#Takes place a few months after Bruce meets Danny

[dcxdpdabbles]

In Freelance Inventor, does anyone in JL know about Danny? Do they try to help the kids Parent Trap Danny and Bruce? Does Selina know about Danny?

Batman is acting strange.

It's often that Clark thinks this. He feels a bit guilty judging people like that, but no one in the league, or hell, the world, can deny that Batman is an abnormal human.

If he even is human.

Not much is known about one of the founding members of the Justice League, and while Clark and Diana are arguably the closest to him, they don't even know his real name. Not that it was a problem.

They would trust him with their lives and learn to turn to him for leadership in dire times. It always seemed like he was prepared for literally anything, and when something managed to suppress the Dark King, it didn't last long, for he had a backup plan formed seconds later.

That's how they work. How the three changed a necessary alliance into a globally recognized league of heroes.

While Clark was good at making feel people feel safe, and Diana could rally forces, Batman had a way of making the impossible happen. Together the three tackled the world's problems making one day better at a time.

That did nothing to make people feel slightly....uneased by Batman. Clark was man enough to admit that even he got spooked. One time, he offhanded mentioned that he could recognize heartbeats when talking to Oliver and Batman.

Batman had tilted his head, made direct eye contact with Clark and suddenly, his heart rate had slowed down, beating entirely different. Clark felt horrified when the Dark Knight kept that same heartbeat for the following week, only switching mid-meeting to a faster one than the previous two.

Clark is Kryptonian. He is an alien. Sure, he developed most during puberty, but he always had superstrength and super speed as a tot. That's why he doesn't make sense, but Batman?

He had no idea what was going on with Batman, and frankly, he didn't want to touch the subject with a ten-foot pole.

Yet he could not help but think of the strange little hermit as a friend. Batman, in his own way, cared deeply for people. He never mentioned it but he always support heroes in their daily lives and although he grumbled a bit, was always there when someone needed him.

Yes, he wasn't the most approachable of heroes and a bit too professional, but he was still one of the greatest heroes in history for a reason. Clark always felt better of their chances when Batman was involved.

Seeing even a hit of disbalance in the Dark Knight made him worry.

Batman never lingered after meetings, training or monitor duty. Once he finished he was heading straight back to Gotham sometimes without a by your leave.

Batman did not do that today. Instead, he was staring out the watch tower's common room into the stars and hadn't moved for over two hours. Plenty of other heroes had already fled the room, too unnerved by the silent brooding man.

The last time this happened was because Robin had first shown up, shocking the world with his bright, impish laughter from Batman's shadows. Batman had taken months trying to decided to let the boy join him, and only because Robin straight up did not give him a option did he allow it.

Clark had been with Diana, angry that he was dragging a child into such dangerous situations only to have the Bat tell them to "stop him yourself then"

He did, but no matter how many times he captured Robin the boy was back on the streets a few hours later. Clark felt his hair grey from ever second he spent with the angry child. Diana hand't had much luck.

In fact the boy had, somehow bended in a way that had scared her into thinking she broken his spin, to escape her lasso. Her moment of fright was the opening he needed to scurry away, shouting at the top of his lungs that he would never be stopped.

She respected him but still captured the boy a few hours later. She screamed when Batman called her again to let her know the boy was seen fighting a gang at the ports that same night.

What could possibly cause Batman to stress the same way as his son? The founding members weren't sure, but they were all staring at him from the doorway after noticing every other hero avoiding the place like the plague.

"Go talk to him" Hal hissed at Clark.

"Me?" Clark spluttered. "Why me?"

"He is less likely to kill you," Barry tells him with the gravest expression Clark has ever seen on his face. "You are also the most likely one to survive Batman's attempt on your life if he decides to kill you."

Superman gapes at him, twisting around to all his teammates but everyone is either nodding or avoiding his eyes. They all decided he was the sacrifice it seemed. Traitors.

But it's true he is worried about his friend. He is slightly afriad of his friend but Clark would not be able to sleep at night if he didn't at least reach out to Batman.

Taking a deep breath to steel his nerves, he twists on his heel and marches over to the dark figure. He tries to shake the feeling of walking to his executor as he finally carefully stops by Batman's side. He doesn't look at him, keeping his gaze on the stars.

Neither man said anything, peacefully observing the darkness and lights of space.

Clark waited about thirty seconds before the silence got too much for him. "Er, Batman? Is everything alright?"

Batman didn't even twitch, a tight frown- more turn down on the right corner to then the left which meant it was a nervous kind of upset instead of annoyed upset as ussal. A full minute goes by where Clark wonders if Batman even heard him about to start babbling to try to get some conversation going when the man speaks.

"Superman, have you ever been in love?"

Clark swears he never experienced whiplash this badly. He honestly thinks the loud crack that came from his neck when he turned it in shock to the other Leaguer meant that he broke it.

Batman held no hint that he said anyhting but Clark could still hear the question echoing in his head as he gaped. He got ahold of himsrlf when he noticed Batman's heart beat pick up- nervous, embarssed. even fighten?- and his shoulder hitched up slightly.

Crude he made his friend feel bad.

"No! No no! I was just surprised, is all," He cries, waving his hands. Lois's face flashes in his mind, causing him to smile slightly dropply. "I have. I am actually. There this girl- at my work. She's great. Um, why do you ask?"

"....how do you know you're in love?"

Boy, was Clark really having this conversation at his age? He felt like a fumbling teenager. Granted, he only had one girlfriend back in high school, and he was fairly sure she only dated him to piss off her dad.

Still this was great! He has never had a conversation this deep with Batman before!

"I'm not sure if it's the same for Kryptonians as it is humans- you are human right?"

"Yes."

Oh, so Batman was just like that. Good to know.

"Well, I knew from how she made me feel nervous but happy nervous? As if the world was brighter. Better. And when I'm not near her, all my thoughts somehow return to her." Clark thinks of how to best explain love, turning the world over in his head before snapping his fingers. "You know when you just adore a certain food? That no matter how often you eat it or how long it's been, it just makes you feel better? There isn't a real reason why you like it so much you just do. That's what she's like for me."

Batman nods slowly. He might not be able to see his eyes but Clark could image them softening just by the way his whole body relaxes. "I see. Then I am in love. Thank you."

He turns away before Clark can get his jaw off the floor. Batman stride right out the room, ingorre the scrambling heros who try to act like they weren't easedropping and vanishes in a flash of light back to Gotham.

He did all that as if nothing had happened.

Clark has half the mind to think he just haluciated the entire five minutes before Barry blurted. "Batman is in love?! That's amazing!"

They spent the rest of the night trying to guess who was the person that could have possibly romanced Batman.

Barry and Hal were convinced it was another vampire- they didn't believe the Dark Knight was telling the truth when he claimed he was human- while both Diana and Arthur both claimed the person had to be a deadly warrior.

J'onn was under the impression it had to be someone who was the polar opposite of Batman. On Mars, that was the common couple dynamic. Thus, the person Batman loved was likely a civilian. A dumb sociable one.

He didn't say Bruce Wayne exactly, but J'onn heavily implied Bruce Wayne. He even pointed out that Mr. Wayne financed everything the Leauge used from the very beginning, of course in secert but it was still his money.

Why would he do that if he wasn't somehow profoundly involved? Obviously, the billionaire wanted Batman safe, maybe even returned his feelings. The rest of the Leauge looks half convinced by the logic.

Personally? Clark was just happy that Batman found anyone at all. No matter who they were, he would do everyhting he could to help his friend woo his crush.

That's what friends are for, after all.

#dcxdpdabbles #dc x dp crossover #dcxdp #spirit halloween #freelance inventor #Part 3 #Takes place a few months after Bruce meets Danny #The Justice League doesn't know much about Bruce at this point #Batman is a strange little human #Clark's pov #Dick Grayson's robin was a menace. I stand by that #Bruce doesn't know what to do with all these emotions

[rboooks]

DC x DP Fic idea: The Royal Consort

Wesley Weston runs a blog after getting over his desire to expose Danny's secret- primarily due to no one believing him- and no one pays attention to it since almost all of Casper high school has one too.

The difference between the hundreds of other blogs is that one of his pictures of Phantom is clear. A perfectly uncorrected image of the famous ghost, whereas nearly all other pictures are blurry due to ghosts disrupting cameras. Even Wes isn't sure how he managed to capture him so well.

Another difference between his blog and others is that one of his followers happens to be John Constantine, who followed the kid a long time ago due to the fanfiction of the Bats and found them hilarious.

John opens his phone app, expecting a new chapter to the Bruce Wayne/Superman fic, and spits out his tea upon seeing the High King of the Dead casually in the human world. Horrified that the King has not been appropriately welcomed- which could lead to a war that the humans would never win- he calls an emergency Justice League and Justice League Dark meeting.

It didn't help that they had allowed a county to pass the anti-ecto laws, which ruined any attempt to appease the Ghost King once the news broke to the public. The League still worried about a declaration of war even after they demolished the laws and the United Nations had the States apologize on humans' behalf.

They quickly discover High King Phantom has been visiting Earth for almost three years. Before his coronation, Phantom had not been outside the Infinite Realms very often though he has appeared throughout history. Cave drawings date back thousands of years before the first ancient Egyptians, but he's visits are few and short.

Life would naturally send him back to the Realms because he had too much power and ectoplasm. After taking the throne, his powers only grew, which meant someone had to summon him as the only way for him to stay on Earth longer than an hour.

Now as King, he appeared only within the small town of Amity Park daily. Why?

John sighs. "He has an anchor. Someone is tying him to this plane. Like the helmet for Nabu, which allows Doctor Fate to exist here without being launched back to the Infinite Releams, Phantom has bonded himself. And I know who that is"

He pulls up a class photo on Weston's blog and points to a boy wearing a particular necklace.

"Danny Fenton is wearing the official Royal Consort of the Infinite Realms symbol and has been since he was fourteen. Phantom's husband may be our only hope to salvage the terrible mess the USA's bloody GIW placed the rest of us in."

Danny loved the necklace he found in Pariah Dark's old haunt. He inherited Pariah's haunt and everything inside once he was crowned and hasn't taken it off since. He didn't think it would be an issue. It's not like it would out his secret to his parents or anyone else since it was in Ghost Speech. Even he didn't know what it said.

Then one morning he comes down for breakfast only to have the most important members of the Justice League sitting in his living room waiting to greet him.

Desperate to keep his halfa status a secret, Danny must convince the entire world watching him, that he's just a human who scandalously eloped at age fourteen with one of the strongest beings in the mulitverse.

Jack's horrified "We were shooting my son-in-law this whole time" became a meme that has trended for months.

( Part 2 )

#dc x dp #dc x dp crossover #Danny is girlboss gaslight his way through this #his parents knew he was bi but married!? #The Royal Consort

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Danny had origallany moved into this new world filled with hope and optimism. Heck, the city he moved to was named Metropolis for ancients sake and was protected by a colorful man in red underpants. He had rights in this world as a "metahuman" and he didn't need to protect anyone with all these superheros around. It was perfect.

Or so he thought.

It all started when he met and subsequently flirted with a man named Tom Davidson. They clicked almost instantly even while his little brother Damian gave Tom the stink eye. Eventually they had to leave and they happily gave thier farewells. Danny later kicks himself for not getting Toms number.

Damian confronts Tim, asking why he lied and Tim responded that he didn't want to be out as Tim Drake: Gotham Rich Guy and wanted to be normal for a while, which Damian reluctantly accepted. Tim thinks this was more because he didn't want to escalate and get into even more trouble with Bruce. That was how he got stuck with a babysitter in the first place.

"Tom" and Danny meet again a few weeks later outside of a coffee shop and they recognize eachother. Danny waves him over and they drink coffee together and chat. Afterwards Danny asks him out to coffee and they set up a time and date.

Danny didn't think asking his crush out would be this easy.

Tim actually didn't realize he'd been asked out on a date date and is just happy to hang out with someone he shares so many hobbies with.

After weeks of accidental dating, Danny invites Tim out to a fancy restaurant for a date and nothing goes as planned. First, a snobby waitress had tried to give out the table Danny had made reservations for (the one in the most romantic part of the restaurant and thus he had to pay extra) to one of her own friends and thier own date and Danny had ask the manager what was going on which got the manager involved and the girl got fired. She got dragged out yelling about who her daddy was. So already not a good night.

Both Danny and Tim were kinda awkward after that. But wait, there's more! The lady who was supposed to get the table for free thanks to her friend tried going full Karen, much to the horror of her date, who told her off and broke up with her right then and there. Fireworks ensued but Tom and Danny were seated soon after so they didn't get to see the rest. The restaurant did offer to give them complimentary desert as an apology, which was nice.

Danny said something like, "I was expecting dinner, but the show was a surprise!" Which broke the ice and got them laughing and chatting while they waited for thier meals. At some point while eating Tom perked up and said he needed to go to the bathroom and rushed off quickly. Danny thought it was odd, but blamed his paranoia on the fact he used that excuse so much to get away from situations and go play hero.

At first thats what he thought Tom was doing when he didn't come back for a while, so Danny got up and went to the bathroom to confirm his suspicions. Instead of an empty bathroom he saw Tom in there kissing some blond guy.

Danny just turned around and left without making a sound. What fresh soap opera hell was this? He walked up to thier waitress and explained the situation. She quickly got his food boxed up with both his and Toms complimentary deserts (he'll take a victory here no matter how petty) and he paid the bill and gave her a large tip before speedwalking out the door.

He ghosted Tom after that. It was a good thing he never Gave Tom his address he guessed.

He didn't see Tom for almost a month before he ran into him at a farmers market in Gotham accompanied by an elderly man in a sling. Tom introduced the man as Alfred. Alfred was very polite. Danny, however, was not. "Why are you introducing him to me?" He asked bitterly. "We're not friends."

"We're not?!" Tom asked, having the audacity to look shocked.

Danny nearly growled, but didn't want it getting out that he was anything other than perfectly human, so he bit his cheek and turned to walk away. Unfortunately for both Danny and Tom, the latter had grabbed his wrist to keep him from leaving and Danny snapped.

He grabbed the first thing he could, which was a cabbage from a nearby cart. Ignoring the owners shout of "My Cabbages!" He proceeded to absolutely hail down veggie based pain onto the creep that broke his heart. He slapped a fifty into cabbage guys hand before he turned and left in a huff.

By the time Tim recovered he was covered in veggies and bruises and very confused. Tim decided he had a new case: What the heck did I do???

Danny was mad cause he keeps running into his cheating ex. He had agreed to let Lex Corp send him out to Gotham for a few weeks on a business trip in hopes of avoiding the guy but now he's seeing him everywhere.

Angry and tired, he was not pleased to hear shouting and explosions outside his street. He opened his window and saw the Joker fighting the local hero and yelled at them to keep it down. The Joker was momentarily distracted and got his lights punched out by Batman for it.

Danny didn't think anything of the incident after that, just rolling over into bed and falling asleep. Of course the Joker tracks him down and breaks into his hotel room to try and kill him. Which leads to Danny killing the Joker in self defense.

Theres a media crapstorm from this. Danny swears he heard Vicky Vale in his hotels vents but that may have just been him hallucinating. Some super hot guy with biceps that made Danny blush hugged him and thanked him. Hes not really sure what that was about but he was just glad this was over and he could leave this cursed city in a few days.

Then Batman broke in. Danny told him to scram and somehow it turned into a fight. Maybe Batman was trying to intimidate him. Maybe he was genuinely trying to beat up a 19 year old. Whatever the reason he had still broken into a guys hotel room and attacked him...which lead to Danny panicking and using his powers to get Batman off of him...unfortunately he used the wrong power- intangibility- and killed the man instantly. His organs were on the floor, soon followed by Dannys vomit when he saw them.

The bats got the alert of Bruces vitals stopping and went nuts. Danny looked at the corpse and decided now would be a good time to get the heck out of dodge.

Of course Red Hood shows up in his apartment in Metropolis. He sat at Dannys dining table cleaning his gun and asked Danny to take a seat.

Instead of threatening him like Danny expected he began asking questions. Mostly about some "Tim" guy. Eventually everything was cleared up. Danny was mad as a hornet finding out that "Tom Davidson" was actually Tim Drake and that he was 17 instead of 19, and that he was dating that blond guy from the restaurant and claiming he didn't even realize that Danny had asked him out, which Danny called bs on.

Danny felt somewhat sick at learning he had dated a minor, even if it was supposedly only technical and only for a month or so. Danny was 19 and Tim was 17 and Danny didn't think that was okay. Hood waved it off and had him explain the events surrounding the Joker and Batmans break ins and eventually told him that he would deal with the bats but told him to watch his back because the bats were grieving and it was hard to tell what they were going to do.

#dp x dc #fanfiction prompts #prompts #danny phantom #danny fenton #tim drake #red robin #damian wayne #robin #sorry this is crappy but it wouldnt leave me alone #batman #might become dead on main #dead on main #double dead #zombieghost #zomebie ghost #im tired yall

[luxaofhesperides]

ghostlights prompt with "it's okay, you're safe now" hurt/comfort?

It takes over a month to find Danny. 

Thirty seven days of panic and ever growing dread, searching for him every single day. Duke hasn’t felt this way since he was in foster care, running away from whatever home he got placed in to search for his parents. 

The first week was spent trying to find any trace of Danny, working on nothing but his last few messages and a voicemail he left Duke, where all he said was a whispered, Call me back when you can. I might just be paranoid, but I think someone’s following me. I’m walking home right now. I… I don’t know, I feel a little sick, Duke, I— And then static before the voicemail ends. 

There hadn’t been any sign that Danny made it home. No cameras caught sight of him after he walked past a bus stop. No one around on the streets to tell him what happened. 

One moment, Danny was there. The next, he was gone.

He had to recruit the rest of the Bats into searching for Danny, and his guilt of outing Danny as a meta (half ghost, as Danny called himself) was easily buried under his desperation. Duke knows the statistics. The chances of finding someone after three days drop drastically, and after enough time, it’s safe to assume they’re dead even if people keep searching. 

Jason promised to interrogate some traffickers moving outside of Crime Alley, updating Duke weekly on any other kidnappings that might be related to Danny’s case. Tim had been checking around Danny’s neighborhood, slipping in and out of spaces to gather information, leaving behind cameras and bugs on the off chance the kidnappers came back to the area. Barbara hacked her way into the messages of traffickers, trying to find any mention of Danny. Even Bruce had gotten involved, looking into Danny’s background to see if there was anyone that might be connected to his disappearance.

Vlad Masters wasn’t a lead. He had no idea Danny was missing when they called, and he ended the call immediately to begin his own search.

Thirty seven days.

Duke didn’t want to lose hope, but all he could think about were the empty spaces in his life where Danny once was. 

And now, on the thirty eighth day, Duke jerks awake as his cell phone rings at max volume and he scrambles to get it. He’s not risking another missed call, not after Danny disappeared. 

He doesn’t have time to say anything once he accepts the call before Jason is saying, “We found him Duke. Babs is sending the location to the GPS of your motorcycle. Suit up and meet us here.”

“Is he okay?”

“He’s…” Jason hesitates. “He’ll live. But these fuckers did a number on him, from what we've read in their files. We’re waiting for you and the others to get here, and then we’ll take them out while you get your boy to safety.”

“I’m on my way,” Duke says, already pulling his suit out to get changed. He hasn’t bothered to bring it to the Batcave for weeks, spending most of his time out on the streets as the Signal. It’s just easier to have it on hand than to go to the Batcave to suit up, or to leave it in the Hatch. He chucks his phone back onto his bed and is jumping out the window of his apartment just a minute later, dropping down to street level just as his motorcycle pulls up on the street.

He’ll have to remember to get Babs a gift basket or something when this is all over. It’s the least he can do after she’s helped him so much over the past month. 

“Thanks, Babs,” Duke says into his comm, switching it to a private line with Oracle. She hums an acknowledgement, but otherwise doesn’t respond. Not that Duke has much in him for conversation; all his focus is on Danny, Danny, Danny.

The GPS on the motorcycle leads him to the outskirts of GCU campus, in one of the buildings that had been closed off after a fire earlier in the year that they still haven’t fixed due to the amount of mobsters who liked to pass through it, using it as a drop sight for arms deals. Red Hood leans on the chain link fence surrounding it, watching as he approaches.

