Zack: So are you two dating now? Danny & Jay: Yes. Zack: Why? Danny: I happen to find Jay very appealing. Zack: Yeah, I can understand that. I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with Jay.
Random: I saw the most beautiful woman outside today. Zack: That’s impossible, Mira has been inside with me all day.
[This might be part of my AU but I haven't decided yet so...Enjoy! And thank you @leekeira for the prompt! Also, I think you can tell I had a lot of fun with this one :) ]
The darkness ahead was familiar to him. Whenever he looped there would be a period of rest in the inky abyss, while the next loop was prepared for him to enter. It had taken a bit to get used to, but now he was no longer bothered by having to wait like an immaterial little ball of something. That was what his soul looked like, he had concluded. It was actually kinda funny to try to move around and change his shape, like trying to shape hardened honey, he never could stay in one shape for long, but it was fun to try nonetheless.
This time, however, his space wasn't empty. Intruder! was the first thought that flared in his mind, but he quickly stumped the irrational anger down. This was something that had never happened before.
Tentatively, he reached towards the glowing blob hovering a little ways away from him. It flinched away, but that didn't deter him from trying to touch it again. A small blue tendril brushed across the little green light. Warmth bloomed over Danny's soul in a way he had never experienced before, and he quickly retracted the tendril. If he would've been able to speak he would've tried to interact with the strange new soul in a way that would probably allow him to gather more information, but as he was there was nothing he could do but touch.
The surface of the blob rippled like a puddle, and Danny watched fascinated as the little soul tried to clumsily gather a portion of itself and reach toward him. The motion strangely reminded him of a child trying to imitate its parents.
Before he had the chance to prod and poke more at the newcomer, the world exploded in light and he found himself laying on his bed like a starfish.
"Well, that was new..." Danny rubbed at his forehead, already reflexively looking around the room, trying to spot a calendar.
Instead, his eyes settled on a picture of him and a person he didn't recognize. In fact, when he tried to look closer at the framed picture, the person's face seemed to be blurred, alongside with any distinguishing features.
"What the hell?!" He rubbed his eyes until they stung, but nothing changed.
This loop included what he could only guess to be a sibling, whose face he couldn't see for one reason or another. He gave a long-suffering sigh. Brilliant, that was exactly what he needed, an anomaly! As if looping through different versions of his life wasn't weird enough anyway.
"Daniel, come to breakfast!" His mother's voice came a bit muffled from the other side of the door.
It was going to be okay. He would just act natural. It wasn't like having a sibling was so odd, besides, they couldn't possibly have their face blurred out like that in real life.
...
Good news: he could see their face.
Bad news: whenever he tried to remember it got blurred again.
So not really the best situation, but at least there was no way to lose them in a crowd when they kinda had a cloud for a head.
Apparently, they were just as bewildered as him, judging by how they tried and failed, to hide little slip-ups and awe-filled looks sneaking in his direction when they thought he wasn't looking. Just plain brilliant!
Danny made a mental to-do list as the tree ate the most awkward and fake family breakfast in history. Interrogating the new sibling was at the top of said list and he was already planning on how to proceed with it after eating. They had a lot of explanations to give, and he would make sure to squeeze every single bit of information out of them.
----------
He could understand dimensional traveling. Weird name his mind could process but his mouth couldn't say like "(Y/N)" (he just defaulted to calling them Wynn) was stretching it, but still understandable. Finding out that he was a fictional character from a webtoon series that was currently looping through time at the behest of a deranged fanfic author was what sent him over the edge.
Worst of all, for whatever reason, he believed them.
Danny downed all the alcohol he could get his hands on that night. It just wasn't worth trying to process that sober.
---------------
They figured out a system of sorts. Now, if only Wynn could stick to that bloody system FOR ONE DAY!
