Haunting Tumblrs Everywhere

C) Deify him somehow

D) Some (un)holy combination of two of these concepts

It was a simple mission. Damian was working with Father to confirm the existence of a Lazarus Pit below Gotham, as Ra's Al Ghul speculated. And they had found it, deep in the caves below Gotham. A Pit the size of an Olympic sized swimming pool, bubbling and steaming. He'd only looked away for a moment.

"Kin-slayer."

Standing waist deep in the water stood Damian's reflection. The hair might be white, and the eyes glowing with the waters, but it was his face. But not his face alone.

Danyal's ghost glared at him. "Get in the water."

Father threw a batarang at him, but the metal flew straight through his head like it was air. Danyal didn't even glance at him, his eyes fixed on Damian. "Get in the water," he ordered again. He stepped closer to the shore and the green water sloshed up the bank higher than it was before. "Or I'll raise the tide so high, all of Gotham will die. So get in the water."

Damian's heart jumped into throat. "Wait-"

"Get in the water."

Father shoved Damian behind him, as if it would protect him, as if he could stop Danyal. "Stop this, please-" If he could just explain-

Another step and the waters surged forward, nearly touching Father's boots. "I'll make whirlpools so profound, your entire family will drown," he promised.

"NO!" Not his brother, his kind brother-

"THEN GET IN THE WATER!" Danyal snarled, revealing monstrously sharp teeth and a black tongue from Damian's poison. "G̴̩͍͆͆̈́e̵̹̣͆t̷̬̋ ̸̻̮̎̒ĭ̸̟̰͙̏̃n̵͙̝̟̋͐ ̸̛̳̃t̶̪̣̅ḣ̸̳̇͜è̵̠̲͖̔̑ ̶̢̹̖͗͐̀w̵̜͍̤̌a̵̬̞͝ṫ̴̩̣̣e̶͉̲̯͂̏̎r̴̉͜!̷̡͔́̀̽" He lunged and Father pushed them back down the passage they'd come. "Don't mistake this for a bluff, brother. You've lived more than enough. Just get in the water." Damian swallowed, throat dry. Was this Danyal's revenge? Did he finally have to face what he had done?

"Robin, who is this?" Father snapped, trying to keep retreating down the cave. But Damian wouldn't let him; the waters, and Danyal with them, would only follow.

@victoria-has-no-secret it would be the most traumatizing 15 minutes of his life knowing that danny will drag it on long enough for maximum terror. When he gets there, Danny would be all 'professional-like' and devoid of the resentment that Damian, in his panic, thought this was a different ghost but wore his brother's face for some reason. It doesn't help that Danny assumed a more 'human' form than the mangled more ghostly form back at the pit waters. The whiplash of attitudes, denial, and the adrenaline would convince him that Paperwork! Danny is different from Siren-would-drown-gotham-if-damian-doesnt-kill-himself! Danny

Meanwhile batfam are Panicking. Some weird Pit demon just dragged their baby bat into its waters and hasnt come back to the surface! (Time is a bit weird between the infinite realms and dc-verse) Bruce could feel the immense resentment that was honed in on Damian. The pit demon ignored him with single minded focus to get at Damian. He tried to push his son behind him, telling him to fall back but Damian is just... frozen there. A complicated look on his face before settling on horror and reluctant guilt. Bruce doesn't know what to think about that. The being screeched at Damian again to get in the water. It was making him choose to kill himself and Bruce is not having any of that. He was horrified to see Damian, as if hypnotized, grimly enthralled, slowly steps forward to it despite Bruce's protests. Teeth grit in terror and guilt and frustrations as if his body was being controlled and Damian couldn't fight it. He sees the glowing green waters slowly surging forward worryingly close as if waiting to snatch up his son. Bruce snapped out of it and dropped whatever he was holding and tried to physically drag his son out of there but- but he couldn't?

Damian's breathe hitched and Bruce looked down to see a sickly pale clawed hands holding onto Damian's lower. The rotting mangled flesh of its face that looks so eeriely familliar. That is his son's face. Damian's face. The demon called his son 'kinslayer'. Who is this?

