#tw: bad parenting

[superbattrash]

Sometimes I wonder how I became so obsessed with being competitive about the stupidest things. Who slept the least, who ate the slowest, who had it worse — things I’m actively changing as I get older because it’s just unhealthy and stupid to think those things are things you can or should want to “win”

Then I sat in the car with my mother today and I told her I was tired because I’d been up since 4am to go to work and before I could get to my point (that it was nice to see her (a white lie to be nice) but that I wouldn’t wanna come back to the house because I’m already tired) she interrupted me and said “I got up at 6. And yesterday I got up at 5:30. And I have to get up super early tomorrow because [ridiculous reason that she chose herself]”

I physically felt myself want to say “well I get up early every day!!” because that’s the response she’s taught me. Always have it worse than everybody else or you’re not allowed to speak about things you find difficult/tiring. You’re not allowed space (a whole other issue I was taught as a child) but if you want it, it has to be because you have it the worst but you’re being so brave (read: whiny) about it

And once again I am reminded that my parents should never have had children. Because these things - being worth nothing if you’re not sick or feeling awful in some way (but without ever saying you feel bad, because then you’re just being pathetic), not being allowed to take up space, to make any noise, to express yourself in any way that isn’t sitting still and being quiet out of sight - are insane to enforce on your child. On your children, because I remind you that these people made 4 babies. 4. It’s not just me. There are 3 other idiots (mostly affectionate) who suffer with not wanting to take up space and who think they have to compete in “who has it worse” competitions daily

And how the hell do I unlearn these things when they’re shoved in my face every time I see this woman or any of my siblings?

#tw: bad parenting #I dunno. I can’t really call it abuse #at least not this part of my childhood #I think… #misha rants

[schrijverr]

I Dig You 7

Chapter 7 out of 8

Robin is tentatively excited for her first internship: an archaeological dig in the Netherlands, where she has been studying. However, when she gets there, Steve is there too. The dick of their uni that she now has to work with. Great. But being stuck digging for six weeks makes people bond and maybe he isn’t too bad. Maybe he can be her friend.

AKA an archaeology interns, modern, enemies-to-friends stobin au

On AO3.

