#rejected!soulmate au

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

I propose a mashup between Rejected! Soulmate AU and Evil!Clone Tim... instead of Danny going to the DC universe, clone Tim saved him and moves with him. Danny can be more morally evil or it can be a lot of angst for original!Tim.

Does clones have soulmates? I think it would interesting if they don't have.

What do you think it would be clone!Tim reaction? And original!Tim?

This ^^^ This is brilliant!!! Clones not having soulmarks can add onto the "clones aren't people" angst and Danny would love Evil Tim so much and he's in a prime mental state to be manipulated and brainwashed. Even without that Danny is practically falling over himself to make Evil Tim happy.

On the "can be morally evil or angst for Original! Tim" i ask: why not both? E. Tim is bringing Phantom into the world of villiany and O. Tim can do nothing to stop it as Phantom begins to show his true power. Justice League Dark eventually has to step in but by this time its too late. E. Tim has created hundreds of plans and countermeasures to defeat/kill them and for the most part succeeded.

O. Tim feels guilt, not only for the deaths of all those heros who probably wouldn't have died if his clone didn't have access to Phantom but for Phantom himself meeting such an "awful fate"

In the mean time Danny is having the time of his afterlife with E. Tim who treats him like a queen and often declares him as his "greatest treasure"

Bonus points if Evil Cone Tim is kind of a Yandere. Maybe Danny just doesn't care of Danny is a Yandere also. Two overprotective super powerful psychos in love who refuse to ever hurt eachother.

Terrifying.

Anyway, E. Tim would definitely rub it in O. Tim's face. Someone at some point calls E. Tim "Mr. Steal your girl" and Danny laughs. He also rubs it in his face how many doors Phantom had opened for him.

E. Tim is now:

1. Immortal. Kinda?

2. Given access to all kids of magical artifacts and advanced tech

3. Completely stable thanks to Phantom and the magical yeti scientists hes friends with offers to make clone babies for the two of them in the very distant future

4. Has an amulet that let's him turn into a dragon at will

5. Has his originals soulmate thoroughly in love with him and willing to do anything he asks of him and its clean-no matter how hard E. Tim tries to hide it- he's in love with Phantom too.

E. Tim is living the good life and O. Tim is very jealous.

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Is this karma? Revenge for the angst I've bestowed onto others? Why does this hurt to much, I want to cry for our sweet little ghost boy :(

On another note how different would Danny be when he meets Tim/ how will he behave around Tim? My original idea had Danny feeling playful around Tim and constantly challenging Red Robin as Phantom to "catch me" before he escaped with whatever prize he was after that night. He would do this by leaving a calling card saying he was going to steal something and only RR would be allowed to try to catch him. If any of the other bats would appear it would be an automatic forfeit and both the item and Phantom would seem to disappear/ phantom wouldn't appear at all the the item would still vanish. (I can't believe I never added this)

Maybe Danny could add incentive to keep Tim interested for a while. Maybe Danny would talk to the ghosts in Gotham and interview victims of unsolved murders and the ghostly witnesses to give Tim "clues" to the cases? Phantom refuses to tell him how he knows of these things.

no hearts in my hand but i've got diamonds up my sleeve - pt 1

DP x DC prompt fill - rejected soulmate (from @im-totally-not-an-alien-2)

I'm one of the folks this prompt got its hooks into. (Even though I was 1300 words into the next chapter of Overkilled, whoops...)

~~~

When Danny Fenton was twelve years old, his soulmate had finally written their first message to him, small neat letters within a spiral galaxy Danny had inked onto his inner forearm. He’d both wanted to share his love of a galaxy’s beauty and, maybe, impress them a bit. He’d practiced that one a lot before committing it to his skin with specialized ink made for just that purpose.

The response left him cold.

‘If I asked, would you stop this?’

The ink was a glittery purple, which went well with his art. They had put though into that. Maybe he was taking this the wrong way.

His chest felt tight. Slowly, he picked up a blue gel pen of his own, and wrote carefully beneath the message:

‘for how long?’

He waited a small eternity. He could feel his pulse pounding in his throat.

‘Forever, ideally.’

Danny realized, with no small horror, that today’s marks were beginning to burn; the outer edges of the spiral arms slowly searing his arm and moving inward.

‘why?’

Hours later, when the rest of the day’s messages were branded into his skin and there was still no response, Danny wiped his face with one last tissue, swallowed hard, and picked up his pen again.

‘okay’

The heat for that one, final message flared quickly and sharply, a warning to stop pushing at the rejected connection between them. His soulmate, as the rejecting party, would be rid of the day’s messages as usual by the end of the day.

Danny, who had in no way reciprocated the rejection, was left quite literally scarred from the encounter.

~~~

When Tim Drake was twelve years old, Jason Todd was dead, Bruce Wayne was spiraling, and Tim had just stolen a Robin costume to save Batman and Nightwing.

Batman had agreed, reluctantly, to train him. But he’d taken one look at the galaxy laid out in colored ink on Tim’s left forearm and cautioned him. Tim couldn’t have identifying marks that people could match in both his civilian and vigilante lives. He would have to stop doodling on his skin where people could see.

If only Tim could control that.

Tim had always gotten sporadic messages, questions, and drawings on his skin, from the moment he himself was old enough to hold a pen. His parents had assumed he drew on himself, and were less than pleased by the habit. Tim had hated being accused of something he hadn’t done. He had no idea why this happened to him, and he resented that now, when he could finally help Batman, it was still getting him in trouble.

If Tim wasn’t doing it, and the messages were sometimes coherent, then it stood to reason that someone or something that could understand written language was doing it to him. He’d never once drawn on his skin, knowing that people already believed he did it to himself but refusing to give anyone more evidence for it. But maybe... maybe the entity that had decorated his skin all his life could be reasoned with.

He looked at the carefully drawn art on his arm. He should probably avoid offending their sense of aesthetic, if he was going to risk making them angry at all.

He ordered a delivery on his phone, and an hour later put the tip of a glittery purple gel pen to his skin.

When the entity had the audacity to ask him “why”, nearly a decade of frustration caught up with him at once.

“Because it’s MY skin?! 'Why'?! Why are you doing this in the first place?! I’m tired of this getting me in trouble; I’m tired of wondering why this is happening to me. I don’t want this. Just… just leave me alone! I have things to do! I have to be Robin—no one else will do it—but I can’t if this doesn’t stop!” Tim threw his pen and stalked out of his house. They’d stop or they wouldn’t. If he was going to be this frustrated, he might as well work it out on the conditioning exercises Batman had assigned him.

Hours later, when he was sweating and exhausted in the cave, he glanced at his arm to see the small agreement. His breath wheezed out of him as he dropped his head to the mat on the cave floor, pure relief making him feel boneless.

When midnight hit, the ink—even his own—faded to nothing as it did every night.

Nothing replaced it in the days to follow.

~~~

When Danny was fourteen, he died. If nothing else, he could at least be grateful that the outfit he’d died in covered his stigma.

A year and a half later, he’d saved the town more times than he remembered. He’d defeated himself, he’d defeated a ghost king, and… he’d just been abandoned for Gregor by both his friends now. Unbelievable.

He’d genuinely thought he’d hit rock bottom when he got home, but as soon as he’d walked through the door, he heard his father shouting, “Danny! Get over here!” in the intense, rage-filled voice he only reserved for ghosts and his blood froze in his veins.

Before he could reply, Jazz rocketed around the corner, somersaulted over the doorway, and snatched his backpack, shoving it over her own shoulder.

“It’s me, Dad! Danny’s… got detention!” she exclaimed, voice too high. She snagged him by the shoulder and marched him alongside her across the doorway, covering his body with hers until they were out of line-of-sight. Then she raced to the laboratory, dragging him behind her, but not before he heard Operative O’s voice in his kitchen, speaking in urgent tones to his parents.

When the lab door closed, Danny broke free from her grasp.

“Jazz, what’s going on? Why are the Guys in White here?”

Jazz replied as she raced down to the portal controls. “They know who you are, Danny,” she said, opening the blast doors. “And worse, they told Mom and Dad! You have to leave, now!”

Danny followed her down as she hustled to the side of the room. She emptied his backpack and started filling it with weapons and spare parts. She pulled a USB from her pocket and shoved it into a side pouch, then zipped everything closed. From the floor beside a table, she grabbed a suitcase that was filled to bursting and an oversized satchel that was similarly bulging.

“Wait, leave? I can’t leave!”

“You absolutely can,” Jazz insisted, shoving the suitcase at him and securing the satchel’s strap around his shoulder herself. “I’ve had these ready to go for you since I found out you were Phantom.”

“But—”

“Danny,” Jazz put both hands on his shoulders and looked him in the eyes. “Mom and Dad have come at me, guns blazing, at the passing thought that I was a ghost, since before they even had proof that ghosts exist. Today, government agents who want you strapped to a table have just told them, explicitly, that you are Phantom, and they brought evidence. You’re not safe in either form anymore. You need to leave.”

“But if I go, who will protect the town? I’m needed here, Jazz.”

“You’re one teenager! Superpowers or not, the town will survive without you!”

That hurt.

“If that were true, I wouldn’t HAVE superpowers!” he insisted.

Jazz let go of one of his shoulders to press a hand against her forehead, squeezing her eyes shut.

“What does that even mean, Danny?”

“It means I lost my powers a few months ago, and Sam had to recreate my death to make sure the school wasn’t completely overrun.”

Her other hand followed the first to cover her face, and she slowly breathed for a moment.

“Danny,” she said, lowering her hands again, “if all we need is someone with superpowers…” Something about her tone of voice made him wary. “And you were able to reproduce the effects… then we don’t need you. We can give anyone powers just by reviewing the lab footage and redoing whatever happened to make you. You’re replaceable.”

Danny looked at her with a devastated expression, unable to find words. She avoided his eyes.

“You’re treated poorly by everyone here anyway. Even if you weren’t rejected by your soulmate,” she spoke over his gasp, “Mom and Dad’s reputation make us both pariahs. Your grades have tanked; the government’s after you… there’s nothing here for you, Danny.”

He opened and closed his mouth a few times. Then, in a small voice, he managed, “You’re here.”

For a second, her expression softened, and he thought… he doesn’t know what he thought.

There was a noise from upstairs. Jazz’s mouth firmed, and she manhandled him toward the portal. It was so unexpected, he let her.

“And I’m telling you I don’t want you here. You think I want to deal with the fallout of you getting captured from the Guys in White OR Mom and Dad? At this point, you’re just causing problems for me on purpose.” The words were sharp, intended to be mean. His mind was blank as he absently accepted the backpack she thrust into his free hand.

“Leave, Danny!” There was a beep from the lab door, and he heard it start to open just as Jazz’s hand hit his chest and he fell through the portal. “Don’t come back.”

~~~

Three years later, Danny wandered into a world filled with superheroes.

[ailithnight]

Okay, so, Brain Dead rejected soulmate AU but Danny is the one who rejected Tim.

Let's say in this world that there are many types of soul bonds.

You've got your standard and fairly common First Words and Skin Art.

Then you've got less common things like Shared Dreams, Colorblind Until You Meet, and Red String.

And then you've got the very rare Telepathic Bond and Empathic Bond.

Finally, there's the ultra rare, one in a million, Shared Pain* soul bonds. It helps that the flip side of this particular bond means Shared Comforts**, but still, it is not the kind of bond people hope for.

Naturally, Fenton luck dictates that this is what Danny (and by extension, his soulmate) gets stuck with.

And at first it's fine. Like, bumps and scrapes happen but it's no big deal. Then the bullying starts and Danny feels a bit guilty that his soulmate has to deal with it by proxy.

But, Danny learns how to minimize damage. And the way Danny can feel his soulmate gentle nursing the pains when he can't, indulging in extra comforts for the both of them, makes Danny think that maybe it's okay.

After all, if it was really to much, Danny's soulmate would have already rejected him.

And when Danny's soulmate starts getting a bit more roughed up when they're 13, naturally Danny returns the favor; never wishing to sever the bond, only wishing he could prevent the pain all together.

Then Danny turns 14.

Then Danny dies. But survives.

He cries that night, his soulmate desperately trying to push comfort through their bond while all Danny can think about is how he shouldn't have gone in that portal. He shouldn't have been so reckless. He should have PROTECTED them.

And to top it all off, suddenly he's not just Dash's personal punching bag. No, there's a whole host of ghostly rogues that like to come bother Danny. And maybe it was still okay when it was just ectopusses or Lunch Lady or Boxy.

But as more and more powerful ghosts come through, as the fights get harder and Danny takes more damage, the guilt over what he's subjecting his soulmate to eats at him.

And after Danny meets Vlad, the first enemy he faces that he really can't beat, he makes the decision. This isn't going to end. These fights, these pains...

Someday he's going to face an enemy that is going to grind him into the dirt. That's going to kill him again, probably slowly and unpleasantly, and Danny already subjected his soulmate to one death, he refuses to put him through another.

So Danny mentally reaches deep inside himself, real hands placing themselves above his heart.

Feeling around for the source of that gentle warmth his soulmate is pushing through their bond.

He finds it, grasping with imaginary hands while his real ones clench the fabric of his shirt.

Feels the way the warmth stutters. The sharp jolt of pain on his elbow as his soulmate probably knocks it when he realizes what Danny is doing.

Danny pays it no mind. He holds the bond between then tightly; tears welling up in his eyes as phantom arms wrap around himself, his soulmate's desperate plea for Danny not to do what he's about to.

Danny yanks, physical hands all but tearing the shirt off his chest as mental ones rip the bond from his and his soulmate's hearts.

The last pain they'll ever share comes crashing into him, the distinct Rejection scar crackling across his chest not unlike the Lichtenburg on his arm.

It hurts, but less than dying had.

Then the pain is gone. Or rather, that pain is gone.

The dull aches from the fight with Plasmius throb and a part Danny finds himself missing the soothing comforts his soulmate had provided him, emptiness filling the space they used to occupy.

But another part of Danny, the part that is more ghost than human, swells with pride knowing he has protected his soulmate from Danny's own inevitable fate.

As Danny inspects Rejection spidering out from his heart, a strange hollow giddiness settles in his stomach. It makes him giggle.

His brain notes that if Dash ever sees this, he'll assume he finally succeeded in making Danny's soulmate reject him.

Danny giggles harder.

Not that Danny will correct him. Or his friends or his sister when they find out for that matter. They worry enough about him as is. They don't need to know just how far Danny is willing to go to protect the people he loves.

He's stifling laughter now, trying not to wake the neighbors.

Sitting alone on the roof of Fentonworks at 3 in the morning, Danny laughs until he sobs, then laughs and sobs until he can't breathe, then laughs and sobs and struggles to breathe until a light blue mist comes gasping past he lips.

His hysterics taper of and he lets the now familiar cold feeling of his ghost form spread across his body, pausing only for a second when he notices the new spiderwebbing across the chest of his hazmat suit, just a shade darker than the rest of the black material.

