#so far away au

[actrixquadras]

So Far Away AU Part3

Chapter 2: New Start

During their journey to the Haven Academy, Jaune couldn’t understand why Qrow bothered to get drunk. Back in his hometown, he had seen many people get drunk and had their lives and their families destroyed by it. His father used to indulge in alcohol from time to time, but he remembers that he was always in control. Weiss’ mother was an alcoholic too. Alcohol was a poison Jaune never wanted to indulge in and yet here he was sipping it away at the bar, realizing why a person indulged in alcohol.

With every sip he took, he felt himself numb to what he was feeling. With every single swig he took, he found himself numb to the world. Jaune was not a lightweight, but he was also not someone who identified in the opposite spectrum. The hustle and bustle of the bar served as a soothing drone, but it was not hypnotizing enough to send him to a slumber.

“So what now?” Ren asks and at this moment Jaune looks up and remembers that he was not alone at the bar. Ren and Nora were here as well with him at the small table they had occupied. While he and Ren indulged themselves with a whisky on the rocks, Nora bothered herself to get a beer. Qrow was here as well, tucked away in a corner, drinking water which half surprised Jaune. Ilia, Sun, Coco, Velvet, and Neptune were huddled at one of the bigger tables, softly talking and from the expression they had on their face, the knight deduced that it was not a lively discussion. Neo, just like Qrow, occupied another corner, and Emerald and Mercury were seen at the counter, talking away.

What surprised Jaune more was the sight of Winter. Considering the history of alcohol in her family, Jaune expected her to be one of those people who despised alcohol. Well, he knew Weiss loathed it. But here she was, sitting at the counter, drinking the wine away, albeit in moderation.

“About what?” Jaune asks while taking a sip of his whisky.

“You know, fearless leader… what do you plan to do?” Nora asks while running her finger on the rim of her glass.

“What do you plan to do?” Jaune asks as he places his glass gently on the table. With the direction this conversation seemed to go, it was better if he remained sober. 

Nora and Ren look at each other and an unspoken agreement happens between them. They look at their leader and for a second, they hesitate to say what they had on their mind. Ren unconsciously cracks his knuckles and Nora starts rubbing her palms. Sensing their hesitation, Jaune gives them a gentle smile and says, “Before you say what you guys want to do, just remember that, whatever decision you take, whatever path you choose, I will always support you”.

The duo straighten their backs a bit as soon as Jaune says that as if a huge weight was lifted off their shoulder, and Ren looks at Nora to which the red-head woman nods. The man nods and then he looks at his leader and says, “I and Nora are planning to quit being huntsmen. We want to go back to Kuroyuri and rebuild it”.

Judging by how worried they looked right now, it was safe for Jaune to assume that he looked flabbergasted. He didn’t expect that. He didn’t mind them doing this, he just didn’t see it coming. Not even once did Nora nor Ren talk about Kuroyuri, so he was blindsided by their decision. Maybe the saying that war changes everything was true in every sense.

“We have been around the block, asking anyone who wants to join us. We have a good number. We thought if you don’t have anything going on, maybe you could come with us”, Nora says, a bit of hesitance in her voice.

A small smile grew on Jaune’s face. Even in tough times, they were thinking about him. Sure, he did have plans. He was planning to confess to Ruby and if it went well, maybe take her to his hometown to meet his parents who he didn’t see for a long time. Maybe meet Taiyang as well and ask for his blessing. Then get married and settle down. He and Ruby would continue to be huntsmen, but he would retire early to take care of the kids. 

But now, Ruby is gone. So most of his plans were down the drain and thus he had to begin from square one. Sure the offer Nora and Ren were giving was tempting, but he didn’t see himself going with them. They needed their privacy. They needed their space to grow and him being there would intrude that space and it didn’t sit well with Jaune.

He replies, “I’m happy that you are considering me in your future. But I must stop you right there. There are things I want to do and I won’t be able to do if I decide to join you guys”. 

“Do we have the right to know those things?” Ren hesitantly asks.

Jaune’s eyes soften a bit as he replies, “It’s been 26 years since I saw my parents. I fought with my Dad before I came to Beacon. I did talk to Mom but after the fall of Beacon, we fell out of touch. The last person from my family that I had talked with was Saphron and that was ages ago. Now, after everything that has happened, I think it is time to go back home and be there for my family. Also, Crocea Mors can’t go back to its rightful place if I don’t go back home”.

“Where exactly is your home, Jaune?” Nora asks.

“It's a small town in Vale by the name of Ansel”, Jaune replies.

“But didn’t Vale get destroyed?” Nora asks.

“The main city got destroyed, but places in the countryside like Patch, Ansel, and Strot are relatively safe. Also, my town has its fair share of good huntsmen”, the blonde replies.

“But do you have to go? You can still come with us and visit them once in a while right? Maybe you could…” Nora starts but Ren cuts her off by placing his hand on her shoulder. She looks at him and he just shakes his head. The knight understood where Nora was coming from. Her own experience related to her mother might have made her assume that his family might be the same. 

But Jaune knew well. He might have shared differences with his father but over the years, he has come to know why his father never bothered to train him. His mother was on the passive side but she always meant well. And then there were his sisters. He fought with them, he argued with them but he also loved them. You can’t forget about family just because you have one difference with them.

But at the same time, he was nervous. As he said before, it has been 26 years since he had seen them. The scroll which he had with him when he fell into Ever After, was lost in the unknown. It contained everything about his family and friends. The memories it held in it were lost forever to the blackness of the void. It has been so long that he even struggles to remember how they even look. He is also scared of the fact that anything could happen to them during these years.

“We understand, Jaune. You should go back to your family and regarding Kuroyuri, I believe you can visit us from time to time”, Ren says with a small reassuring smile. Did Ren sense the dilemma Jaune was going through in his mind? The knight had no idea. But knowing that he had his back brought ease to his soul.

“Yeah… you can do that!” Nora chimes in.

“That seems like a good alternative”, Jaune replies with a smile and as he picks up his glass, he asks, “So when are you two leaving?”

Ren shrugs his shoulders in reply and says, “Since it's a big group, it might take some time for us to prepare. If I have to give an exact number, maybe in three to four weeks”. Jaune simply nods.

“When are you leaving, Jaune?” Nora asks.

Jaune shrugs his shoulders as he replies, “I don’t know… maybe in a week. I don’t have much stuff to carry. Tomorrow, I was planning to get in contact with one of the Bullhead pilots and ask the place where he could drop me. Then get some stuff sorted out”.

“Only a week! I thought we had enough time to hang out”, Nora groans to which both Jaune and Ren let out a chuckle. 

The knight reaches out to pat the short woman’s head and says, “If it makes you feel better, I’m not sure whether I will be leaving early. As far as I know, the flight towards Vale might not occur this early. So if I get lucky, I might be around for a few more days”.

“But there is also a chance the flight might be in three days! What if there is one tomorrow?” Nora asks with concern.

Jaune smiles and replies, “Well, if that is the case then I guess I will miss that flight and wait for another”.

“You know… why can’t you wait till we leave for Kuroyuri!? That way we have plenty of time to spend!” Nora suggests.

“Nora…” Ren chastises her.

The knight couldn’t help but chuckle and said, “Well, that is something I can’t do. You guys would be busy with the preparations. So it's better if I get myself out of the way”.

“You are never in the way, Jaune”, Ren immediately replies in an offended tone.

