patrols with abby were easy. you knew she had your back, being the best of the best in isaac’s eyes. you started training with her to go on missions in the first place so you both created an almost dance while on a mission. you talked, whispered, laughed. you packed your extra bags with his trash/her treasure bits and bobs you found in decrepit buildings, teetering on 2x4s like a gymnast. abby was currently obsessed with the olympics, the last one being in 2012. she found a bunch of magazines about it on her last trip and had delicately packed them in her bag, planning on reading them as soon as she got back. “did you know that…” lined your conversations for several patrols. your personal favorite fact that it was the first olympics where every nation had a woman representing.
she later admitted, when you had officially been together for just over a week, that you were the last person to still be interested in what she was talking about. even nora tapped out after an hour-long spew about the shoes track and field athletes wear. manny tapped out after 5 minutes, during which he thought abby was joking around the whole time.
the point is you guys had it down to a tee. and yet, neither of you saw it coming. one second abby is laughing at something you said, turning around to respond, and the next second she’s pointing a gun over your shoulder. you freeze, back tensed up. an arm that is neither yours nor abby’s wraps around your neck and pulls you against a chest. the breath you let out from the action is sucked back into your lungs when you feel the cold metal of the gun tap against your temple. your mind shuts down on you, your fear overshadowing all you know about self-defense. your eyes stay locked on abby’s face. if you’re going to die, you want the last thing you see to be her.
“let. her. go.” abby bites out. her hand is steady, the gun pointed at whoever had you in a chokehold. “and i’ll think about letting you live.”
the man, who you assume is a man, tugs you closer to their body. you hear them wet their lips before speaking through a smile.
“now, i don’t want to hurt either of you,” it is a man. and his nonchalant response makes your stomach turn. “i don’t hurt young ladies like yourself,” he continues lewdly. his hold tightens on you again but this time he moves you so your body is pressed tight against his. abby continues to stare him down, her finger itching to fire a shot right in his head for touching you.
you bring both hands around his arm and sneak them between it and your neck. abby clocks your shift and switches her focus to the smug son of a bitch on the other side of her gun. she barely blinks before firing one clean shot in his shoulder, causing him to jump back and let you go. you dive near abby’s feet and move to stand behind her.
the man is moaning loudly. “now why did you do that?” he cries, holding his shoulder.
“c’mon man, if i have to explain it to you, you really are better off dead.” abby steps towards the man, who scuttles away on the floor. with you behind her, abby let’s go of the breath she’d been holding. she kneels over the curled up man, the hand on his shoulder stained red.
“who are you? are you alone?”
“ya think im gonna tell you?” the man croaks out.
abby kicks the gun away. “if you want to live i’d suggest talking. you’re in wolf territory.”
he freezes at the last sentence and abby tenses up again.
you freeze as well and call for abby. “c’mon. abby, we — we should go. ab—”
“no! we heard about a group moving in. they killed austin and half their group,” she says to you, her attention still on the man. “was that you?” she asks him. when he doesn’t say anything, abby knows her answer. she thinks back to what issac told her. that anyone in that group needs to be eliminated. no matter what. and you being on patrol wasn’t an exception in anyone’s eyes but abby’s.
“step back,” she nods her head at you. you immediately comply, taking several steps back as abby stands back up.
SHE KILLS FOR YOU: she looks down at the man and fires a single shot. you squeeze your eyes shut at the sound and don’t open them until you feel abby’s hand on your cheek. you blink up at her as she scans your face. you know you probably look a mess. sweat and dirt covering your face no matter how hard you try to keep it clean.
“you okay?” she asks, brows furrowed.
you nod. “yeah. not my first time witnessing a death, unfortunately. but i’m okay.” you lean into her hand, pressing a kiss to her palm. after a minute of scanning you for any tiny scratches, she lets you go and readjusts her backpack, slipping her gun into the holster.
