he wasn't. She knew he wasn't. She didn't need the boo-merang to tell her that Danny was still out there some where. He was alive, and she would find him.

She had only stopped moving long enough to pass out in her car for a few hours during the drive to Gotham City. She was following a faint trail, a mere pressure in her mind that was leading her closer and closer to where her brother was. Whatever ecto contamination her parents had done to her over the years had given her a connection to her brother and she would follow that connection to very jaws of hell itself if she had to.

She was running on fumes now. So was her car. She had made it into Gotham and the pull brought her to one of the poorer neighborhoods. In fact it looked like it was the poorest and most crime ridden part of the city. Graffiti covered every wall, multiple burnt out wrecks of cars littered the sides of the streets.

Jazz slammed on the breaks and opened her car door. She was next to an abandoned and fenced off lot and her brother was here. She could feel him. She dashed tears and sweat from her eyes, slung her weapons over her shoulder and tied her hair back. When she left her car she left it with the door open and the key in the ignition. She doubted it would start again and she didn't care enough, all she cared about was her brother.

She crouched next to the fence and the leaped, putting her ectoplasmic strength into the jump as she easily cleared the twelve foot tall fence. She landed on the other side in another crouch, her eyes zeroing in on the woman standing in the middle of the lot.

The woman was easily as tall as Jazz and she was 6'8" thanks to the ectoplasm in her veins. The woman had long black hair and was built like an absolute tank. She was wearing work out clothes that showed off all of her muscles. If Jazz were in a better mental state she would be jealous.

But all she could focus on was the toddler chair just past the woman. The chair that held a small black haired, blue eyed boy that was her entire world. Danny. He was younger and smaller than he should be, but she would recognize him anywhere, and she had enough experience with ghostly shenanigans to recognize a simple deaging. She could deal with that later, now she just needed to recover her brother.

"Give him to me!" Jazz demanded as she stormed closer.

The beefy woman was between her and Danny, she couldn't risk angering her, but all the words were trapped in her mind. All the deescalation techniques she learned, all the psychology she dedicated herself to, was all trapped and stuck. The woman turned to face her and Jazz pulled out her creep stick, her hands shaking.

"Give him to me." She said again, the words feeling like nails dragging past her throat yet it was all she could say.

"I'm afraid I can't do that." The woman said. She kept her hands open and spread apart. Some small part of Jazz's mind said that she was trying to keep her body language open and friendly. But that part was overshadowed by her fear and her exhaustion.

"Give him to me!" She shrieked, wondering if she should be coughing up blood with how difficult the words were to drag out. She dashed forward and swung her creepstick. The woman block and Jazz swung again and again. Each blow the woman either blocked or dodged without any visible effort.

"You have skills sister." The woman said and she went on the attack.

Now Jazz was getting driven back across the lot. She was clearly out matched in every possible way, but she couldn't back down. That was her brother. Danny. Danny. Danny. That was her brother. That was her brother.

The woman twisted her body and with a powerful kick the creepstick was sent flying across the yard. Jazz didn't give her a moment to gloat at disarming her and instead pushed forward with her bare fists and legs, managing to push the other woman back one step at a time. Still she looked calm and confident as if she did this everysingle day.

Jazz ducked under one of the woman's blows and managed to pull her knife. She trust the blade forward with all her might, putting her full ectoplasm enhanced strength behind the blow. And watched in horror as the blade shattered against the woman's shoulder.

"Well struck!" The woman seemed genuinely impressed. Then she twisted and almost without effort threw Jazz to the ground.

Jazz gasped in air as she stared up at her, then past her to where her brother sat in the chair, watching like this was all an exciting movie.

"Please." She forced the word out, like broken glass down her throat. "Give him to me."

She begged. Desperately. The woman startled and pulled a cord from her waist. With a flick of her wrist the cord wrapped around Jazz's body.

"We'll soon find the truth of this. Why do you want the boy?"

The cord glowed around her and even past her pain and her fear and her exhaustion the words came.

"He's my brother."

She gasped the words out.

"He's my brother."

Her throat was closing and her breath was coming faster and faster. Her own fist collided with her forehead.

"He's my brother."

She sobbed the words out, her vision fading as she hit herself again. A high pitched keening noise pulled itself out of her, no more words were coming, just her raw expression of grief and longing and she hit herself again. She smacked her fist into her forehead and when she went to do it again, she felt a tiny hand wrap around her wrist.

"No Jazz! No hurt. No hurt."

Danny's little voice. Just like when he was first a child and would stop her from melting down. When her parents ignored her being touch adverse, when they made her speak even when she was nonverbal, when the noise of the lab wouldn't stop and pounded into her head like a jack hammer.

She didn't try to pull her arm out of his hand but she hit herself again with her other hand. She could hear Danny begging her to stop, but she couldn't, she couldn't, she couldn't. She went to hit herself again and a strong, calloused hand grabbed her wrist, than just as gently as if she were something precious and valuable held her other hand to keep keep her from hurting herself.

"Now, young one, there is no call for that."

"Jazz it's ok." Danny whispered, because he knew the loud voices bothered her. Then he started humming, so softly she could barely feel it, yet his humming vibrated with ectoplasm and carried down all the way to her infant ghost core.

He was hugging her and holding her and humming to her and slowly, muscle by muscle her tension unwound. She could think again, she didn't think she would be able to speak yet, but at the very least she could pull her wrists from the gentle hold of the other woman and wrap her arms around her little brother.

She held her brother, her Danny and sobbed and sobbed. She gone through too much. She had bee told she had lost her parents that everyone she loved, including her beloved brother were dead, her home destroyed. Then she had driven half way across the country following a desperate thread to try and find him only to be beaten by the first stranger she encountered. But at the very least, she had her brother back in her arms again. Just like she was supposed to.

This technically takes place in my Son of the Red Hood AU, but probably won't be for a few chapters. However this was running around my brain and chewing on the walls until I got it out. Jazz and Danny are to me Autistic and ADHD solidarity and I wanted to portray Jazz having an extreme meltdown because of the stress she's been under. Can you guess who her opponent is?

#jazz fenton #danny fenton #dp x dc #son of the red hood #diana prince #wondy was baby sitting the baby king #and suddenly she's sparing with a clearly exhausted and mildly superpowered girl #she took it as a fun training exercise #while Jazz thought she was fighting for her brother's life and had lost

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the-witchhunter · 5 months

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Question for the DPxDC crowd

what do you guys actually consider liminal? Like, I genuinely don't know anymore

because early on it was pretty much just Jazz having grown up with ectoplasm in the house for years and in her food, which makes sense, and it was an extremely rare thing

then it got expanded to Sam and Tucker

Then members of the Bat crew that got resurrected by a Lazarus pit(and Dick for some reason? He's never canonically died guys...)