Oh well. It's not too noticeable and if some sees it he can just pretend it was always there. Just like he's going to pretend the emptiness in his heart was always there. Where it belongs.

~~~

Tim is at the Bat Computer desperately searching for any kind of clue who and where his soulmate is.

Of course, Tim had searched before, been searching basically since grade school when it became clear his soulmate was dealing with either bullying or an abusive home.

But Tim's efforts had tripled lately. Ever since that fateful day 4 months ago when he'd practically had a seizure in the middle of family dinner.

It had felt like he was dying, the echos of electric shocks up his arm and into his heart coming through his soul bonds. Followed soon after by the sense of something terrifying and foreign opening up in his chest and forcing its way into every molecule of his body.

Tim is pretty sure he screamed.

It was several minutes before the sensations ended and a strange coldness filled his being. For a minute, Tim was terrified his soulmate had died, until the cold retreated to a place just beside his heart and phantom hands could be felt trying to comfort and soothe.

At the time, Tim thought that would be that. Some kind of terrible accident. A story his soulmate would tell him when they finally found each other.

But that wasn't that.

It started with that strange coldness never leaving the space beside his heart. Then sometimes the coldness would spread, filling his whole body for brief periods of time. Then those periods of time started to come with some kind of pain. A scrape, a bruise, sore muscles.

The kind of injuries Tim got on patrol as Robin.

Which was something he'd not been allowed to do near as much since the aftermath of that dinner when Bruce had learned what kind soul bond Tim had.

"Tim, you can't keep throwing yourself into the line of fire. It's bad enough when you get hurt, but for your soulmate to have to suffer too?"

Stupid Bruce and his stupid rules. Tim and his soulmate had been fine before, thank you very much. And it wasn't Robin that got struck by lightning or something. Tim really isn't sure what kind of accident would result in the things he had felt that night, but electrocution is at least part of it.

But since then, Tim's soulmate had been getting more and more injuries at any and all hours of the day. If Tim had been worried before distressed now. Something had happened and now Tim's soulmate who was already dealing with something before now seemed to be in constant danger. Tim needs to find them, needs to help them, make them safe.

He doesn't look, doesn't take his eyes off the news articles on the screen as a presence appears behind him. No 2 presences. And the elevator dings bringing a third. But Tim keeps scanning articles, looking for some clue about a kid getting electrocuted and a town gaining a young vigilante shortly after.

A heavy hand lands on his shoulder, gravelly voice speaking in gentle tones. "It's almost 4am son." Tim doesn't respond. Bruce sighs and spins the chair around. Dick and Alfred are both there looking concerned and stern respectively. "It's bed time."

"My soulmate is in trouble. They're not safe. I need to find them. And you're worried about my bed time?"

"You need some sleep, Master Tim. You won't know you've found anything if you're to tired to see straight." Bruce nods and Dick puts on his best big brother face.

"Get some rest, Tim. We can keep looking later."

Tim opens his mouth to argue, but pauses at the strange tugging sensation in his heart. He briefly wonders what trouble his soulmate is in now before he realizes what the almost feeling of hands on his soul bond means.

He gasps and jerks in the chair, knocking his elbow on the arm rest and the warm blanket he'd cocooned himself in to send comfort back to his soulmate off his shoulders.

Even Alfred's expression turns concerned when Tim wraps his arms around himself, trying to convey along the soul bond his plea for his soul mate not to do this.

"Tim?" Tim isn't sure which family member speaks. Can't focus on it as his soulmate yanks on the bond, ripping it and the strange comfortable coldness out.

Tim cries out, three sets of hands immediately moving in to comfort him. Sight and sound turn to static as Rejection burns across his chest not unlike the electrocution had crawled up his arm four months ago.

Then the pain vanishes.

And Tim looks up at Bruce, knows he's got tears rolling down his face, searching pitifully for a father's comfort.

"They Rejected me."

Bruce startles, but quickly stoops down to wrap Tim in a hug and Dick lays a comforting hand on Tim's head and Alfred retreats probably to make something comforting and Tim cries at the emptiness where the bond should be and the now too warm spot beside his heart.

And yet, deep in his mind where gears are still turning, Tim resolves to still find his soulmate, even without the bond, if only to ask them why.

.

This was supposed to be a prompt, maybe a premise, but I got carried away.

So now y'all can have this piece of pain I have no intention of continuing. Enjoy!

And since I don't plan on continuing, if some else wants to run with it, have at and have fun!

*Shared Pain in this AU just means soulmates feel the pain, not that they recieve the injuries. So if a soulmate breaks an arm, the other will feel the break, but their arm will be physically fine.

**Shared Comforts meaning that soulmates also share good feelings. So if one person is all wrapped up comfy cozy in a nice thick blanket, the other also feels that warmth. But like with the pain, it's a phantom feeling. Won't keep the soulmate not bundled up from hypothermia.

[starlight-eclipsed]

Rockets Pointed Up at the Stars (Pt 1/2)

Inspired by this braindead rejected soulmates au post by @im-totally-not-an-alien-2. More art at the end!

Part II

Tim slumped down on the edge of an apartment building, leaning his weight against the rooftop’s fence. The alleyways below were deserted, criminals retreating to get a couple hours of sleep before sunrise. A perfect setting to catch a breather before ending his patrol for the night.

The Red Robin suit still felt wrong on him. He thought waiting a week to get accustomed to it would help, but he might have made a mistake when he tried to adjust it to be as close to his Robin uniform as possible without it being obvious. He’d have to remember to alter it further the next time he got the chance, to see if wearing something entirely different would finally make him stop checking the shadows for Bruce. Patrolling Gotham alone felt too much like admitting he was really gone.

Just as he was about to move on, the rooftop access door slammed open.

Tim nearly jumped out of his skin as he whirled around, ready to either apologize, attack, or flee, when he met familiar glowing green eyes.

Subconsciously, he let himself breathe easy as he took in the other’s appearance.

Phantom was an anomaly at the best of times. A phantom thief by definition, the criminal had simply appeared one day to cause chaos—lingering only to taunt his pursuers as he made a daring escape with whatever priceless treasure of the month. His motives were unknown, as was virtually anything about him besides his calling card (a green sticky note with nothing but ‘BOO’ written in permanent black marker), appearance, and a meta ability to phase through objects.

Of course, one couldn’t be a phantom thief without a detective rival (or so the thief in question claimed). For some reason, Phantom had outright declared not Batman, but Robin for the role. Tim couldn’t count how many sleepless nights were spent chasing after him, face red from a mixture of exertion and embarrassment. Because it wasn’t enough for the admittedly good-looking criminal roughly his age to run circles around him. No, the jerk had to go out of his way to flirt with him the whole time.

He hadn’t even thought about how Phantom would react to there being a new Robin. But looking at him now, a small part of Tim couldn’t help but feel selfishly glad. From what he could see of the furious expression on his shadowed face and glowing eyes, it wasn’t hard to see that Phantom was taking the change about as well as Tim was.

“I leave for two weeks, and suddenly there’s a new Batman and Robin?! What the fuck, Detective—you’d think to at least have the decency to tell a guy, but nooo, I had to find out through goddamn Victor Fries!”

Tim blinked, “Didn’t Mr. Freeze retire after someone brought his wife back?”

Phantom paused his fury, shrugging a bit. “Nora keeps track of everything happening in Gotham in case something her husband did to save her comes back to bite them.”

“Huh.”

“Anyway! It took me going after Victor to ask why there was a new Robin for me to hear that the actual Batman was dead, Gotham went berserk for a while as every other guy tried to take up the position, and somewhere along the lines you got the grand idea to add ‘red’ to your name! Which makes no sense, since you practically lived for that mantle and I would’ve bet that you’d take it past the grave if given the chance.”

Tim winced. As per usual, Phantom’s words hit home in more ways than intended.

The thief stopped short, the glowing of his eyes intensifying as he looked over Tim’s new identity. Tim didn’t move as soundless footsteps strode forward, not even pausing as Phantom phased through the chain link fence to sit a couple feet away from him.

He could count on one hand the number of times Phantom had done this. One second they’d be exchanging insults, and then suddenly the criminal would stop and stare, feeling like he was gazing into the depths of Tim’s very soul. Each time, he called off their chase, insisting that Tim take a break and talk to someone about whatever was troubling him. It was uncanny how he could somehow tell when Tim’s negative feelings were overwhelming his rational thought—Batman himself would use Phantom encounters to measure Tim’s wellbeing at times.

Looking back, it was odd how Phantom would insert himself into every aspect of Robin’s life, but back off the second he sensed something was wrong. He’d call attention to whenever Tim was particularly anxious, once even physically dragging Bruce over to ‘talk to your son when he’s sad’, but never offer any comfort himself. But here they were, Phantom obviously seeing something Tim could never hope to conceal, with no Bruce nearby to summon and make things better.

Tim’s throat clogged at the reminder of yet another little thing Bruce might never get to do again. He couldn’t be dead, not with how many times Tim checked the body and struggled to recognize the man who’d become like a father to him. 

“...I…I know we’re not exactly friends, Detective. But if you need to get something off your chest, I swear to never use it against you.” Phantom fidgeted with his cloak. From this close a distance, Tim could see the faint glimmer of sparkling purple constellations embroidered on the inside. For some reason, the sight of the soft fabric never failed to calm his nerves.

(It reminded him of a time long ago, when he held a gel ink pen and asked a mystery person to quit whatever they were doing that left his arms covered in star charts that didn’t match anything in the Earth’s night sky.)

He didn’t dare force himself to speak, for fear he might break this tentative peace. Thankfully, Phantom seemed to be taking initiative that night.

“...did you know that I used to be a teen hero?”

Tim’s head jerked upright, meeting Phantom’s eyes. It was impossible to tell exactly what expression he was making behind the mask, but he got a sense of bitter nostalgia. “You never talk about your past.”

A scoff, “Yeah, ‘cause it’s depressing as fuck. Not exactly the sort of thing you can talk about causally.”

He chewed his lip, thinking. “Your suit…minus the cloak, it looks reminiscent of a uniform.”

Phantom fiddled with a cylinder hooked on his belt. It was the only piece of tech visible on his person, a modified soup thermos that somehow served as a near infinite item storage. Impressive, if not odd.

“Yeah, the cloak is more of a blanket than anything else. I added it on when I got tired of looking at the same clothes I used to save my hometown in. It…I didn’t become a hero for fame. It was more trouble than it was worth, honestly. You guys nowadays have so much better support systems than when I was in the business. Makes me wonder if…” he trailed off.

“...why’d you stop?” Tim asked gently, more than willing to throw himself into this new mystery now that he knew it was there.

“It was too much. Everyone wanted me gone, even the people I was protecting. I was hated for my powers, for not always being on the scene when I was needed, for not ending fights faster and for the property damage my villains caused. I didn’t live in a place with metahuman protection laws. The few people that knew my secret identity got tired of superhero life and ditched the first chance they got.” He sighed, “I was hurting, and was desperate for a way out.”

Tim frowned, “So you moved to Gotham and started stealing?”

Phantom snorted. “Nah, I was fucked up for a while after I ran away. It’s funny, one of my rogues was the first to track me down and drag me to a hospital to get my injuries checked. Like a dozen of them got together for an intervention, I thought I was finally losing my grip on reality. I spent a couple months recovering, then took one of them up on a suggestion to try causing trouble for a change. Not anything super bad, but…”

“...enough to feel more in control?” Tim suggested. It wasn’t uncommon for people in bad situations to commit minor crimes, both for the adrenaline and the power rush. Tim himself had once poured his whole soul into tracking and photographing Gotham’s nighttime birds. A hobby that was more than a bit cringe-worthy in hindsight, and definitely creepy considering how much effort he put into stalking his idols. Honestly his young age was the only reason he didn’t get put on a watchlist when he revealed himself to Bruce. That, and the whole I-know-your-secret-identity thing.

“Oof. Yeah, that’s a way to put it. Being hated hurt less when that’s what I was aiming for, y’know?”

Tim tilted his head. “I never hated you.”

A derisive laugh, “Uh-huh. And you loved being led on goose chases when there were more important ways to spend your time.”

“I’m serious.” Tim shifted so that he was better facing Phantom. He didn’t know why, but couldn’t stand the thought of Phantom leaving tonight convinced he was universally hated. “You only make a scene on quiet nights, and you always slowed down for me whenever I had to stop and intervene on some other crime. And you only target the private collections of rich people. Not anyone whose life would be ruined by something getting stolen. You even go out of your way to make sure the guards on duty don’t get in trouble, even when it puts you in a strategically worse position. And…”

He hesitated. Bruce wouldn’t approve…but then again, there was that weird relationship he had with Selina.

“And it was fun. To chase you. It was challenging and frustrating, but your appearance meant that there was nothing else to worry about that night. We could just run regular patrols.”

Oracle was the one to make the connection. Tim didn’t know where along the lines it became an accepted fact, only that Bruce was more comfortable about Robin patrolling alone when Phantom was making a move. A miracle considering what happened to the last one.

Phantom blinked, frowning a bit before his eyes went wide, a shaky smile forming on his lips. “Thanks…it was fun for me too. Kinda the whole reason I kept setting up scenes for Robin to find.”

Tim laughed. The sound startled both of them—he didn’t remember the last time he genuinely smiled like this. It had to be sometime before Bruce was gone, at least.

“So…” Phantom hopped down on the railing of a balcony below, balancing precariously in the way that only he could. He looked up at Tim with an easygoing smile that did little to hide the concern underneath. “As your self-proclaimed favorite rogue, wanna tell me what’s up with the sudden change?”

He shifted a bit, grin fading. “Well…Batman died. He was facing Darkseid and got hit. After the chaos died down, Nightwing took up the mantle and made Batman’s son the new Robin, to help him grieve or something.”

“I don’t know where to start with that.” Phantom adjusted his hood, briefly revealing tan skin underneath. “You sound like you didn’t have a say in it. Wasn’t Robin yours?”

Something bitter worked its way up through Tim’s chest. “It was a borrowed title anyway. I only took it up to help Batman, so it makes sense that I was dismissed—”

“No.”

“—after huh?”

Phantom strode up to him, poking a finger at his knee. “You love being Robin. You don’t have to justify losing your identity. It could’ve been taken in the name of world peace for all I care, that doesn’t make it any less shitty. You just lost someone super important to you, and your connection to them was taken because someone thought your grief was less important. I don’t care who the current one is, you are just as much Batman’s son.”

Tim couldn’t help the small sob that escaped. Or when it doubled, and tears started burning at his eyes. He rubbed at them in an attempt to stop them before they could make his mask go hot and sticky, but was startled out of it by a soft weight being thrown over him. He looked up to see Phantom leaning over him, securing the hood of his cloak over Tim’s own head.

“You looked like you needed some comfort. It’s weighted.” Phantom shrugged.

“...thanks.” Tim pulled it closer, more than happy to latch onto yet another new focus. “How do you move so easily in this? It feels like I’m being hugged by gravity.”

Phantom chuckled, and it was at that moment Tim suddenly realized the other was floating in the air over him. Since when has he been able to fly?

“I use intangibility a lot, but it’s not my only power. It felt like overkill to use more than that in my heists. So I didn’t.”

Tim groaned, “You were going easy on me this whole time?”

“Oh, definitely not. I’m sure you’ve noticed, but intangibility is arguably the most pain in the ass thing to counter. I’m being annoying on purpose.”

Phantom grinned, and Tim couldn’t help but analyze the full sight of him. Everything from his teeth to his ears was pointed, a sharp contrast to the wispy white hair that flowed smoothly in a nonexistent breeze. The most attention grabbing was a glowing green mark resembling a gash across his chest, roughly in the place where a hero would wear their logo. The sight of it made Tim’s own chest ache.

