#brooding

I mean. yeah, technically. But literally any electrical element/heat source is some kind of fire risk, which I am saying because I don't want someone to hear "ONLY a cardboard box is a risk, I can ignore safety and diligence because I'm not using cardboard."

This is one of the ways my setup can be set up, with a 250W heat lamp. The one I use now is only 125 because it's hung lower. But it's still a really hot electrical thing strung up above a kindling and surrounded by wood. Just because it's not a cardboard box doesn't mean it's not a fire risk.

I've seen heat lamps fall into shavings, explode the bulb, melt plastic stuff they're near, touch stuff too long and scorch it, burn animals that can get too close to it, and spark/catch fire at the cord level. I've seen heat plates melt, burn animals, catch fire on the plate part, and spark/catch fire at the cord level. Same for ceramic heaters, same for heat tape, same for heated water buckets, though the buckets usually put themselves out due to, y'know. the water. I've seen INCUBATORS catch fire. If it heats stuff or has electricity, there's ALWAYS a fire risk.

If the heat lamp is well secured where the birds can't easily reach it, and checked regularly (all of it, bulb, sockets, plug, casing, wires), it's not generally going to be a problem. There's always a risk of malfunction. The rest of the options available have good and bad associated with them.

Whether that particular setup is a worse fire risk than something else or not depends on a lot of things. I used to brood in cardboard boxes, and it was fine. The birds never broke a bulb or knocked the heat lamp from where I had it secured. Nothing ever caught fire. Which isn't to say it CAN'T, but the risk wasn't necessarily any more or less because the thing was cardboard. My metal and glass and wood brooder I use today is still full of kindling. Heat and electricity are still capable of causing a fire.

Masterpost Part 1 Part 3

Danny remembered what his house in Amity had looked like. He remembered every part of it with startling clarity.

The whole house smelt like chemicals and ectoplasm, the smell getting stronger the closer you got to the basement. Jazzs' room was far enough away that you could almost ignore the smell, especially if she kept her door closed. Dannys' room was, unfortunately, directly above the basement. Directly above the portal, so there was no escaping the smell.

Thinking about it now, the ectoplasm must have seeped into the furniture; normal couches and chairs weren't odd, bright colors, nor did they glow. It would explain the normal brown color on the bottom of the bright blue couch. Maybe thats why everything they cooked came to life as well; the ecto seeped into not just the dishes but the fridge. Maybe thats why the skillets were blue too.

Their new house was startlingly normal. No green doors or walls, no blue furniture, no chemical smell. Three normal bedrooms, two bathrooms with clear water, and a large living room in front of a kitchen and dining room. There was even a backyard, Connors favorite part of the new house.

"I want to plant everything!" He exclaimed, tugging on his arm and leading him to the back door. "What can we grow?" Danny smiled at his brother. "It depends on what grows in this climate. Also depends on the seasons. San Diego is pretty good for subtropical plants, but we might want to get some that are capable of surviving a drought." On their way to California they spotted a large garden in Kentucky, and Connor had fallen in love with gardening.

He bought books about it, went online to read about it, and was so excited to plant his own. It made Danny happy, calm. He was worried Connor would never be this bubbly, this happy. But already he was putting Cadmus behind him and looking forward.

Danny didn't have a backyard in Amity, so he didn’t have a memory to go off of. But he liked this one. Wood fence, stone path outside the door, and there was probably enough space for about a dozen plant boxes. Connor pulled him out the door and onto the grass. It hadn't been trimed in a while, almost touching his ankle, and Danny tried to memorize the cool, tickling feeling.

Connor sighed happily as the sun hit him, closing his eyes and tilting his head up, basking in the light. It was almost September, and the weather wasn't as hot as Danny had feared. He wondered if this part of California got snow. He'll have to research that; he didn’t want to get stuck without winter gear. His phone buzzed, the fourth time today. It was a text from Bruce. His dad. Well, one of them.

'Are you safe?' The message said. He'd been trying to find out where they're living. Danny wouldn't even give him a clue. 'Yes. Connor feels comfortable here. He waves to strangers because he thinks its rude if he doesn't' That was true. Connor was so happy, smiling and waving. Danny tired to do the same, but it felt weird. 'Do you feel safe?'

Danny watched Connor sit down on the grass. He tried to memorize his face; calm, relaxed, peaceful. 'I'm trying to. Unfortunately I've been shackled with your paranoia, and the thoughts of some people don't really help.' That was also true. He'd walked past a few junkies fighting, and their erratic, violent thoughts made him want to cry. He hadn’t told Connor.

