Shards and Splinters | Weeping Embers
Dried leaves fluttered in the breeze, crunching amongst each other as if whispering secrets into the wind to be carried away. The streets lay abandoned, everyone still asleep tightly in their warm beds awaiting the dawn of yet another day like any other before. But today wasn’t going to be a usual day.
From the moment his eyelids opened, and he jolted out of bed breathing as if he had been chased around the whole world by an army of demons Archer Uberto could tell there was something different about today. The sun rose to the skies just like every other morning, drowning the world in light and warmth as it had done perhaps trillions of times before, yet still, the boy could not shake the feeling something was out of place. It wasn’t anything obvious, else he would have noticed by now, like how you’d know if someone had moved your socks from their rightful place, but not if a splinter was missing from your desk. The feeling, although persistent did nothing to deter him from entering back into his routine almost robotically, forgetting about the dream that had startled him awake, or of the pungent smell of creos in his home...
Archer paused repeating the thought that had just passed through his mind. Creos? What even were creos and why did he think of that? A puzzled expression flashed on his face before the shrill ringing of his phone broke his line of thought, pulling him back into reality harshly. His body moved on its own, traversing the neat and clean room all the way to the small bookshelf adorning the whole left wall of his room before turning off that blasted noise, so he could once more rejoice in the softer morning sounds.
A crow stood atop one of the branches that neared his window, silently observing the teen as he exited the building dressed in an old baseball shirt and dark green jeans. It cawed out twice before taking off into the mushy clouds in search of its morning meal.
The sudden flapping of feathers alerted a nearby mouse and sent it scurrying back beneath the dumpster it had crawled from, the dark feathered bird now taking its place, atop the lid that rested on the wall behind it. From there it had a clear view of the lanky teen as he scurried into the backroom, before coming out with a green apron and getting behind the counter, just as the doors of the cafe opened to let in a stream of groggy and grumpy customers who couldn’t be bothered with pleasantries at such an early hour.
Archer sighed in relief upon hearing the bell hung above the door ring one final time that day, the last customer exiting the small Starbucks, coffee in hand. With a sudden sense of accomplishment, the boy grinned to himself, returning to the backroom. He greeted the rest of his colleagues politely and made a bit of small chat before changing from his uniform back into his soft dark jacket and exiting the building while humming a soft tune and swinging his arms in
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the air as if he were conducting a band of invisible musicians. There were barely any people on the streets at the time to judge him, and even those who saw him as mad he could not be bothered to pay attention to.
Upon crossing the street, he stopped in the middle, waiting for someone to come out of nowhere and run him over, but after a few minutes and not even the sight of a bike, he let out an exasperated sigh and continued on his journey back to his warm bed and fluffy pillow. Perhaps next time he would have more luck, Archer pouted jokingly while swatting a few stray strands of mahogany hair out of his eyes, only for the evening breeze to blow them right back into his face, blinding him momentarily. And it was all it took, just that one moment, he smelled that same scent his room had that morning, and that feeling came back over a thousand times stronger.
He whirled around clutching his sides, as a stinging pain bloomed right where his ribs caged his lungs and the wind picked up, raising clouds of fallen and dried leaves into the air and surrounding him. Archer clenched his eyes tightly, burying his head into his chest, now fully aware that that feeling of something being awfully wrong had not been only in his tired mind.
“There’s no way I’m going to die to a cloud of leaves today” he screeched, before choking on something and falling into a coughing fit, his eyes watering and his ears ringing.
Kinda digging the first genderbend Danny, I would like to see the other reactions from big deal to worker 2nd or you can choose this option of fem Danny trying to figure out how to Survive the love triangle of Jay and Gun as they basically go on a flexing spree for their love of Danny (They accidentally saw each others in the mall that how the flexing happen)
Oooh, I think Big Deal would definitely have a field day trying to stop this pretty menace from terrorizing all of Seoul and adopting most of their members. I'm just picturing Jerry getting hit and her kissing his forehead to make the hurt go away. Just being an adorable gremlin all around and bonding with the girls on the street. She and Lua might get along pretty well, like Danny being her big sister figure or something.
When it comes to the Workers 2nd affiliate I think things would be a lot more different. To begin with, I don't think Mitsuki would ever allow another female to join the 2nd affiliate. Like, I feel she might kick up a fuss about her trying to seduce Sinu and Ryuhei would support her like the simp he is.
But going back to matters of the heart~
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Being a girl meant that Danny had to actually get at least some semblance of a fashion sense. So, like she always did, she invited Jay to go shopping with her under the guise of helping her pick an outfit for some family gathering. Of course, she worded it in such a way that it made it seem like she was taking him out.
