Masterpost | PART 1
A few months ago Tim Drake-Wayne, past Robin and current Red Robin, one of the best detectives and a spiteful fuck, met one Danny Nightingale. Who was a complete mystery.
Danny Nightingale moved to Gotham and started attending Gotham University and that is all Tim knows. He can't find where he came from, why he moved here, nothing. It's driving Tim, the FUCKING DETECTIVE, mad. Not to mention, Danny was kind when they first met. Amicable. That, for some reason, didn't last. He was mean, uncouth, and honestly a fucking asshole to Tim most days now. Tim needed to know why.
Then the Bats started meeting Danny. Started talking about a robbery or a stick-up or any number of instances all about a boy that fit into 'adoption bait' territory. Tim didn't have to guess who. Danny was a blue-eyed, black-haired boy of concerning food habits and questionable social habits. But it was another thing on the list of questions, questions, questions about this strange guy.
So, reasonably, the only option was to meet him as Red Robin so that Tim could see what Danny acted like with someone he didn't hate and get answers. On the first reported sight of him, Red Robin went running. And running.... and running... Okay, what the FUCK!
Whenever Red Robin showed up, Danny was nowhere to be seen. Even the others had shown confusion, turning in their spots trying to find the boy that was just right there, I swear! And sometimes, he just took off running! So Red Robin would chase, for hours, as Danny ran and ran and eventually some-fucking-how loses the vigilante.
Okay. Fine. Different approach. Danny didn't run from Tim Drake, just became an intolerable person. Tim would... make friends.
He started doing everything to make a connection with Danny. He wants to be friends, but Danny is borderline mean and dismissive of Tim no matter what he does. One day, Tim is complaining to the void about one thing or another, and… Danny laughs.
Danny—cold, unresponsive, non-expressive Danny—laughs at Tim’s misfortune and gods. It is the best thing he’s ever heard. It's soft and quiet and quick, but Tim is hanging off of it. Is holding still the way Danny’s face scrunched into it, the way his lips pulled and his nose scrunched around those pretty freckles.
Gods… Gods. Tim is lovestruck, head over heels, and on cloud nine all at once.
The moment passes all too fast when Danny speaks, quietly as if he were shy, “Do I have something on my face..?”
Tim is startled so hard out of the spell that he flinches back, hitting his head on the wall with a dull thunk, and spitting out in a flurry of sound, “What? N-No! No, it’s nothing.” Tim looks away, hiding the red that floods his face. He doesn’t understand why his face is flushed nor why the way Danny had looked had been so… perfect. Tim is hit with the feeling of wanting to run his fingers through the boy’s hair and kiss every freckle on the boy’s face and, fuck, he doesn’t understand why. The only thing that makes sense is...
To Danny’s complete and utter resentment (he’s actually very happy and very grateful that his soulmate isn’t giving up so easily on him), this only further emboldens Tim’s efforts on mission: ‘Make Danny Nightingale Like Me’ double down.
It had only been a few hours since the glowing entity had sunk into Nightwings shadow while he was on patrol. So far, his symptoms were mild but concerning.
Batman had wrapped his eldest son in a big blanket as he shivered violently. Taking the thermometer out of his mouth, it showed he wasn't running a fever, but his temperature wasn't running any lower than normal either.
Which was odd since Dicks lips were blue.
"Do we have results on the blood samples?"
-Not much.- Red Robin answered through the coms, -this stuff is kinda like Lazarus water but only vaguely. If Ras is involved he's changed up the formula a lot-
Bruce looked down at his son, usually this would be the point where he would make a quip or joke of some sort, but there was nothing. Only his face contorting as his emotions swang to one extreme to the next, his eyes periodically flashing Lazarus green...
Aka Danny is badly injured and in his panic he sees Nightwing and thinks, "Safety" and that the hero wouldn't mind, so he burrows his way into Nightwings shadow to basically go into hibernation to fix himself.
Who could have possibly guessed that a super powerful entity forcibly entering someone's subconscious and staying there would have massive mental and physical consequences? Not Danny, apparently.
What if when Tim went off to look for Batman when he was lost in time he bumped into Phantom.
