#i really wanna see Jason be the straight man to Beyond's brand of deranged lol

[stvlti]

Batfam Death Note fusion prompts

I've been thinking about DN vs DCU a bit more so like. Here are your what-if scenarios that nobody asked for:

What if: Jason Todd is one of the few humans the Death Note can't kill because he's already died before (I know I know he's not the only Batfam member who's died at some point but also he's the only one whose death wasn't just retconned away like he never died, or that he was only dead briefly, no this boy full on died and got buried and was only Superboy Prime-punched back to life after a few months of sleeping with the worms. Also, Pit magic. Let's pretend the Pit cancels out shinigami powers, or something.)

What if: the DN ensemble cast exists in the same universe as Batfam, and they decided to fully step in after L dies. (Okay realistically I know this would be a crisis of global catastrophic proportions and the JLA would probably have already stepped in as soon as criminals in American prisons started dropping like flies. But let's just pretend they never actively engaged because Batman kept a channel open on NPA / Interpol / FBI / all major investigative agencies across the world and knows about the risks of investigating Kira head-on; see: the 12 dead FBI agents.)

Except the Bats really can't do much beyond investigating from a distance, since Kira only needs a name and a face to kill, and most of the Batfam have well-documented civilian identities in public records. Hell, most of them are public figures, e.g. Barbara being the daughter of the GCPD Commissioner, or most of the Wayne kids being high society celebrities.

Enter Agent 37!Dick. There's something about Spyral's face tech to play around with, all Spyral agents are automatically immune to the shinigami eyes since their faces are all obscured, and also all their paper trails are destroyed, so no one outside the organisation can identify them, really. Dick is pretty much the Batfam's only member who can do any sort of field work for the Kira case.

Alternatively, Jason decides to join the investigation (without Bruce's permission - which I imagine would be another point of contention between the two because at the end of the day Bruce can't bear the thought of losing Jason again, but Jason would probably just see Bruce's obstruction as Bruce being an ass per usual). Jason probably counted on his helmet providing natural protection against Kira's powers (since it keeps his face covered when he's out on the field), and also on the fact that his identity registers as legally deceased and is therefore untraceable in all public records. But it's at this point that he learns he's also immune to Kira's powers.

Perhaps Jason tracks down all the surviving members of L's troupe and successors and has a nice talk with Beyond Birthday (let's pretend he doesn't die by Kira's hand in this AU). Jason learns about the shinigami eyes, and that he's an anomaly. Instead of showing a string of shifting numbers, his lifespan just shows a "0" with a strike through the static number. Beyond still dies though - Jason kills him after he's gotten all the info he needs. After all, killing a 13 year old girl automatically puts Beyond on Jason's shit list.

What if: One of the Batkids is born with the shinigami eyes, or somehow acquires that ability accidentally without having done the eye deal. How does being able to see lifespans and predict death dates affect their outlook?

Dick: this would be the reason he tries so hard to save everybody. He saw the numbers floating on his parents' heads and didn't connect the dots back then. But once he knows he's got this gift, and he's seen the way the numbers sometimes shift to a greater number, he will do anything he can in his power (as Nightwing and as a cop) to change fate and keep every person alive if only for one more day.

Jason: it really depends when he discovers / develops this ability. If he's had it from birth, I imagine Catherine's death would just make him see the ability as a curse. Life on the streets of Park Row is rough, death is commonplace and he sees no gain to being able to predict someone's death date if there's nothing he can do change it. He tried so hard to keep his mom alive too and that never made much of a difference on her lifespan. The shinigami eyes become a burden on Jason, especially with all the deaths he encounters on the field as Robin.

Or, alternatively, Jason coming back from the dead with this newly acquired ability. Does that make him sleep easier at night when he realises some of his victims were going to die anyway and so pushes him along the path to becoming Red Hood faster? At his most ruthless he might likely see this as a tactical advantage too, knowing which opponents he wouldn't need to plan to eliminate as they would soon die anyway. Or does it provide a deterrent, where he feels like he's not so much making the hard choices as he is just playing god, and that would be too much for him to bear? (though at his worst moments the Pit has him convinced he'd make a great Batman substitute that's willing to cross the line, when he's sane he doesn't want anything to do with being the next Batman, that's not the sort of legacy or role he wants. Playing god might just be too loaded of a task for him to want to undertake.)

Tim: Death and this boy are well acquainted, throughout his life he's lost and mourned for a lot of people. I imagine he probably figures it out not long after his parents are kidnapped and Jack is rescued by Bruce - because Jack and Janet used to have matching numbers above their heads, but Jack came back from Haiti with his numbers changed - and they keep fluctuating as he alternates between relapse and recovery. But Tim would probably live with this for the rest of his life much like Dick does, except with a lot less confidence in how much he alone can affect fate. After all, he is just one guy, just the third Robin, just another boy Bruce took in -- I definitely think Tim's insecurities and self-doubt about his worth would rear their heads as he tries to process his shinigami eyes ability. He might have a philosophy similar to that of Final Destination - especially after his dad dies - that some deaths are predestined and even if a person avoids it at the initial date where they were supposed to run out of lifespan, the consequences linger and they may not avoid it a second time.

This probably becomes one of Tim's most closely guarded secrets from a young age. Especially knowing Batman's stance on metas. But at the same time, this could be one of the real reasons Tim's so hell-bent on proving Bruce is alive and rescuing him after he gets lost in time. Tim's seen Bruce's lifespan. He was fated to live long into his old age, even up until his supposed death his numbers didn't dwindle dramatically, and the numbers have never lied to Tim.

(addendum: I'm aware Tim having the shinigami eyes would negate the detective work he had to do to figure out the identities of Batman and Robin I & II, because he'd only need to get a good look of the two Robin's faces to see their names. A domino mask I would assume works like a pair of sunglasses - that is, ineffective against the shinigami eyes. Of course, the eyes being a secret that Tim keeps even from Bruce would mean he'd still give him and Dick the same story about figuring Dick out by the quadruple somersaults, because he wouldn't tell them he figured them out via supernatural means, they'd react badly to that; but the cover story sort of just sticks from then on. I don't want Tim having the shinigami eyes to discredit his natural talents for detective work though, so since figuring out Batman's identity is out of the question a different formative incident is needed to highlight Tim's investigative abilities and explain why he's a good fit for the job.)

To be continued