In that split second look down, the demon opened its mouth, showing a dark rotten tongue and screeched,

"G̷̢͎͖̞̫̥̬̮̟̍̾͋̂͛̐̌̓͒͑͜Ȩ̴̥̟̩̫̜̠̫͈̙̼̼̩̤̫́͊͜T̴̛͙̩͙̹̥̜̲̠̰͕͓͇͉̂̈́̋̊͝ ̷͈̥͈̦̻̭̦̠̿́͂̈̔̊̃͆̍̎̂̕̚Ï̸̧̭͓͙̻͔͇̤̞͂̑̌̏N̸̡̦͉̈́̒̓̊̃͐̓́͠͝ ̸̢̢̯͙͙̩͕͉̦͓̥͇̰̄̓̎̉Ţ̶͍̟̬̘̤͕̲͉͔̳͖̜̪̖͊̓̅͋̀̈́̈͐H̷̭̖͖͈̻̝̘͓̫̺͉̻̣̥͓͉̕Ȩ̸̨̧̻͎̖̟̦͍̥̔͑̅̀̀̿̈̄̈́̚͘ ̸̢̡͍̘̪͓̥̉̀͋̋͊W̵̡̺̫̝̱͕̞̥̭̦͙̮̮͕̗̖̃̑̉̈̎͒̂̽̎̋̎͊̓̚͜͝͠A̴̡̛̞̙͕̖̼͚̬̗̭͂̿̏̀͊͋͆̕ͅT̸̡̧͙͕͓̳͉̗̯̥̱͛̑̇̀͌̍̃̋̚ͅÊ̷̢̛̤̙͕̫̺͍̼͛̽̔͑͗́̈́̈́̑̑̐̕R̶̳̥͓͈͉̼͕̠̼̗͂̓͐̔͌͘͠!̸̡̛̣̥͍̥͕̩̫̳͑̐̈́̽͝!̶̡̟͖̪͔͚̝̥̙̹͖̼̮̌̈́̆̽̈́̾͝͝ͅͅ!̷̜̠͇̯̬̖͂̓̀̿͘"

It made Bruce's ears ring despite all the protections his suit had to things like it and unconsiously loosened his grip on Damian. A mistake. The demon quickly tugged him away from his arms and dragged him bodily through the dirt to the glowing waters. Damian tried to claw his way from it but ends up in the shallow pools shouting and gargling from the waters from each tug that unbalance him and forces his head to fall to the waters, slowly dragging him deeper. Bruce, quick on his feet, tried to chase. Tried to dive in but as he stepped on the shallow waters, his feet slowly sink on the ground. Tripping and slowing him down, not helping his panic and the jackhammering of his heart as his watched his son slowly disappear under the pits.

One is a demon. A Reaper. A bloody and vengeful Siren. The other a mocking bureaucrat. Neither a child. Neither who his brother WAS. The dead do not change, do they?

So why...

Who.....

Who EXACTLY has his brothers soul? He has never wondered. Never considered. But... but surely he was at rest, right? Yet he can not fool himself. These mockery are too well done. Do they have him?

Does Danyal suffer in the clutches of these demons? Lost amongst the restless dead? Because... because he was unavenged? Because of Damian?

It hurts to breathe. His hands shake.

Is... is the only way to SAVE his brother to avenge him? When he was the one who... Must he kill... himself, then? Would that bring Danyal's soul peace?

Or is it a trick? Played by demons? Preying upon the sins he can not forgive himself for? The mistakes of his past?

The Bats? Gonna be IN IT for a looooong while. So much arcana research and magician bothering. Long nights, climbing very, VERY tall mountains to go bother old monks. Leave the monks alone guys, they are busy doing monk business.

Direct exposure to the Pit would kill the healthy and risk temporary Pit Rage for those it heals. Tim had to drag Bruce back out. Then he had to catch and drag Nightwing away to keep him from diving in after Damian.

Once he was sure they wouldn't kill themselves trying to dive in, he jury-rigged a grapple to try to dredge the pool. If there was even a chance... The Pit might revive him if it killed him. He'd dredge the whole pool if he had to. He wasn't giving up on his gremlin brother.

Dick and Bruce joined in with their own jury-rigged grapples as soon as they could.

Time passed differently in the Realms than in the living world. Hours of paperwork was barely fifteen frantic minutes under Gotham.

When Damian finally finished with the paperwork, the Paperwork Demon shoved him out of the room and between one blink and the next, the Pit Demon was back in front of him. His dead brother's face in a rictus viciously mocking grin.

"Time's up," the demon(?) with his brother's death-pale, sunken face mocked as his clawed hand gripped Damian by the collar, yanking him into the air.

