#dc plot bunnies

[angel-gidget]

DC Plot Bunnies on my Brain

Time-traveling Kon talks to his younger self about Tana Moon. I’ve been exploring the 90’s Superboy corner of fandom lately, and boy do those guys have some thoughts about Tana Moon. Muy negative.

I think an adult Kon who had a chance to talk to his younger self might also be able to express some criticism of Tana, but he would not be harsh about it. I think he would still view his younger self as having a lot of agency, and he would still remember how much he loved her.

So how do you explain to your younger self that the current “love of their life” isn’t actually good for them? Very veeerry gently.

Kon bed-hopping fic. I actually started this one over a year ago and have snippets of it on my hard drive. Basically, after the Gemworld and multiversal hopping, Kon has a paranoia about being alone, and he doesn’t have a place to stay. (I wrote this before reading about the Kents remembering him after all, so this is written with the assumption that he has nowhere to go.)

So Young Justice takes turns housing him. And then the sleepovers end up being a pretty effective way of catching up with old friends like the core four and getting to know the new ones like Amy, Naomi, and Jinny.

Kon/Lophi slow-burn. In my current Kon fic, I imply that if YJ had showed up later than they had, Kon would have felt duty-bound to stay on the Gemworld to raise baby Martha. I could write a story exploring that as well as his and Lophi’s relationship. However, core four fuzzies would still be involved, bc the team would 100% find a way to visit Kon on the regular if he were stuck in another dimension.

Kon/Amy slow-burn. Set after the YJ multiverse hopping storyline. With no way to return to the Gemworld, Kon and Amy are left to mourn it together. This leads to bonding. Amy does, however, have some experience with going between worlds and have some coping mechanisms to offer Kon. In turn, he’s able to make her feel more at home with the team.

Amy Winston character exploration via Young Justice. There is a LOT to explore. For one thing, Amethyst was never a very character-driven comic, so there’s a lot of scenarios where I have no clue what Amy would do. So I gotta start writing to find out.

In her own 80’s title, Amy can go back and forth between being confidently heroic and remembering that she’s a scared kid. Part of that was the physical transformation she would go through. Turning into a physically 20-something a la Shazam made her feel more confident. But she doesn’t have that trait in YJ continuity.

So maybe her magic is the key? In the 80’s series, Amy’s magic was very strong on the Gemworld, but would fade to nothing when she crossed over to Earth.

So what if in this Wonder Comics YJ ‘verse, her magic is fading away slowly while she’s stuck on Earth and that gradually eats at her confidence? What if she does bond with the core four, but then becomes scared to tell them that the thing that (in her mind) makes her a superhero is fading away?

Post-Mini Series Amethyst story. I have a very detailed write-up of this in my drafts. I was very frustrated with Amy being turned into, like, a Gemworld deity thing at the end of her OG series. But I write out a plot taking place after it that would allow me to really come to terms with it and have fun with where the characters are at that point. Might post the outline later. Basically makes Amy, Young Princess Emerald, and Donal (Topaz and Turquoise’s son) all co-protagonists.

Tim/Cassie detective competition. In a (fairly recent?) Wonder Woman storyline, Cassie referred to herself as a detective, and asked for time to investigate the murder of Hypolyta. What if that had consequences? What if there is some kind of, idk, Teen Detective Competition and maybe Donna enters Cassie’s into it bc she thinks she’d be into it?

Of course, Tim has entered but only because he sees it as chance to get close to someone else he’s actually investigating. But as soon as he sees that Cassie is one of the entrants things get… genuinely competitive for both of them. And then the trash-talking somehow turns into flirting when neither of them were paying attention?

Tim/Cassie preboot Identity Exploration. Cassie is reveling in having Kon and Bart back from the dead. She and Kon are “just friends” now, and tho a lil’ awkward, it’s still good. But a few passing comments between the three of them lead Cassie to realize that some of the things she knows about Tim’s civilian identity are contradictory.

She begins to obsess a bit. After all, Tim was her main support through OYL and other hells, so shouldn’t she know him better than anyone?

Meanwhile, she is utterly failing to make a go of her “Drusila” identity. When Tim hears about that, he offers to help. And as Tim teaches Cassie how to be someone else, he ends up revealing things about himself that clarify some of those contradictions that stumped her earlier.

