Work Text:
Jason was lying on the couch, typing away as he filled out paperwork to hire contractors to fix up the apartment building Red Hood had just bought. It sucked that every apartment building in Gotham seemed to be on the verge of being condemned but, this was the only way of fixing it. Slowly chipping away at the problems before the buildings were safe for people to live in. all the while making sure those people that had been living there prior to his purchasing of the building weren’t displaced while repairs were taking place.
And then, when all was said and done, he started over again. Buying another building and hiring the same contractors, same plumbers, same electricians. People from the Alley fixing the Alley.
It was slow, but it was progress.
Lian was playing some version of Clue on the carpet with herself. Having a mix of characters ranging from My Little Pony, Thomas the train characters, Barbies and Power Rangers all try and figure out who had killed the Red Power Ranger.
This had all started 3 days ago when Roy had been vacuuming under the couch and they heard a sickening crunch from something. He had sucked up the Red Power ranger.
Lian had cried, bawled her eyes out. All without even knowing she had been missing a toy or what the toy had been. She sobbed into Jason’s shoulder as she sat on his hip. He had tried his best to comfort her as he continued cooking dinner. All the while Roy had been sitting in the living room, disassembling the vacuum in an attempt of a rescue mission.
If it had been a real rescue mission, the Red Power Ranger wouldn’t have made it. Not by a long shot.
He was missing his right foot, left leg at the knee and left arm. His right arm was scratched to hell and back and the helmet had a chunk missing out of the plastic.
Somehow the vacuum was perfectly fine.
Thank god for Alfred's recommendation in Kirby vacuums.
Roy was currently at the dining room table, fiddling with some trick arrows when Jason received a message in the birds group chat from Barbara.
Barbie:
Sup losers, if this is what my brain went to then Jays in charge
Attached Video
Jason furrowed his eyebrows together, why the fuck would he be in charge of a mission?
His sudden stop in typing had caused Roy to look up, when he saw his boyfriends confusion he asked, “what happened now?”
Jason looked up for a second before replying, “It’s Babs, something about me being in charge for a mission.”
Now it was Roy's turn to look confused, “Bruce wants you to lead a mission?”
“Nah,” Jason countered as he started to pull up the message on his laptop. “B isn’t in this group chat.
Roy stood walking over so see what the fuss was about. He knelt beside Jason, looking at the laptop screen as Jason hit play on the video, keeping the volume turned down so Lian wouldn’t hear as she continued talking for her toys.
It was an old home video, looked like it had been recorded on an old VHS if he had to guess. It was of an old nun talking to a little girl a little older than Lian in a basement. They were talking but the volume and shitty recording made it too difficult to differentiate what they were saying.
Jason turned up the volume slightly.
“And this is where he wanted you to go,” the nun asked as she looked around the dark basement.
The camera spun, documenting the dark. The few naked lightbulbs dangling from the ceiling doing nothing to help with the horror movie vibe. It spun in a full circle before landing on the pair again.
The little girl was clinging to her side, nodding aggressively.
The camera moved away from them again. Settling on a red balloon that hadn’t been there before.
Jason’s skin broke out in goose flesh. He paused the video, pulling up the conversation to ask:
Im at the balloon n wtf is this babs…
Barbie:
Keep watching…
Jason did, pulling up the paused video again before hitting play.
The camera followed the balloon as it drifted further from them. Further away from the light source.
Something popped it.
From where the balloon disappeared, two reflective eyes were revealed.
Too high up to be an animal.
It was surrounded in darkness.
The pair screamed.
The video cut off.
Roy looked awkwardly at Jason, not understanding anything.
“Daddy, come play with me,” Lian cried, pulling his attention away. “You can be AppleJack.”
Roy agreed, retreating to the floor as Jason pulled up the text thread once more.
Steph:
What in the horror movie
Barbie:
I found this while looking into a bunch of missing kids…
Me:
IM IN CHARGE CUZ I ALREADY DIED TO A CLOWN?!?!?!
Dick ur in charge ur from the circus
Dickhead:
🤔
What does this have to do with the circus???
Barbie:
As far as I can tell, the video is legit
Me:
Dick, me, tim, steph, cas, dami, and babs…thats 7
Barbie:
Not quite…
Dick, without scrolling up, what happened in the video
Jason stared at the screen, watching as the … bubble appeared and disappeared over and over again before Dick finally hit send.
Dickhead:
😬
Um…
I swear I was paying attention
Ever since the Flashes had had to fuck with time to undo what Eobard had messed up by bringing items from the future to the past things had gotten…strange. Like items would blink into existence or things in your house that you knew you owned were just gone without a trace.