They made a Deal
Phantom knowing CW helped him find Bruce and how to get him back safely, Phantom in return for reasons (hurt badly & recovering, or evolving in power) needed someone very ecto-contaminated (Ra's fault) like Tim, to be contained in.
From a magic user point of view, knowing very little of the GZ and how they work, Tim made a very powerful Deal with a powerful death being (High Ghost King Phantom: Hello!) and is now somehow pregnant (not really but they don't know that)
Danny while inside Tim inside his core can still hear the world outside normally and can share his emotions with Tim to communicate. Which looks a lot like Tim is speaking to his belly just like expecting parents do.
This could be angst or crack
or
my personal favourite, different genres for different pov's
Tim's would be happy, just regular getting his life back together being a total BAMF, coming of age type of vibe
The rest of the Batfam and other heroes pov would be angst, paranormal, psychological horror.
Misunderstandings galore
Dick regretting heavily his decisions which caused Tim to run away because he did not believe him and he has many Regrets.
Bruce feeling guilty that Tim felt the need to make such a decision as to make a Deal and end up pregnant just to bring him back.
Meanwhile the magic users have told the other heroes about Tim's situation and now think that he's going to give birth to the child of a very powerful death being and if something happens to Tim to risk the baby it would cause all of their worlds destruction.
so pretty much-
Tim-Girl Boss, Gatekeep, Gaslight
Batfam- Much Angst
Others- *panicked chicken noises*
~
Just an Idea
Halloween prompts year 2 day 22
A quiet beeping came from Red Robins wrist computer, puzzling him. A break in? At one of his more affluent safe houses? At this time of day?
He pulled up footage from his hidden cameras for see a kid around 14 riffling through his cabinets, only to take a box of pop tarts before bolting, looking super guilty the entire time.
Over pop tarts.
Of course Tim didn't call the police. It was pop tarts and the kid looked like he needed them too.
About a week later the kid came back. He slowly crept around the place, poking things, moving furniture around by an inch or so before deciding it was safe to steal more food. It was always things too small for Tim to care about and honestly wouldn't even notice were missing unless he had been craving them beforehand.
After another week he came back and had the audacity to actually take a shower. It was then that Tim realized what was happening.
The kid must have had never seen any police arrive after the break in and thought there was no security at all. An empty rich guys apartment with full working amenities was a perfect place for a homeless kid to live.
Tim was about to call in an anonymous tip to the authorities so he could be placed in the foster system when the kid jolted and briefly flicked invisible. That changed things. Checking the outside cameras revealed that a minor car accident happened outside. He could understand the kid being a homeless runaway if he had powers that could activate suddenly when startled.
So he let the kid stay, making sure to sneak in and keep the groceries and toiletries stalked up whenever the kid went out for the night. Kid always came back in the morning to eat and sleep and Tim made it a habit to keep tabs on the kid even while he was doing other things.
Tim stared at his computer screen, wondering if this counted as "Stalker Tendencies"
Tim hadn't yet realized he had adopted this child-emotionally if nothing else. He keeps feeling really proud of himself whenever he gets his child to eat properly and leaves little recipe cards and stuff in the cabinets with the food.
Danny thinks the apartment is magic
I came across the AU idea that Dick Grayson is Richard Parker, and thus, Peter Parker's biological father. There are a few fics where Peter dimension travels to the DC universe and gets to meet his dead father. It is a fun idea, but I have different one.
AU where Peter dimension travels to the DC universe, and the batfam realizes that he is Dick's son, but rather than think he is from another universe, they all come to the conclusion that he is from the future.
It makes sense, after all, the rules of time travel basically boil down to 'don't change anything.' So when Peter is avoiding them and "pretending" not to know them, they just think he is following the rules. (He isn't even really avoiding them, he just has no idea who they are.)
You know how once you have an idea in your head, it take a lot of convince you that your wrong? Same idea here, they are so convinced of their idea that all new info ends up making them surer. Confirmation bias.
So Peter is trying to find a way home while the batfam tries to subtly help him without getting involved in time travel. Hijinks ensue.
Peter once mentions his love of photography and how he used to take pictures of heroes for a newspaper. Everyone looks at Tim and thinks, 'Gee I wonder where he picked up that hobby.'
