#red huntress was also originally supposed to be here but i couldn't get a good flow going

[starry-bi-sky]

Clone^2 - graveyard shift

The dinging of the door alerts Sarah of someone walking in, and she barely glances up from her phone to see who it is. It's past midnight and somehow her coworker John managed to convince her to take over his graveyard shift at their convenience store. He owes her one, because she's been standing here for an hour and nobody's come in.

Not a surprise to her - nobody likes to stay out past sundown in Amity Park, even after nearly three years of ghosts appearing all over the place.

But still, it happens sometimes. So she doesn't look up. The dinging bell just lets her know that it's not a ghost, and that's really all she can ask for. The last time she worked late and a ghost came in, she was cleaning the shelves from some weird goo for an hour.

However, the lack of footsteps in the store after a few seconds worries her enough that she forces her head to lift. And a frown weaves its way onto her face when she sees no one at the door, nor anyone in the closet aisles.

...Shit, was there really a ghost here? Can they ring door when they come in? Normally she sees them just phase right through. And normally they glow, bright and jarring that leaves a migraine building behind Sarah's eyes.

Her eyes quickly scan the shelves again, looking for anything out of place -- anyone with too many heads, or too many teeth, or snakes for hair. She's pretty sure a coworker saw that once when they were working graveyard.

But she still sees no one. Apprehension raises the hair on the back of her neck, and she straightens up from her lean against the counter. Fuuuck. Was this one of those... marshmallow ghosts? An animal ghost?

Sarah really does not want to have to fight off a three-eyed raccoon looking-thing with eagle feet. She's heard the horror stories. And there was no way to contact the Phantom or the Red Huntress to come pick it up -- and she wasn't gonna try her luck with the Drs. Fentons.

Her fingers itch for the broom hanging on the wall behind her. It probably won't do much against a mutant raccoon-ghost-monster, but it'll make her feel better.

There's a rustle and crinkle in the candy aisle, and Sarah's hands are curled around the broom before she could blink. Her heart beating in her chest. She walks out from the counter, the bristled end raised like a bat in the air as she creeps apprehensively towards the noise.

There's nothing there when she peers around the side, and the aisle shelves are tall enough that she can't see over them.

She raises the broom higher. Sarah was in softball. She could take out a raccoon-eagle-hybrid.. thing.... easily. She just... needs to pretend its a golf ball. Except golf isn't softball so that's a terrible comparison.

Oh god she was gonna get her face ripped off, wasn't she.

John so owes her one. So much.

Creeping down the aisle, she keeps her ears perked for any new sounds. But all she can really hear is the soft pop music playing on the store speakers -- chosen by yours truly from her own personal playlist -- and the hum of the freezers. Ugh. This was not good for her paranoia. Like, at all.

Sarah's down at the end of the aisle when she feels a quick set of taps on her shoulder. Her nerves are already shot, so she shrieks and whirls around on her foot, swinging the broom blindly.

Only to be met with sudden and blunt resistance. Blinking rapidly, Sarah stares up and sees a black gloved hand gripping the broom handle tightly, small white bandages peeking over the side around five fingers. Following the hand down connects it with an arm, and then a chest, and suddenly she's staring at a black hoodie and black jacket.

When she tilts her head up, Sarah comes face to face with the bone-white mask and the terrifying, unearthly green eyes of their local vigilante, the Phantom.

...Holy fuck. It was the Phantom.

He was taller than she initially thought. Was her jaw on the ground? Probably. It was flapping like a fish out of water. "I- uh, you-- buh--"

Slowly, the Phantom raised his free hand and wrapped it around the handle of the broom. Sarah watches, wide eyed still and stammering as he firmly plucked the broom out of her hands and turned to lean it against the shelves.

Something about him doing that must've kicked her brain back into gear, because the first thing that comes out of her mouth is; "Your eyes are really green."

And she was going to lock herself in the freezer in the back for that one. She feels her face grow hot with embarrassment, and the Phantom only looks at her blankly. Her eyes shift nervously. "Well, it's true."

It was! The green eyes of the Phantom was his most defining feature other than that unsettling mask he wore. Especially considering they were the same color as some of the ghosts. It was one of the many, many creepy things about the guy.

Looking at it gave her the same, faint headache as when she stared at a ghost for too long. So Sarah drops her gaze a little to avoid it.

The Phantom remains silent, but he raises his hands and signs something to her that she doesn't understand. Fuck, that's right. He didn't speak - and Sarah doesn't know any ASL.

