#Project: INFINITE (AU)

[sapphanimates]

he's like a 20-somethin year old scruffy war veteran <3

[projack]

Inizio post! (finally)

Inizio is a cyborg created by professor Onyx. She grew him in a tube, Project Shadow type. Sonic and tails rescue him, Tails naming him. (supposed to mean "new beginnings") The robotics placed inside of them are recycled Eggman tech, used to keep him alive and the void sapphire in place. As well as give him the "jackal" appearance. In truth he is not a jackal, but rather a long gone species from the sol dimension that Onyx just so happened to have dna from.

Due to the void sapphire's connection to Inizio's life, it allows them several abilities. Like being able to blend and manipulate the shadows. Throughout Project jackal Inizio is attempting to use the Phantom ruby to free Infinite, however because of how the Void sapphire and phantom ruby interact. Things take a turn

[bespectacled-bookwyrm]

The Two Victims

Here’s the art piece I mentioned yesterday on the Colress' Locket post.

Without my mentioning and visual of it, you never would’ve known it was Colress next to N, huh?

Also, Colress can’t see properly (he still has bad eyesight), so relies on N to serve as his “eyes” (until he finds some glasses that can fit him, anyway.)

Feel free to ask me questions about this AU! It’s still in relative infancy, but I'm always happy to answer any questions you have!

Thoughts? :)

Here are the flat colours, under the cut:

[coern-art-very-cool-and-nice]

tks before bed that took (checks notes) apparently only 10 minutes??

[tiredfoxtf]

Sylvee - bracelet number [3].

[son1c]

legitimately don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but I’m actually curious as to your thoughts on sonic romantic pairings. Again, if you’re uncomfy with it,,, no pressure! leave this ask to perish if you so desire. hope you’re doing well.

i don't like most of them. i blacklist most of them. straight up lol. even the ones i do like, it's like. idk. i'm very particular. and a lot of popular fandom portrayals aren't really for me. that being said, my favorite one is probably sonic and lancelot. gonna blame justine for that one. i just think they're really cute

[fnafcoyote-exe]

Infinite

[cosmoknightchaos]

25 for any character I wanna read your ramblings

25. What is your favourite thing about your OC?

Wow. Dill asking a non-angsty question from an angsty OC ask? That's crazy man

Below are 29 OCs that I'm currently using enough to have favourite bits about them. Enjoy

A Hat in Time OCs

Horalo AU Skyscreamer: Baby girl. Favourite thing about her would probably be the fine line I have to walk between being a kind, caring woman and a motherly figure while writing her. Sky is supposed to be the cool older sister and it's a lot of fun to portray that in writing! The Flower Man: His dialogue. I fucking LOVE how this man speaks and it is so much fun to write. Also taking his lore out of context. He canonically has the most rizz out of anyone in the Horizon and it is my favourite fact about him. King Moonjumper: His personality specifically in the currently unreleased Act7. He likes playing himself up, seeming like a big threat, and then the moment something doesn't go his way he has a meltdown. He's so silley.

Wanderer AU Ester: I have a scene from the ending of Wanderer doodled out where Ester and MJ are standing in the frozen remains of Subcon and they are holding hands. It's just something about her being a scared, sassy, almost insignificant child, especially when put up next to characters like Graves or Snatcher who are much more lore-relevant, and yet she stays MJ's closest companion and most trusted friend throughout the entire story. Gravedigger: Absolutely anything that can draw more parallels between her and Gleb, the character she takes the role of. Mourner/Cathrine: Saying my favourite part of her character is that she gets my favourite song from Anastasia feels like cheating, but it's definitely up there. Probably her loyalty. She is, above all, loyal to her homeland, and refuses to let that part of her go after the freeze. She's one of the few characters not really running away from her past, but instead slowly coming to terms with it. Count Adrianne: He's a perfect example of a complex character who seems very simple on the outside and I love him for it. Either that or his relationship with Snatcher. They bicker like siblings because they were both older siblings before dying and are projecting on to each other and it's very silly.

Misc. Anya: Ouuugh. That's a hard one. Favourite bit about them is probably their coping mechanisms. They are so good at taking things at face value, accepting them, and then watching everything else devolve into chaos around them like a sitcom without doing anything to help. They speedrun the 5 stages of grief just so they can make fun of everyone else and completely fuck themself over in the process because they don't actually learn how to cope Kaizo: He's a whore what else can I say

Hollow Knight OCs (The Religious Trauma Squad)

Gospel: Her lore! She's so fucked up <3 Edge: One of the big things about RTS is that the main three characters go through very similar character arcs, but they're all in different stages of it. We first meet Edge at the end of his character arc, where he's already decided that most gods are assholes and he doesn't owe his devotion to anyone. Then, during the rest of the story, he gets to watch two other people experience similar events, and it forces him to help them because he doesn't want the to go through the same things he did. It's just a fun dynamic of him already knowing who he is and his heritage and being comfortable with that, and now helping others learn the same thing. Marion: His absolute and total devotion to the troupe during his time in it, and his relationship with Gospel after he gets kicked out.

