Normal people can juggle three rainbow pins at once, right?
Joel has had face privileges revoked because they’re hard to draw
reference, sketch and color pallet under the cut
This is Harlequin grim, he has an amazing youtube channel with his partner. Their entire deal is gothic circus things, which is more like Gem’s aesthetic but thats fine because they’re so freaking cool
Shoes are hard to draw :( but I’m proud of the lines and checkerboarding
I would’ve done baggier, more clown-ish pants, but I’m not great at drawing clothes without a reference. I do really like the rainbow on the hat and the motion of the pins!
Geminislay in Gotham Part 1.5: Tim develops a healthy fear of tridents
(Part 1 but from Tim’s POV)
This was supposed to be a normal patrol. Right up until Oracle checked in with a weird alert.
“We have a potentially supernatural disturbance in sector 12. Red Robin, you’re closest.”
Tim sighed. Always normal until the spook-o-meter goes off. “On it.”
He changed course, swinging towards the coordinates that Oracle sent to his communicator. He caught sight of a potential altercation at the end of an alleyway that was still a good ways away. It looked like four armed men surrounding a red haired woman in a strange blue outfit. She was holding a shield… and was that a sword? God dammit, was she a new vigilante? He was able to just barely hear a man’s voice through the quiet side streets, “Does it matter? Get rid of her, she’s in the way.”
Shit, he was too late. Panic shot through him, but just before he shouted, “Wait! Stop!” The womans appearance shifted. He barely had time to blink as her teal tunic turned into a jet black undershirt with blood red sleeves. She had a red heart across her chest that reminded him of Jason’s bat symbol. Most disturbingly, one of her eyes turned bright red.
The thugs were shocked too.
“What the-“
He didnt get to finish his sentence before the woman slit his throat. This was getting bad fast. She stabbed the next man and Tim still wasnt close enough to stop her. At least the man fell in a way that tore her sword from her hands. The other two had a a chance.
Until the woman pulled an axe out of thin air.
Sure. Why not.
“The fuck-“
“She’s meta!”
The axe swung down onto the third man. God, this was a massacre. The last man shot desperately until Tim heard his gun click empty. He heard her voice, a higher pitched, deceptively sweet sound.
“Come on, dont tell me you’re out of arrows.” Tim had to try and save him.
“STOP!”
She sliced his head off. There was blood splattered across her face, but she didnt seem to care. The mans decapitated body flopped to the ground and the woman locked her gaze onto Tim. Jesus, she was terrifying.
“What are you doing?” Tim asked. Why did you just kill four people?
Her appearance changed back to a sailor pirate queen or something. Her axe disappeared, replaced by a wicked trident held over her head, poised to throw. She glared.
“I was defending myself. Honestly, who just points a gun at someone they just met?”
Tim stared blankly at the trident pointed at him and chose not to comment on the hypocrisy.
“Look, Im not gonna hurt you.” The woman paused, but spun her trident out of her overhead throwing position. It swooshed through the air before the blunt end landed on the ground with an intimidating thunk. Tim would take any peace offering he could get.
First things first.
“Who are you?” He asked.
The woman glanced at the bodies and honest to god giggled.
“Welp, I guess now you can call me Geminislay.” What the fuck kind of name is that?
“…Okay. Are you a meta?”
Confusion drew over her face. “I- no? Whats a meta?”
Was she for real right now? “A person with like, superpowers. Or something.”
She thought for a moment. “Oh! Like Tango?”
“What do tangos have to do with anything?”
“He’s a really nice blaze hybrid, you probably dont know him. There was one time Jimmy kissed him on the cheek and he nearly burned down my house.” What?
“Yeah, like that.” Mental note: the Geminislay lady knows a ‘blaze hybrid’ with fire powers.
“Nope! I dont have anything like that.”
Was she being for real with him right now? “You can change your appearance at will and pull weapons from thin air.”
“Uh yeah? Cant you?”
Okay, this is getting weird. “What are your intensions in Gotham?”
“I dont know! I’m honestly just trying to chill, but these guys really seem to have a problem with that!”
“So you decided to murder them!?”
