#aus are so fun to mess around with ^^
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Mental Health Tip! Don't skip meals lest you be fighting demons
#Big Hero 6#BH6#Hiro Hamada#au stuff#uhhhh#cw existential dread#I guess? Not really the exact emotion expressed in this specific instance but it is the overall issue#something something Hiro survivors guilt he keeps avoiding because that's a whole nastier can of worms than standard grief#“I'm moving on from Tadashi's death so I'm almost good!” he says meanwhile the EVERYTHING ELSE is still waiting to be unpacked#Cus like fun fact about grief caused by loss bet money that grief is not going to be the only thing you gotta work on healing#humans brains are really funky about death especially when it happens spontaneously when you least expect it#Anyway reminder that self care and mental health is not linear there are days you think you're good and then you Find Out#but that's okay#so yeah this was supposed to be a quick warm up doodle for another drawing but I ended up messing around with it and now its a thing#I did find a new way of sketching I think I like so we'll see how it goes#been busting out the solid 3px pen I used to used back in 2018 when I started drawing art for the series that's been fun#god bless tags man great for yappers
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Into the Depths Into your Arms
#vidow#shadow x vio#four swords adventures shadow#four swords adventures vio#four swords adventures#shadow link#vio link#loz#legend of zelda#AmaCurses AU#I had- genuinely- so much fun drawing this#and messing around with the designs#YES- I KNOW- I'VE MADE A BUNCH OF AU DESIGNS#I will absolutely not be stopping I just have a lot of thoughts rattling around in my head
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Say I haven't lost it all
#rain world#rw#rw off string AU#rain world AU#rain world no significant harassment#rain world five pebbles#rw ragequit#sigpebbles#<- ? well not necessarily but#rw shipping#shipping#theu are soooo fun to mess around. i cant i feel INSANE you dont understand#they can be sillay. they can argue(lightheartedly). they can fucking fight. they can not always express fully that they care for each other#they can be dating but not really#they can be SO FUCKING divorce#they can love they can HATE#They can-#like ????? can you see it???#okay i know im definitely stretching this and that im pouring headcanons. but im having fun. so shrug#In my head they can have so so much#I rotate them in mt mind like in a microwave for so long that they melt and stick to the walls#i can't get them odf#pmpwbrrs
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"STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY KID!"
Twin blades alight with brilliant teal and blue magic, the guardian stood between the dragon and his enemies. He bared his teeth, looking for all the world like a dragon himself. "Take one step closer, and you're all fucking dead, got it?" Tucker snarled. "I'm not letting you anywhere near him!"
Living up to the name of a guardian
#rvb#red vs blue#rvb tucker#rvb junior#gw2#guild wars 2#rvb gw2 au#my art#batsy art#saltspray dragon#lavernius tucker#junior blarggity blarg-tucker#gw2 saltspray dragon#ive had this piece in my head since i started pondering the gw2 au setting and im so happy i finally got around to drawing it >:3#trying something new w the backdrop/outline to see how i like it#i had a lot of fun messing w csp brushes to get juniors scales sorted
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How can Gohan find his home if he doesn't remember what home looks like? 🥺 (kidnapping AU)
#too lazy to clean it so enjoy it as is#also i had a lot of fun messing around with panels and things if you can tell :D#dont know if it makes sense but it looked pretty to me so i did it#sketch#comic#dbz#dragon ball z#gohan#son gohan#raditz au#turles au#well its one of them or an amalmagation of them idk#db#dragon ball
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Distantly, he hears Sanji say it. "You know that's not Ace." And he knows this. The wavy hair, the freckles, the slight furrow of his brow even in unconsciousness. How could he not? Even now, white-haired and black-winged and strung up in green fluid, he is Luffy's brother. And he hears himself reply. "I know. But I'm still taking him with us." - if i could see your face once more
seraphim ace AU inspired by @lunisoular's amazing art (1, 2) and also by the fact that ace was offered a position as a shichibukai (which he turned down)
black-haired seraphim!ace under the cut:
#one piece#portgas d ace#monkey d. luffy#wow i actually like drawing backgrounds sometimes. this was fun lighting#im v happy w how the text in the first pic turned out....had to mess around w it a fair bit#hope luffy looks distressed enough#my art#btw go check out lunisoular's aus they r so awesome#also i LOVE the way they draw ace it's sooo good. esp his hair#i finished the art and then i wrote the fic in 2 days. wild#i went back to look at lunisoular's art and i guess fic appeared#(this is a lie i struggled lol. writing is difficult esp when you are rusty)
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the ultkri fic is so ridiculously fun to write you guys have no idea
also putting some little icons ive made to put in between the sections of the "dream sequence" to add a little spice. interpret them as you will
#homestuck#homestuck au#ultkri au#homestuck beyond canon#kankri vantas#dirk strider#ultimate dirk strider#they suck so much *affectionate*#im having wayy too much fun with messing around with editing in this one#i cant wait to share it once im finished >:]#dirkkri#<- forgor to tag that one fml
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Continuation of this
Still with next to no context lmao, oops
#pla#pla au#pokemon legends arceus#pokemon legends arceus au#submas au#arkarius au#pla akari#akari#pla rei#rei#subway boss ingo#warden ingo#ingo#captain zisu#zisu#my art#just messing around with this idea is fun#Alakazam was so difficult for me to draw for some reason tho#cogita slay moment#using Volo as a stool to keep him in time out#clan leader irida#irida#clan leader adaman#adaman#cogita#volo#pla volo
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Hi, Viewer Discretion:
This AU is about a nonexistent fictional mental health condition. There is imagery of straitjackets and other restraints, as well as mention of discrimination based off of health conditions. If you are uncomfortable with this content then please feel free to click off and enjoy something else. Thank you.
