I am absolutely loving your Danyal Al Ghul au. While I have a soft spot for the whole plotline of Danny becoming his canon personality almost right after breaking away from the LOA all because of Jazz, I'm just as much for your take in which he goes through the same character development as Damian.
Now I'm curious. You already tackled his relationship with Dani, will you eventually take a stab at when he, Sam, and Tucker meet Gregor? Given that it's one of my hated episodes as I couldn't stand Sam's infuriatingly hypocritical attitude to Danny's suspicions of him, I'd kill to see your spin on it.
Aw, thank you! Danyal Al Ghul aus are what got me into DPDC first, so I have a major soft spot for them. That being said, uh, its exactly that soft spot that causes me to have Many Opinions about the trope you just mentioned. Like the trope is all fine and dandy, i don't blindly hate it, my main issue with it is that most aus i've seen treat his backstory as an ex-assassin more like a pretty cosmetic accessory rather than something that actually should have had an impact on him. Especially if he remembers being in the league.
Like i cannot stress enough the fact that being in an ecofascist assassin cult (regardless of his standing in it) should've left him, in some way or another, screwed up morally and psychologically because that's just how development works. Nature vs. Nurture is like a game of tug-o-war that never ends, where they are constantly fighting against each other and one side usually has the upper hand or greater influence. Children model the behaviors of the adults around them (ex: bobo the clown doll experiment), and what impacts them in childhood can stick with them permanently.
Like how my psychology professor put it: a baby's brain is like wet cement; if you slap your hand on it, it leaves an imprint, and the cement dries that way. The same rings true for small children.
I could go on, but I frankly have so many thoughts on that alone that I would end up completely derailing from the second half of your ask, and I don't want to be more critical than I already have. Especially since you just mentioned you have a soft spot for the trope.
[Okay, hold onto your hats because this is long. Naturally lmao.]
Gregor! Man, I'll admit I last watched the show back in middle school on a dodgy illegal website (it had surprisingly good audio and visual graphics, and full episodes. But really annoying porn ads.) but I only made it to like season 1 before my hyperfixation faded and I lost interest. So I never actually saw the Gregor episode.
But... it is relatively easy to find free websites that stream Danny Phantom :), so finding the episode took me like. Thirty seconds. Plus the Tv.Tropes recap page because my damn earbuds just died and im out in public as of rn.
I'm not sure if I'll write something for the gregor episode like I did with Dani, since Dani's a bit of a special case in that she's a clone and tends to be a reoccurring presence in DPDC, and I thought the new dynamic with Danyal would be interesting.
Plus, I'm not a big amethyst ocean shipper for the pure reason of I'm just not all that interested in it; its kinda bland to me. I'll admit I've entertained the thought in this au due to the whole balcony scene i wrote, but I would've entertained the thought anyways if it was Tucker in that position instead. Big multishipper, me.
But, if I had to make it official? Danyal is not interested romantically in Sam when the Gregor episode happens, regardless of his relationship with Valerie. Who, speaking of I'm trying to think about how that would go, and I'm torn between including him almost-dating Valerie or not.
Because on one hand it helps point out Sam's hypocrisy (and i love her but i am always happy to point out her flaws and address them in au) in this episode in terms of Danny spying on them, but on the other hand I'll want to include a lot of set up in order to make Gray Ghost work in this au and wow will that take a while.
Especially with the Flirting with Disaster episode because it happens due to Technus' meddling, and Danny is, well, the son of the Batman? A trained assassin? An ex-assassin nonetheless, but still an assassin? A prodigy child in this au? He might not have needed to use most of his skills in the last few years, but like... there's just a bunch of 'what if' and 'well technically...' and 'would he? he could, but would he?' things that is getting in the way of my thought process and making my head spin.
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Mmm. Okay. Flirting with Disaster occurs relatively the same as canon with a few exceptions; like Danyal noticing the strange coincidences, and he might take the idea into proper consideration because Sam has a point it is strange, especially out of nowhere.
