The Best Fanfic Is The One The Author Had Fun Writing Actually.

Art trade with @hermesserpent-stuff !

Their oc, Ella Osborn!

Writers, it's okay:

to be proud of your own writing

to write something self-indulgent

to celebrate your achievements

to have a bad day of writing

to hype up your own writing

to be kind to your characters once in a while. ok? it's ok

Bruce was not panicking.

He was most specifically not panicking. Because if he panicked, this teenager, this child, bleeding in his arms, would die.

The robbers on Elm Street could wait. Oracle had already directed Nightwing to the robbers getaway vehicle. Dick had been complaining for days that he hadn't had a good car chase in weeks. He got his wish.

But this child, Daniel, was Bruce's priority. His disorientation was concerning. He'd gone from mostly aware and coherent to unconscious in such a short period of time, after obviously having been cognizant enough to get away from his abuser. The rapid deterioration gave Bruce an indication of what type of poison it was, at the very least.

Bruce carefully buckled the child into the passenger seat of the Batmobile, tilting the seat and Daniel's head so he wouldn't choke on his own blood before they got to the Batcave.

"Agent A," Bruce growled, the Batmobile rumbling beneath him as he hit the gas, "Prepare medbay and the lab for a tox screen. Victim is a teenager, orphan, Daniel, most likely not from Gotham. Came with his godfather, the one who poisoned him,"

"Symptoms?" Alfred asked, steady as always, and Bruce appreciated that more than anything.

"Disorientation and confusion leading into unconsciousness, rapid decline. Bleeding from mouth, nose," Bruce glanced over at Daniel and his mouth thinned, "Eyes, and ears. Cold body temperature, thready pulse," Bruce paused, considering. "Too cold, possible meta. We'll have to test for the gene before intensive treatment,"

"Acknowledged. Shall I set Red Hood on discovering the identity of the young man and his godfather?"

Bruce paused. Thought it over for a second. Then he glanced at Daniel, heard his desperate pleas to save him, help him, keep him away.

"Remind Hood not to kill,"

"Will do,"

I am loudly pushing the batdad agenda i am loudly pushing the— DPxDC Prompt

“Woah. You look like shit."

Granted, that’s probably not the first thing Danny should be saying to the guy that just bit the curb, but in his defense; he’s not running on 100% right now either.

The man -- tall, towering, and broader than Danny is tall -- whips around on his heel, black frayed cape flaring out impressively. Danny would've whistled in appreciation, but he takes the time instead to wipe the back of his hand across his mouth, smearing the blood running from his nose across his cheek.

"Sorry." He blinks widely, not even flinching as the man with the horns zeroes in on him. "That was rude of me. I have a really bad brain-to-mouth filter; Sam says its what always gets me into trouble."

And she's not wrong either, per say. His smart mouth is what landed him in this situation -- with blood blossom extract running through his veins and cannibalizing the ectoplasm in his bloodstream. Thanks Vlad.

The man grunts at him; a short, curt "hm" that shouldn't make Danny smile, but he does because he's somewhat delirious and probably concussed. The man keeps some kind of distance, sinking towards the shadows of Gotham's alleyway like he dares to melt right into it.

If it's supposed to scare Danny, it doesn't work. Danny's never been afraid of the dark; he's always been able to hide himself in it. He blinks slowly at the mass of shadows.

"You look hurt." The shadows says, blurring together around the edges. Danny squints, and licks his lips to get the blood dripping down his chin off. Ugh, he hates the taste of blood.

"I am." He says, "My godfather poisoned me. M'dying." The agony of the blood blossom eating him from the inside out looped back around to numbing a while ago, so all he feels is half-awake and dazed.

"Hey," Danny stumbles forward towards the man, a bloodied hand reaching out to him. "You-- you're a hero, right? You're not attacking me; which is more than I can say for most costumed people I've met." Maybe it's a poor bar to judge someone at, but he's already established that Danny's not in his right mind.

The man makes no change in expression, but Danny realizes blearily that it's hard to tell with the shadows on his face. He stays still long enough for Danny to latch onto the cape -- stretchy, but almost soft under his fingers.

He looks up blearily into the whites of the man's eyes. "Can you help me? I don't-- I don't wanna die." Again. He doesn't wanna die again. He blinks slow and lizard-like. "I mean- I'll probably get to see mom and dad again, but I told them I'd at least try and make it to adulthood."

