Waiting... Waiting...
So... This was inspired by listening to EPIC (FREAKING LOVE ALL THE ALBUMS, SO GOOD) and by @noxcheshire post of Tim being Odysseus reincarnated and Danny (maybe also reincarnated) being his Penelope (Here) so I had to turn it into a Dead Tired idea.
The song The Challenge is the main one here. (Cause I LOVE that song... along with Would You Fall In Love With Me Again)
So WHAT IF Danny IS the reincarnated Penelope, after becoming the Ghost King Danny's memories of his past life as Penelope returns and remembers how before dying/ or being reincarnated both Penelope and Odysseus promised to find each other in their new lives, no matter who they are, what new form they take, they will find each other.
So Danny/Penelope, just like before waits for their Odysseus to return to them, but also tries to find him in their new life (CW is laughing whenever Danny asks for hints and gets a 'In due time, just wait' answer, ugh Danny wants to smack CW for that)
However just like in his previous life with being in a high position of power, Danny is being pressured to marry/take a spouse (now its not just men/males though so its a huge headache, I head canon Ghosts don't care much for gender preference) mostly by the dang eyeballs that Danny is still trying to find a way to get rid of without upsetting the Infinite Realms delicate (but slowly healing) balance even if Danny wanted nothing more than to punch all of the suitors out.
So Danny decides to play the long game again.
And waits for their Odysseus return.
Danny's wait is over when they suddenly feel the Realms shift one day, as if welcoming someone familiar home, and the same feeling Danny had when he had been Penelope and saw the storm that was sign of Odysseus coming home, Danny decides its time to bring out The Challenge once again. (CW gifted Danny a few things from his past as Penelope as a coronation gift, like Odysseus's bow (now enchanted to be unbreakable), a painting of when he was Penelope, with Telemchus, and Odysseus, and the Marriage Bed/Olive Tree, AND the Palace Odysseus made that Danny takes to being in over being at Pariah's Keep)
-x-x-
Meanwhile
Tim Drake, aka Red Robin, always had strange dreams as a child.
War, Death, Monsters, Gods, Goddesses.
His dreams were more like nightmares, haunting him and he sometimes woke up in cold sweat.
He hated storms. Hated being in the water for to long. Hated how he felt both tense but also at home when around Greek heroes, as if he was afraid to 'disrespect' them (Cassie was the only one he didn't feel that way around, mostly cause they had been somewhat friends before their heroing since their parents knew each other) but also knew how to appease them should he insult them. He also had a strange hatred for the CoO with a burning passion because he felt like they were mocking real Owls.
The worst part of nightmares that always pop up are of what feels like should be his home is being invaded by unwanted guests (they aren't guests), how they are angry over trying to string a bow and shot an arrow through axes, of the terrible terrible things he hear them saying they were going to do to his loved ones (two names that keep getting muted out).
How it ends in bloodshed with echoing of begging, pleading, mercy, and screams.
However in those nightmares at the end. He also finds himself looking for something in them.
Or rather he always found someone waiting for him at the end of the nightmares. Calling him by the wrong name but it sounds just right coming from them.
The dream always ends with the person asking 'How long has it been?' and before he can answer he wakes up.
So yeah Tim has horrifying nightmares/dreams he could never explain.
And the urge to find someone. To go home to them.
It isn't until he and his friends from Young Justice are hit by a spell from Klarion (who may or may not had a visit from a certain chaos encouraging Time Keeper) and sent to a place called the Infinite Realms in the middle of their fight, that Tim is hit hard with déjà vu when he spots a certain Palace in the distance and overhears some of the 'people?' (they glow and float and some don't even look human?! where are they?) talk about how the 'King' has issued a new 'Challenge' for his 'suitors'.
A Challenge involving a bow, and axes.
And Tim, feels like he knows this all too well and needs to do it.
Danny: Ugh, they're back again
Jazz: Don't make that face at paying customers. Do you want to make a portal back home?
