"Stillborn? No, no, still born." -- DPXDC AU
Based off a comment I saw where Bruce knew about Talia's pregnancy in the earlier comivs, and was ecstatic to be a father. So much so that Talia feared he'd give up being Batman for it, so when she gave birth she put the baby (Damian) on a doorstep and (seemingly) told Bruce that the baby was stillborn.
Instead of Damian, that baby was Danny! Meet Daniel Brown, the 14 year old foster kid whose been living with the Fenton family for the last two years. He's about two years older than Damian.
His last name, "Brown", was a generic surname given to him because the note he came with didn't have one on it. It just had the name "Danyal" on it, but albeit 'Daniel' was the one that had been put into the system for, I'll be totally frank here, racism reasons.
(I looked it up to make sure, and it's generally not permissible for foster parents to change the names of their foster kids even if it's a permanent residency, and for that reason Danny doesn't have the last name "Fenton".)
Danny's got ✨~issues!~✨ He's been through a handful of homes growing up, most of them terrible for a variety of reasons. Which has, as a result, left lasting scars. He's generally a very sweet kid, just very distrustful and jumpy. He's got the signs of a kid suffering from PTSD, and a handful of other issues including attachment and insomnia. His inferiority complex could rival Damian's, and that's going to make for an interesting mutual hatred for when they finally meet.
(something I'll get into later)
He still has the blanket he was found in. It's made of a very high quality material and is a beautiful emerald green with little golden thread accents, it's high quality as a result has Danny clinging onto a desperate hope that his bio family might be out there, and the only reason they gave him up was because of some outside factor. It's been taken a few times in old foster homes, and he's flipped out each time.
While he still calls Jack and Maddie by their names, he likes them well enough. The bar isn't that high though, and while they're some of the better foster parents he's had, "better" doesn't equal "safest". Their laboratory malpractice. Basically, C- Fenton Parents. They're negligent by virtue of being engrossed in their work, but they do care equally about Jazz and Danny. So he doesn't hold it against them that much.
He kinda prefers it that way, their loud affection is overwhelming and Danny doesn't know what to do with their attention, even if he craves it. It's a bit of a complicated situation.
They took in Danny because they genuinely wanted another child, but didn't want a big age gap between them and Jazz. It was actually Jack's idea to foster, and they discussed it with Jazz beforehand. She was all for the idea. Thus, a handful of weeks later, a ton of paperwork, and inspection later, and Daniel Brown entered their household with a trash bag in one hand and eyes like shards of stained glass.
His relationship with Jazz is kinda strained, but that's by virtue of her constant psychoanalyzing and helicoptering. Like with the parents, Danny's overwhelmed by the attention and also just, straight up doesn't like the fact that she's telling him that there's something wrong with him. He knows that, thank you. He pushes her away when she does this.
Other than that though? When Jazz isn't smothering him and is acting like an actual sibling and not a third parent, they're pretty close, and Danny really likes her. They've hung out a few times on their own volition, and Jazz showed him how to take better care of his long hair.
His school situation,, pretty similar to canon with the bullying, albeit with a few more instances of him blowing a fuse and lashing out against his attackers. He's a rather angry kid, but it's quiet. It builds up, piles on top of itself, until eventually, like a volcano, it erupts and burns everyone within radius.
Danny's got a fire core, not an ice core. Phantom's hair is made of white magma; thick and heavy, setting itself on fire when his anger runs hot. When he gets angry, his skin begins to char and split open to reveal pulsating lava underneath, and he crackles and pops like a raging forest fire.
I haven't decided yet on how he meets the batfam -- i've got two ideas but they're both in opposition to each other, and drastically alter how the rest of the plot goes. But I do know that him and Damian hate each other in the beginning. And it has nothing to do with inheritance or "being the blood son" -- although their blood relation absolutely plays the major role in their disdain for each other.
Simply put, they're jealous of each other for the same thing: thinking that the other was wanted.
Damian hates Danny because, unlike Damian, Bruce knew about Danny since conception and wanted him from the moment he heard about him. He had a whole nursery set up, and still does. He never took it down -- just locked the door. Damian was thrust upon Bruce without warning, and he feels like he forced himself into the family. And while on some level Damian knows and understands that Bruce wants him and loves him as much as his other children, that doubt and feeling of inferiority still remains. He looks at Danny and sees him with what Damian always feels he needs reaffirmed.
