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Okay so it's been a bit sonce I watched the show but one of the things in DpxDC is the anti-ecto acts, which I love, but correct me if I'm wrong, I THINK ??? they only show up in reality trip? SO: What if Danny, when using the gauntlet to undo everything, also got rid of the Anti-Ecto acts? but this is babys first time editing reality so he uh Fucks Up A Lil'. As a result when Danny used the reality gauntlet to wipe the AEA from existence he accidentally wiped Amity Park from perception. A big 'nothing matters over here' jedi mind trick, and now no ones looking at Amity. So, the Justice League actually WERE looking into and monitoring the situation in Amity, but when the perception filter closed them off, all of that suddenly went ignored.

This is noticed when someone (Alfred, Dick, Tim, literally anyone) realises theres just. A BIG dusty pile of case files semi abandoned somewhere in the cave when going through a (time period)ly cave cleaning.

They put it down because it's Not Important.

They come back to finish the cleaning the next day and do the exact same thing, but there's nothing to actually distract them this time and it pings as weird. Because why would case files be not important? They are by definition important, because only things flagged as important go into case files.

They try to get someone else to read it, because as long as they don't read the information in the file, they don't put it down.

That person goes to read it, gets a line in and then says something like 'that isn't important' and goes to leave. Person A pushes it and person B ALSO catches on.

Que the Batfam trying to figure out hey, what the fuck actually?

Lets see how much i can flex my knowledge of societal logistics.

The whole thing gives of the same vibes as those scifi settings that use hyperspace as a form of FTL. Was hyperspace transport just invented by a small town trying to solve a shipping crisis caused by a treality-warping incident and compounded by xenophobic laws? Why yes, yes it was.

And that short hop ectocontaminating the goods slowly increasing the liminality of everyone in town? That just means that more and more resources from the realms themselves become palatable to the parkers. Who needs to order fruit from california through a convoluted and patchwork shipping network when there is plenty of edible food from the realms, AND the ghosts are immune to the perception filter? No more lost shipments, baby.

I didnt think about standardised education either. I was of the mindset that the perception filter was an "out of sight, out of mind" type of thing. In other words, if an amity parker physically went to a face to face meeting with someone out of town, they could have their meeting without weird mental blocks happening. Video and maybe even regular calls might even work, as long as the amity parker is NEVER put on hold, cause theyre gonna get forgotten and left on hold immediately.

Also, whatever problem theyre trying to solve needs to be solved then and there, or appointments for another physical appointment need to be made and scheduled, or they get dropped. Basically, automated services save the day, because then its a "whos on the schedule for 1130?" Type of thing thats just going through a routine thats already been set up. Anything to the extent of "let me hang up and see what i can do, then call you back to report" will fail every time.

So back to education, things are a real bummer for anyone in danny's class and up that wanted to go to college out of state, but through trial and error, and being extremely proactive and stubborn, some are able to get their records out of amity and get properly enrolled. By a couple of years after danny has graduated, i think enough alternatives have been explored that the dreaded OutParker Immigration Hassle is solved by most parkers simply never leaving town. A few individuals might still yearn for the outer world, but in a town where almost nobody leaves, the only education that matters is the education that the town itself recognizes.

Enter ghosts, who, by the nature of the realms, could be from anywhere and anywhen - including the future. Instead of going to college, amity opens up a sort of apprenticeship trade school. Every student is paired with a ghost mentor who is an expert in their chosen career path, and that ghost teaches them everything they know and then shadows them as they start to work in that field. The plethora of ghosts means that there are plenty of mentors to maintain a one-to-one teacher-student ratio, which is probably the reason why it works so well.

At this point, amity park is so cut off from the rest of the world and so highly liminal that it might as well be an extension of the realms. They consider themselves americans ethnically, but perhaps not strictly legally. The US government keeps overlooking them and nobodys federal taxes have been audited in years. If danny is the ghost king, he may have simply claimed his haunt as part of his domain, making amity park essentially a foreign nation.

And on the topic of government records and questionable citizenship status, what about social security numbers? I'd think ensuring that newborns have a legal identity would still be important for the sake of fighting the anti-ecto acts. Each ssin essentially proves that the us government declared them human beings and citizens of the US. At the very least, if the giw abducts any amity parkers, they have to go through the hassle of covering up the record that they exist. The perception filter works against them here, but any record of existence is better than nothing.

All birth certificates and ssins will have to be handled in a neighboring town's hospital to avoid perception filter hang-ups. Also, all amity parkers are technically dual citizens if this is how they handle the situation. And this makes Amity Park a place where - at least on paper - nobody is born and nobody dies, because all of those records are handled out-of-town. Possibly more than just paper for the dying part, if liminality guarantees ghosthood upon death. What's the point of reporting a death if the guy still shows up for work? Declaring his death might just cause more problems: canceling insurance, ending licenses, closing out bank accounts, foreclosing properties, activating a will, throwing custody of children into question, etc etc.

Anyone who wants to continue trucking likely still has a job in things like people and document transport - even just getting a bus is probably a nightmare if the driver can't acknowledge you and taxis can't pick you up (hang up after ordering and your ride isnt arriving) (Buses might be an iffy problem if they work differently in America but essentially here you have to wave the bus down. If there's no one at the stop or no one getting off at the stop the bus continues on past, and depending on how strong you want to make the filter people might not even be able to acknowledge you unless you are directly interacting with them, for the sake of simplicity we'll say once youre out of the town you can interact with people normally) Automated systems would literally be the life blood of the town for a while yeah and actually bring up a possibility where morality would come hard into question here as well because like.

Anyone who has a credit card essentially has unlimited money. As I understand people have to chase you up on the debt on them (I've never had one they aren't as common here as they are in the states where it seems like every person ever has one??) and they have to cut you off if you don't pay? like it gets flagged on the system and then someone goes in and does it? SO if people can't remember to cut them off then Amity Park just might crash the economy lmao. Imagine Tucker alone, with unlimited funds and the ability to get any technology he wants delivered to his door.

There is now potentially an entire CITY of people developing obsessions, with potentially unlimited funds. No one on the outside can understand or figure out why the economy is crashing, what's happening to inflation, why are warehouses across the country emptying of goods where are they going?? This went from an 'Amity surviving disaster' Scenario to 'Amity causing Disaster' Scenario real suddenly jfgiow Also for Education i think i might have had a brain fart because i suddenly remember?? in the show?? Lancer just. GRADES one of dannys major tests (how analogous to real life is that test btw? like is there a real version of it or is this Cartoon Nonsense?) directly in front of him on the same day. Is it just that it's because if he cheats that the nasty burger explosion kills all his loved ones and that's why it's important or is that ACTUALLY a Significant Test that the government keeps record of?

Depending on if teachers can just CASUALLY mark their students Major Tests themselves what i was thinking may or may not apply. Here the education system basically has it that though teachers are the ones that mark tests, it's not YOUR teachers. All tests are collected and sent away under an examinee number, the results are then connected to that number and who you are is never known to the examiner.

Now if all the results are going away as 'Amity Park' those boxes of tests maybe never even make it to the marking facilities - they literally might just get thrown away as trash by people along the route. Then you're shit out of luck if your tests were in the early days of the filter because NO ONE KNEW.

Arguably this could be solved by setting up a fake address or building a new school outside the town, but if the GIW are causing a blockade that might not be possible. Frankly even just building a school can take so long WITHOUT people forgetting that you're applying to do so that by the time anyone gets half way finished with it the culture of the town might have shifted into the one to one mentorship which is honestly such a GLORIOUS concept. Early schooling could and should be kept the same bc as much as people (myself included) hate the fact you have to take so many subjects, the opportunity to explore that many subjects is honestly a privilege.

It would also make things like school fairs/job fairs frankly AMAZING - after all the more students you can attract to your obsession the more you get to ramble/teach/share the thing you love so much you persisted after death for it. That's gonna be a lot of very, very passionate and engaged teachers even once you filter out all the ones who just suck at communicating or who aren't otherwise suitable.

Im autistic and have managed to keep a credit score of zero, so i dont know a lot about credit cards, but my understanding is that credit cards here have a limit thats determined by your credit score, and if you go into the bank to get a credit loan (slightly different from a credit card, but usually called the same), they also look at your income and assets. As far as im aware, like debit cards, if the card goes over the limit, subsequent transactions fail (and you get a big fee). Or maybe they dont fail because debt slavery is a concept that lots of americans don't understand, and credit companies ruthlessly exploit? Idk.

Now, i dont know if this happens in other countries, but here we have an epidemic of credit companies mailing out filled forms for extremely high interest rate credit cards. Entire lawsuits have been had by people being threatened by creditors for debts in their name they had no knowledge of because mail thieves got the forms, and literally all they had to do was forge a signature for free money.

This whole system is automated. So, while individual cards have a limit, amity parkers could theoretically get an endless supply of cards. Though i imagine the amount of junk mail they get will taper and fall over time as automated systems are increasingly updated and amity's addresses are corrupted, lost, and forgotten. That transition to move everything to the APDC address probably caused a huge decrease as well. Its also possible that the computer program running the mail-scam credit cards is sophisticated enough that while people have forgotten amity, the algorithms still know the location and is tracking transactions, seeing that payments arent being made, so less cards are sent as financial risk (for the company) increases. Again, Idk.

In this situation, anything Parkers buy IS getting paid for - the credit companies are the ones losing the money because they aren't being paid by the card-holder. This WILL start an investigation, and with how crazy the dc world is, i wouldn't be surprised if magic-based private investigators are a legitimate niche field for particularly mind-whammy cases. They would recognize and counteract the perception filter, at least for themselves, and figure out what was going on. Then, they would probably just advise the companies to take all Amity Park addresses off their systems and cancel all Amity Park cards. Still, that'll take time, so AP probably has a few months or years of free reign before being cut off. Perhaps its what allows them the money necessary to set themselves up as self-sufficient?

Why can credit companies get through but not the IRS? A number of reasons. First, my handwavy excuse that danny's reality rewrite was targeting the government, so the government gets hit the worst. Second, the responsibility of taxes largely falls on the person paying the taxes, which, again, out of sight, out of mind. Third, in the cartoon, the GIW wield the threat of auditing taxes for comedic effect. But if the entire town is declared non-sentient, why expect them to pay taxes?

Fourth, let's say a couple of magic investigators working for the IRS get through the filter. They harrass a couple of Parkers and the Parkers' response? The government doesn't recognize their town exists, has stopped paying for infrastructure upkeep, has cut off their banks, has forsaken their schools, and on top of All That, created an entire branch of the government to hunt them like animals because their people have been legally declared non-sentient. If they were to kill them and leave their dead bodies out in the open on main street for everyone to see, nobody from outside city limits would remember they even existed, let alone come looking for them. (The same warning is given to the credit companies' debt collectors, and the credit cards start getting canceled shortly after that.)

Last, if Amity Park is claimed as part of the Ghost King's domain, the US legally can't demand taxes from a foreign nation. (That would devolve into a huge argument over the sovereignty of the ghost zone and their right to claim AP, but it could only be started if enough people on the outside can remember long enough to actually contest the claim, and how much influence giw has when they discover that their sworn enemy has stolen an entire city from their nation - and even made them forget.)

Regardless of whether the credit companies deliberately cut them off or the cards naturally expire (and they stop getting new ones), afterwards, Amity Parkers have to go out of town to get loans and credit, which is a hassle when large swathes of their financial history cant be found as Amity is increasingly sectioned-off from the rest of the world. It's just another reason to remain in Amity and become self-sufficient.

However, i like the idea of various perception-filter-immune individuals (magic users, supernatural creatures, god-blessed, maybe a few metas and psychics, etc) stumbling into Amity and all its bat guano crazy. Amity Park's forged document industry absolutely explodes in growth. It's an in-broad-daylight market with competing businesses and legal regulations and protections because it's seen in Amity Park as a legitimate and necessary commodity. All these people living on the edges of society to hide their strangeness now have a way to participate without drawing attention. The black market for forged documents nationwide is collapsing as those immune to the filter introduce those that aren't, and nobody in the business can quite puzzle out why.