The blonde takes a sip and with a grin on his face, he replies, “I know, Ren. I know”. A moment of silence grows among them and his eyes gaze back into his glass. In one big sip, he empties the glass and then he says, “Well, I will take my leave then”.

“You’re leaving?” Ren asks with genuine concern.

“I'm drained, man. I just want to sleep”, he replies and both of them understand.

They nod in synchrony and the short red-haired woman reaches out and hugs the knight. She then looks at her partner, who just nods and goes to hug them. They held onto each other for what felt like an eternity. None of them wanted to let go. It took Jaune all of his restraint to let go.

“Good night, fearless leader”, Nora beams.

“Good night, Jaune”, Ren says with a soft smile on his face.

“Good night guys”, Jaune replies as he walks out of the bar into the cold winds of the Vacuan night.

The night was beautiful but Jaune was not in the mood to savor it. Even with the presence of the shattered moon and stars, he seldom felt at ease. The local huntsmen were patrolling the camps. Just because Salem was dead, it didn’t mean that the Grimm would rest. After all, they existed before her. Her presence in this world acted as a control and now… since she was gone, they were back to their instinctual predation. The huntsmen were on their toes patrolling day and night.

Some waved at him as he walked past them and he returned the gesture in kind. He was acquainted with a few of them. Having Aura Amp as his semblance meant that he was in high demand. Sometimes they would reach out to him in the middle of the night to help and the knight would oblige. At least he could be helpful now, but also left him with little time to mourn. Jaune couldn’t help but shudder to imagine how these guys would fare after his departure. He was half convinced to stay back just to treat these people, but he had to stop himself. They were in this business knowing that their death was part of their main course… he can’t save everyone.

Pondering, Jaune enters the area where the refugees are camping. The sight of him brought smiles to the eyes of the children who were awake and they would rush to him asking about how his day was. The knight liked children a lot. Their smile eased him and it also made him work hard. This is not the place a child should be, yet here they were. The guilt that was present in his heart, rears its ugly head and worms its way into his mind. 

This was a newly built settlement. The last settlement where people from Atlas were camping was attacked overnight by Salem in the early days of the war. That skirmish took the lives of many people, including Weiss’ mother and brother. Many children died that day. Weiss and Winter were never the same after Willow and Whitley's death. There were times when Jaune would hear Weiss cry in the night, but he never dared to approach her, and that made him feel worse. She had helped him recover and he couldn’t help her back then and he can’t help her now.

The children would accompany him to his tent and they would say their goodbyes and be on their merry way. Jaune’s tent was not big but it was also not small. It was enough to room three people with beds and he used to share this space with Oscar and Qrow. It had enough space to hold a small portable stove in between and it was high enough for Jaune to stand up straight. But these days it is quite different. Oscar’s bed was neatly folded away and given to someone who needed it more than them. Qrow rarely appears back, so Jaune is mostly alone. 

The knight flops down on his bed and he unbuckles his sword from his waist. His eyes get drawn by the small moths that are hovering around his camp light and he is drawn to it. Today was a very long day and he was exhausted. The stove was warming the camp enough to make it cozy and Jaune slowly got rid of the coat he was wearing. As he folded the coat to act as his makeshift pillow, he sensed someone standing outside his tent.

“Jaune, are you awake?” a voice asks and Jaune immediately recognizes who the person is.

“Winter? Yes, I’m awake”, Jaune replies and the flaps of the tent open to reveal Winter. Prim and proper, but she seemed quite hesitant to enter.

“I hope I’m not disturbing you”, Winter asks standing at the entrance.

Jaune smiles and says, “No! You were not. Please make yourself comfortable”. The military officer takes up the offer the knight made and sits on the Qrow’s bed. While she was making herself comfortable, Jaune took this moment to study her. 

She had no sway in her movement, it meant she was sober. The way she appeared at his tent, meant that she followed him from the bar. The way she was hesitant to enter, explained to Jaune that she was not here for pleasantries. It was at this moment, Jaune knew very well that Winter came to him to discuss.

“How is life treating you, Jaune?” Winter asks as an ice-breaker.

Jaune shrugs his shoulders in indifference as he replies, “Same thing, different day. Nothing new. How are you?”

Winter lets out a sigh as she says, “Same here. Still trying to get used to not having my powers, but other than that, just like you said, nothing new”.

As soon as the explosion that claimed the lives of Ruby and others occurred, Winter lost her maiden powers. From what Jaune knew, the powers of maidens came from Ozpin. Since Oscar was dead now, it would make sense that he would reincarnate, but this time Salem was dead for good, which means that Ozpin’s hell also came to an end and thus the maiden power, which was his essence, also vanished. Winter was not overly sad about losing the powers if it meant that Salem was slain for good.

“And how is the search coming together?” Jaune asks.

“Yeah… about that. We are still looking. The Grimm concentration has gone down due to what Dr. Polendina calls the residual energy left by Ruby’s silver eyes, but it won’t stay for long. We have to find the relics as soon as possible”, Winter replies.

Jaune nods in agreement and replies, “Well, it's a good thing that we have the relic of destruction”.

“We have to thank Ruby for holding onto that”, Winter says and suddenly she sensed the knight’s mood go down into a spiral. The soldier had an inkling of how much Ruby meant to him. Her sister had given her enough hints regarding that. But seeing the knight so heartbroken saddened Winter a lot. He was a good man. He had suffered enough. So, she decides to steer the conversation in the direction she intended to at the beginning.

“I got a word from the hospital. They told me that Weiss would be fit for discharge in a week. She would still be hooked up to oxygen and IVs but we can take her away”, Winter says.

Jaune’s mood brightens up immediately and with glee, he exclaims, “That’s great news, Winter! I’m happy for you”. 

It causes the white-haired woman to smile but her mood drops and says, “It is good news, but I’m not sure about this, Jaune”.

“What’s wrong? You can tell me anything, Winter”, the knight asks.

“Jaune, as you know, my hands are tied. As much as I want to make Weiss my main priority, it's… it's just that I don’t trust anyone enough to find the relics and not use them for their gain. Headmaster Theodore is a good man, but I want to be there when we find those relics. I also don’t have enough trust in a stranger to take care of Weiss in my place. And not to forget, I hate to be that person, but this is not the place I want Weiss to be in as she recovers”, Winter laments as she leans forward, using her knees as support.

Jaune understood where her concerns came from. Vacuo, while it was kind enough to let the refugees live, the natives wouldn’t hesitate to abandon them when the chances of survival come into play. The Vacuan arms were open to anyone who was able to survive the harsh conditions and the refugees were mere civilians who were thrust into this war. He had heard a passing rumor about how few of them were planning to make a trip to East Sanus and Anima. Some were even contemplating to travel as far as Solitas and Menagerie. This was not a place you would have someone like Weiss stay.

But there was something that bothered Jaune a lot. The way Winter hesitated to find words after what she had just said, the way she refused to look into his eyes said that there was more she wanted to say. He doesn’t say a word, allowing all the time he could spare for Winter to articulate her thoughts.

“At the bar, I overheard you saying that you were planning to move back to your family”, Winter starts, looking a bit guilty.

“I am”, Jaune confirms.

“Jaune, what Ansel is like?” Winter asks.

The knight was taken aback by the question his friend’s sister posed. The only person he had divulged about his hometown was Ruby and it was during their trip to Haven Academy. To hear someone ask about it… it was new.

