i think "it takes a village" shouldn't be just "to raise a child". we should understand it takes a village to do literally everything we do. all day every day. without our communities we would not have drinking water or electricity or clean streets or food or shelter or anything. we cannot do any thing alone. we just can't. and with that comes the fact that you are not alone. you already have a community, seek to be an active part of it, you will feel better. reach out and thank them, they're happy to have you too. i promise. it takes a village to live.

It takes a village to raise a child and it takes every neighbor to raise a barn and it takes all hands on deck to clean the river. We were built as a communal species. Lend what you can, and accept what you're offered.

“our teeth and ambitions are bared” is a zeugma

and it’s a zeugma where one of the words is literal and one is metaphorical which is the BEST KIND

I didn’t know about zeugmas until just now! That is so awesome, everybody: 

zeug·ma ˈzo͞oɡmə/

noun

ISN’T THAT AWESOME??

#in english class in high school my teacher had us write our own zeugmas in class#and one guy came up with ‘he fell from her favor… and the window’#i am forever looking for opportunities to use that one

She dropped her dress and inhibitions at the door.

What’s this? My favorite rhetorical device showing up on my dashboard?

IT HAS A NAMEEEE!! OH MY GOD!!!

I LOVE THIIIIIS!!!

One I’ve loved was “on their weekend trip they caught three fish and a cold”

I love these they’re like a pun and a metaphor wrapped up into one neat phrase

“average person eats 3 spiders a year” factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 spiders per year. Spiders Georg, who lives in cave & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

#tapping the reblog button with utmost care because i’m handling a historical artifact (via @malarkiness)

“It’s a handbag.”

DP x DC summoning

So a classic staple of this crossover is some poor schmuck trying to summon Pariah and getting Danny

How this usually goes is Danny either flexes on them or nopes out of there

So in Hellblazer one of the things you want to summon a powerful otherworldly entity is not only their ritual, but their name. The ritual brings them there, the name is used as part of the binding that provides a summoner protection against the thing they just summoned

So just a thought

Danny has that happen a couple times, he’s summoned and he just nopes out of there and either assumes it’s just a halfa thing or just doesn’t notice it’s weird

So imagine the first time someone actually properly summons him

Be it Zatana or John who have or course heard about the change in management and have properly bound the spirit they’ve summoned. Hell maybe it’s someone like Felix Faust and he’s been summoned by a villain

Danny just peace signs and then immediately flies right into an invisible wall and nearly breaks his nose

To clarify, naming the thing you summon is part of the ritual to summon it, and it’s what keeps their ass in the circle and from ruining your day, it’s not like a magical compulsion

It offers the summoner safety to negotiate deals with things like demons without them just dragging them or a very traumatized child to hell. Iykyk

You’ve read or watched the sandman?

Dream being stuck in the summoning circle until the circle go messed up

“But didn’t they think they were summoning death?”

Yes, but the ritual they used was for Dream and was designed to properly bind him. He was named in the ritual, so despite what they thought they were getting they got him

OK bbut we could have a whole mini story of how they discovered the new rulers name (or dannh could have said it when he was summoned like a dumdum but this is more fun)

Mostly bc I love Boston brand /deadpan and I think him sleuthing around the IR could be fun.

Doubly so if this is a 'true name ' situation, although you didn't specify that in the post, aand I don't know dc well enough

We could in fact have a whole mini story about finding it out

As to how specific the name has to be, I think if they actually identify as that name it works so if Danny actually thinks of himself as “Danny Phantom” that could work

It might also just be funny if Danny just dropped his wallet or homework the first time around and that’s how they found out

It's always fun when the heroes do something with good intentions that turns out to be so incredibly wrong and fucked up, so I definitely vote its someone from (or even the whole, because this might not be something you want to do alone) JLD that summons him.

Ok but I'm ngl imagine if they did do proper research, the old way or whatever" and so they're prepared af. Danny has no idea who they are. He was just summoned against his will and now he can't escape. That's never happened before. He's scared AF.

He tries going Eldritch mode to scare them off. That usually worked with the other guys they would panic and flee and book lesson learned. These guys? Stare blankly at him, unphased. Not impressed. It actually scares him a little cuz hes never dealt with competent magic users before. So he reverts back and metaphorically folds in on himself. He doesn't know what they want but they're scary ppl and he can't get away

Okay, but? You know what most summoned beings DON'T have?

Friends.

Or a Fenton Phone stored on their person 24/7. And yeah, normally HE can get himself out of anything. But not always, you know? Now he's a hostage. Kidnapped! Mom, help, he's scared!

Literally.

I want him to call Maddie "Ah, So you have chosen Death" Fenton. This just became a Taken movie. She doesn't know who you are, where you are, or how you've done this.

But she WILL find you.

And you will pay.

Like? Imagine trying to summon the Dread King Of Death(tm). Who you KNOW is a nefarious sort of spook. And.... confused, terrified teenager? With a WORKING PHONE? Who pulls an immediate "hello, 911?" To his mom and friends? What.

He's ignoring you.

He has no where to GO, unless you release him. You've bound him by him name. But he's curled up as far away from you as he can physically get, taken out some earbuds (from his CHEST), and is just? Stress watching space documentaries on his phone?

Can he do that?

This feels like it's gone of script.

The Mother Spirit at least reacted normally, but? Did... did we get a human soul or something? This is feeling really human. Trick? How do we check without traumatizing a potentially dead teenager? Gdi why is nothing we ever do SIMPLE. Just once. Just ONCE! Can't we have an easy boring job?

The... (ghost? Spirit? He really didn't want to call it a kid, because that was definitely what it was starting to look like) entity was not acting as expected after its summoning.