However,,, he really enjoys Valerie's company, and he does really like her. He's been adjusting to civilian life for the last four years and while he's made a lot of progress, he's still. an ex-assassin child living like a wolf amongst sheep. This is normal, typical teenager stuff, and usually his friends like to encourage him doing normal teenager stuff.
So he's stubbornly holding out on the thought that this is normal, that ghost stuff isn't interfering here. He's a little hurt that his friends are discouraging this, he's not bothered by the fact that Valerie is a ghost hunter and he a ghost -- his mother is an assassin, and his father is Batman, and they still had a relationship. (Granted, he's not gonna tell them that)
If anything, being diametrically opposed to each other but still being in love is part of the family! Granted, usually both parties are aware of said opposition to each other, but he'll make a special exception this time around.
(And man now that i'm thinking about gray ghost, im now thinking about various like. scenes i could write between the two of them. maybe in a reblog.)
Anyways uhhh things relatively go the same as canon. Yeah. I think Sam still has a crush on Danny and still spies out of jealousy with Tucker.
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Now, the Gregor episode! With that out of the way; the TVTropes recap for this episode isn't the best because it doesn't go into detail about the entire episode like it does with Flirting With Disaster and Shades of Gray.
(which i looked at earlier because I made a section of this post talking briefly about what changes I'd make to the Shades of Gray episode to help set up Gray Ghost, but ended up deleting because it was kinda irrelevant for the matter at hand.)
So I'm taking in bits of the episode clips at a time, I'll try not to get too nitpicky about how each scene goes because then it's gonna take me a longer time to write this.
But! First thing's first; since Danny is not romantically interested in Sam, he is also not jealous of Gregor. He is however, a bit eyebrow-raisey at him in their first introduction, but that's because Gregor is coming off as obnoxious.
Danny thinks he's kinda annoying, and it doesn't take a genius to see that Gregor is trying to impress Sam. But since they've only known him for five minutes he takes the good faith assumption and assumes that Gregor is genuinely trying to show interest in Sam's interests too because he likes her, so he keeps mum. The fake hungarian accent is weird, but it's overall harmless, so he doesn't point it out.
He does do the spying thing when he starts suspecting that Gregor might be working for the GIW. The episode only has this happen twice, but for the au this happens a handful of more times over the course of the week, with Danyal's suspicion steadily rising more and more each time.
Hah, when he brings up wanting to spy on Sam and Gregor because of this reason, Tucker still does his "woah! you wanna spy on Sam?" thing.
Danny immediately turns to him, completely unimpressed, and crosses his arms. "Tucker," he says, deadpan, "you and Sam spied on me and Valerie."
He uses a combination of his ghost powers and his regular stealth ability to spy on them. He's hiding in a tree when they're skipping rocks, close enough that he can use his powers to hear them talk but far enough away that he has a good view of their surroundings.
He's invisible in the cinema, but doesn't accidentally get in front of the projector. He checks the inside of the room for the GIW, and then waits outside the actual room itself, keeping an eye on the area and occasionally flying in to watch the movie out of boredom. It reminds him of being back on a recon mission with the League, but it doesn't end with him orchestrating someone's death.
Then when they're at the mall he stays in human form, blending in with the crowd. He runs into the GIW there, but realizes that they're not there because of Gregor; they're just shopping. They didn't show up at either of the last two locations, and he follows them to make sure they're not also trying to blend in. But they're literally just there for shopping.
Danny is rather pleased with this turnout; so far Gregor isn't a spy, he's just annoying. The next day at lunch he asks Sam how her date with Gregor went, and that's how she figures out he spied on them, because well, she didn't tell him that.
"Have you been spying on me?"
Danny messes with his food a little bit, and Tucker is sinking into his seat with embarrassment. He frowns, "Only last night. Those incompetent government dodos--"
His lip curls up; he gets all 'Shakespeare-y' (as Sam and Tucker put it) when he's insulting someone, "--kept appearing whenever Gregor did. I followed you and him last night to make sure he wasn't a spy."
A roundabout way of saying, "I was worried".
Sam is, as canon, furious. Danny understands why, he knows generally speaking that people don't like being spied on. But he's confused on just how angry she is, and is a little irritated by it.