Ivy

Jenny: She (in a way) dismantles the idea of a "Chosen One" hero and I think that's pretty neat. Morgan: She's just silly. Couldn't tell you why, I just really like her. Myo: They are a BITCH. Lying little bastard and I love them for it. They would murder someone, turn around, and go "I'm just a little guy it's my birthday you wouldn't punish a little guy on his birthday would you" and it would work. And, as the actual "Chosen One" of the story, it's fun to see them go over the edge trying to be the special main character.

Project Scepsis OS

Paisley: They don't let their past traumas and experiences define who they are and I think that's really neat! Marci: It's practically a self-insert and those characters will always be special to me. Also, it's just a blob. What's not to love? The actual answer is its story arc where it nearly kills Sonemeir on accident and traumatizes them both for life Kat: Her species as a concept. The idea of a shapeshifter who has to eat something to shift into it is fascinating to me. Prof. Sonemeir: He is so fucked up in so many ways. Dude has been through the horrors(TM). His entire character deals with the idea of legacies and how what you create will last longer than you will, which is really funny because he hates everything he's created and it will haunt him for the rest of his life. And also that aforementioned arc with Marci Creator: His character design. He is very fun to draw :)

ET's Coffee Shop

Phoebe: She is the best example of "some normal dude who got wrapped up in everyone else's shenanigans" and I think that's very funny. Also the fact that she is destined to kill her entire family. There is no escaping fate around here Altalune: Oh my GODDDD I am INSANE about this man. Definitive favourite thing is his character design, I fucking love his character design it is so good and so much fun to draw, but I have to shout out his relationship with ET because it's my favourite part of the entire story as a whole. Stopwatch: Everyone else in this story, including the two main antagonists, uses more traditional or magic-based weapons: Phoebe has daggers, Altalune and Tristen use swords and magic, ET has shapeshifting powers, stuff like that. Stopwatch, on the other hand, has a gun. Cirsten: She is too good for this world. So incredibly loving and caring of everyone at all times. Her and Audun are the best romantic relationship I've ever written and they make me so happy. Tristen Kannaroe: The way his name sounds. It just rolls off the tongue so nicely and it fits his character so well. And his character design. He looks exactly how he acts and I love it. Also, his couple hundred horrific "deaths" and the fact that he is immortal because Alta won't let him die. ET: I feel like I could say "character design" for every single Coffee Shop character and it would work. They're all so good. Anyways, ET's relationship with Alta and ET's death are my favourite bits. And also that he's kind of an allegory for neurodivergence. TQ: Character de- I step on a banana peel and comically fall down the nearest set of stairs. Seriously though. I have a bit running where all of the deity/god-like characters are drawn in a different style, and TQ's is lineless. They look so good in that style and I love drawing them. Personality-wise, I love how incredibly objective they are. They're so blunt and honest at all times, especially with Alta. It's really funny to see Alta try to justify his actions to TQ and them going "Okay but you did just level and entire city" Ayabe: Their backstory and their relationship with Stopwatch! Their magic is also cool as fuck. Crumpet: Yeah it's character design again

[thenixkat]

will stew over fic ideas (specifically the Ted comes back wrong au) now that I know what happened after Ted's death i know that the comics after Infinite Crisis skipped ahead one year instead of dealing with the direct aftermath of shit

but i also know that there's will shit and, like, as much as I hate the nice guy-ification of Ted and Barbra's friendship that was fucking contrived for Ted to be alone, her freezing him out played a hand in his death so she shouldn't have his money in my book. Especially when she left Booster Gold in a lurch when he needed help too and supposedly Booster is Ted's best friend

i can come up with up with a decent reason for Ted and Barbra's friendship to go icy at least from Barbra's side that isnt nice guy-ification like she did pressure him to go back into the field after he retired (clearly with the mindset of if you've got the power its yer responsibility). (there's so much wrong with Ted dropping off the face of the Earth more or less between his diagnosis and Countdown but like that's what happened)