Constantine had warned them of what to expect before performing the ritual. He'd mentioned the scare tactics, the tricks, the manipulation. And some of that had occurred, definitely.

What Constantine hadn't said to expect was the way the entity had looked genuinely afraid when it rebounded off the containment circle. The way its eyes had flitted over the runes before pressing a hand (small, human) against the barrier, and the minute widening of those eyes as it failed to break through.

The League had expected the ensuing shapeshifting scare tactic. None of them even flinched as what had at first looked like a boy (if it weren't for the white hair and Lazarus-green eyes, the entity would have looked like any of his children's classmates) discarded that appearance. They held fast as the entity grew in size, sprouting wings like the aurora borealis and far too many teeth to fit in its mouth. They didn't flinch as it shifted again and again, turning into things so incomprehensible that it made their minds fill with static and hearts race with atavistic fear.

They hadn't expected the entity to return to looking like a boy, this time with black hair and blue eyes. It had pressed itself against the back of the barrier, as far away from the League members as the circle would allow. Its eyes hadn't left them, watching with (fear?) wariness as it reached a hand into its chest and pulled out...

A phone?

The entity's voice isn't ear-splitting shrieks of the damned or the sound of nails on a chalkboard. Rather, it's just the voice of a teenager, small and shaky, as he says,

"Jazz? I think I need a rescue."

And everything is suddenly far more complicated.

It would really mess with their mind though.

It's a trick. They've seen the entity changed into a monstrous forms, heard its inhuman voices. It has to be a trick.

But it still tugs at their heartstrings watch this entity, who now looks to be around the same age as their own children, cower from them in fear. This wide-eyed, scared face of an innocent boy, the soft pleading voice of a child begging to be rescued away from the heroes. Ain't that a kick in the pants.

But it has to be a trick.

So they ignored the entity's human boy act. Ignored the entity's attempts of bargaining. Ignored the entity's pleas of freedom. Ignored whatever tricks the entity used even if they feel their hearts might break as the entity's borrowed human boy's face crumpled in fear and despair, lips wobbling and eyes welling up with tears.

That was until something else began tearing up the very fabric of their universe, trying to get in.

Tried to mesh ideas from this thread and the really long one, and some other dp fan ideas i’ve seen floating about.

It took Deadman months of running about the Infinite Realms to learn Pariah’s successor’s name: Danny Phantom. Apparently the tyrants son realized even if his father was sealed, he could not take the throne. An Archduke tending to the prince had sprung the king and almost took out a two cities in the MidWest that don’t appear on government records electronically. Amity Park and Elmerton appear just fine in the physical records pre-computerization.

The fact Amity Park and Elmerton were known territories of the former prince of the Infinite Realms made it so, so much worse. The prince was sly enough to ensure no one inside of these territories could call for outside help, leveling his authority over a number of his displeased subjects in combat to ensure their compliance.

The JLD was not letting this slide. Especially with the reported deaths and mutations among the affected city’s populations mirroring long term exposure to the infinite realms.

This Danny Phantom was following in his predecessor’s footsteps and expanding Infinite Realms into the living plane by whatever means necessary.

Boston hated to acknowledge that for all the horrors Tyrant Pariah Dark did, at least it kept his son from growing in power and finding less obvious solutions to his whims. Slowly turning a city of humans irrevocably into a species that requires the ectoplasm of the Infinite Realms to survive was bad. The fact the Prince could expand it was worse.

And his fallout with the Archduke and them fighting across space and time?

Terrifying.

The summoning circle was a pain to get for John and Zatanna—no entity was willing to give it put for any typical favors. That fetch quest took a whole year. Then the circles required to summon Danny phantom were obscured. the need for everything from moon rocks, using a ‘nasty burger meat smoothie’ to draw the entire summoning circle, sigil, runes and the required asteroid was a pain for one circle. The others requiring a different material, including soldered iron and copper in two of them, was annoying pain in everyone’s hand. Why they have to square dance to gangnam style was. The Prince Apparent had to be taunting them.

Then they managed to get the chant done—why it included the titles ‘Master of Doom’ beside ‘Cuddler of Tucker’ and ‘Steward of Good Boy Cujo’ were up in the air. Working out a citizen of the Infinite Realms’ reasoning was a migraine waiting to happen.

The lights went out, and a glowing green figure appeared. When the lights came on, there’s a white haired teen twirling about.

John reminded himself the Prince only looked like a teen. A power-hungry crafty bastard masquerading as a teenaged human.

The Prince finally noticed them, squinted, and threw out an American peace sign before flying right into the protection circle.

The JLD glanced at each other, but continued. Maybe the Prince wasn’t that smart.

Then the Prince pressed his (tiny, human) hands against the circle and John knew that look. A Trapped Trickster. Eye flitting to the runes and circles. Breathing (did it even need to do that?) coming faster. Eyes wild and darting to and fro. (Why did it not feel anything like when he usually tricked overpowered assholes?)

The shifting was expected. What wasn’t was the off proportions. Like someone still learning. The eldrich form didn’t pulse with the usual menace, wrath and power.

It sounded like a dying child screaming. it sounded like crying and a wounded animal trying to flee.

The group never flinched throughout the transformations. John reminded himself it was a scare tactic. This Prince overthrew his Father violently, and was turning humans into his subjects.

But did they know that was bad if Pariah really raised them with the Master of Time?/m

A different child appeared, face the same as the first. John was glad Batman wasn’t in the room given the sudden resemblance to most of his Robins. Baby fat on its face, big blue eyes and messy black hair fiddling with its jeans.

Why did the Prince have a cellphone? And how in the seven hells did it manage to get service this far underground?

