I'M OFF WORK!! YA KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS???
Guess what time it is? 👀
THAT'S RIGHT BABY IT'S BRUCE TIME LET'S GET IT
Bruce, obviously, realized the world was flooding pretty quickly. He has a restaurant right on the beach! Of course he'd notice!
At first, they thought it was just tide coming in a bit more than normal. It happened sometimes, though usually it was because of the moon being a bit closer to the planet, but whatever. Nothing unusual
But then the tide didn't go out nearly as much as it should've, and the next time it came in it rose even further. After a few days, Bruce finally realized something was wrong. The tide was gonna reach the restaurant within a few days, at this point!
The other Vacationers seemed to notice too, as the next day, everyone was building boats so they could head to the mainland. With the help of Brandy and a bunch of other Vacationers, Bruce made a restaurant-style boat
The lower decks had rooms for him, his kids and Brandy and the top deck was set up to be a restaurant. It was built Vacationer size with plenty of amenities troll size as well, for himself and any other trolls who visit his new sea restaurant
Bruce's original thought was to head to the mainland, see if they could rebuild there and build a dock for his restaurant, but the flood was taking over the mainland as well. The beach was just gone, the water reached the trees and was creeping higher
Then the storms came. Every other day, storms ravaged the remaining land and the rising sea alike, and Bruce and Brandy had to steer their ship away from the land and further out to sea to escape them
It was hard to tell the kids that the world was flooding, that they had to stay on the open sea’s now or at least until the water stopped rising
When the water stopped rising though… there weren't anymore island's big enough to be sustainable long-term
So after stopping at a couple more islands for wood, fruits and vegetables, they built another layer above the restaurant and made a small farm. They grew wheat, fruits, veggies, potatoes, corn, whatever they could
They learned through trial and error how to make flour and which plants had medicinal uses. They weren't experts by any means, but they were learning
Whenever they made an island stop, Bruce and Brandy made time to have fun with the kids on the beaches. They'd swim and surf and enjoy the water whenever they weren't working or gathering more resources for the ship
Despite everything, the water just felt better and better. It felt rejuvenating, refreshing, especially after a long day of work. They didn't get as many customers as they used to, but still many ships would stop to try out their restaurant
Bruce honestly thought his hair was going to go downhill, but it looked better than ever! It was nice! He hardly had to do anything to maintain it anymore, it was almost weird. He still did his usual hair routine though, when he could. Resources were limited nowadays, after all
A few months pass since the water stopped rising, and Bruce was starting to get the hang of things. Word spread about his restaurant on the sea, and he and Brandy would get customers more often than not
There were some odd things happening, though… Bruce didn't know what to think of it. He didn't know if he was hallucinating or if the skin between his fingers had somehow gotten… longer… it was something he'd noticed after washing his hands before cooking, one day, but he assumed it was just his mind playing tricks on him
There also seemed to be a small rash going around, though for some reason it only affected the sides of the neck? He'd gotten it, Brandy had gotten it, as have his kids and some coworkers. Their homemade itch relief ointment helped, but the soreness remained
Another kind of strange thing that Bruce has noticed is a new genre of Trolls visiting the restaurant. Sea shanty trolls, they said they were. Their music was so unique, but it sounded nice and sounded fitting for the world being flooded. Bruce would find himself humming their songs as he worked
They had set anchor at another island for supplies, and a few other ships full of trolls, vacationers, and a couple bergens had stopped by to try out their restaurant on the sea. Even a few techno trolls came out of the water to try it out! It was busy, for once, and Bruce was going around taking orders as usual
He paused when he passed a table of mixed trolls, hearing a techno troll mentioning something about how the flood started. His ears perked and he walked over. He asked how they were enjoying their food, before easing himself into the conversation and asking what the techno troll was saying about the flood
The neon troll's voice hushed to just above a whisper. He told of a legend among techno trolls, of an ancient species of troll known as sirens. He told of their beauty, of their strength, of their voices so powerful they could hypnotize people