Racking his blurry memories, Jaune replies, “It’s a small town in Vale. It has a lot of farms and vineyards. We don’t live near the sea, but the rivers make up for it. It doesn’t get too hot in summer and it doesn’t get too cold in winter. Once in a while, the snow sticks. The people are friendly and we do have a good number of huntsmen protecting the town”.

Winter nods and in a hesitant voice, she asks, “So is it a good place for Weiss to recover?”

“Definitely! It is a great place for anyone who wants to settle down”, Jaune replies absently. 

The soldier bites her lips as if she was contemplating what to say next. She looked at him, and Jaune could easily say that she was being hesitant.

“Winter, is there something you want to say?” Jaune asks with a small smile on his face. This causes the white-haired woman to be surprised, but in the end, she just lets out a sigh. She remains quiet for a while, and then she takes a deep breath and looks into the knight’s eyes directly.

“There is something I wanted to ask. It’s more of a request”, Winter starts and she pauses for a second. She takes in one more breath and asks, “Will you take Weiss with you?”

Jaune didn’t see that coming. To be honest, he expected something along the lines of staying here which he was about to decline. But taking Weiss with him… that had never occurred to him. Why would it occur? Weiss, at best, was a good friend. He used to have romantic feelings for her in the past, but he outgrew it. And now, her sister is asking him to take her with him to his home.

“Winter, do you even realize what you are talking about?” Jaune asks while trying his best to keep his voice in check.

“I know what I just said, Jaune”, was the reply Winter gave.

“Why me? Just a moment ago you told me that you don’t trust a stranger to look after Weiss! What made you think that I am the right man for the job!?” the blonde knight asks in bewilderment.

“You are not a stranger, Jaune”, Winter starts in a gentle voice, which was quite rare to hear from her. She takes his hands in hers and says, “Weiss never considered you a stranger. As far as I know, she considered you as someone more than a friend. You are Weiss’ family”.

This causes the words to get stuck in Jaune’s throat. He… He had no arguments against that. He remains quiet as the elder Schnee sister continues to say, “You might be wondering why I chose you. It's because I know very well that you would do everything in your power to care for her. Nora and Ren will travel back to Kuroyuri to rebuild it and they won’t be able to look after her. I don’t know others well enough to know how they were with my sister. But you Jaune… I know you well. You never shirked away from responsibility and I feel at ease when she is with you”.

She continues to say, “And you just explained what Ansel was like. With how peaceful it sounds, I believe that place is the best place for Weiss to recover”.

“What if… what if screw up?” Jaune asks hesitantly. He would do that. Things never go right when it comes to him. If Winter was trusting Jaune enough, she should also know what she was getting into.

“You won’t. I know you enough to know that you won’t fail”, Winter says but Jaune doesn’t look convinced enough.

“I don’t know about that, Winter. It's a huge risk we are taking here”, the knight says.

“Then how about this? With things I have going on for me right now, it would take at least a year for me to wrap up. How about you just look after her for a year, and then I will move to Ansel and take her from your hands?” Winter suggested and Jaune took a moment to go through what she had just said. A year didn’t seem long enough. But if Winter says that it would take her a year to dig up the other relics, then it would be better if he is around Weiss for that time.

“Jaune. You are the only person I trust. I beg you to take Weiss away from here. My little sister has suffered enough. I don’t want her to be in pain any longer”, Winter states with tears in her eyes, and that is something Jaune doesn’t want to see.

“Ok”, Jaune replies, which causes the white-haired woman to look at him. “I will take her with me. Just… Please don’t cry. You can rest assured that she will be cared for”, he says as the soldier moves in for a hug. It was not an intimate one. He could feel how exhausted Winter was and he could imagine how good it must have felt for her to have this weight lighten up a bit. He didn’t have anything to do in his life. He couldn’t save his friends. He couldn’t save Ruby. But if he can seek some sort of satisfaction and redemption by taking care of Weiss, then he shall take this chance.

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

“Did you get everything you needed?” Winter asks as she walks Jaune towards the Atlesian Cargo plane. 

“Yep!” Jaune says with a slightly upbeat voice.

“Your driving license?”

“In my pocket

“Weiss’ medical reports?”

“In my bag”.

“Medicines?”

“In Weiss’ bag along with her clothes and her stuff”.

“Myrtenaster?”

“Perfectly polished and in the car”.

“Crocea Mors?”

This causes Jaune to pause in his stride. He looks at the elder Schnee sister and with a deadpan expression on his face, he asks, “Winter… did you seriously expect me to forget about my weapon?”

She raises her hands in exasperation and says, “Weiss told me that while you were competent in some things, you are also absent-minded in other things”.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Weiss”, Jaune mutters to himself as both of them walk into the cargo bay where the car Winter had acquired for him was parked. It was a top-class Atlesian Military Jeep. It had some wear and tear due to its use, but otherwise, it ran like a breeze. Its tires were secured to the floor of the plane and it held a lot of spare dust in its canisters. It was not too big, but it could hold a lot of things and right now it was holding precious cargo.

Strapped to the back of the driver seat was Weiss. She was hooked up to an IV and a portable oxygen cylinder hooked into her nasal cannula. The back seats were detached and were tied to the jeep’s roof. There were a lot of things next to the sleeping beauty. A long wooden case where her weapon was carefully stored away. There was an oxygen concentrator that Jaune was supposed to set up when the portable cylinder was not in use. A bag that had her medicine and clothes. Jaune’s rucksack was next to her bag since he had too little to carry. There were some tools and spare dust in case of an emergency.

“So it’s time, huh?” Winter says as she tears up a bit she reaches out to Weiss and kisses her forehead. She then looks at Jaune and says, “Please do take care of her and yourself. I will try to finish my job as soon as possible”.

“I will hold onto that”, Jaune says with a smile as he goes in for a hug which Winter graciously returns.

“Thank goodness we are on time”, they hear Nora exclaim and they see both Ren and Nora jog into the bay.

“Hope we are not late”, Ren pantingly says.

“You guys are just in time”, Winter says with a smile, and at that moment, Nora tackles her leader into a bear hug.

“I’m going to miss you so much, fearless leader” Nora sobs, and Jaune can’t help but smile and hug her back.

“I’m gonna miss you too, Nora”, Jaune says as he lets go and then he looks at Ren and hugs him.

“Take care of Weiss and yourself, brother. Do visit us once she recovers”, Ren says with a small smile on his face.

“Sure”, was the reply Jaune gave.

“One more thing, Jaune”, Winter says, and Jaune looks at her as she carefully rummages through the sling bag she had on her. She produces two jars and looks at them lovingly with a sad expression on her face and says, “It's Mother and Whitely. I thought it would comfort Weiss a bit if they are with her”, and she hands them over to Jaune gently. 

“I will take good care of them”, Jaune reassures Winter as he holds those jars as if his life depended on it.

“I know you will”, Winter says in a gentle tone, and at that moment horns go off. 

At first, it startled the group, and they looked around to see how everyone was gearing up. The knight looks back at the people and says, “Well I guess it's time to go”.

“I will inform you if something happens here. Just send me an update on Weiss’ health every week”, Winter says to which the blonde nods. Then all of them engulf him in a hug. It surprised him but he couldn’t hug them back since his hands were full and he returned the gesture by craning his neck over their shoulder. They held onto each other for what felt like a minute and then they let go. 

“Stay in touch”, Ren says with a smile and he drags Nora away who was waving at him madly. But Jaune knew very well how awkward Ren was. He smiles at his departing friends.