Like I could see an aftermath of Ted getting diagnosed with his heart condition and going 'That is a sign if there ever was one' and perhaps not looking into ways to get it potentially fixed or mitigated so he can do more hero wise and wanting to go back to basically retired tech support and Barbra being miffed about it. Cause unlike her paralysis that she's refusing to get fixed unless the tech to do so is widely available to the public (I think i'm remembering right) Ted's condition is potentially fixable with modern technology especially since it wasnt specified any more than ''degenerative heart condition' which could be a lot of things and some of those things are fixable

might need to workshop it, but that's what comes to mind

like that makes more sense to me, Barbra getting icey on 'you could fix yer shit and go back to helping people in the field but are choosing not to which is selfish' and not that incel friendzoned shit the writer pulled out their ass

it also bothers me so much that no one questioned why Ted was back in costume in Countdown to Infinite Crisis which is set after he got diagnosed. Yes it was most likely just the writer being ablest, but it fits that bullshit superhero mentality that heroing is more important than anything else and you should be out on the field even if its actively killing you. Like sure Ted's heart could give out on him at any second but he should be in costume and doing things

I still loathe the absolute fuckery of Ted being a joke to the entire superhero community that no one takes him being in trouble seriously… but… I could blame that on Maxwell Lord if he can just… brainwash fuckers through audio recordings. And has enough of a grudge/is targeting Ted on purpose. The shitty writing can be explained with enough application of other shitty writing

the issues of having to work with shitty writing to make a follow-up au fic for the shitty writing just the sheer 'wow that's bad and makes no sense but if i dont use it this fic i'm making wont work'

[theo-grayson]

RRRAAAAAAAAAGHHHHGGGGGHHHH I LOVE NOTE BLOCK UNIVERSE AND THE KING AND SHOWDOWN AND WANTED AND RHE BOX

[xmoriartea]

SVSSS!Sibling Transmigration AU

Based so very loosely on this glorious art by @nibbelraz

Airplane transmigrates into the youngest infant son of the Shang family (and God damn he deserves better than this System he is their god!! Daddy Airplane?? Heard of him?? These people should not be changing his damn diaper hello??)

Shang Qinghua is already a young disciple when he visits home and meets his little brother for the first time and does no one else see there is something... off about this kid?

He makes regular trips home afterwards, eventually using An Ding logistics to find reasons to be near his hometown more frequently (and really does no one else see this kid is weird?)

Bby!Airplane is just too smart. SQH is convinced he saw the kid make eye contact with him once when he caught him stealing a dumpling behind their mother's back and it was like looking into the eyes of a demon who'd gut him if he snitched and not a human toddler

It doesn't get better as Airplane gets older and SQH hears him muttering about 1. things he shouldn't know at all regarding the sect when he thinks SQH isn't listening and 2. absolute nonsense (what System has done you so wrong didi?? you are four??)

Before Airplane is old enough to reasonably join the sect, SQH brings him back to the mountain anyway. He is fairly certain his brother is a seer and if that's the case, he's keeping the little welp close at hand

Airplane infinitely regrets how much bullshit he made An Ding deal with to ""hand wave lazy writing"" (shut up peerless cucumber!! he was writing porn not project management!!) but even just watching SQH run himself ragged over the peak has bby him exhausted (no wonder he ratted y'all out to the king yeesh)

He spends his early years as a disciple just following SQH and sometimes nudging his gege into record shattering discoveries because SQH will pat his head when he realizes and take him down the mountain for noodles afterwards (gg easy)

Airplane is a proper disciple in his own right in his teens when his notes and his story get jumbled in a way that has him tripping into one of his shixiongs when he hears the rumors - Head Disciple SJ returned to the mountain with a little brother (record screech glass shattering huh???)

Meanwhile, Shen Yuan transmigrated into Shen Jiu's unnamed younger half-brother After finding stability at the sect, Shen Jiu looks into his birth mother, knowing she sold him off when he was a child What he finds in Airplane's unwritten notes is a Fantine-Cosette backstory where his mother, a courtesan, gave him away to a good family after he was born. She sent them regular payments to ensure his care, but only found out when she was pregnant with SY that they had sold SJ off and were pocketing her money Unable to find SJ and unwilling to risk SY, she and the other courtesans raised SY within the brothel SY transmigrates into the body of a child at his sick mother's bedside with a twisted sense of deja vu having just vacated his own deathbed He doesn't know where he is, but if the orphan protagonist can make it to the sect, so can he right? (Transmigrator Halo? System? System why are you laughing??) He's barely into his second teens when SJ finds him. It takes no time at all after learning the truth for SJ to demand SY's guardianship and whisk him back to Qing Ding (See System? He DOES have a Transmigrator Halo, even if it is attached to the scum villain) SY is honestly shocked by how concerned(?) SJ is when packing his meager possessions. (No Jiu-ge (ew) no one has ever harmed him or touched him wtf would make you think they had?? He's baby??) It takes some time for glaciers to melt and for SJ to let SY in, but SY was raised around kind jiejies who taught him to be better than their worst clients and SJ feels safe around this little brat in a way he can't explain (SJ has had SY for five minutes but if anything happens to him SJ is taking out the entire mountain and then himself) YQY has NO idea how to react when SJ first returns with his brother, but he doesn't hesitate to smooth the way for SY's discipleship and watches from afar as SJ begins to finally let someone in, even if it's not him

