John Had Finally Sucked It Up And Asked The Big Bad Bat For Permission To Enter The City. He Was Expecting

No but like, this is great, because Cass can help him get legal protections for being a meta, help him get bat gear, and all sorts of stuff when she finds out about phantom, they could be a hero duo! Black bat and phantom would be the perfect combination of scary and charming

Danny was forced to flee from his home universe due to the actions of the Guys in White.

At first, his new universe of choice seemed amazing! Sure the crime rate seemed higher than back home, but superpowers a known thing! If his powers are discovered, he’ll have actual legal protections! And better yet, they have actual living aliens!!

But then as he tried to integrate himself into a normal life, he found the catch.

Apparently, pheromones and associated “pack” instincts are an integral aspect of social interactions in this universe. And since he’s from a different one, he has neither.

It’s like being an outcast at Casper High all over again.

Without the pheromones, he comes off as uncannily flat to basically everyone he meets—never mind how he’s constantly missing context about the people around him. And even if someone does try to connect with him, it seems like his lack of pack instincts might make him come across as dismissive anyway.

He already struggled with social cues sometimes before, but this made things a million times worse.

Luckily, he’s already found a light in the darkness.

Cass.

He’s not quite sure how he befriended the quiet girl, but she’s the best. Even without having pheromones, she seems to just get him. Plus, she’s been indispensable in helping him learn how to understand and navigate social situations properly.

As far as he’s concerned, she’s basically an angel.

He gets the sense she was an outsider like him too once, though he hasn’t tried to pry into her backstory. The last thing he wants is to damage their friendship.

Which is also why he’s trying to keep his growing crush on the down-low too. He doubts she feels the same way, so there’s no reason to rock the boat.

Dick breaks his arm doing something stupid and Alfred's patching him up

Robin!dick: have you seen this before?

Alfred: the stupidity of man is entirely unoriginal, of course I've treated this before

And then in the future, dick trying to comfort a scared kid

Kid: have you seen this happen before?

EMT!dick: of course I have, the stupidity of man is entirely unoriginal

i love the emt dick grayson headcanon and i think it's so much more apt than the cop plotline for a lot of reasons but i'm also obsessed with the fact that in this scenario, injured bludhaven residents scared that they're dying are being treated by a guy whose examples for medical bedside manner are "detached englishman" and "bruce wayne under psychological stress"

I think the second idea means that kryptonite was always naturally occuring and only became souped up after the destruction of krypton because of how many people died. I don't know enough about the comics to say if that's more accurate than kryptonite being created during the destruction

Since my brain has continued to rotate my alternate take on kryptonite being made of ectoplasm (here) I’ve decided to give the idea a name:

Souls of Kryptonite AU

I still don’t have any big or solid plans with it or whatever but. Yeah.

Anyway, I started thinking a bit about some worldbuilding possibilities around the thing. Nothing is too concrete but I wanted to write them out:

So, firstly:

Krypton’s destruction in some way involved ectoplasmic contamination of the planet (to justify why its bits got weird)

But then I had two ideas on how to take it:

1. Kryptonite flat-out is ectoplasm

When Krypton exploded, the energy output of the blast caused the souls of the dying Kryptonians to crystalize

Thus Kryptonite technically isn’t the shards of the planet - it’s the shards of the people

Because the souls crystalized in this way, they never fully formed ghosts. Instead, they’re just trapped in essentially the moment of their death

Kryptonite can hurt ghosts to touch because of the emotions contained within leaking through

I don’t have any fancy explanation for the Kryptonian power sapping part. Maybe the nature of it being their souls cause some sort of magic effect? Or maybe it’s literally just still radioactive in whatever special way. There are options.

Using it as a power source may or may not harm the souls - I’d think it probably would, but depending on how the energy effects work it might be arguable that the souls wouldn’t take much damage

Probably would require fancy ghost magic or ecto-technology to free the souls

You might be able to get a power boost by eating it but you really shouldn’t because that’d be like, soul cannibalism.

