The seminar devolves into Shadowheart and Lae’zel finding acceptable ways to insult each other while Karlach laughs them off and Wyll wonders why we can’t all be nice.
I've finally gotten around to one of the very first headcanons that popped into my head when I started playing as Ro.
It revolves around her meeting the artist Oskar, whom you can already run into in Act I.
In my version, he recognizes Ro - and thanks to that, she gains information that sheds light on certain fragments of her past. These weren't earth-shattering revelations, but even those small clues were enough for her to later put two and two together and figure out her origin and role in the story long before the truth is revealed at the beginning of Act III.
Naturally, not knowing what exactly she might hear from the artist, Ro chooses to keep her companions at a distance - and later hides the information altogether. She carries it with her throughout the journey, and, as it so often happens, no secret stays secret forever x,)
Imagining a past meets present au with 2018!Virgil frantically shaking 2025!Virgil's shoulders and yelling "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE NOT BEST FRIENDS WITH PATTON ANYMORE?!"
Summary: Hero, villain--it doesn't matter, the system is fucked regardless of what side you're on and Virgil is tired of playing the game. He isn't going to let himself get pulled back in, even if there's a pretty persistent kid begging him to be their mentor.
Pairing: Platonic Moxiety
Warnings: Superhero AU, Found Familyish, Crying, Arguments, Mild Angst with A Happy Ending
Just a fun little warm-up exercise! Enjoy!
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Virgil's legs dangle over the edge of his apartment complex, his hands pressed firmly into the concrete. He looks out into the myriad of looming skyscrapers that make up the city, purposefully away from gleaming, naïve blue eyes.
"No."
"But--"
"Just no."
"You don't even know what I'm going to ask!"
"Oh really?" Virgil huffs, "You went through the trouble of tracking me down for a reason other than asking if I'd be your mentor?"
Virgil can hear the faint stomp of a sneaker across the concrete. "I--well--"
"I'm exhausted," Virgil tells the kid, "I don't want any part of it, hero--villain--it doesn't matter. Both sides manipulate and hurt people in different ways. I'm done being their plaything, and I refuse to let another person get hurt--"
He inhales sharply, his shadow flickering a brief moment.
"It'll be different," The kid insists, edging closer to him, "You can help me and--and together we can make things better!"
Virgil has heard something similar before. From a voice a bit older, from a person he once trusted most in the world. "C'mon Virgil, don't be a scaredy-cat. Together, you and I can change things for the better."
"That's what they all say," Virgil laughs, the sound of it echoing oddly around them, "Kid, I'm warning you now, stay out of it. You're too young anyways."
"I'm not a kid!" The kid growls, throwing his face in front of Virgil, "I'm sixteen, I'm practically an adult!"
Virgil stares at the kid's face that is still round and not quite defined. There is no way the kid is sixteen, too short and without any of the gangly teenage awkwardness. His eyes give it away, still full of that obstinate childish hope that there's always a happy ending to be found. He has to be at least twelve, if that.
Twelve is a dangerous age. It is the age that teeters between childhood and adolescence, the time where children believe they're practically grown-up when they're far from it.
"Sixteen, uh-huh," Virgil clicks his tongue, "Even if I believed that--which I don't--I'm serious, stay out of it. You're going to get yourself killed."
"No, I won't! I can handle it!" The kid shouts as his blue eyes start to glow an unnatural hue. Virgil's breath hitches.
"Kid--"
Several things happen. The lights on top of the apartment complex go out. A force of energy shoots out from the kid, towards the office building directly across the street. The nearby shadows amass into one entity, the energy wave colliding into it, crackling like a bolt of lightning. Virgil's hands shake, his eyes a burning violet hue.
The shadows threaten to disintegrate, to squirm away to their natural resting places. He does not let them, he wills them to stay, to absorb every last bit of the kid's energy bolt. Only when there is nothing left but a child collapsed on the ground, does he let his hands drop to his sides. The shadows drop, fading back to place as the lights blink once more to life.
'No you can't.' Virgil thinks grimly, regarding the kid's last words. But he doesn't say it out loud.
"Hey, uh, are you okay?" Virgil asks, reaching down to touch the kid's shoulder. The kid sniffles once, then launches himself at Virgil, clinging onto him for dear life.
"I'm sorry--I promise I can--you have to--I can do it, I can be strong--" The kid babbles into his chest, tears wetting Virgil's favorite hoodie.
Virgil should be upset, angry at the very least for the kid almost destroying a building and possibly causing the deaths of few dozen people. Yet, the emotion refuses to stir within him.
Not when the kid reminds him terribly of his younger self, so sure that the weight of the world rested on his shoulders when he was just a literal child who shouldn't have had to dealt with such worries.
He sighs, "Kid--"
"Patton."
"What?"
"My name," The kid hiccups, "my name's Patton."
"Ok then, Patton--look, your job right now isn't to be strong and save the world. Your job is to learn and grow, so you can one day be capable to help the world be a little less messed up."
"I can do that now--"
"But you shouldn't have to."
"Well, I don't do it, who's gonna?"
"Someone, maybe, but not you," Virgil says, "I mean it though, kid, about supers. The system on both ends is messed up and there's no fixing it. There's better ways to make the world better."
"Can you show me?" The kid--Patton asks. He looks up at Virgil, eyes still shimmery with tears. Virgil almost laughs about the way they circled back to what the kid originally asked of him.
"You know what?" Virgil says, letting the words fall from his mouth before he can take them back, "sure. I'll show you, if only to keep you from accidentally combusting a building from a fit of anger."
It's more than that though, it's for the pair of kids who didn't know better, it's to keep the past from repeating itself again in the ambitious, hopelessly obstinate kid known as Patton.
"Really?" Patton squeals, "thank you, thank you, thank you, you won't regret it, I promise!"
He thinks he slightly regrets it, from the way the kid is almost cutting off his oxygen with how tight he's squeezing him. He'll probably have a mild freak-out about being somewhat responsible for a child later, most definitely.
Right now, he just ruffles the kid's hair, saying, "Alright, alright. Lesson Number 1, kid, we do not hunt down literal strangers and ask them to mentor us. That's one, frankly rude and two, good way for them to manipulate and take advantage of you and three? A good way to die, so it's a good thing I'm not gonna do any of that to you, ok? You lucked out, got it?"
"Got it." Patton chirps, but he most definitely hasn't got it.
'This kid,' Virgil thinks, a weird mixture of both amused and terrified, 'is going to be the death of me, isn't he?'
its good to acknoweldge the hollowness of revenge but sometimes you really do just need a story about someone who gets hurt and then kills and kills and kills and kills their enemies. its cathartic, babey.
Ask me about my AU's (I have a binder) @dorkwingdad - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
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