Ships: none

Warnings: f-slur and mentions of Steve's bad parents

~~~~

Chapter 7: Bonding

After they finish their fries, they throw the bags in a trashcan that’s at the little playground, before going to the zip line. At first they go down it by themselves, but then Steve has the idea to go down it together for extra speed, which proves to be a whole operation.

They first try Steve sitting on it with Robin on his lap, interlocking from opposite sides of the little seat, however, due to their double weight on a zip line made for kids, they scrape their asses over the ground and both fall off, before they even reach the end.

Together they lay in the grass, Robin face down, unsure if she wants to face the humiliation of what has just happens. Then Steve pipes up: “What if we stand on it instead?”

Robin is unable to help herself and she looks over to Steve, who has grass stains over his shirt and dirt on his forehead, but is sitting semi-upright, leaning back on his hands. Despite what has just happened, he doesn’t look like he just suffered the embarrassment of falling of a zip line in a public place, but just excited to try again.

She herself also wanted it to work, but the thought of being seen after that failure was too much. Now, however, she can’t help but be curious again.

“Sure,” she says, scraping herself off the ground as Steve beams.

Standing on it does work better and the two shout in glee as it works out, going off it three more times together, before Robin suggests the swings, which causes Steve to challenge her to a jumping contest to see who can get the furthers.

Both of them nearly roll their ankles multiple times, but their sides hurt from laughing. So, it’s not until Robin practically face plants that Steve declares himself the winner (protested by Robin of course) and says they should go on the merry-go-round next.

The merry-go-round is a round platform divided into four quarters by railings. All around it the ground is worn out from feet pushing it.

Steve and Robin take place opposite from each other, running around before jumping on and gleefully shouting as they feel the force on their face, hair whipping around with how fast they’re going.

They spin until they get nauseous, then sink down on the merry-go-round. They lie down on it, lazily watching the sky spin as their heads are next to each other, feet sticking out on opposite ends, dragging to slow it down, until it stops.

Despite being still now, the sky continues to spin for a few moments after, brains not used to the lack of motion.

Robin is glad when it finally stops. She says: “The sky stopped spinning for me. Is it still spinning for you?”

Steve groans, then in a shocked voice, he answers: “Holy shit. No. I thought that was going to be like that for the rest of my life.”

“Dramaqueen.”

“Rude.”

“Your face is rude,” Robin retorts.

“What kind of comeback is that?” Steve asks.

“Oh shut up, dingus, my brain is still recovering from the zoomies,” Robin complains, making Steve giggle, before the two fall silent again.

After a moment, Steve asks: “Are you okay?”

“What?” Robin chokes, a little too surprised to say something intelligent.

“You’ve just been quiet all afternoon and you’re usually more of a rambler, so I thought that maybe something happened, you know,” Steve explains and in that moment Robin hates how good Steve has gotten at reading her, because she doesn’t want to share the anxious thoughts that always bubble up and ruin the good things.

She hates that she can always find a crack, something that can go wrong, collapse in on her. And how she knows that she won’t be able to shake it. However, instead of saying that, she plasters on a horridly fake look and voice as she says: “Oh, nothing, I’m fine.”

Steve gets up at that and looks down at her with a judgmental look and says: “Even I can tell you’re lying. Just be blunt to me, I can take it.”

Oh no, abort! Abort! Steve thinks he has done something. Fuck, Robin knows better than to attempt to obfuscate in the game they call a social interaction.

“It’s nothing you’ve done, promise. I- I just realized that the dig is almost over,” Robin tells him, waving her arms around as she sits up. It’s honest too, she just doesn’t inform him of the spiral that caused. No need to bother him with that.

“You also sad about that? I thought you didn’t like digging that much?” Steve replies. He is so genuine about it too, like he really thinks that it’s the digging she’ll miss when it’s over.

“I’m not going to miss the digging, dingus. I’m gonna miss you,” Robin says.

Steve looks surprised for a second, then he grins, before that fades and he looks confused. The confusion makes Robin confused too, because why is he confused about that? Is it weird that she’ll miss him? Should she not have said that?

“Why would you miss me? I’m not going anywhere,” Steve asks, a little frown on his face.

Now, Robin thinks that sentiment is sweet, but she can’t help but be cynical, so she gives Steve a disbelieving look as she answers: “Of course you’re going somewhere. Everyone always does and that’s fine, it just also sucks, because you’ve probably got some rich people vacation lined up to go on and I have to work and then uni starts up again and I don’t think we’re doing the same minor, so by the time we’ll see each other again, it’ll be February and who knows who we’ll be by then?”

And now Steve is looking hurt, fucking shit. Why is Robin failing so hard at this?

“But we’re friends,” Steve says. “At least, I think we are. You’re very cool, Robs, and I want to remain friends. You’re one of the first people that actually knows me and still likes me. Like, this summer? I feel like I’ve laughed harder than I have laughed in a really long time. You just have so much fun and you can talk about your passions and make me feel not weird when I do the same. I don’t think you know how much that means to me.”

He’s looking at her now and he’s so genuine and something in Robin’s chest is being squeezed so tight that it leaves her speechless, so she just sits there as Steve goes on.

“When you said that Tommy is an asshole and Carol and Nancy are prisses, you are totally right. I mean, Nancy broke up with me, drunk at a party this Halloween and Carol and Tommy both hate me, because I was tired of them bullying people. Hell, if Tommy wasn’t one of the guys I slept with, I’m sure he’d be home right now telling my dad about what a fag I am and getting me disowned. They think archaeology is stupid and roll their eyes every time I talk about it, they think Mean Girls and Legally Blonde are stupid and that I am an idiot for actually trying to complete my studies instead of getting high with them,” Steve says.

“You? You on the other hand, tell me I’m good at explaining archaeology, get excited when I quote those movies. You don’t think I’m silly for being passionate or disliking certain foods. You don’t talk with a hundred double meanings and laugh at me when I don’t get it. You’re my best friend right now, I’m not going to leave and not talk to you until February, why the fuck would you think that?”

Now that he’s done ranting, he’s panting slightly, out of breath from how worked up he’s gotten in telling her how great she is. It’s a little overwhelming to know how much he cares. To know that he cares too, period.

“Oh,” she says, still processing. “I- uhm, I never had anyone want to stick around like that. I- I don’t really know what- what happens now.”

“Well, then everyone was stupid,” Steve informs her bluntly. “You’re great and I’m not going anywhere. I don’t have some rich people vacation lined up, I got dragged on those by Tommy and Carol, but I’m saving my money this year, so I can come annoy you every day if you’d like.”

“Might as well get a job with me then, make yourself useful. Besides, I don’t know if I can get used to working without my schmuck after this,” Robin jokes, unsure how to react to the genuine emotions.

“I might,” Steve smiles. “What do you even do?”

“I’m an assistant at the local library,” Robin says.

“Really?” he asks.

“Yeah, why are you so surprised by that? Everything about me screams nerd,” Robin asks in turn, gesturing to all of herself, current dressed in cargo shirts and a fucking LOTR shirt.

“Fair enough,” Steve says, smirking when she squawks at that. “So, the library. Is that fun?”

“It’s pretty nice,” Robin answers. “It’s quiet, so I have time to work on uni stuff. I’m planning on doing the Human Evolution minor, so I’m already reading up. And I wanna do write my thesis on archaeosteology, which is super competitive, so I already have to have a topic and mail about it before the year begins. So it’s a two birds, one stone situation. I get money and time.”

“You really love your bones, don’t you?” Steve asks and it sounds fond rather than condescending or weirded out, like it usually does.

“Yeah,” Robin smiles. “Human bones are fascinating, because there is so much information there and you’re just holding a person. That was someone. And you get to uncover all the traces their life left on them and try to bring back a bit of humanity to something that people think is creepy or more of an object.”

“That is pretty cool,” Steve agrees. “I thought I’d be really into bones, but I’m not that good at biology and while it was interesting, it just wasn’t for me. So why bother?”

“And it’s super competitive,” Robin adds.

Steve nods: “That too. Seems silly to get into a competitive market when you’re not passionate enough to make it far.”

“Smart,” Robin says. “So, what are you doing then? Neolithic, right? Are there minors for that?”

He looks surprised that she remembered that, which is stupid, because of course she remembered that, he held a whole lecture about it. “Not really, but I’m going to take the Educative minor, learn a little about teaching History.”

“That’s a little different from Neolithic, usually about 7.000 years apart, right?” Robin says.

“I mean, yeah, but it’s more about the teaching part, you know, learning about how to talk to people,” Steve answers.

“Oh, yeah, you like outreach too. Planning on doing anything with that? Are you going more towards the heritage side?” Robin asks, genuinely interested what Steve wants to do after all the assumptions she made and he disproved.

“Maybe? I don’t know. I’m still figuring it out,” he says. “I really like the digging itself and I was kind of planning on going into commercial archaeology, but I also just love talking to people about it and connecting people to their heritage. Like talking to Dustin and his friends? That’s what I love, making them interested in how the world around them grew and morphed into what it is now.”

Then he sighs and leans back against the frame of the merry-go-round, looking up as he says: “My dad will skin me when he finally finds out this is not my rebellious phase and I won’t get over it and take my place in his stupid company.”

“They think this is you being rebellious?” Robin asks, unable to believe anyone could finance a whole ass degree for their child to get over their rebellious phase.

“Yeah, he doesn’t care as long as I can say I graduated from college, that’s all he wants. He would have preferred me studying business or economics, but I was set on it. He thinks that if he goes along with this, I’ll become agreeable again and do what he wants,” Steve says, sounding sad.

Robin feels for him. She can’t imagine what it is like to live in his tax bracket, but from what she is hearing, he grew up without love. She wouldn’t trade her parents for any money in the world. They are the coolest and she loves them to death, being stifled like Steve is sounds horrendous.

“And are you planning on doing what he wants after you’re done here?” Robin asks, cautious, hoping his answer is no.

“Of course not,” Steve snorts. “I’m gonna do my Master too and they can’t stop me. Though, they’ll probably realize I’m not coming back when I do that and then they’ll cut me off.” He shrugs as if it can’t be helped and it’s not that big a deal.

However, Robin thinks it’s a big deal, so she gasps: “Then what will you do?”

“Let them know I played them,” Steve says smugly. “That house is in my name and they can’t take it from me and I’ve been slowly moving my trust fund into a bank account here, so I’ll have some money. Then I’ll finish my studies here, apply for citizenship and never set another foot on US soil again.”

Robin is amazed how much thought Steve has put into this. He must really want to get out of there and she has to commend him for how he’s playing his parents until he can get out from under their controlling thumb.

“Wow, that’s smart,” she whistles as Steve preens. “So you’re not planning on ever going back. Like not even in the country?”

“Nah, I got nothing important there, just stuffy family that I want nothing to do with. The second he starts trying to pressure me, I’m going to start posting my gay shit online so they’ll all stay far away from me,” Steve says. “I like it better here.”

It suddenly clicks for Robin and she exclaims: “That’s why you can speak Dutch! You’ve been learning because you want to live here. I couldn’t figure it out.”

Steve blushes and says: “You caught on to that?”

“Yeah, you know quite a lot,” Robin nods excitedly. “I was pretty impressed, didn’t see that coming from you.”

“What? Thought I was just a dumb jock?” Steve teases, but Robin doesn’t laugh, she just tenses, feeling guilty.

“Hey, did you OD over there?” Steve asks when she stays quiet.