At one point Peter pulls an assassin move, and Damian is like, 'I taught him that for sure.' (In reality Peter just trained with Natasha and Bucky before.)
When dealing with some issue Peter says something like, "I know a guy with some green angry problems and he taught me a lot about staying calm when mad." Everyone looks at Jason??? (He just picked up some meditation advice from Bruce Banner)
At some point he goes to the manor and everyone is like, 'Hah! More proof! He knows his way around the building!' He doesn't know his way around, his spider sense just lead him to where people are and kept him from getting lost.
He mentions Black Cat once, and everyone comes to the "totally logical" conclusion that Catwoman had a daughter, and that Peter and Felicia also have a weird almost dating thing going on.
Peter has been forced to go to some fancy events with Tony before so he knows how to act at rich people galas, which of course just adds fuel to the time travel theory.
Peter keeps accidentally referencing things that don't exist/didn't happen. Everyone just assumes these things didn't happen/don't exist yet.
Your typical Dp x Dc Summoning AU, but with a twist.
Jason is having a bad time.
The most of the family to be honest.
Why? Cultist. In Gotham.
One that worship some kind of All Powerful Eldritch Death Outer God from Beyond and plans to summon the Thing to this plane of existence.
The worst part? Most of the bats are being use as sacrifice. Wait no, the worst part is that Jason is the main sacrifice.
They did contemplate whether to use Jason or the Demon child, but end up deciding to use Jason instead. Something about being having essence of Death and the Multiverse in his veins and you know what? He's not gonna touch that with a ten foot pole. Nope.
The demon child is lashing out like the unvaccinated feral racoon that he is, Dick is trying to escape and so does Bruce as well as trying to make sense of the Summoning circle that the cultist were using. The replacement is snoring, the asshole.
Hah. Thats what he get for drinking five mugs of expresso instead of sleeping then gatting tranq.
Also, fuck Bruce for not calling Constantine or Zattana the moment they smelled something supernatural.
God, he hates magic.
The cultist started chanting by then, speaking in a language that no one understood—huh? Well look at that. He could apparently. He could hear them chanting in that unknown language and english at the same time, its over lapping. Weird, its like it was being translated especially for him since the others didnt seems to show any recognition with the words the cultist was using.
Except maybe the demon child, but the others? Nada.
"—Ruler of the inbetween, Heed our call. Defeater of the Dark Tyrant. Master of Space, The bridge between Every Realms, The Great One, The Balance—"
Thats a fuck ton of titles.
The circle began glowing green and fucking Lazarus waters began to pour out and thats not fucking good.
Pillar of unnaturally Neon Red Fire emerge from the Circle and destroyed the ceiling and shook the entire ware house.
A tall armoured figure emerge as the pillar of fire began to settle out. It was floating above the circle, looming over everything in a terryfing manner. Temperature began to rise as the being's Unnayurally white gaze fell upon them.
It was… a knight? A knight cross over a biker??? It also had guns which is weird and is that a fucking Bat Insignia on its chest?
Pressure from all side crash over them as the beings gaze intensified before vanishing all together the moment its gaze fell on jason.
After what seems to be eternity, the being finally spoke.
"Huh. His majesty was right, I really was that stinky and fuck up before he find me."
???
The knight biker then remove his helmet to reveal his own face with a domino mask with his color pallete just inverted.
The doppelganger then pull out his gun and began shooting down the cultist all against the other bats protest. One by one the cultist vanished in to tin air as if they didn't exist all together.
He snapped his fingers and the rope that tying the burst in the same crimson flames and vanished all together.
"What the absolute fuck is going on here?!"
Or cultist used kidnap batfam and use jason as a sacrifice to the ghost king to summon him.
They summon Alternate version of jason who is a halfa and work as one of Danny's Fright knight: Red Knight.
It's a little wild to me that most of the Spider-ManxDC xovers are MCU Spidey and not comic version because it would be so funny if the DC characters were like "This is a child" with Peter and then with Spider-Man they were like "This adult man is an immature asshole" like This Thread (except Batman and Nightwing would 100% clock him like Ben Grimm did as shown in this thread because they know teenage hothead asshole behavior when they see it. they paid attention to their asshole teenage partners. most of the other heroes either sent their asshole teenager sidekicks to various teen teams or their teenagers were more respectful. Plus, they all know Guy so...)