Tim/Greta set during 90's YJ. Steph gets frustrated with Tim's lecturing and breaks up with him. Secret sees this as an opportunity, and shoots her shot. Tim has had an insane day and decides "ok, why not?" Queue their relationship subtly changing events throughout the YJ and Robin series.

[sonrium]

DP X DC: A Minor Drinking Problem

Phantom is a relatively new member of the JLA, but it's been a few months, and things are settling in well. He's shy and polite but is a master of the snark with villains.

Before a big mission, the all hands on deck kind, everyone is talking about scars and the crazy stories behind them to distract from the coming fight. Danny, finally feeling like he can join in the conversation with all these adult heroes, pulls off his right glove to show a pretty gnarly scar on the back of his wrist. “I got this one when I fought a guy from the Revolutionary War a few weeks ago! Didn't think he'd charge me with a bayonet.” He shares a couple more stories and scars, but only the ones that he can easily show off.

Because of stories like that and some historical depictions of Phantom from different time periods, they think he's this ancient and powerful immortal that just looks like a teenager, it wouldnt be the first time. He's powerful enough to go toe to toe with Superman, so there's no way he's actually a kid. He even sometimes has the haunted, world weary eyes that their most hardened members only get after experiencing too much. Danny, being our lovable, obliviously dense idiot, has not realized that they think he's an ancient being.

After the mission concludes -it was a rough one-, the JLA celebrate their victory with a couple drinks back at the watch tower. Danny is understandably uncomfortable with this whole situation and keeps asking, “Are you sure I should be here?” They reassure him it's fine as they pass around beers, which Danny politely declines several times. Danny eventually sees this as the perfect chance to pad his blackmail folders on his inebriated coworkers.

Anyway, as the night goes on, they have a good time, but Phantom still hasn't gotten a drink like the rest of them, and Green Lantern (or hero of your choice) really wants their shy friend to come out of his shell. So, he slams an open beer bottle on the coffee table in front of Phantom. “Come on Phantom! Let loose a little. Celebrate!”

“Dude! What the hell?! I'm 16! That's illegal!” Phantom squeaks in shock.

“We don't care how old you were when you died. It's how long you've been a ghost that counts.” Flash slings an arm around Danny's shoulders from where he’s sat next to him on the couch. Flash can't get drunk, but he also thinks it would be fun to see their uptight new member drunk.

“That's even worse! You'd be giving alcohol to a two year old!” Phantom is horrified that his coworkers are so casually breaking the law.

“But you said you fought in the Revolutionary War this morning!” Green Lantern said with his eyebrows knit in confusion.

“No, I said I fought someone from the Revolutionary War. As in, the ghost of someone from the revolutionary war!”

“You can't pull that on us. There's murals and stuff of you from thousands of years ago.” The Flash waves off with a laugh.

Phantom’s finger presses painfully hard into Flash’s chest. “I do not need to explain time travel to you of all people. My mentor hates you, and I'm STILL sent on missions constantly to clean up your messes.” Phantom's clear and low. Flash liked it better when he was shouting and not staring him down like a predator with narrowed eyes.

(This random idea popped into my head. It made me laugh, so I thought you might, too. Here you go!)

[starry-bi-sky]

"Uhp-uhp-bup-bup." Danny says loudly, cutting off the crime lord bleeding all over his living room. He presses a finger to his lips, despite knowing that Red couldn't see it, and stifles his rage behind a playful smile.

He's lucky he's facing the kitchen, his back turned to Hood. He can see the fury green of his eyes reflecting back at him in the chrome of the sink, he's threatening to crush the rag in his hands. His vision is futzing out in the corners of eyes.

"We don't speak the 'J' name in this household." He says in almost a sing-song, because if he doesn't, then the Gotham oil sitting, boiling, behind his teeth and coating his tongue will spittle out and Danny's already haunting his apartment just by his mere presence. He doesn't want to haunt it more.

He can hear the whine of the lightbulbs, threatening to burst like a popped balloon. He turns the water off and and rings the rag out tighter than he perhaps should.

