metalogs | miles from where you are I lay down on the cold ground (canon update catch-all)

When the Confluence happens, Tim drops. (A moment ago, in the safehouse, he'd been wearing jeans and a t-shirt; a moment ago, on the ship, he'd been wearing the Robin suit. He's wearing the Robin suit now.)

Blue Beetle had hit him and Bumblebee with the sonic canon, and he has a vague impression of having impacted against the ground - and he lands again, this time in the safehouse. He's awake instead of knocked out, somehow, but getting his eyes open is a struggle, and he's still for a long moment before his body remembers that he was in the middle of a fight and tries to get upright. The best he can manage is an adrenaline-fueled struggle up onto his elbows as he blinks in confusion at his surroundings, not quite able to parse how he got from a ship to this room, or the change in who's around him.

Blue Beetle is - somewhere, his Team is somewhere, and he has to help them. He was one of the last people standing, he should be - he should be fighting. He has to reach Jaime or incapacitate Blue Beetle, whichever one is possible first. As soon as he can get up, which is going to take some time given that he's gone from a little bit upright to fully on the ground again, his face under the mask turning terrifyingly pale as his body quickly loses whatever ground it had gained in trying to kickstart itself out of the stasis field the Reach put him in.

Seeing as he was already sitting on the couch and shuffling a deck of cards, Nico doesn't have far to fall when the energy bursts forth and sweeps him home and back, with no warning in either direction.

He was - in his room, wasn't he? He'd been back from Tartarus, he was talking to Piper not ten minutes ago about -

Jason.

This is Jason's place; he's slumped against the arm of the chair with a lapful of Cocoa Puffs. But that's wrong. This place was before Nyx, Nico knows even though he didn't know 60 seconds ago. And that's Dylan, and that's -

"Tim!" Nico doesn't care for the codename bullshit when Tim's dropping to the floor like a sack of potatoes. They can argue when he's awake. Nico tries to lunge off the couch to at least prevent Tim's head from hitting the floor.

Dylan's slumped against the other arm of the couch, mindlessly scrolling TikTok but comforted by the presence of friends —

— Dylan had been suspended in the air, swinging from the rooftops across New York, wrapped up in the symbiote — Something that might normally comforting, but anxiety was coursing through both of them. Concern over the newborn Symbiote's well-being, mistrust and anger that its first host was a wildcard like Natasha, panic when they could all feel Toxin and Bren were suddenly in terrible danger.

He was letting the symbiote take the lead, feeling its paternal worry for Toxin bleeding with his own thoughts. Toxin is our grandson, it had said with Dylan's lips, and he didn't dispute it. Grandson or nephew, it didn't matter; Toxin was their responsibility now, and —

"—Tim!"

Dylan was in the air, and now he's on a couch, like snapping awake from a nightmare. His adrenaline's already pumping when he sees Tim collapse, and Nico dive for him. Dylan's on his feet without delay, bolting to their side to help assess the damage.

(He has to stop - it can't be Jaime in there anymore, he has to stop Blue Beetle from taking them all - )

He twitches in Nico's hold, his eyes fluttering open and shut. His blood pressure's crashing, his body trying and failing to keep going after being yanked out of the Reach's stasis field. His breathing shallows and quickens as he slips away from what very little consciousness he'd managed. On the outside, there's very little sign of whatever's actually injured him, but his skin's going paper-white and clammy, and it's extremely clear that whatever's happening is getting dangerous real fast.

Anyone with eyes can see how fast Tim's deteriorating, and Nico rushes to ease him back on the floor without dropping him. The scurrying crabwalk backwards that he does to get away before he does anymore damage is pure panic.

He's made people go that bone white before, shortly before he wasted them right off this mortal coil, and so it had to be him. He's never accidentally used that power on living things before. Grass, yes, food, yes - apologies to whoever had an orange on the coffee table. It is not surviving this frigid wash of bad vibes rolling off Nico.

"Dylan, I can't touch him. Please." Please something. Please anything because Nico has fucked up entirely.

Dylan spares just a moment to toss a confused look to Nico before he turns his attention to Tim, reaching down to cup his jaw in one hand, resting the other above his sternum. Hundreds of oozy black tendrils erupt from his fingers and palms and attach to Tim. The tendrils are mirrored by black veins that start to criss-cross up Dylan's arms.