Fortunately, her kind Jay agreed in a heartbeat, shaking his beet-red head up and down repeatedly. It seemed that no matter how Danny looked this boy's heart didn't care. She had expected as much from the man who had been by her side for eons, although he didn't know that. It didn't mean that this stopped her heart from trying to pound out of her chest and dance cha-cha in his palm. Gods, how she loved this man!
So when school let out the two headed to the mall, side by side. As expected, the blonde was a fashion genius and put her in outfits that made her feel and look like an otherworldly beauty.
Danny was just admiring her new outfit in the mirror. This body was truly a work of art, that much even she could understand, but the way the blue puffy top stopped a bit above her waist, revealing the tiniest bit of milky skin, and how her black jeans hugged her legs just right made her feel so pretty she just couldn't wait to show Jay. it might not have been the most elegant or elaborate outfit, but it made her look like a pure little blossom and she figured that it went rather well with the warm sunny weather outside.
With a soft smile, she stepped out of the changing room and bumped right into a wall. No, not a wall, something much worse. Ugh! Why, god? Why did you have to do this to me today?
Gun looked down at the woman that had bumped into him and his eyes widened behind the shades. There, looking like an entirely innocent schoolgirl was the very woman who had sent him to the hospital only a few weeks prior. She was in a cute little blue top that gave him a clear view of her supple waist and a pair of skinny jeans that clung tightly to her long slender legs in a way that made every man in the store gawk at her.
She eyed him with annoyance and muttered an apology before scurrying around him and to the blonde boy waiting for her on a chair. Gun felt one of his eyebrows twitch in annoyance. What makes him so special? And as if it wasn't enough, she seemed utterly besotted with him, her face blooming like a beautiful rose when he complement her outfit (without using words somehow?). The black-haired man gritted his teeth. He could do so much better!
Several hours later Danny was starting to lose her cool. Ever since she had bumped into Gun in that clothing store he hadn't stopped showing up out of the blue and buying the most ridiculous and expensive things right in front of them. This wouldn't have been a problem if Jay hadn't somehow gotten dropped in this weird contest and begun spending the most ludicrous amounts on various things, which he gifted her despite her repeated refusal and protests.
"That's enough!" She angrily got up from her table and marched to the two who were apparently trying to buy the whole food court at the moment.
She grabbed them both by their ears, making sure to be extra gentle with Jay and pinch Gun's ear as hard as she could without ripping it off. Then, in view of everyone in the mall, she dragged them out by their ears and into the parking lot. Finally, she let them go and began scolding both of the cowed men currently kneeling on the pavement.
"I thought you were better than this Jay!" Danny tried to ignore the guilt pooling in her chest as the named male shrunk from her and then added more softly. "Go back and pick up our shopping, please."
She made sure that the quiet boy was out of sight and out of earshot before she turned to Gun. She didn't want her precious Jay to see her as a barbarian, but there were some things one couldn't resolve by being nice.
"Wipe that grin off your face!" She ordered sharply, grabbing a handful of the maniac's hair and bringing him closer to her level. "I'm going to say this once and once only. Leave. Us. Be. Don't look at us. Don't talk to us and don't ever fucking approach us or even your dear chairman won't be able to scrub your guts off the pavement. Are we clear?"
Without waiting for a reply she let him go, turned around, and walked back into the mall, unaware of the impact her words had on the man. Spoiler Alert! It was not the effect she intended. The interaction had only made his interest in her grow and alongside it, his infatuation with Danny. (Poor her!)
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.)
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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.
Vasco: Who thinks I can fit 15 marshmallows in my mouth? Zack: You're a hazard to society Danny: And a coward. DO TWENTY.
We have seen enough fem! Danny but what about fem!Jay?
And its Danny's first time seeing jay as a female.
Danny sucked in a sharp breath as his eyes fell on the figure next to the window and his heartbeat quickened. He desperately tried to cover his blush with one hand while the other suddenly felt clammy and slippery around his backpack's strap. Oh, gods if I really died this time I hit the jackpot in heaven!
His beloved looked so pretty as a woman he almost had a heart attack just by laying eyes on her. Jay's luscious blonde hair fell in waves over her shoulders and the bangs covering her eyes made her lips look even more delectable. She wore a pretty white skirt with a flower pattern that gave the boy full access to her long slender legs that made him gulp. He traced her splendid curves reverently as if gazing at a masterpiece of a genius artist and sighed in his heart longingly. Danny could bet that she would fit beautifully in his arms, just as her male counterpart did, and complete him in ways he could never describe.
