coprime_recs | Entries tagged with dc universe

Demythologizers (Brainy/Lyle | R | 2,581 words): How Brainy and Lyle meet. This is a really interesting version of how Lyle meets Brainy and gets invited to join The Legion contain seduction by science and also some Scrabble.

Excerpt:
     >>got a new phosphorylation sequence for you to look at

The message appears in a small comm window in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Querl lets it sit unanswered for an hour, then flexes his fingers.

     >>What makes you think I'd be interested in that?

     >>i saw you speak on cellular proteomics last year at the commons in metropolis

Querl had, in fact, been a speaker last year, but he had been in what the humans would quaintly called disguise.

Their Ends and Cycles (Bruce/Selina | G | 305 words): Selina visits Bruce at the retirement home. This is short but punchy in a fun way.

Excerpt:
Anna left and the woman looked at the man in the wheelchair, whose eyes didn't look nearly as vague as they had before. "Why do you do that? You know I find it irritating."

I swear (hold steady) (Jason Todd | PG13 | 2,036 words): Eliot hires Jason to help at the brewpub. This is a lot of fun, especially seeing Hardison and Parker's reactions to Jason.

Excerpt:
And okay, Alec does his best not to stereotype, but he’d definitely been expecting some string bean of a fellow looking anxious — not a wall of muscle (seriously, his shoulders might be wider than Eliot’s!) in a leather jacket scowling at him with a shock of white in otherwise dark hair.

“Jesus?” Alec asks — using the Spanish pronunciation because he’s not an idiot — and trying to smile.

“I go by Jay,” and again, Alec is trying not to stereotype but he had maybe still been expecting that if there was a thick accent it was going to be Spanish not…not, what was that, New Jersey?

Like This Before (Booster/Ted | G | 10,300 words): Ted doesn't remember Booster, but Booster says he knows Ted from an alternate universe. I believe this was written at least partially in response to DC's 52 reboot and wanting to add Ted into that new version of canon, although I had mostly stopped paying attention to DC at this point so I may be missing incorrect. Either way, this is a fun meeting of Booster and Ted finding each other no matter what, with a lot of humor and feels.

Excerpt:
"Yeah, you should get that checked out. I know that you hate the beach and I know that you wish you could stay in the lab all day instead of running the company and I know that you had a poster of Nicola Tesla on your wall as a kid. I know you, Ted." Booster slumped, clearly frustrated. "I just don't know how I know you."

Ted stared at him. "Erdel's Principle, huh?"

"I'm guessing," Booster said.

"And how do I know you aren't just a really thorough stalker and this isn't all some kind of elaborate hoax?"

"Do you really think I'm that clever?" Booster asked.

Ted couldn't help it. He laughed. The effect on Booster was remarkable: he absolutely lit up, like he'd accomplished something marvelous. Ted had a sudden, irrational urge to see if he could make Booster smile like that again.

A Lover Without Indiscretion (Bart/Tim | G | 3,447 words): Bart is mad at Tim, and Tim doesn't understand why. This is cute and sweet, with Tim trying to navigate dating like the teenager he is here.

Excerpt:
"Trying to be discreet?" Kon was briefly amused. "You do realize that the words 'Bart' and 'discreet' in the same sentence are almost entirely impossible, right?"

Tim let out a huff of breath. "Who knows?"

"Everybody. Well, all the Titans, but--we're getting off-topic here. I want to know what you did to make Bart sad."

"I didn't do anything! Everything was going fine and now he's mad at me."

"Well, you must have done something."

Tim growled. "Why do you assume it's my fault?"

"Are you telling me it's not?"

"I'm telling you," Tim said very softly, "that it's not your business. It's between Bart and me."

And Then the Heroes Came Along (John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent | PG13 | 5,713 words): John and Rodney find Bruce and Clark on a random planet; they are definitely totally normal about meeting Batman and Superman. This is fun! A couple moments where I laughed out loud, as well as a couple moments that I found touching.

Excerpt:
Superman -- maybe-Superman -- maybe-but-holy-crap-probably-Superman -- frowned, and placed his hands on his waist. Honest to god. Hands. On his waist. John was far too manly to feel faint, but. "All right," Superman-or-whatever said, "what is going on here?"

But Rodney gasped, and John moved his eyes to the right and realized what Rodney must have just. The kept hair. The polo shirt. The kind of psychotic blackness deep inside his eyes.

And Rodney said, with absolute sureness and absolutely no foresight, "You're Bruce Wayne. You're Batman."

In less than a second, Rodney was flat on his back with a Batman on top of him and an arm pressing on his throat. "How do you know that?" Batman snarled. "Who are you?"

John moved automatically. "Let go of him." His gun was aimed at Batman's head.

"No, Sheppard!" Rodney sputtered beneath the crushing hold. "He won't -- Batman doesn't kill!"

Able to Succeed (Tim | G | 1,152 words): Bruce trains Tim. This is just neat. A neat look at Tim in the early days of being Robin and at Bruce's drive with a kicker of an ending.