And history was doing weird things. Plot lines from books were slowly bleeding into textbooks. Like they had always been there.
The events had stopped happening over a month ago though. No new incidences identified.
They thought it had all stopped. Equalized.
Homeostasis or whatever.
Barbie:
People past a certain age can’t remember it
The memories of the book he had read over a decade ago flooded his brain as he tried to remember everything he could.
Every kid shined, that's why they could see IT. the only adults who could see if were those who had a special connection with IT…those who had gotten away. Those who had lived.
“Roy,” Jason asked as he stared at Barbara’s message. “What was the video about?”
Jason looked at him, trying to keep his face neutral. Roy just looked him confused for a moment before he realized something. After a few seconds he said “a bomb?”
Roy didn’t remember. It wasn’t just Dick.
Timberlarkin:
really dick?
Steph:
L
Dickhead:
Im sorry 😭
Barbie:
@Jason, do you remember?
Me:
…
If I lie can I get out of this?
Barbie:
No
Your in charge
You read the book
Me:
FUCK
Three typing bubbles popped up at once, but Jason replied first.
Me:
Wait, thajs a stupid idea
PUT THE GUY SCARES OF CLOWNS IN A SWERE WITH A SHAPE SHIFTING CLOWN THAT FEEDS ON FEAR
Tims in charge
Dickhead:
Shapeshifting clown???
Steph:
cAnNiBaLiSm?!?!
Timberlarkin:
Who said ANYTHING on cannibalism?
Steph:
How else ru gonna ‘feed on fear’ 👀
Me:
Its not cannibalism if its a different species
Timberlarkin:
Thats not as comforting as you think it is
Barbie:
@jason, do you remember how to kill it?
Jason paused for a moment, if they were right and out of EVERY BOOK in the universe this one had come true…this was gonna suck. If he was honest with himself, he didn’t remember much of the book. But he did remember that Bill had won.
But Ben had forgotten to smash one of IT’s eggs as they left.
They hadn’t won in the end, not really.
Me:
Idr the name, but I aint doin it
Timberlarkin:
Wait why are we killing it?
Are we actually killing it?
Steph:
Just shoot it in the head 🤷♀️
Me:
Aint gonna work its from space
Dickhead:
Ok ill bite
How do we kill it
N y is babs ok with murder 👀
Barbie:
Space?
Fuck I need to read the book
Your not doing anything, Dick. We are too old.
Dickhead:
😭
Barbie:
Why is the book so big?
Reply to Dickhead: N y is babs ok with murder 👀
→Because its eating children
Me:
U have to bite its tongue and then u and the clown duke it out in the astral plane or some shit
Dickhead:
😨🤮
Steph:
U gotta french an alien???
Timberlarkin:
Reply to Barbie: Why is the book so big?
→ hold up… BOOK?
Barbie:
Reply to Timberlarkin: hold up… BOOK?
→ it’s like cut and paste Stephen King’s IT
J had a horror phase
Steph:
Of course he did
BRO… u think u manifested ur death
Timberlarkin:
☠️
Dickhead:
Get in Losers, were going clown hunting 🤡🎈
Me:
STFU Dickhead ur not invited
Jason removed Dickhead from the conversation
Me:
I’m not one to ask for drugs but is there a way to chemically castrate ourselves to fear?
Timberlarkin:
…what?
Cass:
🤯🥴
Timberlarkin:
Welcome, J is in charge cuz hes already died to a clown and third times the charm so we got 2 shots
Cass:
😠
Me:
🔫
Habibi:
I am in Algebra and you imbeciles are ‘blowing up my phone’ as Richard says. And just as I have to submit and allow the teacher to read the text aloud to the class she reads “chemically castrated” to a group of immature children.
Timberlarkin:
OOF
Steph:
Reply to Me: I’m not one to ask for drugs but is there a way to chemically castrate ourselves to fear?
→ I hate to be the one to tell you this but imma woman 😂
Timberlarkin:
You can ‘castrate’ women
It's called spaying
Or sterilization
Habibi:
I hate to agree with Drake but he is correct. The US used to forcefully sterilize indigenous men and women.
Steph:
…
Thats fucking dark
Timberlarkin:
We lost the plot
We r talking about an alien that CHOSES to look like a clown that EATS CHILDREN
Steph:
Then its fucking stupid bc clowns r creepy as hell
Me:
Everyone STFU
Babs, wheres the fucking clown
Barbie: where do you think
Me:
Why is it always the fucking sewers