Project: Gamer Ver. 2 (Young Justice/Gamer/Multicross OC)
- Thread starter Mister Ficser
- Start date
- Location
- United States
Beware of chicken
Chapter 62
Project: Gamer Ver. 2 Alpha Build 0.6.2
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
_________________________________________________________________________
Green Arrow had taken Speedy and left after his hand had started to come back in. It was an ugly process, the skin stretching out like an over-inflated balloon and becoming semi-transparent. Still, it had been fascinating in a gross way to watch new bones forming and veins splitting and branching out.
Speedy had been holding his limb against his chest and groaning and gritting his teeth, trying to look strong. The fact that he'd been sweating and whimpering would've given him away, though.
Alchemist hadn't commented. He knew how much it hurt, he knew how it felt to hold on to the tatters of your pride.
Olliver had done the right thing, trying to get him somewhere he could be comfortable for the process.
He'd finished transcribing the reports and wrote up a summary to send on to Batman. Afterwards, noticing the time, he went to the Kitchen. The day had been interesting and eventful, and it was getting close to dinnertime. If M'gann didn't have the oven and every burner on the stove claimed, he could make something.
Jinx and Black Canary were sitting at the bench having some kind of heart-to-heart when he came in. M'gann and Player One were still on the couch and arguing over something, but it looked like their show was over.
Not seeing any of the others, he dug around the fridge for a moment before coming back with a raw steak, an onion, a pepper, some mushrooms and some cheese.
All his. He wasn't a petty thief, contrary to what he'd said to Jinx.
"Alchemist?" Robin had come in while he'd been getting his ingredients out. "I want to talk."
"What's on your mind?" He set the oven temperature and pulled the ingredients to prepare his steak out of his inventory. Salt, pepper and olive oil.
"I wanted to ask why..." Robin was looking over the ingredients in front of the magician. "What are you making?"
"I'm thinking cheese steak today." He could let the question lie. Robin had given himself an out... "Why what?"
"Why... Don't you take anything seriously?" So, Robin wanted to go there.
Alchemist pursed his lips and decided how he wanted to answer that. He'd have loved it if Robin had chosen to ask that when Dinah Lance wasn't here. Still, she'd have heard it somehow anyway, he had no expectation of secrecy for anything he shared among the team.
"Do you remember my story, how I got powers to begin with?" Robin's body language was closed off and neutral, Alchemist couldn't tell if he did or didn't recall. "How I'd died and got chosen to be the 'alpha tester' of a set of powers for a god?"
Well, Primordial God. He doubted anyone but Wonder Woman would really care about the very significant differences. Gaia was to the gods as the gods were to mortal men.
"It was not a smooth or pleasant process, Robin. There are very, very few things that go through that and don't Come Back Wrong. Manic violence, psychopathy, hysteria and obsession are pretty common side effects. Something you should be well aware of, with Batman's connection to the Ghul. I think, and I could be very wrong here, that the Soul remembers what's on the other side and the brain can't properly comprehend that." He wasn't hungry anymore.
"So, what? You chose to be a weirdo instead of... What, the next Joker?" Robin didn't quite understand how dangerous a Gamer could be.
That was fine. Good, even.
The right skills, the right modifiers... He'd read of Gamers who could casually wreck planets. And they still struggled against even greater powers. Hell, he was very well aware of the disparity between when he'd been sent here versus what he could do now and most of that had just been screwing around and sticking to a theme where he wasn't desperately grabbing the skills and tools to put Leslie back together.
"...Something like that. For me, it was more like I could be a weirdo. Make a joke about things, try to smile and laugh and not think about how I got here-" She let him die.
She let him die.
She let him die!
She -MADE- him die!
She-
"-because otherwise I'd be in Arkham with a very nice, long-sleeve I-love-me jacket and trying to decide if I should be laughing like a loon or crying hysterically or both. And Robin? That would not be a good look for me. I'm an ugly crier." He turned off the oven and inventoried his food.
He wasn't hungry. The room was too quiet.
He needed to leave.
He needed to leave -now-.