Geminislay shrugged. “Yup. I mean they’ll res-“ she froze. “Oh dont tell me there’s a life gimmick here.”
“Um, excuse me?”
“How many hearts do you have?”
“One?”
Geminislay’s jaw dropped in shock. “Holy- oh my god dude!” She hurled something at him, which he caught on instinct. It was…a piece of bread?
“You’re like, one stubbed toe away from dying!” Okay rude. “Tell me you can at least regen!”
“I dont know what you-“
Tim heard footsteps. He tensed, and turned his back to the wall to the face the sound. Geminislay tensed too, and he didnt let her out of his sight.
“The fuck is taking you so long?” Said a random goon who entered the alley. He froze, and then smirked when he saw Tim. “Well well well, what do we have here? A little birdie.” He glanced at Geminislay. “And you found a friend.”
She probably didn’t appreciate being referred to as that. She seemed more lost with a side of stabby than malicious.
Tim glared and leveled his staff at the man. “Leave her alone if you know whats good for you.”
He grinned. “Fine. We’ll let your little friend live, as long as you come quietly. I bet the Joker’s gonna pay reeeaaal well for a new Robin to play with.”
Oh god please no. Tim wasnt doing that. Not after what he did to Jason. He would fight like a bat out of hell to avoid that, and he wasnt going to let this strange, lost murder lady get hurt either. He prepared to attack when-
Thoowp-CLAAANG!!!!
Jesus, was that sound her trident!?
“UGH-“
Shiiiiiiiiiing!!!
Tims eyes snapped onto Geminislay as her now bloody trident flew back into her hand. Instead of furious red like before, her eyes blazed with a deathly calm blue.
“What was THAT for!?”
“Dude are you crazy? You have ONE HEART!”
“Yeah, and it works perfectly fine!”
“A slime could probably take you out right now, you have one heart.”
He rolled his eyes. She really needed to chill about his singular heart.
“Well how many hearts do you have?”
“Ten! Like how you’re supposed to.”
He sighed, because that is just not how that is supposed to work. “Okay pause. Where are you from?”
She blinked. “I’m from Hermitcraft. But I’m not sure where exactly here is. Do you guys have access to a server hub? I was kinda in the middle of something before I got teleported over here.”
Tim fought the urge to pinch his nose. “No, we dont have whatever that is, but I need to arrest you.”
“Do you really need to though?” She asked, amusement dancing in her eyes.
“You murdered five people in front of me!”
“Im sorry, I was defending myself! Honestly, GOD FORBID women have hobbies.”
He sighed. He has to make sure this woman never meets Stephanie Brown. He tapped into his comms, “This is Red Robin, I have a powered individual who killed five people in less than five minutes.” He could feel Batman growling about no metas in Gotham. “Requesting backup.”
Oracle spoke into his ear. “I’m sending Black Bat and Robin. Red Hood is already en route.”
He looked back at Geminislay. “Either you come with us and answer our questions, or we take you by force.” And please dont spear me like a kabob.
Geminislay narrowed her eyes. (Thankfully not glaring) Her gaze locked onto him, then shifted to the ground, and settled on the sky.
“I’ll pass, thanks.” She was probably a flight risk, but its not like she could actually grow wings.
That is, until her outfit shimmered into a light pink dress worthy of a fairytale. He didnt actually know the full extent of her powers, did he? Monarch butterfly wings flipped out from behind her. With a few powerful flaps, she was gone.
Tim cursed and grappled after her. “Uh guys? She just sprouted wings and flew away.”
He heard Oracle sign, something that his siblings probably echoed.
“What are we looking for?”
“Caucasian female in her twenties, long red hair, light pink dress and butterfly wings flying northbound.”
“Cant catch a butterfly Replacement?”
“If its so easy you do it. She also might be wearing dark blue, or black with grey overalls.”
“You guys got a butterfly lady and didnt invite me!?” No Stephanie, we did not invite you.
“In pursuit.”
“Copy that Robin.”
“Damn, she’s fast!”
“Fucking TOLD you Hood!”
“Yeah yeah.” Jason said from beside him. They caught up to Damien and Cass a moment later.