SQH keeps telling Airplane he needs to work on his muttering to himself, that it's going to get him in trouble (bro you don't even know) but for once it's in his favor because SY overhears him just enough while YQY is sorting his shit out on arrival and suddenly they're just two spidermen pointing at each other on the peak

Cue the shenanigans of two hometown boys who have no bearing on the plot at all and are just along for the ride while their siblings handle the peaks. Anytime Qing Ding and An Ding need to work together on missions, these two volunteer and confuse the hell out of their martial siblings every step of the way

SJ does not trust the little logistics rat anywhere near his didi and glowers like an alley cat anytime Airplane is around (SQH is right, ofc. His brother IS weird and SJ does not trust it)

SQH meanwhile takes note of his weird didi's sudden and first friendship with SY and immediately starts keeping tabs on this kid because clearly Airplane's seerhood has steered him to SY for a reason, must keep note

The first time LQG makes any sort of fuss about SJ going to a brothel, SY forgets everything he's learned at the sect as Little Brother Mode™ activates to defend not only SJ but his jiejies too. (Fists are thrown. Hair is pulled. He might have bitten his shixiong, he can't say. He sort of blacked out for a minute there) Needless to say there isn't a second time and LQG has an hour long argument with his shizun about trying to poach SY for Bai Zhan peak while nursing a black eye (Airplane just side eying the GREMLIN that transmigrated here like bro wtf)

Before LBH even steps foot on the mountain, both their Systems ping about the incoming protagonist and it's not that they, you know, forgot about the story but they were distracted. Between finding each other and actually weirdly coming to care for these NPCs they... lost track of time

But the System pings and LBH enters the scene and SY refuses to let Airplane's work repeat itself (we're making your notes canon bro stfu and follow my lead. (what lead??? what plan??) I'm working on it!!)

It's a 50/50 crap shoot if SYs favoritism of bby!Binghe endears him to SJ or spikes up the resentment, but SY refuses to let harm come to LBH or for SJ to become the scum villain (someone is yelling, it might be SJ, it might be SY, it might be Binghe who doesn't want Shizun and Shixiong fighting over him)

On the other side of the plot, SQH is still a little snitch, even with his didi's visions guiding him to unprecedented success - but it's more than betraying the sect, more than wanting power and recognition. Seers are insanely powerful, highly sought after. Bringing Airplane to the sect protected him for awhile but SQH can't let him become a target. So when the OG meets MBJ, all his calculations come to a single unfortunate answer: throw your lot in with the biggest fish to protect Airplane (no one else can understand how weird his brother is because if they do his brother will end up dead)

Flash forward to when Airplane is squinting at his brother wearing fur collars year round, always running a little bit chilly for unknown reasons but refusing to see MQF about it. Airplane insists on SQH letting him check his meridians if he won't see MQF and SQH relents, puts his wrist in Airplane's hand, and squawks like a goddamn chicken when Airplane yanks his arm and tugs down his collar to reveal the mark of MBJ on his collarbone and SQH is once again met with that dead eyed 'bro do not fuck with me' stare

SQH does not question how Airplane knows, he just insists on Airplane staying far far away from MBJ (he might work for the demon, but he certainly does not trust him)

Of course Airplane defies all reason and knows the exact secret rendezvous point SQH uses (he did not suffer puberty twice to be denied seeing his most precious creation in the flesh, gege) and is spotted spying on the spy almost instantly by MBJ who is just holding him by his scruff and looking between a wide eyed Airplane and a barely-restrained-panicked peak lord like 'why oh why are there two of them'

Cue a full stand off between a demon and peak lord, ice knives at SQH's throat, a blade hovering at MBJ's heart, and Airplane just held like a kitten between them like fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck that SOMEHOW ends with MBJ rationalizing 'ah this weird mouse is important to my viper of a spy - if I want to keep the viper loyal, I will protect this mouse'

Which throws the Sheng brothers into a mess that neither of them know how to deal with. SQH thinks he needs to continue to be excessively useful to keep Airplane safe. Airplane can't let MBJ know he's his brother's best source or the demon might cut out the middle man. (Meanwhile somewhere MBJ just out here planning to court this weird little mouse to tie SQH's loyalties to him)

Whatever circumstances causes the Abyss plotline to trigger, SY 500% throws himself in after Binghe leaving SJ partially feral because his didi is in danger, Airplane CONCERNED, and SQH just casually like 'oh that's why my brother was interested in him, interesting' not at all realizing no, SY is likely just about to become his boss(-brother-in-law)'s boss's consort - whoops! whoops! whoops!