The menace that was his little sibling was not only an apparent magnet for trouble but also somehow got themselves stuck in the loops with him. Daniel began debating the merits of a vacation after the third person he had to stop from hitting on them and seriously considered murder after the eight. Whatever shitty dimension-time traveler aura they had attracted the worst types towards them, including but not limited to his schoolmates, various gangsters, and several unsavory characters the likes of Gun and Goo.
At least they were supportive of him and Jay, going as far as to explain to their increasingly bewildered big brother about the entire fandom that had been created around their relationship. They called it a ship, and named it Janiel?! The looper was hovering between mortified and oddly satisfied. In a weird way, it pleased him that people saw a fictional him and Jay (with who apparently he didn't have an official relationship in this webtoon????? Like?!?!) and decided 'yes, these go well together and we will now worship this pairing'.
The mind-fuck he got from learning that didn't disappear for a few weeks when Wynn revealed yet another concept that sent his brain into overdrive so hard he almost completely forgot about 'Janiel'. (He also almost got into an alcohol-induced coma because of it, but I digress.)
AO3 Lookism smut. Online...steamy...pieces about his universe...
That was another wild WILD ride that he didn't care to repeat.
Dick felt sick to his stomach as his brother's wails echoed through the cave.
He and Bruce had been the first to respond to his beacon. Batman's antidote didn't work against this new strain of fear toxin, so they had to bring him back to devise a cure. Tim was unresponsive, trapped in whatever hellish illusion Scarecrow's gas had triggered. They had barely been able to get him into the car, with how wildly he was flailing. His limbs struck around violently, uncoordinated. Not trying to attack, but as if he were desperately trying to flee from something. (The smell ozone lingered in the air) Once they'd reached the cave, they had to strap him to the medbay table to keep him from falling off.
And the screams.
God, the screams.
The first one had made Bruce recoil and nearly drop him. None of them had ever heard him scream like that before. It was something out of a nightmare, high-pitched and raw, carrying an unimaginable amount of pain. (Like a death wail) There was a frenzied, tortured quality to it that had Jason stumbling away and tripping when he reached the scene. It had made their blood run cold.
"It's like he's dying." Jason had remarked quietly from the side once they'd moved to another part of the Batcave. The red helmet lay discarded on the table he was leaning on. His face was pale, and there was a tremor barely hidden in his voice. A disturbed look flashed in his eyes, as if he was remembering something. (Pools of swirling green)
Bruce's black gloves squeaked as his fists tightened. He was stone-faced, but his sons could read the worry in his blue eyes. The Batman was just as helpless as them. It made his blood boil. (Electric currents buzzed through the cables on the floor)
The room was bathed in blue light from the Batcomputer. A white cup of cold coffee sat untouched by Jason's elbow next to the keyboard. (An accident waiting to happen) It sat there since the afternoon, when they had been urgently called for an Arkham breakout. Tim's coffee. Dick was suddenly struck by the absurd though that his brother would never leave his coffee around like that. Hysterical laughter bubbled up in his throat, but he swallowed it down. Distantly, he recognised that his fingers were twitching along with his baby brother's screams.
It was all so incredibly wrong. The whole situation was just plain wrong. Red Robin's mask should have held against the gas. Hell, Crane should never have had the time to make a new type of toxin in the first place! It made no sense! (It made no sense to put an ON button inside the machine!)
Muffled screaming could still be heard even though the medbay walls. It was now more hoarse and ragged, as if whoever was making the noise had swallowed a bucket of sand.
Truly, it was a testament to Alfred's strength and devotion that he had stayed and taken care of him through all of it. Meanwhile, they'd fled like cowards into another room, pretending as if they were figuring out a cure, and not hiding from their failure.
The computer was processing the blood samples at an agonizingly slow pace, while they stood there unable to do anything to soothe their brother and son, respectively. The sounds grew more strangled and faint the longer it went on. They'd cut out a few times, when he'd run out of air, but they always inevitably started back up twice as anguished. (Incredible how he so rarely ran out of air, as if he didn't even need to breathe.)
