Most ghosts refer to Clockwork only in hushed whispers—not prayers, because you don’t pray to an unmeddling god, but respectfully nonetheless because he is always Watching
Meanwhile Danny, every once in a while, glances over his shoulder into the camera and goes “Do you see this shit??”
Danny's been on this planet for ... okay, all his time shenanigans, along with natural time blindness, have kind of ruined his ability to tell. He's pretty sure it has been a while, though.
He's getting kind of bored, tbh. I mean, this underground alien fighting pit was pretty amusing for the first hundred or so fights, but they're starting to get monotonous. And he's pretty miffed at the fact that everyone fighting is kidnapped. And enslaved! Rude, honestly.
He hears the din above raise to an obscene level. Danny looks up as the new contender gets thrown into the pit. His eyes widen, and a feral grin spreads across his face.
The new fighter looks human. It's been so long since he's seen another human-esque person. Ooh, they even smell like earthling! And! Better yet! Simmering below their anger is ectoplasm.
Well, butter biscuits. He wants to fight the human. (Ghost rough house ftw!) But now he also just wants to bust outa this joint and take the human with him. Maybe get a drink. Have a latte, sip some chai tea. No time for a bubble bath, though.
His hand is to his chin, and he's rocking his head side to side in contemplation when the decision is made for him by a right hook to the jaw.
"So rude! I was making a decision!" He starts to duck and weave around the other fighter's fists.
"Sucks to be you. I'm not waitin' for ya to decide how yer gonna kick my ass."
Danny scoffs. "I was," he dodges a kick and the follow up fist it tried to hide, "deciding whether to fight or leave and we could," duck, duck, boop the nose, "go get a drink. I'm sure this planet has a bar or something."
The fighter makes an affronted noise at the boop. "What the fuck? Don't fuckin' lie. You killed all the other fighters you went up against!"
Danny smiles, "Did I?"
"Yes!"
"According to whom?" Danny was king. THE king. Of everything. He was OP af. Like he was going to kill his fight buddies! That's just bad manners! He got all his opponents free with liberal amounts of ectoplasm and creative use of portals.
Block, block, swipe kick. Ooooh, they've got moves. What was that flippy thing???
"OhMyAncients, you're so fun!!" Danny dodges another onslaught before dancing away to put distance between them. "Call me Barghest, he/him. What can I call you? Your pronouns? I need something more than 'new fighter' for my inner dialogue."
The other fighter pauses, looking thoroughly confused. "... Red Hood. He/him?? What is happening right now?"
"Now? I'm gonna tear this fuckin' place to the ground and you and I are getting a drink."
Hood scoffs. "I've seen you fight. You don't have the ability to tear this place down."
Danny glances at the alien ring. There are inhibitors and reinforced containments everywhere. The entire place is built to keep some of the most dangerous beings in the universe inside the pit to fight to the death.
This place was formidable, but it was meant for the living.
Danny shrugs. "I'm here on vacation."
"On vacation." Hood deadpans.
"Yup. I was bored. Thought only using my enhancement powers in a fighting pit would be a blast! And I was absolutely correct." He grins, letting his power flash his eyes green, then blue. "This was fun, but I'd rather chill with you now." He lets his power flash freeze all the containment contingencies around the pit, then lets his power shatter it all into dust accompanied by the lovely screams of the crowd. "I do have a few people I actually have to deal with first, but would you like to get outa here?"
Hood stares at his offered hand for a moment before giving a casual shrug. "Fuck it." Hood walks forward and reaches his hand out before pausing, "I gotta kill some people before we bounce, too."
Danny threw his head back and laughed. "Oh, I don't need to kill them. But I can respect the grind." He takes Hood's hand, and in the next breath, they're behind the owner of the underground ring, most of his upper lieutenants and about 30 alien goons.
Red Hood and Danny move in tandem, each taking a side and weaving their way through the group. They dodge, turn, disarm, and maneuver opponents into each others attacks in some of the most coordinated movement Danny has ever experienced. As if he knew exactly where Hood was going to be, going to strike, going to dip. It's amazing. His thoughts are static except for internal screaming. He stans this human so fucking hard.