“I don’t think Batman is dead.” He said suddenly.

“What makes you say that?” Phantom asked, reclining on empty air. 

It wasn’t denial, not calling him insane or lost in grief. For the first time since his fight with Dick, Tim felt as though he could breathe again. “I know it sounds crazy, there’s no proof—”

“Woah woah woah,” Phantom reached forward, gently pulling Tim’s hands away from where he had started pulling at his hair. “Slow down. Walk me through your thought process.”

“It just…it doesn’t feel right. Not that I can’t believe it if he died, but this specifically doesn’t feel right. I’d feel it if Br-Batman was dead…there was a whole cloning facility where Batman’s body was found.”

That seemed to spark interest in Phantom’s eyes. “You think the body was a clone?”

“Why would someone as powerful and precise as Darkseid drop everything and kill someone he was in the process of cloning? Why was he even trying to clone Batman specifically? We’re missing something, and I think Darkseid is using everyone’s grief to cover his plan.”

Phantom propped his chin on his hand, deep in thought. “Darkseid…I’ve heard that name before. Does he have something to do with time or space?”

Tim practically sagged in relief. “He can travel freely through both, and has a host of other abilities that give Superman a run for his money.”

He snapped his fingers, “Ah, that Darkseid! Yeah, if he wanted Bats dead there wouldn’t be a body left. I’d bet my collection he’s lost in time somewhere.”

“Thank you!” Tim gestured wildly, “You’re officially the first person to hear me out. Like, is it really so hard to believe?”

“No probs, Detect-o. It’s not the weirdest thing I’ve heard, by far.”

“Exactly,” Tim huffed, leaning back and sighing. “Now I just have to convince the Justice League so they can go back in time and grab him.”

“Why not just get him yourself?”

Tim glanced over to where Phantom hung in the sky. “Unless you’re also hiding time powers in there, we kinda need the League to get to him. Plus I don’t even know when in time he is.”

“Lucky for you, I know a guy,” Phantom grinned. “The Master of Time messaged me this mornin’, something about stopping Batman from breaking the time space continuum. It’s why I’m back in Gotham so soon.”

“You…know the Master of Time.”

“Yep!” He popped the p.

“And they messaged you.”

Phantom hummed, “You can imagine how it went when I tried to confront Batman a couple hours ago. The new Robin’s a menace, if I was any slower you’d have to deal with a Phantom shish kebab.”

Tim winced. It was never fun to be on the wrong end of Damian’s katana. Still, he focused back on the insanity at hand. “So you’re saying you can just go back and rescue Batman right now?”

“Now that I know what’s happening, yeah. Clocky probably already has a portal ready for me. Batman will be back before you can say ‘Gotham’!”

It was inconceivable. To think, the living nightmare of the past weeks would be over, just like that. His brain was screaming at him that this was some sort of cruel setup, that there was no way Phantom was telling the truth. There had to be a catch somewhere, some kind of punchline in the sick comedy that was the life of Tim Drake.

But his heart, the part of him that just wanted his dad back won out.

“What’s stopping you? You’re not usually one to wait for a window of opportunity.”

Phantom rubbed the back of his neck. “No, but I distinctly remember waiting for a certain vigilante. I was wondering if…you’d like to come with?”

Tim’s jaw dropped. “You’re inviting me, a vigilante who has attempted to arrest you dozens of times…to travel back in time to save Batman, another vigilante who has tried to put you under arrest.”

“Emphasis on tried,” Phantom joked, before turning serious. “I mean it—it’s your family. Besides, it could be fun. You come with me on a time heist, instead of sitting back here worrying your pretty head off with all the ways things could go wrong. And you get to tell everyone else ‘I told ya so’ when you save Batman on your own.”

He tried to work his mind through what Phantom was offering. To be able to fix things, maybe not go back to the way they used to be (Damian might actually kill him if he ever wore Robin again) but to have Bruce back. It wasn’t even a question.

No matter how smart Tim was, how he tried to plan things in advance the way Bruce did, he never stopped being the lonely kid who would sneak out at night to shadow his heroes. When Phantom reached out to offer a hand, Tim didn’t hesitate.

“You’re wrong, though.”

Phantom blinked, firmly gripping Tim’s hand without hurting him. “About what?”

“I wouldn’t be saving Batman on my own. We’d be doing it together.”

A fanged grin matched his own, blinding him to the swirling green portal that formed around them. Before Tim could so much as wonder if he maybe should’ve messaged someone about what he was setting off to do, they were already gone.

— - —

This was supposed to be a oneshot, but it got a bit long so I decided to split it up.

I really love this au, but I noticed that everyone has a tendency to hone in on the angst so much that the characters behind it get a bit lost in the process. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I wanted to try my hand at writing the misunderstandings without making either of them at fault.

(Insert rant about how the whole point of soulmates is that this person is a match for you, so even if you fundamentally are not good for each other you still get where the other person is coming from. There's so much more angst potential in not being able to hate someone no matter what they do to hurt you, but I digress.)

But yeah, let the boys heal and be happy! Also this is the closest I've gotten to actually writing romance and that's not saying much XD

Here's the design I drew for Phantom Thief!Danny. Feel free to drop an ask, I'd love to ramble more about this :D

[laundrybiscuits]

(soulmates AU: Part 1 | Part 2)

“You know,” says Jonathan. “Nancy’s parents are soulmates.”

Steve hadn’t known that, but he knows it’s supposed to run in families. Even though it’s also pretty normal for soulmarks to crop up for no reason anyone can tell, his own had been a big surprise, because everyone knows that John and Linda Harrington aren’t soulmates.

The night after his soulmark had appeared, he’d woken up around midnight. He couldn’t figure out what had woken him up for a while, but as he lay there in the dark, he could hear his dad’s voice coming up through the floors. His mom and dad must have been in the study, right below Steve’s bedroom, and his dad must’ve been pretty worked up by that point to be that loud. 

For god’s sake, John, Steve’s mom had hissed, quieter but still clear enough in the dead suburban night. He’s the spitting image of you. I don’t know what kind of proof you—

John and Linda Harrington aren’t soulmates. They can’t ever really relax around each other, because there’s no guarantee that something better won’t come along for either of them, and they both know it. 

Steve had tilted his own wrist so he could see the pretty, confident hand of a girl he’d never met, and felt so glad that he’d never have to worry like that.

“Must be nice,” is all he says to Jonathan, now.

“Sure, maybe,” says Jonathan. “Don’t know if she sees it that way.”

He asks Robin about her parents later. He’s only met Mr. and Mrs. Buckley a couple times, but they seem to get along okay.

Robin makes a face. “God, they’re so weird about it. They never got any real names—like, names never appeared by themselves, but they decided to get tattoos when they got married. The artist had them sign like five million disclaimer forms and still did it in red ink so nobody would get it confused for the real thing, but they don’t even care. It’s embarrassing.” 

“Yeah,” Steve says. 

He thinks about it later, though, and decides it doesn’t seem all that embarrassing to him. It’s not as good as a real name, of course, but maybe it’s the next best thing. At least it’s some kind of permanent mark, so even if things go south, you’ll always have part of that person as part of you too. The kind of thing that can’t be erased, just covered over.

———

Steve doesn’t ask about the blob on Eddie’s wrist. Not asking basically becomes a hobby for him. Steve drops by after going to see Max two or three times a week, and he doesn’t ask. Steve helps Wayne load Eddie into the car to the brand new Nancy-approved duplex, and he doesn’t ask. Steve stops by with a casserole from the Hendersons, and he stays to help eat it, and he doesn’t ask. 

Finally, Eddie chucks a potato chip at the side of Steve’s face and groans, “Just fucking ask, dude.”

Steve eats the potato chip, even though it’s sour cream and onion, and says unconvincingly: “Ask what?”

Eddie tips his head back over the arm of the couch and levels an unimpressed stare at Steve.

“Okay, fine,” Steve relents. “Tell me about your stupid name, I guess. Do I know her?”

Eddie shrugs. “Don’t know. Doesn’t matter. I knew pretty early on that I didn’t want anything to do with that shit, so I covered it up the day I got it. If I could’ve stopped myself from seeing anything at all, I would’ve.”

“Wait, you covered it up? Like, did the tattoo yourself?”

“Sure. I mean, I had to fix it up later, it was my first stick-and-poke and it was pretty rough. For a while, you could still kinda make out most of the letters. Hurt like a bitch, though.”

“Jesus.” Steve leans back on his elbows, sprawling out over the rug. “I don’t get you at all, man.”

Eddie hums a little, drums his fingertips over his own jaw. 

“What do you want?” he says abruptly. “Like, in life. Generally. What is it that Steve Harrington actually wants from the future?”

Steve puts another gross sour cream potato chip on his tongue and crunches down. 

“Shit, I dunno. What does anyone want? A house, a family. The usual stuff.”

Eddie taps his nose with one bony index finger and jabs the other at Steve. “Bullseye, right there. The difference between you and me.”

“What, you don’t want any of that? Too normal for you?” Steve snorts. 

Eddie groans and rolls sideways off the couch, landing on the rug next to Steve. He props himself up on his elbows. “It’s not about the actual stuff, Harrington. House and family doesn’t…” He hesitates, ducking his head so his hair tumbles over his face a little. “It doesn’t actually sound so bad to me, y’know? But I’d throw myself off a fucking cliff before I answered a question like that with what does anyone want.”

“Okay, if you’re so super-evolved or whatever, what does Eddie Munson want?”

Eddie grins up at Steve. It’s a little lopsided because of the shiny pink scar on his cheek. It’ll probably be lopsided for the rest of his life. Even back when they’d been making plans to buy guns and steal an RV, Steve remembers Eddie’s smile looking just plain happy, like a kid. Now it’ll always look like he’s got a secret he isn’t telling you.

“So, so many things,” says Eddie. “Most of all, though, Eddie Munson wants the freedom to make his own mistakes.”

Steve still doesn’t get it, but he’s starting to think there’s a lot of things he doesn’t really get about how other people see soulmarks. Most people seem to think just like Steve does, of course; there wouldn’t be so many songs and movies and stuff about it otherwise. 

Talking to Eddie like this, though, is starting to make Steve feel like he's staring out into the dark, knowing there's something else beyond the porchlights but not even being able to see the shape of it. 

He leans back, closing his eyes. Some guitar is wailing away from the boombox under the kind of vocals that always set Steve on edge; they’re too yelping and strained, like you can hear the singer’s vocal cords getting wrecked in real time as he yowls: man you’re dying—for what you’ve lost but never had—

It’s annoying, that’s all.

[forest-posts-and-reblogs]

Update

I've finally finished the first chapter for Loving You Is A Losing Game! Here is the link to AO3, and I've also posted the first chapter under the cut.

@fisticuffsatapplebees @im-totally-not-an-alien-2 @space-dreams-world @omnicrafts @butterflypeachgrove you guys get the credit!

Tag List:

@taniaundertaleau @whitecrowbane @xye-chan @my-perfect-storybook-love @meira-3919 @bubblemixer @wackyattack

Danny stared at the portal, his finger merely one inch away from the self-destruct button. His hands shook as he stared down the portal.

Am I really doing this?

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and releasing the tension from his body. It felt like this was the only way, but . . . It couldn’t be. There had to be something else he could do.

But he knew there wasn’t. Things had changed. He couldn’t stand being here, alone in Amity Park, where nobody cared about him unless it was to shove him into a locker and where his parents were planning to kill him. He was tired of waiting for someone to see him, tired of waiting for something to change.

Because nothing would.

He’d destroyed Vlad’s portal to the Ghost Zone and stolen his blueprints so he wouldn’t be able to make another one, and he’d planned on doing the same for his parents portal, too, but now . . .

He couldn’t do it.

Danny fled upstairs, away from the portal, away from the basement, away from the place he’d died three years ago and no one had noticed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Danny could safely say that today was the worst day of his life.

His friends hadn’t spoken to him since they’d started hanging out with Gregor two months ago. Since they’d replaced him with Gregor two months ago. Danny didn’t hold out much hope that they’d talk to him today. He hadn’t had hope for the past week now.

He hadn’t been planning on going to school today, but he knew that if Principal Ishiyama sent another call to his parents he’d be grounded. And since ghost attacks had decreased after he’d destroyed Vlad’s portal three weeks ago, getting grounded meant incessant boredom. Or having to listen to his parents talking about the experiments they planned on doing to Phantom. The thought of that alone made him feel faint - actually having to experience it would be ten times worse. Which was why Danny snuck into class halfway through first period, using his invisibility and intangibility to pretend he’d been there the whole time. Not that he thought it would work on Lancer. He had a sneaking suspicion that Lancer was the only person besides Wes who knew he was Phantom.

Danny held in a bitter laugh. Somehow, his friend circle had gone from Sam, Tucker and Valerie to Wes. And Wes had spent the better part of two years attempting to reveal his identity.

The period ended, and Danny just walked straight through the wall next to his desk and into the corridor outside, not caring if anyone saw him. He knew no one would believe that he was Phantom. After all, Wes had tried to tell the town for years and had failed, at least until the GIW attack seven months ago when he’d realized exactly what was waiting for Danny if his identity was revealed. Wes had gotten a lot cooler since then, slowly entering his friend group.

Until Gregor. Until everything had happened and Sam and Tucker had decided to kick him to the curb. Valerie had already done so two years ago, when he’d first revealed to her that he was Phantom. She hadn’t taken it well.

Danny still had a scar from when she’d stabbed him with a knife made from ecto-ranium.

He reached his locker, not even bothering to act surprised when Wes was standing leaning on the wall right next to it. He knew Wes would have been watching him through the bugs he’d placed in Fentonworks. 

Wes was always watching Fentonworks.

Danny opened up his locker, pulling out a random textbook. “I couldn’t do it.”

“I saw,” Wes said, not unkindly. He paused for a moment, before asking, “Wanna talk about it?”

“No.”

Wes stared at him for a few seconds before nodding. “You planning on doing it tonight?”

“I was thinking I’d spend the night at yours, actually.” Danny slammed his locker shut and turned to face Wes. “My parents have an idea for a new invention.”

Wes clenched his fist. “All the more reason to do it tonight.”

Danny took a deep breath. “I can’t, Wes. Not tonight. I can’t go down there again. I died there, Wes, and no one noticed and I can’t go back to the basement and stand in front of the portal and push that button, I just can’t.”

Wes hesitated. "All right." He pushed Danny to the side and opened up his locker. Danny was about to protest when Wes took the books from his hand and gave him a different set of books.

“You have English now, idiot.” Wes shook his head. “Not Chemistry.”

Danny blinked, taking the books. “Thanks.”

Wes grinned at him, slinging an arm over his shoulder. “No problem, dumbass.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Danny wasn’t entirely sure how it had happened, but somehow, his parents had captured a shade.

Humans couldn’t even see shades.

Danny would have to figure out a way to get his parents to spill the beans on how they’d caught the poor thing, but right now he needed to come up with a plan to sneak in and return the shade to the Ghost Zone, where it belonged.

It wouldn’t be particularly difficult. All he’d have to do would be to make sure that his parents were sufficiently distracted, and then he could open the portal and get the shade through to the other side. Which was why he was currently standing invisibly outside the basement door, waiting for the call Wes would make with one of his burner phones to Fentonworks, and when his family inevitably answered it, they’d be told that there was a ghost attack in progress at the park. The pair would immediately rush to the GAV, leaving Danny free to go down and save the shade.

Danny pressed himself further into the wall as the house phone rang and Mom walked out of the basement, muttering about bothersome people interrupting their work , a scowl on her face. The scowl, however, immediately vanished as she heard what was being said by the person on the other end. He watched as the call ended and she rushed downstairs, excitement evident on her face, and a few minutes later both she and Dad ran out of the basement and into the garage. Danny released a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, and sank through the floor and into the basement. The sooner he got this over with the better.