The Prince pressed itself as far away from them as he could and kept a steady watch on them as it… messed around on its phone?

John took a deep breath.

“Look Prince—“

“Not my title,” the Prince grumbled, tapping the screen louder.

“It most certainly is the closest we have to use,” John corrected.

The Prince glared at him. “Not /their/ anything.”

The Prince tapped at its phone, holding it to its ear. “Jazz? Can you track the BOOmerang again?”

None of them could hear the reply.

The Prince kept his eyes on his phone and them, tapping away with faint gaming sounds.

The JLD looked at one another. How difficult would it be to get the Prince to—

Detective Chimp cleared his throat, eyeing the Prince before speaking. “Danny Phantom—“

“Not my name now.”

The group paused.

Something sunk in the pit of John’s stomach. What would stop the Prince of Ghosts from possessing someone? Or worse, bonding to another’s body on a permanent basis to oversee the development of whatever experiments were done on the citizens of Amity Park and compare it to Elmerton’s?

“Kid, we can make him leave if you—“

“You’re the kidnappers,” the kid answered, scowling at his phone.

John raked his hands through his hair and exchanged a look with Zee. This. This was not in any way, shape or form part of the plan.

“And Phantom saved everyone when you never showed up.”

The kid eyed John in particular like a rabid animal before returning to his phone.

A minute later something flew in and hit the circle’s barriers. Repeatedly.

A green portal cracked open and out poured a slew of teens and two adults. Adults who had weird magic using something not from this side of the Veil, and so, so many anti-magic charms on all of them.

“Witch scum” yelled the large metal man, “get away from my son!”

The JLD severely miscalculated.

Can we just call it what it is:

The word censorship comes from censere, meaning to "assess" and is used to assert that you "have been assessed and removed"

The historical intent to conceal and remove the censere (the person who does censorship) from consequence by placing attention (and therefor blame) on the censored.

Every conversation about censorship is all about trying to put the onnus on the person who does hard work making things, not the lazy person who wants to conceal and obfuscate the proliferation of culture.

"But I willingly give up the liberty to see things, in exchange for doing less emotional labour with my kids!"

Also you didn't give up your labor: You gave up the artist's labor, and possibly their livelihood too, because you were lazy.

Classifications, and Censorship aren't the same thing.

Classifications let you make informed decisions as an adult.

Censorship takes that ability from you.

So the question becomes:

Who is the beneficiary of completely banning anything that shows the most intimate human moments, but is ok with showing the consequences of institutionalized violence?

for my fellow psychotics who struggle with thinking someone is in their house, a method I’ve found that really works are these guys:

i put them on my front door and anytime it opens they ring. that way if i think someone has broken in or i see someone who isn’t there i can think back to if the bells have rung, and if they haven’t i can assure myself it’s not real. obviously it’s not fool proof, like if you are prone to auditory hallucinations, but it has really helped me calm down in time to avoid major psychotic breaks. it’s a real lifesaver

nonpsychotics encouraged to rb

[id: a door. attached to the doorknob is a ring with four bells on thick cords. end id.]

DP x DC summoning

So a classic staple of this crossover is some poor schmuck trying to summon Pariah and getting Danny

How this usually goes is Danny either flexes on them or nopes out of there

So in Hellblazer one of the things you want to summon a powerful otherworldly entity is not only their ritual, but their name. The ritual brings them there, the name is used as part of the binding that provides a summoner protection against the thing they just summoned

So just a thought

Danny has that happen a couple times, he’s summoned and he just nopes out of there and either assumes it’s just a halfa thing or just doesn’t notice it’s weird

So imagine the first time someone actually properly summons him

Be it Zatana or John who have or course heard about the change in management and have properly bound the spirit they’ve summoned. Hell maybe it’s someone like Felix Faust and he’s been summoned by a villain

Danny just peace signs and then immediately flies right into an invisible wall and nearly breaks his nose

To clarify, naming the thing you summon is part of the ritual to summon it, and it’s what keeps their ass in the circle and from ruining your day, it’s not like a magical compulsion

It offers the summoner safety to negotiate deals with things like demons without them just dragging them or a very traumatized child to hell. Iykyk

You’ve read or watched the sandman?

Dream being stuck in the summoning circle until the circle go messed up

“But didn’t they think they were summoning death?”

Yes, but the ritual they used was for Dream and was designed to properly bind him. He was named in the ritual, so despite what they thought they were getting they got him

OK bbut we could have a whole mini story of how they discovered the new rulers name (or dannh could have said it when he was summoned like a dumdum but this is more fun)

Mostly bc I love Boston brand /deadpan and I think him sleuthing around the IR could be fun.

Doubly so if this is a 'true name ' situation, although you didn't specify that in the post, aand I don't know dc well enough

We could in fact have a whole mini story about finding it out

As to how specific the name has to be, I think if they actually identify as that name it works so if Danny actually thinks of himself as “Danny Phantom” that could work

It might also just be funny if Danny just dropped his wallet or homework the first time around and that’s how they found out

It's always fun when the heroes do something with good intentions that turns out to be so incredibly wrong and fucked up, so I definitely vote its someone from (or even the whole, because this might not be something you want to do alone) JLD that summons him.

Ok but I'm ngl imagine if they did do proper research, the old way or whatever" and so they're prepared af. Danny has no idea who they are. He was just summoned against his will and now he can't escape. That's never happened before. He's scared AF.

He tries going Eldritch mode to scare them off. That usually worked with the other guys they would panic and flee and book lesson learned. These guys? Stare blankly at him, unphased. Not impressed. It actually scares him a little cuz hes never dealt with competent magic users before. So he reverts back and metaphorically folds in on himself. He doesn't know what they want but they're scary ppl and he can't get away

Okay, but? You know what most summoned beings DON'T have?