Now it seems to be the entirety of Amity Parkers, All the Bat clan, half of Gotham, Half the Justice Leage, the entirety of the League of Assassins

is it just having come into contact with ectoplasm/Lazarus Pits? Prolonged exposure? Because it's starting to feel like everyone is liminal besides the guys in white for some reason

Like you guys have started using Liminal to basically replace the word "Ecto-contaminated" There is a canon word for the thing you guys have started using liminal to describe

#dpxdc #dp x dc #dp x dc crossover #it just feels like a cool idea got watered down #everybody is liminal #tim hasn't died guys #Dick hasn't died #it used to be just make people a bit off and unsettling like a cryptid #not a superpower #idk maybe i'm just burnt out on it #like ghost king stuff #legit i have massively reduced my fanfic consumption because of how often some tropes are tossed in randomly #and i get distracted because it doesn't make sense in context unless the thing actually means nothing at all #and it's enough to ruin otherwise excellent fics for me #it's Chekov's gun that never get's fired #more like referencing another fic's chekov's gun #yeah i'm probably just burnt out and am nitpicking a minor bit of bad writing that keeps getting repeated

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piedpiperart · 10 months

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Phantom in Gotham 4

Chapter 3

Danny wasn't sure if he had told Red Hood too much or not last night. Did he need to know about the ghost zone? Probably not, but Danny knew what it felt like to not have anyone guide him on the development of his ghost powers. Danny felt a sort of bond with the Hood. They were similar in the way that they'd sort of come back to life with a bunch of unexplained changes with no idea about the whole ghost community they were now a part of. Though, Danny guessed Red Hood wasn’t really a part of it anymore, but still. Stuff like that can be hard to adjust from, and having someone talk them through it is helpful.

How long had the Red Hood been living with contaminated ectoplasm? Danny thought, shuddering. He at least hoped the guy would feel a bit better now that the rage was gone. Even Danny had trouble controlling the Ring of Rage, he wasn't sure how a regular human could deal with that kind of anger on a normal basis. A thought came to him about how Red Hood killed a bunch of criminals in the news he’d seen a while ago, and then it kind of made sense.

Danny sighed, laying his head down on his desk for a nap. He'd snuck into the school early to take a nap at his desk before classes started, like he usually did. It was better than sleeping in the pizzaria for sure, even if he didn't have anything comfy to lay on. At least he never got cold, he thought.

Danny was a little glad he was able to talk to Red Hood about the GIW, considering the guy was more of an anti-hero and less likely to follow the government's orders. He hoped the guy might be able to investigate a bit, or help him in case Danny ever got captured by Agent K or his parents. Again. Danny wasn't so sure anything would come of it, but he figured someone with ectoplasm contamination should at least be aware of it in case he put himself on the GIW's radar. Danny shivered at the thought, pulling out his homework instead to focus on something other than experiments on his ghost friends and himself.

By the time people started shuffling into their seats, Danny was doodling designs for ghost gear. Like the Specter Detector, he wanted to reverse it to hide a ghost's signature instead. He and Ellie would be able to hide from the GIW and any ghost-weapons that relied on those kinds of sensors. Since he was in Gotham, the GIW's scanners back in Amity wouldn't reach him. Probably. He'd be out of their range, or at least he hoped so, for the time being. If he went back to Amity, having a way to hide his ectoplasmic signature would come in handy.

Danny perked up from what he was designing when Tim practically fell into the seat next to him, nearly spilling his coffee. "Dude, you okay?"

"Long night,"Tim grumbled, rubbing his eye. He looked over at Danny with poorly concealed concern. "You okay?"

"Yep!" Danny beamed back at him, yet Tim could tell his eyes were full of something like anxious nerves and a bit of hope and fear about his interactions with Red Hood last night. "I'm more worried about you, did you even get any sleep last night?"

"Few hours,"Tim said, sipping his coffee. "Was just working on a project. Oh." Tim stopped, looking at Danny with tired eyes. "What's that you're working on?"

Danny blinked, looking down at his notebook. "Oh, nothing important. Just designing an invention I was thinking of."

Tim made grabby hands for his notebook and Danny stifled a laugh but handed it over. Nothing on it specifically mentioned ghosts, so he figured it wouldn't arouse any kind of suspicion. "This is pretty advanced." Tim said, scanning over the blueprints. He squinted at Danny. "Why the interest in hiding energy signatures?"

"U-uh,"Danny stammered, "My... parents, are inventors. Just sort of picked up a few things from them. It was just an idea I had." Danny waved off, and accepted the notebook back from Tim.

"Really? What sort of stuff were your parent's working on?"Tim asked, genuinely curious.

"They made pretty much everything,"Danny breathed out a laugh, "Like, from electrified nets to toasters that shoot lasers for home defense kind of things, so they weren’t taken seriously very often.”

"Huh,"Tim thought, sipping his coffee in thought.”What are they working on now?”

“I’m not really sure, I don’t live with them anymore.” Danny said, turning back to his desk. He rubbed at his chest absentmindedly, feeling phantom pains from the scars his parents gave him. Tim narrowed his eyes at the answer, but figured he just didn't want to talk about it. He stared into his cup of coffee, thinking absently of how many hours of sleep he got the night before and if that was affecting his ability to communicate. He had the sudden urge to bring up ghosts but pushed that down.

“I don’t live with my parents anymore either,”Tim offered, and Danny gave him a sympathetic smile.

“Adopted? I heard a little bit about the Waynes, but I didn’t want to pry,”Danny asked. “My friend Tucker is obsessed with Wayne Tech.” And he was pretty sure Sam had kept track of their environmental progress, but he didn’t know much about that since she usually just ended up talking about Poison Ivy.

“Yeah,”Tim inclined his head. He thought about what Dick had told him about Danny and fought to keep a frown off his face. “What about you? Who do you live with now?”

“Uh, just me right now,” Danny winced, rubbing the back of his neck. “My sister helped me get an apartment around here to stay in while I go to school.”

Tim frowned. He’d forgotten about Danny’s two sisters. One was in college, and the other one seemed younger. Was she still staying with Danny’s parents? Why was Danny lying about the apartment? “Oh yeah? Why’d you choose Gotham Prep?”