"Alchemist?" M'gann asked from the couch. "Are you okay?"
He swallowed past the lump in his throat.
"No." He said without any flourish or misdirection. "I'm going to go outside and play with the cats until I am."
-----
Some time after Black Canary took Jinx and left, Robin finally got his thoughts in order.
There were things he'd noticed that were wrong. Very, very wrong. But he only knew part of what was going on, he didn't have enough answers for his questions.
Alchemist all but admitting that he was borderline crazy was rubbing him wrong. He'd seen how the guy had frozen mid-sentence, trapped in his head somewhere before he ran off. He'd seen him look at Black Canary and internally debate even answering Robin's questions.
"Hey, Megan?" And if you wanted to get into someones head, who better to ask than her? "You got a minute?"
"One second!" She called back to him, elbow deep in the oven. "Let me get this cobbler out real quick."
There was a loud thud as she dropped the heavy, bubbling pan full of baked berries and oatmeal on the counter. She removed the mitts from her hands, dusted them off and turned to him, a proud smile on her face.
"What's on your mind?" She leaned over the counter, a broad smile on her face.
"It's about Alchemist." She nodded at his words, likely already knowing. "Did I say something wrong? He was being weird, or normal for him, but then he just froze and practically ran off."
"Well..." She tapped the counter a few times with a fingertip. "This might be a little, invasive I guess? His mind is really, really open. So when he's around it's like he's talking right to me whenever he's thinking about something."
"And he was thinking of something?" The look she gave him almost made him feel as stupid as saying that out loud did. "Let me guess, his brain is a motormouth."
"He's always thinking something, yeah. Usually it's just music though." She breathed in deeply through her nose and smiled.
Robin's stomach growled. That cobbler did smell pretty good.
"But he twisted himself around a bit to thinking how he died." And now the cobbler smelled less good. "He had one thought that kept screaming in his head. Someone -made- him die."
"...He was murdered?" That, well, that could change a few things. If he could get some more details, Bruce might even be able to find out who Alchemist was.
Or... Thinks he was?
Robin wasn't sure. He'd seen enough impossible things that being forced into someone else's body didn't sound entirely impossible.
"...I don't think so?" Megan said as she stretched up on her tip-toes to get a bowl from a high shelf.
Robin looked. He knew he looked. He knew she knew he looked.
"He's usually really careful with his words." She scooped a very generous helping into the bowl. "So if he thought he was murdered, that's what he would've said. Thought. You know what I mean."
"...I don't really think I get it." The two facts just weren't adding up for him. "Do you think he'd explain if I asked?"
"Yes." There was zero doubt in her voice. "But it's not something he's comfortable with, he really doesn't like thinking about it. He'd explain it, but he'll twist it and make it sound so weird or unimportant you won't think he's telling the truth. He does that a lot with things he doesn't want to talk about."
"Like his Game thing?" Megan nodded, an almost comically serious look on her face as she started blowing on her syrupy treat. "How does that even work?"
"Mmm, oh that'sh good. If you want to know how that works, you can ask Penny. I don't really understand it all."
Robin sighed, more and more questions piling up. He'd call Player One and start asking...
Right after he had some of that cobbler for himself.
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
_________________________________________________________________________
Green Arrow had taken Speedy and left after his hand had started to come back in. It was an ugly process, the skin stretching out like an over-inflated balloon and becoming semi-transparent. Still, it had been fascinating in a gross way to watch new bones forming and veins splitting and branching out.
Speedy had been holding his limb against his chest and groaning and gritting his teeth, trying to look strong. The fact that he'd been sweating and whimpering would've given him away, though.
Alchemist hadn't commented. He knew how much it hurt, he knew how it felt to hold on to the tatters of your pride.
Olliver had done the right thing, trying to get him somewhere he could be comfortable for the process.
He'd finished transcribing the reports and wrote up a summary to send on to Batman. Afterwards, noticing the time, he went to the Kitchen. The day had been interesting and eventful, and it was getting close to dinnertime. If M'gann didn't have the oven and every burner on the stove claimed, he could make something.