Duke all but jumps off the motorcycle to reach Red Hood, barely remembering to turn on the cloaking to hide it from sight.

“Where is he?”

“Basement,” Red Hood answers, and even through the helmet, Duke can hear the tightness in his voice that means he’s doing his best to hold back his rage. “Red Robin and the Batgirls are in there, getting Oracle access to their computers. They’re going to make sure no one slips by us. I’m going to make them wish I had been kind enough to kill them, and you’re going to take your boy straight to the Batcave where the Doc is waiting with Alfred.”

It’s not much of a plan, but Duke trusts the others to do what they need to do. All he cares about is getting Danny out of there. 

“Lead the way.”

They scale the fence easily, and there’s no one on the upper levels when they walk in. Not even a single camera to alert anyone to their entrance. Red Hood leads him down a stairwell, ignoring the way the shadows around them move on their own, Duke’s agitation making them twist into some dark nightmare. 

He sees the flicker of light as soon as they step out into the basement hallway. All the light bulbs above their head are broken, covering the floor in sharp glass, and doors going down the hall are all left open, some barely hanging onto their hinges. The building is a wreck, graffiti decorating portions of the wall, and it looks abandoned. He would bet even mobsters avoid coming down here; it’s all sorts of health hazards.

Normally, he’d be cautious. He would sneak through the wall, sticking to the shadows and staying hidden as he went deeper in, ready for anything. 

Duke hasn’t been thinking clearly in weeks. He sees the light, the soft white glow he associates with Danny, and tears after it like a man possessed. 

Distantly, he hears Red Hood curse behind him, and then he’s turning the corner, feeling the familiar burn in his eyes as his powers kick in and let him see the small ball of light flickering weakly as it guides him through the basement level. 

Red Robin and Batgirl’s voices fill his helmet and Duke doesn’t waste a second in muting his comm; if there’s a problem, they can work it out with Red Hood. Now that he’s so close to Danny, he’s not letting anything get in his way. 

The first guy he runs into is a surprise. Clearly a scientist, judging by the lab coat and the notebook in his hands, paired with the dark circles stamped beneath his eyes. He barely has time to open his mouth, looking alarmed, before Duke slams into him, tackling him to the floor and knocking him out with a quick hit to the temple. 

A vent in the ceiling falls down, and Red Robin pops out.

“They’re keeping him in the back, locked in. I’m warning you now, it’s not a pretty sight.”

“I don’t care,” Duke snaps, “I’m getting him back.”

“We’ll clear the way and keep them from stopping you,” Red Robin says.

He whips out his bo staff and sprints away, kicking in a door. Duke follows after him, ignoring the yells from the other scientists gathered in there, leaving them to Red Robin’s tender mercies. 

The light leads him to a room hidden away in the lab, a small window in the door that is too dirty to see through. The door is locked, so Duke feels out the shadows around him and uses one to slip into the room.

And Danny’s there.

Danny, never without a smile, glowing and funny and so, so sweet, is lying curled up on the floor. There are shackles around his ankles, keeping him trapped in the room with the chain nailed into the wall. His wrists are bound in meta suppressant cuffs, leaving him weak and vulnerable. That’s not the worst thing.

The worst thing is the visible wounds Duke can see on him, sluggishly bleeding. There are blood stains all over the floor, cuts along his arms and thighs, clothes torn into nothing but dirty rags. There’s a large incision on his chest, going down from his collarbone to his navel, hastily stitched together in a way that only keeps it slightly closed, the stitches loose enough to be pulled out with a single pull. 

As if sensing his gaze, Danny blinks his eyes open, staring at the space next to Duke. Slowly, his gaze slides over, eyes hazy with pain and exhaustion. He opens his mouth, but no sound comes out.

Duke kneels next to him, pulling off his gloves to cup Danny’s cheek as gently as he can.

“Hey,” he whispers, overcome with both grief at the pain Danny had to go through, and relief at finally finding him. “Hey, it’s okay, you’re safe now.”

Danny doesn’t try to speak again. Instead, he closes his eyes and leans into Duke’s touch, relaxing. 

“I got you honey, it’s alright. I’m gonna get you out of here and take you to some people who can patch you up.”

He slides his arms beneath Danny’s body, lifting him into his arms. 

He doesn’t remember much of what happens next; it’s all a blur of movement and feeling blood slide over his hands. Later, he’ll hear the others give their report, telling of how they found Danny following the trail of a university professor bragging about a paper that would make him famous for a deeper understanding of meta biology. They’ll recount their scouting, the information they stole, how many people they fought and captured. They’ll talk about how the shadows completely overwhelmed the basement when Duke left with Danny, traveling through shadows at a speed he had never achieved before, going farther than he’s ever been able to. 

Leslie and Alfred input their own medical reports of the torture done to Danny and how long he’ll need to be in recovery, checking for infection and possible side effects to his powers. 

All of that will be important later. 

Duke doesn’t care about anything at all when he’s finally able to return to Danny’s side once Alfred and Leslie are done patching him up. The weight that’s been on his shoulders for the past thirty seven days is gone. The sight of Danny’s blue eyes fluttering open is the most beautiful he’ll ever see.

“Hey, honey,” he says softly, holding Danny’s hand as he wakes.

Danny smiles at him. “Duke,” he whispers, “I knew you’d find me.”

“Always, honey. Always.”

. . .

[send me a ghostlights prompt!]

#ghostlights #dc x dp #dp x dc #dcxdp #dpxdc #prompt fill #my writing #mostly hurt not much comfort but just imagine duke cuddling danny and hand feeding him after this!!! #thank u for the prompt!! very happy to make this the first prompt fill to buff up the ghostlights tag

[radiance1]

You said you'd make any of our ideas worse right? Here ya go <3

Au where Danny is blind and Damians younger twin. He was raised basically being told he was abandoned by his mother for his blindness and that his brother was healthy and happy with her. Meanwhile Danny's life was a living nightmare. No one wanted to adopt a blind kid in a small city like Amity Park, so he stayed stuck in the crappy little orphanage with neglectful caretakers. He hated this place and everyone in it, though he had no doubt his life would be much better if he hadn't been blind.

Danny was killed when a drunk driver purposely ran him over for something as stupid as ableism. Unfortunately, dying as a person with a lot of sorrow and angst in his heart inside Amity Park basically ensured he would become a spirit.

No one could have known he would be so powerful though. Or that he would be able to "see" after his death. He soon became obsessed with finding the woman who abandoned him in this tiny city in the middle of nowhere and making her pay.

First, he needed a lair. He found out from research -aka possessing his mothers ninjas that felt like her and by extention, himself- that his father was Bruce Wayne- the Batman, and the first time in forever his heart filled with want.

He wanted a father. Someone who was kind and caring and who would protect him. Someone who would want him in turn.

He wanted brothers who would play with him and tease him and teach him him how to be like them.

He wanted sisters who would stand by him and hug him when he had a bad day and help him get away with things he wasn't supposed to be doing.

He wanted a family. The family Talia had cheated him out of. The life Talia had cheated him out of.

So he picked a mansion. A horrible dilapidated old thing, literally half falling apart. One pulse of his core transformed it into a billionaires dream. Everything was pristine as the day it was built. The gardens outside changed from weeds and grass taller than he was to beautiful paved garden paths, forever in full bloom.

This of course drained his energy and he fell asleep, never taking notice of the "For Sale" sign out near the gates

Needless to say, once he awakened he was not amused to see a couple unboxing thier belongings and taking over his home. He just wanted to scare them. He didn't think throwing heavy boxes across the room into thier heads would kill them, but it did. He killed them and there was no going back.

It was only a few hours later that he discovered whoever he killed within his lair would become a ghost.

A weak ghost fully under his control.

So he continued killing the people who moved in, but was sure to always give them a month to move out, signing a warning on thier calenders. Some left. Most didn't though, and became lesser ghosts.

His obsession with the picture perfect family allowed him to develop the power to trap any one person in a painting, but only one person per canvas and he had to have a full view of thier body and he has to do that double L thing with his hands and line them up in the center.

Once he lures his mother home with a mysterious letter addressed to her mentioning her League he wastes no time trapping her and hanging her portrait in the grand entryway.

He did the same with his Father, inviting Bruce Wayne and his wards to speak about someone committing corporate espionage in his company. Danny didn't actually know what that was but it sounded important, and the end goal wasn't to fool them but to get them here. Sadly nothing seemed to go as planned. First Jason snuck into the mansion as Red Hood a week before the planned meeting time and saw something he wasn't supposed to. Namely one of his victims. So he ordered the spirits to pin the startled Jason to the wall as Danny trapped him.

The painting came out better than expected. You could tell he was startled even with his helmet covering his face simply by his body language. The multitude of transparent arms coming through the wall to pin him made the scene all the more haunting.

The bats grew more concerned with each day that passed with no word from Jason and as the day on the invitation grew closer they begin preparing to go in groups. One group goes as civilians and the other sneaking about as vigilantes and trying to find Jason while Alfred and Barbara stayed behind to keep an eye on them and the mansion respectively.

Cue them arriving at the mansion and being forced to play real life Pac-Man and free thier kin from thier paintings while avoiding getting trapped in one themselves.

Eventually one of them discovered they could actually use the furniture around the house as weapons and Danny couldn't phase through it and they told the others about it so they didn't have to keep relying on Jason's unexplained ability to punch ghosts.

Eventually they manage to temporarily defeat Danny and escape the mansion. It was so hard on everyone listening to him sob from where he was pinned on the ground, begging them not to go. Promising to be the best little brother, the best son, he promised to be good.

Bruce took it the hardest. He had failed another of his children but he needed to get the rest of his family out of the sprung trap before the weaker spirits dug Daniel out of the rubble and the mansion is pulled back into that pocket dimension and captures them again. They had been here a while and he was fairly certain his family could/ go for a round 14 but he wasn't sure they would last beyond that.

So they left. But Bruce silently promised himself he would come back for his son. He kept repeating it over and over in his mind like a mantra to block out his sons desperate cries as they left him behind.

Needless to say the ride back to Gotham was mostly silent as his children processed everything that happened.

So, Ra’s Al Ghul hears from Talia that her son -no not Daiman, the blind one- is now an extremely powerful being that reeks of something similar to the pit.

This caught Ra’s attention, thinking that whoever could effectively catch Talia and trap her is someone worthy of notice. Even more so when he finds out it’s the failure that was cast off the League because he was blind.

So, Ra’s gets Talia to confirm any information she has of the boy’s abilities, and the most notable one was his ability to cast anyone into a painting by making a frame with his fingers.

So Ra’s has this whole plan in mind of how to get the boy to his side. By taking advantage of the boy’s young age and his emotional instability, by pretending to be this kind and concerned grandfather figure that was desperately searching for his long lost grandson for so long.

Ra’s Al Ghul doesn’t really have a sense of danger when facing Danny. Because if it comes down to it he can beat him.(Due to dipping and recovering in the Lazarus pit for decades, Ra’s Al Ghul has acquired the ability to harm ghosts, he also made it the same for his sword.)

So Ra’s goes over and plays the whole, kind and concerned grandfather card. Claiming that his daughter has prevented any attempts at locating Danny. And Danny, being emotionally vulnerable because of Batman’s escape and his breakdown, instantly believes Ra’s and starts to resent Taila more.

So at first he tried to trap Ra’s in a picture frame, claiming that he can stay with Danny forever this way. Leading to Ra’s stopping Danny from forming his frame and fighting back the weaker ghosts with ease, and manipulating Danny even more to get him to come with him. Claiming that he can get him what he most desires and that he loves him too much to just stay in a painting unable to hold his grandson.

It works, and so Danny leaves with Ra’s to the League of Assassins.

Now, Ra’s doesn’t tell anyone about him having Danny, not even Talia(As she is part of his mental manipulating material and can’t let the meet lest they form a bond) and no one else knows until later.

With the time that Batman is fully prepared and wants to take his 10 year old son back home to the manor to give him all the love and care he can and then some.

Only to find the lair empty. No signs of life, not even the weaker ghosts that Danny used last time to trap and keep them at bay. This leads to Bruce spiralling thinking that he was too late to save his youngest son and thinking that if only he was faster none of this would have happened.

 Cue over to Ra’s insulting Danny and telling him that he’s lesser. In hopes of lowering Danny’s self-esteem and making him rely on only him and no one else. If Danny cries, Ra’s holds tightly onto a part of Danny’s body and tells him to be quiet.

If Danny snaps and tries to harm Ra’s, he lets himself be hit enough that he can bleed. Then switches back to the kind and concerned grandfather persona and plays the victim card, saying that ‘I’m only doing these things because I love you”’, “Why would you hurt me? I’m just doing what’s best for you” ex cetera, ex cetera. He also says such things while giving Danny physical affection like a hug and the like, making it strike harder that it’s Danny’s fault and that he should have harmed his grandfather in the first place. As he is the only one that loves him.

Danny(being a literal 10 year old) has no choice but to believe Ra’s. Since his mother abandoned him, never cared about him and stopped his ever so kind grandfather from finding him(lie).

His Father never cared for him. He left him alone under a pile of rubble while he desperately begged for him not to go, taking along the children that he  actually loves with him.(bonus points if Ra’s told Danny that Bruce knew where he was but never did anything about it, even though all the evidence suggests that Bruce is a family man)

The people of Amity Park never cared about him. Hell, one of them even killed him.

Only  Ra’s, no. Only his grandfather is the one being in this world that cares for him and only him. He won’t abandon Danny like the rest of his so-called ‘family’ right? All the while Ra’s is gently telling Danny the words he wants to hear and nudging him onto the path where he resents everyone else and would be only faithful to Ra’s and Ra’s alone.

#Dc x dp #Ra's Al Ghul #crossovers #Ra's when he learns that his failure of a grandson that he kicked from the League to die by himself is now a powerful but mentally #and emotionally unstable being #Ra's: Haha free real estate #Danny the mentally and emotionally unstable being in question coming face to face with his seemingly loving and kind grandfather #Danny: Is this..a family? #When it's really not- #Also batman is there too being depressed

[lovibitchez]

I'd like to thank @nocturnalchaos for their kind review of this story. It actually made me go back and fix a few things I disliked about this and they helped me find my will to write again. So, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You really did help me through some hard times. Also, I have yet to edit it, so I do apologize for any errors. I wrote this at work on my phone.

2 years ago…

"What do you want from me, Rae!" Jason yelled from outside the door of Raven's room in the tower. Even if he wasn't technically on the hero side, Dick trusted his brother enough to be in the tower.

"The truth!" Raven yelled, leaning against the door to prevent Jason from trying to pry his way in. She would use her powers, but she couldn’t quiet trust them at the moment. Jason and Raven had been…. somewhat dating for the past few months. Well, not dating. Sleeping together. They were good friends at first, but after Raven came banging on the door to his apartment with tears in her eyes and a broken heart, they had been a little closer than usual.

"You want the truth! Yes! I slept with Rose! But it was before we started our little escapade!" He was frustrated. It all started with a stupid tabloid about Jason, son of Bruce Wayne, being seen with a blonde beauty with one eye at a bar. "Last week, that was business! She had intel on a drug ring I've been looking for. I don't know why you're so pissed. We aren't even dating!"

Raven opened her door a small crack just to see the frustration on Jason's face. His hair was a mess from constantly running his hands through it to keep calm and his eyes were almost overflowing with the pit. "How would you feel if you saw me with someone else?"

Jason froze, "Why would I care? It's your life."

Wrong answer. Raven gave him a bone-chilling look before taking a deep breath, "Goodbye, Jason Todd." She shut her door before teleporting out of the tower. That was the last time Jason saw Raven.

Four months later, the Titans were no more. Budget cuts in Jump City and the Justice League taking over, it made it impossible for the Titans to stay around. The Titans were all given identities, and some were given Halo-Rings to look more human.

Dick moved to Blüdhaven where he continued to be Nightwing and Detective Richard "Dick" Grayson with his new wife Kori as she continued her freelance modeling career. Victor mainly worked at the watchtower, being a member of the Justice League, but when he was back on Earth, he worked at an auto body shop dating Karen, otherwise known as Bumble Bee. Garfield was in college working on his veterinary license. And Raven? She disappeared. Not having a life on Earth before the Titans, she only had her fake identity and a GED she established before the team disbanded.

No one knows where she went, or if she was even on Earth still.

Until today…

Red Hood was notorious for keeping companies ensured. Some were small local businesses that paid him in food and a safe place to hide out while others were large clubs that paid him well to keep the ruffians and cops out. Tonight was one of those nights.

“Mama’s House” was a strip club that also worked as an underground Hen House. The girls were instructed to keep a sense of anonymity while in the club while servicing clients.

Jason was always impressed by the look and size of the club. Red velvet walls adorned with White silk curtains as decorations. The three stages separated by two rounded bars in between. For an illegal business, the place had some class. All but the owner. Oscar Danny. A large bearded man who required his girls to call him “Big Daddy”. It wouldn’t surprise Jason if he often sampled his girls, but that was Oscar’s business.

Or, it was. Jason sat at the bar, waiting for Oscar to get out of his “meeting” with one of his girls and decided to have a drink and a look around. After grabbing his old fashion, he walked over to the main stage where his heart almost stopped.

She looked different. Long jet-black hair, pale pink skin, and bright blue eyes. But he could recognize her anywhere. The way her body rolled against the pole, how she teased her hair when she was dancing like no one was watching. He watched her drop to her knees with her legs spread.

She rolled her hips to the rhythm of the music, stirring something deeply hidden within Jason. Yes, last but something more. It was like seeing an oasis after being stranded in the desert for weeks without water. She was a refreshing sight for his dark world. She always was. But he fucked it up.

He felt the pit surface as he watched. Her hips faltered for a moment so brief, Jason thought he blinked. But he couldn’t look away. Watching her do the things they used to do in private, put on display for dozens of men. The pit was bubbling in his eyes and he feared what he might do if she didn’t stop.

As if some deity heard his prayers, the music ended and she quickly sauntered off the stage. Jason’s feet moved before his brain could tell them to. His vision was blurred, all but her.

______________________________________________________________________________

Raven felt his presence the second those heavily tinted doors opened. She had hopped he wouldn’t recognized her. She looked different. She looked normal.

Raven stood on stage, the spotlight almost blinding. Her soul self snuck into the shadows, following Jason around the club until he was up close to the stage.

She probably didn’t need to use her powers. It’s kind of hard to miss a tall man in a red hood. But she needed to know why he was here. Was Jason looking for her? How did he find her? Why is he in his hero gear if he wanted to talk to her? Does he know? Raven’s blood ran cold at the thought.

Soon, the song ended and she quickly left the stage. Unfortunately, she wasn’t allowed into the back. Not yet. She had to walk the floor and accept request.

She left the stage only to run into Jason.

“Act natural” she thought to herself. Raven lifted her head to speak but no words came out. She stood there, looking up at him, desperately trying to stay calm. But it was hard for a multitude of reasons. His emotions swirled around like a storm. His anger was palpable. Like a dish coated in pepper. Yet, there was something sweet under it all. Something not like lust but it left the same taste in her mouth all the same.

“Excuse me,” She squeaked, her voice betraying her confident demeanor.

“Raven.” He breathed her name out like it was a prayer. As if seeing her was the only thing that has ever mattered to him. And maybe it was. Maybe he regrets what he said. Or maybe he was here for another reason.

“I-“ Raven took a deep breath, desperately trying to keep up her façade around him. “Who?” she asked fainting innocence.

Jason let a deep breath out through his nose before speaking, “Raven, I-“

“Mr. Hood!” a thick Boston accent broke his gaze, “good to see you again! It’s been months!”

“Oscar.” Jason quite honestly couldn’t stand the man. The only reason he was willing to insure this place was for the girls.

“Did I finally get a girl you’d like?” he laughed, “how ‘bout you two go upstairs. Free of charge, of course.”

“But-“ Raven chimed in.

“I don’t want to hear it. Mr. Hoods been good to us! He deserves to let off some steam.”

