The first time it happened, the Waynes were walking around a street market, glancing at the art, when a woman wearing a Red Hood jacket and drinking out of a Red Robin coffee traveling mug struts by.
The heroes stop to stare, more in shock, to see how well the two items are done, which grabs her attention.
She grins at them, waving her cup. "You guys like the bats? You should check out both nineteen. He sells all official stuff."
"Official?" Dick repeats.
"Yup. He has it all trademarked." She says, pulling out a business card. She hands it to Dick with a smile before bidding everyone goodbye. Babs reaches up, snatching the card from Dick's slack hold, pulling out her phone to research the name.
Babs hisses through her teeth when she finds out that, yes, whoever the artist is, they did, in fact, trademark their designs. But not only did they cover their art, but they also put a copyright over the idea of all the Gotham heroes.
"He copyrighted Batman!?" Tim demands, reading over the baby's shoulder. "The symbol, the technology, the fighting moves- his shadow!? How!?"
"No one else did," Bruce answers with an amused smile. "He probably realized this and decided to slap one on while he had the chance."
"He can't do that!" Tim shouts. "Batman should sue him."
"Kinda hard to take someone to court regarding vigilantes." Dick shrugs his shoulders. "The Bats are illegal themselves, and they didn't copyright before this guy did."
"He owns Robin!" Jason announces with a laugh.
"That son of a-!!" Dick shouts, twisting around and stomping down the booths. People who recognize them jump out of the way for the raging celebrity. The rest of the Waynes were right behind him, a few slightly surprised by the pure anger on the eldest face.
Not Bruce or Jason. They see and personally know Dick's rage.
"How dare he try to claim Robin!" The eldest hisses, rounding the last row and stumbling to a halt. The rest are unprepared for his sudden stop, so they stumble into his back.
Grunts of pain and slight soft swears are heard as the group tumbles over onto the ground. Dick is unfortunate enough to end up on the bottom, feeling the total weight of his family. He's pretty sure Bruce's elbow was digging into his lower back, and Tim's head had slammed on the back of his neck.
Maybe Alfred was right about them going on a stricter diet. Ouch.
"Get up this instant. We are ashamed of the family name." Damian hisses from where he is standing above them. Of course, Cass is next to him with a cheerful smile.
Both of them had danced out of the collision in a way that appeared accidental to the untrained eye. Bruce likely let himself fall because he enjoyed causing scenes as Brucie Wayne, no matter how much he denied it.
"Dick." Jason groans, taking the hand Cass held out for him with grace. "Why did you stop?"
"Look at both nineteen." Dick hisses feeling Tim delibertly dig his elbow into his back. His brother offers him a sweet, innocent smile that does not hide the anger in his eyes. Sometimes Dick wonders if anyone can spot the pettiness in Tim or if his madness hides it.
"Oh," Steph whistles when she hopes off of Bruce to stare at the booth owner. "Yeah, I get it. He's hot"
"No!"Dick shouts, rising up from the ground. There is horror in his voice that makes the Bats all tense. "No, he is not hot. That's disgusting Steph. Look at him. Tell me who's face that is."
It's Bruce who spots it first. "I have more chidlren?"
Damian gasps. "Father, you have more blood, children!? How did you recognize him, Richard?"
"He looks exactly like Bruce at that age." Dick hisses, leaning closer. "The Titians and I met Bruce when he was sixteen during a mishap with a time wizard. I may have pretended to be a butler sent to Wayne Manor for training to get access to the cave. The cave was the location that we had to use to go home."
"That was you?" Bruce demands. "I thought that was an idiot who was in love with Alfred."
"Ew, why?"
"You kept complimenting his cooking, doing chores for him, and trying to take him out for a fun night in town!"
"Well, excuse me for wanting Alfred to have a week's vacation from the broodiest and most troublesome teen!" Dick shouts, throwing his arms in the air. "You were literally hissing at him whenever he told you to bathe!"
"I didn't like water back then!"
"Hey guys?" Jason cuts in. "Tim left."
Both men swing to stare at the second eldest with twin looks of confusion. "What?"