Jinx and Black Canary were sitting at the bench having some kind of heart-to-heart when he came in. M'gann and Player One were still on the couch and arguing over something, but it looked like their show was over.
Not seeing any of the others, he dug around the fridge for a moment before coming back with a raw steak, an onion, a pepper, some mushrooms and some cheese.
All his. He wasn't a petty thief, contrary to what he'd said to Jinx.
"Alchemist?" Robin had come in while he'd been getting his ingredients out. "I want to talk."
"What's on your mind?" He set the oven temperature and pulled the ingredients to prepare his steak out of his inventory. Salt, pepper and olive oil.
"I wanted to ask why..." Robin was looking over the ingredients in front of the magician. "What are you making?"
"I'm thinking cheese steak today." He could let the question lie. Robin had given himself an out... "Why what?"
"Why... Don't you take anything seriously?" So, Robin wanted to go there.
Alchemist pursed his lips and decided how he wanted to answer that. He'd have loved it if Robin had chosen to ask that when Dinah Lance wasn't here. Still, she'd have heard it somehow anyway, he had no expectation of secrecy for anything he shared among the team.
"Do you remember my story, how I got powers to begin with?" Robin's body language was closed off and neutral, Alchemist couldn't tell if he did or didn't recall. "How I'd died and got chosen to be the 'alpha tester' of a set of powers for a god?"
Well, Primordial God. He doubted anyone but Wonder Woman would really care about the very significant differences. Gaia was to the gods as the gods were to mortal men.
"It was not a smooth or pleasant process, Robin. There are very, very few things that go through that and don't Come Back Wrong. Manic violence, psychopathy, hysteria and obsession are pretty common side effects. Something you should be well aware of, with Batman's connection to the Ghul. I think, and I could be very wrong here, that the Soul remembers what's on the other side and the brain can't properly comprehend that." He wasn't hungry anymore.
"So, what? You chose to be a weirdo instead of... What, the next Joker?" Robin didn't quite understand how dangerous a Gamer could be.
That was fine. Good, even.
The right skills, the right modifiers... He'd read of Gamers who could casually wreck planets. And they still struggled against even greater powers. Hell, he was very well aware of the disparity between when he'd been sent here versus what he could do now and most of that had just been screwing around and sticking to a theme where he wasn't desperately grabbing the skills and tools to put Leslie back together.
"...Something like that. For me, it was more like I could be a weirdo. Make a joke about things, try to smile and laugh and not think about how I got here-" She let him die.
She let him die.
She let him die!
She -MADE- him die!
She-
"-because otherwise I'd be in Arkham with a very nice, long-sleeve I-love-me jacket and trying to decide if I should be laughing like a loon or crying hysterically or both. And Robin? That would not be a good look for me. I'm an ugly crier." He turned off the oven and inventoried his food.
He wasn't hungry. The room was too quiet.
He needed to leave.
He needed to leave -now-.
"Alchemist?" M'gann asked from the couch. "Are you okay?"
He swallowed past the lump in his throat.
"No." He said without any flourish or misdirection. "I'm going to go outside and play with the cats until I am."
-----
Some time after Black Canary took Jinx and left, Robin finally got his thoughts in order.
There were things he'd noticed that were wrong. Very, very wrong. But he only knew part of what was going on, he didn't have enough answers for his questions.
Alchemist all but admitting that he was borderline crazy was rubbing him wrong. He'd seen how the guy had frozen mid-sentence, trapped in his head somewhere before he ran off. He'd seen him look at Black Canary and internally debate even answering Robin's questions.
"Hey, Megan?" And if you wanted to get into someones head, who better to ask than her? "You got a minute?"
"One second!" She called back to him, elbow deep in the oven. "Let me get this cobbler out real quick."
There was a loud thud as she dropped the heavy, bubbling pan full of baked berries and oatmeal on the counter. She removed the mitts from her hands, dusted them off and turned to him, a proud smile on her face.
"What's on your mind?" She leaned over the counter, a broad smile on her face.