This made Danny light up.”I wasn’t really paying attention when my sister explained it to me, but I can see now why she wanted me to go here. The astrology and science programs are the best- way better than back home. My old school was a lot smaller and underfunded, but we only had one class of twenty or less per grade. Gotham Prep is just- huge.”

“What school did you go to before?” Tim pressed. He could look into a school without using the batcomputer.

To Tim’s dismay, Danny waved him off. “You wouldn’t have heard of it. Small town, you know? We didn’t even have to wear uniforms.” Danny added, tugging at the collar of his own with a wince.

“You’ll get used to it,”Tim laughed. Or so he thought. Tim was used to it, but as far as he could tell Jason never liked the uniforms. Dick maybe, but still.

“I hope not,”Danny grumbled, making Tim smile. “So what’d you choose for the chemistry project? I have to say, physics and mechanics are more my expertise.”

“Yeah, I finished it this morning,”Tim said absently. He was running through their conversation and making notes on the potential red flags. Knowing Danny, there had to be a reason why he was practically homeless yet attended a private school. Not to mention what his sisters were up to. Tim had a suspicion that his older sister was involved a lot more than the parents were. “I chose kryptonium.”

“Huh,” Danny nodded, resting his chin on his hand. “I chose Aluminum. It’s good for a lot of mechanical engineering.” Danny let out a breath, mumbling,”And since ectoranuim hasn’t been discovered by the whole world yet,” under his breath.

Tim squinted,”What?”

“Nothin, just lamenting the lack of knowledge we have for other possible elements in different realms or on different planets,”Danny explained, then started a rant to cover up anything about ectoranium.”Like Kryptonium, basically. Who knows what other things are out in space. There could be a bazillion undiscovered elements out there.”

“I’m pretty sure the Justice League is responsible for at least 8 new elements,”Tim nodded. Not mentioning the ones they kept under wraps from the general public.

“Yeah, but you never know what the government is hiding,”Danny scowled. He looked like he genuinely disliked the government, which, Tim could agree they weren’t great on the best of days. Especially since he found out about the anti-ecto-acts that affected Jason and Phantom.

“Woah, what do you have against the government?” Tim laughed. Danny only scowled more.

“I think they get away with too much. Easily corrupted. You know, the usual,” Danny scoffed. “Not like I’m a conspiracy theorist, but still.”

‘What, you think they have some sort of Area 51?” Tim asked. Of course, Tim knew exactly what was in Area 51, but he wasn’t going to say anything.

“Maybe not, but something like it, sure.” Danny said, taking a breath. He turned to face Tim with what looked like false cheer. “Why, don’t you believe in cryptids? I mean, if aliens exist, why not?”

“Like ghosts and stuff?” Tim smiled. “Yeah, I believe in ghosts. We should go to a haunted house sometime.”

“Wha- you believe in ghosts?” Danny laughed. Tim smiled softly at the sound. He couldn’t remember the last time Danny had laughed. It was nice.

“You don’t?” Tim raised an eyebrow at him, amused.

“Yeah no. Bigfoot’s probably real though,”Danny nodded. Tim couldn’t help but notice the way Danny’s bangs fell in front of his eyes, and had the urge to brush them away himself. He had a sudden flashback to Dick’s sly smile when mentioning Danny and felt heat on his cheeks. “My goal in life is to meet Mothman.”

“I thought your goal in life was to go to space,”Tim shook his head fondly, trying to dislodge the sudden gay thoughts that overtook his mind for a moment. Maybe he needed more sleep, he thought.

“Okay, my goals are to go to space and meet mothman,” Danny relented. He glanced at Tim with a glint in his eye before adding,”You think I’ll find Mothman in space?”

“Wh- no, why would Mothman be in space? Wasn’t he seen in the middle of the US?”

“Maybe Mothman is from space. Might be more of him out there. I could be the one to finally bring him home, where he belongs.”

“Danny no.”

“Are you saying I shouldn’t launch Mothman into space?”

“I wouldn’t trust you to be launching anything into space, much less a person.”

chapter 5

#phantom in gotham #dcxdp #dpxdc

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inthememetime · 2 years

Note

DP × DC but it's a tired and burnt out Danny that makes landfall in Gotham, in this AU Danny is a halfa but it is his sister that plays the role he does in Canon and he only got his powers via ectoplasm contamination. He got burnt out acting as his sisters occasionally sidekick and her alibi in regards to their parents, so after he finally graduated from Casper High he opted to find himself while Jazz joined the Justice League.

So here we have a severely overtired and burnt out Daniel Fenton working at a local Lexbucks Coffee Shop when out of the blue he gets involved in the usual Gotham drama that results in a drive-by shooting wherein Danny gets shot. Danny, being a Halfa, gets up despite having been visibly shot in locations that would be fatal to anyone else but for him it's nothing and he goes back to work.

So begins the interest in Gotham's newest criptid; The Undead Barrista.

👀👀👀

(Lmk if you'd like to read this on my A03, and/or a version from his coworkers POV!) Ok so I did a fic!

Length: short boi. Save about 10-15 minutes.

Summary: see ask above. PLUS Danny sasses Gotham's Rogues Gallery into submission and finds out he really wasn't as useless as he felt.

Danny was second; he was the second child. The second smartest child. The second best as dealing with people. The second one to DIE and get superpowers.

At first, it was exciting! Phantom and Wraith, superhero duo of Amity Park! But Jazz- or Wraith, when she was in ghost form- had the ability to make people feel safe. To calm down situations before they ever started.

Danny had the ability to tear enemies to shreds, destroy infrastructure, and scare people.

Even Sam and Tucker agreed, although not in so many words. They didn't need to; after Dan, after they knew what he'd probably become, things really changed. He was watched, less to make sure he was safe, and more to make sure he didn't become Dan.

When he started sympathizing with that Fruitloop, Vlad, he knew something had to change.

So he flew up, up, into Earth's orbit, so he could look at the planet below. He didn't know how long he stayed there, but when he saw the sun set over the Himalayas, he felt something in him... settle, somehow. And he came to the realization he needed to leave.

It wasn't their fault- his sister, Sam, Tucker. He was the worse liar, so their parents suspected him of everything. He dealt with ghosts better than people, so Wraith was more trusted. As they aged, and Wraith looked the same but older and Phantom started looking like Dan- well. It wasn't the people of Amity Park's fault, either. Besieged by monsters, who would want to rely on one?

He got his things and left. He left a note saying he needed a fresh start, and then took off. He didn't leave the name of the city he was moving to. He didn't know.

That was how he became a barista at a Lexbucks in Gotham with a tiny loft apartment. And for the first time since he was 15, he was happy. Really, truly happy. He made friends in an astronomy club, and got together every other Friday withe people to watch old movies.

