▷ background▶ Born in late May 1984, making him about 30 in the first movie and 32 in the second.▷ It's pretty clear from the crowd he draws in Chicago, Jack's reaction to seeing him, and the fact that he gets Dylan's attention to begin with that he's thoroughly established himself in the magic world and made a name for himself. He's been at it long enough that an assistant he'd created a long-term relationship with has in turn gone on to her own career as a magician. He's also been at this long enough to feel superior to Lula, who's put in ten years already (further thoughts on this later). It feels probable that he got his start around the same age I'd guess she was, somewhere between 18 and 21 years old (not uncommon for magicians). 30 seems like an appropriate age for this level of accomplishment and success in that field. Plus it puts Danny's birth in the same year as Shrike's death.
▷ Though his repeated use of Shrike's catchphrase also probably contributed to his drawing Dylan's attention. ▶ His real name is Daniel Fleischman (Henley calls him this in a deleted scene from the first movie).
▶ His casual, even disdainful attitude towards God suggests to me that he grew up in a family that was semi- but not especially religious, probably more lip service than anything else, probably Jewish. As he grew older, he leaned more toward atheism/not really giving a shit.
▶ Born and raised in upstate New York, he grew up in an upper middle class family, an only child. Both of his parents were busy with their careers, however, and instead of the attention common for a kid in his position, he was largely left to his own devices. It didn't help that he didn't really get along with other kids his age and didn't actually have any friends.
▶ Around the time he was five years old, he found a deck of cards in his dad's study and started playing with them. Eventually this led him toward an interest in magic, probably coupled with seeing the magic specials that were much more common on television in the late '80s and early '90s. He started practicing. Because he had no one else to spend time with, he wound up spending a lot of time inside, working on his craft. He was a pretty serious kid and very much a solitary one. Somewhere along the way, he discovers the legend of the Order of the Eye and becomes obsessed.
▶ His parents fought a lot behind closed doors and eventually divorced when Danny was about 12 years old. Though he felt a stronger attachment to his father and, expecting the divorce, also expected to live with him, he ended up in his mother's custody.
▶ It didn't take that long for her to move them to New York City, which didn't help him any as far as making friends. Being the new guy in high school is bad enough; being the new guy with zero social skills and a fixation on magic is a death sentence. He managed to get a handful of gigs doing magic, mostly for kids and friends of his mother. He used the stage name Magicolio. Luckily for him, YouTube didn't exist yet.
▶ Eventually his mother remarried. His new stepfather was nice enough, but they never really connected.
▶ When it came time to look into colleges, Danny agreed to go instead of immediately launching his magic career, but this was almost entirely to appease his family. He chose a school in Chicago, where he convinced the head of the Performing Arts department to let him focus on magic. While he put in enough effort to skate by in his classes, academics were always an afterthought, and he began to try his hand at street performances.
▶ That said, college was good for Danny in a lot of ways. He actually made, if not friends, at least good acquaintances, improved his social skills and his stage presence, and got better at dealing with crowds. Being made to study aspects of theater really helped him as a magician, allowing him to improve his presentation, adding nuance and charm to his patter. At some point, he chooses the name J. Daniel Atlas and starts using it full time, except in class.
▶ Danny graduates from college and puts his focus toward magic full-time. He badgers his way into performances, he gets an assistant named Rebecca, he spends half his time at local magic shops to make connections and learn from the others, even if he won't admit he's learning. He does impromptu street performances. He does whatever it takes not to have to do anything other than magic. There are girls, but there are never girlfriends. Those would be distractions, is his excuse. They would require attachments, is the truth, which would leave him vulnerable, and he doesn't like to be vulnerable.
▶ At some point, things go south with Rebecca (maybe it was just a job for her until she made her way into what she really wanted to do; maybe she just couldn't put up with Danny anymore). He meets Henley. She becomes his assistant. Whether she's already learning magic in her own right or not, he teaches her how to be part of his act, and probably a lot more besides. He starts to really care about her, even trust her, but he's shit at showing that or any appreciation at all. Not knowing how to handle this, he's an asshole instead and agitated, which is aggravated by the fact that Henley has real talent, enough to make her a rival rather than an assistant. Eventually they go their own ways.
▶ He never apologizes. But he does watch her career from a distance.
▶ The years pass and he becomes more of a name on the circuit, well known, but almost exclusively among magicians and die-hard magic fans. Frankly, the fact that he isn't and may never be a household name doesn't matter. It's about the magic. It's about the way he feels when he performs and the way the crowd feels. It's about doing that forever. As long as he can make a living off it, nothing else matters.