As the leader finally fell to Hood's blade (where did those come from???) Danny turns to him with barely contained excitement. "Are we best friends? I think we just became best friends!"
"Uh..."
"Nope. Time's up. You're mine now. Besties forever." Danny opens his armory pocket dimension and pulls out some light body armor, a few blades, a couple of handguns, and an RPG. "New bestie, I bequeath unto thee protection! Let's go blow some shit up!"
Red Hoods smile finally matches his own. "I could be down for that."
i think it's really fun when a rly specific trope is super popular in one particular medium but in other ones it's just totally unheard of. it's the time knife. visual novel players are suuuuper used to death games but many others encountered them for the first time in squid games. the other day my mom showed me all excited the summary of a super original novel she found and it was about a girl who got reincarnated as the main character in her favorite fantasy book
Tagging my 100% sex free fic "Explicit" on AO3 because the text contains frequent detailed descriptions of the viewpoint character's penis for non-sex-related reasons.
"High King" is an interchangeable title, and it purely means "strongest infinite realms being at this particular point in time".
It is also a test to determine new Ancients.
Whoever can defeat the previous High King gains the empty title, but more importantly they have their domain as an Ancient determined. The Infinite Realms, sapient and older than time and existence, monitors how the fight went down, and assigns a domain.
For Pariah Dark, who laid bloody siege to gain the title, it is Destruction.
For Danny?
It is, surprisingly, not Heroism. It's not Protection.
It's Thieves.
As far as the Infinite Realms are concerned, he started the battle by stealing supplies, and ended it stealing back Amity Park to the Living Realm.
Danny Phantom is the High King of the Infinite Realms, the Infant Ancient of Thieves.
This gives him a few perks none of the other High Kings had, namely the biggest and most important one; as the Ancient of Thieves, there are, quite literally, no sigils, cages, or traps that can detain him.
So evading the GIW is a breeze now, as is not getting caught by his parents.
The annoying part is constantly having to prove this to delusional cultists when he's summoned.
~~~~~~
John Constantine, who is well aware that the title of High King changed hands and is also aware that the newest Ancient is the Ancient of Thieves, is betting on being able to convince the strange Ancient to steal him.
Because Constantine is trapped in a room with walls that are literally closing in, it's filling with water, and any potential exit is enchanted by demons to prevent him from leaving.
He really, really pissed them off this time.
But, he thinks as the Ancient of Thieves appears before him, they forgot to set the enchantments to stop him from bringing someone in.
#phanfic#story prompt#dpxdc#dcxdp#dp x dc#dc x dp#danny doesn't realize it yet but this also makes him the patron ancient of spies#guess who he's gonna feel an immediate connection to?#any bat that played a spy at any point#which is all of them
So technically, Danny owns Constantine now. Not because he was sold his soul, but because Danny literally just stole the guy. Imagine someone tries to get Constantine and he just said, “sorry, I’m already taken.” He might even jokingly call Danny ‘Master’ (despite the kid being decades younger than him) to annoy Danny. Like, just seriously talking in a JL meeting and says he can just make a call to his master. Completely straight faced. Accidentally gaslights the entire JL into thinking Danny is an adult magic being who just happens to look like a child.
Also, I’m just imagining Danny being summoned by various summoning circles, looks them dead in the eyes, says he will just leave if there isn’t anything important, and when they don’t believe him he just casually walks out the circle (or makes a peace sign and does that fade into invisibility meme.)
what if stealing Constantine overrode any claim to his soul?
He's the Ancient of Thieves, why would contract laws apply to him?
Can you imagine how much more of a nightmare Constantine would be to deal with if he was powered by the Ancient of Thieves instead of those contracts?
A man who's the equivalent of a magic lawyer with how much he loves to talk circles around people powered by a being that's very existence is to disregard the rules.