[sapphanimates]

[sapphanimates]

YO? I am so curious as to what this is? In my au I made these two brothers, and I had no idea other people liked pairing these two up in different situations together!

sketches with tHeM _(:3 」∠)_

[bespectacled-bookwyrm]

Whumptober 2024 - 22

Summary: There was blood along the wall.

Part of my Project: INFINITE AU.

[wanologic]

college au prequel: what happened to danny during junior year - 2940 words

Viscous green liquid sludges through a dry river bed, whetting the cracked ground and seeping deep into the void. Soil softens, becoming fat with nutrient. In the most basic definition, still itself, but filled with new matter, ready and accepting of more. This is what it was made for, its purpose. It has been sitting, dry and untended for too long. In this symbiosis it is more than it dreamed to be. Complete in the sense that it has been starved.

--

Danny wakes up, the dream lingering.

He’s been feeling odd lately, despite the fact that he is more comfortable in his skin than ever. He has a goal, he has support. 

A bridge, he called himself.

Even if he’s only sixteen and his influence is contextually small, he has time. People are listening. Ghosts are listening. Small steps over a long period will get you where you need to go, and he’s still just a kid. 

A kid who has to get ready for school.

He goes through the familiar motions, snags a quick breakfast and lets his parents know he’s headed out, that he’ll see them later. He’s out the door and on his way before he knows it.

Danny’s grades have improved since his freshman year. The pressure to keep things secret has all but alleviated and his family is sticking close. The world might not know that Fenton and Phantom are the same, but the people who matter do.

He’s managing. Thriving, even.

His extracurriculars are atypical of a high school junior, but he plays his role well. The Ghost Investigation Ward meets Phantom and the Fentons on neutral ground that evening, working their way methodically through a tangle of red tape. Teaching, learning. There’s always danger in compromise, but both parties are being two faced. It’s civil for now.

He’ll do this from the opposite angle on another day, playing border guard for the dimensional tear nestled into the fabric of his basement. Walker would be proud of him. He’s enforcing the Rules.

And it’s all going well as far as he can tell. Things are so much less chaotic than they were, his brawls feel like bonding, his head is no longer on a swivel.

For now, it’s off to his room. A space for himself to decompress after a long day's work.

He spends a lot of time thinking about a prehistoric past. What the future might look like once his job is over. This solid physical reality fed that swirling and infinite realm of emotion directly, once. It didn’t last, but time has passed. 

Danny is more aware of this fractured nature than most. He’s sure it’s why he’s had so much success. Why the responsibility falls on him. He feels it every time he calls upon his second self. 

And that’s what it is, isn’t it? Human first, ghost second. Humanity is the frame of reference he was born with. Everything new he experiences in this strange half-life is compared against it. Spectra once asked him what he was. But humanity is in his nature. He is a creepy boy with creepy powers. He’s sure of it. 

Going ghost.

Returning to humanity.

Not that he prefers one over the other. He’s made the choice. More than once. When his memories were erased or his powers short-circuited he always took them back. Felt the thrumming and euphoric energy pulsing through his being once again. His shape projected and unreal. Weightless. It feels incredible.

At some point, some late night discussion about feelings, whether it was with family or with friends, he realized his dual nature was more of a privilege than he could ever hope to fully comprehend. His human half feeds his ghost half everything. His ghost half is complete. No wonder he’s so determined, so strong. He has never once craved emotion the way the others have. He has intrinsic access to everything. Every failed test, every frustration, every joy, every thrill. He is comfortable and whole. Has no need to lash out. Two separate identities working together as two polar magnets, inseparable through the strength of their attraction, moving through the world as one.

He slips the familiar glowing rings across his body, the cool wash of ectoplasm coursing through his veins. Back again, blood pumps oxygen to his cells. Human. Ghost. Human. Ghost.

--

This time the dream is stranger.

The river craves the ocean. 