▶ One night, after a show, he finds a tarot card in his shoe. Recognizing the Eye's symbol on the back, he thinks he's finally been selected for a society many don't even believe exists.
▶ For the rest, see the timeline. Or the movies.
▷ magic family▶ Please note that all of this is a) my interpretation and b) Danny's perspective, and 100% open to discussion/debate/playing out for fun and practice! Prospective canonmates, hmu! Email, comment, chat with me! I'm not Danny; I'm all about communication.
▶ look they're a family and you can't tell me otherwise
▶ Even Danny is starting to come around to that fact. He's used to holding people at arm's length; more than that, he's used to people not wanting to close that gap. The problem then is that, when they do, as these guys do to varying degrees, he doesn't entirely trust it. It takes time. The entirety of NYSM2 is that process for him, basically, learning to be part of a family, learning to be a friend and to accept his role as part of a group and the fact he doesn't have to go it alone.
▶ Danny is not a sharer. He has communicated little to nothing of his background to the others, though they may be able to make guesses. Henley and Dylan probably know the most.
▶ There are only three people who actually call him Danny in canon, if I'm remembering right, and not either Daniel or Atlas: Jack, Henley, and Dylan.
▶ Danny's relationship with Merritt is fraught much of the time. I think there's a genuine fondness there, but for the most part, they're both too stubborn and too used to going it alone to operate on the same wavelength unless someone else comes up with a plan for them to follow. On their own, they'd probably just butt heads about whose idea was better.
▶ Jack is, in many ways, like the little brother Danny never had. And, admittedly, never particularly wanted, but he does care deeply about Jack. I think he's flattered by Jack's admiration initially (before Jack gets to know him better), but I think, even as of NYSM2, he still sees Jack as a kid. He's a kid who can hold his own, yes, and has proven himself a competent and valuable colleague, but I think he reads Jack's enthusiasm as childish and just who Jack is, rather than seeing it for a kind of strength. He's capable of seeing his own belief in the Eye as valuable, but doesn't recognize the value in Jack's playfulness and easygoing charm except in terms of how it applies to his stage presence; he reads something that is admirable and quite probably a survival tool as naivety. This has probably diminished quite a lot in the time they've known each other, but I think there are still elements of that there. He doesn't necessarily dislike it, but he undervalues it, possibly because those are attributes he enjoys in and associates with spectators, not magicians. But then part of that does become him perceiving Jack as a younger brother and, as much as he might give him a hard time, he'd do his best to protect Jack (except physically, because if one of them is a fighter here, it's definitely not Danny). The fact that he actually lets Jack call him Danny, for that matter, speaks to his affection, even if it's one of the only ways Danny shows it.
▶ Henley is... Henley. I don't know that Danny's in love with her exactly, but I don't think he knows either. I think there's a huge mix of emotions here, some of which is lust and some of which is a platonic love and some of which is romantic infatuation, and then there's jealousy of her talent and success, and admiration of those same things, and some of it is just that he's bitter and resentful that she left, that she keeps leaving. Maybe if she stayed put he could figure out exactly how he feels. Maybe if he weren't such an asshole in the process, she would. But it's hard for him to let down his guard when, whatever those feelings are, there are so fucking many of them. That kind of vulnerability is terrifying and he prefers to avoid it at all costs.
▶ At least he doesn't have to worry about that with Lula. It seems to me very likely that he immediately thinks of the hat out of the rabbit trick because Henley did a similar illusion (in the first film) and, to his mind, did it better. He hasn't followed Lula's career, and no doubt she does it well now, but that isn't something that occurs to him. She's new, she's unknown, and by default, she is inferior to Henley upon arrival. It's not personal. It's "I don't know this person, she shouldn't be here, and she trotted out this trick she clearly couldn't handle," and he's arrogant enough to not consider that maybe she then spent the next 8 1/2 years getting a handle on her career or that he fucked up when he was younger, too (that he still does). Then there's the fact that, as I read them, they have a lot more in common than either one of them would admit, are incredibly stubborn, and I suspect Lula has plenty of control issues of her own. Personalities that similar are inevitably going to clash. That said, I do think that, while Lula can occasionally grate on his nerves, her optimism, her sense of wonder, and her determination probably remind him a lot of why they all came together to begin with. By the end of it, I think he has quite a lot of respect and even affection for her, in a younger sister kind of way.
