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Today's snippet (4/25/24)

On the way to the infirmary, Kara tried to keep Genbu distracted. After her session with J’onn, the newbie seemed a little unsteady on her feet even before Kara scooped her into a bridal carry, with all of Genbu’s comfort items piled onto her lap like she was a living sling. Her heartbeat didn’t pick up too much, though, so Kara figured she didn’t mind that much. 

And so, Kara decided to ask some pressing questions. 

“Thoughts on Luthor?” 

“He should be in prison. But he didn’t do anything in a non-extradition country.”

“And about the Ultimen?”

“The who?”

“Not important.” Kara did a loop around Fire in her transformed state, dodging without so much as losing speed even on the turn. As she righted them both, Kara asked. “Anyway, pineapple on pizza?”

#supergirl #kara in-ze #keisuke gekko #catch your breath fanfic #exorcising and exercising demons #justice league #crossover #justice league unlimited

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I call upon the fan fic writing gods to bless you with the perseverance to finish one of your unfinished drafts. 

May your fingers dance along the letters upon your device with ease, may the devil of distraction stay far from you, and may your work not need much editing.

I pass this blessing upon every fan fic writer out there.

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As Beta was kind enough to inform me (while laughing), the fact that other POV characters in Exorcising and Exercising Demons think of Kei as “the magician” is really incongruous with how she acts overall. Because in every other story, Kei leans into the Fighter or Rogue archetypes and doesn’t reveal more powers if she thinks she doesn’t have to, and certainly tries to avoid explaining anything to anybody ever. In case she has to fight or avoid them later.

But the first time the DC characters see her, it’s when she’s casting a barrier “spell” with blood as a medium and after having attacked people with her “ocean spirit” mind roommate’s powers.

Yeah, the “whoops all magic” thing was a strong first impression.

#keisuke gekko #exorcising and exercising demons #Isobu #catch your breath fanfic #justice league #crossover #fanfiction

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Afternoon reblog~

A wild update appears!

Chapter summary: Kei finally has that interview with J'onn, and Isobu puts his finger firmly on the scale of truth.

Warnings: Nothing new.

#keisuke gekko #exorcising and exercising demons #catch your breath fanfic #justice league #j’onn j’onzz #crossover #kara kent #kara in-ze #batman the animated series #naruto

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Next day reblog!

A wild update appears!

Chapter summary: Kei finally has that interview with J'onn, and Isobu puts his finger firmly on the scale of truth.

Warnings: Nothing new.

#keisuke gekko #exorcising and exercising demons #catch your breath fanfic #justice league #j’onn j’onzz #crossover #kara kent #kara in-ze #batman the animated series #naruto

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A wild update appears!

Chapter summary: Kei finally has that interview with J'onn, and Isobu puts his finger firmly on the scale of truth.

Warnings: Nothing new.

#keisuke gekko #exorcising and exercising demons #catch your breath fanfic #justice league #j’onn j’onzz #crossover #kara kent #kara in-ze #batman the animated series

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(a little blurb for you after reading the latest B-Plot)

Bruce comes back from the Watchtower and just pauses when he sees Kei. He opens his mouth, closes it again, stares for a brief moment.

Kei pulls the blanket into a tighter burrito. "I don't wanna talk about it."

Bruce just nods and leaves. No need to bring up Chronos. Even if he is curious about future Genbu's blatant show of power and whether current Genbu has that same potential for that level of blitzkrieg destruction (and may or may not have already considered contingency plans to file away as Just In Case....)

Yeah he's not really up for that conversation right now either. Possibly never.

Bruce does not want to touch time travel with a ten-foot pole, and he wasn't even around the last time the League accidentally rewrote bits of history and didn't tell anyone. I mean, he was, but between the big Nazis-lose-the-war-again retcon to get reality back into vaguely recognizable shape, and the time Superman got chucked into an apocalyptic future by Toymaker, he understandably does not want more repeats. And acting on a prophecy is often one of the best ways to fulfill it out of ignorance.