OTOH, crime might increase as fugitives running from the law seek refuge in Amity Park's perception filter. Sure, some of them are running from discrimination, but most will inevitably deserve their fugitive status and start causing problems - right up until phantom puts his foot down and proves exactly *why* he's top dog. Amity Park would probably treat the situation as not that different from when the portal first opened and most of the new visitors were trouble makers until phantom established the status quo.

Onto the CAT - it was absolutely a parody of standardized testing, and the idea that lancer would just have the answersheet on his on his person at all times is laughable. I supposed one could argue that clockwork orchestrated a series of events to make it happen, but it's definitely not realistic.

The two main standardized tests in the united states are the SAT and ACT, which are designed for college admission. Many states also have standard tests for their schools to benchmark progress at certain grades, which is what the CAT probably was, given that danny is a high school freshman. Here's a link:

https://educationadvanced.com/resources/blog/list-of-standardized-tests-by-state/

My understanding is that the tests, once complete, are mailed to the committee that created the test for grading, and the summary of results are mailed back to the school, but in my 5 minute quick dive, i couldnt find anything to verify that, and its very likely that different states handle their tests differently. I also discovered that this is the first year that the SATs were taken digitally instead of pen and paper, so that's another level of automation that parkers can exploit.

As for birth certificates and missing persons, i think most of that problem could be handled? Again, Amity Parkers working in neighboring hospitals know that the patients are going home safely and getting regular checkups. Idk what all kind of details go into hospital records outside of legal documents and history of appointments (for billing and health records.) Would hospitals actually record that such and such baby was assigned to such and such doctor for check ups? Idk if that kind of record would exist in order to collect statistics. If it does, then the Amity secretary is the one writing up the records and filing them correctly. Perhaps 'correctly' includes the information that the newborn was moved to Amity General Hospital, Go Look There For More Information. (After all, all Parkers are liminal, and AGH specializes in liminality.)

At the very least, a record of the baby's existence is available, and all the neighboring hospitals would have at least one Amity secretary to handle Amity related appointments, records, billing, etc. Hospital administrators are aware that a perception filter exists that complicates treatment of some of their patients, from... where was it? Oh yeah, Amity Park. Local hires are necessary to keep things running smoothly. All questions regarding the Parkers get directed to That One Secretary. They can answer your questions.

Working with Amity Park pretty often means it doesnt quite fall into that 'out of sight, out of mind' category, (a lot of people in neighboring cities are gonna have family in AP after all, and it was never Danny's intent to make any families forget each other) and the staff have gotten good at recognizing when the filter is screwing with them and know to seek out That One Secretary to help straighten things out.

To be honest, i was actually imagining that the babies and such are actually being born in AGH, but the hospital calls one of the neighboring hospitals to essentially outsource the creation of the birth certificate and ssin, providing the pertinant info. The calls and subsequent record creation are like 90% of the work that the amity secretary does at that hospital (any records, not just birth). The parkers that go to neighboring hospitals only do so because they need that particular hospital's specialization for treatment, and their liminality and the effects it might have for that particular treatment are encoded and treated as meta powers. Honestly, this set-up might only last until enough ghost doctors are hired and AGH is expanded enough to handle literally anything, as an increasingly liminal population means that in more and more cases, the liminality of the patient effects treatment in a way that the other hospitals cant account for.

In other words, looking at the hospital records would show a few things:

AGH stopped handling all childbirth, all amity parkers converted to at-home delivery, and unfailingly send the forms for birth certificate requests to neighboring hospitals instead of APG. (Babies are actually born in AGH. Looking up the doctor responsible for their delivery shows that they're employed at APG. I think labeling as at-home delivery would be easier than porting and forging records that they were actually at the neighboring hospital.) This is Really Weird, but anyone who is able to investigate this far already had to overcome the perception filter, and a few questions asked is enough to figure out that the situation screws with legal processes. If they can't get past the filter, they just see an increase in birth certificate/ssin creation in surrounding hospital records, and the statistical anomoly disappears if you discount Amity Park address, so its clearly centered... what were we investigating?

Amity park must have had a recent mutigen event (like dakota city, or central city in continuities where the collider activated everyone's powers, etc) because nearly every amity parker is now listed as a meta in the neighboring hospital records. If they get past the filter, they'll find the AGH records use the term liminal instead of meta. If not, something clearly changed in the greater illinois region, but nobody can really wrap their head around what could have caused the statistically higher percentage of metas from illinois.

After a few years, it becomes apparent that Amity Park's death rate suddenly dropped way lower than neighboring cities (according to the number of cases taken on by the neighboring hospitals). It isn't difficult to connect this to the suddenly meta population, but it's gonna garner interest, much of which will NOT be good. A mutigen that causes extended life/immortality is gonna make a lot of people go crazy for answers. (Maybe AP life expectancy has actually increased, but largely a lot of ghosts are just choosing to not legally report their own death.) Since Amity is under the perception filter, whoever finds out about it is able to harrass Amity without any other outsiders knowing, BUT they themselves have to have worked past the filter as well. It's definitely a double-edged sword.

There is a slow decline of Amity Park patients in surrounding hospitals (as AGH can accommodate more situations and liminality becomes the most important specialization in more cases), even as AP birth rates continue to exceed (or match, if the investigor can see than there are no birth records in AGH) surrounding towns. The ratio of AP birth certificates, death certificates, and other cases in the neighboring hospitals is wildly different compared to any other towns they serve. Birth certificates are way up, death certificates are way down, and the number of patients is declining despite apparent explosive growth in Amity.

If they can see AGH records, there are zero births (but a lot of patients refered within minutes of birth), exceptionally low deaths, and nearly all cases are associating with complications of liminality, which entirely replaces the term metahuman. Statistics for injuries (especially from car accidents), health defects, complications of health decline, cancer, etc are all suspiciously low, as liminality increases durability and decreases recovery time and seriousness of the injury (higher threshold of damage before checking into the hospital means overall fewer cases.)

A new category of health record has also been created: legally alive but biologically dead - ghost health needs are different from a human's after all. Parkers are encouraged to schedule a doctor appointment as soon as possible after they die so they can update their records to reflect their changed needs.

The idea of the filter immune individuals going in and out of town and therefore essentially exporting criminal action (it would still be criminal to forge documents after all, Amity just doesn't acknowledge that or care about the laws of Outside) is so much fun?? It would also be very interesting to see people taking refuge in the town, everything from legit magic users to meta humans to unusual creatures. And honestly the reactions of these Meta's and criminals who thought they were going to be Top Dog in the worlds ready made, perfect criminal base only to essentially be met with the Tiny Baby Godling that is Danny Phantom.

This town running on Green liquid also realistically would attract the attention of the league if it's running on what sounds like Lazarus water and has a very bizarrely legitimised document forging system. Considering the leagues stated goal is essentially ecological stability via genocide (which is I think why they have been labelled eco terrorists???) it would be FABULOUS to play out how they would react to a town that has essentially solved the energy crises BUT where no one can ever die in a way that matters.

As I understand it Ra's (depending on version?) isn't just annoyed by the pollution caused by people but considers people THEMSELVES a pollution, so being unable to actually get rid of people because they just come back as ghosts and are therefore still around being near him would be an issue for him. Like those people who want to run away into the woods so they never have to see people again, but actually he wants to genocide everyone so he never sees people again (yikes) Ooh that's actually really interesting! God considering the absolute hell I went through to get the accommodation to be allowed to use a computer (I've got some stuff going on that affects my ability to write legibly) in my exams that's actually so cool to hear they've just moved exams over to digital for everyone tbh. I also agree that the missing persons stuff could be solved by the idea of long term exposure and connections to the town (like using the secretary proxy) could totally solve the missing persons case! It actually makes total sense that there's no reason for them to have the births be happening outside Amity itself, especially with the lightbulb realisation that actually, Amity could very well specialise in something like Liminal surgery - imagine a C-section where you never have to actually cut into the womb? You can have your usual specialists involved in surgery but also an invisibility/intangibility specialist who's entire job is to essentially make the patient invisible and intangible so the surgeons can work with as little damage to the mother as possible, only cutting the placenta and having the mother pass the afterbirth later instead of risking the nightmare that is tearing or other complications.

This could legit apply to so many surgeries honestly, to the point high risk surgeries can and will be referred into Amity itself or have the specialists possibly fly out depending on if its deemed safe for patient and doctor (Can never rule out a trafficking trap after all. All highly specialised residents go with an escort there and back. They're free to leave whenever they want, but the fear of the GIW or similar groups faking an emergency so they can capture the surgeons is real.)

Heart valves that need to be placed in young kids, brain surgeries where the damage is deep that you suddenly don't have to dig for (that might have been completely inoperable before), leg realignments, all sorts of stuff solved just by not having to cut through the patient to get to the problem Also imagine being one of those secretaries when the JL eventually shows up to investigate and you're the obvious connection to the town no one can find? Like, on one hand no one here is weirder than what you've already seen just growing up. On the other hand this is like the entire FBI arriving on your door, and I don't think most people are immune to the realisation that Troubles Coming.

FR though becoming a Ghost is not unlike becoming a Lich I think. Like you're essentially undead sure but you're suddenly super hard to kill and peoples terror over death is normally the idea of ceasing to exist, so if you become a ghost you 'conquer' death and also get a super power super boost? Oh yeah once people figure that out shit is going DOWN.

It would also be interesting that if people were immigrating in large numbers and the usual death method of population decline no longer applies, how long could the perception filter actually HOLD? Like, if the perception filter grows with Amity, how long until Amity itself eventually eclipses some kind of interstate?

Will people be able to travel that interstate? Will they witness the town as they drive through it, some mad glimpse of utopia, only to forget as they get out the other side?

Revolutionizing emergency care with ghost powers is a topic all its own. Considering that the fentons can replicate ghost powers, they could potentially develop specialized surgical tools. Questions of ecto contamination might even fall in the same category as radiation from x-rays - sure, it's bad, but it's saving your life in the long run.

Honestly I'm digging Rockford for the city base, it does look like Amity in the show. I also can't find what that round building in the river is for in Aurora but it's now going between Amity and Elmerton. I'm just slapping it in there. The river between amity and elmerton is too small for such a large building? Szwoop magical AU powers that's now a big ass river and it's getting a cool building slapped into it, use expanded on later in the post Mostly for the people super spending I was thinking along the lines of people who, essentially, win the lottery or come into large inheritances and then go broke in a few years.

The expenditure to do that must be INTENSE, BUT if the population is much much smaller they can be far more selective about who gets them instead of having what is essentially a panicked dispensing system of 'we need as much as possible immediately' and give it to people they know to be good with money and people they can trust to not essentially attempt to set up bottle necks within the town and who WILL order for their neighbours and not become some kind of problem in the town. So essentially, A smaller population means a healthier community dynamic which means more trust and therefore yeah I would accept that in a city of only 150K, people will fuck each other a LOT less than a city of over a million On the other hand honestly if the Fentons can manufacture the specialised parts in one car I think they can manufacture the specialised parts in any car, but I DO think they would put your ferrari as the lowest priority all the time, so even if they can fix it to run on ecto they probably wont. Tucker it also occurs to me might be the one or at least one of the first to notice that something is up with the towns credit. I'm pretty sure I remember him despairing that he'd nearly paid off his PDA's payment plans as a running joke whenever they got destroyed, so the guy does have reason to have a finger on the pulse of the debt community.

I also head cannon his parents to be dentists tbh, probably bc they're like the 'normal' parents of the group and I feel like 'dentist' is the most normal job. I have absolutely no justification for this, no one in my family is even a dentist to serve as a reason for this opinion. BUT that also means that if Tuckers parents run their own dental surgery, they're up to their chest in Equipment Debt. Correct me if this is a difference again but here apparently dentists have a real time and a half setting up their own practices just because doing so is so expensive.