▶ Danny's relationship with Dylan is both very complicated and very simple. They're far too much alike, from their backgrounds to their personalities. It's Danny's history that makes him decide to look for the Eye alone; it's Dylan's that makes him think he's on his own, taking care of all this. It's only when Danny finally understands that Dylan cares about him, about all of them, as people and not as members of a team or patsies, that he actually starts to trust him. Before that, there was a grudging respect. After, he allows himself to actually care about the guy in turn. Like, before that, he didn't really see Dylan as part of the team because he didn't think Dylan actually cared about them, and despite himself, he very much cares about the others, which put Dylan firmly on the outside as someone who puts them in danger (and Danny himself specifically, because no matter how much he cares, his own needs are always highest) and also Dylan basically abandoned them to end up in Macau in his eyes? And then they probably would have died, which is why Danny has to take over everything, until he realizes that Dylan would totally get beat up to save them. Anyway basically Dylan is his dad now. No take backs. ▷ magic headcanons▶ There are two sets of magicians at play as far as how Danny is played, the ones who influenced his work (whether or not he'd say so), plus the ones who inspire me with regard to his particular style.▷Influences (his): Lionel Shrike, David Copperfield, David Blaine, Dai Vernon, Harry Houdini, Jean Hugard, S. W. Erdnase, Penn Jillette and Teller
▷ Inspirations (mine): Blake Vogt, Patrick Redford, Shin Lim, David Kwong, Andrei Jikh ▶ He probably also likes the work of the Buck twins but a) I'm annoyed at them right now so they don't get to make the list and b) he's not about to actually admit out loud any admiration for any contemporaries because he's a dick like that.
▶ That said he probably freely admits to thinking that Daniel Madison is a hack and a sellout. Not being able to get into stupid fights on magic forums is probably a big downside of being in hiding for Danny.
▶ For materials, he favors Theory11 for online purchases, particularly Monarchs, his favorite brand of cards. He usually uses the blue backs, but has a number of others for different effects. Like any good American magician, he usually has several decks of Bicycles lying around as well. Generally he would prefer to go to a local shop for anything needed in the short-term. Over the years, he's also become fairly proficient at making his own gimmicks and gaffs as needed, particularly since it's really the only way to get gaffed Monarchs.
▶ Danny's specialty is street magic. This means he's especially deft at sleight of hand and the more day-to-day aspects of mentalism such as equivoque, and much of his work has to be both flawless and angle-proof, because he tends to draw big crowds; that's how he prefers it, but it also offers him less control over the angles, so that really affects the kind of work he can do. He favors cards over everything else, but knows a number of other kinds of routines, useful both for variety and to take the heat off a gaffed or switched deck. Other than cards, he has a particular taste for coin magic and big, splashy illusions.
He's done some escape work and the more common forms of geek magic (sawing someone in half, for example, nothing on Lula's level). In fact, he was particularly drawn to escapology as a kid, heavily influenced by Houdini and Shrike. But since a lot of his work has been street performance, that kind of routine often gets put on the back burner. It's better suited for the stage and times when he has an assistant; since Henley first went solo, he's done very little of it, both because she wasn't there to be part of the act and because, frankly, she's better at it than he is, which, of course, he resents.
▶ First, a bit of fact. There are different kinds and levels to the specialty known as mentalism. Most magicians know at least a trick or two they would place in the mentalism category; there are lots of good impromptu routines and card routines that can be done based around a little bit of psychology and a whole lot of forcing, to make the spectator think, if only for a moment, that their mind has been read or a prediction that was made has come true. Danny would be fairly adept at this.
What Merritt does is an entirely different and much higher level. Hypnotism can theoretically be taught in an hour or two, but requires lots of practice and confidence to become good at. Some people can learn the principles, but never become good hypnotists; certain personality types are better at it than others. Generally people who are naturally charming and charismatic, good with people, will have better luck at it (Merritt falls into this category in his own obnoxious way, and certainly Jack has plenty of potential based on this criteria). Cold reading requires a lot of understanding of human psychology and how people work, not to mention tons of practice, a hell of a lot of confidence, and a knack for bluffing. Someone at Merritt's skill level would have been practicing for years and years and years, and that would have been back in his glory days. It's fairly common for mentalists of his type to focus wholly, or nearly so, on that craft rather than other branches of magic. So when Merritt is not particularly good at card throwing or other tricks of that nature, it's not a slight against him; it actually makes a lot of sense that these are skills he would have ignored in favor of focusing on and constantly refining his abilities as a mentalist.