Danny rolling his eyes: Yes
Jazz: Then we need to get enough money to buy the parts. If that means waiting tables at a barely legal dinner, where idiots hit on us, then we wait those stupid tables. Now go over there and get the Waynes to leave us a 200 tip.
Danny: Fine, but only if you do too!
Jazz: *Tighten her apron straps into an hourglass figure* Way ahead of you.
Danny: *Rolling eyes but does the same*
Meanwhile with the Waynes
Bruce: It's so nice to go out to eat with you all
Alfred: Indeed. It's a nice change, don't you agree, children?
Wayne kids: *hyperventilating*
Bruce Not looking up from his phone: The Fenton siblings?
Alfred: Indeed, sir. It seems like Master Dick, Master Jason, and Miss Cass are going to attempt to speak to Ms. Fenton today. Master Tim, Master Damian, Master Duke, and Miss Steph don't seem mentally ready to look Mister Fenton in the eye. Bets?
Bruce: Dick chokes on his fork again. Tim face plants on the table, and Steph once again speaks in gibberish after forgetting the entire English language.
Alfred: Very good, sir.
Jack Fenton answered.
Jack Fenton sounds so much like Bruce at first listen if someone is tired and emotionally wrecked that Dick started going on his tangeant, pleading to come home.
Jack Fenton doesn't mind more kids at all! Neither does Maddie!
Jack tells him to come home and gives him the address to Fentonworks, and gets the guest room set up and ready to go.
Dick, finally arriving three days later, still sleep deprived and not all there, stares at the blimp on the building and starts to think he may have dialed the wrong number.
He doesn't have time to cry and go back, though, because Jack and Maddie Fenton whirlwind their way out the door and corral him into his new bedroom, treating him like he's always been their son and he's just been gone for awhile.
And Dick...Dick needs this. He's three steps from a mental breakdown, can't think past two sentences worth of planning, and he hasn't slept in who knows how long. He can regret later, right now, he'll take it.
He allows them to tuck him into bed, allows himself to fall asleep, and leaves the freaking out to a more awake him.
Danny, meanwhile, is having a little chat with a few of the ghosts that regularly follow Dick Grayson, and goes invisible and intangible to just...fly over to where this guy had been and steal the info he was after.
Because holy shit, that dude looks like he needs a break.
Or: Dick gets adopted as an adult by the Fentons instead of Bruce, and gets a really weird support network.
1/4
Dcxdp Tropes twist
Danny hadn’t planned to be pregnant at 15, but when it came down to it, it was the only option to save Ellie. Also, apparently being a pregnant ghost means all of his usual enemies were now babying him to the extreme. It also meant that when he thoughtlessly mentioned how his favorite hero was Martian Manhunter, his ghost friends decided to kidnap Martian Manhunter straight from the watchtower, and bring him to Danny.
Meanwhile, the watchtower is in chaos after Martian Manhunter was kidnapped by beings claiming to be sent by the ghost king to retrieve him.
reminder that if you back tsuna into a corner he
A) sends you right back into the worst prison for mafia criminals you just escaped from, but even worse than before (enjoy being unconscious and tied up in your one room swimming pool for the next 10 years)
B) freezes you with flames burning so hot they turned into ice (< this isn't how the zero point breakthrough is explained in canon but it's the more dramatic explanation), fully knowing you were already frozen by similar ones for 8 years until, like, a month prior
C) burns you fucking alive and also undoes the last 10 years of your existence across all existing timelines. also he won't think anything about it afterwards ever (?????? like. it's not that he didn't deserve it, to be clear, but damn. 😭😭😭 middle schoolers when you just want to take over the world(s) for a bit, smdh 🙄)
D) is willing to become the boss of the most powerful mafia family in the world with a bloodstained history if it means getting the opportunity to get his hands on you and kill you beat the shit out of you. but you're lucky he likes you so you could stay on very thin ice long enough for both of you to clear things up
E) gangs up against you with all the current and future strongest people in the world, and then punches you so hard he makes you see the light of doing the right thing despite your centuries years old deep rooted hatred which singlehandedly kept you alive as an undead person
also reminder he did all that while he was only 14 years old. this is all things he did in less than a year.
