Chapter Text
“How’s your new place Danny?” Jazz asked, Danny held the phone up so that Jazz could take a look around his new apartment. “It looks ok, I'm just starting to unpack non-essential boxes” “Have your classes started up yet?”
Danny flipped the phone camera back to face him, propped it up against the wall, and opened another large box which had been sitting in the corner of the room with a bunch of other boxes for the last week. “Yep, but we haven't really started doing anything yet. There's a bunch of homework though” He pulled an electric snare drum out of the box.
“Oh, are you going to find a group to drum with out there?” Jazz asked, she had been trying to get him to join a band ever since he started drumming, saying how it would be good for him to make friends in the new city. It was a great way to take his mind off of all the stuff that was going on with him being the ghost king and having to actually be in the infinite realms occasionally.
Danny had been lucky that the court of observants had allowed a break from ghost king duties with guaranteed no interruptions unless it was truly a last resort world ending sort of thing. Which knowing his luck, may just end up happening within the year.
“I dunno, maybe, I guess it’ll depend on if I have time outside of school stuff” Danny didn’t really know if he would do well in a band, Jazz sure seemed to think so, all he did was jam out, he’d never really tried to play anything in hopes of performing it on stage or even just recording it. The closest he got was posting a 25 minute video of him drumming whatever he felt like onto youtube. It got quite a few likes and comments, but that was just people on the internet. When you're face to face with others they can be a lot meaner.
“Well, just think about it yah? I know you haven't been talking with Sam or Tucker as much recently, get out there and make some friends” Jazz was right, Danny knew it, but they had all gone their separate ways in order to achieve what they wanted to with their lives. The three of them still video called occasionally, but it was difficult to stay caught up when they weren't in the same building every day for hours on end.
“I will Jazz, but how’s your stuff going?” Danny knew he was being obvious with the subject change, but he truly was doing all right. He just needed a break, the guys in white were still operating in Amity Park and could be in Gotham in an instant if Phantom was sighted.
“Good, good, I’m visiting mom and dad in a few weeks, checking in on what they're doing, sabotaging it if needed, seeing what the GIW have been doing” Jazz was still watching him a little warily, “I’m going to send you some places near you that you could go play music with others, you need to be doing something outside of school Danny”
“Ill look at them, call in a few days?” Danny asked, knowing that Jazz must be glad that he’d at least look at what she was sending him. She puts a lot of effort into making sure he’s ok, more so mentally than physically now that he’s out of their parents’ house.
“Course Danny, let me know what you think about the places, maybe actually go to one of them” Danny thought that at this point she may come through the phone and drag him to one of them herself. “I will, I will,” Danny muttered “Thanks Jazz”
After his phone was back in his back pocket he looked at the drum in his hands. It had been forever since he’d sat down at his kit. His phone buzzed with the special notification sound he’d set up for Jazz, probably a few different open jam places. He glanced over at the rest of the boxes still sitting in the corner.
It took him a while to unbox everything he needed to set up the kit, but once he was sitting on the stool, with the sticks in his hands and the headphones on, he was actually glad that Jazz got him to finally unpack some more of his stuff.
It took another few days before Danny actually went to one of the places jazz told him to check out. It was only a few blocks away from him. He stood awkwardly in front of the door, it wasn’t the best looking building, but the sign on the door said that anyone was welcome to come inside and make some music in a space together.
There was a woman sitting at a desk in the small entrance room, she glanced up from her book at him for a moment then lifted her whole head up to look at him. “Wow, you’re new, we haven't had anyone new come in for forever! What do you play?” She stood up and motioned for him to follow her through a hallway next to the desk.
“Drums” Danny said, glancing at all of the random pictures hanging on the walls. There were a few groups that he’d heard of, and a bunch more of what looked to just be some random people who were all performing at the same stage. “I’ve never been to a place like this, what kind of stuff should I play?”
She smiled at him, “Play whatever you want, do you mind if I mention that you're a drummer to a group who plays here? They’ve been looking for a drummer for awhile, but like I mentioned earlier, we haven't gotten any new people in awhile.”
