#this au will be the end of me i Swear | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

starry-bi-sky · 7 months

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Childhood Friends Au: Danny's in Gotham Again

when the wool is off your eyes you'll stop counting sheep at night cause you'll eat your fill of them during the daytime

A few weeks after Danny’s visit to Gotham, he buys an apartment in the city. It’s this little thing, a studio apartment on the same street he grew up in. In Crime Alley. When he tells his parents, they protest heavily. They don’t think it's safe. They think he should reconsider. There were plenty of apartments and places to live somewhere else. And what about college?

Danny doesn’t think he’ll go to college. He isn’t sure what he wants to do, now that being an astronaut is off the table. It’d be a waste of money to go without a goal in mind, he thinks. He says he’ll take a gap year and apply at one of the community colleges funded by the Wayne Corporation, possibly. It just wasn’t in the cards right now.

“If things get tough,” He says at dinner that night, “then I can talk to the Waynes. I’m friends with the family, remember?” He ended up getting Bruce’s number in his phone again before he left, and in the process got Tim’s as well. They don’t talk much, Danny isn’t sure what to say. But he sends Tim memes whenever he comes across one and thinks he’ll like. Tim sends memes back in return.

His parents do remember. They remember. They also remember the horrified shriek that echoed through the house when Danny learned of Jason’s passing. They remember running up the stairs and bursting into their son’s room and finding him sobbing into his bed, curled up like a little kid, like he was in pain. He lost his voice that day, stuck between screaming out his grief and sobbing it.

They’re still not sure if they should let him go.

In the end, Danny wins them out, and he lets them help him search for an apartment. They take a break from their lab work to help search for cheap furniture to buy. They may have more money than when they were in Gotham, but that frugal part of you never fully goes away. They all agree that they don’t want Danny to be seen carrying in nice-looking furniture when he moves in.

He ends up with a basic furniture set, all mismatched, and in the warm summer of June, his parents rent out a u-haul and drive him down to Gotham to move in. They meet the landlord when they arrive, a skinny and frail old man with wispy white hair and a wrinkled face. He gives Danny the keys and tells him what apartment number he is, and then he leaves.

His parents help him move in. They help him carry his heavy furniture up to the second floor, where his apartment is. Danny isn’t sure if he wants them to help. His mom and dad are strong, but they are getting old, closer to their fifties now that their children are grown. His dad’s hair is slowly beginning to thin, and rather than the white eating at the sides of his head, it now streaks through his hair like salt-and-pepper. His mom’s hair is graying out too, and there are more lines in their faces than he remembers there being.

When he voices his concerns, his mom laughs spiritedly and says that they may be getting old, but they are still as spry as when they were in their twenties. Danny isn’t sure if he believes them or not. He can see his dad struggle a bit when they return to get his bed frame, and they have to take a break before they go back down for the rest of their things.

Five years ago, his dad could do this without breaking a sweat. It forces a heavy thing in the back of Danny’s throat. (He is less afraid of his own death than he is of his loved ones, and while he has always felt rocky with his parents, he still loves them more than anything else.)

Danny’s apartment is exactly as he would have expected it to be: shabby and worn through. The entire room smells like stale cigarette smoke and weed, nicotine stains the wall with poorly covered bullet holes, and stains in the carpet that are a color he can’t discern. The fridge has a broken light and when he tries to turn on the gas stove, it click-click-clicks before lighting, fire fwooshing out while the smell of gas fills the air. There’s rat droppings in the cupboards and the closet-like bathroom is just as bad.

The ghostly part of him can sense the heavy stench of death in the room; people have died in this room. People have died in every room of this building, he thinks. They have died on the streets outside and in the alleys squeezed between them. He can feel it like a heavy fog in the air.

It is painfully nostalgic, a bittersweet feeling in his chest that he grimaces to.

When the last box is placed in his apartment, his parents offer to help unpack. They are hesitant to leave and Danny knows it, although he doesn’t know if it’s from empty nest syndrome or because it's Gotham. He thinks it might be both. He is their youngest child finally leaving home to a city known for its danger.

“Are you sure you don’t want us to stay behind, sweetie?” His mother asks, a frown she tries to hide settled in the creases of her face. She fiddles with her hands, a nervous habit Danny has since noticed when she feels truly unsure and doesn’t need to hide it. Hesitancy looms over her like a heavy cloud.

His dad jumps in hastily, splaying his hands and smiling painfully wide to hide the glistening in his eyes. “You’re mother’s right! We can help you get everything set up, champ. I could probably do something with that stove of yours to make it faster!” He says, his voice still booming like it always does even if there’s a stumble in his words.

It makes his heart squeeze, knowing just how much they care. It was hard last summer, telling him that he was the Phantom. Terrifying, actually. They couldn’t comprehend it. He hadn’t felt his heart beat that fast in years when he stood in front of them at the kitchen table and told them he was a halfa, begging them to believe that ghosts weren’t inherently evil.

His parents were people of science, however, and after much, much shock, they slowly came to terms with it. How could they not? The evidence was right in front of them. Their son was dead-alive, alive-dead. Somewhere stuck in the between. The tears they shed that night could fill a river, moving from the kitchen to the living room as Danny explains how he died.

(When Danny tells them that he died after a week Jason did, his mom and dad look horrified. His mom covers her mouth when he adds that it was his idea to go inside it, his dad looks ashy pale, gripping his pant legs so tight that his knuckles turn white. There is a conclusion coming to their minds that he can tell they don’t like.)

(“You’ve always hated our inventions, Danny.” Mom says in a hushed voice, and Danny winces at the wording, sinking into the back of the cushions in shame. He never thought that his parents noticed. Mom quickly grabs his arm, “No, no, there’s nothing to be ashamed of Danny. We were… perhaps too careless with our inventions, too enthusiastic. You had every right to hate the things we made when they had a tendency to… to malfunction.”)

(Malfunction is a delicate way of putting it, when Danny remembers every time they had to evacuate their old apartment complex because whatever half-baked creation his parents made inevitably blew up into ash and smoke. There were soot marks permanently stained into the ceiling.)

(Her hand slides down and grabs his, and she cups it in both of her hands, squeezing tightly. He forces himself to look up, and there is a look like her heart breaking when he looks into his mother’s eyes. “You’ve always avoided the lab after we moved, Danny. And you had every right to, so why on Earth did you ever think about going into the portal?”)

(Danny struggles to come up with an adequate answer, a way to verbalize what came over him that day five years ago. The answer is there, hanging in the air like a knot in a noose. He opens his mouth, and then closes it.)

(Finally, with a tongue made of lead, he shrugs lamely and looks away. “I didn’t know there was an on button inside it.” He mumbles, and despite being the truth it feels like a lie. But that is the truth. He didn’t know there was an on button inside it. So he didn’t care what happened.)

(Something dulls in mom’s eyes, like she thought of something else that Danny hadn’t said. Her eyes shimmer, and she squeezes them shut, breathing in so deep that it shakes. And then she pulls him into a hug, a hand burying into his hair and pressing him close. “It must have hurt so much, sweetheart. I’m so sorry.”)

(It is something that Danny doesn’t expect her to say, like missing the last step of the stairs. It startles him so much he laughs this short, bark of a thing. He feels his dad press against his back and wrap his big arms around them, his nose pushed into his hair.)

(Because yeah. Yeah, it did hurt. It hurt more than anything else he’s ever felt before. It had torn him apart and sewn him back together again, only to rinse and repeat. The pain was nothing he ever spoke to Sam or Tucker about, and it was something they never brought up. No, that’s not true. If they ever brought it up, Tucker would call it a zap. As if Danny only experienced a mild static shock. Like it was painless. It’s a pretty lie that Danny lets him and Sam believe.)

(His eyes sting and water immediately wobbles into his vision, coming up with such a force that he doesn’t even need to blink before it spills over. “Yeah.” He forces out, voice unexpectedly rough and cracking. “Yeah, it- it hurt. A lot.”)

He tells them about fighting the Lunch Lady a month later. He tells them about finding Jason. It comes spilling out like a waterfall. “I found him, mom.” He says, holding onto her tight while she keeps him tucked under his chin like a little kid. The secret of Jason being Robin stays hidden under his tongue, it is not his secret to tell. Not his identity to expose. He grips her tighter. “I found him, mom. Right there in the Ghost Zone, and he was my Jason. He wasn’t an echo or a— an imprint of him.”

Mom is silent; quiet and attentive, and so is dad, who rubs his large hands up and down Danny’s spine in an attempt to soothe him. It only works a little. Danny breathes in like a gasp as the urge to cry overcomes him again. He always avoids talking about Jason, his grief is like a never-healing scab that can be picked off at any time. It is ingrained into his core.

“And then I lost him.” He forces out, a sob layering under his words that he chokes on and swallows. The hand on his back stills, and he can feel mom and dad breathe in like a question. He turns his head and pushes it into mom’s shoulder. “He disappeared, mom. Just— just gone.”

“And he didn’t move on.” He says, voice snarling like teeth biting before his mom can ask, because he knows that’s what she was going to ask. It’s what Sam and Tucker asked when he came to them in tears hours after he found Jason gone. It’s what Jazz said when he finally told her about it. It’s what every one of his ghosts asked when he told them about it and begged for their help.

