the-wandering-mage

[the-wandering-mage]

just rewatched ironman 1 again with someone who was watching for the first time. Reminded me how much I really want there to be a fic where some time traveler is trying to take down the Avengers and they narrow it down to one target that would guarantee no Ironman which would have all the Avengers nuked at the end of the Battle of New York. The algorithm that the time travelers used to get the prime target spit out one name, Ho Yinsen. All of the Avengers are like who? And Tony explains without Ho Yinsen, there would be no Ironman. The ten rings would succeed in doing what they were hired to do and murder Tony without a specialist doctor to save him. He explains that Yinsen helped build Mark I, the first Ironman suit, that got him out of that cave in Afghanistan and sacrificed his life for Tony's despite the fact that it was his weapons that were presumably used to kill his family. Tony at some point says he has been trying to honor his dying repuest not to waste his life to make it matter thats why he became Ironman, to take responsibility, to be better, change, not waste the second chance at life Yinsen gave him.

Cue angst. Cue realization of the depth of Tony's character beyond the flash and arrogance and public image to see what lays under his character flaws. And Cue angst with the parallel between Wanda's vendatta and Ho Yinsen's story. Yinsen planned on dying. He planned on getting Tony out and pushed him down a better path. Yinsen realized Tony had no clue about the weapons he didn't curse the man out, at the beginning Yinsen wasn't the picture of bedside manner to the weapons engineer but he wasn't cruel. Yinsen could have doomed them both out of spite, he knew how to treat Tony because he'd seen so many patients die to his weapons but, instead he got to know Tony and pushed Tony to live to escape and to be better with no guarantee his plan would work. He had no idea the impact he would make. Also one person maybe Clint or Sam makes the observation the first ti.e Ironman was in action was to Gulmira, Yinsen's village.

[the-wandering-mage]

in the tags I see the joker finding it funny and wanting to kill Danny in funny ways but, Danny choosing his own death. I like to imagine the Joker getting more and more mad that Danny is more morbidly funny than the Joker and all the gothamites quickly develop an Amity Park sense of humor all laughing and sharing Danny's kills and the Joker rages that not only can he not kill Danny but Danny keeps stealing his audience, his laughs, and his killer jokes.

DPxDC Put on A Show

TW: suicide attempts but for fun

After a few years of doing the whole vigilante thing, Danny gets bored of his quick and simple transformation act. He gets bored of doing the memes along with it as well — the 'I guess I'll die' was funny at first, but there's really only so many times it works.

The solution? He starts staging his own deaths. Throwing a toaster in the bathtub, comically falling down on a knife, slipping on a banana peal and hitting his head, all that jazz. He has his own list of preferred suicides, ranking from the quickest to slowest and from the least to most painful, and another one that goes from the least inconvenient method to most troublesome one. The first one on the latter is getting shot at. The last is getting suffocated in a swarm of bees so far.

His friends are long used to it — they are all Amity kids, honestly, their idea of humor is really twisted. They laugh their asses off when Danny attempts to strangle himself with one of those sour candy strips. They laugh even harder when he succeeds.

But then Danny moves for college and realizes that most people outside Amity Park don't think performed suicide is funny.

And, well.

Sucks to be them because Danny does not plan on stopping any time soon!

The absolute culmination of it comes one dark November evening, when the Fenton luck strikes again and Danny finds himself being a hostage in Joker's old as time performance: making Batman choose between saving Robin or saving a helpless civilian, both of them hanging over the tanks full of acid.

Only, midway through the madman's pathetic speech, they all get to see said civilian wake up, look around to realize what kind of situation he ended up in, and then excitedly say, "Sick, a jacuzzi!"

And happily, eagerly wiggle his way out of the ropes to fall in, screaming, "Cannonball!"