Dressing Sketch
Uniform Sketches
League Party sketch
Sketch dump for Battle Addict! This art has been gathering dust for a few months 😭 only just remembered to post it here.
These sketches are from Ver. 3 of Battle Addict, aka Battle Addict Twins, where both of them get the HCCM diagnosis.
The base idea for Battle Addict is that while most people enjoy Pokémon battling, there comes a certain point where one's love/obsession for battle starts bleeding into the rest of their life and becoming detrimental to their everyday life. This is usually called Combative Mania (CM), which is present in a large part of the population (40%-60%) hence why battling is so popular and so many different forms of it are made to keep people satisfied. The extreme form is Hyper-Competitive Combative Mania (HCCM), wherein a person spends so much time and energy for battles that it starts to affect their physical/mental health as well as their social life, since they neglect them in favour of their obsession.
Often what divides CM patients from HCCM patients is what they're willing to give up for battling and the extent of their knowledge regarding battles. CM patients usually only have a casual interest in battling or just enjoy the thrill of battling, but operate normally and have other interests outside of battle. They have basic to intermediate knowledge of battling, and can often partake in research or battles.
HCCM patients will often forgo food, water, sleep, school, work, and relationships in favour of researching and competing in battles. It is the only thing they find interest in and they devote most of their time towards it. Patients often memorize entire charts of statistics and different strategies and counterstrategies for battle, with different patients often having a certain subject they specialize in. Most patients with HCCM are unaware that they have it, they either assume that they have CM or that they are completely normal and just enjoy Pokémon battles. They often go into fields that work directly with researching Pokémon or battles, such as professors, scientists, gym leaders, elite four members, league workers, battle facility operators, and so on.
Ingo and Emmet do not know they have HCCM. They engage with battle and researching battle in a way that they think is typical for a hobbyist. Ingo tends to read on academic papers, textbooks, and study guides regarding the statistics and capabilities of Pokémon, whereas Emmet takes a more hands-on approach in studying Pokémon anatomy and battle strategy. Ingo often charts and studies natures, EVs, IVs, stat spreads, abilities, moves, and their properties. Emmet sketches anatomical diagrams and studies of Pokémon, including skeletal structure, musculature, organ systems, and physical appearance, highlighting pressure points in the body for executing the most damage and for keeping his own Pokémon protected. He also tends to read into psychological studies as well as conducting his own long term tests to predict a person's strategy in different situations. The two feed into each other's interests, teaching the other of their own discoveries and celebrating breakthroughs together. As a result, their total knowledge of battling is immense, which led to them becoming Subway Bosses straight out of college.
The two lived and worked fairly normally; they were very passionate about their work and it provided a way to sate their need for fighting on a regular basis, as well as giving them the space to experiment with different fighting styles and analyze others' strategies. Of course they still continue their studying outside of work, which often leads to them trying different methods or revisiting recorded battles to see how they could improve. The twins still believe their hours long discussions, piles of notes, and stacks of study materials littered around their house are perfectly fine, only stopping to reconsider after a comment from a coworker highlights how they must be crazy or incredibly disciplined to have as huge of a win : loss ratio as they do.
