I’m SUCH a sucker for reincarnation AUs. Like. Inject it straight into my veins. The “Danny is Thomas” flavor? Elite. The “Danny is Martha” variation? Sign me up!
Alternate universe nonsense where destiny kind of… glitches? Yes. Always yes.
BUT.
I need people to lean harder into the ANGST of it all.
Imagine losing your parents when you’re young. Growing up with their love preserved in amber in your mind. Turning them into something sacred. Untouchable. Perfect.
And then cosmic shenanigans happen and you realize... they’re back.
They’re alive.
But they don’t remember you.
Not your name. Not your face. Not the way you used to fall asleep between them on stormy nights. Nothing.
And it gets worse.
They don’t fall in love again.
Like in this version Danny is Thomas reincarnated, Paulina is Martha, but he ends up with Sam. Even tho Danny does like Paulina at some point. Maybe he even reminds her of something she can’t place. But she doesn’t choose him. They don’t choose each other.
Do you understand the specific flavor of devastation that is?
You grow up idolizing your parents’ love story. You build your entire emotional foundation on the fact that they were inevitable. Soulmates. Cosmic constants.
And then the universe rerolls.
And this time they’re not.
And you just have to stand there. Watching. Unable to interfere. Because what do you even say???
“Hi. You don’t know me but in another life you were married and had me and you loved each other so much the city still echoes with it.”
You can’t force them together. You can’t demand destiny behave.
So what does Bruce do?
Does he try to interfere? Subtly push them together? Or does he freeze because if he manipulates them into loving each other, then is it even real?
What’s more painful:
Accepting that their love wasn’t inevitable
Or Interfere in their lives?