Friends.

Or a Fenton Phone stored on their person 24/7. And yeah, normally HE can get himself out of anything. But not always, you know? Now he's a hostage. Kidnapped! Mom, help, he's scared!

Literally.

I want him to call Maddie "Ah, So you have chosen Death" Fenton. This just became a Taken movie. She doesn't know who you are, where you are, or how you've done this.

But she WILL find you.

And you will pay.

Like? Imagine trying to summon the Dread King Of Death(tm). Who you KNOW is a nefarious sort of spook. And.... confused, terrified teenager? With a WORKING PHONE? Who pulls an immediate "hello, 911?" To his mom and friends? What.

He's ignoring you.

He has no where to GO, unless you release him. You've bound him by him name. But he's curled up as far away from you as he can physically get, taken out some earbuds (from his CHEST), and is just? Stress watching space documentaries on his phone?

Can he do that?

This feels like it's gone of script.

The Mother Spirit at least reacted normally, but? Did... did we get a human soul or something? This is feeling really human. Trick? How do we check without traumatizing a potentially dead teenager? Gdi why is nothing we ever do SIMPLE. Just once. Just ONCE! Can't we have an easy boring job?

The... (ghost? Spirit? He really didn't want to call it a kid, because that was definitely what it was starting to look like) entity was not acting as expected after its summoning.

Constantine had warned them of what to expect before performing the ritual. He'd mentioned the scare tactics, the tricks, the manipulation. And some of that had occurred, definitely.

What Constantine hadn't said to expect was the way the entity had looked genuinely afraid when it rebounded off the containment circle. The way its eyes had flitted over the runes before pressing a hand (small, human) against the barrier, and the minute widening of those eyes as it failed to break through.

The League had expected the ensuing shapeshifting scare tactic. None of them even flinched as what had at first looked like a boy (if it weren't for the white hair and Lazarus-green eyes, the entity would have looked like any of his children's classmates) discarded that appearance. They held fast as the entity grew in size, sprouting wings like the aurora borealis and far too many teeth to fit in its mouth. They didn't flinch as it shifted again and again, turning into things so incomprehensible that it made their minds fill with static and hearts race with atavistic fear.

They hadn't expected the entity to return to looking like a boy, this time with black hair and blue eyes. It had pressed itself against the back of the barrier, as far away from the League members as the circle would allow. Its eyes hadn't left them, watching with (fear?) wariness as it reached a hand into its chest and pulled out...

A phone?

The entity's voice isn't ear-splitting shrieks of the damned or the sound of nails on a chalkboard. Rather, it's just the voice of a teenager, small and shaky, as he says,

"Jazz? I think I need a rescue."

And everything is suddenly far more complicated.

It would really mess with their mind though.

It's a trick. They've seen the entity changed into a monstrous forms, heard its inhuman voices. It has to be a trick.

But it still tugs at their heartstrings watch this entity, who now looks to be around the same age as their own children, cower from them in fear. This wide-eyed, scared face of an innocent boy, the soft pleading voice of a child begging to be rescued away from the heroes. Ain't that a kick in the pants.

But it has to be a trick.

So they ignored the entity's human boy act. Ignored the entity's attempts of bargaining. Ignored the entity's pleas of freedom. Ignored whatever tricks the entity used even if they feel their hearts might break as the entity's borrowed human boy's face crumpled in fear and despair, lips wobbling and eyes welling up with tears.

That was until something else began tearing up the very fabric of their universe, trying to get in.

Jazz shows up in the GAV, her parents in tow with all of them decked out and pissed off

Ngl I am having major "reveal went poorly" vibes with this prompt, mostly because of the extra angst it provides. Why would danny trust these 'heroes' when his own PARENTS didn't believe him? Why would any adult be any different at this point?

So instead of Jazz and parents, it could be Jazz, Sam, and Tucker. Even Valerie and Dani, depending on preferences.

Which could make the justice league think its a whole bunch of shape-shifting entities that look like kids, as a way to throw them off their game. And sure, the magically inclined might be able to tell that these aren't the same type of 'spirit' as Danny is, or not as powerful, but they've all been exposed to enough of the Zone (and Val has her suit, and Dani her own halfa status) that they would be similar. Similar enough to make all the heroes think this is definitely a non-human rescue party.

You. You get it.

We are firmly in "adults are not to be trusted" territory here! Of course Danny is afraid of these so-called heroes! They never came to help, left him completely on his own to deal with things he was totally in over his head on. Add to that the fresh trauma of his own parents not believing or helping him, and now this???

They found his NAME??? How? When? ('Why' was somewhat understandable, if they'd heard about pariah, but still!) And to add to the list of questions, WHAT THE FUCK!

This binding was far too good. Far too COMPLETE. He didn't know how they'd managed it, what they knew about him to be able to create this circle, but he DID know that there was no possibility that this was good.

He'd used up too much energy on that stupid display, trying to scare them off with his more eldritch form and a dash of shape-shifting. Now he was more or less stuck in human form.

One good thing about the binding circle? It kept them out just as surely as it kept him in. So he was going to sit down (as far away from the justice losers as he could manage inside the circle) and firmly pretend that nothing was wrong.

(Pretend that their gazes didn't feel just like his parents', looking at him like a bug under the microscope. Pretend that his breath wasn't catching in his throat, that his hands weren't shaking where they held his phone. Pretend that his mind wasn't giving him a litany of worst-case outcomes. Nope. None of that was happening. Everything was FINE.)

And the best way to do that? Act like a normal teenager.

