#this kids is called soul death
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
artphilosophie · 10 months ago
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
224 notes · View notes
lune-tic · 8 months ago
Text
I think about this scene so much.
104 notes · View notes
bcbdrums · 8 months ago
Text
Death the Kid is all about symmetry like he’s compelled from the fibers of his being by nature of being a Grim Reaper for the world to be in balance…
But he doesn’t care about Black Star’s asymmetry with that shoulder tattoo.
It must be love.
77 notes · View notes
firstkillers · 1 year ago
Text
Anyways this whole submarine thing has proven that people on this site aren’t actually able to commit to eating the rich.
176 notes · View notes
cannedsam102 · 10 months ago
Text
Tumblr media
A lovely walk
69 notes · View notes
Text
headcanon that death city doesn’t participate in daylight savings time because elementary-aged death the kid would have such a meltdown about changing all the clocks that lord death decided it wasn’t worth it
129 notes · View notes
dangerousdan-dan · 18 days ago
Text
One of my favorite things about the día de muertos (day of the dead) celebrations is that we get one day to exclusively celebrate the souls of the pets who are no longer with us
9 notes · View notes
thekingofwinterblog · 11 months ago
Note
Any next gen Soul Eater ideas, like CroMa kids or something? Maybe they could finally start really healing the human-witch divide, unlike the copout super convenient manga truce🤷🏿‍♀️
Well to cover it in full, i'll start with how i would have handled their role in the plot, then gone over the individual characters and how one might handle them.
Tumblr media
Now i would very much have the younger generation be directly involved/responsible for the two sides making peace, but one thing i would put a lot of emphasis on, is that this is NOT the case that the young was able to make peace with the witches because they had lost nothing.
This is one of the cheapest aspects of the way Kid made peace with the witches. Rather than forcing him to have to accept that people he cared about would go unavenged, kid never had to deal with having witches as a faction kill people he cared about, and so he never developed real hatred for them the way his father did.
This is very cheap, and it's the opposite of how i would have handled it with the next gen.
I would have had most if not all of them suffer real, genuine, personal losses in the war against witches which has ramped up during their early years.
Thus them eventually growing to tire of the war, and realizing that the conflict has to end at some point, even if it means giving up on revenge and payback would have had real, genuine bite.
And with that said, lets get into the real fun part. Dissecting the various aspects you could use to craft the next generation.
Tumblr media
In regards to our favorite triangle, there is a lot of potential here.
To confront the most obvious thing out of the way, there is of course the question of wheter any biological child of Kid would also be a shinigami, and if so would the child be like Asura, who's senzu lines was already finished, but not full, or would they be like Kid's own.
If the latter, that completely changes the dynamic, because it means that the child in question has the potential to succeed him as the next great old one of order.
Kid was created with the goal of his father making a true successor that would ideally surpass him.
If kid has a child that has that same potential, it means that the kid in question is both someone Kid loves, but also the reality that to achieve that same potential that Kid unlocked, Kid in turn would have to die.
Even if any kid of Liz and Patty are not shinigami, their nature would still be very big parts of their dynamics with the world and their dad.
Because if fully Human, there is the very real fact that Kid will outlive them. Even in the best case scenario, where they die of old age, peacefully in their bed, their dad would still be eternally young and at their side to see it happen.
Needless to say, this is a great springboard to build character drama off, as the kids in question could easily have a very complicated question with their dad, who might be overprotective of them, and struggle to balance being a father, being the effective monarch of Death city, and their boss if they are Meisters or weapons.
And thats not even taking into account that as any story with half siblings born from a triangle, there is no guarantee that the kids would get well along. Liz and patty worked great because they had a very clear, uncomplicated and mutual love for one another.
As any look into histotical harem politics can tell you, this sort of dynamic very, very rarely appears amongst half siblings.
I imagine both liz and patty would both try to make their kids essentially the next generation's version of them, and that kind of thoughtless but well meaning parenting could easily lead to a very volitile couple of half siblings
And thats great, because theres a lot of ways you could write them with that background and dynamics in mind. And subsequentally, lots of character development you can get by putting this kind of complicated relationship of love mixed with rivalry through the wringer.