this is tsuna's resume during the course of less than a year of proper mafia business.
so, you know. the next time he goes "i just want my friends and i to be safe and happy and live in peace. 🥺🥺🥺 please don't make me fight you to make it happen? 👉🏽👈🏽🥺👉🏽👈🏽🥺👉🏽👈🏽🥺"
just maybe, consider listening to him
For @ladydoptera, to 'Pomegranate Lips' by Derivakat,
"Password?"
Tim swallows. The eyes in the narrow window of the metal door are plenty familiar, dark violet with black makeup. But knowing who is on the other side doesn't help him in the slightest.
"Going ghost," he says, keeping his voice low. The window slides back shut with a snap - metal over metal, Tim's ears hurt - and then, there's a click, a snap, and the door opens.
A girl in a creatively ruined but still somehow stylish gothic lolita dress is standing in front of him. She looks taller than usual, and when Tim looks down, he knows why - those platforms must be at least four inches, how does she even walk in those?
"Welcome, McFly," Sam's dark red lips curve in a smirk that looks just a bit too smug on her. Also, to this day, Tim has no idea why she picked that nickname for him.
He steps inside, and the heavy door slams shut behind him, leaving them both in complete darkness. Or, Tim thought so until he looks a little closer and notices how Sam's violet eyes are faintly glowing - not enough to light the way, but enough to raise a few questions.
Questions that Tim is not going to ask.
Yet.
"Follow me," the girl says, her voice on the brink between annoyed and amused, and starts walking away through the narrow hall. Tim does his best to follow; his eyes are adjusting to the darkness, albeit slowly.
However, the walk doesn't last long - ten or so steps later Sam pushes another door, and-
The closest thing Tim can describe it as is a rave, of all things. Loud, rhythmic music that thrums through his whole body, strobes and bright green lights everywhere, and people, hundreds of them, dressed in all kinds of things. Tim freezes in the doorway, struggling to take in the sight.
A woman in a Victorian dress is dancing with what looks to be a werewolf in prison robes. A child just threw a one-eyed parrot at a man in a black tie suit. A knight of plated armor is waving a sword around, seemingly arguing with-
"Keep your mouth closed," Sam's finger taps his chin from below, and Tim shuts it back closed with a snap. Right, he's got no time to gawk, he is here on a mission. But, when he looks back to Sam, his mind comes to a screeching halt yet again.
"How'd you-" he starts, looking at how the girl's skin, usually pale and almost white, is glittering with small lines of blood red runes. They are not tattoos, or at least Tim doesn't think so because they move, like tiny snakes or vines over her skin.
"Nope, not answering," Sam clicks her tongue and rolls her eyes, her perfectly sharp eyeliner getting a deep, dark red hint as well, "I don't owe you shit."
With that, she turns around and starts weaving through the crowd, leaving Tim no choice but to follow.
The music is nearly crushing his eardrums. The crowd should feel suffocating - Tim knows it usually does in places like these - but somehow it doesn't. What's more, it feels cold. So cold, in fact, that goosebumps run over Tim's skin.
However, just as he feels like they are completely lost in this freezing, neverending sea of faces and figures, Sam stops. Tim almost runs into her back, actually, but, just as he is about to ask her why, she steps to the side and gestures for Tim to go ahead.
And Tim... Tim can't move a muscle.
There's a corner booth in front of him, with red velvet seats and more than a few dozen drinks, empty and full, on the table in the middle. Some of the liquids are glowing toxic, unnatural colors, and in the back corner of his mind, Tim still remembers why he's here. He is investigating, right. Which includes meeting the owner of 'Afterlife' face to face, yeah. Something about a new drug on the streets of Gotham, probably.
