autistic ghost

So, general idea.

In the tumult of the night his parents died, Bruce hadn’t thought twice about handing his baby brother off to a kind police officer. He was shaking so hard he thought he’d drop Daniel. While the officer walked away to calm the screaming, swaddled infant, Bruce gave statement after statement to officer Gordon and others. When Alfred arrived at the station to retrieve the Wayne boys, he was met with a terrible shock.

Somehow, through incompetence or malevolence, Daniel was nowhere to be found. The officer who took the child initially said they handed him off to a secretary when he’d calmed down, and the secretary said she’d called the local CPP office to check on what requirements needed to be met for an infant in their custody. They said they’d send over an agent to handle the process. The child was passed to the person with the correct badge. They were now unreachable. And Daniel was too.

The CPP office denied having received this call. The secretary produced the recording, which all police lines in Gotham have by default. The police line says the call went to CPP; CPP’s system says otherwise.

And Daniel is somewhere out there with a crooked agent, or a fake agent, and they have no idea who they are or what they want.

Of course this made national news. The image of the stolen Wayne baby was on every television and newspaper. It was broadcast nationwide. Information about the disappearance had a hefty reward. Bruce begged the media for help finding his little brother. Not since the Lindbergh baby had there been such a national outcry.

And still there were no answers. Bruce grew disillusioned with a justice system that couldn’t find his parents’ killer nor his brother’s kidnapper. Daniel Wayne’s disappearance became the first case for Batman. It led him into the darkness of Gotham, plunging headlong into rampant trafficking, corrupt child services, and even brought the fabled Court of Owls to his attention.

—————

Meanwhile, in a different genre, young scientist couple Jack and Madeline Fenton are of their yearly vacation to haunted locales around the country. With a two-year-old in tow, they’re not quite up for spelunking through caverns or wandering the woods at night, but there are plenty of urban legends to investigate!

Through their unique combination of genius and incomprehensibility, the Fenton tangle with the Court of Owls, managing to destroy one of their secret society hideouts and save a cute baby on the way out! Sure, they’re convinced the Court was made up of ghosts and the child was spirited away to be ritually sacrificed. But the baby is safe in Maddie’s arms, and Jack notices how much he looks like himself, so they decide to take him home.

They try to report what happened to the police of course, but the cops told them to get lost with their ‘crazy ghost stories’. Along with the other complaints received about their insane outfits, gear, and vehicle, the police were quite ready to have the Fentons get the hell out of the city.

You’d think a town as haunted as Gotham would have more credulous citizenry, but what could you do? Oh well, back to Amity Park!

“What should we call him, Jack?”

“How about Daniel? I keep seeing that name everywhere for some reason!”

Not really, but everyone is convinced he is. He arrived at crime alley around the same time the red hood appeared, he's strong, gets along with the night girls, often gets involved in fights to protect others, and is completely unbothered by death. What really sell it was when someone finally saw him shoot a gun, the guy has a terrific aim.

Sure, no one has seen him take a life, but that's what the vigilantes shit is for, right? So everyone knows this young man is Red Hood, but that's okay, crime alley is good keeping secrets from outsiders.

Danny has no idea everyone thinks this, and is unsure why he has so many hit man's behind his head. He can't even blame this on his ghost side, this men only use human weapons! This is his Fenton luck again, isn't it?

It's been going on for 3 years but Jason only just found out now that he's going into the Alley as himself.

Hilariously, Danny ALSO is just finding out (maybe figuring out?) what's going on. Like, people have been vaguely alluding to him being the Red Hood for the past 3 years, but because Danny hasn't been keeping up with the Gotham vigilante scene he straight up Did Not Get Those References until something happened...dealer's choice: he (finally) mentions it to Sam, #1 Poison Ivy Stan, who knows about other Gotham vigilantes/rogues by proxy and explains it. Or maybe his Neighbor the RH Goon lets something slip (very wink wink, nudge nudge type of slip, like "did you see the paper today? VERY interesting article amirite?")

Or, for maximum lolz, he MEETS RED HOOD one night at random - well, probably not 'meets', more like sees him vigilante-ing and is like "oooh I get it now".

Upon figuring it out he immediately switches from 'baffled response that people think is him poorly playing innocent' to 'staunch denial that people think is him VERY POORLY playing innocent'.

Meanwhile, through hi-jinks and casual blink and you miss it fate-driven shenanigans, Jason keeps JUST missing Danny. Like, he's casually discussing his supposed doppelganger on the phone and misses Danny denying he's RH in the background. They're both grocery shopping but one goes into the next aisle when the other is just starting on the last one they were in, Jason gets pulled into a conversation at the deli and misses Danny checking out (and once again awkwardly laughing off a reference to his 'nightlife').

DANNYMAY DAY 23: Forgiveness

Day 22 ⟡ Day 24

Here's me trying to interpret how Danny's hazmat suit would look like if it were more realistic, based on my experience with biohazard PPE.

Do you think Valerie ever just—

The wig is off, and so are all bets.