I have finished part 3 (about 110 pages in), so an update on thoughts and predictions:
Callum and Nico are more interesting than originally thought. Callum is still a rich asshole, but at least he's a rich asshole in a fun and evil way and not just a boring way. It's an informed trait that Nico is rich, but he doesn't act like the stereotype at least.
I read ahead to see who dies (disappears?), and after the last few chapters it doesn't come as a surprise. I won't spoil it, but while [redacted] is certainly strong in a magical sense, they're extremely insecure, emotionally vulnerable, and easily manipulated, and I feel like that'll be their downfall. Also, gotta break up the power couple to make sure you have a cliffhanger so people read the sequel *shrug emoji*
Reina is quite fun. Did not expect everyone to underestimate her, but she clearly gives no fucks and I like that.
Parisa is still a one-note mean girl seductress, and Tristan is still a one-note social climber with bad decision-making skills and daddy issues, which is deeply annoying. Everyone else got new Hidden Depths over the past few chapters, but not them.
Also, getting tired of Parisa being an unrepentant asshole to absolutely everyone (or everyone she wouldn't fuck) constantly. Does she come with an off switch? Like, I don't mind an asshole character but when all they do is snark at people constantly and (again!) have no personality traits except Hot and Mean, it gets old real fast.
Again, this is the problem with 6 perspectives, some are just not necessary because the characters don't have character arcs. We could've done with just Libby and Nico tbh, maybe Reina, but even her perspective doesn't seem totally necessary, much as I like her. Libby and Nico are the most developed, and the most plot happens around them (like, in the battle scene they split up, and we check in with Nico and see what Libby is doing through Tristan's perspective. We never bother with Parisa and Callum though!)
Also I worried about scenes being repeated too much, but now I'm annoyed at what's being left out, especially since this author seems to like to hold what you don't know over your head instead of finding a way to give you info throughout the rest of the story. Why didn't we get to see Parisa and Callum during the fight scene? Why is she mad now? I bet we'll never know. We still don't know what this recruitment speech was about and yet it's referenced quite often...
Speaking of, what a wild fucking fight. Like, all these people are suddenly powerful and aware and highly trained enough to fend off multiple attacks, both magic and gun-based?? From like 4 different specialized agencies?? Because apparently the day these new recruits enter the building is Open Season for whoever wants to rob the library?? I get the point the author was trying to make, but. Highly unrealistic.
For the sake of not sounding like I'm only hating on this book: the writing style is fairly good. And there's more to the magic system than I thought there would be, even though it's still pretty basic AAAHHHHHH I'm sorry but. come on. "magic uses energy just like sports" is what we've got. there has to be more than that!!
So yeah, characters I like so far: Libby (...somewhat), Nico, Reina, and potentially Callum. I have basically begun skimming Tristan's segments because my god, I do not care about your father and how much he doesn't love you and how you gave up your dream of an easy life for this for apparently no reason. And Parisa is the same as always. We haven't gotten a chapter in her perspective in a while, and it's probably because she spent the whole fight scene either trying to fuck Callum or trying to decide whether to fuck Tristan again. Or scheming about how to fuck Dalton.....you get the picture. If there's more to her, we have not seen it, and since we've been in her brain, I can only assume that's because it doesn't exist.
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a non-comprehensive list of reasons why bruce has tried banning halloween in the manor
1. dick was overly trusting of clowns as a child. he still holds the family record for most kidnappings in a single night
2. jason tried wearing his robin uniform as a costume. every. year.
3. jason then graduated to dressing up as his corpse and haunting (traumatizing) his brothers
4. cass always manages to scare him. no clark he does not shriek.
5. tim, duke, and steph got ‘spooky scary skeletons’ stuck in his head and martian manhunter started laughing at him in a JL meeting because of it
6. damian was followed and subsequently kidnapped by what they assumed was a group of very tall trick or treaters, but were actually just the league
7. that time of year is when jerry the turkey gets a little self aware (re: defensive). there have been incidents.
8. he walked downstairs only to be greeted with every member of his family dressed like green lantern. even alfred.