It was easy enough to find the shade; after all, they were both ectoplasmic entities, and shades in particular were so common that Danny had no trouble finding them even in his human form. Which was good, since unlike blob ghosts, shades had such low levels of ectoplasm that his ghost sense couldn’t locate them at all. Danny opened the small ecto-resistant container his parents had trapped the shade inside, and held his hand out, waiting. The shade jumped into his palm after only a few seconds. He held back a grin as he walked over to the portal. Easy . Now all he had to do was get the shade to the Ghost Zone.

Danny held his hand over the button that would open the Ghost Portal.

It was shaking.

Danny closed his eyes and tried to relax. This wasn’t even the same button. It was in an entirely different location. He wasn’t going to die again - not unless he felt like it. Danny felt his lips twitch at the joke, and emboldened, he opened his eyes and quickly pressed the button, jumping back almost immediately.

The Fenton Ghost Portal came to life, a green glow that looked almost like a maw forming inside of it. Danny shot through and quickly found the shade in his palm a nice island with a bunch of other shades. He sent out a wave of safe-protect-happy so the shade would know it was safe to stay there, before returning to the realm of the living.

He wished he could stay in the Ghost Zone a bit longer.

[amidstnamjin-and-binchanlix]

how long can you stand the heat || ot7

Warnings: Uhhh, none I think? Non-graphical smut and slight angst, but that's pretty much it for now since I'm still crafting the next part, and some curse words lmao.

I won't control you, but MDNI. This is not for you, please.

Pairings: OT7/(F) Reader, Jackson Wang/(F) Reader

Plot: The one where your soulmates don't want you in their life, so you give them what they want and stay out of their way.

Genre: not really unrequited love (but they're all idiots), mutual pining, angst, denial of feelings, poly ot7

How do you think I'm going to get along

Without you when you're gone?

You took me for everything that I had

And kicked me out on my own.

Are you happy? Are you satisfied?

How long can you stand the heat?

Out of the doorway the bullets rip

To the sound of the beat.

mixtape: all i have left to give - part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - ending 1

I originally posted this on ao3 last April but I've just recently thought, "why not post this on tumblr now that i'm using it again after a few years?"

this fic is v self-serving, and was brought to you by my ✨maladaptive daydreams✨

first fic i posted here. idek what im doing but lezzgawwww

Title obviously came from AOBTD. Thank you, Sir John Deacon. You are heaven-sent for making this iconic and legendary bop.

This will be a part of a multi-fic series and i've already crafted 80/90-ish% of the next part im so sorry my mind isn't cooperating rn

✨️

God must be testing your patience.

I mean sure, you might not also be sure that there is indeed a god out there somewhere. However, you must have pissed off some deity or you had pissed on some old man of the mound. Either way, you don't care. You're pissed off now, too.

You see when they rejected you and asked (read: avoided you like the plague until Sejin spoke with you) not to speak or interact with them, you respected their wishes. It stung, but it's not really surprising.

It's not a secret that the seven of them are soulmates, polyamorous soulbonds not even a rarity in and out of the industry. However, it's also not a secret that they're very exclusive and don't let too many (if any) other people in their circle because of the things they had to endure as a group. It makes sense that they wouldn't want a new person intruding and messing with their dynamics, soulmate or not.

(deep down you want to say it doesn't make sense. you're their soulmate, why can't they accept you like that? but there's still nothing you can do, isn't there?)

And so, you delegated all your tasks related to their group to your most trusted employees completely and avoided them at all costs. And by 'at all costs', you mean everything. You even deleted all their songs on your playlists and blocked them on social media (even on Spotify). You can co-exist with them without interacting, although it makes your chest ache through the bond because of the soul rejection like a 24/7 acid relapse.

It's fine. You can ignore all that. You can handle rejection. You've been used to this since you were a kid; adult you can handle this.

Soul rejection side effects? Nothing meds and doctors can't fix. Technology has never been more advanced and all that jazz.

You're a mature person, and you pride yourself on that. You don't like confrontations that much and would rather step back as much as you can to disengage. If your soulmates don't want anything to do with you, then you'll back off.

But you sometimes wonder if they can feel it too, the soul strings fraying and slowly decaying. After shit went down, it's bouts of nausea and dizziness, and constant chest aches for you. That's not even half of it. It'll take a whole day for you to list all your symptoms.

If they do feel it, does it add to their list of reasons why they hate your existence? You mean, they had been borderline antagonistic since your first meeting, cold but civil at best.

It was a contrast to the way the tiny soul marks on each of your fingers glowed on your first meeting even until after Taehyung and Yoongi fled in what you can guess is disbelief and refusal, the others following suit. The warmth in your hands felt scorching, and you had never wanted to scrub them with water in your life then more than you ever did, your chest beating hard and painfully. You remember feeling like someone slashed your insides with a hot knife, and it has never stopped being in pain ever since.

What else were you supposed to think other than they hate you?

Not wanting to risk another embarrassing conversation with Sejin (bless his heart), you decided to book an appointment and signed up for the relatively new soul-scraping therapy. It's still in its human trial stages and is slowly being recognized as a way of severing soul ties, albeit not approved and sanctioned by the government. Anything to give and honor their wishes. They're your soulmates, and it's innate in you to give people what they want.

(or was it really just that?)

All of that and everything else, you can take. You live and abide by your life motto to stay out of drama, so you take all of it in stride and with dignity because it's all you have left at this point when it comes to them.

This is where you got pissed off, though. This day takes the cake, this sodding party.

Attending the party was certainly not your idea. You're tired from the long-ass meetings you had today—JYP's team asked for a meeting for your agreement with Day6 since Sungjin got discharged a few months ago with Younghyun following suit in a few days. A party is definitely not on your to-do list. If it's up to you, you'll be going home to your phone and fics.

(and if they're bangtan fics, nobody has to know. this, you can let yourself have—you were advised against going cold turkey from them by the doctors handling the soul-scraping therapy, after all. if you can't have them, maybe you can at least indulge in fictional them.)

You have been minding your own business since you arrived at the bar. It's laughable how socially inept you are despite handling your business and meeting the entertainment industry's biggest names and leaders regularly. When being put in parties and other gigs that force you to socialize just for the sake of socializing, you're back to being the fat loser kid that avoided making new friends because the ones you previously had in childhood (if you can really call them that) can't understand how your brain and mouth work. Frankly, you don't, too, so you just preferred to stay in one corner until it's socially acceptable to go home.

"Hey." Jackson squeezes your hand in his and smiles worriedly at you. "You doing okay?"

Jackson had been a long-time friend and is someone you trust your whole life with. Jackson had seen you through your bests and worsts, but had never once turned his back on you or betrayed you as many people did.

Yeah, you would trust him with your whole life. Your panties too, but don't tell him that.

(there's no need to because he knows; he did lots of times before, with his face between your thighs and your undies in his pocket.)

"I'm good." You don't even bother smiling, knowing it won't convince him too much. He knows your stand on parties; you're his polar opposite, after all. "I just really wanna go home."

"Can I come with?" he asks with a salacious smile.

You roll your eyes.

"Stop being horny for five minutes, please."

"You shouldn't have worn that dress, then." He rakes you with an assessing look. "On second thought, that's the best decision you did tonight so far. If you're not going home with anyone tonight, my room's open."

"You up to be my wingman?" you ask.

"Sure. I'll sit with you all night so we can look like a swinger couple scouting for a third we can take home." He waggles his eyebrows.

You snort at that with an amused chuckle, oblivious to the glare(s) directed your way by—who else?—your soulmates.

They (Taehyung) heard from Manager Sejin and Noona Ae-cha that you're not sure if you can come. They didn't know why the two were talking about you, but Taehyung tried to act immersed in his phone while eavesdropping.

Apparently, you had been stuck in the boardroom almost all day with the back-to-back meetings, and you even had to cancel your doctor's appointment. For what the appointment is for, he didn't know. It explains your absence that day, and he files the information away at the back of his head. He can't for the life of him understand why he can't stop trying to spot crumbs about you.

(he does know, but he's in denial about why—and he'll deny both.)

He then told his hyungs and Jungkook, which they just nodded at, seemingly uninterested. But if Namjoon's faraway serious look at times is anything to go by or the way Jimin picks at the skin on his lips as he's lost in thought, he's pretty sure they are also subtly trying to figure out if you're coming.

(but they'll all deny that if asked.)

They haven't seen you that much since they started actively avoiding you months ago and shut down whatever soul link you have with them, and you are damn good at trying to stay out of their way.

It surprised them, they're not gonna lie. They expected you to put up a fight, but all Manager Sejin told them was that you agreed. You never interacted with them ever since unless it was really needed, and you were always wearing your rings and not making unnecessary eye contact even once.

(and that somehow pisses them off and itches under their skin because how dare you not be interested?)

And now you've been here for the past hour or so, Jackson Wang in tow. Or rather, Jackson has his arms alternately snaked around yours or slung around your shoulders. It makes Jackson look like a frat douchebag.

(and it makes taehyung look jealous and interested in you which he is so not, no.)

Hoseok was the first one to spot you arriving, Another One Bites The Dust thumping through the dancefloor that was bathed in red lights. He nudges Namjoon from his seat in their secluded and swanky VIP room that was separated one floor above the bar proper.

"There she is", he says then, gesturing towards you as all seven pairs of eyes land on you as you enter with Jackson. "She's with Wang."

With varying levels of internal turmoil, they all watch as Jackson led you through the throngs of people, presumably to another room like theirs. They see you shake your head and point to the bar, and Jackson's face light up with a wide smile before redirecting your steps.

Yoongi asks himself why you have to wear that dress or why Jackson has to clutch at your hands like a little kid, the others having a similar train of thought. Does Jackson think he's going to be lost in this bar? Is he that plain stupid to be lost in this bar, really?

And why are you letting him?

Jimin tries not to let his eyes wander on your legs, tries not to let his mind wander back to the thought of being choked by your thick supple legs and ripping that off-shoulder dress off you and—

Oh. Woah, there.

Stop it! he thinks to himself and shakes his head.

(this is not the first time he's thought of this, darling. when he first saw those smooth and lovely-looking plump thighs, he knows he was fucked.)

Jin is no better, but he hides it better than the others. After all, it was not his idea to shut you out like that. He was opposed to it and tried to talk some sense into the others, but they didn't listen. He thought back then that Namjoon would at least be reasonable and give you a shot but nooo, the kid was stupid enough to listen to others.

Let them have what they want, then.

(he can feel the pit and longing in his chest some nights and thinks that maybe he can let the others do what they want but still do what he wants too. but he takes a look at the six men who had been there for him through thick and thin, and he can't lose them. he sends you an apology mentally, hoping you can at least feel it through the bond.)

"Calm down," Jin tells them levelly, trying to pry the glass off Namjoon's hand, lest he crushes it and injures himself. "You're crushing the poor thing, Joonie. Don't wanna end up in the ER, do you?"

Jackson's the one to end up in the ER if he doesn't unwrap his arms from your shoulders, that's who, Namjoon thinks to himself bitterly before he can stop himself.

Jin leans back on his seat and watches as you laugh with Jackson, arms slung around your shoulders as the latter listens to you talk. They all wouldn't have to seethe in barely contained anger if they just listened to him though, so who's at fault here?

Aish, these brats.

"I'm going to get more drinks," Jungkook suddenly says, disentangling himself from Taehyung fluidly.

"You can just ask them," Namjoon says, pointing towards the glass doors where their security detail is posed out of the room. "There's no need to go out."

"I'm going to get more drinks," Jungkook repeats firmly, ignoring him. Namjoon's jaw clenches. "Come help me, Jin-hyung?"

Ah, this conniving brat. Jin wants to kiss his pouty lips for this.

"Sure," Jin says easily, much to Namjoon's annoyance. He pats Namjoon's cheeks gently. "No breaking the glass, Joon-ah. We have a photoshoot tomorrow."

He pulls Jungkook out of the room before any of them can disagree further. He loops his arm around Jungkook's petite waist, nodding once to the man stationed at the door.

"You're not just getting drinks at you, aren't you?" Jin asks as they descend the steps.

"I don't know what you're talking about, hyung." Jungkook's smile is sharp. "I just don't wanna get roofied and end up on the tabloids tomorrow, is all."

"You don't have to lie to me," Jin says, kissing his hair. "I wanna see her, too."

Jungkook's smile turns sad at that.

"I just don't understand. [Name]-noona seems like a nice person. They're all being stupid."

Jin has to agree. "But you know why we have to, right? I don't like it, too, but we have no choice."

"But we do!" Jungkook insists. "We can be friends, even."

"Friends don't fuck friends." Jungkook snorts at that. "There's nothing 'friends' about wanting her with us, Jungkook."

"Friends don't fuck friends, my ass," Jungkook mumble mockingly. "That didn't stop Jackson-hyung at all."

Jin stops momentarily, pulling Jungkook to a stop. "Excuse me?"

"They were having sex last week, hyung. When Jackson-hyung came over last Wednesday."

"Was that why...?"

"Yeah." Jungkook takes his hand as they walk again. "I felt it through the strings, too."

Jungkook is suspiciously not meeting his eyes.

"Jungkook-ah."

"What?" he asks innocently. Jin's lips pull into a smirk.

"You naughty cat!"

"I—what? No!" but Jungkook is still not meeting his eyes. "I didn't watch them."

Jin gasps delightedly.

"This is so much better. I didn't even say anything yet!"

Ah, fuck.

In Jungkook's defense, he hadn't meant to listen in. But he had been on his way back to the practice room from relieving his screaming bladder when he heard it. The warmth and arousal that was definitely not his he had been ignoring since that lunchtime was not helping his curiosity.

"Ah!" And oh shit, it's someone moaning and it's you.

That explains the arousal he's been feeling. Oh, and the jealousy now (his), too.

"Yeah?" A deeper voice asked breathlessly. Another punched-out moan from you, and the arousal flares in his chest.

Yup. It's definitely his this time.

"Jackson, please," your equally breathless voice pleaded, and the sound shot to his cock. Jungkook had to stop his hand from going south inside his pants and boxers.

A delighted shriek and breathless laugh, followed by a staccato of 'ah ah ah's and hips slapping against each other punctuated the otherwise silent afternoon he was having.

And what would a self-respecting man do?

Stay and listen to you get railed six ways to Sunday, was what he did.

(jungkook didn't say he's a self-respecting man.)

Jungkook slipped his hand inside his pants and boxers and wrapped his hand around his aching cock. He almost moaned at how your moans quickly reached a whole other level of desperation. He wondered and tried to imagine how you would feel around him if he fucked you harder and deeper than Jackson possibly can.

He knows he can.

"Hands, Jackson." There was a chuckle, then your whine was heard. "Baobei, please."

Jungkook heard Jackson's sharp intake of breath, and he had to internally agree. Even speaking Mandarin, you sound so hot.

He heard you mewl with a choked giggle as the sounds of hips to hips got faster.

"You really like my hands, huh?" Jackson asked.

"Mhm. Want them wrapped around my—ah!—neck all the time."

Fuck.

Jungkook had to bite onto his hands as he came, so as not to give his position away, cock spurting on his hands,. Seconds later and he heard you cry out and Jackson grunt to completion.

So, no. He definitely didn't watch.

"You nasty, nasty boy!" Jin cackles at him and he wants to pout. "You listened in to them having sex?!"

"Hyung!" Jungkook hisses. "Not too loud."

Jin snickers at him, mouth pulled in a tempting smirk he wants to kiss. "Was it good?"

"Hyung," he whines. At Jin's unfaltering smirk, he sighs. "It was. She sounds so good, hyung. I can't take it off my mind."

"Maybe later, we can do something about that." Jin says with a low hum.

He peers at Jin's eyes and almost shudders at the dark and hungry look in them. Jin squeezes his waist, and it takes Jungkook's breath away.

In his silence, Jin nods with a hum.

"Hm, definitely later."