Stealing something does not mean you legally own it
That is important
Possession is 9/10s of the law but if someone steals your shit officially it is not theirs and they have to give it back
If
You can make them
So this means: every single one of Constantine’s contracts are entirely unchanged
Danny, as the Ancient of Thieves, has absolutely no obligation to give a rat’s ass about any of them; hell, technically, something belonging to someone else is what makes it possible for it to be stolen
You can’t steal common property, it’s already yours (as much as it is anyone’s)
So what this means, in regards to Constantine’s contracts…
Is that Danny stole his soul
So any demon trying to collect (and 95% of Constantine’s longevity is getting enough Big Boss Demons to have a cut that any one of them will stop any of the others from collecting so they’re out)
Can’t go to Constantine anymore
Sorry
Nope
Not my soul
They gotta take it up with Danny
Who, being Danny, will bring up that “possession is 9/10s” thing
And, frankly, given how many of Constantine’s contracts rely completely on him reneging on payment for whatever he sold his soul for…
Danny’s basically his patron anyway
Constantine’s stealing demon juice by never ever paying his bills
So even if all the Big Boss Demons did come to an agreement and decide who actually gets Constantine’s soul…
16 minutes later Danny’s just gonna steal it back
Contract schmontract this is crime, baybee
Also hell with the bats, Danny is the patron of Catwoman and that is about to be everyone’s problem
i actually never ever want AO3 to be censored bc nothing is more fun than reading the tags on a fic and going “huh. didn’t know there was a market for that.”
tbh my take on the whole “should batman kill the joker” thing is that batman is a volunteer gig, and bruce is allowed to have boundaries
should *someone* kill the joker? maybe, idk. that’s above my pay grade. but just bc bruce wayne is willing to shoulder the weight of the world (whether anyone actually wants him to or not) doesn’t mean we should all just accept that it belongs to him. he chooses to help in what ways he is able, the ways he can live with, and if killing is the one line he won’t cross no matter what, well, it could be worse. but he has no actual moral obligation to do any of what he’s doing, actually, and if having this one boundary firmly in place is what keeps him from having a mental breakdown and becoming the thing he swore to stop, then i say more power to him and we could honestly all stand to learn from his example
#actually yes i will reblog this again#it's wild to me how many people just straight up fall for the joker's victim blame game wrt bruce??
@vintagerobin you are a genius for phrasing this as victim blaming. bc yes, that is absolutely what it is. The Joker is essentially Batman's stalker and Bruce is not responsible for what he does.
Danny was a known hero to the world. As one of the first hero he was a valued member of the justice league and a good friend to many of them.
They know he’s the king of the dead. The protector of both dead and living and the ghost of space.
There’s one aspect of his job however he never told them about.
He is the reaper of heroes. Any hero, when their time comes, is faced with Danny. Their friend, their comrade. He guides them to the afterlife and ensures their peace. 
It brakes his heart every time he has to look his friends in the eye and tell them that he’s not there to save them
(Sidenote: this is inspired by the multiple fics that have Danny as the reaper of heroes. I just have never seen one where he is also an active hero and friend of the JL and I’m here for that angst)
Wally West comes undone in a crackling wave of red lightning. He closes what’s left of his eyes. He knew this was a possibility when he started running, but a part of him still believed he was faster than death.
When he opens his eyes again, there’s a friendly face beside him.
“Danny, thank god. I thought for sure I was a goner.”
Danny smiles back at him, but it’s strained. He hovers at his side, haloed in a bubble of the speed force. Beams of yellow and white reflect off his black armor and are swallowed by his billowing cape. It’s not a look that Wally’s ever seen him in. Danny also holds an unfamiliar weapon loosely in one hand— a long dark scythe.
“Hey Wally.”
Wally smiles. Danny’s strange getup can’t quash his relief. Of all the members of the Justice League, Danny was one he was certain would be able to get him out of this. He’d saved their collective asses countless times from otherwise impossible scenarios, so the task of plucking Wally from this pocket of speed force outside of space and time should be a breeze.
“Man am I glad to see you. I lost myself a little bit when I slipped out of the timestream—you know how it goes— and I was really starting to think my goose was completely cooked until you showed up to save me.”
Danny doesn’t reply for a long moment, and it looks as if he’s fighting to keep the smile on his face. When he does reply, it’s barely above a whisper.
“I’m not here to save you.”
A chill sparks down Wally’s spine. “What do you mean, ‘not here to save me’? You here to hang out in the speed force for fun? Have a tea party?”
“Not exactly.”