"It's about Alchemist." She nodded at his words, likely already knowing. "Did I say something wrong? He was being weird, or normal for him, but then he just froze and practically ran off."
"Well..." She tapped the counter a few times with a fingertip. "This might be a little, invasive I guess? His mind is really, really open. So when he's around it's like he's talking right to me whenever he's thinking about something."
"And he was thinking of something?" The look she gave him almost made him feel as stupid as saying that out loud did. "Let me guess, his brain is a motormouth."
"He's always thinking something, yeah. Usually it's just music though." She breathed in deeply through her nose and smiled.
Robin's stomach growled. That cobbler did smell pretty good.
"But he twisted himself around a bit to thinking how he died." And now the cobbler smelled less good. "He had one thought that kept screaming in his head. Someone -made- him die."
"...He was murdered?" That, well, that could change a few things. If he could get some more details, Bruce might even be able to find out who Alchemist was.
Or... Thinks he was?
Robin wasn't sure. He'd seen enough impossible things that being forced into someone else's body didn't sound entirely impossible.
"...I don't think so?" Megan said as she stretched up on her tip-toes to get a bowl from a high shelf.
Robin looked. He knew he looked. He knew she knew he looked.
"He's usually really careful with his words." She scooped a very generous helping into the bowl. "So if he thought he was murdered, that's what he would've said. Thought. You know what I mean."
"...I don't really think I get it." The two facts just weren't adding up for him. "Do you think he'd explain if I asked?"
"Yes." There was zero doubt in her voice. "But it's not something he's comfortable with, he really doesn't like thinking about it. He'd explain it, but he'll twist it and make it sound so weird or unimportant you won't think he's telling the truth. He does that a lot with things he doesn't want to talk about."
"Like his Game thing?" Megan nodded, an almost comically serious look on her face as she started blowing on her syrupy treat. "How does that even work?"
"Mmm, oh that'sh good. If you want to know how that works, you can ask Penny. I don't really understand it all."
Robin sighed, more and more questions piling up. He'd call Player One and start asking...
Right after he had some of that cobbler for himself.
- Location
- Elsewhere
Welcome to adulthood!
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yup. Depressingly, for all he's handling adult themes and issues, he's still a teenager and prone to teenage idiocy. He's tunnel vision-ing hard, and I hope we get a scene where he realizes what a colossal asshole he's being about Alchemist's traumas.
Batman must be so proud. I'm mostly kidding but that is a very bat family thing to do.
Shance
Is it... Nope.
- Location
- Country of Tacos
I kind of want Alchemist to snap back? I mean I know he wants to be the adult here but he owes them nothing at all.
- Location
- Florida, USA
I wouldn't be surprised if Dinah's response is to ask Zatara about the whole soul remembering death thing, and then look at the pile of books on speculative mental issues around clones, and now magic, and just going, "I do not have the years of education and training to deal with this shit."
Cue her sending the Green Lanterns e-mails asking if their Green Lantern Corps knows about or has access to therapists capable of dealing with these issues and either a form of travel or communication to get in contact with them, and oh, how much does that cost?
Batman's wallet cries at the thought.
Cue her sending the Green Lanterns e-mails asking if their Green Lantern Corps knows about or has access to therapists capable of dealing with these issues and either a form of travel or communication to get in contact with them, and oh, how much does that cost?
Batman's wallet cries at the thought.
Batman told Robin not to reveal himself. Robin has good intentions.
Does Alchemist actually know if the entangled esuna actually succeeded with deprogramming the clones?
He hasn't had a chance to pull out a bowl of water and try to scry it, so he's unaware if the shot he took in the dark did anything.
Between this chapter and the next few he's gonna be pretty busy, too.
Between this chapter and the next few he's gonna be pretty busy, too.
- Pronouns
- It
Someday soon Alchemist is going to abandon his meat sack and become a homunculus. Leaving a very traumatized kid in his wake. A kid who looks and sounds exactly like alchemist but acts entirely different. At least one person in the mountian better meet this kid so they can have a good old fashioned "oh god he was telling the truth" moment.