Danny feels the sand cake beneath his nails as he digs a trench, a violation of the river’s established bed. There’s a trickle as a thin and frothy stream flows out of sync with the current along the path he lays. It longs for the larger disconnected body ahead. A curious tendril seeking an easier path. He digs deeper, automatic, compelled by a force he doesn’t quite understand. 

Is this a bridge too?

He’s both excited and afraid to find out.

The liquid pools at his fingertips as fast as he can dig. Nudging. The sand is saturated and wet in front of him. He’s not sure how much further he has to go. But if he can claw his way through this dense barrier he’s sure it will pick up momentum even without him. The fluid mass can carve its own trench. Wider. Faster. Wider again.

He wakes up in a cold sweat. He somehow feels incorporeal. This isn’t right. He looks at his hands. His fingers in the dark. Clean. Spotless. He feels the sheets beneath his body, the press of the blanket above. So he’s still human then, wrong as it may seem. He clutches at his chest as he tries to calm his racing heart, quell the strength of an intense emotion that he cannot describe. It’s exhilarating. It’s terrifying.

He stops digging and fashions a dam, not yet ready for what the final connection could mean.

His head hurts.

Nausea tucks itself against his gut.

He takes a shower.

--

It’s Saturday and he has business in the Ghost Zone.

He shifts, expecting the weird feeling to subside. Instead it’s more of the same. Something is off. He ignores it. A thing to worry about later when he has less to do.

His work that day goes smoothly, another step in what he can only hope is the right direction. And it feels nice, giving in to the compulsion and focusing on what is in front of him, what is currently begging his attention, rather than the problems lurking beneath the surface. It is a learned behavior, one he falls back into easily.

Upon his return he feels like he is dragging a piece of the Infinite Realms back with him. The air seems to thicken, the cold steel walls of the portal are closing in on him. The exit is a pinpoint.  He’s being called back. He wants to move forward. He can feel silky fingers worm their way over his skin, hundreds of tendrils trying to pull him into their embrace. He stays strong. Moves with intent. The invisible hands can’t find enough purchase and he is finally welcomed back into the Physical World like the denizen he is. 

The caress stays with him much longer than he’s willing to admit.

--

Weeks go by and he only feels stranger and stranger. High. His attention slides off of everything so easily, his eyes blurring mid-conversation, a stuffy feeling, like a balloon that’s expanding well past the boundaries of his head. He loses time. Cancels appointments. He doesn’t feel well, sorry, he’s going to stay home today.

There is something Danny knows he needs to do. He can’t keep existing in limbo like this, his job only half-finished, pulled in two directions but choosing neither. His powers will wane once again in his indecision. His purpose sits unfulfilled.

He lays back and stares at the softly luminescent stars pasted to the ceiling of his room. Takes deep and even breaths as he struggles to remain present. His sister is worried for him, he’s sure. The best he can do for her is secretly practice what she has preached.

Danny eventually thinks back to that trickling stream. The slimy offshoot of the coursing river. He thinks of the dam he dreamed up all those weeks ago, sure it’s bigger now. His denial adds weight and height to the metaphor. Every day it feels less like a figment of his fucked up imagination and more like the worlds are trying to tell him something. What’s on the other side now, he wonders? Is the river still flowing? Are the fruits of his labor still there or has that little hand-clawed pathway dried up? How large is the reservoir pressing up against that sandy hill if it hasn’t?

He’s scared. 

He doesn’t want to know. 

But this isn’t what he promised himself.

A peek can’t hurt.

--

The dream comes easily, now that he lets it.

The funny thing about water is that it always finds a way. No matter what people do, how they try to tame it, erosion is inevitable. It starts as a dark wet splotch, the faint idea of a tiny breach in the all-but-permeable barrier between worlds—the river and the ocean. As the spot expands a dip forms on the horizon. The water moves. Under, through, over. Destructive. Alive. Danny shouldn’t have looked but he can’t stop what has already started. Equilibrium will be achieved one way or another. It was only ever a matter of time. He stands in the shallows, cowed as the wall comes down. Slowly first, then all at once.

The edges of panic are sharp and he realizes what is happening only a beat too late. 

The dam breaks.

He screams.

He was the dam, he is the trench, the rapid connection of energy flowing out of bounds and rushing along a new path. Lightning striking the rod to avoid burning down the house. The portal below him is a wound, a tear. He is something asked for, something natural. His mind can’t keep up as he struggles to regain ground and prevent being swept away by the violent current.

