One Of The Bats Had The Theory That The Lack Of Emotion Came From A Meta-gene Activating During The Joker

One of the bats had the theory that the lack of emotion came from a meta-gene activating during the Joker attack and decided to try the meta collars (All the lab results were inconclusive so who's to say that isn't a probability?), just in case, they needed to try everything.

Danny feels like he's ecto-signal is being blocked by the meta collar and risks letting go of his emotions, just a bit, to test it's limits, but the collar doesn't block much, and is easier to just don't feel at all than trying to control how much he feels. So the bats get to see Danny's face gain some emotion (nervousness? Anxiety? Hope? Fear?) for a fraction of a second before he goes completely emotionless once more.

- Theory one: The meta-collar isn't strong enough somehow, let's try with one more powerful. -> Danny doesn't want to risk it again, so he stays emotionless.

- Theory two: Since Danny doesn't react with stronger meta-blockers, then something about the meta-collar gave Danny an emotion strong enough to come through for a second. Maybe it brought memories of something... something before the Joker attack? Was... Was Danny a victim of meta trafficking? Did they just re-traumatize their new little brother multiple times?

Duke feels especially guilty about this because as a meta, "he should have known better". The bats are not as eager to keep experimenting after that, but Danny continues to be emotionless, so eventually they have to try something else, right?

Danny's found a way to dodge GIW trackers, as well as his parents. Their equipment hunts ghosts, ghosts run on emotion; so as long as he keeps his under a tight lid and doesn't feel anything ever, they won't be able to track him.

It works!

He's able to run from them, and goes as far as New Jersey. The plan was to stow away on a ship, and go to literally any country that wasn't America. He goes to Gotham, which hosts the one harbor he knows where no one will ask any questions.

But because of how weird he acted (completely emotionless during a Joker attack), he was fingered by police immediately.

He's handed over to CPP. CPP doesn't know what to do with a teen literally so traumatized that they don't show any emotion at all, ever. He keeps just...walking out of his placements. Just leaves without a sound.

Luckily, he's always caught, due to those placement houses having quiet alarms and him refusing to run.

They call the one foster parent they know who does.

Bruce Wayne takes in the strange, nameless kid who refuses to talk.

On paper, they gave him the filler name of 'John Doe', for lack of anything better to do.

Bruce does everything he can to make the newest arrival feel at home. Damian, for as territorial as he is, actually breaks out of his shell sooner than expected just to try to get the new kid to speak. To emote. To do something. Duke tries the open approach, then tries the 'no one will ever know, everyone thinks I'm an innocent goody-two-shoes' approach. Nada.

Tim even tries to trick him into talking, but nothing works.

Enter Dick; Dick heard about Bruce's new ward, about the situation, and decided to see if he could get the kid to open up.

Danny though. Danny's in trouble.

The Wayne Manor is weirdly secure, and he can't just walk away like he did his other placements. He can't use ghost powers or the GIW and his parents will immediately know where he is.

He really, really wants to take Bruce up on his offer and just spend the day relaxing. Respond to Damian's attempts to provoke him. Overshare about space facts with Tim.

But most of all, he really, desperately wants to get in a Pun Competition with Dick. He wants to laugh at Dick's jokes, and learn coolass gymnastic tricks!

But he can't!

If he relaxes with Bruce, he'll be content, which is an emotion. If he argues with Damian, he'll get annoyed, which is an emotion. If he sneaks out with Duke and breaks the rules, he'll get happy, which, again, emotion. If he overshares with Tim, he'll get excited, which is, yet again, an emotion!

The worst sin of all, he can't even show proper appreciation of the food the Butler keeps making him!

And now there's even more people coming over!

There's a quiet girl who keeps reading his body language and trying to get him to dance ballet, a blonde girl who keeps trying to kidnap him to take him to BatBurger, a guy with a stripe of white who wants to take him to a shooting range, and it just...he really, really wants to!

He wants to do all these cool things with them!

But he fucking can't!

Danny would be seething if he found out that all his suffering and stress could have been cut short long ago if Constantine had read the complete reports.

"All this stress, all this pain, all this fear of fading/dying, could have been prevented if you had read the reports as you were meant to do!"

The Justice League has yet another meeting where Batman is looking at all of them like they are misbehaving little kids, and reminds them that reports are meant to be read completely for a reason.

 Tim was really starting to get worried about his new brother.