He was going to sit here and play candy crush until his rescue came.

So, the Justice League must have summoned him for something, right? Like, they probably aren't just standing there still and silent the whole time. They're probably talking; trying to make some kind of deal, or threat assessing, or perhaps even trying to bind the King into some kind of prison or control if they've deemed him to big a threat to leave freely roaming.

Whatever they are doing, sure hope Danny's rescue party arrives before he is magically forced to yield to whatever these 'heros' are demanding from him. : )

OOOOO YALL BEEN UP TO SOME GOOD SHIIIT

totally behind the reveal gone bad/ don't trust adults thing

Imagine they eventually send bats over, who yeah, is big dark and scary but the best with noticing little details/ very very very good with judging character. And comes to kneel where danny is on his phone playing candy crush. Danny ignores him but batman can tell he's watching of course, notices the sweat building and the way he scooches a little further away, still pressed against the summoning barrier.

Batman sighs like "can you tell me what you're doing?' he nodded to the phone.

"compartmentalizing." A short, subdued voice. Very different from the screeching demon sounds from earlier. Could still be part of the manipulation though.

"what do you mean by that?"

"pretending I'm not here obviously, what do you mean what do I mean?"

"... If you would just negotiate with justice league dark over there, we will let you return to your realm."

That made Danny snap, and he suddenly looked up to batman, looking straight into his masked eyes. "Oh, you mean if I just do exactly what you tell me to? Yeah right. You guys think you're the good guys, which is really much worse than just admitting you're a bad guy."

He glared. Bruce was startled.

"we are here to ensure the.protection of our world."

"by destroying being not from your world? Yeah, been there done that. Gets old. Fuck off, I don't need your propaganda"

This was devolving fast.

Constantine stepped in, and Danny flinched (he could feel the multiple contracts and enchantments on the man, this man dealt with demons and bartered in souls. Danny didn't want to be anywhere near him. And.he we trapped).

"we just need to clock the new king and ensure entities like you won't be passing through to wreck our dimension"

Dannys nostrils flared. "Entities" he spit the word out "like myself only have access to this world when YOU pull us through. We don't make ourselves" someone had to kill them, went unsaid.

"untrue mate, ever heard of demons?"

"ever heard of minding your own business?"

They all blinked at the child-like response. They still didn't believe he was a child though.

"plus, demons aren't ghosts. I really feel like someone like you should know that already."

Zatanna stepped over, and Danny impulsively shot out an ecto blast. it collided with the barrier harmlessly. None of them even flinched

"you're the ghost king. You have control over the dead"

"have you ever met a dead person? They have a nasty habit of not giving 2 shits who's in charge, actually"

"Listen kid, that binding circle you're in means you have to listen to us, acrually" Mr lung cancer spoke again. "We won't release you until we've come to an understanding."

Danny paled, looking between them. He pulled out his phone again, sitting back to rock back and forth. He definitely definitely wasn't thinking about.his parents, how they were never going to let him go-- strawberry down, that's one row gone--

Then a green portal opened somewhere behind him and he heard British guy curse and several other 'heroes' instrinctually react.

Danny felt his shoulders relax as the spectre speeder came barelling through, Dani and Val on their heel.

A short fight ensued, which consisted of a great number of very inappropriate name calling and insults. Dani in particular caused a lot of damage and we as fast enough to keep the others from catching her. A goth girl has come out of the vehicle to run over to Danny, pulling out a green and orange gun before shooting the edge of the circle and ran to Danny as they hugged. Danny was definitely still shaking. they turned to leave, to be met with a dark and looking Bruce.

"let me go"

"we need information from you"

So had his parents. They needed to know how they worked, after all. For research.

"I said. Let me GO"

Danny let out a wail. All of the heroes dropped, his friends having devices for blocking it. They all loaded up and boom portaled outta there.

The league members all compared notes later and agreed none of the entities looked physically older than 15. But that couldn't be true. Right?

Okay, taking like two steps back and one to the left, but I had a Thought. A Think. And another fic I wrote in my head has mearged with this is my sleep deprived brain.

What if there is a place in the zone where Baby Ghosts basically live and develop. A crèche. If they never get adopted by an adult ghost, they just grow up there kinda like an orphanage. If the are adopted, they go there a mandatory few times a week anyway for socialization at least. (At some point I will get around to writing my Crack but today is bot that day)

Now, like any childcare institution, there are adults watching over the children to make sure everyone is okay. Now, Snowdrift (who doubles as the school nurse) knows that halfas and liminals have different needs. They know that they have to spend time among the living. But after having to rescue them from those insane ghost hunters four months ago, they have been living mostly in the realms, and they have never missed a check in.

So of course Snowdrift is going to find them. Just to make sure that they only lost track of time and do some light scolding (it would be good for them to want to spend more time in the living realm, especially the liminals who are not (yet) half ghost).

Instead, Snowdrift opens a portal to an all out brawl between most of the babies and some living/death-touched adults (they really hope that that is not John Constantine, soul-whore extraordinaire, near the babies).

And then, Snowdrift sees Danny, their Baby King, trapped in a binding circle by his NAME.

Oh, it's on.

I need to knw what happens when they realize they really did just catch and force a teen in a cage and said they couldnt leave unless tbey ignore every stranger danger rule in the book

And then also find out tht the Teen King is actually not just a teen but a BABY GHOST

A BABY ghost qho only became a ghost less then FIVE YRS AGO.

And tht the other halfa of the group is LESS THEN HALF THT AGE ENTIRELY. Younger then Kon-Els actual age to

Oooooooooooooooooooo WHEN THEY REALIZE THEY KIDNAPPED AND MIND FUCKED A LITERAL BABY THO.