Dick couldn't even imagine what Tim was going through to make him let out such a sound. (Privately, selfishly, he was glad that Damian was not home to witness it.)
With Jason's gun pointed to his head and Batman preoccupied with his third son, Crane had bragged that the gas made you relive your most painful moment. Dick turned a blind eye to his brother using a bit more strength than necessary to knock out the rogue.
They tried to figure out what Tim's worst experience was. Jason brought up the Titan's Tower, Bruce the JJ incident. Dick quietly proposed it could be something from the year he went missing to find Bruce. (Something from before they knew him, something from before he was Tim, something from when he was Da-)
The screams cut off again for a few blissful seconds, then started back up. It was a miracle he could keep going after so long. Dick felt his stomach churn. He'd heard people yell, cry, and shriek before, but this was something different. Something born entirely out of agony. Something guttural, prolonged, and horrible. Something no human should ever be able to produce. (Only something that was no longer human could let out such a scream.)
---------------------------------------------------
DannyTim woke up feeling like he had swallowed glass. His vision was swimming, and his head pulsated painfully. (He hoped he hadn't died this time, or Jason might actually kill him for stealing his gig again.) A sudden wave of searing pain made his muscles spasm painfully.
A big shadow loomed over him. Someone was touching his forehead and speaking to him in a hushed tone. The words were garbled, like he was deep underwater. They should really work on their pronunciation.
"-im.... -nother shot...-eetheart"
There was a pinprick somewhere on the back of his elbow. He tried to pull away, but his arm felt like lead. He let out a scratchy, quiet whimper, and immediately regretted it. The pathetic excuse for a protest left his throat feeling like it had been burned from the inside. The Demon Brat would never let him live this down if he learned of it. The big shadow returned to shushing him and patting his hair. It felt cozy and safe, like Dad.
Darkness once again closed in on him, and he settled for listening to the big shadows rumbling to lull him back to sleep. (He awoke panting from the phantom electricity still coursing through his bones, searing off his flesh and replacing his blood with green-)
Danny is reborn as tim.
Tim gets his memories back near the beginning of his robin run when he still has a rocky relationship with Bruce. He’s scared and keeps his mouth shut. This goes on for years never getting the right time to be revealed.
It isn't until the scarecrow uses a new fear gas that it comes up. Tim is hit and has to relive the portal incident. He is screaming with no brakes and does not respond to anyone.
The bat family has idea what he is seeing but they do find out from scarecrows taunting that the gas makes you relive your most painful memories. The entire family is wondering when this happened and when Tim wakes up he is not going to be very forthcoming.
I was wondering about a time loop in which Big Deal takes in Yohan and he trains under Samuel and in which Samuel was female. I feel like Samuel would definitely still be as tall if not buff and pass as masculine, so a time loop where she either stays with Big Deal and Yohan or she helps Yohan with God Dog and his mom.
I just thought it'd be interesting for one of Big Deal's fighters to be female and none of them except Alexander knowing and finding out.
(Mommy Sammy is simultaneously the most unhinged and brilliant idea I've ever been asked about! Like, does she still tear her clothes off when she fights or is that just me being weird? Nvm. Since most of my loops are from Daniel's perspective we'll just pretend he died early in this loop and is currently spying on various people waiting for his loop to end.)
Sometimes Danny wondered if the loops had been made by some unstable maniac. [Shhh, don't expose me!]
When he had stared the loop already dying it hadn't come as that much of a surprise. It was more annoying after you got used to it. That meant, however, that he hadn't gotten to check on anything that might've been changed from the original setting of the loops. He was a bit further back, that he could tell from how small his body had seemed at first.
He hadn't expected to drift towards a familiar street in search of entertainment and do a spit-take with his immaterial smoothie.
"What in my green god-given mustache?"