There's a clatter down the street, and Danny's ghost sense chills up his spine and leaves a bitter, ashy taste in his mouth. He immediately knows who it belongs to even before the deceptively gentle; "Daniel?" echoes down the way.

"Daniel? Quit your games, badger, Gotham is dangerous for children."

Danny's mouth pulls back, and blood spills against his tongue. "Please." He rasps, and grabs onto the shadow's cape with both hands. "Please. He's going to kill me. Please--"

"Daniel? Is that you?"

His lips part, dragging in air to plead with the darkness again. He doesn't need to, the whites of his eyes narrow, and the cape whirls around him before Danny can blink. Soon swaddled in shadows, the Night lifts him up, and steals him away.

Feral McGee™

It starts with the Joker. 

His goons picked up Tim Drake. Not specifically because it was Tim Drake, he just so happened to be in the Joker’s neighborhood, and we'll, he can't pass up that opportunity now can he? 

Except Tim Drake is watching, along with the rest of Gotham, at the Batcomputer. He’s nursing a broken foot and has been put on monitor duty until he's cleared for field work again. 

The guy looks enough like him, though. Black hair, blue eyes, and bags under his eyes for days. He's also got the same lean sort of build like he does. 

It happens like this. 

The Joker is doing his monologue thing where he explains whatever twisted game he's come up with this time. He takes up the majority of the screen, so nobody can see Not-Tim behind him, not until the big reveal. Then he covers the screen again, getting up close and personal, before stepping back. In those quick few seconds, Not-Tim is no longer sitting there tied to the chair. 

Someone off camera lets the Joker know, and he whirls around, confused as the rest of Gotham. 

And then Not-Tim comes in with the steel chair. 

Or, well, a crowbar, but the reference holds up. 

He takes out one of Joker’s knees before punching him in the face. The Joker drops like a bag of stones, out cold. 

Then he looks towards the camera. 

“Hey there. I'm not really sure where I am, but also if he was after Tim Drake, he got the wrong guy. I'm not him, I'm just some dude. Anyway, I'll just-yep-” he carefully steps over the unconscious Joker, gives the camera a little wave, and then leaves. 

Batman and Nightwing enter shortly after, with the Joker and his goons out cold and tied up. The knots were complicated enough where, in the end, the police resorted to cutting the ties off of them so they could be properly cuffed and taken to Arkham. 

“A constrictor knot,” Batman tells Nightwing as they watch the villain be taken away. “Often used by sailors to temporarily tie things together to keep something in a bag, or to hold something to glue it back together.”

“Huh,” Nightwing says, scratching the back of his head. “Go figure.”

—

The next time it happens, it’s the Riddler. 

He’s laughing, giving his riddles to the Bats and recording himself to all of Gotham while his victim, one of the Wayne brats, hangs over a vat of something. From a distance, he looks like Tim Drake, or maybe a lankier Dick Grayson. And he’s not the only victim, they’re all scattered across the city, but he thought an important figure such as a Wayne should be under the Riddler’s direct supervision while he enacts his schemes. 

While the Riddler cackles and plots and waves his cane around, in the background all of Gotham can see the figure escape. Several Gothamites recognize him as the kid from before, who clocked the Joker. They all watch with bated breath as he sort of wiggles his way out of the ropes holding him up. Once he’s free, he climbs the rope and gets himself down safely. 

Gotham holds their breath as the kid casually walks up to the Riddler, who’s mid-rant. He politely taps him on the shoulder, and as the Riddler is turning around, the kid clocks him just as brutally as he had the Joker. He’s down with one punch. 

They think he’s going to say another sort of awkward goodbye, but instead he pats the Riddler down until he finds a piece of paper tucked into the inside pocket of his jacket. 

“Right,” the kid says, looking at the list. There’s a lot more static overlay now, and several wonder if it’s damage to the cameras. “Uh, the Clocktower, the Docks, and-” he squints at the page for a moment-”Mama Nacaroni’s? What the fuck is that? Anyway, uh. See you later, I guess. Oh! And we’re at the Gotham Arena. Have fun with him, I guess.”

The kid tosses the paper off to the side before the camera cuts to black. 