Danny grits his teeth and tries not to dig his nails into mom’s clothes as a fresh wave of tears run down his face. “His haunt is still there. If Jason really moved on it would have disappeared with him. That’s how it works. But it’s still in the zone, so Jason’s out there I just don’t know where.”

(Sam once asks him why Danny didn’t just move on from it a year after Jason’s disappearance. She asked him why he didn’t give it up. Danny nearly saw red, and nearly bit her head off for it. It was incomprehensible to him to just stop looking for Jason, to give up. Not when he was out in the zone somewhere. Because he had to be in the zone.)

(Danny once tried to take Jason through the portal with him, and much like what happened to Kitty, it didn’t work. Jason was too tied to the ghost zone to leave.)

(Some bonds are just unbreakable, he thinks. Bonds forged through blood and time and trust, and when you’re on the streets of Gotham, you hoard what little trust you have in someone like a dragon with its gold. It is scarcely given and fiercely kept.)

“I’ve been looking for him.” Danny whispers when talking becomes too hard for him, when it runs the risk of him crying. “When- when I’m not fighting ghosts or, or in school or with my friends, I’ve been looking for him.” He has explored the Ghost Zone in every reach he can. He has met so many people. He’s met the ghosts of aliens from planets in every corner of the galaxy. He has met gods or god-like beings and their disciples.

He’s met famous scholars and writers (he’s gotten the autographs of all of Jason’s favorite writers). He has found entire cities that have so much life in it that it's been permanently etched into the ghost zone, like a mirror version of itself.

He’s visited the ghostly vision of Gotham so many times, and he avoids the imprint of Wayne Manor like the plague. There are ghostly newspapers that he reads. There are the ghosts of Martha and Thomas Wayne in many of them.

Jason’s haunt connects to Wayne Manor, but it is also the street they grew up in. It is a small brick building with a door that leads to Jason’s room. A ghost knows when someone enters their haunt, it alerts them like a doorbell in the back of their mind. A foreign ecto-signature in a place drenched in your own.

Danny visits it every time he goes into the Ghost Zone. It’s always his first stop.

He tells his parents all of it. He tells them of the ghosts he’s met, of the places he’s seen. And when he feels brave, he tells them about Rath and the terror that his future self brings him. He keeps some details hidden, the ones that he can afford to keep without muddling up the story.

(Rath is a tall, spindly thing, like a funhouse mirror version of Danny himself. He has arms that are much too long and legs that are much too tall, with skinny fingers that extend into claws.He wears his suit the same as Danny does, with it partially undone and the sleeves wrapped around his waist.)

(There is a black hole in his chest that is much bigger than Danny’s own. It takes up his chest cavity and drips the same, viscous black liquid as the tears falling from his eyes. Danny never forgets his voice; a scraping, quiet thing like he’s screamed himself hoarse. Rath has a voice like goosebumps, and it haunts Danny like a bump in the night.)

Danny speaks and speaks and speaks until he can’t think of anything else to speak of. He is tired and sad, and it feels like his heart has been ripped out and rubbed raw again. And yet, he also feels so much better. Like a long heavy weight has been taken off his chest.

Yeah, last summer was hard. His parents walked on eggshells around him, and they forced themselves to unlearn their bias of ghosts. It was more than Danny could have ever dreamed of, and when they felt ready for it, they asked him more about the ghost zone.

He smiles sadly at his dad, “I think fixing the stove can be a priority another time, dad.” He says, watching him wilt and his smile fall. Jack Fenton was always so good at making himself look like a kicked puppy. “I can handle unpacking by myself, I promise.”

His parents still look so unsure, like they want to argue. Danny watches his mom purse her lips tightly, confliction running across her face like a datastream. She takes dad’s hand, squeezing their fingers together despite the droop in her shoulders.

“Oh, alright then, I suppose.” She relents, her hand placing on Jack’s arm. “I guess we could go, we’re just going to miss you so much, Danny.”

Tears seem to have won over his dad, and Jack Fenton sniffs back before he can cry properly. “Our little boy, all grown up.” He says, voice wobbling. It makes Danny laugh, and it makes his heart pang. His smile grows impossibly wider and so much fonder. “You’ve become such a kind, wonderful young man, Danno. We’re so proud of you.”

Danny laughs again, and it cracks. “You’re gonna make me cry, dad.” (He feels a welling of guilt in his gut that he ignores — he doesn’t feel like a kind man. He doesn’t feel like a good one either. Not with what he plans to do.)

His father holds out his arms in hopefulness, “One last hug for your old man before we head out?” He asks, mustering up a smile on his face.

Danny barrels into him, nearly knocking his dad over with an oomph. He’s as tall as him now, but he still feels little in his bear hugs. With arms wrapping around his middle, Danny hugs his father tight and breathes him in one last time.

“Careful there, Danno.” He laughs, patting Danny’s back roughly. “You’ll break my ribs with that ghostly strength of yours!” But he holds on just as tight.

Out of spite, Danny bends back and lifts him off his feet, laughing when Jack tenses up and nearly scrambles out of surprise. His mom laughs with him, stepping back to give them room for the few seconds that dad is in the air.

When it’s his mom’s turn, Danny has to hunch to hug her. Something bittersweet to him as she plants a kiss on his forehead and says that he’ll always be her baby. “Even if you do have that horrid smoking habit.” She adds on with a disapproving eyebrow raise.

Danny turns red in embarrassment, and walks them back to the GAV. Gothamites of all kinds slow to stop and boggle at the monstrous, road-illegal thing that is parallel-parked next to the curbside. In the past, Danny would have died with mortification to be seen with it. Now it just makes him laugh. Before he goes back into the apartment building, he buys a newspaper from a nearby convenience store.

The first thing he does when he gets back up to his room is one: make a mental note to buy a bicycle chain lock for the door. The locks jiggle and there are splinters along the side that show signs of it being broken into in the past. The second thing he does is pull his cigarettes out of his pocket and light one.

Danny starts to unpack with a cigarette hanging from his mouth, placing the newspaper he bought onto the counter. He has a cheap loveseat that he pushes off to the side, and he moves the boxes into the kitchen. It’s a matter of organization that Danny has to think about before he does anything.

It’s as he’s pushing the sofa up against the wall facing the windows that his phone rings a familiar tune: Sam. The phone is fished out before he can think about it and when he stares down at the screen, he realizes it's a facetime call.

He presses answer and walks over to prop his phone up onto the counter. The smiling faces of Sam and Tucker greet him, rather than just Sam. Immediately, Danny grins. “Hey Danny.” Sam greets, smiling a dark-painted lazy thing. From the background it looks like they’re in Tucker’s room. Sam is in Tucker’s desk chair, and Tucker is behind her, leaning against it. “Have you moved in yet?”

Danny pulls the cigarette from his mouth and huffs, a cloud of smoke following his breath. “Yeah! It’s a shithole.” He grins lopsidedly, and his feet carry him off to the side to allow Sam and Tucker view of his apartment. He lets thirty seconds pass, allowing the both of them to really see the rest of the room. And then he steps back into frame.

Sam and Tucker both look like they’re trying not to look judgemental, like they’re trying to hide a grimace that Danny sees anyway with the small turns at the corner of their mouths. He grins wider, mirth filling his lungs. “I know, it looks awful doesn’t it?”

“It’s— it’s not so bad.” Sam says with a strain in her voice, a forced smile on her face that tries to be reassuring. Tucker nods along readily, and he looks just as unsure as Sam does. Danny stifles laughter behind his teeth.

“No, no, it looks bad,” He takes a drag of his cigarette, shaking his head. “You can say it, I won’t get offended. It’s a fucking apartment in crime alley. Of course it looks bad.”

Sam remains silent, a rearing of her stubbornness showing itself. Tucker takes a different approach, and heaves a dramatic sigh of relief, slumping like a weight. “Okay, you’re right. It looks bad.” He frowns, “Sorry, man.”

While Danny snorts, Sam sighs. “Yeah, it looks bad. What even are those stains?” She asks, and both she and Tucker lean closer in tandem to the screen, eyes squinting at the floor behind him. Danny glances at the floor, and shrugs.

“Blood, probably.” He says, and while years in Amity Park have accustomed him to a clean environment, the desensitization of Gotham still remains. Tucker and Sam both make faces and lean away, as if the stain itself was capable of passing through to them. “Yeah, there are bullet holes in the walls.”

“Are you sure it’s safe to be there?” Tucker asks, a furrow appearing between his brows. He adjusts his glasses and leans against the chair. Sam is frowning heavily, and Danny can already see her thinking up of a new way to fix the problem.

“Oh, I never said this place was safe.” Danny tells him cheerily, taking a last hit of his cigarette before placing the dead stick onto the counter. He itches for another one. Instead he walks over to the shelf his parents brought in and starts moving it. “It’s Crime Alley, Tuck. Safe isn’t even in its vocabulary.”

Tucker and Sam look like they’ve both swallowed a lemon.

“But it’s where I want to be right now.” He says, grunting quietly when the shelf is against the wall he wants it to be, near the short hallway leading to the front door. He can push it in front of it if someone tries to break in. “And Crime Alley’s apartments are the only ones I can really afford right now without mooching off my parents, and I’d rather not depend on them.”

