Characters

It's just Danny, but apparently looking like a cosmic makes people scream at you.

The current moon droid is broken, it's final image a thing. Direct investigation by heroes reveals nothing but strange readings, but then massive crop circles start appearing on the moon.

One guy swears he saw the whole moon blink.

Danny sells popsicles with his ice powers, he also has flavors specifically for ghosts and liminals, since those have ecto or containe the juice of plants from the infinite realms, which includes things from other worlds, things that are extinct or don't exist yet in the present, a lot of which range from "bit tangy" to "would kill a human instantly and melt their corpse to goo", and thus are kept separate and only sold to those from the ghost zone (or otherwise undead or able to eat these thing)

The thing is, the bats notice the new vendor seemingly having a whole seperate menu he only sells to certain people, and try to figure out what he's doing.

Gotham has a thriving supernatural community. The Lady's city was basically an open tear in the veil.

Danny happily takes up residence on the human side, the antique shop with its vender stalls built in layers of wards that filter out customers based on level of supernatural being.

On the human side he runs his little ice cream cart, wards showing each customer the appropriate menus and warnings.

Tim turns around and says "that's mine now"

Damian can't complain, because that would be admitting that he tried to kill Tim again.

Danny: Did you not think it was weird that I let Tim be Robin without me?

Tim: Yeah, what the hell B?

Bruce: I was just, apparently incorrectly, glad that one of you was safely at home. I didn't want to question my good luck.

Danny: Oh man, no. I played Robin's shadow monster, wait. What did you think Tim was doing to spook criminals so bad?

Jason was such a cheerful Robin, he once made a goon piss themself by frowning slightly and saying, "You tried to bamboozle me. I don't appreciate that."

Tim, in civvies, can make any gala goer shudder and sweat with his piercing analytical gaze and a perfect mimicry of Janet Drake's 'I'm about to socially obliterate you' smile.

Did Danny get a ghost to come pose as their uncle?

Did they hire pre-reveal Jason (on accident or on purpose)?

Did Vlad just randomly show up and volunteer? ("Ew, no! I'd rather be adopted.")

Danny being turned into a cat but he's a hairless sphinx and is a freakish pink creature. If he ends up being taken in he is constantly tormented by his owner and called names like: Raw Chicken, Meatball Boy, The Flesh That Hates, Boiled Baby, Rat Cat, Pugly, The Specimen, Piggly Wiggly, Sir Wrinklesburg, Naked Mole Cat, Soup Stock, and Turkey Leg.

Tim loves his cat. The freaky little guy is the best.

"Come here, Chicken feet." He called as the cat swatted at him. "You keep responding to everything I call you. You must like it."

The cat yowled at him.

"Come on Rotisserie, I'll get you a treat."Tim said scratching under his pet's chin.

Idfk I had this start of an idea and then lost interest because I have a squirrels attention span

Danny has had a long, crappy day, he had a headache and he was hungry, he hasn't had the chance to eat all day- And now his stupid applesauce pouch won't flipping open!

In a moment of frustration, Danny opened his mouth wide, and sharpened his ghostly fangs into sharper points before biting into a the side of the pouch, and sucking as soon as he punctured the packaging.

Some of the tenseness in his shoulders lightened. It wasn't nearly enough to curb his hunger, but it would old him off until he could eat an actual meal.

Tucker's amsued voice sounded. "Remind me to never let you bite me." He teased, wiggling his eyebrows, and watching as Danny swallowed mouthfuls of apple sauce.

"Lee meh awone." Danny hissed around the package, not in the mood for his friends games.

Sam snorted quietly. "Guess we're grabbing food before we head home- what are those guys staring at? Weirdos." Sam glared across campus as a small group of people who were staring at them with various unreadable expressions.

Danny removed the package from his teeth carefully, licking any excess applesauce from his teeth and gums. "Who cares. Let's just go before I finally snap and eat one of you." Danny grunted, massaging his temples.

Tucker grinned. "Kinky."

Sam laughed and shoved him, following after Danny, and ignoring the weird gawkers. "Let's go before he actually does eat us, and with how you've been lately, I bet you'd go first."

Tucker snorted. "I'll have you know I am nothing if not a gentleman. Let's get chili dogs- and vegan dogs for our Princess of the Night here, of course."

"Never call me that." Sam scoffed but didn't disagree with the idea, leaning over his shoulder as he looked up where to go.