Sarah cringes. "Sorry, I don't know ASL."

She can feel his burning green eyes boring into her, and he remains as silent as the grave as he reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a phone in a plain black case. She watches him turn it on -- or at least she assumes he does, there's a privacy protector covering the screen -- and type something into.

He holds it up to her face when he's done, and she squints at the screen. In the notes app, a small text reads; 'We're ready to pay.'

..Oh. This wasn't Sarah's night. Embarrassment flashes hot through her and she forces out a laugh in order to try and quell it, Phantom shoves the phone back into his pocket. "Oh! Oh, right! I'm sorry, I'll uh- get up to the front--" She stops in her tracks.

Wait. Did that message say 'we?'

She smiles nervously, tilting her head up at the Phantom as her brows thread together. "Um," she swallows dryly, "we?" Didn't... didn't the Phantom work alone?

As if startled, the Phantom jerks. And for the first time since he showed up, he blinks and turns around. Which personally, doesn't bode that well as the Phantom swivels his head from side to side like he's looking for someone.

Sarah thinks, after the Phantom stalks up to the end of the aisle and looks around, she hears him sigh. And when he walks back, he snatches the broom with an elegant twist and knocks it against the shelves.

Thud, thud, thud!

There's very, very quiet shuffling that Sarah would have missed if she hadn't been looking for it, and then silence for a few seconds, before suddenly there's a small child pushing past her side and over to the Phantom.

And in the process, scaring the shit out of Sarah.

She squeaks and jumps, nearly tripping over her own feet as the child makes a spot next to the Phantom's side. "Where did you come from?!" She says, her heart pounding against her ribcage.

The child says nothing, just stares at her through a creepy bone-white mask reminiscent of the Phantom's. Although unlike the Phantom, he was wearing some... kind of... dark red ninja outfit?

Sarah really wasn't quite sure. It was partially covered by a jacket that clearly belonged to the Phantom and with the sleeves rolled up multiple times to his elbows. The jacket alone nearly obscured the sword attached to his hip.

...Why the hell did the child have a sword.

She looks between Phantom and the child, at a loss for words. Why-- why did the Phantom have a kid with him, why was the kid wearing a mask like his.

"You have a child with you." Sarah says bluntly, her voice flat. It betrays how shocked she feels. The Phantom doesn't say anything, as she should have expected, but he does nod shortly.

The child bristles slightly, but says nothing. Part of his mouth was uncovered, and she watched it twist downward into a scowl at her. Unlike the Phantom, his eyes were not green. She couldn't see his eyes at all, actually. They were shadowed by the mask.

There's the sound of paper thwipping, and like a magician pulling out a card, the Phantom holds out a note card to her. He stares, expectantly, and Sarah reluctantly takes it.

Written in neat writing and bold sharpie are the words; "This is Wraith."

...And that's it. Sarah glances up at Phantom. Then at the supposed 'Wraith'. Then back at Phantom. "You're bringing a child with you to ghost hunt?" She asks, and okay, maybe she's not able to hide all of the judgement leaking into her voice. "And you gave him a sword?"

The Phantom stares at her blankly, or well, probably blankly. All of his expressions are unreadable with the mask he wears. But the kid, Wraith, bristles again like a stray cat. His scowl deepens, he puffs up, and he opens his mouth like he's about to say something.

...Only for the Phantom to immediately snap his hand out and cover his mouth. Wraith makes an angry sound, and Phantom drags the boy into his side, seemingly nonplussed as he twists his wrist and pulls another note card out of nowhere.

"He is perfectly capable of handling himself." The card reads, and then continues; "I would not have been able to stop him anyways. Wraith would have followed me regardless."

Did he have these prepared?

Best not to question it, Sarah decides. The Phantom has always been strange. So she just nods mutely and stuffs the two notecards into her back pocket. "Okay," she says, and moves around the Phantom. "I'll check you out up front."