He was about to start a management program at Lexbucks. He would be 'needed' by Clockwork every Monday for an unknown amount of time (it was hard to tell time when CW paised as needed. Sometimes Monday lasted weeks, if he thought it was warranted.)

Clockwork being Clockwork, that sometimes meant he needed to solve some ghost issue, or fix a paradox, or come over for dinner, or take a vacation. (Was there a portal in his closet? Yes. Yes there was.)

He saw Frostbite once a week too, Gotham being closer to the Far Frozen, and was learning Greek- both ancient and modern- from Pandora.

He was finally going to ask out Eduardo from the bookstore across the street today.

That meant, of course, he was shot right outside his apartment. Danny left for work around 3 AM; his apartment was pretty close to the edge of Crime Alley, he was the store opener and they started serving customers at 4 AM. A match made in hell.

He heard the gunshots before he felt them, and reflexively turned invisible to change into Phantom. The drive by shooting ended as quickly as it began, leaving Danny to curse and change his shirt. Dammit.

Ah well. Gotta love Tuesdays, right?

Next Tuesday was when Condiment Man walked into the Lexbucks. Probably to try and rob it, but it was difficult to understand over all the giggling from his regulars.

"Bring Gotham to-"

"Sir, this is a Lexbucks. Please just order your coffee, tea, other drink, or something to eat."

Condiment Man gaped for a moment. "I- I don't want coffee. I want villainy."

He nodded. "Fair. But this is a Lexbucks. No villainy, just coffee, tea, sodas, food. No evil available except the evil inherent in corporations."

"I. Um. Ok?"

After a moment, Danny cleared his throat. "So about your order?"

"Um. Well. Can I order you to join me in my quest to bring Gotham to its knees?" He asked nervously.

"Kinky." He said, and Condiment Man sputtered. "But no." His calm demeanor changed in the blink of an eye. "Get your hand off the trigger for that mustard right now, or you'll be cleaning every inch of this place with a toothbrush until it sparkles!"

Condiment Man yelped and left. The locals- regulars and newbies- started laughing. He was pretty sure somebody started crying. His tips were glorious.

Maybe Tuesdays weren't so bad after all.

XxXxXx

"I got a hit on Danny!"

Jazz spun around. "Really? You're sure, Tuck?"

"About 50%, the video is pretty grainy. But you tell me somebody else who deescalates villains with sass."

"Where?"

"That's the problem. They were using a VPN. It's somewhere in the US, probably Gotham, Metropolis, or League City- Gotham Rogues get around sometimes."

Jazz's face started to fall. "Tucker, thank you, but- it's been 5 years. Are we sure his face didn't totally change? I mean, remember Vlad's before and after?"

He sighed heavily. "Jazz, we failed him. I failed my best friend. I missed that he was hurting for 3 years before he ran. No matter what that note said, I was probably part of the problem. Give up on him of you want. But I'm gonna keep looking."

God, those notes had been like kicks in the teeth. If it was Vlad, he'd say it was orchestrated. But it was Danny. He very much did not blame them. He didn't want to go. And what was carefully not said, but pieced together when they compared the note left for him, Sam, Jazz, and the elder Fentons was they were the biggest reason he left.

XxXxXx

"I, the Baffler, will bring chaos and confusion to Gotham's streets with your assistance, Undead Coffee Person!"

That was, oddly enough, better than Inviso-Bill. Still. "Hey man, this is a Lexbucks. And I have a name."

He seemed delighted. "Wonderful! What is your villain name?"

"No, no, no villain name. I'm not a villain. Just a barista. My name's Jack. What's your order?"

The baffler seemed. Well. Baffled. "But aren't you going to join me in my life of crime?"

Danny sighed heavily. "Dude. I just wanna pay my bills. Coffee, tea, what do you want?"

"You can pay your bills with crime!"

The Baffler seemed so honestly pleased it was hard to get angry. Just a big guy in a dumb costume, and Ancients he missed his dad. But then he shot the cash register. "See? Crime!"

Danny snarled and, quick as a blink, The Baffler's hamds were frozen to the counter. "You have ice powers?!"

"And you have dumbass powers, you knockoff Riddler. I'm calling the cops."

XxXxXx

"You must be truly desperate to come to me for help," Vlad said with amusement plain on his face.

Sam narrowed her eyes, and Tucker scowled. "Yeah, well, we need untraceable cash, and you're the kind of guy to keep that on hand."

"And why do you need it?"

Sam grit her teeth, but replied, "let's just say if we find what we're looking for, the number of halfas might be back up to 4."

His eyes flashed brightly. "Well, then. How much do you need?"

XxXxXx

"Together, we will bring Gotham into the next ice age!" Mr. Freeze roared.

Danny narrowed his eyes. "Doctor, this is a Lexbucks. What do you want to order?"

"You, too have powers of ice! Together, we can bring Gotham into the cold!"

He sighed. "Ok. So frozen. Small, medium, or large?"

"I- I am ordering destruction, not coffee!"

Danny pointed to the menu. "Do you see destruction on the menu here? No. No, you don't. Your order?"

He gaped. "Chai latte? Mocha cappuccino? You seem like a smoothie kind of guy, want one of those?"

Mr. Freeze cleared his throat. "What kind of smoothies do you have?"

XxXxXx

"Are you seriously going behind my back with Plasmius?"

Wraith stood, arms crossed with a scowl. "Oh back off, you're nowhere near as scary as Phantom. Or even Skulker." He snapped.

Batman cleared his throat. "I'm told you have information about an incredibly dangerous illegal meta in Gotham?"

Sam shook her head. "I wish I could say I couldn't believe this. He's your brother."

Jazz swallowed. "You don't even know for sure if this is Phantom. This could be a legitimate threat."

"Every time I start to wonder why he left, all I have to do is remind myself about-"

"Sam."

"He's our best friend, Tucker! And she just might've gotten him thrown into Arkham, because Batman doesn't believe in rehabilitation!"

And another argument began.

XxXxXx

"I'm so sorry, Jack. I really like you, I do! It's just..." Eduardo trailed off, shaking underneath Danny's jacket.

"It's ok. You didn't sign up for getting kidnapped by the Penguin in a sick job offer."

He smiled a little shakily, and Danny hugged him tightly. "I'll see you around, ok?"

"Thanks, Jack."

Why the hell was he so broken up over a guy who didn't even know his real name?