“Give me an update as soon as you reach Ansel”, says Winter.

“Sure”, Jaune replies with a smile on his face, and the white-haired woman returns in kind. She then walks away, just in time for the doors of the cargo bay to start closing. The blonde knight opens the door to the passenger seat and places the jar on it. He then looks at Weiss one last time, making sure that her ears are well covered with earbuds.

He then sits in the driver’s seat and his mind wanders. He was going to start a new chapter in his life. Weiss would be with him for a year. Till then, he would do his best to make her better and comfortable. As he felt the plane take off, he couldn’t help but get excited because Ansel was so far away.

[batfamhastwitter]

Part 11! Happy birthday to my favorite little gremlin!!

Prev ~ Beginning ~ Next

[theloveinc]

mating press is so objectively ugly ... embarrassing

[starry-bi-sky]

danyal al ghul memes because i don't think i've done those yet for this au.

(the jason one is in reference to the fanon headcanon/au that Jason and Damian potentially knew each other and interacted while jason was in the league. I've thought about it before in context of this au, but haven't thought about it enough to feel inspired or motivated to make a post exploring the idea)

(diablito means, as you can guess, 'little devil'. while i'm neutral to latino jason, i think the nickname is cute as fuck and was danny's main nickname from Jason. i don't wanna touch that timeline so im not gonna decide how old they were when Jason was there.)

Skulker: i am the ghost zone's greatest hunter! i capture and hunt creatures both rare and dangerous. Danyal: a poacher?? you're a poacher?? you poach animals??Skulker:...i sense i've made a mistake of some kind.

anyways that was the day that Skulker cemented himself as Danny's no.1 opp, and still remains there to this day even if he and Vlad are both viciously fighting for second. Out of everyone in the the AP rogues gallery, Skulker will be the first to be thrown under the bus in terms of 'o shit here comes phantom fucking RUN'.

[milkcioccolato]

Missed you!

[beccadrawsstuff]

they're too much (Heatmiser Bill (c) Spooky)

[mutable-manifestation]

Ghost Chirps AU Part 5

Part 1 & 2

Part 3

Part 4

***

While “Jason” (i.e. Alfred with an empty jet that Jason will meet up with later in order to “arrive” in Amity) hops a private jet, Red Hood is busy searching the Fenton home from top to bottom.

The local police move slowly, and by the time they arrive Jack and Maddie Fenton are both tied up and disarmed in their living room under heavy guard.

They hadn’t been restrained immediately, Batman talking him into giving them a chance to implicate themselves first.

Hood let him take the lead, but he didn’t even get a chance to ask a question, being cut off at the first indication he might want to talk about their “work.” Less than 60 seconds in, and the pair had outright confessed to violating the meta protection acts - and in tedious detail.

The questioning didn’t suffer any from them being tied up.

Far from the mulish silence or crocodile-tear laden denial of most criminals, they instead doubled down, insisting that nothing they had done was illegal, then jumping to the assumption that they were “possessed” - and boy had it been a nasty surprise when the whole house came alive trying to attack them with a quick verbal command.

Well, trying to attack Hood. And only him, for some reason.

One laser also freed the Fentons, who turned out to have even more weapons built into their suits. 

Somehow. 

Despite them being skintight.

That had been a pain, but Red Robin was able to hack the system using one of the couples’ own devices while Hood dodged - and kept the stray fire away from the others - leaving everyone else to recapture the pair. A blessedly simple task once they found out the lasers would splash harmlessly off of their armor (save for a gross film of green goop left wherever they grazed).

They take turns knocking each unconscious to change them in order to properly disarm them - Batman and Nightwing taking Jack first, followed by Orphan and Spoiler dealing with Maddie. 

The only non-weapon laden clothing they own turns out to be pajamas. 

This is around when the police show up, looking hesitant.

They, too, cite the “Anti-Ecto Acts.”

Oracle had debriefed them on the supposed Acts and “Ghost Investigation Ward” on their short drive over. Both were utterly bogus - the Acts had never even been proposed, let alone been approved as law, and the so-called “GIW” had no ties to the government.

The Fentons had been furious and denied the information intensely when told, but the cops mostly just looked relieved.

Apparently there’d been a lot of property damage by the GIW and Fentons both that had supposedly been dismissed under the Acts as “necessary in the pursuit of ecto-scum.”

For the Fentons, half of this damage was in the form of broken fire hydrants, cracked sidewalks, and totaled cars - they’d never been good drivers, before, the cops disclosed, but they’d become even more negligent since the ghosts began appearing, to the point they had to have a news segment warning when they would be on the road.

The lack of fatalities thus far had been nothing short of a miracle, they claimed.

“Of course there haven’t been any fatalities!” Mrs Fenton defends. “Our work is to protect people from those things, not make more! Officers, listen to reason-” Hood snorts disdainfully -”The Red Hood is clearly a ghost! All our systems targeted him the moment they came online - and they only target ecto-entities. He’s clearly taken these heroes under his sway - why else would they be working with a murderer!? You have to do something before he starts up his killing here in Amity!”

The officers look at him a bit hesitantly, but Batman is unmoved and gives the cover story Hood had outlined back in the alley.

Any concerns the locals have are quickly assuaged.

But for the whole explanation, Jason is trying not to shake even as he falls apart in place.

Their little website called them ghost-hunters, making it pretty clear what “ecto-entities” meant. 

Their system supposedly only targets ecto-entities.

The system had only targeted him.

The system only targets ghosts.

Jason had died.

A lot of his family members had died, too, granted. 

But Jason was the only one who seemed to come back wrong - anger sticking in his throat and never quite fading, an inclination towards violence even when he wasn’t angry well beyond what he’d ever felt before, and a sea of other emotions (that he would never acknowledge aloud) and triggers for those emotions that he always struggled to make heads or tails of.

He doesn’t have the meta gene. He knows that. He knew that.

He just assumed that the test missed it, because he knows he doesn’t know magic - the All Blades being the only exception - and he couldn’t think of another explanation at the time.

But he came back wrong.

And as he stands there, he wonders if he came back at all, mind on Solomon Grundy.

Wonders if he isn’t just some ghost, wandering around possessing his own corpse.

He jolts, as the thought strikes him: what about Danny?

If he’s a ghost and chirping is a ghost thing then what about his KID!?

Absently, he notes that Bruce has started interrogating the cops on what they meant by “ghost attacks.” 

He ignores the discussion, hustling for the door in the kitchen down to the lab.

He slams and locks the door behind him - in Red Robin’s face - as he descends, making a b-line for the computer he’d seen when the Fentons had dragged them all down there to start bragging about their crimes.

The only thing Oracle could get out of the whole building was things that were openly available online; direct connections were impossible.

Opening up the screen, he gets to cracking.

Going for the surface level files first, it turns out he doesn’t even need so much as a password to find what he wants.

One of the video game sub-files has an unrelated file in it: ghost notes.

There are plenty of other notes, of course, but he’d only been skimming to start, looking for anything hidden.

The Fenton parents were too open to bother, of course, with plenty of more obvious files strewn haphazardly across the home screen, but it’s always better to check. That there is a hidden file means it was likely made by either Danny or Jazz.

And it’s a treasure trove.

Sub-files for rogues, allies, conditional allies, and “halfas” were what greeted him.

The last being the only term he didn’t recognize, he clicked.

6 files: Clones, Danny, Dani, Dan, Vlad, and Red Hood.