On the flip side, while Danny's little cold-reading attempt on the plane with Tressler was entirely planned and probably rehearsed by the team, the kind of mentalism he'd be familiar with is something else altogether, and so cold readings aren't something he'd be much good at anyway. He wouldn't be terrible, since in an actual cold reading he'd never be making such specific statements, and he's clearly familiar with the principles of mentalism (he's aware enough to resist falling prey to hypnosis attempts, for one). That said, Merritt's branch of mentalism isn't something he'd have much patience for or desire to practice, and would never have put in the kind of practice it requires. Besides, while he's charismatic as hell on stage, he lacks the natural connection to people that Merritt and Jack possess, which gives them an advantage in that area of magic. ▷ other headcanons▶ Danny's sense of confidence, even arrogance, is very, very real and, to his mind, well-earned. His insecurities and issues are equally real. Danny has fairly intense abandonment issues, control issues, and, as a result, trust issues. Add to this a lack of real socialization as a child (and he's really never learned how to communicate, rather than perform, never mind how to communicate emotionally) plus an ego the size of Texas, and he's not very good at making friends and even worse at keeping them. His trust is exceptionally difficult to earn and, once earned, still needs time and nurturing to maintain. He has a tendency to take everything on his own shoulders (Atlas, ha) and think he has to handle everything himself, because he can't rely on anyone else to do it right or to support him.
▶ He's given to holding people at arm's length because they consistently disappoint him. Sometimes that's because he never let them close enough not to. It's obvious that Danny is a very, very passionate guy. He can come off extremely disconnected, but that's because, when he does connect, it's intensely, and he won't allow himself to risk that often. Plus I don't think he has a lot of experience with or role models for close, healthy relationships, whether platonic or romantic.
▶ So it probably shouldn't be a surprise then that he's much more about one night stands than the idea of building a relationship with someone. Relationships take work, trust, risk, vulnerability. He's no good at those things when it comes to people. But regardless of his issues and his being married to his work (which he would claim as the only reason he's not looking to date anyone), he still wants/needs to get laid sometimes, okay.
▶ Also that whole cliché about the uptight guy who's always in control but then he turns out to be super submissive in bed because it's a release from his responsibilities? Yeah, not Danny.
▶ On that note, I tend to perceive Danny as demiromantic heterosexual. Henley is someone he's fixated on emotionally in part because she's one of the very few people he's genuinely been close to or trusted to the degree he needs for romantic attachment. Of course he was attracted to her physically before that and she always had personal qualities he liked, but it takes a lot of time, patience, and emotional proximity for Danny to become romantically attracted to someone. And because it's rare for him to have those feelings and rare for him to let people that close to him, it's also difficult for him to decipher the difference between caring about someone and falling for them. He's really bad with feelings, guys, okay.
▶ He is very much hardest on the people he cares about most. He's pretty fucking tough on himself, too, but he tries to keep that hidden, the better to hide any weaknesses.
▶ Before joining the Horsemen, Danny had a strong social media presence: Facebook (ba dum tssh), Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, website, everything. After, while he maintained it, a lot of stuff went through the Horsemen's account instead. Following their show at Five Pointz, he went radio silent. In Darrow, he'll start again, maintaining the Darrow equivalent of Instagram with short videos of quick, highly visual tricks and flourishes, using Twitter to advertise pop-up shows.
▶ As a teenager, he spent a lot of time in Central Park, practicing flourishes, lifts, passes, and steals under the Shrike tree, occasionally performing for curious passersby. He found the tree comforting in a way being at home wasn't. |
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kingofcards) wrote2016-06-27 04:41 pm
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ETA: Jack doesn't really do himself any I'm An Adult! favors when he fights for who gets top bunk.
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Anyway, no, that's good, I'm so glad you agree! I'm curious about Jack's end of things, too. Plus like you've mentioned recently, him really not wanting to disappoint Dylan, that creates such an interesting dilemma for him, between wanting to obey Team Dad and admiration of Danny, though I think living with Danny for 2 1/2 years would take the shine off of most things. :p
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I have some theories/headcanons but I'm always hesitant to make it sound like I'm relying too much on that, which is why his app was kind of... ambiguous wrt his upbringing. And yes, definitely still a lot of admiration but also a lot of WHAT AN ASSHOLE (who I love, as he is my brother.)
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I 100% feel that, man. That's why I ended up with this whole extra nonsense page, because, like, it's relevant to how I play, but there's not much in the way of canon I can provide for my choices without using a lot of words so I like to keep them separate, so. Yes. ANYWAY. YEAH.
Bless Jack, he has a better heart than his brother.
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I will probably end up doing the same in the event of Jack's arrival. I really need to do it for, like, Raven, but that's 10000000% more stressful. Fuck comic movies.