As for the kids personalities, the fact is that Kid, liz and Patty all have so many different traits and quirks that they could easily pass on to their kids that it's sorta all up to the author how each would turn out.
Tumblr media
Moving on from the triangle, to the ninja duo, we have a parent and child dynamic that would either be great, or absolutely terrible.
Given how black star is, i have no doubt any child of him and tsubaki would probably embrace the fact they are the child of the strongest meister alive, essentially being very similar to him, or they would grow up to absolutely resent it.
Its not hard to see a kid who grows up trying to be black star, growing to absolutely reject the very concept of attaining power just because they want it.
And there are actually several ways to write that.
Obviously the kid could absolutely fail, and the story is about the fact they never had any shot at becoming as strong as he did, and so had to fidn their own way. But you could also write the opposite. Someone who DID attain the absolute peak... Then came to feel that it was all a waste of time, that by trying to be as great as dad, they wasted their entire life so far. That power was not all that important in the end.
Or they could be a happy go lucky kid who takes everything in stride for the most part like Black Star himself.
There are a lot of ways to write this relationship and the kind of person the kid would be.
Im not sure whas aort of relationship the kid would have with their mom though. I imagine Tsubaki would be a good caretaker, but other than being a good mom, i don't really see her as nearly as large a defining presscence in her childs teenage development as Black star is.
As for personality, wheter cynical or joyful, i would probably have them share a lot of traits with black star, like a love for the dramatics, a natural inclination to act over the top(if not mayhaps in the same attentionwhore manner as their dad), and maybe not being the brightest tool in the shed.
Tumblr media
As for a child of Maka and Chrona, i would have said kid be the main protagonist of this story, just like her mother was the protagonist of the original.
And the reason for that, and for giving her a very distinct gender, is that i would explore this big conflict between Death's side, and the witches as a whole, by someone who is both.
Tumblr media
Namely i would make full use of the fact that said child would be the granchild of Medusa, and in turn, be a witch just like her. Heck you could even have her take more from Medusa than either of her parents when it comes to look, which people have no problem pointing out.
One of the big problems with the witches as a faction is that we never really had a character to explore their inborn desire from destruction, and what that actually means... Well here's a great character to do that with. Someone who has chosen the side of order and law and is generally a good person... While also having all the same inborn urges that the opposition, the ones her own side deems as pure evil, has.
Its a great idea for a character journey, and thats withouth taking into acxount that if she has black blood, she would probably be prone to madness, just like Crona was.
That could manifest itself in bouts of utter bloodlust against evil enemies, just like how stein was when defeating medusa.
As for relationship with her parents, i like the idea of her growing up in a loving home, in stark contrast to her parent Chrona, she was the pride and joy of both her parents lives, and unlike her mother, she didnt groe up in the shadow of a broken relationship where everything just disitegrated.
Heck, even her relationship with spirit(as it would not be tainted by the man's infidelity), would probably be great.
No, her journey and character voes comes from the fact that while she has a great relationship with her family, unlike the rest of the cast, she has a far, far more tumoltous relationship with her homeland, the city state of death city.
There is an old african saying that "The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth". That would be her personal conflict in a nutshell.
She has loved ones in Death city... But she does not love her home the way the rest of the cast does.
As a witch who kills her own, she suffers not only from racism from both sides of this conflict, but would probably also feel like nobody loves her, with all the self loathing that entails. Every single relationship she has is either family, or someone her parents introduced her to.
In other words, she is a very lonely individual, with a lot of issues regarding wanting to make friends, but having huge problems doing that.
In fact, i would use Maka and Crona's best moment, their connecting in the basement so long ago, as something she holds up as an ideal. She WANTS something like that... And the reality is she probably is not going to get it. If she wants to find her own soul mate, she'll have to do it her own way, just like her parents did.
And if she cant... She will one day find herself completely alone in the world, as the only one who'll live as long as she will, is her boss Kid, who she isnt all that close with.
So a bit of a mix between her parents. She has maka's bravery, but just like crona, she has terrible absolutely capacity for friendmaking, and because that attempts at making new relationships leads to constant failure, at some point she became afraid to even try, to risk rejection.