2. Kryptonite interacts with ectoplasm

Kryptonite is less “solidified ectoplasm” and more of a sponge that draws in ectoplasm from around it

Thus when any ghosts formed during the planet’s destruction, they were immediately pulled into it and trapped

And if any other ghost touches it later, it will start to drain or even capture them too

The ectoplasm stored in Kryptonite gradually leaks out as a different form of radiation - this is what allows it to interfere with Kryptonian powers

Generally, the more charged with ectoplasm a piece is, the stronger the radiation it releases is (this just feels like a logical rule)

The souls/cores/whatever-you-want-to-call-it of the trapped ghosts aren’t deconstructed (maybe because the ectoplasmic makeup of that part is different enough to hold it together)

Though maybe using it as an active power source could gradually damage them, to add extra angst to the usage of it in tech

However, any new ectoplasm the ghost forms while trying to heal gets torn away and spread throughout the rock

Thus keeping the ghosts stuck in a barely-formed state (essentially trapping them in the moment of their death)

Also this continuous drawing on the trapped ghosts’ ectoplasm allows for the Kryptonite to remain powered indefinitely

Kryptonite can’t hold an infinite amount of ectoplasm at once - it eventually becomes saturated and stops taking in any more (beyond replenishing what is loses to radiation)

At that point, it’s harmless for ghosts to touch (and can even give them a power boost if they consume it)

Yep i’m keeping the possibility of eating the rocks. Just make sure it’s filled with only non-sentient ambient ectoplasm and not souls and you’re good to dig in!

That saturated state could be used as a way to free the ghosts - continuously flood the Kryptonite with enough ectoplasm to keep it saturated, and the ghost will be able to reform without being drawn back in

Carefully breaking the stone might also work, but I’d probably add some sort of complication with that - maybe in regards to the stored ectoplasm being released suddenly or it potentially damaging the souls within

I feel like the latter option allows for some interesting concepts, but it’s a bit less faithful to the original “kryptonite is ectoplasm” idea

He's not going to escape, what if it makes the babies cry?!? He couldn't do that

DPxDC Prompt

When John Constantine arrives at the watchtower he is expecting a quick in and out, drop off the reports Bats has been hounding him for and head back out on his way.

What he wasn't expecting was for the band of merry men to be holding the literal PERSONIFICATION OF REALITY captive!

What do you mean your holding him for questioning in relation to a case!? His energy was at the scene??? His energy is everywhere you half wits, he is reality itself! If he was planning on destroying anything it would be destroyed before you even knew it existed! You shouldn't even be able to hold him??? Why are you letting them hold you here!?

The entity just shrugs.

Poor Clark, he's trying his best, he really is, but this "being the last of your kind" thing is really hard!

not to remix my own fic ideas yet again but have we considered that some of Clark’s animosity or OOC moments in Batman V Superman could theoretically be explained by 1) he and Bruce Wayne being massively compatible and 2) him therefore wildly mistaking the “get him pregnant” latent Kryptonian instinct as aggression because he’s never felt it before 3) thus resulting in him pinning Batman up against a ton of walls and throwing him around like he did in BVS but not actually hurting him because that isn’t the point

Dick: man, I don't know why duke has such a problem with me being a cop, like you guys don't mind?

Tim: wait you're a cop?! We thought you were a stripper!

Dick: what? You thought I was a stripper? All of you?!

The other bats:...

Bruce: I didn't want to make you feel insecure.

Dick: Alfred, you didn't think I was a stripper right?

Alfred: There is nothing wrong with such a line of work, you needn't feel like you have to lie.

i just think that Duke Thomas should like oink at Dick Grayson. I think that when Dick tries to come in Duke’s room and have like a weird sibling heart-to-heart, Duke’s like “u got a warrant, pig???” and Dicks like 👁️👄👁️. Duke passive-aggressively hands Dick a doughnut. And Dick doesn’t rrly get shit for being a cop/having been a cop bc most ppl assume he’s a stripper so this is new to him.

Just because your in the closet doesn't make you any less beautiful

Pride Month is upon us again and so it is time to repost my little guy, Hue! I’m wishing everyone a safe, supportive, positive, and enlightening Pride, whether you’re all the way “out” or not!

Please please please write more of this

A mis-text-derstanding

After a long night of patrolling around Amity, Danny damn near collapsed onto his bed. His back ached from a stray ectoblast and his eyes felt heavier than a mountain. Technus had done something to the technology around the town. At random a piece of technology would suddenly go rogue with a virus the ghost implemented. The virus would make the item try to capture anyone in the vicinity using any means necessary. So Danny had been doing regular patrols around town to catch anyone who needed help.

