An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
"“I’m just going to leave,” decided Garth, finishing his buttons. “This was a mistake.”
Uff. Harsh.
“It doesn’t have to be that serious, Aqualad,” said Koryak, rolling his eyes. “We fought, we fucked, you slept over. That’s it. Let’s not make this something that it’s not.”
“Yeah, sleeping with you was the mistake, you idiot,” Garth spat, moving towards the door."
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Or: that time Garth and Koryak had a one-night stand and a horrible fight the morning after. Also, a wedding!
ugliest batch of hoes i have ever seen. this shoulda been jon's legion clinging to him all damsel-in-distressy. querl on the right leg. imra on the left arm, rokk on the right. jay on his shoulder, and ash the one wit his hand smack dab in the middle of jon's tiddies. instead we gotta buncha ugly ass bouncers. no justice in this world.
Drummer Fire (Ash/Drummer Boy): a necessary explanation
So two years ago I came up with a rare pair and an idea for a fic where they fell in love. I never wrote it, because what was the point? We were talking about characters who had about one appearance each, and no one would read it.
They’ve never left my brain, though. The adventures of Ash and Drummer Boy in Alaska with Koryak, Aquaman’s son, were crystal clear in my head, and so was the second chapter in Hawaii and the end during a superhero Pride party.
So when I came up with a sequel for that unwritten fic, even one that focused on Koryak and Garth of Shayeris fighting their way to falling in love, I wanted Drummer Fire to be there even if no one knew them.
After all, I was writing fic about Koryak, and was pretty sure no one outside my friends from Discord would read it. They could deal, it was fine.
Even so, I’m going to explain what Drummer Fire, the rare pair of all rarities, is about. Just in case you got lost, found my fic, and are confused. Understandable really.
So, first things first, who are Ash and Drummer Boy?
Drummer Boy, aka Aaron Mack (they/them), is the older character, but not by much. They were introduced in the first ever DC Pride in 2021, in the story “Be gay, do crime.” In this story we see them use a pair of drums they’ve created to imitate the mindcontrolling powers of the Pied Piper’s famous flute to take over a charity gala. The objective? The queer neighborhood in Central City is being threatened by a homophobic landlord and his exhortative prices, so Drummer wants to make the rich people in the city pay the difference.
Pied Piper, who left his life of crime a long time ago, goes to stop them, but ends up getting an earful about their dire situation, which actually gets to the hero. Mack tells him about how inspiring it was to see him steal from the rich when they were a kid, but now he’s turned into a disappointment.
“I became my own hero― because you? All you do these days is go to openings and take pictures with your buddy Flash.”
Pied Piper decides to help, but still refuses to use their powers to mind control the people in the gala. He has a different plan, where they threaten the landlord into selling the properties he’s harassing to Piper… or they shatter his eardrums.
This is a nice story and a character that has a ton of potential… but nothing is being done with them. They’re in background shots of Pride issues but very little else.
Even so, I think they’re very interesting and there is a lot to play with. Drummer is fierce and ready to do morally wrong things for the right reasons, but maybe has a tendency to jump the gun. They are smart enough to recreate Piper’s tech… but not smart enough to think of any solution other than pay the homophobic landlord the money he’s asking for. They may veer towards more structured thinking, having a difficulty with thinking around the corners, out of the box.
They give me the impression of someone with strong principles, who thinks that they don’t have to play the game because they’re right. And if you disagree with them, then you’re wrong and fuck you anyway. It’s an impulse we can all kind of understand―don’t lie you’re on Tumblr, we wrote that particular playbook―but belongs to someone too young and idealistic to create actual change. You need to know how to adapt when necessary, to come at people from an angle they’ll understand instead of charging head on with hostility and self-righteousness.
You need a carrot opposite to the stick, and they may struggle with that part of activism.
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Then we have Ash (he/him), whose real name we don’t know. Ash has even less appearances than Drummer, only the story “Electric” in Lazarus Planet: Assault on Krypton (2023), where he exists to flirt with Jon Kent. The story was penned by C.S. Pacat, so. The flirting is good.
In this story Jon is arresting him for shoplifting when the Lazarus Rains hit, which gives Ash the power to create and control lava… and Jon electric powers. These new powers leave Jon weakened and he falls unconscious, which Ash could use to run away. Instead, he takes Superman to an empty apartment so he can recover and then helps him keep the city safe during the storm.
