Writing Characters With One Eye

A snipit of a long since unwritten chapter/idea from my fic

Zatana smiled softly at the sight before her. She was at the Watchtower, looking for an item she misplaced a day or two ago (and to check on John), when she stumbled on the most precious thing she had ever seen. On a bed in the medical wing layed John, fast asleep.

Zee couldn't help herself coo as she heard the softest purr from Danny. It didn't matter that he was technically an adult, it was adorable. And from the looks of it, he had his guard dropped almost completely. There was no stirring as she crept closer, no twitch or care of who entered or where he was. He was well and truly in a deep sleep. It hurt her heart a bit to think that this may be the best sleep he's had in a while. Something was definitely up.

Constantine began to stir a few minutes after Zee arrived. He blinked a few times and looked around in confusion, wondering who was on him. His face softened just a bit as he realized Danny hadn't moved. Then, he noticed Zatana, by then having taken a few photos of the two.

John grumbled a bit as Zee laughed quietly. After a few seconds of silently staring, he asked as quietly as he could, “How long have you been here?”

“Only a few minutes,” Zee replied softly as she looked through her photos and settled down next to the two, “What happened?”

John began moving the young man off him, who, despite still being asleep, immediately tried to fight to stay on him. John just gave up after a few tries, too tired to fight him. “Had a fight, some childhood trauma popped up while doing so,” Zatana could see how haunted John was, despite his best to stay as neutral as possible. She calmly and carefully moved closer to Danny. What got her a bit worried was what John said next. “He did something incredibly dangerous to himself to save my life.”

“Hm,” Zee hummed as she softly scratched Danny’s scalp. She brought her attention to John's wounds. “What happened to your attacker?”

“The bastard deserved what happened to him,” John said with a little hollow tone. He smiled just a bit. “In any case, it's over now. We won’t be seeing him anytime soon.” John’s eyes dropped. “But I found out why the kid was so secretive about his ‘other’ half. And you’re not gonna like it.”

“And that is?” Zee asked, carefully placing a silent spell.

He continued, clearly angry, “The US Government placed a law that says ghosts and liminals are non sentient or sapient and aren’t considered people. That law also put into place a branch specifically to hunt them down and study them. What makes it worse, his parents are the ones supplying and making the weapons to hunt them.”

“John,” Zee began.

John ignored her, beginning to vent, “I had some ideas of it, but that?!” His voice was beginning to raise. “Who in God's name would be so bold as to claim an entire species, older than the fibers of the universe -”

“John-” Zatana tried to interrupt calmly.

“-as non sentient or sapient! How do you prove something that is clearly wrong!”

“John-”

“Do you know what things they might be doing to the ghosts they had already caught? And the kid kept this to himself and didn’t tell us.”

“John Constantine!” Zatana yelled through gritted teeth. She was incredibly thankful for the privacy of a silent spell. As she yelled, Danny’s sleepful face twitched. He was mumbling something, clearly stirring, though still drifting in and out of sleep. “It’s okay darling,” Zee hummed sweetfully, scratching his scalp, “You’re safe.” Danny settled down again, drifting back into his slumber. She looked back at John. Constantine stopped and finally turned to the magician. She was giving him such a hard look.

After a brief stare off, Constantine’s eyes grew wide. “You knew.”

“Long before I even met Danny, in fact, but yes, I knew.” Zee said quietly, looking away. She sighed, “The law was placed when I was a girl, and I only knew about it because my father tried and failed to fight it. It was his mission to, if nothing else, protect the ghosts that can’t escape. And I do too.”

John held back a stutter. “Who else knows?”

“Dr. Fate came to me about a year ago about how much me and my father knew about it, and I’m pretty sure the Big Three know, but I’m pretty sure they’re keeping it on the down low until they figure out a way to repeal the law and organization,” Zee’s eyes looked at John softly. “I’m sorry I-”

“It’s fine. Really, I get it,” John sighed, clearly defeated. “I would have certainly made a fool of myself if you did tell me.” He looked at Danny sadly then back at her. “For now, I’ll try to keep my mouth shut about it. But if that fucking organization goes for you or the kid, I will raise hell and make them wish they were never born.”

“It’s only fair,” Zee said with a soft smile.