“No, I- I’m still here,” she says, looking down. “I- I did kind of think that. Sorry. Like genuinely, I am so sorry. I made all these assumptions about you, like you were some airhead himbo, but you’re the coolest person out there and I was just bitter and jealous, because everyone seems to like you and you have like money and I feel really bad, because that is super unfair on you.”

It’s now Steve’s turn to be quiet and Robin can’t stop all the anxious thoughts that are spinning in her head. She’s sure that Steve will hate her now and the one friend that wants to stay will leave her too, all because she’s a judgmental bitch.

The longer the silence drags on, the more anxious she gets until she needs to say something, anything to prompt him. So she blurts out: “You OD over there?” repeating Steve’s words, which makes her want to face palm, though she keeps that reaction down.

“No, I just- uhm, I’m just thinking of a tactful to way to say ‘thank fuck,’” Steve says, meeting her eyes and giggling slightly.

“What?” Robin asks, giggling too, though she’s isn’t sure why, just mirroring Steve’s mirth.

“I don’t know, I just thought you were a pretentious stuck up dick when we first met and then it turned out that you were a massive awkward nerd and I felt bad about thinking that and then you said you were also judgy, so we were just judgmental together, but I couldn’t just blurt out ‘thank fuck’ to that, because that’s rude,” Steve explains, throwing his hands up.

Robin processes for a moment, then she bursts out in laughter for real, unable to help but let out the relief with giggles. Steve is a judgmental bitch too. He doesn’t hate her. He’s still her friend, thank fuck indeed.

“Oh my god,” she giggles. “We’re so fucking stupid.”

“I know,” Steve howls with laughter, the two of them collapsing on the merry-go-round, which slowly starts turning with the movement, only making them laugh more.

They continue to die of laughter for a solid minute. Robin’s stomach hurts, but she doesn’t care in the slightest. She’s just elated and nothing can bring her down.

“This is so funny, holy shit,” Robin wheezes. “I can’t believe you thought I was a pretentious stuck up dick.”

“You thought I was an airhead himbo!” Steve exclaims indignantly, though he’s still giggling too.

Hearing him say it sets her off again in turn and she protests: “Ugh, stop making me laugh, my stomach hurts.”

“Baby,” Steve teases her.

“Oh, shut up, dingus,” Robin says, slapping halfheartedly in his direction.

Steve easily bats her hand away and pouts: “Don’t attack me.”

“Then don’t bully me.”

“I wasn’t bullying you.”

“Was too.”

“Was not,” Steve says and before she can reply again, he adds: “And even if I was, you started it with your himbo comment.”

“I feel like pretentious dick is worse,” Robin argues.

“Yeah, but that was grounded in reality.”

“Hey! I never did anything,” Robin says, flopping over to look at him.

Steve raises a brow at her and says: “You always avoided me since the start of first year and you glared at me all the time after that queer get together thingy and when I got here you seemed determined not to like me.”

Those are all valid points and Robin does feel a little bad, though mostly embarrassed as she mutters: “I was glaring because I had a crush on Tammy.”

“What!” Steve exclaims, disbelieving. “Tammy? Really? I mean, she is cute and all, but she wants to be like a singer. She wants to move to London and shit.”

“She has dreams,” Robin defends Tammy, even though her crush has long since faded. Tammy dropped out in their first year and she hasn’t seen her since, so the infatuation had faded.

“She can’t even hold a tune,” Steve bitches and Robin starts to forget about defending Tammy and starts to get into judging with Steve. It sounds like a bonding thing that friends do. Thrilling. Steve goes on: “She’s practically tone-deaf. Have you heard her?” Robin can’t help her chuckle. “All the time,” Steve exclaims, before he starts to sing in the weirdest voice ever that is supposed to be an imitation of Tammy.

Had it been back then, Robin would have been offended on Tammy’s behalf, but she can now see how Steve is kind of right. Still, she can’t help but protest: “She doesn’t sound like that.”

“She sounds exactly like that. That’s a great impersonation of her.”

“She does not! You sound like a Muppet,” Robin says, though she sounds amused, even to her own ears.

And when Steve wheezes: “She sounds like a Muppet. She sounds like a Muppet giving birth,” she can’t help but break down in laughter again as she agrees: “Oh my god, she totally does.”

They laugh until they can’t anymore, collapsed on the merry-go-round. When she’s finally done, Robin asks: “Why was I ever into her?”

“Why was I?” Steve shoots right back, sending them both back into a giggle.

When they finally come to from their laugh attack, Steve says: “How about we make a deal to tell each other the next time we’re crushing on someone stupid?”

Robin likes that idea. The idea of a next time. The idea that they’re going to stay friends, close enough friends to share crushes and to trust the other when they say the person is stupid. It’s new and exciting, but so welcome. Especially now that there is nothing bad between them anymore and Robin knows that Steve likes her too. That they’re best friends.

“Deal,” she says, holding up her hand, managing to complete a high-five with Steve. The future looks quite fun.

~~

A/N:

This is my AU take on the iconiccc bathroom scene, I hope I did it justice, because it’s my favorite scene of all times <333

#rr writing #stranger things #steve harrington #robin buckley #platonic stobin #stobin #stobin au #archaeologists stobin au #tw: f slur #tw: bad parenting

[dont-look-me-in-the-eye]

lmao today my English teacher was talking about what might be on the exam and she was like "Yeah, so this character has a parental figure who helps him grow in his character and one of the essay questions might be you having to connect that with your own personal experience, like what people in your life are like that/what role models you might have..."

and im sitting there like. ma'am. you do realize. my parents. are not like that.

you do realize. that. literally no adult. gives a solitary shit. about my wellbeing.

#like haha imagine having parental figures #im totally failing that exam #i never had role models. i have people who i want to be nothing like tho does that count? #like literally my parents only care that i appear to be a perfect healthy mature smart child so they look like good parents. #which they are NOT #daily scream into the void #depressed humour #toxic parenting #idk if this is really abuse bc they never hit me THAT hard or like. starve me. #they just yell a lot #but ill tag it bc it might be triggering so: #tw: implied neglect #tw: abuse #tw: bad parenting

[mieczyhale]

“i’m sure she’s not that bad”

she stood in our driveway yesterday and told me that if her daughter & her daughter’s boyfriend killed themselves she wouldn’t care

and that is not the first time she’s said something like that. she has said, at least once, that she kinda wished they would. because it would make her life easier. now that particular one was with a past boyfriend, but she has something to say, something she wished would happen or would like to happen, with each of them and her daughter is always part of The Problem too.

so

y’know

sure

i told her that was horrific thing to say and i wanted.. SO badly to go off on her.. but i don’t know. it was a little bit like being under water (i don’t have the energy to think of a better description) i couldn’t think or say anything after that. josh provided a sentence-long summary to her on my reaction, because god forbid she ever realize on her own that she said something wrong, and she started trying to apologize to me because she “didn’t know”.

apologizing. to me.

because She Didn’t Know

as if i was the one she was talking about and not her daughter. as if i needed an apology for a piece of shit line that i KNOW she meant.

“didn’t know” like she wasn’t around for any of it?? okay. sure. her nose was always up in our business but sure she didn’t know.

and even if she didn’t know, truly, she still thought what she said was fine until she realized it wasn’t just relevant to her daughter who wasn’t there to hear it. if josh hadn’t said anything, if i hadn’t reacted, she wouldn’t have cared. she only cared because she was called out by someone five feet away

i left it to josh and went inside

her apologies, just “i’m sorry” and “i didn’t know” repeated, could not possibly mean any less to me

josh came in a few minutes later and wanted me to go back out and talk to his mom about how shitty her comment was, because she felt “so bad she started crying” (which is believable with the way that she fucking is) and i THINK he was going to say he wanted me to tell her it was okay, but he didn’t actually say that - he just kinda trailed off like he realized how absolutely bullshit and Not Happening that was.

i just told him to tell her that i appreciated the thought (i don’t) but that i was not dealing with it. not then, not today. just no.

because turns out, quelle fucking surprise, suicide is a triggering fucking topic when it’s being talked about in real life in front of me. especially when it’s someone almost wishing for it for someone, for their own goddamn kid.

my sister-in-law isn’t perfect, she’s fucked up a lot in life because she’s a human being and life is hard and mental illness is a bitch, but there is nothing that warrants THAT attitude from a mom. NOTHING. and no one, obviously myself included, should have to fucking hear it and put up with it and pretend it’s a totally appropriate statement to just.. drop in.

i don’t care if you start it out with “this is probably awful but-” IF YOU THINK IT’S AWFUL, REALLY THINK IT, THEN DON’T FUCKING SAY IT.

CERTAINLY DON’T SAY IT TO PEOPLE WHO ALREADY STRONGLY DISLIKE / HATE YOU

PEOPLE WHO ARE BEST FRIENDS WITH YOUR DAUGHTER AND DATING YOUR SON

YOUR SON WHO WAS THERE IN THE GODDAMN TRENCHES WITH ME WHEN I WAS AT MY WORST, SUFFERING THINGS VERY CLOSE TO WHAT YOUR DAUGHTER DOES

YOU EVIL, IGNORANT, HEARTLESS BITCH

like its not bad enough you’ve spent the last decade offering help only to take it away, offering help only to hold it over your children’s heads, laying on guilt trip after guilt trip, lying and exaggerating to make everyone else sound worse and you: always the victim of course, telling total strangers your kids history and trauma without permission and always spinning it so its the kids fault (and oh it’s not trauma, they’re just fucked up right? sure, jan), holding everything that's ever happened against your kids forever - never letting go and making them pay for it for... well, for forever i have to assume.

i don’t know how to wrap up my thoughts and feelings, i really just want to go to bed now, but word vomiting it out / rambling / venting / whatever you wanna call this post felt necessary. bc that was like eight hours ago and i’m still affected buy it

and that’s just off the top of my head

it’s been almost a decade

i’ve seen and heard a lot

it wasn’t about me but i feel it

i still fucking feel it, though thank god it’s not as bad, and i fucking hate her

there is nobody that i’m HAPPIER to know i have terrified in my life

#tw: suicide #tw: bad parenting #there's nothing in-depth regarding the first topic #its just the topic that started this spiral of a vent post #so its vaguely-ish talked about #nobody actually dies #it's 2:50 in the morning and i think its time to lay down

[starspangledscrewup]

Idk who needs to hear this but, it’s ok to be fine even if you had a bad childhood. It’s ok to not be fine even if you did.

#tw: trauma #tw: abuse #tw: bad parenting

[too-much-tma-stuff]

Finally getting help (prt 4)

Masterpost

The bats worked through the night, coordinating and researching everything that needed to be done. Distortion showed up on the camera which they assumed was Vlad trying to get in but he didn’t manage it. After he finished trying from multiple angels including somehow from directly above (well Zatana did say invisibility, intangibility, and flight were the minimal powers they should expect from creatures of the infinite realms.) He turned human again and spent a long time banging on their front door.

He tried to call the cops but commissioner Gordon called Bruce directly to get the full story then told Vlad it could be dealt with in the morning. Zatana was also coordinating people heading to Amity, a full on raid of the GIW, and the Fentons.

Batman and Superman were collecting all the information that the raid team was sending out and workshopping public statements they could sent out to the public and the government about the unacceptable things they had found and the steps the JL was taking to fix it. The government was not going to be happy they knew, with the JL ‘over-stepping’ into their business and actually getting the word out about the atrocities a branch of their government and their pet scientists had been planning. The JL needed to get out ahead of it before the narrative could be twisted against them.

It was first thing in the morning when they did a live broadcast from the watchtower with Batman, Superman, and Zatana telling the world about the parallel world existing harmlessly along side their own, and the way the government tried to exploit it. The atrocities committed under the name of the Anti-Ecto acts with the ignorance of the public as a cover.

It was at the same time that Constantine, Dick, and Cas were raiding the Fenton’s home. Of course they were armed, but so were the bats, and they were used to fighting people who were armed. It wasn’t a particularly hard fight.