Just like last time, everyone is out cold and tied up. The Riddler himself is sporting a pretty bad shiner, but well deserved nonetheless. 

“Stop it,” Red Hood tells him. Batman just looks at him, and though Hood can’t see the top half of his face, he can tell that his eyebrow is raised. “You know exactly what I mean, B. Put the adoption papers away.”

“Hn.”

—

After that, it sorta becomes a game. The rogues of Gotham are no longer after a Wayne, or after anybody who holds any kind of social status like usual. They’re all going after this one kid, all determined to be the one to hold him. And each one is televised. 

Mr. Freeze freezes him in a block of ice, but due to the cameras glitching out, nobody can really see how he got free. They do, however, see the kid suplex Mr. Freeze. It should seem impossible, given his lanky figure, but he evidently has more muscle than he’s originally let on. 

Two-Face gets a hold of him, using chains and some power-dampening cuffs just on the off-chance that he’s a meta. They all watch as the kid leans down, pulls a bobby pin out of his hair, and picks the locks on his cuffs. One punch, and Two-Face is down. 

Gothamites are going wild for the kid. They’ve dubbed him Feral McGee™ (an online poll, of course), because every time he goes in for the punch he gets this feral look in his eyes. Also, just the fact that he casually goes up to these rogues and takes them out with all the casualness of doing something incredibly mundane? Incredible. The Gothamites are eating it up. However, despite the video evidence, nobody has been able to properly identify the kid. They know he has black hair and bright eyes, but any time he gets near a camera, it’s like there’s this weird, sort of warped quality the camera takes on. It doesn’t usually calm down until the fight is done-as one sided as they usually are-before he awkwardly skedaddles away.  

He gets kidnapped by the Penguin, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy (though that was more just a friendly chat than anything), Mad Hatter, and the Riddler again. 

And then the Joker escapes. 

It’s no surprise as to who he’s going to go after. 

Due to one too many careless goons, they manage to find their way to the Joker’s hideout pretty quickly. This time, it’s all Bats on deck, and they all hide away in the rafters as Feral McGee™ is hung over a vat of acid. His whole body is tied up, hardly a single inch of exposed skin to be seen except for the neck up. 

They watch the goons, they watch the Joker, and they watch Feral McGee™. 

The Joker is monologuing, practically begging the bats to come find him before the timer runs out. When it does, the kid gets dumped into the vat of acid. 

Despite these stakes, the kid seems to be only mildly annoyed. 

“Fuck this, I have homework I still need to finish,” they hear him say. 

They all watch, amazed and confused, as the kid starts gnawing through the ropes. Human teeth shouldn’t be able to do that so easily, but one bit after the other, and soon enough the kid’s got himself freed enough to just climb up the rest of the rope. When he’s at the top of the crane holding him up, Batman lets down a rope and pulls the kid up and out of danger. 

“Oh, cool, you’re all here,” the kid says casually, as if meeting the entire Bat Clan is just a normal Tuesday. And then he pulls out a notepad and pen and hands it to Red Hood. 

“Can I get an autograph? You’re dope as fuck, dude.”

Red Hood has to look away and hide his face in his arms for a few moments to not give away their location with his laughter before signing. And then, one by one, the others do as well. They pass along the kid’s notebook with shit-eating grins and barely contained snickers despite the fact that the Joker is still right below them. Even Batman signs it, after his children don’t stop hounding him about it. 

In their distraction, they didn’t see the kid sneak away. He’s far away from them now, nearly right over the Joker. Danny waits, though, until the Joker has turned around as the timer almost runs out. They watch as he snickers at Joker’s flabbergasted look. The Joker comically looks back and forth and under objects the kid obviously isn’t under. However, before he can do or say anything else, the kid drops from the rafters and right on top of the Joker. He crumples to the ground, unconscious. The kid, however, just brushes the dust off of himself. Despite the fall he took, there isn’t a scratch on him. 

When the bats join him, they give his notepad back to him, barely able to contain their laughter at the absurdity of it all. The kid, too, joins in the camaraderie, laughing and joking along with them as Batman secures the Joker. 

“Okay, okay, but I gotta ask, dude,” Red Hood says at one point, looking at the kid. “How do you keep getting kidnapped?”

The kid just shrugs. “I get distracted easily. And I’m sleep deprived, so you know. Social awareness is kind of at an all time low right now.”