So he'll probably blackbox it for later consideration. It's not like Genbu has an automatic off-switch like Clark does.

#justice league #once and future thing #keisuke gekko #bruce wayne #crossover #catch your breath fanfic #exorcising and exercising demons #gon-and-killuas-mother #asks

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If Kei was a mech pilot, what kind of mech would she pilot?

(Due to Isobu, I always imagine she has a SEKHMET copilot or similar in her theoretical mech)

I don't usually watch mecha-heavy shows, but I'd think Kei's mech arrangement would be...probably a cross between Pacific Rim and Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Like, yes, horrible possibilities, but EVAs are made of eldritch abomination bits and synchronize with their pilots, and Jaegers require teamwork to a frankly psychic degree to get much of anything done while fighting giant monsters.

(the mech should be shaped like a turtle.)

But basically Kei's gonna have a bad time. As is true to the majority of the classic mecha genre. :)

#asks #moonslefttiddy #catch your breath fanfic #keisuke gekko

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Something entirely silly that would never have fit into the tone of the last thing I wrote:

Terry’s version of the Batsuit has retractable claws. He uses them to punch through concrete and so on during city navigation. They’re not a combat option most of the time due to the rating of the DCAU, but they exist!

Kei, if she was slightly less freaked out by the time travel situation:

[image description: a gif of Anya from Spy X Family, literally starry-eyed with excitement. end description]

It’s one of the few things Kei doesn’t get from her jinchūriki transformation, because Isobu has completely blunt fingers.

She can make them out of chakra on purpose, but it’s not the saaaame.

#catch your breath fanfic #keisuke gekko #exorcising and exercising demons #once and future thing #terry mcginnis #batman beyond #justice league unlimited #crossover

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Next day reblog!

Completed version of this snippet. I'll post the thing as a separate fic if I feel the urge later, but for now, here the thing lies.

Newly included: Kei's Unhappy Revelations and An Ending.

As a reminder, this entire scenario is based on Exorcising and Exercising Demons.

#justice league unlimited #naruto #catch your breath fanfic #crossover #exorcising and exercising demons #the b plot #keisuke gekko #isobu #bruce wayne #diana of themyscira

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Kei, meeting her future self:

Kei's future self, who is basically the Punisher:

[image descriptions: a two-panel comic excerpt of a grim reaper taking a beat panel and then saying "What" in all capital letters. the second image is of the live action Cheshire Cat, with only the blinking blue eyes and zipper-mouth smile visible. end description]

#once and future thing #catch your breath fanfic #exorcising and exercising demons #keisuke gekko #time travel #justice league unlimited #crossover

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Completed version of this snippet. I'll post the thing as a separate fic if I feel the urge later, but for now, here the thing lies.

Newly included: Kei's Unhappy Revelations and An Ending.

As a reminder, this entire scenario is based on Exorcising and Exercising Demons.

#justice league unlimited #naruto #catch your breath fanfic #crossover #exorcising and exercising demons #the b plot #keisuke gekko #isobu #bruce wayne #diana of themyscira #john stewart #terry mcginnis

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Ah, I love the expression she has here. Very true to her life.

practicing digital art again with my favorite girl, gekkou keisuke, since i’m once again rereading catch your breath

#keisuke gekko #catch your breath fanfic #fanart #fan art #blankerthoughts

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The Once and Future Thing

Summary: So, remember how the first Justice League Unlimited season finale was a time travel adventure where Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Batman ended up chasing some goober named David (or Chronos) around as he mangled the timeline with his crappy decisions? All the way back to the Old West, and to a version of Batman Beyond's future Gotham.

Here, Kei got dragged along.

Notes: So having a multi-hour obsession take hold is an interesting time. Here, take the product of my brain deciding to momentarily jump tracks.