He won't say no to that. If they can't have you, Jungkook's gonna take what he can get, even if it means settling on replaying your moans in his head.

When they reach the bar, you are still sitting at the other end with Jackson. They are careful not to be seen by you or you'll probably leave like you always do when they get within your 10-foot vicinity.

Then Jackson puts his hand on your slightly exposed leg. He feels the others' jealousy through the bond first before he feels his own, and he sees you stiffen in your seat.

Hyungs!

Jungkook quickly looks away, but not before Jackson catches his gaze. He completely misses the way Jackson's mouth pulls into a quick smirk as their drinks are thankfully served at that exact moment.

"Wanna head back to your place?"

You're unexpectedly suddenly close, and it's like Jackson wants him and Jin to hear to rile them up. It works, and he can barely tamp down the urge to pour the drinks over Jackson's big head, being older be damned.

"Sure. I'll just swing by the restroom." You say as you walk away. Jin and Jungkook take that as their cue to go back to their ritzy room.

"That was short," Jin says tightly as they go back. "Was it you?"

Jungkook shakes his head.

Jin's lips quirk into an amused smile.

"Ah, jealous bastards."

"Weren't you too, though?" Jungkook asks with a slightly amused smile of his own. "That was... that was intense."

"That serves them," Jin says as they near the room. "If they weren't just pigheaded, it's my shoulders her legs are gonna be hanging from later."

"Jin-hyung!" Jungkoo huffs, but then deflates. "Yeah."

"Don't worry, we still have later," Jin says with a lascivious smirk.

And he can't complain about that, can he?

"Where's Tae-hyung?" he asks when they enter the room, Taehyung nowhere in sight.

"Went out. Didn't say where." Hoseok says as he accepts their drinks and puts the tray on the table. It takes a few seconds for him to piece it all together, and he mentally facepalms.

"Whatever happened to 'not giving a fuck' about [Name]?" he mumbles.

"Jungkook," Namjoon warns.

It sets him off.

"What? Are you all really going to keep on pretending? You do realize I felt that back there too, right?" he shoots back.

"So the drinks were just a ruse?" Namjoon's face is stormy.

Jungkook holds his gaze steady. "And what if it was? You all know what I felt about this since day one."

"Kook-ah." It's Jimin this time. "Not now, please."

"And when, hyung? When we go back to just pretending an eighth of our soul doesn't exist out there?"

"Jungkook."

He glares at Yoongi. "No, hyung. If you all want to be stupid, I don't! [Name]-noona is going through therapy because of this, don't you know?"

Yoongi scoffs. "She's a big girl, she can handle herself."

"Not soul-scraping therapy, she won't."

They all stop at that. Even Jungkook stops and internally curses.

Fuck, he wasn't supposed to say that.

"What did you say?" Namjoon's voice takes on a dangerous tone.

He huffs but stays silent, not really wanting to dig a deeper hole for himself.

"Jungkook."

"I talked to Jiho-hyung, okay? I bumped into him five months ago when he visited her."

Silence.

"Im Jiho?" At Jungkook's nod, Namjoon's frown deepened. "I didn't know he practices soul-scraping."

"He's co-authoring the soul-scraping study with Doctor Seong."

At the mention of one of their previous soul health doctors, Yoongi raises his eyebrows.

"Our Doctor Seong?"

Jungkook nods with a sigh, plopping down beside Hoseok. "Apparently, it's why he stopped private practice—to focus on the studies. They're also lobbying for fully legalizing soul-scraping in the Assembly. I ran into him, and he mentioned that he was there for noona's side effects from the therapy."

Side effects?

Shit.

"W-wait. Five months, you said?" Jin says with a tremble in his voice. "Is that why I can barely feel her anymore?"

Jungkook's sigh is pained, forlorn. "Apparently, yeah."

They all lapse in complete silence after that, the thumping of the beat on the dancefloor faint through the walls.

"Fuck."

Indeed.

It is then that Taehyung comes back. He takes one look at their varying degrees of solemn and stunned expressions and tilts his head.

"What? What happened?" he asks.

"[Name]..."

Taehyung's eyes widen before his expression smooths into indifference.

"I told you, I'm no—"

"That's not it," Jimin says softly. "She's in soul-scraping therapy, Taehyung-ah."

...

"What?"

(oh, lord. you don't know the turmoil you caused all these pining idiots, darling.)

---

And what about you?

As we said in the beginning, god must be testing your patience.

"Hey," Jackson says softly. He lifts your chin with a gentle smile long after Taehyung fucked off to god knows where. "You good, baobei?"

You didn't even know they were here. You were vaguely aware that yeah, they might be, but it totally slipped your mind. Meetings really did drain your brain.

When you stood up and went to the restroom while Jackson called for the driver, you didn't know that Taehyung was watching you from their room and completely high-tailed it from there just to intercept you when he saw you stand up from the corner of the bar. You didn't know why, but his stupid drunken ass just decided it wanted and it was a good idea to rile you up.

To piss you off is why, you think.

When you exited the ladies' room, Taehyung was standing there by the wall looking lethal. The ache in your chest flared up for two different reasons, but you ignored it. You ignored him and started walking away, pretending you didn't see him.

"So you're really here."

Seriously?

You continued ignoring him and walked on, but he didn't let you get far.

He grabs your wrist. "I said, you're really here."

The spot where he held you burned and you hissed, cursing the therapy's side effects. You were warned that coming in contact skin-to-skin with your soulmates while undergoing the therapy would feel painful (literally), but you didn't heed it then. You had no reason to touch them after all when they didn't even want to see you.

But it is painful, and it burns.

You yanked your wrist away, hiding your wrist behind your back. There's no need for that, though. Taehyung was looking at your face intently.

"Yes, and I was just leaving. See you around, T—"

"With Jackson?"

What's it with this guy?

You looked back at him and squared your shoulders up. "That's really none of your business, Taehyung."

He laughed with a sneer, shaking his head.

"What would people say if they knew you're off gallivanting with men who aren't your soulmate?"

Wow.

The nerve of this asshole.

You can't let him see it affect you though, so you tilt your head with an innocent smile.

"I'm just a nobody. Why would they talk about me? " You smirked in amusement. "I don't think it'll be me they will talk about since I wasn't the one who rejected my soulmate, was I?"

And oh, shit. Where did that come from, [Name]? Feisty.

"And I'm not doing anything illegal. Why should I be scared?" You slightly lean back and tilt your chin up. "I'm not the one between us with a reputation to uphold, a name I should protect."

You paused, a serene smile on your face.

"I'm not a coward. I'm not you, Taehyung"

The smirk on his lips was replaced with a sharp look of disdain, almost like he wants to slap the smile off your face.

(he wants to, darling. trust me. just not in the way you think.)

You knew you hit a nerve and it feels petty and mean, but it's nothing compared to the loneliness and pain they gave you these past few months. It felt satisfying, even if for just a bit.

"You really think you're all that, don't you?" He smiled almost mockingly. "Tell me, how does it feel to be rejected?"

That really stung and angered you, but you've spent all your life hiding your emotions when needed to. Your expression didn't falter.

"It feels good—"

"—because she dodged a bullet."

You internally sighed in relief as Jackson's voice float behind you. You'll forever be thankful for this man's existence, gods or not.

You melt in his arms when he wrapped them around your waist. You chanced a look at Jackson, not seeing the twitch on Taehyung's brows at your body language.

"You really think you're all that, don't you?" Jackson mocked back at him. "Imagine thinking it's the end of the world for your soulmate just because you shut down their bond." Jackson chuckled ruthlessly.

"You're pathetic, Taehyung-ssi."

The two were locked in a glowering match before Taehyung straightened up and spun on his heel without a word.

Jackson let you get your bearings by the wall of the hallway to the ladies' room in silence. But he didn't let you stew in your thoughts for long.

So now here you are, looking at his gentle eyes.

"You good, baobei?"

You don't know how to answer that really, so you pull him by the collar into a searing kiss.

He puts his hand on your waist, the other on the wall by your face, and you tighten your hold on his collar.

You pull away to gasp for air.

"Take me home," you exhale heavily as you lean your head on his shoulder. "Take me home and fuck me 'til I forget, or I might do something stupid."

Jackson's sharp intake of air is your answer before he pulls you away to your awaiting car outside the club.

---

feedback (constructive, please don't be too rude bc i'll cry) and kudos very much appreciated!

[phantoms-world-and-more]

Rejected soul mate au

So I saw this au made my @im-totally-not-an-alien-2 and I also saw this post and had an idea

So Danny kinda moved into wayne manor, he has nowhere to go and doesn't want to be away from Damian now that he has his affection. So he basically just stays there all day

The batfam have tried to get him out with threats, bribery and trickery but nothing works, so they settle for avoiding him like the plague

Danny doesn't really care about that and Damian won't force him to leave so everything peachy

Until one morning when Damian storms in and demands to know what they did with Phantom, everyone's hella confused and he tells them he can't find Phantom everywhere

They search the manor and still can't find him

You'd think that after trying to get rid of him they'd try and set up security measures to keep him out but they don't.

They all get paranoid about where he went and why he's gone, Damian's just pissed at everything and if he's not yelling/threatening someone he's trying to call phantom

This does on for a few days before Phantom shows up carrying a box

Damian loses his shit and starts yelling and questioning where he went after Damian called down they called a family meeting to see where he went and why he left with Damian clinging and grabbing him at every turn

They eventually get out that he had to visit home for something

No one knew how to deal with that

They didn't know he had a "home', family or whatever and now he's dropping it on them that he can just... Leave. At any moment he could decide to just go.

Damian freaks out and the Batfam are all kinda wondering what to do when Jason finally asks what he needed to grab

Danny goes off on how since he and Damian are in a relationship and he finally accepted that Damian won't leave him at any chance he decided to get something

He pulled open the box and showed a dagger of some sort

He goes on to explain it's a smaller copy of a sword called the soul shredder and that if you cut someone with it, it sends them to the nightmare realm

Batman tries to confiscate it by saying they have a no-kill rule but Danny states that the dagger doesn't kill people just transports them to another dimension (one filled with horrifying monsters and to their own personal hell) but it doesn't kill anyone

Damian's crush on Danny just grew

[letheslullaby]

Coping mechanisms for the mentally disturbed: debating on writing out several academic-style mla-cited explorations of various fanfic tropes that people either 1) don't really care about or 2) are aware of because everyone only ever hears about that trope for the absolute batshit insane kink shit

[usercelestial]

soulmates au where hen and eva are soulmates but hen and karen chose each other and that matters more than whatever the universe told them because karen would move the stars themselves if it meant spending the rest of her life with hen

[eihwaz-y-d]

Of paper stars and phantom thief

Soooo @lunasguard wanted to be tagged. It's inspired by this rejected brainrot soulmate au post form @im-totally-not-an-alien-2 it's such a great Idea. I love the angst potential. This is just the prologue (I'm probably procrastination because I fear the exam but I also know I'm not doing myself any favor)

And I have no name for it yet, if someone has a good idea for a name let me know?

And also I know nothing and do what I want.

Prologue

Soulmates exists. It's a known fact that Soulmates exist. Soulmates comes in many forms,not every soulmate needs to be romanticall or sexual, it could be totally platonic too. The point soulmate are just a match on a deep level no one understands, the two (or more) souls just fit together, they just understand each other like no one else can. Markings drawn upon the skin will also be appear on the skin of their soulmate. If the soulmates found each other one marking will stay with them forever. if one soulmate dies, the marking will pale but not fade. If one soulmate rejects the other, the last marking will brand itself permanently into the skin, a process that can be hurtful and will never fade even if the bond is repaired. 

No one knows how they came to existence or how they work. Some people believes the gods -any God in any religion if you ask a believer- gifted them the soulmate so one would never be alone, other people believe the human were once happy one with their soulmate but the gods - or God, it really depends on what religion one believes in- were jealous and they cursed the human to part they soul but the Gods couldn't destroy soulmates completely so they were still be two parts of one whole. And once again others believe it comes from magic. Some all powerful mage or wizard or witch or whatever that is called casted a spell to find their perfect partner but because the magic person was to powerful the spell leeched on the the whole humanity. And then there are the few who believe it has something to do with evolution and genetics. 

But there is just the same amount of proof for this theory than for every other theory. But the human race likes to be in the right and won't tolerate any other opinion than their own. 

Tolerance is a slow creeping thing that not everyone accepts. That's why there are so many prejudices about certain aspects of soulmates out there in the world. 

Some prejudices withstand the test of time till in the Moderne. While in big cities and more open minded community and countries have no problem with romanticall or sexual same-sex soulmates or soulmates with more than two people involved, even rejecting or being rejected by one's soulmate is no one's business because people have their reasons for their actions and no one could know them but themselves.

There are country, towns, communities with more narrow minded mindset where prejudices lives and thrives and sometimes can destroy a person. 

The world is not a good place nor is it a fair place. Daniel Jack Fenton learns this pretty early in life. He was born in a little town in the middle of nowhere as the son of the Dr's Jack and Maddie Fenton, younger brother of Jasmine Fenton. Fate definitely wasn't kind with him for this but Fate never cared to be kind, it only cared for what will or will not happen, there is no pity for those who suffer along the way….. 

[tofuingho]

I'm loving the angst, but I've spent way too much of my life reading Avengers soulmate fanfiction. I want to see fuck-you-and-the-horse-you-rode-in-on!Danny. I-can-do-bad-all-by-myself! Danny.

The whole messing around and stealing shit was Tim's second chance. It's not like Danny had any other way to get his attention. As a civilian, it would be practically impossible for him to get within 20 feet of Tim.

So Danny started stealing things (and other nonviolent criminal behavior) in Gotham. It was a bit difficult to get Red Robin's attention specifically. Sometimes he'd set up an elaborate heist, only for Orphan or Robin to show up instead.

But when Red Robin did show up, Danny would banter and flirt and compliment as much as he possibly could. Eventually, he started hinting about taking Tim out on a date. The things they could do and see.

One day, Tim has enough and asks Danny why he's doing this, what does he get out of stealing things and fighting with them all the time. And Danny tells him that all he really wants is Tim's attention. To get to know him and ask him out on a date.

Tim l o s e s his mind. He screams and rants about how he could never date a person like Danny. He's annoying and creepy and Tim wants him to go away!

Danny just says okay and disappears.

Danny's got no one to turn to (or at least, that's how he feels). So he takes off to a place where he can be alone. And then?

He breaks down. He cries his lungs out. He wails so hard it destroys everything around him. He spends days and weeks letting his despair out until he's empty.

(If this is a same universe situation, Tim can feel the pain of the bond breaking, but doesn't know what it is. He ends up going to the doctor and finding out it's his soulmate bond being destroyed. He doesn't know why it's happening. Sure he rejected his soulmate years ago, so why is this happening now?)

Now that the bond is broken, Danny realizes that he's free to choose to love who he wants. It won't be easy. Many people won't date people that aren't their soulmate, especially people that have been rejected by their own soulmate.

But, eventually he finds someone. Someone who loves him just as much as he loves them. Maybe the person doesn't have a soulmate or their soulmate died/is platonic, but whoever it is wants to be loved as badly as Danny wants to be loved. (Probably Conner or Raven)

Danny reconnects with Jazz and Dani (who have been worried out of their minds), and maybe Sam and Tucker (who apologize profusely for making Danny feel abandoned). He's not 100% better, but he's well enough.

Eventually, he decides to take up the crown. He becomes a beloved king to the GZ. And sees his S.O. as often as he can.

And then one day the Justice League summons the Ghost King. Of course, they don't trust him, but they need his help. He helps them out, no tricks, no trouble.

When all's said and done, someone asks why he helped them, isn't he a villain?