“Why are you sleep deprived?” Nightwing asks, barely hidden concern in his voice. 

 “Finals are kinda kicking my ass right now. Especially this dumb English homework I have. You guys wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

“Oh, lucky for you,” Red Hood says, wrapping an arm around the kid’s shoulders as he walks them out of the warehouse, “I happen to know a lot about English. So, it is Shakespeare?”

“Yeah, Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

As they walk off, Batman calmly watches, though the rest of the bats can see his jaw twitching. Nightwing comes up behind him, clapping a hand on his shoulder. 

“If you don’t adopt him, I will.”

“Hn.”

Hello again! I really liked your answer to my questions, I've read this post about 6 times already! (I really love it) So I want to ask you, what do you think will happen if Oscar drinks tea from the Ever After? I just really hope that in RWBY beyond episode 3 Oscar and Ruby came at the end to separate Oscar and Ozpin (not the soul in half, just stop the merge, but Oscar and Ozpin are still connected) and what do you think will happen after Oscar drinks tea and he and Oz return to the Vacuo?

sorry if here any mistakes I just used translato

Hi! Nice to hear from you again, and I'm glad you liked it. Now, this is a very interesting and very complicated question you've offered me. I like it. I'm gonna put it under the cut, because this... is going to take a while.

From what we've seen in the epilogues, in RWBY Beyond, Oscar is losing more and more of himself. Ozpin's losing himself too. They're losing themselves and each other to the merge and who'll they'll become together. It's stopping being Ozpin's experiences, Ozpin being the subject of fairytales, and starting to be Oscar referring to those past events as his.

If you think about it, the curse, the merge, is kind of like a really twisted, fucked up version of Ascension, where the choice of purpose is completely taken away instead. Ozma was given a task, a role, a purpose, a part to play in the story of the battle between light and dark, and that purpose has been passed on, whether anyone likes it or not. The answer, most often, is not.

In V8, we see Oscar frustrated with Ozpin's return, because he was starting to carve out his own role, figuring out who he wanted to be. That choice is being taken away from him, just like it was taken away from the person Ozpin used to be, taken away from the King of Vale, again and again thousands of years past.

I think a meeting between Oscar, Ozpin, and The Blacksmith would be very, very interesting, particularly in her relationship with the Brothers.

The Blacksmith created them. She said "The Brothers built homes for [the Everafterans], and gave them roles to play". Would she see nothing wrong with the way the Brothers acted, the role they assigned to Ozma and his line? The Blacksmith doesn't seem to be able to know what happens in Remnant, only catching glimpses of it in the humans who fall into the Ever After. The Blacksmith seems to like what she sees, calling humans "Remarkable things [the Brothers] accomplished". What would she think about Oscar and Ozpin?

She seems to value souls, they move through her domain afterall, and she seemed to like it when Ruby asked after "The souls that are moving on to whatever they become next". But the line of Ozma doesn't get to move on when they die. Their souls merge with others, they are subsumed, they are an amalgamation, they are something that has never been before, they are not something they want to be. Would the Blacksmith be mad at the Brothers for what has been done to dozens of hundreds of innocent souls? She doesn't seem capable of condemnation, that is not her purpose, but would empathy be shown for the line of Ozma, including ones past?

The Blacksmith does feel emotions, she's not a robot, she's glad to see Jaune, she finds joy in creating, the "not knowing". Would she find Oscar and Oz a fascinating creation? Or would she be dismayed at how little there is to know, how little choice there is. Everafterans die, and choose what to become next through Ascension. Oz dies, doesn't choose where he goes, doesn't choose where they become, doesn't choose a purpose that can we even really say is his anymore? When they've become so many people, does Ozma's original choice really belong to them anymore?

As always with the line of Ozma, it is a question of choice, identity, and free will.

How The Blacksmith would feel about it, act about it, think about it, is a very interesting question. But there is the question of if she can do anything about it.

Yes, The Tree/Blacksmith made the Brothers, and the Brothers made humans, and the Blacksmith obviously has influence over the humans who do end up in her domain. Would that be enough to supercede the curse? The will of the Brother of Light? The purpose he gave Ozma and every single soul who came after? It'd be interesting if The Blacksmith couldn't. If the Brother's intercession would be necessary to fix what they broke, what they started. But that's not the question here!