XxXxXx

Thursday began at the sight of the Joker prowling around. Danny let his jaws drop and released a hiss that made fully grown ghosts back the hell up, following it by the unearthly rattle he learned from Fright Knight.

The Joker backed up. Swallowed. Put on his trademark grin, and stepped back in. Albeit a little further from the front counter. "Now, now, kid, I'm a clown! Kids love clowns, yeah?"

Another hellish hiss echoed from behind the Joker. He paled, then stiffened as a massive blue hand was on his shoulder. "Perhaps this isn't the best place for you."

The Joker laughed shakily. "Hey, pal, I'm-"

Plasmius' glowing eyes flashed, and the Joker's started glowing red. The clown's face fell slack. "This isn't the best place for you."

"This...isn't the...best...place....for me." The Joker slurred.

"Leave." Commanded the vampire ghost.

The Joker staggered out drunkenly. Plasmius turned his attention to the counter. "Can I get a large black coffee? With a shot of espresso, please."

Danny cocked his head and tried not to laugh at Kristen's face when the fruitloop sat next to her. "Sure. Kristen?"

She looked at him, wide-eyed. "He's not going to hurt or overshadow you. Right, Plasmius?"

"Of course," he agreed magnanimously.

Plasmius drank his coffee at the store. He bought a blueberry donut. Gave him a $500 tip. "The number hasn't changed. Call me, and we'll see about moving you before Batman and his friends crash the place."

"I can fly, you know."

"He has multiple jets. And besides, from what I've heard, Wraith is helping him track down the big, scary meta."

"Thanks for the warning, Plasmius. I'll think about it."

The elder halfa nodded and left, phasing through the door.

Jazz was hunting him. Jazz was hunting him. His sister was- it wasn't fair. He left her the entire territory of Amity Park. She had the undivided love and attention of everyone in Amity Park. Inside the roll of $100 bills was a business card.

He pocketed it, and yet another super came in. Plasmius was right. They were hunting him. Red Robin frowned at the menu.

"Hey, do you still have the mint hot chocolate?"

"Yeah," he said quietly. "Small, medium, or large?"

"Large, please." Red Robin waited in silence while his drink was prepared. "So, Jack Walker isn't your real name."

Danny shook his head. "Nah. If you're going to arrest me, might as well just call me Danny."

He observed him carefully, then nodded. "I'll see you around, Jack. Try to keep out of trouble."

XxXxXx

"He isn't a threat!" Tim snapped.

"You deliberately disobeyed me! We agreed not to approach the person who can use mind control!"

"You agreed, B. Wraith, just leave him alone, ok? He just wants to make his coffee and leave every day."

"Is he my brother or not?"

"Does it matter? He left." Tim snapped. "That guy is just trying to make a living. He's not going to hurt anyone who doesn't start trouble."

Jazz embraced both Sam and Tucker, feeling real, true hope for the first time in years. "It's Danny! Guys it's Danny, we can bring him home!"

"None of you are leaving until we can bring him in for questioning."

Jazz's face hardened, then she agreed. That was alright. She had a secret weapon. Two of them, actually.

XxXxXx

"Jack, you've got people asking for you."

Danny groaned.

"Sorry Jack, you're the one who made the rule about people in weird suits with guns."

"Yeah, fair. Thanks."

He stepped out behind the counter, and froze. "Danny?"

He swallowed. Blinked to make sure he was seeing what he thought. "Mom? Dad?"

For the first time in 5 years, he was embraced by his parents. He didn't feel bad about the tears. He couldn't. "Let's go home, baby. Let's go home."

"I can't. I- I'm not..."

"It's ok, Danny. We know now. About Phantom."

"I'm so sorry we made you feel your only recourse was running away."

XxXxXx

He had started to get the idea Jazz might be hunting him in a violent way. The only violent thing was the force of her hug, and the way her nails dug into his shoulder to keep him close.

Danny couldn't quite understand her over the blubbering, but that was fine; he had always been a sympathetic crier. Although the way all of the bats, Constantine, and Superman were shifting awkwardly, trying not to watch them while watching them, was pretty funny. It got worse when Sam kicked Batman in the knee and joined them. Then there was Tucker, and his mom, and- his dad was squeezing them tight enough to pick them up a few inches.

It took a ridiculous amount of time to get them all to stop crying- and Danny included himself. He had a good 5 years of believing he did nothing but harm to his human(ish) family to cry over.

"So just to be clear. You are not a villain."

"Yep. Used to be in the hero game, even."

"And you're not going to start being a villain."

He chuckled. "No, I won't."

"For now, your stay in Gotham is fine, though you should start using your legal name. If you don't like Danny Fenton, you can always legally change it. Can we call on you if we get a ghostly threat closer to home?"

"Absolutely."

"Wait! Danny, you're going home, though, right? With us?" Jazz asked hopefully.

"I'd like to visit," he said quietly, "but Jazz- I scare humans. Pretty badly."

"The ghosts negotiate with you, they listen to you! And people- look, now that Phantom's not there stopping fights by talking to ghosts before they start, or helping the new dead solve their murders- well. Phantom has been missed."

"Jazz, you do all that too. And you calm humans down way better than I ever have, so-"

"Danny," Tucker interrupted, "please, buddy. You don't have to stay, just come for a week. Things are different now. Promise."

And. Well. Even if they were wrong, he missed them. So much. "I can do a week."

#condiment man #the baffler #vlad masters #plasmius #sam manson #tucker foley #mr. freeze #halfa!jazz #batman #the penguin is referenced #the joker was not prepared for 2 halfas #red robin #tim drake #danny phantom #dp x dc #Danny deescalates using sass #long post #30 minute-1 hr read

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thebucketpail · 8 months

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When You Accidentally Kill a Clown pt 11.

Cw. Drugs and Scarcrows fear gas.

Pt.1 pt.10 Ao3

---------

It was a beautiful day in Gotham City. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, the wind had picked up the previous night and had blown the sea breeze in, making the air somewhat more breathable. Danny and Jason had even planned to go on a picnic at the park that afternoon. Yes, everything was great.

That is, until the city was put on lockdown due to Johnathan Crane being found missing from his cell at Arkham Asylum, canceling not only Danny’s, and every other student’s, classes but his plans as well. And as the topper on the melted ice cream sundae of a day; Danny was now experiencing probably the worst period cramps he’d had in the entire span of his existence. Something he attributed to Gotham’s less than stellar air quality.

So yeah, Danny wasn’t having a good day.

He couldn’t decide whether the worst part about it was that the dorm building was packed with students who seemed more than at ease with the lockdown and seemed more interested in finding every possible way to make Danny’s headache worse, or the fact that he’d run out of ecto-infused snacks. Maybe it was the Snack thing. The people were only an issue because of the snack thing.