Danny moved into Wayne Manor after his parents were arrested.  Jack and Maddie Fenton opened  a portal to the infinite realms with no way of stopping any of the world-ending threats. They let the ghosts wreak havoc and never once closed the portal. 

Danny had gotten some sort of connection to an ancient being. The Justice League Later found out that the ancient being was using the connection to gain a way to stay on Earth. They were able to sever the connection but Danny is not getting any better.

Since the attacks in Amity Park started Danny has been getting sicker and sicker. He got paler and started to bruise more easily. But after they severed the connection he seemed to no longer have energy.

Even now that they have gotten him away from amity park, nothing seems to be helping. It's been 3 months with no sign of getting better. they're on their last straw and they finally decided to get a magic user to try and help. unfortunately The person who knows the most is Constantine.

Constantine walked into the room with Bruce. Danny had no idea that they were connected to the Justice League and they were hoping to keep it that way. They don't want to stress him, especially with how sick he is.  Constantine and Bruce stopped in front of Danny.

 Bruce tried to use a gentle tone and said “ danny I know you're having a lot of trouble so I called in someone to help “

Danny had  an apprehensive look.

 “Kid, I just need your hand,” Constantine said as he reached out a hand. ”I'm not going to do any creepy shit, I'm just trying to make you better”

Danny reluctantly placed his hand onto constantines. it was a few minutes before Constantine Swar under his breath.

"What is it” Bruce demanded.

”the little ghosty left a parting gift”

“that's not an explanation” 

“the kids got a  neverborn”

 “What's neverborn?” Tim asked, interrupting their conversation.

 “The closest equivalent I can make is that technically Phantom got the kid knocked Up”

Duke was just about to start today's patrol, when he's boyfriend rushes through he's window and clashes against him. Duke doesn't have time to even question anything, because Danny is shaking in his arms. His shaking, and his crying, and he looks so scared.

Duke decides that he's not patrolling today.

He scoops his boyfriend in his arms, whispering quite comforts. He may not know the details, but he can still tell he's boyfriend that he's safe now. Duke takes him to his bed, and covers him in the galaxy blanket that Danny loves so much. He spares a second to tell the other bats that he isn't going on patrol and then centers all his attention on Danny. Caressing his fingers through his head and letting him get it all out.

He's never seen him so scared. They've talked about their past, their fears, their trauma, but Danny always treated everything with a certain casualness that made it seem like he had moved from it. Even while talking about his death, he didn't trembled this bad.

Duke didn't know what to do other than keep hugging him and telling him that he was okay, that Duke will keep him safe.

Eventually, Danny stops trembling, and melts into Dukes embrace, holding his head against Dukes shoulder he finally talks.

-Sorry for breaking in just before your patrol started...

-No, Danny, I'm happy to receive whenever you need me. You'll always be before my job as a bat. Always.

Duke can feel Danny do a small nod in his shoulder as he keeps caressing his head.

-Can I ask you what happened? If you don't feel ready to talk about it you don't have to, but I'm here to listen if you want sweetheart.

Danny takes a shuddering breath before speaking.

-My... parents, just showed up on my door.

Duke holds Danny tighter. He had heard all the stories about how the Fentons had treated Danny. How they used to follow him around with ghost hunting equipment when he was a teen. How when they found out he was the teen they've been hunting they screamed that he wasn't their son anymore. How they screamed that he was just a monster that they wanted out of their house, and out of Amity at that second.

-Did they- Did they hurt you?

Danny shook his head.

- I- I wasn't expecting them. They were not able to say a single word before I flee... I didn't even know they knew were I was...

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Don't know how to continue from there. I'm not good writing this sort of scenes, haha.

Tagging people who wanted Duke/Danny:

@blueboybot @leloudlizbirb @bluerosefox

Feeling a bit angsty so I had this idea.

Danny is dating one of the Bats/Birds, and everything is going great, amazing even! They know each other secrets (from powers to everything etc), they have a wonderful place to live (even if its in Gotham), Danny is in college on the way to becoming a space engineer (and he does side jobs for unrestful ghosts), he's actually getting sleep again since leaving Amity Park, gets along with their friends and family (those who Danny or his partner still talk to, up to the writer), there is even talk about marriage and perhaps adoption/kids in the future between Danny and the Bat/Bird he's dating!

Everything is setting up for a good life in his future, something Danny didn't think could have after his accident. He was happy finally, and currently packing up his old apartment because he's moving in with his partner in a few days.