Needless tos say her coming to terms with her issues would very much tie in to the two sides who she like it or not, are connected to both of, begin making peace.
As for personality, probably a mix of her parents with Maka's overall attitude and fluctuating confidence levels, but with Crona's inclination of selfimposed withdrawal and isolation.
Tumblr media
As for Soul, if this story has maka and Crona hook up, that probably means he hooks up with... Blair.
Now there is a lot of irony here, that the relationship that was set up as the obvious "false lead" ended up becoming the actual one that happened, and by the time it did, Maka was actually okay eith it, but there is one idea i kinda did want to explore with this relationship.
Namely their kid.
Blair is unfortunately one of soul eaters most wasted characters. Other than fanservice, and one later arc where they got to be cool, she was never really used to good effect.
Essentially what i would do with her and Soul's kid is a do-over. Explore the ideas of having a very distinctly non human main cast member, who has a very nonchelant attitude to everything, life, love, death and so on.
They are the observer that doesnt really fit in, who has very different priorities than the rest of the crew, who yes, is fighting against witches, but isn't actually ideologically invested in the conflict the way the rest are.
Wheras all the rest have very distinct ideological and personal reasons for wanting to comtinue this fight until they "win", they dont care.
This is just a job, not in the sense they get paid to do so, but rather it's a lifestyle choice, that just happens to also include a lot of cash that can be traded for fish and other goodies.
As such, this cat boy/girl could also act as a voice of reason as the ultimate point of this story is the painful march to peace.
As for relationship with their parents, I would have this also be distinctly non human like. Soul WANTS a traditional, father child dynamic. But the reality is that while his kid is both fond of, and loves him, at the tender age of early puberty, they feel like they have grown up and it's time to leave the nest forever and be independent.
Something that weirds out the rest of the cast, but which blair finds perfectly normal and is proud of.
As for personality, very similar to Blair, just with way more focus on their friendship with the rest of the cast.
Tumblr media
As for the main other pairing who would probably be really important here, stein and Marie, i... Have no idea honestly.
The fact is both of them are wacky, and insane, just in very different ways, and you could combine both... Or you could have their kid end up being completely normal.
It depends on what role you need them to fill honestly. If you need the older, cooler upper classman who is a few years older than the rest that could work, or if you wanna have them be the next stein with all the screws loose, that works too.
Honestly if you just wanna have them be the love interest who is more science oriented than fighting, that could work too as well.
Any of these combinations could emphasise different aspects of both Marie and Stein and still work just fine for their role.
21 notes · View notes
here-there-were-dragons · 2 months ago
Text
post on the large hadron collider reminds me one of the many many many many many crazy things my mother believes wholeheartedly is that she and a worldwide community of people have the ability to literally see the future, and that the only reason it "doesn't work anymore" (which she is inconsistent about claiming) is because when the lhc was turned on (she insists it happened in the year 2000-i do not care enough to verify) it corrupted the timeline and ruined all of her fucking psychic future sight by setting us on The Wrong Timeline with it's... evil particle energies i guess. and then she goes on a paranoid rant about how the lhc is an act of hubris that's going to end mankind by ripping holes in reality and creating microblackholes or something and how she can "tell when it's on" because "things go a little funky" and her future vision "whites out again". i wonder what the hell she thinks is going on in stars all the time if she thinks the universe is that damn fragile.
she also seems to somewhat believe in the idea that every time you die your consciousness just gets transported seamlessly to a timeline where you didn't. and thinks that she regularly hops timelines and realities because she's "one of the rare 0.1% that's less attached to this reality and more to another one". at least when she's not blaming inconsistencies with reality vs her perception on everyone else except her being malicious, defective, and stupid. which she increasingly does now, since i guess her "heir to princess anastasia" delusion currently holds more appeal to her than the "psychic dream princess between dimensions" one. or more likely is just that she still 100% is in on both and i've just managed to tell her to shut the fuck up enough times that she doesn't talk about the psychic dream princess one unless she feels she has an opening to dump it in and force me to hear about it anymore. and believe me, she is ALWAYS looking for kinks in the armor to force that shit into ANY interaction
3 notes · View notes
apotelesmaa · 10 months ago
Text
I need to make one of those “people who haven’t read soul eater which of these things didn’t happen in the manga” because even for the people who have only watched the anime there is so much happening in the manga that sounds incredibly fake without context and is only marginally improved by having the context. Before I read the manga if u told me that there was an extremely powerful meister of a death scythe who was also a literal monkey (& his weapon is a mirror that wears a bear head 24/7 and takes his death) I would not believe you. Having read the manga I still think tezca and the monkey were a fever dream.