Not long after the accident that Danny had realized, while his parents’ blatant disregard for lab safety had rendered almost all the food in their house inedible for regular human people. The ecto-contaminated food did wonders in not only boosting Danny’s energy, but also acting as sort of a pain relief where medicine tended to fail. It was like if drinking twelve cups of coffee was actually healthy for the human body.

Ever since, Danny had made it a point to keep a steady supply of ecto-infused snacks squirreled away wherever he could stash them. He had been meaning to restock the supply in his dorm but had gotten a little… distracted. He didn’t even have any vial of pure ectoplasm- which if drunk like a shot could heal any particularly bad injuries- lying around because as annoying as Tristan was, Danny thought that giving his roomate radiation poisoning wouldn’t be such a good idea given the city he was in.

Now a simple solution to this dilemma would be to just make a portal to the realms and travel to Amity that way, no harm no foul. The problem arose with finding a place to make said portal. Tristan adamantly refused to move from his bed, which ruled out just portalling from their dorm. The Halls and Bathrooms were populated by untold amounts of student sheltering in place, and on top of all that; there were guards posted at the entrance to every building on campus. A precaution taken due to Gotham U being one of Cranes favorite places to go fuck shit up after a breakout. Suffice to say; Danny was trapped.

As he doubled over to clutch at his abdomen, Danny thought over his options. Climbing out the window would probably be the worst idea. If Tristan didn’t stop him then the guards two stories directly below the window would. He briefly re-entertained the idea of opening the portal in their room and hoping Tristan was too engrossed in his phone to notice, but portal making was a lot of things, cool, mentally draining, useful, but one thing it wasn’t was discreet, so that thought was quickly discarded. That left either finding a secluded broom closet (unlikely) or hoping the roof was available (Slightly more likely).

He chose the slightly more likely option.

It took a bit of effort to drag his pain ridden corpse out of bed, but Danny got there eventually, despite the stabbing pain in his side. He grabbed a water bottle off the floor and muttered some half hearted excuse to Tristan who didn’t even look up from his phone - again Danny considered just portaling from there.

“You do you man,” his roommate said as Danny shambled out the door.

The halls were buzzing with various conversations. Someone had even pulled out a portable speaker and was blasting music down the hall. Stepping around various board games littered throughout the hall, Danny made it about halfway to the stairwell before getting stopped by some of his classmates.

Miranda and Jaime - if his albeit fuzzy memory served him correctly- were heading a debate on whether or not the fuzzy images from a recent mission to Venus proved that sentient beings had at one point inhabited the planet, or if the “structures” were just naturally occurring land formations. It was an interesting debate, both sides were making really good points, and Danny considered staying until a sudden flare of pain reminded him of his goal.

Right, Amity.

The stairwells were much the same as the halls if not louder. It was a relief once Danny stepped out into the cooling fall air, the din of the crowded dorm getting cut off as the door closed behind him. The sun had just begun dipping in the sky, casting a warm orange glow across the generators and ac units and a breeze rustled through his hair. The half ghost could almost feel the comforting stickiness of the Infinite Realms’ Ambient ectoplasm on his skin.

Maybe if he hadn’t taken a moment to appreciate the roof’s silence he could have made it there. But as it were, Danny was not alone on the rooftop.

“Well, well, well, what have we here?” The voice was raspy, as though the owner made a habit of gargling thumbtacks, or screeching about becoming a god. Danny froze as his eyes locked on its source. Fuck.

He could barely think as Scarecrow stalked toward him. On one hand; he couldn’t let Scarecrow get inside the building, that would undoubtedly result in casualties and Danny had friends in there. But on the other hand; Danny was in no shape for a fight that wouldn’t end in the rouge's immediate demise, and he didn’t need the Bat on his ass for totaling another of Gotham’s crazies.

His thoughts were sluggish and by the time the imminent danger had registered; Crane had already bridged the distance and had sprayed something gross in Danny’s face.

“You will be the first of my soldiers, boy, and you will help me bring Gotham to its knees. But of course every great leader instills fear into the hearts of his subjects.” Scarecrow then proceeded to laugh maniacally as one does when they are a supervillain, but Danny hardly heard him. He was too busy floating.

Danny had only gotten high once. It was sometime in sophomore year, around the time the bullying eased up and a good portion of the school was singing his praises for finally decking Dash during a particularly bad week. Someone- Danny couldn’t remember who- had dragged him to a house party. Beyond tired and stressed to hell from the relentless barrage of ghost attacks plus a crazed up plot from the fruitloop, he had been dead on his feet, literally and metaphorically, the whole week. So when a stranger offered him a plastic bag full of pills, he took them.

The high hadn’t lasted long with his metabolism, but for a few amazing moments, Danny Fenton was walking on air. All the stress and pain that had plagued him all week was washed away in a wave of overwhelming calm.

Scarecrow’s fear gas felt exactly the same way. Just with the added bonus of hallucinations.

Danny blinked the spots out of his eyes as the toxin raced through his system. He could feel his senses dulling and was vaguely aware of the pain in his abdomen dissipating. Something bright flashed in his peripheral and he thrashed around to look at it. His movements felt slow but floaty, like he was moving through water, and sure enough; once he looked down he confirmed that he was in fact floating.

That’s not right, Danny thought. He couldn’t be floating, what if Batman showed up? He hadn’t told the stabby baby ghost that he could fly. What if he got in trouble?

Danny screwed up his face in concentration as he focused all his effort into lowering himself back to the ground, but his body stubbornly remained several feet in the air.

“Fascinating,” Scarecrow muttered, drawing Danny’s attention back to him. “My toxin has never had this effect before. You wouldn’t perhaps be a meta? We don’t get many of those here in Gotham. I wonder- tell me boy, what do you see?” Danny rubbed his eyes, trying to focus them on the gangly mess of fabric and straw before him. What did he mean ‘what did he see’? Sure things are a bit fuzzy but- Then there was that bright flash again, this time Danny managed to catch a glimpse of bright orange hair before it disappeared behind an AC unit.

“Jazz?” he asked, perplexed.

“Who is Jazz,” the Sack man asked, a bit of curiosity hiding in his voice.

“ ‘is my sister,” Danny mumbled, voice coming out slurred and sluggish, which probably wasn’t good. He turned back to where Jazz was walking out from behind the unit. “What’re ya doin’ ear?”