Wally eyes Danny’s strange armor warily. “Okay. Then…what are you doing here?”
“I told you guys that being in the Justice League wasn’t my only job, right?”
“Uh huh.”
“Yeah. So. This is my other job.”
“Right.”
Danny leans on the scythe, anchored to an inexplicable gravity. “I don’t enjoy it, really. It’s kinda an obligation though. Comes with the title and territory. You get it?”
Wally swallows. He’s not sure he wants to get it. He looks hard at his friend, and he doesn’t see the guy who broke the microwave in the break room, or the guy bold enough to pull a prank on Batman, or even the hero who stood bravely beside their heaviest hitters.
He sees something ancient and inevitable. Something deeply mundane and powerfully ubiquitous. He understands then, with cold clarity, why Danny is really here.
“You died, Wally,” Danny says softly, gently.
“Oh. Shit.” The words fall like stones out of his mouth.
“I’m really sorry.”
“So, you’re here for my soul? Is that actually a thing?”
Danny nods. “Come with me.”
“Whoa, whoa,” Wally leans back, defensive, “Where are you taking me?”
“Where the souls of heroes go.”
Danny offers the hand not holding the scythe, and, with a twisting in his gut, Wally takes it.
Danny leads them through the void of color and lightning. Wally follows mutely.
“All things considered, you’re taking this really well. Jay Garrick tried to punch me when I came for him.”
“Wha- Jay? You do this for everyone who dies?”
“Not everyone, just heroes. Which means more often than not I’m assigned to my friends.”
“Damn. That’s rough.”
“Not really. At least this way, it’s someone you know.”
“Rough for you though, having to see all of us dead.”
Danny snorts. “It’s not like that. I get to say goodbye properly. Do you know how much people beg for a chance like this?”
Wally chews on that, not sure he likes the flavor.
“Jay really tried to punch you?” He glances at Danny sideways.
“Sure did. Got a good swing in and was yelling and hollering about all the stuff he couldn’t leave behind. Which, I can’t argue with, it’s a lot to let go of. It’s never easy.”
“You’ve done this a lot, huh?”
Danny smiles, wry. “More than a few times, yeah.”
“You ever consider breaking the rules? Letting a soul stay past their time?”
“Oh, is that your pitch to stay? A bit unconventional.”
“No! Not me— I was just thinking about Jay—well, about all the people who deserved more time.”
Danny meets his eyes. “Deserving has nothing to do with it. Time doesn’t work like that. You can’t earn more of it.”
Wally blinks as the lights of the speed force— if that’s even where they still are— grow brighter. “I guess that makes sense. I knew the consequences before I started running.”
He raises a hand to shield his eyes, but he finds he doesn’t need to. The tone of the light changes from sharp and electric to warm radiance, and it wraps him in its soft glow.
“Is this it?”
“Almost there now.”
“Tell Barry and Dick that I— well, I— shit. Make up something good for me?”
Danny chuckles. “I won’t have to. They know.”
Wally’s heart sinks like a feather into a kind of contentment.
“It’s just through there.” Danny gestures at the heart of the light. Wally feels it pull at him like soft wool. “I can’t go any farther with you.”
Wally nods, swallowing the snake of fear that tries to wrap itself around his throat. Danny squeezes his hand once, and it’s gone.
“Ready?”
“Yeah,” he breathes. “Danny?”
“Hm?”
“Thanks.”
Danny smiles, nearly as radiant as the light around them. “Any time.”
With one last laugh, Wally takes his hand from Danny’s, and lets go.
Danny has found out that he tends to stay awake for weeks, if not months, at a time.
However, when he does sleep, he needs to sleep for a way longer time than people sleep.
Usually about one or three thousand years.
Clockwork and he figure it has to do with his body starting to absorb the Time Amulet that he shoved into his chest; his core, still growing, started to think that this foreign power source was supposed to be taken in, and has started to do so.
Danny's core is still ice, but it's also adapting the power of the Time Amulet to that; basically, Danny is mostly immune to time shenanigans naturally, and the other side effect is a huge influx of power to his core.
Problem; that is a lot of power, and Danny's body needs a lot of time to rest in ghost form to handle it without destabilizing.