"You don't like the clown?" Hood asks him, and Danny's not sure if he's mocking him for it. There's a knowing lilt in his voice that throws back Danny to their first meeting on that balcony. If he were anyone else, Danny might've just punched him.

His heel turns sharply towards him, a tight smile on his face and an even tighter look around his eyes. At least he knows that the green has faded because the pounding behind his eyes are gone, his grief-born, death-made rage sizzling back beneath his veins. "I think you already know why, Ridin' Hood."

A grief like this don't stay buried, after all.

[ichimerapunk]

Plot Bunny: Danny Is A Clone but with a Twist

Fanfics where Danny is a clone of one of the Bats are not unheard of; however, what about this twist to the idea:

So, writer’s choice on how it happens but regardless Danny and Tim realize they are an exact DNA match to each other. Everyone is assuming clone, but Danny has memories of growing up as a Fenton. Despite Danny’s disagreement, the Bats assume that false memories might be at play, but Danny’s birth records are proven to be real and show Danny is only a few months younger than Tim.

After some digging, they uncover that Danny is indeed a clone of Tim except it was because of a fertility clinic error. That Tim’s parents, Janet and Jack Drake, had used a fertility clinic to insure the one baby she was willing to have would come out with all their desired traits (male, no genetic defects, whatnot.). Once the ideal zygote was created it was cloned to have plenty to work with however many insemination procedures it might take.

However, because of an error, some of those eggs ended up being used for Danny’s parents when they used the clinic some weeks/months later. (Without their knowledge and certainly without the Drake’s consent.) And because his parents assumed Danny got his black hair and blue eyes from his dad, they never second-guessed Danny as not being their bio son. 

So, Danny is reeling realizing his parents aren’t his bio parents and Tim is reeling over the news he might not even be ‘the original’ considering how many fertilized eggs are generally used during IVF.   

So yeah, clones but not out of some nefarious plot or anything. Just mundane human error, dumb luck, and chance.

[insanescriptist]

To be fair, Dan did not intend to save Krypton. For a definition of "save," it must be argued.

That was an accident.

He had been stopping by to uh, convince them to cease tossing their criminals into the Zone and reclaim those they had banished into parts of the Infinite Realms that they tore into with each banished criminal.

For a ghost, being in parts of the Infinite Realms it didn't matter too much if part of the Realm passed time irregularly. What were they going to due of? Old age?

Dan would normally not give a shit about them tossing criminals into the Zone, except...

They were drifting into his lair!

Hence the aggravation worthy of actually leaving his lair to return all these criminals back to their own world and dimensions.

Dan didn't intend to save a whole planet's worth of population -their actual planet being fucked-

But just as Dan has finished settling the mishap in his mind, Clockwork sends him one of those damned cryptic notes.

Dan broke atmosphere just to yell in space.

[ayamari-no-goshi]

Another plot bunny that I thought of last night but forgot to post:

In parts of Europe, there used to be a type of road referred to as a ‘Corpse Road’ which could only be used when transporting the dead to a cemetery for burial.

I was thinking for this plot bunny that perhaps spiritual versions of these roads exist around the world. For those who died and came back, sometimes they can still transverse these roads, but they have to be very careful about it.

Just imagine Jason, when he first appears as Red Hood using these to move around the city, not only without detection, but also at great speed. And, I can imagine him literally disappearing from the “mortal plane” when he steps onto one.

Long after things are better between him and the other Bats, I could see, if the need arose, Jason teaching Damian about them and how to safely use them. (I’m debating if Cass and Steph would be able to see/interact as while yes, they both also died, it was rather brief amount of time compared to Jason and Damian).

[suzukiblu]

WIP excerpt for Plot Bunny behind the cut; "Clark panic-adopts his teenage clones (yes, including the supervillain one)". (( chrono || non-chrono ))

“Um,” Thirteen says, glancing at the box warily. “So like, you want us to . . . wear that? Like, your, uh–your old . . .” 

“Better fit for the farm, like I said,” Superman says. Match does not understand how Superman thinks either of them is any kind of “fit” for this environment no matter how he dresses. “If nothing else, Lara’s going to need civilian clothes, so if these fit him alright that’ll mean we don’t have to find him a whole wardrobe all at once.” 