It wasn't Big Deal's new addition, in the form of one chestnut-haired dog-lover, that had garnered that reaction from the spirit, though it did add to the oddness of the situation. Danny's eyes drifted from the boy currently pummeling some no-name extra into the ground, to the person keeping a watchful eye over him from a little ways away while traumatizing fighting several other people.
Hovering over Johan like a mother hen was a distinctly-not-how-he-was-supposed-to-be-shaped Samuel. The mullet was there, in all its sexy glory, as was the terrifying signature grin and the usual two-piece suit, though it seemed to fit rather strangely on his body-oh! on her body. Samuel was a woman!
She was a buff strong woman and had Danny not been so utterly besotted with his beloved he would no doubt be slightly crushing on her at first sight. As it was, however, he just shuddered at the thought of her matching her counterpart and his apparent eagerness to rid himself of his tops at any possible opportunity and wondered if she were the same. He hoped that wasn't the case.
He paused, looking back and forth between the small Johan and Sammy (that was a good name to call her for now!). His mouth opened in the shape of an o. There was care in her gaze and even, if he were so bold to dare say it, affection. But not the kind that led people to have butterflies in their stomachs and sweaty palms, it wasn't the kind that burned, no, it was the soft type that came with taking a young one under your wing, it was the type that made you want to cherish and protect, the kind that didn't burn, but merely warmed and warded off the darkness. Sammy saw the little copycat as her ward.
Really, speaking from his own experiences, these tiny humans were really easy to get attached to. Hell, he himself had gone through the same thing with the boy in question at one point or another.
Samuel was a person that Danny associated with greed. A man willing to do anything to reach his goals. The sight of his female counterpart being so parental and openly caring for someone that couldn't do anything to further her position and status settled a part of Danny that had always wanted to believe that there was some semblance of good in the former Worker's member.
A tentative smile pulled at his lips as he watched the one-sided carnage fight end and Sammy's eyes instantaneously move to scan the young prodigy for any wounds in a motion that was so familiar to the spirit that his eyes glazed over for a moment. How many times had it been him doing this for a younger version of Johan? He couldn't recall, but the memory left a faded bitter-sweet taste in his mouth.
His soul shuddered with the pull of the loop. It was time to start anew. This time, however, with the peace of mind he hadn't had in a while, that came with the realization that if Samuel was worthy of redemption, then perhaps so was he.
"When these loops end, I will have that peace." He whispered the promise breathlessly, as the fragments of his soul drifted into the breeze.
The hourglass was turned, and the sand started falling again.
Gun was telling Daniel about how he would use his friends instead if he refuse to create his own crew, watching in delight as the boy's eyes darkened before his face suddenly went blank. He stopped talking, a confused frown pulling at his already twisted features as the boy seemed to look right through him, as if in a trance. Slightly unnerved and a bit annoyed he threw a kick toward him in an effort to snap the boy out of his daydreaming. It worked, just not in the way that Gun was expecting. Before his foot could make contact with the boy's head it was stopped by a tight grip that made his bones creak in protest.
"What's with you now? Are you that angry about me using your friends for my crews?" He mocked, hiding just how unsettled he was by the fact he couldn't pull his leg free.
Thinking quickly, he aimed a fist at the boy, hoping to distract him enough to let go of his leg, but it backfired when Daniel grasped his arm and twisted. He bit his lip to muffle the groan of pain threatening to escape him. What the fcuk was going on? Just a minute ago he was kicking him around like a straw doll and now he was left vulnerable at the boy's mercy. Whatever had happened to cause this sudden switch in him...it wasn't natural.
"My...Jay..." he seemed to mutter under his breath, eyes glazed over, "how dare they... kill them...dare they...pay...death...too kind...bastards..."
An unexplainable sense of fear washed over Gun and he began struggling to get out of the raving boy's clutch. Terror dulled his senses and turned his movements animalistic up to the point where he couldn't think clearly. He had to get away! He had to get away from him! Run! Hide! His instincts screamed at him, overwhelming the usually composed male.