They end up taking the issue to a psychiatrist after dwelling on the idea for a few days, which is where they get diagnosed after a few tests and a description of their lifestyle and interests. Their case is considered moderate but could easily escalate into severe if left unchecked, though the main concern is whether this would make them a threat to other people due to their work and prominence. Obviously they don't want to lose their jobs, but this kind of thing could get them removed from the League Council if it got out, so they have to consider whether they share this information with their employers or not. Ingo thinks it'd be best to keep it under wraps, but Emmet fears that this could be used as blackmail and argues that they need to release this information themselves before someone else ruins their lives with it. Eventually they do take the diagnosis to the League Council and it gets out to the public.
Emmet takes the fall for Ingo, claiming his case is severe whereas Ingo's is mild so that the League Council will be more distracted with him to bother Ingo. That ends up with Emmet getting a new restraining uniform because the League no longer trusts him to handle himself in public based off his diagnosis. Neither of them are particularly pleased about this, but Emmet tells Ingo to look on the bright side. Emmet actually starts to find the jacket to be more of a little challenge than a hindrance, as it adds an extra level of difficulty to battles that he's been looking for, but Ingo still thinks it would be better if he hadn't had to wear it at all. This unfortunately extends to League parties where he has to be restrained to even be allowed entry, which he is much less happy about.
This post is getting ungodly long as it is but there's also a branch off of this concept where Ingo and Emmet land in Hisui together and Emmet's uniform looks like this. He deconstructed the uniform he was given to modify his jacket since by that point he had a bit of a sentimental connection to it and didn't want to just swap it out.
(Bonus fun fact: Ingo and Emmet decided to pull the biggest gag on the Pearl Clan when they first land by pretending to be one person under the alias Eki. Ingo is the polite one in the dark coat by day, and Emmet is the energetic one in the white coat by night. "Day Eki" is more popular with other Wardens and older clan members, whereas "Night Eki" is more popular with the village children and insomniacs.
The whole Warden Eki concept is technically its own AU in the background but it did originate from Battle Addict. Also I already drew Emmet in the Pearl Strait I can't take that back)
Anyways uhhh there's more let me see if I can condense it:
The twins went to a University specifically focused on battle (Champion's University), where they ended up studying subjects in their specific interests. Emmet took psychology of battle and Pokémon anatomy to learn about the weak points in trainers and Pokémon, and Ingo took general statistics and study of moves which are exactly what they sound like
The twins use the Vs Recorder all the time, both to track their own progress and to observe how passengers fight. It's often stuck to the glass windows to catch the Pokémon in the middle of the car, though they have considered buying Rotom Drones expressly for this purpose
Emmet actually has a stack of different studies on weak points in the human body but he doesn't share that with anyone, not even Ingo
Emmet's study of trainer psych has led to him often predicting tactics before they happen and dodging/countering them with his Pokémon. He often challenges himself to predict a person's team, moveset, and strategy based on appearance, gait, and body language, sharing his guesses with Ingo in case he makes any useful observations
Ingo and Emmet are possibly the first instance of causing "learned HCCM" in their Pokémon because after the training that they do together, the Pokémon have developed their own independent bloodlust and have started memorizing the move strategies that the twins have them use
Sometimes to celebrate fully completing a study on a particular set of Pokémon, the twins will eat one. This is mostly as a treat and an inside joke, but they will research what's in season/allowed and go hunt for one. Ingo is usually the one to catch it, and Emmet is the one to cook it. There's some really goofy shitposts about them going after pseudo-legendaries overseas, or Palkia's leg in Hisui
The twins can perform full medical care on any Pokémon and can often grind for hours nonstop since they can heal their teams themselves. They also save a lot on healing items this way
After releasing their diagnosis, the perception of the twins have gone in wildly different directions. Some people treat them as subhuman or as monsters, some people don't care, some people call them psycho yandere boys on twitter. Emmet tends to get more of the negative connotations, Ingo tends to get the more "positive" ones. Emmet also tends to get a lot of stares due to his restraint and status as a crazed fighter, which he pretends doesn't get to him
I think that's everything, I'm going to go collapse. Hope you guys enjoy 👍
