Unpleasant Revelations - DPxDC Ficlet Idea for the Stillborn Au
"Have you met my youngest, Damian, Mr. Masters?"
Its only from twenty years of long, hard experience and practice that Vlad doesn't increase the room temperature from 'borderline uncomfortably cool' to 'unbearably hot' the moment Bruce Wayne pulls his youngest and "only" biological son out in front of him.
He puts only in quotations because twelve year old Damian Wayne looks scarily, uncannily like one Daniel Brown. Jack and Maddie's foster son, second victim of their foolishness, and only other halfa in existence. Second only to him.
It's nauseating how similar they look. From the scowl and terrible glare on the young boy's face, to his brown skin -- which was only a few shades lighter than Daniel's, the shape of his nose, and even the strange winged edge of his eyebrow. Something that Vlad has long since come to find endearing on the child he considered a son of his own. The only difference was that Damian had dark, sharp green eyes.
Daniel's eyes were blue. The same glacier shade as his father's, who stood behind Damian with a proud, oafish smile on his visage.
It was infuriating how similar they look. Vlad might not have rapidly swung the room temperature from one extreme to the other, but he can't stop himself from letting the fury burning within his core from slipping out and raising the temperature up a few degrees.
Because it really only meant one thing.
Damian Wayne and Daniel Brown were related.
Damian Wayne and Daniel Brown were brothers.
Standing in front of him, it was clear as day. He can already picture a phantom image of Daniel standing beside Damian, the same scowl written on his face, the same glare carved into his eyes. The only difference being the dark, exhausted circles beneath them that seemed to be permanently painted onto his skin. The only thing missing being the permanent loneliness and vigilance permeating his being like a scar.
This, if revealed, would be enough to ruin Bruce Wayne's reputation. Or, at the very least, darken it quite a bit. The great philanthropist Bruce Wayne with another secret blood child? One related to his youngest? One that had been put into foster care? Seemingly thrown away?
It would be a firestorm.
One that Vlad is not keen on starting.
It would ruin Bruce Wayne's reputation, yes. But it would hurt Daniel in the process -- the harassment he would face alone might just be enough to break that fragile child completely. That was just not something he could allow. Or, even worse, bring him into his biological father's care and custody -- something Vlad was even less willing to allow.
It's not out of kindness to Wayne that Vlad will keep mum about this.
His grip on his champagne flute tightens, just a bit. He's still aware enough of the world around him to not let it shatter in his hands. His plastered, pleasant smile tightens around the corners, and he forces his focus to slide from Damian to Wayne.
"The resemblance is uncanny, Mister Wayne." He says, slanting his smile to the side slyly. Although he's not talking about the resemblance between Wayne and his son. Rage simmers beneath his skin, burning coal and embers in the core of his chest, nestled between his lungs, as he meets the man's eyes.
Wayne swaggles his head proudly, his ditzy smile widening as he squeezes his son's shoulder affectionately. Bastard, Vlad wants to spit.
He breathes in through his nose, and exhales out through his mouth. The champagne in his hand cools, and stops its unusual bubbling.
The Damian boy scoffs under his breath, his mouth still coiled upward into a scowl. With the revelation of his blood relation to Daniel evident, Vlad's not sure if he should find it endearing or not.
He is not Daniel, so he decides that it's just simply irritating. He decides to ignore it.
"And you said he was your only biological son?" He asks, voice lilting and head tilting. He knows its a suspicious question at worst, insulting at best. But considering Wayne's past proclivities, he can hardly call it an unexpected question.
Damian puffs in great offense, face twisting angrily. It reminds him of Daniel when Vlad insisted that he was wrong about something or other, and for a moment his heart swells, fond.
But this is not his child, and so the feeling quickly crashes and burns, simmering back into rage. This was not Daniel -- this was his replacement. A replacement that Wayne was free to keep.
Wayne chuckles, idiotically, as if he'd said some funny joke. Vlad's other hand, the one gripping his cane -- something he's required ever since he was dispatched from the hospital all those lonely years ago -- tightens instead. He grinds his teeth -- him and Jack Fenton would get along like a house on fire, he hates it.
"I can understand why you'd ask that, Mister Masters," Wayne says, squeezing Damian's shoulder again, "but yes, Damian is my only biological son. Although that doesn't mean I don't love my other children any less."
Bastard.
For all his posturing and flouncing about caring for his city and his children, Vlad never would have thought the Prince of Gotham capable of abandoning one of them.
But, well.