"Tim. He's over there. Yelling at kid-Bruce." Jason points to where a crowd is slowly building around them. Tim is in a screaming match with the owner. There is a lot of hand-waving, faces turning red in anger, finally ending with the owner throwing himself over the Red Robin merchandise with a protective little snarl.
Tim reels back and punches him in the face.
"Oh shit," Steph sighs, running towards the both as the owner is quick to tackle Tim. The Waynes find it odd that they must show off their bat training to break the two apart.
And that's how the Waynes get on the front cover of almost all media coverage that tells the story of Danny Fenton (Wayne). Bruce's second secret love child with a married woman (Jack and Maddie had briefly opened up about their marriage back then, so neither was mad) and who had met his biological father after a public fight with his adoptive brother.
Danny would like to go on record as saying that he was unaware of why Tim cared so much that he saw a fantastic business opportunity and took it. It's not like Batman could challenge his copyrights, and if the crimefighter came for his kneecaps over it, he would find himself against the Ghost King.
True the Ghost King in name only, but the Bat didn't know that.
Danny will be honest if asked how he felt about finding out Bruce Wayne is his father. He already knew. When he was around twelve, his parents sat him down and told him. It was how his dad explained where babies came from, the genuine Welcome To Puberty! Talk and what open marriages meant—which was as horrific as it sounds—and they never bothered with it again.
Because Jack Fenton had been the one to raise Danny, he had been the one who held him after his mom gave birth and had been the one who loved him with all his heart despite not being blood-related.
He had a bigger reaction to having to fist-fight Tim Drake over the fact he made Red Robin the official LGBT+ member of the Bat family because he is bi, no matter how much Tim insists Red Robin was straight.
It sounds to him like Tim is deep in the closet and in denial. Bisexual Red Robin forever!
Early Adventure Time episodes: Ice King "kidnaps" Wire Princess, a vaguely humanoid heap of scrap with a smiley face painted on its "head" which he obviously made. Finn wants to stop him on the principle of kidnapping being bad, while Jake argues that since his "victim" is an inanimate piece of junk, no one's getting hurt and it might even quell his kidnapping thirst. After a series of shenanigans, Ice King attacks Jake, at which point Wire Princess speaks, revealing that not only was she alive, but consenting to the kidnapping as well, because of Ice King's fluffy beard. But now that she has seen him attack Jake, another fluffy thing, her heart is wavering and she must journey alone to find the true meaning of fluff. The end gag is Ice King screaming "She was alive?"
Middle Adventure Time episode: Raggedy Princess' kingdom is being attacked, and the assailant is revealed to be none other than Wire Princess, whose quest for fluff has turned destructive. PB appears excessively distraught by this, and it's revealed that she created Wire and Raggedy Princess (then known as cloth princess) in a recreation of the monkey experiment to best gauge her approach to ruling, in the early days of the Candy Kingdom. However, when the Wire Princess AI realized the candy people were more driven to Cloth Princess' caring nature, it logically concluded the only biological need of candy people is "fluff", and so tried her best to imitate Cloth's behavior, while Cloth Princess' deeply ingrained love for her citizens caused her to attempt to physically care for them. Declaring the experiment a failure, PB mind-wiped them both, gave Cloth Princess a new kingdom and name, and put WP in sleep mode, as well as left her in Ice King's junk pile. Jake, who has been listening, says "PB, that's messed up, man". Although they deliberate whether to reboot her again, she ends up being smashed by a gumball guardian or something. While everyone staress in shock, Raggedy Princess says "That's messed up, man. Also I didn't have time to say this earlier but I'm fine with either Raggedy Princess or Cloth Princess. So, um, yeah. Anyway, I'm going to call the cleanup crew"
Late Adventure Time episode: A strange techno-magical maze appears out of the blue in the Ice Kingdom. Finn and Jake explore it and find imagery of both softness and some sort of pre-apocalypse university, ultimately discovering it was created by Magic Woman/Betty mind-melding with Wire Princes, who was trying to reverse engineer an AI with love magic infused through Simon or whatever. She inadvertently mind-melded then, accidentally creating the semi-physical maze with her magic powers, and in turn realized that WP was, in fact, not only functional and aware this whole time, but she also had a slowed down perception of time. Finn and Jake sever the link after fighting some techno-nightmares. Magic Woman, despite only having been mind-melded for a day, has experienced a whole year, and appears distraught. But this is only momentary, as she declares that her accelerated madness means that her magic will grow exponentially stronger, and runs off appearing to have a plan. Finn and Jake are worried about Wire Princess going haywire (the pun is pointed out), but she clarifies (her voicebox is working now, but not much else) that actually, since she didn't have or understand emotions for most of her aware existence, she was just fine then. She then goes on a beautiful monologue about how, since she's now bonded to one, she finally, truly understands emotional beings and their complex needs. She renames herself "wire knight", and downloads her consciousnesses onto Finn's arm. A later episode has BMO and Wire Knight debating the trolley problem
Danny has a space core, in the beginning he thought he has an ice core, but it turns out that because he had been highly stressed since his death his core had been underdeveloped and only showed certain aspects to keep him healthy.