Considering how extortionately American medicine is supposed to be priced I can't imagine it's any better. But then Tucker goes and essentially confirms with his parents Yeah Somethings up - money is tight all over town after all, so payments haven't been being made but there's, Nothing happening? No ones threatening to reclaim anything? IDK if Tuckers the kind of long term planner to think of it, he definitely seems to be an 'amazing under pressure' sort but kind of needs that pressure as motivation to do stuff? (Very relaxed day to day but literally he's essentially the guy who ACTUALLY dealt with skulker, not Danny, and he does that under SERIOUS STRESS and doesn't even have Batmans prep time)

But Sam has a long term outlook and serious organisational skills considering all her campaigns, so she would definitely lightbulb up like 'we can use this' and then testing commences. Little pokes to see what they can get away with.

Honestly even just the way America builds is an interesting tidbit to how the town would develop because I was ABSOLUTELY thinking build up. Like, if the population grew very very rapidly I was envisioning basically a Kowloon situation, a place where the buildings were growing so thick and tall it was alleged that there were places the sun never reached. These areas once the magical populations start moving in would actually be less of a problem and more of a feature for the light sensitive community, and become sort of an artificial underground considering it does exist above soil level so airflow is actually easier. (Sam would be so stoked for the aesthetic here and is again probably at least partially responsible for how it looks. Gothic Underground City? Tears of joy, her dreams are Real.)

(On the other hand imagine sam having free range over the city scape and how much eco stuff she would shove everywhere, solarpunk with a gothic touch. I guess Sam just gets to grow up to be a city planner in this AU.) (Which honestly makes me want to give Tucker some kind of space age area but arguably that is ALL of Surface Amity once the flying cars and shit start coming in.)(Honestly Old Amity could become a thing in AP like how different places have historically protected towns because they just represent such a picture perfect snap shot of history. APers just to their kids like "this is how we used to live!") This lean towards AP developing this way is mostly because here it is ABSOLUTELY easier to build up than it is to build out, due to both geographical features and to zoning laws, you'd get permission and do get permission for large sky scrapers that knock down old disused buildings and repurpose the ground FAR faster than you get permission to disturb farmland.

This change to the city scape probably wouldn't be an issue till a few years in though, as death fails to decrease the population and outparkers begin to hear about the place and flock in.

I think the GIW would absolutely go after the SPREAD of that technology at least, fearful that it's essentially a trojan horse for the wider population, but considering since its release (and the assumingly decent length of time it's been out in Amity) with no negative side effect, in fact only POSITIVE ones, the pressure on the GIW would be IMMENSE until they where eventually dissolved as 'an embarrassing gaff' on the part of the USA government born of fearmongering.

They certainly aren't going to try and point fingers at the Fentons considering the Fentons are sitting on FTL travel. In fact even when the Filter breaks down Amity might get away with a Lot Of Shit theyve done both from the perspective of 'you declaired us nonsentient and abandoned the town' and the sheer LEVERAGE the Fentons inventions gives Amity (How does that one joke go? if the 1% tries to build a wall to cage in the 99% of the world, it's not the 99% who are going to be living in a cage? that would essentially be the GIW before their dissolution, panicking over people getting 'contaminated') WHICH BRINGS ME TO THE ROUND BUILDING IN THE RIVER!! Honestly The Fentons, with even half these advancements, with the goddamn solution to the energy crisis ALONE in the form of ecto powered homes and cars, are going to be Richer Than God. Do i absolutely think they COULD invent anything and everything we've posited here? Yes. They built an interdimensional portal, these people are nightmares. BUT! I think it's safe to say that the Fentons are people of PASSION. And what people of PASSION tend to want more than anything else is!! For other people to be as excited about their shit as they are! Jack LITERALLY blathers about ghosts to a terrifying degree in the show, he practically POUNCES on people who show even the tiniest HINT they might be willing to listen to his info dumping, so!!!

The round building is the new ecto research facility and university!! Want to be a doctor specialising in liminal care? You study here now! Want to become an engineer who specialises in ecto tech? You study here now! want to become - Etc Etc.

Essentially the demand out grew the Fentons home So Hard they had to set up an entirely new facility, and that's where a fair amount of innovations are coming out of. Danny could actually be a teacher/translator for his parents, considering he's both an expert on ghosts just by emersion and also an expert on deciphering what his parents are saying so he can clear that up for others (Lancer ends up being delighted Danny became a teacher. Danny was his TA for Experience Stuff)

Why in the river? Because I think it looks cool Lmao. (also because realistically it's easier to accommodate aquatic based students and research by building a building that is in the river so they don't have to develop canals and waterways somewhere else in the city and then the transport around that but this is all backwasrds justification just based on 'how fucking cool does that building look?' Nicely done Aurora, I'm in love with it.) ALSO I RELISED there's totally justification for the filter being spotty as a concrete example in canon, VAL!! There's no way Danny doesn't think of her subconsciously as a parker even if she lives in elmerton now, so she absolutely remembers Amity. She talks to one of her neighbours who DOESN'T remember Amity, someone who just works at a local shop instead of trekking across the river for work and they? Don't??? remember Amity?? Until she prompts them like 'yeah you know the whole city across the river? the place I'm from?' and then they're like OH HOLY SHIT. Now the logical, reasonable assumption to that is 'That person had a stroke.' or 'that person is On Something' until it Keeps Happening. It peters off after a while but like this is Valerie 'All ghosts must die' Gray (She hasn't even met Dani yet!!) so actually I've decided that Valerie is the first person who actually puts together that there is some kind of perception filter on the town considering that maybe that morning her BUS TO SCHOOL doesn't arrive because the driver forgot they were on that route and not a different one.

Like other people have detected that Something Is Up, but she's the first non GIW/Fenton person to immediately blame ghosts, and she would hunt that down like the menace she is (Affectionate) She also wouldn't have to be prompted to remember bc realistically she is Liminal so yes! lets say liminals are immune. Jason doesn't recognise the files at first bc maybe the investigation was happening around the time he was on the outs with the family (I'm placing Danny and Jason around the same age in this AU so the Justice league would be Set Up when Amity starts getting strange but is maybe not yet everyone's ''shits going weird 'Who you gonna call? Justice League!'" reaction.)

(Also if Danny and Jason are the same age/a year apart, Danny opens the portal only a short while before Jason DIES so Jason is literally not around to investigate Amity getting its freak on.) AND RIGHT HOW WEIRD WOULD THAT BE FOR JASON??? Like it's not like any of his family are known for being absentminded about details, being steel trap nightmares about cases is kind of a DEFINING bat trait, so when it's his turn to read the file and he says 'its a file on some town called Amity Park?' and everyone just sort of Goes To Do Something Else simultaneously? AWFUL. HE HATES THIS ALREADY. AND THEN IMAGINE. IMAGINE. HE FINALLY GETS A LEAD. He gets a lead on some smuggling ring, one he's been chasing weeks or months, and he's rocking up to the warehouse, ready to School Some Fuckers, and who the hell is this? Looking like he could be a Wayne Adoptee™? Well the guy won't tell Jason his name. Fine, It's not like Jason isn't undercover too. Sometimes you get an unexpected team up. Jason knows how to handle those and how to be careful that he doesn't get his shit rocked by a betrayal. They work great together actually? The guy is clearly some kind of Meta and as they fight Jasons getting pretty suspicious that this guy is involved with the mysterious Amity actually, and at the end of the fight? The guy whips out some weird little thermos thing and sucks up all the smuggled evidence. Jason demands a name at that point because hey that's his evidence he kind of needs that! and Danny just smirks as he screws the thermos lid closed., "You can call me John Galt." And Vanishes like the Little Shit he really is. And Jason? Jason's brain has just flat lined and erupted all in the same moment at the GALL of this asshole. The pure CHEEK. Because Jason right? He's a lit nerd. There's no way he hasn't read that book (which actually sounds really good) but he KNOWS that the bastard just taunted him with that. Maybe didn't expect him to catch it immediately but JASON DID OKAY? And Jason is more invested than ever to find Amity Park and 'john FUCKING galt' just so he can give him a piece of his mind for being such a cheeky shit, but first he apparently has to find an entirely new lead and figure out what to do with these smugglers, considering it looks like 'Galt' wasn't alone. The rest of the facility has been cleared of both evidence and information, and the smugglers weren't contaminated/connected enough to remember without the evidence and reminder files on hand. Jason is FUMING. (he's also put himself on Dannys radar as a possible liminal to introduce to Amity if he turns out to be cool. Not that he knows about this. But Danny is already planning how to 'run into' each other again.) (Batman in this definitely tends towards 'Well meaning but fucks up sometimes, + Paranoia' so he's absolutely loosing his mind that there's something he can't even remember to account for and he's sending his son straight into it. So he's freaking out every time he remembers there's something to freak out about, even if he's doing it Very Quietly.)

Honestly though if ecto ONLY has positive effects there absolutely would be people who balk at that because it's the definition of 'too good to be true'. That fear is probably actually the biggest road block to getting rid of the AEA and the GIW in the end, just people being WIGGGED OUT I'd say once the surgical stuff starts being a thing is really where I'm going to place the count down timer for the filter surviving. The rest of the advancements can be passed off as alien tech, the people flying? obviously metas. But once that contamination starts spreading and people become immune to the filter? It starts eating away at what's left of the destroyed Gauntlets power.

If Danny HADN'T smashed the gauntlet, I'd say it's power would never have been so permeable and faulty or inclined to ever wear off but he DID blow that thing up like a fourth of july firework so BOOP the power was always far more limited than it should have been for an ongoing effect. (The one and done turn back doesn't unravel because the gauntlets power essentially stopped being used to implement the change once it was completed. Think a pot of boiling water compared to a pot of cooked rice - the water stops boiling but rice is always cooked once it's cooked) Essentially, yes to herd immunity! The weight of all those minds Looking and Thinking around the filter in combination eat away at and eventually collapse the filter.

I also feel like people would absolutely start selling fake ecto, essentially everyone knows it's green and glowing and hard to get so just set up a bunch of shitty hoops then give people glow stick fluid and book it. Horribly Immoral? Yes. But unfortunately in this ecto is essentially bordering on a Real, In universe cure all and people are going to exploit the SHIT out of that - no one who's been to AP could ever mistake the difference, but for people who haven't seen the real stuff? Hard to know. It could also be that at a certain point of contamination you essentially get auto access to citizenship in Amity? Like, you get warned before treatment that 'The power source of the machines' may invoke changes in you' which I'm sure they would find a way to put FAR less ominously, but then once they hit that threshold they can start thinking and talking about ecto and that's when the doctors know to be like 'okay do you want to see AP and learn about what these changes may become? Or have someone come out to you? and i mean that's like being asked 'hey do you want to visit el dorado' yeah people are GOING.

The bridge between amity and elmerton was a golden gate knockoff, so the water space there is absolutely large enough. I always kinda figured the river was more of an artificial lake created by a dam downstream to account for its width, and if the beach (in attack of the killer garage sale) is along the river, then it accounts for the stillness of the water and the ability to build up a sandy beach for tourism. (Which could be an interesting point of contention if the dam operators forgot there was a city upstream that needs water AND to not be flooded. Guess another amity parker needs to be stationed there.)

I thought the foleys being dentists was universal fanon? Business debt absolutely makes sense here. Idk about dentistry specifically, but starting pretty much any business in the US is a huge money sink to get started. Specialized equipment, business license, etc, all cost money, and high taxes make it very difficult to pay off start-up debts.

Anecdote time, ive heard that an unusually high percentage of dentists in the US are mormon. Im not sure how to go about looking this up and verifying that its true, but from what i understand, one of the main dentistry schools here preferencially accepts mormons to the point they had to fight a lawsuit for discrimination. My understanding is that they won, because they were able to prove that they had found mormons to be more fiscally responsible and more likely to pay off school debts, had a higher work ethic, and caused fewer problems because they dont drink or party like typical college students do. Ie, they never actually selected for mormonism, but knowing the person was mormon was a good indicator of other traits that they did select for. Anecdote over.