A redhead was sitting wide eyed at the kitchen table. “Can’t we just have one normal day!” She suddenly snapped but she was glaring at her parents, standing up and slamming her hands on the table.  “First you send Danny away with Vlad even though you KNOW they hate each other and it’s a school day and now this! What did you do to bring the heroes down on us!?”

“I don’t know Jazzybear!” Jack half whined as he was forced into power supressing cuffs to neutralize his minor super strength and sat down in the living room.

“I’m sure this is just a misunderstanding, don’t worry sweetie,” Maddie added, both of them were dressed in jump suits which did not help their supervillain vibes.

“it’s not a mistake mate, you’ve been messing with shit you really shouldn’t. And that portal in your basement is a fucking beacon welcoming a war. You’ve gone unchecked for too god damn long, we’re taking over things now.” Constantine told them before stalking down into the basement with Tim on his heels, Batman would be joining them as soon as they were done their press conference.

Cas stayed to watch the parents and Dick approached Jazz gently. “Hey can I talk to you in private please? It’s about your brother,” He said gently and she stiffened immediately. Looking at him in a way that made him feel like she could see straight into his soul and froze him to the spot. After a moment though she just sighed and nodded, beckoning to him to follow her upstairs, to a room that was probably Danny’s not her own. She sat on his bed and grabbed a bear that had been sitting on the edge, waving for him to sit at the desk.

“So, what do you know?” She asked with a sigh.

“Well, last night Vlad took Danny to a Wayne Gala, one of Bruce’s daughter Cas is really good with body language and clocked that something was wrong so she and one of the other kids got him away from Vlad and out of the party. I guess he really needed some adult support because he broke down and told them a lot, about the Phantom thing, the ghosts and… something you’re not going to like. But first I want you to know he’s safe, Bruce Wayne is a licensed foster parent and he’s taking good care of Danny, you can come live with them too if you want.

“We’re going to deal with the ghosts and the GIW and everything else now, I can’t promise by the end of this you won’t need somewhere else to go. I have a feeling if Batman and the Martian family have anything to say about this your parents will end up in prison for their unethical experiments.”

“As long as Danny is okay,” Jazz said firmly. “I was only staying to take care of him anyway, just get me emancipated and a scholarship for Gotham U so I can study while still being close to him I’ll be fine. I’m almost 18 as it is.”

Dick nodded, she was a smart and driven girl, she knew what she wanted, he could respect that. “Now, the thing you won’t like…” he trailed off and took a deep breath. “Danny is pregnant.”

“What!?“ Jazz blanched, gaping at him for a long minute. “That can’t be right! I mean I knew he was trans but he’s usually only interested in girls, how would he even-“ She cut off her eyes widening. “It was Vlad wasn’t it?” She gritted out with an expression the promised excruciating violence.

“Yes,” Dick said shifting awkwardly in his chair.

“Right.” Jazz said and got up, coldly calm. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be right back.” She grabbed a baseball bat from next to Danny’s bed that seemed to be glowing slightly then marched to the other side of the room, opened a cabinet and pulled out two odd looking guns. Before Dick could say much of anything she had vaulted out of the window and taking off down the street.

“Oh dear,” Dick muttered faintly before heading back downstairs. “Hey Cas can we turn on the news, some sort of local station?” He asked. Cas nodded and searched around for the remote, turning it on to find the channel was already on local news.

Vlad was already on there, talking about how it was awful Bruce Wayne had Kidnapped a local child Danial Fenton, and he could not be allowed to get away with this just because he was rich! But that didn’t last long, they watched for a few minutes before a blur of red hair and blue rushed past the camera.

“YOU TOUCHED MY BROTHER YOU CREEP!” Jazz said as she came out swinging and she must have quite the arm because her first swing sent him nearly flying off the stage. He scrambled to get up as she lunged at him again.

“Now Jasmine you’ve clearly been misinformed, I didn’t do anything-“ His muffled voice was cut off as she swung the bat again and he yelped as she hit him in the stomach.

“YOU GOT HIM PREGNANT! YOU DID THIS! YOU SHOULD BEHIND BARS NOT BEHIND A PODIUM YOU FROOTLOOP!” She shrieked as she swung again and this time he managed to dodge. The cameras following them as Jazz chased him down the street, the sound of his supplications and her shrieking fading out as they became more and more distant.

It took a frantic moment for the camera angle to switch to something else, maybe a drone, which was able to follow them down the street.

“You Don’t UNDERSTAND! I didn’t want to hurt him! I just wanted a perfect son! If he had just agreed to be my son none of this would have happened! When I knew it failed I told him to let them die!” Vlad yelled at her, though that did NOT seem to comfort Jazz at all. She had devolved into shrieking book titles like curses as she chased him with the bat and shot at him with the guns though her aim didn’t seem very good.

Well they had him admitting to it on camera now. As he watched a new actor joined the fray, a girl in a red jumpsuit holding a blaster.

“You did what to Danny!?” She demanded as she pointed the blaster at Vlad.

“Oh cheespuffs!” Vlad breathed, his eyes widening as Jazz trailed off letting who must be Red Huntress take over the chase as Vlad shouted about how he had made her! He had given her her weapons she couldn’t use them against him! Which did not seem to be stopping her.

The camera fuzzed out for just a second and then Valery was chasing a ghost with red eyes and a white outfit. Cas was laughing silently at the show and both of the Fenton parents seemed to be in shock. A few minutes later Jazz walked back in through the front door looking tired.

“Turn that off please,” she sighed as she put the bat down.

“Of course,” Cas agreed and picked up the remote again, turning off the tv. 

“Vlad didn’t actually do that, did he Jazzy?” Jack asked softly, he sounded so hurt, as if he had any fucking right!

Jazz looked at him blankly. “How many times have we tried to warn you about him? How many times has Danny told you he didn’t feel safe with Vlad? But as usual you couldn’t see past your own desires. I’m going to go see if the trenchcoat guy needs any help getting into your files,” She sighed before vanishing downstairs. 

Dick glanced at Cas, and then followed them, she would have no trouble watching the Fentons and staying quiet whereas Dick felt like he was about to explode. Batman joined them before long and between the three of them they shut the bulkheads on the portal and locked them, secured dangerous chemicals and devices, and downloaded everything they could. There were plenty of prototypes and blueprints, and stuff that could generously be called research.

It was obvious these people were geniuses but it was even more obvious that at some point they had become careless and obsessive. Half of the writing on the blueprints wasn’t legible, dangerous chemicals were not in proper containment, and the weapons were not locked up. Looking at all of this it wasn’t surprising that two of the people they had been involving in their research suffered exposure, it was a surprise more hadn’t. It was easy to tell when Bruce came down he was horrified, it was in the way he froze when he saw the lab, as if his brain was struggling to process just how irresponsible the Fenton parents had been.

“You must be Jazz, it’s nice to meet you. Danny speaks highly of you,” He finally rebooted to say when she waved at him. 

“I love my little brother, I always did the best I could to keep him safe from… all this,” Jazz said gesturing at the lab with a sigh. “I wish it had done any good.”

“You did plenty of good,” Dick put in. “Trust me, to a kid having someone care about them can make all the difference. 

“All those nights I patched him up after he came back from fighting ghosts. He healed fast but still. I can’t believe… he’s already been through so much and we knew Vlad was up to something! Ellie said she was our cousin but she looked just like him, I should have kept a closer eye on-” She cut off and shook her head. “He’s a good kid, of course if he couldn’t give the babies up, even if it would be better for them if he did. I hope he knows I’d support him either way, I hope he didn’t not tell me because he thought I’d be upset at Him.”

“I’m sure he didn’t,” Dick assured her gently. “Being a big sibling is hard, I know. But trust me you’re doing a great job, better than I did with my brothers,” he said, patting her shoulder. “You can ask him yourself later though. We have a lot to get done today to make sure he’s safe.”

She nodded stubbornly and doubled down on her work, directing them occasionally to where she knew they’d find more weapons or logs. She knew her way around the lab to a disturbing extent. 

Bruce and Dick both got a notification from Agent A saying that after a substantial sleep in Danny had woken up and was having breakfast. He seemed worried about the family but he was taking it alright, especially since he knew they were busy people. It did motivate Dick to clear things up as soon as they could so that they could get back to Danny though. The last thing he needed was More stress!

They had plenty of evidence of the Fenton parents breaking the law to call the police and have them taken away which gave them all the time they needed to strip the house. They got everything they could and decided to leave Constantine at the house to watch the portal until they could figure out how to shut it down completely without causing any damage. It seemed unstable so they didn’t want to risk it just now, especially without Danny’s input because according to Jazz Danny had made genuine connections in the Infinite Realms. 

They wrapped up this stage of the investigation before dinner after being up for about 36 hours. Of course they weren’t Done, there was still plenty to do investigating the government, how they’d gotten away with this and if they had any other nasty tricks up their sleeve. They’d have to manage any backlash from this unilateral move, and they’d have to figure out what to tell the public about Danny since Bruce would be fostering him. But all that could be done after having a family dinner with their new brother and a nap. 

part 5

@blacksea21090 @zline @sebas-nights @littlefeather345 @isnt-that-grape @idontgetpaidenoughforthisshit @shadowkatt99 @fantasticstoryteller @sithlordchimchnga @fanfictionforme2 @iamalittlefangirl25 @bushbees @yotsubaayase @genius11rare @thomasdimensor @ultimatebluff @lady-phoenix-of-tardis @vivavelle @phoenixdemonqueen @jaggedheart11 @amyheart19 @ashenfairytale @thedragonqueen1998 @quotesandanime @j-joshi @unknown707 @baby-glowstick @okami-love @felicityroth @blackroserelina @wanderwithwings @shephardking @stargirl1331 @supermcraig @tkiesai @thegatorsgoose @mushroomymoss @llavalada @drownthesun @theraccoonempire @ark12 @telidina @dasha022

Please subscribe to the masterpost everyone! the tag list is getting a bit to big for me to manage ^^;

#dc x dp #danny phantom #fanfiction #batman #bad parents jack and maddie #bamf Jazz #jasmine fenton #nightwing #dick grayson #cassandra cain #implied abuse tw #tw sa implied #Red Robin #superman #zatana #john constantine #danny is pregnant au #mama danny #vlad plasmius #vlad is a creep #trans!danny

[nerdpoe]

Young Justice is always a little...concerned. With Phantom's living situation. Now they're outright afraid for him, and Bart has decided it's time to Ask An Adult.

It was the little quips. The tiny little things. Stuff that didn't seem to matter to Phantom at all, or appeared to be normal for him, that he didn't realize weren't normal at all.

"Oh, better not hope my mom catches me." "Doing what, staying out past bedtime?" "Nah, using my powers; she'd vivisect me!"

"Another stab wound. Great." "Don't worry Phantom, I've got the med kit-" "Oh, I'm not a baby or anything, I can handle it just fine. Just gimme a sec to take it out."

"My dad has better aim than that." "...Like, when he's hunting, right?" "...At what other times would he be shooting at me?"

"Huh. Not as bad as my parents place. Look; they have a decontamination shower!" "Phantom, this lab has been vandalized to the point of needing a hazmat suit." "Did I stutter?"

Finding out each others identities did nothing to soothe the worry. Tim quietly told the others that every time he tried to run facial recognition, he kept hitting a government firewall he couldn't breach. Phantom never told them his last name, just his first, and 'Danny' is super common.

The thing that really did it though, the thing that made Bart snap and run off to ask Max, was when Danny had a nightmare.

He was talking in his sleep.

"No. Don't-stop. Stoooop. I need...my skin. Mom, no. You can't...peel off...my skin..."

Bart didn't even wait for them to wake Danny up before he was standing in front of Max, talking a mile a minute as he tried to figure out what to do, with Wally staring in horror over a plate of waffles as he computed everything that Bart was saying.