Danny, tired of being the absolute last priority in his friends and families lives, runs away after a major fight with one of them which causes him to realize all his living relationships are toxic.
Danny lands in a new world and decides to get a new parent or parents. How? Not through the foster system of course but through admittedly more sinister means. He picked someone he liked and altered the memories of them and thier loved ones to convince them that this kid was always thier son and created false legal paperwork and school records along with implanting memories into his new classmates. He even went so far let the person give him a new name so it would be more believable and it would be one less connection to his past.
The only problem is one (1) Jason Todd, who is appearently immune to his mind tricks. Jason only managed to get Tim to see the truth by pointing out Danny isnt mentioned anywhere in the batcomputer and things start falling apart from there.
Danny just wants someone to love him :(
you know… we talk a fuck ton about Dick seeing Jason and assuming he’s a hallucination, but like. what about Red Hood? Jason accidentally fucks up and the first time Dick meets Red Hood it’s when Jason’s out of the helmet, and instead of realising that the Red Hood is Jason Todd and Jason Todd is alive, he figures that not only is he hallucinating a grown up Jason, but he’s hallucinating that Jason is a murdering crime lord that doesn’t exist.
Dick doesn’t think Red Hood’s real. Jason thinks that Dick’s letting the crime shit slide as like… a peace offering between brothers. Dick straight up doesn’t realise that the crimes are actually happening.
Dick: well seems like things are pretty peaceful tonight… better head home
local radio station: according to reports the Red Hood of Crime Alley has been involved in a fear toxin drug bust down by the docks that has ended in the deaths of fifty-three men-
Dick: ha, nice try brain. i’m not getting involved with fake villains tonight!
Oracle in his ear: dude people are dying
Dick: STOP GASLIGHTING ME
he’s in the cave and Bruce is discussing a case with Tim and Tim’s talking about how they can’t get the information they need because every time they get close to Crime Alley they’re chased out and Dick’s like ?? lmfao skill issue how the fuck is Batman getting run out of Crime Alley
Bruce: well because of how serious the problems we’ve been having with Hood are-
Dick: if it’s that hard just don’t have a hood on your costume? geez man i can get you the info from Crime Alley no need for a fashion freak out
Bruce and Tim: ????
but bcs Dick doesn’t acknowledge Red Hood as an issue Jason is kind of like ‘……ok so fuck the bats for real, but Nightwing’s chill. we rockin w Dick bcs Dick rockin w us.’ so Nightwing can wander through the alley without any issue. him and Red Hood have a calm chat while Nightwing collects the info Bruce needs and then he waves goodbye like ‘well it was nice seeing you again fake-criminal-jay! you should join me for dinner next weekend it makes me feel less stupid for talking to myself when i can see you!’ and Red Hood’s waving back as he leaves like ‘well i could probably drop by for a few hours around six- wait wdym fake?’
Dick, wandering into the cave with the info: seriously you guys are so weird, i didn’t even see anybody the entire time i was there
Bruce and Tim, have been watching him on cctv joking with the Red Hood for the past three hours: ?!?!?!?!?
Ghostwriter was really asking for soup time at this point.
He had apologized for his first Christmas truce before, last year he even convinced Clockwork to help him make a copy of the original work he had ruined.
So why in god’s gracious earth did he wake up to Amity Park being in a hallmark movie.
Danny glared as the people milled about the center of town like they haven’t since the portal opening.
It was unnerving, the only thing really missing from the equation was some out of town love interest or something.
“Hey, excuse me.”
Tall and built with black hair and blue eyes.
Oh you got to be-
Keep reading
DpxDc AU: Tim as a child was never given a lot of information regarding the scribbling messy handwriting that appeared over night all over his arms- naturally he came to his own conclusions.
Tim Drake was home entirely alone at 9 years old and was about to go out for the night to test his brand new long exposure camera lens when he sees the writing on his arm. It’s not English, like he assumed it was at first, but it was using the alphabet to represent… Tim isn’t bad at math but this formula is complex for his little genius brain.