And that's when he tells them that he's actually been a hero since his teens. He just did all of that stuff to get his soulmates attention.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out who he's talking about. Tim's pissed because he had no idea that Danny was his soulmate. Now that Tim's older, he's more interested in romance and his soulmate had been another hero.

He offers to give Danny another chance, but Danny tells him he's already given Tim his second chance and he rejected Danny again. It's too late.

Maybe Tim feels regret. Maybe he tries chasing after Danny. Maybe their severed bond can be healed.

But, maybe, in this universe, there's a slight chance that a bond that's been severed can attach itself to a new person and now Danny's S.O. is his soulmate.

@gilbirda Ok, so you made a snippet of on of your AUs a while back (braindead rejected! soulmate i think) and I haven't been able to think of much else since. So my brain made a little thingy for you!

------------

1. Tim takes a risk one day by writing back to whoever was doodling on his body, with a glittery purple gel pen, asking them to stop trying to contacting him.

All the person asked was, "Why?"

Tim never answers.

2. Danny faces constant rejection from his peers, authority figures, his parents and sister neglect him and now his own soulmate doesn't want him. They hadn't even met before he was rejected. Jazz finds out about Dannys powers and tries to reach out but Danny rejects her pretty violently due to his own pain. Then the episode where Sam and Tucker ditch him for Gregor happens and he gives up.

The two people in his life that has had pretty much complete control over his life and trajectory just abandoned him and he does not take it well. He ripped the symbol off his chest, disappeared and never came back.

3. Danny zooms into a new dimension/universe/whatever to avoid his former friends and family from being able to track him only to land in a place called Central City and immediately getting roped into helping Captain Cold who gives him a normal domino mask and they end up working together for a while.

4. Danny somehow overhears one of the speedster talking on the phone about his friends brothers soulmate issue at some point and they perfectly describe the interaction that happened between Danny and his soulmate all those years ago, down to the glittery purple gel pen and the types of doodles Danny had made as a kid and the things he said.

Danny learned one of his soulmates belonged to a group of detective vigilantes in a place called Gotham. Unfortunately he was spotted by the speedster and Danny had to bounce.

5. The Flash made reports to the Justice League about a meta teen who hes been having trouble with for a while and can't seem to pin down. He only asked for tips though as he "could handle it himself."

6. Danny leaves for Gotham and learned about Catwoman and Batmans weird Master Thief and Greatest Detective dynamic and decided that's what he wants to do. He was going to make his soulmate chase after him one way or another. Someone was going to want him even if they were wanting him behind bars.

He begins robbing bank vaults and museums, leaving no trace or clue as to what happened until he starts leaving a calling card of sorts.

7. Jason, who's been on the outs with his family lately meets this spunky white haired meta kid running around with a sci-fi mask/visor thing and giving supplies to homeless encampments and keeping the less fortunate alive and befriends him. He learns that this is the guy everyone has been searching for and just...tells no one. Jason is all for a Robin Hood vigilante, and really, its kinda funny to see his family squirm.

8. Phantom and Catwoman rob the same museum at the same time but for different things. They stare at eachother from where they're both still crouched from thier respective landings until Danny breaks the tension with "I didn't see you if you didn't see me?"

Catwoman laughs, amused. "Sure."

9. Danny finally narrowed down which of the batfam is his soulmate and introduced himself to them as Phantom.

The first thing Danny did was hit on Tim. Tim is flustered but otherwise doesn't really respond to it and tries to fight Phantom into submission, so of course Danny ghosts him by disappearing through a roof mid fight. Danny made a big show of his intangibility in that fight and made it seem like it was the only power he had but he was very skilled with it and he wanted to impress him.

10. Phantom becomes well known to the underbelly of Gotham. Mostly the homeless and nightworkers. But Danny was open and friendly. Never judging and always ready to lend a helping hand. Even better. He never came to collect on favors.

Over time, they became loyal to him.

11. Danny gets framed for a series of murders and the whole gang (minus Hood) are trying to capture him, thus, motorcycle chase scene. They use the white of his tires to tell when he's gone intangible due to all the dirt falling off the wheels. Nightwing jumps onto the bike and shocks Danny with his encrizma sticks right before Danny grits out "bye bye birdy~" and makes a big show of taking in a deep breath and holding it.

Nightwing is forced to jump off the bike as Danny runs through the concrete abutment of the overpass and coming out the other side

12. Danny meets Tim and Duke in his civilian form while he was at a Wayne tech conference. Danny had been asked about one of his inventions and was trying to show off the blueprints and explain things and thats why he was there in the first place. Duke of course, was internally screaming because that's the guy thats the guy they've been hunting for nearly a year but can find nothing on.

Red Robin confronts Phantom that night on a rooftop and Phantom laughs at him, "Thats why I was avoiding Signal for so long. He'd see my magical girl form and know instantly."

RR holds out a pair of handcuffs and says "Its over Danny." Phantom smirks and says, "I don't think it is, Tim" before jumping off onto a different roof and disappearing into the night. Tim is shook.

13. Danny over hears Robin berating RR at an old clocktower and intervenes, "Little Wayne, you do realize you were the first person I figured out, right?"

Damian proceeds to lose his mind.

14. Tim accidentally finds a material that Phantom can't phase through and quickly gets to work making things he can use against Danny. What he doesn't know is that Danny can phase through it he just pretended he couldn't because he wanted to see what would happen/what Tim would do.

Danny can sense the material and it feels really wierd to him, but doesn't harm him at all.

15. RR manages to knock Phantoms visor off his face and realizing it was made of tech he swipes it and brings it back to the cave for study.

He wasn't ready for all the information on the computer. Not only was his nemesis(?) from another plain of reality (he thinks Danny is from the ghost zone) but he was once a superhero with his own Rogues Gallery and human city to protect. Which begs the question, why did he become a Phantom thief?

16. The Joker hears about Phantom giving the bats the run around and comes to a misunderstanding about which bat he's been messing with which ultimately ends with Joker saying that he is Batmans ultimate nemesis and Phantom asking what that had to do with him? The misunderstanding is cleared up when Phantom complained about Joker even thinking that he was flirting with Batman because "Ew! He's an old man!"

Joker still got a few shots in for the heck of it but so did our ghost boy but they were no longer enemies.

17. The whole batfam had been freaking out about finally capturing Phantom and celebrating and plotting on how they were gonna get him to keep his mouth shut about thier identities until Jason came in,

Jason: Need help?

Phantom: Please?

Jason: *escapes with Danny*

Batfam: What?! No!!! Why?!

18. The batfam have only a vague idea of the Robin Hood thing going on. They know he's doing it just not to the extent its gone to. They find out later on that Phantom had been working with RH and his gang to sell off the items and most of the profits go to helping people. Other times he strait up gives jewelry and whatnot to children and working girls because "Everyone deserves something pretty, and even if its not your style you can keep it for a rainy day"

Phantom quickly gains a following and Danny doesn't even know about it. Clueless indeed.

19. Dannys main motivation in this is essentially just playing Cops and Robbers with Red Robin. Nothing else really matters to him. Not the robberies, not the fact he's working with a crime lord, not even his own safety matters much to him anymore. Hes readily zooming down the path of self destruction and Hood starts telling his family stuff, but only because he was genuinely worried about "Casper" crashing and burning.

20. No one knows why Phantom is fixated on Red Robin. He refuses to tell them. Red thinks its just because he's the smartest of the bats and he's not entirely wrong.

21. Danny legit started scheduling his heists with Tim to ensure they're both free after one couldn't make it too many times which blew the birds mind. Phantom must have been just that confident that he would always win. The bats eventually think Danny will stop stealing if RR isn't in the city for a long period of time. Danny more or less followed him and stole stuff from whatever city Tim was in. If there wasn't any museums or banks then Danny would steal a local landmark. Tim still wasn't sure how Phantom stole an entire building that one time but it had never been seen since.

22. Hood grows to be very protective of our favorite ghost boy. They bond and are actually really close. Danny admits he always wanted an older brother.

23. Tim goes off world for a while to see how Danny would react and Danny just...drops off the radar. No one knows where he is and after a week or two they start getting worried.

Tim returns after three months and Danny reappears two weeks after him with a tan and keepsakes from the places he visited on his vacation. Tim later screams into his pillow.

24. Tim has made it his personal mission to figure out who Danny really is, why he's fixated on him, where he came from, ect. Hes trying so hard but can't find anything. Its almost like he didn't exist before. Tim suddenly got an idea after Phantom accidentally got hit in the face and got a nosebleed. Tim saw green blood and immediately realized Danny might not even be human. Fortunately for our little ghost, he thinks he's an alien. A Martian specifically. Tim manages to snag a good sample from treating Phantoms wounds. Ghostboy was so focus on his core thrumming and mentally comparing it to his heart racing that he didn't even notice.

25. Tim later freaks out because the meta is freaking made out of Lazarus water.

The entire batfam was not happy to discover this and decided to work together to pressure Phantom into telling them what he was and what exactly he wanted.

[disaster-catalyst]

Hello sorry to drop in randomly but i saw that you reblogged the glorious rejected soulmate au post and i actually found a fic on AO3 based on the prompt. I thought you would like to know about it? Its titled "Danny Phantom and His Stupid Fucking Soulmate" by lets_get_this_salmonella. Its only a couple chapters in but ITS SO GOOD. I loved the prompt and am so excited to see where the fic goes.

Hi! Don't say sorry this is wonderful news that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise without you dropping in so yes thank you!!

The prompt is already lovely (the fluff, angst, and chaos potential is immaculate) so I'm excited to see how this fic turns out

Again, thank you for sharing this with me, anon :D

[starlight-eclipsed]

Rockets Pointed Up at the Stars (Pt 2/2)

Part I

Despite what Phantom had implied, tracking down Batman wasn’t done in an instant.

Sure, they’d be back seconds after when they left. But with time travel in the mix, that could be hours or days apart. They’d already followed him back to his initial landing time, when Neanderthals were still around (and wow, was there a difference between factually knowing some people had been around since the dawn of humanity and physically seeing Vandal Savage in the flesh as a caveman). According to the trail left by Clockwork, the ghostly guardian of the timestream, they were getting close.

Apparently Bruce couldn’t make things easy and was also making jumps through time, which if left unchecked would cause the timeline collapse that Clockwork had recruited Phantom for. Specifically Phantom, as it turns out the thief that liked messing with him on weekends was also the Master of Space and the King of everything.

(Phantom insisted it was just a title, and he was only king of the Ghost Zone. It just so happened that the Ghost Zone was also known as the Infinite Realms, which contained every reality of every universe in existence.

And he’d won that title by defeating the previous ruler in single combat.

The High King had to scramble to catch Tim when his knees gave out at the realization that he had unknowingly gone toe to toe with someone who made Darkseid look like a toddler in a sandbox. What the fuck, Phantom.) 

As of now, they were waiting for the actual Blackbeard’s ship to dock to investigate the fabled Black Pirate he supposedly fought a week ago, whose description matched Bruce’s. Phantom had gone to grab them something to eat while they waited in a tavern, leaving Tim to save his seat. If someone told him even a week ago that this was where he’d be, Tim would’ve interrogated them for hours to try to figure out what it meant.

But no, he was just sitting at a table in the 18th century, a medallion from the Master of Time hung around his neck, waiting for his hero-turned-king-gone-rogue to return with food while they waited for Blackbeard the legendary pirate to show up. Jason would probably kill to be here in his place.

Tim was broken out of his thoughts when Phantom returned, two bowls of soup in hand and balancing an additional plate of tough-looking bread on his forearm.

They’d been forced to ditch their masks when Puritans tried to have them hanged a century ago, now dressing in more accurate clothing to better blend in. Phantom had apologized for discovering Tim’s real name, going as far as to reveal his own secret identity: a black haired blue-eyed teen named Danny.

“Heads up, it’s gonna be either too salty or bland as wood. I’m pretty sure the cook wanted to strangle me for asking too many questions about the ingredients.”

Tim snorted, accepting his bowl, “Is that why we don’t get spoons?”

“Nah, the owner doesn’t trust customers to return the utensils. Drink from the bowl, though you might want to soak your bread if you don’t wanna pull a muscle chewing it.”

“Noted.” Tim dared to take a sip, mulling over the taste. It wasn’t anywhere near Alfred’s level, but a step above his own adventures in the kitchen before getting a hard ban post-pancake incident. It tasted closer to brine than soup, but it went surprisingly well with the bread.

Phantom hummed in pleasure, proving yet again that his standards for food consisted of ‘isn’t actively resisting consumption’. Tim could hardly judge him for it, seeing as his own bar wasn't much higher.

“So, I’d say we have an hour or two until our man arrives. Want to go over the plan again?”

Tim shrugged. “Unless it’s changed from ‘confirm Bruce was already here before following the nearest skip in time’, I think we’re good.”

Phantom nodded, silence falling over them as they ate their way through dinner. Tim kept an ear out for trouble, but the tavern was quite peaceful this time in the evening. It was likely to change once the Queen Anne's Revenge finished docking, but for now he’d savor the ambiance.

“Wanna play twenty questions?”

He blinked, refocusing on Phantom sitting across from him. “Huh?”

“I just figured it might pass the time. Twenty questions, no lies, though you can reject them if you don’t want to answer.”

Tim considered it before nodding, “Sure. How old are you?”

Phantom grinned, “Seventeen, same as you. Why Robin?”

“I wanted to help Batman after the previous one died. Nobody else would intervene, so I stepped in. Why Phantom?”

“Okay, hear me out…it’s a pun.”

Tim paused, gesturing for him to elaborate.

“Before I was half-ghost, my last name was Fenton. So as a ghost, Danny Fenton became—”

“Danny Phantom,” Tim groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I can’t believe I ever thought you were subtle.”

“Hey, nobody expects the dead guy to moonlight as a living person. Sunlight? Whatever. Favorite hobbies?”

“Photography and skateboarding. Favorite power?”

“Ooh, that’s a hard one. I’d have to say flight. Nothing beats flying at night. Sexuality?”

Tim spluttered, making Phantom laugh as he blushed. “What the heck?!”

“Hey, you can always skip,” the asshole offered.

“No, it just caught me off guard. I’m bi. You?”

“Pan. And trans, while we’re at it. Ghosts can shapeshift, so I got a perfect transition at the low cost of death.”

Tim snorted, “Death is an ally.”

“Absolutely, it comes for us all,” he winked. “If you had a single power, what would it be?”

“Something so I wouldn’t need to sleep. I can manage otherwise. What determines the things you take?”

Phantom grinned, “Once a detective. But seriously, I just aim for things that look cool and won’t be missed too much. Some people will kick up a fuss over their trash if they think it’s worth stealing. Thoughts on soulmates?”

He stopped, some part of him catching on how serious the otherwise silly sounding question was phrased. As if the way he answered this could mean life or death. “You mean, a couple acting like they’re made for each other?”

“Ah, I wasn’t sure whether you had them in your universe. On my Earth, everyone is born with some kind of connection to at least one other person. Shared thoughts, a timer countdown to the time they first meet, stuff like that. Platonic or romantic, they were called soulmates.”

“So…someone you’re destined to meet and get along with? Is it magic based?”

A nod. “Humanity’s done research but they haven’t concluded on that yet. I asked an Ancient whose domain was centered around it, and they said it was determined by a soul’s resonance. I don’t know the specifics, but something about how all souls that resonate a certain way are born with soulmarks, so that they have an easier time finding each other. There are studies about how soulmates tend to understand each other easier, but other than that there’s no empirical proof that they’re different from any other relationship.”