Tim can't concentrate.
The guy lazily sitting at the table, with hair so white that it's nearly glowing and his pale skin shimmering with highlighter on his cheekbones, causes Tim's mind to completely bluescreen. Because the unbuttoned black suit with embroidered stars and an open white shirt underneath, the neon blue, faintly glowing cold eyes, and blood red lips stretched in a dangerous smile - that's thankfully is not directed at him - are all... Too much.
Not blood red, actually. It's a different color, but Tim can't remember the name.
He can barely remember his own name, to be honest.
"Oi, Danny," Sam snaps her fingers in the air, and the ethereal being blinks, tearing his unblinking gaze away from the man in a white suit sitting across from him to look at her. Then, his eyes slide to Tim, and, okay, he thought he was well past the gay panic stage of his life, but apparently not.
The guy - the god? because only divine fucking things have the right to look so otherworldly pretty, in Tim's opinion - tilts his head to the side slightly, a curious edge to him. And then he smiles, nice and a little sly, but Tim can't shake off the feeling of sharp danger that runs through his spine.
Pomegranate, that's the color.
Bite it once, and you will never leave the Underworld.
"Can I help you, little bird of crimson color?" The ethereal owner of the most mysterious place in Gotham asks without raising his voice, and yet Tim can hear him despite the loud music around.
...Maybe he doesn't mind never leaving, if he can get a taste.
~•~•~•~
When I put that song on for the first time, I was like, that's Sam. That's so Sam. But then I started writing, and things got weird, so it's both Sam and Danny now.
Tim is so gone, I'm sorry, RIP Tim. Funny thing is, he barely said a single word throughout the whole piece.
Danny likes hanging around John Constantine as a cat. Why? At first, because it would've been pretty funny but now, he's realized he's actually.... Kind of grown to enjoy it, oddly enough?
All he really does is lay himself on the man and Constantine just, has like, zero problem??? He wanted to mess with the guy for his reaction, so he did multiple things to test limits but Constantine still let him stay around?? He made threats of exorcising him but like, Danny came to realize they were just empty threats???
John Constantine is weird.
---
Now, Constantine is well aware there was something more to the little cat that decided to claim him as a piece of furniture one day. Not just for them being a ghost, mind you, but he has a vague feeling there's something more to little ball of fluff that sought to inconvenience him.
He's aware that the first thing he should have done was exorcise it. Release it to the other side so it could go on and reincarnate or whatever with the pleasantry that it would live a better next life.
But he didn't.
Why?
Perhaps because of the vague feeling there was something more to the little prat.
But really it was just because his days felt.... Normal. As normal as they could be for a person like him, anyways.
As much as the little twat tried to inconvenience and make his life ever so annoyingly harder. It wasn't any kind of way that Constantine couldn't... Well.
It was inconvenient and annoying yes, yet at the same time it was entirely inconsequential compared to what he's lived through his whole life.
Hell, if other people take shit from their live cats. He can certainly take it from his ghost ca-
...
When did he start referring to the little prick as his?
Danny was visiting Gotham for a college interview and to visit his long distance girlfriend Caroline Hill who was a medical student. Danny has no idea that the girl he met during a brief visit for a tour was actually Tim Drake in disguise. Tim has no idea how to break this news to Danny without him freaking out. Danny is oblivious about the long con Tim pulled since they texted almost daily and all of Tim's pictures as Caroline were in disguise and mildly photo shopped. Tucker decided to look into Caroline Hill after noticing a slight issue with one of her pictures and found she doesn't exist and isn't sure how to tell Danny because he hasn't been this happy since his brief relationship with Sam which just ended with them being friends. Tucker's the only one also stopping Sam from rushing to Gotham to expose Caroline for gaslighting and cat fishing Danny without a plan
.
Eughdh he's back
I'm in my bbg with a boyfriend phase sorry
The Fenton children all have the misfortune of going home for the holidays and getting tangled up in their father's latest invention, where he, once again, forgot to carry the two. The invention was meant to teleport ghosts into the Ghost Portal as soon as they were captured.