Idk if tucker would be mormon specifically, but i dont think some generic christian would be out of character. It's a nice contrast to sam being canonically jewish and danny being fanonically athiest or agnostic. (His parents *certainly* dont understand the true meaning of christmas.)

As for Tucker noticing the credit card fuckery, I pretty much agree with your assessment. To me, the trio dynamics appeared to me as Sam being the Big Idea person, Tucker being the goal-oriented Executor, and Danny being the Workhorse that can Make Anything Happen.

Sam, to me, seems like she's got grand ideas but thinks too big to be able to break things down into managable steps. She's too caught in the moment and focused too much on the grand gesture of Making A Stand. Tucker seems like the expert in that regard, making schedules and managing progress. He keeps track of the minutia, makes records, and sets reasonable goals. Danny is as much along for the ride as he is the leader. He keeps Sam and Tucker focused and working together instead of competing, and is the leader in the sense that he's the tie-breaker and the strategist that puts the others to best use. But he's very much beholden to Sam's Ideas and Tucker's Management. They're all equals and pull their own weight.

I see your vision of building up and agree with your logic. After all, TUE Amity built up, presumably because they were limited by the size of the shield. In this au, once the filter is acknowledged, they might err on the side of caution. You mentioned eclipsing an interstate earlier? Perhaps they recognize that the interstate is an artificial boundary they shouldn't cross. They're also butted up against a river/lake, so thats two sides they're now blockaded. Perhaps another reason the Fenton Research Facility is on the water - it was the only place to build! (Also, if the building caught fire, they could break the foundation and submerge it before it spreads to another building? Idk, just an Idea i had.)

Sam would be a huge proponant of urban farming. There are papers suggesting that with our current technology, skyscraper hydroponic farms might be more efficient than traditional farms. My understanding is that the biggest blockade is startup costs - which we've already solved for Amity. And it provides a space to experiment with liminal cultivars!

I really like the idea of City Planner Sam, its such a logical extension of her Big Ideas personality, and years of ghost hunting with danny and tucker has tempered her to have more achievable ideas, and to defer to experts to advise on what is and isnt safe.

Also, vlad canonically made a ghost shield that also works on humans. Skulker also handcuffed danny and valerie together. Canonically, "humans are the ghosts" in the ghost zone, so i'd imagine making tech to affect both humans and ghosts is simply a matter of building it out of materials from both sides, at least in most cases. Dousing tech in ectoplasm to make it ghost proof is just one example.

Actually, the shield vlad made was blue, iirc, and i think the TUE shield was too? Did alt-future Vlad create the Amity shield, then got banished some time later? In a world where everything is being systematically destroyed by an unstoppable force, humans fighting over resources becomes just as big a threat. Strict immigration limits would also have to be ruthlessly enforced to ensure that pop growth didn't outpace its self sustainability.

Honestly, it makes perfect sense to me that Vlad would have attempted to pull a phantom planet stunt to rule the world in return for creating life-saving defenses. And he didn't have ghost powers to back up his threats, so he eventually got kicked out once someone successfully called his bluff. Valerie and her dad upkept the shields, and Damon canonically works high-tech security, so presumably, he managed to find and remove any sabatoge Vlad might have placed in his tech to keep control, or reverse engineered his own to get society out from under Vlad's thumb, before he was then thrown out to the wolves.

Lastly, ecto-contamination being purely positive. What if it isnt? What if it makes you more obsessive, but it takes years to become noticable? Amity Parkers just shrug it of as being more ghostly. Its an Obsession, capital O, now a legit quirk of psychology, and a bit of management is all you need to stay on top of it.

But outsiders, after several years of deliberately contaminating themselves and after fighting a war against the giw for their fear mongering, are suddenly worried that the giw were right all along? It has the potential to be really hilarious AND really angsty.

Honestly there are so many variations of 'we have to remind this place that Amity exists so the town doesn't get Completely Fucked' that I feel like they now deserve their own sort of collective name, maybe links? that's a bit of a limp name though If we wanna keep up the spooky ghost theme to it they could be collectively known as Revenants. Considering they would literally be returning from the land of the dead at this point once Amity is effectively Annexed to the Infinite Realms. (Can it even be classed as Annexing at this point? Or would it be more closely linked to the worlds most bizarre case of squatters rights - you abandoned this town for so long that the ghosts literally moved in and it's theirs now. Suckers.)

I got way into floating island logistics. Let me know if you don't see the other reply and want me to try to rewrite it AGAIN.

But... *floating islands.* You can't just not try to make it work once it becomes possible. Bear in mind that I'm imagining something like the Hallelujah Mountains in Avatar, where they're free floating but tethered to each other and the ground with massive vines. I think that's an asthetic that City Planner Sam would totally try to create.

The CARS though - so you mention in America a lot of towns are very straight through roads right? where I am we have this funky phenomenon that I absolutely hate with a passion, which is that new roads will cut through old homesteads and literally have the houses like. A FOOT, if even that much, from the actual literal side of the road - no footpath, no curb, just road|house. AWFUL. It's normally somewhere very tight, like bordered in on one side by water and on another by terrain rocky enough not to be developable but GOD

Which is mostly intended as context for the very questionable suggestion that they just punch holes through the skyscrapers for the cars like those buildings in Hong Kong that honestly look cool af

(Some of these buildings start to get real funky and honestly I'm here for it, google has conflicting reasons for why this is done but like honestly sometimes 'why' can be secondary to the cool shit people can come up with)

Like, you COULD go for the sensible suggestion that they just block off certain airspaces for use as building or travel. But where's the fun in that? Much more cool to have your commute to work go through five sequential building gaps like a racing game level tbh Probably the absolute limit to building is considered the atmospheric filter edge - though the question of 'how would a building just. poking out of the filters area work on anyone who saw it?' is entertaining in and of itself. Amity Parkers probably at some point start to consider the edge subconsciously, maybe even almost superstitiously. Additionally while the islands are theoretically something that allows Forever Upward building, someone DOES have to track them down and then possibly fight whoever is currently occupying the place and then drag it back which would be EXPENSIVE as fuck. I'm thinking like, 'purple dye historically' kinds of expensive. Especially with 'where do the islands come from' being a question, like are ghosts generating them? from what I remember they're all occupied in the show (by varyingly intelligent creatures) but if they're not just found and then used by ghosts but projections of them like Lairs in Fanon that's a WHOLE other problem At first I thought the islands might be able to go high enough to have the shadow dispersal effect that planes get - in that they're high enough and small enough they stop casting shadows apparently, but at that height you'd arguably not even be IN amity's jurisdiction anymore, so instead there could be a few possibilities: The city uses the shadows to it's advantage and larger islands get very carefully placed to affect as few people as possible in favour of specialised farming, similar to the 'false underground' from earlier where build up eventually got so much that it blocked out the light, so you end up with 'Dark' and 'Bright' Sides to Amity, which I could see developing a friendly rivalry

Or the city maintains the false underground but, considering that the sunlight is a limited resource and they can theoretically dig for more underground decide to use the shadow eliminating algorithm in (This) article, which is honestly really cool? Basically from what it says the buildings are shaped to just reflect light, however considering your point that if Amity is doubling it's landmass but not rainfall it's becoming more arid, what that would do to wildfire risks is a fair question. OH MAN BUT TALKING ABOUT THE DRAINAGE IDEA -- why not just make the upside down buildings into giant filtration systems? the top side of the island could catch the water and the buildings built underneath like the blimp idea could just straight up BE the funnels - gutters and gargoyles to protect buildings from rain have been a thing for forever, so just turn that decorative and make giant, upside down pyramids with water fountain spouts instead of spires. THAT would be a hell of a sight for the people learning about bylaws. It would also create a frankly stunning sight and lake, like goddamn, imagine working/living in that?

Honestly the hilarious solution to the drainage would be making the myth about the Burj Khalifa having miles of poop trucks true and just making it so the islands had to truck off all their septic tanks everyday (the myth is that it was the Burj only that didn't have sewers - it was apparently pm all the buildings in Dubai, so they had like 4000 sewer trucks instead) the more sensible solution is probably either a drainage island below that island (disgusting sounding but apparently not as nasty as you'd think) with the drainage fields you suggest

Or to have the island essentially hollowed out and have a closed water treatment system with reserves service the island, so the islands would essentially be buildings shelled over in floating rock to make them more buoyant/lighter, and then also provide additional material of the rare floating rock In this case if it's privately owned everything on the island would be the responsibility of the private owners, but thing like library's would be the cities Arguably if the Fentons have the whole flying car thing cracked they might not need to use tethers at all (but fail safes and aesthetic choices never hurt) if they just use a large version of whatever system they designate to control the spectre speeder it could likely control the island inspite of winds and inspite of altitude bobbing, if it drifts past a set amount of meters from 'designated point' then it would just correct to that designated point, or you could have a new job type open up where people are essentially island pilots and it's their job to make sure nothing goes wrong with the machines like some kind of island shepherd. mcwekl okay we arrived at the same conclusion lmao, but yes I agree! it definitely seems automatable that the islands can be affected by ghost powers and honestly, if the devices can then push that weightlessness onto anything then the need for ghost rock in and of itself is eliminated and mostly would serve as a failsafe for the islands to fall slower and have more time to correct than as the main buoyancy aid, essentially the reverse of the tethers If they're using ecto to power things it's likely not a problem, and closed systems do take care of the water pipe issue, but realistically those islands need internet. The one TRUE human desire XD unless theyre some kind of retreat from technology thing going on, or they get the cities most crazy powerful wifi going to eliminate the need for internet cables Oh wow you know a lot about storms and electric, I'm going to default to whatever you say on that because I have VERY little electrical know how, but what about lightening rod islands? just little ones made almost entirely of metal to direct the energy away from the tethers? They could probably be highly decorative tbh, or their placement themselves be decorative above and below the islands in constellation patterns so long as the main purpose wasn't interfered with oop you got to that one nvmnd XD (Okay that's both fascinating and terrible but 'weird ways we might end the world' even the very theoretical ones are high on my list of 'things I should probably be less entertained by' but that's actually so cool? like there's stuff we know we'll never see in our lifetimes but goddamn what a concept) Honestly in terms of really bad storms depending on how the islands and under the islands are shaped the islands could always lower and provide what is essentially a giant, lid like storm shutter, whether from the shape of the island itself or just by lowering actual giant shutters - mentioning turning turtle houses could always be modified to flip at a moments notice, where ceiling can become floor for added protection if the islands do need to lower, sort of like how boat houses are modified to have everything bolted down but to a more extreme degree considering i don't think boat houses flip upside down does that give the Fentons another fortune making invention XD ? I don't have a lot of experience with crazy weather but even just the ability to mitigate hurricane winds reliably is something I understand to be a serious concern in America

Honestly Valerie has a hoverboard in the show so everything from single person vehicles to whole buses and trains is a go in my opinion, though ski lifts in place of something like trams would be really funny at the lower altitudes (i also imagine a ban on flying your hoverboard too high without a natural flyer around - falling debris/people can do such a horrendous amount of damage after all, either a height limit or an area limit or some kind of implant that forces the board to track and catch you if you fall off would be needed) oooo! 1 imagine the bats trying to follow anyone before they cottoned on to that - good luck circling a building to block the exits (not that they would likely get the chance to considering the locals reactions) 2 that could also absolutely be a wealth factor - if the floating rock is rarer/hard to get then it's the rich that have it and therefore have the higher structures that would likely need the doors (if they're artificial like the portal) and the lower areas of the city would rely on things like cable and tether systems

Though how far this disparity would be allowed to grow is a question bc the fentons as a whole are essentially sitting on the ability to control the portal technology. On the other hand if the ghosts can do it then it's more a question of 'can you get them what they want' which again, if it's the rich they probably have more connections to do so

Meanwhile, At the Hall of Justice! Booster Gold sat at the reception desk of the Hall of Justice. He managed to annoy some of the higher level heroes in the field and was demoted to desk duty. But that embarrassing story is irrelevant, because Booster was currently staring slack jawed down at the stack of legal documents he was just handed. "Wait, wait, wait! You're SUING, the justice league!?" Booster demanded. The hero was looking back and forth between the stack of papers he was just served and the skinny younger man that just handed them over.