~~~~~~

Danny had a dream about his mom and Skulker arguing about how to skin him. He wouldn't really call it a nightmare, because it was just Skulker, but the scariest thing was Skulker insisting to his mom that it was possible to skin him with a potato peeler. Dream mom was arguing that it was not, and that from a scientific standpoint that was a really piss poor way to preserve a specimen.

He hadn't been begging them to stop hurting him, he'd been whining at them to knock it off.

But when he wakes up, it's to a room full of worried friends and an old man who calls himself Max.

"Kid, I think we need to talk."

#dpxdc #dcxdp #dp x dc #dc x dp #phanfic #story prompt #first convo was with cassie #second was with bart #third was with kon #fourth was with tim #max is fully prepared to take in another kid #bart is fully prepared to share #wally went to dick to ask him to put his detective training to work and find phantom's parents #wally was just visiting max #catching up #shooting the shit #when suddenly bart comes in and just trauma dumps about one of the other young justice heroes #who is apparently in a super abusive situation #and probably needs help #body horror tw #skinning tw #but only mentioned in the context of a super weird dream #danny's living situation COULD use some improvements #but it's not as bad as everyone thinks #anti ecto acts are still a thing #but as long as danny is with young justice the GIW leave him alone so #eh #not like they're good at their jobs anyways #max is about to blow his mind with the following information #“you are not okay. it's okay to not be okay. but kid. you need help and we're offering.”

[drathe]

the cycle

Enver and Urge had really shitty childhoods ngl

#my art #bg3 #Durge #the dark urge #Enver gortash #Enver Flymm #bg3 spoilers #tw blood #shitty parents alert #gortash #I feel bad for them #they’re still awful #baldur's gate 3

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

"Hello." A dull thwack sound reverberated across the rooftop, leaving the boy who snuck up on Red Robin clutching his head. The boy, a meta if the large animal ears and tail were anything to go by, shook off the pain and pouted up at him, "What was that for?!"

The vigilante was unrepentant, holding his bo staff in a ready position, "You snuck up behind a vigilante at night. In Gotham."

"Okay," the meta conceded, still pouting. "You have a point there. Robin threw ninja stars at me when I tried to approach Batman."

That got Tims attention, "You tried to approach Batman? Was there something you needed?"

The kid suddenly got serious, "My mom went missing. I haven't been able to contact her for almost two weeks now."

Red pulled his arm closer to his face before he began typing on his wrist computer, "Can you tell me her name and date of birth?"

"Um." The other teen fidgetted with his tail a bit, "Okay, so...she's kinda Cheetah."

"...come again?"

"She's Cheetah. The...the supervillian."

Red Robin stared at him, and honestly who could blame him? The bats hadn't even known Cheetah had a son. "So why are you in Gotham? Why not ask Wonder Woman for help? Cheetahs one of her rogues not ours."

The teen shook his head, "She went to meet someone in Gotham before she disappeared. She seemed really agitated before she left, almost scared. I've never seen her like that before." He paused, giving the vigilante time to type before continuing, "I didn't go Wonder Woman since I figured I would wind up needing to talk to a bat anyway since its your turf and all." He said, waving a hand as if gesturing to the city around them.

"I wasn't aware Cheetah had a kid."

The meta grimaced, "she didn't until a year ago."

Red gave him a look, as if urging him to go on.

The meta chuffed, sounding a lot like whatever big cat he was supposed to be, "I'll only tell you my tragic backstory if you promise to help me find my mom."

"I'll find your mom." The bird said without an ounce of hesitation. Tim was a little offended. Did this guy think he was going to leave his mom in danger just because she was a criminal? Appearently so, seeing as the teen looked so relieved at his words.

"Okay, so my bio parents were evil mad scientists. Always a bad start, anyway they were obsessed with the occult and one day they suddenly took me and my sister to Brazil to hunt for some artifact of another. That alone was strange but weirder still was the fact my creepy godfather was paying for it all. He usually only does something like that when he's plotting "

"Plotting?" The detective interjected, "you make it sound like he does that often."

"Yeah. Hes a supervillian." The meta said casually, as if he didn't just leave Tim reeling, but the kid wasn't done yet, "He's had a massive crush on my bio mom since collage and never let it go no matter how many times she rejected him. She even married my dad, his best friend, and this dude just kept simping for 20 years." The teen rolled his eyes, "Hes convinced himself that if he murders my bio dad then my bio mom will fall in love with him and me and jazz will be "his"." He said that last part with fingerqoutes and a disgusted expression.

Tim filed that away for later, "Can I have his name, if nothing else?"

The teen seemed reluctant for a moment, "You're the worlds greatest detectives. You'll find out even if i try to hide it. Besides, I'd probably be better off if you and the Justice League know everything anyway."

Tim was...surprised by that. Most people usually weren't this open with them.

"His name is Vlad Masters, he also goes by Plasmius when he's dressed like a wannabe vampire. He's a ghost who's repossessed his corpse. My parents are Jack and Maddie Fenton, who are obsessed with ghosts and have convinced themselves that all ghosts are evil and must be destroyed, regardless of how much evidence points to them being wrong."

"And your name?"

The meta grinned at him, showing off four very sharp fangs, reminiscent of the large cat he takes after, "You can call me Jaguar. We were exploring a bit when I broke off from my family and got jumped by one of them. Suddenly I was struck by a claw and turned into furry bait. Fluffy stopped trying to make me his lunch and just stared at me before walking away, which was wierd. Then my parents found me, accused me of being a ghost, because thats naturally what someone would assume when thier son sprouts cat ears," he said while rolling his eyes.

"Naturally." Red joked, which had the benefit of making Jaguar smile.

"So my parents chased me through the jungle, shooting all the while, then suddenly a portal opened up in front of me. I'm not stupid, I know there was no way this wasn't a trap. I mean, a portal opening up right after that bizarre series of events and its the same shade of glowing green as the wierd death go my parents are obsessed with? There's no way they weren't related somhow, but I was desperate and jumped through anyway."

"I landed in another jungle, or the same one in a different location, I'm not sure. I tried hunting and foraging but wasn't very successful at either." Danny still remembered the throbbed in his head when he had headbutt that tree after missing his pounce on that pig he had been stalking. "Thats when Cheetah found me. She took me in and taught me to hunt and fight."

-----

Possible plot twists:

1. Danny isnt Phantom in this au

2. Danny is Phantom in this au but is trying to leave that life behind

3. My favorite. Danny has the ability to manipulate and control animals into doing his bidding with the effect of jaguars and other big cats being the most prevalent and he just doesn't realize it.

One of Cheetahs friends/allies realizes cheetah has changed and suspected something and convinced her to leave for a while to see if her care for this kid faded after a while away from his presence. It works and Danny loses another parental figure/possibly attacked by them too.