#tw straitjacket#straitjacket#tw mental health#tw mental illness#submas#submas au#au#ingo#subway master ingo#ingo pokemon#nobori#emmet#subway master emmet#emmet pokemon#kudari#Version 1 is Emmet being absolutely deranged and Ingo getting him locked in the psych ward out of fear for his reputation and#Version 2 is Ingo being crazy and throwing Emmet under the bus when he almost gets discovered#for those who were wondering. Version 3 is best because they get to be obsessed and they drag each other further in together ♥#honestly this probably outranks Severed for my riskiest AU so I wonder how this is gonna turn out#hope this won't be the end of my career#anyways fun fact: this song is inspired by an old submas song!#Maniac Man led to me making the first version‚ then eventually I kept sketching until we got here#oh I just remembered‚ there's one scene from this AU that I think would be really funny to draw#The subway gets an overcrowding warning one day because they're holding a special event and passengers keep coming in while the twins are o#they were STARVED for battles that day though‚ so they call a Code Indigo and essentially turn the Multi lines into a 2 on 6 to get through#more passengers faster. They were absolutely exhausted by the end but damn if they didn't have fun messing around with the passengers
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all silliness gone
#combining my aus to create a supernova of. dread#(also the whole 'sonic is the only one to remember 06' thing)#it comes back to him in bits and pieces#just messes with him a bit#MAN ive gotta practice comics. if i could just put this all together in a cohesive way#but enough of that. ghost!sonic is soo fun to color i have a new favorite way#its kinda hard for him to keep himself together in this form so there are bits around him#also because its my favorite thing he falls apart a lot more when he gets frustrated or angry#sth#doodles#actually dead au#memories of the wind au#saying woof is something i picked up from amphibia i think. i cant stop saying it its so fun. like youre tired. woof.....#back to silliness after this one. probably
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more of mickey forgetting he probably Shouldnt just spontaniously mention his Brother with no context
theyre so in love and obsessed w eachother
i did that rabbit round up quest. why would you need to do that. but i only found it at the 2nd one does the 1st one explain more or qhat
every time i go back to epic mickey i also go back to that concept art of oswald i think merging w the blot storm. mourning what couldve been lowkey. ill put them under the cut 4 context
so cool .. so cool
#epic mickey#epic mickey rebrushed#epic mickey fanart#oswald rabbit#oswald the lucky rabbit#ortensia whiskers#ortensia the cat#donald duck#minnie mouse#i need to like flesh out my own oswald blot au its such a neat idea and i dont see enough people mess around w it#do his kids even have a term to tag them with. theyre just 420 rabid rabbit children what do i call that#sorry i keep mentioning house ive been watching it and think its funny to project that on my favs#I DID THAT LITTLE QUEST WITH ORTENSIA'S LOCKET. UTTERLY SICKENINGGGG#i gave it to oswald ofc. he was so calm ??? and he called mickey by name it was so heartbreaking he misses his wife SO BAD#i also got epic mickey in case u couldnt tell. its so fun#i need to fnd my art from my old computer of blot oswald and redraw it
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Mirror Man - Jack Stauber
good god i have regrets. idk if i'd say this is one of them though
anyways. sonny in the computer eh? here. have every single frame of this. 'cause there's only 24
it's in the opposite order of appearance but i'm not gonna fix that so. have fun i suppose
oh. uh. sorry for my trash handwriting i just didn't wanna risk krita crashing if i inserted text n did whatever makes it crash. hah.
#silverware's art#kinitopet#sonny c#sonny chamberlain#kinitopet band au#haha. i know it's not the best. funny thing: i don't really care at this point 'cause nothing's perfect.#tw scopophobia#juust incase#i think it's fun to draw him :)#and he has arguably the most story i can mess around with unless i made kinito fully sentient-#so um. i'll just throw this at my audience and probably draw random stuff for a bit because. yeesh. even this? hard to do!!#how do animators actually do that? a mystery to me.#this is probs the closest i'll get unless i get the urge to try to actually animate#mmmaybe i'll dump some drawing's i've been accumulating?? i dunno. i'll see how i feel tomorrow
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Sabezra in a fantasy au for the ask game?
I have no idea if this was what you were looking for but it's what my brain invented, so ta-da!
--
Mother had forbidden---Forbidden, actually with a capital F---Sabine from leaving the Seelie realm to look for trouble.
So the next time she got restless, she made sure she'd already found trouble before she left.
Today, trouble looked like a grungy teenage boy, in ratty jeans and a faded orange sweatshirt, stomping through the woods. He seemed like the type she could mess with. Bored with life, discontent, easily fooled. Maybe she could even trick him into following her home for a while and see how he fared there.
(She'd ask him for his name, first, of course. She always did. It was an old trick, and rather overdone, but that was why she did it. If a human was stupid enough to ignore all the old stories and warnings and just tell her that right off the bat, she didn't feel bad about causing them further trouble. They earned it.)