“I’m not actually here baby brother,” She said, rather Jazz-like, “I’m a figment of your imagination brought on by Scarecrow’s fear toxin.” So apparently that wasn’t Jazz. But it looked like Jazz, and it talked like Jazz. And there’s that thing people say about ducks so how could this not be Jazz. Not-Jazz seemed to pick up on his confusion because she moved closer, outstretching her arms to Danny, who reached back but only became more distressed as he couldn’t seem to reach her. Not-Jazz looked at her hands sadly before letting them drop to her sides. Danny let out a small whimper.

“Look Danny, it doesn’t matter what I am,” she said, “you just have to make sure Scarecrow doesn’t get in that building.” Oh, Danny’s eyes widened, Maybe Not-Jazz was his subconscious telling him what to do. That did sound like a very Danny thing to say.

Wait, The half ghost frowned, something not clicking, Who’s the Scarecrow again? OOOOh right it’s that Sack guy that’s been talking to him for a bit. Can’t let him get inside. Okay what’s the plan. Danny turned slowly before locking his eyes on something. The door! Can't get in if the door’s locked. Need a distraction, He thought.

“What’s that!” Danny shouted, pointing at something behind the Scarecrow’s head before bolting for the door to the roof. However it seems he forgot he was still floating and thus moved in much the same way an intoxicated goose crosses the street; ungracefully.

“Awww, Kitty, look at Babypop! He’s learning to fly.”

“Aww, they grow up so fast, seems like it was just yesterday that he was chasing us with a soup thermos.” The apparition wiped a fake tear from her eyes as she watched on, distracting Danny enough that he slammed face first into the metal doorframe.

“Ember?” he asked, nursing a bruise, “Kitty? What’re you doin’ here? Where’s Johnny an’ Shadow?”

“Oh don’t mind us Babypop, just checking up on you. Carry on,” Ember waved him off but Danny only narrowed his eyes at the ghost teens.

“Are you guys more a’ thoes Hallu-halla- hul loose in ay shons?”

Kitty brought a hand to her chest in a mock gasp. “Well I’d never! How could you say such a thing? Well it’s true,” she added, “But still! Danny almost felt bad at her hurt expression and was about to apologize before getting cut off.

“Well this experiment has been fun, but the clocks a’ ticking and I have a city to rule and a bat on my tail. So if you could move out of the way that would be fantastic.” Sack man said as he walked through Ember, eliciting a very long string of curses and expletives.

Danny shook his head, “No,” he mumbled sternly, “Can’t let you in.”

“Yeah, you go Babypop! Stick it to the man!” ‘The man’ in question didn’t seem as fond of that answer.

“Pity,” he pouted, “I would rather like to have studied your reaction to the toxin. Alas.” Scarecrow lunged. Danny moved on instinct, however slow it may be, and kicked out at the man. His floatyness putting him at the perfect height to land a hit right at the Scarecrow’s face, sending him sprawling.

“WOOOO, Go Phantom! Just hold the line until the Bat can get here,” Kitty called from her perch on a nearby generator. Speak of the devil and he shall appear, Danny’s gasp caught in his throat as his flight finally gave out, dropping him hard on the concrete with a loud thwump.

A few yards away Scarecrow began picking himself up as a giant shadow, out of his element in the strong evening light, dropped onto the roof. “Why you little-” he started but was cut off when the shadow jumped out at him.

“It’s over Crane, you’re going back to Arkham,” the shadow growled. The fighting continued as Danny pulled himself to sit against the cool metal door. Earlier’s bliss had begun wearing off and his head was swimming. Another gasp sent him into a coughing fit as he started feeling his aches again. Suddenly he was shoved forward by something heavy. Fuck. Everything was getting fuzzy but Danny forced himself to stay alert ( well, alert-ish).

Groggily, Danny turned to find out what had shoved him and ended up gaping up at a godlike figure. They were as big as a mountain, with a bright red face mask, and incredible form. The lowering sun holoed them perfectly and- Wait, they were saying something.

“-nny! Danny? Danny, oh my god, I’m sorry, are you okay?” Danny? He knew that name, who?- Oh! That’s him! Why would the god person be asking if he was okay? Danny narrowed his eyes. The person had grabbed his shoulders and was checking him over. Wait, they kind of looked familiar.

“Ooh, this one’s cute. Where’d you find him Babypop?” Danny’s face burned, why did it burn?

“Shu’up ‘mber, I h’ve a boyfren’,” he muttered. The person checking him over froze.

“Danny? Danny it’s me Hood. Are you okay?” OOH! Hood! Danny knew him. What was he doing here?

“I intercepted a transmission, I recognised the name of your building.” Oh had he said that out loud? Hood laughed. “Yeah, yeah you did,” he said, “Danny does anything hurt? can you tell me what happened?”

Danny squeezed his eyes shut. What had happened?

“Was tryin’ ta’ get ta’ Amity,” he slurred, “got sprayed with something’ icky. Couldn’ let him in.”

“Amity?’’ Hood asked.

“Careful Babypop,” Ember warned.

“Don’, don’ worry ‘bout it,” Danny muttered, swatting at Hood’s arm. “Hey was’ that?”

‘That’ was the giant shadow- Batman- stalking toward the two, Skulker hot on his heels and ranting about how ‘tying up your prey is so unrefined and Batman should invest in good quality cages’. The thought of Batman lugging around a giant birdcage full of old timey crooks made Danny giggle. Hood’s arms tensed as they wrapped around the half ghost’s torso.

“You’re a long way from Park Row and your drug rings Hood,” Batman growled.

“Why does everyone always say that, I can leave Crime Alley you know,” he grumbled but was met with a cold glare, “I heard Oracle tell you what building Scarecrow was on. I had to make sure he was okay.”

Batman paused. “Why him?” he asked. In the silence that followed, Danny- pressed against the man’s chest- could almost hear Hood’s core. The low thrum threatened to lull him to sleep but he blinked it away.

Finally Hood spoke.

“I don’t know,” he said, “There’s just something about him that feels familiar somehow. I don’t know why.”

Danny knew this one. He’d asked Frostbit once why the ghosts were drawn to him and to Amity. There was a bunch a of jargon about ghost politics and the portal and stuff but there was also.

“S’cuz we’re th’ same,” He mumbled, shakily poking at Hood’s chest, then at his own, right above where his core sat. “Yer like me, mm diff’rnt.” The two men above him seemed stunned, Why? What did he say?

“Babypop’s got a friend.”

“I know right? I’m kinda jealous. Hey kid, you should visit us sometime. Admit it, you miss us,”

“Yes! I would enjoy a good hunt for your pelt Ghost Child!”