“Silence, we’re loosing her!”
“I’m on my way to intercept and corner her.”
“B, you’re on the other side of the city.”
A single grunt, translating to “Not anymore.”
They continued tailing her, until they were standing on a rooftop facing Bruce, who had come from the other direction.
“Oracle. We’ve lost the visual.”
“You’re not gonna like this, but I’ve got a whole lot of nothing on the cameras. She’s a shapeshifter that found a crowd of people.”
Tim groaned. This was going to be such a headache.
Part 1: Is it really murder if they started it? https://www.tumblr.com/paradoxicalli/786030415065530368/geminislay-in-gotham-part-1
Part 2: The murderer is a friendly cottage core bookworm https://www.tumblr.com/paradoxicalli/786719029778841600/geminislay-in-gotham?source=share
Geminislay in Gotham Part 2: The murderer is a friendly cottage core bookworm
“I dont know, she seems pretty chill to me.”
Bruce pinched his nose. “Jason, she killed five people.”
“In self defense!”
“She beheaded a man, Todd.”
“You gotta admit, it was a clean cut.”
“…tch.”
Tim tipped back his coffee. They’d looked at the footage extensively, and it only brought more questions.
“So we have a ‘not meta’ girl named Geminislay who killed four men in twenty seconds.” Barbra said through a speaker.
Yep. Just their luck.
“She’s unpredictable and prone to violence without remorse. As of right now, she is to be considered armed and dangerous.” said Bruce.
Tim paused. “Like… normal armed and dangerous for Gotham, or actually armed and dangerous?”
Tim could tell Bruce was holding back a sigh.
“Initiate standard Unknown Meta in Gotham Protocol. I want all of you researching her identity and weaknesses. She is a threat until we are fully aware of her abilities and how powerful she is.”
“Perfect.” Jason said, “Sounds like a problem for the Day shift.”
—————————
This was not the kind of interdimensional travel that Gem signed up for.
For one thing, she couldnt leave. There was a blank space where the ‘SAVE AND QUIT’ button was supposed to be. And for another, she didnt even sign up for this in the first place!
But now she was here, in a random hardcore city that was beautifully constructed. She was glad that the sun was rising, the moonlight didnt do the intricately carved gargoyles justice.
A growing pain behind her eyes distracted her from her admirations. She took half a heart of damage, then a full heart. Alarmingly, the wither-like damage sped up when she faced the sun.
Oh right, there are only nights in Phasmophobia. Ghost hunters dont exist during the day.
Gem slipped into a hiding spot and changed to her normal skin. The pounding pain in her head immediately disappeared. She ate a piece of bread to get her health back. That solved one problem. The other problem (aside from being kidnapped by another universe) was that she was going to run out of food eventually. But, she didnt have to worry about that if she got home before then.
Okay think. I have no idea how I got here.
Gem thought back to what happened. She was building when she felt something pull her out of her world. She had blinked, it went dark, and-
Gem gasped out loud.
And she had seen a flash of purple. Gem probably would’ve been more cognizant of that, but she had been a bit busy being held at gunpoint and fighting for her life at the time.
Gem didnt know the exact shade of purple, but she knew that Portal + Purple + Dimension Antics = Watcher. Not good. Gem wasnt connected to the Watcher Lore, which meant she was stuck here for the foreseeable future.
Yeah, no. She’s not having that. Gem had been right in the middle of detailing her build when she was rudely removed from reality. No way was she going to let it be uneven just because she ceased to exist in that world! What kind of builder would that make her!?
Certainly not the kind of builder who made the Crystal Cliffs. Gem had bound Xornoth to a crystal and hatched a freaking dragon egg. How hard could it be to rip a hole through the universe?
—————————
There were a number of reasons that Duke liked working the Day shift.
The most annoying edge lord rogues come out at night, and therefore aren’t his problem. He was able to maintain Bat level stealth without the cover of darkness. And he really liked having a normal sleep schedule.
He did not like the sheer amount of shit the Night shift managed to get into while he was out.
Duke woke up before dawn to patrol before school and see what the Night shift left him with. Apparently, whatever it was this time was so bad that he needed to be briefed on it.