He can hear the disapproving hesitance from where he stands. And he ignores it.

Danny walks back into frame, lifting up a box onto the counter. He hums lightly, fingers run over the tape keeping it shut. “Why do you even want to be in Gotham, Danny?” Sam asks, and she sounds genuinely perplexed. Danny stills. “I thought this place only had bad memories for you.”

His blood turns cold, and like a dime being flipped his slow heartbeat fills his ears. “It does.” He replies automatically, before he can think. Shit, shit. He knows that Sam or Tucker would ask that question, and yet he still feels unprepared for it. His heart pulses quickly against his ribcage, knocking, asking him what he’s going to tell them that isn’t the truth.

Danny stammers, “I mean— I just— I guess I felt nostalgic.” He says, and it sounds like a weak defense. He looks away, finding himself instinctively scratching his jaw. A new tick of his when he’s nervous. From the corner of his eye, he sees Sam and Tucker both narrow their eyes at him.

He cannot tell them the real reason why he’s moved back to Gotham. He can’t tell them of the little secret and vow he told himself five years ago, the one that’s been left to fester and burn like an open wound close to his core. The one that, if he thinks too much about it, sends a searing hot electricity through him, filling him from crown to toe top-full of direst wrath.

(Danny was always the angrier one in the duo of Jason and Danny. He was always the one with glass in his mouth, cutting his teeth and tongue so that he could spit blood at the world around them. His knuckles had more blood and bruises on it than skin, once upon a time. All because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. He has grown from it, that fury has turned to a small simmering candle.) (But sometimes, sometimes it rears its head, and electricity will buzz under Danny’s skin. There is lightning before the thunder, the second before a fist pulled to punch lands, the spark before it becomes a blaze.)

He stumbles over his words, and then sighs long and low, drooping his head. “I… was thinking that I can’t avoid this place forever.” He says, and the best lies always have the truth in it. Because it’s not a lie, not completely. But it’s not close enough to the truth either. “And that maybe if I came back, I’d be able to do something about those bad memories. Make them better or make it hurt less.”

Like wool over their eyes, it fools Sam and Tucker. Their narrowed eyes soften, and Danny feels like a snake is in his lungs as they both adopt their own versions of gentleness on their faces. “Oh, Danny.” Sam breathes out, and the snake squeezes, “Of course, we understand.”

Tucker nods, smiling at him. “Yeah, bro, that’s really brave of you. I know it can’t be easy coming back.” He says, “Maybe you can reconnect with the Waynes again, you always thought well of Mister Wayne whenever you came back from visiting.”

Danny smiles weakly, the gesture cutting into his cheeks like a knife. Perhaps he could. He was still upset with Bruce for hiding Jason’s killer from him. But he doesn’t hate him. Maybe five years ago, he did, when the death of Jason was still fresh in his mind and freshly bleeding in his heart. Now he just doesn’t know what to think of him. He was Batman. Jason was Robin, and the Joker killed Robin.

It would need to be something he’d have to speak to Bruce about in person, he thinks, in order to resolve it. To hear his judgment on it and make an opinion from there. Danny has learned in the last five years, much to Jazz’s smug delight, that talking to people about something he was upset about did make him feel better.

The conversation slips on from there into something more light, more breathable. And while they talk, Danny unpacks. He sets up his bed in the corner of the room, adjacent to the windows, and unpacks his cheap TV and table stand. It’s directly across from the couch, in front of the windows. He puts up knicks and knacks he’s collected over the years on the shelves.

When he puts up the curtains, he notices that more than one frame jiggles loosely. Sam makes a comment on the musty stains permanently dyed into the glass, and Danny talks about getting something to fix the cracks. Gotham winters can get brutal, and even if he can withstand the cold, doesn’t mean everything else in his apartment can.

“Oh, watch this.” He says halfway through unpacking, and pulls out a stick of thick white chalk from a box. “This is something I learned from Clockwork a while back; I think he knew I was going to move to Gotham.” He grins sillily, popping into the camera frame to show them. “I wonder how?”

Sam rolls her eyes, smiling while Tucker huffs. “It’s not like he’s the Master of Time and can see all past, present, and future.” Tucker snarks.

Danny hums lightly, curt like he isn’t sure he believes Tucker, and walks to a piece of bare wall not yet blocked by furniture. He starts to draw on it. The chalk shimmers with faint ectoplasm on the wall.

“Uhh…” Tucker’s voice cuts through, “Are you sure you should be doing that? Won’t you get in trouble for that?”

“There are bullet holes in the plaster, Tucker.” Danny retorts dryly, arching his hand to make a big circle. “I don’t think the landlord is gonna care if I get washable chalk on his walls.” Inside the circle, he inscribes the symbols of the Infinite Realms. “I don’t think he’d be able to see it anyways, he was really old.”

When he is done, Danny steps back to admire his work. It’s not bad, he thinks, for a lack of practice. He tosses the chalk off to the side, it lands on the couch and rolls back into the cushions. Ectoplasm heats under his hand, slowly glowing from his fingertips before stretching down the rest of his palm.

Danny’s fingers press against the wall, into the center of the circle. The result is immediate, ectoplasm is siphoned off his hand and into the circle. It glows, and then swirls. He steps off to the side for Sam and Tucker to watch its transformation. The circle fills with a swirling pool of ectoplasm, like a smaller version of the basement portal, and then it warps and stretches.

It fills out a rectangular shape, shifting like taffy being pulled this way and that, before settling into a solid shape. It solidifies, and instead of a wall there is a glowing purple door, warped in nature and seemingly shifting like a trick of the eyes. He can hear the gentle hum of the zone standing next to it, and can see the carving of the circle in the wood.

He gestures dramatically, grinning from ear to ear. “Ta-da~” He sings, “A door to my haunt! For whenever I feel like visiting it.” He pats the wood, making a strange thunk-thunk sound. “And then watch this.”

Danny touches the circle again, and the door twists and recedes like water going down a drain. The circle flashes bright green, and then fades into nothing on the wall, invisible to the naked eye. “I can hide it whenever I want! So if I ever invite someone over—” which he doubts, “—I won’t have to worry about them asking, ‘Hey Danny? Why is there a creepy fucking door in your studio apartment?’”

He gets a pair of laughs for his efforts, and Danny grins wider.

Sam and Tucker have to end the call when Danny is nearly done unpacking, leaving him alone with only his thoughts and the Gotham ambience outside. There were only a few boxes left, and they promise to call him tomorrow. He tells them that they better keep that promise.

The silence that follows after they leave feels somberly, as if the reality of moving in has finally set in and filled the air with its loneliness. With its change. Finally, Danny lets the strangeness of moving back to Gotham hit him when he reaches the last box, and he stops to take another smoke break to let it settle.

It feels so strange to be back in Gotham, he thinks. He’s all grown up, or almost grown up. He can vote and pay taxes, but he doesn’t feel much older than he was at fourteen. There’s a disconnect that makes him feel sad.

There are cars running outside, driving by. He can only catch glimpses of them, his apartment faces an alleyway. There are dogs barking in the distance, strays he bets. It’s already dark out, and he wonders if he looks out the window he would see the bat-signal shining through the night and staining the permanent cloud that hangs over Gotham.

Bruce would be so disappointed if he learned the reason for Danny’s return to Gotham. But Danny’s not here for him. He’s here for someone far more important. And like that, the simmering anger that has tucked itself into the furthest corners of his heart starts slipping through. His heart has teeth, ready to strike and snarl and bite.

He crushes the cigarette in his hand and throws it away. When he opens the last box, it is with hands that tremble and with a face of stone. With a delicateness he does not feel, he reaches in and pulls a corkboard from the box. On the corner frame is a small, near inconspicuous carving of another ghost rune.

Danny hangs it up on an empty space on the wall, out of sight from the window. It’s plain, and he has nothing to pin to it. He presses the small rune on the corner, pushing ectoplasm into it. Unlike the door, it does not twist and warp and shape itself into something new. Instead it bursts into green flame, eating away at the board and revealing the same thing underneath it, just in dark blue-black-purple.

Now this board, this board Danny has something to pin to it. The newspaper he bought earlier sits abandoned on the counter, and Danny unrolls it with something like viciousness in his chest. On the front page is an image of a damaged street, and above it is titled: “JOKER STRIKES AGAIN, 3 DEAD AND 27 INJURED”

Danny rips out the first page, he rips out every mention of him. His hands shake and threaten to crumple the paper as he turns back to the board, there is hot blood pounding in his ears. There is an impending sense of finally in his chest, like a setting sun giving the stage to a starless night. There is a stern set in his jaw, five years of festering rage rushing forth like a tidal wave, threatening to make his vision swim.

It would be so easy, he thinks, to go out as Phantom right now and hunt the clown down. It would only take a night. All it would take is a night, and then he could sink his hands into the Joker’s chest and rip out his heart where he stood. It would be so easy.

The thought alone forces Danny to stop as he is hit with another rush of fury, really making his head and vision swim. Thorny vines wrap around his throat, making it hard to breathe. He stares at a spot on the wall until the shaking passes.

