Gotham Possesses Table of Contents

Here's the easy access to the chapters!

Tittle: Gotham Possesses

A cryptid Batfamily AU in which Gotham is the main character and follows its journey to consciousness as it possesses its Bat and Birds. Chapters are short and a bit gloomy.

Main Characters: Gotham, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne

Honorable Mentions: Joker, Talia Al Ghul, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, Riddler, Cobblepot (Penguin), Two Face (Harvey Dent), Superman (Clark Kent), Superboy (Jon Kent), Barbara Gordon, Cassandra Cain

No romantic relationships

Stuff to know: Cryptid Batfamily, grim, Melancholic mood, Angst, Gotham LOVES Batman, the last chapter has mentions of; drug use, murder and unsolicited touching (at the very end and very briefly)

Chapter 1 - Gotham Wept

Chapter 2 - Gotham Trembled

Chapter 3 - Gotham Loved

Chapter 4 - Gotham Drank

Chapter 5 - Gotham Slept

Chapter 6 - Gotham Hoped

Chapter 7 - Gotham Transcends

Chapter 8 - Gotham Mends

Chapter 9 - Gotham Bewitched

Chapter 10 - Gotham Watches

OMG, chapter 9 was linked to chapter 8. Sorry about that, it should be fixed now.

I hope you have enjoyed Gotham Possesses. I will be posting it on Ao3, maybe tomorrow. I'm a bit sad about it ending, but, also proud of myself. This is the second thing I wrote that I posted and was super nervous to do so. Thank you to everyone who has stuck with reading this and endured my lack of editing.

Also, I will be making this a series and posting one shots of the birds and their new life bound to Gotham. They wont be in any particular order, but I have already written Dick's POV before he becomes Nightwing :)

Danny, the 'twig' Bouncer

The job was just a temporary solution. It was a means to an end. To help him handle his obsession until things were better. Until it was safe to be out again. Until he could roam around freely without fear. Until he no longer needed to lay low or be on the run. Until he could return to being Phantom.

This job helped keep his obsession somewhat sedated. Sure, it was a shady bar, but it beat working out in the open in some other way or becoming a non-ghost vigilante and risking his human persona too.

Besides people tented to underestimate him because he was a 'twig' in their eyes. The bar owner nearly didn't hire him until he easily flipped a human truck over his shoulder and threw the guy out the back door on his interview day.

But again this was just meant to be temporary. He got to fight the trouble makers and protect customers from the rowdy crowd.

At some point, the people even started cheering whenever Danny was on the clock, his coworkers even leaving the heavy hitters to him. It was kind of fun always seeing the sound looks of the big guys that didn't think Danny could throw them out the door with one hand. The owner had said something about getting more customers ever since Danny started working for him.

Danny even recognized regulars now. Tho there was this one guy with a red helmet that gave him a weird feeling. But the guy wasn't making trouble so Danny left him alone.

Besides the Bar Owner always pet his shoulder after he threw someone out. That meant he did a good job right?

Though Danny did wonder how long this temporary job would last.

.

.

.

Yea his Fenton luck struck again. Danny didn't know faces. The bar was a shady place but neutral zone according to the owner but there was the golden rule of not messing with Joker. Danny had agreed even tho he didn't know who that guy was.

Soo the day came a clown made trouble in the bar and no one else appeared to want to do something. So what did Danny do? His job. He punched the guy, knocked him out and threw him right out the door a little too hard into a brick wall. He might have broken a couple of that clown guys bones. Hello trauma, Freakshow greets you.

The bar was dead silent right after, everyone staring at him like he had just signed a death sentence. The owner had then pushed him out the door and muttered something about sending Danny on vacation and to return in a month if he was still alive by then.

Did that mean he was fired or got a weird kind of promotion?

Why was that guy in a furry suit staring him down now?

Also why was the red helmet regular suddenly trying to hire him for his gang?

Really Danny just wanted a simple job that sedated his obsession, this was not what he expected to happen for a job well done.

Jason Todd Red Beanie appreciation post

Blob Meditation

It was no surprise that Sam had the worst temper among the three of them, Danny thought it was because she worried too much, Tucker thought it was accumulative stress. The thing is, nothing she did helped with calm her down, which was why she suggested her friends to leave her alone for a few minutes, she didn't want to punch them.