Oh they will be in so much trouble.....

I'm relistening to the Behind the Bastards first episode on radium health grifters*, and it talks about the connection made between the natural radon presence in health spa water being assumed to be the reason for their health benefits, and suddenly realising that this is why the epsom salts packet in my childhood bathroom had the brand name RADOX. jfc.

*‘William Bailey: The Gwenyth Paltrow of Radiation’

That episode was so fucking wild.

DP x DC summoning

So a classic staple of this crossover is some poor schmuck trying to summon Pariah and getting Danny

How this usually goes is Danny either flexes on them or nopes out of there

So in Hellblazer one of the things you want to summon a powerful otherworldly entity is not only their ritual, but their name. The ritual brings them there, the name is used as part of the binding that provides a summoner protection against the thing they just summoned

So just a thought

Danny has that happen a couple times, he’s summoned and he just nopes out of there and either assumes it’s just a halfa thing or just doesn’t notice it’s weird

So imagine the first time someone actually properly summons him

Be it Zatana or John who have or course heard about the change in management and have properly bound the spirit they’ve summoned. Hell maybe it’s someone like Felix Faust and he’s been summoned by a villain

Danny just peace signs and then immediately flies right into an invisible wall and nearly breaks his nose

To clarify, naming the thing you summon is part of the ritual to summon it, and it’s what keeps their ass in the circle and from ruining your day, it’s not like a magical compulsion

It offers the summoner safety to negotiate deals with things like demons without them just dragging them or a very traumatized child to hell. Iykyk

You’ve read or watched the sandman?

Dream being stuck in the summoning circle until the circle go messed up

“But didn’t they think they were summoning death?”

Yes, but the ritual they used was for Dream and was designed to properly bind him. He was named in the ritual, so despite what they thought they were getting they got him

OK bbut we could have a whole mini story of how they discovered the new rulers name (or dannh could have said it when he was summoned like a dumdum but this is more fun)

Mostly bc I love Boston brand /deadpan and I think him sleuthing around the IR could be fun.

Doubly so if this is a 'true name ' situation, although you didn't specify that in the post, aand I don't know dc well enough

We could in fact have a whole mini story about finding it out

As to how specific the name has to be, I think if they actually identify as that name it works so if Danny actually thinks of himself as “Danny Phantom” that could work

It might also just be funny if Danny just dropped his wallet or homework the first time around and that’s how they found out

It's always fun when the heroes do something with good intentions that turns out to be so incredibly wrong and fucked up, so I definitely vote its someone from (or even the whole, because this might not be something you want to do alone) JLD that summons him.

Ok but I'm ngl imagine if they did do proper research, the old way or whatever" and so they're prepared af. Danny has no idea who they are. He was just summoned against his will and now he can't escape. That's never happened before. He's scared AF.

He tries going Eldritch mode to scare them off. That usually worked with the other guys they would panic and flee and book lesson learned. These guys? Stare blankly at him, unphased. Not impressed. It actually scares him a little cuz hes never dealt with competent magic users before. So he reverts back and metaphorically folds in on himself. He doesn't know what they want but they're scary ppl and he can't get away

Okay, but? You know what most summoned beings DON'T have?

Friends.

Or a Fenton Phone stored on their person 24/7. And yeah, normally HE can get himself out of anything. But not always, you know? Now he's a hostage. Kidnapped! Mom, help, he's scared!

Literally.

I want him to call Maddie "Ah, So you have chosen Death" Fenton. This just became a Taken movie. She doesn't know who you are, where you are, or how you've done this.

But she WILL find you.

And you will pay.

Like? Imagine trying to summon the Dread King Of Death(tm). Who you KNOW is a nefarious sort of spook. And.... confused, terrified teenager? With a WORKING PHONE? Who pulls an immediate "hello, 911?" To his mom and friends? What.

He's ignoring you.

He has no where to GO, unless you release him. You've bound him by him name. But he's curled up as far away from you as he can physically get, taken out some earbuds (from his CHEST), and is just? Stress watching space documentaries on his phone?

Can he do that?

This feels like it's gone of script.

The Mother Spirit at least reacted normally, but? Did... did we get a human soul or something? This is feeling really human. Trick? How do we check without traumatizing a potentially dead teenager? Gdi why is nothing we ever do SIMPLE. Just once. Just ONCE! Can't we have an easy boring job?

The... (ghost? Spirit? He really didn't want to call it a kid, because that was definitely what it was starting to look like) entity was not acting as expected after its summoning.

Constantine had warned them of what to expect before performing the ritual. He'd mentioned the scare tactics, the tricks, the manipulation. And some of that had occurred, definitely.

What Constantine hadn't said to expect was the way the entity had looked genuinely afraid when it rebounded off the containment circle. The way its eyes had flitted over the runes before pressing a hand (small, human) against the barrier, and the minute widening of those eyes as it failed to break through.

The League had expected the ensuing shapeshifting scare tactic. None of them even flinched as what had at first looked like a boy (if it weren't for the white hair and Lazarus-green eyes, the entity would have looked like any of his children's classmates) discarded that appearance. They held fast as the entity grew in size, sprouting wings like the aurora borealis and far too many teeth to fit in its mouth. They didn't flinch as it shifted again and again, turning into things so incomprehensible that it made their minds fill with static and hearts race with atavistic fear.

They hadn't expected the entity to return to looking like a boy, this time with black hair and blue eyes. It had pressed itself against the back of the barrier, as far away from the League members as the circle would allow. Its eyes hadn't left them, watching with (fear?) wariness as it reached a hand into its chest and pulled out...

A phone?