He clicks his own file.

What greets him is a picture of himself 4 days ago, looking just to the left of the lens in an alley that he distinctly remembers searching for the kid in.

Just below is text.

~~~

??? Name: Red Hood

Species: probably a halfa

Status: Nnnneutral? I think? I know, I know, heads in bags. But Valerie tries to kill me all the time! And we’re allies sometimes! Hood- uh- looked for me? Okay I guess I can’t really judge this yet but please read the first met section before you judge please you guys?

First met: Aug 17, 2005, was in Gotham to bother Batman, stopped to think a bit on some fire escape - decide on the first prank yknow - but then my ghost sense went off. It felt like a halfa so I thought “oh cool, must be Dani” so I chirped, but then Red Hood - who was chasing some guy down an alley at the time - froze and looked around. I dropped visibility and chirped again and yeah, he definitely heard it. Humans can’t so he’s definitely a halfa - no glow so he can’t be a full ghost and it felt nothing like an overshadowing. 

Ended up following Hood around the rest of week - forgot to prank Batman, damn - and playing hide-and-seek with the chirps. It was really funny. But he very obviously doesn’t know he’s a halfa. But the guy is, like, scary levels of smart, so I’m sure he’ll figure it out on his own now that the chirp thing made it clear that something is up. Hopefully.

I figure I can go back in winter break - he should have it figured out and let his emotions process enough by then to at least hear me out when I explain the AEA and GIW and everything, then it won’t matter so much if he can, like, track me by voice or something if I talk since we’ll have MAD by then.

Despite his reputation, the people living in his haunt seem to love the guy. I can see why. On top of the whole smart he’s actually really nice to people he’s not shooting in the knees (which only even happened one time in the week I was there? It was actually pretty relaxing - most quiet week I’ve had since the portal opened THANK YOU TUCKER for hacking the portal hatch to be inoperable for a week). 

Where was I? Oh yeah, he’s actually surprisingly nice to people? So like, I think he’ll probably hear me out if I go back and be polite? I hope. Hate to leave the guy in the dark and him end up on the GIWs dissection table for “lots and lots of painful experiments.”

Not that those guys could even catch the Box Ghost. But uh, Hood doesn’t seem to have powers either? Or if he does he doesn’t know about them I don’t think - he only used the chirp the whole time I was their - not even to cheat with moving around.

Seriously. That guy's acrobatics could make Freakshow’s contortionist green - er, red??? - with envy. Actually wait, aren’t contortionists and acrobats different things?

SAM NOTE: help^?

Powers: 

?

~~~

Jason leans back, breathing deeply.

“Not a full ghost,” “not 'overshadowed'” - a term that sounds likke some kind of cousin to possesision - “definitely a halfa,” “humans can’t hear chirps.”

Halfa. 

Half. 

Ghost. 

Half Ghost.

It should sound absurd - you can’t be half alive and half dead.

But Jason has seen the Lazarus pits, has met Solomon Grundy, has met aliens and bullshit magic and can pull magical swords out of his own damn chest.

Half alive. Half dead.

Hopefully not just a fancy way to say possessing his own corpse.

He doesn’t have time to deal with every file - he’ll “confiscate” one of their USBs with a copy of everything for himself before leaving the rest to Batman & co, of course, minus the halfa files (a small part of him wants to shove his condition in Bruce��s face and demand he kill the clown again even though he knows it’s a futile hope, but the rest - the same part that snapped and denied and refused to say he was a meta less that a day ago now - cannot stomach the thought of even more rejection. Of a Bruce that believes he’s a monster. Of a Bruce that mourns him even while he’s right there. Or at least, more than he already does.) - but while the files copy he take the time to look at Danny’s.

The image has two people, Danny Fenton on one side and a version of the kid in a black hazmat suit with white hair, tanned skin, and painfully familiar green eyes. And floating.

~~~

Human Name: Danny Fenton

Ghost Name: Danny Phantom

Species: Halfa (half-human, half ghost)

~~~

It’s the section after that that makes Jason’s breath catch in his throat.

~~~

Death: The Portal Accident

So like, there was no audio (thank GOD I do not want to hear myself screaming) so. Details: When the portal didn’t work when they plugged it in mom and dad left for fudge, Jazz went to try and talk them into a more realistic career choice than ghosts. Sam and Tucker came over and Sam dared me to climb in and check it out - it was broken anyway so no harm. Except it wasn’t broken, just that my parents put the on button inside. Which I caught myself on when I tripped on a wire.

Anyway, electrocution! 

(T - Danny for the love of god be more serious, the cheerful tone is creepy)

(D - Hey! I’m the one who died! Shouldn’t I at least get to write my own epitaph)

(S - …Danny this is not an epitaph. You don’t even HAVE a grave)

(D - wow way to rub it in Sam)

(T - yeah Sam)

(S - ugh! Whatever, just stop with the chatting in official files)

(T - “official”)

(S - Tucker.)

(T - shutting up now)

Electrocution! I got zapped to death, but the ectoplasm from the portal was also opening up on top of me and a lot got bonded to me I guess (S - probably because of the electricity with how you ended up with some of Vortex' powers for a little while) at the same time said electricity was reviving me? - probably getting my heart beating again or something, I was a little busy screaming to pay attention (T - yeah okay we're going to Nasty Burger after this. And playing Doomed) - not that it would’ve mattered without the ghostification preventing me from melting me all the way to death.

Status: Me!

Powers:

Chirps! (ghost echolocation of some kind! humans can't hear em - halfas can, of course, in either form)

Form Change (really Sam? This barely counts)

Human form

Ghost form (no need to breathe)

Flight (last clock speed 210mph) (T - and climbing. Dang dude)

Invisibility (S - don’t forget shareable.) (Shareable. sigh)

Intangibility (Shareable)

Ecto Rays (eyes & hands) (T - and butt) (D - dude! I’m deleting that. Tucker why can't I delete it. TUCKER) (T - bow down in awe of my ksill) (S - ksill) (D - ksill) (T - yeah okay it’s permanent now) (D - aw man!)

Ghost Sense (S - why do we never test your range?) (D - no need? They always make themselves obvious or are being sneaky specifically to annoy me so *shrug*) (S - I still think we should test it)

Power Absorption (that time with Vortex’s weather powers)

Cryokinesis (Wayyyyy to much ice. NOT testing max output on that) (T - yeah frozen city was enough, let’s not cause an ice age. Tech needs some cool but too much is still bad and I just upgraded Patricia)

Ghostly Wail (cone of destruction, very exhausting - always at max output. Not to be used)

GHOST FORM ONLY (but really just never)

Cartoon Body (D - what???) (S - Freakshow literally turned you into a puddle and you just turned back and were fine. I don’t know what else to call that) (D - okay fair. but:)

GHOST FORM ONLY

Physical Enhancement (better strength, speed, stamina, durability, reflexes, balance, etc much better than human) (T - why does this look like dnd knockoff stats haha)

GHOST FORM ONLY (S - obviously mr last place in PE)

Resistances (pretty solid on the overshadowing, avoided being taken in by Ember until targeted, didn’t get turned to stone during the Medusa thing) (S - which was pure luck! Be careful!)

Ecto Electricity (ghost stinger, but I really don’t think this counts Sam. I mean I just. Make my ecto zappy. But it’s still just ecto) (S - so is your ICE and you don’t just call that "just cold ecto") (D - fine, but it feels overly specific) (S - maybe writing it all down will make you stop. Forgetting. POWERS!) (D - come on Sam that was a lucky hit! I was distracted! And it turned out fine!) (S - Fenton…) (D - oop okay doing fire now)

Ecto Fire (made Dash’s shoes melty that one time by make the ecto hot) (T - really needs more testing)

Tech possession (chasing Technus into computers, not very tested)

Ghost form only, i guess?

Overshadowing (control people, copy their voice, invade dreams - the control one erases the person’s memory so they don’t know they were overshadowed just lost time. I hate Walker. SO much) (T - rip Danny’s reputation, you’ll be missed)

Probably ghost form only

Duplication (T - That’s optimistic) (D - I’M WORKING ON IT OKAY!?) (S - pretty sure it just falls under cartoon body until you can actually separate) (D - :( betrayal)

Probably ghost form only

More? (D - ugh I hope not) (T - hey don’t say that, maybe you’ll get a power to make the JL give a crap about Amity) (D - honestly I’m getting pretty close to letting Boxy loose in Gotham) (S - Danny, don’t stoop to their level!) (D - it's only box ghost!) (T - I mean he has a point)