Kei had been prepared for a lot of potential ways the future could twist in circles when the timestream was being actively manipulated by some opportunistic creep with an inferiority complex. Like, there was a level of petty, thoughtless bullshit that was only really possible for the most banal sort of everyday evil. The kind of guy who went time traveling around and dropped dinosaurs in cowboy land because he got mugged in the past…well, he fit the bill. Heading through time portals to chase after a guy like that wasn’t just heroism—it was basic self-preservation.

Chronos couldn’t be trusted with ultimate cosmic power. She wouldn’t have given the man a goddamn hamster and expected to see it alive a week later. 

This was surreal enough that all semblance of thought just fell out of her head. 

When the Future Justice League (obviously minus…most of them) arrived, squaring off with the cybernetically enhanced Jokerz gang members, she’d sort of expected them. Future Batman? Sure, it’d been long enough that the all-black suit with the red icon and flight bits was in circulation. Old Man Static? Okay, Kei had never met the guy personally, but it was cool to meet another electrokinetic after the Ultimen fiasco. And War Hawk! Neat that it confirmed the Hawkgirl-and-Green-Lantern relationship worked out in some fashion.

But the deceptively normal person that strode out of the darkness and made fully half of the super-Jokerz team back the fuck up? A shadow wearing a white ANBU mask. 

The crown of spikes was familiar. It was a rendition of something Kei had mocked up once, depicting Isobu’s face in all its spooky glory. Glimmers around the material pointed to some kind of future-tech modification, which stretched down the jaw and neck and into the rest of the dark suit. Kei saw the vaguest suggestions of her favorite sword, the belt of materials and scrolls she often carried, and a hood that made the mask stand out that much more, like a bloody promise.

Every one of the gang enforcers who backed up, Kei noted, carried at least one obvious cybernetic enhancement. And the hyena hybrid just fucking cowered.

“And here I thought the lesson I taught you might finally stick,” said a voice with a playful lilt and a Japanese accent, even years and years on.

“Shit—”

“Oh fuck, it’s her—”

“What is she doing here?!”

“I don’t know—”

The figure cracked her knuckles. Isobu’s chakra flared hot and hateful in a way it hadn’t been for years, centered squarely on the new arrival and creeping outward in a clear threat display. “Class is back in session.” 

09090

“Surprised to see me?”

“A little. I’m more surprised that I lived so long.”

Batman’s meeting with his older self was overshadowed solely because Kei didn’t really…get that far. Instead, a pair of worn but familiarly-scarred hands landed on her shoulders and dragged her away from that potential minefield. She’d only meant to ask if anybody else had made it this long, after hearing half the League had been shot out of space along with the Watchtower. 

Not all heroes coordinated there, after all. It could be a mercy. Kei at least meant to ask about the other Bats, though she knew the answer would probably be “You don’t wanna know.”

Instead, Kei sat on a dilapidated future high school desk while her captor explained, “—Now watching someone retcon cybernetic enhancement into reality in real time was annoying, but we’ve worked through that!”

Kei stared, lost for words.

“Who is…?” she heard Wonder Woman begin, only to stop short as the older woman turned around, popped off her mask, and grinned. 

Kei…wouldn’t say she’d aged badly. Her face more lines, and time had turned her hair super streaky with gray and white, and she’d picked up some more strange scars, but her spine was unbent and she didn’t look anywhere near Old-Batman’s age. Which made sense, since he’d started this whole drama as already in middle age, where Kei had been a teenager, like Static.

Was still a teenager. 

God, time travel fucking sucked. 

“Diana-san,” said Kei’s future self. “Nice to see you’ve cheated death and aging. You look good.” 

“Genbu, it’s good to see you survived amid the chaos,” said Wonder Woman, and extended a hand. As Old-Kei clasped forearms with her, her tense shoulders relaxed a little. “And that you’ve made a reputation for yourself here after all.” 