If he wants to be discreet about this, then he can’t do it now. Even if he wants to. He doesn’t want witnesses. He doesn’t want an audience. He made a mistake, telling Red Hood about his plan. He wasn’t sure what he was thinking. Perhaps he wasn’t thinking at all. But he can only hope that the Hood hasn’t mentioned it to Bruce. He knows it hasn’t been long since they started working together. He hopes that the Hood has already forgotten about it.

He pins the newspaper clippings onto the black-blue-board, and stands back. It’s bare now, but it won’t be forever.

He presses the circle again, and the pinboard reverts back to its original blank state.

-----

Was I expecting to make a third part?? No. No I was not. I was also not expecting to make an entire google doc filled with summaries for short story ideas about this au that all tie into each other so that way if i DO continue this i have a skeleton pathway to follow rather than making everything up from scratch and potentially cornering myself

you can find this on ao3 or on tumblr 1 2 :)

#dp x dc #dpxdc #dp x dc crossover #danny fenton is not the ghost king #dpxdc crossover #childhood friends au #cw swearing #cw smoking #im calling them short stories bc if i call them chapters i might intimidate myself #fun fact every single chapter will have a crane wives lyric on it i am DETERMINED #i hope yall are subscribed to this on ao3 bc i almost didnt post this on tumblr #the fentons being good parents were a surprise to me too but also i never really planned on them being BAD parents #okay so they appear as negligent in the first post but we'll just call that a plothole #i had the idea that danny was the angrier one out of the duo earlier today and it felt like an epiphany #there's no guarantee of a next part but yk immm kinda hoping there is #on the docs the ending bullet point for this chapter was #'make it feel like a tv show where the seemingly inconspicuous and friendly character has something sinister up their sleeve'#WE know that danny's not inconspicuous in the least he's been thinking of this murder for the last five years. but nobody but red hood know #i had to come up with a in-story reason why danny doesnt kill the joker NOW but my out-of-story excuse is: there'd be no tension otherwise #its about the BUILD UP. Its about the RISING TENSION. Its about KNOWING that danny is planning to kill the Joker but you dont know WHEN #its about knowing that something is going to explode but never knowing when #i made the doc yesterday and spent my entire pluralism for educators class going thru the crane wives albums and looking up the lyrics and #matching them to the *checks doc* 18 short story prompts i have prepared #i am still missing one :((#its the tim and danny story and i have NOTHING PLANNED FOR THEM. i cant think of a thing for them to bond over :(( so i cant match a CW son #even DICK has a story and that was also a surprise #my favorite lines: He was always the one with glass in his mouth cutting his teeth and tongue so that he could spit blood at the world #aND danny slapping his door like a used car salesman and going 'now people wont ask why i have a creepy fucking door in my studio aptm :)'

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bluedino15 · 4 months

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Undertale Yellow AU/UT and DR based-Ideas Ramble Post

You know, I haven't posted on this account for anything in YEARS besides reblogs and one Paper Mario: Origami King rant...

Anyway, had random assorted Undertale yellow AU and post pacifist/wider Undertale/deltarune world--related ideas I felt like spouting for fun because I'm back into Undertale brainworms and Twitter would suck for this, especially since I keep updating this. Feel free to use these ideas if you somehow see this and get inspired. Credit would be nice (at least cause I would like to see anyone turning these rambles into ideas) but really isn't necessary. These can easily veer off from the canon/creators of yellow and various AUs referenced (I've been really bad at keeping up with generally accepted versions of aus and the story for official ones), and I do not in ANY way want to imply my ideas are good or "proper" add-ons, just fun what-ifs that might break the rules. Also, I'm bad at coming up with good endings or full casts descriptions for a lot of these concepts (sorry Dalv) so feel free to do them yourself

UNDERTALE YELLOW SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY

*Undertale background (and yellow lore ideas):

-Clover is the first human to fall after Flowey's "birth"

-if Berdly has an unseen Undertale counterpart (he's the only one who never has a reference or family member referenced unless you think the drunk bird in grillby's is related), martlet is like his way older cousin.

-martlet stole the serum from true lab while everyone was still fallen down, soon after alphys made the first injections, hence why alphys is willing enough to chance leaving the lab open and why martlet isn't as shocked/traumatized as she might have been if she saw amalgamates. She wasn't familiar enough to recognize kanako/a child resembling chujin (how she might have expected them), but she was also focused on sneaking in and out so she wouldn't have paid much attention until reflecting during pacifist.

-Kanako is part of the amalgam that tucks in frisk, since she remembers it being comforting when she was a kid. Also, this is just a story idea but I can imagine her being a bit special/unique when everyone started melting, perhaps the first to get up and last to melt or vice versa (I think the former cause her soul was probably holding on a bit longer since because of the boss monster and existing determination injection sustaining her longer)

-undertale yellow takes place just before the monsters who became amalgamates woke up (since alphys said she called everyone and probably wouldn't have been so chipper in the journal if one monster wasn't still getting up, and Ceroba says she hadn't heard anything and there's no mention of other monsters getting news of their relatives) and subsequently melted. In other words, amalgam kanako doesn't happen until after the events of pacifist (that said, I wrote some au ideas on the idea of her amalgamating before anyway)

-the snowdin attack took place in upper snowdin, which is why there's way more guards stationed there. Additionally, that was one of the last events of Undertale counterpart rudy's life, and he helped asgore restore trust and calmness in the days after the event. His girls were too young to remember. Lastly, sans and papyrus briefly drew suspicion for their human frames, but both pretty quickly disarmed residents of suspicion.

-The reason that Clover was the only one to ever travel through yellow locations (the other humans may have at least explored other parts of the underground and just died in Frisk-explored locations) is because they're some of the farthest possible places from the Castle. Even slightly more direct routes would have gotten them killed, hence Flowey pushing them on a roundabout path

-Undertale's Gaster (I have a seperate pet theory about how there's one from Undertale who fell into Deltarune, and another who originates there) made the core but fell into Deltarune before clover arrived, and there he has some major interaction with sans and papyrus that follows them back in Undertale where they get here after Clover

-The boss monster gene is normally inherent only in goat-esque monsters, so by default they're the only boss monsters, but it can be transferred from goat monsters to non-goat monster children (normally undetected), and it was in Chujin's family for years (this is mostly just me coping on my different definition of boss monster)

-Ceroba's family were naturally gifted towards magic and one of the more important families on the surface, to the point that a few remnants of their tradition remained aboveground where they eventually become (one of many) inspirations for Mew Mew Kissy Cutie (without the humans knowing the monster background), hence the bell motifs both share. Underground life has kind of quashed most boundaries that aren't "the royal family," but Chujin was marrying above his paygrade (both had a strong mutual love)

--As a combination of the above, Kanako would probably have been one of the most Naturally gifted/powerful monsters short of the Dreemurrs thanks to both her mother's magic and father's boss monster DNA. However, she probably wouldn't have had a need to significantly develop those powers (kind of like how Toriel is naturally powerful but not really a warrior).

-Ceroba has a slight Japanese accent (like someone who has both mastered English and speaks it commonly enough) that's usually burried underneath the underground's default (like every species had some dialect and accent pre-Ebott that's faded over time), but if she gets angry it FLARES up

-Likewise, Starlo has an exaggerated cowboy accent (I personally think of Mad Dog in the Live a Live dub with the southeastern-slant given his showmanship), but when the mask (and hat) drops, it turns into softspoken midwestern farmboy.

-Chara only bonds to Frisk because they share an affinity for determination and Frisk landing on their grave was close enough to hit something. Clover isn't attuned enough for that to happen.

-sans, alphys, and Asgore know about all the Yellow locations (though Alphys is too shut in to ever visit anywhere besides the mew mew arcade machine), Undyne has been to the dunes and mine and is old enough to know of the steamworks but never visit, while she respects the Wild East just enough to avoid visiting herself and causing trouble (personally, she probably thinks they're just a bunch of slackers who aren't helping out monsterkind given her views of mettaton, but she can at least respect their passion ). Papyrus doesn't know about the steamworks but has been out to the dunes once or twice. Toriel has been shut in and away too long to know of the steamworks and doesn't know the dunes dried out.

*Undertale yellow post-pacifist (and just Undertale post-pacifist):

-Flowey left his main save after Clover's death, after realizing both neutral and any pacifist didn't get anywhere, and due to a mix of pity/respect (though he wouldn't admit it, clover sacrificing their soul for monsterkind reminds him of Chara) and pragmatism, he keeps his ("main" if reular flowey has multiple) save file permanently after their death even if he CAN reset to his creation. (Of course, he's still toyed with the timline THOUSANDS of times before Clover fell--since they only fell after he already tried everything and just waited, he's not too torn up about never going back while he plays around with his new circumstances for a while)

-The only ones who know most of what happened to Clover are Martlet, Starlo, and Ceroba. They told Asgore that Clover was a good kid, but nothing about how they steered Ceroba off her path

--likewise, no one but Clover and Ceroba (and Flowey) knew that Ceroba is responsible for Kanako falling down. Starlo (and some of the rest of the Feisty Five) has suspicions Ceroba hid SOMETHING about the nature of Kanako falling down beyond what she reveals out loud in pacifist, but would never suspect what happened, and both he and Martlet were knocked out for the fight (plus, Clover was seeing a memory) so neither caught what happened. There is absolutely some angst potential of Ceroba admitting what happened and it temporarily straining her friendship with Starlo.