Enough hypotheticals, it's time to get down to it. In this scenario, we'll go with Oscar and Oz being over halfway merged, probably a lot merged by this point, but still two distinct entities in their own right. The Blacksmith, whatever her feelings about it, can help, allowing Oscar and Oz to choose their purpose and who they'll become.

I've seen in the fandom a lot that a turning point for Oscar would be/will be when he gets his own weapon. Weapons are so important in RWBY, Oscar being able to choose what weapon he gets, the name, the meaning behind it rather than one he inherits is so important. That carries over easily to the Blacksmith and the choices/weapons she presents.

Choosing to be yourself is a legitimate option when it comes to The Blacksmith! Oscar would definitely choose to be himself, that's without question, even if he's not sure who that himself is, he's willing to make it. I think that would best go down if instead of choosing one of the weapons The Blacksmith presents or choosing Long Memory, Oscar makes his own. I personally think it would be very cool if The Blacksmith let Oscar use her forge to make his own weapon, make his own self, make who he chooses to be.

I think that extra effort to physically make his own weapon would also be important. There's a lot more weight there, the weight of a purpose assigned, the weight of so, so many souls behind him, clinging to him. I think in that moment, Oscar would be straining to go forward and, like all parents, Ozpin would have to make the choice to let go. Let Oscar move forward into the unknown instead of the path laid before them, let go even though it's hard, even though it's scary, because letting children choose their own paths and who they are is very, very important.

Oscar being able to literally forge his own identity, his own path, would be both symbolically appropriate and also very cool.

Now, we also have to consider what would happen to Oz. Both Ozpin and the entire line before him, whatever small, pedantic difference there may be. I think it's too late to let the previous souls go. They're merged, and there's no separating them. They're gone. They're here but they're gone. There's only Ozpin left. But what that would mean, well, that's up to Ozpin. He'd have to make his own choice on who he is, who he becomes, what his purpose is.

I... don't think he'd choose to be himself. I think he'd be so, so tired of the purpose he was assigned. I think he'd like to make his own decision, and I think he'd choose to be someone else. Let the line of Ozma end, expire, be no more. He would choose to be someone else. The Blacksmith said, "Choose for yourself one who can leave your burdens behind or choose one who would be enough to bear them". This is what she said to Ruby, so it's not entirely applicable, but the sentiment is there.

I think Ozpin would choose to be someone else. Someone who isn't so embittered by betrayl that they can still trust. Someone who can see the best in people, who can continue to reach out. Someone who doesn't give up, doesn't run away. Oscar showed him someone better to be, tried to push him to be that person. And now he can take that final step, and become someone else with a far better purpose than had been handed down to him by the Brothers.

He can become someone kind.

That is who he wants to be. Kind enough to reach out, kind enough to trust, kind enough to stay even when he's afraid, kind enough to reach out like Oscar did to Emerald, kind enough to fix a broken heart like in Hazel and perhaps... even like in Salem.

Oscar and Ozpin would return to Vacuo together, Oscar the most himself he's ever been, and Ozpin happy to be someone else entirely, but no matter what, they'd stick together.

I think that would be a good way for it to go.

Great eared nightjar

Danny: You left me! Alone! I needed you and you weren't there! (Talking about Constantine leaving him to deal with the ghost portal, that fucker)

Constantine: You're a big kid. You handled it. You're not my responsibility. (Danny had it under control, and Constantine does not want to touch Amity park with a ten foot pole)

The Batfam: 🫢

Dp x dc

A classic au where the batfam adopt Danny and they dont know his secret (yet)

Then one day Constatntine come to the mannor to discus something ofthe league, see Danny and is is like

"Brat"

"Jerk"

And start yelling.

No one of the bats know why, but then somone tell as joke: " ha ,maybe Dany is constantine bastard and he is demanding the inhetitance"

The bats grow in silence wirh the realization

Of course this has to end with them falling in love over time when the witch comes back and is slowly, begrudgingly, charmed by this unbothered asexual every year.

“You shall fall dead the day your first child is born!” the young, inexperienced witch had cried casting her curse. Little did she know, to an asexual like yourself, she’d practically granted immortality. Now, every year, on the anniversary of the curse, she tries her best to “fix” things.