She waited, unseen, until he had passed her by. Then, with a last glance over her shoulder to make sure no one of her mother's Court had noticed her, Sabine slipped through the dark mists that parted one world from the other.
"Hey, there!" Sabine called out at his back. He stopped in his tracks and turned around, looking at her in curiosity, but with far too little suspicion.
Sabine smiled.
This boy may not know what she was---not yet---but if Sabine had her way, he would find out.
Oh, he would find out.
#(spoiler alert Ezra is already aware of the existence of the Seelie and is wandering around specifically because he wants to meet one.)#I got this idea because of Ezra's habit of not telling people his name!#(and then I didn't even get to the part where he tells her he's jabba the hutt lando calrissian brom titus the emperor's nephew etc.)#i don't think i've ever actually read anything with fey in it so this was the product of a lot of quick googling lol#ficlet#sabezra#fantasy au#modern fantasy#AU ask game#I ended the ficlet there because tbh I wasn't sure if I wanted Ezra to be a normal human kid who finds a Seelie#and then tries to mess with her by trapping her in a promise and he SUCCEEDS and she's Very Irritated but also Slightly Impressed#...except he kinda trapped himself with that promise too so basically they're stuck at each other's side until he tells her his actual name#OR if I wanted Ezra to be a bored Unseelie who has also been Forbidden from looking for trouble#so he's just wandering around hoping that trouble finds him. and it does.#edit: NEVER MIND I CAME UP WITH A 3RD AND MORE FUN IDEA
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No context, I was just bored
#eddsworld#eddsworld au#tordmatt#todd and matheu#Matheu#todd#no context#tord ew#art#messing around#priest#zombie apocalypse#future todd and matheu#matt ew#im so addicted to drawing them i need to stop but i can't 😭#had fun with this one#no contest#I'll post the rest tomorrow :D
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miskellaneous
#tumblr is still my doodle archive#my art#venitas#ffxiv#kh#sprawl au#ooooo veni you are so creature#first of all. Bunny. Bnnuy. I would like to consider the bunny. Sorry for trapping him he’s doing plot in my brain#I drew vani a while ago but I should have made him a catboy. I will next time I draw him#second of all back in pic order#ari is trying to be kind but violence is extremely fun for him. He loves it. He loves to gloat and he loves to cackle#if he’s allowed at a target for his pent up rage and aggression he gets weird#second of all I’ve been thinking about gender as one does. And what it would look like 5000 years in the future#so like in sprawl. there’s an entire timeline of gender studies and anthropology that leads from our time#through where the entire notion COMPLETELY fell apart; through where there was a resurgence of ancient gender roles#back and forth and in circles and where new things sprung up and fell and debates about the validity of self went nuts#Xion knows a lot about it bc she will claim trans as a label vanitas also knows a lot of things because he Doesn’t consider himself#trans. vens confused he was literally never taught about any of this. unity(divine) has its own… kinda messed up way of doing it#he got lost somewhere around the advent of gene augmentation and nonhuman drag (she didn’t have to go into that detail she just thinks it’s#really cool)#(Also that was really early —)#Anyways. vanitas is also getting his sense of touch back up there. xions a miracle worker#transgender is even a slightly archaic term. it completely died for about a thousand years and then came back with a retro wave
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Help the snippet grew legs
I did more snippet. I actually did more snippet checks nearly two weeks ago now, but then things went to pot a bit and I didn't post. Because I am a living disaster.
But yeah the last DCxDP snippet I wrote has grown legs. In fact it has grown so much legs that I know where it starts as well as where it goes from the last snippet onwards for a while.
I don't know how we got from the start to here, but that's not my problem right now.
This however is not the start. This follows up directly from this post from a month ago.
--
Jason had been on edge since getting back to Gotham. The sort of on edge that made him want to go patrolling Crime Alley, just to make sure everything was alright. Which was ridiculous, because he’d only been gone for a week, and more importantly he was exhausted and patrolling when he was this tired was asking for trouble.
Mostly, he just wanted to go home and sleep, but he needed to head to the Cave to check on some information regarding this case, just to make sure it was closed and stayed closed, so he turned his bike to go and do that first. At the very least it would be quiet there, since it was just late enough in the night that all the Bats would be swarming out on their own patrols.
So of course Babs patched herself into his comms not two minutes after returning.
“Hood.”