-Undertale is about 2 years after (I normally headcanon that it's decades apart for humans but for this game I'd let it slide). There's not much obvious aging or change outside whats apparent in the credits from character development (dalv is a little more outgoing, Ceroba starts to live a little, starlo goes back to the farm more often) but Martlet is probably marginally more organized and a tad more matured in terms of appearance.

- The cast is mostly uninvolved with UT, but at least one of them (probably martlet or Dalv--ceroba is still a little bitter about mettaton costing Chujin his job and Starlo might avoid the show out of respect to her) catch Frisk on Mettaton's show with clover's gun and hat. Your call whether they respect that Clover's tools protect another kid beyond the grave or see that moment as disrespecting their memory (Martlet is probably the most understanding, Starlo the least), but after the barrier is broken they at least appreciate that Frisk used Clover's belongings to achieve justice for monsterkind

-During the photoshop flowey fight, clover was kept on lock the longest since he knew more of what their soul was capable of.

-The Wild East/Dunes and steamworks aren't used as hiding spaces in genocide because even if clover was pacifist, monsters know humans have gotten there before, and Alphys isn't taking chances compared to how true lab can be locked down.

-the souls can briefly "sense" clover while everyone is absorbed by Asriel, and toward the end of the fight as monsters inside gain their memories back, they don't exactly "talk" again but at least gain a sense of closure and fulfillment from Clover. No one quite knows what happened after the fight, but the gang feels a little better about Clover for some reason.

-Ceroba meets amalgam Kanako in both the evacuation and post-pacifist. At first, she'd hold it against Alphys (after the initial despair at seeing her daughter transformed), enough to even attack alphys, but she comes to admit what happened is just as much her responsibility. On post-pacifist, Kanako is calm enough (thanks to Frisk) and sentient enough for it to be a real reunion, and like most amalgams doesn't hold it against alphys enough to lash out, which at least eases Ceroba.

-toriel gets some closure on what happened to clover when she wants to honor the fallen humans and asgore directs her to ceroba. She doesn't get the full story but enough to know they gave their soul up willingly. Even though the two in the past probably would have disliked each other (Ceroba disliking Toriel for giving up on her husband, and Toriel for what Ceroba did to both kanako and Clover), Ceroba would have mellowed out enough to respect toriel's decision. Toriel would be more standoffish but at least sees Ceroba as less of a coward than asgore who was motivated by love of her family.

-any monsters who befriended previous humans plus yellow's main cast and toriel hold a funeral for the humans who died (Asgore may attend out of penance, and other monsters out of guilt but not as the primary attendees), Toriel is probably the only one (besides family if any are left) that cares for integrity sadly...

-On the surface, Starlo becomes involved in those western town recreations, and Martlet still doesn't quite have a direction to take her life in and winds up in various odd-jobs for a while, but she appreciates the newfound freedom. Dalv isn't quite a pro yet, but his organ playing nets him the occasional music festival appearance, and in-between he works on his kid's books. Ceroba would mainly be occupied just trying to keep amalgam kanako happy (though if there's a connection between her background and Japan, she at least visits a few shrines together) and when she doesn't visit her friends, she's working together with other amalgam families on treatment.

-Honeydew inn becomes the main nature resort of the underground for surface visitors (comparatively snowed Inn is more of a rest stop for tourists travelling and not so much staying)

-The connection to the surface eventually results in the resources for reflowering portions of the dunes, and the mines remain a source of mineral wealth for monsterkind.

-The steamworks gets "restored" (cleaned out of important tools and research properly, and physically repaired but out of practical operation outside as a museum) post-pacifist. Most robots choose to stay in the only home they know (and could operate in) but any capable of moving at least have the freedom to leave, and it's now run as a historical location with Axis occasionally involved in tours (when he's not exploring the concept of freedom himself). Alphys contributes to the restoration work due to a combination of guilt for "faking" mettaton's nature and putting a lot of scientists out of a job, and Ceroba realizing she's still one of the best tech specialists left in the underground and asking for her help (and alphys naturally feels she owes it to her as a family member of an amalgamate).

*General AU Idea I had regarding Kanako as Flowey/an Equivalent

-Kanako takes on a similar role to Flowey after a combination of Ceroba's soul essence injection and alphys' determination injections (Ceroba never told Alphys that there's already some injected in her) overload her past the amalgam point and her body melts too much to even hold together, eventually dusting and settling into a white flower from the steamworks that Alphys had been loaned for an experiment. She grows the same lack of empathy and desire for thrill/power that drives flowey as lack of emotions and the ability to reset erodes her unwillingness to kill (as usually develops as a result of gaining reset power: see meta narrative on Frisk/Chara/the player). Eventually, this drives her to seek the souls and see what she could do with more power. her philosophy outside of those goals is that people only ever use each other as a means to an end, and trust or faith in others is a painful dead end (Chujin's plan and Ceroba's work hurt Kanako and she cynically sees it as an attempt at creating/clinging to legacy, she realized Alphys faked her credentials and was using the DT injections just for reputation, and she eventually realizes Asgore doesn't reaaaaally want to free his citizens the way he promised them but is too afraid to be honest and destroy their trust). There's an element of "kill or be killed" but based more in the belief that inherent selfishness means those who don't use others will be used. The integrity soul human themself isn't really present, but their LV, though filtered, made it easier for Kanako to start hurting others.

-outside her general philosophy being a bit different and putting down her parents and their friends a bit more (similar to Flowey holding more cynical views of his parents) her actions are like flowey for most of the game (so she largely masks her philosophy and her personal belief that she and Clover are trying to use each other). the only noticeable difference is that she's less reliant on pellets and more on energy infused attacks given the nature of the flower she's attached to. Part of her snapping in neutral in addition to just generally being angry clover won't open the way to killing asgore after years of trying to get them there is that she's PISSED clover would be so "stupid" as to throw their safety away by trusting Martlet. The inside of her head would have less of Flowey's self-harm elements and be marginally less twisted (it "helps" she isn't dealing with lingering remnants of Chara's mentality or death from humans like Asriel did) but instead there'd be a sense of loss of self from the amalgam experience she briefly felt manifesting as melty, goopy horror, and the fear she felt both then, and as a child when integrity attacked (and subconsciously, the fear Integrity held as Axis blew their head off).

-despite the Asriel comparisons I also really wanna try not making her mostly just "Asriel but UT yellow character." (which is also why I can't come up with an ending scenario since I feel it could rip off Asriel too much). I do think flowey's role in UTY works really work because it IS flowey and not someone like him (whether like his UT or UTY selves), I just also had the idea kanako might be flowey during my playthrough and I REALLY wanna explore that .

**variation of the above but placing the timeline further back.

-I have a less developed idea that sees this as part of a larger AU where yellow takes places before flowey or alphys. Chujin loses his job due to the core shutting down steamworks labs and the axis prototype incident ensuring he doesn't get to work as an individual researcher. The Integrity attack happens when kanako was just a baby, then a decade later is when chujin dies and Ceroba starts the serum plan. After kanako becomes fallen down, Ceroba does another injection since she's desperately clinging to the belief that chujin's idea HAS to work.

-That much human soul essence contains enough DT for it to partially melt Kanako and seemingly destroy her sentience, but her boss monster DNA (and the fact that it's not pure DT but filtered through human essence like its supposed to) keeps her soul and form resilient enough to survive as solo amalgamate. Ceroba keeps her locked in the Ketsukane house out of a mix of shame, fear of losing all her friends, and fear that Asgore would ask other scientist to poke at Kanako's soul (Ceroba herself would admit that she really isn't sure herself which one dominates her thinking, but it's probably more selfish than she would like). She tries her best to at least talk to her, feed her and comfort her while maintaining the facade of a normal life (she tells everyone Kanako got sick and passed away, and it was too much to bear to bring anyone to her funeral) Kanako slowly becomes less and less responsive. Months before Clover falls, Kanako's body comes into contact with a white flower from the steamworks, and the remnants of her soul jump into on after sensing a stable, "living" body, awakening as her time's version of flowey.

-I don't have too much of an idea for the ending of Clover's journey, but in this version Ceroba has at least given up on using Kanako for a monster soul and instead is aiming for Asgore's. Part of the shock of the Ketsukane household portion would not just be the tapes, but the fact that Kanako's now motionless, amalgamated body can be found right after. It's initially assumed to be from Chujin's research before the truth comes out.

-this probably breaks a TON of rules of both undertale and Yellow, so if anyone has a less stupid sounding version of this, it would be neat (and also how it would somehow end in such a way as to not interfere with Undertale)

*species swap/overtale yellow/monster clover:

- clover is a fox monster for a kanako parralel just as how Frisk and Chara are commonly goat monsters. Their aesthetic still leans on western cultural ideas about foxes as opposed to kitsune elements, with the hat over their ears plus scarf over their nose in populated areas hiding enough facial features to pass as human.

-martlet's wings are a carpentry invention she made to make her job easier. They aren't exactly the most reliable equipment...