Danny walked a bit ahead of them, more than happy to let them figure things out. He didn't care what or where they ate as long as it happened soon. He could still feel that grouping watching them though, so slowly Danny slowed his pace until he was station just behind Sam and Tucker. With eye glowing green, he glared at the group, watching them flinch and hastily look away. Huffing, Danny went back to willing away his headache and listening to Sam and Tucker argue over vegan chilli.

Robin: Come on! It'll be fine! *tries to grab him*

Phantom: I don't want to!

Batman: *walks into the cave*

Phantom: *bolts towards Batman and hides behind him*

Robin: Wha- You can't hide behind Batman! That's not fair!

Phantom: *sticks his tongue out*

Batman: What is this about?

Robin, groaning: I want Phantom to Possess-

Phantom: Overshadow.

Robin: I want Phantom to Overshadow me so I can practice breaking out of it. Its training!

Batman, glancing back at Phantom: Hmn?

Phantom: I don't-I don't like Overshadowing people. It feels-it feel icky.

Robin: Icky? Seriously? What are you, five?

Phantom: Five times more respectful than you.

Robin: You-

Batman: Enough. Robin, Phantom already said 'no', hes not comfortable with it. Consent goes both ways, and if I find out you've been bothering him about it I'll bench you and sign you up for Consent and Conmunication Training.

Robin: Ugh okay. Sorry Phantom, I'll drop it. *stalks off with a fake pout*

Phantom, visibly relieved: Thanks. I really, really hate Overshadowing.

Duke, breathless: Oh wow, you're glowing.

Danny: *blushes bright red and ducks his head*

Tim: Wow~

Steph: *wolf whistles*

Jason: Who knew day-job was so bold!

Duke, blushing: No! I didn't mean- I mean you are very p-pretty! But-But I meant! I meant-

Danny: *slowly getting redder and redder*

Damian, sighing: *walks past Duke, grabs their order, shoves a very generous tip into Danny's hand, and shuts the door before Duke can embarass himself further* That was disgusting to watch.

Dpxdc

Do you all remember that prompt where Danny gets mistaken for a vampire and decides to play along?

When you think about it, ghosts and vampires actually have quite a few things in common. Not culturally, obviously, but in terms of powers and the whole “technically undead” situation. Which naturally made me think about our favorite wannabe vampire: Vlad.

So what if vampires aren’t actually a real species?

What if the entire concept of vampires exists because Vlad once tried to take over the world by traveling back in time? Danny managed to stop him before he could achieve his goal, but he couldn’t undo all the consequences of Vlad’s actions.

Imagine Vlad showing up centuries in the past with ghost powers, flight, super strength, mind control, ectoplasm, glowing eyes, an obsession with dramatic capes, and a tendency to bite people when he’s feeling particularly unhinged. The locals see this and go, “Ah yes, clearly this is a vampire.”

Danny eventually fixes the timeline enough to stop Vlad’s scheme, but he can’t erase the stories. The legends spread. People keep adding details over the centuries until an entire vampire mythology exists.

Fast forward to the present.

Danny gets mistaken for a vampire.

At first he tries to correct people, but then someone mentions that Batman has a file on “possible metahuman vampire activity” and suddenly it becomes way too funny to stop.

So Danny commits.

“Am I the vampire!? Seriously!?! How dare you! I am nothing like him! That pretentious, egotistical fruitloop with delusions of grandeur? Eugh, screw you. Seriously, never talk to me again. The freaking vampire. Honestly.”

Gimme the Bats' side of it, actually.

Just Bruce seeing this hero with no previous connections as a hero and being confused when a background check provides an identity, but that identity is squeaky clean, despite it being attached to a vigilante. No arrests, no misdemeanors, no awards in high school for being exceptional - or red marks for being tardy, late, or otherwise getting into weird situations. Batman then takes the background check even higher, looking into the secret identity's parents and grandparents and cousins and the identity just collapses as a fake one at some point.

Gimme Dick seeing a hero mope around when looking for someone to rescue, seeing Phantom just flying around aimlessly when he isn't actively rescuing someone, and being like "that kid needs a hug and a heart-to-heart chat."

Gimme Jason seeing the same thing and seeing it as reluctant heroism, making him assume that Phantom is being threatened or blackmailed into being a hero - which isn't wrong, but Red Hood goes about looking for whoever is pulling the strings in the wrong direction.

Gimme Tim looking at the same background check that B did, independently and without going into the alias' family history, and just going "that's a load of bullshit" without knowing exactly why he thinks it is. But as he observes Phantom and, to use the fic's alias, "Michael," his brain keeps pulling up little facts from the alias' background search and just noting that Phantom/Danny and "Michael" couldn't be more different on paper. So, is this another one of Ra's' schemes to mess with Tim? If that's so, couldn't he have obtained a better actor? So, Red Robin continues to mess with Phantom until he realizes "aw shit, I actually like you as a person, man."

