In The Actor Au, Were Bbs And Days Filmed At Roughly Around The Same Time? If So, Did Axel, Aqua, And

“When you are not fed love on a silver spoon you learn to lick it off knives.”

Kim Seungmin, son of Maleficent

Fic

it's been repeating over and over again; the ending that came before my eyes

GENRE: gen, tua au, angst, hurt/comfort

SUMMARY: Renjun is thirteen when the world ends around him. He's seventeen when he tries to save it. Title from 그냥 괴물을 살려두면 안 되는 걸까 (Can’t We Just Leave The Monster Alive?) by TXT

WARNINGS: temporary character death, apocalypse, child abuse, child neglect, grief, alcoholism

Chapter 1

Renjun is thirteen when he jumps forward in time. He gets into an argument with his dad the same as any other day and sees the promise of punishment in his eyes. He’s done dealing with it. He turns and runs out the door and ignores his siblings' call of his name at his back. With any luck he’ll be able to return to before he even had his stupid fight with Dad and rub it in the bastard’s face.

He jumps forward for the first time and laughs in delighted glee when he realizes he’s done it. The shops around him have changed and the style of dress is different. He does it again and again until he lands in the rubble of his childhood home with acidic air burning his mouth and ash falling in his hair. 

He looks around desperately for some sign of life and doesn’t see any. He pulls his fists towards his chest and like so many times before his powers sputter out around him. He’s completely exhausted himself. He tries over and over again before he finally gives up for the night. 

Instead, he decides to start his search for other people again and throws up when he finds them. His siblings’ are older, more filled out, and taller in their teen years than they were when Renjun left, but he recognizes them all the same. Their bodies are coated in blood. His old bastard of a father had warned him against time travel, and he guesses the old man was right. 

Renjun checks his brothers’ pulses over and over again just in case but eventually reality sets in. He digs his siblings' graves himself with slow care and love in every push during the first and second weeks of his hell trip to the future. 

The first brother Renjun buries, on the third day of being stranded in the future, is Donghyuck. He pulls his brother out of the rubble as carefully as possible and sobs as he realizes he’d died trying to protect Jisung. He’s slumped over the boy with some type of sharp metal piercing his side and Jisung’s chest. Renjun spends longer than he’d admit sobbing over his desperate brother trying so hard to save his little brother, but there’s no one to tell. It seems even the animals have died out. 

Eventually, he gathers the strength to bury his brother. He has to stop himself from crying again as he sees the evidence of the years he’s missed. Donghyuck must’ve dyed rainbow streaks into his hair at some point because the faded color reflects in the harsh sun. He’s skinnier than Renjun would expect him to be and his hands are tattooed. There are smears of eyeliner around his eyes from where he must’ve cried before he died, and his clothes aren’t from the academy. Renjun barely recognizes him. 

He buries the other boy while crying over him until his throat aches and his face is itchy. He can’t keep going after him so he sits beside his brother's grave and desperately wishes he had Donghyuck’s power instead before chastising himself. Donghyuck’s power had never let him see who he desired, and there’s no reason for Renjun to believe it would work any better for him. 

The next day he buries Jeno and Jaemin and tries not to think about how they must’ve died holding hands. Jeno is heavier than Donghyuck, and Renjun exhausts himself all over again while dragging his brother’s body to the grave. He has to take about a day break in between moving Jeno’s body and Jaemin’s. In the meantime, he utters his remorse for separating them and for leaving them. It takes him a while before he’s able to move Jaemin but on the fifth day he gathers up his other brother, who is still too light even in death, and gently lays him to rest next to their other brother while reattaching their hands. 

The effects of time aren’t as apparent on Jeno and Jaemin as they were on Donghyuck, but they’re there nonetheless. Jaemin’s hair is a faded pink their dad must’ve had a fit when he saw, but he sports no new tattoos. Jeno looks almost the same with his black hair and plain workout clothes, but he’s changed subtly. The absence of his easy smile and the blankness of his expression ages him unsettlingly as well as the height he must’ve eventually gained.

He wastes time trying to memorize the strangeness of his brothers' new faces before he buries them as well. He’s crying as he does it and keeps missing with his shovel because his vision is so obstructed by tears, but he doesn’t give up until they’re completely buried. He sleeps on their grave and desperately hopes he wasn’t the one to kill them. 