-All the robots are largely the same (since they aren't monsters), though there's an implication that integrity's monster counterpart's dust has had some unnatural effect on Axis' personality (nowhere near asriel's rebirth). Chujin had BADDLY underestimated how fragile monsters can be.

-one of the uncomfortable facts that clover is confronted with towards the end of each route is that if the monsters who fell (or however your take goes) died, there would be no real way to know what dust is theirs or where they are.

-part of the reason clover stands a chance is because their gun, unlike the rest of clover, is not magic but instead physical with a bit of extra kick from magic infusion. And a murder-high/genocide route naturally gets a little bloody... (though most would at least be "clean" enough shots through the chest)

-in each route, clover undergoes their own "undying"-esque transformation based on overwhelming justice that feeds into determination, resulting in the equivalent of their big shot mode. In neutral, flowey reducing them to their soul in his mind means their magic is no longer tied to a body or the danger of the real world and can desperately concentrate on self defense, in pacifist, Ceroba lands a clean hit and clover's sense of betrayal and desire for a just end pushes them to take one last stand (regardless of pacifist outcome, they don't have a strong enough soul for it to last forever). In Geno, axis manages to land the same killing blow he did on integrity, and clover is strong enough to spend the remainder in their undying mode. Asgore manages to actually land his own fatal blow, but clover survived long enough to kill him and take his soul, leaving it ambiguous if it saves them.

*what-if: Ceroba succeeds in capturing Clover's soul

-basically what it says. Ceroba manages to get clover all the way to true lab (including pushing past alphys and mettaton) before Starlo warns them (or alternatively, if for some reason Flowey didn't reset the timeline when she takes Clover's soul in the pacifist fight). After the initial shock in true lab, Ceroba realizes one of the amalgams is Kanako. Even though part of her admits her plan won't work with the state her daughter's soul is in, she's too desperate to reverse her daughter's condition and after coming across Alphys' entry 17 (unused in-game, but her speech on how monsters can't handle DT), backstabs Clover in the hopes that their soul can act as a weight on the determination that overloaded the amalgam's body. Flowey's aversion to true lab plus the speed and chaos of events happening make him too slow to control the timeline since the amalgamate has enough determination to go beyond his file (a full human soul plus a DT injection plus a human essence injection plus boss monster DNA plus other monsters). The body stabilizes into a chimera, and all the monsters in the amalgam plus clover have their own sense of self and degree of control over their body (picture Asriel + Chara but way more chaotic, with kanako and clover as the ones most commonly in control). Everybody is confused and terrified, and Angst and tragedy ensue. Kanako isn't really happy that an innocent human had to die for her sake, and Clover is caught between anger at being betrayed, and their own recognition of the injustice Kanako and all the amalgamated monsters have endured.

*"Ketsukane Reborn"/Clover shares a soul with Kanako

-not my idea at all (there are quite a few cool takes on this), but yeah, clover shares their soul with Kanako similar to Dreemurr Reborn. Kanako has less angst about Clover giving up their soul (they're still sorry of course, but they didn't ever try to hurt Clover, and clover gave their soul up since it wouldn't be just to let them suffer so they're okay enough with what happened) and the two can be surprisingly in-sync with a mix of Kanako's enthusiasm (Kid was hopeful enough that her parent's serum would work) and Clover's desire for justice, compared to Asriel/Frisk being a bit more solemn and differing

-Since both of them keep their eyes open, the main way to tell who's more in control is the eye hue: Brown for Kanako, and Yellow for Clover.

-The monster side of the soul offers support in shooting sections with the same additions that ralsei and susie provide during spamton Neo (with the protection closer to Ceroba's diamond shields).

-Ceroba absolutely broke down SOBBING in a mix of joy and sadness to have her daughter back and for how much Clover gave. Clover assuring her it was okay was one of the first times they manifested.

-If they ever actually meet Dreemurr Reborn Asriel/Frisk, Asriel talks with Clover a lot apologizing for all he put them through, and Kanako talks with Frisk thanking them for not fearing her in True Lab.

-the human essence in kanako was the only reason why her body was even stable enough to absorb Clover's soul (clover confirmed this themselves before they gave it up), but even still, she does feel that it's unfair she got a second chance that no other amalgamates did. As they get older, the two search the world for the history of monster souls to see if there's any cure.

*Underswap yellow:

-I don't have ideas for most swaps since the cast mostly don't come in pairs, but in a role but not personality swap AU, Ceroba would swap with starlo and goes full weeaboo running the Far West. She's not anime weeb (though that's her equivalent to western movies as research material) but more like, glorious Nippon, edo-era, ken-sama shit. Starlo is a peaceful enough farmer who packs a gun after seeing its power in his interactions with human culture (if clover swaps, he got the gun they left behind). Ceroba is moreso putting on act of overblowing what is "tradition" while making it more "trendy" based on human trash in waterfall in order to appeal to other monsters even though she wants to honor her family's legacy (not just her immediate family but ancestors), and Starlo leans into it more than Ceroba does for him. The culmination of the arc would more be her frustration with a self-imposed obligation to put up an act that celebrates the human alterations and ignores how her family really was, compared to Starlo getting too caught up in the act

-If clover does swap with another human, it's either patience (a la their items appearing in the ruins in ts!underswap) or integrity (as the major human of yellow's backstory). Whoever swapped with clover is the one going through the journey with yellow's cast and theming is closer to their soul, while clover went through the events the original human they swapped with did.

-Asgore, Toriel, undyne, napstablook, and Temmie are mostly the same as however you view/prefer their underswap selves. Running with the doll idea, neutral ending Temmie's memories feature a lot of ripped apart and mutilated dolls and stuffing, and an "odd" focus on a lack of arms... On Geno route they get absolutely ripped to shreds as their plush's body parts come off.

--Alternatively, going with the Asriel and Chara swap (the other one I usually see), then Chara-as-Flowey would DETEST Clover the instant their mask slips in neutral/genocide. They still wouldn't reveal their backstory, but there would be hints at the fact that they're pretty familiar with humans and have a VERY low impression of humanity (Clover's counterpart not excluded), even if circumstances have lowered their empathy for monsters as well. During true pacifist, Clover's counterpart's act of selflessness for the sake of monsterkind earns their begrudging respect, while during Geno, Chara-flowey promises them that they aren't all powerful and will have consequences some day like all humans (I've never really seen a consistent elaborated form of this swap so I kind of just ran with my own ideas of it, without too much personality swapping)

*Underfell Yellow

-I forget the general plot/backstory people go with and I haven't seen the original version in YEARS so I don't have much for Undertale/fell cast members who appear, aside that flowey was genuinely siding with Clover most of the journey and sends them away from toriel for their safety (from Toriel or the rest of the underfell underground is your call). Clover gives him the okay to move on without them once they realize there's no route in which Clover escapes without massive amounts of dustshed, but he's still shaken by losing them and it affects his relationship with Frisk on top of Frisk's connection to Chara.

-Martlet is motivated by a desire to climb the royal guard's (or their underfell equivalent) promotion ladder by ANY means for the power and prestige it brings. she tries to fake being clover's ally but is really, really bad at hiding her intentions so they usually avoid any backstab easily enough. She really shouldn't be qualified for the job, but she managed to cheat the initial results and competition for a position.

-starlo I already saw a cool bandit concept for and there is no improving on that

-ceroba's life went on a downward spiral ever since she married chujin only for him to become a disgraced, laughingstock of a scientist and leave the family broke, and then went on to focus all his efforts on soul and robotics projects with no care for the family before he had the "decency" to pass away. Ceroba is baddly shaken, and without realizing it, starts emotionally manipulating Kanako with the idea that her mother works very hard, is very tired, and needs more help to care for her child (not untrue, but Kanako thinks it's her fault). After discovering Chujin's serum idea, Ceroba becomes borderline negligent trying to create the injection, with Kanako finding out and putting herself forward as a test subject in the belief that anything to help her mom is good. Ceroba at this point is too desperate to even question if she shouldn't do this, and we all know what happens next (though Kanako coming under the care of Underfell alphys is pretty bad...). All she has left is a degrading existence as a paid assistant to starlo's gang, having given up on her husband's plan or that Kanako might recover, but Clover's pure soul has given her a new plan that might salvage her family's dignity

-chujin has actively tuned up axis to be as much of a human murder machine as he can be after the first murder, partly to spite asgore and the royal guard by showing his creation is superior to anything they could ever hope to do, and partly out of a burning hatred of humanity. Axis has a sympathetic personality from his initial creation when chujin was less bitter and exploring the potential of artificial intelligence for good, but it's buried amongst data screaming at him to kill humans, and little is left for monsters or robots besides indifference (in a bit of blatant symbolism, his heart never lights up or flashes), In his more comical moments, think of abridged android 16 if he didn't have a bird interest.

*Outertale Yellow:

-Okay I really have nothing for this except the fact that at least one "star fox" joke with the Ketsukanes (and also Martlet, froggits, and any rabbit NPC) would be very funny to me.

*Storyshift Yellow:

-This one I don't have real ideas for at all (especially because I'm embarrassingly behind on the reboot and I don't wanna put lazy headcanons on it), but if Clover somehow fell before Chara (considering how neither of the skeletons are referenced in UTY), their fate would influence how the Dreemurrs attempt to keep Chara alive.