“c’mon, let’s go back early. we need to report this to the group.”
you’re quick to follow her, taking the hand she gives to guide you over a giant fallen tree. she does it automatically, her free hand reaching to steady you if needed. the shift from laughing and joking to whispers is felt. but thankfully the love is still as loud as ever.
SHE DOESN’T KILL FOR YOU: “get up!” abby watches the man struggle to stand. he stumbles and abby uses her free hand to hold him up. when he’s stable, she steps back. “if i was alone you’d be dead by now. you’re lucky. go back to your group and tell them to stay out of this area. this is your only warning. now go!” the man stutters for a second before he staggers away. you take a step towards abby.
“abs — abby?” she keeps facing the direction the man went but doesn’t shy away from your touch. you run your hand up her arm and to the nape of her neck. “you okay?”
“yeah,” she sighs. she turns to look at you. your eyes are glassy and wide. she reaches up to wipe a tear from the corner of your eye. “c’mon we need to head back. one of the survivors said they had a big crew and isaac needs to know what happened before tomorrow’s patrol.”
you’re quick to follow her, taking the hand she gives to guide you over a giant fallen tree. she does it automatically, her free hand reaching to steady you if needed. the shift from laughing and joking to whispers is felt. but thankfully the love is still as loud as ever.
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Summer Vacation Summoning Shenanigans 2
idk when the batcave gets a Laz pit but the answer here is ‘not yet’ bc reasons
***
By the time Danny’s duplicate returns to him, Robin has finished - very thoroughly - tying up his captive ninja. And was now staring him down.
Red had moved to texting someone after ensuring Danny was belted in and putting the plane on some kind of autopilot - which, very cool.
He hadn’t been bored, though, looking over the plane interior with glee.
While the exterior design was…a bit much, the inside was sleek and high-tech. It was no rocketship, but going over which controls were similar and which differed and trying to guess what they all did was plenty entertaining.
He was less than half-way through them when he re-merged with his duplicate.
Luckily, Red and Robin were still occupied by that point, giving him time to focus on sifting through the memories.
He tries to stifle his laughter, disguising an escaped snort by pretending to cough into his fist.
Red apparently chooses that moment to be done with his phone (and damn, he sent some poor sob a book).
“Sorry about that; I had to update Batman.”
Danny let himself laugh at that.
“Bat-man? Not, like, Birdman or something?”
“Nope, the bat himself. Speaking of which; I was hoping you’d be willing to answer some questions?”
Robin chose that moment to plop into the seat next to Danny, who looked at him in askance.
“His vitals have stabilized; the tranquilizer has fully kicked in. There is no more need to worry about a surprise escape; by the time he awakes we will be back in Gotham.”
Danny hummed.
“So like, are you just dropping him off first? Or was the ‘taking me home’ thing a play on words that actually just meant ‘kidnapping me take 2: electric boogaloo?’ I mean, you don’t even know where I live; my place could be closer to here than to Gotham.”
“Your accent resembles nothing of Nanda Parbat,” Robin says.
Red picks up after him.
“No, no, we’re taking you back to your home,” he clarifies, shaking his head and x-ing his arms. “You’re from somewhere in the mid-western United States, right? Gotham is the first US city we’d hit flying this path.”
“Illinois,” he answers, squinting in thought as he searches his memory for a ‘Gotham’ or a ‘Nanda Parbat,’ which, ha, ‘Par-bat.’ “I take it we’re somewhere in, like, Europe or something?”
The Robins share a look.
“Where is the last place you remember being before you were kidnapped?” Red asks.
“Illinois,” Danny shrugs, settling back in his seat. “Anyway, you can just drop me near Chicago or something and I’ll take it from there.”
Red huffs a laugh. “No need for that. I gave Batman your name and description; he’ll have coordinates to where you need to go in no time.”
“Well, that’s…” ‘Inconvenient,’ he thinks to himself, hoping for the first time that this is actually a different universe so he doesn’t have to come up with an explanation to cover for how he somehow ended up abroad without including the whole ‘being summoned’ thing.
The last thing he needs is to give them a reason to put him through the Ghost Catcher.