—

The league turned to Batman in silence as Boosters missive came in.

“Bats and his minis are getting sued for well. A lot of charges not too off from corrupt cops and organized crime… with encouragement of criminal behavior to minors and having them as accomplices added to Bats’ personal file.”

The attached document photos had interrupted the quarterly budget meeting.

“Is this even legal?” Plasticman murmured, sifting through the legal word salad before him.

The charges were correct on a technicality with cited instances aplenty—assault and battery, B&E, tampering with and theft if evidence in active cases, training minors to copy this criminal behavior as his accomplices and protégées. Through the kids, Batman operated a vigilante organization and by definition, vigilantes are still criminals under the law. Stalking and harassment of civilians for performing their job adequately with multiple social service workers confirmed and willing to testify, threatening and harassing witnesses on more counts and citations than Booster could count over fifteen pages, with the page of assault and battery against witnesses as a separate section. That excluded the B&Es tied to immediate assault and battery followed by theft of private physical and intellectual property, damage to said properties, and multiple counts of attempted murder in the second degree and a few cases in the first. The theft of personal physical property was separate from intellectual, though damages were noted as needed for linked cases.

Bruce, Brucey, B R U I S E E E.

What a naive thing to say. It's almost like youre asking God to mess with you and prove you wrong.

Meanwhile, At the Hall of Justice! Booster Gold sat at the reception desk of the Hall of Justice. He managed to annoy some of the higher level heroes in the field and was demoted to desk duty. But that embarrassing story is irrelevant, because Booster was currently staring slack jawed down at the stack of legal documents he was just handed. "Wait, wait, wait! You're SUING, the justice league!?" Booster demanded. The hero was looking back and forth between the stack of papers he was just served and the skinny younger man that just handed them over.

On the Watchtower, Batman sat in the monitor room, staring at the alert on his screen. Booster Gold’s voice echoed over the comms, panicked and too loud as usual.

“Uh, Batman? We’ve got a situation. You’ve been served.”

The silence that followed was deep enough to make even the void of space jealous.

Batman pinched the bridge of his nose. “Booster. Clarify.”

“Some guy — Danny Fenton, young, lawyer, very angry, and uh... apparently he knows his legal stuff — just dropped off a mountain of papers. Said he’s suing the Justice League. Specifically you. And uh… your ‘children’? His words, not mine.”

The clattering sound of someone dropping their coffee came from behind him. Flash, naturally.

“Wait wait wait—someone’s suing Batman?” Barry laughed nervously. “Can they even do that? He’s… you know… technically not real.”

“They can,” Diana cut in, arms crossed, eyes narrowing in thought. “If he’s suing the alias that operates as part of the League, he’s targeting the entity Batman represents under the League’s operational charter. Not the man.”

Clark sighed. “Which means this isn’t a personal lawsuit. It’s institutional.”

“Correct,” Diana said. “And if the court allows it… the Justice League could be held liable as his employer.”

Batman’s silence was deafening.

“Booster,” he said finally, his voice low. “Send me the documents.”

Back on Earth, Danny sat in his apartment, shoulders tight and jaw clenched. The apartment was quiet except for the hum of his computer and the ticking of an old clock on the wall. His tie was off, sleeves rolled up, and he was halfway through marking up his own copy of the court filing with glowing green sticky notes.

Technus’ avatar flickered to life on his screen, popping up with far too much cheer for the situation.

“Daniel! I must say, your legal vengeance protocols are truly—” “Technus,” Danny muttered warningly, rubbing at his temple. “Not. Helping.”

“—INSPIRING!” the ghost finished anyway, electricity crackling across the image. “You are doing the work of the ages! The meat-based judicial system will never recover from your wrath!”

Danny’s expression didn’t change, but his eye twitched. “You know what’s funny? That’s not helping either.”

He glanced back down at the footage still paused on his other monitor — Batman’s cape fluttering in the smoke of his parents’ ruined lab. His mother bleeding. His father holding a piece of broken metal like it was a lifeline.

Danny’s hands tightened into fists. “This isn’t revenge,” he said quietly, mostly to himself. “It’s accountability.”

His reflection in the monitor looked back at him, eyes faintly glowing green in the dark. “…Is this what Dan felt?” he muttered, voice low. “That bone-deep rage that makes you want to burn everything that hurt you down to the foundation?”

He let out a bitter laugh and leaned back in his chair. “Guess I’m lucky. I don’t need fire.” He tapped the stack of legal documents beside him. “I’ve got paperwork.”

On the Watchtower, Bruce’s headache had evolved into something cosmic.

Clark was reading through the first few pages of the lawsuit and let out a low whistle. “He’s good. He’s really good. Batman, he’s got timestamps, footage, chain of custody evidence… and half of this is so well written I think he’s quoting League bylaws against you.”

“That’s impossible,” Batman growled.

“It’s hilarious,” Barry said from the corner.

“Shut up, Flash.”

“Just saying, man. He even mentioned that time you pulled evidence from the GCPD database without a warrant. You can’t do that!”

“I can when it saves lives.”

“And apparently,” Clark said with a sigh, “he’s arguing that your definition of saving lives doesn’t exempt you from destroying private property and assaulting civilians.”

Diana’s lips curved into something that might’ve been a smile. “You may want to consider settling out of court, Batman.”

Bruce glared at her. “Not happening.”

“Suit yourself,” she replied, almost amused. “But from what I’m reading, this Mr. Fenton won’t back down. And something tells me… you won’t intimidate him.”

Bruce’s jaw tightened. “We’ll see about that.”

Danny smiled humorlessly when he got the League’s acknowledgment email:

The Justice League has received your formal complaint. We will see you in court.

He closed the email, exhaled slowly, and muttered,

“Good. Let’s dance, Bats.”

And for the briefest second, the air around him chilled — like even his ghost half was smirking.

Ayo my idols! My writers! My amazing tumblr peeps! This dude using ai to make a story. How about we show them how it’s done? And tag a writer mutual while ur at it! The more that join in the better!

“Where are they?” He growled.

“Excuse me?” The receptionist attempted to regain his posture. He was an older man with sideburns and decked out in the standard Elmerton police uniform (because of course only Elmerton police would be dumb enough to attempt an arrest on the Fentons. Batman probbaly tried Amity first and got rejected.)

“I’m looking for Jackson and Madeline Fenton. They were arrested from Amity park 26 hours ago and have been illegally held in your station for most of that duration.”

The desk officer’s face soured. “Young man, you cannot just barge into this station to demand to see criminals-“

“They are not criminals.” Danny snapped. Doing his best to rein in his temper. “Criminals are those arrested with evidence supporting they’ve committed a crime. What you’ve done is arrest them on probbaly cause. This means that they are suspect for a crime but have not been confirmed. They also have a right to a lawyer, which I am, so now you are either going to take me to them, or I’m going to use this and the surrounding station’s video as evidence for a new case in which a corrupt officer is obstructing the laws and 6th amendment of the United States.” Danny advanced to the desk, boring holes into the officer as if he could see every sin the man had ever committed. “Are. We. Clear.”

The officer gulped. “C-crystal.” He shakily got out the keys and scrambled around the desk to lead Danny to his parents.

Danny held his briefcase close and followed. He was glad he had used the extra tough dragon leather Dora got for him or his ghost strength would have already torn off the handle. It was already enough of a struggle not to let his claws out.

When they finally entered *cough* stormed *cough* into the iron walled interrogation room, Danny was greeted to the sight of his parents, lacking their preferred jumpsuits and cuffed. They sat patiently in front of a table with another officer.

“Danno!” Jack’s face instantly brightened as he spotted Danny.

Something in the halfa’s core relaxed at the sight of both his parents, safe (for the most part) and unharmed. He did a quick check of their persons to make sure the arrest wasn’t ‘forceful’. But besides the bandages wrapped around his mother’s arm from Robin’s assault (which still made him growl), they were unharmed.

The commotion caused the officer already in the room to turn around and suddenly, whatever calm Danny had managed to force on himself during the walk evaporated.

Because sitting right there in the interrogator’s chair, acting like he owned the place, was Dick f-ing Greyson.

Oh HO, Danny was hating the bats more and more.

He wasted no time marching up to the table and slamming down his briefcase, eying the bat in ‘disguise’ like he was a chunk of Pariah’s snot Danny had just scrapped off his shoe.

Nightwing stood up and held out his hand, a charming smile already spread across is face. “Hello, you must be the attorney. I’m officer Grey-“

“This interrogation is over and I am taking my clients back to their accommodations.” Danny didn’t care what the bat had to say. It was just a waste of his time.

The man laughed as if Danny had made a joke. “You can’t do that.” He looked at the officer who lead Danny there. Shrugging as if saying can you ‘believe’ this guy? The receptionist though was still properly cowed from their earlier encounter and just gave a strained grimace, not meeting anyone’s eyes. Greyson just kept smiling. It was really grinding Danny’s gears.

“Oh I assure you, I can. You have made an unlawful arrest and I intend to correct that.” The Halfa started riffling through his brief case. “The Fentons have been arrested on suspicion alone. Without proper evidence to support that arrest, the state of Elmerton can only hold them for at most 24 hours. You are 2 hours over that time and therefore, according to the law, you are holding two innocent civilians against their will with no probable cause.”

Finally, Nightwing’s smile started to dim. “Young man-” what was with all these people using ‘young man’ “-I can assure you that the charges against these two are very real. We have multiple video evidence of them attempting first degree murder on the hero known as Phantom, as well as assault.” Danny could see his parents flinch at that. “And we have multiple reports and photographic evidence of property damage caused during their ‘ghost hunts’. And from an anonymous source,” Danny scoffed at that, “We also have reason to believe they were in the process of illegally making weapons. I don’t know what you call that, but those are serious crimes. We have more than enough evidence to convict them. As their attorney, you can fight for their defense in court but you can’t just walk out of here with them.”

Danny barked out a laugh. “Oh, that’s where you’re wrong.” He finally found what he was looking for and shoved a file into Nightwing’s chest, using just a smidge of ghost strength to make the officer take a step back. “This is a copy of the Anti-Ecto acts. A former law by the United States declaring that it was perfectly legal to hunt those who classify as Ecto entities such as Phantom. If you had done your research, you would see that all the timestamps for those videos are before the acts were repealed. In fact, the Fentons had not only ceased their attacks on Phantom and other ecto-entities before the law was repealed, but they were also a major help in getting it repealed in the first place. Using money from their own personal coffers. There is not a single piece of evidence indicating an attack on ecto-entities afterwards that was not self defense.” Nightwing struggled to hold the file before it could fall. Skimming through the papers to determine if what Danny said was true or not.

Oh but Danny wasn’t done.

He grabbed the next file. “This is a record of their previous court case.” The bat’s head snapped up. “The officers at Amity are not incompetent, and I’m not saying they have not had a record of property damage in the past. However, unlike the Justice league, they were tried and made to pay reparations. This file contains the court case, verdict, and even the amount payed to cover the damages for all previous and recent property damage. And as an officer of the law, you should know that once a court has made a decision, you cannot arrest someone on the same charge again. And THIS-” he slammed down the next file, taking immense joy in how rapidly the vigilante’s face was paling as he tried to read through all the files. “Is a record of a previous contract with the US government. But again, the Fentons had ceased making weapons a while ago and have since transitioned into scientific inventions and even medicine. Of course, you will also find the patents for each of the inventions filed and approved with legal permits to use them. Naturally, this will all be available again when Batman answers for why he decided to steal government contracted property in the upcoming trial.”

Nightwing was drowning in papers now. A few slipping between his fingers and falling on the floor, likely causing an organization nightmare. It didn't matter, the vigilante could keep them. Danny had copies of each of these at his home, the Fenton home, on a private server, with Vlad, and even a set hidden in the Infinite Realms with Ghost Writer.