-Sans immediately pulls out his instant kill cage on clover in flawed pacifist unlike asgore having dodgeable attacks, and admits how blatantly unfair it is. On Geno, he would normally try to put up a fight during genocide even if recognized he would eventually lose, but he sees Clover's fight with Martlet's equivalent and admits he can't even hope to delay clover or make them reset enough as soon as he realizes they have counters for his tricks (laser during his turn which makes it much harder to dodge, attacking outside of battle, the natural advantages of resetting) after one or two reloads. He does manage to leave them with a comment asking whether the slaughter and chaos and hatred that will follow was worth it or just.

*Inverted Fate:

-I don't really have anything concrete for this either since I admittedly missed a lot of backstory, plus the creator already said Clover's journey would be incompatible with the the AU (and I'm not creative enough to imagine where/"when" most of the yellow cast would be in IF's world). That said, as a what-if, I do think It'd be neat if Flowey went through Yellow before the timeline reset and that a part of Asriel was still affected by that time with Clover (if only for how they weren't Chara, just as how he's dismissive of Frisk, as further evidence to himself of Chara's importance and specialness).

-I do think Martlet could also be interesting to examine due to anti-human sentiment becoming much more normalized thanks to both the backstory and Undyne's actions. Martlet would be a more dedicated member of the Royal Guard (and a little older than she is in UTY) who wouldn't be as friendly to frisk, but she can't help but have doubts.

*Poketale Yellow/pokemon themed AU where everyone is a Pokemon/Mystery Dungeon choices:

-Clover is a Jolteon

-flowey is a sunflora

-decibat is noibat,

-Dalv is crobat (I could find surprisingly few vampire-esque pokemon)

-martlet is quaxwell (she evolves in Geno route. and I know she's not a duck but I found surprsingly few good blue bird pokemon besides ducklett)

-bailador is Hawlucha,

-starlo is like a junior Solgaleo (mainly on account of his parents, and I just can't see cosmoem or staryu working well. Feel free to make them work or come up with a better fit like a special solrock or minior)

-Ceroba is Ninetales (she usually hides her tails outside of battle, and they only show in full for the pacifist final)

-chujin is thievul

-Kanako is a vulpix, but she has a few traits of a thievul

-axis is golett.

(Feel free to put any of your own ideas for them, i'm sure i missed some new pokemon that are better fits. I just like Jolteon clover to go with Eevee frisk)

*Dreemurr/Ketsukane Swap (including Chara with the Dreemurrs).

-The dreemurrs aren't royalty, but rather "just" the monster equivalent of nobility, while the ketsukanes sit on the throne. King Chujin has a much less trusting view of humanity, but the Dreemurrs pleaded to him that an exception be made so long they ensured Chara never hurt anyone. As there was less pressure to be the "future" of monsters, Chara never developed the same sense of responsibility or duty to destroy the barrier for monsterkind. Their hatred of humanity remained though, and combined with their exposure to more average monsters and the sense that they were a burden on monsterkind, they wanted to be part of a "weapon" for all of their family's fellow monsters. They convinced Asriel to go ahead with their plan hoping that their fused soul might contain the essence necessary to empower all monsters to take revenge with a source of near infinite determination. Asriel/Chara stayed hidden from society after convincing asgore and Toriel that Chara died of a natural illness and the fusion was an accident, and begging that no one find out what happened lest they become saddled as monsterkind's saviors (really because chara wants all monsterkind to be powerful enough for war first and doesn't want them to have false hope until the power is in their hands). They secretly worked together with Chujin to extract the essence of their soul after convincing him of the potential and banking on his general distrust of humanity and faith in science to free monsterkind. Chujin realizes it's risky but after Chara already sacrificed themselves for this plan, he can't refuse.

- As kids who didn't fully think things through and a king working in secret without other scientists, the plan did not work at all. The Raw energy of Chara and Asriel's determination basically went berserk in response to an extraction attempt, leaving the fusion as an amalgamate constantly melting and reforming from attempts to save and load. Chujin was too guilt-ridden to tell the truth of what happened to Asgore and Toriel, so he lied to them that Asriel/Chara broke into his personal lab and tried the experiment on themselves and died, begging the Dreemurrs to tell everyone else it was a disease so that no one questions the sudden disappearance of a human. The body is too well hidden for the Dreemurrs to question anything at first, and they leave to grieve.

-Asgore is the first to realize something is off and eventually finds the amalgamate. He comes close to killing Chujin in rage for hiding his children's survival and mutation, but is stopped at the last second by Asriel (just sentient enough to protect Chujin since it was partly his and Chara's fault, but unable to communicate that to Asgore) Chujin swears that he thought finding them like this would be worse than thinking they died, then promises that if Asgore keeps this a secret to everyone, then the two can work towards a cure. Asgore hates that he was lied to, but still believes that Chara and Asriel tried to extract the essence on their own, so he accepts the proposal as Chujin's form of apology. Asgore works himself ragged through tests on his soul seeing if the growth between boss monster parents and children or a stable boss monster soul might reform the children, far past the safety point that Chujin recommends, but nothing works. As his condition pushes past the point of no return, Chujin finally realizes that another human soul would be the only thing powerful enough to restore the children, and bitterly passes the information on to Asgore, believing it's hopeless one would appear like Chara.

-This whole time, Asgore kept everything a secret from Toriel even as she became worried about his health. On his deathbed, he admits the truth (as he knows it) to her and apologizes for lying about their children since he didn't want her to see them so disfigured, but with no hope for recovery they have been secretly transported home without chujin's knowledge (leaving him constantly afraid they may one day reappear). Asgore begs Toriel to keep the same promise of secrecy and tells her that a human soul is Asriel and Chara's only hope. Toriel is infuriated with Chujin but out of Asgore's wishes, she never tells anyone and keeps them hidden, while planning to take a human soul should the chance ever arise

-Toriel DESPISES herself for the killing she's planning to do even if it's for saving her kids (that it's for them is the only reason she even takes this path), and though she believes that Asgore and Chujin both lied to her (the later not receiving any sympathy), she still blames herself for everything that led to the transformation even though she really is innocent ("if only I paid more attention") and is caught between her protective urges and her mission. She fights with a cult-like animal mask based on a goat (like a stereotypical image of Pagan, fertility European religions), giving her longer horns and a generally demonic appearance.

*Deltarune / Deltarune Yellow (whether it's the Yellow Cast in regular Deltarune or in Hometown's past is your call, but most of these apply to the former):

-Martlet is stuck doing a bunch of odd jobs around hometown since she hasn't really decided on a careeer or college. She's related to Berdly as a way older cousin, and the age gap that puts her in higher end of asriel's age group means they don't really hang out much.

-Dalv is another shut-in, though he occasionally submits anonymous organ recordings and children's books to the library.

-Decibat is one of the workers at the library and can be most counted on to shush anyone, even anyone else trying to shush someone.

-Starlo runs a movie watching club focused on westerns. The rest of the feisty five put up with it but each has their own genres they prefer

-Bailador runs a really weird dance aerobics program at a local gym.

-the Ketsukanes would be one of the more notable families in town like the Dreemurrs and Holidays (like how Toriel runs the school, asgore ran the police, and Noelle's mom is the mayor) due to chujin being a capable inventor (in his case, less authority in town and more out of town fame that trickles back home) and his and ceroba's families both having lived there for decades, but he had a pretty big falling out incident with Dreemurrs regarding their choice to adopt Kris (he didn't trust having a human in the community, let alone the chief of police having one). After that public blowup with Asgore, Kris was mysteriously attacked in the woods while alone, and while there was no official evidence of who did it (Kris was too young and too hurt to remember) and no one was charged, rumors quickly singled out chujin and his reputation was destroyed, since no one wanted to be friendly to someone who hurt a Dreemurr (though most townsfolks are more worried about Toriel, asgore, and Asriel's feelings than kris'). The family moved away to a city where he works with the tech and robotics companies he already designed for. They generally dress more like a "modern" Japanese family (e.g. Kanako wears a school uniform), though chujin isn't quite a salaryman.

-Ceroba occasionally visits to talk with her old friend Starlo and pay respects to family buried in the town cemetery, but otherwise she's grown distant from most of the people living there and has awkward talks about her family's new life which are mostly done out of politeness obligations. She isn't distrusting of Kris like Chujin is, but given the nature of Chujin leaving, they're naturally not comfortable around each other (she wishes Kris could remember what happened that day and exonerate her husband, while Kris knows it wasn't chujin and feels guilty for being unable to absolve him, but they still dread thinking about that attack and being reminded of those who refuse to accept them as part of other monsters), and Toriel is very cold toward Ceroba since that's the closest person to chujin she can take out her anger on.