9. young justice decided to throw a giant party and to get in you had to wear the shittiest batman costume possible for their contest
10. jason won said contest. he didn’t even stay for the party, he just wanted the excuse
11. gotham rogues are drama kids and are therefore sluts for good thematic irony, so half of them do special edition attacks on halloween
12. the kids all do a candy swap at the end of the night, they invite kate and not him
13. tim has an allergy to peppermint and never seems to be aware of this, so he has to keep multiple epi pens on standby
14. he’s expected to wear slutty costumes and that’s just not worth his playboy cover
15. alfred only confiscates the candy he gets
16. he was just really hungover one year
17. damian has made them all watch coraline so. many. times. he doesn’t even get nightmares anymore
18. tim goes on a sugar high and has to be put on tech lockdown or he might frame lex luthor for murder and extort 90% of gotham’s elite
19. when dick and jason were younger they left open pumpkins outside his door and he would accidentally step in them every morning
20. damian tried to convince them to bob for apples with lazarus water
21. tim fell asleep while bobbing for apples (in normal water) and almost drowned
22. dick and steph drew a glittery skeleton over the batsuit
23. when he complains they all call him the grinch. it’s not even christmas.
24. pumpkin carving always leads to them flinging the innards at eachother and making a mess even alfred refuses to clean
25. the validity of candy corn argument comes to blows. every. single. year.
26. duke lead a revolt one year against the tyranny of bruce’s “no slanderous costumes” policy (he wanted to be slutty batman)
27. the kids throw a rager in the cave and somehow never get caught. it’s the only time they’re all willing to clean and it pisses bruce off that he can’t prove it.
28. bruce got sick and clark walked around the watchtower in a batman costume pretending to be him for two days
29. steph and dick glued the lorax mustache to him while he was sleeping because he refused to pick a costume. it didn’t come off for a week, and lois posted an article speculating he was secretly a natural ginger.
30. all the kids stayed in once and watched ‘it’s the great pumpkin charlie brown’ instead of partying and he’s been trying to get them to do it again ever since
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Finally getting help (pt 2)
This one actually is edited thanks to @basementqueercock! Thank you friend!
part 1 | Masterpost
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Vlad had been making a stink at the Gala about the Wayne brats taking his godson from him without his permission when the music suddenly cut out. Bruce Wayne himself stalked towards Vlad with an expression that was honestly a little intimidating, even if Vlad obviously wasn’t scared of such an empty headed pretty boy even if he was one of the richest and most influential people on the planet. He was Plasmius! He could take a rich pretty boy is he had to!
“Ah! Mr. Wayne, thank goodness! Your children have taken my Godson off somewhere! I’m sure it’s just a harmless prank but he’s a bit fragile and unpredictable so I really think that it would be best if-“
“Is he fragile and unpredictable because he’s pregnant and you knew?” Bruce asked low and dangerous. Silence spread out around them, even though there’s no way they could have heard they saw the look on Brucie’s face. He rarely got angry but when he did it was serious, when he did it usually meant someone had hurt a kid.
Vlad blanched for a moment, Danny had been so tight lipped about it, so unwilling to tell even those he trusted how did These people know?! “What? What on earth are you talking about? Of course he’s not pregnant, I mean he’s a boy!” Vlad huffed and Bruce’s jaw tightened even more somehow.
“He’s not leaving with you. Get out.” He said low and menacing, then raised his voice. “Sorry to cut the party short everyone but something has come up, a situation that really needs my attention so I’m going to have to put an end to the party early.”
“What do you mean!? He’s MY God son! MY heir! You can’t just keep him from me!” Vlad said, he knew that his eyes were starting to glow a little red but he couldn’t help it. “He’s MINE! Return him to me or you will regret it I swear!”
“See him out.” Bruce said dismissively to a handful of guards who had approached at the start of the commotion A lot of the socialites were already starting to see themselves out, now was not the time to argue, or even stick around when it looked like this might get physical.
“I will be back! I will be back with lawyers and police and the brat’s parents,” Vlad vowed but couldn’t risk fighting the guards any more than a usual old man would on the way out with so many eyes on him. Well he just needed to find a place alone. Then he could transform and come back, possess Bruce Wayne and make him do something heinous in public to ruin him for this.. this- this INDIGNITY!