Without warning the boy went silent and his eyes snapped straight to the panicking Gun, who felt every muscle in his boy freeze under the intensity of his gaze. His throat constricted painfully and he found himself losing control of his own body when his white eyes clashed with the other's jet-black ones. He barely even registered when he was thrown to the ground, crumpling like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Daniel's eyes reminded him of those of a predator, cold and lusting for blood. It was only later that he realized that the boy had been restraining himself from tearing his throat open with his bare hands, though even then, he couldn't tell what he had done exactly to spur this kind of anger in the usually mellow boy. It didn't make sense.
It made even less sense that Daniel just shot him another look, a mix of disgust and anger, and left without another word like nothing had happened. Like that night had just been a dream. Not real, just a figment of Gun's imagination...at least, it would've been, if it weren't for the circle of bruises in the shape of a hand around his arm and lower leg. The doctors said his tibia was almost shattered, as well as his wrist. That was the only proof he had that it hadn't all just been in his head. Something had snapped in Daniel that night.
The Workers' four affiliates were all set ablaze in the following days. Many died in the fire, while others perished under mysterious circumstances in the hospital.
Danny watched the brunette news anchor report on the situation, with one arm firmly clasped around Jay's waist as he rested on his chest. The remote snapped in his hand.
Eugene had somehow survived.
That wasn't a problem. It just meant he would have to go hunting again later. For, now he focused on the sleeping blonde in his arms, nuzzling into this slim neck and inhaling the scene of his cologne. He would never allow anyone to lay their hands on his beloved again. Never.
Danny: Someone hurt my beloved Jay. Zack: And what did you do about it? Danny: I ruined their business, then went back in time and terrorized them with spiders and baby crocodiles with lightsabers. Zack: Baby what with what? Danny: Then I set an army of angry middle-aged housewives on him. Zack: ... Zack: You know what, never mind, I don't even want to know.
Danny: What if the 'g' in 'gif' is silent? Zack: Go the fuck to sleep Danny: What gif I don't want to? Zack: Fuck You
Jesus, my brain hurts!🤣 https://www.instagram.com/p/CcDrToyDZ31WMvFohClkAMHo5FvglDG_PvS6eQ0/?utm_medium=tumblr
Daniel strutted down the corridors like he owned the place. He was a man on a mission. A hunter. His pray? The cryptid dressed in cheetah print prowling around James Lee's old school ready to melt out of the shadows and mow his ass like grass.
His ghost detector beeped twice when he turned it left.
"Huh?"
Daniel pulled down his anti-bullshit protection glasses. He was all geared up in pink hello kitty pajamas, ready to fight against the cheetah-print abomination and thus end the urban legend's grip on the common people. That and he really wanted to kick Gun's ass while being literally half his size just for shits and giggles.
He needed a change of mood after he had begun the loop strapped to a table and bald while being interrogated by Jinyeong. When the doctor had asked about his deepest darkest secret he had looked him dead in the face and uttered ominously "I'm supposed to get a senior discount when I go shopping" before promptly passing out. It was technically true, though, by the look on the man's face, he probably thought something had gone wrong with the serum. With how he had been ranting about squirrels even before he got the serum Jinyeong might actually assume he had lost his mind.
Brushing away all other thoughts Daniel reached into his backpack and pulled out a thick book the size of his head with "How to catch a cryptid" written in bold red letters on the cover. He flipped it open at a page he had marked with a cute squirrel sticky note that had unfortunately gotten crumpled in his backpack and began reading aloud.
"To catch a cheetah print abomination in the wild you must first know what it is. A cheetah print abomination is the Mothman's cousin and shares with this its distinctive mating cry and other negligible physical traits such as height comparable to Slenderman and an outward appearance that makes people tremble at the sight of it." Daniel hummed as if he had been given great knowledge and flipped the page, continuing to read aloud.
