Lazarus Pits - Tumblr Posts
Batman #138
"I can smell it on you" why are these two like this? 😭 I swear people purposely ignore Ra's' queer coding atp because this arc was a barely decent story with Bat/Cat drama and siblings fighting and yet it decided to tie Vandal Savage and Ra's intimately just for the sake of it. We get no more memories or dedications, only this, a pain they somehow share. And I don't think it's necessarily shipping, but I do think this comic at least got right that these two terrible, ambitious men relate to each other painfully. "All good things fade."
Pit Magic
This one…This one is going to start a little strange, and with a bit more world building than I let myself indulge in for my Tumblr ideas, but the set up is a bit necessary. As always there is no Canon to see here.
The first important note here is magic and how magic works. Magic here is both sentient and not. Magic does not necessarily have thoughts, but does have opinions about who and how it is used. With Spells powerful enough to leave remnants behind, those remnants do not work well going against their original purpose or used by people whose intentions are too different from their first caster. All magic, after enough time, can be corrupted (made to work against its original purpose- so remnants of a spell made to kill used to heal would also be a corruption) but even corrupted magic is, for lack of a better term, protective of anyone or anything that matches the vibe of its pure form.
This brings us to the Lazarus Pits. There is no recorded history of the Pits, with its mystical water that cures the sick and kills the healthy. No one ever recorded its true origin. The truth is the original Lazarus Water was a non magical spring in a cave system in what is present day Turkey, a location that was long lost even before Ra’s Al Ghul began using the Pits. This cave was the home to a small tribe in the middle of the last ice age. An illness struck this tribe, nearly wiping out the entire tribe in a matter of hours. All except the daughter of the tribe's leader, who had a natural magic. Though grieving, her main intention was to help, to save those she loved no matter the cost to herself. Her magic reacted creating a powerful spell to revive her tribe and kill the illness that afflicted them. She gladly gave her life so that they would live.
The spell was so powerful it left long lasting remnants that sunk into spring water, turning the water of the spring into a healing elixir, the predecessor to the Lazarus Pits. The spell also changed the tribe irrevocably, making them heartier, slower to age and more resistant to illness and infection; these resistances and the healing that came with them passed through the blood of the tribe, which then passed to most of humanity as the generations flew by. Though no one had ever had cause to make the connection, the more of that lost tribe's blood that flows through a person's veins the better the Lazarus Pits work for them, the less the madness affects them.
By the time Ra’s Al Ghul took control of the Lazarus Pits, the original spring was lost to time and the remnants of the original spell were hopelessly corrupted.
This brings us back to what this is setting up for. Due to the nature of the League of Assassins, who their clients are, who their victims are, no one in living memory who had been exposed to Lazarus Water had come face to face with someone whose vibe matches the love and need to help of the original caster. This vibe check can only be done in person, not through surveillance equipment, or photos or reports.
Until Jason Todd attacks Tim Drake at the Titans Tower.
Stubborn, self sacrificing, loving Tim Drake. Feral, protective, willing to do anything for his loved ones. And he loved so deeply, so desperately.
The exact match of a girl so long ago who poured everything she was into a spell to heal the people she loved. Who died gladly, with no regrets, creating a healing spell so powerful that it changed humanity itself.
Jason Todd had broken into Titan’s tower, mind drenched green with Pit Madness, intending on hurting the little Replacement Robin. That is until he entered the room the Robin in question. The madness did not clear, instead it switched from Anger to ‘Mine! Protect!’.
The Pit Madness in Jason’s head screams that this is not a safe place for Tim (someone intending to hurt him had just broken in). Running on adrenaline, madness, and an overwhelming protectiveness, Red Hood scoops up the little Robin and exits the tower stage left to get somewhere safe (depending on which is funnier, he either manages to escape with a struggling Robin over his shoulder-no knocking out Robin, that would be hurting him- , or said Robin figured out that Red Hood was Jason Todd and went quietly for ‘It’s Jason’ reasons). Somehow Jason runs with his captured Robin straight back to the only safe place he can think of, Nanda Parbat.
Later, after he is not running so fully on strange instincts, Jason would not be able to say how he got from San Francisco to the League of Assassins in the middle east, but somehow he did.
While not every Assassin in the League has had a dip in the Lazarus Pits, most have and every single one of them, from Ra’s Al Ghul to Talia to Damian to the lowest Assassin who had been dipped in the Pits takes one look at Tim Drake and go ‘he is our precious cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure’. It should also be noted that they do not want Tim to become an Assassin, not even Ra’s; this really is a ‘we must protect the innocent boy from all the evils of the world’ kind of situation (Which is hilarious given the age difference between Damian-who has declared himself Tim’s personal bodyguard- and Tim).
So now Tim Drake has been abducted by the League of Assassins and they all want to give him…hugs? Like Tim knows he’s a bit touch starved, ok, but he didn’t realize it was so bad that an actual villain organization would get concerned. And there is talk about how he needs to be protected. Yeah, they are not letting him contact anyone or leave, but they are also not torturing him or trying to kill him. It is a little strange that he is getting more maternal affection from Talia Al Ghil than from his own mother, who he is not even sure knows he is missing yet. AND Jason Todd is there, which means Jason is alive, so Tim is trying to get Jason to come home. Tim is also trying to figure out if this made his life weirder or not.
