I was talking to someone about Plague Rat and they pointed something out to me that I haven’t been able to get out of my brain:
One of Plague Rat’s biggest things is that he can communicate with pest animals. This being an extremely versatile ability since rats and pigeons are everywhere and basically can act as Plague Rat’s eyes and ears in the wall.
There’s literally a plot point that the bat family realizes just how much Plague Rat knows through this, but doesn’t use half that information against them. (Come to realize it’s because it steps beyond Plague Rat’s weird and complicated moral code. Remember, Plague Rat is an anti-villain, not a straight up villain.)
And so, remembering that, they said:
“So if he were in the Harley Quinn TV show, he’d be the guy in the office building who’s always on top of all the drama and gossip.”
Possible trigger warnings?:
Mentions of zombies in one paragraph, slightly disturbing imagery?, Brief swearing,
Genre:
Angst, Hurt/Comfort?
Context/Synopsis:
Plague Rat appears in Jonathan’s new hideout some time after he was attacked by Killer Croc. Plague Rat is horrified by the state he finds Scarecrow in, but is horrified for him, much to Jonathan’s surprise.
Plague Rat, aka Blake, is just happy to have him back.
Notes:
-Feel free to reblog, but please do not repost!
-If you have any constructive critique, please share!
"So, is this revenge for not telling you I was Plague Rat?" Jonathan didn't turn around, keeping his eyes on the screen before him. He stood with his hands resting on the table, his calloused fingers curling into fists. The dimly lit room was once full of silence, but the unexpected and familiar voice had cut through the isolative quiet.
The slight ire in that voice even seemed to cut Jonathan down to the bone. But there wasn't just anger in his tone, but whether it was regret, guilt, or general sadness, Jonathan couldn't discern.
"I knew you'd find me eventually." Though, this moment was something he dreaded.
"-And that was your reason for not telling me you were alive?" All anger seemed to leave his voice when he said that; All other emotions replaced with worry and grief. There was a long pause, the only sound from the nearly inaudible whirring of the machines nearby.
Finally, Blake broke the silence. "When I heard about you being dragged off, I couldn't tell you how tempted I was to hunt that sunovabitch down and turn him into a pair of croc-skin boots." He chuckled. As he woefully spoke, he slowly walked toward the Scarecrow, letting his steps be heard so Jonathan wouldn't be caught off-guard. "But, you and I both know that would've been a stupid decision."
Before long, Jonathan felt Blake's hand slowly rest on his shoulder. "Johnny," Blake muttered. "where have you been?"
If there was anything Jonathan knew about Blake, it was his fears. He'd always trusted him enough to be very liberal about telling him what truly bothered him. The sillier things, like roosters and praying mantis, to the more understandable things, like his voreaphobia. But two things he always seemed to struggle with day-to-day were his fears of abandonment and loneliness. Those two things came to mind immediately as he felt Blake's hand tremble against his shoulder.
Finally, Jonathan let out a barely audible sigh and turned to face him. Blake, who hadn't yet seen the aftermath of the incident, took a step back as he saw Jonathan's face. ...Or at least, what remained of it.
"If I could've seen you before now, I would've." His jaw moved rather robotically as he spoke. By all accounts, he shouldn't have been able to talk as well as he was.
Jonathan still didn't think Blake could take the sight of him, one of the biggest reasons he hadn't approached him before. Though, by the time he showed up in his hideout, it was already too late not to confront him.
Jonathan watched the look in Blake's eyes shift as his mind processed what he saw. Blake's widened eyes were the only real clue of how he felt, as the rest of his face barely shifted, as was typical for him. Finally, the tightness in his chest and his shallow breaths became more noticeable. Though knowing him, Blake likely hadn't even noticed.
Scarecrow watched in slight disbelief as Blake reached out to him, hesitating only for a moment to gauge Jonathan's reaction. Then, placed his hand gently against the side of Crane's face, and after a moment of simply taking it in, he muttered, "Why didn't you come to me sooner, love?" Jonathan couldn't reply, half expecting this response to be some kind of cruel trick.
Not waiting for a response, Blake placed his other hand on the opposite side of Crane's face. The look in his cloudy eyes, his exposed teeth and gums, the quiet sound of his breathing now laboured, his missing nose, it all seemed like something out of Blake's worst nightmares. In fact, he could remember that one clear as day.
