Danny and Tim have been scheming for weeks. Going as far as staying at Tim's Nest instead of the manor most weeknights. No one seems to know why, just that they're grouped together in a school project. But Jay has caught Alfred staying up with Danny on nights everyone is out patrolling and he 'wakes up' for a pre dawn snack, he has a feeling Danny knows something is up with them, but hasn't said anything to them yet.

It's the same way he knows something is off about Danny. Sure there was the whole appearing out of nowhere thing, literally, as hard as Babs and Tim tried they couldn't find anything about who he was or where he came from. Alfred just said he was sent over by an 'old friend' and Alfie had surprising friends in weird places. Jay wouldn't be surprised if it turned out he wasn't from this dimension originally.

And that's also what he means by Danny being off. Jason is the only one in the family, that he knows of, no telling with Alfie, that has any affinity for the supernatural. Or trained in magic. And Danny screams supernatural to him.

But it doesn't make him uncomfortable, in fact if anything his instincts, the ones born of the Other, from dying and coming back as something not quite human. Are forcing him to ignore the Bat trained need for investigation, reassuring him that Danny was nothing but safe, and it's rude to pry. Yes his instincts also jumped into a brawl the first time they met but that had felt more like Greetings!Play!NewFamily?ShowOffMyPower!

Still it seems like Danny has roped Tim in some big decision about his background, Jason only thinks this because Red Robin had swerved over to his patrol route one night right after he set out and HUGGED him in full Red Hood gear. The same gear that he almost beat Tim to death in, Tim who disliked touch from total strangers, took ages to accept casual affection and still tried not to flinch when Jason moved too fast. The only context he got was a soft spoken, "I'm glad you came back." before whisking away again. It had left a warm feeling in his chest for the rest of the night.

But tonight, tonight they finally get to see what the two dorks have been working on. The whole family had piled up and headed to the school where there was a massive Halloween party set up. Danny had volunteered, rather aggressively according to Tim, to be put in charge of turning an empty wing into a haunted maze of sorts. Tim had stuck with them for the beginning of the night, Danny was busy watching over the maze. Most folks seemed to enjoy it. Nothing seemed off until they wandered up in line. Tim started manning the door, turning away people after them saying that they were gonna empty out who was in there before taking a dinner break.

The last of the participants ran out, giggling and trembling just a bit, in the way that you've experienced a good thrill at the amusement park. Danny seemed to give Tim a signal on the com he had in his ear. Bruce gave Tim The Stare, silently demanding to know why Danny had access to their Bat-com system but Tim didn't crack, instead putting up a closed sign and leading the rest of them inside.

It was rather impressive for a high school project. It began with typical paper mache monsters and skeletons hung around corners, the further they went the more unsettling it got. From rust colored walls to a broken series of desks and other furniture, the air grew colder and the lights flickered unreliably. Unsettling noises and moving shadows across suspicious stains.

It slowly turned into a mad scientist's lair, complete with oozing green beakers and electricity sparking from menacing looking machines. The buzzing lights reached a crescendo, flaring bright as the ground suddenly rumbled beneath them. Sparks and pops as the light fizzled and died, electricity touched their skin, a scream was heard as those around him grabbed onto each other keeping themselves upright and ready to fight.

The ground stills and they are left in the pitch black darkness. Bruce does a head count while the rest of them are assessing, Tim is missing.

Jason feels it then. A sense of other, it surrounds them, a presence is coming near, someone holding a lit candelabra is walking closer, it's hard to make out their face in the gloom but Jason can tell their surroundings aren't the same. The lab has been replaced with an old style mansion. Decrepit and rotting, choked with cobwebs and dust. The rug beneath them is moist, moldy and moth-eaten.

Bruce stands in front of them like a shield as the candle light stops before them.

"~Welcome foolish mortals!" says the person. Jason can make them, him, out now. Wearing a tattered Victorian suit, his hair is glowing white, his eyes are brilliant green, his smile is sharp with fangs and his ears are tipped to points. His skin is somehow both pale and tan, the same green of his eyes running up in lines from the palm of his left hand, under the suit, up around to feather across his neck, caressing his cheek and kissing his nose.

He looks dangerous and deathly and so, so, other. But what the others don't see, what Jason thinks they can't see, not like he can, currently is. Is that for all the glamor and aether wrapped around him in pure show, that they are still safe. Jason can't help but let out a soft "Oh.." cause now? Now he understands.

This person, this entity, somehow Jason knows that this is Danny. Danny showing them something that he's been hiding from them and doing it in a way that makes him comfortable with showing it. Danny for all the work he's putting into intimidating them, is in complete control of their environment. It looks haunted as hell but it feels like protection. Danny meets his eyes and grins, knowing that Jason knows but pleads him to keep quiet just a little longer cause Danny right now feels like mischief and fun, with just a little bit of hunger. A hunger for acceptance, for family, and Jason understands why Tim hugged him that night, why it had filled him with warmth and strength.

And who was he to stop his newest sibling from causing chaos, it's almost a rite of passage at this point. Tonight might be fun!