“You know what?” Jason said, never taking his eyes off the small woman, “I think I’ll take you up on that offer.”

Oscar smiled brightly, “she’s a hot one isn’t she.”

“She’s something alright.” Jason turned from Raven and followed Oscar up the spiraling staircase.

Raven took in a sharp breath and followed behind at a distance. Oscar had led them to the farthest room from the stairs. Raven took a deep breath as she stepped into the velvet covered room. Raven always hated the design in these rooms. Red velvet lined the walls and coated the floor. The round silk covered bed sat in the center of the room. Everything was littered with hearts. Neon hearts hung on the wall, heart shaped lamps and even a heart shaped chair sat in a small corner next to a heart shaped corner table. This room cost more than her apartment yet it looked so cheap.

Jason stood at the foot of the bed, watching Raven’s every move. She stood by the door with her head held high. She was here physically but her eyes were clouded with thoughts of being anywhere else.

“You treat him good, girlie.” Oscar huffed, “If I get one more complaint about you, you’re out of here. I don’t care about your little “situation”.” Raven only nodded at him, not trusting her voice. Oscar turned to Jason, “Just bring her back in one piece,” he winked before leaving and shutting the door.

Jason watched Raven, unsure of what to say. Raven was on the verge of a panic attack. Her chest rose with every deep breath and her legs faltered as she stepped closer to Jason. Jason took a step closer, reaching an arm out to grab the shaking woman.

“Raven,” he sighed. His arm wrapped around her stomach as he brought her in for a deep hug. Jason leaned his head on Ravens, taking in her scent. Even through the hood he can smell the lilacs in her hair and the old parchment she was often fond of reading. It was her and there was no doubt about that. “Fuck I’ve missed you.”

A part of her wanted to sink into his arms like she had before. But the part of her that he hurt wanted to push him away. To tell him to get out of her life and to never come near her again. Raven stood shocked for a moment before carefully prying out of his grip.

“I-I’m sorry.” She whispered, “I don’t know who you’re talking about.” The lie rolled off her tongue so easily. As if she had practiced for the moment for months.

“Cut the shit, Sunshine,” Jason growled out. He took off his hood and placed it on the bed. “You may be in disguise but I can always tell if its you.” He took a step closer and she moved back. “What are you doing in a place like this?”

Raven’s eyes never left Jason’s. His eyes had turned a dark shade of green as the pit spilled out. He was on the verge of chaos and Raven knew she had to calm him down. But something inside her seemed to snap.

“I could be asking you the same thing,” she growled back. “I thought you were done being the bad guy.”

Jason crossed his arms, thankful she finally dropped the act, “I collect insurance from those who need it. That’s all.”

She scoffed, “like a common thug.”

“Hey, I’m helping people. Not shaking my ass for every Tom, Dick, and Harry that pays me to!”

Raven was taken aback by his comment. The hurt she felt all those years ago bubbled up and fueled her rage, “Well I’m sorry I don’t have daddy’s bank account to fall back on!”

Jason growled, pushing Raven against the wall, “And this was the only option? Honestly, Raven, I thought you were better than this.”

“And I thought you were more understanding.” She glared at him. “Wasn’t your mother a stripper?”

“And now she’s dead.” Jason breathed out. Jason felt like Raven had just driven a knife into his chest and twisted it. Bringing Bruce into this was one thing, but his mother? She knew damn well that was a sore spot for him. “She was desperate!”

“And I’m not?” She scowled, “You honestly think I would work here if I had a choice!”

Jason took a deep breath, trying to calm the raging pit inside him, “You could have asked for help.”

“From whom, Jason? The Titans? They’re long gone! And the Justice League would never-“

“You could have asked me!”

Raven couldn’t help it. The laugh that came out of her was cold and humorless, but a laugh, nonetheless. “Right, let me just call up the asshole that-“ She stopped herself before she could continue the thought.

“That what? Left you? Hurt you?” He ran his hand through his hair, taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, “Shit, Sunshine. I’m sorry, okay. I shouldn’t have said what I said. I just didn’t know what was going on.”

“Bullshit!” She hissed, “You knew damn well how I felt about you and acted like it was no big deal!”

“I know, okay! I fucked up but please, just talk to me! Let me make it up to you!”

“No,” She shook her head, “This isn’t something you could just make up for Jason. We can’t just go back.”

“Then we shouldn’t.” He stepped closer, watching to see if Raven would move away. He sighed with relief when she didn’t. “Let’s go forward. Let me help you. I can-“

“It’s not that simple, Jason.” Raven held herself as she looked at her feet, “There’s something I need to tell you. Something I should have told you that day.” Jason stood still as Raven searched for the right words to say, “I was…” she paused, finding it almost impossible to speak. “I have, you have,”

“If you can’t say it, then don’t. Just, don’t disappear again.” Jason reached out to Raven, carefully bringing her into another hug. “Shit, Little Bird, I looked everywhere for you.”

“You did?” She squeaked, sinking into his arms.

“I fucked up the second I said that to you. I am so sorry.” He held her tight. For the first time since that day, Jason felt at ease. He always did when Raven was in his arms.

“Jason, we-“

There was a knock at the door and Raven could hear crying. She quickly pulled herself out of his grip and rushed to the door. When she opened it, a large woman carrying a crying baby stood there with a look of irritation.

“Finally. She hasn’t stopped crying for the last twenty minutes and it’s starting to piss me off.”

“She must have missed a feeding,” Raven’s voice was soft as she picked up the child, “Shh, I’ve got you,” She cooed.

Jason stood where Raven had left him. A thousand things were running through his head. Whose kid was that? Raven’s? Who’s the father? Was it his? Was it a clients? Jason saw red for a moment. The thought of Raven being in that situation, being used and tossed to the side, being alone with someone’s child. Had she been doing this alone?

The woman took a quick peak into the room and scoffed, “Didn’t know you were with someone.”

“I can take her from here. Thanks Sister Anna.” The woman scoffed and walked off, leaving Raven with her daughter.

“I-“ She held her daughter close in her arms, “This is Lillian.”

“Is she?”

“Yes.” Raven answered, hushing the frail child in her arms. “Um, do you mind if I?” She gestures to the bed. Jason said nothing. He moved slightly to the side and gestured for her to sit.

Raven took cautious steps towards the bed to sit and removing her bikini top. Lillian wasted no time latching onto Ravens nipple.

“How old is she?” Jason asked, watching the baby drink from her mother.

“Fifteen months, I think.” Raven sighed, “Jason, this is your daughter. She’s why I was so desperate.” She looked up at Jason, tears threatening to spill out. “I shouldn’t have kept her from you. I’m so sorry.”

Jason examined the child. She was almost a carbon copy of Raven. She had Raven’s nose, pale skin, and jet-black hair. If it wasn’t for her teal eyes, Jason wouldn’t have believed her.

“I have a daughter.” He whispered. “She’s,” Jason couldn’t find the words to say. His vision started to blur and he could feel his nose drip. Was he crying? Jason never cried. “She’s perfect.” He choked out. Raven turned away from him, bringing her attention back to the baby in her arms. Lillian had slowly stopped suckling on Raven’s breast, her eyelids heavy.

Jason bent down to Raven’s level, holding out his hands, “Can I?” he asked, gesturing to the half-asleep child. Raven hesitated for a moment before carefully handing Lillian over to her father. Jason carefully held her in his arms. Lillian was staring up at him with groggy eyes. There was a small smile on the baby’s lips. Jason let out a weak sob as he held her close, “Hi,” he whispered, “I’m a dad.” Jason wasn’t sure how to feel. He was a dad. He never thought it was possible.

“I didn’t think you could have kids.”

“I didn’t think I could either.” She admitted, “I’m a half demon and demons already struggle with fertility. But when we go into heat, it becomes possible for full blooded demons.”

Jason thought back to their time together. Throughout their time together, Raven had been in heat once. Jason remembers that week fondly. The way Raven had begged for him. The way she couldn’t hold back her moans when he was inside her. If Jason could, he would go back to those days. He would do things right. He would have told her how he felt the day she came to his door in tears.

“Let me be in her life.” He begged.

“Jason,” She placed a hand on his shoulder, “I didn’t mean to hide her from you for song long. I was hurt and scared. Everything just fell apart so fast.”

“I know. I can’t fix what I said, but please, just let me have a chance. I can’t lose you again.”

Raven wiped the tears from her face and nodded, “I can’t keep you away from her.”

Jason chuckled and nodded, “Can’t keep me away from either of you.”

Raven looked at the time, “Shit,” She mumbled, “I have to get back out there.”

“Wait,” Jason grabbed her arm, “Come home with me. Both of you.”

Raven thought for a moment than shook her head, “I don’t know if I can trust you yet.”

“Raven, please. I can’t let you keep working here.”

“Why would you care? It’s my life.” She stated coldly, repeating the words he told her that day.

“Raven,”

“I need to take Lily back to the daycare and I need to pay rent.” She carefully to Lillian from her father. “Come find me after my shift. We need to talk logistics.” Jason said nothing, he only nodded and stood up. He put his hood back on and followed her out the door.

It was two in the morning when Jason stood in the alley, chain smoking his second pack in the last hour.

“Dude, you gotta quit it with the smoking.” Roy chastised him, “She’ll be coming out soon. I hope.” Roy rubbed his hands together for warmth. It was freezing outside. The snow fell heavily on the streets just like it always did during the winter in Gotham. Roy was never one for the cold but Jason never seemed to care.

“I’ll stop when I see her.” Jason bit back, his nerves frayed from the earlier interaction. He was a father. No matter how many times he said it to himself, it still didn’t feel real. But she felt real. She was so small and so soft. Jason wanted to see her again. To hold Lillian in his arms just to remind himself that she’s real. That he has a child.

The back door to the club squeaked open and Raven came out holding Lillian bundled in a thick jacket and a blanket. Raven on the other hand, was in a pair of pants and a coat that looked like it had been worn one too many times.

“Sorry, it took me longer to get out than expected.” She held Lily close and walked over to Jason. There was a slight limp to her walk, one that Jason hadn’t noticed before.

“You okay, Sunshine?” He asked. Raven cursed herself under her breath. Of course Jason would notice a limp. After all, the world’s greatest detective trained him.

“Yeah,” She said a little too quickly, “I tripped earlier.”

“Another lie,” he thought, but chose to let it go.

“Raven!” Roy jumped out, giving the young woman a bear hug. “It’s been way to long!”

“Roy,” Raven gave her old friend a soft smile, one that made Jason’s heart drop. “It’s good to see you again.”

“And this must be Lillian,” Roy looked down at the baby asleep in her mother’s arms, “She’s adorable! Looks just like her mama.” He smiled brightly at her and Raven couldn’t help but return his smile in kind.

Jason walked over to the pair and held out his arms, “I’ll carry her.” Raven reluctantly handed her daughter to Jason who happily took her and wrapped her in his arms. Jason smiled down at the little girl, moving a strand of hair from her forehead. “We’ll take you home. That way we can talk in private.”

“I live just up the street.” She responded, walking ahead of them. They walked in silence, no one knowing what to say. Jason kept on peeking down at the baby in his arms, still unable to believe she was real.

“She’s a quiet baby.” Raven stated.

“She’s so small,” he whispered.

“I do what I can to keep her fed,” Raven snapped, not looking back at her ex-lover.

Jason winced, “That’s not what I meant.”

“So,” Roy cut in “How long have you been working for Oscar?”

“Just a few months. The diner I used to work at went out of business.”

“Such is the life of a Gothamite.” Roy chuckled. Jason couldn’t be more thankful that Roy was there. He kept the conversation lively and prevented any lingering hostilities between the two. That is until they reached the apartment complex Raven was living in.

Raven didn’t have to use her powers to feel their shock. Raven knew damn well how shitty her apartment was. The gray paint was chipping off the side of the building and there was a hole in the center of the roof. Luckily, Raven’s apartment was on the opposite side of the building to where the hole was. But that didn’t make the place anymore drafty.

She took out her key and unlocked the door. She entered her apartment and turned on the lights. Jason’s heart sank. The carpet had stains that must have been set years ago and the walls were covered in cracks. What relived Jason was the furniture. Ravens small living room had a small old gray couch and a tv. The floor was littered with toys and there was a large baby blanket. Her kitchen had an old stove and a small fried. The microwave had a dial instead of buttons and her coffee machine had seen better days.

“It’s no tower, but it’s better than the street,” Raven chimed in. She walked over to Jason and held out her hands. “Let me put her down then we can talk.”

“Let me,” Roy walked over, carefully taking Lillian from her father, “I’ll keep an eye on her while you talk.” Raven was about to protest when Roy spoke again, “I’ll call if she needs anything.” Roy held the sleeping baby in his and softly cooed, “hey, Lily. I’m your uncle Roy.”

Raven let out a soft sigh and waved Jason to follow her into a small room. Jason looked around her small room. The bed laid on the floor covered in blankets with a crib sitting next to it. There was a small dresser by the window and the closet was missing its door.

Jason looked back to the bed then up at Raven, “guessing the heater’s broke?”

Raven tugged her jacket closer to her chest and glared, “we’re serving, Jason. Lily gets fed and I’m making rent.”

“I’m not judging you, Raven,” he huffed, “I know you’re doing what you can I just wish you would have told me.”

“And what would you have done if I did?”

“I would have stayed.”

“Bullshit.” Raven hissed.

“Why are you so pissed at me? I’m not the one who hid our child from me!”

“I didn’t hide her!”

“Right, sorry. You didn’t hide her, you just never got around to telling me!” Jason took a step forward and Raven stepped back, wincing. “Your hurt.”

“I’m fi-“

“Don’t-“ Jason took a deep breath, trying to calm the storm that’s been brewing for hours, “don’t lie to me. Not anymore tonight.”

His voice came out so soft Raven could have sworn he was begging her. She looked away, trying to find any distraction from her own swirling emotions. “I can heal myself.”

“Then why haven’t you done it yet?”

Raven couldn’t hide from him anymore. The last two years have been hell. Hoping from job to job just to keep food on the table and debt collectors away. Her eyes burned with unscheduled tears and her legs felt ready to give out. She leaned against the wall, trying her damndest to keep the tears from flowing.

“I’ve gotten weaker,” she admitted. Jason took a cautious step closer, ready to grab Raven. They spent too much time together for Jason to not recognize when she was ready to collapse.

“Do you know what caused it?”

She shook her head, “my minds been a mess since I left the tower. And having a baby doesn’t really give me room to meditate or take care of myself.”

“Well I’m here now.” Jason took another cautious step towards Raven l, wrapping his arms around her and letting her fall into him. Jason missed her soft touch more than he realized. Having her in his arms again was a constant dream to him. “Let me help. If not for you, than for Lillian.” Raven let out a weak sob and wrapped her arms around his waist.

Her legs shook too much to keep her up, she slid to the floor with Jason still clinging to her for dear life. Her whole body shook with the force of her unshed tears.

After a few minutes of muffled sobs, Raven had regained enough composure to continue. “What happened, Sunshine?” The softness in his voice had almost brought her back to tears, but she managed to push them down.

“Oscar,” she whispered, “he got upset that Lily interrupted us and he thought you left mad about it.”

“So he hurt you?”

“I could have been worse than just a twisted ankle.” She mumbled

Jason saw red. How could he not? The woman he’s been searching for and the mother of his child was in a dangerous situation. He held Raven tight and carefully lifted the ankle of her pants. Her alkies heel was purple and had started to swell.

“I tripped.” She repeated her statement from earlier, “I technically didn’t lie.”

“But how did you trip?” He gently grabbed Ravens chin, inspecting her face and neck for any markings.

“You won’t find anything. My powers may have weakened, but I can still heal small bruises.”

“so he hit you.” He didn’t state it as a question. Son of the world’s greatest detective, he could figure it out from just the little information she gave him. Oscar got mad, hit her and she tripped in her heels. “Raven,”

“I know,” she cut him off, removing her but I needed the money.”

“I know.” He sighed. There was an awkward pause before either spoke. “Listen, I know I can’t convince you to quit or rely on me until you can get a different job, but please. Let me help.”

“Okay,” Raven conceded, “for Lily.”

“For Lily,” He repeated, “and a bit for you.”

She chuckled, “if it helps you sleep at night, sure.” Jason felt his heart skip a beat. The sound of her laugh was a rare treat to hear. He missed it probably more than he thought was rational. But he missed everything about her.

“I should put Lily to bed, I have to work tomorrow.” Raven carefully stood, Jason helping her.

“With that ankle?”

“I have to pay rent somehow.”

“But-“ Jason cut himself off. He knew damn well telling Raven what to do was a pointless fight. “okay. I’ll be picking Lily up tomorrow before you head out.”

Raven froze for a moment, unsure of what to say, “is your place baby proof?”

“yeah. We still have a bunch of Lians old baby stuff. I’ll put it together before I pick her up.”

She nodded, “okay.”

“I’ll be here around noon?” she nodded, opening the door to Roy holding a sleeping Lillian.

“She was an angel,” Roy smiled, handing the sleeping baby back to her mother.

“Thank you, Roy,” she held Lilian close and looked up at Jason, “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” he looked down at his daughter, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Lily” he whispered, gently patting her head.

Raven watched the men leave. She let out a shaky breath when she was finally alone with her daughter. “Well, I guess you will have your dad in your life.” The baby cooed in her sleep, cuddling into her mother’s chest. “Let’s get you to bed.” Raven carried her to bed carefully putting her in the old crib. She carefully put a blanket over the top of the crib, giver her daughter enough space to breath.

Raven quickly got ready for bed, wrapping her ankle before crawling into her bed and passing out. By tomorrow, her ankle should be healed, but Raven still remained cautious.

_______________________________

Jason walked down the sidewalk, Roy following close behind with a smile on his face. "So..." Roy said, elbowing his friend, "How does it feel to be a dad?"

"I'm not sure," Jason hummed, his face scrunched in a look of thought, "I'm angry Rae hid it, but I guess I'm... happy?" He sighed, "I'm not sure. I'm probably going to fuck it up like my folks did. Or worse, like Bruce."

Roy scoffed, "Please! You should learn from it! Plus, I think Raven is a good mom. Did you see how she held her! Man, if Jade acted like that towards Lian, I'd-" There was a swift kick to Roys' ribs, making him fall to his knees, "Noted," he groaned.

"You should know not to say shit like that."

"why?" The archer huffed, getting off the ground, "you've never cared when I've talked like that before? Is it because of-" There was another kick. But not to his ribs, Roy cupped his groin as he fell to the floor, trying to breathe, "Noted." He squeaked, voice higher than normal.

"Say one more word, and I'll make sure you can't have another kid." Jason snarled, the pit almost overflowing, which seemed like the running theme tonight. Roy shut up as they walked the rest of the way home in silence.

#jayrae #jason todd #teentitans #raven teen titans #batfam #dc comics #roy harper

[avaritia-apotheosis]

Phantom Children Ch. 6

Hi guys! I'm back <3 (also, I'm currently looking for alpha/beta readers for Phantom Children, so if you're interested, feel free to shoot me a message!)

In Which: Danny Attempts to get Answers, Bruce Learns, and Dick Finally Learns What's Inside the Door that Doesn't Exist

AO3 | Prologue | 5 | [ 6 ] | 7

DANNY IS KNOCKED DOWN three, four, eight times on the ice. Each time made his back ache, his bones bruised and tired, and his mind burning with embarrassment and a drive to lash out. But each time he gets back up. Each time he lasts a little bit longer against Talia.

The ice still shifts, cracks and rumbles with every wrong move. Danny learned to roll with it. Move on light feet but attack with a firm stance, gauge which parts of the ice are stable and which should be avoided. Multi-tasking has never been Danny’s strong suit, but he’s good at learning and learning quickly.

Talia corrected his form as much as she beat him down. Exploited every one of his openings until he learned to defend them and praised him whenever he managed to pull one over her. The League’s martial arts was the holy amalgamation between almost every single fighting style there is, mashed and refined to perfection to become almost unpredictable to the untrained. A vast improvement to Danny’s previous ‘fuck around and see what works’ brawling and had the added benefit of meshing together with his spontaneity.

“You are doing well, Daniel,” Talia said as she sheathed her sword, hand resting just above her hip. “You have improved greatly in such a short time, as I have expected.”