The entity's voice isn't ear-splitting shrieks of the damned or the sound of nails on a chalkboard. Rather, it's just the voice of a teenager, small and shaky, as he says,

"Jazz? I think I need a rescue."

And everything is suddenly far more complicated.

It would really mess with their mind though.

It's a trick. They've seen the entity changed into a monstrous forms, heard its inhuman voices. It has to be a trick.

But it still tugs at their heartstrings watch this entity, who now looks to be around the same age as their own children, cower from them in fear. This wide-eyed, scared face of an innocent boy, the soft pleading voice of a child begging to be rescued away from the heroes. Ain't that a kick in the pants.

But it has to be a trick.

So they ignored the entity's human boy act. Ignored the entity's attempts of bargaining. Ignored the entity's pleas of freedom. Ignored whatever tricks the entity used even if they feel their hearts might break as the entity's borrowed human boy's face crumpled in fear and despair, lips wobbling and eyes welling up with tears.

That was until something else began tearing up the very fabric of their universe, trying to get in.

Jazz shows up in the GAV, her parents in tow with all of them decked out and pissed off

Ngl I am having major "reveal went poorly" vibes with this prompt, mostly because of the extra angst it provides. Why would danny trust these 'heroes' when his own PARENTS didn't believe him? Why would any adult be any different at this point?

So instead of Jazz and parents, it could be Jazz, Sam, and Tucker. Even Valerie and Dani, depending on preferences.

Which could make the justice league think its a whole bunch of shape-shifting entities that look like kids, as a way to throw them off their game. And sure, the magically inclined might be able to tell that these aren't the same type of 'spirit' as Danny is, or not as powerful, but they've all been exposed to enough of the Zone (and Val has her suit, and Dani her own halfa status) that they would be similar. Similar enough to make all the heroes think this is definitely a non-human rescue party.

You. You get it.

We are firmly in "adults are not to be trusted" territory here! Of course Danny is afraid of these so-called heroes! They never came to help, left him completely on his own to deal with things he was totally in over his head on. Add to that the fresh trauma of his own parents not believing or helping him, and now this???

They found his NAME??? How? When? ('Why' was somewhat understandable, if they'd heard about pariah, but still!) And to add to the list of questions, WHAT THE FUCK!

This binding was far too good. Far too COMPLETE. He didn't know how they'd managed it, what they knew about him to be able to create this circle, but he DID know that there was no possibility that this was good.

He'd used up too much energy on that stupid display, trying to scare them off with his more eldritch form and a dash of shape-shifting. Now he was more or less stuck in human form.

One good thing about the binding circle? It kept them out just as surely as it kept him in. So he was going to sit down (as far away from the justice losers as he could manage inside the circle) and firmly pretend that nothing was wrong.

(Pretend that their gazes didn't feel just like his parents', looking at him like a bug under the microscope. Pretend that his breath wasn't catching in his throat, that his hands weren't shaking where they held his phone. Pretend that his mind wasn't giving him a litany of worst-case outcomes. Nope. None of that was happening. Everything was FINE.)

And the best way to do that? Act like a normal teenager.

He was going to sit here and play candy crush until his rescue came.

So, the Justice League must have summoned him for something, right? Like, they probably aren't just standing there still and silent the whole time. They're probably talking; trying to make some kind of deal, or threat assessing, or perhaps even trying to bind the King into some kind of prison or control if they've deemed him to big a threat to leave freely roaming.

Whatever they are doing, sure hope Danny's rescue party arrives before he is magically forced to yield to whatever these 'heros' are demanding from him. : )

OOOOO YALL BEEN UP TO SOME GOOD SHIIIT

totally behind the reveal gone bad/ don't trust adults thing

Imagine they eventually send bats over, who yeah, is big dark and scary but the best with noticing little details/ very very very good with judging character. And comes to kneel where danny is on his phone playing candy crush. Danny ignores him but batman can tell he's watching of course, notices the sweat building and the way he scooches a little further away, still pressed against the summoning barrier.

Batman sighs like "can you tell me what you're doing?' he nodded to the phone.

"compartmentalizing." A short, subdued voice. Very different from the screeching demon sounds from earlier. Could still be part of the manipulation though.

"what do you mean by that?"

"pretending I'm not here obviously, what do you mean what do I mean?"

"... If you would just negotiate with justice league dark over there, we will let you return to your realm."

That made Danny snap, and he suddenly looked up to batman, looking straight into his masked eyes. "Oh, you mean if I just do exactly what you tell me to? Yeah right. You guys think you're the good guys, which is really much worse than just admitting you're a bad guy."

He glared. Bruce was startled.

"we are here to ensure the.protection of our world."

"by destroying being not from your world? Yeah, been there done that. Gets old. Fuck off, I don't need your propaganda"

This was devolving fast.

Constantine stepped in, and Danny flinched (he could feel the multiple contracts and enchantments on the man, this man dealt with demons and bartered in souls. Danny didn't want to be anywhere near him. And.he we trapped).

"we just need to clock the new king and ensure entities like you won't be passing through to wreck our dimension"

Dannys nostrils flared. "Entities" he spit the word out "like myself only have access to this world when YOU pull us through. We don't make ourselves" someone had to kill them, went unsaid.

"untrue mate, ever heard of demons?"

"ever heard of minding your own business?"

They all blinked at the child-like response. They still didn't believe he was a child though.

"plus, demons aren't ghosts. I really feel like someone like you should know that already."

Zatanna stepped over, and Danny impulsively shot out an ecto blast. it collided with the barrier harmlessly. None of them even flinched

"you're the ghost king. You have control over the dead"

"have you ever met a dead person? They have a nasty habit of not giving 2 shits who's in charge, actually"

"Listen kid, that binding circle you're in means you have to listen to us, acrually" Mr lung cancer spoke again. "We won't release you until we've come to an understanding."