So he felt like his core was being pulled out of him when he opens his apartment door one day receiving a knock to find his parents, who had hadn't seen since they kicked him out of the house after coming clean about being Phantom (their words of anger and denial that their son was 'dead' and now a monster, still hurt)

Sure they didn't attack him or proclaim he's dead but still their last words and anger HURT.

Danny didn't give them a chance to open their mouths, both looking nervous and guilty, before he slams the door close and turns invisible, grabs his phone, and fly's out of his apartment to his partner's place in a panic attack.

His partner, isn't happy.

Especially if Danny is looking to the Shade while doing it. From Nightwing perspective,

The teen that just witnessed a murder is looking at nothing in front of him, describing the scene with such a plain and calm voice, he's clearly not doing okay.

Once the kids finish his retelling of the murder he says - I'm sorry you had to die this way. - while still looking at nothing.

Then, turning to Nightwing, says casually. - Hope you're able to find the killer, so that they can rest in peace. - and starts walking away.

- W-wait!

The teen turns around to look once more at the vigilante. - Yeah?

- I'll take you home.

- Um, thanks, but, shouldn't you be looking for the killer? - He turns his head a bit to the side.

And Nightwing should, but he doesn't want to leave this teen alone after what happened. If possible, he wants to be there when the shock passes and the kid finally processes what he's seen.

- I already have someone working on it. I'll come back and help with the search once you're home, what do you think?

It's not a complete lie. He's comm had been open all this time. Oracle has the description the kid gave him, and the call for a hand is implicit in his speech, he can trust that someone will start searching on the perimeter while he accompanies this kid home.

The kid looks at him seemingly confused for a minute, then finally shrugs, and keeps walking, Nightwing follows.

DPxDC What's the Big Deal with the Dead

TW, I guess: corpses and mild gore(?)

Due to his life circumstances, Danny is absolutely unfazed by the dead things. Be it a still barely warm body in the alleyway or a half-decomposed rat in the dumpster. He is just okay with them.

That is not to say he doesn't respect the dead, he does, but he respects the contents, not the package. He is polite and gentle with the shades of those recently passed away, he understands their burial preferences, and sometimes he helps the souls to either find their way to the afterlife or bring justice to the ones who murdered them, or anything else if they need it and he is able to do it.

Granted, he lives in Gotham, no one here is really that fazed by dead things, but what I'm trying to say is Danny lacks that first reaction kind of instinct, the disgust and repulsion and the horror that people feel when they see a dead body.

So, one night on patrol, one of the Bats, let's say Nightwing, finds him crouching beside a body. He can see the blood on the pavement and the bullet wound on the chest of said body, and this is yet another innocent life that has been taken, and he couldn't stop it, he was too late.

Meanwhile, Danny just turns his head towards him, waves, and goes, "s'up".

Danny was tired. Tired of trying to explain that he was dead, tired of trying to explain that he was half a ghost, tired of being told he never died. He had thought that the bats reaction to the reveal was better than his parents. No one was trying to give him anti-ecto medicine to "cure him." So he had thought it was better, and that they would understand with time that he had died, but they didn't.

He never knew how much being denied your dead could hurt. The way he felt the electricity going through he's body, tearing him apart, while ectoplasm put him back together... It wasn't just an accident that gave him powers.

He understands the desire for it to be just that, denial helped team Phantom keep going after the accident. But even then, while pretending he was still alive, he knew he had died, and Frostbite confirmed it when he told him he was a Halfa.

He's friends had pushed through their grief and guilt, and accepted that he was half ghost, because they saw how much it hurt him when they tried to pretend he hadn't died. They could mourn together thanks to that. Why couldn't his new family do that?

He gave them time, accepting the new member of the family was dead, was not going to be easy, so he was patient. But it's been a month, and hearing them say how death was something that's just in his mind, hurts. They're denying his own existence, his worst experience, and it hurts.

It's been half a year since Jazz reported their parents for poisoning him. They had good intentions, they thought they were helping him, but their "medicine" only made him weaker by the day. He could feel that his core was finally strong enough to make a portal to the infinite realms once more, and a visit to Frostbite is due.

He was looking forward to teaching them about ghosts, about his ghost guardians, about his culture. He wanted to show them his castle, to show them the crown that would be placed in his head when he turns 100 years dead. Introduce them to his mentors. He wanted to go to Frostbite with Bruce, to finally be able to trust an adult to look out for his health as a ghost.