It takes every ounce of Danny’s superhuman energy to not collapse to his knees, his every breath a ragged shudder as he tries to get his breathing under control. “Still can’t beat you, though.”

“Very few can boast that feat.”

“I’m not exactly sure if that’s supposed to make me feel any better or not. Do I get my prize at least?”

Tahlia tossed her braid over one shoulder with a laugh. “Come, then, let us rest in the caves. The sun is to set soon and we must make camp before we freeze to death.”

“Hypothermia is so last season. I’m way too cool for that.”

He didn’t know whether to be disappointed that Tahlia didn’t react to his pun. It was pretty clever, in his opinion.

('Puns are the lowest form of comedy,' said mind-Jazz.

Says the one who named the Box Ghost the ‘Crate Creep.’

'That’s alliteration, not a pun.')

It was kind of pathetic that even his mind-version of Jazz was smarter than him.

“What would you like to know first?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Sarcasm dripped from Danny’s voice. He sheathed his sword and let it hang loose at his side. “Maybe how old this mysterious brother of mine is?” Ancients, his life was weird enough already, it wasn’t supposed to sound like the B-plot to a bad soap opera.

“Damian is younger than you by a little over four years. He will turn eleven this year.”

“Huh. Never been an older brother before.”

“Perhaps you might have been, if circumstances had been different.”

Cryptic. Great. Danny stepped over a particularly large crack in the ice and scampered over to solid ground. “You gotta give me more than that. What’s he like?”

“Prideful,” she said. “But skilled enough to warrant it. He was raised like a prince—as how you should have been.”

“And he lives with…our dad?”

“Yes. In America.” The cave was deep enough to shield them from the worst of the eventual mountain winds. Tahlia had already started building a campfire with equipment from her knapsack, embers eating away and growing into a steady flame. He sat down, legs crossed, beside the fire, hands tucked beneath his armpits.

He bit his lip, a question forming in his mind. “Do…do we have the same dad?”

Tahlia looked up at him. “Of course. Only your father has had the privilege of being called my beloved, and only he is worthy enough to have sired my children.”

Once night fell, it fell quickly. Blanketing as far as Danny could see from the mouth of the cave in a thick darkness. Snow fell from the skies in thick tufts and covered their footsteps.

“Does he—do they know about me?”

“No, they do not.”

“And you probably aren’t going to tell them anything about me, if you could help it.”

“That is very perceptive of you, habeebi.”

“You won’t tell me anything more about them, will you?”

“In due time, I will.”

Danny blew part of his fringe away from his face. Figures.

Despite the ever-present niggling at the back of his mind, Bruce had yet to see what was in the flash drive. The weeks since his strange meeting with Vlad Masters suddenly exploded with criminal activity with the recent breakout in Arkham and the brewings of another gang war in the shadows of Gotham’s paved streets. It was all hands-on deck. And Bruce, whether as Batman or Wayne, had always prioritized Gotham and its citizens over anything else.

The flash drive remained on his person despite the crisis, tucked away in one of the sturdier compartments of his utility belt to prevent the data inside from becoming damaged. Sometimes he found his hands gravitating towards it, fingers brushing against the button that would release the mystery from its confines before he realized what he was doing and steeled himself. Hands fisted to his side and attention forcibly directed elsewhere.

Eventually, the rogues were placed back into Arkham, and Gotham let out a shuddered breath of relief as it remained standing for another day.

Most of the family were out on a light patrol, cleaning up the remains of the breakout and helping where they can. Jason and Dick bickering over the comms whilst Barbara laughed in her clocktower.

(“It’s not that bad.”

"‘It’s not that bad’—shut the fuck up.” Jason spat. Bruce could hear him revving his bike. “You’re a fucking idiot, you know that? Certified Grade A idiot. B’s gonna kill you.”

He could hear Dick roll his eyes. “Sure, pile it all on, Jaybird. Blame the victim.”

"It was your fault.”

“It’s not my fault I didn’t see it there!”

"You tripped and got a concussion. From a stick. A. Stick.”

“Can we please just leave that out of the report?” Dick groaned. Barbara laughed. “Oh god.”

“Richard motherfucking John Grayson. I swear if you vomit on me then—”

“I’m not gonna vomit on you! You just turned the corner a little too fast. It’s nice to see you care though.”

"Fuck no, I just don’t wanna smell like regurgitated cereal.”)

Damian was benched from a patrol. Their last conflict with Poison Ivy ended with Damian sticking a bad landing and twisting his ankle. He dealt with it with as much grace as can be expected. Meaning that he spent the last few days sulking as he caught up on his missed schoolwork and shooting daggers at everyone else who came back from patrol.

Bruce flicked the flash drive open and plugged it into the computer. The flash drive contained only a single folder dated six months ago.

He clicked it, and a news headline popped up.

LOCAL TEEN DIES AFTER DRIVING OFF CLIFF

Beneath it, a picture. Blue eyes. Black hair. A familiar face.

Blood pounded in Bruce’s ears. He could hear nothing except a sharp gasp from Damian behind him.

When Dick and Jason arrived at the batcave, it was to an eerie silence. Not that it was usually loud, only that Bruce spent most of his free time down in the cave and Dick had come to expect hearing some signs of him around. Typing on keys, the clicking of a mouse, the heavy thuds of a fist meeting a punching bag or a training dummy, etcetera, etcetera. Or maybe even Alfred cleaning up around the cave, feeding the bats, or restocking their med bay.

(Dick, it turned out, didn’t have a concussion. Probably. Not a severe one anyway. What mattered most was that he managed to convince Jason to have dinner at the Manor. Alfred was making a tarte tatin for dessert tonight and those were absolutely to die for. )

One of Tim’s cases took him to the other side of Gotham. The only person in the cave was Damian, who was staring agape at the batcomputer.

“Why the hell is the demon spawn looking at old pictures of Bruce? We get it. They look alike.

“Uh, Dami? What’s up?”

Damian snapped his mouth shut. “I believe it might be best if you asked father that, Grayson.” Despite his clipped tone, there seemed to be little anger in his voice. His proud shoulders were hunched over on the chair, eyes trained on his lap.

He looked so small.

Damian clucked his tongue. “He’s upstairs, if you need him. So is Pennyworth.”

Dick shot a glance at Jason who raised his hands in mock surrender. “You’re up golden boy. Whatever the fuck the old man’s problem is this time, I’m not dealing with it.”

Dick sighed. “Fine.”

There was a door in Wayne Manor that didn’t exist.

When Dick was a child and recently adopted by Bruce Wayne, one of the first things he did was explore the manor. It’s the prerogative of every child that somehow found themselves in a large mansion—even more so given the castle-like exteriors of Wayne Manor. All castles have secret passages, and if the Batcave lay in the subterranean depths below, then surely the manor proper must have its own secrets.

Dick would tumble and cartwheel along the hallways, opening any and every single door he came across. A lot of them were just empty bedrooms or unused parlors and sitting rooms; the furniture covered by white sheets to keep the dust away. Alfred was probably magic, but even he can’t keep the entirety of the manor dust free.

The majority of the unused rooms were unlocked.

Except for one.

It was a room in the west wing, on the second floor. A couple doors down from where Bruce’s and Dick’s were. Why it was locked, Dick never found out. But he was curious since it was the only room on that floor that remained shut.

When he asked Alfred about it, the old butler only said that it was an unused storage room they preferred to keep locked just in case. When he asked Bruce about it, he’d be quick to change the subject. Usually something Batman related. Which, well, always worked, because it was Batman related. And Dick, young and spry and itching to fly under Batman’s wings, would quickly forget about that curious little mystery in favor of punching bad guys in the face and flipping over rooftops.

At some point that locked door quietly disappeared, leaving a blank expanse of wallpaper and a decorative vase where it once stood. It was never brought up again. And Dick slowly forgot that it was ever there in the first place.

Until now.

The wooden table and vase were shoved off to the side. Wallpaper sliced away to reveal the lines of a doorway. The door, covered in its faint damask wallpaper, was kicked open, the wood around the bolt splintered and cracked. He could hear voices—Alfred’s and Bruce’s—speaking softly on the other side.

He pressed his back against the wall and kept his breathing quiet.

“Three times, Alfred.” Bruce’s voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper. “Three times she’s done this to me.”

“Master Bruce…”

“I don’t—I don’t understand why—” Bruce choked, swallowing a shuddered breath. “Damian, I can understand. Jason, I can too. But…This? I—” Bruce suddenly quieted. Dick knew the jig was up.

He unlatched himself from the wall and slowly slid through the once-hidden-door, a hand kept on the frame. “Um. Hi, Bruce? Alfred?” The words fell flat, stilted. Dick winced as he said them. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but, uh…” He trailed off the second he registered what was in the room.

It was large, as so many rooms in the manor were. The room was covered in peeling green wallpaper with faded pictures of baby deer and owls and other woodland creatures prancing about. There was a dresser on one wall. A shelf filled with little picture books and stuffed animals on the other. A brown teddy bear had fallen on its face on one of the shelves.

In the middle—where Bruce was hunched over—was a crib. The wood streaked and aged with time, the beddings within pristine and untouched, if not dusty. Hanging overhead was a mobile with little animals dangling on a string.

“Worry not Master Dick. It is good that you are here since it will inevitably involve the rest of the family at some point.”

Dick nodded absentmindedly, trying to lock eyes with his guardian. “B? What’s—what’s going on?” Dick took one step deeper into the room. “The pictures in the cave. I thought they were you since they were too old to be Damian—” Bruce’s hands on the crib’s railing flinched.

Dick’s breath hitched.

“They’re…not your photos, are they.”

Bruce took a deep breath in, the lines of his shoulders tense. “No. They’re not.”

In their line of work, the answer could have been anything. Clones, magical doppelgangers, alternate universe counterparts, hell, even just someone’s genetic code being coincidentally similar to another person. But…this room, this nursery, pointed towards only one conclusion.

“Who is he, Bruce?”

Bruce angled his head towards Dick, unshed tears glimmering in his eyes. “He’s my son, Dick.

“He’s my son.”

#danny phantom #batman #danny phantom x batman crossover #dp fic #phantom children.txt

[ad1thi]

2020 fic recs!! [Part 2]

part 2 of my 2020 fic recs!! as before, ive limited this to five fics per month; and fics are ordered by the month they were published. This spans fandoms and ships, and hopefully you find something you like!! credit for the idea goes to @iam93percentstardust

***

July

this is the start: @capnwinghead

Clark and Bruce continue raising the Wayne children and encounter a number of challenges along the way.

great minds (love alike): @starklysteve

Steve’s eyes flicks down to Tony’s knees on the floor.

“Are you – are you proposing to me with my ring for you?” Steve asks incredulously, eyes wide and confused.

---

Or, Steve finds Tony’s ring for him, Tony finds Steve’s ring for him. Panic happens.

Marvels Unsolved: @iam93percentstardust

Marvels Unsolved was never supposed to be this popular. It started off as a novelty web-series about Tony trying to convince Bucky about the existence of the supernatural—he firmly believed that if science could turn Uncle Steve from an actual shrimp to the god of muscles, then magic had to be out there—and then they’d started talking about an unsolved crime from the early 20th century after filming an episode one day, forgetting that the camera was still rolling, and had ended up with enough footage to make a second episode about real crimes. They had stayed pretty unknown throughout that first season but then true crime podcasts had exploded in popularity and Unsolved along with them.

it’s a small world after all: @maguna-stxrk

“Great speech.”

Smiling at the compliment, Tony turns around. “Thank y—”

And nearly drops his champagne flute.

His world comes to a stop.

They had only spent a night together, but Tony would recognize those baby blues anywhere.

It’s Steve.

Steve from Tony’s London business trip. Or, as Rhodey has become accustomed to calling him—The Soulmate That Got Away.

you’re in my blood, you’re in my veins: @nethandrake

Tony always figured that if they ever were to break up, it would be like a blaze. Scorching and hot and all-too blinding. Intense like the two of them have always been.

Instead, they break up on a Tuesday, with the rain pelting the windowpane and the midnight silence stifling.

August

Five Times Danny said he’d marry Steve (plus one): @five-wow

Danny humphs. “Look, all I’m saying is, I think I’d probably have married you by now.”

“I’d marry you, too,” Steve says.

Or: An experiment in how many times you can say something before you have to put your money where your mouth is.

Family (You’ve Always Had It): @/SunnyQueen

A black Camaro and a scowling blond was not what Junior had been expecting.

“Hi, sir. You didn’t have to pick me up.”

The blond looked up from the screen on his phone and groaned, completely ignoring Junior's statement. “You are right, I didn't have to."

Ode To Yoga Pants: @riotfalling

OR the continued terrible mating dance of Bucky and Tony, AKA when betting on your friends stops being fun

Through The Years: @hawkbucks

Tony brings home Natasha one day, proclaiming her to be his new sister.

Natasha takes this all in stride.

The broken road that led me home to you: @just-fandomthings

A documented list of conversations between Steve and Danny via text and phone call following the events of 10x22 "Aloha." (Where, even thousands of miles apart, Steve and Danny can't go without talking to each other.)

September

someday, we’ll pass it on to you: @starklysteve

Steve smiles.

Reaching up, he flattens his hand against his son’s far smaller one, curling gently around it. “You wanna be like him?”

“Da!” Peter agrees again.

One year old, and you already know who’s the best of us, Steve pauses to reflect, all his fears chased away by a fierce pride. “Your Dad’s coming home real soon,” he promises, “you should tell him that.”

---------------

Or, five times Peter did the repulsor pose as a toddler

+ one time he used the repulsors as an adult

Classic Sci Fi: @notdoingsohot

Bucky wakes up to Steve telling him he's lost his memory, but not to panic, it'll only last a few days. Easier said than done when the last thing Bucky remembers is fighting Hydra with the Howlies in WWII.

He tries to make the most of it however, and there's this guy... Tony Stark. It's pretty clear the guy hates Bucky's guts, which is unfortunate because god damn is he a sight.

He tries to figure out what he did to wrong Stark, but everyone just tells him he doesn't want to know.

They were right.

Blooms in Frost: @/Diomedes

Tony coughs up his first petal on the sixth of July. He has been married to the love of his life for two years.

Bury a Hanahaki corpse in earth and it will beget the most beautiful garden. All that love, it is said, must go somewhere.

Hanahaki AU: Established relationship

------------------------------------------

A Single Thread of Gold: @lovelyirony

Rhodey doesn't believe in love at first sight or any of that cheesy shit. He just wants someone who is nice, dependable, and safe.

Tony Stark is Housing Service's little problem for the school year, and now he's stuck in Rhodey's room because he's exploded the last two dorm rooms he's been in and won't live off-campus.

high roller, place your bet: @machi-kun

“Would you kiss Stark for a hundred bucks?”

“I would pay a hundred bucks to kiss him.”

October

press my luck: @omg-just-peachy

But... Steve is almost ten years his junior, and he could be with just about anyone, looking and acting like he does. And then there’s the not so small fact of Tony’s name and net worth and the fact that, okay, Tony had paid for Steve’s grad school tuition, and now he’s worried Steve feels obligated to stay. Or something.

Or, Tony is a billionaire, Steve is a grad student, and they learn to let themselves be taken care of.

see it with the lights out: @starklysteve

Tony goes on a business trip, and he does not - not at all - get jealous of Dodger hogging his husband's chest, a territory otherwise known as Tony's pillow.

(or, Steve goes on an Instagram spree and Tony misses home)

adulthood is looking both ways before you cross the street and getting hit by an airplane: @starkslovemail

It was a perfect plan, if Peter did say so himself.

The Buy In: @dracusfyre

For the ImagineTonyandBucky prompt: Mafia AU with Tony as the Boss (except he's a really good one, making the streets safe, keeping drugs away from kids etc) and Bucky as the detective sent to go undercover to catch him out but ends up realizing he's actually doing more good than harm and they end up falling in love

trinkets of your affection: @starklysteve

Kissed him once for every year I loved him, Steve had written.

By that count, Steve owes him five more kisses now.

Tony traces the words, hands trembling, and tips back a shot of Howard's ancient whiskey. None of it burns anymore.

One day, he'll have lived more days without Steve than there are words in the diary.

For the first time since he'd woken with shrapnel in his chest, Tony fears the future.

----------

Or, five things Tony keeps to remember Steve by, and one thing Steve gives him to remember.

November

“Hey Tony”: @riotfalling

Steve points out that Bucky never calls Tony by his actual name. Bucky doesn’t believe him, until he does.

Remembering You is Hard to Do: @lovelyirony

“The future’s crazy, honey-bear.”

Jim looks up.

“Why do you call me that?”

“Call you what?”

“Honey-bear. It’s weird.”

“Inside joke we have,” Tony says, chest tightening. “We thought those couples that have the lovey-dovey nicknames were ridiculous.”

overheard your heartbeat (calling me yours): @starklysteve

"Tony - "

"I wish I could promise to come home this time," he feels the armor crawl back down his arm, continuing unnoticed over Steve's red gloves, then up the blue uniform as Tony fights to keep Steve's gaze firmly fixed on him.

The last eyes Tony might get to see, and he wants to be lost in them.

In the end, his entire life boils down a few simple things: "JARVIS, take care of him for me."

----------

Or, Tony overhears a phonecall where Steve proposes, a battle happens, and a paper ring settles some misunderstandings.

i (really, really, really, really, really, really) like you.: @nethandrake

For as long as Steve can remember, he's been crushing on Tony Stark. The thing is, he's pretty sure Tony doesn't know Steve exists. And how could he? Steve's scrawny and little. He's a nobody compared to Tony who's Mr Popular and the son of a billionaire.

Or at least he thought so until Tony swings by the bakery Steve's mother happens to own to enlist Steve's help in finding the perfect Valentine's Day card.

The perfect Valentine's Day card for someone who isn't Steve.

One Song (My Heart Keeps Singing): @iam93percentstardust

When Thor is old enough to understand what a Heartsong is, he goes to his mother to ask her why he can’t understand the language his is in. He listens as she tells him about the first soulmates who couldn't understand their Heartsong until the day they meet, excited by the thought of a grand adventure, one that will take him across the cosmos in search of his One.

He’ll search all the Nine Realms if he has to.

December

Swiping Right: @s-horne

“Ouch. Definitely a hard pass for that one?”

Steve startled at the sudden comment from the row of chairs behind him and turned around. He’d been passing the time in the airport lounge by swiping through Tinder and had gotten lost in his own world. It was almost jarring to be pulled away from the screen of hot men and back into reality where the PA was screeching and there was noise everywhere.

Adjusting to the difference, Steve frowned. Wait, he knew that face. Oh, shit… he knew that face.

“No, no, it’s fine,” the man said before Steve could get out anything other than an embarrassed sort of yelp. Waving his hand through the air, the stranger smiled ruefully. “I get it. It’s the beard, isn’t it? True be told, it was a weird winter choice that year and I knew it would come back to hurt me.”

Steve didn’t know what to say. He knew it must have shown on his face and could feel himself flushing, panicked and embarrassed all at once. What were the odds of swiping left on someone literally sat behind him?

set your flight path home (to me): @starklysteve 

Tony puts down his welding torch. “I’m building you a plane.”

Stepping carefully over the gears and tools scattered about, Rhodey slowly makes his way to him.

“And when did you become an expert on how to build a plane?”

“Last night,” Tony grins.

---------------

Tony builds a plane, and Rhodey teaches Tony how to fly it. Or he would be teaching Tony, if Tony didn't distract him so much.

I Want A Man With A Slow Hand: @thefourofswords

“Can I ask you a question?” he asked on their way to a crime scene, because no time like the present, and Danny believed in ripping off band-aids.

“Why not?” Steve replied, eyes on the road. “You’re gonna even if I say no.”

“What do you like in bed?”

*

Danny undertakes a very important mission to get Steve laid. For his health. Ahem.

same time next year: @omg-just-peachy

“I forgot to ask. When’s your flight home?” Steve asks, draping his arm over Tony’s shoulder and settling in against him.

Tony ignores the knot that forms in his chest at the idea of it, leaving Steve again for his own impersonal apartment, his piles of books and projects and the nights without sleep.