I hate it here.

you've heard of "diversity win!" now get ready for

Fav thing is people being surprised by different characters a voice actor has played. "These all sound different omg" yeah that's the voice acting that's his job

I'm just imagining if/when the other bats find out. Like Tim makes one too many "unwanted child" jokes recently that maybe have a reasoning behind them. When Bruce and Dick find out, they are absolutely distraught (mostly Dick, but Bruce does have his moments). When Damian finds out, he makes an unwarranted "they should have went through with it and gotten rid of you" insult, and for the briefest moment Damian saw Tim break at the insult, no jab back, no insult, just a sharp inhale and a quiver of the lip. (He wouldn't tell the others, but he could have sworn he heard Tim crying later that day). Jason is, ironically, the most sympathetic to Tim. In my personal hc, he once heard his own parents say the same thing. Jay secretly and "anonymously" offered an ear.

CW: abortion/misscariage talk

Tim finding out that he really, legitimately, was an unwanted child.

It all comes to light when he’s looking through his old medical records after loosing his spleen. He wanted to check that there were no allergies he had other than shrimp and then looked into his family. Of certain cancers or disease were common in his linage, he needed to be aware so he could lessen the risk as much as possible.

That’s when he discovers that his mother, proud !feminist’ and independent woman that she was, had refused several surgeries to remove her uterus or have her tubes tied but still had several abortions.

And by several, the papers literally mean several.

Seven whole abortions of children she didn’t want, yet both her and Jack refused to do anything to jsut… prevent any pregnancy in the first place.

They got it all covered with hush money so it wouldn’t get out to the public, but they ended up making a mistake.

Janet Drake went to a Gala when she was unknowingly pregnant and a woman, whose husband was the owner of a prominent news paper company, noticed several signs that Janet was with child. She pointed this out to Janet and when she saw the look of familiar realisation on her face, promised to keep it secret.

Just a day later an article was shown with a photo of Janet with a barely there bump and just like that, Jack and Janet were forced to keep their baby.

Maybe if they hadn’t made several public statements about being against abortion it wouldn’t have mattered, but hypocrites rarely win.

Tim finds several statements by doctors in their files, hidden away behind several fake files and private stamps, that show the couple had tried to figure out a way to ‘remove’ the child before it was born so it wouldn’t be a problem.

Tim even goes so far as to look at his parents search history around the time and sees in horror as it goes from searches on how to force a miscarriage to the financial benefits of a child.

That’s where Alfred finds him, frozen and staring at his screen with enough tears to make a puddle on his desk.

The worst part?

He’s not even that surprised.

Be safe y'all.

To all my Filipino mutuals…

I heard there’s gonna be a typhoon heading to your country

BE SAFE EVEN THO TYPHOONS HAPPEN REGULARLY THERE (I think)

PLEASE PROMISE ME THAT YOULL BE OKAY I BEG OF YOU-

I'm kinda in agreement honestly. Those two are the two I always go back to when I want to read something/melt my heart. I like your other fics, don't get me wrong, but those two have a special place in my heart.

Whenever someone interacts with A Broken Sort of Normal in some way it makes me a little melty. I still think it and Shadow of a Bat are my best two fics from an artistic perspective.

Do you know our favorite/most popular headcannon that Danny has white hair at the bottom of his hairline.

I once had a dream where Danny dyed the white part of his hair a different flag each few days during pride month.

I might use it for my fanfic.

No other notes.

Yeeeees. I want to read this.

Listen, I know Dream winning his duel with Lucifer with hope is like... A BIG DEAL and super symbolic and beautiful, HOWEVER I have something that may not be better, but would definitely be FUNNIER. 

Dream loses. He's been locked in a bubble and had his hopes dashed again and again, even though he's still fighting and still hopeful, it's harder for him to reach that and it doesn't come to mind in time for him to win against Lucifer. He's to stay as a servant in Hell and there's no Endless or divine being that can or will come to his aid. He's trapped. Again. 

Only Matthew isn't Jessamy, Matthew knows when the best way to help is a tactical retreat to gather reinforcements. So that's what he does, going immediately to Luciene like, "Hey, so, uh..." And there has to be some way they can help him! Luciene makes it clear that none of the dreaming denizens can. None of the Endless can, no deity would be of any help there against Lucifer. There are Old Laws dictating that Dream lost fair and square and no one can interfere with that. And Matthew's like, "Well what about someone who can challenge Lucifer to win him back? Someone not bound by the Old Laws?" 

"The only beings not bound by the Old Laws are humans. There's no human--" 

Except there is. There's one. One human that Dream would go off once a century to meet, and it's a long shot, but-- 

That's how Hob Gadling finds himself being approached by a talking raven asking him to trek into hell to rescue his boss. "You know, Dream of the Endless? Lord Morpheus?" 