"The cheetah print abomination is easily spotted by its abysmal fashion sense and atypical behavior, such as being turned on by physical combat and physical injuries caused during fights (for reference check page 67, paragraph 9 "What to do in the event of a wild Jonngun attack, tips and escape methods by prof. Daniel "the Taller" Park)."
Daniel ignored the sound of creaking floorboards and continued reading before he suddenly stopped and let out an exclamation of glee.
"Oh look, they even have a photo!"
He raised his book in the air and put the grainy picture of a black baby cow parallel to the man staring at him. He made a big show of analyzing the picture and let out appropriate sounds of understanding and awe while comparing it to the live specimen. Finally, Gun had enough of the perceived mockery and ripped the book out of the boy's hands, took one look at the page Danny was currently reading and at the picture, and promptly tossed it out of an open window.
"No wait, that was my only copy!" He bemoaned while looking at the darkness behind the window dejectedly. "You know you're going to have to pay me back for that, right?'
The man's expression twisted into a sneer and he reached for the boy, intent on getting rid of this disrespectful bug. His attempt was promptly met with a wet shoe to the chin and then another when he tried to kick the little gremlin away. He looked disgustedly at the little puddle forming beneath the second shoe before looking up at the boy.
"It's holy water." Daniel shrugged pulling out a pair of flip-flops which he used in place of his thrown sneakers, "Need to be prepared, you know."
A laugh bubbled up in Gun's throat at the sheer absurdity of the situation. He was getting mocked by a child in hello kitty pajamas who thought he was a cryptid and had turned his holy water-soaked sneakers into projectiles against him. He stared down at the still-smoking cigarette in between his fingers and pondered upon his life choices for a few awkward minutes while the gremlin stared at him with a mix between curiosity and wariness like he was some sort of weird creature he had just encountered.
"I need something stronger than this." He announced, snuffing the cigarette beneath his shoe and turning around.
As he walked out of the school he heard the genuine voice of the little hello kitty-clad menace echoing down the halls.
"You know, smoking and drinking can be really bad not only for your health but also for your interpersonal relationships!"
Gun walked faster.
Danny had avoided thinking about it because, frankly, he didn't want to. At first, it hadn't occurred to him that any of his friends could possibly die before him. The time loop usually made sure of it. It never lasted long enough for him to reach past 30, and even then it had been a stroke of luck that he didn't much care to repeat...(Ugh, taxes.)
Then he killed Eli and watched his family and friends mourn him, from afar. They didn't know it was him who had done it, but all the same, he couldn't bare look them in the eyes. Not when they sobbed at his funeral. Not when little Yenna was constantly searching for her father and waiting for him to come back from "the nice place". He had willfully blinded himself with the excuse that "it wasn't permanent", and "the next loop he would be fine". Daniel Park was below scum.
Then Robin had come along a few loops later. Poor, kind, patient Robin, who had taken him to the deepest, darkest parts of his consciousness and had still sought to bring him redemption. She, who had glimpsed at the murderer in juvi uniform and still saw something...something worth saving...something good.
The process had been long and grueling, with many violent episodes and tearful breakdowns, but in the end, Daniel Park had emerged a different man. A man who could once again look people in the eye and didn't shy away from mirrors and sleep. A man who had understood his mistakes and who would strive to do better, to be better.
That was what he had told himself.
That was what he had lied about to everyone.
Daniel was not better. He wasn't good. He wasn't kind. He wasn't patient and forgiving and good! He wasn't...good. In his memories, the boy who had been willing to befriend those who had once wronged him and attempt to redeem them was dead.
It only took one hit to prove him right.
One blow towards his Jay's already unmoving body...
He had snapped.
It had taken him three loops and a bit of the fourth to stop. His anger had only partially been quelled by the bloodshed.
That's why he was here. In front of that same crisp white door with a little metal plaque on it. Danny tried to steady his breath and rose a trembling hand to the door. Knock! Knock!
"Come in!" Dr. Robin Lim's voice sounded from the other side.
(Robin Lim)