“...nice,” he settles on. Unconvincingly.
“Do you know why you were taken?” Robin presses.
Danny opens his mouth to answer, but pauses.
“Yep!” he concludes, eyes crinkling with his smile. “I’ll even answer that question if you answer one of mine first.”
The smaller Robin narrows his eyes suspiciously, Red asking “What question?”
He turns away from Normal Robin to look at Red Robin.
“What’s up with the ‘flying things’ theme?”
Red slow blinks, Danny can practically hear the dial-up noise.
He was probably expecting worse in exchange for ‘hey what does the murder club want?’
The smaller Robin answers while he is collecting himself.
“The Robin title is inherited, passed down from the first. It is a reference to the costume colors. Batman chose his name and costume as a symbol of fear, to intimidate the criminals of Gotham.”
“Oooooh, so it’s like a gang thing!”
Red Robin makes a choking noise.
“What!? NO! I- that- we’re heroes! Batman is a founding member of the Justice League!” He manages, face painted in disbelief.
Robin, for his part, remains silent - though a brief glance out of the corner of his eyes reveals a pinched expression.
“Oh, right,” he nods along, deciding he is definitely not still in the same universe. Sweet, no worries about hiding the ghost powers then, especially since heroes were apparently enough of a thing to have some kind of support group or something.
“So does that mean you have bird-powers?”
“No,” Robin says. “And you haven’t answered my question yet.”
“Ah, right, Ra’s’ thing. He said he was trying to summon the ‘Lord of the Dead,’” Danny does air quotes along with the far-too-pretentious-title. Honestly, ‘Ghost King’ was bad enough.
“The ‘Lord of the Dead?’” Red echoes. “Summon? As in, with circles and blood-sacrifices and magic.”
“Yep,” Danny pops the p. “I wouldn’t worry too much though. He’ll probably be distracted trying to un-kidnap this guy and deal with whatever had his other guys running around like chickens with their heads cut off for a while yet.”
---------------------
Tim had left a call open to the batcave so the rest could listen in, and after Danny’s incredibly alarming answers about Ra’s’ current goal it was no doubt exploding with texts and suggestions in the groupchat. Good thing he muted it fully.
He feels a bit bad interrogating the guy, but time and memory don’t go well together. People often dismiss as unimportant things that are actually the key to breaking a case; the more thorough their questions, the more likely they prompted a memory that would give them the answers they needed.
Unfortunately, Danny didn’t seem to know much.
“Did Ra’s say anything about who this ‘Lord of the Dead’ is? Or why they were trying to summon him?”
“Nope!” Danny smiled. “Nothing about - who aside from the title, of course - or why, just that they did want to summon him. If you guys don’t have bird powers, what powers do you have?”
“We are not enhanced beyond what the average healthy human could achieve, though we are all highly trained in combat - some more than others - and skilled in detective work. We rely on skill, research, and preparation.”
And on and on; Danny giving uninformative answers then asking a question for each they’d asked on their ‘turn,’ and them giving carefully vague answers of their own.
One consolation is that he didn’t seem bored.
For someone who claimed to have woken up less than an hour ago on the wrong side of the planet he’s just…relaxed. Calm. Seemingly unaffected, down to his microexpressions.
No signs of shock.
Of course, he’d treated the Lazarus Pit as a kiddie pool.
And despite his words, he’d shown no recognition at the mention of the Justice League, and around half of his questions thus far had been about them.
Clearly something was up with him; whatever it was would probably explain the self-assurance.
He’d escaped from the League before they’d even known he was kidnapped, afterall. Tim and Damian really only solved the final hurdle for him. Even with most of LoA distracted with something, it was still impressive that he’d manage to slip whatever restraints and guard they’d undoubtedly had him under.
Which is, of course, when Damian asks.
“How did you manage to escape?”
Danny shrugs.
“Have you ever seen that thing that coyotes do where they get their leg stuck in a beartrap or something and they gnaw it off to escape?” he says, expression unmoved.
“You are a meta, then,” Damian concludes while Tim just stares at Danny in horror.