Hob doesn't know who the hell the bird is talking about until Matthew describes him. "Oh, my Stranger!"

"...He seriously didn't even tell you his name?" 

Now, the idea of setting foot into Hell itself to do battle with Lucifer Morningstar is, y'know... Not something he wants to do. He confirms over and over if Matthew is SURE he doesn't have to die to achieve this, because he's not ready to leave yet, and Matthew is like, "Yeah, buddy, shouldn't be a problem." He's lying. He has no idea if it's a problem. (It's not.) 

Hob is like, "Yeah, but... I can't FIGHT Satan himself and expect to win, I AM still human." 

And Matthew's like, "You don't actually have to fight her, it's like a game! But uh... Pretty sure you still feel all the pain and stuff." And he explains the rules, and like, okay, feeling the painful death of whatever kills whatever you decide to be in your round SUCKS, but Hob's been through that before. It's actually a pretty intriguing game, one he thinks he might win. 

See, the way he sees it, it's a combination of the "times infinity" type of game (I love you, I love you more, I love you times two, I love you times a thousand, I love you times a million-- so on and so on) with that counting game where you either say one or two numbers, back and forth with someone, and whoever says 21 loses. Basically, there's one logical conclusion the game is going to reach. Someone is going to bust out the "times infinity" or in this case, "heat death of the universe" or some other completely life-ending thing. And like with the counting game, if you can get your opponent to say specific numbers on the way to 21, you can make sure they're forced to say it. 

There's a strategy if you think ahead enough, and he has an entire walk through Hell to plan it. 

(It SUCKS. He sees Robyn there. It breaks his heart. It's meant to, it's meant to keep him from reaching the palace, seeing his son in Hell, but they don't know Hob. They don't know the grief he's had to overcome in order for him to say, with absolute certainty, that he still wants to live even though it hurts. He reaches that citadel.)

Dream is, of course, horrified to see Hob there. Hob meanwhile is like a jilted exe all, "Yeah, yeah, we're not friends, you stood me up, but I'm still here for you because I'm the bigger person and I fucking care." 

He challenges Lucifer for Dream's helm and their safe passage out of Hell. Lucifer is... Intrigued. She just beat Dream of the Endless, and this human thinks he can beat her when humanity's collective unconsciousness couldn't? His immortality has made him cocky, clearly. So she accepts, and bargains that if Hob loses, he has to give up his immortality. 

There's a good minute where Hob pauses at that and has to really think about whether his arrogant, condescending not-friend is really worth that but yeah, yeah he is. Meanwhile Dream is off to the side. "Don't do this, Hob Gadling. It is not your responsibility to fix my missteps." Basically his version of pleading for Hob to leave and not risk this up until Lucifer is like enough out of you and shuts him up. 

They play. Lucifer starts out with the wolf again, because it's a good starting point to see what direction her opponent plans to take, to get a glimpse into Hob's mindset entering this game. Her plan is, of course, to cause pain enough that Hob will have a hard time thinking, but Hob makes that really fucking hard from the get-go and throws everyone in the room for a loop when his answer is...

"I am the over hunting of the local deer population. Ecosystem destabilizing, predator killing."

Well. Okay. Yeah, sure. Fucking fine. It's hard to kill that painfully. Lucifer manages to come up with, "I am hunting restrictions, nature preserving, ecosystem balancing." 

Hob, by that point, is like, I got this, actually. This might be fun. "I am the expansion of civilization. Forest destroying, hunting law nullifying." 

Matthew, who had been feeling pretty iffy about calling this guy in to help, is no longer questioning that choice. Dream is a little starry-eyed. 

Eventually Hob is the head of the Home Owner's Association. Lucifer is a bear, scrap hunting, person killing. Hob is family, revenge-seeking, bear euthanizing. Lucifer is Pride, argument starter, family destroying. Hob is friendship, blood covenant, thicker than womb water. Lucifer is jealousy, friendship rending, relationship ruining. Hob is personal growth, jealousy ending, apology giving. Lucifer is relapse, progress destroying, confidence killing. Hob is perseverance, step taking, progress rebuilding. On and on until finally Lucifer decides to end this the way she did with Dream and Hob leads her along until it reaches that natural conclusion, the death of all. 