So because he doesn't want to miss living his life with his family, he and Clockwork figure something out.
When he gets sleepy, and it's time for him to Sleep frfr instead of just an 8 hour catnap, Clockwork sends him to a different dimension that works on a different timeframe.
He gets a room especially made, hidden from the denizens of that world, full of never-rotting timeless comforts like pillows and blankets, and he gets to sleep.
They repurpose some of the Skeleton Army he won from Pariah Dark to serve him while he rests; they make sure he's clean, that the sheets and pillows are clean, and that snacks and drinks are available for his brief moments of wakefulness.
In this particular world, however, his sleeping chambers have been found, and he's being worshipped as the god of a cult.
They've carved a hole above his chambers, and for the most part haven't been too obtrusive, so the Skeleton Army lets them keep that hole. The cult has been sending food and treasure down, and since the Skeleton Army's primary purpose is to ensure Danny is well-fed whenever he wakes up and comfortable, they allow this.
Then the cult drops Bart Allen in the sleeping chambers, deliberately angling him so that he lands on Danny's pillow-bed, fully intending to use him to both wake up their sleeping god and be a sacrifice.
By the time Wally gets down there, ready to save Bart and defend him, the Skeleton Army is gently trying to pry the sleeping gods arms off of Bart, who has apparently become a living teddy bear for this thing.
"Uh..."
"I think they're trying to save me? This god likes to cuddle, I guess."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I think he's just super tired. He might let go if you find a good enough replacement."
"Why can't you just phase out?"
"What if I wake him up and he starts searching for me? We gotta find something else he can cuddle with."
So Wally leaves on a quest, darting all over the world and bringing back huge stuffed animals in an attempt to find one that the god will accept as a substitute for Bart.
Bart, meanwhile, is living it up.
The Skeleton Army makes sure he's fed, there's like, a lot of video games that the cult threw down here, and while he is antsy cuz he can't move, at least this is actually the most comfortable bed he's ever been on.
But he is getting kinda bored, and none of the stuffed animals Wally is bringing in are working.
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I only hate certain types of fic the same way I hate mosquitos and ticks. Like get these nasty little buggers away from me but also I respect their place in the ecosystem.
Listen and sometimes? To enjoy running through a beautiful field of grass and flowers (ao3) you have to tolerate the fact that bugs (fics you don’t like) are there and maybe you will even encounter one, but you can use bugspray (filtered tags) to reduce the likelihood of that. Because the alternative is not getting to experience the beautiful field of grass and flowers.
Danny has found out that he tends to stay awake for weeks, if not months, at a time.
However, when he does sleep, he needs to sleep for a way longer time than people sleep.
Usually about one or three thousand years.
Clockwork and he figure it has to do with his body starting to absorb the Time Amulet that he shoved into his chest; his core, still growing, started to think that this foreign power source was supposed to be taken in, and has started to do so.
Danny's core is still ice, but it's also adapting the power of the Time Amulet to that; basically, Danny is mostly immune to time shenanigans naturally, and the other side effect is a huge influx of power to his core.
Problem; that is a lot of power, and Danny's body needs a lot of time to rest in ghost form to handle it without destabilizing.
So because he doesn't want to miss living his life with his family, he and Clockwork figure something out.
When he gets sleepy, and it's time for him to Sleep frfr instead of just an 8 hour catnap, Clockwork sends him to a different dimension that works on a different timeframe.
He gets a room especially made, hidden from the denizens of that world, full of never-rotting timeless comforts like pillows and blankets, and he gets to sleep.
They repurpose some of the Skeleton Army he won from Pariah Dark to serve him while he rests; they make sure he's clean, that the sheets and pillows are clean, and that snacks and drinks are available for his brief moments of wakefulness.
In this particular world, however, his sleeping chambers have been found, and he's being worshipped as the god of a cult.
They've carved a hole above his chambers, and for the most part haven't been too obtrusive, so the Skeleton Army lets them keep that hole. The cult has been sending food and treasure down, and since the Skeleton Army's primary purpose is to ensure Danny is well-fed whenever he wakes up and comfortable, they allow this.