At that, Danny’s expression changes.
“A what?” he squints, uncomprehending.
“A meta - or metahuman - is someone with a meta-gene, which grants them superpowers. Like how Flash is so fast: that’s his meta ability,” Tim says. “You still had all your limbs when you…dove into-”
“Wait, wait, back up,” Danny interrupts. “To be clear: I did not gnaw off a limb. That was meant to be a joke. So Flash is a ‘meta.’ Is that, like, common?”
Tim was beginning to suspect this guy either had memory loss, was an unlucky alien who only landed recently - just in time to get kidnapped by the League of Assholes - or was just really sheltered.
He’d also suspect some kind of Pit demon, given where and how they found him, but he has so far been nothing but polite and cooperative - if a bit…chaotic. In terms of questions he’s asked.
“I’m kind of surprised they bothered to form a group if there are so few people with powers,” Danny mused after Damian filled him in on the statistics. “Especially if most of them are as minor as you said.”
“Even just one person with strong powers can spell disaster if left unchecked - the League aids response times in that regard. Besides, it’s not like metas are all there is to pay attention to - there are plenty of villains without meta abilities, intergalactic politics to deal with-”
“Intergalactic? Are you guys doing things in space!?”
Danny was suddenly very close, nose just a hair's breadth from touching Tim’s own.
He swallows quietly.
“Ah, occasionally? G-green Lantern is. A Green Lantern. They’re basically space cops, so that’s…more his thing. Though a previous Robin did have to deal with a Gordanian-Tamaranean conflict affecting a Tamaranean ally - Starfire.”
Danny leans away - just a bit - as he speaks, seemingly basking in the information like a cat in a sunbeam.
“You’re allies with an alien? Ancients,” he breathes. “There are aliens. So cool.”
“Tch, of course there are. I already informed you of Superman,” Damian huffs, causing Danny to whip towards him.
“Superman is an alien!?”
They’d also mention Batman and Superman being close allies, which apparently inspired Danny to let loose the sea of questions he’d been holding back.
“What’s his species called? Is Superman a translation of his actual alien name? You never showed me a picture; does he look human or is he totally different? What’s his planet like? Have you been there? Is he comfortable in Earth’s atmosphere or does he have to use environment-adjusting equipment? Or is it well suited to him? Is that why he has powers, actually? Because the difference in planet allows him to thrive? Or are they an inherent trait in his species? What’s his culture like? You said Green Lantern was ‘A Green Lantern;’ is he an alien too? Or is that the space cops’ names? Are most space cops aliens? What about the Tamaranean person - Starfire? And the Gordanians? Where are they all from are they all from the Milky Way or are some extra-galactic do they allhaveenvironmentalneedssimilartoorlessthanhumanscantheysurviveinthevacuumofSPACE-”
---------------------
Once they get Danny to pause for breath - which takes an impressively long time - they promise to answer his questions with a gentle reminder that they’re supposed to take turns asking things.
If Danny was cooperative before, he’s downright eager now. He listens with near-religious awe to every answer they gave.
When it’s their turn to ask a question he becomes unnervingly still and stares with an intensity that has Tim half-concerned they’ll catch on fire for every second they aren’t talking - though luckily between himself and Damian the pauses are minimal.
His answers are both more detailed and more focused.
If they ask if he saw any information about the summoning ritual, he only mentions catching a glimpse of ‘the summoning room.’ Asking what the room looked like nets a description of the columns’ styles and the general vibes, asking what things he saw in the room got them an exhaustive list, but if they wanted further detail they had to ask specifically about the item in question.
He had an awful lot of details for a guy who only ‘caught a glimpse.’
He also refused to give them details about what the circle looked like because ‘for all I know you could be lying about everything you’ve said so far and planning to use me in your own ritual as a sacrifice to summon the Lord of the Dead.’
He and Damian spend a few of their turns opening the internet on the batplane’s front window and showing him some articles and videos about themselves, Batman, Gotham, and the JL to get them to trust him.