#dcxdp #fanfiction prompts #prompts #batman #wonder woman #cheetah dc #cheetah #danny phantom #danny fenton #tim drake #red robin #red robin dc #yum #robin #angst #tw angst #danny has bad luck with parents #bruce wayne already has the bat adoption papers filled out before danny finishes speaking #idk if thats funnier if hes listening in the RR and Jaguars convo or if hes not and its just instinct at this point #jaguar danny #catboy danny au

[horse-surgeon-barbie]

maybe we STOP playing house ,, we're not good at it

#rick and morty #rick and morty spoilers #fear no mort #rick sanchez #diane sanchez #beth sanchez #beth smith #amramdoods #this was kinda venty (which is why i didn't post it on main tbh) #but like the idea of beth losing in every possible scenario of this made me feel really bad </3 #like the more i think about the show the worse i feel because it's just this tragic story of how these three people can't fit together ever #like it taught me that maybe some people just should not be parents if your kid is gonna lose THIS much at all times :( #anyway i'm rambling whatever i just needed to post this idk #oh idk if this needs a tw so if it does for anyone just tell me and i'll add it

[stevesbipanic]

@steddielovemonth Day 18: Love is terrifying @starryeyedjanai

Steve Harrington grew up the traditional small town American way. A mother and father that married straight out of high school, his dad ran the family business while his mother stayed at home. The first 8 years of his life he can remember fondly his mother baking him cookies and play dates with Tommy.

His room was always decorated in blues then plaid, toys were action heroes and trucks. Climbing trees and mud and puddles were always encouraged as long as he cleaned up before coming inside. His hair kept short, pants and shirts always blue or red or brown.

He could only play with girly things if it was also with Carol. Dolls were princesses needing rescuing, not tea parties. Carol's lipstick and blush could be smeared on as warpaint for battle in their treehouse.

Sports and trophies won his father's affection. His dad never missed a game, cheering the loudest at every goal. Ruffled hair and good jobs a plenty.

When he was 8 though, Tommy kissed his cheek before riding his bike home. Steve didn't even think about it, his father kissed his mother's cheek goodbye, Carol always kissed their cheeks when they rescued her from the dragon, usually that weird boy, Steve thinks he's in the year above.

His mother grabbed his hand when he came inside, pulling him up to his room. She'd never grabbed him like that.

"Never let Tommy do that again, Steven, and never let your father hear about it."

It was as simple as that, no room for questions, no room to understand why his best friend couldn't kiss his cheek. No explanation as to why his dad couldn't know, no way to understand why he liked it.

His parents went away more often after that, his mother encouraged more trips, and usually followed him. He was told to be a man and look after himself. Tommy never kissed his cheek again.

Now Steve was older, and he knew why his mother gripped his arm so hard, why his dad could never know. Knew that weird boy had been kicked out of home for the same reason, Steve should count himself lucky.

Those butterflies weren't worth losing a roof over his head, or a disease, or the loss of everything he has.

Steve feels older than he is but right now he feels eight years old. Eddie Munson just kissed his cheek before driving home.

The butterflies he thought he'd killed long ago felt in the thousands. But he turned to see his parents car in the driveway, light on downstairs. He was terrified to move, when had they got home. What did they already know?

He'd faced monsters terrified, he could face this.

Steve was grown now and he wanted to tell 8, 15 and 19 year old him that it was worth being terrified if it meant he got to love the weird boy whose heart is as big as a dragon's.

#tw homophobia #stranger things #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie #steve harrington has bad parents #steve centric #i think this is one of my favs this month #ficlet

[dont-look-me-in-the-eye]

I hate reading mental health resources that are like: inform a parent if you are strugg l-

lemme just stop you right there bud my parents forced me to make tea the old fashioned way at seven years old with a gas stove completely unsupervised and did I mention if I spilled scalding hot tea on the counter they would yell at me? Trust me bro, I may not be an adult but I’m the most trustworthy person here

#also did I mention I was seven years old? #SEVEN. using a GAS STOVE. UNSUPERVISED #Like it seemed normal at the time but looking back #hmm it might not be the best idea to force a seven year old to operate a stove #tw: bad parenting #daily scream into the void

[spacedace]

Reluctant War AU Part 3

Part 1 Part 2

More of the brain worm that has taken me over, gonna probably post it to Ao3 here before too long. Already got another part started and so many ideas for additional stuff, someone please send help I've been consumed by this thing lol

Sorry if Waller seems out of character, outside of fandom I'm mostly familiar with her through Justice League the animated show & Justice League: Unlimited and her vibe there has always struck me as "deeply incredibly unlikable character that also kind of has a point but also has done so much fucked up shit in the name of her goals that you don't really care about her point anymore." So you know, complicated lol. If she's completely unrecognizable let me know, but I'm hoping she feels at least somewhat like Waller.

Forgot to say this in the last update, but still feel free to use all this as an overly long prompt if yall want. Literally anything I throw out to the void should be treated as a prompt lol If there's anything at all interesting to you in any of this nonsense go for it <3 <3 <3

---

Amanda Waller was someone who did what needed to be done.

Ruthless, heartless, vicious, cruel.

She’d been called it all. Wore the words thrown as insults as a badges of pride and valor. Because at the end of the day, when it came to the problems she was given to face, the issues she was meant to solve, those words meant she’d done what others had been too squeamish or cowardly to do. Life was a never ending slog of trolley problems and she the only one unshakable enough to pull the levers that needed pulling.

It wasn’t so simple as a matter of greater good.

Greater good was what the weak willed muttered to themselves after having feelings over doing the bare minimum. A justification used by people on all sides to do what they wanted with fractured, faulty logic thrown around like truth was a thing immutable. To assuage their guilt when they were forced to make a call they didn’t want to.

It wasn’t a matter of greater good. It was a matter of preservation. Of protection. Of digging through the filth to find the threats skittering beneath and crush them with ruthless abandon. Of facing a god and not blinking because if you did it could cost the world.

Of doing what needed to be done, no matter how underhanded or atrocious it was.

Hands dirty.

Hands red.

Hands wrapped tight around the throat of something that could threaten to destroy it all.

When the Ghost Investigation Ward had been shoved her way with it’s sucking wound of a budget, it’s bloated incompetent staff, its asinine methods she’d seen a rotted limb in need of hacking off. It hadn’t been until she’d been conducting her inspection, digging through the trash for a few pearls of effective agents she could snatch up and put to work elsewhere, that she’d truly seen what they were working on. The potential.

Potential to better arm themselves with in the forms of the strange new weapons being created.

Potential for threats far greater than anything even she had thought possible before.

The GIW as it had been when she’d first come across it was a fetid waste of time and resources. A laughing stock agency only secret because no one took them seriously enough to look. Made stupid and useless with its own conceited delusions of importance it didn’t actually have. Yet.

She went to work on it. Hacking away as she’d originally intended, but this time with a different goal in mind. She ripped out the weeds with bare, calloused hands and planted proficiency and loyalty in their place. She took over as director herself, tossing the self-aggrandizing fool that had been running the place into the ground to the dogs as the culprit for misappropriate spendings, saving the agency by tweaking things until their ballooning budget was pinned neatly onto the former director as an embezzling charge.

Then she got to work.

The Fentons were brilliant, if entirely insane. But Amanda could work with that. She’d reigned Harley Quinn in - more or less - she could do the same to the two deranged scientists that so eagerly wanted to be apart of the fight against the dead. Especially when the benefit came in the form of the inventions they threw together so easily, especially when those inventions were weapons.

It took very little to get them on board with her plans for the GIW. Keeping their focus could be a chore, at times, but she didn’t even have to really do much in the way of pressing to get them back where she wanted them. They craved knowledge and understanding nearly as much as they craved the eradication of the entities themselves. Letting them have the first look at a new subject here, free reign over a vivisection there, it took so little to fuel their fervor and keep them busy working on the projects she set for them.

Things had been going smoothly.

For a time at least.

Until Phantom.

He’d been the main focus of the previous director’s attention, the big fish he’d so desperately wanted to catch and put up on his wall. Amanda wouldn’t lie and say it wasn’t a tempting prospect, but not one she’d put above the other projects she had set in motion since taking over. No, Phantom was powerful, enough to be a real problem one day, but she could the awkward youth in the way he held himself, the inexperience in how he handled situations. She had time to get everything else in order before focusing on getting Amity Park’s would-be hero brought to heel.

And he would be brought to heel. One way or another.

Hands dirty.

Hands red.

Hands wrapped tight around the Core of a fledgling god and bending him to her will.

An artifact, old an powerful, recovered with some effort. A means of controlling specters, of chaining them to the will of the artifact’s wielder. Dangerous in the wrong hands. Dangerous in the right hands.

It was shattered, and even whole and functional Phantom was resistant to its power. But Amanda Waller prided herself in her ability to see the potential in things. It could be repaired, be made better. Even gods could be bound, be made to kneel, with the right pieces, with the right application of force.

It was just a matter of time to gather everything needed.

Phantom didn’t know he could single handedly destroy every last member of the Justice League. The baby fat, the innocent eyes, the split-second hesitations when he fought. He knew enough to be confident in fighting the usual ghosts that haunted Amity Park, but he still very much saw himself as a little fish. Maybe it was the part of him that was still Daniel Fenton, gangly teenager not quite sure what he was truly capable of yet.