Years have passed his 14 birthday (death-day)
He was now 17 and had grown into his core which had revealed a lot about him.
For example, being the Ancient of space distorted his entire view of everything. After all space was everywhere and ever growing, expanding more and more.
Danny could feel himself in his physical halfa body,
But at the same time he was watching people on the other side of the planet: laughing, dancing, celebrating, crying, being born, dying,mourning, and going about their day.
That was only on this Earth he could see every Earth that exists.
Earth was such a small part of space.
He could feel & see entire solar systems, galaxies, nebulae.
More & more
Just continuing to expand
Never ending
As he got older he could understand more his connection to everything.
Being able to help life be born on other planets
Moving moons towards planets
Creating star nurseries
Everything at his grasp
~
This would cause him to let his mind wander away from his physical form, which just looked like he was spaced out.
His human form slipping slightly when he does: freckles gaining a glow and moving to form different constellations, his hair moving like if it were weightless, and his eyes
Don't stare too long at his eyes
After all the eyes are the window to the soul
And his hold too much
(Look away)
~
Danny casually watches a meteor shower hundreds of light years away, spaced out: Ooh pretty!
The poor goon who taught he could mug a careless teen and stared at his eyes for too long: *Twitching on the ground foaming at the mouth*
~
Danny who hasn't blinked in a few minutes: "The pretty space station with heroes in it just made a full orbit on top of us again!"
Tim next to him who's just waiting in line for a cup of coffee or 3: *panicked side eyes him* Wh-What?
~
Batman: "We have to find who's taking out all these criminal."
Danny who looks like a Wayne kid therefore getting regularly kidnapped (or at least attempted), focusing on making a good star nursery: " Shhh! I'm concentrating"
Villain & his goons dropping like flies: "Mercy!"
~
Just an Idea
You know how in DC, much like in most media, all Forces have an opposing Force? Fire to Water, Yin to Yang, Order to Chaos, etc etc. Well.....
If you ADD in DP's The Zone?
That right there? Is a Realm. An Element Of Creation. Yes, the glue, the very lining, of the Multiverse. Buuuuuuuut? What is it CONNECTING? The FABRIC? The SHELL and FORM?
What, in a word, is it's Reverse Element? Just as the Speed Force has the Slow Force. As Chaos has Order. What does the Realm of Death have?
I hear you suggest "the living world?" But! Rightfully, you sound uncertain! Because! Death is INHERENT to the so called "living world". Everything is! Order, chaos. Ying, Yang. Fire and water and earth and air! All of it! It's the mid-ground. Shared and thus balanced.
So what sits on the other side of the coin?
I? Propose? Those fffffuckin IMPS! The 5th dimensional imps, known to haunt our beloved DC Heros. Immortal. Eternal. Life unending.
Driven to cruelty and boredom by it.
They are a brilliant, distorted, reflection of the Ghosts we know! Are they not? Not every Imp so powerful as the ones we've seen. But? If, say, Overgrowth or Clockwork? Wanted to just pop in to harrass their favorite Blorbo?
What's a little veil between Realms?
Only thing STOPPING them, is themselves. The Rules. You know... the ones THEY made. Because Goverment. Kinda like the Observants. Walker. Danny and his throne.
I bet they HAAAAAATE each other.
