Aka: Danny’s presence can accidentally make people liminal and thus give them powers:
Now Danny himself doesn’t really know this because back in Amity everyone is liminal to an extent; with Jazz, Tucker and Sam being the most liminal and (excluding Danny) most powerful humans in town. Jazz and his friends ecto contamination cans be easily explained by the fact that they were also who interacted with the portal the most (without protection) and the portal is an endless pool of radiating ecto. Danny does not realise that he himself also radiates out ectoplasm, ESPECIALLY through his emotions.
Danny is a stupidly powerful being by ghost standards (he may or may not be royalty too but that’s something for future fully dead Danny to figure out), but it’s not until Danny is out of Amity for the first time in Gotham for uni that he realises that his “human” form is wayyy less human then he thought. (Normal humans can’t accidentally rip doors off their hinges if they pull a bit too hard, and normal humans also tend to have a consistent amount of teeth). He’s a sweet boy sure, but he’s also terribly uncanny valley, and that makes making friends kinda hard.
Still, Danny adapts and everyone in Gotham kind of just assumes he’s a meta kid that’s *reeeeally* bad at hiding it.
Cue: Duke Thomas, Danny’s flatmate, the first person not to judge his appearance and thus his first out of Amity friend
See, the way dorms work in Gotham is a bit different from your average American university, rather than traditional dorms the uni just bought a bunch of old apartment buildings to put up their students: the more expensive the apartment the better the set-up.
Now Danny is by no means rich, but trying to explain to a roommate all his weird ghost bullshit? Yeah absolutely not. So he was willing to fork over some of his (read: Vlad’s) extra cash for a nicer room with some privacy. Danny and Duke don’t share a room but they *do* share a kitchen and a bathroom, and while they are in different majors, they tend to have classes at around the same time seeing as they’re both freshman, so they hangout a lot.
As for Duke on why he - the ward of a billionaire - would be staying in a random university dorm instead of a penthouse or at his rich person manor? Very simple: The Wayne family sleep schedule is an affront to God and Duke operates on regular normal human hours thank you very much. Campus housing just means he doesn’t have to deal with cars or house hunting ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
…or at least that’s how Duke explained things to Danny: and who was he to question the nicest guy this side of New Jersey?
Duke also introduced Danny to his family, half of whom apparently had ties to their uni? Weird.
There was Tim and Steph, both second and third years respectively. Danny got along with Steph like a house on fire right away with how much she reminded him of Ellie and her playful chaos. Meanwhile Danny was (according to Tim) the only one who really *got* what Tim was saying when he was 27 hours sleep deprived and rambling about whatever (Danny just figured Tim was autistic like his parents and needed the infodump space). The four of them started getting coffee and studying at a local cafe regularly.
There was also Jason and Damian, whom Danny saw less frequent but still relatively often. Jason was getting his masters part-time in Childhood Education and English Literature so he sometimes tutored Danny. Damian on the other hand, was in one of those “running start” programs at his high school to help kids get their associates degrees early by taking into university classes half the week. Damian was deeply intrigued by Danny’s “meta” dog and would sometimes request to see him. The two fought like cats and dogs normally but:
“For some reason, the only thing they can agree on is that you’re soothing… apparently..?” Duke said once, shaking his head in confusion.
Danny figured it was probably because his presence helped quell and filter whatever fucked up ectoplasm the two had been exposed to, but he wasn’t about to open /that/ can of worms. He figured Gotham was fucked enough they just got unlucky - besides! It was no big deal to filter out really and Danny could fix it! So if they liked his vibe more because of it, who cares?
Regardless, for some reason despite the Wayne’s popularity (and good looks) they apparently largely keeping to themselves, yet Danny had stumbled his way into being the exception. In fact the first time he met Dick (who was picking up Damian) he had been labeled ‘adoption bait’ immediately because: “-of how much my siblings all talk about you!”
Somehow, by the end of the first Semester, Danny had met almost the entire Wayne clan (save for Bruce himself). Barbra was typically on shift at the library whenever Jason and Danny would study there and would say ‘Hi’. Cass was Steph’s flatmate and would usually be there whenever Danny would come over if not occasionally join in on a cafe excursion. Dick often picked up Damian after class or occasionally would stop by to hangout with Tim or Jason. Danny had even bumped into Alfred once or twice when he would come to collect Duke for family weekends or dinners. Danny was such a regular around the Wayne’s that he often got asked on campus which one of them he was dating (“uhh? None?”), he even once got kidnapped by normal regular human criminals who thought he was Bruce’s newest ward!