'What do you plan to do to support yourself? What about your education?' His education. Oh, his dreams of being an astronaut, all down the drain, even with this new opportunity at life. 'I can pass for an adult, so I'm starting college. Connors going to high school. The knowldege they downloaded into our brains finally being useful.'

'Speaking of school, hows Damian been adjusting?' He didn’t like all this talk about them. Everything he shared could be used to find them. From talk about what they ate to what time they slept. Especially their sleep. Even casually mentioning if it was late or early could tell him what time zone they were in. Why did they stay in America again? Right, right, the Meta Protection Acts.

Bruce didn't respond, and Danny saw Connor sit up. "When can we get seeds?" He asked, and Danny smiled. "Maybe after we get the rest of the furniture? We'll need plant boxes too. And uh, more dirt, fertilizer, a new hose since this house doesn't have one built in, uuuhhhh, sprinklers? A bird feeder?" His phone buzzed. Danny ignored it, leading Connor inside.

"Decided what bed you want?" Connor shrugged. "Just something simple? Does a type of bed really matter? We shouldn't waste our mystery money on stuff we don't need." Ah yes, the 'mystery money'; more like 'money from a royal valut in the afterlife that he still had access to.' Downside of being reborn is that he was no longer a halfa, upside being he was still technically the Prince of The Infinite Realms.

Even though his body was different, Clockwork recognized him immediately and welcomed him with open arms. Still wouldn’t tell him what happened to his first world(something he totally wasn't worried about) but at least he would help him and Connor. "Well, do you want a bed with shelves under it, a loft bed that a desk can fit under, or just a simple bed frame?"

Connor hummed, jumping up on the kitchen counter, then falling backward onto the couch. "Uh, I should probably go with a simple frame..." Danny smiled. "But?" Connor grinned sheepishly. "...But a loft bed does sound cool. And it'd save space!" Danny laughed. "Well, might as well go now. Its pretty early, so we'll be able to miss the afternoon rush and it won't be crowded."

Him and Connor went upstairs, left of the front door and across from the garage, not many exit points and super visible. Dannys room was right next to the stairs, allowing him to hear anyone coming up the stairs. Connors was across from his, and in front of the stairs was the third room. Connor went into his room, and Danny went into his.

There wasn't much. Just his suitcase, a sleeping bag, and laptop. He went into his bathroom, right of his closet, and he'd need to get locks for both doors, then stopped and stared at himself. His new body. God, this was going to take some getting used to.

Black hair, but he had some dark red highlights. It was weird at first, but after looking at some pictures of Miss Martian he realized red was just a Martians hair color. His face shape was more aristocratic; sharp jawline, straight nose, high cheekbones, thin lips. From what he saw online and the meeting room, he was the spitting image of Bruce Wayne. But his eyes—those fucking eyes.

Bright, neon red eyes bore into him. Danny flicked off the light and they glowed softly in the darkness. Red eyes. Because of course. Of course! Red eyes, just like Dan! Danny sighed and left, putting on a cleaner shirt and shoes. He knew he couldn’t avoid mirrors forever, but he really didn't want to think about Dan. Especially when he still didn't know what happened to his world, his friends, his family, Jazz.

At least they matched now. Kinda. The streaks weren't ginger like hers, and they weren't oversaturated orange like Miss Martians, but they were red. So technically he was a redhead, just like Jazz. Danny smiled at that. In a weird way, he had a piece of her. Still hated the eyes, though. He went out and waited for Conner. He came out a few seconds later, wearing a hoodie and jeans.

Their car was actually pretty good. Some jeep truck mix, with a good bed and heated seats. They could probably fit about four chairs and a table in the bed if they Tetris-ed them around. They needed to get a U-haul for everything else, probably. Danny already missed his portals. At least with their super strength they wouldn't need to hire movers.

"We should get a U-haul from that place we saw on the way here," he told Connor, getting in the drivers seat and relishing the AC. "We can pick up a table and some chairs for the dining room, and some other stuff." Connor nodded, turning on the radio. "Yeah! Do loft beds have desks built into them?" "Some do, but if you don’t like the built in ones we can get a normal loft then add a desk."

California was nice. Its the first time he's ever seen it, and there was lots of graffiti. Some gang related, others just street art. Lots of beach shops and cafes, a library, big chain grocery stores and small mom-and-pop shops. The giant furniture store was around six blocks away, but they took a detour to the U-haul.