“Day after tomorrow.”

Steve huffs a little sigh, then brings his lips to Tony’s neck. “Well, we’ll have to make the most of it, won’t we?”

Or, four (4) Christmases with two (2) idiots who can't admit they're in love.

rearrange my heart (to fit your smile): @starklysteve

"You dare," Howard's chair makes an ugly noise as it scrapes against the stone floors, the chatter of the room shifting into hushed whispers and stolen glances. "I am your father and your King!"

"My King is my husband," Tony tips his chin up, defiant. "And I refuse to hear you suggest that my husband has been anything other than good to me."

Next to him, he feels Steve's shoulders stiffen in surprise.

Howard's fist slams loud on the table. "Your husband does not even love you!"

Tony jerks back, burned. He knows that. Knows that Steve did not marry him for love – does not need any reminder of the cold truth, of what he desperately yearns for and can't even hope to have – but the harshness of Howard's words was scalding, and Tony can't afford for this to go any further.

----------

Or, King Steven marries Prince Tony, Tony is pretty sure he shouldn't panic when he falls in love with his own husband, and Steve tries his very best not to cause diplomatic crises.

Keyword: try

#adi's rec list #superbat #superhusbands #winterironfalcon #mcdanno #buckytony #peppernat #superfamily #rhodeytony #ironfamily #and that's a wrap!!!

[arrowsandbats]

Tim’s Complicated School History

So I’ve noticed there seems to be a fair bit of confusion on where Tim went to high school, whether he dropped out or not, if he went to private or public school, etc., so I thought I’d create a general chronology of (Pre-Flashpoint) Tim’s tumultuous high school career. The confusion about this is deserved, as Tim has literally gone to no less than FIVE high schools and also homeschooled for a bit, so it’s a LOT to keep track of. Tim has attended both private schools and public schools, and has gone to school in Gotham and Bludhaven (and almost Keystone!), ultimately ending his school days when he dropped out of Gotham City High School during his senior year to go search for Bruce after the events of Final Crisis.

Here’s the breakdown:

Pre-High School: Tim attended private boarding schools until he was about 13-14 years old. To my knowledge these schools are never specifically named, but 13-yr-old Tim mentions in Batman #441 that he attends a boarding school just outside Gotham. In Robin III #4 Tim angrily tells his dad that him and Janet “shipped [Tim] from one boarding school to another and nobody paid any attention as long as [his] grades stayed high.” This seems to imply that Tim attended a number of different boarding schools, when there’s really no reason for him to have attended more than two (an elementary and middle school), and even then a number of private boarding schools are actually K-8 (if not K-12) so I don’t know why he attended so many schools?? Nevertheless, from K-8 Tim attended private boarding schools, primarily in the Gotham area presumably.

Tim was probably still in middle school in his earliest appearances (Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying, Batman: Rite of Passage, etc), but he starts high school right around the time he finishes his Robin training (around the time of the first  Robin miniseries).

High School #1---Gotham Heights High School: The first reference to Tim being in high school comes from the 1991 Robin II miniseries. Tim has recently started at Gotham Heights High School as a ninth grader. This comic takes place after Tim’s parents were kidnapped and poisoned, and so while Jack is in the hospital Bruce is acting as a guardian of sorts for Tim. It’s at Gotham Heights that Tim befriends Sebastian Ives, as well as his friends Hudson and Callie Evans. When Ives asks Tim about the fact that he seems too rich for public school, Tim explains that he used to go to private school but that Bruce had him transferred into public school because he thought it would be “more broadening.” Even after Jack gets out of the hospital he allows Tim to stay at Gotham Heights HS, although Jack clearly has a low opinion of public schools. Tim presumably started at Gotham Heights HS at the beginning of the ninth grade and attended for about a year and a half.

Interlude---Keystone: After the events of Cataclysm, Tim’s family moves to Keystone to avoid the chaos going on in Gotham. (They only end up staying a few weeks at the most, but they moved with the intention of living there permanently, meaning that Tim was transferred out of Gotham Heights HS.) In Robin #63 Jack mentions trying to get Tim into Keystone Academy, but that it’s tough in the middle of the school year and that he was working on getting him a tutor in the interim. Tim was supposed to meet his new tutor the same day that he went back to Gotham to be with Steph while she had her baby. He left without telling his dad, and so Jack and Dana come back to Gotham to get him and they all decide to stay in Gotham after all. It’s unclear if Tim returns to Gotham Heights HS briefly or if he just doesn’t return to school until he’s enrolled at Brentwood.

High School #2---Brentwood Academy: After the events of No Man’s Land, Tim is enrolled in Brentwood Academy, a boarding school in Bristol Township (a wealthy suburb directly to the north of Gotham, where the Drakes and the Waynes both live). After missing so much school, Jack forces Tim to go to a boarding school so that his grades will hopefully come up. (I think the reasoning here is that if Tim lives at school then he’ll have no good excuse for missing class?) In Robin #75 Tim refers to himself as a “new sophomore,” and he transferred to the school some time after sophomore year started (almost definitely after winter break, but I can’t find an issue that confirms this?) but before spring break. Tim’s main friends at Brentwood are his first roommate Ali, his second roommate Wesley, and his classmates Buzz, Kip, and Danny. Tim isn’t at Brentwood for very long though. After only a few months (maybe even less) of Tim being at Brentwood, Jack finds out he’s lost a good portion of the Drake family fortune in bad investments. He’s forced to withdraw Tim from school as he can’t afford the tuition anymore, and the Drakes sell their home in Bristol Township and move into their townhouse in inner-city Gotham.

Interlude---Rest of Sophomore Year: When Tim left Brentwood it was rather late in the year, and it was apparently too late to re-enroll him in public school, so he took the rest of the school year off. That summer he has to take a placement test that will keep him from having to repeat the 10th grade. He passes, so when he re-enters public school he does so as a junior.

High School #3---Louis E. Grieve Memorial High School: Tim starts his junior year at Louis E. Grieve Memorial HS, where he quickly befriends Bernard Dowd and Darla Aquista. He doesn’t attend school here very long, probably for about 3-4 months (he’s only been at Grieve Memorial HS for a few weeks when he’s forced to quit being Robin, Steph takes over for about 2 months, and then it’s only another couple weeks until the events of War Games). During War Games, Tim’s friend Darla is targeted by several mobs (because her father is an Italian mob boss) and mobsters take over his school and end up killing several students, Darla included. Darla’s funeral is one of three that Tim has to attend in as many days, his dad being killed during Identity Crisis and Steph “dying” at the end of War Games.

High School #4---John Wayne High School, Bludhaven: After War Games and Identity Crisis, Tim moves to Bludhaven to try for a fresh start. He picked Bludhaven specifically for an in-patient facility that will help his stepmom, Dana, process her grief over Jack’s death. Tim moves to be close to her and starts attending John Wayne High School. He probably only attends for about two weeks though, before he has his (fake) Uncle Eddie withdraw him from the school to start homeschooling. Tim withdraws with the intention of homeschooling until he can test out of school early. But it isn’t long (maybe another month or so) until Infinite Crisis, and then Tim and Dick go on a nearly year-long training journey with Bruce.

Interlude---OYL: During the missing year* between Infinite Crisis and One Year Later, Tim isn’t in school at all, as he and Dick and Bruce are travelling the world and training. 

(*Also, with the nightmare that is comics continuity and the passage of time, Tim really couldn’t have been gone for more than like,,,,6-8 months, as it was late winter/early spring when Infinite Crisis happened---at least according to the Robin series---and it’s summer when he returns to Gotham. He’s still 17 early in the Red Robin series so it couldn’t have been a year and a half that he was gone, therefore he could only have been gone for like half a year.)

High School #5---Gotham City High School: After the OYL time jump, Tim starts attending Gotham City High School. He starts during the “summer session” (presumably to make up for the semester he missed during OYL?) before his senior year. His main friends here are Zoanne Wilkins (who he starts dating), Jared Walton, Craig Pulaski, and then both Ives and Steph transfer to GCHS during Tim’s senior year (altho Steph is usually a year older than Tim in Pre-52 canon, so it really makes no sense for her to be there??). This is the high school Tim is attending when he drops out of school in his senior year to travel the world looking for Bruce. In Red Robin #17, Tim and Ives meet for lunch (after Bruce has returned and Tim has moved back to Gotham) and Ives mentions Tim not finishing senior year. Tim asks Ives how senior year is going---implying that the events of the first arc of Red Robin only take a few months---and catches up on how Ives and Zoanne are doing.

Some general Tim school stuff: Tim is a very smart kid, but not a very good student. In the Robin III miniseries both Jack and Tim’s school counselor make reference to the fact that before high school Tim had always been a straight A student, but that his grades and attendance have slipped considerably. He is routinely too tired to pay attention in class, he’s constantly missing weeks of school, he fails to complete homework assignments bc of Robin missions, etc. Several times he even references in his inner monologue that he thinks he might fail a specific class. And honestly, Tim just doesn’t care about school. He often makes irritable inner-monologue comments about preferring practical application over learning things in a school setting, he tries to get himself out of school permanently when he lives in Bludhaven, etc. That being said, he’s never been noted to actually fail a class and even with all the school he’s missed he’s never had to be held back, so presumably he’s still earning like Cs in most classes.

#tim drake #timothy drake #robin #batfam #meta #dc comics #our posts #i hope this is useful #i plan on making more of them at some point

[entertainment]

Entertainment Spotlight: Will Vought, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Actor, comedian, and writer Will Vought stars in the most recent season of the critically acclaimed dramedy series, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Additional television credits include The Good Wife, The Good Fight, both Lipstick Jungle and Love Bites, Bones, and Wilfred. Will is also an accomplished comedian, having toured the country opening for Wayne Brady. He got his start in the entertainment industry by contributing to Scott Shannon’s #1 morning show on 95.5 WPLJ, offering David Letterman updates and recaps, which opened the door for him to work for Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Following his work with Conan, Will was offered a position in the West Wing of the White House, working for former President Bill Clinton, where he still continued his radio work on the weekends as the youngest morning show host in the country at just 22 years old. Will went on to serve as head writer for Wayne Brady during his time hosting the The Late Late Show prior to James Corden in 2014 on CBS, and he continues to collaborate with renowned actor and comedian Paul Reiser, including shopping a television pilot they wrote together with Julie Bergman. We got the chance to ask him some questions. Check it out:

Do you have a favorite character arc from season 3 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel?

For Season 3, I’m finding myself really interested in Susie and her journey. I don’t want to spoil it for those getting ready to start the new season or binge the series; however, in the first two seasons, Susie’s been hustling and primarily being of service to Midge while her personal life hangs on by a thread. In season 3, there are so many more layers introduced and opportunities that will ripple into not only her clout as a comedy manager but also her personal life. Also, I’m really invested in Lenny Bruce. Having read so much about him to see his plight on screen told through Amy’s lens is incredible. I don’t know anyone in comedy that doesn’t appreciate what Lenny Bruce did for comedians. The end of the Season 3 premiere is absolutely priceless seen thought the eyes of Tony Shalhoub’s Emmy Award-winning performance as Abe Weissman - Midge’s father.

If everything that you did was narrated, whose voice would you want narrating your life?

HA! That is a great question, and I’ve had to think about it. At first, I thought of the late great voice-over artist Don LaFontaine who moviegoers would remember as the “In A World…” guy who made millions voicing almost every movie trailer ever! BUT…truth be told I think that I would love Seinfeld's voice and lens, and I think it would make my day to day activities far more entertaining to listen to, especially when on the phone with my therapist.  

Can you tell us about a time you bombed (on stage or in an audition)?

Well…the thing that pops to mind was an audition for NBC’s series called Lipstick Jungle. At the time, I was living on Long Island and decided to make the mistake of driving into Manhattan for the audition. Traffic was abhorrent, and you would think that there were mass casualties on the Long Island Expressway resulting in me being almost an hour and forty-five minutes late for the audition. The director of that episode was the one and only Timothy Busfield, whom I loved on Arron Sorkin’s The West Wing. Tim played reporter Danny Concannon - Senior White House Correspondent.

I had no idea that Timothy was going to be at the audition and was mortified when I showed up and saw him in the room because I was so late. It’s not unheard of to not be seen at all if you are late, let alone hours late. I read for the part and left. Tim was gracious. A month later, I got a call saying that I didn’t book that role; however, they were writing me another role and wanted to hire me for it. While on set shooting, Tim told me that when they asked him if he had any ideas for the part and he said, “That guy who came in 2 hours late. He was great. Hire him.” So I thought I bombed — but it worked out in the end.

The USO Tour scene from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel broke the record for the most number of background actors used in a scene for tv in the state of New York (850). What was it like being a part of such a huge production?

I’ve never worked on Star Wars, but that’s what I was thinking of when we were filming that. It was by far the largest set I’ve ever been on, and yes there were almost 1000 background actors there for almost an entire week, who made up the audience of the USO show that you see in the season 3 premiere. When I met with Amy and Dan for the final audition for the role of Major Buck Brilstein, it was at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn in a small room that’s not much larger than a small studio apartment in Manhattan. It was the three of us and Emmy award-winning casting director Cindy Tolan. We did all the material from the episode, and to juxtapose that to being in an actual hanger with 1000 extras essentially filming a USO show that’s scripted — it was a historic moment in television that wasn’t lost on me.  

What was the audition experience like for your role on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel?  

I kind of talk about that above. I had a great experience. As with anything, you have to go in a number of times, and then the final callback is with Amy and Dan Sherman Palladino. You are 2 feet away from her, there is a camera, and Cindy Tolan, the casting director, and you create the world and do the scenes — WORD PERFECT! That is a huge thing, and something I was told going in. Be word perfect every time. Their words are like notes on a page. Each one carefully picked and placed, and my job is to take them off the page and bring them to life with a sensibility of 1959 and a guy that’s a major in the army who always wanted to be a comedian but never really got the chance. So, my character is literally living his dream in this episode. Beyond that, you bring your A-game, nail it, and it’s up to Amy and Dan. It happened to go my way, and as I told Amy, I was grateful to get the invitation to play in her world. She wrote and directed this episode, so it was extra special.

Is there a specific role or moment that you feel has defined your career up to this point?

We’ll — this is pretty significant re: working with the Palladino’s.  I thought that The Good Wife was a big deal at the time — as I was part of Bob and Michelle King’s storyline that revealed Josh Charles’ character was murdered.  

It seems that I’m only allowed to act opposite actresses that have won 2 Emmy’s and 2 Golden Globes for Best Actress. LOL.  It’s truly a hard question to answer as each project is different, and as an actor, you hope that one job will open a door or opportunity to another.  That’s what I’ve found, at least over the past few years, so it’s certainly a slow burn.

Years ago, I was the low man on the totem pole at NBC’s Late Night with Conan O’Brien. I was an intern in the writing department under John Groff and often got the chance to appear in sketches on the show. This was an invaluable experience. There was an afternoon where I asked Conan (as I was cleaning his office) if he knew this was what he was going to do from the beginning. I’ll never forget what he said. He told me that, “In his wildest dreams he never thought he would be hosting a late night show.” He described show business as being on a highway. He was a writer in college, wanted to be a writer and set off on the highway with the goal of writing in mind. Along the trip, there were exits: Mad Magazine, The Simpsons, SNL. After each exit, he gets back on the journey. If you want to be a teacher or doctor or lawyer, you know exactly what to do. Go to X school for X years, and then they declare you as such. Boom. You’re it. Hollywood is not like that. Everyone’s path is so different, and how we get to where we are is almost inconsequential when compared to the culmination of the journey. I’ve been blessed to do a lot of different things so far and work with incredible talent that truly moves the needle in this business, and I hope for more opportunities.

What’s your favorite bit or joke from one of your stand-up sets?

I have a new bit I’m working on that’s fueled by my natural anger toward this situation.

I hate paper straws.

If this makes me a horrible person, so be it. If “they” think I don’t care about the EARTH or ENVIRONMENT and support the extinction of humanity because of this — so be it.

Paper straws? Really? Who did this make sense to? Who thought it was a good idea to combine PAPER and WATER?

I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time — but it doesn’t work. Three sips into my iced coffee and the thing has disintegrated, and I’m now drinking iced coffee and paper!

If you think paper straws are a good idea, let me ask you one question. Would you like to use a paper condom?

In the future, you’ll be standing in the rain telling your friend you can’t understand why she’s pregnant and soaking wet from holding the paper umbrella.

I will say that if we do switch to paper condoms …. I don’t know about the environment, but we will absolutely ensure the survival of humanity.

Lighting round! Describe each of the following in one word: Who you are, what you value the most, and what you’d be if you were a food item.  

I AM WILL VOUGHT.

I VALUE MOST: MY SON.

IF I WAS A FOOD ITEM, I’D BE A BEYOND BURGER!

What are you working on right now?

Right now, I’m working on sending out subliminal messages via Transcendental Meditation to Adam McKay for a coffee meeting that would result in being cast on the 3rd season of Succession on HBO.  I’d text him, but I don’t have his cell. Do you?

Thanks for taking the time, Will! Catch Season 3 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Prime Video. 

Photography: Emily Assiran | Grooming Laila Hayani | Styling: Natalia Zemliakova

#entertainment spotlight #will vought #the marvelous mrs. maisel

[jbbarnesnnoble]

Vulnerability and Other Things (Part Two)

Chapter Title: Dancing with Your Best Foot Forward 

Summary: You’re the newest Avenger still trying to figure out where you fit in and determined to prove yourself, no matter how many times people tell you you don’t need to. Balancing your pre-Avenger life with your new life is a challenge, one that is threatening to fall apart.

Features: Angst; unhealthy relationship

Pairing: Reader/Original Male Character; eventual Bucky/Natasha/Reader

Notes: The Reader/OMC relationship is going to be unhealthy. If that’s triggering in any way, skip this story!

We meet Danny in person this chapter, and learn a bit more about their relationship. 

Word Count: 1801

Part One

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The lunch rush was in full swing when you arrived at the little diner. It was a popular spot in town. You spotted Danny as soon as you walked in and headed over to him, sliding in across from him. 

“You’re late,” he said, not even bothering to greet you. You frowned.

“I had some things I had to get done before I left for lunch,” you said, looking around for the menu. 

“I already ordered for us. Burger for me with the soup, a turkey sandwich and salad for you with water,” he said. You felt annoyance coming to the surface but tried to push it down, not wanting to ruin lunch. You hated that habit of his. It would be endearing if he would choose what you actually wanted instead of what he thought you should be eating. As much as you loved Ruth’s Homestyle Diner, the turkey was always dry because people rarely ordered it. It was a joke among the regulars. The only person you’d ever seen actually enjoy the turkey sandwiches was Bruce Banner. 

“Did you at least get it with the fixings?” you asked him as you picked up a bread roll from the basket left on the table and took a bite. He made a face as he watched you. 

“The stuffing is way too unhealthy,” he said. You rolled your eyes.

“It makes it edible. I would have been fine with a burger. It’s what I wanted when you said you wanted to get lunch here,” you said, irritation showing. 

“I’m sorry. I figured you would rather have something light if you were training today. You know greasy food can upset your stomach if you work out after,” he said softly, taking your hand in his. You sighed. 

“I worked out this morning. It’s what I was doing when you called. My schedule got rearranged today. We have a mission brief and then we head out tomorrow,” you said, taking a sip of the water sitting on the table as your salad was set down. You refrained from allowing your face to twist in disgust when you realized it wasn’t a salad you liked. 

“But I thought we were hanging out tonight,” he said. 

“I found out this morning. I was going to tell you when you called me earlier, but you didn’t let me finish what I was saying before you hung up. I’ll be gone for a few days at the least, maybe more. I won’t be able to call or text you. I won’t have my phone on me,” you said. 

“What? You’ve always been allowed to contact me on missions. Babe, you can’t leave your phone,” he said. There was an edge of desperation in his voice.

“I’ve never been on a mission that requires this level of stealth. They’re starting to give me more responsibility an--,” you started to say before he interjected.