This 100% took Danny by surprise, “Uh, sure, you can do that, what do they play?” She motioned to an open door, which led to a relatively small room with a few different kinds of instruments around it and a drum kit in one of the corners. “They tend to play some punk and metal music. If you wanna come back sometime within the next few days I can let them all know to come in then to meet you?” She tilted her head at him a bit, “Yah, I can do that, uh maybe, in 3 days? On Tuesday?” She seemed to think it over, “Alright, and what’s your name” “Danny” “Nice to meet you, I’m Dora. I’ll leave you to play now”
She closed the door, sealing Danny inside the room with what he just did. He was going to play in a band. Maybe not a band band that performs in front of people, but a group of people who want to play music together. He could do that, right? Yah, totally. What if they met him and didn’t want him to be their drummer? He knows he doesn’t really give off the vibes of someone who’d play drums, what if they wanted someone who looked like someone who’d be a drummer in a punk band.
He took a deep breath.
It would all work out alright, that's what Jazz would have told him if she were here. He came here to see about playing with other people, and he’s done that. So he sat down on the throne and picked up the sticks that someone must have donated recently, they looked almost brand new, and started to play a beat that he’d had in his head all day.
By the time Danny left the little building it had started to get darker out. He really didn’t want to be out too much past dark, he knew with his luck he’d end up at the top spot on the Bat’s radar, and he really didn’t want that so soon after leaving Amity.
It was just his luck that just as his apartment building came into view that he was dragged into an alley
“Gimme your wallet” The guy was dressed in a black hoodie and jeans and pointing a small kitchen knife at Danny, with a stereotypical bandana over the bottom half of his face. “Dude, I’m in college, I have absolutely no money, especially not any on me” He leaned back onto the dirty alley wall, completely unbothered by the knife, if this guy actually tried to stab him he had fast enough reflexes to turn intangible and not get hurt.
This seemed to make the masked man pause, “You’re not from around here, why didn’t you just hand over your wallet?” “Dude, overall this city’s been pretty tame, buildings don’t come down every other weak, but there's weirdos running around on the rooftops” He glanced up as he said that, he could feel a small ghost core on the roof looking down at them, it was probably one of the bat’s he had been trying so hard to avoid, which was just his luck. “Now are you going to try and stab me to take the tiny amount that I have on me that’s worth anything or are you going to leave this alley and rethink your choices?” The man made the sensible choice and ran off.
“Now that that’s settled are you going to come down here and introduce yourself or am going to have to go through the process of elimination on who you are?” Danny looked up in time to see a guy jump down from the roof and land a few feet away, leaving Danny as the one closer to the road. Which meant that the bat was, hopefully, not going to fight him.
“Well that was a sight, not every day an out of towner makes a mugger rethink his choices” Now that the bat was closer he could practically see rancid ecto coming off of him in waves. “Red Hood, nice to meet you” The bat, Red Hood, held his hand out for Danny to shake, “Danny” “Are you ok Danny? That must’ve been a scare?”
Danny chuckled, “He wouldn’t have been able to stab me even if he actually tried, see you around Red Hood” Danny tipped an imaginary hat and let his eyes flash green briefly in a greeting to the revenant before turning to walk the short way to his apartment building.
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What the fuck. That was probably one of the absolute weirdest interactions Jason has ever had. He was expecting the pretty civilian to at least be a little stunned, as most non-bat-affiliated people tend to be after a mugging attempt. But the guy just acted like it was no big deal, tipped an invisible hat, and his eyes flashed green? He didn’t think that his entire vision flashed green, only the guy's eyes.
He stood there, still, as the mysterious guy walked out of the alley and out of sight. “Uh, Oracle?” “What’s up Hood? You don’t usually ask for anything out of a fight” “Did you have eyes on the civilian I just ran into?” Jason was not going to say ‘saved’, he did anything but that. “Can you confirm that his eyes briefly changed colors? They flashed green, but I don’t feel angry, and it wasn’t my whole vision, just his eyes”
The comms were quiet for a moment before Oracle muttered a “What the hell?” “So I'm not losing it right?” Jason questioned, coming close to yelling. “I’ll look into it, we may have another person who got a bit too close to the pits”