...within The Sound Of Silence.

...within the sound of silence.

In restless dreams, I walked alone. Narrow streets of cobblestone. 'Neath the halo of a street lamp, I turned my collar to the cold and damp. When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light that split the night...

hello

darkness my old friend, I’ve come to talk to you again. Because a vision softly creeping, left its seeds while I was sleeping; and the vision that was planted in my brain, still remains…

So, everything I've read says that Gothamites don't celebrate Halloween because the Rogue Gallery all like to amp it up on this day specifically.

Can I offer a different storyline? Specifically the exact opposite?

Gothamites love Halloween. It's like their Thing™. The Rogue Gallery don't all attack at once on this night because it's the one night a year that they can get away with not having to look over their shoulders.

Since the very founding of Gotham, Halloween has been celebrated and held in better regard than pretty much any other holiday. At first, it was accidental, but then the founders said "fuck it" and renamed their town Gotham.

Pretty much every one of the Bats and Rogues grew up in Gotham, so they'd hold this day with the same reverence as the rest of the population. Which is, to say, the crazies crawl out of the woodwork, but not to wreak havoc.

Parties, festivals for the whole week, no school, only essential work, trick or treating, the works. Gothamites pull out all the stops for Halloween because no one ever expects it.

To the rest of the world, Gothamites are distrusting of everyone. Danger lurks around every corner. Crime runs rampant. Trust does not come easy, and it's near impossible to gain.

Put the week of Halloween? It's their Thing™. The magic everyone knows runs through the city like veins light up the streets like it's Christmas somewhere. Lady Gotham herself graces her people with her presence, however fleeting her sightings may be. The spookiness factor of their beloved city, though cursed she may be, is ramped to the highest heavens.

It's exactly why they invite people to visit during this week.

Normally, Gothamites hate visitors for a variety of reasons. Most of which is because transplants and guests don't know how to react to certain situations, nor do they carry the proper equipment with them.

The week of, and especially the day of, Halloween is the one time a year that no native Gothamite has to worry about an attack because the Rogues are too busy pranking the visitors with the rest of the city! Even the Bats and Birds get in on it!

It's all fun in games, really.

Sometimes Bludhaven will get in on it, following Nightwing because he was raised in Gotham for a good chunk of his life, but they're less Halloween and more Harvest Festival.

Anyway, the TDLR, I guess is this:

The week of Halloween is the one time a year that Gothamites drop all suspicion towards each other, band together, invite visitors, and prank the ever loving shit out of the world.

And it works every year, without fail, because people don't learn. The festivals and parties are too enticing to pass up because Gotham just looks like the place to be for a good scare. And boy do they deliver

Callback to my grandpa (mom's dad) who had a parrot named Pete. About a year after Pete died, he got a second parrot and named it Repete (repeat)

Despite me posting random shenanigans for How To Balance, I don't actually have anything else (aside from the very ending)(don't ask) written (despite my best efforts). I'm just kinda making those up based on the vibes in the moment. Having said that...

Danny's a feral gremlin once he gets more comfortable around Dick and Tim, and Alfred and maybe Bruce by association.

Anyway, Dick's apartment become's Danny's haunt. Because Danny conveniently forgets to tell Dick about his ghostlyness, Dick has no idea what the fuck is happening. Suddenly, he's living in a Poltergeist Movie!??!

It's actually not very sudden at all. The changes are just subtle enough, and they happen at a steady rate, that he just doesn't notice until he wakes up one day and realizes Something's Not Right.

Tim clocked it maybe a week after the first tiny change and blames Danny. Doing a deep-dive worthy of Cartoon!Batman, he learns about both Danny and Phantom. He doesn't think to tell anyone, though, because Chaos Gremlins gotta stick together. (It's not a sense of pride to know things that Batman doesn't know...yet)

Danny, at some point, realizes that Dick has know idea what's going on. He still doesn't tell him. The man's a detective! Let him figure it out on his own.

Also, I've realized that there is a severe lacking in the whole 'Danny becomes the occult expert of the Batfam' so I will be using that a lot. Gotta make up for the missed opportunities.

Bruce sends his kids little notes using carrier bats. It first started when Dick moved out and he wanted to talk to his son but didn't want to call and then have dick hang up on him or decline, didn't want to see his message be left on read, so he bought a little circus bat and taught it to fly to wherever Dick’s scent was (ie he would hang a piece of dicks clothing up at one end of the cave) and built him a nest built of dicks old bedsheets and then tied a little note to its foot, just a little question about how the weather is in Bludhaven and if hes getting enough sleep and alfred misses him, nothing that can be seen as overbearing or forcing himself into his life, and the little bat flies all the way to Bludhaven and hangs on Dicks window and Dick sees it and memories slam into him full force because bats are batman and robin and he cant, not yet. So he doesn't open the window. Ignores him. But the little bat is anything if not as stubborn as the man who trained him so he stays. And after two days Dick relents because the bat hasn't moved an inch and is probably hungry, so he brings him inside and then he sees the note for the first time and opens it and then he breaks and the tears flow because Bruce cares and bruce still wants him. And dick spends time with the little bat and takes it on missions as Nightwing because they’re both nocturnal and then finally, dick attaches a little note to the bats leg and he flies off to bruce. And bruce sees the little bat on his window and opens it, when he spots Dick standing just below, smiling faintly. “Hey b.” 

Bruce gets a bat from the cave ceiling for Babs almost immediately after her accident with Joker because he has responsibilities but he cant leave her alone so he sends her notes everyday and hopes the bat is a good enough companion and when she becomes oracle the bat serves as an exchange of information and contacts and bruce still uses him to check up on her and babs rolls her eyes everytime, but its fond

And so then when Jason comes bruce finds another little bat hanging in crime alley and uses her as a therapy animal after he dies and trains her the way he trained Dick’s but the bat doesn't have anyone to fly to and bruce tries not to cry when he sends it out with notes and it returns because it has no one to deliver to… until one day it doesn't come back. And bruce is afraid and confused and a week later the bat is back, a new note attached to her leg and bruce takes it and breaks down and he gets to talk to his son again. 

Tim already comes with his own bat because Nightwing has one, but the little girl imprints on Bruce right away and Tim pouts but he cant really be angry, not when Bruce sends his bat over to him almost daily while hes in the batcave or his room or the tower with reminders to eat and sleep and coupons for coffee

When Steph arrives Bruce hates himself for firing her but he just cant right now, but he stills gets a bat from the cave and sends it to her and apologizes because he cant bring himself to leave everything unspoken between them and Steph actually adores it and every so often she’ll send him a note and bruce knows hes forgiven

For Damian theres no need for a bat because he lives in the house with Bruce, but then they have Goliath and well… he serves as a messenger when no one else can get damian out of the training area

bruce has never named the bats, thinking that was for them alone to do and he didnt want to get too attached because theres always a chance he pushed too far and his kids wont send a message back, but one day all his kids were hanging out in the living room together and bruce had just come up to join them when he hears dick say "hey wheres b? the movie's about to start?" and jason chucks a piece of popcorn in his mouth and goes "idk, ill send him a note." but tim goes "no i will!" and all together they yell "ROBIN!!!" and all their bats come flying from the cave and fly to their specific masters and Bruce cant fight the tears and when every little bat flies towards him and delivers their note he walks out into the living room and gives them the biggest hug

That's fair.

Write two fics. Near identical, but one for each ending.

I'd read both

The phantom of the opera but Bruce Wayne is Christine, Talia is Raoul and Ghostmaker/Harvey is the Phantom