He didn't bother dwelling on it back then; it was nothing but a nightmare, Jonathan dying and coming back as a zombie to haunt him for the rest of time. Only for the Crane-zombie to ask him why he hadn't tried to save him, whether he was lying all those times that Blake said he loved him and hissing that Blake should've been the one rotting. At that time, Blake woke up in their shared bed, only to look over and see Jonathan asleep. As soon as he realized it wasn't real, he went back to sleep without a second thought.
Now though, that nightmare seemed all too real.
Blake's hands left Jonathan's face, wrapping around him as gently as possible as he pulled him into an embrace. Scarecrow hesitated but eventually wrapped his arms around him as well. They almost melted into each other. Crane hadn't even noticed how much his body craved Blake's touch until that moment, while Blake had drowned in his feeling of emptiness without Jonathan all that time.
At this point, Blake wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of the day like this. Holding Johnny after all that time apart, after believing that Jonathan was dead, it felt like he was dreaming.
And if he was dreaming? He'd rather stay asleep than wake up in that empty bed again.
When I was still in my initial draft stages for my DC S/I, I played with quite a few ideas for what they’d be like before settling on the pestilence-controlling rat man.
Fairly different from my Marvel S/I, since I’ve basically only changed a couple of things over time, lol.
Some highlights include:
’TechMaster’
My first idea, a man who somehow got his consciousness and ‘soul’ implanted into the digital world. Basically becoming some kind of tech ghost that could possess any technology linked to the internet. Not much was thought of here other than him being a nuisance, especially to cyborg.
(Was never named)
An alien that basically resembled a fox made of smoke that could animorph into any species, so long as he could assimilate the DNA of said species. (Similar to the creature in ‘The Thing’.) Nothing else really was in mind, other than a bait-and-switch in his plot, where it’d be framed as him being a peaceful shapeshifter at first, only for J’onn to realize his race assimilates other species. (They were similar to mythical ‘changelings’, taking over races on different planets by being ‘raised’ by the apex race, then living amongst and overthrowing them.)
’Huntsman’
A man who, through making a deal with ‘the god of the hunt’, gained the ability to know exactly how to detain and/or kill any living being he saw in person. Though this came with the price of gaining a near-uncontrollable bloodlust and/or obsession towards any being he used the ability towards. He basically started his storyline by kidnapping some members of the justice league to add to his collection. I didn’t keep the idea long enough to do much else with it, though.
(Was never named)
For a small time between the Huntsman and Managero, I toyed with the idea of my S/I being dance-themed. (Because, you see, his sister is a singer, so I thought it’d be funny.) So I played with the idea of him being able to hypnotize people and control them via making music/dancing. (Using his abilities, if he danced, he could make his targets mirror his movements, or he could basically make people break out into spontaneous song and dance, like a Disney movie.) I never actually came up with a character for this ability or anything, I just think it’s notable because of how funny I think it is:
Just Scarecrow, the embodiment of fear and terror wrapped in straw and stitches, and then you look over at his boyfriend and he’s the human embodiment of the ‘conga line’ scene from ‘The Mask’.
‘Managero’
No doubt the most developed. This was the last idea before I settled on Plague rat. A man who, during a freak accident, ended up being combined with multiple lab animals. This resulted in him basically being turned into a monster. He couldn’t speak very much, as the animals were ‘too loud’ in his own head for him to even understand what he was saying, and had animal-like instincts that he couldn’t control. The ‘abilities’ that he gained from the accident made him forcibly ‘evolve’ and adapt to any deadly situation in order to survive. He couldn’t control it, nor what would happen to his body, but whatever he evolved would always be half-formed and unfinished, and basically go away as soon as he didn’t need them to survive anymore. (For example: Wings sprouting out of his back whilst falling from a deadly height, but the wings, despite being able to fly with them, would be misshapen and painful to move. then, they’d fall off as soon as he landed.) He basically wanted nothing more than to be left alone, was kidnapped by the Joker at one point, and then ended up with Scarecrow somehow. But that’s all I ended up getting to before abandoning this idea as well.
I dunno, I just think it’s interesting to imagine how differently my S/I could’ve turned out if I decided to go with any of these ideas, haha.