~~~

Jason changes his mind, seeing the commentary, and deletes the entire hidden file from the computer as soon as his copy is made. He can go over everything and bring any important info to Bruce separately, the bat’s can just chew on the parents’ files for now.

Once the original files are thoroughly and irretrievably removed he pockets his shiny new USB, makes a second one with all the official files, and heads back up and out - carelessly brushing past a thoroughly irate Red Robin with a pair of firemen and broken jaws of life. And not a scratch on the door; impressive - just in time to get Oracle’s text that he’s got 2 hours and 16 minutes to be at the location on his HUD so he can “arrive” to Amity.

And a fresh set of civilian clothes will be waiting in the plane, Alfred as reliable as ever.

“Files,” he says, tossing the safe USB to Batman and interrupting his interrogation of the police officer.

He catches it effortlessly of course, but the officer stops paying attention to him to jolt at Hood’s reappearance - even outside of Gotham his reputation is fierce.

“I sent a copy to myself. I’ll review them and give you an overview, but other than that consider this the end of my involvement in this little shitshow,” he says, continuing smoothly to the door. “I’m heading back to Gotham.”

Now, he has a little over two hours before Jason Todd needs to arrive in Amity Park. He only needs to lay hands on a laptop that he can isolate from Babs’ influence and he should be able to review the Halfa files in full before he "lands" - after he figures out just why the kid has a grudge against the JL.

[cfffrk]

Beryl: just gonna lay low here for a couple weeks until the police stop looking for me >:- ) Also Beryl: falls in love at first sight with her employer and doesn't want to leave

[dianagj-art]

What's this? is Raph with a steel chair!

prev / next

[actrixquadras]

So Far Away AU Part1

Chapter 0: Prologue

The moon, as a sentinel, stood in the silent expanse of the cosmos, where the stars twinkled like a distant memory. Ever glowing, ever moving, and in its long existence, it had seen everything. The birth of the world that it orbited, the creation of life, the creation of Grimm, the rise of magic, the rise of civilizations, their subsequent fall, the departure of its creators, mortals imitating its creator. It had seen it all. 

But throughout its eternal life, it could never understand one thing. Why didn’t the living give up? Its creator before leaving the land below and before scarring its body, along with his brother had killed off the living, and yet the living came back. The living fell victim to her creator’s creations yet they doubled back and thrived. They went to war with each other, and some had their souls forcefully merged with the beasts, yet they held onto their short lives like a natal seeking to cling to its mother. 

The moon questioned it a lot. It sought the counsel of the sun, the only other body that held onto this land in this celestial space, and even it didn’t know the answer to the living’s tribulations. The living were stubborn, they were tenacious, and that very quality of their made them a joy to watch, and yet their pain ached the moon the same way the shattered pieces of itself once did.

The situation that was going on below it now was also not helping. From the vantage point it sat, the moon could see the battle that was currently going on. It witnessed the tumult below, the clash of steel, a symphony of war cries echoing through the dark forests her creator once called home. The living and the Grimm collide, their struggles etching upon the canvas of the land. From the experience it had, it was clear what the living was trying to achieve. A way into the castle that loomed over the dark horizon, fenced behind the walls of the creatures of darkness. 

It was a battle against the living and the being of old times. A being who was cursed by the moon’s and her fellow celestial body’s creators to live eternally. It was a war against impossible odds. The being who wanted nothing but to die but take the world with her as an act of revenge and resentment.

The amount of explosions, blood, and sweat flowing there was enough to fill a lake. The strewn flesh and buzzing of flies that surrounded them made the lunar entity nauseous. It was pitiful, it was painful. It could have been short if the living just gave up.

The moon’s eyes wander as its gaze catches action all over the battlefield. One unlucky man was facing off against a madman who had his soul merged with a scorpion at the time of his birth. There was a standoff between two maidens, one fond of fire and the other fond of ice. The only difference between them was that the fire-crazed maiden stood all alone while the woman touched by the frost was protected by the knight of rust and two of his close comrades. 

But there was one entourage of warriors that caught the lunar entity’s eyes the most. 

It was a group of four women and one young man steadily breaking their way through the enemy lines. Their first major advance was pushed by the maiden of frost and the knight of rust before they were halted by the maiden of flames. Their second breakthrough was achieved with the help of the man with automaton legs and two shapeshifting damsels. The moon looked at them with bated breaths as they fought its creator’s creations just to reach the abode of the sad witch. 

The heft of those punches, the twirl of those ribbons, the precision and grace of those stabs and dust, and the swing of that scythe all made the metaphorical heart of the shattered celestial shudder. Such grace, such bravery was admirable. But the moon knew better. The moon knew well. It was for naught. No amount of bravery would let them come out of this place alive. No amount of grace would allow them to come out of the place unscathed.

Some of them will perish, dying a hero’s death. Others will be left to pick up the pieces, forever stuck in the cycle of mourning. All the moon could hope was that the ones who would be left behind could make something out of their life, for they still had a long life to live.

The moon lost sight of those warriors as they entered the witch’s keep. It might be a celestial that orbited the land below, but there are certain places where its gaze couldn’t reach. It never knew what goes on behind closed doors. 

Its gaze goes all over the battlefield. At first, it fell upon the group of soldiers who were holding a line of defense. The soldiers consisted of groups of different uniforms. From leather to cloth. From the knightly armor to carbon kevlar. From flesh to automaton. From humans to the beast people. All of them came together to defend their right to live.

Few warriors held the lunar entity’s eyes longer. There was this one man who was touched by the spirit of the monkey, if that’s what his tail meant, bouncing around from one Grimm to another, spinning his weapon with such force and athleticism that it would make any person with an eye for such things swoon. One woman simply smiled with her black glasses on as her weapon tore through the beowolves. There was also this one rabbit woman who seemed to change weapons on the fly, but for some reason, her weapons looked transparent. Was it the result of the so-called ‘Dust’? It was pretty, yet the moon understood how vicious it could be. Did her creators intend the so-called dust to be this powerful?

But the moon couldn’t help but sigh. This unity would come to an end once the war was over. That is how it always was. Every single time the living would come together for a common cause, then when they achieved that cause, they would go back to being enemies. It was nothing new to the moon. Like how birds needed to fly. Like how animals had the urge to feed. Like how the sun and moon had the instinct to always orbit the land below, the living always had the instinct to fight. Maybe it helped to give them a purpose to live, maybe it was a thrill… the moon never knew.