"Why would you do that!" She exclaims, "That's way out of line, Danny."
"How? You spied on me when I was going on dates with Valerie." He narrows his eyes, and points his fork at her, "I'm not blind, I noticed."
"That's different, we told you why we were suspicious. And we don't have ghost powers like you do."
"I don't need ghost powers to sneak around, Sam, you've seen this firsthand. And I just told you why I followed you, I thought he was working with the guys in white--"
"So you think someone can only be interested in me if they're after you?" (this is a paraphrased quote, folks ;D)
"No! If that was the case I would have voiced my concern the moment I thought it. I don't get why you're so angry, you spied too."
Iiits.... a mess. Sam storms off with Gregor, Tucker tags along because okay, yeah, maybe Gregor isn't with the GIW, or maybe last night was a fluke. Either way he ends up tagging along. Danny overhears that conversation between the GIW and Mr. Lancer, and maybe he's right, maybe he's wrong; but something is up.
I've gotten to that scene in the locker room where Gregor tells Danny that he knows he doesn't like him, and I've paused at Danny's reply to say this: Danyal doesn't even bother trying to deny it.
"I know you do not like me."
"You're right; I don't."
"Ah, let me finish. I know you do not like me because you want to protect your friend, Sam, and I respect that."
"...That's correct."
"Good! Because I am going to ask her out."
"I had a feeling you'd say that," he stands up, claps his hand tight on Gregor's shoulder, and leans close to him with a threatening smile, "so you understand me when i say; if you break my best friend's heart, you're as good as dead, right?"
"Ah,, yes. I am so glad we got that cleared out of the way, and now I hope after we can.. how you Americans put it, hang out?"
In the episode he hugs Danny and gives him a la bise (which is that french greeting where you kiss someone on the cheek two or more times) after they end their conversation. But here, when he goes to do that to Danyal, Danny leans away, points an accusatory finger at him, and says; "Absolutely not; we are not close."
The next scene after that is like, end of day. Sam, Tucker, and Gregor walking away. Sam looks over her shoulder to glare at Danny, then gets forlorn. Tucker looks back and just looks forlorn.
(When did I start narrating each scene?? Eh, I'm writing this in brief spurts of time throughout the day. Don't fix what's not broke)
After that there's this whole scene with the two GIW agents that have been chasing Phantom all episode. They're there because they have Tucker's PDA that Skulker took, and it's got the information of their purple backed gorilla assignment on it. They've been going around seeing who Tucker associates with in hopes of catching Phantom.
Uhh ahaha and that is where this gets a little interesting imo, and also allows me to mention that im retconning Danyal's (already) redesigned ghost form. Which I've wanted to retcon even before this moment bc it was just too busy. I'll get to that in a moment.
The GIW suspect Gregor for being the Phantom because of his white hair and green eyes, which is all fine and dandy until you remember: Danyal (and by extension Phantom) has that very noticeable, rather identifiable facial scar that goes across the middle of his fucking face. The GIW could easily suspect that Phantom hides his scar with makeup if he's in disguise, but if they meet a kid with a seemingly identical facial scar and similar disposition? Hoo boy.
Solution? I've got two: Gregor is canonically a kid from Michigan who faked everything to impress Sam. Considering he knows she's gothic and knows that she's ultra-recyclo vegetarian? He probably watched her from afar or got information on her somehow. His hair is dyed, his eyes might just naturally be green, but if he notices that she's got a crush on either Danyal or Phantom? A little sfx makeup could help him recreate a similar looking scar.
My second solution that's gonna happen anyways bc its that suit redesign; Danyal does hide his face as Phantom. Ghosts are emotional creatures and its a popular headcanon that their interests, ambitions, etc, influence the way they look as a ghost, not just their death. A big reoccurring theme of my au is that Danyal did not leave the League unscathed, and that being an assassin is an important part of his identity.