Both have Obsessions, but gods help you if you compare them. Because Ghosts Obsess with the steadiness of the Dead. The unchanging, unrelenting, persistence. While IMPS? Obsessions like firecrackers! Shifting, changing, sticking on this or that! Maybe for a nano-second! Maybe for eons! Who knows?! Not them!
They both think the other side are FREAKS.
The single most OBNOXIOUS, Irritating, Grating, Petty, PATHETIC group of LOSERS you will ever be unfortunate enough to meet.
You think Danny hates the Joker? Is On Sight with HIM? You know NOTHING of his hatred for those big headed little balls of nasally BASTARD energy. It's like weasels and snakes.
Clark loves it. Danny keeps getting free pie. Because EVERY time that Imp comes to harrass him? *unholy staticy yowl screech* *flying tackle out of the air into a cartoonish dust cloud fist fight* here comes the normally cheerful and polite Phantom, looking POSSESSED. To claw Mxyzptlk's throat out.
Of course, the Imps refuse to give up. They were stalking their targets first. PHANTOM should leave.
Phantom shouts something that makes them gasp, deeply offended, and the nearby magic users choke on their own spit.
Yep. Clark LOVES the newest addition to the team. Best decision they ever made, Bruce. He's DELIGHTFUL :D
@the-witchhunter @nerdpoe @ailithnight @hypewinter @hdgnj
Steph stared at the beat-up, probably homeless, kid that was currently raiding her fridge from the doorway of her apartment.
That wasn't there before.
The kid looked up and they made eye contact. They entered a stare-down, neither speaking a word. After a while, the silence gets broken by the kid.
"This place sucks."
Which, rude.
The kid then closes the fridge, one of her juice boxes in hand, and takes a seat on her couch. Her couch, which is now getting covered in blood because the kid's still injured...
---
Steph has sent a picture to the group chat.
In it, she has her arm around the shoulders of a heavily injured black-haired blue-eyed kid who looks heavily disgruntled and like he might bite her, while Steph herself is full-on grinning at the camera.
The caption reads "im pulling a bruce ✌️😘"
Several people are typing...
*MC teaching the class but notice a certain student reading something*
MC: And what you might be reading?
Student: Ummm. You don’t want to know….
MC: Well if you reading this it in my class then I want to know.
*MC took the book and read it*
Student: W-Wait!
MC: What…the hell is this!? Is this a book about Me and Boogeyman!! Who wrote and draw this!? …and why are we banging near the end!?
Other student: Wait you got MC and Boogeyman? Can I read it? I’ll let you read the one with MC and Mononobe.
MC: What!?
Another Student: No fair! I’ll eat you read the one with MC, Ziz and Azazel!
MC: Excuse me!? What even going on and where are you getting these!
*Meanwhile*
Hecate: I’m going to create the biggest project I ever done…MC with Aegir, Dagon and Trition at the same time! Man, I’m on a roll!
When talking about the distinction between Simon Petrikov and the Ice King, it’s important to remember that originally, the Crown wasn’t trying to turn Simon into Ice King -
It was trying to turn him into this guy.
At the time, the Ice Crown - or rather the Wishing Crown - was programmed with Gunther’s wish to become Evergreen. So everything related to making the current wearer like Evergreen is a very direct result of the Crown’s Magic. The physical changes -
And the obsession with the name ‘Gunther’ -
And maybe some of the irritability and anger issues -
That is something the Crown is very directly forcing unto its current wielder.
But everything else?
Ice King, personality-wise, was not much like Evergreen at all, or even like Gunther's view of him. And Ice Finn of the Farmworld Universe was also pretty different from the both of them.
At the time, I remember people assumed Ice Finn’s behavior is more indicative of what the Crown is actually trying to do with its wielders. That Ice King is so different because of Simon’s subconscious resistance against the Crown - while Finn’s much younger and dumber brain is a lot susceptible to the Curse’s influence to become some sort of mad world-conquering emperor of ice and snow.
But, with the context of the Crown’s actual backstory. That doesn’t seem very likely anymore. I think what’s actually happening there is that the Crown is just trying to make its wielder an Ice Wizard on par with Evergreen (who was the Actual Goddam Ice Elemental) and that means pumping the wielder’s brain so full of Magic, Madness and Sadness to a level that is bound to overwhelm anyone.