The moon’s mind found itself wandering back to the warriors back at the castle. It glanced in its direction, and it could feel the ripple of whatever was going down at the castle. But the walls that surrounded the stand-off between the warriors and the ancient witch protected them from the lunar entity’s peeping eyes and like a fickle being it was, its gaze went back to the battlefield, but this time to the likes of the unlucky man.

The fight between the man cursed with bad luck and the crazed beast-man was uneventful for the moon’s taste. To be specific, it was the way it ended that left a bad taste in the orbiting celestial’s mouth. Those two warriors bounced around the battlefield, decimating everything around them. Any Grimm that got caught between them was reduced to dust and the moon didn’t know whether it was because of the bad luck emitting from the curse man or the sheer intensity between those two warriors. The walking scorpion would steal his aura, and the cursed man would retaliate by swinging his sword-scythe, cutting off the madman’s sting in the process. The crazed man would acrobat his way around the unlucky man. 

It was when it happened. The moon doesn't know exactly what happened back there. Was it intentional, or was it purely accidental? During his hijinks, the beast-man lost his footing for a second and he fell on his sting. It was also a sting that was man-made and filled with more potent venom. The crazed man died instantaneously, with a crazed grin on his face and the unlucky man looked at his corpse with an unfazed expression.

Maybe the death of the humanoid scorpion was planned after all.

As the man cursed with bad luck walked towards the castle, the moon found its gaze on what it considered a more interesting fight it could watch at the moment.

The maiden of winter was doing all she could do to keep the maiden of fall near the ground, but she was struggling as the fall maiden was powered by not one but two maiden powers. The knight who was on an ethereal jackalope, courtesy of the dust princess, was doing everything to support the winter maiden along with his comrades. One of the comrades, a woman with a huge hammer, was setting off explosions while another comrade, a man was trying to grapple the said maiden with his hooks. 

The moon had always hated the fall maiden. All she did was take from everyone else. There was a time when it sympathized for the woman but now all it felt for that woman was loathe. The lunar entity was one of the two witnesses of when the maiden killed a girl who was originally supposed to be the maiden, the other witness being the warrior with silver eyes. There was a time when the moon thought that the woman was redeemable. But that feeling left the entity when the fall maiden killed a child to gain the summer aspect.

Now, all the moon wanted was to see the maiden of fall have a taste of defeat. The winter maiden and her supporters were already running on fumes. At one point in their fight, the fall maiden had destroyed the jackalope leaving the knight at a disadvantage. Powered by the aspects of two maidens, the fall maiden goes on the offensive, forcing her opponents to take cover behind the rocks.

Suddenly, the knight walks out from his cover. His shield was fully deployed and his sword was in his dominant hand. His helmet revealed nothing other than his blue eyes which were glaring at the fall maiden. The knight takes the stance, his shield close to his chest and his sword ready. The moon was not sure what history was between the knight and the maiden but as soon the said knight took the stance, an evil smile grew on the fall maiden’s face and she shot out a continuous stream of fire on the knight, completely engulfing him.

At first, the moon was concerned. The amount of fire the maiden had used was too much. No normal human could withstand it. But it was in for a shock when the knight tanked the fire and kept walking through the flames, one small step at a time. His eyes were locked on the fire maiden and he boldly waded through the flame as if it were a bog. The fall maiden took his stride as a challenge and kept spewing the flames and as a statement, she brought herself close to the ground, but the knight kept walking towards her, unfazed and the fall maiden didn’t like it at all.

What the fall maiden failed to realize was how the winter maiden and the other two of the knight’s comrades were sneaking closer toward her. The Knight of Rust was just a distraction. The hatred and mockery the fall maiden felt for the knight made her narrow-sighted. 

It was quick. The fall maiden didn’t have enough time to realize when two grappling hooks attached themselves to the ground and as she looked in the direction from where the hooks came from, just for her gut to be kicked by the man who was reeled in by those hooks. The maiden was not given enough time to react when the hammer girl swung her hammer into her back with unadulterated rage. The winter maiden swoops in to incase evil maiden’s lower body in ice and the last thing the evil scourge saw was the knight she called weak, swinging his sword in full force, aiming for her neck.

There was no hint of hesitation. His armor was burned in some places and it melted in some places. The red sash he wore around his waist was scorched with heat. He had discarded his shield to use his free hand as an extra force. There was no anger in his eyes. The only thing that was left in them was indifference as he committed himself to that strike.

And just like that, the head was separated from the torso. Smooth like butter. It was quick. It was painless. The moon knew very well that the people who brought that fate on the evil maiden wanted her to suffer, but some victory is better than nothing. The knight stood there as the winter maiden burned the corpse for an extra measure. They were exhausted but they were glad. 

But their joy was short-lived as a loud noise caught the moon’s attention. The castle was crumbling. It was falling to pieces. From the exposed section, the moon could make out a few figures. The lady with the scythe was the only one standing facing against the ancient witch. Her teammates were on the ground, battered and bruised and the moon was not sure whether they were breathing or not. The boy who went with them was missing an arm but was still standing, albeit barely and he was using his predecessor’s cane as a support. The lady in red was bruised and bloodied and in her hand was what the moon recognized as the sword of destruction. 

The witch loomed over them with a pitiful smile on her face. The lady in red looks at the young man, who just nods at her. A grim expression grew on the red huntress’s face as she closed her eyes and from the tips of her eyelashes, the moon saw a silver light leaking out. The boy stumbles into position right in between the witch and the huntress, his cane charging up some sort of attack. 

The moon’s eyes widen as the sword of destruction starts to glow with a silver aura, keeping the witch at bay as the field of aura generated by the cane is sucked in by the sword, and in a blink of an eye, the light explodes, blinding everything in the battlefield.

The explosion was so powerful that every single Grimm that was nearby vanished without a trace. The Grimm which were farther away scurried away in fear, an emotion that was foreign to them. The castle was decimated by the said explosion and the moon knew that the odds of someone surviving that explosion were very low.

There were varying emotions and expressions among the forces as they saw the castle come down into dust. Some looked in awe at the destruction and some stood like a deer caught in headlights. Some were rejoicing and some let out a sigh of relief. But there was one group of people who were making a break towards the castle. The knight was in the lead, his exhaustion all up in smoke as he saw the keep crumbling down, closely followed by the winter maiden and his comrades with the man with unconventional bad luck in the back.

But it was never enough. The moon lamented. No matter how much effort they put in, it would never be enough, for the castle was so far away.

Hey guys, this is my first au for my favorite pairing. Please forgive me if its difficult to follow since English is my second language. I hope you enjoy it.

[varpusvaras]

Dick had many soulmarks.

Not as many as someone would've thought, probably, with the amount of friends that he had, but still many. They adorned his forearm like jewelry, circling around his skin in intricate patterns. Every single one of them just as beautiful as the other, just like the people they belonged to. Dick thought every single one of them as a blessing.

He had done so especially after the first two had faded away.

They were still there, of course. Nothing could ever truly erase a mark on someone's soul, after all. Not even death. Dick would've been even more devastated if the marks would've disappeared with his parents, even if sometimes looking at the now liveless marks hurt.

They had hurt, physically, when it had happened. When the bodies had hit the ground and Dick's heart had been ripped into pieces, the marks had burned, searing hot white pain latching onto him, pulling at his skin the same as his heart.