She had time before the Fenton’s son truly became an issue. Time to judge if his parents’ obsessiveness would overcome their - rather shoddy, by Amanda’s estimation - parental instincts and continue to hunt him once they knew the truth. Time to get as much out of them as she could before hand, should they falter at the idea of attacking their own son. Time for the staff to be repaired and returned to working order, to get the other items needed for the truly big fish hidden on the other side of the veil between worlds.

She had time.

Until she didn’t.

Pariah Dark had not been something she thought she’d have to account for - not yet, at least.

If he wasn’t already dead, she’d ring the Ghost King’s neck with her bare hands. His arrival had opened Phantom’s eyes to what he was capable of, of just how big of a fish he was. Worse still, Phantom’s defeat of the war mongering King changed the state of play. Phantom was no longer an impressively powerful half dead teenager.

He was King Infinite.

He was an Ancient.

He was getting on her last damn nerves.

Phantom’s rogue gallery were now firmly under the boy’s control. Still distinct nuisances around Amity Park, but no longer considered true concerns. They were loyal to their boy king, delighting in ruffling his feathers but never crossing the line into treason or attempted regicide. Which meant that the GIW was the only thing that held his attention.

Amanda took the time to send a care package to the former GIW director in his tiny, dank prison cell. As thanks for his carelessness in revealing to the entire town - both living and dead - of the agency’s existence and their intentions. Had he stuck to standard protocol, Phantom would have been none the wiser to their presence. Would have scratched his head and shrugged his shoulders at the ghost that went missing upon occasion. Would have been boredly uninterested in the people his parents had begun working with. Would have been taken by surprise when they finally came for him.

But no.

No that self-obsessed, fame chasing imbecile had to go and announce to everyone and their dead mother that the GIW existed and exactly what it was they were in Amity Park to do.

Phantom knew what they were there to do.

They could only count on his naive certainty that he could broker peace with them for so long.

Peace. As if he and his people weren’t the invading force, the monsters slipping in through the cracks between worlds, the latest threat that had to be accounted for. As if he himself hadn’t rent their world asunder himself in another world, another time. No. Peace was not something they could hash out with this baby-faced monarch with his too-big crown. Peace was the assurance of safety, security. Of control of the situation.

There could be no peace.

The higher ups were somehow surprised when Phantom took that to mean there would be war.

Amanda Waller was not.

The Fentons, as suspected, took the right side when all was revealed. Steady hands and flinty eyes as they crafted the weapons that would be needed for the coming fight. Minds even sharper in their maddened grief, hearts set on revenge for the son lost and the entity that stole his face and friends and sister in his garish pretense at humanity. They were blinded to the reality of the situation in its entirety, the potential in what their son truly was, but at the end of the day it didn’t really matter. They did what she needed them to do, they could believe whatever it was they wanted so long as they did.

By the time the boy king and his armies marched upon the Amity park facility, preparations had been put into place. The base in Amity had been stripped back to bare essentials, everything of importance moved to more secured locations.

The weapons labs.

The artifact.

The girl.

All tucked well away from the front lines where Phantom and his motley crew could not reach. Their time to be put in play would come, but not yet. First she needed to gauge what Phantom and his people were capable of, what they were willing to do in the name of what they wanted. Amity Park was a pawn well sacrificed on that front. As were the other facilities she’d left easy to find.

The problem with making children gods, with giving them crowns and calling them King and giving them armies to play with, was that they thought there should be rules. That even in the trenches tearing apart their enemies, there was a certain level of playing fair that everyone was held to. They thought there was a way the world worked, of how things should be that blinded them to more effective options even as time stretched on and desperation set in.

It was the Dead’s problem though, not hers.

She reached out to the Justice League. Sour faced, unhappy, bitterly reluctant to accept that she needed their help. Stone faced and barely containing their rage at what little they knew of the situation, they agreed to a meeting.

She didn’t let herself smile until she was well and truly alone in her office.

Greater good. A lie people told themselves. A fairytale told to children. A means of convincing the weaker willed that they had no choice, that they had a noble duty to bend to. A belief that could be wielded like a weapon if the fantasy of the idea had dug in deep enough. And there were few it had dug into so deep as the members of the Justice League.

Amanda Waller was someone who did what needed to be done.

Hands dirty.

Hands red.

Hands clenched tight on a victory long in the making.

---

Part Four

#dc x dp #dp x dc #dpxdc #danny fenton #amanda waller #GIW #ghost investigation ward #Jack Fenton #Maddie Fenton #bad parents jack & maddie fenton #cause none of this is angsty enough yet lol #tw references to vivisection #tw references to death #waller out here playing 3d chess #of course she wasn't surprised by the inevitable war she was just hoping she'd have her secret weapon ready before it actually kicked off #oh well she still has plans B - J to get through #and all the variations for each #gonna take care of her ghost problem and her justice league problem in one fell swoop if she gets her way #just throw some GIW agents into the meat grinder for a bit while she gets stuff in order & so she can see just what Danny is willing to do #anyway wonder what Elle is up to during all this #i'm sure she's fine and there's nothing to worry about #waller playing the long con yall

[fumifooms]

Canines

The hand that feeds

Mickbell Tomas & Kuro Dungeon Meshi

^ 1: Ink-the-artist, I will remove my teeth / 2: Margaret Atwood / 3: C.S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy / 4: Mitski, I’m your man / 5: Ojibwa, I love you like a rotten dog / 6: KotOR II / 7: Stardrop, Everything that’s ever been mine is covered in teeth marks / 8: Sodikken, People Eater / 9: Mitski, I’m your man / 10: maxime., The life and death of a dog / 11: Mitski, I bet on losing dogs / 12: maxime., The life and death of a dog / 13: hun, I did not bite with Malice / 14: C. Michael Davis, Don't Pet the Dragon / 15: Mitski, I’m your man

v 1: Early versions of the myth as in aeschylus orestes / 2: Ink-the-artist, I will not remove my teeth

#Yeahh i’m workng on a mickbell & kabru party analysis oops #I’d bleed for anything if it held me the right way. Even teeth #dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #Mickbell tomas #kuro #mickuro #mickrin #It’s on topic in my heart #The red means I love you… #The duality between the care & devotion and the hurt & isolation is really what gets to me #Traumabonded kittens highkey #Tw #cw #cw abuse #tw abuse #Web weaving #web weave #webweaving #I hit 30 pics :( would have added more if i could #Idk even anymore… Pls tell me you see the vision #Mick obvi loves Kuro a lot but this was meant to focus on the unhealthy side if that wasn’t obvious. Abuse tactic of isolation etc etc #People always leave. doesn’t matter how or why but his parents his sister everyone he’s never enough to stay #and that’s why he thinks he has to trick Kuro into thinking Mickbell’s the whole world or he’ll discover that there’s more out there. #Stuff that’s worth leaving him for. He has to make the world scary and unknown and not pay him and not let him have connections #That’s why he doesn’t want people to have a choice!! Either Mickbell doesn’t care about you or he’ll make sure you can never be without him #and there being a third option/outcome in this freaks him out!!! #Some of these should be called ‘No Title’ instead but I have bad academic crediting etiquette this looks cooler sorry #He’s scared of course he bites. There’s only throwing bones when feeding a stray. So bare your teeth and chew me up

[the-witchhunter]

DP x DC: Loser Baby

So the thing is, tonally John Constantine is probably not a great match for Danny in lighter funnier fics

Don’t get me wrong, John can have his lighter moments, especially in crossovers, and he’s got a sense of humor

But

Hellblazer lore is dense and weird, but more importantly it’s DARK

Like, extremely

John is a deeply traumatized man, people around him get hurt, he spent three years inpatient at a psychiatric facility. There’s a story line where he’s a homeless alcoholic who makes friends with a rent-boy and shows a grim reality of life on the street, substance abuse, addiction, and sex work. It also ends with John’s demon blood eating the face off of the King of Vampires who happens to look like James Dean

That’s not even getting into the serial killer plot or the multiple trips to hell

Sins of the Father involves John being forced to confront the soul of his father in hell, a man who was terribly abusive and blamed John for the death of his mother who died while giving birth to him, which given information revealed during this comic turns out to be very misplaced.

However, makes him a good fit for a “Jack and Maddie are Bad Parents” fic, and/or a dissection fic

And it would basically play out like “Loser Baby” from Hazbin Hotel

Because it is a shitty situation. Coming to terms with neglect, the trauma of them rejecting him for an aspect of himself he can’t change Phantom Planet does not exist and the emotional and physical trauma of a dissection, and then being homeless and having to find a way to survive on his own

But John can empathize and understand

His own trauma may be different but he gets it, can relate to it, and can say “mate, situation is fucked to all hell but you don’t need to be alone because of that”

And that’s not even getting into the trauma of dealing with supernatural weirdness, which frankly they would both understand pretty well

Just two traumatized people bonding and saying “yes, we may be damaged goods, but we’re not broken and we aren’t alone”

#danny phantom #dp x dc #dp x dc crossover #dp x dc prompt #dpxdc #danny fenton #writing #writing prompt #bad parents jack and maddie #tw abuse #tw neglect #but do you see my vision?? #two traumatized people bonding #they may be damaged but they aren’t broken #Youtube

[too-much-tma-stuff]

Do What I Cannot

This is based on My Graveyard Song because I was captivated by the idea of Danny’s parents burying him alive. That’s basically the only part I took though. This is about him being confronted with his parents again once freed.