They agreed and Sam sat on the castle stairs, she was stressed about her parents, college and Danny's safety. She was thinking about how to get him to move with them to Gotham, where Jazz was working but Danny wasn't comfortable with that. He wanted to help as much as they did, and it was obvious he wouldn't be able to contribute anything if he moved.

The fact that he had to hide from vigilantes who never paid him any attention before also frustrated him.

As she was thinking, some blob ghosts came bounding up to her, she pushed them away and continued on, but they swarmed and enveloped her. In a few seconds all her stress was gone and Sam looked at the blobs in dismay, though they gave her an idea.

Frostbite commented to her that the Blob ghosts were relaxing due to the fact that they purify, negative emotions were part of that. Sam smiled and offered Danny his business idea, the halfa looked at Sam doubtfully but hesitantly accepted.

Soon there was a new business popping up in Gotham. A relaxation and meditation center run by a young man, although it seemed to have a confidentiality agreement if you became a member. Strangely, both Rogues and regular people were attending.

The Batfamily became suspicious and sent Red Hood to investigate. A few days later, Jason was a member and was as calm as they had seen him in years, not even angry with Tim or calling him replacement for a whole week. Bruce began to worry that he had been caught in some kind of mind control.

Sam was happy that the business turned out good, seeing the room full of Blob ghosts was not surprising, they all floated around Danny and his "clients" happily, she guessed they were feeding well, Danny also seemed happy to contribute something to pay his University and their shared department so everyone was winning.

Prompt 300

Danny squirms and hisses, trying to dig his claws into dark scales as the clouds whistle by. “Wait- Ancients dammit- STOP!” he shrieked, cursing how tiny his own ghost form was compared to his other not-quite-future-self. Wings that could easily dwarf the entire Ops center beat through the air, fast enough to cause his eyes to sting. 

“Dan- bring me back- stop-” he wailed, despite the grip on his scruff not even loosening. Yet the larger dragon didn’t so much as twitch back towards Amity, the city disappearing into the distance like a speck. “We have to go back-” 

The GIW were- were- They had to go back! The portal was gone (exploded, broken and all of Fentonworks a smoldering mess, oh Ancients he’s gonna be sick-), no one could return to the Realms, they were all sitting ducks- 

“Jordan please-” he begged, even though he already knew that between the city, between every other ghost and them, Dan would always choose to keep them safe. But Jazz was hurt, she wasn’t waking up from where she lay limply cradled in Dan’s claws. 

There was so much blood, and he only knew she was still alive from the weak fluttering of her core, growing stronger as her heartbeat faded. She needed help, she needed doctors- he doesn’t know if she would be able to come back, not with how they were leaving the ecto-rich city behind and he didn’t want to lose her- Dan’s blank panic was swamping his own, drowning both of them in the emotion as the dragon tore through the sky. Some part of him knew they couldn’t stay in Amity anymore, but- But Jazz needed help- Danny couldn’t help the tears that dripped from his yes, pretending it was merely the clouds as they flew to places unknown to him.

If you are interested in their designs, here is a link: HERE

Heey mutual @radiance1 Dragon buddy o' mine & @hdgnj u might enjoy

Spoilers for Gotham Knights video game, but it is so funny to me that after The Gang finds out about the Court of Owls and their horde of ninja zombies literally coming out of the walls of Gotham, Tim's immediate reaction is, "Yeah, no we should probably start killing."

And Barbara is like, "Tim! I can't believe this, one little setback, and you resort to murder!"

Y'know, the one little setback being there's a secret cult of the wealthy elite who have been running Gotham for centuries, and they've got literally thousands of undead ninja zombies ready to go at a moment's notice. Oh, and they're at war with the League of Assassins, so there's that.

And Dick jumps in like, "No, no, let's hear him out..." because fuck all of this. Fuck this, fuck that, fuck everything.

It's slightly more nuanced than that, and of course, Alfred steps in and gets them back on track. But the vibe of unhinged comic!Tim, who will absolutely fuck your shit up if you back him into a tight enough corner, is there and thriving, and I love it.

Meanwhile, Dick is on his third, "I'm fine! Totally fine..." nervous mental breakdown of the week, trying to smile and be bouncy-happy for everyone else but also contemplating the merits of calling in a favor from Deathstroke because, oh my godddd, there are ninja zombies dressed like owls coming out of the walls.