"Hey, Jay." He greeted, making no effort to hide his blush now. It was only natural that she knew how the mere sight of her could bring him to his knees! He wouldn't dare hide his adoration from her and deceive her about his feelings. She should know that he was hers and hers alone, regardless of the insects that kept buzzing around him.
The time-looper was awarded with a smile that made him go beet red all the way to the tips of his ears and practically melt into a puddle of goo beneath his desk. He wasted no time in mirroring it and entering a seemingly one-sided conversation with the elegant beauty.
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"I don't know how I did it, but I've never felt happier!" Danny would later confess at lunch, holding Jay's dainty little hand in his like it was the most precious jewel in the world.
"You don't know how you got her to agree to date you?" Zack looked up from his lunch and stared quizzically at the pair.
The way he saw it they had been crushing hard on each other since Daniel had first transferred and now he had finally grown the balls to ask her out. Then the boxer thought back to his own crush and the realization dawned on him that sometimes he also couldn't put into words how much he loved and cared about her. He shot his friend a look of understanding and Vasco gave him a thumbs up, too busy stuffing his mouth with rice to verbally congratulate the new couple.
Danny was grateful for their support and nuzzled into Jay's nack, eliciting a soft gasp from the blond that almost sent him into very dangerous territory. Later, he told himself, when it's only us two and she wants to share that kind of intimacy with me! He could wait.
For Jay. Anything.
[Short and sweet. Sorry I couldn't write more, I'm in a bit of writer's block currently but I hope you liked it, nonetheless! <3 ]
He spoke in a quiet breathy tone ,his words almost inaudible over the low buzzing of the crowds below: ”I’m going to come back and kill you ,even if I have to crawl back up from the pits of Hell!”
Two shots rang out into the night and a body plummeted onto the concrete streets below landing with a thud. A chorus of hysteric screams ensued.
Throughout Lookism you get these cut-aways where different characters comment upon things happening in the main storyline, and while at first they’re framed as convos between two or more characters, at one point they start to come across more as like a third party interview:
And I just want to know who is interviewing them???? And how do I get that job???
Zack: Well, Mira and I finally did it! The rest of the squad: *gasps, shocked expressions, etc.* Zack: That's right... We kissed!
"Hey, stop. I'm not proud of it." Zack was definitely proud of it.
He glanced back at the new transfer hoping to see him cowering and had he been drinking anything he would have done a spit-take right then and there.
Oblivious to the looks he was getting, Daniel, continued flirting with the increasingly reddening blonde. His pickup lines were downright atrocious, but Jay didn't seem to mind it at all.
"Are you French? Because Eiffel for you."
Zack began wondering if this was a fever dream but a quick look at his gobsmacked goon confirmed they were seeing this too.
"Are you a parking ticket? Because you’ve got FINE written all over you."
Zoe quietly despaired in a corner with large crocodile tears running down her face.
"I must be in a museum, because you truly are a work of art."
Zack sneakily pulled out a notebook and began furiously scribbling down notes.
"Are you a time traveler? Cause I see you in my future!"
Daniel was not smirking mischievously at that one, thank you very much.
"Can I follow you where you’re going right now? Because my parents always told me to follow my dreams."
"Does he even have a dad?" someone whispered in the background, genuinely curious.
As expected, there was no reply.
"Do you like Star Wars? Because Yoda only one for me!"
Mira could no longer keep a straight face and face-planted into her desk letting out something that sounded like a mix between a moan of despair and a muffled snort. It came out like the sound of a wounded pterodactyl.
The teacher walked in unnoticed.
"My love for you is like diarrhea, I just can't hold it in."
The teacher promptly walked out and never returned.
It began as you would expect, Daniel did something stupid. It wasn't meant to be stupid, but as most of the time-loopers endeavors, it ended up that way. Was it the will of the universe or was it just pure danielness? We'll never know.
"What is that?" Hudson shrieked when he entered the room, although he would deny this fact till the end of his days.
"I'm not a good Sia." Was the reply he got back.
Daniel stared owlishly at him from atop the crashed crystal chandelier whose remains were scattered all over the floor. An abomination of a neon-green mustache hung only barely from between his eyebrows and he was sporting a pair of squiggly antennas complete with foam eyes and taped on a sparkly pink headband that had seen better days. The smell of cheese puffs clung to him like a bad perfume, sending the blonde into a coughing fit the moment he opened the door.
"What the hell happened?" He finally managed to ask after regaining his bearings and using the fur coat to cover his nose and mouth (it smelled a bit like smoke and snake intestines but he wasn't complaining).