That also means that his sleeping time had been radically reduced. Without even the energy to lift his head, Danny patted around for his phone. Once he finally found the device he hefted himself on his side with a groan. It was a new phone since he was the first casualty in Technus’ plan. Thankfully, Sam had given him another so his parents wouldn’t try to make him one. (Who knows what kind of ‘anti-ghost’ protection they would’ve put on it.)

Tucker had promised that he was working on fixing the virus going around. Hopefully, he had some kind of good news to share. As soon as Danny went to message him he realized he hadn’t downloaded their chat app to the new phone. With a sigh he knew that he would just have to use normal texting but with careful codewords.

Putting in Tucker's number with a yawn, Danny sent the first message.

‘It’s your undead bro. The night out tonight was killer. Any news on the techie progress?’

Danny smashed his face into his bed with a sigh after hitting send. Knowing Tucker he was probably face first in his laptop and won’t notice the message for a bit. He could probably just close his eyes and…

Before he could even consider taking a nap there was a generic jingle from the phone. He should really get to fixing that. Tuck deserves a much better ringtone than some bells.

‘Nothing noteworthy yet. It's harder to crack than normal but nothing I can't handle. Do you need me to take over for tomorrow?’

‘Also why aren't you using our chat?’

Danny squinted at the screen with a slight frown. It had been a while since Sam or Tucker tried to go out in his place. They learned pretty quickly that it made Danny way too anxious to have them out there without him. Something about not being there to protect them if they got over their heads made Danny’s chest ache. 

And of course, Tucker noticed that he wasn’t using the app he made. It was a bit glitchy at times, but what tech wasn’t when it came to Danny? Not only was it secure, but it became an easier way for them to establish a timeline for filing. Jazz had been the one who realized that they didn’t have steady information on not just the rouges but the events of the fights. It became a staple to write out what happened and what went wrong after hearing her lecture about it.

‘Don’t have it on this phone yet. And you know how I feel about you being out there.’

Danny watched the screen for a bit, waiting to see if Tucker would reply immediately again. His mom probably caught him on his computer all day and was forcing him to separate himself from it for a while. It wasn’t an uncommon thing for Ms. Foley to do.

‘Yeah yeah, Mr. Possessive. Do you need me to walk you through how to get it again?’

Snorting at the pun, Danny easily replied. If Tucker was feeling sassy enough to joke about that, then he would push some buttons back. It was a simple banter that they sometimes fell into.

‘You know how I get with technology. I’m more likely to break something. Especially since this phone is so new. Whatever happened to flip phones?’

Danny snickered to himself at the message. Tucker had an ongoing war between new and old technology. While he loved his PDA he also admired some of the top-of-the-line devices. It was like the past and the future mixed in his friend's room. He would gush about the new devices but also gush about the older ones that still had functions that the newer ones lost. But flip phones? That was the only technology he knew that Tucker hated. It was the worst of both worlds for him. He’d been so excited when Danny’s flip phone was bricked by Technus’ virus.

‘I’m going to ignore that you said that.’

‘Also there’s going to be trouble in the park near you tomorrow. I’m already planning on going. Do you want in?’

Scooting up from his lounged position, Danny started to write back his reply.

‘Of course, I’ll be there. Don’t need you to go in alone and join the dead. Unusual for him to leave his plans there though. That’ll be fun to write in the report.’

The image of Jazz reading about that brought a smile to Danny’s face. She always found it interesting when one of the ghosts would change a long-time behavior. The fact that Technus was able to keep this rather on the down low would guarantee her interest. He was always one to blatantly announce his plans to the world to hear. Even though it’s a bit of a pain that he’s learning to keep things to himself it would peak Jazz’s curiosity, which made it bearable.

‘It is weird. And don’t remind me about the report. I still have the one from last week to write and I don’t want to do it.’

That made Danny laugh to himself a little. Last week the lunch lady tried to embrace the Ultra-Recyclo Vegetarian life. In the overflow of food, Tucker had gotten trapped in veggies. He was visibly green from having to eat some to escape. Sam had been excited about it at first before she saw how much food was being wasted. She ended up getting attacked for trying to explain the damage overconsumption and food waste could bring.

‘You looked like you wanted to vomit afterward. Well, at least we are prepared this time. We don’t always get that chance.’