Tim considered it. What it might’ve been like, to be told the second he met Dick that fateful night at the circus, ‘this boy will permanently alter the course of your life’. To have been able to approach Batman that first time, point to his wrist, and automatically be listened to instead of resorting to blackmail. How much easier it would have been to avoid the misunderstandings that defined their whole family.

Then again, it would be just his luck to have been born in that world and not have any soul connections to the Wayne family, making him work twice as hard for the same level of trust. Or to be born without resonance at all, and be left knowing that he was truly beyond reach. What would that do to him, in a society where people could point at the worst criminals and say ‘even that monster has someone they love’? To be soulmates with a genuinely terrible person?

“It sounds like a mixed blessing,” Tim said, meeting Danny’s gaze directly. “I would love to have someone like that by my side, and I’d be terrified of being defined by it.”

Danny leaned back, wearing a self-deprecating smile that Tim was quickly learning to recognize. “Yeah, that’s fair. Your turn.”

“What…what is your personal experience with soulmates? If I’m allowed to ask.”

He hissed out a breath through his teeth. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought you’d say.”

“I can ask something else?”

Danny waved a hand in dismissal. “I’ll answer, just lemme figure out how to put it.”

“I’ll return our dishes while you think through what you want to say.” Tim stood with his empty bowl, easily accepting the other bowl and plate as they were handed to him.

Walking back, Tim cataloged the people hanging around the tavern. A group of friends huddled around a dozen plates, decked out in gear that made it look like they just finished having some grand adventure. The bartender, a sly smile on her face as a drunken man clumsily flirted with his own wife. The cook instructing a boy to retrieve the dishes from Tim, sending a calculating glance in Danny’s direction before nodding at Tim and turning back to the fire.

Tim didn’t spend a lot of time in public anymore. His fame attracted far too much attention now that the press could consistently recognize him. But maybe once things settled back down again, he’d try civilian life again. There was something different about living alongside the people he worked to save, instead of far above looking down.

By the time he returned to his seat, Danny looked ready to talk.

“My soulmate rejected me when we were little.”

Tim blinked. “You can do that?”

“Ah…sorta? Depending on the connection, one side can choose to shut it down. Mine let us exchange messages. I was a dumb kid, and sent out a ton every day to try and get any kind of response that they were out there. They got sick of it and blocked me.” Danny laughed, but it wasn't very funny.

“I’m sorry. That sounds awful.”

“Don’t be. I annoy everyone—it was only a matter of time before I did something to chase them away.”

“Would you stop doing that?”

Danny blinked, tilting his head in silent question.

“Look, I get that you went through a lot of shit before coming to Gotham. But you keep acting like it’s a given that everyone you meet will be awful to you, and it sucks to hear you talk like that when I’m having fun with you. It wasn't your fault, so stop claiming credit for it. If I can’t justify losing Robin, you can’t justify being abandoned.”

“...alright then.” Danny huffed, folding his arms and pouting. “Neither of us can talk shit about ourselves.”

The twinkle in his eyes was enough for Tim to know he got through to him.

— - —

Tim leaned up against a fence in the Wild West, shifting uncomfortably in his dust coated clothes. Danny was perched beside him, smugly radiating a cool breeze that may very well have been the only thing keeping Tim upright in the summer sun.

“There’s too much sunlight here, it’s unnatural.”

“That’s just your Gothamite showing, city-boy.”

“Fuck off.”

Danny’s laughter had become a staple of the past few days spent traveling through history. In turn, Tim found himself happier than he’d been in ages, making sarcastic comments about anything that caught his eye in an attempt to get Danny to laugh more.

So far, he’d yet to fail to bring at least a smile to the other’s face.

Right now they were in the late 19th century, following rumors that Bruce had somehow crossed paths with Vandal Savage again. It was bordering on ridiculous, and a part of Tim wondered if this was why the legendary criminal stayed well away from Gotham waters. He was going to have to ask Bruce what was up with that after this whole mess was over.

“So,” Danny started, leaning closer to him. “Have any plans for when we’re back in modern day?”

Tim shrugged, “I see a lengthy report to Batman, hours spent explaining everything he missed while he was gone. I swear I’ll be up all week helping him catch up.”

A snort. “I meant about Robin. No offense, but you looked miserable in your new costume.”

He paused. He hadn’t quite processed the knowledge that bringing Bruce back wouldn’t also bring back his role as Robin. It was obvious whenever he actually thought about it, but to him Bruce coming home was still synonymous to going back to how things were before he was lost in time.

“I don’t know…Red Robin was just supposed to be temporary. It was one of Red Hood’s old aliases, not really mine.”

Danny turned to him. “Do you want a new one? If you decide now, we can lay the basis for some local legend to act as future inspiration for the new title.”

Tim elbowed him, “We aren’t messing with the timeline to establish lore for my new identity.”

“C’mon, it’ll be fun! I did it back in my original world, there’s ancient frescos of me winning chariot races and everything.”

“How are you and Clockwork still on speaking terms?”

“Oh, he totally finds it as funny as I do. He just has to pretend to be serious all the time so the Observants don’t crack down on him for shirking his duties.”

“You’re a bad influence on the embodiment of time,” Tim concluded with wide eyes.

A wide grin stretched across Danny’s face as he lied through his teeth. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“How did you even—he’s millennia older than you!”

“Counterparts, remember? It’s not a soul bond, but it’s easy to see ourselves in each other. Besides, time is relative; he's like a weird grandpa-uncle-cousin.”

Tim shook his head, but couldn’t quite force down the laughter in his lungs.

“Hey, I know for a fact I’m not the only bad influence here. No matter how much you claim that sleep is for the dead, I’m physical proof against that.”

“Whatever. You know when the next jump is?”

Danny tilted his head, as if listening for something only meant for his ears. “If Bats already came through here, there’s only two big timesinks left he could be in. Either sometime in the 20th century, or in a designated Vanishing Point.”

“Vanishing Point?”

“Yeah, it’s something of a collaboration between the Observants, Clockwork, and Ghost Writer. Each universe has an archive set right around its eventual heat death. It’s like an empty room in a video game with props the devs left in to keep the system running after inadvertently designing the whole code in reference to a lemon.”

“I…never mind. Why would Batman be there?”

“Oh, ‘cause he’s traveling through time without one of these,” Danny tapped Tim’s chest, right where his Time Medallion lay under his shirt. “They’re designed to safely disperse the energy gained each time we make a jump, among other things. Otherwise we’d just be building up enough to wipe the timeline from existence. Or something like that, I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Tim suddenly realized that this was what his former teammates meant when they complained about him executing strategies without explaining his thought process first. He still stood by his stance that it was more effective to explain things as they happened, but he was developing a new sense of empathy for them.

“Okay. Batman is a time-charged universe level bomb threat, and is getting funneled into the Backrooms so he blows up with everything else in existence. What can we do to stop that?”

Danny blinked. “Sorry, I thought it was obvious. I already carry a medallion with me wherever I go, so I was just gonna have you put the spare Clocky gave me on him to filter it out.”

Yep. This was karma for never giving people the full story behind any of his plans.

“I’m going to need you to go over everything we need to do when we get to this Vanishing Point. Twice.”

“Okie doke! So I’m gonna leave you with my spare medallion to help Bats while I throw down with Darkseid’s hyper-dimensional mind slave he sent after him to ensure his demise—”

Gift baskets. Tim owed so many people gift baskets for putting up with his bullshit.

— - —

When Tim found him, Danny was perched on the same apartment building they’d last met on.

His hood was down, freeing his flaming white hair to burn without heat in the night. His face was turned towards the sky, looking for all like he was somehow stargazing in spite of the thick smog that blanketed the city. It would’ve made for a stunning picture, if not for how soul crushingly lonely the scene felt.

Danny startled when Tim’s grappling hook latched onto the rooftop beside him. The halfa was quick to brighten upon seeing Tim down below, scooting over to make room for him as he reeled in the line and pulled himself up.

“Fancy meeting you here, Detective.”

Tim huffed, readjusting his utility belt. “The others won’t stop pestering me about how Batman was brought back when I shouldn’t have access to any time travel devices. It’s a miracle I was even able to get out of the Batcave without getting smothered.”

“You didn’t tell them about me?”

“You didn’t want them to know.”

Danny looked stunned. He physically shook himself out of it, a glowing green blush rising to his cheeks as he turned away. “Thanks.”

Tim absentmindedly nodded as he smoothly slipped a black marker from his belt while Danny was distracted. This had the potential to either go very smoothly or backfire completely, but it had to be done to sate his curiosity. Now that Bruce was home and he’d gotten the time to think over their conversations, pieces had started to align in his head. It was just a matter of taking the leap and confirming it for himself.

Reaching up to his own cheek, Tim wrote in practiced motions, focusing on the thought of sending it through to whoever was on the other side.

Danny jumped, hand slapping to his own cheek as he whipped his head around to stare at Tim in open shock. He shrugged sheepishly.

“Your description of soulmates was familiar. Between that and the cloak, I really should’ve put it together sooner.”

“You’re…not mad?”

Tim shifted, stashing the marker back in its rightful place. “I wish I knew sooner. I never meant to hurt you—Batman was getting on my case about the writing on my arms being recognizable in costume, and I never thought to wonder why it was happening in the first place.”

Danny shook his head, a wet chuckle escaping his lips. “You couldn’t have known. It would’ve freaked anyone out, getting messages from a different universe on their skin.”

“Neither did you. Know, I mean. Me blocking the connection was never on you.”

“Well…”

“I mean it.”

“Fine, fine. So…does that mean…?”

Tim carefully reached out his hands to grasp onto his soulmate’s, intertwining their fingers. It was remarkable how easily they fit together. “I don’t know if it’s romantic or not, but I’m willing to give it a try if you are.”

Danny collapsed forward into Tim’s arms. He could hardly make out the muffled affirmative, but the message was crystal clear. Leaning down to set his chin on the top of Danny’s head, he let himself savor this moment.

Tomorrow, he could beg Danny to experiment with the extent of their bond. They could talk about new ideas for his hero name, and Danny could get another shot at convincing him to go on a worldwide anti-multi-billionaire tour. The two of them had potentially forever to work out this newfound aspect of their relationship.

For the time being, Tim relaxed back against a chain link fence with his soulmate in his arms, the word ‘BOO’ scribbled in black marker across both their faces.

— - —

And that's a wrap! There's definitely room for more, but these were the all the scenes I wanted to cover ^-^

I think in this universe, Danny and Tim end up working as a slightly morally grey hero duo. They go global for a bit, Tim wanting to train under more people to better keep up with Danny (who follows along invisibly as backup). This eventually gets the attention of Ra's, and you can imagine how that goes XD

They're a bit overly attached; neither of them really have a healthy sense of boundaries, which causes a bit of conflict here and there. Tim is the one that insists on taking breaks to avoid becoming too codependent, which only really results in them deepening the soul bond to a ridiculous degree. Ironically it's during this that Tim discovers how he can send pressure marks through to Danny, who immediately converts it to morse code (oops).

Thanks for reading!

Tag list:

@skulld3mort-1fan @profoundsoulsong @daemonlogical @bobred18 @ashoutinthedarkness @hilariousseagoat @undead-essence @ekatkit @wolfjackle @awkwardmaiden @vehan-tikkun-olam-and-stuff

[beetlesau]

SoulBox

*cringing internally* CHAPTER THREEEE, wow yes wow finally

no editing, I didn't even check for continuity errors from the last chapter so just roll with whatever if there's anything like that! Here we go babyyy YeeHaw. like, 3k words. warnings would be CURSING. Let's go.

You aren't sure which exact moment got you into this situation. 

One second, you were filing paperwork, then the next, you were in the office of your team leader.

Sat beside you, arms crossed and scowl plastered on, was Bakugo. 

You tried to listen thoughtfully as the department head reprimanded the two of you for starting a shouting match at your desk. 

He wasn't even done speaking before Bakugo groaned loudly in annoyance. 

"It wasn't that big a deal. We were just having a conversation." he scoffed. 

"You call that a conversation? You started criticizing the order of my desk immediately! Normally when someone joins a new team they, I dunno, introduce themselves, say hello!"

"It seemed pretty valid to me! You're the one that started talking shit about my body!"

The team leader's eye widened and turned to get an elaboration from you on that. 

"You sat at my chair, put your dirty PLATFORM WORKBOOTS on my desk, and all I did was call you out on it! It had nothing to do with your height, but since you bring it up, yeah, clearly you're compensating for it!" 

Okay, so that one did make you feel bad. It wasn't really in your nature to be so mean, but he'd always brought out the worst in you. He wasn't even short, you just happened to be taller than the average woman and he was still a head taller than you? You didn't know how it affected him as much as it did. Also even if he was shorter than you, why would you care? Did he care that you thought he was short? Your mind was wandering as it was prone to do when you couldn't figure something out through simple observation. 

"Are you even fucking listening? Swear you and Deku could be Soulmates you both go off in your own damn worlds. This is why no one likes you." Bakugo waves his hand in front of your face. 

You were standing outside the team director's office, apparently having autopiloted your way through the boring... uh important lecture on office behavior. 

"Soulmate?" you mumbled to the blonde. 

"Jesus is that all you heard? This is why Soulmate shit is so stupid. Find out you have one and nothing else in the world matters. Have some fuckin life goals."

"What? No! Shut up! I'm in the top ten best heroes how in the world can you conclude that I don't have my own goals just because I zoned out for a second, huh? Grow up."

"Well you're not as good as me," he stated simply.

You groaned, "I didn't SAY that I was, I didn't SAY anything. Why do you act like this!" you stormed off before he could continue to berate you further. 

Back at your desk, you were typing away at some reports that had been emailed over when there was a tap on your shoulder. Expecting to see Bakugo coming to get the last word, you were surprised to see another transfer from his previous Agency. 

"Kirishima!" you gasped in surprise and elation. 

"Oh, wow hi! You remember me!?" he smiled with the same sharp-toothed grin you remembered from U.A. 

He and Bakugo were in the third year at U.A. by the time you took your entrance exam. While Bakugo was aggressive and rude, Kirishima had been the complete opposite. Oh course you would remember him, and not just by his hero name. 

"YES? I looked up to you and half your class, how could I ever forget!" you stood to give him a warm hug, noticing a pair of glaring red eyes a few cubicles away from your own. Of course, he would be watching, fuming over the ease at which Kirishima got along with others. 

"Oh wow, you flatter me! I just wanted to come over and say how excited I am that we could end up working together now! Maybe you looked up to me then, but I am for sure your fan now." he scratched the back of his head bashfully, the smallest pink on his cheeks nearly hidden by the brighter red hue of his hair. 

Just then a heavy wad of paper struck him in the neck.

"Ow! What gives dude!?" he turned to Bakugo, knowing full well it was him. 

"Would you stop flirting, I'm ready to hit a patrol!" he screeched.

"I'm just saying my hellos, it's been a long time since we've talked-"

"She outranks you on the charts by god knows how much, don't you think you should work on that, shit for hair? Shit's embarrassing. You shouldn't even be breathing the same air as her." he mumbled the last part, but his voice is so deep and harsh it was easily heard since everyone had stopped to listen in yet again to the angry man. 

"Then why do you talk to him if that's how you feel?" you asked, confused by his logic, "You're friends with him, like???"

"It's okay. I, he, well you just, he--" Kirishima was having a hard time finding the words, but Bakugo took this moment to grab him hard by the shoulder and pull him away.

"Stop talking loser. Now." he didn't seem to want Kirishima to explain his behaviors.

"Well anyway, I'll see you around! Maybe we can go out for drinks later!"

"Ah, y-yeah! That sounds... fun." the two of them were gone before you could finish your sentence, though you can't say it bothered you that much. The idea of going out for drinks with Kirishima was fine, but not so much with Bakugo.  