When he gets to his baby brothers he has to stop. On the first day he’d gently moved Jisung’s body and laid him down next to Chenle. He’d closed both their eyes and placed a blanket he’d found over them like they were asleep. He can not imagine burying them. He lays down and holds their cold hands before crying for days. 

It takes him a week before he’s ready to bury his baby brothers. He keeps them together and leaves them wrapped in the blanket. He sobs until he literally can not. 

The only person left to bury is his older brother, but he can’t find Mark at first. He knows Mark and Mark would never leave his family especially not in a time of need so he looks around the academy tirelessly. He never finds his body.

At first, he childishly holds out hope his big brother is still alive. That he’ll come to help Renjun fix this. He pretends he’s in the library or locked away in the music room like always, and he’ll come get Renjun for dinner soon enough. 

He imagines eating with his brothers as Jaemin and Jeno quietly play a card game together, and Donghyuck makes obscene faces at Mark and himself until Mark snorts and gets them all scolded. He thinks of Jisung sitting quietly while Chenle scrapes his least favorite foods onto their youngest brother’s plate and he yearns . It’s worrying. It’s the only thing keeping Renjun going. 

He finds Mark’s destroyed memorial on day 106. He’d sworn never to go far so he could find Mark and has instead spent months scavenging for food and sleeping around the horrid remains of his home. It was all for nothing. His big brother died, and he wasn’t there.  For all Renjun knows Mark died looking for him right after he left. Every one of Renjun’s loved ones died without knowing what happened to him. He curls up in front of Mark’s memorial and cries until he pukes. 

It is the last time he cries in the hell known as the future. 

A day goes by laying on the statue.

Two. 

Three.

At first, he spends hours at a time desperately trying to bend time backward doing his best to let him go back to his life before but eventually he stops. He can barely spatial jump anymore much less time travel. 

Renjun is forced to leave his brother after the bottle of water he always has with him runs out. He walks across the world just trying to find other people. 

On day 208 he’s sure he’s the last one left alive.

On day 332 he starts planning his equations for how he’ll get back to his brothers. 

Renjun spends 1221 days writing equations. 

He spends hours at a time going over them again and again and again. He reworks them if he thinks they could be even a decimal off. 

And finally it pays off. 

Renjun laughs as he pulls his wrists to his chest for the first time in almost four years. 

He’s going home. 

☂︎☂︎☂︎

He realizes he may have gotten his calculations slightly wrong when he is about six feet in the air and free-falling from a storm of his own creation. Distantly he hears his siblings scream in terror and yells, “Catch me, you idiots!”

“Definitely Renjun,” Jeno mutters as he runs under him. Jeno does not catch Renjun. More so he acts as a crash pad for him. They both mutter and groan after Renjun flattens his brother. 

“What the hell?” Donghyuck asks. “Everyone else sees him too right?” Jisung lays a gentle hand on his shoulder and nods. 

“What day is it?” Renjun demands.

Jaemin frowns. “It’s December 6th. You’ve been missing and presumed dead for four years.” A chill settles around them as Renjun’s eyes bulge. 

“No, I was trying…I was trying to go back to before…Before that stupid dinner,” he insists stubbornly. His head swerves as he frantically starts looking around, and he deflates as he catches sight of Mark’s statue. 

“So he already…” He trails off, but Jeno sees where Renjun is looking. 

“He uh…he died on a mission. When he was sixteen. About two years after you left,” he says faintly. “Dad put up that memorial not long after.” 

No one says anything for a minute. 

“Where is Dad?” Renjun finally asks. Jeno grimaces bitterly at the urn he’s holding. “Uh here. He had a heart attack so I guess he really did have one after all.” He winces as his joke falls flat. Renjun curses his father in his head. He must’ve been so afraid of seeing him again his consciousness wouldn’t let him go farther back than the day of the bastard’s funeral. The old man was ruining his life even four years and an apocalypse down the line. 

Jaemin moves closer during Jeno’s explanation and moves around Renjun. He inspects him like he always did after missions. Back then Renjun couldn’t hide anything from Jaemin; he was always calling him out for hiding injuries and lying about how exhausted he was after teleporting. 

It seems time hasn’t deprived Jaemin of this ability. “You’re malnourished,” he says bluntly. “You’re covered in scrapes and bruises, smell like death, and exhausted. You need a bath, Mom to look over your wounds, soup, and a nap. We’ll deal with…everything else later.” Renjun attempts to protest, but Jaemin is as stubborn as he was when they were thirteen. 

