They always knew, Clark and Diana, that there was no universe where they die before Bruce does.
A godlike being from another planet and a divinely-crafted warrior could survive death's claws digging into their skin; a human's flesh, however fortified, can only truly withstand so much. For all his brilliance, Bruce can never outsmart the fallibility of his own design.
They just hadn't thought it would happen so soon.
Death wasn't permanent, it shouldn't be. But they had the body, had heard the bones crunch and the blood come out in heaves, collected the torn parts of armor that failed their purpose.
Bruce was dead.
Could you imagine what that turns out to be like?
Clark, who looks so much like Bruce, can't even look at a window too long because he might think, he might hope, that the reflection he's looking at isn't actually his own. The kids see him and actually freeze up, Damian tears up and has to leave the room. Clark elects to stand at the back of the chapel during the funeral service, but he towers so tall that he haunts Bruce's family anyways.
Even Diana can't look at Clark too long. The silhouette is there, but not the signature furrow of the brow nor the smugness of expression. She stays in denial the longest, maybe because out of everyone, she has all the time to spare. She makes jokes, trying her best to cope, trying to lie to herself — but jokes are always made with half truths. It isn't until she sees Jason again, the boy being unmasked and looking like the friend she had lost, the picture of Bruce's age when they had first met, that Diana bursts into tears for the first time.
Sam's friends in college witnessing the weirdcest of it all but specifically Sam and his friends go out drinking or at a party and Sam gets hit on very aggressively and Sam keeps brushing it off but the person is really drunk and very forceful and eventually they move on but it's really uncomfortable for literally everyone but Sam handles it with such grace and seems to brush it off only to immediately take a sip of his beer and with a faraway stare go, "man. I miss my brother"
early on, its unspecified and hasn't really been addressed which Flash it is in this collab. (one would assume its Wally because he made a reference towards Krakkl)
then they mention him being a forensic scientist, and in here the Flash has blue eyes, okay so this is Barry lol. had to doodle it out with my Sonic Fan Wally headcanon. (also in my actual AU, Barry look a bit more like this to fit in-universe with 03)
Dragon Spirit SY as chosen by this poll! Bonus doodle and ramblings under the cut :3c
[ID: A Scum Villain Drawing. Dragon Spirit!Shen Yuan leans on one arm as he sits in a sidelean in the grass. He has green horns and a green scaled tail with a fluffy end that curls around the back of him to the front. He wears a very loose and translucent white and green robes that do not leave much to the imagination. One sleeve is falling off his shoulder. His chest is very exposed. He has green scales on various parts of his body. His eyes are gold colored. His other arm is trying to brush away some of his long fluffy hair out of his face. Vines reminiscent of a willow tree and ivy hang down behind him. End ID]
Bonus doodle! SJ Stumbling upon this very scene:
[ID: A Scum Villain Doodle. Head Disciple!Shen Jiu hastily hides behind a large moss covered rock, clutching his sword in both hands to his chest. He looks down with a very flustered expression, his face and ears flushed. A speech bubble of Shen Yuan's says "Is someone there?" End ID]
Welcome to the dragon spirit! SY AU! This is an AU in which SY transmigrates as a dragon spirit and is taken to Qing Jing in secret by a previous Qing Jing peak lord to act as a guardian to QJ as well as helping it's spiritual atmosphere/energy. This peak lord did not share their secret with the rest of the sect, and made the area they housed SY forbidden to disciples. Only the new peak lord of QJ would learn of SY right before their Shizun ascended. SY is kind of just vibing with the free room and board, and is waiting for a particular protagonist to arrive at QJ (but he is so lost on where he is in the timeline lol)
That is until a newly made Head Disciple of QJ (~18-19yrs old), Shen Jiu, sneaks into the forbidden area, curious as to what his new Shizun is hiding and if it's something that could improve his fragmented cultivation so that he can stay ahead of others. Little did he know what he would stumble on! Eventually, SJ would work up the courage to introduce himself to SY and learn about him in turn. SY is just happy to have company that isn't strictly business and with his habit of picking up strays, sees this grumpy, obviously traumatized and sleep deprived guy and immediately starts doting on him. SY becomes the one man SJ feels comfortable sleeping around (this also leads to huge cuddle piles with the QJ disciples once SJ becomes peak lord and SY is adamant about meeting them; at which point he becomes an open secret in the sect lol).
I like to imagine that Liu Qingge discovered SY by accident during one of the QJ raids when he was fighting with SJ, pre-them becoming peak lords. And now just leaves him gifts at the edge of his territory (he gets too flustered giving them in person).
Shang Qinghua finds out about him when he sees his scum villain not acting correctly and his protagonist not really being bullied or mistreated too badly??? He at first thinks it must be SQQ who is a transmigrator but when his tests for that falls through he ends up spying a bit more until he finds out about SY. After one stilted conversation SY clocks him as Airplane and proceeds to rant about "how was a Qing Jing dragon spirit never mentioned in the book Airplane!!" SQH now goes there to hide away from work responsibilities.
Mu Qingfang would be introduced if anything ever happened to SY that left him injured (bc lbr SQQ does not have the best medical experience *cough cough* lingxi caves *cough cough*) MQF finds him fascinating and sometimes comes over for tea.
These are the main brainworms for now! Probably will draw more and rant more about it in the future lmao