It was times like this you really wish you could talk about life events more specifically to your soulmate. Speaking of which, you decided to check the box in your bottom desk drawer while you were finishing up your paperwork. A couple of notes had gathered, cramped within their small confines. 

You unfold one, 

Do you ever have someone on your mind that you just can't stop thinking about? Like everything they do just pisses you off for some reason?

You take a look at the second, more hastily written note:

I think we should meet soon. 

Your eyes bulge at the second note. The jump from one topic to this one has you believing it was an impulse decision on his part, but you couldn't care less about that right now. He wanted to meet. He asked you. 

You practically believed this day would never come, but here it is, out of the blue. 

You both agreed that you would meet when the time was right for you in your personal lives. Having steady careers, financial stability, and your own independence. 

You knew something big happened in his life recently, but not this level big. 

He wanted to meet you. 

You wanted to meet him, absolutely. 

You wrote back and your handwriting was sloppy for the first time ever, the eagerness getting the better of you. 

Yes! Do we live close? Are we even in the same country? oh my god, I don't care, yes!

Your work break was nearing, and the anticipation you were experiencing had your body covered in a thin layer of sweat. You figured he would take a while responding, it always had in the past. But you nearly passed out when you heard your little magic box shuffle not long after you'd sent your own message. The handwriting was sloppier than normal if that was even possible. There were a few puncture holes in some of the curves of the letters as though he were on the move when writing them, and no solid place to hold his paper against. 

I live near this location. What about you?

Holy shit. Holy shit shit shit. He was close. Oh so close. Closer than you could have imagined. The thoughts that he could have been someone you've met before had you light-headed. 

No freaking way. I live here! 

Well, that's just fuckin perfect, I just moved to the area so it seems like an alignment to me. I need to talk to you in person anyway. I have some things I want to get off my chest. But it wouldn't be fair to you to just write them out. 

We have to meet soon. 

Your heart stuttered at the words he'd written. What did that mean? What did he have to tell me that could only be said in person? Was it good things? Bad? 

A letter came through before you could riddle yourself with any further anxiety. 

Don't be scared about what I just said. I'm yours. I don't care what's going on in my life I'm not going to let anything get in the way of you and me being soulmates. I love you. 

This new message did next to nothing to quell your worry and left you honestly with even more questions. He's not going to let anything get in the way? What does that mean, you wondered. You read back over the first message he'd sent that day. 

"Do you ever have someone on your mind that you just can't stop thinking about? Like everything they do just pisses you off for some reason?" As you read it over a couple of times, you could only piece together that it wasn't some thing that was occupying his mind with worry, it was some one. 

You curse your observant mind to all hell. Why couldn't you just read things without analyzing them to oblivion?

But, you knew him. You knew he was no liar, of that you were sure. If he said he was yours, then he was, simple as that. 

I love you. When and where? 

It was finally time, and nothing would ruin that. 

The very next day, you sat at a little table for two, at a restaurant/ bar you'd both agreed on. He said it was the only place in town that he'd really been to yet, thanks to a friend of his dragging him out. He told you that the small buffalo bites were alright but it was the hot sauce dip that really sold the place to him. You breathed in at a steady pace to calm yourself as you waited. You told him he could recognize you because you were going to order two of what he'd had, one for you and another sat across the table for him. On top of that, you let him know you would be wearing a necklace that held his very first "message" to you. So he would be able to pick you out with that small item descriptor as well. 

You placed your SoulBox next to your glass of wine, straightened your posture, fixed your hair so that it perfectly framed and showcased your necklace, and waited. 

"I can't believe those fuckers decided to rob a hot dog stand of all the damn places. On the way to this stupid ass bar. Unbelievable."

Bakugo seethed the entire walk to the place he was meant to meet his soulmate for the first time. Kirishima kept quiet, knowing nothing could help his friend in this moment of anger. He didn't even have the chance to change out of his hero costume. "The absolute stupidity. They didn't even check their surroundings before pulling that shit. Imagine, two top heroes standing a mere fifteen feet away and you try and rob a hot dog stand. A HOT DOG STAND. I hate being late. I hate it. And now of all times. This is the worst first impression I think I could ever make in my LIFE."

Kirishima nodded in silence. They marched forward at a blurring pace, not realizing they had nearly walked past the restaurant bar they had been heading to. 

"Woah, dude. Hold up, we're here! Are you ready?" Kirishima sounded almost more nervous than his best friend. He was even shifting his weight from one foot to another, a habit that much annoyed his blonde companion. 

"Of course I'm ready, shittyhair. 'm not scared of anything." Bakugo clicked his tongue and scoffed. ... But made no move to the entrance. 

"Well uh, I guess I'll leave you to it then?"

"Fine whatever. I dont' know why you insisted on coming along anyway." he shooed at him. 

"I'm just excited for you man! It's a once in a lifetime thing to meet your soulmate for the first time!" He smiled his obnoxious smile like he always does when something good happens for Bakugo. He slapped his friend's shoulder, giving him a nod of approval before turning to head back to the Agency. 

"Wait." Bakugo spoke in a low annoyed growl. "Will you.. Can you just check the window for me? Tell me if you see someone with the necklace she described?"

Kirishima stood, jaw slack for a moment before practically sprinting up to the bars tinted windows to peek inside. There was no chance in hell he would survive if he teased Bakugo over how nervous he came off as. Instead, he played it off like a best friend would, "Oh smart, man. Check the scene. Make sure she's in there, get her location so you're not looking around forever and---" Kirishima looked through the glass and cocked his head, his own silence cutting him off mid-sentence. 

"Hello? What the hell are you doing? Did you find her or not?" Bakugo was growing impatient. 

"Uh, yeah. I mean, I think so?" 

"What do you mean , 'you think so'? What the hell, does she have the food in front of her?"

"Um. Yes."

"And does that person also have a fucking necklace on that matched the one I described to you?"

"Also yes."

"THEN WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?"

"Well I dunno if you're gonna like her man."

"WHAT? How the hell would you know what I like, dumbass?"

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, Well you know Smokie from work?" Kirishima wasn't exactly fond of using your 'petname' that Bakugo referred to you as usual, but it was the surest way he would know who he was talking about right away. 

"Sm-- what? Yes? SO? What the hell does she have to do with anything we're talking about right now, moron? Did you forget to take you ADHD medication or something--"

"Well if you don't like Smokie, you won't like her." he says matter-of-factly.

"WELL, WHY THE HELL NOT?" Bakugo has had it. At the end of his rope with his long-time friend, soon to be six feet under friend.

"Mm. Because it IS Smokie." he tries to force a smile, but he's too afraid of the blonde at this moment. 

A long pause ensues. 

Bakugo darts up to the window, quick to take the place of where Kirishima once stood. His eyes search the dining area, sure enough, landing on a lone woman sitting at a table for two. Two plates of chicken and spicy sauce. A familiar necklace around her neck. You. It's you that sits there, waiting. You are sitting there waiting for him. For Bakugo. 

And all at once Bakugo goes completely blank. This person, you, has been a thorn in his side for years. Someone he noticed during his third year in U.A. Noticed every time you ascended the ranks, took an absolutely deserved step closer to him in power. It infuriated him. It made him proud. It made him sick that he thought of you so much, so hatefully. And he did hate you. Or at least he tried. Tried to tell himself that, because he had a soulmate. Someone that actually knew his heart. How could he even consider the possibility of liking you, knowing that the real love of his life was out there, patiently waiting for him? 

"Oh my god." 

Then it all came crashing down around him at once. He'd done nothing but show you his worst side for years. Did whatever he could to be close to you but a light year away at the same time. 

He told you, his soulmate you, that he needed to get something off his chest. His ugly infatuation with someone that wasn't you, that now WAS you. He desperately needed to meet you, to get over this ridiculous crush, all he had to do was meet his soulmate and that would be the end of it once and for all. 

That seemed like such a trivial thing to talk about before. Now it seemed like the easiest outcome. This, this was a whole new set of problems. 

This you, the one sitting in the bar. This you loved him. This you hated him. 

Bakugo stepped down from the window, silent. And began to walk away, aimless and dizzy. 

"Hey! Hey man! You're not going to just leave her in there are you? I mean she's your soulmate! You gotta at least send her a message or something, right?" Kirishima called after his friend in earnest. 

Bakugo stopped and scolded at his feet for a moment before getting an idea. 

"Yeah... Yeah you're right. He's got to send her a message, he's gonna be late. In fact, he's not even going to make it, after all." 

Kirishima's face scrunched in bewilderment before realizing what his friend meant. 

Bakugo pulled out a small notebook he kept in one of his many pant pockets, scribbled his apologies, and tore out the page, placing it in another separate pant pocket. 

"Right. Soo, what, do we just... leave now?" Kirishima questions.

"Nope. I've got a better idea." he peaks in the window again, waiting as he watches you open your box, picking out the letter and seeing the heartbreak written on your face. 

"We're going to go talk to my soulmate."

You look over the letter that rattled the box unexpectantly. 

You could have almost teared up as you read that an emergency had come up and he wouldn't be able to make it after all. If that wasn't the worst of it, not moments after the bad news a familiar pair of now off-duty coworkers come striding through the door and are heading straight for you. 

[forest-posts-and-reblogs]

Chapter 2 of Loving You Is A Losing Game

Danny had, very reluctantly, joined his parents in their once-in-a-blue-moon family dinners. He had only done this because he had needed to figure out exactly how his parents had captured that shade. He would have preferred eating Nasty Burger takeout in his room, or going to Elmerton and eating at one of their breakfast-for-dinner places, or accepting one of the many, many dinner invitations Johnny and Kitty kept sending him now that they had finally agreed to keep property damage to a minimum whenever they entered Amity Park.

Duty calls , he thought to himself sourly.

“So, mom, dad,” he asked, “did you do anything interesting in the lab today?”

Jack Fenton immediately replied, “We created a device that can find ghosts and used it to capture one! It was invisible, of course - probably trying to evade capture. But never fear, Danny, because we caught it! It’s successfully contained in the Fenton Ghost Containment Device, and your mother and I are going to study it before ripping it molecule by molecule!”

Danny ignored the sinking feeling in his chest. “Right. Any chance I could take a look at your tracking device after dinner? I wanna learn how you guys make such cool things.”

It wasn’t even a lie.

“Of course, honey,” Madeleine Fenton said. “You’ll have to make do with the blueprints, however, as we need the device so we know where the ghost is. Unless it realizes there’s no point in hiding from us.”

You’ll be waiting a long time in that case, seeing as I sent it to the zone , Danny thought to himself.

Danny woke up to a blue mist rising above him, and mentally groaned. Why couldn’t he have just one night of peaceful sleep? That was all he was asking for, but noooo. He was exempt from pretty much anything even remotely normal.

He slipped out of bed and turned himself intangible, falling through the floor and into the basement, where the ghost was (hopefully) located, and found himself staring down a ghost vulture.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Danny groaned. “Why are you out, Nutty?”

The vulture’s name wasn’t actually Nutty, but Danny thought it was funny, and despite the fact that the vulture had protested the name before, he got the sense that they liked it.

“I got a new job, kid. Pays well, too. All I gotta do is find and kill this one guy. Apparently he got on a lotta people’s nerves.”

Hopefully it’s not Dad, he thought. Out loud he asked, “Yeah? Who is this mystery person?”

“Some kid called Wes Weston,” Nutty croaked.

Danny froze for a full five seconds. Then he moved. He slammed Nutty into the wall so hard the vulture left a crater.

“Who paid you to kill Wes?” He snarled. "̶̠̅̓Ẁ̸̢͔̻̘̍̃̈́̀͘h̵̡̘̥̠͇̒õ̵͙̰̬̦̻̹̂͗̌̈̐̏͑̊̓͝?̷̢̟̰̮̗̲͘"̵̝̂̿̽̓̒̑͐͑̓̆̊̄̚

“I don’t know!" Nuty squawked. Danny pressed them further into the wall, and Nutty seemed to panic. "No, really, I don't know! It was some person in a hood! I never saw their face!"

"You sure it wasn't Plasmius?" Danny asked. If Vlad had decided to go after Wes, for whatever reason, Danny wouldn't hold back. Not this time, not anymore. Not when the life of his only remaining friend was on the line.

Wes couldn't die.

"I'm sure!" Nutty croaked. "Now can you please let me go?"

“Not until you promise not to hurt Wes,” Danny growled. “Promise me that, and I’ll let you go.”

“I promise!” Nutty all but shrieked, and true to word, Danny released him.

Nutty squawked once, flapping his wings in indignance. “Forget this, I’m going back to the Ruins. Much less of a chance of getting your body slammed into a wall there.” He shot a look at Danny.

Danny sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry about that, Nutty. I just - I couldn’t let you hurt him.”

Nutty snorted, then took off through the open portal. Danny watched him go before returning to his room. He sank back into bed hoping to finally get some sleep -

His phone rang.

Aggravated, Danny threw back the covers, snatched up his phone, and said, “What?”

“You left the portal open,” came Wes’s dry reply.

Danny stiffened, before falling through the floor and into the basement - again - and yes, he had indeed left the portal open. Danny groaned.

“Just one night,” he said into the phone, “all I want is one night I can sleep through without having to worry about ghosts.”

When Wes spoke again, he sounded tired. “I know. I don’t like it either.”

“Well, guess it’s time to die,” Danny chuckled. He took a deep breath. “I’m going -”

“Wait!” Wes exclaimed.

Danny paused. “What’s wrong?”

“The portal’s open. You could leave.”

All of a sudden, Danny was extremely aware of the glowing green tunnel in the wall (the tunnel he had died in). He swallowed.

“I don’t think I can, Wes,” he whispered, hating the words even as he spoke them, hating the weakness they revealed.

Wes was silent on the other end of the phone.

“Do you want me to be there when you do it?” he asked.

Danny released a shaky breath. “I think that would be worse, actually.”

“Danny. I know you don’t want to, but you need to leave. Amity Park isn’t safe for you anymore. Your parents have contracts with the GIW. Vlad is kidnapping you pretty much every week. Valerie hates you. Sam and Tucker don’t even care that you exist at this point.”

“I can’t leave you,” Danny whispered. His hands were shaking. “You heard what Nutty said. Someone wants to kill you, Wes. They could -”

“I can protect myself.” Wes cut him off. “And whoever wants to kill me hired Nutty from the Zone. If you want to find out who’s after me,

you’d have to go to the Zone regardless. Why not go there permanently?”

“Because you and Jazz are both here!” Danny shouted. “I can’t abandon you! If the GIW realize that you’re liminal, they’ll kill you both!”

“You wouldn’t be abandoning us, Danny,” Wes soothed. “The GIW are only after you and the other ghosts. They don’t even know that liminals exist. After you leave, if the ghosts attack again, Val, your parents or the GIW will scare them enough to send them back to the Zone for good. And when the ghost attacks stop and Amity Park settles down a bit, I’ll see what I can do to come visit. I have the blueprints for the portal. I’m sure I could convince Kyle to help me build it.”

With every word Wes spoke, Danny relaxed a bit more. Wes was right. Everything would be fine.

He’s lying to you, he’s going to turn on you and leave you just like everyone else as soon as he realises how worthless and insignificant you are

“Okay.” Danny said. “I’ll do it.” And with a click, he hung up. Bracing himself, and turned to look at the self-destruct button. He jumped forward and pressed the button, leaping back almost immediately.

The basement lit up in red. A siren wailed. A pleasant, robotic voice said, “Self-destruct mode activated. You have 60 seconds. Also, the ham is spoiled.”

Danny flew up, grabbed his parents, and flew out of the house. He left them on the front door of their neighbours, then flew back in. He hesitated in his room, before grabbing his model rockets and returning

to the basement. With a deep breath, he flew into the green, green, green portal, all the way to the other side. He flew till he was surrounded by the green, till he could feel the ectoplasm in the air, till he could see the Ruins surrounding him.

The Ruins are gonna get ruined , he thought, and chuckled.

Behind him, there was an explosion.