Gimme Duke having absolutely no clue about any of it because that's not his shift, but he's good friends with this guy in a different major than himself named "Michael" and he's pretty sure the guy has figured out that Duke is a vigilante... but the guy observes Duke in the strangest way? Like, his body is turned to the side (to avoid the camera in the collar catching what Duke is doing) and his head turned to watch Duke bow out of whatever he's doing? And it's on purpose because Duke has seen the man quickly turn his body when Duke has something "suspicious" going on.

Gimme Damian admiring Phantom but just not trusting the guy. Phantom always seems so shifty even while doing such incredibly acts, always seeming to search for words to use and then having a seizure when words are coming easily to him. It's just so... strange to Damian but like, maybe it's due to the guy's powers or something. Robin goes about making documentation on whatever Phantom says before a seizure and it creates a bit of a pattern.

Gimme Cass, as each Bat is off to the side doing their own independent investigations into Danny and getting a different idea for what's going on, to show up for a night or two, meeting Phantom, and immediately going "that's not right" and pestering Phantom until she can figure out what caused her to think so.

Gimme Steph trusting Phantom at first, as much as a Bat can at least, but figuring out something is off and thinking it's because Phantom is there to harm the Batfam - which, not wrong even if it is reluctantly. So, Spoiler becomes very outspoken in distrusting Phantom and it's, quite frankly, a relief to Danny.

Diana: I am a princess

Arthur: And I am a King

Hal: This isn't about you. This about a alien prince, better known as the immortal, the powerful the beloved Prince Phantom!!!

Diana: Prince Phantom!? Here!? On Earth!?

Bruce: You know him?

Diana: Of course! We've told tales of his adventures for centuries on my island but I never thought I have the privilege of seeing him much less speaking to him!

Arthur: Prince Phantom is considered a god to my people. He helped create our kingdom and is said to have given our people the gills to survive underwater! I must prepare for his arrive! My people will be so please!

Hal: You better hurry. We only have three days before he arrives. I flew over as soon as I was told at Oa, but it still wasn't fast enough.

Clark: What should the rest of us do? If he's that important, I want to leave a good impression.

Hal: Hang these images of him in your home to let him know he's welcome

Clar, staring at his boyfriend's newest son, whom he saw that morning at the breakfast table: Ummmmm, Sweetheart? Can you look at this?

Bruce glancing over his shoudler: Is that Danny?

Clark: Yes

He has grown from the boy he was during his difficult beginnings as Robin. He has learnt compassion, gentleness, the worth of human life.

The value of family over legacy.

But his past mistakes still haunt him.

He has grown closer to Richard, and Todd and Cain became Jason and Cassandra over the years. He has more or less amicable relationships with the Gotham associates that are not quite part of the family but still within their sphere of acquaintance.

He is no closer to mending his relationship with Timothy Drake.

He does not blame the man. He has done tremendous damage to its foundations with his past behaviour. It is Drake's right to set a higher bar for him to reach before he lets him into his confidence.

A few days after his birthday, he overheard his most distant brother speaking to Richard.

The oldest Wayne son was arguing in Damian's favour, as he is so prone to doing to the detriment of his own relationship with Drake.

"You let Jay in and he also tried to kill you! What makes Damian different, Tim? He was a child."

"I was a child too! And Jason apologised. He showed me with his actions that it wouldn't happen again. He put in the work. He cared. And it wasn't easy either! He only reached out because I too got replaced."

It makes Damian feel ashamed just thinking about it. He can't believe he had expected Drake to simply overlook his past actions without even thinking that making amends had to start with an apology.

"So what, you won't try to have a relationship with Damian until we get a new brother? Do we need to find someone else to put in the costume for you to start making an effort with him?" had asked Richard, incredulous.

"Why am I always the one making an effort? And don't be ridiculous. Sure, the suit's a reminder of how it all went down, but I'm over that. I can't deny it helped, though, with Jason." Drake had sighed then. "I always wanted a little brother, you know? Now I'm dreading the possibility that the next stray Bruce picks out will be the one to off me permanently."

Richard tried to lighten the conversation. He didn't seem to want a full blown argument. "I don't know, maybe it will be a real baby this time? Then they won't have the strength to lift a weapon."

They spoke more, but Damian didn't feel right listening further.

The conversation left Damian quite distracted.

There was much to take from it.