[the-wandering-mage]

Jarro Heist

white collar × DC

warning this is a fic idea but not fully fleshed out but thought I'd post it here. If anyone wants to make a full fic out of it feel free and tag me so I can read it :)

Neal is one of the bats, adopted trying to steal from gotham museum or con one of the bats but, he was thrown through a portal by a device he was supposed to steal for the JL into the WC world. He was a bit of a late arrival to the batfam having been adopted after Damian was robin and the current robin is Jarro. He was a bit controversial in the family for his distaste of violence and being an outsider having just gotten caught up in gotham by virtue of having been kidnapped and escaping. Some of the bats were worried about him being hurt and didn't like him getting dragged in wanting him to keep being the loveable sticky fingered con he is, not be corrupted like them from the life. He had the best shot at normal of any of them.

Selina and Bruce are married at this point and Neal takes to her but the idealistic part of Neal sees the good he can do so dispite not taking on a fighting vigilante presona does take a undercover consulting vigilante presona. He helps here and there watching the coms some nights but, mostly he helps with planning heists or on the rare occasion pulling them off for the JL, various other capes and, of course the bats. He doesn't go out every night or even most nights, He has some basic training against his wishes to satisfy the bats that he can keep himself safe.

The others are super smart so he often feels like the dumb one around them. They don't need his help figuring cases out (Tim always catches on before he can and its annoying) and he isn't interested in fighting crime. Instead, Neal spends his days going to school and learning under the wings of Selina who absolutely adores him. They go on shopping sprees together both one their own and with little baby Helena riding through the diamond district in a convertible with their cateyed sunglasses and scarves. They don't always pay letting Bruce pay for whatever they nick. Neal loves babysitting little Helena and to the annoyance of Bruce using her for cons just how Selina taught him. Selina teaches him fashion high society, how to use your every attribute to your advantage and how to mask your emotions. Most importantly, she teaches him how to have the confidence to go after what he wants.

Selina isn't around him all the time though as much as she adores her children she is a cat at heart and comes and goes as she pleases. She makes time for her kids but doesn't give up time for herself or for her friends to hangout even if they are all more settled down now. The other people Neal spend his time with are Damian who teaches him art. The two didn't have much in common like most of his siblings and the way the two were they clashed in some fundamentals especially when it came to violence but, Damian had years to learn a new way to be from what he was taught and ultimately fell into the group who wanted to keep Neal uncorrupted. He did look down on Neal a bit for his choices but he thought Neal could do better and told him as much. All the time. Very bluntly. That he was wasting his talents and could do better. When Neal walked in and saw and was amazed by Damian’s talents while painting one day, it struck a solid way for the two to bond.

Damian took to giving Neal tutelage in the arts very seriously. They had scheduled time that they would do lessons together and Damian would give Neal assignments. Neal put up with it though because Damian was a good teacher and the challenges Damian put in front of him were given in such a way that they hit that competitiveness in Neal that wanted to show off and beat the high expectations of Damian who thought highly of Neal already and of his own teachings.

The day Neal surpassed Damian’s skills was a proud day in which Damian gave into full dramatics, forcing the museum to put Neal's work up and making everyone come home for a celebration dinner. Neal also got a job offer by the museum to do restoration, which Damian handled with pomp. Of course you want my brother, he is the best. Now you imbeciles see his genius and masterful skill is higher than any of the plebeians you currently employ. That salary is much too low for someone of such skills. How dare you low- I don't care if that is higher than everyone else, it is much too low for someone as skilled as my brother. Bruce and Jason though want Neal to finish school though before taking on a job while Tim and Dick think he should drop out to pursue his career. Neal doesn't get the chance to choose.

The other person who Neal spends the most time with and makes a significant impact on his life is Jarro. The two hang out when Neal isn't in school, with Selina and Helena, or doing art lessons. Ironically their time together is the most normal of any of the them.