“Uh,” Thirteen says, looking–uncomfortable. Match stares blankly at Superman and attempts to reconcile literally a single thing in this conversation, but is mostly stuck on: 

a) is Superman expecting him to regularly wear civilian clothes? 

and 

b) is Superman under the impression that Thirteen owns civilian clothes? 

“Also means you don’t have to loan him half your wardrobe,” Superman adds wryly. Match cannot believe that he’s been stolen by an idiot that rivals Thirteen, but no wonder the Agenda had to modify his DNA to keep him from being an idiot. 

“Uh–right,” Thirteen says, looking uncomfortable. Match vaguely despises all of existence, but specifically the existence of every idiot whose unaccompanied DNA ever wound up in a petri dish and made him have to put up with existing himself. 

“Thirteen doesn’t own civilian clothes,” he says flatly. 

“I own clothes, asshole,” Thirteen says, bristling a little. 

“Are you referring to the abandoned beachwear on the floor of your closet or the collection of mismatched socks founding a civilization under your bed?” Match asks dryly. Thirteen turns red and bristles a lot. 

“I–fuck you!” he sputters, visibly embarrassed. “And stop fucking creeping around my bunk, Christ!” 

“Maybe you should be more worried about your employers who run a cloning lab being stupid enough to just let any familiar face walk in through the front door with no questions asked,” Match points out still more dryly. “Just in terms of things you can affect and should be concerned about.” 

“You’re such a fucking shithead,” Thirteen snaps, glowering at him, then looks briefly even more embarrassed and glances at Superman’s parents with a wince. “Uh . . . I mean . . .” 

“. . . Kon,” Superman says with a strange expression. “Do you actually not–” 

Superman cuts himself off, and Thirteen turns red, half-cringing in on himself for a moment before visibly forcing himself to straighten up in his seat and draw himself up to take up space again. 

Stupid, Match thinks, entirely unsurprised by said stupidity. 

“I mean, why would I, man? Not like I really do undercover or whatever,” Thirteen replies with a casual shrug, which fully reinforces the “stupid” assessment, as ever. Thirteen has mastered living down to expectations, in Match’s experience. “Usually Rob just digs something up for me if we gotta go someplace under the radar.”

Superman looks very strange.

[it-finally-happened]

Batfam fic idea

So I put this in a tiktok comment but it'll probs be picked up here better.

I love one of the Batfam being a rescued Talon and bird/ bat language and them all chirping so my brain came up with an idea that I wanna see fleshed out.

Alfred has been looking for Bruce for years, he was taken at some point and we find out that the Court of Owls did this to make him a Talon or the Talon, idk.

Alfred has finally tracked him down and is going full red room to get his boy back (I'm an avid pennywayne shipper but you don't have to be to make this work). He finally find Bruce, only to have the Bruce done what he had always done and that's adopt kids, or in this case chicks, who are now also talons. You of course have Dick, Jason and Tim but the rest are up to you based on the main chunk on the fic which I'll get to later. Damien is either there as well or with Talia cuz the Court sold off Bruce's "stuff" to the Al Ghuls, if he is with Talia then make it a misson to get him cuz Talon Bruce is protective of what is his.

For the main chunk of the fic, have Alfred trying to tame his very feral kid and grandkids, who might keep increasing depending on your plot. He keeps trying to get them to speak instead of churping and he's feels himself getting older my the minute (but not really cuz he stand immortal Alfred) when he tries reintroducing them to society be it through school, work, clubs or super team bonding.

The JL can be an established thing if you want and Alfred got Bruce to be the bat and the others their monikers as a let out, queue an eventual batfam reveal cuz shenanigans and all the super teams having a feral bat with claws that hisses. Also want supers introducing their partners but also like, the batfam was in a cult and none of them know what is happening but apparently their friend shaped (I like Superbat, Birdflash, JayRoy and Timkon but again dealers choice). Also nests and cuddle piles and cute identity reveals but also glowing eyes from the dark, clawed hands, fangs and snarling. Alfred having to babysit cuz what do you mean I'm not allowed to unalive people and that it's wrong?