So i'm discarding the hazmat suit look entirely and leaning into the 'assassin' thing. But the general (stylized) feel is like, white ribbon/cloth vambraces that he has used as a garrote at some point, a hood, a gaiter scarf-type thing. I'm keeping the cape. I did a doodle a few days back that's not the official redesign, but a redesign for Phantom. I may reblog this post with that attached because it's got the general feel down. There's very little white involved, but the inside of his cape flares out and looks like the night sky.
Now, the hood and gaiter scarf gets rid of most of the problem, but Danny's hood doesn't stay on all the time, so the GIW have likely seen the upper half of the scar. :] Gregor's own drawn-on scar doesn't have to be 1:1, but it looks close enough, right? A small scar cutting through the edge of his brow and ends right below the corner of his eye. A 'cool, badass' one opposed to Danny's 'garish' scar.
But! Back to the episode scene. Canon Danny gets written off as being 'too prepubescent' to be Phantom, and honestly it'd be hilarious if Danyal was written off for the same reason (he's calling them idiots in his head if they do). But instead -- leaning into the GIW's incompetence here -- he gets written off as being too mature or too talkative. Or something equally as absurd.
Sam breaks up with Gregor for canon reasons, but when Gregor does his "i really like you, but, come on-!" and gestures to tucker, he adds on "and that scary friend of yours too, seriously!"
Things go relatively the same as canon after that. Danny does end up apologizing for spying, however. Sam does it first. Sorrows, prayers, all that.
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Things usually end up changed or different when I actually write it down, so I'd likely add more or adjust different scenes according to the flow of the oneshot. This is just like, a general vibe of how things would go, and where some of the more obvious changes would be if I did write this oneshot.
Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for the ask :]
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Matsukawa pauses at the end of the hallway and says, 'So, be honest for a second.'
'Oh, just a second? Doable,' Hanamaki says. He stops too, rocking back on his heels just once, still smiling.
Matsukawa hesitates.
Then, 'Do I have a chance with you?'
Hanamaki's smile drops.
'What are you talking about.'
'In any possible way,' Matsukawa clarifies, or, his tone is that of clarification. Hanamaki is still buffering, so it sounds like horseshit to him. 'In any universe, do you think, of any of the possible—worlds of us.'
'Worlds of us,' he repeats faintly. He'd said possible twice.
'Could I,' Matsukawa nods.
And; 'Could we? Maybe if. If you think about it, us being, going, or generally about me is there even a—chance,' he finishes.
Trails off.
A subdued, pathetic end to a question that had been sprung so casually, so nonchalant, so hey listen what's the time or yo pass me that pencil that Hanamaki is actually, sincerely reeling.
At the juxtaposition, like. The absurdity of this moment. Someone brushes past and they both take a step closer.
And; Matsukawa is 15 years and 8 months, six feet, a stupendous sixty nine kayjee worth of ease. He has never studied for a test. He talks so slowly it's offensive and squints at scary movie scenes to see them better. He spent their last cram sesh watching 'pen trick' tutorials online. He is most likely to laugh in the face of death, quietly and with his shoulders shaking.
He is flushed and slightly sweaty.
It's ten A.M. Shoes squeak against the clean hallway floors. Lockers slam shut and doors click open. Hanamaki stares for a long time at Matsukawa's twitching jaw, the red creeping into his ears, the nervous flex of long fingers as they slide up his nape into his hair.
'Answer.' Gaze fixed above Hanamaki's head.
'No?'
Dark eyes blink down to meet Hanamaki's. 'No?'
'No,' he asserts. Crosses his arms, because he's feeling a bit stupid with them hanging by his sides, leftover from when his jaw'd been hanging, just now, five seconds ago.
Matsukawa looks like his world has just ended.
Still, he asks, haltingly, 'No, as in, I don't.'
Hanamaki huffs, shifting his face pointedly away from Matsukawa's. 'No. No as in, I'm not answering that.'
He peeks though, eyes flicking to catch his reaction.
Matsukawa opens his mouth, then closes it.
And Hanamaki knows Matsukawa pretty well because it's been around eight months. Nine, maybe, he's not keeping count. So he knows Matsukawa from the cartilage jutting out the bridge of his nose to his brown, brown knees. Knows he sweats when he's nervous. Knows it goes both ways.