“And you’re going to tell them thank you but you’re okay with the amount of work they’re giving you? Honey, if you’re going on a mission where you can’t call me to say goodnight, it’s too dangerous,” he said. Anger flared.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Daniel, but my entire existence is dangerous. You can’t just say no, I’m not going on a mission. It doesn’t work like that. I know you’re worried, but I’ve got the best team with me. It’ll be fine,” you said. 

“I just...I worry about you. You’ve only been doing this hero thing a few months with them. It’s not like you’re dealing with petty crimes,” he said. Your expression softened. 

“Danny, it’s my job. You knew this when I took the position,” you said. He squeezed your hand, a little too tight if you were being honest.

“And I tried to tell you when you took it not to. Look at the toll it’s taking on us, on our relationship. I barely see you anymore,” he said. You stifled a laugh.

“Danny, we talk every day and we see each other at least four days a week,” you said. 

“Yeah, but we used to see each other every day. And now you’re saying I might not see or talk to you for at least a few days? What if something happens?” he asked.

“Someone will tell you, I promise. This is important. I love you and I need you to trust me when it comes to my job. This is part of the package that comes with dating me now. I know it's not what you signed up for when we started dating,” you said. 

“I’m sorry, I’m just being, I’m being overbearing,” he said. The two of you changed subjects to something lighter, avoiding what had become the elephant in the room. 

As the two of you parted ways at the diner, Danny pulled you into a kiss. When the two of you parted, you whispered that you loved him, heading for your car. 

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When you got back to the compound, you headed for the briefing room, arriving at the same time as Bucky and Nat. Sam was already there. The only person missing was Steve. 

“I thought you were supposed to be taking it easy,” Sam said. 

“So did I. But, FRIDAY told me my schedule changed this morning,” you said as you sat down in your usual seat. 

“Is that why you were working out this morning?” Bucky asked. You laughed.

“No, I was working out this morning because I’m stubborn and if anyone tells me to take it easy when I feel fine, I’m just not going to listen,” you said. You heard an exasperated sigh from the doorway and looked up to see Steve. 

“I argued that you shouldn’t be sent on this mission, but the point was made that your skillset would make it a lot easier. I still think you should be resting. And don’t think I don’t know you were in the gym this morning,” Steve said, giving you a pointed look. You just groaned and threw your hands up.

“You’d almost think I wasn’t an adult capable of making decisions,” you grumbled, drawing a laugh from everyone except Steve, who just had a small smile on his face as he shook his head. 

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It had been a few days since the mission started. You were close to wrapping it up and so far, things had gone off without a hitch. That was, until you and Nat were destroying the lab and grabbing what you had been sent to get. You were taken by surprise, thrown back through the glass of one of the walls in the lab. You could feel the blood trickling down your face as you got back up. Natasha was calling for backup as the two of you went hand to hand with the new combatants that had entered the room.

By the time the last of them were dealt with, the adrenaline of the fight had started to wear off and you were well aware of the pain setting in. The next thing you knew, you were collapsing onto the ground, the pain too much. The last thing you thought before going unconscious was that Steve was really going to tear into you for this one. 

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You woke up while in the air on the quinjet. You moved to sit up, only for someone to push you back down gently.

“Careful, you need to rest,” Natasha said quietly.

“What happened?” you asked, your throat feeling raw and scratchy. She handed you a bottle of water and you took a sip while waiting for her response.

“Your body was trying to deal with the pain as the adrenaline wore off. You’ve been out for about an hour. We handled what we could with your injuries, mostly just stitching up the deeper cuts from when you went through the glass,” she said. You groaned.

“Can’t wait to get lectured by the Captain again,” you grumbled. She laughed lightly and shook her head.

“Not this time. This time you didn’t do something reckless to end up injured,” she said. 

“You say reckless, I say “would totally look badass in an action movie”. But, I get your point,” you conceded. 

“We’re still about an hour out from the compound. You’re going straight to medical,” she said. You nodded, though it caused a small bit of pain to do so.

“When we get back, can you grab my phone for me from my room? I doubt medical is going to let me go back until tomorrow,” you said. She nodded.

“Sure,” she said. An hour later, you were taken off the jet and wheeled off to medical for more testing on your injuries. Luckily, you didn’t suffer anything worse than a minor sprain that would keep you sidelined for a week. 

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Natasha headed to your room to grab your phone as soon as the mission debrief finished. It lit up as she turned it back on, notifications flooding the screen, the majority from someone listed as Danny. She wasn’t trying to snoop, but the last messages that popped up caught her attention. 

Danny <3: You said it would be a few days. Call me. I love you.

Danny <3: Baby please call me 

Danny <3: You love me right? 

Natasha frowned as she scrolled down the notifications, seeing partial messages. She didn’t want to snoop, she didn’t want to invade your privacy, but everything about the messages was setting off alarm bells for her. Whoever Danny was to you, it wasn’t healthy. She was tempted to erase the messages, but knew that would only cause issues, and when you found out, because it would only be a matter of when, not if, your trust in her would be broken. 

She knew there wasn’t much she could do. It wasn’t coming from a place of jealousy. If you were seeing someone, it was fine. What wasn’t fine was how frantic the messages got, how manipulative they seemed. She headed for medical and right to you, handing you your phone. She watched as you unlocked it, your smile dropping and your expression changing to one of annoyance and frustration.

“Is everything okay?” she asked. You nodded.

“Yeah, yeah...just...a friend who was worried when they didn’t hear from me for a few days,” you said, the lie slipping out of your mouth. Though, you could argue it wasn’t entirely a lie. Danny had been your friend first, before he was your boyfriend. Natasha had caught a glimpse of the notification bubble on your text app. 547 texts. If just 500 were from him, he had sent at least two an hour, if not more, in the four days you had been away. An uneasy feeling had made itself at home.

#bucky barnes/natasha romanoff/reader #BuckyNat/Reader #marvel fanfiction #bucky barnes #natasha romanoff #buckynat x reader #marvel reader insert #Bucky Barnes Fanfic #bucky barnes/reader #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes reader insert #marvel fanfic #natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff/reader #natasha romanoff fanfic #vulnerability and other things

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Who's ready to feel pain again?

Here's an angsty eldrich horror prompt to make you cry <3

Au where Danny is blind and Damians younger twin. He was raised basically being told he was abandoned by his mother for his blindness and that his brother was healthy and happy with her. Meanwhile Danny's life was a living nightmare. No one wanted to adopt a blind kid in a small city like Amity Park, so he stayed stuck in the crappy little orphanage with neglectful caretakers. He hated this place and everyone in it, though he had no doubt his life would be much better if he hadn't been blind.

Danny was killed when a drunk driver purposely ran him over for something as stupid as ableism. Unfortunately, dying as a person with a lot of sorrow and angst in his heart inside Amity Park basically ensured he would become a spirit. That, or it had something to do with the Fentons expiramenting on his corpse.

No one could have known he would be so powerful though. Or that he would be able to "see" after his death. He soon became obsessed with finding the woman who abandoned him in this tiny city in the middle of nowhere and making her pay.

First, he needed a lair. He found out from research -aka possessing his mothers ninjas that felt like her and by extention, himself- that his father was Bruce Wayne- the Batman, and the first time in forever his heart filled with want.

He wanted a father. Someone who was kind and caring and who would protect him. Someone who would want him in turn.

He wanted brothers who would play with him and tease him and teach him him how to be like them.

He wanted sisters who would stand by him and hug him when he had a bad day and help him get away with things he wasn't supposed to be doing.

He wanted a family. The family Talia had cheated him out of. The life Talia had cheated him out of.

So he picked a mansion. A horrible dilapidated old thing, literally half falling apart. One pulse of his core transformed it into a billionaires dream. Everything was pristine as the day it was built. The gardens outside changed from weeds and grass taller than he was to beautiful paved garden paths, forever in full bloom.

This of course drained his energy and he fell asleep, never taking notice of the "For Sale" sign out near the gates

Needless to say, once he awakened he was not amused to see a couple unboxing thier belongings and taking over his home. He just wanted to scare them. He didn't think throwing heavy boxes across the room into thier heads would kill them, but it did. He killed them and there was no going back.

It was only a few hours later that he discovered whoever he killed within his lair would become a ghost.

A weak ghost fully under his control.

So he continued killing the people who moved in, but was sure to always give them a month to move out, signing a warning on thier calenders. Some left. Most didn't though, and became lesser ghosts.

His obsession with the picture perfect family allowed him to develop the power to trap any one person in a painting, but only one person per canvas and he had to have a full view of thier body and he has to do that double L thing with his hands and line them up in the center.

Once he lures his mother home with a mysterious letter addressed to her mentioning her League he wastes no time trapping her and hanging her portrait in the grand entryway.

He did the same with his Father, inviting Bruce Wayne and his wards to speak about someone committing corporate espionage in his company. Danny didn't actually know what that was but it sounded important, and the end goal wasn't to fool them but to get them here. Sadly nothing seemed to go as planned. First Jason snuck into the mansion as Red Hood a week before the planned meeting time and saw something he wasn't supposed to. Namely one of his victims. So he ordered the spirits to pin the startled Jason to the wall as Danny trapped him.

The painting came out better than expected. You could tell he was startled even with his helmet covering his face simply by his body language. The multitude of transparent arms coming through the wall to pin him made the scene all the more haunting.

The bats grew more concerned with each day that passed with no word from Jason and as the day on the invitation grew closer they begin preparing to go in groups. One group goes as civilians and the other sneaking about as vigilantes and trying to find Jason while Alfred and Barbara stayed behind to keep an eye on them and the mansion respectively.

Cue them arriving at the mansion and being forced to play real life Pac-Man and free thier kin from thier paintings while avoiding getting trapped in one themselves.

Eventually one of them discovered they could actually use the furniture around the house as weapons and Danny couldn't phase through it and they told the others about it so they didn't have to keep relying on Jason's unexplained ability to punch ghosts.

Eventually they manage to temporarily defeat Danny and escape the mansion. It was so hard on everyone listening to him sob from where he was pinned on the ground, begging them not to go. Promising to be the best little brother, the best son, he promised to be good.

Bruce took it the hardest. He had failed another of his children but he needed to get the rest of his family out of the sprung trap before the weaker spirits dug Daniel out of the rubble and the mansion is pulled back into that pocket dimension and captured them again. They had been here a while and he was fairly certain his family could go for a round 14 but he wasn't sure they would last beyond that.

So they left. But Bruce silently promised himself he would come back for his son. He kept repeating it over and over in his mind like a mantra to block out his sons desperate cries as they left him behind.

Needless to say the ride back to Gotham was mostly silent as his children processed everything that happened.

#fanfiction prompts #prompts #dp x dc #tw: murder #tw: blood #tw: death #danny fenton #danny phantom #batman #damian wayne

[scientifically-strange]

Flicker

AU where Danny is haunting the Tower after the Battle of Manhattan, anyone?

---------

The Avengers really couldn’t tell you when all of the weird things started happening. Partly because they were busy stopping the next crisis, and partly because they just never really noticed.

Not until Clint complained about it being cold, and if Clint was cold then Steve was tense, and Tony Stark made it his job to look after his team. He had silently accepted the role of being a sort of Den Mother to them, paying for their equipment and providing shelter and whatnot. So when Clint complained he was cold, he had the thermostat turned up.

“Dude, did it get colder?” Clint asked. He was shivering now, and Tony could see his breath. He glanced over at Steve, who was now standing up, looking around. Looking for someone to confront. The chill running down his spine was unnerving.

“What’s happening?” He asked Tony. A sounds started reverberating around them, and it took a few moments to realize it was a sort of laugh.

“Dude,” Clint said, eyes wide, “Is your place haunted?”

“Last time I checked, no,” Tony said. He was worried, eyes darting around and waiting for something to jump out at him. And then, just as quickly as it had come, it left.

“Jarvis, did you get any of that?” Tony asked his favorite disembodied voice. If Jarvis had a body he was sure he would shrug.

“I’m afraid not, sir,” Jarvis said. “My cameras seemed to be experiencing some technical difficulties.”

“Classic ghost sign, guys!” Clint said. Steve shook his head.

“There’s no such thing. Besides, even if they are real why would anybody want to haunt us?”

“Maybe because some civilians died a couple weeks ago during the invasion and want to pin the blame on us?” Clint offered. “Dude, we kind of knocked over a few buildings and caused major property damage.”

“That would make perfect sense if ghosts were real,” Tony said, waving Clint’s wild suggestion away. “Scientists have proved their existence to be fake time and time again.”

“I’m just saying,” Clint said, “It would be wise of us to keep our minds open.”

-----

The next time something happened, it came from the basement where Tony was, working on another one of his newer Iron Man suits. He hadn’t been able to sleep much, but Tony assumed it was voluntary. This was normal for him, even before the cave, and before the arc reactor in his chest. He didn’t notice that anything was wrong. 

At least, with his mental health anyway. His physical health, on the other hand, was suddenly in jeopardy as a familiar, cold tingle traveled its way down his spine. He let out a breath, one that he could see, and turned around. 

Standing before him was a figure, in dirty, torn clothes. He had black hair and blue eyes, and seemed to be struggling to stay. His form was flickering in and out of existence, and it was obvious the boy was wearing himself down trying to keep his form. He took a step forward, his hand outstretched, and then flickered away one last time. 

The temperature went back to normal, and he could no longer see his breath when he let it out. He had no idea he had been holding it. 

But right in front of him was a blank monitor, and he saw his expression. It was a complete stranger. 

Tony’s eyes were blown wide with fear, and his hair stood on end. He was shaking slightly, and it took him several moments to calm down and get his thoughts in order. 

“Jarvis?” He asked. 

“Yes, Mister Stark?” His personal disembodied voice answered. 

Tony was about to call for a meeting, but decided against it. Clint had said to be open about the thought of ghosts actually being real, and with what he saw today there was no doubt about it. But he didn’t want to freak anybody out. He didn’t want people to think he was crazy, and that maybe this place was haunted. So he made the executive decision to not say anything just yet. 

“Nothing. Just glad you’re okay.”

“Of course, sir,” Jarvis answered. He sounded almost pitiful.

------------

It was about two months later the next time the kid showed up. He had sifted through hundreds of files about missing kids or dead kids around his area, and so far nothing had come up. But maybe, if the ghost had more strength this time, he could ask. Maybe even get an answer. 

He had been in this kitchen this time, drinking slowly from his coffee as Clint discussed all of the stupid uses straws were good for with Steve and Bruce, who was doing more listening than he was talking. 

“-And that’s not even the half of it,” Clint was saying. “That same day, the guy shoved it in-”

He cut himself off, because now he could suddenly see his breath. Steve’s eyes went wide, and Bruce was practically gulping down his tea to stay calm. In front of them stood the boy that visited Tony last time. He hadn’t changed a bit. 

The boy, however, seemed a little brighter. He wasn’t as dim or run down as his flickering image from before. Now he was able to stay put. He looked around at the figures looking at him, and waved. The boy’s face split into a grin as he didn’t flicker away like last time he had tried to move. 

“Ha!” Clint said, breaking the silence that had swept over the dining room. He almost scared Bruce half to death with the sudden outburst. “I told you ghosts were real!”

“Who are you?” Tony asked, ignoring Clint. 

“My name is Danny Fenton,” Danny replied. His voice bounced off the walls, echoing like no other. It sent chills down all of their spines, despite his warm smile. “And I want to say thank you.”

“Thank us?” Tony asked. “For what?”

“You saved the world, and my sister. We were here taking a vacation when everything happened. She’s alive because of you guys.”

“But you’re not,” Steve said. He had a pained, guilty look on his face. 

“You guys are six people trying to keep the world safe. There’s only so much you can do. Besides, I can walk through walls now. It’s not so bad. But, um, can I ask you guys to do something for me?”

All four of them were staring at him, waiting to continue. For this ghost, the one of several that they couldn’t save, they would do anything. At Tony’s nod, Danny continued. 

“I dropped something, when we were running away. It was right in front of your building, and since it’s still under construction I hope it’s not to much to ask.”

“What did you drop?”

“A necklace. My sister gave it to me as a going away gift even though she was the one going away. Just for college, she’s studying psychology. But I think that’s what’s keeping me here. The necklace is green and has a little ghost charm on it. If you could just mail it to Jasmine Fenton for me I’d really appreciate it.”

“Yeah, we can look for it, and mail it,” Tony said, sipping his coffee. It was cold. 

“Thank you. Thank you so much. I could also use some help with one other thing.”

------

Jasmine Fenton sighed as she moved the last box into her dorm room. It had been three months since she and Danny went to New York, and three months since she came back by herself.  It still hurt, and no amount of books could console her, but she was okay. After all, Danny had saved her life. 

When she went downstairs again to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything, the student at the main desk called her over.

“This just came in for you, Miss Fenton,” she said. Jazz thanked her and took it up to her room. When she got there, she looked at it. 

It was a nice, fancy package, that was a shipping label and a red ribbon on it. 

“Tony Stark?” she asked herself out loud. “But why?”

When she opened up the package, though, she knew exactly why. 

Inside the necklace she gave to Danny a few days before he died. Stark was returning it to her. She clutched it to her chest, and tried to keep the teats from coming. She didn’t want to keep feeling the pain in her chest every time she thought of Danny. 

After a moment or two, she looked at the box again. Inside was something she didn’t catch the first time. It was a note, written in a hand writing that she didn’t recognize. 

“Jazz,” it said. “I know you won’t really believe this when you first read it, but here me out. I’m a ghost, now. I’ve been stuck in New York for months, and have only recently gained enough power to communicate with Stark and his friends long enough to get them to hunt down the necklace and return it to you. 

“We did some research about ghost stuff. I can’t stay here forever, Jazz. That being said, I’m sorry for what I’m about to ask you next. I need you to burn the necklace you gave me. It’s the only thing tethering me to this plane, and I can’t move on unless you do it. 

I love you, Jazz. Thank you for being there for me when mom and dad weren’t. 

Love, your favorite little brother, Danny.

P.S. Tony Stark wrote this since I can’t hold a pencil. And he said that if you needed anything to give him a call.”

Jazz looked on the back where a phone number was messily scrawled on the back. When she looked up again, her breath was cold, and her brother was flickering in front of her. 

“Hi, Jazz,” he said. 

“Hi, Danny,” she said. She couldn’t hold back the tears this time as she pulled a lighter out of one of the boxes she brought in. She looked at his smiling face as she flicked it on. 

When he burned away, he looked at peace, and Jazz sniffed, still crying.

“Bye, Danny.”

-------

I’ve deadass had this in my inbox for almost  year. That being said, I’m really happy with it

[frankiefellinlove]

Anniversary of Danny’s death

Bruce’s tribute, long but wonderful! There are some great early e street adventures! Remembering Daniel Paul “Danny” Federici (January 23, 1950 Flemington, NJ – April 17 2008, New York City, NY)

FAREWELL TO DANNY “Let me start with the stories. Back in the days of miracles, the frontier days when "Mad Dog” Lopez and his temper struck fear into the band, small club owners, innocent civilians and all women, children and small animals. Back in the days when you could still sign your life away on the hood of a parked car in New York City. Back shortly after a young red-headed accordionist struck gold on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour and he and his mama were sent to Switzerland to show them how it’s really done. Back before beach bums were featured on the cover of Time magazine.

I’m talking about back when the E Street Band was a communist organization! My pal, quiet, shy Dan Federici, was a one-man creator of some of the hairiest circumstances of our 40 year career… And that wasn’t easy to do. He had “Mad Dog” Lopez to compete with… Danny just outlasted him. Maybe it was the “police riot” in Middletown, New Jersey. A show we were doing to raise bail money for “Mad Dog” Lopez who was in jail in Richmond, Virginia, for having an altercation with police officers who we’d aggravated by playing too long. Danny allegedly knocked over our huge Marshall stacks on some of Middletown’s finest who had rushed the stage because we broke the law by…playing too long. As I stood there watching, several police oficers crawled out from underneath the speaker cabinets and rushed away to seek medical attention. Another nice young officer stood in front of me onstage waving his nightstick, poking and calling me nasty names. I looked over to see Danny with a beefy police officer pulling on one arm while Flo Federici, his first wife, pulled on the other, assisting her man in resisting arrest. A kid leapt from the audience onto the stage, momentarily distracting the beefy officer with the insults of the day. Forever thereafter, “Phantom” Dan Federici slipped into the crowd and disappeared. A warrant out for his arrest and one month on the lam later, he still hadn’t been brought to justice. We hid him in various places but now we had a problem. We had a show coming at Monmouth College. We needed the money and we had to do the gig. We tried a replacement but it didn’t work out. So Danny, to all of our admiration, stepped up and said he’d risk his freedom, take the chance and play.