Danny paled, looking between them. He pulled out his phone again, sitting back to rock back and forth. He definitely definitely wasn't thinking about.his parents, how they were never going to let him go-- strawberry down, that's one row gone--

Then a green portal opened somewhere behind him and he heard British guy curse and several other 'heroes' instrinctually react.

Danny felt his shoulders relax as the spectre speeder came barelling through, Dani and Val on their heel.

A short fight ensued, which consisted of a great number of very inappropriate name calling and insults. Dani in particular caused a lot of damage and we as fast enough to keep the others from catching her. A goth girl has come out of the vehicle to run over to Danny, pulling out a green and orange gun before shooting the edge of the circle and ran to Danny as they hugged. Danny was definitely still shaking. they turned to leave, to be met with a dark and looking Bruce.

"let me go"

"we need information from you"

So had his parents. They needed to know how they worked, after all. For research.

"I said. Let me GO"

Danny let out a wail. All of the heroes dropped, his friends having devices for blocking it. They all loaded up and boom portaled outta there.

The league members all compared notes later and agreed none of the entities looked physically older than 15. But that couldn't be true. Right?

Nooooow, after rescuing their traumatized brother/friend and helping him DEAL with said trauma, do you really think his sisters, besties and frenemies are going to let this little snafu go without consequences?

I didn't think so. ;)

The JL and JLD, after a period of recuperation and debriefing, still had a problem. They STILL hadn't safeguarded their world from the Ghost King and/or his minions trying to invade their world. And, given how his allies were able to take them down AND spring him from the most secure binding they knew, his threat level had gone significantly up!

So, a few days later, they reconvened with MORE dusty old texts to refine the summoning and binding of the Ghost King and to keep any rescue force out until they managed to force a deal out of him. Constantine and Zatanna were beginning to draw the circle of sigils on the floor when there was a rip in the empty air which parted into a green glowing fissure in space. A pair of huge, clawed hands pushed it open wider and a goddamn wolf-man stepped through. Instantly, every weapon was trained on him while the mages dropped their chalk and began to ready spells. The wolf-man growled at them and...was that actually a look of contempt on the lupine features? But he simply stepped to one side and a tall figure dressed in a white suit and black fedora stepped through the portal. He snorted in apparent amusement and held up a stuffed file folder.

"Stand down, punks," he ordered. "We're just dropping off some official paperwork." The partially completed circle caught the entity's eye and the amusement vanished. "And I'd highly recommend you knock it off with that foolishness. You're in enough hot water as it is."

"Who are you and what are your intensions here!" Batman demanded. The entity rolled his green glowing eyes and glanced at the wolf-man who snorted.

"Like I said, we're dropping off paperwork. But, if you want to be formal about it, this is Wulf," he jerked his head at his companion, "And I'm Walker, Warden of the Infinite Realms Prison." He tipped his hat in an obviously sarcastic salute as he dropped the file on the table in the middle of the room. "Consider yourselves served! See you soon, punks!"

As the two made to go back through the portal, the heroes made to stop them, but the file glowed and fan of light shot out of it. When their eyes cleared, they found that each of them was now holding an official looking paper. An official looking GLOWING paper. Zatanna was the first so start scanning it and muttered "Oh, crap!"

Each of them was holding (and unable to drop) a court summons...to the High Tribunal of the Infinite Realms!

YOOOO THIS IS A REALLY FUCKIG GOOD ADDITION DHDHDHHD AAAA imagine all of them being forced via a summoning (how do YOU like.it? Although they get to sign for preferred times/dates for their relative dimension at least...) and meet the court of the ancients. Danny is present as king, but otherwise does not participate. The other "children" they saw earlier are there as witnesses. The king, for some reason, still looks skittish. The others though??? Look pissed as hell.

Clockwork floats down to the justice league heroes and opens with the typical greetings and introduces himself. "I am Clockwork, Master of time across the infinite realms. I will be overseeing this tribunal. By vote of the council, you will be delivered your judgement of guilty or not. By selection of guilt, you will face sentences, albeit ones that are appropriate for your mortal lives. We as the tribunal agree to judge fairly as long as peaceful negotiations remain"

I'm sure the league+jld members already briefed everyone who wasn't familiar with magical realms/terminology on the customs and respect, but yeah. Shit would be crazy. Imagine the crimes accused. jejdjdd love the addition with Walker and wulf aaaaa

this video is genuinely incredible - the framing, the sunset, the single street light, the sound of traffic and cicadas in the background, the video of the sign capture imperfectly by (presumably) a phone camera. it’s a work of art and a perfect encapsulation of 21st century america

DPxDC write prompt

Danny has become Ghost king or at least is recognized to be the balance between the living and dead. Due to this all the death gods approach Danny one day. They look at him look at each other and take a deep breath. "You need to find whatever the mortals are using to bring people back to live days, months and years after they have passed. We can not claim them since they are living but it is disrupting the balance of life and death. Find what they are using and remove it from the mortal plane! Please."

In other words Danny is given a quest to find all the things that have been used to revive heroes after they have died and remove them from existence. No defibrillators or other tech that needs to be used shortly after a person died but the things that like the lazarus pits can be used later.

The guy who makes these posts in the hvac subreddit a lot and I love his memes

Some of my favorite by him

Mobility assistance

"this post would do numbers on tumblr" "that post would do numbers on tumblr" yeah they probably would. they would probably do 4 or some shit. i don't know

uh oh

you guys can put this one down now. it was funny but not That funny

you guys can put this

one down now. it was funny

but not That funny

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.