So he keeps quiet and keeps looking at him seriously as Matsukawa goes from worrying the inside of his lip to furrowing his brows. Waits for his forehead to clear and his lips, raw purple to part around, 'Ah.'
Matsukawa looks at him, as if for signs he's joking. Gets none.
His eyes crinkle. He wets his lips, just at the inner seam like his mouth had gone dry.
Hanamaki repeats his, 'Ah,' in a similar tone.
Matsukawa clicks his tongue, a familiar, beautiful ease returning to his body. His cheek dimpling as his lips close around a grin. 'Ah. Okay.'
Hanamaki kicks his shin lightly, and Matsukawa straightens, curving away and oh, he hadn't even noticed that.
The way Matsukawa's whole frame had turned towards him, the hallway blocked off, just them facing each other at a standstill while the rest of the world moved.
Still, stepping back doesn't stop Matsukawa's broadening smile. Self satisfied where mere minutes ago he'd been all but near-breakdown, the insufferable toerag. 'That's a yes.'
They go back enroute to class, falling into step seamlessly and Hanamaki says, trying to hold it off, or maybe attempting to protect himself from violent, amateur flirting, 'Nothing more should be said on this matter.'
Matsukawa is as resilient as a pillar. 'Maybe by you. Maybe this matter is all I personally will ever talk about.'
'Maybe you should think before you speak.'
'Maybe you should speak less confusingly.'
'Maybe you should be less easily confused.'
'Maybe you should get real.'
Hanamaki lets out a bright, giddy laugh. This really is happening. Something thrumming in him says it was always going to.
Matsukawa smiles out at their milling schoolmates, entirely content. Once more at ease. Hanamaki's own cheeks are warm, have been for a few minutes now, but he can't be mad. He's all floating on air, never been happier.
Matsukawa has a chance. More to the point, he wants one.
Hanamaki would give him his own nervous system right out from under his traitorous pink skin, because it's only nervous for him, so a chance is easy. A chance is a given.
A chance was only ever going to be given to him, if Hanamaki is honest. And now, he figures, peeking up at Matsukawa's happy flush, red ears and dimpling mouth, no one else will ever try.
Hanamaki stuffs his hands in his pockets. Walks onward. Matsukawa says, 'So, be honest again.'
'If you're asking.' Hanamaki would tell no lies, if he was asking. At the very least he'd try.
Matsukawa ducks his head but he can't hide that toothy smile, Hanamaki's already seen it. 'Do you want to skip fourth period and go—get something to eat?'
'Are you hungry?' Hanamaki asks, because he wants to know.
'No,' he admits. 'I just want to be alone with you.'
Hanamaki's nervous system is buzzing and alight, his fingertips sparking and his brain thrumming and it's like his entire body is one golden livewire.
He touches Matsukawa's sleeve, then tugs at it and Matsukawa turns, not on fire but face burning red.
'I want to be alone with you too,' Hanamaki confides, cheeks hurting with how hard he's smiling.
'Ten A.M is too early for you to talk to me like that,' Matsukawa says, sounding winded.
Hanamaki laughs, yanks on his sleeve so they can make their getaway.
It's abrupt, spontaneous and daring for the middle of the week so early in the school day but they share a look brimming with crazy excitement when they get to the closest exit.
'What if we get caught?' Matsukawa teases, crowding behind Hanamaki as he hides, flat against a wall as a janitor walks by. His body heat is momentarily everything.
'Take a fucking chance, Issei,' Hanamaki says, and finds Matsukawa's hand, fingers slipping into his.
His palm is sweaty and when he groans, it's open and born of half-delight. 'Whatever, Hiro—anything.'
The gate swings shut and they're already racing down the street.
(11:23 A.M) hanapippi: yo can u hide our bags
(11:23 A.M) hanapippi: drop them off at issei's @ the end ofthe day
(11:32 A.M) iwa seijoh: You guys are nuts
(11:32 A.M) hanapippi: we're on our first date
(11:32 A.M) iwa seijoh: Fine
(11:33 A.M) hanapippi: ur a real 1 💖
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