Like, c'mon Slade. You like fighting people dressed up like birds. It'll be fun...

He'll wear the orange and black uniform that's called "Tribute Slade" in the crafting menu...

and they were frenemies turned lovers oh my god they were frenemies turned lovers

Here I am to bring

PSYCHOSOMATIC

FREEDOM TO YOUR HEAD.

⁽ᶦᵈᵏ ʰᵒʷ ᵗᵒ ᵗᵉˡˡ ʸᵒᵘ ᵍᵘʸˢ ᴵ ᵍᵉᵗ ˢᶦˡˡʸ ʷᶦᵗʰ ᵐᵘˡᵗᶦᵖˡᵉ ᵖʳᵒʲᵉᶜᵗˢ ᵃᵗ ᵗʰᵉ ˢᵃᵐᵉ ᵗᶦᵐᵉ⁾

just misha walking in gotham knights

Bruce dies in the Past

So! When Bruce was sent back in Time and got stuck in the Past, he was never saved. Tim failed to bring him back to the future, and Bruce was stuck in the Past for the rest of his Natural Life.

Then he died, came back as a Ghost, and regained his Lost Memories.

He didn't really know what to do, he was stuck Millenia in the Past, his Family won't be born for Literal Ages, and most of all he is Dead. He doesn't really have alot of options.

If you go with the Idea that Batman is a Liminal, then you could say that his Obsession was Protection. And that Obsession was focused primarily on Gotham and his Family.

So what is a Ghost to do when the object of his Obsession had been ripped away from him? He breaks a little. Bruce kind of goes Insane.

He decides that if he is going to he stuck in the Ghost Zone, he may as well protect it as if it were Gotham. So, he finds the quickest way to do that...by becoming the Ghost King.

So, he finds the Castle of the Ghost King, and challenges him to Single Combat. And he manages to Win. But the King needs to choose their Title, and he doesn't think he wants to include the name of Batman in the distant Past. It may affect the Future.

So, he chooses the name, Pariah Dark.

Bruce Wayne, is Pariah Dark.

He started as a Good King, but gradually he let his Broken Obsession get to him. Becoming King did nothing to fill the void in his Core, so he fell more and more into Insanity. It didn't help that he became the King in such a vulnerable emotional state. The sudden Power Increase caused his mind to fracture even more.

The Seven Ancients didn't seal away Pariah Dark just to save the Zone, they also did it to save Pariah himself.

Then one day, Pariah's Seal is Broken and he is presented with a Portal to the Human Realm. A Human Realm where enough time has passed that Gotham finally exists again. He may have gotten a little overexcited, he'll admit.

Thankfully, Danny was there to knock some sense into him.

He took the Throne and the power associated with it from Pariah, leaving him as just Bruce Wayne again. The existence of Gotham and his Family in the present world helped mend a few of the Cracks in his Core, and for the first time in Centuries Bruce Wayne felt somewhat whole again.

...

Basically, Bruce dies in the Past, goes Insane because his Liminal Obsession was broken, and becomes Pariah Dark when he takes the Throne of the Ghost Zone.

Unfortunately, his Broken Obsession was only aggravated by the sudden Influx of Power, and he went Insane. When Danny took the Throne from him, he took the power that was clouding Bruce's Mind and helped him heal a bit.

Thoughts?

Jason (about Bruce):

Robin War #1 (2015)

Bruce:

Batman #428 (1988)

Batman #650 (2005)

Batman and Red Hood (2011-) #20

Red Hood and the Outlaws (2016-) #25

Batman (2016-) #136

Batman (2016-) #137

Babygirl. Sweetheart. Apple of my eye. That is the most irrational, illogical, delusional man you’ll probably ever meet.

Gotham Possesses

A cryptid Batfamily AU in which Gotham is the main character and follows its journey to consciousness as it follows its Bat and Birds. Chapters are short and a bit gloomy.