Now there's some temptation there to go with the obvious, since he can't die even if the universe was destroyed. At least he doesn't think so. But he had already decided that it was an obvious choice to go for and he could think of a few clever ways Lucifer might get around that. So instead, Hob goes the far better choice and personal insult of being God, universe creator, life giver. He's very proud of himself when the demons erupt into boos and Lucifer looks about ready to rip his fucking throat out with her teeth. 

The way he sees it, there are two choices for her there, unless she really pulls something unexpected out of her ass. Option one is the whole "what's a god to an atheist" thing in which Hob would have then been a miracle, faith affirming, god-proving. Not much can destroy a miracle. 

But Lucifer, livid and prideful, goes with option two. "I am Lucifer Morningstar, God defying, His Kingdom ripped sunder!" 

And Hob has the absolute glee to grin and go, "I am Hob Gadling, clever, death defying, and triumphant over Lucifer Morningstar."

He and Dream are promptly kicked out of Hell on their asses, Dream's helm is thrown at his head with a force strong enough to break the sound barrier, and the gates are slammed shut behind them. The whole thing is so humiliating that Lucifer has to change their gender and moves to LA to open a nightclub.

I'm Cas3_Blanca. What the actual fuck. This is so GOOD!

The Necromancer

DP x DC Prompt inspired by 'The Ghost Warlock' on A03 by Cas3_Blanca

The Justice League has been dealing with matters related to the Undead recently. And JLD could barely handle the undead. That is until Constantine had called in a favor from someone he knew. A young man in a black trench coat with a skeleton following him everywhere, that skeleton had a burned headband on it.

The young man is a necromancer, and he is very good at handling the matters of the undead. He just has a bit of disdain for the Justice League and keeps to himself whenever he is around any Justice League member. The only person he seems to trust is Constantine, as he doesn't even interact with the rest of the JLD members. The young man had told them that he's only helping because he owed Constantine quite a few favors, and once Constantine used up all those favors on helping the Justice League, he's done with them, which means he'll leave the Justice League and Justice League Dark to deal with the undead.

Danny's life was as good as it could get. His parents had accepted him as Phantom, Clockwork assured Danny that he doesn't have to be the Ghost King just yet, his grades are steadily rising, and he is scheduling fights with his Ghostly Rogues.

That is until the GIW had shown up again. They were in the process of isolating Amity when the entire city fought back against them.

There were a few casualties, which mostly consisted of people Danny is close to. His parents, Jazz, Sam, Tucker, Valerie, Dash, Mr. Lancer and Star had perished during the struggle, and only those close to Danny hadn't become Ghosts. There wasn't enough to recover from them. Danny only has a few things to remember them by. His mom's Goggles, his dad's fudge recipe, Sam's bracelet, Tucker's PDA, and Valerie's earrings. Jazz was the only one to be buried, as she still had a body that wasn't vaporized.

He tried looking for Dani and Vlad but learned from Technus that they were captured and ended by the GIW. Now, the only person he has to lean on is his "Uncle" Constantine.

Constantine has helped Danny many times during his first years as Phantom. That's why Danny owes Constantine so many favors. He had tried to call help from the Justice League whenever Constantine wasn't around, but he was just brushed off. Hence why he doesn't like helping the Justice League's undead problems. He had also asked Technus to put his information and anything else related to him under lock and key. He doesn't want the Justice League to access and have files of his information. He's got Jazz's skeleton with him because he's taken up the role of Ghost King, and it came with Pariah's ability to raise a skeleton army if need be, but he only uses it on Jazz and other nearby buried bodies to help him deal with undead that aren't Ghosts. He also doesn't want to show his Ghostly half to the Justice League.

He's gotten quite good at hiding his mental presence from the Martians on the Justice League, but some of his emotions and thoughts slipped through. Now, the Justice League is being annoying to him by trying to apologize to him for whatever it is they did to him so they could still rely on him for any undead related issues.

Ivy, of course, had no clue Harley was doing this until she came home one day to find a boy sleeping with Harley's hyenas. Harley excitedly gave her story, and Ivy, though obviously not too pleased with the situation, knew she couldn't just kick out a homeless teen. And besides, the kid was adorable, if not a bit insane.

As much as I love Danny and the BatFam,

I need more Posion Ivy, and Harley Quinn accidentally became moms too this werid maybe-human?Kid,that they found rummaging in their bins one night or sm.

(Writing that last part put the image of Harley taking the trash out one night and Danny's just perched on the dumpster, his eyes glowing, looking like a startled opossum,he lightly hisses, grabs his half eaten grill cheese and disappears into the shadows)

Obviously, after that, Harley tries to lure him in like he's some street cat.