"It's okay," he whispers, closing his eyes as similar black veins snake along his face. "You're gonna be okay. Show me what's happening."

He's gotten good at managing the multiple inputs that symbiote abilities offer, and that comes in handy now. A part of him is doing a thorough look through his systems, trying to figure out what's happening. Another part of him is gently prodding at Tim's mind, seeing if the answer can be found in his memories somewhere.

They're on a ship, an air of celebration after winning a battle. Earth is safe, again. Lovers reconciling. The Team coming back together. Everything's finally going good, and then (well, the gang's all here!), it all goes wrong. Jaime knocked Bart out first. Babs and Gar were next, hit by the sonic cannon. Superboy's sent flying, and Cassie's incapacitated. Tim springs into action, briefly distracting Blue Beetle with a birdarang, but Arsenal goes off book again, panicking and opening an airlock to space, the venting atmosphere sending them all flying. Tim just manages to stop himself and Bumblebee from flying into space, but before he can do anything else, the sonic cannon hits him, too, and he's already blacking out as he hits the ground.

Out in reality, he's slipping deeper into shock, pulse weakening further as his condition worsens. Another memory sparks somewhere in his brain, of the Reach's use of stasis fields to hold prisoners and the same fear that made Arsenal panic, that Blue Beetle would take them to the Reach and they would all be helpless there.

The smudgy black things that had been on Nico’s lap have gotten their bearings after being knocked aside in his rush to get to Tim. Two drift over to the demigod, bumping cat ears and antlers against his legs.

“He’s fading,” Nico says hoarsely. Like Pan. Like Bruce. “I didn’t mean to…”

He can’t leave - it’s his fault and he’s utterly useless to stop it.

Edited 2023-11-04 02:46 (UTC)

Dylan reaches out to Tim's heart. Keep beating. Even pace. Keep beating. In turn, he focuses on the diaphragm, keeping him breathing steadily as well.

Like CPR, but with fewer broken ribs.

He sorts through Tim's memories, feeling them as if they were his own. He trusts these friends unconditionally — and Dylan is just as shocked and hurt when Jaime betrays them.

Dylan's eyes open when Nico speaks, red irises set in black sclera. "You didn't," he says firmly, even as he sorts through memories and maintains Tim's life support. "He was... in battle, just moments ago. In space." He turns his gaze back down to Tim. "The same way I was swinging through New York just now."

Keep the heart beating. Keep the lungs breathing. Talk to Nico. Sort through memories. Dylan very suddenly has several plates spinning at once, and he introduces a new one as he reaches out to through the hivemind.

< Sleeper, you and Jason need to get up to the attic. Something weird happened and Tim isn't looking good. >

Talk to Sleeper. Keep the lungs going. Keep the heart beating. Comfort Nico. Sort through memories. There's a natural progression of memories attached to Blue Beetle, memories of friendship, of battles, of an interrogation in a barn —

"The scarab bonds with and takes full control over its native host..."

Communicate with Sleeper. Keep the lungs going. Keep the heart beating. Comfort Nico. Don't allow the memories to distract you, no matter how guilty they make you feel by association.

Edited 2023-11-04 03:35 (UTC)

"You don't know that!" Nico says angrily and immediately regrets it, tries to shrink back further and not be a distraction. Dylan's eyes give it away; he's doing something. Nico's not sure what he's doing, but - something.

Maybe he's doing that thing with the drops sinking into Tim's palms ... maybe he wants him to talk to Jason one last time. Nico's stomach turns at that thought. He thought he was done - thought that everyone he knew was safe. He's never allowed to think that again.

"Yes, I do. I'm wired into his central nervous system, dumbass." His tone is light, possibly a little too light considering the situation at hand, but he's trying to keep Nico from spiraling. "The memories are front and center. This is from a weapon."

A weapon wielded by Blue Beetle, who had taken over a trusted friend as a host body. He's certain Tim won't be pleased when he finds out how Dylan kept him alive.

Jason had been informed by Sleeper that something was happening to Tim and Dylan in the attic safehouse. Unfortunately, he was in the middle of entertaining a rival gang leader VIP and couldn’t just drop what he was doing.

As soon as the party was done though, Jason ran upstairs. Not for the first time there was an alarming scene before him in the attic safehouse.

“How bad is it?” Jason asks Dylan as he approaches.

Sleeper follows on Jason's heels, but weaves around to place themself next to Dylan and put a paw on Tim, getting a quick read of their own.