Maybe they try to remember life before they were taken, maybe they don't. Everyone ignoring high society and going yes this is grandad Alfred, he is our grandpa. Damien calling Bruce baba and everyone having a way of calling Bruce dad. Bruce learns about calling your kids nicknames and tries to act human and teach his kids human customs like that high five meme.

I just like this idea a lot.

[chemicalcindercat]

What I should be doing right now is working on one of my already existing WIPs...

But instead I'm debating starting a whole new fic in which Demon!Bruce tries to form a contract with child Human!Dick (for protection and adoption purposes clearly) and poor baby Dick thinks that this demon wants to use him to gain access to the human world and then kill him and eat his soul like what happened to his parents

[on-the-clear-blue]

Not my usual DpxDc, but have some fun stuff

(Just a random plot bunny about Damian getting sent to the pokemon world.)

Damian knew, deep down that he really shouldn't have gone off alone but honestly what else was he supposed to do? His father had yet to take him seriously, Richard was once again treating him like an infant and Drake wouldn't do the honorable thing and die.

Tood was the only one that took him vaguely seriously and that was solely because of the time he had spent with the League.

Cassandra was out with Brown in Shanghai, and Thomas thankfully had the correct reaction of running in fear when he entered a room!

So really, who could blame him for going out in Gotham alone.

Damian could, Damian very much was blaming himself.

Because he had been out on patrol for not even a few hours when he stumbled upon a man with a strange looking gun, muttering things and he hastily tried to unlock the door to a jewelry store.

It was supposed to be easy, the man was clearly put of his depth, Damian would swoop in, he would apprehend this criminal and then he would finally be looked upon by his father as the true son of the Bat!

Now if only it really went that way, because as Damian was sneaking along the roof of a near by building, his foot slipped, causing him to topple over the edge, landing on the filthy Gotham streets, and by the time he was able to find his footing, Damian was looking up at the criminal, only to see a beam of light hit him straight in the face.

And then there was blackness.

---

Damian woke with a start, shooting up from his position laying on...lumpy uneven forest floor? His head pounded as he stumbled up, eyes open but unseeing.

He sensed movement around him, and his hand gripped the edge of his sword as he forced his eyes to focus.

Looking to the source of the movement, Damian paused, blinking a few times as he saw a bulbous looking insect, with green chitin and a pale tan underbelly, it had massive eyes, golden and almost peering into his soul, it's red antennae wiggled as it looked at him.

It was staring up at him as much as Damian was staring down at it.

Waiting for the insect to make the first move, Damian saw it tilt its head and make a sound "Catta! Caterpie!" It was a soft sound, nervous almost as it sounded confusion.

Damians mind was working on over drive because he just got the very distinct impression that this...insect? Had just asked him a question, it had far to intelligent eyes to be a simple insect.

"I do not...understand your language." He ground out, he had yet to move his hand from his blade, but his grip on it was loosened, "and I do not know...where I am."

---

Professor Oak frowned as he looked down at the screen, there had just been a massive energy spike just around base of the Silver mountains, it was...concerning to say the least.

Sending a worried look to one of his assistants, Samuel hurried out of the lab, heading to his office the older man sat down with a huff, pulling a radio transmitter from his desk, he fiddled with the setting before clicking it on.

"Sierra Oscar 1 calling in to Ranger Dispatch over." Waiting for a response with baited breath, Samuel reread the energy signals hoping they were less dangerous than they could truly be.

"Ranger Dispatch to Sierra Oscar 1 you are coming in clear, over." A rich deep voice sounded back to him.

Letting out a small sigh, Professor Oak held up the reserver closer as he spoke, "Ranger Dispatch, we just saw a massive about of ultra wormhole energy around the Silver mountain range, coordinates to follow, advising a Ranger troupe to search for Ultra beast contact. Over."

[uniasus]

I can't help but imagine a Demon Twins AU, except the Bats show up really late and it's all about Ras and the LoA.

Concept: When Pariah Dark awakens, ghosts flee the zone. A few get spit out by the Lazarus Pit, and Ras is suddenly aware of 1) ghosts 2) ghost powers and 3) the ghost zone. He immediately starts looking for ways to control them, Circus Gothica style, and that leads him to the Fentons.

Thalia panics and warns Danny, who panics himself because now he's gotta hide two identities from Ras - that he's his supposedly deceased grandson and the ghost king the Fentons and he want to trap. It... doesn't go well.