Show night. 2,000 screaming fans in the Monmouth College gym. We had it worked out so Danny would not appear onstage until the moment we started playing. We figured the police who were there to arrest him wouldn’t do so onstage during the show and risk starting another riot. Let me set the scene for you. Danny is hiding, hunkered down in the backseat of a car in the parking lot. At five minutes to eight, our scheduled start time, I go out to whisk him in. I tap on the window. “Danny, come on, it’s time.” I hear back, “I’m not going.” Me: “What do you mean you’re not going?” Danny: “The cops are on the roof of the gym. I’ve seen them and they’re going to nail me the minute I step out of this car.” As I open the door, I realize that Danny has been smoking a little something and had grown rather paranoid. I said, “Dan, there are no cops on the roof.” He says, “Yes, I saw them, I tell you. I’m not coming in.” So I used a procedure I’d call on often over the next forty years in dealing with my old pal’s concerns. I threatened him…and cajoled. Finally, out he came. Across the parking lot and into the gym we swept for a rapturous concert during which we laughted like thieves at our excellent dodge of the local cops. At the end of the evening, during the last song, I pulled the entire crowd up onto the stage and Danny slipped into the audience and out the front door. Once again, “Phantom” Dan had made his exit. (I still get the occasional card from the old Chief of Police of Middletown wishing us well. Our histories are forever intertwined.) And that, my friends, was only the beginning.

There was the time Danny quit the band during a rough period at Max’s Kansas City, explaining to me that he was leaving to fix televisions. I asked him to think about that and come back later. Or Danny, in the band rental car, bouncing off several parked cars after a night of entertainment, smashing out the windshield with his head but saved from severe injury by the huge hard cowboy hat he bought in Texas on our last Western swing. Or Danny, leaving a large marijuana plant on the front seat of his car in a tow away zone. The car was promptly towed. He said, “Bruce, I’m going to go down and report that it was stolen.” I said, “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” Down he went and straight into the slammer without passing go. Or Danny, the only member of the E Street Band to be physically thrown out of the Stone Pony. Considering all the money we made them, that wasn’t easy to do. Or Danny receiving and surviving a “cautionary assault” from an enraged but restrained “Big Man” Clarence Clemons while they were living together and Danny finally drove the “Big Man” over the big top. Or Danny assisting me in removing my foot from his stereo speaker after being the only band member ever to drive me into a violent rage. And through it all, Danny played his beautiful, soulful B3 organ for me and our love grew. And continued to grow. Life is funny like that. He was my homeboy, and great, and for that you make considerations… And he was much more tolerant of my failures than I was of his. When Danny wasn’t causing chaos, he was a sweet, talented, unassuming, unpretentious good-hearted guy who simply had an unchecked ability to make good fortune and things in general go fabulously wrong. But beyond all of that, he also had a mountain of the right stuff. He had the heart and soul of an engineer. He learned to fly. He was always up on the latest technology and would explain it to you patiently and in enormous detail. He was always “souping” something up, his car, his stereo, his B3. When Patti joined the band, he was the most welcoming, thoughtful, kindest friend to the first woman entering our “boys club.” He loved his kids, always bragging about Jason, Harley, and Madison, and he loved his wife Maya for the new things she brought into his life. And then there was his artistry. He was the most intuitive player I’ve ever seen. His style was slippery and fluid, drawn to the spaces the other musicians in the E Street Band left. He wasn’t an assertive player, he was a complementary player. A true accompanist. He naturally supplied the glue that bound the band’s sound together. In doing so, he created for himself a very specific style. When you hear Dan Federici, you don’t hear a blanket of sound, you hear a riff, packed with energy, flying above everything else for a few moments and then gone back in the track. “Phantom” Dan Federici. Now you hear him, now you don’t. Offstage, Danny couldn’t recite a lyric or a chord progression for one of my songs. Onstage, his ears opened up. He listened, he felt, he played, finding the perfect hole and placement for a chord or a flurry of notes. This style created a tremendous feeling of spontaneity in our ensemble playing. In the studio, if I wanted to loosen up the track we were recording, I’d put Danny on it and not tell him what to play. I’d just set him loose. He brought with him the sound of the carnival, the amusements, the boardwalk, the beach, the geography of our youth and the heart and soul of the birthplace of the E Street Band.

Then we grew up. Very slowly. We stood together through a lot of trials and tribulations. Danny’s response to a mistake onstage, hard times, catastrophic events was usually a shrug and a smile. Sort of an “I am but one man in a raging sea, but I’m still afloat. And we’re all still here.” I watched Danny fight and conquer some tough addictions. I watched him struggle to put his life together and in the last decade when the band reunited, thrive on sitting in his seat behind that big B3, filled with life and, yes, a new maturity, passion for his job, his family and his home in the brother and sisterhood of our band. Finally, I watched him fight his cancer without complaint and with great courage and spirit. When I asked him how things looked, he just said, “what are you going to do? I’m looking forward to tomorrow.” Danny, the sunny side up fatalist. He never gave up right to the end.

A few weeks back we ended up onstage in Indianapolis for what would be the last time. Before we went on I asked him what he wanted to play and he said, “Sandy.” He wanted to strap on the accordion and revisit the boardwalk of our youth during the summer nights when we’d walk along the boards with all the time in the world. So what if we just smashed into three parked cars, it’s a beautiful night! So what if we’re on the lam from the entire Middletown police department, let’s go take a swim! He wanted to play once more the song that is of course about the end of something wonderful and the beginning of something unknown and new. Let’s go back to the days of miracles. Pete Townshend said, “a rock and roll band is a crazy thing. You meet some people when you’re a kid and unlike any other occupation in the whole world, you’re stuck with them your whole life no matter who they are or what crazy things they do.”

If we didn’t play together, the E Street Band at this point would probably not know one another. We wouldn’t be in this room together. But we do… We do play together. And every night at 8 p.m., we walk out on stage together and that, my friends, is a place where miracles occur…old and new miracles. And those you are with, in the presence of miracles, you never forget. Life does not separate you. Time does not separate you. Animosities do not separate you. Death does not separate you. Those you are with who create miracles for you, like Danny did for me every night, you are honored to be amongst. Of course we all grow up and we know “it’s only rock and roll”…but it’s not. After a lifetime of watching a man perform his miracle for you, night after night, it feels an awful lot like love. So today, making another one of his mysterious exits, we say farewell to Danny, “Phantom” Dan, Federici. Father, husband, my brother, my friend, my mystery, my thorn, my rose, my keyboard player, my miracle man and lifelong member in good standing of the house rockin’, pants droppin’, earth shockin’, hard rockin’, booty shakin’, love makin’, heart breakin’, soul cryin’… and, yes, death defyin’ legendary E Street Band.“

[aion-rsa]

Jacob’s Ladder: How LSD, Tibetan Buddhism and Tim Robbins Combined to Create a Cult Classic

https://ift.tt/2IoUKpW

Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin still recalls one viewer’s reaction to Jacob’s Ladder.  

“I was stood outside the theatre on the very first day it opened in LA, waiting for the crowds to come out to see how they responded,” Rubin recalls. “As the credits started rolling this guy ran out, probably five feet from me, and yelled at nobody in particular: ‘If I ever meet the guy that wrote that movie, I’ll kill him.’”  

It was  an extraordinary reaction but, then again, Jacob’s Ladder is an extraordinary movie.  

Released on November 2, 1990, the film was only a modest success at the box office, debuting at number one in the US before being knocked off the top spot by Child’s Play 2 just a week later.  But while plastic dolls reigned supreme on the big screen, Jacob’s Ladder would have its day on home video, where it garnered a cult following in the decades that followed. 

It wasn’t difficult to see why; Jacob’s Ladder was the perfect film for the burgeoning format, a multi-layered tale both thematically complex and utterly terrifying. While the film’s main scares were worthy of pausing and rewinding, the fact was that Jacob’s Ladder demanded multiple viewings.

For director Adrian Lyne, that proved crucial to the film’s enduring popularity.

“You probably needed to see the movie twice to sort of understand it. You probably would’ve enjoyed it better the second time,” he told ComingSoon.

Not that his remarks were meant as a criticism – there was just a lot to unpack, in particular that ending.

Set in a grimy 1970s New York, the film ostensibly follows the story of Jacob Singer, a postal worker haunted by his experiences in Vietnam and the death of his young son (an uncredited Macaulay Culkin). Jacob’s damaged existence is shattered further when he becomes increasingly plagued by vivid hallucinations of demon-like creatures and otherworldly realms.

Divorced and living with girlfriend Jezzie (Elizabeth Peña), as Jacob journeys further down the rabbit hole he learns he and his fellow G.I.’s may have been test subjects for an experimental drug known as Jacob’s Ladder.  However, with his haunting visions intensifying, Jacob soon finds himself caught between questioning the very basis of his existence and desperately seeking the truth of his condition with the help of his chiropractor Louie (Danny Aiello).

Featuring standout supporting turns from Peña and Aiello, Jacob’s Ladder is notable for handing Tim Robbins his first major dramatic role. Up until that point Robbins had been better known for comedic turns in films like Tapeheads, Bull Durham, and Howard The Duck. The role of Jacob Singer arguably changed his life.

Yet what makes the movie so unique is that while it is both thriller and psychological horror, Jacob’s Ladder ultimately transcends both to emerge as something spiritual and transformative. It’s in the final denouement that audiences discover everything they have been watching has been playing out in Jacob’s imagination as he lies dying in a makeshift Vietnam hospital (something hinted at in a series of brief flashbacks).

A metaphysical trip of a movie, the idea for Jacob’s Ladder was born out of an altogether different kind of trip Rubin went on while studying screenwriting alongside the likes of Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma at NYU.

“I guess the seed formed for most of my writing during an LSD trip in 1965,” he tells Den of Geek. “My roommate at the time was a very good friend of Timothy Leary [an American psychologist and writer known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs] and he gave me a tablet of LSD. He said it was strong and that I should take it whenever I felt it was right. So I kept it in my wallet for about six months.”

The day eventually came. 

“The day I decided to take it, a man arrived at our apartment,” Rubin says. “He was bringing a jar of lysergic acid (pure liquid LSD) with him from some laboratories in Switzerland. He asked if he could leave it in our refrigerator before going up to Millbrook, New York, which is where Leary and his guys were all devoting their time to ‘experimentation’.”   

Rubin’s trip began with a common mistake many have made with hallucinogens.

“That night I took the tablet that had been sitting in my wallet and nothing happened,” he says. “My roommate said, ‘well, we have  this pure lysergic acid sitting in the refrigerator, why don’t I get an eyedropper and I’ll give you a drop?’ I said ‘OK’. So he went to give me a drop from the eyedropper and by mistake squeezed thousands of micrograms of LSD down my throat.”    

The subsequent LSD trip Rubin experienced changed his outlook on life, death and spirituality.

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“What came out of that was a mystical experience so profound, but I could find nothing in Western teaching that talked about it,” he says. “But I did find teachings in Eastern religions like Tibetan Buddhism. I decided that I needed to go to places like India and Nepal and meet with teachers to get an understanding of what it was that happened because I entered a world  so much bigger than the world we know experientially, so much more vast and internal, if you will, that I needed some direction.”

Despite bagging a job as an assistant film editor with NBC upon graduation, Rubin had been changed by his LSD experience. Ditching the job, he spent time in Greece before hitchhiking through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan en route to the east and further enlightenment.

Rubin spent time in ashrams in India, a Tibetan monastery in Kathmandu, a Buddhist temple in Bangkok, and a Sikh temple in Singapore as part of a journey that saw him encounter multiple faiths and cultures.

Yet it wasn’t until he returned to New York and met Albert Rudolph, aka Swami Rudrananda, a spiritual teacher who specialised in yoga and meditation, that he began to find the answers he sought.

A jobbing writer in Hollywood, the idea for Jacob’s Ladder came to him one night in a nightmare that began on a near-deserted late night New York subway train.

“I had a dream where I get off the train and end up trapped in a subway station with no exits,” he says. “I realize the only way out is down through the dark tunnel of the subway into some kind of awful hell. But I have to make that journey, because ultimately it’s the journey to my own liberation.”

From there Rubin began to piece together the film’s plot, recalling an Ambrose Bierce short story that had a profound impact on him.

“I had this recollection of  ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’ which is the story of what goes on in the mind of a man who’s about to be hung,” he says. “He imagines the rope snaps and he get away. He meets a woman and he’s been running back to find her and just as they embrace he feels a huge pull on his neck and he’s hung off the bridge.”

Rubin was fascinated by the idea of a film that fused that narrative with the Tibetan Book of the Dead and the concept of an after-death experience that offers an individual the chance to achieve peace and closure with what they leave behind.

“It’s the idea of what happens inside the mind of a man as he dies,” he says. “Working out all the things they never addressed when they were alive. It is a confusing, complicated state of consciousness. Time is subjective, so that years could be experienced in a matter of milliseconds. Rather than running away from the problem, it’s about embracing it. For Jacob, that moment comes with his son. He learns that it’s only though the biggest losses and the greatest pain and the most broken heart, that you discover your way to liberation.”

Rubin began work as far back as 1980 on the script for Jacob’s Ladder and even began working on the initial treatment for another film, which would go on to become the Oscar-winning Patrick Swayze favourite Ghost.

“Both films shared a certain kind of storytelling idea, one being more frightening and more horror and the other something more popularized,” he says. “But both were trying to convey this idea that death is not what you think is.”

However, after moving his family to LA to focus on becoming a successful screenwriter, Rubin was dumped by his agent, who told him his work was “too metaphysical and nobody wanted to make movies about ghosts.”

His fortunes would soon change though when the script for Jacob’s Ladder was named on a list published by American Film magazine of the best unproduced scripts in Hollywood.

It was in good company alongside the scripts for films like The Princess Bride and Total Recall with the article stating how it was “one of the very few screenplays. . . with the power to consistently raise hackles in broad daylight.”

Even so, it would take a few more years to get Jacob’s Ladder off the ground with Rubin determined to stay as true to his original script as possible. That required a significant budget and a director with a significant amount of commercial clout.

Ridley Scott, Michael Apted, and Sidney Lumet all expressed an interest but it was Lyne who took a leap of faith describing it as “one of the best scripts I’ve ever read”.

It proved a shrewd move for all involved with Lyne turning down the chance to adapt Tom Wolfe’s satirical novel The Bonfire of the Vanities in favor of Jacob’s Ladder.

“He’s a great artist. He brought a great vision,” Rubin says of Lyne. “If he hadn’t made Fatal Attraction before, it probably wouldn’t have gotten the green light.”

Meanwhile Rubin’s old NYU friend, De Palma, would go on to direct what became one of the most notorious flops in movie history with Bonfire of the Vanities.

With Jacob’s Ladder, Lyne sought to move away from the old testament-like demons that torment Jacob  in the original script, preferring something that would further blur the line between dream and reality.

“He didn’t want the spiritual iconography, horns and tails and things like that, that represent demons and angels, wings and things,” Rubin says. “Instead he wanted to play around with nodules and growths coming out of people’s heads. Some kind of human and disturbing. It sounded great and ended up being quite terrifying. Characters could be both demonic and human at the same time.”   

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How Arachnophobia Became the Perfect Creepy Crawly Horror Comedy

By Jack Beresford

Another area they disagreed on was the film’s ending. Rubin originally envisioned a more Biblical conclusion in which Jacob was set on fire by girlfriend Jezzie before ascending to Heaven on the Jacob’s Ladder that features in the book of Genesis.

“Jacob would be burned to a crisp. Louie the chiropractor (Aiello) finds him and comes over to this shell of a person and he looks at this ash in the form of Jacob and then Jacob’s eyes open,” he says. “And Louie says ‘Jacob your body can’t hold you anymore’ and  pulls at the ash surrounding him and beams of light pour out and you realise he is nothing but light. Then he starts walking up the ladder and disappears. That was the original version. I don’t know if it’s any better, but I always loved it and it never got made. But, you know, in Hollywood you rarely get to see the movie you wrote.”

Opting against any post-production special effects, Lyne preferred to offer only glimpses of the horrors Jacob faces, flashes and disturbing moments inspired by the art of Francis Bacon and H.R. Giger and the photography of Diane Arbus and Joel-Peter Witkin and filmed against the backdrop of a Gothic-tinged vision of New York that chimed with Rubin’s script.

Lyne’s eye for experimentation and “less is more approach” proved crucial in shaping the nightmare world of Jacob’s reality. In one neat bit of camera trickery, actors were recorded shaking their head at a low frame rate which, when played back in fast motion, created the nightmarish faceless vibrating figures that feature in the film. Lyne further hinted at the film’s shock ending by having helicopter sounds played over the effect.

For all the visuals deployed, the film might have fallen flat without Robbins’s affecting performance. Coming several years before The Shawshank Redemption, the casting represented a gamble for all involved, given Robbins’s status as a comedic supporting star up until that point.

Handed the role after first choice Tom Hanks opted to star in the regrettable Bonfire of the Vanities, Robbins was determined to make the most of his opportunity.

“I’m always looking for something that takes a left turn, and this was a great opportunity to go in a different direction,” Robbins told the New York Times. “I love doing comedy, but I know I can do other things as well.”

Even so, Rubin recalls that Robbins took a little convincing, having taken a fancy to the other film he was working on at the time.

“He didn’t want to do Jacob’s Ladder. Tim wanted to star in Ghost but he was the wrong kind of actor. He was perfect for Jacob’s Ladder. It took a lot of convincing to get him to say yes to Jacob’s Ladder but I think now he’s happy that he did it.”

Read more

Movies

Katharine Isabelle on How Ginger Snaps Explored the Horror of Womanhood

By Rosie Fletcher

30 years on, Robbins can have few regrets about starring in the film, which continues to find new fans and spark repeated viewings and debate among fans thanks to that unique ending which not only served up a major twist but, with it, a sense of awakening to the idea of a plain of existence beyond the mortal coil.

“I think it’s the fact that you don’t know what’s going on. You’re scared,” Rubin says. “What’s happening makes no sense. The fact that you’re so engaged by Jacob’s relationship with Jezzie to then discover that he has a wife and children. Then having no idea how these things come together and seeing snippets of these scenes of Vietnam.  In your mind, you are watching the film knowing something is drastically wrong and wanting to resolve it. And then in the final moments, they pronounce him dead and there’s this kind of shock of ‘oh my God, that was the answer’. It’s designed to be a big wake up call.”

The screenwriter also finds it fitting that many come to the film in much the same way he came to the idea back in 1965.

“I have heard it’s a rite of passage for sophomores in some US colleges to get stoned often for the first time – or, you know, not the first time – and watch Jacob’s Ladder,” he says. “It’s like the perfect stoner movie, it really is, because getting stoned is like a little glimpse into LSD. Marijuana is a kindergarten step into the graduate degree of LSD.”

Ghost may have ended up bagging Rubin the Oscar for best original screenplay but he’ll always have a soft spot for Jacob’s Ladder.

“I remain very proud of it and I think without Adrian Lyne directing it would never have been what it is,” Rubin says. “So many films just disappear into the ether. But certain films stay with you. Jacob’s Ladder speaks to the human condition. I tried very hard to make movies that offered different perspectives. There’s a lot to talk about in their world and it’s hard to get Hollywood to make those movies. I’m very grateful. I got to speak to the world.”

The post Jacob’s Ladder: How LSD, Tibetan Buddhism and Tim Robbins Combined to Create a Cult Classic appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/32uTBDV

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[dragonnan]

Big, Ginormous, Awesome, Epic Fic Rec!!

I’ve decided to share a pile of some of my favorite fics from multiple genres.  There’s no way I’ll get them all here but I’ll do my best to fill this post with as many as possible!!