He eventually says he’ll describe the circle to them if he can meet an alien.
Appealing to his sense of self-preservation by explaining the information would increase their odds of stopping Ra’s does not help, nor does appealing to his sense of ‘helping others.’
It’s an introduction or the highway.
Not the worst outcome, given how many aliens they know.
The rest of the flight is spent like this.
---------------------
Danny is having quite possibly the best day of his half-life - and life, if he’s being honest.
Aliens! The universe he’s in has aliens! And he gets to meet one! Probably!
If Ra’s requests something that isn’t outright evil he’s honestly, genuinely considering granting it (in exchange for something, of course. Having a cool home universe is enough for maybe a deal, not for a freebie. Maybe he can ask for a regularly scheduled summoning to talk to the aliens? And all of the information Ra’s has and will ever have on aliens? Ooooh).
Not that he’s going to make it easy on him, of course.
And wow he is loving the information exchange with the Robins - they’re telling him about aliens and he just has to, what, describe a chandelier? A book? His opinion on the pool?
They ask a surprising number of questions about the pool.
He gets twin dead-eyed stares when he asks if they’re thinking of installing a bird bath - yeah it cost him an alien question but there are only so many pool-related questions he can answer while ignoring the joke hanging right there.
He had to.
When they finally land and exit into what looks like the inside of a high-tech barn, he can’t help but think they might just be sour that they didn’t think of it first.
“Not to be judgy, or anything, but I’m not really getting cave vibes here,” he comments as he descends the final step from plane to floor, looking up once he’s clear to watch the roof finish folding closed over their heads.
“Because this isn’t the cave,” an unfamiliar voice says, melting out of the shadows in a corner to reveal a purple-cloaked woman.
“Wait, let me guess: Purple Robin? Purple Bat? Peafowl?”
Purple snorts good-naturedly and shakes her head.
“All good guesses, space cadet, but wayyy off base. It’s Spoiler, non-flying thing name haver extraordinaire.” She dips into a dramatic bow, eyes crinkled in what, even without her mouth visible, was obviously a grin.
“Ehhhh…” Danny tilts a hand side-to-side. “Spoilers can technically fly if you crash a car hard enough.”
“By that logic everything can be considered a flying thing,” Robin frowned.
“Well the Earth is hurtling through space at around half a million miles per hour chasing the sun through an endless void with no ‘ground’ in sight….”
“Well!” Red Robin ends the brief silence that had inspired. “We should probably head to the batcave, but for security reasons we can’t let you see how we get there-”
“Hey, does this smell funny to you?” Spoiler asks, holding up a bottle of what was almost definitely chloroform.
He can see Red and Robins’ mask eyes widening (somehow) and makes the split second decision to lean forward and take a deep breath of the bottle being held just high enough for him to stick his nose over it.
“Citrusy,” he says before pretending to fall unconscious.
***
*Timmy Turner’s Dad’s voice* “I’m respecting reality by acknowledging that chloroform doesn’t work like that but asserting my authority as The Author by making it work like that anyway”
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Sorry if I missed anybody anyway here's part 2!
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these valentines day cards for scarabia got me blushing, giggling, and kicking my feet fr
(also featuring me unnecessarily analyzing them) (i really hope the cards are in the right order i think they are or else everything that i say here will look incredibly silly)
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kalim al-asim:
To my dear friend—
Thanks for the present! What colorful and sparkly sweets. They look delicious!
I just had an idea! How about we eat them together after school? Gifts like this taste better when shared, after all.
I'll pick out a good tea to go with them. Can't wait to see you later!
━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
To my dear friend—
Thanks for the gift! It's flattering to know you picked this out for me! I'll treat you to anything you like in return—food, live entertainment, an item you've been pining after... You just say the word.
...On second thought, no. I'll come up with something myself!
Just like you came up with this gift to give me.
━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
Hey love,
Thank you for that wonderful gift! Getting something like this from you just put a smile on my face!
Let me throw you a feast to show my gratitude!