Damian scrabbled at his hand, reflexively trying to escape. "Wait! Ple-please," he choked out. "My-my brother-"

The grin twisted into a scowl. "You lost the right to call me your brother when you murdered me, kinslayer." He hissed, sharp teeth snapping at him.

"Let- my bro- Danya-" Damian choked again as the grip tightened and shook him.

"SILENCE! You're not worthy. You never deserved me."

Damian wheezed, trying desperately to ask if this demon truly spoke for Danyal. Was Danyal here? The true Danyal? His brother's kind, gentle soul - too gentle for the League of Assassins and grandfather. The paperwork and Pit demons wore his face and knew too much of him, but they weren't truly his brother, right? Right?

"Dan-"

But the Demon's face twisted and suddenly Damian was launched backwards and through a standing wall-portal(?), and green covered his vision. He thrashed in the thick liquid, instinctively struggling to surface. He had no idea which way was up or out of the liquid.

Just as he started fearing he would drown, something touched his back. He twisted, grabbing at anything solid, and his hands brushed and then grabbed onto a familiar sort of cable. A grappling line.

He pulled at it, desperately hoping, and abruptly was being yanked forward, up and out. The green parted and he gasped in air. Voices shouting but he couldn't parse what they were saying. He was pulled across the pool, hanging onto the line with a death grip. Stone scraped his knee pads and he tried to push himself up and out. But then there were familiar hands gripping him, lifting him out of the Pit and onto dry land.

Damian coughed, breathing roughly as Bruce folded his youngest into his arms and held him close. Dick was right there clinging and fussing over Damian. Tim was right beside them, easing his grapple line out of Damian's grip. Damian switched his grip to the edge of his father's cape.

-------

Danny huffed and then slowly inhaled and exhaled, letting his features morph back to normal. He let go of the spike of old anger and current annoyance. Then grinned. Damian had deserved that prank. It had felt vindicating to watch him sweat and flail out of his depth, nothing like the proud, superior princeling of the League.

But he had a lot of other names to go through.

Danny pushed aside the old memories. He'd never been wanted by his birth family, never been good enough for them to actually care. He'd moved on with his life. He had found a new family that wanted him.

Damian can't sleep anymore, every time he so much as blinks he sees the funhouse mirror version of his brother waiting, always ready for him.

Him explaining to his beloved family exactly who Danyal was, and why he would be so furious with Damian was a really bad conversation for everyone. Trying to explain how he hadn't brought it up because he didn't think he had done anything wrong for the first several months, and then continuing to say nothing because he was too guilty, did not help the situation.

Constantine reassures Damian (under the strictest of oaths to keep his trap shut) that "Danyal" was probably a Guilt Demon - never alive, couldn't be his brother at all - just reading his mind and picking the most painful form to paralyse him. Damian protests but John reminds him that it did actually work, Damian ultimately fought off his own father and entered the water of his own free will following the demon. Constantine puts himself on the case of exactly why a demon lord was so desperate to temporarily drag Damian to hell.

Damian still isn't sleeping. Bruce benches him and is more scared than ever when it barely gets a reaction.

The name 'Constantine' begins with a 'C'. After Danny purposefully chose Damian as his first victim, he goes alphabetically for the rest. And returning from the dead isn't as common as you'd think - the Justice League are just outliers. So it doesn't take too long for Constantine's reckoning.

He's missing for a week.

@charlietheepicwriter7

Secondly: question, if Danny is going through the list of those who have evaded death, won't Jason and Ra's Al Ghul be on said list?

I can imagine the BatFam connecting the dots after Constantine comes back and realizing that Jason might soon be grabbed to file his own ghost back taxes. I can see them setting up a billion different contingency plans to try and "help" Danyal. How things go from there is dealer's choice.

Ra's though?

Even excluding any personal grudges, Ra's Al Ghul has been bathing in the Lazarus Pits and cheating death for centuries. He should be dead and buried dozens of times over. Constantine may have sold his soul a few too many times, but he's been sticking to a reasonable lifespan and has no delusions about never dying. Constantine knows the Reaper Man will come for his due, and respects that fact. Ra's, on the other hand? Ra's is convinced that he will live forever and nothing and no one will change that fact.

I think that for Ra's? Danny might just forgo the scare altogether. The scare is part of rehabilitation, to keep these people from never doing this shit again. (And to keep Danny's sanity since he has to deal with all this paperwork.)