Walk in, walk back out because he forgot sunglasses fuck he'd need to wipe these cameras, walk back in, rent a U-haul, walk back out, park the car around the side, small talk while getting the keys, comfort Connor because he was still nervous about driving, then drive to the store. He already blurred most people's memories of him, so the folk that saw him were fine. Hopefully.

They talked on the drive there, Connor asking which way to go and Danny reminding him to use the blinker. They made it there unscathed, and got parking near the front. Perfect. The store was two stories, cream with an orange stripe around the middle, and they went to the map at the front.

"This place is so big it needs a map?" Connor looked around, spotted an employee and waved. She waved back, then went back to typing on the computer at the reception desk. "Yep, it looks like all the actual furniture is on the first floor and stuff like appliances and decorations is on the second. Do you want to look at beds or desks first?"

Bruce sighed, glancing at his phone for the hundredth time. Well, it was actually the sixteenth, but it felt like the hundredth. Danny knew about Damian. He'd panicked at first, then remembered that at the time of the meeting incident, Damians file was already in the system.

This was good and bad news. Good news that Danny wasn't watching them through the manor or, god forbid, the batcave cameras. Bad news because this meant Danny had probably accessed every JL and JLD file on that computer, which had been almost all of them. As far as he knew, the only ones uncompromised were his contingency plans. Small victories.

Both his new sons were handfuls in so many different ways. Damian had been rather violent at first. Ok, incredibly violent, but spending time with Dick slowly healed him in a way Bruce couldn't. It hurt at first, but he's accepted that while he'll always be his father, he'll never be his Batman. And in many ways, Damian would never be his Robin the way he was Dicks.

After watching the footage of Danny during the meeting, he tried to connect with the others more, including him. He told Dick it was because, "I want to love the way our clone brother does". It had melted his heart. Despite not even being here, Danny was already helping the family. Damian asked constantly about his 'clone brother', and had expressed jealousy that Connor got to be with him, but admitted he would accept Connor into their family despite that.

Connor...poor Connor. After all the scientists had died—Bruce had timed fourteen seconds after Lilva flatlined—all the footage and files from Project Cadmus were uploaded to the main computer. The footage was disturbing. While Danny was challanged mentally and psychologically tortured, possibly the reason for his own psychological scare tactics, Connor was physically tortured.

The burning kryptonite was the tip of the iceberg. He was shackled with kyrptonite weights then told to run, to fight, to fly, growing violently ill and breaking his bones in an attempt to obey. They wanted to test how much kryptonite was needed to harm a Kryptonian, so they'd expose him to increasing amounts of kryptonite, then beat him. Usually with metal pipes, apparently the most readily available from the storage room, but sometimes they'd use things ranging from 2x4's to semi-automatics.

There was a meta on the reasearch team, Head of Nursing Staff Gabriella Snow. She had a healing ability, able to repair any and all kinds of skin tissue, blood vessels, bone and organ matter. She could regenerate white and red blood cells to stop certain illnesses. She could repair dismembered limbs in a matter of minutes....which she did for Danny and Connor.

She was stone faced as they cried, offering no comfort. Sometimes she would heal them multiple times during 'testing sessions', watching silently as the boys were beaten. She never spoke, never cried, never winced, never looked satisfied. Danny must have hated her. When her photo was transferred into text, it simply read 'monster'.

Danny still hadn’t texted him back yet. Maybe it was late wherever he was and he had gone to bed. Maybe it was early and he was doing chores or making food. Maybe it was the afternoon and he was doing something else. Maybe he was purposely ignoring Bruce. Maybe he was texting someone else like J'onn.

He was slightly jealous of J'onn. Mostly because Danny seemed to like him more than Bruce. J'onn had almost begged him to ask Danny to text him, and Bruce had to agreed. As weird as it was to think about, J'onn was also Dannys dad. Martians usually had large families, dozens upon dozens of kids, and J'onn was only able to have one before the plague. He assumed that Danny made him feel like he got his family back.

Now that he was thinking about it, Danny definitely liked J'onn more than him. He texted him constantly, asking about Martian culture, holidays, books, technology, anything and everything. J'onn texted back with glee. He'd sent Danny images of books and an alphabet book he'd saved that had been for his daughter, and Danny had been able to create a keyboard.