Renjun adamantly tells Jaemin he does not want to eat soup, get checked over by Mom, take a bath, and take a nap. 

Renjun eats soup, gets checked over by Mom, takes a bath, and takes a nap. 

And by nap he means he sleeps for almost twenty-four hours straight. He almost bowls Chenle over in his desperation to use the bathroom. Once everyone has gathered in the living room after Chenle shrieks about him being awake Renjun finally starts crying. 

“What?” Jaemin demands. “What’s going on?”

“Mark hyung says you’re overwhelming him,” Donghyuck advises, and they all startle as that makes Renjun cry more. 

He pulls his knees to his chest on the couch and sobs as his family awkwardly tries to hug him. It should make him feel better. All their warm bodies do is make him remember how it felt to hold their cold ones. 

people telling you they reread your fic is the biggest compliment you could ever receive. there are thousands of stories out there begging to be found, to be explored, but your story meant so much to someone that they came back to it eagerly, they went over every word again. to love is to return and loving a fic is rereading it. thank you to all readers and rereaders <3333

there's something to be said about the choice to use "prince" as the main signifier of military rank for the andalites. because it kinda obscures the truth of the situation, doesn't it? a group of kids getting magic powers from an alien prince sounds whimsical and delightful. a group of kids getting pulled into a war by an alien colonel sounds tragic and horrible. the slow reveal of what "prince" actually means over the course of the early books is perhaps the most underrated twist of the entire series, because it fundamentally recontextualizes the entire premise of the series without the reader even consciously realizing it.

*Jason walks into the living room to see Tim flopped on the couch sniffing*

Jason: “Oh. my. gosh. What could you possibly be crying about now?”

Tim *looks up and sniffles*: “I miss the supercycle… you know, my beloved sentient vehicle who used to fly me and young justice around… ”

Jason:

“THE WHO-”

Uma and her two boyfriends <3

OOOO OP DROP RICK AND MORTY OCS

OH BOY HERE WE GO.

so, I made these cute ref sheets in the shows style yesterday (and today), apologies if you cant decipher my scribbly handwriting, ill summarize below:

Rick (nicknamed on the citadel "Seven")

Rick's home dimension is M-121.5 but you could hardly call it a home. He left his Diane and Beth behind shortly after acquiring portal technology from Prime or one of his subordinate Ricks, wandering off to absorb himself in the vastness of infinity.

His original dimension never ended up birthing a Morty, since his Beth and Jerry had trouble supporting themselves and had Summer as their only child.

Rick, eventually growing lonely but refusing to admit it, joins the citadel in an effort to be useful and climb the ranks there with the hopes of living a fulfilling life in a safe, Rick-made bubble. He gets assigned a Morty as standard, but said Morty dies in combat on a riot not too shortly after.

Rick gets a (small) punishment, one you'd get for breaking a doorknob or forgetting to turn off the lights in the building before you leave; getting a Morty killed. He probably just has to scrub toilets for a week or something.

He gets his new Morty and resumes work on the teleportation deck as normal and lives with his Morty in a small apartment, until S301 where they manage to flee the citadel together.

Morty ("unlucky charm" / other similar insults behind his back)

Has forgotten his original dimensional code due to constant changes of ownership. Only the Morty databanks know it now. He took M-121.5's dimension as his and carries a small wristband with the code written on it.

This Morty has gone through a LOT of Ricks. Six in fact, which is why his new Rick is mockingly called "Seven" by others on the citadel, making fun of him for ending up with such a shitty excuse of a Morty. Asking him if he'd lost a bet.

Morty's left arm has been surgically altered to fit a tracker interface that'll show Rick's current position and vitals to Morty. Though he only gets this later, after they flee the citadel.

The jacket he is wearing was originally merchandise stolen from a small shop he worked in while living on the citadel. They later add patches to it in an effort to cover up the citadel logo, since Morty doesn't want to give up the jacket, and Rick is paranoid about association with the citadel after they've fled. Pretty rich coming from the guy still wearing his uniform under a stinky coat, but what can you do when those are the only clothes you've got.

They go through an intense period of struggling for survival, with the Federation collapse and chaos left behind, the two of them retreat to more desolate spots of the universe to wait for the dust to settle. After a bit of "holy shit we lived" euphoria, they fight a lot, with Rick slowly noticing the many flaws in this Morty he is now -- in his assumption -- forever stuck with. He also pushes Morty too far numerous times but reels him back in again anytime because what other option is there? Being stranded alone in an asteroid gas station restaurant?