That incident ended with barely any trauma and like half the vigilantes in Gotham saving him (for some reason?) and him getting 3 days off class and a 2 week assignment extension, so overall a net positive for Danny.
(In case you were curious the vigilantes were: Signal (appropriate for daytime), Spoiler and Red Robin (not night time??), Redhood (not in crime alley???), and finally Robin (where was Batman????))
Regardless the first indication that something may have been upTM with the Waynes (and it may have been Danny’s fault) came shortly after Danny got back from Christmas break. Danny opened the door to his flat only for Duke’s attempt to greet him to be accompanied by a ghostly breath and glowing yellow eyes.
“Dude… what-“ “-I’M A META!!”
Duke had blurted it out so fast that Danny barely had time to register before Duke when into a lore drop on his meta abilities.
Danny didn’t even register that Duke’s power slip-up mirrored Danny’s early days of ghost-dol to a near-T
(Duke meanwhile was freaking out, his meta abilities always meant he saw things a bit differently but now Danny was glowing *extra* hard?? And the breath thing was new too??? The fuck?? He’d have to discuss with Bruce…)
Nevertheless, after an awkward but necessary conversation about Duke having powers (Pre-Danny mind you), Danny just figured it was a Duke thing and not a Danny one and quickly brushed it off, with but a small curse to his Fenton Luck for the jumpscare.
However weird incidence with the Wayne’s kept happening: he’d hand Steph a pen once only for it to shatter in the woman’s grip (much to her horror), or when he walk in to a room where Tim was crying watching an animal rescue video and almost immediately start tearing up himself (to Danny’s confusion), or when Barbra leaned forward to hand him a book only for her waist to slightly clip through the desk (without her notice).
The final straw came when he watched Cass physically materialise into the visible plane in front of the coffee gang’s table as everyone stared at her in stunned silence. Cass froze and after a second Tim murmured a soft “what the hell?” And Danny finally realised that maaaaybe this had more to do with him than he thought.
A brief check in with his senses and: Yep! All the Wayne clan had turned liminal! Whoops!
(He had kinda wondered if the Wayne clan was secretly all just metas that Bruce Wayne had collected after the Duke reveal but no: this was absolutely his fault)
Oh ancients how the *fuck* is he going to explain this one?! How do you accidentally explain to your friend group that you’re kind-of dead former vigilante??! Or that you made them kind-of part ghost through vibes alone??? Is he going to have to call a family meeting for a DIFFERENT family?!? How do you even DO that?!!?!!!
….Jazz is going to kill him.
Fuck his stupid baka life
What ghostly abilities I think each of the batfamily members get (OPEN TO CHANGE):
Tim: Emotional projection
Damian: Empathy (especially animals)
Jason: Language comprehension
Dick: Levitation/floatation
The reason their powers manifest like that is a combination of Danny’s desires/perspective of them as well as their own personality. So like Danny wants to not have to hide things from Duke as his flatmate and Duke prides himself on his ability to see things others can’t so he gets ghost sense. Danny views Dick as a bubbly person constantly in motion while Dick loves flying so he gets levitation. Danny sees how much the Wayne’s respect/look up to Barbra and view her as untouchable force while Barbra (as Oracle) perceives herself as the unseen hand of the Bats so she gets intangibility, etc etc.
All of them get more minor versions of the others powers but not nearly to the same extent as their “specialisation” so to speak (I.E. Tim could make himself incredibly hard to notice but not necessarily get invisible like Cass, or Steph could get a vague feel for what being said in a foreign language without being able to textbook respond like Jason, etc.)
All in all it’s an absolute clusterfuck considering Danny has ZERO CLUE that the Wayne’s are the bats. The Bats meanwhile also have NO IDEA that their nice midwestern meta friend is an insanely powerful member of the undead. Bruce is loosing his shit, Danny may or may not be crying. Somewhere Clockwork is laughing.
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