Mini-Rant about my Own Series (Aquabirds)
I'm writing the next work of my Aquabird Series (that's the one where the Justice League misunderstands Danny has two people, my Assumed to Share a Body Fics) and I can't help but rave about how I feel about everybody.
Just about everyone in the Justice League's opinions because, the thing is, the Justice League is fully validated for having this assumption. When you live in a world with people like Etrigan and Enchantress and doctor Fate, it just makes sense. They are treating both sides as well as they possibly can, even if I play it up for laughs, they are doing their best.
In the first work, DUCK, Barry treats Phantom and Fenton as two different entities and tries as best not to think about them as the same person. He doesn't want to think of them as the same person (because it'd be rude) so he convinces himself that they aren't. He treats them as equal as two people are. Sure, that's wrong, but it's still something he made an active decision about so he wouldn't hurt his "friends."
When it comes to Cyborg in the next work, GULL, he is more familiar with Fenton than he is with Phantom, though he doesn't really work with either as much. He still feels better about asking Fenton rather than Phantom because he views Danny as the "smart" one and the one actually in charge of the Ecto-Room. Just a light depiction of how Danny is interpreted. (Also, I added the initial misunderstanding with Cyborg about the blackout as a "ISN'T IT SO EASY TO CLEAR A MISUNDERSTANDING WITH COMMUNICATION?" bit. Just some playful addition).
And lastly, during HERON, Hal's fatal flaw was that he was unable to separate Fenton from Phantom. He understands, conceptually, that they are "two different beings" but when he stared at Fenton, all he could see was Phantom. He lashes out with the intent to hurt "Phantom" when all he is hurting is Danny. Hal's second flaw was picking one side to choose and separating them only then. Again, completely wrong, but it's just how I could contrast him with Barry's opinion.
Danny's entirely unaware that they're thinking all of this because he just code switches every time because he's a hero with a secret identity. But when he does it, they think of it as two different people, because they want to see two different people. Not only that, he has serious identity issues with about if someone's going to use him just to get to his other side. Our boy is lonely and has serious identity issues. I mean, take the Spectra episode where he says that he doesn't know what he is. "Yes, no, I don't know." Boy, that's just identity issues. So he thought of the Justice League as accepting him because he told them his identity from the get-go. He saw them treat him with respect and he thought that meant he was safe. With the realization that they thought he was two different people (in HERON), it broke him because he thought he was accepted as a whole, but instead, he was split into two, like he always feared
Anyway, if you stayed long enough for this, here's my recent idea for the next Aquabirds: Shazam and what he thinks. It is a sort of prequel to HERON as to why the rumor of Phantom being two people was so widespread. Billy actually finds out about Danny's situation but is under a different misunderstanding: Danny wants his help with his identity. So Billy does his good nature-ly thing and convinces every hero Fenton and Phantom are two people. Because, sometimes, help is awful.