“Hey, O.” He said, because he couldn’t really be mad at her for any length of time. And it wasn’t like it was her fault he was on edge right now. “What’s up?”
“Are you heading to the Cave?”
“Yeeesss...?” Jason frowned slightly, leaning forward. “Why, is something wrong?”
“No, just need to warn you, we’ve got visitors.”
Jason jerked in surprise, then swore as he regained control of his bike. He pulled to a stop so that Babs wouldn’t lambast him about it, before replying. “Visitors?”
“Red Robin made some friends while you were gone.” She told him, with an odd tone in her voice. “They’re doing something involving the Lazarus Pits.”
Jason went cold. “They’re- what?”
“The Pits.” She repeated. “They- Hood, we don’t know anything about them. But Red Robin says they’re trustworthy, and yes we checked for mind control and things. There’s nothing. But they know more about the Pits than anyone we’ve ever met.”
Jason laughed, strangled. “What, really?”
“Really. I think they might know more than Ra’s does.” Babs sounded nervous, he realised with another cold flush, and he started his bike again and pushed off.
“That’s not suspicious at all.”
“No, it isn’t.” Babs sighed. “But Red trusts them, for some reason, enough to bring them to the Cave for whatever project they’re working on. The others are there too, he’s not alone, and we’re keeping an eye on things, but…”
“Yeah.” Jason knew. They were Bats, paranoia was in their nature. The fact that none of the Bats that had come into contact with these unknowns seemed bothered at all was… intensely concerning. “You want me to take a look or avoid it?”
“...You can come by, if you want. I’m watching remotely in case we need a League alert or something, but…”
“I hear you.” He sighed. “Who’re we dealing with?”
“They all look to be about mid-twenties. The main guy calls himself Phantom. The other two defer to him on just about everything, so he’s definitely the boss. No real description, he’s not human and only sometimes has a human shape. Fairly middling height and frail-looking when they do, white hair and glowing green eyes. Most the time he’s wearing a sort of hazmat suit of some kind, but that shifts sometimes. When he’s not human it’s pretty much impossible to describe him, but I guess the best way to put it is that he looks like space.” Babs immediately filled in.
“The other two seem to be some kind of subordinates. The man goes by Duulaman, he seems to be a mix of tech guy and magic. Phantom also seems to know his way around technology pretty well, hardware while Duulaman does software. His magic is Egyptian themed for the most part, and seems linked to his technological ability otherwise. Fairly tall, dark skin and blue eyes with a green shimmer, black hair. He wears glasses but I’m not convinced that they’re actually necessary rather than being some kind of device for either his magic or technology. Also, we can’t hack him.”
“What, at all?”
“Admittedly I’ve not tried too hard, I don’t want to make them hostile if they’re not going to be, but I think he uses his magic to amplify what his technology does. Just what little I’ve seen is incredible.”
“Huh.” Also concerning, but in a different way. Though if Babs wasn’t trying too hard then it might just be that Duulaman’s tech seemed harder to deal with than it is. “And the third?”
“A woman, Caucasian with black hair and mostly violet eyes. Little bit of a green shine there, too. She’s the tallest of the lot of them, pretty thin but not as frail-looking as Phantom. Not sure of much more about her, she doesn’t seem to have the same sort of technological abilities as the other two and she’s mostly been standing to the side like a guard or acting as an extra pair of hands whenever either of the males need something. Name seems to be Belladonna, but both males have been giving her a few different plant-related nicknames, so I’m not certain which one’s real.”
“Great.” He sighed again. “Don’t suppose there’s any way to get an idea of that?”
“Not likely. Other possible names are Nightshade, Overgrowth, Foxglove, Yew, and Daffodil.”
“Daffodil?” That didn’t quite fit the theme, though the fact that the woman had a theme of poisonous plants was concerning. Then again, neither did Overgrowth.
“Daffodils are poisonous, apparently.”
“Huh.”
“Yeah.”
Babs went quiet for a while after that, letting Jason drive, and only spoke up again when he reached the entrance to the Cave.
“Be careful, Hood.”
“Always am, O.” He replied, slightly nervous despite himself. A part of him wanted to just run back to Crime Alley and go to bed, not deal with whatever disaster Tim had apparently brought into the family trying to study fucking Lazarus Pits, somehow. He just… didn’t want to deal with this.
But he had to, because if there was any chance the other Bats were under some kind of subtle mind control, they needed someone outside to go and take a look, and with Jason knowing about it ahead of time, there’d at least be a chance for Babs to call in the League if she saw a change.