15 notes · View notes
ratislatis · 11 months ago
Text
Tumblr media
hey (with rizz)
(jesus christ im looking at this from my pc now and you. like actually need to click on it to see what's going on. what the fuck)
15 notes · View notes
crabboytahomaru · 2 years ago
Text
Tumblr media
Zebra crossing 💖
Tumblr media
Ft. Maka
47 notes · View notes
fate-defiant · 2 years ago
Text
Actually I just remembered this bit in the promotional trailer where there's a brief flash of spider/butterfly imagery associated with Rue and Mytho and like idk I think we could get some mileage out of that if we're creative with it
15 notes · View notes
anonymousmarshmallow · 22 days ago
Text
Giant monster getting attached to a kid is the best. 10/10
152K notes · View notes
glow-in-the-dark-death · 9 months ago
Text
Do it for the Plot
~
I like the idea of Tim and Danny meeting and just clocking each other as little shits TM.
Just causing chaos to everyone in a way that can't really be traced back to them like 'Who? Me? I was busy doing all of these other things I have no idea how I would do that?'
Danny helps Tim get revenge on the bats for all the shit he's had to put up with and being absolute trolls about the whole thing *chefs kiss*
~
Tim&Danny dragging Ra's body
Damian: "Wha-?"
T&D: "No one will ever believe you"
Danny makes them go invisible
~
Bats: "Where ya going Tim?"
Tim holding back a cackle:" Oh, it's my anniversary so it's date night!"
Bats: "Anniversary?! We didn't know you were getting serious with someone?"
Tim: "Serious? He's my husband of course I'm serious about him"
Bats: "Wait hold on-!"
Tim: "Gotta go! Can't be late I have to make sure the babysitter has everything they'll need."
Bats: "BABYSITTER!?"
Tim: "Bye bye~!"
(They planned all of it including their 'fake marriage', Danny went back in time with the help of CW who is a troll at heart, and made the legal changes including Dan and Dani as their kids (their de-aged) otherwise someone (Oracle) would have eventually realized that the license is fake. So they went back in time and made it legitimately real)
~
Danny being Ghost King means that Tim is now also royalty
Tim walking up to John Constantine:" I have your entire soul"
and then just turning around and leaving
John very much felt the very strong Death Energy claiming Tim: "I don't want to be sober right now"
~
Earth about to be taken over for the 5th time that year by higher beings
Tim walking up late with coffee in his hand: "Leave or I'll call my husband"
Higher Beings very much not wanting to mess with the High King of the Infinite Realms: ᕕ( ᐕ )ᕗ
~
The Phantom family relaxing with cucumbers on their eyes and face masks: "Did you hear something?"
The Bats & Everyone else:
Tumblr media
~
Just an Idea
6K notes · View notes
luxaofhesperides · 4 months ago
Text
the beginning - danny
0.
The Lazarus Pit brings Danny back.
The child who went into them, however, is gone forever.
Danyal al Ghul is the soul who should reside in this body. Danyal has a life still to live and Danny died ages ago, old and surrounded by loved ones, ready to spend the rest of his forever in the Infinite Realms.
Something's gone terrible wrong, he thinks rather wryly, squinting through the cold green water that surrounds him. An ache echoes through his body and he brings a hand—small, a child's hand that shouldn't belong to him— to his stomach, where he can feel a large wound slowly pull itself together.
Did I get stabbed?