Not that Dick had really noticed it, then. He had been hurting too much otherwise to really care about it in the moment.

He had latched onto every new mark with all of his heart afterwards. It had hurt, when Bruce's had appeared, as it made the white, faded color of his parents' marks stand out even more, but the joy had been enough to chase the hurt away. Alfred's had not hurt nearly as much, and with his friends, he had simply been happy.

Dick would've never said it out loud, but he did have favorites. His parents', even faded. He didn't think anyone would blame him for that one. Bruce's, in a sense, as it had been the first live one he had gained.

His absolute favorite, though?

Jason's.

Jason was...different. He wasn't his parents, nor was he his caretaker. He had no obligations to Dick, even if obligations did not really affect the formation of the marks. He wasn't Dick's friend, either, not the same way anyone in the team was.

He was Dick's little brother.

And Dick would've given him the world.

Jason had been ecstatic when the marks had appeared, and, to be perfectly honest, so had Dick. They were such beautiful marks too, the lines twisting around themselves to form images of wings in flight, shining when light hit them just right, every new angle bringing out a new detail.

"Birds of a feather, right?" Dick had said, grinning wildly. "That's what we are, Little Wing, and the marks know it."

He had ruffled Jason's hair, and Jason had grinned back at him, and for that moment, Dick had been able to forget everything else. No argument or hurt had mattered even in the slightest.

It had just been Dick and Jason, in their own world, one that was only for them.

---

Dick was exhausted.

In a good way, for once. If there was a good way to be exhausted. Maybe saying that he was exhausted in a better way was more correct. No one was hurt too badly, and the day had been more or less a success. All things considered, at the very least.

He missed home. It was maybe a stupid thing to say, Dick knew that so many people back home would've given everything to go to space, but Dick was tired. He was tired of being the leader, tired of seeing his friends get hurt, tired of failing in some way every single day.

He missed home. Even if things with Bruce were not perfect, everything was still much simpler back at the Manor, at least compared to this. Alfred would be there, with his gentle yet firm words and reassurances, and Bruce, even when Dick wanted to mostly scream at him, was still a familiar presence in a familiar space.

Jason would be there, too, talking Dick's ear off, making the house lived in, making it feel like an actual home.

Dick just wanted this whole thing to be over already, if he was being completely honest. Today had been a good day, all things considered, and all Dick wanted to do was to faceplant on his bed and sleep without too many worried for once. Sleep and hope that it would bring him closer to getting back home.

Of course, he couldn't do that, not just yet. Even if no one was hurt too badly, he needed to make sure that everything was in order, make sure that they had all they needed, make sure-

One moment he was thinking about all the things he needed to still do, and the next he was on the ground on his hands and knees, being torn to pieces and burned alive.

There were voices around him. Someone was touching him, hands warm on his skin, tilting his face up, but Dick couldn't see who it was. His heart was beating erratically, like it was trying to tear itself to shreds and out of its place. It burned, searing hot, white pain, that had turned him into a human torch.

Distantly, Dick knew that he already knew this pain.

He got a breath in to his burning lungs. Then another one. He was still on fire, but he could see again.

Kory was right in front of him, holding his head. Dick was mostly on the ground, now, laying on his side, only barely holding himself on his elbows.

He had no idea when he had gotten there.

Kory seemed to notice that he had come back to himself. Her face relaxed ever so slightly as his eyes met hers.

"Dick?" She asked. Her voice was low, and she was clearly trying to keep it soft, but it was still pinched with worry, just like her eyes. "Are you alright?"

Dick didn't know what to say to her.

He knew he wasn't injured, not badly at least. He knew that, but he didn't feel alright, not in the slightest.

The pain was still there, curling around the edges of him, his skin feeling like embers that were still smoldering, even though the fire had gone away. He couldn't feel his arm properly, and Dick wondered if something had-

Suddenly he felt cold.

He pushed himself up, ignoring how shaky he felt. He almost fell down again, and Kory tried to put her hands on him, maybe to push him back down or to help him up. Dick didn't know, and he didn't have the time to stop and figure it out.

His suit was on the way. Dick tugged at it, then dug his teeth on the sleeve and ripped the seam open with force he hadn't known he possessed in his jaws, and he dug his fingers in it again and continued ripping the sleeve off of his skin.

There were voices around him again, someone's hands on his shoulders, but Dick didn't pay any attention to any of it. He needed to get it off, he needed to get it off, so he could see, he needed to get it off so he could see-

Jason's mark was gone.

It had been between Bruce's and Alfred's, golden and warm and brilliant, wings in flight, and it was gone.

Dick tilted his arm, tried to catch it in light, like he had done before, to make it shine like it always had, and-

It was there.

It was still there.

Faded.

White.

Dead.

Just like his parents.

The fire burned again where his heart should've been, freezing cold, hollowing him out from the inside.

The world disappeared from around him as Dick screamed.

[fl00mie]

ERROR!INK (ASYNC SANS)

ok so, finally came with a full idea of this character:D an error version of ink. i'll be listing some facts and clarifications about him to prevent any kind of confusion, just under the cut!

i wanted to write his entire backstory on here but it ended up being a little too much longer than i expected so maybe i'll make a comic about it- or no (wheheh). but basically everything started when he also tore his soul but appeared in the anti-void instead of a normal void that would eventually become his doodle sphere

now, his design choices

he's wearing the first ever clothes he used in His Story comic

his eyes colors were chosen thanks to their inverts, those specific magenta and blue are the opposites of green and yellow, the first colors he experienced in his original story

the marks on his body are white to represent the meaning of the few white garments in his original design: "The white layer underneath says how he attempts to hide who he is, but his emptiness sometimes shines through."

his "tattoos" are no longer illegible when he turns into an error, they become common binary codes (the font used for these is Note This, ink's official font)

the red (magenta) eye is on the right side to somehow symbolize the blood his "scar" would cause

there is no yellow on his clothes to show how secretive he is, as he constantly hides half his face in his scarf

personality traits and extra facts!

as said before he is someone incredibly reserved, mostly because while being in his 5 senses he is afraid of his self without his doses of paints and tries to not attract attention

nonetheless, he likes being around people, he would probably travel across universes to hang out hidden in crowded places

the "specific situations" mentioned on the first part of the sheet refer, for the most part, to self-defense. but there may be other situations where he simply creates stuff that people ask for from time to time

compared to his original counterpart, he will take much longer to drain as he'll rarely use his powers

if he talks for too much time he'll glitch for an instant and forget everything he was saying. that is one of the reason he doesn't enjoy talking so much

when he's in the doodle sphere he often has momentary traumatic hallucinations, so he tries to leave that place as quickly as possible

these previously mentioned hallucinations also happen in panic situations or as a sign that the ingested paints are no longer effective

okie dokie i think that's all for now<3 if anything comes to my mind later or anytime i'll try to post it or smth! hope you like it🫶

ink sans by @/comyet

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

MDZS x Hollow Knight Part 3: The Rebugging

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 4

[superfruitland]

guess who's back~

|| masterpost || previous || next

[mari-lair]

*sigh* I love them so much still... Look at how silly they are here, the trio of all time.

It hurt but I have finally accepted I got attached to the wrong side characters and we will never get another grim reaper arc. The manga may have lost me, but I will always have a soft spot for this trio.

[noughticalcrossings]

No men, but animals

Harry Goodsir - Soay Sheep

Thomas Blanky - European Badger

Edward Little - Hackney Horse