Neal and Jarro were fast friends although Neal wasn't too sure of Jarro at first and was understandably a bit freaked out by him after all he knew about, Starro, He was telepathic and of course, he had the body of a one eyed starfish. Which he found creepy at first especially with the whole Starro thing he had watch on the news and the mask footage. However, before Neal was adopted he was bullied and blamed for his father's crimes (for more examples see being kidnapped and trafficked into Gotham) He realized he was doing the same thing as he hid behind the wall of the room he'd entered. Also he'd heard Bruce's voice when he spoke about this “project” it was the same voice he used for them, the same voice of the man who welcomed him into his home and gave him his name. The bat he thought was going to give him a beating but instead just took back and returned his ill gotten gains. It was what had piqued his curiosity and gotten him to sneak onto the watchtower in the first place.

So, Neal had steeled himself with a breath and looked back around the door frame and answered the little star's questions with a question.

“Are you a Robin?”

“How come you don't already know? Your telepathic aren't you?”

“Mind reading without someone's consent is wrong and I'm going to be a hero, the best hero! Robin!” The little starfish exclaimed with such confidence and pride.

From there the two conversed about robins, Neal telling about the robins he knew, safe information, and inquiring about the little guy's obsession with being Robin that ultimately lead to why Neal didn't want to be Robin even though he could have been. Neal's dreams and aspirations and how he didn't know for sure quite what he wanted to be but how he thought he might end up a lot like Selina. The two talked for a while rolling off onto coolest things, weapons, costumes, moves, heists, drug busts. Neal loved storytelling and Jarro was a little sponge. He had strong opinions too which lead to great debate although he made Neal groan when it came to his opinions on costumes. He had no idea how it was he seemed to be the only one even if only peripherally in the business that had a shred of a sense of fashion. It was ridiculous! He wished Edna Mode was a real person.

It was safe to say by the time Bruce found his stray kitten the two were already inseparable. Bruce just watched the two for several minutes with a fond smile before making his presence known to Neal. Neal who immediately demanded to know why he hadn't brought home their new brother already and wanting it done that night. Bruce reassured him he was already working on setting everything up but told them it would be another week.

Three days later Jarro got a tour of Wayne Manor courtesy of Neal Caffrey-Wayne (and Dick who was not happy to be out-shined but was bullied into the background by Jason who was happy to see Neal so happy. He knew how lonely the manor could get especially with most of them out of it majority of the time only coming in and out sporadically. Damian and Helene being the only two full timers left.) Ironically the two of them had the most normal interactions of any of his siblings. They tended to hang out and do normal kid stuff like playing video games, board games, and tag.

They usually got their older siblings to join the fun too although in the bat family it was taken a bit to the extreme, Alfred had band nerf guns (no one could even get the word paint out before that was shut down), tag had a much longer list of rules than the game ever constituted for civilians. Tim came by regularly to join the two skateboarding. Dick was surprisingly good at monopoly and Neal was determined to either beat him or figure out how he was cheating cause he must be with how lucky his rolls were. Both brother's refused to play chess with Damian or Tim but had fun bullying the two together so they could place bets on them including where and if they would manage to stab each other after. Duke made for fun hide and go seek games, him and Jarro would set the game area in the Wayne gardens since both had an unfair advantage with Jarro sensing their mental presence and Duke for obvious reasons. Sometimes Cass would also set course to give someone else a chance of winning. Then of course they all went train surfing as any siblings would do but often with everyone busy more often than not it was just the two of them.

The two of them were very different, one being a crime fighter and the other a con man and a thief but, both of them shared this thread of idealism. They both wanted the world to be something it wasn't and had different ways to go about it. They also both had the habit of romanticizing things, for Jarro that was the hero life, for Neal it was adventure, art, beauty, and love. Neal wanted to venture out of Gotham, see the world, see art all over the globe, meet people, fall in love, have a muse. He thought maybe that might be a life of heists, play things morally grey like Cat Woman but maybe return art from museums back to where they go. Many in his family had encouraged him to take a job in security that would have him set up security for museums all over the world but, he didn't know if he wanted to be on that side of things. He also had his art and the possibility to be a restorer as well as a renowned artist himself. The only problem being he really didn't like his own art as much and there was a challenge in recreation and restoration that he found meditative and addicting. Ultimately the only things he knew he did want to do was travel, surround himself in art and adventures that challenged and intrigued him, show off, and fall in love.