Of course, he takes the opportunity to flirt the whole time. He learns how to use his powers, teases Jon relentlessly but charmingly, and in the end he accepts being arrested once his powers are gone, but mentions that he would like for them to go flying, once he’s out.
“I know you only let me tag along so you didn’t have a super-powered thief on the loose while you saved the city… but I hope I made myself useful.”
SIKE! His powers aren’t gone, he just pretended to get a headache and lied! Not his fault he’s pretty and has gorgeous blue eyes where a superhero could get distracted, man, sucks to suck. He escapes prison, steals Jon’s cape to sell it to the highest bidder, and leaves him a sassy note with his chosen new name and a little heart.
Ash is a great character and I would love to get him in another story written by Pacat, but it doesn’t seem likely that it’ll happen anytime soon. Even so, we get a well-defined character that seems used to rely on charm and sheer likeability to get away with petty crime. One would think he wouldn’t bother helping Jon, what would he get from saving people? But he does it. He tries to steal stuff all the way through but honestly, that seems like another way of flirting for him, he wants to make sure Jon keeps an eye on him, that he’s paying attention.
He’s always given me the impression of someone who commits petty crime out of boredom and a need for attention, not out of need. When we meet him he’s stealing a leather jacket―which he keeps―and the only other thing he seems interested in keeping is a pair of sunglasses. The diamond bracelet and the wallet are just easy marks.
Even before he got his powers, Ash seems to be squandering his true potential. He has a lot of advantages but doesn’t use them for anything worthwhile, he’s just coasting along. And the thing is, Ash could be formidable. Either as a hero or a villain, I truly believe he has what it takes to make a splash… but his main objective is to flirt with the hot superhero he has right in front of him.
Ash is potential without direction, what he truly needs is a cause.
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I don’t remember my original intentions when I came up with this couple. I wanted someone to ship Drummer with and thought of Ash because I do love the guy, but I soon discarded the thought. Nah. They didn’t fit together, they were polar opposites.
And in the end, that’s kind of the point. They are opposites. Drummer is used to having to fight, because they grew up in the foster system as an at-risk LGBTQ youth who felt alienated from what society considered normal. No one has ever handed anything to them, what they have they’ve taken. Ash is a handsome young gay man with plenty of charm, a flirty personality, and the ability to lie seamlessly and get away with anything. They take things because they can, and rarely suffer the consequences. Drummer is fighting for their community, for something that matters deeply to them. Ash is aimless, just having fun and doing what he wants until he’s stopped. Drummer keeps hitting a wall because they can’t think beyond the fight. Ash keeps taking things in stride and adapting so he can use them to his advantage.
They would be better together. Drummer would benefit from having someone who can redirect some of their impulses into smarter moves, and Ash would benefit from someone who wants him to use his potential for something real.
I don’t know if I’ll ever write the fic/fics where they meet, become friends, and fall deeply in love with each other, but I hope it’s now understandable why I think they would and why I ship them so much.
PD: Koryak is part of this friend group because I like Koryak. That’s it. He also works on the dynamic as someone in the middle: he has potential and a cause, but it’s often the wrong one. And he sucks, but they love him anyway. Poison’s profile on the character will give you a better overview than I ever would, but just know that I love my terrible wet son just as much as my other two less-terrible dry children.
This was going to be about how Ash is a lying liar that lies but then I realized he never actually lies? He's sassy, he asks misdirecting questions, but he never lies to Jon's face. In fact he's pretty truthful, just in a extremely sarcastic way.
So anyways, now this about a possible lie Ash could've told.
Ok so I can't stop thinking about how Ash probably lied about everyone suddenly getting powers. Because Ash only said he heard on the news that everyone suddenly got superpowers and Jon doesn't check for himself. He just believes him.
That and the fact that they don't run into any newly-powered people while they're out.
I think they were activated by Jon's new lightning powers and the funky magic rain.
I don't plan on keeping up with the rest of Lazarus Planet so if the volcano did give other people powers, cool then.
ALSO
NOW JON HAS TWO FIRE-BASED ENEMIES ARE YOU KIDDING ME????
Ooooooo the volcano PTSD is gonna come back full force