The Cave was surprisingly quiet when he entered, though in a way Jason wasn’t surprised. The place was practically made to amplify certain sounds, and his bike roaring in was definitely one of them. Plus there was the fact that there were three unknowns in the Cave, so no-one was going to be talking about anything private or secret. Still, it was disconcerting to enter the Cave when it was so quiet, with none of the others calling out a greeting and no sounds of sparring on the mats. It just felt wrong, and Jason felt a chill run down his spine even as he stopped his bike and headed further in.
The chill only got worse when he saw the group. Most of the Bats were just hovering around the Cave, doing nothing in particular and obviously only there to keep an eye on the unknowns. Red Robin was the only one over by the workbench that had obviously been hurriedly pulled together from about four other smaller workbenches, leaning over it with his back to Hood. One of the strangers was with him, and Hood could suddenly understand why Oracle had said Phantom was difficult to describe. For the most part, he definitely looked like Oracle had said, a black hazmat-like outfit and white hair. Given the way he was leaning over the table next to Red Robin, it was hard to see much of him, but he did look fairly frail.
Except when Hood blinked, the man suddenly looked… well. Not human. At all. He could see what she meant by looking like space, because he just… cracked. Like a swirling void full of stars.
Then Hood blinked again, and he was back to normal, and all three strangers were straightening. The woman, maybe-Belladonna, looked up first from where she was hovering- not literally, unlike Phantom, who Hood now realised was literally floating at Red Robin’s side- behind Duulaman, met Hood’s eyes despite the helmet, and paled sharply. Duulaman looked up next, and both their eyes flashed a bright green- a toxic green, one only a few shades off being very familiar- before both swore sharply.
That was when Phantom turned around.
Hood froze. Not just from the sudden chill, fear biting down his spine in a way he hadn’t felt in a long time, but from the look. Something about Phantom seemed familiar, in a dangerous way. Floating slightly in the air, white hair waving like it was caught in an invisible breeze, and eyes shining a just as brilliant green as the other two but solid rather than mixed into their apparently-original colours. The being- because he wasn’t a human, no matter what he looked like most of the time and no matter what the other Bats thought, that wasn’t a meta or even an alien, he was something else- stared at him, a hazy mist of breath clouding in front of him, eyes wide.
There was a crackle of something like electricity and machinery starting, and Phantom disappeared. Hood suddenly felt like he could breathe again.
“Oh Ancients.” Duulaman murmured, looking pale. He was still staring at Hood, as was Belladonna, both of them looking horrified.
“Phantom?” Belladonna called, eyes darting upwards for a moment before returning to stare at Hood.
Slightly uncomfortable with the attention now, Hood looked up.
The Cave roof had been replaced with a starry sky. Based on… everything else about this situation, that was probably Phantom.
The electrical sound came again, somehow sounding apologetic and Hood had no idea how a noise like that could sound like that, and Duulaman sighed. “English, Phantom. Or at least something living, please.”
“Sorry.” The mass of space on the roof said, with an undertone of electricity and ice. “Just… Ancients.”
Belladonna laughed, a small, horrified sound. “You’ve got that right.”
“What happened to you?” Duulaman asked, and out of the corner of his eye Hood saw the rest of the Bats stiffen.
His focus was on the mass on the roof, though, which slowly crept down- like some demented dripping tap of space, Hood thought hysterically- to settle between Duulaman and Belladonna in a mind-twistingly strange blob.
The shape shimmered, and Phantom’s human form appeared, the space-blob folding away like it had never been there. He looked at Hood again, then winced and deliberately turned his head to focus on Duulaman as he leaned into his side. Light flickered again, and then-
Phantom shifted.
White hair swapped to black, the strange hazmat suit disappeared in favour of jeans and a long sleeved shirt- which looked immensely out of place compared to his… partners? Underlings? Outfits; Belladonna had a dramatic black dress lined with vines and pale flowers, and Duulaman leaned into the Egyptian theme with an outfit like a pharaoh. Compared to them, Phantom looked incredibly normal. Like a regular guy in his mid-twenties.
He looked over at Hood again, eyes now blue with only a faint green shine, and Hood shivered. No matter that he looked normal, something about the being still screamed unnatural.
“Phantom?” Both his partners asked, sounding surprised.
“Sorry.” He said, in a raspy voice. “It’s- easier, this way. Kidnapping isn’t exactly a good idea right now.”
“Kidnapping?!” Several of the Bats chorused, and Hood saw Batman stiffen ready to lunge.