He means to continue the thought, but a sharp pain hits his head, making him curl up. He gasps and air bursts from his lungs, water rushing to fill in the empty space. Danny chokes, panicking, as memories slide into place, the lives of Danyal al Ghul and Danny Fenton fighting for dominance in his head. His lungs burn, throat working futilely to push water out, but there's nothing to be done.
Danny is a child again, and just like last time, he dies young.
1. So.
Assassins.
Danny honestly can't tell if this is a step up or a step down from mad scientist parents. On the one hand: he knows they loved him, as clumsy as it was, even though they loved their work more. On the other hand: assassin cult sounds like something out of a fairy tale, and while cool, is definitely not safe for kids.
And Danny, somehow, is a child again.
This really wasn't what he expected when he woke up on the sandy bottom of the pit. He's in ghost form, which is an unpleasant shock, but at least its familiar.
He is also, if his memory as Danyal serves him correctly, nine years old.
Kinda sucks that he died so young this time round. Didn't even make it to the double digits before he was taken out of the running.
He can't remember what it was like being so small in his last life. He can't imagine how anyone would look at a child and run them through with a sword. It's a cruel world he's woken up in. It's made worse by the fact that he's alone.
At least being down here without needing to breathe is giving him valuable time to think.
Danny has lived a full life already. He didn't really need or want another one, content to be a full ghost in the Infinite Realms. But going back isn't really an option, now that he's in a new body. The kid he could have been deserves to live fully, and the least Danny can do is live that life for them.
It'll be hard, but Danny's sure he can manage a decent life for himself.
Being presumed dead will make his escape from the assassins easier, though he'll miss getting the chance to meet his new mother; assassin as she is, Danyal knows her not by her blades but by her soft lullabies and jasmine-scented hair. The loss of her child must be hurting her deeply, but it's necessary. If Danny wants any semblance of a normal life, he has to leave her behind.
Besides, he's seen enough death. He doesn't want to ever be the cause of it.
So, he needs a plan for this new life.
Step one: get out of dodge.
The rest he'll figure out on the way.
2.
Turns out assassins weren't the most shocking thing in this new life.
No, that honor goes to superheroes.
Genuine, honest to God superheroes! With powers and everything!
To think that Danny once called himself a superhero. Ha! As if! He's nothing compared to the likes of Superman or the Flash or even Green Lantern. They're in another league. Literally. They're part of the Justice League, which has a whole slew of other heroes, and Danny is possibly their biggest fan.
Not like that's weird; most people in this world are huge fans of superheroes. Makes sense, since they're the ones who rely on their protection the most.
It does suck to know that his background belongs to that of a villain. Assassins aren't known for saving people, after all.
Part of him contemplates becoming a hero again, taking up the role of Phantom and joining the ranks of Superman. But he's had many years to come to terms with the loss of his teenage years and the bitterness that came with it. That experience, that life once lived, helps him decide each time that being a civilian is the gift this life owes him.
At thirteen, Danny lives in a foster home with six other kids. He's the oldest and has his hands full taking care of everyone else while their foster parents work three jobs between them to keep them all afloat.
When his younger siblings play superheroes, he gladly takes the role of the villain, swooping in with a blanket to kidnap away an innocent bystander that has to be rescued. He falls over dramatically at the end of each fight and praises his siblings' strength and teamwork, making them puff up with pride.
It's all fun and games so long as it only stays fun and games.
Superpowers are cool and all, but his came at the cost of his life, his health, his future. He knows, better than anyone, the price of being a hero. He knows that even Superman carries heavy losses on his shoulders, struggles under burdens no one can see.
He's lucky that the small town he ended up in—Luray, Virginia—has no heroes or villains. Too small a place to be on anyone's radar, apparently.
His classmates often complain about how they wish they could live in a big city where there's more to do, more to see, superheroes flying through the streets to protect them.
Danny is happy where he is. It's quiet, and small, and nothing like what he's used to, but it's safe.
That's all he really wants.
3.
Here's something that stays the same no matter what world he's in: Danny is a magnet for trouble.
If the trouble stopped at bullies, everything would have been fine. Danny could handle Dash, and he could handle Justin just as easily.
But the universe loves to escalate with Danny, specifically, which is why Danny had to reveal his powers when some villain-wannabe school shooter attacked his high school.