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Bruce was having a hard time keeping his Batman expressions off his face as he saw that everyone was out of his house and he knew his children were having the same trouble. Dick looked like he was ready to bash someone’s head in and Steph wasn’t that much better. Damian was standing by the door, seeing everyone out with frosty politeness that no one would mistake as genuine. Bruce felt just a little bad, it wasn’t anyone’s fault what they had found tonight. No one else knew about the clearly abused teen they were currently harbouring, but none of the family could help it either. Bruce would send all the guests gift baskets once they could announce what was going on.
Alfred was on the phone with Bruce’s lawyers, sending them the mildly distorted audio from Danny’s earlier conversation with Cas and Dick, and the footage from Vlad Master’s outburst. That had the same sort of distortion over it too which was odd, he’d have to look into it. Cas had already informed him she thought Danny was a meta of some sort, maybe it was connected to that? Or maybe they were aliens? Though Danny being trans was currently the most plausible explanation for his pregnancy. They’d find out more later. What mattered was the footage of both of those would be enough for Bruce to get emergency custody while the family was investigated.
Tim was with Danny in the room Alfred had fixed for him, helping him settle in and lending him some clothes. Tim was the closest to Danny’s age and also one of the calmer ones right now so he was in charge of trying to make Danny feel safe and comfortable while the family took up battle stations to deal with the legal and logistical elements of this.
Bruce made sure everyone was out, the perimeter was secure, and Oracle was at her computer watching the security feed for anything suspicious including the pattern of distortion Vlad and Danny seemed to emit. He wasn’t sure how paranoid he should be about all this, but he’d seen the way Vlad’s eyes sparked red when he was angry and Batman was sure he was a lot more dangerous then he first seemed. And not just in the way that he was apparently willing to impregnate a boy young enough to be his son.
Finally he couldn’t avoid going to check on Danny anymore. Not that he was Really avoiding it, just that he knew this was going to be an exhausting and difficult conversation and he needed to brace himself for it. With every step towards Danny’s new room he felt the weight gather on his shoulders of what this child must have been through.
He knocked, and let himself in. Immediately clocking the way Danny tensed at the sight of him. Of course a rich older man would set off his alarm bells. Bruce gave the softest smile he could and went to pull out the desk chair across from the bed Danny was sitting on, well out of arms reach so he wouldn’t seem like a threat as he sat down. He glanced at Tim who nodded and went and sat on the bed next to Danny. Solidarity, willing to stand up against Bruce if Danny needed it, safety.
“Hello Danny, it’s nice to meet you. My children told me a bit about.. your situation,” Bruce said with a small grimace. “Would you mind if I ask you some questions? I promise I won’t judge you whatever you say, and I promise I am on your side. No matter what I will try to keep you safe okay? Just tell me the truth, it’ll help me do what needs to be done.”
“Alright Mr. Wayne,” Danny said, though he was still wary.
“Thank you, please call me Bruce. So first, what’s your full name?” he asked deciding to start super easy.
“Daniel James Fenton,” Danny replied softly.
“Your parents names?”
“Doctors Madeline and Jack Fenton,” Huh the fact that he called his parents doctor like it was part of their name seemed to be significant though Bruce wasn’t sure exactly what it meant.
“How old are you?”
“I’m 16,” He said. A little older than he looked but still no where near old enough to have the weight of the world on his shoulders like he did.
“And you’re pregnant?” Bruce asked as gently as he could, Danny nodded. “And you’re sure?”
“Yes,” Danny said softly and Bruce nodded, licking his lips a little.
“Did you take a test then?” He asked and Danny grimaced making a so so motion.
“It’s not… that simple,” He said softly.
“Can you explain it to me please?” Bruce asked softly.
Danny took a deep breath and licked his lips, hesitating, opening his mouth to stat, hesitating again and biting his lip. Bruce stayed quiet as he watched the conflict on Danny’s face. “You work with the justice league right?” Danny asked suddenly which seemed like a bit of a non sequitur to Bruce but he needed. “A bunch of the members aren’t human right?” Ah, Bruce nodded again. “And you’re okay with that?”
“Of course I am Danny,” Bruce promised, soft and reassuring. “People don’t have to be human or from earth to be people. Whatever is going on with you you’re still a person, and a kid, and deserve to be protected.”