He would have to properly apologise and show that he means it, of course. He couldn't believe he had been too stupid to figure it out before this.

At least he has a path forward. The other part of the discussion strikes him as more memorable. He'd never considered the possibility that he wouldn't be the last surprise child.

Father was a bleeding heart and a playboy. Sooner or later an orphan would fall into his lap or one of his paramours would announce a surprise pregnancy.

Did Bruce Wayne even take precautions?

Damian shudders. The less he knows about his father's intimate endeavours, the better. But it bears investigations nonetheless.

He has long accepted the fact that he is not his father's only son and heir. Perhaps it is time to prepare himself to the possibility that he is not the only blood son either.

And what better way to prepare than being proactive?

***

Damian splits his time between his duties as Robin, his awkward overtures to mend the rift between him and Drake, and his investigations into his father's past trysts.

This is how he learns that Father had a vasectomy shortly after becoming the Batman.

Which drastically reduces the chance of Damian already having half-brothers, and renders Richard's hope of a baby brother incapable of wielding weapons impossible.

Somehow, both thoughts disappoint him.

He still makes a list of the women his father had public relationships with before the procedure.

He is not surprised by Selina Kyle's presence on said list.

He is more intrigued by the story of Silver St Cloud.

The woman was from a prestigious family and frequented Gotham's high society circles. She had a whirlwind romance with Damian's father, and the Batcomputer's old file marked her as one of the few who were aware of Bruce Wayne's vigilante identity. Their romance was cut short abruptly, and Damian has become a good enough detective to understand said secret identity probably was the cause of the break-up. Then St Cloud dated another man until she reunited with Father, broke up with said man to resume their tryst, and was summarily murdered by one of Father's enemies.

Without ever telling him that she had given birth to a child a few months after their first break-up and given him away for adoption.

This, Damian finds out by doing some involved research Richard would probably scold him for.

Said involved research might not even have been needed, as Silver St Cloud's name was not censored on the birth certificate.

Bruce Wayne's only other possible blood son took an interest in his biological family at age fifteen and contacted the St Cloud family. His name was then Daniel Fenton. Following this interaction with his maternal grandparents and the presumed revelation that his biological mother was dead, he decided to shed the name of his adoptive parents and go to live with them. Damian can only assume the Fentons were inadequate caretakers.

Daniel St Cloud is now nineteen and attending university in Metropolis. He studies engineering in a reputable program, is already submitting patents with his grandparents' support and has persistently dodged LexCorp's attempts to recruit him out of school. He looks a lot like his mother, but he resembles Damian and their father too. He still maintains connections to his adoptive sister Jasmine Fenton and his social media indicates that his childhood friends see him regularly -- Tucker Foley is Daniel's college roommate and Sam Manson visits them often despite studying in Gotham, he notes with detached interest. He seems happy.

Perhaps it is too late for him to need a father. And yet.

Damian has come to learn that there is no such thing as having too much family.

Perhaps Daniel has no need for a father. Perhaps he might still want one.

Damian thinks he would like a brother who did not know him when the League still had its claws into him.

The St Clouds having not set foot in Gotham since the murder of their daughter, Damian is not entirely sure if they are aware of Daniel's connection to the Wayne family and are keeping it from him or if Silver St Cloud simply never told them who the father of her child was.

He intends to find out, but this will require making direct contact with them.

He just has to figure out how to go about it.

But this one was seemingly more high-profile than all his patients combined and then some. Every NDA he signed essentially said the same thing in different words - if Danny spoke even a hint of his sessions with this potential patient, they would know and they would make sure he was buried more than 6 feet under. 20 feet under? That sounds like a reasonable number while still expressing the severity of the consequences Danny would incur by speaking about this potential patient.

He'd yet to meet the person, didn't even know their gender or name, but file after file had been appearing for the week leading up to their first meeting as if they couldn't help it.

Really, it told a lot about the potential patient to him. Clearly, they had anxiety. Each time they thought of a new worst-case scenario, they sent another NDA or document for Danny to sign. It didn't bother Danny much, since the saying "dead men tell no tales" wasn't much of an exaggeration in his case, so he signed the new document and sent it along back to its master. But it was interesting that each document outlined a new problem, a new thing Danny wasn't meant to speak on to anyone but the patient. One such document even explicitly stated that no one claiming to be family was allowed access to this patient's files, that all documentation should be handwritten and put behind a bio-lock when not in use. It was almost fascinating, if he were to be honest.