And to think he felt bad for Jackson when he didn't make it onto the track team.
Luray does not have a meta population. They're too small to have much of a population at all, and much of it is white which made him, half-Iranian, stand out even before he threw out a barrier of ice to protect his classmates a second before the gunfire began.
"Danny?!" his seatmate, Clarrissa, cries out in alarm.
"Everyone get out the window and run for it!" he orders, "I hold him back as much as I can!"
"You can't stay here!"
"Don't worry," Danny says, offering her a tight smile. "He couldn't kill me even if he tried. Now go!"
His classmates hadn't wasted any more time, sending him shocked looks as they escaped the classroom. A glimpse of his reflection in the window revealed glowing green eyes and blue mist wafting out of his mouth.
Looks like his time in Luray is up. He hopes his foster siblings won't be too mad at him for running away.
The gunfire stops, and Danny takes his chance to leap through his ice, intangible, and tackle Jackson, easily knocking the gun away from him.
"Monster!" Jackson spits at him, and Danny laughs.
"Bold of you to say that. I'm not to one trying to kill people."
He doesn't want to hear anything else that comes out of Jackson's mouth, so he knocks the guy out with a solid hit to a pressure point on his neck. Hopefully that'll keep him down long enough for the cops to get him.
Danny stands and means to leave, but something hits the back of his head hard and he's out before he realizes what's happened.
When he wakes up, he's strapped down to a table in what is undeniably a lab, and sighs.
At least he made it to sixteen before he went into another lab. Maybe in his next life he might even get all the way up to twenty before he's pulled back down here.
4. Though he has all his powers and a ghost form, that doesn't mean he is a ghost in this life.
No, he's fully a meta, which means meta-suppressing cuffs work on him.
It's not exactly a discovery he was hoping to have while locked up in a lab, but it's what he's got, so he has to roll with it. The cuffs are heavy on his wrists and around his throat, keeping him from escaping as a group of people in masks and lab coats bustle around, ignoring him.
His head is still foggy, though likely more from the drugs than the hit he took to his head.
He doesn't bothering talking to any of them; they don't see him as human, and Danny's dealt with enough of that in his past life.
Mad scientists love to talk though, so he still hears the gist of their plans: recreating the meta gene for normal people, making a profit from selling powers, getting rich and famous from their accomplishments. They had been using Jackson to get corpses for human testing, but they got Danny instead — someone they can harvest bio material for, a much better find than a couple dead kids.
If he had the energy to rage, Danny would have killed everyone in the room already. They planned to kill his classmates just for test subjects.
He doesn't want to be an assassin, but he'd gladly lean into those old lessons to make sure they never hurt anyone again.
But the cuffs and drugs do a good job of keeping him docile, barely able to think, as they transport him around to different locations and cut him open.
He's not sure how long it's been when they ease up on the drugs a bit. It still takes time for his body to work through everything, and he comes too with a throat that's dry and a stomach that hasn't had anything in it for quite some time.
The first thing Danny does when they start asking him questions is throw up on them.
If they wanted cooperation, they should have treated him better. This is fully on them.
It makes for a convincing argument for food and water and a bathroom break, at least, so he gets what he demands and takes care of his human body under the cold gazes of three scientists.
"You guys suck," he says conversationally. "Keeping test subjects alive is like basic knowledge. No wonder y'all suck at your jobs."
"Your comments aren't needed," one of the scientists says primly. "Get up. We need to study how using your powers affects your body."
They hook a bunch of different things onto him, then lock him in a glass cage and use the cuff around his throat to send jolts of electricity through him when he doesn't do anything. He throws a chunk of ice at them, watching as it breaks apart into small pieces when it hits the glass. The scientists scribble in their notepads, and when they look at him again, he flips them off.
He gets shocked again, but it's worth it.
The process repeats for another few hours, then he's pulled out of the cage, gets an IV stuck in his arm, and drops off into drugged oblivion before he has time to start throwing hands.
5.
It must have been months. Danny's not sure; it's hard to keep track of time when locked in isolation.