It was supposed to be a long-overdue upgrade to the Fenton Thermos, which Jack had been eager to reveal. His children had all moved out, including the two clones of his son, who had morphed into their own person, and he had taken in as his kids, so it was a real treat to have them home.
Jazz and Dan were both in college four hours away. Jazz was studying psychology, and Dan was studying Law. The two had rented out a house together while working full-time jobs. Dan was one of the older students, but seeing as he hadn't been able to continue his education in his timeline, the Fentons felt like it was not "too late" when it meant learning.
Danny had chosen not to go to college but entered the trades. He had gotten into metal design and jewelry making and was currently learning to wield. Dani shared her brother's love of trade, but she focused more on metal and graphic design. They also lived alone in different apartments despite living in neighboring cities.
With everyone's conflicting schedules, they rarely, if ever, saw each other in person. Texts and phone calls were commonplace but it was nothing like waking up to the chatter of the children (Jack didn't care. They were all well into their twenties and early thirties. They would always be his children)
The holidays were the one time Jack and Maddie fought a year, so she didn't double-check his calculations before Jack fired off the thermos on Christmas morning. It, of course, malfunctioned, sucking in the Halfas twins first, then Dan, and finally, Jazz, who ran over to help, unaware it could pick up humans.
Jack had meant to create a ghost trapper with a self-emptying trash bag. Instead, he made a pocket teleporter. Only he had not designed a way to get what he teleported straight into the Ghost Zone back. Instead, he focused on making sure the ghost was flung as far away from the portal as it could teleport it to, in order to deter the ghost from coming back.
Even though Danny was no longer Phantom Two's protector, Jack and Maddie took up the job of keeping the town safe against ghosts that were actually harmful. It was a hassle having them come back after every fight.
It's safe to say that both Jack and Maddie put aside their yearly argument about Santa Claus to try to track down the children.
_____________________________________________________________
Meanwhile, the Fentons found themselves in the ghost zone, in an area none recognized, before realizing that Jazz could not fly. She plummeted towards the bottomless void, screaming at the top of her lungs, falling straight into a swirling portal of darkness.
Thanks to their ghost powers, the other three were able to get balanced in the air before shooting after her. They didn't care that the portal was colored differently; all that mattered was that one of them caught Jazz as she continued to fall, this time over the landscape of a rather grass field.
In the end, Dani was able to catch up to her, wrapping her arms around her sister and slowing them down into a gentle hover above the ground. The women sighed in relief until their thirty-two-year-old brother and the twenty-two-year-old brother landed on them because their powers fizzed out, shifting them back into humans.
Groans and swears were heard as they quickly unpiled. Dani was also now a human, sporting a large bruise on her back for her troubles.
"Where are we?" She asked, looking around. The large grass field was smacked in the middle of a large desert forest and an even larger city far away.
"Don't know," Dan mutters, clenching and unclenching his fist. "But wherever we are, it's not letting me go ghost."
"Me either," Danny reveals, jumping on the balls of his feet. "Can't even produce ice."
"If your powers aren't working, something happened to your ectoplasm filter." Jazz concludes grimly, rubbing at her ankle with one hand. It had twisted when Danny landed on her. She was staring at her wristwatch, to which their mom had attached an ectoplasm reader. "The ectoplasm levels in the air are so low they're practically non-existent. This isn't our Earth."
"Communication is down too," Dani sighs, staring at the glowing blue screen of her phone, which her parents modified to work in the Ghost Zone, singing on her face. "Can't even get a signal"
"Typically of Dad getting us stranded in a different dimension." Jazz grumbles, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "At least mid-terms ended."
"Amen to that," Dan says before straightening his back and clapping his hands. "Alright. We need to make a plan. Let's go into the city, find out if the currency they use is similar to ours, and get food and shelter if it is. How much money do you all have?"