Also, I’m gonna include a few of my own works at the bottom :D

**************************

Anime:

The Lucky Ones by Terri Botta (Isilwath) (Inuyasha) Sometimes Fate hands you a gift you never thought you’d ever get, and it’s up to you to accept it for what it is. [Hand’s down the BEST Inuyasha post-series fanfic I’ve EVER READ!!! One note - this series was begun before the anime was completed so there are a few canon divergences.  As it is, I prefer the way this story brought things to a close so I have no problems with that.  Also, this is a MATURE story with good reason! Lots of sexy times throughout - but wonderfully written and absolutely crucial to the story progression.  I never felt the sexy parts were thrown in purely for the smex.] 

The Coyote Child by Terri Botta (Isilwath) (Inuyasha) Sequel to The Lucky Ones. Inuyasha and Kagome are asked to adopt a coyote-hanyou baby from Arizona. [WIP but worth it!!!!]

You're not Alone by Of Memories Past (Inuyasha) After the final battle with Naraku the well seals, forcing Kagome back to her time for good. Only Inuyasha knows a way for them to be reunited again, and it doesn't involve the well...

Always My Soul by dragonfly-rising (Inuyasha) Why is it always my soul people mess with? Kagome asked herself in a moment of hopeless annoyance.The attack had come with no warning. And in the end Kagome could find no reason why she, Inuyasha, or Miroku should have seen it

Stricken by Scribe Figaro (Inuyasha) A single blow fells Sango and reveals to Miroku a nightmare to which the Kazaana cannot compare.

Purity by Sueric (Inuyasha) Naraku is gone. Kagome has the jewel. After seeing InuYasha's torment, Kagome faces 'the truth' of his feelings. Kagome does the unthinkable, and in a final act of love, Kikyou offers InuYasha one chance to fix it. But is he too late? [Explicit rating but not pwp.  Excellent first story in a long series.]

Two Good Legs by Harukami

Balance of Power by multiple writers (Fullmetal Alchemist) Full disclosure- I am one of the writers, though I joined the project well into its creation.  Look, this thing is MASSIVE.  And still has 3 arcs to go - though its been on indefinite hiatus.  Still, what is there is basically complete and SOOOOOOOOOOO worth the read!! I assure you!! Time travel. Conspiracy theories. Leylines. Pop culture crack and bad movie references. Hackers, ghost hunters and detectives, oh my! When crossing the gate, be sure to look both ways...

Taken by Confusedrambler (Fullmetal Alchemist) An Ed!Torture fic with actual plot; A hurt-comfort story that explores the underbelly of Central. No Yaoi/Yuri. No inappropriate language. Rating changed to 'M' as of Chapter 6 "Turn" for violence and mature situations. Brotherhood/Manga-verse.

Giving Tree by Chrissy (Fullmetal Alchemist) ‘“Can you give me a house?“ asked the boy. “I have no house,” said the tree. “But you may cut off my branches and build a house. Then you will be happy.” And so the boy cut off her branches and carried them away to build his house. And the tree was happy.’ –The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein

Heroes Don't Exist by Brigidforest (Cowboy Bebop) A multichapter story following the oneshot: It's 2072, four years after Faye woke up to find out the world of Cowboy Bebop was all a dream. Ch 12: Spike Spiegel hated Earth.

The Story of Us by ChiisanaAnisa (Cowboy Bebop) This is a sweet song written from Faye's point of view on one year she spent with the members of Cowboy Bebop.

Avengers (and related MCU films):

Best Laid Plans by Sholio (Guardians of the Galaxy) Post-Vol. 2 fixit fluff, with blankets and huddling for warmth.

Hugs in the Aftermath by F-117 Nighthawk (Avengers) Following the Battle of New York, Tony Stark ends up with a penthouse full of Avengers and a damaged arc reactor. But everything's instantly bearable when Pepper arrives.

Break by blewoutthestars It’s Thursday and the last time he looked at the clock it had just gone three in the afternoon, but the rainclouds are making it dark and it feels later in the day than that. Tony’s been sitting in this armchair by the window for a good two hours, flipping the pages of a book but not really reading anything. Hell, he doesn’t even know what book it is, but turning the pages gives his hands something to do as he stares at the words and then stares out of the window and doesn’t see a damn thing in front of him.

Of Directions and Morning Runs by DinerGuy Alternatively titled, “Why Only Natasha Will Work Out with Clint Anymore"

Something Old, Something New by Sokaless It's been weeks since Sokovia and Tony has accepted that JARVIS is gone. Really, he has. Barring a few nightmares and sleepless nights, he's fine.Or, he thinks he is. And then, one night, the Vision shows up in his tower with an offer that's too good to be true.

Unscheduled Meetings by roboticonography A chronicle of the early years of the career of one Virginia "Pepper" Potts.

Finite by cat_77 (Avengers) It was right and logical and the math, as always, worked. That, at least, was something he could rely on when all else failed.

Human Resources by OracleGlass Perhaps she should have asked what the nice man at Stark Industries' HR to define what he meant by "eccentric."

Blind Opening by Skysalla When Clint's undercover assignment goes to hell, he finds himself thrust into a new mission without SHIELD's permission or approval.

Remaking by MusicalLuna I bet Clint was on a mission.

Next New Message by fabrega "YOU HAVE THIRTY. SEVEN. NEW MESSAGES," Clint Barton's phone announces. That can't be good. Spoilers for The Winter Soldier.

Comrades by Nefhiriel Five times Thor defended his friends from people who should've been on their side, and one time his friends defended him.

Give You Shelter by MusicalLuna Tony doesn't really understand what Steve's doing.

What Here Shall Miss by sheafrotherdon Tag to Iron Man 3: spoilers throughout. Warning for description of anxiety attacks and discussion of PTSD.

Gone Too Soon by Zelos A victim should not grieve his murderer, however unsuccessful the attempt.Tony Stark, and the process of grieving Obadiah Stane. (Or, five times Tony grieved for Obadiah, and the one time he stopped pretending to.)

9/11 by spockside Pepper Potts had only been working for Tony Stark six months when she found herself running away from the destruction of the World Trade Center.

All the Anger That They Eat by ClawR Tony agrees to see a therapist for his, you know, fairly obvious issues. No one is more surprised than he is. Written pre-Avengers, but remarkably canon-compliant.

Live Through This (Every Day) by tessercat (nekonexus) Tony Stark lives through a lot of shit, every day.

Survival Instinct by roguewrld When Tony leaves to get coffee, Bruce is eating breakfast. When he comes back, Bruce is gone and the Hulk is sitting on the floor.

Take a Drink by cydonic Tony's always wanted to prove to his father he was worthwhile. He never got the chance.

Five Times Pepper Potts Took Care of Tony Stark (and One Time Tony Stark Took Care of Her) byzauberer_sirin In Pepper's defense she really did try to keep things professional.

come on friends, get up now by jumpfall It won't be easy and it won't be pretty, they don't say. You're going to hurt faster than you heal and lose more than you win. The Avengers have one thing in common. They all sign on.

Eleven Other Bathrooms by PutItBriefly "It's our five week anniversary," he says, like its the most plainly obvious thing in the world. It isn't even true. They agreed to try this experiment in romance on a Saturday and today is Tuesday. Their five week anniversary was three days ago.

Leader of the Pack by windscryer During a fight, Steve goes down and Tony has to step up. It’s about as hard as he expected it to be (which is not hard at all) but he’d still rather never have to do that again, is that understood, Steven?

Crossovers:

The New New Yorker by kattahj (Doctor Who & Beauty & the Beast original series) The Doctor and Donna visit New Earth and are saddled with a responsibility they don't quite know how to handle.

Holosuite Avengers by marmolita (Star Trek DS9 & Avengers) Julian has a new holosuite program that he wants everyone to try.

Pay No Attention to the Men Behind the Curtain by JeziBelle (X-Files & Avengers) Phil Coulson died to save the world. Now he needs a place to start over, a cold beer, and some eggs.

Fishing Job by amcw177 (Burn Notice & Avengers) Michael gets some help and an unexpected offer.

It Starts Out Like an A-Word (As Anyone Can See) by Amy (Avengers & Sesame Street)  This fic is brought to you by the letter Y, the number 12, and the Avengers' decision to help fix what Loki and the Chitauri did to destroy parts of Manhattan. (Mostly that last part.) [No, seriously, this is precious!!!!]

Blown Away by Maryilee (X-Files & Early Edition)

Patchwork by Lynse (Quantum Leap & Doctor Who - has multiple sequels) Sam's leaped again, but this time things are different. The original history's in flux, and Sam is left trying to puzzle out the mystery of one Doctor John Smith who seems to be caught up in the middle of it.

An Unexpected Partnership by Riverfox237 (Kim Possible & Danny Phantom) Kim gets a mission one morning to find a stolen 'interdimensional portal'. She ends up getting more help than she expected.

Like Paper In Fire by Calico (X-Files & Silence of the Lambs) Agent Starling is asked by an old friend in the FBI for some help. It may or may not lead to Dr. Lecter.

Danny Phantom:

Beyond Beasts by CatalystOfTheSoul Danny's abilities are getting less reliable by the minute, Tucker can barely keep up with damage control, and it doesn't help that Dash decided to tag along. There's something fishy about this vacation, and it's not the lake. The forest is playing tricks, water is appearing in places it shouldn't, and evidently there's a vacancy expected at Algernon's Summer Camp for Boys.

Phantom of Truth by HaiJu Locked away in a secret government lab with Phantom as her subject, nothing stands between Maddie and the truth... except, perhaps, herself. 

Shadow of a Doubt by HaiJu The truth was supposed to save Danny. Fix things. The lab, the experiments, the lies, those were all in the past. Weren't they? Sequel to Phantom of Truth.

Doctor Who:

Time With Mother by Laurawrzz The newly regenerated 10th Doctor finds himself trapped and injured with Jackie in the stairwell of a shopping centre on Boxing Day, where they find they've got a little more to talk about than the sales. Maybe Jackie doesn't come at face value.

A Step in the Right Direction by flutterflap Back on the TARDIS, the Doctor needs a rest after the events of “Midnight.”

Voiceless by Veldeia "What if that thing took his voice with it? What if whatever it did was permanent?" An AU that branches off from Midnight.

Beneath the Midnight Sky by HiddenTreasures for badwolfrun The Dimension Cannon finally locks onto the Doctor’s position. When Rose makes the jump to him, she finds herself in for more trouble than she bargained for.

Vacation, Interrupted by shyday He closes his eyes, wishing for the TARDIS. Wishing for Donna. In his mind, the creature that was Sky screams as she's torn out into space. Missing scene for Season4 "Midnight."

Novi et Veteris by IuvenesCor She had the shadows of memories from times when every face he wore was hers, but not this face. Not whomever it was that she would now discover behind those beautiful, sad eyes. Change is a shockwave— and Clara is caught in its wake.

Spinach Shock by Goldy, mrv3000 The Doctor has a bad reaction to spinach.

Were He Not Romeo Called by Butterfly Human society does require a name more specific than 'Doctor'.

The Devil You Know by rosa_acicularis Better the devil you know. Rose and the Doctor after Journey's End.

The Difference by themuslimbarbie "He isn't you!" Rose cries. "He looks the same, sounds the same, usually he acts the same, but he isn’t you. He isn’t the Doctor. Not really." The Doctor suddenly looks so very old. She can see all of the love and pain and regret flashing in his eyes. "But," he answers slowly, "I'm not him."

The Old Have Bad Dreams by kashinoha Rory makes a late-night discovery. Takes place in season six, some unspecified time between Night Terrors and The Girl Who Waited.

Transfixion by tardisjournal After their latest adventure nearly gets him killed, the Doctor goes into a healing trance, but neglects to tell his Companions what he's up to. Nurse Rory tries to help. Things go terribly wrong.

What Is Essential by eve11 Rory has to put his trauma skills to use when he and the Doctor are trapped on the front lines of a planetary conflict.

Let Her Under Your Skin, Into Your Heart by starlingnight  Someone’s figured out a way to save lives that involves painkillers, regeneration, and a lot of surgery. It’s not much fun for the Doctor - but it's saving people, and isn't that always worth the price?

Balance of Power by eve11 The Doctor has a plan to save a xenophobic society from itself. If only he could remember what it was.

The First Attack by DW_NuTs The Doctor is bitten and suffers excruciating mental attacks, but he doesn't know who his attacker was. As he grows weaker, it's up to Rose to find the cure. 

The Scientist by orange_crushed He can barely remember that apartment; just the sensation of the neon lights from the deli across the street, glowing green and blue through the bedroom windows at all hours, soaking into his eyelids and coloring his skin.

How to Train Your Dragon:

To Save a Rider by  nightfurylover31 

Leið by AvannaK Astrid and Hiccup's "romantic flight" comes to an abrupt end when the Red Death follows them out of the nest. Following an unexpected and desperate fight, Astrid finds herself stranded on an island, injured, with a crippled and comatose Hooligan heir and his overprotective Night Fury. She's going to get them home—all three of them—or die trying.

Occupational Hazard by MidnightEternal During the failed siege of the Edge, Hiccup is hit with an arrow. Stoick knew his son was reckless, brave, but reckless. He just didn’t know how much. Until he saw the scars.

A weary leader by MidnightEternal Hiccup’s leg is hurting after a busy week, Snotlout is there.

Get Well Soon by Eastofthemoon Since arriving on Dragon’s Edge, the teens of Berk have had to face many challenges...but none as hard as attempting to care of a sick Hiccup.

A Normal Snoggletog by wingedflower When Hiccup somehow manages to break his other leg on Snoggletog Eve, he is sure the holiday is ruined. But that's what friends are for, right?

Small, Thin Fingers by LenleG Hiccup, 20 and suddenly the chief of Berk - exhausted, bruised, overworked and just generally having a really, really bad day (the whole ridiculous yak problem notwithstanding). He can't help but think his Father would have handled all this so much better. He tries to hide from it all in the forge, but he was never counting on Gobber being so... Gobber.

Growth Spurt by Eastofthemoon After getting a growth spurt, Hiccup had to make a new foot to go along with it. However, the kids realize that's not the only thing that has changed about Hiccup.

Lost and Found by sanctuary_for_all He had to make sure he wasn't dreaming.***Spoilers for "How to Train Your Dragon 2"***

Most of Him by Elfpen The battle is over, the day has been won. The Green Death is dead, the three-hundred year long war has finally ended. But even the greatest of victories always come with cleanup, and sometimes it can be rather gruesome. Follows directly after the battle sequence in the movie. Rated for gore.

Psych:

Latent by InsaneTrollLogic (deathfic) In Shawn Spencer’s six-year tenure as SBPD’s psychic detective, they’ve solved cases that wouldn’t be closed anywhere else in the country. But in a missing persons case with no leads, it looks like their luck might have run out… with Gus.

Never could get the hang of Tuesdays by Liviapenn The thing about Shawn is that he's brilliant, but you can never tell him that.

There’s A Sixteen Percent Chance That At Least One Of Us Is Going To Die by lapsus_calami The bad guy from their recent case forces Shawn and Gus to play a game of Russian Roulette. It’s about as fun as it sounds. Which is to say not fun at all. 

There's A Thirty Two Percent Chance That At Least One Of Us Will Need Therapy by lapsus_calami In the weeks following the events in the basement Shawn finds his usual coping methods less than effective and struggles to admit that he might actually need some outside help.

The Last Man At The End Of The World by watanuki_sama It's 3:30AM and yet again, Carlton has no idea what Spencer is talking about.

A Whisper to the Living by Xparrot Ten years after the Psych agency closed, Shawn Spencer returns to Santa Barbara.

You Say My Brain's Bleeding Like It's a Bad Thing by Kansas42 This is what Shawn would be saying, if Shawn wasn't too busy having his skull sliced open.

For more of my Psych faves, visit the following link to Psychfic

Star Trek (various series):

Lessons by pimpmypaws As much as McCoy appreciated being given a project, did it have to be this one? Someone in Starfleet had gotten the damned fool idea that a machine would make a better doctor than a human. aka McCoy contributes to the EMH program by teaching him to be grouchy.

Is This the Real Life by halloweenjack21st What might have happened as a result of the events of the episode "Eye of the Needle".

New Beginnings by Jacks Post-Endgame, the Doctor finds life in the Alpha Quadrant very different from life on Voyager.

The Price Of A Memory by Marauder-In-Disguise There's only one thing in the world that the Doctor really wants...

Circle by VesperRegina Communications officers. A look at Hoshi Sato and Nyota Uhura.

Sisters by Orangeblossom If you took all the recurring female characters from TOS, TNG, DS9 and VOY, you'd have a whole command crew. Wouldn't *that* make an interesting show?

Supernatural:

Until It Sleeps by Scribblesinink (Scribbler) Who knew cravings for Cheetos and a turkey sandwich could be dangerous? When Sam and Dean stop off at a gas station to stock up, they pick up a teenage runaway – and a whole heap of trouble.

Lost by CIFan812 (PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO WARNINGS) This was the only way to make sure that Sam lived and that they would both be okay without me dragging them down. *Final Chapter is up.* Rated for sexual & nonsexual violence, rape & language. No Wincest.

The Woods are Lonely, Dark and Deep by Zatnikatel (WARNINGS FOR NON-CON) Missy Bender was three things. She was obsessive. She was insane. And she was in love – with a tall, beautiful stranger who looked real purty when he was hurting. But unfortunately for Dean Winchester, one thing she wasn’t was still locked in the closet…

One Night In Pasadena by Tempestt A woman targets Dean, but they soon find out who is the more dangerous predator. Rated for violence and sexual content. DARK FIC

X Files:

The Ghost in Her Life by Joyce (Alysswolf) An accident radically changes the partnership between Mulder and Scully while opening Scully up to extreme possibilities.

Seasons: Fight The Future by: BeshterAngelus The work of five years for Dana Scully and Fox Mulder is gone. As they face what this means for their partnership, Scully becomes a tool yet again to strike Mulder the final blow in his quest for the truth.

My Works:

Asgårdsreia by dragonnan (How to Train Your Dragon WIP) Berk is preparing for the annual Fyr Bal. With the Dragon Riders back home for the festival, it's sure to be fun for everyone! However, between Stoick's awkward prying into his personal life and the pure boredom of being away from the Dragon's Edge, Hiccup needs a vacation from his vacation! Turns out, there are, actually, worse ways to take a break.

The Big Stink by dragonnan (Supernatural WIP) Monsters, demons, rouge angels, the Devil, freaking Leviathans. Whatever comes down the pipe, we can handle it. Gank it or box it up for later. This is no different. Same crap, different day, man. But, dude, for the record? This freaking sucks.

How You Get There from Here by dragonnan (Avengers & related films) A collection of missing scenes from Avengers and related films. Many will be Tony-centric. I write a lot of hurt/comfort so expect a lot of those types of stories.

Fades to Gray But Never Away by dragonnan (Avengers & related films) Written for a prompt/request involving Tony Stark and sexual harassment.

Did You Make it to the Milky Way to See the Lights all Faded by dragonnan (Avengers & related films) If anything it was peaceful. All that black filled with stars. This other world. And vicious eel riding aliens. Couldn't forget those. Like literally couldn't forget them.

Simple Math by dragonnan (Avengers & related films) Had Obadiah hated him that long? Years? His whole life? Or was it an absence of emotion? Was he just... inconvenient?

Obie's Dilemma by dragonnan (Avengers & related films) Never should have let others do the job for him. This was his responsibility. He'd been there at the start. It only followed that he should end it too.

Not the Hero Type by dragonnan (Avengers & related films) Maybe that was why he hadn't been paying attention. Or, maybe he'd been looking for this. He didn't know. He rarely cataloged his reasons for anything. He fired from the hip and most of the time it struck dead center. But when he missed, oh it was a spectacular miss.

Of Bonding and Baking by dragonnan (Avengers & related films) Welcome to the Island of Misfit Toys. Here's a cookie.

Play Me Some More of that Old Blues by dragonnan (Cowboy Bebop) Some things forgotten, some things remembered. Faye and Jet thought they were all that was left. Something from the past returns.

Find all of my Psych stories HERE

#fanfiction #multiple fandoms #fic recs