And Simon’s and Farmworld Finn’s very different behaviors after putting on the crown is indicative, more than anything, of how their psyche reacts to Madness and Sadness in general. You know, Finn has a very proactive and kinda aggressive personality - and you add Crown-induced-Madness-and-Sadness and a compulsion to use Ice Magic as much as possible and you get all of…. this
Meanwhile, for Simon, the compulsions of the Crown originally filtered exclusively via the language of protection
As his madness always manifested as romantic obsession
And using goofy humor to try and deny the pain he’s going through
Because that’s how Simon’s mind specifically reacts to being flooded with so much Madness and Sadness.
That’s why there’s so many parallels between Ice King and the sort of mistakes and screwed-up stuff Simon does right now! He’s even kidnapping people again!
Because the Madness and Sadness of Ice King might’ve been induced by the Crown, but now Simon has plenty of personal home-grown Madness and Sadness inside him - and it’s no surprise that Curse-Induced or not, his mind reacts to it in a sorta-similar way. (Although obviously not as intensely, again, there was a LOT of MMS in the Ice Crown).
Now as for Ice Thing, and the fact that he seems to be actually rather well-adjusted under effects of his version of the Wishing Crown. I mean... not by the time of the 1000+ Era, but that’s literally eons in the future and also maybe more Gibbon’s fault. Even if the Crown will eventually take some sort of toll on him, for now he seems to be doing pretty well considering his wish. I mean, there's still some sort of Loss of Identity stuff going on
But everything we've seen of Ice Thing (in the present day, at least) shows him as a friendly and cheerful individual that gets along well with others. A far cry from how maladjusted every single wielder of the Ice Crown acted.
At the very least, if there's any notable amount of Sadness in him, we really haven't seen it yet.
There might be several factors here:
First things first, I should acknowledge the possibility that it’s just that Orgalorg’s eldritch brain is better at intaking all that MMS juice. That could play a part, but I think it’s probably more important, at least thematically, to look at the distinction between ‘I wish to be Evergreen’ and ‘I wish to be Ice King’.
First in the sense that while Ice King was occasionally mean to Gunter at times - he was generally much kinder than Evergreen ever was for ‘his’ Gunther. So, like, pretty much the one Personality Flaw of Ice King that you can directly link to the Ice Crown’s attempt to mimic Evergreen is the occasional anger issues.
And how they relate to Gunther’s view of Evergreen, so grumpy and controlling and constantly saying ‘NO!’
(Both Finn and Simon’s demonstrable not-crown-induced trauma responses can make them pretty short-tempered as well. So I’m not going to say this is purely the effects of the Crown. It still probably plays some sort of factor at why the wielder of the Ice Crown is Like That).
And that is not a factor in how Gunter views Ice King. For him, Ice King was a doting and loving father figure - so if the Crown was ever trying to implement any sort of specific negative personality traits, this is absolutely no longer a factor. Because the original Ice Crown was a reflection of Evergreen’s abuse, and now Ice Thing is a reflection of Ice King’s fatherly love.
Which is, itself, probably an echo or remnant of Simon’s own strong parental instincts.
Secondly, while the Crown was trying to make the Ice King just as powerful as Evergreen…. Ice King was obviously not as powerful as Evergreen. Because he was already a second-rate copy of the Ice Elemental’s power, and because Ice King was often just too doofy to use his powers correctly and probably because some remnant of Simon’s original sensible self is subconsciously holding his powers back.
Either way, being ‘like Ice King’ as Gunter sees him requires less Magic than being ‘like Evergreen’ as Gunther saw him - and therefore less Madness and Sadness. Leading to the wearer or, um, the eater being a lot more well-adjusted from the get-go.
And I think that the implication that Ice Thing has fused with the Crown, so there's never going to be another poor sap who puts on the Crown and gets Ice King'd. But if there is one somehow... at least the process is going to be less mentally detrimental that time around?
Maybe one day Simon could look back and appreciate how much he (or Ice King, or both of them, or however you want to look at the situation) is responsible for basically neutralizing the Crown that ruined his life in the first place.