Then the cult drops Bart Allen in the sleeping chambers, deliberately angling him so that he lands on Danny's pillow-bed, fully intending to use him to both wake up their sleeping god and be a sacrifice.
By the time Wally gets down there, ready to save Bart and defend him, the Skeleton Army is gently trying to pry the sleeping gods arms off of Bart, who has apparently become a living teddy bear for this thing.
"Uh..."
"I think they're trying to save me? This god likes to cuddle, I guess."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I think he's just super tired. He might let go if you find a good enough replacement."
"Why can't you just phase out?"
"What if I wake him up and he starts searching for me? We gotta find something else he can cuddle with."
So Wally leaves on a quest, darting all over the world and bringing back huge stuffed animals in an attempt to find one that the god will accept as a substitute for Bart.
Bart, meanwhile, is living it up.
The Skeleton Army makes sure he's fed, there's like, a lot of video games that the cult threw down here, and while he is antsy cuz he can't move, at least this is actually the most comfortable bed he's ever been on.
But he is getting kinda bored, and none of the stuffed animals Wally is bringing in are working.
"Look," Kon said, frustrated even as he cooked omelets at the makeshift kitchen Young Justice had managed to drag into their new base. "Look, we have this under control. It's the easiest world saving mission we've ever gotten, and we even have help; these little skeleton dudes? With the name tags? Pretty useful."
As he spoke, he handed one of the skellies, with the nametag reading "Betty", a plate to give to Cassie.
Cassie was in the workout area, whaling on one of the training dummies. Bart and Cissie were playing video games, empty plates next to them already being picked up by skellies. Keli was in the reading corner, curled up on one of the many piles of pillows and close to taking a nap herself. Tim was currently on cuddle duty, and was actually sleeping, curled up against the subject of Kon's conversation, who the skellies had dressed up in the usual very expensive looking loose tunic and pants that were made from like, space or something. Kon didn't know, it was a weird god thing.
Red Tornado was quietly talking to Amethyst and Naomi, very used to everything that was going on with the god thing and not particularly caring about it anymore.
It had taken about two years, but Young Justice had carved out a place for themselves in the best lair they'd ever gotten. They'd run wires to the sleeping god's chambers, carefully set everything up, and taken full advantage of a constantly moving army of servants that required no rest at all.
But the peace of their sanctuary was being disturbed.
Batman and Superman stood on the other side of the crates serving as a kitchen counter, unimpressed.
"We have a schedule, we have backup plans, what more do you want?" Kon asked, whisking another omelet together.
"You've been letting your other members, ones with children, come here to 'help'. You are putting them at risk."
"Don and Oshi love nap times with Briar and playing with the skellies! It gives Anita a break and an excuse to hang out with us!" Kon argued, pointing at the elders with his whisk.
"You...named it Briar?" Batman asked, pained, as raw egg dripped off of his cowl.
"Yeah, after Sleeping Beauty. The Grimm Brothers version, though, cuz Aurora didn't fit."
Superman nodded, looking thoughtful.
"It does fit better, I agree."
"Right?"
"You...named a god." Batman said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "When gods get power from belief. And names are a part of belief."
"Well we needed to call him something, 'the sleeping god' is a mouthful and Rob said it was becoming a name anyways," Kon shrugged, pouring the egg mixture into the pan.
Batman opened his mouth to reply, only to go unnaturally still.
"Yeah. Yeah, he was already getting a name, so we just gave him a shorter one." Kon said, narrowing his eyes at Batman.
"Look, I don't care if you think it's a bad idea, we did it, we've been doing it. We...oh hey dude, what's up?" Kon trailed off, noticing a hand resting on his shoulder.
A head of long white hair leaned against him, making an inarticulate sound.
"Ah, I gotcha," Kon nodded, putting down the spatula to reach over and pout a mug of coffee. Greedy pale hands made grabbing motions as he handed it over, then grabbed the spatula again and flipped the omelet to the other side.
"Superboy," Batman breathed, sounding like he was about to go off on another useless argument.
"I appreciate you checking in, really, I do, but we've got this," Kon interrupted, finishing up the omelet and giving it to the still hovering member of his team behind him.