It worked similarly to kana input, and J'onn had been overjoyed to be writing in Martian again. Last he looked, they'd been texting in only Martian for about a month now. Danny was near fluent. According to J'onn Danny wasn't just fascinated by Mars; he loved every part of space. He could go on and on about star belts and suns and black holes, and once got so excited that he video called J'onn.

The video itself didn't give them much info. It was a simple dark blue room that faded into black, with stars and whole galaxies painted out with incredible detail. Danny casually informed J'onn that he had a bit of magic, and the room wasn't anywhere on Earth or its dimension, so there was no way they could use it to find their house. It was comforting to know they had a place to live.

But the video also showed them Danny, the first and only crystal clear look they had of him. Every other image or video his face was a black and white blur, sometimes during painful or emotional moments it was scratched out. Danny looked like him. Same nose, ears, face shape. Damian had said that was obvious; his genes were just as strong as his intelligence. But clearly they weren't strong enough.

Dannys hair was mostly black like his, but there were dark red highlights that turned more orange-red when they hit the light. Obviously the Martian genes coming through. His skin was darker than his, naturally tan, and his palms had an unhealthy green bruise-like tint that also seemed to be natural. But the most outwardly sign he was Martian was his bright red eyes.

It almost looked as if he was wearing contacts. The color was bright, glowed like J'onns and M'ganns, but you could see his green veins and pupils retract with the light. According to J'onn the color made Danny uncomfortable, but he'd looked more relaxed when J'onn had exclaimed that they matched.

It was the most excited and giddy J'onn had even been. According to M'gann, while humans couldn't tell, Martians eyes were different shades of red depending on the parent. Dannys eyes were the exact same shade of red J'onns were. "It's kinda creepy, actually," she'd said, studying Dannys face, "My eyes look like my moms, but not the exact same shade. Maybe because there was no second color to go off of? He is supposed to be a clone, after all."

Danny spent the entire half hour call talking about space, asking J'onn about facts, things Earth got wrong, stories of his time in space and much more. Bruce felt relieved to see Danny so happy, especially after the footage from Cadmus.

"Father!" Damian came running down the stairs, pulling Dick along by the arm. Tim was close behind, and Steph was wheeling Barbara down the ramp. "We've spotted Danny!" Bruce sat up. "San Diego, California! They're currently in a furniture store! Their license plate is blurred, but—" Damian continued to speak, but Bruce couldn't hear him. He stood quickly. "I'll get the plane ready."

Damian exclaimed 'Yes!' While Dick pushed him down. "No, not yet. We don't want to scare them, B." Tim nodded. "We especially don't want to scare Danny. I don’t think we've seen even a fifth of what he's capable of." Barbara rolled forward and Bruce moved aside. She typed quickly, pulling up camera footage from a U-haul rental.

It was Danny walking in, his face blurred but the black and red clear. He quickly walked out, then came back in with sunglasses on. But while talking his head tilted down, and they could see his eyes, red as rubies. "Heres Connor, too." Barbara pulled up footage of Danny and Connor stepping out of the truck, license plate blurred as well. It was definitely Connor; Clarks face but Luthor's blue eyes.

"Looks like they're decorating!" Steph hummed, "How'd you think they're paying for it?" "Some sort of computer-frying card," Damian replied, going next to Barbara and pulling up a close up of the card Danny used. "We tried to trace it but it crashed two laptops and the third's circuit boards went up in flames." It was pitch black but wasn't a black card. The numbers came up fuzzy on the camera, but were legible. 22 1 21 12 20 1 3 3 5 19 19. "Theres an extra number," Dick pointed out. Barbara nodded. "Its a simple A1Z26 cipher. It means 'Vault Access'."

There were more numbers. 22 1 12 9 4 21 14 20 9 12 4 5 1 20 8, 'Valid Until Death'. 4 1 14 14 25 23 1 25 14 5 10 15 14 26 26, 'Danny Wayne J'onzz'. On the corner of the card was some sort of abstract clock; about two dozen hands, seven circles inside each other like a target symbol, and in each circle there were different numbers and symbols. Some looked demonic, others Bruce was certain he'd never seen before.

"If Danny has access to other dimensions, then this card is most likely from one of them. Thats probably where all the money is coming from too. Should we call the JLD?" If they did, it'd have to be Constantine. Bruce almost wanted to try figuring it out himself just to avoid talking to him. But last time he tried that....he didn't–couldn't–put any of his children at risk.

Does anyone else think that Lucanis deliberately poses like this?