Meanwhile, Danny hates Damian because he looks at him and sees him with everything Danny's ever wanted. He hates him because Damian grew up knowing both of their parents, with one of them for most of his life, and then moved over to the other. There was never a moment where Damian was (seemingly) left to doubt his place within the family. Damian was raised with the very same woman who left Danny on a doorstep, with no clue to his identity beyond a little green blanket and a note with only a first name. Damian was wanted everywhere, and Danny was wanted nowhere. Damian is Danny's replacement in his eyes.
(It's the little revelation that Damian grew up with their mother that elevates Danny from being quietly envious of Damian to downright despising him. What did Damian do, that Danny didn't? He could live with Damian living with Bruce -- Bruce didn't know Danny was even alive. But him living with their mom? Are you fucking kidding him?)
Damian never outright attacks Danny physically, but it's not like he hides that he didn't like Danny. Meanwhile, Danny, in all his repressive anger, quietly despised him from a distance until finally one wrong snide side-comment has him blowing up and it becomes a screaming match. They're both just enough similar to each other that when they look at each other they really just see a mirror.
They'll work it out together, eventually. But it'll be ugly and cruel and explosive, and they'll start mending the bridge to become brothers in more than just blood relation in the end.
But yeah, stillborn Danny has... a lot going for him.
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I gotta say, I'm not TOO bothered by the devs not making birthday events anymore but I wish they had at least kept up with the little missions that give you an SSR birthday card.
Like this, remember??
There was always the UR to get on nightmare and the SSR everyone got for completing all the tasks it gave you.
And they could've kept that. Like, just change some of the tasks because obviously birthday pop quizzes don't exist anymore and baam, it's all good!
But no, they got rid of that as well, so the only way we can celebrate the characters' birthdays with them in game is getting the UR and that's WAY TOO HARD, I mean--
?????
You gotta be either extra fucking lucky, or you have to be willing to waste countless vouchers and devil points on it.
Like yeah, it's a gacha game but...at least give us players who can't or don't want to spend money on the game something?? You already took the events, did you really had to get rid of the SSRs as well???
Anyway, that's my small lil rant ✨
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idk man, the epilogue is like this really deep...exploration of interpersonal connections and wants and desires interlaced with the complexity of circumstance and consequence and regret and guilt. and I started it as a like "haha, this is what I want! I want two monkeys being gay, haha!"
but it's so. fucking tragic, actually.
just in chapter 1, we see how defeated Macaque is, how lost he is. how he hesitates and flip flops constantly. how he says or thinks something with certainty, but then goes back on that. he tries so hard to commit to one path, but he truly is fluctuating and has no clue what to do
and wukong is just...certain of himself. he's certain of his wants and desires now after Constellations. He wants to maintain connections and put in the effort no matter what. and that..juxtaposition of them...is just so raw and hurtful in chapter 1 because we see that wukong notices that in Macaque because he knows him better than anyone.
And Macaque admits he's a little lost. he doesn't know what he wants. but he keeps walking. he wants to make his own choices. he wants to think for himself. he wants to see the truth for himself.
and as the days go by, as the weeks and months pass...as they grow and change, it's just sad. because it's not
the epilogue is not this "will they? won't they?" shadowpeach thing.
look at them as individuals. that's why i finally decided to change the perspective. because we needed to see macaque's thoughts. I've shown you wukong's; please give macaque that same level of attention.
when people write romance or relationships, they often misstep when it comes to the characters that are in the relationship. in order for that relationship to be believable and relatable and enjoyed by the audience, you have to develop the characters independently and together.
we cannot have shadowpeach until we know, with certainty, who macaque and wukong are.
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I love and adore Alicent Hightower but baby, “My son has lost an eye…Over an insult? 🥺🥺”
sweetie you have been trying to leverage one of your culture’s greatest, most shameful taboos with anyone who will listen to get your ex crush/bff and her (v likely illegitimate tbf) sons disinherited for nearly ten years??