Jarro didn't understand Neal and the two occasionally fought and debated morality but, ultimately Neal just like Jarro had strong moral bounds and a part of Jarro's learning from Batman was learning from his mistakes. You can't force someone to share your own moral convictions; you have to respect theirs while sticking to your own. So, Jarro judged Neal for his cons and his Heist and argued but he never stood in his way. Neal never judged Jarro for the blood on his arms while the only red to coat his own was paint. Neal also never took something someone needed and never had. He conned but he never made someone think he cared for them when he didn't. He also made a pact to never lie to Jarro or his family and he never broke it after it was made.

In the bat family Neal really didn't stand out on his own other than from simply not being a full time vigilante. Art and Heist were where he stood out. Cat Woman was more skilled in the later but even she, to Neal's pride, loved his creativity if not his theatrics. The batfamily of course was more than proud of that and Selina more than once blamed it on his father. Art he was an unparalleled expert in but it wasn't often they came across a kryptonite laced painting, old scroll with messages hidden in the ink or, underpaintings with a map to a weapon that sank with Atlantis. Neal with the help of Tim and Babs stretched his wings to other parts of his own trade.

He learned how to forge documents and that became the thing he most often did for the capes. The work made him feel good too especially when it got families safe from retaliation and kept those he cared about safe while on mission.

fast forward Jarro comes looking for him never giving up on his big brother but, is hurt on dimensional entry and is taken by the US government. Now Neal has to pull off a heist to save his starfish one-eyed brother he loves, but he's going to need some help.

[the-wandering-mage]

Dani Phantom should have a tiara stitched into her beanie that turns into a real badass looking one when in ghost form for Ghost King Danny fics....someone draw this please.

[the-wandering-mage]

Fantastic art

[the-wandering-mage]

My wife and I have a little game we play called "Speaking From Ignorance."

To play Speaking From Ignorance, all you need is a phone with a voice recorder, and another person who knows considerably more or considerably less about a topic than you do. The topic can be anything: from "how to bake a quiche" to "what happens in the Peter Jackson Hobbit movies" to "who is Florence Pugh" to "how does the traveling salesman problem work." All that matters is that one of you has a firm grasp on the material, and one of you absolutely the fuck does not.

Then the person who knows about the topic turns on the recorder, and says to the person who knows barely anything: "Hey - tell me everything you think you know about [X]."

The speaker is then not allowed to ask any questions. Nor is the expert allowed to volunteer any information. The expert is allowed to pipe up with a faintly incredulous "Oh--really? Do you--do you think so?" from time to time, but for the most part, the expert's job is just to sit there and make encouraging sounds while the speaker digs their own grave.

This is never not funny.

The reason you record it is because, very often, the first thing the speaker wants to do after finishing the recording is find out how you actually make a quiche, or whatever. Then you both get to go back and listen to how wrong they were.

We have a small library now of Speaking From Ignorance recordings, and I'm going to be listening to them until I'm eighty.

[the-wandering-mage]

just imagine they come across pure ecto but don't know what it is and it is brought to the batcave for analysis and Danny scitters faster than they can stop him across the room slurps it all down burps and bone snapping squelching grows into a half dead not quiet phantom not quiet alive human Danny who yawns stretches pops his jaw that came open too wide to be human and really crooked back into place showing off all his fangs and is just waaaaayyyy to casual for the batfam that is like you're a person!? Since when the fuck was that thing a person! having flash backs to that thing catching them doing things they wouldn't want a person to see (we all know the kinds of things our pets see) like this stranger was living in our house as a weird fucked up pet! which queue disappointment and mixed feelings from Damian.