“Finally.” Danny pulled out a single sheet of paper. “This is the filled out release form stating that I can in fact ‘just walk out of here with them.’ Now of you don’t mind.” Danny held out his hand expectantly. “The keys.”

Nightwing looked like he really didn’t want to comply, but Danny was nothing is not patient, and after about 10 minutes of the ‘officer’ trying his best to delay by reading all the files ‘thoroughly’, he finally gave in and set the keys in Danny’s palm. Sure, Danny could have gotten the receptionist (who had been slowly trying to back out of the room) to give him a copy. But it was so much more satisfying to have Nightwing do it.

Namely, that Batman and friends were probably going to try to contact Phantom and get him to support their case.

He wouldn't. He would be honest and say that they didn't speak for him and he didn't consent to their attempt to get his parents arrested.

The question was how were they going to contact him? He hadn't appeared as Phantom with any regularity in years, and as far as he knew summoning wasn't a thing. So how—

His phone started ringing, and the caller ID was Valerie.

Oh, that was how.

He answered it. "Hey Val, how's it going?"

"It's been interesting. I have 50 missed calls from different members of Justice League Dark and several unknown phone numbers that I assume are Justice League members. When I answered they said they wanted to talk to Phantom."

"When did they start calling?"

"Yesterday."

"Huh, so they did try to talk to me before getting my parents arrested on my behalf but were too impatient to actually get my approval."

"They got your parents arrested?!"

"Yeah, didn't you see it in the group chat?"

"No. An ectopus colony got very lost during their seasonal migration, so I've been too busy with that."

"Oh, that's rough."

While Phantom had been able to mostly retire from ghost hunting, there was still some need for it when lost ghost animals or human ghosts with unfinished business showed up. Valerie had taken to that role very well once she realized ghosts, like other people, could sometimes be reasoned with.

She wasn't part of Justice League Dark and only worked with them as an independent consultant on rare occasions. She was contracted by the city to deal with ghost matters that other people couldn’t handle.

He got her caught up on what happened, and she laughed.

"Seriously? They tried to get them for that? I've done the same thing to you and they seem perfectly fine trying to use me to contact you."

"If you tell them that, they might break into your house too."

"I'd like to see them try," but her tone didn't quite match her words. After all, they broke into FentonWorks despite its security. Valerie could handle herself, but she wasn't naive enough to think the danger wasn't real.

"So what do you want me to tell them?"

"Stop trying to use Phantom against the Fentons. They don't get to press charges on my behalf."

"Can I get them a number so they don't blow up my call history again?"

Did he have a burner phone he could use for the Bats? He should get one. "Sorry. Maybe later when I have burner to spare. Thanks Val."

"Good luck on your case. You'll need it."

Ember held her stance as she caught her breath. The crowd screaming her name was so loud that her flames had engulfed the entire stage. A decade ago, she wouldn't have bothered containing it, but, well, maybe she was just a nicer person now.

He had not thought he'd find that the small isolated town, previously considered a quiet tourist attraction, had its own set of teenage heroes who had been working by themselves against major threats with no external support. Not from the JL, not even aware of their existence. Not from the government, apparently more interested in catching and dissecting the clearly underage inexperienced hero struggling to keep his city safe than in helping his cause. Not from all the adults in town, so confident that every little problem in their lives was being caused by the same small boy trying so hard to protect them.

Even worse, after years of being hunted by other ghosts, the Fentons, and the government, Phantom had suddenly disappeared without a trace. Nobody knew where he was or how to contact him. No one had seen him in years. No one seemed to be looking for him at all. His previous rogue gallery was now living peacefully among the citizens and using their obsessions productively to add something to the community instead of destroying it.

The GIW, the government branch anti-ghost, had been dismantled after the sudden retraction of the anti-ecto acts. A retraction that had happened right after Madeline and Jack Fenton had decided to change their stance on the non-sentience status of ghosts. A decision that had not only gone against all their previous statements but also had come out of nowhere. No reason for the change. No evidence on why they had decided to redirect their efforts and start fighting against what they had believed so fiercely for years.

It made no sense. Batman was coming to conclusions that pained him immensely. He hoped against all odds that he was wrong but everything that had happened after the failed information gathering at FentonWorks was just reinforcing his theories and increasing the feeling of dread in his stomach.

It painted the picture of a young hero desperately trying to stay afloat and barely managing it. A kid with no support except that of other teenagers presumably in his age range. A boy that had already died once and was being hunted for sport by professionals on all sides and was despised by the civilians he was trying to protect. A scapegoat for everyone in the city trying to cope with all the ghost attacks.

And then the Fenton adults changed their views on ghosts. Suddenly, the anti-ecto acts were invalid, the ghosts stopped their attacks, and the Amity Park citizens radically changed their views on ghosts to accept them in their community. They even retroactively accepted Phantom to be a hero and started praising him. Through it all, Phantom had been nowhere to be seen. Not once. It all led Batman to believe that the thing that triggered the retraction of such deep rooted beliefs was directly connected to Phantom's continued absence.

Batman did not want to even consider that it had all been started by the capture and subsequent torture of Phantom until the Fentons had realized the error of their ways, a little too late to truly cause a difference for the young ghost. Batman did not want to consider that a child that had already died too soon had been tortured into extinction. He did not want to imagine the horrors phantom had suffered through until his total demise. He was just a child. Someone Batman should have helped. He had failed him.

His unwanted conclusions had only solidified the more he looked for a way to contact the hero and was instead given the run around with vague statements from everyone known to have been once connected to him.

“Uh,” Dani hesitated, dubious. “I think you have the wrong Dan. You’re looking for Danny Fenton, with a ‘Y’.”

Wonder Woman winced. “We are looking for you, Danielle.”

“Okay. Weird. What for?”

Most mangas like khr are so filled with suffering, that I'm constantly asking for more shitpost content. I want to see my favorite characters playing stupid games, going to school, eating together, being best friends, being a family.

And that's exactly what khr gives me.

Even the fights are all about them being family. Every battle is about the sense of family, about trust and loyalty, and different types of suffering and misunderstandings and Tsuna (the main character), he's constantly trying to solve things without violence.

Another thing I loved was the ending.

Many mangas has this type of ending of "there's no going back, nothing will ever be the same", but khr doesn't have that. You know everyone has changed, you know they don't see things the way they used to, but they are still teenagers and they are still very dumb, very alive, full of things to learn. I love how in the end they still have room to keep improving, you know they won't suddenly drop school, or stop being who they are. At heart, they are still the same kids that they used to be, just more mature now.

Besides khr is just simply fun to be around. The beginning of the manga is slow and it's practically just shitpost, but it's so important because you get to enjoy all the relationships, you get to see them having fun and doing comic stuff and being happy. So when the other arcs come, you understand why they all are so worried about defending the life they have.

Idk, I think khr is special and a great manga in its own way, and I will forever be grateful for it. All the group of characters are found families, almost all villains end up as weird allies, you have time traveling and immortal babies that are actually lethal and magic and mafia and competitions and it's just batshit crazy, but in the best kind of way.

For one reason or another, Danny's body got destroyed and is trapped as a ghost in the realms. His only anchor back to the human world is a latest model of the Fenton thermos that he was holding before his physical body got destroyed.

In order to regain and rebuild a body of his own from scratch, he needed to pull a Kitty, and slowly possess someone and take over thair body, mind, soul and everything (danny swear its temporary, hell return everything back once hes done!) To jumpstart rebuilding his old body back from ecto and his old remains.

Remains thats been shredded to pieces and scattered.

Somehow, the thermos fell at the hands of red robin who immedietely got enchanted with the clearly advance and very obvious magitech thats shape and acts like an actual thermos that could do a whole lot of things.

Its indestructable, unhackable, terrifyingly vesatile and can change color and design at the users input. Literally tech and magic combine.

Tim is obssessed.

…the enchanting properties of the object being Dannys anchor certainly speed up the process as well.

Starting that day, Tim couldn't be seen without that thermos in his person. It doesn't matter if he's in civillian or in his vigilate hours, the thermos stayed with him.

And the longer that tim has the thermos, the more it imprints and take over him. He's more Danny than Tim by the time somebody noticed. Which is too late since when they did decided that an intervention is needed, danny had completely merge and take over everything ahout tim and went on a sabbatical to rebuilt his body.

Using Tims skills, mind, talents, and dannys powers, it only took him a few days to collect all of his scattered remains and rebuit it from scratch which was also accelerated by one of tims cloning machines he had in one of his secret hide out.

once Danny got his body back and became a complete halfa again, he explain everything to Tim (who still disoriented after being unpossessed and regaining his sense of self) officially even though its unnecessary since tim knew everything the moment Danny take over everything but still, Danny owe the guy so he still did.

Danny got his body back but now he had more problems than before.

Which is A; the entire batfam and the jl with the JL Dark in tow is searching for Tim and wants to know what the fuck is hapoening, B; what he did is a massive dick move, even if it was his only choice, because overshadowing is one thing, you are just a passenger that hijacks control from someone while possession, which is what he did here, is literally OWNING a person and their everything.

Finally, C; Tim Drake in that short amount of time, got WAY into Danny possessing him.

Like literally obssessed about it.

Danny: Tim please, give back the thermos.

Tim: nu uh.

Danny: what do you mean "nu uh"?! Let it go, its not healthy for you! I knew it was my fault but give it up so we can fix you up too.

Tim looking like a cat with a canary with his mouth: Then take over. * wiggles eye brows suggestively*

Danny: Tim no.

Tim being over the top and doubling down: *rips shirt off and spread his arms wide on both sides* T A K E M E E E

I just had a random shenanigans idea...

Now hear me out.

You know those murder mystery parties right? The ones where people get together, an actor plays dead, and the groups have to figure out who did it.

Well what if.

Danny takes a summer job as the body/actor of the victim for those parties and actually is commented on being the best 'very lifelike dead body' actor and hey at least his 'medical condition' (halfa) is finally being useful for something (besides you know, fighting ghosts) he can even go hours without moving (or breathing) once he's dead so he doesn't ruin the immersion for party goers.

Anyways, what if he gets a job for a rich people's party, you know something novelty for the wealthy to have fun with, maybe it's the Wayne's hosting a party or maybe someone else and they invite the Wayne's. And the company he works for sends him to Gotham. He gets there, helps set up the clues and the other actors, etc etc.

Then the guests start showing up, Danny acts like the star of the show he is and then the lights cut out, he screams (very realistically), and 'dies' before the lights come back on. As some players come up to inspect his body however he doesn't notice how some take his pulse and actually fully think he's dead.

Tim glanced down at the card he was given instructing him to confirm foul play and hid his grin before approaching the "body". He's reasonably sure that out of all of the people assembled that he'll find the most clues. After all, a fake murder should be a piece of cake even with Bruce's play-boy persona acting as a handicap.

He's gotta admit as he crouches down next to the actor, Danny, sprawled out on the floor, that his stillness was impressive. It was looked very... real?

Tim shook his head, it was possible that Danny was just very good at holding his breath.

"So?" Prompted one of the impatient party goers breathlessly, "did he faint?"

Tim glanced between the actor on the floor and the card before quipping, "Only one way to find out!" Before dramatically grabbing the actors wrist to check for a pulse and inhaling sharpely.

"No pulse."

Bruce mid sip of his champagne cut his eyes to Tim, who's face had paled.

"What does that mean?" A different party goer obviously read from their card.

"It means," Tim paused before setting the limp wrist down, "That someone here is a murderer."

And with his delivery, the people gathered took that as their cue to scatter and collect evidence, leaving only Tim, Bruce, and the corpse of this actor alone.

"B-" Tim cleared his throat and whispered hoarsely, "He's actually dead."

Bruce's eyes narrowed as he took in the scene- the broken champagne flute that shattered when the actor hit the floor, the angle of the body, and finally the boy's face. The boy's eyes were glazed and half open. Gently, Bruce brushed the lids downwards and set aside his emotions for later- he had a killer to catch first.

-

-

Tim raked his hands through his hair.