“Oh, it wasn’t so hard once I put my mind to it,” said… Okay, maybe she could be Genbu. It wasn’t like Kei had ever thought that one through, and now the other Kei had finders-keepers privileges by a lot. “I found it takes a few demonstrations to really make a lesson stick.”

“Why doesn’t that hyena guy have arms?” Kei burst out. 

“Because Woof thought he didn’t need to check for tripwires,” Genbu said, shrugging as she let go of Wonder Woman’s arm. She smiled again, all innocence. “I’ll get him next time.” 

Your future self has taken a proactive approach to some problems.

And weirdly, Kei thought with an edge of panic, I don’t want to know how she got there.

Kei had always suspected that her particular skillset made an excellent fit for a guerilla campaign. And here was a version of herself who made good on that potential. The fact that she’d lasted this long was simultaneously depressing and encouraging. On one hand, everyone must have died if she was still here to get old and cause trouble in a warped timeline. On the other, she’d survived. Her and Isobu, by the feel of things. 

What a fate.

“—Because we’ve already won! Think about it. If old Bruce is here, that means he already lived through this as Batman.” Oh, Static was talking again. “Not to mention Genbu’s mini-me. And yes, I do recognize those scars.” 

“Flawless logic,” Old Bruce bit out. “Except that I have no memory of ever going to the future or of meeting my older self, or of anything else that’s happening today.” 

“Those historical buildings we saw on the street—” Realization struck Batman square in the middle of the sentence. “The timeline’s been polluted.” 

“So polluted that history itself is becoming fluid.” 

“I could have told you that,” Genbu said, rolling her eyes. She flicked a hand out idly, and a kunai flew out of her bracer and into her palm in the same manner as New Batman’s batarangs. “But it’s like people stop listening when you get old.” 

“‘Oh, it’s that Chronos dipshit again’ doesn't convey anything helpful until the disaster already hits,” said New Batman. Or Terry. Kei didn’t know if she was allowed to call him that. “You can barely pull off ‘creepy and kooky aunt.’ Quit while you’re ahead.” 

“And who are you calling old? You’re barely two years older than me,” said Static, more amused than offended. 

“And that’s two years you’ll never get back.” Genbu snorted. “Terry-kun, if Woof wanted to keep his arms, he should have kept them to himself. The same goes for Ghoul,” Genbu replied, unashamed. She started cleaning under her nails with the point of the kunai. “Teaching the new generation is what I do best, you see.” 

Kei winced, though no one here seemed offended by Genbu’s flat refusal to dial down the violence. There weren’t any rules in this kind of war. And, unfortunately, it looked like the timeline turning into a pretzel guaranteed that there were no soft choices. Chronos had already stolen them all, and for what?

For nothing. What a selfish little bastard. The end awaiting him was almost too kind.

“So, about the Dee Dees…?” Kei asked, while the others argued for a little while. She’d noticed a pair of Raggedy Ann twins earlier among the gang members, but it had seemed a little gauche to go “wait, I retconned you out of existence by accident already” in the middle of a fight.

“Chronos’s fuckups ruined the timeline for everyone. Something, something, we’re all dead in a few hours if we don’t fix it.” Genbu had turned away from Wonder Woman and the others while they tried laying out missing bits of timeline, keeping her attention on Kei. Like some kindly old auntie who happened to carry her own weight in bombs instead of cookies. “But to answer your specific question: I think he pulled them out of some other branch and gave them duplication powers. Mostly, I’m too busy killing their copies to ask. Though I do hold out hope that, one day, they’ll realize multiplying by zero still makes zero.”

She looked entirely too proud of that.

It’s not like Kakashi’s here to make those bad jokes land. Which was a depressing thought, too. “And the Joker…?”

Genbu rubbed the back of her neck, where her high collar met her hairline, and tapped a fingertip where a microchip might have gone on Tim Drake at some point. “Irrelevant. Like most things.” 