Main Characters: Gotham, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, Talia Al Ghul (shows up briefly)

No romantic relationships

Stuff to know: Cryptid Batfamily, grim, Melancholic mood, Angst, (let me know if I should add more tags)

Word Count: 639

[Here's my table of contents]

Chapter 9 - Gotham Bewitched

It started out subtly. A prickling at the edge of my borders, under the roiling of my toxic seas. I barely noticed, too engrossed in watching my birds flip through the skies, kicking down doors, creating master plans. In watching the broad muscled back of my Bat, his clever fingers clacking on the keyboard, his breathing controlled, his heart pumping his warmth steadily through his veins, a rushing lullaby to my senses. Mine. It whispered, rippling through the sediment, dislodging creatures from where they rested. An unbound tether, a tether I was not aware of. Curiously, my attention wandered towards it. My Bat tensed, he felt it too, or maybe the many surveillances he had placed throughout my being caught it. The metal contraption that slipped into my harbor. MINE. The feeling intensified. My shadows ripped away from the many I observed, converged, onto that lone and forgotten pier. To my surprise, my Bat had joined me, I hadn’t even been aware that he had left his cave. He stood so still, his cape, the only movement coming from the curious breeze I let through. A familiar green eyed woman stepped out, her long brown hair shinning in the dim florescent light emitting from the metal tomb. From behind her, a boy, a memory of the past, nearly an illusion to my senses. A sharp intake of breath from my Bat. MINE! I rushed forward, jostling the seas, knocking off shingles, ripping sheet metal from walls. All in my haste to get closer, to grab, to hold, to keep. He belonged to me, his eyes and coloring might have been different but he was part of my Bat. His warmth rushed through his veins, his scent familiar. The same glare. The same set of his shoulders, the pout of his lips. His wit. I rushed in. I recoiled. Fiery green pushed me away. The child noticed something was amiss, he cocked his head in momentary distraction and I couldn’t help but rejoice in the acknowledgment. Short lived as it was. Something else had dug its claws in him, staining him in the same green as my second bird. Somehow, its different, it does not fill the cracks, it flows in his veins. It glints in his eyes. It does not change him, nor try to control him. It only dwells as if part of him. It keeps me away. It keeps the boy untethered, he is not mine. The boy looks at my streets, breathes in my air, in disdain. I cover the skies in dark foreboding clouds, I let my winds claw and scratch at my buildings in desperation. I cannot get near him. I cannot touch him. The green beast in his soul sneers at me, it’s eyes gleaming. For someone so young, the boy moves like a predator. He attacks my other birds in a bid of superiority, misguided. They’ll be fine, not much can kill them in my embrace. He attacks criminals, bleeds them. My Bat is wracked with guilt and frustration. My oldest bird tries to mediate. If only I could get closer, wrap my shadows around him, show him how much he belongs. How he belongs to me. The day his heart is run through, is shocking even for me. Everything stops. I wail at the beast, my keening shattering glass and breaking stone. It agrees on a deal. It lets me in, I let my shadows pour into his wound. I mend my boy’s shattered heart, weaving it with my shadows, green inadvertently mingling with it. My Bat watches him rise, black tears dripping down his youthful face. The boy, my little bat, is now bound to me. A beautiful woven tether of green and black. My Bat clutches his bird and whispers his thanks. I watch transfixed. Bewitched by my bats.

2nd to last chapter! Will be posting on Ao3 when it's finished.

Also, I will be making this a series and posting one shots of the birds and their new life bound to Gotham. They wont be in any particular order, but I have already written Dick's POV before he becomes Nightwing :)

edward nygma's muppet smile, gotham season 1

DP X DC WRITING PROMPT #15

(#) = Notes at the end of post

✦

A Lonely Star Shines in the Night

The Guys in White have gone too far. So far that the Danny's universe as they know it is collapsing into itself as a result of the agent's foolish attempt to rid the land of the dead, undying, and neverborn. They tried nuking the Infinite Realms and all it got them was their dimension erased with the Infinite Realms only suffering minor damage.

Either way, Danny's home is gone.

In the struggle to gather his family and spirit them away into the Ghost Zone, he was separated from them when the GIW blew the portal to smithereens with him on the other side and his family still in the living realm. Overtaken by grief, his core cracking from his failure to protect those precious to him, he scoured the Realms for a natural portal back, to no avail.

In his search, he is nearly driven mad by his desperation. Unable to see their King in such pain and slowly unraveling into a second coming of Pariah Dark, Clockwork, Frostbite, and Pandora gather their strength and force him into an entirely different universe to grieve and heal. A universe full of heroes. He won't know this for a while, however, because where he ended up was the old Gotham observatory.