"He didn't kill anyone," Vasco assured unhelpfully from the side while poking at his own DIY eyes headband. "And these do look rather stylish on us!"
"And that's why the oaf didn't get into the fashion department, not that I think he had any business designing buildings and shit." Zack drawled from his seat, looking rather disgruntled with his own bright orange headband (which looked like it had been taped to his head with scotch).
Hudson gulped and took a step back, ramming straight into a blonde boy whose hair covered his eyes and who had appeared out of nowhere. He gulped again. Sure enough, he was adoring the same abomination of a headband, looking quite complacent with the crime against humanity that was his new accessory.
"Uh-" The Sun of Ansan began ever-so-eloquently. "We-we can talk about this guys-"
Before he had the chance to finish his sentence he was tackled from behind by what he could only describe as the second coming of the antichrist. His high-pitched screams echoed through the empty streets of Seoul and into the cold starless night.
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Somewhere a black-eyed man unexplainably shivered. He paused and took a drag of his cigarette before turning to the large window overlooking the city.
"Something just happened."
if only he knew...what a menace to society his new masterpiece would become...
It was a wonderful day in Seoul and Danny was an awful person. And if it happened that Eugene was on the receiving side of him choosing violence that day, well it was simply bad luck~
It started with him coming into Eugene's office out of nowhere with an obviously fake neon green mustache and a box of spiders, which was promptly yeeted at the president and shattered all over his desk. A sharp high-pitched scream had his men tumbling into the office before they took a look at the little black devils skittering everywhere and booked it out without another backward glance.
It took almost three hours until they finally managed to get rid of all the spiders and shards and coax the mini evil-doer down from the chandelier. The spawn of chaos that was Danny had long since escaped the building, leaving behind only his fluffy green mustache attached to a cardboard cutout of one of their female streamers.
Eugene was displeased but chalked it up as a one-off thing, a sort of petty revenge from a man who could do nothing more to him. Oh, how wrong he was.
After the spiders came the baby crocodiles with lightsabers strapped to their backs. That was an ordeal that left the teen president quite paranoid since it had taken place in his personal apartment.
The third attempt wasn't stopped by his quadrupled security nor their new fancy gear. After all, Daniel was a one-man army, stupid electric fences and radars were no match for the ungodly amount of caffeine and pure spite that fueled his revenge. Judging by the screams and colorful curses, Eugene and him were on the same page.
Another terrorizing attempt successfully completed, Danny pulled out his list and checked another item off. Unfortunately, despite being useful for the drip, his makeshift batman mask was a bit hard to see through, so he had to take it off to read the next item on the list.
"Hmmm, okay, let's see... Spiders? Check. Baby alligators with light sabers? Check. Possessed Michael Jackson Animatronics? Check. I think I have time for one more before the loop ends...let's see..."
ghosts of all the bugs he's ever killed crawling on his skin? Nah, too tame.
waking up at a furry convention? I think the loop will reset before I have time to wait for this year's furry convention.
injecting him with truth serum before a fancy gala? Too much political drama, and too little chaos.
Daniel paused at the last one, a shark-like smirk overcoming his features.
"This...Heh...This is going to be good...Hehehehe MUAHAHAHHA-"
"Can you knock it off!" His neighbor reinforced his words by knocking on their shared wall rather forcefully.
"Sorry!" Came the boy's sheepish reply.
Even evil masterminds have to be mindful of their manners when committing atrocities, he nodded to himself before returning to the task at hand with an impish smile. He set out to gather his army.
The next day at 9 AM sharp the Worker's main building was invaded by an army of angry middle-aged women, armed with various household appliances, all claiming that the young businessman had seduced their daughters.
"He promised to marry my Lia!" A lady wielding a portable vacuum cleaner shouted indignantly at the poor receptionist, underlining each word with a menacing thump of her weapon onto the counter.
"He already proposed to my daughter!" Another woman chimed in waving a mighty frying pan with a murderous expression.
"Mine's pregnant with his baby!" Came the enraged shouting of another.
"My-"
"He-"
The crowd erupted into outrage, screaming even louder than before and banging onto the walls and floor while trying to speak over one another. Another outrageous comment, another wave of shouting and banging, until the whole street and every employee in the building had stopped to watch the chaos.
Daniel's muffled giggles were abruptly cut off when he felt the telltale tug on his soul that came with every reset.
"No wait, I didn't get to see the aftermath!" He whined, but to no avail.
"At least I get to try out the rest of my ideas in the next loop." He shrugged, downing the remaining chips in the bag.