Hood just couldn’t stop staring.
He was aware, faintly, of the conversation going on around him. More than aware, really; he was a Bat by training, he didn’t just… tune out of important conversations. Everything that was being said was being catalogued for later, held in the back of his head for evaluation once he had time. But at the same time, it was just… difficult. As much as he was aware of the conversation, he wasn’t really listening. A part of him just… couldn’t stop watching the three. Even as Phantom very deliberately looked away from Jason, almost like he couldn’t bare to look at him. As Duulaman put his hand on Phantom’s shoulder and Belladonna leaned into his side like they were anchoring him, while neither of them looked his way for more than brief glances that every time warped their faces into grimaces.
He was fully aware that the other Bats were interrogating the three. Something they really should have done long before this, before they brought them to the Cave because they were doing something with Lazarus Pits and knew too much about them. And he was well aware that none of them were making getting the information difficult. They talked easily, like none of it was a secret- and maybe it wasn’t. These Infinite Realms, these ghosts, everything about the Ancients and the halfas that Phantom apparently was, maybe none of it was a secret. Or maybe it was just that none of them cared, because-
Phantom looked him in the eyes for the first time since the start of this whole thing.
“Pariah Dark was a monster, and even he would consider what was done to you unforgivable.”
Jason jolted, pulling away from that horrible chill and the feeling that there was something incredible in front of him- something horrifying, something nightmarish and awful. And he listened, really listened, as Phantom laid out as best as he could what it felt like to look at him. It felt like drowning, almost, and somewhere in the back of his mind past the crystal haze of shock it felt like he was screaming. Jason just listened and stared as the three of them laid out how things felt to them- how he felt to them, and wasn’t that just hilarious, that there was something so deeply wrong with him that even these strange beings, these half-dead and partly dead people, were able to look at him and know immediately that something is wrong here.
He wondered a little if it was like the uncanny valley. If looking at him made these people, who were apparently ghosts or at least close to it, unnerved because there was something wrong here, something not quite correct for what it should be.
Of course he would be fucked up. He was already well aware that the Pit had done terrible things to him. What was one more?
Phantom glanced at him only once more, then focused on Batman.
“So,” he said, in a firm voice obviously used to being obeyed. “I’d quite like to know who did that to him. Because my next step is going to be to call the council, get war declared on them, and then erase them.”
Neither Belladonna or Duulaman objected. In fact they seemed like they agreed, or possibly they just didn’t intend to contradict the person that was their leader.
Jason wasn’t sure. He was still too busy being shocked, lost in a hazy daze of… something. He couldn’t have spoken even if he wanted too, and all he could do was stare at Bruce as well, waiting to see what was next.
Batman didn’t speak.
He wasn’t sure he was surprised.
The silence stretched, reaching a minute, two. Phantom continued to stare at Batman, who stared back, a firm line in what Jason could see of his mouth. No-one else moved.
Jason took a shuddering breath, and a step back. It was more of a stumble, really, and it broke the holding pattern the rest of the room was in. Eyes snapped to him.
The three- ghosts? Realms beings? Whatever they were- looked directly at him with only a slight wince. Phantom tensed slightly, like he wanted to spring, and both Duulaman and Belladonna did the same in response, hands grasping at their leader as if to keep him in place.
Jason took another trembling breath, and bolted.
Someone- Dick, he thought, but he couldn’t quite tell over the shuddering sounds of his own breaths and heartbeats- shouted after him, but Jason didn’t stop. He just ran, going straight for his bike and leaving.
The chill lingered in the back of his chest the entire time. Jason couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so cold.
He hadn’t even realised he’d been warm, until he saw Phantom. Now there was just the chill, slowly seeping into his bones. He wasn’t even sure that was Phantom’s fault, though.
After all, Bruce had been silent.
Why would Dad tell them who hurt him? It wasn’t like Jason was his son, or anything. It wasn’t like it was only the League, like it was only the Joker, like it wouldn’t deal with so many of their problems without them needing to do anything.
He somehow wasn’t surprised.
So Jason ran.
#dcxdp#fic writing#my writing#random scenes from the abyss#except this au actually might be a Thing now so it's kinda not that#idk it can keep that tag until it figures out what it's doing#danny phantom#sam manson#tucker foley#jason todd#honestly this is probably going to be a really interesting thing to mess around with#i don't know where it's going or where it's coming from#but hey doesn't that just make it more fun?#(no but it does make the writing a lot more disordered)#braided fates au
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