“Okay,” Danny said as he scrutinized Bruce’s body language for any sign that he was lying. “Okay. I’ve never been able to trust any adults with this shit but I can’t keep doing this on my own so okay. I’m not human, not fully anyway, not anymore. These are..” He touched his stomach. “Like if you did an ultrasound you wouldn’t see embryos more like… Hang on Here.”
Bruce blinked as Danny suddenly, reached Inside himself, and before he could panic Danny had pulled out a perfectly round object that filled his palm. It shimmered with light from within, cold and sparkling with stars. “Our kind is more energy and light then anything else. This is Us, the mind, heart, everything we are is stored in our core the rest is formed around that. I mean for most of my kind, I’m still half human.” Danny said before replacing the orb inside him. “I have two other little cores inside me right now, feeding on my energy to develop properly, you could see them on an Xray. I don’t know how long they’ll take honestly.” He sighed caressing his stomach again.
“But I can feel them inside me, I can feel their worry when I’m scared, and their joy when I’m happy, and their love. They’re my babies.” He said with the softest most paternal smile on his lips. The bags under his eyes were awful, he was clearly exhausted and stressed, but his expression told Bruce Danny thought it was all going to be worth it for his children. It brought a lump to his throat he had to clear before he could speak again.
“Okay, do you have access to healthcare appropriate for your.. species?” He asked and Danny nodded. Though he was tight lipped still.
“There are protections for non-human species in America you know,” Tim said.
Bruce and Tim exchanged a confused look as Danny barked a laugh. “Not for MY kind, we were specifically excluded,” He said with a wry curl to his lips. “The shadow or echo left behind when a proper human dies, not sentient or sapient they say. Malicious and dangerous they say. To be captured or exterminated on sight. They would take me, experiment on me, probably put my babies in jars or something.”
Oh, oh fuck, he was shaking, eyes blank and glassy like he was heading towards a panic attack. “Danny! Danny look at me,” Bruce said as he leaned forward and Danny’s gaze flicked up to his face. “I don’t know who ‘they’ are but I promise I will do everything in my power to make sure they don’t get you. You’re clearly not what they say, and anyone who would hurt a child is not the good guy in this story.”
“Who are they?” Tim asked with an expression that promised swift and vicious retribution.
Danny took another deep breath. “The GIW, the Ghost Investigation Ward. They’re a government agency, they’ve been hunting in my hometown for a while. Early on we tried to call the Justice Legue, but I think they were jamming the lines or something,” Danny said looking down and biting his lip.
Fuck this poor kid really couldn’t catch a break! Bruce was sure that the ‘ghosts’ these idiots were hunting weren’t really anything of the sort, but he would look into this and see what he could find. Tim was clearly itching to as well bad he wasn’t willing to leave Danny alone with Bruce, good lad.
“And what about your parents? Do you think you could be safely returned to their home?” Bruce asked, as much as he wanted to keep Danny reunification was supposed to be the goal of fostering.
“No!” Danny nearly yelped sitting up straight. “No! They work for the GIW! They design most of their weapons. If they ever found I’d been contaminated- I don’t want to think the worst of them but even if they still recognized me as their son the babies-“ He cut off, wrapping both his arms around his stomach and curling in on himself.
“Okay, we’ll call child protective services, my lawyer, and the Justice League. We’ll get to the bottom of this,” Bruce promised Danny. “And you can stay here as long as you need to. Is there any other family you would want to go to?” Bruce asked, just to be sure, but he wasn’t surprised when Danny shook his head and grabbed a pillow to hug.
“And I know Oracle and Red Robin will be itching to find out more about this ‘government agency’,” Tim said. “I want to go tell them Danny, if Bruce and I go will you be okay on your own or do you want me to ask Cas to come stay with you?”
“Cas please? If she’s not busy?” Danny asked uncertainly and Tim nodded. Bruce was getting up before Danny spoke up again. “I have a sister, Jazz. She knows about me not being fully human, but not about the babies. She’s a good person, and she’s almost an adult. I don’t know, I just need you to know she’s good, and I don’t want to mess things up for her,” Danny said worriedly.
“Of course Danny, thanks for letting me know,” Bruce said with a smile already making plans to get her out as well. “We’ll let you know as soon as there are developments.” He promised before both he and Tim ducked out. They split up, Tim going to find Cas and ask her to go back to Danny before they reconvened in the bat cave, they had a lot of research to do.
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