donation drive commission for @hazelriver74 with the prompt: dukexiety and glitching powers! thank you so much for your patience, and i hope you enjoy! :)
warnings: violence, fights, mild body horror, involuntary drug use, remus being himself and saying gross stuff, profanity, borderline panic attack
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Virgil always knew when Remus made his way into a fight by the dramatics alone.
No matter where the brawl was going down, no matter how many people were involved, there was always enough space for him to make a scene. If there was any doubt that he was related to Princey, that alone would have eliminated it. Not that Princey would be happy to hear that.
So when the bank windows exploded into glass grit and a flash grenade trailing disgusting-smelling smoke landed between Virgil and the seriously-outclassed robbers, he wasn’t as concerned as he probably should have been.
Sure, Remus-- “The Duke” was a self-identified villain, and sure, Virgil had shifted to the more legal side of the super scene these days, but it was a recent thing. He was a vigilante, not a narc, and that meant that he didn’t particularly care what Remus called himself so long as the guy wasn’t seriously hurting anyone.
Plus, it was hilarious to see how thoroughly he could frustrate Princey just by existing.
“Having a party and you didn’t invite me?” Remus called, strutting through the smoke in shoes that appeared to have literal knife-heels, ones that scraped unpleasantly against the stone with each step.
Virgil kept himself focused on the robbers, because he hadn’t gotten close enough to get all the guns from them and there were still civilians behind him. Remus better have made the smoke non-toxic this time; not everyone could make a gas mask from shadows like him. “Pretty pathetic party if you ask me. These guys didn’t even bring any fun toys.”
Remus clicked his tongue, ignoring the weapons pointed his way. “Well, maybe I’ll show them how a real robbery looks, hm? Better cover those innocent civvie eyes, Shade!”
Virgil immediately snapped an opaque dome into existence over the hostages, just in time for Remus to make his move.
“Here’s my favorite party trick,” he hollered, ignoring the gunshots as he charged forwards with melting skin and too-many limbs. “It’s the one where I make your kneecaps disappear!”
Virgil rolled his eyes as Remus employed his usual level of ‘creativity’ to the fight. Good thing he was already well accustomed to cheesy supervillain lines in his lines of work, both past and current.
Still, he kept a sharp eye as he worked to pry the weapons from the ones on the outskirts of the skirmish. While it was sort of hard to look at Remus right now, and he generally didn’t kill, the villain could get a little… sloppy. He ended up having to shadowpatch a few of the would-be robbers’ more grievous wounds, just in case.
The fight was over quickly, and Virgil smacked Remus on the shoulder, grimacing at the wrongness of his shifting flesh. “Don’t think I didn’t catch what you said about robbing the bank. This place is a community fund, and it’s not insured. Go rob somewhere that deserves it, won’t you?”
Remus snarled with too many teeth, and Virgil hissed back, smacking him again like he was a finicky car engine. It did the trick, and the villain started looking distinctly less Lovecraftian.
“You never let me have any fun,” he complained, waving his hand about as it slowly stopped resembling a medieval mace. “You’re almost as bad as the goody-two shoes trio.”
… He probably shouldn’t be so offended at the comparison, since he was technically working with the heroes now, but. “Am not.”
Remus threw his head back as he cackled at Virgil’s expense, but before the vigilante could retaliate, a flash of movement caught his eye.
One of the still-conscious opponents was glaring from the ground, something strange and glowing in his hands, pointed directly at Remus. Virgil’s sense of danger went haywire, and he forced his body to shift forward, rather than away. He shoved Remus, hard, and moved just slow enough to catch the projectile in his own thigh.
He swore loudly on principle, but whatever it was actually didn’t hurt beyond a stinging impact. He pulled it out: a canister dart with colorful feathers.
“What the hell was in it?” he muttered to himself, and then got an answer in the form of the shield dome dissolving into thick, purple smoke.
This time, he swore loudly with feeling.
“Shadowman, what’s going on?” Remus asked, but Virgil didn’t have time to play games anymore. He reached out and drew the smoke towards himself before it could settle on the civilians, shuddering as it settled into his arms and dyed them the mottled color of a bruise.
He swallowed down the rising terror with the ease of long practice, but Remus was still too close for comfort. Really, when he was like this, everyone in the lobby was too close for comfort. He was feeling a distinct lack of comfort at the moment.
“Don’t wait up,” he muttered, failing to keep the strain from his tone. He immediately ducked out one of the blown out windows, because now was not the time to worry about what was and was not a door.
Now was a time to get as far away from human contact as possible.
Because the world hated him, he only got three blocks away before Remus tried to tackle him at full speed. Emphasis on ‘tried’, because Virgil’s ‘spidey-sense’ nearly puppeteered him out of the way, even more high-strung than normal. “I told you to-- why?”