Danny just acts like this is normal. He is acting like he just got up from a long nap and pats his belly like he just ate Thanksgiving dinner and is ready for another nap, because A) best big meal he's had since coming to this dimension B) there is something relaxing about having all you body parts where they are supposed to be. He hadn't realized how cramped he'd been feeling all folded in on himself he was. So while yes this is freaky, he can acknowledge that, to Danny who grew up weird and had a long time to come to terms with being a pet, which totally ruled. no responsibility, attention that his neglected self soaked up (especially when it wasn't the overwhelming kind and he was left alone whenever he needed it without fuss), and meals brought to him, and there was no fighting. The freak out seemed very much a them problem. He was trying to soak up the relaxing feeling of having his everything back in alignment and feeling full finally while also getting his brain online enough to make sure he'd communicated while he had a human mouth to figure out how they got their hands on the good stuff so he could keep feeling good when all he wanted to do was lay down and luxeriate in this feeling and maybe actually get that nap. Maybe they'd let him sleep in a guest room bed now that they know he's a person.

Batfam Eldritch Horror

AKA "inspired by that one post about Danny being a flerken and living with the Batfam" idea! Except he looks pants-shitting, "oh dear god, what is that" terrifying.

I just love slightly feral animal-like Danny in a... shape. It's not immediately identifiable as a cat or dog, maybe he has a few too many legs that kind of look like a tail at one point? And when he skitters up walls like a particularly small dog-sized tarantula, it's terrifying enough to make seasoned criminals squeal.

Let's imagine Danny had some sort of accident with a portal and was Wizard-of-Oz'd into Gotham, a literal hellmouth of a city with so many curses that it'd make John Constantine start to sweat. And this city also has... weird Ecto. (In my brain, there's a connection between the Lazarus Pit and ectoplasm, like pit waters are the sewers of ectoplasm or something.) It's enough for Danny to still exist but he can't seem to stay human-shaped. It's better than being a Blob Ghost, but not by much. His fur-scales-feathers-skin-something look dark as the midnight sky.

And who should stumble on this weird-looking Thing aside from Damian, secret animal-whisperer and passionate Pokemon collector? Damian, who known what a scared feral animal looks like and who can coax it into his arms? It doesn't matter that Danny has maybe five or six limbs. He can make himself slightly smaller at will (not in a Magical-Girl-Transformation way, mind you. When he changes shape, there's the distinct snap of bones breaking and wet, fleshy sounds of his organs, muscles, ligaments, tendons, everything shifting).

Damian has literally been trained by the League of Assassins under the Demon Head. He's likely seen more people's insides than an ER surgeon; he's killed more than enough people in incredibly grotesque and violent ways to be totally unphased by Danny changing shapes. Maybe he'll actually be sort of touched, a bit pleased, that his new Thing pet would change itself so violently so Damian could hold it.

What would Damian name it? He's outwardly violent and aggressive towards others, but pretty passionate and heartfelt once he cares for someone. Alfred the Cat comes to mind. So maybe Damian takes one look at this supposedly scary Thing and thinks, "It looks like Father."

As in, Dark as Night? A shadow inspiring fear amongst criminals? Spoken about in whispers, sometimes laughed off as a joke but still cautiously reverent, just in case?

Danny's new name is Batman.

Of course, this causes some confusion when Damian comes home to Wayne Manor and says, "Batman and I will retire to my room." In front of Bruce, who naturally and kind-of-correctly assumes his son picked up another animal while on patrol. Bruce had a hard time explaining this to a very concerned Dick, who was holding up a wooden stake and a bible (Dick totally wasn't going to kill Bruce if he turned out to be a vampire but it's always good to be prepared!), after Damian apparently made a wayward comment that "Batman refuses to eat anything besides raw meat."

And Danny is having a great time!! Sure, Damian treats him like a pet, but he gets affectionate pats on the head, incredibly expensive steak, and a soft place to sleep. He awkwardly dragged several blankets from the living room to Damian's room to make a bed in the kid's closet. (Alfred watched from behind the couch as this six-legged hairy-ish catlike Thing determinedly waddled with three blankets in its mouth, occasionally tripping on its own legs. He went back to dusting the crown moulding silently. So, that's why Master Damian requested uncooked sirloin steak twelve times in last few days. Hm.)