Danny stretched out his stubborn limbs, feeling himself try to sink into the darkness. He’d have to end the conversation sooner rather than later. At this rate, he wouldn’t have a choice on whether he was taking a nap or not. At the familiar sound of bells, he looked back down at the conversation.

‘Unfortunately. Well, I’ll be finished by the time we meet at the park. I know you usually like to sleep after a long night.’

The reply made Danny’s core feel fuzzy with happiness. Tucker always knows him so well. He doesn’t know what he did to get such a fantastic best friend. It was at times like these that Danny knew he was so glad that they were in this together. With two of his best friends at his side, it made being a vigilante so much easier to bear. 

‘Thanks. Remember that not just the dead get to sleep. Don’t push yourself. Goodnight.’

With that, Danny felt comfortable with setting his phone down to get changed into pajamas. It ached on his back to take off his shirt, but Jazz would be disappointed in the morning if he didn’t. She always got that pinched look on her face when he didn’t take care of himself to her standards. Her standards weren’t exactly high up either so it made him feel extra upset when he missed the mark.

Being careful to not lie on his back, Danny got back into his bed. He curled himself into the blankets with a small smile. One last chime of bells rang out in the room, probably from Tucker saying goodnight back. Picking up his phone, he opened up the lock screen and looked at his messages.

Instead of a goodnight, his stomach dropped as he realized a different number messaged him. A very familiar number.

‘Hey dude! I know you had to get a new phone so this is me. Not only did I figure out how it’s spreading, I think I finally found a way to get rid of the virus.’

Practically throwing himself off the bed, Danny got to his feet. Both his back and his mind screamed at him as he looked over the message. He tapped back to the one he’d just been replying to, finding his heart stopping at the string of numbers. One of the area code numbers was a six instead of a nine. He’d been messaging a stranger this entire time.

Looking back at the messages he convinced himself that it was fine. He was vague enough to not be recognized. It wasn’t like this person was from Amity. They won’t recognize the correlation between him and Phantom. Surely the other person wouldn’t take his words at face value. 

Worst comes to worst he can have Tucker take over his phone for a bit and make sure the other person can’t find out who he is. He hadn’t bought the phone or had it under his name in any way, so they could only find out from the conversation alone.

Breathing out a breath of air he kissed his night of sleep goodbye.

‘I’ll be over in a sec Tuck. I think I just made a mistake.’

My babies!

Soot and Bubblegum haven't shown any behavioural indicators that they're a boy or a girl, I think Hot Chocolate might be a girl because of how she's a bit smaller and a little bit nicer, and Gideon has been cooking and chasing the others around since the first week I got them, and now's he's guarding the nest and being a dad

Now, Icecream is difficult because they're big and chunky, they coo and they chase the others around, so I said to my dad "oh yeah, he's definitely a boy" but then my dad said that he saw them sitting on the nest, which Gideon would have chased off if they weren't his mate, and they can't both be males because someone had to lay fertile eggs. So my ideas are that either Icecream is a female who just looks and acts like a boy, or, Gideon is just a weirdo who let another boy sit on the nest? I don't think pigeons have ever been seen to be poly, since they mate for life, but maybe I just got some weird ones.

Regardless, I love all of them

I have pet pigeons (they're my favourite birds if you couldn't tell) and this little fluffy idiot has decided to have a baby in fucking winter. It wasn't even warm when she laid the egg, it's been cold for like 2 months and I'm so worried because the baby looks so cold, and I know that Gideon is being a good dad and sitting on the nest, keeping the baby warm, but still.

The little baby is adorable though, it's past the pink worm stage and is in the bedraggled penguin stage, and judging by the colour I think the mum is Hot Chocolate, but you can't really tell until the feathers are like, fluffy

Yes, I like this very much

Stephanie Brown, angry and bitter about how she was treated as Robin, finding out that there's a new girl Robin and vowing to do her best to stop history from repeating.

Bruce Wayne, torn between his guilt and his self righteousness, understanding the reasons behind Steph wanting to work alongside him every time the new Robin is on patrol, but finding her presence unnecessary, which she strongly disagrees with.

Maps Mizoguchi, confused about why Batman and Batgirl keep wanting to work together if they don't seem to like each other that much, but just thankful that she's got at least two people looking out for her while she learns how to be a hero.