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LONELY THIEF WHO IS ACTUALLY A SWEETHEART AND LOVES MAGIC BUT MAGIC DOESN'T PAY THE BILLS SO HE HAS TO BE A TOTAL (no, not that kind of) HUSTLER, SORRY
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- A quickish summary of how I head canon Henley getting interested/involved in magic: parents worked in show business as something like producers or theatre managers, she spent a lot of time around performers as a child, she was very energetic and confident and was involved in after-school and weekend activities like acting workshops, acrobatics, dancing, and even a magic class or two, didn't do as much performing arts stuff during high school, studied engineering at university, did one engineering project in her second year that was essentially an escape illusion trick and her research into and love of the subject snowballed from there, graduated and for a couple of years had an entry-level architectural engineering job but she knew that her magic hobby was her true passion, had already been to a show or two of Danny's and when she heard he was looking for a new assistant she didn't waste any time in tracking him down
- I'm thinking I'm going to make Henley's birth year 1980. It's a few years younger than Isla is but it just works better with my timeline for her because I don't want to put too many years in between her graduating university and her becoming Danny's assistant. Is Henley being four years older than Danny alright with you?
- To be honest, it's taken me a bit of time to wrap my head around Henley's feelings for Danny. I have to imagine what things must have been like in the beginning. How excited she must have been to finally be doing magic as her career and bonding with somebody else over that shared passion. She probably really admired Danny because he was so young and already so talented and following his dream. Correct me if I'm wrong, but he was probably nowhere near as fashionable back then as he was in 2013 and didn't do anything with his head of curls and I'm gonna have to say she was into that haha. I love that you mentioned the black rose because that's my favourite deleted scene. I bet a gesture like that definitely gave her hope for something more. That said, I don't think she's been yearning for Danny all these years that she's been in LA. Maybe her crush on him was reignited a little bit when they were in the Horsemen together, but I think her "unrequited love" isn't necessarily a love of romance and marriage and sex and babies. She just really freaking cares about him, despite how much of a dick he can be. She has so many happy memories of their time together and all she wants is for him to acknowledge that they have a history and a bond and that they're friends. There definitely is some attraction there but I think if they ever worked out how to have a healthy friendship then she would realize that that's all she ever really wanted or needed from their relationship. She just wants him to show that he cares and respects her.
- Now for the elephant in the room: Henley leaving the Horsemen. It has been a while since I watched NYSM2, sadly, so I'm kind of going off what I'm reading from you guys and seeing in gifsets on tumblr. It's a little frustrating for me not having a totally clear answer on why she left, and I've also concluded that it was for a mixture of reasons. I do think that she got tired of waiting, of having nothing fun and exciting to do. I'm reminded of that scene in the elevator where she says that she wouldn't regret the experience even if it turned out there was no Eye. It was always more about the experience than the reward for her. I think she was expecting it to be more of a constant thing, and she felt like she was missing out on life by waiting around. But I believe she could have stuck it out if personal relationships had been going well, which is why we can probably blame Danny a little bit.
- And it's not just a matter of WHY she left but HOW she left. Did she just go to Dylan and tell him? Did she find some other way to contact the Eye directly? Where was she and what was she doing during the events of the second movie?!?!
Alright, this is a pretty long comment. Sorry! (As is always the case with me, there is no pressure to reply to it quickly.)
<3
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I feel like Danny is in a similar space where just caring about her is translating into a lot of emotions he doesn't know what to do with, so it reads as a crush, but if he could just get his shit together and stop pushing her away, it would just be the basis of a really good friendship? Unfortunately the way he's going to show he cares is by being incredibly pissed off with her for a while...
That makes sense to me, about why she'd ultimately end up leaving. I imagine it was really dull there for a long while, especially after the thrill of their first year, and I can see her feeling she was missing out, just stuck with them. And I'm sure Danny did not help, no. I'm happy to go with whatever makes sense to you in terms of how she got her out, or even handwaving that Danny doesn't actually know, that she just came to them one day and was like, "Sorry, boys, I'm out."
I like to imagine that at least at the end of the second movie, she was watching it all on TV, proud of her little family, but beyond that, agh, I wish we knew! What happened to Henley and Alma? :EEE
<3!
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Hmm, she was probably dropping hints for a while that she wanted to leave, but maybe nobody realized just how serious she was until she finally did it? But as for her actual process of leaving, I'm totally cool if we say Danny and Jack don't know. That makes it easier for all of us.
Well, I think I'm about to finally submit this app. Wish me luck!
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That makes a lot of sense to me and totally works for me!
FINGERS CROSSED <3