-Kanako was pretty young at the time (she's currently Asriel's age, and left when she was just 7 or 8 when Kris was a newly adopted younger sibling), so she's not too close to Asriel and Dess' school group and she never really knew Kris' school group (she's never met Susie before the events of Deltarune, and she only saw Kris once or twice due to her father's hostility--she mostly knows Noelle and catti thanks to her time with their older sisters). The rare times she visits with her mom during summer is her mostly just her seeing what's changed, telling her old class what city life is like and awkwardly trying to get to know the town's teens as an older teen/young adult (most of them are weirded out since they don't really know her except from their parents talking about chujin unfavorably, Kris is too quiet and too uncomfortable about what happened to get close, and Noelle's own problems with Dess make it hard to talk since the original in-between point for them is now gone). She might have ended up as Asriel and Dess' friend or at least someone they occasionally talk to online since they were too young to fully get what happened or blame her, but Dess' disappearance left just Asriel and kanako, and the ketsukane-dreemurr family history made it too awkward to talk as just the two of them, so they stopped keeping up around high school.

- Some of Chujin's old concept sketches on an automated police robot that can still be found in the station's files are basically axis without the steampunk pipes or heart design. If one file was part of the dark world it would resemble a sleeker axis insecure about being incomplete, with the spare requirement being to "finish" him (if you do so, he ends up falling in love with the machine to thrash your ass). Noelle's cool robot face is needed to briefly placate him since his facial recognition concept was never exactly well developed (blame chujin's biases for making him associate human faces with criminals, and not really working out a monster face)

-clover is a kid in asriel's age group who happens to both go to the same college as him, and was friends with kanako in high school (ironically, as much as chujin didn't want a human in hometown, he accepted that in a city would realistically be impossible to keep kanako away from any. Most what keeps him away from hometown is his pride + sunk cost fallacy at this point). However, clover doesn't realize Asriel and kanako knew each other for a while since they (clover) never saw a need to bring up one to the other, and the two of them didn't ever mention the past (and kanako herself goes to a different college). That connection would only come up as part of any storyline you do

*Deltatraveler yellow:

-note: I know that deltatraveler has a set plan of chapters, and I doubt this could freely drop in-between any of them with no trouble--this is just a what-if I can see happening towards the end of the journey, but at least before toontown. Also, I would not assume by default that Kris Susie or Noelle know any of the Deltarune counterparts I imagined above, since they're coming from a universe closer to the Deltarune we know.

-Neutral: Kris, susie, and Noelle all get dropped into the steamworks (at a point between its shutdown and Clover entering) and accidentally turn on Axis. Shenanigans ensue, including Noelle pulling out a cool robot face that manages to placate Axis multiple times as Kris sneaks away and Susie getting pissed off at the lab puzzles. She and Noelle get stuck in the factory and they come out with the guide robot screen stuck on susie's weapon. Kris gets stuck in the lab and deals with both Axis and Yellow's Flowey who's confused about how his Determination is being overridden and tries to kill Kris, though before a fight can happen Axis interferes. The rest of the gang doesn't entirely realize they're in a version of the underground (no monsters besides sans, and they aren't familiar enough with the references to other people/places) until Kris tells Susie they ran into Flowey again, and on cue he appears. Since he's a different flowey who doesn't know the rest of them vs the main one tailing them, Susie can instantly cut the bullshit with him and tries to take him out, but once again Axis interferes, and UTY flowey leaves. After the encounter, the main chapter 1 Flowey appears unbeknownst to anyone and plans to use the experience with his counterpart to get a better read on how to deal with Kris, Susie, and Noelle.

-sans takes the place of Mo and mentions he hasn't ever been here even though it feels familiar to him for some reason but also...not. (he's alluding to the underground as a whole, and that he's not from Yellow's universe/timeline).

-pacifist: Ceroba appears early on after noticing one of Chujin's objects in her home went off (it was linked to Axis activity) on upon realizing there's a pure human soul (she really sensed it before the gang sees her, and it's implied she avoids them on neutral as a result to leave the job of killing Kris to Asgore and the Guard since she doesn't need the soul or care much for the plan if it's 5 souls so far) and very cautiously approaches as an ally to get the gang to Hotland and the royal scientist (Susie is annoyed that she won't fight unlike the rest of them). She recognizes Kris' soul is odd, but she's confident enough in it being "pure" and keeps trying to pull them to the side to earn sympathy points while seperating them from Susie and Noelle and just generally being a bit of a control freak which puts Kris, Susie, and Noelle on edge. She accompanies Kris through the factory and "accidentally" gets cut off from Susie and Noelle, during which time she really tries to butter up Kris as an ally. Susie and Noelle catch up soon after the lab and accidentally trip an alarm that alerts the underground to the group's presence, causing Ceroba to panic, grab Kris, and run for it before getting separated from Susie and Noelle in Axis' arena. After repelling Axis, Ceroba tries to make a play for kris' soul, but they make it clear to her their soul cannot be trusted or controlled even if they were comfortable letting her use it. The gang is angry that she lied to them and tried to kill one of them, though at least Noelle can't help but feel sorry (without agreeing) after she admits her desire to uphold her family's legacy. In turn, once she hears the trio has their own family to get back to, she promises to grab the royal guard's attention and hold them off, stating the royal scientist might recognize kris' soul wouldn't work for the kingdom's needs.

-obliteration: Because the soul forces the group's way into the steamworks without turning it on, Ceroba isn't alerted at first and Axis is force booted in safe mode. The soul destruction scene includes Mo making a brief appearance (sans ain't gonna help you outside of key locations, so mo ends up running into the group none the wiser while attempting to scrounge around for stuff to sell), and for trying to kill someone that doesn't even pick a fight and still tries to help after the first threat, Kris slam dunks the soul into the pink goop. (Alternatively: during the lab portion Kris pours the acid on the soul if you attempt to make them drink it). The rest of the gang is a mix of desensitized and tired enough to let the Soul destroy Axis ("helps" he's just a robot to them) in the second encounter if Kris is forced to catch him in time--failing to do so drops obliteration. The final fight is with Ceroba after Axis' danger signal manages to trigger one of Chujin's devices, and she realizes you're not only destroying Chujin's work, but a threat to the whole underground (and kanako in particular since you're going in the same direction where Kanako currently is) while bitterly noting that of course the next human would be impure. She uses shields, red attacks, the steamworks itself, and a partner to put up a hard fight against kris, susie, and noelle given how powerful they are at this point. From there I can see two different partners

--If it's still pre-clover, Ceroba is accompanied by Starlo since he refused to let her explore alone and together they can put up a hell of a fight in sync (especially with starlo getting more serious, and providing more unpredictable attacks to counterbalance Ceroba's). If Ceroba dies first, the full weight of the situation hits him and he starts bringing out some magic based on both his farm background and his astral nature. If Starlo dies first, Ceroba curses that she sees yet another person close to her die and pulls out her mask, going into a lighter version of her pacifist phases (she's more righteously angry, but can't hold onto the same hope for chujin's legacy that pushed her in pacifist). I feel like Ceroba would go down first since she could shield any attacks plus starlo never gets a "hard" fight, but I could also see him trying to jump in front of a heavy attack meant for Ceroba that she wouldn't have time to shield up for.

--If it's closer to Yellow (perhaps because the grind takes so long that the events in steamworks go from corresponding with right before Clover to the Dunes and Wild East?), Ceroba is accompanied by a pacifist clover who tagged along despite her insistence not to (If they either die or somehow win, her plan is impossible to fulfill, plus she has enough basic decency to be uncomfortable putting a child up against killers). If clover goes down first, she naturally goes rage mode at losing both an innocent child and her plan (and the soul/Kris sense that "someone"/Flowey tried to reset but couldn't), and she goes diet pacifist like before. If Ceroba goes down first, clover's LV jumps to 8 in rage and they pull out big shots and dodges (they aren't high enough LV for the laser, but will spam big shots late in the fight) alongside attacks based on Undertale Yellow's attack system and the yellow soul portion of photoshop Flowey. Susie and Noelle flat out refuse any participation the second Clover gets involved, and when it falls to just clover they outright assist them against the soul (Susie and Noelle will force spare themselves but they can't spare clover since Clover is too enraged to back down from the fight). After landing the killing blow, clover's soul slowly starts charging the laser in a last ditch attack, but it shatters before it can fire, and they collapse. In this case, I think Ceroba would always die first thanks to protecting Clover, but I want to consider the possibility of her surviving as a what-if. The gang can't exactly fall much further than killing Ness and Paula (plus whatever happens in Ts!underswap with Chara), but being unable to stop the soul from forcing a kill on clover even with their assistance would be one of the second-to-last straws.

-the elevator to Hotland proper is a grey door. The gang is...a tad exasperated by this (Susie: "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?") but accept that they have no real choice since the way before the arena is blocked and either the commotion from axis or the obliteration route has notified the guard to their presence.

Doubt anyone will read my ramblings or be seriously inspired, but I just love this game, and I love to imagine it together with all the other cool stuff in Undertale and fandom

#undertale au #undertale yellow #ut yellow #uty #undertale yellow AU #UTY au #deltarune au #i know i normally don't post stuff here these days but this is way easier of a place for me to shoot out ideas #UT #DR #utdr #ideas #no really they're just ideas I'm not a writer or musician or artist so I'm not turning these into anything #So feel Free to use them if you somehow found this post and read it #undertale #deltarune #Also I am so sorry to Kanako I swear I did not mean to make her suffer in these #I Just suck at thinking of endings even though she deserves a nice one

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