After that, I'll take you on a magic carpet ride, it'll be really fun!
━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
SO LET ME TALK ABOUT THE PROGRESSION BETWEEN THE CARDS???
on kalim's first card, it's really cute but it also feels just like his usual demeanor where he treats everyone as a friend.
but on to the second card, it looks like he's definitely feeling more strongly enough about you to think "hey let me get you something too!! let me be your genie of the lamp!" at least right before realizing it would be more meaningful to give you a surprise gift as well like you did.
his "dear friend" on the second card is more real this time.
BUT OMG THE WHIPLASH TO THE THIRD CARD
"HEY LOVE" ???? KALIM WHAT
WHEN I TELL YOU MY HEART JUST WENT HFDSNSFHDJFDK
PLSS HE CANT DO THIS TO ME 💀💀💀
THE "MY DEAR FRIEND" -> "HEY LOVE" PROGRESSION
YOUR HONOR HE IS IN LOVE(???)
NO IT’S PROBABLY JUST A REALLY AFFECTIONATE TERM OF ENDEARMENT CONSIDERING THAT IT’S KALIM
(*denial* *denial* *denial*)
the closest ones (that are available) to doing something similar is jade who goes from "my good friend" -> "my dearest" and vil who goes from "dearest friend" to "my dear"
anyways, the third card is kalim finally wanting to go ALL OUT as a way to show you how he feels about you and how thankful he is. he's literally all about having fun with the person he cares about. making every moment memorable.
kalim's love language is also very much extravagant gifts since he's raised in a wealthy family where everything has been handed to him. that's probably how he got the mindset that gifts are the way to show love and affection because that's how his family did it for him. so the bigger the gift the better he can show you how he feels.
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jamil viper:
Hello—
I was surprised to see you gifted me sweets.
At first I wondered if you were hinting for me to make you something similar... But when I pulled the gift out of the bag, I saw all the details you put into it, right down to the ribbon. It's clear this was a heartfelt gesture.
I'll treasure these treats as I eat them. Thank you.
━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
Hello—
I'll admit it. I'm beyond surprised.
I suppose a heartfelt "thank you" is in order.
In fact, why don't we meet at the school store after class tomorrow?
Hopefully I'll be able to find you something to return the favor.
━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
Dear friend,
Thank you for the gift. To think I would receive something from you... Well, it caught me off guard. I'd like to give you something in return.
Hmm... What should it be? What might you like?
Why don't you come down to Scarabia sometime and we'll discuss over a cup of tea.
━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
jamillll;;;
on the first card, he was suspicious of receiving a gift. at first he's like "are you just giving me something so i could give you something as well?" until he realized "oh this is legit" and that you’re not expecting anything back. and then he just enjoys it which is hella cute.
on the second card (unlike the last one) he's now like "let me get you something in return because i really appreciate the gesture". here i think he's still genuinely confused that you still decided to give him a gift. but at this point it feels like he's only offering to get you something in return because he feels like he has to just to show his gratitude. kinda like a fair transaction.
it seems that jamil is still like "why me". like, you cared enough to see and acknowledge him to even consider getting him a gift. which i believe is something he's not used to. so he just wants to "return the favor" by offering you to go find something you like :)
and the third card;;;
"DEAR FRIEND" GOT. MEEE.
YOUR HONOR I LOVE HIMMMMM
i know for other people "friend" is not on the same level as the romantic "love" but i personally feel as strong with platonic relationships as with romantic ones (if not more) and this hit me HARD.
for the third one he's finally comfortable enough to consider you a friend. but he still sounds flabbergasted that you still even thought of him (and **you** specifically) (like he didn't imagine that you'd even give him a gift).
and now this is less of a transaction but more of like he *wants* to make sure that he gets you something that you'd really like. it's not simply just "hey let's go to the school store and see what's available as a thanks", this time it's "hey i really appreciate that you got me something so let's discuss what i can get you as well. i'll be your genie of the lamp, anything is possible (within reason)"
(original twitter thread with these cards)
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