Eventually Morty suggests returning to "their" home dimension. Rick's home dimension. He's reluctant but eventually (after a really long while and lots of convincing) does give in since their circumstances are dire and they could use a little civilization, even if it means returning to the family he abandoned.

I don't have much worked out for this Smith family, but I'd assume Summer is a good deal different from the Summer we know, due to being an only child. Beth's daddy issues are just as intense as Beth Prime.

This Beth and Jerry probably also never end up divorced and stay together for Summer's sake, honestly probably unhealthier than just splitting up for the time being and working out their issues separately.

Once they crash (probably literally) into their new "home" and everybody gets over the initial insanity of the situation, Rick struggles to confront the reasons he left and kind of just drowns himself in unhealthy habits. Besides the known drinking issues which is kind of the baseline, he makes sure to never let Morty out of his sight and pretty much makes a normal life for the kid impossible despite desperately promising it to him when they turned to move to Earth.

He builds a new portal gun out of scrap they've harvested while surviving and old things Beth never threw away because they reminded her of her father, and he's gone again. Gone with Morty. Gone God knows where. Except he returns at night to sleep in a shitty little cot and fuck he probably drags Morty's air mattress into his room with him without any explanation. Blames it on Morty not being able to sleep alone since they left the citadel. Blames it on anything but himself.

They go into what I'd describe as a narcissism-fuelled grace period, or honeymoon period, the more time they spend together off-planet after crashing at the Smith's house.

They go from Rick being very controlling and making Morty feel like an inferior sidekick, to Rick actually opening up and helping him become better. Very slowly and gradually, he realizes that, well, he's stuck with this Morty now. This is *his* Morty by all intents and purposes, and he doesnt have a fuckin replacement Morty ticket and after constructing and unregistered portal gun he'd not be let back into the citadel anyway even after reconstruction - so might as well invest his time and effort into this one Morty as much as he (claims to) hate it.

The kid is so broken already, having witnessed so many versions of his grandpa die, which Rick realizes after a while would just make it easier for him to reassemble him anew and mold him how he wants it. He's a sick bastard but if it aint broke dont fix it and especially dont fix it if it promises to always stay by your side and begs you not to leave

The whole "unlucky charm" curse only serves to fuel Rick's ego too because, unlike all these previous Ricks he only knows about on paper, *he* hasn't died yet with this shitty excuse of a Morty around him. which makes him better than all those before him. He's cocky, priding himself on living where those Ricks failed.

He gets too confident, as all Ricks do, and after a few too-close brushes with death he does decide to invest into various failsafes and "upgrading" Morty to a standard he sees fit. This is when Morty gets the tracker arm enhancement and various other augmentations that'll essentially turn him into a lifeline for Rick. He's driven by anxiety of his past mistakes, past deaths of Ricks, repeating. This time there'd be no scolding by teachers and new Rick two weeks later. There'd only be grief, and nothing.

Morty's trained not only in combat and survival skills but also shown how to reboot and even replace certain cybernetic parts of Rick's body.

surgery, baby!

Not on a clone, not a simulation, the real him. Train for the real deal.

They spend weeks in the newly constructed underground labs, Morty cutting him open and putting him back together; surgeries upon surgeries without any anesthetic so that Rick is fully aware and awake to guide Morty through it.

Eventually Morty does have to put those skills to the test when shit goes wrong on an adventure, but this is already so long so I'll spare you!! I'd be surprised if you read to here, if you did, thank you and I'm glad you're interested in my little guys !!

“Family is everything. Family comes first. It’s not what I expected it to be, but nothing ever is.”

Stray Kids, Disney Descendants

Fic

On one hand, Young Justice is kind of neglected by the actual superheroes that should be looking out for them in a lot of crucial ways and very much failed by the adults around them

But on the other hand Red Tornado straight up hosts a parent-teacher conference where their respective legal guardians all show up, barring Batman who’s in traffic so Nightwing fills in instead because Robin’s dad does not know he’s a vigilante which is objectively hilarious

idk if i like this design much (yet) the cape might need to be inverted but i was reading about how eastern red bats are common in NJ forests and thought that tim being red bat isn't any worse than black bat etc. so this would fit either a reverse robins au (where there is no robin and instead its batkid) or an au where tim never takes up the red robin mantle/chooses a new one etc

anyway, feel free to use if you like it lol (but please tag me! i wanna see)