Excerpt:
Tim works on the assignment for two weeks. He can't take it home to work on: his reference books and research have taken over a corner of the cave. It's too dangerous to work on it at school. It takes him three days to come up with a plan he's sure of, and another half week to iron out the details. He writes it up, and then realizes he's left a flank unprotected and has to take out three pages and re-write them. When he gives the paper to Bruce, Bruce turns off the microscope light and turns on another desk light, then settles in to read with a red pencil twitching in his fingers.

It feels like an only slightly milder version of his not long ago audition for Robin. Bruce doesn't give him any indication with his facial expression, but before he's even flipped the first page he's already making marks on the paper. When Bruce says, "what's your source for the dispersion of the gas grenades?" Tim's almost startled enough to show it.

Keep Your Secrets (Bart/Carol | G | 844 words): When Bart comes back from death, Carol is the first person he visits. This is sweet. Carol and Bart are so cute together, and this is a lovely reunion.

Excerpt:
"You certainly sound like Bart," Carol said.

Bart grinned and hugged her tightly. "That's cause I am him! I missed you, Carol."

"You're not an evil future clone?"

"What?"

"…never mind. Some business with the Titans a while back. Do they know you're back?"

Something That Never Happened To Lyle And Brainy (Brainy/Lyle | PG13 | 1,658 words): Lyle is irritated with the visiting, 21st century Titans and complains to Brainy. This is cute! There's some nice banter and a sweet reveal of feelings.

Excerpt:
Querl just bared his teeth sharply in that little half-smile of his that could mean anything from, 'Why must I be surrounded by idiots?' to, 'I'm thinking of all the different ways I could make your life hell for annoying me, and I can't see an end in sight.'

Lyle always got turned on by that smirk. He had a feeling that wasn't exactly healthy, but it was by far the least problematic of his personal issues. Seeing that he wasn't going to win this argument, Lyle performed a less-than-deft change of subject. "So how difficult do you think it would be to get most of the Legion to wear nametags to the next meeting with our time-displaced colleagues?"

Querl not only didn't even blink at the non-sequitur, but he also had a ready answer. "Twenty-five percent of the Legion would go along with your request if you asked them, but I calculate that you'd only be able to convince another seventeen percent without a direct order." Left unsaid was that Lyle couldn't order them to wear nametags; Querl had finally stopped stating the obvious 'for the benefit of less intelligent minds' – at least to Lyle.

Lyle was pretty sure that that shouldn't turn him on, either.

Computer Bug (Ted Kord | G | 250 words): How Ted might have become Oracle. I like things that play with other paths characters could take, and this is a nicely punchy ficlet focused on Ted Kord becoming Oracle rather than Blue Beetle.

Excerpt:
Ted couldn't decide if it was horribly unfair or poetic justice, having his back broken like so much dry kindling by an evil robot he helped build.

Advanced Secret Identities (Annie-Steph | G | 4,230 words): Steph gets sent to Greendale to investigate Abed-pretending-to-be-Batman. Steph and Annie being friends is all the yay, plus all the fun of Community's brand of weird and wacky life.

Excerpt:
The girl turned to Stephanie with an apologetic smile. "You're the new girl, right? I think we met yesterday, briefly. I'm Annie."

Stephanie smiled and took the offered hand. "Stephanie."

"Sorry about Abed. He means well, but he heard you were from Gotham and, well, he got a bit excited."

Stephanie smiled back. "It's okay. I've seen much worse." And you have no idea, incidentally. "At least he wasn't dressed like Catwoman."

Bonding Through Forced Proximity (Booster/Ted, Guy Gardner | PG13 | 1,996 words): Ted and Guy get trapped by a cave in. Hah, being trapped together is a tried and true way to do team bonding, and Ted and Guy do it in true JLI/Super Buddies style.

Excerpt:
"Just sold it off, without even telling me! Without asking."

"Dads suck," Guy sympathized.

They were both silent for a moment before Ted slowly asked, "So what about you?"

"What about me?"

"Oh come on. I'm pouring my heart out here and I don't know the first thing about you. Where you came from. I assume you didn't hatch from an egg full grown and already taking a swing at the world."

Guy chuckled. "I like that. When I write my biography, I'm usin' it."

Given Value of Weird (Ted Kord-Lexington | G | 374 words): Ted Kord gets the chance to meet Lexington from Gargoyles, and the two bond. This is such a wonderful piece of bite-sized fun! Geeks from different universes getting to meet and geek out with each other is great.

Excerpt:
It helps that the small green gargoyle, Lexington, speaks Computer Geek and reminds him a little of Robin. So while a technophile in a loincloth is still a little weird, it's also weirdly familiar.

Communication by Kisses (Lyle/Brainy | PG | 736 words): Brainy kisses Lyle, and it means more than might first be supposed. This is nicely sweet and fluffy.

Excerpt:
That Brainy had hugged him, one might attribute to Querl having come to think of Lyle as a friend, or even a brother. Lyle knew better. For Coluans, physical touch was completely restricted to immediate family.