Duke stood next to Tim, who for some reason was glaring intensely at a piece of bread. Duke quietly pushed a day old coffee cup away from Tim; he really needed to sleep more.
“Signal.”
“Batman.”
“Red Robin encountered a meta-human with shapeshifting abilities.”
Batman pulled up a video from Tim’s suit cam that showed him running towards a fighter that looked more like a red and black blur.
“She’s killed five people with three different weapons.”
Duke gave a low whistle at a trident throw that would’ve delighted Aquaman if he had seen it.
Tim spoke up. “She can be reasoned with, though. And she was very alarmed that I only have one heart.”
Silence.
“Apparently, she has ten.”
Duke raised an eyebrow. “Not meta my ass. I gotta head out, but I’ll see what I can find.”
He got a total of four steps away before he was interrupted.
“Duke.” He turned back, because he knew that really meant ‘Wait’
Bruce hesitated.
“…she’s armed and dangerous.” Which really meant ‘Please be careful’
“She’s an unknown meta, and a threat to Gotham.” And that… that meant exactly what it sounded like.
Duke nodded and left, ignoring the weird feeling in his chest. His gaze turned down as a single thought ran through his head.
You say that about every meta-human.
—————————
Well, Duke hadn’t found anyone with an outfit that matched the three photos, but the red head walking down the road below him was definitely weird. He focused his vision. Sure enough, different outfit, same face, and a bright yellow flower in her hair.
He had to remind himself that this was an easily provoked killer, but it was a bit difficult when she was smiling up at the gothic architecture with a little pep in her step. Everything about her screamed ‘Mug me now please!’
Maybe that’s why Duke decided to go up to her alone. He would probably have to save some poor mugger from her eventually.
If Duke could gain her trust, this would get a lot easier. He melted into the shadow of the building and resurfaced in the alleyway. He casually stepped out and nearly bumped into her.
“Oh!” She jumped back. A sword flashed into her hand for a split second, then it was gone. “Jeeze man! You scared me.” She said as she smiled at him.
Not inherently violent after all. Duke laughed and put his hand on the back of his neck. “Sorry about that, I really didnt mean to. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, its just that…” she paused. “Would you happen to know where a library is?”
Huh? Doesn’t matter, act helpful. “Yeah, I can walk you there.”
“Oh my gosh, thanks. I really need to look something up.”
Now I can be inquisitive. “Nice, are you researching for a project or something?
Her pitch went up. “Ummmm yeah, you could call it that.”
She dodged the question, but I’m on the clock. Move on. “Are you from out of town?”
“Definitely. Imma be honest with you man, I have no idea where I am.”
Well what do you know, the dangerous meta is a lot friendlier when she’s not held at gunpoint.
Duke smiled. “Welcome to Gotham city.”
“Gotham? What the- who named this place?”
“Some edgy billionaire? I don’t know, I just live here. How long are you staying?”
She sighed. “A while.”
“Oh. Are you here for work or…?”
“I’m here because somebody decided to make my life miserable.”
Interesting, go for empathetic. “Well that kinda sucks. Do you need help with anything?”
“Um,” she thought for a moment, “actually, how much do you know about magic?”
That is not something he wanted to hear. “Not a lot, why?”
“No reason. Do you know anyone who does?”
“You know that magic isn’t real, right?”
“Uh huh. Totally.” She said with a bright smile. “Oh, are we here?”
They were standing in front of the library. “Yeah, I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.
“Me too.” She said wistfully.
Establish continued communication.“Here’s my number, if you need anything else.”
“Oh, thanks!”
“By the way, what’s your name?”
“I’m Gem.”
“Signal. Nice to meet you.”
Duke realized something. “You’ll have to wait a bit, the doors are locked until-“
“That wont be an issue!” Gem chirped, She pulled an axe into existence, slammed it down on the door, and waltzed into the library before casually returning the door to its hinges like nothing happened.
What the fuck!?
PART 1: Is it really murder if they started it?
https://www.tumblr.com/paradoxicalli/786030415065530368/geminislay-in-gotham-part-1?source=share