The facts were this- Daniel "Danny" J. Fenton lay dead half a foot from his knees and he had no discernable leads.

Usually- usually those he came across were mixed up in the Gotham underground.

Someone who, usually, for want of money or power fell into wrong hands or had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time- tragic yes, but also explainable. Easy.

But this? Someone who he could have easily attended an early morning with? That spoke of something targeted and precise.

Or, maybe he just hadn't found the underground connection yet.

It had been some minutes since his announcement to the crowd, thus, time was running short on starting an actual investigation before the roving elite came crashing back into the main foyer looking for planted clues.

"I am going to check his pockets." Tim stated detachedly.

Bruce grunted an affirmation as he dipped a piece of paper into the liquid remains of the champagne flute.

"OK checking now," Tim said softly. His dialog was superfluous. Both he and Bruce knew that this was the best course of action. After all, many things of value could he found in pockets- hobbies, families, and even true identities could be unearthed.

"The body is cold. Colder than it should be, given his time of death," Tim murmured aloud as he rifled through Danny's front right pocket. Nothing.

Bruce nodded as he swabbed the spilt liquid and placed it in a sealable container amd gave the vial a firm shake, "Initial tox screening is underway."

A crinkle in the left pocket.

Bingo.

Tim pulled out a bright, neon green sticky note and unfolded the missive.

"They will save you."

"Who will save who?" Bruce asked.

Thunder rolled its first and final warning before allowing the skies to open outside.

"What?"

Tim didn't realize he had spoken the message out loud. "It's what's written on the note, B."

"Handwriting?"

"Unknown," Tim answered promptly before amending, "At least compared to those I saw in attendence."

Bruce tapped his comm to report the turn of events to Oracle to see if she could pull any additional information only to be met with static.

Bruce rolled his shoulders to relieve the tension, "Looks like we'll have to solve this the old fashioned way, chum."

-

--

Danny was having a good night.

...Well, it started off as a good night. A regular Friday night "Who dun it gig".

Well.

Regular, but absurdly well paying.

Absurdly well paying enough that Danny conveniently overlooked its proximity to his rough "Do not cross" map of where the areas were still a little too *hot*, to say the least.

But, a paycheck was a paycheck- and if a bunch of rich people wanted to pay for three and a half months of his rent, who was he to argue? After all, these people only wanted the best and he was regarded as one of the best of the business.

So, yeah- was he a little to blame for his situation?

Yes.

Did he think he deserved it?

No.

But, from his limited awareness, the situation was this:

1. He tempted fate by taking the job.

Fate's opinion of him seemed to be set to a perennial default of "This boy has had it too good for too long", no matter what the circumstance.

And, no, dying horrifically and coming back as some sort of dead/alive hybrid seemly doomed to try and act as a bridge between worlds did nothing to sway fate from their opinion.

(Though, secretly, and especially in times like this, Danny wondered... was he dead like he had felt in his bones when he first gained his powers? Or was it like Spectra had said- was he just a creepy boy with creepy powers? ...Whatever. It wasn't worth thinking about.)

2. He was currently immobilized.

Like.

Immobilized, immobilized.

He could feel his heart like a dead- hah!- weight in his chest. He knew it, even before the boy crouched in front of him confirmed it out loud to an impatient crowd.

And, as far as he could tell- he had been hit with a double whammy.

His scream of pain wasn't inauthentic.

*Someone* knew, or suspected, that he and blood blossom essence wouldn't/ didn't mix.

And that someone, or someones, suspected (or knew) that he wouldn't do well with being tazed by some sort of Plusimus Maximus charge either.

Currently, the only thing allowing him his continued existence was his core, thrumming sluggishly to repair the damage deep within his being.

3. For the time being, he was entirely dependent on the father/son (?) duo who were apparently the only people to realize that some was terribly, terribly wrong with him to solve the case.

...He wasn't terribly confident in their abilities to bring his would be murderer to justice.

--

--

"Hnn," Bruce grunted while flicking excess moisture from his tox screening kit.

"Good or bad?" Tim asked as he delved deeper into the actor's pockets and body,

"Initial signs indicate that whatever he ingested was basic in nature... its a strange green colour," Bruce paused to think on that particular colour, "something like antifreeze, perhaps? Basic when it enters the body but quickly metabolizes to acidic... Highly toxic to the kidneys even in small amounts."

Tim grunted in acknowledgment as his continued his assessment of the corpse contued, "So possible ingestion of a substance like, if not actually, antifreeze. That doesn't explain..." he trailed off.

His fingers caught on the a rough edge on the corpse's crinkling collar which left an,

"Ashy residue on the collar", Tim narrated as he peeled back the rough edge, "Two prongs to the neck. Assailant possibly afraid that the poison wouldn't take place fast eough?"

Tim suppressed a shudder as he wiped his fingers against his pants and amended his hypothesis, "Assailent didn't want to chance the poison not working?"

It made sense, Tim noted in a detached way, using something like antifreeze would take at least 24 hours to render the mark dead.

Straining his system would accelerate everything.

Whoever was behind this, Tim decided, wanted to leave very little to chance. But why? He wondered, what was so important about a mundane murder mystery actor?

"What does Oracle make of this so far?" Tim asked.

Bruce frowned as he listened to the cackling and hissing of white noise, "Interference from the lightening storm is proving difficult."

A couple of revelers burst through the entrance, "Brucie! For shame!! Dear boy, don't you know it's bad form to try and bribe the actor for hints!"

Bruce dusted some imagined dust off of his pants as he stood and waggled his eyebrows conspiratorially, "Oh, but how could I ever gain and advantage otherwise, Jacob!"

Bruce made sure to stumble his initial steps.

"Why, this kind of, " he waved his hand loosely, "-of, sleuth-work is best left to someone like Batman."

Jacob chuckled fondly, "Bruce, that dear caped crusader must be absurdly busy with your Gotham at this time of night, it's up to us to solve this poor man's murder.

Bruce feigned a winning grin, "Of course, of course, there's no reason Batman would travel all the way to Wisconsin with all of that crime in his own backyard."

He slung an arm around Jacob and Beatrice Worthington before leading him out of the room, "So, you think there are any worthy hints hiding in the bar?"

Tim rolled his eyes before he covertly tried to reach Oracle himself.

"Rob-BZZZT... there? BZZZZT...Interference is bad. I'll... BZZZT You should know there are two BZZZT - its highly suspicious, watch yourselves."

Tim pinched the bridge of his nose and wished that coffee had been served instead of champagne- it felt like the beginning of a long, long night.

"Just you and me, huh, Danny?" Tim nudged the sole of Danny's shoe with his own, "want to explain this cryptic message?"

Tim waved the lime-green note under Danny's nose.

Danny remained silent.

Inert.

"Maybe you want to tell me who among the crowd may have wrote it?" Tim, good-naturedly, nudged the sole of Danny's foot once more.

"Ha," Tim snorted, "I'd expect nothing less - the dead tend to kept their secrets, eh Danny? We're just two guys, being bros, trying to solve your murder cause we're not gay. "

Danny did not respond.

"Right, yeah," Tim wiped his nose, "its not funny,"

Despite his eyes prickling, Tim taped comm-link, "Oracle, this is Robin requesting a Batman. Repeat- Robin requesting a Batman."

--

Tim took off his suit coat and laid it over Danny.

Partially to keep the illusion that Danny was acting and partially because he felt guilty- like if he had been more vigilant then he could have stopped the perpetrators before Danny lost his life. He shook his shoulders and pocketed the sticky note.

"They will save you..." Tim mumbled to himself as he finally willed himself to walk away from Danny.

Thunder rumbled hard enough to rattle the windows of the castle.

Tim hoped that this old place had a backup generator as he made his way to the guest log by the front door, it was a long shot but perhaps whoever had written the note had also signed the welcome book.

Assuming that the note wasn't from a previous murder mystery party.

He opened the guest book and started to scan the signatures.

Based on the colour alone, it wasn't unreasonable that it could be an old prop Danny had forgotten to throw away. Tim groaned internally. The company he worked for was popular and the host, Jeremy, had bragged for a full fifteen minutes about how he would only hire the best and the best locations for his parties. So it stood to reason that Danny could have forgotten to empty his pockets between gigs.

But, Tim thought as he read down the page and examined the note, if it was an old prop then it would have been much more wrinkled. And the edges wouldn't be so crisp.

So.

Planted just before or after the time of death. Or, a prop piece for tonight.

"Alice Bourkin... No. Kevin Argent... No. Omar Argent... No. Tomei Dena... No. " Tim mumbled under his breath.

He flipped the page and immediately flipped it back.

If anyone were to ask Tim about the guests, he was reasonably sure he could have almost perfectly listed everyone by name, if not by their business or charity work.

Everyone, that is, except for Kevin and Omar Argent.

One unknown name he could be forgiven for- he wasn't perfect- but two unknown names? Not a chance.

He traded the sticky note for his phone and snapped a picture and sent it to Bruce.

"Heyy Bruce, can you remind me who K. And O. Argent are?" Tim typed, "It's just so hard to remember everyone and I'd hate to insult any new investors."

Three dots appeared and then disappeared before the reply popped up.

"Can't say I have, chum! But I'll be sure to ask them if I run into them! <3"

Oh... Oh no.

I just had a random shenanigans idea...

Now hear me out.

You know those murder mystery parties right? The ones where people get together, an actor plays dead, and the groups have to figure out who did it.

Well what if.

Danny takes a summer job as the body/actor of the victim for those parties and actually is commented on being the best 'very lifelike dead body' actor and hey at least his 'medical condition' (halfa) is finally being useful for something (besides you know, fighting ghosts) he can even go hours without moving (or breathing) once he's dead so he doesn't ruin the immersion for party goers.

Anyways, what if he gets a job for a rich people's party, you know something novelty for the wealthy to have fun with, maybe it's the Wayne's hosting a party or maybe someone else and they invite the Wayne's. And the company he works for sends him to Gotham. He gets there, helps set up the clues and the other actors, etc etc.

Then the guests start showing up, Danny acts like the star of the show he is and then the lights cut out, he screams (very realistically), and 'dies' before the lights come back on. As some players come up to inspect his body however he doesn't notice how some take his pulse and actually fully think he's dead.

Ooooh ooooooooooh the shenanigans, the pure chaos.

Danny duplicating himself and making it as fun as possible by turning it spooky and leaving clues that definitely weren't there last time people checked. He doesn't even hide it from his co-workers either, they think his powers are meta abilities and they dont complain because he does such a good job they get paid well.

It's a Wayne gala right? I don't think that Bruce (or any of the Batfam) would be able to slip out unnoticed to be Batman (and so on), so they have this case that they have to finish pronto while being Brucie and whatever facade the Batfam have, since this might be a prank from whatever guest they got (I'm eyeing Sam Manson specifically, since while she might be here not of her own will, she should be able to have fun with it; initial target is ofc her parents, but if she manage to get the other Rich Ppl, that's a bonus).

While Danny being asleep playing dead being a corpse, we have Detective Brucie being Brucie. I'm talking about Kogoro Mouri (from Detective Conan) level of competence. With so many of the goofiness.

okay so most of these paragraphs are a little bit of set up before the scene for which variation of the detective conan fanon is in use.

Lets say its a Pre Cure, post Kaito Kid friending, post Black Org destroyed Shinichi.

So Conan sees this really dumb Brucie Wayne, and is watching 'Shinichi'(Kaito) to make sure he doesn't start Patronizing the Waynes as Kaito visits the Suzuki's.

Kogouro is back in Japan studying, and Ran knows the truth and is fully broken up with Shinichi. Which is part of why Conan and "Shinichi" are abroad while Ai cooks up a cure with her original research.

Conan is not sure if he really wants to grow up/be cured yet, and is no longer 7, you heard it, the boy wonder aged, he is 10! Prime Wayne adoption Bait. "Shinichi" is taking him around the world since his parents are busy(Kaito is rendevous with other theives and networking, he's meeting Catwoman and knows her identity).

Conan isn't quite so lawful anymore. Those years of lying broke his lawful Alignment. He is now chaotic good and trying to reign in Kaito KID.