Thoughts Build Our Life of Tomorrow (Ted Kord/Booster Gold, ensemble | PG13 | 1,288 words): Ted and Booster develop a telepathic link. These two are annoying enough for their teammates wihout a mind link, and it's so much worse for everyone when they have one. Fun! Sometimes I like to see characters suffer in the most aggravating way possible.

Excerpt:
It all finally came to a head during a team meeting. Nothing particularly bad or world-threatening was happening, it was more just a reiteration of what actions could be taken to ensure the smoother running of the team. Such as not leaving empty Chocos bags in the pantry and then not buying more before J'onn found out, or knocking before opening various doors, or once more going over the criteria for sexual harassment.

Booster was boredly scribbling, of all things, stylized beetles on his meeting itinerary when his head suddenly shot up and he stared across the table at Beetle. "What was that?" he asked suspiciously.

In the Dark (Ted Kord/Booster Gold, Beatriz da Costa | PG | 462 words): Beatriz gets a new insight about Booster and Ted. Some people will probably find this too sweet for their tastes. Me, I'll be over here loving how cute this is.

Excerpt:
That was what Bea had first seen when she returned to the room with the popcorn, and she had paused at the door, waiting with amusement for Beetle to playfully smack the man and, perhaps, start a mock fight.

Phone Call (Booster Gold, ensemble | G | 1,191 words): Some members of the Justice League take exception to Booster trying to resurrect Ted Kord. Hee. It starts as a fairly standard authorial experession of anger at certain DC events, but it soon goes the way of a good prank. And there's an AU appearance by a sweet, much ignored character.

Excerpt:
Actually, he supposed the day hadn't started all that normally, since he'd been researching ways to resurrect Ted. But, still, that was normal for him as far as the last few days were concerned. It wasn't even as if his research was going well, considering he didn't have access to any research tools more mystical than Google.

Apparently, however, this was enough to make his "dabbling in eldritch matters beyond mortal ken" (Flash's phrase, spoken in a heavily sarcastic, spooky tone) the focus of the JLA's meeting today.

To Conquer Fear (ensemble | G | 2,663 words): Grissom and the Bat clan team up to foil a supervillain plot. Oh, this is just plain fun. And it's in epistolary format!

Excerpt:
To: bbb@secure.oracle.net
From: ggrissom@lvmpd.com
Subject: We appreciate the help

Considering that there are already three patrolmen in the hospital under treatment, we appreciate Nightwing's assistance. He's...impressive. At least, Sara certainly seems impressed.

I can assure you we're treating this case as hazmat. We've already had one close call, when the aforementioned new CSI nearly dosed himself while fooling around in the lab. Sometimes I wonder if Greg will ever learn.

Two Green Lanterns Walked into a Bar (Hal Ducked) (Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner | PG | 1,319 words): Guy starts a fight at an alien bar. This is a great little slice of Guy and Kyle having adventures in space.

Excerpt:
The drinks arrived. They were an unnatural-for-earth chartreuse, and bubbled. "Ring," asked Guy, "Is this going to kill us?"

"Fermented leaf of..."

"YES or NO?"

"No, but..."

"Perfect." He tilted his head back and swallowed.

Kyle gave him the "why did the Guardians ever pick (much less PAY?) that?" look and watched.

For Love of an Absent-Minded Scientist (Ted Kord/Booster Gold | PG | 481 words): It's Valentine's Day, and Ted is oblivious. Hee, these two are fun together.

Excerpt:
It isn't until they're halfway through dinner that Ted notices the prevalence of happy, sappy couples around them. The pink and red decorations scattered around the restaurant suddenly seem to glow neon bright in his vision.

Fanfic Recs by coprime

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DC Universe: Demythologizers by Sparcck

DC Universe: Their Ends and Cycles by Mara

Xover (DC Universe/Leverage): I swear (hold steady) by SafelyCapricious

DC Universe: Like This Before by poisonivory

DC Universe: A Lover Without Indiscretion by Mara

DC Universe/Stargate Atlantis: And Then the Heroes Came Along by Roga

DC Universe: Able to Succeed by Betty

DC Universe: Keep Your Secrets by museofspeed

DC Universe: Something That Never Happened To Lyle And Brainy by amarin_rose

DC Universe: Computer Bug by boredom_doodles

Xover (Community/DC Universe): Advanced Secret Identities by Palgrave

DC Universe: Bonding Through Forced Proximity by doctorv

Xover (DC Universe/Gargoyles): Given Value of Weird by doctorv

DC Universe: Communication by Kisses by amarin_rose

DC Universe: Thoughts Build Our Life of Tomorrow by DoctorV

DC Universe: In the Dark by DoctorV

DC Universe: Phone Call by kaichan

Xover (CSI/DC Universe): To Conquer Fear by Mara

DC Universe: Two Green Lanterns Walked into a Bar (Hal Ducked) by Caia

DC Universe: For Love of an Absent-Minded Scientist by DoctorV