Dim awareness of his physical body comes back to him slowly as he writhes against the foreign dimension assaulting his senses. A second death. His double life was a conceptual marvel, a switch flipping from on to off, and back on again. He is the embodiment of two worlds, split, distinct. His quest to join them together requires this of him, doesn’t it? Whatever autonomy he has against the will of the universe cannot remain if he truly wants to serve his purpose. It’s a choice he has to make. One that he has been making. One that has been made.

He takes a deep and shuddering breath.

He tries to let go, and finds that he can’t. It’s like being electrocuted all over again, his nerves fried and his joints stuck rigid. It’s a feeling that is impossible to control, tense as he is.

His breath still comes ragged as colors around him saturate and the world warps. He can feel his fear, his desperation, feeding the momentum of whatever is happening. The exchange of emotion, osmosis through a rapidly deteriorating membrane. Thousands of overlapping inputs assault his mind as he feels the energy sliding around in the folds of his brain. He breathes through it. It’s not at all painful, but it is intense. His human points of reference aren’t working to help him conceptualize what is happening. His atoms are buzzing with newfound energy and the world is no longer solid. He tries once again to attempt the mindfulness ritual Jazz has been shoving down his throat, tries to name five things around him. The exercise fails him as he feels his brain liquefy in his skull. He gasps at the sloshing sensation, back arching. He’s going to be unmade.

Instead of loosening his grip, he tightens it. Remembering what it is to be human with all the force he can muster. His knuckles are white. Sweat slips down his brow. If he can’t let go, he has to hold on. He is gasping, thrashing. He’s hyperventilating, he’s sure, but no oxygen floods his system. He wants release, wants off this ride. The world outside of his perception ceases to exist. Flesh slips from his bones and it feels so, so good.

Then he sees it.

His eyes are blind, but he perceives it, somehow. The yawning void of the infinite realms is so much bigger, so much hungrier than he had ever thought. Reading that tablet, all that time ago, he thought his purpose was something simple. Easy in a way that a fourteen year old imagination could rationalize. The earth and the zone were two physical spaces that only needed to understand each other and hold hands to achieve that elusive harmony. 

He’d been wrong.

It’s not the earth that feeds the realms. Dimensions aren’t something that can be explained by an elementary understanding of mass and matter. They aren’t some static three dimensional points in time and space. They are universes of their own, expanding, interstitched in a nasty and sticky web of inexplicable physics folding over and back on themselves, forever too complicated to pry apart.

The realms are fed by the conscious universe perceiving itself, the soul, the spirit, whatever you want to call it. Emotions aren’t some grid of faces on a paper, they are infinite, they are cause and effect, the chicken and the egg, projecting forever in a möbius loop human understanding can never truly describe.

He’s going to go insane, he concludes. Here on his bed, on some random weekday, alone in his room. The magnetic pull of his two halves are phasing into each other, becoming imperceivable as the two separate forms he once knew. He’s not even sure that he really exists at this point. 

There is another choice to make.

He thinks back to what he knows about this buried history, Pariah Dark, The Ancients, wonders if they considered this connection, what they knew about how this should happen. Is there a way to do this that is objectively correct? If he knew more would it be easier? Or would it go down just the same? He has no desire to conquer. Only to be a bridge. A tether. An example. To show that this merging from two to one can be peaceful, a shift in perception rather than a violent overhaul. It is unavoidable now. His only wish is to remain recognizable as himself. 

He focuses not on his mind but on his body. He has to rebuild from the ground up or risk losing himself forever. Start small, a beating heart. Vascular systems. Skeletal. Muscular. Take a breath and pump blood into the empty cavern of his skull. Human is what he knows, though he’s never had to think about it quite this way before. His nerves lace through the structures he’s struggling to create, half intuition, half memory. It feels like being a ghost, all projection and thought, a deep and innate understanding. He knows this. He’s existed this way every moment of his short life and he can do it again. He’s alive, his blood is red, his flesh is tangible.

His brain slams back into his body and he promptly throws up.

--

The worlds are connected once again.

Danny’s hands shake as he tries to get a grip on himself. He’s been changed. He can feel it. The Infinite Realms has marked him as he has marked it. The world is flowing through and from him. Energy hums under his skin, and in it there is access to a well so deep he’s not sure it could ever run dry. 

He finally gets it. This is what being a bridge between worlds means for him.

He gets off his bed slowly. Half floating, half stumbling for balance. His instincts are scattered and his breath no longer sits in his body the same.

This change gives him the authority and the power, the perception and understanding to mend the bleeding fracture between dimensions. He will be listened to. He cannot be hurt. His appearance no longer matters, he is what he is, wholly and entirely. He exists as a linchpin. He is the keystone in the arch where one side is living and the other is dead.

Gravity feels so odd. Like someone changed the coefficient.