"I'm literally in pajamas covered in Christmas trees," Dani deadpans. "I have no cash on me at all."
"You're worthless. Next?"
"I also have no money," Jazz winces, gesturing to her plain blue silk pajama set (a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of pants). "I left it in my purse."
Dan rubs his face. He's also clad in pajamas, but he has a checker red and black bottom that didn't match the green shirt with the printed words Comrade of the Grinch. "I have ten dollars because I was going to run down the street and buy eggnog with cookies from that little neighbor girl. Mom handed me the money and told me to go after breakfast."
"I have nine hundred and fifty," Danny announces, ruffling in his jeans pocket until he finds the wad of cash. Everyone stares at him in utter bafflement until he shrugs. "I was going to meet up with Sam and Tucker after breakfast. We were going to gamble a little."
"You call nine-hundred and fifty a little!?"
"Oh no, I owe Tucker seven hundred dollars for that laptop he fixed up for me a few weeks ago. I tried to send it through the virtual payment apps, but his account got locked, so it had to be in cash." Danny waves away their concerns. "I'm sure he won't mind if I ask him to wait until the banks open again."
"Alright. We have a plan and funds- hopefully- let's go." Dan says, moving towards the city. He walks by a sign that reads Welcome to Gotham.
"How bad can this place be?"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
Bruce eyed the screen with wary eyes. The still image of the four siblings didn't change, nor did their bright smiles and strange offits.
It's been six months since the strangers blew into town. Bruce hadn't been able to find evidence of them beforehand, nor did he have a clear picture of their timeline.
What he did know was that sometime in December, the four siblings, going by the last name Fenton, had wandered into a second-hand store, bought a change of outfits, and vanished into the city.
They popped up again three weeks later at a local artist festival. Danny, one of the twins, had rented a booth to sell enamel pins of strangely designed ghosts. He claimed to have created them, and his sister had helped design them.
The following week, his siblings were reported for selling metal wear on the side of the road. It's illegal in Old Gotham to sell things without a license, and it had been run out by the police. They returned soon after with a permit that, despite looking as accurate as can be, was not filed in the city's databases until five days later.
Of course, he would not know any of these until he started building an investigation. What caused this investigation? The Fentons had been inside Scarecrow's latest lair as his most recent test subjects.
The only thing was that, despite the various experiments done on them, none of the Fentons showed any sign of being affected by the needle injections. If anything, they seemed more inconvenienced than frightened by their capture.
Scarecrow had concluded the same thing as Bruce. None of the four Fentons were humans, but for some reason, they were hiding among the human race as metal artists selling enamel pins and metal artwork.
Bruce wasn't sure where they were staying, what they were planning, or what they were after. He would have been okay with leaving them alone, except Damian had reported that the Pin-Man, aka Danny Fenton, had not only spotted him when Robin was doing a stake out of a possible high-ranking member of a mob but had gotten close enough to try and sell him some pins of Damian's favorite anime.
How did he know what show his son liked to watch, and how did he get close enough to a highly trained assassin who didn't notice him until it was too late?
Also, why did Damian buy nine? All questions Bruce needed to have answered.
Bruce Wayne should try to find out what other kinds of pins his son would like if Damian hasn't already bought the whole series. He'll have to stop at the rumored areas where the metal workers were said to be operating.
the identity porn potential of Ollie and Bruce both knowing each other’s identities but not revealing that to the Justice League is SO funny to me, like you’ve got Ollie at a Founders’ meeting kicking his feet back like “oh we need someone to infiltrate the event and sleep with both married targets? B, you’re a shoo-in” and everyone laughs thinking it’s a stupid joke because yeah, Batman’s gonna honeytrap both targets?
meanwhile, Bruce leans back in his chair and the corner of his lip curls just enough for Ollie to get the unspoken “let’s not start on breaking up marriages, hm?” his friend is so clearly thinking at him.
She/They. Old enough to be legally allowed to drink anywhere.
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