Back in Gotham, Batman is losing his whole mind. He has video from Titan’s Tower of The Red Hood abducting Robin, now one has heard from either since. It has been weeks. In addition no one has reported Tim Drake missing. It has been weeks and there is no one outside their nightlife that would notice if Tim disappeared? Bruce has been trying to get in contact with Drakes for all of those weeks (in between his frantic searching for Tim himself). The messenger he sent to find them, one of the Justice League undercover, was told essentially not to bother them about Tim, just talk to him directly and refused to listen when being told he might be missing.
Listen when Bruce gets Tim back from wherever he has been abducted to, he is going to be concerned about the implications of his parents actions. Right now he and Dick are scouring all of their contacts to find their missing Bird. Crime is at an all time low in Gotham, in spite of the Bats not patrolling.
There was precisely one(1) Arkham breakout since Robin went missing. Instead of the normal round up, where the various Rogues all had time to get to their preferred battlegrounds before being gently (and until that breakout none of them would have ever considered that the Bats were actually being gentle with them) recaptured, with fights that served as enrichment in all of their enclosures the four rogues that escaped that night were all put down fast, and with broken bones to would put them out of commission for months, by an impatient Batman or Nightwing. Neither have time for the normal crime fighting until they bring Robin home, they are on a Mission. And everyone knows not to bother the Bats on a mission.
Oh but Imagine Where this could Go!! Picture this:
For Some Reason, Danny is in Gotham (Maybe his Parents Dragged him and Jazz to a Ghost/Tech Convention, Maybe Jazz Started Attending Gotham Uni/Working at Arkham, Maybe he’s there to Help the Spirit of Gotham Regain some Energy, Maybe he’s there to Fix/Get Rid of the Lazarus Pit Beneath Gotham (that’s a thing right?), Maybe he’s just on Vacation, whatever) and he Runs into Jason.
They do the Spiderman Pointing meme cause “Hey you’re Dead!” And for Jason the Pit has Calmed down to the point of almost being Gone and it’s the Best he’s felt in Years while for Danny it’s like hearing a Baby Crying cause Jason’s Core is So Young/Unfinished/Deformed/Corrupted.
So they go to one of Jason’s Safehouses, and Danny opens a Portal and Calls on one of his New Kryptonian Guards, let’s call him Qyv-Ral (pulled from this Generator), and Asks him to Escort Jason to Frostbite in the Far Frozen for Healing. He Also Tells him that he can Contact Danny to come back here and Open the Portal for their Return once Jason is Healed (how exactly is Writers Choice idk atm). Danny would have Gone With them but he has Something to do in Gotham. All Parties agree, the Portal is Opened, Jason and Qyv-Ral Go Through, Danny Closes the Portal, and the Goes about his Day. Bonus Points for if they Never Refer to Danny by Any Name, except for the Very End where Qyv-Ral says something along the lines of “Farewell my King”. Bonus Bonus Points for Danny sounding very Menacing out of context.
Meanwhile Superman, who has been Listening in since he heard the name of the Kryptonian Guard, is Very Stressed because Who is Letting The Worst of the Worst Kryptonian Criminals Loose on Earth? He Immediately Calls Batman because this is Happening in Gotham of all places and The Bat is Immediately on Red Alert. He contacts All the Birds. Cue Panic when Red Hood Doesn’t Respond, no matter who calls (he usually at least responds to Babs or Dick Sometimes). The Bats come to The Only Possibel Conclusion: Jason has been Kidnapped by this new “King” of the Criminal Kryptonians (they are Wrong. In his Excitement to be Rid of the Pit Madness once and For All, Jason just didn’t think to Tell Anyone what was going on, adding to the Belief that he’s been Kidnapped by a Rouge Kryptonian haha oops)
That’s all I’ve got. I could see this being Either Anger Management (Jazz/Jason) Or Reddead (Danny/Jason) depending on how it gets written out if someone chooses to do so. Speaking of Which, Feel Free to Continue this!!! Just Tag me when you do cause I wanna see how this goes!! Especially if you take it to AO3!
#12
Right, let's see... So, King Danny gets some housing complaints, some ghosts really are just spamming claims over non-ghost beings bothering them near their homes. So as the peacemaker he is, Danny simply goes there, a weird region of the Ghost zone really, they even named it differently because it wasn't green (among other odd quirks). He did find fun in the irony of it being called the "Phantom Zone". Anywho, the non-ghost beings there are obviously all the dangers the Justice League just doesn't deal with and dumps in that dimension. Staying in the Phantom zone for long enough (I'd say maybe a week) is sufficient enough for these beings to be considered "Infinite Realms" subjects despite not being dead. Like immigration or whatever. Dany, empathic enough due to the whole "stand out" and "odd ones out" mentality, takes all of them under his wing and in short adds them to his royal guard or other similar posts regarding their strengths.
So in short, you could say Danny was wrapped and gifted a bunch of Kryptonian soldiers for his already overpowered army.
May I add that the mentally deteriorating effects of the Phantom Region (as I'm calling it now) would probably affect the Kryptonians enough to view Danny as a divine savior after he pulled them out of madness and gave them purpose again? So they're probably very intense about their new positions and don't want to disappoint their king and grace in the slightest.