So, the Batfam accept there is another Batman in the family. Except they haven't actually seen Danny (aside from Alfred and Damian).

Until Dick needs to talk to Damian and goes into the boy's room. But it's empty?? He could've sworn he heard somebody talking or something in here, but maybe not? He turns to leave and then hears it again: a soft kind of thump coming from Damian's armoire. A shit-eating grin spreads across his face as his Older Brother Instincts kick in. Jason used to hide in closets and try to scare Dick when he was little; Damian, despite being a child soldier and trained assassin, was still a little kid at heart, right? The kid's clearly hiding from Dick to scare him or something.

(Damian was in the Batcave, studiously typing "Google, what non-Earth animals reside in Gotham, please?" into the Batcomputer. I like to think that Damian uses the internet like a 85-year old man who thinks a Google employee personally replies to each question.)

So, Dick creeps forward and abruptly slams open the armoire doors!! Only to let out an unholy shriek of terror as Danny, who was taking a nap, frantically skitters out of the closet looking like a Frankenstein cat-dog with bat wings. He crawls under Damian's bed as Dick scrambles into the hallway.

The cat-dog-Thing is out of the bag now. Damian looks utterly deadpan as he explains that Batman is his pet and not to concern themselves with it; Bruce, Tim, Jason, and a white-faced Dick disagreed. They need to see it to make sure the Thing won't harm anybody, especially considering it's fucking living with them!! How do they know it won't try to eat them in their sleep??

"Batman does not eat raw human meat, Todd. Why are you concerned now? It has resided with us for two months now."

"Two months?" Dick nearly faints (again).

"Yes, Batman is very well-behaved, Master Dick." Alfred, who's been feeding Danny for the last two months and has seen all the little quirks the Thing has, offers a consoling half-smile.

Ultimately, the Batfam decide to keep Batman in exchange for scary dog privileges. They'll have to think of another name for Danny considering having two Batmans in Gotham would be pretty confusing (especially if one of them decided they did, in fact, like raw human flesh).

[the-wandering-mage]

Has anyone thought to do Neal Caffrey as Dick Grayson where Dick has DID? I don't think I have seen this out there but I thought it be interesting. Like whether Neal is an alter or Neal is just this fake presona that Dick took on deciding to live a non-violent life after all he's been through. But something happens, and one of his violent protective alters takes over (Red X, Renegade, Agent 37, ect.) and defends them when Dick or Neal can't. Maybe the realization either on Dick's part is why he became Neal Caffrey or those around him found out what he already knew and pushed him away with how they handled it. The condition doesn't even seem like a stretch since Dick has had so many aliases and so much trauma from a young age. He even has aliases specifically made during tramatic times that he took on as a means of survival.

The sudden shift, outside POV I think would make for an interesting angst fic especially with how they agents treat him afterwards as well as Dick/Neal reacts. It could make for some good hurt/comfort especially if there is a contrast made between how he was treated by the bats and / or the hero and villian community. Maybe some people exploited it and tried to capitalize on this to get Dick to do what they wanted or they treated him in capable and like damaged goods. Maybe he went from the person everyone trusted to constantly being second guessed and scrutized that he was "really him" or in his right mind. Then the agents despite usually looking at Neal with suspicion instead feel like they have a firmer grasp on who Neal is getting a glimpse of his past and who he choose to become and have more respect and empathy towards him. Especially if the alter tells them they are supposed to be violent, so Neal doesn't have to anymore. They might not know who Neal was or what he went through, but they know he came through the other end deciding to be a better person even if not the most law-abiding person.