Looking at his camera, he decides he can spare a moment to look it up, solve it, and get back out into old town Gotham in time for Batman and Robin’s final patrol lap. He does just that, finding the problem to relate to some aerospace engineering and then quickly deduces what laws and theorems need to be applied. He finds a pen, writes down his findings in much neater handwriting onto his arm, and goes out. It’s barely a remarkable night at all. He gets a much more memorable photo of Robin roundhouse kicking a hench person.
Things just continued on that way. Tim would find some complex math, physics or chemistry prompt on his arm (surrounded by various question marks or notes or sad faces)- he’d answer it as best he could and move on with his life. Perhaps his parents were manifesting these pop quizzes? Perhaps his subconscious felt guilty about abandoning his studies for more Bat related pursuits? Tim really didn’t care to think much about it once he became Robin- there was too much on his plate and too many peoples problems for him to fix.
Notably, however, after the attack at the Tower, the pop quiz appeared and Tim wrote back that he wouldn’t be able to find an answer to this one. It was the only time Tim questioned the markings appearance and it was because the next thing that appeared was “Hope you feel better soon.”
… his parents wouldn’t include that on a pop quiz. Cursed then. Tim decided it must be a curse, whatever, he’d deal with the implications later in life.
Tim then has the worst year of his life, hes 15, no longer Robin and the questions from his curse are getting less math oriented and more… philosophical. A lot of mentions of death that, in hindsight helped him actually grieve, and a lot of theories about dark matter and souls. Tim answers back as best he can but he’s drained and his answers aren’t very good in his opinion. He gets minimal feedback.
It all comes to a point that he’s at a family dinner, Bruce is at the head of the table, Jason has promised just to stay for dessert, Damian hasn’t thrown a single insult his way and Steph was laughing at him- when a new theoretical model appears on his arm.
“You’re just as bad as Bruce, Timberly. Hiding a soulmate from all of us, how fucking typical.” Jason points out, while watching Tim scribble back some math with a question mark onto his arm.
“A what? No, this is just a curse. I get pop quizzes every now and then.” Tim bats away Steph who rapidly approaches and began to analyze his arm (the rest of the family isn’t far behind).
“Drake. Explain how you came to this conclusion.” Damian seems more curious than anything, if his lack of insults was anything to go off of.
“Since I was young I’ve had at least weekly math check ins, I never had a parent or anyone else around so I assumed my parents had me cursed to ensure I stayed on top of my studies. Sometimes it’s physics or chemistry, for a while there it was a ton of philosophy and behavioral psychology.” He shrugs his shoulders.
“Master Tim, I believe the lack of adults in your life has led you towards a false conclusion. That is most certainly a soulmate mark. The individual to whom you are responding is undoubtedly your other half.” Alfred attempts to calm the room before explaining to Tim. Tim isnt sure if he believes the butler, though Alfred only very rarely lied, so he grabs the pen once more. He writes his first question back: “Who am I to you?”
The room waits in anticipation and within moments a brand new line appears on Tim’s arm and he is vindicated: “We do math together???”
——
The reason Danny is failing English is because his built in homework helper sucks ass at metaphors and has apparently never read any classic literature. The tutor on his arm is great at puzzles and math tho.
Danny gets a reply back one night that he wasn’t expecting (Who am I to you?) and he mentions it to Jazz. Who goes insane that Danny didn’t even question it and just went with “meh, probably haunted” as his explanation for the phenomenon for all these years.
Apparently, if Jazz was right, he had a soulmate who was uh, super fucking smart. That was an overwhelming thought.
The next day Danny is in crisis mode and writes back “Wait, WHAT AM I TO YOU??? Can I help on your homework??”
Danny gets vindicated when the writing on his arm presents a shit ton of dates and information for an unsolved Gotham cold case. See, Haunted.
———
Eventually between Danny becoming the top candidate for astrophysics at Wayne Enterprises and Tim Drake being outed as having contributed tips to the GCPD that solved cold cases- they meet and realize just how dumb they’ve been.