They all have their dark secrets.
And what one man throws away, another man picks up. If Bruce Wayne didn't want the treasure child that was Daniel Brown, then Vlad Masters was more than happy to take him instead.
"I see."
498 notes
·
View notes
You mentioned once that Eg has both polecat and dart frog DNA, right? That implies that other clones can have more than one type of animal mixed with them. Thinking of the possibilities is exciting :)
(That is correct! Now it is time for 'Bean talks about clone OCs again!!!' (Also Bean is not a scientist, and we are using cartoon logic, so do not come at them for inaccuracy!!!)
In the most simple of terms, there are three groups that clones can be classified into! (Well, four, but we'll get into that)
The first group is clones with just a single species of animal (or plant!) spliced into their DNA, with examples being Spud (Star-Nosed Mole) and Mirtillo (Common Vampire Bat)
These guys are probably second most common! Giving clones specific traits without the risk of mixing DNAs and causing the clone to explode or something
The second group is clones with more than one set of DNA, but those animals are all the same species, ie Vitelotte having only spider DNA (Jumping Spider, Wolf Spider, Tarantula etc (side note, no specific subspecies bc there are so many spiders I do not have the spoons to look through them all and pick some out kjfdsjf)), and Mint Chip having shark DNA (Tiger Shark and Thresher Shark)
These guys are probably the most common type as they (the scientists) were giving clones specific traits from animals like the singular DNA clones, but also did not want to be limited if one type of species could do something another couldn't
And then Eg falls into the third group of having more than one set of DNA from different animals! As mentioned, she has Striped Polecat (aka African Skunk or Zorilla) and Blue Poison Dart Frog DNA! Another example, bc I need to have two examples, is BB, who is a mix of Boer Goat, African Lion, Ball Python, and King Cobra!
This group is the rarest out of the three, bc mashing together DNAs like that often resulted in failure, but that does not mean they are few and far between!
And last, but not least, special cases!!! This is the group Pep falls into, even tho he should technically be in the third group, he is packed with so many different kinds of DNA, he is very much an outlier here
And there are a few other outliers, who would also technically be in one of the previous groups, but what makes them different is that they were not purposely spliced with certain DNAs, and were the result of cross-breeding (two (or more) different clones with different DNAs making a baby), or cannibalism (eating another clone and absorbing their set(s) of DNA)
112 notes
·
View notes
The ability to fly would open up a new dimension to explore (in the mathematical-physical sense—we already know Danny had opened one up in the other sense). Think of how much Danny would notice that no one else would?
Think of bees. (Not so much birds, because we see birds all the time, and also because they don't seem quite as graceful and maneuverable as bees.) When I did a search for how high bees can fly, I found something that said bees could fly higher than Mount Everest (little edit: may've misunderstood what it meant. They might not've been found flying that high after all, just that 'they could'). Bees can go anywhere they want, just for fun.
We as humans tend to (for the most part) view the world as six feet high. Anything six feet or under, we know about (or possibly up to eight feet. But it's not much higher than our height). And we don't really realize we're thinking this way.
Sure, we can look upward, we can see treetops from a distance, we can see what the sky looks like. But it's from the perspective of looking up from a distance. Our worldview is colored by looking up from six feet or less.
It's a flat surface. Despite us knowing it's not flat, we don't really internalize it as being 3D and navigable. And we also don't realize what's up there. Who would ever imagine there were bees buzzing around the top of a 200 foot tree? To get to flowers we didn't even notice were up there?
And, yeah, we have planes, but they fly in a set path and you can only look down at the very distant ground. Helicopters are probably more similar, but not many people fly or ride those.
But Danny... after the accident, he would've started out sticking close to the ground a lot, but as he started getting more comfortable with the ability to fly, his worldview probably would've changed gradually. From his preconceived idea of 'the world is six feet or less' to 'the world is spacious and easily explored and so very 3D'.
There's an episode where he's vacuuming the living room ceiling—as though he thinks his parents will notice that it's cleaner than before. And though I understand the 'I have to clean everything so I don't get in trouble' impulse better than I should, there's a chance it's partly from Danny seeing the house differently than before. The ceiling becomes just another wall for him. ...One that he might clean often when he has cleaning chores, because he's going to notice all those spiderwebs and cobwebs, and the little bugs gathering in the light fixtures.
(...He probably would realize the ground is also navigable at some point, too. Think of all the tunnels and moles and snakes and other creatures he'll see, and all the plant roots and such.)
142 notes
·
View notes