I have had this idea for a awhile but I don't think I could accurately write the mental illness. I have only known one person with it and if I met their alter I wasn't aware of it. The alter would often pretend to be them, and she rarely ever came out. It was never talked about much when She was alive so majority of what i know is from the internet. As someone with a mental disorder that is often done badly in media (ocd) I wouldn't feel comfortable posting a story like that even if I wrote one because, I might be furthering bad information and perception. However, I thought if I put the idea out in the world, maybe a fanfic writer with DID might see it and pick it up and do it justice that I can't.

[the-wandering-mage]

[the-wandering-mage]

so I got into grad school today with my shitty 2.8 gpa and the moral of the story is reblog those good luck posts for the love of god

[the-wandering-mage]

Reenactor throws a spear at a drone

[the-wandering-mage]

Stop wait hang on I need everyone's attention

Whippersnappers, right? Human term old folks use for young ones

Do- do you think older merfolk call the younger 'Flippersnappers'?

[the-wandering-mage]

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as social media quotes series part 39/?

The rest of the series

[the-wandering-mage]

There's ✨NO WAY✨ Coulson hasn't helped Daisy up to her feet, and went, "🤭Upsie-daisy🤭," at least once during the time he's known her. He's too much of a dad to miss an opportunity like that...

[the-wandering-mage]

[the-wandering-mage]

Danny Phantom just defeated Pariah Dark. Like he is still in that suit his father made in Pariahs keep. He doesn't know the ghost rules. It hasn't even been a year since he died and became a halfa, so no one has explained to him that if you defeat the king you become the king. In another dimension John Constantine is panicking because because the JL failed to stop a cult from completing the summoning ceremony that will summon the ghost king. They are all expecting Pariah Dark, but what they get instead is a ghost child. The summoning pulled him out of the suit that Jack made.

Danny looks around, confused with his vision blurring exhausted from fighting Pariah Dark. "Where am I?" Danny asks. Danny has no idea that he now has a floating crown above his head. He finally passes out right in front of the JL, and he transforms back into Danny Fenton.

The JL decides to take Danny to the watchtower in space and put him in a cell until he wakes up. None of them trust Danny, especially not John Constantine. When Danny wakes up, he is very confused, and sitting right outside his cell is John Constantine.

[the-wandering-mage]

Idea for angst hurt/comfort Dick Grayson is Neal Caffrey fic : Neal/Dick is in the hospital after an incident with a case where he hits his head (and maybe the circumstances bring up tramatic memories?) Sara comes into the hospital as he is waking and instead of being treated as her she is mistaken by Neal/Dick as being Babs.

So in walks Sara who despite everything has decided to commit to Neal Caffrey maybe at this point they are engaged (timeline what timeline?) and her fiancé greets her by another woman's name. She obviously gets upset and starts to leave humiliated and hurt but, as she turns to leave apologizes to the ghost of Barbra Gordon stop her in her tracks. They paint a horrible picture of Neal's past and she ends up comforting him by playing along and reassuring him he's forgiven and doing a good job or the right thing in turning over a new leaf and living a better less violent life. (May be some misunderstandings there of "getting out of the life" and being sucked back into it means + confusions/worry on the part of Peter watching from the sidelines when he alludes to their work starting to drag him back into it.)

Maybe this is post fall of gotham's heros and he's dimension leaped into the white collar world to start anew and leave his grief behind. Maybe he was married to Babs and lost her and maybe failed to look after her dad too in his grief. Maybe he married Kori and maybe they had a poly thing going on with Wally too and he lost them both and the children him and Kori had together. Maybe he knows Kori would be ok with him moving on but after her and Kate he needs advice from his oldest friend because it seems like he is cursed. (Totally have to have a comment that Kori would have loved Sara) He doesn't know how to commit to Sara fearing he'll lose her too and/or doesn't know how to tell Sara he doesn't want kids because he can't open himself to that heartache again but doesn't want her to call off the engagement. Maybe he also has his own doubts because Sara deserves a child.

I'm probably not going to write this so I throw it out in the tumblr sea where hopefully someone finds this idea and can make something out of it