He knows he's fed at least once a day. He's been getting a tray of bland food at random times, but he's counted over 50 trays sliding through the little slot on the bottom of his cell door.
Turns out insulting scientists and their procedures is a bad idea, especially when he has the language to really bruise their egos.
So.
Isolation sucks.
But at least they don't drug him anymore!
The cuffs do their job of keeping him in place, and if he didn't have memories of another life to keep him company, he definitely would have lost his mind long ago.
There's other people in here, other metas. He's heard them screaming and begging for mercy. He's heard them go chillingly quiet. He wonders why there are so many superheroes in this world when not a single one has come to save them.
Surely at least one would notice metas disappearing and would investigate?
But no.
No one ever comes to save them.
So Danny needs to figure out a way past the cuffs, and then he can be Phantom again long enough to free the other metas and make every scientist involve pay for their crimes.
He just needs to wait.
He just needs—
6.
When Danny wakes up, the alarms are ringing. It makes his head pound, throbbing with each piercing sound.
He stumbles up, using the wall to keep his balance, and freezes when he sees that the door to his cell is open.
…Huh.
The hallway is bathed in red light when he steps out. No one's around. He wanders around the facility, searching for answers and only finds more questions.
There are other cells, also empty. Certain rooms have blood splattered across the walls and the floor, but no bodies. Labs are destroyed, broken glass on the floor. But every room is empty.
He wanders until he finds what must be a security room. There's a strange device dangling off a keychain on a rack, and Danny eyes it curiously. He runs his fingers around the cuff on his throat, feels the little depression where the collar comes together, and takes the rounded device. If it doesn't work, then it doesn't work.
But if it does work…
The cuff pops open easily, as if it hasn't been his greatest foe these past few months.
All at once, his strength returns to him. He has forgotten what it was like to breathe easily, to feel his powers come to his call so easily, to be reassured that he can take care of himself.
It's almost like coming back to life.
He transforms, settling back into his ghost form with relief, and flies through the facility in search of any other metas that may need help. He finds no one, but he does catch a glimpse of the outside.
The sky is so blue it almost hurts to look at. Part of the facility has been blown apart; rubble surrounds the place and the surrounding forest has been flattened. It looks as though a fight has moved through the area.
Maybe a superhero did come to save them? Rude of them to leave only Danny, though.
He continues his search, poking his head into different rooms and hallways. He finds a staircase going down and follows it into the basement. More labs greet him, and the glow of computers and strange vials of liquid leave him unsettled.
There's a green glow coming around the corner than reminds him of the Lazarus Pit he flew out of, once upon a time many years ago, and that's what draws him forward.
Tucked away in that familiar glow is a small body, floating in a tube of liquid. There's an oxygen mask attached to her face, but that doesn't stop Danny from recognizing her.
"Ellie?"
7.
Just like in one life, Danny is cloned. The difference is that this time, there's no reason for it, no insane godfather trying to recreate a version of him that will choose him.
No, this time it's from a group of scientists who should have known better, who decided to mess around with his genes, and brought his once little sister now daughter into such a cruel, dangerous world.
Danny barely remembers breaking the glass to get her out of there. He doesn't know where he found the coat to bundle her up in, flying out of the facility as fast as he could. He feels sick, knowing it's his fault that she's here now, forced into a painful, terrifying existence because he wasn't strong enough to save himself.
He's a runaway meta victim of mad science. He can't take care of her.
"I'm sorry, Ellie," he whispers to her, pressing a kiss against her head. "I'm so sorry."
She small in his arms. She barely weighs anything.
Danny blinks back tears and tries to find some place he can stop and rest, somewhere safe he can gather his thoughts and figure out his next steps.
This isn't like when he first woke up in this world, with both sets of memories.
This is Ellie.
She deserves more than just a wish and a half-baked plan for a better life.
She deserves a family that wants her, that can care for her, that can protect her. She deserves to grow up normally and not worry about destabalizing or being a replacement for him or being hunted down.
She deserves one life to be a kid and grow up safe and be whoever she wants to be.
Danny will never be able to give her that.
But maybe he can give her to someone who can.
8.