Danny giggled, “F’course, I’ll vis’t soon, an’ Skully can chase me an’ you an’ Johnny can run away fr’m me, an’ we c’n all fight an’ stuff.”

“See you soon Baby brother.”

Danny startled, “Oh Jazz, f’rgot you were here,” he yawned.

Not-Jazz laughed. “I’m not here baby brother, I’m a figment of your imagination, remember?”

“Oh riiight, yer a hallucinamation.”

“That’s right,” she chuckled, “Now get some rest, you still have a lot of toxin in your system.” Danny’s eyelids suddenly felt a lot heavier with the mention of sleep, and with his older sister smiling softly at him, he finally gave in.

“G’night guys,” he mumbled before dozing off to the comforting hum of Hood’s core.

--------

Jason didn’t know what to say. To B or to himself. He didn’t know how to react to what Danny said before passing out in his arms. It was really disturbing how little he knew right now. Luckily, he didn’t have to break the silence.

”Do you know what he meant?” B asked. Jason shook his head and looked down at the man in his arms. Danny was really cute when he was sleeping.

“The part about being like me, or the fighting someone bit? ‘Cause either way I have no clue.” Jason sighed, feeling Batman’s stare even through the helmet. He contemplated taking it off and throwing it at him.

Another few moments passed in silence before B grunted in typical B fashion, and disappeared.

Jason let out a sigh then looked back down at Danny.

“Alright, let’s get you back to your room, hero.” The meta was deceptively lightweight and carrying him down three flights of stairs proved easier than expected. They garnered a few stares in the hallway but were left alone for the most part. Danny’s roommate didn’t even look up when Jason nudged open the door and set Danny down on his bed.

He didn't stay long after that, but Jason couldn't help but whisper "sweet dreams." Before turning and leaving

------

Pt.12

#when you accidentally kill a clown #dp x dc jason todd #dp x dc danny fenton #dead on main #bucket writes things #fic #long post #lowkey i write this on my period so as a trans masc who has to deal with that #i may have projected #just a little #also high Danny anyone?#probably one of my favorite dp x dc tropes

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channajen · 1 year

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This is an older story of mine. It's called "Learning to Fly". It's a Jason/Danny story that I wrote before "Dead on Main" was a thing. Since that's getting popular now, I decided to share it with you guys. Enjoy the story!

Summary: The contamination from the Lazarus pit was slowly killing Jason—halfway. Batman finds someone to help him though the transition into halfa life. Time marches on, Jason finds love, and the Bats find their place in legend.

Story teaser below the cut

Jason stared down at the city below him. Everything was well-lit and small businesses lined the streets. There was even a children’s park, bright in the moonlight. A few police cars patrolled the area to maintain the level of peace that had come over the place that used to have the name “Crime Alley”.

It had taken years to complete the clean-up and ensure that this would be a safe place in Gotham. Jason had poured much of his life/after-life into the project. He had started the project while he was still human, and at times he had even gotten help of the Bat-kind. That had changed when Danny came into his life. His now-husband had given him the tools necessary to make the incredible change possible.

He smiled then, at the thought of his husband, who was likely doing a nightly run to survey his own city. And although the cities were not close, the distance between them was negated by simply using portals to zip back and forth between the two. The cities’ locations didn’t really matter, though, as the pair actually made their home elsewhere…in the Zone. But there was no one left alive who would know that. All the people who mattered now resided happily in the Zone close to them.

With that in mind, he decided to call it a night, and Gotham’s cryptid, Jason Todd, opened a portal and stepped into the Ghost Zone. He had deliberately entered the Zone a bit further from home than usual. He wanted time to think and remember everything that had brought him this far. Some days were just like that.

Way back in the time when the Bat clan roamed the streets, Jason had died and been resurrected. That was probably one of his most painful memories. No one liked reliving their death—especially the dead themselves. Then there was the Pit madness, his rampage as Red Hood, his eventual reconciliation with his family, and after several years, the painful ecto-sickness that turned him into a halfa.

It had been a harrowing time. Bruce didn’t know what to do, and no one knew how to treat him. At the time, the Anti-Ecto Acts were still in place, so there was nowhere to legally turn for help. That didn’t stop the Bat from bringing all his resources to bear. It was the Replacement, of all people, who found the answers that they needed. Tim had found a small town in Amity Park, Illinois that was targeted by the Ghost Investigation Ward—the same organization that was rumored to be after Jason.

The Bat clan went into full research mode and so much of what they found, both legally and illegally, brought light to Jason’s situation. He wasn’t dying—not completely anyway—he was changing into something rare. He was becoming a half-ghost. A lot of technical details about the process had been hacked by Oracle from one man’s computers: Vlad Masters, billionaire, mayor, and apparent half-ghost himself. The man had thoroughly outlined the process in which he had become a halfa. It took the man twenty agonizing years to complete his transformation.

There was not much that could be done during Vlad’s time to speed up that process, at least not in Vlad’s early personal records. Master’s eventually had hypothesized that ectoplasm exposure would speed up the transformation, and finally ended his suffering by proving it. He had injected himself with ectoplasm repeatedly on a daily basis, and his twenty-years of “ecto-illness” was finally cured by the formation of a ghost core. That process completed his transition from extremely ill human to healthy half-ghost.

Vlad had also studied another halfa in detail. One Daniel J. Fenton, also known as the town hero/antihero Danny Phantom. This Phantom person had become a halfa in literally moments through exposure to high amounts of electricity and ectoplasm at the same time. He had been the town’s protector for almost ten years at the time of Jason’s illness.

Batman considered all of the information available and refused to let his son suffer for however long the process would take for him. After long talks with Jason about the potential side-effects of transition, the Bat secretly bought a large amount of ectoplasm and began Jason’s injection series. It very quickly turned the tide of the young man’s illness. They were confident that Vlad’s treatment would work for Jason, but that still left the issue of the ghost powers that the man would develop. He would need training.

Master’s information also had another extremely helpful tool—key to Jason’s training—the information on one Daniel J. Fenton/Phantom. Nightwing was the one tasked with making contact with the halfa in hopes of gaining more information about life as a halfa superhero—and possible help with teaching Jason the basics of living a halfa-life. Initially the half-ghost was wary, but Dick had a way of warming people up and getting their secrets. In the space of a few weeks, Dick had completely gained Danny’s trust and cooperation in the matter of helping Jason....

(continued at A03)

#jason todd #danny phantom #dead on main #dp x dc #romantic fluff #happy feels #ghost king danny

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