He told of their control over water, how they had the bottom halves and colorings of ocean creatures and how they could make themselves look like land trolls, legs and all
He told of how he believes the elder techno trolls made a huge mistake. How centuries ago, the techno trolls used to live alongside sirens. He told of how they used to live peacefully alongside each other, of how the sirens would protect then from the big fish in the sea and how the techno’s accepted them as their own
Then, he told of how the ancient elders feared the sirens power and their abilities. The elders feared what would happen if the sirens suddenly turned on them. He told of how the elders discovered an old and powerful magic
He told how the elders lied to the sirens, saying there was a giant eel in a large cave system that had been lurking at the edges of their village, possibly waiting to strike. He told of how the sirens, wanting to protect their friends, ventured into the cave to fell this great and terrible beast, and he told of how the elders followed them in secret and sealed them inside with that old and powerful magic they had found
Bruce was horrified by this story, but it didn't end there. The techno troll then told that when the world began to flood, the current elders ventured to the cave and found it in shambles, completely broken apart and collapsed. The sirens had broken free, and the elders worried that they wanted revenge
Bruce paled. He slumped into the empty seat he'd been standing next to. The techno troll continued, saying how there was something different in the water now. Some ancient and powerful magic
He mentioned how he'd noticed changes in land trolls and vacationers who'd spent a lot of time in the water. How he'd noticed the spaces between fingers becoming webbed, how rashes appeared on the sides of the neck, how their voices were becoming stronger
Bruce paled further, thinking of the rash on his neck, on Brandy's, on his kids- he looked at his hands, at the spaces between his fingers, at how the webbing really did stretch higher than before. He wasn't hallucinating
The techno troll went on, saying how his theory is that the siren elders must've pumped this ancient magic into the water to make land species more accustomed to ocean life. As a courtesy or as a warning, he didn't know
Bruce let out a shaky breath. He asked the techno if he had any idea what the sirens were planning. The techno shook his head. Warned him to just be careful. Told him not to fear the physical changes, as they'd help them survive in the ocean
Bruce nodded and got up, attempting to go back to work as usual, but how could he after all he'd heard? He handed the orders off to a coworker and rushed off to tell Brandy of what he'd just learned
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While we're on the topic of De-aging AU's I wanna talk about Jason and Damian if Jason was 14 again real quick.
Do you guys think that Damian looks at this version of Jason, so different from the version he knows, nothing like the person he was told Jason was, and feels uncomfortably seen?
Damian was always told that Jason died because he was reckless, because he disobeyed orders, he was fired as Robin and he got himself killed. A cautionary tale, not a threat to his position. He dismisses Jason because Bruce does, because Dick does, because sometimes even Babs and Alfred do.
That's not the kid that he's looking at now. This Jason is happy, and smart, and full of love that has not yet soured into grief. He hangs on Bruce's every word, trains until his hands bleed and his body gives out to perfect the moves Bruce teaches him. He looks at Bruce with stars in his eyes and he calls him dad.
And Damian can't help but think, that this is the perfect Robin. The perfect son. And if Jason - sweet, loving, strong, Jason - can be fired, can die and have his room locked away and his pictures torn down, can have his last memory as Robin be as A Good Soldier, how could the rest of them ever compete? What could Damian do to stand a chance?
Jason will never grow out of the shadow of Robin, like the rest of them did. As long as Bruce, and Dick, and Babs, and Alfred look at him and see a dead kid who came back wrong, he will never get to be anything else. He will not get to be looked at through who he is now without the shadow of a dead boy looming over him.
And the worst part? Jason is exactly the same person he was back then. Bitter, sure, angry, justifiably, but he is still the boy with too much love in his heart and righteous fury festering in his gut. He is exactly the same boy who threw himself in front of an explosion to save his mother.
(The lines between the mother that betrayed him and the father that disgraced him are so very blurred. Fire or blade or crowbars or fists it does not matter. It ends the same way it always does because Jason Todd always dies, in every universe, in every timeline, Jason dies and crawls out only to be killed again and again and again.)
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