With Dylan helping to regulate Tim's body and keeping it functioning, he's coming back to some kind of balance. There's still a brain injury in there, and his vitals aren't as strong as they could be, but he's not crashing on the verge of death anymore. If Dylan removes himself, he might not wake up immediately, but there's a strong chance he'll be okay.

Dylan is visibly relieves when Sleeper arrives, though he doesn't let up just yet. "Head injury. In shock. Heart was stopping. I'm keeping him going right now. He was hit by some kind of... sonic canon? Right after someone opened an airlock into space."

Even focused on the task at hand, he tries to ease some tension with a joke: "Typical stuff for your family, apparently. There's... some brain injury. Sleeper guided me through checking it out and I think he'll be okay. I didn't want to mess too much with it though."

The sonic cannon idea is... really, something he needs to talk to the Apollo kids about, but that idea gets squashed immediately. It's just one of those horrible, inappopriate thoughts that floats up from the subconscious.

He does know what an airlock is, and that there's no oxygen in space. He wishes he didn't, in the context of this moment. Tim's lucky... Nico's worried that his friends might not be.

"He was dying," Nico says quietly. He's not going to pretend that he wasn't. "It feels - wrong, now. Like someone paused the movie." Like Leo did, but at least this time everyone won't think Tim's dead for months and he's just hanging out on an island with Calypso.

Jason walks over closer to Nico. He senses how shaken up the teenager is.

“So one moment you were all just hanging here and then the next… new memories and new injuries?”

Sleeper doesn't bother saying much, just helping to reverse the symptoms they can sense through their contact with Tim so Dylan doesn't have to work so hard.

"Well, I didn't go anywhere..." they feel the need to point out, although it's more to try to lighten the mood. "I think Tim will come around before too long. Shock, a concussion, I don't feel anything else that can't be handled easily without interference."

They nuzzle Dylan gently, giving him some reassurance that he's done well. They don't need to talk just yet if he doesn't want to.

Dylan pulls back a bit, his eyes going back to normal, though his fingertips are still attached. He's infinitely grateful for Sleeper's aid here; They've got a far better understanding of the physiology inside a human than Dylan does. His hands are busy when Sleeper nuzzles close, but Dylan lets the relief it brings radiate through the hive.

He takes a breath, slowly and gently pulling his arms and fingertips away from Tim. Now that there isn't an immediate threat of death, he feels okay stepping away and letting his own healing take over, with assistance from Sleeper.

Dylan stands up, and for the first time he's really able to take stock of what's changed. He has conflicting memories of where he was an hour ago, but it seems like his physical state has become a mishmash of both sets of memories. He's covered with various cuts and bruises, including a cheek that's still bleeding. His height changed, too; He's an inch or two taller now, and thinner — the muscle definition he'd gained here still remained, but god, he's hungry. Before his two realities converged, one of him hadn't had a decent meal in... a while, instead grazing on whatever he could scavenge. Seems that hunger has carried over.

But there's more important things to worry about right now. Tim's injuries are stable, but Nico was panicked, and Dylan needs to make sure he's okay, too. He makes his way over to where Nico and Jason are, sitting down next to Nico and leaning back against the wall. He knows Nico generally doesn't like being asked about how he's feeling, so he opts for a different conversation starter:

"I'm sorry I called you a dumbass."

Edited (changing "ten minutes ago" to something longer) 2023-11-07 05:58 (UTC)

He hates that Jason and Dylan are both gravitating to him in this moment, with Tim unconscious in the room. He's fine. Even the scratches on his face are scabbed over and healing.

Nico wishes he could pass through the floor and let them talk to each other. As he's stuck between them and leaving would be awkward or... possibly involve some child of Hades dramatics, he'll answer Jason and ignore Dylan. "Yeah. But Tim's the only one injured."

Jason remains worried for all three teenagers despite Nico’s response.

“Looks like you’ve all had a hell of a shock,” he says.

He then takes out his cell phone.

“I gotta let the rest of the family know Tim’s okay. We didn’t know where he went.”

He then sends an encrypted text to a groupchat before looking back at the others. He mentally notes all the physical changes Dylan and Nico appear to have gone through.

“How are you two?” He asks.

the distance from a to where you'd b (closed)

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new thread for Dylan & Sleeper (and maybe Jason?)

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