Danyal returns to league, he was sent to the Fentons for a mission and after gathering all that they know about lazarus/ecto he figured he was in an unique position. Either he revealed himself and was accepted and after that would have to do what he could to keep the league off his back. Or he'd be rejected and he could simply finish his mission and return to the league. Sadly for Danny. The second option ended up happening, and with crushing disappointment and new hardened resolve he made his way back to Nanda Parbat.
At first he's surprisingly at peace with the situation, he misses his friends and Jazz but this is sadly how it's meant to be.
Damian isn't there, he has been sent to train under their biological father. Or at least what mother says. Perhaps now that he's successfully finished his deep undercover mission he'll be allowed to know the truth and go as well.
Ra's doesn't want that, for body snatching reasons. But he doesn't know that Danny is half dead. Nobody at the league does.
It's basically the only secret Danny keeps. After having to stay quiet about it and the explosive aftermath with the Fentons it just doesn't occur to him to speak up about it anymore. After all, here he has everything to lose.
And he feels vindicated when he finds Respawn. Tied up, hanging, looking so much like him and Dami, but wounded, with damning white hair and when he opens his eyes and notices Danny it's only the green green green he sees.
In Danny's mind the league must know, they are bidding their time or... or Danny was always meant to end up like he did or this is yet another damn clone someone made of him.
None of Danny's thoughts about this are good, and it figures, he's aware of what this place is. Jazz did a good job deprogramming him. So perhaps the thought that things would be better here was laughable. But somehow, for some reason he thought blood relation meant something.
So far all parental figures are bad, the Fentons. Vlad, now Ra's and Talia. So what does that mean for his twin, what does this mean for Damian?
Well, at the very least finding out who his biological father is and where he lives isn't hard with ghost powers. Neither is freeing Respawn.
And after that all that's left to do is making sure Damian is safe.
And by the ancients, may the gods help Batman if it turns out he's not.
He just...moved a small portion of his Haunt in the Ghost Zone to the Moon. There's some spectre deflectors to shield it from the sun whenever the suns rays beat down mercilessly on the house, as well as keep heat in during the cold when the sun isn't there, but it's pefect!
In fact, he's altered the spectre deflectors so that they make it a perfectly habitable area around his house. Breathable air and everything.
Also, small mention, but he can listen to Justice League transmissions this close to their Watchtower. Not that he does.
Except maybe he does.
Just a little bit.
And one day, there's a desperate cry for help.
A human Hero, one who cannot handle the nothingness of Space, has a cracked helmet and is losing air.
Danny...really doesn't want to do this. He likes his little hidey hole!
But.
Fuck.
"Hey, so I've been listening-wait don't block me! I have a weird question; how close are you to the moon?"
Okay, so I don't know about anyone else, but...
We've seen Lady Gotham, but I haven't really seen any other City spirits?
Did I just not find any yet, is it a fandom thing to only have her or...
Anyway! So maybe only she's mentioned because she's THAT powerful or she's the only city spirit in a certain radius, but I've got an idea.
So I'm not really caught up on DC because of personal reasons, but I've seen the whole 'Gotham vs Metropolis' rivalry thing.
So the citizens have a big rivalry going on. No one really can tell you why, they just do. Who's to say it didn't start out as an instinctive 'test the new sibling' thing I assume step-/non step- siblings do.
Yes I'm asking if Ms. Metropolis and Lady Gotham are dating. Just imagine it. The preppy and sunny City Spirit and the dark and gloomy City spirit are having lunch and just:
"Have the kids settled their feud yet? It's been a few decades since this started."
"I don't know about yours, but my Gothamites are still a bit on edge. They have gotten a bit more protective, though. Star's children were very much not prepared for the consequences of verbally poking at your children."
*laughs demurely or something* "Ah, siblings."
Also:
They find Danny and just go
It wasn’t supposed to be a secret.
If you died while with the league, you will no longer be acknowledged to have existed, especially if you died during a mission. A disappointment will not be remembered.
The bats and birds don’t like speaking about the people they have lost, so they don’t. If someone ask about the dead, they will tell the person they don’t talk about that.
So how was Damian supposed to know that he should have told his father about his dead brother?