Also doesn't the "soul remembers death" thing going to have some consequences to this recently resurrected boy? Serial killer type consequences?
Also doesn't the "soul remembers death" thing going to have some consequences to this recently resurrected boy? Serial killer type consequences?
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- Location
- Pacific Rim
Depending on which version we're talking, Barb was the only one that was vaguely healthy in that group, writers couldn't handle that and had her shot. The rest of the Batfamily learned their lesson.
If your talking about his deal of stuffing the kid back in his own body after MC makes one for himself, that rez is backed by big D herself, if there was a bad side she would tell our MC what it was and say no. She is bestdeath for sure.
- Location
- kentucky
its a living steel body built to have all the parts a human would in every detail
Forget "social grenade", the JL and/or Batcave always ends up hacked by villains, which means Robin is painting a target on OG Leslie Winters after Alchemist vacates his body.
The Light might go after OG Leslie to get leverage over Alchemist, as he is the only non-superhero Alchemist cares about. Bonus points if long-term possession means OG Leslie has a lingering magical sympathetic link to Alchemist's spirit that a Voodoo-style Dark Wizard can exploit.
Robin's myopic self-righteousness is going to get OG Leslie and Mama Winters KILLED TO DEATH.
"Killed to death?" "Most people die when killed, but not always."
Shadow Archon
Protoss Preserver
- Location
- Louisiana
That may not be likely. In season 3, the Light lethally stops a bitter and deranged Ocean Master from killing all of the Justice League's children and spouses on a play date to prevent their war from going nuclear. Going after family members first is just not their style. They'll probably try to manipulate Alchemist directly first or some mind control plot before going for the heavy options.
I wonder how many people there are aware that Alchemist is apparently doing all the support functions like maintenance, secretary, etc. Robin is acting like a vice-president of marketing at a company deciding to take it upon himself to be the psychiatrist of one of the janitors or secretaries. Alchemist does not appear to show any real interest in being an "active member" of their team and is too busy with his own goals anyhow.
Still waiting for the interlude where Batman looks into all of alchemists "jokes" and discovers months of harassment done to villains.
Moments after looking this up Robin should barge in, still complaining about him not taking things seriously. (Cue him finally understanding that leslie doesn't lie)
Moments after looking this up Robin should barge in, still complaining about him not taking things seriously. (Cue him finally understanding that leslie doesn't lie)
Silverias
Seeing is Believing
- Location
- Squiddy Places
The problem isn't his intentions, it's his hypocrisy and breaking of convention.
Why the hell does Robin deserve to know Alchemist's secret identity? Batman trusts him enough to put him as support on the team, what does Robin think he's gonna do?
I never said what he is doing isnt wrong. Robin is trying help , and is 12. This is to be expected especially when you dangle a mystery in front of him.
Robin probably thinks he will figure him out. Then save the day. Your expecting a bit much from a child.
I think that Robin is a hypocrite, but everyone is. He is curious and wants to know more than he is willing to share, but I expect that he also wishes to share far more than he does. The natural hypocrisy of wishing to know everything while wishing to keep his own counsel is considerably exacerbated by Batman telling him to keep secrets. So Robin's own nature would result in the same problem, but Batman's gypocrisy of expecting the team to offer a social outlet while also also demanding that some members heavily isolate their personal lives is overriding that by setting the bar way lower. Robin is not perfect, but normally he would be reciprocating somewhat, and Batman is pushing him to act against his own nature in that respect.
Basically, I suspect that Robin is naturally fairly high in terms of personal-information-sharing, both in- and out, but the out side has been stifled by a third party, so Robin is only guilty of failing to similarly stifle his desire to know stuff. This is exacerbated by it being his job to know stuff...
Basically, I suspect that Robin is naturally fairly high in terms of personal-information-sharing, both in- and out, but the out side has been stifled by a third party, so Robin is only guilty of failing to similarly stifle his desire to know stuff. This is exacerbated by it being his job to know stuff...
Actually, given what happened with Alchemist's recruitment, Batman may have specifically asked Robin to keep an eye on Alchemist as he was a relative unknown.