Now all of a sudden questioning someone’s legitimacy is nbd? Just ‘an insult’? Really? You’ve just been in a silly goofy mood for ten years? Bit of harmless name-calling was it?
Obviously a kids’ fight should never have escalated to someone losing an eye, because the children had no business being party to whatever political nonsense/family drama was going on. But the boys coming to blows over this was fairly predictable, especially as they got older. Babe, you actively chose to alienate your sons from their nephews in that way when you live in a culture where duels to the literal death over offended honour is a thing??? Where trial-by-combat is a 100% legit legal tactic?
Driftmark witnessed some truly audacious attempts at gaslighting that night but ALICENT REALLY
tl;dr Alicent lit the fuse on the Hightower v Velaryon/Strong kids conflict, she just didn’t intend for that particular bomb to go off so soon, or think that it would blow up in her son’s faces (much less that uh…literally)
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(two)uquiz roundup
tagged by @g0dspeeed, @inafieldofdaisies, @aceghosts, @simplegenius042, @strangefable, @adelaidedrubman, and @deputyash
to do some uquizes (each linked with their corresponding oc results). i know there are more uquizes that i missed but i... uh...can't find them (oops...)
tagging y'all back for whatever you haven't done, and also tagging: @madparadoxum, @socially-awkward-skeleton, @voidika, @locustandwildhoney, @testyfestyenthusiast, @alexxmason, @josephslittledeputy, and anyone else wanting to give these uquizes a spin (and if you want to be added to the uquiz/picrew taglist, go like/reply to this post here)
which part of your oc holds their soul?
LEGS. you're always onto what's vital, what's essential, whatever's the most pivotal thing in your life. survival, stability, ambition, and self-sufficiency. you may find that others instinctively trust you to make the important decisions. at your worst, you're ungrounded. you lack ambition, you lack purpose, and you become more frustrated with life. at your best, you're the glue that holds it all together. your soul is the essence of holding the door open for as many people as possible. you are an extra umbrella in the downpour. the lighthouse guiding ships through a foggy sea. you're as dependable as anyone will ever be.
what romantic tarot card pair are you? (jakesyb version)
THE DEVIL + THE EMPEROR.there's only one religion for the two of you, and that religion is the other. you two are very nearly unhealthily obsessed with one another, and that's just how you like it. when they touch you, they can feel the blood pumping under the surface of your skin. your hearts beat for one another. when the day comes that one stops, the other will soon after. until then, you both will live out your lives in perfect, gothy paradise. deck: the tarot of vampyres.
(same quiz as previous, sybeli edition because i've been writing them recently)
THE TOWER + THE LOVERS. meeting this person shook your whole world. crumbling down is everything you thought you knew about life and love. their warmth, their generosity, their naivete, their knowing...! you don't know how anything made sense before them. all you know is that nothing will make sense afterwards. deck: the tarot of the divine by yoshi yoshitani.
paola results under the cut :)
which part of your oc holds their soul?
THE EYES. you'll notice yourself smiling with delight over things you once paid no attention to. streetlights on the river. smoke rising from a chimney. red roofs in the trees. my dog's eyes. deep clear water. red velvet. the moon in the clouds. a fast train rushing. concentration and awareness. liberation and intuitive knowledge. intelligence, intuition, insight, and self-knowledge. at your worst, you are non-assertive and afraid of success. on the contrary, it can make you more egoistical. at your best, you are more vibrant and confident, both spiritually and emotionally. in the absence of the fear of death, you become your own master and remain free of all attachment to material things. your intellect goes beyond that which you can obtain in the physical world. you want more. you want to know that you are beyond the mark on an astronomical level. you see-you KNOW- more than the average lazing eye. there's no way the others don't notice
what romantic tarot card pair are you?
THE ACE OF CUPS + THE TEN OF CUPS. your romance is the love story that seems only possible in movies. it starts from a youthful first meeting, innocent. and from what may seem like a lifetime later, you both end up happily in union, perhaps even married! your coupling is the epitome of emotional fulfillment and devotion. neither of you thought you'd end up here, but damn if you aren't glad you did. deck: thelema tarot.
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