rabbitpiedreams

Rating: G
Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Batfamily (DCU)
Characters: Stephanie Brown, Jazz Fenton, Danny Fenton

Jazz Fenton joins Steph's dorm with a Body Bin™, which... shouldn't be a cause for concern?? Hopefully no dead bodies will show up.

Content Warning: This fic does odd, potentially triggering things with pronouns. xe and xey pronouns are used to mark the point of view character in narration (non-quoted text). They are intended to have a similar role to I/us/you in that they do not reflect gender or pronoun preference. I suspect this may be triggering to some people -- Please check in with your needs and mindstate before continuing.

Xe/Xem/Xyr/Xyrs/Xemself marks the POV character – it only refers to one character and who it refers to changes from scene to scene. Xey/Xem/Xeir/Xeirs/Xemselves is plural, and marks the POV character + others – similar to plural they, except the POV character must be included. Fic ahead:

Xe is Jazz (Jazz’s POV)

Gotham is like a different genre. No, Jazz thinks to xemself, the word is culture. Culture, not genre. Anyway, it’s nice to not be on call, knowing you're standing between a town and its rogues. Gotham is famous for its bystander effect and xe kind of likes being a bystander. Not that xe'll go as far to avoid helping old ladies who trip with their shopping bags – xe's confident enough in xyr skills if they turn out to be thieving ninjas – just that xe's not going to go hunt down cackling criminals.

(It had hard to avoid the temptation to be nosy back in Amity Park, where hang outs with friends were woven with speculation about the latest ghost news, and the latest ghost news broadcast xyr parents and little brother shooting at each other.)

Oh god it is Nice to be out of Amity Park and away from that! Xe has been ready for something new for a while, somewhere where the heroes weren't quite as personal .

“Jazz, did you give me back the tweezers I lent you? I can't find them,” Steph calls, knocking on xyr door and pushing it open.

“Oh right, here,” Jazz says, picking the tweezers up off a large plastic tub and quickly inspecting them for signs of life before handing them over.

Steph caught the movement and her brow, nose and mouth all wriggled in a way that looked to mean “weird, but ok.” She took tweezers. She looked over them herself and raised an eyebrow.

“I was protecting your safety,” Jazz said. “It's an Amity Parker's duty to ensure no tweezers come to life and stab their friends.”

“Oh god imagine it, though,” Steph said, and made the tweezers open and shut hungrily. “Do you think there are any metas with metal manipulation powers that can do that?”

“What is this, a confession? I thought the toaster was acting off.” Jazz grins and as Steph steps out with a feral grin and a “You got me!”

Jazz revels in how awesome it is to be able to joke about possessed appliances.

Xe is Steph (Steph POV)

Xey are Steph and others

Steph likes xyr new roommate. Jazz is from a small town and the way she tells it, they had so many crazy superpowered events it’s a wonder the Justice League didn't storm in there! But Jazz said they had a local hero handling it, speaking of fondness deeper even than that that leaks out of xyr mouth sometimes when xe talks about the bats.

It really brings xem back to the days before xe joined the Dead Robins Club.

It feels kind of like xe and Jazz are on the same team. Not that xe wants to team up with Jazz! Of course not. Steph is an ex -vigilante. No night-life for xem. Doesn't want xyr roommate getting sucked into that stuff either.

But the fantasy is fun, even if the reality isn't some xe'll relive – couldn't really live (survive) in the first place.

∗ ∗ ∗

The last of xem in the apartment is Lacy, who took one look at Jazz's big plastic box that was sitting in the living room in front of the TV on moving day and said “You could hide a body in that.” Steph said, “You'd have to chop it pretty finely,” and Jazz gave xem both a strained sort of smile and took the box into her bedroom, walking slightly faster than normal. Probably questioning if Gotham was a safe place to live.

It should not have been a red flag. People use tubs as tables all the time! And sometimes, people put decorative blankets over them, too, like Jazz had when Steph went in to get the tweezers.