#dpxdc #dp x dc #dpxdc crossover #dpdc #clone^2 #danny fenton is not the ghost king #dp x dc crossover #dpdc crossover #danny covering damian's mouth as the phantom and the wraith will never *not* be funny to me #anyways i was thinking about this for the last two days and finally decided to write it #red huntress was also originally supposed to be here but i couldn't get a good flow going #had the idea of damian wearing danny's jacket as the wraith at first and needed to write it down #is it impractical? yeah. but its only until danny can get him a jacket that fits #amity park be cold at night okay?? damian is Littol he needs the extra layers #danny being bruce’s wayne clone -> bruce wayne being tall -> DANNY is tall #tried to kinda capture how lowkey unsettling the phantom can be from an outside perspective #was kinda successful? not much for him to do current that’s creepy tho other than stare

[waheelawhisperer]

Another interesting bit about Raven: despite having no direct connections with Adam whatsoever (belying some V5-vintage theories), they sport *unnervingly* similar aesthetics, weapons & disregard for expendable subordinates. I mean, Raven actually cared a little about Vernal but still put her in a red herring position expressly intended as Maiden-hunter bait, while Adam didn't even fucking twitch at news of mass WF casualties *or* Yang blasting one of his dudes right outside the cafeteria.

Yeah, there are a lot of parallels between them, so much so that a lot of people thought that they were supposed to be associated somehow and get mad that they weren't, but I actually think those similarities aren't meant to imply an in-universe connection and are actually supposed to tie them together in the minds of the viewers as shitty, abusive, yet nonetheless deeply important figures to Yang and Blake who serve as mentors and protectors in some (limited) capacity and ultimately reveal that they aren't the people that Yang and Blake hope, want, believe, and desperately need them to be. They both shatter the pedestals they stand upon, one by losing sight of what they're fighting for (in Blake's mind, we all know Adam stopped giving a shit about anything resembling true Faunus equality in favor of making everything about forcing the world to hurt the way he did long before Blake figured it out) and the other by failing her family repeatedly and failing her daughter in particular by doing the exact opposite of what a mother should at every opportunity.

This is a really interesting contrast to me because it highlights a big difference between Blake and Yang. Blake has always been presented as a big picture person - she wants to stop discrimination against all Faunus, everywhere. She wants to make the whole world better for everyone. Yang, on the other hand is all about the immediate - who can I help right here, who can I help right now? She's the only member of the main four who didn't have some grand reason for becoming a Huntress, the only one of the four who wanted to help evacuate Mantle instead of launch Amity. Yang wants to help the people in front of her. She wants to solve the problem in front of her and worry about the bigger picture later. Her connection to the big, sweeping plotline isn't some goal like restoring her family's legacy or making things better for marginalized people across the world, it's protecting her friends and family. It's because the people she loves are also involved, and she'll be damned if she'll let them fight alone. That's why it's so painful for her when she realizes Raven will leave her to fight alone, that Raven will let Yang paint a target on her own back because she's too scared and weak and pathetic to protect her own daughter.

Didn't talk about this enough in my initial Raven post, but she is really... not a good person. While my coomer brain will forgive her for anything because she's a hot samurai goth MILF in thigh-highs, the fact that she regularly raids and plunders villages and then leaves them for the Grimm really shouldn't be overlooked (Qrow does not overlook this at all and it's a source of major conflict between them, shoutouts to Qrow), nor should the fact that she does so using powers that Ozpin originally gave to the Maidens in order to protect the world and the innocent, as a direct response to the kindness and wisdom of the original Maidens. In terms of everything but power, Raven is the exact opposite of what Ozpin wanted the Maidens to be and represent.

Gotta say I love the way Adam and Raven are both so... selfish. They just view their respective organizations and the people in them as things, tools they can use to protect themselves or accomplish their own goals. The difference between them, really, is that Raven cares. She expresses regret and remorse. She just lacks the strength of character to place someone else above herself. Adam, on the other hand, couldn't care less. His men die serving Cinder's goals? Oh well, they're acceptable casualties because it lets him hurt the humans. Adam writes off every loss without a care in order to get closer to his big goal of lashing out at the world and wiping out humanity, Raven regrets the things she does and tries so hard to justify them to herself and others.

I cannot wait to see Raven's return to the series. I want to see what made her leave Team STRQ and why. I want to see how and why Taiyang fell in love with her, and what made her love him enough to marry and have a child with him. I want to see the person Taiyang talks up to his daughter even after all these years. I want to see how she becomes that person again, and I have faith that she will. One of RWBY's big themes is the idea that even if you've failed in the past, even if you've made mistakes, you can still start making the right choices now. Not every character takes that opportunity (see: Adam's refusal to let go of Blake, Ironwood's insistence on bombing Mantle and raising Atlas no matter how little sense it makes, etc.), but enough do that I feel comfortable considering it a theme, and I think Raven is primed to add to it at some point.

Honestly, I'm just hoping she shows up at some point and then someone just clotheslines her for being a shithead.

#rwby #analysis #raven branwen #adam taurus #yang xiao long #blake belladonna