He sobs and grabs his dresser for support, woozy and unbalanced, a newborn deer walking on unfamiliar legs. He intends to make his way downstairs. Wants to fall into the embrace of his parents. Needs someone to hold him and tell him that everything will still be okay. He looks to the door.

And without moving, he is there.

Breath comes hard and fast as he steadies himself. His perception catching up to the new perspective. His hand is on the handle, he radiates a trail of semi-physical matter with every motion. It will take practice to appear normal again. He’s reminded of his freshman year.

When he finally opens the door, a swirling green wall is all that meets him. He stares at it, the cold vapor of the Realms slipping around and through him.

He knows the observants exist on the other side. He is sure of it as he is sure of anything. They are there to acknowledge the crown above his head. To observe what he has finally made of himself. 

He will tell him that he didn’t want this, didn’t ask for it.

They will tell him that he is lying.

He steps through the threshold.

[bluerosefox]

Summoning the Summoner

Another summoning/long lost family au but with twist!

So Damian and his class are at Gotham museum for a small field trip for a school project. Thing is none of them knew until it was too late that the new museum curator was part of a cult that had plans to kidnap and sacrifice this class of kids for some ancient god/deity/spirit.

Damian barely manages to send a message to one of his brothers and to the cave before being knocked out when he sees his classmates dropping from knocknout gas.

When he wakes up the preparations for the sacrifice are almost ready. Damian being the most prominent person in the class is going to be the one chosen first. He is then taken to the alter and it begins after the whole villain speech. Damian does manage to get out of his bindings and tries to fight back, does lead them on a merry little chase to get more time for his family to come, nothing to Robiny though, but is forcibly restrained again.

Just as they bring Damian back to the alter none of them notice, or rather, care that Damian was bleeding from getting hit when they recaptured him. None of them notice when the blood dropped from his chin onto the summoning circle because the Batclan (any) just dropped into the room.

They did notice however when the summoning circle started glowing beneath them however.

And none of the cultists had time to finish the summoning chant.

Meaning the summoning circle was not under their control.

And before any of them could do anything, they are all ripped away from the Mortal Realm and everyone, Damian, his class, the cultists, and the Batfam in the room are pulled into the Infinite Realms.

They are no longer in the warehouse they were about to be sacrificed in but in a throne room. Surrounded by glowing floating people and some don't even look human.

And sitting on the throne was a teenager with a shoulder wrapped cape made of stars and galaxies, a crown of ice, stars, and aurora borealis lights shifting in between them, about Damian's age, with white hair and glowing green eyes who looked rather shocked.

The reason? Both him and Damian shared the same face.

-x-x-

Danny was annoyed as heck.

Ever since his crowning it was like every magic user from legendary to mediocre got a notice that a new Infinite Realms King had been crowned and that gave them the go ahead and try to freaking Summon him!

Luckily refusing a summons was well within Danny's Ghost King rights, he's King now he does what he wants (Sam's wise words), and the only summonings Danny answered were his friends and family (Dani is such a troll with it though, butttttt it does get him out of those annoying meetings sometimes and they get to hang out wherever she decided to stop at), sometimes he'd answer the odd teenage morons just to scare them (it's always fun)

Although there were a few summonings outside of that, that he had answered. Thankfully he could sense what kind of summoner was summoning him and intent was always a huge thing. And those that didn't feel like insane fruitloops well... Danny's curiosity often took over.

So imagine his annoyance when he felt another summon happening in the middle of a meeting with his council. But also imagine his surprise when the normally tight demands on the summoning wasn't there...

That meant...

Oh Danny was going to have a lot of fun with this.

This meant they summoning but don't have control on which way the summoning was going to go. Meaning, Danny could reverse summon them to him instead.

With a wide grin he instantly waved his hand and the meeting room shifted to his throne room, might as well pull out all the stops and play the "Big Bag Ghost King"

He could see his council (and good friends and allies) raise their eyebrows at him or tilt their heads but could also sense the attempted summonings power of him and knew he had something planned.

With a short laugh, Danny raised his hand, grasped on the invisible summoning line, and pulled.

Now he was expecting a good amount of people, the summoning felt large so that normally meant cultists but he was expecting so many! Heck some looked to be teenagers his age, and a few oddly dressed people besides the cultists! Oh boy did that mean sacrifices?! Well he'll be happy to put those cultists in their place if that was the case.

But first, find the summoner. Separate them from the group and -

Oh... why... why does he have Danny's face?!

Danny took a quick look at the normally invisible to everyone but him Summoning line and almost choked when he saw it was a sibling line, a blood sibling line.