The first person Ras has Danny assassinate is Thalia.

[glitter-stained]

Plagued with visions of self-indulgent Stephcass Christmas one-shot and Mia highschool AU arrowfam genfic I'm afraid

[ichimerapunk]

DC x DP : The Justice League Summon The Ghost King, but that is how the Batman finds out Danny's secret

So, Danny’s living with the Waynes for whatever reason. They don’t know about Danny’s halfa status, and he doesn’t know about their vigilante identities.

One day, there is an emergency where the Justice League end up having to summon the Ghost King.

Right as the Ghost King begins to appear, Bruce gets an emergency call/message from the manor stating Danny just disappeared through a green tear in reality.

Between that and how much this Ghost King shares a resemblance with Danny, Bruce can only make one logical conclusion.

But now Bruce is in a situation.

He knows that the Ghost King is Danny. He knows the JL are currently asking him to take on a very powerful opponent either the JL can’t fight properly, or they have previously been overpowered by. Despite the emergency and the promises from the Justice League Dark over how powerful the Ghost King is, how much will Bruce fret over Danny going up against a powerful opponent? How much is he willing to say or do in front of the rest of the Justice League?

Also, should he tell Danny he now knows who he is? When and how?

And don’t get him started on the alarming facts that Danny, the teen not ten minutes before he and the rest of the family thought was a perfectly normal alive human civilian, is actually (1) somehow dead/a ghost, (2) an extremely powerful one at that, (3) THE Ghost KING.  

Other members of the Batfam may or may not be there for added flair and drama with them dealing with their own internal conflicts as well based on this revelation.

[iwantjellyfsh]

Delusion

Indulge my delusions for a minute pls.

This video got me thinking of the main Robin(s) and do they fit so fucking perfectly or not??? I mean I like the though of them being in order with "The first Alice" and "The first Robin" but reorganizing is fun too.

For "The Ace of Hearts" my mind goes Damian and Danny (DPxDC) but only bcs they're twins and Danny Fenton is Damian's most popular twin trope.

Theres a really cool Japanese version too but I used the english one for simplicity. Link here -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phJQdljA39Y

It needs to be an animatic or something smh, maybe rogue/villain AU? Just a cool thought 🤷‍♂️

I mean: The first Alice is probably what Bruce thought Dick would be like if he actually killed the joker, and Dick is literally the og anger issues batfam member

And with Jason, he likes literature. The "shot him dead to the ground" could be replaced with the crowbar because Alice #2 is "one enjoyed and loved by everyone the man was left for dead" bcs Jason thinks he got replaced/forgotten/unavenged. Then "spreading evil with his voice" is just his normal crime lord shit.

"She birthed a kingdom that would rise above them all." Tim's literally a baby CEO. "Birthed into a life so grand" NEPO BABY. "So afraid of death the girl is mindless and warped" Tim tried to clone Kon-El like 100 times, right?

"Stubborn younger Sharon, clever older Lyra" Need I say more? "Both will never wake up from the dreams they had planned" in the Japanese verson the "clever younger brother" massacred a bunch of people and the "strong minded older sister" was a casualty (so thats how I interpret "both will never wake up from the dreams that they had planned) and if your familiar with Demon Twins AU's (Danny Fenton and Damian Wayne-Al Ghul twin au) sometimes it's that Damian killed Danny 👀

[ayamari-no-goshi]

Plot bunny that I wish to write but don’t currently have the motivation to work on:

After the who thing with Hush, Tim asks Dick to review cowl footage from the fight in the graveyard when Clayface took on the appearance of an adult Jason Todd.

After watching the footage a few times, he comes to suspect Clayface was only there at the end of the fight. There was someone else at the beginning. Tim admitted he felt the same way and let slip the fact that it was due to that fight that Bruce found out Jason’s grave was empty.

Upset he wasn’t informed of that and suspicious of the mysterious Jason lookalike, Dick ends up doing some research of his own and finds evidence of this familiar looking stranger slowly gathering information and power within the shadows of the city.

Going undercover as someone presumed to be associated with one of the Families, he eventually finds a guy who initially mistakes him for the stranger.