Briar, for his part, hummed in appreciation and sat down on the floor right next to Kon.
"...Look man, there's tables right...over..."
Kon trailed off, finally looking down properly.
Huh.
The sleeping god was awake. And eating an omelet.
...
"There's tables right over there," Kon finished saying, pointing to the tables in question. Screw it; Briar was already awake, and he seemed friendly so far, just bleary and waking up.
"Yeh," Briar mumbled, shoving another piece of omelet into his mouth and pointedly not getting up.
"By the way, do you actually have a name you prefer or do you still wanna be called Briar?" Kon asked, faux-casual as he started making an omelet for himself.
The god paused, swallowing and taking a moment to take a sip of coffee.
Seemed to think.
"...Danny."
"Sure, sounds good. So what are you the god of?"
"Not a god. Shoosh."
"Well alright then, false alarm." Kon said, looking back at Batman and Superman. "He says he's not a god; so everything is fine then."
The Green Lanterns were kicking up a fuss about Keli again, but they'd chosen a really, really bad time to do it.
Young Justice had been in the middle of attempting to feed wires through the holes they'd carved through the stone into the sleeping god's bedroom, desperate for a way to charge their laptops and phones. Keli had really pulled through and been a lifesaver with her constructs; she made the small holes in the stone exactly where they needed to be, and without her the whole process would have taken far longer.
She'd just started threading the wires through the holes she'd made when John had shown up, with Kyle and Jessica clearly unwillingly dragged along.
Tim frowned, glancing over at the sleeping god. It was Kon's turn to be the god's teddy bear, and he was tense from where he sat, glaring at the adult lanterns but refusing to move; the god had their arms wrapped around him and were locked tight.
Young Justice was only three months into this new schedule, and so far it seemed to be working pretty well. The god showed no signs of waking up, and there wasn't much to do while waiting around, so they'd started...renovating.
The skeletons were a huge help, honestly. They didn't seem to care what was done, so long as it did not wake the god up or endanger them.
"The device you have is dangerous," the leader of the trio of Lanterns, John, said sternly, while Kyle and Jessica behind him didn't seem to care too much about it one way or another. "If you want to be a Lantern, we can check for compatibility when you're older. But that...thing, on your back..."
"I am a Green Lantern! I am old enough!" Keli shouted, cheeks red with frustration.
Tim watched the skeletons slowly stop trying to feed the wires through the holes and, as one, turn to watch the Lanterns.
"Uh. Guys? Stop." Tim ordered, careful to keep his voice soft and nonconfrontational.
"Red Robin, this is Green Lantern business..." John started, only to trail off.
He, too, had noticed the skeletons that were staring at him.
One of the skeletons opened it's jaw, it's green glow flickering to orange for a brief moment before it started talking.
But it seemed to just be saying the same phrase over and over again, in different languages. Tim felt his face blanch when he heard Kryptonian in there, along with a few very dead languages from other planets as well.
Then it settled on English.
"Intruders. You seek to harm The Great One. You are to leave or defensive actions will be taken."
The voice was off-putting. It sounded like a recording from a VHS, and was clearly just a message left behind for anyone who attempted to wake up the god.
Kyle slowly raised his hands, eyeing the skeletons that completely surrounded all of them.
"This is just a misunderstanding, we aren't trying to hurt your great one," Jessica said, hands slowly curling into fists as the skeletons shifted their stances.
"You seek to harm guests of The Great One. You seek to awaken him from his slumber. Leave or suffer the consequences of your actions."
Tim filed away the he/him pronouns for the god and carefully stepped between the talking skeleton and the Lanterns.
"They're leaving," Tim said shortly, using his hand behind his back to sign at the lanterns; 'run. now. go.' "They're going to leave, so its' fine. Look, the great one is still asleep. No harm, no foul."
"Keli, with us." John ordered, refusing to leave the youngest 'Lantern' behind. He may have been displeased with how she had her powers, but Tim knew he would never leave her in something he perceived as a dangerous situation.
Tim was also pretty sure that the reason he was so stuck on Keli's powers was because that machine she used was, somehow, dangerous. Tim would need to get the details later; if it was a danger, then they would need to find a workaround.