So yeah, they had severe anxiety, they catastrophized various scenarios, potentially there was some OCD, definitely some paranoia; Danny would even joke that he could diagnose this patient before ever meeting them, if he were allowed to speak about them. Of course, it would just be a joke - Danny would never be so irresponsible.

It also informed Danny that the patient was wealthy. Every NDA had a price tag. Every legal document with a payment behind it. Likely, there would be multiple things common amongst those with wealth. Danny could see his doctorate shriveling as he imagined connecting every issue to the patient's parents, their lack of attention and their choice of using money in substitution of parental love and attention. If they were a nouveau riche, then maybe imposter syndrome or narcissism. Maybe they were trying therapy on a recommendation from a loved one or friend.

Dpxdc

Names mean different things to ghosts and demons, though humans rarely understand the difference.

To a demon, a true name is a vulnerability. It is a chain, a handle, a weapon. In the wrong hands, it becomes power over them.

Ghosts are different.

They do not abandon their old names out of fear. They leave them behind because they no longer fit. A ghost sheds an old identity the same way a snake sheds its skin—not to hide, but because it has outgrown it. The name they choose after death is not a disguise. It is a declaration. It is who they have become.

A ghost’s old name is not forbidden. It simply isn’t theirs anymore.

So if someone knows it, there are only two possibilities. Either they are someone the ghost trusted enough to share a piece of a life that no longer exists… or they learned it by violating that trust and insist on using a name that the ghost has already laid to rest.

One is an act of intimacy.

The other is an act of disrespect.

Danny mouth has felt itchy for the past few days. Its been manageable but the only thing that's been able to sooth the discomfort is lapping at the roof of his mouth like a dog. Unfortunately, that's not helping much as his tongue has felt rougher and rougher and he was wearing away at the skin.

He debated finding a doctor that might be able to cure this sudden mouth disease but the only doctors that he could see this side of the portal was located at the watchtower right now. Not wanting to be studied he decided the Realms was the place to go.

A visit to Frostbite and Clockwork poking around gave them an answer.

Its just puberty.

Ghost puberty.

He's getting his adult teeth and it's going to take awhile for them to come in.

That sounded easy but unlike losing baby teeth this was much more difficult.

The itch was driving him nuts.

He started chewing towels, jerky and anthing rough enough to ease the pain.

The worst part, he had to go to someone who knew this feeling just as well.

Dan.

He had already been through this and....no he wasn’t going to help. He laughed and told Danny to figure it out.

The teething only got worse and not a single tooth had fallen out. So he started using bones.

Gnawing on cow marrow bones during a meeting is not exactly polite. Especially since whats-his'face reached over towards it and Danny hissed. So resource guarding was added to the list of weird ghost things.

Eventually while Danny was crunching into a bone there was a loud pop and a tooth came out.

"Phantom? Are you hurt?" Superman asked looking at the bloody tooth. "I think you should stop eating those."

"It's fine. I meant for that to happen." Danny said revived.

The rest of the league was sure Phantom was slowly turning into a beast but were willing to overlook it for now.

DPXDC Dead Tired Prompt

You know that Teen Titans Go episode where Raven was split into her different emotions? Anger, Happiness, Sadness, etc.?

So that but it happens to Tim Drake

And it doesn’t necessarily have to be his emotions, but like different aspects of his personality or something

And, someway somehow, one meets Danny

So Danny only gets to know this one aspect of a whole guy and doesn’t realize it

Imagine the possibilities of what their relationship could look like based on which aspect of Tim Drake that Danny meets

Maybe it’s one of the characteristics/emotions tied to his kindness so Danny falls in love with him — which can then segue into a complicated un/requited love because Danny only fell in love with one part of Tim while Tim was never whole enough to feel love or such for Danny

Maybe it’s one of the more …negative characteristics/emotions that meets Danny and creates a bad impression forever souring any relationship they could have

Perhaps Tim's obsessiveness?

Or, honestly, I'm thinking more along the lines of whatever you wanna call that part of Tim that is single-mindedly, doggedly dedicated to his sense of obligation and responsibility. That very Bat-like part that will always put the mission first and do whatever it takes to see it through.

Which could probably come off as obsessiveness on the surface, to people who wouldn't inherently know or have a clear cut name for such a nebulous, abstract aspect of self. But fundamentally it's really his unshakeable moral foundation. The part of him that always wants to do the greatest good, at whatever cost.

It's the part that became gun Batman to seize control and try to force a better world. But it's also the part of him that saw what Batman was becoming in grief and decided he wouldn't let that continue. The part that decided that when Dick wouldn't step back up to the role, he'd do it himself. The 'Responsibility Above All Else, Even Myself' part.