He wasn't so sure he wanted to do that anymore. They cared about him, he knew that, but he had already learned with his parents that meaning well doesn't always do well. Was it a good idea to take them with him to the infinite realms? What if they denied other ghosts deaths?

He's the prince, he shouldn't so casually take people that aren't even able to accept he's a ghost to the infinite realms. It is irresponsible, it's selfish. But Sam had told him that this would surely force them to accept his reality, and Tucker said it was worth the risk. It's not like they're ghost hunters.

As Jason came into the living room, being the last one to arrive, Danny took one last fortifying breath. There's no going back, Tuck is right, he needs his new family to support him. He can't live through what happened with the Fenton's all over again.

- Okay chum, everyone's here. What did you want to talk about?

- Yeah, well... - Danny started rocking from side to side. - I have an appointment with my doctor this afternoon. I was-

-Wait, you have an appointment with what doctor? We haven't scheduled anything with Leslie. - Said Tim.

- Ah, yeah, no, I'm talking about my Ghost doctor.

Danny could taste the disbelief in the air as they looked at each other, oh, there was also anger and pity there. What was there to be angry about? Ghost's abilities to taste emotions would be way better if he could also read minds.

- Danny, kiddo, - Said Dick oh so carefully, in that way he did every time he tried to convince him that he wasn't dead, as if he was talking to a confused little kid. - who's this ghost doctor of yours? Where did you meet him?

Oh! Right, they don't believe Danny is dead, so a ghost doctor must be a scammer. A scammer that's taking advantage of a vulnerable kid. That's where the anger comes from.

Danny took another breath, he should be given a prize for the patient he's displaying here.

- His name is Frostbite. - More frowns, oh joy - Met him a couple of months after the accident. - A couple opened their mouths to say something, but Danny continued before they had the chance. - As I was saying, this afternoon I have an appointment with him, and I wanted to use it as a chance to take y'all to the infinite realms.

- The land of the dead? - Asks Duke.

- I mean, there's not only the dead but, yeah. - There was silence for a moment and Danny decided to talk again. - I mean, if you have time to come.

They looked at each other once more, and then nodded.

- Okay, we're going with you. - Answered Bruce

- Really? Even Jason? - Danny asked hopefully. Jason was the one he wanted to be there the most. He needed Frostbite to take a look at his injured proto-core.

- There's nothing big in Crime Alley today, and I really want to meet this doctor of yours. - Jason said with a smile that didn't really hide the murderous intentions - When are we leaving?

And Danny knew they didn't believe him. He knew they were probably planning to attack the one they thought was taking advantage of him. But he was happy they were at least coming.

- 20 min. I want to have time to show you around some places.

Everyone runs to get ready, weren't expecting to be going out so soon.

Tasting the anger and determination left in the now empty room, Danny thought: "If this doesn't work... Well, It's not like I haven't been ready to give up on living in the mortal realm for months now. I can just not come back."

# Dcu x Dp 177

Danny is having mix feelings his parents believed that his powers were the cause of ecto contaminated and was making him sick and slow killing.

While the bat's and birds think that he is also sick they belived that the powers he has have made him think he is dead and have given him something called walking corpse syndrome

The batfam believes that Danny is a meta with Cotard's syndrome and are trying to convince him that he is not dead. While also making sure that he does not die for real because of starvation or injury/infection.

Cotard's syndrome ( aslo called walking corpse) a rare mental disorder in which the affected person holds the believe that parts of their body are missing, or that they are dying, dead, or don't exist

Dick x Danny is called "Death Defying," but I've also seen "Dead circus" or "Green Elephants" though less frequently.

Duke x Danny is "Ghostlighs" or "Deadlights."

Danny x Cass is "Dead silent"

I think Bruce x Danny is "Spirit Halloween" which I have no idea how it came to be, nor find it's logic, but it's the only one I've seen, even if I rarely see it been used.

On crossover ships that don't include Danny we have:

The famous "Anger management" for Jason x Jazz.

"Double edge sword" or "Serious Chaos" for Damian x Dani(Ellie).

Don't know if there are more named ships, might include them if I found more later.

Danny x dc ship names

I fucking adore these ship names, they give me so much serotonin😭

Danny x Tim = deadtired/braindead 10/10 name makes me giggle and kick my feet

Danny x Jason = dead on main 9/10 makes me smile

apparently Danny x Damien = dead serious 9/10 makes me chuckle

But I don't know Danny and Grayson ship name :((