Presently, though, there was a different danger brewing.
"No!"
"Keli-!" John made a move to try to grab her, but stopped.
The temperature plummeted. Everyone could see their breath. Any moisture that was exposed to the air froze.
The skeleton's bowed, no longer facing the Lanterns.
They were facing the god, who was sitting up.
His eyes were still closed, his arm loosely draped across Kon's shoulders, and the god was letting out a soft, pained whine. The god appeared to be in the process of waking up, but was slow to do it.
The god raised one arm, but not like it was intentional; it looked more like there was a string tied to his wrist, directing it in the general direction of the adult Lanterns.
Ice tendrilled out from under the pillow-bed, racing for no one but the adult Lanterns.
It was very, very clear who the god had an issue with.
"Run!" Tim shouted at the Lanterns, no longer bothering to be quiet. "He's not after us, he's after you! Run! We'll calm him down and get him back to sleep!"
Tim didn't wait to see if the Lanterns obeyed, moving to take advantage of the new information he had.
First, Young Justice were seen as entities that were supposed to be in this god's room or halls or whatever. They'd been helping keep him comfortable and making sure he stayed asleep, so maybe they were magically acknowledged as servants of some kind?
Second, the god was very, very protective of his servants. This was good, but it was also bad. They'd have to play it safe when on other missions, since they didn't know how far this god's reach extended.
Third, he was probably a god of winter. Ice. Stuff.
Fourth, the god was very clearly being forced to wake up, driven by what the god assumed was a threat to his servants. The god did not want to wake up, and looked absolutely exhausted.
Tim darted for the bed, his suspicions confirmed about being on the small list of protected people when the ice melted a path for him, and grabbed the outstretched hand, gently maneuvering it back to the god's side, using the momentum to pressure the god back into laying down.
"Everyone's safe. We're all good, we're chill. We're like, literally chill, you're kinda the one hurting us, it's too cold. If you go back to sleep, we'll be fine." Kon rambled, catching on to what Tim had realized.
The god went back down, reluctantly, but still restless once they had him laying back down on the pillows.
"Keli!" Tim called, beckoning her over.
If the god was protective, then he was probably still worried about the servant he felt had been threatened.
Keli landed on the pillows next to the gods head, reaching out and patting his head roughly.
"I'm okay, they're just being jerks," she said, voice strained as she tried to keep it soft instead of pissed. "They didn't hurt me."
The god let out a soft grumble, finally settling back down and gravitating towards Kon, looping his arms around the Super as he, once again, and with a final act of dissipating the ice into a fog, fell back asleep.
The temperature started to warm up, slowly going from unbearably cold to more normal temperatures, and the skeletons resumed their tasks as though nothing had happened.
The three members of Young Justice that were present breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing.
"...We should put a 'no Green Lanterns but Keli' rule, just to be safe." Tim said, already texting the update to Bruce.
"Also a notice that absolutely no threats should be made to anyone inside the lair, cuz like. We dunno who's gonna be considered protected by this guy and who's not." Kon added, using his TTK to braid the god's hair. "And from what we just saw, messing around and finding out aren't really good options in this case."
"At least we learned loud noises don't wake him up," Keli said, leaning against one of the large pillows. "He only sat up when he thought I was in trouble."
"...This also cements us as the only team that can handle him," Tim said, standing up from the bed and stretching. "So how about we change this from a temporary Lair into a more permanent one for Young Justice?"
(shorter than my usual, but a funny thought. Also, little drawing at the end)
Something that Danny wanted to explore together with space, was the ocean.
The thing is: both were terrifying to him, but the thrill of the unknown, the immense voids that nature was capable of...
It was absolutely, existentially dreadful.
He loved it!
He wasn't really afraid of getting lost if he tried to take a stroll around, since he could quickly reach land, so why not try?
It wasn't really his fault that he let himself go!
Danny didn't even realize it was happening, but ectoplasm is a substance that tends to fill space. Between molecules, between atoms, it's everywhere, it's the ambient.
Long story short, he only found out that he had grown to the size of Godzilla when he was casually passing by Atlantis.
He hadn't even noticed the underwater city until he heard screaming coming from below...