Ra's is never going to change. Danny, as Danyal al Ghul, almost certainly has some lingering trauma from being raised in the League. So instead of making a show out of it, giving Ra's a chance to react or fight back, Danny just drags him under before anyone can even react.

And Ra's is never seen again.

The bats are staking out Nanda Parbat because they realize Ra's will be on the list eventually. They're hoping for a chance to help Danyal when he comes for Ra's.

But instead of a big production, suddenly everyone is just... gone. (Whether the others fled when Ra's was grabbed or they got pulled under to deal with their own back taxes is up to you.) And Danny is there, still white-haired and green-eyed but looking far less monstrous. Gone are the rotting flesh, the sharp claws, the fangs. Instead it's just a child, looking sad and almost wistful.

Danny is taking the time after dragging Ra's under to look around what was his childhood home. There are so many memories there, bad and good, and he's struggling to handle all of it.

And perhaps even a long overdue medical check up as well.

Jason is gone by far the longest from the Living perspective (hours or even days compared to everyone else's 15-30 minutes), but he comes back Pit-Free with a new understanding of his own and also Danyal's nature and needs as an undead entity.

He understands Danny's need for a bit of vengeance. And knows intimately that the way Danny chose to take that vengeance (that again, he needed) was frankly tame and merciful compared to what someone else, even Jason himself, probably would have done in his shoes.

He's also learned that now that Danny has had his payback, there's no more animosity there. Still a fuck ton of trauma and miscommunication and misunderstanding and shit. But Danny doesn't actually wish any harm on Damian. No particular good will either, but that's whatever.

I know OP mentioned somewhere that they were thinking of tacking on a sequel to the song Ruthlessness (excellent choice) and that got me thinking: You know what other song from EPIC would be pretty cool with this AU? Scylla. It's not released yet but what we have heard sounds very fitting (and awesome!) Gives me Danny dragging the LOA into the pits vibes.

Deep down

We're lonely demons from hell

(If we are sticking with the Pit Demon route)

Drown in your sorrow and fear

Choke on your blood and your tears

Bleed 'till you've run out of years

(I'm looking at you Ra's)

We must do what it takes to survive

Give up your honor and faith

Live up your life as a wraith

("Get in the water" vibes but more direct)

Die in the blood where you bathe

We must do what it takes to survive

(Referring to bathing in the Lazarus Pits)

I don't know it sounded cool. There might be another animatic in the future once the song is fully released. I might be up to doing some of Ruthlessness too if OP makes a follow-up post.

Sound on!

Pages 52, 53, 54, 55, and 56 all at once!!!  Whaaat?!

To prove something to a friend, please

REBLOG IF YOU THINK ASEXUALS BELONG IN LGBTQ+ SPACES

And I will tell you my:

First impression

Impression now

Favorite moment

Idea for a story

Unpopular opinion

Favorite relationship

Thats right!

Permission to be a bad ass. Nod.

He looks back at the guy like, “SEE THAT? SHE SAID YES. YOU’RE SO FUCKED.”

In Sparta, women could own land and were considered citizens. THAT IS A HUGE BIG FUCKING DEAL. Why? Because that was RARE AS FUCK and there are lots of places TODAY where women don’t even get that much.

Divorce was totally fine, and a woman could expect to keep her own wealth and get custody of the kids because paternal lineage wasn’t very important. And it didn’t make her a pariah! She could totally remarry, no big deal at all.

Spartan women participated in some fuckin’ badass sporting events, too. And because they were expected to be as physically fit as the Spartan menfolk (who all had to serve compulsory military duties, btw, and couldn’t marry until they finished them at thirty) they didn’t have time for lots of swishy dresses. So they wore notoriously short skirts. According to some accounts, their thighs were visible at all times. HOLY SHIT. 

Also, In Sparta men only got their names on their graves if they died in battle. And women? Women only got their names on their graves if they died in childbirth. THE SPARTANS COMPARED CHILDBIRTH TO FUCKING BATTLE AND IT WAS VIEWED AS A GODDAMN BADASS AND HONORABLE WAY TO GO OUT.

Plus the women could marry whomever they pleased and the men weren’t allowed to live with the women in their house until she said so. And they were tough in Sparta but also all about family. To have male offspring was good luck, to have female offspring was an honour. 

This part of the movie was true; King Leonidas really did kill a man because he insulted his wife and he always ensured that he had his wife’s approval. And while Leonidas was away in battle she did rule Sparta on her own. 

I’m 6’2 and weigh 180lbs

The saying that they’re closer to hell?