Danyal grew up with an assassin mother and a cruel grandfather who expected far too much from a child. He was taught to kill and be more weapon than child. He was taught the world was something for him to take, to protect, to water with blood.
Danyal was meant to be the next Demon Head, and the next Bat.
Danny knows he can't go to his mother. If they're both lucky, he will never have to see her again. Knowing his luck, he's already planning explanations for why he never went back to her.
Danny's father, on the other hand…
It didn't take much to put the pieces together. The notorious Bat is Batman, Gotham's vigilante and one of the founders of the Justice League. While a child would have been left confused by the many comments his mother made about his father, it was simple enough for Danny to line them up with what he learned about the heroes of this world and realize, oh, that's my dad.
It takes a few weeks of research, using public libraries with Ellie tucked securely in a wrap to his chest, but he's able to learn more about Batman.
The most important thing being that he has kids.
Of course, none of this is officially acknowledged, but everyone knows that the Robins are his kids. Current Robin, especially, likes to remind people that he's 'the son of Batman'.
Okay. Cool.
Danny has siblings.
Awesome.
He's… not looking forward to those conversations.
At least it means more people to look after Ellie. Assuming they take her in, which Danny's really hoping for.
But it's the best he can do, so Danny sets course for Gotham and hopes that just this once, everything will work out.
9.
Meeting the Bats of Gotham is a lot harder than he expected.
A week in the city and he's barely caught more than a glimpse of them. He can't dedicate a lot of time to tracking them down either, needing to break into grocery stores to get food for him and Ellie.
She's so quiet as a baby, and it terrifies him. She's only cried twice the entire time he's had her, and Danny spends every day begging her to hold on.
Time during the day is spent catching naps and researching common vigilante spotting areas in Gotham. He's got a map of Gotham taken from a library and has been steadily marking it up, putting stars in the best places to find a Bat. There are places all over the city, and Danny has no idea how to know which ones are the best.
The only thing he can do is wait at a different rooftop each night, clinging to Ellie, wondering if this is the last night he has with her.
On the ninth night, someone finally arrives.
"Step away from the edge," a voice demands.
Danny turns to see Robin approaching, hands held out as if to catch him. He's bigger than Danny was expecting. Which makes sense; most of the stories Danny got online are from when Robin was a kid, and it's been a few years since then. He must be a teenager now. Older, but still young.
"Robin," he manages to say, his throat tightening. It feels almost like there's a noose around it. It feels like that meta-suppressing cuff has clicked back into place, leaving him helpless.
"Step away from the edge," Robin repeats. "There is no need for this to be your last resort."
"But it is," Danny whispers.
Robin darts forward and wraps a hand around Danny's wrist, yanking him towards the center of the roof. "Why on Earth would you come up here? Surely you must have known that someone would stop you."
"Batman," he gets out. "I need to speak to Batman."
"What for?"
"I'm… I was told, once, that I'm his son."
10. Robin stares at him for a long moment.
Then he takes off his mask.
Danny knows those eyes: he sees them every time he looks in a mirror.
"Danyal," Robin breathes. "You died before I was born."
"I did. Are you…?"
"Mother told me about you."
So he has a little brother. If only he hadn't left first chance he got, he could have known his little brother, gotten away from that place before it hurt him too. Danny has made many mistakes since he arrived in this world. Missing a little brother is perhaps the worst of them.
"Mother…" Danny repeats. "She put me in the Lazarus Pit. I remember that. She didn't want me to die."
"I was born to replace you."
Just like Ellie.
So many mistakes repeating. He's never felt like more of a failure.
"Batman. Our father. He treats you well? You are safe with him?"
Robins brows furrow, but he nods, which is enough for Danny. "Yes. Of course. Isn't that why you're here now?"
"I'm not asking for me." Danny carefully, gently, unwraps Ellie. "I'm asking for her. Please, take care of her. She deserves more than I can give her. Ellie… she'd be your niece."
Robin's eyes are wide. He's frozen until Danny pushes Ellie against his chest, forcing him to lift his arms to hold her.
"Wait, what about—?"
When Robin looks up, Danny's already gone.
It's for the best.
(masterpost for all parts)
2K notes · View notes