“What’d I do this time? Wasn’t the info I gave you enough..? Wait, you ain’t the guy. What is he? Your brother or somethin’? You two look almost identical.”

That gave Dick momentary pause, but he quickly decided to roll with it. “That’s right, but he unfortunately decided to strike out on his own in a way our family doesn’t approve of. It’s my task to find him. You know how it goes. Care to point me in his direction?”

This leads Dick on a merry chase trying to find Jason while trying to keep up the act

Edit: I was gonna post the little bit I got done a few months ago… and somehow Word deleted it? But I can see the file that was called ‘Resurrected Hope’ and the page/page and a half is gone :(

[suzukiblu]

WIP excerpt for Plot Bunny behind the cut; “project sidekick”. (( chrono || non-chrono ))

“Uh,” he says. “They’re . . . fine, yeah.” 

. . . probably that was not actually a better thing to say, given they all spent those three months drugged into dreamless sleep specifically because they’d wanted to show him actual reality. 

He really should’ve planned this out better. 

“Still the super cheerful type, I see,” Kid Flash says. Superboy represses a wince. 

“Sorry,” he attempts awkwardly. Kaldur–Aqualad–tilts his head a little, looking thoughtful. Superboy has to repress another wince. Just–he just doesn’t know what to say here. At all. The closet thing he had to a plan was “figure out a way to apologize” and that is . . . literally it, yeah. He hasn’t even figured out how to apologize, much less what else to say–or if he even should say anything else. 

He’s pretty sure he shouldn’t say anything else. He just–he isn’t . . . 

“How are you, Superboy?” Kald–Aqualad asks. Which–it’s weird to think of him as just “Aqualad” now, even though at first it was a lot weirder to think of “him” as just Kaldur. 

“. . . like . . . better than you, I guess,” Superboy replies, grimacing even as he says it. Aqualad smiles a little, looking actually, like–amused, even though Superboy really wasn’t joking, and that’s . . . also weird, for some reason. 

Superboy isn’t sure what’s weird about that, though. Just he feels like it feels weird, for some reason. But the version of Kaldur who’s technically his brother has smiled that exact same smile at him dozens of times, if not more, and that didn’t feel . . . weird. 

Admittedly, that was before Superboy knew he’d gotten the original Aqualad and Kid Flash and Robin all locked up and buried underground for literal months and when he still thought that Kaldur was Aqualad. Which . . . he really needs to figure out what he’s supposed to be calling his brothers now, probably, aside from “his brothers”. He really hopes the girls are figuring that out if his brothers haven’t already, at least. M’gann likes names, apparently, so . . . 

He still doesn’t even have permission to call them his brothers; it’s just the only thing he’s got besides “other clones”, and that feels like . . . not a great idea, considering. He knows he’s a clone. He doesn’t remember ever not knowing. 

His brothers, on the other hand, definitely remember not knowing they were clones. 

“I would hope so, yes,�� Aqualad says, still smiling at him. It–keeps being a weird smile, for some reason. Superboy tries to blame the different circumstances, but it just feels . . . weird, still. 

Or–he does, maybe. Maybe it’s that. He’s still not very good at telling the difference, sometimes. 

“They said the four of you were operating as a covert ops team?” Aqualad asks, tilting his head again. Superboy shrugs awkwardly. 

“Uh–yeah,” he says. “Us and a couple others.” 

“Wait, a couple?” Kid Flash asks, looking confused. “Who else even is there besides Speedy? God, please tell me they don’t make you go out with a team chaperone or something, that is so lame.” 

“. . . who–oh, uh, no,” Superboy cuts himself off with, belatedly remembering the name. “He’s not on the team. He’s a solo act now. Red Arrow. It’s, uh–Miss Martian and Artemis who joined up. Miss Martian’s new on the planet. Artemis started working with Green Arrow after Red Arrow quit.” 

“Wait, what?!” Kid Flash sputters, nearly falling off the couch before jumping to his feet with an indignant scowl. “What, Green Arrow just replaced Speedy with some random dude off the street?!” 

“I mean to be fair ‘random dude off the street’ is not necessarily an outlier to Green Arrow’s previous recruitment strat, man,” Robin points out wryly.