With his obsession of protecting--his friends, his family, his town, his entire world--torn to shreds, his damaged core magnified his secondary obsession: the very cosmos itself. His core latched onto the remaining obsession and inadvertently temporarily tied Danny to the very foundation of the old observatory. That is where he lingers for years, unable to leave and unable to stop crying for his lost family and friends, repeating their names over and over in a neverending mantra.

It isn't until much later that people start to notice his presence, due to the observatory having been unused for decades. What use was an observatory if you couldn't even see the stars in the perpetual smog that blanketed the city? At some point, however, a couple of daring teenagers snuck into the observatory one night and had a first hand encounter with a strange being. Needless to say, they didn't stick around for much longer. The reports they made to the police and what they posted on social media the next day were nonetheless wildly interesting.

Each of them described relatively the same thing. Of first seeing a bright, sliver star shining in the dark(1) of the empty building but then quickly noticing it was set in the center of the chest of a being that might as well have been made from the black void of the night sky itself. They described a being with hair that faded into white, glowing mist that was circled by a crown of ice crystals and star dust. Most notable of all to them, however, were the low humming whispers coupled with the mercury tears leaking from aurora green eyes in a neverending stream that dripped and echoed hauntingly across the marble floors below.

Of course, no one really believed their wild tales at first. Then it became a game among high schoolers and college students to wander the old observatory just to see if they would catch sight of this mysterious being. If not, no harm done. That is until one student accidentally injured themselves trying to find this ghost they've been hearing rumors about. (2)

Regardless of whether or not the being inhabiting the observatory directly caused this student's injury, he's gained the Batclan's attention.

✦

Notes:

(1) The star in his chest is his core. The black/night parts of his ghost form are slightly translucent even when not intangible/invisible. You can literally see straight through him to his core, which basically looks like a condensed white dwarf star. Also, due to the damage his core has taken and his grief, it's cracking and looks like it's going to go supernova.

(2) Danny didn't directly cause the student to get injured. The student literally just turned the corner and nearly ran right into Danny as he was wandering in his grief-stricken stupor. This caused the student to freak out, run the opposite direction, and fall down a flight of stairs cause they weren't watching where they placed their feet. Danny is not violent or territorial here. His mind has literally checked out and left because trauma, grief, and a fractured sense of ghostly self are one hell of a combo on a halfa.

The Wish

Danny wasn't Desiree, he didn't have the power to fulfill wishes or gain power from it, but he did have subjects. And each of his subjects wanted something different, and since becoming Ghost King he had done his best to fulfill them. Or at least, fulfill the ones that were reasonable.

But there were so many ghosts, many ghosts he didn't know, from all corners of the Infinite Realms, and some had requests that while he could fulfill, maybe it wasn't the best thing for him to do.

The wish he had heard the most was "kill the Joker," Danny didn't know who the Joker was. Maybe a mass murderer taking into account all the angry souls who wanted the same thing. And he would be willing to kill him, but that would be a headache regarding universal balance.

Danny debated how to solve the problem without destroying the delicate balance of the Realms; then he was visited by a soul, a teenager who felt like a ghost but at the same time not (a broken soul? That was rare). The soul had a peculiar request, "let me come back, I will kill the Joker."

Danny frowned, he didn't think creating a halfa with a vengeful obsession was a good idea. But before he could give his verdict, the soul was ripped from his hands.

Danny wanted to deny his request, he wouldn't wish an existence like him on anyone, but if he didn't help that soul might disappear. Such "Lazarus pits" were not infallible, they were rotten, full of contaminated ectoplasm, and Danny knew it (he would have to deal with that later), but he also knew that with a little of his help Jason would survive.

Reluctantly he complied with the teenager's request and Jason returned to the realm of the living. Unbeknownst to Jason he had tied his soul to the King's request (to kill the Joker, not that Jason knew that, or would complain if he ever found out).

Danny, of course, was worried about the boy (halfa?), and decided that if Jason hadn't accomplished his "mission" in about 5 years he would bring him back to the Realms, maybe teach him about everything. He needed to get the kid another obsession anyway.

Bruce never let Jason kill the Joker, and the 5 years went by pretty fast. Danny decided it was time to visit Jason, and maybe take him back.

edward nygma vs the consequences of his actions