But normally, the tubs don't glow green .

So when Jazz is out, Steph dips into xyr lock-picking set and dips into Jazz's room with full awareness that xe has Tim's number in xyr back pocket and years of training in xyr mind and body.

Xe eases off the blanket – and yeah, oh god there is glowing green goop in that thing, it’s filled right up to the top. It makes xyr insides shrivel and xyr tongue try to disappear down xyr throat.

(Xe could call Tim. Xe does not call Tim. Tim will want data, good pictures, and samples. Xe can drop them at his bunker in an hour.)

There is something floating in the glowing green, and xe opens up the lid to get a look, and what. The fuck. Is that a bone .

Is that a stomach oh god are those intestines, because Steph is reminded way too viscerally of Lacy's dissection workbook oh hell . Maybe xe should get a sample after all.

Everything in the goop is a weird shade of bright, burning green, slightly darker than the liquid. Steph takes a few snaps back, then goes to the kitchen and grabs a (non-sterile, Bats’ voice grumbles in her mind) container for the goop. Xe grabs the kitchen gloves to appease him. Careful, careful not to let anything touch xyr fingers xe dips it into the liquid–

Ew, the container bumps something semi-solid!

– and out. The goo ripples it the sample's wake and xe snaps its water-tight lid closed.

The goo keeps rippling, even though xe isn't disturbing the surface any more. Steph suppresses an eep .

The organs shift, and wiggle.

Steph grabs the lid to slam it down on the disturbing goop. A glowing, skeletal hand reaches out and stops xem. Xe pushes harder on the lid and it wobbles side to side as something – someone emerges from the goop. Steph realises xyr only shield is a flimsy plastic lid.

Oh yikes.

Tim's going to kill xem. Batman is going to kill xem.

Then xe completely looses xyr grip on the lid, and xe's falling through it and towards the Body Bin™ with a wail. Xe barely manages to shove it to the side and launch xemself into Jazz's bed, spinning to find–

The green goop has, mostly , turned into a guy. He's glowing weirdly and his legs are still showing leg bones, but he's got gloves on now, and he has a face.

“YOU!” Step yells, and points. “You're the green goop?”

(Obviously he is. The goop had now filled in his lower legs and is turning into shoes.)

“You stole my finger! Give it back!” the Goop Guy yells back, waving a fist in her direction. Oh wait – he’s trying to point. His index finger is missing.

Goop Guy's glowy eyes track to the plastic box that holds the goop sample and xey both pounce for it at the same time, and wrestle. That was xyr sample! Goop Guy grabs the container and Steph tries to yank it away from him, realising a moment too late he’s holding it by the lid.

A finger falls out. Yikes, he so hadn't been kidding. Ok. He has a right to his body part. Steph can be reasonable! Xe stops struggling and lets the guy grab his finger, putting xyr hands up in a show of surrender..

“Sorry about the finger!” xe squeaks. “But, like, seriously, what are you doing in my apartment?”

“What are you doing in my sister's room?” Goopy asks.

Steph refuses to let this guy act like xe’s in the wrong here. “Excuse me for wondering what my flatmate is doing with a vat of glowing organs .”

“It's a plastic box, not a vat , geez you make this place sound like a villain's lab.

“You're literally wearing a glowing hazmat suit! I'd say the evil lab vibes are coming straight from you .”

The guy wilts. “Yeah, well I guess our parents are mad scientists… look, it's hard work keeping myself together some days,” Ok, mood, “and I sometimes just need to relax and let it all go, and Jazz lets me have that. There's no evil lab – not anymore . Can we drop this?”

Steph breathes out. Fine. Okay. Xe can understand the struggle to keep things together. “Fine. Okay. I'm Steph.”

Xe gets up and holds out a hand.

“Danny,” says Goopy.

“Ah! The brother from the Noodle Incident!”