Because either the timeline held strong with Kei’s interventions and that plot hadn’t gone through, or it had and it didn’t fucking matter because Chronos’s bullshit killed all involved parties but two. Since Bruce and Terry were around. Unmaking the space-time continuum beat out a washed up comedian/serial killer any day. No amount of orbital death lasers really compared. 

“Though I will say it has been interesting, hunting them down like rats.” Genbu’s expression was too placid to be trusted. Her eyes flashed red-gold, mirroring Isobu’s for just a moment. “I think they had…nine thousand members? Organized into two hundred cells or so at their peak and desperately in need of culling.” 

“I…guess that’s one way choose a hobby?” Kei mumbled, trying to edge away from her older self without making it obvious. She could have just used Body Flicker, but any shinobi who lived to fifty-something in fighting shape could and would pounce like a leopard on speed. 

“It keeps me active,” Genbu agreed cheerily, and let her go.

That was…one way to put it.

09090

“So, Tiny Turtle.” New Batman somehow drifted into her orbit, while both other Batmen worked on programming a solution for Chronos’s shit decisions. “Does being a seer count as a preexisting condition? Asking for a friend.” 

“For…the ban on talking about your own future?” Kei made a face at the nickname, but said, “I think you’re good.” 

“If Bruce doesn’t know what’s going to happen, I’ve been assuming you—or your older half—already do. So, is it true?” 

“I think that if Chronos wins, this whole thing is pointless anyway.” Kei shifted from foot to foot, trying not to think about the absolutely overclocked fūinjutsu options her future self handed off like they meant nothing. She could probably vaporize one of those cyberpunk Gotham monoliths by using four of them well enough. “So, the mission is to get the thingy to his time-belt. And if we’re lucky, history snaps back into place.”

New Batman took a moment to consider that option. “And if it doesn’t, we would never know.”

“On account of all being incredibly, retroactively dead, yeah.” Kei let out a long, quiet sigh. “If I’m anything like Genbu—and I hope I am—then I know we’re both up for trying to save the world. No matter the cost.” 

“Seems steep. There’s nothing for us without winning.” He rolled one shoulder. Maybe the cyber-suit wasn’t holding up as well against the time-cheated weaponry as he needed. “Chronos has been trying to kill us for forty years, one way or another. Guess it’s not really news at this point.” 

“Yeah. Still sorry this is ending up on you.” Kei flexed her hand. The sense-memory of almost getting her hands on that whiny little fucker still bothered her. Sure, making sure one of the Wild West heroes didn’t get eaten by a dinosaur was important, but… “I should have killed him when I had the chance.” 

There was a slight pause. “I thought—I guessed you threw out the hero rulebook when we lost the League. But the person I call Genbu and the person you are have always been like this, haven’t they? Haven’t you, I mean.” New Batman shook his head. “Time travel’s a pain.” 

“Ha. You said it.” 

#keisuke gekko #exorcising and exercising demons #isobu #bruce wayne #diana of themyscira #justice league #crossover #catch your breath fanfic #john stewart #virgil hawkins #terry mcginnis #rex stewart #snippet #snippets

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this has Kei waking up in the factory vibes

#submission #gon-and-killuas-mother #keisuke gekko #exorcising and exercising demons

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in Exorcising (and Exercising) Demons does Isobu still have that obliterate on sight policy for mind intruders cause J’onn will probably 🫠💫🐢👀 (read those right to left)

Certain people are going to require some discussion time ahead of any telepathic cold-callers arriving, or else someone is going to open that door unaware and wish the thing the homeowner had on hand was a shotgun.

As opposed to a very large green thing with teeth.

#exorcising and exercising demons #isobu #keisuke gekko #justice league #j'onn j'onzz #martian manhunter #asks #anonymous

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Next day reblog~

It got longer. Again.

Chapter Summary: Dick shows up.

#exorcising and exercising demons #fanfiction #batman the animated series #crossover #naruto #catch your breath fanfic #dick grayson #barbara gordon #tim drake #keisuke gekko