#uni writes

Like here Dick is, trying desperately to give the media something to cover other than Tim and trying to remind criminals that Gotham isn't Red Robin's city yet, and some independent YouTube journalist just drops this 30 min interview with RR on a rooftop all smiling and spitting out random things Dick isn't entirely sure aren't true (why did you get rid of your cowl? Batman made me) with a barely hidden french accent (which then switches to Russian when asked about his French debut and why the move to Gotham) and dodging questions about Tim in mysterious way that's fooling no one about red robin's supporter

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"And how did you like my gift?"

The voice is smooth and accented. Familiar. Slowly, Jason creeps to the edge of a balcony and looks down. On the couch are Tim and Tam, coffee table full of snacks and a single bottle of wine Tam had to have bought. There's also a dark green sweet box Jason recognizes from Dick's photo. Before them is a TV, displaying not a movie, but the face of Ra's al Ghul.

"Dick got into it," Tam says with a pinched voice.

"I imagine he's fine? I've heard no news."

"He did find the poisoned treat," Tim says, "so that was alarming."

"Ah, but our Chemist had the antidote."

Tam snorts. "I don't know if I want to scold you for using something so basic or thank you."

Ra's smiles. "It could be both. He didn't eat too many of the sweets, I hope?"

"Nah," Tim says, leaning forward to pick up his glass of wine. He holds it like he's at a gala, fingers supporting both the stem and the glass. "You weren't subtle with your choices, you know."

"I doubt anyone but you in your family would have recognized those sweets, Detective."

The teen picked up on the second call. “What do you want, Vlad?”

“The gun I took from FentonWorks last night.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Do you know what it does?”

Daniel went quiet. “I know what it was supposed to do. Turn a ghost human. Full ghost, mind you. I wanted to figure out how it worked. I was worried about hitting a neverborn, and what that would do. Like, would it turn Undergrowth into a tree?”

Vlad went quiet.

“Did you use it?” Danny asked.

“Yes.”

“On who?!”

“The Dairy King.”

“Oh, at least he died. Did it work?”

“Yes. Is it permanent?” Did Vlad just land himself a roommate he has to feed?

“According to what I read before my parents' notes got destroyed in our fight, no. Let me know how DK responds to it? I hope he's okay.”

“He's unconscious, and I am not baby-sitting him, waiting for the guy to wake up. The Packers start playing in ninety minutes-”

“You just shot him with an experimental ghost weapon-”

“He’s completely fine. Even has a pulse.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yes, really.”

Through the phone, Vlad hears Daniel suck in a lungful of air.

“Vlad, my parents built something that revived the dead without a body. It transformed ectoplasm. Aren’t you, like, a little bit curious about that?”

“No.” But hearing Daniel say it like that, it was very possible he wasn’t thinking logically. Some sort of obsession tie-in, certainly.  “Maybe. Only if I can do it while watching the Packers.”

Taking a deep breath, she switches forms. 

Immediately the frost creeps higher, jump from her forearms past her elbows all the way to her shoulders. Dani yelps, shaking her arms, and from her hands comes ice beams.

On one hand, cool. On the other? She doesn’t know what this is. Is something wrong with her body? Did Vlad mess with her powers in utero? Does Danny have ice powers?

She doesn’t know, and that, that scares her.

Phic Phight 2026 fill for @wolfspirit79

Summary: Vlad accidentally turns the Dairy King human for a day. At least they both want to watch the Packers game.

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Vlad growled at the gun on his table. He’ll admit Jack sometimes made leaps in logic that result in genius ideas, like a monkey randomly writing Shakespeare, and thus Vlad raided FentonWorks once a year for anything interesting. Last night, he’d shown up in the lab just in time to see young Daniel try to figure out how this gun worked and so wrestled it away from him before making a quick escape.

Vlad thought Daniel was nervous about a weapon, one Vlad might be able to modify for Valerie or Skulker, but the feel of it is wrong. The ecto battery was small, only a single shot, and the ectoplasm was not charged enough for a big hit. This wasn’t a weapon; it was just another idiotic invention like that modified vacuum whose only claim to fame was its ability to eat hair without damaging it.

But Daniel was so interested in the gun.

Vlad hummed, starting his investigation over. It looked like a gun, but it didn’t have to be that. It could just be a device meant to transfer energy or ectoplasm, like an awkward version of a syringe. It would actually make sense, considering the small amount of ectoplasm and the hole that suggested the battery was refillable. A modification of ecto-dejecto?