This is unedited so feel free to point out mistakes. Contains graphic description of violence.

-----------

The Justice League’s newest hero has been a wonderful asset, truly! Phantom is a rather powerful hero and even though some of his methods are a little questionable he follows the ‘no killing’ rule more strictly then some of the long-term members. Even if it’s just because he doesn’t want to deal with them as ghosts it still counts. Some of the more magical people have an idea that Phantom is more powerful then he’s letting on, but they don’t push it. After all he’s still just a teenager, they don’t really want to have him dealing with universal threats either.

Honestly even if he weren’t a hero Batman at least would have kept him around for the impressively positive affects he has on Red Hood. Jason had been calmer and more reasonable then he had been since his resurrection since digging up that grave and teaming up with Danny. It was just a little unsettling sometimes honestly, sometimes his eyes would glint with the green of the Lazarus waters and everyone would tense up prepared for an aggressive outburst only for Jason to announce he needed to find Danny and leave. The more suspicious minds found it odd, but they figured it was just because Phantom could calm Jason down and didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

Really the only problem was that knowing Phantom had alerted them to a potential new source of threat that they really knew very little about. The JLD knew some but not enough and the ways they had to fight ghosts were clunky and unreliable, they needed weapons that would work on ghosts. Not Phantom obviously, though the overly cautious ones privately thought about him too, just in case you know? And there weren’t many people who specialized in such tech, so of course their search lead them to the Drs. Fenton.

The magic users thought their methods were crude and crazy but had to admit they clearly worked so maybe it would be best to invest in at least some of their tech. At least to study and see if it could be improved on. So they were invited for a meeting, and it was decided Phantom would Not be told. Mostly because they didn’t want to stress him out and also because they’d learned these two were ‘shoot first ask questions later’ types who apparently didn’t believe there was such a thing as a good ghost so they might actually try and kill Danny on sight, which would be awkward.

The presentation they gave to the Justice League was predictably unhinged and they knew well enough to take all of it with a grain of salt, especially the part about all ghosts being evil. Danny had already explained it to them, that ghosts were driven by obsessions which meant they behaved differently then humans but the majority only lashed out when something got between them and their singular passion. Some were different, some had malicious passions and some were more complicated. Diana and J’onn both looked like they were trying hard not to pick a fight but they’d all agreed to smile and nod till they got access to the tech.

There was a familiar sudden chill in the room, looking around Batman could tell a few others felt it too, though Flash was typically oblivious.

“Oh dear,” J’onn whispered before Phantom appeared.

“Hey guys what’s up?” He asked, cheerful but slightly accusatory, they should have known better then to think they could keep the meeting from him. Before they could think of anything to say Danny’s eyes caught on the Fentons and narrowed.

“GET DOWN!” Jack yelled pulling out one of those stupid blasters from somewhere.

“What a perfect chance for a demonstration,” Maddie said, sliding on a pair of gantlets.

“You-you don’t recognize me, do you?” Danny asked, and for a moment he looked hurt, then something happened none of them had ever seen before, his eyes turned red. The toxic green they were used to changed to a deep, blood red and his feet touched the ground as he stalked forward. Jack shot, Danny didn’t break stride, a green shield blocked the blast like it was nothing. Maddie tried to lung and was immediately hit in the gut by one of Phantom’s ecto-blasts, knocking her back against the glass.

Batman leapt up and tried to lung and stop Phantom only to hit a wall that rippled with green, a bubble surrounding the ghost and the two hunters, invisible until struck.

Danny grinned, shark like teeth on full display without any mirth, white hair whipping in an unfelt wind, flowing so it almost looked like flames. “I guess I look a lot different then I did when you buried me alive huh? How long did you leave me? Because you ‘couldn’t kill you son’ so you thought it would be more merciful to lock me away till everything human about me rotted.”

“No,” Maddie gasped, recognition suddenly sharp and painful on her features.

“Yes ‘mom’,” Danny snarled bitterly. Jack tried to shoot again but the blaster was knocked out of his hands so quickly no one was sure what hit him before it could fully charge. “YOU MADE ME! AND YOU ABANDONED ME! You’re lucky someone found me, I would have gotten strong enough to break out on my own eventually and if I had I would have destroyed everything.”

“Oh my god, his parents?” Diana nearly whispered. Batman understood how she felt, Danny didn’t like to talk about how he’d ended up buried ‘alive’, that his parents were the ones who had done it… that was horrific. It made sense why he had never been able to speak about it, but Damn that would have been good to know before they had invited Danny’s abusers to give a presentation on weapons that had no doubt been used to hurt him. And now.. what? They couldn’t get to Danny, it seemed like he had gotten to the point that Raven did sometimes when her emotions overwhelmed her, could they get to Danny? Could they stop him from doing something he might regret?

“You are not our son,” Maddie hissed, her breathing still coming in a harsh wheeze from the blow to her stomach. “Danny is dead! He’s gone. You’re just an acto-entity imitating him, and not even well, you’re just a parasite.”

Danny seemed to be losing some control of his form, it was stretching, getting taller, his fingers curling into dangerous claws tipped with the blackness of the star studded void. “Pathetic mortals, you act as if you will never die, but you will join my kingdom. Perhaps it will be punishment enough to become what you hate, perhaps not. Perhaps I will speed up the process so you can’t hurt anyone else,” He snarled his hands beginning to glow with familiar green of his energy blast.

“Danny stop!” Superman said, hitting the burier to try and get through but not even he could break it. Danny didn’t seem to be responding to them though he was hesitating.

Batman was resigning himself to watching Phantom kill his once parents before Jason walked by him. Batman wasn’t usually taken by surprise, but he was shocked, and worried, both because he could see the green glow of pit madness through the eyes of his helmet, which was worrying, and because he walked through the burier keeping the rest of the heroes out like it was nothing.

He walked to Danny, taking his hand, there was a soft sizzle as the gathered green energy burned Jason’s hand without him even seeming to notice. He pulled Danny down to the ground from where he was floating, pulling the young hero into his arms. Danny let himself be pulled into Jason’s arms, the green energy fizzling out as he wrapped his own arms back around Jason’s waist, hiding against his chest. As the anger faded he slumped against Jason’s chest.

Just as the heroes were breathing a sigh of relief and relaxing Maddie went for the dropped gun. But she wasn’t fast enough as Jason drew his own pistol, the one with live ammo, and put a bullet in her head. Diana cried out in shock and Batman froze as blood and brain matter splattered over the watchtower floor and her body slumped. Before anyone could recover Jack followed, another shot executioner style and Batman had to turn away.

The watchtower was completely silent, enough so that he could hear Phantom’s soft sniffles as he cried into Jason’s chest. When Batman looked back Jason had holstered his gun and was just holding Danny Close. The green had faded enough from his eyes that it seemed safe, Batman approached warily and wasn’t surprised to find that the invisible burier was gone now that both the Fenton’s were dead.

“I’m sorry,” Danny said softly as he heard the approach, without emerging from his hiding place in Jason’s arms where he seemed to feel safe. “I wasn’t actually going to kill them, but I guess my want to, my emotions, were strong enough to make Jason respond. I didn’t mean to call you that way.” He looked up at Jason, his eyes green again though red rimmed from tears.

“It’s alright, I would have done it anyway,” Jason growled, holding Danny even tighter. “I’ve killed people for less, they deserved it.”

Batman took a deep breath forcing himself to keep his cool about his son’s constant flouting of his no killing rule, now was not the time to make Phantom feel worse. “Jason why don’t you take him down to one of the sitting rooms so he can calm down.” No doubt Phantom was reliving trauma, and grieving because even if he wanted them dead they had been his parents.

Jason nodded and scooped Danny into his arm who let out an indignant little squawk and insisted he could walk while making no attempt to actually get down. Jason ignored Danny’s performative complaints and kept the young hero’s head hidden against his chest so he wouldn’t have to see the corpses of his parents while Jason carried him out of the room.

Now, how best to deal with the aftermath of… all this. And later on he really would have to ask Danny and Jason what he’d meant by Jason responding to his energy, because it seemed like there might be something more to their relationship then just Danny calming Jason down and that was worrying to say the least.

Part 2: here

#danny phantom #maddie fenton #jack fenton #Maddie and Jack are bad parents #buried alive #tw gun violence #batman #superman #dc x dp #jason todd #can be read as dead on main #Danny got buried alive #full dead AU #Jason is Danny's thrawl but they're super chill about it