Kaito has... new enemies. And also new sponsers, he may or may not be legally stealing and recruiting qualified stage hands(catwoman) for future heists(gifts from Suzuki family and other fans, but only allowed to take it if its stolen with a show). But he needed to be "Shinichi" to get in the door of some prestigious places. Kaito is better at networking than Shinichi ever was. This is with the Kudo family blessing/and pranks.

SCENE below

Shinichi glares at Conan, as they explore the buffet. "I thought you said you broke the Shinichigami curse..." Shinichi grabs Conan by the bicep and stalks over to the dead body. "Clear the scene, my apprentice will check for a pulse. Hopefully this is only the promised entertainment, although I can't say you have good taste."

Shinichi sets out, whipping caution tape from who knows where and sectioning away the tables near where the man had fallen. With a ribbon dance, the area around the man was sectioned off and any wayward guests were spun away. If they resisted they landed in food.

Conan has gloves on when he announces there isn't a pulse, then Conan begins bagging the man's food and silverware in individual evidence bags.

'Shinichi' notices several people look quite twitchy at this turn of events, and mentally marks the servers and servants who scurried away or panicked, as well as the hosts glint of sharp eyes and then immediate trip over his own feet and into the arms of ...Selena.

"Does anyone know the victim? While I was serving myself dessert I remember he introduced himself as Fenton. Aren't they stage prop designers for Ghostbusters?" 'Shinichi' sharply turns toward Brucie Wayne, and takes his hand and lifts him out of his false faint, smirking, "Does anyone else have information, such as who invited him?"

….

My contribution.

….

The Murder Mystery Party is run by Team Phantom and there allies.

Conan determines Sam Manson is the killer. She wanted to kill her (ex?) boyfriend Danny because her parents threatened to take her out of the will if she didn’t end things with him. (Her parents actually did threaten Sam to break up with Danny and Tucker but she doesn’t care)

Conan is forced to drug Brucie to reveal the culprit. Unfortunately for him Bruce is immune to the stun gun watch due to his training/amount of times Talia drugged him with love. Now Conan is suspicious of Bruce.

Kaito ans Selena are busy stealing the twinkling cat pendant from each other. Back and forth. Until there's 1 real and 4 fake ones circulating in the room. Both firmly believe that the other one has the real one.

Danny is currently laying on the floor, playing dead, while listening to a history podcast. Hearing other peoples dedectiving about your assumed murdering is occasionally nice. But after a few hours of nothing happening? Boring

Tim listens to the same podcast. He's CONVINCED that this is a hint to the mystery. He's not had enough coffee yet to differentiate between the two murder mystery cases. Reality is fake anyway.

Damian, the only one who's seen the body actor move to get more comfortable, believes that everyone knows this is only a game and doesn't see a reason to tell the others. He is having fun solving riddles without threats of dead. He has decided to take the tiny child detective under his wing.

Danny travels through time and across the universe a lot. Mostly because he has an agreement with Clockwork and the Observants that if he does so they'll give him heads up if he's about to experience something that might drive him crazy, but also because he just likes to travel and visit alien civilizations.

"Oh, hey, I was wondering where I left my portal gun!"

*uses it and looks inside*

Questions like "Have you fed the human yet?" probably frequently get asked and answered with "Ugh i was GOING to!"

(At first it was probably a whole team of high ranking Eridian scientists taking care of it, but soon it became a volunteering thing, like helping out at the soup kitchen or something. School classes sign up for taking care of Grace for a week or two in order to teach the kids responsibility)

And not just that, someone also needs to add enrichment for him and make sure that it's not too repetitive.

Someone needs to keep him company and hang out with him and it can't ALWAYS be the same person because Rocky and Grace both need to be around others too from time to time.

Grace is a high maintanance pet. And he's happy with this arrangement.

This isn't an original thought because many have said this before me, but it's one that cannot be stated often enough.

Cause in MN the Minnesota Zoo actually has students do research and make a presentation on how to redesign an enclosure that needs it and then they pick the best one and use it.

Wally: No way! The ground is freezing, and you're burnt out from being in your Phantom form so often. *grunts as he tries to lift Danny's tail* Let me help!

Danny: I appreciate it, really, but itsss not posssssible. I can, well not walk but like ssslither? myssself. I don't mind a bit of a cold floor.

Wally: *deflating* I wish super speed came with super strength so I could help you more.

Danny: You built a giant heat lamp for me, and risssked getting in ssseriousss trouble jussst ssso I could sssee the ssstarsss again by sssneaking me into the WatchTower! You help me a ton! *hugs him and coils around him* Besssidesss, you're like my persssonal ssspace heater too!

Wally: *snorts* I guess I do help more than I thought.

Part 1(I guess)

Roy: This is where the coordinates say to meet him. I'm sure its fine, Wally wouldn't ask us to go somewhere dangerous.

Dick: That's complete bull and you know it!

Roy: Wait, do you hear that?

Dick: Hear what?

*from the dark a huge white tail darts out wrapping both of them tightly in its coils*

Phantom, his torso connected to a 20 foot white snake tail: And who daressss trespassss in my nessst? *forked tongue licks the air showing off sharp fangs*

Dick: Can't breath!

Roy: Can-Can't move! It has my arms!

Wally: Woah Woah Woah! Phantom its okay! They're with me!

Phantom: Oh? I'm sssorry then. *carefully and slowly unwinds his tail*

Dick, wheezing: Wally, what-what the heck?

Wally: Sorry, I got sidetracked and kinda forgot about this meeting. *clears throat* Ahem, this is Phantom. He helped me out on one of my missions! Hes a half ghost cursed to be a Naga. Phantom, this is Roy and Dick, they're some of my friends!

Roy: What?

Phantom: Well, thats the sssshort of it I ssssuppose. Thissss form wasss actually meanr to be a blesssssing but considering I can no longer live among the living in my human form, it ssssure feelssss like a curssse. *wraps around Wally, and rests his chin on Wally's head* Alssso the essss sssound issss annoying. All the sssame, itsss nice to meet you.

Roy: That's all well and good but you attacked us!

Phantom, rolling his eyes: I wasssn't going to harm you. I wasss going to ssscare you and let you go. Itsss not sssafe down here for the living. Wally isss only here becaussse he hasss my protection.

Wally: See?! Phantom's cool!

Danny is with damian and hes actually been with him the longest they met after cujo dragged damian to danny to help him after he was injured

Dani goes to bruce she meets him after he had saved a child and while he was comforting them she just latched onto him without him noticing he ends up noticing a few minutes after that but they somehow bonded

When Danny left the vigilante life to become a paramedic in Gotham he didn't think he'd ever step back into that scene. Much less in this way, because now Danny has Robin riding along with him in the ambulance every shift he's on. 

He didn't think Robin would even remember him after he had helped the kid take care of a hurt and sick kitten at the end of his shift. How wrong he was though because the next night Robin was suddenly in the ambulance saying that he would be shadowing Danny from this point forward. Danny's coworkers were also no help in getting the kid to not do this. 

Robin called this an intern opportunity to learn more about medicine and how to treat people. Danny called it a HIPPA violation. What he thought doesn't seem to matter though as everyone is always just excited to talk to the kid. He ultimately decides to just let it go and be the unwilling mentor to the young vigilante. 

Danny's already running through the list of excuses reasons why he can't have Robin shadowing him. He's expecting some push back but he knows Robin will give up in the end. Robin does not in fact give up.

What actually happens is that Robin keeps throwing fully valid paperwork at each of his objections and refuting them like they're nothing. HIPAA violation? Robin pulls out a certificate that's several levels higher than what would be required for an actual intern. No medical training? Robin pulls out his recently earned credentials on different healing techniques (like CPR and EMT training and idk what else). He has more qualifications than people Danny has worked with before. Danny questions the validity, Robin has him check on the official (national? Gotham?) websites and he has in fact taken the trainings/tests required. There's even a log and videos so he couldn't have just hacked his way into the system.

Danny starts grasping at straws. He brings up child labor laws, Robin shows him a signed permission from Batman with all the requirements filled out perfectly. Danny says he's not comfortable with a minor seeing the level of gore they encounter in Gotham. Robin shows him a few pictures of the more gruesome cases he has participated in during his tenure. Danny talks about disturbed bedtimes and not wanting Robin's grades to drop, Robin shows him his full academic history (name redacted, of course) and his current schedule as a vigilante. Everything's official. Batman's signature is everywhere.

In a last ditch effort, Danny says there's no budget to pay Robin, Robin says that's why it's an unpaid internship and refuses to relent. By the time Danny's officially run out of excuses, Robin's looking at him like he's ready to learn from Danny specifically. His binder's still half full. Danny sighs. He knows when he's been beaten. (Of course he refuses to acknowledge that the actual last blow was when Robin offhandedly mentions his need to know everything he can on medical procedures while mobile just in case anyone in his family ever needs them while working on their more dangerous cases. Danny understands the need to protect family as much as possible. He would do anything to avoid a repeat on the nasty burger incident. He can't deny Robin the chance to get what could possibly help save his family at some point)

Weeks later, when Batman shows up to question Danny about his activities with Robin, Danny stares at him unblinkingly for long enough that Batman almost starts to fidget (Danny's exhausted, ok? He needed the time to even process what Batman was saying). Then he finally just gets up, opens a drawer, pulls out an overstuffed binder and shoves it at Batman. It has a log of all the things Robin has done since he started his internship. It has an index. It's a copy of the official one already filed with the company Danny works for. Robin might be thorough but Danny has experience with OSHA violations and he's not about to compromise safety by cutting corners.

Until they realised it was keeping Danny from fulfilling his Obsession to Protect.

It affected his concentration first, his health second.

But he still refused to re-open the portal. Inflicting harm on the people he's sworn to guard for his own needs is anathema to the fulfillment of his Obsession.

Jazz suggests he divert his attention to another core part of himself.

His love for the cosmos.

Danny starts going on space expeditions in Phantom form.

He goes to Mars and brings back samples. Pokes around Saturn's rings. Takes a nap on Pluto.

It helps tremendously.

Until he starts leaving the solar system altogether. He meets new alien forms, makes groundbreaking discoveries he cannot share in a scientific journal.

It's wonderful. That's the problem.

Space as an Obsession is all-consuming.

When Danny thinks of getting back home to check on his friends and turn back into a human, decades have passed.

Danny does not grow while he is in ghost form. He still looks like a teenager. His friends are middle-aged.

His parents are dead.

And his human form is different. As his ghost form has accommodated his Obsession by developing space-related powers, his human body has adopted the traits of the alien forms he has encountered. They are subtle, but in a dimension where he is the only hero of Earth, they unmistakably mark him as other.

He makes a portal to the Ghost Zone and begs Clockwork to send him back so he can return to his friends and family.

Clockwork congratulates him on taking the first steps to becoming the Ancient of Space.

"I cannot give you back the decades you lost, because even sent back to the past you will be stuck in the same dilemma. You cannot stay grounded on Earth without acting as a guardian spirit, and space makes you forget your anchors to mortal life. What you need is to fulfill both."

"How?"

"In a dimension close to this one is a world of heroes you would thrive in. In that world, an organisation called the Justice League was founded to protect their Earth and galaxy from all who would seek to threaten them. Lend them a hand, and you will fulfill both of your Obsessions as well as grow in your role of Ancient. For every year you do so, I will give you three days, six hours and five minutes to spend with your loved ones in the past."

"What do you get in return?"

Clockwork tilted his head.

vs.

It’s Not a Plot Hole, It’s Just Something That They Opted Not to Spoon-feed You Because It Would Be Obvious If You Thought About It For 20 Seconds

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It May Be a Plot Hole, But It Still Works In Terms of the Story’s Themes and Character Logic

vs.

All Works of Fiction Represent Constructed Realities and by Demanding a Lack of Plot Holes, You Are Improperly Importing the Rules of Objective Reality into a Subjective Creation that Must Be Judged Primarily on Its Aesthetic Merits

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