“I must really be losing my touch if I seem like the kind of person who takes orders,” Remus said, hand on a hip as he recovered from his failed lunge. “Especially after you just took a bullet for me like some swooning damsel. Is my bro rubbing off on you or something?”
Virgil, who could feel his headache getting stronger by the minute, forewent words entirely in favor of a very rude gesture that had absolutely no effect. “Look, I’m not playing coy here. Whatever was in that dart was bad news, you need to leave, now--”
He hurriedly smacked a hand over his mouth, but it was too late to take back the warped double-tone of his words. Remus, despite all his actions, was not an idiot, and his eyes flicked between Virgil’s face and his arms before widening with realization.
“No fuckin’ way,” he said, advancing a step closer. Virgil shifted a leg back. “You-- Paranoia? You’re alive?”
“Paranoia’s dead,” Virgil snarled, even as his voice refused to cooperate, even as his shadows began to pull themselves away from his skin and materialize as a particular villain’s signature fog. He clutched at his head, gritting his teeth as he struggled to keep the fog from spreading. “Fuck, I thought I was done feeling out of control of my own goddamn powers.”
Remus seemed to notice Virgil’s posture, the disbelieving half-smile dropping off his face in favor of something like concern. “Woah, easy, emo. I’m not gonna rat you out, but you do look a little pathetic and in need of help. Hey, you’re a boring normie now, can’t you just call the cavalry?”
“No!” More fog dripped off of him at the mere thought of interacting with the heroes like this. He’d ‘killed’ his old identity for a reason; he didn’t ever want to subject them to that.
“Fine, fine! Yeesh, and people call me dramatic,” Remus said, his hands held up in a gesture of non-aggression. “If you won’t call them, then you can hide out at my place until we figure out how to deal with your little leaking problem.”
Virgil grimaced at the description, and then shook his head. “It’s too dangerous-- Hey!”
His voice cracked embarrassingly as Remus stepped forwards, caught his arm, and slung it over his shoulders in one fluid gesture. The fear fog swirled around him like thick and burning smoke, but he barely even blinked.
“Dangerous, schmangerous,” Remus said, and tugged him towards the next back alley turn. “This is weak shit; Vigilante-You is much scarier, what with all that control and precision.” He fanned himself with one hand, grinning mockingly. “It’s enough to give me goosebumps.”
Virgil punched his shoulder, shaking his head, but Remus really didn’t seem affected, and he could already feel his shadows becoming more manageable as he calmed down. “Fine, but you asked for it. No complaining when I make your hideout feel like the twilight zone.”
Remus cackled again as he led the way. “Shade, you underestimate my appreciation for freaky shit. If you spookify my place, I’m going to be ecstatic.”
atfstf sounds like such an interesting AU, do you have any tidbits that didn't make it into the story that you'd be willing to share?
sure thing! :D
-as you can probably guess, patton, roman, and logan are the local heroes, though logan was the one to rope the city into a contract that made their superhero activities legal mercenary work. before that, they were all technically vigilantes
-virgil does NOT want to give up his information to any regulating force, so while he works with and supports the light side trio, he refuses to become an official hero and is still a technical vigilante, which means he doesnt get a paycheck... or any professional first aid.
-virgil’s ‘hero’ name is Shadow Welder, more commonly shortened to Shade, due to his ability to create solid objects from a shadow-like substance, as long as he can visualize the structure of the object properly. locally, he’s also called “shadow spiderman” or “shadowman” as a joke, because of his spider motif and ability to sense danger
-before he was Shade, he was an infamous villain called Paranoia. his most dangerous trait was the ‘fear fog’ that he could emit, which often elicited either a frenzied paranoia or vivid hallucinations. sometimes both. he didn’t mind fighting heroes, especially on matters he found injust, but would often retreat if there were civilians in the area, because they too would fall prey to the fog.
-logan, roman, and patton all had their scraps with paranoia, and all noted that he frequently seemed out of control or frenzied himself. patton tried to reach out to him during battles multiple times, and actually ended up having quite an impact on him. not that patton is aware of that, because...
-as far as our three heroes know, Paranoia ‘died’ a mysterious and horrible death. as of atfstf, they are unaware that strange villain Paranoia and snarky ally Shade are the same person. and virgil plans to keep it that way.
wait, are you actively writing more of "as the fabric starts to fray"?? Like, I know you've said before that all of your fics are always open to be explored more by yourself, but I have to admit I'm curious to see more of that 'verse and didn't expect it to continue beyond the oneshot anytime soon ^^"
not at the moment! i just like reblogging fun bullet fic additions people leave on my posts :)
What was the feather dart thing that Virgil got hit by? Why did it make his powers go out of control?
the canister dart seemed to have some kind of chemical substance that made his control over his abilities go haywire. it was aimed for remus initially because remus’s powers are very... chaotic and high on property damage if not expertly managed. if remus had actually gotten hit by the dart... well, it wouldnt have been pretty.
